Running For Cover

Welcome to our latest installment! I write this on the eve of our move back to the big city. We decided(when the water in the bathtub started coming out brown and the deadbolt fell off of the door) that it was time to cut our losses and go back. This involves a highly bad act on our part, breaking our lease.

Our apartment situation has been less than ideal. It has been an unlivable nightmare, all while pushing us further into debt with the exorbitant amount of rent and gas. We have tried reasoning with the complex (the assistant manager rolled her eyes and said, "Aren't you people ever happy?") and writing complaints to the Better Business Bureau (which they closed due to no response from the apartment management). Enough is enough and we just want to go home. We found a nice 2 bedroom townhouse back home with gas heat and water included. Somehow I just think it's worth it to break the lease and go back.

I'm also trying to remedy the less-than-ideal job situation. I spoke to my ex-boss who had me fill out an application and it looks like I'll be hired back to start July 7th. I'll only have to commute for a few weeks.

I'll keep you posted on the move. Let's just hope that everything works out and a big check arrives in my hand tomorrow!

Homeward Bound

So I just got back from a visit to my friends and family back home again in Indiana. I learned that you can never truly estimate how amazing people are until you've hit rock bottom and they pull you out of your misery.

I wanted to go for a visit and everything was cool until a bill popped up out of left field and left us very broke. I told everyone that it wasn't possible to go since the hubby had to pack his suitcase with potpies and ramen noodles just to have food for his trip. My mom upped the ante by telling me that she would pay for my gas and the dog kennel. I went up yesterday morning and it seemed like all was well.

Until the car insurance. It didn't even occur to me to remember that the car insurance was being debited. After the $100 check my mom gave me, I only had $12 left in my account. Panic set it, I knew that I couldn't make it home with no money and no gas, nor could I pick the dogs up from the kennel. I did what any sensible adult would do, I started bawling. My sister must have either felt bad or gotten tired of it really quick because she offered to spot me another $100. It all worked out and I had a great time. Got to see my mom and sister, who was in from California. Got to hang with the mutual best friend that just got back from China. Got to have a evening of fun with Stephanie, who came through for me again even though I never have a chance to come through for her because she has everything totally together. Got a home-cooked Mommy meal.

As an added bonus, we saved another 4-legged life and adopted a beagle/basset mix we call Koby. Him and Kylie are now great friends and our silly little Kylie has stopped biting us and peeing on the floor. Had no clue that she just needed a friend. I guess that's the lesson I've learned lately, we all need a damn good friend. I'm just happy that she found her's now. I know who mine are!

If You're Gonna Do It, Do It Right

So it's the first day post-birthday and I can say it turned out better than I anticipated. All of that moping for nothing!

My friend Stephanie came down with her daughter and mom and our mutual friend Melanie. We set out for Kentucky Kingdom like it was our job. After getting very lost (thanks to my huge lack of directional sense!) we made it. Not an easy feat after no sleep from working night shift, but I had my coffee and we were ready!

We rode rollercoasters and ate crappy park food and generally acted like fools. It was just what I needed to pull me out of my "I'm turning 27 and think that things are gonna suck" funk. I have some of the funniest pictures and I have some more on the way. We got sunburned. Steph's daughter and I rode the Deluge twice, a water coaster that left us soaked for almost the whole day. We danced around the park and laughed like we were crazy. We all crammed into a photo booth and took goofy pictures that remind me of being a kid. We left exhausted and burned, but better and happier people. Especially me. Now why was I hating 27 so much? After all it didn't start half badly.

I had a hysterically funny string of calls from my poor hubby who decided to conquer the Bourbon Street while in New Orleans, complete with picture and voice messages, when the Hurricanes began to conquer him. I was jealous at first, but I did have a great time and he deserved it. We both needed a little fun in our lives, it was well deserved on both parts.

If this is how 27 starts, I might be in for a fun, wild ride.

27 Candles

My birthday is 2 days away and I'm a little glum at the thought of 27 candles. Especially since I'll be technically turning 27 while I'm at work and coming home to an empty house.

My husband is on another trip, but here's the kicker: He'll be spending my birthday in New Orleans. He gets in a 10 AM and gets to hang out until the next morning. He's super excited for this, but I'm bummed because it seems like everyone will be having a better time on my birthday than me. How sad is that, aren't birthdays supposed to lose importance once you get older? I'm worse than a kid in that respect. I want every one to be a magical and wonderful day for me alone.

Maybe I'll go home to the bigger city and hang with my mom and friends. It's better than sitting around here alone.

Alone Again, Naturally

I have come to a strong realization:I am really poor company.

This is my 3rd night in a row all by my lonesome and I've realized that the dog is way more fun than I am. She has no problem being alone, just curls up in her crate and gets her nap on. I, on the other hand, am a different story.

I have watched an endless amount of TV.

I've packed in more naps than a 90 year old.

I'm pretty sure that I have surfed every inch of the internet.

My counters are way cleaner than they should be.

I beat my LOST Playstation game and was tempted just to start over again.

The baristas at Starbucks are wanting to be friends because I'm there so much.

All of this amounts up to the fact that I am a terrible alone person. My husband has no problems with this. He's usually totally content to soak in an endless stream of TV and Playstation 3 and it all makes him so much the happier. So why do I have such problems with the same thing?

The truth is, I have never been alone. Never lived on my own, never been single in my adult life, only living in my 2nd apartment ever. That is the sad fact. In these days where Sex and the City rules the world, my life story would make those girls cry in outrage. Here's the scoop.

I lived with my mom until I started making enough money at my post-college real job to move out with my high school sweetheart. We lived in an apartment for a year and then bought a house with the intention of domestication. A few years (of no seperation whatsoever) after I realized that my high-school sweetheart (and myself for that matter) was no sweetheart, just nothing but a greedy, possessive jerk. I ran into the arms of a sweet-talking con man who wanted to have his cake (me) and eat it too(his girlfriend). As I was disentangling myself from those two, I met the love of my life, my future husband. I moved straight from the ex-sweetheart's to my new husband's house where we lived until we moved here to Hillbilly City. In the course of all that mess, I had maybe a week single, but not alone. My wonderful hubby left his job in cable sales to pursue the job of his dreams. The only thing is that he's gone for 2-4 days at a time. This would be nothing to your average fearless woman, but this I am not. I am an emotional, silly little girl dressed up as an adult. The saddest thing is that I truly want to be that fearless independant woman, I'm just too damn lazy. I've become very comfortable with the DVR and walks around the complex with Kylie. I just miss him so freaking much when he's gone, he really is my better half. It's as if he packs up all of my sunshine and takes it with him in those oh-so-snazzy airline bags. There's just something so right about the two of us together.





At least while he's gone I have my girls at Starbucks. They draw hearts in caramel drizzle on the top of my lattes so I don't feel so lonely. Plus, the DVR's filling up with Golden Girls and The Dog Whisperer episodes that I'm dying to see.

Money, Money, Money

Hallelujah, the IRA check came in! That means no suspension of Starbucks privileges! Kylie and I got a latte to celebrate.

I got a call from my mom asking me to come for a visit in honor of Mother's Day. I wanted to be the good daughter and go but it was not smart considering gas just topped $126 a barrel. I hated to break it to her, but the gas prices put that trip out of my mind. Sure, the IRA check came in, but after all that was owed, there was a measley $100 left over until my dreamy hubby and I get paid. The trip will just have to wait. My mom understands. She's been living in Broke-As-A-Joke-Land for many years also.

Damn a Bush economy! Don't get me started on that subject.....

How to Live Broke, Married, and In A Bush Economy

Here's the next promised installment! How is it possible to live completely broke, with a husband who has to rely on his debit card to eat while on the road, and when gas is $123 a barrel?

The truth is, I don't really know.

We've been scraping by. I cleaned out my IRA over the past 6 months. I'm praying that this last check arrives soon so we can pay the last $110 in rent that the complex surprised us with. Things would be even better if our economic stimulus money would get here soon, even though my husband has now earmarked that for our tickets in November to Slovenia for his grandmother's 70th birthday. We only pay taxes on international flights but he has decided that we should buy tickets for full price to guarantee our seat. This is totally understandable, but the fact remains that we are still BROKE. Completely, flat broke. My thought is that we should just fly standby and hope for the best because we can't afford anything else. I am drinking his Diet Coke right now because I feel like it would be too big of a luxury to get a 12 pack of Mountain Dew.

Gas just hit $3.86 in areas around our location of Suburbia. I have great fears for my birthday(May 18th) because I want him to do something fab but not expensive. I'm starting to think that a pack of cigs might just be over the budget.

I have huge reservations about this birthday. 26 seemed still youthful, but 27 just seems old. I guess that I just want to be reassured that 27 is still young and wonderful. And, of course, wonderful enough for my 24 year old husband!

It looks like we'll be moving in December, likely back to where we came from. We had big plans for moving to Texas to be in warm all the time and live near a beach. I don't think this will come to fruition as my husband surprised me with wanting to move back home. It makes sense, we want to start a family and buy a house and all that good stuff, but it almost feels like crawling back. I have 2 sisters who moved away and (mostly) haven't come back to live. I guess on a bright note I can go back to the soap opera hospital and leave the Hospital of Hell!

Let's just hope that money starts rolling in soon, if not, I might have to give up my Starbucks addiction. That seems like a fate worse than death....

Life as I know it

So this is adult life round one.





I've gotten married, moved to a new city, started a new job, and adopted a puppy. Am I missing anything else that should qualify me for adulthood? I'll say no but it still feels like I'm unprepared.

Let's start with the husband. He's amazing, intelligent, really the man-of-my-dreams, couldn't-have-invented-him-better type. Here's the catch: He's a working/traveling man who is home less often than a millionaire trying really hard to impress a new woman. As luck would have it, I seem to always have to work when he's actually home. This increases my call-in rate by a million percent. I can't ask him to settle down career-wise because he simply loves this job and I just want him to be happy. Him being gone so much makes me loony-tunes, but he really does love it and a good wife never asks for more than she really wants to handle. The new city thing doesn't help any because I don't know a soul and I'm too lazy to undertake the "let's make friends" role just yet. I'm happy if I have enough energy to hit up Starbucks and plop in front of the TV.


The new job was going to be the deal maker, or so I thought. My last job was a drama-ridden hospital that could compete with the best of daytime television. I thought that anywhere else simply had to be better by comparison. The process started wonderfully and my rose-colored glasses stayed on until a few weeks after I started my new position. Then I started to realize how hateful these people were! They would make Joan Crawford look like a Girl Scout. Never have I seen so many manipulative, backstabbing people in one place. If my last job was a soap opera, this one is definitely a horror movie. One that goes on and on three nights a week without fail (unless I call in, hehehehe).

The puppy is adorable but has a nasty habit of biting me and peeing on the rug. If the Dog Whisperer is out there, we need help! I've really tried to absorb as much as I can watching his show, but Kylie is a resistant type of beagle who would fall before no one less than Cesar Millan in the flesh.

I guess this is all for now, stay tuned for my next episode entitled "How to Live Broke, Married, and In A Bush Economy". Should be good times for all!