Hate that I didn't realize Tony Bennett was in Pittsburgh! And worse yet that I couldn't convince anyone to be seeking out tickets with me...

My Spirit Animal

This has to be the most ridiculous post I've ever written, but I felt so compelled...

I just finished reading Girls in White Dresses  by Jennifer Close.  Yes, it's chic lit (as they say), but it was a fun, light read; something I was desperately seeking as a break to Sophie's Choice (which I still have not finished).

One of the girls in the book is invited to a costume party where you're suppose to go dressed up as your spirit animal.  (Isn't that the most bizarre thing you're ever heard!  Don't you wish you were invited?!?)  My best guess is that your spirit animal is an animal that embodies who you are.

And so, I got to thinking... If I had a spirit animal what would it be?

The answer:  A hybrid of a ninja turtle and a chicken with its head cut off.  If I had mad photoshop skills, I'd show you what I meant, but I don't.  If I had to dress up, I'd have a turtle shell with chicken feet and chicken "paws."  I'd carry a nun-chuck and cover my head with a ski mask.  It would be the most ridiculous thing you could ever fathom. :)

But why would my spirit animal be a ninja turtle/chicken with its head cut off you ask?

Well, I'm like a turtle in that sometimes I just need my space and privacy.  Shells are great for that.  Also, sometimes I get a little freaked out and uncomfortable and a shell would be perfect for that too.

I'm be a ninja turtle because I see myself as a sometimes "tough" person.  I have a pretty independent I can do it myself attitude, and I like to think if I needed to conquer the world, given a pair of nun-chucks and some sweet Macgyver skills I could do it!  Maybe a cape too, because I'd like to be fashionable and a cape seems like the perfect thing.

Finally, sometimes the ADD or the Ester in me shows, and that is the chicken with its head cut off portion of my spirit animal.  While typically I'm pretty cool and calm like a turtle, other times I feel like my head and body are separated and I'm just running around trying to figure out what to do with myself as a result.  Plus, the chicken part makes me think of chicken little... and sometimes I think the sky is falling and what am I going to do about it?

Haha, riduclousness!

On another note, I would just like to add, this book made me literally laugh out loud.  I think this is one of those weird Melanie-isms.  Books sometimes make me laugh.  When I'm in public places, I try to keep quiet, but sometimes a smirk escapes and I just cannot help myself.  Then I think about how other people see me:  that Asian girl... sitting in the corner reading... smiling and laughing... at a book...
Today, I sat on the couch, read my book and laughed out loud... by myself... just me and the dog... he probably things I'm so weird... LOL

My Daily Random Rantings... And a lil Update too

It's been forever since I've posted.  Much like everything else in life, I kept meaning to, but it just never happened.

After spending the month and a half after summer classes ended job searching, I ended up interviewing and searching to no avail.  (Granted I was being picky about only working days so I can enjoy life while I'm not in school.)  So, I've given in and returned to the retail world.  Luckily my manager has been amazing with working with my "picky" schedule.

What have I learned so far?
-  I really like being on my feet and not tied to a desk, which I already knew.  Time just flies by at the store, since there's always something to do and I'm never bored.
-  I'm quite good at customer service and "styling" customers and I even enjoy it.  It's amazing how many people size up your styling ability by what you're wearing, and luckily I'm pretty decent at putting an outfit together.
-  As time goes by, I'm losing my great desire/motivation to change the world, which is a little sad. :(
-  Ruffles, lace and the color plum seem to be what's "in" right now...  That and old school sweaters...

And a few other random rantings a.k.a. piddly things I'm dying to tell somebody...

-  We're still getting by with just one car, which most days works out fine.  Today, however, I ended up having to hang out at Panera for 2 1/2 hours, which I normally wouldn't mind, but there are some super annoying and loud people sitting next to me.  And I don't want to be the person who gets up to sit on the other side of the room.  (Right now, they are taking turns loudly going over what's in their wallets... in great detail... ugh...)
-  Also, I always secretly wonder when you're at Panera or at a coffee shop by yourself what you're suppose to do with your stuff when you go to the bathroom.  Obviously I'm weird about just leaving my computer and purse alone, but I also don't want to pack up all my junk just to go potty...  Again, the stupid things I wonder about...
-  I'm noticing my ADD a lot more lately.  I find myself repeating or "voicing" in my head what people say or ask me before I can respond or answer.  And other people's conversations distract me so much sometimes, I can't think straight...

Something I'm looking forward to:  Going to the Raven's vs. Steelers game in November
Lately I'm loving:  Fall weather and Pumpkin Spice Lattes (And to think I use to be a summer girl)
What I'm reading:  Sophie's Choice, but I also pre-ordered the Steve Jobs book
Latest CD I've bought:  pre-ordered Michael Buble's Christmas CD!
My current thoughts/feelings:  Trying to enjoy the now of life and not be jaded by the past
Newest random epiphany:  A lot of women are caddy and judgmental  (a little bit of a well duh tidbit for most of you, but it still surprises me...)

Any Given Day

I follow the younghouselove.com blog pretty religiously.  It's weird how I feel like I know them because I read about their lives and what they're DIYing on their blog, but obviously I don't know them.

Anyway, one of their posts was an inspiration for today's post.  Sherry (chica from the blog) posted a video of a messy house tour, which I found very intriguing.  I always wonder what people's homes are like, both inside and out.  (Plus I'm always secretly worried about being "The Ghetto Neighbors."  Just ask Jeremi...  I religiously mow the lawn every Wednesday morning because I don't want to be the ones who make everyone else look bad.  And I senselessly worry about other ghetto neighbor behaviors.  As if either Jeremi or me is the least bit ghetto anyway...)

So, back from that crazy rant, you know me, right...

I thought it'd be fun to share what our house looks like on any given day.  I didn't want to post a video because I can't stand the sound of my "electronic" voice.  (I think I sound really annoying when I hear myself on playback.)  So, I'm taking you on a picture tour of our home, giving you full disclosure, so you can see all the little weirdnesses of our lives.  These pictures are from yesterday, so it's not exactly what it looks like anymore, but you get the idea.  And just to warn ya, there are loads of pictures so it turned out to be a really long post...

Starting in the kitchen because we usually enter in the side door of the kitchen...

Kitchen overview...  Not too bad until we move in closer...

Freshly baked bread from that morning.  Plus, a few tins I keep meaning to ask Jeremi if he thinks they're suitable for tea.  (Jeremi has been on a tea kick and he surprises me about the things he cares about... like tea tins...)  And scrap wood from when we built our wardrobe doors, not sure why it's there but obviously it hasn't been put up... lol

The K cup drawer has ended up as one of the many catchall places in our house, not sure why.   There's a timer from my med school days and the 50/10 that I'm repurposing for the kitchen, a strange wood bell thing mom re-gifted to me, and a fold out fan.  So incredibly random...

Two magnetic knife bars that I don't know what to do with since the kitchen walls are wallpapered and I don't want to screw into the wallpaper.  Who puts wallpaper in a kitchen anyway?  They've been sitting there since we moved in basically.  I'm still hoping to be enlightened as to where to put them.

More random stuff on the "bar"

More stuff on the bar that needs to go in the car.

Caesar following me around trying to figure out what in the heck I'm doing.  Pictured behind him is the lamp we bought to make our mannequin light out of.  (Which we did last night! Yay!)

Picture frame on the kitchen table I need to put up...

Box of random stuff I don't know what to do with but can't part with.   Curtain rod for the huge "dining" room window that we're going to put up once I summon up the courage to spend more money on curtains.  (Why are they soooo expensive?  It's freakin' curtains...)  And a can of paint, because we still need to get permission to paint...  Just to clarify, we already had the paint.  I didn't go buy paint before I knew if we could paint...

Overview of the kitchen/dining room...

Overview of the living room...  Notice the frames without pictures.  (I'm the queen of putting up frames and leaving them without pictures for a ridiculous amount of time.  I did put pictures in them last night after these pictures were taken though.  Small victory for me!)  Also, the mannequin we turned into a lamp last night.  Pillows that don't match... I'm working on making covers for them...

Jeremi's beloved recliner that my mom covered for us.  Also, another blank picture frame on the third shelf. lol

Better view of the mannequin and unmatching (not a word) pillow.  Plus the crocheted houndstooth pillow cover I'm working on.  (Yes, I'm secretly an old lady... crocheting and baking my own bread...)

 The entertainment center that also catches random junk.  And our newest addition, the skeleton golfer man on the left is something I picked out on a Hillsville trip with mom a long time ago.  I found it in their basement when sorting through garage sale junks.  Apparently I was the only one who thought it was soo cool, and luckily Jeremi let me put it out...

Our bedroom, which is usually the neatest looking room overall.  More empty frames above the bed that I'm planning to move elsewhere... 

The old wood towel rod where we pile our clothes... Although, you can't see the towel rod anymore... And clearly, you can see my undergarments... I warned you about the full disclosure ;)

The dresser at the end of our bed, another catchall with loads of random junk, including the street sign I "found" from our neighborhood when I was in high school...  Oh, and another blank frame...  Plus me, in the mirror, in my free freshman year of college tshirt, haha...

Junk on the bathroom sink I need to put away...

The bathroom sink... Not sure why I'm including this, lol

Boxes in the bathroom I keep meaning to cover with fabric... (Why are pretty storage boxes so expensive?)

The guest bedroom/office.  (Come visit if you're our way...)  Files on the bed from medical billing joys.

The messy desk where all the joys are had...  Plus my new Steelers cup I'm ridiculously giddy about!  (I was inspired by my SIL's WVU cup so I splurged and got myself a Steelers one.  Plus, it's polka dotted!)

Well, that ends the tour.  Hope you enjoyed the glimpse into our daily life/the mess we call home and my random rantings.  Sorry some of the pictures aren't the best quality.  I do what I can...

Random things that make me Smile

Hi.  I'm Melanie and I'm addicted to Pinterest.com

I just can't help it.  It's so much visual stimulation I just don't know what to do with myself but swing around in glee.  Ok, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point...

Anyway, thought I'd share my "Random things that make me Smile" board for this almost weekend.

Enjoy!  Hope it makes you smile too!

http://pinterest.com/melaniejoy047/random-things-that-make-me-smile/

Kickin' It Old School

I sometimes think I was born in another generation.  While I do loove my iPhone and Kindle and the internet entirely too much, I also really enjoy some "spinster" or "housewifey" tasks too.  I love to bake and crochet (thanks to Katie!).  I'd prefer to read over watching the tv and browsing the web.  I love the satisfaction of a clean house, and I honestly don't mind doing the laundry.  And I would looove to learn to sew.  (I'd probably make an awesome housewife if I didn't get cabin fever so easily and am currently desperately craving a career on my own.)

But back to the point, lately I've been feeling like we have too much unnecessary crap and that we spend too much money on the dumbest things.  (I mean do I really need another pair of shoes? Or another kitchen-y gadget?)  Also, we had a garage sale at Mom's house and it is insane how much unnecessary stuff we have!  So, I've been on a quest to attempt to live more simply and more "green."

There is such a movement to be "green" right now, which I love.  But the commercial world has also gotten a hold of the green movement, and there's a lot of expensive, earth friendly products out there.  I've been digging sites that show how to be friendly to mother earth while not spending a fortune. (www.frugallygreen.blogspot.com)

So, on my quest, I've set out to do a few things that will make life cheaper and hopefully hug the earth a little too...

Here's a few things on the list of to dos:
- Bake a loaf of "sandwich" bread.  I found a recipe to bake a loaf of bread that I'm planning to try.  (I'll try and post pictures later.)  Jeremi packs sandwiches pretty regularly and the cost of things like bread is beginning to escalate.  Plus, as mentioned, I already love to bake.
- Make curtains and curtain rods.  Curtain rods are so stupidly expensive!  Who really needs to spend $30 on a rod to hang something on?  So I found a site that shows how to turn pvc pipe into curtain rods.
- Make my own dishwasher powder and laundry detergent.  I found some cool "recipes" for washing powders, as they say.  Although, the laundry detergent is a recipe for liquid detergent.  Again, these things cost so much and if I can make them inexpensively and more "greenly,"  why not at least give it a try?
- Crochet some reuseable swiffer "socks."  It's so wasteful to keep buying those cloths for the swiffer... (Though FYI, they are great for doggie hair!)  Plus I'd be hugging earth by being less wasteful.

A few earth friendly things we already do...
- Use reusable bags at the grocery store.  I've always hated the plastic bags anyway, plus I try to buy some fun reusable ones, like my Steelers bags. :)
- Reuse the plastic bags we do get as much as we can.  We don't always remember to bring a bag, so when we do end up with plastic ones, I try to put them to good use.
- Mow the lawn with a reel mower.  This one is my favorite.  We bought a new, updated version of the older motor-less mowers that use cutting blades to cut the grass.  It's so much quieter and earth friendly.  I don't stink like gasoline afterwards and it doesn't spray grass in my face.
- Make my own dog treats.  They're so easy to make.  Plus, Caesar doesn't care if I forget about the time and burn them a little!  And at least I know what he's eating.
- Try to set the thermostat a little higher and not blast the air.  Our house stays pretty cool despite the 90 degree weather here.  So, I try to make use of the ceiling fans and not run the air so much.
- Recycle

And finally, some things I want to do in the future to make use of what we have...
- I'd love to have a clothes line in the yard!  It makes sense to utilize the sunlight to help dry clothes instead of wasting energy on the washer.  But as a renter, we haven't jumped on this one and I'm putting off asking the landlord...
- I really want to learn to compost.  It's supposedly really easy and getting fertile soil for plants would be great!  I feel like I missed the boat on this one though, so might save it for next year.
- Plant more "useful" plants.  While I love flowers as much as the next girl, it's nice to plant things that have a purpose and provide some grub.  This year we grew sweet potato leaves and tomatoes (only one of my six plants survived the move).  I also experimented with radishes and spinach that are still maturing, but we'll see how that goes.  I've love to plant more next year, especially now that we have the space to do so.
- I think it'd be fun (Yes, I used the word fun to describe...) to have a rain barrel!  Seems like a great way to make sure of the water nature already provides.

Anyway, you get the point.  Saving money and saving mother earth...

Update-y things/What's been going on:
- We had a garage sale at Mom's as I mentioned.  Got rid of stuff and made a little mulah too!
- Been starting the job search since I'm not optimistic about getting off the ABSN waiting list...
- Been canoeing a few times so far this year and already debating on when we can go again...
- Been DIYing a lot of stuff around the house.  Dyed our new couch slip cover purple.  Made a trunk coffee table.  Jeremi (and his dad) made a bed frame that will house lots of storage stuffs.  Made shelves.


What I thought while typing this:  As usual, I think about my terrible punctuation.
What I want to bake next: Sandwich bread and Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies
Favorite new song:  Take me the way I am by Ingrid Michaelson
What I'm reading:  Getting ready to start Road to Terabithia
What I've been craving lately:  Fried Chicken and Popcorn.  Not necessarily together.  Jeremi makes me popcorn on the stove the ol' fashioned way.  (Yes, he's that wonderful.)
What I'm looking forward to:  the Hillsville flea market, the St. James art festival, a possibly visit from Katie :)

Here's a few pics of what's been going on in our lives...

Caesar on our purple couch

Caesar and J.C. on a recent trip to the in-laws

Caesar and me in the basement sorting stuff for the garage sale

My parents laughing hysterically at Caesar asking permission to get on the couch, then his snuggliness

Beach Bound

The exterior of our hotel, at least according to the website...

We're heading to Virginia Beach this week for the annual VA Roofer's Convention and I have mixed emotions.  I'm pretty much always down for a good road trip, so I'm excited to be going somewhere, excited about a lil shopping, and  definitely excited about some good seafood, because let's face it, there's no denying my love affair with food.  But on the other hand, I'm not really looking forward to the beach part of it all.

I know, I can already see some of your horrified and shocked faces.  It's like someone saying they don't like chocolate. Haha!  One of Jeremi's coworkers asked if I was excited and had any great plans for the beach.  My stupid response was that I had no great plans, and I've never been much of a beach person.  I'm sure he thought I was such a weirdo and not to mention a rude conversation killer.  It's moments like those I think to myself, "Why didn't you just smile and say, 'I'm sure it'll be great.'"

Anyhow, I've never really been the type to enjoy laying out, which is what most people do at the beach.  I just don't feel comfortable laying half naked and soaking up the rays, not to mention I'm already tan.  Lol.

I do, however, love the sunshine and I'm always up for a good book, so I'm sure I won't be bored.  (Well, I never really get bored to begin with...)  Plus, a vacation is a vacation, no matter where you are and I always feel like it's more about the company and the memories...

What I thought most while typing this:  This is a pointless post, maybe I should start over...
What I'm procrastinating/putting off: Reading chapters upon chapters of my developmental psych book.  Oh, and medical billing...
What you might say to me if you saw me: Girl, you desperately need a pedicure.  Haha, or at least that's what I'd say to myself...
Book I'm currently reading: How Starbucks Saved my Life
Current obsession: Fried chicken and pinterest.com