Milwaukee Invaded By Bikers!

This weekend was Harleyfest in Milwaukee, and so all restaurants, bars, convenience shops, and hotels were welcoming the bikers from around the country to descend upon Milwaukee with fervor. And they did. You pretty much couldn't go anywhere this weekend without seeing hairy men and their ladies strapped to the back of their bikes. And, since Arlo and I neither have motorcycles nor would look good in a leather vest and pants combo, we did not join in the festivities. Instead we have found plenty of things to do by foot, by car, and by non-motorized bike.

On Thursday, we went to see a jazz concert in Chicago. This weekend was Chicago's Jazz Festival, the largest free jazz festival in the U.S., I believe, and the kick-off was Sonny Rollins on Thursday night. Despite not being a huge fan of jazz, I took part, mostly because I knew it would make Arlo happy, and I didn't have anything else that was calling to me, besides E! or the Style Network. It was really cool! He played each song for like 20-30 minutes! It was like the Grateful Dead of jazz! And with the backdrop of Chicago behind the outdoor stage (Millenium Hall), it was perfect.

That pretty much set off our weekend on a good note. On Friday, we headed down to Racine to hang out with his mom and Mary and to go to a fish fry. I will not be describing my meal in detail, but if you want to know exactly what I ate, you can comment and I will give you a critical recall of the tasty delights of Chartroom Charlie's. On Saturday, Arlo and I were committed to cleaning the garage, or at least I was, and Arlo went to it full force with me, despite not being a huge fan of the idea, much like me with the jazz concert. We successfully emptied and organized our garage enough so that we could actually fit our two cars in the 2.5 car garage. Huzzah! Now, unfortunately, we still have lots of crap to go through out on the porch...but at least it's out of the garage! Afterwards we celebrated by taking an awesome photo series in which we are doing a jumping high-five. I really want to post it, but it's currently trapped in Arlo's camera, so check back later to see it. Energized by our organization and photographical success, we packed a lunch and biked to the shore of Lake Michigan for a picnic. Sandwiches made from tomatoes from Jerry's (Arlo's dad) garden and local cheese. It was delicious (spoken like Matt's impression from SNL of all the news stories about Gerald Ford dying in different ways). Lake Michigan is very cool. Because you can't see land across the way, it's almost like the beach. No great sandy shores though, and the water just a bit too cold for swimming.

Today was not as exciting, as most of it was spent following the directions of our GPS to various furniture shops in the hopes of buying the perfect couch during Labor Day sales. Alas, no couch was to be had. Rest of the day spent cleaning the windows, doing laundry, and other stuff way too boring to add.

Other exciting tidbits:

1. I now have homemade curtains in two, count them, two rooms. I will post pictures toute de suite.
2. Facebook is slowly becoming my favorite thing to check out when I wake up in the morning (sadly).
3. I find that Shannon Dougherty's lop-sided face still bothers me after all these years.
4. I wish I was as smart as Bill.
5. This Wednesday is our 1 1/2 year anniversary!

Word!

Minneapolis and More

Arlo just burped! Really loudly! It was funny. And a bit gross. We just got back (or not just, more like two days ago, but still) from Minneapolis, where we went for a wedding reception, to see Arlo's campus and to see the sculpture of a huge spoon with a cherry on it. We also hit Electric Fetus, Arlo's favorite music store in Minneapolis. At the wedding reception, I got a bit tipsy (shocker there!) and probably embarrassed Arlo by getting into a bridge and headstand competition with two of the kids (and some of his friends) at the party, and dancing to 70's hits. Oh well, he should be used to this by now. Oh, and I forgot to add something from that weekend that was very much fun and since I've added a pic from it, I should explain. We went to the Minnesota State Fair, which puts Maryland's state fair to shame. It was huge!! They had all of the necessary requirements of a state fair; cute but smelly animals, lots of junk food, and of course, butter carving. That's right, they carved the faces of the nominated Dairy Princesses into frozen butter. It was awesome! I'm just sad that we didn't get pictures of it.

Nothing else new really, just half-assedly looking for a job. As you can probably imagine, this hasn't actually gotten me any closer to having a job. However, I do have plans to go to Chicago, Madison, and Milwaukee proper to see live music in the next month-and-a-half. I also have plans to keep organizing, fixing up the place, and taking pictures to post so that everyone can see the progress (I'm sure you're all waiting with baited breath).

One last thing....I wish ALL of my friends on the East coast well, and I miss you all, not just those of you living in Maryland. But I do miss those living in Maryland just a little bit more. (Just kidding, Matt!) Oh, and one more thing...Bill is great!

Pictures to be posted later!

Something Only I Might Find Exciting

It is not a Monday or a Friday, but I did feel it was a good night to post, b/c A. it's only 9:30 and I'm not incredibly exhausted, and B. I have good reason to post, only it may just be me who thinks that. I just got back from a fantastic dinner with Arlo at a restaurant called Triskele. He had all-you-can-eat mussels and I had a cherry snapper sandwich with awesome french fries. Oh, and a yummy martini with chambord and pineapple juice. We sat at the bar, talking and watching the cooks (so cool that the kitchen was at the bar), and we had a great time. Alas, that's not the reason for the post. The real reason is that I finished my first project today- the kitchen table. I took my grandparents' kitchen table from the 50's and refinished it. I sanded it off, got most of the rust off, and added some new paint. Arlo found these fantastic chairs outside our neighbor's house and we re-appolstered the seats with sparkley red vinyl. I attached photos for all to ooh and ahh if you wish. Next up, the curtains! Oh, and I did start my job search, only that's not nearly so exciting! I mean, anytime you add toxic chemicals and sparkles to the mix, that can only be a good thing, right?!?! One more thing, and this is probably only something Kevin would find cool, being my tool buddy (okay, not in that way...) there is a neighborhood True Value hardware store 3 minutes up the street from our house. I can walk to it, and in fact, we did the other day during a walk with Marley. I love the neighborhood hardware store. Perhaps not the choices you'd find at Home Depot, but the people who work there know much more and love to help you. Hell, I brought part of the table in that I couldn't get apart, and one of the guys there sawed off the bolt in the back, no charge, and he seemed happy to problem-solve. I get the feeling I'll be there quite a bit in the future.

Take care, y'all! I hope all is well in Baltimore. :)

A Day Late

I realized a pattern- I pretty much always (or at least all of the five times I've posted before) that I post on Mondays and Fridays. Not sure why it works out that way. I guess the rest of the week I am so busy that by the time I get some free time, I'm freakin exhausted and all I want to do is sleep. However, this Friday, yesterday, I was at the Irish Festival with Arlo. We ate fish and chips (Irish Friday Fish Fry), played bingo (we won! $20 for us!), and finished off the night with a beer at The Bubbler, which is what midwesterners call water fountains. It was a great bar, kind of reminiscent of Angel's Grotto before it became Little Dickies or whatever it is. There are a LOT of those kinds of neighborhood bars around here, pretty much one every block or so. We watched the highly entertaining Little League championship and discussed the possibility of joining a rec league ourselves. The thought of me doing this is both absurd and exhilarating.
So, the house is coming together nicely, as Arlo and I are trying to make good use of the space, straightening as we go. I have the fabric for both sets of curtains I'm making, and I will post pics of the finished rooms once curtains and artwork are hung. I started work on the kitchen table, which I'm really glad Bill didn't toss off the porch like most of the other stuff on it, and Arlo found these great diner-type chairs outside on the curb and I bought some fantastic red sparkle vinyl to recover them. Tomorrow, after visiting with his grandparents and picking blackberries at his dad's place, I will definitely be working on more projects. These projects are infinitely more pleasant and less daunting than finding a job, so that's pretty much where I spend most of my time. I'll be looking into jobs, emailing contacts, etc on Monday, so I still have one more day to completely dedicate myself to home projects.
I don't know how many of you check this, or check facebook, but I did want to add that I passed my exam and am now a certified clinical social worker!! I can practice, diagnose, and accept insurance, all without supervision. In fact, I can give you all diagnoses right now. Bill, from your response to an earlier post, you have Narcissistic Personality Disorder. :) That will be $75. Everyone else, you're safe for now. Going to bed now.
One last thing- from now on, I will be posting a "Live Music Total" (LMT) a tally of live music I've seen so far. As most of you know, Arlo's a pretty big fan of live music, and we have already been busy with lots of live music. So far the tally is 5, with Irish festival counting as 2, because there were several bands. We also saw Bon Iver, Brother, and I saw this guy and his band play on First Friday in Racine. By myself.
LMT= 5

Fire, Chicago, and Blended Pet Families

Okay, so it's been a long time (feels like) since I last posted. Much has been going on, including (in no specific order according to time or importance) Arlo putting up a dog run in the backyard for Marley, me attaching a way-cool and hopefully functional kitty escape hatch with our bedroom door (imagine a chain lock New York city apartment-style that stops the door from opening to Marley-size), a yummy meal at hibachi-style Shogun in Racine and another the next day at Bella's Fat Cat in Milwaukee with Arlo's family, several non-aggressive or passive-aggressive phone calls with my mother, our first farmer's market here (so cool as it is on the coast of the lake, which I have to say trumps the surroundings of both of the farmer's markets in baltimore, sorry to say), reappearance of Rock Band, and a trip to Chicago. It's been a busy and fun-filled last couple of days and I'm sort of sad that I will be beginning my job search this week. I kind of want to put it off for another week or so, and think that I just might. Breaks are good, right? And besides, we have so many events coming up that it would be a shame to try and squeeze work into the mix. We are soon heading to Minneapolis for a wedding, going to see King Henry IV upstate, and several concerts already planned including Bon Iver next week, Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet next month, and Ray Lamontagne in October. Mind you these are not even bands I would have heard about if not for Arlo, but I'm pretty excited for all three.
So, aside from the fact that I'm really far from friends and family, life is pretty good. I'm happy in our house, Arlo and I continue to do well, figuring each other out as we go, having some good laughs, and me trying not to take anything too seriously, and there has been no bloodshed amongst the beasts. Speaking of the beasts- update: Siddartha and Fizgig ventured out while Marley was on a walk, and with a babygate up, Sidd stayed out when Marley came home. It was pretty funny, albeit a bit alarming too, when Sidd sat, poised for action, Marley paws up on the gate, when it suddenly fell, scaring the crap out of Marley, same for Sidd, then both flew in separate directions, and I freaked out and shut the door to the bedroom. On the plus side, a few minutes later both cats were laying on the bed, not cowering under it in fear. That's an improvement!! I think we are going to try actual interaction with them tomorrow. I'll keep you posted on the Brady Bunch of Beasts.
In the meantime, I swear I will call each of you, so expect a phone call sometime after 10 your time sometime this week. I really need to charge my phone. Take care, y'all!!! I miss you all very much!

Freakin exhausted

So, haven't had time to breathe really, let alone time to post, call people, write thank you notes, or any of the other things on my list of stuff I really want to do. Instead, my time has been spent cleaning, unpacking, sorting, studying, and trying to convince Arlo that I really need all of the stuff I packed and am now unpacking and filling our house with. Tonight we took a break from all of the house stuff to go to a good Wisconsin fish fry. For those of you not aware of what they are, they are found in most restaurants in Wisconsin on Friday nights and are composed of fried fish (typically cod, but can be many other kinds of white fish), coleslaw, potato pancakes or fries, and rye bread, accompanied by a beer. Really healthy stuff. Tonight we went to Serb Hall (officially American Serbian Banquet Hall) to feast. Unfortunately, no potato pancakes, instead french fries or mashed potatoes. Alas, we were way under in our quest for saturated fats. Now we're home and have taken a brief walk with Marley during which he freaked out about other dogs several times and is now resting comfortably, having barked at all of his foes. We are getting ready for bed, and then it's another day to unpack, clean, and study. Sounds like a pain, but I'm also really kind of liking this whole thing. Nesting is fun! I'm so excited to make curtains and set up a place to do stuff in the garage. There's so much fun stuff to look forward to. Arlo and I are getting along very well, settling in together nicely, and it's cool that we can hang out and be productive at the same time. Tomorrow after a day of work at the house, we are heading down to Racine to see his sister, niece, and nephew for dinner. I hope you are all doing well and I'll talk to you soon. If I haven't called, I promise I will do so within the next week. It has just been crazy here, and I'm trying so hard to get everything put away that I've been really lax about reconnecting with everyone at home. So, take care, y'all, and I'll talk to you soon! Later!

Arlo Returns

So, the rest of the weekend was busy as all-get-out, with me painting, running to THE home depot, and going to sleep exhausted and really paint-splattered. The colors I chose for the rooms were a light blue for the bedroom and a (what I thought was) light green for the spare room. However, upon putting it on the wall, I discovered it was more of a Shrek-type green. Ooops! I could go into further detail about the colors, but that would be "someone else's" blog, not mine :) Anyway, after two days of painting I pretty much finished, at least enough to move the cats and dog in. Proud and pleased, I went to sleep, for approximately 4 hours when I became awoken by loud banging that I thought was in my dreams, but was actually Arlo throwing stones and pieces of wood at the bedroom window and calling my name. Completely confused, I answered the door to find a really not-so-happy Arlo waiting for me. Turns out I locked him out by locking the screen door. After staying up and catching up for a while, we went to blissful sleep until I woke up to take the cats to the vet. I was completely paranoid that they both had UTIs from the trip, so they went to the local vet's office, where I swear I met the nicest vet I've ever met. First of all, the accent was killer, she called them "twinkies" and had to explain that it meant they looked like the perfect pair, and then said Sidd's nose was distinguished and made him regal, and then said they were nice and sweet and surprisingly not chunky despite the really fatty diet they have. Despite the bill, it was the best vet visit I've been on, though I can't speak for Fizgig and Siddhartha. BTW, they've spent most of their time under the bed at Arlo's mom's place, as we aren't moving them until the place is set up.

So, tomorrow's the move, the truck's coming in the morning, and we have Arlo's dad, his girlfriend, her daughter and hopefully some of Arlo's friends. Of course, they're no Baltimore crew, but they'll do. I will try to post pictures of all of this on Facebook or maybe something like Shutterfly or something.

Oh, and one more thing: How cool is this?!? Within 10 minutes of our place is a park, a place that is called Fashion Ninja , another design place with sewing lessons, a health food co-op, a bowling alley, a gym, theater, and lots of bookstores and coffee places. It's like the place was made for me!!

Anyway, I miss you all like heck. Take care and I'll post soon. BTW, since he's being so sweet and scratching my back, Arlo says hi. :)

Day 1: Racine

So, up early to see Arlo off and then back to sleep until the yummy hour of 10:00. Woke up still exhausted and sore, and grateful to not have to pack, move, or clean anything. Went out to breakfast with Arlo's mom and her parents, first family excursion minus Arlo. We went to their usual place, The Golden Key, where the waitresses were really nice and helpful, and the talk was of fish fries, family parties, and all that is great about Wisconsin.

After a filling lunch and a stop at the Piggly Wiggly's for bread and cat litter, it was back home for a nap and to get down to work. Studied for my upcoming exam while keeping my completely freaked out cats, now entirely devoid of drugs, company. Surrounded by creepy dolls and the silence of an empty house (Debbie had left for Madison to drop off her painting and then headed home), I tried to study for a bit before the real festivities of the evening began- First Friday's in Racine, WI. Around 7 I headed down, as the shops were "staying open until 9"!!

So, now I'm sitting here, buzz from my free wine wearing off as I sit at Dunn Brothers coffee house drinking iced coffee and listening to a folk band. While walking around, these are some of the things I heard:

* What do you mean, you've never heard of Salvador Dali?

* Can you believe it?!?! $60 for a picture frame?!?!

* You're making me out to be an alcoholic!
Well, it's not that hard to do!

Pretty funny being a fly on the wall and walking around a new place by yourself. A couple of observations about the people of the midwest so far:
* Drivers will actually stop at a GREEN light for you to cross the street!
* When people need to get by, they say, "Pardon me," and when they bump into you they say,"Excuse me." Weird.

Alright, it's getting late, a whopping 9:30, and I'm exhausted, so I think I'm heading home to chill with the cats, read my self-help book about accepting change, and get some sleep before Arlo's return from the concert at around 2:00 am. Tomorrow morning I'm dropping him off at the train station early and then it's by myself for another day. I'm contemplating the possibility of painting the second bedroom of our place on Sunday. Any suggestions??? Take care, y'all. I'll post again soon. Love you!!

Jen Goes West- The Road Trip

First off, without everyone's help, this never would have happened. We had Debbie, Arlo's mom, on packing and cleaning duty at both houses. She touched god knows what kinds of substances at my place, didn't complain about the heat, and was able to be left alone without fear of her snooping too much. We had Wendy, whose arms of steel made for some swift moving of the boxes. She moved quickly and with purpose, much like a righteous avenger of justice! Then , we had Kevin and Jess (with Nathaniel). Kevin's "hump straps" (ask me about it if you don't know what they are and are anticipating a move), awesome attitude of optimism, laid-back-ness, and hilARious impression of a "world's strongest man" contender doing the power move of a lift (I forget the name, but I almost peed my pants and passed out it was so funny). Jess' sweetness and support as we were packing, and of course, the fantastic presence of Nathaniel. Lastly, but certainly not leastly (is that a word? I don't think so, but TWF), Bill and Amanda. Freakin awesome, there till the end, tough love, throwing things off the balcony, taking things I couldn't bear to throw or take, and being so supportive in the move. I am so grateful for all of my friends, I can't even put it into words. I think part of what made it possible to leave was knowing what I have back home.

So, despite all of the work done the day before, we were still crazy the day we left. I still had to clean the apartment, drug the cats, pray that I wouldn't get charged during the walk-through, and travel with Arlo to drop off cable stuff and pick up Marley (not at the same place). We hit the road around 4, and I was already exhausted. I was also completely freaked out about my cats, as the drugs did really weird things to their eyes and the walked like my dad does on a typical happenin night. After a call to the vet, I was ready to go. We drove through three states that day (I think): Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. We stayed in three separate rooms that night, Arlo and Marley in one, Me and the cats in the other, and Debbie in the third. I was just excited about the bed and making sure my cats' eyes were normal again. (They were.) Up early and out that morning, drove the rest of the way. Around mid-afternoon I had some intestinal distress, and let me just tell you, that's the WORST time ever to need to be near a toilet. As I'm assuming that mostly my friends will be reading this, you already know I tell WAY too much info, so this won't be a surprise. Anyway, it sucked. Not only that, but I also drove away with no gas cap after the first fill-up. Surprise, surprise, Jen's forgetful. So, bought a new one, spent way too long in the rest-stop's bathroom, and we were on the road again. Made it to Racine around 8:00, I think. After going to Arlo's dad's place to use his computer to get insurance, we went back to his mom's and passed out. Arlo headed to Lollapalooza around 7:00 this morning and I was on my own (plus a Debbie, Arlo's mom.) I will do another post in just a few minutes, after I pee, find a plug for the computer and get a caffeinated beverage.