Thankgiving and More!

Happy Post-Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas! I had such an awesome visit with everyone and I wanted to thank everyone for coming out to our gathering at Chez Blackford. It was quite the success, I think, and I want to thank Bill and Amanda for hosting it! I mean, really, with Bill at the helm, it has to be a success, right?!?!? Bill, I think you should be lawyer by day, party planner by night (see Matt's comment on the last post). I forget who took the last group shot, I think it was either Matt or Bill, but whoever it was, can you send it to me to post? Kevin's sad to say that his memory card shat the bed, so he has no pics from that night, so any pictures taken that included the Hollers could be sent directly to Kevin or to me, for I am already building a treasury of items for Natty's future Christmas presents. Long live homemade gifts!

**Editor's note: This section contains a more detailed account of the entire Thanksgiving trip. For those of you not interested in all of this verbage, please skip directly to the end of this section to see what's been happening more recently.

Anyway, the rest of the trip, while not as awesome as the party, was pretty rockin. We spent a lot of time with my mom and Jerry and really enjoyed ourselves (shut up, Matt.) Thanksgiving was obviously spent with family, all of whom were surprised except my grandparents, as Jerry told them the day before that I was coming home (Darn you, Jerry!). All others were shocked and amazed, which my mother happily lapped up. Friday, pre-party, Arlo and I did a little bit of shopping in the morning and he dropped me off at my mom's office so that we could go to tea together. So good! After this, to Villa Blackford for the shindig. So awesome! Saturday, we went with my mom and Jerry to the Sports Museum and pop culture museum by Campden yards. I recommend checking out the pop culture one sometime if you have a chance. It definitely leans heavily towards the 1950's, but it has some really cool stuff, especially if you like comics (Phay). Afterwards, we went to Reggie's in Federal Hill for dinner, had spectacularly bad for you but delicious mac-n-cheese and headed back for a quiet evening at the Brotmans. Sunday was a bit of a rush, trying to squeeze in as much as possible, to the point where I basically had to schedule visits with Tamira and Wendy, as we wanted to see each other and they weren't able to come to the party, and still make it back in time to pack up the car before heading out for linner, or dunch, depending on how you see it, with my grandparents. We hit crappy weather both Sunday night and Monday, so I'm glad we ended up leaving Sunday afternoon. We made it back around 7:30/8:00 on Monday night to snow.

** Fast forward to present

There's no excuse for my sorry butt to have such long breaks between posts, especially when I have some loyal fans choppin at the bit to find out about my exciting life! However, I guess I do have an excuse, and that is this- My life has just been WAY too exciting lately to post. And by exciting, I mostly mean busy. I am now working full-time, full-time at my job, extra hours to boot. There's still a lot of organization that needs to take place, but I think by the new year it should be on the right track. It's definitely challenging, but I'm learning so many new things that I think it will all be worth it. By the end of each day, I'm pretty tired, and not too motivated to do anything but have dinner and sleep, with some t.v. in the middle. Sadly, I'm not even motivated to work on Christmas presents, as I haven't wanted to journey out at night to Joann's. The weather's been bad the last few nights, and a need for yarn just doesn't seem to warrant such extreme measures (unless you're Amanda). This may mean that each of you get a hand-drawn portrait or perhaps a trivet with my cats' paw-prints in them. I ain't makin any promises, ya'hear? Okay, now I'm just rambling, as I tend to do the sleepier I get. And despite only being 8:20, I'm in full sleepy-mode, time to get ready for bed. One last thing before I go.... you probably can narrate the pics up top if you were at the Friday night festivities, but the others, here are the descriptions. The pic of my mom and I was taken at Camden Yards, as we prepare for the unlikely event of a crazed out-of-control ball to come carreening at us. The next- Arlo and I set up our Christmast tree! Pretty cool, eh? The final three pictures I like to call Man with Big Stick, Espionage, and Discovery. Whenever I look at them, Espionage and Discovery make me laugh almost as much as when it happened. Night y'all. Sweet dreams to everyone!

Sluggish With Crab....mmmmm.....crabbbb....

Against my better judgment, I decided to go out on a limb and talk about what I had for dinner tonight. Not that there's not other stuff that can be talked about, I mean, I did start a new job, quit my old job, and start looking at portable heaters for the house, but this was special.

Backstory: Arlo and I were biking one day up Layton Ave. We passed a restaurant with a large plane attached to the front. Arlo said, "Let's go check out the menu (or something like that.)" He loves it when restaurants post their menus outside the door, it's like window-shopping for him. Anyway, he was excited to point out that they have All-You-Can-Eat crablegs on Wednesday night, market price. Checking on the price for me, he found out that it's usually around $26-28. Normally I'm not a fan of AYCE, as I find I never feel I get my money's worth and the food is usually subpar. However, I must admit I was intrigued, as crab is probably one of the only things I know that I can keep eating for a long time without getting full.

So, as tomorrow's my first "real" day at my new job, not at a training center, I decided it was time to treat both of us to an awesome meal. And did it live up to expectation! Wow! I ate a bucket of crab! It was freakin fantastic! Arlo got AYCE fried chicken, fried fish, and french fries (A.K.A. Arlo's ideal meal), which was also quite tasty. We ate ourselves silly and then came home and practiced the blocks, holds, and other self-defense moves I learned in training today. No, really. It was fun, but kind of sucked with the full stomachs.

Now, it's about 9:00 and Arlo's already asleep on the couch. I've picked out my outfit for tomorrow and am ready to get up butt-early to assure that I'm not late on my first day. I will post after to let everyone know how it goes, and I all I know so far is that my office is in what was the conference room, leading me to question, "Where will we have conferences now?"

Have a good night! I'm going to go put on my pj's so that my belly can expand under the pressure of the two-plus snowcrabs that gave their lives for me. Oh crabs, how I have loved you.

One more thing...I just realized that I mentioned this but never followed up...I decided to quit my job at Louise's Trattoria. I really liked the people I worked with and the customers were nice. I just think that I will be way too busy with the new job for any additional stressors, you know? Plus, it feels weird to me to be the Outpatient Clinic Manager by day and waitstaff by night. So, after this Saturday, no more Louise's, though I am hoping to hang out with some of the people I met there, as they are pretty cool.

See you in about a week!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend Plans

The plan as of right now is to head out of Milwaukee on Wednesday, early afternoon or whenever we can hit the road. We will then sleep somewhere half-way and hopefully be in Baltimore by early afternoon on Thursday. Phay, I don't think we will be able to make Detroit the half-way mark, because that heads us North and would take about 6 hours, when at 6 hours, we should be much closer to home. :(

As with everyone else, we will be with family on Thursday and Thursday night. The "free" days, then would be Friday and Saturday, as we will probably leave Sunday mid-afternoon. Several people have said we could have people over to their place, and I just found out that my brother is not going to be at my mom's place, so we could probably also hang there, so long as we stay in the basement. I propose that we all get together on Friday night and determine the location closer to the date. I would like to just say that we could all come to my mom's place, but as you all know from my going-away party, they can be kind of crazy about having people over. We could go out for food or just order pizza so as to make it as easy as possible.

I think this may be the only way I can see everyone, but if you can't make it to Friday night, we can try to work something out.

Post comments or email me directly at jreit001@umaryland.edu to let me know what you think. Remember, nothing on Facebook!

Oh, and I realize that this is a really boring post (and I still expect a comment, Bill), but needed to get this out and it seems to be the best way to do it, perhaps even better than email so people aren't bombarded with "reply alls". There's nothing too exciting going on right now, as we haven't been to any concerts lately ("Quelle horror, what will Kevin think?!?!"), haven't started my job yet, and have been spending my time being sick and organizing things in the house, two things that NO ONE (except Andrej) would care to blog about. For more excitement, see Arlo's blog. I'm just happy to be on the mend and sitting in a clean house with a fully functioning bathroom sink (there was a snafu with the sink that could be a post in and of it self, I was so inclined, which I'm not).

Talk to you all soon and see you in two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't emphasize my excitement enough!

Warning!!

Do not, I repeat, do not mention anything about the trip home for Thanksgiving on my facebook page. My mom has access to that and checks it, and recently I have become paranoid about her finding out about the trip. Comment all you want here on the blog, but not on facebook. Can't wait to see everyone!!!!!!

I'm a Bit Obsessed With the Leaf Blower

So, I'm pretty sad that I don't have time this morning to use the leaf blower out front to rid the yard of leaves. Leaf blowers are awesome! I compare it to the memories of raking leaves as a kid, and man, so much better now!! We have two very large trees, one in the front and one in the back, and I can't imagine doing it all by hand. And now I don't! Yay leaf blowers! Not that I'm going to do an entire post proclaiming the greatness of these machines. No, there is much to mention. In fact, I will probably forget most of it, and as I'm in a bit of a time crunch, I will be numbering all of the topics in a list format, starting with the most important and moving on down. Notice, I started with the leaf blower. Pretty big stuff! Onto the list!

1. I got a job! I interviewed for the position two weeks ago and when I didn't hear back from them earlier on the day that they told me they'd get to me by, I thought I didn't get it. I was pretty much convinced, and I had spent the morning applying to another batch of jobs. But at around 3:30, AJ called and offered me the job! So, now I will be officially known as Jen Reiter, Psychotherapist/Outpatient Clinic Manager. I will be working with a variety of clients from children with ADHD and ODD to adults with chronic mental illness, psychiatric disorders, drug addiction and mental retardation. I am so excited! I don't start until November 17, so I'm spending this time relaxing, getting new work clothes, reading, and getting a jump on Christmas present creation (see below for more). More to post later on the job front.

2. Halloween! Arlo and I went out for Halloween and had a blast! He was not thrilled with the idea of dressing up when I told him I was really into it, oh, say 3 months ago when we moved. But he warmed to the idea, so much so that I wasn't even planning on doing anything and he asked if we could. We debated between being two present-day dirty hippies a la Bonnaroo, or a lesbian couple, and in the end we went with dirty hippies. My costume was complete with frizzie wig, tattoo around the belly button, long skirt and fairy wings. Awesome! Arlo looked splendid in his Grateful Dead rasta shirt, rainbow glasses and tall hat. We went to a few bars in Milwaukee and ended up at Ma Fishers for the fried food platter. Fun night! For more on Halloween from Arlo's perspective, see his blog at http://arlosbloggitybloggyblog-blog.blogspot.com/

Oh, and we also carved pumpkins, see below! Mine is the scary one.

3. I joined the Y! They had a deal for joining by October 31, so I did it and it's awesome! I have been twice since I joined and I haven't used the pool yet, but I'm very excited to head there tomorrow. I also can't wait for the spinning classes and kick-boxing classes. Arlo signed up with me on a family plan, though his intention is to use the gym more like a spa, going mostly to use the hot tub and sauna when it's really cold in the winter and he needs a good thaw. I, on the other hand, have visions of us sweating together gleefully in a spinning class or encouraging each other as co-spotters. Ah, the idealist. So much fun to dream, so sad when those dreams are dashed!

Alright, best be going. I need to get ready for work now. One last thing. I'm trying something new for Christmas this year. I have an idea of what I want to make everyone for Christmas, but I'm making an offer. If there's something I've given someone else or something you've seen, thought up but don't think you can make (a la Kevin's blanket with sleeves), or something I've made you before and you want another one (like a new pair of pj bottoms), please shoot me an email or post a comment. I will try to honor requests. That being said, if I have my heart set on making you something else, you might get that, so you'll still be surprised come gift exchange time.

Word!

The Arrival of Fall (and Wendy) to Wisconsin

You know it's fall in Wisconsin when all of the Hortons begin getting excited about the Gaysmills Apple Festival. This year was different in that Arlo and I were among them. We all met up on the first day in the small town you see in the beginning of the blog. There the kids had fun on carnival rides, we all ate a so-so lunch and then looked at the local arts and crafts wares for sale. I don't know about you, but I can just NEVER have too many kitchen towels with Packer logos on them! From there, we went to the flea market, which was HUGE, and wandered through isles and isles of stuff. Arlo and I found an axe, which made Arlo very happy as he can now chop stuff for our fire pit, and for the rest of the day, he kept pointing stuff out that he could chop, if I wanted him to. I declined, as I would think that the vendors wouldn't like it if he chopped up their vintage baby cradles. As the kids grew sleepier, crankier, and louder, we knew it was time to wrap it up and get to the important part of Apple Festival- The Apples!! So, we headed to Arlo's favorite orchard and (to my dismay) we didn't have to pick the apples, they were all ready for us in huge bags. We left with not just one bag of apples, but three. This is very different from my usual 5-6 apples when I go to the grocery store, one for each day, bit. I'm immediately thinking of all of the things I should do to "use up" these apples before they go bad, pies, apple sauce, more pies. Funny enough, I tend to just keep doing what I have been doing all along, one apple a day. Suddenly, three bags don't seem to be an absurd idea. We ended the weekend with a pancake breakfast held in the town church. It was delicious, but some of us (Arlo) couldn't use self-restraint and ended up with a stomachache. Oh, yeah, and to explain the picture of the goat, on the way out of town we stopped at Peck's, a produce place that has a petting zoo out back with goats, potbellied pigs, a camel, a miniature horse, ducks, etc. As you can imagine, this was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip.

Since then, October has started, our fall shows are in full swing, including Pushing Daisies, How I Met Your Mother, and Arlo's recent find, which you should check out if you have BBC, Gavin and Stacey. We have had some really fun times, including when Arlo made me a super awesome suprise dinner of crab legs, asparagus, and corn on the cob. It was delicious! As you can see, I am enjoying it! We have also been having some fun dates, like going out for mini-bowling at Koz's, a local bar, playing trivia at Nomad, another bar, and checking out the local scene at Robert's, up the street from us. I haven't been keeping track of my Live Music Tally, but we went to see some live music too, Cory Chisel and the Traveling Sons (I think that's the name anyway). Cool band. For more detail than that, check out Arlo's blog.

So, other than that, what else? Hmmm...there was my VISIT FROM WENDY!!! Wendy came and stayed with us on her way to Seattle this past weekend and it was AWESOME! It was so great to have someone her who knows me and has been my friend for quite some time. After picking her up at the airport it seemed like she's been here the whole time, we just picked right up. We spent the weekend doing what we did best as friends, talking (a lot), crafting, watching tv, eating, thrift shopping, and drinking wine. In addition, we did two things that we haven't done in the past- sing kareoke and search for a bronz statue of The Fonz from Happy Days. Both were successful endeavors. The singing took place at Robert's. We originally went there to see the Neill Diamond impersonator (don't judge, it's our local bar!), but they were doing kareoke instead, for Sweetest Day (like Valentine's Day, don't ask). As I have always wanted to try it and never had the courage, and Wendy was feeling the same way, we decided that now would be the perfect time, as there were about 10 people in the bar, including us, and the average age was 51. I sang Copacobana, and Wendy did Blister in the Sun. Both were huge hits! It was a wonderful weekend, but it had to come to an end. I dropped Wendy off at the airport at the butt-crack of dawn on Monday morning and then headed back to bed, sleepy and sad after the send-off. Now, it's back to the job search, waiting tables, and perhaps a renewed quest for a new female friend. Not that Arlo doesn't make a fabulous boyfriend and friend, but no one can be someone's everything. Wow, that was a mouthful. Alright, need to be going. Time to exercise and do all of the other things on my list of things that need to get done today. Oh, before I go though, one more thing. Marley's been doing some strange things lately and we are wondering if he's having an identity crisis after living in a house with two cats. Is this weird? Peace out to Bill (and everyone else).

Tired Jen

This is tired Jen. She's home alone, it's 10:18, and all she wants to do is crawl into bed and sleep. However, as it's been a long time since last posting, and since I recently took Marley out of his room and it would be cruel to put him back so soon, I decided to stay up, post, think about what I can possibly say in the job interview tomorrow, and then scoop cat litter, brush teeth and hit the hay. Arlo's bartending right now. He got a job in Racine at one of the bars he's been going to with his dad since he was a wee tot. I think, as tonight is Wednesday night, he should be listening to live music right now, and I'm sure he's probably happy about that. Excuse me. I just had to go play intermediary between cat and dog. Right now, we exist within a complex system of individual bedrooms and baby-gates, all intended to keep the animals from harming each other. I just completed a routine intended for behavior modification, called "When I See Him, I Get Treats!" While the animals stare each other down from either side of the baby-gates, I throw treats to each, praising each for not hissing, whining, or barking. It's quite amusing, and so far seems to be working. The other night Sidd went Kamikazi, jumping over the gate, but Marley was on the chair, and by the time he noticed, I had his leash. For the next hour, Marley slept on the one side of the gate, and Sidd stared at him from the other.
I do realize that sharing all of this animal information makes me sound A.)like there's nothing else going on right now and B.) like the kind of woman who talks about her pets like they're her kids. These statements are indeed partially true, no doubt, but a bigger reason for all of this is that I'm freakin exhausted, not thinking straight, and my mind is drawing a blank. So, let's get organized, shall we? What's been happening since last we spoke?
1. Arlo and I have been to one movie and one concert. Movie, Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, Concert, Ray Lamontagne. Guess which I liked more. For those of you who guessed movie, you're WRONG! The movie was good, it was cute, sweet, and everything I love about a good chick-flick rom-com. 'Cause that's definitely what it was, despite having funny lines from Michael Cera and cool music. Definitely still a chick flick. It's funny, it makes me realize that I'm getting older, as rom-coms are now appearing with seemingly younger and younger casts. Weird. Anyway, the other event was the Ray Lamontagne concert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddX1FOD1Yx4&feature=related. For those of you not familiar, he's a fantastic singer/song-writer/hetero-sensitivo with a gorgeous voice, who looks surprisingly like a combo of Zach Galifianakis, Iron and Wine, and some woodsy forest ranger. BTW, check out Zach here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JeUTEtP1lE&feature=related, he's a hilarious comedian, and he looks a lot like Ray Lamontagne. Anyway, it was a stirring, beautiful concert, and it made me jealous of his kids/future kids to have a dad who could sign the pants off any lullaby. Damn.
2. I have been working steadily at my new job at Louise's Trattoria. It's not exactly steady pay, however, as I am finding mostly famine with a couple of feasts. The people who work there are cool, however, and I'm enjoying trying to remember all of the Spanish I learned in high-school (as the cooks are mostly Latino).
3. I have been hired as a substitute teacher. This is another temporary job as I am continuing to look for gainful employment as a social worker. No dice on that, though there's an interview tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. I haven't done any gigs as a teacher yet, but I do have an orientation Friday morning, so let's see what happens next week. Who'd thunk that I would be back in the classroom after all of these years?!?! I feel like I'm repeating the last 10 years of my life, waiting tables, then teaching.
4. I've created a compost bin and started composting. Believe it or not, this is very exciting to me. It feels really good to be able to recycle even more of our waste. I don't have much in there yet, but it's a start!
5. Not really about me, but I wanted to share and to invite everyone on my list to go and check it out- Arlo started a blog!!! http://arlosbloggitybloggyblog-blog.blogspot.com/ It's meant as a more interactive blog about all aspects of pop culture, music, movies, television, etc. Give it a go. I have to say it's way funnier and more clever than mine, with less animal adventure stories, so you will probably enjoy it.

Alright I'm out. I really want to get a good night's sleep tonight so I can get up butt early and get ready for the interview/interrogation (depending on how you see it.)

Miss my peeps on the East Coast. Keepin' it real, yo.

"Pet Shenanegans" Clinches It (as do the Cubs)!

While Amanda's support was lovely and Matt's critique was predictable, I need to give the people what they want. And since Bill and Phay were the only people who actually said what they wanted, I will be sharing the lastest and greatest pet news.

Being very cautious from the beginning, Arlo and I decided it was best to keep the pets apart for quite some time. So, the cats were living in our room, and Marley was in his bedroom if the cats were out. The cats had free reign when Marley was in bed and during the day when he was in his bedroom and we were out. All of that changed last week when we began letting the pets see one another. It started with Arlo walking Marley by the bedroom door and not letting him push in. Both cats stared at him, freaked out entirely, but for the most part stood their grounds. After this event, Fizgig became bolder, and anytime Marley walked up to the bedroom door or sniffed underneath, Fizgig would hiss and make this other weird sound that wasn't growling, but sounded like coughing, and he would hit the door. It was pretty funny to witness.

Since then, there have been other pet interactions, always with Marley on the lease. Sidd has finally seen him and not gone running right away, and he hissed at Marley. Last night, Fizgig actually growled at him, a low, suprisingly loud growl. While I felt really bad for Marley (after all, he is doing nothing wrong except for being their instinctively hated species of animal), a small bit of me is actually kind of proud of them, kind of like when the parent of a scrawny kid finds out that their kid made the bully cry or wet himself. I'm hoping that eventually they can learn to get along, and I have no doubt that at least Fizgig will be able to exist in the same room as Marley eventually. Sidd on the other hand may take up permanent residence in our bedroom, which would be fine by me except for the occasional poo after I've scooped.

Other news- Arlo and I went out for the Packer's game. We walked up the street to what is literally our neighborhood bar, as in it is in a house in our neighborhood. That's right, Deb and John who live on Plainfield Ave. have created Deb and John's Plainfield Pub. It was awesome! I wish I had taken pictures. There was Packers stuff everywhere, pretty much everyone there but us was in Packers regalia, and there were 4 tvs all displaying the game, so I was surrounded by football. Sounds like my personal hell, right? Actually I had a lot of fun! We had beer and snacks and I actually watched a good almost half of the game. Unfortunately the Packers were slammed. We got to vote for the Best Dressed Packer Fan (we weren't even nominated as we were both wearing brown.) And, I saw the Best Women's Restroom ever! (not actually called that or voted by the people.) Ask me why. Well, because the place was plastered with pictures of half-naked men and jokes and forwards covering such topics as menopause, the menstrual cycle, men being idiots, and the need for chocolate. Hilarious!

So, just to conclude, as I was typing this, Arlo went to take Marley out to pee. While walking him by the bedroom, Fizgig tried to swat at Marley, shutting the door and then proceeded to open it again to posture at him, as if to say, "You wanna play!?!? You wanna play??!? Oh, I see how it is! Yeah, run away, little doggie. Go running back to your daddy." Oh Fizgig, you badass.

p.s. Pics are of the cats' favorite "TV" show- the nature channel going on outside of the window and (soon to be posted) picture of Deb and John's Pub.

I miss you all!!! Take care!

Finally, The Pictures!

Okay, so the plan was to put pics of the house online yesterday, but I was in a crazy rush to get out of the house for a music festival, followed by a concert by Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet (cue knowing laugh by Kevin). Two, count them two, occurrences of live music in one day!! Add that to the tally (which hasn't been updated, by the way). Abigail Washburn was amazing, but more about that later.

The pictures are of the various rooms of the house, namely the bedroom (Elsie), Marley's room (Susie), the Kitchen (The Daisy Diner) and the living room (The Planetarium) (Arlo and I gave them the names the first day we moved in to make putting furniture and boxes away more fun). It's tough to see the colors perfectly, but the main bedroom is a sky blue and Susie, Marley's room, is a bright green. The living room is a khaki tan. I made all the sets of curtains and Arlo helped me pick out two of the fabrics. Please notice the new couch, which is comfy, big enough to nap on, and sporting a fantastic ottoman. Also, the bedroom is definitely a work in progress as far as stuff on the walls. We have to move that one painting to over the dresser and put more pictures up. Fortunately, Amanda and Bill sent us a great frame with four pictures and we are going to be hanging that up, so that will definitely add something, especially with Bill's handsome face! I'm really pleased with the way that everything in the house turned out. Our place isn't perfect, but it's pretty awesome! I know we're both very happy here.

Okay, so here's where you come in, Choose Your Own Adventure Style. I would like to know where you want me to go from here. You can either hear more about my new job at Louise's Trattoria, the Abigail Washburn concert, or the recent shenanigans amongst the pets! You choose. Whatever has the most votes by Friday will be written about thoroughly. But not too thoroughly. Entertaining, concise, and titillating. That's my style.

Night, y'all.

Damn! I've been lax!

So sorry to those of you who check on a regular basis! I really wanted to wait until I took pictures of the house, which meant I wanted to wait until the curtains were done, and then my sewing machine was a bit possessed, and there you go. It didn't happen. So, despite the fact that I STILL don't have pictures, I decided to write about what else is going on. I did actually finish the fourth and final set of curtains (hurrah!), but I don't feel that the place is fit to take pictures of, as there is still A: a lot of crap around, B: the process of switching over to the fall clothes in the bedroom and hence, piles of clothes, and C: A CAT LITTER BOX IN THE BEDROOM!!!! Emphasis on that last tasty morsel. The plan right now is to clean up the laundry room so it's kitty-proof and move the litter box and food dishes in there, but it hasn't happened. So, please continue waiting for those pictures as it's probably going to be a few days. This is not due to sheer laziness, I assure you. It's due mostly to the fact that I recently accepted a job at Louise's Trattoria, an Italian restaurant in the city. I worked a double there today, and will do another one tomorrow and another on Saturday. They are all stupid training sessions, so I'm trying to pack them in so that I can get on the floor and start making money!!
As for the other job, you know, the one where I do social worky type stuff? Well, haven't found one of those yet. Unfortunately, this continues to be a bit difficult, but I am still sending out my resume, calling places and checking online. I'll keep you all posted on that.
I guess nothing new to report otherwise. Oh, yeah, there is one thing. I saw an Indy race last weekend. It was the Indy 300, held at Chicagoland Speedway. I went with Arlo and his friend Scott. Having experienced it, I can safely say that while aspects were enjoyable (the crashes once the people were discovered to be fine, the company, and the finish), I have to say that I was wondering why people would pay actual money for this. I mean really, it's a bunch of cars driving in circles 200 times! However, who am I to judge. If given the choice, I would so dig watching a marathon of shows from E! and Style to my heart's content.

Alright, time to go study the 10 Points of Service for my quiz tomorrow. Man, this puts the LCSW-C exam to shame! Night, y'all. Pics to post soon. Love you!

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.