Because SHERLOCK.

I am dreading yet looking forward to finally sitting down and watching the final episode of Sherlock Season 3. Also, it's episode 3. That's right, my show is so cool IT'S OVER IN 3 WEEKS. There's just too much awesomeness to be contained in a normal season. I figure if I keep pretending I can't watch it I can drag it out longer.



But I'm having withdrawals......

Costumes Ideas for the Costumeless (and Society-less)

My husband and I were discussing Halloween and costume possibilities. You know, in case we bother to dress up to hand out candy to the kids on our street or by some miracle happen to be invited to a party. I would take initiative and throw the damn thing myself but we have no parking and the landlord is our neighbor, so I'd rather not. I'll instead throw out subtle hints via Facebook.
Anyways, so we're talking about costumes. I love the idea of couple costumes but nothing stupid, slutty, or cheesy. I also don't want to spend a fortune. So I brought up my possibilities: Kate Beckett from the TV show Castle, or Amy Farrah Fowler from The Big Bang Theory.

Me: "Totally random, but here's an idea. I buy a frumpy dress from Salvation Army and can be Amy for Halloween! Or I could be Beckett and you could be Castle."

E: "No. You're way too hot to be Amy. You could pull off Beckett though."

He's so romantic :) FYI I could totally pull off Amy Farrah Fowler. But E's too short to be Sheldon. Maybe I'll dye my hair blond and he can be Leonard to my Penny.

I Friggin Love Fall

It is officially my favorite season. And has been since Frodo's birthday (any Geek or literary nerd worth their salt better know this). Honestly, what's not to love about Autumn?? Ok besides the ever shorter days, that I will agree is a bummer. I'd love to have an Autumn with the sunset around 8pm. But besides that, why complain? GORGEOUS scenery, especially if you are lucky enough to live in New England and get to see foliage out your windows. Perfect temperatures - sunny and warm during the day but cool in the evenings and early mornings, giving you the perfect excuse to curl up in a blanket, next to your sweetie, or with a beloved furry pet whether they are willing or no. There's apple picking, apple cider hot and cold, pumpkin everything, hot cocoa or tea. Fall fashion is the best. Fall is the blessed season for academics such as myself, with schools back in session and all those pens, pencils, planners, notebooks, and textbooks begging to be used! I love nothing better than walking on a university campus. I can know not a soul but still feel entirely at home.

This scrumptious photo brought to you by Lonely Planet

So I'm sitting here, doing my homework *writing my blog* and listening to Pandora, which of course I keep referring to as Pandorica. If you don't get the reference you don't watch Doctor Who and need to immediately. It will change your life. If you hate the show, stop reading this blog because no doubt I won't be much more likeable. Anyways, I'm not even one month into class and I'm behind in the readings. Not that it's vital since there's no exams, but if I don't do the readings I don't learn as much. So I'm trying to be good and catch up. Unfortunately there are so many things on the web to distract me. Like this new discovery of epic cuteness:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/meet-sir-stuffington-the-cutest-pirate-in-the-world

Oh holy hell I get distracted so easily.

Speaking of distractions, since this is too long to post on Facebook I'll post my rant here. I went out to Amherst today for some errands and fun me-shopping and on my way back home I ended up stuck behind a semi truck whose driver was clearly either new to driving huge trucks or just completely inept at his job. Every damn hill we came to, and there's a lot on Route 9, he slowed down just before the hill and then continued to lose his speed up the hill. Normally cars are doing 50mph on this road but everyone behind him was doing around 30-35. We barely hit 45, which is the posted speed limit. I had this witch pass me AND the semi just to get away, while I decided to be a law-abiding citizen for once and only pass in a passing zone, which of course every time I reached I had oncoming traffic preventing me from freeing myself from the Bumbling Behemoth. At one point I was sandwiched between BB and another semi who knew how to drive and negotiate hills and was therefore eating my bumper. Clearly we were playing a game of turn the compact Jetta into a more compact 2-seater, and without my consent. I was finally able to pass when BB figured out how to pull off the road a bit and let me zoom by. I was ever so grateful.

For those not in the know: tomorrow is my birthday. Oddly, I find myself more excited by birthdays the older I get, even though I now want to be in denial about my age. Not that it matters, since I still look several years younger than I actually am. Last year I had someone ask me if I was a sophomore in college. I responded "Um, actually I'm in grad school." They were embarrassed, I was embarrassed, it was all good and awkward. I'm still in grad school FYI, and will be at least another year. Oh and I'm turning 26 tomorrow. Which freaks me out, but there will be gifts and cake, so I'll be fine. Part of my freakout is that by tomorrow I will no longer have any health insurance. I've thus far been covered by my parents (which is awesome since my husband uses his student health insurance and is just never sick), but will no longer be eligible and like the good procrastinator I am I have not applied for state insurance. Thankfully I just refilled my prescriptions so I have a little time, but still. I need to get my arse in gear before I run out. I don't want to deal with me off my anti-depressants!
Aside from the major bummer of no health insurance, tomorrow is gonna be good. The only gift I know about for certain is my brothers - he's giving me Iron Man 3. I can't wait to watch it again.

Ok off I go!

Oh My God I Did It Again

Oh good, you're awake. Feed us.

This is how I spend most of my mornings - waking up in bed to see my furry little monsters staring at me (not always from the bed of course, sometimes lurking on the floor), waiting for me to open my eyes so they can start talking about how hungry they are. Literally, talking. Not English, because frankly that would be too much for my caffeine-deprived morning brain, but in chirps and meows. Incessantly, mind you.
The rest of my mornings, since my summer class ended, have been spent either reading or browsing the Internet (I.E. Facebook or Buzzfeed) until I happen to notice several hours have passed and I've done nothing productive. Again. I seriously need to be paid to procrastinate, I do it so damn well.

Soooo, yeah, I apologize for never getting back to this poor deprived blog. What with all the time I've wasted, plus sleep, and other necessities, I've just been swamped. And now it's the start of a new semester! I am back in another class - World War I - as well as starting my graduate assistantship for my university's Center for Teaching and Learning. And I've jumped in with both feet, not really knowing the waters or how well I can swim. My job for the next 2 years is working as the assistant editor for the Center's online magazine; I'm in charge of email correspondence, arranging for reviewers and submissions, setting up meetings, and actually publishing the magazine to the internet. My assistantship calls for 15hrs of work each week but I have a feeling I will be pulling extra hours at home. This as well as staying on top of my readings and research for class. I'd really like to not BS my way through my first few assignments, which means I need to actually read the books I'll be citing for my paper at the end of term.

In other news: Husband and I recently celebrated our 2-year wedding anniversary. Definitely a lot more squabbling this past year, but I still love him and couldn't survive without him. And in our defense, this past year was horrendous. A lot of stress from school and all its lovely demands on both of us, sudden deaths in the family, and I lost my jobs. Yeah, jobs. "Let go" from one (which at least gave me the grace of quitting and sending in a letter of resignation) and fired from another. In their defense, I had taken advantage of their leniency towards calling out, and did so way too often. Usually because I was actually sick, but often because my depression had become bad and I couldn't even get out of bed. And I never divulged this to either employer. And honestly I think the one that fired me didn't really believe me when I told them I had lost another family member the same week as the first one (2 grandparents, 2 different sides of the family, and within days of each other). Oh well. Live and learn! (Such as, I will never call out again and just give my coworkers whatever plague I've contracted. I love to share.)
But I digress! Our anniversary we spent the whole day in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Got some sun at Plum Island and walked around downtown. Husband couldn't take more than the day off, and since we're saving for a house neither of us wanted to spend money going somewhere for the weekend, but the day trip was wonderful. A whole day where we acted like newlyweds once more. It was a nice break from the norm!

Changing Lanes

Every so often when I'm driving on the highway, I find it necessary to switch from the slower lane to the faster one to pass somebody, only then I stay in the zippy lane because I enjoy the speed. This doesn't always last; I eventually move back over and slow down. I may drive like I'm from Massachusetts but I do enjoy traveling the posted speed limit on occasion.

Much like life in general.

I like to be busy, I like having deadlines (to put off until they're right on top of me and I'm panicking), but then all that busy catches up with me and I want nothing more than to wake up in the morning and have nothing to do all day. I can sit on the couch and read or switch from Pinterest to Facebook all day.

Right now I'm busy, but about to get another respite. I'm finishing up a summer class, and being classic me I've procrastinated fabulously, so now I'm hastily finishing up readings, writing two 3-5 page essays with one more due next week, and pulling together a presentation for the class tomorrow night. I told my husband I wasn't going to procrastinate this time but I still did. I started out fine, but this was a 6-week course at the grad level and the professor assigned more reading than there is time in the day. You have no choice but to read everything because every other day required at least two posts to a discussion board regarding that day's readings. So I slid back and everything just piled on top of me in a heap of ink and paper.I'm still clawing my way to the surface. Paper is slippery.

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Since my last entry was from March, I owe myself and my invisible army of readers an update. Check again in a week, which if you've seen how often I update this thing is pretty damn fast. However I have priorities at the moment: finishing this class with my dignity intact is the highest right now, followed by cracking open a good novel and letting my brain melt a little. And then cleaning the house....and riding.....grocery shopping......and prepping for fall classes....

Church Family

Ok so this post will be more of a rant than an actual 'life of a newlywed' post. But it does tie in to my life as a newlywed.

For the past couple years my husband and I have been going to this really great church in our area called Fellowship. Their basic idea is to create a community-based congregation and then spread the love of Christ through the community via giving back and helping. It's an amazing place - if someone is in financial trouble or sick, or having a rough week, the pastor or someone else will check up, offer help, or even stop by with comfort food. Being quiet and rather shy, neither my hubby nor I know many people but we both feel at home at Fellowship.

Before the switch, I had gone, with my family, to a very Evangelical/Pentecostal church for about 13 years. I still struggle with a lot of hurt and anger towards that church because of the kind of person I was in middle school and high school and how much of an outsider I felt like growing up going there twice a week. While I didn't know it at the time, I had (and still have) an anxiety disorder. I was the weirdo girl with glasses who sat in a corner and drew pictures or read a book at youth group because no one wanted to talk to me and I was too shy to make the first move. This is the same youth group that taught us to never date in high school, that sex before marriage was evil, homosexuality was a sin, and hugs between the opposite sex had to be 'safe' - a hug from the side. During college when I was diagnosed with the anxiety and depression, I was told by various church members that I needed to go the non-medication route; that is, those people who didn't think that I needed to just 'get over' my mental illness. At my lowest point, I had no one to turn to, no one but my parents to confide in and I hated making them worry.

So my vent is this: What is wrong with the Christian church? There are so many double standards, and I keep seeing them at the church I used to attend. Marriages ending in messy divorces, teens getting knocked up, even the pastor's daughter was pregnant before she was engaged. Some of the same kids I grew up with are now borderline alcoholics, they've done drugs, and others have done complete turn-arounds and are homosexual or bi. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against gays; I have very good friends and family who are gay and I love them. What I have a problem with is a church that spends all this time saying how we need to bring more people in, and focus on increasing the numbers of the congregation, and are basically shutting out and pushing away the members that are already there and hurting. When we left, they had started following this bullshit belief that Christians by virtue of their goodness ought to be blessed with money, and all their problems solved, and if you were having troubles you were somehow less of a Christian; you didn't have enough faith and that was bad. Oh and if you left the church because you didn't agree with certain things or just needed to find some place closer to where you lived? Shunned.

In conclusion, the problem with the Christian church, or at least a lot of them, is hypocrisy. I know big shock. But seriously, you want to show how great God is and how loving Jesus was? Shut your pie holes, get out in your communities, and give back. Love on people regardless of their religious leanings, sexual preferences, and political parties. Be the family you maybe have but definitely want to have.

Dear God I Suck

Yeah......so it's been a year since the previous post?
New Year's resolution - keep tabs on the damn blog! Even if only for my own sake!

Quick summary for 2012 - overall a decent year. I started a new job at a local library and discovered just how much I LOVE working around books, checked a few more classes off my list of credits needed for my MA in history, and finally started riding a new horse more regularly.

December, in a word, sucked. December is stressful. Husband and I are wrapping up our semester and stressing over papers (me), projects and final exams (him). On top of that we have family and friends wanting to get together to celebrate the holidays, but there are only so many weekends in the month and we still have to get some shopping done for said relatives. I am not on good terms with my husband's step-mother, so any get-together is a treat to say the least. Last year she heard from someone I've never met who heard from someone else that I was pregnant and instead of asking me just ignored me all Christmas. I never confirmed the rumor because it was none of her business. This year my sister-in-law announced she was expecting and of course everyone was overjoyed, and she and her husband were spoiled with gifts. Thankfully my husband at least received the extension cord he wanted. I am still waiting on the french press I asked for. Family.
But on top of this, my grandpa, Bumpa as he is known to my mother's side of the family, had to go to the hospital after he fell at home and cracked some ribs. We ended up bringing Christmas to him in the rehab center so he would be surrounded by family. It turned out to be his last gift to us. The next day he suffered a minor heart attack, then went fairly peacefully in his sleep that evening. I held his hand the whole time; my mum, one aunt and a couple cousins were with him as well. I still miss him, but he's with his wife now, who left us 2 days before my wedding.

a special dance with Bumpa at my wedding

 



The Saturday after Christmas we were hit by another blow - my grandma, my dad's mother, died of a heart attack. None of us were expecting it. I buried 2 grandparents in 2 weeks. My husband's family never came to pay respects.

As if that were not a horrible enough way to start 2013, right after the funerals I came down with the flu. Between that and the funerals I took too much time off from work and lost both my part-time jobs in one week. I am now unemployed, looking for a new job!

Husband has a full class schedule which only lets him work weekends this semester. I'm doing what I can to help make life easier for him, keeping the house clean and providing healthy, hearty meals to eat. Our lease on the apartment is up for renewal at the end of March, and since our new landlord is also our neighbor, the walls are thin, and he is loud, I know our rent will be increasing. Utilities are not covered, so an increase could mean moving elsewhere. I've begun taking inventory of what can be stored, what can be sold/donated, and what can be packed up for now.

2013 may have started off rough, but I am determined to make the best of things!