three states in 24 hours

anna had never been up in new england before this quick trip, so we maximized our time. we went to maine on friday night, and on saturday, after a long and mildly frustrating day of driving around, taking photos, and NOT picking berries, (rain rain, why did you choose TODAY to go away and not YESTERDAY?) we packed up the car and drove down to mass (in the daylight with no rain) to see justin play with sara evans.

the show was so much fun! justin got us great seats (even though we were right under a huge vent blowing cold air the entire time) and sara sang tons of songs that i knew. it was amazing. after the show we were able to go backstage for the meet and greet. we were the only people who got pictures with sara AND justin. :)

maine in the rain

friday afternoon i picked anna up at the airport in my fancy rental car (free upgrade!). we went to dinner at tiya's and then to a show at the palace. we saw baby and i thought it was funny and cute.

then, we decided to drive to maine. as a sidenote, please remember that i havent driven a car in about two months. also, as it rains in los angeles about twice a year, i havent driven in the rain in about 4 years (since we moved from kansas). so, of course, it was raining the entire drive (in the dark). the highway lanes are not super clearly marked and i had a hard time figuring out where i was supposed to drive.

thanks to our trusty garmin, consuela, we made it to maine. we had a heck of a time finding a welcome to maine sign. we wound up stopping at the naval base and asking them where it was, and the guy told anna. he also let he know that we couldnt take pictures at the base. duh. why would we want to anyways? there was no welcome to maine signs there.we finally found one, then another and another. then we found the visitor center. woot woot!

we got home around 1:30 am, way later than either of us are used to staying up until. my shoulders were SO tense from hunching over the wheel. when is jeremy going to get here to drive me around???

scarlet letter

seriosly look how wide her belly is. shes the size of a football. all she has done today is lay around and eat. seems like pretty typical pregnant behvaior.

i think she is only about 7-ish months old and it makes me sad that she is so pregnant and homeless. her new best friend cricket will be here in three days. i wonder if those kittnens will ba making an appearance before then?

live and learn

tuesday morning the cable guy came. with our new package (which includes tivo) we get a service we have never had before. tv on demand. i can figure out any show i want to watch and instantly be watching it. no waiting, fewer commercials. need a movie? tons to choose from, and lots of them are free. talk about no waiting, easy access.

then, last night, i went to my first ever bikram yoga class. it is very different from any other yoga class i have taken. the class is held in a room that is set at 110-ish degrees. we sweated. a lot. but that's kinda the point. this is what i was thinking about as i walked home in a cool gentle rainfall:

breathe

reach

breathe

wait

breathe

relax

breathe

stretch

breathe

patience

breathe

balance

breathe

hold

breathe

be still

breathe

all in all a healthier approach to life i think.

Unleashing My Story by Helping to Stop CF

i just signed up for a great fundraiser. basically during the month of september i have pledged to read 1300 pages (of any book(s)) and write 7000 words per week. these are things i love doing so it won't be hard for me to keep to them. those are my individual goals. the program is called unleash your story.

the cause is cystic fibrosis. this is where you come in. i have set a fundraising goal of $500. thats really not that much money. if you could give $5 or $10 i'll reach the goal in no time. you can give by either clicking on the link in the sidebar or by going to my cf fundrasier homepage here.

here are some basic facts about cf, taken from the cf foundation's website.

What Is Cystic Fibrosis?

Cystic fibrosis is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States (70,000 worldwide). A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that:

clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections; and
obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food.

In the 1950s, few children with cystic fibrosis lived to attend elementary school. Today, advances in research and medical treatments have further enhanced and extended life for children and adults with CF. Many people with the disease can now expect to live into their 30s, 40s and beyond.

Symptoms of Cystic Fibrosis

People with CF can have a variety of symptoms, including:

very salty-tasting skin;
persistent coughing, at times with phlegm;
frequent lung infections;
wheezing or shortness of breath;
poor growth/weight gain in spite of a good appetite; and
frequent greasy, bulky stools or difficulty in bowel movements.

Statistics

About 1,000 new cases of cystic fibrosis are diagnosed each year.
More than 70% of patients are diagnosed by age two.
More than 40% of the CF patient population is age 18 or older.
The predicted median age of survival for a person with CF is more than 37 years.

so join me in searching for a cure. seriously - $5. you won't even miss it. i'll be reading and writing and together we will help save thousands of lives.

if you are interested in also signing up for this challenge/fundraiser, check out this website.

still waiting

no kittens yet. thats fine with me. i would love if jeremy was here for the birth. i also think it would be great if cricket and scarlet could meet before scarlet turns from attention whore sweet cat to protective mama cat. she is so freaking pregnant though. sheesh. i was worried about her this weekend - it got pretty warm in our apartment on saturday night. she was panting and carrying on - i wasnt sure if it was labor or heat but since there are no kittens i guess it was the heat.

im buying wet food this afternoon because she needs to pack on the pounds. she is SO skinny. like zero body fat. if she has a big litter i dont know how she can feed them all.

today is the first day of school at k-state. i miss college sometimes! glad that cable is being installed before the football season starts!

i had a great tie last night. mark and lanelle drove up and came to a show at the palace then back to the apartment to meet scarlet and eat taco soup. the show was fun and it was great to see an actual show at the theatre. it was also nice to see mark and lanelle again since it had been a while!

things i am waiting on:
cable/internet installation
anna
jeremy/cricket
baseball game on wednesday

what are you waiting on?

Meet Scarlet

Our foster baby mama. She's super pregnant. Last night I made her a queening box and we got acquainted. She's very friendly and likes to be petted and scratched. She doesn't mind being picked up but she has a sore on her chest that makes it hard to carry her around. I'm in charge of giving her oral antibiotics to keep infection at bay which is always fun.

I'm liking having another living moving being in the apt (sorry fred) but I still miss cricket. I've been studying what ill need to do as a foster kittenen grandma. Shouldn't be too difficult as long as everyone stays healthy!
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If it was you...

And you read this and had never seen anyone actually entering or leaving the apartment, you would have thought the same thing as me right?
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foot in mouth

after my post yesterday where i said something about my strange across the hall neighbors something happened that makes me feel really bad.

when i left the house to go running yesterday afternoon there was a gift bag on our front door handle with a card attached. it was one of those emergency flashlight radio things and the note was from the across the hall people. it said "we keep missing you and just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood. hope you enjoy this and don't let the sign on the door scare you."

now i feel like a horrible judgmental person. but the sign is weird and i'm still going to post a picture. i was going to take one this morning but the wife (or caregiver??? still not sure about the family dynamics over there) was leaving at the same time as me.

so apparently i won't be needing my renn stick (baseball bat) after all because they are nice neighbors. and who gives housewarming gifts any more anyways? thats awesome!

the pros and cons

things i love about our new apartment:
multiple bedrooms
cheap rent
ceiling fans in every room
locked building with interior stairwells
back porch
shed
clothes line
proximity to downtown/my job
built-in china cabinet
huge kitchen
HUGE master bedroom
local landlords that actually care
lots of big windows with shades
great water pressure
built-in bathroom storage
close to multiple parks, hospital, fire station, etc. great 'hood!

things i don't care for:
shallow kitchen sink with short faucet
no disposal
not enough kitchen cabinets or counter space
weird bathroom door
small shower
no air con (only a big problem about 6 weeks a year)
strange across the hall neighbor (at least i assume he is strange. i've never seen him. he has rules posted on his door though. that's strange.)
front door lock sometimes SUPER hard to unlock (and sometimes really easy. and the key doesnt always turn the same way to open it. really weird)
ugly carpet and linoleum

totally crap day

for one thing, it is really hot right now, and humid, and we dont have an air con or a dehumidifier. so when i leave work i just go home and sweat. ugh.

last night i had a major breakdown because i was sweaty and tired and our internet stopped working (the internet that i was stealing so i really have no cause to be so upset) and i miss jeremy and i don't really have any good friends here (nashua is so far away sometimes!!) and life's hard.

jeremy told me to order cable and internet (and we get a free netbook! yay!) and that he wouldfly in this weekendif i wanted him to. we really dont have the money for that so it was a nice thought but oh well.

he gave his two weeks notice today, for many reasons,but mainly that the transfer was going to take much too long and he wasnt getting any answers and we cant live bicoastally any more. so by sept 6 he will be here! and it might work out that he will get to see bryce in wichita with the ashley raines band (wichita peeps - sept 3 - go to the show for realz). so my whole family will be together except me.

i'll be here, sweating and sitting. by myself. at least i will have e! and vh1 by then to keep me company. and i'm not giving fred enough credit as a companion. he doesnt talk much but he is nice to look at.

and speaking of company, 10 days til anna is here! its a good reason to rent a car so i'll be able to run some errands, see my best friend, two shows (one musical and one concert) and go to a new church that is too far to walk to. so next weekend will be fun!

and this weekend i have a date for sunday show and dinner with mark and lanelle so thats exciting too. once i have a vehicle i hope to see them more but for now living 20 minutes apart might as well be 200 miles. if i cant walk there or ride my bike there it just isnt happening, especially in this heat.

also, my running career is suffering due to heat. just a random aside.

there was sad news at work today but it could wind up looking really really great for me so *fingers crossed*

whats new with you, interwebbies?

ok that was weird

yesterday morning i was at work checking my email and selling tickets for our shows. my phone buzzed with a text message. it was from jessie and it had her new address for school. i stared at the phone for a couple minutes thinking that address sounds awfully familiar.

so i sent anna a text and asked her what her address had been when we were at k-state. yep. turns out jessie is living in the same house that anna lived in for three years! random! (jessie also would up just a couple doors down from anna's dorm room in ford hall last year). i talked to jessie on the phone yesterday. i was telling her all the great memories i have in that hose. its where anna hosted my personal shower. we spent countless hours in her room talking and laughing and crying.

cassie and erica subleased it one summer, the first summer jeremy and i were dating. i stayed with them one weekend to go to a wedding in manhattan with jeremy. thats where i told my girlfriends that i got my first kiss! i remember sitting on the couch with cassie and erica telling them, then calling anna before she left for turkey and telling her.

WEIRD! i love that its where jessie will spend te next year. its a great house and close to campus and aggieville. yay!

sometimes i really miss manhattan and being in college. especially when we are working and paying bills and all that nonsense. college is such a great time in a person's life. i remember when i started school my dad told me that he could see me being a career student. if i had the money i think he would be right. theres still lots of things out there i want to learn!

firsts!

mine:

got a paycheck in new hampshire

took the bus to the grocery store

did daily reports at work


jeremy's:

received cookies in the mail from the home office

what an exciting life we lead, huh?

more waiting? seriously?

jeremy had his phone interview for the potential transfer today. it went well, but we won't know anything until friday or monday. so more waiting, and basically im never going to see him again. its been 35 days and this sucks. it'll be prolly at least two more weeks at best until he'shere, and thats if he gets the job friday and they want him to start right away. he'll still have to drive here.

today was our last day in our apartment in LA so he is sleeping on lance and kris's couch at least until they get back from their trip this weekend. cricket is hanging out there too since their dogs are staying somewhere else while they are gone.

ive got all the boxes unpackedand at least one room ready to go. our office needs the most work right now. it was so great to sleep on a real bed last night with my sheets and pillows. YAY! i rode my bike to work today. i need to air the tires (which means i need to find the pump) so i wont be riding it until then again. there is a pretty good hill - i was winded and slightly sweaty when i got to work this morning. i also got honked at by a school bus of all people. seriosuly? i was in the slow lane, obeying traffic laws and wearing a helmet. there was another lane, so go around if you dont want to go as slow as me, but people arent supposed to ride their bikes on the sidewalk so honk all you want but I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE. i was very annoyed. can you tell?

this week'skids show is suessical the musical and we are almost sold out for both morning shows, which is great, but it means tomorrow morning and wednesday morning will be super busy and crazy. thats good though - time passes more quickly and there more to learn as problems arise. loving my new job.

weekend is over!

i guess i got lucky because i am actually looking forward to goin to work tomorrow. first i have to get rid of our pods (he's coming at 630am) and then go for a run. i dont work until 11. maybe i'll even finish unpacking our boxes tomorrow. i only have two left. i feel kinda amazing.

i put together the guest bed, our bed, and an ikea chair. i unpacked about a billion boxes. i watched movies on a tv! i need to find our xbox controllers so i can play video games. its weird to have all this stuff again.

life would be complete if only jeremyand cricket were here! he has his phone interview tomorrow... *fingers crossed* not sure if he will actually have any new info after the converstaion, but at least he will feel like he is making progress in this frustrating situation.

our guest room is actually completely put together except a few nails in the mail to hang some stuff. now you can come stay with us!

had a bad day again...

yesterday was moving in day. sounds exciting right? jeremy forwarded me the emailfrom PODS saying they would be delivering it between 730 and 1030 am. Both times they came to our apt in LA they were early. i figured that might be the case here too, so i set my alarm for 530 and got a good nights sleep.

in the morning i woke up, took out the trash and recycling (arent you proud jeremy?), deflated the air mattress and packed up some of the folding furniture mark and lanelle let me borrow so they could take it home with them. then i sat around the house (on the floor no less) and waited. for nine and a half hours. apparently there was a "miscommunication" between the call center and the drivers. he thought he was scheduled for 630-930pm. so he wound up delivering our PODS at 4. mark and lanelle were wonderful. they brouht sam over and helped me unload the thing for three hours. we got all my stuff into the apartment then ate pizza and relaxed.

this morning i woke up at 5am after going to sleep after midnight. i almost couldnt fall back asleep. so the day didnt start out on a very good note. i unpacked stuff all morning. i have unloaded tons of boxes. i know that we will need some other storage something in our kitchen, but other than that our apartment is fitting all of our stuff wonderfully! i havent found the hardware for our bed yet, but i have assembled an ikea chair and will start on the guest bed shortly. apparently i can be quite when i need to be. :)

today when the guy came to pick up our empty pods he couldnt because there was a car parked too close to the spot our pods was in. honestly, i dont even know how the driver got out of the car. if he had parked 6 inches over, they could have taken it no problem. since they didnt, we have to leave it in the church parking lot til monday, when i only had permission to have it there til today. i hope they arent mad!

long day and i have some righteous bruises and achy muscles from yesterday. early to bed for me tonight!

lavar? noooooo!

i heard today that reading rainbow is going off the air at the end of the month. honestly, i almost cried. we didnt have tv in our house growing up, but whenever i stayed the night at grammers house i always watched reading rainbow (and young and the restless, but thats a whole other blog post). i cant believe it has lost funding and backing necessary to stay on the air. my kids will never have jordie suggesting and reading books to them. what is the world becoming????

first week of work is complete. i have tomorrow off because our PODS is arriving and i will be VERY busy unpacking. mark and lanelle (and i think some of mark's friends) are coming to help. i bought extra coffee creamer and lots of beer tonight so i am ready for tomorrow. come what may. it should be delivered in the morning, which is great. it means we have all day to unload it, then they will come pick it up on saturday and i will have all my stuff and all weekend to unpack and nest. back to work on monday. next week's children's theater offering is suessical the musical which is more gender neutral than snow white, so tues and wed will be super busy which is great.

i made a goal this week (wed-tues) to run (and walk) ten miles. so far i have run two, yesterday, and technically walked two more walking home from work but i didnt track them with my garmin so they wont show up on my goals page. tomorrow will be a long tiring day so im guessing sun and tues will be long run days in order to meet my goal. after i start actually making money (first payday is next week, i think im going to LOVE weekly paychecks!) i need new running shoes. mine are falling apart.

if you are buying new running shoes and throwing away the old ones, think about sending them to my friend beka, the fair weather runner. you can see why here. she's got several posts about the shoe drive, as well as a link on the sidebar. her other, non-shoe drive related posts are pretty funny too, so enjoy.

p.s. beka, do you want ratty old shoes or just newish ones? when my stuff gets here tomorrow i will have two extra pairs but they are rather worn... ???

ARC review: the neighbor by lisa gardner

the neighbor

lisa gardner

on sale now!

from the back:

From the New York Times bestselling master of suspense comes a chilling new novel that explores the dangers lurking closer than you think. Because behind closed doors, even what appears to be the perfect family can harbor an evil you never see - until it's too late.



This is what happened...
It was a case guaranteed to spark a media feeding frenzy - a young mother, blond and pretty, disappears without a trace from her South Boston home, leaving behind her four-year-old daughter as the only witness and her handsome, secretive husband as the prime suspect.



In the last six hours...
But from the moment Detective Sergeant D.D. Warren arrives at the Joneses' snug little bungalow, she senses something off about the wholesome illusion the couple worked so hard to create.



Of the world as I knew it...
With the clock ticking on the life of a missing woman and the media firestorm building, Jason Jones seems more intent on destroying evidence and isolating his daughter than on searching for his "beloved" wife. Is the perfect husband trying to hide his guilt - or just trying to hide? And will the only witness to the crime be the killer's next victim?

My Review:

this book was amazing. i haven't been so interested in the outcome of a mystery/psychological thriller since my first mary higgins clark book in middle school. (her books did get rather formulaic over time.) i was kept guessing almost until the last page. there was so much going on with the different characters introduced throughout the book and the flashback scenes that i was very much engrossed from start to finish. different chapters were told from different characters points of view, so that kept the story interesting and moving quickly.

if you like mary higgins clark or lee childs, i'm guessing you will like lisa gardner, and, specifically, this book. check it out!

Fred

On friday afternoon I saw the fedex truck pull up to my door and I had a feeling it might be for me. I don't think ren gets very many fedexed boxes. I saw the 1800flowers logo and got really excited. Then I opened the box and realized that my hunny bunny bought me a bonsai!!! I am super obsessed with them and now I have a friend to get me through the lonely nights until he joins me! I will love him and call him fred.
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I know the economy is bad...

But go ahead and buy yourself some new jeans. You deserve it.
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news of the day

my third day of work was great. yesterday and today were showings of snow white for kids. we had tons of kids (and their parents) show up so the lobby was noisy and crowded and i loved it. most of the girls showed up wearing disney princess costumes... cutest thing ever.

great news: anna is buying her ticket to come stay with me at the end of august. we will get to see justin play in lowell and i can take her to show(s) at the palace! (also, happy birthday anna!)

greater news (sorry anna!): jeremy had his phone interview with the FA he wants to transfer with on monday, 4pm my time, 1pm his. YAY! finally! we are super excited about this and hopefully he gets the job (why wouldnt he - he is amazing after all).

our stuff gets here on friday and ste marie's is letting me park the PODS there for free overnight. and mark and lanelle volunteered to help me unload it so jeremy wouldnt have to fly out for a day to unload then fly back. they are pretty amazing friends!

tomorrow is a full day of work, no shows, but i am learning how to do daily reports etc so i will hopefully stay busy.

today's only bad news: my run this afternoon sucked. but i did it, and thats the important thing!

first day

my first day of work was great. i started by filling out all that pesky paperwork and reading my employee handbook. then, the training began! i learned the phone system (sort of) and how to sell tickets. today is snow white for kids and there are two shows. i am working during both of them (with a few hours off in between) so we will see how i like show chaos. im guessing i will like it alot.

the girls i met that i will be working with are great - super nice. so far so good. yay! so far the only negative thing i've found is that working tonight's show means i can't go on the group run with the runner's alley folks. :( but i do have an idea for a nice long run that i will attempt after i get home tonight...

jeremyshould hear today or tomorrow about his transfer. you're probably sick of hearing me that, but im guessing not as sick as i am of saying it. its just really hard to get a solid answer.

if you are on twitter and are interested, follow @palacetheatre. you can see all the shows we are doing and if there have been any recent ghost sightings. :D

bostonian for a day

what a great weekend I had! mark and lanelle picked me up on friday night for a sleepover at their house. we left saturday morning for massachussetts. first, we stopped at nick's famous roast beef for sandwiches. nick's has a bumper sticker that people take with them places and take photos of themselves holding it. then they email the pictures to nick's and there is a giant tv that cycles the pics for us to watch while we ate. we saw the picture that marks bro-in-law and nieces took, with tons of other fun and crzy pictures too.

then, we went to the same brother-in-law's house, and i got to meet mark's sister, annette, her husband milt and their two daughters. we went to the pond and the dogs went swimming with some new friends. sam was busy fetching his stick. there was another retriever there who occasionally would help sam. seeing those two dogs swimming next to each other, each holding half a stick in his mouth, was one of the funniest things i have seen in a while.

we made chili and played apples to apples and rock band. of course, there was a red sox game on so i tried to act interested for awhile. (i really am trying to enjoy watching baseball on tv but im guessing i still have a ways to go.)

sunday morning we drove into boston to go to church at parkstreet church. the first anti-slavery speech in america was made on the front steps of this church. they are celebratingtheir 200th anniversary this month. crazy! we went on a whirlwind tour of boston, including brunch at fanieul hall, driving through the harvard campus (i went to harvard...er... hahvahd!!), and stopping to walk along the inner harbor. it was great. there were street performers and crowds. it reminded me a little bit of the promenade in santa monica. cambridge reminded me of the neighborhood my friend becca's parents live in in columbia, mo. of course, on the way home we stopped for dunkin as a pick me up. can't go more than a day without a dunkin visit!