My First Blizzard

Yesterday it started snowing. It was maybe an inch deep whenever I stopped paying attention, then this morning David and I got up to six or so inches of snow on the ground. There is somewhere between 8 inches and a foot now, and I had to practice driving around because I don't know if I'm going to be able to work from home tomorrow. I wouldn't think a 2 hour drive would be worth it, but who knows? Here are some pictures we took. It really doesn't illustrate the amount of snow we have here very well, though. Poor Jack is up to his belly when he goes outside. (As a point of reference, the first picture is the same view of the picture I took for Thanksgiving when it snowed!)

This fat little bird was perched on our balcony this morning. I don't know what he is, but it was cool to see it up so close. I'll also show you our Christmas decorations. They're a little sparse, but we're still gathering them! This is our (illegal...shhh...) Christmas tree. If you look closely, you can see a UofM ornament, and a bigger A&M one.

This is an extreme closeup of the wreath on our door.

These are the stockings I made this year. Poor Jack doesn't have one yet, but I'm working on it. Since we don't have a fireplace, we bought some hangers from Target and put them up on the bookshelf.

And this is the adorable nativity that David's parents gave us last year for Christmas. Not a ton of decorating, but we added a few this year and I guess we'll keep adding until it looks like Santa's workshop up in here. I also had a Christmas puzzle, but it finally drove David a little crazy since it was on the coffee table so when I finished it I put it up for next year. Hope you are all warm and cozy! Maybe tomorrow I can work from home and build a snowman or something!

Autumn in Ann Arbor

This year thanksgiving was more like I was used to. Last year it was just David, Jack, and me, and it seemed weird to me to have such a quiet thanksgiving. This year we decided to have some friends over in our new apartment and put on Thanksgiving. We went and bought a card table from a consignment shop and David helped me make it look festive.

We also have done a little rearranging and decorating, so here is a little tour of our place before the festivities. This is David's office area. This is the living room.

We did a lot of cleaning. Well, David and I did. Jack did this. See how bored and unamused he looks with our efforts? That's because he didn't help.

Once people started showing up though, we had a blast. We had 10 people in our little apartment, a decent sized turkey, a ham, several sides, homemade bread, homemade beer, regular beer, and about 8 bottles of wine. When it was over, there was a few beers left, some turkey and ham, and a lot of dishes. It was a blast. I also learned that brining a turkey is a great idea, even though it does require some extra work. Anyway, here are some pictures from dinner.

This is Kevin and Georgie, our friends from England who are having a baby this February, and Megan and Joe, who are from Utah and are getting married this May.

This is Tom, Allison, Phil, and Michael, who go to school with David, and a picture of us later on that evening. Hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving, too. I'm going to go start decorating for Christmas now!

Gratitude

Some things I have to be grateful for:

My stepmom is quitting smoking! After 30 years, its about dang time.

I got to spend two nights IN A ROW hanging out with my husband. On a school night.

It's officially my last day working as a secretary.

I get free lunch today. And Red Lobster Cheesy Biscuits.

My friends didn't get tricked into taking a crappy job thanks to my mad googling skills.

I ran yesterday. Almost a whole mile. And I could have ran more if my ankle wasn't all jacked up. I'm a little sore- and that is the best part of working out. It's like a little peice of accomplishment.

6 working days left...and counting

So from time to time my boss will pop some popcorn and sit it on my desk for everyone to enjoy. Usually I eat a lot of it, but it happened to get a little burned, and so I have been able to control myself well.

When my coworker (the one who likes tuna and mayo) saw the popcorn, she said "I hate when she brings that stuff in." She proceeds to walk to my desk and grab a little.

Then she sits down, eats it, and comes back for a little more.

This repeats until she finally gives in and gets a bowl so she can save herself a trip or two.

She has refilled this bowl 4 times now.

"See.." she says between crunches and wheezes. "I told you I was going to end up eating it all. That's why I hate when she makes it."

It takes all that I am to not say "Then stop coming back to my desk."

Social Experimentation

David's friend Prachi is coming to visit this weekend. I like Prachi. He's a good friend to Dave. He's talented, and smart. He's as chatty as any of one of my friends. He's bizarre. But there's another quality that both makes the pit of my stomach go hollow and at the same time gives me the giddy anticipation of a child at Christmas.

You see, introducing other people to Prachi is kindof like bringing a puppy to dinner party. People will love him for his charm, or hate him because he messes on the carpet. Well, Prachi is housebroken, but just as unpredictable.

See...This Picture is of David getting away from Prachi because he was trying to kiss David for the New Year.

He was a groomsman at our wedding, and he made my aunt cry. Okay, most of that was because she was catering the reception and was extremely stressed out, and almost all of the rest of it was because my mother's whole side of the family (myself included) has a tendency to overreact and take things the wrong way. But there was a significant portion that was entirely due to the fact that you never know what words are going to be coming out of Prachi's mouth. He's random. He reminds me of the function on wikipedia that generates a random article for you. You're talking about a concert you've just seen, and he brings up...oh....let's say...the Byzantine Empire. Oh, in some vague way it will be related. But just barely.

Another thing that makes me slightly nervous is that we have the pleasure of having him for three days. I've only been around Prachi for a maximum of three hours at a time. During that time, I have to fade in and out of conversation because it will drift between topics that I know and understand to topics that I would never bring up in a social situation. I remember one conversation where his girlfriend at the time explained how tampons worked. His response was "Oh...like a harpoon!" Other conversations revolve around computers and codes and video games and guitars and physics...these conversations make my brain go numb. Luckily, on day two I have a bachelorette party to attend, and so I'm praying this is when most of the brain-numbing conversations will take place.

But mostly, I'm excited. I'm excited to see the faces of the other people we encounter while Prachi is here. I'm excited to see what random nuggets he sneaks into the conversations. And I'm excited to see whether people love him for his charm or if he messes on their carpets.

A very tall 5 year old

Last night David helped to host some recruits for the Chemical Engineering program here. We attended this last year and it was so much fun that I was really supportive of him participating this year.

Until I realized that meant I would spend the weekend by myself a lot. I'm a huge baby, and I don't like to be home by myself at night. It freaks me out. Every noise is amplified and I remember all of the scary movies I've ever watched and wait for them to come to life in my very own living room. It's rediculous, but I can't help it.

Last night all the recruits went out for dinner. I decided to use the time be by myself and watch some tv. I was relaxing, about halfway through the Office, when Jack started growling at the front door.

I looked at him to see why he was making such a weird noise (since Jack rarely makes any sound at all) and then he started barking. So I hyperventilated and covered my head with the blanket I was using.

After I realized this wouldn't really help me all that much if someone were hiding in my bushes, I went to make sure the front door was locked. Then I looked out the window and saw that no one was there, and continued to freak out. I was too scared to go near the back door, so instead of checking to see if it was locked, I hid under the blanket somemore. Eventually, The Office ended and I had to force myself to go to the bathroom. So I ran full speed up the stairs (tripping in the process) and turned on every light on the way. I got ready for bed, turned on all the lights in my bed room and did some light reading until David got home.

He finally arrived at 10:15. He thought I was asleep, but I told him my eyes were just tired from reading.

David: "Oh really? What are you reading?"
Me: "The Bible."
David: "Hmmm."
Me: "I got scared and figured if someone was going to break in and kill me, at least they might feel bad about it if I was reading the Bible."

Another reason why David is crazy to have married me

Sometimes I have dreams that make me spend the rest of the morning convincing myself that the events that went on in the dream were not real. The first one I can remember having was when I was a little kid.

My dad had just dropped me off at my mom's house, and as he was leaving he managed to get hit by a car. In fact, he some how ran over himself, but the details didn't really matter. I woke up devastated and bawling, and my mom had to remind me that my dad was fine, that you couldn't run over yourself with your own car, and that I had made up that horrible scenario in my head.

I had one 4 years ago. I had just gotten back from visiting David at A&M, and he called me to let me know that him and my friend Julia (who I hadn't seen in 2 years at the time) were together. He also insulted me and then I broke up with him. I woke up convinced of two things. David was the biggest jerk alive, and I was no longer dating him. Still groggy, once I figured out that the cheating on me part was a dream, I still had to work through the fact that we weren't broken up. I think I called him to apologize and make sure we were okay and to let him know that I wasn't mad about the dream, and then logic kicked in and I figured out that he had no idea what I was rambling on about.

This morning I woke up livid. I woke up and rolled over to avoid touching him. He got up and walked to the alarm clock to turn it off and I covered my head to avoid looking at him. Then I went to the bathroom and the fog slowly lifted. He had not, in fact, just taken off in a car with another girl. He had been sleeping 6 inches from me, clueless that I was ready to lob my pillow at his sweet, pillow-matted head.

This process of waking up and separating fact from dream takes ENTIRELY too long. I have the most rediculous dreams ever. In fact, I am really afraid of the day that I become pregnant, because I know that my dreams will become even more psychotic. I don't know if that's even possible. They are already completely impossibly insane. You would think that after waking up from a dream where my boyfriend is cheating on me in Texas with a girl who lives in Washington D.C, or one where my dad gets hit by the car that he is driving, I should be able to laugh.

But I don't. I freak out.

I get my feelings hurt. I start rehearsing what I am going to say. I scramble to see if I can mend our broken relationship. I call the person I just dreamed about.

And on the other end of the phone is usually stunned silence, followed by "Now wait...WHAT?"