My seasons are all jacked up....

This is my desktop right now. I have to think optimistically. Otherwise I'll run away to live with my friend Lucy in Hawaii. I mean, I still like the snow and all, but in my mind, snow = Christmas. holiday cards. Peppermint Mochas from Starbucks. All the way until the first week of January. But once the after-Christmas sales are over, I want to think about spring. Therein lies the problem. Spring is SOOOOOOOO far away. There is an inch and a half of snow on the ground. It's supposed to snow all week. Maybe longer. White valentine's day? Nonsense.

I'll go shopping to find more sweaters, since I've been wearing the 7 I own constantly since October. Do i find spring colored sweaters now that its 20 degrees outside? Nope.

Sandals. Skirts. Short sleeved shirts and halters. Bright new camisoles. BATHING SUITS.

Are you kidding me? I still look like the stay-puff marshmallow man. Layers upon layers upon layers. I can't even find winter clothes when I feel a little down. Only clothes that make me think about abandoning my loving husband and adorable puppy to live with one of my friends in Dallas. Oh, I realize that Texas has been under a little cold snap of its own, with snow and ice, but they have a light at the end of the tunnel. High in ann arbor: 29. High in Dallas: 45. High in Austin: 49.

Its supposed to snow and be gray until March. I'm starting to think about tanning beds. I'm looking into beach getaways. I don't know if I can do this for five years. I might have to go on anti-depressants or something.

BOO! I miss warmth. And sun. And the colors blue and green when they occur in nature.

Be forewarned. I may show up at your house and refuse to leave until the weather channel says the thermometers in Michigan have reached at least 60. I'm not even kidding.

On another note entirely...

David and I are now looking for a new apartment. Now, not only do we have to find one that allows Jack, has a washer and dryer and is reasonably close to Campus, but it also can not have stairs. Anywhere. Otherwise I might die.

Because I have a tendency to fall down them. Once head first, resulting in my head slamming into the wall and my elbow almost breaking the banister on the way down. Frequently on the way up, when I get ahead of myself and miss a step. Unfortunately, this one was witnessed twice in half an hour by Lizzy when she came to visit. And most recently, on my back the entire way down the stair case. My neck hit every step on the way down. I feel like I worked my back out with someone who recently won the strongman competition. So no more stairs. They're hazardous. If we buy a home, it can be ranch-style, sprawling across the neighborhood. Or david can install an elevator. Otherwise, I'm sleeping on the bottom half of the house.

On why I would be an amazing 50's housewife...

So if you have had any contact with me in the last 2 1/2 years you will know that I became obsessed with knitting and crocheting for anyone who thought it was as cool as I did (which was really only Erica, and so she got leg warmers and a thing to put her ipod in when I lived with her). Well, in following my new blog obsession I found a girl who used to go to A&M who was way craftier than I, and so I got inspired to try out some new crafts.

First, I bought a dishtowel from Target and made it into a waist apron. David and I cook a lot, and I thought this would be a good little project. David was a little confused about why I didn't make an apron with a bib (which in heinsight would have been very practical for my rediculously clumsy self) but I told him I really just wanted something to wipe my hands on. Plus the aforementioned crafty Texas girl had one and I must prove myself to be as good as she is. Even if I am the only one who knows it. It turned out really well, and I used it last night to make this amazing pot pie that I found on another Texas stranger's blog. I spilled flour all over my black shirt, but my pants stayed clean, Dangit.

Second, I learned to make earrings. I bought three different kinds of pliers and I am already a total pro. Okay, not a total pro, but I wear them in public and am not ashamed. They look like they could have come from Claire's. I'm working on other pieces of jewelry, and anxiously await the day that someone says "nice (insert piece of jewelry here)" so I can say "Oh, this? Thanks, I made it forever ago." Or keep my mouth shut but be very proud of my mad skills anyway. I tried to take a picture but it didn't work out so well.

Third, I made a baby blanket. It is my very first attempt to quilt anything larger than a throw pillow, and I did that when I was 7 years old with my aunt's supervision. But I'm proud of how it turned out. It is so adorable that I wish I had a use for it, but...well, I don't. But it was a good starter project, and it is made out of light green chenille. And now, I'm pretty much hooked. I'm going to drag David to the fabric store tonight to help me pick out fabric (the boy has way better taste than me, which makes me a little sad for several reasons). I'm so stoked, and that makes me mucho dorky.

This is how I rang in 2007. In Little Rock, with old friends and new redneck buddies, feeling grossly pre-pubescent next to my best friend and her work pal and their new, um... assets. And at some point I got annoyed with girls making me erase pictures that were PERFECTLY GOOD because they didn't like how they looked, and so I started sticking my tongue out in all of the retakes.

And everyone ran with that idea. Including Prachi, the guy probing my husbands ear with his tongue.

Christmas was really good, and although we packed on more than 3000 miles and my dog absolutely hates the car, I'd do it again in 6 months or so. 10 days in the car makes you space these little trips out you see. And since no one got me my s'mores machine, I bought one on clearance at Target for 7.50. I had to search all over ann arbor to find the fuel that makes it burn, but Me and David have had s'mores twice, and my heart is full again!

I've been inspired to learn to make a few new crafts, which I am positive will turn into obsession, seeing as how I spent almost a hundred dollars this weekend alone on pliers, beads, peices of cotton, and some polyester batting. I'm so stuck in the wrong decade.

But the best part, the thing I will look forward to all week, is that one of my friends from Texas is coming to see me this Thursday. I am still struggling to make friends with women my own age, and so a visit from Lizzy is just what I need. Especially since I want to quit my job by 10:00 a.m every day. I have to figure something else out. This simply can't be long term. Unless I find out that they will, in fact, reimburse my tuition after a year. Then I just have to suck it up, because being a secretary for 3 years it totally worth 75% off College. And I can do monkey-doo with my degree here, which is so discouraging. But, c'est la vie. Life's tough. Get a helmet.

I went to a church that I really liked yesterday, too. The music before the talk was really fun and kindof like being at a show in austin or something, and it is nothing but college kids, which could be an excellent opportunity to meet new people. It was really sad to me to figure out that one of the community outreach programs the church had was to go to local elementary schools and play games with kids when it is too cold to go outside. Where on earth has my husband brought me? Too cold for a little kid to not want to go outside and play in the snow? MADNESS! Me and my little sister would practically invite frostbite on the one day a year we were lucky enough to get an inch of snow. I remember losing the one pair of gloves I got during a decent snow fall and layering at least 6 pairs of socks so that I could make snowballs. Granted, it hasn't been that cold to me yet, but I have also taken to wearing yoga pants underneath my jeans or slacks and wearing 3 shirts at a time. I get cold when the thermostat isn't on 70, so I improvise. I like to look like this.


Oh, laugh if you want, kids on the playground, but my snowman will be bigger than yours, and if you try to beat me up, I won't feel a thing. HA!

Our journey south...

Well, our upcoming "Christmas vacation" starts Saturday morning bright and early. We'll start heading back towards the place that gave me the accent I am slowly losing. I'm not sure if I can claim that we will be in one spot long enough to rest, but I am really excited to see my family and friends in Little Rock. And although we will be putting in 30+ hours of driving before, during, and after our one year anniversary, hopefully I can remember to not be a brat in the car and enjoy the time together. The first year wasn't nearly as hard as people warned it would be.

The top, oh, five adjustments included
1. Learning to live, full time, with a boy.
2. Learning to clean up after myself so that Dave didn't evict me.
3. Learning to think of my money and his money as "our money". Especially when I wasn't making much. Or any.
4. Moving. 3 times. in 8 months.
5. Learning not to take such a wonderful thing for granted. I'm a very lucky little girl. (He bakes! Any man that will bake you anything is worth mentioning. Really.)

Other, non-marriage related adjustments have all had to do with the weird places we've lived since getting hitched. Like how to survive with no one your age in realistic driving distance. Or how not to freeze to death. How to get over not having decent mexican food for miles and miles and miles. Stuff like that.

WHAT?!

For some reason, the people that I work for insist on having me type up their dictated notes. It seems to me to be an incredible waste of both of our time, but today I really have nothing else to do so I don't mind.

Or at least I wouldn't, if people didn't insist on talking to me while I try to do it. I have to wear headphones and type what I can understand them saying, and meanwhile...EVERYONE tries to communicate with me while I do so. I can never hear them, and usually they are just talking to fill silence, which is unusually frustrating when I stop the tape, take off my earphones, and ask them to repeat whatever they said.

"Oh, I just said that I wish people wouldn't send these emails about game tickets to everyone" or "Oh, I was just saying that I liked the hat that the girl outside is wearing". Blarg. Rewind. Find my place. Someone else comes in to comment on the peanuts on my desk. "What!?!"

"Oh, I said these peanuts are spicy."

Why did I stop working to hear you say that. Especially when I just want to finish listening to the person droning on the tape in slow motion about research I don't really understand. In fuzzy mumbled words that I'm not sure if I heard quite right.

I'm thankful to have a job with people who are willing to be friendly and talk to me. I just wish they wouldn't do it when I have on headphones.

Its official...

I'm old. Okay, I'm not really that old (unless you consult someone in elementary school), but I just am not as interested in my social life as I was in College Station.

Last week I did a little experiment. I decided, "hey, who needs to stay at home and be productive? Not me!"

So on Monday I went out with David and some of our friends and played trivia. I think I got to bed at Midnight, so I got about 6 hours of sleep.

On Tuesday I had a friend over for dinner and it took so long to make that we didn't even watch the movie she rented. Bed at 11, 7 hours sleep.

Thursday we went out with friends, and got home fairly early, so I went to bed on time but did NO housework.

Friday we went to see the new James Bond movie with friends. Bed late. Don't remember.

Saturday I went Christmas shopping for the whole day, and then went out with some of the girls and poor David ended up taking everyone home after the bar closed. Bed at 3?

Sunday I managed to drag myself out of bed and go to a church service my boss invited me to. Then I went to another service at 7. I didn't do a single load of laundry until Saturday.

Dave and I are kindof clothes divas. We change all the time and frequently things end up in the laundry that haven't even been worn yet ( or in the case of jeans, have only been worn once. I used to get a couple of wears out of jeans before I married David. Now his clothes swallow them up with mine until I get around to washing them.

The result of this weeklong go-go-go? Tired Nicki, messy house, and empty gas tank. I did make a couple of new friends though. I think it balances out in the end, but I need to learn to turn down some social engagements. I think that being away from my friends since may has made me into a person who can't say no to a night at a movie I never wanted to see (The bond flick was overrated in my opinion. I think testosterone has to be pumping through the veins to fully appreciate it. And lets face it, Bond men have never really done anything for me).

So tonight, I am going to bake cookies and work on the Christmas stocking that I started and have until recently given up on. And maybe go to bed at 9:30. Laugh if you want, but I consistently need my 8 hours of sleep. 9 if Dave will let me.

So I thought that I would catch up our holidays thus far. For the first Thanksgiving, I think, ever, David and I did not go back to Arkansas. I tried really hard to make a dinner that was as close to what we are used to as possible, and with David's help managed to pull off a decent spread for the two of us. And Jack, because we decided to share some of the turkey leftovers with him as a special holiday treat. This is what my new kitchen table looked like right before we gave thanks (and I bawled for a second) and then dug in.
Pretty, huh? Then a few days later, Christmas morning came. Okay, it isn't Christmas yet, but I got the exact same feeling in my chest that I did when I was five years old on Christmas morning because of this:
While Jack has a bit of the evil eye going on, you can plainly see that my backyard is covered in snow. And that my horticultural experiment from the summer has officially died. Sorry bell pepper plant. You were tasty. We went downtown and played a little trivia at one of the bars with some of our friends, and this is what the city looked like all lit up and dusted with snow. I made David take a picture with me in it, but he was frustrated that we were running late and made a terrible face. But I'm going to post it anyway.

Maybe the hat is a fashion don't, but it really doesn't matter when it's this cold out. I think the wind chill that night was 6 degrees or something awful. Yuck. Anyway, I thought I'd show you what winter looks like in the early winter. I'm told that by February I will just look like an sloppy eskimo and I will tan just to get some UV rays to inspire happy feelings, regardless of the fact that it is horrible for you and causes cancer. I hope it doesn't come to that.