Blue

I love this picture. Love it. This picture is why the curtains in my house are also blue. And the recliner matches too! Funny enough, the color of the recliner was an accident. I fought for it without knowing exactly why I loved it so much. Apparently it was because I knew that five years later, it would match my home decor perfectly.

Inside my Closet

I know that from this angle, it LOOKS like I have a lot of clothes. But really, I have nothing to wear. And my closet is tiny. So it looks like there's a lot. Besides, I'm not embarrassed to show you my clothes. Because there really aren't many. You don't see me showing you where I keep my SHOES, now, do you?

Bane of My Existence

My life is back in the work/school/work/school continuum. This is sort of good for me, since there's some comfort in my routine. But it makes for some seriously boring blogging. Hence the mini-hiatus.

In fact, the highlight of last night was when I figured out what it was that was overloading the circuit that my microwave was plugged into. I never knew a thing about circuits and overloading before I moved into this house. Now? I knew there was something that kept killing the microwave mid-cook. The good news is that I only ruined one bag of microwave popcorn. The bad news is that after two hours of physics (plus), I wasn't exactly very rational or calm while trying to figure the mystery out. In fact, if my house wasn't so small, I would STILL be trying to figure out what the heck was going on. (It was the dog's space heater in the basement, btw. This particular circuit was only the fridge, the microwave, and the light and space heater in the basement. Which means I never saw anything else go off when the microwave died. Which was no small part in why I was going insane.)

So, see? With a life like this, what's to blog about. Oh wait, I know! Let's do a little quiz. How many of you guys recognize this?


(Just out of curiousity, did any of you involuntarily throw up in their mouth a little when you saw that? No? Just me?)

Okay. So then how many of you remember how to solve for above headache? (zlionsfan, you are not included in this quiz.) No? Have you blocked that out too? Let me remind you.



I hate that equation. Hate it. And I'm not even lacking in math skillz. I mean, I'm no MENSA member, but I can hold my own. I was good enough at math in high school that I remember being shocked that my SAT verbal was higher than my SAT math. Math is logical. Black and white. No shades of grey. I'm sure you're all shocked that it makes sense in my brain.

But I loathe this equation. It's become my nemesis. If this equation is involved, you can guarantee that I will have to work the problem at least twice, and that there will be much swearing, cursing, throwing of pillows and random name-calling. I may even use the Lord's name in vain a few times. (sorry mom.) When I'm working a problem involving the quadratic equation, the dogs hunker down next to me with their ears back and just lick my hands in sympathy when I finally ask them beseechingly if THEY know how to work the problem.

This issue may or may not have come to a head because my professor prefers to use the quadratic equation instead of using any other logical problem solving strategies that, you know, don't involve the bane of my existence. And so I've been working this problem and working this problem and working this problem....to no avail.

Although this post has helped some. I don't think I remembered to make "b" negative. I'm off to try again. Pray for me.

My So-Called Life

I generally don't do memes, but saw this one and really liked it. I can't decide whether or not this one counts as an actual meme. Since it makes me feel better to consider this a photo scavenger hunt, that's what I'll call it. The real reason why I'm doing it is because I want to tag two of the real photographers that I know and see what they come up with (artsy cool photos) as compared to what I post (boring straight on-photos with a point and shoot.) But anyone else who wants to do this, feel free!! Just link back so I can go and check yours out. Fair is fair you know.

I only have one catch. My photos are not staged, (meaning I didn't clean/pick up/move things out of the pictures before taking them) so I'm requesting that yours aren't either. This is real life, yo. No one is perfect, and if you're afraid to show your flaws, you're living a sadly limited life.

1. My refrigerator has more beverages in it than food. Yes, that is boxed wine that you see. Boxed sangria if you want to be specific. High class living, thy name is Emily. (I got the sign on my fridge as a christmas present from the veterinarian that I volunteer for. Everyone knows I can't cook.)
2. My closet is organized. It has to be. It's tiny. My bedroom closet is too small for me to take a picture and adequately show you anything about it, so instead, I'm showing you the hall closet. The hall closet that I had to cut plywood for when I moved in so that I could have shelves. (This is when I learned that a 90 degree angle is not always a 90 degree angle in old houses.) The hall closet that is a linen closet/spare anything closet/un-seasonal clothing closet (the boxes.) There's an entire third level that you can't see below the bottom of the photograph. Living in a tiny place is good times.
3. My kitchen sink is usually not empty. Not so much to say I guess. I do dishes regularly, but I also use dishes regularly. This is the norm. (What I DON'T do is let the dishes soak in water and then let a gross film develop on top of the water. Ahem.) PS. Brita filters are da' bomb.
4. My toilet is rarely open. I'll confess, I had a whole spiel written before I actually took the toilet picture. I have since deleted it. This is because when I took the picture, I opened the toilet (which I always leave closed because, hello! I live with animals!) Apparently once it was open, its appeal was absolutely irresistible.
5. My Favorite Shoes are high heels. Contrary to my usual attire, I do love to get all dressed up and look pretty. I will use every excuse to wear something fancy, and a good pair of high heels will always make my day. I am not cheap with my "dress up shoes." In fact, these would be the most expensive shoes that I own except for an unfortunate purchase that the boy talked me into about a year ago.
6. My favorite Room is the living room. This is where I spend the majority of my time, I love my maroon wall, and I love love LOVE the Starry Night painting on the wall.
7. What are my kids doing? Well, I'll use the word "kids" loosely. What are Casey and Blue doing? Well, they're frolicking in the snow of course. If you look closely, Blue is chasing Casey who has the shredded remains of a basketball in her mouth. (Actually, the toilet pictures could work for this one as well, amirite??)
8. My laundry is all in one place. And sorted, thanks to J. (I couldn't get a good angle on the duct tape holding this hamper together in the lower left corner...) I do laundry every weekend, so that's why it's not overflowing at the moment.
9. Self Portrait. Um, I don't get to do much without Blue's interference. I sit down, and he's right next to me. I get out a camera, and he wants to check it out eat it. This was no exception.
10. My dream vacation is one where I get to explore somewhere new. I want beach AND adventure. I know I've already been to lived in Costa Rica, but I would give almost anything to go back soon. (I didn't take this picture - obviously.)

So, I tag: Ann, Stacey, Jill, and Farmerspice. But again, anyone else, feel free! Who doesn't love this little glimpse into "real" life?

The Antenna of Happiness

After a full day of volunteering on Saturday, I had my friend Jmac over for dinner. I made my signature dish (read: only thing I make well) of Peruvian fajitas. This is the recipe my mother taught me. [Side note: In high school, if I liked a boy, I would invite him over and have my mother make fajitas. It was sort of a closer for me. I don't think they've lost their effect on men over the years...]

Before dinner we walked the dogs. On the walk, I mentioned the lack of cable at my home. I believe Jmac's exact words were, "So wait, you don't have an antenna either? So there's nothing on your TV that isn't already on a DVD." When I nodded the affirmative, he thought for a second and said, "When we get back, let me check my car. I think I have an antenna in my trunk."

I won't get into exactly WHY there was an antenna in his trunk, but I will say that the antenna works with my TV, and I now get NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX perfectly clearly because Jmac let me keep the antenna. If I can stand the snow, I can also make out figures on the CW4. The important thing to get out of that information is the part where I mentioned that I get NBC clearly.

Even though the coverage of the Olympics that I've seen has brought back horrifying memories of how bad the NBC coverage was for the LAST Olympics, this doesn't mean I don't want to watch what I can of THIS Olympics. Thanks to Jmac, now I can. Also thanks to Jmac, I am now sleep deprived. Seriously, what the hell is up with coverage for the Olympics lasting until two in the morning and beyond? I mean, some of us have to work to support ourselves. Some of us don't function well on very little sleep. Some of us are very very interested in how May-Treanor and Walsh will do in beach volleyball. (FINALS TONIGHT PEOPLE!!)

Once the Olympics glow wore off, I realized that such shows as Heroes, Grey's Anatomy, and How I Met Your Mother can be watched in Emily's apartment. My happiness simply can not be expressed. I've already stopped reading, my IQ is dropping, and my attention span is lessening. I'm totally ready for my next semester of Organic Chem now!

But so so happy...

Oh How I miss thee, Cable TV

I can see the evils of TV. I really can. I know that when I'm sitting stationary in front of the TV I could be outside walking the dogs/running/enjoying the sunshine (since we're now perpetually in the Eastern time zone and it's light until nine-frigging-thirty at night.) I know I'm not getting any smarter when I'm watching the mindless drivel that is reality TV, and in fact, I'm probably using up precious space in my memory warehouse for ANTM that would be useful for, oh, say, chemistry.

+2 if you caught that reference.

But when someone tells me that they've given up TV, or worse, that they don't even OWN a TV (like Joey says, "What does all your furniture point to?",) I always mentally stick my tongue out at them. "Oh sure, you don't need TV in your life. Excuse me for having a pea sized brain that needs the flickering box (complete with mindlessness of Grey's Anatomy, and cattiness of ANTM) to increase my quality of life. Wait! Did something shiny move??" I can't help but feel less intelligent or less, I don't know...worthy because I enjoy my prime time TV.

So I gave up cable TV to see how the other half lives.

Please rest assured that this decision had nothing to do with feeling holier-than-thou and EVERYTHING to do with stupid tuition payments that are going to suck out the rest of my soul coupled with my intense resistance to accepting student loans until I'm reduced to begging for restaurant scraps and my dogs are fending for themselves on a diet consisting solely of neighborhood children.

In the beginning it wasn't so hard. In fact, it STILL wouldn't be very hard if I hadn't.... I'm getting ahead of myself.

In the beginning it wasn't so hard. Even now, I read more, I listen to my iPod, I walk the dogs a LOT and spend time outside with them as much as I can. I go out to dinner with friends and engage in plenty of conversation with wine (which probably negates saving the monthly cost of cable, but whatever...) Remarkably, I found lots of different ways to fill my evenings. Even if I chose to knit, I could put in a DVD of Friends (which I figure isn't technically cheating since I'm not really watching [due to having every Friends episode committed to memory, again taking up precious warehouse space for biology] and since it's not cable) and be perfectly happy with that. Besides, it's summertime! What's on TV now? By the time the good stuff is on I'll be back in school and won't have time for TV anyway. And right now? With the Brett Favre stories and the Brett Favre stories and the Brett Favre stories (ad nauseum) I'm sort of glad that I can't watch SportsCenter in the mornings. I have a feeling it would just make me very very angry.

And then today I was reminded that a new season of Project Runway premiered this past Wednesday.

Nevermind. I will just read the recaps online. It will be fine. (sniff)

See? This is much better. I wonder what other shows I'm missing right now. I mean, it's summer, so there's not THAT much on. Hmmm...

OH MY GOD I'M GOING TO MISS SHARK WEEK!!

Breathe. It's okay. You have plenty of friends who have TVs with cable/satellite and will share with you. Besides, it's not like Discovery doesn't recycle programs and you haven't seen them before. You only REALLY need to see the new ones.

And then I started looking into what I missed on Army Wives this season.

Didn't see that one coming, didja?

Last year I watched Army Wives religiously. I loved it. I was hooked.

This year, I convinced myself that what I didn't know I was missing, I wouldn't actually miss. So I deliberately avoided all stories, recaps, etc about the show. But today I was bored and started rooting around on YouTube to see if some generous soul had posted entire episodes.

Um, no. But there are pieces. There are certainly very small, unfulfilling and not always consecutive pieces of episodes online. Those pieces are just enough to remind me why I loved the series and why my life is sadder without it, but not enough to SHOW ME THE ENTIRE EPISODES THAT I'VE MISSED!

Damn.

I mean, I'm still not going to get cable, but now I've seen how the other half lives, and I can honestly say that I don't like it. I'm convinced that I'm still that person with a pea-sized brain whose quality of life just isn't quite what it could be with the evils of television. Bless you, my smart friends who can exist without The Deadliest Catch. Who don't miss The Dog Whisperer. Who have never even heard of Heroes or Friday Night Lights. All I can say is, "You're a better man than I, Charlie Brown."

Now, can someone please invite me over to watch Shark Week?

Lots of Crap, Little Apartment

So I'm moving. I'm moving from a very large three-bedroom-with-attached-garage apartment to half of a double with one bedroom. One small bedroom. (But it has a basement!! Can't forget the spider-infested, dark, dank, Emily-will-probably-never-do-laundry-again basement!! For some reason, everyone always tells me this (minus the adjectives) when I talk about my new place.)

And yet, even knowing the size difference, for some reason I didn't think that my stuff would be affected. After all, I lived in a one bedroom apartment before the boy, surely I can live in a one bedroom apartment after the boy just as easily.

Um, no.

There have already been sacrifices. I'm pretty sure I'm going to receive some sort of award from Goodwill for the number of bags I've taken over there in the last three days. All my beloved movies that happened to be on VHS tapes? Axed. VCR? Axed. I originally thought I would have to put the dining room table down in the basement but after careful measurements, I think it will fit in the living room and will serve as my study table. Computer desk will move to the bedroom. See? Everything fits.

Well, almost everything.

But I'm going back to school. Tuition is a bitch, and I'm making sacrifices for a reason. I can do this.

See, there's this recliner. And I don't have room for it. But it's my RECLINER. I'm emotionally attached. Here's a picture.



Oh, whoops...that's what it looks like when I'm not CONSTANTLY asking the boy to PICK! UP! YOUR! CLOTHES!...which I've pretty much stopped doing since we decided to take a brief hiatus on the cohabitation experiment. After all, what's the point now? Here's what the recliner really looks like:



Given my competitive nature and the fact that it's such a very cheerful color of blue (not to mention comfortable as HELL to read a book in) it's one of my favorite pieces of furniture. When you can see it.

But I have no room for it. None. And, to be honest, it matches nothing. I don't know what to do. So here are the options that I'm facing. I'll leave it up to you guys to tell me what to do with it.

1) Give it to the boy.
This has one pro (at least it would be used) and several cons (um, 'we're broken up' and 'I don't want Tyson on it' immediately spring to mind.) Ultimately, what keeps me from doing this is the thought that if we didn't ever patch things up, I would never see my recliner again. And then I would hate myself forever.

2) Put it in the basement.
The rational part of my mind knows that the basement in the new place is no better or worse than an unfinished basement in any other place. But seeing as how I've never lived in a place with an unfinished basement, I'm still creeped out. Spiderwebs everywhere. Spiderwebs mean spiders. Spiders crawling into my recliner. Into the stuffing. So that perhaps when the recliner is moved into a bigger location someday, the spiders would then exit and eat whoever is then sitting on the recliner. To be honest, I'm not really a fan of this option.

3) Goodwill.
Which would make me cry. And really, no one wants to see me cry. I'm not a pretty crier.

So I have no idea what to do. I can't put it in the bedroom and have any room to move at all. I can't put it in the living room and have any room to move at all. I can't put it in the kitchen, because - really? In the kitchen? Besides, I wouldn't have any room to move at all.

So I'm sad. I fear the recliner may have to pay the ultimate price in the name of continuing education. Thoughts? Comments? Salvation for the recliner?