Updates!

Sorry it has been a while, but I've been busy:

1. Preparing to start............MY NEW JOB!! Yes, yes, that is right. I finally found a new job. And it is a job that I am going to love.
2. Researching and buying a new car (way overdue!)
3. Getting my haircut fixed. I went to a different stylist to get my first cut "fine tuned" and now it looks short, but stylish.
4. Tending to my hospitalized boyfriend. He had a spontaneous pneumothorax, aka: his lung collapsed without warning, while he was eating lunch on Monday......all because he fits the "tall, slender, 25 - 35 yo" description. They can't tell him anything else about why it happened.
5. Being super-sleepy.

goodnight!

Productive me (?)

First, Steph and Matt's wedding was fantastic! I could certainly feel the love, so much so that I fought back tears a few times during the ceremony (as most of the women there did.....). At the ceremony I caught up with friends that I haven't seen in a while, some since leaving Ann Arbor over a year ago: Mer and Alex, Alison, Gaby and Greg, Mary and Jeremy, etc. What fun! AND, get this: Steph's cousin, who sat at the same dinner table as Kyle and I, grew up by me in Georgia and went to the high school I almost went to and then we found out that she atttended the small Michigan liberal arts college that Kyle almost went to.....two random connections to one person! Crazy.

Since then I've been filling my time by making my way through my Netflix que, walking Cooper, cleaning my house (dog hair EVERYWHERE!) and I ordered a random On Demand movie one night. Did anyone ever see "The Pirate Movie" circa 1982 starring Kristy McNichol and Christopher someone? Horrible musical about pirates, but my sister and I used to watch it over and over again when we were little and I still remember the words to the songs. I was worried that my new haircut looked bad, but it looks stellar compared to some of the 1982 hair :-)

And one other little thing: I got a new job!! It's a job in a field that I've been trying to break into for several months now, so I'm obviously ecstatic. A pay raise, a entirely different field of work, new coworkers, more responsibility.......I'll divulge more details once I get the offical offer letter from HR and let my current employer know I'm gettin' the heck out of there!

3 inches?!

I went to get my hair cut today. It had been since April! I searched online for a few pictures representing what I wanted and brought them into my stylist. He was very excited about my choice and, being a 15 year-or-so veteran of the hair cutting industry was positive that he could make my hair look fabulous.

The good news is that he gave me a great hair cut, the bad news is that the length is about 3 inches shorter than we had originally discussed. He said he got "scissor happy". I definitely don't look like I had imagined I would. I feel I look like a german school girl. My hair is just above my chin....at the longest. And it doesn't help that the McDonald's drive through guy addressed me as "miss" more than once--I believe that affirms my "I look like a german school girl" insecurity.

We'll see what I can pull off tomorrow when I style it for the first time in preparation to attend Steph's wedding!!

Music

Nope, I'm not feeling too snappy tonight when it comes to post titles. Sorry. My nephew is now back home in VA and I have a lot of free time all of a sudden. You'd think I'd spend all of this free time cleaning my house, which is now a disaster. I believe Cooper has been sleeping on the pile of "clean" clothes on my bedroom floor....clean clothes that have spilled over from my laundry basket, the laundry basket that has been sitting on my floor for over two weeks now. That's how a) busy I've been, and b) unmotivated I am now that I have free time. Instead of cleaning I have been taking the time to just relax. I think this "just relaxing" is really code for "taking a day or two to be sad now that my nephew has left".

Cooper doesn't seem to mind my lack of cleaning activities. I left him out of his crate tonight when I ran a quick errand--the first time he's had that freedom. I came home to a happy Cooper and a decimated bag of peanuts. I had left a paper bag full of peanuts-in-the-shell on the dining room table and Cooper climbed up on the table and ripped the bag to shreds. I would have loved to have seen that scene. Oh, and he finished a small bag of animal crackers, too. For a dog who doesn't get people food, he must have been in doggie heaven.

On to the title of my post: music. I've been filling some of my free time by listening to music. I miss music. Music and I have a long, passionate history, but this past year in Detroit was rather music-free. I started listening to some random songs I downloaded from iTunes: Klaxons, Guster, Stereophonics, and the new Interpol album. I then started craving some of my past favorites: Jeff Buckley, Coldplay.....I'll be reacquainting myself with music and I'm looking forward to it.

Sunrise at Kyle's cabin

Can it be.....

......do I post once again? It has been 5 MONTHS since my last post. Kyle gave up checking my blog and only because he'd been checking dilligently every day or two until I told him about two months ago to not waste his time. I have occasionally felt bad for not updating, but that twinge was soon overtaken by a twinge of laziness. Does that make sense? Anyway, I haven't been lazy in my daily life, which is what matters.

I have been spurred into action by a friend's tag--thanks are due to Kara
Here are the rules of blog-tag (apparently):
1. Let others know who tagged you.
2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.

So, here are the facts of what has been happening in my life over the past 5 months:
1. I moved out of Detroit and into a 2 bedroom bungalow in Ferndale (thaaaaank gooooodness!).
2. I adopted a coon hound mix puppy that I named Cooper. He is my new best buddy :-)
3. Kyle has been studying for the boards and is now a rotating through the hospital as a 3rd year med student.........therefore, he's had one day off of work in two weeks.
4. I never see my boyfriend.
5. My nephew is in town visiting me for 10 days! Between taking care of a puppy and a 4 year old, I'm exhausted.
6. While taking care of my nephew over the past week there have been times that I believe I'll make an excellent mother (when the time comes) and there have been times when I fear for my (future) children's lives. :-)
7. I'm looking forward to a new career (details are top secret).
8. Another one of my high school friends has gotten married and another one has had a baby. I feel old.

Unfortunately, I only know a few bloggers and most of them have already been tagged.
1. Steph, who is studying for the bar and may not have time to respond
2. Goat, who may not be checking my blog anymore......

Below are a few pics for your viewing enjoyment.

Josh and Cooper taking a nap together. And yes, they did this all by themselves.

Kyle got tired and Josh did some pulling :-)

My boy Cooper (isn't he adorable!?)

Recap

Here's a quick recap of the past month's happenings:

• I found a perfect pair of shoes to match my dress AND they were on sale!
  
• Kyle and I looked goooooood at the med school gala:

• I joined a local gym and I love it
• Call me supervisor: I'm supervising 3 people at work
• Thanks to the Myers-Brigs, I now know what "type" I am (you know, extroverted/introverted, thinking/feeling, sensing/intuition, judging/perceiving, etc) and the past few months' frustrations at work seem to all make sense now.....
• I really want a dog
• I really want to move out of Detroit
• My sweetie made me a very romantic Valentine's Day dinner
• I've eaten way too much Valentine's day chocolate (GYM!!)
• I have four special vacations planned in the next two months
• Netflix is awesome!

Wanted: Fancy Shoes

Today I went shopping for a dress to wear to the med school Gala and I realized that I have expensive taste, which is unfortunate because I won't pay for expensive things. Being poor in grad school really restructured my spending habits. So I ooh and ahh over gorgeous things and then walk away........unless there is a sale (that's the only reason I own a pair of Coach black leather pumps and other beautiful shoes). And today there was a sale! I found a perfect dress that satisfies my craving for expensive things that also happened to be 50% off. Now all I need is a pair of fancy shoes. Of course the ones I love are really expensive.......

In other news, I started running again. And apparently the "in" thing to do at a certain local park is to sit in your car and smoke pot. As I ran that's all I could smell. I then realized that almost every car that I ran past had at least one person sitting in it and sometimes there was a towel covering part of the window. How sketchy is that? I suddenly started feeling a little unsafe in my mid-day surroundings. It was kinda like one of those pictures where at first glance you see one thing and as you keep looking at it a whole different picture emerges.

Happy New Year 2007!

It's a new year and I'm still not quite sure where the old one went......I've been busy (obviously, since I haven't posted in ages). Here are a few things that have happened since I last posted:

• I spent a wonderful Thanksgiving with Kyle's family.
• I celebrated my 29th birthday with 2 fun outings (and no, I'm not freaked out about "the big 3-0").
• I now officially dislike my job.
• I visited my mom in Phoenix for Christmas, where Jess and Josh joined us.
• Kyle and I made plans to go skiing---but there has been NO SNOW!
• I've eaten at a few great restaurants.
• I now know what the swim cap and goggles joke is all about.
  
• Kyle and I went to friends' new house for a fabulous New Year's Eve party.

I've discovered that I love giving more than receiving when it comes to Christmas gifts--or gifts in general. Now don't get me wrong, I love getting presents, but I was more excited about giving the people I love meaningful gifts than I was about getting gifts. I put a lot of thought an effort into this year's gifts. I'm especially proud of what I gave Kyle: an autographed Bo Schembechler photograph. I framed it and everything! I was excited because I knew it was something he'd absolutely love. His gift to me was equally impressive: jewelry! Typical girl, right? ;-) He gets bonus points for braving a jewelry store on his own and for making an excellent choice in earrings.

My mom is all about giving meaningful gifts as well. I received my great-grandmother's antique cake platter and some other amazing things. Christmas in Phoenix was wonderful. I hadn't seen my mom in over a year and hadn't been out to Phoenix in over three years. It was a sunny and warm 75 degrees! Josh is growing up so fast and becoming a typical four year old boy: cute with a little snotty mixed in.

Kyle and I took complete advantage of his lengthy Holiday break and spent lots of time together. We actually rented a movie to watch! Even more amazing is the fact that he willingly went to the mall with me to find shoes (for a man with very limited time, I took this as a sign of his over-flowing affection for me). As a sign of my over-flowing affection for him, I watched three Michigan sporting events in the span of 24 hours. Yes. Two in person and all a disappointment to us Michigan fans: Michigan Basketball vs. Georgetown (the Georgetown fans at Crisler arena were obnoxious!), Michigan Hockey vs. MSU at the Joe, and then of course the let down of them all.....the Rose Bowl. Oh well. Good try, boys.

After almost three years in Michigan, I finally made it to Canada! I live literally across the river from Canada and I've never ventured across the border. I mean, we aren't talking Toronto or Montreal here, it's Windsor. Full of 19 and up bars and one Casino Windsor, soon to be a Caesar's Windsor Casino. So we went because it is absolutely smoke-free and it is in Canada and we both walked away winners. Once you get past all of the 19 and up kids roaming around in their ball caps and Hollister gear, the Casino is really nice. I'm not a casino pro, so I ended up feeling a little overwhelmed and nervous, but I started with $20 on the roulette table and walked away with $60!

Now it's back to work (blech) but I have a few fun activities planned for January and before I know it, February will be here.

Santa Kyle

Happy New Year!