I will be the first to tell you that I am not the brightest bulb on the tree. I have "blonde moments" quite regularly. Several people may go so far as to tell you I lack in common sense. Some of them would tell you this in a nice loving way and others are just plain mean (even if it's true). Anyway, given my low self-esteem, I'm not one to usually brag about myself, but I did do well in college (magna cum laude) and I went to graduate school and earned my MEd at a school that was ranked 23rd in the country for its education program so I'd like to think I'm not completely stupid (I mean even smart people have trouble reading maps right? That's why I have gps and step 9 on those ikea directions were pretty tricky, but those are blogs for another day). Anyway, regardless of how smart or dumb I am, it amazes me that I have a Masters degree from a highly ranked graduate school and I say the following things (and yes, many of them I say at work, no wonder people have no respect for teachers)...



Scissors are for cutting paper, not your nose.



When you go the bathroom, please go in the toilet, not on the floor.



If you pee on the seat, please clean it up.



Tooty Ta (if you think thats funny you should see the dance that goes along with it)



We don't eat our clothes in school.



The glue goes on the paper not on your hands.



Stay in the lines when you write or you'll get a ticket.



The following is only funny when said in a whiny voice: "Do you like it when I talk like this? It's really annoying. Oh, dear, I sound like my mother."



Don't forget to flush.



Did you wash your hands?



Write with the markers, don't inhale them.



If you hit that heater one more time, you're taking a time out.



Show me Magic 5.



You don't want to miss your bus or we'll both be in trouble.



Shoes belong on your feet.

I could go on all day, but I think you get the point...

Music Confession

I have a confession to make and I realize some of you are probably going to make fun of me, but I couldn't think of anything else to blog about today so here it is...I secretly like Taylor Swift's music. Yes, I know I'm not an elementary school student or a teeny bopper. Many five-year-olds I know love her and some of them used to sing Love Story to me on a daily or weekly basis. And yes, I know some of her songs are cheesy, but they're catchy and well, I kind of like them. I also respect her because she writes her own music. Although I love to write, let's face it, it's not always an easy thing to do. So there you go, the secret is out. I like her music and some of it is even on my ipod. But seriously, don't you have singers you scretly like even if they're music is cheesy? I mean sometimes after a rough day, it's nice to hear a little cheesy pop-country music. :)

27 Dresses aka My Life Story

I was flipping through the tv stations after my Zumba class tonight and discovered "27 Dresses" was on. If you don't know the movie, it's about a lady who is a bridesmaid 27 times. Once she even has to do two in one day. Yes, people, I know it's only a movie, but I can relate. When the movie came to the theaters a couple of years ago, one of my friends e-mailed me and said there was a movie out about my life. I've not (yet) been in 27 weddings, but I did have to go to two weddings in one day a couple of years ago. I was almost asked to be in one of those two, but when the bride found out I had another wedding that day, she decided not to ask me. Currently, I've "only" been a bridesmaid five times. I've done readings at weddings twice and I brought up the bread and wine at a wedding once so that's only nine so clearly I have a ways to go, but I still love that everyone calls 27 Dresses my autobiography. Two years ago I went to 4 weddings in 7 weeks. Yes, you read that right. Good thing I like weddings. I mean let's face it, it can get expensive between showers, dresses, bachelorette parties, and the wedding itself, but it is what it is, right? I've currently facing a lull in weddings (though there've been a fair amount of baby showers). I have two weddings to attend in 2011, but I haven't been to a wedding since 2009. So if you ever see "27 Dresses" think of me (hopefully, only nice thoughts). :)

How Many People Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb (and build a bookcase)?

So as you may remember, I bought a bookcase on my first ever ikea trip over Labor Day weekend. The bookcase has been sitting in a box in what I called the blue room or the storage room until about five minutes ago. It's going to eventually be a guest room/office, but since it had yet to be cleaned, plastered, and painted at ikea time, and the walls were blue, I called it the blue room. I also interchangably referred to it as the storage room because I was storing boxes in there until I found a spot for all of the stuff in them. Most of the stuff in the remaining boxes included desk stuff (the desk was at my parents waiting for the room to be painted) and books, which were waiting for the bookcase. My current bookcase is a small three-shelfer, which held about 1/5 of my books, maybe. And the boxes also held my 800 photo albums, which will hopefully, fit in the aforementioned bookcase. Well, yesterday I cleaned the blue room/storage room and today someone else painted it. Yay! With some help, my desk made it over here today too (thanks Mom and Dad). So now that the room was painted and ready to be furnished and decorated, it seemed about time to put the bookcase together. I wasn't sure I could do it, since I am so NOT handy, but I figured I could at least open the box and take off some of the packaging so when I finally did have help, it'd be ready to be assembled. Well, I started reading the directions (and by reading I mean looking at the pictures since there were NO words, only pictures of tools, screws, and wood) and I gave it a try. And guess what? I successfully completed the first 8 steps! Unfortunately, there are 26 steps and without another set of hands to hold some pieces of wood while I hammer nails, etc. I can't do the rest, but I am impressed that I was able to do eight steps...especially, given my lightbulb issues this weekend. The lightbulb in my outside light blew so I got a stepstool to reach the fixture, a screwdriver to open it, a flashlight to see it (because why wait 'til daylight when I could do it at 9:15 at night, when I hadn't been home since 7:00 that morning and I hadn't eaten dinner so I was exhausted and starving), and a replacement bulb. Well, I lost the screw (found it later) and it turned out this fixture didn't take any ol' bulb. Oh, no, I had never seen a bulb like this one before. I had a heck of a time getting it out of the light fixture and broke a tiny piece of it in the process. Finally, got it out, dealt with coming home in the dark on Friday night and Saturday it was off to Lowes in search of said light bulb. Had to bring the thing with me because I couldn't find a size or type on it. I'm sure I looked really cool standing in the light bulb aisle of Lowes trying to match my broken bulb to the ones they had. Six dollars later, I finally found what I thought was the correct size and brought it home. It turned out it was the right size, but it took me quite a while to get it installed. I finally got it in, or so I thought, turned the light on and...NOTHING. So I took it out and tried again and...yay! it worked! I hope this bulb has a long lifespan. I was much happier to find that the blown light bulb on my deck required a regular ol' bulb. Thank goodness! Now if I can just finish that bookcase...

Don't call me Julia (or Martha or any other famous chef)

Anyone who knows me knows my cooking skills are lacking. Baking on the other hand, I can do. My goal is to cook more and to try baking more things. I've been in a bit of a rut, where I keep baking the same things so I want to expand my horizons again. I mean peanut butter fingers are great, but a person needs variety. I've been inspired by "Julie and Julia" (saw the movie a couple of years ago and just started reading the book). I will not be gutting any ducks or doing anything too crazy, but my goal is to cook or bake a new dish each week from now until the end of the year. My first dish was cheesecake and although I am incredibly biased, I think it came out pretty well. I am having someone over tomorrow to give a les biased opinion. We'll see what he thinks. Later this week, I want to do chicken parm. I've technically made it before so I'm not sure if that counts as a new dish, but it's been over a year since I've made it and since I all ready did one new dish this week I guess I'm in the clear. In my defense, cooking for one can be a bit annoying. Most recipes are not meant for one, sure you can half them, etc, but how do you do half an egg? I can do half a cup, but if you half an egg what do you do with the rest of it? Throw it out, then that's just wasteful, but can you save half an egg yolk? Anyway, so yeah, if I do cook for one, the leftovers are great the first two days, but by day three I'm sick of them and I have to start taking it for lunch and dinner so it doesn't go bad so it's not totally fear of lighting the kitchen on fire that keeps me from cooking more things, it's also wasting food and the fact that I'm lazy. After being at work for 9-10 hours, I'm not dying to cook when I get home (God help me if I have children, I'll have to cook more and cook better or I fear what will happen to them. Can kids live off of pasta, sandwiches, and salad?). Now you would think since I struggle with cooking, that I'd have issues with baking. I am no expert, but I've been told that I make good desserts and for some reason I enjoy baking. Brownies, cookies, cupcakes, muffins, pancakes, recently added cheesecake, and various other desserts I'm happy to do, but throw a piece of poultry at me and I panic. So here's hoping my new plan goes well and I expand my cooking and baking horizons.

I'm Walking Into Spider Webs

Remember that song from back in the day? (Hey, Jess now you can have a different song stuck in your head). Well, as many of you know, and by many I mean the 3-4 of you that read my blog, when I moved the condo I moved in to had been vacant for over a year and by vacant I mean of people. Some spiders had made themselves a nice home. I got rid of the spider webs inside and eventually, I got rid of the one on my hose outside. Well, a day or two later, the hose spider web was back. I figured I must have not gotten ridden of it well enough so I tried again. Guess what? It came back! A couple of weeks ago someone (finally) came to clean the moss off my roof and when he cleaned up his mess on the ground/driveway, he cleaned up some of the spider web too. I again tried to get rid of the web. Guess what? It came back. So I got rid of it again last week and I'm wondering if it'll be back again tomorrow. Perhaps I am going to just have to accept the fact that the spider likes the hose on my house and and is determined to make his home there or I'm going to have to take drastic measures and um...move the hose? Get some spider spray? Keep fighting him? Who knows!

Help, I'm Turning Into My Mother

I've turned into my mother. I thought it would never happen or at least not this soon in my life, but it has. It's happening at work and at home. I used to tease my mother because she did most of her cleaning on the weekends. Some of it got done on Thursday nights, but the rest was either Friday evening or Saturday morning. I always figured I'd do mine during the week so I could enjoy my weekend, but last weekend, first real weekend in the new place, do you think I enjoyed my Saturday morning? Oh, no, I decided that would be a great time to wash the floors and clean the sinks. Just call me Bonnie. At work, I now find myself saying things to the kids that my mother used to say to me. I.e. a student whined at me and in an annoying whiny voice I told her not to whine like that because it was annoying (the same way my mother used to do it!). I'm blanking on another concrete example at the moment, but on several ocassions in the past month I've found myself saying oh, gosh, I sound like my mother. I've also been on the look out for holiday decorations whenever I'm at a store or today at the craft section of the seafood fest. My mother decorates BIG TIME for all the holidays: I'm not just talking Christmas and Halloween people. I think she has a Flag Day decoration. Don't get me wrong, Mom is a lovely person, but really, do I have to start acting/talking like her? Next thing you know I'll be baking cookies every Saturday and letter-boxing all around New England.

What Is It?

My neighbor moved to Florida and didn't take his living room furniture with him. He offered it to me and since it was only a couple of years old, rarely used, and free, I gladly accepted it. What a nice friend/neighbor I have. Anyway, he gave me a couch, a lovesesat, an ottoman, and...well, I'm not quite sure what the fourth piece is, nor were the three people who helped me move. Another seat? A table? A really big ottoman? Tony (my neighbor/friend/big brother--not biologically, but he was like one to me growing up) used it as an ottoman sometimes i.e. I'd be over there hanging out with him and sometimes he would put his feet on it. However, he also used it as a table sometimes i.e. I'd be over there hanging out with him and he'd put food or drinks on it. I do believe I also saw people sit on it from time to time. So I just don't know what to do with it. It's nice and all, but I'm not yet sure how to use it. (Can we say redundant sentence?) Currently it is sitting in the "fireplace ready" section of the room. I'm thinking next month when my family comes over to see the place that I will wait and see what they do with it. Will they sit on it? Will they expect me to put food on it? I doubt anyone will move it and make it into an ottoman, but one never knows. What do you think it is?

No, I Do NOT Think I'm Cooler Than You

I've never been the most up-to-date with technological toys. I didn't have a DVD player until I was in college or grad school. My VCR worked just fine so why bother getting a DVD player. (Actually, the only reason I got one was because I wanted some movies for Christmas and my mom couldn't find them on video any more so she bought me a DVD player and DVDs). I had the same cell phone for years and it was getting outdated when I got it. I had no desire to get rid of it, but I finally gave in to peer pressure. The one I have now is probably "antique," but it still works so I see no need to upgrade. So I guess it shouldn't be surprising that in a world where CDs are going out of style, I had to pull out my CDs the other day. Now I do have an i-pod (only b/c it was a birthday or Christmas gift a few years ago) and this year I bought an i-touch because my friend Megan had one when we went to Alaska and I thought it was cool and would come in handy when I traveled (which it did this summer). It also came in handy in July when I was painting so instead of listening to myself screaming "How did I get paint on the ceiling? Why do I suck at painting? Will I ever feel settled?" I could hear some nice music. My car does not have Sirius (sp?), XM, or any of those things. I've got the regular radio/CD player that comes with the car. I also don't have any way to plug my i-pod into my car, which normally suits me just fine. I can get plenty of stations and I usually don't have too far to drive. Well, on my way home from work earlier this week, that song, "You Think You're Cooler Than Me" came on the radio. I'm not sure I was a big fan of that song, but since I now seem to hear it EVERY TIME I'm in my car, I'm sick of it and if I ever did tolerate that song, I can't stand it now. So when I heard that song for the second time that day, I switched from one station to another and it was playing on that station too! Do I have to put on country or olides to avoid it? I actually did try the country station, but it was a commerical. Hence where the CD comes in. Since most of you read Jess' blog, you may remember her mentioning Circles in the Sand a while back. That inspired me to dig out an old Belinda Carlisle CD when I was packing to move and I put it my car CD player since I had not heard that song in YEARS. And it was still there yesterday, thank goodness! So now in addition to having the cooler than me song stuck in my head, it is mixing with Circles in the Sand. Perhaps I could mix them together and make my own song, ha ha.

All I Can Say is Wow

I had my first ikea experience yesterday. Wow! Four of us went. Two of us (including me) had never been before. I figured we'd be there for a little while, not all afternoon (I believe we were there for four hours, plus an hour drive down and an hour drive back). Good thing today was a holiday. I had no idea that place was so big. When we got there, I just looked in the area where we were standing and said, Wow. Before we could shop though, we had lunch as it was nearly 2:00 and we were all starving. In case you didn't know, they have a restaurant in ikea! The food was pretty good too. I would never think of eating lunch at a furniture store. Who knew! At lunch, my friend Hal told me the store is the size of four football fields. You all know how indecisive I am, can you imagine me trying to make decisions about things in a store that big. I found tons of stuff I liked, but since my original intention in going there was to get a bookcase (and well, to see what all the hype was about), I am proud to say that I narrowed it down to three bookcases. When it came to decision time, I think one of the people with me wanted to kill me because I kept debating between two, but I finally picked one. Now if I could just get it set up...Perhaps, that'll be next week's project. I also found a chair I liked, at least I liked it until I saw the price. Then I decided it best to wait on the chair until I win the lottery. We wandered around some more (the people with me were also recent home-buyers) looking at things we liked and I thought that was about it, when I remembered there was a whole other floor to explore. Lamps, dishes, rugs, pictures, oh, my. I liked too many lamps so instead of getting all 85 that I liked, I didn't get any because I couldn't decide. I got a couple of small things for the kitchen and was indecisive on the pictures so I skipped those too. I am so excited that I now have a place to put my 8000 books, well, at least I will when it's set up and knowing how "handy" I am, there may be a future blog about that coming. Oh, and I haven't forgotten to blog about the mysterious piece of furniture in my living room, but my camera is temporarily M.I.A. Actually, I believe I know where it is, but it's not here and will be (I hope) tomorrow. All for now and cheers to ikea, all four football fiels of it. :)

If It Makes You Happy...The joys of owning a...bathroom

So as much as I'm finally staring to enjoy owning my own place (okay, let's be perfectly honest, I own about 20.01% of it now and the bank owns the rest so I own what like the half bathroom?), it bothers me slightly that things I once NEVER would have found exciting now greatly excite me. Okay, clearly, the bills suck and they certainly pile up when you first buy a place, but progress has finally been made so read on to see what now makes me happy in life.
-Having all but one room painted (I'll be even happier when the last room is painted)
-No longer having cracked windows
-Finally remembering to buy toilet cleaner and getting it on sale!
-Getting my vacuuming done tonight so it's one less thing to clean this weekend
-Getting two free couches an ottoman, and another piece of furniture (there is some discrepancy on what it is, if my camera were handy, I would take a picture of it and post it on here) from my awesome friend Tony. It is either a table or a seat or a really big ottoman. I will take a pic this weekend and blog about it in the future.
-Finally getting a box spring so I could sleep here (first time it didn't fit up the stairs so had to send it back and get a split, which made it up the stairs successfully, now if the store would finally credit my account and not charge me for two box springs when I only have one, I'd be completely happy)
-You've all ready read about my dryer vent, toilet seat, and fan happiness
-Having air conditioning in my bedroom for the first time in my life!
-Being able to recycle EVERY week (not because I am all hardcore about saving the earth although I agree that it's important, but every other week was too little, the recycling bin was always full after one week so by the second week it was totally overflowing).
-Finally having food in my fridge and cabinets besides water and a few snacks (since I wasn't completely living here I never bothered to grocery shop until last week; I was eating breakfast and dinner at the old place). Literally, for the first three or four days after I went grocery shopping, I would smile every time I opened the fridge because had food and drinks in it. :) It's the little things you know.
I'm sure I'm forgetting other things, but that's a start. Next time I'm in a bad mood, I may list the things that make me unhappy about owning a place, but we'll play it happy tonight. :)

Is It Time to Get Up All Ready? Just One More Hour Please!

Is it just me or does anyone else find it difficult to go back to work immediately after vacation? Actually, I shouldn't even say to go to work, the going isn't so bad, it's the getting out of bed part I find torturous (sp?). I rarely swear, but when the alarm clock beeped the other day many not so nice words ran through my head in succession for several minutes. I started bargaining with well, no one, since no one was there, if I can just sleep for a little while longer or if work would just change their hours and start one hour later...Why is it so hard to get out of bed? Even if I go to bed early and get a good night's sleep 6:30 just comes so early after vacation and feels so painful. I know some of you get up long before that so you think I have it made, but yeah, getting out of bed after vacation is rough. And not being a morning person doesn't help, but what can you do, right? And to all you morning people out there, keep doing what you're doing, but forgive me if I'm not so perky until 8 or 9. :-p