Rush Hour

Back when we lived at the apartment I was only a few blocks from my office. It was about a five minute commute, which meant I was able to come home on my lunch hour just to watch a TV show if I desired. But then we bought a house and my commute completely changed.

My new morning drive wasn't that bad. There was relatively little traffic and it took about 20 minutes to get to work. But the afternoon drive was ridiculous. The exit before mine, the interstate goes down from 3 lines to 2 lanes, because of this change my drive home was at a standstill. While this same drive took me about 20 minutes in the morning, it took closer to 40 minutes on the way home. Even more than the time was that it was so stressful just sitting in stop-and-go traffic. And I mean stopped to the point where I was easily able to check my twitter updates since there would be no chance of moving anytime soon.

But not only did I move recently, my office moved as well. Which means my commute changed again. The new location gave me a few options. I could take in the interstate as I'd been doing previously. Or I could in a major street.

In the afternoon the decision was no question, I always take the streets. While it takes me around the same amount of time that the interstate did previously, without the traffic my drive is far less stressful. Now I at least know the reason I'm stopped is due to a red light and I know when the light turns green I'll get to start driving again. Whereas before I had no idea what was happening or why every single day I was at a standstill.

My morning decision is a little trickier. Taking the interstate in, I think, takes slightly less time, but is a little more stressful. Not because of traffic, but due to the fact that it exists me on the right side of a large street/highway and I have to turn left within a block or two. Driving the streets in is slightly less stressful, but also takes slightly longer. At least it has the potential to be longer depending how many red lights I hit. I'm not completely decided on my morning commute yet, but I'm thinking I might start taking the interstate in everyday.

What's your commute like? Is it different in the morning versus the afternoon? Have you been able to come up with any shortcuts to make it any shorter?

~Shoshanah

Blueberries for Breakfast

The boy and I had a fairly uneventful weekend, at least considering the amount of work we still need to do on the house and the amount of unpacking that needs to be done. Saturday we finished cleaning the apartment and officially drop off our keys and moved out. (If you're feeling nostalgic here's the tour of the apartment from when we moved in a little over a year ago.) I think that means we're now officially homeowners, since it didn't completely count as long as we were still renting the apartment. At least that's my input.

Then this morning while the boy worked on painting the molding in the kitchen, I made blueberry pancakes for breakfast.
Its the first time we made pancakes in the new house! Why do I have the feeling that I'm going to be saying "the first time in the new house!" for everything for quite a while now.

We actually didn't get to a movie this weekend. Instead we spent last night setting up our new Wii and Wii Fit. We bought them as holiday presents to each other, but hadn't set them up previously due to all the moving craziness. We set a goal for ourselves to get 30 minutes in on the Wii Fit once a day. Now I know 30 minutes isn't really a lot. And playing on the Wii Fit isn't a real work-out. But its definitely a lot more than the no activity I'm currently doing now. I think its a good start, and hopefully I'll have fun doing it.

But the weekend isn't quite over yet. I still have big plans for tonight that involve watching new episodes of Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, and most importantly the Special Duggar Delivery where the show the birth of the 19th Duggar, Josie!

Anyone else have a Wii? Any good games you think we should think about buying? Or if you have a Wii Fit, what are your favorite Fit games to play?

~Shoshanah

The Big News

No we didn't get engaged, and probably won't be for a few more years. But on a similar note... We bought a house together!

I don't mean we decided to buy a house together or that we made an offer on a house. I mean we officially bought a house, signed papers, and closed yesterday! Its still a little surreal, and I'm not sure everything will feel completely real until we've been living there for a while. But it is technically official!

Gift the realtors left for us in the houseWe have our apartment lease till the end of the month, which is a good thing since we have approximately one box currently packed. Posting might be a little sporadic these next few weeks as we get everything taken care of. But I promise there will eventually be lots pictures to share!

~Shoshanah

My Little Library

Remember when the boy bought me a bookshelf for my birthday? (No? Go here to catch up!) I've finally made a point to start using it!

And no, this isn't close to all the books in our apartment. Its more like books that have been read in the past year.

When I was filling up the shelves I knew I wanted it to be organized, but I wasn't sure how. Should I go by book size? Or alphabetical by author? Or by genre? Such a hard decision, at least for me. In the end I decided to go by genre first and then by author's last name within genre. Of course this presented a problem in its own. For example, when I put The Last Summer (of You and Me) on the shelf, does it go before The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants alphabetically or after since its was published later? I decided for after the series, would you have done the same?

One thing I found a little assuming is how you can tell almost instantly by looking what type of books are on each shelf. The top shelf is all chick lit, which instantly jumps out at you because the whole shelf is pastel colored. The left hand side of the second shelf is historical fiction, and the right hand is science fiction/fantasy. It isn't as obvious here, but its pretty easy to notice when the books start being all blue and black that you've changed genres. Finally the 3rd shelf is non-fiction, made of mainly of memoirs but a few historical non-fiction books as well. Also on the 3rd shelf are some of the boy's books which needed a to go.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my little organization. I do still have one shelf left on the very bottom, but I have a feeling it'll be full awfully quickly and then I'll be needing a new shelf! I'm hoping there's at least someone else out there who likes to see their books organized as much as I do, after all its like my own mini-library! If so, how do you organize your books? Or even if you don't know, what would make sense to you in regards to organizing your books?

~Shoshanah

Relationship Survival Skills

Last we bought a new TV stand. It of course came in pieces, which of course meant we had to put it together. So together the two of us read the directions and managed to put it together. Or let me correct that statement, the boy read the directions and told me where to hold things while he screwed things in. The one screw I wound up screwing in got stripped according to the boy. I'm still not 100% positive what that means.

Once we successfully got the TV connected to the mount and survived we decided to tempt fate and also hook up the vcr/dvd player and his play station. The dvd players hasn't been hooked up since we bought this TV a few months ago, which as you might imagine has been quite a travesty for me. Without too much bloodshed we managed to hook up everything, and figured out how to get everything to work.

Isn't that a huge couple accomplishment? Being able to assemble furniture and home theaters without ending the relationship. Granted we weren't hooking up any type of surround sound, I hear that's the real relationship killer. But its still what I would call pretty big on the list of couple milestones.

Want to see how it all looks?
Yes, I know you can see the TV stand from behind the TV. As soon as we finished I told the boy we had to take the TV off and move the latch up one notch. Clearly I was shot down. I was told that maybe when we move we might be able to fix the aesthetics. You might be thinking I should do it myself. And I would except there's no way I'm strong enough to pick up that TV by myself.

Anyone else considering assembling furniture and entertainment systems a true test of a relationship? Or what other non-standard relationship tests are out there?

~Shoshanah

Cupcake Scented Air Freshener

When the boy and I moved into our apartment together we never really divided up the chores. We more of did what felt naturally. Which means there are some things we both do separately, somethings we do together, and some things one specific person does.

To start with we will both do general tidying up around the apartment, but at different times. Not only at different times, but we clean up differently as well. When I clean I do something small a few times a week. Say clean the stove or counters in the kitchen or vacuum part of the carpet. The boy on the other hand will clean less often, but when he does will get inspired and clean the entire living room at once.

Laundry is something we do together. I don't want to do this on my own mainly because it would take me several trips to bring everything to the laundry room. And there is the fact that I have to carry the clothes next to the pool to get to the laundry room. I'm always afraid I'm going to drop something in. Which is why I make sure he is here when I want to do laundry. However, its hard for him to do a load of laundry on his own because he isn't normally in the apartment for long stretches of time.

The dishes are a chore I have claimed on my own. Partly because he doesn't seem to remember to put his dishes in the dishwasher. And there is the fact that he doesn't load the dishes the "right" way. So whenever I put things in I will normally rearrange the dishes to maximize space. Since we have a big dishwasher and its just the two of us we normally only run the dishwasher once a week. I normally time it so I'll unload the dishes Saturday or Sunday morning while I'm making me coffee.

Taking the trash out is something I refuse to do, which means it has become the Boy's responsibility. There is the fact that trash bags and heavy, and the dumpster is on the complete other side of our apartment complex. Which means the Boy either has to carry the bag ridiculously far, or put the trash bag in his car and drop it off on his way out. This has some interesting consequences.

A few months ago the Boy picked me up at work for lunch. I got into his car and noticed an interesting smell, "Does it smell like cupcakes to you?"
"Yes it does! And I've searched the car and can't find anything in it."

Almost I week later I walked by his car and noticed a bag of trash in the back. A bag of trash that he been in his car for a week. A bag of trash the contained some imitation Easter peeps candy I had thrown out because they weren't very good. So the cupcake smell wasn't actually cupcakes, instead it was melted peeps. Even now, several months later, whenever he uses the air conditioning in his car you get a nice whiff of cupcakes.

~Shoshanah

Laundry Day

Yesterday after the Boy got home from work he said he wanted to do laundry. Probably a first from him, since I'm normally the one who insists its time to do it. We didn't have a lot of laundry to do, but since he's out of school for the summer his job schedule has changed. So instead of needing to wear a black polo shirt two days a week, its closer to 5. Besides the black polos there wasn't a whole lot else, only 1 load of clothes plus our sheets. The problem wasn't the amount of laundry we wanted to do, it was that everybody else wanted to do their laundry Sunday night too!

This is a problem since we don't have a washer and dryer in our aparments. While our apartment does have washer and dryer hook-ups we haven't made the big purchase yet. Luckily the laundry room is right by our apartment, just on the other side of the pool.

We carried our laundry over and there were two men currently put clothes in the dryer. Now our apartment has about 8 dryers, of which 2 require quarters, and the other 6 take money cards. The two men had already filled 4 of the 6 money card washers. We were able to put the sheets in one washer, but when they started filled the last washer we could use before us (since we had money on our money card, but no quarter). So we let out sheets wash, and brought the clothes back to our apartment.

One hour later we brought the clothes over, and moved the sheets to the dryer. No problems there.

One hour later we went back. Turns out someone had needed the dryer our sheets were in. The sheets were sitting on the table, still warm even. But all of the dryers were full, which meant we had no where for our clothes to go. The next dryer to end was in 30 minutes, so we brought the sheets back, made the bed, and waited.

30 minutes later we went back to move the clothes to the dryer. We checked the dryers, there was one open. Success! So we went to move the clothes. Except someone else's clothes were currently being washed in the washer we had used. But where were the clothes. The weren't on the counter. They weren't sitting in any of the dryers. They was a woman doing her laundry, but she said she didn't know, and there was no one in the room when she got there. On a whim we decided to check the washer we had used. The Boy pulled out a pair of jeans from the hot water (not fun I'm sure). Of course it was his jeans! Someone had decided our clothes still looked dirty maybe? And paid the $1.25 to wash our clothes? I'm not sure how that happened, but at least the clothes weren't missing.

Luckily, that was the end of our problems. A hour later we went back and move the clothes to the laundry. An hour after that we moved the clothes to the dryer.

But to sum up, two loads of laundry which should normally take 3 trips to the laundry, instead took SEVEN separate trips! Seriously! We've already decided our first big purchase as a couple will be buying a washer and dryer, and after yesterday I'm ready to buy one now! So we'll see, hopefully sooner rather than later.

~Shoshanah

P.S. The Bachelorette stars tonight! I'm so excited! If you really want to get ready feel free to read all my past Bachelor recaps! I can't wait to see Jillian, and here's to hoping she finds what she's looking for!

The Pink Chair

Almost exactly two months ago the boy's parents gave us their old couch and a pink armchair. The pink arm chair, was left in the living room when it really should have been put into the 2nd bedroom upstairs. But that was such a crazy day there wasn't really time for that to happen. Don't believe me? Check it out! So I was fine with the chair being in the middle of the living room then. But I had been told by the other occupant of the apartment, that he would move it upstairs.

Almost two months later it was still in the middle of the living room. It was facing a wall, so it really wasn't of any use to anyone. The only thing it had been getting used for was a place for my purses. I'd walk in and throw whatever purse I had been using on the chair, mainly because it was there, sitting in the middle of the room!

This past weekend I felt a bit productive and decided I would FINALLY move the chair upstairs. I dragged it across the floor to the foot of the stairs and tried to drag it up the stairs. I couldn't make it past the first. Defeated I left the chair right where it was. To where you pretty much had to jump over the chair if you want to go upstairs. If you wanted to go to the kitchen. If you wanted to go to the living room. So pretty much if you wanted to go anywhere in the apartment. I was hoping that maybe the boy would get tired of jumping over it and move it upstairs.

Not so much. After two days of having to maneuver around it I finally gave in. It was fairly late at night, so the boy was home. I kind of freaked out and made both of us stop what we were doing, and lug it upstairs. He pulled and I pushed. Which really meant he carried it up the stairs and I stood behind the chair making sure it didn't crash down.

But now, look! There is officially furniture in the 2nd bedroom!

Mission Accomplished
Now if I could only get him to hang up the clock that he promised to hang back in January!

~Shoshanah

Photolicious Stairs

Anais at Through Green Eyes tagged me to do a photolicious post. The way it works is to open your 6th photo folder and post your 6th photo in the folder. So I pulled up the 6th folder, and took out the 6th photo and came up with this:
The staircase in my apartment. I first posted this photo on February 7, 2009 when I posted a photo tour of the new apartment here. Not the most exciting of pictures, I know.

Since that picture was taken I have actually done a little decorating on the staircase. I had some wooden picture frames I had bought from Ikea a year or two ago. I hadn't unpacked all of my photos when I put them up, so I didn't have a lot of possibilities, buy here are the photos currently hanging on my staircase.
This is one of my favorite pictures of myself. It was taken when I was on my 3 week intensive study abroad coarse in France. This was summer 2005. If you look closely you will see a sign on the Eiffel Tower saying Paris 2012. At that point Paris was one of the finalists for the 2012 Olympics. Unfortunately, London won out and that is where the 2012 summer Olympics win be. And the cotton candy? That was TWICE the size of my head. I paid 2.5 euros for that.
This was summer 2007. This is the Boy holding his newborn niece at the hospital. I am a mess, because this was during the summer when I was a camp counselor, and this was taken after a long day of work.
This was taken summer 2006. This is me, my brother and Bon Jovi. Yeah... I would like to say the man reason this is on the wall is because it is me and my brother. But yeah...
This was also taken summer 2006. This was about a week before I moved from California to Louisiana. This is me and my friend Liz. We've been friends since 2nd. Not my longest friendship though, I have another friend who I've known since birth, but haven't decided on which picture of us to hang, yet. It will happen eventually.

Getting back to the point of this post, I was tagged. I guess this is probably the easy way out, but let me know if you want to do a photolicious post. Leave a message in the comments and I will link to your photo entry! I guess first come first serve? We'll see...

Unsuspecting Sunday Afternoon

Today started out quite promising. The Boy's parents were buying a new couch. And thus we were going to inherit their old couch. So he left around 9-ish this morning to pick it up. I was in charge of cleaning the living room (mostly check) and doing laundry (not even close to a check).

So around 11-ish or so, there's a knock on the door and the couch has arrived. The boy, his father, and one of his friends start unloading the couch. I love outside, noticing only one car and the following conversation ensues.

"You were able to get all parts of the couch in one truck?"

The Boy replies, "No my truck is on the side of the interstate."

"With the rest of the couch?"

So they left and went back to The Boy's truck. Unloaded the couch from one truck to the other, while stopped at the side of the interstate. And brought it here all here. Our living is over halfway full with an L-shaped couch. And a pink armchair. Which is currently hanging it with no where to go. It might wind up in the second bedroom, aka the large closet. But moving on...

The boy and I went back to the car and waited 30 mins for a tow-truck. This was my first time ever stopped on the side of the interstate. Not so much a fun experience. Especially when I have a tiny little car and every time a huge truck drives by is shakes everything like crazy.

The tow truck arrives, and gets the Boy's tuck hooked up, which gets towed to the Chevy dealership. Which is closed because it is Sunday. We unload everything from the truck, (since it is a 98 and ridiculously old and he was already planning on buying a new one). I found a bag of Lays potato chips in the car and proceeded to eat them as my lunch. Then we head over to a Mazda dealership to see if they had any really good deals.

Not so much unfortunately. So we headed back to the Chevy dealership, since it didn't look like he would be buying a car the next day or something. We put his car key in the drop box, so they could look and it and see how much it would cost.

Then we drove to the Boy's parents' house to pick up one of their cars. While there I ate a Cinnamon graham cracker and 4 or 5 pretzels to add to my lunch. He drove their car, I drove my car. We stopped at a gas station. The Boy got gas. I bought a Vanilla Coke (Heaven! Remind me to blog about my ups and downs with Vanilla Coke sometimes) and Sour Patch Extremes (Overall not too extreme).

Then we went back to the Chevy dealership. The Boy had forgotten his LSU parking pass inside the car. Luckily his parents has an extra key (he was in the drop box, remember).

Then we stopped by another Mazda dealership. And finally made it back to the apartment by 3-ish. And there went 3 hours of my Sunday. Fun times.

~Shoshanah

P.S. Props to anyone who knows where the title to this post is from.

A Coke?

So I went to the vending machines at my apartment complex to buy a coke. (OMG I am turning into a Louisianan! I didn't buy a Coke. I bought a Dr. Pepper and am now just referring to sodas as Cokes in general)

Moving past my own personal crisis. I put my dollar into the machine, and immediately heard coins fall. At that time though a light lit up on the machine saying use correct change. So I figured that was weird. That it took my dollar and gave me coins? I took the change out, but there was only $0.60 there! It didn't even give me my whole dollar back!

I had brought a second dollar bill just in case, but didn't really want to waste it. So I figured I would see if it would take the coins. Maybe it gave me the exact change to use? $0.60 sounds reasonable for a soda (ha! I did it right there) doesn't it. But alas, it kept spitting my coins back out!

I figured I would press the Dr. Pepper button in desperation. And a Dr. Pepper popped out! Which means I only paid $0.40 for a can! That seems ridiculously little. My thought is maybe someone else forget there change? So sodas are in fact $0.70? Who knows, I am going to cross my fingers and hope that they are $0.40!

But Top Chef is on, so I must go. And I SO recognize the plantation the did the quick fire at! But honestly can't figure out which one it is! Maybe when the Boy gets home he will be able to tell!

~Shoshanah
Image from Flickr user Daniel Morris

Our First Apartment - In Pictures

So I just finished my snack of beef summer sausage and aged Gouda. I have been craving this combination since I bought both last Saturday. Eating food like this reminds me on lunches at my parents' house growing. (This was not actually lunch though, lunch was last night's leftovers from Carraba's.) Moving forward, the long awaited tour of our apartment.

The front door to the apartment enters the living/dinning room. The living room is currently a mess, and sparsely decorated, so per the Boy's request there are no actual pictures of it. Once it gets a little better I will post pictures of it. The rest of the apartment is still pretty minimally decorated. Nothing is hung up on the walls yet, and overall it is pretty bare. But I promise it will get better. So here goes!


This is taken at the back of the living room. On the far left is the entrance to the kitchen. If you look closely you can see the microwave, dishwasher, and trashcan. The door in the center goes outside onto our closed in patio. To the right of that door is a half bathroom. It is a very tiny room with just a sink and toilet, hence there are no pictures of it. On the right are two of the first few stairs.


Here is the kitchen. On the left, but not visible in this picture is the closet that holds the washer and dryer hook-ups. We have nothing in their now, but hopefully that will be our first big purchase together.


This is heading up the stairs. The door to the left is our bedroom. The door on the right goes to the bathroom.


Another view of the landing. This time the door on the left goes to the bathroom and the door on the right goes to the second bedroom. There are no pictures of the second bedroom. Hopefully it will eventually be an office/library. Right now we're calling it the big closet.


The bedroom. Not a lot to explain here. This is the view from walking in off the landing. On the back right side of the room is where the bathroom is.


Taken from the entrance to the bathroom. The Boy's closet is on the left. Mine is on the right. And just in case you were curious we sleep on the side of the bed that corresponds to the closets.


The door to the bathroom. This is the Boy's sink. The purple thing in the corner is my towel turbie. I need to get hooks to hang over the doors for them. It is currently hanging on the door handle of the linen closet.


My sink. The bathtub is in the left corner. The door you can see heads out to the landing.


Myself laying out at the pool. Yes it was actually warm enough to do this today. In the 70s. When the clouds were over the sun it was a little cool, but overall it felt nice.


The view of the pool. On the other side is the laundry room and the main office. If you're curious you can see the book I'm reading Sammy's House by Kristin Gore (aka Al Gore's daughter) on my chair.

So yes, that is our first apartment! Once it is decorated and looks much better I will post more pictures. I hope you enjoyed!

~Shoshanah

lunch BREAK

I decided to stop by the apartment for my lunch break today. The first too, since we moved. It didn't turn out to be quite the best planning on my part.

I let myself in, and decided to make a Cup o' Noodles. Tear of the cardboard, plastic wrap, go to fill it with water, and no... there's no water. Maybe, it's just in the kitchen. Check out the bathroom sick. No water there.

Now we've only been living here just over 3 weeks. I had been under the impression that the complex paid for water and we didn't have too. But I guess I could have been mistaken. But we've only been living here three weeks! And we never received a water bill. Cable bill, yes. No electricity bill yet. And definitely no water bill.

I haven't checked the mail since Saturday. So maybe a bill came Monday (or yesterday?) and needed to be paid immediately. Maybe I was supposed to call the water company and start an account (Water Company sounds so Monopoly like).

So I check the mail. Coupons the Chick-fil-a. Forms to win $1,000,000 that my mom actually to the time to send to me. But no water bill.

So I head to the office and figured I'll get someone there to fix things with me. On the door to the office there's a sign.

We will have to turn off the water Wednesday, February 4 for maintenance. Once finished the water will return shortly.

Head back to my apartment, and sure enough, the water is already back on.

~Shoshanah

P.S. Top Chef tonight!

Cough Cough

Or really should I say sneeze sneeze. I'm sick. It's not that bad, just sneezing and a runny nose, and my throat doesn't feel good. Although their have been times off and on this afternoon where I that it was just really bad allergies (they have been pretty bad with all the dust from moving). But I think it is a cold, with my allergies making it worse.

Of course since I don't feel well, I used that as an excuse to not do my work-out video. ::sigh:: And the Boy wasn't even here today, so I've had the apartment to myself since I've been here. I am planning on working out tomorrow. Really! Assuming I don't stop by where I used to work after school and visit the kids and my old co-workers. So we'll see.

I figured though, if I wasn't going to be working out I should at least do something productive. Thus I decided to unpack. We have almost finished unpacking everything, which is nice. And once I finish I will post pictures. I only have one suitcase of clothes left, which is good because today I had to start putting my overflow clothes in the closet in the spare bedroom. I guess you could say I need less cloths. But really, I think I just need a bigger closet!

Sunday Ramblings

Everything is officially moved to the new apartment. Put away not so, but inside.

The Boy and I went to the mall this morning. I has craving Chick-fil-a, but being Sunday, they were not open. We though about Raising Cane's (Louisiana's version of Chick-fil-a), but wound up going to Quizno's.

The goal of the trip was to buy the boy a jacket for the wedding he's in within the next few weeks. Didn't quite happen. I did get a pair of heels to wear to work though. Greatly needed considering the one pair of shoes my feet let me wear to work have a broken heel. We looked around at chairs at bookshelves, but didn't quite find anything. Sear was selling a bar stool ridiculously cheap at $15, but unfortunately, we have no bar.

So here I am sitting in the living room surrounded by books. I figure I'll pack stuff up during commercials? Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters aren't on, but I figure I'll watch the Duggar Wedding Special tonight. Yes, I am a Duggar fan, have been for a while actually. I remember Junior year of college watching their first special 14 Children and Pregnant again, and now they're up to 18! It has to be said I have a slight obsession with large families and especially with multiples (The Dilleys, The McCaughey, The Gosselins). Obsessed much?

Anyways, here's to unpacking! Wish me luck!

Turns out...

I'm currently eating one of Amy's Shepherd's Pies. I really like their stuff. I've never had their shepherd's pie before, but it's pretty good. Their burritos are probably my favorite. I normally buy these (or Kashi) frozen foods, because I feel like their healthier. More organics, more whole grains, more veggies, and more exciting than just Lean Cuisine. Unfortunately, like all frozen foods they are high in salt. I mean looking at the nutritional facts we have:
4g of fat (0g saturated, 0g trans) 6%DV
0mg cholesterol
5g Sugar
27g Carbs (Of which only 19% is sugar) 9% dv
5g Fiber 20dv
5g protein (It is vegan)
50%dv Vitamin A
30%dv Vitamin C
10%dv Calcium
15%dv Iron
But...
590mg Salt 25%DV
If only we could break down the salt. But o well...

Moving on. Remember a few weeks back when I talked about how you could no longer talk on your phone is Louisiana? Well I mentioned it to the girls at work. One of them said, "I though the new law was you couldn't text while driving?" Well one of my co-workers was proactive and actually looks it up online.

The law officially is (or maybe not so officially since I haven't actually looked it up myself to check):

You are no longer allowed to text while driving.
If you are under age 18 you are not allowed to talk while driving.

So I guess I can go back to calling people in the car! Good to know!

I really should go, so I can continue to unpack the new apartment. Not that everything is moved over here yet. Primarily my dresser, which makes is awfully difficult to unpack clothes. But we shall see!

~Shoshanah

Horses and the NEW Apartment

So we started house-sitting as of last Tuesday. The Boy's parents left early Wednesday morning and were gone till late Saturday night. Leaving us in the charge of the house and more importantly the animals. 5 horses, 2 cats, and 1 dog. And I'm not really an animal person. Not that I have anything against them. My parents had cats my whole life. I think there was literally a time frame of 1 month when my parents haven't had at least 1 cat my entire life (at the moment they have 5). When I was in 4th grade we got our first dog. She is still alive, (old but alive) and when I was in college my parents got a second dog. I think it's the fact that since they were always animals around me there were something that was just there. Sure I enjoy cuddling with some of the cats when I'm home, but it's not like I really miss any of the animals.

Anyways so the way our schedule worked out was the Boy would feed the horses in the morning and I would at night. Of course I don't get off work till 5. And since his parents live pretty much in the middle of nowhere, it would take me 1 and a half hours to get to the house. So it was dark by the time I got there. Last time we house sit the horses were arranged so I could just drop the food into buckets over the fence. This time, not so much. I had to walk through the pen with the 3 moms in order to get to the babies. And one of the mom's was currently pregnant, so as you might imagine she wasn't in the best mood. And then there was the fact that the pens were pretty much mud pits, and since it was dark avoid puddles was pretty much impossible. Yeah, overall not so much fun, but I survived.

The only thing I really do enjoy about house-sitting it the fact that they get expanded cable. Which means WE. And of course their wedding programming. Bridzillas. Platinum weddings. Sooo addictive. Unfortunately his parents got back on Saturday night, and WE was only airing their wedding shows last week on Sunday. A whole days worth of shows, I could have been watching. Even though we stay till Monday (when we got to move to the apartment) I would have felt a little odd having them see me watch wedding shows. "Here I am dating your son, not engaged to him, and I'm watching hour after hour of wedding TV." Not so much...

Moving on to better news... the apartment! It all happened so quickly. First off we wanted a 1 bedroom apartment in price category A. However, we every complex that rented apartments in that category was full. Moving up a price set to category B, there were 1 bedrooms at several places available. But the complexes that had 1 bedrooms in A had 2 bedrooms in B. So we figured if were going to pay a higher price we might as well get more room.

We had marketing material for our complex so I came by Saturday, January 10, to fill out an application. We got approved on Monday? I think it might have been Tuesday, to move in the following Monday. So two days ago on my lunch hour I drove to the apartment complex and signed a lease! And since it was Martin Luther King Jr. day then, the boy's didn't have school. So him, his dad, and some friends spent the rest of the day moving furniture in. It's mostly stuff that his parents had kept in storage, so it isn't the nicest of stuff, and it doesn't really match, but it's free! We're not completely moved yet, there's still some stuff at the old house, but every day after work this week I've picked up a carload of stuff, we're making progress. Overall it's coming together.

We are kinda short on somethings. Like the fact that we have a dinning table and no chairs. I would LOVE to go to Ikea, but unfortunately the closest one is in Texas (Houston maybe?) and an 8 hour drive away. I think it's worth it! Hell, I'd go just for their Swedish meatballs. But the boy, not so much. So we'll see. I will post pictures eventually, once we're more moved in and unpacked! Hopefully, that will be sooner and not later!

~Shoshanah

The Return

And I have returned. It's only been a little over a week and yet so much has happened. I survived feeding horses in the dark and the hour and half commute (and that was just on the way home). But most importantly is the new apartment! Crazy I know. But that will be all tonight. I promise a good update tomorow. All about well horses and the new apartment I guess!

Golden Globes 2009

I spent the afternoon at the Starbucks in Barnes and Nobles (Grande Cinnamon Dolce Latte and Vanilla Cupcake), which is quickly becoming my favorite Sunday afternoon pastime. Although, once we move into our new apartment I feel like it should stop. It's not that I don't enjoy it, but once we have our apartment I will be able to get my coffee stuff out and make my own cups. I won't however have access to the scores of magazines at Barnes and Nobles, so we'll see.

There are of course several things I want to start doing once we move. First is scrap booking. And not just at the apartment. I know there one store that does cropping sessions, and I think I should do that. It would definitely be a way to meet people. And maybe going to the farmer's market? That would be something I would like to do as a couple, but with the boy's schedule, I would have to do it myself.

Anyways the Golden Globes are on tonight, and I'm a sucker for awards shows. So without further ado, here are my picks for the winners tonight. It's a combination of who I WANT to win and who I THINK will when. Kinda difficult, because there is a lot of stuff I haven't seen, but hopefully will before the Oscars. So, here goes:

Best Picture (Drama) - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Actress (Drama) - Angelina Jolie – Changeling
Best Actor (Drama) - Leonardo DiCaprio – Revolutionary Road
Best Picture (Comedy or Musical) - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Actress (Comedy or Musical) - Emma Thompson – Last Chance Harvey
Best Actor (Comedy or Musical) - Javier Bardem – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Supporting Actress - Kate Winslet – The Reader
Best Supporting Actor - Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Best Animated Film - Wall-E
Best Foreign Language Film - Waltz With Bashir (Israel)
Best Director - David Fincher – The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Best Screenplay - Frost/Nixon - Written by Peter Morgan
Best Original Score - Changeling - Composed by Clint Eastwood
Best Song - "Gran Torino" – Gran Torino - Music By: Clint Eastwood, Jamie Cullum, Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens; Lyrics By: Jamie Cullum
Best TV Series (Drama) - House
Best TV Actress (Drama) - Sally Field – Brothers & Sisters
Best Actor (Drama) - Jon Hamm – Mad Men
Best TV Series (Comedy) - The Office
Best TV Actress (Comedy) - Tina Fey – 30 Rock
Best Actor (Comedy) - Steve Carell – The Office
Best Mini-Series or TV Movie - John Adams
Best Actress in a Mini-Series - Laura Linney – John Adams
Best Actor in a Mini-Series - Kiefer Sutherland – 24
Best Supporting TV Actress - Rachel Griffiths – Brothers & Sisters
Best Supporting TV Actor - Neil Patrick Harris – How I Met Your Mother

So we'll see how I do!

Apartment Hunting

Last Tuesday the Boy went to a bunch of apartments hoping to find one to move into. It's something I've been wanting us to do together, bus since he is always working (7 days a week when he's in school), this is a bit of a problem. I don't really want to go look at apartments myself. Thankfully, since school is out for winter break he went to look a bunch of places. He had narrowed it down to a few, and I made the final pick.

So today I was supposed to go to our #1 and sign a lease. I was ridiculously nervous. I just hate putting myself in new situations where I don't know what to expect. So after stopping by my office to grab my last two paychecks from my desk, I went by the complex. Got there, nervous of course, and went into the office. Was like, "Uhhh I want to sign a lease" Turns out it didn't quite work that way.

The girl did remember the Boy, and was able to find a card he filled out showing interest. She said they didn't have any of the apartments we wanted opening up. But there were apartments that had been damaged by Hurricane Gustav. They were being remodeled and were supposed to be finish by the end of January or early February. If we decided to apply in hopes of getting one of those, we'd each have to fill out an application (and of course each pay an application fee). Each app had a page that our former place of living had to fill out and our current employer. Which kinda sucks because the Boy doesn't really have a former living place and I didn't have the best of relationship per se with my last apartment complex. And of course not knowing exactly when we would get an apartment kinda sucks. So yeah, overall not the best of a situation. Hopefully it all works out eventually