posted from the comfort of my very own bed.

oh, yes.  you read that correctly.

we have internet in our apartment.  which is actually the cause of the late-in-the-week post.  because every day, i was all, 'oh, i can just write something at home SINCE WE HAVE INTERNET!'  and then i obviously forgot to do it.

and since i can't rant about the internet anymore, i just don't know what to write about.

oh, got it!  i'm going to tell you random stuff i like.  cause it's my blog, and i want to.

i like bread and wine by shauna niequist.  actually, i like everything by her.  read all her books.  this one is great because it has recipes.  and they are awesome.

i like broccoli chips.  think kale chips, but use broccoli instead.  throw on a pan.  spray with pam.  toss some sea salt on 'em.  425 for 13 minutes.  thank me later.  (actually, thank shauna.  it's in her book.)

i like hollywood game night.  takes me back to the days of win, lose, or draw.  i will shamelessly admit to the fact that i love when celebrities are competitive and look ridiculous.

i like having internet.  ha.

i like that the colts acquired trent richardson.  we'll see how it turns out.

i like cafe escape chai lattes for the keurig.  they are yummy.

i like our coffee shop in pendleton.  so cute.

i like this season of life.  (the season of weather is only my third favorite, but it's a million billion points above winter, so...)

oh, it's the little things

i have always been drawn to particular sounds or sensations.  they connect to me very deeply, for reasons i cannot necessarily explain. 

here's a random example: in the movie 'on our own' (yes, it's a feature films for family movie, and yes, you should watch it), one of the characters is carrying grocery bags.  they kind of crunch and rustle in a particular way, and that sound is embedded in my soul.  obviously, if i am writing about it this many years later. 

i recently (aka yesterday) got a new keyboard and mouse at work.  this is a delightful thing on multiple fronts.  for one thing, i had no idea how bad my old ones really really were.  oh, i knew they were awful.  they had been going downhill for at least a month and required a special kind of finesse to use...my right mouse button had to be gently and evenly depressed using the entirety of my middle finger.  the keyboard...well, let's just say i had a few heart to hearts that ended with me slamming it to make it work.  i didn't think it was asking too much to type letters and numbers when i hit the appropriate keys, but it seems that was reaching a bit too high.

another plus: the news ones work well.  super awesome rockstar well.  the mouse zips around my screens (psh yeah i have two screens.  don't you?) like it's the greatest thing to do on earth.  the sides of it have this grippy rubber that feels so cool.  and there are clicky buttons on the sides that let me navigate between folders.  which is actually a neat feature for the work that i am doing.

but my favorite part (and the reason for my sound/sensation post) is the noise that my keys make.  i'm not sure how to describe this sound.  there's a smoothness to it.  it's not thunky, like with keyboards from the 90s.  those keys were higher up off the board.  these are lower and probably a little smaller.  sleeker, certainly.  and when i get typing at an accelerated pace, i could close my eyes and breathe the sound right in.

yeah, i might be a weirdo. 

i am not a soft typist.  i think my mom, with her secretarial school training, probably is, though.  and maybe heather.  could be the delicate piano skills they have acquired.  but i type like i play piano--loud, hard, with the belief that speed is always the right choice.

so i have gone from a keyboard that made it sound like i was abusing the hard plastic in unmentionable ways to a keyboard that essentially reads my mind.  it absorbs my force, has a gradual incline to support my wrists (instead of awkwardly force them upward), and has a button devoted solely to pulling up the calculator on the computer.  this thing is awesome.

if you want one of these bad boy sets, it's called the microsoft wireless desktop 3000. 

i was hopeful...and other miscellany

oh, so hopeful...hopeful that i would be able to type this at home. 

but alas.

it is not to be.

we are still without internet.

and that is all i have to say about that.

---

our apartment is cute.  you'll have to come visit.

---

very fall-like weather we are having these days.  that's bittersweet.  i like fall--the colors, the bite of the air, the apples and pumpkin and cinnamon smells everywhere, the bonfires, etc.  but i am a summer girl.  born for the sun.  born for the heat.  plus, fall means winter is right around the corner.  barf.  i am NOT a winter girl.

---

peyton is still the man.

---

i am in the middle of several books that i am really enjoying.  what are you reading right now?  not that i should, but i might add it to my pile.  :)

---

we have an unusually high number of bugs, etc. in our apartment.  it does not seem to be as a result of cleanliness or uncleanliness.  they just sort of show up for no reason.  i feel like i should start a list to keep track of all the different types.  i shooed a cricket out yesterday.  maybe if i killed more of them, word would get around that we are bad mofos and not to be trifled with.  maybe not.

---

these are just a small collection of the things in my head.  hope it was as good for you as it was for me.

yeah, i'm pretty much a vegetarian until 6 pm

my friend emily (who is an engaging/lovely/honest writer/musician/mother, among other things...you should really check out her blog HERE) started following me on pinterest a while ago.  mostly cause we are dorks and talk about food a bunch.  being a faux-foodie is fun.  i think emily is a real foodie, actually.  but i don't know if i have the commitment to be a real foodie.

i digress.

so i have a food board that she follows.  if you want to see it, it's HERE.  (fair warning...i am kind of terrible about pinterest.  i will go through spurts where i will look at it a bunch for about two days and pin things...and then forget it exists for three months.  but this board serves as an online recipe box for me, so that's helpful.)

emily and i hung out a while ago at hearthstone (apparently, this is a link happy blog...but the place is awesome, and you should investigate it HERE), and i ordered one of their flatbread pizzas because the menu description contained words like pesto, mushrooms, and cheese.  duh.  so emily commented, 'are you a full-time vegetarian?'

i almost choked.

me?  a vegetarian?  the daughter of a hunter?

definitely not.

emily explained, 'well, most of your recipes on pinterest are veggie ones...'

she has a point.  i think if you did a search on my board, you would notice words like asparagus, avocado, spinach, hummus, and goat cheese come up over and over.  BECAUSE I LOVE THESE THINGS.

seriously.  love.

(you will also notice a theme of olive oil and garlic: two basic staples that i want to put in everything, even if there is no reason to at all.)

and when i get on pinterest, my eye is naturally drawn to these foods.  can't be helped.  so there are many many many vegetarian-friendly recipes on my board.

but let's get serious.  i love meat.  boy howdy, do i love meat/animal protein.  i love the basics (pork, beef, chicken, seafood), the hunted (squirrel, rabbit, venison), and the lesser-talked about (tripe, offal).  i'll eat it all.

but most days, i don't have any meat until my evening meal.  and not always then.  so about 70% of my life is vegetarian by the sheer coincidence that i happen to love fruits and vegetables. 

so yeah.  i'm pretty much a vegetarian until 6 pm.







(if you want to know the foods i don't like, they are as follows: rhubarb and grapefruit.  there are other foods i can't eat because of my allergies, but it doesn't mean i don't like them.)

**edit** it has been pointed out i also hate chocolate milk.  not sure how i forgot that.

just another first

i wanted to learn
to share my heart, words inside--
a brick wall, haiku.

read this book immediately

 

getting naked later: a guide for the fully clothed

kate hurley

 



it. is. amazeballs. 

funny.  full of truth.  honest.  hopeful.

you should read it if you are single.  you will connect and high five the book, make circles, draw arrows, and yell 'preach it!'

you should read it if you are married.  you will hear the wounded heartbeat of so many people around you (but you will not feel like you are being lectured).

seriously.  it's just so excellent. 

rant blog: not in the cards

i used to have a secret blog where i ranted about stuff.  not very many people had access to it.  probably for the best.

but there are times where rant blogs are necessary and helpful.  and, as i explained to mj last night, laughing at my pain can ease yours.

so laugh away.  i am [mostly] not full of rage anymore.

...

liz and i are on a budget.  (it turns out that moving is craptastically expensive, and this is why married people get wedding registries.  strike one against singles.)  so in our efforts to save a little cash where possible, when choosing our internet options, we made some decisions.  we bought our modem instead of renting it for $7/month, and we are doing self-installation instead of having someone come do it for us for $40.

so last monday, as i was trying to check out online, it said there would be a $20 shipping fee for the self-installation kit.  this seemed stupid and terrible and in direct contrast to what the helpful sales person had told me in an earlier conversation.  so i talked to another person, and they assured me if i went and picked it up at the location closest to our apartment, i would not have to pay this fee.  awesome.  however, it had to be me, and i had to show my id.  which complicated things a little, as

a) i don't work particularly close to that location
b) they close at 6
c) i get off work at 5

but no worries.  i would bolt out the door and make it there in the nick of time, and everything would be wonderful.  just to give myself peace of mind, i double checked to make sure it would be there that evening.

nope.  they don't keep self-installation kits on hand.  that would be silly.  it would take 3-5 business days to get there. 

as you may recall, i left for wisconsin on thursday after work.  so i conceded that i would not be picking up the kit last week.  not a huge deal.  we were both out of town, so who needed internet anyway?  not us.

so even though i had a long weekend with a lot of driving, i was all set to pick it up on monday.  i left work, hopped on 69-n...and sat still for about an hour.  police had blocked off all lanes going north because of a suspicious backpack.  which turned out to have water bottles in it.  and was reclaimed during the investigation.  sigh.  it was an inconvenience, but i ended up having dinner with my parents since i was rerouted that way anyway.

but yesterday was the day.  it was going to happen.  i sprinted out the door at 4:58 and got on 69-n in record time.  there were absolutely no delays and surprisingly little traffic all the way to anderson.  i couldn't believe it.  i figured it was some kind of justice for the annoyance of the day before.

i got off my exit, turned left, drove about fifteen seconds, and was greeted with a police barricade.  SERIOUSLY?  no idea what they were doing.  so i whipped out my phone and figured out my detour plan.  eta: 5:44.  ok, cutting it closer than i wanted, but i would still make it there in time. 

the detour, unfortunately, took about 300 cars through a stop sign.  which was a bit slow.  so i watched my eta change from 5:44 to 5:48.  5:52.  5:53.  5:58...

i got to the stop sign, turned right, drove, turned left on the road that had been blocked off (still couldn't see why), and booked it through anderson.  don't worry.  even in my panic and stress, i was driving reasonable and safe speeds.  i'm not a lunatic.

cruising along and making up a little bit of time, i think, 'even if i get there right at 6, and they have locked the door, i will bang on it and make them let me in.  i don't even have to pay for anything...just pick it up.'  this made me feel a bit better.

and then there was a train.  i am not making this up.

it was sitting perfectly still on the train tracks for no apparent reason.  i wanted to do violent things.

my eta kept creeping up.  6:02, 6:03.  but i refused to give in.  i had come this far.  it was going to happen.

the train finally moved.  i zipped down the road.  and then came to the heart of downtown anderson, which is full of stoplights and one way streets.  my eta was hovering around 6:02, and i died a little inside every time i had to stop at a light.

i turned on 10th street and searched high and low for this store.  nowhere to be found.  so i did the only thing you can do in this situation.  i kept turning down random one way street s to try and find it.  this resulted in driving several large squares and rectangles around downtown anderson.  but it worked, because on one of these ventures, i spotted a van with the name of the place i was looking for (notice how i have worked so hard at not disparaging the company itself because only some of this annoyance is actually their fault?). 

so i jetted down the street, only to see that it was an exit only.  no idea how i had missed the entrance, i let out a shriek of agony and tried to turn around.  that was a poor decision, but nothing bad happened.  i made a large rectangle around several blocks and realized the entrance was past the exit, which further enraged me.  but i found it and pulled in the parking lot.

i looked at the clock.  6:07.  willing my heart to slow to a normal pace, i walked to the door.  unsurprisingly, it was locked.  heartbroken, i looked inside.  an employee stared back out at me.  and looked away.  i stood around, looking pathetic, for several more minutes, but it was clear there was no way she was going to open the door.

so i drove home.

and we do not have internet.

but maybe someday...