April is the cruelest month.

Except when April ends, that means May begins and it means that all of the stress that is April is done.

We turned in our old keys tonight and we're in our new place.

I'm flying home for a couple of weeks Monday morning.

Life's a-okay. How about you?

A little more about me.

I'm not a huge meme person, but this one looked really cool. I love a good visual piece, especially when it's quite accurate in capturing an essence of "me."

DIRECTIONS:

- Go to Google image search.

- Type in your answer to each question.

- Choose a picture from the first page.

- Use this website (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php) to make your collage.

QUESTIONS:

1. What is your name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What is your hometown?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. What is your favorite movie?

6. What is your favorite drink?

7. What is your dream vacation?

8. What is your favorite dessert?

9. What is one word to describe yourself?

10. How are you feeling right now?

11. What do you love most in the world?

12. What do you want to be when you grow up?

New digs

My favorite part about moving is making a place my own. Today, I finally feel like the pieces are coming together. We made the decision not to put our bed back together because we don't think we'll be here long enough to justify it, so our mattress is on the floor. It looks really nice, surprisingly, as I also hung one of my tapestries on the pole between the bedroom and the living room. It looks almost like a luxurious get away. 

It's low quality, of course, being from my computer, but you get the idea. 

One of the reasons that I love making a place my own so much is that it gives me a sense of peace. I'm a cleaner when I'm stressed, so having a place that's clean and put together makes me feel less stressed. The summer between my sophomore and junior year in college, I spent a summer living in one of the dorms at Northwestern University since I was a Teaching Assistant for a summer program at the school. I remember one of the other folks staying in the dorm, one of the head administrative people, came into my room one evening and told me that she always loved walking by and peeking into my room because it just exuded calmness and creativity. I thought that was about the best compliment ever -- while the rest of my life may be one grand disaster, at least I live in a cool looking place, right?

BEDA licious.

Listography of the day.

+ My kitty is home

+ We are almost all moved into the new apartment

- I had intentions of leaving awesome comments for my BEDA buddies today, but it didn't happen. It will, ladies

- We have to clean the old apartment still

+/- I am genuinely tired. I have not slept well lately.

- Lamest. Blog. Ever.

Our new addition

Erik came home from work today with our new baby: a mandolin!

One of the guys he works with gave it to us, and it is beautiful. I'm excited to get back on a string instrument. I've a guitar back in the basement in Chicago with a broken string, but I think the mandolin will be a welcomed friend in our household. 

Weekend check-in

We got a dreaded phone call about 12:15 last night about Mason and how he needed surgery immediately; things weren't looking good. After a lot of sweat and stress, they called back half an hour later and said he looked better and they were holding off. Phew! Today he's doing better, but he'll have to be there a bit still. Argh! I'm missing my kitty.

We're trying to get as much moved today as we can but lordy, it's stressful. We've gotten a few loads over and have a few more to go. We're going to take the cat over tonight and let her wander while we do some unpacking. I'm not unpacking entirely, since I'm hoping we really won't be there too long and we'll be back in the midwest.

In happier news, I wanted to share another of my favorite poems. I love Jane Kenyon, and it was this poem that introduced me to her. In 11th grade, we had to do an obscene number of presentations -- which ultimately was good for me -- but one of them was about Thoreau's Walden. We had to choose a poem to recite and tie into our memorization of the famous lines of his piece. I fell in love with this one and tied it into the story of butterfly woman, who lived in the giant redwoods in California.

Killing the Plants 

That year I discovered the virtues
of plants as companions: they don't
argue, they don't ask for much,
they don't stay out until 3:00 A.M., then
lie to you about where they've been....

I can't summon the ambition
to repot this grape ivy, of this sad
old cactus, or even to move them out
onto the porch for the summer,
where their lives would certainly
improve. I give them
a grudging dash of water – that's all
they get. I wonder if they suspect

that like Hamlet I rehearse murder
all hours of the day and night,
considering the town dump
and compost pile as possible graves....

The truth is that if I permit them
to live, they will go on giving
alms to the poor: sweet air, miraculous
flowers, the example of persistence.

A long Friday and Saturday

My poor little Mason has been sick the last couple of days, throwing up all the time. Last night, we took him to an emergency vet to get him checked out. The techs at this place treated him well, but we didn't think the vet was giving him good options besides just getting an xray (read: $$$). We took him home over night and watched him since he was acting so much better at the vet. 

After he continued being sick, we brought him back in early this morning. The tech knew right away what was wrong -- and it wasn't what they suggested last night. We were immediately told that this was an emergency situation, and among hearing the diagnoses and the problems, we were confronted with a bill the price of a semester's tuition.

We talked it over and went ahead with it. There were a few different potential outcomes, from an overnight and some fluids/iv and medication to a full out surgery complete with anesthesia. Of course, since I'm not employed and Erik makes just enough to pay rent and groceries, we're less than thrilled; however, Mason's my baby and still a very young cat. We'll figure it out.

When we left the vet, I lost it. Being confronted with both the scary news and the scary bill at once is terrifying. 

However, our luck changed after we got home. We decided to go grab lunch to get our minds off it, and on the way there, we got a call from the vet that he was doing amazingly well after she did the first (read: less expensive and scary) testing. I had called home to talk with my mom and apparently one of her cats had the same condition which made me feel a little better (read: we're not bad cat owners). So now knowing he didn't need the surgery was awesome.

I just hung up again with them and he's apparently eating now and doing very, very well. Thank the lords, right? What a scary weekend, with our plans now entirely in the air. 

If all continues going well -- and the vet who helped us this time was very optimistic -- he can come home soon. Even though he's been out of the house only about 10 hours, we miss him, our little butter ball. 

My weekend.

12 books due at the library Monday that can't be renewed + Wednesday's looming move out deadline + 8 yards of fabric and bondable web + a sick kitty + a messy, messy desktop on my computer + personal project and web projects to kick start and complete = my weekend which WILL be fun regardless :)

When I grow up...

I've been keeping a mental list of things I really want to do/have when I grow up (code for, when I am working and Erik is working and we are a two-income family). Do you keep such lists? Mine includes the following:

• Taking an art class
• Begin writing my book
• Become fluent in Spanish (that would fall under taking a few more classes)
• Join a book club
• Watch more movies from our Netflix subscription
• Get real furniture (and second hand is totally okay, as long as it's real, moderately sustainable furniture)
• Grow a garden
• Bring a puppy home
• Digitize my family's history (this coincides with one of my long term life goals)
• Be active in my community in some capacity
• Become much more active in keeping in touch with people in my life
• Own a treadmill and/or stationary bike
• Tutor and mentor community youth
• Develop an incredible collection of art at home that no one else has 
• Write a family cookbook that explores our history and life milestones
• Build a nice professional set of clothes. What I have now is nice and appropriate, but I have not shopped for myself in months and I have not invested much effort in building a sustainable, timeless collection
• Time to visit my friends and family spread throughout the country

What are your grown up aspirations? I like to think I'm not too idealistic, but, what I'd really like is happiness, health, and strong, committed relationships with the people in my life. We've always been a very simple family, and we've never been a family of haves [nor have we been of the have nots, since we've almost always had our basic needs met]. I kind of want to keep it that way. 

Earth resolutions

Admittedly, I'm not the most eco-conscious nor eco-guilty people. I live in an eco-friendly city, but I'm not one to put enough effort into doing things that contribute to a greener planet, and it's not just because I'm lazy (I'm not). It's sometimes a matter of not thinking about it enough. But I think Earth Day is a good time to think about environmental resolutions. 

When I graduated from Cornell, I signed the graduation pledge. I certainly haven't forgotten about it. I still have my card and the bookmarks I made to promote the cause. As soon as I am employed with an organization, I hope to be able to contribute to that employer's green side in simple and effective manners. But the pledge is also personal, and I think it's easy to forget some of the simple ways that I already do think consciously about my environmental impact and the ways I can do better.

First and foremost, there are things Erik and I do do that take into account the environment. All of our light bulbs are  compact florescent, for example. We don't buy bottled water because we have a perfectly good tap and filter. We have one car because I rely on public transit in Austin. We buy our groceries at the local chain that is close to home, as well as mostly filled with products that are moderately local. We have few lights in our place and only turn them on when needed (or I end up doing it when someone forgets he doesn't need the kitchen light on when he's in the living room). When I lived more centrally and on my own, I only used recyclable grocery bags since they were easier to carry. We are also big believers in donating our unused or unwanted stuff to Goodwill, saving it from landfills and allowing it a second life. We use environmentally-friendly cleaning supplies that don't add to the chemicals in the air. Lastly, Erik and I have been committed, as I mentioned in an earlier post, to reducing our collecting of stuff. 

We know there's a lot more we can do. 

As of today, Earth Day 2009, we're pledging to do better. What we can do to improve our planet is so easy, but it's also easily overlooked. Some of our resolutions include: 

• Recycling our empty cans -- as diet coke drinkers, we often throw the cans out because recycling them requires a lot of effort on our part living in an apartment complex. But it's not impossible, and it's something so simple we CAN do.
• Bringing our reusable bags to the grocery store -- I did it before, but since we use a car now, we don't think to do it. 
• We're cutting cable, reducing our electrical use of a television.
• Eating seasonally -- I have a wonderful cookbook that focuses on eating foods that are in season, and it's something I'd like to try. As convenient as it is that we can get blueberries any time of the year, there is a major environmental impact on that in terms of transporting and growth.
• Reusing broken or old items in new ways. 
• [here's your tmi] Actually using my diva cup rather than having it there and relying on tampons
• Purchasing items with the least amount of waste

All are simple but are effective some how, even if it's effective only because it reduces our load on ourselves. 

What are your eco-resolutions? What are you doing to help motha' Earth?

Feeling like Alexander.

I will not be blogging today. I am blogging to say I will fail at being a successful blog participant today. Blog, blog, blog. 

Stressed (no desserts here, please).

It's going to be a busy, busy week. Erik and I decided we want to be totally out of our place by Sunday. To do that, we need to keep packing and moving, including making some more donations and trips to the dumpsters outside. 

I've taken on a new personal project, to be blogged about soon. I'm the mistress of the personal project, and I need to get all of those things together and better organized so I can be more effective. Clean your house, clean your computer, clean your projects, right?

This week, I hope to eek out a little poetry. I also have a blank canvas here just begging for my attention. We have a space in the kitchen, and now it just needs its masterpiece.

I'm getting very excited about an upcoming trip. Erik and I are heading up to Chicago so he can get registered for school and we can figure out where to set sail for a couple of years. We're shocked with ticket prices, too. We had to fly up at the same time last year and tickets were $300 each way; we decided driving, even with the expensive gas prices and hotel stay, was cheaper. This time, they were under $100 each way. 

...This post brought to you by being uninspired. I promise something more exciting tomorrow! Monday is not my day today for creativity. 

Sunny Sunday

I am in love with the painting I finished last night. When I first began it, it kind of bothered me but as it grew, I began to really dig the images and I am in mad love with how vibrant the colors turned out. 

I am an artist of color and shape. I believe in using and manipulating shapes and colors to allow the image and vision to emerge. It sounds lofty, but I've really come to believe that when you do art, there is a reason and purpose behind it (even simply to tell a good story). Mine's simply shape and color. There is a story here. Can you see it?

The first real painting I did for pleasure was one that's traveled with me since senior year of college. My roommate was taking an art class and shared her canvas and paint with me. Again, shape and color tell the story. This one's got a lot of angles, but I like to think it's a woman in a parka on a park bench. Maybe you see something else. 

In entirely unrelated news, it's volunteer appreciation week at the place I volunteer. The only snag in it is that all of the events happen during the week; I happen to be a Sunday volunteer, so unless I make the effort to go in for my free Panda Express, I miss out. Fortunately, I work for such wonderful people, I got my appreciation today!

The library assistant brought me a big, bright sunflower. Just looking at it makes me so cheerful and happy. 

Perhaps more exciting than the sunflower was the compliment a patron shared today. She had asked me to get in touch with one of the nurses, and I said I wanted to make sure I was calling the right extension. I asked the la, who told me how to do it. I called it and handed the woman the phone. When she hung up she told me that was great customer service. Plus one on the happy points.

So a few minutes later, her son wanted to play a game on the computer. He was having trouble getting it to work, so I went over and walked him through getting it started on another computer through a mirror site. It got up and running and he was able to play. The mom not only thanked me, told me I gave great customer service, and said it was so rare to find, she asked the la if she was a volunteer and when she said no, she told her how great I was in being helpful. The la, after we had earlier discussed my 5 months of unemployment and rejection, asked the woman if she would hire me, and the woman said she'd not only hire me, but for that treatment, she'd want me to be helping run the place. 

It's really the small things that make your entire mood and day turn around. A nice painting, a pretty flower, and a wonderful compliment made today a wonderful Sunday.

Rad weekends.

So far, this weekend's been pretty great. 

Although the weather was not in our favor for the weekend, we used a little free time and dry time to head up to Ikea last night. We picked up a few more yards of fabric to finish up curtains in the new place, and then we had a delicious dinner at the Cracker Barrel. Before doing any of that, though, we went to Hobby Lobby and met our lucky day -- we were hoping to pick up some acrylic paints and canvas and it was all on sale. 

After dinner we spent a few hours painting. It was so relaxing and wonderful to have a nice creative outlet for a few hours. Part of the painting interest came because we needed a little more art in the new apartment. I'm a big believer in not owning art that everyone else owns, so what I have is a little of everything. I've got a couple of wonderful drawings I bought from a guy at Pike's Place in Seattle; a couple of photographs from a woman I met at the Maker Faire in Austin; a couple of photos from graduating seniors at Cornell selling from their shows; and finally, some of my own paintings. It's nice to add a few more of our own work and it's interesting to see how differently Erik and I are in our styles and visions. 

We slept in this morning, and since I got up before Erik, I got about an hour of reading in before we both showered and headed to the library. That place is an utter zoo on Saturdays because our city cut its Friday hours, and it makes me both excited and sad that Saturdays are so bad -- excited because people are obviously using the library and sad because people are obviously using the library but are being deprived of more time in which to do so. It overburdens the poor people working at that branch who already don't seem thrilled to be there. Alas!

After the library, we went back to Hobby Lobby and picked up some more canvas since it was on sale and we have plenty of paint left over from last night. We then did a trip to Target for a dvd (I've suddenly decided I wanted to try the 30 day shred workout) and Good Will for 2 bags of donated goodies. A lovely and healthy Japanese lunch was in order, and I picked up a salad for dinner tonight, too. If there's one thing I will *really* miss about Austin is the wonderful fast food Japanese we have here that is actually good for you. Yum.

Toss in some more cleaning, as well as some blogging and reading, and plans for more painting and a movie tonight, and so far, we're off for a winning weekend. I'll report back tomorrow, of course, but for me, the weekend is only Saturday since I volunteer all afternoon on Sundays. I have *the best* volunteer gig in the world, and I've been there for a whole year now. When we move, that's another place I will definitely miss more than anything. 

If you're curious, right now I'm reading The House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubas III. Yes, it's an Oprah pick but I actually didn't know that until I picked it up. My best friend recommended it to me, and so far, I'm digging it. 

While the sun has decided to come out from hibernation, so has the humidity. We're going to be hibernating instead.

Excuse this lame [AWESOME] cop out.

I'm not sure I'll get my proper blog out tonight simply because Erik and I are painting over a couple of well-deserved homemade screwdrivers (you know the kind - no orange juice so you make orange crystal light). And since it's national poetry month, I thought I'd leave you with one of my favorite poets with one of my favorite poems. His style is SO different from mine yet it absolutely captives me and makes me want to write this way. The images and pictures are just very, very ... happy. Content. A feeling that while you live as a voyeur, you're really excited to have witnessed.

Couple at Coney Island

It was early one Sunday morning,

So we put on our best rags

And went for a stroll along the boardwalk

Till we came to a kind of palace

With turrets and pennants flying.

It made me think of a wedding cake

In the window of a fancy bakery shop.

I was warm, so I took my jacket off

And put my arm round your waist

And drew you closer to me

While you leaned your head on my shoulder.

Anyone could see we'd made love

The night before and were still giddy on our feet.

We looked naked in our clothes

Staring at the red and white pennants

Whipped by the sea wind.

The rides and shooting galleries

With their ducks marching in line

Still boarded up and padlocked.

No one around yet to take our first dime. 

-- Charles Simic, Night Picnic 2005

[And as a total aside, I'm VERY excited about my BEDA buddies. Hello! :)]

Crafty (& proof of my cheapness)

As I've been cleaning out the old apartment, I've stumbled upon some old gems. Things I've put in places that are labeled action needed, but as of now, no action has been taken. I swear some day I will do every project that I intend to do.

Today's find was from my wedding. Whenever I tell people I got married in Las Vegas, they assume it means it was quick and lonely. Not so much. We actually had an awesome wedding surrounded by both Erik's entire family and my entire family, as well as many of our close friends. We kept our guest list small, and we were incredibly lucky to have had 40 people show up to celebrate with us. 

The big reason I chose Vegas was because of how low stress and high on fun it'd be. I also knew I could keep it quite inexpensive. We found the perfect place to do it, and we had to actually have very little input on the way that the wedding would work. Aside from a few minor glitches and disappointments, we were so thrilled; we knew these small things were so unsubstantial and insignificant, and really, quite funny looking back.

Something that drove me nuts the entire time of planning was finding the right invitations. As much as I love my friends and family, there was no way I was spending $20 on invitations for each one of them, especially when I thought they all looked tacky, ugly, boring, or like every other wedding invite I had ever seen.

I decided to make my own.

After debating for eons about whether or not to send a "save the date" invite, we decided to go for it simply because we were having a wedding outside of our home states. Plus, we were getting married on a Thursday evening (hello, discount and hello people needing only to take 2 days off work to enjoy a 4-day weekend in Vegas!) so we wanted to give people plenty of time. 

Our wedding colors were red and black. Not coincidentally also the colors of playing cards. We added a honey colored yellow, too, to make it less stark and more weddingesque, I suppose.

With the help of one of my bridesmaids, a few hours, and a few trips to local crafteries, I made the perfect save-the-date cards myself. They were small, and we included magnets on the back. The total cost to do it myself was SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than paying for tacky ones. 

Since those were so well received, I decided to go ahead and do the actual wedding invitations myself, as well. After a little bit of drama on the paper -- I had chosen a different design but could not acquire enough of the apparently retired style -- I was able to find something that spoke well to what we were all about in this wedding -- fun. Everyone invited received one of these pretty pups except for our wedding party. I don't have any remaining pictures of what theirs looked like, but the background paper was not the same, and it was instead bright blue with cowboys all over. I was moving to Texas and all.

It's funny now that a lot more of my friends have been getting married or have been planning weddings. I continue to tell them that it's truly not worth going into debt over nor is it worth choosing to do something stressful. My wedding was incredible because I spent so little time worrying about it or planning out how it could be perfect. We didn't even have a place for dinner figured out until a couple of weeks beforehand, and we told all of our guests about it about a week before they left. Everyone had the opportunity to go, have a mini vacation, and only had two commitments to attend. Sure, we did a lot of other things but none of it was scheduled; my bridesmaids and I were swimming in the hotel pool just a couple hours before the ceremony and honestly, who cared that I didn't spend hours on my makeup or hair? No one would remember that anyway.

I often think about how I'd love to go into business making invitations. There's an abundance of ugly and expensive out there when there really needn't be. I think I'm an exception, though. I think most people have a dream and an image and they can buy it. Me? My memories are in the fact I got to do it ALL myself and make it entirely my own. I hope some day someone wants me to help them do it, too. 

(I assure you my invites were not this crooked. This is thanks to the marvels of technology and my desire to scan and edit photos quickly rather than accurately).

Painted.

We finished painting the bathroom! I'm really excited by how it turned out. If you remember, it was entirely sunshine yellow and looked like this:

And now, after some elbow grease, a few tears, and a little blood, we have a much more soothing and friendly room of rest that looks like this:

There's Erik giving his excited face. 

I'm VERY pleased with how it turned out! Much nicer and cleaner than before. 

Who're your online friends?

Do you have online-only friends? Of course you do. I don't think I know anyone who doesn't have friends they know ONLY from the internet.

Do you remember the days when that was weird, scary, and considered dangerous?

Me, too.

And you know why?

Because I had so many awesome online-only friends with whom I am still friends with to this day and with whom I STILL keep in touch with on a regular basis.

It began my freshman year in high school (1999-2000). We were using America Online when I stumbled upon this great AOL-only site called "The Amazing Instant Novelist" (AIN). You can Google it and find out all about it, the creator, and other things. But I digress.

Within the AIN was a website called "I Was a Teenage Writer," (IWTW) specifically geared for teenagers who loved writing. IWTW was made up of a number of message boards, spanning from poetry to prose, politics to philosophy, and just about any and every thing in between. The purpose was for teens to meet other teens who liked to write and liked to think. I quickly met tons of wonderful people, and I quickly coveted an opportunity to work as a moderator on the site. Moderators had wonderful AOL screen names that looked like this: NOVeL YourNameHere. These folks had the responsibility to make sure all posts had some sort of response, feedback, or other action performed upon them. The point being to cultivate a real community within IWTW by ensuring everyone felt included. 

During my sophomore year of high school, a contest opened up for the chance to become a NOVeL on the site. Contestants had to have been active users of the site for a given time, as well as write an essay about American Politics. Fortunately for me, I won, and I had the awesome opportunity to be a NOVeL. 

Those were great times. I had the opportunity to be a NOVeL with some good writers around the country. I knew them not only for their writing, but I also knew most of their interests, career goals, college dreams, and full names/addresses. Those were times when it was scary and dangerous, of course.  But IWTW opened up great opportunities, as it was a way to hone one's writing, learn about new ideas, and perform community service. Likewise, because some of the members of AIN were publishers in the online and print world, there were publication opportunities -- one NOVeL got to edit a collection of teen poetry that featured a number of our NOVeLs and site users. 

Fast forward another year, and enter COPA. If you don't know what COPA is, Google it. What happened to this wonderful, safe, and encouraging IWTW community fell apart because all of us operating as NOVeLs were under 18 and subject to the rules of COPA. The site was disbanded, we lost our "titles" and responsibilities, and perhaps most disappointingly, we lost our safe and supportive corner of the online world.

Many attempts were made to keep us afloat. Because there were a couple of folks over 18 helping with IWTW who were pioneers in the digital book era, they set up communities on the greater web. One of those sites is the now defunct Teen Writers Dream, which, if you Google, you find many references to still. In an attempt to maintain its teen users, AIN set up a new teen corner, and all of us old vets were given the opportunity to rename it and make it fresh. Sadly, Graffiti on the Wall just never lived up to the IWTW site. 

Although we lost our community, it amazes me that nearly 10 years later (holy cow..) the core of us NOVeLs still talk with one another. Most of us are still LiveJournal users (and almost all of us began using LJ as soon as IWTW fell to pieces), many of us are connected on facebook, and when we get the chance, we meet up when we're in town. While I was in Denver in January, I went to dinner with a couple of former IWTWers who I hadn't met before. 

It blows my mind to think that I've been an internet user for about 11 years now, and it further astonishes me that I'm friends with people I met that long ago. Although it's never the same as knowing someone in person, we've all grown up together digitally, and I think forever, we're going to be keeping in touch with one another. One of the NOVeLs set up a facebook group recently, and it's interesting to see how people's paths have crossed, and it's nice knowing that there are people who are always looking out for you and making sure you're still out there doing well. While we're no longer NOVeLs, we've still got an awesome community. 

And it's totally possible to miss people you don't know personally. 

I don't think this is something people who never build friendships online can understand but I think it's something that my generation will be experiencing and dissecting in ways that are yet unseen. 

Random things about me

I thought that today would be as good a day as any to tell you some of the most random bits of personal information. I expect my loyal readers to do the same (I think I have 2 readers, so I can officially say "readerS").

1. I don't eat red meat. In my house, we only ate white meat, and we never had real bacon. When I went to my dad's house and my step mom made it one night when I was 9, I asked her what it was. We had only ever had turkey bacon. Much as I like bacon now, I still prefer turkey bacon.

2. I'm missing a front tooth. This has been the source of many fun stories in my life. I took Spanish in high school, and for two years, I had the same professor because I really, really liked her (and switched to her course the second year). She overheard me talking about this once, and I had to go up to her, open my mouth, and count my teeth for her. Then she believed it. My front bottom tooth just never grew in.

3. I cannot sleep under a sheet. I can only sleep when there's a fitted sheet and a comforter. 

4. I'm a total morning person. 

5. It wasn't until my iSchool friend FORCED me to learn that I figured out how to work a dishwasher. For 24 years, I lived in the dark, and when the thing malfunctioned in October, I gave it up again. I've used a dishwasher exactly 3 times in my life now. 

6. I've lived in 5 different states. 

7. In high school, my English teacher used to ask me for book recommendations. 

8. I played interscholastic badminton in high school. While I was good at singles, I was a killer doubles player. I had the same partner freshman year all year, and then she quit half way through sophomore year when I got a new partner. My new partner and I stuck it through two years, and we walked away with a few medals. 

9. I was [and to an extent, still am] a troublemaker. In junior high school, a group of friends and I created a website that mocked our junior high and the teachers. It wasn't mean spirited, but instead a total lampoon of the place; it's still talked about to this day! Unfortunately, it was one of those Angelfire websites, so it is long gone.

10. I've overcome about every obstacle possible in terms of statistics. I came from a divorced family and an absent father; I was a first generation college student; and I grew up very poor. I often think about how grateful I am to be where I am today because people took chances on me and because I worked hard despite the odds.

11. I do not have taste receptors for bitterness. 

12. I am not a big fan of chocolate. At all.

13. (Though a lot of people know this, there are still so many people who don't)...I got married in Las Vegas, and I would not change that for the world. Planning took an hour on the phone. I hand made all of my save the dates and invitations, and all of my family and good friends came out. That was the best week of my entire life. 

14. Gambling is the reason I was able to go to college, and whenever people get angry or frustrated at the casino industry, I get very, very frustrated. Casinos put people to work and casinos allow people who would otherwise not have opportunities for education to get it through taxes and scholarships.

15. I used to play flute. When I was in elementary school, it was my DREAM to play french horn. When I got to junior high and started french horn, I HATED it. It was too big, bulky, and the spit valve turned me off something fierce. In 6th grade, I changed to the flute and outplayed those with a year more practice. Then, in high school, I took up tenor saxophone because the fingering was the same as the flute, and they needed a second tenor. I miss playing some days. 

16. I didn't fly for the first time until I was 21. Now, at 24, I've flown more than most people fly in their lifetimes. I LOVE it. 

That's 16, and that's enough for now. I have a post in the works about something very, very cool I did in high school. 

What makes you different or unique? 

A very Texan Easter.

I'll save my religious conviction post for another time, but I thought in the spirit of today's celebration (for some), I'd share my very excellent Easter adventures.

Erik and I were racking our brains today, and we realized that neither of us has been home for Easter in 6 or 7 years. In college, it seemed that Easter never fell over spring break. Easter consisted of homework, celebrating with the families of friends who lived in the area, or otherwise less-than-family-centric events. 

Since coming to Texas, we've spent Easter in two very different -- yet fun -- ways.

Last year, we called up our friend Laurel to enjoy a trip to New Braunfels, where we visited the infamous Snake Farm. Infamous because if you've ever driven on I-35 in Texas, it's advertised like no one's business. We looked at some incredible snakes, longhorns, peacocks, and monkeys, and then we went into the petting zoo and checked out the 1,500 pound pig, the goats, the rams, and the llama. Although we were impressed, we wanted more, and we followed that trip up with the Texas African Safari. There, I had the chance to feed a zebra, who put his entire head into our car! 

After that, we drove back up to Austin, where we met up with a bunch of other classmates and I had my first authentic Indian dinner (besides the naan I purchase from the Whole Foods on occasion, which hardly counts) at the Clay Pit. I got to try many delicious things.

As in any Austin celebration, we ended with a trip to Amy's for some ice cream.  All in all, it was a great Easter with some fun people and some new adventures. 

This year, we took it way easier. We'd planned a second trip down to the Snake Farm, but because the weather had looked dicey all week for today, we decided to forgo that plan in favor of sleeping in, reading, cleaning, and putting in some more work at the apartment. We finished up all of the trim in the bathroom, as well as some touch ups. All we have left is a little touch up on the trim, and then our painting in the new place will be done, done, done! 

After getting home from painting, we cleaned the kitchen top to bottom and made a delicious home made taco dinner. I love making tacos at home, rather than getting them at any of the wonderful Mexican and Tex-Mex places here, simply because I can't find anywhere that makes them the way I prefer them: with ground turkey. I don't eat red meat (there's your random fact for those of you collecting those!), and I don't particularly care for chicken tacos. We made that, indulged in some sugary treats (no peeps, since we only bought one package and those were gone this morning for breakfast), and now we're wrapping up our celebration by cleaning the car and cleaning off the desk and coffee table. I sold both of them for a cool $40, making me a little richer and with fewer items cluttering my life. 

I've digressed, but this is to say, Easter is a great holiday if you celebrate. But if you don't, you still make it special in your own way. Our way happens to be with snakes, zebras, paint, and a lot of elbow grease.