I know it's totally cheesy to post about the past year on New Year's Eve, but I can't help it. I'm in reflection mood, and this has been the most important year of my life.
In 2008, I fed homeless people every week, decided I loved the man who would become my husband, got engaged, planned a wedding, moved out of my parents' house for good, moved in with my friend Jen again, moved out again, moved in with my future in-laws, stressed out about the wedding, moved furniture across town, bought a long white dress, changed the wedding venue, stressed out about money, wrote more stories than I can count about golf nets on residential property, moved more furniture, loved my coworkers, gotten married, cried the whole wedding, went to Washington, D.C., moved more furniture, made it a home, gotten laid off, started my own company, gotten a Twitter account, landed a new job, promoted two clients to the media, and laughed and cried more than in any other year.
Yesterday, Brandon got a phone call from the person in charge of hiring at a title company owned by one of his parents' neighbors. He and I had submitted our resumes not too long ago for some temporary work. Brandon is still looking for that just right spot for him, and I'm still hopeful about my little PR project. But, those things take time. Anyway, the title company called Brandon and asked if both of us could come in today, Wednesday, to interview. We went in at 9 a.m. and interviewed together with the hiring manager and the president of the company. They offered both of us jobs on the spot. We start Friday. And we get to work together in an office approximately five minutes from our condo. God is good.
Happy New Year. Happy life.
31 December 2008
16 December 2008
Lessons learned so far
I've been wanting to post something on the ol' blog for the past few days but have honestly been unable to figure out what to write about. I went back to early 2007 in my archive to see what I was writing about then and compared it to what I've been writing about lately. The results were interesting. In early 2007, I was going through some crap with Jesus, which basically means he was beating some bloody cynicism out of me with one chink of the chisel at every turn.
Lately? I've been writing about politics. It seems it's all I feel compelled to share my opinions about. I'm sorry about that. I have very strong opinions about what government should or should not do. But, the freeing thing is that I wholeheartedly believe government will absolutely not and can't possibly solve any of our problems. (Hence my main reason for believing government should do as little interfering in our everyday lives as possible.)
This week, I've been thinking about marriage. I've been in it for a little more than two months now. Weird, huh? So far, here are a few of my impressions:
1) Marriage is about love but it is also about laundry. To be precise, it is about doing approximately three times the usual amount of laundry and cleaning out the lint tray of a whole bunch of fuzz just about every single damn day.
2) Expect the unexpected. Less than two months after Brandon and I got married, I lost my job. I don't think either of us expected that, which is one reason why it is so deeply satisfying that we eat at home all the time and are so cheap that we won't even buy pre-grated cheddar cheese. We buy a two-pound brick of cheese at Costco and use it for everything (slices of cheese on sandwiches, grated cheese for tacos or enchiladas, baked potatoes, whatever). While neither of us has big kid jobs right now, we're thankfully not hurting too badly. (Tip of the hat to Dave Ramsey and Mary Hunt for instilling the need to save and pay off debt.)
3) It turns out I am lactose intolerant. This means that when I eat the aforementioned cheese or drink milk or consume any dairy product, I have the absolute worst gas of my life. Prior to tying the knot, I think many would take great pains to ensure the other person did not know that girls also experience flatulence. We sure did. Now that we have one bathroom and are sharing a bed, it's amazing the things we have learned about each other. In my case, that basically means I had more gas for the first two months of marriage than any man ever. I did not know I was lactose intolerant until I eliminated dairy from my diet for a couple days and then reintegrated it to see how my system would react. One would think the digestive issues of the man in the relationship would be the ones to come to light in those early days of marriage. In my case, the reverse was true. Apparently, one's system can just sort of turn lactose intolerant at any point in life and it often happens during the 20s decade.
4) Christmas is not about presents, but it still hurts when you can't buy what you want for your husband. My entire life, Christmas has been the hardest time of year for my family. It's the time when job losses and financial woes stink the absolute most. I had decided in September that I wanted to get Brandon a Mountain Hardwear Monkey Man fleece jacket for Christmas. He bought me the Mountain Hardwear P5 fleece for my birthday (am outdoor girl, yez?) and mentioned offhandedly that the ultimate men's fleece jacket happens to be the Monkey Man. I would never wear a Monkey Man in my life because it is weird and furry, but I knew I would be the ultimate wife if I got it for him and especially if I got a great deal on it. Neither of those things happened because I lost my job and because I haven't been able to find a Monkey Man for less than $90. But, you know what? Life is so good here that proper Christmas presents seem sort of meaningless, especially since I know what my husband would really like right now is for me to make him some chili to warm him up on this icy day in Dallas. And you know what? This year for Christmas, we're thankful for our place in the world, a small condo in Plano, in which discovering these earliest idiosyncrasies of married life has been the surprise of my life.
Lately? I've been writing about politics. It seems it's all I feel compelled to share my opinions about. I'm sorry about that. I have very strong opinions about what government should or should not do. But, the freeing thing is that I wholeheartedly believe government will absolutely not and can't possibly solve any of our problems. (Hence my main reason for believing government should do as little interfering in our everyday lives as possible.)
This week, I've been thinking about marriage. I've been in it for a little more than two months now. Weird, huh? So far, here are a few of my impressions:
1) Marriage is about love but it is also about laundry. To be precise, it is about doing approximately three times the usual amount of laundry and cleaning out the lint tray of a whole bunch of fuzz just about every single damn day.
2) Expect the unexpected. Less than two months after Brandon and I got married, I lost my job. I don't think either of us expected that, which is one reason why it is so deeply satisfying that we eat at home all the time and are so cheap that we won't even buy pre-grated cheddar cheese. We buy a two-pound brick of cheese at Costco and use it for everything (slices of cheese on sandwiches, grated cheese for tacos or enchiladas, baked potatoes, whatever). While neither of us has big kid jobs right now, we're thankfully not hurting too badly. (Tip of the hat to Dave Ramsey and Mary Hunt for instilling the need to save and pay off debt.)
3) It turns out I am lactose intolerant. This means that when I eat the aforementioned cheese or drink milk or consume any dairy product, I have the absolute worst gas of my life. Prior to tying the knot, I think many would take great pains to ensure the other person did not know that girls also experience flatulence. We sure did. Now that we have one bathroom and are sharing a bed, it's amazing the things we have learned about each other. In my case, that basically means I had more gas for the first two months of marriage than any man ever. I did not know I was lactose intolerant until I eliminated dairy from my diet for a couple days and then reintegrated it to see how my system would react. One would think the digestive issues of the man in the relationship would be the ones to come to light in those early days of marriage. In my case, the reverse was true. Apparently, one's system can just sort of turn lactose intolerant at any point in life and it often happens during the 20s decade.
4) Christmas is not about presents, but it still hurts when you can't buy what you want for your husband. My entire life, Christmas has been the hardest time of year for my family. It's the time when job losses and financial woes stink the absolute most. I had decided in September that I wanted to get Brandon a Mountain Hardwear Monkey Man fleece jacket for Christmas. He bought me the Mountain Hardwear P5 fleece for my birthday (am outdoor girl, yez?) and mentioned offhandedly that the ultimate men's fleece jacket happens to be the Monkey Man. I would never wear a Monkey Man in my life because it is weird and furry, but I knew I would be the ultimate wife if I got it for him and especially if I got a great deal on it. Neither of those things happened because I lost my job and because I haven't been able to find a Monkey Man for less than $90. But, you know what? Life is so good here that proper Christmas presents seem sort of meaningless, especially since I know what my husband would really like right now is for me to make him some chili to warm him up on this icy day in Dallas. And you know what? This year for Christmas, we're thankful for our place in the world, a small condo in Plano, in which discovering these earliest idiosyncrasies of married life has been the surprise of my life.
08 December 2008
Delighted, I'm sure
Sorry for the delay, friends. Life has been, you know, busy. But, I've come crawling out of the woodwork to comment lightly on a news story I read this afternoon.
Here's the link. The gist is that uber liberals are dismayed and a little disappointed at President-elect Barack Obama's choices so far.
He's appointed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who voted FOR the war in Iraq, as secretary of state and President George W. Bush's second defense secretary Robert Gates (a far better choice than Dubya's first, Donald Rumsfeld, IMHO) as his own secretary of defense. The liberals are mad that Obama seems to be stiffing them on those dear positions. A Dubya era conservative will continue on in his current role overseeing the department of defense, and Obama seems to be hedging his position on the draw down in Iraq. He has even backed away from his promise to immediately repeal the Bush tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000 per year -- he now says he may just let those tax cuts expire as planned in 2010. On Iraq, he says he's trying to make sure U.S. interests are not threatened by any resurgence of violence.
Um, two things:
1) When a new candidate is elected, the transition to power begins almost immediately. Obama received his first in-depth national security briefing the Friday after the election. I don't particularly like the idea that those in power know a whole lot more than we do and therefore should be trusted to make informed decisions. Seems to smack of the military industrial complex. But, dear liberal friends, maybe Obama now knows a helluva lot more than he knew before Nov. 7. I'm not making excuses for Dubya, but it seems really easy to criticize our leaders and their choices when one (ahem, yes, I'm looking at you blogosphere) doesn't have a friggen' clue what national security issues we face. Obama's recent actions (and subsequent liberal dismay) have me wondering what he has learned so far.
2) I absolutely loved the left's reaction to the passage of proposition eight in California. When their guy won the race for the White House, their response was, "The people have spoken. Let's all get to work. If you don't like it, get over it." When their liberal agenda failed on the ballot in California, the response was "Why do you hate gay people, California?" I don't particularly like proposition eight, but a vote is a vote is a vote. As those liberals say, "the people have spoken." My mother-in-law, a staunch conservative if there ever was one, fervently prays for our leaders, whether or not they fall in line with the GOP. Her question was, "OK, guys, you might not like the results of the California vote, but if your mantra on Obama was that "the people have spoken," why can't you accept the results in California and move on?" She'll be praying for Obama the same way she prays for Dubya and has moved the heck on from the election. With a more centrist executive branch, as Obama seems to lean toward, more stuff might actually get done. Oh, my hell! Perish the thought that in Washington, there might actually be some movement.
Anyway, I'll step back into obscurity now. Time for some hot chocolate.
Here's the link. The gist is that uber liberals are dismayed and a little disappointed at President-elect Barack Obama's choices so far.
He's appointed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who voted FOR the war in Iraq, as secretary of state and President George W. Bush's second defense secretary Robert Gates (a far better choice than Dubya's first, Donald Rumsfeld, IMHO) as his own secretary of defense. The liberals are mad that Obama seems to be stiffing them on those dear positions. A Dubya era conservative will continue on in his current role overseeing the department of defense, and Obama seems to be hedging his position on the draw down in Iraq. He has even backed away from his promise to immediately repeal the Bush tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000 per year -- he now says he may just let those tax cuts expire as planned in 2010. On Iraq, he says he's trying to make sure U.S. interests are not threatened by any resurgence of violence.
Um, two things:
1) When a new candidate is elected, the transition to power begins almost immediately. Obama received his first in-depth national security briefing the Friday after the election. I don't particularly like the idea that those in power know a whole lot more than we do and therefore should be trusted to make informed decisions. Seems to smack of the military industrial complex. But, dear liberal friends, maybe Obama now knows a helluva lot more than he knew before Nov. 7. I'm not making excuses for Dubya, but it seems really easy to criticize our leaders and their choices when one (ahem, yes, I'm looking at you blogosphere) doesn't have a friggen' clue what national security issues we face. Obama's recent actions (and subsequent liberal dismay) have me wondering what he has learned so far.
2) I absolutely loved the left's reaction to the passage of proposition eight in California. When their guy won the race for the White House, their response was, "The people have spoken. Let's all get to work. If you don't like it, get over it." When their liberal agenda failed on the ballot in California, the response was "Why do you hate gay people, California?" I don't particularly like proposition eight, but a vote is a vote is a vote. As those liberals say, "the people have spoken." My mother-in-law, a staunch conservative if there ever was one, fervently prays for our leaders, whether or not they fall in line with the GOP. Her question was, "OK, guys, you might not like the results of the California vote, but if your mantra on Obama was that "the people have spoken," why can't you accept the results in California and move on?" She'll be praying for Obama the same way she prays for Dubya and has moved the heck on from the election. With a more centrist executive branch, as Obama seems to lean toward, more stuff might actually get done. Oh, my hell! Perish the thought that in Washington, there might actually be some movement.
Anyway, I'll step back into obscurity now. Time for some hot chocolate.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
