I've been reading again!!!

Now that my grad class is over I've been getting to read more. Here is some of what I have read lately:

Girl with a Pearl Earring: Set in 17th century Holland. Very good read. Kind of a sudden ending, like maybe the author got tired of writing or was close to a deadline, but overall I really enjoyed it. Very quick read too, which was nice. I love books set around this time period. I'll have to see the movie now and compare it.

Oh My Stars: This book was set in the 30's. A girl from Kentucky is on a bus, on her way to San Fransisco to committ suicide. But the bus crashes and in a series of events Violet ends up a manager for a band. She had a rough life before things got good. Good book about preserverance and friendship.

The Glass Castle: Recommended from Jesse. I couldn't put this book down. I still can't get over how these children were able to overcome all these adversities and make something of themselves. Jeannette Walls tells the story of her childhood, growing up with an alcoholic dad and a mother who is near nuts. Throughout the book I was surprised that there wasn't more anger. I kept thinking about how pissed I would be, but Jeannette and her siblings just kept going on. Maybe it's because they didn't know any better, didn't know enough to be really mad, or maybe they had just accepted this life, knowing that someday they would have it better. I love that they helped eachother out above all. The importance of siblings really came through this story to me.

New Years Resolutions

I'm bad at resolutions. I usually don't make them, but when I do I goof up with in the month. So I usually save any resolutions and use them for Lent. And they usually get broken too. Oh well, at least I try, right? But some of my resolutions this year are as follows (I LOVE LISTS!!!!):
Run more with a goal of 12 - 15 miles/week
Sign up for at least 2 5K's
Actually take Portaging trip, not just talk about it
Pay off 2 credit cards
Go somewhere that my passport is necessary
Start writing again, possibly a book (thank you Nathan, for inspiration)
Find a new job, in a new city

Ok, so the last one is the most difficult. There is only so much we can do, after that, we are going to rely on faith. The job hunt is going to begin in ernst very soon. We've been saying for a while we would like to be closer to our families, but that's it, we've only been saying. I applied for MANY jobs this summer, and nothing came through, so we just took it as a sign that it wasn't our time. So we are going to start trying again. The reasons to stay in Baltimore are numberable, however, the reasons to leave have more weight. Like seeing family more than twice a year if we're lucky, we want to start a family and we want them to be closer to our parents. We are wanting to move to Colorado, it has what we want. Housing is cheaper, we already have friends there, within a day we can drive to our folks house, great snowboarding, great water activities, great hiking, camping, star gazing, rock collecting.....it's just a lot more closer to what we know too, what we grew up with. I think everyone starts a family with an idea in mind of how they want to raise their kids...we want our children to appreciate the outdoors and spend a lot of time with them outdoors, learning to take care of themselves and enjoy nature. We love Baltimore city, but we don't want to raise kids here. And I know there are many other places in Maryland that are great to raise kids in, but not for us. Your values can be instilled in your kids anywhere, but we feel it will be easier out west. It won't be the easiest thing to move from here, but it won't be the hardest. Tears will be shed, again, but we are ready for the adventure.

Christmas

Christmas was good to us this year. We stayed in Maryland....it was hard and we missed our family, but we made the most of it. Went to Christmas Eve service, ate a lot, opened presents and played with Kirby. We made out like bandits! We had asked for camping gear this year. We got a Kelty tent, only 4 pds. - perfect for our big trip this summer, dried food, Granite Gear sink and water carrier, a compass, a compression bag, and a GPS system. It's so much fun - we've already been trying to go out and GeoCach.


Hopefully next year we will get to be with family over the Holidays, but despite staying here, we had a wonderful Christmas.

New Word

Tchotchke
I love this word. I heard my sister use it and she got it from her mother in law. When I said it to Tony before Christmas, he thought it was another word I was making up. He thinks I make up a lot of things....I probably do. But this word is fun to use, I had no idea that it had so many meanings. I use it in reference to trinkets.

Christmas Parties

Tony and I got to go to a few Christmas parties this year. We got to see some friends we hadn't seen in a while, Steve and Rosie, Jesse and Nathan,and it made the Holidays more special. Tony's work party was at a bar in Canton and had an open bar...so that was a memorable night! Here's some pics.

New York, New York

Tony and I took a day trip up to New York recently. New York at Christmas is one of my favorite things! I'm so glad we were able to get away. We saw the tree in Rockefeller Center, got some pizza and went to Trump Tower to the Starbucks and got some coffee (just something about getting a $5 cup of coffee in such an extravagent building), went in FAO Swartz and looked at all the toys, went to Macy's, and the best part, went to St. Patrick's. We only had a few hours there, but we had a great time. We also got to see the 100 Million pennies in Rockefeller center. The weather was great, it was a wonderful, romantic day together.

Christmas Tree Time

Today we went out to the tree farm where our good friend Adam works. This was our first time to pick out our own tree and cut it down, and we were glad to get to share it with Jen and Adam! It's put up now and it smells wonderful. Hopefully I won't forget to water it since I'm used to having a fake one. Here's some pics from today.....thanks to Jen, as I'm always forgetting my camera!

6 years

Last Saturday, the 24th, was Tony and I's 6th wedding anniversary. 6 years! Time has flown by. We both got a message the Wednesday before (Baltimore School of Message, awesome and only $35 for 1 hour!!), then on Saturday we went out to eat in Little Italy at Vellagia's. It was a lot of fun and the food was really good. (You know I had to take pics of it!) The inside reminded us both of Casino or Goodfellas, mirrors, the lighting had gold rims, Sinatra playing in the background. After dinner we went to Vaccarro's for desert.....look at the size of my eclair!
We had a great anniversary.

Our Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful. We stayed here in Maryland. Just the two of us. Last Thanksgiving our friends Jenni and Rob came out and the Thanksgiving before that Tony's parents came out. So this was new, just us...but we made the most of it. We did the full spread and just sipped on wine and relaxed all day. Very low key.
Here's some pics! I threw one in of Kirby for good measure!

PIANO!!!!

I GOT A PIANO!!! I have wanted one since I got my first apartment. They are just so expensive and hard to move. But a couple of weeks ago I saw that someone was giving one away for free at work!!! So jumped on it and asked some friends if they would help. BIG THANKS to Craig, Geoff, Jason and Renata, Matt and Joanna! We couldn't have moved it without them. It's so nice to have friends who help you out with such a big project.
I really wanted to cry after it was in our house though. It means so much to have a piano. I can't wait to get it tuned and play all the time. I hope to have it forever and teach our kids to play.

Mouse Hunting

Last year we had mouse issues....and they are back!!! Tony saw one a few weeks ago, we set out traps, put steel wool in all crevices...but last Sunday night we saw two! And the grossest part of all....there was mouse droppings on my stove! I had already cleaned off my cabinets next to the stove, Tony went to get a drink and there was a mouse on my counter!!! So Tony boxed him in and we put a portion of tape in the crack between the boxes and the ledge. The mouse then tried to escape and jumped right into the tape!!!! So here's the picture.

Kirby update and other things

Kirby had his first play date with Jen's dogs, Bailey and Winston. I think Bailey intimidated him, but he played really well with Winston (the Bichon - sorry if that's spelled wrong). We went up to Sykesville to Jen's house and he did well in the car ride too.

Kirby is 12 weeks old now. He's grown a lot in the two weeks that we have had him. He seems to be learning quickly and he's now gone to the back door all on his own twice. I'm still getting frustrated pretty easily, but Tony has endless patience and is doing really well with him.

Me and Renata and Cherie

That's right, I broke 100. First time ever!!!!

We went out to dinner on Saturday night with some friends to celebrate Renata's birthday. Then we all went bowling....where there were no awkward encounters with anyone whom I have not had any contact with since June due to some unfortunate turn of events. I really hope that she did not get escorted out of the bowling alley job as well....sean, was that too soon?

Puppies are hard work!

So we've had Kirby for a whole week. It feels like it's been a lot longer. Last week was hard on all of us. But every day it's gotten better. It's easy to get frustrated for me, but he's so cute!! He hasn't cried the past few times that we have put him in the crate. I took him to the vet on Friday, apparently the vet that owns the clinic has a tv show a couple of times a week, and they want Kirby to be on the show! He is really calm and he just laid there the whole time we were at the vet. He never got antsy. So they said he would be great for the show. We'll see if they call! It will be funny if he gets on there, I guess I'll have to be his agent and start setting up auditions for him!

Kirby

So we decided on a name, Kirby. We thought long and hard, Kirby just fit him.
Last night was hard....he cried so we put him in bed with us.No one slept well. He kept wanting to play and I was paranoid he was going to roll of the bed....we took him out twice and he went both times, so at least that's going well. But I don't think we are going to be able to keep him in bed with us and still function during the day. I was zoning out for much of the day today after sleeping about 3 hours last night. But here's some cute pics of him from tonight.

New FAMILY member

We got a new puppy! He's a puggle, he's 9 weeks old. We haven't yet named him...we're waiting to see what his personality is like. He's really mild so far. We went and saw the rest of the litter, there were 2 little girls and him. The girls were rambunctious, but he was mellow. We also got to see the mom and the dad and they were really good dogs. Here's a few pictures from tonight.

Opinions

I went to Target today at lunch. As I was walking in I looked around and noticed something, the majority of those around me were women, a lot of them had children, a lot of them were dressed down, sweats, jeans...you get the picture. They were (I'm assuming for the majority here) SAHMs. I thought to myself, I am so very thankful. I was reminded of when I was younger, all the way from H.S., through college, and throughout my job at Target, I always wanted to be the woman I was today. Running into Target, obviously during my lunch hour, to get some necessities. Today I was even sporting the high heels,obviously coming from work.
When I worked at Target and saw these 'professional' women hurry in I always thought, someday Melissa, someday you'll be there. You won't always be here, in red and cackie (sp), fake smile plastered to your face, working odd hours, no sitting down, etc. etc. I knew that wasn't the life for me. Nothing wrong with it, just wrong for me. Just as I know now that those other women I see, the ones that go to Target almost every single day (yes, many of the people I saw while working at Target I saw so often that I knew them and their children on a first name basis), is something that is beyond me. I don't think I can be that SAHM. I apologize profusely for this. I always wanted a career. I could never really figure out how children would come into play. I wasn't against having children but I wasn't overly concerned about it either. I knew and know, that I want to be a mom, but I was extremely privileged and was able to go to college. I was fortunate to get a great job in a field I truly enjoy. I have sacraficed, as have those around me, to be where I am today. I love that I have a career and giving it up may be more than I am able to do(and I know it's hard to say this until you are actually there, and maybe I will have a change of heart....) On top of this, it's so hard these days to make a living on one salary. We still struggle with both of us having good jobs. Then add a child or two to the equation and subtract one of those salaries, how do people do it? Maybe in a different world where money was never a worry I would stay home with my children and be able to do something from home. Something that I truly enjoyed and helped me fill like a participant. But even then...I don't know. I think I would miss getting dressed for work, tackling challenging problems, and having adult interaction.
My mom stayed at home until my sister and I were in school. Those are some of the best memories of my life. Going to McDonald's and then driving around the 'fancy' neighborhoods and looking at their flowerbeds. My mom would tell us what all the flowers were and we would ohhh and ahhh. We would always sing along to all the songs on the radio and I knew my mom was the coolest person in the world. We were the three musketeers! We would go to my grandma's house and get a pepsi. My dad always worked two jobs, and I still know that my parents struggled. But all the sacrifice was worth it for my parents. It meant alot for my mom to get to be home, she had given up a great job to do it. But my mom also cooked dinner every single night and our house was spotless. More than anything else we bonded during those years and that bond has never broken, it's only gotten stronger. As an adult I am able to see everything that my parents did for me and even if I'm not able to be a SAHM, hopefully I can still provide the same strong memories for my children, instilling appreciation that the best things in life aren't things, while maintaining a career.
As a side note, today's Greek Tragedy blog was about this same thing...coincidence. I think all the varying opinions on staying at home are interesting. People feel hardcore about these things!

Enjoying the fall

Tony took this picture. The colors were so great this weekend.



Looking down from the lookout onto Harpers Ferry.
Tony and I went hiking at Harpers Ferry this past weekend. I've been wanting to go there for a while and I figured right now would be a beautiful time to go. The weather was perfect. The people at the AT visitors center were extremely knowledgeable and helpful. Harpers Ferry is known as the halfway point for the thru hikers from Georgia to Maine. They also have a really nice bike trail that runs right by the river. It actually goes all the way from Pittsburgh to DC. I'm not sure I'm up for that, but it would be fun! Hopefully we will make it back out there before it gets too cold.

Home, Sweet Home

I got to go home to NM a couple of weeks ago. It was amazing. I got to be with family, and as if that weren't enough, I got a few days of the beautiful New Mexico fall. I also got to eat enchiladas, mom's homecooking, and Sonic. I miss the food!Nothing out here can touch it. It's so hard to be far away and I think that I'm always more homesick whenever I get back. You go about your daily routine and you get used to being homesick, used to being far away from those closest to your heart, it just becomes part of what you do, you adapt and deal with it.But then when you get to be with the people who love you the most, you realize how lonely you've been. Fingers crossed, we'll be closer to home sooner rather than later.
Here's a pic of me and my sister. I'll try to put some more on Flicr and put in a link. Don't hold your breath though. This whole going back to college thing has been a lot more time consuming than first thought.

Playin' around with friends

Mar and Justin enjoying their Lobster

Hi 5 with Matt Howard

Surprise Surprise! Me Yelling??.....just a fluke :) Tony remaining calm, as always.


My friend Marla and her husband Justin came out for a visit recently, and it was good to see friends from back home. I showed them around Baltimore and they even came to our kickball game! We went and got Lobster at Mother's and had pie at Dangerously Delicious...mmmmm. Good times. Here's a few pics of Justin and Marla and kickball.

My Friend

I'll start at the beginning. Arnold came into our lives shortly after we were married. I was apprehensive about getting a cat, but Tony had one before and we lived in an apt. too small for a dog, so we decided to go to the humane society just to 'take a look around'. We instantly narrowed it down to two cats. The first was meathead. As the name implies, he had a huge noggin. Tony held him and we both liked him. Then the cat next to him came to the front of his cage and meowed. He was smaller than meathead and looked friendly and cuddly. So Tony opened up his cage door, held him to his chest, and the cat rubbed gently against his neck, as if they had already met. But he probably used this seduction on everybody. Tony was hooked, and I knew we were going to take him home. We told the people at the front that we wanted "Jingles" but we had to go to the ATM to take out the $35 bucks and stop to get the neccessities for our new friend.
In the car we tried hard to come up with a new name....Jingles just didn't fit. One of us said Arnold....as in Swarzenager...he wasn't that big of a cat, but for some reason he just looked like an Arnold. So it stuck, our new companion would be called Arnold.
He was shy and tender. We took him straight over to Tony's parents house to show Deb and Dan-o. Then we took him home....that's when it happened....Deer ticks. Crawling out of his ears!!!!!! I was so disgusted. Of course we had no idea what they were, but I just knew we needed to take him back. We'd had him all of an hour and already he was defective! But Tony disagreed and said that we would just have to take him to the vet in the morning. But a whole night of these grose large bugs coming out of his head and into my house? So I hid our toothbrushes and put him in the bathroom. Small enough space. Ok, dumb moment I must put in here, when I called the vet the next morning they told me to put them in a plastic bag. I was so frantic I thought they meant to put Arnold in a plastic bag. This didn't make any sense, wouldn't he suffocate I asked? That's when the kind receptionist told me no, not the cat, the bugs, so we can see what they are. Deer ticks they were. And getting them all out required him to be put under. And they ended up taking out 8 or 9, this was on top of the 4 or so that had already come out at our house. Poor kitty! And after this, $$$ keeps running through my mind. But Dr. Calista is an amazing vet and since we had adopted an adult at the humane society she did everything for less than $50. In his follow up she said his googly eye might have been caused from having the deer ticks. Or he'd been kicked in the head, by maybe a farm animal (it made sense that he would have been a barn car), or maybe even hit by a car at some point. It didn't matter, deer ticks, googly eye, shark tooth that hung over his lip, it all just added to make him even more unique. I was in love. And as you can see from the pics, as our love for him grew, he grew too! He was curious and liked to bite. But we were ok with that, we knew he did it out of love and to check and see if we would still love him even if he was bad. He loved to lay in the sun on our balcony or claw at the rug outside.
Arnold developed stones about 1 week before we moved to MD. But looking back, he'd been having symptoms for a couple of months. We took him to a vet in Roswell (we were staying with my parents) and they fixed him up. I figured he was just anxious about the move. But the problems never ended. For a full year and a half. We were in and out of vet's offices. I was always trying a new vet because maybe they would have the cure....hoping for a cure other than the $1000 operation that was basically a sex change that would allow him to pee out the stones easier. Vet bills, more vet bills, and we were always shoving pills down his throat. He was trying new diets, we were trying to help him lose wait, only feeding him twice a day. He hated this, he'd always been a self feeder, and obviously very good at it.
So a year ago he got sick again. I was in the kitchen and he came and squated next to me, cried and tried to pee. But it was only blood. He was desperate. He had never once gone anywhere outside of his litterbox. But he was smart, he knew what he was doing. So I shoved some more medicine down his little mouth and made an appointment at once again, another vets office. But we had already made the decision. The appointment this time was not to get him more medicine. It was to end the pain and the suffering. Our heart was absolutely broken. How do you put down your friend? Who were we to say that we all had to stop trying? But we just tried to rationalize it. He was suffering. Even when he wasn't clogged up, we were shoving medicine down him, and when he was sick he was staying at the vets overnight to get a catheter put in and shots, and x-rays, and there was no way that he could understand any of this, only that he was in pain. After we would bring him home he would have trouble controlling his urine, so it would just come out. And we could tell that he hated the way he was smelling, so he would hide from us. We would have to pry him out of wherever he was to clean him up. It wasn't fair anymore. We had invested so much and so had he. There wasn't even a guarentee that the surgery would work. And no way did we have $1000. So I took him in and held him. And cried and cried. I was standing there with his head in my hands as they gave him the shot to end his pain and his little life was over. Tony and I's life together had always had him in it, and now we were alone.
A year ago, and still as I sit here I can't help but sob. I miss my friend so much. He was a huge part of our life. I know most people say, he was just a cat. But he made me laugh, made me cry, had so much personality and filled me happiness. I still think about him and all his antics. We needed him as much as he needed us. Did we do the right thing? I don't know. And I can't think about it, because it only hurts and gets me nowhere.
We're thinking about getting another cat soon. But I told myself not to love this one too much, because things may not work out. And I really don't think I can ever love another cat as much as I loved my Arnie.

Little Italy

Tonight Tony and I went to a film in Little Italy. Tonight 'Rocky Balboa' was showing! It was an open air film, they put up a white wall on the side of a resturant and the image comes from the top window of this guys house. So we went over, got a really good pizza, watched some men play Bocci Ball, and then saw the film. We had a really nice time and here's a couple of pics!

Hogans, you're forgiven

About a month ago there was an incident at Hogans, our FAV local bar. Back story, Tony and I have been going there since we moved into the city. It's two blocks away, all locals, good food, cheap drinks, good conversation....a different version of Cheers. Mark is always working, Bobbo is always there playing pool, Mr. Hogan is djing on a good Sat. night. You get the picture. But that night a couple of weeks ago we were there with Kari, Mike, and Craig, getting drinks, hanging out. And the bartender got pissed, some old men made a couple of lude gestures, and we left. What happened? We go there all the time. We love that place, they know us. Apparently, we were dispendable. Boycott on.
But after a day like today we needed some greasy bar food and some beers, so we broke down and left our boycott behind, we ventured back to good ol' Hogan's Alley. Food - greasy and great, Corona's - nice and cold, conversation - wonderful, everyone chatting about the local politics, police and fire departments and the commisioners they have in the back pocket, life on the loading docks down at The Point, and we once again felt like locals, felt welcome, like people were glad we were there. And we were glad to be there, to be part of it. (If 'The Wire' is running through your minds right now, you're right one, it was like we were sitting by McNaulty, Hurk, and the working guys from the dock....and i mean this in the kindest way, minus the whole illegal stuff). This reason, feeling like you belong to a little niche within a big city, is one of the wonderful feelings that have made living in the city such a great experience. I was always hoping to get to live in a city and get to experience things like this. I will always look back on these memories and be thankful that we moved to Baltimore. We're so terribly homesick, but nights like tonight bring a smile to our face. Hogans, we forgive you.

#7

Joe Mauer, #7.....
Tonight Tony and I went and saw the Twin's beat the O's. We got great seats behind home plate, perfect view of Joe. I went down a couple of times to the front row, trying to get a close up picture of him. But when I got so close (close enough that if I lunged at him, I could have tackled him), I got really nervous and I was shaking so hard that the picture didn't turn out. The people around me were urging me to holler at him so he would turn around and smile, but they didn't know that I would then melt. So eventually they started yelling for me. Then he turned around and smiled at me.....the picture is really blury, and I'm sure that I looked a bit crazy with a shaky camera pointed at him and sweating like I was in a sauna. (In my defense, it was really really warm in B-more tonight). But at least I did get to stand close to Joe and I got some good pictures from my seat. It was a really good game, and once again it was nice to take advantage of living so close to the stadium.
This first picture is of me and Dano in Minnesota this summer.

Ahhhh, Mr. Mauer

And another one....

Book Review 1

I'm going to try and start writing book reviews. I would love to eventually freelance and I need to start practicing my writing. What better place to do that than here? Please feel free to critique!

'Running with Scissors' By: Augusten Burroughs

No one warned me about this book. It wasn't until I was sucked in that I realized the feeling of nausea wasn't going to go away until long after I put it down. The way Mr. Burroughs was able to showcase his confused childhood and his acceleration into adulthood all with graphic and vivid details made this book hard to put down, and made me grateful that it was a quick read. The life he was forced to live and the realities of feeling unwanted and unloved put the reader in a trance, feeling pity and anger throughout the book. I did feel something for all the characters and in that respect, Mr. Burroughs succeeds in pulling the readers in. I don't recommend this book, at least not for the faint of heart.

Late night games, Early morning brunch

Last night was Cheri's housewarming party. We ate, visited, and played games. Our good friends Nathan and Jessi made the long haul from Western Maryland and it was so nice to see them and get a chance to catch up.
Then this morning everybody met for brunch at Little Havana's. It was a beautiful drizzly morning...such a nice repreve from the heat. Overcasted, rainy days are my favorite kind, so the dreary day was a perfect Sunday for me. And it was topped off that I got to eat breakfast with friends. Here's some pics. It's hard to post all of them.
(I'm trying to get set up on Flikr so that I can post all my pictures)

Hot town, summer in the city....

The past couple of weeks have been miserable....the heat has gotten the better of me. I almost got heat exhaustion from running a couple of Saturdays ago. So we've been trying to lay low. I've still been reading alot and we've been watching movies. I just finished "Diary" by Chuck Palahniuk. It was just ok. But it was a quick read. Just a little disturbing. We also watched 300 this past week...very good! McNaulty from 'The Wire' was in the cast, and he played a very good 'bad guy'.
Tony's hand is healing. He got his splint off and is now going without anything. He should only have about 3 more weeks until it's fully healed. Hopefully well enough to go bow hunting in Minnesota!
Here's picture of Tony with his splint still on. It didn't stop him from playing beer pong with Mike and Carrie and Craig when they came to the city.

Violent Femmes

A couple of weeks ago the Violent Femmes had a free concert in the Harbor. I love the Violent Femmes, we went and saw them in concert last fall. They were great! They had a lot of guest musicians, which just made the show so much better. It was an older crowd (surprise), so it was a lot more laid back. We were excited about this show, especially since it was free! Here's a picture from there....
The group picture is all our friends from kickball whom we met up with there.

Peaches

This past weekend Tony and I went peach pickin' at Baugher's. It was a lot of fun but making the preserves has been a lot of work! So far I've made about 20 12 ounce jars and a few 6 ounces jars, and I probably have enough to make about 12 more jars. I'm not sure if I have it in me though....