2007 July | Somewhere in Middle America - somewhre in the middle america

Crap. I haven’t written in a while. But I have a good — nay, great — excuse. My sister was in town over the weekend! She was supposed to fly in Friday night from Newark, but her flight was canceled for no reason. “Thunderstorms,” they said. Bollocks. There was no rain in NYC or Omaha. They switched her to a flight departing from Newark at noon on Saturday, but that plane didn’t take off until 2:00 pm. Finally she arrived around 4:00 pm, and the fun didn’t stop until we dropped her off at the airport yesterday at 3:00 pm. Well, that’s not exactly true. At the same time J and I were dropping R off, we were picking up Ox, who’ll be staying with us until Thursday evening. Non-stop fun out here in Omaha! Who’s next?

* More deets and pictures from the weekend to come. Sunday was J’s birthday, and we have some amazing pictures from the karaoke bar we went to Saturday night and the pool party we had on Sunday.

The last couple of days I’ve been feeling cranky. As a result, I’ve been getting pissy with J more frequently, I haven’t felt like talking on the phone to my parents (or anyone, really), and I’ve been doing a lot of frowning. I have a lot on my mind. Deep, stressful things like:

When am I going to find a job?
What decisions need to be made for the wedding?
How are we going to save money?
When and how will I start making friends here?

I know I should stay positive. I know it takes time to become established in a new city, to find a job, to make friends. But the days seem to be flying by and very little progress seems to have been made on any front since I’ve gotten here. I know that instead of letting the cranky rule, I need to concentrate on the exciting things coming up like:

My sister’s visit this weekend
J’s birthday on Sunday
Ox’s visit next week
An impromptu trip to Louisville for my great-grandmother’s 95th birthday
A week-long trip back to NY/NJ for Jessica’s bridal shower and to pick a photographer for the wedding

This afternoon I had a phone interview for a Communications & Public Relations Specialist position for a non-profit that I think would be very interesting. I can only just sit and bite my nails until next week, when I’ll hear if I’m invited to the 2nd round of interviews. STRESSFUL.

Today J and I sorted through every scrap of paper in our office and came up with a new filing system. It took all afternoon to sort, consolidate and label everything, but now we’ve got a lovely drawer of organizational fabulousness.

Before:

During:

Help! Would someone in NY please provide some insight into this strange story.

This morning, after our physical fitness evaluations at the JCC, J attempted to teach me how to play racquetball. He’s so into it he has his own racket, ball, glove and goggles. I had to borrow a racket and a pair of protective eye wear from the front desk. His were all sleek and Matrix-like, and my goggles were scratched and had a stretched-out elastic that went around my head. But that’s neither here nor there.

Sadly, I was not as interested in the sport as J would have liked. I would really like to meet the people who thought sticking a couple of people in a large white box with a ball whizzing past them was a good idea. Sorry, but I don’t like little rubber balls flying at my face — or any part of my body. The idea that I’m supposed to run around this box chasing balls that are bouncing off walls is absurd (and sounds kinda dirty, no?). I tried to get into it for J’s sake, I really did, but I was laughing too hard out of nerves and the absurdity of it all. He got annoyed by my apparent lack of trying, but I did the best I could. Some people are just not meant to do certain things. Me, I’m not meant to be a racquetball player, and I’m OK with that.

At long last… pictures from the Harry Potter #7 release party.

J, dressed up as “Ron,” paying for our two copies.

The tickets we got when we paid. We exchanged them for the books when the clock struck midnight…erm, 12:01.

J and I started reading our copies of #7 around 12:25 AM, as soon as we got home from The Bookworm. I read until about 5 AM; J didn’t stop until 6:15 or so. Once you start you’ll see — it’s so hard to put it down.

We woke up close to 1:30 pm and continued reading until 9:30, with only a couple of short breaks to pee and to raid the fridge/pantry. We got to the last sentence of the final chapter within minutes of each other. Now that we’re done, I’m completely exhausted, physically and emotionally. It was quite a ride, that book. But that’s all I’ll say about it for now.

I’ll post some pictures from last night’s party later tonight or tomorrow. I need to get out of Harry Potter mode for a while first.

I miss walking. I used to walk everywhere in New York, plus I lived on the fourth floor of a walk-up. I never had to go to the gym because I got all the exercise I needed just going to and coming home from work everyday! But now I don’t need to walk anywhere. I was so excited to leave the city because I was going to be able to drive my car everywhere — to the grocery store, to Bed, Bath and Beyond, to Home Depot, to the mall, to all the places that were such an inconvenience to walk to in New York. It’s so easy now. I just take the elevator down three flights to the garage, get in my car, drive wherever I need to go, park by the door, and enter. It’s way too easy.

This lack of physical exertion is starting to worry me. I’m beginning to feel out of shape, which means I’m going to have to start going to the gym. I hate going to the gym. Sometimes I seriously think I may be the laziest person in the world. The small gym in our development is like 500 feet from my front door, and I’ve only been there 5 times. But I get so bored there. I don’t like to sweat, and I don’t like getting out of breath. Waa, waa, I know.