Things to be thankful for...

This year has had it's highs and lows but ultimately there are so many things that I can be thankful for today (and every day, like we all should be.)

*my health

*my brilliant friends who support me and challenge me

*my family

*living in this gorgeous city

*a handsome and quirky suitor

*a comfortable home

*a decent job

*Gizmo and Bread

*the internet which brings me gems like this:

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Hello Halloween FAIL(?)

So, even after weeks of months of planning my possible costume for this weekend I actually ended up with no real plans to go "out" but instead of being upset, I'm a bit amused.

Technically, I did get invited out and of course there are half a dozen costume-y parties I could attend; I'm actually not really feeling it. Instead, I'll be having my friend Sailor over for dinner again - a gent who is apparently "not big on that dress up shit" and curious enough about a raw "pasta" recipe that I've been wanting to try out to pass up on an invitation to both of us from our old coworker to terrorize the bars downtown with him and his wife.

Though part of me feels that I technically "failed" at one of my favorite holidays, the other part is pretty confident that it'll be a lovely weekend even if I don't end up getting out into the costumed craziness that is sure to ensue tonight. It's been pretty freakin' dreary out and a night at home with a good meal, bottle of wine and interesting company isn't sounding too shabby at all.

In other news, this week has been delightful. I got to meet my pet-sitting wards Thursday night before Bikram and I have to admit that Honky and Orville are two sweet, adorable cats who I will be more than happy to take care of while my friends go out of town, despite the fact that Honky requires IV fluids every other day. I got a chance to try my hand at administering the fluids that same night and it really didn't freak me out as much as I had thought it might.

I also got in 2 Bikram classes in with no savasanas (another small class guilted me into pushing myself harder) AND The Madre found out her auditioning classes payed off when she got the part of Helga ten Dorp in a local production of the play "Deathtrap" - I'm so darn proud.

very virgo metal monkey.

Okay, yes - I read 3 different horoscopes every week. Mock me all you want; I know many, many, many people think astrology is completely silly. That's fine with me (see: "IDGAF...") Really. I still like you, though.

Sundays I get my weekly Astrocenter email, Tuesdays I get Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology link via his Facebook page (I swear, all the cool shit is on Facebook these days,) and on my fancy igoogle homepage I get a free daily horoscope that I check out before I start gchatting. Honestly, I've never paid too much attention to the one I see daily until recently.

It keeps urging me to be patient lately (thanks bunches, fellow Seattleite and Master Astrologer Rick Levine...) Here is my typical response (as The Madre can attest,) borrowed from The Missus at On Common Ground (and someecards:)

Becoming what you are (cont'd)

I'm not the kind of girl who...

...spends $100 (or more) on a pair of jeans

...is impressed by how many hours a guy spends at the gym each week or how much he spent on his fancy car or the expensive clubs he goes to

...is too chicken to ask a dude out

...lowers her standards just to be in a relationship

...bases her self-worth by what other people think of her

...starves herself to get skinny

...reads Cosmo or Marie Claire or Vogue

...pretends to care about sports

...lets the pain and disappointment in her past affect the happiness of her future

...messes around with or even pursues a dude who has a "lady friend" or "might try to work things out with their ex"

I am a chick with...

...a keen eye for bargains

...a slightly masculine attitude about relationships

...a decent head on her shoulders

...a vigorous reading habit

...mad cooking skills

...the knowledge of how to give a decent lap dance and/or sweet talk someone in Turkish

...a boat-load of respect and love for my friends and family

...a deep desire to continuously learn and grow as a human being

...a well-rounded sense of humor

...and, clearly, a healthy self-image

Convenient timing.

It appears that Seattle's summer is mostly over, after a somewhat pathetic showing of something like 1000 minutes of temperatures over 80. This just happens to coincide with a 5 day juice fast/supplemental-based cleanse that I decided to challenge myself with and I had expected to spend the weekend hermitting at my apartment, starving and barely in control of my bowels, so I wasn't too upset about the rain. Oddly enough, I've felt mostly normal and managed to be surprisingly productive even outside of my abode. I've woken up earlyish each day and found the energy to hit up a friend's yard sale with Cec, to walk over to Westwood Village to shop for a few pieces of workout wear appropriate for my upcoming Bikram (hot) yoga classes and run other errands, do the normal weekend tidying and squeeze in an at-home yoga session. It may not sound like much, but I had anticipated being basically immobilized by hunger and bowel flushing (oooh, I know how sexy that sounds, y'all) so as Charlie Sheen would say - I'm "WINNING."

What I've found so far with the fast is that 95% of the time I'm not even hungry, despite having intense cravings for all kinds of junk food pretty much constantly. Conversely, I've been thinking about healthy food and what I am going to eat once I'm back on the solids almost the entire time as well. My first dinner will consist of the eggplant I grew in my balcony garden (most likely sauteed or roasted,) oven-baked salmon caught fresh by one of my bff's Dads and possibly rice or potatoes. Maybe a biscuit or a chunk of baguette. I really love bread and nothing about this fast has changed that. I've still got tons of fruit in my fridge from the preparation for the cleanse, a grocery list chock full of more nutritious snacks and staples and meal plan ideas that should keep me on track afterwards. Yeah, I seriously have been thinking about food unceasingly since this began.

Next up is Round 2 for the day of supplements and juice with a big 'ol dose of fiber and a quick pick up of the homestead before I try to drag the Madre to the Indoor Sun Shoppe to help me spend the generous gift card that (the brilliant and amazing) Cec gave me for my recent birthday. Later, I'm thinking Round 3, pedicure, meditation, reading and journaling: it's gonna be a juicy one - I've decided to document (as far back as I can remember and then moving forward) the specific reasons I am not with any of my exes or other gentlemen I have briefly dated, mostly because it would be far too scandalous to post it here...but sometimes a girl needs a reminder, right?

Progress!

Please do excuse the blurry picture, I have yet to master the camera on my new phone and I'm no pro, even with a regular camera.

This is my current set up for veggies and herbs, minus the calabrese broccoli which has just been started in another area of my balcony. I hijacked an old picnic bench from The Madre (and strung the cutest little set of lights underneath -more pictures to come, swears) to create enough height for the green babies to get enough of the sun and add ambiance in addition to it's functionality.

From the top: I have burpless bush cucumbers, ichiban eggplant, neon glow chard, chives, Moroccan mint and chocolate mint. This weekend I have a feeling I'll add some basil - all of a sudden I have to desire to be able to make fresh pesto.

Last weekend I picked up a hanger for my butterfly garden pot; installation should be a quick

weekend project and then I'll be on the lookout for a new pot to accommodate the new mini bee balm, which is apparently pretty bushy. On the floral side, I'm really focusing on plants that are known to attract butterflies and hummingbirds, but the bee balm also has the added benefit of being a wonderful tea herb and salad garnish. I truly just thought the flowers looked neat. I haven't seen any hummingbirds around and I have my doubts they'd target my 4th floor balcony, but a girl can dream, right?

By the time I've got everything organized for my housewarming there should be a bounty of pretty things out there for my guests to enjoy. This weekend when I'm not working on the garden and getting the rest of my place prepped, I'm going to take advantage of the forecasted rain and find some time to hang with the bffs as well as finish reading my current book. Hopefully I can round it off with a nice pancake brunch (a friend's brilliant housewarming idea) and some mimosas in Ballard and be ready to return on Monday to another week of work hell.

...and I'm feeling good.

I spent a little time hanging out with one of my exes recently (no, not "Bear," though we did go back and forth yesterday on facebook, with no positive results) until it became more and more clear that he was still a hot mess and came with way more baggage than I'm interested in checking on Alyson Airlines.

Since I quickly put the kibosh on that one, I have returned to my temporary boy boycott and am continuing to settle into my apartment. Honestly, I don't know that I've ever been happier! I feel more functional and evolved than I ever have been before and completely content to be single as I move forward.

Almost every weekend I get out with the Madre to wander around to find new plants and supplies for my balcony garden. The vegetable portion is coming along nicely; last weekend I added eggplant and burpless bush cucumbers and I am digging all the greenness. My hanging "butterfly garden" pot has yet to bloom, but I picked up some miniature bee balm to placate the part of me that wants flowers NOW. Sadly, I think it's too late this year to bloom the dahlias and peonies I had hoped to plant.

On the nerdy tip, I'm almost done with Clash of Kings from the Song of Fire and Ice series. My coworker who is a book behind me went on vacation and I barely resisted the urge to paper her monitor with spoilers. I've got book 5 (acquired at the reading last week) just sitting on my shelf, staring at me and pressuring me to hurry the eff up, but these books are all just a little under 1000 pages a piece so I don't imagine I'll finish before the end of the summer.

Still, as I lie in my bed reading at night with a view of the progress on the balcony and Gizmo and Bread beside me, I can't help but feel like my life is really GOOD.

If only this was a dating blog...

...I'd have an endless stream of entertainment for you here.

Unfortunately, most of the guys I hang out with or have gone on dates with read and some of them definitely know the address of my blog. Honestly, they would probably (or should probably) be quite embarrassed if I called them out on their antics here and that's not really my style, though I'll most likely have an anecdote or two that I'm willing to share.

A fine example: the date from weekend before last not only doesn't read, he goes to Mars Hill Church. He repeated the phrases "holy firecracker" and "god didn't have to dam it, he could walk on water" too many times for me to count, but definitely enough to annoy me. After our date, the correspondence became increasingly pushy and then petty when I failed to be as responsive as he had apparently hoped.

I'm just not that into him.

Also, I am just not that into my neighbor who likes to play the drums between the hours of 10 PM and 12 AM with his windows wide open.

So, I have updated my list of dating rules to include "no boys who don't read (ESPN magazine doesn't count.)" and "no drummers. period."

In nerdy balcony vegetable garden news: my chive seeds have started sprouting, chard seeds are planted and in the next few days I'll get the broccoli seeds going. I'm stealing a "rustic" picnic table bench from the Madre's backyard to make sure the containers are high enough to maximize the sun exposure and I found the cutest little set of string lights to start creating some ambiance, bitches. Pictures soon, since I know you're all incredibly curious, right?

Creating a sanctuary.

First thing after I woke up on Saturday I called The Madre and we embarked on a mission to find a new ceramic fountain bowl to replace the one broken in the move (her treat!) Apparently, tabletop fountains have fallen out of popularity and we have checked three different stores earlier in the week with absolutely no luck. After a little bit of online research she found some leads at a popular nursery on the Eastside, but I really wanted to check out the Indoor Sun Shoppe first since so many of my friends had raved about it and their website also suggested they had fountain supplies.

Just in case you're doing your online research and thinking you can trust the sparsely updated local store's websites - DON'T. Seriously folks, it seems no one makes their own tabletop fountains anymore. My cats love the damn thing and it always gets a good giggle out of guests who catch them drinking from it, so I couldn't imagine not fixing it.

The Indoor Sun Shoppe sold us a nice, used (workable) bowl that we found tucked back by the gravel for practically 70% off the original price so Ma decided we should also pick up the gorgeous orchids that caught our eye(s.) After that, we still thought it might not be a bad idea to trek over to the Eastside to check out the other nursery's fountain making kit.

Guess what? Yeah, they didn't have that in stock either, but I picked up some extra rocks, chocolate and Moroccan mint to grow on the balcony and some chive seeds to plant then spent the rest of my afternoon assembling, planting/re-potting and arranging my living room. As I laid on my couch that evening barely able to keep my eyes open I could feel the bruises smarting while I cuddled with Bread.

After sleeping in as late as possible, I unpacked boxes all day Sunday and took a walk over to pick up some groceries once it cooled down to make sure I got out to enjoy at least a little of the fabulous weather we had. As I wandered through Westwood Village I couldn't help but smile - despite all the black and blue, I am so happy to be back in this neighborhood and so thrilled to see my home coming together. I definitely have plenty more boxes to unpack (mostly books and the fra-gee-lay stuff now) but I can see the bones of a place where I can be safe, comfortable, creative and content.

My new apartment!

Ah yeahhhhh, I'm on my way back to Westwood! I have a feeling I'm going to be here for at least a few more years, which is good because moving twice in 6 months is one sure way to ensure your friends never want to help you move ever again.

At my "old place" (as The Madre has already taken to calling it) the art is down, the nails are pulled, rugs are rolled and besides the kitchen almost everything that will be packed, is. Now I've set myself to the task of rallying friends to help and by Saturday I should be totally ready for the final move.

It feels a bit strange to be leaving stuff behind but I'm actually really glad I don't have to worry about moving the huge new couch the ex bought. Besides the couch, he will be returning to an apartment that contains only the following (as agreed upon) : a dining room set, bed frame, dresser, large desk, mini fridge, bedside table and one grill pan. I've been tempted to leave him a list of things that he will probably want to get as soon as he returns, but as I've been reminded: I'm "not his mother." I am leaving a few things to at least help him through that first night home (like toilet paper, paper towels and a liner curtain for the shower so they can freshen up after the long flight back to Seattle) so I'm not feeling too terribly guilty.

So, here's to moving onward and upward and forward and all those other good things; soon enough I can go back to my search for the perfect set of curtains.

The credit check waiting game.

This Saturday I put down a holding deposit on what will hopefully be my fantastic new apartment and immediately rushed home to do the online credit check. As a slightly impatient person (I can hear my mother's eyes rolling from across the city,) the wait between the credit check and the "okay, come get your keys" kills me. Each time I fill out that application I am slightly nervous despite the fact that for my last two places I've been told afterward that I passed with flying colors.

My new apartment (let's be optimistic, shall we) is around the corner from and eerily similar to my last singleton place: older male on-site manager, one bedroom previously inhabited by two women, top floor and west-facing. The grounds are much nicer though and there is a ELEVATOR this time, thank the gods. Same amenities: secured building, fireplace (wood-burning instead of gas - yay,) washer/dryer, dishwasher - the works. The balcony is bigger AND at least partially covered, which is a big improvement over the last abode. The floor plan is much like my last apartment and it's going to be a little bit of a challenge to make sure I don't have the same exact layout in regards to furniture, but I have gotten rid of a few pieces and plan on upgrading a few others as my budget allows.

So, now it's just the waiting game.

I love Seattle.

Every time I drive through the city I am truly struck by its beauty; on sunny days Seattle just makes you feel good to be alive.

I am going to briefly touch on recent events and then continue this blog in its original vein and speak about the positive things that are upcoming for me.

Ma and I had to say goodbye to our 18 year old cat B.C. on Saturday. His liver was failing and quality of life was decreasing at an increasing pace. He went quietly after lots and lots of petting.

Bear is leaving. Had I been honest with myself, I would have seen this coming long ago and I had at least a few friends who did. I'm okay, but in the next six weeks I have to find a new place to live! Having become quite fond of the Junction, I am willing to give up a few amenities to be able to remain in the area. Once again, I'll be packing every night after work.

My amazing friends have rallied around me and I am looking forward to a bright future, happily on my own again. I've had a lot of new design ideas and having free reign over the space for paint and art and such will be super refreshing. Having more time for girlfriends is also a huge bonus and I have no doubt there will be a lot more social activity for this domestic goddess. The dust should settle in a few weeks and I can get back to my fabulous life as I once knew it!

***I will say that I highly doubt I will be cohabitating with a beau pre-putting-a-ring-on-it ever again and even after that it may be somewhat difficult to convince me.

Wilson and Bread

First of all, I want to sincerely thank every one of you who prayed for us and shared our pain on Facebook. It is always tragic to lose a part of your family, furry or not, suddenly or slowly. We were blind-sided and Serkan had no option but to offer as much support as he could while being thousands of miles away. Unfortunately this meant he was not able to have his own goodbyes with Wilson, and they loved each other so so much.

Truly, all of your kind words have touched my heart. I know many of you have been through the same thing or have a pet that you love so much you don't want to imagine ever being in the same position. As they say, "this ain't my first rodeo" and in my life I have said goodbye to many kitties, never on really pleasant terms. Wilson is incredibly special to me and I will never forget all of the things I loved; the last 4 days of his life are far outweighed by the 2+ great years I got to spend with him. He taught me things.

In the days after he passed, after separate heart-to-heart chats with Bear and the Madre in which I honestly expressed my desire to adopt another cat (I can't say it more eloquently):

"Unlike some people who have experienced the loss of an animal, I did not
believe, even for a moment, that I would never get another. I did know full well
that there were just too many animals out there in need of homesfor me to take
what I have always regarded as the self-indulgent road of saying the heartbreak
of the loss of an animal was too much ever to want to go through with it again.

To me, such an admission brought up the far more powerful admission that
all the wonderful times you had with your animal were not worth the unhappiness
at the end."

- Cleveland Amory

they both unknowingly presented me with the same, kinda freakin' brilliant, idea.

We'll have to back-track a little.

About a year and a half ago, a friend's bartender roommate was trying to adopt out two young adult Maine Coon mix brothers - he had agreed to house them for a friend whose new girlfriend had allergies or hated the cats or maybe she was just slightly crazy, we never really figured it out but she never attempted to regain ownership of the kitties even after insisting they be adopted out together. Since another roommate was allergic, these cats (who probably loved their original owner and home) were now forced to spend their days and nights in one room where the occupant was actually rarely there. I had Gizmo and Wilson in a one bedroom apartment so I couldn't rescue them myself, but I convinced my Mom that she had enough room to house them in addition to the 2 she already had - 17 year old BC and her youngin' Sawyer. I would have taken one if I could have, but ended up convincing my Mom to step closer to the cliff into Crazy Cat Ladydom.

The boys Bread and Puppet were named after The Bread and Puppet Theater: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_Puppet_Theater and holy crap they were *traumatized*. We all got scratched to pieces when we put them in the crates; one person even got blood poisoning. It wasn't pretty.

The Madre (aka The Cat Whisperer) quickly turned them around and they are mostly normal adorable cats, though Bread has a tendency to pick on Sawyer (who also never got along with Gizmo) and Puppet is still very shy around strangers. I adore them both, though Bread is really my fave.

One night while discussing our adoption options Serkan gently suggested that maybe Ma might let me take one of her cats off her hands and I immediately protested - BC needs to stay with her because of his age, Sawyer doesn't get along with Gizmo and the brothers grew up together. Puppet loves my mom dearly and I know he is too sensitive to be parted from her. I thought *maybe* she would consider letting us take Bread home but knew I would never actually ask her to consider it.

That same night The Madre called me to present the exact same idea. Two days later, she brought Bread to me.

It's been a rocky start with Gizmo - at first she was just confused, then she was pissed.

For me it's been pretty easy (minus all the growling and initial spats in the middle of the night) - Bread is a great cuddler. Oh my goodness he loooooves to spoon. And he's 17 pounds of adorable silliness.

I still have plenty of moments where I think "oh, Wilson used to..." or "that's just like Wilson..." and I am smacked in the face with grief, but life is getting back to normal as the kitties adjust to each other and we settle in with our new ball o' fluff.

Priorities!

Okay, so I didn't go to class. After contemplating what my teacher could possibly (most likely)intend for the last class in the 6 week series I couldn't really find a reason to justify driving from West Seattle to the U District and paying for parking. I've still got Rosetta, a good workbook and loved ones who are more than happy to help me continue learning so I'm not feeling too guilty.

Instead I spent the evening reorganizing my drawers. This weekend the Madre and I searched far and wide (aka as Southcenter's furniture district) for a lingerie chest to help accommodate Bear's clothing when he comes back for his holiday visit (and beyond.) My tidy Virgo tendencies would not do well dealing with him living out of a suitcase, even if only for a week and a half. Because I had skipped the Jingle Run (why I don't own waterproof running gear in Seattle baffles even me, but it was too effing wet) but I still wanted to hang out with my Mom, I figured this was the perfect day to get out and look.

Um, so, I learned a lingerie chest is a very specific type of furniture that places don't keep a lot of versions of AND they usually run around $300 on the lower end. So, off to ikea we went to purchase the $150 version, which we put together in 3 hours the next day. It's simple but beautiful and I seriously felt a sense of accomplishment after making it through all 27 steps without resorting to drinking or throwing things.

The piece it is replacing was a much smaller 2 drawer chest with a usable surface area. Because I didn't go to class, I finally had a chance to make the adjustments to lighting and decor around the bedroom as well as getting the clothes redistributed. Again, my donation pile grew and also I ended up lugging everything downstairs to take to Goodwill.

With only a number of days now until my boyfriend gets back, I have A LOT OF SHIZ TO DO. I believe shall be coping with a little bit of retail therapy to balance out the grocery shopping, fish tank cleaning, bedding washing, girly grooming, etc. I earned it, and I am making it a priority too.

Seattle Jingle Bell Run 2010 is approaching fast.

Every December for the past 4 years I have participated in the Seattle Jingle Bell Run to support The Arthritis Foundation’s mission to prevent, control and cure arthritis.

Beyond the fact that I am personally afflicted and hope for better treatment options for myself, I am also fully aware that it affects more than 46 million Americans, including 300,000 children, costing the U.S economy over $128 billion annually. Yes, indeed - billions of dollars as one of the nation's most common causes of disability.

I've raised a respectable amount of money in the past, but I truly get the most joy out of the ritual it has become. The Madre will come pick my inevitably grumpy ass up and drop me off in downtown Seattle, where I lace on my bells (alone or with friends) and get my cold butt as quickly to the finish line as I can manage so I can go inside somewhere for breakfast and mimosas. I always smile when the carols start, sometimes I get a little teary, but I always have fun.

If you like to run, please consider joining me this year as one of those crazy people who gets up too early in the cold on a Sunday morning (we can celebrate with mimosas!) You can register here: http://www.seattlejinglebellrun.org/

If you don't like to run and aren't slightly insane and maybe have a few bucks to spare for a really great cause, please consider helping me with my fundraising here: http://seattlejinglebellrun.kintera.org/lovepigeon

If neither are possible for you this year, I'd still love to have your support in spirit! It's freakin' chilly out there.

He does what he can.

While I am still sad that Bear's absence is going to be longer than we had hoped, I have to give him credit - he really has done his best on this trip to get as much face time as possible with me on Skype and give me as much attention as he can.

Most evenings after I get home from work we'll talk for a for a while, sometimes on the weekends we'll just leave the camera for hours on as we work on projects separately, occasionally he'll get into bed and just leave his laptop open until the battery dies after he falls asleep.

It's no substitute for having my living, breathing dude snuggled up to me on the couch with our kitties, but it's a lot better than relying on phone calls, emails and letters to stay in touch, of course.

As bummed out as I was last week after finding out about Christmas, there's really nothing he could've done to be a better boyfriend.

On Monday, Seattle was hit with snow. My coworker who lives near me had ridden her bike to work, so I volunteered to give her a ride home. On my way from her apartment to my own (it took an hour to go from work to her place to my place - all in West Seattle,) I quickly realized my cute little Hyundai is not made for inclement weather. There was a near death experience and a major curb check that trashed one of my front rims; by the time I made it home I was sore, tired and a more than a little freaked out. I opened my mail only to find my one year anniversary gift waiting for me - a gift card for a manicure, pedicure and massage at the salon he goes to for his haircuts in Seattle.

Tuesday was a "Snow Day" and the day he told me he wasn't scheduled to come home before December 25th.

Wednesday, I cried a lot. He tried to reassure me a lot.

Thursday (Thanksgiving,) was our anniversary.

Historically, The Madre and I never found much use for the whole big turkey dinner. That didn't change after I got out on my own, but we wanted to spend time together (um, that's the real meaning of the holidays, riiiight?) so she took me to breakfast at one of our local go-to diners and we chatted for a while.

Once I got home I pulled the Christmas tree out of storage, since Bear and I had already decided to put it up "together" before he told me he wouldn't be here for the actual holiday. It's a pre-lit, 3 foot artificial cutie - perfectly sized for my apartment. Most of the ornaments were the ones with sentimental value that I convinced Ma to left me have when I moved out, but Bear did get me a few more at Turkfest and I had some traditional balls to fill up space.

We got on Skype and after the usual catch up for the day and "love yous" and "happy anniversaries," I popped on some holiday music and got down to setting it up. He worked on music and occasionally gave input, even suggesting maybe we just leave it up for the next year to make up for him not being here for Christmas. While I can't imagine that happening, especially since we'll be moving into a bigger place as soon as possible when he returns, the idea cheered me up.

***One of the many many many reasons I love him - even from across the planet he puts a huge smile on my face.***

When I finally finished up, he was definitely ready for bed (I always forget if Turkey is 9 or 10 hours ahead, but the bottom line is - boyfriend stays up really late to be able to see me,) so I left the laptop open and kept working around my place until I was sure he had drifted off to sleep.

Our relationship has been a little unconventional, but I will give him this - Bear is doing everything in his power to keep me happy despite the distance. As sad as I can get sometimes, I know that I am a very lucky girl to have such a devoted guy itching to come home to me.

Color me disappointed (<----understatement of the year.)

Geez, there are so many ways I could catch y'all up here because it's been a while since I last posted, but the only thing I've been able to think about for the past day is that Bear is not coming home in time for Christmas.

Technically, that means this year he'll have been gone for all of my favorite holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.) Did I mention that Thanksgiving is our one year anniversary? Yeahhhh. And this is after my birthday in September basically got pre-empted for a show. I'm growing more than weary of this.

For The Madre and I, these days have always been mellow but shared with the ones we love that are closest and most important to us - usually each other and/or our oldest friends. I was really looking forward to sharing that with him this year, since last year at this time we had just started officially dating and kept the holidays quite "light." I knew it was possible he wouldn't be home, but now that he's said it out loud it is a lot more real.

Honestly, I'm crushed. Right now I feel like all my holiday spirit is gone.

P.S. Though I truly appreciate the fact that some of my friends might think that inviting me out will help, please don't - it's not going to.

Continuity counts!

I recently realized I am supremely bad at following up on the posts I write. I suppose that an entire month of blogging with a post every day will likely help remedy that, but I swear I will also be making more of a conscious effort.

For instance, I had about 3 blog entries scheduled to post when I realized that some of you might actually be interested in the following:

I did in fact end up staying in on Halloween (sort of.) Bear left me with an updated entertainment set-up, so on Saturday morning the Madre came over to help me take my old 27" tube TV down the 3 flights of stairs to my car and then to Goodwill. I'm pretty sure I heard one of her knees give way on the 2nd flight and I know that I ended up straining some muscles in my arm and back, but we got 'er done and went to lunch at my favorite salad bar. I ran a few more errands, did a bit of shopping, grabbed some sushi takeout and Sapporo, got in my pjs and settled in for the evening to watch Teen Witch and give my poor back a break.

Sunday was intended to be mellow, with a visit to a nearby friend's place to watch the Skeleton Theater. It was really rainy and quite cool that evening, so we warmed ourselves fire-side and chatted as the kiddos came for their treats. When we decided to head over to watch the show I grabbed my phone so I could take photos to send to Bear and realized I had multiple missed calls from various unknown numbers as well as new voicemails. Turns out the Madre had locked herself out of her house and had been frantically trying to get in touch with me so I could use my set of keys to let her in.

I ended up missing the show to go and rescue her, but had a lovely night with my friends nonetheless. I can't say I'll necessarily make staying in on Halloween a trend, but this year it was exactly what I needed.