You have got to be fucking kidding me. “Pioneers in spirit, they dress the part, strolling in prairie skirts and toting their infants in slings. Others tend bar at the local saloons wearing jeans and bright kerchiefs.” It’s BROOKLYN, not the Oregon Trail.
My tolerance level for ironic hipsters continues to sink.
I went with my parents to Maine where I ate a lot of seafood, including the ubiquitous Maine lobster roll and blueberry pie, and bought two pair of shoes, a necklace that looks like a blueberry bush branch, pottery, and salsa. Among other things.
The bad part of the trip was the fact that my incurable backseat driver of a mother drove me nuts, and then insisted on helping me clean my apartment. On the plus side, it’s clean now. On the minus, we cleaned from 3-10 yesterday, with a brief stop for dinner and grocery and Target shopping. My apartment is currently more decorated than it has ever been, and I’m moving in three weeks.
My parents are (probably) coming to visit next week.
My apartment is a pigsty.
My mother is a clean freak.
Yeah, so I guess I’ll be cleaning all week, yes?
Okay, to be fair, some of my bedding purchases are because I have a cat, and the cat is an ass, and he pees on the bed. So I go through a lot of sheets and have recently bought more spares because I’m sick of doing laundry twice a week. But the quilt I ordered? Don’t really have that excuse. I have an almost brand new one that just came back from the dry cleaners (no prizes for guessing why it was there).
I seriously have a thing for cute sheets and blankets and beds. Quite possibly because I love to sleep (I do, really), but it surpasses any love I have for technicolor flat shoes or handbags or chunky jewelry. It doesn’t surpass my love for romance novels, however, as the piles on my floor and nearly full bookcases will attest.
Anyway, in the interest of sharing, here is what will be on my bed when JC Penney gets around to sending it to me. It’s teal, which is my favorite color – probably part of the reason I gave in.
At least it was on sale?
I got a wild hair this morning to clear out my closet (well okay, its been something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile, as I’m moving in August) and now most of my wardrobe is in white trash bags, including the following:
My actual wardrobe is now limited to two pairs of trousers (one black, one ivory), two pairs of jeans, two dresses (one black, one purple), a bunch of skirts, a few suits, a few jersey tops, a handful of sweaters, and some t-shirts.
Oh, and about a dozen pair of shoes.
At least it’ll be easy to pack in August?
There really IS nothing to do in Moline. Or Rock Island. Or Davenport. Or Bettendorf.
This is why I went to grad school in Madison. Well, most of the reason.
Got back from a work trip to Portugal on Monday. On the plus side, I finally have a stamp on my almost ten year old passport that is NOT London Gatwick. On the minus side, I’m still jet-lagged.
Portugal was pretty much awesome. We went on a cruise on Friday, and otherwise spent the weekend clubbing and hanging on the beach. I’m horribly sunburnt and dehydrated – the wine is good in Portugal! – and thus my feet are swollen. I’m also slightly broke so the shopping will have to be curbed for the next little while, especially given that I have to move this summer.
On another note, I flew through London Gatwick twice and it has risen to my Most Hated Airport, even beating out O’Hare, Atlanta, and JFK. Yes, it sucks that much. The terminal train was busted, meaning I had to double back and take the bus, it has seriously the slowest moving walkways I’ve ever been on, customs was bitchy both times I had to go through it, and I was – as usual – at the butt end of the terminal both times. Someday I’d like to have the experience of boarding one of the first gates in the terminal instead of having to haul my baggage all the way to the end. Just once.
Later we will have the plane reading update. I took four books, which made my roommate go bug-eyed. 
If your major dinner decision is whether to put black or red beans in your rice and sausage skillet thing.
Yeah, I should probably cook something else this week.
I went into the office “kitchen” (lacking a stove, but possessing a fridge, microwave, water cooler, coffee machine, and dishwasher) a couple minutes ago to dump my cold tea and replace it with some water, and noticed that my missing issue of SciTech News (a riveting publication produced by the SciTech, Physics, and Chemistry divisions of SLA) had a place of honor on the table, right next to the New York Times.
Good to see someone reads it, because I can’t be bothered to do more than skim.
In other news, my work appraisal was this morning and was certainly the most glowing work appraisal I’ve gotten in my life. If it weren’t for the facts that 1) the economy suck, and 2) I’ve been here for less than six months, I’d probably be getting a pretty decent raise next month when they’re approved. So all is awesome there.
Except instead of Dennis the Menace, I have an entire group of screaming kids in my parking lot. It’s 7:30, don’t these people have homework anymore?
And here I thought that by living in an apartment complex there would be less shrieking children. Silly me.