O Apartment, Where Art Thou?

I've been apartment hunting. It's been interesting.

I set out to find an apartment - in Pennsylvania but not, like, Philly - for $600. I called a bunch of places. Some were gone. Some were in bad locations. Some had wrong numbers. Some never called me back. And then some did call me back. I was scheduled to see four or five apartments - but then one of them wound up being rented before I got there! So I went to the others.

The first was a shithole. Excuse the language. But it was. It was AWFUL. The back door was busted in, the carpet was filthy, there were holes in the walls, dirt, a rank smell. Every other house on the street was charming beyond charming, except for this one. It was definitely "that house" in the neighborhood that you KNOW the neighbors want to have torn down.

The second was a hellhole. Note, this is different than a shithole. This is a shithole that has a bad feel to it, like something sinister was going down. It was so weird, I picked up the key from the realtor and went to see it on my own, with me mum, but no landlord! After finally figuring out how to get into the building -- another crappy property on a charming street -- we opened the door to a looooong narrow dirty hallway, so dark you could barely see. Same story as last time. I TOTALLY would not have been surprised AT ALL to find a skull in one of those doors. Or a little goblin climbing out in the night. Just sayin'


creepy goblin hideout or door to john malcovich's head

My mom and I wound up sitting at a nearby creperie for the second day in a row, eating our crepe sandwiches and shaking our heads at the deplorable state of livin'. I'd seen people who looked very much like me coming out of these places...was this what I was doomed to? NOOOOOOO! I'd just stay at home and drive an hour each way to work. Gosh!

But then we went to place #3. It was lovely. It was clean. It was tiny but cute, with a little upstairs and a little downstairs (my boyfriend would say, "It's not small, it's proportional to you") and a little patio and a little storage closet and a REALLY BIG CLOSET. I had a tiny moment inside like this:


never mind the fact my closet isn't anything like this and that this movie also really sucked

It's nothing snazzy per se, just several clothing racks, an entire slanted shoe wall thingy, and ample closet wall space to hang ALL! MY! PURSES! I was really feelin' the closet. And the rest of the apartment. So I put in an application and a few hours later got word that I could have it! I'm supposed to call back on monday to see about paying my deposit and signin' a lease :)

Whoop whoop somebody's gettin' her first place!

oh, 'ello again - and some health information!

I went away again. And I am back again.

And I will tell you why I was gone. In a bit.

I've spent the time I've been away doing a lot of work for school, a lot of work for work (it was tax season and I work for a tax attorney...so, yeah) and the like. But now it's t-20 days until I have a bachelor's of arts in communications in my hand and am on my way to...well, a presumably fun summer, and one where I won't be broke. HURRAY!!

I also am re-starting my apartment hunt. I did a little preliminary shoppin' while I was gone from ze blog, with meh results - including one almost too good to be true listing I called, only to find out the number was wrong. Guess it WAS too good to be true! :)

So I begin once again in about a week. The folks said I can move back in with them til I find a place, which is swell of them, but the commute is kind of a bitch, though some relief comes in the form of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, bless its potholed little motorways. So I might have some interesting anecdotes soon about that hunt, though I'm hoping it goes smoothly!

So, like I said, I was AWOL. The past couple of months, I had very little motivation to do much of anything I didn't have to do. I was in a funk, a big fat funk. I was super emotional, super neurotic, super moody, and I realized something was super wrong when it got to the point that I'd burst out into tears for no apparent reason when I was doing something simple like buying cookies at the market.

So I researched to try to figure out WTF was wrong with me. Why did I suddenly feel like I was 80% of myself, like a drawing someone rubbed their fist over and smudged/faded it? Turns out it was my birth control pill. I'd been put on Loestrin 1/20 and, in retrospect, had become super emotional right away. It wasn't until four months in and I realized I was laying on my bed staring into space feeling intense sadness (an emotion I never actually really feel) that something was wrong.

It turns out that the birth control pill strips your body of its B vitamins, folates, magnesium and potassium. So I had nothing. I started eating more whole grains and taking a multivitamin, but it only improved slightly. So I continued my search, figured out a good pill for me to switch to, and marched off to a doctor. My regular lady doc was shocked that I'd experienced ALL these rare side effects but through my googling I learned I am certainly not the only one! I've changed medicine and as of now am doing much better, back to my normal chipper self! :)

I tell you this so that perhaps someone else googling why they are sad one day might happen upon this, and so that if you are on a BCP and not taking a multivitamin, well, I highly highly suggest you start now. Our Typical American Diets don't lend themselves well to maintaining high nutrient levels as is, and if we're being stripped of the bits of nutrients we are getting, problems ensue.

So pop all those pills, ladies!

And I'll try to be more consistent now with el blog.

xx

Mark Wahlberg Wants You To Have A Nice February 14th.

Happy Valentine's day to everyone!

I'm not much of a valentine's day-er, personally, as it's just another day, and while of course I'd never say no to flowers, it's not the Be All End All of holidays. This Valentine's Day for me is just another monday with my roommates, as

a) it is, in fact, a Monday
b) the fella is visiting his family in Europe

So, anyway, single or taken, we can all love ourselves on Valentine's Day. (Cheese alert!) And today's Love Thyself Lesson comes from none other than...


Marky Mark!

And no, this has NOTHING to do with good vibrations...heh, heh...sorry...

Anyway, I was in the car the other day and the "Five O-Clock Throwback" song on the radio was a Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch number. I changed the station, of course, but before I did, I had a quick train of thought:

Marky Mark was a horrible...um, entertainer.
Marky Mark is widely regarded as a joke.
Marky Mark is Mark Wahlberg.
Mark Wahlberg is widely regarded as an actual person.
Mark Wahlberg is not a half bad actor.



Hm. Okay. So if Mark Wahlberg can recover from the great Sin to Sound that was Marky Mark, and actually recover to the point that

a) People gave him an Oscar nomination in past years
b) Most people you know will probably not negatively react and refuse to go if you suggest a Mark Wahlberg movie (whereas they might if you, say, suggested going to see a Miley Cyrus tearjerker)
c) Most people do not think of Marky Mark in their head when watching a Mark Wahlberg movie. I saw "The Fighter" last month and did not think of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch once during the whole thing.
d) He gets a recurring Saturday Night Live sketch about him ("Talking To Animals With Mark Wahlberg")

...so if he can essentially dupe the ENTIRE WORLD into almost completely forgetting (until reminded on the radio) that he was responsible for some of the most laughable "music" to come out of the 1990s, to the point that it's rarely even tolerated as humor music (like Sir Mix-A-Lot is used as these days), then heck, there is no reason any of us should walk around thinking that a slip-up we made is going to negatively impact us long-term, assuming nobody died. I mean, come on, think about it, you must have done something in the past that at the time seemed like a glaring, awful slip up, and maybe it was, but has it affected your life long-term in a negative manner so that people only think of that when they see you? No, probably not. If the event was recent, give it time, it'll pass. (If it seems to be taking a long time, maybe start wearing a shirt and turn your baseball cap around....it worked for Mark). I recently made a mistake that had the potential to anger a lot of rather wealthy people whom I needed to make happy and comfortable. Everything got worked out in a scramble, but for a minute there, it seemed like an awful bother and that people's view of me was going to fall a bit. But then I thought about it and realized that hey, if Marky Mark can turn around from THAT, then we can all turn around from whatever much smaller and less offensive to the ears thing we've done.

So love yourselves today. :)

Hello again

I'm back!

Well, not extensively so, I still must catch up on all my lovely must-read blogs (sorry, ladies & gents!). But after about a month without regular Internet (gasp, horror!) and another month of getting adjusted to my final semester of my undergraduate education, I'm back to the blog.

I've been pretty wrapped up in school...well, no, actually, that's not entirely true. I spend a couple days a week wrapped up in school stuff or work stuff so I can spend the rest of my week lollygagging about with my roommates and my friends and my boyfriend and his friends. It's a good time, this whole just-achieving, no over-achieving stuff, haha.

For instance, tonight I finally slogged my way through a bunch of stuff on web business.

I may have also watched an episode of "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" (don't judge, it's interesting and I'm learning about another culture...kinda...so there) and went to an open mic night at a local coffeehouse (did you know they make electric VIOLINS? ELECTRIC VIOLINS??!?!?!?! Turns out I can even get a $237.97 kit to make my flute into an electric flute!)

But, hey, it's something.

Has everyone been doing well? I must go about the rounds and catch up with blogs, I know!

Oh, hey.

It's been a while! I've been without much internet access for the past few weeks, except for at work, though that isn't quite the place to be blogging, now is it? So I haven't!

I've been working a lot, spending time with friends, family, the fella...the usual. But I'm enjoying myself. I also saw a man weed-whacking snow today. Hm. Curious.

In other news, my boss bought me a red swingline stapler* for my desk in our new offices because he knew that myself and one of the other lawyers would find it hilarious. And we did.




*as per the film "Office Space"

curiouser and curiouser

This past Thursday evening, I went to my office's annual Christmas party dinner at a cute-as-a-button little Italian restaurant across from the prettily lit Capitol building, and it was beyond charming and fun.

Especially when the executive assistant and her husband kept insisting I drink more wine. WHEEEEEE!

Actually, I wasn't quite at whee level, but I was laughing a little more. We ALL were. After three hours, I was the 2nd person to leave, as I had another engagement at that time, one street over at a different establishment. After carefully sipping a beer (as to not get to "whee!" level, you see) and moseying down the oh so cold street (that'll sober anyone up FAST), I wound up standing in a curious little sandwich shop--the mascot, a neon-light sandwich man (i.e. sandwich with legs and a smiley face), has his legs crossed in a rather unfortunate manner that kind of resembles a variation on a swastika...someone did NOT think that out well--and riiiiiight as I'm telling the fella I'm there with that I'm not eating anything after the big ol' company dinner, I hear:

"hey! can you guys keep her company?"

Oh boy. Here we go again. Another random conversation with drunk people. YES!

We turn.

Drunk Guy: Hey! Can you guys keep her company? (Points to a blonde). She's my sister, and she's a f***ing psychopath. Total b**** So I'm leaving. But someone's gotta keep an eye on her, so keep her company, will you?

Blonde: I AM NOT CRAZY, YOU MOTHERF****R! (laughs uproariously) C'mon man, you're the crazy one. (Looks at me...sisterly solidarity? I think not. But she was hopin') Man, he is totally whack? You know what he did? He...

she told us, and you don't want to know. It was dirty.

Blonde: ...with my best friend! She's my girl! I met her in jail!

Silence.

Drunk Guy: Chyeah, she met her in jail.
Blonde: I had a DUI.

They stare at us.

Me: ....um, well, it's not like you went in for stabbing someone...

Blonde: EXACTLY! And then he had to go and be a jerk about s***!
Drunk Guy: It's not like she's pregnant!
Blonde: YOU DON'T KNOW IT TAKES EIGHT DAYS...no, fourteen. Eight? Fourteen? YOU DON'T KNOW DUDE YOU DON'T KNOW.

Drunk Guy: Whatever. Shut up. (To us) Here, whatcha eatin', I'll get it for you since you had to stand here and listen to us.
Sober Guy With Me: um, no, that's okay,
Drunk Guy: No, really, whatcha havin' girl?
Sober Guy: Actually, she wasn't eating at all...
Me: Work dinner, you see.
Sober Guy: and I'm good, really, I'm fine...

And with a cheery bye to us and expletive to his sister, Drunk Guy departed.

How do I attract these people? How? I'm not complaining, I find it hilarious, but HOW?

My weekend only continued in a similarly random and amusing fashion, but that's a whole other story.

How were your weekends?

happiness is _____________.

---

I am a happy girl lately! I'm just about done with my second-to-last semester of college/university work (one more to go, wooo!), have had some excellent times with friends and the roommates lately (see above happy picture, yes?). I got a new gadget (a phone, touchscreen, holla! After sending my other formerly perfectly functional Samsung off to a swim in a bar toilet, whoopsies), which always makes my techgeeky side happy. I've had some good hair days with minimal effort. I had a fun weekend, minus a lil' car accident...but I'm okay, yay, and my car isn't even that badly off. My living room is covered in an insane, an INSANE, I TELL YOU amount of Christmas decorations, and it's fabulous. A $7.99 checkered plaid shirt has turned out to be a rather nice investment (long story). I am wearing a pair of tights I've had for a couple weeks and haven't run a hole through yet. I am not too cold at the moment. I was wondering what to do on Saturday and a friend walked in and gave us all free tickets to an ice hockey game, what luck! Life is very good.

what's everyone else been up to? I've been bad with the blog circuit...life is super hectic ahora.