Recent News Around Here

SInce I skipped out on my blog for a while, I'm sure you're all dying to know the latest gossip from my crazy life. 

First of all... Oscar. The cone is gone and his eye has healed, although that hasn't stopped us from calling him "Cone." After all the drama with his previous vet, we decided to try someone new before we made the almost comical decision to take him to an ophthalmologist. We chose the closest vet, one we could walk to so that we wouldn't have to spend more money getting a Zipcar for a couple hours. We went in completely embarrassed because his cone was filthy and his head smelled like something had died. The vet came in, and she was more wonderful than we could have imagined. She spent almost an hour with us, all the while petting Oscar and telling him how handsome he was. Even if her prescribed treatment didn't work, we were confident that we had finally found a vet we felt comfortable taking all our animals to. Luckily something worked and thanks to the lack of the cone, now our kitty's head no longer smells like death. 

In other news, Mark is working a contract job that just bumped up his hours to 70/ week. It's crazy, but at least it beats the stress of being unemployed and worrying about money. I'm back to being a work widow now, though at least it gives me time to work on my end of the term stuff. Which by the way, has me freaked out beyond belief. It's so difficult to get everything done in just a few weeks. I'm trying my hardest to avoid procrastinating this semester, even going so far as to get a research paper done two weeks before it's due. Impressive, right?

And if all that schoolwork weren't enough, my mom is flying in this weekend so that we can see the Cherry Blossoms, which will be awesome. I can't wait to see her and show her how amazing the Cherry Blossoms are. Then the next weekend, Mark's parents are coming to visit, hoping to catch the tail end of the blossoms. After that, it's pretty much the end of semester and I'll be one summer away from starting my final semester of college. 

If only I can make it til then without losing my sanity... 

Oh Crap

I haven't posted for a month. Awesome blogger, huh? Ok, let's get this thing rolling again...


Things by me aren't half bad right now. Mark is working a contract job so we're not starving anymore. I'm nearing the end of the semester, which means that I'll be ONE more away from graduating! Oscar's eye has finally cleared up after a NEW vet. Long story short, we LOVED the new person and he seems to be pretty healthy. And the weather has finally warmed up in DC which means that it's time for barbecuing, long walks, and wine on the back porch. 


Please stay tuned for more posts as I'm re-committing myself to my blog!  

Post-Snow Commute

Since the snow has drama has been over for almost a week now, it only makes sense that everything is still slow, right? I mean, how much can we expect from a city that can’t function at the slightest mention of flurries?

Right here is where I have to remind you that my commute is not easy. In order to get to or from school, I have to take a bus, a train, AND a shuttle. When I have night classes it can be more difficult to get home since the city seems to think that the trains should run every 10-15 minutes after 7:00pm and as for the buses… well, they’ll run whenever the hell they feel like it. Combine that with the snow-as-a-snail metro and you can see that we’re all headed for disaster.

So there I am at school, patiently waiting for my SECOND shuttle because the first one had too many people for me to squeeze on. I kid you not; it took an hour from the time that class got out until I was at the metro station, a mere two miles away. And yes, I’m aware that I could have walked. But it was dark and all the sidewalks were covered with snow. Not to mention that DC drivers are some of the worst I’ve seen in my entire life. Enough said.

Due to wanting to stay alive, I was at the metro at a time that I should have been on the bus to get home. I had to wait ten minutes for the next train, then about another twenty minutes for it to get to my stop. By this time, it’s 8:00pm and I’m getting cranky. And because the night wasn’t quite crappy enough, the Transportation Gods chose to slow down the bus, leaving me to stand outside in the freezing cold for a half hour.

It took another half hour to get home and by the time I walked in my front door, I was in tears. Mark had dinner for me and being the awesome boyfriend he is, greeted me with a hug a warm dinner. It was just what I needed to make me forget about my metro woes…

Until tonight. 

Sick of Snow Days

I never thought it would happen. All I wanted was ONE snow day. Ok, maybe I really wanted TWO snow days. Just something to give me a little break from school and work. In no way, shape, or form was I prepared to have almost an entire WEEK off school! I was able to make it to work on Monday but even that was dangerous so I’ve been home for the remainder of the week.

There’s now a bit of cabin fever going around in our apartment. Mark and I are driving each other crazy and Jade is thrilled because she thinks that mommy and daddy are home all day just to play with her. And to be honest, all the snow days are giving me anxiety. You see, so far, my university hasn’t extended our semester. There was an emergency preparedness plan in place so that if H1N1 hit the campus, classes could continue over the internet. During our unforeseen snow break, professors have been encouraged to keep the students up to date on assignments and scheduling. Way to ruin my snow break, school! Anxiety-ridden, I keep thinking about all the work I’m going to have upon returning to classes.

And you’d think that with all this time, my apartment would be spotless. Not so much. I’ve been on the couch for the last three days, watching every bit of crappy programming that television offers. It’s not just about procrastination; it’s a serious lack of capability when it comes to getting my shit together. I know the reasons for this and I’m working on correcting them, but in the meantime I let my apartment slide. My cleaners come tomorrow (hopefully!) and I always feel less stressed when everything is in its place. It’s just easier to get work done and not be a slacker when your belongings are clean and organized.

The one productive thing that I managed to begin is a recipe binder. I’m always hanging on to old magazines and some of them have some recipes that I’d like to try. I was able to go through a good amount of the magazines and tear out all the recipes that look good and categorize them in a binder. Plus, I found some awesome baked goods recipes that look easy enough for me to attempt. One of these next few days, I’ll start posting recipes again.

Lesson that was learned from snow days: be productive everyday. It lessons my anxiety. 

The Snow Is Here!!

Yes, it finally happened. The snow is upon us. Thankfully, I received my groceries this morning and am now hunkered down in bed, right where I belong. I’ve heard horror stories over the past few days about people waiting until the last minute to go to the grocery store and the shelves being empty. Check out the pictures from this blog. 

I still can’t believe that people panicked to the point of cleaning out the grocery stores! And if that weren’t enough, the local news stations have been running live coverage of the snow since NOON and it doesn’t end until MIDNIGHT. And I’m sure that it’ll be on first thing again tomorrow. Can’t these people just let us watch our Friday night shows? I mean, seriously, what else do we have to do? 

Only in DC... 

Impatiently Waiting

I'm impatiently waiting for school to be canceled tomorrow. We're supposed to get 18-24 inches and the storm is set to start at 10am. And  where will I be? Hopefully at home, because my first class begins at 9:55am. My last one ends at 2pm and travel is predicted to be the worst in the afternoon. Who KNOWS how long it will take me to get home after it's been snowing for hours!

I'm going to bed like a little kid wishing for a snow day. Pleeeeeeeease let it happen!

Prepping for Snowmageddon Part II

Everything is a little crazy in DC because the weather people are predicting a monstrous winter storm to hit this weekend. The estimated snow prediction is anywhere from 12-20 inches. Not only does this set people into a frenzy because their city is no way, shape, or form prepared to handle snow, but their survival skills kick in and they wipe the shelves clean of all groceries.

In response to this snow-craze, I did my part and ordered my peapod groceries today. At first, the weather people wouldn’t even SAY how much snow we were going to get. It was all, we can’t say for sure, but if everything lines up just right, there will be a heavy amount of snow. Nothing makes people freak out more than not knowing what’s going to happen. When Snowmageddon Part I hit, I had planned wisely and gotten our groceries delivered earlier that night. But I decided that since we were going to be snowed in, I wanted to do my holiday baking. I dragged Mark over to Safeway and you would not have believed how many people were there, carts full of whatever was left on the shelves.

This time I’m sparing no expense. On my list of groceries? Cat food and litter. Because what if we got stuck here for a few days and the animals didn’t have food? Or God forbid we run out of cat litter! It would be insanity! I was a bit worried this morning because I didn’t know if peapod would be all booked up for Friday morning. But luckily I was able to secure a spot and (fingers crossed) we should have enough food to survive the storm. I’m going to attempt to post pictures of what’s going on outside my place so y’all can see how the storm progresses, so make sure to come back this weekend!