Only in the movies

I've been on a Grey's Anatomy kick lately.  I used to love the show before it got all weird and they started killing people off right and left, or so I hear.  Anyway, wanted to see if it was back to being good so I had to watch it from the beginning.

Anyway, I was just sitting here watching and I got to thinking about love stories.  I love movies or shows with good love stories.  And if there isn't a good one often times I'll make one up in my head.  I love good love stories.  In the movies...

In the movies no matter how messed up are you personally, someone loves you dearly.  That person finds all your quirks and hang ups endearing and they enrich your relationship instead of driving the other person absolutely crazy.  That person is your partner and absolute match.  In the movies you break up and everyone is incredibly hurt until someone makes a grand gesture.  Someone holds a boombox outside your window or builds a house out of candles.  Love conquers all.

I just don't know if those love stories exist outside of the movies.

I have many more cynical things to say but I don't feel like it.

Bah!

For the love of Best Friends

Best Friends.

For those of you who are thinking BFFs, no.  Best Friends is actually an animal sanctuary in southern Utah.  It is the largest in the country and is dedicated to rehabilitating and rehoming the lost causes of the animal world.  I first heard of it during an insomnia attack during college.  I was up at all hours of the night and flipping channels until I found a show called Dogtown, filmed at Best Friends following the dogs they rehabilitate.  I thought, that is what I want to do.  I want to be a dog trainer and save the lives of dogs that have no one else.  And I want to do it there.  I made myself that promise.

That was one of the most important steps to getting to where I am today, that silent moment where I made that promise to myself.  I've tried to take more and more steps to get to that goal and I've been keeping my eyes on Best Friends.  Every time I saw "Dog Trainer" listed I applied, even when I knew there was no way I would get it.  Suddenly I find myself qualified and I saw that "Dog Trainer" job post again.

I got a huge rush of adrenaline, that came with the squealing of excitement and fear that I tried to keep quiet since I was at work.  I once again filled out that application (they must be tired of reading my applications) and sent it in.  The next day I got an email requesting a phone interview.  Again there was much squealing and bouncing with excitement and fear.  An interview... a phone interview.  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gah!  Eek!  AHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I had a phone interview with my DREAM JOB last Wednesday.  Pretty hard to tell if it went well or not.  I think it did.  I am exactly what they are looking for and by God I am going to apply until they hire me.  I can be a pretty stubborn person and I believe in doing whatever it takes to get where you want.  You're going to get told no more than once but you only need one yes.  And you just have to keep getting up until you get that yes.  Also it's important to remember that there are many roads to that yes.

Alright enough of my go get 'em attitude.  I hope I hear back soon about this job.  She said it would take about a week for them to get through all their interviews and review things.  I hate having to wait for things like that.  Puts a lot of things in the air.  Guess you just have to keep juggling until you know right?

I would pretty much freak out if I did get the job.  Not that I'm not thinking positively but I don't think I will.  There are probably a hundred more people out there that feel the same as me about this position and who knows, one might be better.  Also, if on the off chance I did get it, it would be incredibly hard to leave here and go there.  Yes I just got done talking about this dream job opportunity but I'd have to make a lot of changes to take it.

For one, I just bought a house.  A house that I have YET to live in.  So it would just really suck to move before I even get the chance to live there.  I'd rent it out though so that when I do come back I'll have a place to live.

For two, I do have some wonderful people in my life here.  Not only my family, I know they'll always be there for me, but some really great friends.  As much as I was miserable at LD at the end there, I have met some really great people through the training program and I'm so glad I didn't let the miserable side take over and ruin everything.

Dog people really are wonderful.  We may be strange to other normal people but we're awesome and other dog people understand.  

Anywho.  Keep your fingers crossed for me that I get a dream come true.

People that count

Before I go to bed, I want to post this.  And I want to post this on my blog so it's there and I don't forget it.  Facebook is so fleeting sometimes.

I just was to say that I am so grateful for the people in my life.  I have an incredible family that is literally building me a house so that I have somewhere to call my own.  I have amazing friends who will give up a Sunday afternoon to paint with me.  All of you are so dear to me.

I have struggled to feel like I belong somewhere and I have a place for myself since high school.  I never felt included or wanted in college.

Now, in this moment, I look around myself and I see that there are incredible people in my life.  I feel so included and folded into this little niche of the world.

Thank you.  Thank you all for giving me that.  It makes me feel good that there are such incredible people in the world.

Small things

First of all can I just say God bless whoever fixed the volume control on my work computer.  I shall worship you while listening to music at work.  Suddenly this job is much more enjoyable.

Also I want to bless whoever invented the Hazelnut Cappuccinofor the Kurieg because it is damn tasty and makes me into a much more likeable person in the morning.

Third I love the person who made these:

Amen for chocolate covered strawberries.

It's the little things in life, right?

Happy Chocolate Day!

Happy Valentine's Day...  Yeah actually I don't care.  Valentine's Day has traditionally been soaked in suckage.  For a long time Valentine's Day was very much cursed for me.  Last year wasn't too bad so I'm hoping the curse has lifted and I can get through today without the ceiling collapsing or something.  That said, the best thing about Valentine's Day is that tomorrow all the chocolate is 50% off.  YAY!

As far as I'm concerned, Valentine's Day should be celebrated more than once a year if you're one of those people that has a sweetie to be Valentine's with.  It shouldn't just be one day to treat each other specially and let the other know that they're loved.  I think it would mean more to get it on some random day that you haven't been reminded about since Christmas by the chocolate and candy companies.

My best Valentine memories are from Elementary school where we would decorate shoe boxes with hearts, ribbon and candy.  Then we'd go around and deliver little Valentine's to everyone.  It was so cute to get that little thrill that the cute boy two seats away gave you a Valentine instead of thinking about how he gave everyone a Valentine.  Those were the days!

I got a secret admirer valentine in middle school that I treasured for a long time.  Made me feel very special.  When I was moving one of these last times I found it and realized that the writing was way too pretty for a kid.  I'm sure it was one of the adults in my life trying to do something nice to me.  No idea who it was but thank you.  For a long time I felt like someone thought me was beautiful and liked me.  That was wonderful in some hard transitional times in my life.  That's a very nice gift for an awkward geeky girl.

Now I wish I was gullible enough for that to work.  Alas some bad Valentine's Day influenced by some very uncaring and cruel people has made me mean and cynical.

Then I read an article like this and I realize I've got three happy Valentine's waiting for me at home.  And they don't care if I spend $50 on flowers.

Dog Valentine

Nearing the end

It has been a long road and I am never ever doing it again.

I am talking about remodeling a house of course.  But we are nearing the end which is exciting.  Things are starting to come together and it's starting to look like a liveable space.  We have had bad luck with the several people we've hired to help us though.  They keep getting sick and that has really delayed things.  We were supposed to put the kitchen together this weekend but the floor guy got sick and didn't lay the linoleum on Friday like we thought.  I try not to be too irritated but yeah I kind of am.

Things that were accomplished this past week was the wall patching and gutters.  I am not a fan of the gutters at all.  They were supposed to be the same green as the trim but turned out to be much lighter.  So we're going to have to paint them.  Really dislike the color they are now.  That will probably have to wait until spring though.

Since the wall patching was mostly done, we did get started painting.  My mom has been helping me pick out paint colors which has been exceedingly frustrating for me.  I am not really into colors and I don't have the patience to look at a zillion colors that start looking the same to me.  Plus I tend to like dark colors and apparently that is just really out of style for smaller rooms.  Whatever though, it's my house.

So I chose a dark maroonish reddish color for the dining room.  At first my mom just wanted to paint one wall that color as an accent but accent walls actually kind of drive me crazy.  I won out and we started painting the dining room.  I think it looks wonderful and that's all that really matters isn't it?

Before.

After.

See?  I think it looks pretty nice.  Very warm and vibrant.  And you can't get much worse than how it was.  In the before picture up there you can see that the dining room and living room are painted the same greenish minty color.  Not a bad color but WAY overused.  It's like walking into a dinner mint.  They painted the whole big space and ceiling that color.  Way too much.  So I think the red is a huge improvement.

We're going to paint the trim another white color too.  I haven't decided if the living room will be the same red color and then the arch in the middle will be an accent color.  I don't want to follow in the previous owners' footsteps and paint everything the same color.  Dull.  So we'll see what I feel like when that dining room is completely finished.

Hopefully soon we can get the kitchen in and the bathroom.  Then the floors need to be sanded and retouched.  Beautiful wooden floors that just need some tender loving care.  What am I saying?  The whole house needed some tender loving care.

God I can't wait to be done with this and move in.  Life will actually feel normal again.

Curious about the house?

I don't actually know if anyone is curious about the house but I realize I haven't updated about it in a while.  Probably because I'm busy a lot of the time and haven't been so in love with working on the house.

That said, my parents are lovely and much more talented than I am and have been making huge progress.  I have a hard time really helping out because sometimes I feel I can hardly be trusted with a hammer half the time.  Yes I have hammered my fingers many times during this remodel.  I shutter to think about what horrors I could accomplish with a table saw.

Anyway, update on the house:

As you should know, I decided to paint the outside trim a dark green.  I love that color and was very pleased.  However, my mom was very insistent that we needed more colors.  So a tannish/light green was added and then eventually a purple.  I am not a huge fan of purple and wasn't entirely tickled about it but my mom promises she'll repaint some of the purple green.  She went a little crazy with the purple if you ask me and I am not in love with it.  The front of the house is painted so it looks very nice.  Not the same in the back but we ran out of warm days to paint.  When it warms up a bit we'll finish up with the back.

Gutters are going on today!  FINALLY!  My house will be protected in the rain.  They will be the same dark green color as the trim.

Getting bids on the fence as we speak.  I refuse not to have a fence when I move in because I want to make sure Whitman is contained.  He's less likely to wander off than Gerani, surprisingly.  But he is much more likely to get into trouble than she is.  Although Whitman has really grown up and I don't think he'd bite anyone anymore, I still would rather do right by him and have him contained for his safety.

Inside has really come along.  The vents and what not from the new furnace have all been covered with drywall, thanks Dad!  Also walled off the door from the front bedroom to the kitchen to give us more wall space to work with.  We're getting those resurfaced either Friday or the beginning of next week.  We decided on linoleum for the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room.  It would take too much time to strip those floors back to the original wood.  That goes in on Thursday.  This weekend we're going to be putting in the cabinets and get the kitchen actually looking like a kitchen.

So it's actually coming right along and there should be big progress soon.  I'll start getting excited when it actually starts looking liveable.  Right now it still feels like a big project to me.

I'll be over there later today working so I'll take some pictures and post those later.  Anyone who wants to help with painting inside, I do plan on having a painting party not this weekend but next weekend.  Pizza and drinks provided!



I was reading this article from the Gazette online about researching the past of your house.  Very interesting and really something I want to do.  My house is over a hundred years old... about 120 years old I think... and must have some interesting history.  Once I actually move in and get my life settled I'm going to definitely look into doing some research on it.  Cool article.