winter blues

I hate winter. Have I mentioned that? I love the look of snow falling. I love the snow on the trees. I love the beauty of it. I even love the fun (sledding, snow ball fights, snowmen, etc). But even all of that love isn't enough to make me want put up with this. I can't stand the cold. It makes my fingers ache. I feel like I haven't been warm in 3 months and like I have Raynaud's Syndrome. Although, there are 12 other serious health issues that have cold hands as a common symptom. The interesting ones are Marine turtle poisoning and Naked brimcap poisoning. Since I haven't eaten any turtles or wild mushrooms lately, I've crossed those two off of my "potential disease" list. But I digress... Winter and I don't get along. It makes me hurt, and I make cruel statements about it for 7 months. So here I am in January, getting bitter about the negative temperatures (today's high is 14... the low is 4... and it's been much lower than that recently), and still having 4 more months of this.

Other than the temperature and ice, I'm doing well. The puppy (henceforth "Tequila") is growing fast. And she's quite a fiesty little one. She is in the process of learning (and relearning and relearning...) not to bite or growl or bark at us. She wants to play all the time (and particularily at 5 AM).... we're teaching her to "sleep in" till 7 as well. Chief has finally come around and has begun to play with her, which is adorable. But when he barks (playfully) she gets scared and runs and hides, only to stick her head out from under the chair and growl and bark at him... as long as she can get out of his reach quickly. But she's mine, and an adorable little ball of fluff and energy. I love her to death.

Last weekend we went on a wine tour with Guy's family (mom, sister, cousin and cousin's bf). It was an ice wine tour... I'm not a huge fan of ice wines. It tastes a little bit like drinking honey. But it was fun (and cold!). Guy and I got stopped at the border (we were in Canada) on our way home and they searched our car. Fun times. This next weekend my company is having their winter party. I'm trying to convince Guy to wear his kilt for it, but I'm having a hard time being persuasive enough... Although he has promised to wear it to our friends wedding in March that he's DJing (and I'm photographing).

Other than work and sleep, life is slow here in the Arctic. We're working on our summer travel plans, which I'm pretty excited about (July = wedding in PA, then NC for a week to check it out, and back home - hopefully incorporating visiting some friends in there as well). Until then, I think life will continue to be pretty slow...

Rainy mornings

I suppose it's been awhile since I've updated with anything real. Quick clips and phrases don't go far for explaining life.

The last two weeks have been just as stressful as the previous week I posted about, for several reasons. Guy's work has been horrible. Mine has been insanely busy and stressful. Our house has been slowly looking more and more like a disaster area, which has stressed me out even more. If our house was a bit messy or disorganized, it never used to bother me. But lately I just want it clean and organized. Not OCD-like or anything, but somewhere that we can come home from our stressful days and relax in. Somewhere that doesn't make me feel like I should be doing the dishes or the laundry or vacuuming whenever I sit down, instead of just letting me relax. It's getting there, slowly but surely. It just has needed a good spring cleaning, and it hasn't been happening. So last weekend I spent time cleaning, and this weekend I'll hopefully get to do some more.

We've put our house hunt on hold for now, since we really can't afford one. So we're looking for a house to rent instead of an apartment... A house, where we don't have to worry if we're vaccuuming at midnight because the lady upstairs might be asleep, because there won't be a lady upstairs. One where our landlord will let us paint the rooms or fix up the place... Our landlord is great, but is a little obsessive-compulsive, so things have to stay how he had them when we moved in. But I want somewhere that the landlord really doesn't mind if we make changes, because he's getting his rent. And somewhere that I feel safe walking around the neighborhood alone at 10 pm in the rain. Not that I do that all too often, but I do it. And where we're at, I don't feel safe doing so.

Otherwise, I've applied for a new position at my work. I'm not holding my breath, but it would be a good career move. I want to move away from Buffalo, but am realizing that isn't going to happen this year. We are needed here for many reasons. We're looking for a better job for Guy... somewhere that he'll be happy with what he's doing, even if it's not his dream job.

I'm looking forward to the weekend, dreaming about a day with nothing planned, hoping for rest and relaxation... but also hoping to get things done.

I need to work on my photography website more.

End of the Week Escape

After the week from hell, we decided to de-stress.

For Guy, this meant cruising in our 67 fairlane...

For me, this meant going my favorite park in the whole wide world and forcing Guy to pose for pictures with me....

We swang on the swings....

Then we walked for a bit...

We kissed for a bit...

(the picture is meant to be fuzzy...)

I'm not sure if this one us us kissing or kung-fo fighting...

Then we took lots more pictures of us....

Then Guy told me it was time to go home...


So he got to cruise again...


We also went for dinner at a sushi and steak hibatchi place, which is possibly the perfect combination. I got amazing sushi (my current addiction, which Guy isn't too fond of), and Guy got steak and (cooked) seafood. Happiness is.

Typical night

Last night was a typical night. I got home and dozed on the couch for awhile until Guy got home. Once he came home we had dinner (left overs) and proceded to decide what to do that night. Do we clean the kitchen, which desperatly needs it? Do we finish doing laundry, folding it and putting it away, while going through our clothes to see which we don't need to keep? Do we try to get some semblance of order in the back room, where someone is coming to install internet tomorrow and will need to get through the disaster?

All of those are things that need to be done. We decided to take a walk instead. We took an hour and a half walk. 3/4ths of the way through Chief decided he had walked far enough and just laid down. Guy had to carry him. By the time we got back home it was dark out, and we were hot and tired. So we watched a movie.

This is why things don't get done in our house. We are both masters at procrastination and distraction. I love having my house clean. I love having things in order and easy to find, use and put back away. But I never seem to get it to that point. I find I would rather have fun and spend my time enjoying life than worrying about the dirt and clutter.

So tonight the attempt will be to clean the back room. To get it to a point where the guy coming to install our internet can actually get to the computer and work with the computer without having to step around: a futon mattress, an empty fish tank and stand, two massage tables, a bedside table and a very large plant. These are all things that have been stored in the middle of the room. The room is crowded enough with 4 bookshelves, 2 desks and an armchair. This also doesn't include the amount of junk stored on top of Guy's desk that we will need to do something with so we can use the computer once it has internet. I just don't know where we're going to put everything. Hopefully I can convince Guy to throw some of it away. He's a bit of a pack rat and told me yesterday that "throwing things out is hard" for him. I'm more of a minimalist and enjoy having the space. So that's the agenda for today....

Another new blog

I have started several blogs. None of them last past a first, sometimes second, post. I keep wanting to tell far away friends about my life, but then wish for real contact with those friends, and a blog that someone reads and rarely comments on does not suffice. And how do you choose who finds your blog? Anyone can find anyone online. So we read about each other's lives and rarely call or write or visit. A blog, or a message, or a comment on a page does not replace face-to-face contact and converstaions. But in this fast world where we can be constantly connected and never see each other, you lose touch with each other's lives. So I'm going to try again. Try to give a snapshot of my life so my friends know what we're up to, but hopefully still keep in touch with those friends in real life as well.

So here I am. My title for the blog is something I've never tried to do before... Settle down and stabilize myself. But I'm newly married to the man of all my dreams, and to a man who is not any of the versions I imagined he would be in order to fulfill all of those dreams. Funny how that works. We're looking for a house in an area neither of us want to live in... But life happens and plans change. In our case, we need to be around his family more than we need to leave. I want a house of our own... one where I can plant a garden and paint the walls. One where he can tear down walls and build new ones. Something we can take and make into our own, into something that reflects who we are. I'm working a job that doesn't thrill me, but pays the bills. We're crossing fingers for a promotion for both of us... Mine to get me into something that will use my brain a little more, and him to a manager position. But both of those promotions would cross massage therapy from our lists. I already don't use my massage therapist license. He uses his, but won't if he gets promoted to manager. Because you can't be a part-time manager.

So that is our beginning point. Lots of options for our new future together.