Makes me crinkle my nose

So I haven't gone completely MIA. Things have been super busy and when I'm home I'm either trying to talk to people or chill out. But there's lots of catching up to do for those who are interested.

Right now I'm waiting to hear back from Barrington High School for the position of DEBATE COACH! i went in for an interview on Tuesday and it went great. I talked to the athletic director (weird) and the principal for about 30 minutes. During the interview I definitely expressed my enthusiasm and knowledge. We are really hoping this works for many reasons. The money of course, and because well, its what I've wanted to do for a long time. On the rest of the job front the restaurant....lets say leaves a bit to be desired. This month has been terribly slow and I'm not making near as much money as I should. There are a bunch of other things I'm looking into so I still feel positive about a big girl job.

At home things are exciting as we bought a couch! Its green and comfy and amazing. Should be coming in in the next few days. We also bought a fantastic rug that makes the whole living room look so much homier. And more comfortable when laying on the floor to watch tv. Right now I'm concentrating more on paying rent and other bills than decorating, but I'm also saving money up for some stuff I want. We're definitely going to take a trip to IKEA sometime soon. What a great store.

One thing I will admit I miss about living in the south is AC. Right now the whole apartment is stuffy and gross. Its not terribly hot outside, but our place is resembling a convection oven right now. Even sitting in the extra bedroom now is giving me hot flashes. While we have a fan in the living room and bedroom, everywhere else is awful. There is nothing fun about cooking dinner in oppressive heat. I kept thinking back to the night at Shoal Creek when the electricity went out and how horrible that was. Then again here I don't have to worry about keeping excessively rich people happy, its just patrick and he's easy.

I'm trying to think of other amusing and blog worthy things that have happened in the past week or so. Really it seems that I work, cook, clean and sleep these days. Even after work I don't usually go out with people to hang out. Mainly because the girl I work with the most is a raging alcoholic and although she's nice, she frightens me a bit. Downing a bottle of vodka a night is impressive but disturbing. Sure not interested in her version of hanging out on a Friday night. But we do have the Redbull Soapbox race coming up in Providence. My girlfriend Katie works for Redbull so we're going to check it out.

I finally had enough money to go by the Y today and sign up. Although it leaves a little bit to be desired gym wise, it has what i need. Then again I've probably been spoiled from Alabama's rec center. What I'm excited about is taking pilates, which I've always wanted to do. I will go work out and I will be healthy!

We also finally began to put curtains up in the apartment. Last weekend I bought some at Big Lots (love that store) and Patrick put them up last night. Sadly, our kitchen is the most decorated room in the apartment. But its blue and pretty. I also decided that I am going to expand my obsession with cook books and buy some more when I have the money. That and random kitchen crap we still need. Like a potato masher and bowls and silverware.

Had by all

I have slowly but surely been expanding my culinary repertoire. Sunday I bought a new cookbook, mainly because it was 20% off and the pictures were pretty. But the food looked really good and last night I made salmon cakes. Think crab cakes with canned salmon. To go with it we had roasted potatoes and salad. Pretty much I rocked it out if you overlook the fact they were a little too garlicky. Tonight I have to make some stuff up so Patrick wont be eating just PB&Js while I'm at work.

Sunday night we actually went out and did something, it was amazing. Patrick met our downstairs neighbors (the ones we thought we didn't like) and was over there when I got back from shopping sunday. They're both really cool and the guy manages a bar a few blocks away. We all trekked down there and hung out til 12. It was nice to get out of the house and hang out with other people. And we didn't have to pay full price for our drinks : )

big girl stuff

So I had another job interview for a big girl job. Basically I have it if I want, the only problem is that its Americorps and only pays $160 a week. After rent that leaves me a little over $100 a month for...everything else. Pretty much we decided its not feasible with everything that we have to pay for. Patrick isn't making enough to float me this year. It makes me sad because I would love to work there and be with middle schoolers, but alas, I can't. Now I have to keep looking and going out for interviews. Thanks mom for all the big girl clothes, they're doing me well.

The other night we cooked a good southern meal. I made greens, black eyed peas and jambalaya. It was fantastic. Except next time I definitely will make the peas from scratch. Other than that, Patrick is super busy with everything starting this week and so is Michelle. We went to go visit her Monday and I will talk about that later. Right now I'm shaky from too much caffeine. yuck

Mommy!

Two posts in one day! Be excited and amazed. Then again, today hasn't been the busiest day. I am about to run to the grocery store, we are out of food, again. Buying food for two people is exponentially more expensive and hasn't stopped amazing me. We need dinner and all I have is black eyed peas in a can, yum.

There is a specific reason I'm posting right now, Mom came to visit! She only could hang out for a little bit so I showed her the apartment and we walked down to Thayer to eat lunch. Asides that the place wasn't exactly as clean as I had hoped, she liked the place. To top it off she noticed our lack of microwave and gave us a check. Although I did protest I took it like a good daughter and will run gleefully to the bank on Friday then even more gleefully Saturday to Wal-Mart to get it!

She also highlighted our lack of stuff, expectedly. We have nothing on the walls in the bedroom and things are pretty sparse every where else. This put me on a mission to Google Hobby Lobby because what better place to find all that stuff I need? Did you know that Hobby Lobby is everywhere besides the North East. Well, and Oregon. This is all very frustrating. I also looked for Big Lots and learned that MA is only 3.5 miles away, huh. I'm going to check out the finances tonight and see if we can swing a couch from Big Lots if they have something, they're $100 off tomorrow. Maybe they have financing?

ROLL TIDE

Yesterday might rate high on my list of strange yet great days. We got into the city around 12:30 and wandered for a little bit. We hit up Fanueil Hall, Quincy Market, at lunch in the North End and went to the Gardens to see the duckies. As soon as I get a cord for the camera we'll have some pictures of our day on the town. But the strangest thing also happened to me yesterday. We randomly ran into a guy I used to work with at Shoal Creek. We walked out of Quincy Market and he was wearing an Alabama shirt too. It took me a few seconds to realize it was him. Then it was a lot of "holy crap, how are you?" Strange, mildly interesting and mildly awkward because I didn't remember the wife's name. On top of that I walked passed someone ELSE i know. This wasn't quite as exciting, no stopping in the middle of the street for hugs. It was my debate camp lab leader from my first year at camp and i'm totally sure of it.

We ended up at the bar super early to beat the crowds and all that. Honestly we could have gotten there at 6:30 and been fine, but whatever. At the Sports Depot in Allston there were many surprises. The first one being that pitchers were $15!!!!! Never in my life! I'm used to them being mayeb $8, but usually less than that. Patrick and I almost lost it, being up here is expensive!! Another surprise, at least for me, was that the alumni group was almost all people our age. No old fogies or anything. The group included an ex-football player and his fiancee, Katie Boyd (SGA president not beauty queen). I had a class with Katie and I always liked her. Everyone else was great too. There was a lot of drinking, eating and being merry along with a great win for Alabama!! And another surprise, my friend from Women's Studies Melissa showed up! I was really glad to see her and i'm glad we can be friends again.


The only non fantastic part of the evening was the trip home. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the Sox and even more about the no hitter last night but the trip back to the train station was a nightmare. We had to wait almost 20 minutes in Allston for the green line inbound then it was absolutely packed out. We spent probably another 30ish minutes going from the green line to the red line then barely made it to south station to get our train to Providence. Somehow I ended up insanely thirsty which made me grumpy. But all in all we made it home in one piece and today should be even better than yesterday because my mom is coming!!!