very slowly sinking in...

last night i did something proactive. i packed two small boxes of stuff in my apartment. sure, there's A LOT more to do, but i'm two boxes closer to moving to iowa. i also spent some time making a calendar today (i bought one of those blank ones you create yourself since its practically june, thus there aren't 2007 calendars for sale really...and its a waste of money to buy one now). the next few months are going to be really busy. i have two trips io texas, two trips to vegas, a visit from my best friend which starts this weekend, and lots of stuff on the list of things to do before i leave. somehow i only have about 2 1/2 months left in albuquerque. the official load the truck day is wednesday, august 8th..probably in the evening and i'll buy pizza and beer if anyone is free to help out. then i clean on thursday morning (again, if anyone wants to help i'll buy coffee and doughnuts or something) and then mike and i go part of the way that day. i think move-in day will be august 11th. i got the lease to the new apartment today and got to see some more photos. it looks great and i'll have plenty of room for visitors. (so come visit punks!)

still working at the retail place and liking it. i've even thought about working like one day a week at the same store in iowa just to get the discount and meet some new people. we'll see. also trying to get more transcribing done which is a challenge. my goal was to finish them all before dennis gets here on sunday but i'm not sure that will happen since i'm scheduled to work a bunch. :P new goal is finishing them before i go to texas.

okay, enough rambling. guess i should get a few more boxes and pack a few every night. crazy shit, yo!

p.s.--had a busy and fun memorial weekend. hope you did too.

"no, this is how it works, you peer inside yourself, you take the things you like, and try to love the things you took..."

if you haven't heard regina spektor yet, you need to check her out. i was fortunate to get her newest CD as a b'day gift from my awesome friend haley. get it and the lyrics will inspire you to blog.

this particular song is one of my favorites and though its titled "on the radio" its more about life and the way things seem to march forward. it speaks to me about how one thing lead to another "you laugh until you cry...you cry until you laugh." and that wherever we are led, all will pretty much be okay. we keep going on.

that sentiment resonates with me as may comes to an end. somehow its already memorial day weekend, which means june is just around the corner. i have a lot to look forward to, including a visit from my best friend dennis and a trip to texas, so that is all very exciting. at the same time though, time is flying by, which means that my tenure in albuquerque is too quickly coming to a close (about 80 days away!) i'm not going to write about how sad that will be, mostly because i'm in denial right now about leaving, but also because i don't want to sound like a broken record. suffice it to say though that i did have a bit of a freak out when i realized yesterday that its the end of may.

at the same time, i'm really excited because i got my dream apartment in dubuque. it seems to be exactly what i was looking for and though i haven't seen it in person yet, it looks to be a great place to call home. its a two-story duplex and the building was erected in 1906. the outside is brick and the inside has been completely renovated. i'll have my very own washer/dryer, three bedrooms (so come visit), lots of space, and a great view from my patio. i can't wait to see it. which is weird, because when i see it that will mean i have moved from ABQ. so confusing.

cross your fingers i can get 16 interviews transcribed by june 3rd. that is the goal. laters.

mini-rants and some raves too

just a few rants...

first up, when you're at the movies do me two favors. 1. don't friggin' text people during the show. you paid money to go watch the movie...so friggin' watch it. 2. speaking for all movie-goers, we could live without you making out with your boyfriend after the flick to the point that i'm pretty sure he is leaving with a half-stack. just don't do it. go home. home is for that kind of making out.

second, please ABQers...please....learn to drive. when a light is green, you can wait a second before going...but almost two minutes is ridiculous. pay attention to the task at hand, which is operating a motor vehicle. also, don't be a dick when its raining. the roads are wet, so that's not the best time for the usual antics like cutting people off, changing lanes without signals, and not stopping for emergency vehicles.

third, why has it been such a wet year in the desert? does that make anyone else wonder?

finally, please keep your kids under control. just do it. if your kid is trying to steal someone's tickets at a fun park while standing on said persons foot, you should probably get your ass over there to do something about it. and the reason your kids is so "unexplainably crabby" is because he is in a wet diaper. so wet that the stranger with the smashed foot can clearly smell it.

okay...that's all the rants for today. now a few raves.

i had a great weekend full of catching up with mike's family, watching lots of rugby, drinking beer, and eating good food. and i also finally got a bit of a tan. sure, its splotchy due to uneven sunscreen application, but its there none-the-less.

also, i'm really liking the one and only retail job that i have now. every one is nice and its just a positive place to work. even at 6 a.m. thank god for starbucks opening at the ass-crack of dawn.

cross your fingers that i will be an aunt again soon and that my niece will be coming over from russia soon to join our family.

also, cross your fingers that the kick-ass apartment i found online (gotta love craigslist) is as kick-ass as it seems. i should know more soon in a few days and maybe will have my housing figured out this week. how rad.

love my friends and family. just had to be said. okay...even ramblings for now.

hot!

today was a beautiful day to watch a bunch of rugby and drink fat tire. BUT, now its like 82 degrees in my apartment. its the annual "my air conditioner crapped itself" time of year so it's quite sultry in here. thank goodness i'm going to mike's soon and then will be partying for the rest of the night. so hopefully one of two things will happen by the time i'm back: 1. it will cool off and it won't be so warm in here and 2. i will have consumed enough "chardonnays" that i won't care.

also, go brujos and especially the rhino squad!!

:D

yeah...i'm tired

i started working at a cool retail place last week and i must say that i really really like it. i like it much more than my other retail job which i'm probably going to quit this week, despite the good discount. i am however, really tired. my day started at about 5:20 a.m. so that i could be at work at 6 to unload "the truck." though that sounds like it would suck ass, it really didn't. once i got out of bed, it was all good. i found out starbucks is open before 6 a.m. (thank god) and got to do some physical exercise in the wee hours. apparently earning money while working out is the only way i can drag myself out of the covers before 8 a.m. maybe that will change though, since i'll be a regular truck person. it will be nice to just be working at one store. i almost feel bad about quitting with no notice. but i don't. i'm also thinking about doing some house cleaning (for money) for people in ABQ. not glamorous work, but i don't hate cleaning and i could make some decent money doing it. woo!

i had some rants and raves but i'm not sure i remember all of them. so far only one comes to mind, which was a recent dining experience at one of my favorite pizza places last week. they have an awesome deal on wednesday nights and its arguably the best pizza in town. its a small place, so its always a crapshoot as to whether or not it will be insanely crowded or not very busy. for whatever reason, last wednesday night was unofficial kids night. i have nothing against kids. i like them in fact. but this was a crazy number of kids in a very small restaurant. for a brief period, we thought we were at Chuck E. Cheese, but no matter how much we looked around, there was no animatronic giant rat thing. so, the restauarant was LOUD. it was one of those situations where it just kept getting louder and louder. and the parents of the 1000s of kids did not seem to notice. one of the dad's commented on how the pizzeria was losing money because they don't have enough seating. this comment was especially irritating to me as one of the few childless people in the establishment. i guess it was because their party literally took up half of the seating, which meant there weren't chairs available for adults who would eat more than two bites of pizza. instead, most of the chairs were full of this guy's kids and his friend's kids who were not going to be consuming much, thus also costing the restaurant money. fortunately the food and the beer and the company at our table was great, and eventually it was bed time for the under 5 crowd.

weekend was good. i didn't have to work on saturday or sunday which was AWESOME! i did help mike clean his house and do yardwork though. kinda fun. i think his house is officially cleaner than mine now. next weekend should be a fun time too. looking forward to it. :D

this week i give the final for my class and then turn in grades. this was a fun group of students, but i'm glad that the semester is over. and i'm glad that i get paid until the end of june. money is tight hence all the jobs. gotta get the move figured out and all the interviews transcribed. the goal is to get the interviews done by june. i feel like that will be 80% of the work for the dissertation. i could be wrong though. :)

okay, enough sleepy rambling. hugs to my friends who kick asses.