I’m getting so excited for Christmas! Here are a few of the videos that always get me going for the holidays:
The original crazy Christmas light show:
One of my absolute favorite Christmas songs. I so badly want to see them in concert…
And here are bits of my three favorite Christmas movies:
The fiance is all moved in! He got here yesterday afternoon and was unpacking all day today while I was away at work. It feels so damn good to have someone to come home to after a long day at work. And I suppose having someone to pay half the bills isn’t bad either.
I was helping him set up a bit last night, singing away to Michael Buble songs. For the first time in quite a while I was bouncy and completely 100% happy. I’m still pretty much in the clouds, even after a long day at work with more work to do yet this evening. I’m hoping this can continue for a while.
And this weekend will be the first visit we have from family. My aunt is coming over from Ohio to see the new digs and bring us a small kitchen table and two chairs. I was sad to have missed Thanksgiving, so it’ll be nice to see at least one family person close to the holiday. I’m actually going through my hours at work pretty quickly so far this week, which means I might be able to get out earlier Friday when she gets here. We’re pod mates, so I’m sure it will be a great weekend.
Well, it’s not like I didn’t know it would happen. I’ve just been busy enough that I haven’t noticed it.
I miss home.
I think it’s because of Thanksgiving. It’s the first Thanksgiving that I haven’t been with my family. Because the newspaper prints both today and Friday, it means I can’t make the 14-hour round trip home. My dinner tomorrow will be single servings of breaded chicken, instant mashed potatoes, frozen corn and crescent rolls. And I’ll be eating it by myself in front of the Discovery Channel.
I’m really enjoying the new job and my new apartment. But I think it’ll be much better when my fiance moves down shortly after Thanksgiving. While I’m busy during the day, and sometimes in the evenings, I find coming home and being by myself all the time is really… lonely after a while. Because I work at all times of the day and have to head to bed early, it means my coworkers and I can’t hang out during the week. A lot of times, we’re doing stuff for work on weekends, too.
Now, this is not a sob story. Most of the time, I’m too busy or tired to really think about being far from home. And I’m happy here with my new job and the area I’m living in. I’ve already talked to some amazing people. Just today, I interviewed a 9-year-old girl who shot and killed three deer over a 20 minute span yesterday. Clean shots too; no tracking involved and without multiple shots. She’s adorable and quite precocious, rubbing her dad’s nose in the fact that he has yet to make a kill this season.
But I’m hoping that my dinner tomorrow, though it’s not home-cooked turkey, will suffice for the day. I’m sure it will taste good anyway. May all your dinners be tasty, and happy Turkey Day!
I’ve rediscovered hip hop. And it was completely by accident. Kind of.
The only radio station that comes in clear and isn’t country where I live is a hip hop station. (I don’t even know if it’s actually hip hop. That’s just my term for club-type music that makes me want to bounce around.) They play some rap (which I tend to tune out) and some alternative rock, but the majority is hip hop. I was on my way to Walmart for milk this evening and found myself bouncing around in the front seat of my car while stopped at a long traffic light. All I needed was the super loud sound system and some bling… not to mention I should have been driving a donk instead of my tiny, super basic, no bells and whistles 4-door. (Note to family: Ty taught me that word. Look it up then blame him for corrupting me.) (Note to my fiance: If my parents come knocking down your door, I had nothing to do with it. Love you!)
Okay that was bad stereotyping. BAD, BAD ME.
Anyhoo…In my years of listening to pretty much only alternative and rock, I had forgotten how much a hip hop beat can make you perk up. As someone who spent her high school years on the drum line and loving every second of it (nearly), I’m easily energized by a good beat. Here are some of the songs that I have found myself be-bopping to on the way to work at (holy crap) 6:45 in the morning:
The list could keep going, but I think you get the idea. I think the fiance is going to hate the radio reception down here as there isn’t one single rock station that I know of that comes in clear. (Sorry, honey!)
I was put in the back of a cop car today. Honestly.
It’s my second day on the job and today I went to cover a police training event at a local airport. They were practicing evasive driving and I got to ride along a couple of times on both of the courses they had set up. I despise rollercoasters, but this was so. much. FUN! They were whipping through serpentines, sharp corners, hard stops, avoidance maneuvers and 40-50 mph sudden lane changes. There’s nothing like the smell of burning rubber and the sound of screeching tires at 10 a.m. to wake you up. Well, that and sliding around in the back seat of a cop car.
I’m quickly learning that juggling multiple stories is a challenge, especially when talking about getting sources to talk. It’s weird shifting gears from one story to the next, especially when they are completely different topics. There are so many interruptions in the day it can drive you nuts. I’m also now getting up every day at 5:30, which is so totally different from the hours I used to keep. I’m now yawning by 7:00 and hitting the sack around 9:30. I used to stay up until at least midnight. And with winter, it’s dark when I go into work and getting dark when I leave the office.
I’ve worked almost 20 hours in two days, but I don’t mind. I’ve got nothing else to do or even anyone to hang out with at the moment so what’s left to do but work? I’ll just have to keep in mind that going into overtime in my first week of work might not be the best idea. This means I’ll be leaving earlier tomorrow and Thursday and only have to come into the office for a few hours Friday. Hopefully my assignments will let me do so.
Well, I’m exhausted and my eyes are blurry from yawning. Time to say nighty night!
I’m going to make this simple. It’s list time.
Things I love about my new apartment:
Things that may get irritating about my new place:
Things yet to be done this week (if possible) before being super busy at a new job:
My mom, fiance and I just got back today from yet another trip down to southern Indiana. We did some serious apartment hunting and ended up getting about as lucky as you can get. We drove down Thursday, hunted yesterday and came home a day early.
We found a fantastic apartment. It’s a two bedroom, one and a half bath place. It’s actually bilevel with the bedrooms and full bath upstairs and the living room, kitchen and half bath downstairs. The place even has room for a dinner table and a pantry shelf if I want one. It also has a pull-down ladder for some attic storage space. It has a back door that leads to a tiny little concrete patio, which we would use for grilling should we get a little grill. I’ve got an assigned carport spot and there’s plenty of other parking for the fiance and guests. It even has central heating and air conditioning. Even more astonishing is the rent. Ready for this? It’s a total steal at under $500 a month.
It’s a gem of a place — clean, open, airy and updated with appliances (including a dishwasher!) that are only four years old. The carpet is in great shape, with only a few stains in the master bedroom that will likely come mostly out when the carpet gets cleaned. There’s lots of kitchen counter space and storage as well as a coat closet and a linen closet upstairs. The bedroom closets are plenty big enough, as are the bedrooms themselves. There’s no place for a washer or dryer, but the complex’s laundromat is across the parking lot and cheaper than going elsewhere. It’s got some new machines and an exercise bike (of all things) to use while waiting. Added bonus — my water, sewer and trash is paid for with my rent. All I pay is electric and any cable, internet or phone I want.
The place technically wasn’t even available to rent. The story of how we came to get it is kind of sad. We were looking at some other apartments the landlord owns, walking through with him, and he was able to show us this one. The young woman who is moving out this weekend was diagnosed with leukemia and has to move back with her parents for hospital trips and cheaper living expenses. She was 90% moved out when the landlord showed us the place, and is actually happy to have someone taking over right away. The landlord is being really nice, just letting her break the lease with no fees and is refunding everything for her.
The location is great. It’s across the street and back a ways from a 24-hour Walmart superstore and other shops. Surprisingly, it’s very quiet being so close to a main road and so much shopping. My new bank is also right there, as are several other very nice conveniences. I’m only a few miles from work which means I can snooze just a little longer.
A possible future bonus is that they allow pets. You all know I want a dog. This place doesn’t require an additional deposit for the dog and only adds like $15 extra on the rent a month. While we may not have a dog for quite some time, it is certainly a possibility with this apartment. My guess is that we’ll be staying for more than the one year lease term.
And I’m moving in literally a week, starting my new career soon after. Despite how terrifying the process is, it’s all starting to come together… and fast.
My life is about to change. Hugely. Massively. Mount Everest-ly.
I just had an interview in southern Indiana. The managing editor of a community newspaper called me a while ago and scheduled a phone interview for the very next day. At the end of that interview, he invited me down to Indiana to interview in person, run a test story and take a style and grammar quiz. I did exactly that yesterday after driving down Thursday and crashing in a hotel paid for by the paper. Not 30 minutes back onto the road for the seven hour drive home, my cell phone rang.
They offered me the job.
I will soon be the newest staff writer for the six-day daily newspaper in southern Indiana. I’ll be covering the county beat, but also acting as a general assignment reporter. And they need me as soon as possible.
Commence the freaking out.
I have no idea how to do this. This is such an incredibly huge shift in my life. I’ve never rented an apartment, much less one seven hours away in another state. And I have to move my entire life in a matter of a few weeks. Though I’ve done nothing but search for a real job since graduating, I’ve had no time to plan. I feel like my life suddenly turned into a giant game of KerPlunk. I shifted one too many sticks and the marbles are all crashing down at once. I’m cycling between thrilled and happy, tense and overwhelmed on a ridiculous, gut-wrenching ride. By the way, I hate roller-coasters.
Thank God for my steady-as-a-rock-thinks-of-everything mom. She’s simultaneously (and regularly) calming me down and making lists. We’re taking inventory and planning to bring a load of furniture, kitchen stuff and everything else I don’t need here down to Indiana to stash in a storage locker until I have an apartment. We’re heading back down next weekend to do some serious apartment hunting, hopefully getting me approved and signing on the dotted line while we’re there.
My dad and I were crunching numbers this morning. I won’t be making a whole lot of money, but I’ll be able to live comfortably. It’ll be even better when my fiance joins me and adds his income to the pot, relieving me of half the rent, utilities and food. But he won’t be moving in with me until he can find a job in the same area. I’m hoping and praying that it won’t take long as I want him with me as soon as it’s possible. The first little while will be hard enough living entirely by myself in a completely unfamiliar area with no local friends and being baptized by fire in a new job.
So I’m excited but terrified, thrilled but thinking, “Oh my God what have I done?!” Does everyone in my situation feel this way?
I should be hearing from a very internationally well-known company very soon about a job. I’ve had two interviews and both went really well, and I want the job so much it has entered into my dreams a couple of times.
Enter fishing analogy.
I hate being on the hook, waiting to either be caught or released. It’s jangled all of my nerves to the point where I’m getting butterflies when the phone rings. But I guess the analogy is a little backwards because I want to be caught and put in a tank with the other fish. In the tank, I’ll be taken care of — fed regularly, able to get medicine for sickness and free from predators. Back in the lake would mean fighting it out again, or still, depending on which way you look at it. More freedom, true, but I’d rather have the security.
Some say that the waiting and anticipation is the best part. Well, for Christmas absolutely. This kind of waiting is on the flip side of it. The waiting and anticipation is killing me, slowly but surely, and probably more so because I want this job so much more than I’ve wanted anything else I’ve gone after simply because it pushes my buttons more than anything else has. The company is also like the #1 place to work with the most incredible benefits and perks EVER, which only sweetens the deal. It sucks being on hold while someone else makes a decision about you that has the possibility to affect your future so much.
I haven’t yet resorted to pacing, but that is still entirely possible. I’d go run on the treadmill to get rid of some energy, but I don’t want to be all huffy and out of breath if they call. My cell phone and the house phone are with me everywhere I go. I’m not getting in the shower because I don’t want to miss a call, so thank the lord I took one in the evening yesterday because I was freezing and wanted to warm up. God works in mysterious ways.
But I hope that if I get thrown back into the lake, I’ll still be okay. I know there’s probably hundreds of people fighting for this job, some of which I know have got to be far more qualified than I am. I’ve known that all along. It will suck if that happens, but I don’t think I’ll be devastated.
So here’s to hoping and to keeping my fingers (and toes, arms, legs, eyes and hair) crossed. With my body so contorted, I might just find myself too uncomfortable to pace.
