in which cardboard boxes are ruled out as a possible place of residence and a good replacement is discovered(!)

Guess WHAT?!? On Saturday I found a place to live! I mean, I have been staying with my brother-in-law's family since I arrived on the East coast(-ish), but that couldn't last forever. The free rent was great, and they are amazingly nice and generous, but I need to be closer to the city (and, more importantly, have easy metro access). So that hopefully someday I can find a job. That would be pretty good.

But yeah! I have a place to live. And it's great! It's in a little townhouse in Virginia (but still inside the D.C. loop) and is right by a bus stop that will take me to the metro. Which means I don't need to buy a car - yea for saving money! And it means that I will be able to go to all kinds of cool stuff, like the National Symphony Orchestra performance last Thursday that I got a free ticket to. They played, along with two other pieces, Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 in E minor - that was an amazing and worthwhile hour of my life. The thought of going to more things like that, especially if they're free, makes me happy.

So I'll be in a private basement bedroom, which is good-sized, and it has a walk-in closet right next to it. Which will make storing all my stuff much easier. The walk-in has a pretty low ceiling, but I'm short enough that it doesn't really matter. And the kitchen is big - great for me, with my love of cooking and its accompanying multiple boxes of kitchen stuff. And my roommates (at least, the two that are signed up) are LDS, which is good standards-wise and having-a-friend-to-go-to-church-with-wise. AND it's one of the cheapest places that I've found in the area - yea for saving even more money! I can start moving in on November 8th, and I'm so excited!

Just thought I'd share the great news.

when the bad and the good combine to make me pay money to the computer-maker people

So it's been another while since I wrote. But it's not really my fault. You see, my laptop tried that whole absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder thing with its wireless internet workingness. But the growing fonder did not happen. The growing frustrated-er did, though. So my laptop tried to pacify me by working right for a few days and then not working again. That didn't help the fondness either. And it's really not so helpful to the searching-for-jobs-online process when the online part does not cooperate. Ergo, I may be getting a new computer soon. Maybe something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-8-9-inch-Processor-Battery-Sapphire/dp/B001EYV9TM

It's pretty and superly-portable and has a pretty good battery life and a big (160 GB) hard drive. And it has a web-cam so I would see my family while I speak to them. That would be pretty awesome. Plus, it's pretty cheap (well, relatively speaking) for all that. And I'm all for good deals.

I'm also considering the white one with the same specs, despite its resemblence to a Mac. Because I don't endorse Macs - I don't like their operating systems at all. I know, I'm the black sheep of my (immediate) family for not liking Macs, but I just don't. Still, I do, for some reason, like the white. And it wouldn't show fingerprints like the blue one. If I decide to get a white one, I could get a version with Linux Lite instead of Windows XP, which could be cool.

What do you think?

in which you learn lots of new things (or not, depending on how well you know me)

So you know those get-to-know-the-blog-writer-author-person lists that other people's blogs have sometimes? Well, mine has that type of thing today. I have no idea why I felt like filling one out. But I did. So, read at your own peril.

The ABCs of me

A- Attached or Single? Single. Not necessarily by choice, but still rather happily so.

B-Best Friend? My missionary (who happens to be female. So those of you who jumped to the "No you are not single!" thinking: you are wrong). And my former roommate. And my other former roommate. And some former ward-mates. And my sisters. And my mom. And... (How in the world can you choose just one?)
C-Cake or pie? Cake, for sure. Chocolate or carrot. Although, pie is pretty much the required Thanksgiving Day dessert. And I definitely wouldn't say no to a piece of pumpkin or apple pie.
D-Day of choice? I don't know - Sundays are always good days. And on Saturdays there are usually lots of things to do, some of which happen to be pretty fun. You know, these choose-your-favorite-thing lists are hard for me to fill out, because I have lots of favorites. So I suppose you just get to put up with lots of words describing those favorites.
E-Essential Item? Chapstick is pretty handy. Although lately I can't find my favorite kind, Natural Ice, anywhere. Anywhere. So right now it's lower on the favorites list. Um, food is pretty essential. And clothing. Hey, what is this question-type thing even asking? Because essential is pretty relative. I mean, on my super-long drive the handy-dandy atlas that my aunt had just given me was pretty useful. But now it's kind of just lying abandoned on the floor. Poor atlas.
F-Favorite color? Wow, this is another non-one-single-favorite thing. Because I really like orange, and teal, and green, and purple, and brown, and silver, and blue ... we could be here all night. And the lack of beauty sleep would be extremely pleasant, I'm sure.
G-Gummy bears or worms? Really, neither. I've never really liked gummy things. Though those sour gummy things are decent until the sour coating is gone. Chocolate is just so much better. So let's change this question-type thing to "Favorite type of chocolate?" Dark, for sure.
H-Home town? Well, let's just say it's in Idaho. And was the site of the filming of this one movie that some people love, some people strongly dislike, and some people are apathetic about. I'm in the latter camp. (By the way, who makes these lists? Isn't it hometown, not home town? And if you capitalize both Essential and Item, doesn't it make sense to capitalize Gummy and bears and worms? I mean, if this is going to appear on lots of blogs and make you [anonymously] famous, shouldn't this be correct and consistent English? No? Oh, well, my bad.)
I-Favorite indulgence? Playing the piano. Or cooking something creativeish. Or eating cookie dough while reading a book or watching a good movie. Or making cards or something of a similar, attempting-to-be-artistic, time-frittering-awaying vein.
J-January or July? Man, this is a tough one. January represents a whole new year, which is always exciting, and there is snow to play in and go sledding in and go snowmobiling in and go snowboarding in. And I get to wear coats and sweatshirts, which are comfortable and which I rather like. But July is the month of my birthday (yea!) and it has Independence Day and its accompanying celebrations, which are fun. And there is fresh fruit. Which is pretty hard to beat.
K-Kids? Well, children are strange and foreign to me. I never really was one. I do know that they are an important part of the ecosystem. Oh wait, no, that's how a certain count pretending to be an Italian man would respond. My answer is that children are great and I really enjoy being around them. But unfortunately, this is not a daily (or even a regular) occurence, since I have none of my own.
L-Life isn't complete without? The Church. And my family. And my close friends.
M-Marriage date? To be determined at some future date...
N-Number of brothers and sisters? Four. All sisters and all lots of fun. You all should try having sisters sometime - it's great.
O-Oranges or Apples? For what? Throwing at my computer whenever it decides to have fun and spontaneously shut down? Oranges, I suppose, since they would probably do the least amount of damage to my temperamental laptop screen. Hey, that's an idea. Next time my computer shuts down I'll throw grapes at it. After I draw a target in the middle of the screen. My laptop is so asking for it. Grrr. Moving on...
P-Phobias? I don't know that I necessarily have one. Though the dark is scary when it's expansive (like, a big dark backyard or something? Not so great) or empty (all alone in a house, or even just an apartment? Not great either). Also, I can psyche myself out about stuff, if I allow myself to do that (like, hypothetically, if I tell myself there's something in the aforementioned empty apartment, there are a lot more inexplicable noises. Not cool).
Q-Quote? That can change frequently, but right now I really like this one that my aunt posted on her blog the other day:
"Whenever I stop and contemplate
my lonely, single lot,
I think of all the many men
whose wife I'm glad I'm not." - Sherri Dew
R-Reasons to smile? The Church. And my family. And my close friends. Also, good food. And funny inconsistencies, with which other people tend not to be so amused about when I point them out. So I try not to. But I still think they're smile-worthy.
S-Season of choice? Fall. It's not hot anymore, but it's not break-out-the-sweaters weather yet - it's the perfect weather. And the leaves change color and then fall, which is beautiful.
T-Tag 3 people: Uh, isn't this supposed to be a question? Or at least pretend to be, like the rest of the list? Also, I don't feel like tagging people. Plus I have no idea if three people even read this blog. So, um, I'm boycotting this non-question.
U-Unknown fact about me? Well if I told it then it wouldn't be unknown, now would it? Also, I don't really know what to put. So this one is remaining unanswered, too.
V-Vegetable? I assume this is asking for a favorite vegetable, right, not if I am one (seriously, who wrote this list?)? Well, vegetables from the garden are the best. Hands-down. Red potatoes and green beans and corn and peas make the best meal ever. And bell peppers and squash, especially that of the acorn variety, are pretty good. Oh, and cauliflower.

W-Worst habit? Either being indecisive (based on the answers to this list, you have no idea what I could possibly mean, right? Right?) or procrastinating things. Until the last possible minute. It seems like this makes things more exciting - getting papers done just in time feels great, while it seems like having it done a week early would be boring. Where's the rush of adrenaline in that? I need to change that thinking, I know, but I seem to lack motivation.
X-Xray or Ultrasound? Which do I prefer? Since, of the two options, I have only ever had an x-ray, I guess I'll choose that. It wasn't painful and it was cool to (a little later) see what the inside of my arm looks like. But I've heard that the results of the ultrasound are usually way cooler. So if you have that option, probably take it.
Y-Your favorite food? Wow, that's a really hard one. Fresh vegetables (see the answer to "V-Vegetable?" above) and fresh fruit are probably my favorites. But stuff that I concoct that doesn't necessarily include those is pretty good, too. Oh, and pork and fish usually taste pretty great. And anything with potatoes.
Z-Zodiac sign: Cancer. I always wonder if that is related to the cell-disease type of cancer. Because that's what I associate my sign with. Good thing people rarely ask me about my sign so that I don't have that weird association hanging over me all the time.

Well, that's it. More about me than you probably really care to know. Though if you read it all, it seems that you are a glutton for punishment and deserve all the useless knowledge you now have.

tasty food (which my dentist would probably prefer that I not eat)

So I made a cake the other day. Groundbreaking, I know. I felt like being artistic and decorating something, and frosting is a pretty cheap something with which to decorate. Also, I didn't mind the thought of dismantling my masterpiece, so long as it was for the extremely necessary purpose of consumption. I didn't take a picture of the original product before it was somewhat impaired. Luckily, the more decorated side managed to survived the initial onslaught and live to see another day (though its days are still numbered, because you can only resist the temptation to devour chocolaty goodness for so long. Which means not long.).


So the delicious chocolate cake, along with the frosting decoratingness of it all, reminded me of this one other time. When I decorated (small) chocolate cakes. No idea how I made that connection.

Actually, I was not the sole decorator that time. We had this awesome graduation celebration and decorated cupcakes, both wiggity-wack and regular types. I mean, both mini and regular types. It was great fun.


My favorite one was the egg.


Look at those girls - they're amazing! And very good at decorating cupcakes, I might add. The subsequent Eating of the Cupcakes left no survivors. But seriously, can you blame us?

the long and not-winding road (or: a bit about the first half of my trip to my new home)

So, to move all my stuff (and myself) from point A to point B, I drove a rented minivan with everything packed in the back. All by myself. For about 2200 miles. It was quite the adventure.

I left point A (aka Utah) at 6:30 p.m. the first day. Yes, I know, I'm crazy to leave so late. But I just wanted to get part of the driving over with. The problem was, the hotel that I booked was on the far side of Wyoming. And it took 7-ish hours to drive there. And I had to, uh, stop a couple times. Ergo, I wouldn't get there until 3:00 a.m. But I had to keep driving until I got to my hotel, because I had reserved it with a credit card and if I didn't cancel by 6:00 p.m. (which I didn't), they would charge my card whether I came or not.

So I went with the "I came" option. This meant that I needed to keep my mind engaged and somewhat entertained during hours of driving at night, which I did with awesome energized CDs. And, in the early morning hours, a mind game that involved eating Doritos. The game probably sounds lame, because it is, so I won't bother trying to explain it. But at 2:04 a.m., it was genius-level. I was pretty much Einstein, and more importantly, I was fully awake when I finally got to my hotel parking lot forty-five minutes later.

However, there was a definite side effect to my genius game. Eating Cool Ranch Doritos one at a time and spaced ten-ish minutes apart means that the taste of the salt and onion and whatever else coats a chip is very pronounced. And tastes weird, actually. I only ate 15 or so chips, but I was really sick of the taste by the time the game (of genius-marathon-driving-champions!) was over. I bet that's why people normally eat lots of chips at parties and such; if they keep eating, they don't have time to get that weird aftertaste. I suppose that's good advice, too - eat slowly and you won't eat as much. Wow, my brilliance astounds even me. If only science could give us such great advice. Sigh.

So I didn't check out of my hotel until almost noon, thus prompting a pattern of leaving hotels later and getting to the next night's hotel later than I had hoped. Anyway, the previous night, I had driven through almost all of Wyoming. In the dark, so I didn't get to see the lush forests and cascading waterfalls and prancing deer. Wait, no, everyone tells me that Wyoming is five parts desert, two parts truck stops, and seventeen parts boredom. Which, based on the last 40 miles of Wyoming that I did see, is basically true. No offense to any Wyomingers out there. I'm sure it's a great place to live. But not to drive through.

The, um, less interesting part of my journey was not over, though. Because the next state I drove through was Nebraska! Motto: "Like Wyoming, except longer. Not by a lot. But still." The upside: well, it was sunny that day. So the sky was a pretty shade of blue.



See? And for your enjoyment, here's a picture of me in all my sunglasses glory.



Thrilling, I know. Now back to our regularly scheduled travelogue. Another good thing about Nebraska was that the rest stops had lots of trees. That was not unusual from here eastward, but unlike many other states, trees did not seem to grow as abundantly in Nebraska. Which means that the trees at the rest stops were deliberately placed there, and that made a travel stop seem kind of like an oasis. Well done, Nebraska-Rest-Stop-Landscape-Planning committee.

So on day the second, I drove all the way through Nebraska and stayed in Council Bluffs, which is just barely inside Iowa. By this time, I was almost halfway through my trip. Which means that you're almost halfway through reading about it! But I'm done writing for tonight, and you probably have a regularly scheduled life to get back to. So I will, most magnanimously, save the rest for another day.

Uh, you may be dismissed.

big change!

So, um, it's been a really long time since I last wrote. One friend totally called me out on that, saying that my blog was growing moss. And, uh, that was a while ago. So by now my blog is probably a full-grown swamp. Complete with slimy ponds and huge, moss-covered trees and quicksand. Maybe crocodiles. Hopefully you can still read my blog through all that stuff.

Well, I moved! I am now living way across the country from where I used to be, and it's strange. Strange to not be around my family (though I am temporarily living with my brother-in-law Indecisive Generosity's family, who are all just wonderful). Strange to know that school has started again, but not for me. Strange to have so many options about what jobs to apply for but to have no idea what type of job I should be looking for right now. I feel kind of lost, and that's not a feeling that I'm used to. Or one that I like at all. Also, my tooth hurts, which makes looking for a job kind of hard to focus on.

But all the strangeness is worth it. Because I am living right by Washington D.C., which is awesome! And depending on where my job-to-be is located, I may be living in D.C. Or in northern Virginia, right across the river from D.C., which is practically the same. This means that I'll be able to go to the national monuments and the Smithsonian museums (super rad AND free) all the time! You just can't beat that. Plus, I'll be able to go during less tourist-y times. Not that I know what those are yet, but I have plenty of time to figure that out. Also, I'll be relatively close to a temple, which is great. There's not much downside, beside the pretty-much-my-whole-life-is-changed aspect of it, but I can deal with that.

Because this is where I'm supposed to be. I'm so glad for spiritual guidance in the face of uncertainty.

as an alternative to killing brain cells

Last weekend I went home with my sister Entertaining Imitator, but she wanted to stop on the way to get her hair colored. And, astonishingly, I didn't want to sit for hours in a hairspray-and-nail-polish-infused salon. So I went clothes-shopping at the D.I. You have to try on a lot (and sometimes a LOT) of clothes at the D.I. to find something good. But when you find something, or somethings, it's SO worth the time. Plus, you feel like you found buried treasure! It's a great feeling.

Anyway, I found an awesome outfit there - a cute plaid skirt and a nice gray jacket - for $8! I win. When I returned to my apartment, I showed my roommate Inadvertent Siren my stylish clothing, and she said, “Man, you need to start coming to church so that you can wear all of your hott new clothes!” Um, not that I just skip church ... I have been gone for almost every Sunday in the past month with family stuff. Really.

But after Inadvertent Siren's comment, I could just imagine my somewhat monologue-esque remarks to fellow ward-ites next time I go to my ward: “Yeah, I’m not so much here for the spiritual part of all this. But check out the Hottness of the Clothing! And (to those of the male variety) take this rare but golden opportunity, during which the hottness of a girl's clothing makes her feel content and sure that all is right with the world, to woo me. Quick, man! (Sneaky aside:) So then I won’t have to worry about finding a job.” Riiiight.