Thankfulness-ish

I used to make long lengthy lists of things during my week or day that made me happy. Here is my list as of late:

1. I like reading about people via their blogs. (both people I know AND dont know)
2. I love my dogs...even though they're little monsters sometimes.
3. RED CUP SEASON!! It may still be 95 degrees here in Phoenix, but that little red starbucks cup still makes me excited for the holiday season.
4. My fella, whose wit makes our house a happy place full of laughter always.(even when he wakes me up at 2am eating crackers in our bed)
5. I love my beautiful blueberry truck-ish that the fella gave me.
6. Even though I dont get to see them very often, I have some of the most amazing people as friends. As soon as I get a little more settled, I promise to see all of you more often.
7. Pumpkin pie.
8. Books. Now that I'm out of school I finally have time to read again! Barnes and Noble and the library have becomemy new favorite places.
9. Snail mail. I still love getting letters. SEND me some! (-:
10. Coffee. My never ending obsession. Now and forever.

ok. Enough for now. Happy weekend, everyone!
love love love.

Oh Captain, I'm Captain...

SO, as much as I hate to say it, I am job hunting again. This job is killing my soul and I see no good happening (more the opposite, in fact)not to mention I now have to pay out of my own pocket for the gas used while I am working. (bitter? maybe.)

I watched a movie today that was really inspiring and reminded me why I went back to school to begin with. I wanted to work for a non-prof when I got out of ASU and then the end game was law school, since I have always been very social-justice minded. I am now working for what might as well be a government program, and it is pretty disheartening. If nothing else from this job, I have learned that government social programs will always be necessary, but are rarely adequate. I think the non-profs are the only organizations that are making a real difference, so that's the place to be.

My struggle is deciding where I fit in. I am drawn to justice. I long to speak for those who are unable to speak for themselves. But it seems doing it for a daily 9-5er robs the task of all its passion. And there's the rub...

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

-William Ernest Henley

I have some serious decisions to make, and am hoping that the Guidence that has always shown its will for my life will make that will known again...

love love love.

New addition...(yes, ANOTHER one)

His name is Mack. (Mack n Fleas is the proper...)

Stand and report-

The morning started off very groggy, with Maggie (our 5 month old puppy) crying from her kennel. I stumbled to the back to let her out and fell back into bed for a while. (literally fell-banged my knee on the bed...thats going to be a bruise)

Spencer is taking a short road trip today to drop Murphy (our 1.5 year old Brittany bird dog) off with a dog trainer who is also going to take our Murph on a nation widde tour for 3 months to compete with other bird dogs on thing like who can "Whoa" or find quial the best. Murph is about to have the time of his life, but Spencer is a little heart broken to have his best friend gone for so long.

Spence wanted to get a haircut this morning before meeting the trainer, so I dropped him off while I went to get coffee. (those of you who follow my Facebook know this snippit already) I walked up to the counter and was confused when the girl at Starbucks checked out my rack. Then I looked down and realized my V-neck shirt had swooped to the side and my NEON pink, leopard print bra was fully exposed. It is safe to say that Starbucks and I are now intimate.

There will be more soon, including reasons why I am going nuts at my job and info about an upcoming Fashion SHOW that is going to be worth checking out, but for now I have to be off to work.

love love love.
(and flashing entire stores)

Note to self:

Do NOT buy wine simply because the label is pretty, or it has a cute name. Turns out, theres usually a reason for the flashy wit...it's covering up an awful taste.

blech.

conversations with me...

Was lucky enough to get to go to Crissy and Meghan's for a Labor Day BBq yesterday. It was so fun, they have a beautiful home and lovely friends and I learned 2 things.

1. How to play Ladder Golf. Check it out!

2. I am sometimes a terrible conversationalist. I am very comfortable in silences, and I forget that most people are not. I was sitting at the table, eating some delicious grilled veggies, and pondering over the fact that I used to despise Eggplant when I looked up and realized no one had spoken in quite a few minutes. I felt as though I had dropped the ball while having a lengthy ineer monologue about the pros and cons of eggplant. Whoops!

love love love.
(and witty conversations?)

Conversations with Spencer

While watching a show about people's real life ghost stories, Spencer turns to me and says,

"Did I ever tell you about my Zoo ghost story? I was at the zoo the same day one of the monkeys died. I took a bunch of photos and when I got home, I loaded them on the computer and noticed that there was a weird shape in some of them.

It was an APE-arition."

He was so serious that I was totally sucked in to the story till that last line.

Even better, a little while later he says "Sometimes my camara takes pictures with spooky fruit in them. They're APPLE-ritions."

I'm pretty sure I laughed for 5 minutes at that one.
He's witty. (-:

Night y'all.
love love love.
(and silly jokes)

Superstitious

I woke up this morning to salt all over the kitchen floor. What happened? Spencer dropped the salt shaker, it broke, and the salt spilt everywhere. He looks at me and says, "Not a good start to this Friday the 13th." So i asked if he threw some over his shoulder and he looked at me like I was nuts and said, "um no."

He's adorable.
Have a lucky day!

love love love.
(and black cats)

Things are beginning to even out again, in my life as well as the world.

Despite the efforts of the 100 degree(plus)heat, it is starting to smell like Autumn. With school starting, all the store shelves are lined with supplies, and the air is thick with aspirations. (and to be honest, the smell of new school supplies makes me almost giddy)

More on aspirations soon.

love love love.

Grandpa George's Wisdom.

"There's plenty of money out there. They print more every day. But this ticket, there's only five of them in the whole world, and that's all there's ever going to be. Only a dummy would give this up for something as common as money. Are you a dummy?"

I am tired of worrying about money. I wish I could say that I just want to sell everything I have, but nothing I have has any value, hahaha.

Oy with the poodles already. (Laney is out of town, and I miss her...that ref is dedicated to her.)

The newest addition to our household...

Maggie Moo Smooter!

I looooove her.

First week in the new job!

As some of you know, I got a "real" job with a social work agency called ResCare (aka Ameripsych) and this was my first week learning the field work side of it. I had shadowing to do on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, which is essentially like doing ride-alongs only instead of a police officer, I'm riding along with a social worker.

My position is Parent Aide, and the job is to be a third party documenting participant in a CPS custody case. Typically our clients are a mother whose child/ren have been taken away for any number of reasons and placed in foster care. CPS then contracts our agency to meet with the client for life management/parenting teaching sessions, as well as to supervise visits between the client and the child/ren.

Monday, my assigned shadow picked me up around 9am, and I felt like such a newbie, standing outside the main office with my coffee, all bright eyed and bushy tailed. We spent much of the day together, as the client that we were dealing with that day lived out in Mesa, and so did the child. Our client canceled her PREP class with us that morning, but we did the supervised visit that afternoon and I learned a lot. My shadow had me help document the visit, which is mostly just writing down everything that is relevant to the case-whether it is conversation or interaction, and any parenting that happens. I got very positive feedback on the visit notes (yay!) at the end of the day, and when I went home, I felt good about the work we did that day.


The rest of my week was pretty much like that-including a 4 hour visit yesterday where we spent an hour by the pool-in my work clothes. Yipes it was hot!

Today I got assigned my first client-a 23 year old mother battling a meth addiction who has a 2 month old son in foster care. I am pretty excited to get started. I know it is going to be hard at times, but I think this could be a really great job for me.

Doing this kind of work just highlights how amazingly lucky I am to have the family and friends that I do-people who are supportive, caring, generous, and loving. I am so blessed, and very very very thankful.

Sidenote: Spencer and I are heading out to L.A this weekend, and I cant wait to hang in the 80 degree weather! Hope you all have a good weekend too!

Love love love.
(and much thankfulness)

Lately...

I havent blogged lately because life has been crazyness. I will, I promise, but for now heres a photo or two.

Today started like this:

And didnt get any better.

I'm headed to the bath, to try and soak the dumb-ness of today away.

love love love.
(and bubbles)

Listy Listy List-ish...

If you didnt know this about me yet, I love lists. And list making. I find it helps me to be both creative and organized at the same time. (i am so effecient)

1. This past weekend my Aunt Maryan and Uncle Otis were in town to celebrate my brother and my graduations. They are some of the most interesting and generous people I know, and I am so blessed to have them in my life. Thursday night we all went to dinner at the Pointe Tapatio, a restaurant called A Different Pointe of View. It's spectacular food, and my Uncle has the best taste in wine. mmmm (The vanilla bean creme bruelle bears mentioning=yumm)

2. Shopping Friday morning (early)with Shonda and my Aunt for "interview outfits." I can now show up to an interview looking like business appropriate hotness.

3. Which in fact, is what I had to do today, as I had an interview for an exciting position with an agency that does social work with families along with CPS here in the city. The interview went well, and I already know someone who works there, so I'm hopeful about it. There's room for movement eventually, and they have a good foster program that I would like to be involved with eventually.

4. I started painting yesterday. Bought some canvas and basic paints and brushes. Came home and started what Spencer calls "The Mist." I think its going to be a water scene, maybe a faint ghosty pirate ship...hard to say. I'll post photos when its done.

5. Spencer is a serious trooper. I was in the worst mood yesterday, and he endured without even a grumble. He's a keeper. (-:

Alright, love love love.
(thats the best kind of list)

Inventions

I just saw a commercial for a "brand new hand soap device". This new modification on the old way of pumping soap into you hand now allows you to get soap pumped directly into your hand-hands free. The selling point during the whole commercial is that this new "hands free" way cuts down on all those nasty germs just lurking on the soap dispenser. Now you dont have to actually touch the soap dispenser, cause LORD knows, you dont want all those germs on your hands all day.

There's just one problem with that-RIGHT after you touch the soap pump, YOU WASH YOUR HANDS.

Meaning you wash off all (or most) of those germs.

The fact that this product made it all the way through marketing to commercials just proves that people will buy anything.

Tuesday bloody Tuesday.

Today (so far) consists of:

1. Up early after a late night to go sign papers for the new job on Thursday.

2. TB test at the Urgent Care center near me, which means I had an early morning run in with a needle. Now usually, when confronted with a needle (in the morning or not)I tend to vomit or pass out, or a combination of both. But this morning, I was determined. I gave myself a pep-talk in the car before heading in to the office, and said, "Self, you are NOT a wuss. Only wussy baby-face lame-os faint at a tiny little needle. And since you are bad ass, you will NOT faint/puke today." And guess what? I didn't. My charming powers of persuasion are so powerful that they even work on myself.

3. Came home and ate 4 tacos. I was hugely ravenous when I finally got home after having nothing but coffee all day, but admittedly, 4 tacos may have been a little much. Not long from now I'll be wallowing on the couch with a taco belly. Even so, I regret nothing.

Murphy and I hope you're having a happy Tuesday. (-:

Yaay Capitalism!

I am now an employee of the City of Peoria!

I'll be working with kids again, and SO excited. I really believe working with kids in any capacity is similar to non-prof work-it helps the future society as a whole, if you do it right. The non-prof job hunt continues, but for now, I am once again a contributing member of society again!

Hooray for happy Mondays.
Love love love.
(its non-prof work at its best)

Good news!

I had a very very good interview yesterday. But in the interest of not jinxing it, that is all the info you get. (-: I'll let you all know more when I get more info.

Secondly, I think I am going to start volunteering again (on my own, not with a group). I think I'll be with Home Base Youth Services, cleaning for them and maybe eventually making relationships with some of their youth. I'm pretty excited about it.

The weather is very oddly chilly out today for April in Phoenix. (no lie-I'm wearing a hoodie!) Hopefully it will be nice for the road trip Spencer and I have planned for tomorrow-up to Jerome and through lots of little towns in between. I'm real excited to go, and he is real excited to take the new FJ Cruiser out on the road. **Sidenote: we've been trying to think of a name for the FJ. So far, Spencer's got the winner with "Cruise-ella DeVille." It's witty, and the FJ is black and white, so it's perfect. (and a good Disney ref) I'll take tons of photos and post some up later this week.

ALso, my mortality has hit me square between the eyes this week, but in hopes of keeping this a positive post, I will save those thoughts for another time.

For now, love love love.
(it's the best thing you can leave behind)

Rejection

(**warning!: Dear reader, I feel obligated to warn that I am not my normal perky self today. So if you are reading in hopes of sunshine and smiles, you may want to redirect quickly to the nearest pro-bunny webpage. Perhaps here.)

"At the present time, ______________ has no available positions, please check back later."

Or even better:

"After carefully reviewing your resume, we do not think you are the right fit for our current needs."

I am getting very frustrated, and in my frustration I typically do one of a few things:

A. Clean obsessively
B. Cry
C. Work out
D. Drink
E. Write
F. Vent to Laney

As of now, the only things on that list I have yet to do today is cry and drink. And since the house is now sparkling clean, my legs are sore from the work out, and poor Laney is having a rough day of her own, I am on my way to the bathtub, most definitely with a glass of wine.

Maybe it is time to take my resume to someone to have it looked over. And perhaps it is time to start putting together writing samples to send to editors. And after all of those options are exhausted, if I am still jobless, perhaps it will then be time to cry.

Good afternoon, and bonjour, sweet babies.

In case you were wondering, my morning thus far:
(in list form because I love lists)

1. Somehow I made the perfect cup of coffee (my life's blood), a deliciously fattening bagel with cream cheesers, and fake bacon. (mmm)

2. Even amidst this heavenly yummyness, my silly brain managed to remind me that I am now 30 years of age, and jobless. 30. I remember when my Dad was 30, and how I thought that was some sort of magical age where everything came together in a sweet little victory knot of perfection. I'm sure my loving Dad would tell me that I'm being silly, and that of course he did not have life figured out any more than I currently do. But still, this morning during coffee, 30 hit me square between the eyes. It smarted a little bit.

3. My fella and I watched Pearl Harbor last night (i had never seen it) and it reminded me of how much I love that 40s style. SO for the better part of this morning I have been online trying to learn how to form Victory Rolls and other beautiful and romantic up-dos. I also found a great salon here in Phoenix that does pin up hair styles that I cant wait to try out. (once I am a working girl again, of course)

4. Lastly, I am headed out to Tempe tonight to pick up my curling iron, cookbooks, and see some of my favorite people. So I should be off, to repaint my nails and beautify before Murphy and I go on our daily walk.

Hope you all are having a happy day,
Love love love.

"I just can't, JULIA will know."

Myyyyy life has been humming along, but clearly, my blogging skills have not. But never fear, sweet readers, my relationship with writing/blogging is that of an unfaithful lover. Better yet, writing-for me-is like the stray cat that you just cannot get rid of. No matter how you ignore it, and how far away you drop it off in hopes that it will not return, it will end up inevitably mewing at your back door.

So here we are. I am sitting in the living room of my new second home (soon to be first)with my new best pal, Murphy "Scatter Gun" O'Hoolihan, the Brittany puppy that Spencer and I now love. (and sometimes get in arguments with) He and I are watching Julie and Julia (which led to my need to blog, of course) Spencer, for those of you who dont get my silly school girl texts, is the new fantastic boyfriend. He is funny, caring, witty, smart, and the boy can cook!! His latest yummyness is what we call "Scurvy Tacos." They have, among other things, rum and lime in them, and just thinking about them makes my mouth water. Mmmm.

I am graduating this semester, am currently jobless, and the job front for non-profit work is very bleak. It is very likely that I am soon going to have to take a stupid entry level job somewhere just to create some income, while I continue to interview with non-profits. This is frustrating, but I will squeak by. My life always seems to have a way of working itself out, and it will again, now. I have always been well taken care of, by the one who knit me together in my mother's womb.

Everything is on the up and up, fellows, and will continue to be so. After all, His eye is on the sparrow, and He most certainly is watching over me. (-:

On a sillier side of this week, Spencer and I along with one of his sons went to a dog show this morning. It was a pluthera of prime people watching, as predicted. I for the first time in my life was without my camera, so I have no photos to prove that we saw a rodigian ridgeback being run by a man in a 3 piece suit-AND mullet. One that rivaled Billy Ray-pre Miley Cirus of course. The icing on that dog show cupcake was the blonde 10 year old who was watching the beagles run while wearing a BRIGHT blue, KISS t-shirt. God, it was amazing.

Anyhow, all this talk of foody nonsense is making me hunnngry. I'm going to go root through this bachelor's kitchen in hopes of ingredients for anything on the yum yum side. Good night, all.

Love, love, love. (it's what keeps me sane)

"On victory, or death!"

There was once a time when both France and THe US of A were considered the meccas for free (and revolutionary) thought. Both were hand in hand leading the fight against the various human rights violators of the world-be it governments, tyranny, or good old fashioned ignorance.

Oh to be those beacons of hope again.

ex: Following is the translated lyrics to the French National ANthem:

"Ye sons of France, awake to glory,
Hark, hark! what myriads bid you rise!
Your children, wives and white-haired grandsires.
Behold their tears and hear their cries! (repeat)
Shall hateful tyrants, mischiefs breeding,
With hireling hosts, a ruffian band,
Affright and desolate the land,
While peace and liberty lie bleeding?

To arms, to arms, ye brave!
The avenging sword unsheath,
March on, march on!
All hearts resolv'd
On victory or death!

Now, now, the dangerous storm is rolling
Which treacherous kings confederate raise!
The dogs of war, let loose, are howling,
And lo! our fields and cities blaze! (repeat)
alt: And lo! our homes will soon invade!
And shall we basely view the ruin
While lawless force with guilty stride
Spreads desolation far and wide
With crimes and blood his hands embruing?

To arms, to arms, ye brave!...

With luxury and pride surrounded
The vile insatiate despots dare,
Their thirst of power and gold unbounded,
To mete and vend the light and air! (repeat)
Like beasts of burden would they load us,
Like gods would bid their slaves adore,
But man is man, and who is more?
Then shall they longer lash and goad us?

To arms, to arms, ye brave!...

O Liberty, can man resign thee
Once having felt thy generous flame?
Can dungeons, bolts or bars confine thee
Or whips thy noble spirit tame? (repeat)
Too long the world has wept, bewailing
That falsehood's dagger tyrants wield,
But freedom is our sword and shield,
And all their arts are unavailing.

To arms, to arms, ye brave!..."