Best Birthday Gift. Ever.

Mom: What time are you getting home from work?
Me: On my way home now.  Why?
Mom: Oh, just wondering.

Me: (take my time driving home, stop and get gas, clean out my car)

Me: (Open my front door) It smells good, clean. Wait. Things have changed. (eyes dart around my living room) It's CLEAN!  My mom! (call my mom) THANK YOU.  THANK YOU. THANK YOU.  You're AMAZING.  Best birthday present.  Ever.

Moral of the story: Make sure your parents have a spare key to your apartment, so when they have the day before your birthday off work, they can come over during the day and clean it to surprise you when you get home from work.

What I'm Reading

So good.  Enough said.

Soccer Season

I love soccer and lucky for me I get to to play indoor soccer each week with an awesome team called The Hawks.  I know, cool name right?  The coolness factor would make much more sense if you knew the names of the other teams in our league, ones like Rugburn, Gums and Roses, Stormy Weather...the list goes on.  A new session of indoor soccer started up this week.  We're the team in black (Hawks, black, makes sense, right?)

Anyway, while taking a breather on the sidelines, I grabbed my my phone and snapped a few pictures.  I know there not the greatest, but what's super cool about them is the blurring.  Here's why: check out the feet of the players.  Some of them are crystal clear, meaning they were not in motion...which means they were stopping during each of the steps toward the ball.  However, notice Anna, the gal bursting out in front of them.  No crystal clear feet.  Meaning she was moving and fast.  It's no wonder she was ahead of them.

My Brother is a Blogging

Not sure what got into to him, but my brother is a blogging.  Food blogging to be exact.  I like this a lot because I get to be one of his taste testers.  It works out pretty well for me.  He's new to the world of blogging and a man, so you'll have to excuse his lack of design on his blog thus far, however the content will be awesome!

Here's his blog: kaisersfoodblog.wordpress.com

Pop Art

It's been awhile since I posted, because I don't have much to post about currently.  So I thought, what a better time to use the camera on my computer and use the pop art effect.  I've never really been a fan of this effect, but today for the purpose of having a blog post, it works.  Besides, look how cute my cat is...and how not too chunky my bangs look.  (See my tweets from earlier this week about my chunky bangs.)

Christmas

For some reason, I can't sleep.  I blame the bed.

So I thought I would take this time to wish everyone a very merry Christmas.

And show you what my cat got for Christmas this year.

So cute.  It's adorable when he walks around with one of them in his mouth.

Merry Christmas!

Today's Adventure

My car is getting a makeover.  Ok, not really, but it will have been at the car shop for nearly 6 hours when it gets done.  Guess who decided to wait for her car today instead of arrange something else?  That's right me!  However, I'm not upset, because thankfully I knew coming in that it would take about 4 hours, so I came prepared.  I brought a fully loaded backpack of entertainment and had shops picked out that I could shop at in the surrounding area using the wonderful shuttle service to pass the time.  So when the guy said that it would take another 1.5 to 2 hours to fix the other problems, I didn't even break a sweat.  (Apparently, I've not had any brake lights for awhile and a leaky hose…and of course, the alignment).

Here's been today's adventure:

1st hour: in the waiting room, playing with Garage Band and mixing songs while drinking a lovely grape soda (which I thought was a grape Fanta, but didn't realize until grape soda #2 that it was not).

2nd hour: Took the shuttle, hung out at Borders, looked at the book Outliers, but decided to wait since it was $27 and then debated purchasing The Pioneer Women's cookbook.  Ultimately, I decided to wait until after Christmas in case I get it for Christmas and I'll have more dough in my pocket, because it was also $27.

3rd hour: Pier One and Old Navy.  I got a Techno Hoodie at Old Navy.  So cool.  It has the headphones built in and the cord to hook it up in the pocket.  AND it's washable.  This is particularly awesome, because I have a bit (that may be the understatement of the year) of anxiety and my iPod and headphones are like a security blanket.  So having my headphones built into something is AWESOME.

4th hour: Brief trips to a few stores including Target.  I had to cross 119th Street during this hour and 119th is not pedestrian friendly.  I waited at the crosswalk for several turns of the light then realized that the light clearly didn't work and I was just going to have to risk it to make it across the street.  Thankfully I was only carrying an Old Navy sack and a backpack.

5th Hour: Took the shuttle back to the car place.  Chatted with the other people in the waiting room.  Watched part of Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?  Changed into new Old Navy Techno Hoodie and tried it out (it works!)  Broke out the laptop again and started typing this blogpost while drinking Grape Soda #2.  

1:59pm: Finish blog post, but realize there is no wifi to publish it, so I decided to give a run down of my next few minutes.

2:04pm: The guy next to me asks me what I'm doing, I explain writing a blog post and listening to music, then we engage in a nice discussion about how makes are awesome.  His wife reminds him he's not supposed to read over peoples shoulders, but he explains that it's impossible to read the tiny type on my screen (I'm writing it in Text Edit).

2:11pm: Decide to document everything in my back pack

Backpack contents:

Dried mangos from Whole Foods

The Whole Deal (Whole Foods coupons and recipes)

Stuff Christians Like book

My very first Bible EVER, given to me for Christmas in 1998 by Caroline Helmers.

Wallet

Power brick for my mac

Therapy Journal (just incase I decide to do my therapy homework early)

Macworld magazine

Mac Life magazine

3 of my favorite pens - Precise V5 Black

1 Sharpie - Black

1 Post-it highlighter with sticky tabs built in

Silly Putty - Blue

Check book

Renters insurance policy to remind me to call and inform them of my new place

Pair of sunglasses I broke this morning

A wine key (you never know when you might need it.  Okay kidding, it was in another bag for another adventure I had involving glass bottled soda and got transferred to this bag on accident.)

New car insurance cards

Bottle of random meeds (e.g. ibuprofen)

Saline mist (I'm having a lot of nosebleeds, never can be too careful)

Bucky Balls (216 VERY magnetic balls, so awesome)

2:30pm: Car finished!

Lease Signed!

...And then the next morning (today) I woke up to this:

The first words out of my mouth: "Again?!"

Yes, that's right, count them, I have had not one, not two, but three hit and runs.  All on the drivers side mirror and this time on the front fender.  If you look closely at the picture you can actually see the rusty screws from the second time it got hit and I just had the auto shop screw it back together, because I decided (and am standing firm) that I'm not getting a new mirror again until I move.  Thank the good Lord I signed a lease the day before.  It will only be a matter of weeks before I'm fully moved over to the new place.

Holding Pattern

There are lots of upcoming blog posts that are half written.  Well, one is 90% written, but I hit the pause button on him for a few weeks while I move.  I'll give you a preview though.  It's going to be a series of blog posts outlining my ultimate electronic makeover and maybe some tips on what you guys can do as well to make your electronic lives easier.  But for now, we're in a holding pattern.

For the next two weeks I'll be designing, moving into, and decorating my new apartment.  I finally, bit the bullet and moved.  I discovered from a firm shake from my brother that I'm really not living in the safest part of town, but more importantly I don't work in the safest part of town either.  Therefore, I've never really be able to "get away" from work (e.g. I'm always reminded of work, continually as hyper-vigilant as I am at work at home).  So, I'm moving to safer area of town just across the state line.

Here's my four phase plan for my move:

• Phase 1: Preparing for the paint (this includes deciding on most decorating decisions, deciding on paint colors, then literally prepping for painting)
• Phase 2: Painting
• Phase 3: Getting Rid Of/Packing/Moving/Unpacking
• Phase 4: Cleaning my old apartment

Also, get excited I'm getting ready for my very first blog giveaway.  It's going to be awesome!

Welcome to the World Wide Web

I finally decided today that I would allow my blog to be searched through search engines.  I've held off because I wasn't sure if I really wanted the whole world able to find and read my blog.  Now that I've started to write more geeky posts, I've decided it's just selfish of me to hoard my knowledge about technology for only my friends to access.

In light of this, I'll be slowly but surely transforming my blog...into what?  I'm not totally sure, yet.  I'll let you know when my ideas are done baking and ready to come out to the world.  As for today, I cleaned up my design a bit...so if you're reading this in Google Reader, hop on over and see how you like it...or just see if you can notice any of the differences.  You may not be able to pick them out.  Here's one to get you going: a super awesome Blog Shelf.  It's where you'll find sites that I love visiting and spending a Saturday afternoon browsing.

In other news, as I was looking back at my old blog posts today to make sure that I didn't post anything crazy that should not be out in the world wide web, I realized I haven't updated much about life since this summer.  So here's my short bit.  Since I wrote this post, life hasn't let up, if anything it got even more crazy.  The best analogy is that it's been like I'm sprinting a marathon. Thankfully, per doctors orders I should be taking some time off very soon and hitting the reset button.

Un-Green Living

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  (Grad school + no dishwasher) x history of not doing dishes = unnecessary stress from a sink full of dirty dishes and eating cereal with serving spoon out of tupperware bowls or cups.  It started with paper bowls to stop the previously mentioned situations from happening and about a month ago I fully adopted an un-green kitchen.  I packed up my silverware (as to not tempt myself) and stocked my cabinets with paper plates, paper bowls, plastic cups, and plastic cutlery.

Hi, My Name Is Sarah

and I have Anxiety.  The capitalization of A in anxiety was intentional.  I'm talking about Anxiety as in this.

My therapist says I do an amazing job at keeping it under wraps (not managed, hidden), so much so that for the last year I haven't believed her about it.  It's likely that it's been present most of my life in a much milder form, however, when I hit one of my major life events in the last few years, especially grad school, it blew up and turned into a big bad ass disorder.  Sometimes I have anxiety attacks, other times it's just a perpetual beast.  Actually, I call it my "little monster."  I don't mean monster it a super crazy way, but like the monsters from Monsters, Inc.  My little monster grows and shrinks inside of me depending on the day, the situation, because it woke up on the wrong side of the bed - sometimes (a lot of the time) it grows for no apparent reason.  At it's simplest, it sucks.  At it's most complex, it's debilitating.

Well, my little monster is growing now as we speak about it, so I'll cut this short and see if I can build a machine like the one in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

I posted Tommy Knox's "Anxiety Again (3 am)" in on my video page a year or so ago.  I just found this music video of the same song - it's really good - and really accurate.

The New Bag and India?

Sadly, I decided not to get my love-at-first-sight for to shield my laptop from the world.  Though, I am considering her for non-laptop related issues.  Anyway, in the laptop arena, we have a winner.  While at Bags and Baggage this weekend I came across this beauty from PacSafe.

This picture does horrible justice.  It's actually rather beautiful.

And as an awesome bonus, check out it's safety features...

So the reason for this ultra safe purchase?  Besides, living in hit or miss safe/unsafe zone and working in probably (not probably, actually) the most unsafe area of town, I've also recently decided to apply (read: not accepted yet) for a two-week study aboard program in India over winter break this year.

I know.  Seriously.

The best part is that I could earn 3 credits (read: last class ever) and learn about how social welfare works in India.  Seriously?  I can't believe I even have the opportunity to apply.

Working from home...

Here we are again...another month has gone by without an update. So sad. But alas, in a last ditch effort to continue avoiding doing the work I was supposed to be doing all day as I "worked from home," I'll take a minute (or 20) to update the world (picture style).

Alright...[grabbing my camera to see what happened this last month] [realizing I didn't take many pictures] [selecting the best pictures out of the few I took to describe my month]...and here you go:

(Apparently, all the time I spent creating the captions for the slide show in Picasa Web Albums didn't work out so well. So instead if you want to see the captions you actually have to click on the pictures)