Arizona is Awesome

I come to you from the great and sunny state of ARIZONA. GO ME! It's actually slightly cloudy here today and there's the promise of rain...but really? I don't think it's going to happen. I think that we are safe. And even if it does rain, it won't snow, so AWESOME. I'm so happy!

My flight here went pretty smoothly. I was only delayed 1 hour and 20 minutes, which is the best I've ever been since moving to the midwest. My brother's plane came in a wee bit early the next day which was super awesome because the weather was horrible for both of us and they were predicting we wouldn't get anywhere.

Since arriving I've had some nice quality family time and some nice quality friend time. It's been awesome (guess my new favorite word). Last night my friends threw me a birthday party. Actually it was a funeral. They had eulogies and they made a Rose Clue board game. They transformed the Clue board and all the cards and everything into things dealing with me. They made little wooden figures that depicted each of us and they had a list of things that I fear will kill me as the murder weapons (mouth herpes, germs, stress, smoking, dirty needles, and clowns). Then each room was a location like friends' houses, Iowa, Penn State, etc. It looked amazing. I honestly thought that they had somehow sent away to the company to make a personalized Clue board, but they did it all themselves. So we played. In case you were keeping score at home, it was Jesse with Germs in Germany. I always knew he'd be my downfall.

Needless to say, it was an awesome night. Halfway through we turned the poster around and celebrated Adam's birthday (which is today). We're all turning 30. So crazy.

Other than that I bought a bunch of clothes, a new computer and I got my hair cut and slightly colored today. So that's the news from my world. My husband is at home plotting how to mass produce our podcast so that the world can partake. Then he's going skiing.

Until next time, enjoy this video about publishing articles. It's funny. Zach sent it to me.

Peer Review

"Christmas Eve"

Today is "Christmas Eve" because tomorrow is "Christmas" because I leave on Wednesday. So Z and I are celebrating a few days early. We have a tiny tree and some very nice decorations and a few little presents under the tree. Tonight I get to stuff the stockings (literally stockings that I painted our names on) and then tomorrow morning - viola! "Christmas". I'm even going to make a ham steak, green bean casserole and some potatoes. Truly, a magical feast. I also plan to make some food for Zach to eat while I am away. It's not that I don't think he can feed himself, I just worry that he won't.

And now, some ranting.

Today is the shortest day of the year. It's cloudy and gray so I doubt I will notice the utterly consuming darkness scheduled for around 4:39 PM. Just like it was barely perceptible when the sun rose at 7:30AM this morning. But it can only get lighter from here. So Happy Solstice, Everyone!

For those of you who have listened to our podcast, thanks! Hope you enjoyed it. For those of you who felt that 25 minutes was just "too much"...I have some choice words for you, but this being "Christmas Eve", I'll just keep them to myself. Why don't you try listening and if you get bored, turn it off. You can also do other things while listening, Zach and I are not asking that you sit immobile for 25 minutes listening to our voices. Although, you probably won't be disappointed if you do. For those of you who missed it, here's the link:

Christmas Cardcast

In other news, I am super excited about going home for the holidays. My mother informs me that it will be "really cold"....like 58. Wow! 58? Hm...what should I wear? The tank top or the short sleeve shirt? 58. Mom. C'mon.

I have been so excited that I've been packing for days now. I'm trying not to bring that much, but I'm just so excited that I want to pack it all now! I will miss Zach, but I'm super excited to see everyone else. And I know that there will be about 10 minutes when he really misses me before he realizes the joy that comes from me being away. Enjoy your freedom, Zach. Don't do anything that I will hear about later (or stain anything).

I had some other things that I really wanted to rant about, but I can't remember at this juncture, so I'll bid you all ado. Merry "Christmas Eve"!

Merry Christmas!

Hi All,

This year my husband and I decided that instead of sending out Christmas cards (as has been my tradition for many years) we would do a Christmas "Cardcast" - which is a podcast that has a Christmas greeting in it. We got some "borrowed" equipment and went to town, especially Zach who has not been sleeping for the past 3 days so that he could edit it to perfection. Here is the podcast link:

Podcast link



We hope that you enjoy our holiday cheer and greetings! Love you all...and for any random strangers stumbling on to the blog...it's not love for us yet, but maybe we can be there some day.

Best,
Rose & Zach...the Awesomes

The Season of Anger and Sadness (AKA Winter)

As I woke up Zach on Saturday morning with the words, "GET UP, IT'S THE FIRST SNOW OF THE SEASON", he knew his day was not going to go well.

"What season is that?"

"The season of anger and sadness. I believe your people call it 'winter'."

We laughed. It was just flurries actually and while I was not ready for it (given that it was in the 60s last week), I decided that this year I was going to accept the winter. That feeling of acceptance lasted exactly 2 days. It snowed for real yesterday and then for real, real today. And apparently tonight it's blizzard conditions (for those of you lucky enough not to know what that means, it's basically blowing snow). Someone in one of my classes said, "60 mph winds after midnight"...damn it.

My crazy husband is riding his bike to and from work. I'm happy because I hate him on the roads in the car, but also scared because now he's on a bike. They may or may not cancel classes tomorrow. That's the only good thing about snow. I'm not likely to go in because I only have meetings anyway. I'll make an excuse, like, "I'm not coming because there's 6 inches of snow and a blizzard going on."

Today I did a little exercise with my walk at home DVD. I can't tell you how bad I felt for the downstairs neighbors. Sorry, no, there was not a herd of stampeding buffalo in my apartment, I was walking away the pounds. But I did feel good about actually getting some exercise. I really can't wait to get to the warm weather of Phoenix so that I can walk outside. Now that I am off the "not eating, throwing up and smoking diet" (patent pending), I find that I am gaining a little weight because I'm not exercising. Good news, not nauseous all day (no, still not a baby, stress).

Alright, well, I think I had more things to say, but I'm going to spread them out over the next few days. I've only done 25 posts this entire year...where has the year gone? That's crazy! Anyway, I'm boring, so I have to save some of this comic gold for future posts.

Keep us in your prayers.

Introducing the Newest Member of Our Family

No, we didn't have a baby. Sorry Mom, sorry Ann, not baby time. But we do welcome with open arms the newest edition to our family:


This is Z VonDrewski. He's my iPod touch (32 gb). Supposedly, I can connect to the internet and stuff and use him as a little computer...but I have yet to be successful. I have been successful at downloading a bunch of new "apps" (that's applications for those of you not in the know) and putting a ton of music on it. And I bought myself a movie for the plane. So I'm totally set. It's awesome. I can't stop touching it. Not inappropriately, but all the time.

Zach got an iPod Nano for his birthday on November 17th. His iPod came with the name Ted Brown. That's what's engraved on the iPod, so that's what we call him. ManiLove (the iPod shuffle that I was sporting before now) is in the drawer in my desk. I feel like a heel for leaving him, but I can't help it. My love of the touch is legendary (don't read that in a gross way, perv).

Oh, as to why Z VonDrewski came into my life - I'm turning 30 soon. Well....January 10th, but it's never too early for presents and I decided that I needed to get myself a really big birthday gift, so I bought the iPod for myself. Happy Birthday to me! I hope that you all don't feel the need to top me, but you can definitely still get me something great for my birthday....like iTunes gift cards. Or a case for Z VonDrewski....I'm just throwing things out there...it's never ever too early to start planning for my birthday.

I also recently purchased 3 pairs of "adult" shoes (again, not dirty, just grown-up) for a sick amount of money. My husband who is generally very understanding about money was in a bit of sticker shock for a moment when I told him how much. It really didn't help that the bank called him later that day and asked if our credit card had been stolen because there was "unusually large amounts of activity" on our account. It's like, "thanks for checking guys, but why did you have to go and rat me out like that?"

Ok, well, I'm going to go back to touching my iPod and battling the on-going headache that I have. I think it's allergies. Or a brain tumor. Hard to say. Also possible snow flurries tomorrow- guess who is not amused.

Back and on the Attack

I lied. I'm not on the attack. I do hope that I'm back though. It's been a looooooooong time. I've been busy. I'm in my last year of graduate school...hopefully. My semester has been filled with being a TA (speaking of which, I have 120 essays to grade by the end of the weekend), collecting dissertation data, failing to collect dissertation data, getting upset by said data, starting to try to maybe write some dissertation stuff...yeah, not so much, and hunting for jobs. So I've been super busy. And I've been a bit overwhelmed. But now I am getting back on top of the heap. I'm conquering the world, baby! And I made Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Here's the annual Thanksgiving photo essay by Zach, who stated, "You are very photogenic today." Thanks for the support, babe.

Thanksgiving decorations that we have out. Some probably offensive figurines.

Holiday turkey decoration...which we've had up for about a month now.

This is our "dining room" table. Oh yeah, we are super high class. Did you eat Thanksgiving dinner on tv trays on a futon in front of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? No? Jealous?

Cooking the annual Thanksgiving tofurkey. It's almost as good as it sounds.


This is the tofurkey with some carrots, yams and cranberries for "sauce". We had a relatively cruelty-free Thanksgiving...I was only a little bit mean to Zach.


The sides. This year I did not go too crazy. Au Gratin potatoes (from scratch - I assume that scratch means "from the boxed mix". Green bean casserole!! YES! And some chicken gravy...yeah, I know that's wrong on tofurkey, but I wanted it. Not pictured: Cran-apple delight. A delicious dessert made with cranberries, apples and a crumble crust. Very good. I made it for Zach's work people too and one of them wants the recipe. I told him no, it's an old family secret.



The last three our pictures of your favorite couple. Notice that I look pretty much identical in all of them, but the man changes more than a mother of a new born...ok, well, that wasn't the best, but it's been a long time, so I'm a little rusty.

Hopefully this represents a comeback. I should go because I still have 120 essays to grade and plans to go to Grandma's tomorrow. I'm not sure that I'll finish, but you know what? It will get done when it needs to be done. That's my new mantra.

Happy Holidays!

Weekend Photo Essay

This weekend Zach participated in a mountain bike race. He placed 2nd for the Beginner Men's Division with a time of 42:53. The race for beginner's was one lap of 7.5 miles, sport division was 3 laps and experts had to go a grueling 5 laps. It was pretty awesome to watch. Zach did a great job! The person who got first probably should have been in the sport division, so basically, Zach's the winner. But that's not all, I've got pictures.

This is Zach performing some pre-race lubrication on his bike. He's a responsible bike rider.

Anxiously awaiting the race instructions. They told everyone to gather for the mass start.

Some of the competition. The couple dressed in matching pink outfits there a little off to the right of center rode a tandem bike. A TANDEM BIKE. TO GO MOUNTAIN BIKE RACING. Never in 1 million years man. That's gotta be tough.

Making his final assault on the lap, almost to the finish line!

Crossing the finish line! Way to go, Zach!!

What's New in the World of Me?

Wondering what I've been up to lately? I'm assuming that's true if you are checking this blog. If you don't care then you probably aren't checking in here. But if you are checking here and you still don't care then that's sorta screwed up and I have no advice for you. I've gotten this off to a weird start.

I'd like to be funny again with some sort of theme. I guess I could try being funny without a theme, but I crave structure. Some might say I crave structure to a fault, but to those people I say, "back off!"

Ok, so nothing too new is going on. I've been married a year now. I'm still in school. I apparently started writing this blog entry with no agenda and it's devolved from there. Let's see, things to tell, things to tell...I'm going to go to PA in a little over a week! I think that will be exciting. Z's Grandma will be 96 and we are going to celebrate and see family. It should be awesome. I've been working hard lately in an effort to be able to enjoy my vacation.

I am going to come up with a theme to rejumpstart my posting. If you have any suggestions for topics write them in the comments (or you can email me privately).

I'll end on this note, I've been watching Hulu. If you haven't checked it out- you should. It's awesome. The only problem is that I keep watching tv shows that have been cancelled. I'm just getting into the show and all excited and then I find out that it was cancelled before I even started. That seems like a crime. Why does all the good television have to die? WHY?

Ok, I'm going to go do some more work and ponder how to bring back the fun and interest to this blog. I'll catch you cool cats later.

State of the Marriage Address

I decided this year before our anniversary that Zach and I should write each other letters detailing how we thought the year had went and how we felt about the relationship currently...a "State of the Marriage" Address if you will (and even if you won't). I figure that's likely to be something personal that we should only be sharing between the two of us, but then I thought, screw it, I need material for the blog. So I give you an open letter to my husband, on this, our anniversary.

There are several key points which I believe should be addressed here tonight. But first, I'd like to thank everyone for being here and for taking time out of their regularly scheduled programming to attend this address.

In the last year we have had our ups and downs. I've provided for you a summary of those ups and downs with some analysis. Let me first say that our marriage is strong and that the prospects for the future are good. I've had several analysts weigh in on this issue and we are all in agreement that the union is strong and profitable.

The minister of emotional issues reports that there are increases in the following areas:

The Anxiety Index is on the rise. We've had a definite increase in the levels of homeland anxiety this year. As you know, one member of the marriage has contributed disproportionally to this rise. I'd like to take the chance to apologize for this situation. Some of our top people are currently working on this issue and we hope to have it resolved by the Christmas season.

Worry about health - up. Yes, it's true, much of the anxiety is related to various health issues. We have reports that we're healthy, though you might remember that some of our key worries about health include: teeth and gums falling out/rotting away, some form of horrible disfigurement (like mouth herpes) and of course, death.

It turns out that some other levels are up in the marriage as well. Love levels appear to be at an all-time high. Hard to believe that the love could have grown over the past years, but it seems to be growing still. I know that I personally cannot get enough of you. I'm always happy to be with you, even when I'm not (you know what I mean).

Compassion from both parties seems to be up. Included in this category is patience, understanding and commitment to seeing the other person's side. As you remember from our last status report we talked about these issues as being important to our happiness. I am delighted to report that these levels have been increased due to hard work and passion from both parties.

The minister of finance reports that levels of savings are up. I enjoy saving money with you and figuring out what to do with it later. I hope that we some day own a nice little house with a cute yard and garden and maybe some dogs.

The archduke (as you know, we lost the minister earlier this year...damn that Minotaur's lair) of health reports:

Health - down, but on the mend. As you know, we lost the gallbladder in March. It wasn't an integral part of the relationship, so I can't say that I miss it. But I am glad that we were able to weather major surgery and come out stronger (and lighter).

Levels of bickering, pettiness and anger seem to be down this year as well. This is an encouraging trend that I hope continues.

Overall, I'd say that our union is strong. There are positive things on the horizon. I hope that we continue to grow and change and love together. I believe that we will. I am so happy to be with you and feel super blessed to be with the perfect compliment for me. Thanks for always being there for me. Thanks for being the rock for me to lean on (I like to think I help you out too).

Always and forever (for all eternity :-),

Your Wife - Rose

Night Terrors

The other night (Saturday if you want to be particular), I had a rather strange experience. I went to bed about 12:30 AM and at around 1:10 or so, I "woke up" and I say "woke up" because I a) didn't realize that I was asleep and b) thought that my eyes were open and that I was awake when I saw to my terror a strange man entering my bedroom. I screamed bloody murder. And Zach came running in from the other room to find me sitting up in bed freaking the hell out because I was absolutely convinced that there had been a man coming at me in the darkness. I guess I was still dreaming, but I was so convinced that it was real. My throat hurt really bad after screaming and my hands were shaking. Both Zach and I were really freaked out and I slept with the night light in the bedroom. THAT'S RIGHT...like an adult. It was so real and so scary. I have never had that experience before. I think that I've had dreams and though that they were real, but never like this.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Mom! And Happy Anniversary, Zach! Love you both!

Things I Fear

Well, I thought about listing all the things that I fear in this post. Not ALL the things I fear because that would be way, way too long a list. But I thought about maybe doing all the things I feared right now as a representative sample. But then I thought, "how crazy do I want the world to think I am?" And so I guess I will forgo that list.

I will tell you this. I'm back, baby! I am not going to make that empty promise. But I'm going to try to post more. It's important for all of us to heal. I know that my words are a salve on this world. I often time write something like that last sentence and hope that someone who doesn't know me at all stumbles on this blog and thinks I'm serious. Because I bet that is awesome. I don't think that sarcasm is easily conveyed in the written word. Although I've had that experience in real life too. And there are few things more frustrating or discouraging than having a joke not go over well.

I'm working on a theme (like numbers or letters or whatever) because that encourages me to write each day and gives me focus. Apparently I need that in order to be productive.

Ok, I'm going to go now. I have some more work to do tonight and Zach will be home soon.

The Story and Other Ramblings

Hello. My name is Rose and I have a problem with not writing in my blog.

(Hi, Rose!)

Here's the thing about writing in the blog. I like it and all, but for the past, well, long time now, I've been so tired and lazy I guess. Maybe I'm not lazy. I think I've been doing a lot of work each day and it makes me tired. But I digress.

I want to try to keep writing. It's valuable on a number of levels, not least of which is the joy that my writing gives other people. You are welcome.

Anyway, the story of that picture is that my friend Haytee, who has many different crafting talents, made the dress I am wearing. It's a turquoise brocade that is just delicious. Not only did she whip that up, she made herself an outfit as well. We wore them to our friends' Jen and Jeff's wedding. On the eve of the wedding, Haytee, her husband Anthony, our friend Jesse (single, ladies, and quite a catch) and I were sitting around trying to decide what we should do to spice up the wedding. I don't remember which one of us threw it out there, but we all decided that we should make Jesse a matching vest and bow tie so that the two of us could match. Zach had to stay in Iowa and work, so Jesse was going as my date (platonic, like all of his dates...oh, no, that's mean, I'm sorry). So Haytee managed to sew a vest and bow tie in part of one evening and viola (the instrument, not the french phrase) we went to the wedding wearing matching outfits. If you have not yet heard of my love of matching outfits, you can see it here and here. As my brother pointed out the other day, whenever I am wearing the same outfit or accessory as someone I believe that we are TWINS! I LOVE IT.

Speaking of my brother -Happy birthday, Andy!! 27! Where does the time go?

Speaking of other things on my mind:

I have a lot of things that I need to get done. For example, did you know that in order to get a PhD you have to write a big, huge (probably at least 100 pages) dissertation? Huh...that's a bit of a challenge.

Our new apartment is A-W-E-S-O-M-E!! And perhaps best of all - no roommate!! Just two married people living their awesome married life. And we got a phone line today. So yeah, we're pretty awesome. I'll try to work on getting some pictures up, but you know how bad I am with pictures. I think it's my fear that cameras capture your soul in the pictures that keeps me away.

I've been listening to WNYC's Radio Lab (podcasts available from iTunes) at the suggestion of my brother and damned if I am not in love with that show. So many interesting facts to be gleaned and repeated as my own! But honestly, these shows are really awesome and they explain science in a way that everyone can understand which is really awesome. Plus, they seem to do a lot of shows about psychology which is fun for me.

I want to feel like I am more exciting than this, but honestly, I can't seem to come up with anything more amazing than what I've said. I think I'll have to give myself a writing challenge again. I seem to work better with a theme.

Oh, two more things:

1. My brother helped Zach and I move and was such a help. Then my parents came to town and then Zach and I ended up going to Chicago for the family reunion. So I've had a lot of family time lately. It really helped me feel better. I wish I lived next to everyone person that I like in the world. Seriously. That would be awesome.

2. Venture Bros. is a good show. I recommend it to you.

And one more...a little over a week (July 27) and then I will have been married for an entire year! Not like a year is a long time, I'm just saying, ANNIVERSARY TIME. This time last year I was still single and about to go up to Chicago to put the final touches on the best wedding ever (sorry to all the other married people in the world, but my wedding was so much fun). Memories.

There's a Story Behind this Picture

I'll tell you the story soon.

Update and then I leave again

Hello Loyal Readers! If you are reading this blog then you have been checking it for a long time in my absence. I have been really, really busy lately. I had a super busy semester and I am just now recovering. I am leaving tomorrow to go to Arizona for the week. I will try to update more while I am hanging out in the hotness.

Meanwhile, here are some little tiny tidbits from my life lately:

1. I had a TAship that was time and a half this semester. That means I was busy teaching.
2. I successfully proposed my dissertation this semester. I had to write up a prospectus and defend it to my committee. But now, I only have one more defense to go. This time next year, it's Dr. Rose all the way!
3. Zach and I went to Des Moines last weekend. I have pictures. I've even uploaded them to the computer. I will work on getting them up here ASAP (by which I mean, at least a week and a half from now).

There's more, but it's just so tiring to tell now. I'm going to go take a shower because, yes, that's right, I think I smell a bit. I cooked, cleaned, packed and prepped all day today. So excuse me. It was probably about 80 today and we didn't have the air conditioning on and I cooked for about 4 hours and did all the dishes. So I got hot. Why am I defending myself to you? Ok, wish me luck for flying tomorrow. I hate flying. But it's a non-stop flight so that should be awesome. Well, they do stop, they stop at the end. I'm looking forward to it. Haytee - I'll see you when I get off the plane. Have the Ballatore on ice!

Zach's Comic Strip

So for awhile Zach and I have been kicking around the idea of a comic strip about our daily adventures. This is the first installment as drawn by Zach last night. I think that you can click on the image and it will bring it up larger in another window. Sorry about the quality, I scanned it on the copier here at work. Well, I tried to scan it on the scanner first, but supposedly that program had an "unexpected error" twice. That probably means that there are multiple copies of this floating around on school property and that I'll get fired, but whatever.

Completely Random Thoughts

I feel the need to share some things, but I don't have the energy to work them into some sort of narrative or even some sort of coherent form, but I think it's sharing that matters, don't you?

I saw Michael J. Fox (Actually Michael A. Fox - thank you Disney Trivial Pursuit for this knowledge) on David Letterman tonight. He was looking pretty good. But also he was looking like someone who has Parkinson's and has had it for awhile now. I'm pulling for you, Michael, I am.

I recently saw Obama on a podcast and here and there on television. In general I avoid all current news because when I listen, read, watch, hear or taste the news it always just makes me panic to a certain degree (that degree being about 10 points over what Zach can handle on a daily basis, poor Zach). But I did catch a bit of Obama and I decided that Obama could sell me anything. If he decided that he wanted to be Supreme Dictator, I'd say, "Sounds good. Sounds good. Just let me know what you need me to do. I'm here for you. Whatever you think." He's just that good.

I woke up yesterday and I was super dizzy. Really, really dizzy. I spent the whole day in bed for the most part. I felt better later, but I still don't fell all that spectacular. And today I've been coughing a whole bunch. I hope that it's just allergies. I think I'm going to make a doctor's appointment and see if I can get a prescription for allergy meds. I don't think that the over-the-counter stuff is working for me any more.

Zach's wound is healing - I think. We have to pack it with gauze twice a day still which is sort of the height of grossness, but overall it's ok.

Know how I said, "I hope it's just allergies." That's because I think it might be something else. Yeah, I know, I always think it's something else. I need to calm down.

I have to get up early tomorrow, so I guess this is good night.

My Life in Lists

Top 3 Jobs I am 100% not Suited for:

1. Nurse - One of Zach's wounds opened up. So we went to the emergency room yesterday. It's fine they say...except that he has a 2 x 2 inch wide/tall, 1 inch deep open wound which I now have to monitor for infection and pack with gauze and saline solution twice a day. And you know what? THAT'S NOT COOL. And if I didn't love Zach so much I'd basically say that he was on his own. So if I didn't somehow fall in love with every one of my patients, they would be in such a sorry state. Plus, about once an hour I'd tell them that they were probably gonna die, which again, is not something you want to hear for a medical professional.
2. Waitress - yeah, again, not really a good service person. I would likely starve to death from lack of tips...although I would probably eat food off people's place...before I served it to them! After would just be too gross.
3. Motivational speaker - maybe, if guilt is a motivation, or if what they say about reverse psychology is true. Otherwise, I think that my general doom and gloom demeanor might not be real motivational.

Top 3 Things that I was Convinced I hated, but it turns out I Actually Really Like:

1. Will Ferrell - I was convinced for a long time that I hated him. Convinced! But then I looked at my movie collection and it contained about 85% of all Will Ferrell movies and I thought, "huh, apparently I was wrong."
2. Cilantro - sorta the same story. I kept insisting that I didn't like cilantro. Couldn't stand it. Except that I liked it in a bunch of things. So now, I have to admit, yeah, I love me some cilantro.
3. Turquoise (the gemstone) - I kept thinking damn, I hate that gemstone, stupid, stupid. And then I kept seeing all this turquoise jewelry and coveting it and finally I had to have an intervention for myself to admit, "I do like turquoise".
Also, capri pants.

Top 3 Pet Peeves:

1. People with mouth herpes touching said herpe and then touching other things.
2. Not being able to work when I need to get something done. Just for an example, let's say I had the introduction to my prospectus to write, but instead choose to watch internet TV, work on a blog entry and plan my grocery list. Just hypothetically.
3. When I do something wrong and then have to admit it. Burn.

Top 3 All-Time Favorite TV shows:

1. Murder She Wrote
2. Streets of San Francisco
3. Hmm...that's hard to give the last slot to other shows. There are a lot of good ones I watch. I will cheat and list some: Bones, Life on Mars, Futurama, Monk, Psych, My Name is Earl (not as much as I should), there are many more.

Top 3 Places I would like to live:

1. Someplace awesome.
2. A mythical land in which everyone I knew (and liked) lived 5 minutes from each other.
3. Not so much in Iowa.

Top 3 Things I'd Rather be doing:

1. Sitting at home, watching TV
2. Finishing up the many chores that I have to do still
3. Just completing the last sentence on the introduction to my prospectus (sigh)

Three Things I will likely do tonight:

1. Start and most likely not finish the prospectus intro.
2. Worry about the fact that I burned a bag of popcorn at work and now the entire 3rd floor of my building smells like popcorn.
3. Finish the laundry (fingers crossed)

Three Ways to say "The End":

1. Th-th-th-that's all folks!
2. Fin.
3. So long, suckers!

Happiness

I've been thinking a bit about the notion of happiness lately. I've also been thinking that it's super important to be grateful everyday for what you have instead of thinking about what you don't have or how life can/should be different. This is a struggle for me on a daily basis (that's right, I'm moody as hell, deal with it), but I've been trying lately to really make the effort to be grateful for that which I do have and to accept the circumstances as they are. Anyway, this video was passed on to me by one of the people in my life that I am grateful for on a daily basis - the video store guy. No, just kidding. Zach told me to watch it. Now I'm telling you.

Waiting to Expel

I thought that I should update everyone, sorry this didn't come sooner, but I've been busy.

We went to the hospital at 6:00AM on Saturday. Our old neighbor (who is our friend, but we still call "our neighbor") came and picked us up and stayed at the hospital with us the whole time. That was really nice. It was really nice for me to have someone to hang out with while Zach was under the knife. We got to the hospital and checked in. It was basically empty. The hospital just started this Saturday surgery thing and they don't have full staff during that time. We got Zach checked in, they gave him an IV, etc. and then they took him off to surgery. Our neighbor and I hung out in the reception area, visit the ER where he works and just talked about other things as much as possible. I only cried a little bit, so that's pretty awesome. Zach's surgery started at 7:48 AM and the surgeon came out at 8:40 AM to tell me that everything went well. Zach was in Stage 1 Recovery for about an hour and a half. Then they moved him to a floor in the hospital for Stage 2 Recovery. We met him there. When the nurse brought him in she said, "You must be his wife. I've never had a patient who was as concerned about how his wife was doing as Zach. He's a real sweetie." Yeah, I know.

Then we began the process of "waiting for Zach to pee". This is the only requirement that Zach needed to pass in order to go home. They wanted to see him pee. Well, that's not true, they didn't really want to see it, they just wanted to make sure that it happened. I guess this is because they need to make sure that you are not retaining fluids and that everything is working ok. Your body holds onto fluids after a trauma and the anesthesia can do weird things as well, so they take the ability to pee as a serious plus. So I kept pushing Zach to drink water. He was pretty out of it for awhile. He really just wanted to go to sleep for awhile. I told him that if he peed he could sleep at home for as long as he wanted. He finally woke up a bit and drank a bunch of water. Everyone kept asking him if he had to pee. At one point he looked at me and said, "Everyone wants me to pee, but I just don't have to go, I feel bad. I'm trying. Everyone is so obsessed with this." I told him that it was fine, we were just all concerned about his well-being. Finally, we got him walking around and he peed! It was super momentous. I don't think that anyone has been that excited about Zach peeing since he was potty trained. Two nurses, a nursing assistant, our neighbor and I were all really pleased. We kept telling Zach what a great job he did.

They let us go home then and we went home and took it easy. For the past couple days I've just been in "take care of Zach" mode. It's been good. I'm just happy to have him with me. I did decide that we can never have children because I will seriously never sleep. The first night that I brought Zach home I woke up every hour just to make sure he was still breathing. I didn't mean to, I just kept waking up. I'd look over, still breathing, good, good. Then I'd fall back to sleep and then wake up, is he still breathing? Ok, great. Good times.

He seems to be doing really well today. We went for a decently long walk. We've been playing Lego Star Wars II almost 24/7. It's a fun game. We're in Episode VI now. Yeah, that's right, we're bad asses. The only problem is that it makes Zach laugh and that hurts him. His wounds are doing pretty well except that his belly button wound is sort of weepy. I called the hospital and talked to the resident on call. I'm sure that she slept a good solid 45 mins. in the last 3 days, so I'll just trust her opinion. She said that it's most likely fine. Today one of his other wounds looked a little sketchy to me, but my mom said it's likely to be fine. He's not running a fever or anything and it doesn't hurt or smell. I'm really the least helpful person to have watching someone for signs of infection. I'm 99% sure that the pimple near my lip is mouth herpes more often than not, so I really shouldn't be in charge of watching other people for signs of infection. I look at everything and say, "Oh yeah, you've got a disease, you're gonna die." Which isn't really helpful to hear.

Anyway, to recap, Zach's doing well. I'm doing well. I'm definitely not cut out for the nursing profession. In fact, if I didn't love Zach so much, I'd be telling him to get off his ass and get his own glass of water. So basically, I'd make the worst nurse ever. But I do love him, so I'm taking good care of him. He got a a bunch of cards in the mail today and it made him feel really, really special and happy. He said that he "loves being sick". So that's nice.

Hope everyone is doing well. I'll keep you posted.

Where's the Love?

The love of my life, my soul mate, my companion, my partner, my best buddy AKA Zach will be going under the knife on Saturday. He's getting his gall bladder out. That's right! Removed. Taken away. He'll be sans gall bladder. The doctors seem to think this is a good idea. They're like, "You don't need no stinkin' gall bladder." Which begs the question, why does everyone else have one then? The gall bladder is a sac that sits under your liver and collects the bile that your liver releases to break down foods (mostly fat). Then when the gall bladder has had enough, it releases the bile into your duodenum (which is the first part of your small intestine) and from there...well, I'll just leave that to your imagination. Right now, Zach's gall bladder is unhappy and apparently that means that it needs to come out. That will teach it! I've threatened my body as well. I told it that it better start shaping up or I am going to start removing things from it. I think it's scared. I plan to really drive home that message on Saturday.

It all started about a month ago when Zach was up all night with abdominal pain. We were at my Grandma's house and he just thought that he'd overindulged over the weekend. We drove home that day and he went to work, but we ended up in the emergency room that night because he kept whining about being in a lot of pain. That's right, I said whining, I'm mean. After we spent a few quality hours in the ER, we went home with some vicodin and a warning that Zach had a crazy gall bladder. He had another attack about a week later. We went to the Digestive Diseases Clinic and the doctor basically said Zach was fine, but wanted to refer us to a surgeon. So last Friday we went to see the surgeon. I guess there is a reason that people become surgeons vs. doctors. It doesn't have anything to do with skill. If you are a surgeon you are used to dealing with your patients when they are not conscious. Let's just say that showed when we met with this guy. He was there for 5 minutes. He walked in, said, "You're gonna need that out" and then got a bit exasperated when we were like, "wait, hold the phone, isn't there another option?" An ultrasound and an hour wait at 8 AM this morning and we've confirmed that surgery is probably the best option for Zach. I was doing pretty well until they asked for Zach's permission to give him a blood transfusion if he was dying. I wanted him to say no because that's so gross and that's where diseases come from, but the alternative is worse, so he said ok. Obviously, we don't expect this to be a problem. The surgery is routine and easy and it's not likely to have complications, but I still hate the idea of it. I am going to be positive though and believe that everything will be ok.

Anyway, that's what's going on around here. I've been busy for awhile now dealing with health and the lack there of. I'll keep everyone updated. I also thought that I would mention that if you have our address and you wanted to send Zach a "Get Well" card- now would be an awesome time. I know that he would appreciate it. If you need the address, email me and I'll get it to you, unless you are a creepy stalker and then I won't (no offense).

Sicko

I'm hoping to draw in the crowds randomly searching the interwebbing for somewhat obscure documentaries on the US health care system. The title also refers to me. I'm sick. It happens so rarely that I actually get a cold that when it happens it becomes that much more upsetting. So today I write to you from my bed where I have been for most of the day (I get up to go to the bathroom because I'm not an animal...and Zach refused to get a bedpan).

Zach has been super great about taking care of me today. He made me food, got me a steam bath with essential oils and brought me tea and orange juice. He's the best. Unfortunately he had to go to work. So he abandoned me to fend for myself. I'm sure that you are all gasping in horror at his insensitivity. It's ok. I mean, I ran out of tea so I have to go downstairs which might be difficult with my current state of dizziness, but I'm sure I'll manage somehow.

Other things on my fevered mind...I'm sorta concerned that my gums are receding? I'm not really sure how I have arrived at this conclusion or if it is true. Zach says it's not true, but that if it is and I lose all my teeth he'll still love me. Perhaps he will prepare an all smoothie diet for me as well.

I have a ton of work to do this weekend. A TON. But it's hard enough for me to string together the words that are necessary to make sentences for this blog, so I'm pretty sure that I plan to just lay in bed all day today. Well let's be honest, I've lain in bed all day today. I plan to continue doing this into the night. I didn't sleep that well last night. My throat hurts a bit and it keeps me up.

Ok, so I leave you with this thought, I've been flipping through the channels all day today and I can tell you that this weekend is only filled with bad mojo. At least 5 channels are showing reality shows about someone or multiple someones getting murdered. It's pretty crazy.

Twins

On Friday, my beloved sent me this text message: "I'm sick of talking about it. I want to do it this weekend....Let's go out and buy matching sweatsuits! You want to tomorrow morning?!? Please!"

It's hard for me to express the joy that I felt upon receiving this text message. First of all, I derive great pleasure in dressing like twins. Second, I managed to marry a man who shares my passion. I've got to confess that this mutual love might be the final proof that we are in fact made for each other.

By Saturday afternoon we had found our outfits. Blue pants, blue shirt, orange sweatshirt. Even better we got smoking deals on the items. $12 pants, $17 sweatshirts and $7 shirts. AWESOME! I had thought that there was nothing so satisfying as buying matching outfits, but it turns out that getting those outfits for a steal is even more satisfying.

It's hard to express in words how wonderful we felt, but by Sunday we were wearing the outfits (freshly cleaned and laundered) and we took them out on the town. Here are some pictures, they don't quite do the outfits justice, but they do show our awesomeness. I can only hope that we can get more outfits in the future. Also, these outfits turned out to be super warm. I think they might be the best investment we've ever made.

This is Zach, looking awesome:



This is me, looking unsure, but pretty sure that this is the best day ever.


Sweatshirt on version:


Twins, am I right? You can't tell us apart.


The happy couple. Zach was so excited that he was moving the camera. This is the best shot we have of us. But perhaps in the future there will be more. I have a feeling that these matching outfits will be apart of our zany adventures for a long time to come.

Busy like a Bee

Actually I never really understood that phrase. Are bees actually super busy? They never seem like they have any place to be or a real agenda or anything. They sort of seem like they just lazily move around stopping to smell the roses. Maybe that's just me.

So I wanted to write an awesome post that told a delightful coherent story or anecdote from my day. But then I realized that I've been working a lot lately and been stressed out so I'm going to go ahead and cut myself some slack and just write a bunch of random nonsense. Can't tell the difference between when I try to write a coherent story and don't? Screw you. Ok, no I'm sorry, that was harsh, we don't need to take it to that level. Let's just be friends.

I heard a story today about a chimpanzee that attacked a woman. This woman is now the first one in the United States to have a face transplant. Ok, let me just preface this by saying, this is a sad story and I kid because I love, not to be mean. That being said, "Really? Really?" We are living in a time in which the movie "Face Off" is finally a possibility? I was blissfully unaware that this might ever happen. Additionally, a chimp? Really? A chimp? That actually happened? You can have a chimp in your home? Also, a chimp is 200 lbs.? Apparently that chimp had to be stabbed and shot before it limped off and survived for awhile before succumbing to its wounds. I like to think of myself as a fairly educated person, but I must admit that I didn't realize that a chimp could get that big or strong. I guess that's because I don't spend a lot of time in the jungle or Connecticut. I can only assume that this chimp was angry because it had just seen "Bedtime for Bonzo" and was looking for a little revenge. I just don't know that I want to live in a world where I could be hanging out on the street one minute and being attacked by a chimp the next. Or a world in which it is possible to have John Travolta's face on Nick Cage's body. I'm not ready to accept that the future is now.

I'm going to ease back into the whole blogging thing. I think the key to life is moderation. I don't claim to practice moderation in general, but I've heard it's a good thing.

Who is Ready to be WOWED?

I'm all jazzed up. Not really. Actually, I'm pretty tired. I was going to start this blog entry with an apology for not posting lately. But then I remembered that apologizing is a sign of weakness. Sure, there are those that will tell you that it takes a strong person to admit they are wrong and apologize, but those people are wrong. They should apologize.

Anywho, I can't string together a long narrative that's all impressive and weaves together several key stories from the week in order to provide you with a cleverly conveyed impression of my life this lately. So I choose short random bits of information. Why? Because IT'S MY BLOG. Here at My Blog is Better Than Your Blog we do what we want! And by we, I mean the "royal we".

Ok, first, it's past my bedtime. If I am going to drive to Chicago tomorrow (as is the game plan) early in the morning, I should be asleep by now. My husband is going to sleep as I drive. I like to refer to Zach as my husband because a) He is and b) it's a fun word. It's like some weird rock group. The HUS Band is here everyone, let's give them a round of applause. Wow. Yeah, tired, did I mention that?

This week and last week and even the week before that have been BUSY. I know that I don't work your traditional 9-5 job. Actually, I don't really know anyone who works 9 - 5. It's usually some variation of that, but anyway, I don't work 9 - 5, but damn do I work a lot lately. A lot of my work involves thinking about things. When I type that out, "thinking about things", it doesn't sound like hard work. Surely, "lifting heavy objects" sounds like more work, but man after a day of thinking things, I am all worn out.

I think you know you aren't in the healthiest place in life if you start to teach personal hygiene as a reward/punishment. For example, the other night I actually had the following conversation with myself (in my head, I'm not that crazy...yet):

"Hey Rose, you did a lot of really good work today. You did so well that you don't have to brush your teeth or wash your face tonight."

"Really? Seriously? That sounds great."

And then I didn't brush my teeth or wash my face. To be honest, it was the best part of my day.

Someone was telling me the other day that they think blogs are stupid because it's just such an odd thing to basically have a diary on-line and blah, blah, who would have a blog? And I just sort of said, "uh...yeah".

I wanted to list out all the work I've done today and this week in general, but that just seems so soul-crushingly hard right now.

I've got a new favorite phrase that has worked its way into my vocabulary, "soul-crushingly..." I don't know where these phrases come from or why they stick around, but I tend to get a phrase or expression and then just work it to death. I can't help it.

Some past examples include: "freakshow", "uber" and "really?"

I think I have to go to bed now. I need to leave for Chicago tomorrow as we discussed at the beginning of this entry. Zach and I will most likely forget the camera and even if we do bring it we will then forget to take pictures of anything. I'll try to work up some drawings for you of our weekend next time I blog. Until then...take care of yourselves and each other.*



*I am 99% sure that this is the way that Jerry Springer ended his show for years. I'm not ashamed to think that I know that, but you're going to be ashamed if you can correct me.

First Impressions

I am 99% sure that I make a horrible first impression. I don't really set out to make an impression usually. I forget that meeting people for the first time means that they are judging you and determining if they will be your friend, tolerate you, call the cops, or on one memorable instance determine that they want to beat you up.* So I just say all the things I would normally say to people. Turns out my brand of humor is sort of an acquired taste. It's like beer or coffee or black tar heroin. At first you think, "damn, that's horrible, I'm not doing that again". But then after awhile you'd sell your first born child for it.

I say all this because I think I made a horrible first impression for someone recently. Well, that's perhaps giving me a more credit than I deserve. Let's just say "hypothetically" - wink, wink- that I met another person who was supposed to TA for the same class that I am TAing for...hypothetically. Let's also pretend that she said she couldn't take any of the morning sections which I also did not want to take. So let's just say for the sake of this story that I was sort of peeved about that when I first met her. I may or may not have determined that the best course of action upon meeting her was to use all of my "charm" in order to politely say hello in a way that most likely conveyed that I didn't really want to say hello. I also may or may not have then answered all subsequent questions with "yes" or "no" answers only. Except when I might have stated, "no, I've never TAed for this class before. I mean, I taught this class over the summer, but no, not TAed for it." Imagine my surprise then when I heard that she decided that she couldn't TA for the class at all and just dropped out of sight. Was it all me? I think that's giving me too much credit, but I do have a, how do you say, "strong" personality.

Now I get to TA for all the sections. Lucky me! That means I get to go make a stellar first impression for 6 separate classes of students. I've done 4 so far. So only two more to go. But I think my track record will show that I'm sort of like cheese or wine or Sean Connery, I only get better with age.

On a somewhat unrelated note, why do I take it so personally when their little eyes glaze over and they look bored? It's not me. I'm freaking fascinating. So why does it sort of pierce my heart a little bit each time? Oh well.

On a completely unrelated note. Z and I had our 6 month anniversary yesterday. I gave him some twigs which I assume could be turned into paper.**

*I don't consider that time my fault. I said something completely harmless and I was just kidding around and that dude decided that he wanted to beat me up. He honestly really did. My brother told him to just calm down and that I was joking and he said, "she doesn't know me well enough to joke around." Really, sir? Really? I don't know you well enough to make a joke? That's an attitude that's not going to get you very far in prison. I tell you that as a friend.

**I'm not going to make you work for that one. Your one year anniversary gift is paper. See? I'm saying that I gave him half of that. I gave him something that was on it's way to being...you know what never mind. Like it or don't. I can't care anymore.

I'm out.

Quality

I choose only to communicate in short bursts punctuated with dots. Some might call this "lazy" or "uncaring", but I call it "quality".

• Tomorrow is the first day of the new semester. Isn't that just super exciting? I know it excites me. I'm lying. LYING.
• It's kinda cold here. Not in the negative numbers, but cold nonetheless. It makes leaving the house a pain, but I did go on a walk today to try to exercise. My face was red when I came home, but so far all of my parts are still on my face, so I think it will be ok.
• I made pasta today with garlic and oil. Tomorrow I am making pasta with "tofu balls" and marinara. Who knows what wonders Wednesday will warrant?
• Zach said, "I like pasta, I won't get tired of it." We'll just see about that, Zach. We. will. just. see. about. that.
• I'm watching Nero Wolfe on DVD. Surprisingly, this is one show that Zach will actually watch with me. He basically hates all things "murder mystery", whereas I may be obsessed with them. But he really likes Nero Wolfe. He's just one big mystery wrapped in an enigma, covered in chocolate and topped with nuts.
  
• I didn't shower yesterday. I *think* I showered the day before, but I can't be sure. I have however showered today. It's just so cold and dry now, it's hard to make myself shower.
• Speaking of showering, which I am, this may fall under the category, "TMI", but I'm going to go for it anyway. Zach can go for a number of days without showering and he doesn't smell or look dirty or anything. I, on the other hand, look oily and dirty after 1 day of not showering AND if I use deodorant without aluminum (apparently, aluminum keeps you from sweating) which is made for men (because they don't seem to sell any for women) I will smell. SMELL. Like a just-hit-puberty-doesn't-know-any-better-boy. What the hell is the deal? Strong enough for a man, but not for my armpit smell. I would feel more embarrassed, but it just makes me angry. What is the deal? How is that fair? I shower all the time, but I guess we all know why now, don't we? Because otherwise I am a dirty smelly hippy. Ok, I'm not sure I qualify for hippy after not showering, but the first two I am on like flies on...me.
• My little bro is moving to Chicago. Apparently we siblings cannot get enough of the midwest. I think he just missed being within 232 miles of me. I get that. So many people feel that way.
• Cardinals vs. Steelers for the Superbowl. I don't really care, except that my family is rooting for the Cardinals and my husband's family is rooting for the Steelers. Zach and I get married and 6 months later our two family's teams are in the Superbowl, coincidence??? I think not. This is just further proof of the universe's orbit around me.
• I'm tired and my brain is sluggish. I'm going to work on that for future posts. Be excited. BE VERY EXCITED. USE ALL CAPS TO EXPRESS YOUR EXCITEMENT.
  

Set the Flamingo Free

Seriously. It's cold in Iowa too. I pretty much hate winter and everything cold. And water. And ice. And sleet. Snow, I hate snow. Negative temperatures, not cool. I don't know, I do like polar bears, but if it's them or me...I gotta go with me on this one.

Update Central, Population: You

First of all let's just get to my hair. I got a new haircut awhile back, but I'm just now showing you how awesome it is:


Nice, right? I know. I know.

I also promised updates about our trip to PA and I'm going to try to follow through with that. We had a hellish flight out of Cedar Rapids (Eastern Iowa Airport...serving all of Eastern Iowa...that's a lot of area for one super crappy little airport, it's amazing). I'm going to try to recap that for you, but I've told the story a lot now and it's getting old. But I always try to give my public what they want.

We were scheduled to fly out of Cedar Rapids at 11:30 AM on December 27 and arrive in Allentown, PA at 4:00 PM on December 27. We arrived in Philadelphia at 9:30 in the morning on December 28. So I guess that the airline sort of got us to where we kind of wanted to go, sort of around the time we wanted to go there. I mean, thanks guys! I could have driven to Allentown before I got there on the plane, but I wouldn't have spent nearly as much money so thanks for the opportunity to sit in the airport for a day and give you $800 for the privilege. Oh, and the extra $15 charge that you hit us with on the way home (also delayed, but not as much) for checking a bag? Double thanks for that! That was awesome.

So we got to the airport on the 27th at about 9:45 in the morning and had a breakfast sandwich and I took some motion sickness medicine (anti-, not pro-) and then we went through the friendly airport security (I'm being sarcastic, those people are not friendly, they are suspicious and angry and pushy people). We started waiting at the gate for our flight. No problem we thought. This is fine. Everything's fine. So we wait. And wait...and our flight time comes and goes and it then our connection flight time in Chicago comes and goes. So we go up to the desk and get booked on later flights so that when we do get to O'Hare we can get to somewhere else. They book us on a flight from O'hare to Washington Dulles and then from there to Allentown arriving at 11:30 PM. Not ideal. I'm not really digging getting on two planes let alone 3 and we were supposed to get in by 4:00PM, but whatever fine. So we sit down to wait some more. Then, miraculously we board. Ok, great! We're going! We'll get to O'hare and then we'll go to D.C. and then we'll be there. Better than nothing! So we sit. Hm...that's strange. Suddenly the stewardess, who was probably on her second day of the job, says, "Oh, oh no. Oh no, that's not good. Oh, that's very bad." Which is just as bad, if not worse, than when a hairdresser says, "oops". Then, Dingbat, gets on the loudspeaker and says, "Um...yeah, I just wanted to explain why I was acting so unprofessionally there. We were closing the door and it's so cold that a wire on the door snapped and so now the door won't close." Apparently that's bad. I'm no mechanic, but apparently you can't fly with the door to an airplane open. Don't ask me to explain, just trust me. So now the pilot comes out to apologize to the plane full of angry delayed passengers. He says that they don't have a mechanic at this airport because they contract in employees here, so they have to call the mechanic and he'll be there to fix it soon and then we can go. This turns out to be a lie. First of all, this is apparently the same mechanic that delayed us initially because there was something else wrong with the plane when it came in, so that's why we were waiting before. We all get off the plane. Now Zach and I are going to miss our next connection because the roads are now icy and apparently the mechanic lives in the middle of nowhere and can't get in very quickly, so he'll be there in like an hour or something. We get booked on another flight from Chicago to Allentown and we get put on standby for another flight that's leaving from Cedar Rapids to Chicago. We some how get on the other flight to Chicago. This is good because it's the last flight out to Chicago that we could get on until Monday morning. Bad news is, when we get to O'hare our flight to Allentown is cancelled and there are no more flights to Allentown until Monday morning. We wait in line at the customer service counter for 1.5 hours. This is not time well spent. Now we are tired, hungry, angry and disappointed. Some of us more than others...Z, I'm looking at you. We get up to the counter and Zach basically loses the plot*. He doesn't really yell, but he gets pretty pissy. The customer service agent stops speaking to him and only addresses me. We cannot get a flight to Allentown, but we can get a flight to Philadelphia at 6:00 in the morning on Sunday. We decide to go for this option because it is the only option we have. Using what I like to call "Good Cop Bad Cop" Zach and I get a super sweet hotel room for free. They were not giving out free vouchers for hotel rooms, they were giving out discounted room rates, but we were able to get a free room! I think it's because the customer service guy felt sorry that I was going to be dealing with Zach for the rest of the night and took pity on me. We catch a shuttle to the hotel. Here are some pictures of our suite. It was super nice. Really nice room. Too bad we were only in it for a few hours, but still.


Our bed, very nice, soft and big. I slept about 2 hours in it. Delightful. We had to wake up at 3:30 because we needed to get to the airport to catch the 6 AM flight.





We went to dinner at Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse. It was expensive, but really nice. We felt we deserved it. Then we went back to the hotel, showered and went to bed. I didn't really sleep because apparently whenever I only have a few hours to sleep I wake up every 20 minutes in order to check how much more time I have to sleep. Long story short. We made the flight on Sunday morning and got picked up in Philadelphia. Basically it took us 12 hours to get to Chicago. We could have driven to Chicago, forgotten something, driven back to Iowa City, then driven back to Chicago in the time it took us to get there on Saturday and it wasn't even our final destination. AWESOME!

Anyway, we finally got into PA, got to the in-laws and partied hard. It was a good week. I was going to write out all the notes that Zach took from the time there, but I took way, way too much time to tell this plane story, so I'm going to just say that we had a good time. We visited with friends and family, ate a lot, drank a lot, went on a tour of historical Bethlehem, walked to New Jersey and then back to PA in one day (see pictures below) and had a baby.


We didn't want to say anything, but Zach was pregnant and now we have this beautiful baby. Not really. Although it would explain the weight gain, eh Zach? I can't talk. It looks like I've been pregnant for about 5 years now. Stupid winter weight gain! That's actually Zach's cousin's baby. The first boy born on that side of the family since Zach was born. He's super cute. I'm going to use this picture for our Christmas card next year because it makes us look like we've got a nice little family unit going.

Ok, so anyway, to recap. Flying - sucks. Airports-suck. Traveling- sucks. Seeing family and friends - Awesome. Learning about history- Awesome. Holding babies that you can give back when they get cranky and not having to pay for them and raise them for 18 years - Priceless.

Happy New Year to you all from your favorite couple:


(Taken on New Year's day. Our first New Year as a married couple. GO US!)



*This is a British slang term that means "throws a fit". I love it and want to make it popular across the pond here.

Updates are coming, I promise

Hello Loyal Readers,

Tonight I bring you the promise of updates to come. It's somehow not as satisfying as the actual updates, but it gets you closer- it's like no-calorie sweetener. It sort of does the job, but you miss the actual sugar. Don't lie, you know original Coke is better than Coke Zero. But you know that Coke Zero is better for you. I'm honestly not sure where I am going with this metaphor. I've completely lost control of it. I'm like Bugs Bunny on the way to Pismo Beach, I should have taken the right turn at Albuquerque.*

Anyway, I came back to the "real world" on Sunday, but I haven't been willing to sit down and blog about all our adventures in PA yet. It's coming though, my awesome husband took notes on the trip, so I am totally prepared to give you a blow-by-blow of what we did on our vacation. I'll start with the "Great Airline Fiasco of 2008". It rivals even the "Great Airline Fiasco of 2007". Apparently, the universe does not want me to travel any where for the holidays. There are those that will say, "that's what you get for living in the midwest." To those people I say, "go to hell". The airlines should adopt the policy of the U.S. Postal Service - through rain or shine or dark of night...or snow, or ice or mechanical failure...just get me there! I paid you damn it, hold up your end of the bargain. But wait, I don't want to spoil it for you.

So I will post, and soon, because as many of you know my new year starts in two days on the 10th. That's really when I like to celebrate the new year.

Until we meet again,
Rose


*Serious extra points to those of you keeping score at home for getting that reference.**

**Extra points for enjoying it.***

***Can you footnote a footnote? Is that allowed? It should be if it isn't.