OLD POST: Struggles, Take 2

So, I am cleaning out some things on my blog and changing a few other things.  Through this process, I've come across a few old posts that are super interesting to look back on.  Here's the first that I found that was originally drafted at the end of February 2010...

**********

Ugh.  I REALLY need to get my tookus in gear and finish this paper.
But I can't.
It's not like the "I can't because I'm so not interested" or the "Why is this 20 pages?"
Thing is, this isn't a long paper, nor is it difficult.  I know what I need to say and I'm actually looking forward to it.


But I'm distracted.


And excited.


And scared.


You see, we put in an offer on a house Friday night and it was accepted on Saturday evening.
It's so very GROWN UP.  But we've had a wonderful realtor who has explained everysinglething and has been oh-so-patient.  I'm excited for a new chapter in our lives.  But I'm also scared for the dumbest and most inexplicable reasons.  Like, where will I find a couch?  And what if Wren doesn't see his doggy best friends any more?  Or how about the more serious (though far-flung) ideas that race through my head: what if we have an intruder?  what if I get mugged walking Wren?  what if our neighbors are terrorists (like my BFF's run-in)?


And then I have to yell STOP! in my own head.  Because these ridiculous questions aren't things I'm scared of in a new place.  They are things I'm scared of everywhere.  But I refuse to live my life in fear of what may happen.


**********


And now, 7 months later, I'm still procrastinating.  Ha!  Though that's not surprising me in the least.  I've been a procrastinator since I was 12.

What HAS changed, however, is that being "grown up" isn't so scary.  The beginning of things are always nerve-wracking and the ends are usually sad.  But right now, being in the middle of home ownership and adulthood, things are mostly really good.  7 months ago I had NO idea that we'd have such amazing neighbors or that we'd have to replace part of a basement wall or that we'd have a 2nd pooch to fill our house with loooove.  And so far, no intruders (though there was an incident with a broom in the basement which scared the ba-jesus out of me!) or muggings or crazy neighbors.  :)

Big Guy sure does take care of us!

EXCITED!

I'd like to welcome one lovely Griffin, and her momma McV and pops to the fabulous world of familyhood.  I know McV and her hubs have been a family for awhile now, but really, adding a 4-legged kid to the mix is awesome.

Puppy play date soon???  :)

p.s. Wren (Wrendog, Bubba) and Sammy (Sam, Sammer, Smammy) can't wait to meet Griffin (and have their mother make up ridiculous nicknames for her too)!

Day Seven: Four turn offs

1. Olives.  Olive-flavored breath.  Olive chunks.  But not olive oil.  Love that stuff.

2. Brett Favre.  And I used to LOVE him.  I'm sorry, but anyone who goes on television and cries about how they are retiring and how much their career has meant to them but how it's time to be a family-man (or woman) and then NOT retire is not cool.  Anyone who does this five bajillion times is REALLY not cool.

3. Dirt under fingernails.  It even grosses me out when it's my own nails and I think "eeeeew, I hope no one sees!!"

4. Cursing.  Again, I do this too much.  It's good (but maybe bad too) that two of the four things on this list are turn-offs for me and yet I do (have?) them.  Should work on that...

Day Six: Five People Who Mean A Lot

*Post-edit:  I clearly meant day six, and not day four again.

Well, because I can't pick five people from my personal life (it would be too hard!), I'll pick five people from elsewhere:

1. Jon Stewart.  A (kind of bitter) W&M Alum, leading the Rally to Restore Sanity on October 30.  I'm going.

2. Natty Boh.  Not really a person, per se, but an icon.  And oh how I miss him winking his coy little wink at me every night.  Plus, he was part of the cutest advertisement I've ever seen:

(That's Natty Boh proposing to the Utz girl, for all of you non-Baltimore-fanatics out there.)

3. Sally Duff, who tortured me in grad school experience numero uno at Hopkins, but also happened to develop truly seminal standards for science education.  She's like a AAAS goddess.  I hope she's still out there torturing young teachers into submission and science prowess.

4. The person who invented stain-repellent fabric for furniture.  Because with two hairy-messy beastchildren, it's really really important.  Thank you, sir (or madame).

5. Scott Crabbs at the W&M Alumni House.  Because he gave us not one, but two engraved bricks.  Well, it was all a mix-up actually, but it meant that one was put in the patio at W&M and we have one sitting in our living room.  It reminds me of Hubster, our wedding day and our wonderful alma mater on a daily basis.


Maybe I also should have mentioned some of the people who have written the peer-reviewed articles I will be looking at for the next umpteen hours while I work on thesis goodness.  They do mean a lot to me right now.  I just don't like them all that much...