Jekyll and Hyde

My sister gets unnecessarily frustrated with people and life in general sometimes. When she does her explanations are often humorous. Earlier today she came out with something along the lines of:
You know those people who are always cracking jokes, having a good time, playing sports? You know them... the happy ones.

One of things she gets angered about is other people's happiness, which I can get. But here is the thing, I was that happy-go-lucky athlete in high school. So you may not find it surprising that her aggravation is often delivered towards me. Our friends think we a re both mean to each other. We both think we get along pretty well. All siblings bicker right?

SO in my attempt to become one of them again; I present to you a list of things that make me happy/keep me sane!


HAPPY SANE LIST:

1. Refreshing beverages

2. Relaxing with some good tunes

3. The Rubbermaid bin that has been converted into an ice bath for my feet. It sits in front of the living room couch!(I know another stroke of genius)

4. Fresh flowers

5. Board Games


What does it for you?

Tim Travels the Distance

So I guess I want to provide a little more background into why I started a blog. I have a couple of family members who blog as well, and it helps me to keep up to date with their lives, without having to see or talk to them all the time. Wow, that sounds terrible. I am in no way opposed to talking with or spending time with my family; hell I just moved in with my sister. But, as you probably know, things aren't usually that easy to schedule. Especially when your family lives a 7-8 hour drive away, and you don't own a vehicle. So ya, if you are still on track, blogging or rather frequenting my family's blogs has helped me to stay in the loop.

My aunt Alison's blog Party of 3 provides hilarious stories about her life with my two cousins aged seven and ten. She somewhat recently posted about her older daughter finding a spider in the basement and naming him Tim. I suggest you read the aforementioned post and some of her others as well, you'll be in stitches.

So after that somewhat lengthy and unplanned plug, I'll get to the point. Big and terrifying Tim came to live in my room. We aren't/weren't friends, unless my sheer terror came across as friendly..? One morning I woke up and there was a pretty big spider on my wall. I cowered and shook in the corner on my bed for a bit before deciding I couldn't stay in the room. My somewhat faltered logic suggested that I grab everything I need and close the door. Hopefully by the time I got home Tim would be gone.

That evening when I went home I checked my room and Tim appeared to be gone. I was still somewhat frightened, and with good reason. I wake up the next morning and he's back(same Tim, or otherwise his identical twin). This time Tim is low enough on the wall that I decide to be extra brave and attack. I grabbed a sturdy shoe and slowly advanced. I get close and swing, WHAM! my shoe hits the wall and Tim jumps. Yep, Tim is a jumping spider and I am shaking and doing some sort of seizure dance. I sleep on the couch. I know super lame. But honestly, tell me that eight legs aren't too many. The extra two legs increase the creepy crawly quotient by a significant amount. I can handle flies and ants, fish, frogs, and snakes, just not spiders, squid, or anything with lots of, frankly unnecessary, appendages.

Sorry, off on a tangent again. Before I curled up on the couch, I made sure to open my window extra wide, hoping Tim would here the call of the wild and leave in what I can only assume was the way he entered.

IT WORKED!! I am, in fact, on occasion, a genius. The morning after I slept on the couch I noticed Tim was outside my bedroom window. I promptly slammed my windows shut and am somewhat embarrassed to admit I haven't opened them since. I can't bring myself to risk the return of Tim.

This morning, my sister asked to sleep in my room because having the windows open makes it cooler at night. I don't know how to respond. She is totally welcome to sleep there, but Tim was a pretty traumatic experience. It might take years off my life if it happens again.

P.S If you are feeling courageous, look up the bold jumping spider and you will have a better understanding of how scary Tim really was.

This could be a low budget slasher film

One of the things I like to do in a new place is to get my bearings as soon as possible. Learn bus routes, major hubs, street names, places to go etc. You get the idea. Well yesterday, late afternoon/early evening I ended up a little bit frazzled. I got a call just before 5 pm for an interview at 6:30, that is correct about an hour and a half prep time not including travel. Awesome! So i ran around my house got ready figured out where I had to go and set out the door.

Evening buses only run once every hour here, so I found myself way earlier than necessary. I also found myself in what appeared to be the warehouse district. I was a little unnerved but made my way down the street looking for somewhere to kill a bit of time. No surprise there wasn't a whole lot around so I sat down at a closed for the night chip stand in unfamiliar territory. I was just hoping that the interview wasn't too traumatizing. The posting wasn't overly descriptive.

It was starting to rain lightly and I made my way back to the interview even though I knew I would still be pretty early. I walked in, sat down, and filled out the application. There were a handful of other people there too, and the interview ended up being one-on-two. It was a pretty basic interview and i knew I had it. Always a good feeling. So today, Friday and Saturday I have my training.

What is this new job I have you might ask? I am a knife salesperson. And I think this could end up working out really well for me. It is super flexible (important because it means Bluesfest will be no problem). The money is pretty good too.

So, if you find yourself in need of some high quality kitchen knives or gardening tools, talk to me. I'll see what we can figure out.

Cheers!