Well now I'm playin' with the big kids.

Tonight I finally decided to sign up for a site meter. I had been on the fence about this because do I really want to know how many people look at my site? If I know how many people are reading, will I then feel pressure to have to perform? I guess my curiosity won out. So no more hiding, lurkers. And I guess this means I have to accept the fact that when I'm unemployed, I am obsessive about checking the blogs on my list. Which I suppose could make me look like a stalker. Hmmmm.

I'm gonna' need an activity intervention when this is over.

I have figured out something that, were it not for the subject matter, would be downright embarrasing. Ok, even with the subject matter, it's still embarrasing. I figured out that I am watching somewhere in the vicinity of 10 hours a day of Olympics. My friend says I am in the throes of an OVERDOSE. I'm not arguing. I just can't help myself.

Good timing to be laid up with a pulled muscle in my back, huh?

I just finished watching the MOST exciting men's hockey game EVER - USA vs. Latvia. Phew - I thought I was going to hyperventilate by the time it was over. I won't do any spoilers in case there's anyone out there who wants to see it and hasn't, but suffice it to say: in the hockey game of Life, I want THIS MAN as my goalie.

I realize that is probably one of the worst and cheeziest analogies ever. I think all this Olympic-induced TV watching is truly rotting my brain. I may just need to read something super cerebral after the games are over. Any suggestions?

Crashes and wipeouts and mistakes galore!

It's a bad day to be competing in the single women's luge. Also not a great day to be a woman downhill skiier. Yikes! It makes me glad I'm not really even slightly athletic (oh, I'm an amazing skater in my head).

I am feeling better this morning, as in I'm actually able to move, although something still feels pinched down into the top of my right leg. I hope I can avoid going to the doctor (it's the money, or should I say lack thereof?).

Newfound empathy...

...for people with back pain.

I bent over (at the waist, naughty) to pick up the cat this morning. My cat is NOT heavy, probably somewhere in the vicinity of 8 pounds, probably less. Well, as I was straightening up, I felt something pop/burst in my lower back and had IMMEDIATE ACUTE WHITE HOT PAIN!

I have spent the rest of the day laying on the couch in my pajams, icing my back, requiring help to even go to the bathroom.

A few months ago, I was rollerblading on the beach and did one of those almost fall moves, where you lean forward and then snap back to catch your balance...well, that's when my lower right back initially got tweaked. I consulted with my sister, a physical therapist, who suggested ICE IMMEDIATELY. Which I did, and the pain went away.

Then, with packing and moving boxes, it has flared up again. Well, now I can hardly even move without sounding like someone is runing me through with a butcher knife. And I don't think it's a good sign that the pain is radiating down into my butt.

I'll be calling doctor's offices first thing in the morning and update when there's something to update about. Hopefully I'll be given DRUGS! DRUGS! DRUGS! Why did this have to happen on a Sunday?!? At least there's been Olympics on TV for me to be occupied with.

So sad it's heartbreaking.

Michelle Kwan has withdrawn from the Olympics.

This is just so sad. I mean I'm glad she's not going to end up skating terribly and go out that way, but the whole thing just seems so unfair. She was supposed to go out on top. Sigh.

Does it make me an evil person if I hope that Sasha Cohen doesn't even medal?!?

Oh, our ladies ROCK!

I'm watching our ladies hockey team RIP the Swiss team a new ass! With a 5 on 3 disadvantage, we STILL scored!!! The only bit that's a little disconcerting is that our ladies seem to be a bit penalty happy. I hope they can keep the shoving to a minimum to get through to the medal rounds.

Because I'm an Olympics junkie, I watched NBC's re-airing of the opening ceremonies last night. Mostly I just wanted to see our athletes. And my, oh my, wasn't Bode Miller just looking cool as a cucumber? He's such a cool kat. I think it's about time that Bob Costas went to greener pastures. I mean I know you can't have network coverage of the Olympics without Mr. Bob, but last night he really pissed me off. He said something to the effect of: 'most of these athletes don't really have a shot in hell of getting a medal, so the opening ceremonies is the only time they have to really shine'. See, BOB, the thing is, that's just MEAN. I know there are lots of longshots, but that's what makes the Olympics so exciting - the possibility of the unknowns and longshots making it! That's the beautiful thing about the Olympics. And BOB, you are just full of mean beans.

In other news, I spent a good 1/2 hour last night trying to figure out how to change my location city on my site's description. Obviously, I lost patience with trying to figure it out. But yes, I do realize that it needs to be changed. I also know that I need to update my blogroll. Sigh. I'll get to it eventually.

I love my cable!

So apparently living this close to Canada nets you a Canadian cable channel...which just so happens to be broadcasting the opening ceremonies of the OLYMPICS L-I-V-E!!!

I am sooooo stoked. And "stoked" isn't even a word I've ever used. I should just warn you all now: I am an Olmpics freak. These next 2+ weeks will be entirely filled with Olympics. I am watching absolutely every single event that is shown. And maybe with this cool Canadian cable channel, I'll get to watch stuff LIVE, instead of hours later when you can go and find out results online, which is totally not cool.

Finally: the 4 Things Meme

Heather: I didn't forget!

Four jobs you have had:
*Editor at my undergrad’s writing center
*Law clerk
*secretary/receptionist at a chemical company outside Chicago (thank you, temp agency)
*sales assistant at Southern Living magazine in Chicago, which was by far the coolest job I’ve ever had - my boss had a liquor cabinet in his office and we had happy hour every Friday afternoon. It was awesome. Plus I had lots of free time, so I got paid to surf the internet.

Four movies you could watch over and over:
*the remake of the Thomas Crowne Affair (hot hot hot)
*When Harry Met Sally
*Love Actually
*Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Four places you've lived:
*Alpena, Michigan
*Ogden, Utah
*Marshall, Minnesota
*Valparaiso, Indiana

Four TV shows you love to watch:
*Grey’s Anatomy
*Boston Legal (love me some James Spader)
*America’s Test Kitchen from Cook’s Illustrated (yes, I love PBS)
*Sex and the City (except now I can watch it unedited and uncut WHENEVER I want! HA!)

Four places you've been on vacation:
*Ojai, California
*Florence, Italy (favorite city)
*Norway (in high school my parents & I went all over the Southern half of the country - my dad is Norweigan.)
*Park City, Utah (AWESOME skiing)

Four of your favorite foods:
*Broccoli (yes, seriously)
*Mashed Potatoes
*Oranges (does orange juice count?)
*Wham (it’s a faux lunch meat product made by Worthington Foods and it’s DAMN good, so no mocking!)

Four places you'd rather be right now:
*In Wisconsin with my sister & niece & nephew
*Skiing in Utah (best snow on earth, yo, seriously)
*Chicago
*Does “Employed” count?

Four sites I visit daily: (only 4?!?)
*CNN
*Go Fug Yourself
*Defamer
*all the blogs I read

Four Bloggers you are tagging:
*Ms. 1,000 Words
*Cari G
*Ms. Utopaforia
*and: anyone who hasn’t already done this?

HOO HAH!

WE NOW HAVE INTERNET! AND WE NOW HAVE TV! YAY FOR CABLE!

Of course, we don't get our phone until the 17th. Why? I have NO idea. But whatever, we at least have TV and the internet!

I have lots to say, but I can't because we got this super duper deal on cable where we have just about every channel (not the movie channels), and I have been completely SUCKED into a marathon of Project Runway for the entire afternoon. I was even planning to make myself my birthday cake (albeit a bit late!) today (an angel food cake, from scratch yo), but I can't TEAR myself away from the design mayhem! It's just fantastic. I can hardly break away for food and drink.

So kids, I'll write more later. Maybe I'll liveblog the grammy's. We'll see.

Back in action...sort of

I'm up here in Washington! We arrived today after 2 1/3 days of driving. I was totally planning to do one of those "I'm on my way" sort of posts, but our internet got disconnected way earlier than I thought it was going to. And then I couldn't ever blog from the hotel at night b/c we stayed at ghetto-ass Motel 6's, because they accept pets. And right now I'm scamming one of my new neighbor's internet connection, even though it's super slow and sucky.

Comcast is supposed to come and give us a phone, cable, and internet at some point, but the cell phone kept cutting Husband off right when the Comcast people were about to tell him what day/time. So it'll be a fun little surprise whenever they get here.

Our stuff is supposed to get here Saturday morning, and I can't wait to get everything organized and set up. Oh, and I'm totally doing laundry right now and it's F-U-N!!!

K, we gotta' go grocery shopping. We dropped $300 at Target this afternoon, which was WAY FUN. I got some super fun cleaning stuff and other goodies. Oh, and there was a fire at another one of the buildings this evening. Fun times!

I'll post all about our trip up here and moving in as soon as Comcast sets us up.

all ready to go

I am done! Everything is packed and ready to go for 9:00 am tomorrow morning. I can't believe it's all really happening tomorrow.!. Even though I checked all the cupboards and closets and everywhere, I have this nagging feeling that tomorrow after the movers come, I'll discover a treasure trove of shit I forgot to pack. And if that happens, I'm going to just THROW IT ALL AWAY.

I am incredibly tired, and I think I'm going to go to bed. Everything aches.

oh. just oh.

Apparently I decided to have 37 beers last night.

And my head feels like it was in a soccer match.

Happy birthday to me.!.

Husband reports I was a fun, happy drunk but not really functioning by the end of the night. And you should see the pictures. We met these two Australian guys who had just flown in yesterday and came straight to the pub, and apparently I invited them over today (with beer)...which will be tricky if they actually show up given that we've got to finish up packing because the movers are coming TOMORROW MORNING.

Yes, I invited two random Australian guys from the pub (we were at a British pub) over. It was just a lovefest last night.

And I just want to know, how long does Tylenol take to kick in? Seriously. I think I'm going to go eat a piece of bread.


UPDATE: finishing up packing completely SUCKS when you're hungover. Ohmygod. I just want to feel human again and I don't even care about packing my crap anymore. Ugh.

My Husband R-O-C-K-S!!!

I decided to start celebrating my birthday this evening...I call it: birthday eve!

So, wanna' know why Husband has won himself a years' worth of brownie points?

He got me the COMPLETE Sex and the City set for my birthday! HA! I'm in SATC heaven! It's an orgy of SATC episodes tonight! It's just fabulous.

I still can't get over it. I own the complete Sex and the City. How much do I rock?!?

Tomorrow for my birthday the plans include: going to my favorite breakfast joint for the best belgium waffle in town; going to the beach to bake myself silly; going to our favorite Italian restaurant for dinner; going to this awesome British pub in Santa Monica for awesome beer on tap. Of course, "breakfast" is relative considering I'll probably be staying up all night watching my AWESOME new birthday present. 'Cuz that's how I roll. Yeah.

Going on STRIKE

I didn't pack anything today. I had ENOUGH. I just couldn't take any more boxes or packing tape so I decided to go on strike and give myself a break. I still think I'll make my goal of being done tomorrow, so it's all good.

I am incredibly exhausted. I think all the stress from moving is finally hitting me. I'm just ready for it to be done already.

Oh, it seems my brain has gone to bed ahead of my body. I think I'm going to follow my brain.

Hey genius...

TIP: when packing your kitchen, be sure to make sure you've taken all tupperware containers out of the refridgerator first.

I tackled the kitchen tonight, and just when I thought I was pretty much done I opened the refrigerator and saw 4 tupperware containers staring back at me. And here I thought I was done with the kitchen. Grrr.

I now have 40 boxes packed. FORTY. That's right, I've been busy, bitches! And I've been rockin' out while packing to good ol' classic '80's tunes. Nothing like a little Madonna and Duran Duran to make packing fun.

Those are tears of HAPPINESS.

Right now I am doing the last 2 loads of laundry: (1) in a community laundry room; and (2) where the machines require quarters to run.

Why is that, you ask? BECAUSE MY NEW APARTMENT HAS ITS OWN WASHER AND DRYER. HOORAY!

I didn't want to do any more laundry, but I had to do just enough to get us through to next week...where I will be able to do laundry WHENEVER I want without having to get QUARTERS or racing other people to the laundry room. HA HA HA HA HA!

This fills me with glee.

5 days and counting...

Well, things are starting to feel like warp speed.

I have successfully hired movers and coerced Husband into posting a few things we want to sell on Craigslist. The Craigslist items include my car. I don't want to drive it up to Washington without a side mirror and with the plates expiring, and we don't want to pay $500 to have the movers ship it. And the insurance company is just being a pain the rear - I called them yesterday and they said they'd try to have somebody come out by the end of the week. I told them we're moving on MONDAY, but they of course don't really care. Hopefully we can sell the car so we don't have figure out what we're going to do with it.

I still have lots of packing to do, but it's coming together nicely. I'm less than amused by how packing boxes is like playing Tetris in real life. And I've got lots of experience with moving, having done quite a lot of it growing up (no, my dad's not in the military, but is a pastor).

Oh, and Miss Eve, yes this move is happening quite quickly - from decision to packing. We knew we wanted to leave California (especially LA), and once we settled on a place I knew it would be a quick move. Once we got up to the Seattle area, we kind of knew immediately that it was a good fit for us. I'm the type where once I know what's going to happen, let's make it happen NOW. I'm really excited to get up there and settled in...and organizing everything in our new place.

Ok, got to get back to packing. Yes, Heather, I saw that you tagged me for that meme, and I'll do it but probably not until after we move. And for those of you emailing me wanting to know more info, I'm going to respond...just probably after the move, as well.

Why my expiring plates may not be an issue...

I walked out to my car this morning, all ready to run errands (which included a trip to Ikea, always a fun time). As I walk towards my car, parked on the street, I notice a side mirror laying on the side of the street.

Then I walk around to get into my car and discover that THE ENTIRE DRIVER'S SIDE OF MY CAR HAS BEEN SLAMMED, BUMPER TO BUMPER.

My side mirror is now just hanging from the side of my car, the actual mirror piece entirely gone.

The trim from both the doors is LAYING IN PIECES ON THE STREET.

When I say that the entire side of my car is destroyed, I mean the entire side is dented. And I'm fairly sure it was a silver car that destroyed mine, because there are huge patches and scratches of silver on my car, from bumper to bumper.

EVEN MY FRONT WHEEL COVER IS CRACKED. CRACKED. How fast was this asshole driving to CRACK my wheel cover?!?

And what makes this even more outrageous is that this asshole didn't even leave a note. NOTHING. Destroy my car and run, bitch. This happened sometime between 8:30 last night and noon today. Both Husband & I are convinced it was a drunk driver that swerved into my car and then kept going.

And get this: no other cars were touched, JUST MINE. Talk about shit luck.

Depending on what the insurance offers, it may not even be worth it to get my car fixed. So we may not even have figure out what to do about my expiring plates.

I still can't believe my car was sideswiped. At least the asshole's car got destroyed, too.



* * *
In other news, I packed 10 boxes tonight. I got these great file boxes from Staples and Trader Joe's gave me 10 wine boxes, with the dividers still in them. I packed all our wine glasses, and the rest of the dividers will be excellent as dividers between plates and bowls.

I need boxes NOW, not on Friday!

I couldn't get out of bed to get to Target. My bed & pillows were just so comfy after the crap hotel pillows.

I had this great idea of ordering boxes & packing supplies online, so it would be cheaper. However, because today is Sunday and apparently all box wholesalers are on the East coast, I wouldn't get anything until Thursday or Friday. I can't wait to start packing until Friday! I need to start packing NOW.

Of course all this hinges on a moving company being able to come on the 30th, which is when we need to have our crap out because the final walk-through is on the 31st. And our move-in date is February 2.

There's also another potential problem: my plates expire this month, and since we're moving there's NO point in renewing them here in California. But do I really want to risk driving through Oregon and Washington with expired plates? Or do I pay the moving company to ship my car and then just register it when we get to Washington? Augh! I'm starting to feel completely overwhelmed!

I'm going to go search out boxes. And damn it, I'd better be able to find some today! I need to start packing!

(Now would be the time to send me calming words of wisdom.)

can't sleep...too much to do...

I've got so much going on in my head I'm a little worried this post will come out psychophrenic.

In fact, I'm so scattered I'm not sure I can even commit to writing a real post.

Suffice it to say:

*The packing madness has begun.

*I've become a box whore. Tomorrow at 8:00 am I'm going to Target to get boxes and then at noon to the liquor store to get boxes.

*I've been consumed with making lists. Really, it's the only way to be truly organized. But I've been having trouble sleeping because I keep thinking of everything I need to do. Of course the absolutely craptastic excuse for pillows at the hotel were probably also to blame.

*I got home and had 18 messages on my answering machine from moving companies.

*Tomorrow I'm going to Ikea to get those fabulous, cheap magazine storage holders. Gotta' preserve my Real Simple and Martha Stewart Living.

*Husband brought the cat home from the sitter. He's looking a little pissed at having gone from a 3 bedroom house back to a 1 bedroom apartment. Of course in just 2 weeks, we'll be upgrading to a 2 bedroom apartment, and his royal fuzzy highness will get lots of space.

*I think I'm stressed about getting everything done...my nails are starting to look like they're in a war.

*I was reading some tips on moving with pets, and came across several suggestiong to get a cat a harness & leash, so the cat doesn't run away. At Target tonight I got the cat a harness and leash. I put it on, just to get him adjusted to it, and WOWEE, I've never seen a cat jump and thrash around like that! I think it's safe to say that he HATES the harness and this may be turn out to be completely and entirely unsuccessful.

*Tonight at Target I bought a bottle of wine. As I was checking out, the cashier looked at my license and said "Happy Birthday on Saturday!". And my initial reaction was to SHUDDER. Holy crap, my birthday is a week from today. It doesn't even feel like my birthday is in a week. And since we'll be packing and about to move, there won't be much celebration. I think I'm pretty okay with that, though, because I'm not sure I want to turn 27. I was suppose to have my life all figured out at age 27.

I think I need a glass of wine.