My Internet Shy Best Friend

Usually if I'm using the word "internet" with the phrase "best friend", I'm referring to my good old pal Google.

Google certainly isn't internet shy, so I'm not talking about this best friend.

This time, I'm talking about one of my best friends, Top. We grew up together in the same church in Chicago, and we even attended the same college. She moved to New York City in 2009, and it's been a while since she's spent any real time in Chicago.

But she's in town and she'll be here for the whole weekend. I'm really excited. Like this excited.

Definitely at least this excited

Of course, this is the weekend I work every day except Sunday. I literally work Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. I have a very limited window in which to enjoy the Labor Day weekend. I guess what better way to celebrate than to work, right? Nah, that's just more like the definition of irony.

Definitely at least this ironic

So I do at least have Sunday off. I will be spending a good chunk of that day with Top. She's having a going away party that day. It's more of a she-moved-away-two-years-ago-but-now-she's-definitely-staying-there-and-not-here-so-let's-send-her-off-properly party. I've been asked to tend the bar, which is awesome, so I'll be there helping people tie bells on!

I'm sure by now you're wondering why I call Top internet shy. Well, she's not on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media. I do have an entire day dedicated to her love life on my other blog, but I keep it all very vague. And she doesn't like her picture up. I can't even use her picture in my wedding blog. Yeah, I have a lot of blogs; get over it and get back on topic.

My one photo pass for her is I can put up photos with her in them from the actual wedding day. So how is she depicted in my blogs til then?

Tip Top Tuesday icon

It shows Top, how her hair was when I first started the blog, on top of the world and about her business in NYC. I love this pic and I took a lot of time to make it playing with the Microsoft clipart and Paint.

How do you handle friends that are internet shy? Do you just leave entire sections of photos out of your Facebook albums?

Are you missing any great friends you don't get to see that often?

My Home Is My Castle

I don't strut around as if I'm running things in the place, but I do feel like royalty in my home. Taking steps to make our new apartment special and cozy is becoming a fun and accidentally long-term project. I thought it would be like when I've moved into previous apartments; I'd have everything unpacked in one weekend.

I wrote a post recently about settling into my new apartment.

Since then, we've been slowly but surely turning it into home. Our big bedroom still isn't unpacked. And it seems to be getting worse not better. So now our thing is to figure out how to prioritize our home. Things as simple as vacuuming don't happen like they should. We're not home enough for it to matter, but our shedding cat makes it more important.

If I'm only home sleeping between shifts and Easy is only home taking a nap between his day job and his night gigs, when it is supposed to get done?

Here are our options:

I Could Become A Housewife
I do have a penchant for wearing A-line skirts that have a lot o' fabric. And I bake a mean casserole. Perhaps I could give up my job and stay home like the little lady I could be. I would pick up after my man and have a piping hot dinner and a perfectly chilled martini waiting for him when he got home from work.

Wait, our collective annual salary is just over 100K. I'm not giving that up just so our one area rug gets vacuumed.

Image via Photobucket

We Could Get A Maid
A Maid who we paid to come in a clean the blinds, mop the floors, wash the clothes, and of course vacuum would be lovely!

We would give her bonuses at Christmas. And I feel very strongly about this, so we'd give her something toward medical insurance. It's be great. Maybe she'd be very traditional, wearing one of those maid outfits. Oh wait. Hell no.

Image via Fun House Theatrical

We Could Get Rid Of ALL Our Stuff
Why finish unpacking? We can't take all our stuff to New York anyway. Plus, we're registering for more stuff for the wedding. We need to downsize. I wouldn't want to do a yard sale because there's no way to make that happen realistically out of an apartment in crowded Hyde Park in Chicago.

There is another way...

Image via WizBangBlog

Eh, that might get us in trouble with the law. I'm pretty sure Chicago's fire code doesn't allow that...


So what shall we do? I guess we'll have to grow the hell up and make time to keep our home feeling like the castle it could be.


Image via CTRiverValley.com

 Or maybe I'll just keep repeating, "my home is my castle" until it magically comes true. Where is a fairy godmother when you need one?

Remembering How To Live Life

In the two weeks since I've started working, the adjustment has been to working nights, having demands on my time, and not being able to do every thing I wanted at the time I first wanted to.

But there is a new world emerging (now that I"m getting used to working nights). In this new world, I have to schedule things. Sure, there's less spontaneity, but there's also more resources.

As I inch closer to the weight ceiling I'm allowing myself, I worry that I won't get back to yoga before I cross that line. But I have a resource for that. My workplace has a pretty nice workout room. We have 24/7 free access to it. I packed up my workout bag and got myself a locker. Friday morning when I got off work, I went to the room and got back on the exercise bandwagon. I want to be fit and healthy, and right now I feel like I have more control over that situation.

As my friends plan events, I can't go to all of them, but I can go to some. And starting next Friday, I'll actually be able to fund my time out. Having my own spending money is something I had forgotten about. Well, I didn't forget, I just tried not to think about it because it wasn't a part of my happy place.

And vacations, oh vacations. Easy and I plan to go to NYC this summer, and I think we may just be able to pull it off!

Having my hobbies and travels and friends were important to me before. They kept me sane when I felt directionless for a year. But now they are an integral part of my life that keep my life full of more than just my job. So far, I love my job, but I'm also loving starting to plan for the days I don't have to work. And since it's summer, the plans are going to be quite interesting. If I have any say, it will be very interesting.

The GRE Is Approaching Fast

I'm a good test taker, so I figured I wouldn't need a whole bunch of time to prep for the GRE. I took a practice test and wasn't too freaked out, so I went ahead and registered for the test. But now that it's next Wednesday, it seems so soon.

I'm not exactly freaking out, but I do wish I had more time. It feels like a lot of things are happening. When I spent the last year sort of floating out there not knowing which direction was the best to go, now things are feeling two steps under overwhelming. They're just whelming I guess.

But I am looking forward to having that step done. The types of grad programs I'm interested in do take MCAT scores, but mine are so freaking old, I have to take the GRE. I am just glad I'll have this step done next week.

I'll walk out of the testing center with a good score (hopefully!) and one less thing to worry about next year when it's time to apply for grad school. Easy feels very strongly that New York is where he wants to go get his Master's Degree. I feel very strongly that I will be there with him.

It's time to dream. Imagine if in Fall 2012, He's getting a Master's in Jazz Studies from Julliard (did I spell that right?) and I'm getting a Master's in Public Health from NYU. Who knows if we'd even get into those schools or could even afford them, but it's nice to dream. Nothing is set in concrete yet, but it's nice to dream. And the dreaming is a nice escape from the reality of preparing a job interview on Friday and the GRE next Wednesday. Yikes!