misfitmonkey

I’m sitting at Starbucks, and I should be writing my Nanowrimo novel, but instead I’ve spent the past hour getting caught up on all of you, your blog posts and Facebook updates and comments you’ve made to me that I haven’t replied to yet.

Life is really good right now. Today, Jim and I signed papers to finalize our purchase agreement for our first house. It’s a GREAT house, at a great price due to the current buyer’s market, and most importantly, it means that I will get the dog I’ve wanted for a long time (it already has a fenced in yard!).

Here’s a peek at the house:

Such a big step, buying a house. I thought getting married would make me feel like an official grown up, but that feeling is nothing compared to the process of actually finding and then owning a home. Other than having kids, I’m not sure there’s anything more grown up.

It’s pretty freaking exciting to know that in a month or so, I will have a house that I can do whatever I want with… I will NOT have white or beige walls, I will NOT have generic lighting, I will NOT have to drive to the UPS plant every time I get a package because of a locked apartment building, and I will NOT have to worry about a landlord discovering my cat. Sounds like minor stuff, but when you add up everything you get to do with your living space once it’s really YOURS, it’s really pretty huge.

I’m already planning a huge housewarming, even though we had a housewarming when Jim and I moved in to the apartment we’re in now. We won’t be asking for any house gifts, maybe just bottles of wine or liquor to stock the bar we have in the finished basement. We were really lucky with our first housewarming and with a multitude of amazing wedding gifts we’ll finally have room for, so it will really just be a huge celebration for the sake of having a huge celebration. We’ll finally have ROOM to have a huge celebration! :)

If anyone has any great tips on successfully transitioning into a first home, feel free to leave comments. Tips on taking care of a dog (a larrrrrge dog) are welcome also. :)

NOW I’m going to go write something for Nano. This novel won’t write itself!

A testament to how stubborn my husband and I are:

B: Want to watch Fringe?
J: Sure.
B: Okay, it’s on the dvr in the other room.
J: Okay, let’s go.

*I become distracted by a commercial*

J: Hey! Get a move on!
B: What?
J: I’m not getting up until you get up.
B: Well, I’m not getting up until you get up. I don’t like being bossed.
J: Well, I guess we’re not watching tv then.
B: I guess not.

*time passes and eventually Jim, who was lying on the floor during this discussion, begins to pull himself along the floor like a slug, grunting*

B: What the hell are you doing?
J: I have to pee, and I’m not getting up.
B: What are you going to do when you get to the bathroom?
J: I’m going to push and hope for the best.

*hysterical laughter from B’s spot on the couch*

So, I stayed in here typing all of this up, and Jim eventually dragged himself all the way to the bathroom and something must have gone okay because he flushed and then I heard a thump and he is now dragging himself down the hallway to the bedroom.

J: Come on! I don’t have all day!
B: Are you seriously still on the floor?

*silence from the hallway*

So, I’m going to get up and go down to watch Fringe in the bedroom, but not until he actually drags himself all the way to the bed, so he gives in on getting up first.

We are stubbornheads.

I have to go… he’s on the bed and hollering pathetically. LOL.

Took some shots of the beautiful sky we had while driving all the way to Toledo on Saturday… great view, and it was a great start to the family vacation. :)

Or click: http://www.flickr.com/photos/timshelyn/sets/72157621667682085/

I’m going on VACATION! I took a full paid week off of work (something I’ve never had enough vacation given to me to do at any other job… very new and exciting for me), we have family coming in from Minnesota (my aunt/uncle and their five kids) and my family (10 people including parents, 5 kids, spouses, and my little nephew) and we’re all going to the following awesome locations:

Sunday: Toledo Zoo, where I will be using the hot lens I rented, the Canon 70-200 f/4L IS, to take hopefully halfway decent photos.

Monday: Cabin in Sandusky near Put-In Bay and Kelleys Island. Jim and I are taking some bikes to ride and we’re just all going to run around the Put-In Bay area having unscheduled fun. I haven’t been on a bike in at least 5-7 years, so that should be interesting. I am less than incredibly coordinated.

Tuesday: Cedar Point, where I will spend some time taking photos and then riding awesome roller coasters and eating unhealthy food and getting a sunburn if I don’t already have one by then.

Wednesday - Sunday: Family time back at home, including at least one bonfire, cookout at my grandmother’s, and general hanging out with family.

I don’t know how often I’ll be posting via blog or Twitter because I’ll mostly be concentrating on REALLY enjoying time off work. I’m sure there will be occasional pictures, but I can’t promise how much you’ll be seeing of me, and don’t expect immediate replies to email. Let the party begin!

Yesterday, Jim and I went to Classic Park up in Eastlake, Ohio to see The Bob Dylan Show (Bob Dylan in live in concert with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp opening). My mom got us tickets a month or so ago, knowing that I have always really wanted to see Bob Dylan live before I die (or he does, which was likely to come first).

Willie Nelson played first, and he wasn’t bad. I think Jim was most excited to see Willie play, but even he admitted that it wasn’t a stellar performance. I think Willie’s getting old and his live stuff just isn’t as good as it used to be. Still enjoyable though, and Willie’s son (who was playing with Willie) is pretty darn good.

John Mellencamp played second, and he wasn’t bad (good energy, good musicians playing with him), but my one big turn off with Mellencamp is that a vast majority of his later work all sounds the same, and this was very evident in everything he played, including a brand new song he played that he had just recorded (I found myself able to sing one of his other songs along with the chord structure of the new one). He’s not someone I would go see as a headliner, but I still enjoyed his performance, and MAN oh man were there a lot of middle-aged women going totally crazy over him… it was almost disturbing. Lol.

And finally, Dylan performed. The first thing you should know prior to seeing Dylan live is that he primarily plays his newer work and it will NOT sound like the album version. This tends to really tick off Dylan fans who aren’t prepared for it, so steer clear of live performances if you want “All Along the Watchtower” to sound like any of his recorded versions. He also tends to play completely different sets each night, so you could see him on this same tour and we will probably won’t have heard a lot of the same songs if we compared notes.

I thought it was a solid performance, and I was really just thrilled to be seeing Dylan live. He played several of my favorites from his last few albums (”Jolene,” “Ain’t Talking,” and “Things Have Changed”), and Jim really enjoyed “Senor.” Here are a few of my clips (the first clip has three different song bits included):

One important thing to remember if you go to see this show while these three fellas are on tour: they don’t play together, or at least they didn’t at this particular show. Jim kept insisting they were surely all going to come out on stage together and play at the end, but it was a no go. Just a heads up.

Overall: Great show, glad we went, thanks so much to my mom for tickets and to my dad for a lifelong exposure to Dylan and a heads up about what to expect when seeing him live. This was definitely a check-off on my bucket list. :)

Jim and I rode out to my mom’s to go with my family to the Sebring Firemen’s Festival this past weekend and I made my first couple Harley videos of the season. :) I have to say, that yearly festival was a lot more impression when I was kid… going as an adult, I just found myself watching all the miserable parents drag their sugar-crazed kids from carnival ride to merry-go-round to lemonade stand, etc. (my poor mom and crankly little bros included). Always good to spend time with family though, and it was bike night so Jim got to scope out the other bikes.

This was the first video (mute the sound if you want to watch).

Also, the only time I will eat a corndog is when they’re made at a fair in fresh batter (too many frozen dogs as a kid… blech), so having corndogs and fresh lemonade for dinner was a treat.

Got a couple cute shots of Jim with Ben on his shoulders at sunset too. Are they just about the cutest men ever? (The correct answer is yes, of course.)

Overall, a good evening. I also ate a funnel cake, because I can’t be stopped when it comes to funnel cakes, especially fresh ones sold by a seven-year old money miscounting cashier. YUM!

Here's some pre-ceremony fun, sitting with the Viddler staff peeps - Colin, Donna, Rob, and one of Viddler's biggest fans. ;)


Also:
Joe Gets His Viddler Software Prize
Clips of the Innovator Award and the Big Award

Things that Brandice has done in the past three days of weekendness:

-Wedding planning is in full force. Ugh/yay. ;)

-Jim and I went to see 27 Dresses on Friday night and it was really funny, super cute, and Jim laughed several times, so it's a pretty good date movie.


-Saturday was my first day of weekend classes, then I hightailed it to Cleveland, where we saw Kicker (1st time for me since his accident) and many of Jim's college buds at BW3's in Strongsville.


-After seeing Kicker and friends, we went up to Tremont, picked up Ken and then partied at The Bier Markt for Kate and Walter's birthdays. I drank lots of Hoegaarden and saw lots of friends... we passed out at Ken's later after lots of (not involving me) drunken drama.


-Yesterday, I drove home from Cleveland and then slept until 5:30. I woke up to find that Jim had cleaned a good portion of the apartment, gone grocery shopping, and cooked a full meal of homemade red skin garlic mashed potatoes, pot roast, corn, and had for some reason also purchased an entire cake for dessert.

-Oh, and late on Friday, I finished Roswell Season 3 (the final season). Ending was GOOOD, although a little sad.

Christmas Eve cookie making with Jim. :)

Then Jim and I opened one gift each before going to bed:


ALSO:

Christmas Eve (1 gift each):
http://www.viddler.com/explore/brandice/videos/305/

Christmas Morning:
http://www.viddler.com/explore/brandice/videos/306/?secreturl=44584590

Christmas Afternoon:
http://www.viddler.com/explore/brandice/videos/307/?secreturl=40901623

In light of the recent few days of Jim having to witness such grossness coming out of me and his continual reassurance and waiting on me hand and foot, and also in light of the incredibly sappy movie I just saw, I just wanted to say that I so very much love my fiance.

There are a lot of movies that portray this unrealistic ideal of love, of 24/7 passion and yearning and perfection if it's "true" love, and it's something that oftens scares me when I think about getting married, like I'm not enough like the anorexic heroines who swoon in sappy chick flicks to "truly" be in love, but this movie (Evening), in such a strange way, sort of reminded me that real love is something so much better than those unsustainable moments of passion that yes, you get once in a while, but they aren't the heartier bits of love that make a lifetime together worth it.

I am very lucky.

Ps. - And for those of you who have seen the film... No, I am not relating to the woman who plays Meryl Streep's character when she's younger and marries that guy she doesn't really love. More the brunette daughter who's a bit of a pessimist and generally afraid of not living up to life's potential, and then realizes that she's very happy with the life she's already managed to make for herself. ;)

/sap

Pps. - I'm about to watch Premonition now. Lord knows what kind of blog entry we'll get out of that one... Oy. Lol.

Hilarious video of Jim telling old sports stories and then Paul singing at the 7th inning stretch:

10 solid minutes of awesome, awesome fireworks:

PICTURES START HERE

Jim with a peanut up his nose. :|

Motorcycle ride, goofy bits of Jim and I, visiting Gram, Chipotle, and that's it. :)

So Harry Potter arrived, but apparently back in February I set it up to ship to the in-laws' house, so Jim is driving over there to pick it up RIGHT NOW. OMG, excited. Jim thinks it's pretty hilarious that I got up early and have been watching the door and listening for the buzzer like a crazed hawk.

He is a giant butthole.

Yay Harry Potter!

JIM: You best not mess with me. I am a fung fu MASTER. *flexes muscles*

ME: You're a kung fu chicken is what YOU are.

JIM: There's no such thing as kung fu chicken! You made that up!

ME: Oh... I see. Would you prefer some kung POW?!?!?! *wacks Jim in chest on the "pow"*
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HAHAHAHAHA... I am hi-frickin-larious to the max sometimes. Don't be jealous.

1. The other night, I mentioned something about ice cream and didn't even ASK him to go out late at night looking for no sugar added ice cream but he took off and was gone FOREVER, and then he came back after I'd fallen asleep. I woke up the next morning and there were flowers in the vase that Megan made me for my birthday to "make up for not finding the icecream."



2. This morning, I'm feeling a bit down about being laid off (and today is a hard day for me anyway) and I'm sitting at my computer and Jim has to leave to go help his mom with something. He comes over and says, "hey, I almost forgot to give you this" and hands me a card:



That inside says this (Jim actually drew the little paw):



I am incredibly lucky to have such a great fiance and such a smartass cat. :)

AMAZING. Just really an amazing trip, and I haven't had a vacation (like a real trip) in a long time. Jim and I have never gone on vacation together before in the entire four years we've been together, so to make our first trip an engagement trip was really cool. :)

FRIDAY : We arrived around 3 a.m. after a long ass drive and quickly hopped in bed so we could get up in time for the mine trip Friday. They drove us way up into the mountains and gave us buckets and mining pick things and we spent four hours hammering away and looking for gemstones. Jim and I got pretty discouraged after the first two hours and were pretty much thinking we'd have to find our stone at the flume mines back at the Gem Mountain store/mine headquarters type place. Then, an hour before we had to leave, a guy found a huge boulder that had a bunch of aquamarine in it and Jim went up and helped three or four other guys to literally chisel and pull a huge piece of it off of the rock and it went crashing down to the main mining area, where Jim quickly pounced on it and hastily pounded some little pieces from it before they made us leave. It was REALLY cool to watch all these guys working together to get this HUGE piece of rock down and the woman back at the store found at least four stones that were facetable so they picked the best and took the setting and the stone and told us to come back Monday to pick it up. We also did some flume mining next to this geologist who'd been on the mining trip, and it was really fun to have him right there to tell us what all the finds were and point out some of the gems that weren't on the instructional charts. He was a great guy. :) After the Gem Mountain excursion, we stopped by the Museum of North Carolina Minerals, but it was closed, so we went for a long drive on the historic Blue Ridge Parkway. Lots of beautiful pics. We also got good pics of the place we stayed at, the Skyline Inn and Cavern Tavern. The owner of the inn lives on site and was a great guy. Jim found a picture where he was recognized by Rosa Parks for his efforts in such a rural area to promote tolerance and unity. We crashed early due to exhaustion.

[FRIDAY PICS: Start HERE]

SATURDAY : Saturday turn out to be the "big" day, when Jim actually proposed. We went to see the Biltmore Estate, which was absolutely amazing. It took us two hours (possible more) to get through the self-guided house tour (the basement, which is the last floor of the tour, was totally worth all the walking to get there), then we went out to the gardens, where there was this beautiful walkway that I made Jim go back to so that I could take pictures and right after we asked some people to take our picture, he pulled out this $1.33 plastic-ish ring that he'd bought in the Biltmore gift shop that *sort* of matching the coloring of my unfinished engagement ring and said, "I got you something." Then he asked me to marry him and I said yes and then we went to the Biltmore winery and went on a wine tour/tasting and bought gifts for family then went home.

[SATURDAY PICS: Start HERE ]

SUNDAY : Sunday was the most exhausting because we got up and headed our early to try and find a train tunnel that the inn owner had told us about and we ended up climbing down the mountain, exploring a remote train tunnel and taking lots of pictures and videos for my train-obsessed little brothers, and then hiking all the way back up the mountain (I nearly died, like ACTUALLY died of out-of-shape-ness). Then, Jim and I drove to Winston-Salem to meet copperbeech(Kelley) and Rob, which was a ton of fun. We ate at O'Charleys then walked to the nearby mall and ate completely unnecessary Cinnabons and took some fun pictures before we had to part ways. Kelley and Rob are both wonderful and adorable in person, and Kelley brought me many healthy food surprises! I was sad when we had to go.

[SUNDAY PICS: Start HERE]

MONDAY : Today has been a looooong day. We got up, packed like crazy, took our last snapshots of a beautifully foggy mountain range and after we checked out, we headed back to Gem Mountain to pick up my stone. I can't even explain how excited I was when I saw the stone, because it's exactly what I wanted - 7mm round cut, very light blue (just a hint of blue), and it's just amazing that this dusty bit of blue rock we pryed from a mountainside could be turned into something soooo beautiful. They weren't able to set it, so we hopped in the car to get it to the jeweler in Ohio before they closed, stopping only for potty breaks, gas, and some souvenirs at a NC Harley shop. We got the stone to the jeweler by 7 pm and I'm picking up the finished ring (well, the etching isn't done, but I'm not sure I want it) tomorrow at 11:30 a.m.

[MONDAY PICS: Start HERE]
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Basically, it was just an amazing weekend. Great energy, lack of stress, completely hassle-free and relaxing vacation... something Jim and I had never taken together before and I'm so glad we did it. We have a great engagement story, a ring with an incredible history to go with it, I've met a couple of friends I'd never been able to spend face time with, and I have so many memories and pictures (350 pictures, actually) that will be with me forever. I'm practically bursting to see what I now know will be a beautiful ring, and while I'm looking forward to showing off pictures and my ring, I hate that tomorrow I officially go back to real life, where I can't sleep late in a bed in the mountains and I have homework and laundry and a million sucky things to do. I wish I could've stayed forever... I was all dorky and choked up when we left.

Stay tuned for ring-ness... I promise there will pics by the end of the day tomorrow!

I love this song... a tidbit:

And anger plays on every station
Answers only make more questions
I need something to believe in
Breathe in sanctuary in the

Easy silence that you make for me
It's okay when there's nothing more to say to me
And the peaceful quiet you create for me
And the way you keep the world at bay for me
The way you keep the world at bay

Children lose their youth too soon
Watching war made us immune
And I've got all the world to lose
But I just want to hold on to the

Easy silence that you make for me
It's okay when there's nothing more to say to me
And the peaceful quiet you create for me
And the way you keep the world at bay for me

It reminds me of how often and in how many ways Jim makes my life easier, more bearable... simpler. He does a million things I never ask him to do and he remembers a million things that I forget, and I'm not sure how I would make it through school and work and the pressures in my life these days without the 'way he keeps the world at bay for me.' I am very lucky.

Feasting on yellow jello and beef broth for the entirety of today has completely and utterly addled my starving brain, but I still had the good sense to think my boyfriend is the best and most considerate person in the entire world to have finally located sugar free popsicles that don't have red dye in them (banana! yay!).

This small but incredibly significant change in my diet has possibly been my salvation. Life has meaning where there are banana popsicles, YAY! :)

In which I discuss my new apparel, and Jim is not impressed with me.

*editted to add: My boyfriend is so frickin' hot in that jacket.  *swoon*  How he ended up dating a wacko like me is beyond comprehension... ;)  

Ohhhhh, we had so much fun this weekend!  Jim's birthday celebration was muchos muchos fun. :)  Awesomely cool things we did:

1. We went to see Jim Gaffigan at his first show of the Beyond the Pale tour in Lakewood, which rocked.  He messed with the lighting guy, he did the classic Hot Pocket bit, and his encore about sex was hilarious. :)  Really good time and Jim had a really good time, which is what was important.

2. We checked in to the Radisson, which had Sleep Number beds, free wi-fi, a fridge, and apples at the reception desk.  Jim stole apples, we dumped our stuff off and debated about food for dinner until deciding that the Winking Lizard was the best option since they had food and beer and were about 100 ft from the hotel entrance.

3. Met up with Adam, Jim's cousin Paul, Kate, Ken, and Kate's brother Kevin at Winking Lizard:

Originally posted on monkey.vox.com