mandaloo

last weekend, i moved into my own place. it’s the first time in my entire life that i’ve lived alone. no roomates. no spouse. no nobody. just me and my red couch and my flying pig over my bed and my cheesy magnetic poetry on the refridgerator door. of course, my sweet dog, bacon, will be with me, as soon as we can get a “custody” schedule worked out with mom. during the time that i was back home with my parents, my mom grew to like bacon a bunch and now, mom has decided that bacon needs to stay with her during parts of the week. we’ll see how that one goes. the move went smoothly – mainly due to the fact that jeromy and his family were my superheros and helped me out. they were such awesome help and i am forever in their debt. i would like to publicly brag on jeromy’s numerous efforts, as he was responsible for assembling all of my furniture (bed, bookshelf, two end tables, coffee table, corner shelf, computer desk, etc.) and for hanging all of the curtains, pictures, and everything else. and as if that weren’t enough, jeromy kept me emotionally level as the occassional stress due to moving crept upon me. so it’s a week later, and everything is looking really good…

i took some pictures of the living room, bedroom, and kitchen – it’s not all totally how i want it right now, but it’s getting there. it’s really fun to get everything to the status quo… i’m hoping to have people come over soon now that the mountains of boxes have somewhat subsided.

last week, i took some pictures of jeromy’s sister and her fiance – they’re getting married in a couple of weeks and they wanted some couple pictures to display at the reception. some of them turned out really good. while i was busy taking pictures of them, jeromy snapped some shots of me in action. it was so much fun to take a break from all of the moving and spend some time outside. we went to the canals, which i had never been to. it was a really neat little area. i liked it a bunch.

this week at work was busy, but good. i had my annual review, and my supervisor told me that i would be moved up a level, which rocks. my paycheck will be happy to see a pay increase, that’s for sure. i would really like to use this year to get out of debt and get my finances all in order. i’m really thankful for my job. like a bunch – not only do i get to do cool things and work with really awesome people, my career really served as a grounding point for me when everything else was falling apart. it’s nice to have a constant that doesn’t change or shift.

today, it has rained and rained and rained. i stayed in the apartment all day. bacon has been a little stir-crazy, as she has been wanting to go play outside. i’ll open the door, show her that it’s raining, she’ll come inside, and then 30 minutes later, she forgets and the “please-let-me-go-outside” whining game starts all over again. jeromy came over and the day has consisted of us watching tv and playing on the internet … and eating. at one point, i was on my computer, and he was sitting at the coffee table on his laptop. i must have been oblivious to things going on around me, b/c he instant messaged me and told me that he was in his “blogging cocoon,” which consisted of a blanket over his laptop and his head. it was the funniest thing ever. but i guess anything’s funny when you’re cooped up in an apartment all day with rain coming down.