Melonade

Two weeks until the move.

My apartment looks like a city full of cardboard-box skyscrapers.

I don't know about you, but my pre-teen years were full of mystery novels, particularly those featuring Nancy Drew. ND was even lucky enough to occassionally be joined by the Hardy Boys for one of her ever-thrilling mysteries. Do you remember those cookie cutter mystery titles? I don't have any of those books anymore; I'd probably be disappointed if I read them now.

Last week I had a slight mystery of my own. It's late Wednesday night, and I pick up my cell phone to set my alarm. I see that I had missed a call. But it wasn't just any call. It was a call from someone who hasn't spoken to me in three months. After three months of silence, I assumed that name would never again show up on my phone. The first reaction is to wonder what he has to say and whether it's really good or really, really bad.

The voicemail message is no help in deducing the purpose of the call. To paraphrase: "I wanted to talk to you if I could; call me back later."

I check the clock. It's 12:17 a.m., and too late to call back. The next morning I get up early to go home for Thanksgiving. I wonder if I should call while I'm on the road, but I decide against it.

Saturday evening I head back to OKC and finally get a moment to return the phone call. There is no answer. The automated voicemail lady tells me how to leave a message as if I've never done it before. I consider a few options but can't form any complete thoughts, and I hang up without saying anything. I'm a little disappointed and a little relieved that he didn't answer. What do you say to someone who hasn't talked to you in three months? I'm sure he'll be able to see his missed call. At least that should let him know that he can talk to me. There was never a time when he couldn't try.


It's Tuesday, and still nothing.

After Thursday night/Friday morning's Harry Potter extravaganza, I didn't want to do anything on Friday evening that required me leaving my apartment. I did some packing, some TV-ing, and some gaming, but mostly I basked in the comfort of my little cave.

After waking at a perfectly decent hour Saturday morning, I got a phone call from a friend. I think I was watching a Spiderman/X-Men cartoon at the time. (There are so few good Saturday morning cartoons these days.)

The purpose of said phone call was a happy one indeed; Coldplay is coming to town in February, and my friend was checking to see if I was interested in going. Well...that's really a silly question. Coldplay is one of my top 5 favorites, and I've never been to a "real" concert before.

And then after the confirmation phone call a little while later, I snuggled back on the couch of couches and settled in for a repeat of Friday's performance with alternating sessions of Friends Season 10 and Scrubs Season 2. Yes, it was a good weekend.

I'm narrowing down paint colors for the bedroom in the new house. A part of me says that I should get a couple of shades and test them out for a few days to see how they look at different times of the day. The more hasty part of me just wants to go straight to the painting without the sampling process.

The new color scheme necessitates painting about half of my furniture, which is hard to do when my only choices are to paint in my not-so-well ventilated bedroom (the other rooms being overcome with boxes) or to attempt painting on my too cold and too small balcony.

The next few weeks will include a blog-reduced diet as I try to fit everything I own into moving boxes and scrub two years' worth of living off of my apartment. Just wanted to warn you.

Enjoy your day.

Proving almost anyone can attempt to write a novel.

Sorry, friends. I know my posting has been scare lately. Things are busy, but I don't think there's anything that's happened lately that is blog-worthy. My living room is full of boxes, and the bedroom is full of laundry. Such is the life of a girl in transition.

My soon-to-be roommate is closing on her house tomorrow morning, and moving in tomorrow evening (fingers crossed, people!). I know she's been waiting for this for a while, and hopefully everything will go very smoothly.

After tomorrow evening's moving party, I have to scramble over to the mall to join my fellow movie-goers at the new Harry Potter movie. We're meeting at 8:45, and the show starts at 12:01. After that, we have to turn back into responsible adults and go to work as usual. There are about 28 of us going- all college students and recent graduates. It should be fun. I need to get a camera.

I was a bit disappointed this morning when I had to succumb to the season and turn on the heat. I haven't used the heat or A/C for about a month, and I was really enjoying the lower electricity bill (it dropped by half from the previous month! that's shopping money, kids) and the opened windows. Sadly, if I hadn't bumped up the temperature from 60, I probably would have stayed wrapped in my flannel sheets and 3 quilts (also known as the happiest place on earth). But thankfully, 15 minutes was all it took to warm me up and wake me up enough to traipse down to my frigid car and into a toasty office.

Okay, for the exciting part: last night I went to Target and bought Christmasy things. It seems a little early for me, but I also really liked how little traffic there was in the holiday aisles. I considered buying a little tree, but then I decided on something more original. That is, I've never seen it done, so it's original to me. I found a Christmas wreath, bought a few ornaments, and dressed it up like a tree. Here are the advantages of said wreath-as-tree:
1. No garlands, strings of beads, or lights to manage. The wreath came lit, and as it will be hanging on the wall, I only have to decorate one side. Much easier than trying to balance your decorations around a tree.
2. The wreath necessitates an ornament standard. As soon as I decided on the wreath, I eliminated those dangerously delicate glass balls from my decor. The small area means that I can choose carefully and build up my ornament collection rather than have the daunting task of trying to fill a whole tree in one year with a bunch of cheap, tacky, or fad-ish ornaments, which seem to be the norm in the stores.
3. I can chose a different theme every year and not break the bank. Everything will be blue and silver this year, but next year may be all pink. It's fabulous!
This probably isn't as exciting for you, but Christmas is the time when my theme-decorating goes into overload. Usually I'm annoyed with stores that shove Christmas in your face as soon as Halloween is over (or sometimes even after Labor Day). Yesterday, I saw the beauty in it.

And yes, the New Orleans pics are coming. The problem is that I can't put them on the blog from my Mac, and I haven't taken the time to send them to my work. It may be a poor excuse, but it's the only one I have.

Enjoy your day!

Picture CDs are ready! I'll have mine this weekend and be able to share some pictures of the New Orleans trip with you next week.

It's strange how changed and how unchanged I am by the trip. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that the trip made everyone more appreciative of our physical possessions and more aware of the fact that we all have so much more stuff than we really need.

I started packing last night, and I was once again reminded of how much stuff I have. I'm thankful that I have a job that pays pretty well, but my money shouldn't always be going straight into more stuff. I know I could be happy with less. I know I have been happy with less. When I moved into my apartment two years ago, I basically started with a mattress, a tv/vcr, and books. But with the help of friends and family, I have been given a lot more...so much that I am dreading trying to pack it all up.

Then I think back to those people who have lost almost everything. The first house I worked in was a bit more heartbreaking for me because we had to throw away so many books...they were adsolutely unsalvagable.

But seeing that devastation hasn't stopped me from buying more stuff. My latest fascination is X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse. (But it's okay, because I sold back some games I don't play anymore and paid practically nothing for the new one. See? I'm not totally wasteful.)

It's Homecoming week at OC. I think I'm going to the alumni breakfast tomorrow morning (I remember when we all thought it was such a crime to be at an 8 o'clock function on a Saturday. Doesn't seem so awful now.) I used to wonder why so few people (relatively speaking) showed up for Homecoming activities, but now I understand. Sure, it will be nice to see some old friends...if they come. I think my age group is still in that stage where we haven't gotten far enough from our college years to appreciate reuniting in such an organized manner. Oh well. Just cross your fingers that the weekend will provide interesting fodder for next week's blogs.

Enjoy your weekend.