myTunes

If you ask anyone who knows me what my favorite thing in the whole world is, I'm sure the answer you'd get is comics.  And depending on the day, that may or may not be the right answer.  My other huge passion is music.  I can't ever get enough of it.  My typical day starts at about 6am with me getting out of the shower, getting dressed and putting on my iPod.  And it stays on until I get home, usually around 6pm.  It stays on all day long (unless I have a meeting [one or two of those a week] or a lunch date [which I've been extremely remiss in scheduling as of late.])  I kind of have a listening pattern.  First off I play whatever podcasts I have that day to get them out of the way of the music.  Next I go to my "Unplayed Songs" playlist, which consists of anything new I haven't listened to yet.  Since I've been actively trying to give everything in my iTunes library a second listen, the next playlist I go to is "Recently Added - Played Once."  If that's empty, I go to my general "Played Once" folder and start listening.  Within that folder I have a ton of sub-folders.  I've got folders for specific years, specific artists, specific genres.  I also have them sorted by file size, or by length or by album or by artist.  Sometimes I just hit shuffle and see what happens.  I'm psyched that all of my "Played Once" songs fit on my iPod now.  As of this writing, that would be 19,131 songs.

But enough of my OCD.  There are a couple of new albums out that I've just fallen in love with.  In no particular order they are:

The Bird & The Bee - Interpreting The Masters Volume 1: A Tribute To Daryl Hall And John Oates

Now I know what you're thinking.  This sounds cheesy as hell.  Well, you know what?  It is.  But it's really, really good, too.  Listening to them do covers of Hall & Oates tunes makes me so happy.  And judging from the title, this is hopefully going to be a series of covers albums.  I cannot wait to see what comes next.  Maybe a nod to Rick Astley?  

Scouting For Girls - Everybody Wants To Be On TV  

This is their second album and I'm so excited they're back.  I fell in love with their first album a couple of years ago.  They're really just a pub band, but they've got catchy melodies and a great sense of humor.  They're really fun.

Josh Ritter - So Runs The World Away  

I only just discovered Josh Ritter about a year ago.  I don't know how I went so long without him appearing on my radar.  I'd read about him, but I wasn't too interested in what I read.  And then I heard him.  I think the guy is fucking amazing.  Ken always taunts me that all I listen to is "saggy tittied hippie" and by that, he means people like Josh.  Whatever.  He's absolutely amazing and I love this new album so much.

So my question to you, dear reader, is this.  What new stuff are you listening to and loving?  I'm always on the lookout for new stuff.  Give me three recent-ish albums you're ga-ga over.

Baby Steps

Well, for the first time in a couple of weeks, it seems like we're making progress on getting into the new house.  We've been doing everything we're supposed to to keep the process rolling.  But that apparently isn't enough.  We've been stalled for weeks waiting to get a signed contract from the sellers of the place we're buying.  The signed contract is very important for so many reasons.  It means they're legally agreeing to sell it to us.  It's something the bank needs to finalize the mortgage.  And it's something that we've been unable to obtain.  Needless to say, the amount of stress in this house has been at an all-time high.  Every day we've been forced to wait meant that we'd start making a little more noise.  And a little more noise.  And a little more noise.  The noise finally paid off.  Turns out the relocation company the sellers are using were waiting for one more form from us before they'd release the contract.  That's all fine and dandy, but it's a form no one knew about and they never, ever mentioned.  But it's done.  We may have lost a couple of weeks waiting, but it now appears we are back on target of when we have to be out of here and when we want to be in the new place.  It's been incredibly hard to stay positive the last couple of weeks, but I'm really surprised that I've been able to keep it together as well as I have.  It hasn't come without a price, though.  The more I've been trying to keep it together, the more I've been shutting down other parts of my life.  As I've mentioned before, my socializing (real life and online) is at an all-time low.  When I do manage to have a little quiet time on the computer, I just sit there and play Bejeweled Blitz mindlessly.  I just have a couple more weeks to get through and, in theory, I can have my life back.

And if the new house hasn't been doing it's best to kill me, the old house has decided to join in the fun.  Last night Ken and I were going through things in the basement.  Without thinking about it, I stood up and went to go to another part of the basement when I ended up crouched down on the floor.  I managed to slam my head into one of the ceiling joists.  I saw stars, I got dizzy and I've got a headache.  I'm pretty sure I've given myself a mild concussion.  Just what I need, right?

Tuesday

After the shitty Monday I had, I had high hopes for today.  While not nearly as shitty as yesterday, today had it's fair share of kicking me in the balls.  The whole house buying process is slowly killing me.  Nothing seems to be going my way and I've had just about enough of it.  Here's hoping for a little good news tomorrow.

Not The Way To Start The Week

Talk about getting a sucker punch first thing in the morning.  This morning was going okay.  Same as any Monday.  Until a couple of us spotted a co-worker bawling and being helped into the pantry to sit down.  No one was quite sure what was going on.  We speculated, but had no idea what was up.  Until word started to spread.  Rosey, one of the most loved people in our office, passed away unexpectedly this morning.  It was really shocking.  I'm still having a hard time putting my head around it.  Rosey, gone?  It doesn't seem fair.

I've only known her for the 4 1/2 years I've been at this job, but I got to know her well.  What I loved about her was she knew the rules but was the first one to say "fuck it."  

She retired less than a year ago.  She'd just gone through a life threatening illness and come out of it with some complications.  But she came out of it and that's all that counts.  She decided that after going through it, maybe it was time to retire and get out there and live a little.  As much as I've missed her, I'm so glad she got to do just that.  I'm just upset that it wasn't for long.

I haven't seen Rosey in a while.  The last time I saw her was in Target just before going to Austin.  She looked awesome and was in better spirits than I'd seen her in a long time.

I've never heard my office as quiet as it was today.  The only sounds for most of the morning were the sounds of typing and sniffling.  No one was chatting.  And you need to know that my office is uber-chatty.

Here's hoping for a happier tomorrow.

*gasp* It's Another Infrequent Post!

Time is still at a premium.  I'm still not thrilled about it.  But so is life at the moment.

This week has been a particularly miserable one.  Last Friday, which was the nicest weather day of the year to that point, I left work early because I was sick, sick, sick as a dog.  It came on fast and furious and from the way my throat felt, I was sure it was strep.  I left work and headed straight for the doctor.  It wasn't strep, though that didn't make me feel any better.  I spent the weekend in bed, which wouldn't be so bad, but the weather was AMAZING and I missed every bit of it.  I went back to work on Monday, though I should have stayed home.  By Wednesday, I was feeling so run down I actually called in to work to say I was staying home. Again, Wednesday's weather was even more amazing than the weekend's.  We tied the record high temperature (87 degrees) but I slept all day.  I'm still not completely over this damn thing, but I'm getting there.  I think I'm probably about 85% of the way to normal.

Today didn't quite pan out like originally planned.  We were supposed to go get boxes to start packing.  Luckily a lot of the annoying-to-pack stuff is done and in storage right now.  On our way out, we stopped for lunch first and then Ken wanted to stop at a furniture place to browse.  A few hours later, we left there, having purchased quite of bit of stuff.  We left to go to another store across town, where we then spent a few  more hours picking out more stuff.  By the time we finished up, it was nearly 8pm and we hadn't eaten yet.  Over dinner at the diner, Ken decided we needed to go back to the first place to check on one more thing.  And we left having made yet another purchase.  The good thing is that during the course of today, we managed to buy just about every essential thing we need for the new house.  Sure, we've got a couple minor necessities to pick up yet, but we went from zero to sixty in the shopping department.  My stomach is churning over how much money we dropped today, but it had to be done.  Now if we can just get a solid closing date on the new house, we can set up delivery.  

Tomorrow my parents are coming up.  We've got some stuff we want to get rid of that they want, so they're driving up to pick it up.  What they don't know is that we're going to make them pay for their request to go to see the new house.  We're making them drive us back to the second furniture store to pick up two end tables.  We got them on clearance (super, deep discounted clearance!!) and because they're clearance items, they have to be picked up right away and can't be held for delivery with everything else.  

What I really could have used this weekend is a little more sleep, but I guess there's always next weekend.

The A-Z of Women I Love - Z Is For Liza... With A Z, That Is

Briefly

I hurt. Specifically, my throat hurts. A lot. I left work early yesterday to go to the doctor because I was convinced I had strep again. Someone at work just had it and it's going around Ken's office, too. But it turns out it's just a nasty cold. Huzzah. Which sucks out loud because this weekend's weather is absolutely amazing. I'd much rather be outside. It didn't stop me today, though, because Ken and I took a trip to Ikea to look at furniture and accessories for our.... wait for it.... NEW HOUSE! That's right, I'm finally ready to admit we bought a new house. We saw the place a couple weeks ago and put in a bid. After a little back and forth with the sellers, we agreed on a price and signed the papers. Thursday morning was our inspection and the house came through with flying colors. Just waiting on the radon test to come back, but there's no worries that it'll test positive. With any luck, the closing on our current house and on our new house will be April 30th. There's still so much to do between now and then, it's making my head spin.

The thing I'm most excited about is my new office. One half of the basement is finished and I've got dibs on it. It's a HUGE space and it's going to be fucking awesome. No longer will half of my stuff have to be boxed up and in storage. I'm very anxious to get in and get unpacking. The next month or so is going to be very busy for me, like the last month has. I'll try to post when I can, but it might still be sparse.

Uplifting

I never knew women had it so good. I always thought periods were terrible things women got each month, but apparently they're really uplifting and empowering. I wish I could have one.

I (Heart) Ben

Ben Folds has embraced the whole Chat Roulette thing and is now making up songs while playing on it during his shows.  I need to go see Ben again soon.

The A-Z of Women I Love - Y Is For Yearwood