Today, I almost threw my cable modem, wireless router, TiVo, and digital cable box out my sliding glass door.

Almost.

As I’m sure you now can tell, I’m a tad bit frustrated. The move here went well, and even getting all our items from the truck into the house went smoothly. But then I spent a day and a half out in St. Louis, visiting Becky after dropping Scott off at the airport, and now I feel cramped, rushed, and discombobulated. Nothing is where it should be, and I’ve got two rooms – the dining room and spare bedroom – that are full of half-unpacked boxes.

Not to mention the photos that need editing and uploading from our trip.

And the blog posts I’ve been promising about our adventure.

I swear, I’m not slacking off. There’s just so much stuff to do around here, and so little time. Or at least, quality time. It’s a lot harder to be productive when your other half is 1,000 miles away, unable to help.  If Scott were here, it would take us one day to get everything set and on its way to being unpacked. But I can’t focus, and there’s so much to do . . .

I’m done whining for now. Here, enjoy some photos instead. I’ll see about not whining tomorrow.

A bathroom in a St. Louis coffeeshop. My addition was the Vonnegut, of course.

New and old plates.

Food shopping at night.

A monument to the campus mascot. This school really has a lot of spirit.

As many of you readers know – if you’re still out there – I’m heading off for a new adventure (teehee) in just two weeks.

“I’m moving to Missouri” is not something I thought I’d ever hear come out of my mouth.  But as the last year went on, and graduate school popped up on the horizon, I just knew – it was inevitable.

(Well, once I was admitted.  That’s a key factor.)

An old habit of mine from my journaling days – yes, on paper – was to start a new book, even if the current one was not complete, at every major turn in life.  I did this last year in my move from my old blog to this new blog, and it’s time for a change again.

This time, though, I won’t be changing location.  I really like WordPress, and I think it will fit me well even as my needs change in the future.  Instead, I’ll just be giving the blog a facelift.  I hope to get this done before I head out to Columbia, but we’ll see if I can get enough time between travel, packing, work, and more packing.

What an adventure ahead.  Let’s start clean, shall we?

I’m sitting in a local restaurant, Willow, waiting for my friends to arrive.

I had an interesting thought today while walking to my house from the metro. Well, maybe not interesting, but a thought.

The weather is perfectly warm with a cool breeze. I love walking in weather like this. I had been reading a book on the train, and I continued holding it as I made my way home. One of my old roommates gave me this silly bookmark, with a picture of “High School Musical” on the front and a yellow tassle hanging off the top. It bounced playfully as I walked home.

It reminded me of being a kid, joyful and innocent, with a desire to read everything and anything to learn a little more about the world around me.

Funny. The book I’m reading is about a military wife living through a deployment. Except for the wife and kids part, I’m living it, too. On my own, living email to email.

Suddenly, I didn’t feel as young and carefree as I had just a moment ago.

An interesting contrast in emotions.

what an incredible olympics.  i’ve been watching Jonathan Newton’s blog on the Washington Post’s website, and i agree with him.  this image is the ultimate.

Image by Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post

After winning his eighth gold medal of the Beijing Games, Michael Phelps climbed into the photographers’ pit to get to his mom and sisters for a true moment.

I didn’t want to get caught in the pack, so I went around to the back of the group and held my camera as high as I could. This is my favorite Michael Phelps picture of these Games.

From original blog post here:  An Absolutely Amazing Scene

“if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

right?

i’ve taken that to heart over the last few days, and waited until i felt better before writing.  aaron’s impending departure is emotionally trying, to say the least.

nothing much to report on today . . . busy day, lots accomplished (including cleaning my bathroom!), and now it’s time for sleep.

i just updated my project365, and i’d like to share one of the photos that didn’t quite make it into the mix.

my dad is awesome.

i’ve been blogging [in some form or another] for over eight years, and i still never tire of the occasional meme.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago

that would be july 21, 1998 . . . well, i was between my junior and senior years in high school. this was the summer i worked at a g-d awful summer camp and cried at work every single day. i was forced into being a bus counselor, and had to take care of a five year old girl who got bus sick every time she rode the bus (and caused most of my crying). did i mention i got [officially] paid $200 for the entire summer? the best part about this job – the tips. i made almost five times that in tips, thanks to the parents with disposable income. and those tips bought me my beloved doc martins.

on a good note, this was my first year in a real musical, and i loved every second of it. we did How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and i somehow ended up one of the dancers in the chorus. my only experience dancing had been in the musical review we did that year in HS (the first musical anything my school ever put on) and a few classes when i was four. who knew that my new found love for the stage then would lead me in the directions i’m heading today with choir and Revels.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list

my work to-do list is longer than five, so i’ll go with the list for home.

1. re-pot all three of my plants
2. clean my bathroom
3. do some laundry
4. clean my floor/closet
5. make a list of all the things i need to do

3. Snacks I enjoy

tortilla chips and salsa, popcorn, pretzels, trail mix (minus the peanuts), cheerios (multi-grain, honey-nut, or apple cinnamon, please). oh, and cakelove cupcakes. those happen maybe once a year, and it’s so worth every bite.

4. Things I would do if I was a billionare

not buy stocks, for one. or put it in an american bank. [ugh, the economy.] honestly, i’d donate a bunch over the years to a cause (to be determined at a later date) that would have real impact on immediate lives. like an adoption agency. or a soup kitchen. or a school. cancer research is great, but i would rather help people who need help right now to get back on their feet, not put money into research that may or may not help people in years.

i’d also keep enough to make sure i can buy a home (maybe an awesome condo in a loft somewhere? or a townhouse with a nice patio?), pay for college for possible children, and work as a photojournalist and musician/singer to cover the daily incidentals like food and clothes.

is that too far fetched?

5. Places I’ve lived

• Bloomfield, NJ
• Washington Twp, NJ
• York, PA
• Weehawken, NJ
• Alexandria, VA
• Arlington, VA

6. Jobs I’ve had

• birthday party hostess (first job at age 12)
• babysitter
• office help (mainly, labeling. lots and lots of labeling. hey, it was before we had printers capable of printing directly on mailers.)
• camp counselor
• lifeguard
• temp at a publishing house as an editorial assistant
• temp at a worldwide financial firm as a filing and typing guru (looking at all the invoices of money other countries owed us was fascinating!
• photographer and graphic designer at a gift box corporation
• graphic designer at a startup ad agency (and the reason i will never work at one again)
• marketing assistant / photographer / assistant to the ceo of a luxury spa company
• freelance photographer for my hometown newspaper (my favorite job yet)
• graphic designer / art director of a teeny tiny design firm
• freelance photographer of . . . well, random stuff.
• marketing coordinator at an architecture firm (where i’m sitting right now)

am i missing anything?

7 Bloggers I’m tagging.

the first seven of you to read this. (which really could be everyone who reads it. but hey, if you want to go for it, go for it!)

i failed.

i knew this would happen, with a long journey, a late arrival, a crazy amount of work to do, and no wi-fi available on the train.  i just couldn’t fit in a blog post yesterday.

so now, what do i do?

start counting over?  cheat and blog twice in one day?  i’ve been successful with my project365 for a year and a half now, so i don’t know what to do when you fail at trying to do something for an extended period of time.

oh well.  i’ll just have to give it a shot another time.

or maybe i’ll just start counting over.  yea.  i’ll start counting over.

when i was little, my mom or dad would take me with them to the supermarket. i’d oogle at all the pretty vegetables, poke the fruit to see if it was ripe, and even get to pick out my own cereal (within reason, of course). but, the most eye catching part of the trip was the giant display of playground balls.

they would be stacked high within the confines of the wire mesh tower, all blues and greens and pinks together in all sorts of sizes. the opening in the cage was just at the right height for someone my size to reach up and pluck one out without fear of the entire pile tumbling down on my head.

every time we would pass this monument to recess and backyards, i would ask my mom or dad [whomever happened to be leading the excursion - rarely was it both at the same time] if we could get a ball. i just loved the idea of picking one out and taking it home to play, instead of inheriting one from someone else. we had a large amount of hand-me-downs in our family, of clothes and toys from family friends and my cousins. i never really asked for much or wanted anything specific, but this . . . a ball like this was something special.

on a rare occasion, mom or dad would say yes.

***

today, i stopped into CVS to buy some more band-aids for my knee. this injury is costing me a great deal in supplies to keep it clean and healing, and i must make a CVS run at least twice a week. with band-aids in hand, i made my way to the front of the store and got on line. right in front of me was the table with discontinued and discount items, mostly old hair dye or home waxing kits. but there, behind the brunette #43, it sat with a few of its friends, with a little 50% off sticker adorning its forehead.

almost round, swirly blue, and perfectly sized to fit in my small hand.

i bounced my new friend home from the metro, passing the people eating dinner in the outdoor seating areas, smiling the entire way.

my new friend

it will eventually be a gift, and hopefully, the recipient will enjoy it just as much as i have today.

“why is erin writing these pointless posts at odd hours in the night?”

see, i’m doing this thing,  this “101 things in 1001 days” thing.  i know, i know.  i always have something to do.  but this list is a productive list, with a long timeframe.  [october 1, 2010] there are a few things i missed on here that i wish i put instead of others, but the list was made, and the list will be done.  or at least as done as possible.

what does this have to do with my random and nonsensical posting with one eye open?

one of my ‘things’ to do is to blog publicly every day for a month.

in my last blog, i got into the habit of posting to ‘friends only,’ all sorts of drivel and neuroses coming out of my head.  part of me knows it helped, and part of me thinks i egged myself on in certain situations.  anyway – to help break out of that habit, i’m tackling this item on my list now, with the beginning of this new blog.  i probably meant to post meaningful things every day, before midnight, but really . . .  i think my format is fulfilling my own requirements.  i’ll just go back after 30 days and make sure i’ve got 30 posts.

now, how to do this while i’m in CT this weekend . . .

i wanted to go to bed early.  and what am i doing?

uploading photos to flickr for project365.

• did i put away my laundry?  no.
• did i clean my room?  or bathroom?  no.
• did i talk to aaron?  yes!

yes, it’s true.  he’s back from being out to sea for about two weeks.  we’ve got two more weeks [or so] until deployment.  i am not looking forward to deployment.  six months away at sea.  we’ve been together for six months.  thank goodness i’ve got wonderful groups of friends and family.

photos are done, time to caption.  then passing out time.

i really gotta stop blogging right before bed.