really, i meant it

not that i have anything particularly important to say, but here i am anyway.

it's so muggy out today that i kind of felt like i was swimming to and from my car over my lunch break. i know it's an unpopular stance but i really cannot wait until summer is over for real, not this stupid waffling back and forth stuff. it seems like when you become a certain age and are an office monkey tied to a desk all day, summer no longer holds the joy and freedom it did during school--especially if you aren't the swimsuit type, which i, of course, am not. give me jackets and scarves and weather in the 60s and 70s!

i'm feeling really lazy at work today. the 8/28 issue closed yesterday, which means it's time to start getting motivated to work on the 9/11 issue, but it's soooo difficult to get moving again after finishing an issue. i'm starting to think i'm really in need of a nice long vacation. theoretically that will come in october, when i go to mexico with heather, but that all depends on the two of us getting our shit together and properly booking flights and whatnot. i hope we can make that happen! i mean i know she will for sure--she is presenting a paper at a fancy conference--but hopefully her plans will continue to include me.

i am missing josh right now. i was really out of it when he left for work this morning... and, come to think of it, i was out of it when we went to bed last night, too. i can't remember if i was already asleep by the time his shower was done or what. i must've been. anyway, i really can't wait for the workday to be over so i can go home and give him a hug and a kiss. i truly love my life with him (four years and one month now, yay).

anyway, that's all i have. i need to go prepare some contracts for freelancers and then drink some more water (i'm on a diet that requires 64+ ounces of water per day... yikes) and maybe find some other productive things to do with my afternoon. yeah right! :)

today...

i'm going to post a blog update. shocking, i know! but first i have to do some actual work. be back soon!

[i'm a tease, lol]

Currently Parachutes By Coldplay sparks see related

oh hai!

first, some random and sundry: i'm listening to pandora and my starting song was "sparks" by coldplay because mellow coffeehouse music is good work music, and right now some song by ashley parker angel is on, and i really like it. does that make me a major tool for enjoying something from an o-town alumnus? i don't think so. and for the record, hanson has also produced some wonderful work in recent years. so nyah.

it's been about nine months since my last legitimate update. that's kind of lame. also kind of lame: the fact that i don't really have anything exciting to report in NINE MONTHS of life! after we got settled into the house and brought chester home, i really dug into my new position at work and it seems like ever since, my life is a blur of issue closes and article rewrites and graphics hunting, peppered with lunchtime trips home to let the dog out and random updates to the house.

which isn't to say that life is anything less than fantastic! the house is great--i'm finally getting everything the way i want it, including a soon-to-be-underway minor bathroom remodel, and nothing major has gone wrong (knock on wood!!) although i should probably consider renewing my homeowner's warranty. the dog is going well, too, although he has a bit of an aggression problem. i think he's just very, very protective of food and toys and lashes out at me and/or josh if he thinks we're going for his food dish or a squeaky toy. i also think we probably are not the most consistent dog owners in the world--i try to be calm and collected when i deal with chester but josh has a shorter temper and tends to get pretty mad pretty quickly. but chester is gradually mellowing out, so i think it'll be OK. until then, he's the cutest little devil i've ever seen so it's really hard to stay mad at him hehe :)

the job is crazy, man. so much more work than i did in my previous capacity, and a lot more responsibility. plus, our publication just this week launched a new biweekly double-issue format, so that has thrown things out of whack. i really enjoy it, though . . . i just wish they'd give me a raise to reflect the position change. at first, it was a wait-and-see situation to make sure i was a good fit for the position. but now, after nine months, i really don't know what they're waiting for, and it's bumming me out. i could really use the dough! nothing i can do but wait, though, and do the best job i can do. in These Economic Times, i feel like i'm lucky just to have a job so i'll be patient.

we have no major trips on the horizon yet this year, which is kind of a bummer. it's sad to think that at this time last year, it was only a week until i left for italy. what an amazing trip that was. the more i think and reminisce about it, the more i realize that it was pretty much the most significant experience of my life to date. i saw and did and ate and experienced SO MUCH, and i want to do it again and again and again, especially with josh and bill and kevin, who are like my little traveling family! just can't afford it yet this year :(

speaking of josh, things are going really well for us. we've been sharing our space for almost a year now and neither one of us seems any more likely to kill the other than we were before, so that's a good sign. ;) still no engagement ring, though, which is kind of a drag, but i have to believe it's only a matter of time! the boy is nothing if not very, very cautious. so i will wait, and when that magical occasion rolls around, be prepared for the wedding of the century lol :)

lent started yesterday. i have a list of things i'd like to give up: 10 pounds, fast food, spending money on clothes, credit cards, cookies, and--quite ironically--procrastination. i say ironically because i am currently putting off work in favor of writing a blog entry. :P anyway, i'll let you know how things turn out after easter hehe . . . i'm notoriously bad at fulfilling any long-term goals. and yes, to me, 40 days is "long-term." the weird thing is that i'm not even catholic. i just think lent is a good excuse to do things that you know you should've been doing all along: i know i shouldn't eat fast food or rack up my credit cards, but lent is a good way to jumpstart my determination to cut these things out. meh, we'll see.

ok, well, i guess i'm kind of out of things to say. except that if you get the opportunity at a grocery store, you should buy some cara cara oranges (PLU 3110) because they are sweet and unusual and delicious. and i guess that's all i have. take care, and i hope all is well for everyone. <3

a cop-out update :D

sooo this morning my brother asked me to go snag something from his myspace blog for him to bring to class (a really thoughtful post about satan, actually . . . i know that sounds odd, but whatevs; he's in a class that is currently studying milton [probably paradise lost, which i still have not managed to read] and wanted to share some former musings about satan). anyhoo, i came across one of those fill-in-the-blanks thingies that made me think, so i'm going to fill it out here and invite you to do the same, if you'd like. :)

SEVEN (p.s. my answers are in no particular order)

Seven Things To Do Before I Die:

1. run a race (5k, 10k, half-marathon, it doesn't matter)
2. climb to all summits of snow mountain
3. spend extended time in italy
4. have my dream wedding (and a marriage that does not end in divorce!)
5. reach and maintain my goal weight
6. become debt-free
7. climb to the whispering gallery in st. paul's cathedral in london

Seven Things I Cannot Do

1. keep my house clean
2. be confident in myself
3. say no to schwan's frozen yogurt
4. run more than a mile without my feet going numb
5. rollerskate hehe
6. cook anything fancy
7. cartwheels

Seven Things That I Admire In Others

1. confidence
2. drive/determination
3. acceptance
4. creativity
5. thoughtfulness
6. generosity
7. honesty

Seven Things I Say Most Often

1. like
2. honey or baby or babe hehe
3. momma
4. poo and many variations thereof
5. hehe or haha or lol (in typed conversations, of course)
6. "go potty" to chester, a billion times a day, trying to encourage him to drop a deuce
7. pobrecita

Seven Books I Love

1. she's come undone
2. cold sassy tree
3. a tale of two cities
4. angels & demons
5. the sisterhood of the traveling pants
6. eat, pray, love
7. to kill a mockingbird

Seven Movies I Have Watched Over And Over Again

1. clue
2. super troopers
3. steel magnolias
4. princess bride
5. buying the cow
6. empire records
7. never ending story

Currently Listening Everybody Got Their Something By Nikka Costa title track see related

derrr

man alive, it just took me like five full minutes to figure out where the heck the button was to add a new blog post. when did i get so bad at internets? probably sometime close to when i got so bad at blogging, haha.

well, here i am. it's mid-june, and life has become a little exciting. josh and i are all settled into our house, for the most part; we're officially one mortgage payment into a 30-year loan. that's kind of crazy to think about. my loan won't mature until 2038. yeeeesh! i doubt we'll be in this house for that long, though, but i do plan to stay there for at least five years, i'm sure.

sadly, i kind of want to punch the house in the throat right now b/c it is not handling the recent rains very well--water has been coming into the basement on the south side of the house, and i'm pretty distraught about it. we had a basement guy come take a look, and he said we'll probably have to install drain tiles and a sump pump and yadda yadda and this will all run me around $4,000. the whole thing is very distressing, largely because i do not have $4,000, nor do i think i will anytime soon. so, i guess i'm going to start looking into home improvement loans and plunge myself even further into debt :P yayyyy! buy a house, kids, it's totally easy and not scary at all. ;) really, though, i love my house and even though i wish it wouldn't give me so much trouble, i don't think i'd trade it for any other house i looked at.

hmm, what else is going on. OH we got a puppy! his name is chester and he is a pembroke welsh corgi. he's 11-12ish weeks old now and right in the thick of failing at potty training. :P he's the cutest thing i've ever seen but oh my gosh is he a lot of work! we're doing our best, though, and in the meantime, we're enjoying how ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE he is, haha!! those of you who have me as a friend on facebook can see his awesomeness in my "meet chester!" photo album; for the rest, i'll try to put up pictures on here, if i can figure out how. or, y'know, you could be facebook friends with me :D

work is going really well. about three weeks ago, i was promoted to a content editing position, and since then, i've been running myself ragged trying to keep up with all the demands of the new job. i'm working on Processor, which is a weekly publication aimed at data centers and IT admins and whatnot. so, y'know, pretty geeky stuff that i don't really know anything about, PLUS since it's a weekly pub, i am a lot busier on a day-to-day basis than i would've been had i been moved to a monthly pub. but so far, i really like it. it keeps me busy, so my workdays fly by, and i stay out of internets-related trouble for the most part. gone are the days of excessive screwing around. sad! i'm finally becoming a grownup.

speaking of growing up, i'm also gearing up to help my darling bestie heather get married in a low-stress, semi-organized fashion hehe . . . all my bridesmaid experience is coming in handy so far, as hopefully i've been very helpful in the planning stages. i'm just so excited for her and want everything to go smoothly. it's two months from today, and i'm really, really looking forward to it. :D also i will be doing most of the bachelorette party planning, which is kind of exciting. i hope everything goes well! i have to start amassing ingredients to make 800 gallons of sangria, though. this is going to get crazy.

i guess that's about all i have in the new-and-exciting department. if i didn't mention it earlier (i can't remember), italy was absolutely AMAZING; pictures can be found at my flickr site (which is of the same name--leahruthie--because i am original and creative, haha).

anyway, i just wanted to say hey and to offer up a little update. hope all is well for everyone else!

p.s. congratulations to my just-married friend sarah!! <3 i wish i could've been there--i'm sure it was beautiful!