There’s a lot going on in the world – in our own little one and the world at large. I’ve been neglectful. Do you forgive me?
Patriotic emotions run high lately, with the devastating tornado outbreaks in the south (I have a very close friend attending grad school at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, the hardest hit city. Fortunately, she and all of her pets were okay, but her house was literally right outside the line of the monster tornado – as in, she could see it and feel it because it was just one street over. A close call indeed), the announcement of the capture of Osama Bin Laden, and let’s not forget the Royal Wedding circus. There’s an awful lot to be thankful for.
In our little corner of the globe we’re still seeing rain nearly every day. You’d think we’re living in Seattle or Alaska. It rains so much that the earth is constantly soggy and our lawn needs to be mowed at least once a week or the grass gets too high for my optimal bunny and cat spotting preferences. It grows inches every week. On the rare free nights when we actually decide to try to keep up with our elderly riding-lawn-mower-and-gardening-fanatic neighbors so we don’t have the most embarrassing lawn on the block, my job is to run around the back, side, and front of the house and collect all the tree branches that have flowed into our yard or been ripped off the trees in our nightly storms so that Ted can safely mow. We have quite the system going and an excellent pile of impressively large branches gathered by the side fence. I smell a bonfire with peep s’mores coming up any day now!
In addition to us both working full-time jobs and keeping up with the house, I’ve been actively and often applying for permanent theatre jobs in the greater Cincinnati area as they come up and just recently began serving as the Education Outreach Manager for this fantastic non-profit movement-based performing and educational arts company’s new education department while Ted secured himself a road-case building gig for a band from Wisconsin. We’ve been busy. To top it all off the honeymoon research and planning has officially begun, with all its fun excitements and discoveries, and budgeting heartbreaks and headaches. Slowly but surely, we’re making decisions and getting there (we think).
I’d also like to take a moment to thank the U.S. government for charging an outrageous $180 for me to simply change my last name on my perfectly valid and completely un-expired passport so that we can actually have a honeymoon. Thank you, government, for that totally asinine and utterly ridiculous policy of charging so much to do so little. My sincerest, most heartfelt appreciation for that lovely wedding gift.
In our limited spare time, we’ve still managed to squeeze in a little R&R. A few nights ago we drove over to Olive Garden for a date night to use up the rest of an Olive Garden gift card we received last Christmas in the family gift card exchange. While it poured outside we sat warm and dry inside, serenaded by romantic Italian lilts, and dined on the infamous soup, salad and bread sticks meal-extraordinaire. In between bites we snagged two of the kids’ “keep busy” booklets and a pack of crayons from the basket right by our table (as you can see, this was entirely their fault for placing it within our reach) and filled out cheesy Italian vacation postcard mad-libs, word unscrambles, and maze puzzles. It was glorious. Another night we tuned in for an episode of one of our favorite TV shows then got the urge for a late-night malt & milkshake run. We hopped in the truck, while it rained, and ended up at Steak & Shake for a chocolate malt and strawberry milkshake. I’m sure you’ll be relieved to know that I created fabulous placemat artwork there as well. Click the picture to enlarge the genius that is my handiwork.
On Thursday night we were invited to attend an invited dress for Cincinnati Ballet’s Infamous Love Songs dance production at the Aranoff Center. Since the Aranoff is downtown we hit up Potbelly’s sandwich shop in Fountain Square and witnessed a truly first-class freak wind and rain storm (are you noticing the pattern here?) that sent students, businessman, and sightseers scrambling for cover. We enjoyed the great work of the dancers, designers and live Cincinnati-based band and singer called Over the Rhine (named for the inner-city suburb of Cincy). The production was a hodge-podge of ballet, modern and jazz to some really nifty songs. Definitely worth seeing!
Somewhere in between all of that we used a Groupon and took both vehicles for a thorough interior and exterior washing, vacuuming and polishing and I’ve taken a few bike rides through the upper-crust Markley neighborhoods by our house on my occasional day off. I’m wishing the weather would clear up for longer than a few hours or a day at a time so Ted and I can pack the bikes and our roller blades in the truck and head out for several hours to Bass Island for a respectable bike ride.
I’m off work today and tomorrow, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, grocery shopping, preparing some (hopefully) really delicious meals, starting in on the education outreach work, and doing some vacation planning. We’ll see what comes of it all, but I just wanted to drop by to ease fears that since I haven’t blogged for three days that I’m probably dead.
We are alive and well and thankful for it.
P.S. – I do intend to get back to blogging more regularly during the summer. As in, not this week. But I’ll be by every few days to enlighten you with all manner of random nonsense.
P.P.S. – The picture of our finished, clean, organized, and shelved basement I promised. Disco ball not included. You have no idea how hard it is to get a great picture of a disco ball in motion.
