This week's menu

Luke just made our menu for the week.

Monday-Egg McShimeks
Tuesday-Biscuits and gravy
Wednesday-Waffles
Thursday-Eggs & Bacon
Friday- Pancakes
Saturday-Muffins

Don't get me wrong--I love brinner--but I think I might go into carbohydrates overload this week.

MIA

So, I've been a little MIA around these parts for a few months. Lots of things have changed in our lives, some good, some really, really hard.

Since September, I have worked three different jobs. I am currently only working one (praise God!). Here are the jobs I've recently done:

• Borders associate: I sold coffee and books (mostly coffee) at the Borders in Bloomington. I worked there all summer and my last day of work was the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The store is going out of business the first week of January and I didn't feel it necessary to work through the holidays for a severance check that probably would have been about $20 (since October, I only worked at Borders once a week).
• The Center for Survey Research electronic materials processing assistant: I was a "seasonal" employee here. There are many, many things I could say about the CSR, but I'll refrain. I will miss my co-workers there, with whom I could be very snarky and laugh about very mundane things. I worked at the CSR during the 09-10 school year and went back in October because Luke and I couldn't live off of my less-than-full-time/barely-above-minimum-wage job at Borders.
• Economics Department office services assistant: I am now employed full-time by Indiana University! I'm basically the receptionist for the Econ Department, which means I get to see Luke during the day! Today is my first full day (I have a bit of free time with which to blog), which also means I am now eligible for IU benefits. I feel like a grown-up again: I dress up for work, have good health insurance, and don't feel the need to be constantly looking for a new job.

We have a kitten! Meet Skywalker:

Bringing Skywalker to his new home.

He's about three months old right now, loves to cuddle and play, and has almost completely stopped climbing up our legs.

My husband reads this

Luke wants entertainment from my blog, so I must satisfy his desire by posting about something besides crafting.

I've been working at a bookstore this summer (and will most likely continue this venture through the school year) and it's been interesting study of people. I remember when I first moved to St. Louis and was subbing, I worked at a grocery store in the evenings and on weekends. I had to stop because after dealing with kids' issues all day, I'd spend my evenings dealing with those same issues manifest in adults and it made me sad for humanity. Bookstore life isn't that bad because it's definitely a more focused demographic that shops for books.

One of the things the retailer I work for does for the community is hold book drives. We have one going on now for the public school district in our community. A couple of issues with this idea:
1.) A lot of our "guests" do not live in the school district, or they have no connection to it (this is, after all, a college town),
2.) It's very political, as 43 positions were cut within the district this year, plus major funding cuts to all extra-curricular activities, including sports and music, and the libraries (some of the teachers have been called back to other positions now, but there are still a bunch that won't be with the district this year).

Part of my job as a cashier is to ask people if they'd like to purchase a book to donate to the schools' libraries. Here are a few of the stand out responses I've received:

-My taxes are high enough that it should cover the cost of libraries.
-The public library is always saying they don't have any money and look at all the remodeling they're doing! (This continued on for about two more minutes, all about public libraries, missing the point about school libraries completely)
-I'm buying books for my kids and they go to the schools, so I am donating to them.
-(Chuckle, chuckle) I donate all the books I buy after I read them.

And my personal favorite:

-I donate to the schools in a roundabout way.

All this to say, if you're asked to donate to any cause at any retail establishment and you just don't want to or have the means to, the cashier doesn't need to hear your excuse. Please, just politely decline. Telling the cashier your excuse won't win you favor in their eyes or make you look like a better person. We won't judge you if you just say, "Not today, thank you."

This has been a public service announcement from Cashiers Everywhere.

Pay it forward (with homemade craftiness)

I've been in craft mode recently and want to love on some people through my craftiness (the homemade kind, not the "I'm out to get you" kind). A new blogging buddy, Cortney, has gotten me into this and I hope others will join me!

Here's the way it's going down:

1.) Cortney will be sending me and 2 of her other readers a handmade gift,
2.) in return the 3 of us will post about it on our blog and host our own PIF (Pay it Forward) for 3 of our own readers,
3.) then those people will continue the PIF from their blog.

Here are the official "rules" of the PIF:

1. The first 3 people to visit my blog & leave a comment here on this post saying they want to participate will receive a homemade gift from me. You are allowed 1 year (according to the rules) in which to send out the gift.

2. You must have a blog of your own to participate in the PIF.

3. You must post about the PIF on your blog & you must offer the challenge of a PIF.

By accepting my PIF, YOU agree to host a PIF on your blog, you will agree to send a homemade gift (within 1 year) to the first 3 people who sign up on your blog to participate in your PIF & so it continues.

Happy crafting!

Easiness

Do you ever look at other people's lives and think how easy they must have it? I do. I do a lot. And then you start getting to know them, like really getting to know them, and you realize their life is not so easy.

I feel like I had two of those moments this week. And (this makes me feel a little guilty) it made me feel better about my life. Also, though, it made me feel closer to those two people, because we could share in the uneasiness of life together, and relate to each other, and grow closer. It made me feel like these are close friends instead of just "Bloomington friends" (which is how I've categorized them in my mind for the past year).

It's really easy (I'm sure for everyone, but especially when you live in a college town) to say, this is not my real life, it's just on hold until x happens. For me, x=graduate school being over for me and Luke. I'm guilty of doing this a lot, especially this summer. I'm trying to get over it. I'm trying not to bring up what I think of as my real life (i.e. being a teacher, living in a city) as much as I want to, because my real life is happening right now.

Overall, though, I'm thankful that I'm getting to the place where I have people again. People that are part of my everyday life, and I'm a part of theirs. It feels good.

Bummed out in Indiana

Dear Wedding Etiquette Guru,

My husband and I were married a year ago today and, like many couples, we saved the top tier of our wedding cake. We dutifully wrapped it in plastic and stuffed it into our freezer (after a week and a half in Ben and Emy's freezer since we honeymooned at their "resort").

I have been looking forward to eating this cake for 365 days. It was good cake. So this morning, Luke pulled it out of the back of the freezer and we let it thaw while we went about our day. As it thawed, the middle of it started to sink, and the sides of frosting started bulging outwards. We came home from dinner and decided to dig in to the cake. First question: Why didn't anyone tell us about all of the pieces of plastic that hold the cake up that are inside of the cake? Second question: Was our cake undercooked? Because it was really doughy with an after-texture (is that even possible) of chalky.

So, we threw the cake away. Sorry, Mom, I know you wanted me to save a piece for you.

What did we do wrong?

Sincerely,
Newlywed No More

We're all in this together

I feel like I owe something to all of you who listened to my moaning about the high school reunion. To be perfectly honest, it was fairly anti-climatic.

Here are some things that have changed since high school:

• alcohol is now legal for us to drink.
  
• one guy who was about 5'8" in high school is now about 6'2". His fiancee, who also is class of '00, couldn't stop talking about how tall he is now compared to high school.
• the guy who streaked across the football field our senior year brought his infant to the reunion...most conversations about this went "______ and a baby?" This was perhaps the most surreal part of the reunion.

Here are some things that haven't changed since high school:

• most of my classmates are still big drinkers. The keg was finished off an hour and a half into the night (I chose to abstain from drinking [also hasn't changed since high school] and drink too much vodka and limeade with my mom the next afternoon).
• my inability to look my high school crush in his eyes.
• my inability to talk to people outside of my own social circle (somehow, this has changed outside of my high school reunion).
• the girl who was emotional in high school, still emotional now.
• it's still fun to hear all the juicy details about high school classmates.
  

I'm glad that I went...I'm not sure I want to go to my 15, 20, or 25 year reunions. Maybe if we had the anti-reunion, where it's all of the people who were over high school before it ended and we don't still hang out with each other every weekend...That might be something I'd go to.