What a week...!

What an eventful past week and a half!

I birthed (weird, but we'll go with it) the idea for this blog post a few days ago where this would have been started with "What an eventful past week!" but things got busy and my eyes and brain were tired after work, and so here we are on Saturday evening.

Monday, January 4 - Nate's official first day as an employee with his energy company here in the BigD!  Woohoo!  He's been working for them in a contractor-type position since April 2020, but then was made permanent by his headhunter guy as of October, and then shortly after asked to come on board as a true blue employee.  I don't know what "true blue" means, but again...we'll go with it. ALSO - this was the 12th anniversary of our first date on 1/4/09. ;)

Tuesday, January 5 - My employer (The Doge) informed me that we qualified for the first round of the Covid-19 vaccine, so I hopped on that gravy train and booked my little tushiie to Parkland to get my arm shot-up with who knows what the good stuff. This is pretty crazy considering only frontline health workers, people with pretty serious conditions, and a few over the age of 70 or so were the only ones authorized to get the shot at this point.  Considering I'm going into work either 2 or 3 days every week AND I don't want to risk getting the virus AND I don't want BigNate to get the virus, I didn't hesitate at the chance to go ahead and get it.  I did not feel the shot at all (like for-realz), but then after I got home, I had a little bit of a headache, so I went to bed a tad early.  I woke up mid-slumber with a sore arm, and my arm was PRETTY sore the whole next day.  But then I was back to normal on Thursday.  They went ahead and scheduled me an appt. three weeks later (on 1/26) to get the second dose of the shot.  

Discreet purse shot whilst waiting the 10 min. after the shot was administered to make sure I didn't drop dead.

Wednesday, January 6 - What we all hoped would be a normal, non-exciting congressional session to officially approve the Electoral College votes from the election on 11/3, turned out to be quite the opposite.  Here's a glimpse.  

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Unbelievable.  Saddening.  Sickening. Other wordly.  Before even hardly any of the pictures and footage were released and Nathan remarked to me while sitting at the kitchen table, teleworking (3pm our time) "Some people just broke into the Capitol," I still couldn't have imagined this.

Thursday, January 7 - My brother-in-law turned the big 33!  Still some joy in the chaos and confusion.

Sunday, January 10 - It snowed in the BigD!  Other parts of North TX (and Shreveport - go figure!) received a substantial white covering on the ground and trees and whatnot, but sadly, we didn't.  It definitelly fell and was really pretty floating down from the heavens, but it'd been rainy before that, so it just turned to water on the ground.  Still pretty rad, though!

Monday, January 11 - We signed a renewal on our lease on the ole Gaston!  Not that memorable, but it's kind of crazy that we're about to hit our 1-year mark in Dallas.  (I bet you thought I was going to say "The BigD" there. ;)) Cheers to the nexty year filled with (hopefully!) waaaaay more exploring, waaaaay more socializing, and waaaaay less social distancing, mask wearing, hospitalizations, and death. 

Tuesday, January 12 - My niece, and daughter of said brother-in-law turned the big 4! She's such a cutie! 

A PawPatrol-filled Christmas

Not much eventfulness after Tuesday besides just learning more about the Capitol Riots and Trump officially being banned from Twitter (thank God!), but everyone is worried about Biden's inaugurations, which is scheduled for Wednesday, 1/20.  They're sending in lots of National Guard troops to stand ready, and tons have already been deployed to the Capitol.

So wild.  I remarked to Nathan on Wednesday when he told me about the Capitol chaos..."what country are we living in???!? Seriously??"

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T-minus 2 days 'til 2021

Apparently, Blogger decided to change up it's draft-posting interface while I took a little hiatus, so this is new. You can't see what I'm seeing right now, that is unless you're peeping over my shoulder during my lunch break at work, and if that's the case, kudos to you good sir for your invisibility and your ability to bypass the courthouse marshals, that is...unless you work here, and in that case Darren! Turn off your invisibility powers, and go back to your desk! 

Oh 2020 - just a mere 2 and 1/2 more days of your tomfoolery and then so long forever to your crazy self! What a year! Can I just say that again? Okay. thanks. What a year! 

We sent out Christmas cards with photos this year. I always thought this would be something we'd never do until we had cute little cherubs' faces to grace the card, but this year is what it is. Also, I'm narcissistic and I thought "Everyone's had a rough year. Maybe they'll smile at getting a card from us where we're dancing and laughing, and their holidays will be merry and bright!" Not really. But we did make it weird in typical Nathourtney fashion in taking a jab at the usual photo cards. AND and we included a puzzle for curious minds to solve.

(I redacted our last name from the card.  I swear we know how to center text correctly.)

So far only 3 people (out of almost 50) have solved it. I don't credit our mad puzzle-making skills for this, but more so that 40-something people saw the front of the card, thought "I don't get it. These people are weird," and then turned the card over to discover some ancient hieroglyphics strung across the bottom and proceeded to toss said card in the trash. 

Well, you know what I say to those 40-something people...

YOU LOSE!!

Okay, I've got a confession. *cue Usher* When I just typed out "hieroglyphics," I was convinced I spelled it incorrectly, but I didn't get the little red squiggly underneath it.  So I thought this new interface doesn't spell check.  Then I found an arrow and clicked on it, and switched from HTML view to Compose view, and now Blogger looks normal!  Hooray!  

Also, apparently I know how to spell "hieroglyphics" correctly because I checked Google, AND I don't have a squiggle. But I did misspell "invisibility" up there, so there's that.

Do you think 2021 will be like switching Blogger back to Compose view after a harrowing year of HTML view?  I sure do hope so.

I know I can't complain much.  I've got a man who loves me, a cat who loves me relies on me for food every day, a nice place to lay my head at night in a city I've dreamed for a few years of living in, a job that pays, and a heart that beats regularly, for which I am oh so grateful for.

but

man, this year's been a toughie.

I've had the urge to write more these past few days/weeks, so maybe you'll get a few more ramblings from me here and there, but that's it for now.  I'd like to write more, but it's back to the grind, and I fear that if I leave this unpublished 'til later, later might not come for who knows how long.  And then I'd have to go back up there and change the number of days that it's been after 2021 started and it'll all just be a big ole mess.

Gretchen and Delia

Well......I didn't plan on taking a month off to update you on all the exciting changes happening around these parts, but life uh....finds a way.

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That doesn't make any sense.  You know what else doesn't make any sense? Nothing really changed about the coronavirus except that cases decreased a lot in some areas because everyone was social distancing/teleworking/wearing masks during the very limited number of outings they were taking and then SOMEBODY was like "Well, I guess we're through the worst of it.  Back to normal, folks!" ...and here we are again with the number of cases increasing skyrocketing...and when will my better half and I finally be able to venture out into the great unknown of glorious Dallas??? #firstworldproblems

Okay, I'll stop being a little storm cloud now.  Onward to sunshine and rainbows.

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Recent Reads

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After rereading one of my favorite books for the fourth fifth sixth time (I don't really know...more than a few, but less than the number of times Nath'n has watched The Empire Strikes Back), I decided to give a book I started years ago another chance.  Back in what I would guess was probably 2014, I decided to read The Happiness Project because it seemed like an interesting topic, it was a New York Times Bestseller, and who couldn't stand a little more happiness in their life? Win-win-win, right?

I remember getting through the first few chapters back in '14, but I wasn't as avid of a reader as I am these days.  So naturally after not picking it up very often and feeling like it was taking for-ev-er to get through (my fault, I thought), I decided it just wasn't for me.  Since then I've wondered if maybe it was just me, so why not give the ole gal Gretchen another chance!?

I was wrong.

While I won't say that I hated the book, it was rather hard at times to get through.  I've told myself in the past that if I'm just not feeling a book after a few chapters in, it's okay to put it down.  Coincidentally, Gretchen says the same thing in this very book.  There are plenty more fish in the sea books on the shelf.  But then I'd think "Well, that's what I did last time!" So I'd make myself keep trudging, and boy was it a trudge! I found parts of the book interesting and enjoyable (at times), but all-in-all, it just wasn't my favorite.  I feel like it could have been three-quarters, if not half as long as it was, and it was just really hard to relate to the author at times because she has such a different personality than me and values things differently than I do. I'd give it 2 stars.

Needless to say, it won't be my go-to stocking stuffer for family members this year.  Except maybe the ones who wronged me.  hahaha jk #nohateforgretchen

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My subsequent and latest read was Where the Crawdads Sing.  To be honest, I wasn't particularly stoked about starting this because I'd been burned in the past by a New York Times Bestseller (cough, cough-see above), and I sometimes get a little weird about a book that I feel like everyone raves about when it's probably not typically something I'd read.  I knew this was set in the south in the mid-20th century, and I'm more of a modern fiction person.  But I thought, you know let's just see.  I can always put it down if I'm not digging it.

I was wrong.

It was sooooooo good! Count me in on the bandwagon of people who really liked (maybe even loved or lurved) this book!  While it was more nature-descriptive than I may like at times, I will say the author, who is a zoologist, has a way with words.  It also had a good amount of suspense throughout, which is not the norm for my reading choices.  A few nights when I was going to bed, I was like "Lawd Jesus, please let me not have any nightmares about the Marsh Girl!" And then one night when I was brushing my teeth after a particularly suspenseful chapter, Nathan showed up behind me in the mirror after I had closed my eyes for a minute, and I was so startled! #scaredycat

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Anyway, it kept me guessing throughout about who may have murdered the town superstar, but I won't give it away in case you read this and don't want the ending ruined.  And by "you," I mean you, Nathan.  Hah!  (p.s. thanks for being amazing and reading my sorry excuse of a blog) Back to the book - all in all, it was a great read, and I'd definitely recommend it!! 5 stars, Delia!

So yeah.  That's about it on the reading front for now.  I've just started this, and I'm already digging the small intro portion I read last night.  Excited to report back here hopefully soon with my overall thoughts.

Until then (which may be a month, but let's hope not), keep it funky and fresh and for goodness sakes SOCIAL DISTANCE AND WEAR YOUR DAMN MASK!!!!

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**Who am I doing blog posts with back-to-back Jurassic Park gifs in my posts? Oh...Nathan's wife.

Something old, new, borrowed, and blue

Hello from the other siiiiiiiiide.

Still in lockdown, still working from home, so not really the other side, but I felt like saying it anyway.  Today marks the start of my 9th week of teleworking. So while I'm really enjoying no commute time in my day and more comfortable clothes and easier lunches and more time working out in the morning and working alongside Jim and this and that and the other, I do feel really bad for all of the people out of work or suffering from the sickness or loss of income, etc. etc., and it'll be nice when we reach "normal" again.

But enough virus talk for now! On to more exciting things like what is up with the title of this post? I'm actually kind of proud of myself for such a clever title and post idea.  (at least proud by my standards, which we all know are extremely low.)

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Something old

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I decided to brush the dust off my copy of The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail whilst I was waiting on the library to get off their sorry ass* lend me my next read, and boy howdy am I ever glad for making such an important decision.  For those of you sorry asses that don't know, this book, is phenomenal. Period. It has wit and intelligence and perfect segues and inspiration and why am I not already living in the woods in my own Walden, living off my bean patch, eating imaginary huckleberries, but am instead tied to THE MAN???  It is just so, SO good, y'all. And if you haven't read it, then you should, and you will love it and reread it from time to time and also send me a thank you note at my cabin in the woods.  Of course, it'll be from your cabin in the woods and will probably be written on a stone, written by using a sharp stone (apparently, it's really stony around your cabin), but I'll appreciate the gesture nonetheless. 😉 
p.s. I swear I'm not stoned.

Something new

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My last read, before I manhandled (with my brain and eyes) the aforementioned, was a book called The Girl He Used to Know (not to be confused with this.)  I had high hopes for it being another book I would love (like this one) or even really like (like this one), buuuuuuuuuut it wasn't. It wasn't horrible by any means, and I was nice enough to give it a 3/5 stars on GoodReads, but it just didn't do anything for me. It was an easy read and *SPOILER ALERT* was interesting reading a love story about a girl who is on the Autism spectrum and seeing how she perceives things, as well as how others perceive her (the chapters alternate between her point of view, as well as the point of view of her love interest), but again, nothing really spectacular.  There wasn't witty banter or a great plot, and the ending (which was spanned over the last 6 chapters or so) were centered on September 11th, and it just wasn't that great. In conclusion, if you're desperate, read it, but don't say I recommended it.

Something borrowed

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When I thought up this catchy title for the blog post, this was the hardest (#firstworldproblems) blurb for me to come up with, but then the perfect-est thing dawned on me that I had to vent about.  So for work, we have to/it looks really good to participate/learn in these continuing education type webinars.  In one last week regarding helpful ideas for paralegals, the former attorney leading the course was describing how to use a particular website to research case law and/or briefs that might be helpful to your (my) attorneys.  At one point, she said "And when you find these previously published briefs that could really be helpful, you should use the information.  It's not stealing - think of it more as borrowing. You're borrowing points and ideas someone else has already made or used."

While I understand what she's saying and have no issues utilizing this approach #butdon'tplagairize, it really bothered me that she thought to use the term borrowed to make it all sound... alright?  I got the impression she uses this verbiage often, considering the webinar I participated in was spread out over three sessions, and she used this "explanation" twice.  Just call a spade a spade, lady.  When I borrow a book from the library, I intend to give it back.  I don't think when you "borrow" language or ideas that you give it back. Except I guess you kind of do because you're not literally taking the text away from them and leaving them without it, but.... Okay, this post is already too long, and I've still got the blue part, but hopefully you catch my drift and agree that she should just use another word. *end rant.*

Something blue

Isn't that the most pitiful thing you've ever seen??

Oh my goodness - did we have an eventful weekend! On Saturday, Sagan seemed fine and dandy in the morning and afternoon, but then around dinnertime, he ralphed upchucked vomited tossed his cookies. Big deal, right? He's a cat and occasionally has hairballs and sometimes this happens.  Not this time - nosireee.  So then he tossed them again about an hour or so later, and not to be gross, but the substance contained... fewer cookies.  I swear this is important for the story - I'm not just being gross.  Fast forward to later and later in the evening, and more tossing and less and less cookies until it was like, poor thing - he's got nothing left in him except for bile.  (He also didn't eat or drink anything else after the initial tossing started.) So then I'm all in a panic like WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH OUR CAT?! and Nate is like I don't know, but we should plan on taking him to the vet on Monday (reminder, it's Saturday night), and then I am ferociously googling things like "feline acute vomiting" and "take cat to vet after excessive vomiting" and Nate the Great is probably like "if she's like this with our cat, what in the hell is she going to be like with kids?!?"

So the tossing continued to the point where it then started to contain blood (so sad, I know...and also gross - sorry), and it was 10:30 p.m., but we were like "okay - we need to go to an ER vet." So we did, and Sagan was a terror like he always is at the vet, but we didn't have to experience it because with COVID, no one was allowed in the vet, so they came to the car and got him.  Long story way too long - we went home with him that night after no sign of what the hell happened and then we had to take him back to the vet 12 hours later on Sunday morning and they sedated him and took x-rays and still NOTHING, and then he had a massive diarrhea explosion at the vet (thank god we were confined to our car just waiting on the verdict at this point) and they offered to keep him overnight but wanted thousand(s) (yes plural, and no I'm not kidding) of dollars to keep an eye on him, but we were like, please don't send us to the poor house, we'll take him home with us and administer meds and keep our own eyes on him.  And here we are today:

Already hard at work plotting his maniacal revenge for 2 vet visits.

So they shaved his arm for the IV because he got dehydrated after all of the aforementioned tossing and not eating or drinking, and now we think (and we're super hopeful) he's on the up-and-up, and so we can now make fun of his ridiculous appearance. :) And also really love on the little booger.

In a nutshell, we think these may have been the culprit because of reviews online that sounds similar to our problem, but maybe Sagan was just constipated and wanted to make a big show out of it!

*just wanted to clarify that anyone who knows me knows that i freakin' love the library and basically everything I say on here is nonsense and that librarians are heaven sent and should be paid millions of dollars.

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Updates and Mercy

It's been 487 days, and she's back with a bang, folks!

Not really...I just think that writing is therapeutic...cathartic...good exercise for my fingers something, so here goes.

I'll spare you (you=no one) the nitty gritty details of the past 487 days, but a lot has happened.  Tom Hanks died. Queen Elizabeth had a baby.  You know, the normal stuff that takes place over the course of a year and some change. In all seriousness,

• Nate the Great graduated! (A to the men! No doubts whatsoever in my mind, but SO glad he's done dealing with the college stuff from this place, and also SO SO glad that the funds in our savings account is no longer being slowly slurped away by that place!)
• We moved to Dallas!
• Coronavirus struck the earth, and we've all been on lockdown for the past ~6ish weeks give or take.

So yeah, I think that's all the blog post I have in me for now.  See you in another 487 days. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAxtVMuDYD8

(If you don't click that, you're dead to me.)

No, but really.  We're super excited to finally be living in Dallas.  We seriously considered the idea not long after we decided to sell our half of the granola company, but then things didn't align properly (aka the stars), and so it was pushed aside.  And then we'd keep talking about making it a reality but this, that, and the other would get in the way or convince us to hold off on it for now and then we almost bought a house in Shreveport, but then thank god we didn't because we decided to move to New Orleans for a job offer for me and then we were living in the big NOLA and then Nate had school to finish, and then...I've been rambling enough already, and this post was supposed to be about my most recent read.

Hah! Did you miss me? (again, you=no one)

But we're here*, and even though we were really only able to explore the city for a good week or two (after all the unboxing and "ughhhh where the hell are we going to put all. this. stuff?"), we're really REALLY excited about getting here and the next chapter of our lives.

Speaking of chapters... 

via GIPHY

I thought it might be fun for me to at least pretend that I should jump on the ole blogger every few weeks or so when I finish a book to A) document it and give my review of it, as well as B) make some kind of excuse to really just get my butt back to blogging/documenting life.  I mean, I've already rambled on for how long and look where were at.

Source...and get you a copy while you're there

I finished Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy last night, and I'll go ahead and let the cat** out of the bag (so he can breathe again), and let you know that I'd give it 5/5 stars!

It was a really interesting read about capital punishment and equal rights with an emphasis on death row, as well as how messed up our criminal justice system is, all while interweaving real life stories of men and women and kids (who became men and women) who were helped by Mr. Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative, or EJI.

The Civil Rights Movement and civil rights in general are something that I feel I've always been drawn to.  I always have felt that Rosa Parks in particular was someone I have looked up to, not to mention MLKjr, and after Nate and I visited the Civil Rights Museum and Lorraine Motel in Memphis this past August, I don't think I'll ever view that time period the same.  (Sidenote:  I highly recommend everyone go.  It's so well done, and overall, one of the best museums I've ever been to.)

Back to it - this book is so good, but also is heavy at times.  Some nights after I'd put it down, I'd just stare at Nate and say something like "I just don't understand how they can treat people like this." So if you're looking for a lighthearted beach read come July when your toes are submerged in the surf....who am I kidding, we will STILL be on Covid-19 lockdown come July.  All that to say, everyone should definitely read it, and we should all give our whole paycheck every month to the EJI because man..those people, Bryan Stevenson in particular, are saints.

Enough for now seeing that it's Sunday at 5 til' 5, and dinner ain't gonna make itself. 

*If you know this movie and love it (like you should), email me so that we can be BFFs.
**The cat already has enough trouble trying to breathe through his crusty, runny nose.