Four Years

Yesterday marked the four year anniversary of the day I said, “I do.” We didn’t have anything special planned since we sort of celebrated a couple of months early with our trip to Kauai. Instead, we slept in, ate Hardee’s biscuits and gravy for breakfast, took a 3 hour nap, walked around our local lake and just enjoyed the day. That night we went out for a dinner at a new place (or new to us) called Ice Kitchen, followed by ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. We didn’t exchange gifts, just cards, and it was a simple, lovely Saturday not unlike just about any other Saturday. And I consider that a good thing: that every weekend is sort of like a mini celebration.

Anniversaries are also a time for reflection. Looking back on that day and remembering all the good times between then and now. There are so, so many. And there’s still so much we want to do. So much we have to look forward to. I love looking back at all we’ve done in the past, but I love dreaming about the future even more. I suspect I’ll be doing quite a bit of that these next few days, considering my 28th birthday is this week. There won’t be any elaborate celebrations to mark that day either – just a simple dinner with family (my mom is in town) – but I always take the opportunity to reflect on the last year, and make plans for the next one. And considering my birthday falls close to the 6 month mark, half way throught the year, it’s a good time to take a look at those oh-so-forgettable New Year’s resolutions and see how I’m doing (writer’s note: usually not very well). But at least I’ve still got another six months to work on it.

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Housekeeping

And I mean that quite literally.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about hiring a maid service. My thought process goes something like this:

“Damn, my house is dirty. Didn’t I just clean this place last week last month? WTF? Maybe I should hire a cleaning service. No, that just sounds so…snobbish. Like, only rich people who are too lazy to clean hire cleaning services. I might as well just get an effing butler! And name him Alfred, like in Batman. Ha! I’d be JUST LIKE Batman if I had a butler named Alfred. And he’d bring me awesome new lethal weapons disguised as regular household items. Like, check out this spatula that’s really a whatever-you-call-it that shoots across buildings, hooks itself to the other side, and lets you slide across with just the handle, thus ensuring your escape from the enemy! Yes, that would be awesome. Wait, what were we talking about? Oh right, cleaning services. That just seems so…snobbish.”

And so, I’m still debating whether or not to hire a cleaning service. The positives would be: a clean house (hello, Captain Obvious!), less stress, and fewer spousal arguments. The negatives would be: cost and feeling like a lazy, unaccomplished, trust-fund baby. (side note: no offense to those of you who use a cleaning service. I do not think you are a lazy, unaccomplished, trust-fund baby. It’s just that I come from a family that never, ever used a cleaning service. In fact, my family WAS the cleaning service. I have at least four family members that used to clean houses for a living. So it’s a concept that’s hard for me to deal with. My grandma possibly cleaning my house? Ridiculous.) I just tell myself, “I don’t NEED a cleaning service. I just need to take the time to do it and quit watching 10 hours of LOST on the weekends.” But then the weekend gets here and 10 hours of LOST later, my house is still a mess. I can keep it picked up but it’s never actually clean.

Then today, I dropped a black hanger on the floor. When I picked it up, it was covered in dust and dog hair. Just from dropping it on the floor for two seconds! Yes, that is how disgusting my house is right now. Yes, this is what happens when you have a 90 lbs ball of fur roaming your house 24 hours a day because it’s been too rainy to leave the damn dog outside. And I’m sick of it (SICK OF IT!) so I think I’ll just have to bite the bullet and hire a cleaning service, ego be damned!

So, does anyone know of a good cleaning service in St. Louis to recommend? Please and thank you.

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Goings On

Hm, two weeks since my last post, eh? Sorry about that. As it turns out, you didn’t miss much. The last few weeks have held nothing more than working, working out, sleeping, and a few happy hours and nights out with friends. The usual.

Today, however, I decided to go shopping with one of my best buddies and it’s probably a good thing I don’t like to shop more often. We did some damage to our credit cards, and yet I still don’t feel as though my work wardrobe is complete. My favorite purchase was completely un-work-related though – or at least it is until I can find an appropriate way to wear an off-the-shoulder sparkly penguin t-shirt to work. Any suggestions? I love it so much I’m wearing it right now. And I might even sleep in it tonight, who knows, because it is just that awesome. Why aren’t there more sparkly penguin t-shirts in the world? Someone should get to work on that. (And before you ask, no I’m not drunk; just strange.)

I decided to splurge a bit today after receiving my annual raise (and bonus!) so I feel I’m entitled to a penguin t-shirt if I want it, right? Right. (Man, I forgot how much blogging feels like I’m talking to a brick wall. That is until the comments start rolling in. Oh wait, I don’t get that many comments. So nevermind, it’s totally like talking to a brick wall.)

Tell me if someone else has this bizarre habit: I just can’t go to the mall and walk by the perfume counter without stopping to try on at least one perfume. Usually more than one. I’ll spray one scent on each wrist and then one on my neck. And it’s never a perfume that I already own because I want to explore other scents. Then I spend the rest of the day completely disoriented and confused because I can’t figure out what I’m supposed to smell like. Usually I’m pretty lucky in my perfume experiment choices, but there have been a few times when something smelled okay in the bottle but then I sprayed it and turned into my grandmother. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but I have a bit of an addiction to perfume. I don’t wear a ton of it, just one or two spritzs of one every day, but it’s my favorite thing to shop for (even though I never buy any) and the only thing I ever seem to ask for for birthdays and Christmas. I love it. I want to have a cabinet full of fragrant perfumes so I can choose one to suit whatever mood I’m in that day. What’s your favorite perfume?

Something else I noticed while shopping today: some stores (Forever 21, ahem) are trying too hard to bring the 80’s back. The things I saw today, I haven’t seen since 1994…at a garage sale. Striped denim? Half shirts that tie in front? FRINGE??? Blech.

Speaking of 1994…that was what, 16 years ago? Hm. I guess Elijah Wood won’t be responding to my fan letter after all. Jerk. I mean, what’s he got to do these days that he can’t catch up on his fan mail? Nothing, that’s what.

And this post? Is why I don’t blog more often. You’re welcome.

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