Enter the protagonist.

We found a place on the east side of town that had two-bedrooms available for a little more than what we are paying at our current place. The apartments were bigger, though, and all came with balconies! We would have a bigger kitchen and living area, and the bedrooms were sensibly sized. We toured one and we were very impressed with not only the size and appearance but also the other amenities. There was a workout room in one of the buildings, open to all tenants, a party room in each building, and a billiard room in each building. The place has a heated garage (which I don’t foresee us paying for), a bike cage in said garage, and a big swimming pool – bigger and deeper than at our current place. We put our names down on a waiting list to be called if there was a vacancy that came up around the time we needed to move.

Johnathan called them in late June out of curiosity, just to see if they thought they would have any coming up soon. As it turns out, that waiting list meant absolutely nothing. Nada. They had a couple of apartments available, but none that fit our request (two bedroom, one bathroom in the main building – where the fitness center was). Well, actually, they did. But they had promised it to someone who would be bringing the deposit the next morning. They followed that up with, “Whoever gets here first gets the apartment.” Bzuh! Okay, so we bit. Hard.

We spent that evening figuring out how to acquire the money necessary to make the transaction happen. We withdrew cash from one bank account, then went to our local bank to get a money order (as we had neglected to ask what name to put on the check). We showed up bright and early that morning. Excessively early. The office didn’t open until 10AM, but the lady had said that they would be there starting at 9:30. I thought that meant they could let us in starting in then, but Johnathan insisted it meant that they were saying we could show up at 9:30 and be fine. The other person wasn’t schedule to get there until 11AM, so I thought it would be polite to at least wait until they were actually “open” to go in. One minute to 10, Johnathan knocked on the door. It turns out I was wrong – she was inviting us to show up at 9:30.

It didn’t matter, though. The person who had been promised the apartment came back the night before, just before the office closed for the night, to put down her deposit. She didn’t want to miss out on it! We had gone through all that, only to end up disappointed. “But,” she said,  “I have another that you might be interested in.” She gave us the details. It was a two-bedroom one-point-five bath with an L-kitchen instead of a square one. Hmm. It was $40/month more, but it also had more square feet. We said okay, we’d look at it. The advantage that I could see to this one was that it had an air conditioner in the second bedroom – something I desperately wish we had now. It was also on the eighth floor. Well, heck yes!

Oh, the apartment was wonderful, especially compared to our current abode. It has four ceiling fans – one in each bedroom, one in the dining area and one in, of all places, the kitchen. It has a pantry. It has a big storage closet and a linen closet, a coat closet, and of course closets in both bedrooms. The bathrooms are nothing really special, but I didn’t expect anything special. It has lots of windows, and a 32 foot balcony. 32 feet! There are two doors out onto the balcony – one from the smaller bedroom and one from the living area. I am just amazed by the apartment. It’s a lot more than we’re paying right now, but after juggling numbers, we can easily afford this move, and still arrange for some savings as well. Heck. Yes.

There are some downsides to the apartment, though. The kitchen is… dated, I think, is the word I’m looking for. The floors look old, and the counters and cabinets look worn. They were maybe stylish 30 years ago! The hallway is narrow, which leads to some worries about fitting furniture down the hall into the bedrooms. The master bedroom closet is a bit on the small side, which means we’re going to need to get some additional bedroom storage, I think. (Our current dressers are falling apart; they weren’t well-constructed when they were built years and years ago, and are obviously not meant to last forever.) Other than that, I ‘m pretty excited!

We asked for a new stove if they’re able and willing, and we got to pick our carpet color from four different colors since they were going to replace it anyway. We ended up picking the color they were planning on using, but it was definitely the best choice, I think. Not too dark, but certainly not white.

I am really looking forward to living on the top floor. Living in a new place where we can settle in with a little more sensibly-organized space, with thing that will hopefully not fall apart after regular use (our “brand new” refrigerator in our current place had the door come off within about a month of moving in – we fixed it ourselves because the manager couldn’t be bothered to remember). I look forward to being able to cook without tripping over the other counter, and being able to have two people in the kitchen at the same time without being stuck. Some days I feel like Sims in the kitchen, putting up protest because yet again there’s another Sim– erm, person… in the way.

We’re moving! … In the middle of September! The first day of our lease is September 15, and Johnathan and I are like-minded in that we want to make sure our stuff gets moved that weekend. I’m not sure when we’re going back to sign the lease, but I can hardly wait. A new chance to make a place into home!

Speaking of making places into home, we have big plans for this place, and many of them involve IKEA. We have built an entertainment center with many bookshelves, and a place to mount our TV. We have come up with a good sewing table for Johnathan, which will have more storage. There’s a kitchen cart for extra workspace. There’s a wardrobe for bedroom storage. There’s a couch to go with my modern/minimalist idea of what our living room should look like. There are vases and dishes and silverware — okay, I’m getting a little ahead of myself. The priority is going to be the entertainment center and sewing desk, and possibly the kitchen cart if we don’t find one locally that we like. We’re going to drive to Pittsburgh, possibly with Johnathan’s mom’s van, and pick up everything that we put on a very restricted wishlist to make this place into home. I am hoping that we can make this look like the home of two adults rather than two young twenty-somethings who are struggling along with whatever they can. We had our bookshelves fall apart lately, so I don’t want to deal with that again.

I can hardly wait to move in to our new place and make it home.

People feel very strongly about what the “right” way is to give birth (natural versus with the assistance of drugs versus c-section), and what the right way is to nurse your child and bring them up. There are the people who feel like breastfeeding should be out there in the open for all to see, arguing that the baby shouldn’t have to be hidden just because it eats “naturally.” The people who think that those who bottle-feed for any reason are lazy and gave up on the natural way. There are people who very obviously look down on anyone who had to have a c-section for any reason, or who had drugs to assist the very painful process of vaginal birth.  The more I read, the angrier I get, not because people aren’t entitled to their opinions about what is best for them and their child, but because they are projecting those beliefs onto everyone else and making bad situations worse by making women feel guilty who, for one reason or another, did not or could not do it the way that the advocates believe is the best.

I am not an expert when it comes to having children. The closest I come is having a monthly period, and that’s, well, exactly the opposite of pregnancy. So I’m as close to it as the north pole is to the south pole, really. I do, however, have some strong opinions about it, despite not having done it myself. I was around for all of my step-mother’s first pregnancy, and also around for the early stages of my older half-sister’s life. I witnessed the nine months of morning (noon and night) sickness, the changes that she went through, and then the “aftermath”, so to speak. (She was born by c-section because she was breech and they couldn’t turn her, so right there, her pregnancy gets discounted by a lot of people online. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do, you know?) I was there when the lactation specialist visited, and I was there helping when we made baby food for the baby. She wasn’t my child, but I was a major part of her life for her first ten months or so until I moved out after my graduation. So I was there for that part.

It doesn’t take a genius to take in the norms that emerge when it comes to having a baby. For instance, babies are going to poop. It happens. They spit up, they pee, they poop, they drool, they snot, they make messes with their food. It’s normal. They pretty much control the schedule for the first part of their lives, too. The fully-developed humans work around the schedule of the baby and go through sleep deprivation and lack of showers in order to facilitate the normal growth and development of this tiny, in development human being. These are the things which seem to be standard across normal early parenthood. And that’s where the “norms” stop. After that, everyone has their own way of dealing with aspect of it. Cloth diapers or disposable? Breastfeeding or formula? Jars of baby food or homemade? Do you do baby swim lessons? Do you listen to Mozart for hours to facilitate development? At this point, I have to shrug and say, “Hell if I know.”

What really bugs me is that it seems to me that parenthood is a very personal thing. I can understand giving advice and anecdotal evidence when requested to do so, but there are so many people who are willing to give out advice without being asked, or going far beyond the request so as to be pushy about it. The thread I was reading devolved into a bunch of people going back and forth about what they experienced and what was the “right” way of doing something. All of this, of course, without taking into consideration that there are plenty of reasons that it might not work or be able to work that way for any other person. It takes all kinds of people and situations to make up the world, and for as many pregnancies there are, that’s how many different parenting and child-rearing styles there are likely to be. I feel like as long as the child in question is growing up as healthy and strong as possible, it shouldn’t matter whether mom is able to breastfeed or whether she used disposable diapers to catch the refuse.

This kind of advocacy bothers me more than any other kind. It is the same as evangelism in that it doesn’t consider what the audience wants, instead pushing its own view of what’s right regardless of extenuating circumstances or differing opinions. I’m not saying that these people aren’t entitled to their opinions and views. They are every bit as entitled to theirs as I am to mine, but I should be entitled to feel differently than them without feeling persecuted by them for the difference. I guess this comes down to my dislike of someone touting any one idea as the only truth and asserting that all around them should agree.

Ultimately, I had to stop watching the thread. I ignored the user who was pushing the hardest and who started the “argument” (it was very civilized, but I didn’t understand why it had to happen at all), but that doesn’t stop the conversation from happening. I wish the lady who started the thread all the best, and I sincerely hope that she has a smooth pregnancy and that parenthood suits her perfectly. I can’t read the preaching and pushing anymore. That particular user, it seems, is just not willing to let the subject drop until she has somehow proven that she is in the right on each issue on which she believes herself to be an expert. And maybe she is an expert – I have no way of verifying or disproving this claim. But whether she is an expert or not, she is giving her expert advice in a venue that is really inappropriate, since she can have no way of seeing whether her advice is the most appropriate for the people in question. And frankly, it comes across as very judgmental for those who do not adhere to the way of behaving during pregnancy, of birth or of child rearing that she believes is best.

Opinions are all well and good, as is active and healthy discourse about those opinions. It can open up people to ideas that they maybe hadn’t considered before. However, I think we should draw the line at making actual statements of how things “should” be and what is the one and only “best” way of doing anything. Whatever happened to live and let live?

Since I now have Saturdays free, it meant we could go together to the market, and since it’s going on Summer, we figured it would be good to go back to the market to get some fresh vegetables and support local growers. This past Saturday, we headed out fairly early to get there before the place was absolutely packed with people. It was nice to walk from stand to stand and take in what each one had to offer. We tried to keep from buying too much from any one stand and we did our best to scope out the cheapest prices that were offered. In the end, we came away with four zucchini, four yellow squash, two limes, two lemons, two things of broccoli, two enormous vidalia onions, one very large red onion, an orange, about six peppers (at least four red, not sure why), two ham hocks and a loaf of bread. We spent about $30 total while we were there.

Incidentally, we loved doing our shopping on Saturday morning for a change instead of a weekday evening. People are so much friendlier! Both the customers and the cashiers at the stores were less pushy and stressed out. It was fantastic. It took us three hours from when we left for the market until we got home and finished putting all of the groceries away. I’d say that’s pretty good for three stops and a massive amount of groceries. (We needed to stock up on pretty much everything.)

I was feeling pretty good about our choice to buy our veggies at the market, until Tuesday morning, when I got up and wondered what the foul smell in the kitchen was. It took me a little while to figure out what it was, but I did eventually find the source. The first thing I found was that our orange was half molded over. Following that, I discovered that the foul smell actually originated from our zucchini and yellow squash. One zucchini was so rotted through it fell apart and was oozing in the bowl where I had put it. Another was almost at the same point, and a third had mold all down one side. One yellow squash had an enormous rot spot on one side. Four days after we purchased this produce, it was going bad. It doesn’t seem reasonable to me to lose so much produce in such a short span from purchase. All in all, we lost about $8 worth of produce. I was able to salvage the orange – thankfully the mold was only on the outside and I only needed its juice, but everything else was a total loss.

Needless to say, we weren’t very happy about how that turned out. We wanted our trip to the market to be a nice change to our usual shopping habits, and I really wanted to be able to support more local commerce than megamarts. I’m disappointed that we put so much faith in the people who put these stands together and that their produce ended up being sub-par. We will be going back to the market, but with this in mind, the way we shop will change:

• We won’t buy as much. Obviously this stuff is so close to being on its way out that it doesn’t last as long as expected, so we might as well go more often if we need to.
• We’ll keep track of which vendors have given us produce that’s gone south in a hurry, and which ones have given us quality produce. We might as well play favorites in this kind of scenario.
• We won’t let them pick for us from the back. With the squash and zucchini, we let them do this for us, and I think that may have been part of the cause – it was the older produce to begin with. (The orange we picked out ourselves. I have no idea what happened there.)

It’s not a lot of change, but it’s some. I’d hate to give up on the market completely so quickly after going back for the first time in a year and a half. We do want to shop at the market. We just don’t want to lose what we buy so soon after bringing it home.

If you’re in the Cleveland area, do check out the West Side Market! We’ve gotten some great bread there and the produce is really nice when it lasts a reasonable amount of time.

The first film we saw was on day 2 of the festival: La Belle Personne. As a starting film, we found it was a let-down. The characters were on the whole uninteresting and undeveloped, and there was a lack of emotion that seemed to ruin many of the potentially poignant moments in the film. We left the film feeling decidedly disappointed.

We started out fairly early the next morning to get to the first film of our second day, Welcome to Farewell-Gutmann.  I really enjoyed this one. It was kind of intense in spots, but it had some good laughs and an intriguing plot. The characters were well-established without excess information being shoved in our faces, and the plot propelled itself without needing to be forced. After the movie was over, we had planned to take a block off for lunch, not thinking about the fact that we would be able to eat fairly quickly. We then had three hours to kill. (I think I nearly killed my phone by using it for normal internet browsing during that downtime.)

After that, we lined up for Children of Invention. The film was so charming. I really became emotionally involved in the life of each of the family members, even while the mother was struggling with her own “addiction” to get rich quick/pyramid schemes. The children were so adorable and winning.

After the film was over, we turned around and got in line for the next one, which was Night and Day. The line for this one wasn’t long at all, as compared to the line for Children of Invention. We got fairly good seats – actually in the middle section, too! (We tended to stay to the right side of the house and sit all the way against the wall; more guaranteed seats that way, and that way nobody had to climb over us if they wanted seats farther in.) I have to say, this is one of the longest movies I’ve seen without much plot to show for it. The main character started out interesting, but as the movie progressed, I was unimpressed with his demeanor. The surrounding characters were mostly flat. The story moved too slowly to hold much attention, and while there were some amusing moments, the movie just felt bland. The inclusion of a random dream sequence that accomplished nothing did little to improve my opinion of the film. This one was our second disappointment.

Fresh off of one of the longer movies that we saw at the festival, we turned around and got straight back in line again to see Tokyo!. It was… strange. Bizarre. I will say that it was the perfect midnight movie. I didn’t dislike it, but I don’t think I would have liked it at all had I seen it the next day at the 2PM showing instead of at midnight after having seen three other movies, slight lack of sleep, hopped up on caffeine and jittery. I’m honestly still on the fence about this one. I can’t decide whether I liked or disliked it. I think it was just middling for me, and it was certainly weird.

Some poor planning on my part meant that after getting out of the movie the previous evening at about 2AM, we had to get back downtown to see Cherry Blossoms at 11:20AM the next morning. Whoops. Thankfully, the movie was good and successfully captured my attention. This was the runaway hit of the festival; people couldn’t stop talking about it to the point that there was another showing added on top of the two that had already gone, and all three sold out two theaters. I thought the movie was good. It may have even qualified for very good. (I believe Johnathan thought it was excellent.) It was poignant, emotionally charged and interesting. The landscapes were well-captured and the characters sufficiently established in their lives so that the audience became invested in their lives.

Once again, we scheduled downtime for ourselves that we didn’t actually need, so again, I found myself playing on my phone and draining the battery for several hours. (Needless to say – we learned our lesson. Don’t skip movie blocks if you can help it! Or else, bring a book.) Our next film was Eldorado. I will be the first to admit that I really didn’t understand what the plot was meant to be. The movie seemed to go on in its fun and games vein without really establishing anything by way of plot, and then suddenly it was over. There were some entertaining moments, but that’s about all that could be said of this one. It was just not great.

Thankfully, we had another one that we were pretty certain would be good following right after so there wasn’t really much time to dwell on the disappointment. Prom Night in Mississippi was next on our itinerary, which we were both pretty excited to see. It was a documentary about a town which, until 2008, had always held segregated proms. I liked seeing the various students express their sentiments about how the felt regarding the separated proms and how they felt about the possibility of finally having an integrated one. I really enjoyed the story and the way it was shared. It was a little slow in spots, but I really enjoyed it otherwise.

Monday, it was back to work (with my groggy, sleep-deprived self!) and looking forward to seeing Crude after work. I thought that one was good, but not great. It was slightly preachy, which I thought was probably natural given the subject matter (the damage that Big Name Oil Companies have caused in South America by unethical and reckless drilling habits). It was good, but I couldn’t go so far to say it was great.

Tuesday night, we saw Forgotten Transports: To Estonia, which was a documentary about a group of women who had gone from camp to camp together during the Holocaust. I enjoyed it because instead of focusing on the travesty and making a point of giving out the numbers to further illustrate the tragedy, this focused on the relationships between the women. There was laughter, and they shared some happy memories in addition to the sad ones. It was a more emotional story in that it more humanized both those who had been in the camps and the Nazi soldiers who were purpetrating the crimes against them in the camps. I was really glad that we saw this one.

I had Wednesday off, and since Johnathan has an earlier work schedule, we were able to see three movies on Wednesday instead of the one that we were seeing during the rest of the work week. The first one we saw was Correction. We got settled into our seats easily because the line wasn’t long for this one. An older couple sat down in front of us, which isn’t an issue ordinarily – seats are for sitting. The problem was with the woman’s perfume. (Or maybe her hairspray – it was hard to tell; it was overwhelming.) I tried to tough it out, but any time I’d move or readjust, her perfume would come at me again and I’d have a wave of nausea. Coming off of food poisoning, that feeling is twice as bad as it’s ever been, so I definitely didn’t want to cope with that for the whole film. We moved down a few rows, behind a single movie-goer which seemed promising. He wasn’t emitting the foul perfume. Much to my dismay, his female counterpart, who joined him just moments before the lights went down for the movie to begin, was wearing the very same perfume as the lady two rows back. Needless to say, I was not impressed. I was also unimpressed with the audible talking and the singing that went on at one point. The movie itself was nothing worth talking about. It could have used some dialog to maybe establish a semblance of plot, and perhaps a steadicam so that the audience wasn’t prone to motion sickness. It was bar none the worst movie that we saw at the festival. I think it’s the only one that I gave a rating of “poor.”

After Correction, we saw Dunya & Desie, which I thought was really great. The characters were endearing, and their journey had a purpose. The turn of events was interesting and there were enough comical moments to keep the mood of the film light. Johnathan classified it as a “chick flick,” and I suppose he could be right. It was definitely focused on relationships and the journey of said relationships rather than anything… I dunno, exploding. I thought it was poignant and emotionally interesting.

Straight after this was over, it was back in line for yet another film: An Alternative to Slitting Your Wrist, which I was pretty excited to see. It was filmed by a guy who grew up in Cleveland, and it was just an interesting premise. He had ended up in the hospital after a breakdown, and while he was there, he wrote a list of 52 things he would do in the next year instead of committing suicide. The documentary was basically an account of what that year of things. It was very emotional, but also amusing as he showed clips of some of the sillier things on his list (squirrel fishing, for instance). There was a Q&A with him afterward and I was really glad that we had both seen the movie and gotten to see the documentary. I’m thinking we might have to buy it on DVD; I think it’d be worth having around.

The next day it was back to work, then yet another trip downtown immediately afterward for a movie. Parking was absolutely horrible that day, and people were being crazy in the garage, so after work, I was grumpy enough that the parking situation made it worse. No matter – we got in line for Between the Folds with plenty of time to spare and headed in. Our seats were about midway down, as we liked them, and the theater filled up completely.  Preceeding the movie was a short film called Sing Opera! which was very cute. We should have realized at this point that we had inconsiderate neighbors, because they kept talking during the short. I thought that it was maybe because the short film wasn’t what they were there to see (despite it being advertised in the program guide with Between the Folds). I was getting increasingly annoyed as the movie began because the woman began saying “Oooh!” and “Ahh!” at every interesting piece of origami that was shown on the screen. They were all neat and intricate, but I didn’t think it merited the volume that she was using. She and her husband continued to talk throughout the film, discussing the different techniques, the different pieces and making comments to each other about it. Johnathan shushed them twice. Someone from across the aisle shushed them. Someone from behind us shushed them. Nothing kept them from talking – it didn’t even slow them down. I was livid. If that wasn’t bad enough, there was someone in the front row who kept having strange sneezes about every two minutes or so, which just added to my anger at the situation. I couldn’t even now tell you how the film was. Much of my time was spent trying not to lean over and hit the man or his wife for their inconsideration to those around them. This was the by far the worst audience experience that we had throughout the festival.  I left in a rotten mood and if I’d had the guts to do it, I would have asked the couple next to us to give us $20 to pay for the movie that the had just ruined entirely for us. Unfortunately, I wasn’t brave enough to confront them about it.

The next day, I worked again, and I was hopeful that perhaps we would be seeing a better movie with a better audience. First off, though, we were heading down for a “Tweetup” at Houlihan’s at Tower City. We had been planning it since about day two of the festival, and we’d had a total of seven people from Twitter RSVP for it, including us. One of the people who was planning it with us got sick, so he couldn’t make it, and we assumed his female counterpart wouldn’t make it since he wasn’t going to. One of the people who had RSVPed was working at the festival and I’m pretty sure he just got tied up and couldn’t make it up there. The other two who were supposed to come? We have no idea. Johnathan and I were there, and there was one other lady from Twitter who did make it, so the three of us sat and ate dinner, then we headed down to see our next film.

Alexander the Last had looked interesting in the guide and I was hopeful. The audience for the film, we discovered, was a younger crowd. I was a bit worried to see that, but figured that wouldn’t hopefully affect our audience experience. I was also maybe over-sensitive to the noise that they were making in the queue because I had developed a headache over the course of the day and by that point, my head was throbbing. I took something for it, and by the time the movie started, it subsided, so I’m confident that my feelings about the movie weren’t influenced by that. I guess it goes without saying that I didn’t really enjoy it. Actually, the guy at the end of our row summed it up perfectly after the film: “I don’t get it.” I felt like there was little by way of plot, and if I hadn’t read the summary in the guide, I probably wouldn’t have had any clue what the point was supposed to be. What’s even stranger to me is that others seem to have absolutely loved this film, so I’m wondering if maybe I missed some incredibly important moment that made the whole thing make sense. The chemistry that was supposed to be there was one-sided, and I found it difficult to care much about the characters because they weren’t very well established. It was disappointing because this was one of the ones I was looking most forward to.

The next day, I worked from 8:45 to 1:45, then came home, only to head right back out. We went to Red Robin for lunch and had the worst experience that I’ve ever had there. We were taken to a table that didn’t look like it had been wiped down yet. The manager was a bit surprised at that and quickly got someone over to sweep the floor, though nobody came by to wipe down the still-sticky table. Strike one. Our waitress showed up just seconds after we arrived at the table and started basically demanding our drink order before we’d even had a chance to sit down at the table. I said I didn’t know what I wanted and she just stood there expectantly, forcing me to make a quick decision about what I wanted to drink. Strike two, and we hadn’t even sat down yet. Strikes three through whatever happened when we had to deal with a smug waitress who did very little by way of service. She took our order but asking questions made her surly toward us, which was unpleasant. We had no silverware, no napkins, had to ask for refills. I was totally disgusted with the whole experience. If we hadn’t been in a hurry, we’d have stopped to tell the manager how the experience went.

Our first film on the second Saturday was White on Rice, which was a late addition for us. The theater filled up quite a bit, so I was hopeful that it would be a good one. The film itself was quite entertaining. I thought it would be uncomfortably awkward, but the main character was endearing enough that it took the edge off of it some. It had a lot of funny spots, and I liked the way that it ended. It was one of those endings that isn’t quite clean, but in a way that is still satisfying. The only aggravating thing about the movie was the people behind us. The girl behind us had no concept of what it was to be quiet in a movie theater, and her laugh was loud and shrill – and she laughed often, sometimes in places that weren’t actually that funny to the rest of the audience. Her friend next to her was what we called a leaky tire. He put his finger on one side of his now then slowly and loudly breathed out through the other nostril. It was quite loud and we weren’t sure what he was trying to accomplish by doing that. They also talked a bit during the movie, but it only took turning around once or twice for them to get the hint about that. Thankfully they weren’t near as bad as the sneezer and the talkers during Between the Folds.

Next up was  Shall We Kiss?. After a little something to eat, we headed to the queue for that film and got into line. We were there quite early, but that worked out well. We got in line behind someone who was really nice. She and her boyfriend were seeing 39 films this year, and we’d seen many of the same films and also quite a few different, so we had a lot to talk about. It was great finding someone willing to chat in the line. It made the time before the film pass so much faster. Next thing we knew, it was time to go in. If the audience for this one was bad, we didn’t notice. The film was engaging and well-paced. I never felt like things were moving too slowly, though it wasn’t moving quickly. This one ranked up among my favorites in the festival. It was very good.

After that, it was time to get back into line again for Sparrow. I wasn’t as taken with this one. It was okay. Not great, but not bad. The pacing was off, and there were things that went unsaid that I think needed to be established to actually fuel interest in the characters. It felt like it was trying to be a Chinese Ocean’s 11, and it failed at that.

It was sad to go home that night, knowing that there was only one day of the festival left. We still had two movies left to see, though. Lemon Tree, which we decided to get on stand by since we weren’t able to get tickets earlier in the week, was the first one. We arrived at Tower City early, thinking we’d be able to avoid the crowds at the parking garage for the Cavs game, knowing there was one that day. What we didn’t realize was that it was actually a midday game so we’d arrived after the garage was filled. It took us a little while, but we did eventually find a spot to park and headed inside. We got down to the cinema and Johnathan asked where we should line up for Lemon Tree stand by. They told us that they thought there were still tickets being sold. … Oh. Apparently more tickets had been released, but the film had still been listed as stand by on the website, as well as still being shown on stand by in The Daily. We bought our tickets then found ourselves with an hour and a half to kill before we needed to actually get into line. I settled in to read my book, and Johnathan wandered around taking pictures. About forty-five minutes before the movie was set to start, we got into line. The theater filled up quite a bit, but I think everyone who was on stand by got into it. This one was excellent. It was emotional and I liked that it gave a more personal look into the conflict in the area. The characters were rich, and even without fully understanding the culture of the area, I felt like I understood what was going on and the motivations behind the reactions of the various characters. This one was up among my favorites for the festival, too.

After Lemon Tree, we did our last turn around and got in line for The Brothers Bloom. I had heard good things about it. The theater was completely filled (as, I think, was the second theater that this film was showing in). I was not disappointed. The pacing was good, the characters were interesting and the plot never got too heavy on us without something to break it up. I know I’ve said this before, but this is among my favorites of the films during the festival. It was really very good.

Afterward was the closing night reception. Everyone who was in a film during that final block was invited to attend, and we figured we would go. They were serving champagne and coffee as well as cookies and brownies. I snagged a brownie and Johnathan got a couple of cookies and we staked out space toward the front to watch the ceremony. They announced the winners for the various categories (we’d only seen one of them – the one that won the audience choice award: Cherry Blossoms), as well as the final attendance numbers. From the first Friday of the festival on through the last day, every single day exceeded previous attendance records. The overall attendance for the festival exceeded last year’s by 27%, coming to almost 66,500 people. It was amazing to have been a part of all of that record breaking, as well as to have helped out with the challenge match which also far exceeded the goal. They hit $52,000 which was almost $20k more than the goal of $33,000. The ceremony was emotional because of how emotional the CIFF staffers were and also because it was really punctuating that it was over for this year.

I can’t accurately put into words how amazing this festival was. Thanks to the involvement of the marketing director on Twitter and the other people at the festival (for the most part) being so wonderful and friendly, I really felt like a part of a community. I actually felt like I was a part of Cleveland, and that’s a new feeling for me – I’ve been here a year and a half now and never felt like I was a part of Cleveland. I’ve felt like a transplanted Portlander. I’m still a Portlander at my core, but now at least part of me is invested in what goes on here, which means I’m not just coasting through my time here.

We’re already looking forward to the 34th Annual Cleveland International Film Festival. We’ve decided that we’re going to take the week off and also become passholders so that we can just walk into films without having to worry about work or schedule obsessively. We won’t have to wait inline as much and we’ll have the advantage of the Hospitality Headquarters where we can get a snack if we need to. This was such a great experience; I can’t wait until next year so that we can do it again – plus some.

Let’s see: Johnathan and I signed the lease on a new apartment in mid-September. We painted two of the three rooms that we planned to paint before we ran out of time and interest in painting for the time being. We still plan to paint our bedroom, but we’ve got to unpack first. The living room, which was planned to be a nice, soft gold color, is more like a pumpkin. It’s not what I was hoping for, but it’s still nice, and I think it makes the room very cozy. The bedroom was supposed to be a rich blue, which… well, it’s definitely rich. It’s also bold. So bold that the room seems to glow in regular daylight. When we have the soft desk lamp on, though, it’s much tamer and it’s a very nice color. I’m now hesitant to see how our bedroom will turn out. It is supposed to be a kind of mocha color, nice rich brown. I’m hoping it won’t turn too dark, although I think it will still be okay even if it does. It’s just a little worrisome that we’re 0 for 2 on intended paint colors. We like both of them anyway, though, so maybe it’s not so bad.

We also had to pack up the old apartment and move everything to the new apartment. The packing part started out really well. I was cataloging everything so that we’d know where every one of our possessions was. I got about ten boxes put into the spreadsheet, then just gave up. With everything going on and working full time on top of it, there was just no way that I was going to have time to deal with trying to log everything at the same time. We got the bulk of our stuff to our new place before my family got into town, but at that point, everything started to fall apart for the moving business.

My dad showed up on Saturday while I was at work. They drove out from Portland and took a week doing it, but I had no idea when they were going to get to the Cleveland area. It was a bit of a surprise for me. Johnathan and I went over to their hotel room after I got off of work and hung out for a while. Some things never really change, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

On Sunday, we went out for lunch at Red Robin with my dad and his family 2.0, and then my dad and my older half-sister came to our new apartment and we shot the breeze for a little while. Allison arrived while my dad and half-sister were still at the apartment, so there was more chatting as well as some perusal of Veggie Tales videos on youtube before they left. In the interest of my dad’s sanity, I lent them some DVDs so that he would no longer have to watch the same four over and over on the trip back. I’m sure they were just as tired of the new ones as the old ones by the time they took the trip back across the country with the two little girls.

That evening, Allison, Johnathan and I had what we called a Bachelor/ette party. I got to wear a sparkly crown that announced my “bachelorette”-ness, a bright red boa and attempt to use straws with little penises on them to drink beer. (I think that was the strange part.) We had some Harvest Moon and some Woodchuck, which Johnathan and I insisted on calling Chipmunk. We played Disney Scene-It, and Allison and I tied throughout half the game. We must have had at least ten tie-breakers, and at least one tie-breaker to break a tie from a tie-breaker. I still won, though! My record is still nearly perfect. Whoo!

The next day, we waited for my mom to come into town. We watched The Devil Wears Prada (hooray for cable!) and Dan in Real Life. Both are excellent movies. My mom didn’t get in until about 5PM, though we were originally expecting her to be up to the Cleveland area by about noon. They got lost on the way up from Cincinatti, apparently. We went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, which was very yummy. I’d never been there before. My mom and Allison and I were going to go shopping at some point, but after such a long drive up, my mom wasn’t up for it, so Johnathan, Allison and I trekked over to Avenue. I got a lovely jacket, a nice shirt and a very nice sweater, as well as some jewelry to wear while we got married. I so infrequently wear jewelry that I didn’t actually own any to wear. Now I do! Hurray! Afterwards, we went back to the apartment, Allison and Johnathan had a bit of alcohol (I opted for pop instead), and we watched Bernstein’s Candide. I do love that operetta so!

In the morning, I woke up way too early, as is my habit whenever I have a deadline. I was showered and pretty much ready to go by about 8:30, when we didn’t have our appointment until 11AM at the courthouse. Johnathan ran out for breakfast and coffee, and we hung out and watched HGTV until it was time to go. We were planning to get there early, and left even earlier than originally planned, getting there just before 10:30. Almost everyone else arrived just after we did, so we weren’t hanging around doing nothing. There were lots of pictures taken, none of which I’m interested in sharing at this time (maybe later!), and lots of semi-awkward family interactions as two divorced couples tried to make nice for our day. Nobody was rude or even slightly terse to anyone else, so I’d say it was a roaring success. The judge was running very behind, so even though we were there plenty early, our 11AM appointment turned into an 11:45 ceremony. The ceremony itself was short and sweet, with very little religion injected into it and not much outside of the vows themselves. It was perfect. We had a few pictures, and more hugs than I ever like to give in one day, and then we all headed to Buca di Beppo for lunch. Lunch was good, excepting that the families made things needlessly complicated by insisting that we split the checks. It was a good lunch, even if we had to look at a bust of the very creepy pope the entire time! Afterward, Johnathan and I left for the Red Maple Inn, and we holed a way for a few days. We had fairly good food, wine, cheese and a fair amount of scrabble playing. The vacation wasn’t as relaxing as it might have been due to the fact that we had a ton of stuff left to do when we got back.

The day we left the Inn, we went straight to the DMV BMV so that I could get my Ohio license with my new name on it. I called a bunch of places and got my name changed that day. We got new car insurance and purchased renter’s insurance (finally). We did very little else that day because once I was done jockeying with the phone, I was exhausted.

The rest of that weekend involved a lot of packing, cleaning, moving, more cleaning, some unpacking, and even more cleaning. We cleaned that old apartment from top to bottom. Every cabinet was wiped out. The stove was scrubbed until my fingers almost bled. The fridge scrubbed out, the carpets scrubbed and steam cleaned. We’re convinced we left that apartment in better shape than it was in when we moved in October of last year. It felt pretty good. Let me tell you, though, those late nights getting it that way were brutal. By the time I went back to work on Monday and Tuesday, I felt like I needed a vacation from my vacation! I still do, actually. We’ve been very, very slowly unpacking the new apartment. We should be doing more to get it unpacked, but by the time we both get home from work, neither of us is very interested in doing anything involving cleaning or tidying up, let me tell you. Especially with the added distraction of having cable television at home now, it makes it really hard to get motivated to do anything some days. I’d rather just veg out!

We’re finally back on track with our groceries, now that most of the kitchen is unpacked. We cooked for the first time in the new apartment this last week. We’ve made chili (a hacked up version of my dad’s recipe), mishmash pasta (or velcro pasta, however you like), and beef stroganoff. We used our brand new, empire red Kitchenaid Artisan Series Stand Mixer yesterday for the first time, too! We mixed pizza dough in it. It was gratuitous use of the stand mixer, but we’re totally okay with that. Imagining all the things that will be made in it in the months to come makes me very happy. Pies, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, breads… mmmm! Between the mixer that Johnathan’s mom gifted us with and the cookware that my mom gifted us with, cooking, even in our miniscule kitchen, is a dream.

So, that’s where we’re at after a long month of moving, packing, family, getting married and other assorted life chores. How’s everyone else?

At 11AM on the 23rd of September, we’re going down to the local courthouse and getting married in a succinct civil ceremony while all of our parents and my best friend look on. We’re going to go to lunch at a nifty Italian restaurant afterward, then out to a bed and breakfast in the boonies (incidentally, it’s the one we got engaged at over a year ago). We’ll be at the bed and breakfast for two nights, which will be very lovely, and I’m looking forward to it a lot. Then it’s back home for some packing.

Why packing? Because as of October 1, our lease at our brand new apartment begins! We’ll be painting soon, which I’m very excited about, and then we’ll start officially moving in about mid-September. This place is a little bit smaller than where we’re at now, but in a good way, as far as I’m concerned. There will be less dead space in the room and since there will be less space overall, we’ll have to keep things a little bit neater. We’re both notorious clutterbugs, though I’d wager I’m a little bit worse than Johnathan is.

Fall is just around the corner, and I couldn’t be more excited about the prospect of things. Life is pretty good! I love this time of year so much, and a lot is happening for us. Hopefully 2008 will continue and finish out on a high note where it came in on a low one.

People in Cleveland don’t like living here. It’s not something that I’ve even perceived from an actions point of view — it’s their words as well. When people learn that I moved here from out west, they ask me why I’d move here. It’s almost demoralizing to hear people who have lived here their entire lives talking down about their home city the way they do. People who live here complain about everything from their losing sports teams (Have faith, people! They have to win sometimes…) to the weather to the crummy roads in much of the city.

What people don’t talk about are the good points of this city. Cleveland has an amazing theater system which includes more than five theaters connected together through a tunnel-like system. There are festivals for everything, so at almost any weekend from March to December (weather providing), one can plan a weekend out and about. RTA (the public transit system) is working on a project that should improve it quite a bit (not to mention it was voted best public transit in 2007 – take that as you will). They have large, good looking stadiums which, though they’ve sold out to corporate naming rights, still have character – not to mention there are several of them, which is more than a lot of cities can claim. The greater Cleveland area is also quite as interesting as the city itself. There are lots of parks and interesting places to go. There are restaurants for almost every food fancy (with the exception of German, we found)… There are theater, film and music festivals, local musicians who perform (shocking!) locally, and of course the well-known things like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There are things to do, things to see, ways to pass time…

In short, there are things to like about Cleveland, but it’s hard to love a city that most people who live there don’t love.

In other news, it has been approximately one month now since we had a new addition to our little family, and unfortunately both Johnathan and I have been remiss in introducing her! No, it isn’t a baby; it’s a kitty! We were in PetCo to get some new toys for Beethoven and were both waylaid by a set of kennels in the front of the store. There were five kitties being housed up there, most of whom were two years in age or older. There was one six-month-old kitten, but he was antisocial so he never stood a chance at making us adopt him. Of all the cats there, a sweet little calico by the name of Karli caught both our attention and essentially demanded that we take her home and love her. It’s kind of hard to resist a kitty who is purring at you from inside a kennel, I can tell you that much. After much hemming and hawing and one store clerk who didn’t seem to quite know what steps were involved in an adoption of that sort, we took her home.

Neither of us really fancied the name Karli. I probably wouldn’t use that name for anything at all, let alone naming a cat with it. By the time we got home, Karli had a new name that we both loved: Pixel. She immediately began exploring the apartment, much to the incredible dismay of Beethoven and Isabella. It was a rough few weeks while the cats adjusted to having a new sister at home, but now we’re experiencing mostly calm. Isabella still growls low at her and gives her a wide berth when passing by, but she and Beethoven seem to be on almost friendly terms now, and it’s very clear that she wants to be friends with him. I’m glad to see that our new little girl is adjusting so well, as are our original babies. I can’t imagine not having Pixel around now. She is a very loving and affectionate cat, and she really loves being with her people. Given the chance, she would sleep on the middle of our rather small bed, touching both of us. Given her preference, she would be underneath the blanket, tickling us with her long whiskers as well. I can’t imagine being without her now.

What’s really fun about this is firstly that we’re doing it together and also that we’re not letting the possible cost prohibitiveness of the things we’re suggesting stop us. It means that the designs we come up with (and I know this won’t be the first) will be exactly what we want in a future home. I love the design we’ve already come up with. It has the practicality of a family home and features that suit our specific interests. We’re also planning to essentially wire it up like crazy. We want to build a kitchen database which will house all of our recipes and have included functionality to be able to keep track of our current kitchen inventory. That’s something we plan to start on fairly soon so that we can start testing it with our current kitchen and recipes.

I am so excited! I’m using the few skills that I remember from the architecture class that I took in seventh grade during my first trimester at school in Oregon and then essentially making up the rest. I think the next step for us will be to get some kind of program so that we can more easily create representations of it. An idea is to use The Sims 2 to represent it, though I know I can’t get an exact representation of it because of the limitations of creation there. All the same, I’m very excited about what we’re doing. At some point we’ll probably post some of our ideas, if only to keep them somewhere that they’re less likely to be destroyed randomly. (Fires seem to be shockingly common at this apartment complex…)

Whether we ever are able to make this home or not is debatable but in the meantime, at least we can dream. We can also use these ideas to customize any home we do purchase sometime in the future. Either way, designing this will be really fun, particularly as we’re doing it together.

In January, I went back to Scattergood MOO for the first time in probably almost a year. I went back at just the right time, it seems like, because when I did, I met Johnathan and after a series of really unusual conversational circumstances, we started talking quite a bit. My mom and I went to see The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Keller theater. I loved it.

In February, I went to Kansas with my stepmother and my two half-sisters to see my dad. It ended up being a trip to see the inside of hotel rooms while I worked on homework and my dad lavished attention on the two little girls. I was the babysitter, they were the daughters. I came back sicker than I’ve been in years because my stepmother had the forethought and consideration to take two sick little girls on an airplane trip and expect someone who was not their mother to wipe snotty noses, change diapers and generally play mommy for the weekend. I do not have fond memories of the weekend. That month, Johnathan and I calculated that we logged approximately fourteen hours on Skype.

In March, I broke up with Jimmy, who was my boyfriend at the time. It was a long time coming and I think I put it off far longer than I should have out of fear and uncertainty. It had been over for probably six months already at that point. In late March, I flew out to Ohio for the first time to spend a few days with Johnathan. The trip was planned on a lark, but it ended up being one of the better vacations that I can remember.

In April, I was still in Ohio. We went to New York City and it was the first time for both of us. I met some of the original cast of The Drowsy Chaperone (which sadly closed on December 30 after a year and a half on Broadway), we rode the Cyclone at Coney Island and the Wonder Wheel in Astroland. We saw Avenue Q. It was a wonderful day, and let us both know that we travel and vacation well together. I went home to Oregon and took classes up again, only to have to drop them about a week later in order to move back in with my mom. My mom and I went to see The Light in the Piazza at the Keller theater. In late April, I started work at Comcast.

In May, I did very little outside of work at Comcast. My time was spent packing, cleaning, talking to Johnathan on Skype and on Gtalk, and working. It was in May that we decided that October would be the ideal month to move. I saw Chicago at the Keller theater with my mom.

In June, Johnathan came to visit me for my birthday. I turned 22 and we had a cozy few days. He explored Portland all on his own and discovered that it is nearly impossible to get lost as long as you can get to a bus or a train. We had dinner at Gustav’s, one of my favorite German restaurants and wandered down 23rd street, taking a detour into Moonstruck chocolates. Pear truffles are to die for. My brother, my mom and I saw Spamalot at the Keller theater.

In July, I worked. I did little else outside of work. I packed boxes and kept working toward the cleanliness of my room. I got very sick toward the end of the month and had to take time off of work for the first time. Johnathan and I created Bits of Existence and I revived The Golden Road for the second time.

In August, I went back to Ohio to visit Johnathan again. We stayed at a bed and breakfast in Amish country and it was there that we got engaged. We toured a two-bedroom apartment on the first floor of the same building he was already living in, and by the end of the month, Johnathan had secured it for us to move in on October 1. At the end of August, I began shipping boxes of my things to Ohio. I bought a new car – a 2003 Chevy Malibu – and traded in the Jeep Wrangler that I had driven for five years.

In September, I continued to pack and clean, and by mid-September, I had cleared out all of my things and shipped everything that I knew I could live without for the rest of the month. I began to clean up the bedroom and pack the things that would go into my car. I purchased cat carriers, had the cats checked up at the vet – Beethoven was 19lbs and Isabella was 12lbs at last weigh-in: proof that my cats are fat! – and finished up most of the final preparations for the move.

In October, Johnathan flew out to Portland. We had lunch at Todai and spent the afternoon finishing up final preparations for the move. We played Mario Party 8 on the Wii with my family and at 5AM the following morning, we drove out of Portland. After three days of driving – during one of which we spent 21 hours traveling – we arrived in Ohio. Three days later, I was fully unpacked. The job hunt began in full force. I had one interview which came to nothing but continued to search. I met Johnathan’s dad for the first time.

In November, I met Johnathan’s stepmother for the first time. Allison and her brother stayed with us for a weekend and were the first overnight company we had. I met Johnathan’s friend Matt from Iowa who now lives in Pennsylvania. We had Thanksgiving dinner on the Saturday after Thanksgiving with his mom. I continue the very discouraging job hunt.

In December, I continued the job hunt. I had an interview at Borders which came to nothing. I had lunch alone with Johnathan’s mom for the first time. We decided that we were definitely getting married in April of 2008. A bunch of friends of mine from livejournal, namely Hogwarts_Elite at livejournal, sent me a large package of Christmas decorations, candies and other Christmas-themed goodies. Allison sent a small artificial tree and we had Christmas decor in the apartment where we had feared monetary limitations would prevent our being able to have any. We spent Christmas day partially at his mom’s house. We had lunch there and I ate homemade pirogies for the first time. We spent the evening at home, hanging out and playing video games together. On Christmas Eve day, we picked out engagement rings and ordered them. New Year’s Eve was spent playing video games, eating Chinese food, drinking a wonderful Riesling and some French sparkling wine. We rang in the new year by drinking wine and watching Toy Story 2.

And here we are. We have twelve months ahead of us, just waiting to be filled with memories. Overall, I would say 2007 was a good year. I found a man I love very much, someone with whom I have a great deal in common. I found new interests and continued to cultivate old interests. I made the biggest move I’ve ever made without my family and am now living farther from my family than I ever have in my life. I learned a lot, I grew up some, and I’m generally happier now than I was a year ago.

My resolution for next year? As Johnathan would say: to suck a little bit less this year than I did last year.

I wish everyone a happy new year, and I hope nobody got so smashed last night that they don’t remember what happened to them.

The long of it is so: I’ve been applying for jobs left, right and center and still have nothing, not even retail. I think after the holiday is over, I’ll contact a temp agency and get the ball rolling that way. I vaguely tried a few weeks ago but it came to nothing and I didn’t really follow up. That was my fault. It’s not a lot of fun, this job searching thing, and honestly it’s a bit frustrating for me overall. I will prevail, though. Somehow, I’ll prevail.

What I’ve been doing since Allison left is trying to keep up with the housework, and doing so poorly, fighting off several colds (Johnathan working in a hospital and all, and me not having any immunities to the exact cold strains that will have gone around over the years in Ohio, I’m very susceptible to basically anything that comes home), and reading books. I’ve gone through several over the last month or so. I’d say six or seven, at minimum. I don’t know.

Let’s see, Thanksgiving happened in the meantime. Johnathan’s mom came over the Saturday after and we had dinner and played Mario Party 8. Not a big to-do, but fun nevertheless. Christmas is next week, obviously, and we’re going over to her house for a couple of hours, but spending the majority of the evening on our own. We’re going to see his dad and step-mom on Friday, so that’ll get all the holiday stuff out of the way, and then we’ll be able to coast until the new year.

As far as Christmas, due to a constrained budget, we weren’t thinking we were going to have any decorations and certainly no splurging on gifts for one another. I bemoaned our lack of festive decor on my livejournal and some of my friends from there, particularly the people I knew in Hogwarts Elite stepped in and sent a large box filled with sweets, cookies, ornaments, lights and a few knickknacks like a reindeer with teeny bells on its antlers and some poppers which I put into the stockings that we put up. Allison sent a tree and a bunch of ornaments as well so we’re done up quite a lot with lights and our adorable three-foot tree. Incidentally, here are some photos of what we were sent:

So, we’ve got a fair amount up now. I haven’t taken pictures of the rest of it all done up yet, but I will before it comes down and I’ll share for sure. Unfortunately, we had to take the tinsel off of the tree because the cats decided it was incredibly tasty and I know that’s no good for kitties. So, we have a huge bag of tinsel that we’ll have to sort out something to do with for next year. Obviously we can’t use it because of the feline buttheads. Ah, well!

While we’re on the subject of Christmas, it’s been an interesting year what with our plans to get married in April. We want to get married this year, which means we’d like to go on our honeymoon this year, so all we’ve told anyone that we wanted for Christmas (with the exception of my drooling over a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer…) is money toward our ideal honeymoon trip. So far, my mom has pitched in, which I’m really grateful for, as has Allison. So as of right now, we’re at…

$210 / $4000

Super impressive, I know! But hey, a start is a start, right? I’m hoping we can afford it by April, but if not, we’ll have to put it off until September or so, or maybe as long as next year. I know his mom has something up her sleeve so we’ll see what happens. I’m really excited about all of that, too. (Of course, if anyone wants to contribute, you’re more than welcome. )

I guess I should mention that we’re officially getting married on April 25 of this year. It’s going to be very small – his parents and anyone important to me who can manage to get out here. I’ll be inviting my mom, step-dad and brother for certain – inviting my dad and step-mom is a bit more iffy because I haven’t heard anything from either of them since before I moved and really, I mostly don’t care – but I don’t know whether they’ll be able to get out here this April for a one-day, very small and unassuming situation. I’m planning to invite Allison as well, because I figure she’s close enough to come to it so long as school or work doesn’t interfere. It’s exciting to know that in about four months, we’ll be married. A Smith no more, hurrah! So, there’s that.

Recently, I picked up the His Dark Materials trilogy because I read about all the controversy surrounding it from religious groups. I want to write about it, but I haven’t sat down and done so as yet. Honestly, I loved them and I really don’t see where the controversy is coming from. Of course, after I finished reading, the immediate thing I thought of was how awesome it would be to roleplay in the world that Philip Pullman presents. Go figure, huh? Geeky ’til I die! That said, I’ve jumped in – well, not jumped so much as eased in – at HisDarkMaterials.org which is honestly one of the most attractive websites I’ve seen. It’s set up nicely and the graphics are pretty without being overwhelming. It’s not often I find a black-themed website that suits my fancy, so it makes me happy. Oh, incidentally, they’re having a book giveaway for a book about the Golden Compass books and I put in for it on a whim, because who doesn’t like winning, right? Well, I got notice today that I actually won! So I’ll be getting a free copy of the book, autographed by both the author and illustrator as well as a pack of Golden Compass cards (which are movie-themed, I believe).

Another new interest of mine is the Young Frankenstein cast album, which I recently acquired. The cast is very talented, and the songs are very amusing. I’m glad I have the soundtrack, and I think if it were to tour, I’d probably make an effort to see it. Oh, speaking of musicals, awful news! The Drowsy Chaperone which is by far my favorite musical right now (I say ‘right now’ because it’s always subject to change, but it’s been ‘right now’ for almost two years now…) is closing on December 30th. When it closes, it will have played 32 previews and 674 performances. It’s so sad that it’s closing after only a year and a half on Broadway. I’m sad that I won’t have seen it on Broadway before it closes, but I did get to see it on tour and loved it. Can’t be too choosy, right? I’m just saddened that it’s ending. Who knows, though. Maybe it will pull a Les Mis and have a revival in three or four years.

I’ve also thrown myself into the groups and talk area over at LibraryThing. I’m really enjoying that as well. I finally got my whole library catalogued there, and it’s interesting to note that even after parting with a fair number of books to make the move, I have 160 books. I’d very likely have over 200 if I hadn’t parted with some before moving. There are others that I’ve made the decision to part with as well, since moving here. So, I’m impressed with my own numbers. Of course, there are people with upwards of 10,000 books, and many people have between 2,000 and 5,000 in their libraries, but I’m still fairly young and just moved across the country as frugally as I could manage. I know I’ll get more books together once I’m fully settled and employed. At any rate, if anyone wants to friend me, I welcome them to do so!

So, really, I’ve been keeping myself busy, I think that’s plain to see. I finally met some more of Johnathan’s friends, including his friend Nicole, who we wanted to see when she was performing in Forbidden Broadway here but unfortunately we didn’t manage to do it before it closed this month, and his coworker Dennis. I think we’re going to start doing more social things – meaning more things outside the apartment that don’t necessarily involve computers or gadgets of any kind. It will be good for me, even though it still gives me a fair amount of social anxiety.

I think I’ve made this entry long enough, don’t you? So, I leave you with my dæmon and go back to … whatever it was that I was doing before.

Part of the problem with this is that we get little to no cell phone reception in our apartment. We’re not sure why, but it’s spotty at best, and most of the time, my phone gets absolutely no reception. We set up a SkypeIn phone number last night so that I’d have a reasonably reliable number for prospective employers to use to call me. I’m hopeful that I can get a job very soon. If nothing else, I can call Walgreens and get a job at least for temporary. I’m just worried about getting a job that will pay enough for me to be able to afford all of my bills. At least we’ve figured out that if we shop smart, we can eat well and still not spend a fortune. That will help us keep our budgets down a bit. It’s hard when we have to buy everything right now – spices especially. Once we have enough of those that we don’t have to buy a new one every time we want to make a new recipe, I think the grocery shopping will be even easier. Spices are expensive! But so very useful.

At any rate, it’s starting to feel like home, even if I haven’t gotten completely used to the area yet. I’m hopeful that with the help of Johnathan’s GPS, I’ll be able to get used to it and get around easily very soon.