Hello? Anybody out there?

So I have discovered that in order for me to blog, I need to have something to talk about. I have recently decided what that would be.

This new venture might prove embarrassing as I let people into my life and my home, but I also need people to hold me accountable and help me make the changes I want to see.

SO...what's the new plan? I have decided to de-clutter and simplify my life. I don't think I am a complete slob or a hoarder just yet, but I need to better about staying on top of every day life and organization. One day I would like to have a baby, and I can't even imagine trying to keep up with the messes that come with having kids when I can't even keep up with just my husband and I!

So I started a new blog, www.junkiebunkie.blogspot.com, to document my venture and turning my life around. I don;t want to be stressed out by how my home looks and feels and I am determined to improve it. After all, organizing and cleaning my house will help me feel less stress and putting some new habits into place will help me keep it that way and feel better about myself in general! Wish me luck!

Home Sweet Home

Well we're here!! In our house!! Again, we are renting, but it really feels like it's ours!

We could not have done it without all the help we had! 4 of hubby's students, a fellow staffer, and a friend of mine all came to help us load and unload and it went so smoothly!! And one of my coworkers took the dog for the day so he wouldn't be too worked up. The cats stayed in their crates most of the day but seem to be adjusting quite well now that they are free. I still can't believe how smooth it all went!

I will post pics of the interior as soon as we are done setting everything up!

All you need is faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust

It's funny how things change sometimes. I was getting ready to do a new post and went through some of my old posts and found a draft that I never published entitled, "I HATE Pennsylvania". I opened up and this is what I found:

I hate it here. I try to tell myself I don't but then I realize that I do again.

I'm pretty sure I'm never going to find a job in theatre here and while I actually do like working at Hallmark, it's not exactly what I want to do every day for my career.

I spend every day doing dishes and emptying the litter box and cleaning up after Rosco when he spills his full water dish all over the floor (Approx. 3-5 times a day).

I have no real friends yet, and I know that will take time but I haven't even found a place to really make friends. I joined a book club and it never seems to meet. We are supposed to meet next week but I haven't heard anything more about it. I joined an aerobics class, for the exercise but also to meet people. There are 6 people in class and I'm the only one under 30 with the exception of the teacher.

Now this was written in November 2009. I had forgotten all about it and I'm glad I did, because in the course of the last few months I have grown to kind of like it here. It's not quite home, but getting to feel a bit more like it could be. My book club still doesn't meet, but it did lead me to new friends, which was the whole point really. I have a full time job now, though still at Hallmark, and I enjoy it for the most part and have high hopes that I will get back to theatre and my passion for it.

I still do dishes and clean the litter box every day, but I no longer feel like that is ALL I do. And we got rid of the water bottle that Rosco spills, so that helps!

And the best thing to happen recently- we found a house! We have been living in a smaller town outside of the city and any time we want to do something we have to decide if it is worth the drive into town. Now we will be in the heart of it all! Hopefully this will make us feel a bit more like we are a part of it all. We will still be renting, but that's fine with me- I like it here, but am not committed to buying a home here yet!!

It has 3 bedrooms, a detached garage, all hardwood floors, and a yard!! I have never had a yard before! I am looking forward to planting flowers and herbs and making it our home. The owners want us to treat it as though it is our home and if we want to do any improvements, they will work with us to take it out of our rent. They even told me they would show up with a dump truck full of mulch if I want to re-do all the flower beds and start a garden!! I'm psyched!

Of course, I have never planted anything in my life, so this will be quite an adventure!

The title of this post is a quote from Disney's Peter Pan. I love that show and I have a particular connection with Tinkerbell and this quote just seems to speak to me. All things will work out eventually, sometime you just need that faith and trust, and a little pixie dust!

Horrible, Awful, No Good, Very Bad Dream!

I woke up in a panic today after the dream I was having. I'm not sure whose house I was in, but it was stormy outside and my two cats were there with me along with 2 other people I don't know. Well anyhow, at some point in the dream the door to the house was left open a crack and my oldest cat Cleo escaped. I darted after her and when I looked down from the porch to the yard she had fallen into a deep puddle. The next thing I knew I was literally swimming through puddles trying to rescue my drowning cat. It was horrible! I couldn't find her or see her anywhere. Don't ask me what kind of monsoon I was in that I could swim through puddles, I should have known right away it was just a dream.

At this point I was screaming for help but no one could hear me or the ignored me or something, I don't know. So I make it out of the deepest puddles ever and I start to hear a scared and soft "Meow" coming from underneath the house next door, I call her name and "meow" back at her and she darts past me into the house. I was so relieved that I almost didn't believe it was her. I ran in after her yelling "Is it her? Is it her?" She ran into a back room in the house and I went after her and there sat my husband playing video games with someone I had never seen before. I was furious in the dream! I have been in an utter panic and he was playing video games?!?!? Now, I know in real life he would be out there with me search ing for Cleo, but I was flabbergasted that he wasn't in my dream! About this time I woke up, still shaken up. I was completely calmed however when I realized my sweet little Cleo was sleeping soundly on my head, yes my head. She tends to make room for herself on my pillow. :)

I've had Cleo for more than five years now and I am seriously attached to her. We got her in 2005 when she was just barely 8 weeks old from a shelter in Memphis. She was with me when Ken went away for the summer to work in Oklahoma and I was living alone. She knows when I am sad or sick and just curls up on my chest with her head on my shoulder. It may sound crazy but she gets me and I get her. I love this kitty!

Cleo came to work with me after we first adopted her.

Look at those big ears!

I know she won't live forever but I am not sure what I will do when her time comes. I know it is years away, at least I hope it is, but every now and then I wonder how I will cope with that. She is my first child. I love my girl!

Pitiful

That is how I would currently describe my attempt at blogging!! I thought I would write lot more than I have, but clearly it's pretty sparse out here!

This is my pledge- I am giving myself 6 months to write more or I am giving up the blog. Perhaps some of my more blog savvy friends can help me out. Part of my lack of posting is simply that I am not sure what I'm doing! I don't know how to add links to previous post or to other people. I barely know how to add a picture!! And I have seen others even add video! FANCY!!

I also want to write positive things and I am just now starting to feel more positive about our big move to the North. There are still some things that suck, but it sucks a lot less!! (Winter being over certainly helps!!)

Seriously, I will do better. If not, you can all evict me from blogland!!

Shopping, Party of One?

I'm not good at being alone. I like to be surrounded by friends whenever possible. And although there are times I want to be alone, they usually don't last more than a few hours before I'm ready to be social again.

This has been the hardest part of the move to PA. In Memphis, I worked 60-80 hours a week at the theatre, and my coworkers were my friends. We were one big artsy fartsy family! And although I am making friends here, I haven't made those deep connections yet. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect this to happen overnight and I think I'm making friends at a normal pace, but I am spending a lot of time alone and find myself feeling depressed.

To try to be better about being alone I am making an attempt at doing something on my days off when I'm alone. For example, I'm off tomorrow so I'm planning to go on a little shopping trip (mostly window shopping) to one of the nearby "bigger" cities with better malls. The problem is that I hate the idea of going alone. Is it really worth driving an hour or more each way to maybe spend $30? And when I get there will I have any fun by myself and without a friend to help tell me what looks good and what's crap?!? I'm used to shopping with friends which is probably why I like shopping so much, so how will it be any fun without the friends part?

The first snow!

And man was it a doozy! In fact, it still is! The snow began to fall yesterday and has continued ever since, breaking the more than 100 year old record for the earliest snowfall here! In State College there was anywhere from 4-8 inches and we got at least 2 in Bellefonte (I'm guessing about Bellefonte, the State College numbers were on the news). I had to post tonight to document my experiences!

So in Memphis, this would be like a natural disaster. Everything would be closed and the grocery store would be without bottled water and milk! But here, it's basically business as usual. Schools were delayed but the only ones cancelled were those with no power due to tree limbs falling. That's the bad news, because it's so early the trees still have leaves and the snow made them VERY heavy and dangerous! The good news is that I'm in an area that knows what they're doing! Yesterday I just hibernated and stayed inside with the cats. Didn't have to work so I just cleaned the kitchen and read and watched the TV shows I missed the night before since I went to the show at PSU. Today however, I had to go to work which meant avoiding the roads wasn't gonna happen!

I left super early giving myself more than double the amount of time it normally takes. I got my brand new heavy duty mother-of-all ice/snow scrapers out and cleared off my car and headed in to work. The roads were fine! I still took it slow just to make sure but this is nothing like driving in snow in Memphis. The snow had been plowed and the roads were salted. The drive was not as nerve racking as I thought it would be, thank goodness! At work, several customers commented on the snow and when I mentioned being from the south they were all very kind offering good advice and telling me not to worry, it's not always like this. The drive home was the same, clear roads and easy going.

The only driving obstacle I'm genuinely concerned about is up and down hill. I have driven in icy conditions and I have gotten myself out of skids before (driving from Memphis to Cincinnati in an ice storm comes to mind) but I am not AT ALL used to so many hills and the idea of an icy hill kind of terrifies me. People suggest going to an empty parking lot to practice, but those are all basically flat. I'm gonna have to tackle this fear sooner or later and when I do low drive will be my best friend. Any other advice out there, I'll take it!

Oh, I nearly forgot! My other favorite part of this "snow storm"- Cleo the kitty's reaction! She sat at the back doors yesterday staring at the snow and crying to go outside (where she is only allowed if in a harness and on a leash). I finally decided to let her check it out. I bundled up and got her in her gear and opened the door she was so longingly gazing out. At one point you could see her trying to catch snow flakes through the glass. After opening the door, she looked out and after a glance in each direction, she promptly ran away from the door and snow and never went back! I undid her leash and harness and she spent the rest of the day hibernating with me. I had to get a picture.