Day #18

Topic: Someone you met randomly that's made an impact on your life.

I've been thinking about this topic since last night. There haven't been that many people I would consider myself as having met "randomly." To me, the topic implies that it is someone you met, but didn't stay in contact with, who impacted your life. I honestly can't think of anyone that would fit that description.

Soooo...instead I am going to write about random stuff. I tried looking up Idaho law tonight regarding whether or not it was legal to raise the rent on us. For anyone who hasn't heard through Facebook, I randomly noticed that the rent on our apartments had been raised on new online ads. I contacted our management company to ask if the rent would be raised on us if we signed a lease for another year. They said no, it would stay at the current rate. Awesome! Then we got new property managers. I posed the same question to them, explaining that our previous managers said they'd keep us at the current rent, and they said they were going to be raising it on everyone. This doesn't seem like it should be legal. We've been in this apartment for two years now. Why should they suddenly be able to charge us $50 more a month when nothing has changed? Alas, there are no laws prohibiting it, other than saying if you signed a lease for a certain period of time at a certain amount of rent, it can't be raised. We are supposed to be signing a new lease at the end of May. With the raised rent, that's $600 more over a year period that we'll be paying for the same apartment, with the same loud neighbors and walls with no sound proofing. I've been in a bit of a whirlwind lately, trying to find possible places to move online. I haven't had much luck. We don't want to pay too much more a month, especially if we are moving to another apartment rather than a townhouse or house. Chris and I had pretty much given up, but tonight I took one last shot and found something with potential that we are going to go check out after work tomorrow. The rent is more expensive than here, but the apartments are a bit bigger, not to mention the fact that the complex has a pool, pond, clubhouse, and fitness room. It looks like rent may include the cost of internet as well, which would save us $30 a month. Anyway, we'll see what tomorrow brings but I have a good feeling about this place.

And now I'm off to bed! Sorry for the lame topic and lame entry. :)

Day #16 & 17 - Another daily double!

I spent last night having a girls night with one of my best friends Alex and we were watching True Blood until 1am, so I apologize for missing another day. Here's goes my second double entry!

Topic: A book you’ve read that changed your views on something. 

I'm not really sure about my answer for this one. It seems like it would need to be a non-fiction book to change your views on something, but I don't read a lot of of those. I recently read a book called "Two is Enough: A Couple's Guide to Living Childless by Choice". I wouldn't say it changed my views about not having kids, as I was already pondering the topic, but it was an interesting book. It approached the topic with an open mind and didn't necessarily try to persuade the reader to not have children, but presented the option realistically. For anyone considering a childless by choice life, it would be a good one to check out.

Topic: Someone with whom you shared a friendship/relationship that simply drifted out of your life.

This topic is surprisingly timely. Just today I was thinking about my dear friend Vikki and how much I miss her. Vikki is someone that I met while working at UVU in Utah. I'm not sure how we exactly started talking more, but a couple of months after starting, we began emailing each other while we were working. It was an awesome way to get to know each other. She was one of those people that I felt a kind of cosmic connection to. We had so much in common and held the same view on things, plus strangely similar life experiences. She was a former mormon. I never even realized she wasn't active in the church anymore until several months in. She never spoke ill of the church while I was still in it and I really respected her for that. Once the separation happened and I began thinking about leaving the church, she was open and honest with me about anything I asked. Basically she helped me survive while I was in Utah...the one shining light of my time there. I sincerely miss our mid-morning breaks we always took together, walking over to the little snack bar in our building and stocking up on food to get us through until noon. The reason we have drifted out of each others lives is because, as you know, I moved back to Idaho shortly after the separation with Ryan. About a year later, she moved to Colorado. We still email from time to time, and she even had some champagne and chocolate covered strawberries sent to Chris and I's hotel room in Vegas the day we got married, but unfortunately we haven't seen each other in about 2 1/2 years. I would love to be able to visit her one day and catch up in person. She had a big impact on my life and is such an important person to me. Love her and miss her all the time!

Day #15

Topic: A band/musical artist whose music impacted your life. 

 I don't really have any heartfelt stories about musical artists affecting my life, but through the years I have come across some lesser known groups that I absolutely love. I figured for this post I would link you up with some music videos you should watch. I could probably post about 20 songs I love from each of these people, but I'm limiting it to 1 per group/singer. I hope you love them as much as I do!



Shawn Colvin was the first artist that I was really into. I have all of her CD's to this date and love her! I was even able to go listen to her live once at the Knitting Factory.


I discovered Jamie Cullum in college and fell in love. He's a British singer. He does a lot of covers. Basically he's an improved version of Michael Buble! ;) This particularly song always makes me want to travel to England anytime I hear it. He also does a great cover of Rhianna's "Please Don't Stop the Music" that I highly recommend checking out!


Angus and Julia Stone are the one good thing that came out of a terrible date with someone I met online. He tricked me into his apartment with the lure of a burned CD...this one, to be exact. He forced me into a little make out session to this song, but I still love it. Haha! I got away relatively unscathed and still listen to this CD.


This song kind of reminds me of the life I used to have, and makes me happy that I'm not in that place anymore. The lyrics "one of these days, letters are going to fall from the sky telling us all to go free" are what really get to me. I listened to this song a lot before I separated from Ryan and used to imagine letters falling that would set me free from my marriage and give me the freedom to leave the church. I'm so glad I was able to do those things. And this song is just hauntingly beautiful, in my humble opinion.



I love The Decemberists! They have so many catchy songs, but this is one that I LOVE singing along to when it comes on my ipod, while bobbing my head to the beat. "And if you ever make it to ten, you won't make it again."



Big fan of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, and this is just a rockin' song. Chris and I went to their concert at the Knitting Factory when he came to visit me last January.



Fantastic song (and band - Tired Pony), even though the dude in this video is kinda freaky looking...



Ray LaMontagne...he's great. That's all.


In closing, these are all artists that I own one or more albums from and can highly recommend. Hope you enjoyed my playlist!

Day #14

Topic: "Someone who has made your life worth living." 

Yes, I'm going with the obvious answer here and saying Chris.  Without a doubt, Chris has made my life worth living. Last night, as I was writing the bucket list entry, I asked if he had such a list. He said no, that he already had everything he needed. I feel the exact same way.

Earlier today, one of my friends and I were emailing, playing a game of random questions. One of them was describing what kind of a tattoo you might like to get. I described a few ideas, including getting Chris' initials and a cluster of grapes or Chris and I each getting one half of a penguin heart tattoo. In her reply she wrote that she didn't like those ideas as much as my others because it's always a bad idea to tattoo something about a significant other. "It's so permanent and you never know what could happen." I was rather shocked (and appalled) by that. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I know Chris and I will be together forever. We fit. We are supposed to be together forever. It's not like it was before where I was just like "well, I married him so now I'm stuck here." No, with Chris it wouldn't matter whether or not we were married. I know I'll want him by my side for everything, regardless of a piece of paper saying he should be. 

Chris is my biggest support and biggest fan. He makes me feel beautiful, even after I've been absolutely drenched with rain (story to come). We are actually equals in our relationship. I ask his opinion on everything and vice versa, not because we are obligated to but because we care about what the other person thinks. 

It's an absolute miracle that I found him. What were the odds? Even after we met, lots of people didn't think our relationship would survive through a year of almost only long distance Skyping, chats, and emails. I dare to say some people thought it might not even work out once he moved here, because we "didn't really know each other" and had spend so little time together in person. Well it's worked, and wonderfully. Neither of us ever had a doubt that would be the case. He's my penguin and I'm his. We are together for life. I literally don't know what I would do without him, and don't think I'll ever be able to repay him for how happy he's made me these past 21 months!

In other news, I have a couple interesting stories from work today. We had an office meeting this afternoon and at the end, I wanted to tell my co-workers about my idea to have a Cinco de Mayo party next Friday (yes, I'm head of the party committee...head and only member). To get everyone's attention, I asked if I could make an announcement. It just seemed like the type of thing someone would say before announcing something big, like being pregnant, so to be funny I said "My announcement is...I'm preg..." I didn't even finish the word and you should have heard the reaction! Everyone was yelling and so excited. Geez! We worship pregnant women here, don't we??! It was pretty hilarious. I told them I was just kidding and that if that announcement ever comes, it will be several years in the future.

My second story isn't so entertaining. :P Chris was at my office since he had class this afternoon, so we left together at 5pm. Once we got out to the car, it wouldn't start!!! It keep making a clicking noise and refused to turn on. Just as that happened, it started pouring outside, and I mean POURING! Lucky me, I was wearing a thin silk dress. :P I had to run back into my office and ask my boss, the only person still there, if she had jumper cables and could give us a hand. Thank god she did!! The only problem is none of us actually knew how to jump a car. As luck would have it, another CWI co-worker in IT was leaving at the same time and came to the rescue. He attached the cables for us and like magic, our car started. However, by that time I was SOAKED! My dress, my shoes, my hair...everything! Hopefully it was all a fluke and not something we'll have to spend money to fix. And Chris was nice enough to make me a cocktail to help ease my nerves once we got home. :)

Here's me, soaked to the bone and sad.