October Report

Pronounced a la The Colbert Report, the "Oct toe bear re poor".  But anyway.

Very little has been happening around the Courtney household.  I've been working...a lot of hours.  We'll just leave it at that.  Jay and I did reach our 13 year milestone on October 14, and we even managed to take a picture together!  Granted, it's with my phone camera and posted to Instagram, but whatever.  Day and age, all that jazz.

I haven't taken pictures with my DSLR in...a long time.  I want to, but I'm not great with it and honestly haven't had the time to take it out of its case to snap a photo.  I hope to remedy this in the next month or so and maybe get a Christmas card worthy picture or cute dog photo.  You know, the standard fare around here.

As for fun stuff, I've been watching more Doctor Who and Supernatural.  I love them both and for totally different reasons.  This post accurately describes my feelings about that Doctor Who.  And Supernatural is just a great buddy show, and I'm a huge sucker for buddy shows/movies (see Psych and the original cast Star Trek movies, especially the last few.)  And cute boys.  That part is nice, too.  I've also been re-reading The Princess Diaries series, which is nothing like the movies, really.  They're so much better, and this is coming from a person who's a fan of the movies.  (What's not to like about Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway?  I mean, really.)  They read the way my mind works, and Mia really is my fourteen year old spirit animal.  If I ever have a daughter, I want her name to be Amelia James and to call her Mia.  What?  That's not normal?  Do I need to post a picture of me NOT CARING?

Tonight I am hanging out by myself (Jay and the dogs do not count as they are in the basement and wouldn't hear me scream if I fell) and baking Halloween cookies.  Specifically these and these.  The dough for both is OUT OF THIS WORLD.  I have FEELINGS about the chocolate gingerbread dough.  Jay has these same feelings for the sugar cookie dough.  It's why we work so well.

So that's where we are around here. I'm typing this while batches of these babies bake, and Jayface is playing League of Legends downstairs.  I've been doing an awful lot of complaining lately (Trusty coworker gets the brunt of this, bless his heart), but really, things aren't so bad.  I have cookies and puppies and Jayface.  And those are the BEST.

An Amy Spot

I've decided to make our dining room a office/study for me. It's coming along nicely and is quickly becoming my favorite room. Between the green walls, random furniture, glass insulators, and Skyrim dragon, it really feels like...me. I still need to do a master post in the house, but work has been kicking my tail and keeping me late. We've been extra busy the past couple of months, and while I'm super excited about how things are going there, I've got to do a better job of taking care of my home and the three critters in it. Balance. I'm working on it.

Hapoy Fourth, y'all.

Letter to Sixteen Year Old Me

Hey you.

Yeah, you. With the bushy hair and blue eyes. Things are going to be okay. So a boy broke up with you. Guess what? It turns out to be one of the best things that happens to you. I know you don't know or love The Doctor yet, but I know that even he wouldn't mind these spoilers.

The next year is going to be awesome. You're going to discover so much about yourself - your love for antiques, the way your heart feels when you look out over Lake Martin on a breezy autumn day, the fact that you are incredibly vain about that mess of hair that makes you feel insecure. But you want to know the best part? You are going to fall in love with your friends. The Research Assistant. The Lady Engineer. The HR Consultant. The Gamer. (Look at your notes you write to each other. One day you won't be able to tell your handwriting from his.)  You even get to know The Auburn Fan, but you have to wait for a certain beach trip after graduation to really cement that fall for the her. Spoilers.

Later there will be a quote from Helen Keller, "My friends have made the story of my life," that resonates with you so that your breath catches in your throat. You need this time with them. You need to love with them, cry with them, dream with them, and seal that bond. You need them.  They'll need you, too. Trust me, little dove.

You are smart. Maybe not as smart as you want to be, but smarter than you think. You get awards for it one day, and it literally pays for stuff for you later. Keep working hard. It's worth it.

You and your sister are going to get along better one day. It isn't always easy with her, but that tough shell hides a tender heart. Go easier on her than you want to. Your whole family is kind of awesome. Love on them while you can, you'll lose more of them than you'd like by the time you're twenty six.

You are going to be that crazy dog lady. Embrace it. It brings you so much happiness.

And the boy? That love story? Well, it has a happy ending, too. But no more on that, not now. Spoilers. :)

Mostly wordless weekend update

The Crazy: Office Supply Edition

See these?  I can't work or function properly without these.  I've had the purple staple puller since I started my very first job in 2005, and it is a Thing.  I have to have it.  It's my staple puller, and if I need to pry a staple loose from a stack of paper, it's required.  No, I don't want your staple puller.  Where is my purple one?!

And that pen?  It's the precious.  It's my pen.  I keep one like it at all times, and then I always know it's my pen.  It's not some double that's open to be community property.  I feel awkward and clumsy signing checks without it.  I NEED that pen.

The calculator is something I've always known I used, but I didn't realize the full extent of my needing it until this morning when I couldn't find it.   I needed to add and subtract things, and when I couldn't find my calculator, what did I do?  Use the one on the computer?  My phone?  Scrounge around the office for another calculator?  No.  I frantically searched for mine until I gave up and called Trusty Coworker, who had it with him at the courthouse.  (That's what I get for strolling in around 8:30 while he's been here since seven, but I digress.)

If any of my other normal stuff goes missing, I can make do with whatever I have nearby.  Not these three things.  They're the three that make me stop what I'm doing so I can track them down and have them close again.

Tornado Awareness

Part of me wants to start a tornado awareness campaign of sorts for my fellow Alabamians.  It begins with "Any time it's warmer than 65 degrees on an overcast day in  January, you should check the weather" and ends with a link to the weather blog.  Also, information about polygons and the 'tornado alley' we have running from west central Alabama up through northeast Alabama.  And I'm not victim blaming here; these storms are strong and will do what they will.  That's not where I'm going with this at all.  But saying there is no warning is generally just saying you didn't receive the vast amounts of information that was floating around.  It's unfounded.  If someone wasn't warned, it's from a lack of education about weather and warning systems.  So many people don't even realize that those warnings aren't county wide; they're for a relatively specific polygon.  Our siren system just hasn't caught up to that yet, and people place far too much reliance on it.  My friend Elizabeth over at Adventures in Life, Love & Librarianship speaks her bit about preparedness in much more eloquent, informational fashion than I could muster today.  Go check it out!



*I will add that many, MANY people in our area do take these storms seriously.  We've been through enough as it is.  And I will give a shout out to every person who closed on a loan or house at our office today...they've all mentioned the storms and told each other (and their trusty closing attorneys) to be careful.  When the going gets rough in the South, we generally just get better.

Slick

Just a quick post to mention my continuing amazement with our little Acer tablet (Tabby the tablet, we call her) and the new Android tablet mint.com app.  This may be one of my nerdier moments what with combining electronic toys and personal finance. The app is just so slick and lovely, and I love the way it responds to my touch. I feel like I'm on the Enterprise or something with the graphs and screen swiping. So awesome. Go check it out!

Pink Hearts Day

Valentine's Day has never really been my favorite for various reasons.  I think it is contrived, and I don't know why we have a special day to celebrate love, which should happen every day.  And the focus on romantic love bothers me.  I'm a curmudgeon that way and have been for quite some time.

However, I do have a special Valentine's Day story I like to share.  It's the only memorable Valentine's Day gift or anything I've ever had, and it was Jay's and my first together.  We were both a whopping fourteen years old, and I think I got him a copy of The Matrix that had Spanish subtitles.  (No, I did not realize it had Spanish subtitles when I bought it, but it made for funny stories and viewings later.)  He gave me my gift, which looked quite promising.  It was a clear Rubbermaid plastic box about a foot across with various objects wrapped in red tissue paper inside.  I was excited enough about the storage box but definitely intrigued by the surprises inside.  I opened the box and carefully unwrapped one of the tissue paper packages, only to find a can of vienna sausages.  Okay.  Next package...more canned meat product.  Turns out there were five of them in there, all wrapped up nicely.  Keep in mind, I'm fourteen and have been dating this boy for about four months.  I don't know what my reaction is supposed to be.  I mean, I am excited about the Rubbermaid box (don't judge a girl), but I don't get the canned meat.  I just look at him and say thank you...and he bursts out laughing.  He then proceeds to pull another, smaller package out of his coat pocket, and it is The Beatles' White Album on CD.  If I didn't know before, I knew then that this was Real Love.  I'm not good at sappy or sentimental; I'm too likely to crack up during all that.  (The story of how it was all I could do not to burst out laughing during our wedding is for another day.)  But I did love the boy, and I still do love the man.  I am quite lucky.

Dang, girl

I was never a huge Sex and the City fan or detractor.  I've seen some episodes, kind of know the storyline, and enjoy the occasion when I watch it.  But this New York Times profile on Cynthia Nixon, who played Miranda on the show, was kind of awesome.  She's been in acting since she was a child and has had quite the career and education.  She had this to say about detractors who feel that her change in sexuality was somehow disingenuous:

"“I totally reject that,” she said heatedly. “I gave a speech recently, an empowerment speech to a gay audience, and it included the line ‘I’ve been straight and I’ve been gay, and gay is better.’ And they tried to get me to change it, because they said it implies that homosexuality can be a choice. And for me, it is a choice. I understand that for many people it’s not, but for me it’s a choice, and you don’t get to define my gayness for me. A certain section of our community is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice, because if it’s a choice, then we could opt out. I say it doesn’t matter if we flew here or we swam here, it matters that we are here and we are one group and let us stop trying to make a litmus test for who is considered gay and who is not.” Her face was red and her arms were waving. “As you can tell,” she said, “I am very annoyed about this issue. Why can’t it be a choice? Why is that any less legitimate? It seems we’re just ceding this point to bigots who are demanding it, and I don’t think that they should define the terms of the debate. I also feel like people think I was walking around in a cloud and didn’t realize I was gay, which I find really offensive. I find it offensive to me, but I also find it offensive to all the men I’ve been out with.”"

And then she had this to say about her kids: "“I know everybody says their kids are their greatest achievement,” she said, “and I think my kids are wildly impressive and great, but I don’t feel like they’re my achievement, really. They’re their own people.""  I love this.  I don't have kids, but this is the kind of mindset I want to have going into it one day.