Travel for Thought

As I am writing this, my body is resetting itself to its native timezone and our big luggage piece is brimming over, as of yet unpacked. Hubby and I have just come back from jumping the pond for a week with good friends. Hurray adventure!

Men in Black III has a good bit about how when there is too much to think through, it's time to eat some pie. Only then can we let our minds relax enough to figure things out.

So while on a trip 5 hours ahead of us in a foreign land, perspective smacked us in the face. Where we are now and where we want to be.

One of the conclusions that we drew is that in some ways we are very far from where we want to be, and in others we are right on track. For instance, I definitely want to continue to nest and get our home to reflect us more distinctly. We had begun that process a few months back. Now that I am state-side again, I am sacrificing myself to the Gods of Pinterest to see me through the rest of the house. Watch out, Charleston!

I'll write a separate entry about our trip to England once I have a chance to get those thoughts together.

To Do List

I know I can't be the only one who starts 50 different tasks with the best of intentions and then never getting anything done. Hubby crossed over my sacred home/work barrier to bring an idea from his workplace to our home. It's a type of to do board. The way it works is that you have three columns: to do, doing, and done. The catch is that are only so many slots in the "doing" column. For the two of us, there is three. So let's pretend that laundry, vacuuming and dishes are on the board. If one of us takes a break or is looking for something else to do, it's tough luck. One of the three things has to be completed and moved over to "done" before another task can be tackled.

I have to say, it has driven the point home that there is only so much two people can get done at once. We are still experimenting with it though.

Are there any weird systems that you use at home to divy up chores?

The older I get, the smarter they get :)

I am sure there could be pages, novels and complete series written to this topic. The most recent case of this in my life is actually quite simple.

Mom and Dad were right about the fruit and nut oatmeal! Holy cow! So, my parents have been reading that "Eat to Live" book and changing some of their eating habits accordingly. I have been back to their house a few times over the past few months and have gotten a taste of these changes. Mom, who always dotes on me more when I am home, made me some of their special oatmeal. Mom basically said it makes her feel like SuperWoman. I would refer to it as the SuperWoman oatmeal, but dad loves it just as much :)

Basically, make oatmeal and load it up with just as much fruit and nuts as the oatmeal itself! Mom and dad's is in a giant bowl for them to split and brimming over with the banannas, walnuts, blueberries and you name it in there. I made mine with the cheater's oatmeal (instant) and loaded it up with blueberries and walnuts. I walked out my door with a spring in my step for sure. And, I can't wait until breakfast again.

I will try to find a good image representation when I get on a real computer.

Loads of Laundry and Grocery Shopping

While we absolutely love our newest place to rent, there is one definite flaw - the laundry room is in the middle of the house and is incredibly noisy everytime it is in use. All my friends know that I hate loud noises, so guess what I do not want to listen to when I get home or am relaxing on the weekend? I am tempted to go buy a privacy screen to see if that would help damper some of the sound of it.

GROCERY SMART! Yes, that is a sentence. If you have not seen their website or used their app, check it out! Grocerysmart.net. It has improved our quality of life in our household lol.

Writer's block, so that is all for now :)

Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave

So this week was full of joy and wonder. 

Joy at the beautiful wedding of two very near and dear people to my heart. Wonder that I would end up in the very small town group dynamic again. Even my husband, who is from a small town himself, told me I did not warn him we were going into that far into the sticks. And do not get me wrong, I love Mena, AR. To give you an idea, it is the kind of place that the population sign probably isn't accurate because the town is getting smaller and smaller. The kind of place where you are shown the most kindness you could ever find anywhere because it does not even occur to people to be rude. I love it there but am probably too accustomed to being in bigger cities to settle in a place like it.

The tangled web came into play with the actual group of people involved. My relationship with the bride and groom. I met both through my old college boyfriend, actually my ex-fiance. You know, because in Arkansas it is perfectly natural for 19 year olds to think they will get married. Because in a lot of cases they do! When our relationship went south, I maintained very strong relationships with both his friend and then later on his little sister as well. In addition, this ex introduced me to the next boyfriend, let's call him the rebel. The rebel and the guy who got married are friends and have been living together. Then, the guy getting married has been very close with my husband. Got all of that yet? My husband ended up standing in as a groomsman in this wedding. I ended up standing in as the bride in the rehearsal. So, let's recap. The day before my dear friend's wedding, I walked down the aisle on the arm of a man who in another life would have been my father-in-law, toward my friend getting married standing next to all of the men with whom I have had a relationship in my adult life. You know, the day before they were all to be in matching tuxes. 

I have to give absolutely everyone credit, it went very smoothly and everyone made a point to honor the bride and groom and just ignore the awkwardness that could have ensued. I know my husband and I had a great time seeing everyone and being part of the festivities. The wedding was just beautiful, not that I would expect anything less from the people that put it together. Mission accomplished. 

When we started out for this trip, it did not occur to me that I would feel so different. Different, you say? Yes, different. These are people I have known for almost ten years, and not all of them have been around me in recent ones. There was a point at which someone actually told me that had to ask, "What's different about Megan?". Then they realized, I am not the quiet book-reading freshman in college. That Megan was just dying to come out of her shell! One of my kindred friends was there too who is in a similar phase to me and we just smiled, drank wine and reminisced. All in all, a great trip.

The Dance of Connection

For the love of dance. Dance has been an on again and off again part of my life. Here lately, it has been time to reestablish it's presence. My last stint was documented here. Recently, I have reconnected with my previous dance instructor in addition to signing up for dance lessons downtown.

With so much crammed into everyday, who has time for anything? I swear there is just not enough energy in the day to do everything. I've decided that I'm going to prioritize some time and exercise for myself. We shall see how it goes!

I so enjoyed the pleasure of reconnecting with my favorite dance instructor in the whole big wide world and the planet. I was just so thrilled to hear her voice! She has moved across the country and we have been playing letter/email/phone tag for probably about a year. Since our move to South Carolina a few years back, there have been several dear people that I have been terrible at keeping touch with, especially until now this year. It was so refreshing to talk to someone who has known me for so long. She is such a beautiful person who is one of the most sincere people I have ever met. I am lucky to know her.

As a side note, once while taking one of her classes, this book was recommended to me by a fellow student. This author has written several "Dance of" books exploring various relationships. If the suggestion were not from someone in the "safe space" of the class, I might have blown it off. Thankfully, I didn't and I picked up a copy.

Ride the Wave

So the past several weeks, I have been out surfing with my kindred friend from Arkansas. When I say surfing, I actually mean that she and I have been riding this incredible emotionally kinetic wave of events in our lives together. And this is not the first time. Shall I explain?

Since our friendship began many moons ago, we have noticed that she and I get oddly and utterly in sync with the major events in our lives at just about every main turning point. And I mean this in a "should have been a Twilight Zone episode" kind of way it has been so eery!

The most recent instance I think surpasses our previous record of how long we could stay so in sync at one time.

At first, it was great. One thing we have noticed is that usually either the wave turns out extremely amazing and positive, and others it positively crashes. This time, there was both. I was looking for improved performance at work, so was she. We started getting positive feedback in that arena within a few days of each other. Then, the wave turned. I was having turmoil with family, so was she. Then a little turmoil with family for both of us has transformed into epic conflict. It is only now that I feel we have ridden this particular wave and can go on with our usual non-dramalicious lives.

Happiness and misery both love company, and I could not ask for better surfing company. (Of course hubby is included in that company by default.)

Weekend Nerd-off

This weekend two nerdy releases occurred Friday: The Avengers movie and Avacyn: Restored magic the gathering release. In case you are not in this particular nerd sub-group, MTG is one of those trading card games which in the end is not much unlike chess with pretty artwork.

The rub? Which do I attend Friday night! Well, it turns out that we decided to be homebodies and bring the new MTG cards home with us to build new decks for our weekend gaming pleasure. It has not been disappointing!! The Avacyn release has a major influx of Angel creatures to play with, and they are ALL PRETTY! To boot, I already have an angel-themed play mat so it's a perfect fit for me. I immediately start working on my Angel deck.

It's pertinent to mention at this point that the hubby and I have played this game for about 10 years at this point, off and on. We both got out of it after just moving on to other hobbies for a while. Those decisions were not made in small part due to the number of arguments that can break out over the rules. I did say the game is like chess, but really like chess on crack. The rules get hazy sometimes, and change with every new expansion.

Last night we went to the local gamer's hub and found some other cardplayers to play with as well. It turns out that times have indeed changed. One of the players had a mobile card ruling app on his phone to settle any disputes, and almost all of them were keeping track of their life totals on their phones. We were introduced to a 3 v 3 format which was really quite interesting, and gave me better insight as to how to tweek my new Angel deck! We will be going to see Avengers today at some point, and I can't wait!

Green Checklist

This list will likely dominate in the next several weeks in my house! So hubby and I had a heart-to-heart about my wanting to go greener. Basically, it's important to us to be responsible without disrupting our whole routine. For example, composting is not in our near future! So here is my official take on the kale smoothie addition: YUCK!!! I could imagine if I had used a food processor to make the smoothie absolutely smooth instead of slightly clumpy, that MAYBE it could be a repeat. Also - I just pinched off a little bit of kale. What is a girl to do with the rest? I have seen recipes for kale chips, but we will see. The endeavor of this week's trip the farmer's market recipe-wise will be andalucian gazpacho.

Farmer's Market!

Exciting event of the week: farmer's market in my neighborhood! Hurray! I have been on a kick the last few years to buy more locally and to reduce our "foot print". My bestie would just call me a tree-hugger and leave it at that ;) Due to the ever over-reaching goals of trying to do all of those things and also to get into better shape, I have actually managed to get into a smoothie kick lately. I am proud of myself because I actually went out to pick strawberries at a farm and blended my own strawberry-banana smoothies all week! The next trick will be to expand my smoothie vocabulary into other fruits as well as trying kale. Yes, kale. Weird, right? I've heard it's not much of a taste difference with a huge nutrition increase. We shall see. I bought a bunch of fresh kale at the aforementioned farmer's market this week.

Ok so it's kinda funny that this week Ph.D. comics put this out : Speaking of existentialism and female nerd-dom! Just sayin'.

Megan Knows

So there is a story behind this.

When I was a kiddo, not sure of the exact age, I used to insert my knowledge into every conversation I could. Because, that's what you do, right? My mom and dad started to respond to these precious moments by exclaiming "Megan Knows!" Now that I'm older, I find this absolutely hilarious. And not just because I realize how absolutely obnoxious I must have been, but also because I realize as an adult that one cannot know much at all for certain!

For those who may be reading who would not consider themselves a nerd/geek/whatever the term you use, please forgive the following obscure reference. Yes, yes, I know. You can put away the super soaker. I am done being existential. For now.