So... It's Been A While, Yeah?

I don't get it.  A few months ago I had a full time job and then some, I had a fairly active social life, I was solely responsible for keeping my apartment clean and taking care of the dogs, I had to carve out a couple hours a day to talk to Colby--and still I blogged almost every day.  Now I'm completely unemployed, granted I still feel like the piles of dirty dishes and laundry never end, and my social life pretty much consists of trips to Lowe's and Wal-Mart with Colby, but I just can't seem to find the time to blog on a regular basis.  And I'm quite sad about this, because I love going back and reading old posts and looking back on where I was and how far I've come.  In a sense this website is my diary and I've been so proud of my ability to keep up with it and record my thoughts and feelings.

When I was younger, I was absolutely obsessed with Anne Frank.  I read her diary countless times as well as her collection of short stories.  I wanted to be remembered like her--of course at that age it didn't really occur to me that so much of what makes her fascinating is that her life was so tragic--I just saw that she was a young girl like me who enjoyed writing, had crushes on boys, and argued with her parents.  All she had to do was keep a daily diary and decades later people were reading what she had to say and loving her.  I tried so hard to keep a diary--I still have all of my sad attempts tucked away in a hope chest--but I could never stick with it.  Blogging has helped me leap that hurdle and I'm so glad that I've found this form of communication, both with the outside world and with myself.  I've learned so much about myself from being able to read the words I write when I'm sad an lonely in the middle of the night and from sharing my joys and adventures with all of you who have truly become great internet friends.  Blogging is a habit that I don't want to break and I will try to find a way to incorporate it back into my life on a more regular basis.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to have Colby back from his trip a few days early, so we were able to spend the week together before he left again, today, for a class in Kansas.  I had grand plans for all of the things I would get finished around the house during his last trip, but instead I spent most of my time buried in research for our Italy honeymoon or watching movies, but this time I really do want to get the upstairs taken care of once and for all.  I don't think I can stand another week of looking at partially unpacked boxes!  In exciting news, we finished putting down grass in the backyard.  It's been raining all day, so I haven't gotten any pictures that aren't primarily grey and splotchy, but it does look much better than the two sad little patches on either side of the patio!

This past week, Colby and I also made our first big "couple furniture purchase".  Well, okay, I guess actually the refrigerator was the first big couple purchase, but that's not actually very exciting.  (Although, I do love our refrigerator, for what that's worth.)  We spent a few days hunting online and in a few furniture stores looking for a dresser for the bedroom and two nightstands to replace the two rather worn down tables I'd inherited from my grandmother.  We checked out this great store based on a couple of recommendations, and 10% off coupon in hand headed to the store in Seattle to see what we could see.  We ended up with this dresser and two of these nightstands (nightstands assembled by moi, I'll have you know!):

And we fell in love with this table for the front entrance:  (Which, oh my God, Colby, are you reading this?  IT'S ON SALE!) 

I'm actually quite proud of our furniture shopping abilities, as we have very different decorating taste.  Colby is much more modern and extremely minimalist and I like a little extra flourish and swish here and there, so I was a little concerned.  But we both loved the pieces immediately, and I think with a little time Colby will come to appreciate my love for candles and vases of all shapes and sizes.  And even if he doesn't, I live here more than he does, so they're here to stay!

Comments

[sophie]

I feel exactly the same way about blogging (though it's been eight days since I posted). I was never able to keep a paper diary more than 3 or 4 days. I think I'm closing in on 2 years on the blog.

Love the furniture, glad you were able to fall in love with the same thing. If you finish unpacking before I do--I will weep. Good luck with getting rid of boxes.

[Brittany]

ooo, nice! Can't wait to see it in person! At some point...

[Kate]

I love the furniture! Rich/warm wood is so yummy.
I know what you mean about the diary thing. I always tried to keep one but feared it would be read. Now I type much faster than I can handwrite...but I find scrawling stuff out very therapeutic, and am still timid about the whole spilling your guts online thing.

[Caro]

I could never keep a diary either, but that seems to be a common thing. I think with blogging it's easier for me to write, because I know I have some sort of an audience, but I don't know.

I am loving the furniture, by the way, I think they are fabulous choices and you flourish and swish all you want -- it's a woman's touch that makes a house a home ;-)

[Mandy]

I've kept a diary ever since I was 7 years old. Now that I've retrieved them from my mother's house, I'm seriously considering burning all of them.

I did hold on to a hard copy of the fishbowl blog though. Most of those were snippets I was saving in case I ever got around to writing a book.

[Cat]

It's interesting... while I was unemployed, the SAME thing happened to me. I really struggled to get motivated. Once I got a job, again, I've been back to blogging pretty much every weekday.

Something about having a routine. Maybe you could trick yourself and write out a schedule for tomorrow? I did that once or twice, and it worked, but then I'd forget to make a schedule for myself for the next day, and I was back to staring at the ceiling all day long.

[Kansas is flat... I want my Mt back]

"and I think with a little time Colby will come to appreciate my love for candles and vases of all shapes and sizes. And even if he doesn't, I live here more than he does, so they're here to stay!"..... Tolerate and appreciate are two different things my dear.

[TasterSpoon]

Love your furniture; love Cost Plus! I have a very similar console. What would you put on it if not a vase and some candles?? That's what it's FOR.

My fear with loving Cost Plus so much is that people will start to think I'm one of those non-Asian people with all the Asian decor and feng shui candles and fountains and lucky bamboo and crap and Who do you think you are, White Girl?

[RisibleGirl]

Love the furniture. BJ and I bought a lot of stuff we had to assemble too, and we hated ourselves for it after a while. But those memories have faded and we don't look at the furniture with hatred.

Want to hear something sad? I kept a journal from the time I was 12 and I also wrote at least once a month letters to my great aunt from the time I could write.

I got the brainy idea to take all of it and type it up into my computer (including accounts of the birth of my chidren), then toss the paper version.

Well I don't need to tell you what happened to the electronic version, right?

So sad