It's been a pretty stressful weekend, and it's only Saturday night. A couple of odd things happened. We've only been in our new townhouse for three weeks. A couple of weeks ago, we had a new fence put in. Last night, our next door neighbor started harassing us and told us we needed to pay him half of what he originally paid for his fence. (Since one side was already fenced on his property, we only needed to add a back and a another side to our fence....and our fence is completely on our property and not infringing on his in any way). He said it wasn't fair for us to "share" his fence that he paid for. He's been here for 10 years actually and there have been two other owners before us. Anyway, we said we'd talk to the HOA and a real estate attorney, and he walked off in a huff. We already spoke to our realtor who said that the neighbor is just an asshole and that we're not legally obligated in any way to pay for an existing fence of his that's on his property. (We emailed HOA and asked if we could add another side of fencing on our property, next to his, so that there's nothing he can say/do.)
So after that pleasant conversation, his wife stuck around and told us about the family that used to live here. She said that there was a husband, wife, and four children and that one day, the wife "just went missing." She said the wife was on medication and the family thinks she just wandered off. So we decided to do some research on the previous owners and found out that the story is true. If fact, according to police reports, she's still missing. She just vanished.... without her shoes, passport, wallet....
J and I burned sage in the house after the run-in with the neighbors. We've had sage for awhile and have meant to use it, but we just hadn't gotten around to it.
I hate confrontation and bad energy, and I just need to brush all this off.
My dad told me to "check the walls for a smell." He's hilarious.
Have the move in a few weeks and although immersed in the madness, I've come up for air and have begun to realize that now that we have the house, the ceremony and babies are just around the corner. Well, it'll be one year until the ceremony and hopefully a few years until kids. I used to think I was full-on ready for them (kids) but now I'm realizing there's so much traveling and living I want to do while I'm still somewhat free to pick up and go.
I'm actually inclined to keep putting them off. And off. Although everyone is ready for us to have kids, I know that we're not ready. I'm only 28. She's only 26. So there are several years until it needs to become a topic of serious conversation. Right? Yet there does seem to be a resurgence of "baby" talk on J's part lately.
Time...there's plenty of time for that. I just want to make the most of the present.
For some reason, I've been wanting to start updating on here again. Although I'm caught in the current of Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, I can't keep up with any of them. But I continue to read friends' entries on LJ, so I figure it's time that I start putting some effort into posting.
There have been so many changes over the last two years that I don't even know where I'd start. Just bought a townhouse that J and I are moving into at the end of the month. Living in DC and loving the area. Also bought a new car last week b/c the other one died. Feeling pretty healthy and satisfied overall. Still hold a lot of stress , however, and am trying to find a way to relax more. Working on the new house is helping. This weekend we're going to start fixing some things. We'll probably change the light fixtures, tape for painting, do the landscaping out front (plant some flowers and trim the hedges), replace the hardware and repaint the handrail on the stairs, lay contact paper (or some variant) in the kitchen, and take care of some other minor fixes. The sooner we get everything done, the sooner we can start painting. Only about three weeks until we move in, and next week is the pride festival, so we'll be pretty strapped for time.
I think with the new house will come a feeling of being settled that I haven't quite ever had. Either I've never had the right instance, or have never possessed the ability to mentally lay roots somewhere. I'm assuming that the new house will also make me more of a homebody since there are so many projects that I want to work on. However, I do plan to try to meet people, in whatever way that might happen. Local friends would be great.
So there's that for now. More to come. Seriously, more to come.
If anyone is not a member of myspace, you should join... seriously... there are so many people on it and it's a great site. it beats friendster and all other similar sites.... here's my new web page. http://www.myspace.com/sarahmckibb… join and request to be my friend!!!
I just found out this morning that I won the award for the top graduate student in my program. Apparantly faculty nominate the winners and I received the highest number of votes... I'm so excited... there is a graduate awards banquet coming up soon where I'll receive the award.. plus I get scholarship money. I'm still kind of amazed....
Oh- and the 20th Century Literature Conference was amazing. I loved Louisville and we stayed at the Sealbach Hilton which is apparantly haunted... really...we took the tour. The other grad students that I went with on the trip were so nice....very cool people
Things are busy- I've never experienced this kind of business before, but it's becoming routine. The job is not bad...the freelance stuff is getting to me though because my weekends are bogged down by editing and I never feel like I have time to just "be." Last night I went to a poetry/fiction reading called "Gist Street" that happens once a month downtown in this pottery studio that's absolutely insane. I went w/ Scott and met Sam down there, then some other people from SRU came up. The space is huge and open and they had a bathtub of beer in the middle... the two readers were published authors who had won tons of awards and were funny as hell and entertaining. Scott and I decided that we're gonna go every month from now on....I hope we meet some more people. In other news, my dad is trying to bid on the condo above him, which is much bigger. I'm trying to figure out what the hell my future holds. While I love my apartment, the noise from annoying neighbors is really starting to get to me. And while I love my job, the pay is insanely low. Do I stay and gain the experience? I'm missing my family and friends a lot lately.... but I'm also slowly starting to meet/hang out w/ more people in Pittsburgh. There's good and bad to everything. Anyway, I was invited to an honors convocation for my 4.0 in April and I'm debating whether or not to go. It's on a Sunday around 2 pm and with no one really excited to see me go, it seems kind of pointless. I know if my mom were in town shed LOVE to go... but alas, she's in Indiana. I'm excited about going to Indy next weekend... I'll see my dad, Kathleen, Molly, Phil and possibly my grandma if she drives up, and my mom if she drives up. Hell yeah. I only have Mon and Tues off tho b/c I still have to work at the publishing co. on Wed-Fri. Still- I have four days off to---do----nothing. Oh- and to all those wondering, Magnum is doing fine. In all his glory. And he is now the proud owner of two new toys: a pink and red caterpillar and a goose that realistically honks. I like the goose best b/c when he carries it around in his mouth, it looks like he just pulled it out of a pond.
Pittsburgh Steelers- Superbowl Champions! It has been an interesting playoff journey and a crazy game to end it all. Neither teams played very strongly, but somehow in the end, we came out on top. We deserved it after the grueling playoff games.... esp after our victory over the Colts. Sorry Indy fans...(note: Indy is my 2nd favorite team). In other news, work has been great. I love the people I work with, I like getting to know the company through the completion of different projects in various departments, and I feel like I'm finally starting to get into the groove of the M-F schedule and having to wake up at 6am every morning. I've been tired a lot, but have been supplementing with coffee. I have a lot to do this week...develop an advertising campaign for Ad and PR Writing, copyedit a 100 pg and 40 pg MS. Write 5 author proposals. Read "White Noise" again and edit my paper for the conference next week. This is absolute craziness.
