Last Week: In Review

Monday: I'm not gonna lie, last week started with the traditional 'Fun Hangover'. We spent Easter and the night prior up in Chico with my family and had such a good time. Saturday night we went to this cowboy bar because my cousin Jim had just dropped a few hundred bucks on a hat, boots, and wranglers, and he wanted to see if he could pull it all off. Yes, that's right, he is NOT a cowboy -- he just plays one on TV -- or apparently at bars in Chico. It was hysterical! When I showed up and he was donning his regalia I said to him "Jeez, when did you become a cowboy?" And he looked at me with an absolutely straight face and said "One day last week, why?" He cracks me up! Of course the brunch the following day was more of the same. Come Monday, I was not ready to be back at work.

Tuesday: Honestly the most exciting thing I did on Tuesday was revel in the fact that my taxes have been completed since January. I got a very tiny refund and I was SO STOKED about it. I know most people love getting a big refund, but Garrett and his Economics Major brain has taught me to hate it. If you get a big refund, that means the Government has been holding your money for a year and you haven't been making any interest! Boo! So ever since he told me that (I had never really thought of it that way) I have been doing my best to never get a refund. This was my best year by far!

Wednesday: This was kind of a weird day. I turned in my keys to the studio, which prompted me to freak out just a bit, like "OMG, I really have no where else to go-- Garrett's house is, like, officially my house now." Which felt weird. But good weird, ya know? Then I had an absolutely CRAP-TASTIC day at work, getting some really shitty news right before I left for the day. I decided I was going to go home and feel totally sorry for myself, but instead when I got home the new shoes that I had ordered were on my front porch. And then when I went to grab the mail, the next door neighbor came over and said "Hey, welcome to the neighborhood officially!" and she was totally sweet and neighborly, and it just made the whole thing feel more real! So sometimes the Universe just won't let you feel sorry for yourself, which actually was good because we had tickets that night to see Jenny Lewis play at Empire and it was AWESOME! Great show, great crowd, and the best part--- it started at 6:30! So we were home and in bed by 11 (What? We're Old!!!)

Thursday: I went to a jewelry party at a co-worker's house and bought myself some FUN new jewelry (hi kelly! haha) that I'm really excited about. Still being kinda down from the previous day's bad news, retail therapy definitely helped.

Friday: I headed out to my mom's to have a little Ladies Night with my mom and grandma. I jokingly updated my Facebook Status on Friday that I was "drinking a Rockstar in anticipation" and seriously -- I was still asleep by 11. We had dinner and just chatted for a few hours outside (and hello, the weather was soooo nice!) and it just felt really good to catch up. Sometimes a girl just needs the grounding force of her mother, and I'm lucky that I can access mine with only a 30 minute drive.

Saturday: I had one of those moments where I woke up in a panic thinking I was late to work, only to realize it was totally the weekend. God, I sort of love when that happens. There is no better sleep that the few hours one gets knowing the alarm will NOT be waking you up. Aaaah! Got a pedicure with my cousin Saturday afternoon and boy were my P.W.T feet grateful. My new toes made me happy all weekend, and I seriously can't wait for a Summer full of tan pedicured feet and sandles! Speaking of, I bought some new ones at Target this weekend and I'm dying to wear them. The fact that it heated up this weekend was perfect timing.

Sunday: I got up super early, which was sort of annoying, but when I had a few million things done and looked at the clock to find it was only noon, I stopped feeling so annoyed. It was a beautiful day, I got prepared for the week, I relaxed, and we ended up BBQ'ing, so all in all, pretty much a great Sunday. And actually, a pretty good week, now that I'm reflecting on it.

***Hoping for a good one this week!

Slow and Steady

So I reserved a U-Haul for Saturday and I guess that means this thing is really happening! This move has been somewhat less traumatic than moves past because I have had the luxury of taking my sweet time. Basically every afternoon when I get off work I just drive home past my old place and pick up a load, drive home, unload, and that's it. It doesn't feel exceptionally laborious, and all of a sudden the only things left in my studio are large items of furniture. It's been sad packing up and leaving my cute-bachelorette space, but I'll tell you what, I am happy I did all that purging 6 months ago when I moved in!

The more stuff that I move into the Carmichael house the more it starts to feel like my home too and that's exciting! Not to mention I get to think about things like furniture! and paint! and decorating! all over again. Obviously those fun things will have to wait a little bit because with Maui coming up at the end of May all of our extra cash is being budgeted for that excursion and not so much for new furniture, but even just browsing for design inspiration gets me all giddy! I've been cutting things out of magazines and keeping all my ideas in a notebook at home and I can't wait to start working on it.

Speaking of notebooks, since I've been packing things up I have found A LOT of old journals that chronicle my pre-blogging life as well as a number of old photo albums. It's funny to note that even before I started this blog I obsessively documented the most random aspects of my life. It's actually been tons of fun to go through and read about exactly what I was feeling even just 4, 5, 6 years ago...because although it seems like practically yesterday, my life has changed SO MUCH! The other night I read my way through my life in Los Angeles, my move up to Sacramento, meeting my new roommates, subsequent moves, my thoughts on my future career, my laundry list of items I was looking for in a partner -- just about everything you can imagine. And the best part was that the writing was totally unencumbered. It's made me feel like I need to get back to a little bit more personal writing, and probably by hand. I've gotten so used to the quick blog update, and although that is also good documentation, and a great way to stay connected to my family and friends, sometimes I just need a place to let out some of the other important ideas that I'm stirring around. I'm not saying things are distilled here, but in some ways that have to be because of the broad readership. The idea of jotting down thoughts only for myself feels just perfect right now.

Speaking of old journals and photos, I decided the other night that I'm going to take some of the photos I have lying around and using them in our house. Garrett and I have had a ton of great adventures over the past few years and the other night we spent an hour sitting on the couch reminiscing and looking through old photos and had such a fun walk down memory lane! It made me think that we should have those pictures out and about, because some of the photos really capture fantastic moments. I definitely don't want our house to turn into tchotchke photo land, but I think we could find more ways to artfully incorporate some of those moments into our decor and I'm looking forward to finding a way to do that. (My only fear is that dealing with things like hanging pictures involves measuring and I HATE measuring...although not more than I HATE crooked picture frames, but I guess that's not something I need to reconcile right this very minute.)

Doing this move at a slower pace has really made me feel pretty inspired and creative lately. I can't wait to start working some of those impulses out, not only on paper but on the walls. I love being absolutely submerged in possibility!