Too Excited for Well Placed Words

I just got word from the Hubs that he got days off next month.....so we can go to Hawaii! I wanna jump up and down screaming with delight and excitement. However, I'm at work right now...so this will have to do. This will serve as our belated honeymoon and an early first anniversary for us. This economy in a rut thing, is working out for us kind of poor people. Seven months ago the same package would have cost us more than double! And since I can't actually squeal out the emotions I have right now....this video will have to do:

It's been so long, I forgot I was missing it

Why didn't anyone remind me? I had forgotten what it was like to sleep without excessive noise permeating every moment of the night. Resulting in the zombie-like sleep I must have been getting for well over two years now. The non-stop, round-the-clock, rush of traffic on Highland Drive, bouncing in through our single pane, kept no noise out and barely the cold, windows.

I still have my sleeping issues....because, I'm me and it wouldn't make sense for everything to get better. However, now that we officially live in the 'burbs, it's eerily quiet at night. Almost deafeningly silent, laying there in bed, trying to fall asleep. It's the lack of street traffic, heard through thin windows, so it feels like the cars are IN the same room. It's the multiple walls and vast expanses (it's a general exaggeration, but a quite accurate comparison to our old place) in-between the bedroom and the TV room where Hubs is watching TV. It's the lack of people walking home from the bars at closing time, drunk, and talking loudly as they ever-so-slowly pass the building's parking lot.

Instead, peaceful, suburbia silence. It is this beautiful thing, contained in such an environment I tend to loathe, that finds me waking now, knowing...better yet, feeling...like I got into a deep sleep (even if it may be a short one).

One year older, and wiser too....

Well, maybe not the later. Sunday I got a year older, and I think I like this new number. 24 is not nearly as appealing as 23 was/is, but I think I will stick to this number a few years, until I can no longer get away with it (in the same fashion that some women are 29 or 39 for 10 years-sometimes more).

I normally don't make a big fuss about my birthday, but this year, we had some friends over for a small gathering. I enjoyed the night very much. We managed to forget to serve the birthday cake, and didn't get a single picture. But it happened, and when years from now I wonder why there's no pictures of my "first" 24th Birthday, I'll have to turn to my blog to remember.

It's easier this way, to stay one age for a while. When I start to think about turning 25 next year, the panicked pressure starts to rise in my chest, reminding me of all the things I've not accomplished that I thought I would have by age 25. So....rationally speaking, if I stay 24 come next spring, I don't have to panick about those things now....right?

Bittersweet Goodbye

Friday we hauled out most of our belongings and moved on to the next chapter in our lives. It was definitely bittersweet for me: leaving a place were Matt & I became a "we", but I also hated living in a cramped little apartment. We made some wonderful memories there. I was almost teary as I took one last look at the building and drove off Saturday for the last time. But....I took some pictures, so that we can show our future children where we lived. It sounds silly, but as a child I always loved seeing pictures of my parent's lives before I was in it. Seeing them so young, and seeing the path that led them to the family we were (at the time).

Now I'm back, at a familiar house, my Mother's. It was the only house we ever lived in for more than a few years growing up. It's my third round at this house, but this time is quite different. It's slowly becoming our home, with our belongings in it. Last night I was packing up most of her kitchen, and it seemed strange to pack up these things that have been there for the last 12+ years. I kept thinking "when family comes over, they won't know where to look for things" and "will they be upset that my Mom's stuff isn't there". It's also very unnerving to be usurping my Mother, and taking over the master bedroom that's always been her's, and moving her into the spare room. It's necessary for us to live there, but it feels so instinctively wrong, and I worry that she feels usurped. I hope that we can make it as welcoming as she did over the years; the gathering spot for family events.