Funny what the rain can do...

Well hello all.

Long time no talk. No type. Whatever. So yeah, you know what's funny that the rain can do? Rain and just the right music makes Amy introspective. Reflective perhaps. Anyhow, it makes me think. And I guess it makes me blog because it's been a while. I was just thinking about this blog and how it had been ages since I wrote as I was driving home from work today. I was listening to The Fray as I drove in the rain. I love them. Anyone else who knows them knows that their album is mostly depressing. But I love depressing. Always have. Something about depressing that makes me feel good. Feel more alive. Is that weird? I don't know, but sometimes the best thing in the world is to pop on some sad music and get lost in it while thinking about your life. And I'm not saying my life is depressing right now because it's not. I have a job I love, Mike finally left Meditech because they suck and he has a great new job in Boston that he's loving. We're moving to Providence during the month of May. Basically a lot of good things are happening. And yet I revel in depression. I am not depressed about my life. But it makes me think of my mom. I need to explain that before she reads this and interprets that statement wrong. As much as she loves her life now and is happy with who she is and where she's at, there's a part of her that always looks back to her younger years with a bit of longing and sadness that they're over. And I think that's sort of what my rainy day depressions amount to. Not that I would change where I'm at now, but missing parts of my past. So to all of you in my past, I'm thinking of you today and what you've meant to my life.

Wedding Pictures: Part Two (even though it appears before part one...)

The Wedding Party

Mike and I. Obviously.

The Cake

The Tables
Check out the difference between the next two...

Bouquet Toss

Garter Toss

And I'll leave you with a shot of one of our adorable flowergirls

Past Due

Current random thoughts:
1. My apartment smells gross like old tacos (I made them last night...garbage must go outside tonight)
2. I love that Christmas is coming! I love hearing the songs on the radio, I love shopping for presents. I just love this time of year. :) I was getting all nostalgic on the way to work today because "All I Want For Christmas" by Mariah Carey was on. It just brings back Christmas memories at Whistle Stop. I still think that is one of my favorite places to be around the holidays. If I could, I'd go back and work there every Christmas. If any of the Whistle Stop crew reads this, I miss you guys and am thinking about you!
3. I have the best job in the world! As you all know from my last post, I officially work for the ACLU now. Good stuff. I started last Tuesday. I love the people I work with. Granted it's only my boss and an administrative assistant, but they're both great. Steve, my boss, is awesome. He even let us out at 3 instead of 5 today. Very nice.
4. I got the proofs back for my wedding pictures. Nearly all turned out great. Here's a small sampling:

Hmm...so apparently this is all that will fit in one post...

Hooray for me!

Hello, hello! Well, I guess it's safe to talk about that mysterious job now. Sorry I wasn't so forthcoming before, but I wanted this so badly that I was afraid I'd jinx it if I told too many people about it. So here goes. Today at approximately 5:20pm I was offered the job I have been interviewing for!! It's with the ACLU of Rhode Island in Providence. My official title is "Program Coordinator." My main duties will be lobbying and other legislative duties, research, and community education. Also, during the fall/winter I will be helping with fundraising. Tis the season I suppose. Can't say I'm looking forward so much to that part, but hey, you can't expect to love every aspect of a job and I think my other duties will definitely make up for it. I start on Nov. 13, just over a week from now. I can't wait. I can't believe that I've landing the job of my dreams. I know I haven't started yet and there's the possibility of it not being what I expected, but so far so GREAT! I'm really looking forward to it and, of course, the second income will come in quite handy. I just feel very lucky and very fortunate to have landed a job right out of college that is actually a job that I want. I can remember reading the posting for this job almost two months ago. I was practically giddy just reading about it. And now it's mine. Talk about good fortune! And when it comes time to move on, this job will be excellent on my resume. I will be one of three employees in the office meaning that I will have experience in several different aspects of the organization instead of being so specialized in just one area. And, although I know there are varying opinions of the ACLU (some of which are, to say the least, not positive), it is a national organization and a well-known organization. The work I will be doing for them will definitely lead to more opportunities down the road. I definitely can't wait to start. Like I said in the title: hooray for me!

Happy trails...

Talk about nerve-wracking!

So I just got a phone call about an hour ago and I'm still trying to calm myself a bit. As you know from my previous post, I've been interviewing for a job I really want. I had a phone interview late September and then an in-person interview with the executive director a week ago. This phone call today was from the executive director asking me to come in for yet another interview BECAUSE he's narrowed it down to TWO candidates...one of whom is me. Eek! I go in tomorrow at 5:30. He said it would be brief and he asked me to bring my portfolio again. For any of you social work majors reading this, yes, I mean that portfolio. The giant one we all complained about putting together. Well, that obnoxious portfolio just might be what gets me the job in the end, so it was worth all of the hours and sleepless nights. He'd already said he was impressed with my statistical analyses when I went in a week ago. Thank you, Salve, for the research classes! I suppose it helps that I liked those classes, but still... I've decided that even if I don't get this job, I'm still very happy about where I'm at. I mean, think about it. This is my first "real" job that I'm interviewing for. The first time my resume has been looked at by a potential employer. All for a job I truly want! And I've been told out of however many candidates (there were 6 days of round 2 interviews) that I'm good enough to make it to the top two in the group. Of course, landing the job would make this whole experience even better, but I'm happy with the progress so far!

Happy Trails...

A Rather Blustery Day (or two)

Mike and I woke up yesterday to a rather rainy and rather windy day yesterday. Our plans for cleaning and organizing the apartment sort of fell by the wayside as a result. You might think that rainy weather is perfect cleaning weather, but it's not. Not for us at least. It was too dark in the apartment and made us just want to watch tv/movies all day. We started off with a bunch of food network shows about Halloween. Which, of course, made us want to make Halloween treats. As we sat staring at the tv, we added cupcake and sugar cookie ingredients to our grocery list (which already included a few items for dinner). Just remember that there's two of us. And we're making cupcakes and cookies. Oh well, it's Halloween, the season of sweets. So anyhow, Mike was the lucky one to go to the store because he didn't like the movie on tv I'd chosen to watch. He swears we started watching Ghost Ship together before and we both thought it was stupid. I swear he doesn't know what he's talking about because none of it was familiar to me. I'm not saying it's a cinematic masterpiece, but I liked it enough. It was fun.

While he was gone I started preparing for dinner. And may I offer a tip for a good meal that works well as leftovers, too? Mike and I eat the Campell's Supper Bakes maybe once a week. We finally stumbled on one that cooks up well as leftovers--the Southwest Chicken. Very tender, juicy chicken the first time around and, since it's a meal for four, we had leftovers which I decided to make into chicken tacos. Mmm. Just reheated the rice with a little butter and red onions, cut the chicken up and reheated it with some taco seasoning, shredded some cheese and lettuce, bought a little sour cream and taco shells and voila! tasty meal number two!

Except tasty meal number two turned dangerous when Mike arrived with the taco shells. I couldn't open the shrink wrap around the shells and since I was too lazy to go in the other room for scissors, I just grabbed the knife I used to cut the lettuce and...slipped and cut my finger. Mind you I also opened the shrink wrap, but I put a pretty nasty gash in the side of my left middle finger. Ever actually cut through your nail? I did. The cut goes from about the center of my fingernail horizontally across and into my flesh on the side. Nice. I was bleeding pretty badly so I raised my hand over my head (because I'm sure...sorry, stupid reference) to slow the blood flow and directed Mike around the kitchen to finish the meal. It seems just fine now, but I'm interested to see how it grows out.

We sat down to our yummy meal and watched The Omen which was pretty good. About halfway through the movie I started mixing up the cupcakes (one-handed...kind of interesting). The first batch came out of the oven just as the movie was ending and then the power went out. Yay! Well, not really. Mike and I actually like power outages, but this time it was just inconvenient. At least we're prepared, though, because we had two flashlights nearby at the ready and plenty of candles already out ready to be lit. But we had more cupcake batter that would go bad and we didn't want to open the fridge in case it lasted a while. Also, Damien: The Omen II, was coming on next and since we liked the first one, we were excited to watch the second one. Well, I filled the cupcake pan and we decided to go for it and put it in the fridge. Then we played a game of Clue by candlelight (fun!). A little over an hour later the power came back on, we made the cupcakes, and, thanks to the magic on On Demand, we were able to watch The Omen II.

And now today it's still very blustery, which we love, and we're making some headway with our mess. Yippee.

Happy Trails...

I'm Ba-ack!

Wow, so who thought they'd ever see my return to blogger? Come on, anyone even still checking at this point? No? I don't blame you! Haha. Well, whatever the case may be, I intend to pick up where I left off. Sort of. I intend to just "pick up" is porbably better.

Quick catch up (and I mean quick...bare bones details right now): Pretty much from the time of my last post till just about now I was in Michigan. I was back at Whistle Stop part time and planning my wedding full time. Whistle Stop=tons of fun and I'm sad to see it go. Wedding planning=kind of a pain in the ass, but, honestly, worth every second of it. So the big day was Saturday, October 7. Again, I'm keeping the details scarce right now so that I can move right along. I will say that it was an amazing day, though. Perfect weather...mid 60s and sunny. Nice short ceremony (since it had to be religious ), BEAUTIFUL reception. We were going for an autumn harvest ball kind of look and it was achieved thanks to the wonderful professionals (mainly the Hangs) who were able to turn my words into perfection. Mike and I left for our Disney World Honeymoon the following Monday, October 9th. Quick word to the wise: DO NOT GO ON YOUR HONEYMOON DIRECTLY AFTER YOUR WEDDING UNLESS YOU ARE SUPERMAN AND SUPERWOMAN. You will be tired and cranky and needing rest, therefore missing out on half the fun. Mike and I wish we would have had a week in between, but there were several reasons for it working out the way it did and we just made the best of it. Still very fun, but could have been better had we been well-rested.

That just about brings us to the present. We got back from the honeymoon late on Monday, Oct. 16. Mike flew back to Taunton the following evening. I packed up everything and drove out this past Saturday. We are currently living in a pile of rubble because we have no room for anything in our apartment (sometimes not even for us I think). I don't mean to burst any engaged couples' bubbles with this next comment, but be prepared for no magical "I'm married-ness" to wash over you. You'd think you should feel all different, but you don't. You're the same people in the same relationship only with one extra ring each. Not that I'm complaining really. We had a great relationship so it's not like we needed anything different from marriage. We're still happy together and all of that. I think it will set in more around the holidays (mainly Christmas) when we go home and stay at the same place. In the past Mike has gone to his house and I've gone to mine. Now we both have to be at the same place. Time to juggle quality time with both families. That's going to be interesting. But more on that when the time comes I suppose. I will try not to be pessimistic from the start.

Ready for more of the romantic in me to come out? (That's meant to be funny, but don't worry, Mike has enough romance in him for the both of us.) I think the best part of getting married is having health insurance again! I have been without for almost the past two years. I could always go to Salve's clinic while in school, but it didn't include dental, vision, or prescriptions. Very bad. And although they could do gyno exams, if anyone currently at Salve is reading this, I highly recommend NOT going to them for that! I've never hurt or bled after a gyno until I went to the one at Salve. Sorry if that's a little too much information, but it helps drive home my happiness over health insurance. Yay!

One last quick thing to slip in before I sign off for now. Since the end of September I have been interviewing for what could quite possibly be a dream job for me. I had my second interview yesterday and should know by the end of next week if they're going to hire me. Keep your fingers crossed everyone because I need to make money! And it's always better to make money doing something you like. Haha, plus, it sounds like this job might offer even better benefits than Mike's (although glad to have health insurance, his is an HMO and I'm still holding out for a PPO again...), so who knows!

Happy Trails!!

Definitely one of the better ones

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