Hello Meatless Meals!

Hokay so big news first: we got that apartment we were lusting after!!! Hooray! We put down our first, last and security, and have started moving things in bit by bit, mostly boxes and wedding gifts that were taking up space. I’m so excited! Looking forward to some DIY furniture and craft projects for our new home, as well as getting a furry friend! We are allowed one cat! This apartment is just spectacular – two separate entrances, brand new everything … a blank canvas for us to create! I hope to post some before and after pics once we are settled in. 

 

Now, for the second order of business; tonight’s dinner. May I direct your attention to the Budget Bytes link listed on the left hand of your screen. Feel free to peruse her website, it is the balls and the shaft! I love a fellow foodie who is focused on eating well without spending a ridiculous amount of money. Here is the link for what I made for din din tonight. In our constant quest to expand our food horizons and save some do-re-mi, we have tried to cook at least one meatless meal a week. Well my friends, we hit the jackpot with this one! It has black beans in it which I am normally not a fan of, but I don’t really mind them so much mixed in alongside the sweet potato and corn, plus the addition of the chipotle peppers in adobo gives it a nice kick (I added some sriracha as well yum yum). Even Sig-O agreed that eating these doesn’t feel like diet food, or feel like you are depriving yourself. I highly recommend trying them ASAP, as well as many other recipes found over at Budget Bytes!

 

Now to polish my sammich off and get some more packing accomplished … TTFN ta ta for now!

Honeymoon/Apartment Found?

So shame on me, I never shared any photos of our honeymoon in Portland. I talked about it – but the pics really say it all. Cool, European-esque city, cobblestones, brick, vibrant arts scene, AMAZING food, locally sourced etc … we will be going back repeatedly, that’s for sure.

 

 

Well, that being shared … update from my last post. Apartment in “Sassquin area of New Bedford” … MISREPESENTATION AT ITS’ FINEST. Yes, fantastic area, right over the line from Freetown, beautiful houses etc and the one place we were checking out was the ONLY EYESORE. Complex-type building, door looked like it had been beaten down several times, smelled, cement filled pool, apartment was disgusting. No thanks! And they wanted $800!

We pressed forward, scheduling two viewings this past week. One on Thurs, one on Saturday. Cancelled the Saturday one because the Thurs night one (in Taunton!) was absolutely stunning! To summarize, we viewed it Thurs. Submitted paperwork for credit check etc yesterday morning and met with realtor again to discuss any discrepancies. Realtor called last night wanting to set us up on an interview with the potential landlords, TODAY at 5! Words can’t express how excited I/we are. I don’t want to jinx it by divulging too much info, but the apartment is half a Ranch style house, one bedroom with an office, modern and updated appliances etc., DISHWASHER, and also! Absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Fresh paint, clean as a whistle, clean carpeting and tile floors – a built in curio cabinet in the kitchen (we all know how much I love built ins!). I had to hold myself back from drooling during the viewing. Fingers crossed this will be our new apartment. We spoke with our current landlord to let him know that we are actively looking for a new apartment and he was so sweet. He said we were the best tenants he has ever had.

School update: Finished with one class, taking an incomplete in the other so I can pass in a final project I feel good about. I felt so good passing in all my tutoring materials and final paper this past week for the one class! Whatever grade I get, I get, with that one.

I took a look at my course requirements out of curiosity. I only have 5 classes and a practicum to get my Master’s. Now I’m still planning on taking a break, at least a semester or two off, however I do think I will go back and at least finish what I started, taking only a course each semester and figure out some sort of solution for the practicum. I was talking to a few co-workers about it and they said there shouldn’t be any reason that I can’t finagle my current position into a practicum. With the break I am taking, I plan on pursuing a practicum solution by speaking with the department head, advisor, and coordinator as well as my boss to see if there is something mutually beneficial to be done about it. One of my co-workers who does the majority of the educational testing for yearly IEP’s etc made a good point that if I got my Master’s I could split the backbreaking (mentally and physically- carting around all the testing materials and manuals does a number on ya!), time consuming task of evals/testing with her or even take it on entirely once she retires. Good food for thought at least.

For now, I’m thinking positive for this landlord interview, and starting to take things down around the apartment. All the photos, menus and tidbits that were plastered all over the fridge are down, as well as the majority of hanging pictures, photo collages and frames. Next, I’m gonna attack my massively full bookcase and see if I can pare down some of the books in there (yeah right who am I kidding? me = book hoarder) TTFN ta ta for now!

Oh, Apartment Hunting!

Since I just about FELL into the apartment we inhabit now, I figured looking and finding a new apartment for us newlyweds would be just as easy. How about NOoooOooooo Mr. Bigglesworth!

I love our current apartment, I really do. We are just about busting at the seams in it though. Real lack of storage space, lack of counter space in the kitchen, bedroom is getting pretty tight between laundry baskets, two bureaus, and whatnot. I love our landlords (even when the husband gets cracking on his paint scraping/chipping/repainting/banging ladders up against the house at oh, 7am on a Saturday , i.e. today.) I will truly miss them. But it is time to go!

Been scouring Craigslist for months with no real luck in the town we live in currently. Lots of overpriced places, and overpriced dumps. Called a few places that seemed decent that recently popped up. One return call out of 3, who said we could come look at the place anytime since he left it wide open. Yup, not a place I wanna hang my hat at. E-mailed another one; too good to be true! Got e-mailed back spam type junk about being missionaries and traveling to Africa and oh yes, cleanliness is next to godliness donchaknow? Like the scene from Charlie & The Chocolate Factory – BAMP BAMP, BAD EGG. 

Two calls placed to two places in Fall River. No return call. For the love of Pete, if you already rented the place, give me the courtesy of a return phone call to acknowledge that! Time to bring in the big guns…

No more scouring Craigslist. Too fraught with scams and the like. Obviously it has changed since I fell into our current apartment. Started scouring the local papers, with some help from family members. Again, not a lot of luck. 

Have contacted two real estate, realtor type places – about a place here in Tauntaun/Taunton, a 1/2 duplex that looks VERY promising (did you catch the Star Wars reference? hee hee); one in the Fall River/South Coast area. Contacted the one lonely newspaper ad –  I ACTUALLY CALLED AND SPOKE TO A REAL LIVE, WARM BLOODED HUMAN BEING!!!!!!!!!!

It’s in the Sassaquin Pond area of New Bedford, which is super far north New Bedford, more like Acushnet/Lakeville/Assonet-y. Not the “far North New Bedford” that they claim in a lot of listings but, joke is on you, if you do your homework the place is pretty much central or even South End New Beige. Which isn’t bad necessarily; I lived down there briefly. Warm spot in my heart for NB -but who I was living with kinda ruined it. I hate misrepresentation. 

We’re going to scope it out tomorrow afternoon!!! Huzzah!!!

Massholes.

What a fucked up week. We heard the news about the Boston Marathon bombings while we were away in Portland, as well as the chemical plant explosion in Texas. Kept up on it to a point until we got home. Caught up on the news while at the gym last night. Then today woke up to news that Boston was shut down, T shut down, Amtrak shut down. No cab service. They’re still looking for people in the West chemical explosion aftermath.

Un-fucking-believable. This shit is unreal. I’ve lived in MA my entire life, sure it has its’ pitfalls and issues, but I love it here. I am upset and mad and agitated that the two bombers/their sect/sleeper cell whatever, is causing disruption to our lives. Terrorists want to kill people but more so than that, they want to disrupt people’s lives and put fear into what we normally would think are everyday activities. One bomber is dead; another on the run. Several innocent people are dead, hundreds injured and still recovering.

Two of my uncles are currently in locked down buildings in Cambridge and Boston. A close friend is locked down downtown. A suspicious device was found at the local university I attend; one of the bombers is a registered student at another nearby college. It’s insane.

As Adam Sandler tweeted, “Boston is probably the only major city that if you fuck with them, they will shut down the whole city, stop everything and find you.”

Hopefully there is an end to all of this, although I suspect it may be just the beginning. I am trying to get some normalcy going; until someone tells me I can’t, I am going about my normal business. I tried to get my name changed after picking up my marriage license but all Social Security offices in MA are closed. For now, normalcy means getting some lunch and enjoying some retail therapy.

I’m married…now what?

So, yeehaw – got married!!! The whole day went off without a hitch; I cannot say enough about all the vendors and friends and family that were involved. It was perfect!

 

We honeymooned in Portland, Me. New long term goal: move to Portland. Not kidding. Still going to move to Fall River over the summer for sure – but depending on job availability and cost, we might just end up in Portland within a couple years. We absolutely loved the city – everybody seemed so naturally friendly and just HAPPY to be there and doing WHATEVER they were doing. It’s easy to get around, of course it has a few seedy areas and appears to be a lot of homeless … but even if we don’t end up there long term, we are definitely going back every chance we get. 

Now comes the sorting through of all our junk, all the junk we have stored at Sig-O’s mom’s house (doing it this weekend legit), me finishing up this semester, and getting ourselves packed up and moved! Oh, and enjoying each other

New Beginnings

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Obviously after Sig-O and I get married, we are looking for a new apartment, most likely in an area new to the both of us. I am excited for this.

However…

As some of you (all three of you that read this anyway, har har) may know, I started going back to school this past fall for my Master’s in Special Education. I made this decision because I was not that happy with my current job (wonderful people, wonderful kids, but lots of other issues) and figured going back for my Master’s would make me feel better and put me in a direction where I could think about having my own classroom, different job etc.

I am currently an SLP-A (speech language pathology assistant), unsure of whether or not to go for my Master’s in Speech Pathology, and even if I were sure, lack of places to go, money/time/travel issues, whatnot. My job isn’t bad; in fact there are a lot of perks to it – perks that I am realizing now. I am really good at my job. If I were to follow through with this Master’s degree in Special Education and have my own classroom as a SPED teacher, it would be like going from the pot into the fire. The question I have been asking myself lately is – do I really want to be a teacher? I can’t answer for sure with a yes. Something I thought I wanted, I’m not so sure of anymore.

That being said, I don’t want to be an SLP-A forever. I don’t like where the field of education in general is going, and I’m not sure I like where Deaf Education is going, at least with respect to being a speech and language person. I like what I do now, for now but going back to school is not making me feel better. In fact, it is making me feel worse. It is making me feel inadequate and incompetent.

There are exceptions, but the majority of professors do not teach. It is all done via PowerPoint, on-line discussion boards etc. I don’t feel like I am really absorbing or learning anything; I am just running like a hamster on a wheel to get done what is required. I lack the time to complete what is asked of me, there are always field experiences required and I have a full time job and don’t have the luxury to sit with a kid for an hour every week or MORE outside of my already crammed caseload and responsibilities. My job performance is suffering due to the strains of taking graduate classes and that really bugs me. I pride myself on my ability to perform well and do what is asked of me, and give the best to the kids I work with as well as my co-workers.

Again, long story short – I am not continuing graduate school. At the close of this semester, I am wrapping all loose ends up and taking at least the fall semester off, if not the spring. I might not even go back at all. I miss being able to read a book of my own choosing. All the baking and cooking I used to do. Doing things on a whim because I COULD. Personal fulfillment is the name of the new game.

I have this seed of an idea. It started a year or so ago. Everybody compliments me on my baked goods, and my cooking. They always say, you should open your own business. Well my friends, I am not going that far (yet) however once the semester wraps and work starts winding down, I am going to try to sell my baking/cooking items to local small, independantly run businesses (coffee places or whatnot). Give them a batch of something for free and see how they sell. It could be a bust, or it could be a very nice little side gig that I truly enjoy and am passionate about. Now, I’m not saying I want to quit working in education and start working in the restaurant business, no no no, I spent a lot of time there during high school and undergrad and frankly I had my fill. But this could be a really good, fulfilling experience, successful or not. It could blossom into something bigger, or just remain a small side hobby. Either way, I think it is a positive direction to move in.

If you never try, how will you know?

 

3 weeks

Just under actually, ’til our nuptials! 

Trying to take a moment and slow down and really think about where we are and how far we have come, both individually and together. Joy when we got engaged. Painful loss last year when Sig-O’s father passed away. Birthdays, holidays, job/career issues, small and large decisions. We have only been together about two and a half years, but it feels like much longer than that. 

I keep thinking, wow only X days to our wedding, can’t believe it! I’m pretty sure I will be saying that up until the day of, haha. Then the day after – wow that went quick! The wedding isn’t necessarily the end point obviously, but the beginning of a new chapter in our lives. 

Not too much else to report – things are humming along; work, school and wedding related. Looking forward to the honeymoon in Portland, ME. Booked a tour with one of the breweries up there! 

Strawberry crisp in the oven. Lemon pudding in the fridge, waiting to go to my grandfather’s 80th birthday bash today. 

I have a head cold, sinus thing going on. Nothing too bad but a good enough excuse to take a chill pill and lay in bed as long as possible