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Same name, different address

Hey, I'm moving! For a variety of reasons I've decided to make the switch to wordpress! So please update your subscription or google reader, or whatever you use, because otherwise you'll miss out on some awesome posts. And maybe some not-so-awesome posts. Either way, you'll be missing out!

All the cool kids are over here!

In the mind of a cat

The following is what Hermione thinks on a daily basis. I didn't have to interview her, I just know. It's a cat mom thing. Oh, and imagine all this in a high-pitched voice, because Hermione has a high pitched meow.

5:30 am: Guys. Guys, I'm hungry. Guys, do you hear the alarm? I'm hungry.
5:35 am: Hey. Why aren't you up yet? *licks inside Geoff's ear*
5:45 am: FOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD
6:00 am: What's going on in the bathtub?
6:05 am: Hey. I'd like to play with that q-tip, please. Why'd you throw it away??
6:10 am: Nevermind, I found a piece of dust on the floor, I don't need your dirty q-tip.
6:15 am: I think I'll just check and see if there's a dirty q-tip I can find in the trash...
6:30 am: Oh, you're leaving? Don't mind me while I lie upside down with all 4 feet in the air.

6:30 am-about 6:30 pm consists of alternating napping and OMG SQUIRREL/BIRD/LEAF MOVING OUTSIDE!!!

6:30 pm: Garage door! Someone's home! Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!
6:35 pm: Dinner time?
This continues until...
7:00 pm: FOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD
7:05 pm: Cleaning, cleaning, BIRD!
7:30 pm: Clarabelle!! Let's play! *pounce*
Clarabelle: No.
Hermione: Yes!
Clarabelle: I said no! *hiss*
Hermione: Oh. Well, OK then. I'll pounce on you later.

The rest of the evening typically involves lying upside down, watching the birds until dark, napping on the couch, and tearing through the house. The latter usually happens when we go to bed. The last thing I hear for the night is:

10:00 pm: GUYS?? Guys where are you? I'm lost!

Then she curls up at my feet, and sleeps until the alarm goes off at 5:30, and the day starts all over again.

This post inspired by Mama's Losing It writing prompt "List 7 things your pet thought about today" and linked to Fur Baby Friday.

Big news! I'm going to be...

...an auntie!

(What, you didn't think I was pregnant, did you??)

That's right, on or around October 17 my sister-in-law is having a baby! We don't know what yet (I have to wait 2 more months!) but I'm eagerly anticipating having a baby in the family! Even though she lives in Oregon, I think he/she will be spoiled by her Auntie Megg and Uncle Geoff!

Fur Baby Friday!

When we first got Clarabelle, I quickly realized that she loves the sun.

Absolutely loves it.

Whenever the sun is out, Clarabelle is lying in it! It's too bad she lives in Seattle.

Hello, my name is Meghan Oscar the Grouch

Kids don't understand the amount of time and effort parents go into to choose their name. Not that I can talk, mind, because I don't have kids yet, but I have spent plenty of time thinking about what I will name my kids. And I've named two cats, which is obviously the same thing.

Anyway, here's the thing. Growing up my last name leant itself to mockery. I won't say it here, but if you know me, you understand. Then there was my middle name. Jean. A family name that I thought was not nearly as beautiful as Elizabeth. Ah, Elizabeth. The name I coveted. The middle name my sister was given. Nothing could be more beautiful than Elizabeth, and Jean just didn't cut it.

I remember standing in the driveway of my friend's house (a friend name, ironically enough, Elizabeth), stating loudly that my name was no longer Meghan Jean, but instead I would be called Meghan Oscar the Grouch.

Apparently I had no problem with my first name.




This post inspired by the writing prompt What did you want your name to be? by Mama's Losin' it.

Book Review: I am the Messenger

My sister would disagree, but I didn't love I am the Messenger nearly as much as I loved The Book Thief. This isn't saying much, because I really enjoyed I am the Messenger.
This book came after The Book Thief, and isn't nearly as long. It starts out with a bang, and keeps on moving.

It's about Ed Kennedy, a nobody. He's 19 years old and hasn't accomplished anything. That is, until the cards start showing up.
One by one, he gets all 4 aces. Each one has a clue on them, getting progressively more difficult. His job is to deliver a message. I won't tell you what the messages are, because that will ruin it, but they're all very different. At the end of the book he feels like he's actually accomplished something in his life, and he has. He's saved people, helped them, and touched many lives with his small actions.

It's an excellent book, set in 4 parts, for each suite. I liked it because it really makes you think about how your actions affect other people, and even the effect they have on you or your friends.

Have you read I am the Messenger? If you liked The Book Thief, you should read this one as well. It's vastly different, but the writing is just as compelling.

Would YOU quit your job?

The other day The Non Consumer Advocate posted asking what you would do if you won the mega million lottery. It was interesting and amusing to look at all the comments. It was also touching, because a lot of them were centered around helping people.
There was also a common theme: many people would quit their job.

A year ago I would have been all over that. I was in a stifling office job, miserable, doing nothing I went to school for and hating every minute of it. Now? I love my job. Mega millions or not, I can't imagine not going into work every day and seeing those little faces smiling back at me. Sure, there are the days when I wonder what I'm doing, or wish that the kids would just stop touching me every second, but overall, I love my job.
I'd also love not to stress about how many hours I work in my part time position, and how big my paycheck would be.
Maybe things would change if I had kids, and something to occupy my time but right now? My kids are in my classroom, and I love spending time with them.

If you suddenly came into so much money you could quit your job, would you? Why, or why not?

{There's no disrespect towards anyone who would choose to quit! I'm just curious as to why.}

Fur Baby Friday...Derp style

The other day I looked over and saw this:

She's my very own derp cat!

A lesson learned

So, the other day this happened at work. That was one of our playgrounds.
The playground, which we do use, is likely gone for good. We have 1 other and a set of metal structures, and the land is owned by the school department. It's highly likely that they won't feel the need to spend the insurance money on a new playground. It's also highly likely that we'll never find out who did it.

That's not what I want to talk about, however. I want to talk about the fact that those flames went halfway up a tall evergreen tree. They were noticed at midnight by a neighbor, who assumed someone else had called the fire department.
At about 9 am the next day, 9 hours after it was noticed, and very likely at least 10 hours after it started, he came over to our building to tell us about it.
This playground is surrounded by trees, and covered with wood chips. Those trees are surrounded by houses. It was still smoking at 8 am when I noticed it and, kids in tow, thought it was someone burning leaves.
Had it not been raining so hard and so often recently, it's likely that those trees and the surrounding houses would have gone up in flames.

I'm here to make a public service announcement. Don't ever assume that someone else called the fire department, or the police. I'm not telling you to call 911 every time you see a stalled car on the side of the road, but if you notice flames, it's probably a good idea to call the fire department. The worst that can happen is they tell you they already knew about it.

Would our playground have been saved had someone called the fire department at midnight? Maybe, but probably not. If I lived behind a burning playground, however, I'm pretty sure I'd be calling the fire department.

For the record, I'm kicking myself for not investigating, or simply looking up the hill that morning when I saw the smoke. (Unlike the neighbor, who saw flames and ignored them)

Don't assume someone's already taken care of the problem. The 911 dispatcher isn't going to yell at you if you're the 5th call they've had on a fire. But someone will be grateful if you're the first.

Book review: The Book Thief

I've read The Book Thief three times now, and I think I fall in love a little more every time.

There are several interesting things about The Book Thief. The first is that it's set in Nazi Germany; in the beginning it's 1939, just before World War II starts. The second is that it's narrated by Death.

Strange fact about me. I'm highly, highly interested in books that take place during WWII. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Number the Stars. The Devil's Arithmetic. I'm immediately drawn to these books and the grotesque, can't look away story of the Holocaust, and I don't know why.

All those books have something in common that makes The Book Thief different. They're all told from the point of view of a Jew. The Book Thief is about a little German girl. A German girl sent to live with foster parents, who loses her brother on the train ride to Germany. A German girl with nightmares, a best friend who admires a black runner, and who attends Nazi Youth. A German girl who learns that there is life beyond Hitler, despite what the majority of her neighbors believe.

The book is long. It drags in the beginning (I can highly recommend listening to it, however) but amidst the dark, dark story, there is a little humor, at first. Liesel steals books and slowly learns to read in the middle of the night, when her foster father wakes her from her nightmares. She keeps to herself for the most part, but she's not timid.

It's a coming of age story about a little girl who comes of age far too quickly. When a Jewish man starts hiding in their basement, (a basement to shallow for air raid coverage), and the war starts, along with nightly air raids, Liesel is forced to grow up quickly.

It's a wonderful, sad, touching read. It's unusual, which drew me to it initially, but the writing sucked me in. It's worth reading, and it's one of my favorite books, if we're being perfectly honest.

Have you read The Book Thief? Did you enjoy it as much as I did?

April Goals

I kind of fell off the goal wagon for a month or so, but I'm back on track now! There are plenty of things I need to get done, so I'm writing them all out, to hold myself accountable.

1. Lose 4 pounds. I'm totally on a roll with weight loss, and I want to keep it up! A pound a week seems reasonable.
2. Go to the gym 3 times a week. Related to the weight loss goal, obviously.
3. Get the Freecycle chairs out of the garage. I'm rehabbing them, but the problem is that my garage is cold, and that's the only place I can work on them.
4. Buy patio furniture. I've been asking for patio furniture for a year, but it just isn't in the budget. Instead I'm saving my babysitting money, and hope to have enough by the end of the month! I have my furniture all picked out and everything!
5. Have 8 no spend days. That's 2 days a week. It's difficult to have these days with two people spending, but if we can work together and agree on days, I know Geoff and I can do it.

Do you have goals this month? What are they?

It's the little things

The other day, inspired by Pinterest, I made this:

I was sick and tired of digging through an already too full drawer for measuring cups! Our measuring spoons (which I was going to hang too) are all on a ring, so that isn't a problem. Now our measuring cups aren't an issue either!

I simply painted a paint stick (free) with black paint I already had in the house. (I wanted red, but that wasn't readily available!) I did buy those hooks, but I have a whole lot of them left, so I'm sure I can find something to do with them.

Sometimes the small things make me so happy.

Love

This is a reprint of a post I wrote 2 years ago, on another To Write Love on Her Arms Day.

I saved this postcard from postsecret.com several years ago, when I was first diagnosed with depression. Off and on I would set it as my computer desktop picture, to remind me that there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Today is To Write Love on Her Arms day, and I'm going to take part. I said I would last year too, but it was more of an "attending on Facebook" thing. This year I think I'm going to actually write love on my arm. Tomorrow also happens to be a youth group night, which is another reason why I decided to participate this year as well. I want people to ask questions.

I'm sure you have plenty of questions yourselves, and though I realize my blog doesn't have a very high readership, maybe I can raise awareness with even just a few of you. TWLOHA is an organization whose aim and vision is to raise awareness of depression, self-injury and suicide. They also support organizations that promote and help with recovery.

One of the things I both like and hate about depression is that it's hidden. People all around you could suffer from depression and you'd have no idea. I recently learned that a fellow-librarian graduate, Elizabeth, suffers from depression too. I saw Elizabeth almost every day for a year and a half and had no idea. Sometimes, you just can't tell.

TWLOHA is all about telling. Letting people know that you support them, that you hurt too, are hurting now, or have in the past. Whether or not you are ready to write love on your own arms, it's OK. I am participating because I want people to know I'm aware, that I'm a "safe person", for lack of a better way to describe it, that I am someone you can come to and talk to. I've been there, and sometimes I still am.

How about you?

My love affair with coffee

4:45 is very early to have your alarm go off.

It was the summer of 2005. Meant to Live by Switchfoot had just come out, and apparently the radio station I listened to at the time had a set order, because I woke up to Meant to Live almost every morning. I would roll out of bed, throw on my uniform, and be out the door by 5:10 am, at work by 5:30 am. I was working at Dunkin Donuts.

I graduated college in May of 2005 with a degree in journalism and no steady job aside from Dunkin Donuts. Living with my parents, I was paying the few bills I had, and freelancing on the side. It was a decent schedule. Out of work by 12:30 pm, home to nap some days, off to baseball or field hockey games in the afternoon. The only problem was that 4:45 alarm.

Once I got to Dunkin Donuts, one of the first things I did (alongside my set-up duties), was make myself some coffee. I added skim milk and a lot of sugar, and sucked down my first small within 15 minutes of my shift. After that, it was coffee throughout my day, until the early afternoon, of course, so I could sleep at night.

When a Starbucks opened in my town, and I got a decent full time job writing, I discovered the frilly coffee drinks. Though I still enjoy a plain old coffee, now from my Keurig, I often find myself at Starbucks on my way into work. Living in Seattle I embraced the love of coffee and now? I can't start my morning without it.


This post inspired by Mama's Losin' It's weekly writing prompt.

New car basics

I've bought all of one car in my life. His name is Max, short for Maximum Speed.

Max is getting up there in years; he turned 9 this year! I was reminiscing about when I first bought him, and thought I'd post some new car buying tips that I learned when I was searching for mine!

The number one thing you should do before buying a car, is figure out how much you want to put down, and save, save, save! Look at your budget and make mock car payments to yourself until you have a decent amount. Many people suggest between 10 and 20 percent. I say 10 percent minimum, more if you can.

Then, of course, there's the decision of what kind of car you want. I'll be honest with you. When I bought my Volkswagen Beetle I didn't do any research on it aside from asking my dad for his opinion on Volkswagens. I had an idea of how much I could afford in a car payment, so when I researched cars and saw that the Beetle was within my price range, I jumped on it! Maybe I should have done more research, but I've had the car 6 years and it's 9 years old, so I think it's treated me right.

Aside from what kind of car you want, I think the biggest decision is used or new. Between my frugality and my penchant for non-consumerism, I always lean toward used. You'll want to make sure your new car is certified pre-owned, because that means it went through a myriad of tests before it even hits the lot. My car came with brand new brakes, because they needed to be replaced, for example.
You can consider an ex-lease, but I wouldn't consider an ex-rental, because no one takes care of a rental.

Most important of all, make sure you love your car! My VW Beetle is so much fun, to me. It's fun to drive, and it's fun to say I own a Beetle. It will be my last fun car before I have to buy a kid-friendly car (have you ever tried to put a car seat in the back of a 2 door? It's a big pain!) Test drive as many or as few cars as you want (I only drove 1!) but just make sure you enjoy your car, because hopefully you'll be together for a long time!

Do you have any car buying tips? Are you in the market for a new car?

Ten things to write about when you have blogger's block

If you're like me you've run into blogger's blog now and then. In fact, I'm running into it right now! So here are some tips for when you have no idea what to write about. You may be seeing more of these in the next week or two, until I get inspired again!

1. Repost a previous post. Have a post you love? Repost it! Just make sure it hasn't been posted recently.
2. Find a link-up! There are plenty out there. Brunch with Amber does It's OK Thursday. My Pretty Pennies does a Weekly Money Check-up. Fabulous but Evil has The Nail Files, and Mrs. Monologues does Fur Baby Friday. Just check your blog roll, there are plenty out there.
3. Post a list of posts you found interesting in the past week. Bloggers love promotion and it feels especially good if you find that someone else liked a post you worked hard on.
4. Post a recipe you tried and love. I'm not into posting or really reading recipes, but lots of people love them. It's easy to do and takes as much time as writing up the recipe! Make sure you tell people where you got it from.
5. Review a book you read recently. Everyone loves to hear about a new book to read, especially if it isn't a huge, popular one. Read: don't review The Hunger Games.
6. Write about an experience you had. Be it the last time you stayed in a hotel, or the day you closed on your house, write it out. Most people love a good story, especially if it's well written.
7. Write your goals. This, obviously, is typically used for the beginning of the month, but it doesn't have to be! Write the goals you hope to accomplish in that week. I find that writing out my goals and posting them publicly helps keep me accountable.
8. Write about what you're watching these days. Whether it's Scrubs, which has been off the air for several years, or The Killing whose second season starts in April (yes, I'm watching both!), write about it! It's always interesting to see what people are watching.
9. Post a picture or two. Have a picture you recently took that you love? Post it, along with the story behind it.
10. Write a list. There are so many things to list. Things to write about when you have blogger's block, things you learned your first year of marriage, or planning your wedding. Buying a house. Whatever you feel like listing!

What are your tips or tricks when you have blogger's block?

Fur Baby Friday!

Typical morning routine:

Hermione loves the bathroom. She used to hate it, because when I first got her I lived in an apartment where the fan turned on with the light. I had another lamp in there, so I only turned the light on when I was going to shower, so she took to running out.
Somewhere along the line, that changed. Whenever I shower I can almost always guarantee that I'll get out, to see Hermione sitting on my towel, on the toilet. She's never far from either of us when we're getting ready, and often hops into the tub to do God knows what. Lick the sides, I guess.

Clarabelle loves sinks. We think it's because it's like a box for her, but she loves them. She is almost always in the sink...at least until Geoff turns the water on to shave. Then she crouches on my side of the sink, glaring at him because he dared move her. When she's not on the counter, she's typically on the scale or on the heating vent. She, too isn't very far from us while we're getting ready.

I swear, I have two of the weirdest cats.

The last time I stayed at a hotel...

When I walked in, it took my breath away.

It was the Parker House hotel in Chicago, and we were there for my sister's college graduation."I can't believe we're staying here!" I said, looking around. My parents had stayed here before, and they knew how much I loved it when I visited them then, so they got us two (connected) rooms for the weekend.
The history of the hotel is that it was built for a rich man's wife, years and years ago. Now owned by Hilton hotels, it retains it's original features in the rooms and lobby. Each door still has the original wood, and the round doorknobs, not the generic, handicap accessible metal ones.

Every room was different, and the bathrooms were not furnished not with the typical toilet and counters. The rooms looked like they were each individually designed, like something I would like it my house. My family mocks me, but I love staying in hotels and this one had me in fits!
Then there were the beds. Oh, the beds! It was like sleeping on air, with the feather mattress, and the feather comforter. There were so many layers and I just snuggled right into them. 
I've been spoiled for all hotels from here on out.
This writing prompt brought to you by Mama Kat. The prompt was: "What was the occasion? Write about the last time you stayed in a hotel."

Fur Baby Friday!

I've had a pretty intense week, blogging-wise. And by intense I mean not very fluffy. So, today I'm being fluffy! In the form of kitties!
By the way, if you haven't read yesterday's post, you really should.

Anyway, onto Fur Baby Friday!

Today's picture is of Hermione as a baby. This is before she went "poof" as I say, and got all fuzzy. She was still crazy as ever though!

Yeah, who can't love that face??

Sometimes it's hard to remember she was ever that little!

Go link up with pictures of your fur babies!