The Randomness

Yes, my title is a bit misleading and mysterious, I know. This blog is pretty much just me ranting a little on my disdain for the Ray.

I fully enjoy the Food Network and like quite a few of the hosts. There is Bobby Flay, Tyler Florence, Giada de Laurentiis, among others. I've even gotten semi-fond of Paula Dean. There is a warm, interesting quality that the above mentioned chefs embrace.

Then comes the shrill, irksome and over the top form that is Rachael Ray. There are so many irritants which possess this woman. I won't ramble and will hit on just a few here in this blog.

I could be catty and talk about her high waisted pants but won't. That would be superficial and obviously wouldn't matter if she was fantastic.
1. "Her voice" The shrill nature of it. It's like she's shouting at me, cawking out her ingredient list. I'm also not fond of her giggles after the dumb remarks she makes.
2. "EVOO" She refers to oil as "EVOO"- extra virgin olive oil. That's okay, your cutting down on how much you're saying but when you explain what "EVOO" means everytime you say it, it kind of defeats the purpose.
3. "Bombardment" She is also suddenly everywhere. On Wheat Thins boxes, on magazine covers, on book covers on like 4 other Food Network shows and then there's the talk show which showcases an arrogant and annoying Rachael Ray.
4. "Unoriginal and Lame" The capper was yesterday when her dessert was the following; A banana cut in half, with a popsicle stick shoved inside dipped in a mixture of peanut butter and honey with granola sprinkled on top.

Are you for real, Rachael Ray? So, when I dip my banana in a jar of Peanut butter and honey, I should be on TV? I desire to hear from you, dear readers. If you are a fan, convince me why she is awesome and if you also cringe at the sight and sound, please let me know! Love you all.

I send my warmest of hellos to the faithful readers of "The Randomness".

I adore the store, IKEA. It has a plethora of furniture, decoratives and even some yummy treats. I have been to IKEAS both here in the states and abroad and there is one downside to this grand store; exiting this store is a chore. Oooh, I rhyme and in perfect time...okay, I'll stop.

Will and I have experienced the exiting of our Atlanta IKEA twice now. In reality what they are hoping for is that you'll peruse the entirety of the store before leaving. Well, this past Friday, we wanted to bend those rules. We shopped and looked for a while and were ready to leave but, no exit of course. We saw our opportunity, though. We hopped this gate at the deserted kids area with one more to go and there she was on the other side...an IKEA employee in her bright yellow top. Busted! With freedom only one hop away, we were pretty much stuck there in the middle.

"What you doin?", says employee.
"Just trying to leave, is this not okay," says me, mid hop.
"No, you gotta through the gray doors that say employees only," comes the clear and obvious response.

So, she comes over and opens the gates for us and tells us not to come this way again. It was fun hopping the gates and getting busted, but come on people. Take away the "employees only" sign and you might end some frustration and solve some problems.

Peace and love to you all.

Remember how I wanted to write a fun and not super serious blog? Well, I think the time has come for that. I had an "interview" for a job today. My friend, Sarah, told me about a job that she does part time, like a couple of hours a week. She works for a woman out of her house and this woman is wanting someone who can work more than that. So, after finding out more about it, I decided to meet Sarah over there this morning, meet the lady, talk about the biz, details, etc. The hours are super flexible, the pay not bad and no strings attached whatsoever. I could leave at any time. It is a bit of a commute, but I am totally used to that.

Now, when Sarah proposed this idea to me at lunch the other day, she said, "There's a catch, though. It's the business that her and her husband are in..." Well, I am of course thinking something completely sketchy. "They sell portable toilets", says Sarah. Obviously strange and funny but not sketchy. So, I will be answering the phone like so: "Happy-can, this is Sarah, how can I help you?". Wow. It is a great in between jobs, job. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

More good news; Will and I are getting a great deal for housing after we are married. We are going to convert Will's loft apartment into our own, with our own touches, etc. The rent is great and no utility bill! PLUS, there is a brand new, MTV cribs style pool in the backyard. Up top! Dillon! Love to you all.

I'm hanging out in Will's loft apartment on this Friday evening. I'm on the laptop and beyond the fort like barricade of my boxes and suitcases and such is Will hanging out with some friends via the Xbox. Together they slay and slaughter together as one army. I am listening to U2 and making estimated budgets for our coming months together.

I had my interview today. Between some crossed wires and miscommunication, I was interviewing for a job in which I had little experience. So, after the interview, Will and I waited while they deliberated and the verdict was a no. I kept a stiff upper lip and thanked them but after the elevator doors closed I looked at Will and asked him if I could cry now. He said yes, and I did. I stopped myself from doing that kind of cry that completely destroys your face.

Quick bite in Panera for Will. Sarah just sat and drank coffee and picked at a cinnamon crunch bagel, which I totally recommend! Will blessed our morsels, and I cried again; weepy me.

Well, it is now Monday morning, I've stopped crying, and Will and I have decided to pass on our apartment. After seeking counsel from close friends and family and weighing pros and cons, we realize that saving money by living in Alpharetta is worth it right now vs. higher cost and living closer to Atlanta. We don't have everything ironed out yet, but some things are coming together.

I now begin a job hunt; something I didn't see myself having to do. Geez, no fun at all. I look forward to writing something completely fun and not at all serious, in the near future. If you know of any creative type fun (anything) jobs in the Atlanta area, pass them on to me. Love you all!

Check out some more of our fun purchases!

Sofa
Media Cabinet

Well, I've been in Atlanta for a little over two weeks now and alot has taken place in that short amount of time. I had a job interview my first week. Will and I put down a deposit for an apartment the second week and furniture has been purchased to fill it over these last two weeks. It all sounds like things are coming together, right? In some areas they are but there is alot hinging on this apartment, these furniture purchases etc.

The job interview spoken of earlier went very well, and I have a peace that it is going to happen. I just have to meet with some very busy and important people before things are finalized and finding the time to do that is looking to be very challenging. There aren't many perks to not having a job. The not perks are: getting out of a routine, feeling like you aren't contributing much, not having money. All these suck but the clincher is that I can't move into the new apartment and get things in place until I hear about the job. I just found out that I have another interview on Friday for another position. So, doors are opening.

This long process is proving to be very frustrating, and Will and I are having to rely heavily on prayer and patient trust in God over and throughout all of this. Please be in prayer with us throughout this. I'll let you know WHEN things fall into place.

Psalm 27:4 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

The trip to South Dakota blogged of in earlier posts has already come and gone. I take you to Wednesday, the night before I flew out. There I was with boxes and suitcases and all of my goods surrounding (I just moved to Atlanta), and me in the midst, trying my best to stuff my junk into the smaller of my suitcases. I washed particulars that I wanted to take with me and laid it all out. I then smashed and stuffed and neatly organized the belongings into the tiny suitcase. Tada! I got it. It closed, and I would be traveling light.

Next morning I noticed the wheel on my suitcase was missing, leaving it difficult to roll. "I'll just check it", I told Will. We were about to leave when I noticed that Will's toiletry bag lay on the counter and not in his suitcase. Wow, that was a close one. I then grabbed my suitcase, and we headed out. But oddly enough the once missing wheel was present, and I thought, "How nice, I can roll it now." Will said it probably just got jammed and then came down again.

I remember looking at the bag on the ride from our car to the airport. "It's so much dirtier than I thought", I remarked to Will. "I guess both my purple suitcases need to be retired." So, onto the airport, onto the flight to Salt Lake City and waiting in that airport for 3 hrs. and 45 minutes. Onto to the plane to Rapid City, South Dakota and out in the Black Hills where we were staying and onto the moment where it happened. A sweet couple, the Spaders, let Will and I stay with them and after showing us our rooms, we stood in mine and all I wanted to do was get out my jammies and head to bed. I unzipped the suitcase, threw back the top and gasped in utter shock as I looked at the contents of the suitcase I had brought. I grabbed the wrong one. The wrong suitcase. The suitcase containing my makeup, shoes for the wedding I was in, jewelry, clothes, essentials, everything. It started to scream back to me, broken wheel, mended wheel; different suitcases. Dirty and beat up, clean and tidy; different suitcases. Next came tears, anger...sleep.

Rushmore Mall and my future husband's money (so sort of our money) were a powerful combination the following day as we did a pretty good job of replenishing the goods. My brother's wedding went off without a hitch and the ceremony was lovely. The night before we flew out was not at all good sleep so the guy that had just bought me a load of goods two days prior had to put up with sleep deprived me combined with hating to fly me. Screaming baby on the 4 hr. flight finished off the trip and I was never happier to be in Hartsfield Jackson airport and in my new home of Atlanta.

Congrats Jason and Kristi Burton and I wish you happiness and joy and the insight to differentiate between your various suitcases! Perils of an even greater amount would not have stopped me from attending and being a part in such a great moment in both your lives, though. Cheers. I leave you with a picture of how my face probably looked for the most part over the course of 3 days; confused, aggrivated and super attractive!

Williamsburg, VA is a lovely place to visit with many sites and attractions. There is the historical district, plenty of shopping, Busch Gardens, and the Williamsburg Pottery.

Will and I made the trek to the pottery to get an amazing watercolor matted and framed for our friend, Wade. Our day started out dreary but on schedule. We had the GPS on and just cruising when the GPS told us to go a weird way I wasn't familiar with, so we turned around and in the turning around lost a good bit of ground, next came missing the turn off for the interstate and that moment brought Will to a pretty severe point of irritation. After the semi-savage anger lessened, music resumed and we found ourselves arriving at the pottery.

Upon entering this depressing block of large buildings, you must navigate through these and cross a rusty railroad track in order to find the one thing you came to the pottery for. After finding a parking place and working our way through the maze to enter a building, we realized after walking around the overcomingly smelly rows of fake flowers and random goods like hair nets, acrylic nails and flags, that we were not in the correct building.

So, we made our way out to the super cold outdoors and walked across the pavement through various lawn statues and orbs and stuff to the opposite end of the depressing buildings to the framing station. On our way, we noticed Restaurant written on one of the buildings. We wondered what lovely food could lie inside an establishment simply titled Restaurant. That brought much banter about what delicious sandwich might be at restaurant or soft drink or dessert.

The framing station was interesting in itself but we found a killer frame and matting and placed our order. We pretty much ran to the car and worked our way out of the pottery. We went back a couple of days later to pick up the amazing finished product. The price and quality of the work make it totally worth going back to the Williamsbug Pottery, but it is guaranteed to be an experience you won't soon forget. I leave you with a photo of me and some crazy men statues and Will and with his new pal.