Winter Blur

After a 2-month hiatus from updating the blog, I'm finally back to catch up!

This winter has, by far, felt like the shortest winter in history to me. I don't know if it is that it was technically more mild than in recent times (minus the "icepocalypse"...more on that later) or if it's that I'm just happier than I've ever been, or a mixture of both. In any case, this winter really has been kind of a quick blur to me. Typically, it seems like it drags on forever and by the time March rolls around, I'm convinced I'll never feel the warmth of the sun or see leaves on the trees again. But here we are, March right around the corner, and I don't feel like I've been in a winter-induced coma for the last 4 months. I should probably knock on wood now, because in Indiana, stranger things have happened than blizzards in late February or into March.

Alright, so off I go to play catch-up!

New Years: We celebrated our 1st NYE together as a married couple (another one of those "firsts"!) with Kyle, Lori, and Lori's sister and brother-in-law (OH, and a big HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to Jessica and Steve for their 1-year!). We all got jazzed up and went to the..wait for it...the CASINO! This was a first for all of us. OK, I have lost $1 playing a terrible, ancient gambling machine (of which I don't even remember the name) while on spring break to the Badlands, South Dakota...but that place had a total of 4 machines and was connected to a laundromat connected to a gas station...so I doubt that counts ;) Anyway, we had a great dinner and had fun seeing the sights and playing the penny slots. But, after a while it wasn't really our scene so we all headed back to our place to drink champagne, watch the ball drop, and just hang out. I do just love this picture of Jason, Lori, Kristin, and Kyle all trying to figure out how to work the penny slot machine. You laugh, but seriously - it's complicated! Somehow, I managed to win $3 and I pushed the button all of 2 times. Anyone want me to blow on their dice? I'm clearly a pretty lucky gal ;)

How many college-educated adults does it take to figure out a penny slot?

Reunion in Chicago: Shortly after the new year, Gina was able to get together the spring break crew of 2008 (Badlands love!) for a fun weekend reunion in Chicago. With Adam in France, Nic in Chicago, and the three of us Indy-dwellers off doing our own things, it's been since 2009 that we've been able to reunite as a whole group. So a huge thanks goes to Gina for getting the ball rolling! One of my favorite things that we did was play indoor Bocce Ball. Bocce Ball is an Italian game typically played outdoors in which two teams try to get their colored balls thrown as close to the little silver ball as possible. For the life of me I cannot remember what that little guy is called...we kept calling it the "snitch" (from Harry Potter) or "snatch" (from..oh nevermind), and now I have no clue what it's real name is. We had an incredible time and it made me realize how lucky I am to have these wonderful friends with whom I share so many wonderful memories. 

Badlands Love!

Bocce Ball Love!

The great fire of St. Joseph's Neighborhood: On January 25, 2011, the historic Chadwick building caught fire and became an blazing inferno a mere two buildings down from us. Thankfully, Delaware street separated us so there really was very little danger of the fire spreading to our building. It still was incredible, scary, and sad notheless. I guess I should add here that the Chadwick was a historic yet vacant building that has been an eyesore for 10 years. You can read more about the official story at http://www.wthr.com/story/13906892/demolished-building-seen-as-eyesore. Our story goes something like this: after watching TV on the couch, I announced that I needed to go take a shower and get into bed. However, Jason was able to sweet-talk me into staying on the couch with him just a little while longer. The windows in that room are on the street, and we gradually started to smell smoke. Now, this isn't unusual. Our windows are old and with our location, we smell all kinds of cigarette smoke and other city smells on any given day. Soon enough though, the smell became stronger and I turned to Jason and asked "That's not our building burning down, is it?". Of course it wasn't he replied. But that did get us into a conversation about what we would do in the event of a fire in our building, given our floorplan. All the while during this detailed conversation (in which several of Jason's ideas to escape a fire included superhero-like maneuvers on his part), we kept hearing sirens pass the window. This really should have tipped us off, but again, we hear sirens pass on a daily basis, and so we didn't bat an eye. Finally, Jason decides the smell is really strong, so maybe we should look out the window to see if there's anything going on. What we saw was no less than 5 firetrucks, too many police vehicles to count, smoke obscuring the air, and our fire hydrant being used for a gigantic hose. WTF?? How did we sit there and NOT realize what was happening?! We raced outside and watched the firemen fight the blaze while we listened to seasoned neighbors talk about the history of the building and the other 2 fires it has endured. Eventually they shut of the power in our grid for safety reasons, so there really wasn't much of a reason to go back inside. We continued to watch and take pictures/video well past midnight. It was a very interesting and surreal experience. I'd never seen a building on fire, and definitely no real, substantial fire that close. We're thankful that no one was injured and that the surrounding businesses were spared. Now we're just watching and waiting to see what goes up in the Chadwick's place...hopefully something cool!

Fire in the city

From fire, to ice: In stark contrast to the event at the end of January, the beginning of February brought with it epic amounts of ice. Roads were slick, some people lost power, parking lots and neighborhoods were impassible, and schools were closed for 3-4 days (oh, how I wish I were in elementary school again!). Although in my opinion, the storm was a wee bit overblown ("icepocalypse", really?), it truly was a nuisance and posed a real danger to drivers.

A solid block of ice extracted from my windshield. You wouldn't believe how long it took just to break this free!

 

Wrapping up 2010

Wrapping..get it?? Yeah, I know, that was terrible ;)

When friends and co-workers have asked, "How was your Christmas?", I've been responding that it was the best Christmas I could recall in the past several years. It's hard to believe that the anxiety and fear I was feeling in the days leading up to the holiday was so quickly turned to enjoyment and relaxation, but that's exactly what occurred. Family tensions were resolved (at least for the time being), crisis's were averted, and happy memories were made. WHEW! Jason and I had a wonderful first Christmas together, and it was so much fun waking up Christmas morning together to exchange the gifts that we've had to be clever in hiding from one another. Since we'd never lived together before, we hadn't needed to worry about where to hide gifts. But this year, we share the same home with limited amount of space for hiding presents! Jason finally gave up and just said, "OK, here's where I'm hiding one of your gifts. DON'T LOOK THERE!". It took a lot of will power, but I kept my nose clean! And I was rewarded....

 

Diamond stud earrings!! What a sweet hubby! And I didn't even ask for them. Very early on in the holiday season I asked him if he wanted some ideas for Christmas, and he confidently replied "Oh, I know what I'm getting you". Jason never fails to surprise me :)

And now, 2010 is coming to a close. We're looking forward to New Year's Eve with some great friends, and a relaxing weekend. Hopefully I'll get over this terrible sinus infection that has snuck up on me. Several people at work thought I was crying today because the pressure behind my eyes was so strong that my eyes were red and watery! I think that's a sign that I'm going to explode soon...either way, I hope this resolves soon because the open-mouthed breathing I'm doing at night is so not sexy.

A New Season

Wow, what ever happened to the official start of winter being on December 21st?? It's been several weeks of barely 2-digit temps, several decent snowfalls, and even a 2-hour delay for the schools! (Insert obligatory "So much for 'global warming' joke here"). In any case, I believe winter is much more bearable if there is pretty snow to look at and play in. So two weekends ago, after a wonderful snowy luncheon at the Villa Restuarant (also a bed & breakfast - SO CUTE!) with a few cherished grad school friends, Jason and I decided to venture out for a wintery walk around our area. As I mentioned before, our apartment is downtown but more specifically we're located in St. Joseph's Historic Neighborhood. We love taking walks around the neighborhood and the snow was a fun bonus and made for some great pictures!

The snow was falling pretty heavily; you can barely see the buildings 9 blocks away from our corner, which you can usually see perfectly!

Dead branches covered in snow are interesting...or maybe I just got trigger-happy on my camera :)

I just love how the holly is peeking through the snow! That is holly, right?

This tree was just begging to have it's picture taken.

I hope we get to do this again soon!

Deck the Halls

First, a big thank you (hey look, I even bolded it!) to Jessica Klatte for walking me through how to personalize my blog design! I'm still terribly blog illiterate, but at least my background looks a bit more interesting.

There are so many "firsts" at this time in my life - first professional job, our first place together, first holidays as a married couple...and really, just about anything right now with Jason and I could be considered a "first". First grocery shopping trip together, first refrigerator together, first window shades together....this could get ridiculous. But a legitimately exciting first for us (as a married couple) is Christmas. Over the weekend, we went shopping for Christmas decorations together to make our place festive. However, poor Jason had no clue what he was in for when he happily agreed to go with me.

We had spend the last few weeks debating whether we should get a full-sized Christmas tree or not. Doing this would mean that we would have to temporarily remove a piece of furniture and store it at one of our parent's houses. In truth, there is just no place for a big tree in our teeny place. But, getting a small tree seemed somehow not "married-like". Finally, we decided to go ahead and get a full-sized tree. We had already been to several different shops getting various decorations, bulbs, and lights, but my thrifty self wouldn't purchase a tree at any of those places because I knew there just had to be a cheaper one somewhere! So we made our way to Wal-Mart and found that yes, just like everything else at the superstore, a synthetic Christmas tree could be purchased for a lower place than anywhere else we had looked. Having loaded our cart with the tree and having already spent several hours shopping and filling the car with lights, bulbs, a tree skirt, a star for the top of the tree, and other decorations, we were all set to head home and get to decorating. Well, maybe almost ready...here's a little play-by-play of what happened next..

Me: "Honey. I've changed my mind. I think we should get a little tree."
Jason: "....." as he silently looks up at the ceiling.
Me: "Do you hate me?"
Jason: "No, I'm just looking up at heaven."
Me: "Are you cursing me?"
Jason: "No, just asking god 'Really? This is the woman you gave me??'"

Yes, really. That's me, Mrs. indecisive, queen of the last-minute decision changes. So, we got a smaller tree, and had to return to the other stores to exchange the larger bulbs for those designed for our midget-sized tree. I had also realized that string lights were cheaper at Wal-Mart so we returned more expensive ones at a different store, too. At one of the stores, I noticed that our same-sized tree we had just purchased was $10 cheaper here. I casually mentioned this to Jason, and the look he gave me was absolutely priceless. Once in the car, with all of the shopping finally said and done, we both couldn't help but crack up laughing at all that had happened. We both have our own neuroses that can drive the other crazy, but sometimes you just have to accept them and find the humor in the madness!

What our tree lacks in size, it makes up for in twinkle.

The garland was a PAIN to put up, but it looks amazing and I've decided that it's staying up through January. I can do that, right? Garland and white lights aren't inherently Christmas-y, they're just winter decor. That'll be my justification, at least.

 
No fireplace to hang the stockings on, but I will say, I love them just how they are :)

A blog, really?

Yes, really.

On a whim, when I should have been tackling my "to do" list, I decided to create a blog! Why? Well, I'm not exactly sure! I've never considered myself a particularly amazing writer, nor have I ever been super savvy when it comes to websites (as evidenced by the fact that I can't figure out how to change the default background picture on my main page..). Nonetheless, I have started a blog. I've enjoyed reading a few other blogs from time to time, so maybe it'll be fun having my own! I guess we'll see :)

In celebration of my three month wedding anniversary today (woohoo!!), and since Thanksgiving was just on Thursday, it seems fitting for this first post to mention some of the highlights of my new life that I'm very thankful for.

I am so thankful to be married to Jason! It's amazing to think that today marks three months of marriage...it already feels like this is how life has always been. That's not to say that the excitement of living together for the first time and being newlyweds has worn off, because if definitely has not. It's that it feels so...right. Like we finally have what we've been working so hard for. It's a very good feeling :) He's the best husband I could have ever asked for, and I kinda want to go kiss him right now because I'm feeling so mushy. ANYWAY...

I am so thankful to be OUT OF GRAD SCHOOL! I'm not exactly sure when that feeling of relief and accomplishment will wear off, to be honest. But after 6 years straight of higher education, it just feels so.damn.good. to be done. While obtaining a Master's degree is a necessary step to becoming a certified Speech Language Pathologist, and I consider learning a privilege...it was definitely not the easiest 2 years of my life! There was intense coursework, labs, clinicals on and off campus, studying, and working 20 hours a week, all while trying to please professors, clinical supervisors, and bosses and somehow trying to manage a sliver of a personal life. It would have been impossible without the support of Jason, and the camaraderie of my incredible grad school friends (we affectionately call ourselves the "Gems"). And now, the hard work has paid off! Which leads me to my next point...

I am so thankful for my job. Being a medical SLP in a hospital is exactly what I had wanted for my first job, but it was much more difficult to achieve than I had thought. The competition is stiff, and with the economic climate as it is, many hospitals aren't looking to hire new clinicians, even if they have a dire need. Thankfully, I was offered a part-time position 3 days a week, and after 2 months of work I'm already up to 4 days a week and picking up the 5th day consistently. The other SLPs I work with are fabulous and I love the various kinds of patients I get to work with. And it only takes me 12 minutes to get to work. Bonus!

I am so thankful to be living in Indy. Although we don't know where our life may lead us, Jason and I are thrilled to be living in this city. We live downtown, which allows us to walk all over and find tons of fun/interesting things to do, and we're close to our families and get to spend lots of time (as much as we can stand, anyway!) with them. Growing up here, neither of us were the kind of kids who'd say "I can't wait to get out of here" or "There's nothing in Indiana". Most of those people aren't doing much of anything, whether they're in the 317 area code or elsewhere (oh, the wonders of Facebook stalking). In my opinion, it's not so much about where you live but what you do with what you have at that place. So wherever you live, take advantage of the opportunities afforded to you. I might be wrong, but I think that with that mindset, I could be pretty happy almost anywhere. I hope Jason doesn't hope to test that theory and move us to North Dakota, population 646,844. That just might make me eat my words...

By the way, how does that work - being married, and having a blog that's not for family updates (like "The Klatte Family")? Do you say "Hey honey, read my blog!" or just let it be? Hm. I guess I'll find out!