Bucket List Update

5 down, 45 to go!

Things I want to do before I die: (to be continued)



1. Go to NYC, stay out all night & end with breakfast at an all-night diner dive.

2. Fly around the world

3. Visit all 7 continents

4. Get married  October 10, 2009

5. Become fluent in another language

6. Dance on a bar

7. Own 1 ridiculously expensive material item (and only one!)

8. Follow the Nile and climb the Great Pyramids

9. Go on an African Safari

10. Jump off a waterfall somewhere exotic

11. Stay out all night and watch the sun come up

12. Visit all 50 states

13. Spend a night somewhere haunted.

14. Visit an active volcano

15. See all 7 Wonders of the World

16. Go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef

17. Drink Guinness in Dublin

18. See the Galapagos Islands

19. Go on a Gondola ride in Venice

20. Get soaked by the spray at Niagra Falls

21. Jump in a New York taxi and yell, "FOLLOW THAT CAR!!"   May 5, 2012

22. See the Amazon Rain Forest

23. See the Sydney Opera House

24. Watch Wimbledon

25. Float on the Dead Sea

26. Ride in a limo February 24, 2011

27. Stay in a 5 star hotel

28. Celebrate New Year's in Times Square

29. Have $1 Million in the bank

30. Put my feet in all of the oceans

31. Go skinny dipping

32. Sing karaoke

33. Be in a food fight

34. Go kite surfing

35. Go zorbing (google it if you don't know what that is)

36. Read the entire Bible

37. Slow-dance in the rain

38. See a movie in a drive-thru theater

39. Ride a mechanical bull (Don't remember the exact date, but I think it was in 2007)

40. See the Northern Lights

41. Hear the Tran-Siberian Orchestra play live November 2008

42. Stay in a bungalo on the water in Tahiti

43. See the Playboy Mansion's grotto, in person

44. Place a bet at the Kentucky Derby

45. Play BlackJack in a Las Vegas Casino & win

46. Swing on a trapeeze

47. Sit on the top of a double decker bus in London

48. Ski in Colorado or Wyoming

49. Have a glass of wine in Napa Valley

50. Spend an entire day with no clothes on.

Holy smokes.

The house of our dreams (in our price range) came on the market yesterday. I mean...DREAMS.

A two story stone fireplace.
17.5 acres (yes, SEVENTEEN POINT FIVE ACRES).
Views to die for.
A complete wrap around porch.
Amazing kitchen.
Unfinished basement (make it however we want).
A separate garage/workshop area.

We aren't even in the "market' necessarily to look right now, but we decided to go see it tomorrow anyway. I mean, this house...is 99.9% perfect. The only imperfection is that the master suite is on the bottom floor and the other bedrooms are on the second floor. That makes me nervous for when we start to have kids, but people with kids have that floor plan all the time. And find ways to make it work.

Because honestly? This house...I could come home to every night for awhile. Teasers:

My last few weeks in a not-so-nutshell...

Well, the last couple of weeks have been quite the roller coaster. I’m very happy to say that I’m finally on the upswing after a few couple of days. This is going to be a long one, but I promise, there’s happy news at the end if you can last that long!



The Thursday before Easter started out pretty normal. I was excited because quarter end craziness was finally over so I had scheduled a massage for that evening at 5. Brad’s family goes to dinner at the local Amvets every Thursday night. When Brad is home, I usually go with him. When Brad is working, I never go. I mean, I never go to dinner with them. Nothing against them, but I guess I’m kind of a snob about eating out in this town. There are very few things on the menus that I couldn’t make better by making them myself (and healthier!). Like I said, I’ll go when Brad’s home but never when he’s working.


For whatever reason, I told his parents I’d go that night. I don’t know, maybe I thought that the massage would make me mellow enough to enjoy it, or maybe God just knew I was going to need to be there. But that Thursday night, as we were all sitting there eating dinner and dessert…Brad’s grandmother collapsed.


At first I thought she was just choking. She seemed to just be trying to cough. But then it was pretty clear that it was much more serious than that. She couldn’t have been in better hands – her son (a trained paramedic) and her son’s brother in law (also a trained paramedic) were working on her within seconds. As Tara (her granddaughter) called 911, I called Brad at work to tell him that he and Michael needed to get away as soon as possible. Because their job is so complicated, I knew it could take hours for them to have relief come in for them. An hour later, I was at the hospital waiting for Brad. The doctors kept telling us they thought it was just seizures, but I think we all knew it was going to come back as another stroke. She’d had 2 already and we all knew it was only a matter of time before another one came along.


I went home that night in case I had to go in to work the next day. Brad got home around 2am and it became pretty clear I wasn’t going to work that day. We were at the hospital bright and early the next morning for the neurologist.


I’ll spare you all of the details, but hearing the doctors say what we’d all been dreading – that she wasn’t going to make it this time – was devastating. We took her off life support and we all said our goodbyes. Father Paul did the last rites (which, by the way, as a non-Catholic, this is one ritual that I fully support. I’d never been present for the last rites before but it was absolutely beautiful. Who wouldn’t want to be prayed over by their family and closest friends as they’re passing through this world to the next? I can imagine it would be peaceful to be the one they’re being administered to and they definitely gave me some peace).


But that Helen, she’s a fighter. She hung on until Monday evening, surrounded by her family. I’ve never watched someone pass before, but watching her made it seem not scary at all. Just a breath and then she was gone.


I don’t think there’s any way you could ever say that someone died “well”. But I think God’s plan for her was pretty well thought through. She had two people (who aren’t always present at Thursday evening meals) able to work on her as soon as we realized something was wrong. There will never be “what if’s” in anyone’s mind whether something more could have been done. There couldn’t. We all said our goodbyes on Friday but she hung on until Monday. Her children were able to spend all that time saying goodbye and finally coming to a place where they told her it was okay to go, they’d be alright. She didn’t go too quickly but she didn’t linger forever. I think God knew that nobody wanted it to be over that quickly, but they didn’t want her to linger forever. The people who “could handle” her passing were present. The ones who didn’t particularly want to be there when she passed weren’t. It was just all God’s timing and it was as good as good can get in that situation.


In the midst of all of that…I was having interviews for jobs. I had 3 companies interested in me at that point – two of which had multiple positions they were interested in me for.


The next week, I turned in my FINAL PAPER FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL and Brad and I went to Charlotte so I could present a paper to a global public relations conference. I presented it on a Friday morning and then got to spend the rest of the weekend with my family and ended the weekend with an amazing sushi lunch with our good friend Beth.


The Monday we got back to MD, I went in to one of the companies for a third interview and on Tuesday was offered the job! It had been quite the ordeal. I originally applied for a Graphics & Marketing Communications Specialist position. After the phone interview I was told that I was a bit underqualified for that position…but that there was also a Marketing & Public Relations Assistant position open. I was overqualified for that one but it paid more than I currently made so I said I’d be open to it. They went back and forth for awhile, trying to decide which position they wanted me in and finally decided that because I worked full time while getting my master’s from Johns Hopkins (her daughter had been accepted and she felt the curriculum was really tough), that I would be able to handle the challenges. So now, instead of beginning as an Assistant, I will be going in as a Specialist, reporting to the Vice President of Marketing & Public Relations. Just my dream job. Nbd.


So that, in a nutshell is how I lost someone dear to me, finished my graduate degree, presented a paper at a conference, and got an incredible job opportunity in the span of 2 weeks.

I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.
- Philippians 4:11

That might slightly be a lie. I'm certainly not perfect and am not always content. But based on recent events in our life, I feel like I'm coping better with things than before.

There's so much going on that I can't talk about yet that involves our future. Personally, I'm surprised I'm coping as well as I am. It helps to have family that understands, friends to talk to and a husband who just wants me to be happy and to help build a happy life together.

I'm finding that taking a deep breath helps.

That stopping and smelling the roses truly does help.

That it's a lot easier to talk about putting everything in God's hands than actually doing it.

That as much of a plan as I think I have for my life, it's not always going to go my way. And I need to adapt to that.

Today I'm thankful for a beautiful day, for my family and friends who love and support us and that my problems are so miniscule for most people. That my husband is incredible at what he does and that he truly loves coming home to our little family.

2012 is not my year yet.

I'm trying to be grateful I have a job. Really, I am. I know there are a lot of people out there who would give anything to have a stable, steady job.

But, I'm just saying, it is not in ANYONE'S best interest to deprive me of this much sleep.

Saturday I went "shopping" with Brad for a few hours. Well, he shopped. I was on my blackberry the whole time, emailing and calling people about work.

I got home from shopping and went in to work from 6-9pm.

Barely managed to stay awake until midnight, watched the ball drop, and headed for bed.

Got a call at 12:30am Sunday, had to go in to work until 2:30am.

Got another call from work at 3:30, had to go in to work until 5:00am.

Got another call at 7:00am, was able to work from home from 7-12:30pm. (Thank goodness - in between phone calls, emails, and IM conversations, I was able to do some housework that desperately needed done)

Then had to go into work from 12:30-4:00. Realized I hadn't had lunch, so ran home to eat a quick bite.

Back to work at 4:30pm until 6.

Fell asleep on the couch for a glorious 20 minutes. Woke up to find 4 voicemails from work waiting on my phone.

I had a meltdown. I require 8 hours of sleep. Any less than that and you're playing with fire here. My temper is more likely to flare, my cheerfulness level goes way down and just overall functionality does not compute. If you add it up there, that's approximately 2 hours of sleep (knowing that I did not fall immediately asleep after getting home because my stress level was WAYYYY up) in about 36 hours.

Emails and IM's until 10, crashed into bed. Two more phone calls before finally, at 10:30, the last phone call came through.

Today? Not a holiday for us. At work like a normal day.

Insane.

.......

In totally unrelated news, we backed out of the house we were under contract with today. I'm actually incredibly excited about this. More later.

I have sincerely neglected my blog. I don't really have time to be updating now, but since I do love a good procrastination, here goes.

I'm currently taking the hardest course I have ever taken in my life. And I have a 90 in it. I'm under no illusions that my final grade will be that high, but at least I can say that I made it to mid-semester with an A in this class with one of the most difficult professors in this program.

Work has been picking up steadily - I asked for more projects and I got them. I'm busier and enjoy it more, but I'm also very certain this isn't where I want to be long term.

Brad and I hit the 2 year mark a few weeks ago. Some days it seems like it should be WAY longer than 2 years and some days it seems like we've just been married a month or two. Either way, I'm very happy and grateful to report that I still love him just as much as I did the day I married him. Maybe even a smidge more :) We haven't had it easy - I'm forever stressed between school and work...and every other week I see him for maybe half an hour per day. But maybe it's true what they say - absence makes the heart grow fonder. We don't waste our time together fighting or bickering. We just enjoy being with each other.

In less than a year I'm hoping to be able to knock another bucket list item off - reading the entire Bible. I've been doing pretty good with it, considering it takes me about half an hour to 45 minutes per day on top of all my school stuff. But even if it takes me just over a year (it's a year devotional), at least I'm getting through it.

I've started really running again. I've said that before, but I'm actually staying with it and making an effort to be in shape without getting hurt. I haven't lost any weight - I'm still 125, but I've dropped down to a size 0 in AE jeans - that's 2 sizes smaller than I was at the beginning of the summer. I guess muscle really does weigh more than fat! I'm running 4-6 miles regularly now. I'm running a 7 mile trail race on Saturday (hoping to just survive, the 5 mile version killed me last year!), a 5 mile race on Thanksgiving (hoping to beat my time from last year, then stuff my face with turkey!) and a 15k in DC in December with some friends (sponsored by Ghiradelli with all the hot chocolate and chocolate fondue I can consumer afterwards. Yes pleasee!!). After all that, I'm going to start training to run 5k's fast again. I feel like I might could get into the prime of my life - I want to be under 20 minutes again and maybe even 19 minutes. Lofty goals, but this is the longest I've stuck with solid training since college. I really think I can do it!

I've also started doing yoga fairly obsessively. I usually run in the mornings and then do yoga after a quick jog with the dogs after work (I've learned that the dogs aren't conducive to really training - stopping for pee and poop breaks really cramps my style!). I've never done it this regularly and I'm becoming a believer.

Still trying to figure out what to be for Halloween this weekend. For the first time in my life, I am TRIPLE BOOKED for Halloween parties! Maybe there is a social life to be found here after all...

Gotta slow it down.

There's such a fine line in wanting to speed up to a particular time in your life...and wanting life to slow down because you know it goes by too fast already.

So much has happened lately in my quest to get back to Charlotte. I was actually offered an incredible job to start on August 15...except it was a part time gig. A part time gig that might turn into a secure, exciting full time career...but part time isn't going to get us down there. I've had a few other nibbles in the form of interview requests and meetings and after applying to 80+ jobs...it's nice to know it's not all for nothing. The good news is, this part time gig offered to keep my name on the list and they're going to call me back in a few months to see if I'm down there yet. So hopefully I haven't lost my shot.

As a result of that, I'm house-hunting nearly every day. I want down there sooooo badly because sometimes I feel like I'm just wasting my life away up here. I'm in a job that's just that - a job. There's not really anything about this area that I'll miss once we leave. I didn't grow up here, so I don't have the ties that Brad does. It really means nothing to me. I'm almost counting down the days until I get my master's. This summer semester is almost over and then it's just one more class plus thesis. SO close. Yet still so far away.

Then again, I don't want to wish my life away. Soon enough, I'll wake up with teenagers in the house and my two beloved puppies won't be following me around the house while I do chores. Every day I speed through is one less day I'll spend with my loved ones. One less day of being young and energetic. I've got to do a better job of looking on the bright side of things. God will get me where I need to be when I'm supposed to be there. It's not my timing, it's His.

But Lord, if you could get me back to Charlotte by Christmas, you can tell Santa he doesn't have to bring me a thing :)