Socially Awkward

In a lot of ways it has been great having Steve at home. He brings me peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch and we have yet to end up with a 5 foot tall pile of dishes in our sink. However, the only problem with our current roles is that I, as the one who goes out into the world and sees people, should probably be the one making us some friends.

However, I am a complete social misfit reject loser. I’m polite, but I think that is where my social skills end. The worst part is, I have a pretty good idea what I could do to fix this. Repeatedly in my head I think, “Ask people what they’re doing this weekend! Ask about their families! Share something small and neutral about your personal life, like ‘I like cookies!’” But then I get the other voice that says, “I can’t just say stuff out of the blue, it will be awkward. I’ll sound forced and weird and stupid. I suck!” I don’t think its schizophrenia because neither voice has an accent.

And this weekend a co-worker invited me to a BBQ for his daughter’s birthday. Of course I over-thought it until I couldn’t possibly go. “He’s just doing it be polite. It doesn’t look like anyone else from work can go. If I show up, I’ll just stand awkwardly in a corner somewhere. And we’ll have to explain we’re vegetarians. And what if his daughter doesn’t like books and we get her a book for a birthday present and then they think we’re weird reading-pushing people? Or if what if we buy a toy that was painted in China and they think we’re awful people?” So instead, we’re probably going to Denver by ourselves…

Once Steve is working, I fully anticipate that we’ll make friends. Because if someone invited him for BBQ, he’d say “Cool.”

You can visit during any season...

Yikes!

So our lives completely changed over the weekend. I think that everyone who is supposed to be informed in a non-blog fashion has been informed, so it’s probably safe to talk about. On Friday I was offered a job in Colorado and accepted it, which means that we will be moving 800 miles away very shortly. It’s a step up for me, and it would mean living in another beautiful college town in the mountains - but one that is a lot more affordable.

Now we’re working on making all of our arrangements - moving truck rentals, apartments, utilities, etc. And we both had to officially tell our respective employers today, so it’s been a little stressful. Luckily most people have been really supportive which is important when you make life-altering decisions on a very short timeline.

Of course there will be tons of things we’ll miss - being within driving distance of family being the biggest - but we’re also excited for an adventure and a new place to explore.

I’m sure there will be more to come, but for the last few weeks we’ve been hesitant to say anything because apparently I’m uber-superstitious and though talking about this job like it might actually happen would guarantee that it wouldn’t.

So yeah, I think that’s all. Carry on.

Ruining our unborn child(ren)…

For any of you who have been living under a rock, or somewhere without WiFi, Steve and I are big planners. Or maybe just big discussers. We like to talk about everything related to the future and get each other’s perspectives to see if we can come to some kind of agreement before whatever the said is event actually happens. This works for things like which high school we would like our kid to go to, or what the best retirement living option is for us. I’m not very good at “living in the now.”

Holidays and the way we will celebrate with our child has been one subject of a lot of debate. Me being idealistic (insane), I really want to only celebrate holidays that truly have some meaning to us and avoid imparting right-wing, conservative Christian concepts just as an easy excuse to eat chocolate.

This has led me to scour Amazon for the perfect “who Santa really was” book, and to float the concept of thinking of Easter as a time to really examine new life and what life means, rather than as the day our holy Lord and Savior literally rose from the dead and gave chocolate eggs to all the children.

As Michelle said, as far as religion goes we’re “free agents” right now. I don’t think I’ve found that one organized religious group that completely aligns with how I feel the spiritual side of life to be. I do hope we’ll be able to create meaningful and fun holidays for our kid even if they’re not as traditional. Or maybe we’ll buckle and you’ll see Steve carrying around the baby Jesus in his Santa suit singing “Here We Come a Wassailing.”

Obama!

I will be the first to admit that I am a sucker for emotional appeals made by famous people.

Dreaming of the Living Dead

So last night I had a dream that went something like this...

Brittany and I were going to a party. Not like a crazy college party, but more like a First Friday artsy store kind of party. I think Steve was there too, but I'm not completely sure. Anyway, there was a lot of little cocktail-type food set out, and I started to notice that when people ate any meat dish (but mostly chicken wings) they became zombies, for a few minutes. Not crazy vicious zombies, but they did have a taste for human flesh. These meat eating zombies would nibble on the people around them - necks, arms, fingers - then a few minutes later they'd return to normal. My arm was slowly eaten away before I made a break for the bathroom only to find - that's right - more zombies. I remember thinking that I was lucky I didn't eat meat so I wouldn't be one, but the flip side was that I'd be dead and eventually the other zombies would just go back to normal.

I blame falling asleep to commercials about 30 Days of Night and seeing the preview for Undead or Alive on some movie we rented.

Any other interpretations?

New Feature

I decided to join the Twitter craze because I am never going to have the patience to write a blog post but a least this way I can write quick little updates about what's going on in my world and in my head. Look to the right to check it out.

Rachel will be joining soon...