How I split my day.

My job is kinda boring. There are only three of us in the office and I am the youngest person by 40 years. I am the only girl. I don't have much in common with my office mates. To keep it from being silent I have my computer speakers. I love them. They make my day seem not to go by so slow. In the morning when I arrive I listen to 620 KPOJ. First I listen to the local news show for an hour and then Thom Hartman's National Show where I get my national news (all progressive of course!)
That takes me right up til noon. Then I take a lunch break and either listen to ESPN and the fantasy football podcast.. or I watch the Colbert Report from the night before. That takes me to either 12:30 or 1 depending on the day and how I am feeling about working again. After that I listen to Pandora til 4. I am currently have a few new to me bands I like that I found through Pandora. The Postal Service, Au Revoir Simone, and The Blow. I have all their CD's borrowed from the library. I love the library. Today I had an idea and am going to take a Pandora break. I borrowed Blue Like Jazz from the library on CD. and will start listening to it after lunch. The whole title is : Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality.
It talks about the Imago Dei Community, a church Joe and I went to for the first time this weekend. It is how Joe learned about it. So I want to be in the know. Maybe if I like listening to books on tape I will expand my horizons. I have less time to read now that I don't take the bus and miss it.
I started biking to work today. It will start raining at the end of the week. We shall see how it goes. On the upside.. I bought a new rain coat for the occasion.

Thrifty.

I am addicted to being thrifty. Addicted! I love it.  Moving to portland really helped with changing my lifestyle. Not that I was spending maniac in the Pitts but I wasn't saving anything either. I knew what bills I had to pay and the rest of the money always evaporated. Here though it is different. Joe and I keep a budget on an excel sheet.  I guess it is more of a tracking sheet than a budget. We don't set guidlines about what we can spend but can look at the sheet and say either "wow! we spent way to much money on X... time to lay off" or "Man, we haven't gone out to dinner at all this month lets treat ourselves!" We have done this for a year now. It is awesome to be able at a glance to see where our money goes. Our biggest expense last year was housing as most peoples is. Our second was misc. which covers things like plane tickets, doctors appointments, glasses, engagment rings.. ect. it goes down from there with categories from student loans to gas for the truck, ect..  Anyway. All of this tracking has had us saving money too! I think of all the small ways I save money and then think i should write articles for Readers Digest or better homes and Gardens or some such magazine. I have read all those articles about saving money from those magazines and what they forget to mention is the lifesyle change. It is easy to say "don't drink starbucks" For someone who buys a coffee every day that could save 1000 dollars a year.  but it is hard to change your morning schedule ..for that person to wake up earlier, make their own coffee, miss the small experiences of waiting in line seeing your barista. It' a tough transitition even if it seems trivial. I don't know that i have a solution for that lifestyle change other than support. I had Joe. it continues to make things easier.  This week our thrifty solution to saving 720 dollars a year was getting rid of our cell phones and getting Vonage. (let me know if you need the number) In other words. I was spending 80 bucks a month on the cell phones and now i am spending. 20.  60 extra dollars a month! Thats change i can believe in. Speaking of the economy.. I can't even log into my 403b. I would only assume there is no money left in there and Tiaa-cref doesn't want me to know. I should have kept it under my matress. or in our new checking account that as 5.1percent interest! Totally redicoulous. Bet you wished you lived in Multnomah County so you could join my credit union and get that rate. It is better than any savings account ever! and i have searched far and wide... any. with looming depression in our future. don't fret over fiancial woes. call me! on my new cheap phone (incoming calls are free! so really I don't mind) 

How it happened.

Of course I have to write about the engagement! It was such a surprise. My last Friday started out ok. I had an ok day at work (Jerome Kersey - an old Trail Blazer stopped by the office.) I got excepted into an all chick fantasy football league set up by ESPN's Mathew Berry. Then I headed home early to wait for comcast. It was the third time comcast had come to try to set up our internet. They sent someone who knew what they were doing and all the sudden we were up and running! I then set up our new wireless router (now called The Network of Justice). After that I looked up recipes for 7 different meals to cover the week. Then I headed to the G-Stores to get my weekly shopping done. I came home a little past 5:30. Joe wasn't home yet.. usually he is. I was happy because I had accidentally left the screen door open and he would have been 'mad' for lack of a better word and then asked me a million times everyday if I did it again just because I had done it once.. I really thought I had dodged a bullet. Joe came in and asked if I wanted to go for a walk up Mount Tabor. It was a beautiful night and dinner was all made and cooking away in the crock pot so I said sure why not. He took a quick shower while I put away the food and filled my water bottle. We got into the truck and became "those" people who have to drive to the park (when we lived in the neighborhood we would scoff at them) Joe mentioned that we used to have such nice times at the park. "I said aren't we going to have a good time tonight?": He thought I knew at this point. I did not. He took the road instead of the stairs and made it easily to the top. We sat on a bench over looking the city and chatted for a while. He then when there was a pause got down on one knee asked me to marry him and whipped out the ring. I had no idea what was going on. I don't know if I saw the ring at first. I asked if he was joking. I then saw the ring and was still in shock. I could only see him and the ring. everything else was blurry. I guess just to be sure I asked if he was joking again. I then said yes. Seized the ring and showered him with kisses. I was then so nervous. I could barely eat dinner after we got home. (Although it was soo good. I made a "farm stand chili" hmmm yummy.. I guess this is neither hear nor there)
I am not nervous now. I now spend my time staring at my hand and walking into different lights to see how the diamond sparkles... how did I ever live without one? I also enjoy calling Joe my fiancé and reminding him that he is really stuck with me now. I also enjoy hearing about how he picked out the style of the ring.. it's one of a kind! He loves talking about things that excite him (he is an instant gratification kind of guy - like when I get the phone call 2 minutes after he leaves the house to tell me about something going on a block away ) I can't believe he kept engagment idea so secret. Excuseme. I have to go stare at my hand and smile for a while.

Yay!

Guess what I did this weekend!

Moved!

I hate moving! It is costly, distracting and annoying. This move considering my hatred went pretty well.  Between Joe , me and the truck it took about 3 days and 8 trips. Joe loves unpacking which is nice because it gets done right away.. (i have previously waited months to unpack some things) So. We are all moved in. I am ajusting to my much smaller kitchen.  I might have more counter space now but a lot less room for all appliances. otherwise our new apartment is fantastic!  Two floors is very nice!.

We are preparing for a busy rest of the year. My parents are coming in just a couple weeks and then Laura and Kati in November  and of course we are planning our trip back to the Berkshires. 

I keep waiting for my work to get more exciting or busy or something. We are 23 days away from our Induction Ceremony. I thought that I would have a lot to do. But so far I created a spreadsheet for table sales.. oooolala. how difficult! I was looking forward to really doing what I want to be doing. but I had to put it off because of an inventory book. The museum hired some professionals to inventory and pack the collection.  They created a book with all the information. But it is hand written and has no key. So I have been spending some time transfering the information into an excel document so it is at least searchable. Then I am going to start accessioning and rehouseing woo!