Peppermint Patty Hair

You know when you look in the mirror and think you're starting to look reminiscent of a cartoon character?

No? That doesn't happen to you?

Lately I've been feeling like my hair is starting to look like Peppermint Patty's, of "Peanuts" lore. Particularly my bangs.

My bangs getting a little sad these days, grouping together like PP's, a big poofball right on my forehead, creating its own separate fashion statement from the rest of my hair. And then the humidity takes control of it and turns my bangs into this odd, curly mess, flipping out at the end, like I really wanted a wacky slide down my forehead. Maybe PP can pull it off, but I'm no cartoon, so it doesn't translate quite as well...
I don't want to grow them out because, let's face it, I look better with bangs - they make my head look not quite so long. I'm thinking a trim to get them to a respectable length will take the curl part away and then maybe they'll realize who's boss and do what I say. But I'm scared to get them cut out here, with an unknown stylist - bangs disasters are my only hair fear.Because how do you fix that? If you mess up on bangs, that usually only means you cut them too short - and bangs are already short! I hate finding new hair stylists in new places. I do believe this might actually be the hardest part of moving. You finally find someone who cuts your hair wonderfully, and then you move and have to start all over. And I'm not super picky about my hair - I mean, my hair just isn't that difficult to cut. So if I feel this way, it must be truth, yes? Ladies, are you with me?

One day I'll be brave and find a good-looking salon that will put me at ease. But for now, I suppose I'll embrace my Peppermint Patty and start crushing on some really geeky kid who's no good at sports, while he completely ignores me and goes for every other girl around, though none will like him like I do.

On second thought, maybe I'll get my hair cut soon and move up to crushing on the cute boys. Sorry Charlie Brown.

A Very Productive Day

Today was a very productive day.

Two items of note:

1. I made it to a specific building in Washington, DC, and then back home without getting lost - ALL BY MYSELF! I am really rather proud of myself about this. I took a bus to the Metro, and then the Metro to an area in DC I hadn't yet experienced. And then...I made it back home.

The returning home thing is what keeps worrying me. Arlington isn't quite as much a grid design as Salt Lake City, and I barely know my surroundings. I know my bus stop and 1 or 2 other neighboring streets...so I can't ever miss my stop, or I'll be completely panicked. But I will do just fine if I get lost on my way to the City - you ask people for help, you look at a map. The Metro only has 4 lines, and maps are posted everywhere, so I wasn't too concerned about that. It's the buses that are kind of all over the place. But I think my worries originate mainly from my friend M., who freaked me out about them the 1st time I rode the bus, as he constantly inserted the reminder of, "but you WILL get lost, you WILL get on the wrong bus, you WILL get 30 minutes in the wrong direction before you realize your mistake..." But it wasn't that bad. I take my bus to my metro station, and I'm totally fine. The bus route times are posted nicely all around the Metro, and the buses are actually quite punctual, so I think I'll be just great with this public transit system. I feel so chic and downtown-ish riding the Metro.

It makes me feel rather powerful, knowing I can handle the city all by myself. And I did handle the city by myself today. Today was the 1st time I was alone in DC, and I was just fine. Luckily, DC just isn't that big of a city, so I recognized the National Mall 5 minutes after walking away from my original destination. I also found myself right in front of the White House. Barack was out in the yard, playing with Bo the dog and his little girls, while Michelle worked in the garden. I waved over to them in a friendly, neighborly fashion, and Barack smiled and invited me over for a game of bocce ball, which Bo kept nudging at with his nose, wondering why they weren't moving. I obliged, and then quietly creamed them, much to their surprise. But once they understood my strong background in the game, they laughed at the coincidence and we all went inside for ice cream - it was a hot day out there. Then I shook my daydream out of my head and continued walking past the gates which kept me very, very far away from that beautiful estate.

2. I built myself a dresser for my room - ALL BY MYSELF! I ordered a dresser from IKEA and it arrived today - this morning, where I noticed it on my porch as I was leaving my house. I was in a skirt, and the box was heavy, so I spent most of the day praying it wouldn't be stolen from the spot on my porch where I couldn't move it. And when I came home, it was still there! And it was almost there much longer, but I put on my strong arms, I and pushed and pulled until it was somehow sitting on the floor of my living room. Then I pieced it all together, the sounds of "Project: Runway" reruns playing in the background - it made me feel like I could create cool things, too, as I built my dresser next to the designers building their dresses. Then I switchd it over to Jeopardy, to show that I'm both street smart and book smart. Then I lost Jeopardy to some girl who took home $18,000 in 1-day and I began to think of the really nice dresser I could've bought with that much money...

I was really excited, though, to make this. I feel so accomplished when I get things from IKEA, like I'm competent at something, and that I have still some sense of logic when I figure out how something should logically be built when pictures alone don't express any sort of sense to me. And to say I did it all by myself, how personal this dresser suddenly feels to me.

Aside from the one step where the picture showed me needing the "assisting person" tool, I honestly built it all by myself - but when an extra person is a required tool, it's kind of hard to skip that - even though I really tried to. Cue an hour of my making frustrated sighs and gasps, and dropping the corner of a small slab of wood onto my foot. That was fun. But I'm really excited about my new dresser. Hopefully my craftsmanship is good, and it doen't fall apart on me...

I promise to get pictures of my cute little room soon. I've just been waiting for the final touches, and I think once I get everything in the right spot or tucked away - like in my new dresser - then I will get you some great pictures, promise!

New York, Concrete Jungle Where Dreams Are Made Of...

So I went to New York City this past weekend. I know, right? The same 2 thoughts passed through my mind as well: 1.) I've only been in Washington, DC, a week, and I'm already taking a getaway trip? 2.) I've only been in Washington, DC, a week - I'm going on a getaway trip with almost strangers...

But I pushed those curiosities aside and booked my bus ticket anyway, to leave Friday night and return Sunday night (hopefully). Apparently it's a 4.3 hour bus ride between DC and NYC. We didn't experience that time frame until we returned on Sunday. We boarded the bus Friday night at 6:30pm, and we finally got off around 12:30am Saturday morning. It was actually a fine bus trip - aside from the really stinky toilet that kept gagging us at intervals - despite the extra time it took. The Megabus we took was a double decker bus, which was pretty cool, and was rather comfortable. We were travelling in a group of 5, so we grabbed the back row of 5 seats and got cozy. We became friends with the guy and girl sitting in front of us to our left, and enjoyed our sporadic conversations with them as they got more and more tipsy through the trip. Their downing of 2 wine bottles was nothing compared to the couple a few rows ahead of us, though, who's glasses and bottles we heard 'tinking' pretty consistently through the 6 hours.

When we finally made it to our hotel, it was roughly 1am, and we were starving. We made it to the Hard Rock Cafe on Times Square - oh, did I mention our hotel was right in Times Square? That was a pretty sweet deal. We made it to HRC just before the kitchen closed, and I ordered a salad (much needed greens and after 6 hours of roadtrip snacks...) which was bigger than my head. I barely made a dent in it but I was ready to burst by the time we left. Interestingly, there's no real downtime for NYC - it's pretty much hoppin' all day and all night. I kept forgetting that it was after 1am, because the streets were packed like it was 8:30pm.

In all honesty, my memory of all we did Saturday and Sunday is kind of blurred - we did a lot, I can tell you that. I just can't remember everything...I should've kept a list of stops. But here's what I can remember. We walked around Times Square for a bit, checking out the giant M&Ms store and browsing the street market. We went over to Rockefeller Plaza and saw the Lego Store through a window - this picture goes out to Caleb and Max, whom I thought of as soon as I glimpsed it:

We checked out the view of the city from the Top of the Rock, which is at the top of the NBC building. Apparently the view is better than the one at the Empire State Building. Having never been to the ESB, I can't compare, but it was a beautiful sight. Central Park is huge! And it looks so funny right in the middle of a very industrialized city, where there's just no other green to be seen from an aerial view. I felt a strange mix of feelings while I was up there. One part amazed at what humans can do, building up a city like this, building such structures like the Brooklyn Bridge and towering buildings; another part sad at how built up a place can get, so the only nature that survives has to be a square (a giant square, though) of forest set aside to be preserved. It felt impressive, but cold and distant to look at, and I couldn't tear my eyes away from it, despite wanting to turn away most of the time.

Then we had lunch and one of the guys had to leave for a conference/meeting he had to be at (hence the trip's origins), and the remaining 4 of us went exploring a bit. I don't remember all we did, but I can tell you it involved a lot of walking. A lot. We did make it to Tom's Restaurant, where Jerry Seinfeld et al spent much of their time in "Seinfeld," and I made them walk a little through Central Park (no one ran by in only their underwear though, sorry Ben), and we ended up coming out right next to the New York Temple, which one of the boys was blind to until we forced his eyes up to see Moroni. We hit the Subway to get somewhere and took a cab to get somewhere else, and we thoroughly experienced the city. I kept pushing for a bike taxi or a horse-drawn carriage, but somehow I was outvoted 5 to 0 every time (I know, it's a little awkward when you vote against yourself...). At one point I was pretty sure we were in Brooklyn and suddenly we were in the heart of Manhattan, so I didn't keep a good record of what was going on - I played follow the leader for the most part on this trip, slightly clueless to most of the plans.

We did spend a little time in line during the afternoon, to get discounted tickets to a Broadway show. We ended up near the front of the line, which was great, because we got some pretty decent seats for...wait for it...the Phantom of the Opera! I was so excited about this! This is a great musical, and I loved the entire time I was watching it! It's amazing how powerful musicals can be - each song sent chills up my arms, and I was wholly absorbed in the performance. Well worth the 40% reduced tickets.

We grabbed some New York cheesecake after the show, which I was wholly absorbed in as well. Yum...

Sunday was the day we decided to keep lighter, so we took the Staten Island Ferry back and forth, passing the Statue of Liberty twice. Next time I'm back there, I'm going to the island, I've decided. And I want to check out Ellis Island. But we skipped that for now and just saw it all from afar. We got some New York pizza for lunch, and spent the rest of the afternoon mainly wandering, counting down the time for when we'd come back. It's hard to plan too much when you know the time to leave is coming up quickly. Plus we were exhausted from Saturday, as well as Friday's late night, so we were rather lethargic.

But we found of we needn't have worried about our timing for the bus home anyway, because we got there early so we could get good seats on the bus, but then found out the buses from the last hour had been delayed in traffic, so every bus was running rather behind. We left an hour later than planned, but we arrived in DC just minutes after the bus scheduled to arrive an hour before us, so I couldn't complain too much. Plus, we didn't have the stinky toilet smell because we sat in the front, so all in all, the trip home was great.

And now I'm back in DC, recuperating for the last 3 days from the 2 days of straight walking. I can still see a little blister on one of my feet, but all in all, I've recovered well. I'm glad to be back, with my own room and bed, and no rush to be anywhere. But I do miss the New York weather - slightly cooler than the 90 degrees we're enjoying here, so the humidity wasn't nearly as bothersome. I'm really looking forward to the Autumn weather out here - not the Winter weather, but the 65-70 degrees with a slight wind factor.

Now I'm planning on staying put in DC for the next few weekends, but shoot, I wasn't really planning on going to NYC until about 5 days before we left, so who knows, perhaps I'll end up in Boston this weekend, which I'll be sure to tell you all about!* Otherwise, I'll try to do something fun and exciting around here to tell you about soon! And I'm going to start working on making more friends, so I don't just sit around, doing nothing, which is just starting to get a little old at this point...though it's been great watching the crazy antics on "Ellen" each day - I'll miss her when I finally get a job that steals me away from my new hobby of tv watching while hibernating from the extreme heat outside.


*The chances of me being in Boston are 1 in 500 million, so while I'd love it, don't hold your breath for that post to come in the next week...

Project:Runway - bonding clothes and people

After almost a week of living in a new home, with 2 roommates, I think we finally hit the all-important bonding moment.

Over Project: Runway on Lifetime.

I'm not sure why it is that television seems to be the best medium for bonding with others, but it's working for me, so I won't rock the boat.

I came downstairs just after one roommate came home, and I saw Project: Runway was on, so I flipped it on and zoned out for a bit. It had been a busy day, having spent 3 hours applying for one job (stupid government jobs and their ridiculous application process - create a profile, answer questions, apply to actual position, answer questions, read instructions for part 2, answer the same questions again...ugh), and then I applied for a few more just for sport, so I thought I deserved some time off from my strenuous efforts.

My roommate came back up, apparently with the idea to watch a movie (her usual after-work ritual), and after I said it'd be fine if she wanted to watch it, she realized I was watching P:R, and she cozied up to the other side of the couch, ready to catch up on the show after a few years absence from it. Our final roommate came home near the end of the episode, and we quickly caught her up on which outfits we considered to be great, and which were hideous. We generally agreed on the choice for winner and bade a relatively emotionless farewell to the loser of the challenge.

When my roommate was about get up to pop in her movie, we saw another episode was on next, so she sat back down, and we sat, the 3 of us, and waited to hear about the new challenge with as much anxiety as the contestants (well, nearly as much, though we probably had slightly less angst than they did. Who knows?) We gabbed about who might actually be snakes, who just got it tough by the editing department, which were impressive designers, and which needed to go home.

My roommates were also vocal in their opinions about topics raised by commercials, or whatever else might be on their minds. I learned that I'm living with 2 girls that hate medications and would be all over the natural medicine bandwagon if they got sick. I have roommates who are very sure of their opinions, and I, the little girl who fears absolutes and opinion-facts, spent most of the serious moments of discussion as pushed back in the couch as I could get, with my eyes on my phone. It was interesting to hear how other people thought and reasoned through things.

I also learned that I've forgotten how to be a good and effective listener. I'm pretty sure I zoned on half the things either of them said to me; hopefully my responses of "Seriously," or "Yeah, that's crazy" fit what they had said. I'm pretty sure they did - the stories always seemed to be about something crazy or intense. I just couldn't tell you what they were.

But they are both pretty cool, so all is good in the House on 27th Street S. And after a long day by myself, talking only to myself, sitting on my bed, not leaving my house at all (what? It was raining!), it was quite refreshing to talk to real people who were physically here.

I really need to make some more friends...

But I am going to NYC this weekend, with one of my roommates. Ironically, the other one will be there as well, biking through Brooklyn - my weekend sounds much more relaxing than hers, but shoot, I haven't been doing much, so I don't know what I need to get a break from. We're going with 3 of her friends, 2 of which I met last week. But trips make friendships faster than anything (I should know - I have experience with friendships and relationships coming out of random, last minute trips), so this should hopefully work in my favor. It's a weekend I won't be meeting anyone through church or anything, but really, I've got all the time in the world to make up for that, so I'm not too concerned.

I'll let you know how it goes. Maybe I'll get some good pictures worth showing. I will, in the words of Tim Gunn, "make it work!"

Speaking of pictures, I just wanted to include a really cute picture of Max from while he was here - he had a really fun time here, I think, but he was definitely exhausted and tired of walking and looking at things by the end of the afternoon. So when we finally got to the Washington Monument, and Caleb went to get a picture in front of it, Max followed and slid down the monument to sit on the ground, his tiredness evident on his face.

He's got a slight grimace, but I just thought it was an adorable shot of him. He got his energy back by the time we made it to the Lincoln Memorial (and even more after getting an ice cream sandwich all over his face):

What's the Point of Hiccups Anyway? They seem as useless as mosquitoes...

Have you ever had the hiccups loud enough that they echo in your room?

Hiccups are so weird - for one thing, writing out the word always makes me think of hippos; I automatically want to write hippos instead of hiccups. For another thing, there are so many varieties. The ones that are barely noticeable, they just barely catch your breath. The silent ones, which just makes you look stupid when you have to pause to finish your sentence, and everyone looks at you funny for the way your stomach bounces randomly. The ones that really hurt everytime you hiccup, like you've been punched in the chest. And the really, really, really loud ones, which always come during the quietest moment in church, or silence a room full of people.

I'm suffering from the last kind. So I'm sitting here on my bed, hiccupping these super loud hiccups, experiencing the momentary spasms through my torso accompanying each one, praying that I won't wake up my roommate in her room across from mine. I hope she's a deep sleeper.

And that's about the biggest update I can give you about my time in DC so far. I've got hiccups loud enough to wake the dead, and my hair is frizzy. I may have mentally been ready to adjust to this change, but I'm apparently struggling with the transition physically.

On the plus side, I went for a run this morning (a short run/walk, if we're being honest) and I found my way back home after! Yay! I was really nervous I'd get lost and never make it back. And I passed a guy sitting on his bike twice - same guy, in the same place, me in two different spots. I felt like I was in one of those movie scenes where there's a chase happening, and the characters keep running through different rows and aisles in a small space. You know what I'm talking about? I first passed him as I ran eastbound, and the next time I saw him I was going southbound through the same 4-way stop. I laughed to myself when I passed him a second time, and then I got worried that he was a spy watching for suspicious activity (everyone is a spy out here, you know), so I wiped the smile off my face and ran far from that spot as quick as I could. Last thing I need right now is a spy on my tail. That would be too much excitement for me in such a new place. Maybe it would've been fine back when I was in Utah and knew my way around a little more, but not now in this new place.

Oh, and I got my last suitcase unpacked today! Now I just need to figure out where to put it...as well as all the clothes I pulled out of it. Something tells me on top of my bed isn't the best storage solution.

And now I've just sneezed twice, with the hiccups sitting in my throat, waiting. I tell you, that's a strange sensation - hiccupping and sneezing together. Something tells me I should just go to bed and hope I'm cured by the time I wake up in the morning...Perhaps I'll do something tomorrow worth mentioning. Or perhaps not. Well, if anything, I should hopefully have something fun to say after the weekend, so I'll see what I can do that I can find worth reporting to you!

Oh, and P.S. According to the time zone that I'm in, it's officially my dad's birthday today! Happy Birthday, Pop Pop! I hope you have a wonderful day! Tell me where you want to go eat for your birthday, and I'll go there and conference call you and mom, and it will be like we're celebrating together! Bear in mind, I really only have a Pizza Hut nearby - birthday lunch buffet?

So This is What it's Like to be a True Patriot..

I went to church - my new ward here in Virginia - for the first time on Sunday. It's a gorgeous place, a red brick building right next to the Potomac river, surrounded by rich foliage just blocking it from the noise and bustle of the road outside. I really love being here. It's so beautiful, and I feel like I moved here at just the right time - Autumn in the East is amazing. I remember loving this season a lot in Wisconsin, when all the strong green turned to vibrant red and rich gold. I can see some trees already starting on their way to Fall, like they're letting me in on a secret of the beauty Autumn is planning to give this year.

My ward is rather similar to the one I just came from in Utah, large and constantly changing. With the interns coming and going every semester, there's a sense of continuous movement there. But the ward also reminds me of my favorite ones when I was at BYU-Idaho; everyone comes from somewhere different, each with such a different background. Each person was once a stranger here too, new to the area and nervous about what to expect.

When I moved, I fully expected to introduce myself as being from Wisconsin, but having moved from Utah. Everyone would ask where in Utah I was from, and we would try to make whatever connections we could. I planned on remaining proud of my Wisconsin background (I liked that Wisconsin always seemed like such a random mystery to others, even if not many could make connections to it), but I anticipated that the mention of Utah would be more of a conversation starter, as people wondered where in Utah I came from, if I knew so-and-so, blah, blah, blah. Interestingly, more people turned their attention to me with the question, "where in Wisconsin are you from?"

Turns out, I have 2 boys in my ward whose families were in my home stake growing up, though one knew my sister better and the other moved when we were 15 (his older brother was still around and made a move on me though, but I didn't mention that to him...). Another girl happened to know the daughter of my dad's 1st counselor in the Stake Presidency, and she had just hung out with that family the other weekend. I was rather impressed by the influence of Wisconsin out here in DC. It made me happy to have the connection there as well.

Good things come from Wisconsin, just to remind those of you who have doubted me over the years.

Beyond that, I made 2 new friends, who are good friends of my roommate and kindly adopted me into their friendship. One of them is a guy who is working as an intern on Capitol Hill. As it happens, he has Mondays off, which he uses as his day for touring DC, so he offered to show me around yesterday. He explained the Metro and the bus system and constantly reminded me that I would get lost and I would end up somewhere I didn't plan on going often enough, which of course did little to keep my spirits high about getting around (because I get lost easily, and I don't know the place well enough to even know if wherever I end up is actually where I want to be or not, so I won't even know if I am lost...). Then I remembered he'd only been here for a week himself, so he doesn't really know much more than I do about the Metro system! I laughed out loud when I recalled that fact, but it didn't make me feel any better about figuring my way around quickly.

But we did make it to our main destination. We had decided to check out the National Archives and take a look at the great documents that turned this Nation from a thought to a reality.

I was surprised by how impressed I was by being in the presence of the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, which, when considered at the very base, are just really old pieces of paper. But I do appreciate well-written words and a good sheet of paper, so I expected to at least appreciate the sight of them. But the power and results that came from those old pieces of paper really resonates with you when you look at them. To think of what it took to sign those documents, what it meant to actually put those thoughts on paper, the courage and resolve of the writers to just write something, is rather powerful. You look at those pages, and it's hard not to picture the sight of men standing in a room, waiting to sign their names to something that was both illegal and wrong, yet fundamentally right and important. And suddenly, those sheets of paper, with foggy writing I can't even read anymore, are such a more magnificent sight to me than the Hope Diamond over at the Natural History Museum, or the priceless paintings and sculptures in the Art Museum.

My new friend and I also discussed how crazy it would be to have something we wrote placed under a secure, bullet-proof, age resistant encasement years and years after we'd written it. To write something so meaningful and important, that it would treasured by so many people. Then I considered what it took for these men to write it - the threat of death or loss of their families, stigmatization by peers, and on and on - and I think it would've been difficult for me to do anything like that. To do what, at the time, was illegal and high treason, for something that you don't know will even work out? Seems a little too nerve-wracking for me, personally. But I think that's why I'm so impressed with what I got to see at the National Archives. These guys did what most people could not. They followed the inspiration they received to do what was right, they trusted that it would work out, and they let the future good overrule their personal concerns of the present. I don't think that's ever hit me as much as it did yesterday, when I could see the physical embodiment of many people's fight to allow this country to be great.

I think I'm going to learn a lot here. I've only been here 5 days, and I'm already waxing poetic about our National history.

But I think museums have some sort of all-consuming effect on my brain. I go to the National Archives and can't stop thinking about the Declaration of Independence in everything I do. But I also went to the Spy Museum on Saturday, and I still haven't shaken off the feeling that every person I pass is a spy and that I'm being watched by someone...

Old Houses Can Make Some Scary Noises...

Well, I made it.

Now I'm just waiting for my stupid eyes to let out the tears that usually want to come the first night in a new place.

Like I've said before, my tear ducts need a major repair.

So I'm sitting on my new bed with a slight headache, unsure what to do with myself, feeling a little emotionally unstable, but knowing I'm also extremely tired after a 12 hour drive from Wisconsin.

Can I just say, my brother Chris is AWESOME! All of my siblings are just so cool - a fact that was re-asserted this weekend during Barlowpalooza 2010 (we felt you there, Abby!) - but Chris, as well as his wife Jodi, deserve a special shout-out for taking such great care of me this last week and a half, getting me prepared for my move, and then moving me. Chris and his two boys made a roadtrip out of my move, and we spent all day today, from 5:30am to 6:56pm on the road. Chris, you're the best, thanks so much for getting me out here and settled in! Ben, Zach, and Abby - thanks for keeping up with us during the drive, we made it! You're all great!

And Jim Dale, you deserve a huge thanks as well; thanks for reading the Harry Potter series with such enthusiasm and energy. Your changes of voice for each character and your care for the stories make those books so great to listen to, as well as a perfect long roadtrip treat. Between that and a whole lot of "Dynamite" from Taio Cruz (thanks to Max and Chloe, that song may be going on vacation on my playlists for a little while...), we got to DC safe and sound, and happy.

Some of the other standout memories from this epic roadtrip:
     Caleb throwing up out the window during Chicago's early morning stop-and-go rush hour traffic, right when a convertible porsche was passing us - he missed the porsche, in case you were wondering.
     Max asking if we were almost to DC just after we got out of Chicago...
     Beating Chris past the Ohio state line, woohoo!
     Seeing a sign for a llama farm, with the headline "Llamas for sale!" This might've only been noticed by me.
     Max asking if we were almost there with every new state we entered (and every 20 minutes once we hit Pennsylvania, or Pennsyl, as he liked to call it).

My nephews were great, and they really managed the long, long drive well, despite a rocky start. I hope their return home is as speedy and enjoyable as well. Luckily, we get to play and tour DC tomorrow, so they'll get a day out of the car, walking around the Capitol, before they have to return.

Speaking of tomorrow, I should get to bed so I have enough energy for it. Staying up wondering why I decided to come out to this random place, looking around my little room with no idea how to unpack is not the best thing for me right now, I think. The vent in my room rattles, and there was a weird clicking noise for awhile (once I remembered Cat is back with Zach and Jamie, I got really concerned about a giant rat - not sure why, since there was no sign of one when I was moving stuff around in my room. How easily we scare ourselves in new places...). I'm confident I'll get used to the sounds eventually, but right now they're just making me more disconcerted, so I really ought to go to bed, and let my imagination take me somewhere far away in my dreams. Last night I had a dream that I got dragged into the spy world, after having watched a weird spy movie early in the evening, so we'll see if my dreams can actually take me far away, or if it just creates a more morphed, strange version of my current life...

But honestly, I don't think I can say it enough - huge, huge thanks to Chris, and to Jodi, for being so great. You rock!

Okay, now I'm going to go to bed - time to go cry myself to sleep on my huge pilla (scottish accent for pillow) - what movie? Anyone?

"So I Married an Axe Murderer" is right! Nice job! Okay, seriously, I'm going to bed now...