Just Throw a Brick

As expected, all social media outlets have exploded with Star Wars. Which is fine, I was expecting it but still. Dang. I haven't seen so many posts regarding something I don't care about since "The Dress". "But why?" You ask, astounded. "Star Wars defined a generation! It made me who I am today! Without Star Wars there is no reason to live!!!" To which I reply, "Meh." I know, I'm lame. I'm extremely lame. I get that. It was a running joke in college that every boyfriend I had was like "YOU NEED TO WATCH THEM" and I would be like "Ehhhhhh", and then we'd break up and we never did...Not that breaking up was correlated to my non Star Wars knowledge (I think?)  And now I'm married and I still haven't seen them. Woo.  I have to admit, for awhile it was fun to pull out the old "I've never seen Star Wars" when playing Never Have I Ever or some other stupid game, and seeing eve

Man, my Utah friends got hit hard with snow this week. I thought that's what would happen in Chicago but turns out, we've had like 40-55 degree weather this week and I've been wearing skirts without tights. It's been pretty amazing. I figure the weather will suck out here soon enough but I'm loving this weather at the moment. I mean, most of the grass in Chicago is still green. I don't understand it. But it's beautiful. In other news, I have come up with a name for all my blog readers - McBrickers. Yay/nay? To all my McBrickers in school, good luck with finals week! We sent little care packages to all our siblings in college, so that was fun. I hope they all got them by now :S Who knows. Mail can suck sometimes. I ordered something for my dad for Christmas awhile ago from Target but it's not here yet :(  Another point to the negative column - Pandora decided that "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" is suddenly a Christmas Classic. Um

All I can say about today is thank goodness for the chocolate fairies that dumped a bunch of Lindt truffles and Hershey's Kisses on my desk this morning. It's just one of those days. This is going to be an entirely random post about entirely random things and you're going to like it, dangit. The chocolate fairies are real! Also note my CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN!!! In other news, trying to get our Christmas card to work has been driving me crazy. I like the idea of designing my own and not paying extra for whatever Walmart comes up with but geez. Free software only gets you so far. It's so frustrating having good ideas and being unable to see them come to fruition because you don't have the tools. Whatever. I'll just send you all an e-Christmas card and you can all ooh and aah over my pathetic design skills. Hahaha *cries* Well, the apartment is looking somewhat festive. Our two trees are up, our Nativity is set up, and I'm in the process (or, I will be thi

Now that my birthday and Thanksgiving are over, you can all listen to Christmas music. And if you were listening to it before then, well, I am disappointed in you. Unlike the title of this blog, C does not like Christmas music as much as the next guy. Let me rephrase - C doesn't like Christmas as much as the next guy. But unfortunately for him he married a Christmas addict with no hope of recovery. >:) Which means haul out the holly, because it's DECORATING TIME! Well, if we had holly I'd pull it out. All we have is a small box of decorations and two Christmas trees. We are still perplexed as to where the other tree came from. Neither of us can come up with anything. We'll just take it as a Christmas miracle and roll with it. *Dwight raises roadkill goose into the air* So my birthday was fun. My coworker got me one of those Mylar balloons that never dies, so I promptly taped it to my computer so everyone would awkwardly ask if it was my birthday. Yay! C ended

Well, it’s Saturday, party people. For me and C, that means a big day of partying! That is, if your definition of “partying” includes slogging through final projects for his classes (C) and crocheting (me). DePaul is a strange school. C will be done next Tuesday with all his classes for this semester next week, which is cool. Gives us time to enjoy the holidays without having to worry about all the busywork that grad school entails. Brag about C Minute: My mom was talking to me a couple days ago and she said, “How does it feel to have your husband almost done with a semester of grad school?!” and I realized I hadn’t actually thought about it. It’s a big deal! I’m just so glad that C values education and was willing to commit to the two extra years of schooling so we can make the big bucks! Hahahahahaha just kidding. But at least he’ll be way more apt to get a job and then I can quit my community college gig and fulfill my life dream of adopting another beta, naming him Steve Vail

I'm so sorry about the wait, guys. (Also - 50 views on the 10th??? What happened??? Or was one of you accidentally refreshing? Either way, legit. Way cool to log in and see that many views.) So I bet you were all wondering where I was for the last couple weeks, right? (Oh, you don't care? Well the close button is riiiiiight up there, buddy.) I was here! That, my friends, is the living room of me and C's very own first Chicago apartment!!! Really and truly! And yes, that's crown molding. Turns out when you pony up the cash to live in a good area you get some unexpected perks... Moving day was crazy. We signed a lease Friday night, and Saturday morning first thing we called a moving company and they said they could help us move that day. It was amazing. We were in!. Here's our new kitchen: Note my plants! They've survived this whole time! I mean, looks nice, right? Unfortunately it's all an illusion. See that sink? It doesn't drain. And

Basically, if you want to be inside my head right now, this is what it sounds like: I cannot get over this song. I'm done trying. I got off my Wildest Dreams kick and went straight into this one. As well as this one: So yeah, these two songs are basically going off all day, every day. I have a mind for bubblegum pop music, I swear. Want to see my bookshelf? It's basically the one thing we get to ourselves in this dang house. We're going apartment hunting tomorrow and we're finding a place. That's it. There is no other option. But anyway, back to the bookshelf... Cute, right? For someone who only gets a shelf to decorate? Here's what's on there, from left to right: - Trick or Treat sign, AKA our one Halloween decoration. (well we have P's Halloween drawing taped to the wall but I couldn't fit it in the picture...) Thank you Target $1 bin. - Paper crane - We got this when the sister missionaries came to have dinner with us the first

This was a busy week! And yet, I still feel like I have nothing to say. Happy - I started my job! This job should freaking get its own edition of HC&M. Maybe next week. Suffice it to say I have income now, which means... - We can FINALLY get an apartment! Yay!!! The day we have been waiting for!!! Unfortunately, we didn't find any we liked when we went looking last week. We're giving it another go with Ash, our real estate agent. Turns out Chicago is nothing like Provo. And for all of you who responded to that comment with an overwhelming "DUH", in this instance I'm talking about when finding an apartment. At home, you jump on KSL or you ask around and somebody always knows somebody. Here? A real estate agent is your best bet. He get access to properties that aren't on popular sites like Zillow or HotPads, and best of all, he's payed by the complexes, not by you. So if you know which ones he represents, it's easy to know which ones he'll pu

Well friends, another week has come and gone... let's get right to it. Happy - I got the job! I guess my references were good enough, or that they least remembered who I was! We're going to have income again! I mean, we've had some lately due to C's temp job which has been amazing, but to have a steady, dependable income? Words cannot describe. That means we can FINALLY GET OUT OF THIS PLACE!!! Yessssss!!! I am now the administrative assistant for two deans in the Health and Science department at a local community college. Hopefully I'm good at it and people like me. I generally can find at least one person at a job that I like, even if the work sucks, so I'm hoping that stays true here. - I tried some pumpkin-flavored Greek yogurt and it was awesome. - CBMR update: Guess who's getting PUBLISHED! Well, not really. My review about someone else's publication will be published! Online! For the world to see and love! Or see and hate. Whatever. Deal with

Well here we are, the most exciting time of the week! That's right - It's Happy, Crappy, and Meh time!!! *audience applauds* Happy - Guess who found pumpkin-flavored oatmeal AND pumpkin-flavored bagels at Target? Hehehehe this girl. Plus I had a pumpkin cupcake yesterday and it was beautiful. Autumn forever! - Figured out a crochet project that was giving me difficulty. It's starting to look pretty good now! - Remember that interview for that job last week? Well, since I hadn't heard anything I was pretty sure I didn't get it, but they called today telling me they're going to contact all my references and keep the process going! So that's a plus, I guess. I have never had a job actually call references before. And since this is just a community college I figured they wouldn't be so fancy about it but hey. I might still have a shot at this! (But calling references for a community college administrative assistant job... really?) - I am now an officia

Just trying to keep things nice around here. Wasn't a fan of the "Cutest Blog on the Block" sticker up in the corner, so I designed my own header and C helped me make it work with the blog. And then of course, to make everything else look good, you've got to change the whole color scheme. You like it, yes? If not, too bad. -K

It's been a week and a day, now! Crazy how time flies when your life is boring. Wait what? Happy - C's temp job got extended again! This new project keeps him hired until Halloween. Yay! - Our landlady was out of town this week so guess who took advantage of that and used her kitchen! Us! We got some disposable foil 9x13's and made some actual food! I forgot how awesome it is to cook for yourself. I cannot wait until we can move out. We made our favorite baked ziti, and then our oven-baked fajitas. Angels sang as we removed our food from the oven and we took the first bite. It was beautiful. - I had a job interview yesterday! I mean, the whole time I was sitting in it I was like "Do I actually want this job? Not really..." but an interview is good progress. It would basically be a version of what I did at UVU, except full-time and being personal assistants to two deans. Whoopee. Free tuition at the local community college though so... there's that. - C&#

It's been ANOTHER week! Guess what? Nothing has really changed over here at JTAB headquarters :( But we did do some cool stuff this weekend, so I guess I can talk about that. C drinking his fancy lemon water at "The Noodle", a cute little Italian restaurant where they make the pasta from scratch. So good! Happy -We earned some money! C's been working a temp job for about a week and good news, they gave him another two weeks and a pay raise! It's not much but it's so helpful to at least be earning a little money. We also babysat for a family in the ward last weekend and they pay extremely well out here! Granted, we had to keep our eyes on four extremely energetic children, but C took three of them and played with them and I played a game with the quietest one. All about splitting responsibilities over here. I think the best part was when they performed Frozen as a play for us. It's one of those moments where you can't laugh because it'll make

How has it been more than a week since I've blogged last? I don't know. It's a hot mess over here at JTAB. I have no explanations. Crappy It's been a hard week, friends. I have felt so down. It's hard to send out application after application, and trying to talk to people and make connections, and at the end of the day you're right back where you started - jobless and a little bit poorer. You can only eat so many microwavable cups of Rice-a-Roni without going crazy. I just want to cook, dangit! Even a simple spaghetti would be better than what we're dealing with over here. I was raised on fruits and vegetables at every meal, and when you only get one tiny drawer in a massive fridge you have to prioritize. So we get bagged salads and as much fruit as we can stuff in there without displacing my skim milk. So sick of living here. Let me just say that one more time so you all understand. I HATE IT HERE. Hate it. It was fine for the first couple weeks, but it

It's game day, people! If you're into BYU football, that is. My sport's gameday isn't all the way until January :( But at least I've had some good soccer games to watch recently. Let me break it down for you. K's Favorite BYU Sports (that I'll actually watch and stay interested and not complain very much during): 1. Men's Volleyball 2. Women's Soccer That's about it, really. "But what about football?!" you ask. "Don't you love watching the dudes toss the old pigskin around?" *sigh* Football is hard for me for the following reasons. Gameday intimidation faces 1. It's forever long. Why are you so long? It's a full-day affair! Got to watch the pre-pre-game, and the pre-game, and then of course the four-hour game, and then the post-game, and then the post-post-game, and ugh. It's a vicious circle of football. It never ends! I can handle about two hours of football, and that's if there's good s

Like I mentioned yesterday, all I do these days is apply for jobs. Someone hire me, please! I usually smell good and I have a nice smile and I speak English and sometimes I do my makeup really well and I interview well! Well most of the time... Remember that time I listed '"I'm not ugly!" when I was asked by the hiring committee what some of my strengths were? Because I do! Heh heh... But I got the job in the end so who's laughing now? (Still me. I crack myself up sometimes.) Anyway, as I was saying, jobs. I apply for them all the time. But sometimes, I find a weird job that breaks up the monotony. Want to hear some? Option #1: Matchmaker for www.realblacklove.com Let me just remind you what me and C look like. A nice person might call us "exceedingly fair skinned". Now let's take a look at what this job entails. Word for word from the hiring site: "Do you love playing cupid to your friends and family? We love what we do too

So I'm debating on whether or not I should make a weekly post entitled "Happy, Crappy, or Meh", where I discuss something happy, something crappy, and something meh. Yes/no? C thinks it'd be better as a Twitter post so we'll see. I've just had so many people ask me how Chicago is I was thinking of more fun ways to present information. So without further ado, "Happy, Crappy, and Meh: Chicago Edition." Happy: -Lou Malnati's pizza. Every list starts with this pizza. The end. The fact that we've only had it once and have been out here a week is impressive. -There is a Target about 10 minutes away from where we are right now. AND I got a couple v-necks from there on clearance! Awwwww yeah. I love a good v-neck. -Our car survived the trip! So now our little Utah-plated Nissan is booking around Chicago! -My friend just sent me a pic of a cute embroidered pillow pattern she found on clearance and she's going to send it to me. I'm so exc

Or don't, because it's one of the most boring roads in the world (at least, the part of it we drove.) It runs from Utah up a thousand mountains to Wyoming, and then slowly meanders through Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois. It wouldn't be such a bad drive if I had a DVD player and access to every single episode of Castle ever made, but we survived the trip using my iPod and The Morning Zoo podcast. Thank goodness for Frankie, DB, & Jess or I never would have made it. Ready to go! Also, who decided to give us the snake truck? Sheez. My plants also made the journey in the truck with us. They seemed to enjoy it better than we did. Cacti love road trips, right? It only lost a few of its succulent little leaves, and it does that sometimes anyway. I can't figure out why :( Wyoming is meh. The only good part of Wyoming is Jackson and the Grand Teton National Park. Sadly, we did not go through Jackson or the Tetons, so it was very meh. Grey, rainy, and meh (And yes