shoes

guys, i'm getting really old.  So back around my birthday i bought myself these shoes. 
They were ridiculous and gaudy and i knew that i could pull them off.  I was planning all of my outfits and was generally very excited.  After attempting to wear the shoes around my house and almost spraining my ankle i decided today that i had to give up the dream.  If i couldn't even walk around my house how was i going to go dancing or walk around bars UNDER THE INFLUENCE??  it was not going to happen.  so i returned them and bought these.they're clarks.  yes i traded out some awesome platforms for some orthopedic european walkign shoes.  I'm ashamed of myself.  But i knwo that in dc this summer it's going to be hot and muggy and humid and my feet are going to SWEAT like crazy and i'm goign to need good shoes to go wtih my new urban lifestyle.  so yeah...i've changed.  

I'm movign all of my stuff to dc thsi friday, then i'm gonna be in la next week then i'm coming back to michigan for about a week to defend my prelim exams, then back to dc and on and on.  so anyways i started packing and i have way too much stuff.  My bag of shoes for the summer was like 12 shoes.  12 SHOES!!  why do i need 12 shoes for 3 months!???  ugh self loathing.  not to mention that i bought 2 new pair.  what if nick gets grossed out by my excess and decides that he does not like me??  we will be living in a studio together!  a studio!  scary.  

on a positive note i assumed that i got paid at the beginning of each month so i wasnt' going to get paid for may and i'd be broke and unable to pay my rent.  but i'm dumb.  in actuality i get paid at the END of each month and so my april paycheck will last me through may and i'm getting some grading hours so that's like extra money to pay for my move and maybe i can pay off some bills too.  the truth is that i live paycheck to paycheck so my bank account goes from full (payday) to empty (bill pay day, the day after pay day), so i never really notice when all of this happens.  so woo me!  

oh i forgot to mention i got THE COOLEST chair today.  Since reading all these design blogs i've gotten really into mid century modern furniture.  yes, i'm a douche.  Anyways these things are sort of easy to come across here and they are usually really cheap since no one gives 2 shits about danish furniture.  So anyways i was at a house party a few weeks ago when i saw the most awesome chair!  so it turns out the people were graduating and moving and through some facebooke exchanges we struck a deal.  here it is.  

the chair next to it is gonna go in my kitchen in my breakfast nook.  So i have mixed feelings about the plaid since it's pretty ugly, albeit unique.  but it also just doesn't go with my aesthetic so i was at target today and found THE LAST orla kiely tablecloth so i thought about reupholstering it with this.  Either that or i'm contemplating some sort of really cool orangy yellow.  now i just need to find a sweet couch!  emily i want yours!  

i'm also looking for a new credenza which i think will be pretty easy to find at the barnyard antique mart.  aaaanyways i just have to learn how to sew so i can redo this chair.   project!!

packing and moving advice

guys and gals, i need advice.  So my summer plans are quickly approaching.  I might have gotten a subletter but the way this is gonna work is i'll be moving to dc in late may, and then coming back in mid august to move into my new place.  So since i'm getting a subletter i probably have to pack up most of my shit, right???  like i said i have no idea how this works.  I'm planning on driving all of my stuff down to nick's place this weekend for our anniversay and also just to move all my shit down there.  So today i started packing up some of my stuff, and MAN i have a shit ton of stuff!  it got me really stressed out.  i think i need to give stuff to salvation army for sure.  

ok so here is my question.  target has those plastic boxes on sale for 5.99.  So shoudl i buy a bunch and pack up what i can?  or should i just go to the market and get some boxes and pack my shit in those?  I sort of think the latter is better because once i'm done i can just throw them away, whereas the plastic boxes would take up space (and cost money).  But i have a giant basement in which to store shit next year so i guess space isn't really an issue.  I don't know!!  what should i do!!  help me guys.

chafing

ugh guys.  so it was like 85 degrees today.  You think i'd be happy but the HUMIDITY!  why!  why can't this state just be not wretched in either direction!  so anyways humidity and my body do not work well together mainly due to my hyperhydrosis.  I sort of forgot about this problem since it's been winter and it's just not an issue.  But i wore a dress out tonight and a few hours into the night after walking around town from bar to bar my thighs started chafing.   And then all the memories came back of my chafed thighs and as i was walking home it got pretty painful.  ugh!  remember how last summer my ultimate goal was to make it so that my thighs dont' touch??  it's for this very reason!!  does anyone have any solutions for chafing?  i googled it and there all some sticks that you can rub on your leg to make it stop.  Also my favorite was these things called luvees which are basically like spanx only with padding at the thighs so that they don't chafe.  the slogan is "the discreted, comfortable thigh solution." amazing!  would you judge me if i bought them?  would nick ever sleep with me again?  i know this is really not an issue for most women because they don't sweat like i do but it's really wretched.  or is it an issue?? is this another one of those things that happens to all of us but that we just never talk about??  i really need to know. 

oh shagoodness i forgot to mention!! so the weather has been pretty volatile, blah. i don't want to get into it. suffice to stay the trees are still brown and dead looking and there is very little grass coming up so spring is DEFINITELY not here yet. BUT, yesterday it rained super hard so i went out in my rain gear and collected lots of worms for my compost!! yes, i am now officially a vermicomposter. total cost? 4$, what i paid for the used bin i am keeping my scraps in. I had intentions of ordering worms but they were expensive and nick laughed in my face noting that worms are everywhere and it is not green at all to order yoru worms online. These damn practical midwesterners! So anyways i stood outside at midnight last night with a fork and a tupperware collecting worms that had crawled out to the sidewalk and now they are happily eating all the yumminess that is in my bin. bravo!

summer's almost here

oh peeps, what is up. i am in grading hell reading some of the WORST research papers ever. It's finals, yes we end super early. I swear i question whether english is these kids' second language. My favorite was when a student kept using the world "literally" in situations that were not at all literal, but were in fact the complete opposite of literal. oh undergrads...you slay me. like "relationship, medications, and therapy all litearlly work hand in hand." oh really!! do these things have actual hands!! i think not!

life updates, quickly. relationship seems to be going quite well. Tomorrow i find out if i got this SUPER awesome internship in dc, which would double as both helping me professionaly and allowing me to live in sin with my man for the summer. Also i would get to live on the other coast for the first time ever, AND i'd be able to visit my gay boyfriend, ivan and my peeps in new york. holler!! Otherwise i have a teaching gig lined up here in ann arbor. And if i actually end up staying here the plan is to learn to play guitar, take a sewing class, and write that whole dissertation thing. Oh and go antiquing of course.

i think i've been putting too much into this job thing though. It's with the pew hispanic center who basically do ALL of the demographic work on latinos in the US, and this summer they are running a new study lookign at latino adolescent identity development. HELLO!! this is like my thing!! So anyways it's sort of perfect in that it's a very important organization and i'd get to hone my stats skills, which are pretty shitty at present. I had an interview last week and tehy called my advisor and she said they were definitely impressed by me. So it's nice to know that i'm being seriously considered. All this weekend i have been lighting candles and putting them on the alter where my dead relatives are. i acknowledge that this is creepy but i'm Mexican, and this is what we do. Anyways i've burned out 3!! I started telling myself that if i got this job it woudl be like God letting me know that i was on the right path, and if i didn't get the job than i shoudl keep searching for whatever my path may be. I waiver constantly on this PhD thing and right now i'm on the pro side but i could very easily become con any day now. So i just sort of feel like i need some direction! Anyways i do believe in in God and sort of like, things working out as they should for some reason that maybe we don't know yet. But sometimes it's just nice to get reminders that you're doing the right thing and i really need one of those now. Not to mention that fact that it would just be so awesome to get to see Nick everyday for a few months and live a normal life.

pray for me guys!!! or send me good vibes!! whatever is your thang

another year older and deeper in dept...

so yesterday was my 27th birthday. It was fairly uneventful. For some reason i had no desire to make a big deal of it, and I'm not really sure why. I spent the whole day in my pijamas on my couch watching tv. And i woudl love to say that it was magical since this is pretty much my perfect set up, but it wasn't. I got my period, had cramps, and it was cold outside. It was sort of, dare i say, depressing. I dont' really want to dwell on it because it might make the whole thing feel more tragic but it was by far the least awesome birthday i have had yet. Note to self: massive birthday celebration is essential to starting awesome new year of life. Nick agreed that it was lame and he said he would throw me some other sort of celebration called "Cri2.0" next time i'm in DC. Oh which reminds me, i was in DC this weekend and i saw the official beginning of the cherry blossom festival. beautiful indeed!! The city turned into building intermixed with pink cotton candy trees everywhere! brosssoms! i haven't seen a flower in months so it was very refreshing to see things in bloom. DC is a really beautiful city. My only problem with it is that it's very spread out but the buildings are so gorgeous and it just makes me want to get an old house there and transplant it back to california. People were dressed moderately better than i remembered last time and it was a decent place. I could potentially grow to like it, but we'll see. As with all cities i can't afford anything so exploring teh nightlife is a stressful and triffling experience. But it's nice to have somewhere an hour flight away that i can run to when i need an escape. le siiiiiighhhh

so nick is looking for a job. Do any of you have connections in DC??? anyone, anyone?

Also we watched the movie "Synedoche, New York" while i was out there. I highly recommend this movie. I might have to see it again because in true charlie kauffman style, it was way out there. It's the kind of movie that drags and drags and you are about ready to give up on it and then the last 5 minutes it blows your mind and you realize that the dragging was necessary. Anyways i'm curious to see what anyone thinks if they've seen the movie. it made me think, mucho, and the song that is playing in the backgroun is hauntingly beautiful.

anyways tory contacted me because she was considering doing a detox, after reading GOOP. no joke. Anyways it turns out that gweneth uses the same detox book that i used before!! naturally i agreed since i've been trying to do a detox forevs but just can't seem to put in the effort. So now i have a partner and we are detoxing...day 1: i had cramps all day from my period. not terribly successful but i stuck to the plan.