Summertime and the living is stressful.

This is to be a painfully short post. Summer is almost over and I can honestly say I have had some really wonderful moments with some fabulous people. I feel very blessed in many ways.

And now I am working hard to find a place to live come October 15th.

Apologies, my dear blog... I shouldn't have left you alone for so long. I promise to return soon.

Where is Rosie the Robot when you need her?

I am in the midst of trying to get my apartment in order so I can feel better about having my friends over this weekend. Brittany and her husband Colin will be helping us pick up a mattress and bringing it here on Saturday afternoon. There is a 6:00 reservation for four at New Deck Tavern, but that leaves a gap of about three and a half hours between bringing the mattress inside (about 2PM) and leaving for the restaurant (5:30 PM). The plan is to just relax here and play some board games and munch on a few snacks to tide us over so we aren't gnawing on the tabletops while we wait for our appetizers. Any ideas for cheap and tasty things I can toss together?

This place is in need of serious cleaning and straightening up before they arrive. It is also currently suffering from being only partially painted and decorated. Fortunately, they aren't super judge-y and will probably not ostracize me if it isn't pristine. Plus, it will just make it so much sweeter when things look even better when they return! Right? Right.

I will be listening to Pandora all day tomorrow while I clean. Music just helps the time pass and a little shimmying while you vacuum makes it better. ;) I leave you now with a video of a song I am loving that feels oh-s0 Summery and fun.

As Seen On TV!

I've been a "night owl" since I was a baby. My mom always stayed up late, so I always stayed up late. The earliest I feel sleepy is usually around 1 AM and if I had my way, I'd sleep until Let's Make A Deal comes on at 10 AM. It is just my preferred sleep cycle to enjoy the calm of night and wake up just before the day REALLY begins. Because of this sort of schedule, after Craig Ferguson's show (I love him so much.), the noise in the background is often infomercials and special programs aimed to make me want to whip out my plastic money and buy buy buy.

I have avoided the allure of many things. But some of them seep into my head and I find myself aching to try them out. Alas, I feel a NEED to own a YuDu. I need it, guys. I want to put fun designs onto plain cruddy t-shirts. And I want to make custom pillow covers. And I can stencil onto picture frames and stuff. And I want to make some cute stenciled cloth bags for my hauls at the Farmer's Market and the grocery store. I can technically do most of those things with handy freezer paper stencil techniques, but this just seems SO MUCH COOLER.

Note: If you try the freezer paper stencils, I recommend you don't use a fabric spray paint. My only attempt so far did NOT go so well because of massive bleeding around the stencil. It could have been some other sort of screw-up on my part, but I suspect you get better results by filling in the exposed bits with fabric paint using a dauber or spoucer.

So, anyway, I really want a YuDu. Really badly.

And a Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer. Juicing could change my life, guys. Jack said so.

Gimme?

Goodnight, Blog. I am off now to try to sleep. Perhaps I will dream about juice and kickbutt stenciled goods?

A pile of ice.

My 10 year High School Reunion was last month. Tony and I drove out to Indiana so I could attend it and spend some time with my family and friends. It had been SIX years since we went there, and I made the most of every moment I could. But, because the trip takes so long, I was sort of car-lagged and very sluggish some of the time. This led to me being two hours late for the festivities on Friday night. It wasn't all that bad, though, as most of my classmates were still around and I was able to get into the partial class photo and all.

When the class officers put out some feelers to get an idea for what might be the best way to celebrate and reunite, they asked if people preferred Friday evening or Saturday afternoon and if anyone had ideas for locations. I sent a message over suggesting there be events on both days. I suggested Friday evening for cocktails and grownup chatter and Saturday afternoon for a picnic in the State Park. One of the planners, Kaelin, wrote back to say it was a fantastic idea. It ended up going just that way in the end. (I am glad if it was due to my suggestion as it seemed to go over quite well and I am ever the helper.)

Well, like I mentioned above, I was late on Friday night. And it was a very fun and very action-packed evening, so I overslept the next morning. My plans for Saturday included getting to the picnic to see some of the people who weren't able to come the night before, and to meet some of the children of my classmates. Between oversleeping and dozing off while Tony was painting my toenails, I left the hotel about two and a half hours after the picnic was to have begun. I told myself during the drive from the hotel to the park that despite the insanely high temperatures and humidity, there was a shot that some people would still be there.

When we arrived at the park (and paid $7 to enter), we made our way to the sheltered area to look for everyone/anyone. The only sign we found that anyone had even used the shelter that day was a pile of ice in the grass.

I was fairly miserable to have screwed up so badly that I missed out on the picnic. I struggle to be on time for anything in my everyday life, but I really wanted it to be different on my visit home. It didn't work out that way, though. In the end, it seems I didn't miss TOO many people as the weather scared a lot of the families away from attending.

My point here (I actually have one!) is that the ice and this blog have something in common... my lack of solid effort to follow through with things that would actually bring me joy. My first and only post here was just about two and a half years ago, and that is pretty ridiculous. I want(ed) this to be a place where I could/can express myself and keep a chronicle of things in my life. It still could be that for me.

This is my new Day One. Come along for the ride.

B is for Bethany. Bethany starts with B.

Welcome. I should begin by laying out for you a list of some things you might encounter when you visit this page.

1. Various types of creative outbursts.
2. Snarky rambles. Forserious. I can be quite the brat.
   
3. Massive amount of self-portraits. Love of photography + Spending a lot of time alone = Many options for the milk carton picture if I ever go missing.
   
4. Commentary and opinions. I am full of such nonsense.
   
5. Recipes I find or create myself. I love to cook. Just another creative outlet in my life.
   
6. Notes on anything strange or interesting (to me, anyway) that might seem worth mentioning.

I think this about covers it for now.

-Bethany