Take your head off and have a drink!

My weekend started off with The Hunger Games FINALLY! It did not disappoint. Pure amazing. I was a little miffed about a couple of parts that weren't like the book, though, and I was wishing my SIL had read the book so we could discuss it. I immediately texted Alyssa, who confirmed the one part that was bothering me the most. It was that important.

In case you saw the movie but didn't read the book,
that's not where she got the mockingjay pin from!

I spent the drive home trying to not throw up. I thought it was maybe the camera angles in the movie that gave me motion sickness, but when I felt that way almost the entire weekend, I figured it was something else. As a result, again, no long run this weekend. I'm working from home tomorrow, so I'm going to try to get in an hour of running tomorrow and another day this week.

And now, on to the open house!

Dining room...six chairs that all are different.

 

Stairs look like they're from a horror movie. More lighting
Please!

 

My first indication a single man lives here currently. So gross!

Master bedroom. I've never lived in a master bedroom! I'm going to be fancy.

Guest bathroom says "Hi, I need a makeover!"

Guest room closet. Go Red Sox!

Jeremy and I were going around opening all the shades. We're totally related.
Oh, this is the guest room, for when you all come over to visit :)

Dear Kitchen: Don't worry, I will make you pretty!

Aside from the fact that most of the light fixtures need upgrades (and a few need to be added), and we'd need to install ceiling fans, along with all the painting that needs to be done, the house is in really decent shape. I was surprised at how clean all the carpets are and at all the yard space the house comes with. There are still a few questions that I've e-mailed to the Community Home Trust people, but I've asked to put a reserve on the house (since I'm the first one on the wait list and I don't want anyone to take it from me), so this may just be my future home!

On a more random note, WTH is a "lilduval"?

Saturday night I followed the home awesomeness with some hockey awesomeness. Nicole and Mike, whom I met in February at the Myrtle Beach marathon (through Alyssa), invited me to a Hurricanes game. It was a great time, although there weren't enough fights for my liking. Perhaps the best part was during the breaks, about 10 random mascots came out onto the ice and it was comedy gold. During the first break they played a very short hockey game, and during the second break it was musical chairs...with three chairs. Nothing is funnier than a bunch of people dressed in huge costumes falling all over the ice. I promise you.

aaaand...cue hilarious laughter.

The best comment of the night goes to Nicole, who wondered, "Do you think, at the end of the night, they all take their heads off and have a drink?"

I bet they do.

Sunday started off pretty lame, but then I realized...I need to start packing! And then I started panicking, which sounds almost the same, but it's not. I went to town on my closet and dresser, and the result?

Goodwill is getting a ton of my amazing castaways, including a couple swimsuits
from when I was on the swim team in high school. I'm so awesome.

That's ten years of cell phone gold right there. Now, what to do with them?

Have you saved "mementos" thinking you may want them someday? (No, that's not why I saved the phones. I just don't know how to clear them so some evil genius can't hack into them and steal my identity.

Have you ever dressed as a mascot? I want to know what it's like in there.

Do you know what a "lilduval" is?

My dog is an evil genius

Last night I embarked on an adventure. Since, when I am living on my own, I won't have help clipping Pippi's nails, I decided to try to do it myself last night. I waited until she was calmly lying on the bed, drifting in and out of sleep, and I approached her by first rubbing her belly and playing with her feet and she was fine. THE second I grabbed the clipper, it was like she became possessed. She wiggled and pushed and pulled and tried to get her foot away. I tried laying on her and putting her in a headlock, but even though I outweigh her by 80 pounds, I was unable to prevail. I fought the dog and the dog won. Seriously.

I almost wish I had video-taped it because it may have been almost as funny as this:




If I had done that with Pippi, I'd have no teeth. This dude is either seriously trusting or seriously stupid.

This morning, when I was getting ready for work, she was stretching out on the carpet beside me and decided to dig her paw into my foot and make my toe bleed with her unclipped claws. She's like the evil genius of payback.

Ironically, I received the "Love Me Love My Dog" print I ordered in the mail yesterday and framed it with the frame I'd bought just for it.

I may love her, but sometimes she can be a real jerk.

To add to my evening of FAIL, I was forced to get on the elliptical instead of going for a run after work because I was so incredibly dizzy. When I got off the elliptical, it was almost like I had drank a couple glasses of wine, but just in the "when I turn my head things are weird", not in the "wee, I feel great" way. Being the helpful friends that they are, Kara, Alyssa, and Amanda suggested that I take the first ENT's advice and gain a bunch of weight because it might help with the dizziness. While eating nothing but ice cream and peanut butter sounds tempting, I'm sure I'd get sick of them quickly, and I can't afford to replace all of my clothes for bigger ones.

It doesn't get any closer to a 10-minute elliptical mile.

I'm hoping tomorrow's long run isn't a dizzy one. Fingers crossed! Plus, I've got houses to see!

True!

Overachiever

I met with the financial counselor yesterday and, guess what. She didn't look at me and say, "You're screwed!"

 

Since I am all sneezy and gross, I felt the need to let everyone I came in contact with yesterday (the dental receptionist, the girl who cleaned my teeth, the financial counselor lady...) that "I'm not sick, I just have allergies." Most of them were like, "Oh yeah, so do I." However they were not sneezy nor gross. Liars.

So anywho, the financial counselor (Virginia), and I looked over my income and expenses and she gave me some helpful tips on keeping track of all the little expenses throughout the month using the envelope method, and told me she's proud of me. A complete stranger is proud of me! She then told me that she has two older sons who aren't good with money. Maybe I can make up for their lack.

I was instructed to put my name on one of the envelopes and
use it only on things for myself. I think that means I can get a
haircut, you guys!

After the meeting, I immediately (from my car in the parking lot of the counseling place) called the Community Home Trust to let them know that I'd completed the financial counseling session and she was impressed at how quickly I've "taken the bull by the horns". I'm currently first on the wait list for this fella. While it's not one of the homes I've been pining after, it's an end unit, it's larger than the ones I've been looking at, it has a double sliding door in the back, and it's closer to work. The possible drawbacks are that it's not new (I'm not sure how old it is) and it seems like it will need serious landscape help. I also don't know what the neighborhood is like.

Yeah...that ugly tree in the front has got to go.

There is an open house this Saturday for the house, which I'm going to and taking Jeremy with me, so we'll see how it goes. Hopefully it's amazing and I love it and the talks can begin.

Today I will attempt another hour long run after work. I haven't had much luck staying un-sneezy and snotty while outside for any amount of time (including driving), so at worst, I'll switch it up and hop on the elliptical. Gosh, my life is so hard!

You think YOUR life is hard? I spend my days making sure this chair doesn't
fly away.

The attack

Yesterday I was attacked! Ok, not like that. I was trying my best to ignore it, but the allergy monster found me and I sneezed more yesterday than I think I had in the last month. I walked around yesterday with bloodshot eyes and a stuffy head and no one was like, "You look like hell". I'll take that as a win.

Thankfully my nose is still intact.

Last night I screwed up my system by taking two birth control pills (because I was too lazy to go to the pharmacy after my run yesterday), a Benadryl, a shot of nose spray, and a vitamin before bed. While I slept amazingly well, breakfast didn't excite me this morning and normally it's my main motivation to get out of bed. (Ok, that and Pippi pawing my face and jumping on me).

Today I get to go to the dentist and later this afternoon I am meeting with the financial counselor, and then all my prerequisites for getting a house through the Community Home Trust are done and the real talks can begin!

On a random note: I just pulled a tick off of Rocco's...manhood. Having dogs really is awesome.


And, because I have no other updates, here's some Hunger Games humor for you.

This made me laugh out loud this morning.

Oh Katniss.

Did you expect anything less from "the boy with the bread"?

Seriously. If you haven't read the books, you really knead to!

I wish my friends would send me texts like this.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some actual updates and a real post. (I know I know, don't get too excited).