Progresando...

Per the request of a certain cousin (ahem, Sage) :) I am going to start posting pics of THE HOUSE! I think we are going to do it before/after style just to keep it interesting. Also I suck at taking pictures so it's fully possible that none of these pics will look like anything interesting.

Before - This is the "Master" bedroom, not particularly horrible but the wallpaper was starting to peel off the wall and it just wasn't our taste. Justina was extremely offended by the wallpaper. I think that she was shooting it looks of disgust behind my back. This wallpaper got more than dirty looks when it took three of us five hours to take it off!



After - We painted the walls "Sturdy Brown" a decidedly un-sexily named color but I wanted the wall to serve as a frame for the amazing picture window. Also painting the walls brown is part of my plan to get Arnold to let me use girly colors in the rest of the house. This was our first experiment in painting and now we've learned.... painting is not easy. And when I saw "we", I mean "Arnold" because I gave up on painting after about 5 seconds. Apparently I am not meant for work that requires patience or attention to detail... or hard physical labor.

Wallpaper supersucks

Headline courtesy of Arnold who has taken a sudden interest in the blog.

As promised here is the first of a series of boring posts about our new house/obsession. Freed of the regimen of Grad school Arnold and I are commemorating Memorial Day by participating in the American Dream of Homeownership, primarily ripping wallpaper of the walls. And I don't know if words could express how much wallpaper "supersucks" We have been ripping for two days now and although most of the crap is gone stubborn little ribbons are clinging near the sideboards, and then of course we discovered a whole wall of it hiding behind the refrigerator. I swear the stuff is as bad as gremlins. At one point I was afraid it was going to start jumping off the wall and choking us in order to protect itself.

However this whole debacle has not been without it's benefits. As we ripped off the wallpaper we found some scribblings left by the previous homeowners. Now we never had the opportunity to meet the former owners of our house but we do know that his name is Rod and according to the scribbles on the wall he was much loved. :) One of the scribbles was actually dated 1981, the year the former owner bought the house and marks the height of someone named Geoff, a child I would presume based on the height. Above this mark was another Mark about Arnold's height labeled "Dad". When I was a kid my parents marked our heighths on a wall in our house in Pittsburg and it kind of warmed my heart to see the memories living in our little house. Did any of you measure your heights on the wall as kids? Or find little reminders of the former owners of your residence?

It's a big day y'all! We are officially HOMEOWNERS! After about 5 hours of home ownership I am already tired of spending money at home depot. :) Tia Justy coincidentally came with us to our first walk throughof the house as homeowners and she liked it! She really liked it! And if you know Justina, you know that she is A) Picky B) Not afraid to share her opinions. So it's official, we did GOOD! Please prepare yourself for a boring series of posts regarding the mundane details of "decorating" our house.

We signed out mortgage papers this morning. We signed MORTGAGE PAPERS. I freaking can't believe it, in two days we will be homeowners. Our life has officially become surreal.

Okay maybe I was being a little dramatic last night cause I'm pretty sure that I got an A on my final today. Also I'll probably be getting an A in the class since I got an A on my final paper and presentation. Strangely this might be the first class that I could get an A+ in, like ever... in my whole undergrad and grad career, it was a demanding class too... so what does that mean? That self-fulfilling prophecies don't always come true?

In other news Arnold and I are signing our closing papers tomorrow, as in taking out a loan for approximately 3.5 years of salary. I might pass out with the pen in my hand. On the upside if I act very, very dramatic maybe I'll get to be on the news again. :)

Self-fulfilling Prophecies

I am currently resigned to the reality that I will not do well on the in-class portion of my final exam tomorrow. It's really too bad since I have studied hard for said class and very much enjoyed the academic content. Nevertheless I am currently in a state of stubborn refusal to attempt to study the information I need to know to do well. I am not sure why I cannot study today, I believe it is some sort of reward system for the fact that I have 99% on top of things despite the fact that our world is currently in total chaos. Also I believe that studying won't help me that much, I have never had much of a talent for grammar. Arnold is in the kitchen judiciously studying... his devotion/discipline is sort of amazing, albeit in an annoying sort of way.

Anyways only time will tell if my self-fulfilling prophecy will come true. I'll give you an update when grades come out.

Down with mush-well sort of...

First off, thank you to everybody who sent well-wishes on our anniversary, even if some of you sent congratulations to Arnold for surviving 5 years with me (ahem... Chhimi). We had a great anniversary! If we were not making a purchase of hundreds of thousands of dollars next week we probably would of lived up this significant anniversary a little more, but really one can't complain if they are able to buy a house.

So we had sushi and went to the tower theater to see The Namesake. I know I've talked about the Namesake before, it's a book written by Jhumpa Lahiri and it was made into a movie, but it was the most wonderful love story, not mushy at all. Not that I am necessarily against mushy, but if you can do a love story without mush, all the better, it feels less cheap. Mush is for people who are falling in love, not for people who love each other. Maybe I learned this from my GAD, when we were kids he would say "EWwwww, gross" during kissing scenes on t.v."


And speaking of T.V. (sorry for the rough transitions, I'm a little tired right now) tonight was the end of the T.V. season for Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy. And I swear this event is only blog-worthy because for us Thursday nights is a social night when all our friends come over for a pre-T.V. potluck. But I digress... Betty was unexpectedly tragic, it was truly upsetting and don't even get me started on Meredith and co. I mean... seriously! SERIOUSLY!

Tomorrow Arnold and I will be celebrating 5 years of legally wedded bliss. That's right it's been 5 years since we jumped the light rail to Portland's downtown courthouse and signed legal documents. In those 5 years we've survived car accidents, the crapartment, international scandals, a house that literally exploded, deaths, births, dramas, amoebas, the INS and the horror that was the credential program, but you know what, being married is the BOMB!!! After 5 years everyday with Arnold is still (as Arnold would say) the most fun EVER! (insert accent here)

OKay, so we still haven't made it through the semester yet and the to-do list keeps getting longer by the day, but I don't care! Every day that passes is one day closer to summer break in our NEW house. I can barely wait, I'm so excited!

Study of GAD Communication style

One thing to know about my GAD is that he yells a lot, he doesn't mean too and I don't mean that the yelling is negative, rather the opposite it is quite amusing. And really maybe more than yelling he merely asks simple questions in sort of an accusatory way. Sample conversation.

GAD: What kind of ducting do you have in your house, flexible or rigid?
Me: I don't know.
GAD: Why don't you know!!!
Me: Uh.... I don't know anything about ducts in general, I studied Spanish.
GAD: (not willing to give up, becomes more agitated) Well is it square or round? (Insert impatient tone here)
Me: Uh, let me look at the picture.... uh it's round
GAD: Oooh, okay round. (Insert pleased placated/wise, all knowing and slightly mysterious tone here)

So I don't know if it's clear from my sample dialogue but it really is very funny. Especially if you know that it's not personal, and if you know any GAD you would understand it's not personal. I find the Chhimi is quite similar to my father in this respect. Sample conversation.

Chhimi: Where do you want to go for lunch? (Although this is only the beginning of the conversation Chhimi is already expressing a slight air of irritation)
Me: Uh, I don't know.
Chhimi: Fine! Evil eyes(that's me) can't make a decision! (Chhimi also favors third person as a communicative device)
Me: Chhimi, it's 9:30 in the morning
Chhimi: Whatever, Chhimi's going to be hungry at lunch.
Me: Uh, okay, How about Paesanos?
Chhimi: I hate pasta, but fine, whatever you want.
Me: Well we can go somewhere else...
Chhimi: No evil eyes must have her way, see you at 12:00

What can I say? It's a GAD, GAD world!!!! And I wouldn't have it any other way!

Hittin the cake again

About two weeks ago I finally was able to get my stress level under control and totally lost my appetite for cake. Like I've always said I'm a savory girl, not a sweet tooth. Unfortunately Arnold and I got some bad news today. I try to make this blog about happy things, but well, sometimes bad things happen. Today was one of those days, one of our very close friends was arrested by the INS today, will be en route to Arizona tomorrow and probably will be deported shortly. I know that it is illegal to overstay your visa and all, but still I'm really sad. This friend played the music at our wedding, was one of the few people Arnold has known almost the whole time he's been in the U.S. and my business partner for three years. And even though this particular friend is one that I consistently want to strangle, it's sad because we know the struggle that lies ahead for him to re-build his life in Colombia. Plus you know, who will I focus my pent-up rage on if he's not around to tick me off? Anyways, long story short. After two weeks of cake-free bliss, I am back to the cake again... and like all addicts I was severely punished for this relapse.... I kid you not, while I was eating my cake, my tongue cramped... CRAMPED! Who the heck gets a tongue cramp? It was insanely painful, I swear I thought the fork had somehow sliced into my tongue. To Arnold's chagrin I stuck out my chocolaty tongue and forced him to inspect. It was really, really horrible for about a minute... but I mean seriously.... tongue cramp?

I now hate cake again, hopefully my body will develop some other anxiety coping mechanism, like maybe perhaps, wanting to eat dark, leafy greens or to lift weights or something.... Hey, sometimes life sucks, but you can always hope something positive is around the corner, right?

So, any of you who are the praying type, please send one up for my friend, it's friggin scary to be arrested at 5 in the morning and shipped to Arizona in handcuffs. And a word to the wise, be careful when you are eating cake.