New yet old

Today is day #4 in my new place. I moved in this past Saturday and have spent the last few days unpacking, organizing and trying to settle in - well, and working of course. And mostly everything is going well. I'm 99% unpacked, about 75% organized (the desk is still lacking) and I'd say 50% "settled".

I'm enjoying having a roommate, even though we haven't had much of a chance to spend time together. I think I would have been very lonely to go from a full household to just me. Irie is enjoying her new digs as well and we both love having the park across the street from us. Today, during lunch we walked over and played catch for a 1/2 hour.

In terms of settling in, I think I'm pretty much settled in my room. There are a few things that are missing - I haven't really hung anything on the walls yet, I don't have a frame for my bed yet, and I have a makeshift desk for the moment, but otherwise, I feel good in it. The rest of the house I haven't spent much time in. In part that's because I've been trying to get my room set up and in part that's because I can (for a reason I don't even want to try to explain) only access my remote connection to work when I'm hard-wired into the modem in my room. I can get internet anywhere - but not remote access. Weird. Anyway, that has kept me in my room primarily.

The rest of the house is also taking some adjusting for me because it's one of those places that's old and even when it's clean (which it's really not at the moment), it just doesn't necessarily look it. I generally like to live in places that are newer, have fresh coats of paint, etc because it just makes me feel cleaner. I think I'll get there in this place - just like my last apartment in Chicago, it will just take some time - and some serious cleaning! The kitchen is my other area of concern. I generally really like to cook, but I just don't like this kitchen. It's small and cramped, and the appliances are old, and while functional - again food and a lack of feeling clean just don't mix for me. That will probably be the hardest room for me to settle in, but it will happen - mostly because it's a totally necessary room! All these moves are definitely helping me determine what I like in a living space though - specifically I think I've determined that I really prefer kitchens that have seating areas. Screw the dining room idea - I like to have social time in the kitchen!

But all in all, I think it'll be a good move for me. I'm really enjoying working full-time from home, even if it has been a bit of an adjustment to not have as much downtime. Work is keeping me extremely busy at the moment and there are lots of times I glance at the clock and can't figure out how that much time has passed.

The neighbors here are really nice and I've already met several of them and attended a neighborhood party the same day I moved in. I don't think I've ever lived anywhere that people have been quite this outgoing.

I love the area and the proximity to things. I hate the closest grocery store - again, feels old and cramped. I miss having a Target very close. Ahhh, there are always pluses and minuses to everything!

Anyway, I'll post pictures soon. :-)

Happy Earth Day!

Today is Earth Day. And in addition, April is National Poetry Month. So, my office in Chicago (which can be a very silly place) decided to have a poetry contest. The only rule of the contest was that our poems had to be about trees. So, here is my submission, written from the perspective of Irie.

Irie's Ode to Trees

Oh, how I love to bark at thee
I attack your trunk and growl ferociously

I know you harbor those squirrels I see
And one of these days they will fall down to me

Though my owner yells, “Stop it, I-rie!”
I vow to continue my assault on the tree.

We didn't win any awards, but we did illicit a lot of laughs which is what we were after. Happy Earth Day everyone! Do something good for the world today!

March for the Animals - Thanks for helping us meet our goal!

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So I'm not the most reliable blogger

I have been very neglectful of my responsibilities as a blogger lately, as a few of you have reminded me. I've been a bit pre-occupied with all that is happening in my world and have been a little reluctant to post anything about it until things became a bit more certain. And while I can't say everything is figured out, some things have become more clear.

So first and foremost, I have found an apartment for the summer. Utilizing my favorite tool ever, Craigslist, I found a two bedroom row-house in the South Baltimore/Federal Hill area. My will-be roommate seems to be a great person and we hit it off immediately. She's lived in the apartment for a few years and has it fully furnished (except my bedroom) which means I don't have to move (or get) a bunch of stuff. She's planning on living there through August/September and is on a month-to-month lease, so I get to take advantage of that arrangement as well. We each have our own bathrooms and it's a nice sized place with plenty of space. It also has a fenced-in large patio off the back of the house which is great for playing catch with Irie or working outside. And it's located directly across the street from a huge park for long walks with Irie and a public swimming pool which may be really nice on those hot summer days. She doesn't have a dog, but loves them and totally fell for Irie when they met. I've warned her about Irie's craziness and she doesn't seem concerned. We'll see if that lasts! :-) Anyway, I'm excited about it and think it will be a good experience.

Secondly, and fresh off the press, I am no longer employed at my after-school job. Ever since the weather has gotten warmer, I've been having a lot of trouble with it. All the kids want to do is be outside and it's so hard to keep them inside doing another three hours of school work after they've been there all day. They mostly don't want to be there and while we have shining moments of bliss, they are few and far between. So, for the past few weeks I've been contemplating this and trying to decide what I want to do.

Then yesterday happened. First of all, I walked into the cafeteria for snack time and there were roaches everywhere. That just kind of started the day on a bad note. Then, at the end of the day I was standing outside with a group of my kids when I noticed two older boys (probably high-schoolers) near the basketball court. They reached into the side of the dumpster and pulled out a gun. Upon looking around, they noticed me watching them and shoved it back in the side of the dumpster. I, of course, reported this to the school staff. They then wanted to see the gun (to make sure I wasn't just imagining things, I guess), so we took a little tour by the dumpster so everyone could see it. We pulled all our kids inside and called the cops and then stood watch inside the doors where we could see the dumpster, but the kids on the basketball court couldn't see us. A half hour later the cops still hadn't shown up (despite seeing three cop cars drive by without stopping at the school.) Finally one of the boys nonchalantly walked over to the dumpster with a hoodie in his arms, took a final look around, grabbed the gun, wrapped it up and took off running. Still no cops.

So, not only was there a gun, but they know I saw it, they know which car I drive and they still have the gun. The likelihood of any of this really coming back to get me is not great, but I just didn't feel like it was worth it to keep coming back to a place where things like this are happening. So this morning I turned in my resignation. I'm very sorry that I didn't get to say goodbye to the kids and I feel a bit wimpy for running away, but when I put it all on the scale, it just doesn't balance out. I'm not naive enough to think that this is the worst of what's going on in the area and I know ultimately this is not a huge thing, but for a job I don't even really like??? It's too bad that kids and staff have to attend that school, but I'm sure it's like that lots of places.

Oh, and by the way, the cops still had not shown up when I left last night at 6:15pm.

So anyway, I am currently back down to one job, but I have a few things in the works so hopefully that will work out. I'll let you know when I know.

Where a kid can be a kid

So, Bob. It happened like this. Mom had a teacher institute day, so I'm hanging with Aunt Ingrid today.

I didn't know what Chuck E. Cheese was, but Ingrid said they had pizza so I was game.

See ya later! I'm going to school!

I thought these guys were really cool, so I made sure to tell Aunt Ingrid to take lots of pictures of them.

Now me and Chuck E. are best buds!

Happy Match Day (and birthday, Dad!)

Today is Carl's "Match Day." I'll let Carl and Kathleen spread the news of where they're headed next, but since they were busy doing match stuff today, I got the pleasure of getting Lily ready this morning and taking her to school. We've had some great conversations lately -here are some snippets.

In bed this morning...

Lily: "Where's Mommy and Daddy?"
Ingrid: "They're at Daddy's work. It's match day."
Lily: "Match day? Be back?"
Ingrid: "Yup. I'm going to take you to school and then Mommy and Daddy will pick you up."
Lily: "No. Not daddy. I told him no pick me up. Just Mommy. No daddy in the car. Mommy and Ingrid. Daddy with Terra."
Ingrid: "Well, we'll see what we can do."
Lily: "Put them on the naughty chair."

Then on the way to school...

Ingrid: "Did you know it's match day today?"
Lily: "Go to school and then match day?"
Ingrid: "Well, it's actually match day all day long."
Lily: "Hmmm."
Ingrid: "Today Mommy and Daddy find out where you're going to move to."
Lily: "Let's go right now."

Some other favorite recent Lily-isms include:

• Carl plays a game with Lily where he says a piece of food is his and nobody better touch it. Lily inevitably takes the bait and ends up eating the food and Carl yells and says, "Who ate my food?!" The other day after several rounds of this game, Lily announced with a laugh, "Daddy's a funny guy!"
• Last Friday when Carl, Ryan and I were playing Monopoly and Lily was being our "banker", Kathleen told her it was time for bed. Very seriously she stated, "You go. I'm working."

It's going to be very strange to not hear her voice all the time when they move this summer!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Saturday I spent the day in Fell's Point celebrating an early St. Patrick's Day on a bit of a pub crawl. They don't do St. Patrick's Day up quite as big in Baltimore as they do in Chicago, but it was fun all the same. (And honestly, I was really happy to not have to stand in lines to get into bars at 2 in the afternoon.) I was a little lax with taking pictures, but here are a few....

Christine decides she's not really a fan of Irish Car Bombs. (Who can blame her?)

I'm not sure if this was in response to something she drank or something just hit Beth's fancy.

It was a beautiful 60 degree + day in Baltimore. Another difference between St. Pats in Baltimore and Chicago.

In my St. Patrick's Day best.

Some pictures from San Fran

A little too cold to take a dip.

Aquarium of the Bay. Jaws IV anyone?

Out to dinner

Alcatraz. Finally where they belong.

Sarah shows off her moves on the cable cars

Thoughts from yesterday's flight 294

I’m sitting on the plane coming back to Baltimore from a few day vacation in San Francisco with Sarah and Allyson. As always, we had a great time. Rarely do you find a trio of more relaxed girls. Not much ruffles our feathers. We don’t really care much what we’re doing. We all run at about the same speed and don’t get too caught up in all the things we should be doing.

In the planning stages, we all (without prompting) came up with one thing we’d like to do while we were in SF and figured the rest would all just kind of fall into place. And it did. We walked China Town, visited the Sea Lions, went on a tour of Alcatraz, checked out the redwoods, spent a day in Sonoma and Napa, found the Ghirardelli chocolate shop, went down the most crooked street in San Francisco, hung off the sides of cable cars, and more. And as proof that we apparently have grown up from our college years, we were up each day by 7 and back in our hotel room by 8:30 each night. Guess we never were really the biggest partiers anyway. :-)

Mostly it was just really nice to catch up (face-to-face) and get to explore something new together again. It’s extraordinarily comforting to know that despite our distance from one another, we are able to start up where we left off and simply enjoy each other.

Tubing is great!

Last night my Meetup group went tubing at a ski slope in Pennsylvania. I'd never been tubing before but have been looking forward to it for the past couple of months. I wasn't disappointed. We got up there around 5:30 last night and spent a few hours spinning down slopes and trying desperately to stop before bowling people over at the end. It was great! I couldn't quite get the pictures to do the slopes justice (they don't show the steepness particularly well, but trust me - when you're at the top - it feels steep.) It's a bit of a drive to go up too frequently, but definitely something I want to do again!

The view from the base of the slopes.

Shannon riding the big conveyor belt up to the top.

Ryan after getting some serious air on the way down.

A view from the top.

Maryland = $

I've decided Maryland is the biggest nickel and diming state I've ever known. I have been back and forth since I got here about getting Maryland license plates. I was going to do it, but then I found out they have this rule about getting a Maryland State Safety Inspection before they'll give you plates. This just seemed like a big annoyance to me (not to mention an expense I didn't really want to get into.) Plus, I'm just against this. When I went in to a place to see what the cost was of one of these "inspections", they informed me that it's an $80 charge pass/fail and if there's anything wrong with it, it has to be fixed and then re-inspected (for another charge.) When I argued the price, he states, "Well, it's a one time fee - you never have to have it done again." This I had to just laugh at. "So, you're telling me that in Maryland, they do a safety check on your car once and then your car continues to deteriorate, but they never check it again?" He just gave me a look.

Anyway, I decided to press my luck and not go through with the inspection. Then recently I got a notice in the mail saying that I need to register my car. So, I decided to be a good, law-abiding citizen and get my plates changed.

So, Friday I made an appointment and went in to get my safety inspection. The car was fine except my serpentine belt needed to be replaced. I'm actually glad they found that and fixed it before it caused any real problems. At any rate, I walked out of that place paying about $130.

Then I went to the Motor Vehicle Administration and sat there for 2 hours waiting for someone to help me. I finally got up to a person, she did her fancy computer work and announces to me, "OK, that will be $569."

What??? Why???

Well, come to find out, Maryland charges you a 6% tax on the value of your vehicle to bring it into the state. This is just about the craziest thing I have ever heard. I ask the clerk to explain, but she can't. Her only comment is, "Well, at least your car is a 2002 - just think if you had a new car!" Yeah, just imagine. But this is my point precisely. My car is a 2002 - and you're going to charge me $500 to register it here? That's nuts.

I argued and argued and finally to some avail. I just can't see paying that much to register my car here, when I'm not planning on staying longer than 6-9 months. After explaining this several times, the clerk finally dropped her voice and offered me a potential way out. We'll have to see if it works.

Done with Doctors

As many of you know, I have been very sick these past two weeks. It started with nasty aches and pains, accompanied by rotating fevers and chills. I was waking up at least twice a night just drenched in sweat. It was awesome. You know it's bad when you work from home and you still have to call in sick. After about 7 days the aches and pains finally left and were replaced with an intense sore throat. And then I happened to look at my throat in the mirror one evening and saw nice white spots on my tonsil.

Due to these fun symptoms, I went to the doctor twice in the past two weeks. The first time I went to an urgent care center. It was actually a relatively nice place, but there was certainly a bit of that "if you're not dying, we're not worried" atmosphere. The nurse was, well, less than friendly, but I got her back by coughing on her when she stuck a cotton swab up my nose for a flu test. :-) The doctor who saw me was actually nice, but not what I would call thorough. He basically said it wasn't "the flu" and was probably a para-flu. The fact that I didn't have any cold like symptoms didn't seem to bother him. Anyway, basically I was dismissed with the orders to eat as much as I could and come back if it wasn't better in 10 days.

Then, after I noticed the spots on my throat I decided I should go to another docter and make sure it wasn't strep or something great like that. I actually got an appointment in a regular doctor's office, which I thought was a good thing so that perhaps I could find a primary care physician at the same time. Didn't turn out that way. I ended up with one of my favorite kind of doctors - the ones that just give you these looks like you're totally wasting their time. He put one foot in the door and said, "It's probably not strep. And if it's not, you realize there's nothing I can do about it." Off to a great start, I forced him to listen to a quick background of how I'd been feeling the past 2 weeks. He still had one foot out the door. He responded with, "That doesn't change anything. " After the nurse administered the strep test, he came back in (obviously from eating lunch because some of it was still lodged in his beard) and told me it wasn't strep and began to walk out the door. A little exasperated I stopped him with, "Look. I'm only pressing this because this is the 2nd time I've been to the doctor in two weeks and I would like to not come back. Is there anything else this could be?" This made him pause for a brief moment, but after pressing on my throat for a second he ruled that there was nothing else it could be.

I HATE doctors like that.

Now, granted, it's two days later and I'm finally feeling MUCH better, so it turns out he was right, but still. I'm a new patient, I would like to think that the doctor would at least TRY to give a favorable impression. I'm sorry they booked me during his lunch, but I really didn't have anything to do with that.

Anyway, I'm done with doctors. The whole experience really made me miss my primary care physician in Chicago. She was awesome. There's a lot I don't miss that I thought I would, but I definitely miss a) my doctor, b) Irie's daycare/boarding place and c) Jamba Juice. So far I have not been able to find anything that even comes close to comparing with any of these three things.

My Celebrity Look-alikes

Kathleen told me about this fun site where you put in a picture of yourself and it comes back with your closest Celebrity Look-alikes. It changes slightly depending on what picture I use, but Amanda Bynes always comes out on top. Strange, but it really could be worse. Carl comes back with Mother Teresa! :-)

Random Recall

I guess I've been a little bit lax on updating what's new in my world. Mostly because there hasn't been a lot that's really "new". Maybe that sounds a little boring, but I have to say, I'm enjoying life just the way it is right now.

Life at BELL has settled down somewhat. I still have my momentary, "Why in the world am I doing this?" thoughts and I still think the program needs some serious organizational help, but all in all, I'm enjoying it more. After the holidays, they combined the 5th and 6th grade classes (because the 5th graders didn't have a certified teacher in their room.) This has proved to be a bit difficult, mostly because the grades are following two different curriculum, so it's basically resulted in me working with the 5th graders and the teacher in the room taking on the 6th graders. It works OK, but I don't think any of the kids are getting the full benefit of how the program is supposed to work. But, I'm actually kind of enjoying my 5th graders. They're trouble-makers, but the kind of trouble-makers that think they're much worse than they actually are. So far, this mostly means that they do things like when I ask them to write stories using new vocabulary words, they write them about each other and how one of them throws like a girl, or something to that effect. Or they tell each other to shut up and then they say, "Ohhhh, you said the s-word."

One of my favorite boys in this class (we'll call him "T") apparently told his mother that the kids don't really do anything at BELL, so the first day he got moved over to my room, she stopped in and said that she was thinking about pulling him out since they weren't doing anything. I explained that he had just been moved into this room and he'd been working on stuff that day. She decided to keep him in for awhile and see how it goes. So since then, I've been on "T" reminding him to do his work, stay on task, etc so that he can't tell his mom he's not doing anything. On Tuesday, he finally looked up at me and said, "Man, Ms. D, you're on me like a tattoo." I've been using that phrase ever since.


Life at home is good too. Lily is still constantly entertaining me. Some recent comments that have made me laugh have been:

• Yesterday we were playing "horsey" and she fell off my back. I asked if she was OK and she jumped up and yelled, "I'm TUFF!"


• When I was gone one evening last week, she went over to Irie to pet her and said, "Don't worry, Irie. Your mommy be home soon."


• She also calls me Miss Ingrid about half the time which I find hysterical. It's like she needs that identifier, but she hasn't figured out "Aunt" yet. She also has completely mastered saying Ingrid correctly now.


• And also how she picks up key words/phrases from the TV. She'll be seeming to pay no attention to the TV, but as she's playing, she'll suddenly repeat something that was just said and keep on going. It can result in some pretty funny commentary.

As I'm becoming a little more concerned over what comes next (work, where to live, etc), I'm still greatly enjoying my time in Baltimore. Whether it's Duckpin bowling, volleyball, happy hours after work, or trips to uniquely Baltimore places - I'm keeping busy and thoroughly enjoying getting to know people here. And still finding time to plan a few day get-away with Sarah and Allyson for early March.

Irie has become increasingly spoiled and has progressed from being fine with being left in her crate to being ok when left in the basement, to being ok with being left in my room alone at night to now insisting that she be with people at all times. This has created some issues since she's a total pain when she decides that she doesn't want to be alone. It remains to be seen how this will work out, but one thing is for sure, Irie has certainly adopted Carl and Kathleen as "her people".

And, yes, everything is going great with Ryan. I'm not sure how I found such a sweet boy, but I'm glad I did. :-)

And that, my friends, is the extent of my random recall for today.

Pictures that made me smile today

Little flasher

Lily continues to keep me more than entertained. On this particular evening she decided that first she needed her shirt and skirt off and then secondly, her coat back on. I just couldn't help snapping a few pictures. I'm sure she'll love these later in life. :-)

Welcome to the morgue

Kinda sick, I know - but it's the first thing that comes to mind when you walk into the family room these days.

Lily has taken to covering up her babies with blankets to put them "to sleep." I'm sure this is perfectly normal, but since she covers their whole bodies it gives a kind of creepy effect. As always, it's highly entertaining to live with a 2-year-old.

It's that time again

As has become common-place for me I wanted to take a minute to look back on my 2007 Resolutions and let you know how I did. (And of course provide a few for the year to come as well.)

2007 Resolutions

• Take a vacation. A real one. (I did. I went to Mexico for a glorious week.)
• Find a new place to live. (Went above and beyond on this one. Moved all the way to Baltimore.)
• Find a new p-doc. I've been putting this one off way too long. (Yup. But then I moved. Go figure.)
• Put more effort into maintaining my old friendships while still building new ones. (I think I did a better job of this in 2007. You guys can let me know if you disagree.)
• Break past my indecisive dating patterns (This one probably still remains to be seen, but I'm very happy in the relationship I'm in at the moment.)
• Be nicer to myself, especially by reminding myself that I'm only human and not above the feelings we all experience (I still have to catch myself now and again, but I'm quick to remind myself of this at least.)

2008 Resolutions

• Get back to working out at least 4 times a week. (See that's what happens when you don't put it in your resolutions for a year.)
• Decide where I'm going to live next.
• Decide what career I want next. Oh, and get a job. (Those might need to be separate, I'm not sure yet.)
• Read at least 3 really good books.
• Take advantage of not having a full-time job and do some traveling!
• Avoid going crazy during the 2008 elections. Allow only limited time paying attention to what's going on. Ignorance is sometimes bliss.

That's a good start. Let's see where the year takes us!

Pond Hockey

Irie did her best to keep up with the puck and occasionally even got hold of it, which led to an early end to our pond hockey fun.

Phone Fun

"Can you hold on a second? I've got another call."

So many people to talk to, so little time.

Is it impolite to just hang up?