beautiful addiction

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Ok.  I need help.  I’ve been out of a job since March.  Even when I worked there, we had a dress code (khaki pants, blue shirts).  My closet is full of clothes I don’t feel feminine or happy about.  (I admit, a lot of these feelings are coming from the fact I’m watching a marathon of “What Not To Wear” on TLC, lol).

In essence?  I want a new wardrobe.

Also?  I don’t have the money nor do I know where to start.

I have a few cute dresses.  I have a sexy black dress.  And then there’s a bunch of hodge podge.  Some band t-shirts.  My “Textually Active” tee, which is super comfy and makes me fit in at college haha.  Lots of tank tops, which I usually pair with terrycloth shorts in the summer.  I’m simple and dress like I’m still in high school.  I’m 24.

The thing is, I’ve cleaned my closet out over the past few months and got rid of a ton of clothes.  And replaced none of them.  So I’ve got nothing feminine or dressy or classy to wear to job interviews or to feel good in.  I want comfortable.  I want chic.  I want sexy.  And I don’t know where to start.

Any help?  Suggestions?  I’m begging you.  Remember…totally on a budget here.

So, I thought people drove a bit crazy back in Michigan.  Even downtown Detroit traffic doesn’t compare to Chicago traffic!  Even Dave, who is USED to driving in heavy metro Detroit traffic, was shocked at the stuff driver’s do over here.  (No offense to you folks from Chicago…I’m just stating the differences!)

We’ll just be driving along and a car will swerve in between two vehicles where you wouldn’t even think there was room TO swerve in.  It’s like, they see where they wanna be and they just GO, with or without a blinker.  It’s nuts.  I don’t think I could drive here.  I’d be afraid of getting side swiped or cut off and I get a temper when people cut me off.  I found myself reaching over and laying on the horn when Dave was driving!

Dave said that when he was out working earlier, he was coming up on some train tracks and the lights started blinking red just as he was upon it, so he just drove across (making sure to look before hand).  He said that, like, 5 more cars followed him.  And they’ll do the same thing at red lights!  We sat at a light, and after it turned green about 3 or 4 more cars went through so we couldn’t go unless we wanted to brave the intersection!  It’s nuts.  Really.  I couldn’t do it.  I mean, I’m sure I’d get used to it, but it’s just shocking to me how ballsy these people are!

Also?  We had the gigantic pizza for dinner again.  We couldn’t help it.  I was burnt out on breakfast-type foods (we had IHOP one night, and then Denny’s the next) so we did pizza again.  Now I’m burnt out on breakfast foods AND pizza.  So tomorrow we’re going a place called Weber Grill Restaurant where they cook everything on Weber grills.  It’s supposed to be fairly good, and the prices don’t look too bad, especially if we split an appetizer and entree to keep costs down.

Oh!  Californication and Dexter come back on next month (September 28)!  I’m excited.

Ok.  I’m out.  G’night.

Dave got out of work early enough this evening that we were able to go out to dinner before 10pm!  All week so far he’s been working really late (nice overtime, though).  So we went to Denny’s and stuffed ourselves silly and came back to the hotel and decided to go down to the pool for a bit.  The night before we left for Chicago, Dave pulled a muscle in his back so it’s been bothering him all week.  We figured the hot tub would do him wonders.

So we’re down sitting in the hot tub, enjoying the relaxation of it all, and there’s an older lady swimming laps in the pool.  Some guy came down (her husband, I assume) and they exchanged words and she swam a few more laps.  Then she came into the hot tub for a minute before finally going over to where her clothes and towel were.  Now, I assumed she would just wrap up in the towel and head back to her hotel room.  No.  Not at all.

She kind of drapes the towel around her and I see her pull her bathing suit down and start putting on her bra and a tank top (her back was to us, it’s not like she was flashing us, thank goodness).  I lean over to Dave and I’m like, “Ok, she’s seriously changing right out here by the pool!  Why doesn’t she just go into the restroom right there?!”

So we start minding our own business and we decide to jump into the pool, which was FREEZING after being in the hot tub for so long.  Dave’s walking around with me in the pool, my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist.  I look over and granny pulls her bathing suit all the way OFF and continue to put on her underwear.  I’m seriously apalled at this point.  And she’s taking her sweet ol’ time, too.  Every time I tell Dave to look and see if she’s done so we can get out of the pool, he refuses.  So I’d quickly peek and catch her standing there in her granny panties like she’s in her own home, all nonchalant.  It was unnerving.  Finally, she finished dressing and left.

Seriously.  Seriously?!  WTF.  I’d tell her to get a room but it’s apparent that she has one and doesn’t care to use it!  She’d rather change in front of everyone down at the pool.  I feel exposed enough just showing up in my bikini!

The amazing pizza from last night that I was talking about:

And I went down to see if the pool was open (was supposed to be under refurbishment, but it’s open now, YAY!) and stopped in the weight room.  There are treadmills in there that have TVs on ‘em, which is way better than the ones at the college lol.  That means I can watch trashy TV while working out!  Kind of motivational, actually.  I usually get bored.

So, last night Dave and I went out to dinner at Giordano’s, where we ordered their famous stuffed pizza. This pizza was absolutely amazing! About an inch and a half thick, layered with mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, jalapeno peppers, and chunky pizza sauce…it was right up there as the best pizza I’ve ever had. And the crust?! Delicious and flaky. After just 2 slices, I was stuffed to the brim. I probably could’ve just eaten the one slice and been good to go.

After dinner I was so tired that Dave dropped me back off at the hotel while he went to go finish running some calls he had for work. I was falling asleep in the car on the way back from dinner, so I was ready for a nap. (Note: it took us about a half hour to drive 10 miles back to the hotel thanks to evening traffic and the longest red lights in the entire world, lol.) I climbed into bed and was out as soon as my head hit the pillow. The bed here is the most. comfy. bed. that I have EVER slept in. Down mattress. Down comforter. Down pillows. It’s heaven. I slept for hours and woke up a little bit before Dave got home, shortly before 10pm. He got 5.5 hours of overtime yesterday.

I got up this morning with him around 7:30 and we went downstairs to have breakfast in the restaurant. I thought you could order off the same menu they have in the rooms for room service (but avoid the fees and high gratuity by going down there rather than having them bring our food to us), but all they had was a buffet. You could get the full buffet (with hot food) for $9.95 or the continental (fruits, cereal, oatmeal, baked goods) for $7.95. He got the full and I got the continental. Neither of us are big morning eaters, so it was a bit of a waste of money, but now we know not to do that again! Tomorrow we’re having a breakfast platter sent up to us (via room service) which will feed both of us for about $13 (even including the fees and 18% tip). Comes with cereal, fruit, juice, coffee, and an assortment of baked goods. We’ll see if that works better for us. Not that we’ll do it every day, but come on…it’s room service. We’ve never HAD room service.

So I’ve been up since then, catching up on my feed reader (all the blogs I read) and watching movies on Showtime. Just finished watching “The World’s Fastest Indian“, which was a great motivational movie! It’s based on a true story, too. Doesn’t sound like something I would’ve liked, but it really was good. Kind of shows how you can achieve your dreams when you really set your mind to it, despite your age.

Well, Dave and I made it to Chicago earlier this afternoon and checked in the hotel around 2pm.  They gave us warm chocolate chip cookies when we checked in at the front desk!  So delicious!

Anyway, Dave is headed back to pick me up and we’re going out to get some deep dish stuffed pizza, Chicago style!  Mmmm!

One thing I wanted to note that we both noticed as we were driving into the city was that the train runs on the median of the freeway between north/south or east/westbound traffic.  Very strange to be driving and look over to see a train alongside of you between the other lane of traffic!

[Here is a picture of the train station between the two lanes of freeway traffic.  Although you can't see the other lane, it's there, trust me lol.]

[A pretty nice view of the city as we were driving through.]

[Beautiful room with king sized bed!  This is the bedroom portion, obviously, and there's also a small living room with a desk, loveseat, tables and LCD television.]

My best friend, Andrea, had her baby on Friday (08-08-08, how cool!).  They welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Samantha Lee, into the world at 6:39pm.  She was born into a huge and loving family (5 other siblings!).  We got to go visit them at home today and Samantha is absolutely adorable.

1. I need to install Microsoft Money on the laptop so I can keep track of our money while we’re in Chicago next week.
2. Also?  It’s 4:30 in the afternoon and I haven’t eaten anything yet.  I need to eat something.  Soon.
3. Must go to Borders and pick up a few shipments of books I had shipped there for free.  Christmas presents for the kids (Dave’s little brother and sister).
4. I miss my family, like, whoa.
5. Super glad that Dave went through our cabinet in the office with me last night and we now have a pile of stuff to sell on Ebay, as well as a garbage bag full of stuff that is no longer any good to us and not really sell-able.
6. Must use my $10 register rewards at Walgreens this weekend before they expire.
7. Need to do laundry before Monday!  Was going to do it last night but someone was using all the washing machines so we just said forget it.
8. My best friend is having her baby tomorrow! They are inducing her at 7am!  Can’t wait to meet baby girl!
9. Need to finish cleaning the kitchen before we leave for Chicago, too.  Don’t want to come home to a messy apartment!
10. Also need to go to the Verizon store tomorrow to get all my stuff transferred from my phone over to the new one they just sent me.  (Same phone/model…my current one just has a glitched out QWERTY board.)
11. Oh!  I wanna go catch up on my TiVo.  There’s about 6 hours of Army Wives on there that I need to watch.
12. I think my meds are making me sluggish and lethargic again.  Could barely pull myself out of bed this morning.  Not cool, you guys.
13. I have a $25 Amazon gift card and have no idea how I want to spend it.  I’ve changed.  I’ve always known how to spend money.  Now there’s nothing that I need or want.  Weird, right?
14. I’ve been living on cheese rollups for the past week (melt cheese on a flour tortilla, add sour cream and hot sauce…PRESTO!).  So addicting and easy and did I mention cheese?  Mmmm…cheese.
15. Dave usually never likes to eat sweets.  So last night as I was finishing the last scoop or so of Edy’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream, he asked me for a bite…right after I just swallowed the LAST bit.  Then he proceeded to make me feel guilty (jokingly, of course!) because I didn’t share with him.  Dork.

This article about the 6 principles for more passion and energy in marriage got me thinking today.  It got me thinking about what my ideals and thoughts were about marriage before actually tying the knot, and how things differ now, almost two years later.

Has it been all sunshine and happiness?  No.  Not in the least.  We’ve had some very emotional and deep arguments.  We’ve hit some terribly complicated rough patches.  We’ve been bored and felt like every day has turned into the same.  It definitely hasn’t been as easy as I thought it was going to be going into it all.  What people say is true, “Things are different when you’re married.  Things aren’t always easy, even though you’ve been together for a very long time and even lived together for years already.”

I didn’t believe those words then.  I thought, “How different can things be?  How can a piece of paper change everything?” But somehow, things are different and that piece of paper changed everything.

Things are somehow more real.  More concrete.  I can’t be selfish and focused soley on myself, even if I want to.  I have to think as part of a couple now moreso than I ever did in the past.  When things get monotonous it feels more personal now than before.

But what I’ve realized is that no matter what, I have a man who will stand behind me, always.  Through thick and thin.  In good times and in bad.  And he really does.  I lost my job and he was the first person to console me and tell me how much bullshit the whole situation was.  He didn’t question my morals and workplace ethics like most everyone else was doing.  He didn’t succumb to the nasty rumors flying around.  He took my word and knew that I was telling the truth.

When I was diagnosed with Behcet’s, he was there to wait on me hand and foot when I couldn’t get out of bed.  He took care of me and didn’t question it.

We have fun.  We have common interests, but still are different enough to keep things lively.  We both want the same things out of life and strive to reach those goals together.

So when things are feeling like they could be better, I just remind myself that I have the most caring and loving husband a woman could ask for right by my side.  Nobody could love me like he loves me.

And that’s priceless.

Just a heads up that some of the posts on this blog will be sponsored posts.  I tried to move this over to my other blog, but it’s still too new and got denied.  So in the meantime, you will find some posts that are not necessarily on topic to what I normaly write about.  I won’t write about anything that I wouldn’t want to read myself, or a product I wouldn’t personally condone.  You can either skip these entries, or check out some of the things that interest you.

Once I’m able to get my other finance blog approved, I will be doing my sponsored paid posts over there.  Frankly, it’s an income stream that I’m not willing to give up right now (having no job making any extra cash pretty darn valuable!).

So I’m sorry if this frustrates you, but I’m trying my best to keep it to a minimum!