Where do I start?

Last week was rocky.  Naturally all things come to a head, crash and burn, I meltdown, and then pick myself up again.  All is well right now, not solved or fixed, but at least daily life is back to normal and the big things in life (love, work, family) are all works in progress.  aye yay yay.

what else?  well, there's lots in the news right now.  Norway rocked by a bombing, teacher has sex and does coke with 16 year old student, same sex marriage legalized in NY, US debt management bills in DC, Amy Winehouse dies of drug overdose, Comic-Con, Rupert Murdoch is effed, etc....oh yeah, and Xzhibit speaks out against planking. He sure is making ABQ proud by speaking out against such serious topic.  not.

Anyways, besides the .28 hours we spent reading the paper this weekend, we didn't spend too much time thinking about any of these breaking news stories.  It's too heavy and never ending.  Instead, we dedicated an entire weekend to hanging out together.  I know, seems fairly simple, but because of the chaos of our lives, it's a rarity.  On Saturday we woke up early and grabbed coffee and burritos and saw Captain America.  It was really good!  Of all the comic movies I've been dragged to, it was def close to the top (after Batman and Iron Man).  Like, f i n a l l y.  A comic movie with some back story.  After that we came home, napped, watched tv, relaxed, made some guacamole, and sat under the AC.  The clouds came in and we headed out to Summerfest where we got in some really good, up close people watching.  Damn there are some weird people in this city.  We got our jollies, had a few drinks and then met up with some friends at Geckos for drinks and dinner. Other perks:  I LOVED the classic car show, the drum circle, and walking down Central right next to a real life prostitute.   It was a good balance of 'alone time' while being surrounded by thousands of people.

On Sunday, guess what we did?  yep, got up and went and saw another movie.  Who can blame us?  there are a lot of really good movies out right now and it's dark and air conditioned. AND I <3 cheap matinee showings. We saw Horrible Bosses.  It's really funny, go see it, I'm tellin ya.  Then we lunched at Brickstreet Dive and read the paper.  I rarely get to go there so I'll jump at the chance to order some bruschetta and hand made pizzas on a whole wheat crust. num num.  Dave was complaining all weekend that he was coughing up blood, and me being the doting and nurturing lover told him he was overreacting, complaining and he should get over it.  Ends up he's got a little cold or something so we relaxed at home and got him dosed up and in bed for some afternoon rest.  I watched Monsoon Wedding (sigh, I love it) and looked up ticket prices to India while I prepared myself for re-entry to India with an Indian movie about an Indian wedding.  Anyways, Dave woke up and we ventured to Frontier for some green chile stew where I made a new friend.  During an awkward silence while waiting for my receipt to print, I channeled David's small chat skillz and asked the skinny young white guy taking my order if he had a long day ahead of him.  He told me how he had spent the day dropping off demo cds to record stores in town to promote his rap group.  They are called Deadite Killaz and perform such songs as "Stay Blunted" feat. Doom and SmeaR, "Ghetto Vampyrie" (did they spell it like that on purpose?) and "Serial Killer vs. Serial Killer."  He handed me FOUR cds with the tracks handwritten in cursive on each cd slip.  I'm pretty sure I should submit them to the police as handwriting samples.  Could be the break they need for a murder case.  Suffice to say, I am throwing these away (I listened to 10 secs of the first track...it's about stabbing someone in the jugular with a pen).  I was trying to be nice to a stranger and look what I got:  an angry angsty whitey juggalo who raps about sick crimes and pornos he sees on the internet. OMG.  I guess I was hoping it would be more along the lines of grass roots hip hop group.  not. at. all.  then some weird man stood and stared at me through the glass while D was in the bathroom.  awkward. freaking Frontier.  After, we got some frozen yogurt at OLO to change the mood / get rid of the creeped out taste in my mouth, then came home and watched the ceerrrazzzyyy lightning show, had a very long catch up phone call with D's mom, and watched Breaking Bad. 

In summary:  I watched too much tv / movies, I didn't do anything productive, I missed Narayan terribly, I ate out a million times per day, my dogs didn't get walked, David might have a cold, I pinned 100 new things on Pinterest, I drank too much beer, and I feel very very very relaxed and once again happy, romanced, and bonded to my bf.

Sorry for the long rambling story :)

I leave you with this little guy who is tending my succulent garden these days:

yay first camping trip of 2011!

Camping was a great success.  It was great to get out of town and smell the fresh air.  The trip was an excuse to have a 24/7 photo shoot of my swimming / camping champion dogs.

(warning:  5 million pics below)

the fire in Jemez :(

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

full moooon

big dipper

night fishing

 

 

oh me oh my july

good houses, bad houses, sweet houses, no houses?

staying here, putting down roots, sticking it out, moving away?

taking the gre, sending in my application, getting my masters degree, give up?

If you haven't figured it out already, I'm kinda lost.  I knew David was applying for an out of state job at GE, but he's taking his sweet ass time so I figured it was another thing pushed to the side and I started looking for houses here in ABQ.  No I don't want to live here for another 2 years, much 5 or more years if we buy a house.  Last year when I came back from Oregon I wanted to move asap but D and I both agreed we should stay here and go back to school first so we could get instate tuition. 

Well here I am getting geared up (scared shitless) to go back to school, only to find out that UNM makes it. so. freaking. difficult. 1) take GRE. 2) application due in Dec. 3) acceptances sent in March. 4) program starts in fall.  Sounds simple, right?  it's not.  Because I was a slacker from 2003-2004, my dented GPA requires me to take 9 hours of graduate level classes and earn higher than a 3.0 before I can apply for the program.  That means that I will have to take classes this fall in preparation for my application in Dec. 2012, for my acceptance in March of 2013, and program of fall 2013.  Well the classes this fall are either in the middle of the afternoon or the evening, no good, oh and yeah, I'm going to be gone almost the entire month of November when I go to India.  (*&(&(##$)*)@#)*)&@#@*!@  sooooooooo, now what?  what's the point of sticking it out in NM for instate tuition if I could move to Oregon and earn instate tuition by 2013?

Secondly, David finished his cover letter this week and plans on calling his GE connection (his Dad's girlfriend's sister is the VP Queen of all of GE) later this week.  The program requires that you go to upstate NY for 6-12 mos for training, and then you are assigned to a territory based on the industry you choose.  It could be Kansas, it could be Poland.  He is not thrilled about living in the middle of nowhere, but I keep telling him, once you put in your time, he can transfer us to Paris or Milan.  But why am I buying a house if we could be out of here in the next six mos / year?  If / when he does apply, he is a shoe in and will be groomed for executive positions and we won't be coming back for sometime.  My little house wife dream is that he gets 'stationed' somewhere random in the US (I would die of luckiness if it were somewhere in the pacific northwest), he makes a geerrrreaaattt salary, I can be a full time student and graduate in 2+ years, and then we move somewhere more normal and settle down. 

But none of this may happen, so should I keep my options open and keep house hunting here?  I've found one I really really love and I want our parents / investors to see it, but should we bother?  I feel bad for our realtor, running us around to all these walk throughs and we might just give up :(

I keep trying to think positive thoughts, give up control of the situation, and hope that everything will work itself out (I have a little fear that nothing will work itself out if I don't take control and I may be sitting here 5 years from now wishing I'd moved away and gone to school already). 

On a better note, I have a short week at work and we are going camping up at Navajo Lake (I've never been!)  This will be Lola's very first Palmchalski family camping trip and it will be her fiirst trip to a lake!  I'm sooooo excited to watch her learn how to swim and to be a dirty wild dog with her bro Luka and buddy Modus.  I keep telling her that she is going to the mountains this weekend, but she doesn't know what this means.  Poor dog, she's been with us for seven months and we haven't taken her out of the city yet.  She is going to be soooooooo happy and sooooooooo tired.

Lola and her BFF Narayan

did I mention that my baby Lola turned two years old last week?  July 5.

doggie pool with Modus