Mosaic Life

Back to school

In September I’ll begin taking classes at Oglethorpe University. I’ll be entering as a junior, majoring in Communications and minoring in English. So if I ever run into a situation where another person claims that there has been some sort of “miscommunication,” I can inform them that it was on their part, because I majored in Communications, and therefore know more about communicating than they do. Plus, Communications majors make the big bucks.

I’m excited about going back to school after taking a year off. It’ll probably be a bit difficult at first to jump back into working full time and going to school full time. But with a little determination and even more caffeine, I’m sure I’ll be fine.

Oh, and to ATHF fans: I’m going to Oglethorpe and Brandon’s going to Emory. Get it? Emory and Oglethorpe? How cool is that?

Writing in dialect

John August (Big Fish, Corpse Bride) talks about writing in dialect on imdb’s “Ask a filmmaker.” The best part:

Compare: “I’m not hearing that, all right?” to “I ain’t hearin’ that, alright?” to “I ain’t hearin’ dat, aight?” I would label these examples, wrong, right, fired.

Short but interesting. Especially if reading the dialect in Huckleberry Finn makes you want to throw things.

Charleston

We really enjoyed our short trip to Charleston. We pretty much walked all over the city and took quite a few pictures. The city has quite a bit of history; I didn’t realize it, but it’s 100 years older than New Orleans. The first thing I noticed when we stepped out of the car in downtown Charleston was the smell. Horse urine and poo. Ah, just like going back in time. Saturday was hot and muggy, not unlike the weather in most of the South. We ate dinner at Hyman’s Seafood. I had the crab cakes and Brandon had some sort of fried fish. Not a bad restaurant. A little hectic because of the layout. They definitely had the southern tradition of frying everything covered.

If you’re going to Charleston for the first time, I must warn you that the visitor centers aren’t just normal visitor centers. They’re visitor centers with a goal of steering you their specific company’s services. And for your own sake, do not answer the question, “Are you going to be around tomorrow?” with a yes. We fell for it the first time because we were all innocent and had time to kill while waiting for a table at Hyman’s. The person will try to interest you in some sort of service similar to a timeshare; free tour and breakfast if you’ll just listen to them pitch their merchandise. The people selling this must get a good reward for recruiting, because they’re quite insistent and will offer you money (fifty cents!) if you stop and talk to them.

Sunday we started the day with breakfast at Joseph’s Restaurant. The food was great. If you’re starving to death or if you’re just really into gluttony, order the giant pancakes. They’re the size of an average person’s waist, until they’ve eaten the pancakes. We were able to stay outside much of the day since the weather was much cooler than on Saturday. We took a tour of the dungeon at the Exchange. I was sort of disappointed. I mean, it was a dungeon, but the tour basically was like, “There were no pirates in this actual room, most of the dungeon is far younger than you’d expect, and we have animatrons.”

We ate dinner at Bocci’s Italian Restaurant. Brandon got the lasagna, and I got the chicken conchiglia (which I definitely recommend). If you go, get the small portions, because they’re actually quite filling. The restaurant had a nice atmosphere. They played jazz and I’m not sure if it was just because it was Sunday or what, but it seemed like a very comfortable, relaxing sort of restaurant. Our table was next to a window on the second floor, and it was nice to look down on the street as the sun set and horse drawn carts with tourists made the rounds.

We took a walking tour at night of the Dark Side of Charleston. It was a rated-R tour because of the subject matter (murder! prostitution! scandal!), which basically translated to us that there would be no children on the tour. Bonus! It was a pretty interesting tour. It was also probably far more bearable than most tours that you might take there.

We really enjoyed the city. It’s beautiful, there is great food, and lots to do. Definitely a nice place to spend our anniversary.

20% of my life thus far

Today is our 5th anniversary. I think we’re supposed to get each other silverware or something, but instead we’re taking a short trip to Charleston. Way cooler than a fork.

When we got married and people starting asking us when we were planning to have children, our standard answer was, “Oh, in about five years.” Welp, here we are at five years. And I’m thinking I could make it another five without kids. Every time we’re at a restaurant and there are kids screaming at a table nearby, or every time I think “Hey! We could go swim at the pool! Oh wait, there are peeing, screaming kids there all the time,” I remember that I’m really not so much ready for baby birthing just yet. Someday I will be. Someday when I’m convinced that our kids will be different. Check back with me in five years.

The last year has been pretty crazy. We moved across the country, I got a new job, we moved again into a much nicer apartment, and we got a kitty cat. But it hasn’t been bad - actually, the change has been good. I must say, I’m really enjoying life. I think we’ ve both adjusted well to Atlanta. And we’re happy. It’s weird when people ask how you’re doing, you know, how “you two” are doing. I don’t really know what to say, because it’s always the same answer. We’re happy. Things are going well. We love each other so much. But I always think that that’s what people would say even if they weren’t doing well. So I say things like, “We’re doing great! Brandon cleaned out the litter box for me.” And if that doesn’t prove that we’re in love and happy, I don’t know what will.

I think the first year of our marriage was the hardest, not because we argued or had difficulty adjusting to one another (we actually hardly ever argue; usually if we do it’s because I’m being unreasonable and need sleep, food, or air conditioning), but because of financial difficulty, health issues, and things like our apartment getting flooded or my car being broken into. We joked that something bad happened every 6 weeks, then it became every 3 months, and to date really bad stuff seems to happen about once a year. So chin up, newly-weds! It gets better. Not because bad things stop happening, but because you learn to deal with stuff together and roll with the punches.

I’m so glad that I married such a sweet, patient, loving person. Happy anniversary, Brandon.

Mister Monster

 

By our calculations, Monster is about 5 months old. We estimate his birthday to be March 7. We don’t know his real birthday because he was a mutt kitten that we got off Craigslist, and apparently mutt cats don’t deserve to have their date of birth noted. So we created a birthday for him, for he has now been raised to the level of spoiled inside cat, and spoiled inside cats have birthdays and far too many treats.

Did I mention that we pretty much call him Monster now? The vet still calls him Clawdius, and we introduce him as Clawdius, but Monster is far more fitting. When we got him, I wanted to wait to name him until we got to know his personality. But people kept asking his name, and so we christened him Clawdius Catullus. Every spoiled house cat needs an uppity name.

He’s still quite rambunctious, and his love for biting has not subsided. He likes to pounce us and he also likes to pounce our guests. Which is really not cool, but at least he’s still cute and they usually are so charmed by him during his sweet moments that they don’t dropkick him when he bites their legs. Obviously, he’s not skittish at all. In many ways he behaves more like a dog than a cat.

But I can’t help wondering if we have one of those cats. You know, like when you were little and you went to someone’s house and they had a mean cat? And they warned you not to rub his belly because he’ll bite? I don’t really think we have a mean cat, but then I love him too much to really think of him that way. And he’s so sweet in the mornings. He’s cuddly and loving and cute from about 7:30 to 9.

Monster loves the sink. Cats are drawn to fresh water, so it makes sense. However, unlike most cats, he likes to play and sit in water. He’ll block the drain when I leave the faucet lightly running, and before I know it, half of his body is soaking. Maybe it’s in an effort to cool down.

We’re getting Monster neutered next week, so I’m hoping that will calm him down. Or at least cause him to get fat and slow so we can avoid his pounces. That would be good.

Of course it’s hot in hot-lanta

But seriously, this is just ridiculous. The high is in the upper nineties and the air is thick with humidity and utter discomfort. You can’t stay outside for more than five minutes without getting a sweat stache. And just try feeling remotely attractive with a sweat stache. My car heats up to about 300 degrees during the day, so when I get in I can’t even touch the steering wheel and God help me if I touch the metal on the seatbelt.

Whenever I talk to friends back in southern California during the winter, and they boast that it’s 75 degrees when it’s 40 degrees in Atlanta, I actually don’t envy them. I like cold weather because I like sweaters and hot chocolate and whatnot. But when they brag that it’s 75 degrees there when it’s a bajillion degrees here (or 100, but what’s the difference?), I struggle to remember exactly why we moved. Back in SoCal, we used our air conditioner about three times a year. You can’t survive here without air conditioning. You’d have a heat stroke, or in the least suffer from exhaustion since it’s impossible to sleep when it’s hot.

Our apartment heats up like crazy, and I’m not really sure what to do to conserve energy, because I refuse to allow the thermostat to go over 80. Our apartment is on the third floor, we have vaulted ceilings, and the sun shines pretty strongly on parts of our apartment. But we have trees blocking out some of the sun, and blinds and curtains, but it doesn’t seem to help. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to go without air conditioning or heating in the Fall months, which are usually pretty temperate, to make up for our soaring electric bill during the Summer.

Wow, this was a mundane post. Maybe next time I’ll talk about something interesting, like my cat. You guys like that, right?