T-minus

This blogging thing is stressful. It shouldn't be, but it is...ohhhh, the pressssure! It's been ages since I've "blogged" and a lot of that is b/c I don't want to just blog about my every day life - borrrrring. "Today, I went to Harris Teeter and lemons were on sale. Horray!" and "I backed into a support beam leaving the movie theatre in Georgetown, and cursed my blind spot the entire way home," are not really reasons to tune into this blog. Hence, there are large lulls in my postings. My bad. NOT that my life is boring - I truly think it's fairly dynamic, but - perish the thought that I would assume everyone and their brother would give a fig about my constant goings on!

Things that are happening now...

The Elections are over and you know what that means - pre-election commercials are OVER. Wow, and I was just starting to love hearing about so-and-so's extramarital affair, such-and-such's proposed raise for himself, blah blah's love for self-interest groups. I mean, all of that is so relevant to what's going on in the average American's life...not. Worthless. So, yes, that's over and amen for that. "America has spoken," they say - when in reality, if America had really spoken, and an educated America I mean (yes, I AM insinuating that much of America is uneducated/ignorant on real issues - do with that what you will), the results would be much different. But that's another topic for another day, or three glasses of wine.

Our house has been off the market for roughly a month and 1/2 now, and it's awesome. While we WISH we'd been able to sell, conditions were absolutely not ideal and it all amounted to a lazy day on the lake with no fish biting. We are SO hopeful that spring brings even a small improvement in the market, so we can sell and move on to a more spacious home with less STAIRS! ;)

We have approximately t-minus four-weeks and counting between now, and the "due date" for the birth of our first kid. VERY exciting :) We are ready, and are not at all nervous, so this waiting game is for the birds. Because I have the patience of a horny dirt-bag waiting for Miley Cyrus to turn 18 and be deemed legal, I am OVER this waiting game and am hoping we "go early." JOIN THE CLUB, they say. I know, it's like anyone is this position is ever like, "damn, I hope we go two weeks past our due date, I love ankle swelling and constant pain in my ribs." Still...it's different when you're in it and it's you, and so I am allowing myself this selfish and trite wish. The nursery is READY to go, and looks great - if I do say so myself. I wanted to go w/ a "W Hotel" theme - something very modern, and timeless, which doesn't jump off the page as Babyland all at once. YES, a baby will be in there - but we didn't need to sell my soul to the Pottery Barn Kids accesories department to make a lovely space for the little person. :) I can't believe, any day now, this little person will join us and our lives will be changed forever - wow. It DEFINITELY gives perspective to life!

Also, the 2010 holiday season has begun. Its a little extreme to play "Silver Bells" in Target on Oct 29th, but I can deal with some silver bells in mid-November. I am determined, come hell or high water, no matter when the baby comes, to take the family truckster out to the "country" aka VA suburbs of DC, to get a FRESH Christmas tree for us to cut down, read: for Jeff to cut down while I hold the impending baby and both dogs. Jeff thinks this is assinine of me to shoot for, but I am telling you as sure as today is a Monday that it is GOING to happen...mark my words - and the next time I'm on here, I'm posting some pics! :)

In the meantime, cheers to you and yours, and hopefully I can get some nursery pics up here this week. Hopefully. :)

xoxo

The Real Housewife of Arlington...

Tonight, while finishing up a deliverable, I turned on the TV for "background noise." Only those with mild ADD (check!) or an inability to focus when in complete silence (check, check!) have this sound issue, I know...which, as an aside, is why I think I talk and laugh loud...to fill the void. But I digress. I turned on the TV and didn't pay any attention to the channel it was on, then got to work. Turns out, I'd had the TV on A&E, b/c I left the TV on for the dogs while we were at work, and The Sopranos was on earlier this morning when I left. The dogs really enjoy that kind of gritty drama. That, and anything on the apocalypse on the History Channel...they're very into that sort of thing.

So....A&E is on, and I'm working, and then I realize that the Real Housewives of DC is on! I had not seen this little gem as yet, but had heard some feedback, namely that it's boring and the women are "SNOOOORE" and there is no real drama. Well, it's true. Except for that horrendous couple who crashed the White House dinner (which I now think was probably all planned....everything is orchestrated these days!); The Salehis they're called. UGH.

First of all...I have met this couple. It was YEARS ago, and not at all glamorous. I'd planned my first ever wine tour for about 40 friends - I've planned four more in subsequent years...it's a day with friends out at VA wineries. This "glamour" couple (cough, chock!) supposedly "owned" one of the wineries we went to at the first ever "wine tour" I planned...and they basically stole $300 from me by charging my card fraudulently. Their refusal to reimburse me and/or explain the charge led me to file a claim against their crappo winery with the Better Business Bureau, to which American Express followed suit and also filed a complaint against them - if that tells you how "professional" they are. Not to mention the wine SUCKED. And double not to mention that the winery is now out of business...and yet, on the show, they flash around that they "own" a winery, and that the husband is a "winemaker." If Ke$ha is a talented singer, than that dude is a winemaker. Do not even get me started!

Anyways, this show errked me! It shows DC in such a bad light. With the exception of a few of the women, this show makes DC look just as stuffy as all the stereotypes say it is, when in reality, DC is such a warm, fun, diverse city! It just BLOWS that the city is depicted in such a skewed light on the show, when this is a chance to show our TRUE, bright colors. Three cheers to showing the fun, unmaterialistic side of DC at some point to those who don't know better.

In other news - we registered for baby products. And no, registering for a breast pump is neither exciting, nor intuitive. I think I'd have an easier time registering for a carborator for my SUV than registering for those types of products. But register, we must! ALSO, Tiger Woods is officially divorced. So I guess he's free to date now. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA - get it!?! Because he wasn't treating his marriage like a free ride (pardon the pun) to date whoever he wanted anyway!?! Right. ;)

Happy Weekending!!

What this blog ISN'T

I feel like there is a lot of pressure to give this blog a topic. For example, some people blog exclusively about travel - where they have been, where they're going next, what there is to do and see at "x" location, what restaurants to avoid, what airlines have the most pleasant attendants, and so on. Other folks blog about gardening, cooking, pregnancy, politics, children...whatever. I want to start off by saying, this blog is not about one thing. Please intercept my ball if I start posting about some particular thing EVERY day. Please don't let me tell you TOO much about lactation, or stretch marks, or my pee cycles, or any of that; I don't even want to know that stuff, and I'm living it. I just want to write about stuff that happens to me, or that occurs in my every day life, or the lives of the people and places around me. It would be great if some of this writing turned out to be entertaining on some level, but, let's not butter our bread before it's toasted.

I actually feel like a pretty wide open and entertaining topic, if I had to choose one (I'm not! I meant what I said, and I said what I meant, I'm not picking a topic, buuttttt, if I HAD to...), is commercials. TV commercials are getting insane. Or were they always ridiculous and I was just out to pasture? Since when is Nutella nutritious!?! Just becaues there are trace amounts of hazelnuts in the chocolate butter paste doesn't mean that it's nutritious. But damned if that commercial doesn't insinuate that it is. Lies! Also ridiculous are minivans. Not just the commercials FOR minivans (no, a minivan is NOT cool, even if you throw the word "swagger" in front of it, FYI!), but minivans themselves: really, your kids need not ONE, but dual view DVD screens in the back of your boat!? Give me a break! What happened to kids looking at the scenery around them!? What happened to playing "I spy" while driving to Grandma's!?! What happened to THE GLORY DAYS!?!?! Craziness. There are other commercials that I can't turn away from; yes, I'm talking about you ASPCA commericials featuring Sarah McLachlan, and Hallmark commercials featuring the elderly widow who goes to her empty mailbox for weeks at a time before a lovely card is placed in there by her adoring neighbor. TEARS! And then the nutella commercial comes on, and I am fuming again.

Point being - and I do have one - this blog will take twists and turns, and rights and lefts, and spins and kicks, and won't be one thing or another. It will be many things, one of which is hopefully entertaining.

back from the great wide beyond...

So, it could not possibly have been longer since I wrote ANYTHING, or did ANYTHING with this here "blog." That makes me pretty WEAK as a blogger, eh? Considering I only have one follower - my husband - I'm sure there aren't many folks who can't sleep at night, waiting for my next entry.

However, I recently had a conversation with a friend from college - with whom I was reconnected via the Online Messiah (aka Facebook), about starting blogs. I was slightly embarrassed to admit that I, in fact, had previously started a blog, but had subsequently deserted it, like a rusted Ford Pinto in an unkempt corn field in rural Iowa. Take comfort though, that I am back. I DID start this blog b/c I really love to write, and b/c I feel like I have some wacko, and occassionally entertaining, insights to share, so - I at this for real. Let's see where this goes.

Let's also see what's new since March, when I last blogged... Well, I'm pregnant. Yes. Turns out, I'm fertile. Who knew!?! Remember in high school and college, you perceived that you, and every girlfriend you had, were somehow magically able to get pregnant by simply going into the ocean with your boyfriend for a swim? Of course, that's what "they" wanted you to think, but, it turns out, getting pregnant is a little more complicated, and while there are the WRONG girls getting pregnant all over the country (insert the popular "Teen Mom" series here - ah!!! Nightmare!!), the right women - and some of my closest friends - struggled mightily to get pregnant. I expected to struggle too, not wanting to assume that I would somehow be exempt from those difficulties, or be the lucky one who just up and gets pregnant. But...that was our experience. We were ready, and not trying, but not "not trying," as they ALL say...and TADA!!! We are now 5 1/2+ months pregnant. We chose not to find out the sex because I pretty much ruin every surprise there could possibly be, all unintentially of course, and this was one I really wanted. We would rather participate in a worm-eating-contest than paint a room pink or lavender, so - why do we need to know!?! We don't. And we can't wait to find out. We are due Dec 4...just in time for the kid's birthday to be overshadowed by Christmas. ;-)

What else? Well, we've had our house on the market since April. And that's all there is to say about that. The real estate market, even in typically-resilient DC, is really in the sh*tter. We love our agent and we know our house is fantastic - brick, four bedrooms, quiet cul-de-sac, overlooking a park, great paint colors...blah, blah...but we have stairs from the cul-de-sac that are daunting to folks. Apparently, stairs are not as in demand as granite countertops and Koi ponds. So, it's still on the market. Ho hum. We'll likely pull it off fairly soon so we can get the baby's nursery kicked into action, and focus on the birth of our kid :)

We have had an intense summer. We just got back from our 7th weekend out of town...phew! We spent 11 days in the Caribbean, on top of 2+ weeks in Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland, Sweden, Latvia, and Finland), as well as weekends away in NYC, Philly, Gettysburg, PA (wedding), Pittsburgh (wedding), and on and on. I am SO ready to be home for a change, and to be able to wake up in my own bed on a Sunday morning! It's the little things.

Absence DOES make the heart grow fonder!

Most know this, but as a recap, starting in early/mid November 2009, Jeff (the husband) was asked to move to India for work. It was VERY sudden; we're talking, we learned of this possibility [read: certainty] on a Wednesday, and Jeff was gone by the following Wednesday. There were lots of reasons he *had* to go; a client needed him, this was a chance for him to show his flexibility, a great opportunity, a great big check mark on his resume/management portfolio, yet another chance to live abroad, and on and on.

Reasons it was not awesome: so far in our first year of marriage, we had lost two grandmothers, one very close friend (the husband of one of my best friends & a bridesmaid in my wedding), and now - we were having to separate for 3+ months. Of course, if this was London, or Paris, or Hong Kong, it would not have been so bad - those are clean, interesting, developed, dynamic locations... but India? It wasn't a dream location, and that's just putting it lightly. Regardless, Jeff went...our first hosting of Thanksgiving for our families was cancelled, we'd both spend our six-month wedding anniversary solo, and there would be a two-month stint in which we never saw each other; though we did get to spend a week together @ Christmas.

We come to now, as Jeff has been back about three weeks, and is on a plane back to DC, after having been in CA for work this week (more travel!). I can look back on the three month stint, and even this past four-day stint and say: absence DOES make the heart grow fonder. Would we have chosen to be apart? No - clearly not. But, in these circumstances, we did what we needed to do for Jeff's career, for US (Team US), and we will continue to do that, even if it means more time apart. It's not easy... It sucks giving four minute synopses of our goings-on, or talking to each other in odd moments, when it's the end of his day & the beginning of mine. But, through it all, we realized how strong the other person is... I never cried, not once, while Jeff was gone. I just kept thinking, if there are solider's wives out there dealing with being separated from their husbands for 12, even 15 months at a time, I can SURELY handle this three months. If my dear friend, Katie, can lose her husband of one and 1/2 years, WAY too early and still charge forward with tremendous strength and grace, then most surely, this should be NOTHING to endure.

Jeff...dealt with sickness - real, physical sickness (which was almost always present, and at times, very bad), in addition to overall homesickness. Though he lived in a lovely hotel and met some truly incredible people during the time in India - he also saw and captured raw, heartbreaking poverty on levels that most of us can't even imagine; and it was ALL around him, even in what India terms "developed" areas. It just makes you all the more aware of how VERY, VERY blessed we are to live where we do, and have what we have. Through it all, Jeff NEVER complained - never.

We decided to look at this as a knock on the knee...and we did. It has made us stronger, this "knock on the knee." I am so appreciative to have a partner...not a "complement" to me, or a missing puzzle piece, but a TRUE PARTNER to share my life with, who challenges me, and inspires me, and makes me feel SO confident in myself, in all ways. I am ALSO so glad to have those three months behind us, to look back on that crazy time when Jeff was in India, and I was here, and we were experiencing our first, bizarro year of marriage a world apart. Such is life!

Not to mention: I got some GREAT jewelry out of the experience. ;-) Keep it positive!

Engagements, Weddings, & Babies

So, here I am...at the place, when I was 19-years-old, that I thought existed in some sort of alternate life, some future FAR off. I am at the place and in the time when everyone around me is...settling. Not settling in a negative sense, like, "oh, did you see who she's dating now? Wow, she's settling. Pour some liquor out for her..." Rather, settling, kind of how one might settle on a seashore, at sunset, comfortably near enough to the water to feel the sea-spray, but far enough away not to get bowled over by an intense wave, as to ruin the experience. That kind of settling. I do not think I ever knew, at 19, how lovely this time in my life would be.

Of course it took all of us TIME to get here. Time and experience, and learning who we REALLY are. Who we really are is developed over time, and certainly, we are all still developing, no matter our age. Regardless, in the last several years, I have seen so many wonderful people come into such wonderful things - people to share their lives with, children to raise, pets to welcome into their families, places to call home, and even some negative challenges and hardships to rise above - all of which shape and shift us to be BETTER. To see this - is so incredible. To get to a place in life, where I really am ecstatic to see others succeed, feels like a gift. And truly, it is.

With all of this comes a never-ending stream of engagements, weddings, showers, parties, and celebrations. We (my husband and I) had 12 weddings in 2009 alone, including our own. It was intense! I seriously think I could put out a quality "what to do/not to do" for weddings/showers, and be set for life. It's impossible to attend that many weddings in one year (plus all the others before and after 2009) and not take away some gems of knowledge. And some funny stories. If cupcakes were the rage in 2009, maybe red velvet cake in the form of FOAM will be the rage in 2019? Who's to say...?

I feel like everyone comes away from their massive weddings saying, "well, if we had it to do all over again, we'd have eloped." I mean, I have even said this. And I was annoyed at MYSELF as I said it, literally, as the words were coming out of my mouth I was thinking, "that's annoying!" Really, I would have? After all my hard work, and research, and must-be-different creative searching, and arts & crafts galore, and my DRESS, and my FLOWERS (swoooon....), I would have eloped? No, probably not. But it sounds right.

Anyways, point is: I'm so happy to see my family and friends in these incredible places in life. The recent engagements (two this past weekend alone!), and babies - those newly born, and those on the way; the showers - for moms & for brides-to-be alike, and the housewarmings; it's all so fantastic.

Nel blu dipinto di blu ~ In the Blue Painted Blue

So, this is the beginning. The VERY beginning of the beginning. I guess I should start by saying: this was not my idea. I honestly never really thought about starting a blog until I received a ton of encouragement from friends & family, who steadily commented that if I started a blog, "they would follow." Who are they? Well, I guess we'll find out.

It's true. I have always enjoyed writing; there is no doubt about that. As much as I talk (and talk, and talk), it might be shocking to know that I love to write even more. And if you take that love of writing, and combine it with the fairly interesting experiences I have been lucky enough to have experienced, and do experience, and the crazy people/places/things I tend to run head-long into - well, I guess that's why I am where I am...which is here. My very first BLOG entry. Someone, cut a ribbon and break a champagne bottle!

The title of my blog: bluepaintedblue. No, I am not a perpetually sad/blue person, in fact - the total opposite. I am, in fact, annoyingly happy, upbeat, and positive at almost all times. My blog title is the translation of one of my favorite songs of all time - "Nel blu dipinto di blu," in English - "In the Blue Painted Blue." Or as most English-speaking people mistakenly call it: "Volare," which, in Italian, means, "to fly." This song, these words, are the inspiration for my blog b/c that song makes me smile every time I hear it, and it reminds me of travel, of soaring, of succeeding, and of experiencing new and exciting things that I hope to come in touch with again, over and over. I hope you have that kind of life too, and those kind of experiences, and that - if you do not as yet - you seek to :)