oskar and wallace.

i sometimes make an effort to not endlessly talk about our cat.

 

sometimes.

 

but now that we've adopted a second cat, i think all bets are off.

thusly, here is the story of oskar. and wallace.
 

 

 we got wallace on sort of half a whim. we had always talked about getting a second cat, and had looked longingly at kittens when we stumbled on adoption fairs. but we had always decided our apartment was probably too small. (it's not, as it turns out).

it was a fateful saturday night when we were stopping in for some litter and cat grass (how is it that i've now mentioned cat grass twice on my blog) and CAWS had an adoption fair set up right in the store!

anyways. we saw wallace. we liked wallace. we wanted to take wallace home. however. we decided to responsibly wait a day and make sure it was a good decision. (also this might be a good time to mention that we originally thought wallace was a boy. and named jake. finding out she was a girl named ginger suprisingly did not sway us)

19 hours later we were back at petsmart, and nearly an hour after that we had two grey cats in our apartment.

but this story isn't really about me and brian. (although we really really like our newest family member) this story is about oskar and wallace.

 

oskar was not that pleased that we brought a friend home for him. for two days all we heard from him was hissing and a loooooow growl. he actually did a pretty good impersonation of me when i'm overstressed and low on chocolate chips.

 

but wallace was relentless in her pursuit of oskar's affection. she would sneakily try to cuddle with him when he was already asleep.
 

 



and sometimes when he wasn't....

 

 

and then suddenly (and a little surprisingly, considering the level of pissed oskar had reached) they became friends!

 

 

 i would even go so far to say that now they're BEST friends.
 

 

and now i think we're officially a cat family. which i'm into.
it's better than being like...a ferret family.
 

 

in conclusion. everyone should get pets. and probably a second pet.

because your first one needs a friend!

two unrelated photos.

i just like this photo of my family taken alllll the way back in march.

it was bright out. apparently.

 

also, i miss my red hair.

 

and if you wanted another reason why i married brian walker, here's a good one.
 

coachella, round two.

since a lot of my life passed by undocumented in the whirlwind of engaged summer 2012, i'm going to be posting some summer recap posts whenever i get around to it. because apparently my blog is the only place i can put pictures.

 

 anyway. last spring ashley and i once again road-tripped down to indio, california to attend the three day music festivus that is coachella. this year we were joined by janiece, one of our favorite people!

 

oh man. i have to be honest with you, and say the whole trip was kind of a blur. mostly because we were basically in a heat coma the entire time. temperatures reached 107 and the mornings before the music started were spent laying under the meager canopy shade with misters, counting beads of sweat, and trying to stay alive.

 

dramatic, yes? but it was still a blast. some of my favorite shows that we saw were the black keys, m. ward ("m. ward can do whatever the hell he wants!"), bon iver, the shins, st. vincent (seriously. i worship her kick ass-ness), the head and the heart, childish gambino (troy and abed singing hiiiiiiip hop), florence and the machine, santigold (the best dancing of the whole weekend), real estate, and first aid kit. radiohead was good but looooooong. pretty sure we ditched out before they were done. dr. dre and snoop dogg were also suprisingly entertaining and brought back many fond dance party memories. also there was the much lauded appearance of tupac. (although since we went the second weekend it wasn't much of a surprise)

 

 

 some of my favorite memories (of the few i can remember) include
 

- the campers with the giant jenga game

- janiece pounding some vodka to celebrate her birthday (and maaaaybe a beer bong)
 "i need a row of misters"

- the dinosaur art installation (seen below)

- how funny things are when it's too hot to breathe

- "sorry car behind me, i was talking to my arms"

- how our camping neighbors got excited for every single beer bong they did. (there were sooooo many. so. many.)

- "i was wondering if you guys partied after i went to sleep" "yeah, we had some ring pops"

- i think it was the...second? night. but ashley and i were stumbling back to our tent after showering and babbling almost incoherently the entire time. there was mention of a corn cob god. coachella makes you a special kind of tired funny.

- some really really great food. we would barely eat all day because it was so hot. so when it finally cooled off and we could eat dinner everything tasted amaaazing. i can remember eating crab fries, fantastic fish and chips, and some sort of noodle dish. also, ice cream!
- the first night there there was a guy set up in the entertainment area jamming on a saxaphone. his shirt kept coming untucked from his (too short) pants and riding up his stomach and the whole thing was really great.
- sharing an air mattress with ashley "if we end up spooning in the middle of the night DO NOT wake me up"









well there you have it. five days summed up into...that.
honestly, i'm impressed i was able to remember that much.

25 before 26

so i'm just going to be straight with you and say that my 24 before 25 list wasn't the most successful thing i've ever endeavored to do, coming in at 9 out of 24 tasks accomplished.

 

sheesh.

 

 but you know, instead of like...painting my dresser, i went to a semester of school, got engaged, planned a wedding, moved, and got married! so i feel like that should count for something.

 

so here's my list for my 25th year of life, with some carried over from last year's list.

 

 

1. decorate our apartment. this means things on the walls. and maybe a rug. curtains if i'm feeling reeeeally ambitious.

 

2. make a wedding photo album.

 

3. create a dinner board of some kind. ideally a chalkboard, with a place to store favorite recipes. like unto this. (but probably a lot less fancy)

 

4. make our own wall art.

 

5. make an oversized cross stitch.

 

6. learn to crochet.

 

7. visit portland.

 

8. change my last name. (something i maybe haven't done yet)

 

9. make homemade poptarts.

 

10. write thank you cards to people. (this doesn't include our wedding thank you cards...which are still waiting to be done...)

11. read 20 books. and i'm counting the snl book i just finished. 19 to go!

12. throw a party.

13. learn to (somewhat) use brian's grown up camera.

14. go on a waterpark tour. this is HAPPENING this year, you guys. seeing as everyone i wanted to do this with was engaged last summer, i think it might be a little easier to coordinate this time around.

15. establish some kind of regular exercise plan.

16. get over my fear of bread and make some. pizza dough too.

17. take pictures with my actual camera instead of just my phone. poor neglected camera.

18. visit boise many many times.

19. find a different job. (if anyone has any leads with this...i'm listening)

20. continue to pare down my wardrobe. no one needs 14 cardigans.

21. try out 5 new restaurants.

22. make a fancy cheesecake.

23. buy a sleeping bag. go camping.

24. find a photobooth.

25. pop-up dinner party.

new truths recently realized. or old truths more fully realized.

i like cleaning. i always knew i liked things clean, but living with roommates cleaning was always so irritating. "these are someone else's dishes, and this is someone else's bread crumb mess and WHO LEFT THEIR GROSS SOCKS ON THE COUCH?" and then when someone did eventually give in and clean, it only stayed that way for about 15 seconds. my point is....now that i know it's just me and brian (and occasionally oskar) making things messy, i kind of really enjoy cleaning. when brian is gone to the library, i get home as fast as i can and clean all the things! because cleaning when i'm by myself is it's own special joy. i can't explain it. but it's great. 

i can't pretend that the things i get excited over are usually cool. but they've become even more lame. like when our silverware organizer came in the mail and i opened it before i even took off my coat. (and lest anyone think i'm really picky about silverware organizers, our kitchen came equipped with one drawer. one. and said drawer is too narrow to accomodate any regular and easily located organizer. thusly, to the amazon i went)

i've listened to skinny love many many many times. and i still don't know all the words. ashley reassured me by saying that justin vernon himself doesn't know all the words, and purposely mumbles them so he can make up new ones every time he sings it. i fully support this theory.

oskar the cat is like our child. i've always known this, but it's become even more evident. we talk about him (and to him) a lot, and send each other pictures of his adventures. and since he's the neediest of all the cats, i think he's good preparation for parenting.

i thought i would always be the one making poor dinner choices. but as it stands so far, brian has been the one to suggest both ice cream and marshmallow mateys for dinner. (not at the same time. although....that would probably be great) being a supportive wife, i chose to go along with his ideas.

my neighbors dog might make me dislike dogs. it just howls. for large portions of the day. like he's being continously squirted with a water gun or something. i'm not surprised oskar is always so desperate to go outside when i get home. he legitimately dislikes dogs and their noises.

spider plants are suprisingly resiliant. i wouldn't say i've been trying to kill ours. but...i haven't so much been actively working to keep it alive. however it just keeps on doing it's spider plant thing, and survives being watered like once a month.

the end.

as of late.

loving: my life. i'm not one to make big blanket statements like that. at least not in the positive sense. i can say big things like "this apartment is the worst" or "i would literally rather die than go to work today" but not often for things of a happy nature. however, i'm pretty satisfied with things. brian and i have a happy simple life and it's very agreeable to me. there are things that i would maybe change (see work reference above) but for the most part i'm kind of the most settled and content i've ever been.

reading: the curious incident of the dog in the night-time. i'm not too far into it, but i really like it so far. it's written from the point of view of an autistic 15 year old boy solving the mystery of who murdered his neighbors dog. it's pretty intriguing. i also just finished live from new york: an uncensored history of saturday night live, which i really loved. brian and i started watching the first season of snl and it's made me realize my previously unknown love of gilda radner and john belushi.

watching: cougar town. soooo much cougar town. i need everyone to understand that it's really funny. and in no way about cougars (the cat or the middle aged woman). anyway, i've been renting it from the library and just found out there are only three seasons so far, and the third season isn't out on dvd yet. basically this happened.

anticipating: christmas and all that entails. including, but not limited to, wrapping presents, decorating, baking things, watching elf, drinking too much hot chocolate, buying a (tiny) christmas tree, and brian getting a break from school.

listening to: the records i got for my birthday (avett brothers - the carpenter and good old war - come back as rain) and basically my whole ipod. i've just been browsing it and picking artists at random to fill my 8 hours of desk time a day. soon i will probably start listening to some christmas music.

working on: crafting christmas decorations. i should be working on actually putting things up on the walls. that's a thing grown-ups probably do.

wishing: i didn't have severe writers block whenever i try to document my life. here, my private blog, my journal. i'm just coming up blank everywhere.