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29June | my excel spreadsheet + space bags = i really am a geek
Thanks to Ellen, I am now able to show you a glimpse of my aforementioned nerdiness. Are you ready?!
Hopefully I won't need it anymore after tomorrow...!! *Bites nails* Haha just kidding. Everyone knows I quit biting my nails over three years ago. I had a productive weekend. Yesterday I worked my second to last day at SCORE! (barring any last minute schedules), made a bunch of jewelry, and watched Accident Investigator on Discovery Health until an ungodly hour... and today was all about errands and packing, baby. I packed up most of my shoes and all of my winter clothes, as well as most of my wardrobe that I don't sense an immediate need for until we get out there. And I packed them in Space Bags. They really work! I'm in love. Too bad I can only use them here, because we likely won't have a vacuum in Portland. Not that we would need one if we got our house, because it has all hardwood floors...! Aaahhh I want it.
28June | i am a grown up
Wow. Hm. Wow. This past Tuesday I was scheduled to work, but found out early on in the day that I didn't need to go in. Good, I thought. Time to get cracking on Portland stuff. So I launched into yet another job search (really, I could do without them for a while... but no such luck looking at my plans) as well as housing search, and fell into a deep, deep chasm of crazed obsession and sick organziation. I started calling property managers to assess the logistics of applying for rentals, how long properties are held after a deposit is paid, etc. Then I found several properties that seemed viable. Then I found more. And then I went crazy and made an Excel spreadsheet of all the properties, rent, deposit, application fees, features, proximity to city center, pros, cons, etc. Granted, I needed to transfer all of that information to Brian somehow, but you and I both know that I went the Excel route because I'm a huge dork. Only I'm not Oops, I seem to have strayed away from my original point. ANYWAY Wednesday, during my mean trip to Panera, I found a listing for a 2-bedroom, 1-bath house just south of the Mt. Tabor neighborhood in Portland, for $1000/month. It was a short listing with no pictures, but something about it struck me and I decided to go ahead and call the number on the ad. (I had to - the landlord's name was Brian.) To sum it up, he and I engaged in several extremely fluid conversations about the house, my sight unseen situation, being from the East Coast, and previous tenants flushing tampons, he was true to his word in following up every promise to email me information (sent pictures and a floor plan the next day after we initially spoke) and I sent him our application tonight. That's right. In four days I went from no prospects, to applying for a HOUSE. In PORTLAND. It has a private backyard and a deck! It's 800 square feet with an equally spacious basement for storage! It's less than a mile from Mt. Tabor Park! I am so jumpy and antsy you wouldn't believe it. Well, you probably would. I don't want to share too many pictures until it's for sure ours (aaahhhh!!!) but here's a little preview:
I'll of course keep you all posted...!!!
26June | birdicide
Ew, ew, ew!!!! So, I am sitting at my kitchen table, facing the three large single-pane windows that face out to our deck, clacking away at my computer with intense concentration when suddenly the serene silence is pierced by a loud BANG not 10 feet from me. It all happens so fast- BANG Then, I text Brian. And kinda wish that he is here so he can go get rid of it. Knowing him, he would take several pictures of it first and then tell me what kind of bird it After that, I IM my younger brother, who is sitting upstairs in his room. Yeah, we're funny like that. And by funny I mean, slightly lame. Anyway- me: OMG!!!!!! I just want to point out that there are no woods to speak of near my house. I live in a highly suburban housing development. There is like, a row of single trees. Are we the epitome of suburban kids or what? ;) me: NOW IT'S RAINING But he has just gone out to the garage to get the shovel. My hero!
25June | a moment of pure mean
Except maybe not, because I really am quite concerned with the state of children's health these days. America is totally obese. Anyway, I'm at Panera because I needed to make a bunch of phone calls about housing in Portland and my cell phone has little to no reception in my entire neighborhood, and my landline makes a horrible buzzing sound in the background. Yeah, no kidding. I've been here for about two hours, and about 20 minutes ago a mother and her three kids sat down near me. I didn't really take notice until I heard: "Mom? Mom!! Can I have the top off your bread bowl?" Then I looked and saw a rather fat little boy putting the top back on his mother's bread bowl. I looked further and saw two older, also fat girls sitting at a table next to his. Then the mother walked over and I saw that she was fat as well. The little boy had a sandwich and chips, and the girls and mom all had soup in bread bowls. Check out the nutrition information for one of those bowls. Then factor in that it was filled with soup. Granted I don't know what kind of soup, but it could have been a cream-based soup. Just saying. I know that judging overweight people is mean. I've been on the other end. But I wasn't so much judging their weight... I suppose I was judging their mother's poor choices in what they should or shouldn't be eating. These kids weren't just chubby - they were fat. I might even say they were medically obese. They shouldn't be downing sandwich melts, potato chips, soup in bread bowls. It simply is not healthy, and although the mother was overweight as well, she should know better. ... What's that? You're still waiting for that moment of pure mean? Oh, okay. Here it is: me: they all have fat voices OMG... I just realized... if my voice DIDN'T change... does that mean i STILL have a fat voice? please, tell me no!! Slap me, I know, I know! Just slap me.
24June | help
Hi readers- Do any of you know someone who lives in Portland, who would be willing to go around Northeast and Southeast and take pictures of a few houses for me? I've found some properties that I'm interested in, but currently there are no pictures available. I spoke with the management company and eventually if need be I will ask if they can take pictures, but since they can easily physically show these houses to locals I'm not sure if they'll take the time to do it for me. :( I'll have them over for dinner after I move there, promise!
23June | plans, plans, plans!!
In the past few days I've finally started really tackling the huge task of going through my possessions and sorting through what I need to take with me to Portland. I only have as much room as the bed of Brian's truck with a raised cap on it, so anything that doesn't fit is staying behind. I don't think that I'll have more than that, but I've severely underestimated myself in the past so I really need to be wary. So far, I've sorted my books and movies, miscellaneous stationery/house stuff, craft supplies and important files. I still need to load all my music onto my computer so I can sell/donate most of my CD's, sort through my kitchen stuff, and of course pack up my clothing. I'm contemplating having a yard sale this weekend, but then I realized that I've never actually had one, and I don't know who would come. We're not friends with our neighbors, and my mom's friends are all Asian packrats who really don't need any more stuff. (Also, I get the feeling that my stuff is a little too tasteful... is that mean? Haha) I'm still undecided. I guess I'll make a better decision later this week. Here's the departure plan: Brian will be coming down here sometime before the weekend of 7/12 so we can go to my friend Charles's wedding on the 13th. After the wedding, we'll be here for another day or so to tie up loose ends and then I and all my stuff will accompany him up to New Hampshire for the week. The weekend of 7/19 Brian is going on a canoe trip in Maine... Which means that I need something to do up in the New England area that weekend. Anyone want to play? I can take a bus to Boston... but my friends who lived in Boston once upon a time have since left. I guess I could gallavant the city on my own, or maybe take the bus to some other local attraction. Suggestions? Willing companions? ... Anyone?
21June | i didn't know aliens fished
Pardon the quality, but Brian sent this to me this morning from his phone after he caught his first trout in months. He was very excited though you can't quite tell from his expression. I was excited for him, too, but also sad because instead of being on the boat with him I was driving to work alone. Boo.
20June | this will force verbosity
I am stealing this from Emily because I thought it was a fantastic idea, although I'm not sure how many of my readers would benefit. We'll see, I guess.
Please copy my response below, erase my answers putting yours in their place then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration! One-word answers seldom help anyone out. :) 1. First Name: Karel. Whoo boy, if you don't know my name everything is pretty much hopeless, mostly because it's just a few inches to the left of every latest blog entry. Well, anyway it's pronounced Carol and it is spelled the way it is because my parents didn't want my initials to be C.C. for fear that people would naturally call me 'sissy.' True story. I have been called Karl, Ka-REL, Karen, Kah-REL (yeah seriously?), Mr. Chan (this was a particularly flustered substitute teacher who thought it better to not even attempt a pronunciation. Too bad if you're an overweight 4th grader, boys think it's really funny to associate you with your opposite gender. What?), and ..... (to which I would inevitably respond, 'It's Karel.') I used to hate my name, but now I like it for the most part. I only don't like that until people see my written name, they think my name is Carol. Barf. 2. Age: 25. Apparently I could pass for as young as like, 17. 3. Location: Central Jersey Shore, which is where I spent the majority of my childhood. I went to college at Haverford in Pennsylvania, then lived in New York City for three years before moving back home with my parents in preparation to head out to Portland, Oregon in a month. I like Jersey mostly in theory, and I kind of can't wait to leave. 4. Occupation: Erm... I currently tutor part-time at SCORE! Educational Centers, but that's coming to an end in like... a week or something. In my post-graduate career, I've been an Assistant Director at SCORE!, a Marketing Coordinator at a corrupt children's service organization that I'd rather not name, and a Recruiting Coordinator at Digitas. I look forward to a day when I can answer this question excitedly and proudly, and people will genuinely be interested to know more about what it is that I do. 5. Partner: I have a wonderful boy in my life named Brian and the more I learn about him the more I love him. We've yet to co-exist in the same state but in the time we've spent together I'm confident that we have what it takes to make it. I met him back in September 2007 at our friends' wedding - he was one of the groomsmen and I grew up with the bride. He had mutton chops and wore a top hat, and it was the first and only time he's ever so much as worn a jacket, let alone a tuxedo. We called him Abe Lincoln. It took me way longer than I'd thought it would to get him to kiss me. :) Now it's not so difficult! Oh and he lives in New Hampshire. But not for much longer... we're driving out to Portland together in almost exactly one month...!! 6. Kids: I love them, I want them (though not now of course), I worry constantly about the state of our future because of how crummy U.S. education is. Apparently I've dug myself into holes by claiming to love naughty children - let me clear the air. I love them, but that doesn't mean they don't wear my patience or that I'm always equipped to handle them. Sometimes I'm mean to them, but only when they're mean and whiny first. ;) 7. Brothers/Sisters: Older brother Jason - 2.5 years older - and younger brother Brian - 3.5 years younger. I never imagined that I would end up with someone who shared a name with one of my brothers, but what are you going to do, eh? Somehow their names mean completely different things to me, if that makes any sense. Growing up I was much closer to Jason - we're a year closer in age than I am to Brian so at times it felt like we were the much older siblings picking on the baby. (Okay, it feels like that sometimes now too...) After Jason went off to college though, Brian and I had two years to bond and I became his confidant on his many heartaches. Being a big sister is totally fun! My favorite story from our childhood is this: Brian was probably about 6 or 7 and Jason and I were picking on him. He ran away crying to his room, and about 15 minutes later he came back into Jason's room holding his pillow. He showed us the little tearstains on the pillow, and we cruelly laughed and threw the pillow in his face. Oh, it breaks my heart! 8. Pets: I don't have any, and have only ever had goldfish. Brian has two dogs and two cats and they get into all sorts of trouble which has led me astray from the desire to really have any sort of animals around. Also, I know for a fact that I'm allergic to cats and am starting to think I might be allergic to dogs too. Bah! 9. List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life: a. Um... I'm moving to Portland in a month? I think that should take up like two or three points. From now until then, I need to organize my possessions, pack, change banks, find an apartment, and start making contacts to do my best to find a job once I get out there. I also need to say goodbye to my parents, see my friends one last time, and then be there with Brian as he says goodbye to his family and home. Kind of intense. b. Well, Brian and I are going to live together in Portland, which I suppose is kind of a big deal. (Ha! So nonchalant, I am.) Things with him have happened so organically that I'm somewhat unfazed by this idea, but rationally I know that it's going to be a big adjustment. I'm looking very much forward to us starting a new chapter together but also gearing up for the increased responsibility and the potential challenges we might face. c. That's... kind of... it. 10. Where and for what did you go to school? I majored in English with a Creative Writing concentration at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. I won't say it's gotten me nowhere, because I constantly recognize that my writing skills set me apart from most people in corporate America (sad to say, but it is true), but in order for me to make a difference in my chosen field I'm planning on pursuing a Master's in Education Policy and Leadership starting next fall. 11. Parents: This year is the 30th anniversary of my parents' immigration to the U.S. from Taiwan. They came here for grad school - my dad for computer science and my mother for education, both at University of Illinois in Chicago. My mother taught Special Education for a while before having children and my dad has been a software developer for as long as I've been aware. After being a stay at home mom for about 12 years my mother went back to work as a software tester, which she's done pretty consistently since then. About four years ago my dad moved back to Taiwan to work, and he and my mother had a long-distance marriage for three years. I'm really not quite sure how my mother managed, living in our four-bedroom, two-story house all on her own for that long, but finally earlier this year he moved back here for good and they now work in the same office building they always worked in together. How adorable, no? I halfway get along with my parents, I suppose. The cultural gap is ever-apparent now that my brothers and I are all in our 20's, and while my parents are pretty progressive in comparison to their other first-generation counterparts, in some ways they just can't quite understand the ideas in our heads. They're still wrapping their minds around the life events mentioned in number 9. 12. Who are some of your closest friends? I actually kind of hate this question because I don't like leaving people out or whatnot. Suffice it to say that right now in Jersey, I'm pretty far away from all of my best friends, and moving to Portland is only going to bring me closer to one or two of them. I've maintained a lot of long-distance friendships in life so I don't doubt my ability to do it, but it does make for some lonely times. Snif, snif! Pity party!
19June | i'm back!
Sorry to have been gone for so long. I've been in New Hampshire since last Wednesday night and there really is no time to blog when I'm at the Hinz house. I'm rushing off to work now, but wanted to drop a line and also express my mind-blown-ness that the next time I see Brian, we won't be saying goodbye again. I mean, not for long stretches of time anyway. So funny that we've been waiting so long for this time and now that it's here we're both kind of rendered speechless. Three weeks to go. Crap, I have to pack up my life. Again.
16June | i'm in the countryside
and my legs, neck and armpit area (yeah, dunno) have become a warzone for bugs. They are literally competing for the sweetness of my blood. Brian says that the gargantuan number of bites on my body is 'nothing' compared to how bad it could get. My response? I am not a country mouse. I am a wimpy mouse. And I'd rather not ever experience how bad it could get, thanks! Ick.
08June | i was definitely a geek
The latest in my TV-on-DVD crusade is Freaks and Geeks. Freaks and Geeks, as some of you may know, was a short-lived comedy-drama on NBC back in 1999 about high schoolers in suburban Detroit. It won a couple Emmys but, as most great television shows are, was cancelled after one season. Seriously, America? Dumb. Even back then, you were dumb. I'm six episodes in and I love it. It makes me laugh, cringe, cry, and most of all, it curls my heart for little Sam Weir (played by John Francis Daley who is now on BONES!!! And of course I love him there too) because he's so adorably awkward and innocent. And now he's totally cute:
The thing about watching television shows whose protagonists are in high school, though, is that sometimes it makes me realize 1. how old I am and 2. how impossible teenagers are. Impossible!!! I think I'd rather have geeky kids. They're nice and malleable.
06June | yum, candy
Because I read a small collection of parent blogs, I often find myself following link after link to different parenting websites, on which they discuss news articles about children, such as this one. Headline: 'Girls Swallows 30 Magnets, Steel Balls.' Give it a gander, please. I'll wait. ... Now, at first I was merely mortified at the idea of even several magnets inside of anyone's body. Then as I watched the video, I noted how strangely... strange this little girl seemed. You may chalk it up to stage fright, but then I thought, how in the world could an 8-year-old kid be misguided enough to swallow THIRTY of those things? Not one, not a handful, but THIRTY? After a couple wouldn't she realize they might not be candy? Especially if they came in a box that said MAGNETIX? Maybe she is disabled. With this theory, perhaps it is not the best idea for her parents to leave a disabled child alone with a toy with small magnetic parts. But wait! "He says he and his wife were in the same room as Haley in their Huntingburg home when she consumed the items, and they didn't even realize it." Bwa?!?! I know there's really nothing I can do about the degenerative state of parenting in the world these days, but I can still express my utter shock and disbelief. I see poor parenting all the time - less now than when I was in NYC, but more than I normally would here because I work with children. It upsets me, but also gives me more admiration for parents who do well with their children and mentally gears me up for the challenge of my own parenting. You know, in five years or something. But seriously. Thirty magnets? While they were IN THE ROOM? Maybe they neglected to mention that the room was their bedroom and they were asleep.
05June | welcome to quarter-life!
Happy birthday Tatiana! Remember when you totally stole my thunder during freshman orientation? Yeah, I'll never forget either.
04June | a soapbox moment
Some of you already know this, but when I was in my late teens I was pseudo-famous online. (I say pseudo because these days, you're not famous unless you're at dooce status and back then most people didn't know what a blog was.) I wrote fan fiction about teen idols, namely The Moffatts, *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and a little bit of Hanson - and I had quite a readership. I got between 75-100 emails a day and even had some overzealous fans stalking me on AIM. Here is an example of a conversation I might have with such a fan: Fan: Karel?? What I couldn't believe was that people actually felt honored to be talking to me - after all, at age 17 I was an overweight, shy, awkward and somewhat depressed teenager who was dealing with her older brother's sexuality through writing it into fan fiction. But I appreciated every word and every email that I received. I wish I had saved them, but alas, I lacked that foresight when themoffatts.com stopped offering email service and my account was terminated. (True story. My email address was evermisery@themoffatts.com. DEPRESSING, no?) Since then, my online readership has diminished considerably - I don't particularly mind, as I'm happy that there are people, period, who are interested enough in my life to tune in on a regular or semi-regular basis. Being part of the online fan fiction community was exciting in some ways, yet also somewhat invasive (people stole my writing more than a few times) and distracting from the goings-on of my physical, daily life. I've always been and will continue to be flattered, however, that I did have that presence, and that my writing was powerful enough to draw in such an audience, regardless of my subject matter. Which is why it irritates me that there are some very popular, widely-read blogs (which shall remain nameless) whose authors tirelessly proclaim that they are boring, mundane, and terrible writers. I can understand wanting to remain humble and modest, but to maintain a blog, in which you write about your life, and receive comments that number in the hundreds daily, and insist that you are a terrible writer, is an insult to both your readers and your blogging peers. Whether or not these bloggers have intended to be good writers or ever felt that they had a talent in written word, they do. And they enjoy a readership and acceptance in the literary community that others may only hope for. To do anything less than acknowledge and appreciate it is in fact a form of passive arrogance that I have little tolerance for. But I still read their blogs. Why? Because they're good writers. I just wish they would own up to it and stop pretending they don't know how talented they are.
03June | hello world!
Well, not to be a quitter, but I am going to have to concede defeat to the unwieldy pressures of Blog 365. It's funny, because you'd think that with my ploddingly slow life schedule I would have no trouble writing every day, but it's just that: my ploddingly slow life schedule produces little of interest to write about. Like, what did I do today? I: SNORE. I will continue to try to post on a daily basis, but I am going to have to remove that plucky little banner from my site lest it turns me into a liar. Here's to June! May it be more prolific than the horrible month of May. ps this post is dedicated to one Jaymie B. Staats
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