It Sucks
I have been living in my apartment for over 6 months now and I decided to finally buy an upright full size vacuum. Don't get me wrong, I love Agador Spartacus (my iRobot Roomba), he does exactly what they say it should do -- but it is true, they say it does not replace an upright vacuum. The Roomba is an every other day vacuum to help between full vacuuming days.
I did a lot of research online to find a good semi-inexpensive vacuum. I was looking for a bagged vacuum (I like the bags, once it is full you toss the bag and the vacuum is all clean, unlike a bagless as you empty it dust goes everywhere and the cup has residue left.), HEPA filer, and a cool look. I landed on the Eureka Boss SmartVac Upright Vacuum. It has everything I wanted and the price was perfect to boot -- it is normally $180, I got it 50% off.
As you can see from the image, it is stylish with its bright yellow "I'm going to clean you" attitude. And it is built for the user -- all the pipes and even roller brush are in clear plastic so you can see if the roller is turning or if the pipes are clogged. The HEPA filers (it has a total of 3 filters) capture over 99.97% of dust and allergens so as it cleans it purifies the air too. It also has some features that I didn't even know I wanted -- one is that when the vacuum is on and in the upright position the rollers don't turn and wast energy or toss dirt around (really good when using the hose tool).
I used it last night for the first time and it is amazing. The online testimonials are right: the suction is fantastic (my work pants will testify to that because I had to pull them out of the vacuum bag after I sucked them up), when the rollers are on it basically pulls itself forward (it is kinda heavy, so I would not recommend it for stairs), it is not that noisy -- a few reviewers said it was deafening, but I could still hear my TV as I used it for the first time. I think it is quiet for how powerful it is. All in all, so far I am very happy with it.
Surgery is a Pain [Updated]
Surprise, I'm having surgery! Becuase my insurance ends at the end of April (maybe? it might not end for another year now with the new Obama Care changes), I have been going to the doctors to get things checked out. Things I have been ignoring -- I know, that's bad. Turns out that when I got really sick in Munich, Germany a year ago -- I should have gone to the doctor. Anyways, my doctor told me that I should get the surgery now before it gets worse. I agreed. He says it will be a simple outpatient procedure with a four hour hospital stay. I will be under anesthesia and will take pain pills for the next few days. He also said that he would be surprised if I did not feel up to going to work Friday -- but everyone is different and we will see. Wish me luck 
So that was wishful thinking. In the hospital I felt fine -- all of the medicine and anesthesia. When I got home after the surgery, I went right to bed and slept. Friday, when my alarm went off for work... I slid out of bed and collapsed to the floor in pain. I grabbed by pain pills and swallowed them down as fast as I could. I called in work sick -- my boss told me before my surgery that he didn't expect I would make it in on Friday -- he was right. For the next few days, I have been in bed watching TV or sleeping. Saturday was the most painful. So far, Sunday, has not been so bad -- but I really hope I feel better then this Monday.
10¢ in One Second
As you know, I have been investing in the stock market. Nothing big, just 1 or 2 stocks here and there. Yesterday I bought 2 stocks in Trinity Industries, Inc. (Symbol: TRN). It was completely on a whim. The only reason was because it is a Dallas based company and I see the headquarters building almost everyday whenever I am on the highway. When I was here for my internship I got a feeling that one day I would have something to do with it -- now I do. After I bought into it, I did research (kinda' backward, I know). Turns out Trinity Industries, Inc. is a multi-industry company that owns a variety of businesses, which provide products and services to the industrial, energy, transportation, and construction sectors. This is perfect. I am kinda' in the construction industry myself. I also believe that train use will be increasing in the near future and, to top it with a cheery on top, they are now producing structural wind towers to blow into the green energy market. Anyways, I know I am not going to become a millionaire only owning 2 shares, but I already made 10¢ I didn't have 1 second ago -- so worth it. LOL.
Small World, Money, & 90 Days
If you read my previous blogs, you know I have a few New Year's resolutions. Well, you'll be happy to know I am working on all of them. I even got a chance to use one stone for two birds (make a Dallas friend/workout).
The other week I made an acquaintance that has had a personal trainer for over 7 years. We made time where he would come over to my apartment's gym and help me setup a workout program. After he showed me how each exercise is to be done and in what order, we went up to my apartment. The first thing he saw in my apartment was a picture of Meryl and me on my nightstand. He looked at me and said, "How do you know that girl?" I responded, "Oh that's one of my best friends, you wouldn't know her. She is in Houston right now." He answered, "Is it Meryl?" Needless to say, my jaw dropped to the ground. Turns out he was Meryl's psychology professor a few semesters ago. Small, small world. Go figure!
In other news, I filled my 2009 tax return yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised to discover I am getting a $700 refund. I love e-filing. I should get it in 10 business days, directly deposited into my checking account -- oh, the magic of technology. Of course 10% is going to savings (10% of all my income goes to savings). I am thinking of spending 40% on apartment stuff and upcoming wedding gifts, and then 50% goes to either credit card and/or student loans.
In upcoming events, next Tuesday (Jan 26, 2010), i'll have lived in D/FW for 90 days (3 months). I guess this means work is keeping me and I'll be getting business cards soon. I am happy with my job, residence, and Dallas. I am still getting over being homesick and so far from all my friends. I'm not going to lie, it has been hard being alone and getting used to a new city -- especially with the events that are happening with some of my friends. I feel so helpless, distant, and don't know what to do. Sometimes I wish I had all the answers, sometimes. Yet, part of the fun in life is trying to figure them out, right?
Where I Work
I have been getting a lot of questions about my new job. So, I am going to tell you about where I work and a typical day. I am intentionally not putting the name of where I work because I do not want this entry to come up on a Google search above the new office's website. I work for a landscape architecture design studio specializing in high-end residential landscape projects. The majority of our work comes from homeowners, architects, and builders with whom we have had the pleasure of working (and yes, I built the website -- released it November 30, 2009). Most of our work is within the Dallas/Fort Worth Metro Area. We work on high profile, well known, people's houses -- just so you know, I will never write about our clients/projects on my blog -- so don't get your hopes up. But, I will tell you the average cost of the houses are $1 to 5 million.
In a typical day, I wake up at 7:30am. I shower, dress, do normal morning stuff. At 7:50am, I head to my apartment's clubhouse for free breakfast -- I get orange juice, a pastry, and either hot chocolate or tea. I then drive to work and arrive at 8am. I unlock the office, turn the lights on, and eat while I fill out my timesheet from the pervious day. I usually start my day with just general administration work. Then I continue working on things from the previous day. My boss arrives around 9-10am (he does morning client meetings -- sometimes he doesn't even arrive until after lunch). When he does arrive, he gives me a list of things to work on; usually red lined site/planting plans (changes to make), design concepts, and more recently, pool concept drawings.
When noon rolls around, I drive back to my apartment and have lunch. I usually watch my DVR-ed Price is Right or some show I did not watch from the night before. I get an hour for lunch, so I head back to work 5 min before my hour is up. Once I get back, either of two things happen. One, I continue working on red lines/concepts/the office website, or two, my Boss and I go drive around the D/FW metro area for site visits/Client meetings. A site visit consists of going to the site, making sure it is being built like we drew, and solving issues that arise (usually last minute changes). If we go for site visits, I normally get back to the office and then head home around 6pm. If we stayed in the office, I head home at 5pm -- unless I stay longer to get something finished for an early client meeting the next day; then I end up getting home at 7pm.
Once I get home, I eat dinner, do housework, watch TV, play on the computer, write blogs (duh), and chat with friends. Sometime when I know a good show will be on, I will go to my apartment's fitness center. The cardio machines all have personal 13" flat screen with cable TV. It makes working out so much more enjoyable. Just flip on the show I know I am interested in and work out -- it makes the time go by really fast. That is the one thing I hated about the REC at A&M, I like to work out for an hour, but I would run out of things to keep my mind occupied. Anyways, back to the main topic. At 10:30pm I get ready for bed and fall asleep around 11pm. That's it -- that is a typical weekday for me.
Happy New Year — 2010
I knew how to bring in 2010 right -- asleep. Yes, I slept through New Years! Here is the story. After work I went to the bank, Target, grocery store, and then home. At home I watched some TV and ate dinner with a glass of sparkling wine around 8pm (it was a special day, I started to celebrate early). I knew I had a few hours before going out, so I decided I would take an hour nap, then get up and get ready (a nap so I would be more apt to staying up late -- sounded like a good idea, right?). But no -- the "once in a blue moon" blue moon had another idea for me (at least that is what I am "blaming" it on).
If you don't know, the Full moons used to have 12 names, one for each month, such as "harvest moon." The term "blue moon" referred to the rare 13th full moon in a year. It only happens on New Years every 20 or so years.
The old wives tale goes that the moon can effect humans, for me, I guess it made me sleepy (and as you may know, I have not been sleeping well for the past few weeks). My quick nap turned into 8 hours. It's the first night I slept over 5 hours straight through in two weeks. I guess that's the silver lining -- at least I got some sleep -- I'll catch the next New Years in 364 days. When I awoke groggy and realized what happened at 4am, I figured it was to late to call/text anyone "Happy New Years," so I just went back to bed. But that didn't last long, now it's 6am, I'm groggy but awake, and I have a headache.
Oh yeah, because I did not do my regular after work routine, I forgot to un-silence my phone. I am so sorry to the people that called/texted me Happy New Year --Happy New Year back!
As for my New Year's resolutions, I have come up with 4 (for now). First, I want to make friends in Dallas. To do this, I am going to put myself out into the social scene. Not just bars/clubs, but gatherings, such as things held by my apartment complex or volunteering at events -- anything that I find information on that intrigues me, I will try and go. Second, I want to lose 10 pounds. According to the weight charts at the doctor's office, I am still overweight by 5 pounds for my height and my ideal weight is 10-15 pounds less then I am now. I am going to lose the weight by using my apartment complex's gym regularly, at least 3 times a week, and eating smaller portions (with counting calories). Third, I want to try and reduce self-inflicted stress in my life. I need to stop analyzing everything to the point where it drives me crazy. This is going to be a hard habit to break and I am still trying to figure out how. Fourth, I need to stop relying on spellcheck and Google. I have become lazy when it comes to spelling. I need to focus more when typing and only use Google when I honestly don't know how to spell a word.
Happy New Year! Here's to a fantastic 2010 -- wow, 2010!
Merry Christmas
The week before Christmas was miserable for me. Let me explain. I have now realized that almost 90% of your christmas spirit comes from decorations and friends/family -- all things I did not have around me. Because I am newly on my own, I don't have any Christmas decorations -- in fact, the only thing I had was 1 Christmas card from my grandparents. As for the friends/family, my close, close, group of friends are now living all over the world. The closest friend/family is a three hour drive from me. In my mind, I kept thinking about what I had last year at this time -- before the "divorce." With all this in my mind, I was in a real melancholy state. Now you have the context, here are the events that pushed me over the edge.
The weekend before Christmas my mom came to visit. We had a fantastic time, then she went home. You know that feeling of when you have to say, "Goodbye" -- then the rest of the day just feels empty and quiet? Yeah -- empty, quiet, and alone. Now the events of the week -- I got really bad news from a close friend, could not sleep all week, my eyes were always red/puffy so I used my old eye drops that I now discovered have a side effect of dilating eyes (party of self-conscious +1), badly burnt my tongue, found a dent (looks like it is from a rogue shopping cart) on my car, bashed my shin into my platform bed (so hard it bled and bruised), I got two (yes, two) canker sores, my face broke out, I still hate my hair cut (and can tell I am losing/getting gray hair -- which is adding to the self-consciousness), and was forcing myself to "keep it together" because I still had work everyday.
When I finally got home to my mom's on Christmas Eve (after a long three hour drive), I walked through the door and said "Hi" and busted out crying. I just could not keep it in anymore. We sat around and talked for a few hours. My mom said it best, I had the holiday blues. I'm so used to being around people. When I was in a relationship I was always around someone, when that ended I was always around my mom, then I went traveling -- always around people. Now, I go to work and come home to an empty apartment -- it is really starting to get to me. Yes, now and then I get together with old friends -- but it is only once in a blue moon.
(Side note: If you know me, while I was writing this blog, my mom's cat (Chloe) just attacked Salem, and I unknowingly yelled, "Morgan, stop!" -- sigh). Anyways, enough blubbering.
Christmas Day, I felt slightly better (still kinda down, but I finally got over 5 hours of sleep). My mom and I opened gifts. I got furniture, home decorations, kitchen supplies, and a 40" flat screen TV (TV has been my closeted friend in Dallas; it talks to me and always has interesting topics to entertain me -- yeah, i'm anthropomorphizing my TV, that's how looney I have been). I got my mom a new Blue-ray DVD player that also streams Blockbuster and Netflix video on demand. I helped her set that up and for the rest of the day we watched movies. It was a perfect gift for her. She loves movies. Now with the Netflix VOD, she can watch unlimited movies anytime she wants all for only $9 a month -- perfect. We have already watched 5 movies.
Saturday I got a full night sleep. My mom and I have been running around catching the sales, mainly window shopping. Sunday, I am going to go visit some old college friends. Monday my mom and I are going down to Houston to shop and see my best friend at the hospital (I have not seen her in over two months -- since she went in for her transplant). Tuesday, I am going to the doctor to get the burn on my tongue checked out and get a general checkup. Then I will head back up to Dallas -- I have work on Wednesday.
For New Years, Pam and Briana invited me to a New Year's party they are going to in Denton -- now I have something to look forward to. My next post will be around New Years. It will include my new year's resolutions, how I plan on making friends in Dallas, and just a small blurb on my fantastic job (I told you I would never write about my jobs on my blog -- but because everyone keeps asking me about it, I will write a small general description). I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas/Happy Holidays!
That German Feeling
My studio friend Briana got a job near Garland Texas (next to Dallas) so we have been hanging out. Because it is getting cold, I have been wearing all the clothing I bought in Germany to stay warm -- makes me felt like I am back in Germany. It really felt like it when Briana, Kyle, and I hung out last weekend (we were all in Germany together a year ago) and walked around downtown Dallas exploring. You need to understand some things. I feel like I am living alone back in the dorm in Germany, Briana is in a host family (she is staying with family friends in Garland), Kyle lives really fare away from everyone, i'm having Glüwein (been making it home made), I live just down the road from where I go everyday, I have been walking a lot, no one cares where Blake is (yet, he is in Dallas), my neighbors just found out they are pregnant (just like Catrina & Josh), and I'm exploring all of Dallas because it's foreign to me.
This all brings me to the German Market in Dallas. I told my boss's wife about all this and she told me where to find a german market near me (becuase it feel like I am in Germany I have a lust for bratwurst). The place is called Kuby's Sausage House. According to the website, in "1728, Friedrich Kuby opened a neighborhood meat market in Kaiserslautern, Germany, that specialized in fine sausages and specialty meats. After two centuries of satisfied customers, Karl Kuby, direct descendant of Opa Friedrich, immigrated to the United States, bringing with him the unique art of sausage making and specialty meat preparation. In 1961, Karl opened Kuby's Sausage House, Inc., in Dallas, Texas."
In addition to the fleisch (meats), they now carry many products from Germany that I found to be common. To start, my favorite, toothpaste condiments! No, it is not toothpaste, they are condiments in squeeze tubes. It really is a good idea -- you can get to the last drop without a knife. They also have waffle cookies, candy, fish in jars/cans, all types of mustard, pre-mixed spice and sauce packets, so on. Only if they had Nuremberg sausages. I didn't look that hard, they closed in 10 min after I arrived, so I was in a rush. I'll have to go back and see (Nuremberg sausages were my favorite sausage, I think I ate hundreds of them -- just ask Dominik). This place really felt German. In fact, the only thing about it that was not German was that it was open on Sunday.
When I go back, I am so going to get the Goulash beef stew packet. For lunch I ate goulash from the Bonn farmers market everyday for almost two weeks. I loved the stuff so much. When I saw this packet my mouth watered. I am thinking I will get it and have Briana and Kyle over for goulash and Glüwein -- a german dinner party. Sounds like a nice night.
Thanksgiving
My mom came up to Dallas around noon. She took me to a restaurant on a 27 floor that overlooked Downtown Dallas. It was a four-course meal with complimentary bottomless mimosas. Absolutely fantastic. After, we drove around Dallas and I showed her some of the residences I am working on at work. Then we went to a movie. She drove home around 8pm.
Now that thanksgiving has come and gone, I have satisfied my yearly requirement to be thankful and can go back to taking things for granted.
That is a bit cynical, isn't? But that represents what I am most thankful for this year. I am thankful for the fact that I can tell that is cynical. It seams that everyone is thankful for things -- family, friends, bosses, homes, technology, presents, so on -- tangible items.
What about the intangible things? The invisible things? I have always looked at life as a cup. You know the saying, "is it half full or half empty?" For me it's neither -- it's half with water and half with air -- always full. This year I am truly thankful for all the intangible things in my life (the invisible things, like air). My intelligence, feelings, personality, character, talent, creativity, health, memory and experiences. The things that make me who I am.
Don't get me wrong, I am thankful or the typical things most people are thankful for around these days (especially family and friends), but I am truly thankful for the opportunities presented in my life.
Oh, and I am thankful you are reading my blog. Happy Thanksgiving.
Gotta’ Love Texas Weather
Its been a warm summer all the way up to this weekend. Then, just as it does in Texas, winter hit on Monday. We dropped our nice autumn 75s (25 C) weather to the 50s (12 C) -- overnight. Because it got so cold, I stopped off at my apartment's club house to get some free hot tea before work (they have a free hot beverage maker; you select what you want and it dispenses it). When I walked in I discovered that my apartment has complimentary breakfast Monday-Friday between 6-8am. Free coffee, tea, hot chocolate, cereals w/ milk, yogurt, and fruit. Shari said it best; I am living in an apartment hotel -- garbage valet, breakfast, and a doorman who lets in the cable guy so I don't have to be home waiting for him between 10am-4pm (AKA his random hour window).