Christmas Time and the last four months in one sentance

I haven't blogged in several months, and the truth is I'm not sure I have a whole lot to say right now. Obviously, our nephew Ethan was born in August, I started school and my GSA with the press in September, I just finished the quarter, etc. You all know all of this.

So what's new and exciting? Not much. We're not coming home for Christmas, which is a bit depressing, but Torren and I have set up our own Charlie Brown Christmas of sorts. We have a tree and stocking and DeQuincey is very unhappy about all of it. Spokane is also in the middle of a blizzard, which is tons of fun. The amount of snow isn't all that bad, but the people out here have no idea what they are doing in it, so it makes the driving a little rough.

I am currently in the middle of a three week hiatus from both school and the press, and I have never been so happy to be away from somewhere for a while in my life. I'm using the time to work on my thesis and my reading list for next quarter, which is good, and I'm really thinking finishing my degree on time in June is completely possible.

Well, that's all for now. Merry Christmas!

Freaking Hilarious

DeQuincy, ABBA, and Eastward Bound

I've been neglecting my blog lately, and I'm going to try to remedy that. At least, until we go to Ohio in a few days, ha.

Anyway, DeQuincy has gotten very accustomed to his new home. He's fully potty trained now, and his barking issues have gotten better. We have also learned, and now we buy him only indestructible dog toys. Who knew a dog so little had such a big bite? He also is quite the jumper, he can get up on the couch (and more recently my desk chair) easily and when he jumps off he's more like a catapult, sometimes ending up all the way in the dining room from his launch.

Mostly I've been working at the Press and attempting to do some writing. In hopes of stopping myself from getting distracted, Torren and I constructed a wall of such around my desk area. And by wall, I mean picture hanging wire with two heavy cloth shower curtains strung across. Yes, it is a little ghetto, but it's also considerably cheaper then, say, moving to a two bedroom apartment. We'll see if it works. Hopefully when we get back I'll be able to put it to better use.

We're getting ready for our trip and are in no way packed or prepared. If anyone is surprised by this, well, you don't know me very well, do you? I generally would not be so concerned about this, except that my friend Geneva is staying at our apartment to watch the dog while we're gone, so I can not do my normal crazy midnight packing the night before, throwing stuff all over the apartment and figuring I'll just clean up when I get back.

Speaking of the trip, I am looking forward to some much needed r & r. While Spokane is growing on me, especially Spokane in the summer where the humidity is practically nonexistent, I need to get out of the office and the crazy traffic and just this state in general. Who knew I would ever miss the midwest so much?

When it has been hot here, Torren and I have often escaped to the movies. As everyone already knows, the new batman movie was absolutely amazing and everyone should see it if they haven't. Hancock? eh. Wanted? eh. Torren liked it, but it was a little more bloody then I generally enjoy. Sex and the City? Two hours of consumerist escapism that I'm embarrassed to admit I rather enjoyed. Mama Mia? Not anywhere near as good as the play, though still full of catchy ABBA songs. Although I'm not sure who told Pierce Brosnan he could sing. Or should sing. Also, probably not such a good idea to expose your spouse or boyfriend to this, ladies. Trust me. It's not worth it.

Well, that's it for now. Looking forward to seeing all of you!

Boring Post

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Between work, class, house sitting, and DeQuincy, I've barely had time to do anything, I have e-mails I still haven't read, it's a bit insane.

But! Now everything's over except work. I can't believe it's already July 10th, when did that happen? But I am counting the days till we head to Ohio. I'm in need of a break from work and Spokane in general.

So really I don't have much to say. Torren and I have to go flip flop shopping today because someone destroyed a couple...but other then that, not much is new.

Meet DeQuincy!

Torren and I adopted a puppy! Well, he's not actually a puppy, he's a year old long hair miniature dachshund! We brought him home yesterday and are happy to report he's adjusting nicely. Mostly he just sits in Torren's lap or sleeps. Hmmm...what is it they say about dogs and their owners? We named him DeQuincy, and yes, that is a literary reference. Here are our first pictures of the little guy. Enjoy!

Yes, Even in Grad School, You Can Feel Socially Awkward...

So, I realized, after doing my last post, that I never talked about the wonder that was the MFA Prom. That's right, we had a prom. Complete with a horrible DJ and corsages made out of tissue paper. The big difference? This time drinking was legally involved. I don't think words can really give you an accurate look at this event (and for me to say this is scary, what with being a writer and all) so instead, I submit for you some of my favorite pictures of the event. Enjoy.

Summer, Summer, Summer Time

Haven't blogged in a while...oops...

But! the exciting news is my quarter is finally over!!! Hooray for summer! It's about time. I mean, never mind that I'm taking a summer class that starts in 4 days (why did I think that was a good idea?) But it only lasts for two weeks, and then I'm free until the end of September. And, not to rub it in those of you back in the Midwest, but the weather here is absolutely gorgeous! I think the mild summers are the one thing I'll miss about this place when we leave.

I'm still working at the press over the summer, so I'm not entirely free. And, I really need to write a good rough draft of my thesis this summer so I can graduate on time. But I'm half way done with grad school, and that still feels a little strange.

Torren and I are officially coming to Ohio from August 2-17! So that's pretty exciting. I'm definitely ready for a break from Spokompton. (yes, you did read that correctly. Remember Springtucky?) Anyway, that's really all I've got for now.

~love

Not much to say...

So, after the excitement that was last week's GSA news, I found out this week that I got the position of student advisor for the Eastern Washington University undergrad journal, Northwest Blvd. I get credit for it, and it looks good, again, for getting a job after graduation. However, I may be a bit crazy trying to take on everything at once. Oh well. I better get a big head start on my thesis this summer...

Today, I really missed Ohio. Don't get me wrong, the weather here is great right now. It did hit 90, except without that pesky humidity Ohio gets. But still, I was homesick. Torren and I wanted Ohio food so bad, particularly Fazoli's, that we contemplated driving to the nearest one. Until we found out it was seven hours away...

Not much else is new really. I'm counting down the days until summer gets here, but that's about it.

Graduate Student Assistant!

So, exciting news! I got the GSA with the EWU Press! What this means basically is that I will be working for the press next year (and yes, I already do) but in a totally different setting. I will no longer be the financial assistant, and! I get free tuition plus a monthly stipend. How cool is that?? I will admit, I'm pretty excited about this. The less debt the better, plus it will be really good experience and may help me with that elusive "job" thing I will someday have to get in the real world with this degree.

Other then that, life is busy as usual. I have a story due in two days...yea...
On the pet front, Torren is trying to wear me down to get a cat instead of a dog, and it might be working. I'm sure we'll keep you in the know.

Finally, I'm ready for summer. I have a month left before my quarter is over, then I'm taking a two week summer course. But I will be so happy when the 4th of July rolls around, I can't even say. Although then, I'll really have to start thinking about my final year of grad school and the thesis I am supposedly working on. yikes!

I Am Iron Man

Yesterday we went to see iron man and, I have to say, for a superhero movie I was pretty impressed. I was also impressed by the superfly ghetto movie theater we went to in the valley. It included neon restroom signs and a group of twelve people trying to coordinate seats in a sold out theater and yelling to each other across the aisles. Nice.

Today was bloomsday, which means that at 8am this morning some of my friends were woken up by a loud band playing and some 40,000 people running down their street. We got together and contemplated running the bloomsday race next year, then, instead, ate french toast at a sidewalk cafe and watched as sweat soaked men and women passed us by.

The weather has finally gotten warm here, which is nice but not very good for productivity, and so one day last week Torren and I decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood. It was dark, probably about nine or so, and when we got outside we saw this guy, wearing a lot of hiking gear, including one of those huge backpacks, skateboarding down the middle of the street. Or, at least, trying to skateboard but instead repeatedly falling off of it. Finally, he jumped off, picked the board up, and ran up the sidewalk in front of us saying, "Guess I drank to much beer tonight to be doing that!" and caught the next bus at the corner. Yep, that's our neighborhood in a nutshell.

Milk Crates & Break-Ins & Puppies, Oh My!

I haven't posted in a while because, well, because life has been busy. But I guess I should. So, here is a quick recap of the last month.

*Our car got broken into, in a brightly lit parking lot, and they stole my backpack. Mostly notes, and my ipod, and it kind of sucked. So yeah.

*I went to Ohio for a visit! It was so good to see everyone, including my new, in-lawed family :) I mostly went out to eat and met up with friends and family, took a trip down to Springfield and saw my brother and old professors at Wittenberg, and played with my parents adorable new puppy, Aurora!

*I got a job! I'm the new financial assistant (scary, I know) at EWU Press, where i've been interning since January. Right now we're dealing mostly with GetLit! the Spokane literary festival that we run. That's right, literary festival. You know your jealous, because it's a rocking good time. Like today, for example, I got to stand on a milk-crate on a street corner in downtown Spokane and read poetry out loud to the people who passed by. Oh yes, us literary types know how to drum up publicity. But so if you've e-mailed or called my recently and haven't heard back, I'm not ignoring you, I promise. This is the first time I've sat at my computer for more then five minutes since I got back from Cleveland.

OK, well I'm exhausted now, so I guess that's it!

~love

I Couldn't Help Myself

For Your Consideration...

So, today we did our thank yous from the wedding (finally) and to prove it, here is a picture of Torren mailing them.

Additionally, I'm almost done with my quarter. yay! Except for, you know, the presentation I haven't finished and the, oh, probably, 300 pages or so I still need to read...

Other then that...not a whole lot going on to speak of. Here are some random, horrible pictures of us in good old Spokane. This one is me at my desk, looking sort of awful and one of Torren doing

I don't know what exactly. Oh, here's a good story. So, our neighbors are crazy right? and apparently decided to convert their apartment into a doctors office (no, not really...it was a joke of some sort...at least i hope so...) Anyway, this is what it looked like outside our neighbors door for over two weeks (and yes, Torren was threatening to at least throw the plant out the window because we kept running into it when we went out the door)

Luckily enough, that is also a note on their door from the apartment manager, telling them that they are breaking fire code and have to take it all down. So, I had to at least document that it happened, right? But, for all the crazy stuff that happens in this building, we do have a great apartment, it's much bigger then most of my MFA friends, and cheaper in some cases, so I still love it.

Anyway, I'll leave you with this link. Watch it till the end. It's worth it, I promise! (Even you, Tyler, now that Chris made you watch all the HP movies) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4

Signage in Spokane...

Since we've been here, we have seen several interesting signs in the Spokane area.
The first was on a sign for a storage unit and said:

See Manager for Super Secret Special!

Hmmm, right. What kind of 'super secret special?' Then, a friend of mine found a sign in Boo Radley's (a novelty shop) at Christmas time that read:

Oh Little Town of Methlehem

Yep, pretty much. Then Melissa herself took part in the sigh craziness by wearing a sign when a group of MFAers went skating at the ice palace that read:

Free Hugs

So, today was another classic. I was driving home, during rush hour mind you, and on the side of the road was a man dressed like a cowboy, all in black, including his hat. And he held a sign that said:

I love prostitutes! Honk if you do to!

Yep, that's Spokane

"Alchohol, a party time necessity"

Yes, I did just use lyrics from the Bare Naked Ladies in my title.

The beginning of this clip from scrubs describes how I felt most of today. I think I have officially passed on to the "slightly older" side of life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1PuOemoid4

The reason for this was, of course, that Torren and I hosted the after party for voice over last night. Overall, I think it went pretty well. There have never been that many people in our apartment before (like, 25 or 30 I would guess?) and it definitely proved its spaciousness. The conversation was engaging, including a debate about whether or not ghosts are real and whether or not one of my MFA colleagues is a sleaze for ogling a certain girl. Yes, we are highly intellectual folk when we've been drinking. We also now have a fridge filled with leftover beer. So, I guess you could say it was a pretty normal party.

Also, thanks to said party, our apartment is clean! (except for, of course, all of the empty wine and beer bottles which we have not yet taken out to be recycled.)

Well, I guess that's all for now.
~love

Just When You Thought it was Safe to Live in Spokane...

Let me start out by saying that the area of Spokane we live in is called Brown's Addition. And it's a historic area with mostly apartment buildings and old mansions, which are pretty cool. And apparently, up until a few years ago, it was filled primarily with meth addicts and crazy people. Right, ok, but it's cleaned up quite a bit since then and is now an affordable place to live, mostly a lot of students, etc. This is a picture I took of our apartment when we first moved in.

That being said, let me tell you about Tuesday night.

Tuesday nights are workshop nights, and so all three genres in the program have workshop class and often after class we all go and meet up at this bar around the corner from the school.

This Tuesday was my friend Geneva's birthday, so a bunch of us went out and I was the dd and drove everyone home around midnight. Well, I get home and, after struggling to find a parking spot on the street I get out of my car about a block down from our building and realize that there is a cop car parked outside our apartment, but it doesn't have any lights on and its just sitting there.

'Hmm', I think, 'that's kind of weird.'

And of course, crazy, paranoid woman that I am, I start worrying. So I get out of my car and walk, admittedly a bit fast, up to our apartment building. And on my way up I notice something.

And I think, 'wow, that's odd, what a strange, red colored patch on the porch. Huh, and another one. Oh, and a lot more large splotches. Um, and it's running down the door. Oh my god!'

Yep, ladies and gentlemen, there was blood all over our front porch and down our door. Needless to say, I freaked out a bit and basically ran upstairs.

We still don't know what happened, luckily the blood has now been cleaned up. I'm sure it was nothing, but late at night if you came home to that, I think you'd be a bit concerned to. So, yeah. That was the excitement of my week.

Everything but the Kitchen Sink...

The maintenance man at our apartment building came and fixed our kitchen faucet today!

This may not bring to any of you the joy that it apparently brings to me, but you have to understand that pretty much since we moved in here that faucet has been dripping. It started as a single drip once in a while, but for at least the past two months it has been a constant stream of running water. And now it's stopped! It's so quiet in this apartment, I don't even know what to do! Torren says it's even made him like the apartment considerably better, not that we disliked it before of course. I feel like we should throw a party or something, it's crazy! Oh! And we bought new towels using bed, bath, & beyond gift certificates from the wedding! And some wall hangings on clearance at target!

Is it sad that this is now what I get excited about? Wow, I really must be turning into an old married lady... it's just that it's finally starting to feel like we live here, you know?

What else?

I've been a little homesick lately. I think it's the realization that we're not going to be back in Ohio for a while, and all this stuff is going on there that we're going to miss (Tyler's confirmation, Tom and Matt's graduation and parties, probably a baby shower for Megan, etc.) and also just the people. The people we've met here are great, don't get me wrong, but it's not the same as hanging out with family or friends you've known most of your life (or at least quite a few years). So yeah, know your all missed. Even if I haven't called you lately (because, to be honest, sometimes that makes it harder...)

Anyway, here's a little song for all of you back home. It's kind of upbeat, but is also the song of how I feel at the moment. enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p9DRj9-ZPM&feature=related
(and yes, I know it's to a Grey's Anatomy montage, but the real music video isn't on youtube)

~love

Reading in Public, ahh!

I'm supposed to be cleaning right now...

but obviously i'm not.

So, that being said, here's what's new!

It's been a busy busy week here in Spokane, particularly in the school arena. Friday night we had a party at Sam's house for the launch of the new issue of Willow Springs (issue 61) which you should check out here http://willowsprings.ewu.edu/index.html or, better yet, pick up a copy at the literary journal carrier of your choice or, you know, probably by subscribing through the website. Either way, it's super cool.

Also, Saturday was February's voiceover and, yes, that is a picture of yours truly giving her first MFA reading! It was a good time, we had some great readers, and, well, I didn't pass our or stutter too much, so I would call that a success.

Other then that, school is going well, but the quarter is going fast and I feel like I'm always trying to catch up. But, hopefully, I'm developing a schedule that should help with this. Married life is good, the same mostly, and Torren and I are continuing our debate over pets (dog vs. cat vs. no pet) so you know, I'll keep you posted.

Till then!
love~

Life = Blah

Well, it's been a rough few weeks.

Bascially, I'm really not liking Spokane very much. I think it's the snow (and the crappy drivers it brings out) and I'm sure once it is spring and I can walk places again, and basically just get out of the apartment without the fear of being hit by a car or falling down trying to walk across the ice, life will be better. But until then, I'm a little down. But it's probably just cabin feaver.

I have a story due Tuesday, bu then it's a busy rest of the week with a bunch of meetings and parties and, *gasp*, voiceover on Saturday night. That's right, my time has come for doing a public reading in the world of MFAers. And actually, I like doing readings. I did several at Witt and mostly they are a lot of fun, but the first one at a new place is always a little tough. Plus it's a six page reading limit, so I have no idea what I'm going to be reading. Oh well, I'm sure it will be fine, but I'll let you know how it goes.

I guess that's it for now.

I'm a Mrs.

So, it's been a while since I've had the time to update you all on my life and, although it was three weeks ago, the most exciting thing that has happened is still that I GOT MARRIED! This is still a little crazy to think about. Sometimes I look at Torren and go, huh, we are now legally bound to each other, that's sort of weird, but awesome of course :) I have a husband now, scary. When did we get so old? Also, I am changing my name, so don't be surprised to see a letter or e-mail show up from a Stanley, it's not a mistake. People keep asking me how married life is, but to be honest it's not all that different from how life was pre-tying the knot, except that we don't have to stress out about wedding details now.

The wedding went pretty much as planned, there were pictures and cake, dancing and drinking, etc. I will say that the most out of the ordinary moment of the evening was when my poor legally blind aunt set one of the bread baskets on fire. yeah... that's pretty typical to my life. But overall I think we threw a pretty good party!

In other news, Torren and I have returned to Washington and I've started my winter quarter. We seemed to really jump in to school this quarter, and I'm already feeling a little behind, but I think once I establish a schedule I'll be doing better and will be able to stay on top of things. Also, Jenny and Kevin came to visit us the second week of January, and that was a lot of fun. We are always open to visitors (hint hint) and we had a lot of fun, mostly just hanging out, playing Wii, and eating. They had a little trouble with their flight, can we say assume the crash position anyone? But overall, it was a pretty good time.

Sadly, to end this note, I'm afraid I must attach a rather upsetting in memoriam to my dear dog of nearly eleven years, Oreo. The lovable collie who attached herself to everyone's heart had to be put down on January 4, and I'll admit that I'm still quite sad about this. She was more then a dog, she was a dear friend and companion and will be dearly missed by everyone who ever entered my family's Cleveland home. Life won't be the same without her, but we will keep her memory alive in our hearts. She led a good life, and I guess that's all any of us can ask for

Ok, well that's all for now.

~love