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.