Currently I am....

Currently…

READING: When I was in Argentina I found an author that I really liked so I bought several of her books. I just finished one and will be starting another. 

WRITING: This blog entry. I’m also writing a couple of letters. One for my cousin in Argentina and the other to the lovely Amanda Nicole from Knock on Wood.

LISTENING: I am not a big music fan, however I LOVE the Backstreet Boys – so I’m either listening to their latest album or to talk radio during my very short drives to and from work. 

THINKING: I’m thinking that my first week of meal planning was derailed by being invited to my in-law’s for dinner on Monday and a free movie screening on Tuesday. 

SMELLING: My hubby’s cologne. I love it! 

WISHING & HOPING: I’m wishing and hoping that I find some relief to my rib pain. I get so sad and depressed when I think this is the rest of my life. 

WEARING: A maxi dress from Kohl’s. I love these! I have it in 2 colors and hope that I can buy another (black and white) before they stop carrying them. 

WANTING: I want an iMac. I have a MacBook Pro but I would love to have a desktop with a nice sized screen. This may or may not come true for my birthday. 

LOVING: I am really loving my new Galaxy S5. I’m still learning to use it. Setting up ring tones/vibrations for different events has been more complicated than I expected. 

NEEDING: I need that my husbands’ employer not send him away so much. Of the 12 weeks we’ve been in the condo and got married he has been out of town 5 weeks (okay, 2 of them was with me on our honeymoon). 3 work weeks away and he’ll be gone another 3 weeks soon. 

Don't forget to check out an awesome giveaway I am participating int! 

This Or That - Or What?

Today's prompt was way too much fun to miss out on! 

1. Be blind or be deaf

I think I would rather be deaf than blind. While I would prefer to have all my senses, not being able to see would leave me much more impaired than what I would ever want. With sight I'd still be able to see my children play and grow up with my own eyes.

2. Be taller than you are or shorter than you are

Taller for sure! I'm only 5'2" (with my shoes on). My husband is 6'3". I would love to be able to reach up and kiss him without straining my neck or him having to bend down too far. 

3. Be a teenager or a senior citizen for the rest of your life

A senior citizen. I've never been a fan of teenagers, not even when I was one. I have always gravitated toward people who were older than me. I think it's because my siblings are (were) 12, 14, and 15 years old than me so I was always around older people. Interestingly enough my husband is 6 months younger than me.

4. Have no hands or no legs

Wow, they really went all out on these questions! I think that while not being able to move around on my own two feet would make life a lot more difficult than it is now, I would rather that than miss my hands (or arms). I'll go back to the idea of not being able to hold onto my own children. 

5. Lose your front teeth or both eyebrows

Haha! This one made me laugh. Are we assuming that I can't get replacement teeth? If not, I'd choose to lose my front teeth because that can be fixed by a dentist! The remedies for replacing eyebrows does not seem as good result wise.

6. Eat a worm or a cockroach

Now you're just getting gross. I think I have to go with worm. I'll pretend it's a gummy one. There is nothing here that says I can't make it into a meal, right?

7. Spend a day in the Sahara or North Pole

North Pole! I would get to meet Santa! What could be more fun than that?

8. Have a personal chef or a personal driver

Personal chef! While I like cooking sometimes when I get home I just want to chill not worry about making dinner for my hubby. My commute is only a few minutes so I don't mind driving myself. It would also be awesome to have home made meals for lunch every day!

9. Always have to whisper or always have to shout

This is hard. Loud noises around me (most of the time my husband) generally hurt my ears. But then again I have a really hard time hearing whispers. I suppose that since I'm used to loudness - something my family taught me to be - will be easier than to only hear whispers.

10. Can't taste or can't smell

Ohhh I think I would rather not be able to smell. Food is too good to not taste it!

11. Wipe with sandpaper or saran wrap

Where did you guys get these from??? Definitely saran wrap. I might get my hafnds a little dirty but at least my body won't be scratched up! 

12. Have Twitter shut down for a day or your blog disappear for a day

I'd rather twitter shut down. That would make it onto the news and would be entertaining to watch how the world goes crazy without Twitter for the day. No one will notice if my blog goes down and it would be too complicated to get it back up.

13. Text of your blog is screwed up or all the pictures you post on your blog are blurry

I'd rather the pictures be blurry. It drives me insane to read a blog when the font isn't attractive and everything is all over the place. I like things organized. 

14. Never be able to post another GIF or never be able to receive comments on your posts

Although I do post GIFs sometimes, I'd be good to stick to pictures. Not having comments would make me sad!  

15. Have a permanent wedgie or have the tag on your shirt constantly scratch your neck

This is a really difficult one. Both of these are super annoying! BUT most shirts don't have regular tags anymore so I'm going to pick that one, they are way less annoying than wedgies at this point. 

Come Take A Tour of THE VALLEY!

I knew I wanted to participate in today's prompt. I LOVE my town and would love others to love it too. But I know it's not really a touristy place. 

I live in a cute little suburb of the City of Los Angeles called Chatsworth. You may have heard of us before, we are known for a few things:

1. Pot growing. Locally the area is known for having people grow pot. 
2. Porn. Yup, this is where porn is made. South of the area where I live there are many unidentified buildings - inside? Porn filming! You would never be able to tell, though. 
3. Oakwood Memorial Park. In addition to my sister being buried there, some famous people you may have heard of are too:
• Fred Astaire (dancer)
• Ginger Rogers (dancer)
• Bob Crane (Hogan's Heroes)
• Gloria Grahame (It's A Wonder Life)
4. Iverson Movie Ranch. This is where many old movies and TV shows were filmed, including but not limited to:
• My Official Wife (1914)
• The Squaw Man (1914)
• The Fighting Seebees (1944)
• The Lone Ranger
• The Roy Rogers Show
• The Gene Autry Show
• Bonanza 
• Raising Hope

That last one is probably the most recent famous one. 

The views around town are gorgeous:

This is about 1.5 miles from my home. 

We've hiked it many times:

That's Topanga Canyon Boulevard - the main road. It starts just a bit north of where this picture is taken and ends in Malibu - a 30-45minute drive. 

We also have a pretty cool train station.

However this is the train station that is about 1/4 of a mile from my home - right behind it. Lots and lots of trains go through the station. When the cargo trains go through I can feel my couch vibrating. While I'm pretty used to it my husband is not and so we sleep with the windows closed... actually they are always closed if he is home. 

Chatsworth also has a Mexican restaurant that lots of people across the wider city seem to enjoy. We are close to mall's and my favorite Argentina restaurant. We have a Trader Joe's, at least 3 other supermarkets, and several fast food restaurants. 

It's a nice place to live. Beyond the things we have inside the walls of Chatsworth, we are near the beach (ie: Malibu), amusement parks (Universal Studios, Magic Mountain), the mountains, and basically anything else you can think of. 

So if you are ever in the Los Angeles area come on out and visit or give me a call and I'll come to you! Blate time! 

Finish The Sentence

I know I haven't participated in every single prompt, but I think 13 posts in 14 days is pretty good! I should only be training for today and Tuesday so I'll be able to catch up on writing posts. I had a really busy weekend which I'm looking forward to talking about tomorrow. 

I also have what I hope to be a fun interesting picture filled post for Friday! 

Let's get to finishing the sentence.... 

"When I open the fridge, I always hope I find..."

• already prepared, fully cooked meals. This morning it was actually eggs. I wasn't sure if we had any left and I knew my husband wanted some for breakfast. It took me much longer than it should have, but I found the last 2! 

My plan is to do this! I want to freeze full meals that I can stick in my crockpot and turn on before work! 

"My favorite article of clothing is..."

• my new maxi dresses. I feel pretty in them even though I've gained a few pounds (10?) since the beginning of the year. They look so pretty! 

"Last week Yesterday I was really pissed when..."

• Argentina lost to Germany. :(

"One thing nobody understands about me is..."

• that I tried really hard to fit in while knowing I shouldn't. People should also know that I wish I wasn't as sensitive as I am.

"One thing I don't understand is..."

• how everything is breaking in my new condo. First the oven, then the dryer, now the washer. So much more money! 

This is our dirty laundry area now that we sold the older washer and dryer. This is the first time we see behind/below the machines. I guess they felt like they didn't have to finish painting back there? Cleaning time this week before the new units arrive on Thursday.

"The world would be a better place if..."

• there wouldn't be so much time and dedication spent bringing people down. 

"If I had a million dollars, I'd..."

• go on disability at work, returning twice a year to maintain health insurance, and then live off the money while being a SAHM.

"If I knew I'd die next week, this week I'd...."

• call out sick all week and ask my husband to do thfe same. I'd pay for my sister and her family to come down to visit and spend the week with my family. 

"If I could change one thing about myself, it would be..."

• my super sensitivity that doesn't allow me to laugh at myself as often as I would like. 

"Something that can always make me happy is..."

• family. Or is that too cliche? These days a lot of things are making me happy. I'm happy to go to work and spend time with some awesome people. I'm happy to come home and be with my husband. I'm happy when I go shopping with my mommy. I'm happy to enjoy a meal with my daddy. I'm happy to take my niece and nephew to a movie in the park. I guess there are fewer things that make me unhappy these days. 

"Something I'll never blog about is..."

• details about work. While I'd love to talk about some of the shit that happens there, it would be quite stupid of me to do so. 

"If I could go anywhere I would go... Because..."

• to Lakabe. It's a town in the Basque country (northern Spain) from which my family originates. My brother went in April and the pictures are awesome. I'd love to travel to the other areas from my family's past as well (Italy and other areas of Spain).

"If I were an animal I would be a ..."

• bird of some kind. I have dreams in which I can fly and I think it would be cool to be above everyone and see everything from up high. 

Does a rainbow count?

"A job I've always wanted is..."

• teaching. At least that's what I thought. Now I'm really loving my job. I think I might want to be in an office that sees participants so I can interact with them in person, but I'm enjoying what I do now. 

"My idea of a perfect day is..."

• having a workday off (not because I don't like work, but because there are os many other fun things to do during the week!) and do a little bit of sleeping in with my hubby. Breakfast would automatically be made when we get up and the dished cleaned afterward. After watching some TV or a movie with him (he'd be off work, too) I'd do some shopping with my mom. Probably a trip to the mall and to the grocery store (I like grocery shopping). I'd take another hour or two or three to take the kids to Chuck E Cheese, or to the local water park, or a movie. I'd follow that by having tea with my dad in the afternoon before going to back home for another movie and a pre-made dinner with my hubby.  I'd be able to go sleep late (because I'd have to catch up on all the blog posts) and not be tired in the morning. 

What Do You Do When You Are Alone

There hasn’t been much of this in my life. I lived with my parents until I got married. Now I live with my husband (high five for being Captain Obvious!), but he does travel for work often. 

When we got back from Argentina he was only home two weeks before he was sent across the country for two weeks. He was home for a week and then they sent him back across the country for another week. So technically I should be having a lot of time alone. 

However, for the 2 weeks that he was gone in mid-June my nieces were with me every night, except for 2 nights in which my mom came to spend the night (since my dad was also out of town and she was home alone, too). 

This time, though, I’ve decided that I want to be alone. I want to experience being able to pick anything I want to watch on TV, eat whatever I want for dinner, and not have to worry about picking up after anyone. Now, I may get tired of being alone and go sleep in my old bed (I MISS MY OLD BED!). Actually, I might do this one night anyway because my daddy misses me. 

What do I do when I’m alone, though? I TAKE MY PANTS OFF AS SOON AS I WALK IN THE DOOR! (Hear me Allie?) Okay, I do that anyway and I always have. I cannot stand wearing pants or a bra once I get home (or anytime). I take them off and put on a nightgown. 

Thing's I'll Never Ever Ever EVER Do

All the posts lately have dealt in one way or another with my social anxieties. This one included. Today’s topic is (as you might have guessed from the title) to write about things I would never do. There are plenty! 

So… Never will I ever…

• Go to a dance club or any club for that matter. You will never, ever, ever catch me at place that involves dancing. While it may have been okay at my wedding because it was MY day, it will never be something I go to willingly. Include bars and most parties in here as well.

• More than likely I will not go skydiving. While I’m not afraid of heights the idea of jumping out of a plane is not something I would consider fun.

• Smoke. I will never be a smoker. I would probably forget to smoke if I was a smoker, but why would I want to put things into my body that are so dangerous without a good cause.

• Not be there for my family. Family is the most important thing for me and I will always be there for them. Even if I am busy or have things going on myself. Family will come first. 

• Understand the hype around GOT. That’s Game of Thrones for those of you not in loop. I’ve watched it. I’ve seen whole episodes with my husband, but I just can’t get into it. Maybe it’s just too complicated for me?

• Wear high heels to work every day. I don’t work in a job where the way I look is an integral part to the work I do. We have to look decent and can’t wear jeans daily (only Friday’s) but there is absolutely no logical reason to wear 3-4 inch heels every day. No one is looking at how fancy you look. They are cringing because you must have super big bunions that must be painful. 

This is, of course, a partial list, based on my moon and what I was thinking at the time of writing it. I’m sure there are other things I wouldn’t do… although it was sort of hard to come up with these. 

Blog Every Day in July: Superpowers!

Today’s prompt made me have to stop and think. If I could have any superpower which one would it be? 

At first I was thinking about the typical super powers: super seeing power, flying, super strength, turning into a big green giant. I thought that I would probably pick being able to fly. I don’t have the need to be strong and I don’t care to see through people’s clothes or into neighbors’ homes. But being able to fly? I could get places so much faster! I wouldn’t have to worry about traffic or being late. I like that. 

Look at how fun it looks! 

Then I started thinking that those powers aren’t super useful to me. Not even flying. What super power could I really use? 

If you read my post on Thursday I touched on my anxieties. What better super power, then, than to be able to know exactly what to say and do which wouldn’t make me feel embarrassed and uncomfortable. 

I can imagine it now: I’m at Thomas’ parents’ house during a party and I’m sitting on the couch. His family surrounding me as we watch an MMA fight on the TV. Usually I am self-conscious and don’t know how to act. But if I knew what to say I could go without fear, knowing that whatever I said people would like it. If I made a joke they would laugh. I get chills thinking how great that would be. 

It might not be an exciting super power, but it would be amazing for me. 

Linking up with...

Getting Uncomfortable

Many things make me uncomfortable. Social situations in general make me cringe. I’m not good in social situations. I always tend to say the wrong things at the wrong time. But maybe that is just my social anxiety. 

This year I had to do several things that made me uncomfortable. Included, but not limited to:

• Getting married! Okay, I shouldn’t say this makes me uncomfortable, really, but it is something new. It’s the first time I’ve lived with someone other than my parents. 

• Walking down the aisle and standing in front of a room full of people. As I mentioned I have social anxiety so walking down the aisle with everyone staring at me was scary. At least the concept was. Once I actually did it – it wasn’t that bad. I only had eyes for my husband. 

• Dancing! Same as above, dancing means that people are probably seeing me dance. The energy of the day and also the liquid help that I had helped out in making dancing not a horrible experience. I did dread it until the moment the day 

• Bridal Shower. My in-law’s threw me a wonderful bridal shower a few weeks before the wedding. It was amazingly sweet of them but I had a panic attack over it. I survived with the help of Ativan, but the night before and the hours leading up to the event were horrible. I’m sensing a theme here. I dread things beforehand but feel fine during them… Hmm…

I’m sure there have been others, but these were the big ones that I dreaded for a while. 

Linking up with...

Blog Everyday In July

I've been wanting to do a blog-every-day-in-a-month thing for a while but with the wedding, buying a home, and the honeymoon I haven't been around for a whole month until July. 

When I saw Allie and then Juliette post about blogging in July and that they would provide prompts I knew I had to participate. But I will say this upfront: I might skip some prompts and post Link-Ups or post things just because I feel like it.

July 1st 2014 - Canada Day

Let me start by saying that I am not Canadian nor have I ever even been to Canada. I like the country, though. They've been pretty decent to the US. Here are the things I do know about Canada:

• I bought my car from a Canadian. 
• Canadians like the fact that they don't have an "accent" (or at least this is what the car salesman said)
• They have taken in US boys who were avoiding the draft. 
• It is to the north of where I live. 
• It gets very cold and snowy in the winter. 
• You have to drive through it in order to get to Alaska.
• My husband is sent to Ontario for work sometimes.  
• I don't know many people (0) from Canada. 
• My best friend was living just a few minutes from Canada until recently.
• I don't know a lot about Canada. 

My knowledge is not very good. So let me ask a few questions to Faith who is Canadian. Excuse me for my ignorance. 

1. Does Canada have an independence day? (I know that the Queen is still considered the head of Canada, correct?)
2. What is the school system like? Kinder through 12th grade? Are colleges free?
3. Besides hockey, what is Canada's favorite sport? 
4. How did you survive without Happy Hour? (Yes, I've read up on your blog).
5. Have you been to the States? What do you like or not like about it compared to Canada?

Tomorrow's topic is guilty pleasures, however I will have a post full of pictures from the wedding up in the morning!