Rain rain go away

I'm sick of this rain.  I'm living in South Carolina, I just put up with horribly hot summer, I'm not supposed to have to deal with rain too.  That was Ithaca.  Although this is certainly SC rain - it's fine outside, and then all of a sudden it's pouring.  Pouring so hard, we can't see the house across the street at my parents' house.  It did give us a chance to meet us new neighbors, and turns out we have mutual friends and the woman knows my mom.  How funny.  The world outside the Faith is small too.  That's Columbia for you.

Work is going well - I rocked when the wealth psychologist came to visit.  Consultation skills and being the chair of a meeting skills are apparently unusual when you're in your 20s.  I had the guy saying "Where did they find you?"  to which I responded "Actually, I found them."

My new place is taking shape.  I'm still hunting for a couch.  I still have a million boxes, due to the fact that I'm studying every mentally awake hour that I possibly can.

I have a fabulous and beautiful new jewelry box, thanks to B and Jer.  I love it - it makes me feel like a grown-up.  I should have more beautiful things.

I'm getting color in my apartment like nobody's business.  Pink, yellow, brown, navy blue, cornflower blue, red, rust red, white, black, purple, a very little green,  more blue, and a turquoise shower curtain.  I love it.  I'm trying to offset the brown carpet and the yellow-y beige walls.

Now to continue my mid-week day off!

New apartment - excitement, fear, fatigue, joy, relief, overwhelmed - so many emotions for one ultimately good thing

New job - balancing act.  reading Made to Stick for Strategy Day, recently met with a wealth psychologist for a two day training on assertiveness, meeting management, active listening, etc.

Same old body - it's kind of working, I'm still going strong on my 5 days a week exercise plan.  Almost 2 months now, go me!

CFA reading - it's kind of stupid that I'm trying to take this exam in December, as I just don't have enough time to study.  I feel like it's my A exam all over again, but I'm trying to learn everything in 6 months.  Oops.  We'll see how this goes.

Loved reading A Cup of Friendship.  Fantastic book.  Made me think.

Now must go to my 8-5 day at the office.  Send good thoughts and prayers my way - Fridays are always tough, endurance and health-wise.

Thoughts

This morning I was thinking about a conversation I'd had recently about God's grace and salvation and the like, when I was reading from the Baha'i Holy Writings.  And I was realizing just how much it's an either/or discussion in so many people's minds, between God's grace and good works.  I love how Baha'u'llah's writings put things in a completely different light, take away dichotomies, etc.  It's grace and the act of believing in God and accepting His guidance and constantly turning to him and trying to abide by the Teachings He's sent to us through these Holy Persons and His love for us, and I'm sure so much more that I don't understand yet.  I find that comforting, and yet it doesn't make life any easier.  In fact, it makes life more difficult because you're constantly trying to live a better life and become a better person.

In more mundane matters, I have a fabulous color of toe nail polish on right now, thanks to the pedicures B and I got after a long day of cleaning the Baha'i center.  I got to clean the front window area to the foyer, and I don't believe the windows have been cleaned since I cleaned them 5 years ago before we opened the building.  IT'S AMAZING what a difference clean glass makes.  My fabulous toe nail polish color unfortunately clashes terribly with my fabulous new red high heels, so I haven't been able to wear them to work.  Oh yes, I'm wearing heels now.  I found two pairs that I can wear and not have horrible pain at the end of the day!  It's exciting.

I can't wait to move into my new apartment.  I'm looking forward to:
 - having room to make iced coffee and keep it in the fridge
 - washing my dishes whenever I want to
 - having my books and kitchen stuff out of their boxes
 - decorating my new space with new and old things
 - having all my spaces closer together... there's something good to be said for having a smaller space.

I'm getting into a routine with my CFA studying, and I only have two more CFP classes to take - Income Tax Planning and the Case Study Review course.  December seems not that far away with how much CFA stuff I still have left to learn.

I had one of those moments today when the entire world was too hard to handle, and there was something I really wanted to do, but the idea of just getting myself to the place much less interacting with people was far too much to handle.  I really need to stay away from loud, echoing rooms/restaurants, and I need to really limit my caffeine intake, even though Starbucks is delicious and my own version of Cheers.

Yesterday, I...

Drove to work for the 4th to last time (who's counting, right?).

Did stupid data entry work, and almost "played the stock market" - good thing they have safeties in place...

Treated myself to lunch, as I was worried I was going to faint on the drive home. Not good when driving a vehicle 70 miles an hour on an interstate. So I stopped for delicious food from Moes.

Did homework at my favorite out-of-home office (along with half the neighborhood) and saw several friends there too.

Treated the cat-stained couch (have I mentioned how much I dislike these cats?).

Made time to go exercise even though I didn't want to.

Got ready and went to First Thursday on Main St, though I way over-dressed... I was shooting for "art gallery and museum going" and should've dressed for "bring out all your craziest artists and put them in 'stereotypically arty' clothes". I was, however, dressed for the ridiculously hot weather. Did see a guy with a firy whip doing a demo in the street. Then he blew fire too. His "lighter" guy held the sparkler in his mouth... we decided it was because he thought he'd look to lame holding it in his hand compared to the guy with the whip that was on fire. Saw a friend's jewelry - it was more stuff I would want to put in a collage or hang on a wall than wear on my ears, but as you all know, I'm pretty conservative when it comes to earrings.

Wandered around the galleries on Main St and saw cool art - one painting I loved and a few photographs that were pretty neat. I'd never been in any of these buildings in my many years of living in this city - I thought that was cool.

Then, afterward, I went grocery shopping for ingredients for treats for my favorite baristas - they always make me smile and make me delicious coffee - I want to reward them for that!

Today - lunch at Blue Cactus, a drive to the upstate, chiropractor, Trader Joe's, and PF Changs. Tomorrow - high school reunion and delivering the truffles to S-bux.

My what a day. Today I found out that pretty much any individual health insurance plan is going to deny me. Yep, the most expensive, most limited-network plan that was designed with the Obamacare policies in mind, the one that's supposed to accept people with chronic health conditions denied me today. They didn't even ask for my medical records. They just looked at the combination of words on my application and said, "Nope, you have too many health conditions for us to insure you." That's right - they don't care that I'M NOT GETTING MEDICAL TREATMENT FOR 3 OF THE 4 THINGS! Oh no, they don't care. They just care that I have those words labeling me. Just one of those things, they might consider me. But all of them together is an immediate rejection. It's essentially a tattoo on my medical chart, because they're never going to go away. Which means that I either get short term insurance (i.e. catastrophic only), pay the prohibitively high state pool insurance premium, get married (yep, the insurance guy suggested that), or find a group health plan and fast. Oh, but wait, they require a 90 day waiting period, at which point I'll be uninsured for that 90 day waiting period. So, too bad, so sad that you already are dealing with chronic health conditions. Now, you also get to deal with the fact that you have to work only in places that have group health plans that you qualify for. Forget only working part time so you can get education. Forget that your body doesn't allow you to work full time right now! you either get to be super ill and insured, or not so ill and uninsured. THIS IS A BACKWARDS SYSTEM PEOPLE!

On a happier note, my stuff is finally all in one city. And soon, it will hopefully be in one house. Where that house is, I have yet to figure out. That's on the to-do list for tomorrow.

I'm loving pistachio gelato these days. Right now, in my freezer I have 5 different kinds of ice cream. Because when it's 115 outside, you want ice cream at all times of the day. Plus, Haagen Daaz was on sale. I miss Wegman's ice cream - it was cheap but also delicious. I'm also eating lots of watermelon. I did love the SC peach season - those are some tasty fruits when they're good and ripe and fresh.

One of my friends got baby chicks in the mail the other day, and I got to meet 72 hour old chicks. They're pretty cute and fluffy when they're that little. And they don't stink yet either. The dogs of the household were a little unsure about them. Maybe they'll get used to each other.

Wonderful weekend

The weekend included...

Homework, which I really enjoyed and it helped me make sense of something that seemed totally useless before. Turns out it's not so useless.

Band Hero with friends, Rock Band with family.

Keeping an oh-so-pregnant friend company while she deals with the frustrations of being 9 months pregnant...

Homemade "Nuttie Buddie" ice cream - spanish peanuts are way better than regular

Playing with my several cats

Lots of time with friends and family

Making the ATK flourless chocolate cake with friends

Being understood and heard about sickness and grad school and thinking

Time with my soul sister, just being together, doing the trivial things of life and loving it

Finally seeing The King's Speech and thoroughly enjoying the movie and quoting the movie the rest of the weekend.

Exceptionally delicious brunch at my temporary home with fantastic people that I hadn't seen in too long. The menu included:

Fresh local peaches and blueberries with whipped cream

Omelets with fresh basil, sauteed green peppers, and cheddar or feta cheese

Local fresh bacon

Delicious coffee

Wonderful conversation

My birthday's in a week! There will be a pool party with an ice cream sundae potluck. Only gluten-free toppings allowed. Sound familiar, Ithacans? We didn't have a pool, but we did have delicious ice cream :).

Stories

I'm now in my housesitting house. It's a beautiful home. Floating in the pool in the backyard, the house really looks like it came out of a magazine. Inside it's also pretty - the kitchen is by far my favorite room, with the master bedroom suite a close second. The cats have been a bit of a pain - they terrify Ella, they only eat canned cat food (which smells really bad), and apparently they have rather sensitive stomachs and tend to throw up... their owners failed to mention that bit. Otherwise, it's nice to have my own space, it's nice to have a dishwasher, I love having the pool, and it's fun to be in a pretty house.

I have realized that one of the reasons I often didn't blog much when I was living at home was that I already had someone to tell my stories to, and so often I was too tired to tell them once and type them once. I'm going to try to get better.

Yesterday I really lived up all the perks here. I came home, got in the pool, swam some laps, tried to do my own water aerobics (I look ridiculous but no one can see me!), and then just floated. Afterward, I went to the veggie garden and picked a tomato and some basil. Then, for dinner, I had sauteed summer squash (from their fridge) with a tomato, basil, and cheddar omelet. The only thing I actually purchased for dinner was the juice I drank (raspberry pomegranate goji, yum). Everything else came as a part of the house. Then, I loaded the dishwasher and headed off to LSA.

I had a dream with Abdu'l-Baha in it the other night. That was interesting. I'd never actually dreamed about Abdu'l-Baha before. Overall, it was a cool dream. Reassuring, although the end was annoying. In the dream, I was completely exhausted and finally going to bed at 3 am, and then my (real) alarm went off and it was time to get ready for work. I still felt exhausted.

Last night I dreamt that someone kidnapped me repeatedly and forced me to use some special powers for evil, and I and the other kidnapees were trying to thwart them...

I think my new medication is giving me strange dreams in general, making me subconsciously not want to go to bed. I keep getting to bed far too late.

Today, my fellow new co-worker and I got a new "toy" - a new software program to do the things I've been wanting to do but not had the tools to do at work. I'm excited to go back on Monday and continue playing with it and getting it set up to do amazing things for us. :)

Now, off to Thursday Night Dinner with my family! Afterwards, I'll be showing friends how to make the flourless chocolate cake from America's Test Kitchen, which we'll take to Feast tomorrow night. Yum!

Back in Carolina, on the beach!

Day before yesterday I came down to join my family at one of the beaches outside of Charleston. We have a little house right on the beach - nothing fancy, but it's air conditioning, a porch, and guaranteed parking! Yesterday, we saw quite the wildlife - there are more rocks here on this beach than the one we usually go to, so at low tide, there are lots of crabs! It's so much fun to find them in and among the rocks. Yesterday we probably saw a dozen, the largest one about the size of two fists together. Being people, we poked at it with a huge clam shell that we found. The crab, of course, needed to defend itself and pinched at the shell with its claw. Even though I was expecting it, it delighted me and scared me, the feeling and sound of claw on shell :). I keep poking at it and giggling and shrieking when it clawed the shell. We also saw a bunch of sea urchins, and some tubular creatures attached to a rock. I think they're related to polyps and sea anemones, but they're not quite those. They're soft and shrink back when you poke them ;). The other creatures we saw were: a gecko, a bunch of pelicans, a tiny tiny hermit crab, another very small white "ghost" crab (my description) that buried in the sand. When you nudge the sand near it, it scrambles underneath the sand to another spot! We also saw a dead jellyfish that looked a lot like the ghosts from Super Mario World.

Today we went farther down on the island, where the houses end, and looked for dolphins and crabs, and saw both! Even J, with her broken foot, got to see a bunch of crabs, and I still delighted in poking at them with a shell :). Some scurried away, some pinched at me. Dad and I went a little farther and found some tidal pools among the rocks, and we saw crabs, larger minnows and two live starfish, as well as sea urchins. I felt like a 5 year old, perched on a rock in the middle of the tidal pool, poking and shrieking and giggling at the crabs. Dad very sweetly said that he hoped I always had that 5 year old inside me.

While we were walking back, I saw a dolphin way out, tried to use cloud shapes to describe where they were, but it didn't work. When we were closer to the beach access, we saw at least 2 if not 3 or more dolphins much closer in, and everyone got to see them!

I've been re-reading a fun book that J brought, and I thoroughly enjoyed these two quotes.

"How many times have you told me that everybody gets lucky breaks in business but not everybody is ready for them? Well, it's true about love, too. I've been planning my marriage my whole life beach I'm smart enough to know that's the most important decision I'll ever make, and now Roger's here, and I'm ready to go. And you two are going to miss it when it comes for you because you don't want to believe because if it isn't true, you'll be disappointed."

(talking about love and relationships again)

"You have to be sensible. It's not silly love songs and sloppy kisses, it's dangerous. People die for it. People die from it. Wars are fought. Empires fall. It can ruin your life." (the italics were in the book)

The first one I thought was interesting, the second I found very funny.

Pilgrimage was amazing and difficult and wonderful and indescribable. I did find some phrases in one of my favorite Baha'i books that I felt described the experience well. Those will come when I get home. Now time for more beach!