at 05/14/12 9:19PM
Judging from the cows across the creek from our backyard, the size of the belt buckles (some stereotypes are true), and the sugary substance the natives call "tea," we indeed are in Texas.
We spent Friday moving into our house, which didn't take much time seeing as how we fit all our worldly possessions into our small Carolla to get here. All the furniture we "own" was donated by various family members or bought at a yard sale by my savy mother-in-law.
We own exactly: one bed, one dresser, a couch, a recliner, 4 end/coffee tables, one dining room table, and a vintage cabinet. We are the epitome of minimalist, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
The more time I spend in this house the more I love it. Sure, it could have something to do with the fact this is our first house...OR it could have something to do with the awesome neighbors (Jake's grandparents), the huge yard, great layout, plethora of windows and plugs (natural light is the only way to live and plugs are just useful..duh.), and rent price (which is basically non-existent). I honestly can't put into words how much of a win this is. Which is probably good cus I wouldn't want to make y'all jealous, which would be really easy to do at the moment...cus it's such a win.....literally.....
....Win.....
..ok, I'll stop now.
....Win......
Alright, alright, I'm stopping...
So, y'all are probably wondering what we have been doing these last few days since it only took one day to move in, right? Right. I can see the curiosity absolutely boiling over inside you.
We have been spending boocoos money. That's what we've been doing. Of course, we have giftcard money ("giftcard money" What does that even mean? Salutatorian, yeah right ) which covers expenses, but it still feels extravagant. In our justification, if anyone ever started from scratch, we have. Especially in the kitchen department. Basic appliances and groceries really add up.
So, if you know of anyone who is desperately trying to get rid of their fully stocked kitchen, you know where to find us. Really, it won't be an inconvenience at all. We would be glad to take all those pesky material possessions of their hands.
That takes care of our beginnings here in Texas. We feel so extremely blessed. Praise be to God for the care he shows.
-Love, Runa
P.S. Already I have experienced some adventures which I plan to post at a later date. So, be on the look out for my next post: "The Texas Chronicles: The story of one ignoble husband and one ignorant wife"
at 05/09/12 1:14PM
Just as J. Alfred Prufrock could measure out his life with coffee spoons, I could measure out the many assignments, tests, and papers I've accomplished with Starbucks receipts. I acknowledge the fact that sugary, caffinated beverages aren't a highly advised way to cope with stress. In fact, I'm pretty sure my reliance on coffee during my college years could be diagnosed as a highly unhealthy addiction. However, I am alive, I'm graduated, oh and there's that whole Salutatorian thing. How can you argue with coping mechanisms that end in success?
And yes, you read that right, I got salutatorian. I could prove it to you, but I've already packed up the little, fake gold coin. Sorry you didn't get to see it, it was pretty special, even had "Salutatorian" written on it. I've been told that my reaction was priceless...no comment on that. However, if you ever get the chance, you should ask Andrew Yeater about it. He will be glad to re-enact it for you, at no cost whatsoever, cus he is just that great of a guy...
Anyway, with graduation over the move to Texas is imminent. Packing started three days ago on Monday and today I find myself in an extremely bare looking bedroom with piled boxes to my left. I can't believe the last 9 months have gone by so quickly. Our plan (for those who haven't heard) is to move into our house in Clute, Jake will start his Job at Vernor Materials, and we (and by "we" I mean "I") will relax for the summer. Eventually I plan on getting a part time job because I'm the sort of freak that needs to feel productive or I start to self-destruct.
For those who heard about tentative plans towards law school...those plans have been put on hold for a while. I'm basically giving myself the summer to think about all my options. Even though Jake is fully supportive, I can't help but acknowledge the cost and practicality of such a venture does not measure up. Not to mention I would not mind a break from school after this last year. I am extremely grateful for the organizations I was able to be apart of, as an Alpha club member, SI leader, L.O.V.E. Vice President, ans PTK Secretary. However, those duties added to school and caring for a sick husband 1st semester and then taking 18 hours and caring for a sick husband 2nd semester, has left me feeling more than a little drained. Jake has been blessed with fairly good health for the last 3 months or so, but to be honest I still expect any minute for Jake to drop back into some sort of zombie coma. This is coming from the self-professed cynic though, so don't mind me. Basically, I would enjoy some stress free time for a while if the Lord allows.
Moving on (Ha! Get it? I'm so funny...), as previously stated, Jake and I are doing good. Wanna hear another story about our riveting married life? Well...you get to anyway.
Ok, I was in the middle of getting dressed, and had just pulled out a newly washed shirt of mine to put on when I noticed it smelled kinda funny. I was confused because it didn't smell bad, but just...weirdly scented. Unable to work out this great mystery, I turned to my wise husband to master this riddle for me.
"Jake, my shirt smells weird."
"Ok....?"
"Yeah, it smells really weird. You should totally smell it!"
"Why...?"
"Because it smells WEIRD. I just washed it! Why would it smell funny?! SMELL IT!"
I then offered the garment under consideration to him. Well, I really kinda stuffed the shirt into his face because for some reason he seemed unenthusiastic about inspecting it.
"Oh," he said, "that's just your perfume."
*awkward silence*
"You're kidding."
"No, it smells a little different, but it is your perfume."
Note to all you single peeps, marry someone with tact.
-Love, Runa
at 03/03/12 4:42PM
*
Well, for no particular reason I happened to venture over to pleo today and, low and behold, I have not posted since last October. I have no way to apologize for the withdrawal-induced-coma y'all are probably experiencing at this moment, but I am about to remedy the situation (What? Oh, you didn't realize I hadn't posted in 5 months? Well, then, I guess I didn't notice either so we are even).
After such a long hiatus, I honestly have no idea where to start "updating."
Jake and I have officially been married for 8 months and 2 days. I would recount various depictions of heaven on earth for y'all, but I think most of it can be summed up in a conversation that happened not too long ago:
Jake: "You are so beautiful."
Me: "You need to shave."
Yep, fire is still burning strong.
School, which consumes my time and attention like small children consume sweets, is going rather well considering I'm taking 18 hours this semester. My grades suffer various spasms of neglect and abandonment, but nothing permanent...yet. My grades have never ceased to surprise me. Since I have a tendency to say, focus on my Greek homework, and my tests in American History and American Lit (my three hardest classes this semester), ace all three of them and wind up getting an F on my Liberal Arts Math quiz (Yeah, you heard me right, LIBERAL ARTS MATH), you should be surprised as well.
(Thank you for having the decency to be surprised, but you can stop chanting "fail" now. Thanks.)
I'm not gonna lie, SI has been a bit more stressful this time around. I happen to have AmericanLit with Mrs. Atherton this semester, which...complicates matters a bit. Now, you probably think it's a total breeze for me to write papers on a regular, coffee-fueled, late-night, basis in the few hours I have for writing papers in the late, coffee-fueled, hours of the night (or morning considering how you look at it) for the woman who chose me to be a guide through the treacherous waters of grammar and MLA for her students, and to have said papers be a constant example of what I teach to those ever trusting students staking the future of their grades on my knowledge and experience, and I'm not going to tell you that you are wrong. However, I'm also not going to say it's easy, I'm not going to say it isn't a tinsy bit stressful, and I'm not going to deny certain episodes of suddenly waking up, screaming about comma splices attacking my papers in the middle of the night (which is completely normal behavior by the way).
(Wow, nobody tell Atherton about the grammatical imperfection which is the above paragraph and nobody gets hurt. Ok? Ok.)
On top of all this, are the various happenings of life. The little things that go on behind the scenes. Such as: working on an extra credit problem for 5 hours only to find out we did it wrong and there is no way to turn it in on time, locking my dad's keys inside his office, and getting yelled at from a car full of boys, which went a little like this:
*Me, walking across the Boswell parking lot about curfew time*
*car drives past*
"Stop sneaking out!" -random dude
"Dude, she's MARRIED!" -random dude #2
(I know, that was like the best story retelling ever, right? I betcha felt really "in the moment" there)
Oh, y'all want to know about how I locked my Dad's keys in his office? Well, tough luck. The whole thing ends with me being indebted to Nathan Ward of all people, which I really can't bring myself to recount. A better use of my time would be to figure out what I can do to become un-indebted. I really don't know what the favor of unlocking an office goes for these days. Maybe like a tie or something? Or I could stop giving him dirty looks every time we pass on campus. Nah, probably should go for the tie.
Love,
Runa
at 10/04/11 6:55PM
*
Yeah, so, I'm still here. Married life and other duties (like living) always seem to get in the way of my ever-so-good-intentions to post often. A few updates are in order:
Of work and...more work
SI is going really well for the most part. Well, excluding the fact that no one came for about a week at one point and the fact that I just got a call telling me my session is going to be "mentored" tonight. I don't know about y'all, but it never seems like a do well, even at the simplest of tasks, after being told that I'm suddenly going to be judged for everything I say and do. Hmm...Puts a whole new spin on Judgment day if you think about it. However, the pay is good and the students have been really nice (For SI. Not Judgment Day).
Of quality and spending:
My whole life I have had a certain fondness for "nice" things. Now, that sounds really broad, that it applies to everyone, and it really isn't so specially applied to me, but don't be deceived by that. cus you're wrong. My family and I aren't rich. In case you hadn't noticed, my Dad works at FC. Enough said. and before that he was a preacher = not much better (Well, not in terms of pay). Growing up I basically lived off of whatever I could get at Goodwill (Seriously, I thought people who shopped from actual stores were snobs with money to throw around). I'm not disappointed that I grew up that way. I really appreciate the things I have now, probably more so now because I didn't have them before, which is exactly what I'm getting at. I've always wanted to buy "nice" things. "Nice" is in quotations marks because I consider something "nice" when I haven't had to alter it in some way to fit me, it hasn't been previously worn by anyone, and it's something that I'm not just making-do with, but that I actually wanted. I'm pretty sure other people use the word differently (snobs...). Anyway, because Jake and I don't really have financial burdens right now and I decided to do SI because I wanted the experience and not for the money, I decided to finally use my earnings to buy the things I've always wanted to. This includes, but is not limited to, Starbucks (but only until the novelty wore off and my common sense kicked in), clothes (bought at real stores like Target and Old Navy. Yep, I'm a woman of quality now), and the occasional gift for a friend (I love buying things for other people). Wow, I really didn't expect this to turn into a sappy rags to riches story. Rags being thrift store finds and riches being my 8.25 an hour. Saddest example of rags to riches story ever. Enough of this.
Of siblings:
The other day, I picked Andrew up and it was HARD. He is so heavy now and because of that the following conversation occurred.
Me: "Andrew, you're so heavy. You need to lose weight! Why don't we chop off your feet?"
Andrew: "No! I need to walk."
Me: "Ok. Why don't we cut out your belly?"
Andrew: "No! My food might come out!"
Me: "Alright, what about your arms? Do you really need your arms?"
Andrew: "Yes! I need to hug people! and kiss people! and grab things!" (not really sure where the kissing comes in....)
Me: "*Sigh* Well, I guess we'll just have to cut off your head!"
Andrew: "But I need to talk."
Me: "Do you say anything important, Andrew?"
Andrew: "No."
Me: "Well, then why do you need to talk if you don't say anything important?"
Andrew: "Because I need to say 'good-night' to people!"
With such great argumentation can it even be doubted that he kept himself intact?
Love, Runa
at 07/22/11 11:03PM
*
Although I have spent many posts talking about my various antics, I usually own up to them being somewhat of my fault. I realize that most of the time I had the power to change the course of events and to make better decisions (i.e. the overall power to choose not to make a pie).
But today, it wasn't my fault. Oh, no. Ask anyone.
It was Butler's.
Butler is employed by Jake and me as our exclusive GPS. Butler and me are tight. On good days I call him Gerard. He likes it. What makes Butler especially special (can I even write that? "Especially special"? Talk about vain rep...) Anyway, what makes Butler special is his schizophrenia. Yes, within his deepest parts he is divided within himself. One minute he is Gerard; my faithful companion and friend, leading me beside still waters...or something like that. The next minute he is plain Butler; englishly-polite, pointing my blind self along routes treacherous and terrifying. This schizophrenia has created a love-hate relationship between Butler and me. On the one hand, he has a propensity to be slow at best and the propensity to lead me out in the middle of some crack-buying-market-side-street at worst. On the other hand, I usually come out of the experience with an adventurous story and a bit more road confidence.
Today I needed to go to Wal-mart. I had to go. We needed things like toilet paper and milk.
I got in the car and turned on old Butler. He started out very helpful as he gave me all the options for a wal-mart SUPERCENTER (that part was important). It didn't phase me that the option I chose was about half an hour away because I knew we didn't have any wal-mart supercenters close to us.
The trip started out fine. I was singing to the radio and Gerard, for he was at that moment, purred instructions cordially. It was at the second or third light that I came to that I looked over and spotted someone I knew. Audrey Moyer was in the car to my right. We both took double takes. I hadn't seen Audrey since I left for Texas at the beginning of the summer, so of course I reached over and manually rolled down the window on my right side to talk, which we did until the light turned green.
Of course, once it was green there was no way to roll it back up because you have to do it manually in our car. This didn't bother me, per se. I just figured that I'd do it when I got to wal-mart.
That's pretty much where things went down hill. Now, I've only had my license for a little while now. Since the end of school actually and I have never been on the "motorway" on my own. Until this afternoon. This didn't bother me, per se. Although, I did think of dad who acted like a paranoid member of the mafia when he took me when I was learning the whole time.
Anyway, I was slightly unnerved by this change in plans, but I was fine....until it started raining.
I'm not really the type of person to panic in a situation.
I'd like to think of myself as cool headed and all that, but when you are all alone, on an unfamiliar road, with tons of other people you could potentially kill, maim, injure, or otherwise endanger at any second by some slight miss-judgement and you are following the directions of schizophrenic GPS with one window rolled down and it happens to be raining, you begin to ponder the slight necessity of maybe losing your mind because you're already halfway there.
Like someone being blackmailed I had no choice but to follow Butler blindly to where ever he desired me to go and desperately hope that at the end of this deep, dark tunnel there was a light, or at least a wal-mart.
At first I got myself through with little pep talks that went a little something like this "Ok, you're fine. You are not dead, so...we...are...good. Yes, because if you are not dead and nobody else is dead, we are doing fine. A little bit better than fine actually. Keep up the good work and we will keep being fine."
Did I mention I'm not usually the kind of person to talk to myself?
Moving on: I finally got off the "motorway" as Butler puts it and found myself in a completely unrecognizable place, trying not to think about getting on the motorway again, and trying to think of a plan in case anything happened to me (Jake's phone is currently not working). I was still desperately trying to trust Butler.
Finally he told me that my destination was one sharp turn away. I took the sharp turn, and was heading down a nice little side street when Butler finally said:
"You have reached your destination."
I was in the middle of the street without a Wal-mart to be seen. I kept going, pulled into some side street, put the search for wal-mart back into the GPS, rolled my window up, and followed the directions again.
"You have reached your destination."
I was back in the same street. Still without a wal-mart.
If there was ever a human being who hated an inanimate object with untainted, blind fury it was me at that moment. I almost chucked Butler out the window, probably would have except I had rolled it up by that time.
I wanted to throw in the whole towel and just go home, but I'm not a quitter. With threats and entreaties I'd rather not repeat I finally got Butler to lead me in the right direction. I've never been so glad to see Wal-mart in my life. I got home with groceries and such in hand and immediately went to hug my husband.
"How'd did it go?" Jake asked.
"Fine." I was trying to play the tough cookie role and shrug off the difficulties of the day.
"What? Did something go wrong?" Apparently I need to work on my tough cookie role.
"The GPS (Yeah, so, Jake doesn't know about the whole Butler thing, or Gerard, he doesn't know I talk to inanimate objects, and he certainly isn't aware that I believe them to have psychological problems. So lets keep this between you and me) led me out into the middle of nowhere and so the whole trip took me two and a half hours."
"Oh, I'm sorry." He gave me another hug cus he is an awesome hubby like that. "I missed you."
All of a sudden I saw the experience in a different light. I'm obviously not dead, I didn't kill anyone, the car isn't damaged, we now have the basic necessities of life, and I have, in fact, learned a lot from the experience. Although, I'm not sure the damaged relationship between me and Butler can ever be repaired.
Love, Runa
~ Ward
~ brooke
~ Kat
~ Rosemary
~ Emma B.
~ Alyssa
~ Elizabeth
~ Justin
~ Joanna S.
~ Sonya
~ Fellow Princess
~ Kati
~ Andrew
~ Holly
~ Caroline
~ Joycelyn B.
~ Tia
~ Brittney G.
~ Beth
~ Candace
~ Emily C.
~ Donna
~ Diana
~ Joe K.
~ Dan K.
~ Big sis
~ Meagan Parcell
~ Sherri
~ Caleb
~ Sarah S.
~ Doy M.
~ Audrey
~ Aunt Nina
~ Michael
~ Wayne
~ Lydia S.
~ Anna Lee
~ Hannah B.
~ Uncle Tim
~ Micah S.
~ Charlotte
~ Megan D.
~ Mr. Brown
~ Katie T.
~ Hannah W.
~ Uncle Bill
~ Lil Miss Pepper
~ Courtney
~ Jonathan E.
~ Shannon
~ Katherine
~ Bibbit
~ Daniel W.
~ Emily Mason
~ New Koen
~ Deborah 2
~ N. Berger
~ Brain
~ Georgia C.
~ Raja
~ He who likes to hug
~ Engaged to the Princess
~ Jenna F.
~ Becky G.
~ Sarah H.
~ Big Hunk of Man Meat
~ Holly
~ Stefanie C.
~ My Sister's keeper
~ Samuel B.
~ nat_the_nuisance
~ Jenna W.
~ Lit. Hersey
Connie
Amanda A.
Megalexandros
thejoyoftom
vampyric_ky_girl
ashlidale
ducttapeking
Also...plugs? Are you referring to electrical outlets?
I didn't realize your blog could get better, and then you used "boocoos" and it did. *mind is blown*