Really? Really.

Published April 11, 2015 by Malia

A few posts ago, I shared this picture my friend Katy took…

Nerd points if you can figure out both of our rings!

Nerd points if you can figure out both of our rings!

I love this picture.  It’s this cool testament to the nerds/geeks we are.  I look at this picture and see the hands of two people who both waited a very long time for their “happily ever after.”  (And the foot of a very awesome lady 😉 )  I see these two hands that fit so perfectly together, and are prepared to hold on to each other and fight to stay together.

These hands rock.

Now, nereek (there’s got to be a better, non-made-up word out there for geeky nerds) that I am, I want to share this picture with the world.  So, my bright idea was to post it on Imgur.  I was thinking, “Ooooo, fellow LOTR fans can see our cool rings!”

So…I posted…and the reaction wasn’t quite what I expected.  It immediately got a bunch of down votes.  Not because it’s not the best quality photo.  Not because The One Ring is silver and not gold.  It’s because I have fat fingers.

Really.

Here’s the proof: http://imgur.com/gallery/LUtuKH6

The hilarious thing is, my fingers have been fat for as long as I can remember.  They’re a part of my body.  If I spent time worrying over the fact that I have fat fingers (or just am fat period), I’d never get anything done…and I’d probably be in a padded room.  Yes, I have a weight problem.  Yes, I have short, stubby, fat fingers.  Clearly the world has not stopped spinning due to this.  The fact that people’s initial reaction to my photo is “Sausages” or “Toes” or anything else is kind of baffling to me.  Seriously.  They’re trying to be cruel, and yet they’re not saying anything that I’ve not thought at one point or another.  If you’re going to be a bully, then at least come up with something clever and unique.

The Whole Elephant

Published April 4, 2015 by Malia

Today, I boxed up the boy’s old dishes, and supply of plastic glassware, and unpacked my dishes & non-plastic glassware and put it away on the shelf.  I’m in the middle of making my second loaf of bread, with my super awesome new bread machine.  I cleaned the master bathroom.  I emptied the trash out of my car (it was such a mess, it went well beyond embarrassing).  I accomplished much, and yet I’m sitting here feeling like I accomplished nothing.

If I were Suzy Q. Homemaker, I’d have everything clean, the basement would be completely organized, the laundry would be going, the thank you notes would be written and delivered, and all of my belongings would be unpacked and put away and no longer living in boxes making the guest room look like a disaster area storage unit.  (And I wouldn’t be writing long run-on sentences.  Also, I wouldn’t be using terrible grammar because I’m too lazy to go back and fix obvious mistakes.)

As of today, we’ve been married for three weeks, and I’m feeling a little overwhelmed.  It’s hard to explain.  It’s been a crazy amount of change in a very short amount of time.  Before three weeks ago, I’d never kissed a guy, let alone lived with one.  Before three weeks ago, the most responsible thing I had to do everyday was just make sure I got myself to work.  The boy has been amazing.  He’s incredibly patient with me, and that’s truly what’s getting me through this.

I had lunch with my dad yesterday, and I was telling him about how frustrated I am with myself.  Basically, I want to be SuperWife, and falling  short of mark makes this perfectionist want to cry.  I told him that I wish I had taken more than a week and a half off from work.  I had no idea how overwhelming and stressful this all would be.  He was really sweet and kind, and asked me, “How do you eat an elephant?”  Now, the correct answer is, “One bite at a time,” but lately I’ve been approaching things, “The whole thing in one bite!”

So, I’m going to do my best to hang up the cape.  Let some other poor woman try to be SuperWife.  I think right now the best thing I can do for the boy and myself is just be Wife.

I swear I can cook!

Published March 26, 2015 by Malia

Hello, World, I’m married.  It happened almost two weeks ago, and yet I’m still sitting here in a daze.

Nerd points if you can figure out both of our rings!

Nerd points if you can figure out both of our rings!

I live with a boy now.  Before we were married, I was a little worried it would be a weird experience.  However, my fears were unfounded.  Sure, it’s different, but it’s a good, mostly non-weird different.

We spent the “honeymoon” week at home, and I think that’s about the best thing we could have done.  It gave us some quality alone time, and made this whole transition a little less scary and overwhelming.

This week I’ve started learning the fine art of being a wife.  The number one thing I’ve learned?  It’s a REALLY good thing the boy loves me so much!  I feel like this week I’ve done nothing but epically fail at all things “wife.”  I’m still not unpacked.  I still haven’t finished going through what we’re keeping and what we’re returning.  I think I’ve killed the plants I’ve been trying to get to grow.  And worst of all?  My talent for cooking has absolutely abandoned me.  Wednesday I created food that was just barely edible.  Thursday (today), I made something that should have been excellent, and I’m pretty sure I missed the mark again.  I know new brides are supposed to have cooking disasters, and I’m quite thankful that so far my disasters aren’t really disasters.

That’s all the news that is news for now.  I think it’s time to go snuggle up to the boy sleeping in the other room!

Learning to knit at 1 a.m.

Published February 20, 2015 by Malia

It’s totally normal to try to learn a new hobby in the wee hours of the morning.  Right?  Especially a hobby that is super frustrating, and uses tools that you can either gouge your eyes out with or hang yourself with.  Absolutely nothing bizarre about any of this.  Nope, nothing.

This is what I do when the world is feeling overwhelming.  I attempt to craft.  Normally, I loom knit with varying levels of success.  (Last year, I did manage to actually finish two blankets.  I’m super proud of that.)  However, I found this blanket pattern that is absolutely perfect, and to make it turn out right I have to learn to actually knit.  No more cheat knitting.

I’ve previously alluded to my ongoing Pinterest addiction, and this pattern is another Pinterest find.  There’s this excellent blog called Lattes and Llamas, and they have the most amazing blanket I’ve ever seen.  The best part?  The entire pattern is free and available.  The lovely ladies who write the blog have also provided, “Learn to Knit” videos.  So far I’ve really got the hang of casting on to the needle, and I’m slowly getting the hang of the knit stitch.  It’s the purl stitch that’s causing me headache.  That, and the fact that I can’t seem to keep my yarn from getting super tight on the needle.  However, I’m determined to make this blanket.  I don’t think I’ve ever found something that more perfectly represents so many of the nerdy things that I love.

The big day is 22 days away at the moment.  I’m slowly moving myself from my parents, to the boy’s.  Fortunately, he only lives across town, so I can do this move a little more relaxed.  It’ll be nice when we’re finally married, and I’m no longer playing the running back and forth across town game.  It was fun a year ago, now it’s just wearing on me (and I’m pretty sure it’s wearing on the boy).

22 days.  This is surreal.  I keep thinking of that moment in Star Trek IV, when the whale scientist ends up on the Klingon Bird of Prey, and Kirk tells her, “Hello, Alice, welcome to Wonderland.”  (Seriously, the older I get, the more I love this movie.)  I constantly have a million thoughts racing through my head, and I’m feeling about every emotion that can be felt.  This is all so new,  but it’s a good new.

And if I can solve the mystery that is knitting, it’ll be a great new!

Totally Doing A Great Job of Writing Regularly…

Published January 17, 2015 by Malia

There’s something about publicly announcing I’m going to blog more regularly that seems to send my brain into rebellion and causes me to blog even less frequently than I was.  Which strikes me as completely ridiculous.  So, just to be safe, I’m done making proclamations regarding how frequently I’m going to write or how much weight I am going to lose. 

So, this is how I’m spending the wee hours of Saturday morning…

image

I’m hanging out at the comic book store while the boy participates in the midnight pre-release of the next set of Magic cards.  This is actually a pretty big deal among those who play.  Some of these people will be here until five or six a.m., and then be back in a few hours to play for several more hours.  I’m not playing because I really, really, really, REALLY stink.  I make the worst players look like experts.  After a brain frying day at work I’m just not in any mental state to play a strategy card game.  However, I do enjoy hanging out and supporting the boy and getting lots of reading done.  I love that I can sit in the corner and read for hours on end, and no one cares or tried to bug me. 

Also, I’ll be honest, it’s a nice break from wedding stress.  I’m only 56 days away from the wedding, and my anxiety is through the roof.  I’m really excited about the future and the wedding, please don’t think I’m not.  However, there’s so much new and different that is headed towards me at break-neck speed and it’s a little scary.  I’m moving in with a boy.  That’s a definitely a first.  I’m gaining a whole pile of relatives all at once.  I’m changing my name.  I’m going to have to give up my wild, single girl habits (Translation: I have to start showing some restraint in the Kindle book purchasing).  This is only the short list, there are so many other things I could be listing off, but the goal is to not be stressing at the moment, so the list ends here.

56 days is not a very long amount of time…maybe I should start thinking about packing…

To The Impossible Girl…

Published December 14, 2014 by Malia

In exactly 3 months (89 days), I’ll become a Mrs.  I’m so excited I’m having trouble talking about anything other than marriage and the upcoming wedding.  When you think about it, 3 months is not a lot of time.   Just enough time to let a lot of excitement build up.

I realize that I haven’t yet shared how the boy proposed.  Which is a huge slip-up on my behalf, because it was pretty awesome (even if Sandra Bullock wasn’t involved).  So, here is the story of how he asked.

I took off a couple of days from work for my birthday.  I love my birthday, and after having worked on it several times, I came to the conclusion I’d rather celebrate it than go to work, if at all possible.  In the weeks leading up to my birthday,  the boy kept asking me what I wanted to do the day after my birthday, since we both had it off.  Being super decisive (and by that I mean not decisive at all) I kept putting him off and telling him we’d do something.   Finally, the weekend before I finally told him we were going to the zoo.  

On the day we got to the zoo early,  and I have him the option of where he wanted to start.  He suggested the aquarium, and we headed that direction.   Walking through we saw the puffins and penguins and the giant,  creepy crabs.  

Somehow, by the time we got to the tunnel (filled with sharks, rays, turtles,  and other large ocean creatures) we had managed to get between large groups of people and we were completely alone in the tunnel.  

The way the tunnel is constructed,  it is shaped like an “L.”  When we came around the bend, sitting on the floor of the empty tunnel was a TARDIS, light flashing and sounding like it had just landed.   I looked over at the boy and he had this grin on his face.  

When we reached the TARDIS, he got down on one knee, opened the TARDIS door and pulled out a small slip of paper.  This small slip of paper:

image

After he finished, he pulled a ring box out of the TARDIS and put this on my finger :

image

It was a beautiful, wonderful moment.  The kind of moment you only read about (or see in the movies).  And now I can hardly wait for March 14th!

(I’m curious…can anyone list all the geek refrences in the boy’s proposal without the aid of Google?)

My cat is extremely jealous of Grumpy Cat, which has absolutely nothing to do with the content of this post.

Published November 21, 2014 by Malia

According to the countdown app on my phone, I’m only 3 days away from turning 30…and I’m only 113 days away from my wedding. 

No, that’s not a typo. 

The boy and I are gettin’ hitched!

Feel free to take a moment and join me in the “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!” Squeal-A-Thon that I’ve been having for the last two weeks. 

That’s a large part of why I’ve not  written much lately.  It wasn’t really public knowledge until last Sunday.  Now, though, pretty much everyone I know knows, so I figured I was fine saying something here.

The other reason I haven’t written much is because I’ve not wanted to sound like a broken record.  My life is pretty routine.  I work hard at my awesome/crazy stressful job.  Sleep.  Go to the boy’s house to hang out every few days, and usually use that time to catch up on all the shows that air while I’m at work (Flash and Scorpion are excellent, by the way).  The super cool thing about being engaged (y’know, apart from getting to marry the love of my life and start a whole new life adventure) is that I actually have new things to write about. 
So stay tuned as I start a new decade of life.  Wow, that sounds cheesy.  And now I want pizza.   Which isn’t a good thing if I really want to be able to wear the gorgeous dress in 113 days.

113 days.  I’m getting married in 113 days.  I cannot hardly wait, I’m so excited!!!!!!

That’s not how it works.

Published November 7, 2014 by Malia

What follows is something funny that happened at my work this week.  Since I work in a medical reference lab, I see all kinds of specimens.  This can lead me to talk sbout things that aren’t G rated, but I do my best to stay out of R territory.  Consider yourself warned. 

A few days ago at work we received a specimen to be tested for gonherrea & chlamydia.  Two super fun STDs. We get quite a few specimens through our room to be checked for these diseases. Unfortunately, the specimen we received wasn’t your typical submission.  It was synovial fluid from a knee.

Now, this may not seem weird, but keep in mind, we’re talking about STDs.  After 2+ hours on the phone, calling every reference lab we work with, and getting told the specimen was completely unacceptable,  I came to the following conclusion…
If you have to get your knee fluid checked for STDs, you’re doing sex wrong. 

Lazy Saturday

Published November 1, 2014 by Malia

We are in recovery mode currently.  Yesterday the boy was a groomsman, and we stayed until the party was over at midnight.  Since it was Halloween, the party was a costume party.  The wedding was Magic: The Gathering themed, so the boy’s costume was Tezzeret, and mine was Jane Austen’s Catwoman.  I love Catwoman, but there’s no way I’d ever wear the leather cat suit.  Which got me to thinking outside the box.  I got to wondering what it would look like if Jane Austen had written Batman, which led to what I think was a pretty cool costume.  Mom made me a beautiful Regency style dress, I found a fantastic laser cut metal cat mask, and dad hot-glued fake nails to a pair of lace gloves.  I was pleased with the end result.

We are adorable!

He had to be into work crazy early, which means he got off of work early, and now I’m crashed on his couch doing boring things like paying bills, and he’s asleep in his recliner.  It’s peaceful and a rather nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

It’s the beginning of November (a fact that you’re aware of if you know how to read a calendar).  This means I am officially at the end of my twenties.  23 days from now I’ll awaken as a mature, thoughtful, classy thirty year old.  Or, I’ll just wake up as a 30 year old who’s really no different than the 29 year old I currently am.

I do want to start my 30’s on more positive, emotionally healthy ground than I meandered through my twenties with.  For the most part, my twenties will forever be locked in my brain as this murky swamp of a decade where I made some really terrible decisions.  However, I also made some really fantastic friends.  It’s been a strange decade, that’s for sure.

Also, since it is now November, it is officially NaNoWriMo.  When I finish this post, I’m going to start working on my novel.  I really have no idea what I’m going to write about this year, but I figure the important thing is that I at least participate in the exercise.