my day in court

NHR (not house related)

My life isn’t all fun and games. I know you all probably think all I do is write, decorate, hang out with RC and eat. However, sometimes I have to do things that I don’t want to do. Like the other day- I was summons to Jury Duty. I never felt older but I couldn’t be more excited. Getting paid to judge people? HELLOOO, I do that on a daily basis for free. Kidding, kind of. This is what I imagined my day like:

In reality, this is what my day was like:

I didn’t know much about jury duty other than what I’ve seen on Law and Order, I didn’t know what happens in the room or what happened during the day so I asked RC about his experience. His advice to me was to “look as sh*tty as possible- like don’t wear any make up”. (insert foot in mouth). Sure, he didn’t mean it like that but of course I took it like that. What he meant was to not get dressed up, don’t look that put together and to leave my new boots at home. So I decided on yoga pants, a tshirt and a braid (a fishtail one, the normal one felt too casual for my day in court). When I arrived at the downtown courthouse there were about 300 other summonsed people there with me.  Confusion point #1- WHAT DO YOU MEAN? I thought this was MY day?! Wrong.

So I sat there, in one of the 3 possible rooms waiting for some direction and in walks the craziest of crazies that you could find in Baltimore. I see him talking to himself as he searches the room for a seat and immediately my heart sinks to my stomach; before he even takes another step I know exactly what’s going to happen next. He is going to sit next to me. I just know it. I can feel it. I don’t even look up because rule #1 of “open seating” (on planes, etc) is that you don’t make eye contact with the people coming in. It’s social suicide and you just don’t. do. It. I pull out all the tricks, I don’t look up, I look frantically through my bag for something, put my bag on the open seat next to me and even pretended not to hear him when he walks over. None of it works. He sits next to me and begins to babble on and on about the system, being “incarcerated” for shooting someone, cursing and slurring every other word. It was only 8:15 and I felt like I needed another shower and a martini.

I decided to go for a walk and I found the holy grail of jury duty waiting- the QUIET ROOM. Granted it would have been a ton better if I brought my computer, a phone charger, a book that I hadn’t already read, etc but it was still nice. It didn’t feel AS dirty, nobody was talking to themselves or me and it was quiet. So here are my jury duty tips (note: I’m not sure if this works like this outside of Baltimore city)

1.       You’re going to be there all day. Just get over it. Your friend’s sister’s cousin’s boyfriend may have gotten excused after an hour but you won’t. promise you that.

2.       Bring a phone charger.

3.       Bring a computer/ipad and coordinating charger

4.       Find the quiet room

5.       Wear something comfortable but don’t wear shorts or “gym clothes” mine could have been interpreted as gym clothes but I think my fishtail braid distracted them. I don’t know if I would have been sent home if I actually got called in but during check in nobody said anything. If there is ever a next time I’ll wear casual jeans and a tee but a regular braid- can’t be too dressy.  They did send another crazy home for wearing cargo shorts. They told him to go home and get changed, not sure if that was because shorts were not appropriate for jurors or if the “No Cargo Shorts over the age of 20” law finally passed. Hoping the later.

6.       Bring hand sanitizer. It’s gross in there.

7.       Bring magazines.

8.       Don’t spend your $15 in one place; parking is expensive even with the juror discount in certain garages.

9.       Remember, you will be there all day. The sooner you get over it the better.

10.   Yes, they give you a lunch break. No they don’t pay for it.

Hope my experience helped you somehow. I didn’t even get called in to be questioned to be a juror, so I sat there all day. The front half of the day with nothing to read/do and the back half of the day without a phone. #rookiemoves 

daddy!

I missed my father’s day post! My parents actually came down last weekend so it was a busy weekend with no time to finish the post! BUT Before you all start talking about how you think my mom is my favorite parent I wanted to finish and post this! Even though it may be true, I try not to show favoritism. KIDDING, it’s a joke. Everyone loves a favoritism joke. Right, Mikey?



the oldest, favorite- can do not wrong- child.

I know you all think you have the best Dad in the world, but most of you are wrong because my dad is the best. I can’t imagine a day where I won’t call him when I have a flat tired (yes, I still do from Maryland), have a question about the house or just need him to tell me where something is located in Home Depot. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t trust his opinion on. Sure he signs his text “Love, Dad” as if I don’t know who they’re from but even with that he is still the coolest dad I know.

cornhole- our family, competitive? NO WAYYYY

So Dad, just wanted to say thank you for everything you’ve done for me, Michael, Ryan and Cait  and now RC and Tucker. I realize that everything that I’ve been fortunate to do in life was a direct result of your hard work. Thank you for being the shining example of what/where hardwork and sacrifice can get you in life. From you I’ve learned that hardwork won’t kill you, that family comes first and that just about anything can be done with a beer nearby. I learned the importance of a good marinade and which one the Phillips head screwdriver is. You taught me that cars have horns for a reason and sometimes people just need a little reminder of how to drive.

 I know I don’t say it enough but I am so thankful for everything you’ve ever done for me, every penny you’ve ever given me, for every minute you spent on the sidelines, thank you for my sarcasm (I know I get that from you) but most importantly, thank you for my blonde hair. LOVE  YOU!

manly things

I have to admit I’m a little confused. We’ve been calling the downstairs living room a “man cave” since forever ago. Then when we finally get the thing set up the first thing RC does is play Nintendo.. the original one and set up all of his other game systems.

RC's note: a receiver for surround sound will go in that empty spot under the TV

Should we call it a play room then? Or an arcade? Or the  “I’m terrified I’m over 30 and need to play video games to feel younger” room. That’s going to be a mouthful but maybe that’s closer to the real meaning of the room. The room looks great though, super manly and all. We finally got a new TV for the upstairs living room and brought the old “small” tv downstairs so RC is in now electronic heaven. We can finally watch our own shows without having to listen to the other bitch. RC doesn’t have to suffer through another episode of “Pretty Little Liars” and I don’t have to suffer through another episode of “Around the Horn”. I have a feeling this will either be the best thing for our relationship or the worst thing. Here are some more pics of the room and a close up of the floors. I told you way back when that we went with a wood grained tile so from a distance it looks like wood but it's actually ceramic. That way if we ever have a flood (god forbid) we won't have to replace floors. Hindsight, I wish we had gone with an even darker grout but c'est la vie!

It’s not completely done yet (RC wanted to make sure everyone knows that there is still a lot of work to be done) but it has the makings of a beefy man cave. He wants to put up all of his Raven’s paraphernalia, hang up his old lax-bro jerseys on the walls and have Glory Days playing on repeat as you enter the room. I actually think it’s coming together nicely and will be a nice little retreat for him and his big head.

All you dudes out there are probably curious about what kind of TV we got for the upstairs. So I decided to take some measurements, as I went to measure it across the top RC gave me the most disapproving /disgusted/ horrified look I have ever seen. Apparently everyyyyyone knows you’re supposed to measure from corner to corner on a diagonal except little ol’ me. whatev. it’s a TV and as long as I can see the lace details of every single dress on Say Yes to the Dress I’m a happy girl. We are still squeezing onto 1 loveseat at night to watch TV and I’m convinced the TV screen is bigger than the loveseat in which we’re sitting on. It’s ass backwards but it’s my life and it’s still awesome.   

older and wiser.. something like that

Me again! Surprised or what? If I sound different it’s because I’m older now. I turned 27 yesterday and the entire day this kept running through my mind..

So true or what?! It was an amazing birthday, filled with all of my great loves- coffee, champagne, brunch, new boots, frozen yogurt, a bulldog and RC.  

Ari- that's me!

We spent some time at the house and I did some “gardening”. I use that term loosely because it’s probably closer to re-planting. I’ve wanted flowers since before we moved into the house; it was one of the things I was most excited for. You see, I went to JMU where they have little gnomes who plant new flowers almost daily and you never see dead flowers…. Ever. Besides that I grew up with Jim, my dad, who plants new flowers on the reg.. for fun. So flowers were a must. However, I don’t have what you call a green thumb. Mine’s more.. red. Or whatever the opposite of green is on the color wheel.

Give me anything with a heartbeat and that thing will never go unfed, unloved or un-nurtured (that’s not a word) but plants.. they’re just not my thing! So convincing RC that I should buy some plants was like trying to convince my Dad we needed another dog. I eventually get my way but it takes some convincing.  

i even let him pull the cart!!!

RC even splurged on special dirt soil, it’s supposed to protect against under and over watering aka the Gardening for Idiots type of soil.

I don’t know how much I like gardening, it was really hot and the dirt (SOIL!)  seemed to stay under my finger nails for hours and all I could think about was that I was maybe going to pick up a worm or that I was touching horse poop. Do you think there was horse sh*t in there? No, right? Well either way, I washed my hands 100 times and this is the finished product!

Oh and that’s our new deck furniture! What do you think? Want to come over?

#dogproblems

Waayyy back when we all started this journey together I told you that I would show you everything along the way and one of those things I said were “the first thing Tucker decides to eat/ruin” and my friends, that time has come! This guy let us know that he isn't too happy with the new living situation..

I always say that Tucker is a human in a dog suit. He has feelings, real genuine feelings. I know, all of you people that haven’t met the little guy are rolling your eyes. Trust me, I get it. BUT come over, meet him and you’ll be singing a different tune. He just wants to hang out with us, all.the.time. If we’re sitting on the couch, he is sitting between us, if we’re upstairs he is upstairs, is we’re downstairs he is downstairs. Look.. these are real pictures of our real life..

not the most attractive picture (RC!!!) but hilarious

typical monkey trying to wedge his way in on the couch

even my brother isn't safe

doesn't understand why he can't cuddle

even Jess isn't safe.. look at him just trying to touch her

So when we leave the house and/or say words like “you ready?” “Let’s go” “GO” he gets visibly upset and when we put shoes on, it’s even worse. His little spotted ears go down and he makes his way to block the door. It’s reallyyyyyyy one of the saddest things I have ever seen.

casually blocking the door with his bed (old apartment)

sitting right in front of the door (old apartment again)

We have this new fancy security system in our house where we can log in and see live video of the living room/front door and this is what we see all day…

Can you even handle it? Just sitting by the door, waiting.. watching..waiting.. watching..

Needless to say he hasn’t really adjusted to the new house yet. We lived in an apartment building, outside noise was minimal and we didn’t have two vicious dogs living next door that barked at just about anything. So when we came home and saw the below, "surprised" wasn't the first word that came to mind:

Dogs deal with stress like humans do, in some way. We bite our nails, shake our legs, eat, drink.. he eats molding, couches and now blinds. RC was less than impressed by Tuck’s actions and all I wanted to do was snuggle him (the dog) and tell him it was going to be okay. We clearly see who the push over parent will be in our relationship. He is slowly adjusting and finding his favorite places in the house, like the decks

and the floor AC vents:

floor vents were invented for bull dogs!

I’m sure he’ll be fine in no time but it still breaks my heart! I had no idea the most stressful thing about moving would be how Tuck would handle it!

checking in..

I’m BACK! I apologize but our life hasn’t been that exciting, but it has been busy so instead of blogging about nothing I just didn’t blog. That totally makes sense, right?

Anyway, I can’t believe we’ve been living in our house for almost 2 months! Can you believe it? When we started this project everyone said, “if you can get through this, you can get through anything”. At the time I didn’t understand what they meant. We’re just building a house; it’s just wood, some ceramic tile, and a little paint. How could this be the most challenging thing that two people could face?!

Boy was I wrong. I’ve learned so much through this process, beyond how a mortgage works, how to apply for a tax credit or what the process of rehabbing a 100 year old house happens to be. I learned that good things are worth waiting for, good things are worth working for and Tom Hanks was right, “it’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great” (A League of Their Own, just one of the best movies ever) The last 6 months haven’t been a cake walk, RC and I have had to make sacrifices and re prioritize things in our life to make this dream of ours come true. I would be lying if I said there weren’t times during this process where I was extremely stressed or overwhelmed. Remember this?

A couple of weeks before we moved in RC asked if I would do this again and if I would tell someone else to do this.  My answer would be absolutely, 100% yes. I would do this again and I would tell everyone I know to do this as well. My only advice would be to make sure you have a great support system. You can’t change the weather, you can’t change how long permits take to get, you can’t make paint dry faster but you CAN choose who you go through this process with. There were days when I was exhausted and just wanted to sit around and catch up on “Say Yes to the Dress” and RC had to drag me out of the house to look at vanities and light fixtures. Beyond RC, there were so many people that were vested in our little project. To be completely honest, it came from the most unexpected places too; co-workers, friends of friends, friends of our families, “friends” from Facebook.

What I did learn was that, there is nobody that I would have rather have done this with. RC and I are a great team, we’re not perfect but it works for us. I think he is a jerk sometimes and he thinks I’m crazy most of the time but somehow that all balances out. We’re good at compromising (giving in) and making the best decisions for us.

I once read an article about the ups and downs of life and the author referred to child birth as “selective amnesia” I’ve never had a baby but I’ve had tequila and that’s practically the same thing. When the shot of tequila is offered I jump at the chance but the next morning I’m lying in bed, holding on for dear life and cursing that exact liquor that I was so quick to drink the night before. When the bartender is pouring the shot I completely forget how I (awlays) feel the morning after I drink tequila. Something happens and when I’m offered a shot all I can remember is the good taste and fun buzz! This rehabbing experience is kind of the same thing. Right now, I can’t remember those stressful days and all I can see is this beautiful house that we are both so  proud of. When I think back on the process all I remember is the good times, the fun we had choosing paint, vanities and the exhilarating feeling we had every time we walked into the house. All I can remember are these days..

So that’s where we are now, just enjoying our brand new house. Trying to get back into the swing of normal life, hanging out with friends, sleeping in, etc. We're slowly trying to finish rooms and hang things on the walls. We’re not even close to being done, we’re not even close to being half way there. We did buy couches for the living room but they won’t be here until the end of July! So stay tuned, more updates coming.. PROMISE!

xoxo

E