Three Ways Marriage is Shocking

Today, Brian and I have been married five months. It's so great. Every once in a while, I'll be like, "He Brian, remember when we lived five hours apart for two years? Remember when we lived an hour apart for a year?" It's crazy to think back that there was ever a time we didn't get to come home to each other every day.

In our five months of being brand new roomies, we have shocked each other many times. It take s a lot to get used to a new roommate!

Three Ways Brian has Shocked Me:

1. He drinks SO much coffee, every single day. I had no idea how much until I started paying attention to how he makes preps the coffee maker at night.mHe drinks an entire full pot of coffee every day.
2.  He never thinks about being cold. I wear a sweatshirt, thick fleece pants, and wooly hiking socks to lounge around in the winter time. I'll say, "Brian aren't you cold?!" And he's like, "Oh, yeah, I guess, sorta." HOW does he not let the coldness bother him? I'm so jealous.
3. His hair is dry within minutes after showering. It makes me red with envy. I guess I "knew" his hair would dry quickly because it's so short, but I am shocked every time I feel his hair and it is completely entirely bone-dry within ten minutes after his shower. 

Three Way's I've Shocked Brian:

1. I haven't gotten a haircut in about 8 months. When Brian heard that, he was floored and confused. I think he assumed that in eight entire months, my hair would've grown to the floor. For reference, Brian gets his own hair cut every 6 weeks, so 8 months sounds drastic to him.
2. I have to buy "women's stuff" that costs more. Like, I had a bunch of old undies I was still wearing from high school (embarrassing, I KNOW) and I asked Brian if I can toss them out and spend money on  new ones. I waited for a sale at Aerie and thought I was making a wise, reasonable purchase. And Brian was like, wait what? Why does it cost SO much? Same goes for shampoo and conditioner, bras, tights, lotion,... stuff that a man would never think about getting anything but the cheapest possible option.
3.  My hair gets everywhere. Every time we vacuum, Brian is surprised by how much of my hair gets stuck in the vacuum cleaner. Every time a mini fluff ball of hair collects in the corner of our bathroom, he's surprised to see it there. I think he's found my hair in his food even two or three times. Oops. Not my proudest moment, but it really shouldn't be surprising at all. 

The Best Balance

Everybody wants "the best."

I am learning to no longer want/demand the best of everything (and fretting when it can't be found or achieved), but instead want/demand the best balance and compromise.

Example 1:

There are two Mexican restaurants reasonably close to our house. One of them is always insanely crowded, but they have the best guacamole in the world. The other one is a little further away, less crowded, and the servers are super friendly, but their guacamole is average. I cannot keep wishing there was a mythical "best" Mexican restaurant with amazing location, no crowds, low prices, and delicious guac. But I can choose the best compromise based on time of day, how rushed we are, and just how we're feeling overall. 

Example 2:

We're in the thick of searching for apartments. I think we've narrowed it down to four options. There really truly is no "best" apartment complex with the best price, most spacious rooms, AND fanciest amenities. It just doesn't happen that way. Brian and I are learning to lean in the balance- searching for what we value most and what gives us our best compromise. 

Example 3:

There is no best haircut for me. Something stylish takes more upkeep. Something low-maintenance turns into a giant mane on humid days. Short hair is too much of  a commitment. Long hair is too much of a hassle. I just have to deal wth whatever time and effort I'm prepared to put in. These days the best balance for me is plain long layers with no bangs, so I rarely have to get a trim. One day if I have a more professional work environment, I'll have to trade back to a shorter, more polished look. There is not "best," there's just a best balance.

When I Was A Dummy, I thought I could find the best of everything; all I had to do was search hard enough. Now, I realize "perfect" and "best" are never the goal- but balance, compromise, and finding a choice you can be confident in.

Watch Me WIP

Happy Birthday Kyla! (My sister Kyla is awesome and she is one of like four people who consistently read this blog.) Now for the actual scheduled themed blog post:

Hello, I am a WIP. 

I hope that WIP does't secretly stand for something dirty. When I say it, I mean I'm a Work In Progress. Today's Pep Talk Tuesday is about cutting yourself some slack, and concentrating on your progress more than your product.  

Lately I've been annoyed at myself that I'm not perfect at everything I attempt. Can you relate? It's so dumb! The thing is, you're not ever going to get to be perfect, or even very close. And everyone's definition of perfect is different anyway, so that makes it even more impossible to achieve. 

I try hand lettering, and it always turns out bumpy or imbalanced. I try talking on the phone and emailing strangers for work, and I always end the conversation relieved for the awkwardness to finally stop. I try to clean the kitchen, only for Brian to find crumbs and spills I forgot. I have to cut off another driver to get out of a busy intersection. I overcooked the asparagus. 

These aren't really failures, they're just part of my progress. I really am getting better at lettering, conversing with strangers, cleaning, driving, and cooking. 

Whatever you see as your weakness is really just the area of your life in which you can and will most rapidly improves, if you let yourself. It only feels like a failure when you compare yourself to someone else who is doing better. But they're struggling, learning, improving, and growing too. They're just good at hiding the screwed up parts. 

Like I used my awesome beautiful hand lettering as the title image. But here's some behind the scenes for you: 

Yes. I write like a young child learning cursive. And then repeat the same short phrase fifteen times. And then I have something sort-of presentable.

Same goes for everything else. I've made a few disgusting meals but thankfully I only serve my friends stuff I know tastes good. I'm improving. You're improving.  The process is growth not failure.  

Slow and Steady

Last weeks goals went pretty okay, if you ask me to judge for myself:

1. Spend under $30 on groceries, and no other money at all. (B)

I could have made this goal an A+ if I was into being a stickler for the rules. On Monday I spent $22 measly dollars in groceries, and those groceries lasted us through Saturday morning. I could have used those last 8 dollars to make a trip to the grocery just make a casserole that would last us Saturday and Sunday... but I decided it'd be a waste of time to go to the grocery and not do our "real shopping," so I already spent our whole grocery budget for the next week. 

2. Edit a bunch of footage I shot last weekend. (B) I am SO close to being done. It's a lot of footage of us giggling at nothing really. Chiseling away, will upload this week. 

3. Start registration for my summer camp. (A+) Registration opened, sign-ups hit me like a truck, and my camp is already halfway full. I'm getting excited. I put on this camp last year, not knowing very many kids or parents since I was new to the job. This year I feel much more prepared, confident, and excited since I know the kiddos already. 

This week I just want to take it slow and steady:

1. Practice lettering every day. I recently followed a bunch of calligraphers on Instagram for no reason other than their mesmerizing little videos of beautiful letters practically falling out of their brush pens. I've tried, and I'm getting better, but I haven't invested enough time to feel very proud of what I can produce.

2. Start packing and purging. Brian and I have to move in about six weeks. There's plenty of stuff I can pack up that we won't miss in the next few weeks (like, everything christmas, our yearbooks, board games, my collection of vases, etc). I also want to take a few loads of stuff to Goodwill. Better now than later.

3. Clean every floor. We keep our house very tidy, so it never "feels" dirty, which allows me to go weeks between vacuuming. Gross, I know, okay, stop it. This week I'll do a few rooms every day, and then the whole house will have been swept, mopped, or vacuumed. 

Sara's Visit Last Week

March 25 was the goofiest day I've had in a long time. My friend Sara visited me all the way from Nashville, and we couldn't stop laughing the entire day.

I filmed a lot of our day, "selfie style," using my phone. It's not great video or audio quality, but it's just fun and entertaining for us. I'm currently working on piecing together the videos into a vlog format. I was planning to post the vlog here today as my "Storytime Sunday," but I need more time. So I'm just gonna buy myself a little more time and post a less interesting post: writing about our day.



We got up and went to get coffee at the cutest coffee shop in Alpharetta. We both ordered lattes, and I tried to be "healthy" and ordered mine with skim milk and sugar free vanilla syrup. We also ate biscuits. Then we went to the grocery store and picked up some goods for making lunch and some stuff I needed for Brian so he could make him mom her birthday pie.

We sat at home doing nothing for a couple hours. We are really good at wasting time at home doing nothing. Brian came home from work after just a half day. Sara and I baked enchiladas and the three of us ate while we watched Chopped on TV. Then the three of us loaded in the car to go to TopGolf.
We arrived at TopGolf and everything was trendy and shiny and high-tech and confusing and loud. The wait time was an hour and a half and the hostess suggested we wait in the bar to entertain ourselves. It was 2:00 in the afternoon. We left and went to Barnes & Noble instead. We messed around, looked at books and games, and Sara got another coffee. It's very easy to stay occupied in a book store. Then we left and went back to TopGolf.

TopGolf was kind of amazingly fun and also incredibly boring and also pretty frustrating. It felt very futuristic, but also golf feels very weirdly old-fashioned. As you can tell, I still don't entirely know how I feel about it. I probably will not go back, since it was expensive. But Brian had been there before and he likes it and we were very glad he was there to explain everything to us. I was terrible at it, and after every swing, I complained, "ow." So that probably means theres something very wrong with my swing.

We went home to wind down for an hour, then we went out for barbecue. It was a restaurant I'd been meaning to try and it was really great. My only regret is ordering vegetables as my side. The menu said "grilled vegetables" but they were gross and mushy and clearly overly-steamed.  But the barbeque was amazing, and I stole some of Brian's french fries, which were top-notch. Our friend Avery joined us for barbeque and then he came over for game night.

We played Hoopla and Jenga. For some reason, Jenga was completely hilarious and we couldn't stop laughing the entire time. We were getting fiercely competitive with one another, which obviously makes any game more fun. It was a blast. Then Avery went home, and we all went to sleep. The end.

The next day (not filmed) we went to a donut shop and ate some delicious delectable delicacies. After that Sara helped me "chaperone" a bunch of preteens from my church going to watch Zootopia at the movie theatre. We freaking loved it. Laugh-out-loud funny. Then Sara hit the road. The Brian and I made a pie for his mom's birthday.

Comic Sans Bully

The first image is from PostSecret, sent in by someone anonymous.
The second image is by me, inspired by the first.

A Series of Unfortunate Accidental Selfies

This past weekend Sara visited from Nashville. We have a weird tradition of vlogging everything we do together, just using the phone's selfie camera. 

This results is a LOT of accidental selfies, when I thought the camera would start taking video but I accidentally snapped a photo.