3/365 China

My first place setting of my new china arrived today.  Ta Da!  This was a gift from some good friends.  As many of you know, I love china.  LOVE china.  And yes, I already have 2 patterns, but they aren't ones that I picked out.  This is!  It's more contemporary than anything else I have, and J and I both like it.

2/365

Can you guess where I ate lunch today?

New Camera! And 1/365?

Finally, finally.  I bought a new camera!  So...here are a few pics of our new house!  And perhaps I'm restarting my 365 Project?  We'll see...

Front Door

Pocket Doors into "Parlor" AKA the Living Room

Dining Room

Front Hallway and Stairway

Copper Ceiling in the Kitchen

So there is a quick peek at our new house!  I promise to take more during the day when I am up in Baltimore next weekend.

Hypochondria

Hi, my name is Page and I'm a hypochondriac.  No, really.  Something about all of the minor changes occurring in my life (getting married, buying a house, etc...you know minor things) has set off a major case of hypochondria.  Now, I admit, I'm slightly prone to it in normal times, too.  You know, my cheek hurts and I think I have mouth cancer, my spine twinges and I think I have meningitis...those types of things.  But usually, I have a quick flash of hypochondria and it goes away.  But recently, I think my body has been internalizing stress.  And since I don't feel "normal", I'm convinced something is wrong.  And not something minor (like stress, or the flu), but major things.  A few weeks ago, I started seeing floaters in one eye.

**A quick aside: The internet is the worse thing ever created for hypochondriacs.  Some of the descriptions are like "PVCs are usually harmless.  Unless they are due to congenital heart failure.  In which case they could be fatal."  Yeah.  Watch out for those internet health sites.  You will be convinced you are going to die.**

So, I made the mistake of googling them.  "Floaters are generally harmless.  Unless they are due to a retinal tear.  In which case, you should see your eye care professional."  What?  So, of course, I'm convinced my retina is torn.  My eye doc passed away in May, so I had to get an emergency appointment with another one.  He checked me out, all was fine.  He did say, though, that if I saw flashing lights, I should come back.  Lo and behold, while at my wedding dress fitting, I saw flashing lights.  And again the next morning.  So like an obedient little patient, I headed back into the eye doc.  Nothing wrong.  He told me if the flashing lights "increased" I should come back.  What does that mean?

Then, last weekend, I had a headache.  Unlike one I had ever had before.  Only on one side.  As I started to "think" about it, it started to seem like the left side of my face was numb.  And I started to imagine tingling in my left hand.  Can you see where this is headed??  Yep, I thought I was having a stroke.  Ridiculous.  Thankfully, my future brother-in-law is an ER doc, and talked me off the ledge and convinced me it was very unlikely I was having a stroke.  Whew!

Today, I went into slight panic mode again today when I thought I saw more flashing lights.   Maybe I did, but it was a slight flashing light, not like the "all over" ones.  Then, I talked myself off the ledge.

I think I need a vacation...

A Fresh (ish) Start

Hello, faithful readers!  After spending the past month and a half or so splitting my time between two cities, working on settling halfway into a new house, and planning a wedding...I've decided it is time for a fresh blogging start!  I also like the fact that Blogger added a few new templates.  What do you think of the new look? (feed readers...pop on over for a peek!)

If you look on the right hand side, you'll also see I've added a To Do List of 50 things.  Inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, LMB (who is on her way to Vienna as we speak!) I decided to create this to do list, and see how I do.  In a year, she will be able to cross off number 6 on her list, Live in Europe for a year.  Anyway, the list is quite random and covers everything from the vague category of "be a better person" to cooking, exercise, etc.

In non-blog news, we are settling into our new house fairly well.  As I mentioned in my last post in June, it is hard to own a house one place, and live in another!  We are muddling through though.  The only thing left to do until we move my stuff in is put away our china.  And between J and I, we have a lot of china, crystal, etc!  Thankfully, my parents gave us their huge Breakfront, and J's brother passed along his grandfather's corner cabinet.  I still have my china cabinet in the basement in Annapolis, so hopefully those 3 pieces will hold everything!  We will see.  I'd also like to get some pictures hung on the wall.  3200 square feet of space means A LOT of wall space!

Wedding plans are...well, wedding plans.  There is always something little to take care of (even though the major pieces are in place), and just when I've crossed one thing off the list, time ticks on and 3 more items pop onto the to do list for the current month.  As we quickly approach the 100 day mark, I'm getting kind of excited. :)

I'll be doing the Iron Girl Triathlon for the 3rd year in a row in a few weeks.  It has been helpful to have something to train for, but difficult to get training in!  I have a feeling I will not do as well as I did the past 2 years.  It's to be expected, though.

Well, I think those are all the major updates I have for now!

A Tale of Two Cities

...or a city and a town?  I'm talking about Baltimore and Annapolis, of course.  Since J and I have been dating and engaged, I've spent a lot of time on the road between these two places.  It's a 40 minute drive late at night in no traffic, and about an hour or so if there is traffic.  Now that we've bought the house, I am spending even more time in Baltimore!  It's hard, because I feel like my life, time, and priorities are quite divided.

I'll be living in Annapolis until after the wedding, and I'm very happy about this.  I had visions of one more care-free (ha ha!) summer in Annapolis sitting on the back deck with a glass of wine, going to happy hours with my friends, and so on.  Boy was I deluded!  Between wedding planning and house-settling, I'd say my time is pretty evenly divided between being in Annapolis and Baltimore!  I WANT to be relaxing in Annapolis with my girl-friends, but I NEED to be in Baltimore with my future husband doing house-related things.  Well, and I want to be doing those things too.  It's definitely going to be a balancing act.  I'm hoping I can figure out how to get things done for the wedding and at the new house and still have some time for lazy dinners on the back deck of the Home for Wayward Chorus Girls.  Happy Hours may be a little out of the picture since most of my disposable income is going towards the wedding or the house, but that is ok.

The next two weekends I'll be in Baltimore, but then over July 4th J has a concert to rehearse for/sing in, so I think I will definitely spend that time in Annapolis!

Gulp...I'm a Homeowner?

It's official.  As of May 28th, I am a home owner.  A co-owner, actually.  Thankfully, our Settlement was uneventful...if you exclude the fact that J was in France visiting/helping his sister, and I signed both of our names on everything.  He skyped in while drinking wine and eating cheese and bread.  Doesn't seem quite fair, huh?  Don't worry, I'll get some work out of him in return!  Even though we are not married yet, we now are both joined on a legally binding contract.  Good thing neither of us has any reservations about getting married or plans to back out!  Of course, I am rather skilled at jumping the gun on things like buying a house, etc.

So now we own a house.  THE house actually.  This old Victorian seems to have a personality of her own.  I think we are going to get along, but we are definitely still getting acquainted!  I won't be moving in until after the wedding, but in the process of getting J moved in (which is only about 25% complete), I've learned a lot about our house! 

1.  She has high ceilings!  We painted the living room and dining room, and I spent most of the time taping and cutting in the ceiling on an 8 foot ladder.  The first floor ceilings are 12 feet!  The second floor are 10 feet.  Thankfully, we only have one room left to paint on the 3rd floor!

2.  Her kitchen is very inviting.  Copper ceiling, cherry cabinets, stainless appliances...nice and cozy.  J's counter height dining room/kitchen table fits perfectly!

3.  She likes antique furniture.  Luckily, between our two families, we have many lovely pieces that fit perfectly in the house.

4.  She collects dog hair.  Or maybe, the dogs like to give her hair.  In any case, it looks like I'm going to become a 2 times a week vacuumer.  At least.

So at some point, I PROMISE I will post some pictures.  Not having a camera makes it a bit difficult, though!  In the meantime, you'll likely find me painting, organzing, or moving furniture somewhere in our BIG new/old house!