How to Wait for a Hurricane

1. Sit in your house. 
2. Calm the dog down because he's as nervous as all get out.
3. Try to not check the news every five minutes. 
4. Check and make sure you have everything ready including art supplies, books, oh and flashlights.
5. Wait.
6. Wait.
7. Look outside.
8. Wait.
9. Nap.
10. Wait.
11. Watch last night's TV on Sidereel.
12. Take another hot shower.
13. Fill up some pitchers with water.
14. Make sure Grandma remembers that she's to come over for the duration of the store. Yes Grandma, the storm is coming Today. Yes. The Hurricane. Yes your staying at our house. Okay see you soon.
15. Wait.
    
    Notice the trend?

How to Prepare for a Hurricane

1. Wash all of your clothes. Especially the icky ones you'd wear to work in the yard.
2. Take a shower. Shave while you have hot water. Trust me. 
3. Make sure your yard is fly-and-hit-the-house/car proof.
4. Don't go to the store and buy ridiculous amounts of water and bread like the rest. You'll never eat it all anyway.
5. Eat the meat or other perishables in your fridge before the power goes out. Waste not.
6. Make sure you have plenty of books, magazines, and other non-electric forms of entertainment.
7. Charge your electronics. They'll eventually die but its nice while it lasts. 
8. Board up the large windows of your house. But not the small ones. Natural light is a great thing.
9. Make sure you have all your meds. Including lots of tension headache. You'll be tense. Fact.
10. Start mentally preparing yourself for having to do yard work. Your mom will make you. It is just how this family works.
11. Comfort those who have never been in a hurricane. The news makes it seem much scarier than it really is. Just imagine that the hurricane is a snow/sand/rain storm or earthquake depending on what region of the country you're from. Its just part of life.
12. Enjoy the AC. You'll miss it once its gone.
13. Once everyone has showered fill the tub with water. Not for drinking but for toilet flushing. Important.
14. Try to have an art project to work on while waiting for the storm to end. After a while reading/playing scrabble gets old.
15. Don't freak out. There is nothing you can do to stop the weather. If your house gets it by a flying cow no amount of stress would have stopped it. (Wait... is that tornado?)

Have any additions?

Monday Update

Hello blog. I am sitting on my parents' awesome couch. This couch is amazing. I don't know what it is I just like it a lot. Very comfortable. We're watching Hells Kitchen as a family. We love love this show.  Who am I kidding? We love reality TV.

This week has started off Thesis free. I finished my first full draft on Saturday and sent it off to my professor. Felt pretty good but since I know that there will be revisions its not exactly relaxing. But I certainly won't complain.

What I will do is work my backside off between now and the wedding. And do editing once I receive feedback.  I have been working to get baby/kid/house/pet sitting jobs and the Lord is blessing me with lots of opportunities via SitterCity and families from church. If anyone is interested in my excellent baby/kid/house/pet watching just let me know.

For those of you who suggested books i am going to start with Shanghai Girls and The Piano Lesson. I think.  Or The Five Sisters... ahh I don'tknow.

I never got around to doing the food reviews from my travels with my Dad. I loved the food both at Pi in Saint Louis and at LAB in Asheville.

Beginning the job hunt in Des Moines. Just trusting God -- especially in this economy. I am hoping to have lots of small free lance jobs to make up resume building experiences.  Just gotta figure out the best way to use my education and my practical skills. I would love to teach and write and have a chance to be creative as well as some time and flexibility.

My Uncle is getting married this weekend in Myrtle Beach. So we are headed to that and so is the hurricane. Yep Yep. Should be exciting. I hope that the weather doesn't get in the way of their weekend.

I finally found all of the accessories for my Wedding Dress. All set and ready. Still have about a billion things on my To-Do list. I am excited to be Mrs. McCool and that makes the details very exciting.

Thesis Done = Read for Fun

These are the books I have to choose from now that I can read books not related to school projects.

But now that no one is telling me what to read I don't know where I want to start. Crisis.

Take a look and tell me what you think...

I mean it. Comment on this darn post or else I might lose my cool.

or something.

1. Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth-Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts
2. Sugar Queen
3. The Book of Salt
4. Swann's Way
5. The Golden Notebook
6. Five Sisters
7. Girls of a Tender Age
8. Where Girls Come First
9. Blue Shoe
10. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
11. Shanghai Girls
12. Ann the Word
13. The Piano Teacher
14. The Journal of Dora Damage
15. The Best of Times

Found wedding earrings and still hunting for wedding shoes. 
In Jville? Need a babysitter? Call me! I just want us to have nice things!

Mini Update 8/18

I am watching last nights episode of Storage Wars and drinking my cup of coffee before I start working. Today I am working on a chapter that is narrative based and auto-ethnographical. I just really stared learning about this methodology in June and I really enjoy it.  My goal is to finish this chapter today and then I'm well on my way to being finished and ready to edit by Sunday morning. I will send this thesis to my advisor by bed time on Saturday. Notice that - italicized letters - that means business.

Tonight my parents are having some people over for a pizza party using my Dad's newly built pizza oven. I plan on posting some happy photos this evening. Here is a little teaser...

Much more later!

Warning!! Warning!!

Got your attention eh? The warning is that you might need to steer clear of me this afternoon because I am going to get a TRIM just a TRIM haircut. If the stylist cuts too much I'm going to make a hurricane look tame...

Well not really. Its just hair... and hair grows back.  So all of that was just a ploy to get you interested in this blog post. :)

Speaking of hurricanes though-- yesterday we had a tiny mini one here in Jacksonville. It looked like a hurricane outside. The sky was grey, it was crazy windy, and you couldn't see through the rain. The neighborhood was a mess afterwards. Limbs everywhere. There was even a broken tree down the street.
Oh my goodness I'm talking about the weather... I have hit a blogging low...

So yeah we lost power so I couldn't watch episodes of Big Love so instead I went shopping with my Mom. That being said I didn't get enough work done yesterday. I have a list...

And has lots of stuff to accomplish. Notice my love note from Emily and my Goat from Chase. Oh! Chase has started a great new blog-- hope he doesn't mind me sharing -- that has great stuff.  Chase is a great writer. He finds interesting articles and puts them together so you don't have to go hunting for the good stuff.

 

I just got back from getting my hair cut and it went great. I saw Kathy (Cathy?) at Bella Salon and she did amazing job and she was super duper fun. So no hurricane needed.

I'm going to make a cup of coffee and get back to work. Yes. We bought K-Cups yesterday. I get to have real coffee. Whew.

I can't really focus on anything else interesting. Did you notice my new title for my blog? I am still searching for the right title once I move to DSM... but this will do for now! Alright my thesis is calling me... and I can't ignore her anymore. Shes like a pesky telemarketer or something. :)

Saw this today at Lowe's... Corn Carpet? Wha??
See photographic proof...

 

 

 and Mom just showed me this great video!
Trust me-- its great and worth the two minutes!

K- Cups Needed something F-I-E-R-C-E!

I am exhausted from driving (okay I'll admit... riding) all the way back from Des Moines. I then unpacked and organized all of my worldly possessions (the ones of which don't dwell in our storage unit in Iowa) in my room and have really enjoyed being with my parents.  But I will give you this little teaser-- I am working on two restaurant reviews one in St. Louis and one in Asheville. Both were pretty good! ( I for sure liked the Saint Louis place better of the two... ) Just wait and see!

One interesting tidbit of my life right now is that I am writing at the desk I did all of my homework at during middle and high school. Talk about come full circle.  My first real homework and perhaps my last real homework (until PhD work? humm?) I am one week away from needing to send my advisor the first full draft. I am excited about the research and the work, but more excited for it to be done. There are fun books to read and naps to take... The last couple of summers I have devoured entire television series. I think this summer I will return to "United States of Tara" unless someone has a suggestion. I'll warn you you really gotta stretch to find a series that live streams on Netflix that I have not actually watched. I think Upstairs/Downstairs is another one I might enjoy. Especially the new version. Usually BBC Miniseries and Dramas are a little tough for me sometimes cause you have to pay attention. Haha. Its hard to be crafty or clean or other things when you actually have to pay attention to what people are saying for hours on end. Lord knows the BBC doesn't do anything truncated. Suggestions Welcomed. Especially ones that live stream...

I want a mocha. Really badly. In a ceramic mug, on a porch in the mountains, with a cool breeze, sweatpants, and a Penny Vincenzi novel (she's my new author crush). Instead I will go fix some instant coffee (decaf too- its all Mom has!) and get to work. I had an amazing interview with a scholar named Megan Sanborn Jones. It was so wonderful to get to talk to her. I really respect her work and after talking to her on the phone yesterday I also think she's an awesome person that I would love to have over for dinner parties! :) Nerdy Lauren.

Oh we're at like 71 days till the wedding. Yep yep yep. Things are really falling into place. I am still hunting for a way to do the photobooth, the guestbook, and the wedding programs. We're also considering how to do the send off... sparklers? Too dangerous? Suggestions?

Okay gotta get to work analyzing season 1's episode seven of Big Love (that is how I start Chapter one of my thesis).  And to drinking decaf - someone bring me some Keurig K-Cups that have caffeine.


Please.

Pizza and Partying with Dad

My dad flew into Detroit on Thursday and we spent my last night in Bowling Green... and as I have said before if BG has anything its pizza. So of course we went to Myles. I had that awesome pizza that we ate in the Costume Shop during the semester. It is thick crust, ranch sauce, mozzarella, artichoke hearts, red onions, and bacon. Heck yes. It is sooo amazing. It was a really nice night with my Dad. We came home and ate Weight Watchers Latte Bars (which are out of this world) and watched Project Runway. Dad wins the award for coolest dad ever!

Lets just say-- I was wildly stressed about packing and getting everything in the car...
After three trips to Goodwill, two sets of selling my possessions, and a lot of sweat we crammed everything into my car. Now, I pride myself on my incredible packing abilities-- but when it came to this situation I was just too stressed and didn't care.  But we made it happen. And got in the car and out of Ohio. Whew whooo! Six hours on Friday, Six on Saturday and then Lots of Chase time!

We had a lovely lovely lovely two days with the family and left with a lot less stuff in my car and Lynn's wedding dress! We are using it for the display at the wedding. Very excited. We're now in Saint Louis and staying at an amazing hotel and just had an amazing night out. We saw a great indie film, went to an awesome local resturant, and now are watching Hoarders. Haha. Tomorrow night once we get to Asheville I will write a good review of tonight's dinner. I am too tired right now. Very out of it... and Hoarders is on... which makes it hard for me to focus on anything other than cleaning :)

Tomorrow is a long day. I will be more interesting tomorrow. Promise :)