a change begins

I am moving to Dearborn this fall. I might. I'm pretty sure. It's definitely going to happen.

John owns a wonderful house in Dearborn that just refuses to let us go. It turns out that Dearborn might just be the worst place to own a house right now. Especially if you want to sell it. See more on the crappy real estate market in Michigan, and the curse of the St. Joseph statues. But since we've been trying to live together (in one place, without commuting back and forth, owning two of everything, and driving ourselves crazy) for over a year now, I've decided that it's time to take action and move to Dearborn until the house sell.

So the plan for moving to Dearborn is to commute together into the Ypsilanti-Ann Arbor area. Which really means that I drop John off at work, get to my lonely parking lot on UM's north campus, work a ton since there's nothing much else to do up there, pick John up from work, and drive back home. The plan was to run this routine for the last couple of days since we had to be in Dearborn anyway for house showings and bridal showers. This should be easy, right? No big deal.

Then chaos ensues. The first day, I realized that I had forgotten to pack for three days instead of two and had to return to my Ann Arbor apartment to pick up more clothes. The second day I missed a turn off the freeway and decided to take a detour back home to pick up wrapping paper for the bridal gift. We then realized that the bridal gift is sitting very comfortably in a closet in Dearborn instead of in the car in Ann Arbor where we need it.

This may get some getting used to.

ever constant watcher

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my love likes to sleep with his eyes open,


and he wonders why bright lights keep him up.
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little demons

i have decided that i really hate grapenuts. i hate grapenuts. i don't know why i keep trying.

Goddess of the morning red

Ever seen the northern lights?













I grew up in the U.P. I usually saw the northern lights at least twice a year (for hours on end, sometimes weeks) during my entire childhood. They take many shapes: sometimes very pale, ghost-like creatures dancing on top of the stratosphere; sometimes giant, living paint streaks of blue, purple, and red. It's really easy to imagine that some sentient being is trying to communicate with the flashes.

I actually thought that anyone who lived anywhere remotely cold in the northern hemisphere could see the northern lights. It was like our gift for putting up with the bad weather. And I still don't understand why there aren't any southern lights from where the electrons leave their pole.


post script: there are in fact southern lights (aurora australis)! I wonder if you can see them from New Zealand. There are also aurora on Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

contagious engagement

Last weekend I attended a bridal shower for John's sister, Juli. This marks the beginning of at least five wedding—and all the showers and bachelor(ette) parties that go with them—we will be a part of this year.

This was my first bridal shower, to the horror of many 30+ year old women in pink dresses who would then look down motherly at me: "you'd better get used to it". John came with me to say hello to everyone and then retire with the men and small girls to lunch at an Irish pub. I jokingly expressed my wish that they would sing some good Irish drinking songs to John's step-father, who responded with an honest look, "I know you'd rather be coming with the guys".

Luckily Juli is an amazing person, and although she put on a good show in a sun dress for the occasion, I knew she also felt out of place. You have to understand, this is the woman whose gift registry list is full of power tools. I had to laugh when I saw "nail and file set from sears" on there when I realized she was talking about hardware. And although I had to put up with everyone taunting her about breaking the gift ribbons and guessing how soon it would be until she had children, it was all worth it to see the look on her face when she opened her new table saw, saber saw (with laser guide), and a half a dozen combination squares.

Happy pre-wedding bliss, Juli!