you've got me feeling guilty

Last night I arrived home to find a note tucked into the handle of our front door. Assuming it was some random HOA junk mail (how many times can they remind you to fill out a proxy if you have to miss the HOA meetings?? - apparently, a lot), I folded it up and went inside. After walking the dogs, kicking my shoes off and giving 1-800-SunTrust a piece of my mind on the phone, I caught a glimpse of paper on the kitchen table. Upon opening the note, I was completely blindsided:

8 Jan 08

I just wanted to check with you on the noise level. I've made efforts to ensure you aren't bothered - please let me know if you still have a problem.

Steven is very loud, which is making me crazy and is why he is moving out this coming weekend. That should help things immensely.

Some mornings I turn on the news in the bedroom while I'm getting ready for work. I try to keep the volume down, but if it is bothering you, just let me know.

I apologize for seeming obnoxious before.

Carol

Carol is one half of the dynamic duo living next door to us. Unfortunately, we share a wall (make that a bedroom wall... directly behind our bed) with these jackasses and have spent a large majority of the past ten months despising them and hoping for a divorce. They moved in shortly after we did and were only dating at that point (they're past middle-aged... 45 would be a generous estimate) and, much to our dismay, made it official in July. Our disappointment with their holy matrimony lay solely with the fact that we cannot stand the husband. Without getting into details, lets just say that many times a night (many nights a week, for many months, etc) we either heard him being murdered or winning the Super Bowl. At least, that's what you would have believed had you heard him. He would carry on.. and on... and on... and when I found myself screaming "just SAY IT ALREADY!!" in response to his bedroom demands ("say it! *spank* say it! *spank* say it!"), we realized we'd had enough. We were losing precious ZzzZzz's and the dogs were going out of their minds.

We penned a firm (yet friendly) note asking them to please be respectful of the noise levels late at night/early in the morning. We received a rude note in return and the problem continued. This happened once more before we penned an equally firm yet friendly (also pretty hilarious) note to the HOA after that. Once they received a letter from the HOA, the noise level subsided for awhile... and then returned. Then the problem became less frequent and has tapered off over the course of the past few months to the point where we had actually noticed how little we heard their "lovemaking" (their words, not ours). We also hadn't heard much from the idiot husband in awhile. We knew he was around because his hideous rusty brown windowless rapist van was parked outside... but we hadn't been ambushed in the hallway or while walking the dogs in quite some time (he would often drunkenly confront Steve about how he wished we were buddies). Then this note arrived.

As much as I disliked them living next door to us, it made me feel guilty. I know we didn't do anything wrong, but we had spent some time wishing they would split up and here they are actually splitting up. I feel bad for her (not him, of course - he's an unemployed obnoxious ass). I felt compelled to knock on her door and tell her "we never had a problem with you, it was just him! all we wanted was for him to quiet down a little." but I was worried he was there. I'll leave her a nice note after this weekend - once he's gone for good. I think we'll be fine once she's our only neighbor. I've never heard a peep in this entire building other than him - even during their "lovemaking". Doesn't say much for his prowess in bed, does it? ;)

polaroid post

our visit from mr. and mrs. miah!

bamboo needs some new film... ew.

happy birthday, penguin!

mymy and jilly!!

go blaze!

CBS can eat it

Steve and I are Amazing Race fanatics. We’ve been watching for at least the past seven or eight seasons and at the beginning of each leg, we’re pissed that some of those teams get to travel to the most amazing places (hence the name) while we’re settled in on our couch. During TAR10, we decided to at least make an attempt and filmed our audition video. It was cute. To all those that saw it and continue to tease (coughMo), you have to admit it was cute! We played the newlywed/high school sweetheart card all the way and made a damn good audition tape but regretfully never heard from the producers. The season that’s on TV right now is the season we would have been on, had we made it to the next step. Of course, they’ve spent days in Osaka (it hurts), Ireland (painful) and Florence (be still, my heart!) and we get more bitter with every episode. All we wanted to do was travel and jump onto the mat in front of Phil Keoghan at the end of one leg! Now we settle for an hour every Sunday night and our Amazing Race DVD game. Unfortunately, according to Amazing Race rules, we can never audition together again now that they’ve passed on us once. Sooooo disappointing. In our absence, I hope that TK and Rachel can manage to make up their three hour deficit (plus their mandatory U-turn) and win everything. They’re so cute – as long as I imagine that they were chosen over us I can handle the rejection. Plus, we're registering for the Great Urban Race in D.C. so we will enjoy our own lame equivalent and CBS can eat it.

So I’m still sick and have been since Thursday night. It’s not sick to the point where I can’t leave the house but I’m still pretty miserable. We made our way outside for a couple of adventures in the woods with the dogs, to coach a very close Blaze game on Saturday afternoon, to shop at Target and to watch the Skins game at Morgan and Peter’s. The game was frustrating for Steve but seriously, what did people expect out of the Skins? They’re mediocre, at best. Follow my lead and support a team like the 4-12 Chiefs – they’re either damn good or really bad but at least being horrible will get you a number five draft pick (Jake Long, all the way)! Other than that, we sat home all weekend and it was relaxing. We took on the formidable task of de-Christmasing (just thought of that one, thanks) our house yesterday morning. I was dreading taking down our tree since it made the living room so homey as well as taking the holiday place settings off of the dining room table, but it is nice to be back to normal. We managed to fit a little redecorating/rearranging in and it made a huge difference. Very cozy.

I’m finding this blog more fun than Myspace or Facebook. I log into both almost every day, but then I don’t know what to do once I’m logged in. For the most part, I talk to most of these people via phone/text or in person so I don’t have the motivation to comment. I’m in a virtual social network funk. So I’m blogging.

My phrase-a-day French calendar says “Il neige!” (It’s snowing) but, in fact, it’s not. It’s something ridiculous like 63º outside and I’m surrounded by windows at work, sweating my ass off in my cute sweater. We’re going to New York in two and a half weeks and if it’s warm, I’ll cry.

it was never my intention to brag

Thrilled, thrilled, thrilled that Kansas won last night. Not only because the Jayhawks are my homies but because they beat Tech and I’m ardently clear about my feelings towards VT and UVA. Being raised in the great state of Kansas gave me proof that life in the Midwest is where it’s at – so much so that I nearly went back after high school. I was days from sending my deposit in for my super freshman year at KU when I decided to hang back and stick it out on the East Coast. For some reason, I thought I would miss this guy I was dating too much… Obviously it didn’t work out too well for me at Elon (where I’d ended up instead) but I loved Mary Washington. Beautiful campus, can’t emphasize that enough… and I got a great education there – my professors were amazing. Anyways. Kansas. 24-21. Sorry, VT. Must suck to go to Miami and lose. Suckers.

Thrilled, thrilled, thrilled that Obama won the Iowa caucus last night. Not only because Barack is my homie but because Hillary was pushed to third. I can’t take Hillary winning the Democratic bid because I really feel Hillary winning is basically handing the presidency back to the conservatives. Obama is promising a changed country for everyone – immigrants, those without health coverage, soldiers, veterans, children – and I’m eager to start volunteering. He offers a responsible alternative to Bush’s failed escalation policy. He proposes a much-needed modernization of the U.S. health care system (and from personal experience, this can't come soon enough). As a former civil rights attorney, he's fighting to keep the American Dream alive rather than withholding opportunities from those in need. The last eight years are more than enough proof that we need a leader to take us in a fresh and new direction and Obama's the man. Hopefully 2008 will be my first successful year of campaign stumping - my hours spent on Gore and Kerry were great but it only counts when we get that magic number (in this case, that would be 270 electoral votes).

Not so thrilled that I've caught Steve's disease and spent my entire day laying on the couch watching TLC. Okay, I lied. I took a short break for a mani/pedi but that was completely necessary seeing how it's been over a month since I last took the time to do it. Seriously, other than that, lounging and sleeping all day. Lounging and sleeping with Luke and Lila. Which reminds me, it's time for Nyquil and my bed... zzZzZzZzz....

rock chalk jayhawk

GO KU!

i heart apple

...I really do. In fact, I would truly be a Mac girl if Steve was more confident about running his business on a Mac... but, when we purchase a new fancy computer (a PC at that - perhaps that's where we made our first mistake) and I subsequently lose about 500 songs on my iPod in the process (long story), it does not make for a happy Kennedy. Of course I had always wanted to clean up my iPod and rid it of a lot of duplicates and messily-titled (messily?) songs, but this wasn't the way I'd planned on going about it. After this iPod annihilation I went crazy on iTunes. Shhhh... don't tell the husband.

P.S. (In addition to Apple, I also love parentheses.)

eight is my lucky number

Insert obligatory new-year-full-of-life-changes-and-resolutions post... I'm ready for 2008. I'm excited for it. I truly feel like it's going to be a huge year for Steve and I. He's already starting off the new year on the right foot with a new amazing job that he's so excited about and, as far as my job is concerned, I feel like I have the upper hand at work. My success is in my own hands as soon as we are awarded the new contract. Our families (and our dogs) are healthy, our friends are wonderful and our marriage is amazing. We love our condo (if only those pesky neighbors would move out) and are making great memories in it. We're able to travel and ski and do a lot of the things we want to... I feel very fortunate. We've had a great year and I predict this next year will be even better.

Normally, I'm not one for resolutions. They're rarely kept and 99% of the population doesn't take them seriously. Why make promises to better your life that you know you won't keep? That's like giving up chocolate for Lent when I was a kid... at some point, I slipped a piece of chocolate. Make a promise to yourself that you know you can commit to. Still, I don't do resolutions. I do lists. I make lists at least once a day, whether it's a list of items I have to have at Target (hah), a list of guests for a dinner party, a list of calls I should return at work... I enjoy making lists. I like order and organization and I'm a visual person so they make me feel accomplished in some odd way, especially when you begin crossing things off. So here's to 2008 and what I hope to achieve at some point in this new year:

• Practice my french!! (parlez-vous francais? oui oui!)
• Make the trip to L.A., Austin, Chicago, NYC, Kansas City, Denver, etc... we've got all these friends in cool cities and we definitely don't visit them enough
• Become more savvy in the kitchen - yes, I make killer chocolate chip cookies from scratch, but lets get real
• Get LASIK - oh wait. SCRATCH THAT!!! :)
• Visit the American History Museum as soon as it reopens
• Invest in digital SLR, start long-awaited photography business
• Eat healthier! We did so well earlier this fall... lets keep going
• Visit with my grandparents more often - they live so close!
• Finally teach Lucas not to jump on our guests
• Be constantly aware and thankful of how blessed we are

The list is always a work in progress, but it's a good starting point. Other than that, we had a great New Year's Eve. To be honest, I feel like such a grinch because New Year's doesn't really excite me anymore. We did New Year's big in college and even spent one in Times Square, but now that I'm older I feel less enthusiastic about it. Last night was really fun, though. I always love being with my friends but last night we got to see yet another old friend (J-O-E, we miss you!) and stayed out waaaaaay later than I imagined we would. It was nice.