Because I didn't get it all out this morning...

7. I'm at war with my basement neighbors. For those of you who don't remember, we live above a bar. I'm pretty sure they aren't affected by my iTunes radio. Nevertheless, we're battling. So far I've matched their "Purple Rain" and raised them Britney Spear's "Body Ache". Take that Ye Ol!

8. On that note, if anyone's looking for birthday gifts for your's truly, Britney's new album has some catchy tracks and I ain't afraid to say it! Thanks.

9. On a similar note, Katy Perry's new album would be another solid addition to my collection of lady-jams. #darkhorse #can'tgetenough!

10. And Lady Gaga: Artpop. Go! Okay I'll stop.

11. You should know that I love love checking the mail to find tiny little envelopes with people's RSVP messages. Few things satisfy me more than typing numbers into a spreadsheet.

12. I don't think my upstairs neighbor is happy with my music selection. Well I don't enjoy hearing his bodily functions. Touché. That's not an exaggeration folks. This apartment living is getting old. For another fun fact regarding our first place in Noho that we will remember fondly but will not be sad to move into a little-bit-bigger place NOT directly above a bar, our rent is just about the same as Markus' 1700 sq ft house two blocks from the beach in Ocean Springs, MS! oy vey!

13. It's not that I don't care what the table decorations look like at our reception, it's that I don't care what our table decorations look like at our reception. I do care! It's just not the most important part of the day in my mind [read: vowing my life to Markus f.o.r.e.v.e.r., coherently; speaking to everyone who attends to thank them for attending our nuptials over all the more important things they have going on in their lives that day]. It came to a point a few weeks ago that I just wanted to throw up my hands and scream SOMEONE DECIDE FOR ME! And then, my most-amazing-and-wonderfully-creative not saying that because I know she'll read this future mother-in-law showed me what she's using for the rehearsal dinner. SOLD. And so the theme carries over. Simple. Shabby-chic.

14. When you aren't asking me if I'm stressed about this wedding, you can also not ask me if I have any colors. Of course I have colors! Every color of the rainbow is invited to our wedding. And everyone gets to wear whatever they want. "Well, what's your sister (matron of honor) wearing?" you ask? Whatever she wants! Okay maybe I reserved the right to veto, but I do just want everyone to be comfortable!

15. Here's two things you can count on: I will be in a wedding dress of the white-ivory color range. Markus will be in a tux. Not sure if his tux will be black, grey or fuchsia. True story.

Monday morning.

1. First and foremost, it's my birthday week. So, there's that.

2. I long for the day I don't need earplugs to sleep. I wonder if they can do damage over time? Like, do my ear holes need to breathe at night or is it okay to keep them stuffed up? Maybe the earplugs keep germs out and I'll get sick less, because they only have access to my nostrils unless I'm sick and mouth-breathing and my nose-hairs help keep them out?

3. I'm getting married in thirty-three days. Don't ask me if I'm stressed out.

4. Yesterday I ran my personal best in the 10th Annual Hot Chocolate Run in downtown Northampton, a 5K, in twenty-five degree weather. I finished in 30 minutes and 20 seconds or something. I hadn't done anything physical at all besides gorge myself at Thanksgiving which is exhausting, hence all the naps in three weeks. I was pretty proud of myself! I do have to say part of my speed likely had to do with I could stop at 3.1 miles instead of having another 10 to go like during that awful half-marathon I ran that one time so the quicker I got there the quicker it would be over and I could drink hot chocolate go inside where people should be in 25 degree weather.

5. I had to scrape snow and ice off the car this morning to take Markus to the airport, another proud moment. We made it there and I made it back without any worries. I think we're going to dominate this winter business. I really don't know what all the fuss is about. 

6. I hope people will understand when all they get from us for Christmas is "love" as in we're coming home for the week, and we ain't got no money for gifts seeing as though there's a wedding comin' up and all.

Happy Monday!

Catching you up in 1, 2, 3...

Since my last post I would like to share with you the following:

1. I am getting married in eighty seven days.
2. Therefore I have commenced the lets-get-seriously-serious-about-looking-and-feeling-your-best-in-your-dress-on-the-big-day diet and exercise plan.
3. As for my "diet plan", it's not a diet, diet, but more of an ingestion-of-healthier-foods plan. And mostly just less participating in the candy bowl at work. 
4. As for my "exercise plan", I have started to go to gym classes regularly. Starting tonight.
5. I experienced my first bootcamp class (read: hellfireanddamnation). Remember part II of this post? Tonight was a similar experience, only bootcamp at the NAC lasts more than two seven minute workouts, it's sixty minutes. In a row.
6. There are four seasons in New England. Currently we are experiencing "fall" (that would be "winter" to my Mississippi folks) and the trees do this:
   
   
   
   
7. I still love my job. Maybe even more than ever before.
8. I went home to MS for the first time since the move to knock out some wedding planning details, it was a success! My list now looks like this: cake, caterer, rehearsal dinner location, dress undergarments, band, linens, sound equipment, music, favors, invitations, ceremony, officiant, everything else...
9. Our basement "neighbors" have gotten louder. Or maybe it's just that our "fan" isn't producing an equal volume of white noise as our AC was...now that it's "fall" (a.k.a. my normal version of winter) we have no use for the window unit. But sometimes when Markus isn't here I still run it. Okay, most of the times he's not here.
10. Kudzu is really happy in her one-bedroom-apartment (where her humans just pay rent) and has completely forgotten about the world outside for the moment. She spends her days sleeping on top of the refrigerator or in her humans' bed. She has really perfected her ping pong skills and the humans are contemplating enrolling her in the next kitty ping-pong olympics. 

adventures every weekend

When we were talking about making the move up here one of the things we discussed was having access to so many new nearby places. Little did we know, some of those places are right here in town and Boston is less than 2 hours away! 

Our very first weekend up here, just the two of us, we got to hang out with these guys...

And when I say hang out I mean we got to see them at the Iron Horse music hall and then invited them to our onebedroomapartment afterwards. It was amazing we all fit! and Kudzu was in heaven with all the surprise attention during hours she's usually locked up in the kitchen on top of the fridge.

The same weekend we ventured down the road a few minutes to Chapel Falls...

Another weekend Markus had to fly out of Boston early Monday morning, and I really wanted use of the car that week so rather than have him take it to the Logan airport, I found a last minute Priceline deal in the heart of Boston at the Omni Hotel and we drove up Sunday afternoon after laundry, Sunday is laundry day, always. 

This is where we stayed...

When we got to our room there were three doors, our key didn't work in the first two we tried so we assumed we had the wrong key. We didn't try the key in the room with the plaque on the door because neither of us could believe we would have a suite...it was AMAZING!

We settled in and then explored the city...

Finally, last weekend was epic. We drove 3 miles down the road next time we'll ride our bikes and hiked up Mount Tom...

Don't get me wrong - the adventures are great, but most of the time we don't make it much farther than this...

Before and after shots of "1bdrmapt"...

So, very recently Markus and I moved from each living in our own homes in Mississippi (his, 4 bedrooms; mine, 3 bedrooms) to a one bedroom apartment in Massachusetts. Let me tell you it was touch and go there for a minute! I can't complain too badly, actually, I had no involvement whatsoever with the packing of the trailer. The trailer was packed thanks to family. Expert packers, if you will. 

Dad was convinced even with the pickup truck-bed and the U-Haul trailer, our stuff wasn't going to fit. He was right. A desk, side table and Kudzu's big khaki chair didn't make it (but the matching ottoman did, it's now our living room coffee table as you'll see shortly). Everything else fit though, once all knobs and feet were removed, and boxes were unpacked in to dresser drawers, and every piece of anything that could possible come apart was taken apart...it was miraculous.

That's mom and dad making room for me after I returned my rental car to the airport, they picked me up on the way in, it was glorious to see them. They had to carefully open only one side of the trailer to cram some things from the truck cab in so I could safely sit and ride the rest of the way to Noho with them.

If you've ever moved before you know the packing part is a pain in rah-rah. 

Then, you dread unloading the trailer - unless you have these handsome helpers to assist:

That's the last piece to come out of the trailer #photopp

Thanks to some of my new work-family, we unloaded that trailer in under an hour. But then the real work began: deciding where it's all going to go!

I feel like the next series of photos doesn't even begin to do justice to the state our apartment was in during the unpacking phase:

BEFORE (LIVING ROOM)

AFTER (LIVING ROOM)

BEFORE (OFFICE)

AFTER (OFFICE)

BEFORE (KITCHEN/DINING)

AFTER (KITCHEN/DINING)

BEFORE (HALLWAY)

AFTER (HALLWAY)

Mom, Dad and I got pretty much everything somewhat put away. But the pictures on the walls, the TV, the hall closet, the office and a few other things are all thanks to these good-lookin' fellas who drove up during the hurricane (the storm refers to our apartment, it's a metaphor folks) and spent a few days inside:

Sr., Jr.

Now it feels like home!

And so begins the adventure of living together...

Miss July

Hey, remember that time I told you I'm contributing to www.mississippiwomenbloggers.com? Say hello to

Tips to make the most out of any adventure

Let me paint you this picture

Wedding plan dreams

Enjoy.

And stay tuned for photos of the new place!

Where to even begin??

I have started this post multiple times and just can't seem to get it written before something else happens that I want to tell you about, so I'll stick with the highlights:

1. I love my new job.

2. I love our new apartment but will love it even more when our stuff gets here (tomorrow night).

3. I will love #2 ten thousand times more when my sweet fiancée arrives!

4. I learned how to light our gas oven thank you Bebe and was able to cook a pizza which meant no more pretzels and hummus for dinner.

5. Our grocery store is to die for...

(Exhibit A) and the entire section wouldn't even fit in the frame!

6. Not only is there a fantastic cheese section, but there is also an international wine section the real stuff, not the under 4% alcohol content or whatever it is they sell back home and a full deli, cake-making-shop, florist, salad bar and SUSHI! I couldn't resist the salmon-mango-avocado-brown-rice-roll. Delicious!

7. People are FRIENDLY! No, this doesn't really *shock* me per se because I'm a likable person, duh but people are actually interested in how my day was and curious to know why I just moved here and where from and then they want to share all sorts of winter weather advice #winteriscoming. 

8. There's a random what-appears-to-be-a-homeless-maybe-hippies-of-some-kind folk-ish band that plays on the sidewalk every day during my walk home.

9. Did I already mention I can WALK to work? I didn't even mind it in the rain the other day.

10. I live above a coffee shop and my barista is so welcoming every morning when I enjoy a cup at 7am before walking to work. However, said cup of coffee is a whopping $2.50 so I doubt I'll be making a habit out of that once my coffee maker arrives this weekend. 

11. There's so much to DO! There's an awesome music scene...we could see a new band practically every night if we really wanted to. Don't forget Rosco Bandana is coming at the end of this month! And we could eat at a new restaurant every week on date night for years or so it seems. PS, Markus Jones, that's starting once we're "settled".

Side note: Our zip code is 01060. Does that mean we were the one-thousand-and-sixtieth zip code to be formed in the United States? That would make Hattiesburg thirty-nine-thousand-four-hundred-and-one-th!

I have to stop for the night, I'm tired and have another day of work tomorrow #TGIF, y'all! yet I can't help but feel like I've let you down! There's just so many things still to say, stories to tell...and more things will happen it'salljustsoexcitingIdon'tknowwhatodoaboutit! But it can wait. Stay tuned...

PS: Kudzu wanted to share her own thoughts and progression of feelings about this relocation to Noho, too:

Kudzu on the plane <I curse you>

Kudzu loves looking out the kitchen door! <I shun you>

Kudzu loves to climb! <Hey look, something high>

This is Kudzu's world, I just pay rent. <I guess it ain't so bad>