The Suegros Are Coming! The Suegros Are Coming!

M's parents are coming for the weekend. Don't expect any kind of amusing blog post until they leave.

Not like you've had an amusing post in a little while...so I'm not actually certain this announcement is good for anything. Oh well.

In other news, there will be an exciting announcement coming up, so be sure to watch this space.

DIY? I know how to S(hop)B(y)M(yself)...

I love projects. I love arts and crafts, and doing things with my own two hands. I've scrapbooked, knitted, crocheted, painted, and done everything short of Bedazzle everything in my life.

For all of my craftiness, though, I'm an impatient person. Knitting was great when it was just scarves, but the instant I couldn't finish something in a day, well, that was it. Why bother? I'm all about instant gratification. While M loves his French press, I will crack open a Diet Coke for my caffeine so that I don't have to wait. Why wait for coffee when there's another source of caffeine readily available? Likewise, it just doesn't make sense to make a scarf when I can buy a perfectly good one at Target for $12.

Well, this is about to change. Thanks to Ana White at Knock Off Wood, I'm inspired. I will take my DIY love to new heights - furniture! Home Depot will cut the wood for me, I know how to paint, and nail guns only terrify me a little bit. Besides, M's house growing up was basically a construction zone, and his dad does construction/carpentry/y'know, handy shit. We can do this!

So I'm pumped. I'm ready. Let's git 'er done!

Oh, but apparently we need to wait. We need a day together, we need to figure out what kind of stain we want (um, dark?), we need to wait until it's not cold (hello, it was 64 degrees today!), we need money to buy the tools (okay, legit), we shouldn't start before his parents come...blah blah blah. It all adds up to waiting, and I really, really hate waiting.

This is why I shop.

Z to the UMBA!

I have recently salsa-ed my way onto the Zumba wagon. I have very little dance background - two years of hula taught me how to get the most out of a good old hip shake, but that's about all I've got to offer. But somehow, with hula and my innate sense of rhythm, I was a natural.

I shimmy, I cha-cha, I salsa, and I merengue. I swivel my hips and I pump my arms and I look fantastic. I know I do. I can feel the music dance it's way through my veins, and as I slide to the right I bend at the waist, squat, look up, and search for myself in the mirror.

I look past the skinny girl in the front row, packing exactly no junk in her miniscule trunk, around the girl in the green running shorts to...nope, that can't be me. No way. No how.

In my head, I'm smooth and graceful. I glow. In the mirror I'm clunky and awkward, my knee bends look like my puppeteer cut the strings, and sweat is pouring down my face. In fact, the only way I'm able to spot myself is by looking for my day glow pink sports bra. My chest is flushed, my arms are red, and my face - well, due to the amazing power of MAC's foundation, my face is still perfectly made up (ridiculously so, actually).

Gone is the Zumba goddess of my imagination. Gone is the graceful movement, the smooth shimmy and salsa, the effortless glow that I just knew that I had. Gone is the natural talent. Welcome back to reality, Sarah. It's a bitch.

Next time I'm hiding in back.

Home Sweet Home

So you know that dream you had as a kid? The one where the grown-ups left you alone and you got to hang out with your best friend, eat what you want, and run around and play? Yeah - my life is kind of like that. Only, you know, with a job and bills and more vegetables than I imagined I would ever eat willingly.

So after almost 5 years together, my boyfriend and I decided to take the plunge (not The Plunge, you crazy people. But a plunge; a safer, nicer, less-likely-to-kill-you-if-you-fall-the-wrong-way kind of plunge) and move in together. We wanted to make the move, combine residences, bills, and pets and get our own place. How exciting! How wonderful! How - wait, did I say get our own place?

Rewind. You see, due to an odd combination of circumstances, I was living in my parents' house (though without my parents) when we decided to move in together. And I couldn't really leave their house while they're off traipsing the globe, so I had a decision to make: just how awkward would it be to take over the master bedroom?

Not that awkward, as it turns out.

So this blog will be the story of our adventures in Living In Sin Land. Not only do we have the usual fun topics to cover (there was The Great Bed Debate, Adventures in Opening a Joint Account, and other assorted discussions), he gets to have a crash course in Living With the In-Laws (just the summer session, though - no yearlong courses for us!) while I struggle with how to be a girlfriend and a daughter at the same time. So, you know, it'll be all sunshine and daisies over here!

I should probably give you your cast of characters, though, right? Just for reference, of course.

To start with, you've got me, your noble narrator. Blogger. Blogarrator? I'm Sarah, and I'm a travel junkie, jewelry enthusiast, and a not-so-crazy cat lady. I can be a bit of a fuddy duddy (yeah, I crochet - what of it?), but oh well. I'm rapidly approaching my mid-twenties, but still in denial. Really, I'm a little kid with a driver's license and the ability to buy wine.

There's my boyfriend, M. He's a Virginia boy (born and bred) who followed me down to NC and is (I think) absolutely hilarious. He's an Ultimate devotee, quiet(er than I am), and responsible. He is the peanut butter to my Nutella, the ice to my cream, the Rioja to my sangria - nothing's quite as delicious without him around. And yes, I admit it - I'm a cradle robber. M is a whopping two weeks younger than I am. What can you do?

We've got three pets - Lola, a 7 year old cat with MAYJAH attitude

Ezra, a 2 year old cat who comes when he's called

And Bodhi, a 1 year old dog who runs away from people and tries to purr.


So if you skipped that whole post to get to the good stuff, here it is:


Ummm, yeah. I got nothin'. Keep reading, though. I'm sure I'll think of something.