Lindsey

Do you ever have one of those moments where something your parent told you that you thought was a bit ridiculous and paranoid turns out to be true? Today, I found myself thinking how good of advice I once got…

So I’m in one the more well-to-do suburbs of Cleveland, one we are kind of looking to move to if/when we buy a house. I’m stopped at a major red light, meaning I’m there for 3 minutes or so.

I’m second in line, with a pickup in front of me and a city bus pulls up behind me. I’m minding my business, fiddling with the radio, when I look up to see an older gentleman in a stocking hat and jacket, wearing glasses and gloves, walk in front of my car. He has kind of a wild, mentally deranged look in his eyes, and before I can react, he’s opening the driver’s side door. I head someone say leave her out this, and see a 30-40 something black guy in a bus driver’s uniform, and the old guy is looking at me, trying to get me to get out. I manage to finally get the door handle out of the guys hand and shut my door, and do what I should have done before I left work, LOCK MY DOORS. I’m trying to move around the truck in front of me to get out of there when the light finally turns, and the old guy is still trying to get in my car, so I speed off.

A background on the bus - you pay when you get on the bus, so this guy had to have paid already. Plus a driver isn’t going to get all the way out of the bus to chase down a 85 cent fare. So this old guy did something bad enough to piss off a bus driver to the point he got off the bus. After seeing the case scenarios at work, I can imagine lots of scenarios.

Also, I saw the old guy run across the road, and the bus chased him down. The bus had been in the straight/turn right lane, and chased the guy by making a left from the wrong lane. So now I’m curious what he did and if I need to let someone know what I saw going on? But man, it was weird.

So Dad telling my in St. Cloud MN to always lock my car doors, especially in big towns with stoplights, was right. I’m just glad I have a funny story to tell rather than a scary one.

So we’ve been here almost a month already, and I have to say I am liking it here.
During the move, I was practically bedridden by allergies, because I had spent the last week and a half in the woods looking for Bear. You’ve all seen Bryce’s blog, so you know what happened, but it was horrible, even more so because we had to leave and I felt like I was leaving him behind. It literally would have been better to find him dead because at least I would have known what happened. A man from the apartments thinks he has been feeding him, but I’m not sure because there are several stray black cats, and the guy can’t catch him, and I’m pretty sure Bear would have come inside by now. It has been over two weeks this guy has been feeding him, but it is too far away to go home for what is more than likely a stray cat. If Bear was around we would have seen him.
So we came out. I was sad about Bear and sick to the point of being unable to move. I felt bad because Val was here, but I don’t think I’ve felt so terrible in years.
Luckily, my allergies have gotten much better these days.
We got a new bed, it is a queen size sleigh bed in cherry with an 800 dollar semi-soft simmons mattress, and I love it. It beats the mattress on the floor, which is what we had been doing. We spent exactly what we intended to, and it was needed.
We also got a few new bookcases and a new tv stand, which we put together. We also tried to get Dish Network, but the HD couldn’t go the right way, so we were without tv for awhile, over a week. So we watched all of Arrested Development, half of Moonlighting, and all of Grey’s Anatomy. We did buy seasons 1-3 of Lost because we found an AMAZING sale - $20 a piece, which is less than anything on Amazon that was used.
I started working, which has been good. I think I’m really going to enjoy the work and my coworkers - alot of younger people, including my cohort who is also 24. We’ve spent most of our time together, since we are training. I have to dress business casual - professional, which was unexpected, so I’ve had to do some shopping, but I think it makes me feel more important. I also have to go down to the lab outside of Columbus overnight every week for one night, possibly two, through January, so that kind of stinks. But I get a raise in January already, and I’ve already been earning paid time off - I have already almost earned a full day because of overtime that I choose not to get paid for, but to turn into an hour and a half of paid time off (they call it “compensatory” time), so I’m hopeful I may be able to get off work for Christmas, since I don’t get vacation for a full year.
We also got a new kitten, as seen on B’s blog. We adopted her from a rescue orginization, and her name there was “Patches” but we are thinking of something - Sweets and Roxie are the leading choices. She is the sweetest kitten I’ve ever had, including all the kittens I raised as a kid. She has a very friendly disposition, and is both playful and a lap cat on command. She is a “tortoiseshell”, which is basically a black based calico, with more specks of brown and orange than large spots. Trivia: Almost all calico and tortie’s are female, and males with the coloring are generally sterile.
So, things have been well, with the exception of Bear, and not having had a paycheck in awhile, but we put money away for this, so I am not concerned. B’s work will get figured out, he has a fallback if the others don’t work out, so we will be two income by the end of the month. The people are nicer, although the roads are shit

Somehow with all the terrible things I’ve done, I passed the polygraph and drug test! So now I’m officially going to have the job. I should be starting Sept. 1 or 15 (they start at beginning of a pay period). I will be training in both Richfield and London OH, and there was some initial concern about that since this morning word was I would have to do all my training in London (2 1/2 hours from our apartment) and I thought I had to get myself there. Turns out they pay for it when I do. So, whew.
It looks as though we will be taking the Big Creek Apartments 2 bedroom, not the Windsor Estates townhouse. They have townhouses at Big Creek too, but the apartment is really great (and bigger, and cheaper). We will put pictures up when we move, which will be sooner than I can imagine. We decided on it because B’s bosses are working on a transfer, and that way we’d both be close to work. Plus, I’d noticed a lot of bad reviews of the townhouse place with regard to the water. Bad smell, bad color, water heater breaking a lot, etc.
Also, I got a job offer from the New York City medical examiner’s office today. 5K more a year, but I’d have to live in Manhattan, so in the end they even out or favor OH.

So we just got back from our drug test/polygraph/apartment search in the Richfield, OH area.
The 7 hour trip out was uneventful. We got to our hotel, went out in search of in-depth maps, came back, ordered pizza and wings, and watched TV. I’m pretty sure we were in bed before 11 (although I slept little).
The next morning was my drug test. We got up, and headed out in the morning. I was told I could just walk and take it. So I tried, but I had to wait almost 40 minutes. So before I even got to “go” we were late for the first apartment appointment. Then, to make matters worse, I didn’t fill it up enough. So I had to start over, but I wasn’t allowed to leave and come back. I had to wait in the waiting room, and I was allowed five 8 ounce glasses of water. Which I chugged. Forty minutes later, I was ready to go. REALLY ready. Of course, I waited another 15 to go. Which made us late for the second apartment. But i peed enough to fill it to the line at least 3 or 4 times. Five glasses may have been overkill.
So, we finally went to an apartment. It was ok. It was well kept and all of that, but the apartment was pretty small.
Then we stopped by Mickey D’s for a lunch on the run.
Next was the polygraph, which was a 2 hour and 45 minute process. I had to basically confess all of my sins through birth, and then attest that I wasn’t hiding things. I was really nervous while hooked up that I was forgetting something, so hopefully I didn’t screw it up. I will find out next week. The hard part was not moving. When you were hooked up you couldn’t move and when you try not to move, everything seems to twitch. I don’t know how it affects things, but it was happening. I think I am more nervous than need be, but thats me.
Then it was back to apartment looking.
The next place was awesome, We actually have the apartment on hold, and I will discuss it below.
The final place for Friday was a dump. The apartments smelled like smoke and dirty people, and the other residents were not to my standards. Probably sounds conceited, but people who look unshowered for the month of August are not people I want to live by.
So, we headed down to the next hotel. Got our room, and went to eat at a steakhouse. Excellent dinner.
Headed back, and watched the opening festivities on the Olympics. Definitely sleeping by 10.
Saturday we went to a few places. The first place was a group of townhomes, which I will discuess below. Then we went to a “luxury” apartment complex, but they weren’t that awesome. The fireplaces are right next to cable jack, with nowhere for the TV to go… dumb. Otherwise ok.
The third place was ok, overpriced and nothing exciting.
So we are left with two places. So what does everyone think? We are waiting for my polygraph results before we decide for sure, so what would you choose?
Place one:
Big Creek Apartments or here
The apartment we put money (only $25) on to hold, with a fireplace in the lower right hand corner of the living room. It is the far right plan on the top. The ceilings are vaulted and the kitchen is open with a bar along it. It comes with a garage stall, a big balcony, and a really big closet. There are tons of amenities. The apartment is 1250 square feet, has brand new carpet, and is $890/month, including the cats. It is a huge apartment, and is towards Cleveland. However, it is on the third floor, which means stairs but no one above us.

Windsor Park Estates or here
This a townhome community. The floorplan is either of the two bedrooms on the page. It is 1100 square feet, with a private entrance, a garden area, a garage, two floors, “house-like”, closet space, and the are no stairs except to our second floor. It is smaller and doesn’t have a balcony, fireplace or all new amenities. It would be $795/month. It is also closer to Akron.
The two are equidistant (approx.) to the lab. The Clevelandish apartment is closer to the ADP office Bryce is trying to transfer to, but there are no guarantees about that. The Akronish townhome is more suburbia-like. One is cheaper, the other nicer, and both less expensive than what we have now.
So….

As some may know, I have gotten a job offer, which is contingent on passing a number of background checks and tests, including a polygraph and a drug test.
If all goes as planned, we should be moving to Richfield, OH (between Cleveland and Akron) by the end of August as our lease is up.
My polygraph is August 8, as well as my drug test. So we’ll be out there looking for apartments and I’ll be interrogated that weekend.
The job is forensic serology. Essentially I look at items of evidence for biological stains, and submit pieces of the stain for DNA analysis. I’m glad it is serology and not DNA, because unless you also get to examine evidence, doing DNA is a very boring and repetitive job, much of which is automated and instrumental in nature. I do plan on eventually working with DNA, so we’ll see what the future holds.

Overall, summer is the best and most boring time of year. This is probably my last summer that I’m not working full time and in the “real world”, so I’ve been trying to enjoy some of it. It’d be a lot easier if the next year wasn’t a complete mystery.

I’ve done the interviews, and now I’m just waiting for word. I’ve got an ace in the hole, but I’m waiting for the one I want first. Anyone who wants to know will know when something happens.

I’ve been to the pool here off and on, working on my tan. Which, is pretty pathetic, but then again, that is usual. I’m Scandanavian with a hint of German, so I don’t expect much. I do hate how many obnoxious kids there are there. Since I read while I tan, I don’t wear my headphones because otherwise I can’t concentrate, and I’ve never heard kids so young using the F-word in regular conversation.

We’ve been grilling a lot this summer. We have grills like you find in public parks here, and we go out once or twice a week and have food on the grill. Mostly steaks, but we’ve had burgers, kabobs, and pork chops too, and I’ve got some good hot dogs for this week. Bryce has also decided to implement a “Bryce cooks” night about once a week. For his first week, he made a red wine marinated steak, which was really good. I helped with spices and flavorings. He made his mom’s hash browns with it. They weren’t the best, probably for two reasons. One, they were made beforehand and the sour cream and cheese were added later, because the grills are 3-400 yards away and they were too greasy, and I think they needed a little onion, which is a strange thing for me to say, but they were blah. I’ve started using onion pretty regularly, even though I used to HATE onions, in cooking, making sure they are really small and well cooked so that icky crunch isn’t there. So what will Bryce make us next?

As you all know, Bryce and I watched Lost. I would say we are Losties, but I have to tell you, if I would have been watching it week to week, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. A good chunk of season 2 is straight up garbage. The time spent in captivity over in the barracks was long, drawn out, and overall ridiculous. Now I’m most interested in the dynamics of the Whitmore/Ben relationship and who put that plane on the bottom of the ocean, and of course where is the island now, and when will the oceanic 6 go back, since obviously they will. The nature of the show will change dramatically I think. Also, I want to know how polar bears survived there at all. If they don’t explain that, its ridiculous, since polar bears wouldn’t be able to survive in that heat with no prey but wild boars, which they wouldn’t be able to catch anyway, so I want to know how they manipulated them genetically or whatnot to allow them to survive there.

We’ve also been watching a ton of movies. Dark Knight the best, but I also really liked The Kingdom. No Country for Old Men, Vantage Point, License to Wed, Enchanted, and a lot more, I can only seem to remember the last week or two’s. Also been watching the new episodes of Jon and Kate plus 8. I’ve seen every episode, and it is one of my favorite shows, really cute. Meerkat Manor is my summer show, since everything else is done. It’s a little weird to give human traits to animals which clearly don’t have them but it looks like they do, but the show is dramatic, and if you get attached to The Whiskers, its like a little meerkat soap opera. Who’s been sleeping with who, who’s mad at the other, are they going to overthrow the leader, which family will win the territory battle, will the snake get one of them, babies getting eaten by other meerkats and hawks, and so on. My cats really like to watch animal or action shows with us, especially Bear. He sits in the cat perch watching for hours, literally.

This summer, while lazing much of it, I’ve been working as an adjunct professor. I teach general chemistry lab I and II. It’s been pretty cool, except for the fact I expect the students to come prepared and to pay attention, and to follow directions, and they don’t. Maybe I was just a dork, but lab was faster and I got more out of it if I came ready to go. These kids claim to read the instructions, but obviously they don’t. I get the packet the same day they do, so it isn’t like I have a head start on the actual procedure. I see the point faster, but as far as add A to B, we’re on the same level, since I didn’t do the same labs at SMSU. But it is money and it is better on the resume than tanning at the pool.

Once again, I’m trying to start a fitness/diet. I haven’t put on all the weight I lost before (I’m still ten down from last summer) but there is still room to improve. If I go down ten more, I’d be happy.

I’m really starting to feel the pinch of rising gas and all that goes with it. Gas isn’t a big deal for me, since I only fill up every other week, so an extra five bucks a week isn’t huge, but the food prices are killing us. You can’t buy decent meat here without breaking the bank. Unless you want a crappy, tough cut of steak, you are looking at $35 for 4-5 steaks, more if you buy them one at a time. I try to hit up the meat specials, when they are reduced to sell, and freeze them, but everyone else feeling the pinch is doing it too, so the selection isn’t so hot. It is usually $100 a week for food, and that doesn’t count Bryce going out to eat twice a week for lunch. I think it is more pronounced out here than back home, by far. I think everything costs 10 to 25% more than April prices. Even canned and frozen foods have gotten outrageous, and I’m not even going to tell you how much dairy products make me mad. well, I will mention 1 gallon skim milk = $4.79 this week, which is down ten cents from last week. We are essentially single income with a few bonuses for the summer until I get a job, so we don’t have spare change to throw around these days.

For every teacher I ever asked when my test will be graded, I apologize. Grading open-ended questions really really sucks. No excuses for multiple choice or true/false though.

Since my last real post, forever ago, I’ve had some interesting days and a lot of nothingness.

We’ve been fishing twice, which is great. I love fishing, and it has to be one of the top 4 things I miss from home. The first time was alot of fun because we had a lot bites, which in the end were probably turtles, one of which we caught. We caught two crappies, some white perch, a big smallmouth bass, and Bryce had a walleye on. That is til it got stuck on a log. Which, I made Bryce go in and try to get. By the time he got there the fish was gone, but I made him move the log so it couldn’t happen again, so Bryce as a little cold. The other time we went to a different spot, and we caught two sunfish, but we didn’t have a bite for like an hour, so we stopped by where we had went the time before. Now it was really weedy so it was harder to fish, but we did catch another sunfish and caught some little things we threw back. That day we also caught like 4 of the white perch i mentioned before, only I didn’t know what they were, so I threw them back because all bass are restricted right now so they can spawn, i.e. make babies, but I looked them up when I got home, and they were definetely white perch. They are really good to eat, and they are also kind of an invasive species. In Illinois or Indiana, I forget, you can’t put them back in the water. So turns out we should have kept them. Now we know.

I also finished school, yay, weeks ago. I had almost two weeks between my last class and graduation, in which I did some more applications and a whole lot of nothing. Except for the weekend Ryan and Natalie were here, which you can read on Bryce’s blog if you haven’t already. It was a fun time, as it usually is with guests, since we do all the fun things like cheesesteaks and AC.

We also had Bryce’s birthday, which was destined to be bad. He didn’t want to do anything and I don’t know his work friends and the forensics were busy, so he was stuck with me, and I’m not as exciting as his old friends. He was also hurt I didn’t bake him a cake, which I didn’t think he really likes anyways, and that I bought him clothes from Old Navy since they are kinda cheap, so I would say everything went well. But our food was good - we went to a steak place and he got prime rib, I had steak but I was crabby, we went to Iron Man, which was good, and then we came back. The next week, I did bake him a cake, from scratch, no boxes, and it turned out pretty good. I made a banana layer cake with buttercream frosting, although I wouldn’t use the same flavor frosting, maybe just vanilla.

I also started a war (really just a misunderstanding) with my mother-in-law, because I tried to joke, and I’m not really funny much at their house. Probably because I’m usually on the verge of anaphalactic shock due to dogs. Benadryl really kills humor, I think. But anyways, it was meant as a joke, so I’m sorry about that whole mess. I’m more sarcastic and delivery is key to understanding when I do, so it is hard to show that in writing without sounding like a 15 year old girl texting on her cell phone. LOL!

It has also been the time for season finales, and except for Top Chef which has I think 3 weeks left and Grey’s Anatomy, which is done tonight, I am out of shows. Bones, House, The Office, and American Idol are all done.

Bones - had a really weird ending, I’m pretty sure Bryce and I are the only ones who watch it, but the writer strike screwed it up big time. They needed to finish a storyline this season, and so they did, but they needed those extra ten or so episodes they would have had to do it any justice, and while the ending was good, it was so sudden and abrupt to lose an original cast member without having enough lead-in.

House - the two part finale was strange as I’ve ever seen the show, and I’m glad she’s gone. She was an annoying character.

The Office - Is it wrong to want to shoot Andy Bernard? And to be glad about the almost immediate infidelity that occurred? Whats gonna happen with the other two? I can’t wait all summer.

American Idol - I am so torn. David Cook good, David Archuleta needed it more, and he trounced him the night before anyways, and then Cook routs him? I thought Archuleta earned it. Cook will have a career with or without it, and hopefully little David does too. Loved the Guitar Hero/risky Business commercials!

Otherwise, I’ve mostly been butchering the stay-at-home wife role. I have no motivation to do anything and so I do pretty much nothing.

We’ve also been obsessed with Jon & Kate + Eight, on TLC, and have been watching alot of episodes we somehow missed. Those kids are so cute I want one, well, twins, and then I think about that, and how bad of an idea that is right now, and I’m satisfied watching someone else do it.

I also have a job… but only for June. My professor asked me to be his teacher’s assistant for two classes, so I will make some money. If I don’t have a job by this fall, he says I can come do it again, but, I really will be sad if I haven’t gotten one by then. We will have to wait and see.

It should be a nice weekend out here, which will be the first time without rain in a few weeks, which has been dampening the mood and my workout schedule. I bought new running shoes and wanted to be running outside, but since it is either pouring or soaking wet it has been only once outside. I’m doing workout videos instead, but I need to do some major cardio to get past the plateau I’m at and I hate treadmills with a passion. Plus there are creepers who hang around and I don’t want to go by myself, since all of my friends are now gone or occupied. My last friends move this weekend, and then I will be all alone. Except for my cats, who have been enjoying my being home.

Now I have to go clean because we are hosting people for the Grey’s Anatomy finale.

I have a lot to post about, but I just don’t have the ambition. Being unemployed does that to a person.
But, happy birthday husband!

Since this concert was like two weeks ago, I actually don’t remember too much about it.
But I do remember a few things.
I knew how the concert was going to go when I heard the teenage girls in front of me say “I didn’t even know who he was til i bought the tickets, but i downloaded one of his songs yesterday, so hopefully he sings that one”. In other words, teenage kids looking for something to do and so hitting up a concert of an artist they never heard of. The best part is, when I got in and tried to get us a spot in the front, these same girls were in the very front and kept trying to block me out. So i decided we should sit in the bleachers.
Also there was major security - they were frisking people and and checking purses etc. So that was annoying.
They also didn’t let you have anything to eat or drink - no concessions at all. How are you supposed to sing along all night without anything to drink.
I like Ben Folds, however, I’m not a super fan. So, I didn’t know about 1/3 of the songs at all, and I only really knew about 1/3 of them. That would leave the remaining 1/3 as songs I’ve heard and either wasn’t crazy about or hadn’t heard too many times. He also didn’t play some of the songs I like most, so that was a bummer. He also played this song Bryce had never heard of called “Underground” and thus I have heard it at least 10 times since then, probably more. It’s an okay song, but Bryce says he needs to catch up on the number of listens compared to other songs. It’d be cute if I wasn’t tired of the song already.
So, this isn’t an incredibly long post because I can’t remember too many details of the concert. I’m sure if someone reminded me of something it’s in my brain somewhere, but not at the moment.
Ready to enjoy the awesome weather!

As we have all seen, I won my own biggest loser contest. I did it mostly by eating less crap food, because i got sick halfway through and didn’t work out the last few weeks.
It has been hard to keep it off because we have had both guests and Easter.
We had Stuart and Jenni Stone up first, and they are always a good time. I think Bryce may have mentioned this, but Jenni is pregnant so it was a little less crazy than our past get-togethers, but we put more hours on the Wii in the one night than we had in the last month. And since we played a game that required alot of movement, it was also my first exercise in a while. I hurt so bad the next few days! Outside of hang out, we took them on an abbreviated Philadelphia tour. Cheesesteaks! they also had brought up the XBOX and Rockband, so the was fun.
The next weekend we had Sam and his wife Kathleen up. Sam was one of my classmates out here - he was here one semester then went back home to Arkansas for med. school. We went to the zoo and ate CHEESESTEAKS! They left on Easter morning, just in time for fun for me.
Because we had guests, I didn’t do any of the preparation for hosting Easter ahead of time. So as soon as they left around ten, I had about ten and a half shitloads of stuff to do. I had to make my appetizers - deviled eggs and asparagus rolls, get the ham ready and in the oven, and cut up almost ten pounds of potatoes, some garlic, and a bit of onion. We still had to “reclean”, get the dishes on the table for later, clean out the fridge so things would fit, get ready myself, and other odds and ends. It was a busy morning/afternoon, and i think was ready about 15 minutes before people got here at 2:30.
Easter was pretty fun, played some more wii and watched some basketball games. Busted out GH3 for the wii since we hadn’t played it a whole lot, and beat it on medium. Bryce and I are about 1/3 of the way through hard now also. My dinner was good - we had spiral cut ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn because we had sooo many appetizers. We had oreo cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, and can’t refuse that!
On the school front, I have been slogging through this mess of an internship, and have even “testified” as to my findings twice. I feel more confident about wanting to DNA analysis, but nobody wants me yet. I’ve got lots of applications out there, but they don’t work on my schedule.
Another thing I’ve been doing is “Flat Stanley”, which for those who didn’t do it themselves, you get a flattened picture of a 4th grader and take it around with you and take photographs. My sister Gina is a 4th grader, and since I live in a pretty cool place as compared to anyone else in my family, I’ve been doing that. You send the photos and the doll back like pen pals. She really wants me to take it to the beach, but its a little cold for that. It has been down to Philly (the rocky steps, Liberty bell, etc), eating cheesesteaks, working with me at lab, trivia, and with my cats. Hopefully I’m the best Flat Stanley person in her class.