The Sweeter Things In Life

So I’m sitting in my quiet office at work with a cup o’ hot chocolate lazily pondering. Sure… there’s other things I could be doing, like personal property taxes for the business, but alas, I need something to do tomorrow right? Right now is me time and that’s what’s important.

I’ve been writing a lot about how miserable the people around me have been, but since our epic battle of the sexes in the Wright household, things have run much smoother. I’m back to getting my way like I should be and things are running much more efficiently. I handle the budget and spending while Daniel pretty much just does what he’s supposed to. Go to work, make money, let me handle bills, & show affection. Rinse and repeat.

I had my annual trip to King William for dogsitting last week, which prompted this letter after the discovery that my friend has completely let herself fall to pieces. It’s safe to say that after hearing so many rumors and accusations about the people I grew up with, I no longer have the desire to go back there to live, EVER. I remember making a tiny place in my heart where I dreamed of doing so one day. That dream has now vanished. People and life are just too crazy, gossipy and drama filled in the country for lack of better things to do.

I did get to do some interesting things while I was away. I knocked out a few things on my list which proved to be rather interesting. Going vegan for a week proved to be rather boring, but I realized that when going into the store I really didn’t have a plan. By the time I had gotten to my parents house it was about 7 and after spending an hour in the store I came out with $88 worth of groceries for just me for what I had thought was for a week! 😮 Yea… my jaw hit the floor too. I tried a few new foods… couscous, which I fell madly in love with and falafel. I used the couscous in a few variations of a stirfry recipe. Falafel is for the birds, it looks and smells like meat to me when cooked, but most definitely did not appeal to my taste buds. The rest of my vegan cuisine was mainly veggies as I tended to eat left overs a lot, or I went out to eat. I only slipped once, and after confirmation from Jaime, no one is going to give a rats ass but me anyway. So yeah. 😉

I ended up taking a trip to Charlottesville (which was about an hour and forty-five minutes from my parents house) during Valentine’s Night to have dinner with Jaime at a sushi restaurant called Ten. Totally unscripted and random and it was great. I got to see her new apartment as well as a little tour of what’s dubbed as “the Mall.” I really wish I would have had two brain cells to whip out my camera. Not only did I miss taking pictures of the fabulously decorated restaurant, but I wrote on this HUGE chalkboard outside, which I now know is called the free speech wall. I’m sure that we have cool stuff like that hiding around Hampton Roads somewhere and I just haven’t found it yet. It was a great night filled with sushi, chatter and being silly. Something I really needed in a bad way compared to my disastrous Friday evening with Felicia.

By Sunday I was wearing out my time hanging out at my parents house, so I hooked up with an old high school friend and headed out to Moshi Moshi in Carytown. No surprise that it was sushi yet again. It had been forever since I had been to Carytown… I say forever but the last time I went was with Jason and that was like… hmm … 2002? Nothing had changed, the atmosphere is still very college/artsy hang out (for those of you that don’t know, VCU is right up the street,) and there’s no where to park. Of course unless you are like me and park illegally behind a bank, then there’s somewhere. 🙂 Moshi Moshi was nothing stellar and by far pales in comparison to Ten. But then again I got miso and 2 sushi rolls for right at $16 where it was much higher at Ten. You definitely pay for a difference in quality. That’s not to say that it was horrible… hell I’d eat there regularly if I live in downtown Richmond. You get the gist.

I got back home on Monday, and who could say they didn’t miss this angel face? My house was clean and I was happy. Even happy enough to buy a nice dinner and set up the table for romance. 😛

After my semi adventurous week last week, this one is seeming kind of boring and slow. So much so that I’ve started yet another craft project that is taking me away from making more jewelry. I keep telling myself I need to get back to it otherwise I’ll never sell anything. Any how, my new project is a 4 canvas panel painting that depicts birds on a tree branch. I drew all of the picture (broken up on 4 – 12″ x 24″ canvases) as one picture, but once painted and dry, I’ll end up hanging them slightly apart. The idea is to take up more space on a blank wall but give the illusion its all one picture. You can see the concept sketch here.

I finally got my budget for March figured out. With my “vacation” to my parent’s house I really screwed up my figures for February. So much so that I’m praying my federal tax return comes soon so I can pay off some of this crap and lower our monthly expenses. I’ve thrown the idea of going to Twi-Con in Dallas out the window. There’s no way possible I could raise $1,300 for the whole trip or afford to spend my whole refund on it. So instead I’m going to work on getting some of my walls in my house spruced up and pay off some credit cards.

My mom proceeded to give me a ration of shit on the phone Tuesday night she got home. She really wants me to go back to ECPI for my bachelors in Business. I keep trying to tell her I don’t want to sign the stupid waiver prohibiting me from graduating before everyone else, but I have a feeling that’s what I’m going to have to do in order to get my BA. I could go to a 4 year college like Christopher Newport but the problem would be that I have to take classes in the evening and it would take me forever to graduate since their semesters are longer and I’d be limited on classes. So now its a toss up of do I want to go back or do I stay where I am… in a comfortable state of neutral? It doesn’t really help that I still want to take classes at TCC either. My main issue there is that because I only want to take a few art classes, they consider it non-academic… translation… you pay up front with no financial aid whatsoever. Not cool. In the same token I don’t want to go for an associates in Arts. But that’s a thinking topic for another day.

It seems that my work day is coming to a close slowly and surely, so now is the time where I must look busy in case someone shows up and asks what I’ve done all day.

Tootles!

Michelle