Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Our Fine Chinet

chinet2.jpgWe've achieved a new level of laziness. I think it is pretty brilliant and a little pitiful at the same time, but mostly brilliant. We complain about not having a dishwasher sometimes. What once was a luxury has now become a necessity and we don't have one. Solution: Chinet, plastic, and styrofoam. What better way to avoid washing dishes than to have disposable dishes? We have paper plates, plastic cups, and styrofoam bowls. We find this cuts down dishwashing time by 100% and saves water. I understand we are contributing to the trash problem, but hey, the styrofoam will biodegrade in 1000 years or so.


Monica thinks it is so funny that I reuse our disposable dishes. She used a plastic cup tonight and then I reused it. Then she ate ice cream out of a styrofoam bowl and I reused it for my ice cream. Doesn't everyone do this? A good plastic cup can be used for a few days at a time before it needs to be trashed. It pays to be lazy, especially when it involves the avoidance of washing dishes. Brilliant!

Thursday, October 21, 2004

October—The Month of Two TV sets

tvs.jpgOne man's best time of the year is his wife's most hated time of the year. I am talking about the blessed month of baseball playoff season. Finally, I have a show every night that I want to watch. As I told Monica, "If the Gilmore Girls were playing for the pennant, wouldn't you want to watch?" To which she responded, "What's a pennant?" I rolled my eyes & never told her.


Anyway, reality shows & girly shows are 365 days a year... is one month of baseball too much to ask? The answer is no & this year of baseball proved to be truly magical. I often wonder what it would be like if Monica liked baseball, but I realized that would make her too perfect & I couldn't handle it. I will never go for all of her girly shows, & she is never going to understand sports. Our compromise, then, is just to complain about each other.
No, the real compromise is to have two TVs in the living room. That's right, this way I can watch the games while she watches whatever she watches & we can be together. Wow, we got this marriage thing down. If we aren't careful we'll be able to co-exist with the best of them.

Monday, October 18, 2004

Our Non-Political, Political Blog

election04.jpgWell, we registered to vote about a month ago when we got our Tennessee drivers licenses & had never received our cards in the mail. I finally called them today to see what had happened & they said that our cards were in the mail. Sure enough I came home to find them waiting in our mailbox. Where do we go to vote? None other than South Park Elementary School. We thought that was pretty funny.
With all that said, we WILL be voting (even if I have to drag Ben to the polls kicking & screaming). Who we will be voting for we'd rather not say - mainly because we want everyone to like us still. This weekend we rented the Michael Moore film Fahrenheit 9/11 just to see what all the hype was about. I have 3 words to describe this film: OUT OF CONTEXT! Some parts were interesting, but mostly we just wanted it to be over.


This will be our first time to get to vote in a presidential election because in 2000 we were both overseas. I remember all the Australians making fun of the US because of the whole Florida recount thing - I hope it doesn't happen again. No matter how you vote just try to be an informed voter & vote for whom you think is the best candidate - wow, you don't hear that often!

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Eating Differences

turkey_dinner.jpgYou're at Thanksgiving dinner, your grandma has really outdone herself & cooked turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, green bean casserole, homemade fresh rolls right out of the oven, corn on the cob & many other 'melt in your mouth' specialties. How does Ben eat this delicious meal? He will start with the turkey until it's completely gone, then turn his plate clockwise to the mashed potatoes, on to the green bean casserole, once that's gone he moves on to the rolls etc. Oh, & he also completely forgets about his drink altogether & may take a sip or two at the very end of his meal if at all.


I, on the other hand, absolutely love to take a bite of each thing or at least mix a few of the delicacies sitting on my plate together to truly enjoy the full experience of Thanksgiving dinner. I like to put some turkey, mashed potatoes, a vegetable & a bite of buttery roll & let it all melt in my mouth like it's SUPPOSED to. I'm pretty sure that the Pilgrims & Indians didn't eat their food in 'groups' either.
I'm sure there's some psychological reason for all of this & why Ben is so weird so please feel free to enlighten me. We won't even go into the differences in cleaning, listening or bathroom etiquette... or maybe we will in future blogs.

Friday, October 8, 2004

Supersize Me

supersize_me3.jpgI'd been waiting for this documentary to come out ever since I heard about it on NPR. A man decides to go on a strict McDonald's diet for 30 days straight (meaning all he eats are value meals for every meal). He makes it a sort of medical experiment by reporting to the doctor every few days. As you can guess, it is a pretty interesting movie, especially if you eat fast food regularly. We eat fast food a lot less frequently than before, but not because we've decided to save our health, and ourselves but because fast food isn't so fast around here. Anyway, watch the documentary if you get a chance, it might just change the way you look at the golden arches.

supersizeme.jpgThis is not one of those "let's scare the daylights out of you so you never eat again." It is a "hmmm, so that's why I feel sick after eating fast food." One of the best parts, though, was the special feature on McDonald's fries. Let's just say that if you bought McDonald's fries and left them out on your cabinet, they would look exactly the same in 7 weeks. We're thinking about trying this after we move the dishes off our cabinet that have been there 7 weeks and have grown moldy eyes since we don't have the luxury of having a dishwasher.
Thank you to everyone who sent us some advice about our situation. We both feel better after your encouragement. We are climbing out of the pit of despair and self-pity, and realizing how great our lives really are--and they are great because of all of you.

Tuesday, October 5, 2004

We've got those Memphis blues

frustrated_dog2.jpgIt is hitting us like a ton of bricks right now. Why on earth did we move? I was at a great school, Monica had a great job, we had friends, we lived in the fairy tale city of Edmond, America, we were doing fine & then we moved away from it all. We have hit major moving depression & it stinks. Nothing is exciting anymore & we quit trying to pretend that we like it here. You might be reading this thinking how awful it is for us (thanks for your pity), or you might be chuckling to yourself because you've been through this before (please tell us how to survive).


I've read about culture shock & about the stages of it, & it applies to moving as well. Apparently, there is a honeymoon/enchantment phase where it seems like everything is awesome & you totally made the right decision to move, but then there is a decline--the decline into disenchantment. It can be gradual decline, or in our case, a double-diamond black ski slope into the pits of despair. Yes, we are entirely & utterly disenchanted. And yes, my speeding ticket. failed car inspection, windshield replacement, school frustrations, falling off a car antics, & messed up home projects definitely haven't helped.

Monica has her own separate list that is more emotionally focused than mine because she has feelings besides happy or upset. But, we just went through about 10 days where we couldn't catch a break & the only things going up were the numbers on our checks. Fortunately, it is leveling off now & I am taking the FOR SALE sign out of our yard (okay, we didn't really have a sign, but we almost did).
Hopefully, the next phase we will go through is a contentment/adaptation phase where we are at peace with the fact that we aren't in Edmond anymore & our lives don't revolve around OC. Any advice from those who have made a move & experienced this moving depression is appreciated. Will getting a dog make everything okay? How about buying a whole lotta stuff that we can't afford-that is supposed to help, right?


Sorry to use the blog as a pity party. We just needed an outlet for our frustrations. Okay, I needed an outlet for my frustrations. We've had some fun amidst the chaos, it's just hard to see because we're going crazy-want to come with us?

Sunday, October 3, 2004

A Night @ the Movies

paradiso.jpgLast night Ben must have been feeling ill because he said that we could actually go to the movies!! Now, I realize that this is a normal occurrence for people & probably doesn't seem like that big of a deal... but for us it's like going to Disney World! When we were walking out of the theater Ben asked me if I wanted to watch all the credits so that I could treasure every second since we wouldn't get to go for another couple of years.

We didn't go to a typical theater either... apparently there is a piece of Edmond in Memphis at the Paradiso. The picture above is the outside of the theater & here is a picture of the lobby. Fancy smancy to say the least!
After the movie we stopped by the Wild Oats Natural Marketplace to get a pumpkin that Ben promises to get me every year (a big pumpkin for our porch & a tiny pumpkin just for me). We also found a tongue cleaner that Ben has wanted for a long time - you'll have to ask him about it. All in all it was a really fun night & we found out that we can still do fun things in this new town.