Confessions of a Minor Nature

You won’t be seeing any horrible secrets spilled here today, but rather, just some every day, normal confessions. Sorry, I’m boring like that.

1. B and I eat out way too much. As in, over this last weekend we ate out every meal from Thursday dinner to Sunday lunch. We are horrible at being out and just grabbing something because it is easy. We have every meal except Wednesday lunch (he’s been promising me sushi for weeks) planned out with the groceries bought for the next week. I hope we’re strong enough to stick to it.

2. On days that B works and I’m home by myself with nothing to do, I often wear my pjs most of the day. I shower right before he gets home. This is something I want to work on because I feel like a slob all day long, but it’s hard to be motivated to get dressed too much. I have even taken the dog downstairs wearing nothing but a night shirt, panties, and a jacket. Yep, I’m that girl.

3. I don’t feel like a meal is complete if I don’t eat something that I can dip in ketchup. I’m pretty sure that I’m addicted to ketchup but so far it isn’t causing me any health problems or social issues, so I’m not willing to give it up just yet. But still, any time that I go to a restaurant and eat things that are not dipped in ketchup I feel successful (ahem, sushi doesn’t count because soy sauce is totally the Asian ketchup).

4. B and I just paid off another of my student loans. This is the second in two months. They both were over 6k when we paid off the bill. While I love the feeling of not having that debt anymore…I also miss having the money waiting in my bank account.

5. I hate doing blog link ups, because it seems like I go out and comment on blogs and I never get any in return. I linked up my other blog to a military family link up this past Friday. I got 177 hits day of, 70+ the next day, 60+ the next, and 50+ today. I have received one comment from all of that. It makes me mad that I tried to reach out to others like us (young couple overseas) and that I got zero responses from that.

~The Countess~

I’m it!

What was I doing ten years ago?
Ten years ago I was thirteen and getting ready to start high school. I enjoyed reading all of the Star Wars novels, watching Sci-fi, playing the piano and fiddle, babysitting, and actually, doing school.

Five things on my To-Do list today:
1.  Turn in a paper topic proposal. (done)

2.  Take a test on Renaissance music. (done)

3.  Cash checks for my trip. (done)

4.  Pack for my trip. (in progress)

5.  Figure out my itineraries for my trip, ie, plane, bus, etc. (in progress)

Three of my bad habits:
1. Biting my fingernails. (I’m trying to break it.)

2.  Procrastinating.

3. Letting my house get messier than it should.

Five Places I’ve lived:

1. Ottine, TX

2.Waco, TX

3. Cody, WY

4. Houston, TX

5.

Five jobs I’ve had:
1. Mother’s Helper (or Nanny, call it what you will)

2. Church musician

3. Daycare Worker

4. Student Worker for Music Summer Camps and Festivals at Baylor

5. Grant Writer for TriFunding, LLC

Five books I’ve recently read:
1. A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson

2. A Company on Swans by Eva Ibbotson

3. Notes of a Pianist by Louis Moreau Gottschalk

4. What a Girl Wants by Kristen Billerbeck

5. Voices of Combat: A Century of Liberty and War Songs, 1765-1865 by Kent Bowman

If you want to do this, consider yourself tagged, and leave a note in the comment that you’re playing along.

An Explanation

I’ve noticed that a lot of people have come to my blog through the tag Teada Tots. Which only leads to the post about my friend Amy B. coming down. And since I have no idea if you know what it’s about, I’ve decided to explain.

First off, the band: Teada is a traditional Irish band. Absolutely amazing. They are incredibly talented, energetic, and fun.

And now, the “Tots,” the fans: we started out on livejournal as the Fans of Teada. We moved from there to Myspace. And shortly thereafter to Facebook. Yes, the groups have elements of a fan girl nature. Although most of us are not rabid fans. The name came from a friend of one of the girls. We’re a fairly tight group for so many people that have never met each other. We have fun and we enjoy good music that is played by a fun and personable group.

So, now you know. Just in case you were wondering. If you are a “tot” from one of the previous sites, then this explanation was nothing you didn’t already know. Ah well, now it’s saved for posterity.

~The Countess~

A Glutton for Punishment

I am so sore right now that it almost isn’t funny. I say almost, because, well, I did bring it down on myself. Hence the title of my post. Which may or may not be similar to ones that I’ve used before. I am a really big glutton for punishment, so it comes up a lot.

Anyways, you’re probably asking yourselves what I did to deserve this soreness?

Well, it all started on Friday night. When I slept on the hard ground at Huntsville State Park. Totally worth it. I had such a blast. Got to cook pancakes in a skillet over a fire, hiked with friends, drank, and slept in tents. Only the sleeping was slightly problematic. I went to sleep fast enough not to notice, but I felt every pressure point the next morning. And then I did a 2.3 mile hike in flip flops. See, glutton.

Then on Sunday we (as in my church singles group) decided to play Ultimate Frisbee after church. So I went and ran around and threw a frisbee for an hour and a half or so. Lots of fun. And then I decided to walk the Rice Trail (3 miles) afterwards. Again, glutton. I enjoyed it soooo much though. I did stretch out that night, but it hasn’t seemed to help much.

I’ve been fairly sore today and so I thought I would go walk again to loosen up my muscles, but of course I can’t just walk it, I have to jog it too. And so I did the three mile trail in just over thirty minutes. I think I might be officially certifiable. I’ve stretched again, but my muscles are still really tight. I think I’ll just take some advil and go to bed. And go walking again tomorrow. Can’t hurt any worse than it does now.

~The Countess~

Painting the Town Red

Or, at least my hair. I really couldn’t resist. I’ve been wanting to dye my hair for weeks now. And tonight I finally did. Instead of doing the safe, nice, dark brown that I’ve been threatening to do, I decided to go red. And it is red. I. Love. It. I’m so thrilled with the color. It’s fun. It’s bright. It’s different. And it makes me happy. For you, some photos. :D

Tadaa!

Actually, just one photo. Because my computer is tired of uploading photos to all the different sites. :D

~The Countess~

Weekend Fun

This past weekend was definitely one of the best in recent memory. Despite starting off rocky, thanks to me pmsing (sorry guys), it turned out quite well. First, the Rice football game was really awesome. We won, I got to see some friends from SMU, and play with Baby Dylan from baseball. Plus hang out with some really awesome friends. Second, Kevin Fowler blows my mind. The concert was incredibly awesome. And I got to meet some of the Real Housewives of Harris County. They were really funny. And really loaded. In more ways then one. After the concert we decided that we were having too much fun to call it quits and spent the rest of the night and most of the next day playing out in the suburbs. Huge shout out to Will who beat me at bowling. Sunday was church, lunch, shopping with a friend, nap, batting practice (thanks guys, my arms were killing me today), juggling lessons, dinner, and finally a movie. Monday was a pool party and then Balderdash, where I tied for the lead in lying to my church friends. I’m such an upstanding classy gal.

All of that to say that I had a crazy/busy/fun weekend. And it’s about so much more than the activities. It’s about the people that you do the stuff with. I have been so blessed in the friends that I have made here in H-town. They are absolutely amazing. They are the call up at any time and they’ll be there kind of friends. I really value every friendship that I have made more than I can say. Without them, there would be no weekends filled with this kind of fun.

Run, Countess, Run

Today’s news flash: I decided on Monday that I’m going to run a half-marathon in January. And, since, all of the guides I’ve looked at so far say that to be successful you have to tell people, I’m telling you. I told my mom and some of my other friends and family on Monday. I just think it would be fun. Okay, there are many more reasons then my thinking that it will be fun to run 13.1 miles in January. All of the guides I read said that the runner needed two things beyond physical capability to run a marathon: support and motivation.

Let’s start with the physical capability. I can currently jog/walk three miles in 42 minutes. Which means I’m currently managing about a 14 minute mile. Not great, but not bad. It would translate into just over three hours (183 minutes) for a half-marathon. By October I need to actually be able to run those three miles straight, not just jog/walk them. I feel like I should also note that this latest timing came while out on Monday…during which time I was talking on the cell phone while exercising. Anyways, I’m not at all worried about the physical aspect.

As far as support goes, well, no one is poo-pooing my decision to run a half-marathon. And, I have a friend that I’m going to do the official training with. Another friend of ours thinks she will run the half-marathon, but she doesn’t want to do the training. Once October and training comes around I’m sure that I’ll be relying on my friend who is in it with me to keep me going. Other than that, I think I’ll post regular updates about how many miles I’m covering in a week, what my times are, that kind of thing, as a tool for accountability.

Which brings us to motivation. One guy recommends really digging deep for your answers, saying that you have to be really motivated to be able to complete a half-marathon. But I’m going to start with what comes to me first and work my way down.

1. I really think it will be fun. And a chance to bond with my friend who is doing this with me. It also gives me something to check off the do at least once in my life list. I realize that this isn’t a grand reason, and it isn’t meant to be. It’s just that I think it will be fun to be able to run 13.1 miles in a single go.

2. I would like to get in better shape then I am. I’m really lucky that I’m tall and fairly lean, but I’m really not in good shape at all. I used to be able to do two Tae-Kwan-Do classes and one Tae-bo class a day, but that would really kill me now. And running/jogging became a therapeutic stress reliever for me during my undergrad. (This was actually listed as the worst reason to run a marathon on one site I was at…well, it’s correlary really, losing weight)

3. I’m not dong this to change the world. I’m not doing it to provoke others into a reaction of some kind. I’m doing it for me. Because I want to. But the most important thing for you to know about me is that I’m not a quitter. So now that everyone and their dog can potentially know that I am doing this, well, let’s face it. I can’t exactly back out now…can I?

Come along for the ride. It should be interesting. I’m sure there will be good days when I love doing it and bad days when I hate myself for this decision. But, really, isn’t that what life is about? Let’s take the ups and downs together.

~The Countess~

Wedding Ruminations

As promised I’m back to philosophize about the need that relatives seem to have to question single women the way they do at weddings. Some other wedding thoughts first though:

Mom, I love you, you are an amazing cook, organizer, decorator, and planner. However, you will be none of these things for my wedding. You will have one job when I finally get married, ok, maybe two and those are: to have fun and to be there experiencing it with me. The family did all of the food prep and site set-up and tear down for both of the last two weddings. Way to chaotic and no fun at all. My first thought then is that I will not do this to my own mother. Instead of worrying about cooking the cake, making snacks, covering bulletin boards, or anything else, she will be spending the time with me and my family, celebrating this time. And that’s final. There will be no arguing over it. This is non-negotiable. Especially the clean-up part. I’m not sticking around to clean up after my wedding and neither is the rest of my family. If we make the centerpieces than we’ll grab those, but we’ll rent everything else from the site and pay the fifty or hundred bucks that they want as a janitor fee. It’s worth it. Same thing goes for paying for the cake and whatever other food we decide to serve. That’s all that I feel the need to say on this topic. Sorry if it steps on any diy-er toes, but really, I like to diy, but not when it stresses everyone else way out. Nope. Not gonna happen.

On to the next part and possibly the thing I like least…or dislike the most, about getting together with family. Why do they feel the need to question my singleness? The two cousins that just got married are 27 and 29. I’m much younger than that. So why are their parent’s asking me if there are any special guys in my life? As a matter of fact there are quite a few special guys in my life, some are single, some married, some dating, none of them are my boyfriend, but they’re still special guys in my life. Another set of family members who ask this question have a daughter who is two years older than me…and very single. So again, I feel like the questions are undeserved.

What is it about weddings that make relatives decide its okay to ask every unwed girl why she isn’t married yet? Do they ever stop and think that maybe it isn’t in her control? Do they really think that I want to be the only girl from my homeschool group not married or in a relationship? I don’t even want to be asking these questions. I am glad that I’m not married right now. I’m getting a chance to live my life. To realize how much more there is to the world than my small little town. But weddings when single suck.

Even if you aren’t invited to bring a date, people still question you why you aren’t dating anyone. They start asking if there are any eligible guys that you see regularly, which for me means church. And if the answer is yes, there are eligible guys around, then they question why one of those guys isn’t dating you. And the honest to God truth is that I don’t know. I don’t know how I went through a school known for its MRS degree and got out without ever being asked out. I don’t know why none of the guys I know have asked me out and frankly I don’t care. It’s none of their business anyways.

Besides, if there was a special guy, don’t they think I’d be talking about him? Now, I know that I talk about a lot of guys. That’s because I hang out with a lot of guys. But, I’m still not dating any of them.

If any of my relatives happen to stumble across my blog (highly unlikely) then know this – if/when I am finally dating a guy, you will know. It will come across the family grapevine to you and all will be well in the world. Until then, don’t ask questions like this to your single relatives at weddings, or you might end up with responses like these:

Top Ten Responses to Nosy Questions about Boyfriends (This list was helpfully compiled by some friends of mine as a response to my plea for what to say the next time faced with this question.)

10. I’m a lesbian now.

9. I possess the gift of chastity/singleness.

8. Kinda.  He…well, she, um, is sorta both

7.  If you knew my options, you’d be single too.

6. No, but there’s a pretty special girl in my life. (to be followed with pictures of a pet)

5. Actually, I’ve decided to go the non-traditional route and am waiting to hear from a man in need of a spiritual wife to raise his other three wives children.

4. Not any boys that I’m not sleeping with for money.

3. I’m Christ’s Bride now, how can it get better than that?”

2. I think there was one last Thursday. I had a lot to drink, though, so there may have been two…”

1. I fear the one-eyed snake.

~The Countess~

Wedding Rundown

Hey! This is just a rundown of the events of my cousin’s wedding this past weekend. There’ll be another post for my philosophising about weddings, and family, and the like, but this one is just going to be about the events…well, at least that’s the goal. I just don’t want to start going off on wedding thoughts and leave folks wondering where this all came from.

Thursday: So, Thursday morning I hopped out of bed and drove the three hours from Houston to Waco, where I met up with a friend, ran some errands for my sister, and had lunch before my sis and I took off for the final three hours of driving up to my aunt and uncle’s in Breckenridge (Texas not Colorado). We met up with the bride (cousin Kristy) and her sisters (married cousin Laurie, single cousin Carrie) one of the bridesmaids, (Amber) and my Aunt (dad’s sister Teresa). We then went over to the church to see the decorations for the wedding. While there, Amber and I decided that we didn’t like what they had done (or not done) with two of the bulletin boards, which were proudly displaying bright pink summer colors and a missions board…none of which matched the wedding colors of pool blue (see David’s Bridal for the specific color) and silver. We (Amber and I) made the executive decision to change the boards the next morning. After checking into the bed and breakfast we went back to the house for the lingerie shower. Which was fun and girly…but big surprise…I brought the most “scandalous” gift. Not that I’m ashamed of that. We also decorated panties for the bride and made a pair of boxers for her groom. It was fun just to spend time with the family and be crazy and girlie for the night. Side note that everyone stayed later than originally intended due to some wickedly bad weather that took out an AT&T tower making cell phone calls very difficult for the rest of the weekend.

Friday: So, Friday began with an awesome breakfast made by Laverle, the owner of the B&B. (If you ever find yourself in Breckenridge, TX definitely check out The Keeping Room, it’s awesome) Then, Amber, Miki (sister), Laurie, and I went over to the church. Miki was practicing the wedding music and Amber, Laurie, and I were redoing all of the boards. We took one down, and hung up some teal tulle and silver ribbons in a swagged display around the table with the flowers and candles. It was pretty. I only inhaled a little bit of asbestos popping the fishing wire and ribbon up into the drop-down ceiling tiles. While Amber made the ribbons curl right around the tulle, Laurie started working on the board that was displaying the engagement piccies, invitations, and announcements and I went to work on the pink summer board. It couldn’t be taken down as it was screwed into the ceiling, so I tacked some teal (pool) blue fabric over it and roped the tulle around it to hide the tacks. We added bows, and white and silver ribbon to break up the blue before relocating a flower arrangement over there. Afterwards we moved to the reception site where we set up table displays, I practiced the music for the reception, and we generally got things ready. The evening was a delightful dinner at Joe’s Pasta and then the rehearsal. The funniest part of the rehearsal dinner was when my uncle announced the couple as Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Davis. Because that’s his older daughter’s married name (Laurie), this daughter was marrying a Jonathan Roach. It was hilarious. Which prompted his youngest daughter (Carrie) and Laurie’s husband and I to make a poster with Roach written on it in big letters (even in the bridal colors) to use to make sure her dad got the name right during the ceremony. We ended the night drinking Smirnoff Ice and painting toenails at the B&B.

Saturday: The big day. Another fantastic breakfast, and then me off and running to get Laurie to her hair appointment, move all the dresses to the church, grab a quick bite of lunch and then go help the bridal party get ready at the church. We had so much fun. Kept the bride laughing through the pictures. Cousin Alison and I prelit all the candles (one of us was supposed to light it during the ceremony but we both decided not to do that) and then we crashed in a pew with our parent’s to enjoy the wedding. (Side bar: as a musician it is so nice to actually get to enjoy someone’s wedding, most of the time I’m worried about the music, the timing, or something) Beautiful ceremony, the whole church was in tears because of laughter at the Roach sign. It was awesome. They also had time lighting the unity candle. After that we dashed to the reception site (I had the key to the building), lit candles, and I started playing the piano. Evidently I played for upwards of an hour and a half, not really sure, I didn’t time it or anything. Caught the bouquet, some would say I wrested it from my youngest cousin’s grasp…and I did…but really, she’s only 19. Then it was breaking down and cleaning up both sites. Afterwards I was emotionally drained at went back to my parent’s room to watch baseball. Very fun. Then I went and hung out with the cousin’s families back at the house.

Sunday: Final breakfast. Loaded the cars and drove home. Six plus hours in a car. I was so sick of driving. I got in and immediately fell asleep on my couch for two and a half hours. Then I went out to dinner and drinks with friends. I love Houston.

So that was my weekend. Crazy fun. Still fairly stressful, but that was ok too. I’ll write later about relative’s insistence on knowing if there are any guys in my life, the ridiculousness of tossing the bouquet, and yeah, the general joys of going to a wedding while single. For now though, I’ll go back to work.

~The Countess~

Amy B is coming to visit

My friend Amy B. from Pennsylvania is coming to visit me! I’m so excited. She’ll be coming down in August and staying for a weekend. I cannot wait to see her. Meet her actually.

Amy B. and I met in April of 2005 over on livejournal. We met in a community she started as a fan group for the Irish band Teada. What started as simple messages left every couple of months has turned into phone calls and chatting on the internet multiple times a week. (At least when I have internet access) Three years later though and we still haven’t met in person. But we will in August and I seriously cannot wait. For someone I’ve never seen face-to-face Amy knows a lot about me. And so, 45 days from today I will be picking her up from the airport. Oh the fun we are going to have…and the trouble we’re likely to get into!

~The Countess~

Greetings, Felicitations, and Gossip

Welcome to my court. This isn’t my first rodeo, or my first blog, however it is the only one I plan on maintaining from here on out. So those of you who know me under various pseudonyms and at other blog sites had best remember this one. I have no real goal for blogging - this isn’t a themed blog about music, movies, books, politics, social issues, religion,  going-ons in my life, school, family, or anything else. It will however, probably be a combination of all of the above. It is nothing more or less than my thoughts.  Which means it will probably ramble.

My goal is to keep this blog more active than I’ve kept most in the past, which should be easy since I spend more time at a computer/desk now than I did previously. I reserve the right to blog about whatever I choose and to do so whenever I choose. I will not be consulting anyone, professional or otherwise, in my decision making paradigm. I’m out to have fun and share that fun with myself on the internet.

I think that covers the greetings/felictations section of this post, which leads us to the gossip. Today’s gossip is going to cover how I got my nickname as the Countess. Because all good nicknames should have a progression and a story. This past January I started hanging out at a new church – Christ the King (CTK) – as part of moving to Houston. Some of the guys there are very nickname oriented and immeadiately started working on a nickname for me. This is hampered by the fact that neither my first or middle names lend themselves to being shortened. So they started calling me by my last name – Wharton. And those of you who are good Texans know that Wharton is a county here in our great state. Which led to my being called County. When I started to object to being called County, I don’t know, it had cheap insinuations, one of the guys decided to call me the Countess.

As a nickname its more of one that is referred to than used. Very rarely does anyone call me Countess, but they will refer to me in third person as the Countess. So, when I decided to start blogging I decided to use my non-nickname nickname. That’s all for right now, I think I’m going to actually try and get some work done before lunch.

 ~ The Countess ~