a lack of pleasantries

Now that it's been two weeks since I've written a real post, it's really hard to remember what exactly has gone on. The past week is still pretty clear in my mind, but the week before is a bit hazy.

I did get to go to a hockey game with Alyssa the weekend before last. Its always fun to get the chance to go to games, and its especially nice to go with my sister. I still can't put into words the crazy feeling I get when we start to sing "Varsity." In high school, I was never much for school spirit, but there is something about UW-Madison that just inexplicably takes over you. Ohhhh, Bucky.

I also sketched out the next painting for my series that I am going to put on my wall in my bedroom. [The one of Alyssa and I, all in varying scale of magenta, is the first.] Unfortunately, I got so busy with other things this week that I haven't been able to actually start any painting yet.

This week was pretty busy, as I briefly mentioned in the last post. I had to run my team meetings for this month at work. I always make a snack for the meetings, and this time I decided to make puppy chow. I have 24 people on my team right now, and not being a puppy chow connoisseur, I decided to make a quadruple batch and ended up with tons of it. However, my coworkers were pretty pleased with my mishap.

Some of my friends from work also had a gathering this week where we all got together to play video games. Somehow the boys talked me into baking a cake for the occasion, and so I made a cake to look like the 1-up mushroom from Super Mario Bros. [He grants you an extra life, who couldn't want that?!?]

Dark chocolate cake with raspberry filling

At the last minute I decided to request off on Thursday to go snowboarding at Cascade since I haven't gone at all this season. When I woke up on Thursday and it was slightly snowing, I thought that it couldn't have worked out better. OH was I terribly wrong. I ended up leaving Madison much later than intended, and had to go back home after forgetting my boarding jacket. My plan was to go snowboarding Thursday evening, stay at my parents' house, drop my car off to be checked out at the repair shop in Portage on Friday morning, and head back to Madison later Friday evening. My car had been acting up, the heat has been iffy and I had to refill the antifreeze the day before, so I was going to get that checked out.

Within the first 10 minutes of the trip, it was obvious that the heat was not working at all. I could see my breath and was shivering. Luckily, my snowboard bag had a bunch of extra handwarmers in it, so I busted those out and put them in my shoes and my mittens for the drive. Halfway to Portage, my car began to overheat. I got off the interstate immediately and was able to get to a gas station where I refilled it with more antifreeze. I made it safely to Portage, where I dropped my car off and waited for my mom to come and pick me up. Needless to say, I didn't get to go snowboarding. [My mom did however take my to Culvers, where I was more than disappointed to find that they no longer have the pumpkin shakes. Another letdown.]

Friday I discovered, much to my dismay, that the water pump is bad on my car and it is not currently driveable. Even worse, it will cost a nice chunk of change and will not be fixed until sometime next week. Luckily the place I take it to is ridiculously nice and super dependable so they gave me a loaner car until mine is fixed. But, don't stop there! I found out later that the transmission was also leaking fluid. Let's just say I didn't get much good news over the weekend. 

Saturday was filled with lots of plans. I met Steph and Jake and Lisa and her husband for breakfast at Hubbard. Seeing as I hadn't been there in like 2 weeks, it was quite a treat. Afterwards I picked up Alyssa and we went to the east side where we met our family for a birthday lunch with both sets of grandparents and our parents. [Happy birthday Grampa T, Grampa L, and Alyssa!!!] Then immediately after that I had plans with another friend, so I was going pretty much non-stop on Saturday. 

I also bought a gym membership! I've been feeling realllllly lazy, and I was at the point where I knew I needed to do something about it. So I splurged and signed up. The gym is about a 4 minute drive from my apartment, and it is open 24/7. This location has only been open since the end of the summer, and all of the equipment is almost brand new. Each cardio machine has a TV on it that you can plug your headphones into, and all kinds of other fancy media options. Its nice and open, and since I usually go later at night (I usually don't get there before 1130 pm), there are hardly any people there. This works perfectly with my work schedule, since I work late and have a hard time getting up in the morning to go work out. [In fact, I just returned home from working out.] 

I am off to read a bit before bed. Sorry again for the lapse in posting, and THANK YOU for reading!

we slowly broke contact more and more....

I'm so sorry everyone. This week has been hectic, and I haven't the mental energy to write something.

The only thing to say is....

Congratulations!!!! To Jenna, Jared, and Ava on the newest addition to their ridiculously adorable family: Adeline, born on Monday, January 24th! 


I promise a full update this upcoming Monday.

so far we are

And another week begins. Its hard to believe that it is the middle of January already. I feel like the past few weeks have rushed by like a winter wind, each day another fat snowflake - seemingly the same, but just slightly different.

This week I've been learning about one of the many joys of adulthood: insurance companies. My car was hit a few days after my birthday, and I am still battling with the other person's insurance company to try and get full coverage for the repairs. I know this is good for me to experience, but its an exhausting and endlessly frustrating process. Its still not solved, but I'm hoping to get even further this week.

On Friday, Marley and I took a day trip to the Art Institute of Chicago!! We left Madison around 9:45am and drove down to the city. We spent a little over 4 hours exploring the Art Institute and didn't even get through everything. It was exhilarating and inspiring in a million different ways. I could probably spend an entire week going there everyday to look at everything and still feel like I hadn't taken in enough. As an observer, its just amazing to think that you are standing in a building that contains collections of some of the most famous works in the world. When I was younger I never imagined I'd someday be standing in front of a Pablo Picasso, Matisse, Monet or Manet...its just an incredible experience. As an artist, there is SO much to learn. I could stand at one piece for an hour just trying to imagine what techniques were used for certain parts. There is so much I'd like to emulate, and it was sometimes a bit overwhelming to think that there is such an incredible amount of knowledge in art that I haven't even begun to unearth. The colors, the technical skill, the media, the presentation, the concept....the possibilities in art are endless. Thus the trip was something I desperately needed (whether I knew it at the time or not). I did need a mini-vacation, and the day definitely fulfilled that. But more importantly, just being in a beautifully constructed building, filled to the brim with these amazing [and sometimes less amazing] works of art was just the artistic inspiration necessary to give me a push in life  - artistically, mentally, physically, in all sorts of ways. And for free admission, I couldn't have asked for anything more. =]

Marley and I outside the Art Institute of Chicago

 The trip back took much longer than expected after we ran into a small snowstorm on the way back. We  drove a maximum of 50 mph on the Interstate nearly the whole way back, and we arrived home in Madison- safe, sound, and sleepy- around 11:30pm.

On a semi-related note, sometime soon I will have a few more pictures of some recent art projects I've been working on. And hopefully I'll be able to start some new exciting things in my life to tell you all about, too!

Until next time....

trade our places in the night

Its true - I'm actually writing on time! This week my mind is a little more put together than last week,  so hopefully this will actually be coherent.
The week went by surprisingly fast, primarily because I was ridiculously busy all week. I had things going on every single day. Thursday I met up with my beautiful, amazing friend Jenna and her daughter Ava for lunch. Jenna is due to have her second daughter in the beginning of February, so we are trying to get together as much as we can before the new baby comes along.
Friday, as usual, I didn't work. Alyssa needed to borrow my car for the day, so I was stranded at my apartment which I took as a great excuse to catch up on sleep. Alyssa picked me up in the evening and we met some friends for dinner at Hubbard.
Saturday I spent the afternoon running errands. My biggest task was to get a new pair of boots, because mine are no longer waterproof which pretty much defeats the purpose. I ended up going to Kohls, then to every store in the mall, then back to Kohls. I spent a lot more time than I wanted on that; I don't really like shopping that much to begin with, and I got bored with it easily. But I ended up buying a pair at Kohls, and I am now 90% sure I'm going to keep them. [For the record, I have a terrible habit of buying things and then deciding later whether I really want them or not. If I decide I don't want/need something, I return it.]
After I got home from my shopping extravaganza, I made an apple pie and then went to pick up Alyssa for the highlight of the weekend: Sisters Night!!!! If I haven't mentioned it before, I met my friend Steph through work. We became really close friends almost immediately. It is hard to explain, but the more we talked the more we found we had in common and we have just connected on this amazing level. Steph has an identical twin sister, Lisa. After hearing me talk about Alyssa, Steph insisted that we introduce the two of them. The first thing Alyssa said to me after meeting Steph for the first time was, "I feel like Steph is our long lost sister."[It nearly broke my heart, in the good way, it was so cute and 100%  true.] So Steph and I decided we should have a Sisters Night where the four of us get together, and we were finally able to put it together. 
First of all, the resemblance between Lisa and Steph's relationship and mine and Alyssa's relationship is uncanny - as we all agreed, it was a refreshing and exhilarating to see that there were others out there who act like us. [hey, we're not crazy!] Anyways, for those of you who know how much Alyssa and I love to laugh, be loud, be silly, just imagine that times two - together for 6 hours, non-stop ridiculosity. Lets be honest, not many people would be able to keep up with us. 

(Amanda+Alyssa+Stephanie+Lisa)*wine+apple pie=AWESOME

My weekend rounded out especially nicely because I actually had a 3-day weekend. I had off today, which is unusual, but I had to use my floating holiday from New Years Day within the pay period, and so I decided to extend my weekend. It worked out perfectly because it was one of the only days that I will be able to see Marley who I have missed terribly. Our work schedules are completely opposite and with her time in Baraboo for her winter break, its been really hard to get together. We started off this afternoon by going to a scrapbook store for Marley to pick up some stuff for a project at the flower shop that she works at. Afterwards we went to her apartment where we hung out with her brother and chatted and caught each other up on life. We ordered Chinese food and watched a movie, and I got home a few hours ago with just enough energy to clean up my apartment. 

I'm really happy right now. And I owe it all to the wonderful people that I have in my life - Alyssa, Jenna, Lisa, Steph, Marley - all of them are so special to me in their own separate ways. I know I'm terribly lucky to have to them so close to me, and to have them tolerate, if not always appreciate, me and all my ups and downs and twists and turns. 

Off to my sanctuary of pages and pillows!

it is not a ....... game

Ooooops. I'm so sorry about the delay on this one. I've been doing a lot of running around the past few days, and so I haven't had a chance to actually sit down and write this. I hope none of you have been sitting by your computers day and night just waiting to hear all about my life. ;)

Well, the past week has not been particularly eventful. Work has been super busy, but by the end of the month I finally got caught up on all of my work and the start of January is a huge relief work-wise. That was about all that was going on for me last week.

I didn't do anything particularly exciting for New Years Eve. I went and saw the movie Black Swan with my friend Steph and her sister Lisa. The movie finished at about 11:55 pm, so we rang in the new year together and I was home by 12:30. Pretty uneventful. Saturday I spent the entire day watching football and cleaning. The Badger game was reallllly sad for me. I'm still extremely proud of the Badgers for going to the Rose Bowl, but the loss was very disappointing. And I can't lie, I may have cried just a little bit. After the game, I suddenly got the urge to clean and I spent like 5 hours going through all my bills and paperwork and other things. I got rid of a lot of stuff and organized the rest, which was a nice relief.

Sunday Alyssa came back to Madison! Mom brought her down and so we met at Hubbard for lunch, and then Mom went back home. Alyssa took my car and dropped me off at work, and then when she picked me up we ran some errands together. However we forgot some things, so we went to the store again on Monday before I had to work. THEN yesterday, Alyssa and I had another afternoon together, and we did something realllllly exciting! We got piercings together at a place downtown!

They're a bit hard to see, especially Alyssa's, but Alyssa got her nose pierced and I got my rook pierced (which is that top part on the inside of my ear). So far our parents have not disowned us, although my mom did mention that I'd have to change my last name. =] 

Anyways, as you can see, the past few days have just been a lot of running around, which is probably no excuse for missing Blog Monday, but I hope you'll understand just this once.  

I hope everyone is having a great New Year so far!