Heading for the Hills...literally

This week saw me making some big decisions and actually moving forward with them. I put in my notice at work and my last day will be August 26th, after which I'll pack up my stuff and head up to WA state for what I'm calling my last summer break before becoming a grown up.

Without boring you with all the details of what led up to this rather sudden decision, suffice it to say that it definitely feels like it's time for me to leave Lubbock. I've been dragging my feet on pulling the trigger for quite some time now. It also gave me the opportunity to set a boundary professionally that I think was much needed and will lead to good things for me in the future.

Although, the LBK lacks a few things that I desire, it does make up for it with lots of people that I love! It's been my home for 8 years now and is the place that I've lived the longest in my life. That little tidbit is crazy to me because it seems like only yesterday that my beat up Jeep made it to Lubbock packed to the brim with the basics necessary to start my life here. It's going to be rough, but I'm going to see how close I can come to making it out of Lubbock again with only what will fit in my car (plus a few boxes to be UPSed). That means everything's got to go, folks! So, if you are looking for couches, a washer/dryer, twin bed, kitchen gear, or any other odds and ends you should hit me up. For you, so cheap, almost free!

The scary part in all of this is that I haven't lined up a job yet. Moving home gives me some cushion to be out of work for awhile, but I know I'll go stir crazy if I'm idle for too long. I'm till hoping to line something up on the East Coast (NYC and DC keep beckoning me). I'm a little wary of the stigma that comes with being the creepy 30 year old doctor who moves home to live with her mother. Enter the "summer break" re-frame. Good to know all those years of schooling come with some practical applications. :]

Alright, breaks over, back to cleaning out my apartment. Seriously, how did I collect so much crap?

Waiting and The Way We Were

I'm cooped up at home today watiting for the Lawn Care guys to show up to take care of the jungle that is my backyard. They are now 2.5 hours late, so I'm thinking they might not show. Oddly, this is now the second time that I've been no showed by people I've set up appointments with. I guess everyone is just as reticent about Ivy removal as I have been for the past 7 years. Yeah, it's bad...real bad.

I've taken care of a lot of odds and ends while I've been waiting and am now treating myself to a viewing of The Way We Were. Just a few short lines sum up the whole movie for me (posted below **major spoiler alert if you haven't seen it**). It's heartbreaking really. Is it better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all? I'm still not sure, but it makes for a good movie plot!

Katie: I don't have the right style for you do I?

Hubbell: No you don't have the right style.

Katie: I'll change.

Hubbell: No, don't change. You're your own girl, you have your own style.

Katie: But then I won't have you. Why can't I have you?

Hubbell: Because you push too hard, every damn minute. There's no time to ever relax and enjoy living. Every things too serious to be so serious.

Katie: If I push too hard it's because I want things to be better, I want us to be better, I want you to be better. Sure I make waves you have I mean you have to. And I'll keep making them till you're everything you should be and will be. You'll never find anyone as good for you as I am, to believe in you as much as I do or to love you as much.

Hubbell: I know that.

Katie: Well then why?

Hubbell: Do you think if I come back its going to be okay by magic? What's going to change? What's going to be different? We'll both be wrong, we'll both lose.

Katie: Couldn't we both win?

~Later~

Katie: Wouldn't it be lovely if we were old? We'd have survived all this. Everything would be easy and uncomplicated; the way it was when we were young.

Hubbell: Katie, it was never uncomplicated.

Katie: But it was lovely, wasn't it?

Hubbell: Yes, it was lovely.

~Finally~

Katie: Your girl is lovely, Hubbell. Why don't you bring her for a drink when you come?

Hubbell: I can't come, Katie. I can't

Katie: I know...

Which came first?

I have a thing for intelligently bizarre men (not to be confused with bizarrely intelligent men). Case in point, Zach Galifianakis. From The Hangover to SNL, my crush has continued to grow. I think that Dinner for Schmucks might just cinch the deal and it’ll be time to order my

Team Zach t-shirt.

Over the weekend I had two different friends tell me that they had men they wanted to set me up with.

Description of Dude #1: He’s a really great guy with a healthy dose of redneck in him. The only con is that he’s missing some teeth. This was reframed by telling me that missing teeth could easily be fixed after I find a job with benefits.

Description of Dude #2: He’s a single guy in my friend’s ward (these days that’s all it takes for people to think they should set me up with someone). The con is that my friend predicts that he has a porn addiction. The reframe was that I could just love him into recovery.

So, does my love of unique characters lead my friends to try to set me up with these types? Or is it the increasing number of friends trying to set me up with oddballs that has influenced my preference?

Talk amongst yourselves….

What's in a name?

A few years ago, my intrepid travel companion Hildoug and I were tromping around the South, Georgia to be more specific. We spent some time in Atlanta and then made the drive down to Savannah. I wanted to see the city, but was really hoping for a Paula Deen sighting, or better yet one (or both) of her boys. I failed on all accounts. My Paula obsession hasn't let up yet. I'm still tempted to dress up like her for Halloween and walk around feeding people biscuits and dropping colloquialisms in my best southern accent.

One of the major thorough fares in Savannah is called Abercorn Street. I had mapquested directions to our hotel and it told us that our hotel was on this street (note: this is pre iPhone days). Now, I pride myself on my directional abilities. Let me loose in a city and I can find my way around no problem, and even if my subsequent visit(s) to the city is a few years later it's like I haven't even left and can still find things based on landmarks. Yes, I know, I'm awesome.

My directional genius was quickly rendered incapacitated upon entering the Savannah city limits (due to the humidity, perhaps?) I held course and continued to follow Abercorn street into downtown Savannah and then out into the boons. After driving in the boons for quite some time we did manage to locate a Piggly Wiggly and a major highway shortly after that. We were able to find our hotel (fyi: with no help from an iPhone or locals) which was actually nowhere near the downtown area. What stood out to me was the fact that we had a great time getting lost and I don't know if I'd ever laughed so hard before, or since then.

What in tarnation does this story pertain to, you ask? Well, this little experience led to the name of my blog. It's become my way to keep things in check. Life is a cornucopia of abercorn streets. There's really no way to avoid them, it's all about what you do with them. Hence the blog detailing my life: Abercornucopia.

Thank you, and good night.

Drool Worthy

Here are a few of the things that I am currently obsessed with.

Sonic Diet Strawberry Sparkling Lemonades. If it was a cartoon character I'm sure this is what it would look like. So yummy. Thanks to Amanda for introducing the two of us. Needless to say there'll be a lot Sonic stops through the summer.

Fauxidermy. I have an inflatable deer head on my wall now (named Eddie). He's served his purpose well during my time as a student, but now that I'm in the real world I'm ready to class it up a bit. This lacquered deer head should do the trick. Overall, I'm just getting very excited to move and revamp my space from head to toe. Classy, but with a bit of Stephanie kitsch thrown in for good measure.

Chirp by Lenox China. Love this! I went and visited it last week at Dillards and loved it even more in person. It's described as sturdy china and has a fine china price tag. Oprah always says you should use your good stuff every day, and you know better than to argue with Oprah. My fingers are crossed that it's somehow drastically reduced and I can scoop up a few settings. Until then, I'll continue to visit it at Dillards and daydream about all the lovely dinner parties it would inspire.

Not without my Abaya

The search is on, folks! I'm in full-on job hunt mode. In this process, the Universe is attempting to keep me humble since acquiring three new letters after my name. I put in an application for a clinical job that I was well qualified for (hours, clinical experience, etc). It was also a job that only required a Master's degree. Well I heard back the next day that they had other people more qualified than me for the position. Uh oh. Not what you want to hear after spending so many extra years in school. I assume that it had a lot to do with the fact that I'm not licensed. That drama is worthy of its own post, but suffice it to say that the State is great about cashing checks, but not so great at tracking and completing the paperwork that said check was meant to pay for.

I understand that it's a rough market right now for applicants and will be throwing my net wide in hopes of catching something. That being said I came across a position to work as a therapist with students at a newly organized University in Saudi Arabia. It was posted as only a 6 month position and I've heard that many jobs in the Middle East are very high paying. It's the first co-educational university in the Kingdom. Now, for some reason I thought that Saudi Arabia was more progressive, you know along the lines of the UAE. False. After submitting my application I did a little more research into the plight of women in the country.

Turns out women not only don't have the vote, but also can't drive or ride bikes in the country. Further, women are still found accountable for rape if they were "illegally mingling" with an acquaintance of the opposite sex. Yoswers. There are interesting requirements of foreign workers as well. You have to relinquish your passport to your employer while you are in the country and as a woman you need a man to act as your guardian while there. Said guardian also must give permission before you can leave the country. As I continued my research, I quickly realized that this was probably not the job for me, but even more than that it made me realize how many of my freedoms I take for granted. While I often get frustrated with the gender inequality that exists in our country, I realize how lucky we are to be able to voice our dissent.

While I believe that a cultural immersion would be an amazing experience, I'm a big fan of feeling safe and having personal freedoms.

So, back to the drawing board it is. Although I loved the movie "Not without my Daughter" I think I'll pass on living it as an experience, although I can see the appeal of rocking the Abaya on really bad hair days. :]

Sell Out

In an effort to clean out my spare room before company comes in the beginning of August, I decided to sell some books and the newest seasons of Weeds to Hastings. I've been wanting to watch "The Big Bang Theory", but am too impatient to wait for each disc to arrive from netflix. It also seemed like the ultimate way to recycle and save me a little cashola.

I'm really easy on my books, the jacket covers stay pristine as do all of the pages. I had a very large stack of recent hardbacks that I thought would bring me a pretty penny. I was shocked and appalled at how little each of these little jewels brought me. I was tempted to make a case for each book, "No, wait! This is a really good one. You shouldn't only give me $2.75 for it." It wasn't so much the fact that I wouldn't be getting a lot of money for them as much as feeling like my poor little books were being judged unworthy. I was a little sick to my stomach walking away from the first Hastings store with $24.99 on a gift card for like 10 of my books. In a side note, Hastings will only let you sell back $24.99 worth of stuff each day. The worker informed me that I could go to the other store and sell back the rest if I wanted. Weird, but whatever.

My measly gift card was enough to buy the first season of "The Big Bang Theory" new (they didn't have it used). I headed all the way across town to the other Hastings and sold back the rest of my loot. My frustration grew when I was able to see the individual prices that they were giving me for each of my items. The newest season of Weeds? $4.25. I have no doubt that they will jack up the price by at least four fold. Low blow, Hastings. Low blow.

I was checking out their TV section and found that they had the second season of "The Big Bang Theory" as well as the first season (both used). Way better way to get more for my measly gift cards. So, I went to my car to grab my recently purchased new first season and receipt, only to be told that they couldn't take it back because I'd bought it at the other store. What? Aren't you a chain? I rarely argue stuff like that, but it just didn't make sense. They didn't budge, so then I was mad. I drove all the way back across town to return the first season and get a gift card, which they were able to take at the second store. What logic follows that they won't take merchandise, but will take a gift card from the other store? I wandered around the second store for awhile trying to find something to buy so that I could use up the full amount on my gift cards, b/c there's no way I'm going back there again. My final choice? "Young Guns". I haven't seen it and have heard good things.

Lessons learned? 1) Hastings is the devil. b) I'd prefer to sacrifice any monetary gain and instead give my books a home where they are loved and appreciated III) The Big Bang Theory is ridiculously funny, luckily making the wasted gas and frustration worth it.

Guilt-free time

It's been so long since I've done nothing and genuinely had nothing to do. It's been a whirlwind few weeks filled with a rush to finish my dissertation, defend it, and make changes. I'm now waiting on approval of my changes before submitting my final version to the grad school. Then I'm free at last! Free at last!

So, what do you do when you're done with school? No, not look for a job, silly. Find a new hobby! So far, I've tried my hand at party planning-so far so good if I do say so myself. I also picked up some cool notecards that you can cross stitch on before sending off, so I'll also be giving that a try. Maybe blogging will experience a re-birth too? Here's to hoping!

The weekend also entails a lot of cleaning, organizing, and cheesy movie watching. It seems like nature likes my plan too as the forecast calls for rain, rain, and more rain, which makes staying in doors that much more appealing since drainage is a foreign thing here in Texas making street flooding a very common occurrence. Good thing I haven't started collecting cats, or my little homebound weekend could turn from rejuvenating to creepy real quick. :]