Turkey Day

I know, I know. I have been a very bad blogger. I have not updated in what seems like forever. Well, in an attempt to be more up to date.... and while I am working on getting pictures of our actual feast I will at least post a picture of our pretty Thanksgiving table I arranged.

Sometimes I think I'm actually artsy...

Thanksgiving

This year I am cooking my version of a Thanksgiving dinner.... something I have only done one other time with my mother's expertise. Actually, I'm quite excited. I get to use my new china, my new roasting pan,and try new desert recipes.

Call me a dork but I love entertaining... and I actually get to wait on my parents.

As we get closer I'll show you pictures of the bird and all the fixings....

Home is a warm place.

The thing that prompted David and I to look in ernest to search for a house to call our own was the fact that we lived in apartment with no heat.

We used the oven for warmth and bought a space heater. we took lots of steamy showers.

The fact that right now, as I sit here I am watching our cozy wood stove warm our home and I am not cold is amazing to me.

Despite the fact that we still haven't painted a single wall and still have many rooms not quite furnished and pictures still waiting to be hung, today, having a cozy fire in the house makes it feel like finally, this place is ours.

Home is finally a warm and cozy place with heat.

Honeymoon: Part 1.

Since many of you have yelled at me for not giving more details of our honeymoon.... here is Part 1.

After we left Bar Harbor on Sunday afternoon we drove to Concord, Ma., to see Dave's relatives who ended up getting stuck at an airport and unable to get to our wedding. They ended up making it to D's grandparents house so that is where we went to see them.

We saw them, had dinner and left (quite late) to get to the Hotel Commonwealth in Boston to make flying out at the butt crack of dawn the next day easier. One of D's brothers got us a room for the night. We were expecting to just get a place to lay our heads....

When we checked in (exhausted but happily married) we planned to shower and go to bed so we could leave at 4:30 a.m. The woman who checked us in at the front desk congratulated us on our marriage and said we had the presidential suite for the night. Our jaws dropped.

This is a room with a 18 seater dining room, kitchen, spa tub, granite countertops, rain shower and lovely decor. Jason Alexander has stayed there.... so have Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. (eww).

So after being led up to this lovely place we just kind of wander around. Suddenly we're not tired any more and set off to fire up the spa tub after calling D's brother to thank him for the setup.

While D's on the phone I see a chilled bottle of champagne, little boxes of yummy chocolates and a handwritten note to Mr. & Mrs. Comeau (our first note with our married name on it-thus it made me cry). Inside it said congratulations from everyone at the hotel commonwealth.

It made our night.
We went to bed around 2 a.m. Woke up at 4:30 a.m. Luckily we could sleep on the plan to Yellowstone... now if they could just find our damn plane.....

Married

I am a writer, but in this instance I cannot how beautiful and wonderful our wedding was. Every moment was perfect.

My best friends were by my side to watch me marry the man I have loved for the past 9 years. His brothers are now, finally, my brothers. We share the same name now. I will post more about the wedding/honeymoon once our honeymoon pictures are developed.

For now, I want to say thank you to everyone who came; family and friends.

Click on my flickr link to see pictures. Only ones posted will be non professional pics.

enjoy.
~Mrs. C

Journalism and Friends

I love being a journalist. I love my job. I love writing. I love news.

But sometimes, my job is tougher on my personal life than my career.

I have friends who are journalists. Most of them live far away and are just as busy as I am. They understand working at a mid-sized paper, having to work the night shift, getting calls from the copy desk that wake you from sleep, working weekends, and that no matter what the news never stops. They understand that even after your shift has ended your job is not done.

Many of the best stories come from things I observe when I'm not on the clock just driving around. I see things that make me ask questions, I stop, make a mental note, take a picture and file it away into my basket of things to pursue.

But those friends who understand my job is more than just a job live far away.

I think that most of my friends who are not in the media business think I am making things up, or just don't want to see them when I can't do something. I have a schedule that says once every 6 weeks I work nights, once every 6 weeks I work weekends. But if I want time off that changes. Or, if a town I cover has a meeting I must go to, I work nights. If a fellow reporter wants to switch shifts, and they switched with me once then I owe them.

When I come home at night, I don't want to have to justify why I can't hang out with my friends until 1am when I have to work at 7 the next morning, or just got off work at midnight.

Fellow journalists tell you not to get caught in the trap of having only other journalists as friends. But when your friends with "normal" jobs don't understand your life, what do you do then?

The Beach

D and I went to the beach for the first time this summer with some friends of ours. It didn't take long to get to the beach, we brought sunscreen and all the necessary items. But going there made me remember the reasons why I love ... and hate... the beach.

Reasons I love the beach:
-- the sun
-- the water
-- the way your hair looks when it comes home all sexy and tossed and wind-blown looking
-- the tan you get while at the beach
-- playing frisbee in the water


Reason I hate the beach:
-- sand gets everywhere (even in places you wish it didn't)
-- you have to pack your life to go to the beach (water, suncreen, phone, wallet, car keys, towel, extra clothes, visor/hat, trashy magazines, toys such as a frisbee, sandals, food, beach chairs (if you have them)
-- you have to wear your bathing suit all wet home if you're not dry when you leave or these's no place to change
-- you spend ridiculous amounts of money paying for tolls, parking or food at the beach
-- you have children or rude people who walk by and think it's ok to get sand in your eyes, nose or mouth
-- sometimes, even when you apply and reapply you get a sunburn

Regardless of these things, all the things I hate about the beach are made better by good company.


How do you feel about the beach?

Boating is good.

Especially when you have a camera.

I forgot to mention that D's stepdad got a boat and went waterskiing with us for the first time (maybe his second time). I got some great pictures... here's my favorite.

He was up and around.... but I just love this picture so much more.

More later (think Friday or Sunday) about our beginning a search for a couch.

Writing about work is against my personal credo

........but because of that lots of you have asked what exactly it is that I write. So, while I still won't write about work I will post a link to my story in today's paper.

I like writing about strange things. Can you tell?

Kennebec Journal.

Am without a post today.

So I'll just post a picture. You figure out what it means....

Love and Money

Sorry it's been so long.... but D and I have been nuts these past couple weeks. We have yet to have a weekend to ourselves and it's been about 2 months since that happened.

Most recently we were in New York sharing a hotel room with an old childhood buddy of D's.Despite the fact we got little sleep it was pretty fun. We were in NY to attend our friend's wedding (pictures in my flickr tagged pete). Many of my friends are getting married, which is nice, however it is also becoming quite expensive for me. On top of the money for our own wedding here is the tally of what I have spent so far:

-- wedding gift for childhood girlfriend I've known since I was 8 year old $80 bucks (my share of the gift split 3 ways with my other girlfriends)
-- hotel room in Boston for the event $100 (thanks to a family discount)
-- gas money for the drive down $30
-- gas money for the drive back up $30
-- gas money for drive to NY $60
-- gas money for drive back $60
-- hotel room for 3 nights $300
-- wedding gift $125
-- food for the 3 days $50
-- bandaids for the blisters on my feet $2
-- ear plugs 60 cents
-- magazines to occupy the time I wasn't at the wedding or in the pool $5


Although both of these occasions were wonderful to attend and I am very glad we were there.... I hope none of my other friends get married until at least next year. With the stuff we're doing to the house and our own wedding I need at least that amount of time to recover.

What's old is new again

So my bridal shower was a lot of fun!

I got many wonderful gifts, and people were very generous. The food was fab (chicken marsala, green beans with shaved almonds, a salad that was to die for, rice pilaf and more deserts than a girl who has to fit into a wedding gown should be allowed in a room with!).

But one gift in particular really made the day.

When I was little my mom had this pink quilt that was her grandmother's. We would curl up with it on cold nights, take it to sit on at the beach and stored it in a basement. My great grandmother Matilda made it, but when my parents moved to their new home my mother gave her friend the quilt (along with some others). It was stained and in horrible shape. Stitches were coming out, the batting was a bunched up and it was as thin as a dishrag.

For my shower, my mother's friend repaired the quilt and made it look better than ever. Over 4 years ago my parents moved, and for those past 4 years this woman would sit with my great grandmother's quilt and worked carefully to repair it. She not only made the quilt look beautiful,but also included a letter to me about what exactly she did to repair it. She also included a piece of the original batting and thread that was hand sewn to hold the quilt together.

I was so touched. Everyone was crying. It was truly wonderful.

I love when old things become new again.

girly stuff

This weekend my mother's friend is throwing me my first (and only as far as I know) bridal shower. D will be with my Dad and friends shooting pool while I get to have people give me lots of presents.

More than that though, I get to be girly. As a journalist, and someone who went to an all girls college, I'm probably one of the least girly people I know, yet in preparation for this weekend I have painted my nails pink, made sure that I have high heels ready to go, and even pulled out the makeup I have only wore about 3 times in my life.

It will be interesting being girly this weekend, and see what people give us for presents... what exactly do you get a 24 year old girl who is getting married, just bought a house and is not domestic in the least?

I will let you know.

nostalgia

A friend I've known since high school is coming up today to see my house! It's funny listening to her sometimes compare who I am now to who I was in high school.... honestly, not much has changed.

In some ways I've become more sure of myself, more focused. But in other ways I've become much more relaxed. In high school I did 36 activities at once.... No joke. Now, I concentrate only on writing, my husband to be, friends and my new home. It's a lot less, but it makes me much happier.

But the little things about me have not changed. I am still wickedly sarcastic. I still drive a Mommymobile. I still love to dance like no one is watching. And I still think I may one day fit in with the cool kids (however I still want them all to become fat, ugly and wind up in jail....).

So yeah, maybe she's right. I haven't changed a bit.

Cool features

Ok, another house post.... this time about some of the cool features our house has.

Above is what I call the "gnome cubby." When D and I were looking at the house for the first time, we saw the double doors in the front hallway across from the front door and didn't know what to make of it. I, of course, knew immediately what it was for-- the gnomes!

See, when I lived on the Fifth Floor in South Hall at Simmons the lounge across the hall from me had a similar tiny door in the wall, which we called the gnome cubby and some days it was called the dwarf door.

Well, my house doesn't have any dwarfs except for myself so it is for gnomes. Actually, right now we use it as a place to stash our shoes so we don't ruin our brand new carpets. I'd like to think once we get a puppy or have kids it will become a fort.

Does your place have any cool/weird things about it that you just love?

changes

While my digital camera is packed away from our weekend trip to Newport, R.I., I had to at least post about the changes going on in our house.

We love this place, but one thing we didn't love were the cushy toilet seats in all the bathrooms.

It really makes me feel gross when I sit down on the toilet and up comes a cush of air from the puffy toilet seat.

Here are just some of the reasons I hate them:
1. the cush of air
2. the shhhhhhhhh sound it makes once they inflate again
3. no matter how many times you bleach them they never look clean
4. they are different colors than the toilets themselves.
5. we have no idea who has sat on them.

For those reasons, today I got brave and took one of them off. I am supposed to drop it off with D so he can go get us hard toilet seats while I work the night shift.

It's the little (and I'm sure big to come) changes that are truly making this place ours.

mostly unpacked

So, slowly, we're getting unpacked. But it's a long process. We've got to buy bigger furniture for the living room... we need paint on the all white walls.

We need not ugly curtains....

But right now we're focused on hooking up our washer, dryer and all the other appliances that just arrived.

I'll post more pictures as we do more and actually start to decorate.

For now it's nice just to be home and have one to call our own.

Click my flickr link to see more pictures.

packed.

We're all packed. This is the second time since living together that D and I have moved. First it was from Florida to Maine. Now it's here to down the road.

We're eating off of plastic. Our clothes, save a few in the suitcases, are all rolled up tight. Heck, we even packed the toaster so I had to eat a raw bagel today. :) We close Wednesday (still don't know what time) and we're very excited. Although, the stress of this apartment isn't allowing me to actually celebrate until we're actually completely moved into the house.

I've taken a hiatus from wedding planning to do all of this stuff, too. but as soon as we're settled it's back to the grindstone!

I promise will post pictures of the inside of the house as soon as I can.

more pictures

So I don't have much of an update since we're still in the throws of the house thing and the wedding thing...
But, here are some pictures from our recent trip to Cape Elizabeth. Let me just say that we managed to land in a suit with no heat (ironic since our apartment too has no heat). But the nice folks at the Inn upgraded us to a cottage condominium. We had 2 bathrooms, 3 double beds, a kitchen, living room and private baloncy with a view of the ocean all to ourselves.

To top it all off we ordered breakfast in bed.

Lovely.

house

So... WE GOT THE HOUSE!

Now the packing begins. I remember now just how much I hate packing.
Unpacking is sort of fun... finding a new home for things...
but packing itself is miserable.

We close soon.
VERY soon.

I'll keep you posted. Wednesday we have all our inspections. Hopefully more pictures of the inside to come once those are done.

one step closer

.... so, not to get all mushy or anything... but Dave and I are one step closer to actually getting the house we want.
We made an offer.
They countered.
We countered their counter.

Tuesday we find out what's going on.


But I thought you all might appreciate actually seeing a pic or two of the place. I have to say that I started this blog while I was living in Florida and called it Northernjourno because I missed New England so much.

The house we want is just one tiny part of the New England pictures that were constantly running through my head while I lived in St. Pete.

No hurricane here. Just snow.

pictures

This is D and I on my uncle's skidoo. This is a very big deal since Uncle Bill had only met D once and liked him enough that he let him drive the thing. It was REALLY fun. I won't post the pictures of me driving....

house hunting

So we found a house we love.
It's a saltbox..... but Dave likes to call it many different things. Today he called it a salt shaker. then it became a pepper crusher.

Slowly, it became a bag of flour.

We're going to make an offer on it as soon as we talk to our mortgage guy and our real estate agent about what our offer should be. It's on 1.3 acres of land.... with lots of room for Dave to play with trucks or build Ford Sierra Cosworths.

It's a 3 bed, 1 full bath, 1 half bath house with a river running through the back yard. It has a cozy wood stove, plus regular heat and a wonderful brick hearth in the living room.

Hopefully soon I'll have more to post about it. As for now I don't want to jinx us.

Long time no post.

Ok, so admitedly my life has just been crazy enough to not post for a WICKED long time....
First, we moved from hot Florida back to the comforts of the Northeast.
Second, we're planning a wedding for July.
Third, we're house hunting.
Fourth, I started working at a newspaper and I write everyday all day, not to mention trying to freelance on the side so basically the last thing I want to do is come home and write some more. BUT, too many people have asked me to start posting again.... so here I am, again.
Fifth, I've been trying to lose weight (not just because I'm getting married (because D loves me just the way I am and I don't have to according to him), but because since my freshman year of college I haven't felt that great. (Probably mostly due to the fact that I loved rowing so much and now I don't have anywhere to row with 7 other crazy girls and one tall Russian.).

So, that's my update for now, however short it may be. I will try to post once a week from now on. At least. But, I do have some rules for myself. 1. Never talk about work here because lots of journos have gotten in trouble for it, and second because I am just competitive enough to believe someone may steal one of my good ideas. Rule number 2 is that I MUST follow rule number one.
But, in case you do want to see what I am up to at work go to www.kjonline.com (unfortunately you have to click through all the stories to see which one or two or three are mine.)

more later.