Smile. Life is Good.

Life is Good.

I feel like I haven't actually made that declaration lately, even though I absolutely know that it is. It's been stressful, but I can see the light at the end of the flux tunnel, and I'm bent on getting there.

 

I'm back now in a city that should feel more like home than it actually does [granted, I've only been back for a week now]. I'm away from a staff that was more of a family than a job, friends I love, and a boyfriend who is also my best friend and now my greatest source of long-distance moral support. Illinois is a chapter that is closed for now, and I'm back in Ohio where I will hopefully feel more at home very soon. All of that being said, I look at what I have - both here and there - and realize that my life is good. No no. It's GREAT.

 

My baby girl, my little mini-me, the pint-sized whirlwind that defines my every move: She is healthy, happy, loved by both myself and her dad, even separately. She's smart, kind and discovering her way in this world. I'm back here for her, for the moments like these that I will hold onto forever. I'm here because I'm a mother and there is nothing in this world stronger than the bond between a mother and her child. Nothing. You know that smile - the one that starts in your gut, tingles up your spine, gives you goosebumps and makes your ears tingle before it lights up your entire face? That's the one I get from her, even thinking about the time I'll now have again with my daughter, my carbon copy, my pride and joy. I found these from a mini-shoot we did snuggled in bed one morning a few months back....

♥ this little girl... the best thing that's ever happened to me. ever.

I've been doing better, too, about not falling apart over the people I left back in Illinois, specifically my close friends and of course, Rob. I've said it before but I'll say it one more time for the sake of repetition: I really haven't ever been so in-sync with someone. I'm comfortable with him on a level that I never had, with anyone. I trust him, not only where fidelity could be questioned, but I honestly trust him... with my emotions, with my time, and with my deepest thoughts, goals and fears. We were friends - just friends - long before anything more than that, and I know that no matter what happens now that I'm here and he's there - our friendship wasn't skin-deep, and it won't ever go away. There's no real way to accurately show him how much I appreciate him, but I'll try until he gets it ;)

simple things that make me smile ♥

I wouldn't be sane, grounded or lifted if it weren't for some of my friends, either. Yes, there's a handful of other people [family, other friends] who deserve accolades where support is concerned, but today, I'm specifically grateful for four very different but truly incredible women, who have been there for me when I needed it the most and probably wanted it the least. ;) Through everything that has transpired in the last two years, I never doubted - not even once - that these women would be there at the drop of a dime for anything from a weekend refuge to just a shoulder or an ear. They didn't question or judge, but made sure I knew I had a soft place to land when chaos set in. I am indebted to each of them, in different but equal ways. Thank you. You don't know how grateful I am for you. From Arizona [Kalyn] to Illinois [Ali] and back here in Cincinnati [Becky & Catie], I love you, friends and I appreciate you!!

kalyn. becky. ali. catie.
every girl deserves to have friends like these.

And on a continous note, the housing search continued this evening, with a trip out to Mariemont/Fairfax with Becky to scout out a property [CList, Zillow & Realtor.com have gotten a workout these past few weeks!]. I'm very happy to report that I feel hopeful about this. Whether or not this materializes into the one, I think I like it and it went well with the landlord, so I was left feeling refreshed, after the last few weeks of dry leads. If I do end up moving, I'll show you a picture then ;)

After the viewing, it was off to Eastgate, where I picked up a steal I'd found on the ever-reliable Craigslist = new tent! My philosophy is that you can't really ever have too many tents, especially when it's a 4-person and you paid $30 for it. WINNING (: 

iiiiit's camping time! (:

Since we were already in the Eastgate area, I took Becky for her first visit at the Main Street Cafe in Newtown. Three words: Sweet Potato Fries. Oh, and two more accompanying words: Calypso Sauce. You know exactly what I mean if you've ever been there. Newtown itself is a cute little area, which reminded me that somewhere nestled in it, is a local retailer that sells spoon rings and other various knick knacks. I made a note to myself to find it again and make a visit. In due time.....

Meanwhile, outside Mainstreet Cafe there was a very worn entrance into a wooded area, which we couldn't help but explore. I'd gone straight from work to run all of these errands, so I was still fully disguised as the business-casual version of myself as we embarked on a mini-hike through some foliage. We found everything from a run-down metal storage shed alone in a clearing to a 4-hours cul-de-sac on the other side of the trails. Nothing spectacular, but fun for some curious people like us.

yep!

From there, we finally made our way back to Northside and settled in for the night. We started looking into some ideas for camping this weekend; it's a long weekend and supposedly going to be beautiful. I'm pretty excited, so we'll see what turns up. For now... it's past my bedtime (:

xo | cmd

Express Is OPEN

EXPRESS IS [officially] OPEN!!

today is the day! (:

Soooo... hello again, work.... 

Chris was at the office this morning and came bearing donuts [here we goooo]. I do love Busken. 

awww, the love ♥

It really wasn't a bad day [not that I'd expected it to be], despite having to put on my big girl clothes, aka business attire again. We were spoiled with nearly a full week of casual dress for set-up, but now we are OFFICIALLY open, and ready to rock and roll. I'm excited to get back into the swing of things here at Express; now that we're open, it's game time! I even had a last minute sales call, on which I took Nancy. It looks like we may just beat Dave & Chris after all in snagging that first job order ;)

big girl clothes.. ohh yeah.

After work, I voted to take one more day off of what is becoming a loathed effort to find suitable residence here in Cincinnati. I'm so looking forward the evening when I can go home, crash on the couch, curl up with my daughter, and put the entire world to rest for a night. I'm thankful beyond words for the friends I have who've been nothing but supportive of this process .... *sigh.... I'm simply more than ready to be done with this state of nomadic lingering, temporary as it is.

Mike & Becky are starting dinner; I need to give this blog a rest and go lend a hand (:
It's the mellow nights like this that would be complete with my two favorites next to me. I can only pray that's soon. Maybe even temporary and spread out, but soon.... (:

...... & I will laugh without fear of the future.
.... deep breaths. :)

xo | cmd

Aaaaaand I'm Back

Driving driving driiiiiving... it's what I do... haha. After breakfast with Rob this morning and a few errands, we said our goodbyes again [not nearly as difficult or emotional as last weekend] and I hit the road for a 5-hour trip back to Ohio. Is it weird that I'm no longer phased by long road trips?

 

things along the way... that made me smile..
... and with ohio plates, of all things.. haha

I told Becky I'd have an ETA of 9:30pm. I walked in the door at 9:29pm. I'm not typically good at predicting times, which just goes to fortify the idea that I'm going to get quickly acclimated to 5+ hour road trips.

To end the weekend: we played around with a Mirrors app on my phone. Not an awful time at all. Pretty funny, actually. Here's us, if we were even more special than we already are most days. ;)


ohhh yeah. hahaha

Welp, it's nearly midnight and even though I slept like a rock this weekend and feel energized from it, I'm still tired and I've gotta get back to work in the morning. I've got another list of housing in front of me and will be pursuing that tomorrow, too.

Make it a great week, blogbots!

xo | cmd

REO Speedwagon | Styx | Ted Nugent

breakfast with ali...
i already miss her... always ♥ her!!!! 

I made it to Illinois in one piece yesterday, with some time to spare. I know this is no longer my home, but since I've only been back in Cincinnati for a week now, after two solid years of being gone, it really did feel like home when I drove in yesterday. Call me crazy, I know.

Anyway, first thing on the agenda today was breakfast at The Egg & I with Ali. She'd never been, I hadn't been in a while, we both wanted breakfast, and the wait wasn't that long at all. Sooooo, yeah. Everybody wins!

We followed breakfast with some light retail therapy, and spent that time catching up on all things of the last week: work, social lives, deep-seeded things, and of course, laughing. There was much laughing done in the first few hours of my day, and reminded me how grateful I should be [& am] to have a friend like her. Love you, Ali!

Oh, and speaking of Ali, she's got a blog, too. She updated it in the past day or so, to include a few others and myself, individually. I cried a little reading it. I'm blessed with incredible friends, even states away. :)

Back in Granite, Rob came back from work and we started out our weekend hang-out with a nap. You call that a waste of time spent together, we call it.... catching up right where we should be with Saturday tradition ;). Haha. Just kidding; we're not lazy, but it's been one heck of a week for both of us, and we wanted to be of the right energy for the evening.

yeahhhhhh buddy...

... And when that came around, Rob's mom & stepdad came by the house and we all piled into the truck for the short jaunt over to STL. It's concert season! This was my first of the season, originally a Valentines Day present from his mom & stepdad to us. It was a blast (:

As is usually the case, we'll go with pictures instead of me trying to tell you how much fun it was.....

beautiful day out! 

rob & his pretty madre!

we had... a blast (: (: 

[[ I've got the full set from the evening on fb... go find them there if you really want to :) .. ]]

...... and yes, this is lightly backdated. I was certainly in no condition to sit down and start blogging when we got back to the house. It was a great time, though, and deeeeefinitely worth the trip out. Thanks again to Rob's amazing parents for the tickets and for showing us a great time!

love. you.

First run of concerts for the season? Success (:

xo | cmd

TGIF.

TGIF.

Yeah, I know... cliche title for a Friday post.... but ya know what? I can't remember the last time I was this thankful for a Friday to roll around. It's been something of an.... eventful week, more or less.

I got dressed in real grown-up clothes this morning and chuckled at the fact that I've been so used to business casual Monday through Thursday, and having casual Fridays. This week, because we've been in the final threads of set-up here, we were casual all week, and now dressing up on Friday. (*whew) It's not really that funny, but it's a nice change.

Oh, and I thought I'd stop by Kroger on the way in and snag some cute little orchids to brighten up our desk spaces. I found a purple one for Elisa, even. :) On top of that, all of my pictures are now hanging or sitting in their respective places, so I feel like I'm home. Here we go, Express.....

brighten up the day :)

love seeing these beautiful faces ..  family & friends - every day!

Anywho, D&N [I'm not quite used to it yet; I just typed and deleted M&D... : / ...] were kind enough to grant me an early leave today at 3pm to start my trip back to St. Louis for the weekend. I need to get the e-check done on my car, and Rob's mom got us tickets to an REO Speedwagon/Ted Nugent/Styx concert this weekend. Two reasons I'd say are justifiable enough to get me back there for a couple of days :).

That's not to discount the rest of the day though. Friday was anything but slow; yesterday we'd scheduled our first round of interviews for today, and we didn't stumble too much through the flow of things. Luckily for both Elisa and I, we were trained by some of the same people, so we came together already having a very similar process. Oh, the small victories!

So yeah. We've all survived the first week of managed chaos here at the brand spankin' new Express office of Central Cincinnati, not to be confused with Cincinnati North or East ;). I'm excited to really start digging into everything next week and find our paths of flow and function.

For now, I'm outta here. I aced the five-hour drive back to Illinois, have successfully been fed AND got to see Alicia (: (: ... and now I've got a boyfriend to see (:

hey, alicia!! (: 

Happy weekend!

xo | cmd

Dumpster Diving In Northside!

Thursday!
I've given light detail of how this first week has gone at work. Today was another day of firsts for this office - we scheduled our very FIRST round of interviews for this office! [[I realize that sounds super nerdy, but whatever.. it's the small things!]]

first round for tomorrow! (:

I made a run out to Milford after work. I decided I wanted to get some pictures framed and displayed on my new desk, so my first order of real business was to get that done. I didn't take into account that printing off pictures I'd already Instagram'd would need to be printed as squares [why that didn't occur to me before, who knows...], but when it was all said and done, I was determined to make it work, and I think it turned out pretty good.

love him. love it.

Becky and I did dinner at Habaneros, which was delicious... I do love local places (: [[[try the bbq chicken quesadilla!!!]]]

yummmmmm (: 

Lastly, and this was probably my favorite part of the entire day...
Dumpster Diving... In Northside... With Becky.
It doesn't get much better than that. Technically, I guess we weren't really diving, as there really wasn't any of that involved - it was more like us spotting a crate filled with random trash propped atop a row of trash cans outside an apartment. We took full advantage of it, braved the smell of garbage just long enough to transfer all of it into another trash can and make a dash for it with a new crate. It's a nice one, too, and in tact, which is rare whenever you're scavenging. We celebrate the small things. (:

one man's trash?.....
..... is probably going to end up outside our door. haha.. 

Haha. Yeah, it's posted outside my temporary abode right now, and that's probably where it's going to stay until the stale banana smell dissipates from it and Becky can recycle it into some sort of useful something-or-other.

It's late.... my words are starting to default to sound effects. *Yawn.

Tomorrow's FRIDAY!! [[yesssssss]]

xo | cmd

Boyfriend & His Boat

I tried out some new coffee at the Kroger by my work today before heading in. I used my fancy Kroger plus card that I now have [for like, the third or fourth time for how many times I've had, lost, re-acquired, etc. one of these things]. It wasn't bad!

in my best fake snob accent, "oooooh, i'm sooooo cincinnati now... "

Work consisted of more boxes, moving of the file cabinets, and a few hours on the phone with our corporate tech support to get each of us set up correctly on our network. SUCCESS.

I checked out another potential apartment in Eastgate afterwards, too. Pass. *sigh.

Feeling a little frustrated, I made my way back to Becky's, where she, Mike, Jason and myself met up and carpooled to Ichiban over in Mt. Lookout for some happy hour sushi.

sushi. never a bad choice (: 

We just got back to Becky's, and frankly, I'm ready to call it a night. This has been one heck of a week.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Rob finally got his boat!!! This has been such a process for him, so I was pretty excited when he shot me over the picture to prove it. (: Way to go, babe.

boat & truck? ... exciiiiiited!

*Sigh. Two more days & I'll be IL-bound again. :) :) :)
But for now... sleep!

xo | cmd