Post Category → the sticks

I survived my first week!

first-week-at-my-new-job

I survived my first week at my new job and loved it!  I can’t share what I’m doing because it’s probably top secret, and I signed a bunch of contracts on my first day, etc., but when I can, I will. Also, next week I’m traveling! I’m a traveling graphic designer. That hardly ever happens! I’m so excited. I know it’s fresh and new now, so it seems like a super fun fast-lane sort of life and will probably get old soon but I secretly think it won’t. The travel for this job is to the most beautiful places. I keep pinching myself I can’t believe this is my job. I can’t believe it’s real! I feel scared that something bad will happen because I don’t deserve this great job. But maybe I do deserve it. I’m going to work my butt off to prove that I do.

cody-at-the-beach

The sad news is that my working my butt off means long hours away from Bug and home. Bug is doing fine because she’s seventeen and has her own full life. Cody not so much. So we made the difficult decision to let my parents take care of Cody. I miss him like crazy but staying in an apartment all day alone is not a good life for a dog. It’s hard enough that he doesn’t have his buddy Whiskey anymore.

taking-cody-to-the-sticks

At first it was hard to leave him. My parents reported to me that after I left he was sad and curled up by the door waiting for me to come back. Thankfully that didn’t last long. A few treats here and there and lots of walks and now Cody and my dad are best buddies.

not-the-worst-place-to-be

I mean, it’s not the worst life out there in the sticks for a dog. My dad and I walk every morning at the same time and chat via headphones so now I get daily pictures and reports on how Cody is doing. Sometimes my dad even puts me on speaker phone and Cody will bark at me. It’s cute.

three-cats

But because I gave my parents a dog, they were now over their pet limit at their HOA so I got to take home a cat in exchange. I now have three cats. Kady (the one I’ve had the longest), Inky (who Bug has claimed), and now Rosy. They are all actually littermates that my mom rescued nine years ago when their feral mother left them in my mom’s front yard. They’ve been separated over the years but funny enough when we brought them back together, they got along just fine! I’m so relieved. You know I’ve had so much trouble introducing new cats in the past I’m a bit traumatized. These three cats get along great. They don’t love each other. It’s not a lick fest cuddle puddle or anything but nobody really gets upset if they get too close to each other. They all mildly tolerate each other like typical siblings. Maybe someday they’ll learn to cuddle together.

flooded-park

And that’s my news! It’s been raining like crazy, and the park is flooded but I’m happy in my cozy apartment and my fun new job.

Finally December

december-family-photo-shoot-at-the-barn

November has been the longest month ever. I probably feel this way because I’ve lived beyond my means (like an idiot) and I’ve been waiting for my quarterly paycheck to come so I can pay those nasty credit card bills back down. A watched pot never boils and all that. It’s been painfully long. Every day checking my bank account, every day sad. I know, at least I have a paycheck to look forward to when so many people don’t. I have a lot to be thankful for. But I was talking to Bug and she said November has been dreadfully long for her too. A few other friends have mentioned that they seem to be going through old crap that they thought they were over so maybe it’s not just me. And that got me thinking…

When you find yourself going through something that you thought you were over (for me it’s money problems. I never seemed to learn those rich dad poor dad lessons…) instead of feeling extra crappy about being such a failure AGAIN, we should feel a little bit relieved because we have a safety net! We’ve been here before and we survived. Last time I was here I didn’t think I was going to survive. I thought my debt was going to snowball until I was homeless.

But I’ve done this before and I did survive. I survived and thrived in fact. Here we are in familiar territory and we have the benefit of knowing we made it through in the past. Maybe this is just a circular argument or I’m not explaining it very well.  But it should give me some comfort knowing that I’ve done this before. It’s just the waiting that’s so hard. Even with all the wisdom in the world it still is so hard to be patient and wait for hard times to pass.

december-family-photo-shoot-with-mom-and-dad

In the meantime, some beautiful fall weather has been passing and I’m worried I haven’t truly enjoyed it because I’ve been so stressed. We did have a really nice Thanksgiving (I cooked a turkey AGAIN and didn’t fail!) and we got our holiday photos taken by Yvonne. Do you know Yvonne Valtierra aka the OG blogger, Joy Unexpected? She’s a magical photographer.

I met Yvonne ages ago. I think it was 2008 when we were both mommy bloggers doing the cheeseburger party or something (links seem to be lost to time but there are some here if you really want to dig deep.)  She visited us once at the beach and took a photo of Bug’s foot in her polka-dotted slip-on generic Payless Vans and my foot next to it in my flip flop with a paint smudge on the side. It was such a simple photo but in that very small snapshot of life you could see so much about us. I have it framed and it sits on my bedside table to this day bringing me memories of when Bug was two and how she used to hang beside me like my shadow. Now I’m the one hanging beside her like a shadow but that bond is the same. We have always been so close and Yvonne captures that. That’s what I really love about Yvonne is her ability to see all the subtleties.

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I’ve hired lots of my friends as photographers over the years and I love them all. Each of them captures something sweet and different from the other. I think as a photographer I just have such a love of other people who can see the world through a camera lens and tell stories with how they frame a shot. Little looks, glances, the way the light sits… I’m just a sucker for a good photographer.  If you are looking for a photographer in Southern California I can recommend many but I especially want to recommend Yvonne.

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This one looks like a perfume ad. Who knew age spots could be sexy?!!

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I’m only sharing a few shots here and I have dozens more but I don’t want to oversaturate this blog. I’m sure they will show up somewhere someday because they are my favorite. Thank you Yvonne, if you are reading this! You did such an amazing job! I hope you keep on doing exactly what you are doing. You’ve hit the sweet spot.