Ingrid

I want to be your friend.

Happy is the heart that still feels pain
Darkness drains and light will come again
Swing open your chest and let it in
Just let the love, love, love begin

She's a smart lady. We're seeing her in concert next month and I'm excited.  I don't know how she continues to write things that make me say, "Oh, me too!"  But I think that's what they call the beauty of music.

House!

In the last two months, I went from this:  (at my parents)










to THIS!



And now I am officially all moved in!  I was reluctant to say anything about it until all of the papers were signed because I was terrified the bank or someone evil would call and say, "Oh actually, you can't buy that."  Because I'm crazy like that.  And it partly feels too good to be true.  Because it is.  If you could be in love with your house, I am totally smitten.  The kitchen is a dream and it just makes me smile every time I'm in it.  If I could have designed one, it likely would have looked like this one.  
Yes, I'm still in the twitterpated phase and the facts are this:  built in 1943, my commute to work will be amazing thanks to quick access to highway 77, my neighbors are charming (thus far) and it actually inspires me to ride a bike--which I haven't done since I fell off of one in Japan 6 years ago.  It's the right amount of "done" and still areas that I can improve or change.  I've already painted my living room, fireplace, and front door.  And have plans to rip out all of those bushes as soon as my dad decides to do that for me.  :)  
Buying a house for myself was never something I planned on and to be quite honest, this entire past year was nothing I had planned.  But sometimes the best parts of life happen where you least expect them to, or rather, right alongside pain comes something lovely.  So all that to be said, after one of the most difficult semesters of my life in ALL areas (don't you love it when all things suck all at the same time?), this has been a welcome plus in my world.  People have asked me if I'm scared to live by myself and I always think that's a funny question.  Because no, I am not scared to physically live in this house by myself.  I'm not a worrier of those kinds of things.  I worry about being a cat lady in this house forever, but not about being burglarized or something--rationality at its finest, friends. 
So with the interwebz officially hooked up, I plan to return to the blogging world.  It also helps that I'm taking lots of stupid class this summer and my favorite way to procrastinate is to blog.  Which is what is happening right now as I have 2 of my 8 assignments completed that are due tomorrow.  (I just got them today so it's not as bad as it sounds.)  
One more thing:  almost every day I ask myself, "Who in the world let you buy a house?"  And that's usually after I do something really dumb like try to wash oil-based paint off a roller with my HANDS--and get paint on everything, or not even know which way to put in my furnace filter. (Thanks, Kroekers!)  Or lock myself out fairly regularly.  (My dad made me hide a key before we even entered the house.  The man knows me well.)  But all that to be said, I'm a homeowner and officially poor!  And it feels pretty great.  :)