I managed to keep the kitchen and high food traffic areas refreshed before we left, but the bathroom was not the same. That damm old fashioned tub is sooo cool but so uncool at the same time. I still have yet to really clean under there, and after being gone….the smell is rough.

I have investigated several mold cleaning companies, but I am assuming that this is something my landlord should be handling? Either way this better be handled soon because I’m two seconds away from dousing my entire bathroom with bleach. Actually not a bad idea…..

Since his trip, we have actively been forming a plan for Dusty to hang up his Kansas stirrups and move to the big city. He actually made an outline of this master plan… If he moved here, it would be a dream come true for both of us.

Vanessa loves Dusty. I’m so lucky to have a girlfriend who genuinely meshes well with my friends. However, I’m not sure if she knows what she’s getting herself into…

I realize that Dusty and I are not in college anymore, but we would spend every second together if we could. I just pray I don’t alienate her. There’s a reason why Dusty and I earned the nickname DIra. So, in effort to be proactive, which is not like me at all, I am giving her advanced permission to reel me in, whenever she feels I need a lil’ ass kickin’.

I hope it all works out!

According to this article though, thank you notes are totally out of style, and even considered rude?? I had to read more…

“And yet, let’s face it, the handwritten thank-you note can also be pretentious, predictable and protracted in its arrival. “I hate old-school thank-you notes, the main reason being that they take too long to arrive,” fumed the most gracious hostess I know, a Brooklyn Heights beauty who puts on grand parties several times a year.”

First off, I have never experienced the backlash of having to wait for a thank-you note. Let’s say you go to a friends house for a sit-down dinner, and as you are leaving….guess what? 99% of people say thank you. So its not like your friend watches you leave and sits around for days on end waiting for the mail to show up.

The anger of this article seems to come from the fact that its written and aimed at the older (but not old enough to be a baby boomer) generation – one that uses technology but hates it oh-so-much. My parents, who are baby boomers, love getting the hotter tech gadget….well, until they have to figure out how to use them. On the other hand my generation send thank you’s via Facebook and text messages, which is about as impersonal as you can get. The middle generation seems stuck – they have to either conform and love the eVite, or stop complaining and buy a stamp.

For me, nothing is better than having a relative or friend thank me for sending them a card…usually shocked that someone of my age (24 this past month) would still do this. Who knows, maybe I am just reading too much Steinbeck. He loved books and writing, and frowned upon the quick easy forms of entertainment that was diminishing the way humans learn and experience the world.

And of course I say this as I post to my blog using my Blackberry. What has this world come to??

Keep the art of writing thank you notes alive!

Update: Thanks to my girl Mindy, who pointed me in the direction of thxthxthx.com/ which is such a good blog!! LOVES IT.

Now that it is clean, its time to paint. Personally, bright colors are my thing, and since moving here I am convinced that out kitchen needs to be yellow. Let’s see how this goes…

The yellow color automatically brightens the room, and mixed with the bad wood and old fashioned appliances (gnarly sink and about-to-blow-up-in-my-damn-face stove), it is a perfect match!

Oh, by the way…..Here is our bathroom redo!

When you are a college student, you pretty much do anything to get some extra cash. Friday night out? Sell some clothes. Need some clothes? Pick up some extra shifts. My personal favorite…buying my school books at Barnes and Noble, reading them right off the bat, and then returning them within the 10 day return window. Certainly saves some ca$h on expensive textbooks!

Now that the two birds are sharing one nest, we have created the family piggy bank. The concept first started about a year ago when we wanted to go on a trip to California. We dusted off my blue plastic piggy bank from Old Navy, and started adding some change. After a while, the change saving became fun – we found ourselves chanting “California, California” every time we got a bit of coin. Then we started saving a few dollars, and before you know it, our plane tickets were paid for.

The piggy bank still exists, but the reward is a bit larger. We are trying to save for a trip to Europe. Unfortunately, the change we have saved so far doesn’t even scratch the surface of one plane ticket. It may take a few years, but hopefully Paris will still be there =)

Does anyone else have any fun money-saving techniques?

What about vacations – actual days away from each other? Ruth A. Peters, Ph.D. stated in an NBC segment on the Today Show that:

“A committed monogamous relationship shouldn’t mean giving up who you are or your independent activities: career, friends, interests or all previous traditions (ski trip with the guys, shopping in the city with the ladies). A successful marriage or monogamous relationship does entail the willingness to make some sacrifices in an effort to accommodate the other person….Within the context of a healthy, stable relationship, a long weekend with the girls or camping with the guys is an extension of an already established bond — and should not be viewed as an interference or a threat to the other partner.”

I like her style. Especially when one partner’s family lives farther away (like mine), traveling during holidays or for a long weekend is something that just has to be done. And considering how frequently this occurs, it can be financially hard to have both birds travel together. The cost of plane tickets gets pricey, and it is much easier to have one person crash on a friends couch than have to worry about spending extra bread on a hotel.

I always find that vacations or travel is never really relaxing, just a good time. And with that being said, I have to admit the most relaxing part of a vacation is coming home, and seeing your partner waiting at the airport to pick you up. =)

Our apartment has finally started to shape up, mostly from my frequent visits to the Brown Elephant. It is a resale shop that funds the Howard Brown Health Center, which is one of the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health care organizations.

It is one of those places that has hidden treasures. Some of the stuff can be a bit junky, and then – between a rotting couch and a basket of fake, dusty flowers – lies the beautiful (and cheap!) piece of furniture you have been dreaming of.

I would estimate that everything in our apartment, minus the big furniture pieces like our bed and couch, have all been purchased from the Brown Elephant. I understand that some people have issues with buying someone’s stuff that was pre-owned. However, there are 3 major benefits:

1. CHEAP
2. Good cause: purchase from a place that serves the community
3. Eco-friendly: purchasing second-hand furniture is good for the environment!

Some people are also skeptic about the quality of second-hand, so I have developed a few rules for myself:

1. No fabrics – bed bugs anyone? Avoid couches, mattresses, and any type of upholstery that you can’t wash in boiling water before use.
2. Stay away from over-priced items. They may look vintage, and that’s probably why they are marked so high. Check for quality wood and stable construction before purchasing.
3. Finally, test it before you buy it. Nothing feels worse than buying junk, bringing it home, plugging it in and screaming “Fucking JUNK!”. Ask the thrift store if you can plug it in before paying, and bring extra light bulbs with you if you know ahead of time that you are searching for lamps.

Here is a few things that I have purchase that I am really fond of:

Hmm. Well if this is true than Ira and I are totally fucked. We certainly don’t have much of a choice about whether to live together or not. If we were to live separately, then I would end up on a co-workers couch, and he would be living under his cubicle and showering at his mother’s house. FAIL. Besides, I think there are actual advantages to co-habitation pre-marriage proposal.

1. Man’s Biggest Fear – Marriage is the End of Life. By living together for a while, humans naturally start to do more “marriage-like” activities, like cooking and laundry (ahem, Ira…) while still maintaining that part of your single lives that you always liked to do like movie dates and bar hopping on Saturday’s with friends.

2. The Feel-Out. Living together let’s you view the inner workings of your partner’s style and quirky habits (hairy tsunami anyone?) and more importantly, their TV watching habits. With a society most driven by the media, if your male roommate never lets you watch Project Runway then you might have issues. Also, it tests how much ESPN News and College Gameday you can handle. FYI I actually have a pretty high tolerance. Go me.

3. Sleeping Habits. How awful. You just got married and you already have separate beds. Slapping and kicking each other between the sheets for years already? A little band of gold isn’t going to make it any harder.

Marriage shouldn’t change much but you never know. Maybe it’s not marriage, but joint checking accounts that are the problem. Ira, did you pay the ConEd bill yet?

So sarcasm aside, I truly didn’t know that Drano is not only bad for your pipes, but dangerous too. The bottle is covered in warnings, but after a few Yelp and Yahoo! Answers probes, I found that a small warning about chemical burns is only a drop in the bucket of horror stories about exploding pipes and tubs, scars covering people’s arms, and thousands of dollars in expensive piping repairs. Thank goodness I am a renter =).

Like any normal person, when our old fashioned claw-foot tub started to beef up on the clogging hair I fed it some Drano. Two bottles to be exact. A few days later and Ira and I are still taking sponge baths in our sink, and my co-worker informed me she would let me know when I started to smell. How is it that a highly popular household item is not only worthless on our clumping hair, but is causing me sleepless nights worrying that a few months down the road my tub will just fall through the floor?

More Googling. Seems that bleach, vinegar and baking soda all offer better and safer solutions than the dreaded Drano. Bleach? Well, I might pass out in the process of dumping a bottle down the spout but my tub will be sparkling and draining nicely.

Building maintenance is coming today with some super-duper awesome Wet-Vac sucking machine, so let’s see how that goes. Exploding Tub Watch starts…..now.

Ira: Herberto is back.
Vanessa: No…
Ira:Yea, he is just scratching away over there.
Vanessa: Go smack the window sill. It will scare him away.
Ira: ::smack smack::

2 minutes later…

Ira: Herberto is back – your turn to smack the wall.

After two rounds of smacking the wall, Herberto was still chomping away at that wall like he was trying to escape from Alcatraz. Scene: little mouse in a small cell, picture of a sexy mouse poster covering his escape hole a la Shawshank Redemption, with the years of torture carved into the walls….

I digress. We really need to get a mouse trap just in case he does make it to freedom somehow. I would inform our superintendent, but I doubt he will do anything about it and we’ll get the mouse trap only after weeks of furry infestation. So for now, Herberto, sleep with one eye open.