week in the life | wednesday

Under normal circumstances, I would never in a million years blog about refinancing my mortgage. Honestly, what could be more boring? Also, financial matters are kind of personal. But my week has been consumed by this refi. To leave it out would be dishonest in the documentation of my life this week. Perhaps I should just rename this series Week in the Life of Refinancing Your Mortgage (without punching your bank in the nostril/kidney/testicles). While I am a bit of a cynic, I try not to spew negativity on this blog...however, this refinance was one of the most frustrating experiences of my life. Unfortunately, I still have to leave out the most sordid of details, but the degree of incompetency on behalf of a major national bank blows my freakin' mind. They deserve to be punched in the nostril/kidney/testicles. Simultaneously!

8:00 I awaken to find myself wearing a single glove. What the WHAT? Turns out, I got cold in the night and found a single glove on my nightstand. (Naturally, I put it on.) This morning I get up like a normal person, shower, get dressed, and head up to Baltimore. I have the best intentions of eating a balanced breakfast, but am running late as usual, so I down a cookie and hit the road. (If you're paying attention you will realize that I have now eaten cookies for two meals in a row.)


9:45 On the road. I remember my cell phone this time.

10:00 Traffic. #$%^&*!!!
11:00 I arrive at Archival Arts in Baltimore and proof the prints I dropped off on Monday. They look good, so I order prints of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey maps to bring to Crafty Balboa April Showers in Philly on Saturday.

11:30 On the road back to Virginia. The CD player in my car is busted, so my music options are limited to whatever DC radio chooses to play: Rihanna, Maroon 5, Gotye, Fun, Katy Perry, The Beatles, Heart, Kylie Minogue, and Phil Collins. I sing along to all of them. And maybe bust out some car dancing moves.

1:00 I stop at Whole Foods in Vienna in search of Gifford's Roasted Coconut Ice Cream. I've been to at least seven grocery stores in the DC area in the last few weeks in search of this ice cream. I blame Karin for my obsession (she brought some to Brandi's dinner party. Also, if you've recently seen someone knee deep in the grocery store freezer scratching freezer burn off of pints of ice cream like a desperate animal, it wasn't me...) Success! I grab two pints and a few other treats and get out of there before I buy the whole store. (Did you know that Whole Foods has a COOKIE BAR?!)

1:20 Drive home. This happens:

1:30 Back home. I get a couple of e-mails with exciting opportunities for my shop. Do some quick accounting and then time for a breather. Looking forward to a nice lunch outside (it's gorgeous out) and Larry coming home early so we can finally have grilled pizza and cocktails on the patio like we'd planned for yesterday.

2:00 This is when shit starts to hit the fan with our mortgage. Phone calls are happening. E-mails are happening. F-bombs are exploding. At 2:00 pm, we are informed that our closing (which was scheduled and cancelled for both Monday and Tuesday and were then told would not go through this week) is to occur at 6:00 pm tonight at our house. This is confusing because WE HAVE NOT YET AGREED TO THE TERMS OF THE MORTGAGE.

Basically, the next five hours can be summarized like this:

And this:



Also, this:

And perhaps this:

2:00 #$%^&*!!! WTF? You can't be SERIOUS!
3:00 #$%^&*!!! WTF? You can't be SERIOUS!
4:00 #$%^&*!!! WTF? You can't be SERIOUS!
5:00 #$%^&*!!! WTF? You can't be SERIOUS!
6:00 #$%^&*!!! WTF? You can't be SERIOUS!
7:00 #$%^&*!!! WTF? You can't be SERIOUS!

3:00 I spend the next few hours cleaning up the house.

4:00 Banjo is not concerned. In fact, he thinks it is the perfect time for a nap in a sunbeam.

5:00 I realize that I haven't eaten lunch yet. I slice up some strawberries and head outside for a quick break.

6:00 Larry gets home. We still haven't gotten official confirmation that the closing (which has since been rescheduled for 7:30) is to happen tonight. Hellloooo??? Anyone? Bueller, can you close our mortgage???

6:15 We take the dogs for a walk.
7:00 Back at the house. Receive confirmation that the Dude with the Paperwork will be at our house in 30 minutes to close our mortgage. Wonder if it would be frowned upon to sign The Paperwork under the influence of alcohol.

7:30-8:45 After signing 300 pieces of paper our refinance is closed. The bank now owns my soul for the next 30 years. Also, we are missing the Caps playoff game for this bullshit. Typically, the closing of a mortgage would result in celebration, perhaps champagne, but after this, I just feel like neutering someone with an icepick. Also, Dude with the Paperwork said to us "Wow, most people refinancing with XXX Bank look a lot more punch drunk than you two." We tell him this is only because we know better than to take out our frustrations out on him. He laughs. Nervously. We don't.

8:45 Guess what? It's too late to make dinner again. We make a platter of fruit, olives, cheese, and crackers accompanied by a PBR (his) and a glass of red (mine) and sit down to watch the Caps game. We've been season ticket holders for the past three years. We brace ourselves for disappointment.


10:30 Caps win Game 7 in overtime. Larry celebrates!

10:45 We celebrate with the aforementioned coconut ice cream. Gravy wants to celebrate, too.
11:00-2:00 I edit photos and drink a lot of wine.

This day is so done. Sayonara, Wednesday. Thanks for keeping it real.

week in the life | tuesday

A good way to start the morning: Reading Sunny Side Up, written by Sarah, my favorite morning person!

Ass crack early Dogs are whining again. Larry takes care of them. Again.
8:00 Just like yesterday, phone calls are happening from bed. Larry gets up and gets ready for work. I slowly come to my senses, chat with Larry, and read friends' Week in the Life blog posts on my iPad.

9:00 Breakfast. My favorite treat - a spoonful of Nutella stirred into oatmeal.

9:15 Part of Larry's routine is asking me if his tie matches his shirt each morning. He usually asks me when I'm a) half asleep, and b) without my contact lenses, aka blind, but today I am up and semi-functioning. Notice the obscene gesture he is about to make for taking his photo.

10:00 There is a knock on the door. This sets off the canine alarm system. It is the mortal enemy: FedEx. The table I ordered for our back porch has been delivered.

10:15 Write in my Five Year Journal. I don't do diaries, but I like this one sentence a day for five years format - I've had mine since 2009 and it's fun to look back and see what I was doing over the past four years.

The true face of self-employment: Me with no make-up and yesterday's ponytail. Why do I keep posting photos like this of myself? Also, notice the extremely messy desk. Hey, at least I have gold nailpolish!

10:30 In the office: Spend 20 minutes on hold with my bank (same jerks who are screwing up doing our refi) to get them to unsuspend my online banking access. Bang head against wall. Bang phone against head. Pay bills. Order art supplies. Edit photos. Update my Etsy shop. Add listing for new Octopus illustration. Listen to Frank Turner on Spotify. Shower and get dressed.

1:00 Time for peanut butter boner bone treats!


1:01 Need some outside time and decide to assemble the new table. Realize that the box is too heavy and cumbersome to move so I have to open it on the front porch. Take pieces to the back porch and put it together.


2:00 Finally time for lunch. I make a pot of rice and eat leftover takeout Chinese food (kung pao chicken and pork in garlic sauce) sitting at the new table on the patio. Read the chapter from Craft, Inc. on wholesaling. I made a couple of wholesale contacts at Spring Bada-Bing the other weekend and am looking to make some of my prints available in local retail shops.

2:45 Photograph some of the few surviving flowers in our yard. Don't step in dog poop - success.
3:00 Back in the office. More editing photos and shop updates. Add listings for new ink illustrations - In the Mountains and In the City. Respond to convos and e-mails.


4:30 Make a shopping list and get ready to go to the grocery store. Look forward to surprising Larry with a relaxing evening on the patio, cocktails, grilled pizza, and cookies.

5:00 Safeway: In my basket.

5:30 Back home I notice the sky is looking ominous. Maybe my dinner plans will get rained out.

5:40 Put groceries away and get ready to bake cookies. I felt so bad after Larry was disappointed that yesterday's homemade peanut butter treats were for the dogs that I want to make him a batch of Peanut Butter Nutella cookies. As usual, I fail to put the butter out ahead of time to soften, so while I'm waiting, I do the dishes and clean up the kitchen. Today's tunes: Portugal. The Man and Amanda Shires.

"I will cut you with this mixer."

6:30 Cookie dough in progress.

7:15 Waiting for Larry. Banjo insists on dressing up as the red Teletubby.
7:30 Larry calls. He's still in DC. He was on the metro and got stuck behind a train that derailed at Rosslyn. After 40 minutes stuck in the tunnel, the train backs out and returns to Foggy Bottom. Larry and all the other passengers search for cabs to get to Virginia.


8:15 Larry finally gets home. Cookies come out of the oven.

8:30 The pups are happy to see him. "Try and get me, Dad!"

8:45 It seems pointless to make dinner this late. So much for my plan to have a relaxing evening on the patio. Larry heats up some leftovers for dinner. He eats surrounded by his faithful companions. (I have milk and cookies for dinner, yes I do.)
9:15 We watch reruns of How I Met Your Mother on the sofa. We are both exhausted again.
10:00 I come back into the office to download the day's photos. Realize that I took my 20,000th photo with my D7000 today. I've had it for 12 months. No wonder I wear the shutters out on my cameras! Also, thank goodness for digital - that would've been 833 rolls of film in the past year.
1:30 Goodnight.

week in the life | monday

Ok, so I kind of love seeing what other people do in a typical day/week. I've always wanted to participate in Week in the Life, but it's always fallen on the most inconvenient weeks. Even more so for this week. This is a stressful week. I'm preparing for an art market. I have no social engagements planned, no friend dates, no dinner dates, no nothing. In fact, I am restricting myself from these things so I can get shit done. Our cupboards are bare, our house is a mess. I worked in the studio all weekend, so during the week I'll be catching up on the business aspects of my shop instead of doing fun creative things. Boring. Really really boring. But I'm documenting it anyway. Here goes:

6:15 Dogs whine, Larry lets them out and I stay in bed. He feeds them and we all go back to sleep.
8:00 Larry is making phone calls from bed. Bad news for our mortgage refinance (which was supposed to close today). I won't go into details here, but let it be known that it is taking extreme restraint to keep myself from naming the bank along with a string of F words. Between this and the gloom and rain, it is not a good start to the day. Breakfast and Larry's off to work.


9:00  In the studio with yesterday's mess. Put the finishing touches on my new map illustrations. Package up weekend shop orders.

11:00 Review last week's incomplete To Do List. Change the date - it is now this week's To Do List.

11:11 Make business phone calls and set up appointments.

11:20 In the office - photographing new prints, editing photos, updating my shop, and various other business tasks. Sneak a few minutes in to read blogs and check Twitter.

1:15 Call the pups downstairs for a treat. Let them out. Eat "lunch" standing at the counter - six layer dip, chips, orange juice, and half a candy bar. Zoiks.

1:45 On the road to Baltimore. On the entrance ramp to the Beltway, I realize I have forgotten my cell phone. Have minor panic attack. How will I survive a 100 mile road trip without my cell phone? Think of all the things that could go wrong during the white knuckle drive through the rain to Baltimore. Beat myself up for being so stupid.

3:00 Appointment at Archival Arts in Baltimore. This is where I get my illustrations professionally scanned. I drop off the new Pennsylvania and New Jersey map illustrations and continue on the second half of the white knuckle cellphone-less drive through the rain back to Virginia.

4:30 More errands: Drop shop orders off at the Post Office. Pick up some office supplies at Office Depot aka The Most Depressing Place on Earth. The "company card" gets a lot of use today.
5:30 Talk to Larry on the phone. More bad news about the refi. Another string of F words. Also, he'll be working late.

6:00 Back home. Package on the doorstep. Oh the irony - this day has been anything but fab.

6:15 Snack and work. Tunes on the stereo courtesy of Delta Spirit - a current favorite.

6:30 Feed the dogs.

6:45 Back in the office. Filing, paperwork, and other such business nonsense.

7:30 Decide I need to bake as a stress reliever. We don't really need any diet-busters, so I bake a batch of homemade dog treats for the pups. Yes, you read that right. Homemade dog treats. I have now officially completed my transformation into my mother (Hi, Mom!). Just let me take some of these old dusty pills for my headache...

(Also, while these treats are supposed to be bone shaped...well let's just say if you're having a bachelorette party, I'm pretty sure that with some, ahem, minor alterations, I could hook you up with some appropriate-shaped cookies...)


8:00 Larry's home. He's excited about the smell of peanut butter cookies wafting from the oven. "Actually, they're dog treats." "But you made cookies for me, too, right?" (Oops.)  Anyway, this day was rough. We both need a beer. We vent about the refi and decide it's Us vs. The World. Leftovers for dinner, then collapse on the couch and veg in front of the television. It's been that kind of day.

10:00 Exhausted. Decide I need a hot bath to melt the stress away. Get in the tub with my iPad, some candles, a beer, and an episode of my current HBO addiction, Big Love.
11:30 Ready for bed, but it's time to edit photos and get this post up on the blog...

make new friends, but keep the old...

Blogger Dinner Party: Brandi's dining table.

...one is silver, and the other is gold! (Did you ever sing that song when you were a kid?)

The past few weeks have been particularly busy and stressful - thank you taxes, art markets, and a trip to New York! My To Do list is overflowing and I'm feeling the pressure of looming deadlines. I'm having the ol' recurring dreams of my teeth falling out (and a new one: being yanked out by a dentist - that is not going to help with my dental anxiety) and having to go back to school because I never finished my thesis. (I graduated ten years ago, *when* will these dreams stop?!) I feel like I'm behind on everything: blogging, responding to e-mails, business responsibilities, housework, thank yous, etc.

However, there's been one thing that's been keeping me sane throughout these busy weeks: friends. I typically tend to withdraw from social activity when I'm super busy, but recently I've been saying yes to every social opportunity that comes up. Being self-employed is often quite lonely and I find I'm so much more productive, inspired, and just plain happy, if I take an hour or two out of my day to chat with a friend. Meeting someone for lunch or a glass of wine leaves me with a smile on my face for the rest of the day. I know I'm not the easiest person to be around when I'm stressed out, so thanks to all my friends (and especially Larry!) for putting up with me. I owe you!

Brandi's homemade cavatelli.

I've found that social engagements all seem to happen at once. Meet one friend for dinner and the next day, get a call or e-mail from another friend asking to meet up. Meet one blogger and realize she knows another blogger you know. Funny how that happens. I've been a regular social butterfly these past few weeks (a stark contrast to my usual hermit ways!). Between meeting up with new local friends and having some of my oldest and best childhood friends come into town, my social calendar has been packed. It is good. Really really good. I may owe 25 people an e-mail, but seeing my friends in person just feels awesome.

Kelly of Kelly & Tiramisu and Brandi of Not Your Average Ordinary.

A glimpse of the past few weeks: There's been delicious pizza from Seventh Hill, cupcakes from Sweet Lobby, lunch at Ray's Hell Burger, and hiking around Roosevelt Island with Brandi. There's been wine and small business chatting with Jane, Steffanie, and Toya. There's been an afternoon at Pizzeria Orso with Sarah (and little Kate). There's been wine and dinner at Eat Bar with Lauren.  And there was a fabulous dinner party with Karin and Kelly featuring homemade pasta by Brandi (followed by stuffing our faces with delicious Jeni's and Gifford's ice creams). And all those friends? I met through blogging. The internet is freaking amazing.

Brandi's beautiful collection of aprons.

But that's not all. One of my oldest and best high school friends, Sara, was in town last month from Louisiana and we spent an entire day at her parents house talking our faces off (while she cooked up a crazy delicious pot of crawfish etouffee). A few days later Sara and I met up with another old friend, Naomi, for a morning of beignets at Bayou Bakery followed by a trip to the park. An hour after I got home, Matt, one of my closest friends from high school called and we talked on the phone for an hour. The next day, my oldest friend Sarah (my partner in crime in cutting mazes in the bushes and splatter painting the curtains) called. These friends live hundreds of miles away now. Talking to them was such a treat. And then I got to spend an entire weekend in New York with Matt (who recently reminded me that we've been friends for almost 19 years) - walking our feet off, drinking $15 cocktails, and picnicking in Central Park. 

Between all these friend dates, I have failed to take photos of all of them except one. I think that violates a cardinal rule of blogging. The photos here are from Brandi's fabulous dinner party (Thank you, Brandi!) - though I still failed to get a group shot or even include Karin in the photos. (Sorry, Karin!) Anyway, I need to get better about that so I can share all the beautiful faces of the amazing people in my life.

So, thank you, friends, for buoying me through the hard times, for inspiring me, and for reminding me how important friendships are - both new and old.

Also, never underestimate the power of chatting with a friend over a glass of wine.