Life Update

It has been quite the month. Even with no running events in July, life has been pretty hectic.

Joshua's brother moved in with us in the beginning of July. He's trying to make a fresh start with his life, just like Joshua did when he moved to Madison in 2004. It worked with Joshua but we'll see how long his brother stays here since we're the only ones he really knows in Madison. It took awhile but Joseph (Joshua's brother) finally got a job which I hope sticks so then he can start contributing even though he has been good helping with cleaning and staying out of our way as much as possible. It's been rough but we'll get through it. I'll spare the details but those of you who do REALLY know me, my apartment lifestyle has changed a bit and I can't just do things anymore on a whim...I always have to remember he is or could be around.



Which brings me to the next news...exactly one week from today, we'll be moving down the hall from a 1 bedroom apartment to a 1 bedroom + loft! Woohoo! When we had resigned our lease for the current apartment 3 months ago, shortly after, the apartment manager alerted us that a 1 bed + loft was opening up on our floor which we had presented interest in a year ago and he remembered that! We only wanted that floor plan if it was going to be on the same floor of our building so then the move would be easy, otherwise we were satisfied with staying in our current apartment that we've been living in for the last 4 years. It'll give us more space, especially with all the wedding gifts that we have set aside since we had no room, not like we had room in our closets to store those as well.

Ours plans even before knowing Joseph was going to be staying with us is to convert the loft into our bedroom and the actual bedroom to be the spare bedroom. Hopefully we'll be able to upgrade to a queen size bed and a nicer dresser and put our current bed and dresser in the spare room. The kitchen and living room will be a tad smaller but just a tad so I can handle that. It was hard to imagine where things would go in the apartment we'll be moving into because the current tenants had every square inch of the place covered with something (and we had looked at that apartment 2 months ago so they weren't in the process of moving!). In the loft, they actually had a bed, dresser, many random things on the ground AND a treadmill that was folded up. I know we have a lot of stuff but I like to condense things and make it look like we have a lot of room. I hate clutterness! I know what needs to be done if ever in the future I need to sell my future house.

The thing I'll miss the most is our balcony view is not obstructive by any buildings or trees. The closest trees are farther out across the street. I like watching storms from the balcony and seeing the sky in weird colors. The cats also love sitting on their high cat play structure and watch the cars and people go by, especially watching people use the ATM at the bank 100 feet out from our balcony. Our future balcony is covered by a tree and looks out into the apartment building 100 feet away. Probably not going to be a spectacular view. And the balcony is going to be smaller. But that's ok, since we never really used the balcony except for the cats. That'll be the price we'll pay for wanting more room.

The thing I look forward to is watching the cats go up and down the loft stairs...that'll be hilarious! Hopefully Bella does not tackle Teddy on the stairs (she loves to tackle him) and go tumbling down and break something on a weekend. No pet hospital please, kids!



As I have mentioned before in older posts, I am going back to school! Woohoo! Can't wait! One more month! And in going back to school, I no longer can work my two jobs so I am quitting my tv station job and have scheduled all my classes around the times I would be working there so that worked out quite nicely. And just as I'm leaving the station, things are tensing up. Our budget is dwindling (we're funded by the city and bring in quite the revenue but don't see all the revenue we bring in since it goes to the city's general funding) and things at the office has gotten tense. The management (which are not part of the union) has proposed to get rid of some of the unionized employees that contribute a ton to the station. And the unionized employees, including myself, have responded back with a report of how that would impact the station and also came up with facts basically stating that some of the work that the management does either have no merit or could be re-categorized basically meaning we don't need some of the management which could save the station a ton of money to be spent elsewhere. Management basically sucks. It's been a crazy month with all the chaos at the station and have informed my co-workers to keep me informed when I leave. I'll continue supporting them doing whatever I can to make the station a better workplace because I don't want to see it fall since I think city government tv is vital to the community no matter how boring I think it is.



Last but not least, I've been trying to keep up with my running this month. It's been hard since I've been tired from work and of the recent storms. I'm training for a half-marathon which is 13.1 miles that is on August 21st. I know I can do it but it's been hard to wake up early in the morn to run before it gets too hot and humid then work on my feet for hours then go to bed at 11:30 (I always have to stay up and wait for Joshua to get home!) then do it all over again the next day. Not to mention my knee pains I've been having from an old knee injury in high school. But the training must go on so then I can feel confident about running the half in a month.