New life chapter, huge changes.

I now live outside of Washington, DC. In northern Virginia. After living all of my (now 30!) years in Minnesota, it is weird being in “The South”. It’s already warmer. There are blooming flowers and leafy trees. Northern Minnesota was just getting leaves sprouting when I left last Thursday.

I’m 30 years old! My birthday was this past Sunday/Mother’s Day. It was a pretty great day. The boyfriend worked, so I spent the day doing laundry and ironing clothes that got squished and wrinkled in my move. Then we went to an amazingggg dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant. Succulent, perfect lamb chops and grilled asparagus. So good.

Ironing my clothes was important because yesterday/Monday I had a job interview. It took up most of the day and I met with several different people at the company, which was unlike any interview I’ve ever had before. Usually they’re like 15 minutes with one HR person, right? It was pretty intensive. And later that evening, they called me and gave me a semi-official verbal offer for the job! Written offer forthcoming, and all of this pending some background checks. So fingers crossed I officially get the job! I’ll be making way more money than I ever have before! This is after having zero luck finding a job for more than two years in Minnesota. Four days into living here, and I have a semi-official offer of an amazing job. Yowzers. Relocating is a good, good thing!

This is the first time I’m loving with a lovahhh. So far it’s going pretty well. Probably a good sign that we’re not sick of each other yet. :D It’s nice though. Being able to snuggle on the couch and watch TV, having someone to talk to at home. Seeing him in his Navy uniform. :-9 Making dinner together. Even the mundane things are all new and exciting!

PS - The Avengers is awesome and yes you must go see it. We watched in 3D which was fun, but I’m sure it’s great no matter how you see it. And stay to the END of the credits!

–Ang

Published Tuesday, May 15, 2012 | 1 Comment

Pro tip: meet needs where needs aren’t already being met.

Alright, not one but two Walgreens locations have new CVS stores being built immediately across the street from them in my town. And I get it, they want to put the competition out of business. It just seems like that’s not the best way to do that. That area of town already has a drug store. Scenario:

Let’s say I’m a regular shopper of the Walgreens that’s 20 miles from my house. It’s the nearest drug store and that’s the main reason I chose it. CVS builds a store right across the street. I don’t care because I’m already a regular at Walgreens and that’s good enough for me, so I continue using Walgreens. I mean, it’s right there. 

Now let’s say CVS builds a drug store 10 miles from my house. Guess where I’m shopping? CVS!

But no. Some idiot thinks that it’s better to condense all the one types of stores in one singular place where they’re not all needed in the hopes of closing someone else down at the high risk of screwing themselves in the process, instead of building a store where it’s needed in a place that doesn’t have one.

And this business model is why I will never shop at a CVS that parks itself beside an existing Walgreens. I have no loyalty to Walgreens, per se. I just think it’s stupid to do business like that. (I would vice versa that if Walgreens parked itself beside an existing CVS.)

Edit: there you go, any other drug store that would like to do business in my town. Let Walgreens and CVS destroy each other while you build and do business in an area of town where people could use a drug store.

–Ang

Published Tuesday, May 1, 2012 | 3 Comments

Really, this is not an April Fool’s joke!

I’m pregnant with triplets, I’ve eloped, I was hand-picked my Joss Whedon to star in his next project, I’ve won a Nobel Prize, and I’m moving to Antarctica to start a penguin farm.

I hope you derps know how foolish you look by trying to “fool” people today. To say it’s not creative would be putting it mildly.

–Ang

Published Sunday, April 1, 2012 | 3 Comments

Just musing here.

I always hear “arguments” against gay marriage with all these wild claims of “next, people will be marrying dogs and the world will end and there’ll be no more babies if same-sex marriage is legal in America.”

But.. other countries have already made same-sex marriage legal. We can look directly at existing examples and evidence of what exactly happens after same-sex marriage is made legal. There is no need to speculate and make baseless claims. So far, I haven’t heard of people-dog marriages or any countries being smited off the face of the planet or their people becoming endangered or extinct because there aren’t enough babies being made.

I mean, I know why a gay marriage opponent would ignore the real, live, existing examples of legal same-sex marriage in a society. But I don’t think we (the supporters) are pushing the real evidence enough. I never hear a gay marriage supporter citing information from Canada or the Netherlands on how their countries have fared since same-sex marriage was made legal.

I suppose it’ll never matter what kind of facts are presented. The homophobic bigots will always go with “what they believe”. But there must be some people on the fence for some reason who could be educated on the reality.

Perhaps I’m being too optimistic and hopeful.

–Ang

Published Wednesday, March 28, 2012 | 6 Comments

A brief respite.

I have had the rare and wonderful privilege of getting to see my boyfriend multiple times in the past several weeks. When he got to the states, I got to have him all to myself for about a week and a half. Then a day apart, then together again for a night. Then a week or two apart, and another day/night together. So many laughs and giggles and games and snuggles and talk talk talkings. He’ll be going on to Washington, DC soon. To start his job and find us a nice place to live. :D

It’s going to be so weird living with someone I’m “in a relationship” with. I’ve never done that before. I’m sure there will be some hassles with adapting, for both of us. But I’d like to think I’m an easy-going sort of girlfriend. I’ve already been browsing through Ikea’s website for furniture ideas (so many bookshelves!). When I go there in May, I’ll be flying in with just a couple bags. I will likely ship a few boxes of things, but it will largely be a “mini-move” without much of my things. The cats and plants will have to wait til I’m settled, have a decent job, and built up some money to go back and drive them out during a bigger move. I’m not even sure if I’ll take any of my furniture. The boyfriend has most of what we’ll need, and other things may be better if bought there. If I can do my “big move” with just a minivan of things (and cats), that would be superb.

I applied to one great company in DC, so far. I’ve been refining my resume and cover letter to be A+ quality. I think I mostly have them ironed out. I still have 2 months before I’ll even be there, so I’m not in a hurry to find a job quite yet. But it would be aces if I could have a gig lined up and waiting for me! I’ve bookmarked several companies I’m most excited about. I figure I’ll send them my info slowly, in order of my potential favorites. If nobody bites, then my standards will have to start coming down. ;) Canned, personalityless web companies will be at the bottom of the list. Fingers crossed I can work somewhere awesome. Well, with my career luck the last 2 years, fingers crossed I can work anywhere at all. The best would be a company I could have the option of working off-site for, in the event of us moving in a few years to his next duty station. Keeping a job I’m established with would be a dream come true.

Big things ahead! I’m impatient to get started.

Edit: I also updated this site a little bit! I widened the main column and rearranged a few things. Hopefully more enjoyable to browse around. :)

–Ang

Published Saturday, March 10, 2012 | 6 Comments