Completely Confused By A Cricket

So the other night while I was alone in a dark apartment, I encountered 4! crickets before going to bed! Record-breaking. Disgusting. I hate those things. They always dampen my mood. Anyway, I Raided each one, but since I don't like touching bug bodies (even through a kleenex) I tend to put over-turned cups on top of their reacting-to-the-Raid squirming exoskeletons.. with the plan to vacuum them up later. So I put Jon's NASCAR plastic mug thing over this one in our bedroom. It wasn't moving anywhere, so I know I'd been successful in trapping it. Die silently! yesss!

2 days go by.

I bravely lifted the mug so that when Jon comes in at 3am tonight, he doesn't knock the mug, reveal the bug, and have a fit of bug dance on his way to bed, ha. But to my surprise, IT WAS GONE!! Completely disintegrated! ...seemingly. It wasn't on the interior of the mug either. What happened?!? Did it jump away when I thought I put the mug over it? I don't think so, it was pretty crippled. Does Raid + bug + little oxygen = disintegration?!

Anyway I was so glad I didn't have to touch it :)

While You Were Out

Over the weekend (while Jon's been away musicianing in Indiana) I was able to clean up the apartment some, kill 4 crickets, hang all my art on the walls, organize the endless sea of "important papers" in our secretary desk, make a new art print for our bathroom, shop for/purchase and transport a secret item(s) (to be revealed when Jon comes home), hang out with friends and go antique shopping after being worn out from a busy set up Sunday, go grocery shopping, get together some materials to send out to promote my wedding invite business, and update both of my websites.. all in one weekend.

What is it about being without my husband that gives me so much energy to do all that? It's kinda terrible.. but when he's around I tend to lose my focus on other things cause I just want to hang around him. I hope that's a honeymoon-phase thing. Eventually I'll have to be more motivated more of the time.

I think it's actually the anticipation for his return that gives me the adrenaline for such energy. I find myself thinking, 'the more I can do, the shorter the days feel, and the sooner he'll be back!' It works pretty well.

Also a sort of unrelated note (segued by making an art print and deciding what online photo service works really well for doing so) I KNOW you are all waiting for wedding photo prints. I'm trying my best to contact our photographer to get him to send us the disc of the remaining 800 or so photos we haven't seen. You won't go un-notified, I promise. Patience is a virtue...and it keeps the people trying to satisfy your impatience more sane :)

Preserve Your Memories

Remember all those embarrassing (and nude) photos of you as a baby that your parents keep safely in their inventories? I was just browsing Facebook today and realizing that this scenario is not so for babies of the future.. or rather, of the Now.

Everyone born recently, whose parents are avid Facebookers, will basically be growing up "in the media".. having their entire lives documented in photos for all the world to see via the interwebs.

I haven't decided yet if that's a crazy item of ponder or just a thing that happens.. but I'm going to bank on those kids not wanting nude baby photos of themselves up all over the web once they're old enough to realize the embarrassment factor...Or they might not care. By then those photos probably will be deleted or hidden so deep into their parents' photo albums that it wouldn't matter I guess. (WHOAH. Just stumbled on an article about a photo on facebook of a mother breastfeeding her kid.. NO, No.. so terrible.)

Anyway, the thing that bothers me about the photos is when people use camera phones to take poor quality photos of their babies during their momentous stages of development.. or of anything that's worth remembering at that. I hope they're taking doubles of those shots with a camera that makes the capturing of that moment seem like it matters by documenting it with some care and quality. And I hope the only place they keep those precious photos isn't on Facebook alone... or even on a computer alone.

"Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you." That's a line from Simon and Garfunkle's song Bookends. It's a strong message to me. Photos are so valuable, and have a profound nostalgia. They represent times that have gone, or people who have passed.

Take the time to document well what's important to you. That means keeping track of photos as well as taking them in the first place.

Sneaky Somethings In Advertising

My boss (probably jokingly) told me I should hide my initials or something related in one of the ads on the Kmart homepage, on the last week of designs I will be doing before the company completely changes what all us designers will have to work on daily.

I spent about an hour (yess) finding the perfect spot for it in this ad for Patio:

It should be up during the 4th week of August, so look for it! Ha.. that is, until someone says "What is that? Take out the magazines." I doubt they would though. I think they blend in pretty well. It sells the lawn chairs, right? It says, 'these chairs are good enough to buy and to sit down at with magazines.' I'm sort of using it as a subliminal way to promote myself.. if anyone gets curious enough, they'd google my name and my work would come up.. which is why I had to put my full name in there too.. cause apparently there's another Melissa Meek in the world, hmf.

Our House: In The Middle Of.. Some Street, Somewhere..

Yes, we have begun the house hunting phase.. slash the learning about being a home buyer phase. We looked at 3 decent ones last night with our realtor (a friend from church), all of them in a really lovely subdivision (and all circa 1950s). I went into touring them with these thoughts: "I'm so anxious to have more space that works better, to be closer to work, to be rid of the noisy child above us, and just to feel settled in a place that actually feels more like both of ours."

When I saw the first 2, I thought they were really cute for the most part, the updates were nice and the new appliances were good.. but I found myself confused by the room layout of one (I think it would be weird if your bedroom was in a location where others would have to pass through it to get to the kitchen or the back porch). The second one (I thought I had originally liked best based on photos) has only 2 bedrooms, 1 bath and a "half bath" single toilet on a wall on the top floor next to a corner vanity/sink. Like, not inside it's own room or stall. Weird. But altogether it made me feel a little cramped, and the basement was creepy but in decent condish. I was bummed that this one had the cutest style but just didn't accommodate space.

The third one we saw had the most potential. Much more spacious (which initially for us almost seemed too big to me, but after some years and some kids, it wouldn't I guess. I am just kind of against having a huge home to have to clean.. don't really want hugeness). But it was also very updated. The basement was in better condition, but had a mysterious 1930s-looking boiler slash torpedo bay looking thing down there, ha.. but it had a nice carport, and an awesome 2 level back porch plus flat and large backyard. I didn't like how the kitchen had no windows though.. if I am going to be spending any length of time in such a room, I like to be able to see the free world outside.

I walked away from #3 feeling like it was pretty promising.. but once we got home to talk about it, I learned that our house search is going to be a bit more difficult than I thought. Jon mentioned his plans for a room with enough capabilities and space to house his growing array of music and recording gear.. or at least a home that has potential to add-on to accommodate these things.. something that feels like a studio, not a bedroom. A den-like area would work well for that. This home only had smallish bedroom space for that, and if we wanted to finish off the basement for it, he thought the ceiling would be too low.

It's interesting doing these walk-throughs and trying to imagine our stuff and our future more stuff in them. At first I would think "wow this place feels empty with all this space".. but I wouldn't think "let's get more to fill it!" although some items of "more" might be necessary at some point.

I have to say it's disappointing to find a house that mostly works for everything we need, but then there's that one part that just doesn't. Eh, the search continues. We'll plan a drive-around on Saturday again.