Another One Bites The Dust

So... remember the time that my cat got kicked out of the groomer?  Well.  Let's add the dog to the newest list of Molle family beauty school dropouts.  Fail.  Damnit.  She bit the groomer when she tried to cut her nails.  Duh.  I'd bite someone too if they were trying to cut my nails when I didn't want them to.  That's why I take her to the groomer to get it done.  So she doesn't bite me.

In other dog news.... this happened: 

RIP shoe. You were well loved (and very cute).

 But how mad can you be when they look like this? 

Glamor shot. 

Who runs the house?  If you guessed me, you were wrong.  It's her. 

In other other news, I don't have any hot water and can't use any appliances.  Thank you Puget Sound Energy for making this week AWESOME.  Somehow wires got crossed at PSE and my account was never set up.  This is something like how the convo went: 

Me: I talked to you back in August when I moved into my house.  The exact words were 'you are good to go, Ms. Molle.'
PSE: We are showing that we talked to the gentlemen on your account.  Is there a Mr. Barnette on your account? 
Me: Ummm... 
PSE:  We talked to him on blah-blah-blah date and shut off service at your prior address.  
Me:  Ummmm... 
PSE:  But it doesn't look like it was ever transferred to another location.  
Me: Ummmmm... I think there has been confusion.  

After I explain to the customer service rep that there is no way that they spoke to someone who passed away almost two years ago, the obviously flustered man asks me this: 

PSE: Okay Ms. Molle, we've got you all set for your new location.  Would you like to keep Mr. Barnette as an authorized signer?  
Me: Ummmmmm... 

This is my life.  

A Weekend Report

Seriously. That's the feeling that I had after seeing the WOD posted on Friday (I know, I know... it's Sunday... why it take me so long to post? Because I'm busy, damnit). Lateral, over-the-bar burpees.  As if burpees weren't hellacious enough - now we have to jump over a bar to do them?  Blah.  That's just atrocious.  There was puking.  There was complaining.  There were people canceling out of classes left and right.  Turns out that we hate lateral burpees at my gym.

This weekend, I closed the door on a big chapter of my life - I turned in the keys to my rental house.  This may not seem like a big deal... but it is.  It's big for a couple of reasons: 1) I'm offically not a renter anymore. I know I've been a homeowner for a few weeks now - but seriously.  No more landlord.  No more being able to call someone else if things are broken.  2) This was the place that I lived with Will.  Not to bring this post around to sad note -  but that's a hard thing to walk away from. We had great memories in that house for the short time that we lived there together.  But, I know that it's the best thing for me.  And I love my house and am looking forward to making lots of happy memories here too.  Big steps forward.


On another homeowner note... I had my first plumbing mishap this weekend.  Thank god for friends who know more about plumbing than I do.  After seeing both my dad and Will deal with a backed up garbage disposal - I thought that I could do it too.  Wrong.  Dead wrong.  I managed to remove the garbage disposal - resulting in water and sweet potato pieces shooting EVERYWHERE.  Then I couldn't get it back on.  And the 'what did I do?!' tears started.  I could not be more grateful that Tara was already on her way over for breakfast and a puppy play date.  She walked in and knew EXACTLY what to do.  We even fixed the clog.  AND... it wasn't even my fault.  The prior owner lodged a baby spoon in the pipes.  Awesome. And then we moved the treadmill out of my old house.  Note to self:  when you have a friend who can fix your plumbing AND doesn't look at you like you are nuts when you say 'we can just deadlift it into the truck'... they are totally keepers.

Other random tidbits from the weekend: 

• Cyclocross is the most awesome hipster sport in the world.  Craft beer garden.  French press to-go cups.  Spectators in lots of flannel and hats with teeny tiny bills. 
• Seattle does, in fact, have a velodrome. 
• Let's add cycling on a velodrome to things that I never want to do.  Holy scary.  

On a completely different note... when did Carrie Underwood take over for Faith Hill as the theme song singer for Sunday Night Football?!?!  Hmmm...

15 Things I've Learned Recently

1. The biggest perk of home ownership isn't really equity and owning something.  It's the fact that you never have to deep clean a rental ever again. 
2. Lunges and thrusters will make a three-story townhouse seem like you are doing the Big Climb at the Columbia Tower (for those of you not from Seattle - that's 76 stories as fast as possible). 
3. You know you should work on being more friendly when the neighbor you lived across the street from for almost two years welcomes you to the neighborhood.  Ummm... no, I'm moving out... not in.  
4. I have WAY too many shoes.  I have held on to shoes because no matter how many squats I do - the shoes always fit.
5. I have four pairs of the exact same shoes in different colors - taupe, magenta, black patent and silver sparkles.  Since I hardly ever wear heels, 4 1/2 inch sparkly or hot pink heels are practically out of the question. This may be a bit excessive.

   

   Not pictured?  Taupe.  Sad day for them.

6. I may be a mini-hoarder.  I have SO MANY things.  This is probably only going to get worst now that I've moved into a 'permanent' home.  
7. Hoarding actually runs in my family.  True story.  My dad and I witnessed it firsthand this summer (but that's a story for another day).  
8. I slammed my dog's tail in my car door.  I am the worst pet mama ever.  
9. When you slam your dog's tail in the car door - they get revenge by chewing the face off of one of their toys.  Stuffed animal fluff EVERYWHERE. 
10. Newest obsession?  The Newsroom.  Thank you HBO.  
11. Husky Football?  Awesome.  Went to the home opener last night and it was very cool.  
12. Not so awesome?  Super drunken UW alumni.  At what age are you too old to tailgate all day and arrive at the game a shitfaced mess?  Because I'm not quite 30 and still feel like I'm too old for that nonsense.  
13. Even more awesome than UW football?  EWU football!  Go EAGS!!  We beat Oregon State in our opening game this season... a Big Sky Conference school beating a ranked PAC12 school? We pretty much rock. 
    

    

    Hells yes.

    
    
14.  What happens when everyone at your office is out of town except for you and your IT guy?  These kind of things:

    

    Oh my Godzilla. This is Paige.  She's been one of my best friends since college.  Notice her background involves high powered guns.  Mine involves a messy desk.  This is also our best Miley Cyrus imitation.  You should have seen the twerking video.  Just kidding.  I can't even shimmy. 

15. Always say yes (not like that, you creeps).  I had a great blind date earlier this week.  I should have given a full recap - but let's just summarize it to say: it was fantastic, he seems great, and I'm excited about the idea of a second date.  And I don't want to ruin it by talking about it quite yet. :) 

I Bought A Ladder??

I bought a ladder.  Seriously.  This is what my life has come to.  I'm not going to lie, I shop A LOT.  But one of the things that I NEVER thought I would buy?  A ladder.  I guess I just assumed that I would have a man in my life who would do that for me - a significant other, my dad, whomever.  I don't mean to sound completely un-'Female Empowerment', but really, Home Depot has never been my happy place.  Target?  Yes.  Nordstrom?  Yes.  Home Depot?  No.  I've always been perfectly fine letting the men in my life take care of my home improvement needs - it's not that I think women can't do it, it's just more that I've acknowledged my lack of skills in this particular area of life.  

Well.  I currently find myself single.  And buying a house.  And my dad lives 500+ miles away.  What does this mean?  I went to Home Depot.  By myself.  With a shopping list.  And I asked four different employees for help.  And I got every damn thing on my list. Feeling like a total competent adult??  Hell yes.  

This is what $214 looks like at Home Depot: 

I bought a ladder.  A wise man told me recently that if I need a tool once, I will need it again so I should buy it.  Good but expensive advice.  I'm now the proud owner of a 6' fiberglass ladder.  My dad was proud of me for buying a good one.  Yay me!

My entire new house was painted a lovely shade of tan.  I decided that at least one room of the house needed to be different.  So I picked a new color for my master bedroom.  I've always wanted to do a really bold color accent wall - so this is my chance.  Here are my HGTV before and after pics: 

Lovely brown.

Pip and atruzite.  Thank you Martha Stewart. The cream makes the room a million times brighter.  I love it.

I love the new shade.  I've been lusting over a white or grey tufted headboard for years now, It will look fantastic against the wall and I have the perfect black and white prints with red highlights that I can't wait to hang.  Just call me Martha Stewart.  

Something that I wish someone would have told me about buying a house?  That I'd want to spend AT LEAST $10K on new furniture that fits exclusively into my new house.  Seriously.  I didn't plan wisely enough.  

I'm not going to lie, I feel pretty damn good about getting this project done and practically by myself.  I know it's just paint... but... it's paint!  And I did it myself!  In a house that I bought myself.  Hells yes.  It's terrifying and exciting and empowering and horrifying all at the same time.  Holy crap. 

The Scariest Word in the World

Wow... I have officially started three separate blog posts over the two weeks and haven't been able to get them done and actually posted.  So today, I decided to delete them all and start over.  I've had multiple comments about why I haven't been posting lately.  Well... honestly?  I've just been really busy and when I have time to relax, I really just need to shut off my brain and not think.  Which bring us to today's blog topic: CHANGE. 

Oh yes... one of the scariest words around:  change.  It seems like all of my friends are going through huge changes right now: getting married, having babies, buying a new house (oh wait! that's me!!!), moving, breaking up, starting a new relationship, moving in with a significant other, getting a new dog (oh wait! that's me too!), all sorts of things.Today I read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal (yes. I read the Wall Street Journal.  I know.  It's shocking that I read things besides the CrossFit Journal.  But I do... sometimes.)  This article was about how major life events (death of a loved one, divorce, getting fired from your job, moving, etc.) affect your sense of self and how we deal with those changes.  It really made me think - how do we actually deal with change?

I, for one, am terrible with change.  I about had a meltdown when Victoria's Secret stopped carrying my favorite underwear.  True story.  (Too much information?  Possibly.  But still a true story.)  But I also acknowledge that change is a fact of life that we are unable to avoid so why do we fight it?  Because it's hard, that's why.  Perfect CrossFit example??? Coaching. When I instruct people to change their squats or pushups (or really anything for that matter!), their usual response is 'but it's harder that way'.  Yes.  Yes it is.  But eventually it's going to get easier because you are going to get stronger and you'll be doing it correctly. 

Next week, I am moving into a new house.  One that I bought and will be paying for over the next 30 years of my life (seeing a payoff date of 2043 was more than intimidating). And I hate moving - it's hard.  I lived in a shoebox sized mother-in-law apartment for almost four years because it was easier than moving into a bigger place.  I've already taken the easy way out with this one and hired movers to get my crap out of my three-story rented townhome, into my new three-story townhome (apparently I REALLY like stairs).  I know I have at least a six-month learning curve ahead of me in trying to figure out where the hell I put all of my things and I know that some things will just completely disappear forever. 

Last week, I got a dog.  Her name is Grace and she is adorable.  AND a ton of work. Getting up 30 minutes earlier every day to make sure she gets a decent walk in before I go to work is hard.  

Isn't she just so damn cute?  She's a pit bull/lab mix. Or as I like to call her 'purebred pound puppy'.

What's my point?  Change is hard.  And it usually has a period of time where it sucks, even when the change is for the better.  Even when you know you are doing the right thing - it's hard to face the unknown.  What if my new furbaby never stops chasing my cats around the house?  What if I don't like my new neighbors?  What if something breaks and I have to spend all of my money on a handyman instead of at Lululemon?  What if my blonde dog continues to shed on all of my black clothes and there is suddenly a shortage of lint rollers in the world??  

Whether it is changing the way you squat or your job or your boyfriend or where you live - it's all the same.  There is going to be a time where the change feels weird.  But it's going to get better - you get stronger - you get used to it.  You build on the change and pretty soon it becomes the norm.