Two gates

After Parish convinced me to head south and live in Conway, Arkansas, the next important thing was finding a nice place to live. We decided to find an apartment, which would allow us to get our bearings and see what life would be like here. A house poses all types of responsibilities and investments that we weren't (and still are not) ready for. I started looking for apartments online and found a few. I sent Parish to scout them out and let me know if they looked as good as they did in virtual land. He visited a couple and said I would like The Ridge apartments.

When I visited in May, he took me there and we both liked everything about The Ridge. One selling point that attracted us immediately was the security gates at the entrance and exit. Only people that lived there received a clicker that opened the gate. Guests/sketchy people had to check in at a separate drive-in. You had to know someone that lived there in order to be "buzzed" in and then the gate opened. High-tech right?!

Well, it didn't take us long to realize that once someone drove through the gate, a car could follow behind and due to the motion sensor, the gate would stay open. Not as safe as we all thought. But, by then we had 51 weeks to go on our lease. We would watch a string of cars come in and not really know if any of them actually lived there. So, the big security gates had some issues, but I think they do keep some of the general public out. That was until a drunk driver drove through both gates. Oh yes, a genius drove through the "enter" gate while it was closed, flipped a u-turn and drove through the "exit" gate. Neat.

It took three-weeks to fix the darn gates. During the three-week gate hiatus, weird things started happening around the apartment. Parish found a dirty mop in the back of his truck and vomit on top of his truck. Gross! Some punk graffitied the trash can area and stole a sign off of P's truck. There was also odd people driving around the complex and acting sketchy.

Now that the gates are fixed, problems have subsided. So, maybe I will have to re-think the actual safety of the gates now. I guess they do serve an important purpose.

My future pet

For all of you that do not know the story about how I became the owner of my cat, Mona Lisa, let me summarize. After graduating from UNC, I thought I would have to fight off all of the job offers that would be coming my way. Yeah right. During one of my countless interviews and answering the age-old interview question, "So, where do you see yourself in five years?" The interview took a very bad turn. I won't go into detail, but I left in tears. Not just a few tears, but big, baby tears. I was devastated.

Instead of heading to Cherry Creek to buy an expensive pair of shoes, I headed to the Dumb Friends league, in Denver to adopt a cat. I'm not kidding. I had wanted a cat for awhile and I knew the cat would love me, regardless of having a job or not. After "meeting" with a few felines, I fell in love with my Mona and I took her home that day. I called Parish and told him I had a surprise. "I adopted a cat!" He didn't believe me, until he saw Mona in the fur.

Okay, so I didn't get the job, but I got a cat and to this day, I'm so glad I had such a nightmare interview, because I love the dickens out of my cat. That said, I recently "met" a dog and I fell in love.

My future dog, who I'm going to name Vinci (like Leonardo Da vinci). Mona Lisa and Vinci, too cute, right?! For those of you who know me well, know that I have wanted a greyhound for about 100 years. And I still do, but there is something about this boxer/redbone hound mix that is tugging at my lil' heart strings. I saw the dog in person in Kansas and was attached from the beginning. You have to see this dog in person, they are so neat looking.

I will let you know when we get Vinci, but don't hold your breath. I'm afraid it will be a little while. Until then, I will just have to pretend like I did when I was five. "Here Vinci, come here boy." See...it works!

Club of books

I am in a book club. Before you pass judgment, let me explain. Prior to my involvement in book club, I was weary too. I thought book club was a group of stuffy women getting together to discuss boring books over tea or some other dull beverage. After joining my first book club in Denver, I couldn't have been farther from the truth.

My first book club experience began on craigslist. After responding to the post and reading the book the organizer listed, I headed to downtown Denver to meet with someone supposedly named Angela in her high-rise apartment. Honestly, I didn't know if Angela really existed or if I was going to end up stuffed in a trunk, but I was ready for anything

Turned out, there were other girls my age, with fun cheese platters and glasses of wine. Phew!

My Denver book club was hilarious. We read books, talked about life, laughed and became close friends. Sometimes we only discussed the book for the first 20 minutes and the rest of the time we talked about the facts of life, but it didn't matter.

Another neat thing about book club is the opportunity to read books that you would have never picked up on your own.

For instance, I was part of another book club in Denver for a short time and the organizer said the club was going to read, "The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night Time." I know for a fact that I would have NEVER picked up the oddly-titled book at the local library. But I did pick it up, read it and truly enjoyed it. Who knew?

After moving to Arkansas, I thought starting a book club would be a great way to meet people. Following the success of craigslist in Denver, I posted an ad for people interested in a local book club to contact me. Only two girls responded, but I was excited to start reading and discussing again, so we set up our first meeting. That was about nine months ago and we are still reading strong. It is such a fun experience to read a book and then discuss it with people. Everyone has different opinion and view of the author and story.

I'm looking forward to the next nine months of book club. I also encourage anyone, at any age to get involved with a local book club. At least pick up a copy of "The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night Time." Let me know what you think.

Happy reading!

No big deal

Okay, so when I walked out of the meeting and found a man standing by my car with a piece of paper, I thought, "No big deal." When he said he had backed up into my bumper and I looked to see a small hole (not a dent) in my green bumper, I still thought, "No big deal." Since this guy stuck around and waited for me, I thought he must be a nice, caring individual that wouldn't take me for a ride. No big deal.

I hopped in my car, business card in hand, with a personal note on the back saying, "I backed into your car, call my #" and he signed it. After I arrived back at work, I called my insurance agency, becuause, "I'm in good hands," and proceeded to tell them my dilemma. No big deal. The insurance agent said not to worry, there was nothing I could do, the "nice" guy who backed up into ME would need to handle everything on his end.

Fastforward (two weeks later) and numerous emails and phone calls later...I still have a hole in my '95 Ford Taurus and the man who shall remain nameless, claimed that I was two-feet over the line and has agreed to only pay 50%. It then became a BIG deal.

Parish tried calling him and calmly explaining that he was at fault. His response: "Sue ME!" click.
Now, I am not a confrontational person, I'm just not. But I think I could really learn how to confront this guy if I saw him in dark alley.

All that said, I am hoping to get the bumper fixed next week. I know what your thinking, it's a '95 Ford Taurus, not a 2008 Hummer, but it's MY '95 Taurus. It's the principle of the whole situation.

So, in the future, if a "nice" person backs into you, sticks around and hands you a note, call the police and exchange information. Avoid the headache and anger management classes by getting information and then it will be, "No big deal."