Blog Through the Funk

I'm in a bit of a funk lately.

I don't like to get too personal on here so I'm not going to write about it, but let's just say it's hard to find other things to blog about when my mind is elsewhere and I'm unwilling to blog about what I'm thinking about.

Conundrum, I know.

There's a few things in life that are just not working for me right now, one is that San Francisco is lonely.

I have no friends here and to be honest I already did the whole make new friends thing when I moved to New York and I just really don't want to do it again.

I want my old friends back.

And I want to be back in New York.

Having no friends in Sydney was fine because we were only there for 8 months and if I had made friends I just would of had to leave them.

But this, this is supposed to be for life, and I'm overwhelmed by the thought of having to start ALL OVER again.

Luckily one of my good friends from NYC is here in San Francisco for Memorial Day weekend visiting with her in-laws and that makes me VERY HAPPY!

Anyone have any great tips for making friends in new cities?

Me and the Biebs...and Quinn Fabray

My niece turned 5 last month and because she's a big fan the party was Bieber themed.

And because my sister and I are awesome we made ourselves (and our husbands) Bieber shirts.

Woohoo for Justin Bieber!

I didn't actually think I would ever wear the shirt again, but this morning I just couldn't help myself and threw that baby on.

Don't worry, my shirt is awesome and I look amazing, I will show you in a minute.

As I was sitting down to watch a Glee episode I'd missed from a few weeks ago I discovered that not only am I awesome because I'm rocking the Biebs on my chest, but that apparently I am channeling a bit of Quinn Fabray style today.

My outfit:

Please excuse the messy room, I'm moving remember!

Quinn's outfit:

source

Bitch stole my look!

1 Week

We're 1 week in and I'm feeling:

Overwhelmed

Exhausted

Stressed

Happy

and Hopeful

All at the same time.

Let's face it, moving is always exhausting, there's no getting around it.

The overwhelming part comes from the fact that this stuff has been in storage for a year...or longer.

And the fact that we're missing key pieces of furniture, such as a couch, but have way too many other pieces of furniture, such as 4 media cabinets. In NYC they were not all used as media cabinets, one was for the TV essentials, one was for the computer/printer, one was for an entryway storage unit and the other was in the spare bedroom just holding extra clothes and sheets and what have you.

But still...what the hell are we going to do with 4 media cabinets?! And goddamnit why don't we have a couch?

Not that I don't know the answer...we purged all of our furniture that wasn't worth storing, the futon was one piece not worth storing....but here we are with this big house and no couch!

And we're striving to not purchase anything new until we really know what we have, but obviously we need a couch!

The happy and hopeful come from the fact that we're finally done moving.

Australia was totally worth it and I recommend such an experience to anyone who is ever presented with the opportunity, but holy hell I'm glad it's done.

I'm happy to be settling down and hopeful that this is going to be where we start our official life together =)

Unpacking

We've been in San Francisco for 3 days now and I am absolutely horrified by the sheer volume of crap the 2 of us have accumulated. We have purged our belongings during each and every move.

And this is move number 4 this year.

Most of this stuff is from NYC for god's sake! We had a tiny apartment, HOW DID ALL OF THIS STUFF FIT!?

Seriously, I think I must of had the most organized kitchen EVER. And I didn't even realize it.

I've managed to fill a kitchen 3 times the size of our NYC kitchen WITH THE SAME AMOUNT OF STUFF.

NYC Kitchen:

Half of San Fran Kitchen:

Other half:

How? Just, HOW?

I also have SO many baskets, boxes and jars that I used for organizing our tiny apartment...again the sheer volume is astounding. There are A LOT of baskets around this place. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them now, especially since there is so much cupboard space.

It's overwhelming and disheartening to unpack box after box and STILL have so many more to unpack.

I have a closet full of clothes and shoes and I haven't even stumbled upon the boxes of clothes I know I left behind when we headed off for Australia.

It's amazing how much stuff you really DO NOT need.

And at the same time, it was absolutely amazing to cook breakfast this morning and use 3 DIFFERENT frying pans. I definitely missed all of our pots and pans.

Anybody else move recently and discover they have a whole hell of a lot of crap they don't need?

How can we minimize our crap?

Happy Blogiversary!

One year ago I started this blog.

I lived in NYC and was about to embark upon a 7 month Australian adventure. My blog was a way to chronicle the adventure as well as keep family and friends back home up to date.

Since that time I have moved 4 times and lived in 4 different cities.

I've purchased my first house with my husband.

I've celebrated my first wedding anniversary.

And I've blogged through it all.

In this next year I hope to blog my way through:

Chronicling the transformation of this new house here in San Francisco as well as the one in Oregon.

The yet to be conceived Baby Barnes Brennan pregnancy and birth.

Turning 30.

And everything else that life throws at me.

I hope you all stick around to enjoy one more year with me.

So here's to Just Smile and Blog, Happy Blogiversary!

Speaking of Owls

Oh wait, what? we weren't talking about owls?

Well, we are now.

Go with it.

How cute is this owl?

Forever 21 bitches, Forever 21.

I don't normally shop at Forever 21, I'm more of an H&M/Old Navy kind of girl for trendy clothes/accessories on the cheap.

But I needed an outfit for a Jersey Shore party and I thought to myself, what better place to find skanktastic clothes for a Jersey Shore Party than Forever 21?

Turns out Forever 21 had none of the skanktasticness I was looking for other than some fabulous platform patent leather peep toe stripper shoes, which are awesome by the way.

Instead they had oodles of girly, frilly, flowey, flowery, ruffley things.

And an owl.

Man I wish Eugene/Springfield had an H&M!

Thank god I'm back to big city living in just 3. SHORT. DAYS.

Coffee Coffee Coffee

Guys, I have a problem.

Remember when I was in Australia and I did a mini-detox in which I cut out caffeine, sugar and dairy?

Well, after I successfully cut coffee out of my diet for the requisite 2 weeks of the detox I did what any sane person would do and immediately went back to having JUST my morning cup of coffee.

I even cut it down to about a half cup of coffee most mornings.

I was doing awesome.

Then we got back here to Oregon, which if you don't know, the Northwest is like the land of coffee.

I pass 5 coffee kiosks before I get to "town". There's even one at the end of my road...and I live in the sticks.

It's absurd.

So....I may or may not have upped my coffee quota to 2 cups a day again.

Shit.

I didn't do it on purpose I swear.

And one of those "cups" is a 12 oz.

I suck.

Do you know what this means? This means as soon as we get to San Fran I AM CUTTING BACK TO ONE CUP A DAY AGAIN. Says the girl who is happily sipping her 12 oz. Dutch Bros. coffee as she writes this post.

Anyone else have a coffee addiction? Or other addiction that seems to get the best of them no matter how hard they try?