Most of what I’ve done lately has been renovation-related or work-related. But behold, I present to you an actual, real picture of me, where I am not on the other side of the lens! I know, very exciting.
state of suspension.
It’s been two months (shameful!), but here is an update to cheer you up.
And a melancholy picture of Sophie staring out the window in the gray light of dawn, to bring you back down.
keep it coming.
A quick update:
We had a great Christmas, random day trip to Fredericksburg, and New Year’s Eve.
The house is coming along, at its own slow pace. I am trying not to freak out in my eagerness to just have an open house already.
Work is still amazing and I’ve been hiring hiring hiring like crazy. Or at least working on it. I guess you could say I’ve been interviewing like crazy. Loving this new role so far.
Dan went on a business trip last week to New Hampshire and really enjoyed himself. He seemed to learn a lot, and I’m super proud of him for taking on more responsibility at work.
Last weekend we went on another long neighborhood walk in obscenely warm weather.
Our City Group has been awesome so far. Last week there were some birthdays so after dinner, cake and cupcakes were rolled out and “happy birthday” was sung. Our group is packed, but it’s a good problem to have. So thankful for these guys.
I started tutoring at CHAT last week. As soon as I walked in this little girl ran up to me and hugged me, and said to the volunteer coordinator, “I want this to be my tutor.” I did end up assigned to her, and her name is Harmony. She is so cute, though a little distractible, and she desperately wants to read well and to get all the rewards that come with it. I helped her through the first couple of chapters of Mr. Popper’s Penguins and was somehow completely exhausted afterward. I can’t wait to get to know her better throughout this semester.
Dan’s reading The Hunger Games.
Our church is electing deacons this Sunday — fancy! Our roommate went on a (successful) date. The cats are hissing at each other a little less. And we’re preparing to have more houseguests staying with us soon.
2011 and the overdue update.
This is probably the longest hiatus ever from Parasol Party, so I’m going to break my update down into categories for simplicity’s sake! And I’m going to use a “continue reading” break below, since I’ve gotten into using those on Tumblr.
life as of today.
I think I’m going to continue to do occasional life updates here at Parasol Party, keeping this the spot for general Tess-related news. Though I’ve got other blogs going on for specific pursuits, this still seems like the appropriate venue to give more general updates. Although I consider my Tumblr to kind of be my “main” blog now, my updates here will feed automatically into that site as well. So, hello again.
Currently….
Work is fantastic. Just the eight of us doing support for over 15 million blogs is hard work to say the least, but we have a blast. We have a lot of neat tools to help us do our jobs faster (hello Textexpander. where have you been all my life?), we have comfortable rolly chairs, we have a dart board, we have huge monitors (so much better on the eyes). Our office is a place of relative calm, with low lighting and the sound of hushed typing. The silence is broken periodically by one person giggling or full-on guffawing at something ridiculous they’ve seen on Tumblr. I never thought I’d see so many animated gifs in one place! It has been a challenging, wild ride so far, and I look forward to it to every day.
The renovation of our house is still going on. It’s a lot of hard work physically and planning-wise for Dan, but it puts a lot of stress on both of us. The simplest choices stress me out, so just imagine a huge, months-long project riddled with important choices. Crazytown. I’m mega proud of the way Dan has persevered on this, even when everything that can go wrong does go wrong, as predicted. As stressful as a major renovation can be, we’re way luckier than a lot of people because we don’t have to live in the house while the work is going on and can stay at Mom and Dad’s instead. My parents have been so generous and have made us very comfortable, but I just miss my own household and miss the cats terribly. In the end I think that whatever happens with the house, whether it’s a success or a failure, we’ll be happy no matter where we are. A venue is a venue, and life hums along with or without the comforts we’ve been convinced we need.
Speaking of Dan, we’ll have been together for four years this summer. I can’t believe it’s been so long, because time has flown. But on the other hand, I can’t believe we haven’t been together all our lives. He’s my best friend. We’ve both been so exhausted lately with me starting a new job and with the renovation, so we try not to waste what little time we do get to relax together. I love quiet nights spent just talking, and I love late nights spent out with wine and friends. One of those late nights recently, we ended up at Aladdin having our favorite pizza with extra fresh garlic. On the walk back to the car we got caught in a rainstorm, cracking up as we ran down Laurel, ducking into doorways and kissing and jostling each other into puddles and laughing. I was thinking about how amazing our life is and how much we enjoy the little things. I think with relationships it’s so easy to remember and focus on all the negative things, because that’s our nature as human beings. Like when someone gives you a compliment that’s super genuine and well-thought-out, you say “thanks” and forget about it in five seconds. But when someone insults you in a moment of carelessness, you gnash your teeth over it and weep over it and internalize it and repeat it to yourself for years like some kind of a sick mantra. It’s so weird that we do that, and it’s especially true with significant others. Certainly nobody’s perfect, no matter how much the world tells you to expect them to be — but there’s a temptation to only focus on those negative aspects. In this relationship it’s so easy to break out of that pattern, because I’m given so much love, so many compliments, and so many positive things to focus on that I don’t internalize the few negative specks that are bound to pop up. I don’t have much to complain about in this relationship, and when I think about how much abundant, overwhelming goodness has come out of meeting this guy randomly in Illinois, I’m grateful.
City Church has gone through big changes with moving to a new, much larger space at Beth Ahabah. We’re loving it there so far, and it definitely feels good not to be packed in like sardines anymore. Dan and I were asked to join a Leadership Group that meets some Thursday nights, and the friends we’re making there and the things we’re talking about are both humbling and exciting. Dan’s still running sound some Sundays at church, and I’m teaching Children’s Worship. The photo below is of my class this past Sunday, after a rousing round of Pictionary. Cuties!
My friends continue to amaze me on so many levels, and as usual this ramps up as the weather gets warmer and we all come out of hibernation. I’ve been getting closer with several friends that I’ve known for a while but am just now really getting to know. I’ve been trying to keep in touch with old friends as well. One friend mourned a tough breakup and is repairing himself day by day, one came out of a breakup and landed effortlessly on her feet like a cat, one sent me homemade jam, one weathered a long winter with two babies and a husband not able to be around much, one taught herself to sew and made herself an entire new wardrobe, one started a new art project, one is going to go to Japan, several have made major moves many states away, some are getting married, some are having babies, and the list goes on. I can’t believe I get to travel through life with these unique, strong, flawed, passionate, beautiful people.
Always Midnight is back in action with the recent re-opening of my Etsy shop and the launch of a new web site. I’ve got several orders to do for weddings this spring, some large orders for children, and some ideas for upcoming photo shoots. I’m hoping to devote more time to this as my schedule evens out with work and the house. With all the chaos of the past few months, I’ve really been missing my craft time.
So that’s pretty much it for now. As always if you want to see everything else, from what I’m reading to what I’m photographing to what I’m writing for RVANews, you can go to my main site.
I’ll leave you with a photo of Supermoon from Saturday night. I think we can all agree that the only thing missing from this photo is a howling wolf. I’ll see what I can do about getting some wolves imported.
