I survived...sort of

OMG, I never want to move without friends or family ever again!!!

If this tells you anything, here are the two rules Craig gave me before we started: 1. There is no crying in moving and 2. There is yelling in moving. I told him that I couldn't promise on either of the rules but really I didn't do either.

It was the hardest thing ever..by the end I was just exhausted and couches have to be the worst things ever to move. Plus we had to take his TWO out of his living room to put in my couch and chair and a half. I have to say that it went really well though and the new furniture looks really good in the living room. His furniture was dark and mine is yellow so it looks much brighter in his house now. I can't wait to see it in the daytime when all the light shines in.

Ok, that is it for now, I am exhausted and need to sleep!!

Moving...how I loathe thee

Ugh, I HATE moving...HATE IT!! I especially hate it when it involves stairs! Today is when I pick up the truck to move all the big items from my place to Craig's place. It is just the two of us which really sucks! I know we can do it because my mom, Dudley, and I did the whole apartment in Atlanta in an hour and a half but we didn't have to worry about stairs. I am on the second floor at the apartment and at Craig's house we either have to go up the basement stairs or park the truck on a hill and go in the front door (thinking this will be a better option if the truck can fit down the driveway. I just dread it. Craig was sick all weekend so I feel a little stressed and like we are a bit behind with it all. I am sure it will all turn out well, but I am just worrying.

After we move we are keeping the truck for an extra day so I can make a stop at Goodwill. We are getting rid of the couches downstairs (hideous) and replacing them with the couches upstairs and then putting my couches upstairs (which I think will help tremendously with the allergies since no doggies have been on them). Along with the furniture is all the cleaning out of closets to get rid of the rest of the stuff. I feel like it is going to be a long few days and I just felt like whining. Maybe it will go much easier than I thought....it is yet to be seen.

It's sMarta

Yeah right. Whew, today was quite the travel day. I honestly didn't want to come to Atlanta this time. Not because I don't like being here (and I have something planned with a friend each of the three nights I am here) but because I wanted to stay home and cuddle with Craig (I think he missed me last week so he has been extra affectionate) and because all I heard about here was RAIN, RAIN, RAIN. I have no car and have to walk a block to marta...doesn't sound like much but there is no way to stay dry while doing it so I was not looking forward to that.

Thankfully, there were other plans in motion for today. I got a call at 5:15am (30 mins before the alarm was going to go off) and it was Delta saying that my 8am flight was delayed until 9:55am. Sweet, I crawled back into bed. Flight was ok, minus the delay..I got upgraded. Then I got on Marta and after two speeches (1 from a guy talking about alkaline water and how good it was for you and that he does choreography and the other from a homeless guy who gets his first paycheck on Friday and needed $9) they stopped the train at the Civic Center station and said there was an emergency ahead and she didn't know how long the delay would be. After 10 mins they told us to get off the train, no other explanation. Then another train (Doraville) came and said they would take us to Midtown and then we had to get on a bus to go to Lindbergh and then we could go north cause the emergency was at Art Center. By the time I did all that I would not have gotten to work until 2pm so I just worked from home once I got to Midtown...quite a day though. At least it was sunny out..hopefully to dry it all out.

4 posts until 500!!

Beach Weekend Minus the Beach

Ha, a few of us got together for a girls' weekend this past weekend at the beach. Um, we never really saw the beach. We did get a peak at it one night when we attempted to eat on the water but that was about it.

We had a really good time while we were there doing nothing at all! We laid around, ate, and talked. I think that the moms especially had a nice break (I was the only one without kids that was there) and even though I don't have kids, I do feel like I have been running around a lot on the weekends with all the travel during the week so it was nice to just enjoy my time with no agenda.

I am in a very different place in my life being single and no kiddos, but it was so great to get together with my friends who do have a lot more responsibility and be able to talk to them without them having to worry that they needed to get home from dinner to relieve a babysitter or their husband. It felt like really good quality time :-) I learned a lot about how theirs lives have changed since having children. I am sure that they see this everyday, but for an outside person peaking in, I think you see it a lot more. Plus, I got to hear about what the little kiddos were up to which is always fun and I enjoyed hearing them talk about their kids and seeing their faces light up when they did so. I have often talked about how much I love Ariyana and how I would do anything for her...I can only guess that what I feel is a fraction of what they do.

Some of you were not able to make it and you were missed! I think that all of us agreed that we should do it again next year so hopefully all of you will make the next one.

When I got home I came home to an almost different house. We had to switch two of the rooms and disassemble the exercise machine/gym. Well, Craig did all of that while I was gone!! YAY! Now I have to just move my stuff. Unfortunately I am going to be in Atlanta Tues-Fri but I will have to start the moving when I get back. It was raining when I got home so Craig and I just cuddled on the couch and watched a movie. I had a thousand things that I should have done last night but that seemed like the best of the options. I can work on the rest tonight or next weekend :-)

How to start a business in Ohio....

Want to know another thing that I like about Ohio? They actually make it easy to open a business here. Well, that might be jumping the gun a bit but so far it looks like they might actually have useful information.

When I was trying to figure out how to open a business in Atlanta and how to get a business license, insurance, sales tax number, and all that it was really hard. You really had to read everything and even then it was sort of confusing as to when to charge tax and when not to and all that. Well, when I did a quick search today for the same thing in Ohio they had a nifty little survey that you filled out and then it would download all the documents you need into a little zip file "kit". I hope it is all there. I haven't actually opened the zip file yet but that is my project for tonight. Craig has another friend who he hasn't talked to in a while that showed up out of the blue (more on that below) and she had a friend/sister (he couldn't remember) who needs a new photographer so I got to thinking that I am ready to make the transition. I spent all day Saturday messing with my website to change it over to Ohio and to try to get some new clients (still working on one part of it cause I know very little code and my pictures aren't showing up). I did a new google ad and I looked for places that I might be able to set up a studio. I even went and met with a guy on Friday who said I could use his studio whenever I wanted. It was nice of him but he doesn't seem to have any structure (which is good because it is easy going but also bad because I am sort of afraid that he will flake on my when I have a client set to come and then can't.) There are TONS of retail places that are empty in Ohio (even that nail place that I talked about hating when I first got to OH) so I am trying to see if any of those will be good. I found a place downtown that would be perfect, but unfortunately that is not the part of town that my customers would probably be in and Craig thinks that it might freak them out a little bit to go downtown.

So, this friend of Craig's that showed up out of the blue...it is a girl that he has known forever and they used to work together and stuff but she has moved on. He had lunch with her on Saturday and when he came home he said that she was the most like me of any of his friends and that she suggested that we all four (us and her and her fiance) get together. I am pretty excited about it. I think that I have bored most of you with the rest of Craig's friends and how the one girl doesn't seem to like me though I can't figure out why because I have never done anything to her. It makes it all awkward so I hope that with this girl being "most like me" it will be more fun. I am going to try to see if we can get together with them in a couple weeks when I get home. Should be fun.

Sorry for the rambling post...I got up at 4:45 this morning and then worked until 7pm....

ps, does anyone else hate coming up with titles for their posts? I am horrible at it...

Football Pool Week 1

Congrats to Erin and Dudley who are tied for first place this week with 54 points each (they only missed on game and it was their 1 pt game). The full results and this week's picks will be emailed to all the participants tomorrow!!

Bittersweet

That is what the move feels like in the photography arena of my life. I am happy in Ohio and I love being so close to Craig but leaving my photography business behind was hard. I have been doing the remaining sessions to finish up the clients that I have and get ready to move all of my studio stuff permanently to OH after Christmas. Well, today I sent out my email that I do every year for my holiday sessions for holiday cards and as I get the emails back in I realize how much I miss my clients. I watched them grow up from the time they were in their mommy's bellies until they were 1 (and some them past that) and now I don't know what they are up to anymore. One of the mom's said she was going to send me an update on what was going on in her little one's life and I really feel like they are my friends. I know it might sound silly but I am the one who captured all the professional (depending on how you see it because sometimes I can't call myself a professional) photos of them in their first year. I knew when they could sit and stand and walk and I started all of it with only one client that I actually knew...the rest grew from word of mouth.

I am still struggling in trying to figure out how I am going to do the photography thing here. I did that one session a couple weeks ago and the mom loved the photos. She ordered about one of everything and said she was going to place another order so that is good. I did it at her house though, and will now have to travel around to people to do them until I figure out where to set up my "studio". I am hoping that she will refer me to a few people but I guess only time will tell. I know that having a holiday shoot here would be a good way to get people in the door (and then I could let the pics speak for themselves and they would either like them or not) but I am not sure how to do that exactly yet (how to advertise when I don't really know anyone)....back to the brainstorming board on that one :-)

Anyway, I am just a little sad today with missing my clients and trying to think about how to start here.....sorry for the Debbie Downer post!

Football Pool

I hate to waste of one my precious last posts before the big 5-0-0 because I don't know what kind of contest I am going to do yet but oh well.

I am wishing that I had done a football pool this year but I didn't have time to find one or anything. It always makes the game more interesting for me to see who I picked how I did. I wanted to see if any of you guys wanted to do it. I can put it together and it will be mostly games that we all watch so it will be fun. It doesn't have to be for money, just blog bragging rights and maybe I will send you a little prize at the end of the season. If you would be interested, let me know by leaving a comment and if I don't have your email send me yours or message me on fb if you don't want to post it here and I will get it together by tomorrow so we can start this weekend we just won't include tonight's game.

I am so ready for football season but so sad to be in Ohio State territory!!

5 Days

That is sort of a long time for me :-) You might have guessed (and I mentioned it 923749379 times) that I am not traveling this week so there is no need for me to complain like I normally do..hope you guys don't think that I am Debbie Downer. Here is a run down to catch you up:

Sunday- Weighed in (still doing WW) and had lost another .8 lbs and that was with traveling last week all week. Did my first photography session in Ohio for a girl that Craig works with. She went and had pictures done at JcPenny's and left crying so I redid them for her. I am hoping that this will lead to some more sessions because I am REALLY missing it. And, now that Carrie has started and I will get to here about all the fun she has, I am going to miss it even more :-( sigh......

Monday- It was Monday so not much. It was the second day of my detox program (read the healthy blog of mine for details) so I cooked fish for the second time and learned that I like cod with a little lemon...simple but yummy!

Tuesday - 3rd day of detox and went on an hour long ride with Craig on our bikes...struggled a bit but made it and burned 600 calories in the process.

Wednesday - Went out for drinks with a DG that lives here in Dayton...different from the other one, she is younger and just out of school (OSU boo, but I forgive her). I liked the other girl too but I just haven't emailed her and she hasn't contacted me either. We had a good time, had married guys hit on us, and even ran into some people that she knew. Hopefully we can hang out again. She has a boyfriend who is almost my age so I am hoping that maybe we can do some couple stuff. She was super easy to talk to and we have been friends on FB for months but just never caught up with each other (she is in grad school too) so I know she is always doing lots of fun stuff and since she is from here she knows a lot of people! Maybe this whole friend thing is starting to look up.

Tonight I have to clean up my place a bit, do some grocery shopping and stuff. Nothing exciting but just getting ready for my sister's visit!