Is the sign of a great product when you both dream about it in the same night?

Yesterday I broke in the Nike+ product that counts your steps and coaches your workout. And though I didn’t do much more than just the basic calibration through a quick walk to the bank, it made enough impact for us both to have wacky dreams about it. It’s a cool little device. Very smart.

I explained to Lauren how it counted the calories I lost on my walk to and from the bank. And that would be just about enough for the dreams to work with. I dreamt that I had decided to walk to Anderson, S.C. to visit our friends Jeremy & Jen. Half way there, I realized I didn’t turn on the iPod, so suddenly, my walk was in vain. With that knowledge, I took a pit stop along my journey at a nearby “rock farm” to look at all the interesting rocks. All by myself, just looking at rocks on the ground along this dopey trail. I woke up soon after I realized what I was dreaming about was a waste of time.

Lauren’s dream was a bit more frantic. A quick backstory… We were at a Luke Mather’s birthday party last night and just totally grubbed on all the food all night. It was so good. All these brownies, chicken fingers, chips, coke, cake, you name it. TONS OF FOOD. Well she dreamed that as we were at the party eating away, her iPod was actually counting the calories she was eating. It was as if she was standing on a scale throughout the entire party. As she watched the calorie count reach close to 8,000, she panicked. Thinking the iPod must have been broken, she attempted to restart it, but it came back with the big bold 8,000 calories and counting situation.

I can’t think of another time when we both dreamed of the same thing in the same night, so maybe it’s a sign that Nike and Apple did their job well.

Yesterday, along with the Thurmans, Lauren and I had the pleasure of getting to tour the forthcoming home for Buckhead Church. Like any other North Point/Buckhead event, the polish and attention to detail on the event itself was top notch. We got to see each of the four floors of the building, as well as the main worship area.

Some interesting tidbits:

Below the 1st floor is a parking lot that holds as many spots as the current main parking lot holds — this lot is reserved for Waumba Land / KidStuff families.

Better still, to get to this special parking lot, you actually drive your car/VAN through a tunnel that cuts into building for easy child drop-off. (It is very cool).

There’s an escalator system and stairwells & elevators designed just for children (to ensure their safety, etc.)

The building is 200,000 Sq. ft. That means it is really big.

The worship auditorium holds 3-4 times as many attendees as the current one does. The “upper-deck” seating area alone holds as many as the current in itself.

Beyond these, I can’t remember all the other really creative ways they solved certain problems with trying to fit a church in such a place and meet the needs of various groups.

Finally, what is more impressive to me was Jeff Henderson’s (Pastor) 15min. talk he gave to us at the end of the tour. What stuck out is that in all the planning and fund raising that has gone into the church, they remain cognizant (as we must be) of the fact that the building remains temporal. He noted that “every church has a closing day” and that one day in the future the building will be sold, abandoned or demoed. So with that in mind, we must use the space in a great way and to the best of our ability through Jesus. I thought this was all really forward thinking and very wise. It made Lauren and I extremely proud of what Buckhead church is doing and how the vision that God has given the leaders there remains laser focused on reaching unbelievers. Sidenote: Jeff also remarked how well the Atlantic Station service went earlier in the day — this is where they’ve rented a Regal Cinema screen for the morning to beam the service to. Apparently they packed out every seat (even having to turn away 50 people). But next week they’re going to reserve TWO theater screens for the same thing. Pretty exciting. Below are some photos of the worship auditorium in construction.

Above: A view from the upper seating level.

Above: A lateral view across the upper seating level. Curves rule this building’s design to beautiful effect.

Lauren and I from the top level.

A forewarning: Based upon this post’s title, you are probably thinking this will be yet another classic Lauren anecdote. Well actually, this is a Josh post. And yes, it takes place at a fabric store. Finally, there is a discussion of Project Runway — season spoiler ALERT.

Yesterday, Lauren became inspired with some ideas for decorating the apartment for the changing season and wanted to make a run to Jo-Ann fabric store. I obliged after being fed well at Quizno’s. So off we went…

I dropped her off at the door so she could get a head start, but immediately upon doing so, I realized that I’d be the lone male soldier walking into the store all by myself — uncharted territory. I had a slight panic attack, but it graciously receded quickly. I think the panic was due to the fact that I thought I was doing a very efficient (albeit typical male) shopping exercise, only to have the reality of entering the store alone thrown back in my face.

Slight side note: Next to Jo-Ann (can’t stand that hyphen in their name, btw), is a golf store on one side (all husbands, males rejoice!) and another feminine-type craft store. 2 to 1, ladies win.

As I walked in the store I tried to convince myself that I was both Michael Knight and Jeffery Sebelia from Project Runway; manly and confident, yet in touch with his creative, problem solving side. I couldn’t BELIEVE the lines in the place. They wound throughout the store — multiple lines, in fact. A line to get your fabric cut to size, and another winding line to check out. We later found out it was part of the Halloween preparations. I find Lauren and she has a handfull of items already handy, but the main thing she was after was red fabric that matched other items in our decor. She was about to call it quits before I said we needed to check out a promising looking corner of the store. There it was. The winning piece. With boosted confidence, I found myself shooting across to other aisles to find complimenting fabrics. I went over the edge. Tiffany, you would have been so, so proud.

Project Runway. Aren’t we all a little depressed that Jeffery won? Sure, he was the most consistent and innovative throughout the season, but one area in which he wasn’t innovative was his little attitude problem. As Lauren might say to that statement, “Hmph!” It really annoyed me that here he is, doing some really interesting work, but had nothing but the typical artist chip on his shoulder and attitude to give back to other people. Even upon winning, his demeanor persisted. Just had to get that rant out there . . . any other observations on the season? We wanted Uli to win, darnit!

Well we hope your Saturday was better than Lauren and mine’s. We attended a funeral of Nemo sized proportions. My Beta fish “Final Candidate” died today after an attempt to clean his water vase home. I cleaned his murky water bowl, attempted to feed him and noticed he was acting very strange since I placed him back in his home. He was swimming upside-down, sideways, and anyway but the right way. We’re afraid it might have been brain damage due to lack of oxgen in the transfer from dirty bowl to clean bowl. So sad.

He’d get to the water’s surface, only to be dragged back down to the little pebbles below moments later. We left him to get lunch and told him he could die in peace without anyone to watch him . . . he did just that. Gone is my lively desktop friend.

Here is a photo from the funeral we held for Final Candidate. He lived a good, faithful life. Farewell, friend.

Despite the odds, Josh seemed to be successfully surprised at his party. There were a couple of challenges to pull this thing off. For starters, Josh is working from home, as am I (sort of) since it’s summer. And he doesn’t leave the apartment. Ever. And the apartment has partitions instead of walls, so a phone conversation can be heard throughout every square foot.
But I was determined and a few factors actually worked in my favor. Like Josh didn’t find it too weird that I randomly started taking my cell phone with me on walks. And he has no sense of errand timing and thought nothing of it when I was gone for three hours to supposedly go grocery shopping. (And didn’t check my trunk to find Party City bags) I think it also helps that all of his friends are so honest that Josh completely trusts them and anything they say. (“Uh…I think we’re already doing something Friday, but I’m not sure….”)
So with some major help from Andy, Jill, Mike, and Will, I took Josh out to eat while they came in, decorated, set up food, and had the whole apartment rearranged to suit a party-sized crowd. He was incredibly shocked when he walked in and about 20 people were piled on top of the couch in the corner of the room yelling SURPRISE!!!

Of course, we had some close calls. Here’s just a few:
1) I printed a picture of Josh’s face to cut out as part of the centerpiece. When he came back from volunteering at church, the first thing I heard him say- “Why is there a picture of me on the computer?” My feeble attempt at an answer,”Oh, I missed you while you were gone all morning and went through old pictures.” (Yup, he bought it.)

2) Someone sent me an instant gmail message that popped up on my screen and read, “Thanks for the directions, but you forgot to give the apartment number.” Thankfully, I saw it and took it down before Josh noticed.

3) Gmail pops up a window to let you know whenever you have a new email, including the name of sender and the first line from the email — for example, “‘We’d love to come to the party!” I could NOT figure out how to turn this feature off, and Josh uses my computer a lot for work. So I kinda made up that he had to turn it off or he might see a confirmation email about a gift I (didn’t really) ordered online for him. Bought that one, too.

And finally,
4)After we ate dinner the night of, Josh starts pushing to go get ice cream. Naturally, he thought it was weird of me to refuse to go. I pulled the whole “I’m just SO TIRED” routine. (Translation- “There’s 20 people waiting for you at the apartment!!”) But he just needed that ice cream and made the decision to stop at Kroger. Where he did not let me run in to get it alone (heart skipping a beat), he took his time walking in ( cold sweat) and did not want to leave the magazine section. (minor nausia.)

But we made it home, finally. It was really touching to see how many people made that extra effort to come from out of town or in the middle of busy summer schedules.
I don’t think this surprise would have been possible if Josh wasn’t as loving and trusting as he is. When I asked him to fix my gmail so he wouldn’t see the emails coming into it, he did it. When I begged him to take me home instead of getting the ice cream he was so obviously craving, he actually apologized that he forgot that I must be feeling so tired. And Josh allows me a lot of freedom, so he doesn’t question where I go shopping or constantly check the online banking to see how much I spent. (Note to self: I must never use these powers for evil.)
Josh, I think the only reason you had a great surprise is because you put so much trust and faith in your family and friends.
Thanks, Birthday Man. Happy 25th!!!

Last week, Josh’s mom was scheduled to come over and pick me up. (TWO broken Teague sewing machines- we HAD to get them to Joe the repairman as quickly as possible). After a very cheerful knock on the door, Mrs. Teague walked in, gave us some cookies, and was generally quite sunny and content.
It wasn’t until about a full minute of greetings and conversation later that she mentioned that she needed our help. As she was driving through the gate, it slammed shut and left a scratch on her Porshe.
Josh immediately left with her to go talk to the manager of the apartment. The manager’s first response was somewhat of denial. He told Mrs. Teague that it wasn’t that he didn’t believe her, but, well, “no one saw it happen.” Josh-he’s quick and asked him if the camera aimed at the gate hadn’t caught any of the action on tape. No, no, that camera just for monitoring, not taping. (No one was monitoring at the time.) The manager then got the idea to have Maxine, the leasing agent, drive her car through the gate.
If Mrs. Teague’s car needed a band-aid, Maxine’s car needed needed a stiff sling and a leg cast. The gate completely dinged in the side of her car while leaving a nice, long scratch.
The really sympathetic part of the story is after Maxine told the managerthat gate had, in her words, “killed her car,” the manager replied (to Josh and his mother), “Well, that’s good for you.”
He then went about contacting the gate company.
The coolest part is that after Mrs. Teague and I left, Josh had an idea for a good deed.
Remember that Mrs. Teague brought us cookies? She baked them for Josh because she felt like God wanted her to. Being the trusting Christian she is, she followed even though she wasn’t sure why cookies would suddenly be important.
Well, Josh decided to give them to the manager and Maxine to ease the feelings of everyone involved in a- wait, two- gate accidentS.
Of course, they were impressed, grateful, and caught by surprise.
That’s Josh, his mother, and God working together for you.

You probably have. But if you haven’t, you’re bound to soon enough . . . how about now? So MySpace is this online social network thing where every member (it’s free) has their own personal web page to post what they think describes them best — providing a “profile” is part of the signup process. I had heard the horrors of MySpace addictions through young people I know — YoungLife, siblings, etc. And of course through the press that it gets just about every day for the past year and a half.

I decided this week that my time was finally here to give it a try . . . after all, I am going back to college for more schooling (duh), so I figured I had at least get up to speed on the biggest thing since the iPod. At the same time though, I really didn’t want another place to keep track of messages, events, people, etc. I have a website a number of websites that I’m directly affiliated with. I’m easy to find on Google . . . that should be all people need to find/contact me.

They ask you to post a photo with your profile. I posted one solitary image . . . and yes I’ll admit that I posted one of my better photos, but I didn’t think much of it. The only information I put in my profile besides that I’m married (big clue, people), looking only for “friends and networking opportunities” (maybe “friends” is saying giving too much leeway?). Of course, they ask you to put in your age, your education background (so people can find you), and a few other minor details. Basically I pointed the page to my actual website at joshteague.com . . . thinking some extra traffic couldn’t hurt.

I probably should just give you the link to look for yourself. Sorry to waste your time here.

Anyway, overnight I apparently got placed in the “Cool New People” box that appears on everyone’s page and on the front page of MySpace. As I later will find out, this is something to be desired and is “hard to do.” This unwarranted publicity resulted in my Inbox being flooded with well over a hundred messages in an 8 hour period of time. I thought MySpace was suddenly holding my email account ransom or something. In addition to that, I had a hundred or so “Friend Requests” awaiting my response — which, sadly for them, meant immediate deletion. The messages though . . . we’ll keep those for the remainder of this post.

The messages I received can be grouped into one of the following (sometimes multiple!) categories seen below:
8 Celebrity Look-alike claims — John Cusack & Fred Savage. (?)
45 Random “Hi” messages. Thats all. Just a “Hi.”
34 Remarks of flattery.
1 Insulting Remark. “You are ugllie.”

And finally, as Lauren states, I seemed to have spoken to a generation of MySpace users who vowed never to join MySpace but found themselves falling to the prey. 34 messages fell into that category. We call them the MySpace Haters.

Here’s a few messages that stood out from the rest:

hey u obviously dnt knw me but i saw ur picture in the cool new ppl box, and i just wanted to say that u look very handsome, theres this shy yet stunning look ur eyes have, its a bit hard to explain. but i just wanted to let u knw wat type of alure you held…..srry for bothering u
- karen
——-
hay are you 15 i am buy
- nancy
——-
My names Martin, what’s Up bro! Just wanted to send this note first in hopes you will accept me as one of you buddy’s man. I am not gay so please don’t dismiss as such, I am a genuine friend, who will go out of my way if I think your cool, and sending you this message means just that? I hope to get to know all my myspace friends and get to party with everyone of them at least once! So if this mean a trip to come chill with me here in Long Beach, so be it. I will welcome you, and put you up, and feed you, and get you pre-drunk before we go to the Bars, and chill with some friends.
-Martin

Ok, I’m off to hang with Martin.

Normally, I’m not the kind to ask for help in a store. (I think it has something to do with Walmart.) But the girl who greeted me at the door looked so friendly that when she asked if she could help, I asked her where to find colored copy paper. Completely genuine, she pointed me in the right direction -again, HUGE store sign that I missed. Must learn to read signs.
When I returned to the counter, the girl looked at me and said, “Are you all set?” So I said yes and set my stuff down thinking she was going to check me out. She paused and looked at an older woman standing next to her.

Now the fun begins. As always, I am choosing a dialogue format.

Woman: (whispering, but still loud enough for me to hear) Scan in her items.
The girl did.
Woman:Tell her the total.
Girl: That will be $11.08.

I gave her my card and was about to tell her it would be debit when-

Women:Ask her if it’s debit or credit.
Girl:Is this debit or credit?
Me: Debit.
Woman: Okay, now when it’s debit, you don’t ask them to sign. Now ask her to swipe her card- oh. It looks like she already did.
(I didn’t realize that I should have been approaching this more as a role play)
Okay then, now you hit the key.

The girl hit the key.

Woman: Now ask her to enter her pin number.
Girl: Please enter your pin number.

If you’re tired of reading it, BELIEVE ME, I felt terrible for the poor girl and I was ready to leave.

So as the woman continued to walk the girl through e v e r y step of the check out process, I was ready to be finished. But the check out went on. Finally, it was time for me to get the bag and go.

Woman: Okay, now put the items in the bag.

The girl did, but the way the paper was sitting in the bag, the plastic was already starting to tear. The girl panicked a little-

Girl: Hmm. Is the bag too big?
Me: Oh, that’s okay, I can take it-
Woman: Well, you can straighten the paper in the bag.

The girl didn’t do anything.

Woman: Here- I’ll show you.
Me: (thinking- end it! end it!) You know, I don’t really need the bag, I can just take it by itself.
Woman:Oh, you don’t want the bag?
Me:No, I really don’t need it. (JUST end it.)
Woman: Okay then. (to girl) Now, when they say they don’t want a bag…

At this point, I was mentally crying. The poor girl seemed really sweet and not talked down to at all as the woman showed her how to place stickers on paid items. And explained to her that these stickers shows someone had actually paid. Because otherwise- Yes, she actually said this- you wouldn’t know if someone was just walking out with something they hadn’t paid for.

As a teacher, I must say that I felt the whole thing could have been done with a lot more discretion.

I’ll keep this short and painful.
Tonight after dinner, Josh and I were going to buy (yet more) classroom supplies. The Old Navy was next to Target, so I talked Josh into walking in with me to look for a particular shirt.
I walked through the entire women’s side- dressy, casual, pajamas, bathing suits- until I got to the back of the store. There was this white, billowy dress. “Just pregnant people clothes back here. ” (I said it loudly on purpose as sort of a joke- the whole now-that-you’re-married-people-think-you’re-going-to-get-pregnant thing. I was trying to make my husband uncomfortable and it was wrong and I am sorry and I paid for it.) Josh paused and said- a bit more subtly, “Uh, it’s not just pregnant people….”
Here’s where I first noticed the overweight girl to my left. Literally, at my elbow.
And then I saw the HUGE signs all over the department- “Women’s Plus Sizes.”

End of shopping experience.

I’ve told Josh to put a post up about this, because people have been asking how it’s been since he left his job. However, Josh has been slightly preoccupied lately.
So I’ll do it.
Josh left his job to do personal projects over the summer until he starts back at Tech in the fall.
It’s been WONDERFUL.

There are so many unforeseen benefits to having a husband who works at home. For starters, the apartment is clean all the time. It’s so convenient. He also folds laundry, does the dishes AND the other night I came home to dinner on the stove. He’d picked up a delicious ravioli recipe while watching Everyday Italian on his lunch break!
I think another thing that I love is that he’s working in an apartment that’s about five minutes away from my school. Which means I know I can call him to bring me anything I forgot. I haven’t had to yet, but the knowledge that I can makes me feel so free.
And finally, I can ask him to come in to school for special occasions. For example, this Friday I asked him to come in to watch our first performance of a Readers Theater. 2F was performing Lights, Camera, Pollination! and the promise of a Special Guest always motivates.As it turned out, Jorge was absent. So not only was Mr. Teague our Special Guest, but he also had to read the part of the bee.

I will say that I’m very proud of Josh- he’s gotten an amazing amount of work done. He’s much more disciplined about actually working than I would be in his position. Go, Bee!

Update #2 (final update): This morning I finished off the last of our first gallon and last night we bought another. So, I think the hardest part is now past us — the first purchase, the tasting, and the second purchase. *Crossing fingers! Thanks to everyone’s very practical advice and experiences I think we can all now get on with our regular milk-drinking and compromising lives. I did take Beau’s advice, although unbenowst to him, I did so before he got around to the comment. We are human clones, so go figure . . . Easing into it with with chocolate milk, chocolate chip cookies, and finally chocolate rice krispes cereal, yes that, helped tremendously. Jeanine, on the other hand, showed her true Engineering (and entrepreneurial?!) colors when it came to figuring out the math for all of us providing a common ground for the masses to stand upon — 1.6%! Thank you for that. And finally, Katie did provide the much-needed light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to raising a child initially on whole milk.

Got milk?

Update: I sit here alone, in my dark cave of an office at 10:30pm. The milk is still sitting right where we placed it for that photograph. It has been just over 24 hours and the seal has not been broken. Will we be given the strength from above to have that first glass? Who will break the seal that binds us? I think I’ll have another glass of orange juice, but each time I open the fridge door, the milk just sits there. Mocking me. Help.

The story: Today I went to the grocery store on the way home from work in anticipation of a major shift in our shopping patterns. Lauren and I had discussed such a monumentous move last week and I called for the go-ahead after work. She gave me the approving nod and off I went. So now 2% milk has a permanent home in our fridge — replacing my whole milk and Lauren’s skim. We’re both strangely adamant about our choices of milk so we’ll see how long this lasts . . . any bets? Any similar stories?

The Petrellas had a garage sale last June. One of our departing (satisfied) customers left a large scratch across the left corner of my rear bumper. It’s a little embarrassing but not entirely noticeable, so I never cared too much about it.

Fast forward to this morning.

I was leaving around 7:15 and the dew was still all over my car. I was backing out of my parking space and saw a guy walking through the front gate.(I blame the coming account of paranoia on recent episodes of Lost that show those suspicious Others in casual garments.) It seemed odd for a man to be walking through the gate at that time of morning. I didn’t recognize him as a neighbor, he wasn’t dressed that warmly, and I had brief moments to wonder what would possess a man to take a casual walk in jeans that early in the morning. Just one of those sights where something doesn’t add up. In this case, I think the lack of spandex. There’s no way that guy was taking a morning jog. This is the kind of observation that seems to take a good twenty seconds but it was more like five seconds and I was in the middle of thinking about it when-
CR-UNK. (Excuse my attempts at onomatopoeia. I read a lot of children’s books aloud these days. Believe me- if you were seven, you’d love it.)
I had hit the curb. Hopefully it was the curb. I still couldn’t see out of the back windshield and the guy was staring at me. Maybe he even knew that he looked like an Other. Anyway, I felt myself get completely flushed and sped (sort of) away.
As soon as I was out of sight of the pedestrian, I got out of my car to check the trunk. I didn’t see any kind of mark or scratch.
However. If my mental outline of the parking lot was off, it meant there was a chance I had backed into one of the handicapped spaces just to the right of the curb. Since I had driven off so quickly, I hadn’t checked to see if I had only bumped the curb… or a handicapped vehicle.
My weighty conscience instantly went to work and I felt a rushing wave of nausea. I got back in the car, drove back past the same guy- so, so embarrassing- and back to where I had just been. More good news- there was no way I had hit a handicapped car, because a huge OAK tree was growing behind my former parking space. (So my mental image was way off- I had no recollection of an oak tree.) I felt much better knowing I could go off and sculpt young minds without having to leave a note on a handicapped vehicle explaining that I had hit their car due to ridiculous suspicians and an obsession with a sci-fi show.
When I got to school, I unpacked my (huge amounts of) teacher stuff and went to close my back door.
Large scratch across the RIGHT rear corner of my bumper. Oak colored.

So now the rear bumper corners match.

Ladies and Gentleman, the winner is……
Annie! Yay, Annie!

Yes, the bags contained a scrumptious mixture of Nesquik, powdered sugar, and dry milk. Yummmm. My kids are so lucky to be in my class. Imagine, other teachers gave books. Ha! (By the way, a side note, I bought all the ingredients at our favorite store- Walmart! A SUPERwalmart. Which means I got even more lost trying to find all these random ingredients I have never bought before. (such as dry milk). And when I asked for help finding powdered sugar, the lady asked if that was a brand of sugar that perhaps Walmart doesn’t carry. Which somehow made me feel incompetent because I couldn’t describe the difference. Once again, Walmart leaves me at a loss.

And as a New Year’s Gift to everyone, I am also including some………..
Josh Talking in His Sleep Stories!

(And just so you know how dedicated I’ve become to report these, I have not only begun questioning the sleeping Josh to get more information out of him, but I also keep a notepad and pen next to the bed.)
Yes, I do that for you and here we go-

Josh fell asleep on the couch the other night. I called to him several times and asked if he was comfortable. He finally came stumbling into the room where he said, “Now, just so you know….. just so you’re not, like, shocked….” and then he stopped talking, put his head down on the pillow, and was out.

He was moving around in his sleep and completely took over my pillow. I told him he was on my side of the bed and he said, “Oh, I’m sorry, sweetie. That’s what I do when I’m really comfortable.”

About a week ago he picked his head up off the pillow and held it there for awhile. I finally asked him what was wrong. In a voice about three octaves higher than normal- we actually think he was quoting Sydney, our three year old niece- “Who-who-who-who- Who is crying?”
“What?”
(still Sydney) “I hear someone crying- who is it?”

And finally—
Josh held the covers up over his head, paused, seemed to make a decision, and dived underneath. He laid there holding the covers over his head.
“What are you doing?”
“I was told to do this.” (He sounded very firm and resolved about this.)
“Josh, you don’t have to hide.”
Unsure- “I don’t?”
“No, you don’t. “
“Oh, okay.”
At this point, I was chuckling and he got a little offended.
“Punk.”
Which only made me laugh harder. He rolled over to face away.
“Who told you to do that?”
“My brother! Okay?!?”

(Unfortunately, he ignored me after that, so we’ll never know exactly which brother.)

Around 5:30 today, Josh called to ask if I got his message about paying the rent. I hadn’t. Instant anxiety attack. Late fees at Brumby are steep. The office closes at five and today was the LAST day to pay.
Josh, playing the role of a calm male possessing common sense, asked me to run upstairs and see if someone at the office was still there and would let me pay anyway.
An attempt I was certain to be fruitless, but I’m a submitter, so I wrote the fastest check of my life,ran out the door and down the hallway.
My sense of direction is lacking, at best. It’s really bad when under pressure. First, I ran into the laundry room. Feeling rather stupid, I turned around the corner, where I then tried to open a maintenance closet.
Total panic. I had to stop in the middle of the hallway of my own building- on the floor I live, mind you- and really think about where I was.
Cautiously, I looked until I found the door clearly marked “Stairs.”
Running up them- yes, two at a time- I got to the office door.
And then there was a Christmas miracle.
The office hours on Mon-Fri were posted as 9-6.
6!
Going inside, I didn’t see anyone working, but I did hear a flush. (The guy who works in the office is ALWAYS in the bathroom.)
“What’s up?”
Trying to be casual and completely out of breath, I said “Nothing paying the rent thanks” in one run on sentence.
I then tried to make light conversation about the festive office decorations as I headed out the door, convinced he was going to tell me that too bad, the check really was late.
Going out the door, I was so happy about what had just happened, yet still not quite convinced Bathroom Guy wasn’t going to come out the door, I ran down the hall and immediately tried to open the locked door of Apt. 221.
“Oops. Uh, sorry,” I whispered to what was hopefully an empty apartment. The building got very warm as I turned around yet again to walk to the stairs door.

And…da da da daaaaaa! Josh’s Sleep Talking Stories (!!!)
Part Two

Throughout the last few nights, Josh has-

Told me I was so smart for fixing the Flash feature on his website and gave me a big hug. (The more disturbing part of the story- in the dream I was his good friend and coworker, Jeremy.)

Laughed hysterically as he repeated, “Oh, that is too good. Man, that’s funny,” over and over.

And just to be completely creepy, he woke me up whispering, “Who’s in the room with us?”
I actually checked to see before I whispered back, “No one.”
“What? Who is it?”
“There’s no one in the room. Just us.”
“Well, yeah, NOW. But who was here BEFORE?”
“No one.”
“Oh, nevermind.”

He did it! For awhile now, I’ve been asking Josh if we can go to Paris and visit Tiffany. (I’m not that high maintenance, I was mostly kidding.)
Well, around 9:30 last night, I got a phonecall from Josh.
“Hey. We won.”

“Are you serious?!?!”

“We’re going to Paris.”

“Stop it. That’s not funny.”

“No, for real, we’re going.”

Way, way too calm for someone who just won A DESIGN COMPETITiON and will go on to COMPETE IN an INTERNATIONAL competition in PARIS!!!!!

My incredibly talented husband entered a 24 hour design competition with his friend Kevin and two other guys. They had from 8:30 in the morning until 8:30 the next morning to build a website up from scratch. And no, they had no idea what the theme would be until the night of. They had no preparation, ran on no sleep, but just brilliant design.
Their website won. On to Paris, and dare we hope, international acclaim?

I am so incredibly proud of you, Josh.

Josh’s Edit: You must have Flash 8 (don’t worry: It is a free, safe thing to download) to view the site we created. Not much really to the site, but boy was it ever a fun event! And here’s some photos from the event.

Bonus: Here’s the other competing sites. The only thing we had to design the site by was this: “To act or not to act. Our planet in 50 years time.” Thanks, Lauren. See you in February, Tiff!