I always think that it would be super cool if I was really great at cooking or consistent at blogging or quickly climbing a corporate ladder.  I get caught up on these things from time to time and catch myself looking at recipes and jotting down items on my grocery list or making a blogging plan or plotting my advancement.

During the week and a half I’ve been away from work, Pitter Pat and I have spent our holiday visiting family and traveling across the country and standing knee-deep in snow and opening presents and dreaming dreams that are bigger than we’ve ever imagined and yet still so attainable.

And then we came home, and we cleaned.  We emptied cabinets and closets and drawers and the garage and the attic and his old apartment.  We scrubbed and we vacuumed and we dusted.  We bought bins and tubs and organizers to categorize all of our things in.

This morning, as I was folding my t-shirts that I’d pre-folded with my FlipNFold in half, it hit me: I’m a master organizer.  It’s just a shame that’s not resume-worthy.

Did you make the move with me?!

The blog isn’t yet pretty. I’ll spend days hunting for what feels like the best theme for me, but for now — this is pretty okay.  :o)

I’ll keep writing.
You keep reading.

Dearest Readers:

I don’t know how many of you are out there reading in total, but I know that several of us (myself included) have experienced a hiccup or two (or forty) over the past year that I’ve been blogging.

Now that I’ve been doing this for a year (albeit sporadically), I think it’s best that I move this little blog to a new platform.  So if you can just hang tight, I think we’ll all be better in the long run.

Promise me you’ll come back tomorrow and grab a new RSS link for your readers?

Please and thank you,
E.

I can remember the first time Quiet was too loud for me to handle.  I was in high school, though I’m not sure I’d turned 16 yet.  I spent the night at my boyfriend’s house, and I distinctly remember lying in his bed (alone), staring at the ceiling thinking, “How does he sleep when things are this quiet?!”  It was painful.  I was used to a fan, a whir, some sort of noise — something to break up that silence.  But in that particular room on that particular night, there was nothing.  And I hated it.

A few years ago, I reacquainted myself with Quiet.  I searched for a quiet so silent that it was deafening.  Being the only person in my house at the time, I found it easily.  I got comfortable in that quiet, and I learned to appreciate it.

With Pitter Pat in the picture, there’s virtually no Quiet in my life.  He’s not quiet.  Little Bit isn’t quiet.  And the posse of boys that are occasionally around?  They’re not quiet, either.  Little Bit was home this past weekend which meant that while the boys were at their favorite watering hole, I was free to hunt down Quiet and invite it to stay for the weekend.

Sunday, Pitter Pat called to ask what I was doing.  I hadn’t even finished my answer before he was pulling into the driveway, Little Bit in tow.  The three of us stood at the counter and talked about golf tees and pocket knives and chili for breakfast.  We talked about Little Bit and his harem, about when he might move home and whether or not he’s found a house he’s interested in buying.  And just like that, Quiet disappeared.  While we were laughing and carrying on about absolutely nothing, Quiet slipped right out the backdoor without anybody noticing.

After they’d left and Buddy and I had reclaimed our spot in our over-sized chair, I got to thinking that despite wanting a strong relationship with Quiet, it seems best for me in small doses.  I used to crave Quiet, but now – it’s just an old friend that visits occasionally.  With Pitter Pat moving in, I expect to see Quiet less and less.  And while initially this caused panic (What?! No Quiet?!), I’ve come to realize that the laughter and the stories and the general chaos that seems to be the new soundtrack for my life might be a little bit better for me than Quiet ever was.

Dear Apple:

I’m writing to gush over your employees and customer service during my iPhone 5 purchasing experience.  I am elated to inform you that both were, in fact, gush-worthy.

Last Friday, I phoned your store in Fort Worth to see if, by chance, there were any iPhone 5′s in stock.  The girl I spoke with was so up beat, so bubbly.  She told me that there was a line and that she couldn’t say for sure if there would be enough phones by the time I arrived, but when I posed the question, “Would you drive from North Richland Hills on these odds?” she giggled and said, “Oh, definitely!”  It was all I needed to press down on my accelerator and head west.

When I arrived at the store, there was a line just as she said.  To my surprise, it was relatively short.  I was quickly greeted by a girl who wanted to know my carrier and phone preference.  She handed me a card; my phone was guaranteed.  At her suggestion, I phoned AT&T immediately to cancel my pre-order.

The cancelling process was an arduous one just like every thing else associated with my pre-order on the AT&T side.  I was escorted to a table at the front of the store where I found a handful of other people with their phones to their ears, eyes rolling, all obviously experiencing the same headache I was.  Your store manager was delightful and kept everyone in great spirits.  The employees mirrored his attitude, and I felt like I’d been invited to a very happy, crazy family reunion.

After half an hour on the phone with AT&T, the manager quickly got an associate for me, and we started setting up my new phone.  He was hysterical.  He was charming.  He even paused to let me open the box so that I could ooh and aah.  I appreciated that he didn’t rush me through my questions, and he made sure that I had a full understanding of how to switch phones so that there wouldn’t be any problems once I got home.  I asked him if he wanted to be best friends; he said, “Sure!”

But my story doesn’t stop there.

In upgrading to iTunes 7, I learned that I needed to upgrade my Mac OS, something I’ve never done before.  I chatted with your online customer service team, and they suggested I call to order the OS that I needed.  Let me tell you, Apple — my rep, Josh?  Was amazing.  He gave me the pros and cons of upgrading to Snow Leopard, then to Mountain Lion.  We discussed my overall goals, and he really helped me make what I felt was the best decision for me.  He was patient and took time to answer all of my questions.  He even had me laughing!

Apple, I’ll never order hardware through AT&T again.  And while I was kind of on the fence about you — your employees and customer service representatives have only solidified that your company is, in fact, wonderful.  I’m so proud to call myself a Mac and iPhone user.  Your products are amazing.  Your team is outstanding.  Thanks for making my digital life easy and pretty and fun.  I think you’re pretty incredible.

Love,
Emily