Pre-birthday-ing.

Happy August! I know, when did that happen, right? I'm not sure. And I know, I'm supposed to have some more photos up here. But since today is officially August, I have to post about something a little different because there's only one month left.

One month left?

That's right. Next month... I turn thirty.

So I have one month left to revel in being a twenty-something, to look back on the past decade and all its awesomeness and scariness, wackiness and confusing turns, mishaps and delights. In my quest to become "very zen" I have learned to have no regrets; whatever junky stuff happened to you happened, and that's how it is, so you take it and learn from it and have an amazing tomorrow.

ANYWAYS. Very zen-ness aside. This post exists for two reasons.

Reason the first is my 30th birthday celebration of choice.

My birthday is on a Thursday this year, but if all goes according to plan I'll be taking a few days off and heading down to Orlando to spend a long weekend.

There is one part of this weekend that I'm exceptionally looking forward to!

It's magical...

But likely not the type of Orlando "magic" you're thinking of.

Oh no, this is real magic.

None of that hocus pocus, look, a quarter in your ear and the five of diamonds in your undies stuff.

Nope, it's time to get your wands, study for your OWLS, and load up at Honeydukes because, if all goes according to plan, I will be visiting...

HOGWARTS!!!!

Yes, none other than the brand spanky new Harry Potter Theme Park. Sweet maple syrupy Jesus, my tail is wagging as I write this. I've easily been a fan of this series for about 10 years now and I can't WAIT to go see all of my favorite places from the book, like Hogwarts and Hagrid's hut and all the shops like Zonko's and Honeydukes and Ollivanders, and choosing a wand and riding the dragon coasters and seeing the Hogwarts Express... AAACK!!! It's going to be AMAZING!!! I'm going to re-read all the books before I go, and maybe try to wear something Ravenclaw colored (my favorite of the houses), and of course take photos of EVERYTHING. And lord help them if they have people playing the actual Harry Potter characters walking around for photo ops, because those Weasley twins won't be getting out alive.

So yeah, really really excited!!!

I'll even try to go on the Dragon Challenge coaster (it used to be the Dueling Dragons coaster), even though sometimes they make me a little motion sick. I think my plan is to take a dramamine beforehand. You think it will work?

I will buy magnets and keychains and little doodads at the shops, and they have all of the actual candies from the books. And? AND? They have. BUTTERBEER. Be still my beating heart!

Okay, sorry! I got a little overwhelmed there.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, reason the second for this post.

There is one thing I want for my birthday. And that is ... birthday cards. Lots and lots of them! I'm turning a big number so I should have lots of birthday cards! This is where you come in.

Send me a card! Or two, or three if you really can't choose just one. Find the wackiest, goofiest, glitteriest birthday card you can find and send it to me. I want to put them all on my counter and take a mega-picture of them! There's no need to get me a gift, although if a card or two was stuffed full of gift cards to Starbucks or Ulta or Dick's Sporting Goods I would be all aflutter, but more than anything.... I want cards!!! I want the mailman to sprain his wrist trying to fit them all into my mailbox!

Email me (nikineu at gmail.com) and I'll give you my mailing address if you don't already have it. Then, get thyself to Party City and find something crazy! Oh yeah, and my birthday is September 9th. I think I forgot that little detail!

I'm excited already!

Phew. That's a lot of excitement for one post. I'm going to catch up on some blogs now, and relax... :)

Fan-freakin'-tastic.

I GOT THE JOB.

Yee - to - the - FREAKIN' - HAW!!!!! So excited. SO excited. I go in for a little training on Thursday and possibly start next week. DSpsohdojfewpodl. <-- -That's how excited I am. I had to go pee in a cup today, and I was SO excited I drank a little too much water on the way and nearly tinkled all over the pee collectors waiting room.

But seriously.

Elated isn't the word.

This is the last piece of the puzzle. It's all in place now ... and for once in a long time? I have nothing to worry about. No creditors, no health scares, no legal people arriving at my door to be mean, no crazy health scares, no court dates, and no unstable employment. After a few years of hardship, everything's lined itself up perfectly.

My new motto? Never stop fighting. Because no matter how craptastic things may seem now, later? They can be amazing, if you try real hard.

I'm still working on my photo meme; I may post it later, if I can stop dancing around the kitchen like one of those fake Coke cans from the 80's that would bend from side to side when you played music near it. (Remember those? PS, my dancing is MUCH better than that.) So until then I will leave you with one more cute, adorable photo.



Hee hee...

I am the bomb. Also, that bomb dropped on our house.

(This is a two-part entry. Part one is crazy good. Part two is just crazy.)

So yesterday at 9:30 a.m. I sat my butt in our federal courthouse for my 341 hearing -- pretty much the meeting of myself, my attorney, the trustee, and any creditors that cared to show and speak regarding my bankruptcy. (Tip - creditors never show unless you've likely done something really bad, like fraud or embezzlement or evil.) There were about 15-20 other folks there as well, so I wasn't the only one, but dang was I nervous. This is where I would find out how my bankruptcy would proceed, and how my assets, if any, would be distributed.

I waited. And waited. And ... yeah, waited some more. I got to talking to this old man sitting next to me (And eventually, the guy behind us -- everyone wanted to blab at me! Did I have good hair or something??) and we talked about why we each were in this situation, laughed about it, talked about our pets, and he told me about his 50th high school reunion he just attended. He joked that he couldn't remember half the people that remembered him, and had to keep asking ... "Who the heck are you??" ... and the people HE remembered had to keep asking him ... "Who the heck are you??" We got a good laugh out of it. In retrospect I'm glad we talked; it surely took the edge off of both of us.

And then, at about 11:30, I was called up to swear my life away on the Bible and throw my battered financials on the mercy of the court. At this point I was more hungry than anything; I'd forgotten to bring my muffin from home, and have you tried to find a vending machine in a court building? Good luck to you if you do.

At any rate, I answered all of their questions, and my case was deemed a no-asset distribution. Which means I have no assets to distribute (hur hur), but more importantly, I get to keep what meager worldly possessions I have. And, that my petition passed.

And, that I DID IT. I totally, totally did it. I'm totally done. In 30-60 days I'll receive my discharge notice in the mail, I'll be totally bankrupt, and free free free to start anew.

I really can't describe the feeling of freedom this gives me. A HUGE weight lifted off my shoulders. For the past three or so years I've really been living under stress and fear - it may sound cliche, but I was afraid of everything... afraid of what notice I'd get in the mail that day, afraid of who would call me, afraid that someone would come to the door and give me papers. Being afraid to check the mail just isn't right. Everything felt so out of control, and I felt like I was just being dragged along for this horrible ride. And I remember when I finally realized that I could possibly, just possibly, file for bankruptcy, and I could take control of everything that was happening to me... I just started bawling, in my car, in the middle of rush-hour traffic because I was so happy and filled with hope! It was such a liberating moment, as was this entire process. I really started to feel happy again, like I was getting a second chance at my life without all the stress and the fear and the worry that stemmed from some poorly made decisions.

I'll never forget me leaving the courthouse yesterday; walking down the hall towards the exit with the biggest smile on my face and a bunch of excited exclamation points bumping around in my brain. It's one of those moments that I'll remember, hopefully forever, but who knows with my memory...

And do you want to know the first thing I did when I left? (I know you do!) I walked right down the riverwalk to the chocolate shop and bought myself some malted milk balls! HECK YES! (I bought Matt a peanut butter cup too, because we were there this past weekend, and he was looking at the peanut butter cups longingly, and he was about to buy one but my stomach suddenly got extremely uproarious, and it was most certainly not because I devoured half of a humongous brownie sundae after dinner, okay maybe it was, but anyway we had to make a hasty exit and I felt bad, but that's a whole other story.)

Oh and I got a call for a job interview while I was sitting around waiting to declare my what-have-yous, so I have an interview tomorrow at 11 am! Double awesome!!

* * * * * * * *

So I'm driving home yesterday and this massive thunderstorm opens up, like torrential rains and hey I can't really see the car in front of me and wow that lightning was right in my face. I make it home -- praising the new tires I had put on a month ago -- and I'm making lunch when... CRACKA BOOM, out goes our TV and internet amidst the monsoon outside. Little did we know it also blew out our electric garage door opener, and ALL the electricity in the garage... but we found out when we tried to leave for dinner... TRAPPED, in our own garage!

Will that stop us from getting dinner at dollar taco night?! (A lot tastier and higher quality than it sounds, BTW.) HECK NO. We busted our way out anyways with the help of our P90X muscles and the garage door book that told us how to open it manually. Strangely enough it seems the whole blocks garage doors weren't working, and we got a chance to meet one of our neighbors who has a personality very much akin to a bag of turnips. (Hopefully some of our neighbors moving in next month will have personalities more like bags of freshly cut daisies, or lab puppies, or piles of fresh blueberries!)
So, what do we do when we have no internet, no TV, and nothing to do for the night? Why, buy a bottle of chardonnay and watch Monty Python and The Holy Grail on DVD, of course! You silly English Knnnnnn-ig-its! Bwahaha.

Obv. today we have internet back, and TV as well, but the garage door is still going on a wing, a prayer, and a maintenance ticket. At least we can get out, though. Don't stifle my freedom, electrical storm.



Okay, that's all. I need to take a picture for my 52 this week, and I was planning on going to some local gardens and doing something fun and cool, but the weather is farting in my general direction so I may just go flail about in the marsh behind our house thanks to all the rain! Ahh, getting in touch with nature... :)

Mailbox at the Beach - An Excursion

It's no secret that I live on the coast. (Blog title sorta gives that away!) It may, however, be a secret that I live very close to Wrightsville Beach, about 5 minutes away and over the drawbridge. It's a cute little place, very cozy and home-y in the off season, and a perfect summer beach in the on-season. It's your typical coastal, island town.

Our beach has a mailbox *somewhere* on it. I'm not going to tell quite where, as it will add to the mystery. ;) But it's a mailbox with a set of wooden steps on a certain area of the beach, and there's something really ... neat there. I'm not going to give THAT away yet either, but you'll find out, as yesterday morning I decided to finally head out there and see if I could hunt this place down.

There really isn't much about this mystery locale on the internet, so what little information I had I'd gathered up from Google searches and a local magazine that published a small article on it last year. (Yes, I still had the back copy of that mag. And coincidentally enough, the local news also posted a small story on the mailbox that can be found when Googling now, although they don't give away the location! ;) So I grabbed my camera to document my adventure, hopped into the car, and headed out!

I made it! The public access was somewhat empty this morning, so I managed to get a shot of it. It was also REALLY bright out this morning, so I did a little post-processing on most of these photos so the colors would pop more. :)

Ahh, a nice clear sunny day! This area of the beach isn't a real popular 'touristy' area, so it was quiet, clean, and awesome. It's also not really 'tourist season' yet, so we'll see how it gets in a month or two!

I couldn't resist taking a photo of a few shells. :) I was also here to pick up some shells and sand for the winner of my giveaway, so it was a multi-purpose trip! Nothing wrong with digging around in the sand once in a while...

Ah, the beach! I love the beach! The water was pretty nice today, and I was wishing I had brought my bathing suit, beach chair, and book... maybe next time, though. I was here on business this time! And I had a ways to walk too...

This little guy was happy to point me in the right direction... and also to remind me, KEEP OFF THE DUNES! He was really noisy, and it was so funny to see him sitting on this sign, honking away, that I came up from the shoreline to take a photo.

Taking a break... aaaaaahh. I had been walking for a -long- time at this point! (A sidenote; after my excursion was over, I realized that I actually parked a lot farther away than I had to. Oops!) So I took a break to try and snap a photo of some relaxing seagulls. This guy seems kind of wary; actually, it was hard for me to get close without them standing up and walking away!

... Okay, almost there now... I think...

I knew I was almost there when the people started to dwindle to a few lone wanderers, and I stumbled upon this bird sanctuary. It was roped off, so I took this photo over the ropes. What a sweet place for the beach birds to nest... :)

Now I *know* I'm almost there, because I'm at the very end of the island! I took this photo across the inlet, of the big fancy houses on the other side! Aaahhh, that's the life. :) I was amazed how much bluer the water was here, likely because it's shallow.

... Okay... walk a little bit more ... turn around and ... !!

I found it!!!! Nestled in the dunes is a mailbox with a set of stairs -- they weren't always this short, the stairs used to be a full set, but the sand has covered nearly all of it. So now the steps are more of a seat. :)

And I have to admit, I feel AWFUL that I didn't get a shot from farther away of this, because it looks so cool. I turned around from taking the last shot of the sound to see this almost behind me, and I was overwhelmed with giddiness and almost childlike excitement that it totally slipped my mind.

It really was like a treasure hunt, because this place has been here for years but you really have to go a bit off the beaten path to find it, a little bit of an adventure. :) It was exciting and exhilarating to get out there and experience the sun and the sand along with searching for something iconic yet tucked away from the majority of people that visit the beach. Something special for sure.

But okay, back to the photo adventure!

You can see on the face of the mailbox door, it's scrawled with, "LEAVE A NOTE". And it has a cool starfish handle! The mailbox itself wasn't very large, probably a little bigger than my camera bag. I opened the door...

... and there it is! A notebook and pens, just ready for you to leave a note. :)

I don't know who exactly maintains the mailbox (although I have a hunch), but there is always a fresh notebook in here with some pens for people to write down their thoughts, pour out their hearts, or just draw a nice little picture. Here is what I wrote...

Not the most profound or mind-boggling, but it's true! I'll tell you though, earlier in the week I had worked up in my head what I was going to write in here, but once I actually got out here it all seemed to have fallen out of my head and so I had to go the impromptu route. ;)

The notebook is like a Postsecret, but a little bit neater I think. I sat here for about 20 minutes and flipped through the book, just reading. Some people had written pages upon pages of what they were going through at the time, some just a few words. Grief, sadness, fear and worry, to happiness, elation, joy and hope -- emotions spanned the gamut in this little book, and I couldn't resist photographing a few other entries.

It was nice that there really weren't a lot of people around (granted, it was about 11:00 am on a Thursday) so I could take my time and relax in this little haven. I had such a blast flipping through this notebook, and wondered who was collecting them all and replacing them with new ones... wouldn't that be fun...?

It's become something of a tradition to leave seashells behind at the stairs. This tree was covered in them, some attached by ribbon, some attached by string. Larger ones that couldn't be hung up were left on the sand and scattered around the stairs.

Here are some more shells, and the surfboard here... I don't know if that's always here, or if it was left recently. Either way, it's pretty neat. :)

Ta-da! This is the best photo of me I could get as a photographer without a tripod on a really sunny day! ;) I kinda like it, I think it mirrors the mystique of all of the notebook entries by only being a shadow.

All right, time to get out of here... wait, one more shot of the ocean!


Ahh, that's better! NOW I can go!

I hope you enjoyed my adventure of seeking out this little local treasure. I was happy to finally get out there and look for it; I had been meaning to for some time. And now that I know where to go, I'll surely be back for more in the future. And if YOU ever happen to be in the neighborhood, drop me a line, and I'll take you there! :)

WORDY Wednesday! Cheers & Jeers & Shinies are here...

I usually post a super-cool photo for Wordless Wednesday. What, it's not a cop-out on not writing a post! My pictures are awesome! But today...

TODAY, can't be wordless. Too much has gone on in the past few days to keep my trap shut about it, so I'm going against convention and doing WORDY WEDNESDAY. And it will be done in three categories; Cheers, Jeers, and Shinies. Unfortunately Jeers has to come first to be chronologically correct soooo...

JEERS!

My car failed inspection! What in the world?! I didn't even think I NEEDED an inspection; heck, in Maryland they inspect it every two years. They don't even do 'em in Florida! So when I went to re-register my car online it asked me, "Is your inspection current?" Well, heck if I know. Oops! It's not. Actually, it's 10 days overdue. Better get that taken care of!....

Two of my tires are really bad, like the tread is almost gone and you can maybe see a little bit of the metal from the bands inside showing. (I know this because we rotated my tires this weekend. Aha!) But who checks tires on an inspection, anyway? In Maryland, they just eyeball your car, stick some kind of beepy meter in your gas cap thing and hook some doodad up to your tailpipe for a minute and let you go. In Florida, they don't even do THAT! At any rate, I need two new tires and an alignment before my car will pass. Sheesh.

Yesterday was a bad day. I whined, I bemoaned my fate, I stuck my head under some blankets and boo-hoo'ed. I'm tired of things going wrong and costing money! But luckily, I had some "emergency" money set aside that I will begrudgingly use for two new tires and yadda yadda gimme a registration for another year please.

Okay, now that that junk-ola is out of the way.

CHEERS!

I had a job interview today! That I AM REALLY EXCITED ABOUT! So excited, I had to break out the caps for nearly that whole sentence. It's for a front office position at an optometry office, and I think the interview went AMAZINGLY well, so please keep your fingers, toes, eyes, arms, legs, and antennae if you have them crossed for me!! I need this job like vodka needs cranberry juice (or whatever juice of your choosing) and it would be right up my alley. So natch, very optimistic about that.

And, I came home today to find that my flowers I had planted this weekend are beginning to sprout!! Two of my four pots (the marigolds and one of the mixed pots) have little baby sprouts in them, and I pretty much did a Snoopy Dance of Happiness right there. I'm surprised because the packaging said to expect sprouts in 12-14 days... I'm not using regular soil, but potting soil made specifically for starting seeds so maybe that's why.

And of course, I took some pictures. No, I haven't uploaded them yet. Gimme a week ... or two.

SHINIES!

Krysten is an awesome lady and she lives over at After 'I Do', and she's having a giveaway for this gorgeous little number riiiight here:



Isn't that little sparrow necklace the *cutest*?? I'm trying my darndest to win it, and should you think it's the *cutest* as well, visit her and enter here!!



... All right, that's all I've got! .... Okay, maybe just one photo.




This is one of my favorite photos I've taken, of a girl angel statue in a quaint, charming little outdoor shopping area here called Lumina Station. I really like the composition, and the light was working just right for me. :) The statue has such a great shape that I couldn't resist getting just the right shot.



Okay, NOW I'm really done.

A busy week approaches...

Happy November y'all!! :) I hope everyone had a delightfully spooky and fun Halloween - Mr. Cats and I are very into horror films, especially foreign ones (they just seem so much scarier!) and we watcheed a Spanish film called [REC]... they recently remade it to be called 'Quarantine' here in America... oh man, the end of this movie scared me SO MUCH! There are very few horror movies where I have to actually hide my eyes, but this was one of them. Oh man... good stuff! Then Bram Stoker's Dracula was on Chiller (ah, Gary Oldman), so we watched that, and a bunch of awesome short films. :) Good times!

But yeah, this week is going to be BUSY! You may remember me talking a while back about a house we are building... well it's DONE! Our final walkthrough is tomorrow, and the papers will be signed Friday! WOW!!! It's gone from this ...


... to THIS!!!!


We are SO excited to start moving in!!! Right now we are only a few miles away so packing and moving will be easier for us, and we will be completely moved in by Thanksgiving week, as some friends are coming to help. :) :) :) YAY!!!! We started this process way back in May and finally settled on a house plan and a lot, and it took about three straight months to build. It's a little one story ranch with three beds and two baths, a two car garage, lovely hardwood floors and granite countertops and a great screened in porch on our big backyard! So yeah, it's been going on for a while, and Friday it's ours!!!! :D

Friday is also the day I'm choosing a winner for my tasty fall chocolate giveaway, so head on over and check it out if you haven't already! Yum yum yum :)

Also, the job I am hoping to get will hopefully call me in for an interview this week. Fingers crossed, I could use it!

AND, I'm hoping to finish my scarf. I know, kind of trite compared to the other big stuff going on, but it's my very first scarf I've knitted EVER and I've been working on it on and off for about a month now. It's pink! And it will have tassels on the ends. :) I'll show you once I'm done!

And .... I got a new layout for this blog. I really like the colors and columns, I hope it looks good for you guys too!

So that's my big week, hope you guys have a fun and exciting one too! It's about 78 degrees here in North Carolina today so we're heading out to take a walk soon. :)

Ee, awards!

I've been tagged by the awesomely creative Valerie at a visible spectrum with the lovely blog award!



The people I tag with this award are:
Nonchalant Girl
Moonjava's Muse
Teasingly Diverse
Through Squirrel Eyes

Yay for blog love! :)

I haven't posted in a while... I've been SO BUSY! And tired!! I'm biting the bullet and taking off Friday -- even though I won't get paid for it -- because I want a relaxing 3-day weekend! I mean, I'm coming home at lunch and napping. Yeesh! And besides, the 4th of July holiday falls on a Saturday this year, so we won't get a 3-day weekend for that. So I'm planning a nice, relaxing little beach outing, and lots of napping. :) Matt and I are going to go rent a paddleboat at Greenfield Lake Park and paddle down the rivers! Wooooo! Hafta bring the camera for that one... :)

Hope y'all had a nice relaxing weekend -- although I took a few naps, I was still tired this morning, but I did have a great little weekend. Felt way too short though! Oh well, 3-dayer soon. ;)



( I used the word 'nap' a ton in the post... can ya tell I love 'em??)