To-Do Lists and Job Hunting

Well, I can safely say that this post will be a lot more mundane and a lot less insightful than the last one. I'll add more later, but I want adequate time to process and organize my thoughts.

So! The whole job-hunt thing seems to be turning into a literal endeavor. I feel like Bryan and I have been fixated, waiting by the phone like a couple of addicts, wishing that it would just ring, RING FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE WHY WON'T IT RING?! I've put in applications to about twenty different jobs (both "career" jobs and part-time stuff), and now we're in the very-painful waiting-for-callbacks phase. In the meantime, I've been frantically applying to every serving job and customer service gig I can think of, hoping that I just might get a call back today? or tomorrow? or maybe an email *refresh gmail in anticipation*?

As to the apartment, I made up a to-do list for all the things that needed doing/are done:

• Assemble shelving unit for the kitchen.
• Add extra shelves to the undershelved kitchen shelf unit.
• Assemble and level kitchen island.
• Save moneys and purchase a bed and frame (still trying to decide what to do...I may build this headboard from Ana White...a knockoff of a West Elm version that I love. But! We want something that we can use for a while instead of investing in a new one every year. Like last years' Ikea tragedy...)
• Make or DIY some sort of large-and-in-charge wall art to go over the TV (there is a large, sad, white space there currently, which I'm itching to fill with something awesome like this, but I'm still undecided).
• Make some sort of hook rail to hang hats and purses on (right now they are littering the bedroom floor, but they have nowhere to go!)
• Build a couple of side tables for the patio like these for plants/beverages to sit on.
• Eventually, replace the moronically undersized LACK side table (read: tiny square of table space) that our gargantuan TV sits on. Also possibly building it? Leaving it unfinished would match the bookcase that my dad helped me build for Bryan last V-Day.

Whew! Lots of stuff still to go. Although the apartment is entirely livable and organized, it doesn't feel finished yet. Since taking a couple of doors off (a hideous bi-fold door to the pantry that wouldn't close all the way and the door to our closet, which we couldn't open due to how close the bed is) and replacing them with curtains, the place has warmed up considerably.

I also whipped up some curtain tie-backs with some leftover fabric that I had from this project. (On a related note, my sewing machine will only do HALF of a buttonhole. I have a buttonhole presser foot attachment and have used it before successfully, but for some reason it starts with the bottom bar tack, zig-zags up the left side, and then gets caught in a weird endless loop at the top. What gives, fiendish machine? What gives?)

Mom and Melissa came up this past weekend to visit, which was nice. Unfortunately, the weather was relentless and it stormed, rained, and was chilly the entire time, which didn't give us very many options. Also, it seems that this week is when things are going to start picking up in terms of street festivals and free outdoor activities (YAY), but I'm sad that they didn't get to participate (boo, hiss). I hope trolling Milwaukee thrift stores was good enough. :)

There are lots of things going on this weekend, though. There's a reading at New Wave on Friday that we're planning on going to (as well as screenings of classic horror/sci-fi movies via Shock Theater...maybe we can make it to both?), then the Printers Row Lit Fest on Saturday and Sunday downtown, and then, finally, the much-anticipated Logan Square Farmers Market on Sunday. Yay for having a social life!...it's about time.