A Change

On Thursday, after 4 1/2 years of working for a small company, I got laid off along with 1/3 of the employees. I'm not sure it has quite hit me yet, at least not completely. I feel like I'm just taking a few days off and then I'll be back at my little cube overlooking 183. I knew the company wasn't doing great, but I thought things would turn around. We had just done a joint venture with the company's co-op and figured that I'd be extremely busy. But I guess things just kept going south and they needed to cut costs fast, and that meant dropping staff. So, here I am in Austin, with a BS in Radio-TV-Film, 4 1/2 years of administrative/executive assistant experience and looking for a job. Where do I go from here?

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Day 0 - Thursday
Laid off
Commiserate with other lay-off-ees
Tell husband
Go home
Cry
Drink 2 margaritas
Cry
Talk to friend
Cry
Eat leftovers
Watch Sopranos
Cry
Go to sleep

Day 1 - Friday
Sleep in a bit
Apply for Unemployment
Do laundry
Email friends/family for job recs
Call Mom/Dad - find out sister's apartment got broken into
Post on Facebook for job recs
Call Sister - commiserate about our crappy days
Apply for student loan deferment
Update Resume
Get treated to lunch by friend
Go to library
Rush home to apply for job (rec'd by friend) by 5pm
Do more laundry
Vacuum
Eat dinner
Watch TV
Go to bed

Day 2 - Saturday!
Sleep in
Work on resume
Search for jobs
Babysit niece

Day 3 - Sunday
Church
Lunch
Search for jobs
Work on resume
Work on Letter of Interest
Work on List of References
Re-apply for job from Friday to include above additions

Day 4 - Monday
Doctor appointment
Post Office
Search for jobs
Clean bathrooms
Lunch
Search for jobs
Work on new letters of interest
Apply for jobs
Work out
Make dinner
Type this blog

Home Sweet Home

We're still getting settled into our new place and I promise pictures will come soon, but we want to get everything set up and the boxes kicked out first. We can't wait to have people over soon for a housewarming, just trying to figure out the date right now.

If you are are coming in from out of town and need a place to stay, we have a guest bedroom! With a door! And a 2nd bathroom! Yep, we're pretty excited about the extra space. The kitties just don't know what to do with themselves. I seriously think they get lost at times. Every once in a while, I'll find Calliope staring at Patrick's closet and meowing (yep, we now don't even have to share a closet!!)

Looks like a couple trips to Ikea, Target, the Natural Gardener, and Home Depot are in store for us over the next few weeks and this right after I've made 3 or 4 trips to Salvation Army to donate things we wanted to get rid of. Weird how that happens.

Casa del Maxwell

We have one more week of packing and purging of things before we load up the truck and move into our new home. I am so excited to have a little more space with a second bedroom, second bathroom and a balcony and to be living in the same complex as a few of our friends, but at the same time, the leaving is bittersweet.


It's not that we're moving far away and leaving behind people we love, like Patrick's sister and our brother-in-law did back in May. It's just that, well, this was our first home together. The first place we picked out and furnished and lived in for the past five years. We know all its quirks and how loud our current neighbors are. I know where all the light switches are without having to run my hand up and down a wall. I know how to find my way from the darkened kitchen to my side of the bed without stubbing my toe.

So, in a couple months, once we get things all set up in Casa del Maxwell, come on out for a visit! We'll have an actual guest bedroom for you to stay in! That is, as long as you don't mind sharing it with the kitties...

"Knuden" Reunion

Hope everyone had a wonderful, fun-filled, Four of July! This year, Patrick and I ventured up to the DFW Metroplex for the first Knudsen Family Reunion and along the way, met up with some friends whom we hadn't seen in awhile.

We drove up from Austin Saturday morning and got to Dallas in time to have very yummy lunch of Cuban food and bottomless mimosas and bellinis with Amy and her boyfriend Glenn (the second 'n' is silent). From there, we drove to our hotel in downtown Fort Worth and then met up with Julie and Matt for drinks at Flying Saucer, where we sampled some new beers and I made faces when sipping Patrick's Double Dead Guy Ale (Brandi, has Chris had this one??) and some incredibly hoppy IPA. We laughed, traded stories (some people might call it gossip) and I think I might have agreed to going to my 10 year reunion somewhere in there. And from the third story of the parking garage, we saw a couple of fireworks go off, but that was about it for our 4th of July celebration.

On Sunday, the entire Knudsen branch of my family (minus Rachael & Hagan) gathered at my cousin Jenny & Curtis' house. I think Jenny was a little sleep deprived, because she wrote "Knuden Reunion" and forgot the 's' in Knudsen on the chalkboard. We got to see people that we hadn't seen in a number of years and even got to meet a few new members. I got to squeeze the neck of some of my favorite cousins, and played with my cousin Lori's rolly-polly of a son, who has the most squeezable cheeks you have ever seen! It was so nice to see everyone in one place since the last time we all got together was almost 9 years ago (not including all the weddings that happened in between.) I have to admit, at first I wasn't to excited about a family reunion when I first heard about it, but we had a bunch of fun and finally got to connect with family that live just around the corner. Can't wait to see the pictures from yesterday!

Reunion

Last night, after going through our entire Netflix Instant Watch list, we finally decided on revisiting Can't Hardly Wait. The movie was released the summer between Patrick's senior year of high school and my senior year of high school, so it definitely has a bit of nostalgia about it. The soundtrack to the film carried over to the soundtrack of our senior video that my film class edited and showed at our prom....yes, complete with the footage of me being wheeled off after fainting during the senior panorama picture. It was a hot, humid, September day in Texas. It happens. And while still in high school, I even got the poster from a friend who worked in a video store.

Besides some of the obvious ones: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ethan Embry and Seth Green, that film seemed to be a jumping off point for so many actors in their late teens early 20s. There even seemed to be a pre-union (instead of reunion?) of Six Feet Under actors in there. Patrick pointed out that he has now seen Lauren Ambrose get licked by Eric Balfour in two different shows. Every time the shot or point of view changed, another familiar face jumped out and Patrick or I would yell "That Guy!" or "That Girl!"

And for all those people I didn't recognize, I wonder what happened to them. I wonder where they are now? 10 Years later. That's kind of how I feel on Facebook sometimes: getting a friend request from someone I can't quite remember or wondering about an old friend. My 10 year high school reunion is coming up this fall. I'm not even sure if I will be going...I'm just not quite sure if I'm ready for that

Birthdays

I have to say that I think I've been pretty spoiled by my past few birthdays. Last year, I spent a week in L.A. hanging out with Courtney in the hills of Hollywood. The year before, I was in NYC, spending time with both Patrick's and my sisters and getting to visit our newborn niece. Three years ago, we actually threw a big Quarter of Century party and made fajitas for about 25 of our friends (learned our lesson with that....order take-out or else your home will smell like fajitas for 3 weeks.) So this year, I think I was a little bummed that I wasn't traveling or planning a party.

It was a nice birthday. Went to lunch with Tracy and our coworker Beth, enjoyed some Mexican Martinis with Patrick and Chris (and almost Susan, but she went to Chuy's instead of Trudy's), watched UT beat up against LSU (and then end up losing the 3rd game of the College World Series), and got a million texts, emails, voice mails, and messages on facebook wishing me a "Happy Birthday." I felt loved. But there was something missing and I'm not sure what that was. Maybe it was just because I've been spoiled before. Maybe it's hitting me that I'm so much closer to 30 than 20.

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Patrick surprised me with the soundtrack to Wicked and the promise of attending the show in August, so I've been addicted to Kristin Chenowith's voice for the past week and can't wait to lock in a date to see it!

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This past weekend, we had planned to go to the Real Ale Anniversary Party down in Blanco for some free beer and music, but with record setting temperatures (106 people!!) and heat warning advisories spreading across Central Texas, we opted for the cold 68 degree water of Barton Springs. Sophie seemed to love spinning in her duckie floatie in the shallow end while we attempted to lay down in order to cover our entire bodies with the water.

And between game night with our small group, Barton Springs, dinner at Guero's, poker with Jake & Jill, and a Goodbye brunch for our friend Steven (who finally gets to be in the same town as his girlfriend Iliana, my college roomie), our weekend was packed. Fun, but packed.

This coming weekend will prove to be no different, I'm sure. Independence Day with a trip up to DFW for the Knudsen family reunion. So excited to see some of these people, some I haven't seen since getting married, and some will be seeing them for the first time (lots of new babies!) I'm just praying for no traffic this weekend.

Double Dose Whipper Snapper

I'm in trouble now that there is a Hey Cupcake just down the street from where I live. Now how about setting up a Mighty Cone next door?