Babies, babies everywhere...

I swear, there must be something in the water in my family. Everyone is getting pregnant and having babies! My cousin, Stephani (a CPA), and her husband, Brad (an engineer), live in Ohio and are expecting their first--- a baby boy (as yet unnamed)-- very, very soon. My grandmother keeps teasing me that I'm next (Steph is the oldest cousin and I'm the 2nd oldest) but I'm certainly in no hurry....

Hahahaha....

Yup, we're about 2 years old when we're together...he's just too cute...this is what a simple walk in the woods turned into last weekend....

¿Hablas español?

I was officially hired yesterday for my second job!!! I will be working for this summer (at least)as an independent contractor for translating and interpreting. I will do: Spanish to English, English to Spanish, English to Portuguese and Portuguese to English. Yeah!!!!! I'm really excited and rather nervous. This will be my first experience doing this kind of work professionally. The money isn't bad at all and I can do a lot of it from home, which means I can continue even after I move to Nashville-- very nice. The company I'm working for is Spanish Translation and it is owned by Charlotte Hernandez, with whom I had a really great interview yesterday afternoon. She's great. If anyone out there needs this kind of work in the Eastern Panhandle/Tri-State area, she's the one you should call. I hope to become certified through the ATA (American Translators Association) soon.

I've also been trying to write some this summer and get some work sent out--- which I'm failing miserably at. I'm just so tired at the end of the day. It's all I can do to eat, work out and get enough sleep to do it all the next day. I haven't written a story in months, despite a lovely postcard of encouragement from one of my favorite writer-gals, Sara Pritchard. (Which consequently I lost somewhere in all the boxes that now contain my life so, I don't have her address to write back and thank her; if anyone has it let me know, or if she is reading this blog, THANK YOU!). So, in lieu of my failed attempts at being an on-the-side writer, I have a question to all the writer-people out there: How do you stay motivated and inspired? What do you do to "get the juices flowing", so to speak? Any suggestions?

Babies and Puppies...

...who can resist them? Happily for me, I have actually had something of a life in the past few days. My family had a high school graduation party for my cousin, Kara. While there, I got to meet my new cousin/niece (my cousin Amanda's new daughter), Emmalyn. I must say, she's pretty dern cute for something that poops and cries so much. My family also welcomed the newest set of chihuahua puppies (courtesy of my cousin, Matt). Again, lots of pooping and crying but oh so adorable.



Saturday night was spent at another Roma Renegade concert with my favorite accordianist and gypsy-swinger, Gabby & Co. Not really any pooping or crying going on, but still lots of fun. Marian and I are obsessive picture-takers so, here are just a few...



...the night would not have been complete without the midnight run to Wal-Mart and the trying on of the elephant-sized ugly-pants!


...and the cheap-ass breakfast at Wafflehouse at 12:30, which is what all established musicians do after a show--- eat crappy food and look cool. And, in case you can't tell from the photos, I got a hair-cut, which I desperately needed for oh, 6 months now.

Two Giant Scoops of Nuthin'

I'm blogging out of the sheer annoyance that I have nothing remotely interesting to blog about. How crummy is that? Basically, my life at this moment consists of:

1) Work from 8am to whenever I'm done (usually almost 5pm)
2) Eating-- trying to get 3 square ones a day, sometimes at the desk
3) Sleeping-- cannot seem to catch up; I'm sleepy at 7pm but then can't actually get to sleep until after 11pm and must wake up at 6:30AM
4) Driving-- my family and I have been driving back and forth from Philly almost every weekend so, my Saturdays are completely spent within an SUV
5) Planning-- got my fall classes picked out, trying to develop an interior design scheme for my new apartment (on a miniscule budget), dreaming about where I'll be next summer (I'm thinkin' Spain and Portugual)

The only wild thing that has happened lately didn't even actually happen to me-- it happened to my boss. She got a wicked case of poison ivy over Memorial Day weekend and, since then, has been highly medicated. Nothing seemed to be working so, her doctor gave her a steroid shot. She had a severely allergic reaction to this shot (while at work with me), broke out into hives, started throwing up and ran a tremendously high fever. Her husband took her to the ER where they promptly diagnosed her and gave her MORE drugs to knock her out and let her body fix itself. That said, she has been working 1/2 days for most of this week which really sucks for me because--- without a boss I have no work to do; thus, I've been working 1/2 days, which I really can't afford right now. Major bummer all around but, luckily, she's doing much better now. Hopefully, next week will be a full-time week.