It's Birthday!

Well, not technically. It was Thursday. But I'm still celebrating.

I turned 23. Which means that 18 years ago, I turned 5. I have no pictures from my 23rd birthday, but here's one from my 5th:

Awwww.

I don't really do New Year's Resolutions. I prefer to let the clock roll over into a new year without any damning guilt because I didn't complete my goals, thank you. Instead, on or around my birthday I usually do a little self-reflection and think about where and who I've been on my previous birthdays, and where and who I'd like to be on my next birthday. It's a little less pressure.

Thanks Bill Watterson.

Last year around my birthday, I was moving into a new house with new roommates, I was figuring out my relationship with The Professor and thinking about getting married, I was getting ready to go back to school and narrowing down my list of potential majors (and resolving that I wasn't going to change it again). I was excited about not being 21 anymore; 21 was a hard year for me. And yes, I was enjoying my birthday.

I LOVE my birthday. I love everyone's birthday, actually; for whatever reason, birthdays are really exciting to me. There was a time when I tried to grow up and deny that I love celebrating my birthday, but then I got over it and decided that enjoying it was way more fun and way more honest. The couple of birthdays I tried to be cool about, I ended up feeling more disappointed than anything. So now I enjoy it openly! And I enjoy enjoying it! So shut up!

It's become my belief that everyone has an age that's sort of a sweet spot for them. My mom always says she loved being 30. I have a feeling mine will be 32. So 23 feels good. It feels like a solid step forward. Call me crazy, but it feels like a relief compared to 22. But I'm weird with numbers.

Anyway, 23 (and most of 24, for that matter) is going to be busy. I'm getting it out there now so I'm not surprised by it later: I am going to be tired, busy, and probably sore for most of the next year and a half. But it's worth it, right? It's also weird to think that, since the Professor and I have been talking about it, there's a distinct possibility I might be carrying a wee babe by my 24th birthday. (Not a goal, just a still-up-in-the-air possibility. Don't get excited.) (And while we're on the subject, how on earth am I supposed to refer to said wee babe on this blog once one comes along? Seriously. If you have suggestions, I'm open.)

So I've been thinking about my goals for my 23rd year. What do I want to do or become before I turn 24? I came up with a short, hopefully manageable list:

• I'd like for the Professor and I to get closer to buying a house. We're hoping for February or March, but those are early estimates and there are no guarantees. 
• I'd like to get back into shape. I know, I know, everyone makes this goal, but I am already working arms for that wedding dress and it's just a matter of willpower for the rest of my body. And the thing is, I don't think I'm ready to house a baby when I can't walk up and down stairs without getting winded. That's not the only reason I want to get into shape, but I think it's a good one. I want to get back into yoga, get back to feeling good in my body. 
• I'd like to flesh out the Simplicity goal. It's a really broad goal, but it's dear to my heart.
• Catch up on episodes of The New Girl <-- I can probably do this within the week.

In other news, on Friday I have my initial appointment for getting tested for Celiac. I'm hoping it'll come up negative, but the more I read about the symptoms and signs, the more I think I probably have it. And if I do come up positive, hey, at least I'll know why I feel sick all the time. So this week is pasta week. I'm going to enjoy it before I know for sure that it's bad for me. And by enjoy it I mean enjoy eating it and then not enjoy being in the bathroom for half an hour. TMI? Sorry.

There is also a Pride and Prejudice Card Game being produced. You can buy it on the Kickstarter page. You're welcome.

Update!

After a totally planned (read: totally unplanned) hiatus, we're back to bring you the latest and greatest updates from the Professor and His Wife! Hold your applause, please.

We've been working hard for the past couple of months, planning our November vow renewal, trying to beat the heat, and watching the Colorado wildfires closely. It seems like even our days off have been packed full. Today, though, I have a real, true day off, with no obligations, no meetings, and no schedule! So here I sit, at my mother-in-law's where we're house/dog/birdsitting, coffee in hand, enjoying a David Attenborough-narrated documentary about the ocean, and catching up on this, the blog that is always on my to-do list but which never gets crossed off.

So what's new? For starters, Effie wasn't pregnant, so big relief there. I mean, I love kittens as much as the next squealing seven-year-old, but I was in no way ready to be a grandmother. Especially since kittens take a lot of time and attention, and I work full time. So, happily, our number is still three and not seven or eight. Whew!

We now officially have health insurance, which feels so much better than I expected it to. It's like we have this great big cushion to fall on when one of us inevitably breaks something or gets horribly sick. We're ready for our lease to be up, have plans to move in with the Professor's parents short-term until we have enough saved up for a down payment on a house. I'm taking some summer classes and am working on getting my First Aid/CPR certification, and hopefully can start thinking about getting a job with the school district and getting my foot in the door.

And not to harp on an old subject, but I am totally feeling the baby fever again. A lot (A LOT) of my Facebook friends are pregnant or have just had babies (in fact, I just clicked over there to see that a friend and his wife JUST welcomed their son this morning!) Given that I have a wedding dress to fit into in November and that I'm not done with school until 2015 - not to mention we don't have a house of our own - having a baby should not be anywhere near the front of my mind. If anything, it should be slowly, slowly simmering on a far back, ideally malfunctioning burner. But it's hard to avoid thinking about it when it's so prevalent in my friends' lives. Even the whales on my TV screen are mothering their babies.

Lastly, the Professor and I are so looking forward to Jazz Aspen Snowmass over Labor Day weekend; we've got our three-day passes and a few extra days off, so we're going to make a little vacation out of it. Can't wait!

And so ends the update. More engaging, intellectual material coming soon, I promise.

-The Professor's Wife

Meet Effie!

This is Effie, our new baby! She's a dilute calico/domestic short hair mix, and a rescue from the Look What the Cat Brought In shelter.

That's the Professor's Wife in the background. 

We picked her up last night. She's about nine months old, and she is as sweet and outgoing as can be. When she's not cuddling with Mom or Dad, she loves playing with her toys, scratching her post and running crazily from one room to the other. Granted, that last one is probably mostly dear-lord-where-am-I behavior, but it's still cute.

She's been adapting wonderfully to our home, and since I'm home this morning, I've been able to hang out with her and start figuring her out. Some things I've learned so far: In typical cat fashion, she loves sitting on my keyboard while I'm trying to use it. Any typos in this post will therefore be blamed on her.   She loves drinking out of people cups and will try to squish her face down into one, no matter what size, in order to get what's in it. This means I'll have to be much better about cleaning up my wine glasses. She also loves to sniff the Professor's shoes and spent quite a bit of time this morning exploring his half of the closet. And she's an excellent cuddler. After the Professor left for work this morning, Effie finally got tired of knocking papers off of the desk (they say the first night is the hardest) and climbed up into the bed with me, curled up, and napped there for an hour. She purrs in her sleep.

Can you tell I'm in love? The funny thing is, I've never been a cat person. We've always had dogs in my family, and because of allergies (including mine) we never had cats. The Professor and I had been talking about adopting a pet, and when we walked in and saw Effie we both loved her right away and it wasn't a tough decision to bring her home. So while we have to deal with the allergies (we stocked up on Claritin and Visine), we already feel like we got really lucky with Effie. She's great in a kennel in the car, she eats well and has already gotten used to the new litter box. It's like we were just waiting to find her, and she was waiting for us.

So now I have to interject and tell you what cute thing she's doing. I have my water cup right next to my computer and she's squashed her face down in there to get some, but every once in awhile she'll pop up and put her paw on my hand like she's helping me type.

I am totally turning into a cat lady.

-The Professor's Wife

Baby Fever

And now, for a little personal information about The Professor and His Wife: ages! The Professor is 24. His Wife is 22. We're pretty young, pretty hip kids who have no business bearing children at this point in our lives. I, The Professor's Wife, am in school full-time, I work 25 or 30 hours a week, and would probably fail to keep a cactus alive (I do, however, hang out with our roommate's ferret sometimes, and she is still alive and well). The Professor works well over full time, is figuring out the school thing and we both come home exhausted most of the time. We don't have health insurance, our budget is so tight it squeaks, and we live with two smelly but wonderful twenty-something dudes who like to play violent video games and swear at the TV. Loud. By all rational standards, we should absolutely not be thinking about getting pregnant. 

Can someone explain to me, then, why I am experiencing serious baby fever? It seems like every time I open Facebook, there's a new picture of someone's adorable newborn, infant, or toddler. Every time we go to the store or grab a coffee, there are eight hundred curly-haired, bright-eyed giggling children running around and smiling at us. I ask myself how come we aren't jumping on the no-sleep, diaper-changing, crib-buying bandwagon? I have to keep reminding myself that it doesn't make sense for us right now. We need to be in way better financial shape, we need to have our own house, and I need to be done with school. When it's time, it'll happen. In the meantime, I will repin baby stuff on Pinterest and fawn over other people's children.

But I'm just saying, if I got pregnant on accident.. I don't think I'd be that upset. Because look at this:

If that doesn't make you want to bear children, WHAT WILL?

-The Professor's Wife