hi-atus

well folks, finishing up packing the apartment. we'll go to pick up the u-haul in about 20 minutes or so, and then it's even more madness to come. last night we discovered some icky stuff that tarzan couldn't keep down and i had to make an emergency run to kroger for cleaning supplies. then, after midnight, we realized we were pretty much out of boxes. gotta love packing up your pantry in plastic grocery bags (i knew i kept those for a reason). packing has gotten pretty creative. empty hangers in a bookbag. comforter stuffed into a bag way too small for it. trevor's car is already almost brimming with stuff too randomly packed to make sense for a moving truck. and did i mention that it will probably be me driving said truck up to batesville? never driven a 14-foot truck before, but i've really never driven trevor's car out of second gear. add to all of this that i've caught trevor's summer cold and i've got a bit of a tummy ache. oh, and that my family can't find the keys to the storage unit in which my washer and drier have been living. shite.

well, this will probably be my last post for awhile, seeing as i'll be in the great state of tennessee (and also pennsylvania) for 2 weeks. so i'll leave you with the above photo and this deep thought:
Sometimes, when I drive across the desert in the middle of the night, with no other cars around, I start imagining: What if there were no civilization out there? No cities, no factories, no people? And then I think: No people or factories? Then who made this car? And this highway? And I get so confused I have to stick my head out the window into the driving rain---unless there's lightning, because I could get struck on the head by a bolt. --jack handy

takin a break!

whew! i'm pooped. packing, packing, packing... what a way to spend time off.

today has already been a long day, and days of our lives isn't even over yet. at 6:15 i got up, ate leftover cake and milk for breakfast, 6:30 got on the road with a car FULL of stuff headed to batesville. i had to go up there to have the gas turned on (apparently you have to be there, cause some houses have blown up...oops) and figured i'd take what i could. note, i did not fit the entirety of that pile below into my car, spacious though it is. i was planning on being stuck there most of the morning waiting on the dude to turn on the gas, but i had just been there 5 minutes when they called. i unloaded the car and tried to take a nap on the floor, but ended up unpacking the boxes i'd brought in. with nothing left to do, i made it back to the apartment by about 11:15. crazy business.

tonight we're going to the seiter-seivers wedding...yahoo chad & rachel!!! i still remember having "girl talk" time with chad about how he had a crush on rachel our first summer at the ranch. very exciting. i don't think i've ever been to a catholic wedding on a friday before...

tomorrow we're going to vino's for our "last night in little rock"...come one come all. we'll be there around 7, so be there, yo.

long time coming

i'm back. and glad. today is the first day since last thursday that i've spent more than an hour of the day at the apartment. so i can finally post pictures and whatnot from graduation. it's been soo busy lately. friday was my hooding ceremony, followed by a party at reno's argenta cafe, then on to katherine's for some more wine, then to whitewater tavern to see the amy garland band. saturday i went to yellville with katie to a goat show so she could try to find a doe for sale, and so we could try to sell her cutie puppies. if anyone is in need of (or desire for) a male great pyraneese pup, let me know, and i'll hook that up. then i went swimming at the watershed with katie and ashley and trevor met me in perryville so we could hang out with that crowd for dinner in morrilton. sunday, of course, was mother's day. went to mass, then took my mom & dad to perryville so my dad could see heifer ranch. dinner and games at aunt margie & uncle gene's. monday was another trip to batesville to take a load of stuff, get the water turned on, and fill out some paperwork at the sheriffs' ranch. dinner at melanie's and kathryn to the quirky little apartment to watch the grey's anatomy finale (intense). yeah, i'm glad to just be sitting down on the couch. but there's so much more to come in the next few days. friday i'm back to batesville, but then on to a wedding in conway. saturday is the last day in the rock, and sunday is the big moving day. monday we're off to tennessee and pennsylvania for two weeks. my vacation is wearing me out.
here's my list of things to get done in the next couple of days, just so you have an idea of how hectic things are...

grocery store
laundry
take give-aways
buy boxes
buy stuff for the new house
pack: photos, decorations, books, dvds, rest of office/computer stuff for friday's trip
write thank-you cards
get tarzan ready for staying at friends': make phone calls, get flea treatment, get food & litter, write note for those keeping him
pack for tennessee
deposit money
cash in change jar for gas $
not to mention doing those "last time in little rock" sorts of things and entertaining my parents that seem to be staying forever.

alright, that was tedious, so here are some photos to cheer.



this is a very dark shot of me after receiving my hood. i've been told that there are better copies out there. i hope so.












this is my fabulous mickey's special affairs cake. i've finally been able to eat my leftovers for breakfast today.











here's part of the crowd that came to celebrate me: melanie, ashley, joel, me, aunt margie, uncle gene, katie, trevor. not pictured: my mom & dad, carrie & nathaniel, meg, leah, aunt cathy, linda & roy. it was a really good time, despite the incident where i had my knee caps slammed into with a keg on a dolly. much food and drink.







this is perhaps the best shot of the evening. it's miss ashley in my griffindor msw hood. stylish as ever.










and this is trevor teaching hunter, lauren frances and lindsey to play croquet on mothers day. if it were any cuter, i'd barf.

some stuff

well, the time is quickly approaching. i'll no longer be just brooke s., i'll be brooke s., msw (well, lmsw as soon as i quit being lazy and apply for licensure).

it's been nice being on vacation. i've done some reading, some packing, katie came over for a visit and to deliver the bowl i painted when we went to firefly studio last week. i've also been working on getting utilities and internet and whatnot all set up at the batesville house. turns out i've got to go up there two times next week--monday with trevor to thake another load, get the water turned on and to fill out some paper work job stuff; and then friday to get the gas turned on. so if anyone is planning on being bored on friday (not as in tomorrow) and wants to take a trip to batesville (a very pretty drive) with me, i'd love the company since it'll just be me otherwise.

my parents should be getting in sometime tonight. they've been driving for days from seattle. yikes. that's a lot of sitting. tomorrow trevor is taking me to lunch before the convocation. then afterwords (and all reading this that know who i am and live in the viscinity) we're all going to louis's restaurant, reno's argenta cafe, for festivities.

well, i'm gonna watch some tv now. i've been making myself do more wholesome things all day (except when my story came on...leah knows what i'm talkin bout), but now it's time for friends and that 70's show. love it.

breaking and entering

so here's a fun sunday:

trevor and i thought we'd take up a load of boxes and whatnot to the batesville house, you know, just get a bit of a start. we also thought it might be fun to take the tarz up with us so he could also check out the house. so we get to the house and unload. eat lunch, make a couple of phone calls, put the boxes in closets and such. tarzan was doing alright, so after lunch we thought we'd leave him there and go check out the availability of our favorite foods at the local kroger.

the excitement all begins when we get back to the house from our trip to the store. the front door had been unlocked when we showed up earlier, so we were extra sure to super lock the back door and to have the front door locked behind us. well, i go to unlock the door with the key our land lady gave me (trevor left his in little rock...what's the point in having 2 keys?), and nothing happens. nothing. yeah, the key is bum. bum.

trevor decides to try to key the door open, and i put him on the phone with the land lady. meanwhile, tarzan's at the door pawing and meowing for us (sadness). land lady says she doesn't have a key on her, and later lets us know that there's no one at the office. message: you're on you own. trevor keeps trying and trying to key the door open, and i walk around the house trying to find alternative ways in. no luck. trevor then decides to get a little more physical with the door. and breaks it down. essentially. the lock was totally jacked up. yep, we were certainly on our own.

so then trevor goes to the wholesale hardware store up the way. long story short(er since it's already gotten pretty long), the wholesale store carries crap and the door knob set he bought was junk. after trevor messing with it awhile, i decide to head somewhere else (that will be kept anonymous) to purchase a more sturdy knob set. finally, trevor gets a new knob and lock and all set up. we're good to go. drive back to little rock. get to the apartment. yeah, where are the apartment keys? you had them last. no, i put them on the counter. uh-huh, they're in batesville. only option: break into our second home of the day. fortunately enough we have the only second-story fire escape and i was able to get on trevor's shoulders, climb the ladder and get in through the one screenless window on our apartment.

we're pretty exhausted. it's tiring breaking into houses and apartments. almost time for grey's anatomy. don't forget to check out the pictures below i took of the house...

housie housie

well, this isn't so much a picture of the house, but this is tarzan riding among the boxes on his way to see his house to be. doesn't he look excited?
here is the kitchen. it has a lot of cabinet and pantry room--sweetness. and note the icing on the cake: a DISHWASHER. the dishes will finally be super clean, the way i like it.
this is the master bedroom. the other 2 bedrooms look pretty much the same: currently very boring. i'll have to take photos when we've actually got stuff in the house.
here's a dark shot of the living room. all of the windows have low sills, which tarzan already loves.
the front of the house. ahh, brown.
this is part of the back yard. the post is one of two, which means i'll get to line-dry laundry when the weather permits. awesome.
view of the back of the house. note the charcoal grill that someone must have left behind. finders keepers...
and this is tarzan hysteria. the ceiling is really high in the living room/kitchen, and there are these platforms--one in the kitchen and one at the front door. yeah, that's tarzan contemplating the distance of the jump to the other one. he got up there by going counter->fridge->cabinets->platform. yikes.

i don't know much about cinco de mayo...

but this site does: mexonline.com

as does ellen degeneres (sort of). well, i'm now on my first official day of my month-long vacation. super. it's been pretty chill. did a little reading this morning, and spent part of the afternoon with my sister cause she wrecked her car this morning. yikes. now i'm just wasting away on the couch in front of the television.

hopefully trevor & i will be making a trip up to batesville sunday with our first load of crapola. we packed up a couple of boxes the other night, which was a bad idea since now i don't have anything to do while trevor's at work. except for scare the shit out of tarzan with the vacuum (totally an accident). so yeah, i'll do my best to take my camera to the new house so you can get an idea of what it looks like.

alrighty, this is the most boring post ever, so i'm going to go. happy cinco de mayo everyone! margaritas all around.

trevor sleeps like a baby

but not me. some nights i'm awake for hours on end with little explanation. tonight i've got a pretty good guess what's keeping me up, but that doesn't make it any easier to sleep. it's funny, i always get this way the night before the first day of school; but never before the last. things are different now. this could be my last last day. i don't really remember being like this when i graduated from uca...but then i knew i was heading off for more school. now i have no idea when or if i'll ever be a student again. i mean, i've been a student for the past 21 years, with only one year off. i've always been able to look forward to yet another year of school; it was my decision to discontinue my life as a student, but i'll still miss the reliability of the classroom.

this sounds nerdy (and social workey), but i don't think i've really prepared myself for this very well. my afternoon class tomorrow is having taking a casual setting for the last day at the rivermarket, and we'll be dealing with termination. termination: the end of the relationship. it inevitably comes in most relationships, not soely therapeutic ones. my eleven classmates and i (all women, by the way) have essentially been together since the beginning. sure, there were some that i didn't have classes with in my foundation year, but most of them i have. and all of us have been together this entire school year. we don't have that much in common outisde the classroom and our quests to be masters of social work, but there's still something monumental about this end.

i know i'm off to a new adventure, to a new job (details to come later when things are official), a new town (batesville), and a MUCH bigger living arrangement. we found a 3-bedroom house this morning and signed on the dotted line (renting, not buying just yet). no fence, but i'm allowed to dig and garden. nice neighborhood, but don't know where we'll ride bikes. it'll really be an adjustment...can't just have a beer at the local restaurant, different restaurants, lack of friends, a new grocery store...but i know we'll have a good time. i'll try to remember my camera when we take a load up this weekend so i can post pictures of what the house looks like. it's pretty hard to believe we'll only been in little rock for about 3 more weeks. we're heading to telford, tn on the 22nd, and when we come back we'll officially be batesvillers. batesvillites. batesvillagers.

oh, and if anyone is dying to cat sit...tarzan is a treat!