buying a house slash finding a husband

ok i SERIOUSLY need to stop these "i am gonna post more cuz its awesome" comments on this blog. im not big on "jinxy" stuff but i swear i do worse at posting when i make those statements. anywho, i started this post 6 months ago....so lets pick up as if it is back in June.....and I have not yet purchased my house......
(ellipses indicate that we are going back in time.....)

well people, i have finally arrived at that place where i actually WANT to be a homeowner. never until now did i really truly desire it. so i have been a looking, in earnest, and actually doing it. and man oh man, i cannot believe how it is exact-freaking-ly just like dating and trying to find that special someone. and this is probably not news to any of you out there, you wise intelligent 30 somethings. many of you (i use the word "many" liberally, as there are likely only one, perhaps two, folks reading this blog) have been through both of those experiences. and these are probably the two biggest commitments we make in life and so of course there will be parallels. but man, the creepers, the ridiculosity, the grossness, the beautiful-ness, the awkwardness, the longing, the heartbreak....its all there!! (ha, now you dont know if i was referring to dating or house-hunting when i spewed out those words, now did you.) ha. once i decide i am doing something, i do it. i go for it all out. so I have started aggressively house hunting a couple times a week (i log on to my realtors website compulsively several times a day looking for new listings, reading the specs, ruling out so many immediately based on one or two lines in the description (i promise i am still talking about houses and not online dating) (and now i am switching to past tense because this is where the post that i had started 6 months ago ended. just to clarify. ok actually i am just gonna switch between tenses here so just try to hang on for the ride. ok. onward...) we went. we searched. i looked at a lot of houses. so many had so many features that i wanted. awesome porch. incredible kitchen.  but just...not....quite....right. couldnt find it all in one package.  couldnt commit. didnt like any of them enough to even really explore the idea. then it happened. i found this amazing awesome house that I loved. the bathroom was huge with tons of counter space, big ol walk in closets, and the remodel was perfect. totally my style and taste. in the perfect area. and i tell my realtor i want to put in an offer..i want this house so bad! i have my little heart set on it...i can see my furniture on the beautiful hardwood floors. i am waiting and pining and staring at my phone....and then i get the call. its gone. under contract. several backup offers. BLAST. my hopes are dashed i am so dissapointed it was so perfect for me. exactly what i thought i wanted. but i have to forget about it and move on because i took too long to decide and they chose someone else.  but i have to move on. because i still want to buy a house. so we keep a lookin. and i get pickier about some features. and less picky about others. and my price range goes up. the value of certain features increases significantly the more houses i see. but its just not quite working out. i dont love any of them and i start to feel like maybe its just not out there, never gonna happen, and i am being unreasonable. and i think my realtor is beginning to feel the same way. in fact, i know he does because we are standing in a house and he tells me he is not sure if i am actually ready for the commitment. if i can actually see myself writing out that down payment check and signing the papers. i tell him yes i am. i am just waiting for the right house. i will know when i find it. there is one i have looked at and loved. alas, it is further south than i wanted to be. but i cant get it out of my head. i keep looking at the pictures. and i tell him, lets just go. lets just go see it. i need to see this house. and we do. and i love it. standing on the street looking at it, i fall in love. we walk in, go upstairs, and this is my house. we make the offer. there are other offers. i am nervous i am scared of the rejection. the prospect of missing out on it makes me so sad. they accept my offer. i write the check sign the papers and its a done deal. and there you go, ladies and gentleman, i bought my house. and here is the thing, it doesn't have all of those things i was looking for. no huge walk in closet. no huge counter space in the master bath. but you know what, there were all these other little things in the house that i love so much that i never knew i would have wanted or loved in a house, until i saw them here. i loved the whole house so much, i am totally fine with the things that it doesnt have. i don't even mind. the things i had dreaded and thought were the main reasons i would not like owning a home are totally not a big deal (mowing, etc) and actually sort of fun sometimes. cuz its my house. and i put work in to take care of it because i want to. and it feels sort of good to finally be committed to something. so yes this is sort of an intense, dramatic description of the home buying process. but you know what, it has really enlightened me. about myself. and of course, as i said, this pretty much describes my ideas on love and marriage and finding "the one". i sure hope it happens the same way.

last dating post update to date dating update

did you guys get that title? cuz it makes sense if you read it in the right light. so basically i was going back and re-reading some posts (looking for one in particular cuz i couldnt remember a certain detail about something) and i realized that i really am glad i have done this blog. it has been a fun record for me and has documented some things i otherwise would have totally forgotten. i was with a friend from grad school this weekend and as we chatted and reminisced, i realized, man oh man i forget stuff, really great stuff, easily. so i decided i am gonna post more cuz i like it. so as indicated by the title, im gonna give a lil dating update. however, my last dating update post was almost 2 years ago. yowza. seriously? so i cant go over all of em, but i will hit some great highlights. i will say that 2010 was a year of some great unique dates. let us begin on a warm and sunny summer evening.......there was a gentle breeze blowing as we walked down to the restaurant in downtown slc. this was a tall blond handsome stranger with whom i had been set up by an old friend from my neighborhood growing up. k i am done being super detailed and descriptive. ill just say he lived in another state, we had a great dinner date (not at the thai restaurant...i think cuz he had read my post about that or something. on a side note, i think i am up to like 9 or 10 different guys at that yummy thai place. but this last time something new happened that had never happened before-some random stranger sent us fried bananas. i suspected it was because they overheard me say something about a "first date" and felt bad. my date thought it was because a guy at the table behind us had a crush on him. seriously. anywho.....) back to tall handsome blind date. so we communicated a bit and then i was already planning a trip up to oregon to visit some friends, so we set up some time to hang out then. and guess what we did. well we went on a beautiful amazing hike and had dinner with his family (his dad was an awesome legendary runner who knew all my heroes and big players in running back in the day. THAT was some freaking awesome dinner conversation) and we also went SANDBOARDING! so fun. ok, by "so fun" i mean it looks fun. but i suck at crap like that, so it was a good time, doing something i had never done, but he of course was a total athlete and so he rocked it. but he was super nice and patient. but the absolute best moment of that night was when i made a comment about how i should have brought a hair tie cuz it was super windy and i hear him say "will this do?" and he pulls a fluffy little purple hair thing out of his pocket. it was so classic and adorable. (he has two little girls). anywho, it was a great time, but in the end, we werent a great match. in that same summer, i got sorta set up with a friend of a friend. he took my FLY FISHING! seriously. it was rad. i dont expect guys to go all out for first dates or anything, cuz i totally understand how that could be wearing. i am easily amused. but these dudes really went all out. i learned im not patient enough for fly fishing and i mostly suck at walking up icy cold rushing rivers in the dark. but i totally did not fall in and i think i even walked across a log at some point. so it was good times. he also took me to the batting cages which was totally rad and something i had never done and seriously enjoyed. but again, not a good match in the end. other dating hilights include a summer outdoor movie, we were sitting a bit awkwardly on a hill in the park and halfway through the movie the sprinklers in the park came on, and one nearest us was busted so we had a geyser and eventually river running past us by the time the movie was over. i went to this bizarre sculpture garden thing that was just tucked away behind some houses and apparantly was made by an eccentric mormon mason guy. super interesting sculptures and fascinating company. he was one of the most awesomely nerdy dates i went on, he knew a lot of stuff and was totally patient in explaining it all to me. and then of course, there were a good number of cultural/arts/performance type dates (especially when i dated the theater teacher-saw some truly fantastic theater with him. still cant get the Aida music out of my head. so great!! and i also saw a little ho hum not my thing shows with him) the rest of the dates could be summed up (for your sake) by enjoyable dinners, charming ice cream chats, not so charming drives around slc looking for ice cream places and me getting carsickiness (only once i think), hot chocolate walks around downtown, dinner making, and a little bowling sprinkled in there for good measure. and overall fascinating studies in man behavior on dates. as i get older....well...i think ill save this for another time. there you go, kids. lots of men out there. despite what people say, they are dating. and it still amazes me with how many new people i meet regularly, how rare it is for me to really click with someone, and for them to feel the same at the same time. however, i will say that i did have the rare experience of really falling more for someone on like the 4th date (granted it was over a span of 2 years between our 2nd and 3rd dates) when i really thought that he was not someone i would mesh with at all and wasnt even really that excited about our 4th date. so natalie, let this be a reminder to you always. you do really have to give people a chance. or 3 or 5. but sometimes you just know for shizzle after 1 that you dont need a 2. :) the end for now.

artsy mcarts

hi peeps. so not long ago a friend told me that civilizations fail when the arts are taken away (something along those lines...im paraphrasing ish...hope he wont mind). and that really made me stop and think. i had never ever thought of the arts in that way before. this is gonna sound ridiculous and whatever, but i always say exactly what i think on this blog....so here goes. this "friend" (ok fine, it was the guy i was dating who is a high school theater teacher) sort of legitimized the performing arts for me. sounds weird probably to any of you who know me, since i have been involved in choirs since elementary school and spent a lot of early morning hours in trouveres rehearsals and have been to gazillions of live concerts and whatnot. i love the performing arts. absolutely. love love dance shows, live performances, symphony, etc etc. always loved them. but i never truly thought of them as something that really changes society or civilization or history. like i said, i know this is ridiculously ignorant. but its where i was. they were something fun and enjoyable....a luxury. but i work in a healthcare field. i have a math and science mind. it never seemed like an essential. but spending some time with this guy, his high school kids in their rehearsals, seeing their productions...completely changed my mindset and thoughts on this. the arts are for real. they are life changing, for both performer and observer. i dont know that it is because of this epiphany that i took in a lot more performing arts this holiday season (there just happened to be a lot of great opportunities that i was able to take advantage of, and like i said, i always have enjoyed watching these things) but i did. i saw a concert of a whole bunch of talented mormon musicians that just get together to remake the hymns/christmas music in beautiful and new ways and they were fantastic to watch just because you could see they had no other motivation than their passion for music and wanting others to appreciate the beauty found therein. i went to the christmas carol service at the catholic cathedral here and it was absolutely exquisite. i have never been to an actual catholic service before (actually i take that back, i think my friend and i walked in on a service at notre dame once...) but the choir was fantastic. combo of children and adults and i absolutely loved it. i loved the latin, loved the harmonies, the clear as a bell childrens voice solos with no vibrato. such a distinct sound from motab and other choral performances and it was marvelous. i then lucked into some tickets to the sunday morning motab concert with nathan gunn and jane seymour which was of course fantastic. never heard the story of good king wenceslas before, but always loved the song. it was very special and i love that i will never thoughtlessly sing that song again. and then this last week i was able to finally go see "the nutcracker" for the first time ever. of course i have always loved the music but just never made an effort to find and attend a performance. i had gone to the ballet west performance of "dracula" back in october and absolutely fell in love with ballet. so i was totally stoked to see more and something so iconic and traditional. and they did not dissapoint. fabulous performance, although different from what i was expecting (i didnt even know the story AT ALL. so this mouse king thing was weird) but i truly enjoyed every moment. so there you go kids. i love performing arts. they are essential. and yes i have a much greater appreciation for theater in particular, although i still dont have a desire to attend any and all plays, indiscriminately (i am still pickier about those productions....i can get easily annoyed with community theater. but that is a whole other blog topic), but we will just say my mind has certainly been opened. and that is a happy thing in life so i am glad for that.