Really?

I find myself irritated.

I came home from work today to find a notice from the city taped to my door. It states that we have exceeded the height limit for weeds/grass on our property and we need to cut the weeds/lawn so that they are at an appropriate height. Now let me say that I am not against lawn maintenance. I see no problem with keeping my yard at an appropriate level of cleanliness. I also try to be a good neighbor, which means I do not spend my time tattling on neighbors for barking dogs, visible trash cans, or overgrown yards. I am friendly when I see people, I don't make a lot of noise and I mind my own business. This is all I ask of the people who live around me. This is why we don't live in a condo or a place with an association. I don't like to be told what to do. I am assuming this notice has come as the result of a complaint logged by one of my neighbors - most likely the people next door who are trying to rent out their house. There is something sneaky feeling about these types of complaints because I will never know who has the issue with my yard, and now I feel like they'll be watching me do yard work and think I'm doing it because I've been reprimanded. I suppose it's possible that the city just has inspectors that drive around making sure people are compliant with these ordinances, but I doubt it. I would rather that my neighbor just come to me and say, "Hey, the weeds along our fence line are a little tall. Could you please cut them?" I like to think that I'm a reasonable person who would be perfectly willing to accomodate their request.

A little back story - our yard is a little different. The previous owners of our house, my grandparents, were very in to trees. As a result, we have lots of shade and very little grass. In the front yard the grass became so thin that my grandparents completely replaced it with ivy instead. The ivy looks great and keeps weeds out when it's healthy and full. A couple years ago, we had planned to sell the house and move. This resulted in some remodeling and, against our knowledge and wishes, some re-landscaping. Our "landscaper" decided to kill the ivy, which we had expressly forbidden them to touch, I'm assuming to replace it with grass, which of course will not grow in our yard. Luckily, the ivy survived. However, it was very thin and fighting for life and this allowed weeds and tree sprouts to grow in the empty spaces. This required a whole weekend of hand weeding, which was accomplished thanks to the help of my parents. While all this ivy drama was going on the backyard was being completely neglected. We have the same issues in the back yard - not much grass, lots of Creeping Jenny. Things in back got so out of hand that we had to go through with a weed whacker before we could mow. The yard sat like this for at least six months while we were living elsewhere - no notices from the city.

We are back in the house now and though we are not manual labor people we have gotten things pretty under control. The ivy is coming back nicely, still some weeds but not nearly as many and we're working on it. We mow the back yard regularly. There are some vines and things along the fence and the side of the house and we are working at those little by little, but the weather has been terrible and we have been very busy.

So that is why I am annoyed, that just when I feel like we are really starting to get things under control I get a notice saying our yard is a problem for the people around us. Especially since our neighbors across the street have not mowed their lawn yet this year. No note taped to their door.

Ok--deep breath--moving on.

I apologize for my negligence

I have been a completely negligent blogger. I have never been good about keeping a journal/diary/whatever and am still trying to be better about that. The main reason I have not been posting, though, is the fact that I’m in the process of job searching. I’m not career searching. I kind of have an idea where I’d like to go with that and it involves more school. No, right now I’m merely job searching. I need to be able to pay the bills so I can do the things I want to do in life instead of worrying about money all the time. This is not fun for me. I have no problem working. I even like working to a certain extent (although when it really comes down to it I would always rather be with family and friends doing something fun than working – even if I have a job I love). I just don’t like going through the process you have to go through to get a job. I don’t like filling out applications and following up and interviewing. So I have a tendency to procrastinate and avoid and spend most of my time feeling anxious and crabby because I’m procrastinating and avoiding. It feels like job searching takes up my whole life. Any down time I have has to be spent applying for jobs rather than doing something fun. And not that money is everything, but there are several things you can’t do if you don’t have the money to pay for them. I feel like everything is on hold until I have a job. So I’ve been avoiding posting because I’m not in a happy emotional place, which I don’t really want to explore and which I don’t want to spend all my time complaining about. I don’t want my blog to become a whine-fest.

(Deep breath...)

Ok, with that out of the way I can move on. Last year my friend Teri posted her reading list for the year on her blog. This was in response to a post from one of her friends, stating an article that said most Americans read very little. I like the idea of this reading challenge so I’m going to do it this year (although it’s not really a challenge because I love reading!). So here goes...
· Infidel by Ayann Hirsi Ali. I really enjoyed this book. I love biographies. Hearing other people’s stories about their lives helps me feel good about my own. I think it’s helpful to know that no one really knows what they’re doing. It seems like her ideas about Islam are controversial, but I like her stance on women’s rights and I admire her courage.
· Rosie Dunne by Cecelia Ahern. This book was just for fun. I’d just seen the movie, P.S. I Love You, which is also by Cecelia Ahern, so I thought I’d try some of her books. The entire book is written in letter/email/instant message format, which was kind of cool.
· Rococo by Adriana Trigiani. I like this author. I really enjoyed her Big Stone Gap series, so I tried this one. I didn’t like it as much as her others.
· A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. This book was heavy, of course, but it was good. It is so hard for me to get my head around the fact that I’m living the life I’m living and meanwhile things like this are going on in the world. It makes me very grateful for the blessings I have.
· “A” is for Alibi by Sue Grafton. Just for fun.
· Shapechanger’s Song by Jennifer Roberson. She is one of my favorite authors and this was a re-read for me. This is the first book in a fantasy series that she wrote. I was in between library books and needed something to read.
· “B” is for Burglar by Sue Grafton. Continuing the fun from above.
· A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters. I’m on a mystery kick as you can see. I love Brother Cadfael. The BBC had a series called, Mystery, and they used to do Brother Cadfael episodes. I loved those.
· Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. This book is about a man working on a circus during the Great Depression. The story was interesting. I wouldn’t need to read it again, but it did pique my curiosity about circuses and I think I’ll look for some books along those lines. On a side note, I love elephants! I think they are one of the coolest animals.