Project 2012 - Week 8 - Nashville

We spent 4 days in Nashville, well Smyrna, TN just outside of Nashville, last week. Our impending move is *gasp* about 12 weeks away, and we had to go up there and look at apartments, visit MTSU, where Hayden will be transferring to, and of course, see our friend Gincel.

The trip was mostly productive. We found an apartment which we both love, although neither of us are fond of the idea of renting again, especially for a year (the length of the lease). We have grown accustomed to having our own house and the quiet that comes along with it. Hayden even admits he will miss mowing the lawn (although I think he will mostly miss the hour alone with his music without me yapping in his ear). Things are still a little up in the air for us. The house, while we have been seeing a TON of showings, have yet to get an offer. But I am not worried yet, as we have only been on the market 3 weeks. Talk to me again in the middle of April. If there is no offer by then, I promise I will be in full, Type A personality, freak out mode (and Hayden will be "mowing the lawn" every day).

What I was really looking forward to, regarding our trip, was a few days without work. My research job has been relentless this semester, with one assignment following another, sometimes multiple ones coming in on the same day. Legal research isn't the hardest work, but it is, when coupled with my regular school work load and the legal symposium I am putting together, mentally exhausting. Especially when I have weeks where just the research job requires 20 or more hours of my time.

I had told my Professor that I was unavailable that weekend at least 3 times, and I busted my tail the weekend before last to get the 2 assignments I already had finished by Tuesday night. But, Thursday morning, ANOTHER assignment came in, to which I replied that I would start Monday. Fine, good, I thought, and went about my day. I went to class, and we left as soon as I got back home. It wasn't a huge assignment, so I really wasn't worried about getting it turned in early this week. That wasn't the end of it though, Friday night I got a SECOND assignment, a huge assignment, one that I knew would take 20+ hours by itself (and I was right, it took 22.5 hours from start to finish). For about 5 minutes I thought seriously about quitting, I was so irate over it, but I talked myself down. We can really use that money I make for a little bit of a cushion. Moving and starting a new job throws a wrench into budgeting until that first paycheck rolls in and everything gets back to normal. I would rather not spend our first few weeks in Nashville eating ramen noodles and lumpy cheese :)

So, instead of writing a not so nice email in reply, I spent all day Saturday, the entire 4 hour drive home Sunday, and all of Sunday night, working. Good because that means money, bad because that means I missed out on fun with Hayden and Gincel. They got to go to a movie and play with Gincel's antique car he just bought in December, while I researched legal issues regarding food labeling. *sigh*

On another note, I am pretty darn impressed with the fact that I have kept Project 2012 going for 8 weeks now. There have been a  few weeks, with everything I have going on, that I have almost chucked the whole idea. I just keep telling myself that I will be very glad I took 30 minutes each week to make these pages later on down the road when we have them to look at.

*Kit credits: Speech by Paula Kesselring (the link is to her blog post discussing this kit, which was part of the Digi Files for January 2012. It doesn't seem to be available in her store yet), Number 8 Brush from photoshoptutorials at Brusheezy.com.