the what-is-it humidifier

Last week I found myself packing up what is quite possibly the funniest thing I own. And that's saying something, because I have a toddler and therefore my home is full of odd toys, whimsical what-nots, some choice Sandra Boynton books, and a gem of a story called "Swim, little wombat, swim."

I'd found this humidifier several months ago at a discount grocer. I'd been looking for a humidifier that wasn't enormous and loud and smelly -- in other words, one that didn't scare the baby, who was the whole reason for having one to begin with. So it was really swell that I stumbled into this particular store in that particular week. Seriously, though, this is the oddest little thing I've ever seen. It is green and it has a face with a snout that kind of looks like a pig snout, and of course the steam comes pouring out of the animal's nostrils. The top half -- the water resevoir/animal's head -- is clear, so it's not too easy to see the features, other than the eyeball stickers, the plastic molded ears, and the nose of course. But when I look closely, I think I can see what is supposed to be horns etched down the sides of his head like a ram...

Aaaaaaaand after months of wondering, it has JUST occurred to me RIGHT THIS SECOND that this is a bull. I'd planned this whole ridiculous post to posit all the different animals it could be (looks like a cow but has the horns of a ram but it's green) and now, of course, I realize it's a little green bull. With the steam pouring out of its nose. Because I watched Looney Toones as a child, so I know that all bulls snort giant clouds out of their noses.

Well. I am enlightened. I'll be back with a photo or maybe a video of this thing in action.

puddle water

It's storm season here in North Carolina. It's good to be in storms again. And it's also hitting me pretty forcefully, in the thinky kind of way.

In Colorado, we didn't get too many thunderstorms. That was one of my very few "complaints" about living there - I missed the thunder. I missed the puddles and the stretches of days full of rain.

Other complaints included the threat of tornadoes and the constant news coverage about the humidity during the 10-ish days it was humid each year. Humidity isn't news, people.

Maybe it's a girl thing, or a southern thing, or a gloomy-weather-lover thing, but I like to go walking in the rain. I've been on the lookout for some toddler rain boots to take Gabriel with me, but for now his crocs are getting the job done. 

And my boy, he is his mother's son. He can't get enough of splashing in puddles. I look at him and all I can think of is the many, many hours I would play in the puddles that collected on the back patio at the house I grew up in -- the first home I remember. It would rain and we'd have to come inside, and then we would go back out when the rain had passed and there'd be all this warm water to poke at and observe (and maybe slurp every now and then...)

Do you have any idea how patio puddle water tastes? I do. It tastes like concrete and parasites secrets. 

We've had a TON of rain in the past month. More than usual, and the result has been weather that hasn't felt as much like Hades as it usually does by this time of the year. With the unseasonably cool spring and the summer full of storms, it's been a gentle welcome back to my home state. 

our setup

I thought it might be interesting to share our current setup and structure here.

Gabriel and I share a 900-square-foot apartment. It's a good size for us, even a little on the roomy side. Our apartment is situated over the detached garage to the home my mom shares with her husband. I used to describe it as "an apartment over the garage" or something like that, but then I had friends over and they all said it's too nice to call it a garage apartment. So now I call it "the loft" in my head. Our neighborhood is safe and secluded, a great place for Little G to spend his first years.

Living with family can be perilous and I happen to like my independence, however delusional it may be to prop up some sense of "independence" at this particular point in my life with these particular trappings. However, I have a lease and pay rent. It's not an insignificant rent, either. I work from home and I rarely take a day off, because independence costs money.

I am more or less "unpacked" but I don't quite feel "settled" yet and it is definitely nowhere near "done" in here. Of the 7 windows, one has a curtain and two more have sheers; the only artwork that's hung is what's in Gabriel's room (not counting the stuff that has already fallen off the walls in there), and I'm pretty sure I will spend the spring re-doing every closet and overhauling every storage-related decision I've made to this point. But it's a great apartment and I love living here. I shudder to think of what our lives would look like if I'd stayed in Denver.

It's weird to say this and really weird to think it, but I am blessed beyond measure to have this life I call mine. I never thought this would be how I wrapped up my 20s, but here we are and here we go.