thoughts on living in a gingerbread house / why jeremy is no longer allowed to leave home without me

oh, lunch break.
how i've earned you today.

it's 2:49 and i have worked the entire morn. seriously. new window displays to entice the masses of t/f viewers, directors, wannabes, etc. takes some time, you know? we had some beautiful displays for valentine's day done by callie that conveniently had some divine chocolate that melted but not beyond the point of salvaging. so that was a plus to the new displays. if i'm forcing myself to work my hours, which shouldn't be as hard as it is, then by golly, i'm going to force myself to take a lunch break as well.

so.

have i mentioned that every time jeremy leaves town, a new critter shows its face to me? the first time was absolutely the worst. he was in st. louis. i, being the overly thoughtful wife that i am, thought that nothing would be better for jeremy to return to than an organized basement. about twenty minutes into this chore, i picked up a box labeled "wedding closet" and felt a cold something drape over my arm. i looked down to see a dead snake that had to be five feet long and probably a boa constrictor at that touching my forearm. it was touching me. the dead snake. touching my arm. i dropped the box, took a split-second to compose myself, grabbed our wedding pictures (because if i'm never returning to the basement again, at least i have our wedding pictures?), and ran up the stairs. after a couple of minutes, i realized that i should have made sure the thing was actually dead or i just know it would have made a way into my bed. upon creeping down the stairs with a broom, the little maybe eight inch long snake was still there, dead from a slow and painful starvation caused by crawling over exposed packing tape and getting stuck.

the next time jeremy left town, a tiny mouse showed up under the stove. megan discovered that one while we were eating breakast. we barricaded it and blocked its only exit from under the stove with a trap. dead by the time i got home that night. still dead in the trap when jeremy got home from louisville later that night. i had to give him the chance to be so very manly and take care of me by disposing of it.

yesterday, jeremy had been on his way to kansas city for about an hour when a friend of the deceased stove mouse showed up in my closet. strangely, even though i saw it run from my shoes to the back corner of the endless closet (our bedroom is a finished attic with sloping walls in the closets), neither of us has made any effort to get rid of the thing. maybe we're immune to the critters by now.

slight sidenote but also the reason jeremy will not leave again without me: he's never seen a mouse, never seen a snake, never seen any living creature in this house but the forty ladybugs he killed this weekend. how is that possible?

in other news, we are going to be leaving town together on tuesday, and despite my fear that our home will be hosting a week-long critter fest, i'm pretty excited for a week in gulf shores. pre-babe vaycay, you know? can't. wait.

this t/f film festival energy is amazing. it's cloudy and cold but humid at the same time (thank you, missouri), but everyone downtown is in a great mood. and great moods plus mustard seed equals out of control fair trade sales. down to three more months here. wow, is this a temporary job? strange that it seems like the first real job i've had yet i'll have it for less than a year when all is said and born. july 7. come quick, babe. yes, i feel you. you move a lot.

also, i've decided that i'm going to spell my parents' last name mcdonald from here on out. we'll see how that goes.

happy thursday!