Yesterday. What an… unusual day. Today. Another oddity. (But scattered in between were precious moments of wonder too.)

Let’s start from the beginning. I got to sleep in a bit yesterday because we had our condo walk-through scheduled for 10. It wouldn’t make sense for me to go to work first, so I just met Panda there. I originally planned on going to Target first to go return some stuff and get a notebook, but the time I allocated for that got taken up by a challenging deicing process. I’d completely forgotten about the icy rain the night before and found my car encased in one solid layer of ice.

I woke to a very frozen world!

I couldn’t even open the car door by pressing the button.

Haha, there was even a bit of ice standing straight up around that little stick thing. Nothing can escape the layer of ice!

As I was cleaning off my car, I heard crackling and I thought someone was pouring hot water on ice, but it turns out the trees were breaking apart.

When I finally got it all off the windows, I headed to the condo. Along the way, I was careful to keep a distance from the other cars. The van in front of me started shedding ice sheets when it picked up speed and eventually my own came flying off too. We met at our new home and were taken inside by one of the guys who manages all the construction. He showed us all the light switches, faucets, doors, rooms, plugs, appliances, windows, heating and cooling systems, plumbing, etc. We have a lot of low flow options to help save water, including the toilet, shower heads, and kitchen faucet. I played with a bunch of the windows, which flip inwards so we can easily clean the outside. Smart! The demo guy was baffled that I wore a heavy jacket and multiple layers, yet bounded around barefoot, even stepping outside like it wasn’t freezing out. I’d never thought that was weird and suddenly I felt like a nymph or something after that, haha. It was fun to see everything brand new and ready for use! This is our new place!!

I’m so glad we went with stainless steel appliances. Lovin’ the kitchen!

I joke about turning this into a dance studio… wouldn’t that be cool?

I can’t wait to have a shower where I don’t have to deal with a curtain!!

This sink is mine and the opposite one will be Panda’s. I might need some of his drawers though. 😛

The master looks smaller when it’s not the model home, but we don’t want a giant space anyway.

They provide us with a ton of manuals so we can figure out how to operate and maintain everything.

On the opposite end is my favorite room, the most massive one that’s about the size of a two-car garage. I would love to get a grand piano and pool table in it, lol. Totally not happening anytime soon, if ever. But the dream lives on… From this room you can see straight down to the kitchen.

The hall bath is for the other bedrooms and guests. It’s the only counters that aren’t granite – the upgrade just wasn’t worth it.

Oh I’m going to love hanging out on the porch when it’s warmer.

I brought along my newest craft as a house warming gift to bring some holiday cheer to the place!

It’s so fascinating how the ice created that layer over everything.

I doubt we’ll be using the front door all that much, except to pick up packages that don’t fit in the mailbox!

Hello beautiful. I can’t wait to move in!

By the time we finished, it was about 11:30 and Panda and I went to get an early lunch together before going to work. Apparently I’d missed a fire alarm at our office that morning and not long after arriving, I was heading to the restroom when the doorbell rang. Since I was on my way, I went to answer it and found a guy from the power company telling me he had orders to shut off our power. I thought I’d been pranked and the shock of that announcement had me completely baffled. A lot of people weren’t in the office due to the weather, so I didn’t even know who to get. We eventually got that sorted out… whew!

By the time we went to lunch, the icicles were nearly all melted.

Some people decided that walking on the grass was better than the path, I guess.

Good thing these trees were trimmed last month, or the branches might have broken off. This looks so surreal.

Later in the afternoon, Autumnfall asked me to accompany her to the local grocery store to get some candy canes for a promo we’re going to run. Along the way, we had a ton of fun admiring our surroundings, getting pictures of iced over plants and the scenes along the walk. That’s when we saw that breathtaking hawk make a pit stop. As we were nearing the store, a random guy said, “Hey ladies” in a rather creepy way and as we were checking out, this old man stood waaay too close to us even though the line was for four possible registers. Just adding to the strange occurrences of the day. Back in the office, we took some time for a photo shoot with the candy canes and got some pretty hilarious shots. More to come on that, when the promo starts (we’re giving away candy canes)!

Our walk turned out to be quite the adventure, with giant puddles and hawk sightings and tunnels to go through. Oh, and creepy men too.

More iced up plants!

Iced up berries!

Ok, ok, just one more iced plant picture!

The fog was thickening and starting to obscure the cranes up top.

I promised no more iced plants, but here’s just some ice that fell from pine trees!

After work, I made that Target run I’d meant to do in the morning. I ended up exchanging one item and realizing that the other was from Charlotte Russe – oops! And of course I left, completely forgetting that I wanted to get a notebook too. There’s another Target on the way home, so I figured I could go there and also swing by a gas station for gas, but I completely blanked on the exit and missed it. I reeeeally need to write out my thoughts though, so I decided to make a slight detour to yet another Target. When I arrived, there was a girl crying her heart out near the front. It reminded me of how I’ve been feeling lately and I sort of wish I could bawl it out too. But for now, the tears won’t come even when my heart is heavy. Maybe the writing will help. While browsing notebooks, I found a really fun set of festive ones. Even better is that they’re eco-friendly. Always a plus in my book!

I thought this looked funny so I took a picture and then a Target guy happened to come to collect them and he explained that they use them to wipe off the carts. Since they don’t have a dryer, they just hang them where they can. How nice! A wet cart is certainly no fun to shop with.

Ooh, the fog is really settling in now.

My newest thought-catchers. 🙂 So pretty!
The blue one says “Looking at the stars always makes me dream.” -Vincent van Gogh
The green one says “Happiness is a bright and shining thing.” -Unknown
The red one says “Joy delights in joy.” -William Shakespeare

So finally, I made it home and was watching The Voice and The Sing-Off. After about an hour of the air running, I started to wonder why it wasn’t heating up. I tried resetting the thermostat with no success, so I just turned off the air and bundled up. After doing some writing, blogging, and news watching, I went to bed. I didn’t sleep very well, waking up frequently once it started to get light out. Around 7, I looked out to see the snow blanketing everything. The plow trucks hadn’t made it in yet. I kept going back to sleep and waking up to check on the status of the roads… things didn’t seem to improve much so I decided to work from home today. I had trouble getting up and really working because of the chillier air. I waited a few hours before calling management to send someone to look at it. I learned that there’s an emergency option that uses the heater in the closet rather than whatever’s outside. They figured the outside one got frozen over (no surprise there) so it wasn’t working. I just need to wait for the ice to melt to use it like normal again.

Why good morning, snow.

I went outside once the skies cleared and appreciated the sun for a bit.

When the sun came out, the snow melted from the trees quickly!

During what normally would have been my lunch break, I decided to take a shower. Now that’s one perk I like about working from home! When I want to refresh myself, I can just hop in the shower AND still have plenty of time to eat some lunch. Come 3 in the afternoon, I was getting antsy being alone with no one to talk to for so long while I tried to pound through work. I took advantage of another benefit of working from home and got changed into some workout gear, then went running! I can’t remember the last time I did that (sometime in college probably) and in snow? Gosh, that would have been over a decade ago. Still, it felt good to clear my head even if I was rather out of shape. I listened to some music and just tried to stay in that zone for as long as possible.

It looks kind of gross, but it kind of reminds me of a fungus I like to eat called wood ears.

Somebody had left some furniture by the side of the road, like this sofa. Would make for a pretty cool photo shoot!

When I decided to slow for a bit, I found a playground with a little climbing arch and climbed up to sit on it. It was so nice to peer into woods, groove to my music, and shut out the world for awhile. When it got too cold, I got up and jogged back. I had put the key to the apartment in my leggings thinking they were tight enough to keep it in place. When I was going up the final set of stairs, I stopped to pull it out only to find it was gone. I patted all the way down my legs and started to get worried… I guess I’ve learned a lesson about sticking a key in your pants. Doesn’t work so well when you’re jolting it around while running. Luckily, it had stopped falling down right around my ankle. Thank goodness! I then picked up with work again (albeit with slightly shaky fingers).

Saw this and couldn’t resist. I just had to climb it.

Sitting on the bars, enjoying the amazing air as I watched a squirrel in the distance.

My running path was a little treacherous but I didn’t slip once. What a serene place.

I’ve felt off ever since returning from my extended Thanksgiving break. Last week was cut short since I got back halfway through the week, which kind of threw me off. Now this week has only been two days and it feels like the week should be over already. My internal clock must be all out of whack. I hope tomorrow brings a more normal day; I could certainly use some boring old normalcy in my life right now.