This is my new favorite thing ever:

Because I haven't updated in a month. Sorry. On the upside, I have all kinds of things to share!

Old News:

I am once again single. No boo hoos, please. Boys are great and all (or at least they can be), but I'm a busy lady who loves living alone and not having to schedule my life around someone else's. So really, it's pretty ok.

Went back to Kansas in October for my cousin Dustin's wedding. It was absolutely beautiful; her dress looked like a big, gorgeous wedding cake. Lotsa layers, kinda like this:So pretty. And it was awesome seeing all the fam. I finally finished the infamous cross-stitch Skeletor for my cousin Mike, which, in typical Caitlyn fashion, I failed to get a photo of. I'm hoping he'll send me one if I ask nice.

Halloween was awesome, I was (very last minute) Tippi Hedron from the birds:

Seriously, best costume of my adult dressing-up career.

I then proceeded to get really sick. Maybe swine flu, maybe bronchitis. Either way, angry lungs and lots of snot. Took me out of work for 3 days. Boo.

New News:

I can't believe November is almost over! Which means...

Fakesgiving is almost upon us! Woo hoo!

In preparation for the big day, Natalie and I went to the craft store yesterday and picked up materials for headdresses and pilgrim hats. It's gonna be so flippin' sweet.
Like this:

Only with more bling. And bacon. And alcohol.

Well, it's blizzarding and the dog is whining. Hope everyone's having a delightful, lazy Sunday!

So I just finished watching Happy-Go-Lucky. Holy crap, so incredibly good. I highly recommend it for anyone who's ever been perfectly happy with their life, but had people constantly telling them they should be doing everything differently.
On that note, let's talk about some other things that making me stupidly happy right now.


Green Nail Polish

Picked up a bottle for $1.99 at Walgreens. So pretty, so perfect for Fall.

Crafting

I know it may sound stupid, but I've had soooooo many projects to work on. And it's nice to have a creative outlet that's conducive to socializing and home-prettifying.

Fall

Officially! I've been drinking lots of Pumpkin Spice Lattes and apple ciders. My favorite season, hands down, even if my apartment has been so cold that I've been turning the oven on just to warm it up.



Dogger!

She's such a trooper. She's dealing with really bad eye allergies (she hates her drops so much), a healing leg from a pit bull-attack, and a mother who isn't home enough. But she still has time to make me feel better, even when she's the one who needs the comforting.

Thanks to everyone who dealt with me completely freaking out over Basque getting hurt on Sunday. She's gone from needing to be carried downstairs to the yard to trying to play with my neighbor's boxer, so I think she's on the mend.

Speaking of El Poocharino, she's whining to go out (which she can do without David Craig carrying her), and then it's bed for girl and beastie! 'Night!

...but I'm blogging instead. Mostly because it's kinda late and I'm a little afraid of my laundromat at night. And the alley that I have to walk through to get to it. I am weenie, hear me roar.

I'm also feeling all kinds of worn out, partially due to lack of sleep, partially due to recent trying emotional experiences. Things are happening, things are (possibly?) in the works. For good or ill, I hope to know soon.

In other, less necessarily cryptic happenings, I have found, to my utter delight, that DU's MLS program does not require the GRE! Which means I might just be off the hook for flaunting my stupid via grad school entrance exams. Makes me feel a little better about being prepared to spend a million dollars to be a librarian when I grow up.

And I've been crafting up a storm! I'm working on a potentially super-adorable leaf garland thing, kinda like this one:


Except my leaves are floral and polka-dotted and stuffed. It's gonna be awesome.

I'm also determined to finally finish the infamous Skeletor sampler in time for very late delivery to my cousin at his sister's wedding in October. I think I can do it. There's also a top-secret cross-stitch project involving metallic thread in the works. So excited.

And with that babies, I take my leave. The face mask goop I put on a while ago in an attempt to no longer be queen of the zit-monsters has hardened and may not come off again if immediate action is not taken.

So generally, I try to curb the amount of complaining I do. I know this will come as a shock to many. But really, I do try to not be a whiny bastard all the time. I try to appreciate the little (and big) things, but I never claimed to be perfect. So I'm venting. This is what's chapping my hide (yeah I said it), right now:

1) Allergies.
They are the stupid, snotty, stupid, itchy, stupid, exhausting, stupid bane of my existence right now. On the upside, they're pretty much making smoking impossible right now.







2) Foot blisters.

Not mine specifically, put pretty damn close.

I went hiking a couple of weekends ago and, like an idiot, wore boots that hadn't been used in a few years. The resulting heel blisters were large and exceptionally painful, but are now (thankfully) mostly healed.

This is not being helped by the pea gravel that persists on lodging itself in my shoe during recess duty.

3) When I walk around all day with pen/marker on my face and nobody says anything.

But, in a flailing effort at balance, here are things that are making me stupidly happy today:

Honeycomb Cereal











The Rainy, rainy weather

Built to Spill
They're so cute and old and weird looking! Oh, and massively talented.


And now that that's out of my system, I think I'm for a very sneezy walk with the dog!

So I am currently enjoying my first Saturday that's actually felt like a Saturday in months. I worked yesterday, I work Monday, there was drinking and pizza and Flight of the Concords and Ryan being unintentionally hilarious last night.
Which means that, last night when I got home from work determined to be productive and crafty, well, it totally didn't happen. So that's the plan for today. Productivity damnit! Which, in Caitlyn terms, means finally unpacking the last few lingering boxes, hanging the wall decor and getting a start on -gasp!- lesson plans.
I'll reward myself tonight with alcohol at the show I'm going to with my oh-so-dreamy gentleman caller. He opens doors for me and everything, though that may just be because his car's passenger door won't open from the inside. Still, though.

Here's a list of things that are making me happy today:

1) It's starting to feel more like fall.

2) Things like buttered Pop-Tarts and coffee with copious amounts of flavored creamer.
3) My toenails are painted red and the blisters I acquired hiking with David and Ryan finally seem to be healing, no doubt aided by the Incredible Hulk Band-Aids I've got on.
4) I really, really love my new apartment.
5) My new principal at work seems to be kicking ass. Which is awesome.

Basque is trying to say hello to everyone, or trying to get me to pay more attention to her by rubbing her head all over the keyboard. Home girl needs a b-a-t-h.

This is a blog about magic. And wonder. And whimsy. And impulsiveness. And appreciating small things that make me inordinately happy. Which, as it turns out, is what the title, "Ricky Still Loves Lulu", is actually about.

On southbound I-25, in between Ft. Collins and Denver, there are numerous spots where you go under train bridges. On one such bridge, for several years, was a piece of graffiti that I found particularly fascinating. The letters were clearly visible, even though they obviously weren't new. They were also highly legible, a rare case of street art where the message is more important than the font in which it's conveyed.

Years passed with me not really thinking about these words, except when I drove under them. Then in high school, my curiosity grew as I began driving to Denver more frequently. So I asked around. Turns out that several decades ago, this kid Ricky proposed to his girlfriend, Lulu, by spray-painting "Ricky Loves Lulu" on the side of the bridge that I'd been driving under for so long. Then, years later for their anniversary, Ricky, no longer in the bloom of youth, sneaks back out to the same bridge, with a similar message.

Ricky Still Loves Lulu.

I don't know how much of that's actually true, but I'm happier believing it is.