Turns out that when you use your phone as an alarm clock, you are exponentially more likely to drop your phone once a day. I'm not even dropping it when I'm turning off my alarm - I'm dropping it as I'm walking away from the bedroom. Like my hands suddenly don't know how to grasp anymore.

Old school alarm clocks are neat and all, but when you wake up at different times on different days of the week - using a smart device is the best. Anyone in need of a cd playing alarm clock?

Unrelated thoughts:

• It is fascinating to me how people who live in the suburbs (and work from the suburbs most of the time) assume that if you live in the city "hopping on the metra" should be a quick fix to get to the suburban location of their choice. As if we all live above/next to a metra station. Just because I live north, it doesn't follow that I live right off of one of the Metra north lines. Getting to the burbs via public transportation for me is a 2-3.5 hour affair.
• I am suddenly obsessed with the idea of owning a hammock. To lounge in on my roof deck. I believe this is a new dream possession. 

I'm finally realizing what a non-stop beginning half of the year this has been. Where did the time go and at the same time, I've only been married for four months? I've only had a new job for two months? I've managed to rack up a lot of change in 2013 so far. 

New goal: no more big life changes in 2013 unless they are of the domestic comfort kind (ie, materialistic home purchases).

loml and I have been trying to cook meals a few times a week (right now we're averaging about once a week, as a pair, but I think we're picking up speed). loml made dinner last night and it was fantastically tasty so I wanted to share: Eggplant Parmesan. Big winner, I'd eat it all the time.

A great Umba month, again. I can't say enough how much I recommend this little mailbox treat every month. With this box, there was another repeat:

Stewart & Claire Old Fashioned lip balm. In a past box I got Spring lip balm. Which was weird and spicy. This one is also weird and spicy - a bit orangey and cinnamony. I like it but I also don't? It feels great but makes me think of Christmas. Next:

Cards from Oyster's Pearl. I received the card above and then a chevron striped blank card. They are glossy, which is something I'm not used to. I'm used to letterpress matte cards. I absolutely appreciate the difference, it's novel. I look forward to sending these out. And the final bit of the box, my favorite:

Beautiful dangly earrings from estieMade. The earrings are a bit longer than my usual lately but I love them. They don't have a big footprint so the length just works. I also have to admit that I was impressed by the way these were shipped - the earring card was so simple but perfect. Just some thick white paper and (genius) brown matte packing tape - symmetrically and carefully arranged. Bravo.

Apologies about my missed days here - I was settling in as an actual consultant at an actual client. And by settling in I mean freaking out. And by freaking out I mean rollercoastering between "I got this" and "I KNOW NOTHING" in the span of hours. It has been about a week now and I feel like I'm definitely over the hump of the full on lack of self confidence. But it does feel like my last job, while a huge boon to my abilities, also led to some huge gaps in my knowledge base. The main gap being design and formal documentation.

Umba box post coming shortly. Possibly tomorrow or this weekend as I sit around and revel in the nothing.