The DINK Life

Recently, I was called a DINK (Dual Income, No Kids).  Usually stereotypes throw me for a loop and I immediately reject them.  However, I tried this one on for size, played around in it for a little while and decided that, hey, this DINK thing?  I think I kind of like it.  Maybe even love it.  Now, just to give you some perspective, normally I hate labels like this.  I once had an hour long gmail chat fight with an ex because he had the audacity to call me a yuppie (although in retrospect, online chatting with an ex was probably the actual source of the problem there...).  Anyways, back to yuppie.  I hated it.  Hated it.  I was steaming mad the rest of the week.  Even now, years later, it still gets under my skins and starts rubbing me the wrong way.  More importantly, to this day I will maintain, ardently, that a yuppie, I am not.

DINK on the other hand?  I am owning that acronym. Makes complete sense, right?

For you visual learners... this is a DINK family
via

When you think about the definitions, there really isn't too much of a difference between a YUP (Young Urban Professional, aka yuppie) and a DINK (again, Dual Income, No Kids). Let's urban dictionary this thing.  As a disclaimer, these are not urban dictionary approved definitions.  These definitions came solely from the random, odd depths of my mind.

Yuppie: An entitled, too-big-for-their-britches young adult, around 25-30, give or take a few years.  Think, trust fund, silver-spoon fed accountant that never really had to struggle, or take out a college loan. Their lavish attitudes come from a lack of appreciation for having expendable funds.

DINK: A young adult, around 25-30, give or take a few years.  They worked hard to get ahead.  They appreciate the money they have earned and are not completely frivolous.  While they are certainly stocking away for retirement in 40 years, they are also making sure to enjoy themselves with a little pampering, in the form of clothes, shoes, vacations and Crate & Barrel purchases.

Honestly, what it boils down to is this: when it comes to a DINK, I feel like there is an inherent sense of working for what you have received.  Yes, I have a good income, as does my husband, and for the moment, we are sans children.  That is nothing that I have to apologies for.  Furthermore, I will buy my coffee bars and rent my four bedroom house and occasionally buy a pair of shoes that I probably shouldn't, and I will love my life.  I have earned it.  And damn it, for the last time I AM NOT A YUPPIE.

This photo just seemed so right
via

In all reality, in my heart of hearts, I guess I realize that there isn't too much of a difference between a yuppie and a DINK.  But in my brain, the one that grow up in Mesa, Arizona all those years ago and has formed weird aversions to certain words, including yuppie, poncho and polar vortex, I am not a yuppie.  And so help me God, if you call me one, well, you and I can no longer be friends (just ask the ex).

Are you a DINK or a yuppie?  Or do you feel ok with either stereotype?  Or would you bash someone's head in (verbally, of course, never physically, oh no) regardless of which one they called you?

Grown Up Horror Story

If you are particularly queasy and your stomach turns easily, you may want to consider skipping this post. If your constitution can stomach something a little more than truly revolting, go ahead and read on. But if you get to the picture at the bottom (of course there is photographic evidence!) and throw up a little bit in your mouth, I wash my hands of any blame. You were adequately warned.

So, I left a funny little anecdote out of my weekend update post this week. Mostly because I am trying my best to pretend it didn't happen. Unfortunately, the problem has decide to not just disappear as I had hoped it would… Here's what happened.

We rarely drive my car anymore, since we live so close to work and carpooling together is kind of nice in the morning. It gives us a few minutes each to sip coffee and talk about things. And Ben would rather drive his car, since my car is a Jetta and he can't quite fit in it without his head touching the roof. Anyways, I had to be at work early on Wednesday, so Ben ended up driving my car. It did not take long for him to let me know that, in his humble opinion, my car smelt like "dog anus". While I wasn't particularly thrilled with his description, it was hard to argue with it once I smelled the car for myself. Being better versed in horrible smells, it didn't take me long to realize that it smelled more like milk gone terrible bad, as opposed to the back end of a canine. The only thing I could think of was that I had spilled coffee several weeks ago and maybe, finally, the cream in it had gone bad? I scrubbed the carpet where it had spilled and Febreez-ed the car, hoping that was the cure.

It wasn't. Over the next few days, for whatever reason or another, I was driving my car and the smell was getting to the point where I started to feel sick after mere minutes in the car. Cold, crisp fall air or not, the windows were all the way down and there was still not enough fresh air. I could not understand how a little bit of cream in coffee could smell so horrifyingly ghastly. I almost started to worry there was a dead animal hidden somewhere in the Jetta. I cannot emphasize enough the stomach-turning stench.

It was on Saturday, while running errands with the windows completely down and my thoughts turning to how expensive a very thorough car detailing would cost, that I discovered that the smell originated not from the spilled coffee and not, thank God, from a dead animal. I had just finished my grocery shopping and was opening my trunk to put the goods inside when the smell hit me like a cast iron pan to the face.

And then I saw it, a gallon of milk, purchased by my best estimate about 3 weeks ago, tipped on its side, a little less than half full. I can't really begin to describe the contents. It was yellow and watery, with fat white chunks suspended in the liquid. There was a horrifying green puddle where the contents were leaking out. And the stench, dear lord, the stench could have killed. I honestly thought about leaving my car there and just cutting my loses.

This picture still turns my stomach

But I didn't. I pulled up my big girl panties, held my breathe and gingerly grabbed the gallon with just my thumb and fore finger. It had a sell by date of 10/6. Saturday was 10/11. I set it on the ground and, obviously, took photographic evidence of the calamity. I texted Ben. I immediately threw out the travesty in the grocery store garbage can (like I was bringing that thing home).

Obviously the first thing I did was text my husband

I drove home (making sure to bring inside the newly purchased gallon of milk), left the trunk and garage open and sprayed at least half a can of Lysol on the suspicious green, white and black dot the milk had left behind. I prayed that it would sort-of take care of itself and go away. Or at least the smell would, and at that point I could properly address the issue. It has now been 4 days, and several Lysol applications, later and no such luck. It still smells (although it has been downgraded from "the stench of death", to simply "smells like a prostitutes dumpster") and the dot is still there. As much as I want to pretend we don't have a child-sized footprint worth of mold growing in the trunk of my car, I think the allowable time frame for ignoring a problem in hopes that it will go away has past. And just when I had put my big girl panties away…

P.S - If I never return, please know that it is 96% likely that I died from mold infestation. And please don't put that on my gravestone.

Weekend Update: Holes Are in the Walls!

I'm going to try and do more weekend updates.  Mostly because my mom is the main reader of my blog and she loves that kind of stuff, but also because we're huge bums during the week.  Basically, we go work out, I make dinner, there is some cleaning involved (usually of the kitchen), Ben is glued to the kitchen table studying (although, he is currently trying out the couch as a study spot... oh... the excitement!) and, well, it's boring.  At least we can pretend to be exciting during the weekend.  Even if the most exciting thing we do in a given weekend is finally put some holes in our wall.  That's right folks.  We hung something!

And then promptly bought more wine to fill it up with!

As exciting as hanging, functional decorations are, other things were accomplished as well.  For starters, I did my best to play the best wife card on Saturday, and Ben came home from school to homemade apple cake and from-scratch pot pies in the oven.  Ben loves a good pot pie.  Seriously, loves.  We had to register for some Fiestaware on our registry simply because the pretty every day bowls we registered for were not oven friendly.  And that would mean that I had the best excuse ever would never make him pot pie.  That's right, we have bowls whose sole purpose in our lives is the be a pot pie vessel.  And how many times have I loving prepared this dish for my husband?  Counting this last batch, a grand total of ONE.  (Well, the recipe was for 4, and I baked 2 Saturday, then 2 again on Sunday.  That counts as two, maybe?) As I previously mentioned, I am in the running for the best wife award this year...

Before spending the afternoon making Ben's food-related dreams come true, I spent the morning on my most recent Pinterest dream (mentioned here).  That's right folks.  We are the sort of dorky DINKs who officially bought furniture for the sole purpose of a coffee bar.  And I love it.  Not only does it completely free up some incredibly valuable counter space real estate in my kitchen, but it also gives me a whole new surface to put seasonally relevant decorations on!  I am thrilled, to say the least. It gives us some extra storage, its pretty and cheery to look at every morning, especially with a hot pot of coffee on it, and it's teal! Every time I look at it, there's a warm, fuzzy feeling that rises up inside me, sweetly whispering "Pinterest Dreams really do come true...".

COFFEE BAR!
Furniture from Target, Threshold collection in teal,whisk picture from my beautiful cousin Tina, via society6.com, and flowers from my husband, are over a week old and still look great.  Magic Flowers!

Other things of note this weekend: Notre Dame is still undefeated, but it wasn't exactly the prettiest game.  I got all the fun things necessary to tackle another Pinterest idea, which I am hoping to start and complete tonight.  My office is starting to actually look like an office, even though we still haven't found the necessary hardware for my desk (super sad face).  Laundry was done and several episodes of Fraiser were watched on our new couch.  Oh!  And we broke in our new lawn mower!  By we, of course, I mean that Ben mowed the lawn and I watched, coffee cup in hand, as he cranked it up for the first time.  No hands or fingers or other digits were lost and our backward looks great now.  I want to have a party in it... if only the rest of the house were up to snuff.  It was a solid weekend (besides losses by both the Steelers and the Seahawks, although my Fantasy teams are looking strong this week).  We couldn't really complain when Monday morning came around, a cheerful coffee bar and leftover apple cake for breakfast will do that to you.

Looking good in some Ray-Bans. Yay for husbands

The Hubby Goes Back to School

Pay them enough money and they will steal your husband away!

Back while I was gallivanting around Arizona, Ben officially started his 17th year of school. And regardless of how much I desperately wanted the picture, he straight up refused to take a first day of school picture in his backpack, standing in front of the new house. Oh well, his loss. He began a two year program at Northwestern University called MPD2. Spelled out, that is their Master of Product Design and Development Management program. (In other somewhat related news, their acronym slightly annoys me. Where did the other M go? Really, even if it isn’t as sexy, it should be MPD2M. No one else seems worried about this…) From my understanding, you mash up an MBA with some design engineering courses and throw in some supply chain knowledge and leadership development and you get the MPD2 curriculum.

Since Ben started school, we have been busy navigating this new life style.  I was relatively naive about the amount of time and effort that would be going into Ben's school.  I was warned at his opening meeting, but I breezily dismissed it.  I was wrong.  I was warned and I should have listened.

Most of our recent interactions have been done over the glow of a homework-lit screen.  It's romantic, I guess?

MPD2 has taken over my husband.  Even more incriminating, it has taken over my kitchen table. It's even gone so far as to take over my nights full of newlywed bliss (aka - TV and couch cuddling time).  Let me give you an example:

Things that now occupy the majority of Ben's night:

• Video Conferencing with his team
• Reading, writing (no artihinetic just yet...)
• Football and/or working out

 Things that used to occupy the majority of Ben's night:

• Watching old Frasier reruns with me
• Helping with the dishes
• Football and/or working out.

Needless to say, I'm not exactly thrilled with the new developments.  Ok, now please don't take this the wrong way.  Most of this is said jokingly.  As a disclaimer, I am incredibly proud of my husband.  He's is putting in a lot of effort and taking his school seriously.  He's learned much already, even after just 4 weeks.  I am excited that he is doing this for himself.  I am in full support of him going back to school.  I just also have to battle with inner-selfish Liz.  Inner-selfish Liz wants her husband back.  She wants random conversations and cuddling and someone to hang all the things that require drilling and anchoring.  Honestly, she wants attention.  Most importantly, Inner-selfish Liz doesn't want to be a grad school widow.
 
It's about this time in my bout of self-indulging pity that I hear the ever fateful words of Mr. Mick Jagger, "You can't always get what you want".  Usually the song gets stuck in my head and I forget what I was complaining about.  At least for the next 14 minutes...

Fritsch House Tour

Time to make good on some promises.  Last week, I said that I was going to take my time explaining all the fun life choices and changes that have happened over the past month.  And in the interest of not forever lagging about 3 weeks behind current day, I need to get started on the catch up posts.   So, let's begin, shall we?  Starting with the house!  Cause that is where we live now, a house.  No more apartments for this young married couple.  No sir'ee.  We have a yard and a lawn mower is on its way to us from an Amazon warehouse as we speak (apparently that is my first instinctual definition of a house...)

Let's start.  Our house, while relatively new, is quirky. 

Why yes, I do own a 14 inch knife.  We use it to cut pizza.

The kitchen is wonderfully large, with 2 side by side sliding glass doors that lead into the backyard that have a way of making the kitchen look all that much bigger and more open.  Yet, even with this vast expanse of a kitchen, it somehow manages to have less cabinet and counter space than our old apartment.  It's a real conundrum.  It also helps to lead us to the part of the tour where I get to say mysterious things like: “Creative solutions are in the works”.  

The fun thing about this house is that it provides ample opportunity for creative solutions in many rooms.  Some of the creative solutions that we are thinking about for the kitchen include the customized coffee station that I have been PINing after on Pinterest (haha, get it?? PINing, aka obsessively pinning on PINterest.  I am a clever girl) and making our own butcher block island (because that sounded more fun that just straight out buying one from Ikea).  So, stay posted to see if time vs. money wins out in that scenario.

 

Our backyard, seen through the kitchen.  There are TWO bunnies eating our clover. 

You get the kitchen either through our one car garage (we are happy to have a garage, but Ben is bummed because that most likely means that his car will be the one left out in the snow) or the living room.  As of right now, the living room is a mess.   Ok, most of the house is a mess, but I have justifications for the living room.  We can’t really put anything away because we don’t know where it will go.  We are somewhat patiently awaiting the arrival of the couches we ordered way back in August.  They are scheduled to be delivered on Thursday (YES, YES, YES), and once that has happened, we are hoping to settle things a little more in the living room.  Talks concerning how the actual arrangement have not gone too well so far, but we are hoping their physical presence will help sort out the what goes where conversation.  If nothing else, we can finally enjoy the oversized plushness of our new couches.  Personally, I am planning a nap of epic proportions that first weekend, followed by at least one hour of reading curled up on the comfy chair.

Down the hallway we have tiny bathroom number one and all four bedrooms.  As previously mentioned in a post of yore, why yes, we are DINKs and are renting a four bedroom house to be occupied by only 2 people.  And I am happy about it, because it means that I have an office, Ben has an office and we even have space for an official guest bedroom.  Granted, not a single one of those rooms is actually operational at the moment.  We can’t seem to find the bar that is basically holds the top of my desk on to the legs of my desk, so those large pieces are floating around my office.  We still have the saw horses that Ben used for the bottom of his old desk, but never replaced the cheap $6 door that he was using as a desktop after not bothering to move it when Ben moved in with me at Rockford.  And Ben’s old bed frame, somewhere in the past few moves, got bent pretty badly out of shape.  I used to think he kept his mattress on the floor of his old apartment simply out of lazy bachelorhood, but it turns out the bed frame isn’t exactly functional.  And a new one costs $50 on Amazon, so we’re going to continue to try and straighten it out for a last a few weeks, or until our first house guest comes and forces our hand.

My office.  Sadly enough it has earned the title of messiest room in the whole house.  Frowny face.

Ben's office, with a keyboard, newly purchased printer and a bag of wet shoes from this weekend.

This is as far as we have gotten in the best bedroom.  Pretend the bed frame doesn't lean like the tower of Pisa

Our bed.  One day soon, hopefully there will be something on the empty wall behind it.

Tiny bathroom #2!  It basically looks the same as #1, just with more stuff in it.  Yay Ikea spice shelves!

Our bedroom does have the proud opportunity to be connected to tiny bathroom number two, as well as two in the wall closets and a large window across one wall.  Would I have liked to have had a walk in closet and a bathroom with at least one functioning door?  You betcha.  But things being what they are, we figured we are only really sleeping and getting ready in that room.  The rest of the house, quirks and all, will be sheltering us most of the time.  And this way, it really limits my purchasing of shoes.  Which at least Ben is happy about.

So, there you have it.  The first, rather quick, tour of the Fritsch household.  Once a few more things have found their forever home, we will revisit the subject, hopefully with some actual things hung on the wall and at least one place (besides the kitchen table) to actual sit down. 

What's to Come

Hello Happy Jack-O-Lantern, glad to see you survived the move

I was in the shower earlier this afternoon contemplating the best way to tackle my first blog post back.  (Two thoughts that you should probably takeaway from that sentence: One, my best thinking is often done in the shower and two, I am nothing if not a planner, but you all already knew that, didn't you?).

Normally after my all too often hiatuses, I do a quick summary of my time away from the internet and then simply let the next post pick up wherever we happen to be in life.  Surely I could do a similar Cliff Notes version for the last few weeks and move on, but it felt wrong.  My justification: within the last month I have:

• Written my first resignation letter, given my two weeks and quit the only job I have had since college
• Moved for the first time without the incredibly wonderful help of professional packers, movers and unpackers
• Bought a couch
• Lived in my first house (not apartment, not condo, not townhouse, but stand alone house with its own yard and its own garbage cans) that was not my parents house
• Note - lived as in we are renting.  We have yet to bite the real estate bullet
• Sent my husband back to school
• Then started to work in the same building as my husband
• Killed 3 spiders
• Broken 1 vacuum cleaner
• Sort of faced my fear of moths (aka - rediscovered that I am still deathly afraid of them...)

So, while I guess the whole bullet list does technically count as a summary, really the sole purpose of this post was to tell you that I will be rehashing the last 3 weeks or so in the upcoming days.  So, you have that to look forward to.  Spoiler: It involves a lot of the changes mentioned above.  Oh, and I would be remiss not to also let you know that seeing as today is October 1st, it is officially time to break out the Halloween decorations, husbands be damned.

Hope you are all having pleasant, crisp Fall evenings as well! 

Coming Clean

So... I lied a little bit by omission on Monday.  Sorry about that.  But it was for good reason.  And now I am laying it all out on the table, so it's like I never even lied.  Here it is: The reason I had driven my car to Ben's work before we headed down to Sandwich, IL was because I left work early on Friday to look at some places to rent with Ben.

Because we're moving towards Chicago.

Because I have a new job.

Because, well, the times they are a' changing.

And just when I got a cube with a view.

Yep, my last day with work will be this Friday.  Which is really weird, because being only 4.5 years out of college, this is the first for me.  Well, several firsts actually.  The first time I've written a letter of resignation.  The first time I've turned in my two weeks.  The first time I've tried to summarize all that I do into a neat 3 page document to be handed down to future back-filled me's.  It turns out that this process of quitting a job is over-whelming, mentally painful and not nearly as exciting as some hypothetical naive girl may think.  Honestly, the hardest part has been trying to put nice little ribbons on the packages of work I have lovingly cultivated, hand them off to a co-worker and not have the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that my little project baby is going to wither and die.  These handed-off tasks aren't any one's top priorities, I know that, but damn it, they are my stamp I am leaving behind.  Please don't let them wither and die.

While this strange, giving up feeling is hard to shake, and could easily fill a lamenting post, I am deciding to not focus on it at this minute.  Because this is exciting news time!  Not pity me because I have a new exciting opportunity and I'm leaving my not really all that loved job time. (As I typed that out I realized that it is a non-existent issue, a thing for which no pity should ever exist.  Really, it's not even a first world problem).

So, news.  Here it is.  My last day with GE will be this Friday.  As in three days.  I will start working at Siemens at the end of the month.  Yes, Siemens.  In the healthcare industry (which I am thrilled to re-enter, finally).  Also, the same Siemens where Ben works.  In the same building.  Which I am sure will get all sorts of interesting, so get ready for some posts on that subject...  We're moving out of Rockford and closer to Chicago.  On Saturday.  We found a place Friday that we are renting for the year.  And I am excited for it.

It has a large, albeit sparse, kitchen with new appliances.  It has enough bedrooms for Ben and I to both have our separate work spaces (don't hate, we are accepting this DINK life style wholeheartedly).  It has a garage and a yard and a small patio in the back.  Plus, it has a nice, big fenced in backyard, which can only mean one thing - Ben has a lot of mowing to do Team Fritsch is getting a dog! YAY!!!

Anyways, I wanted to come clean with this huge life event deal.  Because in the next two weeks, things are going to be nuts.  And I will blog about it.  Or at very least, plan to blog about it.  And then we get a puppy!