Back in the Blog of Things

It would seem that quitting the bookstore has one other added bonus: more time to blog!

• Spent nights in watching some GREAT movies. If we miss a movie in the theater, we don't always catch up, but my foresight about the weather caused me to ask Kris to rent stuff in time and we got to see Burn After Reading, Tropic Thunder, and War Inc. BAR was great, classic Coens, really clever and funny. TT was even funnier than I expected it to be. We were howling from the very first minute. I mean Jesus that movie is funny. War, Inc. was interesting. It had a few too many things going on, but it was funny and insightful and everybody in it (Tomei, the Cusacks, and even Hilary Duff) was great.
• Cooked up some yumminess. Made myself Light Blueberry Muffins and homemade Mushroom Barley Soup, both of which I have been enjoying all week, as Kris has been with his improvised raisin-flax muffins.
• Had a fun Saturday night out with the Schocholautte girls. The gig was kind of a bust, but at least we got to hang out and I looked great. And it will be recorded in history as the first instance of a merch table at a Schocholautte show.
• Hung out with my sis and her fiancee on Sunday for the Steeler game and our team was greatly victorious. Added bonus: went shopping in her closet and came away with a few great items to wear on my upcoming business trip.
• Successfully endured a 2-hour workout on Saturday morning, including water aerobics and Zumba. I've really started to take this physical fitness thing to the next level and I feel like 2 hours is the right amount of activity, as long as the other hour is less strenuous than Zumba :)
• Tried yoga at the gym. I could do without the Native American, Kenny G-esque music the teacher used, but I found it relaxing and feel it will do me good if I can make it to that Monday night class more often.
• Spent last night hanging out with Frankie V (my former bookstore boss) and Co. at her house. I find it's more rare these days that friends will invite you over to their house to hang out and that it's more often a case of "let's go out and do something." Both are different kinds of fun, but I do enjoy the "come over and play" aspect of chillin at someone's house. The girls were great, they didn't have to work today so they were getting wasted on Jack and being extremely silly. I sat back as a semi-sober observer and laughed my ass off.
• I FINISHED MY PROJECT. As of early yesterday afternoon, I completed management on a project that was solely my own AND I finished it on time, YEAH BITCHES! It did make me angry, miserable, and anxious by turns but it all came out well and I learned A LOT. Work is kind of a boring drag, but as unpleasant as that is, it is a relief-filled change from the frantic pace. I'm going to be given something else to be in charge of shortly, but in the meantime, I'm taking it easy and looking forward to my business trip.
• I have a LOT of things left to look forward to this month. Quitting the bookstore has totally freed up my schedule and I have filled it with wonderful things to do! But I will save blogging about those until after I've done them or this will go on FOREVER.

So, what happy stuff has happened to you in the last week? 

101 by 30 - The Ones I've Already Done

The wonderful fabulous Miss Sarah gave me a book she no longer needed after last spring. It has kind of languished on my desk for a while as time has ticked down, but it's time to dive into it while I still have time. So make it feel a little less daunting, I started by going through and finding the things I've already done, and as it turns out, I'm already halfway done. I'll try to keep up with posting the other half (with stories) as I get them done, but for now - 

• Swim naked.
• Break all your parents' arbitrary rules.
• Dump toxic friends.
• Speak a foreign language.
• Buy a kick-ass mattress.
• Create your own sisterhood. 
• Travel solo.
• Know your friends' family trees.
• Embrace your inner eight-year-old.
• Make the first move.
• Master a signature family recipe.
• Quit something.
• Google yourself.
• Hold your booze.
• Masturbate.
• Claim your granny panties.
• Make brownies from scratch.
• Exorcise the words "like" and "you know" from your vocabulary.
• Find your religion.
• Write thank-you notes for everything.
• Declare your birthday a national holiday.
• Minimize pointless drama.
• Own your mistakes.
• Get health insurance.
• Hook up something high-tech by yourself.
• Be a gracious guest.
• Invest in earplugs.
• Walk in heels.
• Have a mantra.
• Do it somewhere risky.
• Open a bottle of champagne.
• Make more money than you spend.
• Eat soy.
• Kick one habit.
• Defy gravity (have a bra fitting).
• Own a cashmere sweater.
• Sleep in a hammock.
• Own a toolbox with all the basics.
• Jettison your "skinny" jeans.
• Get a massage.
• Fall in love (or lust) without blowing off your friends.
• Care about where your food comes from.
• Carry something to read, a notebook, and a pen at all times.
• Be a dork.
• Make a killer cocktail.
• Read your old diaries.
• Cry often.
• Learn how not to be a flake.
• Give yourself a make-under.
• Be notorious for something.
• Bounce back.

How many have YOU done?

New Year, New Happy Thoughts

Wow. December was the month that wouldn't quit, apparently :) I feel like it would be too long to tell you everything I've been through since then, but the highlights have been:

• Thanksgiving dinner did indeed go off without a hitch. In fact, everything came together and hit the table at the same time, which impressed my mother (YES!) and all my other guests said all the food was wonderful which makes me really happy and proud of myself.
• Work was hell for most of the month. The project I was in charge of had an insane schedule and it made me stressed and unhappy. It's best if we don't talk about that, really. The upside is, everything got done and most of it got done on time and none of the problems were my fault.
• We had a couple of happy visits with our niece who can now sit up on her own. She turned 5 months old yesterday. Hard to believe, it goes by so fast. But I continue to love her more every day.
• While every minute up until Christmas was packed to the brim with stuff to get done, the holidays were relaxing and enjoyable. A lot of good quality time was spent with both of my families and I was able to relax and act like a normal human being once again.
• Work, outside of my  project, has been REALLY nice. I didn't expect anything for the holiday because of the economy and the constraints its put on small businesses (one of which I work for). However, the company was able to provide bonuses and small raises (which is more generous than anything I've experienced in my professional career). This financial boost has enabled me to quit my part-time job at the bookstore which was beginning to take a heavy toll on my body and my psyche. In addition, I've been invited to go to a conference with my boss and will going to Florida in two weeks to schmooze clients, learn about new facets of our business and be somewhere WARM. So that's going quite well as you can imagine.
• The band's been having a decent amount of success. But since this is my blog, not their's, I'll just tell you to go check them out if your curious.
• My little sister got engaged! This makes me very happy and excited for her. It naturally brings up the question of when it will happen to me, to which I answer, it will when it does and if I'm not worried about it then you shouldn't be either. So YAY for my sis and her hubby to be, I'm so thrilled for them!

So now it's a new year and there's lots to do. I have my life back from the clutches of the bookstore and it's time to do something worthwhile with it. While I don't believe in New Year's resolutions really, it is a natural time to renew your commitment to your goals, and in my case that means insisting on good things for myself. My new focus is to improve my physical condition as well as my mental and emotional ones and I'm optimistic that I'll be able to do that. 

Also the house I'm living in is now officially on the market which means strangers traipsing through and judging my living space. The timing of it is inconvenient in that I have things I'd rather do with my time than make sure my home is suitable for visitors at all times. But it is pushing us to move forward with our own home-buying plans, so that's something to look forward to news on as the weeks pass. Stay tuned.

I hope all you out there in reader-land have had great and restful holidays and have a hopeful outlook on the new year. Stay positive and keep thinking happy thoughts!

Thankful

• A man who loves and understands me
• A family who loves me and each other
• Friends who are always there for me in good times and bad
• A good job that keeps food on the table and the house warm
• A good home where I am happy to be and happy to call my own
• Freedom to do all the things I love
• The promise that the future holds
• that this dinner seems to be actually turning out OK
• YOU

Shoe Shopping...

Gentlemen, I apologize. Instead of reading the post, I suggest you watch this clip.

Ladies, less dramatically it is not making out with a patient's father that I need to discuss, but actual shoes. 

I need 'em. I just bought a super-cute pair of casual sneakers to replace my last pair of super-cute casual sneakers which I have worn holes into. But alas, as I have discovered, super-cute as they are, my new sneakers are failing on one very important front: keeping my feet warm. Not only are they made of very lightweight material, but the top is low cut, leaving my ankle and part of the top of my foot exposed. In weather that can only get colder, this will never do.

So I need new shoes. Something warm. Something cute. Something durable as they will be worn frequently whilst commuting to NYC in shitty winter weather. Something as versatile as the super-cute sneakers which can be worn with most casual wear, which is the bulk of my wardrobe. Something comfortable as I don't have the budget for cute-but-not-comfortable. Something with no or a very low heel, my feet don't handle heels well (I feel that they could if I could afford decent high-heeled shoes, but, see above). 

I don't know what this shoe is. It might be a sneaker, though I fear sneakers aren't warm enough. It can't be a clog because they give me smelly feet. It could be a flat but all the flats I see are either mostly open on top or ugly as sin. It might be a boot, as long as it doesn't have too much of a heel, but most do, aside from which many are tall boots which are generally out of the price range (and I don't have skinny jeans) and I don't know how I feel about ankle boots. 

I did have one great pair of black boots with a low heel that were comfy and came just a few inches above my ankle and I wore the hell out of them. I miss them and wish I could find just that so I guess that's what I'm looking for. Suggestions? I know I'm just going to end up scouring Zappos but I thought I'd throw it out there in case someone knows of a place like perfectandaffordableshoes.com or something.

Gentlemen, lace bra. As you were.

MIni-Happiness

It's been a trying day, or at least, it was a trying morning at work, spending my hours being bombarded by stupid questions from someone who works for me who clearly hadn't read the instructions I sent him. It made it seem as though I was not very good at my job. But then I remembered the majority of the people working for me were handling things just FINE and that most of the questions and definitely his attitude were unwarranted.

So a mini-blog of things that kept the day happy and kept me from crashing into self-defeat:

• A compliment from Sarah who had a look at the guidelines I designed for the project I'm managing and proclaimed "you do big stuff, lady." It's easy to forget that because I don't LOVE what I do and that it's kind of a fallback job more than a dream career, that I do rock at it and am quite competent and impressive.
• A surprise visit from Marissa who got rehired for more freelance work at my job, thanks to her connection to me. It was really nice to see her, but it was even nicer to hear her say "Now I can buy my family Christmas presents!" That made me really happy.
• I'm walking down the stairs to the subway and this REALLY CUTE guy looks up and totally checks me out. I am stunned by his cuteness and can't believe he was really looking at ME. At the bottom of the stairs I look back to see if I can see if he was really as cute as I thought he was and HE WAS LOOKING BACK AT ME! I know this is stupid and high school, and it in no way means anything about my relationship with Kris. It just made me feel good about myself.

And now back to the grind and hopefully recapping these happy moments will get me through a long night at the bookstore.

Proposed Turkey Day Menu

Two posts in two days. I know, wow, right?

I just sent my project launch emails and need something to take my mind off the fear that there is some minor mistake therein that will cause me to look stupid to my writers or some major mistake that will create a lot more work for me. So I've been thinking about my Thanksgiving Day menu and I thought I'd bounce it off the internet to see what it thinks. Let me know. This is just a 1st draft.

Lite Lunch 

fresh salad of mesclun mix, goat cheese, dried cranberries, walnuts

seafood soup of some sort (a bisque of crab perhaps? Something lite)

Appetizers

Sarah's Famous Pumpkin Pie Dip

Sweet Potato Puffs (if there is such a thing) (this will help account for the switch from yams to regular potatoes during the meal)

Dinner

Turkey

Stuffing

Mashed Potatoes

Broccoli with Cheese Sauce

Jellied Cranberries

Corn Pudding

Buttermilk biscuits

Dessert

Apple Pie (some fancier version than the kind I usually make)

I'm hoping this menu incorporates everything my family members are used to, some familiar things for those who are newer to our Thanksgiving table, and some new things I'd like to see added to the day. Let me know what you think.