TGI.....T?

                This week has been the kind of week that I just thought every day after Monday was Friday and have been continually disappointed when I come to realize that this is not, in fact, the case.  Today was the kind of morning that I ironed one thing - didn’t like it, tried three different shirts, ran out of time and ended up in skinny black pants and flats with a bath robe sweater.  And these kinds of outfits are typically reserved for Fridays, and since tomorrow is actually a 50% off jeans day at the office I chose to wear this today – thus compounding my state of confusion as to what day today is. (It’s Thursday.)  And now as this day has dragged by, I can’t believe I have to come here (here = work) again tomorrow.

                I should have known it was going to be a long week when I chose to stay up till 1:15am watching Mildred Pierce on HBO – which is one of those disappointing shows that you can’t turn off during, but are not pleased you watched the whole thing when it’s over.  You know the type – and there’s still one part left of the mini-series so since I made it this far I’m going to have to go ahead and find out how it all ends.  Even though I wiki-ed it and I already know how it all ends.

                Then on Tuesday it snowed.  Not like accumulation snow.  But it snowed all day.  And the news people so kindly reminded me that this time last year it was a balmy 80 – something degrees (quite atypical of Buffalo, NY but nonetheless desired by all.)  So I told Boyfriend we had to move to warmer weather and he said Tampa. I weather.com-ed Tampa and it was supposed to be in the 80’s there all week and a high of 87 by Thursday.  I told him we had to be there by Thursday.  But after looking at like six houses online in our price range and hating all of their kitchens I informed him he had to pick a different city.  So that’s a work in progress since the day is almost over and we didn’t move yet.  Plus – he has this policy: No moving to geographic regions where adverse weather conditions could result in him coming home to no house.  And since Florida has hurricanes and hurricanes can take away houses we’re not allowed to go there.   So I don’t know why he said Tampa in the first place.  I don’t think he was taking me seriously.  I’m actually pretty sure he never takes me seriously. 

                The highlight of my week was that this semester’s worst class ever lasted only one hour last night.  So I chose to continue my training for half-marathon training with the unexpected free time.  But I’m tired of running on a treadmill so I switched to the elliptical and some guy who didn’t choose deodorant yesterday insisted on standing directly in front of my machine to watch the basketball game on tv till I started coughing obnoxiously till he got the hint and went back to where ever it was that he came from and I could finish my workout without passing out from trying not to breathe.

                Now it’s the end of another work day.  I already had anxiety over what’s for dinner, read a couple hundred recipes and settled on sloppy joes or chicken a la king.  Boyfriend chose sloppy joes.  And since all I want in the whole entire world is a hot dog off the grill.  But I’m not allowed to have that per the snow and the coldness because Boyfriend will not suffer though inclement weather to grill me one even after I suggested he grill it in the garage so the above would no longer be an issue – sloppy joes it is.

                Anyway – hope your week has gone faster than mine has.  Weekend plans anyone?  It is supposed to finally reach springish temperature here.  Hopefully we can walk the dog – I’m tired of watching him pace around the house. Ohhh – and maybe we can grill that hot dog too?

That right there is the recipe for a great hot dog - except the relish goes in the middle.  Not on top of the ketchup.

I Made These Last Night...You Should Make Them Today

                 Creeped some blogs yesterday.   (Google Chrome is telling me 'creeped' is not a word. But if OMG and LOL got added to the Oxford Dictionary I feel like I can say creeped if I want to.)  Found this one and subsequently this recipe.  Yes - those are, in fact, cupcakes with cookie dough inside.  I made them last night.  You might want to tonight.   All the people in your life will love you forever if you do.  I managed to use a bit less brown sugar in the cupcakes – not on purpose but because I can’t follow a recipe apparently.  But no one has seemed to notice. 

                And since it’s not Friday and this is not a regularly scheduled blog post.  That’s all I’ve got.  But seriously.  You should all make these magical cupcakes.

Her blog post's photos are far superior to my Blackberry shot.   But they taste even better than they look.

Hodge Podge

Ok – so I did a total revamp on the blog.  Questions? Comments? Concerns?    Please don’t have concerns – it literally took me like five hours to settle on this background.  I was looking for something less snow-flakey because snow is depressing at any time of the year and I’m honestly not sure why I chose something that resembled snowflakes in the first place.  And it’s nearly impossible to find something reasonable for a background for me because I think they’re all silly.  But whatev.  I settled on this one.  Please don’t hate it.

I’m contemplating running a half-marathon with my sister this fall.  More questions, comments, or concerns?  My concerns are these:   I don’t think I’ll train well by myself.  My headphones don’t stay in my ears when I run.  Could buy different headphones but I’m pretty sure my ears are oddly shaped because this has been an eternal problem.  I must have music to exercise.  There is no way around that.  If it stops I stop.  Seriously.  I can’t even stretch without it.  But I just ordered new running shoes.  New shoes seem to be an excellent motivator.  And I have all summer to train.  So even flying solo I suppose I should give it a shot. 

Plus we’re rounding into wedding season here – which means I need to start getting skinny like yesterday.  Except yesterday we made steak sandwiches and I totally burned Boyfriend’s roll in the toaster oven (like the roll had flames coming out of it) and watched The Office instead of going to the gym.   And I don’t even follow The Office – I just love a good proposal story.  So maybe gym tomorrow.  Maybe.  We also watched Parks and Recreation – and Boyfriend laughs hysterically every time that April girl speak.  He swears she must be my long lost twin and to be honest – I can’t really disagree with him. 

How’s that for a hodge podge of a post?  I don’t usually like hodge podges – unless I’m the first one in line.  I don’t want people sneezing and coughing on food before I get to it.  But in this case it’s been a long week, there is no food involved and I have A.D.D. today - so any chance of a more coherent post was gone before I even got out of bed this morning. Whatever.  Happy weekend.

This is April.  She told a babbling brook to 'shut up' last night while camping.  Which sounds like nothing I would do?

The Walking City

Apparently Boston is called “The Walking City.”  I just learned this.  I should have Googled before I flew there because I totally did not bring the necessary footwear to participate in this weekend’s activities.  Actually I probably should have bought those weird get in shape by walking around sneakers that everyone makes now because I’m pretty sure my butt would look awesome.  But – I didn’t know.  And in my first attempt ever to pack light – I only brought four – yes four – pairs of shoes for my weekend.  Two of which, thankfully were flats.  Actually I probably did bring the appropriate footwear we just decided to walk further than we should have making even the flat shoes – since neither pair were sneakers – less than ideal.

Sister and I got up Saturday morning to head to my cousin’s surprise Bridal Shower.  She was determined to not move her car from where she had finally parked it the night before and Google maps on the BB said it was a twenty-three minute walk.  So we decided to go for it.  Me in heels.  Her in heels.  Me with flats in my giant purse slash school bag.  Her carrying a giant red bag of gifts that we obviously forgot to buy a card for – for the second time in so many showers.  But she did stick some ribbons on that were slightly damaged because my niece had spent some time with them in her mouth.  And we may or may not have dropped the whole thing trying to ‘wrap’ it on the street.  But since we bought cookie sheets and a giant cupcake cake pan – no harm, no foul.  (Sorry Meghan.)

Well after about two blocks uphill I realized my shoes had to go – or we would never make it.  We also realized that Google maps had lied to us and this twenty-three minute walk was a bit of a miscalculation.  But – we couldn’t go back now.  We walked about forty-five minutes, made it to the restaurant sweating and exhausted about ten minutes before my cousin got there.  One Blood Mary, a slice of cake and a couple hours later – we were offered a ride back to where we were staying.  Gratefully we accepted.

Well the next event started sooner than we expected so we just had time to change our outfits and start walking again.  This time – confident of the BB’s GPS calculation of one mile.  Well after a slight detour to find coffee we arrived at our destination.  Upon arrival – and some mild jealousy of the caffeine we were consuming we left again to retrace our steps and acquire one more cup of coffee. 

Later that evening after all the festivities were over – it was time for Sister and I to walk that one mile back to where we were sleeping.  This time both of us were still in heels.  And it may or may not have been approaching 2am.  We got within two blocks of the house and Sister threw in the towel, hailed a cab which drove us the one and a half blocks to the door.  A wise $3 dollar investment all things considered.  And no, we did not remember to look up and find the super moon during our trip home. 

The next day before my flight out I had to avoid the parade to find a cab.  Which apparently the parade is some kind of big deal in South Boston.  And I definitely don’t get it – I mean why would I want to stand in the freezing coldness to watch some grown men drive around in lawn mowers they’ve converted into tiny Mack trucks? And I don’t like loud noises (especially post bachelorette party – more on that later), so the sirens and the horns were just miserable.  And then on top of all that people are throwing candy at me.  I don’t want candy that got thrown on the ground.  And I don’t want candy to hit me in the face either. Anyway.  Parades are dumb.  That’s all I know. 

  And in an effort to leave the city I had to walk some more -carrying my bag - to find a cab.  When I finally found one – he told me he can’t go to Logan airport and made me get out.  Awesome.

The next cab driver was a kinder – more chatty man.  Which I can assure you I was in no condition to chat.  But he insisted on telling me that he drives Derek Jeter and other celebrities around all week long and never once has requested a “signature.” Ok.  And then he almost killed us and he must have seen my face because he then proceeded to attempt to reassure me that he was a good driver and that him driving faster saves me money because of the meter.  Ok.  But saving money means nothing if you drive me into a truck or a lamp post or the ocean. 

While in the cab the radio told me that Boston was called “The Walking City.”  And I’m just telling you - so you can remember that - the next time you think it’s a good idea to carry on a bag for the first time in your life and not pack enough shoe options.  Which, the carrying on thing totally didn’t work out for me because I rode one of those smaller US Airways planes and they ‘gate check’ your bag anyway and I had to wait just as long for it when I got there. Anyway - super fun weekend in Boston.  And many congrats to the beautiful Bride-to-Be. 

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad...Friday

I’m so not a morning person.  Boyfriend and I typically don’t speak after we get up till we kiss each other good-bye if it’s avoidable.  And if he does say something I usually can’t muster up the enthusiasm to respond.  You might think when a Friday rolls around I would adjust my attitude.  Alas, for as those who spoke with me this morning know, Friday makes me no more cheery than any other day of the week.  But today, today was one of those days that made me think I probably should have stopped by the pharmacy drive thru on my way to work to see if they had an extra Prozac lying around.  Fridays are supposed to be the best day of the work week.  This particular Friday failed to live up to expectations.  Here’s why:

I woke up to the realization that I did not get to wear jeans to work today.  Meant I had to iron pants.  I don’t like ironing on Fridays. So I just tossed my pants in the dryer with some towels for 5 mins.

Boyfriend said I had to go to work.  I told him to ask his boss for a raise so I don’t have to go there.  He says me working is part of this deal.  Fine.

Got to work.  New Guy – still don’t know his name – starts crying via Instant Message about me hurting his feelings for not wanting to be his best friend in the whole entire world.  Or maybe he wanted me to do his work for him.  Something like that.  Either way - do I look like I’m here to make friends?   This was when the Prozac would have helped.  I managed to not offer him a tampon even un-medicated. 

I didn’t go tanning on lunch.  I worked through lunch.

I went to use the bathroom – learned I’d not chosen to zip my zipper last time I’d been there hours before.  I’m not four years old.  I should be able to remember how to get dressed.  (I blame New Guy for killing my brain cells with his stupid commentary.)  Good thing I never take my jacket off and it covered this little faux pas.  Thank you North Face for preserving my dignity. 

My office mate then played the Cupid Shuffle for like the 65465753745435753453756^th time since Shannon’s B-Party last summer – forcing me to then dig out my headphones that I hadn’t bothered finding yet so I can drown out this insufferable repetition.    This is not an "at work" song.  This is an "at the bar" song.  Correction.  This was an "at the bar" song.  Like five years ago.

I think that’s all.  Unless some b-word thinks I want to Tango on the 190 on the way home.  Can’t wait to do this all over again next week.  Happy rainy weekend everyone.

*note – I’m totally not on any mood altering prescriptions.  But I bet some people in my life wouldn’t stand opposed. 

I'm pretty sure this was what New Guy looked like for like 3 hours this morning. Except he's not dreamy.  I think Dawson is supposed to be dreamy?  I don't know.  I never watched that show.

 

Opposites Attract

             I’ve been dating Boyfriend for, by my unsentimental calculations, just over a year and a half. But since neither one of us took note of when exactly we introduced ourselves to one another – nor do we care – I just know it’s been a while. I do know we met in June because I asked him to join me for my birthday dinner that July (he refused).  

After our first 'date' he confirmed two things with me –  I cheer for the New York Yankees and I do not vote Democrat.  Check and check.  Aside from that we have few things in common.

 

             Boyfriend loves Dobermen.        I love English Bulldogs.

              He likes all things Hip-Hop.       I love all things not Hip-Hop.  

                                                  Except Eminem.  I do love Eminem.

 

Boyfriend enjoys reality TV.                 Jersey Shore raises my blood 

                                                          pressure to an unhealthy level.

 

He wishes Facebook was never invented.       I love stalking.

 

When I met him he had this                Per the above,

                               Zack Morris phone.                   I must have portable Facebook.

...In his defense, he has a different phone now and is currently waiting on the next version of the Verizon iPhone.  I'm totally jealous that he's going to have a cooler phone than me. 

But the best things about being opposites??

 

                He eats the round ones.           I eat the flat ones. 

HOT and extra crispy for both.  Please and Thanks.

To Tan or Not To Tan

                Being that it’s February.  And that it’s been a brutally cold winter thus far.  And that the first day of spring is still weeks away.  And my lighter “winter shade” of makeup is now too dark for my skin. And that my skin is mostly translucent making me look like a True Blood vampire.  Or like Boyfriend did when he passed out that one time he bumped his ankle.  (He thinks, after thorough internet research, it was a pretty significant ankle injury.  Considering it’s been months and there is still a huge bump where his ankle used to be I might have to agree that it was more serious than I might lead you to believe.  He also thinks I do this kind of thing quite frequently – ya know make his life sound less serious and mine sound WAY  more dramatic.  I’m not convinced.  That sounds like nothing I would ever do.  And also he plays hours of basketball a week on it now.  So it seems to be fine.)   All these things have persuaded me to consider tanning.  

                Financial responsibility pretty much forced me to give up tanning post college.  Well that and the threat of skin cancer.  But I managed to find a sweet internet tanning deal for my preferred salon yesterday.  I’m an amazing internet shopper.  I could spend hours finding things for the cheapest price possible.  This does not mean I am frugal.  (Can a girl who went to private college twice, on purpose, even use the word frugal?)   This means I still spend all my money and just get more things.  This also results in a pile of packaging boxes taking over the spare bedroom b/c we don’t have a recycle bin and I feel guilty throwing them out.  

                Anyway, my sister used to tell me that tanning would also help to cheer me up and since this whole week I’ve been all …

“I hate work”

“I hate school”

“I hate people who drive on the same roads as me”

“I hate my micro-lunch I packed”

“I hate people who sit in the chair next to me in class”

“Why can’t I eat only pop-tarts all day every day?”

…it just may be time for an attitude adjustment.

                 I’m not hoping to look all Jersey Shore, Oompa-Loompa, just spent a year on an African safari kind of tan.  I just need to look more sun-kissed and less walking-dead.    And since I managed to get $30 worth of tanning for $4 I’m going to take that as a sign from above that I should take a few minutes this next week for some fake sun.   

Here’s to the Groundhog being right this year.  Spring please come quickly.

No, he's not mine.  But it looks like we would be good buddies.