Gotta Get Me Going

I've made it to another Friday! In a short nine hours I will be in Chicago with some of my favorite girls in the world. I cannot wait!! Sushi, Indian food, Olympics, girl time.

I haven't cooked much this week. Last weekend was spent chiefly in the kitchen (much to my happiness I'll add). Instead I've been trying to find the perfect morning pump up music. Driving to work is a chore, despite the cup of coffee I've already downed by then. I need good music to get me going for the day. Something that I can turn up, sing along to, or just listen to and feel motivated. Sometimes I just scream loudly, but that makes my throat hurt. So far, I've found these bands to be successful.

Guster. Always Guster. Playing Lost and Gone Forever makes me feel home. It's hard for me to recommend this band to you for any concrete reason other than they are awesome because they've just been my favorite for so long (10 years to be exact). I love how goofy they are, I love the drums, particularly the bongos of their earlier years, and how they've evolved with each album but not so much that they lose who they are. Here we have Adam and Ryan playing drums (they play guitar and sing. Brian is the drummer and he's AAAAHMAZING in my opinion.)

And here we have "Happier" from Lost and Gone Forever

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have also been good pump me up music. Karen O is their singer. She's awesome. They played at Lollapalooza last summer (a last minute sub for the Beastie Boys) and I fell in love. I might put that show in my top five. Very high energy, and of course being in downtown Chicago on a gorgeous summer night never hurts either :) I love Karen O's voice - powerful without getting out of tune. That girl can scream. Two songs here. 

"Maps" on Fever to Tell

"Zero" on It's Blitz!

So what gets you pumped up when you need a lift? I'm always looking for recommendations to add to my morning playlist.

I'm also going to mention the Broderick, a band from dear Bloomington. Four dudes singing solid rock. Check them out, they're up and coming.

http://www.myspace.com/thebroderickband

Now onto food! Last Thursday I made a black and white cappuccino cheesecake for our cheesecake competition at work. It was very tasty and made my stomach scream out in protest of too much cream cheese. Cheesecake is a lot of work though, and I think only appropriate for special occasions. So I'm going to give you a better and easier sweets recipe: Meyer lemon bars, which I made Friday night. Meyer lemons are smaller than regular lemons and sweeter, which I like because normal lemon bars can be a bit too tart for me. Between the lemon bars and the leftover cheesecake Adam and I had good Valentine's dessert. We also had magical dinners. Sunday we made au gratin potatoes, the recipe for which I'll have to post sometime, Dover sole two ways, and snow peas (mmm I love snow peas for their crunchy sweetness). Saturday night was the real star though in my opinion. Lasagna. In a Dutch oven no less. I think you should ideally use a large and deep casserole dish of some kind, but I don't have one. The Dutch oven worked just fine. The lasagna was flavorful, filling, and cheeeeesy! 

OK, so what follows, in case you missed it from all that rambling, is Meyer lemon bars and lasagna. 

Reach

The past week the news has been full of stories of from Haiti. Bodies piling up on the streets, rescue efforts at schools abandoned because survivors at this point were unlikely, no clean water or food, crime, and general hopelessness. This picture, though, defies all that. It literally embodies the word HOPE for me. That little boy was buried for eight days under rubble, and amazing rescue workers pulled him out. Talk about second chances.

I want to do my small part and was thrilled when one of Jack and Jill's fairly regular writers emailed me saying she felt the same way. She suggested writing an article about the children in Haiti, how they are coping with the aftermath of the earthquake, and how kids here in the U.S. can help through various organizations and charities. I hope that we're touching kids and opening their minds with the magazine. Who knows, but I like to dream :)

Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup and Edward

One of the best perks of my job is the free stuff. We have a product review page called Cool Finds in Jack and Jill. Companies email us about reviewing their products, we say "sure, we'd love to! But we have to see the product first." The company sends us their product, we decide if we like it or not, and then we fight over who gets to take it home. I've gotten an air popper for popcorn, a Paul Frank winter hat, a pair of fuzzy slippers, and a rice cooker. The rice cooker came with a recipe book. We figured if we were going to take advantage of this free rice cooker, we might as well give the company some publicity in return, so we featured one of their recipes for chicken tortilla soup. The U.S. Kids Test Kitchen made it and all employees were fairly impressed. I thought it needed just a bit more kick. Last night we made it at home with a few spicy additions.

I'm just going to say that this recipe is firstly fairly cheap. Canned ingredients, rice, chicken, and broth. Secondly, it's a ONE POT RECIPE. So few dishes!! Thirdly, it's pretty easy to throw together.

Who will save the egg?

Humpty Dumpty is running a Cover Art Contest right now. We ask kids to draw a picture of themselves as a superhero and send it in. One will be chosen to be on the cover of a future issue.

I get pretty hysterical and awesome entries. Some kids get really creative, while others just draw the Eggman himself wearing a cape. Today a big stack of entries arrived on my desk. I have two favorites.

The first is a picture of a man wearing a half red, half blue outfit of some sort (mostly a square outfit, as drawn by this 6-year-old) with long arms, stretched out to the sides. He is saying "Up up and away!" Underneath, in carefully messy child's handwriting, is this statement "Super Obama wraps arms around world."

The second is done in pencil. It's a picture of a boy's face and says "my little brother." This kid considers his little brother a superhero! I wish I'd thought of my little brother that way when I was 6. No, I guess we were fairly close at that age. The uncontrollable annoyance didn't start until middle school.

Play at Work

A few weeks ago two of the art directors, Phyllis and Jenifer, and I went to the Children's Museum to get pictures for a little article on a superhero exhibit they have right now. The exhibit was great and was a really nice fieldtrip break from work. I have a newfound interest in superheroes.

We found a box of superhero costumes, mostly kid-sized, in one part of the exhibit. After some digging, we pulled out a cape and a suit that would fit us adults. Each of us dressed up and got our picture taken by the others. Somehow the picture that Jenifer took of me ended up in the superhero article in the November December issue of Humpty Dumpty. I'm being exploited by the art directors. Thankfully I don't look quite like myself in the picture, right?


Don't worry, I was already told that my pose is inaccurate, as Batman does not fly.

TGIMFF

I hope you can figure that abbreviation out on your own.

I've discovered that my morning routine involves a lot of cussing. Probably because my eyes tend to stay half shut until after showering/face washing. Plus I should not be expected to function before coffee. OK so lots of things drop. That requires lots of fucks and craps and damn its. Other than these choice words, I do not speak much before 9am.

Someone has been taking my parking space at work while I'm away at lunch. I park in the same spot every day: the row facing the building, third space down. (The row not facing the building is directly under a telephone wire, which leads to much bird poop on windshields.) When I get back from lunch a tan Jeep Liberty, Columbia edition has somehow ended up right there where my Holly stays. Really this is not a big deal. The parking lot is never full and I usually find a space two down from mine. It's really more a thing of principle. Why take a spot that wasn't yours this morning? Why not just park in the same spot you did when you got here? I do not understand.

Princess Puppies and Cupcakes

It's fall!! Does a season require capitalization? If so, then...It's Fall!! I celebrated by drinking lots of hot tea and making chai tea cupcakes. The cupcakes are pretty good. Not fabulous but the icing is phenomenal. Plus, I think they're pretty!

The recipe is from a cupcake book Sam let me borrow. 500 cupcake recipes. I foresee much baking in my future.

In other photo news, we played dress up with one of my boss's dogs last week. Toby makes a very lovely princess, don't you think? I hope we haven't contributed to any gender confusion on his part...though I have a feeling he's already confused since his dog buddy Yoda humps him.

do it with the bathroom door open

As of tomorrow I am officially moving out of my parents' house for good. I'm sure I thought that very thing as I got onto I465 last November, my car packed full of my things, and headed down South to the land of the pines. This time I do mean it though. I've got a nice little apartment downtown in a cute historic neighborhood called Woodruff Place. There are trees and fountains down the center of the streets and a town hall where neighbors still hold meetings and plan events. I have grand plans for this apartment. Life will be good. No, scratch that, life is good. Mmmm I like being able to say that, though now I've certainly jinxed myself.
The job is good. I'm learning a lot about the inner workings of a magazine while randomly floating around. A small sample of how we spend our days:


Those are my boss's dogs, who accompany her to work every day, eating whipped cream from Starbucks. Other things that have been discussed include killer midget's with boxcutters jumping out of the trees downtown to kill innocent bystanders, penis ties and pictures (this was in an art contest meeting for the children's magazines), the fact that I got a doggy penis stuck in my face (the smallest one in the middle above) and facebook.
I leave you many (and by many I mean few) readers with an excerpt from a Jamie Cullum song that I feel is fitting to my mood these days.

It's just another story caught up
In another photograph I found.
And it seems like another person lived that life a great many years ago from now,
When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.

planetarium

vanity fair has the best horoscopes hands down. they include the effect of planet positions, which houses they are in and where they are on your chart. of course i am a believer in horoscopes so vanity fair's is like a double win for me. this month mine reads,

"AQUARIUS
naturally you're a bit restless these days. you're a wild bird, not some parakeet that gets let out of its cage only to cling to somebody's arm. when saturn transits the western horizon, however, you've got to get over your desire for complete independence and accept the fact that you want company. while you know damn well that the only person who's going to take care of you financially in your old age is you, the fact is that you get spooked when you're left alone. maybe there is a touch of parakeet in you after all."

it's true. i'm a parakeet underneath my wild bird exterior but i hate admitting to it. one of my better personality flaws to come out since i've moved away.

we've started getting lots of regular early morning coffee drinkers at work besides our 3 0r 4 regulars. i like our early morning regulars because they don't chit chat. i do not want to make small talk with you at 6:30am. come back in two hours. one of these is a european gentleman. he speaks in a fairly heavy italian accent, wears a leather jacket over his shoulders and uses copious amounts of hairgel. he orders an espresso. this morning i suddenly saw him standing outside, smoking a cigarette and knocking on our window, obviously trying to get my attention. when i looked his way he signaled two with his fingers. confused, i walked towards the door to see what he so desperately needed as he continued to flash the two fingers. he beat me to it, opened the door and said "i want a double espresso (hence the two). i forgot that you don't allow cigarettes in the cafe here and lit one right before i came in." ok fine. the smoke in cafes in europe. apparently they leave their manners outside though. this is not a drivethrough fool. i do not take your order while you stand outside. i was a bit cool when he did come in and i think he noticed. he was very complimentary of our espresso (delicious. even better than in italy.) and i hope he felt at least a little bad.

loans, court dates and new cars oh my

i wandered over to guster's website today (i've been doing a lot of this kind of wandering today because i have no car to go run errands such as the groccery and the post office or start my new tutoring job) and found a new road journal entry. i'm posting the link here in hopes that you'll read it. one because it's guster and even better brian writes and is highly amusing. two because there's mention of the ncaa tournament. three because there is mention of passover. four because there are silly drawings of the band and crew members. http://www.guster.com/. you have to click on the link to the left that says "road journal". check it out.
in other news i've discovered the downside of being a grown up. i said i wanted responsibility and i still do but it doesn't feel as good and liberating as i had hoped.
in other other news i'm going home this weekend. i'm thrilled and cannot wait to see my family and hopefully get down to bloomington.
my quote of the day, "there are two kinds of animals in this world, dogs and cats. kind of like there are two kinds of people, indie and new age." {casey, the morning times manager}

today is monday and it sucks

i was literally about to curl up in bed and take a nap and on cue someone started cutting the grass outside my window. now, thanks to the loud motor noises, i will surely not be able to sleep. and right now all i want is to disappear into a nap for a bit. i was hoping for a refreshing weekend and it started off just that way. i think i came out the other end just as baffled and unsure as i went in. i had my first week of personal training sessions (yes the gym is sucking money out of me like it's their job. at least i'll be hot. um i mean in shape...) scheduled for 4:30 this week thinking that i was done with louisburg tutoring. i came home from work this afternoon, sat down on my bed and my phone rang. of course it's never the phone call that i want, but the very opposite. etta holmes calling to ask if i can just tutor for this one last week because she's having trouble filling my spot. and beause i'm a sucker and a pushover i say yes. so, now i have to call rodney the personal trainer and ask him if i can reschedule. and we all know how much i hate making phone calls to people i don't really know. i'm putting it off. i need to plan out exactly what i am going to say, especially if i have to leave a voicemail. i've been planning out lots of conversations in my head. the other most important one i am trying to work up the courage to have. i'm just not sure it's necessary anymore and if it is still then is it a good idea at all? i don't want my happiness to depend on someone else and i do want to find the courage to tell that someone else how i feel.

job numero dos

the neighbor cats are fighting loudly below my window. not the first serenade i've gotten since i've been down here but sadly the most recent one. i'd rather it be "you've lost that loving feeling".
i've recently felt like i'm living two days in one. the first consists of the coffee shop and i have no complaints. the second has me driving an hour there and an hour back for only two hours of actual work. this is my tutoring job and it's a pain in my ass that will soon be gone. i spent lots of time discussing the pros and cons of this second job (mostly with myself on my drives to and from said job). i enjoy some of the kids. i liked tutoring reading. i dislike a lot of the kids. they're disrespectful, calling me "ma'am" in a sarcastic tone, they don't try and disrupt the class. the drive is a monumental Pain In The Ass and gas prices are going up. i just don't feel that it's worth my time. and i'm generally cranky whenever i think of going. so i'm done. i really hate quitting but i think my sanity and happiness are at stake.
in other news i'm afraid i'm being used. or that all parties involved are confused and unsure. ugh i'm too exhausted to be thinking about this crap (again...). it's 10:30 and time for bed.

post the first

i have decided to leave my not so emo but emo by default livejournal past behind and get a grown up blog. that doesn't make sense i realize but deal with it. besides i like fresh starts and since i've moved i've been all about fresh starts.
i'm opening at the coffeeshop every day this week but tomorrow. this requires me to set me alarm (or rather alarms because i started turning off just the one in my sleep) for 5am and 5:25am in order for me to drag myself out of bed, brush my teeth and get dressed in a half asleep fashion. all just to park my car 5 blocks from the store and walk through the sketchy part of downtown before the sun comes up. i'd honestly rather work in the mornings though because then i have my whole day in front of me when i get off at noon. or i have small and sometimes sticky children to teach maths to, except that i have no idea how to teach maths. but that's a whole other story. plus i do thoroughly enjoy seeing the same customers every morning and guessing in my head what they want. last week a man came in who orders a latte every day. only he looks a lot like a man who orders a "grande caramel latte, extra hot" so when he said "i want my regular, can you guess what that is?" i said, "uummm, large coffee?" so now i keep my guesses to myself.
i do have two trips to look forward to coming up: going home at the end of march and going to chicago with bette for our "spring break" to visit marnie and meredith.
and now i'm going to help bette write a paper!!!! this, sadly enough, makes my night. my secret's out, i love writing papers.