I've travelled back in time.
After hours and hours spent in a variety of airports Mark and I finally made it to Tahoe with the shuttle driving over and back down mountains until Lake Tahoe appears in front of you like the Holy Land. Just as I remember it. And that's a good thing.
It's almost as if this place is a fountain of youth for me. I've been running on empty but haven't seemed to break down yet. I've had more alcohol than water which is unheard of for me and I'm doing just fine.
Our host, Jonathan, has a sweet "fixer-upper" which sprawls on his plot just outside of town and he took us sailing on Fallen Leaf Lake, which I was never able to do when I was here before and I also got to paddle board . I never made it to my feet, I have no faith in what balance my ankle can provide, but years of catholic school had me on my knees just fine.
We grilled with a great turn-out of old camp buddies and today while Mark and Jonathan are on some ridiculous hike I've been baking in the sun on the beach. I had to abandon the sands because I could feel myself headed for heat stroke but it was a great morning.
And now, here I am, sitting in the South Lake Tahoe library using the internet just like I did that first winter I lived here (sitting next to a heavy mouth breather, I won't be able to stay here long...I can smell him, gross. The only blemish on the trip so far- so that's a good thing, right?)
So it's only been 2 days but they've been grand. I hope it continues. Mark and I have no plans for the rest of the days here but we should get planning tonight since we'll have to work out borrowing the buddy's car since he has to go back to work.
Ahhhh. Workin' folk.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Getting a Literary Groove On
The time has come for me to fly to California. Our big 2010 "Tour" as we will visit both Northern and Southern parts. Hip-Hip Hooray? I'm going to do my best to not let what waits for me at home to mess up my attitude while I'm away.
It will be hard.
Of course the biggest item to tackle was to decide what to bring to read. I checked out a bunch of books from the library but didn't love them so returned them. Then I tried a book I already owned but don't like it (was a freebie) so I'm going to get rid of it. So I ended up back at the library and decided that maybe what I need is a nice dose of Young Adult. They're so much different than when I was a young adult (Dear God! I'm not a young adult. I might vomit.)
Didn't Young Adult use to mean Ramona Quimbly and Fear Street and anything R.L. Stine? Remember that guy? Now they have New York Times bestselling authors and fancy cover design and for the love of god, Twilight is "Young Adult" and look at the millions of dollars there.
So for my vacation reading I'm going to read the voice of a 16-year-old protagonist and pretend like I know what it's like to grow up in suburbia (nope) what it was like during my first teen love (didn't happen, I was fat(ter)), and imagine, perhaps, being the child of a divorced couple (which I'm not, even though my parents can't stand each other.)
Happy Summer Reading!
It will be hard.
Of course the biggest item to tackle was to decide what to bring to read. I checked out a bunch of books from the library but didn't love them so returned them. Then I tried a book I already owned but don't like it (was a freebie) so I'm going to get rid of it. So I ended up back at the library and decided that maybe what I need is a nice dose of Young Adult. They're so much different than when I was a young adult (Dear God! I'm not a young adult. I might vomit.)
Didn't Young Adult use to mean Ramona Quimbly and Fear Street and anything R.L. Stine? Remember that guy? Now they have New York Times bestselling authors and fancy cover design and for the love of god, Twilight is "Young Adult" and look at the millions of dollars there.
So for my vacation reading I'm going to read the voice of a 16-year-old protagonist and pretend like I know what it's like to grow up in suburbia (nope) what it was like during my first teen love (didn't happen, I was fat(ter)), and imagine, perhaps, being the child of a divorced couple (which I'm not, even though my parents can't stand each other.)
Happy Summer Reading!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Getting Older
So for my birthday Mark and I went out to Jackson Heights to get some Indian. We went to the Jackson Diner which we were told was once a diner but now a really popular Indian spot. For you non-NYCers if New York City is a Melting Pot then Jackson Heights is like...more? I don't know, cleverness is lost to me today but basically there's a fuck-load of Indians in Jackson Heights so you go there for more than just the one option we have up here in Inwood.
I knew I was in the thick of it when the man next to me was eating his dish with his bare hands, which is the way they do it in India. It's actually impressive because you're talking curry here: liquid, runny stuff. He was actually a neater eater than me.
We were there for the lunch buffet which is exactly what you want when you're wearing a tighter fitting dress and you already have issues about how you look. What's this? No flowey layers? Wanna have a buffet of your favorite ethnic food? Sure! So we ate lunch with a friend and then headed to MoMA because I can still get in for free and we were only 2 train stops away.
At MoMA the Indian theme accidentally continued. There was a woman there wearing a stunning sari. It wasn't brightly colored or cheap looking like they can sometimes look. This was a beautiful, tapestry-like sari that flowed and hung over her body. I instantly wished I was Indian. So bad.
You get to be curvy...sometimes more. You get to wear comfy clothing. It can have beautiful, bold prints. You have long, dark, delicious hair that never seems to know it's humid. Ugh.
So we had people over for drinks in the evening and it was a lot of fun. It was a nice mix of people. A weird 'reunion' of sorts where the only thing that everyone had in common was me. A girl from college who I haven't seen until just a week earlier. Two girls from MoMA which I thought was really awesome too. I keep in touch mostly through Facebook but when you really think about it, I only worked with them for two months two years ago but they came and I had a great time talking with them. My buddy Steve who, poor thing, sat in the corner for a short time and I didn't really get a chance to talk to him. And some others who I was happy to have. I think everyone hit it off well.
Anyway, here it is. We're thick into summer. We've had our first heat wave and I've applied to 12 jobs. I'm starting to wilt. I've got myself a little cozy corner to make mine and it does help with my motivation to sit down and send out a resumé but I'm a victim to my defeatism.
Soon we'll head out to Lake Tahoe and down to San Diego and I'm gonna try really hard to just have a fucking blast. Just enjoy what will be my last vacation for a long time and not worry about what's waiting for me at home. But it will be hard since my brain just isn't wired that way.
I knew I was in the thick of it when the man next to me was eating his dish with his bare hands, which is the way they do it in India. It's actually impressive because you're talking curry here: liquid, runny stuff. He was actually a neater eater than me.
We were there for the lunch buffet which is exactly what you want when you're wearing a tighter fitting dress and you already have issues about how you look. What's this? No flowey layers? Wanna have a buffet of your favorite ethnic food? Sure! So we ate lunch with a friend and then headed to MoMA because I can still get in for free and we were only 2 train stops away.
At MoMA the Indian theme accidentally continued. There was a woman there wearing a stunning sari. It wasn't brightly colored or cheap looking like they can sometimes look. This was a beautiful, tapestry-like sari that flowed and hung over her body. I instantly wished I was Indian. So bad.
You get to be curvy...sometimes more. You get to wear comfy clothing. It can have beautiful, bold prints. You have long, dark, delicious hair that never seems to know it's humid. Ugh.
So we had people over for drinks in the evening and it was a lot of fun. It was a nice mix of people. A weird 'reunion' of sorts where the only thing that everyone had in common was me. A girl from college who I haven't seen until just a week earlier. Two girls from MoMA which I thought was really awesome too. I keep in touch mostly through Facebook but when you really think about it, I only worked with them for two months two years ago but they came and I had a great time talking with them. My buddy Steve who, poor thing, sat in the corner for a short time and I didn't really get a chance to talk to him. And some others who I was happy to have. I think everyone hit it off well.
Anyway, here it is. We're thick into summer. We've had our first heat wave and I've applied to 12 jobs. I'm starting to wilt. I've got myself a little cozy corner to make mine and it does help with my motivation to sit down and send out a resumé but I'm a victim to my defeatism.
Soon we'll head out to Lake Tahoe and down to San Diego and I'm gonna try really hard to just have a fucking blast. Just enjoy what will be my last vacation for a long time and not worry about what's waiting for me at home. But it will be hard since my brain just isn't wired that way.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Melting
Hope you had a nice 4th.
I made Mark sit all day in a North Jersey backyard while I marinated in an above-ground pool filled with Puerto Ricans and a sprinkling of Italians. It was actually perfect. It was refreshing and sorta fun, considering the alternative was sitting on my futon developing swamp ass and probably getting into a fight with Mark as we would have been hot and grumpy.
We checked out the fireworks from a Penthouse view in Chinatown where we did end up getting into a fight but somehow composed ourselves and I think overall the day was a success! And I didn't have to worry about my birds because they had been taken over to Grandma's place to be kept cool in the AC. What a nice Grandma.
On Monday we hit up Midtown for some sales. Here's a bullet point presentation of the day:
-Mark updated t-shirt wardrobe.
-I updated bra collection.
-My boobs are bigger than originally thought. I'm not necessarily ashamed of this. It will actually benefit me when I start turning tricks to pay the rent.
-Ghetto People will talk about anything in a dressing room. It's almost disturbing.
Conversation 1:
Dressing room attendant talking about a recent experience in court and how someone's wages are being taken for child support back payments and how you can write letters to explain to the judge that you're losing too much money and blah, blah, blah..
Conversation 2:
Girl 1 talking to Girl 2 about how she met her boyfriend's recently-born baby. And how she swears it wasn't his son because he don't look nothing like him and so the only thing she could think to say was "Wow, he has your smile." Only two weeks later he was talking to her and said "This may make me sound like an asshole but I don't think it's my kid." And other really gross personal shit that doesn't need to be announced to a dressing room. But when it's mentioned that someone wants to go to the pool at Highbridge Park the response is "Nah man, that place is so fucking ghetto." OOOOOkay.
But all in all it was a busy day. I should enjoy this little shopping spree because at the end of July we're heading out for our "California Tour" and that's gonna really stress out the piggy bank and then it's gonna get ugly from there. So wish me luck. And like...for real...keep an ear to the ground for jobs! Otherwise I won't leave the house much and you'll just end up with boring posts like this one.
I made Mark sit all day in a North Jersey backyard while I marinated in an above-ground pool filled with Puerto Ricans and a sprinkling of Italians. It was actually perfect. It was refreshing and sorta fun, considering the alternative was sitting on my futon developing swamp ass and probably getting into a fight with Mark as we would have been hot and grumpy.
We checked out the fireworks from a Penthouse view in Chinatown where we did end up getting into a fight but somehow composed ourselves and I think overall the day was a success! And I didn't have to worry about my birds because they had been taken over to Grandma's place to be kept cool in the AC. What a nice Grandma.
On Monday we hit up Midtown for some sales. Here's a bullet point presentation of the day:
-Mark updated t-shirt wardrobe.
-I updated bra collection.
-My boobs are bigger than originally thought. I'm not necessarily ashamed of this. It will actually benefit me when I start turning tricks to pay the rent.
-Ghetto People will talk about anything in a dressing room. It's almost disturbing.
Conversation 1:
Dressing room attendant talking about a recent experience in court and how someone's wages are being taken for child support back payments and how you can write letters to explain to the judge that you're losing too much money and blah, blah, blah..
Conversation 2:
Girl 1 talking to Girl 2 about how she met her boyfriend's recently-born baby. And how she swears it wasn't his son because he don't look nothing like him and so the only thing she could think to say was "Wow, he has your smile." Only two weeks later he was talking to her and said "This may make me sound like an asshole but I don't think it's my kid." And other really gross personal shit that doesn't need to be announced to a dressing room. But when it's mentioned that someone wants to go to the pool at Highbridge Park the response is "Nah man, that place is so fucking ghetto." OOOOOkay.
But all in all it was a busy day. I should enjoy this little shopping spree because at the end of July we're heading out for our "California Tour" and that's gonna really stress out the piggy bank and then it's gonna get ugly from there. So wish me luck. And like...for real...keep an ear to the ground for jobs! Otherwise I won't leave the house much and you'll just end up with boring posts like this one.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Holy Heat Index
Things I've recently learned:
*People actually do read this blog, what a motivator!
*That there is a "before you sprain your ankle" and "after you sprain your ankle" life.
Basically "before" means you never think about your ankles. Unless you have cankles and you hate them. But I didn't.
"After" means it always hurts. When you get off of an airplane it will be gigantic. When you step out of a car door and you put all your weight on it because that's how you climb out of the car. It hurts. And it's just really awkward and you have to change a lifetime of habit to actually turn your whole body out of the car to push up. It's so....elderly.
People get tired of hearing about it but you can't stop obsessing because no one ever tells you that it will never be the same. Never. And you didn't even break it.
*That if you wait 2 years to go back to yoga class it definitely is awesome to make your first class back an outdoors class with two drummers and a field full of people all moving together. It almost makes you understand that whole hippie religious aspect of yoga. Almost.
*It's really a nice way to spend an afternoon with people from college who had a common interest with you. What do I mean by this? Well recently my old RC from my RA days organized a "reunion" of sorts of former staffers from his favorite time(s) at Purchase. While I wasn't really part of any of their closer social circles (I don't recall sharing dark secrets with any of them) we all spent time together being RAs. Which meant we all had a common goal, we all had the same desire to be part of that community, we all worked together, and we all respected each other. So it was a really pleasant afternoon.
I was genuinely happy to be there and hear what was happening and what was not happening in our lives. We're all the in the late 20s to early 30s range so some of us are in early career stages, some of us are in "starting all over" stages. Some are in serious relationships some are still out there but none of us are like super settled with three kids and a house sort of thing so it was funny to see how we have all changed but we're still the same... in a non-depressing way.
*And lastly I learned that being around you first "peer" you first friend who is pregnant can be really trippy. Here is this girl you shopped with and hung out with and suddenly there is this...human inside of her. But she's still the same person. It becomes even more surreal when you're chatting away and then the baby shifts inside and you see it move. Whoa.
Anyway, I'm really happy for her. She has the nice little American set-up going on (house, job, growing family) and she's a great example of working hard and knowing what you want and earning it. Love you.
*People actually do read this blog, what a motivator!
*That there is a "before you sprain your ankle" and "after you sprain your ankle" life.
Basically "before" means you never think about your ankles. Unless you have cankles and you hate them. But I didn't.
"After" means it always hurts. When you get off of an airplane it will be gigantic. When you step out of a car door and you put all your weight on it because that's how you climb out of the car. It hurts. And it's just really awkward and you have to change a lifetime of habit to actually turn your whole body out of the car to push up. It's so....elderly.
People get tired of hearing about it but you can't stop obsessing because no one ever tells you that it will never be the same. Never. And you didn't even break it.
*That if you wait 2 years to go back to yoga class it definitely is awesome to make your first class back an outdoors class with two drummers and a field full of people all moving together. It almost makes you understand that whole hippie religious aspect of yoga. Almost.
*It's really a nice way to spend an afternoon with people from college who had a common interest with you. What do I mean by this? Well recently my old RC from my RA days organized a "reunion" of sorts of former staffers from his favorite time(s) at Purchase. While I wasn't really part of any of their closer social circles (I don't recall sharing dark secrets with any of them) we all spent time together being RAs. Which meant we all had a common goal, we all had the same desire to be part of that community, we all worked together, and we all respected each other. So it was a really pleasant afternoon.
I was genuinely happy to be there and hear what was happening and what was not happening in our lives. We're all the in the late 20s to early 30s range so some of us are in early career stages, some of us are in "starting all over" stages. Some are in serious relationships some are still out there but none of us are like super settled with three kids and a house sort of thing so it was funny to see how we have all changed but we're still the same... in a non-depressing way.
*And lastly I learned that being around you first "peer" you first friend who is pregnant can be really trippy. Here is this girl you shopped with and hung out with and suddenly there is this...human inside of her. But she's still the same person. It becomes even more surreal when you're chatting away and then the baby shifts inside and you see it move. Whoa.
Anyway, I'm really happy for her. She has the nice little American set-up going on (house, job, growing family) and she's a great example of working hard and knowing what you want and earning it. Love you.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
So Far, So Good
So the weather has been getting nicer and I find myself in a fairly good mood ever since I moved to the New Place. New Place is great. It has a better vibe. Larger floor plan. Less sketch neighbors. So far not so bad.
So it's crazy that I'm not in a constant state of panic ever since I told my employer that I wasn't going to be returning to work after this school year. What's that? It's a recession and I have no special talents and therefore I'm running the risk of total destitution by giving up guaranteed employment?
You're absolutely right.
But I just couldn't do it anymore.
I'm just so tired of pretending every day that I give a crap about these spoiled, sometimes horribly behaved, privileged children. If I wanted to clean up the same messes over and over again, break up the same fights over and over again, and try really hard not to beat a small human senseless over and over again I'd just give birth to a fucking kid myself. Having my own kid would be as thankless and pay about as much as this job paid me. As a matter of fact I could try and get welfare with my own kid and probably be living better than I am now because that's just how it works in this place, the great USA. Or in this here part of NYC.
Anyway. Don't get me wrong, every couple of hours I feel a little panicky and sad and nervous and horrible and I just want to cease to exist. But I haven't been losing sleep which is a pretty good sign of taking it in stride for me.
But I'd check back again come mid-July. I'm not making any promises for optimism come mid-July.
So it's crazy that I'm not in a constant state of panic ever since I told my employer that I wasn't going to be returning to work after this school year. What's that? It's a recession and I have no special talents and therefore I'm running the risk of total destitution by giving up guaranteed employment?
You're absolutely right.
But I just couldn't do it anymore.
I'm just so tired of pretending every day that I give a crap about these spoiled, sometimes horribly behaved, privileged children. If I wanted to clean up the same messes over and over again, break up the same fights over and over again, and try really hard not to beat a small human senseless over and over again I'd just give birth to a fucking kid myself. Having my own kid would be as thankless and pay about as much as this job paid me. As a matter of fact I could try and get welfare with my own kid and probably be living better than I am now because that's just how it works in this place, the great USA. Or in this here part of NYC.
Anyway. Don't get me wrong, every couple of hours I feel a little panicky and sad and nervous and horrible and I just want to cease to exist. But I haven't been losing sleep which is a pretty good sign of taking it in stride for me.
But I'd check back again come mid-July. I'm not making any promises for optimism come mid-July.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
This One's for R.J.
One of my favorite things to have for breakfast is a Baked-Potato Egg. I love it. It's all the best things about "big breakfasts" tucked into a small ramekin. Less guilt? Sure. Let's go with that. I'll share how I make it which differs just slightly from the original recipe I learned it from. You end up with 4 ramekins full of goodness. Mark and I usually eat two each, I won't lie.
2 large baking potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
2 sausages of your liking, precooked, diced
4 large eggs
Oven to 400 degrees. Scrub taters, pierce with fork. Bake for 45 minutes. I don't wrap them or put them on a tray. I slap 'em right down on the rack.
Carefully cut open baked potatoes and scoop all the innards into a mixing bowl. Discard skins.
Stir in the butter and cheese, fold in cooked sausage. Spoon mixture evenly into your ramekins and make a hollow in the center of each. Break 1 egg into each hollow.
Arrange on a baking sheet and cook 10-15 minutes until your eggs are set.
The key to success is making sure all your whites are not runny but that your yolk still has some runniness inside of it. Because when your yolk breaks and mixes with the sausage and potato that's when it emulates that awesome Sunday morning diner breakfast flavor.
Hot sauce, ketchup, salt, pepper: Pick your poison and enjoy!
The picture is of the day I used bacon instead of sausage because that's what I had on hand. Personally, I don't recommend it. It rocks way more with the chopped sausage.
2 large baking potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
2 sausages of your liking, precooked, diced
4 large eggs
Oven to 400 degrees. Scrub taters, pierce with fork. Bake for 45 minutes. I don't wrap them or put them on a tray. I slap 'em right down on the rack.
Carefully cut open baked potatoes and scoop all the innards into a mixing bowl. Discard skins.
Stir in the butter and cheese, fold in cooked sausage. Spoon mixture evenly into your ramekins and make a hollow in the center of each. Break 1 egg into each hollow.
Arrange on a baking sheet and cook 10-15 minutes until your eggs are set.
The key to success is making sure all your whites are not runny but that your yolk still has some runniness inside of it. Because when your yolk breaks and mixes with the sausage and potato that's when it emulates that awesome Sunday morning diner breakfast flavor.
Hot sauce, ketchup, salt, pepper: Pick your poison and enjoy!
The picture is of the day I used bacon instead of sausage because that's what I had on hand. Personally, I don't recommend it. It rocks way more with the chopped sausage.
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