Bad Blogger...yada yada yada

Right, so I'm terrible at updating this lately. I've had important stuff to do like watch both seasons of True Blood and have Fall Family Fun Day. The reality is that work has been crazy, I've been updating my work blog, going to the gym, cooking healthy meals, and getting ready for our convention (that finally happened last weekend! woot!).

So, essentially, same old story...life gets in the way of life...blah blah blah...(I know you know the truth...I'm better at watching tv than I am at updating this page.)

Here's a good story for you, though. Last Monday I was gearing up for a SUPER busy week. With the convention (which included me leading sessions), the blog, my insurance work, and being in Boston for three days, I was stressed. So naturally, I came down with a cold. By Tuesday, when I drove my boss and her assistant into Boston and dropped them off at the hotel, I felt terrible.

You know how you just feel awful, tired, cloudy, spent, snifflie, and just a tad pathetic? I had that, but staying home in bed was not an option. I scheduled an acupuncture appointment, bought a quart of orange juice, and a neti pot all in an attempt to make myself feel better. However, the reality was that I could only think about ONE MAGICAL THING. In my cloudy, mind only OE MAGICAL THING would make me feel better...or at least provide me a moment of being less pathetic than I appeared with the tissue box attached to my arm.

That ONE MAGIC THING: Wendy's French Fries with ketchup.

I can't even recall the last time I was at a Wendy's. Literally, it could be 15 years. But its all I could think about. So on my way back from Boston, I got off the Mass Pike, drove down Route 9 and bought myself a small french fry and a bottle of water. I dunked every one of those square french fries in ketchup and savored each one. They were every bit as good as I wanted them to be. Salty, crunchy, sweet - a rare (and weird) moment of bliss. I finished them, took a sip of my water and drove back to the office.

And all of that was well and good until I realized that I had carelessly thrown the water bottle into my purse, but had failed to screw the cap on with the strength of 1,000 men. That, dear readers, is how I spilled water in the bottom of my purse, which drown my iPod and everything else in my bag. Each item was wet and stuck together which created a big soggy pile of chap stick, tea bags, receipts, shopping notes, tissues, coupons, tampons and credit cards. Not to mention my gloves, ear buds, and check book. One by one each item came out of my bag and laid on the floor of my cubicle to dry.

But those French Fries were really worth it.

10 Things I Like - Fall Edition - Sort of

1. The way the leaves have changed soooo incredibly slowly this year. The extended foliage season is deserved after the months of awful weather here. (apparently all that rain was traumatizing as it ended like 2 months ago)

2. The way the neighborhood smells like campfires at night.

3. That once a week, apple crisp is a perfectly acceptable breakfast.

4. Having great friends.

5. That I actually feel disappointed if I don't make it to the gym 4 times a week.

6. Podcasts. I love them. My iPod recent reset and it killed everything on my nano. I have only
restored the podcast section.

7. Sweaters. Warm, cozy, cotton sweaters.

8. Deer pajamas.

9. Slow roasted tomatoes.

10. Spiked apple cider.

FLIP FLOPS!

I mentioned that my birthday was not too long ago. A perk of birthdays is getting gifts from really nice people. Sometimes these gifts come in the form of checks. When that happens I like to take that money and spend it on shoes. I'm no Carrie Bradshaw, so I head directly to DSW instead of Jimmy Choo.

I had a few boxes stacked up and was trying on a few pairs of shoes and was doing the obligatory walk up and down the isle testing shoes for comfort and heel height and trying to imagine which pants I could wear them with, and thinking all the while that my Mom was going to pop out at any given moment and ask if my toes were hitting the end. In other words, I was in my own little world. The trying on shoes by myself mode.

As I was walking up and down the isle this woman leans over from the next isle and says something to me. Of course, I had no clue and wasn't paying attention at all, so I asked her to repeat herself. Again, she muttered something that was totally inaudible (or my hearing loss is getting worse). My response was "excuse me, I just can't hear you". I imagine my face actually said "WTF lady, why are you taking to me?"

She took a deep breath, looked me in the eye and then shouted "FLIP FLOPS!"

And with that I'm sure the look on my face went from WTF? to WTF!?!???

Again, she looked at me and continued shouting, "Flip flops. I've never been here before. Where are the FLIP FLOPS?"

Then it became clear. She thought I worked there and was PISSED that I was not paying her the attention she so obviously needed. So she decided to shout at me.

My brilliant response, "I don't work here." I followed it up with "It is September, I think the flip flops are in the clearance rack in the back."

Then she was suddenly embarrassed and found it quite funny that she had made such a silly mistake. I'm still wondering what part about me trying on shoes makes me look like like I work at DSW. Weird. I hated the way she only felt it okay to be nice to me after she found out I was not an employee.

People are weird.

***
Where have I been?
I've been blogging at work and somehow that's taking up some (or most) of my mental energy. I'm not sure what that says about me. I'll get back to writing more regularly soon.

5 Things

I haven't written up any stories for a while here. Things have gotten...busy.

We had a new roof put on. That was awesome and expensive and actually still requires some thought because now our house is sans gutters. The other day I noticed that there is a roofing nail that somehow landed just right and is poked right through one of the leaves of our rhododendron bush. I see the nail every time I get out of the car and it makes me wonder exactly how that happened - the nail falling so perfectly as to pierce the leaf and then sit in the bush in suspended animation - instead of falling to the ground. When I think of this I don't think about spending more money on gutters and that's probably good for my sanity.

I have been spending time at the gym. Yes, really. I think I started going back in June. While I haven't lost a single pound - I have gained a bit of knowledge. 1. Exercises keeps the anxiety at bay. 2. Starting slow was in fact the way for me to play the game. (Not once has a piece of gym equipment shut off while I was using it) 3. I actually work out harder when distracted by reading a book. 4. I still hate lifting weights due to the boring-ness of lifting weights and the need to count and pay attention while doing so.

Never in a million years did I think it possible, but I have started using Twitter at work. Of course, this required setting up a new account as my @drivedaily account was less than relevant to the world of insurance. Since then I've been trying to tweet on both - which seems excessive for me. How many Twitter accounts does one person need?

Why can I not find true love in a throw pillow?

One last thought- I am really liking that new show Glee. Why? Don't know. It should be something I loathe - with all the singing theater nerd kids - but I find myself hoping that I didn't miss it because I can't seem to remeber what day it comes on.

Today

Today is my birthday! I still approach my birthday with child-like enthusiasm, but each year I find it a little harder to pull it off. It helps to have a piece of cake, great friends and family and a wonderful husband to help celebrate.

Speaking of that wonderful husband... we have now been married to for FIVE years. Today is also our wedding anniversary. The past five years have been filled with a lot changes, a lot of fun and I am so thrilled to be able to say that I married my best friend - the love of my life - and all that stuff you think only happens to people in movies with happy endings.

And if that weren't cool enough, I feel like I have one more reason to celebrate. I've recently been asked to take on a new project at work. After talking about it for years, our leadership has finally decided to take the plunge and explore some social media avenues. A few weeks ago I was asked to put together a plan for a blog. After presenting my plan and some sample posts, I was given the Thumbs Up to start (and promptly commenced learning Wordpress and giving out twitter tutorials). It's been a little crazy for me trying to balance this new part of my job, but I can honestly say this is the most excited I have been about work in a while.

So that's what I'll be celebrating today over a few cups of espresso, a few surprises for my husband, and nice dinner in the North End.

Done!

People, I am DONE with bacon.

I decreed this last week on twitter, but seriously folks I am done.

Cake should never look like bacon.
Martini glasses should be made out of glass.
Vodka should be mixed with lemons.

Now I understand, bacon tastes good, it smells good, it conjures up memories of your mom frying it on Sunday mornings and all the rest. (Actually, it reminds me of camping - every camp site frying up it's own bacon and eggs and pancakes.) And yes, I know, I don't actually eat bacon anymore, but this does not preclude me from voicing what you all need to hear:

Bacon has jumped the shark!

(From @reneemca's lips to your ears, internet.)

*****
Related: other things I am DONE with:
Alice 'n' Chains
Smokers who throw cigarette butts on the ground
People who complain about completely irrelevant nonsense...oh wait

****UPDATE****
Upon posting this the very next thing in my feed reader was a recipe for, you guessed it,
Lentils with Bacon. People, Bacon is NOT sexy!

I sighed very loudly. The Husband asked what was wrong. I told him I had been a victim of the internet. He rolled his eyes.

Pot-Luck Pesto (vegan style)

We headed to a pot luck last night. A real pot luck. No theme. No advanced warnings. No sign up sheets. The possibility that we would get there to find a table full of green salads crossed our minds, but I had a pretty good feeling we'd have pretty good luck.

This is what I intended to bring:
Almond Pest Spirals topped with Cherry Tomatoes
Multi-grain Sourdough Bread
Blueberry Pie

I actually left the tomatoes and bread on the counter, which really bummed me out, but we pressed on and figured we could enjoy all the tomatoes ourselves...without sharing.

The almond pesto has been a favorite dinner lately and is a recipe I made up using almonds instead of pine nuts. Why almonds? Because I keep raw almonds around to snack on and throw in oatmeal. I have to admit to not really caring for pine nuts, hating walnuts, and only tolerating roasted peanuts a few at a time. Almonds however are my friend and they make a nice base for a vegan pesto. Almonds seem to have a creamy flavor which makes me not miss the cheese at all. They also pack some protein (albeit not that much) into this carb-tastic meal.

Pack into a food processor:
1/3 Cup of toasted almonds
30 -40 basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1-2 Tbs of olive oil
fresh ground pepper to taste

-Pulse your pesto into a paste in the food processor. Add a bit more oil if you need you loosen it up a bit, but it should be paste-like.

-Cook your pasta in salted water. I like whole a whole wheat penne or fuscilli. Reserve a 1/2 cup of the pasta water.

-Drain the pasta and then transfer to a large bowl.

-Add the pesto to the bowl and mix into the pasta. Add some of the pasta water as needed to loosen up the pesto and get a good coating over the noodles.

-Top with quartered cherry tomatoes and sprinkle with a bit of balsamic vinegar.