obsessive.compulsive.lovely
This is true love lol…and can we just talk about the first gif???
(via fuckyeah-oldermen)
So we had a Super Bowl party last night and it went quite well. I made these empanadas and these cookies and both were very yummy. There is only one empanada left and this is all that is left from like 30 cookies
Other than that we had a million other finger food options all meat free (woot!!) except one of the two versions of cheese dip (which I apparently have lost a taste for). Tonight I made a batch of kale chips and Ryan even liked them!! Salty and crispy!!
I also came across some pictures of the only time it has snowed and stuck to the ground while I have been in Virginia. I am glad that there hasn’t been mountains of snow, but at the same time I kind of want to wear the snowboots and industrial jacket I bought earlier this year. But I am ready for summer because I am tired of wearing pants
Yard and the field behind our house
Front steps
Lex loves the snow so of course we had to go for a walk
Our street
My afghan is coming along great…I am in the process of adding the white/squaring off all of the first group of circles. After I complete that and sew them all together I think I might take a break from crocheting and work on an IT Crowd cross stitch…this one to be exact
Me and my best friend Neela, who’s always ready to tell me I’m strong when I need to hear it.
“Recently I overheard a man say at a yoga class, “Yeah, well, you get two women together and it’s like bitch central.” I could have told him he only needed one, in fact, and that would be me, but it also made me realize how much people diminish and poo-poo the real power and strength of female friendship, especially between women, which is either supposed to descend into some kind of male lesbian love scene porn fantasy or be dismissed as meaningless or be re-written as a story of competition. Here’s the truth: friendships between women are often the deepest and most profound love stories, but they are often discussed as if they are ancillary, “bonus” relationships to the truly important ones. Women’s friendships outlast jobs, parents, husbands, boyfriends, lovers, and sometimes children.”
Best friend love, is real love. Occupy Valentine’s Day.
via The Rumpus via Maya and Feministing.
Well it only takes being back at work for as long as you were away to realize you hate your job. Not only that, one can only transfer info from one spreadsheet to another just in a different format for so long (for me three days straight and probably another two blerg). Also fighting with your family and friends (this case the spouse of one) is really draining…so for personal reasons I decided to deactivate my facebook for a while…I have hate issues and it’s driving me to drink soooo…
So I applied for a new job and I’m hoping that it goes somewhere because it is a job that I actually want. It is a museum job in collections through VA Tech. I also started another blanket…this one is composed of granny squares and I have completed the first round of color combos and will be starting to add the white borders and joining them. Here is what I go so far:
2011 was a hard year: I was sick at the beginning and now at the end; moved across the country to a place where I only knew two people not counting Ryan; did not see my family for five months; student loans finally hit me; I am not working where I want; my job does not even pay $10 an hour.
But 2011 was also a good year: I wrote and defended my thesis; graduated with my masters; finally got married; moved closer to Sarah and Joel; found a decent job despite its shortcomings; made new friends with the people in Ryan’s program; two of my best friends got married; I was able to surprise my family for Christmas; started running and successfully shed and kept off some weight, and I gave up meat.
I am hoping that 2012 will only get better and that I can continue to find the good things that arise out of some not so desirable situations. I hate the whole resolution thing but I find myself doing it every year anyways. I see them more as desirable goals that I work slowly at maintaining because I am not a cold-turkey kind of person. And while some of these seem silly these are things that I hope to get done within the year:
- Complete the veganizing process
- Crochet another blanket
- Learn to knit ‘in the round’
- Knit something with cables
- Be able to run a full 5 miles (I can do 2.75 so I am already over 1/2 way there!)
- Keep up with this damn blog
- Take more pictures
- Read at least one book a month
- Learn to save money and live within my means
- Forgive more and live compassionately and ethically
Shouldn’t be too hard right?
So it’s been dark for an hour now and it is only 6:20…this winter is going to SUCK. This week I have managed to hurt myself a lot: sliced/bruised my finger pretty bad, splinter, grated my thumb on the cheese grate, allergies have wrecked my nose, and I did something to irritate my ankle and it’s swelling and bruised…and most of that happened all on one day. But running has been going well…started week six on friday but will be taking a few days off to see if my ankle feels better. The diet has been fantastic as well. Ryan and I had a good convo about health and how we need to be sure we eat well and take care of ourselves esp bc of the history of disease in both our families and well to be frank if he really wants kids I need to know he will be there past 50. So we decided that he would adopt my old diet and only meat two days a week (I have continued to cut things out of mine…I only had cheese once this week…and yes this is a miracle…the one thing i thought i could never give up I have cut down to once a week and hopefully completely soon) and after two weeks he has noticeably lost weight without working out once! He has slipped here and there but I cant be hard on him…I dont want to discourage him and have him slip back into his old diet. I am STILL waiting for my wedding pictures to come in the mail hopefully they will be here soon. Other than that not much has been going on here…I will hopefully know by the end of the month if my job will be permanent or not (fingers crossed it will be)
i love my family but sometimes i want to fucking punch them in the face (with words of course i dont want to hurt my hand)
So after much consideration I have decided that I want to start transitioning to a vegan lifestyle. This means consuming no meat, no eggs, no dairy of any kind, and no honey (you’re tearing me apart!!) and using no leather, fur, or beeswax. While it seems like a long lists of “don’ts” I want to focus on the “cans” and the positive effects that eating and living this way will bring to my health, the lives of other beings, and the environment. This will be a slow transition because I know myself and if I drop everything at the same time I will lapse, feel like a failure, and give up no matter how bad I want to achieve something. I already rid my diet of beef and pork and I want poultry and seafood to be next (which I only either twice a week at the most). I think I might try “vegan till dinner” too because that is the one meal Ryan and I typically share and I think I can live with eating non-meat animal products during this meal for a while. I have also cut out a lot of dairy out of my diet already and have noticed that my sinuses are less icky than they usually are.
For those who know about my shoulder pain I have finally found a remedy…running. So far this 5k training has been amazing relief for my crunchy shoulder and I have no intention of stopping. Week 2 consisted of 5 min warm up, 1.5 min jogging and 2 min walking. I start week 3 tomorrow. Each of these runs have a 5 min warm up, jog 90 seconds, walk 90 seconds, jog three min, walk 3 min (x2) and then cool dow. I will let you know how this goes seeing as 3 min will be the longest jogging part yet. Last weekend I went and got cold weather running clothes, which I cant wait to wear (yes I am that person who has to wear/use whatever new thing I just bought).
Time for me to keep it on the real real real real real real real real real…physically I feel great but emotionally…I have been struggling a bit. Being here is awesome and I really love experiencing fall (even the freaking shrubs/bushes change color it is unreal)
BUT I am also really homesick. As cliche as it sounds I have been turning to music to help me feel better. However I try to avoid sad music, while some of it is slow it usually means something to me and some of these songs literally fill my soul with joy and make me want to dance. Currently listening to:
- Anyone Else But You — The Moldy Peaches
- Belong — Cary Brothers
- Between the Lines — Sara Bareilles
- Chicago — Sufjan Stevens
- Fix You — Coldplay
- Forever Young — Youth Group
- Her Morning Elegance — Oren Lavie
- Here Comes the Sun — The Beatles
- Home — Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
- I Got You — Leona Lewis
- Julie-O — The KO Hip-Hop Cello-Beatbox Experience (this kid is AMAZING!)
- Kids — MGMT
- Landslide — Glee Cast
- Moths Wings — Passion Pit
- Om Nashi Me — Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
- Orange Sky — Alexi Murdoch
- Poison Wine — The Civil Wars
- Short Skirt, Long Jacket — Cake
- Swept Away — The Avett Brothers
- Swing Life Away — Rise Against
- To Build a Home — The Cinematic Orchestra
- Yellow — Coldplay
- You and I — Ingrid Michaelson
- You are my Sunshine — Mississippi John Hurt
- Your Ex-Lover is Dead — Stars (easily the most played song in my iTunes library)
I have a near irresistible urge to quit my job, drive 8.5 hours to NYC, and live in a park…want so badly to be part of something more and occupy wallstreet seems perfect…ugh must resist hippie urges and be responsible :(
Ugh Sunday was AWFUL!! I was just in pity party mode all day…so I decided to use my free starbucks drink and read the book I have been trying to finish for over a year now…and then the main character kills themselves…not helping…AND there are still 40 pages left…damn Russian authors. Went running again on Friday and did better then I did last time (based on how far I ran bc both runs were the same length time wise). This weekend I learned many things: I need windpants, if you are going to walk 2 miles in 40 degree weather drink for 5 hours and then you wont be cold, people actually need gyms here because it gets freaking cold, snow flurries are possible on the first of October, pink lemonade vodka is tasty yet dangerous, people here really likes boots, and sorority girls will always dress like skanks even when its cold outside. So tomorrow I will be purchasing windpants and resuming my running :) hopefully a three day break didnt ruin anything.
