Party time - 14.5 months and counting

Today before I left to go to my appointment at a potential reception hall (ok, before I left to the employment drug screen I had to do before that appointment), I made sure to put my camera in my purse. I figured I'd get a great pic of one of the tables, the lights, the building - something pretty and fun. Good thing I forgot to take out my camera the entire time I was there. Oh well.

So I give you this - the pic on the front of the brochure:

Today before I left to go to my appointment at a potential reception hall (ok, before I left to the employment drug screen I had to do before that appointment), I made sure to put my camera in my purse. I figured I'd get a great pic of one of the tables, the lights, the building - something pretty and fun. Good thing I forgot to take out my camera the entire time I was there. Oh well.

So I give you this - the pic on the front of the brochure:

Give you the boot

I honestly don't know why I took this picture. I could give you a line about how it shows different tastes and styles all together in one place. I could tell you it's "found art" because the boots are tipped over (the black ones are mine, by the way). But that's not at all true. I was at Mike's grandparents' house (his grandpa's, mom's, and aunt's birthdays are all the 31st), and I remembered that I had to take a picture for this project. I went to grab my camera out of my purse, and there were the shoes. So I took the picture. It's not at all what I intended. But I kinda like it.

Birthday steak - far superior to birthday cake

Last night we went out for my future mother-in-law's birthday. We ended up going to the Japanese steak house in the local mall, and it was absolutely amazing. I like hibachi-style restaurants fine, but I've never been to one that really wowed me. This one certainly did.

The grilled eel I got for an appetizer was perfect, and the rest of the food was absolutely to die for. The only damper on the evening was the woman who came in with her three children. They were seated at our table, and the woman began their stay there with complaints and demands. She was fairly rude to the waiter as well. When it was discovered that our intended chef had walked out, she informed her children that if the new chef wasn't at our table "in 30 seconds" they were leaving. She advised us on her way out to do the same. Two minutes after she left, our chef showed up, and we got him all to ourselves. Good times, good food, good company. And good portions - that's the first time in a long time I've had to box my leftovers at a restaurant.

Leggo my...Lego?

The corona of light around the blocks is intentional. Legos are awesome. The twins I'm babysitting have a ton of them, and I think I play with them more than they do. I'm not sure what it is about these things that makes them so magical, but they really are. Maybe it's that I can satisfy my need to take things apart over and over again with zero repercussions. Regardless, I seriously think I need to get myself a set for stress-relief. And maybe I'll grab a few coloring books and some crayons, too.

Double the fun

Long day, so short post: babysat identical 16 m-o twins today. Sick, but super cute and a ton of fun.

Baby's got a brand new bag

I bought this purse at Peebles yesterday. This is not because I really need a new purse. No, dear non-existent readers, it's because I hate Peebles clothes and I had a gift card. After I picked up a watch, I still had $20 to kill.

I will admit though it is a good purse. It's more red than this picture makes it look, which is nice. Most of the stuff I own is black or other shades of neutral, so it's nice to have something in a color. Also, it fits a small legal pad. Which, if you have a job interview and then a meeting with the lawyer who is mentoring you (which I did today), is a good thing. As a side note, I'm supposed to have an offer in my e-mail tomorrow morning. This has been a good week so far - got a purse, a watch, a job, and even a babysitting gig tomorrow for some extra cash. It's always nice when life gives you cherries instead of pits.

Check it out

This is my library. Every other library I ever visit is judged by this gorgeous, looming old building:

A historical landmark, the second high school in the town way back when, and a safe haven for people like me. That's right - I'm a book nerd. When I was a kid, my little brother liked my sister better for years. Not because I was mean, but because when we got home from school she'd play with him, and I'd disappear into my room with my books. They were my best friends - my constant companions. My happy place. I could have lived in this library if they served food. As a kid, it was magical to go get new books every week. As a teenager in high school, I could walk there and spend some quiet time to clear my head and then fill it again with hundreds of novels. I literally read 6-7 new books every single week.

I have to say, one of the things I miss the most being an adult is having time to read constantly. I love the feel of books, the smell of them, the thrill of a new story. Of course, today's trip was to get my niece some Veggie Tales videos, but the point remains. This will always be one of my favorite places in the world.

I do my little turn on the catwalk

It's difficult to figure out what to use for a picture on days that I spend primarily at my sister's house. Because this blog isn't private, I'm certainly not going to put up pictures of my niece or my sister. Which means a large part of the day is off limits. So today, I decided to take a pic of where I spent a quick 15 minutes hanging out with my favorite toddler and a couple of stuffed animals:

This thing is adorable. It has the little catwalk, and you can even hook up an mp3 player so you have music for a "fashion show." Being only 22 months, however, Ayla tends to use it as a hideaway and a home for wayward stuffed animals. "Dave" (a gift from me when she was born - I have this one and love it) pretty much lives there, and her bumblebee pillow pal can also generally be found inside. It's the coolest place I've been to all week.

Peachy - side of keen

I decided to get a little artsy today. Why not? This amoeba-like rendering is the deliciousness that is Trolli Peachie-O's.

The longer this blog goes on, the more you (my hypothetical reader who - to my knowledge - doesn't exist yet) will see that Mike and I are staying in kind of people. We have fairly stressful lives, and when we get time to ourselves we like to just relax and unwind. Track pants for him, yoga pants for me. Chinese food (or pizza, or I cook), Pepsi, and this week there were peach rings. I even got him to watch 6 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with me. I let him skip the second half of season one (he sat through the first half and wasn't very impressed), and he's agreed to watch the rest of the show with me. How's that for a fiance? Willing to sit through a show that's essentially teen angst with a side of monsters because he knows I love it. So here's to sweet and thoughtful fiances, Buffy marathons and peach rings. It was a great Sunday.

Shop til you stop

I hate shopping. I hate it so much, and for more reasons than I can express. However, for Christmas I got a $50 T.J. Maxx gift card from Mike's mom. Add to that the fact that it's been a rough week, and that I had to be near the shops anyway, and you get some good old-fashioned retail therapy.

I also figured I should have some new clothes that I can wear for work. At that job I'm still praying I'll get. If nothing else, while I hate shopping, I do love having new things. Especially new pretty things that can be worn with my awesome suede boots.

Valet of the shadow of wedding planning

Last weekend when Mike & I had our Outback/Barnes & Noble date, he bought me this:

And thank goodness he did. There are questions I never even thought to ask a reception hall. How many stalls in the bathroom? How many outlets for the DJ to plug into? Do you provide a gift table? So I made up spreadsheets (one for each venue) with 40-some questions and started making calls. We have an appointment at our so far #1 choice in a week and a half. The reviews were bad online, but we'll see how it goes. I also feel like I'll get a use out of the other book Mike got me. 15 months to go...

You have the floor

Short post today. I figure I can't give pictures of the floor all ripped up, and not show you the finished product. I had nothing to do with this part - I'm destructo-girl, not tile girl. Pretty, huh?

Stubborn as an Ox

Today, I went to my sister's house to print/fill out/scan the forms for my potential new job. Hooray for my millionth background check! (I've been a substitute teacher, a day care worker, a government employee, and have submitted to a background check to take the bar as well.) While I was there, she told me about a Chinese lunar calendar that predicts the gender of your unborn baby based on the month of conception and your age at that time. But when she first said Chinese calendar, I of course thought of the Chinese zodiac. Which, aside from making me crave Chinese, made me want to photograph the calendar I got from the Chinese take-out place.

Being born in 1985, I am an ox. According to a book owned by an ex-boyfriend who was obsessed with the Chinese zodiac, I'm not supposed to be creative, and I'm supposed to love gardening. While I don't agree with that, the snapshot on this calendar is pretty accurate (and hey - the cow is cute). I tend to take over group projects (leadership), and I hate not finishing something I start. I'm also horribly stubborn. My lucky number isn't 9, but it is three. And three 3s make 9, so I suppose that's alright. It also probably helps that I put no stock in zodiacs of any kind.

If the shoe fits

A few years ago, I bought a pair of high-heeled Mary Jane shoes. I tend to fall out of heels - as much as I love them - if they don't have some form of strap around the ankle or over the foot. These MJs went with everything, and I wore them everywhere. Then, in 2009, they became my stage shoes for a production of The Threepenny Opera, in which I played a whore named Molly. In the course of the dancing and clomping across the stage, they got pretty beat up. The toes are creased, and the leather is peeling off of the heels.

Today I had a job interview. The heels I got to replace these ones (well, the second set - the first got chewed up by a dog) are too "cute" to be business-like. So I smeared on enough shoe polish to cover the bare spots and some of the creases, and off I went in my brand new suit and my super old shoes. I think the interview went well. Hopefully I'll hear back soon. In the meantime, it was nice to have one more run with my favorite shoes.

Suit up! (With all due respect to Barney Stinson)

Today was spent low-key, and hanging out with Mike, as mentioned in the previous post. Tomorrow will be the exact opposite of low-key. Tomorrow I have an interview. Allow me to put this in perspective: aside from signing up with the temp agency and meeting a family who potentially wanted me to care for their child, I haven't had an interview in over a year. And that was with a place that had nothing to do with my career field. So tonight, I get to finalize details. And so that's what I'm giving you for a picture - details:

Buttons, to be exact. These are the buttons on the suit I'm going to be wearing for my interview tomorrow. Mike's mom got me two of them for my birthday - otherwise I'd be stuck with black pants and a jacket that don't actually go together, but are close enough to match. It is clean and steamed, and has in fact never been worn. That detail is all taken care of. Now it's only hair, jewelry, make-up (mostly a lack thereof, aside from what's necessary), and whether to take my purse or my briefcase. So I'm off to deal with those details as quickly as possible so I can get back to being deliriously happy from the great weekend I just had.

Just in case

1/16/11

I know I'm posting this a day late. The picture is part of the reason why. That is my lovely computer case, with my laptop inside. This weekend fell out in the best of ways - I got to spend Saturday night, Sunday, and today (Monday - he had the day off) with Mike. Sunday we spent a decent portion of the day playing games online, and just hanging out. Completely laid back and low key - exactly how we like our dates. It was fantastic.

Date night = happy Stephane

Dinner @ Outback with Mike. I got date night with the most amazing fiance in the world, and a great dinner. Spinach, artichoke & chicken flatbread, steak, garlic mashed, a salad, and the best shrimp scampi ever. Followed by time at the bookstore. As far as I'm concerned, that's the perfect date - dinner and books. I'm such a nerd.

The floor is bigger than you think

Last night, my cousin started ripping up the floor in the kitchen. Four hours later, she called it a night, so today when I came home from babysitting, that's where I found her. I had nowhere to be, so I picked up the shovel (she had a crowbar & hammer) and started chipping away at the tile. We switched on and off with the tools, and I got a new floor-ripping partner about an hour in when she and her husband went to get some supplies. About 4 hours later, the floor was completely torn up. This is what the kitchen looks like now:

If you do floors for a living, I am currently in awe of you. Either that, or I'm jealous because you clearly have better tools for doing this. I have to say though, when your chosen profession is mostly cerebral, it's nice to actually do physical work once in awhile. And the new tile is going to look great!

Poor man's pasta dish

For the last few weeks, I have been subsisting on ramen noodles (although I clearly don't love them as much as this girl). Well, ramen noodles, bread & jam, and the occasional can of fruit. So imagine my great joy when I remembered that I had ham in the freezer. I present to you the first real meal I've cooked for myself (the pasta w/meat sauce I made Steven & Eugene doesn't count - I didn't cook it for myself) in weeks:

Seasoned pasta with ham, peas, and olives. And enough left over that I'll be able to have it for lunch tomorrow as well. No matter how seldom I grocery shop, I always have pasta. That's a given. My grandmother is Italian, and she gives me somewhere close to 6 pounds of it every time I see her. It's finding stuff to put in it that brings out the creativity. Now I'm off to enjoy my yummy dinner. I'll see you tomorrow, along with whatever random item defines my day.

Hearts, stars, horseshoes...

This is actually the post for Wednesday the 12th. I ended up going to bed at 7, so I didn't get around to doing it yesterday. Today's will come later.

Remember when you were a kid, and you'd eat all the cereal bits out of your Lucky Charms so that you could eat all the marshmallow bits together last? Or maybe that was just me. At any rate, they make bags of just the marshmallows now. So for everyone whose taste buds are still occasionally 5, here you go:

A box of memories

This is a box. I don't have to tell you that. But this box isn't just a box. Today it was my 22 month old niece's playhouse. She has toys. Oh, does she have toys. But she barely wanted any of them while I was there. She just wanted this box, with a "window" cut in the side that she could push open and closed. "Knock knock - who home?" It was her house, it was where her babies slept, and it was something she could pop out of and yell "surprise!" It made me miss being that age, that easily entertained. It made me miss being able to get away just by closing a cardboard flap. And it made me smile. I wouldn't trade the time I get to spend with that little girl for anything in the world. Who knows - maybe before these 365 days are up, I'll make my own little cardboard castle.

It's a bird, it's a plane, IT'S MISSY!

This is probably the only time my Project 365 picture will have me in it. In fact, I don't plan on having people very much at all. Today, however, was a special exception. One of my best friends in the world - who generally resides over 1,000 miles away for school - was up, and she came to visit.

I love that with all of my close friends, we can not see each other for months (even years occasionally) and still just pick right back up where we left off. While Missy and I do take time once in awhile to Skype, so we technically do "see" each other, it was so great to actually have her in the same room. And yes, I did just see her for New Year's Eve. But that's different. Today I got some quality 1-on-1 girl talk, and it was great. I can't wait until her next big break so we can do this again!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later, just after Missy left, I got more company. My friend, Steven, who I hadn't seen for awhile, and his friend, Eugene. The rest of the evening was full of hot chocolate, pasta with homemade meat sauce, and good conversation. It was a good day.

Baby, it's cold outside

Of all the four letter words in the world, there isn't a single one that bothers me so much as "snow." I was born here, I'll always be here, and there will always be snow. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Don't get me wrong - I think it's gorgeous. And if I had a pair of snow pants, I'd be out there in a heartbeat. But it makes everything a pain when it gets on the roads. It cancelled my plans for the weekend, and it makes commutes ridiculous. Last month, I spent 5 hours making the 45-60 minute drive home from my temp job. The first 3 hours and 50 minutes of that was the first 4 miles. I kid you not. Winter is an obnoxious (albeit beautiful) thing.

Someday when I have kids, snow will be fun again (aside from the ridiculous amount of time spent dressing and undressing them for it). This view outside my window makes me think of things like that. Boots and mittens shed on the porch, kids with bright red noses coming in and making a bee-line for the hot chocolate.

For now though, I say give me this anytime.

Sew, sew bored, but at least I was productive...

I started sewing when I was 6. I'd get on the sewing machine when my mom and my older sister (who was in 4-H) were finished, and I'd make tiny pockets and bean bags. When I was 8 I started 4-H as well, and when I was 9 I was chosen to go to the state fair in my division. The blouse was a hideous thing - paisley with a lace-edged collar - but I was so proud of myself. Especially because Mom's sewing machine broke halfway through making it, and my sister and I had to share the ancient one she kept in a closet most of the time. Nowadays I'm not much of a pattern person, but I do like re-tooling things. For instance, I made a strapless dress out of the skirt of a size 4XL dress I got for $2 at a salvage store. And now that's all much easier because I have this:

I don't generally ask for much for my birthday now that I'm an adult, but I had a lot of free time this past year and wanted a sewing machine. My mom ended up getting me the exact one I'd looked at in the store, and I love it. I don't know what to do with myself now that I have a sewing machine that doesn't eat silky fabrics. My sewing space may not be ideal (you can't see it, but there's a full column of drawers there - I can't put my legs under and get close), but it's mine, and it works. That came in handy today.

I was supposed to have 4 friends over today to play games and hang out. A couple couldn't make it, so we were down to just my fiance and one other friend. Due to weather and health issues, neither of them ended up being able to come out. So I sewed. I didn't make anything fancy, and I certainly didn't start with a pattern (after all, I find them hard to work with even when I'm not sick), but I did something. I don't know why, but I always feel more accomplished when I've worked with my hands. Sewing, cooking, cleaning, manual labor. And I'm glad I got to get some in today.

Day 1: One week late, and sick to boot

I never intended to do Project 365. I didn't even know what it was until one of my friends had a post about it on Facebook. But it looked like so much fun that I just had to start. I used to keep a notebook I called my "good stuff" journal. In it, I would write down things that made me happy throughout the day. I have trouble remembering good things instead of bad, and I feel like this would be a fresh take on that journal. I'll be able to look back on my year with concreteness, not just memories. I'm a week late, so this will either wrap a week late, or I'll double up on some days. I've put these on FB too, but I thought having something separate - just for this - would be nice. At any rate, here's photo #1 to start me off:

This, ladies and gentlemen, is my Hug-a-Bunch blanket. For those of you too young to know what a Hug-a-Bunch is or too old to have ever cared, this should help you out. I used to have to have Hug a Bye with me every night.

When I was 5 years old, my mom made me this blanket. In case you can't tell, the lines of stitching are in the shape of hearts. Mom even went so far as to cut out around the Hug-a-Bunches, sew two of the same together, and make me stuffed ones out of the extra fabric and some batting. Anytime I was sick, or sad, I had to have this blanket. It was magic. Two decades later, I still sleep better when I'm sick if I have it. Last night I got this out, and it was the first good night of sleep I've had in a week. I've known for a very long time that it's not really magic, but it's still very special to me. As for the box of Puffs? Well, I need them right about now. And they're soft enough that even a Hug-a-Bunch would want one.