What I can do

Last night, one of our friends lost his grandma to a stroke. She had been hospitalized for a week or so, but she couldn't pull out of it. The whole family was there as she left this world for the next, or what ever is beyond. 

He sang to her before she died, and she smiled at him one last time. 

When he told us today that that had happened to his family, I didn't know what I could do to help, other than offer our home to him if he needed to get away for a while or cook him dinner.

At first he refused but I told him to give it some thought and finally he said "...those enchiladas you made were pretty good..." 

So I am making him chicken enchiladas, spanish rice, refried beans with cheese, chips and salsa. We're going to have a fiesta night. Ole!

I can't do much. I can't heal the pain. I can't even ease it, or even really relate. I've been fortunate enough not to lose any of my immediate family or friends. The only funeral I can remember is my grandpa on my Dad's side, and I had only seen him a few times since he lived so far away. 

But what I can do is offer a place to stay, some place where you can just step outside your reality for a while and relax. Fill your tummy with good food and give you a pillow and a blanket when you doze off. 

Religious Debate

Someone wants us to get involved in a religious debate. Basically saying "you guys are Jesus-freaks, please leave me alone, kthnxbai"

But I'm not going to do that, internet. While I have my own beliefs, and I certainly don't mind discussing religion, any religion, I can't stand talking to ignorant people (of any faith or non-faith) who can't seem to understand why I think or live the way I do.

I have met many a "Christian" who have tried to "save my soul."

Haven't you ever heard of "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink"?

One girl actually got expelled from highschool for harassing a wiccan girl and tried to convert her to Jesus. Left horrible notes in her locker, and stuff.

Another woman told her gay son he wasn't going to live very long if he didn't become celibate, like some ex-gays do. And that she feared his soul was in danger. She couldn't accept her son was gay.

The kid later killed himself. I guess she was right when she said he wouldn't live very long. I wonder if she agonizes over those words every day? I hope so, because that's a terrible thing to say to anyone, especially someone you love.

The list goes on and on, my friends.

Someone in my life is an extreme Christian. One of these days, it will happen when we butt heads.

But I don't want to sit there and argue over things that cannot be determined in this lifetime.

I just want to live my life the way I want, and they, theirs.

I won't be dragged in.

Plskthnxbai.

New arts and crafty things!

We're doing our coffee table and end table as a mosaic. I think it will be loads of fun, the Fiance and I are both doing it.

It's kind of an involved process. You have to get grout, tiles, tile cutters, and glue. You draw the design then you glue the tiles after you cut them. Then after its all done, you wait over night and then you mix grout in a bucket and go nuuuts with it. After it's dry, you wash it off your mosaic.

Weird.

But I also wanted to try stained glass. So I bought a little starter kit at the art store and a candle holder I found at the dollar store, and here's what I've done so far. This has to dry overnight.

Excuse the messy table, please.

Awkward and Fake?

Is every person who is into baking and cooking and has a blog, fake? Are they all pretending to be Martha Stewart?

Not to mention my favorite chef, Rachael Ray, has a TV show now where they hardly cook. Yesterday's episode she helped wayward brides have the weddings of their dreams in a sports stadium?


Sorry, Rach, but I would NEVER get married on the baseball diamond or astroturf. That would almost be an insult to my character.

This sort of saddens me, as I love to cook. If I get better at it, will I become fake and super cheerful over food? I wanted to take a Wilton class sometime...but if it means losing my flair, then forget it.

I had come across a blog I thought would be awesome, she makes awesome cakes and cookies and she took a few classes and stuff... but she still writes fake. Just tries a little too hard. And people eat it up.

It's ok, internet, I don't want to be popular for the wrong reasons. I did it in highschool, I can do it again. (I was popular in college, but it was predominately a male school... shh.)

Big Johnson

Today the Fiance and I are running around, hitting the bank to do bank like things and we get stopped at a light and the truck in front of us has a sticker on it that says " BIG JOHNSON RACING"

This spawned a few minutes worth of conversation.

"why would you name something big johnson?"
"I dunno, maybe they are in the business of racing penises."
"How would you race a penis?"
"Fastest erection speed."
....

...."What if you can't perform?"
"I dunno. Maybe they could do ejaculation too?"

After this, the light turned green and my ADD resumed, and conversation turned elsewhere.

but seriously... Big Johnson. Why? And the penis racing sounds funny. Maybe I'm still mentally 13.

New blog!

Yes friends, this is it! I started a blog specifically for my recipes and cooking-related things only! I am very excited about it!!! Yay!!

In other news, yesterday we walked all around for 3 hours, the fiance and I. Today, my ankle hurts really really bad. Stiff and swollen. This just shows you how out of shape I really am. When I lived at home I would take hour long walks everyday, and I had no problems. I was lighter than I am now, of course. But the Fiance promised we would walk every day, and today is another fine day.

We are also having our friends from out of town over, and I get to make them my lasagna. Today I am going to put spinach in it, as I discovered I absolutely love it!

This is going to be so much fun!

Inspirational Messages

Today was one of those days...the bad kind. The kind where I wake up with a knot in my stomach worrying for all I'm worth about things I can't do anything about.

The Fiance and I walked around the outdoor mall near our house then we went to get my oil changed, and on the way home I started worrying. Thinking I would need to take a nerve pill and go to bed early because I was worrying myself sick.

But then, I saw this message, and it really hit home for me:

"You can't stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf."

This really impacted me, and made me realize while there isn't a lot I can do, there still is some stuff I can. I need to learn to relax and go with the flow, seriously. I'm too young to be this knotted up with worry. Best part of all, this message wasn't on a church or anything spouting self help...it was a chiropractor.

Beautiful!

In any case, do you think walking constantly for 3 hours is enough to burn off the Coldstone ice cream I had? Ooooh, sweet delicious, fattening ice cream.

Redecorating

Our gay friend said "You have nice furniture but it just doesn't work in this apartment."

I was puzzled, because the apartment is white and beige and our dark blue furniture can't possibly not match? So I asked him what he suggested then, and he said we were more of warm colors than cool ones, meaning more reds and oranges than purples and blues and greens. Which is ok, our bedroom is in red and gold and its very pretty. We also have a dark wood computer desk in our room and it looks really good together.

He said we could sell our furniture on Craigslist, and probably get about $350 for the couch and recliner together (My jaw dropped at the low price... but no one pays well for used furniture...)

We went "Goodwilling" and ran around town through the Salvation Armies and Goodwills and I found a folding fan with blues, greens, yellows, and red and black for the hallway and a set of 3 plaques depicting mushrooms, made in the 70's or so, that are going in our kitchen.

I'm still debating on the furniture. While it's not very comfortable, it was from my parents. And the whole "unemployed thing." But our friend said that he got his couch for $400 off of Craigslist (it's really nice) and then we would only have to come up with $50 + money for a chair. Which we could do...

But I told him: "Let's see if we can find stuff to make the furniture 'match' and if we can't, we'll sell it." I figured that would work.

While I respect his opinion and love his style.. I'm not that willy nilly with money right now. If we really really bargain hunt, I guess we could do it.


He also wants us to get rid of our chairs (So do I!) and paint the chair rail.

Our chairs definitely have to go. They are wicker, and they fall over because they are top heavy. They are atrocious. And a gift from Fiance's parents. LOL

Domestic Day (Keeping Busy)

My mom and I share designer bags, well, really she has a Prada and a Coach and she's nice enough to let me use them.

Anyway, we just switched so I have the Coach again (which I absolutely love, and want more so we can trade more things!) and it was a little run down. I mean, between two full time busy people, it was bound to happen, right? And neither of us know anything about bags. Thankfully, my gay friend knows EVERYTHING about bags. He came over last night and I begged him to look over the Coach again and tell me, truthfully, if it was real or not. He looked it over and he scared me a few times but he looked things up and told me it was real and showed me how to tell! Ok, then he looked inside the bag and said "Belinda! You need to take care of this bag! Oh no!" (Belinda isn't my name, just a pet name, I guess)

So we dump out all my possessions, my awesome iTouch, an extra contact case, glasses, wallet, earphones, phone, keys... etc. And he pulls out the lining and shakes it out and uses a damp cloth and cleans and cleans and cleans. Then after it's cleaned, he takes an eraser and starts going at the suede. Oh it looks so pretty!

He told me when the lining was dry to take a clean cloth and spray febreeze on it, then let it dry and run to the Dollar Store and buy some tissue paper so I can stuff it and give it its shape back.

Yay!

Then we went to a second hand clothing store today and they had a bunch of Dooney and Burkes, Coach bags, Burberry bags, wallets and cell phone holders, all for really good prices and they were REAL!!! But I didn't have any money. I saw a beautiful cell phone holder which held my phone perfectly, for only $16!!!! But the fiance said no, wisely. I decided I am going to treat myself after we get a credit card paid off. (The fiance said this is ok.)

Then we went to the mall and looked at all the new Coach stuff at Macy's (again, reminding myself... pay off a credit card...)

We went to the bank after this and transfered all the unemployment money into our account and I took out $20 for items we really need. We went to the dollar store and bought tissue paper, a bunch of cleaning supplies, rubber gloves and cat litter. Then we come home and start Operation: Clean Apartment. So far, I've cleaned both bathrooms (hands and knees scrubbing toilets and tubs! Ugh!)

Now the fiance is home with the cat litter, so it's time to clean the smelly box and vaccuum and Febreeze! Yay!


How's that for keeping busy?

Haha! I LOOOOVE being sick.

Yes, you heard that right. I love it. Not only is it the perfect excuse to not do anything, but you also lose weight. The kind of weight lose where one morning, you stumble into your bathroom blind as a bat because you don't have your glasses, peer at yourself in the mirror, squint.... then run and get your glasses, hop on the scale and squeal like a little girl!

Yes, yes, sorry for the run-on sentence, but it made me happy. I've really started to notice a difference, internet. I've been home 3 weeks now and I have lost 11.5 lbs. Wow! Just by not eating out. And being sick. Hahaha. But it LOOKS like I've been losing weight, and that's all that matters!


YAY!

Words I Adore, and a Fluke.

My mom set up a list of words she's loved coming across in her various book travels and I have a list I like too:

Luscious
Succulent (lol this one comes from a cook book ...shh!)
Ravenous
Luxurious
Jaunty



I made Ham and Scalloped Potatoes for dinner tonight and I was freaking out whether or not it would turn out. I didn't have cream of mushroom soup but cream of chicken....

Ironically, the fiance said they were the best EVER lol :)

Capital N Small y, Big Fucking Q!

"NyQuil, NyQuil, NyQuil, we love you, you giant fucking Q!"

Denis Leary said it best, folks. When you're sick, there is nothing like NyQuil to save your sorry ass and let you sleep. I have a terrible...round of ...something? Not sure what but it's got body aches, fever, swollen lymph nodes, and a really bad sore throat. The kind where it's "impossible to take the NyQuil caplets, so baby, please please pleaaaase go buy me the regular kind". The "green death" flavor.

Now Denis' skit on NyQuil mostly revolved around him thinking it's the best way to beat the AA program and not fall off the wagon...but for me, NyQuil has always been associated with peace and vapor rub and sleeping a solid 20 hours. Waking up and not feeling like total garbage, but not feeling that great either, and then another nap a few hours later.

NyQuil is my best friend. I actually even like the taste now. Hahah. Oh sad.