I'd Rather Be Here...

Aaahhhhhh! Doesn't that picture just make you feel happy?

I really have nothing to say. I've been so busy this week that I've barely had time to breathe. I'm just thankful that it's Friday and I have two whole days to do whatever the hell I want. Woo hoo!

But because it's been a hellish week, I think I need to list some reasons why I should be happy. Besides lounging in that hammock with a cocktail in hand, which would make me immensely happy, here are a few other reasons why I'm a happy girl:

1. My lobster, G (if you've seen Friends, you know why I call him my lobster).
2. My family is awesome.
3. I have a pretty new car.
4. I am moving to a house with a backyard which means I get to create a garden!
5. I won two appeals this week. Big ones.
6. Despite the stress, I am blessed with a great job. That being said...
7. I get to leave said job in 9 minutes and 30 seconds. Rock on!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Commitment, in all its forms, is scary.

Well, I've done it. I've gone and committed myself to a 14 month lease on a nice little duplex in a nice little town for a nice little price. I will be moving in a month and five days. Not looking forward to the move, but until teleporting is available, what are you gonna do?

This was a difficult decision for me to make. I'm the type of person that freaks out at the thought of committing myself to anything because I always drive myself crazy with the "What Ifs." What if I find something better? What if this is the wrong decision? What if I delay and then I've lost a great opportunity? AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! You can imagine how stressed I was buying my (beautiful) new car.

But BECAUSE I had to go and buy a new car, my price range for rent plummeted so I'm a bit limited on how nice my new place is going to be. And, honestly, this place IS nice, but it's a tad smaller than I had originally wanted and the appliances are a bit old. So what? I'm only 29 years old. I have plenty of time to find my "perfect" place. Besides, this is only temporary until G and I can afford to buy our own little house. So, I decided, enough with the "what if's."

But I digress...so, I went ahead and signed a lease yesterday. I'm excited and relieved and stressed all at the same time. I've gotta find a way to afford a pet deposit (stupid cats) and pay for movers. But I'm looking forward to having my very own yard and garage, which are two things I've never had before! I'm also excited about the area in which I will be living because they encourage very "green" things, like recycling, water conservation, and composting. Yay! I'm sure G will be thrilled to have a bin of rotting food-stuffs in the corner of the backyard. It's going to grow us some yummy veggies, honey, don't you worry!

But for now, I have to survive all the planning and packing. Fun!

EXPENSIVE Valentine!

My wonderful boyfriend, G, drove up to spend Valentine's Day with me. Our plans were to spend some quality alone time together and cook our own gourmet dinner. We had it all planned out: rack of lamb, rosemary potatoes au gratin, and blood orange custard cups. We were excited!

Life had other plans.

For the past two weeks my old car has been acting up. Originally, I was going to drive this car until it took it's dying breath. Apparently, it decided to start the dying process over the past two weeks, and in dramatic fashion. When it started completely shutting down on me while I was driving down the highway at 60 mph, I decided it was time to re-evaluate my plan to wait on buying a car.

So, G and I decided it would be fun to go look at cars this weekend. You know, spend a few hours in the morning seeing what kind of deals are out there. No big deal. Do a little research and then head home to start making our romantic dinner. Yeah... We ended up spending all day at car dealerships and we didn't get out of there until 8:30 pm. Needless to say, dinner was off.

But the silver lining was this:



That's right, dear readers! I walked out of there as a proud new owner of a 2009 Glacier Blue Honda CR-V. I couldn't be more excited! It was my first time ever buying my very own car. G was an amazing asset. He helped (more like took charge) with negotiations and helped me to make some hard and thoroughly confusing decisions. I couldn't have done it without him! We were so exhausted by the time we drove off the lot that all we wanted to do was go home and watch a movie. We stopped at the ever-romantic Chili's for a quick bite and then went home and passed out.

It was not the romantic weekend I had hoped we'd have, but it was such a relief to me to have him there for this stressful, but exciting, event. He's a total keeper. And I love my new car!

House Hunting is the Devil

So, I made the decision to move out of my apartment. I have been living in apartments since the dawn of time. Okay, not really. But it's been a long time and I was sick of it after about the first year. I am excited about finally getting out of living like a sardine, but I am not excited about moving. Especially because I have no idea where I'm going.

My apartment complex requires I give 60 days notice before vacating. While such a provision is ridiculous and sucks for the tenant, it is legal and I did sign the contract. So I gave my required notice and now I have two months to look for a house. Sounds great, right? Not so much... Anything that is on the market right now will more than likely not be on the market in two months. And most landlords (I'll be renting, not ready to buy, want to do that together with G) are not willing to hold a house for much longer than a few weeks. So for now I am in limbo. I can't really look at houses seriously because it's too early, but I'm scared to wait because the nice rentals tend to go pretty quick and all you're left with is the ghetto-fied quadraplexes that are not much better than where I was to begin with.

Oy vey.

And so I wait...

This Just In: Blackberries Are Delicious!

I have been struggling with my weight since puberty. Maybe even before puberty. I was never an overweight child, but a mean boy made a comment when I was around 9 and ever since then I've been very body-conscious. Over the years, I've been on diet after diet, usually restrictive, and never truly satisfying.

Flashforward to law school, after having gained 50 pounds in college and then having lost it after I graduated, I start researching actual nutrition. I had tried Atkins, then South Beach, but I knew deep down there must be a better way of eating so that you didn't have to deny yourself things that were naturally healthy (like complex carbs). Slowly but surely I have taught myself the basic principles of healthy, natural, nutritious eating.

Now, I am one step further in my quest for finding the "right" way of eating. I have discovered a concept called "whole foods" and another concept called "organic foods." After reading In Defense of Food (see below post), it dawned on me that fruit and bread are not the enemy. Processed, highly industrialized foods are what is wrong with our society's way of eating. So I have tried to incorporate more whole, organic foods into my diet and do away with anything that is processed, "enriched," labeled "healthy" (because if they have to label it, someone is lying), or foods that have been "enhanced" with steroids, antibiotics or hormones.

All of a sudden, I have discovered delicious food! Blackberries, for example, are divine! Organic strawberries are like a warm summer day in your mouth! Blueberries, raspberries, apples! Who knew food could taste so good? Not to mention the taste of grass fed beef and fresh veggies sauteed in olive oil. YUM! I am determined to continue this way of eating, hopefully forever. And my itch to garden has steadily increased to where I'm about to go out and buy some baby tomato and lettuce plants...

...and a blackberry bush! YUM!

Dear Monday,

Bite me.