A deep and abiding love Sunday, February 15, 2009
When I was a girl, probably no older than 5, my mom started going to this french bakery by our house in Texas. Besides smelling absolutely heavenly and being full of warm and crusty loaves there were also cases full of french pastries. There was one case on the right side of the shop, it was very tall and entirely made of glass. It spun very slowly and within it were fat, red strawberries covered in dark chocolate.The moment I saw them I fell in love.
The French bakery is just a memory but to this day I still adore them so. Several years ago I was at a friends wedding, stuck at the singles table at which none of the other singles showed up to which was pretty much the longest meal of my life. Every other table was full and no one offered to join me at my lovely pathetic party of one table. The bright spot was when the servers brought out the tray of strawberries. You can bet your sweet bippy that I attempted to eat that entire tray myself. I failed though, because although the idea of being a complete glutton is alluring the actual carrying out of it is a whole 'nother reality.
I bring this all up because I was in Cleveland this weekend visiting my brother who was on leave. This means my very lovely father bought me a whole box of chocolate covered strawberries for Valentines Day. So now I'm camped out on my couch with the box of strawberries and momentarily very glad I don't have to share with anyone. Although I'm sure that will wear off when I realize that I can't realistically finish them before they spoil and that I actually do like to share. Damnit.
The alcohol breakup lasted all of 5 days. Restraint, I don't have it. In my defense I was at Great Lakes Brewery and could not pass up the delicious Edmund Fitzgerald porter. It's amazing. If you can at all get your hands on some please do so and then write me to tell me all about it.
I'm completely lacking in the ability to come up with transitions this evening (blame it on the chocolate-strawberry coma I'm slowly slipping into) but I also cut my hair this weekend. It's about chin length and choppy, I really wanted to hack it all off completely due to my usual winter malaise but refrained because I don't know if I have the face to pull off super short hair. I think my head might be too round and I would look ridiculous. Photo coming soon, hopefully.
Labels: cleveland, family, food
New Years, same old feelings. Thursday, January 01, 2009
It's the new year and we all know how I feel about this particular holiday (hate it) and how sad and crap I get around it. Yes people, sad and crap is actual way to feel. Embrace it.I'm not one for making resolutions because mostly I hate them. I think that they in general fail and that my time can be better spent sitting on the couch watching another endless set of NCIS or House reruns. Isn't Mark Harmon dreamy? He can build a boat in my basement anytime, and since I live in actual basement I guess that means he'd be building in my living room. Which might make me testy if said boat got in the way of the tv. Then again, Mark Harmon in my basement means I'd probably prefer to watch him instead of my tv.
And now that I've shared with you more than you'd ever like to know about my feelings for Mark Harmon I'll get back to blathering on about resolutions. Oddly though, I'm making one resolution this year. Deal with my goddamn mail problem. It piles up on the TV and the armoire and the pretty blue side table.
I HATE the mail, every day I get scads of it- none of interesting and the majority of it are bills. Ugly, hateful bills. 90% of which I pay online. This year I'm going to have them all stop sending me crap. I don't need those endless cable bills (kudos to me for having already signed up for paperless this morning). Recently I also lost my check register, I have no idea where it went off too but it's gone. Which is most annoying since I do try to keep my bills checking account balanced. In an effort to never lose it again I've downloaded a spread sheet that will calculate all that crap for me. I'm willing to take a short cut on the math portion since it never really was my strong suit. Having Excel do it for me is lovely.
On Friday I'm heading out to buy a paper shredder. Then all those pile of mail will be dust, or tiny bits of shredded paper. I will instantly feel lighter and freer. I won't be consumed with shame when I have people over that they are secretly judging me for piles of mail that I stead-fastly up till now have refused to deal with.
Oh holiday recap: There was a lot of ice on the way to Kentucky. I nearly got run over by a double-trailer Diet Coke Semi who was sliding on black ice. This resulted in me driving down the center median, off road style to avoid being crushed. Did you know that Honda Civics are totally built for off-roading? Because they totally are.
There was an epic 5 hour opening of presents at my sisters during which I was hellishly jealous of my nephew's new huge plasma tv. I want one. The rest of the time was spent eating copious amounts of food. In years past I've managed to avoid to stuffing myself to the point of sickness but this year was a failure. Because my mom, sister and I were the only ones cooking it was everything I liked. And thus I put everything in my mouth. Ugh. Then I caught some sort of bug once I got home and didn't eat for 2 days. I'm hoping it sort of helped move the scale back in the right direction. But I think I'll still be paying for it for a little while.
Mini-break Wednesday, July 02, 2008
What does one pack for a trip when the destination is only slightly cooler than the surface of the sun? Personally I have no idea, only that I'll probably melt into a puddle the minute I step outside of the air conditioned bliss of the Austin airport. Why would anyone in their right mind take a slightly extended mini-break to Texas in the middle of July? Only for the love of a family member- my brother is leaving for Afghanistan next week and my sister, parents and his fiance are all converging on that hottest of locals for 5 days of family fun.Not that Kileen is the happiest place on earth, but rather where his base is so in this situation we come to him. And really, from what Glenn has told me Kileen is in the exact middle of nowhere. I really expect the first thing I'll need to do after de-boarding is pick up some sunscreen since the TSA is so unkind about the amounts of 'liquids and gels' one can bring with themselves aboard a plane. 3 ounces of sunscreen is nothing and I'm very, very white. I glow, people. Last year I had more free time (thanks second job) and so had spent more time outside building up some natural color (while wearing the 'screen). And I'm going to try to avoid like freaking hell to check bags since I would be charged an addition $15 each way. Shelling out ridiculous amounts of money already on ticket wasn't enough, now they want to bleed me dry to check a bag.
Ok, so $15 won't break me but it's still ridiculous.
Right now I'm focusing on the positives, Melissa will be free from all her adorable little goblins since they will be staying at home. Straight up sister time! We've not had that since we took a trip to Vegas a couple of years ago; the last family outing which involved a hospital visit, an intervention, and gambling- the perfect Vegas trip no? Oh, Melissa and I also hid out in the bathroom every morning in our hotel room, drinking coffee and eating fresh donuts and trying not to wake the other sister who was still sleeping. I don't know why but that is one of my favorite memories of us, our backs pressed up against the tub laughing and downing coffee and donuts.
So anyways, Melissa and I are hoping to spend some time pool side, slathered in copious amounts of sunscreen drinking some Shiner Bock. We've also got a very strict goal of eating as much as we possibly can, all our childhood favorites to be specific (we all lived in Texas for 10 years in the 80's). On the list are mexican food, snow cones (no one does snow cones like Texas), BBQ and Ranch Beans. I'm sure there are more things but really I'm trying to appear not entirely gluttonous right now. I know I'm not the only member of the family that is obsessed with the good food from Texas, my Dad is planning on stopping at his favorite chocolate place and loading up. I fully expect that by the time they reach Ohio he'll be deep into a Fudge Love coma.
In preparation for the trip I also bought a new camera, shocking behavior for a photographer- I know. My old point and shoot was complete shit, it was a lemon from the day I got it and I sent it back for repairs at least 4 times before I just gave up on it entirely. Its been half operational for a year and half, and really it was time to upgrade. I ended up with a little Canon Elf, and thus far I'm completely in love with it. It is exactly what I've been looking for in a little point and shoot- the color is good, it works well without needing the flash (providing there is appropriate light available) and is small. Now I will barrage you all with photos.
It's a good thing I'm leaving soon because these pickles I made the other night are taunting me from the refridgerator. 10 days feels entirely too long to wait before I'm allowed to open the jar. Patience is clearly a virtue I lack:
Random salad I made for dinner. Roast beets, bacon and pine nuts in a basil chili feta dressing:
Bernard (the MG Midget) and I went for a drive, stopping at these old, sort of creepy brick kilns:
Here I am being a chicken shit about going inside:
Phallic smoke stack!
Labels: family, midget, photos
Frightening Realization. Thursday, February 07, 2008
Last night I managed to accumulate three hours total of sleep. That's it.Between my mind being unwilling to shut off and then the nasty spat of storms that rolled through I just didn't sleep at all. Which is why I laid in bed until 8:15 this morning and didn't shower before coming into the office- hence the baseball hat and pony tail. The fact that I still managed to make a phone call to my sister (I needed reassurance I wasn't losing my mind) and make it into work by 8:45 is amazing. Actually that is the latest I've been in the office since I don't know when. If you would have told me that years ago I would have laughed in your face, by nature I'm much more of night owl. I could stay up all night reading, drawing, writing, and drinking. But slowly over the years I've forced myself to get up earlier and earlier. And come to the frightening realization that I sort of like it. I blame my father, the man is a natural morning person. I fear I caught it from him.
It is those little things that smack you full on in the face and you sit up and say "Holy shit. I'm turning into my mother/father." And then you cry into your plate of eggs.
It isn't that you don't love your parents but just that you never quite believed that you would become so very much like them. And really, my parents are wonderful people. I should want to emulate them in a lot of ways but there is still a small part of me that wants to be different- like a petulant teenager.
Labels: family
Slapsgiving Tuesday, November 27, 2007
This Thanksgiving I opted to avoid the big, huge family deal that was going to be at my parent's house. Instead my sister and I cloistered ourselves at her house and thanked baby Jesus that we didn't have to deal with our extended family.Melissa has four children and I know what most of you are saying "OH MY GOD! FOUR!" Yes, four. There are four of us siblings and so four doesn't seem that odd to us, but apparently today anything more than two is seen as people who never learned how to properly use birth control. The only thing about having 4 children, 3 of them young girls is the talking. Oh my god, the talking. It goes on an on, I really think that if we wanted to solve issues in the Middle East we should ship those very talky girls over there and both sides would easily capitulate after 4 days just to make them stop talking. I know all kids go through this phase but as a childless single it was quite a bit to be thrown into all at once. Although in my brilliance I taught the girls a very fun game, it's called manicure time. During manicure time I will paint their nails and then in order not to smudge them they have to sit quietly for 45 minutes. It totally worked, they got pretty manicured hands and I saved a tiny bit of my sanity.
Her oldest is 10, I remember when he was born and was this tiny little peanut who would take naps while curled up on my chest. Now he is 5 inches shorter than me but I've still got a few pounds on him even when he does finally reach my height. Those combined inches and pounds I've still got on him came in very handy this weekend when I had to take him down and tickle the hell out of him. Of course the moment I decided to do this I was wearing a blond Hannah Montana wig so I'm sure it looked even funnier. I honestly think he was surprised that I could pin him down so effectively since we are starting become of equal size.
It started on Wednesday night when we were eating dinner and one of my nieces asked me if I had a boyfriend (a question I thought I would be not be asked since I was not going home to the massive family extravaganza). After I said that I didn't have a boyfriend my nephew pipes up "Yeah, you don't have one because you are so ugly."
What a little smartass.
In return for his insolence I made him laugh so hard he threw up his dinner. At the table.
Then in a later conversation my 7 year old niece told me "I want to be like you when I grow up." Which is such a very sweet sentiment but then it's followed with "Because I never want to get married."
So everyone take note, I'm an ugly 27 year old spinster at this point in the game.
Then as some sort of freudian slip my nephew was saying goodnight to me and he called me 'dad'. For everyone keeping score at home I'm an ugly 27 year old spinster who looks like man.
There is nothing like small children insulting the hell out of you, I guess it is a good thing that I left on Sunday because who knows what I would have become if I'd stayed any longer.
Labels: family
Siblings Monday, November 12, 2007
Friday night my brother proposed to his girlfriend and will finally be giving my parents the wedding of their dreams. They have 4 grown children ranging in ages from 37 to 26 and up until this point they've been denied a big, fancy wedding. The only one of us that is married is my sister Melissa, and she eloped. But really in the end that is fine since my brother appears to be more girl than his actual sisters.He is having 8 groomsmen. Eight.
Actually the whole thing is very sweet and I'm really happy for both of them. He was absolutely adorable in the way he proposed and all I have to say is that he clearly benefited from being the baby brother of 3 older sisters. All those hours we dressed him, did his hair, put make up on him and painted his nails only seem to have made him a very smushy romantic guy on the inside with an Army Lieutenant coating. It is perfect really, since I've never wanted a big splashy wedding and I was truely afraid I would be roped into having one since I'm the last girl and all.
In other family-related news, Melissa has become a Friday Night Lights addict. And like any good older sisters she's involved me in my her addiction. I spent all of Sunday camped out on the couch watching the first two discs of FNL, in my defense it was raining and shitty out. I also got a ton of laundry and knitting done. I don't care if that is justification of my burgeoning addiction, I can stop any time I like. I just don't want to.
