I know I’ve been lax about updating, believe me when I say it’s been mad crazy. I thought that after the holidays I would have more time. I am so foolish. These are the things currently taking up a lot of time…
New York
I go to New York at the end of February to speak at a conference about permanent placement policy for foster kids. Not a big deal, I can do this in my sleep, except this is big. Bigger conference, bigger expectations, more to give. I’m getting more jittery than expected. If this were the only thing on my plate, it would be a cakewalk. I have so many other things going on though.
Tazo Wild Sweet Orange Tea
Okay, I’ll admit it doesn’t consume much thought, but it is tasty and I’ve been drinking it a lot. It’s probably better for me that the Tazo Chai tea bag that i steep in my espresso every morning. Now that’s unhealthy.
Kitchen Remodel
We’re remodeling the kitchen, yay! Okay, mostly yay and a bit of stress. I’ll be writing more about this over the weeks. I’m picking out floors and countertops and lights and handles and paint and secret compartments to hide the bodies. I got my new fridge already which is just HUGE and shiny and stainless steel, sigh. Now we have to put the rest of it together. I want everything to be perfect and withing budget and not require painful effort and also be perfect while coming in on budget. Also, perfect. Along with the kitchen stuff we are doing a few things in the bathroom (new faucets, painting) and hopefully some landscaping in the yard.
Wheatberries
I know this is so ‘1987 San Francisco’, but i live in the midwest where we feed the wheatberries to the cows and eat the cows later. My new favorite recipe is:
Wheatberry Salad
1/4 cup chopped smoked chicken breast
1 julienned carrot
1/4 cup grapes
1/4 cup tamari roasted almonds from Whole Foods
1/2 cup prepped wheatberries (i used soft)
Mix together and toss with raspberry vinaigrette:
1 tbl raspberry vinegar
2 tbl walnut oil
1 tsp grated ginger
Salt, pepper
Try it sometime, maybe add some spinach.
The Deep South Road Trip
Like 8 or 9 days of getting in the car and driving across the south. Crazy. In March/April so it won’t be so hot. Not as much ocean as my last vacation, though.
Europe
Two weeks in Europe for our birthdays, culminating in 3 days of hedonism in Amsterdam. We are currently debating how much planning should go into this trip. On one hand, it would be nice to have two weeks untethered to a schedule, just whipping around Europe, eating pastries and flirting with men who think American girls are easy. On the other hand, I have nightmares about being stuck in some weird city where no one is willing to speak English and there are no hotel rooms and American girls had better learn to be easy if they want to sleep in a bed and take a warm shower.
PMS
Yeah, PMS is ha ha funny. Woo. Until you have killer PMS for 2 weeks solid, and you don’t realize it’s PMS at first because it’s so early and it’s worse than PMS. So much worse. Makes you hide in bed and cry and you get so depressed and you begin thinking about driving your car into an abuttment (okay not really, but sort of). PMS so bad that you are convinced that your girlfriend of 9 years is going to leave you because you cry all the time and you are stupid. Yeah it was that bad, and it was that bad for two solid weeks. It didn’t work up to being that bad, it just started there (although yesterday was the definite nadir of the situation). If I was mean to you (and, inexplicably, you are still reading this) I apologize, it totally sucks to know me sometimes. To be fair, I do warn all my friends pretty early on that I can be a real asshole sometimes. I’m feeling better, i have new hair (thank you, Owen), I’m ready to go back to the gym and I almost have all the bodies hidden.
This is a little like therapy. I need to do this more often. Okay, wish me luck.