in an effort to save both of us money (and gastro-intestinal distress), i’ve been trying to cook more meals at home for christopher and i instead of our eating out or ordering in so much. it’s been kind of stressful for me because i’m really not used to cooking for anyone other than myself or, historically, my mom. it’s been a real stretch for me to think up meal-like things to prepare. although he’s not yet complained about anything i’ve given him to eat, i’m sure none of the dishes has been anything he’d clamour to have me make him again. thank goodness he’s a food trooper and will eat pretty much anything but liver.
yesterday, i broke new ground by leaving the slow-cooker slow-cooking a stew while i was at work. i’m a stew novice when i cook it live and in person, so this whole leaving it to its own devices while i was twenty-five kilometres away was positively nerve-racking. it turned out not-entirely-awful, but i will note for next time to add a few more veggies, lots more liquid (read: beer) and a little less worcestershire sauce before putting the lid on it for the day.
i guess what i’m looking for are quick, easy meal ideas which can be made in a relatively short amount of time, using as few pots & utensils as possible and for the smallest monetary investment. maybe even just tips on how to cook things i’ve never cooked before such as pot roast (or roasted anything, for that matter: pork, chicken, etc) or non-creamy casseroles. seriously, any suggestions are welcome. i just need a little culinary inspiration before i get dumped for someone who can really cook.
or maybe you could tell me to stop being so boring and post more damn pictures.
point form because bad content is better than no content:
– i make kickass spaghetti sauce, even if i do say so myself
– stop the presses: i LOVE smoked gouda
– commercial drive is fascinating; i wish i could be invisible to people-watch with impunity
– kissing is so awesome
– working on a sunday may be productive, but it still sucks
– i’m one extension cord away from hot mini-light action in my living room
– dad’s taking me to ontario for the big family reunion in july: yay!
– i sent someone flowers last week; i’ve never done that before
– i still have three rolls of film to scan
– my apartment is in dire need of de-dust-bunnification
– where the hell has this year gone?
while having awesome people over to watch a movie, eat yummy food and play games with is good, drinking very many glasses of white sangria on a work-night is not.
oh, my head.
you’d think a four-day long weekend would have left me all relaxed and as full of lazy as i could handle. you’d also be wrong.
it was actually a pretty busy time off what with the going out friday night, the early morning cleaning before getting on the boat saturday, the company to entertain on the other side, the shopping for an awesome new jacket, the family-visiting, the early boat back on monday, the spending quality time with christopher, the flooding of the laundry room, the driving to bellis fair, the stopping in to visit jen at work, the mauling with the boy and the fantastic phone-talking until late.
surprisingly, even waking up with a horrible headache and having to come back to work hasn’t ruined the fantabulous mood i’m in. i’m crazy smiley and almost giddy. i could totally see myself running around hugging people, if i weren’t so busy. i totally forgot i had lunch plans with sandy today, so that’s just added to the awesome (even though it delays my grocery shopping plans until after work).
yeah, i know… i’m such a dork.
tonight’s tasks:
– fill up car — check
– wash car — check
– pick up four rolls of film — check
– scan four three rolls of film
– do laundry — check
– eat dinner — check
– wash dishes — check
– watch the west wing series finale — check
– watch prison break season finale — check
– pay bills
– work out budget for film purchases
– enroll in EA (ebay anonymous)
before i even opened my eyes yesterday morning, i knew i shouldn’t have gotten out of bed.
i was dropping things, i was late to work, i walked into a door jam, there was no coffee in the pot, my supervisor stormed into my office and started to freak out on me about tools because he just got freaked out on about tools by someone else. i can’t really blame him for how the rest of my day went, he’s a great guy, but having him burst in when nothing had gone well for me, on top of being tired from not sleeping enough and not having any coffee really fucked me up for the rest of the day.
around noon, i was hip-deep in a mood most foul, plugging away at something in order to ensure that there was nothing else anyone could freak out on me about, he came into my office and told me to go to lunch. i said no, i was in the middle of something. so, he came around my desk and unplugged my monitor then stood there saying “go for lunch. go for lunch. go for lunch.” until i picked up my bag, walked down the hall and out the door.
the morning had me so riled up i could actually feel my nerves twitching and my heart pounding. as i sat in the car trying to decide where to get lunch from (or if i should’ve just kept driving all the way home), i phoned christopher and asked if i could come over because i needed a hug. thank goodness he lives close to work. after visiting with him, getting my hugs and being completely inarticulate about the what and how of my frazzled mood, i got back to work and, although it wasn’t great, the afternoon was definitely better than the morning.
just before i left for the day, i went into my supervisor’s office and apologized for being such a cranky bitch all day. i felt bad he got the brunt of my bad day, but i ensured him it wasn’t personal and that even if the shit-fan incident hadn’t happened it still would have been a bad day for me. he understood, but i know it’s not easy to be in his position and i totally didn’t make it any easier. we’re all way too stressed in this department.
thankfully, i had vandigicam plans to look forward to last night. i swung by christopher’s house to pick him up and was happy to learn he’d invited his niece, leah, along. we stopped for some food and then met up with everyone for the walking portion of the evening. the weather was iffy and the light was dodgy, but i did manage to shoot a roll in the meikai chris gave me and half a roll in the holga, but i have no idea if anything’s going to turn out. i also got two huge and painful blisters on my foot which are making me into limpygirl today. the group thing ended with drinks and my indoctrinating leah into the sumptuous delights of crème brulee at bridges. afterwards, there was me playing taxi and subsequently falling into bed just before midnight.
can i just say how much better the second eight-hour portion of my day was than the first? it almost made going through the first part all right. no, who am i kidding? it was awful and yucky. i’m very glad that today has started much less icky and there’s a whole weekend to look forward to. yay!
i just went for a walk at lunch. the weather is fabulous for it. there’s a stiff breeze but it’s brilliantly sunny. i really needed that little bit of outside to help blow the cobwebs out.
conventional wisdom states that unhappy people make for more interesting bloggers than happy people. the corollary to that is single bloggers produce more content than bloggers in relationships. for the first time in the history of this website, i’m currently find myself in both of those latter categories.
this is very bad news if you come here looking to read anything new or interesting, i’m sorry to say.
in an effort to keep up my end of the implied contract with you, my loyal and long-suffering readers, this post is dedicated to catching you up on the fact i’m dating someone on a steady, mutually-exclusive basis.
i’m not a super-mushy person (at least verbally – you should see all the mush in my head). call it paranoia that if i start to talk too much about how happy i may be or how much i like someone that, suddenly, it will end; or, maybe it’s just really annoying when people are all ga-ga over their significant other ALL THE FREAKING TIME and i don’t ever want someone to think of me as that kind of sappy, love-struck idiot. so, i find myself in this strange state of being beyond happy that there’s this really great guy who thinks i’m neat enough to date, but by all outward appearances, i’m so casual about it that you’d think we almost didn’t even know each other. well, as your mother should have taught you: don’t judge a book by its cover. there’s more than enough schmoop, you just won’t have to wade through it. after this post.
that being said, you may be wondering about what makes this particular man so special as to have made it through the rigorous vetting process men need to survive to get a piece of the hotness. a nowhere near all-inclusive list of his qualifications:
– he is tall.
– he has yummy stubble and changable facial hair.
– he has style.
– he is funny in my favourite way.
– he is probably the most amazing photographer i know.
– he is a fantastic kisser.
– he teaches me something almost every day.
– he is a gentleman.
– he has gorgeous hands.
– he makes me feel beautiful.
there’s so much more to say, but i think this is bordering on gag-worthy enough as it is, so i shall refrain from further exposition.
we now return this blog to it’s semi-regularly scheduled whining about being tired, busy and wanting a new job.
i’m on vacation! i’m going to the island for a few days, back mid-week, but you probably won’t even notice i’ve gone anywhere.
be good, bunnies!
i’m very excited that these three photos of mine were on tv last night. in the next day or so, you’ll be able to go here and view flickrmoments3 to see them.
today is my friday and i couldn’t be more thrilled. i almost don’t mind the insane amounts of crappy work i need to do before i can leave work today. it doesn’t hurt that i have a dinner date with jamie and colene to eat yummy indian food. mm, samosas.
of all the items on the long list of things which bug me, not much tops the helpless, impotent feeling i get when i can’t help someone i care about. when i don’t know what to say to make it better. when all i can do is hug them and hope all the good feelings i have inside for them transfer into their heart and ease their mind.
i wish i knew what to say. i just want to make it better.
i was updating my calendar-slash-social diary this morning and there was so much stuff i’d done between leaving work on friday afternoon and returning this morning that it took me a good few minutes just to remember where i’d gone and what i’d done.
let’s see… friday evening was very full. i had dinner and watched some of ‘the office’ with christopher before going downtown to attend a girl’s night out (with: jen, jen, jen, mel, mel, col, gill, rose, kimli, kirsti and others i didn’t know). after that fun party broke up at fairly early hour, i decided that i’d check if meghan was at the pub, which she was, so i stopped in to have a drink and a chat with her on my way home (dante, the lackluster new year’s eve date, was there. it was the first time running into him since that night. he was all pouty that i’d never called him back, but he still asked me out to lunch. ohwell), which was good. i never get to see her any more unless i go to the pub.
saturday, i got up earlish and managed to do four loads of laundry before noon. then chris called all grumpy at printer problems and said he needed to get the hell outta dodge, so i picked him up, we went shopping for supplies and then spent the day vegging out watching more of ‘the office’ and eating yummy food. i drove him home at a practically decent hour because we both had to get up early sunday for…
the camera show! after an early start and a public transit commute, i was at my first-ever camera show and swap meet. it was AWESOME. i spent way too much money, but i got three new-to-me cameras (Olympus Pen EE-2 half-frame, Olympus XA rangefinder and a spectacular trashcam, Biauma B-1) and a bunch of cheap, expired film to put in them. afterwards, the gang all took off for commercial drive for a yummy, cheap lunch at a greek place. then we all went our separate ways for the day.
after hanging at christopher’s for a bit, we came back to my place to watch more of ‘the office’, then we took off to the awesome vietnamese place on west 10th for a very late dinner. after stuffing ourselves, we then went to marpole to meet up with jen after her shift. we three wandered around the very clean and brightly lit 24 hour porn store and then had some bubble tea (my first — it’s YUMMY!) and chatted until midnight, when i realized i had better ditch those two so i wasn’t a complete wreck today.
i drove them both and then myself home, where i promptly fell into a night-full of crazy dreams before my alarm started bleeping five hours later. ugh.
so, tonight i have to do all the stuff i didn’t get done on the weekend: aircare for the car, return and exchange some clothes i bought last week, clean the floors, do the dishes, buy some food for lunches. luckily, i start my vacation on thursday, so it’s a übershort work week for me. yay!
yeah, i know. bad blogger. i have a great excuse though… well, okay, i have no excuse. between the fear of internet usage at work and all that having fun after four, this little box has been sorely neglected. aw, screw it. it’s my website. if i want to treat it like the red-headed step-child, i can. so there!
talking about family, while having dinner over at christopher’s last night i started thinking about some of the things i must have missed out on by being an only child. his brother, mike, was there as well and it was somewhat unsettling to look and listen to this person who is so similar to chris in so many small and subtle ways, but also so patently different. i wonder if people with siblings even notice these similarities and disparities after living an entire life near them. to know that there is someone (or someones) out there who, quite literally, came from the exact same place as you but turned out so unique… it’s got to be weird. it’s weird for me to even contemplate.
i almost wish there was a way for me to re-live my life with a sibling or two, just to have the experience. alas, i know no different, so i’ll just have to live vicariously through others.
that being said, i’m pretty sure i didn’t miss all the teasing and the beatings. then again, i get enough of that from my friends, so maybe i haven’t missed anything at all.
subject: woe
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that’s seriously true for me these days.
there’s been some of you whining complaining showing concern that i haven’t updated in almost a week, but i assure you it’s only because i’m out enjoying my life (yes, even when i’m complaining about being so busy) and spending time with superfantastic people who bring me great joy.
exacerbating the silence is my getting my hand slapped by the boss for excessive flickr usage at the office. i wonder if flickr addiction is a treatable condition under my health plan… anyway, since then i’ve been trying to stay offline as much as possible (except for right now, of course), so that means even fewer opportunities to post.
or maybe it’s just the new pants distracting me.
so, yeah. i’m not dead. i’m not sad. i’m just busy and, well, i’m happy again. it’s spring and everything sprung. i love it.
“I loved it when my father got himself worked up like this. Listening to him during those early years, I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good, either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.”
– from “My Uncle Oswald” by Roald Dahl
it’s no big secret to the people who know me best (and pretty much anyone — i have no poker face) that i’ve been on the down side of good for the past week. of course, it comes on the heels of being Over The Moon for the last couple months, which just makes it all that more shameful to admit to. that’s the trouble with being happy and letting people know it: when something happens to tumble the foundation out from under your feet, everyone wants to know why? what? where? when? how? just when all i want to do is go off into a corner with a Costco-sized bag of Doritos and feel sorry for myself.
that being said, i’m rather proud of the way i’ve been handling it all. i haven’t gone to Costco for the Doritos and i haven’t spent more than an afternoon feeling sorry for myself. i got outside and walked some of it off. i went shopping for things i needed, not just wanted. i cleaned my apartment and my car. everything was constructive and positive, which is a huge step forward for me.
but, even feeling proud of my strength, i don’t particularily like what i forsee my near future to be and feel like. i know the things i need to do to make it bearable, but it’s still going to suck a whole lot and i’m really not looking forward to any of it.
why is it that being the responsible adult means you have to do the things you really don’t want to so much more often than the things you really do want to? as a kid, i always imagined it was going to be the other way around.
i’m happy.
i’m feelin’ kinda bleh. i haven’t taken any photos in a week. i need a vacation like nobody’s business. after a fantastic night’s sleep friday, i haven’t slept much since. plans fell through. the car is almost out of gas. the neighbour tracked matted cat fur all down the hall and stairs while moving yesterday and didn’t bother cleaning it up. i need a haircut. there’s too much work to do. i’m trying to make plans for the week but people are keeping me in limbo and i hate that. i have wrinkles.
in a total fit of ‘woe is me’ and ‘oh god, it’s valentine’s day tomorrow’ i tried to fend off a mood by buying myself a bunch of bright orange gerbera daisies and a bag of chocolate hearts to pass out to my co-workers today. it totally didn’t work. i got home and promptly had a full moon fit and freaked the hell out. i was so antsy i couldn’t sit still. i tried watching a movie, but there was too much twitching. so, i got online and convinced christopher to go for a drive with me. the laughing and the howling at the moon was definitely the cure for my finger-tapping restlessness.
tonight, i’ll probably end up watching movies and avoiding drinking alone, but at least i have pretty orange flowers to keep me company.
happy valentine’s day, people. you’re the bestest.