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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Happy Birthday, Jason!

This month we celebrated 28 awesome years of Jason. Grandma came by and swept the kids off for a few days at the D.C. cousins' house, so we hit the road again- just the two of us.
Jason G, Age 28
Casual Comfort
We arrived in New York to the welcome of friends with unending warmth and generosity. We had a blast in our signature style of goofy party games and even goofier prizes for the winners. We sang happy birthday over cupcakes and talked about our favorite things about Jason. It was perfect. 
The whole W family came for the fun! 
You're The Cthulhu Worshiper! 
Joe Wins! 
Happy Birthday too You! 


As the guests left, we settled down to cups of tea and good conversation with our dear hosts till the wee hours of the morning. The next day, just as my camera battery died, we walked to the Natural History Museum, the Flea Market, and a Farmers' Market. We studied bio-luminescent creatures and read about the future of the space program. We ate maple cotton candy and looked at Chinese relics and handmade jewelry in the sunshine. We couldn't imagine a more perfect weekend.
I love you madly, Sparky. This year will be the best one yet!
Love, Bunny

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

You Tell Me

Holy-Radio-Silence, Batman! It's been a busy two weeks and I've been wiped out. But that means I've got a lot to write about! Here's just a bit of the buzz:

  •  Going to New York for Jason's Birthday party
  • The tragic conclusion of The Windowsill Experiment, Pt. 1
  • A whole week with the kids at cousins'
  • 5 days of just Me, Myself, And I, for the first time Ever
  • New adventures in writing...comics?
Now it's your turn- what do you want to hear about first? 

Monday, May 14, 2012

The Bright Side of Monday

   Mondays can be pretty detestable. Thank you Captain Obvious. But so can a lot of other things be, depending on how you look at them. So today I've been trying to take a page out of my Lala's book and look on the bright side (she is the most optimistic child ever!)
  • Monday means tomorrow is Tuesday: Tuesday is Pay Day! I get to go grocery shopping with my new cook book in tow. I get to go to my new job that I love. I'm so getting something new to wear for work! Maybe that dress I've been drooling over for a week. 
  • My aching back means that I've got one hellofa clean kitchen! 
  • I have a wonderful, supportive husband who's been showering me with positiveness all day.
  • There are French bulldogs in the world. 
What's on your bright side? 

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Veggie Mama

Happy Mother’s Day!
I hope your mother knows you appreciate them, or if you’re a mother I hope you feel appreciated.
I sure do! This morning, after sleeping in very late I woke up to kisses and hug, hand-drawn cards and a delightfully thoughtful gift, but I’ll get to that in a minute. For the rest of the day was amusing chaos as I watched Jason take on the bulk of the household/parental-drudgery. When he crumpled on the bed after saying goodnight to the children, I couldn’t help but feel simultaneous pity, awe, gratitude, and satisfaction. I think this has been the best Mother’s Day yet and I know my family loves me.
 As for the awesome gift, it starts with a story. Now stick with me- I’m not going to get all preachy and whatnot- I’m just going to tell it how it happened. About a year ago I was feeling pretty crappy about myself and life as a whole. I was having prolonged bouts of low grade depression, trouble with my weight, my skin, my energy level, and generally feeling yuck. I’d tried a number of methods to treat each individually, but needless to say, nothing worked.
 One day I was wandering through a book store as aimless as anyone could be without bumping into stuff, wondering what exactly I was going to do about it. Then I realized I was in the cook book section. I’m no chef. I follow the back of the box, thank you very much. But I was moved to pick up The Kind Diet but AliciaSilverstone (another weirdness since I’m definitely not the Us Weekly type). But cover bragged a forward by Dr. Neal Barnard, of whom I’d read several times. But what hooked me was inside read a list of everything that had been bothering me; all could be solved, allegedly, by eating a vegan diet with the processed sugar cut out. There wasn’t much I wouldn’t have tried at that point and the serendipity was a little much for me.
So I went for it. So how did it turn out? In two weeks I was feeling better than ever. Everything improved! It wasn’t perfect, but neither was I- but everything improved. I was feeling better than ever. Then life happened, stress happened, money didn’t happen, and I fell off the wagon. And trust me- the list of symptoms has reared its ugly head. It hasn’t been hard to stay vegetarian and that has been helpful, but it’s not a vegan-friendly world. It takes a conscious effort till you really get in the habit. Not to mention that while I have all the support imaginable, I’m the only one in the family doing this.
 I’ve known all this time that I wanted to get back in the boat, and in this recent burst of ambitious energy I’ve decided that now is the time. I’ve been prepping food differently for a couple of days and feeling pretty good about. I’ve been scouring the interwebs for good vegan blogs, and reading up on new cook books to try.
And just how supportive has Jason been with all of this? Look what he got me for Mother’s Day! The VEGENOMICON: The Ultimate VeganCookbook. No way am I eating these by myself! Now I'm really stoked. Step back! Mama’s in the kitchen! 

What did you do for your mother today/ what did your kids do for you? Have you ever been interested in eating vegan/vegetarian? 

Thursday, May 10, 2012

First Day Lesson

Guess who's got two thumbs, a job, and likes it! C'est Moi! Today was my first day working at "The Jewelry Shop," as it shall hitherto for be known. I'm definitely in the learning period, and it's funny finding nuances that I have to adjust to, having been out of the work place for several years. But I'm learning fast.
   The first lesson, unexpectedly, has been that my wardrobe needs an update! Seriously- it says right in the employee handbook, under Dress and Appearance, "[Clothing should be] fashion forward."
Uh, Fashion Quick-Fix?
   At first glance I'm all, "That's a requirement? What a cool place to work!" And then I realize that my normal uniform of Forever21 jeans and Tokidoki tee shirts isn't going to cut it. I don't exactly have the dough to fork out for some new work clothes (remember, I'm trying to go back to school here), so how do we solve this problem?

  • Phase one: shake off the dust and try on everything. Two or three times may be necessary. Try them on in every conceivable combination. 
  • Phase two: Suck in really hard. 
  • Phase three: employ safety pins, duct tape, and Plaster of Paris to fix it or fake it. 
   Doing so, I think I've managed to come up with enough to wear to get me to pay day, but it's going to have to be a clever few days.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Multifaceted

   I think that demon that's possessed me of late is running for Martha Stewart Impersonator of the Year. Oh, yes, the unprovoked craft-craziness continues!
   But first and foremost: I can make plants! Yes, my friends, the Windowsill Experiment has been a success so far; we have six peat cups filled with teeny tiny green sprouts. I couldn't be more proud of not killing something.
   But leaf had hardly touched air before I was seized once again, this time with the urge to sew-anything! Mind you, I suck at sewing. Really suck. I haven't sewn anything but the hem of Jason's pants in about two years. But this Spirit must have known what it was doing, because I got Lola (my machine) down from her top shelf, dusted her off, and I tell you it was like magic. I ironed, I pinned, placed, and in 2 and a half hours I had a new skirt! Just like that- and not a half bad skirt, either! I wasn't finished, though. This afternoon I was at it again. With a little sweat and imagination I got this strawberry tart apron.
   Being of multiple minds is effecting more than just my crafts though. Last week I had three job interviews: the coffee shop, the jewelry store, and the hat shop. I wanted the hat shop the most and in all my conversation with the manager, he's practically spouted sonnets to me. But he wanted to wait on the second interview until his co-manager could get back from a business trip. In the mean time, first the coffee shop called me up and offered me the job. They don't want me in till Monday, so I still have time to change my mind. But today, the jewelry shop, which I wanted second, sent me an email offering me the job and asking me to come in on Thursday!
   I'm in over my head. Maybe I should stick with plants- they're so much less complicated than people.

What would you do? Should I just take up Watercolor next?

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Growing Obsession

  Have you ever admired something obscure only to wake up on a random day and say "I'm going to be a carpenter!" or "I'm going to train for a marathon!" with no prior experience? Good, then you'll understand when I tell you I got possessed by a gardening demon the other day.
   I tell you, nothing inspired it. I simply went from "I'd like a container garden...maybe sometime," to "I will garden NOW!" I can't even really recall how I got from the initial thought to eyeballs deep in mail order seed websites.
  With super speed I ascertained that growing a container garden was cheap ( or at least cheaper than I thought or could spend on something else), easy to maintain, and possible on my little back porch. All of these have yet to be determined. I also found out that my favorite garden flowers- can you guess what?- were sold out across the board. But unfettered, I found a distributor of seeds through Amazon, and managed to order the precious seeds from the bowls of the Earth. Hopefully they'll be here before growing season is over. From another, reputed, company I got some container-friendly strawberries, Bells of Ireland, and Zinnias that are supposed to grow deep wine red and chartreuse.
   I loaded up the kiddos and trekked to the hardware store for the basics, which turned out to be MiracleGro soil, peat cups, and the kids' choice of seed- Shasta Daisies, Primroses, and Heirloom Green Beans. With some messy fingers and a few spills, we created a germination science experiment on the windowsill that my or may not determine if I'm totally off my rocker with this project.
   But wait! The craziness continues! After much review I selected the book I Garden: Urban Style about how to start and keep an urban garden (obviously) but with as relaxed an effort as possible. I read it in two days.
   Today I was tending to the Windowsill Experiment, anxious for something to show, to make it real, and it was too much. I couldn't start everything from seed; couldn't someone do some of the work for me? I wanted a baby plant! Thus entered Verdenand the Tomato. He's my beautiful new pet. And the others will be too, when they sprout, but for now I can tend to Verdenand and wait.
   He also holds a deeper significance- that of eating what we grow. When I decided to get a tomato plant, part of the incentive was cost; at $3 there wasn't much to lose. Then I went to the Harvest Coop and picked up some tomatoes for dinner tonight- you guessed it- $3 per pound. That gave me a fun idea to see just how much this gardening thing pays off. Every time we use tomatoes from Verdenand per day, I'll add $3 to a running total. At the end of the summer we'll see just how much money our little green friend has saved us.

Have you ever been possessed by a hobby demon? Do you like to garden? Do you have a container garden? What is your favorite flower or homegrown veggie? Is this totally bonkers?

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Top It Off



   Oh my gosh. OK. Breath...
   I'm a little excited right now. K, I'm really excited. It's just an interview, but it's to my number one potential-employer: Goorin Bros. Hats in Harvard Sq. They're beautiful. The hats are incredible and the shops are awesomely designed. It all has the gritty, old time feel with a modern aesthetic. And Alex, whom I spoke with over the phone, seemed so freaking nice. I couldn't think of a place I'd rather work! Can you just see me strutting around, wearing and selling hats that look like they walked off the pages of a Hemingway, then turning around with hats fit for a 50 Cent video? Gah! I love it!
  I fully advocate bringing back hats of all shapes as an essential part of the American wardrobe. Speaking of wardrobes, I went to their website for ideas of what the employees were wearing, to get inspiration for my outfit for tomorrow. What I found was a glove-slap-level challenge. Every shot looked like the set of Oh! Brother, Where Art Thou? But I like a challenge.

   I'll keep you posted with how the interview goes. Wish me luck!