"Work is the refuge of people who have nothing better to do."

So, I thought, "Hey... I haven't written a blog for like a week, so maybe it's time."  It turns out maybe not.  I've been sitting here for a few minutes now and realized I don't have ANYTHING to blog about.  Kaiah and I ate sweet potato fries for lunch... is that blogworthy?  (They are one of my favorite snacks and it turns out that they're possibly one of Kai's favorites too.)  I'm working on cleaning my house today... what about that?  I need to go get new print cartridges and dog food at some point today... any of this interesting to you?  Sorry folks.  Turns out I'm boring.  Who knew?  Meh, maybe you all did.  I guess I thought I was the only one who was aware of this completely useless knowledge.

Here's something of some importance.  I have to work tomorrow.  Yep.  I said it.  WORK.  Back to the ol' salt mine.  This may not seem like very blogworthy news to any of my few but faithful readers, but it is news.  For those of you that don't know I have practically been a hermit for the past 10 months of my life.  (With the exception of a nice little week-long stint in October.)  It wasn't because I didn't want to work. (Well, let's face it.  Nobody wants to work.  Or maybe you do... in which case good for you.  Please enlighten me as to where I can get a job that I love well enough that I would rather do that than play with my dog all day.)

I thought that I wanted an entirely different career path.  I think I got burned out hardcore working at my previous job.  Don't get me wrong, I loved working with the kiddles and LOVED my coworkers (and still do!), but that job was taxing.  I decided I was going to look for something different.  It turns out that when you've worked with children, the elderly, or just people in general for your entire life, it's hard to just break on to a new career path without going back to school or having to flip burgers or bag groceries.  So, I'm going back to doing a job that is pretty much the same thing that I was doing before.  And that's okay.  It's a new environment and the clientele will be a wee bit different.  Plus, I've had a nice stretch of time to get away from it and just breathe.

Bonuses of going back to work: 

• More $$$, of course!
• I can talk to people during the day again!  (Without having to go to the grocery store!)
• I get to help people again.  (Let's face it, when it comes to work that's all I've ever done and known.)
• I don't have to listen to Kaiah bark all day...  (Bittersweet)  :(
• I get to meet new peeps!  You know I always like new people!
• I will (hopefully) eat better & snack less!  [I won't have my cupboards right in front of me to scavenge through when I'm hungry (or bored, for that matter).]

Damages of going back to work:

• Loss of free time/freedom.  (That's a doozy.)
• I'll miss my little Kaiahroo!  (Ever since she came into our lives, one of us has been home with her for the most part and now she'll be all alone during the day.)  :'(
• My house will no longer be the cleanest house in Des Moines!  (Not that I won't still clean but seriously, if I'm working all day I'm not going to want to come home and clean.  I've been cleaning every day for the last 10 months, for the most part!)
• Not as much gourmet cooking!  (I'm not going to want to come home and put a huge effort into dinner when I can make something simple quickly.)
• I'm going to work out a lot less.  (I've all ready begun to realize that I will fail at keeping this up.  Being a "housewife" is a full-time job the way it is.  I've got a man and a dog that are both extremely needy, so I'm no longer going to have a lot of "me time".)
• I'm going to have to start getting dressed again.  Damn.

That's it.  That last one just put me over the edge.  I've decided NOT to return to work.  I kid... but only kind of. 

Oscar Wilde said it best, "Work is the refuge of people who have nothing better to do."  Eek, Mr. Wilde... some of us just need the CASH.  :)

The Ghetto Gourmet

So, yesterday I was perusing books at Borders, and I came across the ever-so-fun $1 book bin.  Whenever I see this bin, I know I will buy something.  It turns out I bought 11 somethings.  (For $1, why not, right?)  But that is beside the point.  I found a real treasure in that bunch of books, and I want/need/must tell you about it.  Check it out.

That's right.  Cookin' with Coolio.  I know you all are very jealous of my killer find.  It has such fabulous recipes as: Bacon Rap'd Scallops (Yes, spelled like that), Chicken Lettuce Blunts, Bro-ghetti, &I'm-Gonna-Slap-You-With-My-Whisk Tomato Bisque.  Not to mention, such classics as Pimp My Shrimp, Coolius Caesar, & Heavenly Ghettalian Garlic Bread.  Let's also not forget what sold me on the book, Simple-Ass Mozzarella Salad (or "Mozzarella for the Pimpish Fella").  I must also add that there are such fantastic chapter titles as "How to Become a Kitchen Pimp", "It's Hard Out There For a Shrimp" & "Sweet Treats for That Sweet Ass".   How could I not add this masterpiece to my cookbook collection?  It would be such a shame.

However, unfortunately for me, ever since I found this treasure, I have been singing that stupid song "1,2,3,4 (Sumpin' New)" song.  You know that you know it... "1,2,3,4, Get your woman on the floor.  Gotta gotta get up to get DOWN.  Gotta gotta get up to get DOWN."  I hope it is now in all of my faithful readers' heads.  It's driving me crazy!

Anyway, I don't have too much else to say today, I just wanted to share this tasty little morsel with you all!  :)

Cumin!

I went to Farmers' Market this morning.  I got some rosemary-infused balsamic vinegar.  It is so tasty and I
am super excited to cook with it.  I also got some cumin Gouda.  Cumin!  I'm so ridiculously pumped for it that you can't even imagine.  Cumin is definitely one of my favorite spices and most likely in my top three.

However, evidently, I need to go to the grocery store because nobody at Farmers Market wanted to sell me some kale.  I want to make kale chips!  (On a completely unrelated note, I must also add that Waste Management was giving out free reusable grocery bags.  SCORE!)

I guess it was only a matter of time before I wrote a food-related blog.  I love food.  I love cooking it and I love eating it.  So, all of you faithful readers, you can expect more to come on this topic.  Lucky you.  Even luckier me, because it means that I'm most likely cooking it or eating it before I share it with you.

The Perfect(?) Trifecta

Isn't it funny how life never quite works out the way that you imagined it would?  I know this seems a cliche way to start out today's blog, but I've been doing some soul searching this morning.

"Life", or what you pictured for your life, continues to get pushed further and further down the line.  (I guess it also comes a lot sooner than planned for some people, but not me.)

As a child, I thought I would be in a house & married, with a puppy at home and a child on the way by the age of 25.  As I got older I still wanted all of those things; it just got pushed back to the age of 28.  In January of 2009 (25 years old), I had a steady boyfriend, but other than that I was in no way on my track to make it by 28.  Now I'm 27 & it appears as though I'm almost there.

I've got the house:

The boyfriend has proposed:

I've got the puppy (In front of our refrigerator.  So tiny!):

who is now a dog (95 lbs. of dog!):

Yet it's still not right.  Why is it that everyone continues to strive for perfect when perfection is nearly impossible?  I've got the house.  I've got my fiance, Jack.  I've got my "puppy", Kaiah.  (I guess it's time to start calling her my dog, huh?)  The only thing missing is the actual marriage itself and the child (which, thank God, we are in no way ready to make that goal).  And yet, I still feel so far from where I wanted to be another year from now.

I guess as a kid you don't think about things like financial stability, job security & stress (Oh, the stress...) or even general happiness.  You think that those things are just an automatic bonus that comes with the territory.  I mean, if you have a house, you must have a job and you must be financially stable, right?  And you have the "perfect life", so you must be happy and stress free, right?

Is it just me?  Am I being completely pessimistic?  I mean,  a lot of people are in the same boat as I am, right?  RIGHT?!?! 

It's that strive for perfection.  It's being goal-driven.  It's making the decision to go down that path that you've always wanted since you were a little girl, even if, in retrospect, you were a bit hasty about the leap.  It's forcing all of those things into the last year (or so) of my life.  Feb. '09: Engagement.  May '09:  House & Puppy.  May '09 - Present:  Dealing with the aftermath of all of those decisions.  The perfect trifecta.

Don't get me wrong.  I love my fiance, Jack.  I love my house.  I love my dog, Kaiah.  What I don't love is people constantly asking me about wedding plans (since we have been engaged for 16 months and haven't made a single plan), paying bills (or stressing over whether we can pay the bills), & barking and slobber.

The funny thing is, it's all worth it.  I love Jack.  We fight, as every couple does, but we also laugh.  A LOT.  I get stressed paying more for a house and having all of those extra expenses that you don't have with an apartment, but it is so worth it.  I get sick of listening to barking and cleaning up slobber, but it is nice to know when someone is coming to the door, and it is wonderful to get the little girl puppy kisses.

Life is funny like that...

Initial Annoyance

Let me begin by stating my initial annoyance with starting a blog.  Does everyone and their brother already have a blog?  Am I alone in being a blogging virgin?  It literally took me an hour, if not more, to come up with a domain name for my blog.  Not because I couldn't think of anything; only because I couldn't think of anything original that somebody else hadn't already come up with.  That knocked me right off of my creative high horse.  Every time I thought I was being clever, somebody had beat me to the punch.

And so it begins. I'm officially a blogger. I guess I dabbled with blogging back in the good ol' MySpace days. [Do people still use that?  That was a scary place. (Even if I was obsessed with it during college.  What?  It was an excellent procrastination tool and I learned about a lot of new bands because of it!)]


I don't know that there will be a point to my blogging, other than my airing my dirty laundry to whomever feels the desire to read about it. (Find a hobby, people. I can't be THAT interesting... or am I?)


I promise more to come in the near future.  Not necessarily for any readers I have, but more for myself.  Hopefully this can serve as some sort of outlet for me; be it creative, emotional, physical, whatever.  Yes, I said physical.  If there is ever nonsensical ramblings posted, it's probably because I had to punch SOMETHING.  Better the keyboard than the dog, right? 


As for now, I must play with this creation of mine, and leave the blogging for another time.