A Disappointing New Friend / Happy Halloween / Surprise Bonus Reading Material

So today it was freezing and I didn’t feel like walking anywhere good for lunch.  We have this crap salad bar place on the first floor of our building that I’m convinced is in business exactly for that reason, that people from the building begrudgingly go there when it’s cold or raining.

One of the things this venue lacks is a logical system of salad ordering.  They have those little slips where you check off what you want on it, but once you’ve filled it out, it’s kind of a cluster as to the next step.  Like, at Au Bon Pain you stick them facedown on a designated tray, so it’s very evident to the salad-manufacturer what order they should get made.  At this place, it’s like the freaking Lost island or something.  CHAOS.  And once, out of confusion and lack of system, I made the mistake of handing mine to the salad-maker-dude, and some grouchy, miserable broad honest to God YELLED at me for butting in the sacred salad line.  I swear, mean people ruin my day sometimes!

So anyway.  There I was today.  Confusedly standing with another chick, clutching our salad order forms.  Ours ended up getting made by two gentlemen simultaneously, so she started chatting with me.  She explained that over the weekend she had a bad turnout at her Halloween party due to the terrible weather, so ended up eating all the food herself, and now had to make up for it with salads this week.  I explained that I too was at a Halloween party* and had raped a bowl of guacamole, so was in a similar predicament.  Our rapport went on for a while and I was trying to figure out what was happening.  Are we, like, building friends now? Do people make friends this way? Am I supposed to ask her for her email or something so we can meet up again for crappy salads when it’s cold and/or raining?

So, then, the nice gentlemen handed our salads back to us.  Let me explain what was in mine.  Lettuce, green peas, green beans, and green peppers.  It was one of the most awful, boring things I’ve ever ingested.  And would you believe it, this chick says to me “Oh…  I guess you don’t know the thing about vegetables. You’re supposed to eat them in many colors.”

SRSLY lady? You’re going to give me a complex over my vegetable selection? You’re telling me there is something unhealthy about this craptastic mound of green things? And she wasn’t kidding either.  It was a very serious tone.

I tried to defend myself. “Buh……But…..the…..I didn’t think…. the carrots…. italian dressing…. did not compute….?” 

But the damage was done.  My newfound friend… over as quickly as it began.  Apparently because she likes beets and gets some sick superiority complex from it.  (Freak).

*Halloween party! I did the funnest thing this weekend.  So, I thought for the longest time I had yoga class this weekend, so many many weeks ago had declined with regret the invitation to the Halloween bash being put on by my homeslice Luna (in NYC).  She is my beloved little, for those familiar with greek operations.  Then, at the same time I found out I did NOT have yoga class this weekend, our friend Jordana (Luna’s little, for those following at home) , also found out that SHE was free of a conflict she thought she had.  So, having both told Luna we would not be there, we instead went to New York and surprised her! So, so fun… Love those two

Check it!

Jordana (L) was… get this… one of those hip hop hamsters from the Kia commercials (hard to tell because you can’t see her Hammer pants in this shot) and Luna (R) was a self-described sea captain, although the consensus was that her costume was more reminiscent of an official in the airline industry.  Potato, potato.

Bonus reading material day! My sweet yoga school classmate Cheri is a fledgling blogess, and is doing a series of interviews on all of us for her blog.  Go check out my deep thoughts on my yoga journey!

True Life… This is What Was in My Purse

I love when other bloggers do What’s-In-My-Purse features.  Such a cute little glimpse into someone’s world.  Although it frequently leaves me feeling like some sort of messy freakball when I compare it against the heap of miscellaneous crap I’m lugging around.

Now, I’d like to state in my defense that I am proud to be a fairly organized person.  Every single item in our house has its designated “home” (whether they are living there or not), and even our one junk drawer I can still name every item in it.  What I think happens is that I expend all my organizational energy at work, so sometimes my personal world gets sloppy disorganized seconds. Is my excuse at least.

Highlights (L-R) include: Egyptian cotton sheets flyer received at metro (because I can’t say no), various wrappers (of items of varying  nutritional value) that never made their way to the trash, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (Patanjali does not endorse messy purses), nail polish and nail polish remover, 1 dry erase marker, 1 yoga class plan draft, 1 grocery list, 1 commuter paper (October 17), 1 smashed Lara bar, 2 AA batteries, and 1 inexplicable pile of staples.  And the bra I don’t even know where to start with.

Hello My Name is Sarah and I am Addicted to Pinterest Challenges

Hello, Sarah!

Yep, that time again… craft party! Back with the super cool chicks of Better Life Bags again!

So, many Pinterest Challenge moons ago, I stumbled upon this beauty…

What is that, you ask? Those of you that answered ”probably something from Pottery Barn that costs a gazillion freaking dollars” are WRONG! That… gentle readers… IS M EFFING SLICED UP TOILET PAPER ROLLS.  (Source) 

Yep.

That means you too can have this hot thing hanging on your wall if you meet the following conditions:

• Use the toilet
• Own scissors and glue
• Own or have access to a retailer of spray paint.

So given the total idiot-proof nature of this, it was obvious that this was going to be in my future.  Here we go! It really is the easiest thing in the world so I won’t go into a ton of detail (plus you can click the link above for the original tutorial). 

Hoard those rolls! (Paper towels work too).  This took me since August and was mildly awkward because occasionally when I encountered an empty roll in a public setting I would take it and try to discreetly shove it in my purse.  A few weird stares, but that is not so much a deterrent in my life.

Give them a gentle fold…

Slice and dice…

Fling pieces onto floor and assemble.  Distract dog with new rawhide.  Make spouse find you an extension cord because you realized you set it all up 10 feet away from where you plugged the glue gun in.

Glue and spray paint! (PS, this cold front blows.)

One nail in the wall hangs it!

Sweeeeet! I think the black paint looks better than my nickel color, but I didn’t feel like buying anything new.  Therefore this cost me $0.  Woot! Thanks for reading about all my dumb craft stuff.  I’ll come back with the link for how you can vote for it!

October Photo Challenge…Catch Up!

With everything on I couldn’t believe I was stressing myself out over taking pictures for a silly internet thing.  But, guess what, it was fun and it feels good to finish things you started, silly as they may be.

OK, I’m totally stealing this picture Kim took last weekend (Thanks Kimmy!), and using it to fulfill both the Eyes and Animal assignment.  Seriously the goog-ly eyes crack me up here.

Technology.  Jeff’s gangsta noise cancelling headphones.  More on these later.

Something orange! The fridge has killer light by the way.

Something blue! (The light elsewhere in the house seems to turn everything orange.  Strange.)

Shoes! (See what I mean?)

OK.  This was a magic moment.  The assignment here was faceless self portrait.  Ironically, we were just learning at yoga class that people automatically go straight to their faces when making a self portrait, forgetting about the whole rest of their selves!  Comically, the trend for the rest of the challenge participants seemed to just be heads with people holding the camera in front of their facial features.  Too funny! Anyhoo, I tried to set the timer and do a snazzy yoga pose here, but Chooch walked in front of it.  (In another extremely handsome knit sweater). Awesome!

Assignment here was Childhood Memory.  My kitty Pinky! (Yes he still lives in my adult home.  Withhold your judgment).

BONUS CHOOCH SWEATER IMAGE:

Thanks for the gift, auntie Marshall!

A Tale of Two Boots

 
They look almost the same, right? The main difference here is that one is the J Crew Booker Boot, retailing for two hundred ninety eight dollars and 00/100, and one is some synthetic cheapo currently 25% off at Endless, clocking in at $56.24! (With free overnight shipping!)  Guess which one is on its merry way to Chez Becker, expected to make its debut on my smelly feet in 24 hours!

Can you tell which is which? So can I, but for $240 less I’ll get over it. 
 
Best find ever!

Oh Geez

Went out for lunch today and came back with an adopted international child… crap!

I swear our office building is in some sort of geographic mecca for street solicitor people.  Evverrrryy day I am getting hit up by someone different! There’s nowhere to run! It’s not a good neighborhood to be strolling around when you have the perfect storm of ENFJ+Catholic guilt complex+inability to say no.  And apparently, approachability. 

Which people have told me before, and actually I once read that a trait of Libras is a constant “friendly” look regardless of one’s actual mood.  So, when I was crossing the street and saw the dreaded sweater vest guy with a messenger bag and clipboard, I was like CRAPPITY CRAP why can’t I catch a break here?! As I was crossing the street, I took DELIBERATE measures to look unapproachable, crossing my arms and, I believed, grimacing.  The guy, OF COURSE, stopped me with some pseudo pick-up line: “Look at that smile! We’ve been waiting for you all day!”  WTF! I was grimacing!

To rewind.  Somehow I got on the mailing list for Heifer International (a charity organization that provides livestock to impoverished folks in the third world) and I randomly was reading a catalog I got from them over my morning muffin today.  So I ended up reading the whole thing and I was like, dagnabbit, I need to be better about this sort of stuff.  I’m going to buy someone a goat or an alpaca or something. 

Because I HAVE been sucking at the charitable stuff lately… Back when I worked for the government I gave through their program (coming in at the extra generous double eagle level… be impressed)  and had an adopted kid then too (as a result of being stopped on the street of course).  Then, if you recall, that job ended, and when I no longer had the luxury of income, I cancelled all of the auto-deductions on my checking account including my adopted kid from Thailand (I’m an awful person).  What I mean to say, is that it’s a lot easier to brush aside the street solicitors when you can say “Oh no thank you! I’m already giving through work!” instead of “Don’t wanna hear it! And step aside, I have a $9 salad to buy!”

Sooooo as this guy is going through his whole spiel about school uniforms and vaccinations and my kid will draw me pictures, I’m like you know, I was just thinking this morning that I needed to do more… and now here this person is… and there’s no way I can honestly convince myself I can’t afford $25 a month…. and I will probably get this poor guy halfway to his quota for the day if I sign up……and, well, the children……..

OH ALRIGHT GIVE ME A KID.

And I did indeed make this guy’s day.  And now I am the proud adoptive sponsor to a girl of a TBD nationality.  He gave me a list of countries to pick from and I was like wait what?! Like I’m supposed to look at it and be like “PFFFT those Indonesians can fend for themselves, give me a Cameroon kid!” (Libras aren’t known for their decision making abilities either).  So he designated me in the “emergency need” category so I’ll go to wherever’s at the top of the list.  Ahh, that’s more fair. 

Anyway, if anyone is feeling particularly inspired by my true life tale of awkwardness, www.children.org.

Whelmed…

Tonight I seem to have the Eva Cassidy tune “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” in my head and it is so fitting! I keep wanting to find quality writing time but it is just not making itself apparent.  (I am like 400 days behind on the October photo challenge and I haven’t even told you about the FDA spanish soap operas yet!)

Tonight at yoga class we had a SUPER enlightening chat on some of the classical teachings about what we now know as the “yoga lifestyle”.  This one stuck with me…

…Eat foods that nourish.  Practice good hygiene.  Live in a clean space.  Meditate to clean the mind.  Read to nourish it.

AKA, get your act together and don’t be a sea cucumber.  Struggling big time with this! I’m not doing the best job with the eating, “clean space” describes the house less and less each day, I definitely need to set aside more quiet thinking time, and I’m in a major reading slump.  Boo! Although I do manage to both shower and put on deodorant most days, so I like to think at the very least I’m succeeding in the hygiene aspect of this.  GO SARAH!

Nevertheless, I’m slapping a smile on my face and barreling bravely into another week.  Make it a good one, friends!

Generally You Don’t See That Kind of Behavior in a Major Appliance

Date night! Did you know Ghostbusters was re-released into the theatres? That movie is a freaking riot.  Jeff knows every line.  And I cracked up every time Rick Moranis appeared on the screen, including when I was uncontrollably cackling to the point of tears during the scene with him outside Tavern on the Green.  They don’t make them like that anymore.

And Jeff just worships the film.  If you would have asked me when I was 20 what my ideal “type” was, I could have seen myself saying: the sort of guy whose favorite movie is Ghostbusters.  And here we are! Thanks for hanging out with me tonight, hubbycakes.

All this to say, I’ll get back to blogging this weekend maybe.

Also, check out this commercial-type-video thing that was played at the theatre.  This nearly made me cry! The peegies! (At the very least, worth it for the Willie Nelson cover of The Scientist).

A Post About Fennel. (If You’re That Desperate for Reading Material).

One of the yoga chicks had our little class over for dinner on Sunday night and made this ridiculous veggie parmesan bake.  I was so inspired I totally copy catted it yesterday night using a Giada recipe.  It was a great way to use up the bottom 1/2 of a pasta sauce jar… don’t you hate that situation?! Lack of smaller proportioned pasta sauce jars is a major frustration in life, is it not?  Sometimes you only need a couple tablespoons and when that foul, crusty nonsense starts to form around the lip of the jar, I can’t bear to use it.  Dead to me and off to the recycling afterlife.  Even if it’s only been open for 2 weeks.  Quick usage is critical. 

The recipe called for an object called a “fennel.”  I have never actually purchased/cooked with this exotic delicacy.  Vegetable? Root? Tuber? Who knows! I couldn’t pick a fennel out of a lineup, and there was no corresponding sign at the store, and the first two employees in the produce department were as clueless as me.  A third more senior produce expert led me over and was like “Here it is.  We call it anise here.  Same thing.”  WTF.  Don’t even get me started on produce with multiple names.

Checking out, the highschool cashier chick was all “The HECK is this!?” and I was like “I know, right! It’s my first time! Apparently it’s called an anise.” 

“Is that with an E or a U?”

“An A I think.”

“Oh, OK.  Oh it’s a fennel.”

Getting home I truly questioned what I had gotten myself into.  The thing was like busting out of its produce bag, just generally looking all intimidating and unconquerable and actually, I believe, laughing at me. 

Quit mocking me, fennel!

Seriously look at this thing! It’s a hot mess! Where do I even start with this disaster?! I ended up having to Google “What part of the fennel do you eat?” and what came to my rescue but Yahoo Answers again.  Never fails.

As it turns out, fennel is not so terrible.  Who knew! This is the extent of my energy tonight.  The end.

Camera Catch Up

Wah! So behind on the old bloggie.  Forgivez moi! Had another packed week and busy weekend with yoga, zoo, and Kim was visiting from the greater NJ/NY area! And now it’s 10 freaking 45 so I’m trying to tear myself away from DVRed gymnastics world championships and focus on cleaning out the camera. 

Last weekend we had our first full weekend off from yoga school since starting back at the end of August– crazy! I was very much in withdrawal and didn’t know what to do with myself, but it was also pretty wonderful to get a break and BREATHE.  And sleep.  Glorious sleep!

On Saturday we took the Choochman and went for a walk around GW to find my alumni brick.  How pathetic is it that it’s been 4 years since I graduated, all of which spent living 10-20 minutes away, and I am just now getting around to taking a picture of this stupid thing?

Here I am with all the other slacker summer graduates.  After I moved a bike tire off my name.  Thanks, jerks.  Well, you get what you pay for I guess! OH WAIT.  Sorry, sorry… I actually got all excited for my brick and for about 10 minutes forgot how really, really, really resentful I am over my education…

Obligatory photo of the hippo statue…

On Sunday my sweet friend Anne got married! Ahh! It was a super gorgeous wedding, complete with a terrace ceremony, wonderful weather (seriously I’m loving this October trend!), and the most awesome hand-crafted peacock/branches/crystal/hydrangea centerpieces.  And a photo booth.  And coconut shrimp.  Why can’t I quit you, coconut shrimp!

I loved this dress! Neiman Marcus Last Call for FITTY dollars, people! And the necklace was made by the bride! (Did I mention she is an aspiring jewelry-maker too!?) I am obsessed with that necklace. 

Speaking of GW, I had not worn these shoes since 2007.  Mostly I consider myself retired from the really tall shoes, but these matched too cutely to not wear.  I took this picture because I didn’t have to take them off till after 11:00! I was so proud of myself! Maybe it’s the yoga?!

Oh and here was our contribution to the photo booth scrapbook.  Jeff was stripping and I was just trying desperately to not slip off the bench thing.  Attractive.

Monday I had off for Columbus Day and finally managed to get caught up around the house a bit.  I made 4 dozen blueberry muffins and froze them, so I won’t have to worry about breakfasts for a while. 

This also required me to clear space in the freezer, meaning we broke out our wedding cake once and for all.  (Only 4 months late, par for the course).  Time and a move had not been good to it.  But we enjoyed a few bites!

Monday night I broke my streak of being a terrible wife and finally cooked us a stinking meal.  Eggplant Parm nom nom nom nom nom nom.  Secretly made with pecans instead of breadcrumbs, but who can tell when you have a freaking pizza on top of it.  NOM.  This picture is crappy but I had to document it.

That’s all for now.  Up next… Catch up on the October Photo Challenge and the FDA is making spanish soap operas.   To be continued…