I Like to Cook!

So that's a sentence I never expected to say (or in this case, type). I have pretty much claimed total ignorance my entire life when it comes to cooking. Sure I can whip up a mean Noodle Roni, but that doesn't exactly count as "cooking". But it now seems, that after 10 years having been married to my ex (who loved to cook and was fantastic at it), and serving that time as his Sous-Chef, that apparently, I may have, well, just happened to learn a thing or two about cooking. In fact, I would even go so far as to say I enjoy it (in moderation of course...like once a month, maybe.)

So today was that one time a month and I went all out. Invited some family over and made an awesome black-bean pumpkin chili in the crock pot, complete with fresh...err, well fresh frozen anyway...tomatoes and a bunch of other ingredients that I actually had to chop, dice, stir and measure. My cookery did not end there, however, I also whipped up a mean foccacia bread, a homemade vanilla cake with white chocolate frosting and homemade, fresh, Ben & Jerry's recipe, raspberry ice cream. I know, you're jealous. It was amazing and it all turned out exactly as I imagined.

I've even found that in addition to eating the result (which of course is always the best part), I really enjoy the planning that goes into a meal. The "What do I need to get the night before? What can I make ahead? If I put this in at this time then I can do this other thing while its cooking and everything will be ready at 5!" Yeah, there is something very satisfying about the process. Like a mini project plan that you can create, execute and complete all over the course of a couple days.

So, anyway, who knew? I like to cook. Seriously. Wow.

God is Great?

So, after milling around the San Diego seaside bookstore, we found this little gem. Both books placed side by side. Both New York Times Bestsellers...although, interesting to note which one is the #1 bestseller.

Hot Pocket!

You have to sing the title in a Jim Gaffigan kind of way to really appreciate this.

This is most likely the best contest ever!

Mmmm, what could I do with a year's supply of Hot Pockets? Well I certainly wouldn't eat them , if that is what you are thinking...I'm not that crazy!

Fall Activities

BTW, I'm back

So for any of you folks out there who haven't deleted me from your reader after not getting any new posts for 3 months....I'm planning to get back to updating my blog a little more frequently. I don't want to make any firm commitments, but it shouldn't be 3 more months until my next post. ;-)

Enjoying the Journey

So, lately I have been thinking a lot about how I live my life and how I tend to always look forward to the fun stuff and begrudge the not-so-fun stuff. The typical, "I wish it were the weekend", or "I can't wait for vacation", or "If I can just get through work today, then tonight will be awesome!" That kind of thinking. However, when I stop and think about it, I really don't want to live my life waiting for the next fun thing. I want to be able to enjoy everything, the good and the bad, the easy and hard, the boring and exciting. So lately I have really been trying to enjoy the journey of my life. To think instead, "I am excited for this one thing but look at all the things I get to experience between now and then. How cool is that?"

Today happened to be one of those "I'm looking forward to the day" days but it didn't come without it's fair share of varied life experiences to keep me on my toes. Here's what today's journey involved:

• Running back to my apartment after being at work for a mere 45 minutes to do a very quick clean so a potential renter could see my apartment. Then returning to work all sweaty and smelling like Glass Plus.
• Finding out that my closing costs were $1000 more than I was expecting exactly 30 minutes before I was to sign the papers and hand over the check.
• A lovely lunch and a chance to decompress with one of my favorite people.
• Working until 9:30pm (since I only had 3 hours combined as of 4 pm)
• Slicing my thumb on the top of a soup can as I attempted to prepare dinner at 10pm.
  

After today's experiences, I wonder what tomorrow will be like? However it turns out, I intend to enjoy the journey!

A Life That Resembles Me

I don't want to be married anymore.

In daylight hours, I refused that thought, but at night it would consume me. What a catastrophe. How could I be such a criminal jerk as to proceed this deep into a marriage, only to leave it? We'd only just bought this house a year ago. Hadn't I wanted this nice house? Hadn't I loved it? ....Wasn't I proud of all we'd accumulated?... I had actively participated in every moment of the creation of this life - so why did I feel like none of it resembled me?

The above is a quote from the book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. The first few chapters read like a biography of my life for the last couple years. I could relate 100% to the last line. It's weird how we can take one step after another in life only to find that after all those steps, our life doesn't even resemble who we really are.

All the crazy changes I have gone through over the last couple years have really helped me create a life that, now, does resemble me. I love where I am at now. I love that I can walk to work. I love that I have an exposed brick wall, on purpose! (name the musical!) I love that my apartment is now decorated. This may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but we lived in our house for 6 years and never hung a single item on the wall. So yeah, its a huge deal. I even found some great city pictures for the bathroom. I went all out. Anyway, here are a couple pictures of what I have ended up with.

My aunt gave me the picture in the center during my run of "Guys and Dolls" where I was playing Sarah. It is one side of what was a reel cover. (Like a record cover but it actually encased the movie reel). The street sign photo on the left was bought on a recent trip to New York and the rest of the frames are filled in with various other New York city photos.

And my kitchen. Equally awesome with the Eiffel Tower in the background! (Sorry you can't really see it, I promise it is really there.)