I’ve been sick all week. What started as a sore throat has now developed into a sinus infection and cough. It’s like every morning my immune system spins the dial and comes up with a new way to torture me. I finished my antibiotics and feel no closer to done with this disease. When I went to the doctor on Friday and he seemed confused about what exactly was wrong with me, he couldn’t decide between a viral or bacterial infection, so he gave me a Z pack and 48 hours of bed rest. I was hoping to be better by now, but only feel worse. I’m sure working nearly 10 hours a day can’t be helping. Ugh.
I can’t help but think back to being sick as a child and having the time to get better. I would be out for as much as two weeks sometimes. I miss childhood.
I’ve recently begun watching what I eat and exercising more. Not to squeeze into some bikini or to get into bridal shape, but because I don’t like what I see looking back at me in the mirror. Not to mention that I have some seriously unhealthy eating habits and have had high cholesterol since I was 15-years-old. I’m trying to be a good girl. What I’ve found out since starting this new “diet” is that people can be very negative towards you when you watch what you eat. I’ve been getting so much shit for counting calories and working out. Things ranging from people actually shoving deserts and fast food in my face to being called out for being skinny and stupid. It really does confuse me how much negative feedback you can get for trying to be healthy.
I don’t want to lose weight, I’ve spent most of my life trying to gain weight, I just went about it the wrong way. Prior to this diet I didn’t eat my vegetables and considered a bag of Onion Rings a meal. All 126lbs of me is basically fat and unhealthy. I have no upper body strength and I can’t climb a flight of stairs without getting winded or physically exhausted. This may all sound silly to most people, I get it, I’m not fat… but sometimes I feel just as unhealthy. I don’t think it’s fair to judge anyone on how they feel physically.
Growing up I was always a scrawny kid, I didn’t reach 100lbs until I was in college. I wore baggy clothes to hide how grossly thin I was and I was constantly teased and called anorexic. Despite eating everything in sight, I never put on any weight. In the last two years I’ve gained over 30 lbs and lost most of it and gained some back and lost some more. The number on the scale doesn’t offend me and I like the way I look with more weight on. When I look at photo’s from my early twenties it bothers me, but it also bothers me that I have rolls now and stretch marks and loose sag skin.
My goal is to be healthy, get rid of the cholesterol issue, maintain my weight and gain strength and agility. I want to be all hardcore and athletic, I want to be able to complete something bad ass like a triathlon. I would at least like to be able to cross off three things on my life list; learn to swim, run a 5k, bike the entire Cape Cod rail trial.
Maybe my bride to be status does in small part have something to do with this new lifestyle change, I’ve said yes to the idea of spending the rest of my life with Terrence… I want that life to be a little longer. Now if you will excuse me, I have a date with a treadmill.
It’s a good thing they legalized gay marriage here in New York, because I just have to marry this woman. Sorry Terrence. This summer when I was introduced to her first single, Video Games, I was blown away by her talent. Being the cynic that I am, I reserved my infatuation for more singles. Then came Blue Jeans, which was friggin awesome, needless to say I was sold and couldn’t wait for an LP. But today when her new video for Born to Die was released on YouTube, it was over. I’m officially in love, the wedding is underway. I love female artists with a strong voice, its gets me all giddy.
Her lips kill me, I feel like its almost an insult to cover them with lipstick. Jealous.
Last week-ish we were asleep, when all of a sudden — THUD.
When we got back from vacation a few weeks prior our kitchen ceiling began to fall apart. This spot is right above Dutch’s food and water dishes, thankfully we moved those already.
I blame heavy rain and shoddy landlords. Seriously, no one has bothered to take us seriously about the state of this ceiling. During “Tropical Storm” Irene we had pot and pans scattered all over the place to catch the drips. Terrence’s closet was under attack and since the end of August has been emptied with its contents scattered ALL OVER our bedroom. Now every time it rains, its an indoor affair. Its beginning to look like more of the kitchen ceiling will be tumbling down any day now…
Supposedly theirs a very busy handyman just waiting to sink his teeth into our roof issues… I’m starting to believe he’s either fictional… or dead.
Living bakery adjacent has its perks, the air outside is always delicious and sometimes if we’re around at just the right moment we score free bread. Downfalls come with perks too unfortunately, lack of parking, loud baking sounds throughout the night, oh and one more thing… the occasional mouse. This is the part that makes me thankful we have Penny… sometimes. In the year and a half living here we’ve had a handful of tiny visitors, but Penny made sure that they counted. Their was the first one, when I thought she was playing with a toy and then it began to move on its own, resulting in my crying/laughing hysterically as I clutched onto the broom and the phone (with my mother coaxing me back from the ledge) trying to get the mouse out before it scurried back downstairs from whence it came. Second time Penny caught a friend she wanted to show off her talents while we were sleeping and dropped it onto me in the bed. Try getting back to sleep after that, well… Terrence had no trouble… bastard. Third friend Penny cornered in the bathroom until Terrence grabbed it up by it’s tail and set it free outside.
Terrence is friend to all things Mickey, Jerry and Itchy. I’m all about murder, death, kill the intruder and he’s all set it free in a patch of daisies and sprinkle some cheese on it. These three visits were all last year around the same time… the end of Winter/Beginning of Spring. And like clockwork it started again. This time Penny is better prepared, last year she had been new to hunting… she’d carry her friends around in her mouth and then lose track of them. She’ll not be made to look like a fool this year though, this year she was better prepared. A few weeks ago on a lovely Sunday morning, I was walking into the bathroom as I was wiping the sleep from my eyes and their he was on the floor waiting for me… this time, dead. Penny had learned how to kill her pray, at least she didn’t bring it into my bed. I ran into the bedroom and begged Terrence to get rid of it, all the while he was apologizing to the critter and saying “Poor little guy”. Freak. I looked at Penny and was all, not cool cat… but thank you.
Yesterday morning a similar pattern of sleeping from eye wiping was occurring on my way to my morning shower when I noticed yet another friend of Mickey on the floor… this time the bathroom floor was splattered with blood… it was everywhere. I ran into the bedroom and shook Terrence awake (did I mention it was 6am?) and told him that Penny had massacred a mouse in our bathroom. Without a fuss or evening asking questions he got up, unrolled some toilet paper and picked up Penny’s leavings… on his way back from the garbage he said to me without raising his head, “You’re gonna have to clean the blood” and then he went right back to sleep. I was still standing their stunned that my adorable little Penny had become a serial killer.
Last year when I made Terrence’s Space Invaders blanket for our anniversary there were a lot of people trying to convince me to open an online shop and sell them. At the time I didn’t think I was talented enough to charge people for my afghans. And so I continued to craft things and learn. Back in October I decided to make another Space Invaders blanket, this time in the original game colors. The recipient of this creation was to be Terrence’s sister, Beth. She’s always shown an interest in his blanket and said that she wanted one, never in a serious “Make me one” kind of way though. Even still I used her as my excuse to make the blanket again. I had a lot of fun with hers and tried to make it as authentic as possible. One problem I had, however, was that it was too large. I miscounted my chain and was too lazy to redo it. I really hate crocheting the first line, it makes me cranky, so big it stayed. This time even more people urged me to sell them. So sell them I will (in a slightly smaller version). I created an Etsy shop, which is currently empty and awaiting my fingers to heal and craft more afghans.
I’ve been crocheting since I was 12-years-old, but only ever learned one stitch (double crochet). Before I go on with my Atari recreations I wanted to learn a stitch that would be more box-like and in the last few weeks have been studying on YouTube and eHow.com to perfect what my mother taught me. Now I feel a bit more ready. Today I even started work on sketches for a new video game blanket, but I’ll continue to make the same old one, don’t worry.
I was first introduced to Warby Parker frames a few months back when I was reading through my blog feeds and was immediately smitten. My favorite part was being able to select up to 5 pairs to have sent to you for home try-on. Back then the waiting list was around 6 months long and I was slightly discouraged from putting my name in the hat. Recently I decided it was time to do so and discovered that the wait was dramatically slashed, only 5 days. I was floored and immediately submitted my try-on order. They even arrived a day early, nice. Before opening the package I went out to dinner with some girlfriends and had them assess the frames on me. The following morning, still without looking at them on myself, I asked for Terrence’s opinion. Now I felt prepared to look in a mirror. Most of the frames come in a variety of colors, so more than looking for the perfect pair I asked that my pals consider the shape of each frame and the color on my skin tone. The responses varied person to person. Still a bit lost I brought the pairs with me to work and asked a few colleagues. Sadly, the results are still up in the air. Most of my work responses were indifferent, my close friends were blunt to say the least, and Terrence seemed either indifferent or strongly against. At $95 a pair I’m not opposed to buying multiple frames, all 5 pairs together still don’t equal the amount I’ve paid in the past for any pair of my regular Selima Optique lenses. Which have in the past cost me well over $500 with the lenses included, whereas Warby Parker’s set price of $95 includes lenses. Sure the quality of the frames aren’t in the same league, but they’re not far apart either. So without further ranting I give you the results of my Warby Parker home try-on fun:
In some cases I think that Dutch may look cuter than I do in the frames… he got a smooch and a biscuit for being such a good sport.
Ok really, I need your help. I still may do another 5 pairs before actually purchasing. But I need all the feedback I can get. Leave a comment, send an email, text me, do something. Even if you just want to tell me how horrible I look, just be gentle.
Thanks.
(Ed Note: I decided on the Webb’s in Amber, they’re absolutely lovely.)
A few weeks ago I had a pretty jam packed weekend, Terrence, his sister Beth and I embarked on an adventure to Washington DC for the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, and I desperately tried to find a venue to exploit my amazing hollween costume (made by my mommy).
It all began a few months ago when Terrence showed me this…
I fell out, it was one of the best things I’d seen since the Bed Intruder Song… which in retrospect wasn’t all that far apart… but still. Up until then I was trying to figure out a way to dress as iamamiwhoami for Halloween without having to be all naked and such. It began as a joke that quickly turned to reality when my mother and I made a dash for the fabric store after a friends wedding ceremony and right before we packed the car up and moved mom to Queens. It was like a last chance rush to greatness. It was a perfect idea, I thought. While all the girls were shivering in their blank as a whore costumes I’d be all cozy in my fleece Panda costume, ingenious. I learned how to flawlessly say “Never say no” in Arabic, I got the Buddy Holly and the Picks version of True Love Ways set and ready to loop on my phone. Now I just needed to squeeze in time to wear the suit.
We’d been planning to follow John Stewart and Stephan Colbert to DC, but sadly the rally was strategically planned for the weekend before Election Day, which also happened to be Halloween weekend. Since we had to leave at 4am to make it to DC in time that meant no partying on Friday night. We were optimistic about returning to Staten Island in time to party after the rally but a last minute change of plans got us home just after midnight… I’m too old to have pulled that one off, I needed bed. I tried to squeeze in a nap on the 4 hour drive home but Terrence, who was running on 2 hours (if that) of sleep was relying on me to keep the music upbeat and sing-a-long-able. We did an excellent Tiny Dancer, one that would have made Cameron Crowe jealous.
The rally was pretty awesome, I am glad that we went. We were somewhere in the middle of the nearly 200k person crowd. My favorite part was being apart of a MythBusters experiment, mostly because I’m a giant nerd. The experience would have been made better only by some miracle that my genetics didn’t suck, it sure would have been nice to see most of the things I heard.
It was an experience I’ll tell my children about, I only wish I were more articulate so I could express just how awesome it was.
When I woke up on Sunday aka Halloween day the only thing I could think to do to show off all of my mothers hard work was to go trick or treating with my nieces and nephews. Only by the time I actually woke up and got all ready, all of them were done. Whatever happened to trick or treating at night? When I was a kid we didn’t start until the sun went down, this year all the kids were done by 3pm and all the houses barely had candy anymore… not to mention they all looked pretty annoyed that we were bothering them at dinner time. Thankfully my oldest niece is thirteen and was completely willing to stick it out with us and ring all the bells.
We had fun. My mom really enjoyed taking us trick or treating. I had reservations that I might still try to party that night, but when me and Julija got home and began to dig into our haul I lost my appetite for showing off. Maybe one year I’ll throw myself a Bronx Zoo themed birthday party and be able to show off my Panda suit.
Don’t worry John, it was worth it. No matter what the media had to say about your moment of sincerity, I dug it.
Currently Listening: Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
