The Art of Shopping with a Gift Card

After yesterday's incident, I decided a lidded cup was in order. Because I am only buying essentials this month, I hit up Home Goods with a $25.00 gift card from my last year's students.

There were two objectives to the trip:
1. Leave with a travel mug.
2. Don't spend any actual money.

I found the cup pretty quickly and it was only $3.99! I then set out to spend the remainder of the gift card without going over and without buying random stuff that would add to the clutter that I am constantly trying to declutter.

Home Goods has LOTS of random stuff. Exhibit A, B, C and D.

I did not need random animals, picture frames, pillows, candles, giant vases, or clocks. I scoured the store and eventually brought home three things:

A lidded cup, a new cupcake pan to replace the old rusty one I have, and a new hairbrush!  I know it's super random but tell me, when was the last time you bought a new hair brush?  For me it was about 10 years ago and it was time!

I carefully priced items and the total ended up being $23.34! Bad new, sad news...they wouldn't cash out the remaining $1.66 so I'm stuck with a gift card that can't actually buy anything. Next time I'll just pass it off to the person behind me in line.

   

Annual Haircut

About this time last year, I let my mother give me a hair cut. While I regretted it at the time, I got over it and let my hair grow and grow and grow.

It was quite long but as always, split ends took their toll. It was time for a back to school cut!

Before:

 After:

 

S is Still for Sprout

Once upon a time I showed you my penchant for sprouting potatoes. Well the time has come again. I spent the entire summer eating on the run and the potatoes in my cabinet suffered.

I'm SUCH a dork but I wonder what causes potato sprouts to grow in certain patterns/directions. Anyone know?

 

A Whole Lot of Random

* It snowed and iced today and instead of being whimsical and idyllic, it was just annoying and gushy.

* We have a professional day tomorrow so I'm baking cookies...obviously.  I had extra ingredients from my holiday baking so I whipped up a batch of devil's food cake cookies with dark chocolate and mint chips.  They are ugly but so minty and delicious.

* I mixed my cookie dough with a metal spoon.  This was a mistake.

Oops.

* I want to see Beauty and the Beast on the big screen.  Who's coming with?

* I also want to see that new whale movie.  (Don't judge me.) I have a thing for inspirational stories involving saving animals. Also, John Krasinski.

* Today was Patriots fan day at school because apparently there is a big football game this weekend. When my principal announced this my first thought was, "What game?  Isn't it too early for the Superbowl?" P.S. Yes, it is.

* I finally learned my lesson and put some tinfoil under my cheesy, garlic pita bread. Who knew that when you don't light it on fire this happens:

* I showed the second grade monsters a clip of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech today and they were mesmerized.

* I wish I had an iPhone so I could use Instagram...and also so I can talk to Siri.

English Muffins and Chocolate PB

In a 2.5 day week Tuesday = Thursday.  So it's practically Friday already!

I haven't slept well in a few days so this morning was a bit rough.  I toasted an english muffin while I was getting dressed and burnt the bejesus out of it.  But alas, it was my last one so I figured it was nothing that a little peanut butter couldn't fix.  Turns out I was wrong.

I spent the day wrangling 7 & 8 year olds, avoiding Christmas music on the radio and wandered the aisles of Walmart in sweats this evening.  <--- I promise that I'm not as trashy as this makes me sound.  The sweats were intended for the gym and Walmart is the only place where I can find my beloved chocolate PB.

Aside from the breakfast blunder, today flew by. Tomorrow is going to be busy.  School/work, car service, library, laundry, packing for Maine, grocery shopping, and hoping the men at Toyota don't judge me for the disaster that is the inside of my trunk.

  

The Ides of November

Yesterday and today were all kinds of blah.  I don't know whether I am coming down with a cold, sleeping too little (or too much) or just want to shirk all responsibilities and wander around a little.

But despite my general malaise and ambivalence I managed to accomplish 3 things today.

1.  I went to school/work (and stayed for the whole day).

2. I FINALLY put my Netflix movie in the mail (after the mailman already came) even though I never watched it.  This is monumental because the movie has been sitting on my coffee table since:

3. I went to the gym.  Yes, I sat in the car and gave myself a bit of a pep talk before going in.  And despite wanting only to walk in, grab a Tootsie Roll and walk out, I lifted things up then spent 15 whole minutes on the elliptical before my iPod died.

 

Living On The Edge

Author's Note:  I purposely did not spell check this post.

It's Cantulope Fest 2011!  

Yep...still eating cantaulope even after those people died from infected c'lope (<---I typed that not because I thought it sounded cool but because I don't know how to spell cantalope.)

I know that there is a "U" in cantalopue I JUST DON'T KNOW WHERE IT GOES!  ARG!

Cantalope
Cantulope
Cantaulope
Orange Melon
Cantualope
Cantaluope
CANTALOUPE!!! (No, I did not have to Google it...except I did.)

Also...

I did.

   

I Love Me Some Run-On Sentences

Today is Wednesday.

But I wish it was Thursday.

And just a little while ago I THOUGHT it was Thursday.

But it's Wednesday.

And I know I keep promising that I will start blogging with some regularity again and then I keep NOT blogging with some regularity.  But I'm trying to work on that.  Which is why I am typing this quickly while ignoring the broccoli cooking on the stove.  FYI: I am just making dinner at 8 pm because after school today I had a silly meeting about how bullying is NOT a crime but is somehow related to the prosecutor/presenter's friends making out at a wedding after a few too many cocktails.  Yeah...me neither.

After the silly meeting I watched The Town which was good.  It had action, suspense, and heart. <---Reason why I am not a movie critic.  But if you haven't watched it you should.

Also, I signed up for Google+.  But...I don't get it.  It's kind of like Facebook but not. And last night I accidentally invited 50 people to my England circle...some of which I've never met but Google pulled their email addresses out of a group email for a pub crawl.  So yeah...sorry to be creepy, random people I've never met.  (P.S. How dare you embarrass me like that Google!)

I made a list of things to blog about but that is as far as I got because if you know me, you know I procrastinate like my life depends on it.  So maybe, eventually, you'll get to read about exciting things like my job, my 30 before 30 list, or my missing camera charger.  

But for now you get rambling, random thoughts with lots of questionable grammar.

Gotta run...I've probably cooked all the nutrients out of the broccoli by now.

   

4 > 1.5

Dear Mom,

Although this may seem like a public critique of your ability to cut hair, it is not.  What it is, is further evidence of my poor decision making skills.

XOXO,
Amy

___________________________________

In terms of my hair, I did not win the genetic lottery.  Everyday Mom has super thick, straight hair.  Everyday Dad has thin and almost curly hair.  I was blessed with thin, almost curly but not quite, super puffy hair.  I say puffy because although my hair has the illusion of volume, it is merely air between the strands.

Evidence of curly:

Curls turning to puff:

In my adult life, I've never had long hair.  I let my hair grow and grow for what feels like forever then it just sort of stops.  Because it is so thin, it just doesn't look nice long.

Up until yesterday, my hair was as long as it has been for quite a while.  I don't have a photo and it's too late to take one now!  I entrusted Everyday Mom to give me a trim.  The idea was to keep the length but get rid of the split ends. 

When I asked for 1.5 inches off, Everyday Mom heard:

Hello short hair...it's been a while:

But as Everyday Dad said...it is a renewable resource.  It will grow back and I will inevitably cut it short again.

  

Don't Get Excited...

This is merely a breaking the seal type of post just to get me back into the swing of things.  Let me tell you some stuff...

I had a lunch date with T-FACE today. Except I was the worst lunch date ever and only ordered a frozen, blended coffee drink ice cream in a cup. Then we went to buy Cory Feldman a new tank. I made some new friends:

There is something about the open road, a great song and a beautiful sunset that makes everything feel right in the world.

I've been working on #24  from The List this week because 1,000 is a lot.

And yes.  I do keep them in a plastic pumpkin.

    

Did You Know...

That people still drove Hummers?  At least one person does.  I'm going to assume that the driver is a he and that he has the smallest penis ever because not only does he seem to be overcompensating with a Hummer but look at those tires (and rims).

Not only are they fancy (esp. for the suburbs) but they are HUGE!  To give you a little perspective...here is the tire next to a shopping cart.

They are like monster truck tires!  They easily came up to my mid-thigh (and yes I know I'm not the tallest girl out there but still...huge).

In other news, I also saw a giant boat today. 

Apparently it was "Boys and their toys" day!

  

This Post Is Going To Make Me Some Enemies

Let me preface this by saying I know this is going to sound sacrilegious...especially to my Boston Brethren.  Okay...here we go. 

I couldn't care less about the Bruins.

Before you freak out and start commenting that "OMG they haven't made it to the Stanley Cup in 200 years and it's just like when the Red Sox were in the World Series in 2004", let me explain.  I don't follow hockey.  At all.  Ever. 

The only things I know about hockey are:
My home team is the Bruins.
I think a Bruin is a bear.
But their colors are black and yellow...which seem more reminiscent of a bumble bee.
Skates, pucks, nets, and helmets are involved.
It happens on ice.
Men are allowed to legally assault each other in public...and they get paid for it.

At what point do hockey players start taking boxing lessons?  It's all very Gladiator.  The crowd starts cheering and gets all lynch mobby while the ref stands by watching the fight, stopping them only before the blood hits the ice because I imagine at that point it would become a health code violation and they would have to stop the game to prevent the spread of HIV.

I've only been to two hockey games in my life and both were college games.  If my life depended on naming three hockey players I would be dead.  I can name Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe (only because I've seen the movie Never Been Kissed a million times) and even then, if I didn't Google their names before typing this post I would have spelled them: Wayne Gretski and Gordy Howe.

I know that being in the playoffs extends a sports season but seriously...it is June 9th!  It is 327 degrees out today...any sports involving ice should have ended by March...at the latest!

Easter Egg Hunt for Hair Elastics

I wear my hair in a pony tail a lot.  Like 27 days a month a lot.  It seems that every morning I have to get a new hair elastic because I cannot find the one from the day before.  My hair elastic dish is perpetually running low despite the fact that I buy packs of hair elastics more than once a year.
 

In lieu of an Easter Egg hunt, today I went on a hair elastic hunt.  They were on my night stand.

A few in my bed.

Mixed in with my makeup.

On the bathroom doorknob.

Piled on the coffee table.

Hiding in my purse.

And in the car.

My hair elastic dish is happily full again!  Let's see how long this lasts.

S is for Sprout

Last night I opened a cabinet to take out my grill pan and found these:

Two things.

1.  Obviously I should use my grill pan more often so as not to forget about potatoes.

2.  I should probably stop buying potatoes seeing as I apparently don't eat them and don't know how to properly store them.

I don't know which is more impressive.  The sheer number of sprouts or the height of last summers sprouts:

One thing is for certain...I'm a bad ass potato sprout grower.

 

Riveting Stuff

If you asked me, "Amy, can you french braid your own hair?"  I would say yes.  But I don't think this is right.  Aside from being super messy it looks upside down or something.  Hmm.

If you asked me, "Amy, can you take a decent picture of the back of your head?"  I would say yes.  Well, obviously I was wrong about that also!

In other news, I wanted to cook scrambled eggs for breakfast but all of my pots and pans are sitting in the sink waiting to be washed.  So I had a granola bar and string cheese instead.  I guess I didn't want scrambled eggs bad enough.  But if I am going to learn to poach salmon, I'm going to need some kind of pot or pan.

Six On Sunday

1. Antiquing date with mom = success.  I now collect skeleton keys.

2.  I am mildly concerned that the huge spider I just flushed down the toilet is going to crawl out of its watery necropolis seeking vengeance.

3.  Things with the letter A are hard to find due to the fact that it is a popular initial, a word, and a vowel.  Super psyched that I scored an A stamp in the dollar bin at Michael's.

4.  I have eaten pizza for my last four meals.  Yes, even for breakfast.  I had a left over slice of homemade pizza with an iced latte.

5.  I narrowly avoided being pulled over last night.  A cop had two cars pulled over and was just getting out of his car with tickets as I drove past.  He flagged over the car behind me.

6.  Yesterday was a craftastic day.  Another country has fallen victim to my insatiable need to make minibooks.  Here is a peek:

   

Blah, Blah, Blah

Ugh...tonight I was peer pressured into ordering a drink, appetizer, entree AND dessert.  I don't think I've eaten that much in one sitting ever.  The only thing I actually finished was my strawberry margarita...but still.  So full.

This week, I've spent a lot of time people watching and I'm excited to tell you about all of my victims but this is merely a "break the seal" post because whenever I miss a few days it seems to get harder and harder to write.

Here are some of the exciting things I've done in the last three days:
* I got my car inspected...found out I need new brakes.
* Listened to Matt Nathanson's new song "Faster" 19 times today (on repeat).
* Bought hot pink nail polish.
* Avoided filing my taxes.
* Made plans to go antiquing with my mom.
* Had an iced mocha latte.
* Read a book that blew my mind.
* Enjoyed lunch with T.
* Hard boiled 4 eggs.
* Went to the gym (only once).
* Had dinner and lots of laughs with K, K2 and the wrands (the cankles of the wrist.)
* Came up with an idea for a book.
* Annoyed people in public places...case and point:

I Smell Like...

Cupcakes today!  Vanilla cupcakes.

To anyone that walks by me...you're welcome!



Symbolic Socks

When I began this blog I was writing about myself, my happenings, my thoughts and observations about the world.  To me, it was entertaining and engaging.  But it seems as if I have lost all my life/writing mojo because I've quickly gone from drawing a comparison between minivan drivers and Mario Kart characters to this:

...writing a post about how throwing away old socks is symbolic.  Feel free to never read this blog again.

I own so many socks.  How many you ask?  So many that in the rare instance that ALL of my socks are clean at the same time, they more than overflow their assigned dresser drawer.  That being said, the likelihood that all of my socks are clean at one time is slim to none. 

But regardless of how infrequently I do laundry, I always have at least half a dresser drawer full of socks.  Which leads me to believe two things.  1. I never wear socks (which is not true unless it is flip flop season).  2. I don't wear half of the socks I own.

Number 2 is true. 

So in an effort to declutter my life, I started with my sock drawer.  I threw away all the socks that had no match, all the socks that had holes, all the socks that were threadbare, and all the socks that I don't wear because they slip down my heels and into my shoes while I walk.  I didn't count how many I threw away because that would be a tad OCD but trust me...it was a lot. 

Over the next few days weeks months I intend to declutter the rest of my closet and my entire apartment.  Hopefully with less stuff I will be able to be more organized....a feat I have yet to achieve as an adult (or as a child for that matter.)

Eventually I plan to maintain a type of domestic homeostasis.  One item in...one item out.

Today I...

- Got my culture on at the Peabody Essex Museum.  (I am a bad museum goer because I want to touch everything...Pav can sympathize.)

- Had some family bonding time with Mom getting lost on the way to the PEM.

- Enjoyed a mocha latte.

- Wished I lived in Michigan so I could own these:

- Had a pizza do-over based on some expert advice (Thanks Bonnie!).  I used an entire handful of cornmeal on my pizza peel to ENSURE that the dough did not stick.  Turns out, that was a bit of an overkill and it made a huge mess...but it certainly didn't stick!

This time the pizza cooked on the pizza stone and while the bottom perfect, there was most definitely a layer of raw dough between the crust and the sauce.  Sigh...the perfect pizza evaded me once again.  Oh well, maybe next time.