Tag Archives: photos

I'm getting the hell out of here!

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Squirt is clearly only tolerating my annoying urge to take pictures together.

Squirt is clearly only tolerating my annoying urge to take pictures together.

Tomorrow I’m getting out of the city and into the country and fresh air for three beautiful days. I’m ecstatic. I’m still unemployed, and all of the stress surrounding the whole situation has been making me yearn to just get out. As long as Noni still feels up to it after her chemo today, we’re leaving for the lake tomorrow morning, joining up with Aunt Wendy, going to Aunt Wendy’s graduation tomorrow night, and then coming home sometime Friday. I get three days all alone with my grandmother and aunt — something that will probably never happen again.

I haven’t yet decided whether I’m bringing my laptop to do some writing, but I’m bringing two of the books on my summer reading list. I really want to leave my laptop behind, but I haven’t done any writing in a few days, so I might bring it and my Sade On the Wall first draft and notes. I don’t know. There’s something appealing about getting away from my laptop for three days… and there’s also something appealing about using those three days to get started on that editing I’ve been meaning to do (and procrastinating).

So yeah, as long as Noni still feels up to it in the morning, we’re heading off! Her chemo went well today, though. They started her on a different chemo, since she was reacting badly to the other one. The first time she had her treatment, she fainted and got pretty banged up. She also had a lot of joint pain. The second time, she had joint pain again, I think, so her oncologist decided to try a different medication. This one was a shot instead of an IV drip like the other one, and she did well on it today. All of her blood work came back perfect, too, and she and the oncologist even think the tumor might be shrinking.

I do feel kind of bad that I’m leaving Mike for three days, because not only is he getting a root canal on Thursday, but he has never spent that much time with my family without me around. I hope it won’t be too awkward for him. I mean, I know he’s known them all for about five years and has been living here for almost a year, but I’m sure it’ll be a little different, at least. It would be for me. Then again, the only thing he’s said about the whole thing is that he wishes I was going to be around after he gets the root canal, for comfort purposes. He’ll be fine, of course, but I wouldn’t be me if a small part of me didn’t worry a little.

She didn't think this was funny.

She didn't think this was funny.

Aside from going away and being unable to find a job even though I’ve applied to several places, I started taking 25mg of Tramadol every day on 06/02 — almost two weeks ago — and since then, my pain has decreased to only a small twinge here or there. Most days, I’ve had no pain at all. It’s hard to tell whether this is the medication, or just a period of remission. Either way, I’m enjoying it. If, by the time I see my rheumatologist again in July, I’m still not having that much pain, I’m going to just assume it’s the medication. And then I’ll have to celebrate, because holy shit! This low dose of Tramadol doesn’t make me feel like I just smoked a bunch of pot! Of course, it’s not treating that annoying fatigue that hits me like an eighteen wheeler sometimes, but I can deal with that if I’m not also in pain.

She hates me.

She hates me.

I’ve also been doing a lot of stuff for Freaking Bookworm, partially to keep busy but mostly because I love it. I created a book review bloggers directory inspired by the book review vloggers directory that my book blogging buddy Liz created. I also wrote an article on why it’s a good thing that teens read YA, which got quite a few tweets and Facebook shares. (When I say “quite a few,” I mean it’s quite a few for my little book review blog. :D ) I also read and reviewed Witch Doctor #0 and Beat, and created a summer reading list. And, even though I am not ready to share this over on Freaking Bookworm, I landed my first interview with an author, and got accepted to write book reviews for Blog Critics, the sister site to Technorati (which is like Google to the blogosphere). I have a lot more reviews coming, but this is what I’ve been working on lately. So, even though I lost my Amazon store, things are still going really well, and I’m having a lot of fun with this. It would be the best job in the world if I could find a way to make a living off of it. I will, someday.

"Oh stupid human, are you done yet?"

"Oh stupid human, are you done yet?"

In unrelated news, I’m thinking about giving up personal blogging and focusing completely on book blogging. (I also have plans for another focused blog, as soon as I get back on my feet and can afford to spend the usually inexpensive $8.95 for a domain name. In the meantime, I’m setting up a WordPress.com blog to make sure I’m committed to the topic.) As much as I enjoy blogging, I just don’t see the point in publicly sharing my personal life and problems anymore. It used to be a way for me to vent, but I’m just starting to think of it as immature; I look back on many of my old posts and think, Why did I need to share that? I don’t see anything wrong with personal blogging in general, but I think I’m growing out of it. Don’t worry, though — you’ll never see me stop blogging! (Unless I die. But we’re not going to think about that. I like being alive.)

What’s new with you? I just caught up on blogs, but I still wanna know. Leave me a comment and catch me up!

Christmas cookie bake day 2010

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Every year, my dad’s side of the family gets together to bake cookies. Yesterday, Noni, Mom, Biz Noni, Lauren, and I made peanut butter blossoms, gingerbread, chocolate chip, and oatmeal with macadamia nuts, cranberries, and white chocolate chips. We had a really good time.

Noni's Christmas village

Noni had her yearly Christmas village all set up.

Hot Arbor Mist Orchard Fruits Chardonnay with cinnamon stick

We drank hot Arbor Mist Orchard Fruits Chardonnay with cinnamon sticks

Boy and girl gingerbread people

And decorated boy and girl gingerbread people. Noni did these.

I didn’t get to do everything I wanted to do yesterday, but I’m glad I did this.

RECIPE: Pasta with garden sauce

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I first had this at my aunt and uncle’s house. My Uncle Reno, who’s 100% Italian, told me about how his mother used to go out in the garden, chop up a bunch of vegetables, saute them in a big pan, and serve them over pasta. It was so delicious, I had to try it out for myself. Mine is a lot different from his, but it’s one of my favorite dishes. I feel lucky to have made it for Popi months before he passed, when he could still eat; I got to cook for my grandparents, who have for years cooked for me. It was a wonderful feeling.

Anyway, this is my first photo essay, so I’m going to try to be less verbose. (But you guys know that won’t be easy.)

INGREDIENTS:

1 whole tomato per person
1 onion
a couple cloves of garlic
salt, pepper
basil, oregano, parsley (preferrably fresh, but dried is tasty, too)
grated cheese (I like a parmesan/romano blend)

pasta (angel hair, thin, or regular spaghetti)

Note: I forgot to get a shot of the diced up tomatoes, but thought they looked really pretty. They were so red and yummy looking! They were from Noni’s and Popi’s garden up at the lake.

Rinsed tomatoes

Before you do anything else, put up your pot of water for the pasta, then chop up your tomatoes. Heat up your pan on low heat, lightly cover the bottom of it with olive oil, chop up your onion, and throw it in.

Pasta with garden sauce, step 1

Pasta with garden sauce, step 2Pasta with garden sauce, step 3I like kosher salt best, but any rough salt — like ground sea salt — or regular table salt is just as good in the end.

Seasoning: basil, oregano, parsleyPasta with garden sauce, step 4Remember, keep your heat low, or else they’ll burn. It’s happened to me.

Pasta with garden sauce, step 5That photo should also say, “Turn up heat to HIGH.” You should add about a half cup to a whole cup of water, depending on how much. This sauce isn’t meant to be, um, saucy. It’s chunky with a little bit of juice. Simmer, and bring to a boil. The grated cheese thickens up the water.

Once your pasta is cooked, drain the water and add some olive oil to it to keep it from sticking (especially if it’s angel hair, although angel hair will still be sticky to some degree, so I recommend thin pasta).

Pasta with garden sauce, step 6Hot dog bun garlic bread makes a great side!

♦

More recipes coming soon! Try this one out and let me know what you think.

Nightmares, gifts, goals, and Mindless Self Indulgence

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I woke up this morning, hot and tired. Our AC bit the dust a couple of days ago and kind of works, so we’re only running it for a little while during the day. I also had another nightmare last night. This one was worse, because even though I wasn’t really me, in the dream my dad died. I thought it was real. At one point, I even told myself, “He’s with Popi now.” It’s really weird that I just had vivid nightmares two nights in a row; the night before I dreamed about killing some scorpion-sized centipede-like bug.

I have vivid dreams quite frequently, but it’s rare that they are nightmares. Usually they’re just really weird and I laugh about them when I wake up. The bug nightmare I laugh about now, because it’s kind of funny that a big, slimy black centipede oozing blood when I cut its head off scared me that badly. Last night’s nightmare, not so much.

This morning didn’t suck completely, though. As I was coming into the kitchen, I noticed what looked like a DS game on the table under my keys and a little piece of paper. What, did Mike play one of my games? I thought he didn’t like my games? Wait, maybe he used the case to write on that paper? Wait — is that a note?

I picked it up.

My anniversary present!

My anniversary present!

“He didn’t,” I said. We hadn’t talked about gifts or anything! I was just happy to know the date of our beginning, and hanging out last night was the best gift. Little does he know that I’m taking him out to dinner Sunday or Monday now, because I can’t not do anything for him! Especially since that note was so sweet!

Excuse me while I melt.

Anyway, it’s September. Which means summer is coming to a close, and football is so close. I’m always half and half this time of year; I’m sad to see summer go, but can’t wait to dress for game day and cheer on my Colts.

September also means it’s time for some new goals, and to look back at last month’s goals to see how I did.

My mission last month was to lose some kind of weight and to go to the gym every day. I also wanted to cut down on how much fast food I eat, but not cut it out completely, because I gave in way too quickly when I tried that route. I also apparently set a goal to write every night.

I’ve been going to the gym almost every day. I’ve only been allowing myself to skip out for good reasons. (For example: Monday I didn’t go because I pulled a muscle in my arm last week and wanted to rest it. Yesterday I only went to do the bike for twenty minutes because I was too hungry to stay any longer and didn’t want to end up getting sick. Stupid hypoglycemia. I also haven’t gone the last couple of weekends because I wasn’t in town.) I honestly love the gym and look forward to going. I’m not going tonight because I’m having dinner at Sandy’s house (for my birthday, yay), but will go tomorrow for my usual hour. I also have a session with one of their personal trainers scheduled in about a week.

I lost a little bit of weight! I managed to squeeze myself into my size seven jeans this past Thursday to go to the bar with some friends. I had to do a lot of stretching to get them to feel less skin tight and more like bootcuts, but they fit and I didn’t pass out from suffocation!

I’ve only been eating fast food twice a week! Each week, I write little goals in my notebook, and, “Eat fast food only twice this week,” is always one of them.

I haven’t been writing every night, but I did read two of three of the books about adoption I took out from the library. They’ve given me a lot of insight and I have made some notes of things I need to change in the novel. For example, my main character Gigi needs to feel more guilty about giving away her son. That guilt needs to drive her. She should also feel like she’s got a hole inside of her, and she should try to fill that hole with other things, like relationships that suck. I’m not saying that all birthmothers feel this way, but my Gigi should.

On to this month’s goals!

  • Budget income for the next month. Since I don’t have a regular paycheck anymore, I need to be super careful. I just got paid yesterday, in the nick of time; I was scraping up birthday money to buy cigarettes and gas that I’d wanted to use to buy new clothes. I’ve already started to budget, using Britt’s envelope method (minus the safe part).
  • Keep going to the gym, at least Monday-Thursday. I want to go every day, but since the gym is on the way home from where I work, it’s more likely that I’ll go on those days than any other day.
  • Write two chapters every Saturday. Since I don’t work weekends, I’m more likely to use that time to write; usually, by the time I get home on weeknights, I’m too tired to do much of anything — especially since I haven’t been sleeping too well.

To keep with the theme of this very out of control and unorganized post, I give you some MSI:

What about the animals, Mr. President?

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I got an email from President Obama last night regarding the BP oil spill.

Deerfield Beach, Florida, 08/05/2006, by Elizabeth K. Barone

Deerfield Beach, Florida, 08/05/2006, by Elizabeth K. Barone

Yesterday, I visited Caminada Bay in Grand Isle, Louisiana — one of the first places to feel the devastation wrought by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While I was here, at Camerdelle’s Live Bait shop, I met with a group of local residents and small business owners.

Folks like Floyd Lasseigne, a fourth-generation oyster fisherman. This is the time of year when he ordinarily earns a lot of his income. But his oyster bed has likely been destroyed by the spill.

Terry Vegas had a similar story. He quit the 8th grade to become a shrimper with his grandfather. Ever since, he’s earned his living during shrimping season — working long, grueling days so that he could earn enough money to support himself year-round. But today, the waters where he has worked are closed. And every day, as the spill worsens, he loses hope that he will be able to return to the life he built.

Here, this spill has not just damaged livelihoods. It has upended whole communities. And the fury people feel is not just about the money they have lost. It is about the wrenching recognition that this time their lives may never be the same.

These people work hard. They meet their responsibilities. But now because of a manmade catastrophe — one that is not their fault and beyond their control — their lives have been thrown into turmoil. It is brutally unfair. And what I told these men and women is that I will stand with the people of the Gulf Coast until they are again made whole.

That is why, from the beginning, we have worked to deploy every tool at our disposal to respond to this crisis. Today, there are more than 20,000 people working around the clock to contain and clean up this spill. I have authorized 17,500 National Guard troops to participate in the response. More than 1,900 vessels are aiding in the containment and cleanup effort. We have convened hundreds of top scientists and engineers from around the world. This is the largest response to an environmental disaster of this kind in the history of our country.

We have also ordered BP to pay economic injury claims, and this week, the federal government sent BP a preliminary bill for $69 million to pay back American taxpayers for some of the costs of the response so far. In addition, after an emergency safety review, we are putting in place aggressive new operating standards for offshore drilling. And I have appointed a bipartisan commission to look into the causes of this spill. If laws are inadequate, they will be changed. If oversight was lacking, it will be strengthened. And if laws were broken, those responsible will be brought to justice.

These are hard times in Louisiana and across the Gulf Coast, an area that has already seen more than its fair share of troubles. The people of this region have met this terrible catastrophe with seemingly boundless strength and character in defense of their way of life. What we owe them is a commitment by our nation to match the resilience they have shown. That is our mission. And it is one we will fulfill.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

This letter feels like it comes from the heart, and although reports have said President Obama is pissed, it’s well-written and his anger is well-contained. However, he mentions nothing of the Gulf’s wildlife. The tone of this letter is basically, “BP’s mistake took away people’s jobs, and they’re going to pay for this!” I think it sucks that people can’t do the work they once did. But you know what sucks even more? The animals and plants who are DYING because of the oil in the water.

What is our country going to do about that?