Food! My most favorite subject.

I swore to myself last time that I would keep up with this. And I just can't. I have always had a hard time focusing on anything for any length of time and on top of that, I have a hard time keeping still. If you were to ask Johnny, he'd tell you how I can't even sit down when I'm at home until I've completely exhausted myself. I'm sure I drive him absolutely bat-shit crazy. Enough about my weaknesses, lets focus on my strong points!

Like, getting everything done that I want to when it comes to food. I'm sure it's because I'm getting old, but over the years I've grown a real love for cooking. Especially grocery shopping. I can spend hours in a market, and spend lots of money too! But since we're "starving students" now, I have to be a little more careful of my spending. Before, Kelly (my BFF and old roommate) and I used to grocery shop together. Man! We could really do some damage! The checkers would even open up a lane just for us because they wanted to be able to see how much we could/would spend. And since we were shopping at VON'S, we'd wait to enter our member card until the very end and see how much we saved just for shits and giggles. I think the most we ever spent was like $1200. We'd usually save around $200-$300. No shit.

This was usually basket #1 of 2.

As long as we were buying fresh and healthy stuff, we didn't much look at prices. Split between three ladies for a full month of food (eating all three meals and snacks and not going out to eat), it isn't really too bad. It's a sickness that has carried on to my ways of shopping here in Laramie. It's a sickness I tell you! I blame Kelly. Even though it was probably all me.

Now that I don't make mad amounts of  money anymore and we're solely living off of Johnny's GI bill. My budget I set for myself is about $300 a month and that serves three meals a day for 2-3 people. Sometimes we'll even feed others since most of our friends don't eat too many home cooked meals very often. Knowing my budget when we first moved here, I ran to Sam's club and $1500 later, I stocked our house to the brim! Some may call it hoarding, I call it being prepared. Sam's club is still my bestest friend. So, cooking strategies were going to have to be thrifty and I was going to go further into the "made from scratch" world of cooking. Challenge accepted! Seriously though, how did we get so busy in this world that people stopped cooking from scratch and just started buying pre-made food instead? Don't get me wrong, I don't look down on others, I just don't see the cost effectiveness of it. Not to mention, the shit they put in food is just awful these days! I've experimented a lot over the last few years, and by experiment I mean: I've fucked up a lot of meals and doughs.

 

Here's a "cake" that I made, but instead of cake, it was a watermelon. Looks pretty right?? Well, I pre-cut it so it'd be easy to serve. BIG MISTAKE. It juiced everywhere like it was bleeding for a good day, day and a half. How can watermelon have so much damn juice in it?? My refrigerator did not appreciate it at all. Neither did I once I dragged myself to clean it all up.

 

And then there's the altitude problem. It really is no joke. You have to change a lot of what  you know in the cooking world. It's quite humbling, and infuriating if you're trying to make nice stuff. Like this German chocolate cake I attempted to make for Johnny's birthday last year.

 

All made from scratch, and all down the trash bin. I even bought some expensive ass chocolate and melted it all down to be part of the batter. I also learned the parchment paper is not supposed to reach up to the brim. Inside that cake, was mush. Inedible, ugly mush.

 

Which is why today I'm going to talk about my successful (so far) pie crusts instead. I swear, I CAN cook!

 

On my small budget, I still manage to buy unbromated, unbleached flour. Flour is seriously like the holy grail for me. Look at it in all it's spectacularness!!

 

 

I won't cut flour out of our diets, but I can at least choose a more healthier option. God I love flour.

I found this recipe on Face book, and I've really liked it so far! I'm sure I'll stray away from it and find another, but this is what I use for now. (Erica- you should try this one)

Here's the dough, all mixed. And I left in the pastry cutter to show my mother in law my appreciation for this gift. Seriously, such a life saver.

So there you have it folks. Within 20 minutes or less I had ten pie crusts made and in the freezer, waiting for me to make something delicious.

In case I haven't proven my case enough, check the price of a box of pre-made crust, and look at the ingredients. I'm not a health freak, and I realize my crust is made with shortening, but if I don't know what one of the ingredients are, I'm not happy with the product as a whole. Plus it's just plain cheap to make! I don't always have a lot of time either, but I can spare 20 minutes a day to stock up on whatever I need and most of all, save money so we're not on a Top Ramen budget. You can totally make $300 a month budget work if you're willing to put in the time.

Before I end, here's a cute picture of Johnny getting dinner ready one night. Potatoes on the bottom, veggies and meat on the top. Zucchini, bell peppers, onion, and chicken sausage. Season it, cover it up, throw it on the grill and 30 minutes later, wonderfulness that is called dinner.

 

Here's another picture of Johnny.

 

Happy Thursday everyone! Thanks for listening to my nonsense!
Next time I'll talk about starting my second attempt at a garden. I'm sure I'll manage to fuck that one all up too like last years crop.

 

 

 

Does Anyone Even Read/Write Blogs Anymore?

 I feel like an ancient dinosaur reviving this blog again. I'm not even sure what possessed me to come back to it after all these years, but I'm pretty sure it had to do with my new obsession with the Pioneer Woman, who is a chef on a ranch in Oklahoma. She has an awesome blog of cooking, her farm, family, photography, restoring old buildings etc, and I just love her. She writes about everything I love. And then I remembered, I once wrote a blog. So, I logged on to this old thing and I sat here and ignored my school work as I laughed hysterically at my previous stuff. I encourage you to go back a few stories and read at least one from our (Kelly and I) camping trip. I'll be funny. Man, I do miss those days of craziness with Kelly aka- My Kokie Lee. There really is no such thing as a replacement for your best girlfriend. But lives do move on and change is always happening in every ones lives. Thankfully, she has no choice but to keep loving me because we are totally each others person, so I am more than sure that we will have more ridiculous times to share on this post. Sorry man, you just aren't getting rid of me that easily.
Also, on a previous blog, this was the guy I was thinking she should totally hook up with a few years back.

Turns out, he ended up being my husband to be instead. At that point, the three of us would have never believed that, but it is definitely true. We were all oblivious to what the future had in store. Thank every star out there that they never hooked-up. Can you say - Awkward!!!!
Fast-forward: It's no surprise to anyone now, that I had met my future husband and moved to Wyoming to fulfill both our dreams. Yes, I quit my job that I was terrified to leave (I still hate that place to this day) and started going to school full time!
                                 Biggest. Dream. Ever.
On top of that, Johnny got to start working on his dream and go to school full-time as well! Winning! But seriously, I never imagined getting married. It was always a nice idea in theory, but I did not believe that I would ever find someone that could just run wild with me. Someone that would still love me after I was totally cranky, sleep-deprived, "get me my coffee and no one gets hurt", crazy self. And someone that could slow down when I wanted to stop running wild, and then speed back up again with me when I needed wind in my hair. He totally does that. Amongst all the other wonderful things that he does, and is. He didn't even run when he met my crazy family. Score! But since I'm about to barf from all the mushy romantic stuff, I'll move on.
We moved to Wyoming, and back to the country life that I love so much. Santa Ynez had totally ruined me, and I could never get the country living out of my blood after that.
So here we are. Poor, filling our brains with more info than we could ever retain, and trying to make a go of our lives. At least we're happy though. It totally sucks being away from our families, but I took the advise that my mom gave me (that woman really is smart! Of course I would have not agreed when I was 13), and set out to the unknown.
"There are planes, trains, and automobiles. If we miss you that much, it's easy to visit. You go out, get away, and do what you've wanted to do."
She once lived in Montana, and I can still see the gleam in her eyes when she talks of it. And since I've had dreams of living in different states, (Montana being #1) that's exactly what we are doing!
I'm not sure where I'm going with this blog. Last time it was an attempt to try new things to get my life going again. And while that was fun, I was the WORST at keeping up with it. So, for now we'll keep it as a way to keep my family and friends up to date without boring everyone else on Facebook. Sometimes I want to post things that I don't feel all of FB should know, so I'll keep it here. I'm sure I'll have cooking stuff on here, garden stuff, school stuff and such since that's basically my life, but I'll try to remember to post my most funny stories too. Here's one that still makes me laugh:

My first garden. I have about a 5x3 foot garden bed that I tried to plant vegetables in, by seed, organically, non-gmo seeds, for my first time. I put in a lot of hours revamping this area since no one ever took care of it.

 

All was going well, I even named them my "babies" and cared for them more than three times a day. I raised the seeds in boxes and planters until they were ready to be planted. They were so happy!

 

 

Helpful advise from my neighbors was that we had a SHORT growing season and you had to be quick! So July 1st, they were ready (2 months into my 4 month growing season I learned about too late) to be planted and it hailed. HARD! So hard, it killed half my plants. Leaves were broken, the manure was pocked with holes, and my babies were holding on for dear life! We were out there tarping plants and getting nailed with relentless hail. I had two tomato plants, 3 zucchini, two lettuce, and about 6 spaghetti squash plants left (yes, I planted them wayyy too close together). Then a shit head rabbit came in, got past the barrier Johnny had built, and ate my last two lettuce plants. Two weeks later, it hailed again!! I lost 1 zucchini and 2 squash plants. August came, and so did the squash bugs.
                                 WTF are squash bugs??

4 spaghetti squash plants left. Thankfully, those still flourished and did beautifully!

 

 



Before you know it, it was September 1st. And the frost came. Then it snowed 2 minutes afterwards. Everything died. EVERYTHING. My squash was now the consistency of baby food. However, I managed to salvage about 4 individual squash and hid them in my garage. 3 turned to mush anyway, and one was left. I brought it inside and hid it until we were ready to eat it. My one sacred squash I had worked months for. We planned to make "spaghetti" and meat sauce so I threw it into the oven. Sweet victory, we could eat the fruits of our labor! Celebration time!

 

Well, staying in my usual character of delirium and excitement, I got distracted and forgot about the squash in the oven. My ONE squash! In.The.Oven! Needless to say, I burned the fuck out of it. It tasted burned and was not good. Completely over steamed and overcooked. So there I was. Almost in tears because I was down to the last of my garden and I totally blew it. I blew it! All those plants gone. All those months of watering and loving my babies. I still laugh at myself because of the luck of it all.

What are the freaking odds???

So, here's the last picture. My burned and discarded squash on the left, and the beautiful Mac-N-cheese with broccoli dinner Johnny made so that we could eat and so I wouldn't cry about having to make two dinners that night. What an experience for my first year of gardening.

 

 

Headed in the right direction

This past weekend, I decided that I wasn't killing myself enough and added an extra day to my normal shifts. I went to work in the ER at Santa Ynez Cottage Hospital, registering patients as they came in and it was like any other typical day in the valley. Gorgeous of course, tranquil and definitely a slower pace that my normal days in the "city" down in Santa Barbara. Gosh I miss that country feel.

But there was one moment that I found myself in, that reconfirmed everything that I am working my hardest for. An older man came in early to have some tests done in the lab, but of course, he was 30 minutes early and was followed by another older gentleman that was about the same age and there for the exact same reason. I registered them, gave them their paperwork and set them to the other part of the hospital outside until the lab was open. Little did I know that processes had changed and I had them come back and wait with me as the nurse was trying to locate their paperwork.

So, for a brief 15-20 minutes, I listened as they talked.

We'll call the first patient Mr. Jones and the second, Mr. Wright in order to keep us within the limits of the law.

It's amazing what elder people have to say in such short periods of time. It's like they select the best little chunks in their lives to share with you that let you see all their years past in their still somewhat gleaming eyes that have been taken over by wrinkles in time.

I would never be able to repeat those grand stories in the way that they did, but man, it was every bit of amazing. Settling into Solvang before the hospital even existed, transportation in which they came, how they met their wives, how they lost their wives, heartbreak and happiness. I found myself laughing and truly enjoying every part of their old wit and advise.

Mr. Jones had mentioned once Mr. Wright had gone in the back first, that Mr. Wright had lost his wife a few years back and that he was all alone. He found this out while they were outside waiting. Mr. Jones noticed how serious Mr. Wright was and attempted to break the ice by just talking up a storm. Mr. Jones said to me "Look at him now. At first he was serious, and wouldn't speak a word to me. Now he's laughing and joking, telling stories how his dog (His miniature 30 pound dog-We laughed about that too) almost yanked him right out from under his feet. All he needed was to have an actual conversation with someone."

Being that I'm not one of the most emotional of people, I still found my heart breaking for Mr. Wright. How lonely must that be? All alone, missing your wife to the point to where you have to relieve your feelings to a total stranger, and the highlight of your month is getting out of the house to have some blood work done on a Saturday morning at the local hospital. Mr. Wright could barley walk, barely talk, and he hinted to the fact that he had no family near by. I can't even imagine what it would be like for him to have to get groceries or even understand how to sign up for something like "meals on wheels".

It was between the conversation with those two men that I had realized how much my heart bleeds for people in need. I've told myself a million times, I could not work with children or the elderly once I get my nursing degree because it would break my heart too much to have to see pain on those faces. And yet, I find myself wanting to become a home health nurse for people exactly like Mr. Wright. Someone that doesn't just need medications monitored and sheets or bandages changed, but someone that needs an ear to listen and someone to care. Someone to help. It's clear that there are some that are beyond rescuing, and beyond wanting help. It's also ridiculous of me to think that one person could go out and help everyone humanly possibly without slowly killing themselves, but I know this much is true..

In sharing, with whoever is reading this, it's a great comfort to realize that all these nights I spend not sleeping, stressing over a ridiculous job just to pay my bills, going to school, and stretching myself to take every chance possible to have somewhat of a "normal" social life, I know that at least I'm headed in the right direction. All of this crazyness will pay off. It's amazing people that pop in and out of my life that re-affirm that I'm slowly headed for what I ultimately love.

I know I'm headed in the right direction.

Maybe I'm just enticed by my dreams and goals, but I hope and pray that I don't become a desensitized nurse where I just don't care anymore. I hope and pray that I can help people heal and make a difference in someones life. And, I wouldn't mind if I could assist in some surgeries and such.. hahaha! Seemingly not only do I have that call to help people, but I cant help myself but want to assist in crazy surgeries and know how to put people back together. That is every bit of amazing to me as well!

Looking back, I realized that I should have gotten that elderly mans number and offered to help him in any way, but I hesitated too long to ask.

Now that I've had this feeling take hold of me, maybe it's a good time to start looking into volunteering somewhere. I can't imagine having time to do that, but even an hour a week could help.

Until then, I'm tired, and I'm going to stop blabbing like a crazy person so I can get some sleep. But I'll leave you with this~

No matter how far away your dreams and goals may be, Never give up on them. Never give up on yourself. Even if you have to stand in front of a mirror and tell yourself to get the hell up after being knocked down (I've had to do this a few times), keep on working towards all that you desire. Love, let love, and most importantly, love yourself.

New Uses

Well, as you can see, my New Years Resolution went to hell in a hand basket. I could not keep up for the life of me. Although, I did continue to do new things all the time, I just never found the time to get it all down on this website. However! I did write a ton of new things from those writing classes I took. Some were blah, but others surprised me on how I could pull stories up from past times and turn them into crafty stories! I'll get around to posting a few on here later, but for now, I'll give this little blog thingy a new use.

The other day I told my Dad that Kelly and I were going camping for a weekend, and he immediately started to laugh hysterically. Once he caught his breath, he asked me to take a journal and a camera and record all the crazy and silly things that we get ourselves into. Whenever we get together, we tend to be, as most people have said - Hilarious! We really don't even try, it just kinda happens that way. We drag out the most ridiculous sides from each other and just have a grand time. Thankfully, my Dad, that sly dog that he is, had a grand idea and I followed his instructions. Since I forget stories until they are later triggered from my mind, I thought I'd give my blog a new use and keep it going. I know I don't have tons of readers but, the very few that I do have, enjoy it enough to still talk about them. Plus, since everyone is so far away, it's nice to keep everyone up to speed in my life. So, Maria and Dad, This is for you. And for everyone else important in my life, Thank you for loving me just the way I am. In every way that I am.

I have 5 titles that come to mind to explain this weekend. So, we'll start there.

#1- Just in case you set the tent up in the dark again.

Yes that did actually happen one time. And let me tell you, "bad" does not describe it. We were dying to escape from our everyday lives and decided to go camping alone. We of course were running late, and by the time we got to the site, the sun was going down and we just pulled up. No lights, no time, no patience and NO CLUE as to what we were doing. So after spending two hours attempting to get the damn tent up in the dark by the truck headlights, and arguing like crazy, we just both agreed to stand the stupid thing up any way we could and get on with the night. So there were were. Done reading the directions that should have just been written in Greek, with a tent half standing, sagging in all areas, and poles sticking out in the air waiting to poke someones eyes out. It was the messy birds nest that we gave up on the whole rest of the weekend. As luck would have it, it also rained that weekend.

Determined to not let that happen again, we got off work early, headed up to the lake with 4 hours of light for the "just in case" scenario. We picked one of the sites we had thought was pretty from the previous camping trip, and got right to work. We spread out the tent, put the poles side by side and looked at each other with blank stares, said nothing, and started laughing hysterically. Holy Shit, here we go again. Once again, the directions were Greek but somehow by the grace of God, the tent was up in less than 5 minutes on the first try. Completely amazed at what we had accomplished, I had Kelly grab me a pen, and we wrote down the directions in the idiot proof, yet hilarious way. See Below..

~ The two big guys (the two longest poles) go in the window holes. Stick the little guys (5 shorter poles) in the hub (the star shaped thingy on top) Have fun!

Amazing that something so simple ruined our last camping trip completely. At least we know now that we have directions that will make sense! Just in case we have to set up the tent in the dark again.

#2- Dust in the wind

Thankfully, we got to the site early. Somehow we managed enough time to allow for all the fuck ups we were gonna have that weekend. We'll start with Kelly's : I really really wanted to pack light this time. We tend to get too much food, and spend too much money because we both think that for some reason, we must get enough stuff for an army whenever we go anywhere. So we stuck to a plan, and got only the bare necessities and kept the spending under $100 total. Super nice! Since the last time we dropped about $300 on Lord only knows what. So as we were unpacking and setting up our site, Kelly pulled out our Coleman lantern. You know, those ones that you light little nets while the propane is going. Then there is light. Well, she didn't know from the last time (yes, that horrendous time-we also had to fix our lantern since the raccoons that attacked our site, broke it into a million pieces) that those little white net things are soft and disintegrate when touched or messed with. She fully took apart the lantern for Lord knows what reason, and looked at me with that face. The one that has "I fucked up" written all over it. All she could say was- I lifted this thing and they were dust in the wind! Dust in the wind I tell you! Crap. (with a smile on my face) OK, we can fix this. We'll make our first trip to town. Which was 20 min out of the way. After spending $40 at ace for other things we "needed" and laughing at our misfortunes the whole way, we were back on our quest to set up camp. First casualty of the trip not so bad right? Right?

#3- Reasons on why it's a good idea to designate pots and pans to your "camping stash" in storage permanently.

Saturday we wake up bright and early with our neighbor campers that decided to play their music all the way up in order to tune out their baby that would not stop crying. We were just happy to be camping so we went with the flow. Our brains have trained each others to think out processes in much the same way over the years. Which is awesome and pathetic all in the same breath. So, as I'm still in my sleeping bag, I'm trying to wake up, and running across things I can do to get coffee and breakfast starting. I run along all the things we packed, looking in my mind for the pot to boil water for coffee and pan to make our chorizo and eggs. Then it hits me. I start my morning with asking Kelly ; "Hey, did you pack.." she cut me off immediately and said "don't even fucking tell me your question. I just realized it." One look at each others faces and we already knew (I ignored the fact that I got shut down with my first sentence of my day to her) Apparently she was looking for the pots and pans in her mind too. We didn't pack anything to cook the food in! Arrgggh! What else were we going to do, but get back in the truck, and go back to the store. AGAIN. Thankfully the general store was open on the lake so we wouldn't have to go back into town. $80 later, we were back on our way with a cast iron pan, a pot, ice, and who knows what else.

Lesson learned: designate a box full of everything you need so you don't forget the stuff to cook all your food in. Because it sucks. And its expensive.

#4- The ground must still be wet from all the rain we had a week or two ago...

Dumbest (well, maybe not THE dumbest) thing I've ever thought. How could the ground still be wet from 1-2 weeks ago. Unless there was a flood, and that wasn't the case. Sometimes I amaze myself at the things I allow myself to think is correct. I blame it on lack of sleep, but I'm sure I've always done stuff like that. My first indicator should have been the sprinkler I saw in the ground about 4 feet from the tent. I even dragged my foot over it, thinking- "why on earth would they put sprinklers in here on a site? Oh well, they wouldn't turn it on while people are here anyway". At about 4:3o pm Saturday evening, we hear a loud noise. We both look back and realized there was a sprinkler hitting a tree. No biggie. And then we see another sprinkler, (the one I dragged my foot across) that is heading in our direction!! OH CRAP! The smart side of my brain gets our pot (the one that cost us a small fortune) and covers the sprinkler that would have drenched our tent. I swear I can be smart sometimes! Whew! Crisis avoided.

However, this sprinkler system explains not only the horrific amount of mosquitoes that we had to fight off all weekend, but the mud we tracked everywhere inside the tent, and the swarm of ants that attacked our tent. Fortunately, we managed to keep the ants on the outside of the tent and kept it zipped the whole time. But still. We could have avoided all this, had I put two and two together in the first place. As for the mosquitoes, we were eaten alive. Kelly has bites all over her neck and bites in her ears. Somehow even though I wore a sweater all weekend, my arms are bitten, but that's not nearly as funny as Kelly's ears.

#5- 1 vinegar + 1 vinegar = 2 sour stomachs.

Saturday night we planned a nice and easy dinner. Marinated chicken, broccoli salad, grilled potatoes and 3 large bottles of wine. I managed to burn the chicken, but it was still tasty. Kelly managed to drench the potatoes in balsamic vinegar and they weren't as tasty. Actually they were horrific. And the salad was also dredged in a lot of regular vinegar. We spent the remaining night sitting in an upright position, praying for our Zantac to kick in because we were dying of heartburn and sour stomachs. I'm more than sure that the bottles of wine didn't help but at least we were able to laugh drunkenly at Kelly as she kept repeating "I poisoned us". Words to anyone with reflux or any other problems with your stomach : vinegar and vinegar makes sour stomachs.

Oh and by the way, when the propane bottles state the amount of hours it will keep a lantern ignited- they aren't joking.

As we were laughing and burping up a storm, our lantern died. We spent another hour by the fire and laughed at all our options of how we were going to make it back to the tent, swat the ants near the door to keep them from getting in, and make it to the restroom once more before bed in the pitch black night.

All in all, we actually had an amazing and relaxing weekend. How else would we have been entertained had we not had all of our misfortunes? We set up all the stuff ourselves, got the fires and charcoal going every time and $250 dollars later, we are still doing better than the first $300 trip.

Oh! and one more for the road-

Take the lesson from Kelly, when dumping out the charcoal from the mini grill, make sure the wind isn't blowing when your tossing the soot .. Because it WILL blow back in your face. 

An unrecognized Love

Its that time again for me. Yes, THAT time. Where I once again for the thousandth time, I sharpen my pencils, gather my favorite pens, pack up my old book bag, and head back to school. I never really considered myself a scholastic type person. While I don't think I'm retarded by any means, I've just never fully applied myself to schooling. Ever. At least until, these last few years where I am starting to feel the repercussions of a C grade verses an A. I never prided myself in the actual lettering's, but more what I gathered from my courses. And since I've been attending college for about 10 years now, I consider myself to be very well rounded, yet my grades suck. I mean, if we're just being honest here. My mind wanders like a madman at night in the dark alleys that seem to never end. This mind of mine also works in ways that most peoples do not. Or at least I don't think so. Even on my days where I haven't spoken much (which at times could be a rare occasion) my mind is still processing a thousand different things. I've even considered having some form of A.D.D, where I cant concentrate on one single thing at any given time, or that I have learning disabilities; where I can remember exact page numbers, where the pictures were placed on the page, and what color highlighter I used, and if I try hard enough, I can remember what I was wearing that day. Scary isn't it? Yet, somehow I cant retain the information that I just read, unless I write it down and study study study. Teachers assign certain sections of the book to read, and I cant handle just reading the section. I have a craving to read the WHOLE book in order to really grasp the whole concept of lets say, Physiology, or Chemistry. Or even Art. I don't want to miss a thing. In turn, this works against me, often leaving me way behind, or just putting too much on my plate in general, but ask me a question later on in life, and I can probably still remember. I'd like to say pridefully that I have a photographic memory, but I'm not lucky enough for that to be my special talent. However, my mind or maybe my humor and maybe just life in general in my head, works sort of as a play or a movie. A comic strip if you will, or even just a photograph. Which I think is why I love all those things. Photography, movies, comics, books, plays, sarcastic humor. I even have a tendency to laugh inappropriately sometimes at misfortunes, or how that lady down the street just biffed it so hard, she torn her jeans and spilled her coffee and skinned her knees and gouged her palms. The best part about that, is that I'm no so much laughing to just be mean, but I can totally imagine the type of day that this has set up for that poor lady. More like in real life I just witnessed something a director is trying to get his actors to re-inact again and again to make his audience laugh. And here I am, lucky enough to see the raw footage.
Then I start this blog, and I find that while I do have days of writers block, once I start typing, I cant stop. I do this with paper too. I write all the time. Short stories, usually of a day that made me laugh. I write letters that I never send. Obituaries even. Not so much for the dark and sad part, but more like the celebration of life for someone. I've started poems and never finished. Anyway, you get my drift. I enjoy just putting my mind down on paper.
So, now that I've set up my blog in a way you'll understand if you don't already know me that well, I'll get on with my "new" thing. Yes, this is a long one, so once again, I'll stick to just one new thing instead of my many things that I've done.
In all honesty, I need to pump up my English grades in order to help myself get on the nursing list. So I found a teacher that I really really enjoyed last semester, and I'm taking her two courses this semester. Doc Courington, what a lovely lady. I love the fact that no matter what kind of opinion you have, its a good one. And as long as you are pushing yourself to understand the general knowledge of writing/reading/English, she loves it. Man O' man, this works for me and my spacey mind. In addition, she is offering a creative writing course! Perfect! I've always loved writing, and hey, why not do something I enjoy. So there you have it. My new thing is my creative writing course. And a poetry class that goes along with it. And if you must know, for the first time, I'm taking three classes at once. I'm taking a sociology class too. So I guess that's a new thing two! And since I work all day, its more than enough.

Here's a quick glimpse of my first day, and then I'll stop blabbing.

I hate to stereotype, but we all do it in some way maybe without even noticing, and I don't do it to be mean, so I'm sorry if I offend anyone.
Being a creative writing course, I'm already expecting the normal. The more "creative thinkers", the more "Artsy" people, the ones that don't really care that you think his nylons are too bright. Or the dark and sexy ladies that have the seductive pony tail and bangs hiding her bright blue eyes covered in smoky black eyeliner. You know exactly what I'm talking about. I of course, consider myself to be a pretty normal girl. Jeans, tennies, tank top, or shirt. Hair always curly since I cant seem to do anything else with it.
I start seeing all the different walks of life filing in one by one, and I start thinking about each one individually. Hey! That girls reminds me of my "dark days" as my mother and I jokingly call them when I had a time where I loved anything and everything black. Then, hey! That other girl has a cute shirt on.. Oh look at that, I think I used to have boots just like that! Oh my God, that bag reminds me of my old roommates.

And then it hits me.
As I'm sitting there in my jeans, tennies, and my skater shirt that's a dark gray color that has stamped in white a thousand times all over the back " I brake for nature" with bright green embarrassing birds and a green tractor on it.

Jesus Christ..... I fit right in.

That was a pivotal moment and a hilarious one at that, for me. As I'm doing my individual introduction to the class, on why I'm taking this course, and if I've ever written before, I realize that my reasoning's for writing - which are because I come up with wild ideas and have to write them down so I can go on about my day- were the same as everyone else. I've got notepads full of crap I've written, and I have created a bunch of poems since I could remember, and I've written a ton of dreams down that would knock your socks right off. And as I'm being honest with the class and laughing WITH everyone as I'm explaining that I really just need to pump my grades for English up, I catch myself saying-

" and who knows, maybe I'll find my love again, and switch my major to English"

HOLY CRAP!! DID I JUST SAY THAT????

As I looked around, I saw a ton of smiles on peoples faces and for once I kinda felt good about my words and the fact that there were people that shared a common interest. Even if I don't wear wild clothes anymore, or do rebellious things against the normal, I like that I can still integrate that into a piece of me for a while. Or for a semester at least.

While I would like to think that I could be happy in that profession, my love is in sciences and the medical field. I want to be a nurse. Bottom line. In the meantime though, I wouldn't mind trying to find ways to become a better writer just for shits and giggles. Who knows, maybe I can write stories in my spare time in the life of a deformed blood cell. Or mock up comics for the medical break rooms when we need a laugh after a long and trying day. I cant draw for my life, but maybe I could leave that up to the other creative person that is in the medical field.

Cats out of the bag

Goodness gracious!! The cat is seriously out of the bag now for everyone to see. As many of you have noticed, I lag. Some days I'm on the ball, and other days, I procrastinate like you wouldn't believe. This is not new news to me, but I can put up a great act of always keeping up with whatever task is at hand. I fully know I also take no time at all to get ready for the day, but most of the time, I wander around my house aimlessly enjoying every minute of doing nothing. Maybe turn on a movie, veg out in my towel for a bit, go grab the lotion, veg out more, maybe think about what I'm gonna wear, get distracted by my movie, go make coffee, watch my more of my movie, put my socks on.. Anyway, you get the idea. What can I say, other than, Hello- My name is Natalie, and I'm a procrastinator to the fullest extent.
I honestly think about my blog all the time. I've always got a thousand things flying around in my brain, but I cant seem to fit in the time to get it done. One of my new things on the top of my head, and the reason for my procrastination at this point, is because my department has moved into a completely new building. Our old one was dirty, and was falling to pieces, and was infested with ants and mice!! Ugh!! It's a terrible feeling to know that you work in a place where you have to have mouse traps next to the tank where you refill your water bottle at least 3 times daily. So we as a hospital thought it was time to invest some money into a new place that could fit more of our employees as well as other departments. This new place however, is not full cubicles. Half of the walls are glass so we can be watched at all times. Since we are constantly being watched (trust me, I've been ratted on..) I could be on my break, writing my blog like a good little grasshopper, and I'd be in trouble. So, thankfully my phone takes care of me playing on the internet, but to write a blog, its kinda a hassle to write alot with a touch screen on the phone, so my writing has been limited. So, today, I decided to come directly home and get to my resolution that I've been putting off for months.
Normally, I would've just came home during the summer and wrote my blog, but I did a new thing that lasted 6 weeks, and I've got to say, it might've been the hardest six weeks of my life in quite some time. I joined a running for conditioning class to fulfill my Physical Education requirements for college that I've been putting off for ten years! No kidding, ten years! I've gotten so lazy since I've gotten older, and my asthma has kept me down if I ever got enthusiastic about it, that I actually considered taking the alternative for the physical part, and just take an "educational" class on how to take manage your weight. Very sad moment for me to admit my lack of interest in working out, but its the truth. The good thing is that I actually dont feel too bad because I got myself out there and did the class. I had gotten really ambitious after my doctor (Dr. Chandler May) finally got my asthma under control! I seriously love that doctor. He has done alot for me that will require a whole other blog in itself, but to say the least, I can breathe, laugh, and run without coughing or wheezing, and its an amazing feeling. Anyway, little did I know until I got t0 my class, that it was a running class that conditioned you for marathons!!! You can only imagine the look on my face when the teacher started explaining to us what we were required to do. I wanted to walk out, or just start crying my first day, but I didnt want to be a quitter, so I sucked it up, and stuck with it. Since I hadnt worked out in years, I was the slowest person in the class, and have never sweat like that before in my life! Thankfully, throughout the days, which by the way, were 4 days a week, the already trained crosscountry runners could recognize my struggle and would actually cheer me on to finish my workout! Probably because I looked like I was going to throw up most days, in which a few times I really thought I would, but they were nice about it and I'm sure they were surprised that I actually survived. I also thankfully found a super nice girl that became my running partner. She has the tiny leg span that I have, and we ran together everyday, which was a total relief. Most days were pretty brutal especially when we had to run ( I had to walk) up hills like this :





Needless to say, I survived, got an A and lost 8 pounds (yay!) in which I gained back immediately once I went on a mini-vacation home to see family. Most days I was staying with a different family member, so it gave a lot of opportunites to go out to eat, and I jumped at every chance I got. One of the places I went to was with Tabatha and Randall (my sister and brother-in-law) was a pancake house that boasted the worlds largest pancake. Of course, we ordered it and shared it, on top of our other orders and it was fantastic! Not to mention, it was a "new" thing since I never order the popular thing that restaurants are known for and had never been to the restaurant either.




Anyway, the running class was a great accomplishment for me, and this time only costed me a tuition of $26. It might have also costed me my dignity on some days when I just couldn't keep up, or my legs would cramp up and I would give up, but none the less, it was a new thing and i made a point to remember it.
I know I've also done A LOT of new things, but I was so excited with my blog writing that I did not write anything down in order, nor did I think this through. I just started writing and pasting pictures. So to save everyone a ton of reading, I'm going to have to stop, re-think, and collaborate my thoughts down on paper so it's not a bunch of rambling from me trying to catch up on my resolution that I've left behind.
Oh! One more "new" thing, my last blog, I was on my way to make potatoe taquitos, and they actually were pretty good! I over stuffed them, but they weren't a complete disaster and I even took a picture which I am posting to show that I was trying to keep up with writing, but I'm a procrastinator.

Life is good

I've completely disregarded the blog.. shame shame shame.. I know.. I don't know man, after that Brazilian wax, I just have been shunned from doing new things. That was seriously traumatic for me! The results were obviously great, but man o' man, I never made a follow up appointment and every time I think of it, I seriously cringe.. That one really did me in. But good thing that I kept up some of the new things I did without trying! I've been keeping a list on my NEW IPhone!! Yay!!!! I don't know why I held on like hell to my little, sad, razor phone, but once I upgraded, WOW! I think I got it around march? April? and basically went into an At&t store to "browse" the new smart phones/text phones. I must have had sucker written directly across my forehead in bright, red, flashing letters because this nice little white boy came up to me and softly guided me to the IPhone area, in which I was purposely staying away from, and as I looked at him like "oh hell no!" he literally handed me his phone to play with and walked away.. WALKED AWAY!! He sniped me! That little bastard! This guy must have been about 120lbs wet, and I'm pretty sure I could've taken him, and he totally outsmarted me.. He knew what he was doing.. I immediately lost the battle. I was sold. So after re-upping my contract, taxes, and new indestructible case, I was $300 in the hole.. This whole new thing is really putting a damper on my funds.FML. Here's a picture of my little(not that little) phone on top of the magazine i just inherited/stole from another office:




So, I've always had paper lists of "shit to do".. Cluttering my already cluttered purse, and loosing them sometimes.. Now with my phone, I'm able to keep it all on my notepad. Good bye paper! This phone has been a life saver and I don't know how I managed so long without it. The Internet is super fast, and it acts as my little computer since I still don't have one of my own. I especially love the compass on it. Oh I'm in love! And I depend on the map quest part of it like you wouldn't believe! So here are some "new" things from my list..

Lent- Even though I don't really go to church, or read the bible, or really do anything related to my religion like I should, there are some things that I still uphold. Lent is one of them. I do the whole no meat on Fridays, Ash Wednesday, give something up, yada yada. So this year instead of giving up sugar or something that I normally give up, I decided to be daring and stick with the whole "new" merriment. I gave up all chips and crackers. You have no clue as to how incredibly hard that was for me. Every day was absolute torture! You would think that I would've lost at least 10 pounds from cutting that out of my diet, but nooooo.. I gained 5 pounds!!! I was seriously like an addict trying to quit smoking or something so I was substituting with whatever else I could get into my mouth. I even ate desserts.. YUCK! Sugar ended up being my go to drug and I was NOT happy about it. Worst 40 days of my life. Maybe that's why my whole blogging thing has gone to hell in a hand basket.. hahahahaa! My first day after my 40, I ate a box of cheezits.. and I didn't feel bad about it at all.

I also saw Alice in Wonderland. That was surprisingly good! The only Tim Burton movie I ended up liking was Nightmare Before Christmas, so I was pretty happy with how this movie came out.

My taxes had some new things tied to it too this year. I used turbo tax for the first time instead of going to the veterans hall to have it done by little, cute old people and the ad said it would cost like $13. So I thought, why not? Might as well try a new way.. $55 dollars later, I had them filed and learned that next year, I'll go back to my little old peeps and have it done my normal way. I also had my first experience to Amending taxes.. I didn't even know you could do that.. Like a retard, I totally forgot to claim the quad until after I filed with my new and expensive way, so I refiled, mailed my taxes for another $5, and still have not heard back from the state. I'm so worried I messed up and their going to come and audit me.. Yikes! I'll stick with the tried and true with legal things from now on.

My St. Patricks day celebration was also a new thing this year. Instead of getting tanked, I had a few glasses with my friend Debbie at Tupelo Junction, which is a southern style restaurant, and had me some chicken fry and mash taters! To go along with the chicken fry, we also went to go see The Zac Brown Band at the Arlington Theatre! Wow, they were seriously one of the greatest shows I've seen. They were on tour with Joey and Rory, another band that I like, and had the best instrumental show ever! I was super happy about that! Thanks Deb! I've also never seen any bands play at the Arlington since its usually a movie theatre, so that was a new thing as well. double wammy! The only picture I have is one of Debbie while we were sitting outside about to eat, so here it is. Hope you don't mind Robo :





To keep in tune with the party scene part, I went to a bachelorette party for my roommates sister. That was good times! We rented a limo to take us from Grass Valley to Sacramento :




And kept one habit instead of changing it, and stuck with champagne :




ate at a really good (new!)Mexican restaurant called Zocalos:



Then went to a club (new!) at The Park Downtown and had us a great time in a VIP section! That's where this picture originated from woohoo!:




That was also my first time being in Sacramento and not just passing through, so there were good times all around!

I'm not really one for clubs, but I go when people ask (sometimes), so I also went to a club I've never been to before for Shannon's Birthday.. The Standard aka- Tommy's stomping grounds.. :) It was pretty cool with some cool music, although most people were incredibly high for what seemed like 2 weeks so I made sure to stay away from those people..But cool none the less











We also went to Stagecoach again this year which isn't a new thing, but I saw all new bands. And we took Kelly's younger brother Vinnie and his friend Steven, in which that was our first time taking teenagers for a weekend and watching them. They were awesome and I'm glad we were able to do that




I got to see some of my favorite bands too! For those who don't know what Stagecoach is, shame on you, hahahaa! just kidding, its a country music festival type thing that has a ton of bands play for two days in the sweltering heat. Sugarland was incredible, Toby Keith was amazing, Joey and Rory I got to see again, Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, but my absolute favorite act was Brooks and Dunn.. They are done forever with touring and I was lucky that they played some of my absolute favorite songs.If you feel adventurous, look up one of my favorite songs.. I think its called "I believe" or "Mr. Wrigley", actually I'm not sure, but its an amazing song.. Brings tears to my eyes every time. We were lucky to also meet up with great friends and have a great time:










And I was totally doing new things almost everyday and didn't even realize it! I'm taking two English courses right now to pump up my GPA for school so I can get on that darn nurse waiting list! In the mean time, I'm reading a ton of short stories and poems by some pretty awesome authors. Its more on the side of actual Literature and not just my normal novels that I read so its pretty cool. I cant think of any one that stood out the most, plus I just don't want to think about school right now, but overall, I've been reading all semester with new things and I didn't even realize it! And I don't have to continue spending money! I'm going to be poor very soon here.. but I'm enjoying every second of it.

So, I will still continue to try with of course some coaxing from people when I'm not being diligent, and tonight I'm going to try and make potato taquitos. To be continued..