Is Tomorrow Really December Already??

So, um, is it bad that I don’t really remember anything from the past year? I’m pretty sure I got married, but that’s kind of a blur. Pretty sure I went to Mexico and didn’t get Swine Flu, but I could be wrong. Honestly, it feels like last year was ages and ages ago, but I feel like 2009 was the life of someone else.

I’m working another crazy week. I am sitting at 51 total hours for the upcoming week so far, but it’s only Monday and I’m sure I can do better, haha. Justin and I are going to look at another house on Wednesday, so it keeps me motivated to keep me working extra. Since moving out of my parents house I never really felt like anywhere else I lived was home. I could say home is where Justin is, and that is true, but our apartment, while pretty damn nice, is lacking something that would make it a home.

It’s really hard to put my finger on it, but I would say that a home needs to reflect the people that live inside of it. We personalized our place as much as we could, but it will be nice to own our own place.

I did not finish Nano this year, I came in about 8k words shy of the target. All in all I’m still okay with that, I never thought I would have ever collected 41k words in the first place. I really plan on continuing with the story and maybe even sending it out later next year.

Bree and I are thinking about co-blogging a food website. Recipes, reviews, and other goodies….now we just need to come up with a name, haha.

 

No Pain, No Gain!

I officially worked 53.5 hours this week. I’ve technically been in the building 55 hours, since there where a few half-hour lunches. I’m a little exhausted, a little delirious, but a whole lot of proud. It’s no secret that I would rather get a root canal than come to work 99.9% of the time, but I feel like I helped out when we’re busy, ergo helping the co-workers that I like, and am also that much closer to a house, because, well, that’s a whole lot of time and a half.

Today I’m working 1-10, so I joked with my husband that I was excited for a “short” day. I’ve been working 11am to 12am most of the week. I keep myself occupied looking for houses and writing for Nano, so I still have a firm grip on my sanity.

Speaking of Nano, I blew past the halfway point of 25k words! I can’t even begin to describe the feeling of that sort of accomplishment, I never thought I would actually push myself to hit that point, but I have some amazing support along the writing process, and I’m even beginning to talk about my characters and discuss their background story as though they’re real people….which is either a good thing or a bad thing, I haven’t quite decided yet. I do know though that I will finish Nano and I will win. Right now I’m basically pounding out the frame of the story, the minor and major plot pieces, and then I’ll go back in December and flesh it out. One major surprise with this entire process is that the story just flows as I write. I’ve long since tossed my original outline in the fire and haven’t looked back. My characters are suddenly in charge of the story, and I’m simply giving them a voice. I’m immensely proud of how far I come, and once the story is written I want to have the editing done by the time I’m 23 (which lands on the end of January).

As promised, I would also like to share with you my new favorite food, the panini.

I call this my “grown up” BLT, minus the L, haha. I have found that instead of using butter on the outside of the bread to keep it from sticking to the hot plates, using pam is a fat-free and crispier alternative! I used butter flavored Pam and it was basically amazing. This sandwich consists of lite mayo, bacon, tomato, fresh mozzarella cheese, and onion. I’ve also made steak sandwiches with french fries, ham and cheese, and tuna, all turned out amazing. The thing about the panini maker is that it seriously makes the sandwich look and taste like you bought it somewhere like Panera Bread, even hubby agrees. I’ve had a panini every single day this week and am not sick of them because every one can be different, but the easy prep and quick time is always the same. Love, Love, Love!

 

I Love to Cook!

My panini maker is my new favorite wedding gift. My favorite changes from day to day, but the panini maker is winning for the third day in a row.

What an amazing little device! I’ve been experimenting with different sandwiches every day now, and am absolutely in love! I have been working 13 hour days at work, and I just throw together a couple sandwiches in the panini maker to eat throughout the long (very long) day. Warm or cold they’re still pretty amazing!

I made some delicious wedding soup in our crock pot on Monday as well. I think I did over do it with the veggies, as it smelled like wedding soup, but definitely tasted more like veggie or chicken noodle. Still good though! It is most definitely soup season, which while I hate the cold, nothing is better than being warm and cozy on a cold day. Eat a little soup, drink some hot chocolate or hot cider (rum optional!) and you have a happy girl right here

I’m adding a new little section to my side links on the right. I’ve stumbled across so many fantastic cooking blogs that I need to have them in one place, and certainly need to share. My latest discovery? A Year of Slow Cooking. Slow cooker recipes! And a lot, I might add. I like cooking blogs because these are real people, usually mothers or other busy people who don’t have the time (like me) to put together a gourmet meal. I like cooking, but I simply don’t have the time to hang out the kitchen for a couple hours every night, so ta da! Easy recipes for all!

About 4.5 hours left of my 12-hour day and I’m still awake. I consider that a win today

 

God’s Gonna Blow Those Clouds Away, and Give Me a Sunny Day.

The house hunt continues. Wednesday our Realtor took us to a house that Justin and I both loved, which has not happened yet on our adventure. Unfortunately it was also about $15,000 over our price range and exactly $34,000 over our comfort zone. It just went on the market a couple weeks ago, so we’ll keep it in the back of our minds and continue to look. If it is still on the market in a couple months then we’ll see if the price drops or possibly low-ball the sellers. It’s an estate so it could really go either way. In any case, it really set a standard, and I hope we can find something else just as great!

Finding that house has also really lit a fire under my ass. I have been working like crazy and will continue to do so in the coming months. We’re at that point where we’re so close we can taste it, but we just have to find something that meets all our criteria. Patience has never been a strong characteristic of mine, but this is something so monumental that I just don’t want to settle for anything short of what we both love.

I guess that will be it for houses until I have some more concrete news. I have other things to amuse me this month (like my 50 hour work week next week, ha) Nano is coming along splendidly, I’m still about 10k words over where I need to be at this point. And notice the cute widget I added to the right there? It’ll keep you updated. ha.

I am currently three hours into my 10 hour work day. Like I mentioned before, Next week I volunteered (ick, I know) to basically work 50 hours. 10 hours of glorious time and a half over time though, and we just got our yearly raises, so I really can’t complain too much…until later next week anyway. Justin also picked up a little over time, in the form of 8am to 12am on Friday. He can pound it all out at once though, I on the other hand would probably hurt someone.

So as I’m rearranging my schedule and biting my nails at the thought of spending so much time at a place I am not incredibly found of, I got to thinking what might make the work onslaught a little easier. First thing that came to mind? Chocolate chip cookies. Random, yes, but also an excellent idea. Another idea was to break out the Panini maker that we got as a wedding gift that I’ve been itching to try out and stray away from the boring ham and cheese sandwiches Justin eats every single day (I usually go hungry because I’m lazy) and try some fancy sandwiches to keep us entertained throughout the impending week. As of right now I’ve added about 10 Panini sandwiches to my Recipe archive and still going strong. One website I found in my searches is absolutely amazing, Panini Happy. I highly recommend that site, and will definitely be using some of her amazing recipes this week!

I hope that some creative adventures in the kitchen will distract me enough from the workload for next week, and I truly hope hubby isn’t going to get sick of my creative adventures. Truth be told, he’s not quite as into my….creativity sometimes. I know once or twice (or, you know, a dozen) times I’ve made something for the two of us and he grins and bears it. He truly is a very supportive man, so I hope to impress him as well as fulfill my domestic duty to keep him full and content with some yummy sandwiches!

As long as life doesn’t get the best of me, I’ll try to take some pictures to share throughout next week, we shall see!

 

So you think you can write…

16,355 words! I am well above my daily word count, but I am terrified of running out of steam. I should not be blogging right now, I should be torturing my main character or something, but I can’t help it. I need a break.

I have found that having a little audience is kind of cool. My husband and a friend of mine are acting as drill Sargents in this writer’s boot camp, err… adventure in literary abandon.

I’m actually fairly proud of my work so far, although not editing along the way is hard; for Nano you’re supposed to basically vomit words out of your fingers onto a keyboard and see what you come up with. Then go back in December and vomit for real at what you wrote….kidding. I think. Anyway, I share:

“I actually have a question for you,” I looked at Michael. He looked back expectantly.
“Who is this Mansel that everyone seems to think is responsible for my situation. Is he nearby?”
Michael’s normally cheerful eyes seemed to darken and harden at the name. “We do not often speak of him around Bellathese.” He replied. His voice seemed to be shaking. “He is the sworn enemy of Rowan’s family, and the feud goes back many, many generations.”
“I was taken aback by Michael’s suddenly cold demeanor. He must have noticed the look on my face, for he tried to relax his posture.
“Would you like to hear a story?” He asked suddenly. “It’s an old story about this very village, beginning nearly two hundred years ago.”
“Absolutely,” I replied. “Tell me.”
“A long, long time ago,” Michael started, “Back when Rowan’s great-great-great….ah, to be honest, very many greats grandfather ruled over Bellathese, he had help in protecting our people by dragons.”
“Dragons?” I asked, “Real, fire breathing dragons?”
“Surely you know of few,” Michael said calmly. “But dragons are very sparse nowadays. There was something special about these dragons, however. Most dragons are very feral, they cannot be tamed and do not want to be in any sort of contact with humans. Not that we can blame them, man has hunted the dragons until there may not be even enough left to be breeding. But the Bellathese dragons, four in all, were dedicated to Rowan’s family and served them loyally. In return the Tuvalui family returned the respect and kindness to the dragons, offering them massive dwellings and offerings of livestock from the villagers. Bellathese was the safest place in all the land, after all, who would want to anger a dragon?”

I know my punctuation and my grammar is off, please be kind I also cannot spell, sorry about that as well.

My goal for the evening is another 2k. Off I go!

 

NanoWriMo

So I am off to an excellent start to Nano this year. I am currently sitting at 12,343 of 50,000 words. Basically I need to write a total of about 1,400 words a day until the 30th to reach the 50,00 mark. Can I do it? Who knows.

I feel like my book is finally starting to write itself, if that makes any sense. I find my characters making decisions and saying things that I didn’t necessarily have to plan out. I wrote an outline a couple months ago but that’s all blown to hell and for some reason I don’t care; I like what’s going on right now rather than what I meticulously planned out. It’s kind of amazing.

This is one of the scariest things I have ever done. The only thing that might possibly be more terrifying is when I go back to fix all my grammar mistakes and then….send out the manuscript. REJECTION! Good lord I am so freaking terrified about getting rejected by everyone i send it to. I’ve always wanted to write. I’ve always been told I am a good writer. What if the only people who tell me I’m a good writer simply don’t want to crush my delicate little childhood dreams?

Eep. If I can hit the 50,000 word mark by the end of November then I’m going to assume that I was meant to, and will be dedicating a lot more time (and probably a lot more booze…Hemmingway style!) towards getting myself published. Wouldn’t it be amazing?-

 

Visions of Houses Dance in My Head…

At this moment I am 2 hours into an 11 hour shift at work. On a Saturday.

I’m kind of a workaholic. It’s not that I love my job (ha) or get any real satisfaction out of the job itself, but when I have a goal to work towards I have the tendency to kind of overdo it.

Justin and I recently got pre-approved to buy a house, which is really exciting! The pre-approval has also made the experience much more real. It’s one thing to say, yeah, we’re looking for a house, blah blah, but it’s a completely different ballgame when you actually know you have the approval to back it up!

The future is semi-uncertain now as far as where we’ll be living months from now. I’d love to say we’ll be in our very first house soon, but the problem is is that we just have not found one we both love yet. It’s coming to the point where we may need to regroup and go higher than our high point now.. and our high point is $100,000! Buying a house is a scary thing when you think about the financial responsibility that comes along with it. I feel very lucky that Justin and I both have a great amount of job security, our company continues to do well and we have both been here for a long time. When I graduate I will continue to work here until I find a job that pays more, but that could still be quite awhile.

 

Baby, if You’re Good to Go We’ll Go Down to Mexico

I know, I’ve been meaning to post some pictures and talk about our honeymoon for awhile now. I am a slacker, I am sorry. But better late than never, right?
I think this is a very appropriate picture to start off with, don’t you? Haha. In case I didn’t mention, we went to Riviera Maya, Mexico. It was basically one of the best experiences of my life! The resort was immaculate, and it was all-inclusive, so we basically got to eat and drink as much as we wanted, and drink we did
This specific picture was taken at a restaurant outside our resort on one of the excursions we went on. We asked our server to take a picture of us, she did and left…then came back with these huge sombreros! It was pretty hilarious, as she didn’t speak much English at all and our Spanish is very rudimentary, but we were all laughing =) This was taken on our excursion to Tulum, an ancient Mayan City. I love culture and history! The city was amazing, and sometimes it’s hard to wrap your mind around how people lived in actual ancient history. Seeing a huge city that was built out of stone and the culture that surrounds it also puts into perspective how young our country is. America is a baby compared to all these other civilizations. Mexico was so full of culture and history, as well as beautiful sights and beaches, it was the perfect destination for us. Another thing about this specific excursion, and Mexico in general, is that it was hot. Hot Hot Hot! I’ve never been on a tour where they actually require you to have water. you’re not allowed to go into the tour group without water, which I thought was pretty interesting, as well as smart. The bottoms of my feet where actually getting hot, and every once in awhile we would have to stop and let them cool off a little bit. Coming from Pennsylvania this was a little unheard of. I don’t think our temperatures ever get hotter than maybe 105, and that’s only on very rare occasions every couple years. It was at least 105 down there most of the time!

One of the best aspects of our honeymoon, hands down, was the pool bar. The glorious, glorious pool bar! Here we are in a place we visited at least once a day, generally just to cool off and get in a little liqueur fix. haha. The bartenders were awesome, very attentive and funny. It sucks that my waterproof camera didn’t have a flash, but you get the general idea! Mexico isn’t as conservative, per say, as America is. We could smoke and drink in the pool anywhere, and they had ashtrays set up for us in the bar area.

Just look at that cutie! Haha. One thing I noticed, however, is that it is almost too hot to get drunk down there. We spent hours at the bar (and our would-be tab if it wasn’t all inclusive seriously would have paid for the trip and then some!) We just drank because everything they made was awesome! The bar was literally a bar. There were stools under the water that you would sit on, and the bar part was raised high enough to be comfortable but wouldn’t splash a ton of water on the inside. The best way I can explain the bar set up would be that it kind of reminded me of a dug out. It was built into the ground of the pool and stretched on for probably 30 feet so that different sides of the pool could get bar access. It was amazing! I really wonder if anyplace in the US has something like this, because I want to visit! They took two of my favorite things, swimming and booze, and joined them in a match made in heaven.

Believe it or not, we did not spend every waking hour at the pool bar, we went to the beach a few different times too…and there’s a bar on the beach, haha. There is nothing, nothing in my young life that has equaled to drinking margaritas on a Mexican beach with my husband. I’m pretty sure that was a little piece of paradise right there. And seriously, look at that water! Words cannot describe the color of the Caribbean Ocean. It’s the bluest blue and the greenest green you’ll ever see. People name shades of blue and green after the Caribbean but they simply cannot do it justice. There’s something about this ocean that nothing man-made could ever compare to. It’s amazing. And swimming in it! That water is clear! We went out to the very edge, as far as we could go before they roped it off, and I could still see my feet about 6 feet down. The water was so clear that we saw a fairly large fish a little ways away from where we were standing in the water. It scared the crap out of me, I won’t lie. It was probably about a foot long and was having a hard time getting back out into the sea due to the waves. I loved just relaxing in the waves and letting them carry us, it was truly relaxing. I really wish we lived closer to a beach, Lake Erie just won’t be able to cut it now! We got seriously spoiled with this beach, I’m pretty sure the Atlantic won’t be able to hold a candle to it, but I hope to make a comparison this summer A trip back to Mexico is absolutely in our future, but we’ll probably have to wait a couple years and settle for a closer beach.
This vacation was one of the high lights of my life. They say that things don’t really change once you’re married (especially after living together for two years) but I did feel a subtle change. This man I was with is not my husband, and there’s a certain kind of bond that comes along with that title. He’s my best friend and so much more, and to experience this amazing vacation with him was absolutely awesome. We got to do a lot of relaxing and just enjoying ourselves, not to mention all the eating and drinking we could manage, and it still oddly took a lot out of us! Haha. I was ready to sleep for a week when we got back, but unfortunately is was back to the real world, leaving our wedding and honeymoon almost like a dream. It certainly was a dream come true, and I cannot wait to go back to Mexico, or any other traveling in general with my brand new husband!

 

Nothing Great in the World has Ever Been Accomplished Without Passion. – G. W. F. Hegel

Wow, it’s really getting cold outside.

I’ve lived in Pennsylvania for about 99.5% of my life, but every year fall sneaks up and takes me by surprise. I blame my parents. They had me while living in sunny California and then moved us to western PA. If it were not for the fact that Justin lived over here on the East coast I would continue to be bitter.

I’m looking forward to starting my workout routine tomorrow, week 1 day 1 of C25K. I downloaded the itouch app and everything for it! I think I may have talked Justin into doing it with me, but the real test is trying to get him out of bed tomorrow. I’ll probably be on my own, unfortunately. I’m thinking of taking some “before” pictures of myself in the mirror in my bathing suit to kind of keep me motivated. It’s hard to keep yourself motivated with something like this, so I’m basically just going to try every trick in the book and see what happens. haha.

Another thing that I would like to accomplish this year is working on my novel some more. November is National Novel Writing Month. I always want to participate in this, but I usually bail a couple weeks in. Maybe I can really turn over a new leaf and get back to work on one of my life long dreams…publishing a book!

 

Dieting is wishful shrinking.

I really, really, really need to get back in shape.

I used to be in shape, before I found the love of my life and booze. I got comfortable, I got lazy, and I also got a desk job. Now the wine and beer has gotten the best of me and my love for cooking huge meals for just my husband and myself has taken over. So, I have a dream…

Justin picked out a hot little black dress for me before we started dating, I love it, and it doesn’t fit anymore. I asked him to take me to see RENT on Broadway in Pittsburgh for my birthday (one of my favorite musicals ever) and my goal is to get back into that dress for me and for my hubby.

I also would like to be in good physical shape for whenever we decide to get pregnant. It’s still a long way away, but it’s something I can’t help but think about.

I started taking Xenadrine before meals and have been drinking water like it’s going out of style. My next step is I’m going to start The Couch to 5K. I’ve always wanted to be a runner, but I am so not built like one. I’m hoping this program will help ease me into it. I don’t like the gym and our living room is just too much on the small side to do much exercise. I’m trying to talk my darling husband into starting to run with me, I think it would be a good way to spend time together, and we have some very pretty landscape near our home.

When the weather finally just becomes too awful to run outside I can turn to my college, which I have a membership to the gym because I’m a student.

I have a seriously major goal. I basically wanted to lose 65 lbs. altogether, and that’s a lot of weight. Losing that would mean that I would be back at the weight I was my senior year of high school and in the best shape of my life. I like to think that it isn’t obvious that I’ve gained that much in 4 years, and I’m very, very lucky that I’m tall, I can carry it all! haha.

But there you have it, hopefully I can get this accomplished =)