The moment when it all hits you at once and you can't help but sob uncontrollably

Ever had one of those?

Last night, I did. Bawling my freaking eyes out, hiccuping and not able to catch my breath, nose all stuffed up and now unable to breath through my nose....I was a hot mess.

And to see how I ended up there:

8:20- The day started out fine. I got up early and left my house 55 minutes before an interview for a job that I am extremely interested in. GPS and Mapquest both tell me it takes 25-35 minutes to get there. I should have plenty of time, no problems.

8:30-ish.- Driving, driving, driving. Shit. Traffic. Look at estimated time of arrival. Still got plenty of time (phew, this is why I leave early).

8:45- Traffic picks up and I continue driving. GPS says I'm less than seven miles away and I still have half an hour before my appointment. No worries.


8:50- Fuuuuuck. What's that in the middle of the road? Shit, cars on both sides of me-can't switch lanes. Shit shit shit shit....well, I guess I'm going over it.


Clunk clunk, shake shake, rattle rattle. Car not working right. Everything is shaking. Shit shit shit shit shit.

8:51- Pull over. Look underneath car, nothing is there. Okay, I can keep going. Try to get back onto the highway and again, clunk clunk, shake shake, rattle rattle.

8:52-Okay, this isn't good. This really really isn't good. Call my father for reassurance. Tells me to call AAA.

8:52- Call interview, explain what happens, try to reschedule. Was told call back in the afternoon to reschedule. Thank them, apologize, reiterate how much I am interested in this position.

8:53- Call AAA. Wait for a tow truck. Call car dealership-let them know I am having my car towed and to please have a loaner ready. I have another interview in the afternoon. Loaner not available. Ummm, part of the deal I had when I purchased the car...fuuuuuck. Now wondering if I will be able to get to my second interview. Want to scream, but start laughing.

8:55-Wait on side of the road with cars flying by. Watch my interview time come and go. Now, I have to pee and am starving. Yell at myself for not eating breakfast. Still waiting for tow truck.

9:45-Tow truck comes, creepy guy who I can't understand tows my car to the dealership and I sit in awkward silence.

Creepy guy charges me over a 100 to tow my car. Fuuuuck. I'm broke. That's just what I need.

10:30-Car gets brought in. Talk to service dude. Wait for loaner car.

11:30 -Still waiting for loaner car. Dad comes to pick me up and I let him take me to Panera across the street for lunch.

12:30-Loaner car becomes available. Just enough time to head over to second interview.

1:00-While driving to second interview, call Ryan and tell him to make a doctors appointment for the teenager ASAP (teenager has horrible case of poison ivy). Doctor's appointment set for 3:00, asks me if I can take him. Yeah, sure. As long as I am done with my interview.

1:05- Call the first interview to reschedule. "Well, it turns out that there were quite a few applicants over the past few days so they actually extended an offer to someone. Thank you and good luck." Clikc. Fuuuuck. Not happy. Want to scream.

1:07- Call Ryan, upset. "Well, that could have been you". Yeah, thanks. It should have been me

1:30- Arrive at interview fifteen minutes early. Breath. Go to bathroom and attempt to freshen up. Take deep breaths.

1:35-Let receptionist know I am here. Shown the waiting area. Sit and wait. Watch clock tick by. Get annoyed thinking that if I need to be at doctors on time with he teenager, I need to leave by 2:30 at the latest.

1:45- Still waiting. Still watching the clock tick by. Interview was scheduled for this time.

2:00- We'll be right with you.

2:01- Go in for interview. Immediately like the people. Warm-up easily and feel confident about this. Not overly confident, but feel like I did well and that's all I can do.

2:45- Leave interview. Call the teenager and tell him to get ready, shoes on and outside waiting.


2:50- Call dealership. No update on my car.

2:53- Call doctors office. Tell them I am going to be late. Sorry. "There is a ten minute policy but we can do our best." Shiiiit

2:54- Text message from Verizon. You have gone over your minutes and will be charged until your next pay cycle begins. Awesome. I love spending more money that I don't have

3:00- Pick up teenager, swing car around and head to doctor. Thankful the doctor is only a few minutes away

3:10- Sitting in waiting room.

3:15- See doctor. "Yep, teenager, have a bad case of poison ivy." Walked out with a prescription to help aid the healing process

3:30- Drop teenager off at home and head to pharmacy to pick up his meds

3:45. Don't have his insurance card with me. Wait for Ryan to meet me at pharmacy.

4:15- Still waiting. Read magazine.

4:40- Ryan brings me insurance card.

4:45 Leave pharmacy

5:00- Home. Cook dinner. Work on summer reading with the teenager. Plan to watch movie together. Phew, finally feeling like my day is winding down

5:30- Dinner is almost done.

5:35- talk to Dealership. "Yeah, you have some problems with you car. You might want to call your insurance company." How bad? "Well, problems with this, this, that, this, and that." Over my head. All I heard was this, "Initial estimate is $3739 and some change." Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! Want to scream and cry

5:40- Teenager's friend calls and invites him over. Ryan says yes. I get annoyed. No. We're about to have dinner..... in the middle of finishing up his summer reading...he needs to take his medicine....makes you tired.....take with food.....I've had a bad day.....something about a movie....think Ryan should have double checked with me about this....overreact over something petty.

5:50 -Pick a fight with Ryan. Scream at each other. Storm out of the house.

6:00-Call friends, need place to go while I bug out and try to calm myself down. Can't go into a store or restaurant. Not wearing a bra. Fuuuuuck . Call best friend. Cry hysterically to her and complain

6:20- Best friend calms me down. Let's me bitch to her. Says all the right things. Thankful for her.

6:45-Go home. Lock myself in my room and curl up Mulder

7:30-Go to living room. Apologize and explain to Ryan what I am feeling, thinking, etc. Turn into a blubbering mess. Cry uncontrollably to him. Everything hits me all once and I continue sobbing until I can't breath.

Needless to say, I'm glad yesterday is over.


(I just got off the phone with the insurance company and now I'm feeling slightly relieved)

Ooops. Totally overreacted yesterday. Glad today is a new day.

Friend Making Monday-10 Things That Make Me Happy

Aaaah, Monday. We meet again. It is Friend Making Monday though and after a busy weekend (where I completed 4 things from my 101 in 1001 list-read about it tomorrow), I feel ready for Monday. Weird, huh?

Anyways, Friend Making Monday...here's what Kenlie writes:

"If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

I found this last week and decided to join in on the fun again this week. 

10 Things That Make Me Happy

1. Puppies.  Seriously, there is nothing better than a puppy sitting on your lap or curled up next to you. Puppies and dogs are instant smiles for me.

The day we took Mulder home

Love this one of Mulder. 

2. When Ryan and I finish each others sentences or say the same thing at the same time. For some reason, it makes me feel good knowing that we think similarly.

3. The tree in girls area. Let me explain. Throughout my childhood and adolescence, I went to an overnight camp as both a camper and a counselor. During my last few summers as a counselor, a bunch of us would gather around this one particular tree in the middle of girls area and read. That's where I fell in love with reading

4. Dancing. There are times when I hear music and it literally hurts from the inside to sit still.


5. Which leads me to "So You Think You Can Dance"

6. Moments when the teenager feels well deserved pride. Like last week, he finally did a pull-up on the pull-up bar we've had for over a year. He has been trying and trying all year long and he finally did it. Watching him finally do the pull-up and seeing the smile on his face was priceless and it is one of my favorite moments with him.

7. The girls. I know I've spoken about them before but I can guarantee I will be laughing till my stomach hurts when i am with them, especially if we play the dirty name game.

8. My afternoon phone calls with my best friend, Julie. We don't live near each other so we spend most of our friendship over the phone.

9. The feeling of going to bed without having to set your alarm for the next morning.

10. Nieces and nephews. I promise I am not being biased, but these little ones are the cutest!

Your turn to answer this week's questions and link back up.

Debate of the day: Smoky Olive or Mark Twain Olive

Since having the paint samples spread over the fireplace and taped along the walls for a few weeks, I made a decision on a whim to finally get this process going. 

paint chips everywhere

It takes me weeks to choose a paint color. I start with one sample I like and then the pile grows into a massive collection that I need to stare at for weeks. And in every case, I have always come back to the original sample)

Ryan wanted something "green" and not "gap khaki" while I wanted something that works with all the other elements and was neutral enough to work with future furniture purchases (think bar/pub table and new couches). I think the walls are too similar to the color of the couches but since we wont have these couches forever, I'm overlooking that. 

We I (who am I kidding, I had the final decision on this one) ended up choosing  a sage/olive green called "Smoky Olive" (not Mark Twain Olive as I previously thought) with the eggshell finish by Valspar signature collection. 

Thanks to the help of two friends, we were able to get the general living room area completely painted in one weekend.


Before:

During: 

Mulder decided that laying down on the sheets would be the best way to help.                        

                            

                             

                             

                     

                     

                                     

                                       

                            

After: 

I still have to put the vents back into the walls and hang up some of the pictures but to get a general idea...

I think this picture reflects the color of the walls the best.

Beautiful natural lighting makes for difficult pictures with a cellphone camera

I've been working on a complete before/after post of the living room so check back soon for that. 

What happens when you press delete by accident

I just spend two hours writing up a post, complete with pictures, recipes, and everything. I pressed publish. It went up. Great.

I went into the draft section, in an attempt to clean up some draft posts and work on those and in the midst of doing that, managed to delete the post that I had already published for the day. The one that I spent two hours on. Shiiiit.

Ooops.


Here is the much abridged version:

I don't like grocery shopping.

Mulder is cute.

I started a 2000 piece puzzle as part of my 101 in 1001.

Perimeter completed

Still can't quite figure out bloglovin.

I made triple bean veggie burgers. The mixture looks like dog vomit (as Ryan claimed) but tastes pretty good. Recipe and pictures to come another day.

School is out for the summer. I'm only working a few hours in the afternoons this summer and pretty happy about the time off.

Just started watching How I Met Your Mother. Love it.

It's raining and I am going to use that as the perfect reason to have a marathon session with How I Met Your Mother


Girls Night tonight. Yay. Makes me happy.

Amy Yakima  on So You Think You Can Dance was unbelievable this week. I have a feeling she will win this season.

Question for you?
Have you ever spent a significant amount of your time on something and then it all goes to waste?

100 Things About Me

       It has been a whirlwind of a week with the school year coming to an end and some things in my life that are left to the unknown. I haven't even had the chance to go food shopping this week, let alone cook a real dinner. I'm looking forward to this weekend -so far, no major plans: dinner with my parents on Saturday night and  I hope to start getting some after pictures of the house so I can start posting about them. I may go to Lowe's and start looking at paint colors for the other rooms in the house.

Anyways....
      I started working on my 101 in 1001 list and I can officially cross this off my list! 1 down, 100 more to go!
      I had been working on this list for a while, just gathering random thoughts. I seriously didn't anticipate being this difficult to come up with a 100 things about myself.



1. Pink is my favorite color-pink water bottle, pink cell phone case, ipad cover, key chains. I tried -unsuccessfully- to convince Ryan to let me paint the inside of the walk-in closet  hot pink.
2. Birds and fish freak me out.
3. I looooooooove dogs, especially really big dogs. (See #22)
4. I am a speech-language pathologist
5. I cannot resist chocolate
6. I spent my summers growing up at a Jewish overnight camp-I still consider it my favorite place to be. I went there as a camper for 7 years and 6 as a counselor.
7. My brother married a camp girl.
8. I pee a lot (sorry, TMI?)
9. Because I pee a lot, I wake up at least 2-3 times a night. I can't remember the last time I slept through the whole night.
10. I am the world's worst singer.
11. I can recite nearly every line in the show, Friends, and am pretty sure I could answer almost any trivia question about the show.
12. I know every word in Ice Ice Baby.
13. I prefer drinking out of a straw.
14. This all started in high school when I had those clear braces that turned yellow if you weren't extremely careful.
15. I moved to Florida from the Boston area for two years to attend grad school and didn't know a single person.
16. I name my dogs after TV show characters-First was Bauer (24), now I have Mulder (X-files). I really want my next dog to be named Mr. Feeny. ( I also want my next dog to be a French Mastiff but I have to convince Ryan-he is anti-slober; I'm not.)



Bauer

One of my favorite pictures of Bauer

Bauer

Sleeping Mulder

17. I am obsessed with So You Think You Can Dance.

18. I was also quite obsessed with 24, specifically Jack Bauer (hence #16.)
19. I always shave my left leg first and put my contacts in starting with the left eye.
20. But I always remove my right contact first.
21. I am a grammar nerd (except when I am blogging-I excuse myself from this because I just want to type fast.)
22. I grew up with a 300 pound English Mastiff. His name was Windsor and he was such a good dog.

Size difference or what.

23. My mother used to trick me into eating salmon when I was a kid by referring to it as "pink chicken."
24. I still have (and cuddle with) my stuffed animal. His name is Tim. I got him when I was a baby and recently got my newborn nephew his very own Tim.

Original Tim on the left, sans eyes, nose and mouth. Clean  Tim on the right

25. I keep a running list of the books that I have read since I was in college. I'm up to 130 right now.
26. I grew up dancing-it is still one of my favorite things to do. I cannot sit still when I hear music.

June 1987-My 1st dance recital

2001 Senior Dance Company
Tap

27. Unfortunately, my body was absolutely not meant for dancing. I have had my right hip completely reconstructed because of that.
38. I also broke my left ankle multiple times from dancing. The first time I broke my ankle, I walked on it for 10 days before going to the hospital.
39. My left index finger was cut off right before my 9th birthday.
40. That's why I celebrate 9 1/2 finger day each year.
41. I have the most handsome nephew in the whole world.

42. I have been skydiving-twice.

43. I have a bit of a daredevil side to me.
44. But I will never consider going bungee jumping -something about the possibility of whiplash terrifies me.
45. I am 4'11'' and a half. That half is extremely important to me.
46. I also have a bit a 90-year old woman side to me- I thoroughly enjoy puzzles, knitting, reading, etc.
47. I love folding laundry. I find it relaxing
48. The same way my mother finds vacuuming relaxing and my grandmother thinks ironing is relaxing.
49. I am still friends with my "girls" from high school. Our group has grown over the years, and I am beyond grateful for my friendship with them.
50. When Ryan and I went on our first date, I asked my friend to call me in the middle of the date to proclaim "something bad happened" as a get-away plan in case I needed it.
51. I ended up texting her in the middle of the date to abort the fake emergency call because I was going to marry Ryan.
52. I can't fall asleep without socks on my feet but I kick them off every single night. There are piles of socks gathered at the end of the bed when I change my sheets.
53.  I would prefer to be too cold over being too hot.
54. I love the beach-it is my favorite place to read a book but I don't really care for going in the ocean or getting all sandy.
55. I really dislike taking out the trash.
56. I recently starting drinking and really appreciating craft beer.
57.My favorite movie is "Adventures in Babysitting"-I used to quote the line "don't fuck with the babysitter" when I was a kid. (I still do).
58. And my all time favorite song is Mr. Big's, "To Be With You".
59. I can burp like a truck driver-on command.
60. When I was in college, I didn't know how to cook so I would have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches delivered to me.
61. I want to become fluent in sign-language.
62. My favorite place I have traveled to is Florence, Italy when I went to visit my sister who was studying abroad there.
63. I get weird satisfaction out of making and crossing things off of a to-do list.
64. I crack my knuckles and my hips frequently. When I crack my hips, I lift my leg up, like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant and then lean forward. People always think I am farting when I do this (I don't do this at work or in public.....often.)
65. Despite my insane love for all things chocolate, if I had to pick just one food to eat for the rest of my life it would be Quakers maple and brown sugar oatmeal.
66. At one point, I had 10 piercings (three on each ear, plus two in my left cartilage, my belly button, and my tongue.)
67. The tongue ring came out very shortly after my parents found out. (That didn't go over so well.)
68. I love Sudoku.
69. My favorite book is Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper.
70. I have horrible luck with computers-they tend to break when I am around.
71.  My first crushes were Johnny Castle (not Patrick Swayze) from Dirty Dancing and Jesse Katsopolis from Full House. ( I had/still have a thing for a good head of hair.)

72. I don't like biting into apples because my chin feels sticky the rest of the day.
73. I once met Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston when they came to my dance recital. Bobby Brown even signed my ballet shoe.
74. I can't whistle.
75. My favorite flowers are calla-lillies.
76. I still hold my nose when I swim.
77. I am an overly-cautious driver.
78. I sleep on the left side of the bed.
79. I could be very content sitting on the couch all day with a puzzle (nerd alert.)
80. My first concert was New Kids on the Block.
81. Growing up, my comfort food was chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn mixed up in a bowl.
82. My grandmother makes the greatest chocolate chip cookies-it took my nearly 26 years to get the recipe from her.
83. She also made me promise that I would never give the recipe away.
84. I tend to fall asleep when watching a movie.
85. Foods I dislike: popcorn, olives, pickles, cottage cheese, blueberries.
86.  I am anti-twitter.
87. If I have a bad day, or something horrible happened, all I want to do is take a nap. My mother started referring to these as my "denial naps."
88. I went to college in upstate New York and grad school in Florida. Complete opposites climates and atmospheres.
89. I've only been snowboarding a handful of times but I got the hang of it pretty quickly and I love it.
90. Except that I suck at getting off the ski lift and have to have someone push me off.
91. I hated skiing the one and only time I went.
92.  My earliest memories are of my mother putting my hair in pigtails and curling my hair with a curling iron. The other memory is going to visit my grandfather in the hospital and eating a package of M & M's (refer to #5)
93. I would love to learn how to ride a motorcycle.
94. I won't wear white pants/shorts/capri's.
95. I am good at memorizing vocabulary terms.
96. I enjoy cooking and baking, even though I am not that great at it.
97. If I could meet one person, it would be a tie between Travis Wall and Mia Michaels (See #17.)
98. My father and I both have a thing for old fashioned clocks. I love that we have very similar taste and styles when it comes to decorating, style, and design...old world, wood, brown leather, etc.
99. My mother and I have completely opposite taste. She is very modern, art-deco, contemporary.
100. Writing this list was a lot more difficult than I anticipated.



DONE! Now, I get to cross something off a list, put $5.00 in my savings account as part of my 101 in 1001 list, and feel accomplished for the day! Wahooo

Recipe for Fiddleheads

I have been working for a while on 101 in 1001 list and it is finally finished. My 101 activities/goals to do in 1001 days will be posted very very soon. Very excited for it!

And just to keep you smiling, happy Monday morning from this guy:

I wanted to get the fiddlehead recipe officially down on paper? blog..so I could post it and put it up on the recipe page. I didn't really measure anything or time it so use your own judgement

What you need:

fiddleheads (I used about two handfuls)

olive oil

sea salt

chopped garlic (I probably used 4 large cloves but keep in mind that we like things really garlick-y around here)

1. Wash fiddleheads very well...rinse, rinse, rinse. Trim the ends. I also pulled off a lot of the foliage looking crap. 

2. Bring salted water to a rapid boil. 

3. Meanwhile, heat olive oil and add in  chopped/minced -whatever- garlic. 

    

4. When water is boiling, add fiddleheads until bright green, about 4-7 minutes or so. I guess. (Not sure).  Drain fiddleheads and immediately rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process. 

((When I was making these, I turned off the heat on the skillet at this point and just let the garlic continue infusing into the oil as I was waiting for the rest of the dinner to come together))

5. Saute fiddleheads in the garlic/oil mixture for a minute or two, add sea salt. 

6. Serve. 

Since it was just us, I didn't bother with real dishes. We didnt even use utensils. Yep, sometimes we eat with our hands. 

I also want to give the disclaimer that I am not a photographer. I am using the camera on my phone. Good enough. 

Yummies

 I was greeted by this guy, bright and early this morning, who was very ready to go outside.
 He was READY to get out the door after he spotted a squirrel. There is nothing funnier than watching Mulder chase after a squirrel once it has run up a tree. Mulder tries to jump, climb, dig...anything to get up the tree to get that squirrel.

Anyways,
I attempted to do this workout last night when I got home from work. I was in the middle of it when my phone rang from a friend who I don't talk to that often. (Actually, I talk to his wife/my best friend nearly every day) so I picked up the phone to chat and then gave up on my workout. Friendships are more important to me :)

I liked the concept of doing as many rounds as possible in a four minute interval followed by a one minute rest.  So, I am using the same format for my workout tonight:

8 minute warm up of as many rounds as possible: 50 jumping ropes, 20 bicycle crunches, 20 alternating lunges
4 minutes of as many rounds as possible: 10 burpees, 10 over head presses in holding squat position
1 minute of rest/stretch
4 minutes of as many rounds as possible: 20 jumping jacks, 5 up/down planks
1 minute of rest/stretch
4 minutes of as many rounds as possible: 10 mountain climbers, 10 tricep dips
1 minute of rest/stretch
4 minutes of as many rounds as possible: 10 jump-tucks, 10 leg raises
3 minute of rest/stretch
This will round out to a total of 30 minutes. I'm going to turn the ringer off to my phone so there will be no distractions this time!


Anyways, I posted about this recipe when I gave the recap of the bbq that we had a few weeks ago.

When my grandmother made these while I was growing up, I started referring to them as "yummies" and the name stuck. I'm assuming they were originally called Oatmeal Squares or something equally as boring.  I don't know why, but she stopped making them for a while and recently I asked her about the "yummies". An hour later, she called me back telling me she dug through her old recipes and found the recipe for the yummies. They are a big hit in my house, and even the teenager (who is reluctant to try any new food) was eager to taste these.

I convince myself they are healthy because they are made with oatmeal. That makes them healthy, right? And if I use sugar free preserves, it must make them even healthier. Obviously.


They are ridiculously easy to make and best of all, don't require a lot of dishes. I literally used one mixing bowl, one measuring cup (the 1/4 cup measuring cup), a small dish to melt the butter, and the 1/4 tsp measuring spoon. Oh, and a spatula to mix and spread it.


Here is what you need:

1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup melted margarine
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

10 oz. jar of apricot (or any flavor) preserves.

Mix all the ingredients, except the preserves, in a bowl. It will be a thick, lumpy like consistency. Spray a 9x 13 pan and spread a layer of the mixture on the bottom, reserving about a cup or so of the mixture for the crumb topping.

Use a spatula, or your hands, to press the mixture down, covering the entire area. (It will seem really thin).
Spread the apricot preserves, leaving a one-inch or so border along the perimeter.

 



Sprinkle the crumb mixture on top.

 Bake at 350 for 22-28 minutes, until crust begins to turn a golden brown.

Let cool and then cut into squares.

Warning: The preserves are extremely hot when coming out of the oven, so resist eating right away!

Enjoy!!!!