Christmas Indulgences

I received so many wonderful Christmas gifts.. a North Face jacket and NF fleece to wear under. A beautiful little Asian dining set.



Sephora gift card, PJs, scarves, lotions, candles, lottery tickets that won me $5.

Christmas Eve night I drove myself to the church play that my dad’s kids were in. I had to work until 4:30 and then I had to leave home by 6pm to make it there in time. So I had 1 hour to shower, wash my hair, wrap some gifts, and iron my pants. I didn’t end up washing my hair but that was okay because I had to stop on the side of the road to put some transmission fluid in my car on the way. I was kind of lost and I almost cried but it was Christmas and I was on my way to a function so I kept my shit together. I made it in time, go me! When I got home tonight that red bad boy was smokin’ but I will worry about that craziness tomorrow.

This is (from left) my dad’s wife, my dad, their kids, me, and my dad’s parents. You can’t even tell I had to be a mechanic less than 30 minutes earlier.



Today I went to my grandparent’s house. The older I get the more I appreciate these types of traditions.



Whatever this peanut butter chocolate powdered sugary chex concoction my cousin sent me home with is- and this hoodie from my grandmother- and good company – and some Holiday beverages :) have made my Christmas evening quite delightful. I will clean this wrapping paper mess up later when I worry about my smoking car.

A good good day

Wednesday morning I was digging through a bag full of bags in the bottom of my closet and upon yanking something out a single copper penny flew into the air and in slow motion came down and landed right in front of me as if it fell from the sky. So there I was. Sitting on my knees in my closet staring at this penny and a lucky feeling came over me and I said to myself: “today is going to be a good day.”

And a good day it was. I went to Fresh Market and bought some Christmas cards and Wild About Wasabi Mix which is sooo delicious. It has cashews and almonds and wasabi peas and all of the wasabi spice gets on the cashews. It’s good.

So needless to say I wasted much of my morning but if I hadn’t then I wouldn’t have been in the right place at the right time to formally meet (we waved to each other at a gas station once) my one-day adoptive father ROY WILLIAMS!!

While Christmas shopping in the Barbie aisle in Target I saw Marcus Ginyard and I was just like whatever because he is everywhere. Really. I saw him at the movies last week. And on Franklin St. almost every day during school. And at the grocery store. And eating breakfast in Panera. Everywhere. And then I noticed that I couldn’t get down the Barbie aisle because there were giants everywhere, which is when I realized that it was the UNC men’s basketball team. Still not really caring too much, though. Until I saw Roy. He was standing behind a rack of clothes talking to a Target stocking employee and when he saw me coming he knew what it was about. Yes. A photograph. He asked Coach Whoever to take our picture and told me that I had to instruct them on how to use my camera, which was on my iPhone. Roy listened in on the instructions and I was very strict and serious about holding the phone so still so it wouldn’t be blurry.



I was too embarrassed to ask him to adopt me and I knew the timing was inappropriate with us being in Target and all. ...And he’s recovering from his surgery and the guys were charity shopping.

I even did laundry in hell at the Laundromat at 6pm yesterday and came home still in a good mood. Now THAT’s a good day!

Budget Tree

I bought a tiny little live tree from a Christmas tree lot on Monday. I love Mondays. I would not change my Tuesday-Saturday work schedule for anything. I never have to deal with the Sunday night blues. And I get to spend Monday alone all day doing fun things like drinking an entire pot of coffee in the morning and scrounging around for cute stuff for cheap.

The guy at the tree lot tried to charge me $20 for this little thing because it came with a stand. I had to bargain with him. Twenty dollars for a twig tree is ridiculous. We settled at $10.

It only needed a string of 100 lights. And I wish it was more fragrant. It only smells like a Christmas tree if you wrestle with it while decorating… then your hands smell Chrsitmasy.


It looks happier in real life.

The tree top is just two ornaments.



I listen to Stephanie Miller every single day from 9am-12pm. She and her two giant Great Pyrenees just moved to NYC. She’s been talking every day about walking them around Central Park. It makes me wonder if she really walks them or if she has a dog walker. I liked seeing the dog walkers with 6 dogs in Central Park. I want to run into her in NY with her dogs so bad. She is so funny and smart and entertains me at my most desperate hours of the day. I make mental notes of her TV appearances but the TV is often hi-jacked for basketball watching. Boo. I only care if UNC is on and winning.

If nothing changes, nothing changes

Ebi is getting so big. He's 65 lbs now. We go to the vet every 2 weeks because he's allergic to grass and takes pills every day. When i put him on the puppy plan at PetSmart they made me start alllll over with his necessary-for-life shots. Now that he has everything he needs hopefully they will stop torturing me. Taking him to the vet is always hell. He doesn't understand that he is so big and wants to play with all the little 6 lb dogs that are there for their grooming.

For the most part he is really good but when he is bad, he is BAD. He has done some terrible things.. Like lock me out of the apartment. The bolt lock lays parallel with the floor when unlocked and he jumped up after I left to run outside REALLY QUICK (he stays in the crate during the day) and locked me out. Of course I embarrassed myself believing that there was a burglar inside who had locked me out and was stealing my... laptop and cereal?

If he were human he would wear glasses. I just know it.

In October I went to NY and that was really exciting. Chris and I ate dinner at Gordon Ramsey's restaurant and it was so delicious. They charge you a crazy amount of money and feed you probably about $7 worth of food. Chinatown was the most fun I had. It felt like a different country in some parts.



And next to Chinatown is Little Italy where we drank beers at 2:00 in the afternoon. I heard someone recommend a restaurant called Lee's Shanghai in Chinatown so next time I will try to find that because the place we ate at was terrible. I think Fall is the best time to travel to NY. It's not too hot or too cold and Central Park is so pretty.



Thanksgiving was a beast. When I was a kid I would watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV while my mom cooked. Our house would smell like brown sugary pecans as my mom hosted Thanksgiving at our house for my dad's entire family each year. It was always a lot of fun except for the part where she made me help her crazy-clean the house before their arrival and that one year she made me dress up as a Pilgrim and wear a bonnet.

Anyway, this year my ass was up at 5am snapping green beans. I made food to take to my Grandmother's house, ate lunch there, played hide-and-seek, came home, and went to Chris' co-worker's house for dinner. We were invited and could not turn it down because it was promised to be quite the festivity. And it was. We were participants in the annual pie-tasting contest that was a nightmare because they were all sweet potato pie. But it was really serious and there was a cash prize and a crown involved. My favorite person was the guy that knew his "baby was gonna win because she googled her recipe".

Today I am going to find a little Charlie Brown-ish Christmas tree and bring him home and decorate him. Ebi better not eat him. He loves wood and fragrant things so he will be tempted.

Discount puppy

Meet Ebi. Its spelling means 'shrimp' in Japanese. I got it off a sushi menu. I like sushi and he's going to be totally huge so it's kind of cute.

Lucky me

Today I bought myself the most expensive bag I've ever owned and I almost had an anxiety attack.

I have been staring at a brown leather Lucky Brand bag for years now. YEARS. I didn't get the one that I have been loving for a long time, but I did get this one.



I really like this bag a lot, and I considered it to be a wiser purchase because it's a crossbody bag, and you know how I feel about crossbody bags. They're necessary for me to function normally. With a bag like this my hands and arms are free, my ass is covered, and all of my necesseities can go with me anywhere.

Carolina in my mind

I never thought I would say this but I miss school. I don’t miss the being tired all the time and always having to study part, but I miss the whole student-identification part of it. I am still very much a student at heart. And with my job it’s easy to still feel that way because we’re required to read and study stuff all the time and that’s very student-like. I also still have very student-like behaviors. Like flip flops. I still live in them. And laundromats. I still take my dirty clothes there. And Whole Foods. I still get a home-cooked breakfast in a box. This morning I ate my breakfast in a box while doing my laundry in the Laundromat and this process made me feel “at home.” Like, I’m still young and student-ish because I was doing laundry at 9am on Monday morning while everyone else was at work (I work Tues-Sat).

Today was a hat day

My mom is moving so I'm having to pack my lifetime's worth of belongings up and transport it all in my tiny little car. Moving heavy, awkwardly shaped items in the daytime heat is not fun. I am becomming more and more convinced that I need a little closet-sized storage room because I have massive suitcases and so much stuff that I am unwilling to part with, but don't want to see every day.

I started on that project early this morning. Since I've been so busy lately I haven't seen my mom that often and she sends me dramatic text messages when she gets bored like "Are you dead?" No, but thank you for your concern. I surprised her at work today with this creamy, cheesy, crabby goodness that I made.



It's especially delicious if you stuff it in mushrooms like this and bake it in white sherry wine and garlic butter.



It's really fattening, but so delicious that the Olive Garden menu options will become a joke to you.

I have been wearing the hell out of my Tom's. I got the dark green ones and I also ordered the gray ones but they are back ordered. Last week when I was suffering over dirty clothes in a laundromat on Duke's campus I saw a cute girl with sparkly purplish-blue Toms and I wanted to steal them off her feet.

And I really need a bike. There is a safe and distant (from the road) sidewalk 3/4 of the way from where I live to my job and I want bike to work most mornings. I know that I have no business riding a bike on the street with cars passing by just yet, which is why I love the sidewalk so much. Anyway, I'm a little embarassed because what is most important to me is that the bike is mint green in color. I'm slowly coming to termswith the fact that this may not happen. My neighbors have a cute retro mint green cruiser that I'm in love with. I almost bought a $200 bike from Target but I'm afraid it will fall apart on me on the side of the road, so I'm doing some more research. I've seen quite a few bikes at the Bicycle Chain that I love. At first I thought I needed a "road bike," but now I think I need a "comfort bike." These are styles, I think. I'm probably going to order one soon and I'm so excited, even though it's definitely not going to be $200.

About nothin'

It’s 3am and I can’t sleep again. I think I’m just resisting it. I know I’m just resisting it.

I love reading the Sunday Secrets. There weren’t any that I really loved this week. Last week there was one that said something like “Letting go is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.” That one was my favorite. But there were naked man asses all over it so I’m sure it meant something different to me than it did to its creator.

I have some tasks I have to accomplish this week. Tasks that require me to go to bed and wake up at a reasonable time instead of doing like I am right now.

Tomorrow is the national championship game and I just know Carolina is going to win. It makes me wild knowing that’s my school. I probably wouldn’t care about college basketball this much had I not went to UNC. But when you go to the games you’re like “ohhhh, okay… I get it,” and then suddenly you really care about what happens when they play and that passion just stays with you.

Tonight I had dinner at a new authentic Vietnamese restaurant here in Durham and it was so cheap and delicious. When I first looked at the menu I was like “Oh, I can’t read this” because it was written in Vietnamese (I guess?) but a closer look allowed me the English description in smaller print. Their menu was rich with typos like it was written with an accent. “Include a bowl of Vietnamese soup.” I think they meant it includes a bowl of Vietnamese soup. We had Bun tom bo xao and ga xao nam dong co! Hahaha! The first was sautéed shrimp and beef with lemongrass and it was in a huge bowl with some interesting noodles over lettuce, cucumbers, mint, cilantro, bean sprouts, and some other stuff. The second was stir-fried chicken with shiitake mushrooms. And they gave you tiny little bowls so you could put some in the bowl and hold it up to get the noodles and rice in your mouth like you’re supposed to. I ate with my chopsticks like a pro. I have come a long way! I emailed the Carpe Durham people to let them know they need to get on this ASAP. There was some interesting stuff on the menu… like Black Bean Sweet Drink and stuff served in a clay pot, or cooked tableside, or wrapped in Hawaiian Leaf.

Other than that, this weekend lacked excitement. Tomorrow is Kelsey’s 2nd birthday so she blew out a candle for that today.





She’s so cute!

Beat down

This morning I had an interview scheduled with an important doctor and med school professor at Duke and he rescheduled on me so he could go running with his wife this morning. That shows you how important I am in the hierarchy of the "medical arena." Nevertheless, we ended up meeting later in the morning.

It started off a little rocky. He sat across from me in his yellow Ralph Lauren sweater over his plaid button-up with his head in his hands like “ohhhh I’m so important and busy I can’t even look at you.” Finally, after a few minutes of awkwardness he started elaborating on his research. We had a really long, helpful talk. He told me about his very first job the summer before he began undergrad at Duke and how he had to jump on trash in a dumpster to compact it, and now he sees that his employers were just trying to decrease his ego as well as the amount of trash. He gave me a lot of advice about getting into medical school and told me that it would all come down to what happens over the next two years. And how it doesn’t matter how convoluted your path is, if you just say to yourself “Dammit, I’m going to do it,” then you will do it. In his opinion, he said, medical school is an endurance race. You don’t have to be the sharpest knife in the box, but you have to be willing to keep cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting. He also told me “when you sit down for your med school interview three years from now, this is what you should say…..” He questioned me really hard about my future plans and how I’m going about accomplishing my goals. It was like a really hard grind. He gave me two compliments. 1- That he was impressed that I was not “flustered” by his questions and 2- That he was confident in me in the lab without even knowing me very well. He also told me that what I want to do is “absolutely attainable”. It was like a free motivational/advising meeting. It was the first time I had the opportunity to talk personally with someone like him and the advice he gave me will stick with me, and was well worth all of the drama that ensued afterwards…

Me, being the boy-girl that I am, paid for my prissy-resistant attitude today. I absolutely cannot carry a purse over one shoulder. I don’t know what my complex is with this but it is just so hard for me. I can totally handle a messenger-style bag that goes across my body, but I don’t mess with the shoulder bags. Well, the only brown one I have is kind of raggedy so I decided to leave it in the car and just carry in with me my phone in my pocket, my notebook in my hand, and my keys. Then I left my keys hanging on the coat-hanger on the back of the bathroom stall. When I went back for them they were gone. After about an hour of scavenger hunt style searching (and their aloof ignoring) with the Duke police, Lost and Found, Janitorial services, and Information desk I had no luck so I had to have the car towed from the fourth floor of the parking garage to a service center to have a new key made.

When the tow truck arrived we had to break into the car to put it in neutral to get it out of the parking space. Meanwhile, a lady passing by us in the parking area in her brand new BMW got smashed into by some guy trying to exit his parking space. He felt that if the tow truck wasn’t parked nearby then none of this would have happened because the lady wouldn’t have been hesitating to pass by. The police came and handled that.

Today was a challenge and I got beat up a little bit but I learned some valuable lessons. And I'm really sorry about that mishap with the brand new beamer. :-/

Mini Me

My little niece is so cute. Look at her eating edamame and watching the Carolina-LSU game on Saturday.



She always says “I want color,” “I want phone,” I want bubbles.” Sunday I found myself saying “I want dog” at the flea market in Raleigh. I was there wandering around and found that they were having a dog show. And I love love love huskies but I know I can’t have one until I’m an old dinosaur because I will need a yard for its wolf behavior and money for its obedience lessons. There were really pretty huskies and a lot of freakish looking dogs. Like a long haired greyhound that looked like it was ice skating instead of walking. And a lot of people grooming and vacuuming and curling their dog’s hair.



This lady had her little pooch on a table atop a stroller, which I’m sure is its home that it travels to the mall in. She was rolling her hair and that dog was so still for her.

No-makeup sick-face

I’ve been sick since last week!

This weekend I took a shower at my grandmother’s house (because the power went out at mine due to a broken main breaker or some electrical stuff that I don’t understand that couldn’t be fixed until Monday) and I realized that I forgot my hair dryer at home. I asked gma if she had one I could use and I came in the room to find her setting up this…





She was so serious. So funny!

Kelsey is looking at the “turtles in the wa-wa”. Wa-wa means water.

Peace

I have nothing to do but look for a job and practice painting my nails so I'm reading a book about a feminist who is trying to make changes at a magazine company ran by her sister’s husband to teach women to appreciate one another instead of always hatin’. The book is Miss Understanding. I got it for a quarter in a thrift store.

I had two job interviews last week. One was for a position that I really, really want and I’m counting down the days until I can start calling and harassing them. The other would just be very temporary until I find something else because it’s in an office. And I’m pretty sure they would beat me up if I ate lunch out of the Hello Kitty container.