Greenville Gossip

My darling hubby-to-be (just 3 more days!) sent this blog link to me today.  I could go into the whole back story as to why he thinks it would apply to me but I don’t have enough time/space to get to it.  Either way, I found that it really makes tons of sense and wanted to share.

I’ve been hard at work baking cookies, cupcakes and biscotti.  I also made up a chicken stir fry last night that included a bottled salad dressing.  I felt like Sandra Lee!  I found that the slow cooker is my new best friend.  Last week I made a Lasagna Stew that was out of this world and the easiest lasagna I’ve ever made.  It made me wonder why people still buy jars of Prego anymore.  Making your own sauce couldn’t get any simpler than this:

One 28 oz can of canned crushed tomatoes

One little can of tomato paste

One cup mushrooms, sliced

One onion, chopped

Two cloves garlic, minced

Two handfuls of baby carrots, chopped

Two Tablespoons of Mrs. Dash Italian seasoning

A Pinch of crushed red pepper

A meat of your choice (optional)

Brown meat, carrots, onion and garlic in a saucepot for about 5 minutes.  Add in canned tomatoes, tomato paste and seasonings and simmer the sauce for 15-20 minutes.  You can pretty much go anywhere from this point.  Add to noodles, use a hand blender and use it as pizza sauce; if you didn’t use meat, it could be a marinara sauce.  This is a starting point, by no means the end-all be-all of sauce recipes, so experiment before you give up on homemade sauces altogether.  Down with Prego!

Chapter 3–Motivation

 The day after, I was motivated enough to shower and get dressed.  I didn’t fix my hair, do my makeup or leave the couch.  I watched 8 hours of tv straight and was wearing sweatpants and a really old sweatshirt that I find comforting any time I put it on.  I didn’t eat much.  Never left the house.  Didn’t read a book.  Didn’t even bake anything–my go to activity when I’m home all day.  Did I mention that I was also bored beyond belief?  I was bored but had zero motivation to get off of the couch.  It felt weird.  I couldn’t do anything about it.  The next day I went to a career continuation class that my company provided for me and it felt great to leave here.  The day after that I made 6 dozen cookies and got some info about insurance.  It wasn’t so bad anymore.  If I hadn’t had that class though, my motivation may have taken longer to get back here. 

Chapter 2–TV is the enemy

Or like that “Bad Boy” that you date because you know he’s bad for you.  I have to admit, I’ve watched more tv in the past 2 weeks than I know I should’ve.  I know that from 6am to 7am, I’ve got nothing to watch except for old Tivo-ed episodes of Family Guy and that from 7am to 11am, it’s all Lifetime, all the time.  After 11am, it’s pretty much anything goes, some Law and Order some Food channel.  The fact that I have a schedule at all is a little sad.  I can’t help it though.  Every day I try to get outside or at the very least, turn the tv off for 1 hour.  It makes me feel productive just to turn it off but on the other hand, it makes me feel less “lonely” with it on.  The familiar voices of Betty White, Debra Messing and Sam Waterston comfort me somehow.  I know that the biggest change–or at least it is for me–with losing a job is losing the social factor.  I spent 40 hours a week with a group of 6 people and it’s been suddenly taken away from me.  Sure, I can email or call or even visit, but it’s not the same anymore.  That’s why tv has become my new team of 6 people, because it’s nice to hear another voice in the room–and no, I’m not going crazy.

Chapter One: Who am I?

I was always one of those people that said, “My job is what I do, not who I am” and firmly believed in it.  Well it’s been 2 weeks since my position was eliminated and I’m beginning to rethink that statement.  In the morning I get up and make Derek lunch–which was something I did before so don’t think I’ve become some doting housewife–and make coffee.  We watch the news, just like before and then Derek leaves for work.  That’s when things become glaringly obvious to me.  I have no responsibilities.  Now 3 weeks ago if this was my day I would’ve been ecstatic.  A whole day of nothing to do but watch tv and drink coffee in my jammies?  Sign me up!!  It’s WAY different when that’s become your typical day.  It’s boring to watch tv everyday when you know that you’ll be doing exactly the same thing until YOU YOURSELF find a full-time reason to turn off the tv again.  Don’t misunderstand me, I know this is temporary and by Christmas at the latest, I will have found a new job that makes me happy, but right now, today, this blows.  So, who am I?  I am an intelligent, capable woman that spends her days baking (one of my passions in life) and relaxing.  Not so bad once I figured it out….Stay tuned, chapter 2 is next!

I think I have found the one form of exercise that keeps me coming back–cycling.  This past fall I begrudingly took a spin class that was starting up at the gym.  I thought it might be hard but I can bike outside fairly well so it couldn’t be that tough.  Ummm yeah.  Not so much.  Midway through I felt like I was going to throw up, pass out and cry in that order.  Biking outside is nothing like a spin class!  What really shocked me was that in the midst of my general discomfort, I still was having fun–smiling even.  Sure I couldn’t sit down for a week because my butt hurt so bad and my legs felt like jell-o, I felt alive.  Like every part of me was electrified.  I had to go back the next week, I was hooked.  I took 3 classes in a row and dropped a pant size, then I was addicted.  Since then I’ve been going regularly and have even started saving up for a road bike of my own so I can start doing bike tours around the state.  It may have took me awhile but I’m so glad I found an activity that doesn’t feel like a chore….

I came back to work today after a lengthy vacation–of which I spent all of in WI with a cold–to find my boss had sent me the forms to fill out for my performance appraisal.  Also requested was a end of January completion time.  I am terrible at these things.  I can fluff my way through all of the “What did you accomplish this year?” kinds of questions but when it comes to the “Where do you want to go and how?” stuff I end up doing things like I am now: surfing the Internet and blogging (I hardly blog so you know I’m really trying to waste time).  I just don’t know what I want to do.  I know I want to be employed and making more money than I do right now but you can’t really put that on an official document without suffering some consequences.  It’s really weird considering I’m such a planner and I hate not knowing what’s in store for me.  Maybe my fear of future doesn’t involve my career path.  I think that I don’t worry about that so much is because I’ve always landed on both feet, job-wise.  I know I’ll always have a position here so I don’t worry about it.  Maybe this isn’t a bad thing at all.  Maybe it’s a stance I should adopt into the rest of my life……

It’s amazing really.  I’m 28 years old and the week before Christmas is still the most agonizingly long week imaginable.  I blame my mother.  She always makes Christmas special because she really goes all out for it.  The tree is thickly coated with ornaments with special memories, the house is decorated inside and out, gifts are picked out with each person in mind and the gift wrap–holy crap the gift wrap!  I’m sure she’s got enough wrapping supplies to cover the house from top to bottom.  She just really gets into it, therefore so do I.  I don’t know anything else.  My dad was always the Scrooge of the family.  Well, maybe he never was a Scrooge but just someone to ground the rest of the family from going completely overboard.  I suppose by contrast he did look Scrooge-ish.  A list of some of my favorite Christmas memories:

• Running down to the end of the street in my pajamas and sneakers to get the next clue in my Dad’s annual present scavenger hunt.
• Opening the ornament my mom buys me every year
• Eating scrambled eggs with tons of onions in them for brunch at my Grandma and Grandpa’s house
• All of the weird “St. Nick” gifts that my dad’s family gives each other.  One year everyone received little Lego person pieces.  Strange but true.

Take this list of the top 100 movies from the IMDB and bold the movies you have seen. (I’m not sure where this is originally from). This list is from May 2004.