Social Gaffe Cafe

Sometimes I wonder why I'm even allowed out in public. But, really.

I was eating a late lunch at Panera. After I had finished my meal, I slung my backpack over my shoulder and I had my purse in one hand and the discarded lunch tray in the other. I walked to the trash can, promptly dumped all the contents of my plate into the trash and set the plastic plate in the bin for used dishes. As soon as I set my plate down I realized that I had just thrown out a metal spoon and knife. And NOT in the washing bin where they were supposed to go, where there was already a nice little pile of silverware.

Luckily, I am quite skilled in the art of social gaffes. I quickly glanced into the trash can, saw it was only half full, spied my spoon and knife, and did one small peek to see if anyone would notice. Acting as if everything was normal (I mean, who doesn't reach inside public trash cans?) I grabbed my two utensils and placed them safely in the washing tub. With one quick sweep of the room I convinced myself that no one had seen or truly cared about what I had just done, since there were no collective shocked faces or rude stares and angrily pointed fingers. Pulling my backpack higher on my shoulder, I trudged out the door and into the rain.

I have the best Papi

So I was surfing the web when I noticed a slight stirring in my stomach: a sure sign I hadn't eaten in a long time. I hesitated because it was almost midnight and I didn't want to get out of my comfortable bed and go make a snack...

...when my father got home from work and announced, "Guess what leftovers I brought home?"

Perfect timing.

And since I know my father well, I knew by his proclamation that he had brought something home I highly prized AND he was willing to share his food with me.

So I hopped out of bed and high-tailed it to the kitchen.

Turns out Papi had brought home some home-made tortillas from a Mexican restaurant we sometimes frequent (because of the tortillas) and was already heating them up on the skillet.

These tortillas are amazing because not only are they home-made from scratch and preservative free, but they are so thick and FLUFFY.

Divine heavenly goodness.

Hot and fresh tortillas with melted butter? Yeah, probably one of my all time favorite foods.

What a nice Papi.

New Year's Resolutions for 2010

1. Eat 365 apples this year. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Plan of action: My goal is 365 by the end of the year. If I accidently forget to eat 1 some day then I can still make up by eating 2 apples the next day or another time. To keep track of my progress I will keep a calendar next to my bed and I’ll post a sticker on the day I eat an apple and multiple stickers if I eat more than one. (I’m completely motivated by stickers, surprisingly.)

2. Write 365 blog posts this year.

It doesn’t matter how many I do per day, if I skip a day, I just need to have a tally of 365 by the end of the year. And I’m not going to be picky about my blog posts either, if I just write a couple sentences complaining of a cold, that’s fine. Or if I write 10 entries in one day, that’s perfectly acceptable as well. My thought is to just get in the habit of writing every day and become a better writer.

3. Work out regularly.

I want to be healthy and in shape, I want my immune system to fight off colds better, so if I start exercising more regularly I think that will help. My plan is to go to the gym a couple times a week and on the days I can’t go to the gym I’ll do the Pilates DVD I got for Christmas.

4. Do 100 crunches everyday.

This kind of ties in with the above resolution, but I figure if I am so completely exhausted from my crazy school/work schedule and come home to find I haven’t done anything this will be my handy dandy backup plan. I’ll write it down on my calendar when I do the crunches.

5. Don’t eat any food after 8pm each night.

This is just to be healthy. I’ve read that you aren’t supposed to eat late at night because your body doesn’t digest it and it becomes unwanted fat. So I’m going to try this for a year and see how it works out. I’ve done it for the past week and I already feel better.

6. Get completely caught up on my book reviews blog.

I have a really bad habit of writing partial reviews and then getting distracted and leaving the book review in my drafts folder instead of editing and publishing it. I don’t want to get so behind this year like I did last year.

7. Listen to and rate 25 CDs this year.

There are so many good CDs in my iTunes library that have not gotten their fair share of listening to, so I’m going to commit to listening to more music this year.

8. Write 365 pages in my journal this year.

I really need to journal so I can remember what my life was like, plus maybe my life is so thoroughly amusing I’ll publish it when I’m older? (haha, probably not.)

9. Get my Etsy shop in better shape.

I kind of want to sell some stuff.

10. Get a book published.

This has been on my New Year’s Resolution list for years and year…I’m hoping that with hard work and persistence this one will finally come true, if not this year, some year in the future.

11. Read 1 chapter from the bible each night.

I will pick up my bible and randomly flip it open and read 1 chapter before I go to bed. Or I can read what I’ve been recommended or what is on my mind.

12. Eat breakfast.

This is healthy and lately I haven’t been doing it at all. Even something as simple as an apple, a fried egg, and a glass of chocolate milk will suffice.

13. Get a minimum of 7-8 hours (preferably 8) of sleep every night.

This will boost my immune system and I’ll be able to retain more of what I am learning in college. Plus I kind of can’t function when I don’t have enough sleep and I act like a freak. Funny that.

So that is my plan. We'll see how well I did at the end of the year, Haha.

~Song currently playing on my iTunes:
Candlelight by Relient K

Happy New Year!

So, it is officially twenty-ten. It's crazy, man. I have been looking forward to this year and all the things that I am imagining I'll get accomplished. But then, when it finally arrived, I felt nostalgic for 2009. What's up with that?

Here's a problem of mine: I think about the things I have to get done, mentally calculate how much time each task takes, plan out a schedule and then say, "oh, I've got time to do that later," and I get completely distracted and then nothing gets accomplished. The whole reason I'm telling you this is because I haven't thought-out my New Year's Resolutions. Drat.

But here's what I've got so far:

1. Eat 365 apples this year. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
2. Eat 365 bananas this year. I'm still iffy about this one since I've already got the apples.
3. Write 365 blog posts this year. (Are you seeing a theme here? Haha)
4. Work out at least 3 hours a week this year.
5. Don't eat any food after 7 or 8pm each day.
6. Get completely caught up on my book reviews blog
7. Listen to and rate at least 25 CDs this year.
8. Write 365 journal pages this year. (This might get nixed or slimmed down.)

This is a mighty chunk of things. Looking at it actually makes me a little leery. But here's my thought, I won't make it so I have to eat 1 apple each and every day or I fail, but I just have to eat 365 before 2011 rolls around. If I miss a day, no big deal, just eat two apples some day in the future. This puts some of the pressure off me and makes me more likely to not get discouraged.

Well, I've got to pack because we're heading out in the morning, but I'll probably post a couple Best Of 2009s later as well, before I go to bed.

~Song I heard on the radio that intrigued me:

Dez Moines by The Devil Wears Prada

We're visiting the Folks. I've eaten homemade french fries and Mexican hot chocolate for breakfast every morning.

One cool thing about this town is that we always go to movies while we are here because the movie theater is so cheap. So yesterday, we saw two movies. My mom and I are kind of movie fiends sometimes. But we saw The Blindside and Avatar. Yeah, I know - two very Different movies.

I kind of feel bad though, because I had been looking forward to seeing The Blindside for a while now. I had tried to go see it last time we were in the Ville, but it had been sold out. So I was pretty excited to go see it. I had even brought a box of kleenex because I was for sure convinced that it would make me cry. And I knew that might be a bad combination, because I already had a cold and was trying to kick that to the curb. But I figured I was well-prepared.

Funny thing though...I didn't cry at all while watching that movie. And when I was watching it, I felt like it was just an enlongated version of all the previews I had seen. It was still a really good movie, but I don't know if I liked it as much as I would have if it had not been so hyped up. I enjoyed it, but I was really surprised that I didn't end up crying at the end. It was kind of surreal.

Now Avatar on the other hand, I cried more in that movie than the first one. I had only heard about Avatar a couple days earlier when I saw it in the theaters. But I really enjoyed it. The creatures were amazing, and the cinomatorgphy was amazing! I fell in love with the colors and sounds of the movie and I loved the alien's turquoise skin. I thought the lluminisct atmosphere was pretty cool as well. When I got out of the movie, all I could think about was that alien world Pandora. It really stuck in my head and I kept it in my mind for the rest of the night. It was an interesting movie and I'd recommend it. Though there were a couple aspects of the movie that I thought were kind of unbelievable and that kept it from being one of my favorites.

Well, I'm off, Merry Christmas Eve!

~song currently playing through my head:

Carol of the Bells by Family Force 5

Christmas is just around the corner...

Yesterday I realized I had the beginnings of a cold. I thought if I ate lots of garlic (boosts immune system and kills off unwanted bacteria) and drank lots of liquid, I would be safe. Turns out, that wasn't the case. I'm now taking cold medication and fake-yawning to unplug my ears on a regular basis.

Not cool.

I think I get sick every year around Christmas time. I don't know if it's because of the amount of chocolate I eat or what. But for the past couple Christmases I've been sick, and this one looks like it will follow in the same pattern.

Ah, I'm sitting here, trying to type, and it's not working because I took some night time cold medication and it's starting to kick in, making me drowsy.

Okay, no more talk about sickness, let's hear about happier things. We had some friends over for dinner, and my sister made desert.

These are yummy homemade from scratch apple dumplings. They were really good. I'm probably going to eat another one tomorrow for breakfast.

Tomorrow will be kind of hectic. We're leaving to go see our relatives for Christmas. I still have to pack and pick up some books from the library and probably do some other things that I've forgotten at the moment (thanks cold medication) because I'm completely spacing.

I should probably get some sleep, I already feel like a zombie, and I kind of want to get rid of this cold...nasty old thing.

~CD I've played three times today:

Family Force 5's Christmas Pageant by Family Force 5