jelly belly sours are not nutritionally valuable, fyi

before this day gets away from me, let it be known that i didn't eat dinner last night. unless you count some leftover rice at midnight after finishing homework. which i don't. or the jelly beans i ate while doing said homework. which i don't.

this morning i feel lethargic like there's no tomorrow. i have major deadlines and am, therefore, working at home today, but i'm just having a hard time getting jumpstarted. i swear, i'm so tired of talking about how i want grad school to be over, but it's at the front of nearly every thought i seem to have these days.

so i'm officially letting the world know that in three more months, you won't hear me whining about this anymore. i pinky swear.

in the meantime, however, i cannot make any promises.

here is my positive statement du jour (must make sure to get at least one of these in): i'm hanging out with my dear friend melly tonight (we're getting mari luna), and between now and then, i plan to eat some real breakfast to make up for last night's jelly bean debacle. onward and upward....

"this is for all the lonely people...."

i can't believe i'm still awake after the week i've had, but again, friday night homework sucked me into a vortex and although my eyelids are drooping something fierce, i felt like checking in with the internets. hello there. although it's been awhile, you're looking lovely as ever. :)

in the past few weeks, i've been acquiring some new things for my apartment, and tomorrow morning, some new dining room furniture is set to arrive, along with a new entertainment center thingie from ikea. nothing earth-shattering, but it was time. my old dining room set was about 10 years old, very well used, and had a huge scratch up the middle of the table due to the indiscretions of my ex's former roommate. whatever. the whole thing cost me 175 bucks brand new. that should tell you something about its craftsmanship.

anyhoo, i'm just glad to have it gone. i wound up giving the set to a pregnant, out of work woman and her new husband. i hope they can get some more good use out of it before it falls apart completely. i was happy to donate it to some people who both need and appreciate it.

in other news, i'm just as tired as ever, if not more so. i started crying a little tonight from sheer exhaustion. even my trip to blacksburg (girls weekend!) last week wasn't long enough...and to boot, it took us over 6 hours to get down there! driving for long periods of time doesn't really help an already cranky/sleepy/headachy me. i'm just not sure when there will be a break in the deluge of stress and unfinished tasks, but i could sure use a nice little respite sooner rather than later. if you know where i can catch a break, please report to me immediately....

a whole bowl of super

well, here we are again. it's sunday night, and i should be sleeping, but i'm awake, of course. this is because i napped today. when will i ever learn?

but you see, it's because i have an excuse. i was out very late last night at a beautiful friend's awesome wedding at which i drank a "bit" too much rum. (i blame it on the ukranian who plied me with free drinks before i brought 'sexy back' out on the dance floor with a host of friends and strangers.) apparently i am a dancing machine. who knew? actually, i wasn't truly busting a groove the way my friend's cousin was. i informed her and her sister that he was, in fact, a 'modern artist.' all i'm saying is he was doing these very interesting things with his fingers and the rum made it even better.

so, after i got home last night, i washed up, drank a bunch of water, took a huge ibuprofen tablet to stave off the aches, and drunk dialed my coworker to tell her all about my evening. (this is, of course, after leaving 3 messages for other friends in which i believe i informed them that i adored them and that i was, in fact, intoxicated.) again, i'm not entirely proud of myself for this, but that captain morgan really did sneak up on me.

whatever.

so i slept in until 9:30 this morning after staying up until probably 3:45. less than 6 hours....not enough for me. so at about 3ish this afternoon, i put on a movie and promptly zonked out for a couple of hours. i needed it....more, apparently, than the laundry and tidying i had planned to do today.

i managed to wake up and take a quick shower in time for the kickoff of the superbowl, although i missed the national anthem (youtube, here i come). the game was awesome. i can't say i'm a fan of either the steelers or the cardinals (although that mark kurt warner is rather dreamy), but i found myself rooting for pittsburgh and was really happy for them when they brought it home. so, after more hydrating and a little follow-up homework, i'm going to take the book i'm reading (just got it yesterday), get into bed, and follow some fictional woman's life until i slip off into slumber. sounds nice, doesn't it?

'we have a piper down. i repeat. a piper is DOWN.'

this post will be short because i have a paper to write and only 9 fingers to do it with. yeah. that's right. one of my little helpers is out of commission because yesterday, in a sleepy stupor, i went to pick up my laundry basket and managed to tear off one of my acrylic nails (and a third of my real nail) as it slipped out of my hand. there was blood immediately. and crying. and panic. and more crying. and then self-imposed medical care. thank God i know how to wrap a bandage and care for a wound....growing up around medical people really does have its advantages.

but now my middle finger on my right hand is completely ineffective and sore and i this is really frustrating. and did i mention the paper? oh yeah. better get to it.

'hang all the mistletoe; i wanna get to know you better....'

yesterday we had the first snow of the season. it spent a good portion of the day flurrying and/or really coming down in various parts, much of which i could see from the window of my office building. the city looks so beautiful in the snow. i seriously wished in that moment that i had my camera.

this week was rough for me. i'm feeling really run down (what else is new?) and it's just been very, very hard to motivate myself to get anything done once i come home from work. i'm looking forward to the short work week ahead but not to the papers i have to write. the one downside to this graduate program is that (along with my lack of free time) there are no breaks for major or minor holidays. just keep on trucking, even on turkey day.

tonight the apartment is quiet. i spent the afternoon snuggling under blankets, catching up on some tv, and napping on and off. i don't know how late i'll be staying up tonight, but of course tomorrow brings with it another paper due and another week to gear myself up for. july better come soon. thats all i'm saying about that.

on one final note, as part of my tv time this afternoon, i watched the movie 'this christmas' (salimah had recommended). i loved it. those family, homey-type movies always put me in the holiday mood. christmas is just over a month away. let the ho-ho-ho begin:)....

stuff i really should pay attention to just now but can't seem to force myself to care about

the flip-flops and pink slippers on my living room floor
the receipts (need to go through them) on my coffee table
the gaZILLION magazines in the basket in the corner of my living room (please, if someone wants back issues of real simple, domino, and the like, please get in touch!)
the boxes in the other corner that once held treasures arriving from afar (but now need the dumpster)
the DVDs i took on vacation and haven't filed back in the alphabetized collection
the unfolded fleece blanket (needing folding) on the chair
the shirt i wore to work yesterday, draped over the fleece blanket
the unopened mail on the end table

actually, i'm going to stop there. this is making my place sound abysmal. it's not, really...it's just untidy.

BUT before i can concern myself with the likes of ALL that, i have a business plan to finish, dinner to make, and did i mention i'm sleepy just now?

ugh.

keep plugging away, sarah. there are miles to go before we sleep tonight.

and she nails it!

okay, here it is: i am without excuse for my slackadaisical blogging as of late, so i won't give you some lame spiel about how i've been exhausted. you don't need that from me, internet.

what i will say, however, is that i got my nails! done! on thursday after work. full set with a french manicure, of course - and my toes frenchified for good measure. forgive me, world, for i had sinned. it had been 2 years since my last pedicure! how shameful! i quickly got over the embarrassment of my cracked heels, however, when the massaging chair started kneading my lower back. who can think straight with that kind of awesomeness?

needless to say, i'm feeling the love about this whole nail thing. the last time my nails looked this fab was at least 5 years ago. i decided it was another step in the process of me allowing myself to have some treats that are good for the morale. i'm now up to three: regular hair cuts, cleaning lady, nail care. oh, and did i mention that i currently have a 100 average in my course more than halfway through? perfect excuse for the pampering!

anyhoo, i've got a busy rest of the weekend ahead of me. laundry. meeting some dear friends for wine and nosh. some other fun events planned for tomorrow. maybe a little early homework for the upcoming week. i've got a bit of momentum. why not capitalize on it?

monday evening's post, in which i admit that i am a complete cheeseball

it's 8:41 on a rainy monday night. it's been unseasonably cold here today (in the 40s), and i'm desperately sleepy. unfortunately, i've got pages to read before i sleep (thank you, robert frost) and very little motivation to allow my weary eyes to peruse them.

dinner tonight was so tasty. since being out in the world made me feel less than awesome today, i decided to make something a little spiffy, so i did my customary roasted butternut squash with cinnamon (tossed with orange-scented cranberries and fresh spinach after coming out of the oven); israeli couscous with herbs; and a deep, rich, saucy chicken with red wine and mushrooms. i did the dishes after dinner (yay, me!) and am now blogging to avoid reading. what else is new?

see, the truth is that i'm afraid if i go sit down to read, i'm going to fall asleep, and i really don't feel that i need that to be happening. see, there are two reasons. one is that i'm extremely studious and i would hate to miss an opportunity to do my homework (snort!) and the other? well, um....thebachelorfinaleisonat10! okay, there i said it quickly, so perhaps you won't decode it and find me dorky. well, who am i kidding? i'm a complete goober. i can't help it. i got sucked into this season. he's british....so sue me.

anyway, i should go and get SOMETHING done. *sigh* there is no rest for the weary, the wicked, or those in grad school.

back to biz

tomorrow (or technically later today, since it's after midnight) i go back to work from my 2-day hiatus. i should be sleeping right now, but i'm amped up on my inhalers. i've been having some tightness in my chest for the last little while, and i realized that i needed to get up and take some puffs to try and loosen things up in there. of course, because i took 2 different inhalers (steroid and bronch. dilator), i'm all jumpy now. this doesn't always happen, but since i'm already tired, it was pretty much inevitable. oh well. i need to be able to breathe first and foremost.

also - and i'm sure this didn't help - i took a bit of a nap in the afternoon today. sometimes if i sleep too late in the day, the night is basically a crap shoot for me in terms of whether or not i'll actually be able to sleep. tonight, apparently, it's a negative.

had a great time with my dear friend this weekend and, other than some mild traffic here and there, had a very uneventful trip home yesterday (even managed to make it before it started raining!). no matter how long i'm away - whether for just a night or multiple days - i always love coming back home again.

now i'm just gearing myself up for a busy couple of weeks at work. deadlines looming mid-may, but hard work isn't something with which i'm unfamiliar, so i'm ready to dive back in. oh, and my next class starts today, which means homework, here i come!

friday eve

tomorrow's friday, and i just have to say that if i can make it through the next two days, i will be psyched. i have a huge project due on saturday, and it's worth a hefty 15 or 20% of my term grade. tonight i had planned to do more work on said project, but around 6:30 i got a sinus headache over one eye that hurt so badly, i had to take some meds and go to sleep until it went away. of course, that turned into a 3-hour nap, and now i'm wide awake at 11 pm, but whatev.

at the very least, there's only one day left in the work week, and then it's home to work, work, work and get my schoolwork done.

at the end of next week, this class ends, and then i go away for a long weekend with my dear friend amy. who needs a break and to get out of dodge? i DO!

as a side note, flavor of love is quite possibly the stupidest show ever. i say this without actually watching it. i just happened to flip past it on my way to yet another stupid show. speaking of stupid shows (and yet i am a sucker for a talent competition), mtv has pitted the children of musicians against one another on a show called 'rock the cradle.' mc hammer's daugter ain't half bad....and neither is kenny loggins' son.

on that note (no pun intended), i'm going to try for some sleep....

to market, to market

okay, so i've been out of commission blog-wise for the last 10 days. please forgive. i had grand plans to update the blogging world on my whereabouts and what-not, but it just hasn't happened. my one and only excuse lately is grad school. i promise it's for reals.

speaking of all of that, i finished my international biz class (thank God!) and have moved on to marketing. so far (and we're about to start week 2), i can say with some assurance that if you want to see me in the next 7 weeks, you're going to have to cross paths with me somehow, because my workload is immense. do these people think i don't work full-time or something? good grief.

let's see. what else can i tell you?

oh, well, tonight i made rice pudding in my awesome le creuset dutch oven (red, no less). i have some pictures of a righteous scrabble tourney salimah and i had last weekend (as well as photos of the aforementioned le creuset), but i haven't downloaded them from the camera yet. friday night i made a salad of orzo pasta, grilled shrimp, cherry tomatoes, feta, fresh parsley, and arugula in a lemon vinaigrette with salty greek olives on the side and chocolate lava cakes for dessert. my friend kim came over, and we ate and played mexican train dominoes (super fun! and she gave me my own set as a gift:)). i'm slowly getting myself addicted to caffeine again. and again, i blame grad school. my apartment is still very tidy. i'm amazed at myself. ask salimah. she's amazed, too. work is still going well and i had my first performance evaluation, during which my boss told me that she's thrilled to have me working there. what a welcome change! and to cap off my non-sequiturish paragraph, i'm moderately obsessed with watching 'the mirror has two faces' in my 'spare' (ha!) time.

now then, off to read 50 pages of some guru's business book before bed (alliteration!). tomorrow i have a teleconference at 7 to work with my group for class. i'm the president of our mock company, so i'll be running the meeting. guess i better find a way to skim through ALL the reading before then, eh? wish me well!

week of feb 10-16, remix

sunday
the last time i posted here, i was in deep procrastination mode. i am happy to say, however, that i got my paper finished (i know you were all wondering), but something problematic occurred at the same time: my internet went down at about 11 pm that night (i was still working), meaning that when i finished the paper at around 12:30 a.m., i had to pack up my laptop and go out in 12-degree weather (i am NOT exaggerating) to try and find some wifi. after feverishly driving around pikesville to no avail, i wound up in cockeysville at a kinkos at 1:30 a.m.. i burst through the door (looking a hot mess, i must add) and announced loudly, 'i'm having an educational emergency!' the staff person looked in no way fazed (not enough to warrant the severity of my situation, anyway) and suggested that i use one of the pay-as-you-go computers in the back. suffice it to say that when all was said and done, i got my paper turned in by 1:38 a.m. (in time for the 2 a.m. deadline), but by the time i got home at nearly 2:30, i was too wired up from all the excitement and being out in frigid temps. needless to say, i didn't get to sleep until 4, and 7:30 comes early, let me tell you....

monday
i had scheduled to work from home that day - thank God. i got a lot of work done, and despite my sleep deprivation, i still worked a 9.5-hour day (what was i thinking??). my mother showed up around 4:30 (she was in town visiting for the night), i knocked off work at about 6, we ate chinese food, and then talked until about 11 when i figured my body would collapse from the exhaustion. yeah, well, wouldn't you know that i didn't fall asleep until after 12, and once i did, i slept incredibly fitfully. whattheheck?

tuesday
on tuesday morning we opened the blinds to discover that it had snowed during the night, albeit lightly. mom was out the door by 7:30 to make a class she was taking downtown, and i waited around until 8 a.m. for my cleaning lady (first time). as soon as i met her, i felt immediately good about her and knew i could entrust my belongings into her care - very important!! i left her to her tasks and made my way to the office, feeling only slightly like i had been hit by a bus....
the weather was precarious all day, and when it started icing at around 4:30, i packed it in. i'm sorry, but after my car incident in december, i'm not messing around with ice anymore. i was suitably impressed at how cautiously the other drivers (most of them) were handling themselves on 83. i managed to make it home - even stopping briefly to cast my vote in the primary election - just as my parking lot had turned itself into a skating rink.
as i walked in the door, the smell of clean hit my nostrils immediately. it was nothing short of phenomenal. this woman had not only done a fantastic job on the things i expected her to clean, but she cleaned stuff i hadn't even thought about. i called several of my coworkers right then and there to gush. and you know what? they gushed back! how awesome is it to have people share in your joy?? this is what i'm saying....
that night, i was prepared for a delicious sleep, but wouldn't you know it - i was up until 3:30 - wide awake. i was starting to assume that my body had lost its damn mind....again, wednesday morning came mighty early....

wednesday
because it was icy in the morning, i elected to work at home. by the time it stopped being icy around noon, there was still a cold, spitting rain falling constantly, and i was so into my work, i just kept going from the warmth of my apartment. that night, despite my grand plans to start the homework i had due friday, i instead watched some TV, ate mac and cheese, and went to bed at....well....midnight? at least it was getting better.

thursday
valentine's day started off with me feeling like someone had punched me in the stomach from the inside. apparently the four days of exhaustion coupled with last night's mac and cheese affair (i used skim milk, even!) had rendered me with stress stomach and let me say - it's not pretty. i went to work praying to God that no one received any stinky flowers (read: lilies) that would give me a migraine. shockingly, it didn't happen. in fact, EVERYONE around me got roses, most of which don't really smell. the lack of brain pain allowed me to be genuinely pleased for all my friends whose desks were donned with lovely shades of pink, red, and yellow.
and, around 3 pm, the mailroom person came by my desk with a box (pour moi?). my awesome coworker and friend in LA had sent me a bear with some godiva chocolates and signed the card 'from your nerd counterpart in LA....' how cool is this??
honestly, val's day was my favorite day this week (save the stomach ailment, which resolved itself by afternoon, btw). a lot of people were really happy around me and it really didn't matter that i am single-as-can-be right now. believe it or not, that's pretty much how i want it for the time being....

friday
ah, sweet friday. another chance to celebrate the weeke....oh wait, crap, i have homework due tonight! *sigh*....
so, i spent my day finishing up a project that i've been working on for the last month, left a little early (i had worked longer days earlier in the week), and came home to take a quick nap before plowing into my assignment. i managed to finish at 10:45 (unprecedented!) and called my LA counterpart to 'woohoo' on the phone for a few. she had been drinking wine and seemed all too happy to giggle along with me while i heated up some (very late) dinner for myself.
after getting some nourishment (such as it was), i watched more tube, brushed my teeth, and promptly fell dead asleep while sitting up on the couch.

and so, dear readers, that brings us to today.....

saturday
and what i have on the docket for this lovely, sunny saturday is this:
1. grocery shopping with my gal pal salimah
2. maybe a quickie trip to williams-sonoma (i still have a gift card!)
3. small dinner party this evening with a couple of girlfriends
4. brief homework interlude (commenting on discussion board posts) sometime before midnight-ish
5. maybe a cup of creamy coffee :D, my first one all week....

i shall post more info about the menu for tonight's partay later on....i can tell you there will be shrimp involved. big ones:). wish me well.....

sunday afternoon, a.k.a. i'm trying to avoid writing this paper that's due tonight

i am sitting here at my desk with not one but two computers, nails painted red, dust up my nose (not on purpose), and kate walsh spinning her folksy tunes in my ears. earlier, there was an hour-long blizzard, all evidence of which has melted. the wind is whipping outside, though, and i suspect that the temperature has dropped at least 15 degrees from this morning....

i don't know if i mentioned this already, but given my ridiculous schedule of late (and desire for sleep over scrubbed sinks), i decided to bite the bullet and hire a cleaning woman. a good friend of mine uses this local service and their estimates for monthly cleaning were at least 30 bucks cheaper than any of the more well-known companies, so i decided that it's worth me shelling out some of my cash once every four weeks to ensure that someone is caring about that grout of mine.

grout. that just sounds grimy.

anyway, the impending visit by said cleaning woman means that i've needed to tidy things up a bit (okay, a lot). man. can i just say - i accumulate so much mail, it's sickening. so much, in fact, that i've gotten inspired to sign up for a free service that contacts your catalog-sending merchants and tells them to put the kibosh on the madness. catalogs stress me out - especially ones that promote sales. there's this part of my ocd brain that thinks to myself that thing is one sale; shouldn't i keep this catalog in case i decide i want to buy it? i might miss out otherwise! and the truth is that i don't need whatever the items are and NEVER EVEN BUY THEM ANYWAY because i know i don't need them. but the catalogs? they wind up on the coffee table for the next three months because i move on with my life and who needs to think about them again?

of course, then they're in my way when i'm sitting in the living room at said coffee table penning some pithy homework assignment (ha!) and then they have to get moved to the floor to make room for my laptop. then a new pile of crap is created that then gets other stuff stacked on top of it - like a tissue box or some other junk mail i don't have time to open yet. and then this pile of stuff that i DON'T NEED gets moved back and forth between the coffee table and the floor. and i'm telling you right now that, at some point, that pile is going to fall over and i'll wind up tripping over some part of it and then probably some of it will get kicked under the couch. six months (or more) from now, i'll find that thing and wonder why i needed a home decorating catalog anyway. see what i mean? this has to end.

off the topic, do you know what i love? a series of books lined up on my desktop like soldiers, standing at the ready to provide some much-needed reference information at any moment. that makes me happy, even if the reality is that they just stand there collecting dust.

also, it may not shock anyone to know that i had a coffee earlier. it gave me a caffeine high that caused me to sharpen every colored pencil i own and then divide my writing implements into sections: red pens (i have a lot); blue/black/green pens; mechanical and regular pencils; wet-erase markers (those are with the pencils for now); highlighters; and sharpies. you should be proud of me, really. in an effort at minimalism, i resisted the temptation to put out my colored pencils. those are tucked away in a pencil bag in the bottom drawer of my desk. :)

now the caffeine high has passed and what i'm really wishing for is a nap. i know i don't deserve one....i have perfected procrastination today and what i NEED is some whip-cracking. unfortunately, a sleepy woman who's been up since 7 on a sunday does not make for a hardcore taskmaster. wish me luck. oh, cafe au lait, you taunt me so.

why? fi.

so i'm sitting in caribou coffee in the 'burbs having a cup o' decaf with steamed milk and cinnamon and working on my grad school homework. it's hard to believe that this is the last week in my first set of classes of my MBA program and next week, i begin all over again (in more ways than one). right now, i'm just relishing in the fact that it's 3:15 on a weekday and i don't have anywhere that i HAVE to be right now.

oh, and i have to say that i heart my new dell laptop. it's red (shocker) and has a matching wireless mouse. the whole setup makes me smile.

on the docket for the rest of the day: meet up with salimah, procure some beer and wine for this weekend's autumnal fete, make more headway on my mini business plan, due thursday, and try to eat a reasonable meal that includes some vegetables. this shouldn't be so hard, right? this is what i'm thinking.

in other news, i've been truly concerned about the recent widespread fires in california. i suppose i'm thinking about it more than i might otherwise because i'm supposed to fly out there sometime in the next couple of months for work. i hope my soon-to-be colleagues are all okay....

well, john mayer and i wish you well, wherever you are right now. i think my hour is soon to be up, so i better post before i lose all this pithy stuff here. peace out for now....