in all sincerity....

...if you want something that will rock your world, run (do not walk) to the nearest grocery store and pick up a container of 0% fat fage (pronounced fah-yeh), return home, open the fage and place it into a bowl, drizzle some honey onto it, sprinkle it with some chopped walnuts, and go to TOWN. i'm telling you - you will never feel quite the same about yogurt.

you, processed, fake-flavored yogurts out there, you're dead to me. do you hear me? dead to me.

unprecedented

i know, i know. two posts in a day? what's up with that?

i just had to say, though, that i just had a very protein-packed dinner and it made me happy. what was that, you ask? well, i took a tortilla, smeared it with fat-free 'refried' black beans, white meat tuna, and a bit of low-fat cheddar, put its partner on top and dry grilled it in a pan (with just a smidge of canola spray) until it was nice and crispy-brown; hacked it into four pieces, and dolloped each quarter with a bit of low-fat sour cream and some frontera peach-mango salsa. may i say? quite delish. just the brain food i needed to finish up a paper i have due tonight.

that is all.

i heart berries and jay-z

i've come to some conclusions:

1. i feel sluggish. i want to revamp my eating, which has sucked since i started grad school.
2. while my musical taste is rather eclectic and fun, and while i often lean in the direction of folksy, acoustic-driven stuff, i am also really interested in some lyrical genius the likes of which can be found on jay-z's black album.
3. i feel that i should try some type of 'bare minerals' kind of make-up. if anyone has any experience with any of those products, please inform me immediately!
4. i'm in no way geared up for this new semester, which is already painfully underway. i will muddle through, however. i cannot break my own stride, even though what i want to do is take a break.
5. although i don't prefer the heat, i'm so glad it's getting to be a non-winter season. it's salad and sandal weather:).
6. i should watch baseball more often.
7. i can't imagine growing my hair out again. it annoys me.
8. i'm over american idol.
9. speaking of tv, i want one with a flat-screen.
10. i think i love people who 'get it' best of all. there is nothing in the world like NOT having to explain what you mean.

know what i mean?

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!

the 'burgh

i'm here in the great 'state of pittsburgh' (i actually said that last night after drinking a couple of free cocktails in our hotel lobby) with my incredibly enjoyable friend amy l. perbeck. we are having a relaxing, very chill time hanging out and being new yorkers. yeah, you heard me. we have not stopped talking with a brooklyn accent for the last several days. it's really quite addictive, you see. plus, we're good enough at it that no one seems to bat an eyelash.

anyway, i digress....

so, we've gone to see the bodies exhibit at the carnegie science center. while it was entirely fascinating and made me even more appreciative of the amazingly intricate structures inside our bodies, it also kind of skeeved me out and disturbed me on some levels. i'm glad i went, though. i was very curious about the whole thing and how others would react to it. and besides, i think much of the american public could stand for some more educational experiences about how their bodies work.

other than the science center, we also rode the duquesne incline to see a fantastic view of the whole city from up high....had some delicious soft-serve ice cream (much of which i wound up scooping out into the street, because the portion was way bigger than i was thinking it would be), did the whole cocktails in the lobby thing, and then went out for italian for dinner last night.

today we're just lounging around the hotel for awhile before we go out in search of lunch. assuming the weather holds, tonight is a baseball game for which we got some complimentary tickets (it pays to know people who know people). it'll be nice to have some time outside enjoying a little sporting event, even if it is the pirates;).

all in all, it's been an enjoyable little time so far, although we're having a little bit of an 'issue' with our hotel room. every SINGLE time we leave our room and exit the hotel, our keys stop working. so inevitably we wind up coming to the room (and at least one of us always has to use the bathroom by this point) and then we can't get in. so, each time, we take the elevator back down to the front desk and rather sternly inform them that it has happened again. after 2 days of this happening, they finally suggested this morning that they might have the lock checked....um, yeah. good plan.

anyway, i'm still on vacation, so i'm not going to fret about it....

i better enjoy it while it lasts, too, because monday my class starts back up again. and then free time? fuggedaboudit.

99.6

no, that's not my temperature. it's my FINAL GRADE for my class that ended yesterday. wooHOO!

i'm so glad to be done, even more glad to have a whole week off, and even MORE glad to have two days off from work and to be going away for the weekend!!

we now return you to your irregularly scheduled program....

thursday i had what can only be described as one of those nearly out-of-body experiences. i say nearly because i don't want to seem overblown in my assessment (yeah, like it would be the first time) and surely life has brought many more awesome...nay, thrilling experiences than this....but i digress.

so, anyway, i'm sitting at my desk at work listening to pandora, on which i have concocted quite possibly the perfect mixed radio station for my life. i had JUST hit the sweet spot of the workday groove (you office people know what i'm talking about), and suddenly i hear the opening guitar strains to a song that, quite honestly, reminds me why i love music from the 70s most of all. so i'm seriously sitting there trying not to break out into song and then this line hits me....

'dreams, they're for those who sleep.....life is for us to keep....'

now, anyone worth his or her salt will know that this line comes from the bread song 'make it with you.' people, i don't know what is up with me lately, but having hit my work sweet spot to the tune of 'make it with you' was seriously one of those moments that i sat and CHERISHED for a good five minutes. i'm sure coworkers were wondering what was up with the goofy grin on my face (i did manage to avoid singing through that whole song), but can you blame me?

okay, maybe you can. maybe i'm a huge cheese ball, but in my current life of burning the proverbial candle at both ends, that was a moment of pure musical bliss. and you know what? i'll take 'em where i can get 'em....

now then, this reminds me of the fact that i will have 4.5 or so hours in my car this week (coming and going) as i drive to pittsburgh. that's right, pittsburgh. i'm going there for a long weekend getaway with my friend amy (who will be driving down from the great state of michigan to meet me). seriously, this will be the first time i've spent the night somewhere other than my apartment since december. it's my one week off from school between semesters, and i intend to live it up....so natch, i'm going to pennsylvania, home of the rockin' amish and other things celebratory:).

in actuality, i'm rather excited. we're planning to go to the 'bodies' exhibit at the carnegie science center, ride the duquesne incline to get a scenic view of the city, and take in a pirates game on saturday - assuming it doesn't pour. and besides, i'll get to spend 3 solid days with one of my favorite people on earth.

so let's see....what else is new? oh, well, i've been working my tail off this term, and i'm going to finish strong with what i project will be in the neighborhood of a 99% average for my class (woo!). as of tomorrow, i will have completed two full semesters of school. now i only have about three more to go. the other night when i was feeling particularly tired and cranky, i got online and watched the graduation ceremony from this past february. it inspired me to keep going. that'll be me up there some day soon....

in a final and utterly unrelated note, i have realized a few things about myself and my opinions lately....or have been mulling over previously realized items. here they are in no particular order:

1. i am a fan of solid colors with the well-placed, patterned 'accent.' and by patterned, i mean geometric shapes/stripes/or something swirly and interesting....i don't need stuff with flowers or similar crap on it.
2. paul mccartney wrote better songs than john lennon. there, i said it.
3. i am SO glad i chose walden for my master's program. i believe in what that school promotes.
4. i really abhor the idea that someone would miseducate children. this is part of the reason why i'm interested in producing curriculum for them or directly involving them. this isn't a new idea for me, but i've been thinking about it with more purpose lately.
5. having said that, i still have no real interest in teaching.
6. i am also quite glad that i abandoned the idea of becoming a counselor. i couldn't listen to people complain about their problems all the time - unless they were willing to take action. i have little patience for people who aren't willing to DO something about what bothers them (myself included).
7. at the end of the day, simple really IS best.
8. my life is pretty much a closed door right now....and this will likely remain the case until july 2009 (of course, now that i've said that, i fully expect something will change.)
9. i know my limits.
10. i am SO completely disinterested in anything or anyone attempting to control people using guilt, shame, or some misplaced/inappropriate sense of obligation. and it is worst to me when i see it happening between people who profess faith in Christ. on the flip side, i am ALL about people who are living authentically, with love and grace in their words and actions. i am privileged and honored to know some of these people. they are part of what makes life worthwhile.

and with that, i bid you good day.

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....

rested

it's saturday morning and for the first time in i don't remember how long, i slept for more than 8 hours last night. in fact, other than occasionally waking up this morning because of the light filtering in through the blinds, i slept for about 10 hours! this, dear readers, is nothing short of amazing.

this past week has drained me emotionally and physically, and i knew yesterday that if i didn't get to bed at a decent hour, i was going to start another week feeling completely dragged out and in no way prepared for the amount of work i have ahead of me. so i left work at around 6:20, grabbed a quizno's sandwich on the way home, ate a quick dinner, made a call for work (yeah, i know, on a friday), and then settled in to watch some mindless tv (i think i fell asleep on the couch within about 40 minutes). at 10:25, i got up, sent salimah a text, and went immediately to bed. i'm glad i had the forethought to brush my teeth right after dinner. one less thing to do when completely zonked out. i know myself too well....

so, it's saturday morning, and other than the fact that i have some serious homework due tomorrow (last group project of the semester!!), the world is my oyster today. i need to tidy up around the pad, think about what i need from the grocery store, meet up with salimah around noon, and then drum up some mad-cap fun for the afternoon. it's funny how many more possibilities life seems to hold when you're not about to drop from exhaustion.

oh, and i just remembered that my cleaning lady comes this tuesday - and she's going to scrub my broiler pan that i've never been able to use because it wasn't properly cleaned before i moved in....woohoo!! it's the little things, people.

update (see below)

see nate's blog for a recent update. looks like the surgery was a success!

this is more important than my silly blog posts of late

for quite some time now, i have been reading the blog of a man who is unknown to me personally but whom i feel like i have come to know - along with his wife tricia and awesome daughter gwyneth. in brief, tricia, who has cystic fibrosis, gave birth to gwyneth after (i think) 25 weeks. the entire family has been living at duke hospital since the winter as gwyneth has fought to gain strength and tricia has fought to maintain hers while she waits for a double lung transplant.

tonight i read on nate's blog that lungs have been found, and tricia has been wheeled into surgery and will be there for the next 7 to 9 hours. if you are the praying kind, please lift some up for tricia - and gwyneth and nate. this family is an awesome portrait of God's amazing love and faithfulness.

and if you're interested, please visit nate's blog: http://cfhusband.blogspot.com.

thanks:)

summary of the last several days of my life

okay, i need a numbered list to help me out with this one:

1. i did a LOT of cooking this weekend, including making a batch of soft, buttery cookies with dried cranberries in them. i also made a pan of some fake moussaka (ground turkey, not lamb), as well as some bacon-laced pancakes. mmm. bacon. you know you want some. (as a side note, cooking is probably the one reason i haven't gone completely insane lately.)

2. i have spent a total of 8 billion hours doing schoolwork lately. seriously.

3. i am busier than ever at work and after spending 9 hours intently focusing on my work stuff, to come home and then have to intently focus on some homework is making me want to curl up under a comforter and not come out for at least 4 days.

4. i work with some truly sarcastic people. this makes me SUPREMELY happy.

5. i have a total of 3 work crushes. one of them is probably 50 and from a foreign country, but he's still dreamy. i think it's the accent. oh, and his argyle sweaters. (nb: a work crush is someone you would likely never date in real life. you just flirt shamelessly with him at the office and then move on with yourself. there is no actual interest, probably very little in common, and thoughts of him shouldn't really occur outside of work hours. then that's a real crush. you must define your terms.)

6. today i ate some cow and drank a real soda (i almost never do this anymore). it made me happy.

7. today i also used the term 'marijuana cigarette' without batting an eyelash. i feel that this means that i am a) antiquated and charming, b) some type of old-fashioned fuddy duddy, and/or c) in need of some type of intervention. (please be aware, however, that i am in no way interested in marijuana cigarettes for my own use. i was simply referencing them when someone asked the official meaning of the term 'doobie.')

thank you and goodnight.

tgifn/sm!*

i'm baaaaaack. did you miss me, blog world? sorry - i think i've been buried under a mountain of homework for the last 2 weeks. i'm not really what you'd call 'better,' but i'm hanging in there....kicking butt in my marketing class so far, even though it's kicking MY butt at the same time.

my weekends lately have involved some leisure drives. after the impromptu trip to gettysburg two weeks ago, salimah and i nearly drove to the PA border of maryland yet again last weekend. i'm finding the need to get out of dodge more and more these days.

i have some pics still on my camera that i've been meaning to upload here for weeks on end. perhaps i'll get to that this weekend....

hope everyone had a wonderful easter and were able to spend it doing something other than what i was doing (working on a powerpoint). i'm about to tuck in for the night (after a long pre-homework nap), but i may be back sooner than you think!

:) *thank God it's friday night/saturday morning!

four score and 100 bucks later

yesterday, after getting bella's oil changed and doing homework for a few hours, i went and picked up salimah at her apt. and we decided to drive to westminster. as we were getting closer, though, we saw a sign for gettysburg and decided to keep going. spring drive, sunshine, outlets - what's not to like?

so we made our way up some lovely country roads, even stopping along the way at this awesome little pottery shop where i procured a very unique pitcher/gravy boat-looking container in this glazey honey brown. so pretty.

once we arrived in gettysburg, we made a beeline for the outlet shops, parked at one end, and proceeded to wind our way down to the other, going in and out of stores along the way. in addition to a kitchen shop where i bought a few random little items, we found this awesome leather outlet where i scored not one but TWO new bags with matching wallets. i'm telling you - leather is like a drug to me sometimes. i am ALL about the handbags.

so, i dropped a bit of cash. after that, we made our way back to the car (after a very awkward incident in a public restroom wherein a very elderly woman asked me to help her with her pants), drove through historic gettysburg, decided that we are DEFINITELY coming back for a long weekend, and then drove the country road right back to home, stopping at this little 'greek' place on the way (the food was only mediocre).

the bottom line is that i needed a day away from schoolwork. i'm just tired all the time lately and i'm tired of being so tired. getting to drive in the sun and the air may have set my allergies ablaze, but it was SO worth it just to forget about due dates and papers and analyses and business plans, if only for an afternoon.

and now it is sunday night and after spending an entire day working on school stuff, i'm spent yet again. monday morning mocks me. i shall mock it back by getting into my very warm bed and zonking out like a champ.

just watch me.

both sides of the coin

here are some things that make me happy:

1. the people at my favorite mexican restaurant all know me by sight and look genuinely happy to see me when i go there for dinner.
2. my bed is fixed, thanks to my awesome aunt and uncle (i've been sleeping on mattresses on the floor since september).
3. i'm still getting As in my classes.
4. i have cable movie channels :D.
5. my cleaning lady did her magic yesterday, so the apt. looks marvy.
6. feta cheese. 'nuff said.
7. my dear friend c at work came over to my desk today and kissed me on my forehead, just because he missed me.
8. i had two delightful squares of dark chocolate this afternoon.
9. i continue to process my mail and keep my place relatively tidy these days.
10. tomorrow is thursday, which means only 2 more workdays until the weekend!

here are some things that make me not so happy:
1. i have more homework than my sanity level and the # of hours in the day will allow me to accomplish.
2. i feel agitated nearly all the time by #1.
3. i'm also very busy at work, which is making #1 and #2 not so easy to take.
4. i'm pretty sure i'm grinding my teeth in my sleep these days.
5. i feel cranky and tired basically all the time (see #s 1 and 2).
6. my foot - which had been only experiencing dull pain for a couple of months (thanks to massive cortisone injection) is starting to smart again.
7. i just realized that i have even more homework due this week than i had originally thought (#1, kiss my butt).
8. tomorrow's not saturday..
9. based on my calculations, i won't really be able to take an actual vacation anytime soon.
10. i feel like crying (see #s 1-9).

i'm going to bed now. sometimes that's basically what's left.

objection!

tomorrow (well, today, technically) i have jury duty. i don't mean to be a whiner, but i really don't wanna go. i've never done it before and because it's baltimore city, i guess i just expect it to be a pain in the rear. who knows? maybe they'll surprise me....but i'm not holding my breath.

in other news, i feel like i'm underneath a mountain of homework and i'm trying to dig my way out from the inside. it doesn't seem like it's going to happen anytime before, say, july '09. what will i do with myself when i don't have all this crap to do all the time? oh, right. sleep? read for pleasure? watch a movie without feeling guilty about all the other stuff i ought to be doing? yeah. i'll get back to you on that one.

anyway, i'll be sure to report in with tales of adventure from my day at court. stay tuned!

ralphy

okay, so apparently i've come down with some kind of stomach bug (i SINCERELY hope it is not as a result of the aforementioned parasitic worries), but seriously, i haven't felt well since monday night. yesterday i was a complete mess at work, but i managed to brave the storm. this morning, however, i just couldn't do it. i stayed at home to work because the thought of going into the office and dealing with wave after wave of nausea just wasn't cutting it.

i'm glad i remained at home. what bothers me, though, is that i'm still not feeling awesome. i really need to be back in the office tomorrow. i guess we'll see how that goes....

oh, and friday, i will - in all likelihood - have jury duty. party central, people.

blech blech blech. wish i had something more to say, but that'll have to do for now.

blech.

h 2 no

yesterday, there was a water main break somewhere downtown (pratt street, i think) and the water was all fouled up in the buildings in and around where i work. unaware of this all, i went to work as usual yesterday morning and, after arriving, went looking for ice. since the ice machine on my floor seemed to be broken, i went to the next floor up and got ice and water from their kitchen. no problemo.

then, mid-morning, i went to use the restroom and the water in all the toilets was a weird shade of brown, but what was coming out of the faucets seemed fine.

more than FOUR hours into the business day - after a bunch of us had been drinking that water, we get an e-mail telling us that the water - including what had come through the filtration system - was not to be consumed in any way. um, thanks. did it occur to anyone that this could cause serious health concerns??

and of course, wouldn't you just know that the vending machines were also completely out of water AND they weren't sure whether or not it would be fixed by today....

so basically, i'm praying to God that i don't die from some deadly parasite or what-not. i'm sure it's not helping me that i don't feel 100% right now anyway....

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!

okay.....

i will blog later about this past weekend's food extravaganza, but just a quick note before leaving for work.

i said brrrr.....it's cold in here.

my new invisible mist humidifier is kinda loud, which i like (i need white noise to sleep, people), and it makes the room cooler (which i would maybe like were it not frigid outside), and i'm not 100% sure if it's working or not. now, to be fair, i've used it for 2 whole nights, but i'm still very dry in the morning.....yesterday, i actually woke up with a stuffier nose than usual and a sore throat.....now, i'm wondering - is it the humidifier or am i getting a cold? if anyone's reading this and they have experiences with cool mist humidifiers, please fill me in on your thoughts.

now, then, i'm off to work. i have no time to tell you all about the fun stuff i purchased/did this past weekend. latah!