Note to self

Eating graham crackers and chocolate chips for dinner does not make for an early bedtime . . . but it's way more fun than eating vegetables. Don't tell my mom.

J

So (kind of a while ago) on an impulse, I decided to play in one of those blog memes. Clever girl gave me the letter J. So here they are...my favorite things that begin with...

J ackets


I think there's nothing classier than a nice jacket or coat. I wish I were one of those girls who has a beautiful jacket to go with every outfit. I only have one really cute one and I'm envious of the sea of beautiful coats I see in the winter.

J ell-o Pudding




I think Mr. Cosby summed it up. What's not to love about pudding - especially chocolate? Plus, no list of my favorites would be complete without Chocolate (notice its status as a proper noun) getting some face time. I also love this retro commercial :)

J et lag

Not that I particularly enjoy being exhausted, but jet lag means I've traveled somewhere exciting and maybe new. Yay!

J ane Austen



I LOVE Jane Austen's books, and most of the movies made about them. I don't care if they do set false expectations about romance for girls everywhere, I think they should be in every personal library. And I think all men should wear coats like the one Colin Firth wears in A&E's Pride and Prejudice.

J ogging

Which is funny, because I had no idea I liked it until about a year ago - in the middle of training for my first half marathon. I still remember realizing I loved it as I made it past the first three miles of a six-mile run on a beautiful almost spring day. Now I miss it if I go without for very long.

J ack-o-lanterns


Autumn is my favorite season. I love the way the air smells, any baked pumpkin treat, and (naturally) scooping the guts out of a pumpkin. Carving is good too.

J ack Johnson


Job description: singer-songwriter-director-surfer. It just doesn't get any cooler than that. Plus he kicks it with the Obamas. And have you heard the man's voice? Thank you. There's always new music to like, but Jack will always have my heart. (In MUSIC sweetie, obviously. I mean, clearly he's not even cute, right? Ahem.)

J ungles

This one goes with my travel obsession. Trekking through a little piece of the Amazon in huge rubber boots and swinging on a zipline through Jamaica's jungle (ooh - that's a double J - do I get extra points for that?) are two of my favorite travel memories.

J ones Hall

OK, so only a couple of you will follow this one - but freshman year with five fabulous roomies definitely has to make the list. Especially the part where we constantly spoke in {terrible} British accents. What was that about?

And last but CERTAINLY not least...

J uniors!

Not in an upperclassmen kind of way. As in my husband is Steve Jr. and he ABSOLUTELY makes the top ten of any list! (And not just to suck up because I mentioned Jack.) Muah!




OK, so if anyone wants to play, leave a comment and I'll give you a letter. But I'll just go ahead and warn ya that doing this, although fun, made me remember why I usually skip these. It takes like, forever.

He's at it again...

Those of you familiar with My husband vs. the kitchen may be wondering how my other half has stayed out of trouble for so long. Well, this has been a particularly eventful week for him, so you're about to get the update (love you sweetie!). Ready?

• I bought some oranges at the Sunflower Market last week. I didn't realize at the time that they were blood oranges, so Steve didn't get a warning. He took one to school for lunch, peeled it, found the deep red/purple-y inside, panicked and threw the entire orange away. When I came home I got the full, horrified account of the contaminated orange.
• My always romantic hubby got me a dozen roses for Valentine's Day (sorry ladies, he's taken). The packet of flower food says "add to water," but apparently does not specify that you should first remove the food from the packet. I got a lovely bouquet in a glass vase with a floating green and white plastic packet in the water.
• Last but not least, Steve cooked dinner tonight (thank you!). It was spaghetti, which has always been one of his specialties, but tonight he decided to keep it warm while I took a shower (he's romantic AND thoughtful)...by leaving it in the pot on the stove. I was a little surprised when I came downstairs and found it still cooking.
  "You can overcook spaghetti?"
  Apparently. On the plus side, we didn't have to chew our dinner!

To be fair, he also got the highest score in his class on his social psych test, aced two papers last week, and heated up a mean can of spaghetti sauce! Also, neither of us had actually eaten a blood orange prior to this week.

Do you ever have one of those days where all you want in the world is to be on the back balcony of an Ecuadorian house, eating brownie batter and laughing about the orphans you chased around all day?

...probably on my own with that one. Miss you Tasha.

Faux Pas

Yesterday was my cousin's birthday and we had a li'l' family celebration today. When we bought his present, Steve and I decided to hedge our bets and get a gift receipt. So I was feeling so considerate and prepared when he pulled it out of the wrapping paper and when he looked confused by the accompanying paperwork, I just said (maybe a bit smugly) -

"It's a gift receipt."

But he still looked confused and handed it to me across the table.

"No, I think this is..."

The actual receipt. With the "you saved..." line circled and everything.

Whoops.

When I grow up I wanna be ME!

So I got a new boss this week (officially). It's a good thing, and when I went to my first one-on-one meeting with a new supervisor in a new department, I was feelin' pretty good about life. We talked about my "career history" (is it really called that if you've only had one "real" job before this one?), my new role, etc., without any major drama.

And then he dropped this on me: "Tell me about your career goals. Where do you want to go from here?"

Um...what? When did I forget about that part of life? I was always so sure about stuff like that in high school and college - where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do, etc. But somewhere along the way in real life, I just forgot to think about it.

I realized all this and proceeded to panic. A meeting I was totally in control of 10 seconds earlier suddenly seemed completely overwhelming. I felt my face getting hot, I started sweating in a cold room, and my eyes started to fuzz over. Is that what a panic attack feels like? Job interviews, first dates, final exams...I have survived them all without such an incident, but when someone asks me what I want to be when I grow up I totally lose it. Great.

I gave some kind of answer - I tried to be honest about my ambitions changing and I told him where I thought I wanted to be someday...but it's hard to guess about something like that. I guess the real problem isn't that I don't have goals anymore - 'cause I totally do - just that they're focused somewhere else. The career ambition in me has mellowed with age.

Here's how I could have answered the question, but I'd hate to be irrelevant. I guess I could have at least proved that I DO have goals.

• I wanna be an author. Of books that have nothing to do with the industry I'm in. So you know...whatever help you could give me with that...
  
• I'd like to go back to South America and volunteer again. Will HR experience be beneficial?
• Mastery of the Spanish language. Latin day once a week?
• My secret dream is to arrange flowers for weddings. Do we have a cross-training program for that?
• Have a well-organized, stylish home. Can I use my training budget on feng shui?
• Develop chef-like abilities. Department discount at Sur La Table would be super.
  
• More literary knowledge. Surely reading the works of Dickens is a goal, yes?
  

I guess what I learned is that I really do work to live and not the other way around. But I could probably still use some more concrete goals in the career world. Something a little more specific than "pay the bills" but less ambitious than "run a major multi-million dollar corporation."

That's all. I'll be chewin' on it for a while...you know...since you asked.

For anyone who ever took a Spanish class

Sorry for the commercial - it's short though. Y el video vale la pena. En serio.





Thanks Jess and AJ for introducing us to this sheer fantastico-ness!