This is it. I have come through 30 days of posting. Wow. NaBloPoMo can be called a success (please don’t ask about NaNoWriMo or finding a place to get married).
Interestingly, NaBlo wasn’t quite as hard as I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong–it was hard, and there are definitely some posts that make the writer in me go *barf,* but in terms of just posting–I did it without much problem. No late night “I forgot to posts” and no last minute scrambles to the computer. Every weekday, I posted at lunch and every weekend I posted first thing in the morning. The system worked out nicely which is a huge shock to me because my “systems” rarely turn out as they are supposed to.
And, since it worked out so well, I am hoping to continue it–in a manner of speaking. I know there will be one day in December where I will be out of town without internet access. I know that the week I have to grade 90 research papers might be a little light, but the goal is to sit down and write on here every day I am able. The results may not always be pretty–but I am of the school of writing that if you don’t write some crap–you can’t get to the good stuff.
So, prepare for my crap and my good, peoples. I’m on a roll and I’m here to stay.
I plum forgot about Jeopardy Story last week–probably because Thursday was Thanksgiving and all. I think this might be a feature I continue past BloPo if I can muster up the boring lameness.
Alex: Returning champ, with a whopping 22 dollars, Nicole! Nicole, it says here you’re famous among children for a rather odd reason.
Me: Well, not all children–just one child. You see, this past summer we were in Chicago for a family member’s wedding and my Mom’s best friend met up with us the next day with her two daughters. We were in Millennium Park, the kids feeding the pigeons, when one pooped in my hair!
Alex: Well-
Me: I’m not done! (sidenote: don’t you just love when Alex tries to move on but the contestant is intent on imparting their hillarity and just bulldoze right over him?). In November, I got engaged. When my Mom’s friend told her daughter, the daughter asked if that was the one who had a bird poop in her hair!
Alex: Huh, interesting. Moving on….
I would really love to go on Jeopardy and tell a poop story. I think that would be AWESOME. And then I would kick ass and win.
So, I promised a good post, right? I SWORE. But, there is this throbbing ache behind my left eye. It makes me want to lay down and cry–not grade and teach.
But, I promised! So, I come bearing food–not literally, because I have yet to figure out how to teleport food through the Internet. But, I have a recipe! It’s easy! It’s tasty! Perfect for a cold day!
It is called goulash–though I doubt you have ever had goulash quite like this. I don’t know what goulash really is–but I doubt this is it. Still, it’s a family recipe and for generations we have called it goulash. (R. calls it spaghetti–it is NOT spaghetti).
Ready for it?
Ingredients: 1lb ground beef, 2-3 cans tomato sauce, 1 box elbow macaroni. That’s it!
To do: brown and drain beef while simultaneously making the macaroni. Open up the cans of tomato sauce (quick tip: electric can openers!). Put it all together, stir until contents of pot is warm.
And there you have goulash. It is good on the spot or for leftovers. I am eating some AS WE SPEAK!
That was a good post, right? I imparted some wisdom, right? RIGHT????
(Yes, I am losing it).
Have any odd family recipes to share?
*oil change
*fixing windshielf
*getting brakes looked at
*washing car
*registering for class next semester
*getting fingerprinted for certification
*calling places to have a wedding at
*grading
*cleaning
*planning
*Christmas shopping
*paying bills
*laundry (especially the folding/putting away part).
*exercise
*eating better
*calling my mother
*putting up the outside lights
*writing a decent post
I swear–swear–swear my last three posts for NaBloPoMo will not suck this much.
(Does anyone else find Josh Grobin creepy?)
I almost forgot to post! Lunch time during the week has been my determined posting time and with all that I am trying to accomplish, I almost forgot!
So here: “post”
I am listening to “Say” over and over, because John Mayer is uber-wonderful. You should take a listen too:
http://johnmayer.com/blog#157
(you have to scroll down to the entry titled “say” and click the little play button).
So, my determination yesterday was that today I need to write a GOOD post. Let’s face it, I have been coasting (and not just on this blog).
And so, I have been sitting here trying to think what a “good” post would entail? How about how I am feeling sad about how disconnected my extended family has become? How about how I am so over this semester? How about all the things I should be doing? How about the fact that I keep procrastinating on things that NEED TO GET DONE NOW for my schooling. How about how my apartment is a mess? How about how I have no energy? How about how I got to school this morning and someone had left the Air Conditioning on all Thanksgiving break and how it is about 50 degrees in here and 3 hours later I am starting to get some feeling in my leg? How about how I’ve gained 8 pounds since I’ve started this job? HOW ABOUT ALL THAT?
Probably not the meat of a “good” post, so I’ll spare you. The men in my life tell me that poop is always funny, so here is a funny poop story:
R. and I met when we worked together at a state park. My first or second week, he was in charge of showing me how to clean the fish tank. This is not a hard job, just lengthy, so he spent a lot of time talking and telling stories. Apparently he was trying to “chat me up” but I did not comprehend that at the time. So, while R. was in high school there was a student who would go to the bathroom and write “poop” on the walls… with poop. Because it was often random and went on for a while and was around the time of the unibomber, he got the nickname: The UniPooper.
I think I fell for R. right then and there. The Unipooper? That’s hillarious!
I went wedding dress shopping with my Mom and Sister #1 yesterday. You know how on movies and TV shows and what-not the bride-to-be puts on dresses and everyone oohs and aahs and it is this fun, touching journey to find the dress? Yeah, not so much.
You see, finding a wedding dress combines two things I hate: trying stuff on and being the center of attention.
So, I wasn’t very pleasant yesterday. (This may also have to do with the fact that Sister #2 had purposefully breathed on me the previous day–thus spreading her cold). I was a bit of the anti-bride. And, at one store, the sales woman was SHOCKED to hear that I did not like this process of trying wedding dresses on.
And, I can’t say I blame her. Doesn’t every girl dream of her dress and her wedding and ya ya ya? It’s something that I certainly thought about, but I suppose in a way I have my head twisted firmly on my shoulders because really I always fantasized more about the actual marriage than the wedding day.
Not to say I don’t want to look amazing on my wedding day–because I am shallow enough to want that. It’s just, as with most things, I don’t want to put a whole lot of effort into it. Because the more effort you put into it, the more upset you are when something goes wrong, and I would like to avoid that disappointment–because it is a wedding so something will inevitably go wrong… and I want that to be okay by me rather than the end of the world.
Planning a wedding is definitely more of a balancing act than I thought–and it’s about pleasing a lot more people than I thought.
But today, today I am sick in bed and need to worry more about grading papers, planning this upcoming week’s lessons, and getting together all my certification paperwork rather than where this wedding is going to be and what I’ll be wearing to it. This five day holiday went by much faster than I appreciate–I could use about five more days/months/years of not working.
In a few minutes I am heading off to my parents to go wedding dress shopping with my Mom and sister. Pretty directly after, I will be headed out to watch the Mizzou-Kansas game. I’m not a big football fan unless it is exciting–in other words something is at stake, people are in a frenzy, and the interminable timeouts and stops and this and that are infused with excitement. And also, food and beer is involved.
So, point being, not sure if I’ll have a chance to post beyond this short jaunt.
Go Mizzou! (Hey, I never thought I’d say that!)
And R. is insisting I work out. He’s pulling out my “gym” clothes as we speak. He’s prepared to carry me to the car, drag me into the workout place, and plop me on a treadmill. And not because he thinks I’m fat or is worried about my health, but because he’s a lunatic who thinks everyone ENJOYS exercise the way he does. No matter how many times I explain to him I DO NOT LIKE TO WORK OUT, he is not convinced. I just haven’t found the right way of doing it yet, because the pain–it’s awesome!
If I do not blog tomorrow, do not think my NaNo hopes dashed, think of me dead by treadmill related injury.
