I demand A Better Kitchen

A Better Kitchen
I wish that I could upload a photo to this post to illustrate the teeny-tiny-ness of my kitchen. There is approximately 6sq.ft. of counter space and the space to move around in is crazy small. I bake A LOT and having no space to do it is making me insane. I want a bigger kitchen!

The Bucket List

Visit ALL Pro-Football Arenas
Since deciding that I needed to take interest in a sport and my obsession with football developed I've been to three pro football games. This past fall I decided that I wanted to visit every pro football arena. I would also like to see every team play live (which of course means staying in New York for two weeks since the Giants and the Jets have the same stadium). I think my mom said it best at the Eagles v. 49ers game this past fall; "Football is so emotional. More emotional than any other sport."

Sell a photo
I don't know that I would want photography to be my main source of income. I feel like that would some how cheapen it for me. I would like to maybe get a photo into a gallery and have it sell. That would be enough for me.

Finally see The Wallflowers or Jakob Dylan
It's never worked out that I have been able to see The Wallflowers perform. 4 years ago they were in San Francisco the day I was getting back from Europe and the next night they were in LA when we were driving back to the bay area. Jakob Dylan was playing in San Francisco the night I was flying up. While I was in the air he was probably taking the stage. It may just not be meant to be.

Raise $25,000 or more for a charity
I don't know what the charity would be or how the fund raising would be achieved but I would like to spearhead something that moved people enough to open their wallets and give.

Bake a Wedding Cake
I just really want to say that I've done this. Who knows I may just make my own when the time comes.

Ownership

Lately, I've been all about ownership and being accountable for the type of person you are in the world. In that I've super accepting of my short comings and things in which I don't always excel. I've accepted that I am sometimes closed off with my emotions and whom I choose to be open with. I have owned up to my inability to be forthcoming with how I feel about certain things that other people do. I've accepted that I'm not always a great friend or perfect communicator. I am trying to be a better version of myself. I want to improve as a person and as a part of that I must be responsible for the energy I put out into the world in all my interactions.

Reason Enough

If you ask me, which you will, this picture is reason enough to love Los Angeles.

They helped me, maybe they'll help you

I'm not one for assigning too much significance to a song. My ex and I never had a song. So there aren't really any songs that I can't listen to. I got over my issues with the one song that did upset me. These songs are songs that I listened to a lot post-break-up and they made me feel a lot better.

Another You by John Mayer

"I hope she looks like you, yeah, and is nicer, too"

I Don't Love You by My Chemical Romance

"I don't love you, like I did yesterday" I think that says it all.

Still by Ben Folds

"Even the things that seem still, are still changing"

Accidental Sacrifices

Lent started a week and a half ago. When it started I decided I wasn't going to give anything up this year. I was feeling very far away and detached from my faith and my Catholicism. This morning when I was sitting in my room before heading to mass, I realized that I gave up being lazy. I am currently in an immense amount of back pain. Walking around, sitting, standing, and driving all cause the sensation of daggers being dug into my spine. It's awful. As I was sitting in my room I realized that last Sunday I got out and bed and went to church on my own for the first time in a very long time. So long that I couldn't remember the last time I went to church by myself. This morning I was tired. I was feeling lazy. I decided that I had accidentally given up being lazy. I took my very sore body to church and the grocery store and took care of my soul, mind and body. I've started working out and paying more attention to what I put into my body and how my body reacts to it (that's a whole other post for another time). I think in this whole giving up on laziness is going to have to extend beyond Lent (which is the point). I'm going to make it translate to other parts of my life.

What I baked this weekend: Oatmeal Cookies

So over the weekend I baked another batch of the Chewy Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies. The base of the recipes comes from this recipe off of Smitten Kitchen. The only thing I really changed was that I took the raisins out and replace them with that litany of other things. They've been a huge hit at the office. The first batch was killed on Monday last week. So this weekend I doubled it up. Apparently, they taste different and are slightly more chewy this week. I think they taste the same but I think I'm biased. Without much ado here's a picture:


The first batch had the Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Chips. This batch had about 25% of those and the rest were Nestle Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. Personally I'm a fan of the Ghirardelli Chips. I think the chocolate is just better quality. That could possibly be the reformed San Franciscan in me though.

Another thing I'm super excited about is that the picture above was taken with my new camera. It's a pretty rad camera and I can wait to really take it out for a test spin this weekend. Marisa and I are planning to hit the Getty soon. I love the architecture, rotating photography exhibits and flower gardens at the J. Paul Getty Museum (can't seem to link to it).

This week is shaping up to be quite similar to the last two weeks work wise, so I'm pretty exhausted already. I'll survive though. I think I may take myself on a small trip soon and spend some time in the bay area for more than a weekend.

The story behind the gold frog

I got this gift for my birthday or Christmas (sometimes it's hard to remember, my birthday is two days before Christmas). It's a gold frog from Pier 1 Imports. My best friends, Amy and Justin, gave it me. I guess that they thought I was serious when I said it was cool. Justin manages a Pier 1 store, so I'm sure that's also part of it. I went to visit him one Saturday and commented that I thought the gold frog was badass. When they gave it to me I was mostly confused as to why someone would buy another person a gold frog. It now lives in the curio cabinet that my aunt gave me when I moved into my apartment. I am kind of attached to it now. My dad said it looks like Kermit the Frog in gold. I responded and said, "Well, it ain't easy being green."