Miserable, Magical Monday

Today's MMM comes a little later than normal, but this weekend felt weirdly busy and my week was plagued with writer's block. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

1. As you all know, Saturday was the seventh. It also happened to be me and Brandon's first weekend in our new place. Since I'm more sentimental than that chick from Mean Girls who just wants to bake a cake with her feelings and since Brandon is a sweet dude, we made a day of strolling around in the downtown heat before retreating back to our apartment for some watermelon and House of Cards watching. Originally, we headed back to our place so we could take a dip in the pool, but then House of Cards happened. Before we knew it, it was nine! Which was when we decided we should probably have dinner.

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2. My mom gifted me this really cute potted aster daisy plant back in February (I think). I tried to keep it alive, but having never cared for a potted flower plant before, it died on me. Not surprising! Still, I kept the plant in all its brown crumbly shame and eventually looked up if you could revive a dead plant on the internet. Turns out you totally can, my plant was just beyond saving. I've been wanting a plant for a while but new home furnishings, including a house plant or soil, just aren't in the budget (have I mentioned how much I hate budgets? They're awful) right now. But I also didn't want to toss a perfectly good pot of soil because, remember, I'm super sentimental. Then it hit me. Brandon and I had an insane amount of daisy seed packets leftover from the wedding! So I hurriedly broke apart the dry soil and wet it until it actually looked like dirt and not clay. I then shallowly planted the daisy seeds from the wedding. The best part: I had teensy weensy sprouts in a week! I was over the moon. The sprouts luckily survived the move and are growing slowly but surely. I'm making sure to give them lots of light because I read daisies need it. Are any of you good gardeners? I'm pretty much flying blind here.

3. My minimal success with my flowers has me wanting to plant all the things! Ha. I think I'll try my hand at fresh herbs next. Trader Joe's totally has a potted basil plant for $2.99. Is this real life? I have dried basil that came with my spice rack and I love it like I love pesto. I can only imagine how good homemade pesto made from the freshest homegrown basil would taste! Mmm!!

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4. So there's this website called Naturally Curly and it has A TON of information about the different kinds of curly hair and other hair properties. I could seriously spend hours doing what I call curly hair research. I've read a lot and now am trying to learn how to properly apply. I'm also pretty sure my hair is a genetic disaster. It's super thick, coarse and dryer than even normal curly hair (which is naturally dryer than straighter hair). So to keep it moisturized I'm supposed to use heavy products, but I'm also really sensitive to protein/product buildup, so I should really use heavy products. In short, my hair's a ghastly mess. (Kudos to anyone who caught the Mary Poppins reference!)

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5. A few weeks ago I went to check out the French classic, Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry at Solano, my old community college. I figured that since I was already there and it had been ages since I'd walked through the old 700 building, where I fell in love with French, it was about time for me to see if the room had changed in the years since I'd studied French.

I miss this room!

FYI: I sat in the second seat in the second row from the right.

It hadn't changed at all! Madame's left-handed cursive was still visible on the white board despite the fact that it had been erased. It brought back some really cool, fun memories to stand in the doorway like a creep, hoping no one would see me and ask me what I was doing. I even walked past Madame's office to see if she was around (she wasn't). It was probably for the best. I get weird stage fright when it comes time to speak French with native/native level speakers. Either way, I'm glad I stopped by. It was nice to quietly enjoy my memories from five years ago.

6. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned the fact that my glasses are broken. Nothing irreparable, but enough that I can't wear them in place of my contacts anymore. I completely slacked on purchasing vision insurance for myself this year which has left me in a pickle. I need new glasses but need a new prescription before I can get them. Add to the mix me running out of fresh contacts about a month and a half ago. Yes, friends. This is my reality. I'm wearing contacts that should have been tossed a month ago and have no glasses to relieve my poor eyes. Just last week I noticed that my contacts were tearing. Tearing! At that point I knew there was no more stalling. So I called Costco up and set up an appointment. The older I get (WOW that made me feel way older than I am), the more scared I get of the doctor. Any doctor. But it'll feel so nice to see clearly and to not have torn plastic on my eyelids.

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7. Remember how my sister and I are going to Costa Rica this month? Yeah, as in 17 days?! That's insane. What's more insane is the fact that both of us need to get our passports. I'm pretty sure she just needs to renew hers, but not me. I changed my name when I got married so although I totally have a valid passport, the name on it is wrong. Anyway, I'll be expediting my process (I don't really have a choice haha) and get to make a tiny trip into San Francisco in a week. I'm planning on taking BART to save gas and parking money and I have to admit, I'm excited about it. BART isn't exactly the classiest form of public transit but it's familiar and easy. It reminds me of the time I got to go to Bring Your Child To Work Day with my mom, who has been riding BART to work for something like 15 years. Yes, every time I get on BART I think of that memory. But I'm also weirdly romantic about public transit (I'm pretty sure I romanticize the absolute strangest things). I might even score some Blue Bottle while I'm out there. That will make everything completely worth it!

Thanks for reading!
♥ A

Miserable, Magical Monday

Alright, alright. I know. I missed a Monday already! But to be fair, I had really bad writer's block last Monday (#blamethesadness).

The that the writer's block is gone and I'm excited to bring you all another Miserable, Magical Monday!

1. I have found the most delicious yogurt in all of California. And it's made in Antioch. I bought it at Safeway last week because I wanted yogurt and it was on sale and OH MY GOSH it's delectable. I ate it with some Kashi granola (we all know Kashi stuff is good for us but really bland) and some frozen blueberries and I have not stopped trying to get Brandon to try it since. I don't even know if he likes yogurt all that much. I just know it's SO GOOD.

2. Brandon and I have switched out The Office for House of Cards with some Parks and Rec splashed in. House of Cards is insane. It's nuts. When I watch it, I feel sort of how I felt when I watched that one season of 24 in college. I tense up, I'm trying to figure out the next step before it happens, even though I know the writers are setting us up for a huge twist. If you enjoy political dramas, I recommend it. And even if you don't (like Brandon, who couldn't care less about politics), I still recommend it because the story is woven really well. Plus there are fantastic moments where Spacey breaks the fourth wall.

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3. I finished another craft off of my Learn/Make/Do list for 12 Things! It's based off of this pin. I didn't have any maps to work with and the girl I was making the notebook for wouldn't have appreciated the hipster-ness of a woven map notebook, so I bought two pieces of card stock from Michael's in her favorite colors: line green and teal. I'm not crafty. I can envision what I want something to look like, but executing it? It takes me for-freaking-ever. Anyway, I hope my friend liked it.

4. I'm not sure if I'm off-base with this idea, but I feel like people who work with children experience a minuscule amount of fame. I know I do. All the kids rush in to talk to you and everyone wants to know how old you are and they all measure themselves against me (quite literally, they all can't wait to proclaim that they're taller than me). And they give you stuff! I get drawings, tiny foam fish, post it notes left on my desk at work (by my boss' daughter who is a treasure), cookies for Valentine's day. There's one boy that copied my every move during a lesson. As in he changed the way he was sitting when I shifted my position. I know he was copying me for a fact because I moved on purpose to see if he'd copy me and he did.

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5. What's the deal with coconut oil? Is it worth buying? Literally everywhere I look in the blogging world someone is talking about coconut oil. Where are we getting all the coconuts from? Are they harvested in a safe, ecological sound manner? (Probably not.) Why aren't the clean living people asking these questions? I'm a dirty eater and all of my make up probably has chemicals in it. I can't be the only one wondering this.

6. I've been looking into detoxes recently because I have too much free time and decided that since I'm putting off buying groceries for the month of May (a sense a habit forming), a juice or smoothie cleanse is not possible right now. Besides, if I'm honest with myself I probably don't have the wherewithal to complete a smoothie cleanse. Anyway, I opted for a half hour hot bath instead. I did some research to see what non-essential oil stuff I should mix into my bath. Each website had a different list, so I chose to mix 'em all up and see what happened. I dumped a hefty amount of baking soda, a splash of apple cider vinegar, a teensy bit of EVOO and an assortment of green and mint tea bags and filled my tub up. Then I turned on my Sightseeing in Paris playlist on Spotify and tried to relax. I have to tell you, it was not relaxing. It was hot, my heart was beating faster than normal and I couldn't relax my leg muscles because they just float to the top. Anyway, about 20 minutes into this bath, I decide that there's no way in heck I'm gonna make it a full 40 minutes. I made a deal with myself where I could get out of the tub after four songs played.

"I'm on a cleanse."

Now, I'd read that I might feel lightheaded after the soak and that I should move very slowly. Homegirls were not joking around! I felt way more than lightheaded. I inched out of the tub, felt a little woozy, but decided to press on to get myself some water. It's not a far walk from my tub to my fridge, but halfway through my journey my ears started ringing and my vision was blurry and I felt sick. My body was shutting down on me. It's not the first time it's tried to do this, but I have a weird talent for not giving in to the faint. It was miracle that there was a glass of water from the night before chilling in the fridge because at that point there was no way I could have poured. I literally grabbed the top of the butter dish in my blurry blindness thinking it was one of my stackable mugs. I also dropped it quite dramatically when I couldn't stand anymore. After the water I stumbled to the couch like a drunkie and lay down.

Like this.

I also gobbled up a couple pieces of Dove dark chocolate because of chocolate's healing properties as presented in Harry Potter. After downing water and cooling off, I crawled over to the sliding door and opened it. I then set out to crawl to the kitchen where I slowly stood up and started to make mac and cheese. Which I added too much milk to. But I dumped the extra liquid and ate it anyway. I called it "retoxing."

7. I listened to Lorde's album again this week and was reminded of just how excellent it is. I've been gong through my Spotify's starred playlist since the update to sift through the music I want to like so I can end up with just music I like. Anyway, it's meant that I've listened to some good artists and songs, but also that I haven't had a chance to let the bass and vocal layers from Lorde's album wash over my ears. I don't know why I find that album so cathartic. And to think she's 17. Unfair.

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I hope you're enjoying the new look of the blog as much as I am. I'm trying to dust off my old Myspace layout HTML editing skillz. They've been in storage for a while.

♥ A