Today was a stressful day at work. It wasn't necessarily a bad day, but there was a lot going on and I felt pretty drained the entire day (probably because I worked all day on Saturday and then had to be in on Monday morning... not my favorite thing). My boss is an asshole, but that's nothing new. He thinks the entire universe revolves around him, he refuses to be reasonable about anything, and doesn't give a shit about anyone but himself. He screwed over my coworker this afternoon, too, and while it benefits me, it sucks for her and I'm really pissed off about the way that he did it. I'm also pissed off because basically, I ended up screwing her, too. I said I didn't like working on Saturdays (does anyone?) and he said I didn't have to work them anymore, which I thought meant something else was in place. But instead, he just made Vanessa work on Saturdays, which wasn't exactly the solution I thought we had in place.
On top of that, students kept coming in left and right, none of them had appointments, and I couldn't get anything done. And we're likely to have fewer students come to the program than the boss hoped, but he doesn't understand, you know, reality, so he thinks this is somehow our fault and is freaking out because now he won't get to go throw his weight around the dean's office like he feels is his god-given right. What an asshole.
I just need to tell myself that I won't be here for more than a year after this, because I'm going to graduate next August, and if I'm not trying to get my degree from this place, then I no longer care to work for them.
On a lighter note, I saw my ex when I was standing near his office today and he has gotten faaaaaaaat. I know I shouldn't relish in that, but he really looks like he's gained 30 pounds, and that is just awesome. Especially because there I was in a form-fitting navy blue dress (made more flattering by the generic-brand Spanx I was rocking), having lost 20 pounds since my weight went up after he dumped me. Basically, he now has a double chin and a spare tire, and I looked awesome. Love it.
Yet, I somehow managed to sacrifice that awesomeness with my evening dinner. I think my weigh in tomorrow is going to be rough, but that's ok, because I can get right back on it this week. Because I may or may not have had a calzone and wings for dinner tonight. I'm still having my PMS-style cravings, which will hopefully be gone tomorrow or Wednesday and I can get back to being a functioning human being.
Anyway, I feel absolutely unproductive over the last week or so, even though I know I've been working really hard recently. I need a break. Maybe a vacation of some kind, even though I just went on vacation in June, though that wasn't really a relax and lay around kind of vacation, but an eight flights in 14 days vacation. And when I was supposed to be relaxing on a beach, I got sick in Bali. Of course I did. Maybe something relaxing is in order, even if it's just a staycation. Of course, now that I'm on hourly pay at work, we'll see if I'm willing to give up my days.
Side note: first day on hourly at work, first extra 45 minutes worked. I figured out that if I got a half hour of overtime a week, I'll end up with an extra 600/year, which is saying something. So if I get myself an extra 5 hours a week, maybe I can make adult money. That'd be nice.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Spicy Oven-fried Chicken
I really don't feel good today. In fact, I've felt kind of sick for three days. Luckily, it's just particularly rough PMS so it should be gone in a couple days, but I've had a bizarre relationship with food for the last few days (this must be what being pregnant feels like).
Normally, I don't have any "female issues." No cramping, bloating, fatigue, or whatever else they list in the Midol commercial. But I have not been well this week, and have been having a lot of trouble deciding what to eat. On Friday night, my mom suggested Hollis sandwiches, which are one of my favorite things ever, modeled after the sandwich served at the Pav at UVA by the one-and-only Miss Hollis. But when she suggested it, I felt nauseous. So then, she suggested Chinese and that sounded so much better. Sweet, fried, spicy. Perfect. Yesterday, I at the leftover Chinese food, so today I was left trying to figure out what to eat now that it was gone.
I settled on a Weight Watchers recipe that I got when I joined. It's called "spicy over-fried chicken" and my mom made it once, but it was kind of... bland. So, I decided to add some more Tabasco and see if it was any better. Here's the recipe:
If you're having trouble reading that, you should be able to enlarge it to full size. I'm not sure where you could find this on the site or if it's exclusive to joining. I hope WW doesn't sue me for putting it on my page, though. It's just so good!
And it is good. The almonds in the breading really make it crunchy, which helps deceive you into thinking it's deep-fried. I ground a few out of the mixed nuts using a microplane. I used fat-free half-and-half instead of low-fat buttermilk, primarily because I had the former without going to the store. I also used chicken breast, because, again, it was already in the freezer.
The resulting chicken, right from the oven, and cooked to an internal temperature of 170 degrees. It made the whole house smell great while it was cooking, which is weird, because it was really just baking a chicken breast. The areas with the larger pieces of almond are the ones that got particularly brown and crispy.
Because I added a lot of Tabasco, I figured this would be spicy, so I served it with blue cheese dressing on the side. To lighten the blue cheese dressing a little bit, I used a small amount of regular dressing and added crumbles of reduced-fat blue cheese. Blue cheese (which I'm not spelling bleu cheese bc I don't want to deal with the little red underline for misspelled words) is one of my favorite foods and I would pretty much put it on anything, and this reduced-fat kind, which I found at Giant, is really good.
It turned out it still wasn't all that spicy, so maybe next time I'll add a hotter type of hot sauce or more of it. I don't really like spicy foods, but I do like buffalo-style food, and that's the idea behind this, in my opinion. But it met my criteria for foods I've been craving the last couple days: sweet, fried, spicy. It was a great decision, and I don't feel like I totally destroyed my diet, despite eating Chinese food this week, which is not good for you at all, but tastes so good.
So that was my first recipe entry. I'd like to do more of them, and I'll take more pictures next time. I didn't think to make it a blog post until I was at the end, so next time I'll have more in-progress pictures. I'm also planning some "to-do" list kinds of posts. This is one of them: working through some recipes I want to try through the blog. I also want to document cleaning projects (I'm kind of a slob), make my way through my nail polish collection, and make my way through my shoe collection and wardrobe. If I can't find a use for something, I'll donate it to someone who can.
But for now, I'm going to go back to watching the Nationals and the Phillies and lay on the couch feeling generally crappy, but with a full and content stomach.
Normally, I don't have any "female issues." No cramping, bloating, fatigue, or whatever else they list in the Midol commercial. But I have not been well this week, and have been having a lot of trouble deciding what to eat. On Friday night, my mom suggested Hollis sandwiches, which are one of my favorite things ever, modeled after the sandwich served at the Pav at UVA by the one-and-only Miss Hollis. But when she suggested it, I felt nauseous. So then, she suggested Chinese and that sounded so much better. Sweet, fried, spicy. Perfect. Yesterday, I at the leftover Chinese food, so today I was left trying to figure out what to eat now that it was gone.
I settled on a Weight Watchers recipe that I got when I joined. It's called "spicy over-fried chicken" and my mom made it once, but it was kind of... bland. So, I decided to add some more Tabasco and see if it was any better. Here's the recipe:
If you're having trouble reading that, you should be able to enlarge it to full size. I'm not sure where you could find this on the site or if it's exclusive to joining. I hope WW doesn't sue me for putting it on my page, though. It's just so good!
And it is good. The almonds in the breading really make it crunchy, which helps deceive you into thinking it's deep-fried. I ground a few out of the mixed nuts using a microplane. I used fat-free half-and-half instead of low-fat buttermilk, primarily because I had the former without going to the store. I also used chicken breast, because, again, it was already in the freezer.
The resulting chicken, right from the oven, and cooked to an internal temperature of 170 degrees. It made the whole house smell great while it was cooking, which is weird, because it was really just baking a chicken breast. The areas with the larger pieces of almond are the ones that got particularly brown and crispy.
Because I added a lot of Tabasco, I figured this would be spicy, so I served it with blue cheese dressing on the side. To lighten the blue cheese dressing a little bit, I used a small amount of regular dressing and added crumbles of reduced-fat blue cheese. Blue cheese (which I'm not spelling bleu cheese bc I don't want to deal with the little red underline for misspelled words) is one of my favorite foods and I would pretty much put it on anything, and this reduced-fat kind, which I found at Giant, is really good.
It turned out it still wasn't all that spicy, so maybe next time I'll add a hotter type of hot sauce or more of it. I don't really like spicy foods, but I do like buffalo-style food, and that's the idea behind this, in my opinion. But it met my criteria for foods I've been craving the last couple days: sweet, fried, spicy. It was a great decision, and I don't feel like I totally destroyed my diet, despite eating Chinese food this week, which is not good for you at all, but tastes so good.
So that was my first recipe entry. I'd like to do more of them, and I'll take more pictures next time. I didn't think to make it a blog post until I was at the end, so next time I'll have more in-progress pictures. I'm also planning some "to-do" list kinds of posts. This is one of them: working through some recipes I want to try through the blog. I also want to document cleaning projects (I'm kind of a slob), make my way through my nail polish collection, and make my way through my shoe collection and wardrobe. If I can't find a use for something, I'll donate it to someone who can.
But for now, I'm going to go back to watching the Nationals and the Phillies and lay on the couch feeling generally crappy, but with a full and content stomach.
 |
| From recipe (on screen) to finished product (on plate) |
Saturday, August 20, 2011
I'm bored.
It's Saturday night and I'm hanging out at home by myself. That's pretty much standard, but I'm still more bored than usual. The Nationals are going to start playing soon, which is cool, but I don't really care all that much about the Nats, though I do generally enjoy watching them, and baseball in general.
I was up at 5:45 this morning to go to this Boot Camp that they have in Lincoln Park in Northeast DC, but apparently it was canceled. It would have been nice to get that email before I drove downtown for a 7:00 a.m. class, but I guess it's not that big a deal. They sent the email at 8:30, which I think is pretty poor customer service, but I got it through a Groupon so I guess I can't expect much. Then I went to my sister's house to help her move furniture, shower, and head to work for orientation. I was finally back at home at 4:00 p.m., and I ate cold leftover Chinese food (basically the first food I had eaten all day). So, I'm pretty beat. And my parents are out of town helping my grandfather get set to move in with us, so I'm by myself this weekend.
And I'm bored.
Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't be bored, because I'm an adult, which I know is a weird thing to think. Everyone can be bored, but for some reason, boredom to me seems like a lack of discipline. I could find something to do I'm sure (work out, make food, become engrossed in some other activity, do something productive like clean my room), but instead I sit here and do... nothing. And complain about it. Of course, part of the reason I'm not doing any of those things is because I'm also pretty exhausted right now, but I still could be doing something. And yet, here I sit, watching the Nationals and complaining about how I have nothing to do. It seems kind of childish.
Also, I can't get my Netflix to work. I find this frustrating. My life is so hard.
I was up at 5:45 this morning to go to this Boot Camp that they have in Lincoln Park in Northeast DC, but apparently it was canceled. It would have been nice to get that email before I drove downtown for a 7:00 a.m. class, but I guess it's not that big a deal. They sent the email at 8:30, which I think is pretty poor customer service, but I got it through a Groupon so I guess I can't expect much. Then I went to my sister's house to help her move furniture, shower, and head to work for orientation. I was finally back at home at 4:00 p.m., and I ate cold leftover Chinese food (basically the first food I had eaten all day). So, I'm pretty beat. And my parents are out of town helping my grandfather get set to move in with us, so I'm by myself this weekend.
And I'm bored.
Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't be bored, because I'm an adult, which I know is a weird thing to think. Everyone can be bored, but for some reason, boredom to me seems like a lack of discipline. I could find something to do I'm sure (work out, make food, become engrossed in some other activity, do something productive like clean my room), but instead I sit here and do... nothing. And complain about it. Of course, part of the reason I'm not doing any of those things is because I'm also pretty exhausted right now, but I still could be doing something. And yet, here I sit, watching the Nationals and complaining about how I have nothing to do. It seems kind of childish.
Also, I can't get my Netflix to work. I find this frustrating. My life is so hard.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Making Blogging a Habit
They say that good habits have to become habits before you can keep them. Obviously blogging isn't a habit for me yet, but I hope that it will be. This week has been pretty busy, but I could have made time to blog, it just didn't really come to me as something I should do until it was bedtime. So I have a while before my dinner reservations tonight, so I'm going to use it to write a solid blog post.
One of the reasons I want to write a blog regularly is because I think it's a good place for me to organize my thoughts. Whether they're about weight loss, nail polish, cooking, social life, school, work, etc., having them all written down in one place helps me contain them into finite thoughts and lists of thoughts, which I can then organize into something that doesn't seem quite so overwhelming. Being seriously depressed was very frightening and, while I hope it doesn't become an issue again, having some measure of control over my life is a good way to keep that from happening. I've always been a person with a plan and when I was the most depressed, my plans were shot and I didn't know what I wanted to do other than to marry someone who was bad for me and completely lose my sense of identity in him. Good thing that didn't actually happen.
Having more solid plans that can roll with the punches should be good in the future. It's one of the reasons I named my blog "What's next?" It's a West Wing reference, sure, but it's also a rallying cry to face life as it comes at you, tackle it, handle it, and move forward. Locating the lightswitch is also a West Wing reference that, while ridiculous, is essentially the same concept.
So this week has been busy, but it's been REALLY great. I worked out every single day from August 8 through August 15. I went to two awesome Zumba classes (I've been looking for a great instructor since Jose left GWU) and got my ass kicked more than once by things like "Step and Sculpt" (*shudder*). That instructor was a sadist, but he was wearing a UVA shirt, so we'll call it even. But I felt really proud of myself for sticking to the working out, even though some of it was out of my comfort zone, even though I busted my ankle a couple weeks ago, even though I was tired and didn't want to do it, etc. I worked out, I kept up with the skinny girls (for the most part) and I had a good weigh-in yesterday (also kept up with all my points tracking for WW). I feel like the physical activity part of things (at least right now) is really coming together. That's another thing I want to make a habit.
Work is going pretty well right now, too. Though there are a lot of frustrations, given my boss's....unique... personality, but I feel like I have a solid handle on things. Having been in charge of a program on top of my other duties for the past year has been a challenge. I haven't done it single-handed, but I became the go-to for much of the school when people needed a rep from our program. I took on a lot of the director's responsibilities that were time-consuming and way over my pay grade, and generally I got treated like shit while doing them. But now we have a new director, things are falling back into place, and I've done everything for a year. So now it should be easy.
Today we wrapped up our annual admissions cycle, and everyone with a complete application has received a decision, which is amazing. I'm not sure it's ever happened before in the history of the program. One of the interesting things about my job is even on the days when I slack off and I'm not working constantly, there's something to do, because there are always applications to be processed, decisions to be rendered, letters to be sent, etc. But now... there aren't. Now it's done and when I sent the last letters, I literally felt a completely different atmosphere enter the office today, because it finally felt like we were where we should be, after all this time. I think we can stay ahead of the game this coming year, too, so I look forward to that. Though, hopefully in a year, I'll be done with grad school and looking for a new job and it will become someone else's admissions cycle.
And on top of working out and handling work, I'm in-between semesters for school, so I didn't have to work on Saturday, do homework on Sunday, or freak out about not having any time to myself. It feels really good to be on "vacation" from school, even though I'm still going to work. And tonight I have dinner reservations at a fancy steakhouse with three lovely ladies (though one was a last-minute cancellation -- sad) from college who I love to be around. It's Restaurant Week in DC and so we're getting three courses for cheap at a nice place and I've been looking forward to it for weeks.
Right now, things are good. I'm in a good place. I'm wearing a cute dress. My weight is coming down. My activity is going up. I'm getting good grades and doing good work. This is a little bit of a cheesy post bc it's basically just "Life is good," but it is right now. So I thought I'd write about it as I attempt to make blogging a good habit, too, like I'm trying to do with all these other things.
And I don't have nail polish on my nails right now, but I leave you with my Fourth of July manicure from when Laura and I went to Nashville:
As you can see, it's kind of crappy. It's supposed to look like a firework (which was not my idea, you can find the original here). I think it came out all right given that I used a toothpick and have no skillz whatsoever. And here it is on the whole hand:
I'll keep the pedicure in reserve for the next time I'm not wearing nail polish.
One of the reasons I want to write a blog regularly is because I think it's a good place for me to organize my thoughts. Whether they're about weight loss, nail polish, cooking, social life, school, work, etc., having them all written down in one place helps me contain them into finite thoughts and lists of thoughts, which I can then organize into something that doesn't seem quite so overwhelming. Being seriously depressed was very frightening and, while I hope it doesn't become an issue again, having some measure of control over my life is a good way to keep that from happening. I've always been a person with a plan and when I was the most depressed, my plans were shot and I didn't know what I wanted to do other than to marry someone who was bad for me and completely lose my sense of identity in him. Good thing that didn't actually happen.
Having more solid plans that can roll with the punches should be good in the future. It's one of the reasons I named my blog "What's next?" It's a West Wing reference, sure, but it's also a rallying cry to face life as it comes at you, tackle it, handle it, and move forward. Locating the lightswitch is also a West Wing reference that, while ridiculous, is essentially the same concept.
So this week has been busy, but it's been REALLY great. I worked out every single day from August 8 through August 15. I went to two awesome Zumba classes (I've been looking for a great instructor since Jose left GWU) and got my ass kicked more than once by things like "Step and Sculpt" (*shudder*). That instructor was a sadist, but he was wearing a UVA shirt, so we'll call it even. But I felt really proud of myself for sticking to the working out, even though some of it was out of my comfort zone, even though I busted my ankle a couple weeks ago, even though I was tired and didn't want to do it, etc. I worked out, I kept up with the skinny girls (for the most part) and I had a good weigh-in yesterday (also kept up with all my points tracking for WW). I feel like the physical activity part of things (at least right now) is really coming together. That's another thing I want to make a habit.
Work is going pretty well right now, too. Though there are a lot of frustrations, given my boss's....unique... personality, but I feel like I have a solid handle on things. Having been in charge of a program on top of my other duties for the past year has been a challenge. I haven't done it single-handed, but I became the go-to for much of the school when people needed a rep from our program. I took on a lot of the director's responsibilities that were time-consuming and way over my pay grade, and generally I got treated like shit while doing them. But now we have a new director, things are falling back into place, and I've done everything for a year. So now it should be easy.
Today we wrapped up our annual admissions cycle, and everyone with a complete application has received a decision, which is amazing. I'm not sure it's ever happened before in the history of the program. One of the interesting things about my job is even on the days when I slack off and I'm not working constantly, there's something to do, because there are always applications to be processed, decisions to be rendered, letters to be sent, etc. But now... there aren't. Now it's done and when I sent the last letters, I literally felt a completely different atmosphere enter the office today, because it finally felt like we were where we should be, after all this time. I think we can stay ahead of the game this coming year, too, so I look forward to that. Though, hopefully in a year, I'll be done with grad school and looking for a new job and it will become someone else's admissions cycle.
And on top of working out and handling work, I'm in-between semesters for school, so I didn't have to work on Saturday, do homework on Sunday, or freak out about not having any time to myself. It feels really good to be on "vacation" from school, even though I'm still going to work. And tonight I have dinner reservations at a fancy steakhouse with three lovely ladies (though one was a last-minute cancellation -- sad) from college who I love to be around. It's Restaurant Week in DC and so we're getting three courses for cheap at a nice place and I've been looking forward to it for weeks.
Right now, things are good. I'm in a good place. I'm wearing a cute dress. My weight is coming down. My activity is going up. I'm getting good grades and doing good work. This is a little bit of a cheesy post bc it's basically just "Life is good," but it is right now. So I thought I'd write about it as I attempt to make blogging a good habit, too, like I'm trying to do with all these other things.
And I don't have nail polish on my nails right now, but I leave you with my Fourth of July manicure from when Laura and I went to Nashville:
I'll keep the pedicure in reserve for the next time I'm not wearing nail polish.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Busy week, man.
And here we are again. Whoops about the no blogging, but things have been busy this week. I finished my final project a couple hours ago for my class so now I'm done with school work for three weeks, which is a nice vacation. The final project actually came together really well because each piece of the research proposal we had to draft had been required of us earlier in the semester, so I basically just had to do the same thing on a different topic. I guess the professor knew what he was doing after all. Whomp whomp.
But yes, this week was busy what with school and work and softball and doctor's appointments, but now I get a bit of a break. The students aren't in class anymore until the first week of September and I don't even have to work next Saturday. Of course, I've basically used this free time to cram in every possible thing I need to do for the rest of my life, so there's that. I have PT and softball tomorrow and an exercise class scheduled every day from Tuesday through the following Tuesday. Yikes! I guess we'll see what happens. My Google calendar looks a little crazyface.
Ugh, craziness going on with my paycheck, though, which may keep me from doing anything fun for a while. Basically, I'm getting taxed on my tuition because GWU views it as income, which wouldn't be a problem, except that instead of adding $150 to my taxes, it's adding $400+ to my taxes, and since I'm not actually making any more money, all that money is coming out of what was already too small of a paycheck. So I guess real personal training is out for the foreseeable future. Good thing I have some Groupons. (Also, saving for a down payment is out, paying my credit card bill, paying my phone bill, storage unit rental, car insurance, gas money....) Yeah, I'm really not sure how this is going to work.
I was featured in my company's newsletter this week. There's a picture and everything. Several of my coworkers commented on it. I found it awkward.
But I also get to hang out with my awesome coworkers at softball tomorrow night! It's our last game of the season and we've done pretty well. I, personally, have done very well the last couple of games, including the game-winning RBI in the rain in our last game. We're having an after-party post-game tomorrow night so that should be fun. I actually really like my coworkers. It would be cool to, you know, be work friends with them and maybe go out for happy hour like a normal 20-something and not go immediately home to my parents' house every night where I watch NCIS and go to bed.
And, because Sarah specifically requested more nail polish pictures, China Glaze Pink Voltage.
My camera could only seem to capture this as a regular pink, but my cell phone got the full neon effect, so I'm putting up the lower quality picture. Gorgeous.
Oh, and I promise I don't take pictures of my nail polish while I'm driving. I was sitting in my car waiting for softball to start so I decided to take a picture. Just to reassure everyone.
But yes, this week was busy what with school and work and softball and doctor's appointments, but now I get a bit of a break. The students aren't in class anymore until the first week of September and I don't even have to work next Saturday. Of course, I've basically used this free time to cram in every possible thing I need to do for the rest of my life, so there's that. I have PT and softball tomorrow and an exercise class scheduled every day from Tuesday through the following Tuesday. Yikes! I guess we'll see what happens. My Google calendar looks a little crazyface.
Ugh, craziness going on with my paycheck, though, which may keep me from doing anything fun for a while. Basically, I'm getting taxed on my tuition because GWU views it as income, which wouldn't be a problem, except that instead of adding $150 to my taxes, it's adding $400+ to my taxes, and since I'm not actually making any more money, all that money is coming out of what was already too small of a paycheck. So I guess real personal training is out for the foreseeable future. Good thing I have some Groupons. (Also, saving for a down payment is out, paying my credit card bill, paying my phone bill, storage unit rental, car insurance, gas money....) Yeah, I'm really not sure how this is going to work.
I was featured in my company's newsletter this week. There's a picture and everything. Several of my coworkers commented on it. I found it awkward.
But I also get to hang out with my awesome coworkers at softball tomorrow night! It's our last game of the season and we've done pretty well. I, personally, have done very well the last couple of games, including the game-winning RBI in the rain in our last game. We're having an after-party post-game tomorrow night so that should be fun. I actually really like my coworkers. It would be cool to, you know, be work friends with them and maybe go out for happy hour like a normal 20-something and not go immediately home to my parents' house every night where I watch NCIS and go to bed.
And, because Sarah specifically requested more nail polish pictures, China Glaze Pink Voltage.
My camera could only seem to capture this as a regular pink, but my cell phone got the full neon effect, so I'm putting up the lower quality picture. Gorgeous.
Oh, and I promise I don't take pictures of my nail polish while I'm driving. I was sitting in my car waiting for softball to start so I decided to take a picture. Just to reassure everyone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)