so I was thinking.
*cue Jeopardy music*
Meme-tastic Monday is super and all, but a new meme every week? like, really?
so i’m switching it up.
the bangles’s “manic monday” is one of my very favorite songs that i will belt out any time it comes on the radio and i may or may not have substituted my own words in different places. i love that damn song. so from here on out, monday will officially be “manic monday.” you might get a recipe, you might get a meme, you might get some random thing that i found somewhere, but you more than likely won’t get anything that i personally wrote. mondays are just so… manic.
with me?
sweet.
so here’s your first recipe:
Jose Cuervo Christmas Cookies
1 cup of water
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup of brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup nuts
2 cups of dried fruit
1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila
Sample the Cuervo to check quality.
Check the Cuervo again, to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink.
Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.
Add one peastoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point it’s best to make sure the Cuervo is still ok, try another cup just in case.
Turn off the mixerer thingy.
Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.
Pick the frigging fruit off the floor.
Mix on the turner.
If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaters just pry it loose with a drewscriver.
Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity.
Next, sift two cups of salt, or somefink. Who geeves a sheet. Check the Jose Cuervo. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.
Add one table.
Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find.
Greash the oven.
Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.
Don’t forget to beat off the turner.
Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the wishdasher.
Cherry Mistmas!
*you’ll probably get a serious recipe every now and again. just fyi*
find the rest of the #best 09 bloggers here.
if you’ll allow me to be so crass for a moment: these last few weeks have been a total shitstorm of emotion.
ahem.
isn’t the mere IDEA of a storm of SHIT enough to make you puke?
that’s how i’ve been feeling.
but something about the holidays, even with the shit storm (it’s just fun to say. i’m sorry, mom) is so peaceful and warm. i think this year has been the one that i’ve found the most peace. i’ve been able to relax. and breathe. and maybe it has something to do with saving almost every extra dime (i’m sorry. i need sbux and the occasional bagel.) and the fact that christmas is going to be v. boring this year, at least commercially, but i have just felt so relaxed. i haven’t been cussing under my breath at idiots in parking lots, i haven’t fallen asleep in a pile of wrapping paper and tape, and i haven’t short-circuited the christmas tree. woo!
i’m sure i feel this way every year, but with the storm of… well. you know. i am paying closer attention to how much i appreciate those around me — you guys, my friends, and most of all, my family.
well hellooooooo!
still alive.
promise.
i have been meaning to do Gwen’s Best of 2009 Blog Challenge and i’m doing about as well with that as i did with the true purpose of Nablahblahblah month. Oops. Soooo I’m going to start with today’s challenge and then use the other ones as blog fodder somewhere down the line. because i’m smart like that. and a little lazy sometimes.
ahem.
i have found several new blogs this year that i adore. heart, even. i heart a LOT of things, but i have really strengthened my bloggy friendships this year.
i always love having my real-life friends join the blogging community, and ash did just that this summer. yeah, she doesn’t post all the time, and yeah, she’s a little lurky, and yeah, she’s skipping the #bloggersinsincity meet up to hang out with her husband on their stupid anniversary, but she’s cool. go check her out. she’s participating in this project also.
i also love my bitches from when this blog was hosted on blogger, like the queen of dallas (who coined the term “i hate bitches but i love mine”), the lovely ms. kami. she is a momma to Nik and a wife to Nate, and a girl after my own liberal heart. didn’t see her when i was in texas, but next trip i am definitely scheduling a little girl time.
i have also made some new friends, like wishy, and rach, and jill, and lilu, and amy, and other ashley, and jenn, and michelle, and brandy, and mermanda. those girls are the ones that no matter how backed up my reader gets, i never mark them as read, and i always enjoy getting their comments on my days-old posts because i know their readers are just as behind as mine.
i have a tragically short attention span sometimes, so i also have a (large) handful of tumblrings in my reader. i love beautiful photography and quotes (in fact, i’m a mod for @iheartquotes on twitter — follow us!) so some of my favorite tumblrings are cardboard love, i can read, wears heart on sleeve, eff yeah, love, and of COURSE post secret. and as an added bonus on my short attention span list: jamie’s shopping blog and it made my day. oh, and wordboner. love.
so i know i broke the rules, but i do that sometimes. if you want to keep track of all the blogs i mentioned, you can find them all in my blogroll!
our freshman high school health teacher taught a unit on self-esteem. you will not find a graduate of my high school that does not know what a power clap is. she was very big on self-affirmation at a time in our lives when a LOT of us hated ourselves — or at least acted like we did. these little i statements that i found on one of the tumblrings i read really reminded me of her.
i am… a little conflicted.
i keep… text messages that make me smile.
i wish i could… have a day that i didn’t think about being sad even once (this is getting depressing, y’all)
i love… my family. the one i was born into and the one i’ve made for myself out of my circle of friends.
i dance… like a crazy girl when i’m drunk. very flail-y and… drunk looking.
i sing… with almost every song that comes on the radio. even the ones that i don’t know all the words to. just figured out all the words to ‘manic monday’ the other day.
i think… it’s kind of weird to read the words “i think” and go “i have no idea WHAT i think.”
i really… miss being a kid sometimes. hell, even in college.
i need… to snap OUT OF THIS FUNK. yuck.
i should… stop being so negative. that might help.
i can… promise myself to keep doing my best every day.
i like… you guys. a lot.
i make… a lot of kick-ass food. saturday is roomie’s bachelorette and sunday is my scentsy party — there will be TONS of good food at each.
i always… try to think of something funny when i’m feeling blue. it works!
cranberries are very much not my favorite part of any holiday meal. canned, jellied, what-EVER. they’re ew. my mom started making them from scratch one year (with the recipe on the bag. that’s her big secret. shhh.) and they were pretty darn tasty. i like making things just how my mom makes them most of the time (her mashed potatoes are THE BEST.) but sometimes i like a little spin. this recipe is from a friend of hers and these things are AMAZING. I’m going to give you the recipe in it’s original form — with a smaller crowd you can cut it pretty easily, unless you’ve got lots of cranberry fans on your hands. i know it isn’t thanksgiving anymore, but hey. try ‘em at christmas.
4 cups fresh cranberries
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup brandy
yep.
that’s it.
combine cranberries, sugar, and brandy.
mix well. it should look like this:
place mixture in baking dish (the recipe calls for 9×13, but just make sure that the berries are pretty much only one layer deep) and cover with foil. bake at 300 degrees for an hour.
(just in case you guys don’t know what a pan covered with foil looks like.)
when it comes out it should look like this:
refrigerate until cool. serve as an accompaniment (oooh. fancy.) to poultry or ham or as a dessert. the recipe claims that it’s also delicious on ice cream if you puree it in the blender. they typically don’t make it that far at our house. ahem.
I’ve been thinking about relationship dynamics lately – when I went home for that funeral last weekend, I saw my dad’s best friend’s wife, devastated that the person she thought she’d spend the rest of her life with was taken from her 6 days before their 30th wedding anniversary (I know. This story just keeps getting sadder). And then I saw her son’s brand-new fiancée trying to muddle through the waters of what to do when confronted with all of these people that you DON’T KNOW who have all come to your house under such terrible circumstances, and all you want to do is hide from them all because number one, you’re incredibly shy and number two you thought you’d have more time to prepare yourself for all of their hugging and crying because you didn’t think you were going to meet them for another 8 months – until your wedding.
Then my parents, both quietly contemplating what if the situation was different? What if one of them were to die suddenly (please do not even talk about it or I will think about it and then we will have a puddle of tears the size of the Aegean Sea)? Sure, they’ve had 27 wonderful years together, but wouldn’t 27 more be pretty great?
My best friend and her ex-husband (who was another son to this couple) teaming up to help their young children (and each other) through the struggle of losing a man who was like a grandpa.
Not only romantic relationships, but those based in friendship. I kept losing it at the funeral when I would think about my dad, having to bury a man he’d been friends with for over half his life. Thinking about his kids and wondering “who would I ask to carry my daddy someday?”
I warned you guys this was going to be a sad joint for awhile.
Isn’t it amazing how we develop relationships with people? It seems like you get to a point with someone and you can’t even remember what your life was like without them, but somehow you have to try. You have to get past the missing them. You still miss them, of course, but you have to get yourself to a point where you can at least function. We all think so much about ourselves and how much we’re hurting that sometimes I think we compound the hurt.
How do you handle grief when you lose someone? Do you vow to make amends with everyone in your life so that just in case you know that you did your best by them? Do you promise to be a better person, give more time to your family and friends? Do you sit and think about things like living life on purpose? Do you surround yourself with people you love and who love you, or do you sit in a closet by yourself until you can figure this whole thing out?
Every day is getting a little easier. It won’t ever be the same, but it will be okay.
I kind of want to start this post off with a big deep breath.
Whew.
Last week was like seven hundred years crammed in seven days.
Monday afternoon, one of my dad’s best friends had a stroke. At 59. The guy is the most stubborn person I’ve ever met, so when dad told me the news I was all “He’s young, he’s healthy, he’ll be fine. He can out-stubborn a stroke.”
I’ve never been sorrier to say I was wrong.
He passed away Wednesday morning, and the rest of the week is a blur. It’s been rough on everyone, but mostly (of course) his family – he left behind a wife and 3 kids — so if you guys would say a little prayer or think a little happy thought for them that would be amazing.
I have been journaling a TON this month and while I haven’t written every day, I’ve filled almost an entire journal. It has been really cathartic for me – especially this last week.
Someday I’ll probably talk about what an amazing-even-though-it-was-awful sort of day/weekend it was, but it’s still a little too fresh.
So, basically, things might be a little sad-face around here for a bit, or I might be gone for awhile, but it’s going to take me some time to get back to good, and I know you guys understand. : )
Alrighty, y’all. I didn’t write this. One of my roommates sent it to me and it is just too funny not to share. I don’t *think* she knows the dude who wrote it, but i haven’t seen it anywhere else… anyway, I was looking through my facebook notes to see what survey/meme thing i could do today, and this one caught my eye. it’s totally not a meme, but i promise, there are so many of these that will make you go “ZOMG ME TOO.” promise-face. let me know which one is your fave!
~~~
- I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.
- More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.
- Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.
- I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they’ve invented the lighter?
- Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.
- That’s enough, Nickelback.
- I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.
- The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase “Regards” again.
- Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.
- There is a great need for sarcasm font.
- Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the fuck was going on when I first saw it.
- I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.
- How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
- I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
- I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
- The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.
- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.
- Was learning cursive really necessary?
- Lol has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.
- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.
- My brother’s Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, “Cuz we beat you, and you hate us.” Classy, bro.
- Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.
- How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?
- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using ‘as in’ examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss’s last name to an attorney and said “Yes that’s G as in…(10 second lapse)..ummm…Goonies”
- What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?
- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it…thanks Mario Kart.
- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.
- Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.
- I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.
- Bad decisions make good stories
- Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do!
- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?
- If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.
- Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from, this shouldn’t be a problem….
- You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
- Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.
- There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
- I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
- “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.
- I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’
- I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?
- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
- When I meet a new girl, I’m terrified of mentioning something she hasn’t already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.
- I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.
- Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles…
- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.
- Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
- It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.
- I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
- I think that if, years down the road when I’m trying to have a kid, I find out that I’m sterile, most of my disappointment will stem from the fact that I was not aware of my condition in college.
- Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what do to with it.
- Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet my a$s everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time…
- My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day “Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?” How the hell do I respond to that?
- It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.
- I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.
- I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
- I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.
- The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, I saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimate d that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There’s nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.
should be called lazy-ass cookies.
but they are soooo delicious.
the girl i lived with my freshman year of college LOVES these – i hadn’t really ever had them until i lived with her, but dammit they are delicious and easy. also, i painted the plate that they’re on at ceramics. it’s my christmas cookie plate. because i am just too damn domestic for words.
***
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth works the best)
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups quick oats
Simmer butter, sugar, cocoa, and milk over low heat until butter is melted. Remove from heat. Stir in oats, peanut butter, and vanilla. Drop by heaping teaspoons onto cookie sheets or wax paper. Let harden over night. or however long you can keep your roommates from scooping them up off the wax paper and directly into their mouths.
found our pics from the 2005 Denver George Strait/Ronnie Milsap/Taylor Swift show. isn’t she cuuuuuuuuuuuute? okay, i know it’s a little crazy to be named entertainer of the year at 19, but anyone who can put on that good of a show at such a young age and truly appreciates her fans? well, if nothing else, she’s pretty damn awesome.