Consumption update

My cough is improving but not gone. I'm still telling people I have consumption. My boss said "what is this, the 1800s?" In my body, yes. Derek keeps making me boiled water with thyme. It tastes pretty gross but since I can't take cough medicine this is what I gotta do. I was also watching Forensic Files so the thought crossed my mind that maybe he's trying to kill me. It does seem to be helping though.

Other happenings:

We're still apartment hunting *sighs dramatically*.

Velo binding is a real bitch to get off!

My jam

I LOVE fig jam (ok it's a "spread" but I call it jam). Put it on some Brie and you have the best snack in the world. It's expensive though so when I saw that my jam was on sale I got really excited. Try it, you won't regret it. Unless you're lactose intolerant then you might want to skip the Brie.

Sushi Sunday and fashion swap

We hit a little speed bump with Sushi Sunday. Our usual sushi place, 'O' Yummy, was closed! Luckily we found another sushi place and Sushi Sunday was saved. Derek even got some Sukiyaki.

I went to a fashion swap in this morning and I told myself I would not leave with more than I brought but that didn't happen. Everyone brought some really good stuff, I couldn't resist!

This is only a small part of the swap, there was so much more.

I think this is my favorite item that I got at the swap. The jacket fits me perfectly and I can't wait to wear it to work.

I'm recovering from some type of chest cold/bronchitis which I suppose is good news because that means my sore throat was not from reflux! I also got my yearly zit today (see photo above). I'm lucky that I rarely get zits so when I do I joke that it's my "yearly zit".

And now it's time for the Walking Dead season finale.

Falling apart at the seams

Do you ever feel like your body is just falling apart. I'm not very happy with my body right now. I've had this cough for the past couple of days and now I'm playing the "is it acid reflux or something else?" game. It's fun waking up in the middle of the night hacking your brains out. I can't take cough medicine because it will give me horrible heartburn and is also counterproductive if the cough is due to my reflux. So I'm a bit cranky because my stomach has been rebelling against me since October/November of 2013!!! Before that I was fine. I took one prilosec and pretty much went on my way. Now I take two prilosec a day and a zantac before I go to bed. How is this still happening? 

I'm trying to lose some more weight because that's supposed to help but it's slow going. I'm not very overweight so it's not easy. I also eat a lot of carbs because they are one of the safest food groups for me with my bladder and stomach issues. Most fruits are off limits so I'm trying to fit in more veg.

I started using my fitbit again to track my steps but now it's not working right. It could be that the battery is dead so I'm going to try replacing it and see what happens. You totally threw off my groove fitbit!

I hope at some point I can look back on this post while drinking a margarita and be like thank God I feel better now!

Blurred limes

Daryl is leaving Boston for California so we had a little farewell dinner last night followed by a farewell midnight snack.

Good luck trying to call the court

If you've never experienced calling a court I do not recommend it. First of all you have to say a little prayer that you'll actually get through to a person. Often times the line will just ring and ring with no answer and no voicemail. If you can get a human on the phone it's usually someone not in the department you need so they'll transfer you and most of the time the line will ring with no answer. Sometimes you get transferred and the call just drops, or someone hangs up on you, it can be hard to tell. If you actually make it through to a real live human they're usually pretty nasty to you and make it very clear that they don't have time for this, sometimes by actually saying "I don't have time for this." Oh, I'm sorry you don't have time for your job!

I never go to court but I've heard it's just as bad in person. Oh and some courts still use WordPerfect because apparently it's still the 80s.

Lazy healthy stir fry for one

I've been having a rough go of it the past few days with my reflux so I decided tonight to go back to a Ginny staple. I call it my lazy vegetarian stir fry. This dish is seriously easy to prepare and is healthy to boot. I used to make this quite a bit on nights I was too tired and hungry to spend much time in the kitchen cooking.

This is the face of a very hungry girl on the bus.

What you'll need

1 bag of frozen mixed veggies of your choosing (I use just half the bag)

1 cup of cooked rice (I use minute rice in ready to serve cups if I'm short on time. Leftover rice works great too)

1/2 tsp of soy sauce (I used a leftover packet from takeout)

1/4 tsp of sesame oil

1 egg

pinch of salt

a bit of olive oil for your frying pan

Let's get lazy cooking

Put a little bit of olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat and add half the bag of frozen veggies (use more or less depending on your preference). Let this cook for a few minutes in your pan until your veggies start to soften. While the veggies are cooking I cook the minute rice in the microwave.

Take your cup of rice and put it in with your veggies. Make a little space in the middle of your frying pan. Crack an egg into a bowl and put your egg right in that little space you just made in your pan.

Let your egg cook there for about a minute then just mix everything together. The egg will continue to cook in the stir fry. Now add your soy sauce, sesame oil and some salt.

Derek and use sesame oil all the time. It's strong so you only need a little bit. It really adds a great flavor to stir fry. I prefer to add the sesame oil directly to a spot on the pan rather than right on top of the stir fry and then mix it in.

Your stir fry is pretty much done at this point. I just stir it up for another minute to make sure the flavors are all mixed and the egg is cooked then get yourself a bowl.

And there you have it. This probably takes me about 10-15 minutes to whip up. You can use fresh veggies if you prefer and add some garlic if you don't have reflux like I do. It's filling, quick and healthy. I want to try this with quinoa at some point.

My ring is cursed

I received a ring as a gift a few years ago but I've only worn the ring a few times. I haven't worn it much because every time I wear it bad things happen. Yesterday I decided I was being silly and so I put the ring on before Derek and I went out to dinner. We get on the T and once we get underground our train stops moving. Apparently there was a switch problem at another station so there was "a bit of traffic ahead". We were stuck underground for 40 minutes. We decided to abandon our original plan and just get off at the next stop. 

Once we were off the train we tried to find a place to eat. Every place we tried was packed because of March Madness basketball. Just great! After wandering around for way too long we decided to just go to UNOs. Thankfully it was not packed. While eating I told Derek that I think I should take off the cursed ring. So I did and put it in my purse. 

After dinner we sat at the bar to have a few drinks. Derek and I are just sitting there talking and suddenly the guy sitting next to me falls out of his chair onto the floor and starts having a seizure. He hit his head pretty bad and there was blood everywhere. EMTs came to take him to the hospital.

So if anyone wants to buy a cursed ring off of me I have one for sale. Otherwise I'm going to bury it somewhere far away.

My childhood was a house of lies

Is that you Harvey??!!

My first pet was a parakeet named Harvey. He was a cute little green bird and I loved having a pet. We had him for a few years and then one day he was gone. I was very upset so my mother told me that Harvey had to go back to the pet store because he missed all his bird friends. Of course I then demanded that we go to the pet store to see Harvey. My mother brought me to the pet store down the street and she pointed to a parakeet in a cage and said, "See, there he is. Harvey is fine." Satisfied, we went home. 

I would continue to visit Harvey for a while until I forgot about it. Years later we were back in the pet store and I started thinking about Harvey. It was then that I realized that Harvey did not make it back to the pet store, but in fact died. My mother had lied to me! When I asked her why she lied she said, "Well, you were a very dramatic child and if I told you he actually died you would have cried for days". She does have a good point, I definitely would have done that.

Why is no one dressing their babies up in snakes for St. Patrick's Day?

I know I already posted once today but I just had to get this off my chest.

Everyone is posting photos of their baby, pet, grandparent, etc... decked out in St. Patrick's Day gear. If it's green and remotely Irish and especially if it includes glitter it is being put on babies and the elderly who don't get a say. I'm surprised no one has gone all out. This is a holiday to celebrate St. Patrick who supposedly drove all the snakes out of Ireland. Yes all of them. So someone please decorate your baby in snakes. Fake or real, I don't care. Throw some glitter on them too to make them extra festive. Let's get back to the true spirit of St. Patrick's Day.

If only St. Patrick could work his magic and drive the college kids out of Allston.

Bad luck charm

I have never been very lucky. I'm not one of those people who win contests or win money on scratch tickets. Yesterday at work my co-worker was telling me about someone she knows who won 10k TWICE in one day off two separate scratch tickets. I mean who does that even happen to?! Not me, that's for sure.

We were inspired though and despite my history as a loser I went with my coworkers to buy scratch tickets. Three of us bought tickets and guess who was the only one who didn't win any money. That's right, ME. Not even a dollar.

Can't wait to take my luck to Vegas next month. Derek better gamble as far away from me as possible. Don't even ask him about the incident at the ghetto slots casino in Newport, RI. I warned him not to let me pick the machine.

Also don't go skiing or snowboarding with me because someone will get injured. It's never been me though so maybe that's some sort of luck? I don't know, I have no control over this.

Congratulations! I guess...

We did it Boston! Ok well mother nature did it, but we broke the record for the snowiest season on record. With yesterday's snow we hit 108.6 inches. The previous record was 107.6 inches during the 1995-1996 season. Personally I would rather not be breaking snow records. I need spring desperately for my sanity.

Yesterday was a very lazy day for me. I had horrible heartburn that lasted most of the day. I had somewhat recovered by dinner time so I could enjoy Sushi Sunday. It's a bit of a Sunday tradition where Derek and I order sushi (which I'm pretty sure you figured out from our very creative title).

This guy spent most of the day sleeping on my lap or stealing my spot on the couch if I got up.

Still growing back his fur from his dental cleaning procedure.

I'll have to eat a bit boring today so the heartburn doesn't come back but I did stuff my face Saturday so I think I can survive a day or two of boring food. I've eaten breakfast and so far so good. I'll have to hunt for a safe recipe to try for dinner. I'd like to avoid a throat volcano. So no garlic and no onion sadly but such is life.

Look for the giant giraffe

Today is the big St. Patrick's Day Parade in Southie. I went one time a few years ago and I'll never go again. It's not worth the hassle of getting there and dealing with the drunk crowds. Thank God the parade is nowhere near where I live.

Last night Derek and I journeyed to the other side of the river to Somerville for my old roommate Todd's birthday. The T ride took forever due to a disabled B line train but what else is new? We finally made it to the new Assembly Square station and attempted to find food. Every restaurant was packed. One restaurant had an hour and forty-five minute wait. Yea, no thank you. We finally got a table at Tony C's and showed up to the party late but we made it.

Todd and Julie coordinated their outfits but Julie is not pleased.

I was very impressed by Julie's doodling skills.

Todd lives near Legoland and had mentioned a giant giraffe as a landmark to find his apartment building. Of course I needed a picture with it.

Our trip home home was quicker but full of your usual late night drunk folk. We ordered late night pizza (calzone with no sauce for me) which I'm paying for with some heartburn today. That's what I get for eating before bed.

Howdy neighbor

I've lived in my current apartment building for a year and a half and I've only spoken to one neighbor. I don't exactly spend much time in the hall and most people in my building don't seem to be interested in making friends. I tried to say hi to a young woman once and she looked at me like I asked her to shave my head. The one neighbor I say hello to from time to time is the other occupant on the first floor. This past weekend he knocked on our door and asked if I could bring his mail into his apartment while he was on vacation. I agreed and he handed over his apartment keys.

After this interaction I realized that I didn't even know his first name. The mailboxes only have our last names. Derek and I started trying to guess what his name could be. Derek guessed Kevin and I guessed Josh. Turns out our neighbor is a Jeff. I think I win this round due to at least getting the J right.

I've completed my mail duty and I admit it was interesting to get a peak into his apartment. I'd been wondering if his unit was laid out the same as ours (it's not). I didn't snoop, I just took a peek from the hall.

I can't say that I would trust someone I don't know well with the keys to my apartment but it's no skin off my teeth to bring Jeff's mail in. Hope you had a good time in Mexico neighbor.

Light dawns over Marblehead

It only recently dawned on me what the song Only the Good Die Young by Billy Joel is actually about. I had the song stuck in my head and I started singing it out loud and suddenly it hit me, "Wait a minute, this song is about Billy Joel trying to deflower a Catholic virgin!" I always thought it was an oddly upbeat song about someone who died young. I brought this up at taco Tuesday last night and someone exclaimed, "Oh my God I've heard that song played at funerals!" I guess I'm not the only one then.

Come out Virginia, don't let me wait
You Catholic girls start much too late

But sooner or later it comes down to fate. 

I might as well be the one.

Here's why you should pray for me

Can we all just agree that today is rough unless you live in Arizona and don't have to deal with this daylight saving crap? Now can we all agree that my day is rougher because I can't have caffeine and I mean ever at all? This is not some lent thing and no I'm not Mormon. I can't have caffeine without feeling like my bladder is trying to burst out of my body like an Alien. I see people offering up prayers on facebook for dumb crap all the time.

My daughter has the sniffles everyone!

OMG I'm praying for you!

So I'd like all of you to pray for me and my caffeine free body. The baby with sniffles can wait since that baby doesn't have a job that they have to be awake for.

Let your sexy starfish out

I came home from work Friday to find a note under our door notifying us of an apartment inspection Monday. Loverly. I knew it would happen at some point. It's the city's way of cracking down on slumlords so I support it the idea I just hate having strangers in my apartment. Now I have to clean and tackle Mt. Laundry.

I stayed in Friday night and watched House of Cards while consuming a calzone bigger than my head. I did yoga Saturday morning so I'm going to pretend that cancels out the calzone. I've been trying to be more consistent with my yoga practice since I think it does help my pelvic pain. It also helps me feel less like a blob so that's good. I wish I could work out like a beast but my body just can't handle that right now - more specifically my bladder. If I do too much I get horrible pain and spasms and my frequency increases. So yoga it is and hopefully more walking when winter finally releases us from its icy clutches. I've been around 149-150 for a while and I really want to get down to 140.

Last night I went to the Green Briar and remembered to bring my digital camera to capture all the Kodak moments. The discussion of the night was how do starfish have sex. Germana and I demonstrate below.

But them maybe it's like this?

Starfish orgy.

It turns out starfish can reproduce sexually and asexually depending on the type of starfish.

This dude saw me taking photos and wanted to be involved. Can you blame him?

My winter white is still going strong. I really like this photo of us, I should print it and stick it in a barf inducing frame with hearts.

I hope your weekend was as fun as mine and if not I covered for you last night.

I had a train stalker

When I first started my job as a legal assistant I had to start taking the T work. Parking in Boston is just way too expensive so public transit was my only option. I was actually excited about taking the T to work. This suburban girl was finally headed to the big city. Little did twenty-two year old Ginny know, the novelty of taking the T wears off pretty damn fast.

I took the train for a few weeks without much incident. At the time myspace was still popular and as a relatively attractive female I would often get messages from guys trying to talk to me. I rarely responded but I always read their messages and looked at their profiles because of course I'm curious. I received one message that seemed somewhat normal as did his profile picture. When I clicked on the rest of his photos though it was obvious that he was into some strange stuff. He had photos in leather and bondage gear and one photo where he was tied to a bed. They looked like webcam photos. A bit much for a myspace profile if you ask me but to each his own. I ignored the message and completely forgot about it.

One morning I'm standing on the platform waiting for the train to arrive when a young man walks up to me and says hello. I'm not rude so I say hello back. 

"I think I know you"

"Sorry, I don't recognize you."

He's still looking at me with a creepy smile on his face.

"You live in Waltham right?"

Ok, well we're not too far from Waltham so maybe he'd seen me around.

"Yea, I do."

"I messaged you on myspace and you didn't respond."

Then it clicked. I did recognize him and I remembered his weird myspace photos. Ok time to end this quick.

"Oh, sorry I don't usually respond to messages. It's nothing personal."

The train pulls into the station at this point so I board the train and take a seat thinking the conversation is done. Creepy guy takes the seat right next me! I should have expected that and not sat somewhere with an empty seat next to me but I didn't think he would be that pushy.

For the rest of the train ride he continues talking to me. He clearly had read my myspace page and brought up things I had mentioned on my page. I tried to keep my answers short and look out the window but he still wasn't getting the hint or just didn't care.

When the train pulled up to my stop I practically ran off the train. I told some of my coworkers about the encounter and then didn't give it much thought. When I got home and checked my myspace I had a message from him. He asked me if I wanted to meet up for ice cream. He'd know I read the message so I decided to respond with a no thank you and I told him I was dating someone.

The next morning at the train stop he found me once again and starting chatting with me. This time there were no seats available but he stood next me and continued to talk to me while I barely said a word. Once again when I got home there was another message from him. This time I didn't read it. The next morning the train pulled up as he was walking up to the platform. He called out my name and started running to catch the train but luckily he didn't make it before the doors closed. I was saved!

Just kidding the MBTA sucks and ruins lives.

Of course the train I'm on breaks down and I have to get off that train and wait for the next one, and of course I just happen to get on the car that he's on. He sees me and comes right over to me.

"Why didn't wait for me?"

I can tell he's annoyed by his tone of voice.

"I didn't know you were there. I just got on the train."

"I yelled out to you, you didn't hear me?"

"Nope."

At this point I'd had enough and spent the rest of that awkward trip staring straight ahead and completely ignoring him. That night I had another message from him on myspace - which I ignored and immediately blocked him. What my train stalker didn't need to know was that I was moving that Monday to Somerville and would be taking a completely different train. I thankfully never saw him again.

If this happened to me now, at the much wiser age of thirty-one, I would have shut this down asap. I tend to be too nice sometimes and although I've gotten better at releasing the inner bitch or even my inner Kraken if necessary, I'm still a work in progress. I will say that I certainly learned from this experience and as far as stalkers go, it could have been much much worse. 

I'd like to take a moment to remember the old myspace. You ushered in the era of oversharing and social media obsession. People may have moved on but crazy myspace stories live on in all of us.

Somewhere in Dreamland

I'm not sure why I thought of this old cartoon this morning but I suddenly had the urge to watch it. I remember having it on VHS as a child and I watched it all the time. I couldn't remember the name of the cartoon but I found it by googling "cartoon where poor children lick windows". Apparently that was enough though because I found it on the first try.

When I watched the cartoon this morning it all started coming back to me and I was reminded why I loved this cartoon as a child. The Dreamland sequence is great. Ice cream and popcorn fields, Syrup River, I'm getting hungry typing this. The ending is really sweet and still puts a smile on my face. I'm telling you it ends well because it's a pretty depressing cartoon in the beginning. I feel like there are a few mommy bloggers who should watch this to be reminded of what struggle really is.

Somewhere in Dreamland was part of the Color Classics series produced by Fleischer Studios for Paramount Pictures from 1934 to 1941 to compete with Walt Disney's Silly Symphony.

So did anyone else watch depression era cartoons as a child or am I the only weird one?

Forget circles or boxes, yoga mats are cat traps

Whenever I try to do yoga Bosco will lay smack in the middle of my yoga mat. When I'm in downward dog he takes this as his cue to rub on my face. I shoo him away but he doesn't stay away for long. Sometimes I try to work around him but then yoga turns into Twister.

Yoga was eventually completed minus vishnu mudra. Apparently I don't breathe so well through one nostril.

All good on the teeth front

Bosco went in for a dental cleaning on Monday. For once he did not have to have any teeth pulled! He can keep his little fangs. I'm supposed to brush his teeth but he tries to eat the toothpaste so it's difficult to get the brush near a tooth.

This vet visit was also eventful because this is the first time Bosco did not throw up or pee in the carrier on the way to the vet. I bought a spray from Amazon called Comfort Zone with Feliway that you spray in the carrier to calm them down. It actually worked.

Bosco was a little loopy but fine when I got him home. He was rolling around and headbutting everything.

And now like a good cat mommy blogger here are some photos of Bosco who weighs more than a baby. My laptop doubles as a bed apparently.

*I am an amazon affiliate so if you buy the Feliway spray through the above link I get a percentage of the sale. I do not post products on my blog that I do not use myself.