Magnetic Monday: A Haiku About Love & Hate

My stab at a haiku, since I was feeling uninspired to compose on the fly this morning. 

Do you think there is a thin line between love and hate?

Words to Live By

Source: seen-sucht.blogspot.com via LisaJennea on Pinterest

Wine and Love V2

This is a weekly thing hosted by Nora. Feel free to grab the badge and play along!

This week has been tough, with a lot of reasons to reach for the wine glass, but I feel despite everything, there are plenty of loves to balance it out.

The Wines:

• A friend of mine lost her son this week, who was a mere 32 years old. It was sudden and unexpected and I cannot imagine how much grief she is experiencing right now. I feel ill-equipped to give her support, but I know that whatever I do she will appreciate, and it will be enough, and I should not worry about it.

• Bills, bills, bills. Will they ever stop?

• My apartment feels like a tornado went through it. Of course I am exaggerating, but I need to do laundry, stop at the market and vacuum, like now, if I ever want to stop feeling like a slob.

• Dreams about more people close to me passing away. Not at all pleasant to wake up from that dream this morning. I feel uneasy and a little melancholy. 

The Loves:

• Finding my motivation again. Last week I posted about feeling exhausted and frankly, a little depressed. This week has been much better all around - professionally, personally, and socially.

• Getting recognized by the Boss for my change in motivation and attitude. Not that I was really awful before, but she could see a marked difference between how I am functioning now versus how I was a few weeks ago. Being validated is always nice, and it is going to help me ride this period of productivity longer, and keep my motivation going. 

• Pulling off 3 major special events successfully. They were back to back, and of course I had help, but these successes are a huge reason why I am walking on cloud nine right now. I have one more event tomorrow night. Once that is done, I won't have any more for the rest of the summer and I can switch gears to focus on my summer projects.

• Scheming and trying to figure out my summer vacation plans. Right now, I'm thinking a few long weekends and trying to get as many people to come visit and stay with me. 

• Staying on top of my debt, and paying it down according to my plan. It has been tough, but I am doing it, and it makes me so so so happy. 

What are your wine and loves for this week? Drop me a line in the comments and let me know! 

Peace, love & smiles,

♥LJ♥

Magnetic Monday - A Question

Not really inspirational, but a question I've found myself

pondering from time to time in regard to many things:

Do you sometimes find it difficult to ascertain how a situation has affected you, for better or for worse? If the outcome falls in the worse column, how do you take that situation and learn from it?


Peace, love and over-thinking,
♥LJ♥

Sometimes I Make Cakes & Cocktails

Life is complicated and intense right now, and a dear friend of mine has just suffered a great loss. I can't wrap my brain around anything of substance, so here's a little snippet of my weekend, and two new things I learned how to make.

My friends have this super awesome outdoor patio and graciously agreed to host a BBQ, so I decided to make Strawberry Summer Cake a la Smitten Kitchen and a refreshing fizzy cocktail called Pink Panty Droppers. And oh, they were goooooood.

The cake was really easy to make with the only downside taking FOREVER to bake! I even had to add 15 minutes to the baking time in my (old) oven to make sure it set up all the way. Here's a pic of the before:

And the after:

I happened upon the drink recipe while perusing The Kitchn, a great cooking blog. Since I wanted to start a monthly Cocktail Club with some of my friends, the Pink Panty Dropper sounded like a perfect fit! The Kitchn tried to class it up by referring to the drink as Raspberry Beer - but Pink Panty Droppers is so much better!

Mix the following ingredients together:

Then enjoy the fruits of your labor! It's so delicious it's kind of wrong, and dangerous!

What did you do this weekend? Tell me in the comments!

Peace, love & pink panties,

♥LJ♥

Wine and Love #1

Here is my first Wine and Love Post. Nora is great and hosts this every week. Anyone can participate - feel free to grab the badge and link up on her site!

The Wines:

• Majorly slipping up on my healthy eating plan.
• Being so tired and burnt out I have no motivation to do anything at work or at home or for fun.
• A general sense of feeling lost, and unsure that I am doing the right thing or making the right choices.

The Loves:

• Graduation. Our students are graduating today, and to see how well-adjusted, kind, intelligent and just generally awesome our sixth graders are makes me so happy and thankful for the job I have.
• My pooch, Cleo. She seems so happy and lovey lately - which is not normal for her. I love puppy snuggles!
• Scoring two bar stools from Urban Home on Craigslist for $25 bucks. Yep, $12.50 each, and they retail for $59 at the store. They need a little work, but they are completely salvageable. They look like that, except the fabric is blue. 

• Vlogging! I recorded my intro for 20SB and it was really awkward but also fun. I am excited to use the medium more - if only just for fun! Click here to see the videos of everyone who participated. 

Peace, love & puppies,

♥LJ♥

20SB Vlog Day 2011: Introduce Yourself!

This video post is part of 20SB’s Vlog Day and the topic is “Introduce Yourself”…anyone can participate! 

Details are here.

I apologize for saying "um" way more than necessary. I like many more things than wine and coffee, but apparently that was all I cared to share for my intro. I actually liked video blogging, so perhaps I will do more of this. Also, when you don't edit yourself, you get little gems such as saying hander-dander instead of handy dandy. You're welcome for that.

Magnetic Poetry or Statement of Fact?

Magnetic Poetry Monday: Volume 2

Poem, or statement of fact? It's up to you to decide!

Read the Magnetic Poetry intro here.

That Time I Thought I Caught an STD from my Esthetician

I know you are all too familiar with the beauty of Groupons and Living Social deals. The lure of 50% off is so tempting, you find yourself snapping up a deal for a discounted Brazilian bikini wax, assuming that some esthetician you barely know will get your area in tip top shape for summer and romantic escapades. 

Fast forward to the actual appointment, and some lovely woman who is actually quite nice, let's call her Patty, starts getting intimately acquainted with your lady bits sans gloves. In your head, you are thinking - HOLY CRAP PATTY WHY DON'T YOU PUT SOME FREAKIN GLOVES ON!

Instead of speaking up, you just grin and bear it. (Get it, that's funny, cuz getting hair ripped out of your vagina totes hurts like a mofo) Once the torture is over, Patty tells you to rub some almond oil on your area to soothe the skin, since it currently looks like you've got a sunburn in place where the sun don't normally shine. It's great, she assures you, and won't irritate anything. Riiiiiight. At this point not only are you grossed out by the no glove wearing, you also think she's a dirty hippie.

Patty leaves the room, and like an idiot, you trust she was right about the hippie oil and make sure you don't miss any spots. You get dressed and go pay your discounted rate with pride. You tip extra because you feel slightly bad about how cheap it was. Everything seems great, until the next day when it looks like a radioactive bomb went off in V-Town.

All you can think about is how she wasn't wearing gloves, and just how many vaginas does Patty touch in one day. You start to hyperventilate, because you have no idea how to call your doctor and say "Hi there I think I may have caught an STD from a lady who gave me a bikini wax." You think for two seconds, decide you don't have to explain it to the doc, and make an appointment for your annual exam. Way to kill two birds with one stone. 

Feeling better now, you eagerly anticipate when your doctor will give your ladybits the stamp of approval, but in the back of your mind you are still convinced it must be gonorrhea. When appointment day finally arrives, you sheepishly tell your doc the reason for your visit is because you think your bikini waxer gave you something. Your doc chuckles, but you can tell she thinks you are certifiable. You explain the almond oil, and your doctor confirms the problem you are having is most likely an allergic reaction. Still, you insist on getting blood taken so you can know for sure. 

Two weeks later, your bloodwork postcard arrives, and the only item of note is you are low in calcium and vitamin D. You breathe a huge sigh of relief since there are no STDs circled, feel bad for a fleeting instant because you had such a poor opinion of the esthetician, but then go right back to to being grossed out she didn't wear gloves. Ick.

Moral of the story kids - I am a compulsive worrier - but also, be careful who you let get fresh with your lady parts. You never know when an esthetician might give you a communicable disease. Also, beware discounted spa services. It turns out you shouldn't just trust anyone with a spatula and hot wax. 

What's your worst salon/beauty service experience? Tell me in the comments! 

Peace, love & latex,

♥LJ♥

TiLT ~ Middle Sister Wine, Creative Friends & Karaoke Vlogging

Things I Love Thursday:

♥ Drinking Middle Sister Pinot Noir and contemplating all the things that have made me smile this week and/or grateful for my life. Also - switching to white wine after finishing my last glass of Goodie Two Shoes (sad face) because I don't want to open another bottle of red that I can't finish. I know, I know, I'm just too classy for my own good.

It is so good. Also, I bought it at Target. I said I was classy, right?
And what  a great description! I love it!

♥ Creative friends and bouncing ideas off of them! Thanks, B, for collaborating with me and helping me come up with a new subtitle for my blog. It feels more like ME, and I thank you for calling me out on the old title and how it didn't seem to fit with my personality. In all honesty it will probably change again, (what is it with blogs and their identity crisis's?), but for now, it feels right.  

♥ Accessories from Tilly's. Red rose enamel studs and a triple heart necklace? What's that you say, they are buy one get one half off? Yes, please! 

                             

   

♥ 20sb's VLOG day and the karaoke ring of death! I am excited to experiment with vlogging, and get my face out there in all it's fast talking awkward glory! What kinds of things do you want to know about me? Leave a comment and I will try to address it in my video intro for 20sb. Also, for karaoke, the theme is songs from my high school mix tape. I'm thinking some TLC, No Scrubs. Other ideas are quite welcome! 

♥ Living by the ocean. I am always so happy at the beach, and this past weekend I brought my dog, Miss Cleo, along for the adventure. She loved it! It was such a beautiful morning. 

That is all I've got for now lovelies. There are many more things I can list, but I think the wine is getting the best of me.

Take a moment to think about what you love right now, and drop me a line in the comments section. 

Peace, love & tipsy singing,

♥LJ♥