Sappho Face

One of the perks to having a dog, is that you get to dress them up in stuff, and they usually don't care.  You dress up your cat and you'll be lucky to see the following morning.  My dog, however, hates being dressed up.  So naturally, I love doing it.  

It's a little blurry and bleached out because of the flash, but you get the idea: 

"Why am I wearing a tshirt?"

I got bored and so I put my tshirt on her (I was wearing a tank under it) just because.  

"I hate you both.  If I had hairballs, you'd get them in your slippers"

Jesus my shirt looks ginormous on her.  

The Manwich

The other day I was home around midday and instead of sitting down and working on my homework like I should have been, I decided to rummage around my fridge and satisfy my hunger instead.  

We eat pretty healthy.  I don't buy crap food so there's never any crap food in the house.  I don't buy "snack" type foods like chips or anything because well, let's be honest, if I did we'd both be about a million pounds right now.  I also don't keep frozen pre-made foods in the house either, because 1) they're not always tasty, 2) they're not always healthy and 3) we have a small freezer and that shit takes up a lot of space.  The great thing about eating like this is that when 3pm on a Saturday afternoon comes around and neither of us are hungry and are just jonesin' for some snacks, we usually end up making some sort of black bean quinoa salad or cutting up a bunch of fruit that Juan drowns in hot sauce and I eat plain.  Which is great because there are always healthy options at our fingertips.  The bad thing about eating like this, is that unless you want raw fruit and veggies, every meal you make requires preparation of some kind, which can be a little inconvenient on the time front.  

So while I was trying to figure out what I could make myself that would be filling, quick and easy to make, and wouldn't load up my sink with dirty dishes, I came to three conclusions: salad, eggs, and toast.  Then I couldn't decide on which I wanted so I said, screw it I'm putting all three together and we'll see what we get.  And thus, The Manwich was born.  

This is not for the faint of heart.  It is a big sandwich, it is the big hulky man of sandwiches.  And you may get a wee bit messy.  BUT, it's delicious.  It's easy to make, leaves you with 3 dirty dishes, including the spatula you use to flip the eggs, and holy hell it is so good it might as well change your life.  So without further ado, The Manwich recipe.  

Ingredients:
multigrain toast
butter
black beans - just a tablespoon or so
2 eggs
avocado
spring mix
garlic powder, salt and pepper
raspberry vinaigrette 

Step 1: heat your skillet to about medium high and let it get really hot (I've learned through much trial and error that this is the best way to make eggs over medium).  Non-stick spray your skillet, and get your eggs in there.  You're making them over-medium so be sure not to break the yolk.  Before you flip, add your garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste.

Step 2: as soon as your crack your first egg, push your toast down in the toaster

Step 3: while you're waiting for your eggs to cook, slice up your avocado into cubes and get it ready to go

Step 4: once you flip your eggs, you can turn off the heat and let them hang out there just long enough for you to butter your toast (because that's done too by now)

Step 5: take one piece of buttered toast, and on goes the spring mix, your black beans, with just the tiniest drizzle of raspberry vinaigrette, then go your eggs (you'll have to layer them to get them to fit, and for evenness sake, place your yolks next to each other, not on top of each other), then your avocado cubes, then your other piece of bread.  

Step 6: scarf!  

I was so excited about this awesomeness that I made it for Juan for his dinner one night.  It past his test as a full meal, which considering that a meal in this man's book is one main something and 2 sides, I say it's a win win all around.  

Naps

Naps are not just for small children.  Nope.  Stop shaking your head.  They aren't I tell you.  They're for everyone.  Nap equality!  

As a kid, hell as an adult, I can sleep pretty much anywhere.  I have slept in the window sill of a hospital room, in numerous desks of various sizes, on airplanes, in airports, outside, libraries, on building steps, basically anywhere.  Oh, and cars.  If I am not driving and am in a car for more than 30 minutes I'm out.  If you're road tripping with me, you better have GPS because I will be useless to you as your co-captain (no really, I have made the trip from the bay area to LA, a 6-7hour road trip without falling asleep only once in my whole life, and I usually can't make it from Tucson to Phoenix, and that's only a 2 hour drive).  But feel free to play the music as loud as you want, because that shit won't bother me.  

When I'm not in school, if I wanted to nap, I needed at least 30minutes, with a quiet environment, and 20 of those minutes I usually spent trying to allow myself to fall asleep in the middle of the day, even if just for a little while, and also convincing myself that just laying there with my eyes closed would be enough if I could never actually fall asleep.  When I'm in school though, I can dominate the 10minute power nap like a champ.  Even in my undergrad years I would use my backpack as a pillow, set my phone alarm to battle stations loud, tuck it into my bra and take a nap on a bench or in front of my classroom.  In grad school, my classes are back to back, so instead of napping on campus, I nap at home.  I look at Sappho, ask her if she wants to nap for 10minutes, we snuggle on the couch, I still set my alarm to battle stations loud, and I'm out instantly for a 10minute power nap.  It's certainly not enough to compensate for long days that I'm holding right now, but it is certainly long enough to manage them day by day.  

Though, I will say this.  Sappho, while adorable and snuggable, not always the best snuggle choice.  She twitches in her sleep, and sometimes she wakes herself up barking.  Very frustrating when that happens 8minutes into your 10minute nap.  Oh my god there is nothing more irritating.  But when your cats refuse to acknowledge your existence when you want them to purr you to sleep, you go with the big snuggly dumb dog.  

Taking Advantage

Taking advantage of things can be a good thing.  Like a moment or opportunity.  If the guy in all my sappy romantic comedy movies (it's almost a little embarrassing to admit how much I love ro-co movies) that I love so dearly  never took advantage of the moment to tell the girl of their dreams that they are just that and that the world will fall apart in hopeless, lonely agony if they aren't together, well then my movie would go from being a ro-co to just a drama with a sad fucking ending.  

But being taken advantage of, that sucks.  It sucks big hairy ones.  Because most of the time the stage is set so that you have been the good person, the bigger person, the person who does the right thing and does a good job and then WHAM, someone comes along, usually a someone you have been helping out or working along side in what you thought was a collaborative manner, and puts you in an incredibly shitty situation which somehow leaves you looking and feeling like a douche.  

Sometimes we put ourselves in positions to be taken advantage of and we knowingly enter into a situation with someone we know struggles with boundaries, and we ourselves struggle with enforcing those boundaries and we see ourselves being taken advantage of.  Sometimes we choose to stay there, sometimes we choose not to.  Sometimes we don't know that we're entering into a situation with a person (and I mean professionally or personally) who struggles with appropriate boundaries and we get blind sided and then are stuck in a weird position of being like, "Did this just happen?  Am I crazy?  Should I say something?  No, they couldn't possibly have meant to do/say that, right?  I must be taking it the wrong way."  And while I certainly believe that we interpret events in our lives based on personal experience blah blah blah and that we look at the world through a lens that is specific and unique to each of us, I also believe that I'm not always crazy and it's not always my own shit getting in the way of life.  Sometimes people are just assholes wether they know it or not and the only thing I can do with that little fact is figure out whether or not I'm going to cope with it, or let it go.  

This has been coming up a lot for me lately and I have been reciting my favorite Eleanor Roosevelt quote like it's my mantra: "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."  In my most frustrated states I think to myself, "Well, hell.  I didn't give anyone permission to treat me as though inferior."  And in my wiser moments I remember that I cannot control the actions of others and only the actions and reactions of myself and so I can choose to live my life with grace and "be the bigger person."  That doesn't make being the bigger person or living with grace any less sucky or hard in the moment though.  

So here's to deep breaths, to living life with grace (even though I spend half of my time falling on my face, literally), and to "being the bigger person."  I know in the long run it will be good for me and my soul and I will become the person I want to be, blah blah blah, and I will continue to fantasize every now and then about throwing pie in that person's face.  

Night Classes

My first year in grad school we got to choose between night and day classes.  If you worked you could take all night classes and if you didn't you could take all day classes.  You could combine the two.  You had a choice.  I chose all day classes because I wasn't working during the day, and because I learn better in the morning.  

Second year, no choices.  I got to choose my electives, but not when my classes are.  So this semester I have a lot of night classes.  I'm three weeks in to the school year and I'm starting to conclude that night classes are going to make this semester rough.  

So far my conclusion is thus: my brain stops working at around 7pm.  I can't focus, all I can think about is going home and how my ass is going numb, I get fidgety, and I start looking at the clock every five minutes, etc.  And considering that night classes go until 8pm, it makes learning rough.  Luckily my teachers for my night classes understand this and do their best to keep everyone engaged and understand when people get fidgety etc.  Also very lucky that my night classes don't have exams, just papers and projects because holy crap, I'd fail because I just can't keep up.  And in all fairness, I don't know how much of this is the night class and having to learn at night, or how much of it is because my days start at 5am, and so by 7pm I am just done, finito, no more, the end.  

Here's to hoping I adapt to my new schedule and that it works out for the better.  Until then, I'm going to stick to my ultra-organized planner that I filled out planning my entire semester that dictates when assignments are due, and when I will start said assignments, and how I will have them done at least one week in advance.  Call me OCD if you will, but I am going to dominate this semester.  Boom.  

Review: Fiber One 90 Calorie Chocolate Chip Cookie aka Holy Mother of Pearl Deliciousness

Holy crap.  No really, HOLY CRAP!  These things are effing delicious.  DE-LISH-OUS!  I was trying to find ways to get in my needed 30g of daily fiber (I try to eat super clean and as unprocessed as I possibly can.  But honestly, there's only so many beans and so much broccoli a girl can handle.  Especially when I'm so on the go without fridge tied to my ass) without overloading on calories and without needing to take a supplement (did you know that most fiber supplements have a laxative component to them?  Yeah, don't need that) and I stumbled upon the Fiber One 90 Calorie Double Chocolate Brownie bars first.  Super delicious, decadent, and only 90 calories with 5g of fiber.  I can have 2 and not even start to think to feel guilty about it.  Score.  

AND because they have 5g of fiber in them, they fill you up a bit so they make an effective snack.  Double score.  

THEN, when at a friend's house and really hungry, I saw that they had a whole freaking Costco size box of these bad boys in their pantry and asked if I could try one.  And oh my god I think I have to cheat on my double chocolate brownies for these things.  They taste like a Grandma's Chocolate Chip cookie, but without the guilt.  Which, in case you were wondering, MAKES THEM BETTER.  

So go get you some.  But if you see me in the same isle as you, better luck next time 'cuz I am clearing the shelf out.  

Grade: A+

Pretties

A couple of my friends have mentioned that they have felt the faintest gentle brush of fall.  That they can smell it in the air, feel it in the breeze, etc etc.  My ass.  It's hotter than balls still and I am starting to fantasize about taking a flame thrower to my porch in order to manage the mosquito problem due to this weird "cooler" (by cooler I mean between 95 and 105, but icky sticky humid) summer weather.  

SO, to keep my pyrotechnic proclivities in check, I've been marveling at the sky.  

That is some good looking sky.  

A slightly different coloration from the first one.  And yes.  Yes I was driving while these photos were taken.  Yes I was a stop and not actually moving.  I think.  Anything for a pretty shot, right?

I was not driving when I took this photo.  This one I took outside my house.  I walked out to the car, turned left, and tadaaa!!!  Click.  

The other night when it was a blue moon I tried to capture the freaking awesomeness of it all.  But I broke my camera, and so I had to use my camera phone, which takes high quality pictures (it took all the ones above) but it couldn't handle the night sky and the delicate blue undertones.  So no good pictures there.  

This morning as I went to the gym the sun was coming up and the sky looked like it was on fire.  I didn't have my mental wits about me to fully appreciate it or to get my phone out and take a picture (it was after all 6am and I was coming off a muscle relaxant induced coma-sleep the night before) but it was amazing.