I obviously have not been posting a whole lot recently and there is a great reason for my lack of writing. I promise.
.......
Okay, not a great reason... but a good reason. Semi-good. Ok, fine. Stop twisting my arm. It's one of the worst reasons for not keeping up a blog. I've been busy,! Yes, I have been working very hard and just haven't found the time to write. Now I know the whole point of the blog is write about all the great things going on, but when you are working from 8am to 10pm and staying up until 2am trying to get personal stuff done, blogging just doesn't fit into that scenario. I am painting the scenery for another show that goes up in a few weeks, so that's great money and even better photos, massage has gotten quite busy at the spa, I created my massage website (!!!), started to prepare for Thanksgiving AND (wait for it... it's pretty awesome), I'm participating in an International Scavenger Hunt! We are breaking the Guinness World Record. More on that later (I keep saying that but never seem to write the posts....), but let's just say this week is filled with things like squirting someone in the face with Cheez Whiz from 40 feet above, taking a balloon animal to the vet, and dressing up as a superhero and helping people push their carts to their cars. Yeah.... craziness.
Okay, that's all I can write for now. I have to go make a stop-motion film wherein a Cabbage Patch doll gives a striptease. And get my apple bread pudding out of the oven.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Muffins
Hello everyone. My name is Jessica and I am a dish whore.
Yes, I am able to admit now that I crave the thrill and give into it often. Sifting powders while adding liquids, mixing into a thick batter that is divided and grows into deliciousness. Chopping vegetables and artfully arranging them around a fresh, bloody slab of home-grown beef. There is nothing like cooking a delicious meal, creating everything from pancakes to a mashed potatoes in the comfort of your own home. Sometimes I even share the spoils of (my kitchen) war.
Unfortunately, with cooking, especially baking, comes dishes. And I do not like cleaning dishes. In fact, the sink is more often than not filled to the brim because of my lacking skill. Usually caked in some sort of thick sweetness that was delicious a few days ago.
Recently, I tried this recipe for Banana Muffins on a whim. The fact that I had bananas in my fridge that were going bad in a day and I wanted to use them is beside the point. The true point is this recipe uses minimal dishes, which is always good (or so my husband says). And oh yeah, they are frickin' delicious! Really, I know they are! I shared them and everyone said so. Plus, if you are getting tired of pumpkin, but still want something that feels within the season, then you are all set. So go make them and feel good about eating half before sharing because they have fruit in them, so that makes them healthy!
..... right?
Fun Party Fact to Share with Complete Strangers About Bananas: If your bananas ripen before you are ready to use them, peel the ripe bananas and store them in a plastic bag in the freezer until you're ready to use them. Yay!
Banana Muffins
Yields about 18
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
3 large ripe bananas (Bananas can be slightly green or slightly over-ripe)
2 cups white flour (I want to try making it with wheat flour... if anyone does, let me know how it tastes!)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (But you can substitute with almonds or pecans.)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Oil/spray the muffin tin (I used a cupcake one without any paper liners. It gave a good size and shape.)
- With an electric mixer, beat the oil, sugar, eggs, and bananas until well blended.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
- Add the vanilla extract, chocolate chips, and nuts. The chocolate chips and nuts are optional, but why on earth would you not want chocolate?!
- Spoon the batter into the muffin tin, filling about 3/4 of the way. Bake for 20 minutes.
- Cool on a rack. Stuff face.
And voila!
Yes, I am able to admit now that I crave the thrill and give into it often. Sifting powders while adding liquids, mixing into a thick batter that is divided and grows into deliciousness. Chopping vegetables and artfully arranging them around a fresh, bloody slab of home-grown beef. There is nothing like cooking a delicious meal, creating everything from pancakes to a mashed potatoes in the comfort of your own home. Sometimes I even share the spoils of (my kitchen) war.
Unfortunately, with cooking, especially baking, comes dishes. And I do not like cleaning dishes. In fact, the sink is more often than not filled to the brim because of my lacking skill. Usually caked in some sort of thick sweetness that was delicious a few days ago.
Recently, I tried this recipe for Banana Muffins on a whim. The fact that I had bananas in my fridge that were going bad in a day and I wanted to use them is beside the point. The true point is this recipe uses minimal dishes, which is always good (or so my husband says). And oh yeah, they are frickin' delicious! Really, I know they are! I shared them and everyone said so. Plus, if you are getting tired of pumpkin, but still want something that feels within the season, then you are all set. So go make them and feel good about eating half before sharing because they have fruit in them, so that makes them healthy!
..... right?
Fun Party Fact to Share with Complete Strangers About Bananas: If your bananas ripen before you are ready to use them, peel the ripe bananas and store them in a plastic bag in the freezer until you're ready to use them. Yay!
Banana Muffins
Yields about 18
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
3 large ripe bananas (Bananas can be slightly green or slightly over-ripe)
2 cups white flour (I want to try making it with wheat flour... if anyone does, let me know how it tastes!)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (But you can substitute with almonds or pecans.)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Oil/spray the muffin tin (I used a cupcake one without any paper liners. It gave a good size and shape.)
- With an electric mixer, beat the oil, sugar, eggs, and bananas until well blended.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
- Add the vanilla extract, chocolate chips, and nuts. The chocolate chips and nuts are optional, but why on earth would you not want chocolate?!
- Spoon the batter into the muffin tin, filling about 3/4 of the way. Bake for 20 minutes.
- Cool on a rack. Stuff face.
And voila!
 |
| My classmates ate all of them before I could get a picture... so this is the last lonely muffin. |
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Things I Say At Work
"Hey, do any of you guys have a tampon?"
"Yeah, here you go."
"Thanks so much."
"Here, take another."
"That's okay. I only have the one vagina."
---------------------------------------
"The bag of glitter says 'apply with glue or glitter gun'... What is a glitter gun?"
"I'm picturing something along the lines of a grenade launcher or potato cannon. Fill it with glitter. POM!!! GLITTER EVERWHERE!!!"
"Yeah, here you go."
"Thanks so much."
"Here, take another."
"That's okay. I only have the one vagina."
---------------------------------------
"The bag of glitter says 'apply with glue or glitter gun'... What is a glitter gun?"
"I'm picturing something along the lines of a grenade launcher or potato cannon. Fill it with glitter. POM!!! GLITTER EVERWHERE!!!"
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
28 Days Later
No rage-infected crazy people here, I promise (although the rest of my post may say differently). I stand firmly on the side that the film 28 Days Later did not have zombies because the people didn't die before the infection took hold... but I digress.
Anyway...
So it's been one month since my miscarriage. I know, I know... it seems like I've talked about nothing else. I have other subjects I want to discuss, but like I've said, miscarriages aren't talked about and it should be. And dealing with the post-event is just as important as the actual event. I have talked with so many women in my life, learning from their experiences and them learning from mine. It is amazing to hear everyone's stories and has helped me get thru those hard days.
This past month has been a trial, that is for sure. The first week post-miscarriage was scary, but not the way you would imagine. I felt great. I had very little depression. I was talking about the experience with a slight disconnect. I worried that I was over the trauma too soon... that something must be wrong with me. From an evolution standpoint, feeling happy and disconnected with the loss for the week after makes complete sense. I read somewhere a woman is most fertile right after giving birth and right after having a miscarriage. So back when the earth wasn't overrun with people and infant mortality was practically guaranteed, it was important to have many children very quickly. And when your hormones are making you feel good, even after a loss, it's easier to have sex. So evolution says feel the best when you are most likely to conceive. It's genius really.
But then I hit the next week and the hormones decided to take a roller coaster ride. Every day was different; I wouldn't know if I would be okay or deeply depressed. A total crap shoot. Many days I just barely got thru work to come home and cry on the couch. Imagine PMS on steroids and it just doesn't stop. And the most unexpected side effect? TMI ALERT!! Sex. Total lack of interest in anything sex related. Honestly, I was a little afraid of it. In my crazy, hormonal head, sex meant getting pregnant again, which meant another miscarriage and I know with every fiber of my being that I would not be able to get thru another one so soon. What's that you say? There are serious flaws in my logic, such as there's no guarantee of getting pregnant right away (even more so because we would be using birth control) and still, there's no guarantee it would end in another miscarriage? Yes, I am aware. In my head, I understood the silliness of that fear. But remember that roller coaster my hormones was taking? You know how even though you know you're perfectly safe on the ride, you still scream your head off? It's kinda like that. Smart reasoning doesn't stand a chance here. Yeah, not fun for either John or I. Oh my poor, dear husband. I don't know how he put up with it all, emotions flying everywhere, no sex with the wife. And I gotta say, it is extremely weird, satisfying, and highly annoying to know that you are feeling the way you are because of the hormones. I'm the type of person who likes to take a step back, evaluate the situation, and try to get to the core of the problem to resolve it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But I still like to at least attempt. So knowing I couldn't reason my way out of feeling this way because the hormones would keep going doing whatever they wanted... well, it really sucked.
I also, dare I say, started looking forward to at least another 2 months of non-pregnancy. Time to be able to do the things I couldn't if I was with child: Go drinking, do something dangerous I always wanted to do like skydiving, spend money on a weekend away with friends. It was an unexpected freedom... which immediately brought along a truckload of guilt for feeling happy about that freedom. I will say I did 2 of those things last week; I went to a convention for the weekend with friends in Chicago (some of whom I hadn't seen in 4 years, keeping in contact only thru Facebook) and did some serious drinking. I also talked about my miscarriage openly, inadvertently started a cry-fest with several friends as we all unloaded some emotional baggage (aahhh, the power of alcohol), but most importantly, I had a weekend of fun, laughter, and meeting new friends. Like I said in my other miscarriage post, making me laugh is the best healing I can ask for.
So here we are. Life is continuing along as I knew it would. We got a beautiful dog named River, who will be getting her own post soon. Work is very busy with theatre calls coming in left and right (more on than another day... with photos!) and massage will start to book up for the holiday season soon, so I gotta take care of myself both physically and mentally. In a few weeks time, we will be hosting Thanksgiving for John's side of the family. Another thing about me is I LOVE cooking, so the menu has already begun to form. I'll probably do a test run of the new recipes before, just to check... and if most of them happen to be the desserts, then so be it. :)
Overall, I'm doing okay. Some days are better than others. And we have another month before we can try to get pregnant again. Gotta give my hormones time to get onto the less crazy tea-cup ride. But in retrospect, I do not think we will start trying again right away. There are still a few things I want to do that are hard/impossible when pregnant or living with an infant. Vacation overseas. Go back to Haiti to volunteer at least once. Get my massage business farther along. Do the house renovations we've needed. Save more money. And while physically I will be in the clear, losing the pregnancy has messed with my head more than I'd like to admit, so we'll have to re-evaluate where I am mentally when the time gomes. That's not to say we won't ever try again. I still want a child, as does John. And at least now we know we can get pregnant, which was a bit of a question mark on both our ends. But I'm 26 and still feel like I have more to do.
And so I shall. Maybe this is just the kick in the ass I needed to go do those things I always wanted to do, but never did.
Or maybe I go Stumble! for 3 hours.
Anyway...
So it's been one month since my miscarriage. I know, I know... it seems like I've talked about nothing else. I have other subjects I want to discuss, but like I've said, miscarriages aren't talked about and it should be. And dealing with the post-event is just as important as the actual event. I have talked with so many women in my life, learning from their experiences and them learning from mine. It is amazing to hear everyone's stories and has helped me get thru those hard days.
This past month has been a trial, that is for sure. The first week post-miscarriage was scary, but not the way you would imagine. I felt great. I had very little depression. I was talking about the experience with a slight disconnect. I worried that I was over the trauma too soon... that something must be wrong with me. From an evolution standpoint, feeling happy and disconnected with the loss for the week after makes complete sense. I read somewhere a woman is most fertile right after giving birth and right after having a miscarriage. So back when the earth wasn't overrun with people and infant mortality was practically guaranteed, it was important to have many children very quickly. And when your hormones are making you feel good, even after a loss, it's easier to have sex. So evolution says feel the best when you are most likely to conceive. It's genius really.
But then I hit the next week and the hormones decided to take a roller coaster ride. Every day was different; I wouldn't know if I would be okay or deeply depressed. A total crap shoot. Many days I just barely got thru work to come home and cry on the couch. Imagine PMS on steroids and it just doesn't stop. And the most unexpected side effect? TMI ALERT!! Sex. Total lack of interest in anything sex related. Honestly, I was a little afraid of it. In my crazy, hormonal head, sex meant getting pregnant again, which meant another miscarriage and I know with every fiber of my being that I would not be able to get thru another one so soon. What's that you say? There are serious flaws in my logic, such as there's no guarantee of getting pregnant right away (even more so because we would be using birth control) and still, there's no guarantee it would end in another miscarriage? Yes, I am aware. In my head, I understood the silliness of that fear. But remember that roller coaster my hormones was taking? You know how even though you know you're perfectly safe on the ride, you still scream your head off? It's kinda like that. Smart reasoning doesn't stand a chance here. Yeah, not fun for either John or I. Oh my poor, dear husband. I don't know how he put up with it all, emotions flying everywhere, no sex with the wife. And I gotta say, it is extremely weird, satisfying, and highly annoying to know that you are feeling the way you are because of the hormones. I'm the type of person who likes to take a step back, evaluate the situation, and try to get to the core of the problem to resolve it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But I still like to at least attempt. So knowing I couldn't reason my way out of feeling this way because the hormones would keep going doing whatever they wanted... well, it really sucked.
I also, dare I say, started looking forward to at least another 2 months of non-pregnancy. Time to be able to do the things I couldn't if I was with child: Go drinking, do something dangerous I always wanted to do like skydiving, spend money on a weekend away with friends. It was an unexpected freedom... which immediately brought along a truckload of guilt for feeling happy about that freedom. I will say I did 2 of those things last week; I went to a convention for the weekend with friends in Chicago (some of whom I hadn't seen in 4 years, keeping in contact only thru Facebook) and did some serious drinking. I also talked about my miscarriage openly, inadvertently started a cry-fest with several friends as we all unloaded some emotional baggage (aahhh, the power of alcohol), but most importantly, I had a weekend of fun, laughter, and meeting new friends. Like I said in my other miscarriage post, making me laugh is the best healing I can ask for.
So here we are. Life is continuing along as I knew it would. We got a beautiful dog named River, who will be getting her own post soon. Work is very busy with theatre calls coming in left and right (more on than another day... with photos!) and massage will start to book up for the holiday season soon, so I gotta take care of myself both physically and mentally. In a few weeks time, we will be hosting Thanksgiving for John's side of the family. Another thing about me is I LOVE cooking, so the menu has already begun to form. I'll probably do a test run of the new recipes before, just to check... and if most of them happen to be the desserts, then so be it. :)
Overall, I'm doing okay. Some days are better than others. And we have another month before we can try to get pregnant again. Gotta give my hormones time to get onto the less crazy tea-cup ride. But in retrospect, I do not think we will start trying again right away. There are still a few things I want to do that are hard/impossible when pregnant or living with an infant. Vacation overseas. Go back to Haiti to volunteer at least once. Get my massage business farther along. Do the house renovations we've needed. Save more money. And while physically I will be in the clear, losing the pregnancy has messed with my head more than I'd like to admit, so we'll have to re-evaluate where I am mentally when the time gomes. That's not to say we won't ever try again. I still want a child, as does John. And at least now we know we can get pregnant, which was a bit of a question mark on both our ends. But I'm 26 and still feel like I have more to do.
And so I shall. Maybe this is just the kick in the ass I needed to go do those things I always wanted to do, but never did.
Or maybe I go Stumble! for 3 hours.
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