*swoon*

y'all know i'm a zora neale hurston fan. you also know that i love reading. the fact that i didn't scream with happiness when i saw this pic a few minutes ago? pure self-restraint. (also, i need to save my screaming/yelling for the bowl game in a couple of hours. go u!)



source: awesome people reading, a site i just found while clicking through vintage black glamour, another swoon-worthy site.

happy saturday!

roasted vegetables and chickpeas: a review

you'd think that not having a kitchen of my own would diminish my zeal for cooking and looking at recipes. you'd be oh so very wrong. i may or may not have a tentative menu plan in mind for my first few meals in my new apartment (whenever that happens).

when i saw this recipe, i decided i wanted to make it for christmas dinner. so i did. and it was delicious. the prep work was a little intense, b/c sweet potatoes always seem to give me trouble w/r/t to peeling and chopping them, but the payoff? nomz. i still have leftovers and they're still nomtastic. i'd make this again.

my favorite songs of 2011*

not all of these songs were released in 2011, but i added them to my itunes library this year - hence the asterisk. there's no particular order of preference here. i basically dumped all the songs into a playlist and then rearranged a few in an attempt to make them sound more cohesive, for lack of a better term.

here's the list:

mmm...hot fudge action...

i don't even know why i still have this photo in my files, but i saw it last night for the first time in who knows how long and had to laugh. someone remind me to make brownies for the nye bowl watch party so we can try to get a reprise of this:



happy saturday and/or (insert your preferred holiday greeting here)!

just in case you want/need a little more holiday spirit

i know we've all seen this 5011 times, but it still makes me laugh.

highlights from today

--commiserating with folks about the gotdamn snow even though it's december in chicago and we know better

--running into a former northwestern football player (from the 1995-1999 era) at the cvs in evanston

--picking up this book, among others, from the library

--hot fudge action at margie's with donna (sorry, christin. i know you're my usual partner for hot fudge action, but you're out of town and, well, it *is* my birthday and all. :P)

--watching hours and hours of cable, which i'd missed in the past couple of weeks

--all of the texts/emails/tweets wishing me a happy birthday. thanks.

lowlight? definitely twisting my ankle/foot while coming down the stairs of my friends' apartment building. nothing's swollen or sprained, but there's definitely a bit of a limp in my stride.

but the absolute best highlight from today had to be this email snippet:

I believe in you. I have always believed in you. This is a detour, and you will find your way out of it. You’re coping amazingly well.

apparently i needed that more than i realized, b/c that definitely pulled at the heartstrings a bit.

and this is where i thank y'all for reading about my adventures, both here and on my other site. your support, as always, is much appreciated.

coming soon: my list of songs i really loved in 2011 and a "shit that will be (back) in my life in 2012" list. saying that here means i actually have to work on them, so hopefully that means i'll get them up sooner rather than later. stay tuned.

*throws confetti*

it's here! my birthday, it is here! i made it to 35! woo! holy shit i'm old! exclamation points!

i kinda feel like a little kid at christmas. i woke up at 4am and then again at 6am and had to convince myself to go the fuck back to sleep b/c it was just too damn early. when 7:30am rolled around, i figured it was ok to start waking up, even though my alarm wasn't going to go off until 9am. whatever. it's my birthday, bitches!

and omg it's fucking snowing. i'm so glad i arranged a ride from my current crashpad to my new one later today, b/c lugging my stuff around in the snow on cta isn't really an experience i want to have on my birthday. fucking snow. there was no snow in the forecast last i checked. what the shit, mother nature?

anyway...it's my birthday and the celebration will continue though pulaski day (that's in march) at the earliest. i'm not doing anything big today b/c of the aforementioned switch in crashpads - i'm actually looking forward to watching tv and reading b/c it's been a busy week and tomorrow might be a bit epic w/r/t mistreating my liver.

i keep looking out the window and i can't believe it's fucking snowing. i'm going to the library later this morning (yay books!) and there's snow on the ground. this shit is actually sticking. i did not sign up for this.

ok, enough bitching about the snow...for now, anyway. it's my birthday! squee! :-)

it's almost my birthday (and other updates)

of course this week is sorta kinda jam packed with stuff: my monthly date with bureaucracy and a job interview (woo!) and dj'ing at ddpp and maybe helping people pack and maybe helping people clean and definitely laundry and who knows what else?

oh, and i'm taking myself to dinner on friday night, thanks to a stash of gift certificates i somehow had the foresight to put in one of the folders i'm moving around with (vs. one of the folders stashed in a box in a basement). saturday? no official plans for the day yet, aside from moving from one friend's couch to another friend's guest room in advance of my latest catsitting gig. depending on how the week goes, i might go to dave & buster's for skee-ball & tequila shots, or i might just curl up in front of my friend's tv and watch cable all night. i honestly don't know yet.

in any case, i plan on celebrating my birthday until pulaski day at the earliest. (pulaski day's the first monday in march, btw.) special thanks go out to everyone who's asked about my birthday plans. if i come up with a group outing, or if i decide to go to dave & buster's, i'll post an update here or send a mass email or something.

hope y'all had a good weekend. :-)

when a year treats you like this

how can you resist the temptation to punch it in the face? seriously, 2011 - you sucked balls and blew goats, and i can't wait to put you behind me.

(image courtesy of a friend's tumblr)

rolling in the mashups

these have been stuck in my head all week, so i decided to share them with y'all. you're welcome. :-)

adele vs. the eurythmics:

adele vs. jamiroquai:

all december everything

it really is the most wonderful time of the year. yeah, i'm biased b/c my birthday's in 16 days, but so what? december's my favorite month, my birthday's my favorite holiday, christmas is another favorite holiday even though i don't really make a bfd about it...it's a celebration, bitches!

although i don't foresee being able to do it as live as i'd like to for my 35th (well, not right now, anyway), i'm still planning on having fun. actually, the fun started a couple of weeks ago, when i had a day of free food and free laundry and made a little bit of money helping out a friend. last week's fun? hanging with bff and her mom. i'm taking myself to see "the muppets" as soon as i'm done posting this entry, so that'll be this week's contribution. i've won 2 twitter contests in the past week, so i'm counting those prizes (a cookbook and a pair of jeans) as birthday presents.

remember at the beginning of november when i identified 2 goals that i wanted to achieve? well, that didn't happen. not for lack of trying, though - i applied for 119 jobs and contacted who knows how many agencies re: housing referrals. i actually called a few more places today, only to be told that their waiting lists are at least 6 months long. obviously i don't have that kind of time. you can go to my other site to read more about that.

y'know what i want for my birthday, besides the obvious job offer and stable housing? room service. seriously. i want to stay in a hotel for my b-day weekend. this urge wouldn't be as strong if i actually had a place to sleep lined up for that weekend (december 16-18), but as it turns out, those are the only days in december where i'm not catsitting or crashing somewhere. (wanna offer up your couch/futon/air mattress/spare bedroom? let's talk.)

i think i'm forgetting something, but of course i can't pinpoint what that is right now. bah.

happy december! :-)