Wanted: Shopping Help
I think I need a personal shopping assistant. I doubt that even a shopping list could save me from myself. I need someone to tackle me when I’m about to make a bad decision.
Yesterday I went to HT to pick up some very specific items: steel wool, gloves, Easy Off (oven cleaner), light bulbs, and various food items which was to include eggs. I got the steel wool and the gloves, but the Easy Off was nowhere to be found. Okay, fine; there’s nothing I can do about that. I then spent a lot of money on a bunch of snack food–popcorn, cookie dough, cheddar goldfish, real cheddar, pita chips, and hummus. In my defense, some of the other things I got last night are staples for my pantry-soy sauce, bread crumbs, butter-will hopefully last a long time. But seriously? The majority of what I bought will be in my stomach within two or three days. What will I eat for the rest of the week?
Oh yeah, I haven’t even mentioned yet that when I got home the eggs and lightbulbs were nowhere to be found. Completely slipped my mind. What I really need is to learn how to grocery shop in a way that feeds me relatively cheaply for a week and beyond.
And we’re not even going to go into clothes shopping. That’s a completely different post.
I hate moving.
I haven’t been able to post because the internet in my apartment is non-existent, but I hope to start posting again once I have a regular connection.
I hate to use my chance at posting for this (I’d rather not be worrying about it at all), but for all of you DC area bloggers — my lease is running out at the end of June and I may be needing a roommate. If you or anyone you know is (or will be) looking for a roommate around that time, let me know! I’m pretty awesome, I think 
Questions to Myself (Obviously a Quarter-Life Crisis)
A lot has happened during my (it sounds like my lung will just come right up) cough-induced hiatus, so I have to ask myself this:
What have I done for myself lately?
No, really. What have I done for myself that hasn’t been a matter of just getting by day-to-day? Why can’t I commit myself to the things I know I need to do? I’m perfectly aware that I need to budget, exercise, eat way better and I want to volunteer, make more friends, spend more time with old ones (i.e., not be such a homebody) so I wonder what’s keeping me from doing it.
I need to put myself out there.
I may not have specific career goals yet, but I have a general idea and I have other goals. I want to live outside the US again, for instance. I’m just not a planner. I don’t know how to start laying the groundwork. But right now, I want to be the planner and I want to lay the groundwork.
How do I start? I’m sure I’ll eventually find my way, but a little push in the right direction wouldn’t hurt.
Fighting My Indecisiveness: Small Things First
Today, I bought:
- Two coffee mugs from Crate and Barrel. I bought two (one green and the other blue). One is for work. One is for my apartment.
- The Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
- The Risk Pool by Richard Russo.
- 1776 by David McCullough.
I paid for the books using my gifts cards, two of which were from Christmas 2007. I have a long reading list and tend to be quite indecisive, so for the whole of 2008 I failed to walk out of B&N with a book. Today, I just went in (without a plan no less!), picked three books and checked out before I had the chance to put the back. Success!
I Went to the (National) Mall LAST Week.
Sometimes, when you’ve lived someplace for too long, you start to take it for granted. I, for one, do not take full advantage of living in DC. After reacquainting myself with certain parts of DC while S and V were in town, I decided I’d take another stab at it. Last weekend I went back to the Mall to hit up some museums. Hey, maybe it’s a bit touristy, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it ((right??)). And I have to start somewhere….
I started with the Hirshhorn because we hadn’t quite gotten through it the week before. Even if we had, I would have had very little recollection of it since my cold had me on autopilot. I made my way though the Strange Bodies exhibition. There was this one installation (I forget the name/artist), where a was women looking outside her window and a large, bright light was shining in from the other side. The was a bedroom set-up with a small, ugly, flimsy-looking bed and depressing wallpaper. It exuded a feeling of loneliness and or feeling lost in the world…as if she didn’t know her way. I related to that feelings (Quarter-life crisis, maybe? A totally different post, I know).
Next was the The Museum of the American Indian. Nice building. Slightly disappointing, but not unworthy of a visit. One of my complaints is that the exhibits seemed disjointed and I wanted a narrative. I think, history geek that I am, I wanted to know more about their history and didn’t quite find was I was looking for. I did enjoy the Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian exhibit. I can’t say I know anything about art, but I was drawn to the way he used color and how the paintings evoked a connection with the subject matter. One of the more interesting parts of my visit here was the Mitsitam Cafe. The idea is that they serve various Native American dishes from various regions. I haven’t eaten there (yet), but the WaPo seems to think there are more hits than misses.
My next stop was the east building of the National Gallery of Art. I found the Pompeii exhibit to be too crowded. With the exception of the ten minute video (which I enjoyed), I walked through without stopping. Down on their basement level, the modern art was much more interesting. In the area between the east and west buildings, they have an espresso and gelato cafe. You can be sure I stopped there.
Afterthought: For some reason, this post doesn’t feel like me. BUT I wrote it and will post it.
(Obligatory Christmas Post)
I’m known in my family for being completely unable to produce a useful Christmas list. My list this year consisted of one item–an exercise ball.
In my defense, I have some legitimate excuses. First, there are things that aren’t easily transported between Upstate NY and DC. My parents don’t buy things online and rarely come to vist me, so anything in this category is usually excluded. My second excuse is that there are general things that I want (e.g., a cardigan, black flats) that I’d rather pick out myself. This means gift certificates–lots of ‘em. They’re useful, but they kinda take the fun out of opening the presents. Hey, I like surprises. I think my mother knew this because while I didn’t get the now standard pile of gift certificates, I also got a new digital camera! Didn’t see that one coming.
In case you’re wondering, I did get the excercise ball.
Bundling Up
I wanted to post this on Monday, but my work computer wasn’t letting me insert the picture. So now to the good stuff…
I’m from Upstate NY, so it’s not as if I haven’t experienced this weather, but it’s been a while and I wasn’t prepared.
My left ear starting to sting and it was so cold and windy that I could barely get a breath in between my apartment and the Metro. I think the worst part of it was the fact that the heater in my bedroom was still broken on Monday morning (when the screen shot was taken); luckily, it has since been fixed. But yeah, it almost hurt when I threw off the bed covers in the morning.
Ray’s Hell Burger
First off, let me say that a year ago I’d already be home ::tear::
Today, wanting to do something different but also stay in the area, N and I went to Ray’s Hell Burger. I’ve never been to Ray’s the Steaks or Ray’s the Classics either, but I’ve heard good things about all three places and tt seemed liked the perfect fit considering we were both craving a burger.
While being one of the messiest burgers I’ve ever eaten, it was also one of tastiest. Maybe the tastiest of them all, I dare say. By the end, I didn’t mind the lack of french fries. They wouldn’t have had a place to go; a 10-oz burger is more than enough for my stomach.
Here are some reviews:
- DC Foodies
- Yelp
- Washingtonian
- Washingtonian again–this time with a picture.
Looking Ahead
It bothers me that I can’t seem to do anything without some kind of oustide motivation. How can I easily complete NaBloPoMo in November, but be a failure at blogging in December? NaBloPoMo was like a dare and I wanted to prove I was up for the challenge. This is not the only example of my 2008 shortcomings, here are some more:
- Organizing my finances (budget, please, cause I can’t stop spending).
- Taking care of my hair (haven’t gotten it even trimmed since February).
- Losing my extra poundage (I’ve worked out once in the past three months).
- Not looking like I should be on What Not to Wear (I feel like I only have a weeks worth of clothes–ill-fitting clothes at that).
- Staying in touch with people (bye friends).
- Replacing my contacts (it took me 10 months to even begin to find a doctor and make an appointment).
- Finding doctors (you’d think I’d have found some by now. I definitely have things I need to report [headaches, at least]).
- Finding a suitable guy (I didn’t even try and it shows)
- Develop thicker skin.
- Pushing my boundaries (I still act like the homebody that maybe I am. I swear a have an adventurous side that at least likes to go out and have fun a little bit.).
- Planning ahead (I seem to be utterly incapable of this. Things would be much less difficult if I could master this skill).
I think the planning ahead bit is the most important as it affects everything–both big and little. I let everything slide and that just makes life more difficult. It wouldn’t hurt to think about my goals and how I can make them happen. I’m not chained to the paths I think up. Maybe it would inspire the inner-motivation that I’ve been sorely lacking lately.
As for blogging, it’s as good a place as any to record my goals and achievements.
Since my birthday and the new year [very] roughly coincide, here’s to a successful 2009 and an awesome year being 25.
I know, it’s not Dec 31st yet. I’m just looking ahead. 
Special Food for the Skin to Eat
I probably bought more make-up in the one year I was in Korea than in all my years in the US. For one reason or another, the Korean make-up shops seemed less intimidating.
I realized that in some small way (it’s not like I think of them often) I actually miss The Face Shop, Skin Food, and The Etude House. I especially miss their samples. Whenever you bought anything from these places you’d get some kind of free item.
This was one of the ways I built up my massive, yet now almost depleted collection of masks from Skin Food. Looking at my collection today, I was skeptical of the Snow Tea Mask Sheet for Man because, well, I’m not a man. I wasn’t skeptical for long though. Once I read that “this white tea is good for relieving fatigue, delighting the soul and enhancing immortality” I couldn’t wait to rip that baby open.
Consider my mortality enhanced.
