Sunday, January 24, 2010

#6 in 2010

#6 Thing to Do in 2010: Paint/Upgrade Your Casa

As many of you know, I'm not very artistic. In fact, my idea of art is hanging the most mis-matching things on a wall and saying, "Look, its art."
However, I am very lucky to live with people who do know how to make a house look like a home and make colors match and actually liven up an apartment so it doesn't look like a million people have lived in it and brought random furniture and then just left it there piling up to one haphazard living area.

Yesterday, we did an apartment makeover. We added another couch so we can all now sit in the living room comfortably. We painted a wall in the kitchen. We bought new wall art and spruced up the old ones. We bought new pillows. We painted a small wall in the kitchen with that blackboard paint and bought colored chalk to write on it thus fulfilling a life-long dream of mine. We bought a new couch cover. We bought flowers and actually put them in vases. And I must say, it looks like a totally new place. It's a wonderful aethestic and anyone who has been to my apartment will be pleasantly shocked. I'll try to post pictures soon. We are still settling into our "new" place and getting used to sitting on a couch rather than bunching on one and sitting on the floor.

Up next: buying that flatscreen. Umm...probably not in this lifetime.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

CTW All Day

The little munchkin that I am currently watching does this cute little thing every Thursday night. Her mother doesn't work on Fridays so on Thursday night before I leave, I ask her, "Munchkin, what is tomorrow?" And she responds,"Mommy, all day!!!!" It's very cute. Nauseautingly cute.
Anyway, during my previous days of unemployment and my current flexible sched, I've often found myself with days off in the middle of the week. While the rest of my hard-working roommates slaved away at the office, I lounged until about noon, ate junk food, and did minimal amounts of work. It was so nice but, at time, really lonely.
Now, I'm lucky to have a partner in crime, at least some of the time and I'm happy to announce that tomorrow is "CTW, all day!!" We have some serious lounging to do as well as movies to watch and cake to eat. Coconut cake. Be jealous.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

A Confession

I could not muster any more effort or enthusiam to finish Eat, Pray, Love. My roommates can attest to this fact. Every night for the last 3 weeks, I've sat down faithfully on the couch with a mug of cocoa and my favorite blanket to pound out a few chapters. It was smooth sailing until 2 nights ago when I got fed up with it and the book when flying across the room and I broke about 3 more New Years Resolutions with a few choice expletives. There was just no way I could finish it. I'm on to something else now, its about the battle for Chicago's soul during the heyday of corrupt politicians and white slavery rings and madams. Crazy stuff but much more interesting than self-serving internal babble bs. Who knows? Maybe I'll try again in a month.

On a side note, can anyone name the last actor to win an Academy Award playing a boxer?? And CTW, you can't answer...

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

#5 in 2010

#5 Thing to Do in 2010: DUST.

And I mean, dust, as in clean up the dust bunnies. No, this is not a euphemism or a metaphor, I'm simply saying that I feel dusting is one of the sorely overlooked types of cleaning and it shouldn't be. Most people sweep, vacuum, straighten but no one dusts anymore. And it really is a great feeling. You could even buy one of those hilariously ugly long feather dusters that only seem to be found in the most ridiculous neon colors. As a woman who has spent several good years in the cleaning/custodial business, I can tell you that the products for dusting are some of the best smelling things ever. So make 2010 the year of the dusting. You won't be sorry.

Saturday, January 09, 2010

To Buy or Not to Buy?

I've been having a litany of computer issues lately...sometimes I think I talk about it entirely too much but since I spend about 80% of my life on the computer (sad, I know) and use it for everything from work to dating (long story-some other time), its very important that I have one that doesn't get a virus every 3 weeks. And yes, I have heard of anti-virus but let me just say that I have the worst luck with those too...so to buy or not to buy? I was going to go all out with the Pro but a friend convinced me that everything I needed to do, I could do with a regular macbook and its cheaper but I don't know if I can take the plunge....what I do know is that I can be persuaded and oftentimes need to be convinced to make purchases like this...

Friday, January 08, 2010

#4 in 2010

#4 Thing to Do in 2010: Burst into song randomly.

Due to the immense growing popularity of musical theatre and the new tv show Glee, busting into song is becoming more and more appropriate and relevant. However, it still doesn't make you cooler. However, if you aren't on Broadway or on a hit tv show, I suggest doing it anyway. Like a spoonful of sugar making the medicine go down, whistling while you work can help every task you undertake become a piece of cake. Now, don't raining on my parade, just try and defy gravity because I'd rather be blue than thinking of you not singing. Start at the very beginning...begin with Do, Re, Mi.

A side effect, however, can be very angry roommates because you maybe arent as good at singing as you thought.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Things to NOT do in 2010

Play a broomball doubleheader (thats two games) with no subs followed by an indoor soccer game with no subs against the best team in the league. Your body will hate you and wake up all sore and angry and decide it doesn't want to do things for you. And that does not help when you are trying to spend 2010 actually being productive...

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

#3 in 2010

#3 Thing to Do in 2010: Read something you never thought you would.

A majority of my friends and myself included were liberal arts educated. I'm not going to go on about what a superior idea I think that is but rather turn the conversation in a different direction and say, some of us, including myself, are, for lack of a better term, nerds. We can list off classical literature the way some people can list their boyfriends, we can quote obscure poetry lines and actually know what they mean, we like discussing theology, philosophy and history. Like I said, nerds. And I mean that in the most loving way.

And a majority of us would never aspire to read a contemporary piece of fiction or non-fiction that was on, say, Oprah's Top Books List or on the front table at Barnes and Noble or on the NY Times Best Seller List. However, for #3 of 2010, I suggest doing just that. Throw away your inhibitions and be that person who buys the books that were turned into movies and have the movie poster's cover on the book. You know what I'm talking about (I always feel like a moron when I pick those up because when I see people reading those, I have a sinking feeling that those unsuspecting souls didn't know it was actually a book first.) If anything you will leave with a greater appreciation for your liberal arts education. And you'll be thankful you've read the good stuff.

For example, I recently was re-gifted the book Eat, Pray, Love. The cover of the book proudly displays, "#1 NY Times Bestseller." The tageline is "one woman's search for everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia." Sound enticing right? I will confess I'm only 3 chapters in but already I find the protagonist shallow, selfish and completely devoid of any substance. She is one of those woman who has been married for 4 years and suddenly decides that she doesn't want to be married anymore and needs to take a life quest that no doubt will involve eating, praying, and perhaps cougar-like trysts with international men. Now, perhaps some women do indeed experience this sort of feeling but what irks me is that the woman uses prayer and God even to justify leaving her husband. She is not leaving her commitment for frivolous reason, merely she needs a "spiritual" journey to find God. Not to mention that she spends an entire chapter explaing why she chose God and not Allah or Buddha or anything else and ends up spewing nonesense in order to pacify readers of any religion. As if to say, "Dear Readers, I want you to keep reading so I'm going to go teach you about relativism." However, I am going to keep reading because in order to fully judge the book, I'll need to actually finish it, as painful as it is.

And, on a side note, the book is being turned into a movie starring Julia Roberts. I rest my case.

Monday, January 04, 2010

#2 in 2010

#2 Thing to do in 2010: Eat more fruit.

Now this is a pretty simple thing. I'm not saying eat only fruit because that could lead to some severe indigestion or eat fruit everyday, I'm merely suggesting we all eat more fruit than we do now. If for some reason you are already eating mounds of fruit, then you have leapfrogged my expectations and I now hold you on a pedestal. But if you are like me and your fruit intake is mostly liquid and only consumed in the mornings (ie. orange juice), then eating more fruit might be just the thing to make 2010 better than 2009. Eating fruit just leaves you feeling fresh and tricks your mind into thinking that you are eating totes healthy even though a lot of the good tasting fruits have so much sugar, but whatevs, fruit is better than devouring a whole bag of Sour Patch Kids so I'd call it a win-win-win.

Why just today I helped a toddler overcome a severe case of constipation by allowing her only apples for lunch. She had had a wretched morning and spent a majority of it being miserable and crying randomly and throwing herself on the floor. Enter Fruit. Voila. Happy Baby.

So there you have it. An apple a day keeps constipation at bay.

(forgive the potty talk. i spent more hours a day with kids than i do adults.)

Sunday, January 03, 2010

20102010201020102010

It's 2010. Hurray. And we are still here. Take that stupid John Cusack apocaplytic movie people.

I have a huge non-fan of 'Best of [insert previous yr] Lists' but I am not opposed to things like 'Top # of Things to do in 2010' lists. That may or may not be a contradiction or juxaposition or whatever other fancy term that I was supposed to learn in college being an English major and all but just didn't due to laziness and lack of brain power. So, I want to take this opportunity to politely suggest different things to do in 2010.

So...to begin 2010. Top #1 Thing to do in 2010 is:

Go here and start reading: www.thetvgirl.blogspot.com. Not only is the writer a dear friend but she is also a very talented writer and whether or not you like to watch TV as much as she and I do, no doubt you will find something you can relate to in her large canon of work. She has such a wonderful take on the television landscape and specifics of shows. Also, if you have an in with the writer, like I do, you can probably coerce her into writing about something you want.

So thats it. Begin your 2010 with a bit of coercion. I just did.