Naked Mondays # 6

Today is Naked Monday! And the people rejoice! Wheeeeeee!

Tonight is my belly button....not that I think my belly button is terribly interesting (in fact I know at least one person who will read this who is seriously squeeed out by belly buttons) but something that you may not know about me is that I had my belly button pierced two years ago. Even though this photo is terrible, you can see the scar the piercing left just over my belly button. There's a matching one inside. (Are you freaked out yet?) I had it for about a year before I finally got annoyed with it getting caught on my pants and took it out. I don't regret having it done, in fact, I wish I had done it many years earlier when I first had the idea. I am annoyed with the scar, but I'm sure it will go away eventually.



So, there I am, naked, at least a little part of me. ;)


Something else I wanted to share is a nail polish color that I found recently. I just lurve it, if that is possible. It's a very dark plum, which didn't show up very well in the photos. It looks very lush and sophisticated with just a touch of emo.

Neighbors with jumper cables are the best....

If you are following my twitter, you may have noticed that I went out to my car this afternoon to run some errands, only to discover that my battery was dead. I was at a complete loss to figure out what had happened and was mentally planning how to get to class the next day, when I looked down and saw that my headlights were still on, and had been on for several hours. It's unbelievable the stupid shit I will do when half asleep. (don't even get me started on the day I couldn't find my keys and finally found them in the deadbolt on the OUTSIDE of my front door, where that had been all day)

Well that explains things......

I tried Amy, the girl with the giant dog, and though she didn't have any jumper cables, she suggested we try Kelly, who lives in the apartment beneath her. I'll spare you the details of how we got my car going again, but I will tell you that the logistics of doing so on a one way street is pretty interesting. I just have to say that I'm glad that I have such friendly and helpful women living in my building.

After we got it going and I drove it around a bit to give it time to charge up, I came back to find them still on the porch, talking. Amy had heard her clothes washer going this afternoon and assumed that Kelly was using it. (they had a sort of agreement that Kelly was free to use it when Amy wasn't) But, when Amy asked if she was almost done, Kelly thought Amy was doing laundry. The ghetto neighbors strike again! After I got wise to their nonsense, I made sure that something was always in my washer so that they couldn't use it. Rather than being adults about it and, I don't know, going to a laundrymat (or ASKING my permission to use the appliances I had paid for), they started using Amy's. We started discussing all the crap they have done lately, (including leaving the back door unlocked!) and debating what to do about it. We didn't make any decisions, but at least now we all have a better idea about what's going on.

I love my apartment, and the girls are awesome, but all it takes is one idiot to ruin it for everyone. Fuckers.

Oops!

I forgot Naked Monday! Sorry about that , I had a nasty headache and went to bed early. Naked Mondays will return next week, I promise.

I realized today that I'm going to have to eventually come up with other ways to be naked for you without exposing any naughty bits. Hmm, maybe you would like to see the hair bunnies under my bed? No? Humph! Well, I'll think of something, I guess.

Here's some updates on my life since I know that you're dying to know!

I heard from my friend Dan, he's fine and managed to survive his first few seconds in Afghanistan. (He would often tell me that the average life expectancy for his job is 9 seconds or something. Yes, he's an ass.) Since my life is often terribly boring and he promised to email updates, I'll pass along any non-sensitive information I get.

The Bunny job ended the day before Easter and I start a new one tomorrow at the same mall. I was looking for something part time so that I could start substitute teaching and one of my favorite stores was hiring. Forever 21 called me back, I had the interview monday and orientation is tomorrow. It won't be much money, but helllooo employee discount! Hopefully everything will work out, keeping my fingers crossed.

My blogging friend MP is going to Aruba (lucky bitch lol) and I offered to guest post. I'll put a little reminder over here when I do.

The spring cleaning is going well, I sorted out a ton of clothes for good will, and I'm even getting rid of shoes and books, believe it or not. I also threw out a bunch of craft stuff that I keep hanging on to and I hung up pictures! I also hung up an old window frame that I've had for years. I found it in my parents' barn, painted it and intended on hanging it on a wall, but never did. It's been in storage in three apartments, but now it's on a wall!

Some pictures I've taken recently....

Hayden, my nephew, at the Galleria a couple of weekends ago.

That's me in the bunny suit.

Angel was tired of me knitting and refused to get off this hat I was making.

The pictures I put up and the window frame that used four picture hangers to get up there.

Happy Easter!

see more crazy cat pics

Spring cleaning and an owie

So, I've been trying to get my apartment in order this past week, a little at a time and today was the day I carried things down the back stairs to the basement. It's about two and a half floors down to where my laundry and storage area resides. I made a multitude of trips up and down and up and down...talked to the girl who lives across the hall from me...pet her giant dog...and bashed the crap out of my knee. If you've seen my Naked Monday posts, you know that I regularly sport bruises on my legs, most of the time I couldn't even tell you what I did, but tonight I managed to hit my knee on a filing cabinet in such a way that pain shot up my leg and exploded in my brain. It still hurts like a son of a bitch and what should have turned my whole leg black and blue left one teeny tiny bruise on my kneecap. Bloody hell. We have progress, though. Soon my apartment will look like someone actually lives here, rather than someone is just storing stuff here. le sigh. As I finish, I'll try to post pictures...I found the pictures I took of my empty apartment the other day...we can do a little comparison...it'll be fun....or something. Gah, I'm going to bed.

Naked Mondays # 5

My Eyes

I've been wearing glasses or contacts since I was 10, and, boy, are they a pain in the ass. I've started to realize recently that my contacts aren't cutting it anymore and my prescription has probably changed. I hate going to the eye doctor, it's always the same...you're wearing your contacts too long, you should be more concerned with your eye health...blah, blah, blah. When you are a poor college student with no health insurance, you make things last as long as humanly possible...and then some. Not the smartest, I know, but you do what you gotta do. Ugh, enough of my bitching, here's the pics to go with this Naked Monday......

Ok, ignore the fact that I need an eyebrow wax, please. So, there I am, naked, at least a small part of me.

Something that changed my life......

That may seem melodramatic to some, but I found something today while sorting through some of the boxes still littering my living room (still working on that news years thing) that had a significant impact on my life.

I had to take a psychology class in high school and one lesson in that class changed the way I looked at myself. The teacher passed out large note cards with yarn strung through them and we were instructed to loop the card around our necks, with the card hanging down our backs. Then, everyone had to go around the room and write something positive on each person's card anonymously. After everyone had made it around the room, we took the cards off and read them.
For the first time, I was getting a real idea about what people saw when they looked at me. Like Julia Roberts said in Pretty Woman, it really is easier to believe the bad stuff people say about you than the good stuff. But, though I know that some of the things written on my card were my fellow students just being nice, there were enough truly sincere comments on it to startle me.

I had no idea at the time that others saw me this way, frankly, at the time, I wasn't sure others saw me at all. But they did, and it really did change things for me.

I've kept this card for thirteen years and I'll continue to keep it safe because every time I look at it, I remember that shy, insecure girl who realized that she was seen by her peers for the very first time and as something more than she saw in herself.

Mmm Mmm Good!!

I love to cook, but being a single girl, it can lose it's charm when I go through all that effort for just myself. I've been trying to eat better and cut out the fast food lately, so rather than being empty like it usually is, my kitchen is full of food. I wanted to share a couple of recipes that I tried last week that worked out really well.

Daddy's "If They'da had This at the Alamo We Would'ha Won!' Texas Chili

This link will take you to the allrecipes website, where I found the recipe. What I love about this site is that you can adjust the serving size, so instead of making a recipe for 20, I can make it for 4. That makes the leftovers much easier to handle. I really don't want to eat one meal for a week.

For this recipe, I used ground hamburger instead of stew meat, and I couldn't find the flour, but it was thick enough without it. (This is a texas chili, which means without beans, but you can add them if you like, I don't.) It is pretty yummy, but HOT. I've never had chili before, so I had no idea what to put in it (cheese? crackers?). I found some shredded cheese in the fridge and I didn't have any crackers, so I used some corn chips. Yum!

Cheesy Potato Soup II

I adjusted this one to 3. I pretty much kept to the recipe, but I cooked the crap out of the onions and celery, cuz I'm weird and it freaks me out when I'm eating something soft, but it also crunches. (shudder) Oh I also added some sharp cheddar cheese cubes and crumbled bacon. It's really good, I would recommend it, especially for kids who are freaked out by vegetables. I chopped them so small and cooked them long enough that you can't tell that they're in there. Nom Nom Nom

Anyway, if you're looking for a new recipe to try, these were both good, I recommend them.

Update!!
My good friend, Sarah, emailed me today to remind me that I still haven't sent her the recipe for my Cheesy Enchiladas, and since we are talking about recipes today, I thought I would add it here too. My mom has been famous in the lives of mine and my siblings' friends for several dishes, I have used the promise of her Scotcheroos to barter favors and my sister's friends fight over the chance for leftover baked ham, I am not kidding. Cheesy Enchiladas is one of those recipes. They are just that good. If you like cheese, this is for you. Yummy, comforting, and filling...just perfect. Here's the recipe and then I'll tell you how it can be altered.....

Baked Cheesy Enchiladas
1 lb ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 cup shredded cheese
1 package flour tortillas
1 lb Mild Mexican Velveeta
1 can Cream of Mushroom
1 can of water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Brown the ground beef and onion together and drain.

Divide beef and onion mixture into flour tortillas in a baking dish (glass 9x13 pans work best). Sprinkle shredded cheese in tortillas and roll up in pan.

In the microwave or saucepan, mix together Velveeta, soup and water. Stir together until cheese is melted. Pour mixture over filled tortillas and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Now, to change it up....chicken in this dish is just as good. I'm not a big fan of onion, so I usually leave that out, or brown the beef with big pieces and fish them out. My Dad likes to spice things up with homemade salsa added in and on top of the enchiladas. Also, I hate mushrooms, but you can't taste them, so no worries there. This is super easy and yummy good.

There you go, Sarah, enjoy!

Naked Mondays # 4

Knees...yes, they're mine. And, yes, those are bruises.

I. am. a. klutz. I run into things, bump into doors, trip over air, drop things, stub my toes hard enough to break them...a lot. Getting the picture? I'm pretty sure these current bruises are from the time I spent under my sink, trying desperately to remove my kitchen faucet so that I could replace it. It took me forever because I was determined to do it myself without any help from my dad or male friends who offered to help. I wanted the satisfaction of knowing that I could do it, and I did. I rawk!!! lol

Bossy's Excellent Road Trip

Bossy is coming! Bossy is coming!

Bossy will be in St. Louis on April 20th, which is a sunday. I'm not sure what the count is at this point, but 10 or more of us are meeting up with her for drinks and silliness. If you are a blogger from the area and would like to get in on the fun, you can go to iambossy.com for details, or you can just email me and I'll let you know where the fun will be and when.

What NOT to do if you live in an apartment.....

• DON'T walk around putting all your weight in each step. If anything rattles when you move about, try not walking like a sasquatch, k?
• DON'T start an argument at 5am before leaving for work. Just because you are up that early, doesn't mean anyone else is.
• DON'T use a washing machine if you don't own it. Nuf' said.
• If you are going to use other people's appliances, DON'T use their soap and then make it really obvious that you are doing so by buying new soap when you have used all of theirs and leaving it there for them to find!!!!
• DON'T have screaming fights that require domestic disturbance calls to the police.
• DON'T taunt your crying baby. I can barely hear him/her, but you, imitating her only more loudly, I hear loud and clear. You ghetto fucktard. I hate you. Please die. Thanks.

Note: I haven't actually had to call the police, but I've thought about it several times. And they really do use my washing machine. At least I don't pay for water, could be worse.

It's snowing right now, RIGHT NOW!

Um, I don't know. It is currently spitting ice from the sky for the last time of the season (please? pretty please?)and I thought I would walk out on my little terrace to, I don't know, record the occasion.

My frogs covered in snow....

Over the ledge....

Angel saw the door open and I could see her little eyes light up. "Outside? Outside Momma?" But, you know, it's cold and rather wet...she very quickly tired of that nonsense...

She left evidence of her passing, though....

That's me, shivering in the cold....

Snowing, blowing, swirling, blanketing my world in white....

Some photos I have taken recently....

I heard this tow truck outside and thought maybe someone was having trouble with their car, or they were on my street for a repo job....but a woman drove her car right up on it, so I have no idea what this was about.


My grandma gave me this frog on a rock when she found out about my love of frogs...I had quite a collection going on in my former apartment's bathroom and he was part of it. I moved the frogs outside to the terrace when I decided to change the feel of the bathroom in this apartment...I've had the worst time with this, can't decide for the life of me. I noticed when watching the tow truck activity that this frog has had an accident. I have no idea how this happened, the goofy thing is made to go outside in a garden, so it couldn't have been ice, right? Maybe some freak hail or rocks falling from the sky, I just don't know.


This is my new favorite soda. Soda is really my only real vice, I'm addicted to Mountain Dew, but I found this little lovely at the grocery store in the ethnic section. I tried a couple out of curiosity and my favorite is the guava flavor. The best part? They're made with real sugar instead of that high fructose corn syrup stuff. Yum!

Naked Mondays # 3

This photo was taken this past saturday....


I wasn't trying to be cool here (or fierce), I was trying not to fall out of my chair. ;) I had an entry planned about all the weight I've lost recently, but I can't find photos that make the changes really clear. I'm about 5'8" tall. Currently, I weigh only 10 more pounds than I did in high school. This is not a good thing. The winter blues have really knocked me on my ass this year and food hasn't held any interest for me lately, which makes me all weak and sickly feeling. Basically, I feel like crap and none of my pants fit. I am incredibly annoyed with it all. To top it all off, my boobs are smaller, dammit.

p.s. I am not sharing this in any way to brag. I have been happier with my body at 150 pounds than I ever was at 115. I am taller than average and need the padding or I have no curves AT ALL. My boobs! Are shrinking! Gah! I'm just sharing and letting it all hang out.

Updating....

It's been a crazy week for more reasons than I want to say here. Remember this entry? Yeah, more of that. No idea if it's a good thing, or just designed to make me crazy...your guess is as good as mine.

Here's to the good news:
I did get the Easter Bunny job, which starts tomorrow. It's only for three weeks, but it should help out.
I was approved for BlogHer ads which should be appearing soon, I'm switching the layout a bit so that there is plenty of room.

And the bad:
I know I've mentioned before that my friend Dan is in the Army. He is being deployed very soon and this weekend will be my last opportunity to see him for 15 months. Good thoughts, prayers, what have you, I would appreciate some sent his way. Thanks.

I am TRYING to finish the questions I was sent for the Great Interview Experiment, but for some reason it's taking me forever. Gah!

The makers of LOST are geniuses, but I find that I don't like writing about each episode. I may talk about it every once in a while, just not every week, so my only weekly entry will be Naked Mondays, which I'm really liking.

I'll let you know how the Easter Bunny thing goes and will post a real entry soon!