Catch-up

Oh, laws, but I've sunk into the depths of lethargy lately. Last week was particularly awful; I didn't want to do anything, I was bored, depressed and overall just miserable. I think it was all just because the previous weeks had been really exciting and active, and then I suddenly found myself with nothing to do, no projects, nothing to look forward to but more waiting.

Have I told you how fun the waiting is? Yeah, woohoo! Yeaaah!

Yeah.

So, anyway, this week I decided to shake off the blues of non-productivity, actually get my ass off the chair and do something.

I've been cooking, baking, painting, and arranging my room. The cooking is awesome, and I like having dinner ready for when my mom comes home, as I was starting to feel guilty about lounging around in the house all day without earning my keep. As part of my Get Healthy Plan, I've been cooking a boatload of vegetable dishes, mostly soups that are delicious and very healthy. SeriousEats and AllRecipes are awesome sources for healthy food (SeriousEats has fancier cooking) and I'm amazed at the things one can do without meat. I've also been cooking a lot of fish and chicken, cutting drastically back on things like beef and cheese just like the doctor ordered. It's not only delicious and healthy, but I'm already starting to lose weight and look better, which is always a plus of this type of thing. And I'm just feeling generally healthier.

"The Cookie Bible" is my...um...well my Bible these days (lame). Every three days or so I've been trying out new recipes, keeping half the cookies here and sending half over to my mom's office for trials. My mom's office is a treasure cave of business possibilities, and while sales aren't as crazy as they were in December (when I made a lot of money selling my awesome shortbread cookies), my chocolate chip and cinnamon roll cookies have been hits and I've sold a few boxes. It's not a ridiculous amount of money yet, but enough to buy basic groceries and stuff. Next I'm gonna try to sell some lemon refrigerator cookies that turned out amazing last time. It's nice to have some extra cash and not have to touch my savings.

I've also decided to try painting again. I have a ton of materials that basically came free from the old job- boxes of gorgeous pastels, paintbrushes galore and even some watercolors. And this time I won't be making gifts for people; I actually want to see about selling some art. So I started yesterday and the results were exciting and encouraging, so I'm gonna hunt around old National Geographic magazines (great inspiration for colorful things) and spent my afternoons doing some artsin'. Put that art degree to some use after four years.

Gotta use those talents for good, you know? MONEYS IS GOOD.

On the less-productive side, I've returned to a more leisurely-paced Cannonball Read. I've dared to pick up another Grisham book after being surprised by The Testament, and I'm reading it when my biography of Marie Antoinette gets a little too heavy. Don't get me wrong, the biography is probably one of the most fascinating historic accounts I've ever read, but it's so thorough (the author covers EVERYTHING that happened in like...the WORLD when Marie Antoinette was alive) that all the facts can be a bit overwhelming, and I need a little bit of light reading to make up for it. Also, it'll take me a while to finish it and I don't want to fall back on my reading.

So that's life. We're on the fourth month of what's usually a five-month wait for application approval (the hardest bit is not knowing if it'll even be APPROVED) and things are getting tense. But the being productive actually helps.

And to end, here's the song that (thanks to Scrubs)I've been obsessively listening to and singing for days and days, because it is cheesy but awesome and it makes me dance in my chair:

(OK I can't find a decent video version of the actual song, so here's an awesome compilation made from the Scrubs episode featuring the song. It's also hilarious):



Give a little respeeeeeeect tooooooooooooooooooooOooooo meeeeeeeeeeeee!

yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

('A Little Respect' by Erasure. Haters shut up)