A Long Time Ago...

In a galaxy far, far away - called California...
You've missed me, haven't you? Come on, just admit it!

I guess I should give a quick rundown of what happened in the last almost 2 months for the ones I haven't gotten a chance to tell...

-Left San Francisco Friday night to stay at Bethro's. The plan was to leave early AM on Saturday the 10th but considering we didn't get to her house until 11:30pm...
-Left Bethro's house at 1pm Saturday.
-Drove through Nevada: quick story -- pulled up to a gas station in Elko, NV to take a quick bathroom break and when I come out, Nick is talking to a mechanic.... turns out our back shocks are busted from throwing so much crap in the trunk, then when they have the car up in the air, they notice the tires are about to blow. So there you go Elko, NV - have fun with my 1200 bucks!
-Made it safe to the hotel, and drove and slept for the next 4 days. Our stops were in NV, WY, IA and OH
Let me tell you a few things about driving across the country. You may think it is fun. You are sadly mistaken. Hey, if I had an RV and places to see, maybe that would be a different story. But driving without getting off the highway too far because you don't have time or the money for more gas... yeah. BORING. The scenery is pretty for the first 30 minutes in a new state... then you are in the state for 4 more hours usually, at least. Thank God Bethro graciously gifted me with a new set of needles, 1 ball of white and 1 ball of blue yarn and instructions on making a cool little dishcloth.

How about I say a few nice things about our country...
Northeast CA - beautiful snow-capped mountains and lots of treesNevada - beautiful snow-capped mountains with almost a desert in between
Utah - saw the salt flats, pretty cool, saw the mountains that I really want to go skiing inWyoming - um, is it bad that I thought this was a plains state? Western part was very mountainous and you could see the Rockies off to the south. Then the Eastern part was very cowboyish and more like the plains you might imagine there.
Nebraska - oh what can I say about Nebraska besides I wanted it to disappear. The wind was horrific - and I mean BAD, we could barely drive because I have a pretty boxy car. The wheel was constantly kept at an angle.
Iowa - still freaking windy, please go away! Very green and lots of plains - saw/crossed the Missouri RiverIllinois - saw/crossed the Mississippi, still WINDY. Almost looks like Central Jersey with farms and trees. Unfortunately we couldn't see Chicago though I don't think we were more than 2 miles away from it on 80. I'll just have to go back and visit my friends there :)

Indiana - more like Illinois... I think... we weren't in it for very long. There was a toll though. Illinois had the first toll of a whopping 60 cents. I'm not sure how they were paying for all that construction we came across.Ohio - some nice tree-filled views, it has been a while. Hit up a delicious Applebees (2nd one) thanks to Bethro and Phil - love you guys!
Pennsylvania - FINALLY, yet we still had 6 hours to go in that state. Nick and I tried to figure
out where Jon and Kate Gosselin lived the whole time. Then last week we saw the original hour long special and they said the original town they lived in before they moved, silly us. I love them and that show. They are hilarous together and the kids are adorable. They make me think I can make it - hopefully I won't be having 8 kids though!
Philadelphia! We arrived on the 14th, late in the afternoon. Nick's best friends were really happy to see him and we unloaded most of our stuff at their house. Then we headed over to my friend's where we would be staying. I believe the apartment we are living in was the 3rd one we looked at, and we knew it would fit perfectly, gave our application and there ya go! Once we signed the lease we headed down to my parents in South Carolina (where they basically retired - though they still do work to keep a good income). We stayed there and ate a lot of delicious food and got a lot of love, and a little beach time until June 1st where we (parents, Nick and me) headed up in a U-Haul to Philadelphia and moved our stuff in. Thank God for one of my best friends Jill and her boyfriend Mike. They brought water and much needed extra energy. Mike was a workhorse. We couldn't believe how much time he saved us; he just kept lifting huge amounts of heavy boxes. We owe them a super nice dinner...or two!

That was a quick recap - good thing I didn't do a longer one, right? I'll talk more about the apartment in the next post!

Meme me

That sounds like I said me me me but if you don't know - Meme is a little survey that you fill out and then "tag" other people to partipate. My friends from high school will know how much I love surveys. I was always the one to send it out via email whenever I received one. I've been dying to do a meme, life has just been crazy.

I decided to take a quick break (probably multiple times) from work and fill this one out from one of my favorite bloggers: Pancakemama.

What was I doing 10 years ago?
This is going to make some people feel old but 10 years ago: I was 13 going on 14, I went on a disastrous cruise (my Dad had to leave midway through to go back to work, tropical storm = super rocky boat and bad seasickness, and I had that ship sickness that people get) but I also got my first contacts and my hair highlighted for the first time. I felt so grown up! Then I went back home and my boyfriend at the time didn't notice anything new about me. Broke my little heart/hopefully broke his eardrums when I screamed at him. Ah, high school.

My to-do list/ What I actually did recently
If I were you, I would run screaming now. Here is a slight bit of the list:
1) Sell the rest of my furniture
2) Pack everything I own (-1 carload) and ship to parents
3) Clean entire apartment and load 1 carload into car
4) Drive across entire country
5) Find new apartment
6) Miss Beth and Phil terribly
7) Fly down to SC and drive with parents and UHAUL with my stuff
8) Move into said apartment
9) See awesome friends/family I haven't seen in forever: Jill and Fizzies and Parents!
10) Get a kitty
11) Find a new job
12) Plan a wedding for July 2009

what did I do?
-sell some furniture
-pack and ship some stuff
-visited some cool places in SF before we leave - like Alcatraz and meet up with awesome Cali friends I'll miss

Snacks I enjoy
You don't even know how much I love snacks.
Cookies has been number 1 recently. Super bad for me. But I love chips, candy, you put it in front of me, I'll eat it!

Things I would do if I were a billionaire
Buy a house in Hawaii and move there and bring my family with me
Travel all over the world (buy a house in Europe too so I could vacation there)
Give money to special charities
Do stuff I enjoy all day and eat healthy, good food and hire a personal trainer to make me exercise!

3 bad habits
Stress. My life is defined by stress. I'm not sure if it just a bad habit anymore - as much as it is a lifestyle. OCD just adds on top of that - but I'm not considering that a bad habit - just my favorite disorder.
Laziness. Lack of exercise is included here, also the whining "Niiiiiick can you get me ____" which is usually about 2 feet from me. I really try not to do this too often... I swear!
Procrastination. I'm an expert at this - once again, another lifestyle. I do it with EVERYTHING in my life. Including this blog.

5 places I've lived

Port Chester, NY
South Salem, NY
Haverford, PA
Palo Alto, CA
San Francisco, CA

5 jobs I've had

Library "page": stocking books, covering books, checking out books, and generally being a know-it-all. Yeah, I loved the Dewey Decimal system and if you had named a number, I could tell you what was in that section. Dork.

Retail: H&M, not entirely sure I actually made money that summer. I think I spent it all on clothes. Definitely made me appreciate the crap that retail people put up with.

Camp Counselor: Love little kids. But these weren't little. They were snobby, bratty, cranky 11-12 year olds at a sports camp, and I still loved them :) Except for the kid who threatened to bring in a knife and stab me, him not so much.

Research Assistant (various times) including: capturing about to mate female frogs - throwing them on ice - bringing back to lab until morning - and then play male mating sounds and see where they hop to; dissecting baby rat brains to get neurons to test - ultimately looking into what causes chronic pain; my senior thesis in which I was working with embryonic fly DNA to create genetic markers

Publishing: Editorial Assistant to Assistant Editor to Associate Technology Project Manager. This is where I am now. Quite an interesting ride.

5 people who have interesting blogs that I'd like to tag
I'll just say anyone who is interested rather than putting the pressure to perform on them :)

Now I Have

Officially fallen off the face of the earth that is.
You will not believe how many emails I'm getting per day in response to Craigslist/Freecycle postings of our furniture. The good news is that people ARE taking stuff. The big ticket items are still around but we just dropped the price a little and I'm hoping to get rid of them soon.

My poor blogging life (reading AND writing) has really suffered with this adventure in patience -- that is moving, people. I can't believe I only have a week left in California! It is completely unreal at the moment, except for the fact that our furniture is slowly disappearing, all our books and DVDs are gone, and Nick and I have gone absolutely bonkers.

One thing I'm looking forward to is going to Alcatraz with my favorite East/West transplant, Bethro and her husband, Phil. Then, I'm super excited for them to move back East in 2 years... yeah I'm already anticipating that (and I know she is too).

I'll try to post a couple of more times but if not... we should be arriving in Philadelphia on May 13th (possibly 14th). Watch out East Coast. I'm baaaack!

Face of the Earth

I didn't fall off it... the face of the earth, that is. I promise.

I've been so busy over here trying to see all my friends, pack and find a new job/apt before we move. Originally, I thought I would be able to keep my job and telecommute but orders from higher-up say no new off-site people. My boss is nice enough to give me temp work for him for up to 3 months (my company's max temp contract) but that means I still have to find other work. If you know anything in Philadelphia or telecommuting, let me know! I'm open to anything!

I was just talking to be my good friend Bethro about jobs. Senior year of college, I thought I might want to be a vet and did a lot of research into it. I've also thought of doing public health, public policy or some type of nutrition. All this indecision lead me to standing still and not doing anything to further my knowledge or help me make a choice. Now, it is 2 years later and I realize that going to vet school would change the rest of my life plans (in terms of children, money and location of living). So to make a drastic understatement, I'm stressed. If you have any insights, please feel free to pass them on.

Craftwise, right now I'm working on a Knit-A-Long for Amy March's Slippers. It's been an exercise in patience to say the least! I don't have a picture right now, but I'll post one later.

The Weekend

Warning - picture heavy post! YAY!

Nick and I had a weekend that makes me really happy and satisfied! (Though as usual, I didn't take nearly enough pictures, even if you think this post shows otherwise)

Friday night - Nick and I headed out into the typically chilly weather of San Francisco and walked down to In and Out which is almost a mile and 1/2 away. Along the way, we were walking down a steep hill when Nick decided that it would be a cool picture. He held the camera at the same angle as the street so it looks like I'm leaning backwards. You can't actually tell how steep it is - but if the cars are parked at 90 degrees on a hill - it is super steep!


Then I stole the camera and took one of the boy to kind of show the angle. I don't know. It was Friday after work - that's my only excuse!


All that walking and silly picture taking really worked up our appetites so we each had burger and fries and split a milkshake. Way too many calories but I pretended that the calcium in the milkshake made up for the fat that I ingested.


I'm pretty sure there was some drug in that delicious cup of ice cream because we couldn't stop laughing for 20 minutes and therefore stepped into the street when the light was still red and almost got run over by a car... Well it was a good story to us anyway...
Then went to have coffee in North Beach (which is like a Little Italy for you non-San Francisco people) at our favorite place, Stella Pastry.

Saturday - We wandered down to our favorite cheap sushi joint. On the way, I finally remembered to take a picture of an interesting Nob Hill institution - these lovely ladies.

Creepy, I know. Then we walked back up the hill to Grace Cathedral since we lived 4 blocks from it for 9 months but haven't been in there yet!

We gangsta.

Well, we are something all right.

Then we headed off to a friend's engagement party at her parents which was a lot of fun. I only took 3 pictures total there and two require me to burn your eyes out after you see them (I don't have a double chin in real life! I swear!). So here is one of her parent's pretty tree which matched her fiancee's shirt.Sunday - picked up my favorite relocated East Coasters and went to Napa for a drunken good ole' time

I'm trying to remember what we were all "discussing" here,

though I'm sure I agreed with Bethro.Well that's all folks. Just a million pictures and lots of words!

101 in 1001

I did indeed steal this idea but I don't think she'll mind.

I've been feeling restless and unfulfilled recently. When Catie posted her 101 things in 1001 days, I knew I should make a list of goals. This is exactly what I needed during all the things changing in my life (job, location of living, and even marital status). I always end up making some of my goals very general but I definitely have some specific ones as well.

Here is the beginning of my list (not in chronological order):

1. Get a kitty
2. Buy car with high gas mileage
3. Have wedding (and try not to stress out in planning)
   
4. Set up apartment with real style (not college dorm room style)
   
5. Clean said apartment more often
6. Keep in touch with friends from West Coast.
7. Learn to speak Italian at least conversationally
8. Go to Italy with family
9. Go to fabulous countries (Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy (if not above), Greece)
10. Get a job I truly enjoy and feel I’m good at
11. Go skiing in the Poconos
12. Compromise more with Nick’s DVD selection
13. Lose 20 pounds
14. Get to toned body for wedding
15. Take martial arts
16. Take a ballet class
17. Eat more organic foods – produce and meat specifically
18. Sew a bag
19. Go on a fabulous honeymoon and RELAX
20. Move to Philadelphia
21. Visit West Coast
22. Go to Los Angeles
23. Go to Las Vegas again and stay up late
24. Take more pictures
25. Buy a photographer's digital camera (for artsy photos)
    
26. Go to a Yankees game at old stadium
27. Go to a Yankees game at new stadium when it opens in 2009
28. Make a scrapbook of Las Vegas trip
29. Make a San Francisco scrapbook
30. Read a book a month
31. Learn HTML
32. Volunteer somewhere
33. Use less paper products
34. Knit a pair of socks
35. Figure out what is wrong with my gastrointestinal tract
36. Learn to do something to destress

That's all I've got for now, but I know more will be popping into my head soon!
I could have put a lot more things down about the wedding but it kind of seemed like cheating...

Well this weekend is a bit busy so I'll have some pictures to post at the end of it! See you then!

Easter - Bethro and Jess style

Yeah. I know. I brought my camera and once again, forgot to get pictures! But it was really good - I promise. Today's posts are all about trusting my judgment. This is all I've got folks (that phrasing is inspired by the lovely Ms. Bethro below).

The Menu:
Frittata (de la Feeding Frenzy family): Pepperoni, Salami, Virginia Ham, Boiled Ham, Mozzarella, and Parsley
Home Fries (de la Mama FF): Red Potatoes, onions, garlic
Sugar Cookies (de la Pillsbury, Betty Crocker and a little bit of me): Pillsbury sugar cookie rod sliced into cookies, Betty Crocker Vanilla Icing and decorations with bunnies and eggs (you can see them in the picture)

Turkey (de la Bethro family): well, it's a turkey, what do you expect here?
Stuffing (de la Nana Bethro): It was really good. You should ask Nana Bethro so someone else knows how to make it before she "goes" (as my Grandma likes to say).
Mashed Potato: (de la Phil family)
Spinach (de la Phil sorta)

+ tons of Mimosas (which you see there), beer, Cadbury Creme Eggs, and Jelly Beans

Close Your Eyes and Imagine

Close your eyes and imagine... that this picture actually looks appetizing. It was really delicious. I promise!!!!!

Really. I know you don't believe me. You can ask Nick too! I don't want to write what I think it looks like but feel free to guess in the comments.

I found the recipe on a random site- just a simple Lentil Salad. I'm sure it is perfect as a side dish but Nick and I ended up eating it as a main dish, so it works either way. We also had some leftover for lunch which was delicious cold too.

Recipe:

1 1/4 cups dried lentils
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon coarse ground pepper
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 cups quartered cherry tomatoes
1 cup diced cucumber
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup thinly sliced celery

Place lentils in a large saucepan; cover with water to 2 inches above lentils, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until tender. Drain well, and set aside.

Combine lemon juice and next 5 ingredients (lemon juice through garlic) in a medium bowl; stir with a wire whisk until blended.

Add lentils, tomatoes, cucumber, cheese, and celery to lemon juice mixture; toss gently to coat.

Serves 4.

Yum in the Tum

Parmesan Chicken Paillards with Cherry Tomato Sauce

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1591066

Ingredients

• 4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
  
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
  
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
  Cooking spray
  
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
  
• 1/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
  
• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
  
• 2 cups quartered cherry tomatoes
  
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  

Preparation

Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/2-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Sprinkle chicken with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Combine cheese and flour in a shallow dish. Dredge 1 side of each chicken breast half in cheese mixture.

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 chicken breast halves, cheese side down; cook 4 minutes on each side or until done. Repeat procedure with remaining 1 teaspoon oil and chicken breast halves. Remove from pan; keep warm.

Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion; sauté 2 minutes. Stir in broth and vinegar; cook 1 minute or until liquid almost evaporates. Add tomatoes, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and oregano; cook 2 minutes.

Wine note: These chicken breasts have a piquant Italian flavor. I love to serve them with an Italian red made from the sangiovese grape. Try the incredible Marchesi di Frescobaldi "Campo ai Sassi" Rosso di Montalcino 2004 (Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy), $20. -Karen MacNeil

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 1 chicken breast half and about 1/3 cup tomato mixture)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 264(20% from fat); FAT 5.9g (sat 1.8g,mono 2.6g,poly 0.9g); PROTEIN 42.6g; CHOLESTEROL 102mg; CALCIUM 95mg; SODIUM 504mg; FIBER 1.3g; IRON 1.6mg; CARBOHYDRATE 7.4g

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm not the least bit Irish and neither is the boy. We are also very lazy and decided to stay in unlike a lot of other 20 somethings who are out partying at the bar. Plus, it's a work day. So I'm watching Jeopardy (now House Hunters by the time I'm finishing this up) and Nick is drinking a Guinness. My evening has nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day so I'm letting him take care of that. I do love my beer, but I have acid reflux and it's been a disaster recently so I'm trying not to have anything - even tonight.

He was very proud of the head on his Guinness (apparently very important to this drink) so I took a picture (and he decided to be silly at the last second)!

Hope you had a very lucky day!