So, I am super tired right now, but I have to wait for some pictures to upload and tag them before I go to bed, so I figured I'd jot some of my thoughts down in here first.
The sermon at church tonight...er...last night was about Sabbath...and being busy. This was one that definitely hit home with me as I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I am always super busy and to be quite honest, I think I am primarily hiding behind how busy I am. It's so easy to be rushing around with no time to think and thus hide from feelings, the past, and what could be. It also makes it easier to ignore the painful things in life. If you are busy getting to the next moment in life, you don't have to focus on the hurtful one that you have just left, which is rather useful when you are too sensitive. It makes a brilliant excuse to hide behind as well. Who ever objects to someone saying I'm too busy...I've got homework...or work...or whatever else happens to be going on at the time? While some people might be smart enough to call it BS, most aren't going to fuss if you say that you're too busy for a relationship when they ask you why you aren't dating. Although, a more accurate answer would be because I'm scared of relationships, have too many issues that I don't want someone else to have to deal with, and the only guys that are interested in me are the ones that I am not interested in...and my pictures are uploaded...so...night.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
New Year's Thought Dump
I think I should warn any of you who are silly enough to actually be reading this mess, that this post (as usual) will probably be disorganized chaos.
I don't really know where to start, so I guess I'll just work backwards. I made a pasta dish with white whine tonight and decided that alcohol just seems to smell weird. It was pretty good though and my family liked it even though there was no meat involved lol. I went through the process of dumping all of the pictures I took in 2009 onto CD's, so that they wouldn't be cluttering up my computer, which was a lengthy process. I enjoyed it though because I had to go through all of the pictures. It's crazy that it wasn't that long ago, but it feels so far away. Life moves so quickly...too quickly in some ways.
Yesterday, I tried out a new cookie recipe since we were having a potluck after church that night. It wasn't the one I'd originally planned on making, but it was fun and I like the recipe. I actually followed it too...except for using a star cookie cutter instead of making them into crescents, but that still counts...right? It isn't too sweet, which is nice. I typed it up to email it to one of the girls from church, so I'll throw it in here with my notes. (It's from Joy of Cooking.)
Viennese Crescents
About 48 2.25-inch cookies [I got around twice this with the stars.]
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease or line 2 cookie sheets. [Not necessary if the pans are nonstick.]
Beat in a large bowl until creamy:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
Add and beat until well combined:
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
Beat in:
1 cup ground walnuts or blanched almonds
2 teaspoons vanilla
(1 teaspoon cinnamon)
Stir in until well blended:
2 cups all-purpose flour
Chill the dough. [About half an hour works well.] If using a crescent cookie cutter, roll the dough to the thickness of 1/4 inch. If shaping into crescents, roll 1-tablespoon pieces of dough into short ropes to shape. Arrange about 1/4 inch apart on the cookie sheets. Bake until crescents begin to brown, 13 to 15 minutes. [You probably want to start with 10 and check them if you use a small shape like the stars.] Let stand briefly, then remove to a rack to cool. [I put them all onto the rack and then dipped them in the sugar immediately.] Roll the cooled cookies in:
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar [I only used 1/2 cup.]
My night started out kind of awful, but my dad was nice enough to drive me to church, so I wasn't super late. Pastor Phil was speaking, which I always love. The potluck was alright. I enjoyed cleaning up more than the event. This seems to be a bit of a norm with me lol. The rest of the night was absolutely amazing. A handful of us went to Desert Edge to meet up with some friends who were already there. We stayed there until they closed at 11:00pm and then headed to Coffee Break until they closed. I always love doing that after church. It is wonderful to just have some time with amazing people that I love, listen to the unique conversations, and just think without worrying about life and everything that is stressful about it. I also finally decided to stop being stubborn and just accept something. lol.
Saturday was my grandpa's birthday (step-dad's side of the family). All of the family totally flaked, which I found really upsetting. We usually all get together and have dinner at someone's house, but no one actually bothered to follow through on plans, so my parents, sister, and I took him out to dinner. With a lot of family traditions, I'm not super keen on their continuance, but this is one that is important. When something is meaningless, it is silly to continue it, but if you are showing someone in your life that you care, that is another story entirely. I hate even thinking about how it must feel to realize that all of your kids and grandkids are too busy with their lives to spend time with you like they usually do. Especially since he's retired and getting older. All he does during most of the winter is sit around in the house and watch television because he can't go out and golf. It just seems ridiculous to cut out some of the family time that gets him out and doing something. Anyway, I'll end that rant here.
Friday...was New Year's Eve. I have decided that this is my least favorite holiday. There are so many expectations and ideals amongst society about how it is supposed to go and what you are supposed to do and it could never live up to those. In the end, it is a celebration of the movement from one section of our somewhat arbitrary division into time to another section. Oh...yeah, that doesn't sound anywhere near as romantic. No wonder people don't think of it that way. I think it's great to want to change things and start fresh, but why can't we do that all of the time? Last year, I stopped doing New Year's Resolutions. Yet another family tradition had me writing lists of resolutions for years. I always forgot most of them and rarely followed through with any of them because there were simply too many of them. I'd rather notice random little things throughout the year and work on them until I'm satisfied. Making resolutions on New Year's Eve kind of seems like a way to put off what we know we should be doing. If we want to improve ourselves, why wait? There's no time like the present to start.
Annnnnd...my night was not at all what I would have liked it to be. I can think of a few other people that I would have liked to be spending it with as well, but hey, you can't have everything...and there's always next year. ;)
I worked 8:30am-5:00pm Monday through Thursday last week. I hadn't planned on working that much over break, but I got the office into shape, which was a very good thing. On Wednesday, my boss make a PO, one of the staff used it, he brought me the receipt, I had my boss sign it, copied it, put it in the box to go to city hall, put it into the excel budget sheet, and filed it. All in the same day. It was kind of amazing. Haha, yeah, I know that's weird, so if you're crazy enough to still be reading this, thanks for puttin' up with it. I FINALLY saw Inception on Tuesday. It was AMAZING. That movie is next in line on the movies that I want list...and Black Swan. I absolutely LOVED them both.
I think that's the highlights of everything since my last post and this feels like a ridiculously long post, so I guess I'll stop here.
I don't really know where to start, so I guess I'll just work backwards. I made a pasta dish with white whine tonight and decided that alcohol just seems to smell weird. It was pretty good though and my family liked it even though there was no meat involved lol. I went through the process of dumping all of the pictures I took in 2009 onto CD's, so that they wouldn't be cluttering up my computer, which was a lengthy process. I enjoyed it though because I had to go through all of the pictures. It's crazy that it wasn't that long ago, but it feels so far away. Life moves so quickly...too quickly in some ways.
Yesterday, I tried out a new cookie recipe since we were having a potluck after church that night. It wasn't the one I'd originally planned on making, but it was fun and I like the recipe. I actually followed it too...except for using a star cookie cutter instead of making them into crescents, but that still counts...right? It isn't too sweet, which is nice. I typed it up to email it to one of the girls from church, so I'll throw it in here with my notes. (It's from Joy of Cooking.)
Viennese Crescents
About 48 2.25-inch cookies [I got around twice this with the stars.]
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease or line 2 cookie sheets. [Not necessary if the pans are nonstick.]
Beat in a large bowl until creamy:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
Add and beat until well combined:
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
Beat in:
1 cup ground walnuts or blanched almonds
2 teaspoons vanilla
(1 teaspoon cinnamon)
Stir in until well blended:
2 cups all-purpose flour
Chill the dough. [About half an hour works well.] If using a crescent cookie cutter, roll the dough to the thickness of 1/4 inch. If shaping into crescents, roll 1-tablespoon pieces of dough into short ropes to shape. Arrange about 1/4 inch apart on the cookie sheets. Bake until crescents begin to brown, 13 to 15 minutes. [You probably want to start with 10 and check them if you use a small shape like the stars.] Let stand briefly, then remove to a rack to cool. [I put them all onto the rack and then dipped them in the sugar immediately.] Roll the cooled cookies in:
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar [I only used 1/2 cup.]
My night started out kind of awful, but my dad was nice enough to drive me to church, so I wasn't super late. Pastor Phil was speaking, which I always love. The potluck was alright. I enjoyed cleaning up more than the event. This seems to be a bit of a norm with me lol. The rest of the night was absolutely amazing. A handful of us went to Desert Edge to meet up with some friends who were already there. We stayed there until they closed at 11:00pm and then headed to Coffee Break until they closed. I always love doing that after church. It is wonderful to just have some time with amazing people that I love, listen to the unique conversations, and just think without worrying about life and everything that is stressful about it. I also finally decided to stop being stubborn and just accept something. lol.
Saturday was my grandpa's birthday (step-dad's side of the family). All of the family totally flaked, which I found really upsetting. We usually all get together and have dinner at someone's house, but no one actually bothered to follow through on plans, so my parents, sister, and I took him out to dinner. With a lot of family traditions, I'm not super keen on their continuance, but this is one that is important. When something is meaningless, it is silly to continue it, but if you are showing someone in your life that you care, that is another story entirely. I hate even thinking about how it must feel to realize that all of your kids and grandkids are too busy with their lives to spend time with you like they usually do. Especially since he's retired and getting older. All he does during most of the winter is sit around in the house and watch television because he can't go out and golf. It just seems ridiculous to cut out some of the family time that gets him out and doing something. Anyway, I'll end that rant here.
Friday...was New Year's Eve. I have decided that this is my least favorite holiday. There are so many expectations and ideals amongst society about how it is supposed to go and what you are supposed to do and it could never live up to those. In the end, it is a celebration of the movement from one section of our somewhat arbitrary division into time to another section. Oh...yeah, that doesn't sound anywhere near as romantic. No wonder people don't think of it that way. I think it's great to want to change things and start fresh, but why can't we do that all of the time? Last year, I stopped doing New Year's Resolutions. Yet another family tradition had me writing lists of resolutions for years. I always forgot most of them and rarely followed through with any of them because there were simply too many of them. I'd rather notice random little things throughout the year and work on them until I'm satisfied. Making resolutions on New Year's Eve kind of seems like a way to put off what we know we should be doing. If we want to improve ourselves, why wait? There's no time like the present to start.
Annnnnd...my night was not at all what I would have liked it to be. I can think of a few other people that I would have liked to be spending it with as well, but hey, you can't have everything...and there's always next year. ;)
I worked 8:30am-5:00pm Monday through Thursday last week. I hadn't planned on working that much over break, but I got the office into shape, which was a very good thing. On Wednesday, my boss make a PO, one of the staff used it, he brought me the receipt, I had my boss sign it, copied it, put it in the box to go to city hall, put it into the excel budget sheet, and filed it. All in the same day. It was kind of amazing. Haha, yeah, I know that's weird, so if you're crazy enough to still be reading this, thanks for puttin' up with it. I FINALLY saw Inception on Tuesday. It was AMAZING. That movie is next in line on the movies that I want list...and Black Swan. I absolutely LOVED them both.
I think that's the highlights of everything since my last post and this feels like a ridiculously long post, so I guess I'll stop here.
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