It's almost my anniversary...

I can hardly believe it but I've been writing this blog for almost a year. March 7 will be my official blogiversary so I stole the idea from Shannon got the idea to ask my readers (especially all those secret readers who are finally starting to come out of the wood works) to ask me anything they want and I will answer it.

In general I am pretty open on my blog but there are definitely things I have shied away from writing about but for my blogiversary no subject will be off limits. Ask away and who knows, you might all learn something know about me (although I can warn you that my life is relatively boring, hey, who knows, maybe I'll learn something new about myself!).

Going out of town.

So I am going out of town for work until Wed. I will try to post between now and then but can't promise anything. If you get bored while I am gone, well, that's not my problem, I'm out of town!

But if you get really bored, I stumbled across The Source: Slang Dictionary the other day (because, YES, I was looking up a slang word I didn't know the meaning for...I am such a total loser some days). Have fun looking up some slang words...But just remember, "This dictionary isn't so you can try to talk like someone your not."

Look up "fo' shizzle" just for the fun of it. Dy- you'll like that one.

A traveling soul...

Sydney Harbor, Sydney Australia - Sept. 2005

I've been traveling for as long as I remember. Until I was a teenager, most of these, obviously, were family trips. Once I got to middle school, I've taken every opportunity to travel I could. In 7th grade I went on a school trip to Spain (Madrid), France (Paris) and England (London). I loved it. I was hooked. The traveling bug bite me and I've never looked back. When I was 16 my grandma took my sister and I on a month long trip to the British Isles, we traveled around England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales (mind you, on a bus with mostly elderly people) but it just reinforced my love for being surrounded by the unknown. I am not a very outgoing person, many considered me to be shy for most of my life. But something about being in another country, another culture, another world, makes me feel more comfortable being the person I am than living the life I live everyday, in the town I've lived in for more than 2 decades.

My birthday is July 12. That makes me a Cancer. For those of you who don't follow astrology, Cancer's are especially prone to be very family and home oriented. Something I have noticed, however, is that many Cancer's can carry their home on their backs (like Crabs, the astrological sign for Cancers, do). This is probably one of the truest statements for me. While I may not be technically 'home', as long as I have certain items with me, I can feel at home where ever I am. No matter where I go, even if it is on a weekend trip, I bring a journal. I, however, never actually write in the journal. Well, barely ever. I have no idea why I bring it with me, but I do. I traveled around Australia for a month and the only thing scribbled in my journal are a few peoples names, email addresses and a few notes about hotels I made reservations at or flight confirmation numbers. Well, there might be one actual journal entry, but that is it. For a month, I backpacked around a country, carrying my entire world on my back, and I insisted on one of those items be a journal that barely wrote anything in. But like I said, no matter what trip i am on, it's almost a guaranteed bet that I will have a journal in one of my bags or tossed into the trunk of my car if I happen to be driving.

The other night I was having drinks with some people I know through work/school. I started talking to one of the girls about my last trip to Mexico and she made a comment that she's never been to Mexico. Actually the only place she's ever been is to Hawaii because her parents have a timeshare. THIS BAFFLED ME. I have friends who don't really travel, or who say they would like to "travel" but that means staying in an all inclusive resort where, besides the shuttle ride from the airport to their resort or cruise ship, they never see anything except what the resort wants them to see. I'll fully admit that traveling like that may be easy, it may be relaxing in many ways, and it may mean that you never come down with a case of Montezuma's Revenge from eating the local fair from the street vendor...

It also means that you may never eat the best strawberry ice cream you've ever had (somewhere in London) or play Dance Revolution with a bunch of 12 year olds in a Mexican arcade (so fun, take my word for it). You might never find those hidden hot springs down that deserted dirt road or the little 'tienda' that sells 24 bottles of Dos Equis for like 5 bucks. You might never have one of the most intense relationships you've ever had, even if it only lasted for 5 days. You might never make love on a beach. You might never skinny dip in the ocean full of bioluminescent plankton, on a night with no moon, making every movement of your body light up the water like the fireworks light up the sky on the 4th of July. You also might never get stung by a jellyfish swimming, or step on a sting ray while wading in the water, or sight a shark out of the corner of your eye while scuba diving. But even those moments (and even that case of Montezuma's Revenge) were worth every precious moment I've experienced while traveling.

I also understand that traveling (at least MY idea of traveling) isn't meant for everyone. I also get it that some people just could care less about seeing other parts of the world, but I still can't help but be baffled when someone says they don't have any desire to travel. It is something that fulfills my heart and soul so completely that I can't believe it doesn't do that for others.

What fills your heart and soul so completely that you are completely baffled when others don't feel the same way about it?

Scuba Diving in Cozumel, Quintano Roo, Mexico - Feb. 2008

A letter to my body

This is part of BlogHer's Letter's to My Body Initiative.
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Dear Body,

I know you've always been a little on the heavy side. I also know that it was never a problem until society's little judgemental ideals started getting implanted in my head. Or until hormones entered the scene and it seemed like the boys were only interested in the waspy thin girls. Either way, you know I love you. We have a passionate love affair that is comfortably carried out within the privacy of our home. We watch movies, we cook tasty meals and divine desserts that we enjoy without judgement, we make love, we sleep and we read to each other while cuddled up on the couch, watching the snow fall, warmed by a fire.

But I'm like a boy dating the girl that he knows his friends wouldn't approve of. I love you and feel confidant about you. Until we leave the front door, until we go to the bar for drinks or to the store to buy something nice. Then the judgemental thoughts start creeping in. I try to ignore them, but they are there. Insinuating that those skinny girls who just walked by were laughing about you. Or those guys were joking behind our backs about you. Or that the size-4 salesgirl at Lane Bryant isn't looking at your with that pitiful "I feel so sorry that you have to shop in the big-girls store, but if you just ate less, or exercised more, or..." look. I am sorry for this. How do you handle being bombarded with all of these negative comments about you? And how have you stuck by me when I haven't always held our ground against them?

I know that I blame you sometimes. I blame you that I am single, I blame you that THAT guy didn't like me. But I know it's not your fault, and I want to take this opportunity to apologize to you for placing that blame on you. I also want to apologize to you for treating you like the temple you are. You deserve to be feed the best food, given the opportunity to dance in the rain, or warm under a lover's touch, without feelings of guilt or embarrassment.

A while back, you may remember, we were out taking a walk. We were huffing and puffing our way to the top of a hill. I was cursing at you under my breath for not making that journey easier. When we got to the top of the hill, we ran into this lady who was so happy and blurted out to any person who would listen to her "Isn't it great? Isn't it great what your body can do for you? Isn't it great your body can bring you all the way up here to see this beautiful sight?" After that my mentality changed. And I hope that you have noticed it. Because it is true, you deserve all the credit in the world for carrying me to the tops of mountains, the depths of the sea, across Mexico, Australia and everywhere we've been in between! Without you, none of this would have been possible. And I thank you for that.

So I can only hope that you enjoy the time we spend together as much as I do. You are amazing and I thank you for carrying me through this thing called life.

Love,
Ginger

I'm making up for not posting by posting like a zillion times tonight...

I was tagged by Patty for this Book Meme. I, as well, LOVE books. Believe it or not, but I had more boxes of books when I moved into my condo than I did boxes of shoes. Hard to believe, I know!

Here are the Rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people & post a comment here once you post it to your blog, so I can come see.

First of all, I had a really hard time picking a book because the closest books were all on my ottoman and I had 6 books sitting there. Yes, 6 books sitting on my ottoman, all of which I have started reading, admittedly two of them were cookbooks (yes, I read cook books like I do novels).

But I choose Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho because is the only one that I have actually finished.

Page 123: "So, he was rich and single. They went into a hall from which a staircase ascended to the second floor, but they went straight ahead to the two rooms at the back that looked into the garden. There was a crowded dining table in one of the rooms, and the walls were crowded with painings."

I now tag: Dyan, Jen, Babba Unknown and any two other people who read my blog that I can't think of right now, it's too late for my to figure out who to tag.

Let's talk about me for a moment, shall we?

Jen tagged me for this meme, so here we go...

The game
A) Each player answers the questions about themselves. B) At the end of the post, the player then tags 2 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

By the way Jen, you did not leave me a comment on my page letting me know I was tagged, you're lucky I read your blog!

10 years ago:
I was 15 (holy shit that is young). I was a sophomore in high school. I was on the swim team and had my two best friends. We were awesome. I was probably slightly obsessed with boys (as all teenage girls are). Ummmm, is it a bad sign that I can't remember anything significant about my life as a 15 year old?

5 Things that were (are) on my “to-do” list for today:
1. Get up and go to work early. I obviously did not do!
2. Go to social hour after work. I did do this, obviously, it involved drinking.
3. Pick up my dog and 4) Pick up pizza from Shannon's doorstep. Done and Done
4. Put laundry away. Not done. Will not get done. As it has not gotten done the last 3 nights.

I Enjoy:
* Daydreaming
* Trying to justify quiting my job to open a bakery
* Playing with my dog
* Reading
* Sitting around watching it rain
* Staring at my pictures of my past vacations to cool places like Mexico, Australia and Hawaii

What would I do if I suddenly became a MILLIONAIRE?:

* Pay off my credit card debt (ha, that would bring me down to about half a mil...ok, just kidding, but not my much)
* Travel
* Quit my job
* Travel
* Open a bakery/deli
* Travel
* Buy another house with a yard for my dog, and rent out my condo
* Buy my sister and my parents a house
* Travel, have I mentioned that yet?

5 Jobs that I have had:

* Receptionist for my friend's parent's business
* Library assistant
* Field Technician
* Lab Technician
* Customer Service Manager

5 Things People Don’t know about me:

* I am not entirely sure I want kids anymore...but not entirely sure I don't want kids so all you mommies out there, don't give up on my yet.
* I prefer to travel by myself (well anyone how has traveled with me may have picked up on this one)
* I was named after a character on Gilligan's Island (the 3 hour tour, the 3 hour tour).
* I was almost a month old before I had a name
* I was born at home, by a doctor.

Ok, I now tag Dyan because she is new to this whole blogging thing and....ummm, another person who hasn't been tagged yet.

A little bit of randomness...

Do you ever wish that you were from another country just so you could speak English with an accent?

Or is this just me?

I mean, how cool would it be if I had a French accent and I could walk around saying my name with a french accent?

Good friends...

...are the kind of people (Shannon) who leave pizza (that Patty sent for her all the way from New York) on their doorstep because you wanted to try it and they just want to go to bed.

As weird as that is...

...and garlic knots...

(please, no comments about my horribly old and black cookie pan, I just can't throw it away)



...but I do have one request, shall we take a closer look at one of the garlic knots:



Next time, can I have ones that don't already have bites taken out of them?

The pizza is pretty good, but not the best I've ever had (I am such a pizza snob) but the garlic knots kicked ass! Thanks Patty, even though this wasn't intended for me.

I lost my mojo...or cook-jo..or whatever

I am a pretty decent cook. I mean, I enjoy my food, my friends enjoy my food, my parents enjoy my food. I've always been better at baking and making sweets than actually cooking but all in all, I'm a pretty good cook.

Not this fucking week. I seem to have lost my mojo in the kitchen because my meals this week have sucked ass. Tonight I tried to make steak and peppers with rice. I made this exact same dish like a week and a half ago. IT ROCKED LAST TIME I MADE IT! This time, umm, not so much. And I don't understand because I did everything exactly the same, but this time the steak was overcooked and tough, the sauce didn't taste quite right and, well, I ended up eating mostly rice with melted butter for dinner. Monday night I tried to make some rendition of chili-cheese burritos...they also sucked ass. Well, they were edible but by no means food I would feed to anybody except myself, and I threw away the leftovers because I couldn't imagine eating it again. UGGGGG, I am so frustrated because like I said, I'm normally a pretty good cook but I am totally off my game this week.

Maybe I should just bake cakes and cookies instead, who needs actual food for dinner? Chocolate cake for dinner anyone?

I know, I know

I suck! I promise I'll get my ass back into writing...

A little Saturday morning laughter...

I was searching Google for something and stumbled across the Rules of Mike's Place...thought I would share it with you guys because I found myself laughing hyterically to some of these rules, especially #14.

I am so weak...

First of all, I realize I have been totally MIA. I guess I haven't been in much of a blogging mood and haven't really had much to talk about. I've just been into laying low and not doing much (which is why my suitcase from my trip to Mexico still lies mostly unpacked in my spare room).

However, I thought I would share this 'a minute in the life of Ginger' moment. So lately I haven't been eating many sweets. For me this is out of the ordinary. I normally always have a little something sweet after dinner but I've been pretty good about, if I am full, not eating anything else. I've also been cooking and eating pretty good food since I got back from my trip. Today though...not so good.

I went to lunch about 2 hours ago. I went to a burrito place in town and polished off most of a very large burrito. After this I got in my car to go back to work and this INCREDIBLE craving for something sweet came over me. And not anything would do. All I wanted was a Chocolate glazed donut from Krispy Kreme...just one. So I drove like 20 minutes in the other direction from where I ate lunch to get this f-ing donut. Luckily I had plenty of time. TIME = TROUBLE. As I got closer, I also realized there was a frozen yogurt place and Marie Calendar's (i.e. COCONUT CREME PIE HEAVEN) right around the corner. I almost exploded because I was having this horrible sweet craving and was giving in to but couldn't make up my mind about what I wanted. I eventually went to Marie Calendars for a piece of pie. Only they are an evil company that decided that 1 slice of pie is $3.59+tax and this month AN ENTIRE PIE is $5.99+tax. SERIOUSLY FUCKERS I HATE YOU RIGHT NOW. So I fucking bought an entire coconut creme pie. WHY THE HELL DO I NEED AN ENTIRE PIE. I left MC feeling shameful and degraded because I just bought an entire pie. An entire pie that I theoretically could have shared with my office. But I am an evil pie obsessed person by this point in time and DO NOT want to share my pie. About halfway back to my office I realize that I didn't get a fucking fork. So now I have no way to eat ANY of my pie until I get home tonight, because remember, I don't want to share my pie so I therefore cannot bring it inside my office. So I might have found myself opening the lid to the pie box and sticking my finger in it to scoop out a little bit of coconut creme yumminess. Then I might have found myself doing it again. And again. And once more as I pulled into my parking lot. Now I have a pie hiding shamefully in the trunk of my car. That I realized I could bring with me for dessert because I am having dinner at Misguided Mommy's house tonight. I would just have to cut around the part that I stuck my fingers in. But that would bring me full cicle to the whole issue of having to share my pie. HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I SOOOOO SHOULD HAVE NOT BOUGHT THE PIE IN THE FIRST PLACE!?!

Welcome to my day today!

My vacation photos!

Ok, hopefully this works better...plus this way you guys get to see all of my pictures!

Although, mind you, that I am still learning how to use Flickr so bear with me!

www.flickr.com

If I can act like a pathetic, desperate single person for a moment...

First of all, I have completed accepted that Dog Park Guy does not like me (resentfully, but completely) but can I just linger on him for a moment? Of course I can, it's my blog! He really is an amazing guy. He is cute, and funny, and smart and is like the nicest guy I've met in a long time. I mean, he is the kind of guy that pulls over on the side of the highway to help a dog that got hit by a car and even after getting bit by said dog, proceeds to take the dog to a vet. He is the kind of guy that volunteers to spend his Saturday (mind you, his Saturday that ideally would probably be spent skiing on fresh powder) helping the community search for a missing girl. I mean really, what kind of guy does things like that?

Ok, I am done, I just needed to linger on the thought of him for a minute...agggg, I just wish he was smart enough to realize how much he's missing by not even giving me a shot!

My blog is possessed

Ok, I am trying to figured out what the F is going on with my blog because not only are the pictures from my vacation not showing up, the guest post by Misguided Mommy thinks it is the bomb and keeps 'reposting' itself everyday! I'll deal with this tonight so you all have to just sit and wait for a little bit longer to see my vacation pictures.

So late

Posted by: Misguided Mommy

So I was supposed to post something on Gingers blog, but fuck me if I haven't been busy and also just kinda run down and worn ragged. I look like I've been rode hard and put away wet. Wait, you know, that really doesn't even make sense to me. Someone really needs to explain that to me right now. Anyway I wanted to tell you something about Ginger. Did you all know she is a contagious laugher?

What this means is that if you laugh around her she is going to laugh. Now you may think most people are this way, but NOOOO they have nothing on her. For example. Lets say she is near me (I am a spontaneous continuous laugher) and I start telling a story. I have a habit of retelling a funny story and getting to the funny part and I start laughing right before. So I'll be like So this one time I hhahahahha omg this is so funny I went to the store hahahahah...ect, you get the point. Well as soon as she hears the first hahah she starts laughing. By the time I get to my full on this shit is funny hysterical laughing she is now laughing as hard as me. Okay well this poses a problem. You see, seeing Ginger laugh just busts me up and inevitably I start laughing even harder, which in turn passes to Ginger. I swear we pass laughter faster then high schoolers pass chlamydia. Before you know it we are in a fit of hysterics, me with tears streaming down my face and Ginger bright red, both bent over holding our bellies, when suddenly we both stop, and realize, WE HAVE NO CLUE WHY IN THE FUCK WE ARE LAUGHING. Yeah at that point we are only laughing because the other one was laughing.

Know what we do next? We sit there trying to remember why we started laughing, which, you guessed it, sets us off again. Now you are all sitting here right now thinking, wow Ginger and Shannon are a bunch of nerds. WE ARE! But in Gingers defense she is also kind of a contagious moronee (is that a word), meaning when she gets near me, my extreme nerdy moronism tends to smother her into becoming equally nerdy. Now, in large public places Ginger for the most part can maintain composure and look, umm adult. Me, not so much. However, when it's just her and I, well, lets just say it can get pretty ugly. We like to eat and make food. Now, considering her and I are pretty good cooks the stuff we come up with to eat is umm, not special. For instance nachos. Ahhh see this is where the nerdiness begins. We can actually spend a few hours arguing over whether chips with cheese on them are nachos (YES!) or just chps and cheese (NO!), and also, if macaroni and cheese is really in fact macaroni and cheese (YES!) or cheese noodles (NO!). We can go on and on. Then we will whip out a pack of instant chocolate pudding, whip it up and eat the whole mamajama in one sitting. She is also not opposed to cruising in public for sweet tasty treasures in her jammies with me. And has no problem just vegging out being lazy sons of bitches. I know you reading this saying, Shannon this isn't very nerdy, but dude, seriously people I have enough pride to not tell the good Shannon and Ginger stories (like the time we sat in my guest room with Katie all lined up practicing "freaking" that cool dance back then before a high school dance.), wait wait, not good enough for you? Maybe I should tell you that we were all wearing overalls and we all undid one strap of them (actually think they were overall shorts) then stood ass to umm fronts and commenced bending our knees shaking our hips left and right left and right in a totally non rhythmic disjointed utterly WHITE sort of way. Can I just tell you, IT WAS AWESOME! Oh hang on how about I set the mood, Montell Jordan's THIS IS HOW WE DO EEEEIT was playing in the background. Once we were done we switched on a little COTTON CANDY SWEET AS GOLD LET ME SEE THAT TOOTSIE ROLL and began practicing, to the left to the left, to the right to the right to the front to the front to the back to the back now dip baby dip, dip baby dip. Ooooooh yeah. We all realllly wanted to get the dipping part down. Alas it didn't work because that night while I was a freshman dancing with a couple hot seniors I distinctly remember Mike (who had amazing rhythm) saying, ooo how cute, look at her dancing like a white girl. I was crushed. All that practice and I got clowned on.

So in conclusion, Ginger laughs easily and whole heartedly, we are all total nerds and I still can't dance. Go ahead ask my husband.