I made bread! Who knew?

I’m not quite sure when the trend to make things became the “in” thing to do, I mean, I’ve been trying things for years. More often than not, I get bored or impatient quickly and drop whatever it is I’m trying to do. Then there are things like knitting, which started off as away to keep busy and became a huge part of my life.

One area I’ve never been able to master to my satisfaction is the kitchen. As long as a recipe is involved, or I’ve made a dish before, I can cook – and I’m not bad at it. I’ve always baked, and have felt comfortable with that skill, except for two things that eluded me: pie crust and bread. Today, I can cross bread off of the list. I have made bread. Bread that is not only edible, but that tastes just as it should.

It seems so simple to just run to the store and grab a loaf – and don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’m never going to do that again – but when one of my dearest friends started baking bread, I had to give it another shot. My first time making bread was from a mix and was like a rock, both in feel and taste. This time I decided to jump in with both feet and start from scratch. Everything about this was made by hand, as I don’t have a stand mixer anymore, and I was surprised at how it made me feel: calm, relaxed, resourceful, and powerful. It’s a simple wheat bread: dense, but not heavy. Ideal slathered with butter and eaten warm. I believe I’ll try and toast it and have a BLT.

So today I have made bread. It may not be a big deal to most people, but it is to me.

Eyes, lip… CHIN?!?!

Frida Kahlo was much harsher on herself in her self-portraits than in pictures taken of her.

Okay, without any scientific studies to back me up, I would assume that a good 80-85% of women worldwide wax (or shave) somewhere on their bodies. No, I’m not talking about “down there,” that’s another blog post. Or not. Whatever. Today, I’m talking about facial waxing.

Having the background that I do, it’s pretty obvious that any excess hair might be on the darker, more noticeable side. (KlassyMom is Latina and KlassyDad is Whitey McWhite, heh.) Now, unlike Frida Kahlo, if I stopped waxing/tweezing altogether, I would not have a unibrow or well defined mustache as in her self-portraits. (Thank goodness!) However, being the vain creature that I am, I don’t like my brows not being groomed.

I came to the waxing scene late – probably in my early 20′s – after having a makeover where the person giving me a new look suggested that I give it a try to “open up my eyes.” I didn’t believe her, but I gave it a shot and lo and behold, she was right. Once I discovered that, I wasn’t far from waxing the upper lip either. As I grow older, I notice the excess hair grows back quicker, is a bit darker – where I used to take care of things once a month or so, I now take care of the excess once every two weeks, when I get a manicure and pedicure.

So, last week I decided I needed a pedicure and to take care of my face. (No manicure because I have a hurt/wonky fingernail from the closing of the shop, so no manicures for a while.) I had a great pedicure and went in for the brow/lip wax. All was well, until after she was done with my brows and lip she asks, “your chin too?” Ummm, no. No. No. No. Do you see hair on my chin?! No. Soooo, that would mean NO. Of course I was much nicer in refusing her offer… but what the hell? You have to sign in for your services when you get there. If I don’t write it on the sign in form, I don’t want it. Period.

Now there may be some people out there who don’t understand the vanity… and I don’t expect y’all to. Hell, I have an agreement with my stylist (whom I’ve known since I was 12) that if she runs across grey hairs while I’m in her chair, to just take care of them, don’t even ask. She hasn’t had to deal with that yet, thankfully – the two that I’ve had, I found and took care of. Vain? Perhaps. Girly-girl? Definitely. Do I care that I am? No.

Either you have it or you don’t

Photo: mikefats

The luck of thrifting, that is. I’ve got friends who can hit up a Goodwill, a thrift store, wherever and come out of there with fab finds (in their size, no less).

Me, not so much. I walk into a thrift shop and only find crap. Crap that doesn’t fit me or if it does, is insanely unfashionable. Mostly tents. Or muumuus. I know that when I walk in, I’m immediately at a disadvantage, because I’m larger than the average girl. Not insanely fat, just larger. Apparently, people who donate their clothing don’t come in my size until they are middle aged. Which sucks.

Of course I could go and buy clothing full-price and not have to deal with any of it, however, when you’re preparing to go out for job interviews for the first time in 6 years with not much money, you try to economize. I currently work in retail and don’t really own anything “interview worthy.” I’ve been able to work in jeans and a t-shirt just about every day for 6 years. I used to own suits, forever ago. Even if I still had them, I wouldn’t be able to fit into them. (I don’t mean for this to sound so down… I am very comfortable with who I am/how I look, and while I am trying to lose some of the weight for me, that’s not going to happen overnight. Plus, I’ll need a new wardrobe while my body changes, and I’m just not willing to spend a whole hell of a lot on it until then.)

For those lucky thrifters out there, what works for you? What tips can you give to someone who doesn’t visit the stores as often or is not the typical size?

Who knew I’d like peace and quiet?

All my life I’ve been a “city girl.” I’ve always felt most at home, most comfortable in a big city – you could mention going to a rural place for a camping trip or getaway and I would have laughed in your face. After asking where the nearest mall, salon, etc. were. Don’t believe me? Ask my friend J. Have him tell you about the time that I turned into an über-bitch because we were staying at an EconoLodge instead of the Sheraton next door. (Well, to be honest, I was an über-bitch before that on that day – but I hadn’t eaten that day and was sunburned… plus, the EconoLodge? There were bugs in the bathroom. Ewwww. The Princess came out.)

So, where and when did the change in me happen? I guess as I get older, I’m mellowing… The Princess tends to not come out as often (and honestly, I’m glad about that). I love going camping – my kind of camping, not real camping by any stretch of the imagination (however, I did tell K this weekend that I’m not opposed to giving it a try. WTF? Heh.) – and the idea of a quiet, weekend away in a semi-rural area appealed to me for the 4th.

I’ve done the fireworks on the Mall, at Iwo, on the Potomac, and at about any other good location you can think of over the years, and all I wanted to do was get away from DC this year. When I told K about that, he came up with this idea. He knows someone who has a summer house in a quiet, artsy area, who was willing to let us have it for the weekend. I didn’t know that was what I wanted until K told me about it. It was exactly what we needed, because we both needed to get away. We got to spend some time with a friend we both know and other friends of his eating crabs and clams, drinking lots of beer (in my case, at least, as he was driving), got to the house and just relax. Our 4th consisted of a quiet night in, watching Wall Street on cable, eating sorbet on the porch while watching the wildlife play in the lake. Perfection.

A few years ago, I would have laughed at this being my idea of perfection, but thank God I’ve grown up. While I’ll always be a bit of a city girl, as long as it’s not that far of a drive, I think I could manage being on that porch, listening to nature, talking to my guy. Unfortunately, life intervened and we both had to come back to reality much sooner than we wanted… but we’ll always have that weekend.

Obvs, the previous post is password protected – if you had the password the last time, it’s the same. If not, just ask… you might get it, you might not.

Fair warning: it’s full of schmoopy-ness.

The drama free zone seemed to work! Woot!

Dear Drama,

I would like to thank you for taking the weekend off – or at least not coming down and joining us on our camping trip in a major way. I really appreciate that.

Thanks,

Klassy and Friends

Yes, all in all it was a drama free weekend, which was a good thing. Considering I started out the weekend in a mood (still not sure why), I don’t think I would have handled all sorts of drama well. (Though this weekend was an eye opener in that I think I know who passed along my blog. It wasn’t who I originally thought, but it makes sense now. Thanks for that.) Lots of drinking, fun, dancing, drinking was had and even a wedding! I know at some point on both Friday and Saturday nights I toasted to this being a “No Bad Decisions Revolution” – and I stuck to that.  Woot! Was interrogated about K (a fair few of the people there are friends of mine on FB) and asked why he wasn’t there, promises were made to bring him down to meet some of my friends down that way at some point. Heh.

A great weekend had, can’t wait to do it again next year! Thanks to all the peeps who worked so hard to put it on (and kept the assholes from joining us)… Love you all! xo

Wait, I have a chance??

Okay, I will be the first to admit that I have an unusual love for Al Gore. I have since the 1992 election. While I think that Tipper may have gone through a wackadoo phase with the PMRC in the 80′s, I really did think that the Gores had a beautiful relationship. So when I was reading yesterday on the gossip blogs (then on CNN) that they were separating after 40 years of marriage, I was saddened.

I’ll admit, though, that there was a minute that the thought “hey, I have a chance!” went through my mind… fleetingly, since I know that I am definitely not green enough for him, so we’d just have to be a fling. Especially since Crazy Aunt Purl has picked out their china (fiesta ware). She might hurt me if I stole him away. Though I’d like to give it a try. Tennessee is beautiful, if a bit rural. Heh.

The doctor is in?

When I took this job, I really didn’t know how much of it would be listening to people’s problems. Not that that is a bad thing, necessarily, I just didn’t think I’d have to listen to problems most people wouldn’t tell a stranger. Or at least things I wouldn’t tell a stranger – or a person in a store that I sorta know, but not really.

I mean, I can’t even sort out my own problems and strangers want to tell me theirs and ask for advice? Weird. Hell, I only give actual advice to friends that I know well – and only if they ask. Opinions, hell yes, I’ll give those to strangers, but advice? Nope.

I shouldn’t be surprised in this age of oversharing – I mean, yes, I do my own fair share of it here and on my Twitter (—> hell, I share that on here too, though it’s not all that exciting lately), but I do it semi-anonymously, at least. When I’m face to face with someone, unless they’re a friend, I feel really uncomfortable when they start telling me about their marital issues… or about their spouses (live or dead)… or about health issues… and lately, I’ve had tons of people come in and do just that. I’m beginning to think that there’s a sign somewhere in the DC area saying “hey, if you have a problem/issue, go to ____ and talk to _____. She’ll listen.”

Today’s woman came in around 1:30ish and stayed till I closed (and then some – since she was in the class I was teaching that night)… 6.5 hours… There were tears, there was oversharing, there were icky bare feet on a table (a pet peeve of mine, in public at least – I don’t care what you do at home, hell, I put my feet on my coffee table all the damn time, but in public?)…

Perhaps I should just hang a shingle out on the door and start advertising “PSYCHIATRIC HELP, $20. THE DOCTOR IS IN.” (I figure that with inflation, $20 is equivalent to Lucy’s 5¢, right?)

Who you gonna call?

Full of awesome. The fact that the New York Public Library donated the space for this to raise awareness to their budget cuts is absolute genius. LOVE.

RIP Caps 2009-2010 Season

Dear Caps,

Oh dear.  I’m actually really glad I didn’t get to see that game because I just knew y’all would break my heart.  We had one hell of a season, we won the President’s Cup for crissakes, and we blew it all in Round 1.  This was a round we shouldn’t have lost.  This was a round that should never have gotten to a Game 7.  We shouldn’t have to be mourning our loss at a shot a the Cup, we should be prepping for a game against Boston.  But here we are.

I won’t say a thing against the Habs – they outplayed us.  We gave them the chance to outplay us.  We weren’t doing what we needed to do – actually concentrate on and play the game.  (Yes, I’m looking at you Greenie… and Ovi… and Moose (Knubs)… and really, the entire team.)  We gave them the chance to exploit our weakness and crush us with it.  How can I get mad at a team that took a chance we gave them?  On a silver platter, no less?

Listen guys, I still love y’all.  I’ll be there, in the phone booth, cheering loud and proud for y’all in the Fall, with a freshly washed jersey.  But I’ll be finishing off this hockey season cheering on the Blackhawks, as there’s just no other team in the East that I want to get the Cup.  Even so, there’s an emptiness inside of me, knowing what we could have done.

Take the rest of the Summer and relax guys, we will expect a hell of a lot from you next season.

XOXO,
Me