2010: My first full year out of school, in DC, and so much more!

Oh, hello!

I am terrible about updating this thing (as I have mentioned every few months when I go to update it...). Well! A lot has happened in the past year. My lovey-dovey Jessa Havican did a year-in-review post, and I think I may just follow suit!


January 2010:
Chris had just broken his leg (d'oh!) and there was a terrible blizzard in DC. We spent the entire month, pretty much, trapped in my apartment. We watched a lot of West Wing, though. I also got to fly home and be a bridesmaid in a different lovey-dovey's wedding. Kristen's wedding was wonderful, and I was so happy to be there for her special day!























February 2010:
Chris and I took our first trip to VEGAS! We came back unmarried, with most of our money, and no serious injuries--I'd call it a success.



















March 2010:
Work really started to pick up. In my line of work it's important to have the bulk of your fundraising done by March of the election year so the candidates can actually spend the money. I spent a good deal of time in the office. I had never sat in an office working for 14 hours straight, but I did it!

April 2010 - June 2010:
More fundraising. Work, work, work! Between March and June I didn't take a single day off. Not so exciting. I was averaging 60 hour work weeks (at least). It was exhausting, but I seriously believe that we were made for work and we're happiest when we're doing just that.

However, Chris's leg was better and the blood clot was completely gone by June. That made our lives quite a bit better.















July 2010:
I got to go home for the Fourth of July! Seeing my parents always makes me so happy. I got to just hang out at home with the family (which I hadn't really done in almost a year). I didn't even tell my friends I was in town. It was fantastic. My mom and I drank wine, went shopping, and I got to see my daddy and brother and sister and grandparents. So much love!

Later that month Chris and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary as a couple (our anniversary is actually in August) by taking a long weekend in the Outer Banks. It was glorious. We stayed beachfront, played in the water, ate lots of Southern cookin', and climbed to the top of a lighthouse. We also drank a bottle of champagne at 5AM to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean together (something neither of us had ever done).



August 2010:
I turned 23. Ugh.

September 2010:
Work got even crazier. I would full out take naps at the office afterhours so I could work extra late. I had interviewed a girl I thought would be perfect for the intern position in our office. My bosses agrees so heartily that they hired her as our staff assistant! She made my life so much easier. Thank the Lord for Lida!

October 2010:
Things calmed down a lot. There wasn't a lot more to do work-wise. Chris was out of town for most of the month, which was a serious bummer to me. However, I danced on a bar for the first time on Halloween (WIN!).
























November 2010:
November 2nd. Best. Night. Ever.


















December 2010:
Chris and I took a 2 week trip to Nicaragua where we hiked a volcano, ziplined through the canopy, fed monkeys, ate local cuisine, went horseback riding, and all other sorts of craziness. It was phenomenal. I feel so blessed to have the ability to travel with the man I love all over the world (well, hopefully all over the world--SOON!)




If 2011 can be half as interesting as 2010 I will be happy! I hope to travel more, maybe watch what I eat (gave up on weight--but I eat too much junk), get even better about my finances (thinking about a house...), and celebrate 4 years with my man! Professionally, I think this is going to be a great year for me. I've worked really hard, and I intend to keep it that way!

Things I'm Terrible At:

1. Blogging.

That's about it.

However, life is definitely interesting! Election year is in full swing. I pretty much just want to crawl in bed everyday. And eat pizza. And drink a bottle of wine. In that order.

Well, Congress is in recess and it's 6pm so I am going home at a reasonable hour. Later Gators!

Transitioning Into Grown-Updom: Making up my own recipes!

If you know me, you know I love to eat. If you're with me a lot, you know I love to eat junk food. However, fried is just not something this California girl can do everyday. So, I've been trying to figure out how to get my junk food fix with good food nutrition.

Here is a little recipe I came up with that I am in LOVE with and feeds two people (because most people our age are not cooking for a family).

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients:
-2 thawed chicken breasts
-Any spice mixture you like (I use 2 parts garlic, 1 part salt, 1 part pepper, 1 part cayenne pepper, 1 part thyme)
-Pre-made bread crumbs (you can get them at Safeway for $2 and they'll last you forever)
-3 tsps olive oil

Instructions:
1. Mix the bread crumbs and spices in a small bowl
2. Pour the olive oil into a separate bowl
3. Cut up the chicken breasts into bite size pieces
4. Put the chicken into the olive oil and coat
5. Move the chicken from the olive oil into the bread crumb mixture
6. Stick on a cookie sheet and broil for 8 minutes.

Ta-da! It's a grown-up version of a kid meal. If you want, take boiled green beans and dry them off (I'm talking super dry). They are the perfect french-fry substitute (and even taste OK dipped in ketchup)!

*Other ideas for spicing up your nuggets*
-Instead of olive oil use teryaki sauce; don't spice the bread crumbs
-Chili pepper, salt, pepper, garlic
-Garlic
-Rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper, oregano
-Instead of olive oil use hot sauce; don't spice the bread crumbs


Let me know if you try it and tell me what you think.

Transitioning Into Grown-Updom: Not disappearing

I was going to blog about this, but work got too busy. I will just put in tags for all the things that I would like right now.

Transitioning Into Grown-Updom: Prioritizing

1. Work
2. Diet
3. Beef
4. Social Life
5. Oh lord, I was supposed to go to sleep!

That is my life. I am learning to prioritize, and it is hard! I am trying not to be a workaholic, but it is addicting. I got my first pay check last week and all it made me want to do was work harder so there would be a possibility of a raise in a few months.

I am also trying to diet. I put on weight in college (we all put on weight in college, I know), and now I am trying to cut calories on the run. Salad seems to be the easiest way to do this, but if you know me you know I hate salad. Ugh. Life is difficult. However, hundred calorie packs of cookies and Oreo candy bites save me.

Boyfriend. Yes. I have one. We are both so exhausted all the time, though, and by the time work is over all we want to do is sit on the couch. However we both want:

A social life. Trying. E-mail is my social life. Gchat is my social life. I try to be good and see my friends, but being a grown-up with work and saving money gets in the way. Thank goodness for happy hour.

And sleep. I try. However, by the time I get to bed my head is swimming and I wake up with all of the things I have going on. I remember that I should have exercised, should have called my mom, should have skipped that PB&J burrito (don't ask), should have done laundry, should have skipped watching the Disney Channel for 3 straight hours, should have e-mailed so-n-so for work...

I want a vacation. Can't wait for Christmas and then January when one of my favorites has her special day. Can't wait. CANNOT WAIT!

However, to negate all of the things that I have decided come with being a grown-up I had a cupcake on Sunday. A Georgetown Cupcake cupcake. Jealous.

Transitioning Into Grown-Updom: Cooking

For about half of my college career (the second half--I did things backwards) I lived with my parents. My mother, being the mommy type mother that she is, would always cook dinner for us, pick something up for us, or take us out to eat. If not, she would prepare everything and then have us stick something in the oven. Now that I am on my own, I am finding that eating out all the time is not only fiscally irresponsible, but just plain bad for me. This brings me into my first big transition into grown-updom: cooking for myself.

How does a girl who never cooked start cooking for herself? Google . After typing "recipes" into Google, I found a wonderful website: allrecipes.com. You can type in ingredients (cilantro everything!) and find super easy recipes. My favorite, right now, is this spicy chicken recipe. [To my beef's dismay] I have started putting the spice mix on everything. The chicken is excellent in salads (and if you know me, you know I hate salad). Fabulous.

Being unemployed is apparently excellent for my coo

king skills. I sit around and cook all day. I even had a dinner party one night. Look at me! Last night, I even invented a recipe. I was kind of excited. It reminded me of the movie Waitress and how she always invented pies (mostly 'cause I insisted on using the word "invented"). Anyway, I will share my hamburger recipe with you. It was spicy (like me?), so beware.

Spicy LG Burger:

-1 lb ground turkey (I use turkey, because the only beef in my life is Christopher)

-1/2 red bell pepper

-1/2 onion

-1/2 tbsp chili powder

-1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper

-1 tbsp paprika

-1/2 cup fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Mix it all together.

2. Form into patties (5 medium or 4 large)

.

3. Broil for 16-18 minutes.

Easy Peasy. They taste great with ranch dressing instead of ketchup and mustard. We used a jalapeno ranch dressing (Safeway brand), and I thought they were yummy. 

The best part about learning to cook is that a few ingredients will cost a lot and last forever; an initial investment, if you will. Those initial investments, of course, are your spices. It may seem ridiculous to spend $5 on such a little jar, but with $15 worth of spices you can have way more tacos than with $15 worth of Taco Bell tacos. Also, if you're trying to go low fat, ground turkey is about equal to ground beef with much le

ss fat. If you are a one or two person household who seems to have veggies go bad all the time--plan out your menu OR go to the store day of. Going to the store day of has saved me the usual $5 of veggies I let spoil a week. 

This has been my first post about truly trying to become an adult. I've got a few other ideas pending to let you know what I'm up to (and hopeful

ly help someone else who is trying to do the same thing). I love you all!!!

Life without a rice cooker

Reasons I Don't Like Being a Real Adult:

5. The AC flooded my room.

4. My room is flooded and my mom can't call a plumber to clean it up.

3. My room is flooded.

2. My room smells like a moldy dog because it is flooded.

1. I have as much freedom as before, but less money.

Reasons I Like Being an Adult:

5. I ate too many nachos at Nellie's.

4. Someday, my room will not smell like mold.

3. I get to go to luncheons with congressmen.

2. Coryn rolled down a hill.

1. Zac Efron is of age.

I saw Aretha Franklin perform for the Fourth of July festivities on the West Lawn. I almost cried. I am way too flamboyant. I couldn't help it. She started singing "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" and I almost broke down. Saw a little Barry Manilo, too. He wore a white blazer. Of course.

I've been listening to such mellow music lately. I think it's mostly because my room smells like dog and otherwise I couldn't sleep. It is awful. Someone killed a dog and buried him in my carpet. My bedroom is gorgeous and amazing (covered in flowers and pink things) and flooded. It's like God gets a kick out of my dramatic, flamboyant nature.

Still no job. Being a slave has its perks. No taxes, for example. Also a perk: haven't had a mosquito bite in almost a week! I kill every mosquito I see. I think they know that I have declared war on their kind, and this war does not need congressional approval.

I love you all. I will try to keep you updated. Sorry for the lack of wit. I am tired and moldy.

So close but so...nope Just close!

With fewer than twenty pages to write and fewer than six days to go, I finally feel like I'm about to graduate. I'm having a hard time deciding whether I'm excited or terrified. Instead, I've decided to indulge myself with movies based on Jane Austin novels or parodies of said novels. I feel as if I'm learning more life lessons from my Austin based endeavors than from any of my text books. I've learned that secret engagements make everyone mad, men that are brunettes are always the best ones, and you should always marry the first man you fall in love with days after realizing you're in love with him. Also, there is nothing better than a double wedding or a horse drawn carriage. 

I have also found that a bag of Doritos is infinitely better than the gym. Men: start loving the flab, because I am packing it on. This brings me back to the Jane Austin parodies--if Bridget Jones has taught me anything, it's that I can eat Doritos and still get Colin Firth. 

Get excited! It's graduate time!