Happy New Year!

I have officially not cooked anything since Christmas.

And I probably won't be cooking anything for a while, since as of Wednesday I'll be officially homeless and in the process of moving to Seattle.

But that's okay, because I'll have plenty of road adventures to write about. Friday I had a last lunch with a friend; it was my last chance to eat East Coast oysters, so I ate 37 of them (mostly Wellfleets), had two glasses of gruner veltliner, and finished off with a shot of Cynar. It was a good lunch.

Otherwise, I've been working all week. I'm working tonight, and all day tomorrow, and then Wednesday morning I'll get up and drive to DC. I'll spend the night there with friends, and continue on to my parents' house in Virginia on Thursday, where I'll be off the grid for a few days (no internet, no cell reception, no cable). I'll see my friends there, say goodbye to everyone, and then continue on to Missouri, where I'll finally be reunited with my husband.

So, in the meantime: Happy New Year! Eat some oysters.

Christmas 2012

...was bittersweet, compared to past Christmases. No family, no husband, no traveling to see either. Instead, I spent it with a few friends. I saw the new Quentin Tarantino movie (which was fun, actually, I'd never seen a movie on Christmas before), and cooked a small feast for some people. Good food, good wine, still not the same as being with my husband and family. I missed them way more than I thought I would (which was a lot).

But I'm on my last week of work, which means that this time next week, I'll be reunited with my cats in Virginia; a week or so after that, with my husband in Missouri; and a few days after that, we'll finally be on our way to Seattle!

I'm done

For the last month, I've been in a holding pattern. Done with packing, stuff is gone, but still working. Still not quite to the driving-across-country-and-looking-for-jobs part. For a while, that felt right. I can't explain it, except to say that somehow I needed a buffer zone. I was partially excited about the prospect of Seattle, but also partially stunned by the idea of leaving a perfectly good job, one that I enjoy and do well.

Well, now I'm done. I'm ready to go.

Sometime last night, I turned a mental corner while at work, and I stopped in the middle of what I was doing and thought, "Okay, I'm done. Time to get this show on the road." I want to see my husband and cats again, I want to see some Western scenery (preferably without snow on the roads), I want to be in our new city. I've been a little afraid of getting there, of not finding a job or an affordable apartment or breaking down in a snowstorm in Idaho and having to eat the cats to survive, but now the stasis is worse than the unknown.

And isn't that always the tipping point in my life? When the stasis becomes worse than the unknown?

So, Merry Christmas, everyone. All I want for Christmas is to see my husband and cats again, and then a road sign that says, "Welcome to Seattle!"

Giant beers, for the end of the world

The world didn't end yesterday. But is anyone surprised by that?

It made for a good excuse to drink a lot of beer, though. Thursday night, after work, my coworkers and I plowed through a collective 10 or 12 liters of fine Belgian beer. A six-liter bottle, a three-liter bottle, a magnum, and a few regular-size bottles.

Pouring an almost three-foot-tall bottle of beer is heavy, by the way.

Not much else to report. I continue to work all the time, and suffer from air-mattress-induced back pain. But I only have a week and a half left of both. A week from Wednesday, I'll be driving to Virginia, to officially kick off the moving part of this move. I miss my husband. I miss my cats. I worry about driving a Prius containing my husband and my cats across the Rockies in January. You know, the usual.

Pig head

The other night, I ate a pig head.

And it was one of the top 5 most delicious things I've ever put in my mouth.

A little backstory: Since I've got less than two weeks left there (eep!), I feel it's safe to disclose that I work at Craigie on Main, Boston's finest restaurant. One of their specialties is the pig head. Remember the pig head I had in Montreal? Naturally, I couldn't leave town without experiencing Craigie's fabled pig head.

I got some friends together and I went in on my night off. We got octopus, terrines, and pig tails to start; then the pig head and bone marrow; then the cheese plate and beignets for dessert. (We also had a lot of cocktails.)

Here's the thing about pig head: if you can get past the concept of digging your fork into a pig's face, it tastes amazing. It's fatty, meltingly tender, and the skin is super-crispy. Craigie serves it Peking duck-style, with pancakes, a boudin noir-hoisin sauce, and a spicy pumpkin sambal. The pancakes and sauces help cut the fat of the pork a little, which then means you can just shovel it into your face at a faster rate.

Here's the other thing about pig head: the whole thing is edible. The cheek, the eye, the snout, the ear. Everything. Cheek: fattiest part. Ear: like a great big pork rind. Eye: like a big gob of pork fat butter. I'm serious. I ate the eye and it was the best part of the whole thing. We stripped that thing down to the bone.

Not to discount the pig tails: like fattier ribs.

But I'm not used to eating so much rich, fatty food in one sitting, so yesterday I was suffering from a bit of a pork hangover (in addition to the regular kind of hangover). Which is why I didn't get around to blogging about it until today.

So, don't be scared. Eat the pig head. You'll be glad you did.

And feel free to use that as a metaphor for life, as well.

Updates

Not a lot going on these days. Working a lot, not cooking really at all, trying to work the kinks out of my back and neck from prolonged sleeping on an air mattress. I got my Christmas shopping done, though there wasn't much to begin with. I've also begun laying in a stockpile of bomb-ass wine from work, stuff that I fear will be difficult to find on the West Coast.

My temporary roommate and I are planning an Orphans' Christmas Day dinner, for people without familial obligations that day. It won't be a fancy dinner--I suspect it won't be any more complicated than roast chicken--but it will be a good excuse to drink some of that bomb-ass wine.

Hug your loved ones today. After yesterday's tragedy, compounded with the news that a very dear friend's marriage is on the rocks, I really really want to hug my hubby. He's very far away today.

Goodbye, NYC

I spent yesterday saying goodbye to my friends in NYC.

We ate a lot of food, drank a lot of drinks, and laughed a lot more. I also purchased a couple of hard-to-find food items, saw an Olafur Eliasson exhibit, and frittered away part of the afternoon at Pastis, drinking wine and eating pate (and reading a book).

I still love the bustle of NYC, even though I haven't lived there in over three years. But I'm sure exploring Seattle will be equally exciting.

Out with friends

Last night some friends and I went to a local charcuterie and cheese place. I realized about halfway through the evening that it would be a while before I'd get to enjoy that level of camaraderie again. All day yesterday, I had friends texting me--"Now that you're in the city, we can hang out!"--and eventually I overcame my day-off inertia and met them. When the restaurant found out we were all in the industry, they showered us with free food. We ate non-stop for four hours, plowed through three bottles of wine (between four people) and still only paid about $75 apiece for everything.

It was outstanding. The free food, of course, but also the company, the wine, the atmosphere. It will take a few weeks in Seattle to find a job and an apartment, to get settled, to make friends, to get to the point where I'll have people to go out with (and disposable income to spend), and even longer before other local restaurants start sending over freebies. Maybe this is the universe telling me, "Why are you staying at home this month, when you have no husband and are sleeping on an air mattress? Seize the day! Go out with your friends while you still can!"

And on Thursday, I'll get to do that in NYC. One last time.

First day off, sans husband and cats

Random observations from this first weekend and day off, without my husband, my cats, or my apartment/stuff:

1. Sleeping on an air mattress sucks. SUCKS. I put a twin air mattress on top of the queen, to see if that would be any better. It's like 11% better. Very slightly, but not enough for me to get any kind of quality sleep. I'm going to be all knotted up and totally bitchy by the end of the month.

2. It's lovely not having to drive an hour each way to work anymore. But then, I have nothing to come home to, really. And it's not like I can get additional sleep, on an air mattress. I may have to start pretending I'm in college again: sleeping on the floor, no furniture, going out with work friends until all hours.

3. I'll be working, a lot.

4. I'm spending this first day off since the move quietly. Cooking (a big batch of tomato sauce and a veal and potato soup), editing scripts, reading. I may meet up with some friends later. I may sit on my ass all day. I'm making it up as I go along.

5. I miss my hubby. I get home from work now at a reasonable hour, ready to talk and hang out (instead of just fall instantly asleep), but there's no one to do it with. I hope he's having fun with his family.

And we're off!

We're one step closer to Seattle. The Providence apartment is officially history, our stuff is en route to Washington, my hubs is on his way to Missouri, and I'm spending the month with a friend in Boston. Now all that's left to do in this move is work all month long, save all my money, and drive out to Seattle in January. (And then find jobs and an apartment, but first things first.)

My new quarters are a bit sparse. I'm sleeping on an air mattress, using borrowed sheets, sitting on a folding camp chair, and stacking a few books on the floor. My kitchen remnants are here; whatever I don't use in the next month will revert to my friend when I leave. I'll be working all the time--December is an exceptionally lucrative month for those in the food industry--so I won't be cooking very much that's exciting. Lots of soup, pasta, beans, oatmeal, eggs. You know, the usual.

It's been a physically grueling week, and the prospect of spending five weeks apart from my husband during the holidays is not especially appealing. But for now, I'm going to fix a big batch of oatmeal, drink some more tea, and enjoy not having to think about packing.

It's done!

We are officially completely packed and loaded. I am officially exhausted and sore.

Long story short, we managed to completely fill our one 6 x 7 x 8' cube. We did have to jettison some things I'd hope to fit: the microwave, the vacuum, and most alarmingly, my grandmother's antique mahogany dining room chairs. It was a grueling two days of carrying boxes down twisty stairways, setting them down outside, and then rearranging all the already-loaded boxes for maximum space efficiency. The snow and rain yesterday didn't help any.

UPack will collect our cube today, and it will magically reappear at our (currently unknown) doorstep in Seattle, roughly two months from now. Tomorrow we'll meet the landlord, turn over the keys, and start the next chapter of this saga.

It's very disconcerting living in an empty apartment. We're sleeping on an air mattress, sitting on the floor, and watching movies on our laptops. We went to a last dinner at Cook & Brown, where I used to work, and spent the evening nibbling and drinking. It was our last night together until January.

The loading begins!

 The loading begins today!

Once our UPack container arrives, we'll begin the process of the physical move--loading it with all our packed boxes and what little furniture remains. Then UPack will take it away again and transport it to Seattle. I'll take a few belongings on to my friend's apartment in Boston, my hubs will fly out to the Midwest, and we'll begin the process of waiting out the holidays. I'll work my butt off, make lots of money, and we'll start driving to Seattle after the New Year.

Oh, and I'm working all this week, so the next few days will be particularly hectic. I'll keep everyone posted!

Thanksgiving recap

It was a low-key holiday for us. I got to see all my siblings and their kids, and spend some quality time relaxing in the countryside. Enforced relaxation--my parents have no internet, no cell phone reception, and no cable. Not even a daily newspaper.

"Thanksgiving dinner" was really just dinner. There was no turkey, no stuffing. We had venison loin, rolls, cranberry sauce, and other things, but it wasn't a big deal. We deposited a bunch of stuff in my parents' garage for long-term storage, gave them custody of the cats for the holidays, and spent our time hanging out with all the kids.

Who were loud. I don't know why a full military is required anymore; if you rounded up all the nation's two-year-olds and set them loose on the enemy, they would spew a trail of destruction greater than any war machine. And deafen everyone in the process. Don't get me wrong, my nieces and nephew are the cutest kids ever. But my goodness, when the three of them are all fussy at once, I wanted to hide under the bed along with my cats.

Still, it was good to see everyone. I won't see my sister and her family again for a while. I drank an entire bottle of extremely delicious Grand Cru burgundy, all by myself. I slept at least 8 (and sometimes 10) hours a night. I ate a lot of homecooked food.

Now we start the packing; by this time next week, all our stuff will be in transit and my hubs will be in the Midwest with his family. This is the calm before the storm.

Packing is done!

Oh my goodness, has it been a week since my last post? I'm so boring these days.

But I managed to finish packing. So we're packed. I finally replaced my POS laptop (goodbye, 2006 technology!) with a brand-new POS. I've spent the last couple of days getting the new one situated, transferring files, etc. Transferring a 20,000-song iTunes library is a giant pain in the ass, by the way. We took a moment to see the new James Bond movie, courtesy of a birthday Fandango gift card.

So now that we're packed, it's just dealing with moving administrivia, and prepping to spend Thanksgiving with the fam in Virginia. It'll be my only holiday celebration this year, since I'll be working all through Christmas and New Year's.

I'm starting to get a wee bit excited about moving, now that the packing is done. Once our stuff is away, I suspect I'll be even more excited. We all know how much I love cross-country driving; visions of the Rockies, Utah, and long open highways are dancing in my head.

Birthday!

I had a good birthday. (Especially good when you consider that last year, I worked a double on my birthday. And got fired.) 37 is not an important birthday, but it's my first that made me want to cringe.

Nevertheless, it was well spent. Hubs and I attended a wine class with my coworkers, and we drank a crap-ton of delicious Loire Valley whites. Then we had dinner at Eastern Standard, where we consumed a magnum of bubbly, two excellent bottles of red, a bottle of Lambrusco, and after-dinner drinks. (I also ate many delectable Wellfleet oysters, fried sweetbreads, a charcuterie plate, a bowl of mussels, and a butterscotch bread pudding.) The management showered us with free stuff, since we were all industry, and good times were had by all.

The next day I paid for it, with a fiercesome hangover. Voting was a shitshow--I've never been part of such a shoddily organized, shoddily run voting system. Up yours, Rhode Island. No wonder we're so anxious to get out of here. It took us two hours, but we finally managed to vote. Being both hungover and frustrated as hell from that, we got into a wicked fight later that night, even as we were vastly relieved at the voting outcome.

Then, of course, the very next day, New England got hammered with a nor'easter. I had to drive home through a snowstorm--a snowstorm! In early November!--which left us with three inches of snow and 50-mph wind gusts. My 55-minute commute stretched to an hour and forty minutes; the interstates were mostly clear, but I didn't go above 50 mph, for fear of hitting black ice.

So the high point was my birthday. The rest of the week since then has been kind of a wash. But we're getting closer to being fully packed, and at least my Facebook feed is no longer full of political commentary.

Packing

Happy belated Halloween, everyone. I worked, and packed. I hope everyone rode out the storm okay--we didn't have any damage, and managed to keep our power on the whole time.

I'm just heartsick about the pictures coming out of NYC, though. I think all my friends are okay, but NYC was the first (and only, really) city I ever loved. And my home for ten years. I was thinking about going into the city for a day next week for my birthday, but I think I'll put that idea on hold for a couple of weeks. Driving an hour each way to work every day is a serious pain in the ass, but the transit system in New York is in a clusterfuck of epic proportions. I'm glad I'm not dealing with that right now. My heart goes out to those of you who are.

We've been packing, and selling things we're not taking, and packing some more. I may be able to get everyone into the one shipping container, but I'll have to jettison some things and do some creative packing. I think I'll visit my folks in Virginia for Thanksgiving, and take them a load of stuff to store for me.

In the meantime, more of the same. Packing, eating up what's left in the pantry, selling things on craigslist. Rinse and repeat.

We sold our Camry

Goodbye, first jointly owned car!

We sold the Camry in anticipation of our upcoming cross-country move; the Prius gets such good gas mileage, that it's become our primary vehicle. The Camry was handy when we were both commuting to work, but with one of us unemployed, it's sat largely untouched in our driveway for six months. Rather than have to deal with getting two cars cross-country, we decided to sell it. If we need a second car in Seattle, we can purchase one there.

We took the easy way out: we simply returned it to the dealership. No, it wasn't a lease. Dealerships will buy a car directly off you, without it being a trade-in. We made an appointment at the nearest Toyota dealership, and brought it in. They looked it over, and offered to buy it back for what we still owed on the loan. Some minimal paperwork later, and we walked off the lot sans one car and one car payment. The whole process, from start to finish, took about an hour.

Now, if the dealership had not offered us what we still owed, I would have then taken the car to Carmax, to see what they would offer, and then listed it on Craigslist to see what the private market would bear.

It's easier than you think to sell a car you don't technically own, especially if it's not to a private buyer. The blue book value was about $2,000 more than what we owed; it's possible I could have made a profit, especially if I'd shopped it around a little, but I have enough to worry about with this move. I don't have to make a car payment on it anymore, which is all I really cared about.

That same day, I returned the plates to my nearest AAA office (they can do simple things like cancelling plates, saving me most of a day waiting in line at the DMV), got them cancelled and got a refund on the registration, removed the car from our insurance policy (did that online, took 5 minutes, saved $60 a month), and returned the EZ-Pass box.

I think I spent more time and energy selling the sofa.

It's official: we're moving

Seattle, here we come!

Send beer and raincoats.

I have officially informed our landlord and my work. We've reserved a cube from UPack for the dirty business of getting our stuff from here to there (bonus: no one has to drive a moving truck across the Rockies in January, AND IT'S CHEAPER. Let's just hope we can keep everything to one cube), we've started culling and packing, and we'll sell off the rest of the furniture and one car.

We sold the sofa yesterday. Our living room is a little bare.

We're also drinking up the last of the random weird things in the liquor cabinet, eating up all the random oils and vinegars and spices in the pantry, and setting aside some things to live in my parents' garage for a bit. Until we move back to the East Coast again, anyway, which based on recent history, will probably be next year.

I think I'm excited. Right now my brain is full of everything that has to happen between now and then, and of course I'm worried about money and how quickly at least one of us will be able to find a job out there. But I really liked Seattle when I went through on the road trip, and Hubs is very much looking forward to getting out of here.

Everyone, keep your fingers crossed.

Seattle: discuss.

We're considering a cold restart in Seattle. Discuss.

DH is still unemployed, and there isn't anything exciting on the horizon. He's been flirting with a major depression for weeks, and I've been throwing out ideas in the hopes that he would latch onto one. (What if you started a business? What if we moved to LA, to be closer to your son? What if we moved in with your sister? Etc.) But nothing stuck, and so we found ourselves in this infuriating limbo; in a city that neither of us ever wanted to be in, just waiting for the next shoe to drop.

Finally I sat him down and said, "Look. Let's start from the worst case scenario, which is that you could be unemployed for another year. Or two. Hopefully not, but given that, where do you want to be? We can't sit here for the next year; you're miserable, I'm miserable commuting an hour each way to work, I'm snappy and stressed out, if we stay here we'll kill each other. So let's put some ideas on the table, debate the pros and cons, and see what floats to the top."

So we did. The logical starting point was to move to Boston, so I could be closer to my job. But neither of us particularly like New England, and while I like my job, it's not enough to hold two people here. Besides, if we're going to move, it might as well be to a place where we both could get work.

Eventually, Seattle floated to the top.

Pros: We could both get excellent jobs there. It's a great city. DH has lived there before and loved it, and still has friends in the area that could help us get settled. There's no income tax. There are great restaurants, nightlife, culture, wine, and it's within driving distance of many awesome national parks.

Cons: It's all the way across the country. I would miss the sun. Neither one of us has a job there yet.

Biggest pro: This is the first time I've seen a spark in his eyes since he became unemployed.

At this point, if the idea of yak farming in Mongolia put a spark in his eyes, I'd go be a yak farmer in Mongolia.

We're still working out the details. Most likely he'll drive our stuff partway across the country and spend a few weeks with his family in Missouri, while I stay behind and work through the holidays and sleep on friends' sofas. (Working through the holidays is always extremely lucrative in the service industry.) After the New Year, I'll visit my own family, we'll spend a few days together in Missouri, then leave our stuff in storage while we take one car load of stuff to Seattle. We'll stay with his friends while I find a job and an apartment; then, once we're settled, we'll make arrangements to get our stuff the rest of the way across the country.

If you can find any flaws in my logic, please, let me know. (I've already thought about: money, driving across the Rockies in January, driving a moving van across the Rockies in January, selling everything vs. a moving van, and how long it might take to find a job once we get there.) If you have any words of advice about Seattle in particular, please, let me know.

This is all still conjecture at this point, but given DH's level of enthusiasm, it's becoming more and more likely.

The weary travelers return

Well, we're back. We return from a place that was 85 degrees and sunny all week, to a place that's 47 degrees and rainy. The windows are shut tight, the trees outside are half-bare, I ripped up all my tomato plants and most of the herbs (dead), and I'm trying to resist turning the heat on. It's a little disconcerting to have a peeling sunburn when it's 47 degrees and rainy.

New Orleans was awesome, as always. I got to spend some quality time with my sister and her family. My new nephew is cute as a bug (he only pooped on me once). We saw Kermit Ruffins live at Vaughan's, ate turtle soup and bread pudding souffle at Commander's Palace, ate hot sausage and cheese po' boys at Gene's, and caught some live jazz at Three Muses. I drank my weight in Abita beer, and DH managed to have at least a little fun. Seeing Kermit was the highlight of the trip. I want to spend every night dancing in smoky bars to live jazz/soul.

I'd loooooovvve to move down there for a couple of months, until DH does find a job, but I fear I'd get down there and then not be able to find a job right away (or find one that's as lucrative as the one I have now). I'm going to start looking for a sublet/month-to-month in Boston; hopefully we can find something cheaper, and we can move there and I can be closer to work. Maybe a change of scenery will shake DH out of his funk a little. In the meantime, I'm thinking about shifting all operations to the downstairs half of the apartment, so that we can heat only one half and keep the upstairs closed off.

It's back to the grey, dreary, normal routine, and I'm not very happy about it.

Basil juleps, baby drool, and sunburn

That pretty much sums up my vacation so far.

The plane ride down was fairly uneventful, though I am reminded of why I hate flying so much. (Not the flying part; the airport part is what pisses me off.) The weather here is gorgeous, 85 degrees and sunny. We went to the beach yesterday--a completely deserted white-sand beach--and got sunburned for our trouble. I'm spending quality time with my sister, my two-year-old niece, and my new six-month-old nephew. He's cute as a button, though I've already gotten spit up on, drooled on, and pooped on.

Hubs received a test for a position with a company in Poland. Talks continue as to whether we might move down to NOLA temporarily, or simply move closer to my job in Boston. We haven't come to any consensus yet--I'm torn, myself--obviously my sister is lobbying heavily for moving to her neck of the woods.

For now, though, we're relaxing, sleeping a lot, drinking a lot of basil juleps and Abita beer, and enjoying being with family. DH's birthday was yesterday, and it was a good one for him.

No go

Well, DH has officially heard a "no" from both companies he'd interviewed with recently (Silicon Valley and Cambridge). This leaves no real prospects on the table.

Needless to say, he's in a bit of an emotional tailspin, and my house is not really a fun place to be these days. I think chances are excellent that we'll move somewhere soon regardless--either closer to my work, or to a whole new city, just because.

More on that later--ideas are swirling, and we've got a vacation coming up. A few days of relaxation should help us better process the options at this point.

New Orleans, again

It's official--we're taking a few days off to go visit my sister, see the new baby, and spend some time in N'awlins. I'm very much looking forward to eating my face off there, seeing the new baby, and spending a few days not working.

We'll actually fly this time, rather than drive--I found cheap round-trip tickets, and since I spend two hours a day minimum in the car these days, I really didn't have it in me for a 24-hour cannonball run (times two). I'm sure by the end of the trip, I'll be annoyed as all hell at the airlines and swearing to always drive in the future.

So, suggestions for New Orleans/Gulf Coast, anyone?

11 years? Really?

Today is my annual "watch no TV, listen to no radio" day. Probably no facebook, either. Here's my 9/11 story.  Go hug your loved ones.

Mmm, rabbit

News flash: work continues to be tiring.

Monday I was so exhausted from a full week of work (and a record-breaking week of work: it was the restaurant's highest-grossing week ever that wasn't either New Year's or Valentine's Day) that literally all I could do was lay on the sofa and watch TV. I did manage to drink my really good wine. It was extremely delicious.

I also got Saturday night off this weekend. I made rabbit with mustard sauce and opened a cheaper but still tasty bottle of wine. Today I'm going to cook some more goodies. I'm slowly but surely using up the random weird stuff in the pantry, which makes me feel good.

Hubs has a Skype interview today with the company in Silicon Valley; wish him luck!

Montreal, part deux

I have to say, Montreal is much more fun to visit when it's not single digits outside.

We had a great time. We revisited Au Pied de Cochon, went to Brasserie T! and drank ice wine, drove to the top of the mountain to see the view, and ate four different varieties of poutine (including foie gras poutine). Our B&B was a little...eccentric; the owner was one of those old French dudes, whippet-thin, with wild straggly long gray hair, overgrown toenails, and the smell of a horse barn in July. The B&B itself was nice enough, a converted old Victorian townhouse. We had to share a bathroom, but since we were there on a Sunday and a Monday night, there weren't really any other people to share the bathroom with. And it was around the corner from the subway, and it was cheap.

H loved the subway, and seemed to have a good time overall. He tried way more new things than I thought he would (including foie gras), and we didn't have to resort to the jar of peanut butter and loaf of bread I brought just in case. He flies back tomorrow. He's still a bit of a handful (it never occurs to him to change his clothes, shower, or brush his teeth; it's a constant battle to get him to eat anything green), but I can see definite upward improvement. He's also showing much more personality, which is heartening.

Now, of course, I'm already ready for the next vacation. I'm back to working all the time, waking up tired and sore. The good news is that the car won't need new tires for probably at least another 10,000 miles; the bad news is that DH is still stuck in unemployment limbo, waiting to hear back from various companies. The place in Silicon Valley is asking for another interview; I think they want a Skype interview but he's pushing for them to fly him out for a face-to-face.

If nothing changes on the job front soon, I think I may take a week or so next month to visit my sis and the new baby and New Orleans.

Sailing

Yesterday we spent the morning sailing off Marblehead, MA. I think we've created a new generation of sailors.

Last summer I bought a thing off LivingSocial for a private chartered sailing lesson/tour, for up to six adults, with the intention of taking my stepson. There was a hurricane last summer, and other scheduling difficulties, and we were never able to use it. When my best friend and her 13-year-old son came to visit us this week, my original intent was to take everyone out to the Cape for the day, and possibly to NYC. But they've been traveling for the last month, and weren't too interested in long car trips.

So I got us all on the sailboat yesterday morning, and it was a huge hit. The two boys loved it, and have been pestering us for further sailing trips/sailing lessons ever since. The adults had a good time too--we drank beer at 10 in the morning, let the boys do the steering, and achieved a nice sunburn.

The rest of the visit was very relaxing--we didn't do much of anything, just sat around eating and drinking and watching movies and talking. I got three days off work, and now it's back to the grindstone.

For one day, anyway. Then tomorrow we head up to Montreal!

Pool party FTW

I spent Saturday with some very old friends from college, some of whom I hadn't seen in almost six years (and the rest I hadn't seen since my wedding). It was so good to see everyone again and hang out.

I'm still recovering. That's about all I can say about that.

Youth is definitely wasted on the young.

Wine coup

Several weeks ago, I got to taste a 23-year-old bottle of nebbiolo. It was the '89 Boca Le Piane, and it was delicious. All the fierce tannin of young nebbiolo had faded away, leaving just the fruit, and it was amazing.

When we got some in to the restaurant, I sold the crap out of it. But the wine manager refused to let me buy any at cost from him, since we only had a few bottles. There were wailings and lamentations at that.

Oh, but then! Last night, he discovered the very last bottle had a scuffed label--unsuitable for customers, so he told me I could finally have one.

I am now the excited and proud owner of a 23-year-old wine, and I'm going to drink the shit out of it.

Let's all pause for a moment and remember what we were doing in 1989.

I was starting high school--the worst three years of my life. (I say three, because as we all know, I skipped that last year entirely to start college early). You couldn't pay me enough to live through even one more day of high school.

Today I'm visiting some very old and dear friends from college. I may drink this wine with them (I haven't decided). I may save it for when my best friend visits next week. Either way, this wine is older than all of those friendships.

But not by much.

My first cherry tomato!

Isn't it a beauty?

It almost makes up for the hour-and-forty-five minutes it took me to get to work yesterday.

Still no definitive news one way or the other on Silicon Valley. Today my stepson arrives for a two-week stay, and on Tuesday my best friend and her now-teenage-son will join us. So I'll be hosting two teenage boys. Yay me. I'm taking some days off work; we'll spend one of them at the Cape, one of them in NYC, and one of them just hanging around the house. After they leave, we'll take stepson to Montreal for a couple of days--his first trip out of the country! Then it's back to the grindstone for me.

So, yeah, commuting to work has been particularly gruesome lately. But one of my fellow servers also works for a nonprofit farm, and brings their produce to our kitchen. I asked him if I could purchase some of his super-cheap produce, as well, and he brought me a huge bag of stuff for free. I'm going to take him some banana bread and cookies in exchange. A big bag of zucchini, two eggplants, and a big bag of green peppers, all fresh-picked!

Also, I started washing my hair again. It wasn't noticeably greasy (I don't think) after two months of no shampoo, but it just felt weirdly gummy to me. It's clean now, which means it's frizzy again.

Oh, and we're getting a roommate for the month of September! A friend of mine recently returned to Providence, and she's staying with various people until she can get settled. I'm happy to have her--we're not using that spare bedroom, and we can certainly use a little extra money in exchange.

Silicon Valley?

I owe everyone an update, I know. I've been kind of lax about blogging lately, but it's hard to feel like writing when you're working 60 hours a week on your feet and commuting another 12-15 hours on top of that. Traffic is still a nightmare and I still basically want to kill every human on the planet after I get home from work.

Fortunately I had all day yesterday and today off. A weekend day off! Two days off, in a row! The mind boggles. I'm starting to unwind a little.

Last Monday we drove back into Boston for newly-inaugurated wine class at the restaurant, and followed that up with burgers at a gastropub. The name of my restaurant came up in conversation with the bartender, which got us all kinds of unexpected freebies. I was very pleasantly surprised and happy. There's something to this being in the industry thing, after all. We met a friend of mine for a quick drink afterwards. I also found out that another friend of mine, who'd left earlier in the summer for Montana, is now returning to RI this week. Frankly, I'm not sure why, but I'll be glad to have her back in town.

Yesterday we had dinner at my former restaurant, and the cooks really went all out. They sent out wave after wave of new yumminess to us, which we washed down with a cut-rate bottle of wine. Have I mentioned I like this being an insider thing? Good to see everybody again, too.

Hubs had a promising phone interview this week, with a company in Silicon Valley. They make one of his all-time favorite games, so he's keeping his fingers crossed. Silicon Valley is expensive, but at least there are good restaurants there--I wouldn't have to commute all the way to San Fran to work. But if he gets the job and I find out I have two and a half weeks to move cross-country--AGAIN--I may have to scream. I'll worry about that after he gets the job, though. First things first.

The total incompetence of Rhode Island

From a call placed to the Rhode Island Department of Transportation this morning:

"Hi, I was wondering why 95 South was shut down completely last night, and there weren't any signs up warning people that 95 would be shut down."

"Um...what?"

"95 South was completely shut down last night. All traffic was rerouted through a ramp WITH A TRAFFIC LIGHT. I was sitting in traffic, in a dead standstill, for half an hour at 12:30 am. Why wasn't there a sign up, letting people know that 95 was going to be shut down, so that we could detour around? Also, maybe you could have disabled that traffic light."

"I don't show any record of 95 South being shut down last night. Maybe it was an accident."

"No, it was scheduled construction. I saw the construction vehicles. Why wasn't there a sign put up, a few miles ahead?"

"Maybe it was a sinkhole."

"No, it was scheduled construction."

"Our website has a list of lane closures, maybe you should check that."

"I did. There's nothing on there about 95 South being completely closed down. For that matter, there's nothing about 95 North being completely closed down in that same location, either."

"Um, then there shouldn't be any closures tonight, you should be fine."

"Great. Still doesn't answer my question about why there wasn't a sign up."

"Uh, let me check with someone on that."

(Long pause while I am placed on hold.)

"No one here knows anything about that. We don't have any records of 95 South being shut down. Are you sure it was last night?"

This is what your tax dollars are paying for, folks. 1. Total incompetence, 2. Total lack of appropriate record keeping, 3. Total lack of common sense.

How much you wanna bet I'll be stuck in that same no-sign traffic jam tonight?

The Hair Chronicles

I've had two full days off--in a row!--and I feel like a regular person again. I've almost recovered from last week's trauma, in which there were multiple highway accidents/construction incidents. On one memorable occasion, it took me two hours and ten minutes to get to work. It took me an hour and a half to get home, even in the middle of the night, thanks to lane closures/repaving on 95. By Sunday, I was ready to have a nervous breakdown.

But two days off goes a long way toward recovery.

In other news, I may have found a cure for frizzy hair.

Stay with me here.

I've stopped washing my hair.

My hair was getting super-frizzy lately. I'm not sure why; old age maybe? I noticed that when I got lazy and didn't shower for a couple of days, my hair got noticeably less frizzy, curlier, bouncier, and generally more attractive.

So I'm in the middle of an experiment, to see exactly how long I can go without washing it.

I'm still getting it wet every time I shower, and I'll usually get a good lather going on my bar of soap and then apply that to the roots. I brush it all the time, to move the oil from the roots to the ends, and once a week or so I give it a vinegar rinse.

But no shampoo and no conditioner.

It's smooth, glossy, insanely wavy, and has the most awesome bounce to it. I haven't noticed any downsides yet--no dandruff, no visible greasiness, and my husband swears my hair still smells normal.

Bonus: maybe I can stop buying shampoo and conditioner?

It's hot

Life continues apace. It's boiling hot and we don't have air conditioning. Which doesn't bother me so much, as I'm famously in love with heat, and also because I spend most of my days either in an air-conditioned car or an air-conditioned restaurant, but it does bother my hubby immensely. I don't like watching him turn white and clammy by the end of each day, and the physical misery isn't helping his mental misery at the moment.

Still unemployed, and another game studio in Austin is laying off a bunch of people. More people in the game industry unemployment line. It's getting to the point where I'm considering some sort of big radical change. I'd love to be able to say, "Fuck it," and just move someplace new and start all over, but DH will still be unemployed. Even just moving closer to my work, in Boston, would probably make him ineligible for Rhode Island unemployment any more. If this is going to be an extended bout of unemployment, I'd rather ride it out in a place I actually want to live, but I'd hate to move somewhere, have him get a job offer, and move all over again. More importantly, we're staying afloat right now only because I'm making so much, combined with his unemployment checks. Remove any of that, and the whole house of cards comes crashing down. And any attempts on my part to suggest that he get another sort of job in the meantime, any job, usually just earn me a sour look.

So he's hot and miserable, and I'm hot (and usually cranky). In better news, my container-garden cherry tomatoes are taking off, we've only spent $30 on food this month, and I'm all caught up on "Breaking Bad."

Home again, home again

The great thing about having an unemployed husband, and working in the restaurant industry, is that you can basically take a vacation whenever you want.

Granted, I'm not getting paid for that time off. But we no longer have to worry about parceling out a measly two weeks of vacation every year, or planning way in advance.

So we spent last week in Virginia with my family and friends (since the restaurant was going to be closed three days for the July 4th holiday anyway). I slept ten hours a night, I ate three meals a day--at normal times--and most importantly, I sat. A lot. I was almost completely off-grid, since I can't get a cell signal or internet at my parents' house, and the most strenuous thing I did all week was wander through the garden in triple-digit heat.

Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy sitting?

I may have to take a week off again in a couple of months. I like not being tethered to the corporate teat.

Anyway, while I was there, I cooked a big meal for dear friends, and I caught up with another childhood friend that I hadn't seen in the better part of 20 years. I hung out with my niece, now 18 months old, read a few books, and finally got the dent banged out of the back of my car. (There's one thing to be said for country living--it's cheap. An oil change, fluid check, and dent repair for the Prius cost me all of $32. Total.)

I brought back a fair amount of my mom's garden, to feed us for the next week or so. It's back to the grindstone now--I'm working all week, and hubs is redoubling his job search efforts and applying for a lot more stuff. It may be a while before anything definitive happens on that front, so we both may have to get used to this new normal.

Summer livin'

Life progresses. DH is still interviewing and looking for work, I'm still working 60 hours a week on my feet, we're still selling off furniture/rugs/household possessions a piece at at time. We went to New York for the day on Monday, and while the boys were sightseeing, I paid some much-overdue social calls. It was great to see old friends again.

It was also great to spend at least part of the afternoon at a bar, with an amazing bottle of wine, and a book. I sat at the bar, read my book, drank my wine, and was perfectly content while I waited for my friends. I really need to spend more days off like that.

We're spending most of next week in Virginia, with family and friends, so we'll both get some much-needed days off. Part of me wants to load up on really tasty wine, and spend my days drinking it in the sun there; but I also know I'm the only one who'll appreciate the wine, as my family and friends will be just as happy (if not more so) drinking PBR.

So if I don't post for a while, you know it's because I'm in Virginia, sleeping and eating and not being on my feet 60 hours a week.

Acadia National Park

I took advantage of having two full days off--in a row!--by taking the fam to Acadia National Park.

It was gorgeous, even though it was cold and foggy.

My husband, the poet

Who knew my husband was a poet? This was too good not to share.

A friend of his posted this picture on Facebook as a joke, asking for a caption. DH promptly wrote a villanelle to go with it. When I was unemployed, I drank too much and watched too much TV. He writes villanelles!

Do Not Set Me On Fahr, Please, Wife O’ Mine

Do not set me on fahr, please, wife o’ mine
Don’t make me start packing my old grey trunk.
See, I did not bang cousin Clementine.

I been good to you, and I walk the line,
I swear to God we did not share a bunk.
Do not set me on fahr, please, wife o’ mine.

I like her just fine, but wasn’t tryin’,
Just once back in aught-six, but hopes were sunk.
See, I did not bang cousin Clementine.

She came over here at quarter o’ nine,
We went out back and brought up some old junk.
Do not set me on fahr, please, wife o’ mine.

Down yonder by the abandoned mine,
We shot the breeze and then drank some some crunk.
See, I did not bang cousin Clementine.

I took off mah clothes and sat on this pine,
I cannot help what I do when I’m drunk.
Do not set me on fahr, please, wife o’ mine,
See, I did not bang cousin Clementine.

An all-new sort of anxiety dream

For years I had this recurring dream that I was forced to go back to high school. Some paperwork would go missing or something, and I'd have to go back and retake my final year. Only, no one else had changed. I'd be dropped into high school at my current age, while everyone else was still high-school-aged, as though I had traveled back in time somehow. I'd be stuck there, wandering the halls with no idea of what my classes were, where I was supposed to go, what my locker combination was, slowly filling with dread as I realized that I was going to have to take algebra and gym class AGAIN, that it would impossible to slip out for a quick drink, that all my years living on my own were now apparently useless, that I was a functional adult only in my head because I was once again in high school.

Then I'd wake up in a cold sweat.

I stopped having those dreams around about the time of my high school reunion, and later I found out most people have some variety of that dream.

Last night I dreamed that I was being forced to go back to JUNIOR HIGH.

This is an all-new and scarier level of anxiety dream.

In this dream, I had to go back to middle school ostensibly because I was "writing a book." In my head, I knew I wasn't in fact writing a book, but I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing there. More importantly, I am very obviously too old to be attending junior high, and this was causing problems in the dream, as all the students were mistaking me for an authority figure, and all the authority figures were trying to treat me like a student. I couldn't seem to figure out what I was supposed to be doing, and (unlike the previous high school dreams) I didn't know anyone there.

So, welcome to my world, y'all. Apparently I'm so stressed I've catapulted right over high school and returned to where it all went bad, in junior high.

In better news, DH's unemployment money started today, and we'll have some visitors this weekend. My stepson is coming to visit for ten days, and my sister-in-law and her family will be in town for the weekend. I broke down and bought the first real groceries I've bought for six weeks, and we'll have a fine old-fashioned barbecue this Saturday.

Bankruptcy

That's all, folks. DH's former company has officially declared bankruptcy.

One hopes this means that at some point, we'll be paid his missing back salary and vacation time. But still, it's a blow, and not least because the Providence newspaper published the names and address of all the creditors listed in the bankruptcy filing, which meant A NEWS VAN SHOWED UP AT MY HOUSE LOOKING FOR A COMMENT.


Oh, I have a comment. The comment is, "Fuck you."

I'm pretty sure that shit is illegal. If not, it should be.

Hubs is devastated, as you can imagine; we were hoping there might be some way to turn this all around. I think this means we're definitely moving; even if he gets another job in Boston, the nearest alternative, we'll move to Boston, just to get out of this godforsaken state.

I'm still working 60 hours a week, on my feet. It's hard work, and it's starting to wear on me. The commute is getting worse; it's taking an hour and a half each way sometimes, instead of an hour, because of traffic and construction. Even in the middle of the night, there's traffic, because they're doing construction on the highways and forcing six lanes of traffic into one. It's seriously making me want to drink in my car.

In better news, I had my required employee tasting the other night. We got to dress up and go to my restaurant and have the eight-course tasting menu, with cheese, and wine at cost, just like regular people. The food was amazing, as you might imagine; the wine was amazing; and it was very nice to be there and not be busting my ass. It's a completely different experience from the other side of the table, which is exactly why they want you to do it. From there, it's almost like ninja service; things magically appear and are magically whisked away. I was surprised by how quiet and unobtrusive everything was.

If only the rest of my life could be quiet and unobtrusive right now.

Mo' money mo' money

After the Tax Levy Debacle Part II, I spent the rest of the week under a dark cloud of financial dread.

Then I got my paycheck, and for once I was very pleasantly surprised.

So maybe we won't starve/have to declare bankruptcy after all.

Between my increased earnings, and hubby's unemployment (he qualified for the maximum; still unsure when that will kick in), and putting the student loans into forbearance, we should be okay. Fingers crossed no one gets hit by a bus, since we don't have any health insurance.

Work's going really well. Really, really well. I'm kicking ass and taking names, and they've noticed. The chef/owner told me he didn't care where my husband got a job, I wasn't leaving. They've also put me on for six nights a week until further notice. They've been really great through all of this, and I have to say I really enjoy what I'm doing there.

I hope we don't have to move and start over again somewhere else; but I don't have much say in that right now.

The best I can do is to get ready for any possible move (Step 1: Yard sale. Step 2: Get rid of all unnecessary crap. Step 3: Collect boxes.) and hope it's to a place where I can get a comparable job. So far DH has leads in Montreal, Seattle, San Francisco, Houston, southern California, and Eugene, Oregon. Of that list, I'm gunning for either Seattle or San Fran. I could make a retarded amount of money in either Seattle or San Fran.

Suck it, State of New York

The State of New York Department of Taxation can kiss my ass.

Remember the tax levy debacle back in November? When the State of New York decided I owed them $1700 from 2007, and without one letter or word or warning, dipped their hand into my bank account and subtracted most of my emergency fund? (They claim they'd been sending letters to my old address in California for two years; but I hadn't lived in California for two years; and my phone number and email have not changed since I lived in New York; and they had no trouble getting my current bank account information when they wanted it.) I smelled a great big possibly illegal, definitely sloppily handled rat at the time, but I couldn't do anything about it except grind my teeth.

Yesterday they issued another levy on my bank account. AFTER TAKING THE FULL AMOUNT IN NOVEMBER.

Long story short: They fucked up. Badly. They got a bunch of checks in at the same time, applied the wrong check to my account, and then six months later realized they showed a balance due on my account and dipped their hands back in the till for their money.

I called in a screaming panic--let's not forget my husband is unemployed, and we're on starvation rations--only to discover that the check my bank sent and the check they had credited to my account were not even the same check.

Naturally the burden of proof fell to me--I had to get a copy of the bank's check, fax it to them at my own expense (God forbid they be able to receive an email), and call six different times to make sure that a) the levy was on hold, b) the correct check was being credited, c) my account would eventually show a zero balance.

Which leads me to this fairly obvious question: IF THEY THOUGHT I STILL OWED MONEY, WHY DID I NOT RECEIVE A BILL?

They have my correct address. I never received a letter or bill from them. Also, if you issue a levy, and you still show a balance due at the end of the levy, doesn't that clearly signify that someone fucked up somewhere? The whole point of a levy is to collect ALL the money you're owed, by force.

Also, I'm extremely pissed that my meager bank account is now somehow the State of New York's own personal ATM.

Also, I find it suspicious that the first levy was issued over a holiday weekend, when I couldn't do anything about it, and this second levy was issued OVER THE NEXT HOLIDAY WEEKEND. When I couldn't do anything about it.

Really, New York? Really?

Suffice it to say that the State of New York Department of Taxation is never getting one additional penny of my money.

Send money and beer

Well, that's it, folks. At 4:08 pm yesterday, hubby's entire company was laid off. He's now officially unemployed.

The videogame industry is spectacularly volatile, but even so, there were very few indications that the company was that unstable. Based on what hubby has told me, I place all the blame squarely at the feet of the Rhode Island government. I have no doubt that the current governor, for whatever reason, essentially forced the company to close; and he's now forcing everyone who voted for the deal in the first place to resign. It makes no sense--the only way the taxpayers would be on the hook for the loan guarantees is if the company failed, and he forced it to fail, despite the fact that is in no one's financial interest. Now he's got 300 more people collecting unemployment and food stamps, in a state that already has 11% unemployment.

So, you know what? Fuck you, Rhode Island. I have never been in a state that was so hostile to outsiders. Oh, the people of Providence have been lovely. Really nice. But the government is breathtakingly incompetent, inefficient, hostile to outsiders, and now it looks like childish, on top of that. Even if hubs does get another job in the area, he really wants to move back across the border, into Massachusetts, just to avoid paying RI another cent in taxes. I can't say I blame him.

He's filing for unemployment as we speak, so between that and my increased earnings, we may just be able to squeak by--his ex has graciously agreed not to cash her child support checks from us for the time being. I'm having a huge yard sale next weekend, and at some point, hubs' defunct company will have to pay us his missing paycheck plus time worked. All that money can be set aside for future bill paying/possible moving expenses. I'll look into getting the student loans into forbearance, too. And I hate to say it, but we've got over $20,000 in credit we can tap if things get desperate.

The good news is that the videogame industry is rallying to find all everyone a job. So hopefully hubs will have a new, better, better-paying position posthaste.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed that a) we don't have to move cross-country in two weeks again, b) that if we do, it's to a cool city where I can work in an amazing restaurant, c) that we don't have to go further into debt than we already are, d) that since we are officially without health insurance now, that no one gets sick or gets hit by a bus.

In the meantime, send money and beer.

And consider this blog The Unemployment Chronicles.

Oh, the fun continues

Financial crisis update #1: as of tomorrow night, we no longer have health insurance. They're cutting it off completely. No COBRA, no carryover, just gone.

So obviously we still haven't gotten our missing paycheck, but the company also has not declared everyone on unpaid furlough. At least if hubby were on furlough, we could collect unemployment and maybe get some food stamps. Right now, we don't even have that meager comfort.

I'm going to start collecting things for a yard sale, and will also start posting stuff for sale on craigslist. If anyone needs anything (furniture, yard stuff, household stuff), let me know.

Happy anniversary to me! x 2

Today is both my two-year wedding anniversary, and the ten-year anniversary of my graduation from Columbia.

So, on the one hand, hooray for being married for two years, but on the other, what the f*ck have I done with my life?!

I'm told this sentiment comes naturally to anyone who's had a degree for ten years, but still. I'm feeling particularly morose today, since we're riding the razor's edge of financial doom; still no paycheck, and no word of when we might see one. So no celebrating either anniversary. And it's at times like these when you most wonder, "What dumb-ass decisions have I made to get me to this point, where I have no money?"

(I realize the answer is "None," since none of this crisis is our doing. This is purely the universe bitch-slapping us. But I miss my friends from grad school, and I haven't really used my degree since I got it, and the student loan payments on that degree will stretch on and on into infinity, and it's raining, and blah blah blah.)

So, if any of my fellow grads are reading this, let's have a reunion soon! Preferably at someone's apartment, so I don't have to pay for drinks at a bar.

If it's not one thing, it's another

It's been a financially and emotionally trying week.

It's a long story, and I can't get into the details yet, but my husband's company couldn't make payroll last week. Hubby remains optimistic that this is a problem of cash flow, which will be resolved shortly; things look slightly better today than they did over various points in the weekend, but I'm still somewhere between "really nervous" and "freaking out."

Let's all keep our fingers crossed that this situation resolves itself, that we can replenish everything we had to take out of the emergency fund to pay bills (which was everything), that we continue to get paychecks on a regular basis and that we don't have to sell everything we own and move again, to a new city/new jobs. Please God don't let us have to move again.

At least I had a rewarding week at work. I've been told by various managers that my sales are spectacular, that I'm doing a fantastic job. I've also been told that due to various people leaving, I'll be both working a lot more and taking home a lot more money. If we'll be earning two paychecks in the near future, that's great news, we'll be able to sock away all that extra money in the emergency fund to shore it up against future cash flow problems. If we're going to have to try to live off my paycheck...well, some bills are not going to get paid. There isn't any way around that. I hope it doesn't come to that.

In the meantime, I'm going to be making doctors' appointments for both of us, to get us caught up on basic check-ups in case something happens with the health insurance, and start making a list of everything we could sell to bring in some quick cash. Memorial Day yard sale, anyone?

Mother's Day weekend

My parents came to visit this weekend, and it was a lot of fun. We had dinner Friday night at my restaurant, where my husband informed me they had now ruined him for all other burgers. (They do have a really good burger.) Saturday night we had dinner at my old restaurant, in Providence. In between was mostly just a lot of hanging out.

Which was fine, because I had to work a double on Sunday, which meant I didn't see my parents again between the time they went to bed Saturday night and they left Monday morning.

But the dinners were delicious.

In other news: someone backed into my car in the parking lot at Stop & Shop and left a sizable dent in the rear bumper. I was literally gone for two minutes, and when I came back out: boom. Thanks, asshat. Whoever you are. I'll have to deal with getting that fixed this week.

The folks, marital discord, and work successes

Not my marital discord, don't worry. But a very dear friend of mine called the other day to discuss hers, and I may need to carve some time out of my schedule to go visit her. I need some girl time anyway.

My folks are visiting this weekend--I'm excited about taking them to dinner at my new restaurant, and my old one, and generally spending time with them.

In other news, my job is going better than I expected. I was told the other night that I had the second-highest sales of anyone last month, despite being new. In fact, the words the general manager used were, "freakishly high." Then I went on to have $3,500 in sales that night, including a $225 bottle of '98 Beaucastel, and brought in over $800 in tips. On a Tuesday night. So that was pretty awesome.

(I won't actually take home $800 in tips; it goes into the general fund and then gets divided out again according to an algorithm. But still.)

Adventures with coupons

Yes, this is how exciting I am these days. I get all worked up about coupons.

I discovered another perk to working in the restaurant on Sundays (in addition to the free leftover food). I usually work doubles on Sundays, brunch plus dinner. For brunch, they bring in a selection of newspapers for people to peruse, including the New York Times and the Boston Globe. They throw away the inserts, so I helped myself to the coupons and the sales flyers.

 Between the coupons and some judicious shopping at CVS, making full use of the ExtraBucks program, I scored $120 worth of stuff for $45. So you can bet I'll be snagging the coupons from now on.

 (Disclaimer: I don't usually shop with coupons, because generally coupons are for over-processed name-brand crap food; the kind of stuff I don't buy. But, if you can combine a coupon with a store sale, and/or some other sort of store promotion, like Double Coupon Day or CVS' ExtraBucks, you can walk away with some amazing deals. So I'll start using coupons and watching sales for things I'll buy anyway, like shampoo and toothpaste.)

I felt all frugal and crafty, especially since I was combining restaurant leftovers into dinner last night.

Farewell, my trusty KitchenAid

I think my KitchenAid is dying.

If so, it's had a good life. I've used it almost daily for ten years. I've lugged it into eight different residences, bought and replaced various attachments, and taken a screwdriver to it more than once. I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of it (especially since it was a gift in the first place).

But now, there's something not quite right with it. The top part is sagging, so that the attachments scrape the bottom of the bowl. I've tightened, and loosened, all the screws, to no avail. Also the top wobbles from side to side.

I think it's time to bid a fond farewell and upgrade to the Professional series, with the six-quart bowl.

New nephew!

This news got sort of buried, so I'm giving it a post of its very own. I have a new nephew! Luke William, born last week, 8 lbs 15 oz. Mother and baby are doing fine.

Isn't he a cutie?

Here he is with his big sister, my niece Leah. (No, they did not intentionally name their children Luke and Leah as an homage to Star Wars, though that of course was the first thing I thought.)

Back to work

The good thing about being on vacation for a week is catching up on all your sleep.

The bad thing is that all your working muscles get soft and lazy.

My first night back at work after more than a week away was about what I expected. I made a few mistakes (nothing major), and I was dead tired by the end of the night. My leg/foot/back muscles were no longer used to the punishment that is working in a restaurant.

But the good news is that by next week, I'll be a full server. No more training for me! I'm graduating in the big leagues, where I'll be making the big money.

And not a moment too soon--this month has been particularly lean, what with missing a week of income.

Also, things are a lot easier now that I'm no longer temping mornings at the law office. I can get enough sleep, I can get things done around the house, I can eat a full meal like a normal person before I leave for work instead of having to eat on the run all the time.

Vacation

It's been a great week. We've been vacationing with DH's family in Missouri, and there is nothing better than a week without work, with your hubby. Neither one of us is working, or stressed, or trying to catch up on stuff before work. I'm sleeping a normal amount, at normal hours, eating at normal mealtimes, and not spending 10 hours a day on my feet. I've even had enough time to read--I've plowed through a whole stack of books.

But the best news is that I have a new nephew! Luke William was born on April 11, at 3:36 am, 22 inches, 8 lbs 15 oz. My sister is doing fine (20 hours of labor with no drugs; ooof), and baby Luke appears to resemble his sister. I'm going to call him Cool Hand Luke. He was two weeks and a day overdue.

We've also spent quality time with my stepson, who is now firmly on the edge of adolescence. He's taller, thinner, and seems much more centered. He talks more (and has thrown out some surprising witticisms), and doesn't do as much weird stuff (like running around the backyard by himself, flapping his arms and making robot noises). We're attempting to make summer plans, and we're hoping to take him to Canada this year. We couldn't last year, because I got laid off in the middle of his visit.

Driving to Missouri was the same as it ever was. Long, tiring, still less hassle (and far less expensive) than flying. We didn't do any sightseeing this trip; the siren call of doing nothing all day, and spending quality time with family, was too tempting. I'd forgotten how nice it is to be relaxed.

I'm so boring these days

I know this hasn't been a very interesting blog lately, and for that I apologize. It's hard to be creative when you're perpetually running on too little sleep and too little food. Fortunately, tomorrow is my last day of working two jobs. After that I'll be visiting the in-laws in Missouri for a much-needed vacation, and then I'll just be working my one job.

Which is hard enough, don't get me wrong--an hour each way commute, minimum, eight hours being on my feet  and doing some fairly intense physical labor (heavy dishes, crates of full water bottles, lots of hustling), having my last meal of the day at 2 pm, collapsing into bed after 1 am.

But it will be easier when I don't have to be somewhere else at 9 am the next morning.

I can barely be bothered to cook these days, so you know I'm running on fumes. I've been living on eggs (for breakfast) and some variation of stale-dinner-roll sandwiches (sometimes with just butter or Nutella, so not even really a sandwich). Sometimes an apple. I'm so tired of stale restaurant bread.

In other news, my new nephew is supposed to be born any day now. He's already about a week overdue. (I'm still not pregnant, though that's not exactly news.) Work is hard, my hubby is working a lot of overtime, I'm really looking forward to having a vacation.

A particularly fun bottle of wine

Yes, that bottle is meant to be upside-down.


Movia Puro Rose is a sparking rose wine, made on the border of Slovenia and Italy. It's stored upside-down because its yeasts have never been disgorged.

This bottle, if you can find it, is a perfect conversation piece for a party.

See, when champagne/sparkling wine is made, the winemakers first make a still white wine. Then they put that still wine in bottles and add yeast and sugars. The yeast eats the sugar, creating carbon dioxide, which is trapped in the bottle--that's what creates the bubbles in champagne.

Normally, the bottles are then turned, slowly pulling all the yeast down into the neck of the bottle, into a plug that can be disgorged. The yeast plug shoots out, the winemaker tops off the bottle with a little more grape juice and sugar, and reseals it, leaving the bubbles intact.

But the Puro Rose was never disgorged. That yeast plug was still in there.

For last weekend's dinner party, I got a bottle. (Courtesy of my restaurant, which allows me to buy the wine off their list at cost. This bottle was not in fact on the wine list--it was brought in for a special occasion dinner a few weeks ago, and they graciously allowed me to purchase one of the leftover bottles. Trust me, this stuff is not easy to find.) It comes in a sleeve, which allows you to keep it upside down, keeping that yeast plug intact.

To open it, obviously you have to disgorge the yeast plug. There's a heavy metal clamp holding the cork in;  you'll need a screwdriver or something to pry it off. But be careful--the INSTANT that metal clamp is pried off, the cork will shoot out and you'll have a fountain of expensive sparkling rose all over your floor. Be sure to have enough presence of mind to pull the bottle upright immediately.

I got a fair amount all over my floor, but it was quite a show. The wine itself was lovely--deep, complex, faintly bready. Definitely the best sparkling anything I've ever had. (Which, granted, is not an especially wide category.)

And getting wine all over my living room was never so much fun.

First dinner party in the new apartment

I had Saturday night off for the first time in months, so I decided to celebrate by throwing a long-overdue housewarming dinner party. It was a lot of fun; we had good food, good wine, and good conversation. I got a crazy bottle of wine from work for everyone to share. Then I had to work a double the next day, and I was very tired and hungover, but it was still worth it.

The new job is hard, and tiring, but also worth it. Once I get fully up to speed, it's going to be a lot of fun (although a lot of effort to get from here to fully up to speed). The hours are much longer, and because of the commute, I don't get home until usually around 1 AM. As of next Friday, I won't be temping at the law office anymore; it's too hard to get home at 1:30 in the morning and then be somewhere by 9 AM the same morning.

Otherwise, there's not much to report. I work all the time, DH works all the time, I'm not pregnant, I read a lot of wine books, the end. I'm listening to books on tape because of the commute, so if anyone has any to recommend, please let me know.

Also, my new nephew is going to be born any day now!

New photos at Broke Foodie!

I have some new photos on my other blog, Broke Foodie! Also on Broke Foodie's Facebook page. Courtesy of Alexandra Nunes Photography.

Pretty awesome, huh? I'm in the process of updating my blog.

86 me!

"86" is restaurant slang for "no more." If we run out of steak, the call goes out: "86 steak!" Or "86 Anchor Steam!" Or "86 clams, sub mussels!" Or whatever.

So, since Saturday night was my last night at the Providence restaurant, 86 me!

It was a long day. I worked a double, but ended up getting out early, since we were slow. (Apparently people don't want to eat a nice meal out on St. Patrick's Day--they just want to go get drunk on green beer. Thankfully, I managed to avoid all the green beer/drunk people shenanigans.) My hubby met me at the bar and we had a drink and a meal out, just like regular people.

It was a nice way to say goodbye. I've really enjoyed working at that particular restaurant, and I'll miss the people and the chef. I'll be back in to eat and/or drink there on a fairly regular basis; I can only hope my new job will prove to be as rewarding.

I start full-time there this week. Somehow, I managed to get Saturday night off this week; a Saturday night off seems like such an impossible luxury at this point that I still can't quite wrap my brain around it. It'll be my first Saturday night off in six months. It might very well be another six months before I see another one. So I'm taking advantage of it, by throwing our first dinner party. And since it's our first shot at entertaining, I guess it's our housewarming, too. Just in time to work a double on Sunday!

Spring has sprung, I think. I put all the really heavy winter stuff away yesterday (yesterday being my first full day off in three weeks; I did laundry for six hours straight)--the hats, gloves, scarves, long johns, snow boots, etc. I washed and put away the heavy winter coats, and got out the spring jackets and some of the summer clothes. Obviously it'll be a while before we can transition fully from sweaters to shorts, but it made me happy to start the process. It'll be over 60 degrees every day this week. My spinach outside is sprouting!

So, wish me luck as I start the new job officially this week. I'm already intimidated.