Housing

Application to Housing Office:

(rough summary of essay)
I would prefer to have a studio. I tend to get stressed out around other people and think it would be best for my success in law school if I was able to have my own space. If a studio isn't available, as few roommates as possible would be preferred (i.e., the two bedroom apartment option). As few roommates as possible is very important to me, with none being the top preference. Blah blah blah PLEASE GIVE ME A STUDIO!

Response from Housing Office:

Congratulations! We have assigned you to the 4 bedroom house with three other roommates!

Art.

I love to be creative and work with my hands. There's something so satisfying about finishing a project and having the physical evidence of your genius/perseverance/hard work right in front of you. It's the reason that I, despite how much I may grumble about it, actually like putting together Ikea furniture.

Unfortunately, I'm not really that creative myself. Fortunately, I'm a damn good copy cat and love to find art/projects that I can figure out how to make on my own.

A few months ago I came across some pictures of paper sculptures by Jen Stark:





The sculptures are absolutely gorgeous. I would LOVE to own an original, but I can't even imagine the cash dollars they must cost. After looking through tons of photos of her work I settled on one to make a knock off of:



After spending hours staring at the photograph figuring out how the sculpture was made; creating a small version; creating a cutting template; organizing the paper; figuring out the most efficient way to make it happen; and many, many more hours actually cutting and shaping the paper, I came up with a pretty satisfactory replica of the blue sculpture:



For a first try, I'm pretty happy with it. I had to make a LOT of compromises on the paper color, the number of sheets and the graduation of the color because of art store supply constraints. I think next time I do something like this I'll take the time to order the right colors of paper online.

I think I'm going to try this one for my next project:

I Swear I'm Not Turning Into A Food Blogger

But this looked and tasted SO GOOD:



Grilled chicken, roasted garlic asparagus, and whole wheat couscous.

Took 20 min from start to finished in the bowl.

Only downside? I probably put too much garlic on the asparagus. It was delicious, but I'm totally going to have garlic smell tomorrow.

Then, I negated the healthiness with a dirty vodka martini (no picture) for dessert. The perfect end to a Monday.

Chez Jen

To save some cash dollars I've been trying to get back into cooking at home more often. I love cooking, I just don't get off work until 6:30 and the idea of spending another hour or so whipping something up after work just exhausts me.

I'm getting over myself though and have done a little bit of old and new recipes this week and am pretty proud of myself for what I've put together from the contents of my cabinets.

Monday I made turkey tacos - ground lean turkey, taco seasoning, small white corn tortillas, bit of avocado, low fat cheese, and Cholula hot sauce. I usually add black beans, but I had forgotten to buy more.

Tuesday I made a taco salad with leftover seasoned ground turkey, lettuce, avocado, chickpeas, black beans, black olives, and low fat cheese with a simple dressing I made up of fresh lime juice, hot sauce and a bit of extra virgin olive oil.

I had most of a can of chickpeas and about 1/3 of a can of black beans left and didn't want to toss them (and didn't have anything clean to store them in), so I decided to try making some black bean hummus. It actually turned out pretty well, despite the several substitutions I had to make. Chickpeas, black beans, extra virgin olive oil, finely chopped garlic, salt, pepper, lime juice (instead of lemon), a few dashes of a spice blend, and toasted sesame seeds in place of tahini because I didn't have any. It could use some actual tahini for taste and a smoother texture but I was really pleased with how delicious it turned out, especially since it was my first time attempting it and had to wing it on several ingredients.

And tonight - the piece de resistance - split pea soup from scratch. I used basically this recipe: Simple Split Pea Soup (that website is awesome for healthy food ideas, by the way) minus the garlic because I forgot to put it in, but it was completely delicious without it. Mine was different because the store was out of dried split peas and I had to use a pea soup package. I tossed the flavoring packet and just used the dried split peas, but the measurements were off from the recipe. I added a teaspoon of sour cream to my bowl, but think I would have preferred without.

Man, that soup was/is delicious.

Plan for tomorrow: small taco salad with rest of ground turkey and pea soup.

Ok, this is rambling, but whatevs, I'm so proud of myself and I've gotten major use out of the immersion blender I got for Christmas!

One of the Many Reasons My Parents Are Awesome

A classic email from my dad:

Hi Hug Bug!!

I have res. for fri jet blue. we are staying at a dump called Marriot Fairfield Inn. It'a a fancy name for a flop house/drug sales/weekly rooms hotel. There will probably be drunks in the halls but they are usually passed out and there is not a lot of gunfire inside the hotel, some but not a lot. Pencil yourself in

Love,
Yer Paw

Yes, We Can!

I like to use my minor celebrity status* to bring awareness to important issues plaguing our society. I previously brought you the problem of awful prints and paintings uglifying our nation's offices.

Today I bring you something even more shocking. I personally cannot believe we, as an advanced and caring society, would let this happen or continue for as long as it has.

Ladies and gentlemen, our country has a severe lack of ice cube trays (I bolded that so you wouldn't miss the important part).

I have been to Target three times, Walmart twice and the grocery store several times a week for the last month and NONE OF THEM HAVE ICE CUBE TRAYS.

All I want to do is portion out some sauces into individual servings and maybe freeze some water when my drink needs cooling, but I have been thwarted from my effort by these callous and uncaring corporate giants. None of their associates seem to care that my pesto is going to go bad before I can divvy it up for freezing. THE PESTO IS GOING TO DIE IF WE DO NOT QUICKLY ADDRESS THIS UNACCEPTABLE AND IMPORTANT ISSUE. Do you want to be responsible for the death of my pesto? I'm guessing not.

So get on the phones, get to your typewriters, fax machines, computers, or even good old pen and paper (I don't discriminate based on your embrace of technological advancement) and write your representatives, hell, write Obama, and let's work together to get this fixed.

Say it with me: YES, we CAN get some damn ice cube trays in a freaking store somewhere in the southern Orange County area. YES, WE CAN!

___________________
*Copy and pasted from my IMDB resume:

Television
- Dane Cook at the Laugh Factory (2006) ... Audience Member
- Superbowl XXXII Motown halftime show(1998) ... Dancer

Film
- Where The Light Is - John Mayer Live in Los Angeles (2008) ... Audience Member

Stage
- M*A*S*H (1997) ... Dr. Ruth, Ph.D.

Owwwwww

I've been getting up early and going to the gym before work lately (ok, fine, the last two days) and have been very proud of myself.

Two days down and the rest of my life to go (le sigh).

I am now sore in muscles I forgot existed. One of those is my pectoral right next to my armpit, which apparently is used constantly in my job of sitting at a desk and moving rarely. I've been massaging it and just now realized that I look like I'm massaging my boob. It is all about class up in here!

My weekly plan is to workout in the mornings except for Friday, when I'll do yoga and some quality sauna/steamroom/whirlpool time. Then more yoga Saturday and this fun class on Sunday. I'm hoping to kind of make it a daily routine so I can get used to it faster. I'm hoping the yoga on Friday and Saturday will count as days off to my body. What do you think?