Week(s) In Review: A Pictorial Adventure

So where have I been, yes that would be the question considering that, unless we’re connected on Facebook, no one has heard from me in weeks. I don’t call, don’t write. Yeah, ‘dropped off the face of the virtual Earth’ (yet again) is pretty accurate. But I have done some amazing and fun stuff in my electronic absence.

And the train continues to roll so rather than sit here for ages typing out all the details of my recent misadventures in construction, paint, music, old friends and pastry, it occurred to me that a nice array of photos is surely a much lazier way to share the information.

And retain it for that matter. See? Really I’m just thinking of your time. Yeah, that's it.

So without further random babble from me, here is essentially a month in review…

A whole bunch of these got painted, glazed, varnished, etc. over the past couple weeks for Chucka Stone Designs, and more will be done this week (plus I might actually finish the furniture pieces this weekend, amazing!)

I hosted a week long giveaway over here that I enjoyed promoting.

This holiday came and went & Matt and I thankfully didn’t feel pressured to celebrate (because it is a silly tradition started just to make people feel bad who are single and obligated who are together so the card, chocolate, flower and jewelry industries can live on for one more day. OK. Jumping off my soapbox now…) But my mom sent us this card and it was very sweet of her!

The FINAL season (sob) of Tuesday night crack began. (Yeah I know he’s not on the show anymore but he was my favorite character and he did make an appearance in the first episode this season. Plus he’s hot, so there.)

We had a chance to catch this guy’s act live, and solo for the first time, which was so much fun! We were right at the edge of the stage in the Red Room at Café 939.

Then I started doing a whole bunch of this. (Thanks for the video still shots This Old House)

Of course that job is in central Mass so that meant I was in this a lot. Don’t worry, my car wasn’t recalled. Baby drives great.

Even though painting and plaster is a great workout it was good to do a little of this in addition to keep loose. Climbing ladders requires a certain level of already in shape-ness so as not to fall asleep on the sofa every night at 10:00. Oh wait…

I have been helping to clean out the family house which desperately needs to be finished and sold. My Aunt, mom and I spent six hours in this room getting it to look this empty. I wish I were kidding. But it is done now and so we celebrated with subs (hoagies, wraps, whatever you call it in your neck of the woods -- sandwich filling in a long roll). I took this round table home and it is now gracing my back hall under the window; it looks perfect with the bench on the other side, since they are a matching set.

Of course Thursdays have still been all about this. Wouldn’t miss that for anything!

Had a chance to catch one of my mom’s favorite performers, Seth Glier (on piano), this past Friday night. I can see why, wow this kid has talent!! At only 21, he has a long career ahead of him. (He plays SXSW every year so if you’re near Austin, TX go check him out!). Plus he remembered my mom on sight by name, asked her later what she wanted to hear and made a point to come over and apologize that he didn’t have time to play it after the show was over. Now that’s class.

And now this morning I’m finishing coffee and writing. Not to mention eating one of these; purchased after dinner with friends in Davis Square last night. Yum!

The month in review has now commenced. Holy crap, can’t believe it’s just about March already! Bring on the warm weather, yippie!

I Can Not Let BTPTh Pass By

OK, I know. I said something about not being here very often over the next few weeks. So isn’t a gal allowed to change her mind? Geez. Guess I just felt compelled to post something today because my thought process is very broken right now. This post should be a plethora of random, inane wackiness.

So I have been thinking. Why are there no stars right next to Earth? Why do we have to go light years outside our own Solar System to reach them? OK, I know the Sun is technically considered a star but then this makes me think even greater thoughts like I wonder if every single star is a sun and if tiny little Solar Systems spin around each of them. It isn’t like we can get to them to find out so how can we really know? I hope so. I hope other beings exist in other systems and treat their own rock the way we should be treating ours.

I have been smoke free for twelve days. Matt is using the patch. I only smoked 1-2 a day and the patch makes me feel like I’m having a heart attack so I’m going cold. Not sure how I’m doing. I want to be quit because seriously smoking is so last decade but for some reason I’m having a way more difficult time this time around. I really wanted to quit last year. But if I don’t just stay quit this time I’m never going to get around to doing it later so that is that. I need to totally reprogram my brain.

With the advent of quitting Matt & I estimate we will be able to save upwards of $3000 a year. Yeah, no joke. Collectively we smoked a pack a day and at about $8.50 a pack that is over 3k a year. There are many things we are both looking forward to putting that money towards.

First off, we’re joining the Trustees of Reservations and getting a fairly chunky membership at that. At the Sponsor level we’ll be supporting the over 100 locations across Massachusetts that the Trustees support. Free entry into many of the beaches alone makes this well worth the cost, but they also have historic register properties and lots of great hiking trails to explore too.

I am going to admit that I need some structure toward working my literal ass off and will join the gym. The one right down the street offers a whole bunch of cool classes like yoga and Pilates and some aerobic stuff too plus just having access to a treadmill is going to be the golden ticket for me.

We both plan to get our butts out to see a whole lot more live music again. We used to be super duper concert goers, discovering new and local acts all over the Boston music scene but let that slide in recent years so it is going to be nice getting back into music again.

Matt is probably going to upgrade his bike to one that is a bit sturdier for mountain biking and he’s going to buy a season pass to a local ski area.

While he’s off doing that, if I’m not at the gym, I plan to be taking drum lessons or getting my first tattoo. Finally.

The tat is tripping me up a little bit. I do not want something that anyone else has so it can’t come from the wall, and it has to be something that really means something to me; otherwise why would I permanently mark my body with it? Anyone know any phenomenal artists who will let me just tell them the stuff I love and then they will whip up something amazing that is no more than a few inches square? Then anyone have other suggestions of a tattoo artist who can interpret it and adorn my hip with it?

One of the awesome products that was sent to me to review is a “cook” book called Raw Energy 124 Raw Food Recipes…. I have been hearing more and more about this food movement lately and although I have long admitted to being an omnivore some of the stuff in this book sounds way too good not to try. When grocery shopping tomorrow I have to pick up a whole bunch of stuff to make some of these and a few of Ginger’s vegan yummies.

My ex sent a friend request on Facebook. WTF? We’re not talking the “oh its so good to hear from this person because we haven’t spoken since we broke up when both of us went to college and there were no hard feelings” ex. I’m at a loss what to do.

Well off to dinner and ice cream with a good friend.

Why not go ahead and check the fun stylings of KC, Bree, Bridgete, Ginger and Kate for more randomly sprouted thoughts.

Photo courtesy of South Park Studios clips

Back in Action, Sort Of

After a nice long vacation to Martha’s Vineyard last week I returned home to find a virtual shopping mall of boxes stacked beside my front door. Looks like I will be very busy for the next month or so doing product and service reviews for Green Leaf Reviewer, but I really wouldn’t have it any other way; I absolutely love my job.

Boxes loaded with stuff like toilet paper, a self filtering water bottle, 8+ boxes of cereal, aluminum foil, canvas bags, produce bags, kitchen scrubbers, a raw foods “cook” book, soap, paper towels, sugarcane plates and granola bars arrived while I was gone. Not to mention a CD from a musician I reviewed recently, Peter Mulvey.

It is so cool to know that I don’t have to buy many household items these days because Green companies are responding to my marketing gal’s request with such vigor! I truly feel so blessed to have such an amazing job; in fact it is the exact job I asked for a year ago -- I made a declaration that I wanted to blog for a living and well, here it is.

So this year, in my ever so frequent “reevaluation” fashion, I am making a new request. While continuing to write daily for Green Leaf Reviewer and watching it take off like a bullet, I also want to ensure I schedule a good chunk of time to work on my two near and dear writing projects -- my fictional character novel and the poetry/photography coffee table book my mom and I are collaborating on -- so they will be completed, edited and put out into the world for sale within the next six months.

With that said I am sorry that I have to slow down a little bit on posting the Labor of Love series here because I actually had some content from one of those posts stolen and republished as if it was their own work. I filed a claim and Blogger has taken it down but it still nerves me that my real writing has been copyright infringed. That one I am shopping though so if it gets published as a novella I will be sure to let everyone know!

For all of you who are posting anything on your blog that could be stolen (and seriously, that’s everyone) I can not encourage you enough to set up some Google Alerts. I never would have known about my content being republished if it wasn’t for an alert on nothing more than my blog title.

There are a bunch of things that I need to shore up in my personal life as well and once they are behind me I will be able to move forward in a much more meaningful way, here and everywhere else. I guess what I’m really trying to say is I am taking the pressure to post off of myself and if I feel up to it I will but if not I am not going to force it anymore just to stay current.

So I may not be here as often for a while, writing or commenting that is, but I assure you I will still be reading all of you. It’s funny, this blog has gone through a slew of changes in its short 2 year lifespan (blogiversary was on the 13th of September, yea!) from short blurbs to haiku and prose to lengthy diatribes, has covered a range of stuff all over the map and has gone through phases from daily to barely weekly posting. I guess that’s why I titled it Random Lunacy.

To send myself off on the virtual three week cruise ship, here are a few pictures from our recent vacation for all of you to enjoy. Check you later.

This is no joke. Every year, without fail, at least three people can be heard screaming and we all turn to watch as a seagull flies away with their sandwich or bag of chips.

The little dudes, known in these parts as Hammer and Anvil, totally enjoyed their first Vineyard trip.

We discovered a hidden gem of a spot in the Cedar Tree Neck Sanctuary. Nice light hiking trails and they end up on the beach. Simply gorgeous and serene.

This is our favorite beach, Long Point. The temperature was about 68, mostly cloudy and the winds were gusting at about 125 miles an hour it seemed this day. We were the only people out there and it was fabulous.

At Mytoi Japanese Gardens on Chappaquiddick Island we sat and watched this little dragonfly for a few minutes. He was blind in one eye but seemed to be doing just fine.

Our last full day on island; I managed to only chop off a little bit of Matt’s hat this time. This is us in Mytoi.

I Feel Broken, Never Mind My Thoughts

It seems unreal to me that it’s been over a week since my last blog because I was doing so good with that whole posting everyday thing and now I feel like my brain turned to mush.

To say I am a little overwhelmed right now with all the stuff going on would definitely be an understatement. It has been quite a week indeed.

Painting is going fantastic out in Fitchburg. To give a little more of an idea of the scope, the house is roughly 3000 square feet total (both apartments, all 3 floors) plus there are closets, hallways and front porches to apply that nice latex coating to as well. Oh yeah, not to mention that there is window, door, baseboard & crown in every room and all the doors and cabinets are getting painted too.

In fact my dad told me to go ahead and paint Matt if he stands still for too long. You get the idea.

So far ceilings are done in all but 1 space where I have to apply Kilz stain block primer because there is a huge watermark that the Benny Fresh Start is not hiding. Walls are primed everywhere and about ¾ of the walls have finish paint on them. Plus I have primer on all the trim where required (about ½ of it realistically).

Matt has helped me on 2 separate weekends for a total of about 25 hours but otherwise this baby is all me. Nightmare visions of my recoculous 14 hour per day job in Maryland in March of 2008 have come back to smack me in the carpel tunnel.

Thankfully I have 4 days off in a row because my wrist feels like someone yanked on my tendon as if it was an elastic band. And then they let it go. Ouchie.

Of course all this means I have not been keeping up with the awesomeness of the Blogosphere and I truly apologize. Not to say I haven’t read some of everyone’s postings and made comments here and there but the world of written words has not gotten my standard level of attention and I really miss it. I will catch up with all of you eventually.

So on other things…

I started reading a book my Wicked Stepmother lent me a while back. It is called A Marriage Made in Heaven ~or~ Too Tired for an Affair by Erma Bombeck. I might be a little late to the party on this one but I have to say I have never outright laughed out loud so heartily while reading a book ever before. She is so dry and witty and so far I can identify with virtually all of the story she is telling even though she is talking about it happening to her in the 40’s and 50’s. I will finish this book over this coming weekend, no doubt. I have been laughing so hard Matt has said he wants to read it, even though he knows it’s a chic book. But truthfully he should, its freaking great.

Last night we hit the mall so he could get some sneakers since the sole of his current pair is literally falling off. I figured it was a good time to go get my free panty at Victoria’s Secret with the coupon I got in the mail (score) and also to look at bathing suits for our upcoming Vineyard vacation since mine is getting to that place where I’m slightly worried about the same thing happening to the side seam that did to Matt’s shoe. And no one wants to see that.

We end up in JC Penney because I had a small return to make and I grab a whole bunch of clearance items in my size figuring I’ll also try on one size up because I know I’m a teeny little bit bigger than last year.

Yeah. A little bit bigger my literal ass. I went up 3 sizes since last summer. Last summer was the first time since 8th grade that I was in a different size bathing suit. That means in 2 years I went up 4 sizes. Not healthy.

I believe the words ‘holy shit’ came flying out of my mouth with every new piece that so un-gently squeezed me in. Some like to call them curves, I call it back fat and that my friends should never, ever exist on me.

As I sat looking at myself in the mirror I actually started crying that I could have been so evil to my own body to not take care of it for this past year (or 2). Admittedly painting jobs seriously slowed since last year and I started writing a whole lot more (read: sitting on my butt in front of the computer) but freaking seriously what is the issue with just getting up and joining a gym or something?

Well there is no issue anymore. When Matt gets home tonight we both decided it is high time to suck it up and join the gym that is literally 10 blocks from our house. Trying to work out at home is just not cutting it for me because all I do is continue to write instead of getting up and doing it so clearly I need to go somewhere to get healthy. So be it. I have no problem paying to get into shape if it will keep me motivated to do it.

Then we are coming home and eating brown rice and steamed vegetables for dinner. I am tired of feeling like if I went to the beach right now I might have to worry about being harpooned or something, like a poor defenseless white whale.

Of course, I have never seen a beluga whale with cellulite. The blubber is under their skin, lucky bastards.

So I know I won’t be the little hottie I used to be by mid September but I had better be able to at least fit into my bathing suit without back fat. Gee, perhaps this is the reason my old suit doesn’t really fit so well anymore.

As a way to make myself feel at least a little bit better about myself I picked up a tube of Heavenly lotion from Vicky’s while we were at the mall. This used to be my signature scent. I worked there when it was introduced and have never worn anything else since; I just stopped wearing girly smelling things for a long time. It is a soft and light kind of powdery scent, smells great on me and always makes me smile when it hits my nose so since I am heading down the path of being awesome inside and out again this felt like a nice place to start. It is going right into my gym bag so I can be happy after the shower. Yup, that’s right, “cute Jenn” is on her way back because getting rid of the flabbiness is so on.

OK, shake it off…pun intended.

Must do laundry, be right back.

Earlier I was telling someone that I used to be a nanny and then writing this blog about being a painter it occurs to me that I am much like that Sandra Bullock character in Forces of Nature - a little crazy, had about a billion different jobs, no real direction. Everything but the having a kid & cheating on my husband part. Interesting.

So I recently got this PUR Flavor Options pitcher sent to me to review for Green Leaf Reviewer and it is like the coolest thing ever. It has a cartridge you install in the lid so when you tip it to pour you click a button on the handle & it squirts this little flavor shot into the water. Tried lemon & raspberry so far & loving the raspberry. I almost crave it now. Maybe it’s actually just flavored liquid crack. I wonder if they can get away with saying it has no calories or added sugar and then successfully market liquid crack? I’m kind of thinking so.

For all you Dave Matthews Band fans…check out http://www.somuchtosave.org/
Then take the pledge to do whatever you can for the environment (scroll down the page & you’ll see the check boxes). After you commit to doing these awesome things they will give you an entire free cd of live music. Two DMB tracks and a few other cool artists like Switchfoot and Yonder Mountain String Band. Can we say hello rockin?

OK on that happy note its time to finish up laundry and hit the road to grocery shop, pick up some packages at FedEx and hit the mall to try to find something that will go with the top I bought last night that will be unoffensive.

Tomorrow I read all of your blogs & chill for the whole day. I can not wait to catch up ♥

And because I'm too lazy to go hunt down links make sure to check the gals over on the blog roll...Ginger, Bridgete, Bree, KC, and sometimes Kate.

A Haphazard Mish-Mosh of Arbitrary Madness

That, or “this is going to be a whole bunch of random stuff that has nothing in common other than it is all what is going on in my world right now which is sometimes inconsequential but always all over the place”. Guess that title would be a little too long so I’m happy with the one I went with instead. So then let’s get on with the jumbled mess I call my daily world.

First and foremost this is the last time I’ll be pimping to get as many people as possible out to the FUMC Craft Fair in Melrose tomorrow. 645 Main St 9:00 - 1:00.

All my bags


Are packed

I’m ready to go!

Now that the sales will commence and the production of all those upcycled fabrics lessens, we can finally get our house back together. It is going to seem like we have so much space in our teeny apartment and the quilt-like layer of tiny threads all over the carpet will succumb to the vacuum on Sunday during football. Yee-haw!

Recently Charmaine posted a link to a really fun site where I spent some time “yearbooking” myself into a bunch of different time periods. It made me chuckle to see myself in these different eras but what was really funny is that the 1990 photo is scarily too close to my actual yearbook picture from 1991.

How much hairspray would this take?

I always wondered what I would look like with an afro.

To bang or not to bang?

See what I mean? Talk about hairspray, ugh.

Tomorrow Matt is going to hit the road and start acquiring a trunk load of pallets so we can start construction on our entertainment center. It is going to be a whole lot of fun to watch this thing come together. Nothing like acquiring material for free to create an enormous piece of furniture. I am definitely keeping my fingers crossed that it comes out nice because he already has plans to build a bunch of other functional furniture pieces using this free stock of lumber. That should keep him out of trouble for the entire winter and then he and B can bond over manly things like sawdust and planers while S and I bond over shaking our heads at the guys but enjoying the fruits of their labor.