Night Swimming

Night Swimming by Robin Schwarz is a book that I just finished reading today. Normally when I decide on which book to read next, I just stare at my bookshelf until something pops out at me. I like to think of this as fate deciding what I need to read next. This book was chosen about two or three days after Mark and I broke up. I wanted something to occupy my time but something that was a fairly easy read. After all, Mein Kampf is on my bookshelf and it would definitely occupy my time. I stared at my bookshelf for a good ten minutes before I finally decided that this would be the next book to read. Another factor in the genre was that I had just finished a book called The Inner Game of Tennis, which is about just what the title suggests. Very interesting read. I also had just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns. Also a good book, but more...serious. Therefore, Night Swimming was the choice.

When I started reading it, I knew that if I could focus my mind on the book, that it would be a good read. Simple, with a follow-able story line. I wasn't disappointed. Night Swimming is the story about a woman named Charlotte Clapp. At the beginning of the book, she goes to the doctor and finds out that she has one year left to live. She is also severely overweight. After she gets home from the doctor, she gets the urge to live her life to the fullest for her final year. She had worked for 15 years at a bank and decided that she was going to rob it, fake her death, and run away. She steals 2 million from the bank (which actually wasn't the banks money, anyway), pushes her car in the river, and flees. Her goal was to make it to Hollywood, but first she detours to Louisiana when she sees an obituary for a woman that she wished she could know before she died. She makes it to Louisiana in time to attend the funeral and decides to take the name of the woman, so by the time she makes it to Hollywood, she is now known as Blossom McBeal. She buys a condo with a pool, because when she was looking at it, she got completely infatuated with the maintenance man. Her main goal in going to Hollywood was to find love. 

She then does things to make it so that Skip (the maintenance guy) notices her. She asks him to hang a picture and then ends up eating lunch with him instead and never hanging the picture. She goes completely crazy trying to get him to notice her in a loving way. Then she finds out he's married to a gorgeous woman, but the marriage isn't going well. The woman left and didn't know when she would want to come back. Skip was still holding out that the marriage was going to work. All the while, he tries to help Blossom get accustomed to life in Hollywood and does things with her like go to Disneyland. Everything he did, though, was merely on a friendship level. While she is living her life during the day, during the night she goes to the pool and swims for hours. She eventually meets a neighbor named Dolly when she gets an invite to a birthday party for Dolly's dogs. She had to borrow Skip's dog because she didn't have one, but attended the party and made a great friend. One day, Blossom and Dolly are talking and Blossom spills the beans about everything starting with finding out that she was going to die. She also tells Dolly about her love of Skip.

Dolly convinces Blossom that in order to find love, she needed to focus on loving and doing what made her happy. Happiness doesn't come from loving someone. Therefore, Blossom decided to make a list of everything she wanted to accomplish before her year was up. She told Skip about this list (except for the fact that she wanted to pour out her feelings to him) and he was really excited to help her cross off as much as possible, even if he didn't know she was dying. She kept swimming at night and eventually got to 125 pounds. By this point, she was no longer focused on loving Skip, but rather loving life. One day, Skip noticed her by the pool and told her that she looked fantastic. Not just because she had lost the weight, but because he could tell the she was genuinely happy. She had then told him that the weight loss was because she loved to swim at night. Then, a few nights later, he met her at the pool and he confessed his feelings to her. The next morning, life caught up with her and the police showed up at her doorstep, but not before Skip and she had made a promise to live their lives with no regrets.

That's obviously not how the book ends, but I can't spoil the whole story. This book was perfect for me to read the last couple of weeks. It helped me to get past the anger and the pain that I was feeling and refocus my energy toward looking ahead at what is in front of me. I've always been an independent person. While it sucks that someone I loved just disappeared from my life, it's not the end of it. Therefore, I'm going to focus on what I want to do and what makes me happy. I advise you all to do the same.

Christmas with the Old Man

December is my favorite month of the year. For one, I was born in December; two, it usually snows; and three, Christmas! My family has never really done a huge blow out Christmas. It's always been a really small affair with a few gifts with meaning. Naturally, this year was no different. I received a package in the mail from my mom last Saturday and waited until today to open it. In it was the traditional calendar, money, an ornament, a picture frame, and a little cross thingy. Now that I think about it, I'm going to say that the ornament is becoming a tradition, too. 

Even though I couldn't make it back to Nebraska this year (or any of the last several), I had the opportunity to meet my dad in Illinois. He had to work Christmas Eve and had to stay at a hotel anyway and it was only about a three hour drive for me. I worked yesterday morning and then showered and packed up the food I made and other stuff I would need. I got to Illinois around 3 PM. At about 5, we decided it was time to dig in to all the food I made because neither of us ate lunch. All the food turned out pretty well, including my first attempt at a cheesecake. A little after we ate, we tried to drive around and find some Christmas lights but we didn't have much luck. Then today we ate breakfast and went on our separate ways. Even though it was only a short trip, it was still really nice to be able to spend some time with my dad. 

Yummy Goulash

Tomorrow, I am going to Decatur, Illinois to meet my dad for Christmas. I am in charge of making the food for our feast. As I was going through recipes trying to decide what to make, I came across the recipe I have for goulash. I immediately decided that I needed to make this. Not because it was going to part of the Christmas meal, but because a couple of months ago I was talking to him on the phone and I told him that I was making it and he said that it sounded really good. I'm also assuming that he hasn't had goulash in quite some time. 

The recipe for this is very, very simple. It's basically meat, tomatoes, noodles, and spices.

The first thing you do is brown the meat. The recipe that I have calls for two pounds, so if you are only making for one or two people, I would suggest halving the whole recipe. After the meat is browned, you add in the onion and garlic. Cook it for a few minutes until the garlic and onion make the place smell yummy. Next, you add all of the other ingredients except for the noodles. Bring the goop to a boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes. This is when you add the noodles. Cook for about another 25 minutes and then you are left with this...

Not the best picture, but it's so good! And the best thing about goulash is that it saves well and is probably better reheated than straight from the pot.

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef

1 large onion, diced

4 large cloves garlic, minced

3 cups water

2 15oz cans tomato sauce

2 14.5oz cans diced tomatoes

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp dried oregano

2 tsp dried basil

2 dried bay leaves

1 tbsp seasoned salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 cups elbow macaroni (or whatever, obviously I used shells), uncooked

1. In a large Dutch oven, cook the meat over medium heat, breaking up the meat as it cooks into small pieces. Cook until there is no longer any pink. Stir in the onions and garlic. Cook and stir the mixture until the onions are translucent.

2. Stir in all other ingredients, except the pasta. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Stir in the pasta, cover, and simmer over low heat for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, discard the bay leaves, and either serve or store in the refrigerator overnight.

Foreign Money Magnets

In an attempt to keep my mind occupied, I decided to take a dip into the crafting pool. I don't know if I would consider myself to be a crafting wizard, or even moderately gifted, so I started with something very easy that pretty much no one can mess up. I saw an idea on Pinterest to turn coins from foreign countries into magnets. I didn't think I had that many coins left, but I actually did, even though the majority of them are 1 cent euro pieces. Therefore, earlier today I ventured out to Hobby Lobby and bought the necessary supplies.

Obviously, I didn't buy Yoda at Hobby Lobby, but he was my handy dandy helper. And by helper, I mean he tried to eat everything. Like I said earlier, this project was fairly simple. How hard can it be with a coin, magnet, and some glue? All I did was take the magnet, put a little dab of glue on it, then stuck a coin to it and centered the coin as best as the glue would allow. The end result I got wasn't too shabby, after about five or so hours of drying time.

The picture may not have turned out the best, but you get the idea. I also didn't accomplish my original goal of getting my mind off things, either. Oh well, I like them.

Out with the Old, In with the New

Since my stars are aligning for change this wonderful month of December, I decided that I may as well go full out. I guess the change actually started in November when I decided to leave my job at Target. I thoroughly enjoyed everyone I worked with (most everyone), but was expected to do about ten different people's job in any given shift. I don't really mind being the go to person. I'm reliable so it's almost expected everywhere I work that I will multitask until my ligaments fall off. The problem with this is that A. $8.25 an hour to do a manager's job is unacceptable and B. I was getting reprimanded for not doing my job. Let's be clear here. If you want me to do my job, how about you allow me to do it instead of making sure I do everyone else's also?!

Then a few weeks later, the next change was when Mark and I decided to go our separate ways, even though all the signs are pointing to him coming back begging me to take him back. I long for this day, because who doesn't like saying "I told you so". Bittersweet, it will be. 

Yesterday, I decided another change I should make is to get a new phone. I had had my HTC Rezound since November of 2011. Therefore, I was eligible for an upgrade. I actually had been since July. Yet again, all the stars seemed aligned to make this change. I thought I wouldn't have money to get one, but they were on sale at Target. Then Mark said he wanted to pay all the bills (guilt perhaps?) and so that opened up a nice Christmas/birthday present for me! I had decided on the Galaxy S4 a few months ago and so far, I can definitely say that I am satisfied, even if it took three hours for me to do the upgrade. It might be slightly bigger than my old phone, but it's much lighter. Another strange anomaly to me is that I took my phone off the charger this morning at 5 AM and it still isn't even down to half battery. 

Another big change in the works is possibly heading back to Nebraska. I feel like it's nearing time to raise the white flag on Indiana and start anew. I'm just having if I want to finish my lease out, which is up in October, wait until the tennis season is over in May, or just pack now and call it a day. Perhaps it's just the birthday/Christmas blues.

21 Days of No Soda

I used to drink a lot of soda. I'm talking at least 32oz a day. I was constantly tired, had terrible acne, and just felt blah. Well, in mid to late November, I decided to stop drinking soda for at least 21 days. I knew if I just kept track in my mind that nothing would come of it. Therefore, I created a calendar so that I could check off each day that no soda was consumed. It was just like a calendar but started with the first no soda day and ended on December 13. Originally, my reward when I reached said goal was going to be a new pair of tennis shoes, since my current ones are approximately a half size too small. I even had some in mind. 



Problem is, I also hit my first weight loss goal in the process and my reward for that was new tennis shoes. Therefore, before I hit my goal of no soda, I already has these gems in hand. Revert back to me mentioning my current ones are too small. Well, to my luck, the new shoes are too big! I returned them today. Since I already got these, though, I needed a new reward. With the help of some of my friends, I chose to get a pair of black heels (and also a second pair as a Christmas present to myself). 

When I first started this 21 day challenge, I was extremely tempted to get a soda. I would avoid going certain places because I didn't want to cave. By about day seven-ish, I was mostly okay with no drinking it but had my occasions where I really wanted to walk across the parking lot and get a large Dr. Pepper from McDonalds (it's seriously that close). By about the tenth day, it really was no challenge choosing tea or lemonade or just grabbing a water. They say it takes 21 days to break a habit. Well, I can, for the most part, say that I no longer want soda at all. It's become a habit to order something different if I go through the drive thru. I've even been making infused waters to keep in my fridge and carry around a water bottle throughout the day. Since I stopped drinking soda, I am not as tired as much. I used to nap probably four days a week but now only do if I didn't get much sleep the night before, or it's my day off and I woke up way too early for a normal human. I still have my acne (it's never going away) but it's mostly down to just the scarring. I've even started experimenting with using foundation and will eventually try contouring. I know, odd. But most importantly, I just FEEL better. I have more energy. My skin feels better. I have the urge to do things other than sit and watch TV. In reality, the 21 days really went by as fast as the wink of an eye.

Hard Rock Headache

Back in high school, my boyfriend at the time went to Washington DC on a school trip. He brought me back a beanie baby from the Hard Rock Cafe. I didn't really think too much about it and it ended up getting tossed aside. The following year, I went on a choir trip to Dallas, TX. On that trip, we stopped at the Hard Rock again. I was debating buying another beanie baby and one of my friends said that I should buy it and make it a goal to get one from every Hard Rock that there is. 

Fast forward to 2010. While studying abroad in the fall of 2009, I increased my collection of beanie babies. Prior to studying abroad, I collected Cozumel, Mexico; Myrtle Beach, SC; London, England; and Maui, HI (which was a gift). While studying in Europe, I also got Rome, Italy; Munich, Germany; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Prague, Czech Republic. Then when I got back, I also added Indianapolis, IN and San Antonio, TX. Needless to say, I have quite a few places to go before I collect all of them, right? WRONG! Because they stopped making them! They were so cute, too. 


Ok, to be honest, they aren't that cute, but they are a great collectors item. I found out about them no longer making it last February when I was in Chicago, IL. I met a friend of mine there for dinner and he was running late so I hit the gift shop. I looked and looked but couldn't find this dang bear. Finally, I broke down and asked the guy running the shop. He looked at me like I had three heads and asked if I meant this...

Now was my turn to look at him like he had three heads. I almost settled for it but I decided that they looked way too creepy. And now, as I look on the Hard Rock webpage, I see no stuffed creatures of any kind. No offense, Hard Rock, but pins are way too easy to lose and drinking glasses break way too easily. Speaking of those, never wash a Hard Rock glass in the dishwasher. The logo comes off. Now I guess I will just have to figure out what I'm going to use as my checklist for hitting all of the Hard Rock Cafes across the world.