I AM SO BORED

Listen I am going to be straight with you guys: I am not very interesting. One of my favorite things to do is learn stuff on the Internet. News? Gimme. Feminist literature? Allllll over it. Facts? Wikipedia and IMDB are bookmarks. Geography games? This week my dad and I spent an hour attempting to guess the 50 most populated cities in the US according to the 2010 Census without guessing #s 51-100. Yes, it was a Sporcle minefield. And it was in-TENSE.

(And Cincinnati fell out of the top 50! Who knew??)

(Mesa is in the top 50. St. Louis isn't. Sorry I just blew your mind.)

Well, despite the fact that my computer is literally the gateway to all my favorite things, and all my best friends (ugh, moving away was so dumb), I am borrrreed as heck with it.

So I've decided I have two new plans:

1. Finish/re-do that screenplay I started writing senior year of college. Why not, right? #random

2. Convince my dad to help me make a video audition for the Amazing Race. I mean, hello? Republican ex-cop cyclist father who is super competitive, and liberal city-girl dramatic upbeat daughter (who, incidentally, is also competitive) (and hot)? And they are both stubborn? And amazing? WHO WOULDN'T WATCH THAT?

Wait. I just realized both these things use my computer. This feels super meta.

That Feeling

I feel really good right now.

You know when you're just happy for no real reason? That used to happen to me a lot in New York. I'd be out for a wander in Brooklyn, and the light would catch in a funny, sparkly way, and I would just start smiling like I was drunk or something. A puppy would be acting all cute and stuff, or a car would stop short for no reason, or I'd see a person checking out one of those "FREE" boxes of books in front of a stoop. The realization of my own present-ness, I guess you could put it.

one of those "light just right" days in Brooklyn

It's like that feeling when your sheets are clean, or when your favorite song comes on the radio, or that boy you like texts you. Tiny moments that just make you feel lighter, I guess. Even if everything else isn't going your way.

clean white sheets...yesssss

I mean, today I woke up on purpose. I have decided that sleeping until noon just isn't an option every day, even if I am still unemployed. So I got up. I made breakfast. I showered. I wrote emails. I ran errands and voted. I met someone for coffee. I decorated for Halloween.

Halloween decor on my door

And no, it wasn't a banner day, necessarily. Nothing crazy happened, nothing terrible, nothing I'd brag about to anyone specifically.

picture-perfect fall day

But like...I feel good. I am happy with myself and the person I am, and just because I don't have a job to go to every day, that doesn't mean everything is terrible. We are all doing the best we can, and you know what? Some days that is absolutely, perfectly GREAT.

So I hope you all have one of those mini feel-good moments soon, because I think they are what make it all worth it.

Preparations!

On Thursday I am leaving Athens for a mini-vacation to celebrate two of my favorites getting married! I am beyond excited, not only for the wedding itself, but for the camp reunion that will happen all weekend! Plus, getting the heck out of dodge for a little bit sounds nice. After 11 months of traveling around, it's been quite an adjustment being back home, so I am excited for some open road and seeing old friends.

But I have a lot to do in the meantime. Tomorrow's plans run as follows:

1. wake up before 10am (this miiiight be the most challenging)
2. shower (yes, I have to put this on a list)
3. dash off to the bakery to secure a baguette that is (hopefully) comparable to France (!!)
4. scour my local shops/big box chains to find a bra that works with both my low-backed dress (and my girls)
5. drop off a resumé or two
6. see if my local cobbler can re-sole my gold heels before Thursday afternoon (cross your fingers, because I changed dresses at the last minute and now am working with navy, not black, and the vast majority of my heels are black)
7. return the other dress I bought for this wedding (it suckssss)
8. call my grandpa's retirement home to make sure I can take him off-site for dinner Thursday (precaution, because I tend to look young)
9. check oil/tire pressure on my new/old car, since this trip will be the longest trip we've taken together
10. PACK

I'll be gone for minute, stopping to see my grandpa and darling friend Lizz on the way up, spending the whole weekend in Indiana with 90% of my camp favorites, and visiting Wisco and Cincy on the way back. Hopefully I'll come back refreshed and happier than ever, although I think that's a given. I've only been looking forward to this wedding since LAST September, and really, since Tommo and Kelly met at camp in 2010! (Oh yeah, we knew. They're PEFECT!!)

Obviously I cannot put up a picture of EVERYONE I am going to see this weekend, because that would require going through all of my 20,000 pictures. It would be very hard. So here are just a few (easy-to-find) shots of some people I get to see this weekend!!

Rachelle, Kelly (the bride!), and Flax, looking oh-so-cool

one of my favorite lassies, Emma!!

me in between the happy couple (aka the awkward threesome picture)

big trip 2010, with Amy, Chellers, and Kelly

the lovely Elizabeth, who is now an Ohioan with me again!!

my date, Rak the Ripper

If you aren't in the photo lineup, I'm still excited to see you!!

I Pretty Much Hate Fall

^ I attempted to lure you in with that title. Did it work? I guess I'll have to wait and see what my Blogger statistics tell me...

But really, it's true! I do hate fall, for the most part. Okay, so today was pretty nice, once it got past about noon. However, fall is only nice the way that winter is nice; that is, almost never. Winter is pleasant around the holidays, the first couple of snows that stick, those few days when everyone is pink-cheeked, happy, and handing out presents. And fall is nice when it's bright and sunny, before the leaves have fallen, before the rains have come, when the world is teetering on the edge of summer still. Because, inevitably, in about 2-3 weeks, fall is gonna get grey-ish brown, and cold.

I had a rather unpleasant reminder of how fall really is yesterday. The high on Monday was about 48 degrees here in Athens (about 9C). We have yet to turn on the heat in my parents' home (that is, until last night's frost!), and so all of yesterday was spent in my sweats, thermal long-sleeve, and cashmere pullover (stolen from my grandpa). My feet were burrowed in my new fuggs (fake Uggs, guys). Not a happy camper. I hate being cold. And yeah, I will be a baby about it.

So anyway, I am NOT down with this autumn transition, and I am over all the people in the world (95% of my friends, I would say) who keep proclaiming their love of fall. I'm over it, I say!

The only redeeming quality of fall is the opportunity for good photos. And that small window of time will be over in about 2 weeks, so I'm filling myself up now. Here are a few photos I took today on my phone as I was walking the dogs through the park.

(Side note: yes, I love Instagram, and I don't care if you hate it. It is a great tool for me. Instagram helps me think more about composition (those squares!), it lets me put all my favorite phone photos in one place, and filters are fun. I know these are not award-winning, because I have some of those on my other camera, homie. I just can't take my big guy with me when I'm walking the pups.)

(P.S. If you want to be Instagram buddies, I'm @natalienoods!!)

I have always loved these big yellow guys, I think I have around 6 photos like this, from different years

It was so hard to see the yellow in the background, thank goodness for filters, because it was like this in real life!

My boots and the leaf carpet.

Sweet-faced favorite dog, Zoe.

I was temporarily blinded by the sun taking this photo.

We need more than just yellow trees around here, but this one is at least a good one.

Quiet Evenings

Apparently now when I don't have anything to do in the evenings (aka, all the evenings), I decide I should write blog posts. Confession: I have 3-4 posts already written in my drafts portion. One is being saved for the right moment, and two are just two I wrote and decided they weren't worthy of posting.

I'm complicated.

Today I went to Career Connections and interviewed for them. It's like a temp agency, and while I have done the whole temp agency song-and-dance routine, I've found they are pretty good at keeping me employed. Plus I scored 97% on the Word test and 90% on the Excel test. Oh and got 82 wpm. Wow, I rock. I should be hired immediately! I'm so humble.

plus, I'm adorable!!

Anyway. Both my poor parents are sick these days, with insufferable cough/cold situations. I am convinced that I'm not going to get it. Why? Because I started drinking apple cider vinegar a few weeks ago and it's supposed to make you invincible. So it's like a test! Bring it on, germies!!

You know what is just great about being unemployed? It doesn't matter in the least what I wear all day! I can literally wear whatever strikes my fancy and it is the least important thing. After I got back from my interview today, I got to shed the heels and pencil skirt. And so I grabbed what was chilling on my floor, aka sweatpants and a shredded (on-purpose) t-shirt. At 3:30pm on a Wednesday! It is not all bad in my neck of the woods, friends.

Since Momma is sick, I walked the dogs while she made soup (chicken and rice, oh yeah). I like walking them at sunset best. They don't like it so much because it means they have to wait for a while after they eat their dinner. But the skies are the best then. Cool skies never get old. I bet about 50% of the photos on my phone are of (or featuring) the sky.

today's sunset photo!

Well, let's hope Career Connections pulls through for me and finds me something perfect with insurance so that I can go to the eye doctor, get my prescription updated, and order more contacts. I only have one set left. :-/ bisous!

took this guy walking the dogs the other day, at Sells' Park

A Birthday Dinner

Today is my mother's birthday. I have promised not to disclose how old she is on the internet, because I am a great daughter, but obviously we did a lil' bit o' celebratin' at the Hunter household.

Now, if you know anything about me (which I hoooope you do...since you're reading this), you probably know that I tend to take on cooking projects when I have very little to do and/or it's cold outside. My dad works evenings and so he wasn't around this evening for dinner; therefore, we made a big dinner yesterday.

I hauled out my French cooking cookbook (A Little Taste of . . . France) which helpfully gives the grams and their inferior cups/tablespoons/ounces conversions. After reading through the whole book multiple times, going through pinterest, and doing a little hemming and hawing, we chose a decidedly French menu. A quick American-style starter of mushroom and onion pull-apart bread (a pinterest find), followed by a main course of baked garlic prawns and vegetable (tomatoes, zucchini) tian, with individual chocolate-mint soufflés for dessert.

I will not say I did it all without help; I hate peeling/deveining shrimp, I often needed a third hand with the soufflés, and Mom basically did the pull-apart bread all by herself while I prepared the creme patissière soufflé base. However, it was my project, and it came out above what I expected. The run-down:

1. Pull-apart bread: we should have used something other than the 2-day-old loaf we did use...I think it needed more onion flavor, but it was yummy and easy
2. Baked Garlic Prawns: suuuuper tasty and simple (butter, olive oil, shrimp, garlic, red pepper...that's it!!), would have been better with French butter (like everything!)
3. Vegetable Tian: decidedly French, especially as the recipe didn't call for salt or pepper...a very easy and pretty way to cook vegetables, and it was tasty with the Gruyère cheese
4. Chocolate-mint Soufflés: a soufflé is something I've been hoping to tackle for a while now...it was intimidating and I was CERTAIN my soufflés wouldn't rise, especially since I made a random substitution of crème de menthe instead of chocolate liqueur...well they did rise! and were quite tasty, very rich, could have done a better job folding in the egg whites, and my measurements weren't so precise...but I'll call it a success anyway, homie

Now, please enjoy some photos of our bounty, don't be too jealous, and if you're nice and lovely, maybe I'll cook for you someday. ;-) Also, don't forget to wish my amazing momma a happy birthday!!

So Here's What is Happening

Since arriving home, it's been fairly quiet, but life is not without its surprises. Here's what has been happening chez moi since I last wrote:

1. my car got towed...it was, according to the towing guy, "a rite of passage for living in Athens," but it still left me -$138.89
2. I've gotten back into my baking pants and made two quiches and some banana-pear-brandy bread (which was a Natalie-altered recipe, and a great success!)
3. made lots of walks around my neighborhood and I'm happy to report not too many changes, lots of cats, and a few deer/bunny sightings
4. I tore up my finger pads on a bouldering trip and they hurt, a lot
5. my room has been reorganized, and yesterday I opened 3 boxes from my apartment in Brooklyn...progress!
6. I've applied to a few jobs in town, have yet to hear back from any of them
7. apparently it costs about $100 to get my substitute teaching license; therefore, it's on the back burner, because I would rather get a job for free than pay for one
8. been fighting many random, middle-of-the-day headaches, which means many random, middle-of-the-day naps
9. I upgraded my phone, which was long-overdue, and now I can see 100% of the screen, instead of 66%
10. I've seen a few people from high school and have succeeded in not acting like I'm still in high school (aka awkward and self-conscious)!

Here are a few iPhone shots I've taken of my past 10 days at home:

dog butts while walking the 'hood

injuries

the aforementioned banana-pear-brandy bread

deer, chillin'

potted plants in the front yard

the brown dalmatian is hiding under the covers somewhere