Let's Get Movin'

Everybody I know is always moving. Moving apartments, I mean. I myself have moved three times in the past four years. And every time, I had to do all this horrible comparison shopping on the internet and fill out ten different online quote forms and read comments on the Better Business Bureau site, and then had to hire movers or rent one of those pod things you put in your driveway but if you don't have a driveway you have to put it on a city road and to do that you need to get a permit from the city and then you have to recruit friends to help you carry the boxes, and before any of that happens you have to sort all your stuff into categories, for example "winter clothes" and "manuscripts" and "souvenirs from failed relationships." It is a grueling process, physically, emotionally, and financially. But one thing I have recently discovered that would help immensely is this HireAHelper site, where you can search for local help. If you're moving to New York, for example, you could look up New York Movers, and it would allow you to search for moving helpers in your zip code, read reviews, compare prices, and then hire them. Apparently in New York, customers save an average of $300. So the next time I move, whether it's to New York or to Cancun or just to the other side of Baltimore, I will not need your help at all.

This post sponsored by HireAHelper.

Ohh I wish I had joined the Daring Bakers when I had the impulse a couple months ago! For October they attempted our notoriously difficult friend, the MACARON. I am looking at the pictures of their results right now and a lot of them are soooo much worse than mine! (A lot of them are a lot better, too, of course). There are flat ones and footless ones and extremely grainy ones and ones that look more like Oreos. What a coincidence that I just bought almond flour. I feel more inspired than ever before.

Am on the bus. Uneventful trip, except that the driver is being extremely pessimistic. He keeps talking about how last time it look 7 hours and how we should expect delays at the tunnel and so on. I mean, there are always delays at the tunnel, but I don't see why he has to display his negativity in front of us NYC-going passengers, all eager at seeing lights and tall buildings and celebrities and our boyfriends, jeez. We are meeting Caolan and Paul for dinner at a South Indian restaurant! My three favorite things - seeing friends, eating, and sharing my culture with others.

I wish I hadn't blogged about macarons, as now I am CRAVING them.

Ohhhhh this Trader Joe's blueberries and cream yogurt is incredible! I like that the blueberries are blended into it. I've never been a fan of actual fruit at the bottom of yogurt cups, because it always surprises me with its non-yogurt texture.

I am really bad at ironing. It took me like half an hour to iron my dress today. It was terribly wrinkled. I don't have much experience ironing. I guess my clothes are generally the kind that don't wrinkle. And at home, my dad does all the ironing. On Friday and Saturday afternoons, you will often find him ironing my mom's saris in preparation for a party.

Have decided to try making macarons again. I bought almond flour today - at Trader Joe's! They had it all along. Last time I searched every grocery store and the Indian stores and nobody had it, but now I am prepared. And I have parchment paper and I am going to age my egg whites, etc. Maybe I will make them next week and take them back to Canada with me.

The recipe I tried earlier was one for cinnamon swirl bread. The problem was that it wasn't rising, so I followed some internet advice to turn the oven to its lowest heat for a few minutes and then turn it off and let the dough rise in there. But then I forgot I'd covered it with plastic wrap, and of course, the plastic wrap melted all over the dough. Sigh. The dough did rise, though. So next time, I will know what to do.

It is nice to have small successes, like with baking, or like when a day of class goes well, or when you work really hard in a spinning class, or when you lose 0.3 pounds. It makes the fact that nobody wants to represent your novel a bit more bearable. But then when you fail at the small things, you begin to despair.

Tried to bake something just now but it failed miserably. Damnit, it was going perfectly until I followed some stupid tip on the internet. I hate the internet. And I hate wasting ingredients. I feel so dejected.

I just went to Trader Joe's with Robin. So many delicious snacks. I bought cat food (delicious snack for the cat) and cat cookies (delicious snack for me). The cat cookies look exactly like Wendy.

Oh God why are Willow and Oz so cute? I want to make cookies shaped like them.

I have three pages of my story! Nothing has really happened so far.

Hmm, I kind of want to read the National Book Award Winner book, Let the Great World Spin. At first I rolled my eyes a little at the twin towers tightrope walker thing, since it seemed like the book would be banking on the success of Man on Wire, but I guess he must have started writing the book before the movie came out? Funny coincidence. Or he just wrote the book really quickly. Tightrope walkers. I wish I had done something with the tightrope walker sketch I wrote a few years ago. Now if I turned it into a story, it would seem like I was a horrible imitator.

You know you watch too much TV when you are watching Glee and realize the guest star playing Susie Pepper, masked by glasses and hideous sweaters, is the same person who played the Mercy West doctor who got fired for not checking the patient's airway on Grey's Anatomy a couple weeks ago, AND is the same person who plays Sal's wife on Mad Men. I love trying to identify minor actors and then confirming my suspicions on imdb. The other day I was on St. Paul and saw a girl who looked familiar and in trying to place her, I thought of TV shows instead of real life places I might have met her before.

I hate these birth control commercials that feature groups of women fakely discussing their birth control choices. They're all wearing purple and yellow and one will say something like, "Don't get me wrong, I love my kids..."

I was sort of down about my bad eating today but a certain boyfriend smartly reminded me that it was just one bad day out of many, which is true! I looked at my eating chart and I have been quite healthy ever since November 5 (which is when I started the food chart). That's only one bad day out of fourteen. And I either went to a spinning class or went on the elliptical for 11/14 of those days, and the other three I did either my 8 minute tapes or went for a long walk. And in that time, I only ate out twice, and both were with friends, and I had a mere bowl of soup one time, and a dessert the other time, so I am saving money, too. Well done, me. I have lost 6 pounds so far. I think the trick is that I need to plan a dinner that involves at least a little bit of effort. That way I have something to look forward to all day and don't stray into eating too many extra weird things.

I am going to spend all of tomorrow in a cafe writing and grading. Maybe Chocolatea, since I never seem to get anything done at the B&N anymore.

Can't wait until something more interesting happens so that I can blog about it.

Forgot to blog that a student fell asleep in my class today. I announced to the class that he was asleep and asked for somebody to wake him up. There was much giggling.

Best episode of Buffy - John Ritter guest starring as weird robot boyfriend of Buffy's mom.

Skipped movie nite due to hearing that movie was very long. I have a tendency to fall asleep while watching movies in the dark, unless I am googling at the same time.

Am deciding whether to go to the half-hour intense spinning class with the hardcore instructor at lunch time, or to the one-hour class with the more laid-back instructor in the evening. I haven't done a half-hour class yet. Seems blessedly short. But then I guess you burn only half the calories, which is disappointing. I suppose I will go to the longer class, though I prefer the other instructor. Or maybe I should challenge myself to try a class other than spinning? Hmm, there's a step class, two yoga classes, or "butts and guts." Yikes. Those all sound terrible.

I have started a new story! I love it already. I think I love it because I am typing in Cambria, which is an excellent font. I am trying to write speedily, without thinking too much. Kind of like how I write this blog!

Have eaten terribly today. Had: coffee, weird Cafe Q pasta salad, many tagalongs, a red velvet cupcake, tiny amount of leftover chicken curry and rice, a glass of wine (to make me feel writerly). Is it terrible that I want to make waffles? No, Shashi, don't make waffles. I have made excellent weight loss progress, so I don't want to ruin it all in a day.

I think I am going to skip movie nite, as feel a bit restless and might be better to use that time for writing and perhaps a walk and 8 minute tapes? Or just lots of episodes of Buffy.

I bought Girl Scout Cookies with the idea of taking them to the movie nite, but then I ate most of them. My teeth sort of hurt now. I don't even like Girl Scout Cookies that much! Not the Tagalongs anyway, which is the kind I bought. Why do they call them Tagalongs? A Girl Scout should be a Leader, not a Tagalong.

Picked up a Stuart Dybek collection at the library. Last time I went, I couldn't find his books, but I think I must have checked the blue labels and not the normal labels.

This space heater under my desk is incredibly soothing, but I'm afraid my legs will catch fire and I won't even notice.

Got my swine flu vaccine this morning. I feel so safe. And I got the other flu shot last month, so people can cough on me all they want (like how that one student did during office hours) and I will remain impervious, as though protected by an invisible force field.

Went to spinning class #7. It was the hardcore instructor, but I think I held up well.

Made chicken curry for dinner.

Bought a food scale at the Goodwill for $3, not because I am becoming diet obsessive, but because I plan to use it to weigh my mail as to avoid trips to the post office!

Bought red globe grapes, which have seeds in them. Was thinking how weird it is that there are seedless grapes. It's like they've been neutered. Also, why don't they make coreless apples? Or pitless peaches? And they make apple corers and peach pitters, why not make grape seeders? Imagine a coreless apple. You could take massive bites. It'd be creepy the first few times, but by the time the next generation grew up, it would be totally normal, like seedless watermelons. Oooh imagine a pitless mango. I guess you'd have to account for the extra calories when you were entering it into your food chart.

ARGHHHHAGRGHHAAAARRRRRGGGG I am out of soymilk so I can't make coffee. I feel inhuman. I mean, I guess I could make coffee but then I would have to drink it black, and I mostly drink coffee for the soymilk. I'm not refined at all. I realized this yesterday as I wandered around the Urban Wine Cellar looking for sweet white wine and then left because the prices were too high. I don't see why it's so terrible to like things to be sweet-tasting. I mean I'd rather eat cake than broccoli. But on the other hand, I'd rather have a light fluffy not-so-sweet cake than a fake frosting birthday cake, so maybe it's the same sort of thing. From now on, I am going to be the most refined person you know. I will drink black coffee and dry red wine and I will judge everyone when they don't do the same.

Wendy has the hiccups! I am going to try to scare her.

Ate too much goat cheese. I need to stop buying cheese. I don't even like goat cheese that much. Approximately 200 calories over limit, but it's probably because I didn't eat half the day and it made my blood sugar crazy. Reason I didn't eat half the day was that I went to the post office after class at 1:15 and discovered that it is closed from 1-3 every day, so killed time on the Avenue and then went back and posted stuff and then went home and ate a bran muffin, so it was 4pm before I had anything except coffee.

Went to spinning. Large man came in last minute and sat on bike in front of me, blocking my view of the instructor. SO ANNOYING. If I were a large man, I would not go sit directly in front of a 5'4" girl, when half the bikes in the room are free. I bet he sits in front of little kids at the movie theatre. I spent the hour glaring at his large bicycling ass.

I am selfish and wish I hadn't started volunteering on Tuesdays. It makes me really anxious. Mostly because I feel that we are not making any progress and aren't going to. What happened to the old, selfless me? Probably back at Cornell. Had dinner with Philip yesterday and reminisced about Cornell, except I realized I didn't really miss it very much at all. I think I was reminiscing about the bad parts. Is that still considered reminiscing?

Need to start writing.

Am excited again, about teaching flash fiction. Found a couple of decent ones on Google Books. Am going to make them write 55 word stories. Also, for their last story assignment I made them write a story/sketch/scene that begins with a description of an object, and I just realized that is the structure of Stuart Dybek's Pet Milk, and so I'm going to give them that to read too - it's longer than flash fiction, but still not very long, and such a good story.

I have been percolating a new story in my head but I keep thinking I have already written it or at least started it and then I go to my computer and look for the file and it isn't there.

Gained one pound overnight. Must stop weighing myself every day.

Looking forward to weekend in NYC. Trying to think of things I can bake that are transportable. Have to buy flour.

Oh dear. I am watching the Biography episode about Jodie Foster and it just said, "by the age of 30 she was a two time Oscar winner who had already directed her first film." I am so behind. But then, you can start acting professionally when you're a little kid, but you can't really do that with writing. So probably I can add 18 or 19 years of time.

I am sleepy and don't know why I am fighting it.

I feel like making a fancy cheesecake.

Today I graded many stories...errr...only six now that I think about it. I also made coconut sticky rice with mango, which was pretty good but I think too sweet and rich, so next time I will thin it down with milk and use less sugar. The mango was spectacular, for being out of season. It cost $2, but was worth it. Phil was in town this evening, so we went to Donna's. I had the potato cauliflower soup, which was pretty good, but I always have this issue with soup where it tastes good for the first few spoons and then I get bored of it and wish I had ordered something with more components.

The cat is a bit disgruntled because I was forced to clean her ears two days in a row.

Did my laundry. Need to put it away because it is all over my bed.

Started outlining a new story.

Told my class we were going to discuss flash fiction tomorrow but now I no longer feel like it. Too late! I think I will do a condensed version of the flash fiction class I took last spring. We'll read a longish piece, then write one, then read a shorter piece, then compress the piece they wrote, then read 6 word stories, then compress their own pieces a final time. Is there enough time for that in 50 minutes? No. Maybe will cancel the 6 word portion, since it never really works anyway.

My life is awfully dull. Am looking forward to my spinning class tomorrow night.