WHO IS WHO?

Who is the mother and who is the daughter??

Also, two hours into work this morning I noticed this...

...my skirt's on backwards. Didn't realize those blonde moments would start so early

Half-Broke Horses

If you haven't read The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, I would recommend it. It is a memoir of a really crazy life by the author, who was raised in seemingly chosen abject poverty by an alcoholic father and head-crazy mother and toted around the southwest (Arizona, California and Nevada) and then in West Virginia. It's a super easy and fast read and really mesmerizing. This next book, also by the author, is not a sequel, but is about her maternal grandmother's life primarily as a rancher around New Mexico and northern Arizona and is just as intriguing and great a read.

* * *

You can because you have to.

Mom called it the vapors and said it was a sign of her high breeding and delicate nature. I thought it was a sign the corset made it hard to breathe.

Most important thing in life... is learning how to fall.

Never blame the horse. It's just something they learned along the way. And horses aren't dumb. They know what they need to know. Matter of fact, I always figured horses are smarter than they let on. Kind of like the Indians who pretend they can't speak English because no good ever came from talking with the Anglos.

No matter how much he hated or feared the future, it was coming, and there was only one way to deal with it; by climbing aboard.

When someone's wounded, the first order of business is to stop the bleeding. You can figure out later how best to help them heal.

...you can get so used to certain luxuries that you start to think they're necessities, but when you have to forgo them, you come to see that you don't need them after all.

Animals act like they hate to be penned up, but the fact is, they don't know what to do with freedom. And a lot of times it kills them.

You ride, you got to know how to fall, and you drive, you got to know how to crash.

The Opposite of Loneliness

I actually never really came across certain passages that astounded me, however, this collection of works by Marina Keegan (1989-2012), early deceased Yale graduate, were very moving as a whole. She wrote both fiction and nonfiction, and both were great. I was impressed with her ability to write about life at that age, and not trying to be too old already. I was really intrigued by her work Cold Pastoral, where the narrator is a new-ish girlfriend to a guy who dies suddenly, and the odd closing of events where the "real" love of his life, his on-again-off-again girlfriend for years and years is left behind while the "current" girlfriend is glorified. It just so happens that this piece is available online and you could read it here:

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/cold-pastoral

This collection was really a source of inspiration for myself.

The Wheel of Time: The Eye of the World, Book 1

I've read three books since I last posted anything. I haven't forgotten about them, just took awhile to getting around to doing this.

* * *

There must be a difference in what you saw, it seemed to him, depending on whether you sought adventure or had it forced on you.

...when what they do is hidden, men sometimes deal with strangers in ways they wouldn't if there were other eyes to see. And the quickest to harm a stranger are the soonest to think a stranger will harm them.

You wanted to do it, and at the same time you are afraid of it. And you are stubbornly refusing to let your fear best you.

Let us deal with the problems that face us here and now; everything else must wait.

If you watch the wolf too hard... a mouse will bite you on the ankle.

If wishes were wings, sheep would fly.

You thinking about home already, and you just started out in the world? The world will put a hook in your mouth. You'll set off chasing the sunset... and if you ever go back, your village'll no be big enough to hold you

Think, if you want to stay alive. Fear will kill you if you don't control it.

At last he had what he had been wishing for, but the price was high

Oat Pancakes

I discovered the most amazing delicious recipe you could possibly fathom and made it this weekend in my blender. I'd been scouring Kayla Itsines' recipes because I need to get better about the dieting and food and came across her Oat Pancakes, and because I loveeeee pancakes and waffles especially, I figured it would be a good step to have the best of both worlds. And there is no flour or anything like that either.

1 cup rolled oats
7/8 cup cottage cheese
2 eggs
1 banana
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract

...and that. is. it!!! Because I don't have a food processor and was using a blender, I first blended the cottage cheese, eggs, cinnamon and vanilla together. Then I chopped the banana and added that. Then I added the oats slowly and it worked perfectly.

This recipe only made about 3 pancakes, but it was enough for us. The pancakes were SO GOOD. The cinnamon gave it such flavor, and you couldn't notice there was anything "off" about them AT ALL. We topped them with more sliced banana, walnuts, and maple agave syrup. Both AJ and I were huge fans.

Cute guard dog on the porch when we ate breakfast out here

AJ went golfing nearby with his friends for a few hours, and I got to babysit the babies. I got into deep cleaning my place and found the girls tolerating each other and coexisting!

I also spent some time trying to cook (which was interesting) but I had good company with the kitty!

And on Saturday night we went to my friend Alyse's place for board games with her and her boyfriend and boy was that interesting haha. Sorry really is for adults. And Anana got along with Alyse and Mike's dogs Geisha and Bob, so win-win-win. But now it's Monday. Lose? Womp womp.

A Kk Original Smoothie

Earlier this year, my boytoy suffered an injury that rendered him unable to eat, and he was reduced to soups, juices and smoothies. I happily jumped onto the smoothie train. Unfortunately, his idea of a smoothie included ice cream and milk, which my 12 week workout program just does not condone.

I started messing with recipes for my own smoothies, using yogurts and such, but I have been trying to cut out as much dairy as possible, and I have finally perfected my smoothie to the most minimum ingredients and maximum deliciousness.

I soaked two tablespoons of chia seeds in vanilla almond milk for a good 15 minutes. Chia seeds thicken and release a gel that helps get a good consistency, the almond milk is dairy-free and the vanilla in there helps with flavor. I added my own protein powder but that's optional.

Put that in a blender with a banana (sometimes I also like pineapple and mango - I like the orange fruits) and a good amount of ice (ice is what makes smoothies thick) and it was cold, flavorful, delicious and boyfriend-approved. YOU'RE WELCOME!

Don't say I never taught you anything.

Happy Anniversary

Today is mine and Jayna's 5 year anniversary! We met for the first time on my first day of work at the New York school, which was May 17, 2010. (Yes, I remember this all specifically). BUT I didn't mention her BY NAME in my blog until July 21, 2010, so we deemed that our anniversary.

In going through all of our horrible pictures (we have like zero together) this is the first known picture of us which I HATE for OBVIOUS reasons, but had to post for the nostalgia. UGH.

And here are more from along our friendship journey! We have like none together, but a ton in the same spot.

New York

New York

Alabama

Alabama

Atlanta

North Carolina

North Carolina

Philadelphia

Philadelphia

Raleigh

Los Angeles

Newport Beach

San Diego

San Diego

San Diego

San Diego

San Diego

Los Angeles

Happy five years girlfriend. Can't wait for #SCBR !!!

Le Weekend

Oh my, what an eventful weekend.

It started on Friday. I had to get to work at 6am to run a webinar for incoming students. Apparently we've done our research and the most amicable time worldwide for this is 6:30a our time. Could be worse I guess, but still pretty bad. Because of that, I got to leave work early, so I went to the gym, and then to the "normal" grocery store (aka not Trader Joe's) to get ingredients for three (yes three!) different recipes I was trying out. I don't cook, so this was a big deal. I'm domesticating myself. Turns out grocery stores are very entertaining though because people all walk around on their phones and decide to have the most sacred conversations out in open so I got to just eavesdrop on drama as I wove in and out of the aisles.

That night was spaghetti squash, which wasn't so much of a recipe as it was just learning how to cook a spaghetti squash, but it was successful (thanks Marisa!) and I can now kinda eat spaghetti again in a weird way.

I was starting to work on recipe number 2, which was a chickpea-based dessert recipe, but the mashing of the chickpeas really wore me out. I do not have a food processor (and as I later learned, a LOT of kitchenware needed) but I figured the Ancient Egyptians still ate without a KitchenAid, so I would find a way to make this work. I boiled the chickpeas (twice!) to get them as soft as possible then tried mashing them as much as I could. It was tiring, but I made good progress and ended up saving it for the next morning and went to bed because it was Friday and I'm an old lady now.

In the morning I went to the gym (and would be so proud of myself, I would tell AJ "I went to the gym today! That was even MORE than my workout says... well, more than the bare minimum") and came home to finish trying to make that dessert. Since I am resourceful, I just used to blender to mash the rest of the chickpeas and gosh darnit if that didn't work.

I was still working on the dessert when AJ arrived, who looked really worried at my lumpy concoction and me food processing it with two spoons and my own muscles. In the end, it wasn't as smooth as it probably "should" have been, but it was actually really good!

These chocolate chip "blondies" are marketed as gluten free, grain free, high in fiber, clean, natural, and higher in protein... which for the most part I don't care about, and even though there wasn't any flour or sugar in the recipe, it did take a lot of peanut butter and honey, so I don't know what that means. At any rate, they turned out edible and even AJ liked them!

That night we went to Viva Pomona, a music festival at/around the Glasshouse that my coworker got us into. My other coworkers were there as well, and despite the gross humidity, it was really fun! We didn't know any of the bands, but we had drinks so it all worked out.

On Sunday I made my third recipe, which AJ refused to have. It was a Kayla Itsines recipe (the girl whose 12 week workout I am doing, and btw week 12 starts today!!) that were supposed to be zucchini muffins but it's basically just eggs and zucchini and mine turned out like a zucchini flan. So I told AJ to let me in on his eggs and bacon and sausage breakfast. (Edit: I tried my zucchini flan for a mid-morning snack and it was actually very flavorful and good!)

We went to the mall, partly to get out of the humidity, and partly because I had things to return, and partly because I wanted new running shoes. We hit up tons of sales, ran into my 6th grade teacher/mentor and his family, and went to TGIFridays for drinks and appetizers (their seared Ahi chips were AMAZING and only like 300 calories) and then came home in the rain.

Back at my place, AJ pulled out the sweater he bought from H&M on sale. He got it on the guys sale rack and he showed it to me and we both just thought it was nice. Kinda preppy, but a nice looking sweater. Of course guys never need to try anything on. So back at my place we were sorting out our stuff and I hear "what the heck are these?" and he's pulling out small satin loops from the inside of the sweater. "Those are to hang it on the hanger so you don't stretch out the neck, you've never seen those? They put those on girl clothes," as I was saying it we both looked at each other and he immediately started making excuses "It was on the guys rack! And it's a large!" so he put it on and it was definitely a large... for girls. It was stretched to breaking across his chest and the sleeves barely made it to his forearms and I was cackling like a maniac and trying to get my phone to take a picture before he ripped it off but I was too late and he wouldn't put it back on.

We both took French in high school, it didn't seem too girlie!

So in the end, I got a new sweater that day!

After he left, I got to cuddle with my little kitty who is scared of AJ and stays away while he is around. Ruh roh!

And now it's Monday and I'm tired and on week 12 of this workout and feel too tired to make it through this week!

Non-Profits and Foundations

I've been playing with the idea of starting my own non-profit. Basically, in New York, I was a part of one that I thought was amazing and didn't realize could exist, and I wanted to bring it to California and work on it on my own. Truthfully, I hadn't done too much more than buy a Non-Profit for Dummies book (which was amazingly helpful) but then I also applied, was accepted, and graduated from Riverside's Pick Group Board Development Training Program, which specifically trains young professionals in how non-profits are run and how to serve as a successful board member.

Here's my graduating from it in April of this year.

Since that time, the leaders of the training program recommended me to serve on the long-standing and very prestigious Mission Inn Foundation as an Associate Trustee. Basically, this board requires a lot more to serve than what a young professional is capable of (monetary and otherwise) and so they created the Associate Trustee position which is a modified version so they could help grow the young professionals as the next board members, and ask the Riverside Pick Group for their next candidate.

And now I start me tenure tomorrow!