Rocking my Hot Booties

Thursday night and I'm sitting on my couch in my pajamas by 8pm, drinking tea and eating popcorn, and wearing my Hot Booties.

Best Yankee Swap win of 2012

Pop those bad boys in the microwave for a minute and, boom, instant warmth. They also have the added benefit of lavender scent and imposing awkward clown shoe mobility.

Lame? Maybe. But I definitely needed it. It's exhausting to sit and chatter my teeth all day at work.

I can't say my job is all bad, though. I adore some of the people I work with.

Yesterday was the agency Christmas pot luck/gift swap, which involved lots of baked goods and bad pizza. At least I wasn't sitting in the conference room in the dark for 90 minutes watching a webinar with cold air blasting on me from the AC like I was today. Sorry, I'm easily distracted by traumatic memories of arctic temperatures.

Back to the point of this tiny tangent. I walked away from the gift swap with a gold Michael Kors wallet, which I totally wasn't into at first. But the more I look at it, the more I like it. My coworker gave a winery tour and tasting for two at Shelalara Vineyards in Coventry, which the new administrative assistant won. I've been on the tour before and really enjoyed it. The wines were really different (flavors like blueberry merlot, strawberry reisling, and watermelon merlot), and some were made to freeze to wine slushies. I told her about the wine tasting and she seemed really into it. When I got into the office today, though, she came by my cubicle with the gift and insisted I take it. I ain't mad.

Anyone interested in joining me for a wine tasting?

P.S. - I apologize for jumping all over the place. I'm too lazy to edit my train of thought.

I struggle to come up with blog post titles.

I had every intention of blogging today, but things got a little crazy. I worked from 9am until almost 7pm and was nonstop busy all day between meetings, trying to figure out healthcare plans, and a Christmas caroling event. Why is it that the "fun" things are always the biggest headaches? Although I should note that I've had a lingering headache since my unfortunate yoga fusion accident on Tuesday.

My day off on Wednesday was spent Christmas shopping with my friends. Since my family is so particular and difficult to buy for, I left every store I entered empty handed with the exception of Target, where I scored this awesome Hello Kitty tee for $3.50. How could I justify not buying it?!

I came home to two packages: my Vitacost order (filled with amazing goodies for me and some Christmas gifts, hence why I didn't disclose it's contents) and...

My iPad mini arrived five days early! Woo hoo! With my mantra, "all you need is love," engraved on the back.

I spent my night toying around with it and syncing it to my other Apple devices. So excited!

I have to let it be known that Vitacost is an amazing company that is all about customer satisfaction. I had an issue with my order and the customer service rep was so patient and helpful. The company even emailed me afterwards to follow up and apologize for the issues I was having, despite it not being their fault at all. I can't say enough positive things about this company. I highly recommend ordering through their site.

Crazy Random Happenstances

I had all intentions of blogging yesterday, of attempting to write some "get to know me" type posts to figure out my voice as a blogger...but life is tricksy and likes to remind me that it is not going to meet my expectations, for better or worse. This time, I am glad to say it has been a more pleasant series of surprises. For fear of getting my hopes up too high, however, I'm keeping a good portion of these little happenstances to myself. At least for now.

For the first time yesterday, it really felt like fall. When I left my house for yoga at 5:45am, it was 37 ° F. Holy freezing. I have since stored a pair of gloves in my car. Lesson learned.

I had a $10 birthday gift card from one of my favorite restaurants, India, on Hope Street in Providence, so I made some lunch plans with a friend and took advantage of the buffet.

Plate #1 of...oh, maybe 5. Yeah, I can eat. I had a little bit of everything offered on the buffet line. Clockwise from left: papadum, seasoned grilled veggies (my favorite), mutter mushroom curry, a tiny piece of lamb (I had to try it), and sweet & spicy mango cashew chicken. SO AMAZING.

After lunch, I went home and lazed about. I had a 1/2 peck or so of red delicious apples hanging out in the fridge that no one was going to eat, so I decided to experiment with homemade crockpot apple butter.

I cored and roughly chopped the apples, leaving the skin on, and threw them in the slow cooker on high for 4 hours and stirring whenever I happened to get up. Also in the mix was maybe 1/4 cup of water, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup Swerve (xylitol sweetener), 1T cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg. Then I used a hand blender to puree it all up, added a bit of guar gum to thicken it up, and cooked it partially uncovered on high for another 90 minutes or so. Happy to say it is delicious.

My friend, Katie, came by for a movie night dedicated to one of the loves of my life, Leo. So sexy.

About halfway through Revolutionary Road, Katie and I had our minds blown when we realized we actually went to high school together. Whattttttt? Especially shocking since we went to a small Catholic high school and I was the head editor of the school's lit mag, which she contributed to in her junior/my senior year. Like I said, life is tricksy. Granted, I do look entirely different from my high school self. [Insert reminiscing over martinis here.]

This morning took me on a little unexpected venture. Then an afternoon shopping trip to Bob's. 

All of this for $51! Thank you, $10 birthday reward, $10 October coupon, and 25% off for non-profit business employee event. 

Currently, I'm rushing to do some laundry before heading out to Point St. Dueling Piano bar. Spending the day in Boston tomorrow. Until next time!