Throw Back Night: The Love Jones

Seeing as though we are a young married couple with limited resources, we spend a lot of nights in watching movies and eating leftovers (I only cook 3 X per week tops...that's a whole 'nother post). I read "the nest.com" from time to time but I just can't relate to most of what the women post because these people go out to eat every night and have the money and the time to decorate their house (as if!) or they are planning for a baby. I found that our year as newlyweds was not typical and rarely eventful...so my advice to readers is to marry into money or at least save up to live carelessly the 1st year if you fantasize about having the storied "newlywed" period. However, if you end up being on a budget like us, you can make fun of the whole situation and enjoy your nights in while eating reheated pasta.

We watch a lot of movies, 156 in the last year to be exact as per our Netflix queue. We have watched so many movies that we took to ordering our favorite classics like "Coming to America." I was happy to see that DH ordered "Love Jones" because I had not seen that since high school. I can't believe that I used to think that Lorenze Tate was cute! And now that I am theit age, somehow they don't seem as cool as they used to be. Nia Long's character was so extra and dramatic, like it makes no sense to talk about visiting your ex-fiancee to your current boyfriend to elicit a reaction and then get mad when you get back and he went on a date with someone else...who does this stuff! I promised DH to create a little more drama in the interest of making his life more interesting. He said "I am straight." I'll take that as a complement.

$20 water bottle

so i want to break my plastic habit. I started by ridding my house of plastic cups. Now I am looking at reusable water bottles that wont contaminate my water. But is $20 worth it for something that I will loose?
http://www.rei.com/gear/feature/search/vendor_link/Sigg

What if I stopped Planning?

As everyone knows I keep a planner for my whole life and I follow the plan as sacred. The reason for that is that for a long time, it brought me sanity and kept my stress level really low. I never had to worry about anything because it was always in the planner. It also allowed me to ensure that I spent time every month with my family and my friends because they were scheduled in and nobody would ever get cancelled for anybody else. But this summer, my system has failed to keep the serene balance that I enjoy so much. When my life feels like it is in turmoil, its always time for a change. So what if I stopped planning all but weddings and B-days? I always envied people who can just pickup and go because I never have that much free time but maybe I can become that person....hmmm. We shall see!

Next stop DR

So I managed to find a ticket to Puerto Plata that was non-stop on Friday night. It was still $426 but much better than what I have seen up until that point. I am now looking for a hotel that I don't have to pay for until I get there. I sure hope he appreciates this...I have never even thought about treating somebody to a vacation until I got married. We usually keep all gifts below $100 because the object of this relationship was not for either of us to go broke ;-) Y'all know that I would have booked myself on two trip with that money...hehe!

I am going to call his mother and Eric to come up with a way of getting him to take those days off and still be surprised. I don't really know his boss so I can't e-mail him but I can tell his mom to come up with a family trip to South Carolina or something. Stay tuned because you never know who I need to drag into the plot!

Can somebody send me on What not to Wear?

I had yet another exciting couple of hours of working on the weekend...I bore myself thinking about my life at the moment. At least I get to watch the "What Not to Wear" show all afternoon. They had this CPA on today who was such a pain in the a*** and I am wondering why can't I be on the show and get a makeover + $5000? I would be the most pleasant person ever and I would have a ball. Although it will be tough to go on a shopping spree without Ebo..sniff, sniff. You know that my house consumes all my shopping money so can somebody please help me get a makeover? Do you want to risk me becoming the... gasp (dramatic pause) wife who let herself go?

Ok, I am going to take a nap now and I am not cooking today either, I am going to be self-indulgent for a few hours ;-)

Sitting on my porch with a blanket on in June ?!?

Can somebody tell me why he weather has such bad schizophrenia? Last week I was about to die of a heat stroke, tonight, I am freezing! As you already know, I am in work purgatory until further notice. I decided to bring my laptop outside because i just discovered that I have outlets on my porch ;-) Plus if I squint cross-eyed, I can fantasize that the Newark skyline really being NY and me being like a writer or one of those lucky people who get to do creative stuff while sipping lattes on the sidewalk.

Anywho I digress. I just wanted to announce that I just made a reservation at a resort in an undisclosed location so surprise DH for our 1 year anniversary. I didn't get a plane ticket because they cost like $8 million courtesy of our fuel prices. So I'll wait and see...worse come to worse I'll just sail us there (the perk of living in Jersey is easy access to the water!). So I am not sure how exactly I am going to surprise him but hey its a start. I am a pragmatist so trying to do this is a stretch of my mental ability.

Ok, back to the grind!

No Beach time in my future

I am sitting at home on a Saturday night working...how depressing. It just hit me a moment ago how far behind I really am on my projects. I have permission from my boss to take 6 Fridays off this summer but I just don't see how that would be possible given how far behind I really am on my two major projects. The biggest problem for me is that I have so much always going on at the office but I need to concentrate to truly get ahead on my work. So I have put myself on punishment and I will be making no more plans for fun stuff until I am caught up on my work. Furthermore, I will be scheduling two 12 hour days at the office for myself each week to get caught up.

My summer was off to such a great start...maybe I will get caught up in time to have a fun August. Until then, here is DH and I at the beach Memorial day weekend. I will need to print these out and put them at my desk because it may be the closest that I can get to the beach until I get my work life in order.

Costa Rica Trip

After a month of being back from CR I finally managed to post my trip report to fodors. You may read it at:

Fodors.com > Travel Talk > Latin America > Trip Report-Manuel Antonio, San Jose, Arenal and Playa Hermosahttp://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=6&tid=35135978

If you didn't see my pics yet, you can see them here:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=7ix2yrd.9d3snk5d&x=0&y=79hqlx&localeid=en_US

I had a busy social calendar this weekend with a house warming yesterday in BK and a 30th B-day party today at the shore. I smell like the sun righ about now so is off to the shower!

Five Second Break

I finally got back from Costa Rica, so as you can imagine I am paying for it at work. I have been really busy and I cant foresee it getting better until the end of June when some of my deliverables are complete (corporate jargon I know!). But I do want to post my report on CR so it is going to get done in bits and pieces. I am currently taking a break from work to eat some leftover pasta salad from somebody's meeting and drink some hot chocolate (sounds weird but hot chocolate is my comfort food at work). I am also trying to call everyone on my way home from work which is pretty late because once I need to focus on getting my house back under my control (and wash my damn clothes so that I can have underwear!).

On a completely unrelated matter I am heading out to a party boat today at 6pm. Believe it or not it is a team building exercise for those of us on the Project Team. Part of me would rather stay at my desk and catch up on work but I cannot have my reputation destroyed by doing such a thing. Ok, I am out of hot chocolate...gotta go but I will try to get some real detail about my trip tonight ;-)

Not MIA just Busy

Sorry that I have not been able to post because I am so busy right now. Because I am going to Costa Rica in less than 3 week, I am working like crazy to line up everything in my work and personal life so that maybe things wont fall apart while I am gone. I am really looking forward to my break from the fray but I plan to bring my laptop so I will be connected. I have some pictures that I need to post too...maybe tomorrow night ;-)

XOXO

Addis!

Rest in Peace Uncle Henry

My great uncle Henry went home to glory yesterday at 3am after a fight with stomach cancer. Henry is my grandmothers "one-brotha" as she likes to call him and he was 78 years old. My family is currently in discussion over whether he should be buried this weekend or if they will wait until Tuesday for my Mom and his sister to make it (he wanted to be buried Costa Rican style...the day after you die).

Tia Ana said that in this last week, he keep talking about my wedding and how happy it made him to attend. You see none of his children ever married and he thinks of me as his grand daugther. I am so glad that we were fortunate enough to have a wedding that was accessible to all who wanted to come. May DH and I get to have a 50 year love affair like Henry and Ana...I already got just the bottle of wine to celebrate if we make it that far!

Ze Grill

Here is the grill that I like:

I need a portable just in case I finally make it down to the Jersey shore to Seaside Heights this summer. I know that people really hate on Jersey but I am willing to put the shore and its Funnel Cakes up against any beach in NY, MA and CT...plus it don't cost me $8 to get there , hehe!

I forgot to mention...

somebody just got me the Frydaddy off my registry! So I am going to try fried chicken again and see what happens...hehe. I am also in the market for a grill to put on my balcony. Yes, your read correctly, I am putting a grill on the balcony because we black...hehe!

Random Things

Hi All,
I am happy to report that I got more thank you cards done this week and I am now down to like 15 not counting the wedding party. I did thank you notes and gifts to the wedding party before the wedding so I just need to mail everyone pictures. My goal is to get all wedding stuff done before I leave to CR because once I get back it is almost summer and I will be totally unmotivated. I know that my postings are sporadic because I have no free time thanks to work but what's a girl gonna do? I made the decision to marry for love instead of for mone so sucky work weeks are all part of the deal...hehe!
I still only have one wall in my entry way painted which is soo sad! I also am thinking about creating a little garden on my balcony...why? I killed bamboo before but we aint gonna talk about that. So I leave you with a snapsjot from superbowl at the Jones house....

Look what I found...

I read about this blog in my NY Magazine and I just had to go check it out:

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

It is funny!...certainly helps to have some humor in your life when you have to wake up and drop DH of to make his 7:15 Flight as I just did. So what to do during my next 3 days of freedom...I will be of course eating in bed and watching Harry Potter and Chick-Flicks to my hearts content! Maybe when we get old we will be one of those strange couples who each get their own apartment; there is something to be said for having your own space!

I have an office Party tonight (one of my co-workers made wine so of course we have to party) and beautician on Friday (yes, there will be wine there as well). Its a good thing that I have access to free events because as you all know, my budget is $40 per week until paying for this long drawn-out Costa Rica trip is done.

Addis Bite

Good Morning! I am happy to report that I spent the day yesterday doing absolutely nothing work related. I lounged around in my robe and read the newspaper and I even tried to watch day time TV (which was dreadful but I digress). Last night, at L's insistence, I wrote 15 thank you notes for the wedding which brings my total up to 20, wuh-huh! Only 80 more to go. I also submitted all my 65 pictures for the album for the photographer. Now if I could only get my dress dry-cleaned and all my other pictures in albums, the whole post-wedding production will be complete.

Happy Tuesday!

1st Valentine's Day

Our 1st Valentine's day as a married couple was spent peacefully at home. We never actually do anything for Valentine's day because a. its too crowded and b. it is too expensive. I do hope to plan a trip one of these years when I am no longer chronically broke. I did make a point of buying a "to my husband" card yesterday and I bought him a strawberry cake from Bruno's to make up for the fact that he only got one slice of his wedding cake. I also made Chicken Saltimbucca which was a hit; let's be real...chicken, wrapped in prosciutto ham, fried in butter and topped with Mozarella cheese can never be wrong for Todd. I did get a "to my wife" card which I am going to frame although it is that old-school embossed flowery business.


Tonight when I manage to pry myself from the desk I will head off to the Salon. I look forward to my Carmesha and Jaimie Friday nights ;-)

News from the homefront

I was trying to get the superbowl pictures from my house for last week's post but I can't find my camera cord so that'll have to wait. We realy need a bluetooth camera or something wireless because that is a pain. This weekend I went to Ebony's grandma's house and I had such a fabulous time! She made perfect grits, ribs that were falling off the bone and cake with crack in it. It brought home many containers but I let DH have at it because he can enjoy without the consequences. He ate all the cake already and he kept saying..."I don't understand, how can somebody make cake like this?"

It was my weekend to clean (sigh) so I worked on bathrooms on Saturday night before going to see "Welcome home Roscoe Jenkins" which was hilarious. I think I am going to name my only child Roscoe if he is a boy just to toughen him up a bit. I did go to church at 7:45 am on Sunday although Lady Eboy predicted otherwise (nan, nan, nana-nah!). We then proceded to go buy a washer and dryer (score one for wifey). Todd was cool with me getting the fancy one with all them buttons and a see-through screen (because he wants a TV...not slick!) but in the end, my practical side won over. I was not willing to spend 2 grand on a washer and dryer when the GE regular model would work. Plus, I don't care what all the other cool wives are getting...I live in a townhouse so I figure that a fancy washing machine is not necessary until I capitulate and become a suburbanite (never!).

So as part of the Lent celebration, pastor has called a church-wide fast. The first fast is on Food, mondays and Tuesdays from Sun-up to Sun down. I am going to try my best, but not eating is a serious challenge. So far I just had to have a muffin today because I thought I was going to die but I am now drinking water instead of lunch (sigh). The other fast is on complaining for the next 40 days which I think is fabulous. I subconsciously know that I have no right to complain for the rest of my life but the problem is I live in America and that is part of the culture. Never mind that if you have assets of more than $2200 that puts you in the top half of the wealthiest people in the world, which most people in America do. Couple that with a steady food supply and a life expectancy of 85 and we all live a charmed life...but we don't compare ourselves to the rest of the world, nope, only celebrities like J-Lo who spend $120k on a nursery;-)

So if you hear me complain during the next 40 days (old habits die hard), please tell me to remember the fast!

Useful election links

Here at the Jones household, we are closely following the election and constantly debating where people stand on the issues, here are some links that I have found to be useful as I try to determine whom will get my oh-so-important vote:

Both of these focus on where candidates stand on the issues...I trust no media so I always have to read the same thing in two places ;-)
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/chi-071218candidates-htmlpage-css,0,3171367.htmlpage

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21116732/

This article offers an interesting perspective:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120067436785100873.html

The best laid plans...

Let me start off by saying that I had the most ambitious plans for this weekend. I was going to clean (my turn this weekend), go to the gym, knock out some thank-you cards, research dryers and finish painting the entry way. It all started so well; I got home after work on friday and cleaned the entire house while DH and Ed watched the game and ate pizza (3 boxes all by themselves, I hate men and their metabolism!). Saturday morning I woke up at 9:30 am to freshly made coffee that Ed left on his way out (aparently hot date that night so he had to get ready).

I get out by 11am and head to the gym and I run into the worst traffic ever on route 22. After spending 1.5 hours on the phone with Fuquita, discussing the economy and why I cannot afford to have children until I am 42, I get pulled over by five-o. Apparently our registration has been expired since September! So now I am trying to call the DMV to get the car registered but nobody is there (why would any service agency care to work when most of us are available?) so I call Todd so that we can switch cars because I am not trying to get one more ticket today. By the time I made it to the Gym and home, it was 5pm and I only had time to cook dinner(meat loaf, mac n' cheese, sweet potatoes and green beans) and watch a movie with DH...sigh! I did not do anything today either, I went to church, took a nap and watched rush hour...better luck next week.

In the mean time, does anybody know anything about buying appliances? There are too many choices...I just want my clothes to dry in less than 1 hour.

1 down, 99 to go!

I just wrote my first thank you card for the wedding you guys. You have no idea how difficult it is to do these...especially since my handwriting sucks! The thing is that I want to be truly able to convey to people who grateful I am for their time and generousity and it is pretty difficult to gauge whether or not a note sounds grateful enough. I know that people work hard for their money because I most certainly do so I take it seriously. Leave it up to me to get stressed out about showing the proper level of gratitude!

I know that some people live for this stuff but getting married has led me to realize how much of a behind the scenes person I am. It was really far more attention than I have ever had in life. I am extremely grateful and it will take me a long time to fully thank everyone so I would like to take this opportunity to renounce any further festivities in my name until my 70th Birthday. By then I ought to have gotten the last celebration out of my system. Yes, that includes baby showers should I decide to have children; I grew up in Costa Rica so I know that all a kid really needs is some diapers, a bottle and some onesies which I will pick up at Target en route to the hospital...ok, maybe a car seat since its ilegal to ride around with them in someone's lap...hehe.

Home Improvement

Yesterday I met with my first contractor to get a price quote on doing the stairs and laying down hardwood floors in the living/dinning area. After our first quote from home depot, Mr. Sylvesters quote doesn't seem all that bad. He lifted up the carpet on my stairs and it looks like I have hardwood stairs but they have paint on them because the house was apparently spray painted when they built it (lazy bastards!). So if I can convince DH that we should spend his bonus on getting wood floors downstairs, I am going to undertake the task of sanding the paint off the stairs myself. I know that it is really going to suck but at this point I have way more free time than money so you gotta use what you got ;-)

I am going to go to home depot again tomorrow to see what other colors I can use for the entry way and the powder room. I also talked to him about redoing the master bath which would cost about $2k plus materials...it is not bad but I think that I can live with an ugly shower for another year, is just not that serious!

My busy weekend...

I can't believe it is Monday yet again but then again I am never prepared to go back to work...in my next lifetime, I wish to come back as a socialite (with the caveat that I will remember what this life was like and I would appreciate the benefits of having money in the bank...hehe!).

Since this was not my weekend to clean, I took full advantage of my free time starting with an Indian food and an evening with Wynton Marsalis at the New York Times Center with my cousin. Wynton still looks good ;-) But aside from that, I really appreciated his perspective on contemporary music as well as preserving Jazz as an all-American art form. I am going to make it my business to go to Jazz at the Lincoln center to show some more support...lord knows I need more culture in my life.

On Saturday I had a fabulous lunch with the Divas. It is so much fun when we get together, I sure wish it could happen more than once per month but life is complicated so I am grateful for whatever time that can be made available. I also went shopping with the fashion diva herself but we had bad shopping Karma so no bags. On Sunday afternoon I went out for sushi with my favorite neighbors ever and I must say that my stomach has definitely shrunk this last week...i got dizzy after eating 4 pieces of sushi and two rolls! I love talking to Jamie because she keeps my travel bug alive...we are talking about Iceland for 2009! Sidebar, I haven't actually discussed this with DH and therefore cannot make a commitment but I need to come up with a plan to see the world because nobody is going to call me up and offer to make it happen. I really want to get a side-hustle to pay off my debt and finance my travels but I made a commitment to not do anything big for the first year of marriage...sigh

I returned home last night to a room full of testosterone as the Giants were playing. I made the mistake of offering Eric and Lorenzo some wine on cheese...they were dying laughing for like 10 minutes...ma bad son. The guys did take out the Christmas tree and clean up all the mess that it left so I was extremely please and I started to make fajitas for dinner. Unfortunately, the Giants won and DH was talking a lot of smack and they got mad and left so it was just me and DH eating fajitas and watching Mr. Bean's holiday which was hilarious!

I had already made up my mind about selling my wedding dress at a consignment shop because I can't wear it anymore...but Thalia has caused me to have second thoughts. Do I say peace to the dress?

Post Holiday Diet

It is that time of the year ladies, time for me to dispose of all the cookies and the eggnog and dive full speed ahead in my post holiday diet. I have pretty much resigned myself that this will happen every year for the rest of my life unless somebody comes up with a diet pill that doesn't kill or cause "oily discharge"...hehe! Also, because I am a newlywed, I am more subceptible to overeating because I have so many shiny new things in my kitchen.

I have replaced the raisin and potato bread with honey-flax seed bread, bought yogurt, bananas and cocoa pebbles...all my favorite diet foods. I am drinking 32 ounces of water a day, I need to get up to 64 but my its so hard! As you all know, I don't do starvation so my diets comprise of how much food I can eat and stay within the1500 calories that I am allowed per day ;-) I also have to confess to not having gone to the gym in like a month, which is great because when I go tomorrow (I had issues with my card) my "exercise-and-diet-resistant" body fat will be shocked. I am also going to sign up for swimming again (no laughing) and yoga if I can find $50 somewhere because relaxation is not something that I do well. BTW, I took down the Christmas tree last night...it was fun while it lasted! I leave you with scenes from Christmas 07.

the Tree....

Chillin at the cookie swap

Joshua's first visit

Thalia and me at Rolf's sipping on spiked eggnog...good times!

The bartender at Rolf's

Happy New Year!

I know that I have been quite negligent in posting but I assure you that it has been for good reason. First it was Christmas and all the fun that led up to the holiday with baking cookies and cakes and making tamales and socializing. Last week life took an unexpected turn and Omi who a few of you may remember at the wedding went home for good.

I also must mention that I started reading Harry Potter again and I have been thoroughly consumed by the last three books. I am currently on the last few chapters of book seven and I just can't put it down! Its so bad that I didn't even cook dinner last night and stayed up until 11 reading. DH doesn't seem to mind though because he was caught up watching the Iowa caucus.

As I look back on 2007, I must say that it was the best year of my life so far...and I in retrospect, have had my fair share of good years! As I get older I get better about not dwelling on the bad times or things that make me sad, I just learn from them and move on. I know how easy it can be to feel sorry for yourself and get caugh up in what did not go your way. So I made a conscious decision some time ago to be an optimist and it has worked out quite well thus far. To me being an optimist doesn't mean that bad things don't happen or that you live in an imaginary bubble, it just means that you can get over them because you know something good will always be around the corner. So 2008 will be my year of gratitude for what has been and excitment for all the new possibilities.