Coffeebration

I’m on a roll – lots of posting.  Actually I just thought of something I need to get off my chest.  Perhaps you recall, about exactly a year ago I got hooked on Arby’s Santa Fe Chicken Salads.  I’m not real big on fast food and eating crap all the time, but salads are pretty healthy and if you head on over to Arby’s website and check out the nutritional information, the Santa Fe chicken salad ranks up there pretty good for a healthy lunch or dinner.  Especially if you get it with the light ranch dressing, because the regular santa fe ranch dressing makes it rather fattening.  Anyways, my point is that I was eating one for dinner about once a week and I was happy.  After a while I sort of stopped eating them because I had been trying to cook at home more, and I was going out on the weekends, etc.  Two weeks ago I decided to go over to Arby’s for lunch and get one and was kind of excited because I guess I forgot they existed and hadn’t had one in months.  I ended up very disappointed though.  The salad had shrunk and the quality of it was not the same.  There was brown lettuce in the salad and it was soggy.  Had the place not been packed for lunch I would have returned it.  Instead I picked out the chicken and some edible pieces of lettuce but ended up tossing most of it.  So last week I stopped at a different Arby’s location and decided to give the salad another try.  This time my salad was filled with large chunks of iceberg lettuce, four little pieces of chicken, and seriously like three kernels of corn and a few sparse black beans.  I was so disappointed.  I really wish I could afford the Whole Foods salad bar every day.  But last time I went there, my salad was almost $10.  That’s not cool either.  Arby’s, get back on track …… or else.

So we finally decided on a name for the kitten.  We named him Peppsi and he’s such a sweetheart.  Bryan wrote a bit about him on his blog too if you are interested in some good writing because I don’t really have the motivation to write stories about him right now ….. because I will go on and on.  When Bryan and I first started dating and I mentioned how much I wanted a cat, he made sad faces at me and told me he was very allergic to them.  When I moved in with Jaime in August I warned him that she had a cat, and that I didn’t know if he would have a problem with the cat.  At first, he seemed wary of her and was even afraid to pet her because she might make him sick.  But her charm eventually won him over and now they love each other.  After realizing that Bryan wasn’t  allergic to Boo (Jaime’s cat), I chose to believe he wasn’t allergic to them at all, however he swore he was, and that Boo might just be ‘special’.  Well of course she is special, but being hypo-allergenic, well I don’t know about that.  So last week when I finally committed to adopting a cat, Bryan came along, and I was glad he did because I didn’t want to adopt an ‘unspecial’ cat.  While at the Animal Rescue League, we saw many cats and hung out in the ‘play room’ and not one sneeze or sniffle occurred.  Yay!  My boyfriend isn’t allergic to cats, we can live happily ever after now!  Anyways, I at least think I showed him that cats aren’t bad and that they are loveable and sweet and just awesome.  I wish I could convince more people to love cats … they are really great companions.

In other news, I recently wrote about my visit to the doctor where I was told my blood-pressure was very high for a 25 year old – well for anyone.  It upset me very much to think that I was on the road to heart-attack by age 40, so I have really been evaluating what I’m doing to my body.  I don’t eat extremely healthy, but I am not a pig.  I’m not obese, but I could probably stand to lose a few pounds.  My weight at my height is considered ‘average’ but if I gain about 25 pounds I would be on the overweight/obese line.  You know, when you think of obese, you think of someone who can barely fit through a door, or someone who takes up two seats on a bus, but at my height, I only need to weigh 160 pounds to be considered obese.  Anyways, I have been monitoring my blood-pressure daily at CVS and my results have been pretty steady, in the range of 120-130 / 60-70.  I think for someone my age, it would probably be ideal to have a blood-pressure of 110/70.  At the doctor, my blood-pressure was measured to be 162/90 which is alarming.  I have been nowhere near that since I’ve been monitoring.  In fact, I took my blood-pressure at WalMart last Saturday and it was 95/60!  So I’m feeling better, and reassuring myself that the nurse didn’t actually know how to take blood-pressure, or I was just more worked up than I thought -which is probably the case because I get really anxious about things, like going to the doctor.  I have another doctor appointment next Friday, and I’m going to try my best to be very relaxed – and I’m taking my little chart I made with my daily results.

Tomorrow Bryan and I are going to see a movie (his choice) so I don’t know what we are seeing yet.  Our taste in movies tends to differ somewhat so we take turns picking movies to see, but I must say I think we both always enjoy what we see, sometimes its just not something we’d typically watch without being ahem … forced to ;-).  It is a good thing though, and I think we learn a lot from each other.  On Sunday, I asked Bryan if he’d go to the Red White & Blue Thrift Store with me.  Jaime just recently was there and bought this kick-ass pair of shoes for $3 and I’m very envious.  Actually, it just reminded me of how awesome thrift-stores are and that I haven’t been very thrifty lately. 

Last night Bryan and I had dinner at Kings and then we came home and layed on the bed and talked while Peppsi curled up in between us and slept.  All I need in life is Peppsi and Bryan, and my comfy bed!  I was thinking the other day, because I often think – not that much comes of it, but sometimes I think I make sense.  Mostly, it is that I feel like a different person than I was a year ago, two years ago, or maybe ever.  I can get upset on occassion and I still worry sometimes, but I really believe that Bryan brings out the best in me and makes me see a side of me that I wasn’t sure I had in me.  

And I’ll end with that before I get into some kind of horrid rant about past relationships and why its everyone elses fault that I’ve been miserable.  We’ll leave the past in the past and keep looking ahead 😉

It is only the second day, but I have a feeling the kitty already loves me.  He did this all by himself.  The kitty still doesn’t have a name, but we are contemplating: Pepsi, Jackson, Reggie, Tobias, Xavier, and Comet.  We took a nap together earlier, it was nice.

Tonight Jaime, Bryan, and I went to the Animal Rescue League to look at cats.  I was set on adopting an adult cat, but none of them seemed to call out to me. Then I saw a little black kitten that looked just like Nine when he was a baby.  So I loved him and had to bring him home.  He is exactly two months old and he sure is the little rascal!  Here’s some pics.  Get used to it, this is going to turn into the kitty blog, I’m sure.

(Making a tunnel out of my pillows!)

(Yeah, I’m cute!)

(I’m little itty-bitty!)

(I will make it onto the bed, I swear!)

(Bryan makes me happy, just like he makes Jess happy!)

 Ok, that is all I will torture you with for now.  I have more important things to do, like kitten-proof the house so I can let him out of my bedroom, oh …. and give him a name.  So far I have no leads except that Bryan keeps calling him “Mo” …. yeah that’s not gonna fly. 

I know I rant about trivial things a lot, but I don’t honestly take little things as hard as I used to.  I get annoyed and frustrated sometimes but I realize that everyone does and it is just a fact of life.  I guess you could say I’m chilling out!  Although my brother wouldn’t agree, as I do still have minor episodes on occassion. 

Most recently I would say it was over Christmas.  It was a hectic evening and my entire family was in the kitchen trying to prepare two days worth of food for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  My mom and dad were in charge of cabbage rolls and mashed potatoes, and I was in charge of chicken fingers and homemade mustard sauce.  Things were going ok until my parents’ friend Harry unexpectedly showed up.   It was a bad time, but he made himself right at home in the kitchen and started telling all these stories.  There I am pounding chicken, my parents are juggling platters of cabbage rolls and he’s just making himself right at home.  What do you do in a situation like that, ask him to leave? 

Anyways, my dad got to talking to him and they were joking around and my dad decided to go upstairs to show him something on the internet.  My brother took it upon himself to begin helping by peeling the potatoes.  I told him  he didn’t know what he was doing and he was like “dude I’m 20 years old, I can cook anything better than you can, you don’t know anything about how I cook!”  I figured he couldn’t really do much wrong peeling potatoes so I just said that he better find a big pot to put water in because the potatoes would turn brown.  He was like “oh”.  He found a pot and put about an inch of water in it and I told him that he had to completely cover the potatoes in water, yeah he knew what he was doing. So we got to the pressure cooker part and boiled them, and when they were done I instructed him to leave them there for my dad.  He decided he was going to add the milk and butter and mix them himself.  I told him they’d be lumpy and gross and not to do it, but he clearly would not listen to me.  There were a few things in the sink, including a meat pounder I had flattened the chicken out with.  He picked it up and threw it in the other side of the sink, where dishes dry so he could lower the steaming potato pot into the sink.  I totally freaked out on him and asked him WTF  he was doing, yelling he was going to infect everyone with salmonella and that you clearly cannot throw things around that touched raw meat.  He just looked at me like I was a retard and goes “You are just like dad”.

Well I am like my dad, but I think on a very watered down level.  My dad makes every little thing out to be an end of the world crisis.  Anyways, I can be a little anal sometimes, but most of the time I think I am pretty cool.

I think I have a good outlook on life although I haven’t always been a pleasant happy person.  When I was in college and stressed and scared …. and was in a long-term relationship with someone who was not very understanding, things sucked.  There was drama and fighting, and a lot of emotional distress. 

Today I look at my life and wonder how I got here.  I am not at the ultimate place in my life, and who knows what that is, but I am happy.  I have a great roommate, and a wonderful guy who spoils me a lot and is so incredibly awesome.  To know that I can count the number of arguments we have had on just one hand is amazing, although he thinks we should NEVER fight!  I think Bryan helps me chill out.  He is just laid back and he talks about our future and makes it clear that he wants me in it.  I feel pretty good …. and there may soon be an addition to my little family here, no …… I’m talking about a cat 😉

 Anyways, I’m off to clean a bit.  My parents are coming over tomorrow so it has to be pretty!

I had the dreaded doctor visit today.  I had to go on a hunt for a new doctor because my last one sucked and I can’t really go the one I had in college, and I can’t really go to my doctor in FC, so today I met my new (and soon to be old) doctor.  He is perhaps a relative of the infamous Bruce Lee, I am not really sure, but they share the same name and look rather similar, and he scared me. He asked me about 2999 questions and typed the answers into the computer.  He never actually touched me, although I stated I was there for a check-up.  He put his scope on me and listened to my heart, and that is all.  Seriously, he did nothing else.  I had some issues and needed some antibiotics for an infection, and wanted my blood pressure checked because I had a feeling it was high since every time I go to a doctor I hear ‘hmmm your blood pressure is a little high, but maybe you are just nervous or stressed’.  My doctor today referred to it as the ‘white coat syndrome’ but I said I didn’t feel that was the case. It is quite high actually, like in the keel over and have some type of organ failure range, so I think I might die soon if someone doesn’t give me a serious solution.  I also asked for a prescription to help my cold-sores and he stated that it wasn’t his specialty but he would refer me to a dermatologist.  Since when do I have to go to a dermatologist to get a prescripton for some cream?  I’m irritated. 

 I’ve been instructed to go to a ‘hypertension class’ so I can learn about how to eat healthy and lower my blood-pressure.  I am to return in three weeks, provided I do not have a stroke before then.  I admit I don’t always eat super healthy, but I don’t eat fast-food and I might not be a supermodel but I’m not a lard-ass either.  My mom has been on high blood-pressure medication since her twenties and my grandfather takes it too.  Both of them are skinny, so I am not sure dieting is going to help.  My doctor said I should buy a blood-pressure monitor at the store.  They are like $80, um no.  I have decided I will begin a lettuce only salt-free diet and go to CVS every day and use their free blood pressure monitor.  Ughh.

In other news, I’m possibly adopting a cat.  I want to adopt her from the Animal Rescue League although the kitty is currently out at the Bethel Park PETCO.  PETCO told me I need to contact the Animal Rescue League about adoption policies and I need proof that I am allowed to have cats here, so I called my landlord yesterday and left her a nice little message asking if she could write a little letter that says I can have a cat, however it has been 24 hours since I have left the message and there has been no response from her.  This is unacceptable, so I have forged something.  Can I go to jail for that?  Yeah, that would suck.  

That’s all the ranting I have in me today.  Bye 😉 

It has been such a miserable Sunday … I hate it when it rains.  The rain makes me feel extremely lethargic.  My weekend was relaxing though.  On Friday I really didn’t do much – I cleaned a bit and listened to music.  On Saturday I cleaned some more because that’s what I do.  Bryan and I had plans to go to dinner at Don Pablos but when we got there at 6:30pm the wait was an hour and forty-five minutes!  I had this grand idea that if we came back around 7:30 there would not be a wait.  So we went to Target and Best Buy, and actually didn’t make it back to Don Pablos until 8:00pm.  I figured there couldn’t possibly be a long wait at 8:00pm but I was very wrong.  The wait was still 45 minutes!  And by 8:00pm we were both starving and decided waiting another 45 minutes to get seated was not ok!  So we decided to go to Mad Mex – the nice one in Robinson, and we both enjoyed our tacos and fajitas.  Mmmm, I decided I do like Mad Mex – as long as it is not the one in Oakland.  After dinner, we came home and watched “Click” which Bryan purchased at Best Buy.  I really liked the movie – Adam Sandler is awesome.  Bryan left around 12:30 today and was driving out to Philadelphia for the week for work training.  I am going to miss him ;-(.  I talked to him a little while ago and he made it out there fine but doesn’t even have free wireless in his room so I can’t even talk to him online …. sad sad sad, it is going to be a super long week. 

Bryan has given me a job this week – which is to decide what we are doing on Saturday because I said I wanted to do something special.  I have no idea what that means, but now I have to come up with something special to do.  Haha.  My other job is to decide where we are going on vacation to this summer and what dates we are going.  We do have an agreement that we are going to the beach for a week – however I do not know what beach or what month we should do this.  We are going to go to Gettysburg the first week of July for the reeinactments, so I am thinking about having our beach vacation be in early August.  If anyone has any suggestions for a relatively quiet relaxing and sunny place to go, please let me know.  I’ve been to St. Pete the past two summers and although it is extremely relaxing and beautiful there, I would like to go somewhere different.

And finally – I spent the day uploading mass quantities of pictures from the last few months.  There are now 9, yes 9 new albums in my pictures section.  I got a bit tired towards the end so I didn’t put up captions for any of the Christmas pictures, but I will get around to it.  Bryan also has some pictures of us up on his site although I usually steal most of his pictures and put them on here.  He also wrote a year in review which highlights a lot of the things I mentioned.  I think perhaps we just need to start a joint blog/picture album online!

I'm going through a ton of pictures from the last few months because I'm adding pictures to the pictures section, finally ... I came across this video I took of my mom when I was home for Thanksgiving.  She didn't actually know I was recording her and she'd be pretty mad if I showed this to anyone, so since I LOVE my mom, enjoy! 

P.S. – She was imitating her mother in this video …. we are such a loving family.