gustoless

I'm feeling in a funk.

For a lot of reasons but mostly because I've been traveling a lot, working a lot, sleeping very little and seeing my husband even less.

Its only 19 days into 2010 and I'm burnt out. I know there are a million things I could/should do to take control of my life and I'm just too tired. I've lost my gusto.

How do you deal with stress?

Picture thanks to harold.lloyd

gustoless

Teuxdeux List

Get it...teuxdeux = to do. Yeah I'm slow and didn't get that for a bit. I saw this link on Post Grad Hair Cut and immediately went to it because I love making to do lists.

It has a nice, simple layout and its free (yay).

Its pretty straightforward but check out the witty little video to find out more details.

video via TeuxDeux

link thanks to Post Grad Haircut

Teuxdeux List

irrational irritation

I don't know whats wrong with me but this commercial irritates me to no end. Everything about that little boy is annoying and the woman ordering her stupid sugar free frappachino or whatever pisses me off.

I know its weird that this bothers me so much but there must be commercials or tv shows that irritate the crap out of you for no reason right?

irrational irritation

dogs need their teeth cleaned too! my random story...

I should be working. I have a butt load of stuff to do and I'm flying to California tomorrow for three days. Coming back Saturday and pretty much working until Thursday. UGH. But no one wants to hear about work and travel and how much I'm starting to loathe the 5-6 hour flight to California.

So on to my story...While we were in Sri Lanka, my husband was reading the book Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje which is a memoir of the author's life growing up in Sri Lanka. I haven't read it yet but have glanced at a few pages and it got me thinking that there are SO many stories and so much history that I want to capture while I still can about my family, my heritage and Sri Lanka. Seriously, I found out that my great grandmother's name was Alice just the other day when I was talking to my mom. I don't even have a clue what my Dad's parents names are since they passed away when I was very little.

In a totally roundabout way things brings me to a story about my childhood that I completely forgot about. We were at my Dad's 70th birthday and one of his closest friends told my husband this story about how when I was four years old they caught me brushing my teeth in the bathroom and then using the same toothbrush to brush my dog's teeth. Apparently I'd watch my Mom brush my dogs teeth (she LOVED him and treated him like her baby) and so I thought I'd do the same. Just with my toothbrush because I'm gross. My husband was laughing and also not excited to ever kiss me again after that.

Although this isn't really the poignant story you might want to capture in a memoir these are the ones that keep me laughing and I want to remember all of them. At some point I'd love to put together a family tree but also just a collection of random family stories so they don't get lost somewhere down the line.

How do you keep track of family legacy, stories, etc.?

dogs need their teeth cleaned too! my random story...

Beautiful Blogger Award - *blush* my first award

I'm so honored to be nominated by one of my favorite new blogs jaeve + things! She has such a cute tagline that I completely relate to - "random and erratic and thats OK".

So the rules of this award are:

• Thank the person who nominated you for this award. - Thanks again jaeve + things!
• Copy the award and place it on your blog.
• Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
• Tell us 7 interesting things about yourself.
• Nominate 7 bloggers.
• Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate

So here are 7 random things about me...

1. My name is Charmi but my family and friends who have known me pre-high school all call me Melissa (my middle name). When I was going to kindergarten I insisted on going by Melissa and it just stuck. I was a stubborn ass 5 year old I guess. When I got to high school I finally realized that I liked my first name so I switched back. Its led to a decent amount of confusion - when I got to college my Dad would call and if my roomate picked up she would constantly tell him there was no Melissa there and hang up on him.
2. I have a serious fear of spiders. I just can't handle all those legs...so gross. Honestly its really all bugs but especially spiders.
3. I've never owned a car. In high school I used my parents car. I went to college in Boston and grad school in NYC so I never needed one. Right out of grad school I started consulting so I traveled 5 days a week every week. Now I just use my husbands car since he walks to work.
4. I have zero memories before the age of 5 or 6. I really cannot remember anything. Is that weird?
5. I was born with pin straight hair but I have wavy/curly hair now. I got a perm in 5th grade (I looked like a brown poodle) and it was never straight again. At least naturally.
6. I have 3 older brothers and we were all born in June and July. Our birthdays all fall in a 4 week period and my eldest brother's birthday is the day before mine.
7. I love sleeping but hate taking naps. They make me feel really crabby(aka bitchy), disoriented and even more tired. I would rather just sleep for hours and hours (my record is 16 hours!) but these days I can't really sleep in anymore. I guess it means I'm all grown up now and my body is used to getting up for work and other boring adult things.

Okay now for tagging 7 blogging friends. I love SO many blogs but I'll have to start with these...

Claremont Road

Oh! Apostrophe

His Birdie's Nest

Good Finking

Other Pieces of Me

Geek In Heels

e.louise

Beautiful Blogger Award - *blush* my first award

Return of the milk man

I was reading my friend's blog and she had a link to a local farm in Massachusetts that delivers milk, eggs and all sorts of other things. The milk actually comes from a farm in Vermont which has "happy cows" and its even delivered in glass bottles.

We are beyond excited to try the milk, eggs and ice cream (which won the National Geographic award for the 10 best ice creams in the world).

We're getting a weekly delivery of milk starting tomorrow so I'll let you all know how it goes. I'm excited to be supporting a local business and eating healthier, less processed foods. I may even join this Community Supported Agriculture (again thanks Miriam!) to get locally grown fruits and vegetables every week.

Return of the milk man

Tres Leches Goodness

Tres Leches cake is ridiculous. Its SO rich and light at the same time. And as the name would suggest, very milky. In my quest to cook something new every week, I decided to try this cake from The Pioneer Woman. Clearly this isn't going to help the weight loss goal but I just love to bake so I'll just have to hit the gym a little harder. Or really just go (I blame it on jetlag - I've been too tired this week).

The cake is super easy to make and the only things you probably won't already have are condensed milk, evaporated milk, heavy cream and whole milk (yeah I guess its technically Quatro Leches cake).

I didn't add rum this time, but I think I just might next time...

*Images via The Pioneer Woman

Tres Leches Goodness

Birthday Snail Mail

In keeping with my resolution to try and keep in touch with friends and family more often I joined Jack Cards. Basically you import all your contacts from email and put in birthdays, anniversaries or whatever. Then it reminds you when they are coming up and you can order a greeting card which is then mailed to you (immediately, two weeks or four weeks before the event). You can opt to have them pre-addressed and stamped so all you have to do is write the card and drop it in the mail.

I LOVE getting cards in the mail and really anything thats not a bill or junk mail. I'm gonna try and go back to snail mail over facebook and email. Thoughtful, simple, and inexpensive :)

They even have cute cards like these:

This one is a card and a pirate hat!

Inside this one it says "you're still a fox"

Would you use this service or just rely on emails or even just going out to the store and getting cards yourself?

Birthday Snail Mail

LOVEly poster

I love this poster from Rifle Paper Company.


I know its a little cheesy but in a quirky cute way.

I'm thinking about buying it to put in our bedroom. Eventually I will put in shelves above our bed and then display the print on them. Even though husband has an irrational fear of putting *anything* above our bed. Seriously, even a poster? He'll get over that...I hope. :) This fits nicely in my 2010 resolution to finish decorating our apartment.

LOVEly poster

Resolutions and lots of rambling

Happy new year! I can't believe its 2010 already. 2009 flew by as does every other year and I can't stop thinking about all the things I want to start doing in the new year.

I just got back from Sri Lanka and India and read a few books during those long almost 20 hour flights. One of the books I read was the "Julie and Julia" book which I'm sure you all have heard about (you all being the few readers I have (Sachin and Sangeetha)). If not, its about this woman Julie who decides to change her life and stick to something by cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. So to be totally obvious and lame, the book make me really want to be more creative and to actually spend my time doing things that could make me a happier and hopefully more productive person.

See my usual day goes down like this:

6:00am - Wake up very crankily. Try to snooze for a while and avoid actually waking up.

6:20am - Finally get in the shower, blow dry my hair, put on my makeup, figure out what I want to wear and grab something to eat in the car

7:30/8:00am - Leave for work. This departure time varies depending on how lazy and slow I'm feeling while getting ready

8:30am/9:00am - Arrive at work. God I hate my commute sometimes. At least if the drive was pretty it wouldn't be so bad, but driving to Raynham, MA is anything but.

5:00-6:00pm - Leave work.

6:00-7:00pm - Get home. Assuming I don't stop for groceries or to pick up my husband or get him dinner to drop off at the hospital while he's on call.

7:00pm-12:00am - Change immediately into sweat pants, cook dinner or heat up some lame frozen dinner. On rare occasions attempt to work out but usually just waste away on the couch while watching tv. Eventually I fall asleep on couch and then get irrationally and extremely pissed off when my husband tries to wake me up to take my contacts out and go to bed.

And repeat every day. Unless I'm traveling for work which happens about 2 weeks in a month. I'm a lazy lazy bum. The travel adds to my laziness. I just feel so tired by the time I get back from work that I cannot get myself to do anything. But its no excuse. I mean people have children and families to take care of when they get home from work and they manage that just fine. People actually DO things and don't just waste away in front of the tv.

So here are some things I'd like to start doing in 2010 with my life:

1. Work out regularly at least 4 times a week for an hour at a time if possible. I think this means I'll have to do this right after work because I know I won't do it before work and if I come home and sit for even a minute I won't get up again.
2. Eat healthy. Less cheese and chocolate.
3. Lose weight. This goes together with #1 and #2. I'm seriously so uncomfortable in my own skin. I have some days where I feel great about how I look. I feel sexy and confident. But honestly, many many days I just feel like a fat monster. I know I'm not a fat monster but I could stand to lose 10-15 lbs. I'm short and I shouldn't weigh as much as I do. Plus I want to feel good about myself and look good in the ridiculous amount of clothes I have. My weight has gone up and down a lot in the past 10 years. I have weighed 20 lbs less than I weigh now and 15 lbs more than I weigh now. That's probably not healthy.
4. Get creative. I used to take pictures, draw, paint and be generally artistic but I haven't done much in the past 2 years. I want to get back into drawing and painting. I also want to take some creative food classes - cake decorating, cooking, etc.
5. Blog more and blog thoughtfully. I want to be more honest about the things I write and whats really on my mind. Sometimes I care too much about how others write or what they write about. I don't have a focused blog. I'm not all about fashion or work or art or weddings or anything. I'm all over the place and my interests vary widely. As a child I was in a million activities - piano, violin, swimming, dance, soccer, etc. I wasn't really exceptionally good at any of them. Probably because I didn't have a focus then. Either way, I think being involved in all sorts of things as a child has really shaped the way I am as an adult. Its also probably partially my personality. I get passionate about things but also bored very easily. I ramble. Long story short, from now on I will write on this blog for myself.
6. Cook more and cook with variety. I want to eat a variety of food and stop making the same 5 things over and over. I want to cook different types of food and challenge myself. I also want to cook with goal #3 in mind.

I think I want to add more to the list but this is what I've come up with so far. Can anyone share their new year resolutions? Any tips on how to actually keep on your goals?

Resolutions and lots of rambling