First Time Failures

You know what I’ve failed at lately?  Being a vegetarian.  These pics are pretty self-explanatory.  I took a pic of it.  And then I proceeded to eat it.  The end.

Lamb

Some traditional Taiwanese dishes

Squid

Something or other that was delicious

Full of bone marrow

Empty.  They even give you straws to suck it out with.  

Sausage.  Wild hog sausage to be exact

Why must food be so delicious here?!?!  Dessert edition of this post to come.

Post warning: I am going to be a baby butt whiner.  Be forewarned

I’m not assertive enough.  I’m not assertive enough on the phone with appointment bookers.  I’m not assertive enough with professors who don’t get recommendations in on time.  I’m not assertive enough in my personal life and I’m not even assertive enough when I’m shopping.

Let’s break this down.  I’m not good at getting appointments set up.  It’s my one major weak point when it comes to what I’ve been doing lately.  I’m like 0 for 4 with the Alexander Wang people.  It’s because I’m not assertive and the girl who does their appointments is way assertive.  She tramples all over my perfectly coordinated schedules.

After 3 super panicky emails to one of the professors writing my law school recommendations, I finally got a response that basically said “people send in recs late all the time, chill the fuck out.”  So not what I want to hear and so not what law schools look forward to in their applicants.  I sent back a response that said “Thanks so much!”  I really suck.

Let’s not even get into the personal life thing.

As for shopping, well I was at the LF Store Sale today and basically handed over a pair of shoes that I was planning on buying to a girl and her friend.  The shoes were the last pair in my size, but they kept begging me so I caved.  Really pathetic.

I’m going to try to be more assertive because not being assertive is making my life suck.

Now on to less loser whining!

Random cardigan, H&M shirt, random leggings, Wild Pair shoes, UO mesh necklace, random necklace.

I haven’t worn enough jewelry lately.  My recent choice of accessory has fallen somewhere along the lines of……

Ah yes.  A Krispy Kreme Cheesecake doughnut.  For when you realize that someone special isn’t all that special.  For when you’ve lost something irreplaceable.  For when your lack of assertiveness makes your life shitty.  Not for when you’re on a diet.  I’m not kidding.  These babies are like a meal’s worth of calories.  But damn are they good.

Oh and woohoo Saints!

What a freakin day.  I woke up at 7:30 this morning to drive my mom to work.  That’s like 5 hours earlier than my normal winter break wake-up time.  I think my lack of sleep impaired my judgment because I ended up going to DSW on a whim and purchasing 2 pairs of shoes.  Can we say major self-control fail???  Oops…  That’s not to say that I’m not proud of my purchases because I am.  They were great deals, but I recently bought a pair at Topshop and was supposed to be on a shoe buying hiatus.  I blame the lack of sleep.  I do adore my new shoes though.

Can you believe that both pairs together were only $19.98?!?  Too good a deal to resist.  I can’t wait for spring so I can wear the floral shoes and totally twee up an outfit with chiffon, lace, and pastels.  My friends are going to wonder why I keep insisting on having garden parties.  Just blame the shoes, guys!

The rest of my day was blunder-tastic.  I had planned to pick up a police report today because some guy had hit my parked car.  So, I get to the records place and find out that I need to pay $2.25 for the report  and no, they don’t have change for a $20.  Neither does the municipal building across the hall.  I leave without the report because I have a 2 o’clock dentist appointment, but I tell the guy that I’m coming back with change after.  I scrounge up some change and get back at 3:02 only to find out that the damn place closes at 3.  Thanks for not telling me earlier, you jerk.  I left cursing up a storm.  Fail.  Fail.  Fucking fail.

At least I found out I didn’t have any cavities today.  A complete miracle for me.  I almost wrote the appointment off as a dentistry success story, but then my dentist told me I’d probably need a cap for my root canal because there might be a small crack in my crown.  Oh, and insurance doesn’t cover it fully.  Brilliant.  Just Brilliant.

If you need me, my change-less, weak-toothed self is going to be off in a corner hugging my shoes.

An extremely slick hotel photographer coerced my friend and I into a photo shoot while we were in Punta Cana.  We have a problem with saying no to people.  What’s not pictured is our abject embarrassment and the beach full of people staring at us.  Let’s just say that this was one of the more….normal shots in the series.  My family never takes vacations that aren’t full of jam-packed days so it was a completely different experience to do the relaxing, only eating and lounging around thing.  I did try something new in Punta Cana, but a pact to never talk about what happened has since been made, so I won’t be going into detail here.  Let’s just say it fits in with the original failure theme of this blog.  I’m just glad there’s no documentation of what occurred.

But alas now it’s back to the east coast where leaving my bed in the morning seems like a suicide mission.  Thanks goodness I have amazing friends to help with the transition back to TOTAL AND UTTER MISERY.  We celebrated New Years Eve together and then had a dinner party a couple days later.  The theme was supposed to be tiny foods so I decided to make a small puff pastry shell with an artichoke dip filling.  My first attempt was a massive fail.  I didn’t realize I’d need to roll out the puff pastry so it was way too big and also spread too much.  The centers collapsed after I pulled them out of the oven, something the puff pastry packaging told me would result if they were under-baked.  

My second attempt was much better, though none of them were uniform in size.  Look, there they are!  I ended up making phyllo dough shelled ones too.  As you can see we didn’t quite stick to the tiny foods things.  I feel like it was more of a cheese themed dinner party.  We’re cheese obsessed.  There was a pesto cheese spread and Smitten Kitchen’s walnut pesto, in which my friend decided to put 3 times the amount of cheese listed in the recipe.  I think the chicken and rice (from the 53rd and 6th cart!) didn’t have a disturbing amount of cheese in it.  One of my friends made heart-shaped apple and savory versions of Luxirare’s lollipop pies.  Almost too cute to eat.  J, if you’re reading this, send me the close-up so I can post it here. So cute and delicious!

I couldn’t think of a better way to end or start a year.  I mean, there are some things that we’d like to forget ever happen.  A few “incidents” that we’ll never speak of again.  A few images that we hope never see the light of day.  But still, an awesome time.  Maybe we’ll look back on it all someday and laugh!  Or not….

I spent the last week getting my ass kicked around by a French paper that just refused to get written.  After working on it all week I finally had to pull an all-nighter the night before and stumbled into the computer lab at 10 in the morning to print it out.  Then I proceeded to class and turned it in.  Then I found out my mid-term is in a week.  Seriously.  Best start reading now I guess.  Anyway to cheer myself up I decided to revisit these pictures that I’d taken during a weekend out with my mother.

This is the Brownie Points Bakery inside of Short HIlls Mall.  It may actually be one of the most colorful, happily pastel places I know.

This is the center display in their store.

A close-up.  Please note the pink ceramic elephant carrying an equally pink cupcake on its back and the gumball centerpiece.  Doesn’t this just look like the best tea party ever?