MONSOON SEASON HAS ARRIVED

So nothing was really more exciting when I moved here than hearing people talk about "monsoon season." The word monsoon is about as exciting to me as the word tsunami. To the point where one would think equal amounts of water would be involved. But nobody would really give me a good explanation of monsoon season, and they showed no excitement, so I was really left to wonder and wait.

Basically it turns out it just means rainy season, but it's still fun. It rained 5 days in a week, with stormy weather each time, and killer lightning once. There is a tendency to flash flood, and I found out that my car lurches really really bad when I go through a deep puddle fast and get water all over my distributor cap.

This picture is right outside my house. This happened in like an hour. It's been 3 days now and it's still here. I had been upset about a dead spot of grass that is now under water. It's growing really well now.

localharvest.org

So, I've been out of town for a few days. I went home to spend some quality time with the family and to get a perm, since mine was dying rapidly and my hair looked terrible most days. (I flat-ironed it for a week, which looks nice, but takes way too long for me to do every single day.) While there, I read Reader's Digest, which taught me about CSA's. CSA stands for community-supported agriculture. It means people buy little shares in a farm and during their growing seasons, the farmers drop fresh fruit and veggies off at your doorstep once a week. This seems incredibly exciting to me.
Unfortunately, AZ has a crappy little growing season, but we still have some good little CSA's, and I think I might buy the "summer survivor" share that lasts for 4 weeks and see how that goes.
For my loyal readers in MA and ID, y'all have great CSA's that also deliver eggs and flowers, including edible ones, and your seasons last forever. Colorado has 10, Boise has like 30, AZ has 3.
So, localharvest.org is where you go to choose one, and it might even be fun!

Cars

So on Thursday night, before my guest came to stay, I went to a service project at the church where only 3 of us showed up, but we painted cars for kids- the girl who did it doesn't know yet if they are going locally or internationally, but it was fun. Her grandpa made them, and we painted the fun designs. I painted the pink one with purple flowers, the blue and green striped one, the one with tons of yellow lighting, the green and yellow polka got one, the one in the back right corner with curly hair and a miniskirt, the green chevrolet, and the ambulance (the red crosses on the side didn't show up). The girls who were there were really sweet and it was a lot of fun.

BOTOX WRINKLE

Right in between my eyes, where I tried to put an arrow and could not, is a wrinkle I like to call my botox wrinkle. This is because whenever I stress out it shows its ugly face. This girl Amy I used to work with in Pocatello would always say, "Christin, stop stressing about [whatever i was currently stressing about]. You're going to need Botox when you're 30 if you keep wrinkling up your forehead like that. Today it is showing quite a bit (even if the picture doesn't necessarily show it off that well) and this is why...

this morning I locked myself out of my house because my house key was still off the chain from yesterday when I took it off so the handyman could get back in. So I drove clear across town (about 30 minutes) to get a spare key from my landlord's housesitter, because my landlord is on vacation. But she was sleeping and apparently my landlord didn't want to wake her because she's really stressed out, so I couldn't pick them up for about an hour and a half. So I ATM'ed out some money and ate lunch. Then I went and picked up his keys and made copies of the four I thought might be mine (his idea) and drove home-- a very long way because the 51 SOUTH is closed until Monday, even though the 51 NORTH is open and got me there. (This seems to happen quite frequently to me that they close an important freeway when I need it..including my first night here). I stop also at Kmart to get a lawn chair, but it costs 76 cents more than I have with me, so I don't get it. And so, quite stressed, I stop at the new World Market near my house to see if they are open yet and to get me an Aqua Panna because I need some fun water for all my stress. They are, but they don't have my water. And I get home, and none of the keys fit, and I'm about to scream or cry, but instead get my old ATM card out of my car and try to break in because I've heard it's not too hard. It takes about 20 seconds. I still have a headache from wrinkling up my forehead all day.

Lesson of the day: Keep your ATM cards, new and old, in your car.

2nd lesson of the day: How to break into a house. That's a new one.

p.s. I found an extra dollar bill on the seat of my car when I got home. I could have gotten the lawn chair.

My first guest stayed last night

Oh, it was so exciting. Actually, I was beyond exhausted because I had to go to stupid classes at work from 7-4 for new RN's when I'm used to working night shift, so basically, it was trying not to sleep through classes at work so that I don't get fired.
But, back to my guest. She goes to church with my parents-- her name is Renita-- and she is looking for an apartment here because she is moving here in a week or two. So I blew up the airbed a little more, bought cute little travel-sized stuff, and put it in the bathroom for her in case she needed it. Then I bought a little leather journal at Target to be the guest book and put it on her nightstand. She obliged my cheesiness and wrote a little about herself and the date and her address. It was very fun.
:o)

My Closet is Growing Fungus

So...the handyman came and replaced the leaking pipe and the gaskets behind the washing machine. The next day I was walking through my bathroom and realized the carpet was squishing again. I soaked through ALL my towels again (like 8) and called the handyman back. Apparently now there was a HOLE in the pipe. He fixed it, and I'm not leaking anymore, but frick my room stinks. This is a picture of Mildew. I think it's growing in my carpet pad. So, the carpet cleaner is coming in the next few days, and in the meantime I've doused it with Lysol spray to inhibit fungus reproduction. And I'm sleeping on the couch tonight. Gotta love it. cc

Going the Extra Mile

This is a little camera phone picture of a church activity that I went to. The bishop's wife had recipes and ingredients and cutting boards and knives all set out for 6 great salad recipes. We all split up and made them and then got to taste them all. They were absolutely fantastic. She put so much time and effort into making it fun for us that it almost brought me to tears. But sometimes I'm a pansy like that. :o) I would like to give you all the recipes, but as of now, I haven't thought of an easy way to do it, and I don't plan on going the extra mile like she did. Love you all! cc

The Surviving Shoes

So I would definitely recommend this whole Zappos trying on shoes thing. Some of the ones I thought I would love I hated, but I adore both of these. It was so fun to get this huge box of 5 shoes to try on. :o)

Funfun!

Fake Jewelry Makes My Heart Jump

I don't know if it's my love for sweet grandmas or some hidden memory of my childhood, but "old lady" jewery makes me smile. You know, those huge purple stones with tarnished gold that looks not-that-great, but somehow the shinyness and the boldness makes you smile. I love that. I think I need to get me some old lady jewelry. Because it makes my heart happy.

My favorite youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mive6ZfY_jM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZRk14bbxuE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGXQKLqegIw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oam4Rc3zVM0

Contrition...quickly

So..I just realized as I was putting together new outfits out of the stuff I bought today that I may have sounded greedy or whiny or something when I said I didn't have a lot of clothes, blah, blah, blah...in "Fashion Epiphany." My clothes are fine. They are definitely not all from 2003, and lots of them are very nice. They just are mostly all solid, and my wardrobe was getting boring, and it desperately needed a breath of fresh air. And now I'm going to go to bed. Like I was going to do 2 hours ago.
Good-night all!

See Those Vertical Basketball-looking lines?

That means it's a Tuscan cantalope. This was hands-down the BEST cantalope I have ever had in my entire life.

Olive and Ivy

My Aunt Jill and Uncle Dan were in town this morning and took me out to brunch and this restaurant called Olive and Ivy (it was right next to the mall. Hence, the crazy shopping trip.) But anyways, this place was amazing!! First, they accidentally brought us cinnamon apple steel-cut oats which were to die for. Then I actually ordered mixed berries with yougurt and granola and a mushroom omelet with gruyere cheese (this is, i think, my favorite cheese. I should put up my recipe that uses it.) And our servers (one was in training) were so cute and fun. Jill had told them it was my celebration dinner for getting my license, so they brought out tiny dishes of sorbet and gelato with a candle at the end of the meal. It was so fun. Thanks guys!

http://www.foxrestaurantconcepts.com/olive.html

Fashion Epiphany

So last night after the water incident, I was up until 6 in the morning. What, you ask, does a person do until 6am? Well, first she reads Glamour. Then she gives herself both a manicure and a pedicure that are better than she's probably ever done (and saves herself $60 in the process. However, she will make a trip to the Altered Ego spa quite soon for an eyebrow wax. Because that is only $15.) All the while watching TLC.

So late-night Friday night TLC is better than all the other nights of TLC because they have "What Not To Wear." And some other good makeover home shows. But back to "What Not to Wear." So even though I don't think I'm a candidate for the show (unfortunately), there are a few basic things to know about my wardrobe.

1- I buy (relatively) expensive clothes.

2- This means I don't have very many clothes.

3- My clothes largely consist of Lucky jeans and banana republic tops. Take these away and you have like 10 shirts left. And half of those are Gap t-shirts.

4- My sister has an incredibly diverse closet which is crazily wonderful.

So, I've worn some of the same shoes and skirts since circa 2003. Which is fine, but it's getting old. ESPECIALLY on Sunday. Church clothes were getting super-boring. And watching the show, I was like "Oh my gosh. I have no sense of style! Oh No!" The thing is, I just moved to a totally different climate. And wearing long-sleeves, which I really like, whenever you want to is not really an option. And my knee-high boots that I love feel somewhat inappropriate for summer here.

SHOPPING TIME!!

So my moving bonus and paycheck also came yesterday and I paid like 12 bills and I actually had a couple hundred dollars I could spend, so I went shopping. I started out at these boutiques in Scottsdale which were like $300 for a dress. (A great dress, don't get me wrong, but a $300 dress.) For a few moments, I was considering re-adjusting my budget, and then I was like, "Christin, get over it." I even talked myself out of an incredibly amazingly supple and beautiful Italian leather jacket that was on sale for $600. I thought of Emily U., who has one, except she bought hers IN ITALY. Which is super more cool.

Anyways, so I went into the mall and looked for a few hours and came up with nothing except one more plain skirt from banana republic (it was on sale!). I called my sister and asked her to please come help me, but she said something about having a life four hours away, and wished me luck on my own.

I went to Betsey Johnson and tried on some more $300 clothes I couldn't afford (but which fit fantastic), and trekked onward.

pictures from the dressing rooms are on flickr

Finally, after hours and hours, I stumbled into Charlotte Russe. My friend Julia from TX used to manage one of these. It's a little like Vanity, and huge. And it was having the best sale ever. Now their clothes aren't particularly expensive to begin with, so when something is 75% off, it's like $7. I tried on 17 things, and bought 11 of them, including a purse for $5. And I absolutely love it all. And I took a picture just so everyone can see that none of them are t-shirts and some of them even have cute prints!! The fuschia polka-dot one has a navy belt and it looks great on! Crazy. I finally found style!

I could go on about how I drove to two other malls and got a couple t-shirts on sale at Banana Republic and those amazing red wedges for $10 (80% off BCBGirls!), but suffice it to say, I spent 9 hours shopping non-stop and am totally beat, but it was a very very good day.

And some white and navy shoes are on their way from Zappos. They have free shipping and free returns, so I ordered all the ones I wanted to try on and I'm shipping back the rest. teehee...

And, I'm sorry...I'm kind of excited. I got a BR t-shirt dress on super-good sale (internet) that I can wear with the black leggings I bought with Jessica and some flip-flops and look totally chic.

Love you all!

Squish, Squish!

So yesterday was my day off this week, and I slept until 8pm. Awesome. I love that. It's the very best way to make sure you stay up all night doing nothing worthwhile. So I got up and walked over to the bathroom when I noticed my feet were wet. And the carpet was squishy. I looked over to the toilet and tub. Nothing. Dry. I felt under the sink. Totally dry. I looked up at the ceiling. Dry. In the closet. WET. So I took everything out of the closet, pulled up the carpet, and called the landlord. In our joint investigation, I realized the washer and dryer are on the other side of the wall of my closet. And the valves were leaking, even though I hadn't used the washer in about 3 days. So my landlord tightened it, and it hasn't leaked since. So I'm getting my bedroom carpet cleaned again, and the handyman is coming over on Monday or Tuesday.

The adventure continues.... :o)

CORRECTION

Hi everyone! So something I wrote apparently didn't transfer very well into words. When I wrote that I got the flowers from my parents for taking the test, it was not the first time they have ever sent me flowers and told me how proud they were of me, like they always do. It was just the first time I have ever gotten flowers before anyone knew if I had actually PASSED the test. To get flowers just for TAKING it was kind of crazy. I was like, "Oh no, what if I didn't actually pass yet!!!! Ahh!!!" But they had faith, and I had passed it, and I just wanted to clarify.
Love ya'll,
cc

I'm a nurse, I'm a nurse. Whoo-hoo!!

I passed! I passed!

The compass deserves a better picture

says jessica. so here it is:

Before and After

This is a link to my friend emily's blog. She and her hubbie just finished remodeling their Massachusetts condo and have amazing before and after pictures. Crazy huge project.
http://howsyourhousecoming.blogspot.com/
And I ate sushi here on Friday (the picture I took got deleted when I got my new phonebook switched over on my cell, but the website is amazing.) The sushi was just ok, but I will try again. The mussels appetizer was to DIE FOR.
www.stingraysushi.com

Barbeque Pork Chops

So tonight after the Sunflower adventure, i decided to barbeque. Now, I have barbequed before using a gas grill, and using my little charcoal grill with a ready-light briquette thing. But never really with real briquettes and lighter fluid. I learned a couple things:

1- Stacking the charcoal in a pyramid is very important

2- Do not boil the rice while you go start the charcoal. The rice will boil much faster, and the pan will be brown when you come back inside.

3- Marinating is an important aspect to this grilling thing. (Although, really, they weren't too bad.)

Smiles!

"Off we go! We can do it!"

I am not promoting Angelina Jolie in this picture. I am promoting her little girl Zahara. I can't get over her expression in this picture. I stole it off People magazine. Luckily, not enough people read this blog to violate copyright, i think :o) Anyways, it's cute as can be. Have a happy day!

cc

I'm Walkin' on Sunshine. Whoo-hoo..

So, I don't actually know if I've lauded Walgreens on this blog yet, but they came through for me once again, as they always always do.

In a roundabout way. So, first I went to Target to get some iron because they have the best iron supplements of all. I was also going to get some Bee Pollen because my dad and his friend swear it's the best stuff for allergies ever. And I swear to you, I don't know how allergies are bad in the desert, but they have been pretty freakin' bad here. But they didn't have bee pollen.

And I was going to get my pictures developed, but, of course, the photo shop was closed.


So I headed off the Walgreens because they develop pictures in 1-hour 24 hours a day. And they didn't have bee pollen, either, but the guy was really nice and came out to help me look through all the bottles. So, because I had a half hour, I looked around. And saw the following store across the street.


Now, this store looks a little ghetto and scary on the outside. But for one, it was OPEN at 9:15pm and two, it said "natural" twice on the outside. So I thought it was worth a try. Yes, they had bee pollen. And oh my gosh, it is such a great grocery store. It's kind of like the Boise co-op, with a lot less self-importance. And much nicer prices. They had little tiny cans of coconut milk for 99 cents, which means I don't have to pay $3 a can everytime I make a particular recipe. And a "guacamole kit" with 2 avocadoes, one shallot, two Roma tomatoes, and a jalapeno pepper for $1.99. Wow. And Boar's head meat, which I thought was just an Idaho thing. And banana-vanilla wallaby yogurt for 89cents (It's $1.09 at the co-op). And odwalla on sale and simply orange juice on sale. I am not kidding you. This is what the sign in front says "SERIOUS FOOD. SILLY PRICES." yep, their sale prices are called silly prices. Now this is a little nuts, but the store is called SUNFLOWER, so what does one expect? Anyways, I'm totally shopping here from now on and I am thrilled. There's so much fun Asian stuff and little mini zucchinis!! Yay!!

NCLEX OVER!

So I took the nursing boards on Friday. I don't know until tomorrow how I did. Now, I probably passed, and I felt okay about the test, but it's still very scary to not know for sure. But I'm writing this now because it seems like I would be cheating you all of the anticipation factor if I just wrote tomorrow and said I passed. These are the flowers my parents sent to the hospital on Friday night. For taking the test. hmmm.. that's a first :o)

Fireworks

Tonight was kind of a unique fireworks event, but not too bad. I thought to myself today (because being alone really didn't bother me today at all..maybe because I have amazing friends and family..they'e just not here). Anyways, I thought to myself that maybe the reason we don't see people alone all that much is that because people who are alone are maybe scared to go out alone. And so they watch the fireworks INSIDE. And then there's me. So I drove down towards Tempe's beautiful bridge where the fireworks display was going to happen. Tons of the roads were blocked off, and I ended up about a mile west of the bridge. So I parked and walked-- for the record, there were lots of families around and still light outside, so I felt very safe. It was $6 to get inside, but I figured I'd just walk down and look for a good spot- on a bridge perhaps. Turns out it was more like a crazy packed carnival, and that's wasn't really what I was looking for (there is a little "beach" right there, but I'm sure it was packed. I couldn't actually see it because of all the blockades). So I walked back and hopped back in my car right as the show started. But I could see it pretty well while I drove and could listen to the radio station with the fireworks soundtrack. I ended up on McDowell Road, west of where I'd ever been, and pulled over to the side of the road like everyone else and watched them. It was a great view, and the high school kids I sat (sort of) next to were excited for the music. It was good. I drew a picture for you all. I'm such a budding artist. :o) I left out the buildings that were in the background. They weren't really that scenic. And the yellow squiggly lines are the lights on the bridge. I love America.

I Embody Change

So... I needed some noise in my house the other day and went CD shopping. I had heard really good things about Joss Stone's debut album "Introducing Joss Stone," and it was on sale, so I took a chance and bought it. And I love it. It's a good feel sexy, dance around in your house CD, and it doesn't have "explicit lyrics," which is nice.

So.. the first track on the album is a british guy talking. This is what he says,

"You see I know change

I see change

I embody change

All we do is change

Yeah, I know change

We are born to change

We sometimes regard it as a metaphor

That reflects the way things ought to be

In fact, change takes time

It exceeds all expectations

It requires both now and then

See although the players change

The song remains the same....

It felt appropriate. Happy 4th of July!!!