Tony, Tony, TONY!

I've read this blog post from Anthony Bourdain a couple of times now and it's still cracking me up. Warning though, it really is funnier if you have a general awareness of preschooler television programs. Can this guy do any wrong? Eh, probably. Though I love his show, his books, I do not see eye to eye with him on a few key things. For instance, his stance and utter dislike for non-religious vegetarians (hi!), or his disdain for Billy Joel. Hey, there are a few Billy Joel songs that are guilty pleasures of mine. And this is a deal breaker for us: I once saw him on his show, do the thing with ketchup that I can't stand. He poured it all over his fries, not a neat blob in the corner, but all over the fries like toddler gone scribble crazy with a crayon. I can't go for that and that's why it would never work out between us. But otherwise, this is one non-religious vegetarian that loves some Tony Bourdain.

On the job front: I'm still looking for something. Lately I've had a handful of interviews, all going pretty well, but nothing really coming out of them. Can't do anything but keep trying, I guess. What's killing the control freak in me is this state of uncertainty I seem to be in. I have no idea if I'm going to be unemployed for days, weeks or months and the inability to plan certain things right now is making me NUTS! Like, I wonder if I should keep shopping for Ira's daycare. He's going to need it when I get a job. Should I even show up with my $180 check in hand to register him for his parent participation preschool (meaning I have to be there) next week? If I get a job two weeks into that, there's no way they're going to refund my money. What the eff am I going to do when my unemployment benefit runs out? Pressing questions! The only solution is to probably just ride this out, try and hope for the best. All of this uncertainty and inability to control my fate just makes me want to bake bread. I know that sounds weird, but I just want to do something challenging and see success come out of it. LET GO AND LET DOUGH, MY CHILD.

Cute Overload

This two week old tortoise is likely the cutest thing in the known world. Do not be fooled. The cuteness is just a survival tactic. They get you to buy them because they look like this. Then they grow into this:


This is not an animal for casual pet owners. Being an owner of a couple of 10+ year old cats who I love, but don't intend to replace, I can't imagine having an animal that will outlive me. There's something just not fair about that.

The summer of getting fit!

Green smootie # 7
Originally uploaded by riblet.

A friend challenged me to continue on my path to getting fit by getting some more healthy greens. I think it's revenge for challenging her to the 30 Day Shred. So I've been making these crazy smoothies with lots of green things in them. Spinach, lettuce, mint, cukes, avocados, grapes and some sweet things like pineapple and peaches to make it all palatable.

I cannot tell you if I feel any change in health but it can't really be hurting me, unless you count the fact that I've been looking at the world through greenish lenses. Now every time I pass a produce section I find myself scanning the bins for potential smoothie ingredients. Hot peppers? Nah. Beet greens? Maybe! Leon mowed the lawn on Sunday and I found myself ogling the pile of yard waste he left for collection, wondering how it might go in a smoothie. I opened my wallet yesterday at Target and wondered if a dollar bill would add some hefty fiber.

I have seven more days to go on this challenge before I'm not really committed any more. While I like green smoothies and how they taste, I don't really like having an extra task to do in the morning. I could see myself making these once a week maybe.

Cheers!

Into the wayback machine

Old magazine
Originally uploaded by riblet.

My parents still have boxes of my old stuff (sorry guys!), including tons of teen magazines that I subscribed to in the early '90s. I had Seventeen, YM and my favorite, Sassy! Of course, we found the boxes with Seventeen and YM, but no Sassy. I fear they may have been tossed out! Anyway, looking through both old Seventeen and YM mags, I started to notice the vast difference between the two.

Seventeen was more focused on fashion, beauty tips and shopping. There were some music reviews that were so all over the place. Everything from rap to country, to a huge feature on the Grateful Dead one month. Wha?! Were 14 year old girls in 1992 interested in the Dead?

If Seventeen was the teen girls version of Elle, YM was the junior Cosmopolitan. Borderline smutty and all about boys, boys, boys! A sampling from the cover features from several issues include the following:

Special Guy Issue [A lot of guys have issues, don't they?]
Clothes Guys Love [Skimpy ones.]
Lies Guys Tell for Sex [I need it bad or I'll die!]
Do Guys Notice You? [They probably notice your boobs first.]
Guys Exposed! [Isn't this a magazine for teenagers?!]
Guys Decoded! [They're not that complicated.]
Don't Let Him Read This! [Because he will think you're nuts.]
Guys Confess ["We're dogs sometimes." Signed, TEENAGE GUYS]

So YM's demographic was 14-17 year old, boy-crazy vamps. I don't remember being particularly boy-crazy at these ages. I was more of a sad and confused tomboy. Yet, I had a subscription to these magazines! I can't tell you what I expected to get out of them. Period questions answered? Kissing advice? How to get him to notice me? I must have liked them for some reason. Right?

One of the best parts about finding these old magazines are the ads. Remember Bold Hold? Ten-O-Six? Buff Puff? Love's Baby Soft? Caboodles!!! I also found a huge advertorial in a lone issue of Teen Magazine for a line of cedar hope chests. Did girls in the early '90s still fill up hope chests? I sure didn't know any. It was also funny to see Denise Richards, Rebecca Gayheart and Jennifer Connelly featured all over these magazines not as actresses, but as models.

Unfortunately my Sassy magazines are currently missing. I think they might have not survived a certain "big trash" day at my parents' place. Those are the magazines that I'd love to find in some dusty box. I asked them to keep an eye out for them for me. Hopefully they'll turn up and I can have a Sassy party for anyone who wants to look at them.

Like, totally fresh.