Monday, June 24, 2013

Down With FB

I DID IT.

I've done it before and all, but, I did it again.

I deactivated my Facebook account.

I think it will be nice to spend a whole summer completely immune to the pull of Facebook.

I've been thinking a lot about how we live in a technological age and how nothing is ever really personal anymore.  We share all our moments, good and bad, with the people we supposedly care about the most, on social networking sites like Facebook and Instagram and Twitter.  Nothing is really private anymore.

(I know, the irony - here I am waxing poetic on my albeit public blog.)

My point is, I feel like the more social networking sites I'm a part of, the more people have access to me.  Like, there are one-way channels flowing into me and flowing away from me.  I have control over all the channels that flow away from me - I control who I'm in contact with and who I'm not, what I want to see and what I don't - but I have no control over all the channels that flow into me.  And I know, yada yada yada privacy settings yada, but that doesn't really mean anything when you have to worry about hurting feelings left and right over who's on what list and who's not.  It's just too much to manage, and I just don't care enough anymore.  So, I'm done.  For at least the summer.  Facebook-Free Summer 2013.

I guess I had just started feeling a little claustrophobic.  I have a much smaller circle on both Twitter and Instagram, and I feel like there's no drama there, so for now that's what I'm sticking to.

Oh, and this!  My blog.  Where I document my journey through this thing called life.  So exciting to nobody really but me.

Pretty soon I'm going to start my second cookbook, The Scott Family Table.  I'm planning a little bit of a different approach this time - more finished-product pictures, less step-by-step pictures, a couple layouts throughout the book of only my most favorite candid shots of me and Aaron and Maraea cooking together.  I'm really excited to start!

Once I do that I'll have more pictures & recipes to post.  I have plenty from my last cookbook but I don't want to keep delving into that old pile.  I want new and exciting, better photography with a better camera, etc.

Happy summer everyone!

Monday, June 17, 2013

My Summer In A Picture (Or Two)

Wanna see my life this summer?

Here you go:



Weight Watchers and Working Out.

I drew up a calendar for July to track how many points I consume each day and whether or not I've done my workout.  Thanks to The Best Trainer Ever (Mike) I have a week's full of workouts I have to do.  Every day I will be working out about an hour a day.  My calendar has a spot to record my beginning weight and another spot for my ending weight.

I guess July is going to be Weight Watchers and Working Out July.

I'm on Day 5 of Weight Watchers.  I'm actually kind of embarrassed to admit that I'm on it.  But such is life.  I needed to DO something.  This whole heaviest-I've-ever-been shit is not okay with me.  What I really like about the exercise program my trainer designed for me is that if I can't make it to the gym, I can totally do it at home.  And WW hasn't been so bad so far actually.  Yesterday I thought for sure I'd buckle - it was Father's Day cookout at my mom's house, which means spreads of dips and chips and steaks and other slutty stuff - but I was good and ate a big salad and a baked potato.  I actually wasn't all that hungry after the brunch I had.  I guess if I can make it through a cookout at my mom's house, I can make it through anything.

I know I said I was going to stop focusing so heavily on my health, but this can't be excused.  I had a wake-up call at the doctor when he weighed me and it's just not acceptable.  It's just not.

But I am going to have some fun this summer too.  Want to see what the rest of my life will be this summer?



Holy awesomesauce.  :)  I nice new wide angle lens for my nice new Canon.  And a WW cookbook and food scale.  I'm actually excited about all 4 things in this picture.

So there it is folks.  My summer in a nutshell.  Photography and health.

Who wants a photo shoot?  Seriously I need to get some one in front of my lens and fast.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Some Things I Know For Certain

June has been a hectic month, and two more weeks and I can really relax this summer.  After my Baltimore vacation at the end of this month, things will really settle down and I can focus on........so many damn things.

But the main part of the month has passed, and with the past several months have come some things that I know without a doubt.  I'd like to share them with you, here.

1.  I'M A FREAKING GRADUATE, BABY.  Took me over two years but I've got that Bachelor's degree under my belt for sure now.  On Monday June 10th, I graduated Cum Laude from the Software Programming & Application Development program at Peirce College here in Philly.  I'm ecstatically proud of myself.  I'm the only one of my parents' kids to have a Bachelor's degree.  Me and my dad are the only ones in our family with Bachelor's degrees.  And I know why - because it's no easy feat, folks.  College isn't easy.  College wasn't easy for me as an adult and I can't in my wildest dreams imagine that it would have been easier for me as an 18 year old.  For one thing, I thought I knew what I wanted to do at 18 - till I found out what it paid.  Till I found out how much schooling (and debt) I'd need to get to where I wanted to be with that kind of degree.  But at 18 you don't really know what you want to do with your life.  Or, if you do, you have no idea what kind of economic situation you'll be in when you get out of school.  Or, if you do know all that, then God bless ya, you're lucky.  Because at 18 I never would have thought that I'd get a BS in an IT field.  N E V E R.  But guess what - turns out I'm fantastic at what I do and it pays pretty well.  Some people like to say I got lucky -- FALSE.  I worked my ass off.  I've been working my ass off since I was 16 and had two jobs (at one point -- three jobs, I think), saving every penny to buy myself my first car.  True, I may have fallen into the pharmacy field.  But that's not exactly a field that pays well unless you're a pharmacist.  It was my work ethic that took me to excelleRx, up the ranks there, and into the IT department.  I bust my ass.  And I have drive.  Luck has almost nothing at all to do with where I am today.  Don't discount all my hard work by calling me "lucky".  Some people also like to say that I'm a supermom -- FALSE again.  In the past 2 years I have felt like such a bad mom at times that I've sat in the basement listening to my daughter play upstairs while I cried, knowing it would be hours before I could go play with her because there was so much homework in front of me.  I've had such surges of mommy guilt over being in school that I had been seconds away from quitting entirely several times.  The truth is that all I did was fill my "down" time with "homework" time.  You know all that time you spend sitting on the couch in the evenings watching TV or reading a book or going out with friends or doing laundry or hanging out with your spouse or whatever it is you do in your down time?  I just did homework.  That's all.  I'm no supermom; I was a super stressed mom that barely held it together for 2 years.

But that's all over now.

Please don't ask me if I'm going for my Master's degree.  PLEASE.

2.  I have some of the best friends in the world.  My four motherboard friends moved heaven and earth (almost quite literally) to be here for my graduation, and I don't think I could ever express the depths of my gratitude.  My graduation party or ceremony wouldn't have been the same without them, that's for sure.  :)

3.  I am the heaviest I have ever been, and this needs to change, and very soon.  I'm working on it, and that's all I'll say.

4.  While getting to where I am now has nothing to do with luck, I feel lucky.  I have the most beautiful daughter in the world.  I have the best husband ever.  My family and friends freaking rock.  My job keeps me incredibly busy but when I get that paycheck at the end of the month I'm just like "Well ok, for that I can do all that all over again."  I'm creative and I have hobbies and outlets to channel my creativity into.

5.  I can't can't can't can't can't CAN'T CAN'T CAN'T WAIT for this summer to start.  I can't wait to take my daughter to the beach, to read books, to cook, to get some sun, to go to the gym every single day, to take advantage of every single free second I have and fill it with doing something I love.  I promise I will never, ever take those kinds of seconds for granted again.  If school has taught me anything - it's that.

I guess you could argue that it took 2 1/2 years and $36,000 to teach me to live life to its fullest, to not spend a single second on anything that makes you anything less than happy, to take advantage of your time here and do things you love to do.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Blog Post #50 & My Busy Juicy June

It's my 50th blog post!

I feel like I should celebrate.  Like I'm an old lady blogger or something.  But I guess 50 is not really that many blog posts.

So as much as I blasted doctors and prescriptions a couple weeks ago - I went and saw my doc about my knee pain and he prescribed me a very strong NSAID which was basically a miracle drug.  I took one dose and by the next morning I had greater range of movement than I was able to get in the week prior, and I could make it up and down the stairs with almost no pain.  A few days later I went for a 2.5 mile walk with my friend and was fine.  Go figure.

Hm, what else is going on?  Oh, well it's Juicy June.  I prepped all my produce for the week's AM juices and plan on drinking vegetable juices in the evening.  Not every single day - just a few days a week.  Next month I'm going to start choosing goals that aren't so focused on my health.  I'm going to continue to focus on my health, but not as a monthly goal.

Oh!  Guess what.  By this time next week I will officially be a graduate.  My dearly beloved sister wives are coming to town on Saturday and staying till Tuesday.  I wish they could stay all week.  But they are not just mine.  Graduation party at the best restaurant ever - Distrito! - on Sunday.  I'm so excited for this week to be over!

Then at the end of June, Aaron and I will celebrate 15 years together.  Fifteen years.  Sometimes I really can't believe it.  To celebrate we're going to Baltimore for a few days for some gluttony.  Specifically, day drinking on the harbor.  And maybe some horseback riding.

Before I know it, June will be over and it will be on to July.  I hope summer doesn't go too fast.  I have so many things I want to do with Maraea.  I really want to take her to DC so we can take her to the Smithsonian museums and she can see the dinosaurs.  She friggin loves dinosaurs.  And I love DC.  I also want to take her to OCMD for a weekend.  And go hiking.  And all kinds of good stuff.  She is at such a fun age right now.  When she's not sassing me, anyways.