*Dusts away the cobwebs that have formed all over this blog*
Hello there! Why yes, it has been a while since my last blog post! What a keen observation!!
Okay, that's done. I'm just going to skip the explanations and just move on because, you know, life is too short, etc.
The last time I blogged was back in January, and for anyone that happened to follow along I think it was pretty clear that my heart just wasn't in it. This year has been an extremely busy one, full of twists and turns, and although I couldn't predict that I would end up where I am today, I think that back in January I at least knew that changes were on the way and it really freaked me out. Back in January I was experiencing the onset of a lot of uncertainty about my future (immediate and distant). In the past ten months I successfully completed student teaching, graduated college, spent three weeks in France, faced the possibility of a year of unemployment (exaggeration), and then managed to find employment in a location three hours away from where I was expecting it. Sometimes it feels like things changed overnight, like I snapped my fingers and suddenly I was living a different life. It's been an exciting and terrifying adventure, but I sometimes wonder how I wound up here.
Thinking back to January, when my blog posts were half-assed and my anxiety was slowly brewing, I remember feeling as though I was driving downhill through fog. I could see what was right in front of me, and as long as I kept moving the road would reveal itself, but I also had very little control over how fast I was moving. That feeling continued to get worse as the year went on--especially around the time of graduation. Then all of a sudden, it's like the car ran out of gas and I was stranded on a foggy road with no way of moving forward and no way to see what was ahead of me (we're moving on the the part of the metaphor that explains how it feels to be unemployed). I mean, I was applying for teaching jobs, but the scary thing about trying to find a teaching job is that there is a pretty specific window of opportunity, and missing that window could mean no teaching job for a year (which is not entirely true, considering there are a lot of alternatives to being a classroom teacher that many people explore for a year or more before getting a teaching job--but I digress). I had one very weak lead on a long term sub job in North Jersey that I had begun to mentally work out the logistics for (even though I hadn't been hired yet) when an opportunity sort of fell from the sky and into my lap. The sky in this case was my music education professor. After a very speedy interview and hiring process, I had landed myself a full time teaching position for high school choir. In Maryland. Southern Maryland. Three whole hours away from home.
Okay, I'll admit that in print, three hours does not seem like a far distance. But I can confirm that a three hour drive both ways every other weekend can be mentally draining.
Anyways, that's how I wound up where I am now. I basically picked up my life (and my bedroom that I spent all of last summer working on--yeah, I wasn't giving that up) and moved it three hours south for a job that I kind of suck at.
Which is not to say that I feel like I've made a mistake, because I don't. It's just been a big adjustment for me, and I sometimes forget that I've only been down here for like two months. Time moves slowly and quickly all at the same time, and each day is full of new challenges and opportunities to grow. To say that I'm transitioning into adulthood would be an understatement. I was expecting to take the scenic route from being a college student to a full fledged adult. Instead, I'm on one of those high speed trains--like the ones in Japan that you always read about in social studied text books--wow I use a lot of transportation metaphors. I've had to learn very quickly how to be independent on a variety of levels, not the least of which is financially. Adulthood is here and there is no way to avoid it, and I think that as I navigate my newfound independence I should take advantage of every adventure and like...blog about it. Is that how you take advantage of an adventure?? By writing about it on the internet??? How very millenial of me.
Okay, so this post is getting longer and longer by the minute and I just wanted to check in. But I think that I will be posting here at the very least on Sundays, if not like...Wednesdays or Thursdays as well. I'm not committing to Wednesdays or Thursdays, though!! I'm a working girl yo!! Time is money $$$.
Sundays I can do.
Speaking of Sundays, I had originally planned on posting a recipe today instead of giving a heavy update. What actually happened is that I was so hungry while I was making dinner and eager to get food into the oven, that I forgot to take pictures of the process. So here is a picture of the finished dish:
Yesterday I bought a giant bottle of cheap moscato that my friend Steph and I drank while watching Love Actually. However, as always my eyes were too big for my alcohol tolerance and we only finished about half the bottle. Since I don't like to drink during the week, I knew I needed a recipe to help me use up the bottle before it essentially turns to vinegar. I found this recipe for Lemon Rosemary and Moscato Chicken, and seeing that I already had most of the ingredients, knew that I had to try it.
The recipe calls for rosemary, but unfortunately my local Walmart does not happen to carry rosemary. And yes, I do buy my groceries at Walmart, because it's CHEAP and I'm BROKE and also it's like thirty seconds away from my apartment. JUDGE ALL YOU WANT. Anyways, I settled for some thyme. Also I took a very artistic photo of it. I'm an artist.
With some minor adjustments to measurements and a little bit of herb-swapping, I successfully made this chicken dish. I also paired it with some roasted potatoes instead of rice or pasta--mainly because I am SICK of rice and pasta. All I freakin' eat is rice and pasta because I am BROKE. Overall, it was all delicious but everything needed more salt. Mainly because I chickened out on the seasoning, which I usually do with a heavy hand. I don't know what came over me.
I will say that the skin on the chicken was the star of the show. It was nice and crisp, and really well seasoned. I think if I were to make it again, I might marinade the chicken in some lemon juice and garlic for a little while, just to get the rest of the meat caught up with the skin on the seasoning.
I also went ahead and served it with a modest glass of wine, because it is technically still the weekend.
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| Not pictured: QVC Gourmet Holiday on TV. #sundays |
Stay tuned for more blog posts! I swear!!
