confession...

nothing like some good italian comfort food. 

hi.  my name is alaina, and i stress eat.

it's true.  i think i've known this about myself for a while, but this semester it has become painfully obvious.  let's rewind a bit to january 2011.  just about 11 months ago, i decided rather than making any new years resolutions, i would set a few measurable (and reasonable) goals for myself.  one such goal was to cook a new recipe at least once a week.  not that hard.  and i'd say i stuck to it - at least until the summer.  in a 100+ year old house with no a/c, it's absolute hell to stand over a stove or turn on the oven.  so that kind of stopped.

but... then i started school.  and so the whole i'm-not-cooking-because-it's-hot thing turned into i'm not cooking.  because i'm too busy.  so now, when i cook, it's things that are kind of big, so we have leftovers and i don't have to do it again in another few days.  nice, right?  good wife right there.  and, being so busy and all, i've been skipping breakfast since this summer, which i know is a huge no-no.  and now life has just gotten busier and busier, so it's grabbing dinner on the way home and ordering in chinese when i'm way too exhausted to cook.  it's getting bad.  i mean, i ate a vegetarian egg roll at 10:30am today.

i should have known over the summer when i got my bridesmaid dress for em's wedding and when it came it was a little too... tight.  so i exchanged it and got the next size, and in the process saved $100 because the dress was then on sale.  so i figured it was a good thing.  well, when philip looked at me earlier this week and said, 'hey babe, have you tried on your bridesmaid dress?' well, that was a new low. between this stress eating thing and the holiday season... i need to practice some self control.  i think i'll go for my mom's suggestion of having a glass of wine instead of dinner when not too hungry.

to be honest, i've always had a fairly healthy body image.  i am not a big girl, but i have a few curves.  sure, my behind is big for a little white girl (but smaller than j.lo's).  but there are parts of my body that i like.  i never allowed a scale in our house, because i believe that if you like what you see, then why attach a number to it?  either you are happy or you aren't.  and since i am approaching the 'i am not happy' end of the spectrum, some changes will need to be adjusted to that theory here in the january 2012.

but here's hoping that if i keep stress eating, i could look like this:

'she wore her sexuality with an older woman’s ease, and not like an awkward purse, never knowing how to hold it, where to hang it, or when to just put it down.'
— zadie smith, white teeth
ps - this is from slaughterhouse 90210

and yes, the bridesmaid dress still fits. for now  :)

the bathroom vol. 2: update iii

it's just that time of year.

it's hard to get out of bed in the morning.  it's cold.  it's dark.  you just don't want to do too much besides cuddle under the blanket.  that's how i feel lately (and apparently so does the mous, my cat).  so there hasn't been much going on house-wise for me.

but philip, on the other hand, is a MACHINE.  i know i married him, so i might be a bit biased, but he is so amazing.  he has made leaps and bounds on the bathroom project and i tell you what friends it is looking amazing.  here's a glimpse of what's been going on.

putting together our new vanity today!

instructions, piping, new tile... 

new wall color.

getting the sink on just right.

TWO sinks!  count 'em! 

we got started early today with the paint.  philip had already painted the walls but the trim still needed some help.  so i put on a few coats of killz to get rid any mold or mildew.  while letting that dry before the trim paint i was anticipating on painting, we ran to ikea!  whoooo!  i didn't get the legs for the vanity and it turns out we needed them, so off we went on a little trip.  and, of course, we picked up a few other goodies while we were there...

our new lamp in the living room! 

actually that was it.  or at least that is all i can show you now.  but once we got home, i made an awful discovery: we don't have any trim paint left from our paint party!  what the hell!  so now i have to figure out the shade we used and see if i can match it so we can have some consistency in this house.  so instead i did a little bit of fun decorating.  hooray!

new mantle arrangement.

other side of the mantle.

finally hung the frame philip got for his birthday! 

a GIFT WRAPPING station for the holidays! 

there's already some presents up there :)

picked up this gem yesterday - in our bedroom
from my favorite shop around!

so all in all, it was a strange weekend.  off friday, worked saturday, impromptu sleepover @ mom's saturday night, and bathroom/ikea all day today.  we expected the bathroom to be done tonight... but with an old house like this, when you start one project, three or four more pop up.  so we have to get ourselves some different pipes.  of course.  hopefully it will be done soon - our big new york trip is coming up!

hope you had as great a weekend as i did :)

til next time...

purpose.

whoa. super awesome day yesterday.  the magic of 11/11, right?

i had my first one-on-one yesterday morning (at 11am!).  i'm certain most of you don't know what that is, so i'll clue you in.  1:1s are something the obama campaign are trying to do with past supporters.  it's basically team leader or volunteer from the campaign sitting down with a supporter - or someone who isn't a supporter yet - and talking with them about their concerns, the issues that are important to them, and their ideas for how we can make 2012 a success.  at my phone bank on tuesday i scheduled my first 1:1, and so today i actually went out and hosted my first 1:1 as a co-team leader.  i was very, very excited.

i won't bore you with the whole details - they aren't important to the story anyway.  but when the man i was meeting was asked what his motivation was for coming out and meeting with someone, he said it was me.  he told me i had a great energy over the phone and i made it sound like it was something important to do, so he thought he'd come check it out.

now, that was awesome.  and it wasn't the 1:1 that necessarily made me feel so great, but the fact that i had empowered someone to feel like they could come out and make a difference in their community.  and i totally felt like i had finally found my calling.  i have been close for a while, but i think i'm really into this community organizing thing.  the feeling i had while sitting and talking about issues with two people in my community, about how we can make a difference, really got me going.  i've posted it before, but the thought of the world is run by those who show up once again came into my mind.  i want to be the person who shows up.  i want to be one of those people who helps other people get involved and turn their community, their state, their country into the kind of place they want it to be.  the ideas of helping our brothers and sisters in our communities is something that we talked a lot about - and, sure, some of it may have to do with our own political perspective - but the volunteer i met was talking about this ideology of helping people.  some people can be democrats, some can be republicans, some are independents or other parties, and a lot of those people feel like they can pick and choose.  fiscally conservative, socially liberal.  i hear it all the time.  but as this man spoke, he said that he feels that there are some candidates - in this case, conservatives - that just don't have the same worldview.  it's not an option to 'pick a side,' or just vote for certain issues.  for him, it was about finding someone who saw the world the way he did.  and i felt like i saw the world the same way this man did.  and i can't wait to have that feeling again.

i'll get off my soapbox now and go clean my house.  just had to share :)