On More Days Off and Early Birthday Presents...

I'm pretty sure every day off for me will be spent like a day off in college.

Last weekend (as I may have previously stated) I didn't have plans and spent most of it in sweatpants on my couch. I also watched Spongebob Squarepants and took a nap. And then I ordered pizza and wings, cracked open a beer and watched the Buffalo Sabres game. I swear I'm a girl and not a bro.

Today had much of the same, but was also incredibly awesome. So I'm "upstate" right now (I say "upstate" because everyone in New York City considers the rest of New York "upstate," but the Capital Region isn't really that far north, and so I add the quotes. The real upstate to me would be like, the Adirondacks), and my birthday is Tuesday. When people ask what I want for my birthday, I try to think of things I need first. So naturally my list was comprised of a new cell phone case, a toiletry bag and tickets to see Beyonce. I also desperately needed a new laptop.

I bought my first laptop with money form my high school graduation party. It was my most prized possession. It was a brand new MacBook, this beautiful little perfectly white 13" chic computer, and I was the only one of my roommates that had a Mac. We had been through a lot: the whole "becoming an adult" thing, that time my hard drive fried the ONE time I used Limewire to make the warm-up CD for my field hockey team, moving to New York, Hurricane Sandy (where it lost a few keys from a cat that was sick of me being at home on my computer for a week). And then the tech world decided that my now six-year-old computer was too elderly for any sort of update, leaving me without Flash and without much needed improvement to my applications.

So I figured I would use my tax return to finance a new one...and then because of a payroll glitch I ended up owing to the state which consumed my entire federal return. Really awesome, yeah?

My parents and boyfriend both dropped hints about buying me a new one for my birthday, but I shrugged them off, telling them it was too expensive for either party to buy on their own. I'm pretty independent too, so I was bummed that I couldn't do this on my own and figured my next laptop wouldn't come around for a couple years.

Basically, I was completely caught off guard today when my boyfriend brought me into the Apple store and told me that he and my parents bought me a new MacBook Pro for my birthday. I actually felt like I might cry, but I played it cool. I'm using the new computer now aaaaand I'm kind of in love with it.

So the bf also bought me a new laptop bag and a $50 Steam gift card, and we put a bunch of games on a wish list for me, and then he went to work and I took a three-hour nap. THREE. HOURS. Who does that? It was a nap filled with weird dreams too, of course, because I was under 10 blankets and started to sweat and had weird 10-blanket-fever-induced dreams. And then I woke up and ordered chicken wings.

The weird thing about me and chicken wings is that I didn't really eat them a lot in Buffalo, and then when I moved away I ate them a lot and judged them harshly. The boyfriend told me I had to try these PB&J wings from a place called Basil City around here, and my first thought was, "I only do hot wings." And when I really thought about it, I realized that the savory sweet combination could work. And guys, it totally does. Plus Basil City makes CRISPY WINGS. That is so hard to come by outside of Buffalo! Especially when you don't get them right at the restaurant. The delivery trip almost always gets the wings all soggy and gross. Not this time.

Shopping. Food. Naps. Portlandia season two...yeah, days off rock. And so do new computers!

On Being an Adult on Days Off...

I just had the best lazy weekend ever. My cat was equalley stoked about me actually being around.

Don't get me wrong, staying busy is kind of my thing. I've been doing it since age five given all the extracurriculars I was involved in. As I've gotten older, I've narrowed my focus so rather than running from school to dance class to piano lessons and then softball the next day, I went to class, field hockey practice, newspapers meetings, night class and then studying. Now that I'm an "adult" (says the girl who just made grilled cheese for dinner and followed it up with half a chocolate bar for dessert), it's more like, wake up, work, come home, eat, lounge, sleep. But for some reason my weekends are always go, go, go. Since moving into my new apartment, I've either had visitors or been an visitor every weekend. This was my first weekend of NOTHING. Not that I don't love all you visitors or traveling, but sometimes you just seriously need to do nothing.

A snowy weekend is the best time for "nothing weekends" to happen.

Due to a nor'easter (because no, I'm not giving it a name), my office closed early on Friday, and apparently it was the perfect time for closing. Aside from having to use my umbrella as a shield against the wind on my three-block walk to the subway (if you ever move to New York, the best thing you can do is a buy a strong umbrella, which I'm really glad I have), my ride home was great. Usually I'm squished into a subway car like a sardine amongst other sardines that refuse to take their backpacks off or give up their seats for ladies carrying more than they are. But boarding the train at 3:15 pm gave me a seat and a quick and quiet ride. I wish this was my everyday.

I then proceeded to do nothing. I considered ordering in some food, then thought about how I would feel as a delivery person during a big winter storm, then thought about how I'm actually trying to save money, and decided against it. I made some random pasta dish that sufficed. Then I watched TV, worked on a huge crossword, got kind of bored and went to sleep.

Yesterday I was somewhat productive. I decided to really show what an adult I am and tackled my most hated chore, laundry. Laundry has always been the worst, mostly because since I started doing my own (yes, I didn't do my own laundry until college. Feel free to judge me), I've had to haul my laundry far enough to make it terrible. It was usually across a dorm building and down the stairs, or a block away to the laundromat (while hauling my laundry in grocery bags...because that's all I had as a non-paid intern), or bringing them down to the creepy basement of my last building that was probably a runner-up for the set of the Saw movies, and where I saw more than one cockroach. This building kind of rocks though. The elevator is around the corner from me, and then the laundry room is around the corner from there. Super easy, yeah?

Basically, I don't totally hate laundry anymore. Now I need a new chore to hate, because you have to hate one of them, right?

Oh, I also cleaned my whole apartment yesterday. There are advantages to living in a studio and cleaning more often than once a month. Good god, who am I?

Being from Buffalo, I'm a huge Buffalo sports fan, particularly when it comes to the Buffalo Sabres. You would think that being a New York state team they would be on occasionally in the city? Of course not. They play the New Jersey Devils games over the Sabres games. So I was pretty excited when I saw that my Sabres would be playing the New York Islanders this weekend, and expected them to be on TV.

I was wrong. MSG decided to play some show called Beginnings all day through my cable provider.

So I invited my two best friends in the city to join me at Red Star in Brooklyn to catch the game, have some beers and eat some bar food. I indulged in some wings and truffle fries. This place has the closest to Buffalo wings that I've had since leaving Buffalo. And the truffle fries are top notch. These are the two items I've ordered at this place both times I've been there, and I don't think I'll ever order anything else. What's even better? The Sabres won :)

I was also home before midnight, which rocks.

Today was probably the best day of this weekend (no offense, friends). I'm still in my pajamas as I type this at 7:15 pm. I finished season five of Dexter, threw some stuff in the crockpot for lunch for the week and made a grilled cheese. Seriously, that's all I've done today, and I'm not ashamed at all. I really needed to recharge after going, and going, and going for weeks. This was perfect.

And not to toot my own horn, but that crockpot meal is smelling like Flavor Town quality right now. If you've ever read the Song of Ice and Fire series (aka the Game of Thrones series), then you're well-aware of George R. R. Martin's food descriptions. This meal was inspired by it, because if I have to read about one more stewed onion covered in beef drippings without eating one, I'm gonna freak out. I didn't really follow a recipe for it, but I browned some beef, threw it in with some onions, carrots and garlic, then poured red wine and beef stock over top with salt, pepper and oregano. Sound good? The only other thing I have to do for it is make some orzo to accompany it.

Was this boring? Maybe it was. But what else are you supposed to write about on a personal blog? I don't really have any pressing issues to dissect, but maybe next time. Thanks for sticking with me :)