For NYE, I went to Takashi with my boy and friends and then to Subt to see Holy Fuck with a bigger group of friends. Takashi is a Japanese fusion restaurant and it doesn’t focus as heavily on the raw fishes as other Japanese restaurants do. I think they were just as fancy as Blackbird (the restaurant I went to last NYE) but about half the price.
Subt was good because it wasn’t packed so there was room to stand in the back and drink without being smashed into by drunk hipsters. Afterward was late night food and immediate passing out. I’m getting old.

I went to the doctor for my tube tying follow-up. He said everything looks good and reminded me I can have unprotected sex before I left. How often does a doctor do that!
At work, we seem to be trudging along with a grant application that I don’t really think is feasible. Grants often require a match which means the agency has to put up a certain percentage of the amount they are requesting. This particular grant requires a large match amount and our agency just doesn’t have it. We can use in-kind matches, percentages of the salaries of staff that will work on the project but that won’t cover the full amount. It seems like we are going after the grant because we are desperate for new funding sources which ultimately wastes a lot of my time when I put grant writing/prep effort into a grant we aren’t going to get.
The exec team member I’m working with did bring up a good point. He said if we could just get one grant in, it might give us some momentum and the CEO would notice our efforts and maybe give us more time to work on future grants. Rights now there is no designated grant application time for the exec team. It’s just tacked on to everyone’s regular job. It’s a big part of my job but I have a few applications in process and other stupid stuff to do. I spent some of this week filing a big stack of papers and thinking about how it would make much more sense to hire a part time person to do the admin BS part of my job. I know, no money in the budget.

Next week starts boxing and next month starts burlesque lessons. I’m going to bash and bounce!

Clinical stuff-my sessions with my clients were pretty good and I think I’ve engaged them enough that they won’t bail. I start a new client next week so I will be back up to 3.

Parts and stuff- I saw my girly doctor today and insurance rules have changed since last year. I can get my tubes tied at the hospital’s outpatient clinic which makes me much more confident in the whole not dying thing. I might be able to schedule in a few weeks. I’ve even told my mom about it since I’m doubting my ability to walk up flights of stairs to my apartment after surgery. Staying at home to recover will make my mom feel nice and…motherly.
My dad suggested my mom email me instead of call because I don’t like the phone. Her first email was all in caps and a big run on sentence. I emailed her about the tube tying and she called me to respond. Almost got it.

I went out with the ladies tonight. It was nice, not too mommy focused, a lot of discussion about the election and politics. There was one other non-mommy there, making it split between moms/non-moms even for some of the night. I think the trick is just to not be the only non-mom. Don’t go to the playroom. Go to bars.

Also, I want to live in a warehouse with a rooftop garden and bands play in my basement and I make spray paint and gravel mandalas in my barren front yard.

I went to a family member’s girlfriend’s baby shower today and it was pretty awful. My family was surprisingly not embarrassing but the girlfriend’s family was a big mess. It was just a bad mix of getting knocked up young, disapproving family, alcohol, big fat asses, uncontrolled children and general suburban suck. Makes my fallopian tubes curl up and try to tie themselves.

Last night I went through my box o’ memories in the closet looking for pictures to bring. This box contains pictures, my short stories, notes written during class, old school assignments, cards, love notes, autographs, tickets stubs from concerts…a lot of dangerous emotional ammo. I also have a box like this of clothing. It’s full of school/class shirts, jerseys, brands/styles that were very in at one time but are now so out and my first (fake) leather skirt. Hipsters would love that box.

I found some pictures but got a few minor wounds along the way. Pictures of a deceased friend, cards from an ex, a packet of info about applying to grad school back when I thought grad school would be the key to my perfect career. I don’t even have to read or look at these things too hard and they start to hurt. I’m purging a lot of stuff from my apartment but these things will always have a spot tucked away in my closet.

I am bring my Xmas tree butter in case my aunt that brought lamb butter to Thanksgiving last year comes to dinner. I will warn people not to eat it since it has been in my freezer for a couple years (at least). It keeps my lamb butter company!

Since I am trying to lose weight I offered to make a low fat dessert. I was thinking a fruit tart but I know how my family rolls. Chocolate, icing, pie..fruit wouldn’t go over well unless it was covered in sugar. So I found an awesome recipe for mini chocolate cupcakes. I just baked my first batch and they are really good and only 177 calories per serving (3 mini cupcakes). They are kind of expensive to make because unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder is $8 a box. I probably could have substituted something cheaper but I’m not even sure what Dutch processed is and the first time I make a recipe I look to do it by the book then improvise later.

I also found an interesting recipe called Cherries in snow. It’s milk gelatin covered in a cherry/port mixture. It looks good but I am not sure my family would agree. I am going to make it anyway but I have the cupcakes as a sure winner and the gelatin as something to chase them around the kitchen with yelling “just try it!”

My mom was sad that it was too cold to go to the parade today so I brought some pastries from Chinatown to my parents and we ate bad suburban Chinese food.

While we were out picking up the food she told me that she had been talking with my dad about my desire to get my tubes tied. She said “as much as we would love to see you walk down the aisle or see you pregnant, your health is most important and getting pregnant isn’t worth the risk.”

Yes, exactly. Well, kind of. Hidden in that reassurance is  “We don’t think you’re going to get married because you’re not having babies.” Mom, I have so much to teach you! She will be the first to get a copy of my yet to be written book.

It’s December so that means working at my dad’s store on the weekends (and usually depression. Hmm, I wonder if the two are related). To add to the chaos this year, he moved his store last month. So we are unpacking, fixing up a new store, decorating it for X-mas and preparing for general craziness.

I can’t really update, my hand is killing me, my old bones.

I went clothes shopping. I didn’t get what I wanted, which is a shiny shirt for holiday parties but I got other stuff.

Then I went to Ulta and sprayed myself with too many Demeter fragrances so I smelled like a Sugar and Spice Laundry Mojito. I’m not a perfume type girl but I love me some Demeter.

My trip to Ulta was not to play with scents, it was to get hair dye. I love having red hair or red highlights but they fade out so quick that it’s not worth getting them done professionally. So I tried the at home all over color/highlight kit and it didn’t turn out too bad. There’s one section of highlights that is way too light but its under my top layer of hair so I’m not concerned.

And tomorrow I’m going to Macy’s with the parents and they have a Lush boutique in the store so more girly-ness!

Thanksgiving was not too eventful. My aunt brought lamb butter. She claimed she thought it was turkey butter but no, that’s definitely a lamb and this has definitely been sitting in your freezer since Easter. So I did the only thing you can do with months old lamb butter. I decapitated it during prayer.

And the owners of the dog hit by a car emailed me, they have been reunited with their dog and are very happy and grateful.

I went to a painting party at a friend’s new house yesterday. It’s a dirty trick to call an event like that a party but I was on to their games. So I helped paint friend’s living room blood red (sorry, terra cotta red) and since she is one of my old coworkers from the vet clinic, the day wouldn’t be complete without a bleeding animals. She already had a puppy she was fostering in her backyard. The owners couldn’t treat it and it was being signed over to a rescue.

Then in her moving earlier in the day, she saw a bunch of people standing around a bloody mess of a dog that was victim of a hit and run. So she took it to the vet and when I came over we brought it back to her house for overnight care. I posted about it on CraigsList and she posted a sign at the accident site but so far no responses. So if anyone wants a Jack Russell terrier with a fucked up face, let me know. Unfortunately, no one that saw the accident got a license plate number. I’d like to fuck up that person’s face a bit.

Edit: I should just add this here since I was already talking about dogs. I went to visit my parents tonight and usually my dog Zoe greets me at the door and as excited, semi-retarded dogs do, she pees. So I try to greet her outside or tell her to go outside as I come in. And that’s what I did today. But I got distracted by a conversation with my dad and forgot to let the dog back in. A few minutes later my dad asks where the dog is and runs outside because he hears growling. A neighbor was walking her dog and the dogs started fighting. (Parents’ front yard is not fenced) The woman walking her dog was crying and her dog had a puncture wound on it’s back. We took Zoe inside and the woman took her dog to the vet. I looked Zoe over, she had saliva on her neck so she was bitten but no puncture wounds.
Later the woman came back, said her dog is OK, just the one puncture wound. My parents paid her vet bill, my dad felt horrible about forgetting the dog outside even though it was really me who forgot the dog. Later, I was petting Zoe and she screamed when I touched her neck. She cried when she got up a few times so no puncture wounds but the other dog definitely hurt something in her neck so she’s off to the vet tomorrow. Poor dog, victim of my bad memory :(