Work/ life balance.

After finally updating my blog yesterday and doing some other good-Lindsey things, like prepping veggies for a crockpot chicken soup, drinking 1.5 liters of water throughout the day, doing all the dishes, and premaking lunches, I was feeling pretty great.  I was feeling like I could get back into a routine that made me happier and healthier.  I went to bed satisfied.

I woke up with a slight headache and almost overwhelming nausea.  I elected to ignore it while I made oatmeal for both of us and coffee for me.  I had some water and took a Sudafed because I thought my "headache" was living in my sinuses.  I took a really hot shower (hoping to steam that sucker away!), no dice.  I went to work and continued to feel really crappy while I started as assay that I thought would take about 9 hours.  Still in pain, I gave in and took an Excedrin migraine.  It actually made my head feel a little better, but made the nausea way worse.  Note:  they are STILL demoing the floor below me and there is almost constant hammering, drilling, and shaking--not good.

I was hoping that the nausea was just that I had taken meds without eating, so I had my lunch.

Disregard the messy table.  It's not me, it's my coworkers.

I had a turkey wrap with red pepper hummus and sliced avocado, fruit salad, and some cocoa roasted almonds.  It didn't really take away the nausea either.  I expected that I would need to start the next step of my assay as soon as I was done with lunch, so I packed up my stuff and checked on my cells.  Not ready.  And I checked again and again, only to find that they had apparently stopped growing.  My 9 hour assay was now looking like an 11 hour assay.  NOT OKAY!

Fortunately, there isn't a lot of active work, so at around 5pm, I skipped out to run a few errands and grab some dinner.  (So much for my taco rice meal plan!  Although, in a somewhat serendipitous turn, I actually forgot to take out the ground beef to thaw, anyway.)  I stopped at Trader Joe's and grabbed some Spicy Thai Pasta salad.

Yum.

As far as ready-to-eat grocery store items go, this one is pretty delicious.  I have only ever eaten this meal in my car in the parking lot of Trader Joe's.  I always feel pretty weird when someone pulls up next to me as I'm taking a big mouthful of pasta, but whatever.  Incidentally, I like a lot of Trader Joe's products, but I actually HATE going into Trader Joe's.  It is such a zoo in there and there are always people standing directly in front of the food I want to look at, pondering the meaning of life or something.  

After dinner, I went back to work.  (This is a sentence I hope to never repeat.)  Fortunately, at this point, my anger at staying late at work had either distracted me from feeling ill or I was feeling better.  I finished up my work and walked out of the door at 7:36pm.  When I got home, I was still hungry, so I had some apples and warm peanut butter.

I only had a slightly sad Granny Smith apple leftover from the brie-apple-triscuit bachelorette snack, but with honey roasted peanut butter, anything would be good.  My hilarious friend, Shannon, used to talk of a mythical land where only certain kinds of apples--the kinds that she likes, naturally--existed.  I think her choices are Granny Smith and Macintosh, but I can't remember.  Anyway, I really don't like Granny Smiths, and in Lindseyland, we will eat Cortland apples and maybe Braeburn apples.

I'm now in my PJs, watching Matt play the new Zelda and planning for a better day tomorrow.  It's crockpot chicken soup day, and it's going to be great, damn it!

Back in the saddle?

It's been more than a month since my last post.  I wish I could say that I have some spectacular photographs to show off or tales of an amazing vacation or at least a run down of delicious things I've been eating, but unfortunately, I have none of those.  

Why the hiatus?  Well, I suppose there are a few reasons.  One, I have been incredibly busy with holiday planning, bridal events for a close friend, continuing to get our apartment in order, looking for jobs, etc.  Two, I hit a bit of a slump after my last triumphant post.  You see, all that raving about how amazing my dinner was going to be and how proud I was that I had it all ready to go in the morning, and then when we ate it... it sucked.  I think I said something along the lines of "no such thing as too much buffalo sauce."  WRONG.  There is such a thing and sadly, I found it.  I ended up being able to salvage the filling and make some quesadillas, but for some reason, this dinner let-down put me in a funk.

I did eat some delicious stuff over the last few weeks, but most of it was not cooked by me.  I fell off the wagon and we had a lot of pizza and other restaurant eats for the past few weeks.  Perhaps it's a coincidence, perhaps not, but we've both been feeling a bit under the weather for the last few weeks.  So, today, I'm trying to get back on the menu planning horse.  The wedding I've been prepping for is on Saturday, and I'm a bridesmaid so I've got bridesmaidly duties on Thursday-Saturday this week, so it's only a few meals, but you have to start somewhere.

Tonight, I made a pasta primavera.  Nothing too complicated, but so delicious.  I sauteed onions, garlic, zucchini, summer squash, carrots, and bell pepper with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, and 2 stalks of rosemary.  I added a little chicken stock and simmered for a few minutes.  Meanwhile, I had boiled some pasta to al dente.  Tossed them together, put some manchego cheese on top, and voila!  Tomorrow, it's Taco (Rice) Tuesday.  And Wednesday, crock pot chicken soup, which I have been craving for weeks.

While I'm here, I thought it would be a good time to check in on some of my original September resolutions.  I still haven't even begun to play the flute on any particular schedule.  It really needs to be tuned up and re-padded, and I just haven't gotten around to it.  Also, the second I start playing, the dog upstairs starts freaking out and I don't want to torture my neighbors.  As mentioned, the menu planning has been off and on, but I'm hoping today is a new beginning!  I did stick to my reading resolution for all but the last week, when I was simply too busy to start a new book.  I have really started to enjoy reading AND I have the added bonus of knowing how awesome Hunger Games is before the movie comes out in March!

This is  pretty text heavy and totally lacking in pictures, so I'm going to call it quits for now.  I will try to do better on my promise to post twice a week and to arm myself with some pictures.