I just want my own place.

I’ve been feeling super domestic lately. I’ve been cooking a ton, I’ve been itching to decorate, all of that. So I figured I’d make a post about how I hope to decorate when Steve and I get an apartment.

So, basically I just like the modern furniture. Well, I don't know if it is modern. It's kind of... retro looking with modern touches and hardware. I don't know. From what I've looked at online though, my style is Scandinavian.

I"ll post later with the decorations. I have a bunch of vintage posters and whatnot.

Enchilada's a la Caitlin

I've become obsessed with internet TV lately, so I'm completely slacked on blogging. So this is me stepping up. I have a bunch of half finished post, but I'm working myself up to motivation.


• Boil three chicken breasts


• Cook one cup of rice per person

• Chop half an onion, cook with garlic in olive oil

• Out of garlic… might die.

• Chop up one tomato, because that’s how many I have. Probably would have used two, but well… that’s what I had.

• Oregano in onions

• Add two more breasts of chicken, cause you invited over sister and bil

• Add a can of tomato sauce to onions, cook until hot… then chill out for awhile

• Remember to toss in the tomatoes

• Bay leaves, onion powder, chili powder, cube of cilantro

• Add rice, mix, taste… make spicier

• Heat oven

• Hack off the nasty crap from the chicken, then put back in the water… cause its not done

• Shred chicken, ask sister to bring beans

• Mix a little of the sauce with the chicken, roll up into enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese

Stick it in the oven until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Yum. I took pictures, but I have no idea where they went.

Pretty, sparkly things.

I love doing nails. Specifically acrylics, but I can whip out a good mani or pedi too. Anyway, I've been doing tons of nails lately. Not too many people at my school do nails, or are very good at them, so I get a lot of people asking me to do theirs. Anyway, here's a few examples. As you can see towards the end, it seems like everyone wants glitter lately. :P

Random

I stayed home today. This sick just won’t go away. I’ve been having a weird cold lately, that mostly seems like really bad allergies. My throat hurts like hell though. This sucks.


So at school, I have class all day on Wednesdays. Apparently at the end of this month, we’re switching to all day Monday and Tuesday. All day long. Really, this will be a good thing, since I really can get a lot from class. It just sucks that we’ll only have three days on the salon floor in a week. Maybe that will keep us busier on those days though. I don’t know what I think of this whole situation.

I realized last night that it really won’t be that long until I can move up with Steve. Six months is nothing. Even if it is a year, that isn’t that bad. I’ll work here, save everything I can, and then I can have the apartment I want, and not have to be super poor for awhile.

Our Story Part I

My sophomore year of high school, I wasn't the greatest kid. I didn't do anything too horrible, but it mostly stemmed from the people I was hanging out with. These were the people I had been friends with since middle school, and it was just a given that I woud hang out with them. I always had high morals and high standards, but I seemed to let these slip a bit, and stayed friends with people who weren't the most awesome for my well being. Anyway, it got to the point where I got sick of it all. A friend said that I either pretend her drug use was ok, or we wouldn't be friends.

I don't do ultimatums.
This was about the end of my sophomore year, and by the time I started junior year, I really didn't have any friends. Almost every day, I would eat lunch in my favorite teacher's classroom. It was pretty pathetic. I've always been a very social person, so despite being sick of people's crap, I was really missing having friends. So one day during my lunch hour a saw an old friend of mine, Scott, and decided to have lunch with him. I'd hung out with him a few times before, but I never really thought much of it. In the next few months though, we became very close. I had lunch with him and his friends every day, I was invited when they did things after school, it was like I had been a part of the group the whole time. I'd met most of them before: Dylan, his girlfriend Lauren, and a few others. Scott's brother, however, I'd never met.

Now, I would like to say it was love at first sight, that I was immediately drawn to him, and all that stuff. That wasn't the case though. He was just a really nice guy, that was all.

Honestly, it took him getting a haircut. Steve had shaggy hair, which was sort of fitting with his skateboarder style. One day, though, he cut it off. Yes. I will admit it. I didn't really notice him until he cut his hair.

Ok. I have to admit it. I almost dated Steve’s brother, Scott. I’d always been friends with him, and we had a lot of fun together. As it got closer to us actually dating though, I began to realize that I couldn’t ever be his girlfriend. He was different. He used baby talk to me. It was horrible. Amazing friend? Absolutely. I still consider him a really good friend. Also, I sort of realized I liked his brother, a lot more than as just a friend.
So I became more and more aware of the fact that I was really interested in Steve. He was cute, funny, sweet, and seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that I thought all of that. Then the big high school dilemma- prom was coming up. It was pretty much a given among our friends that Steve would ask me. It got closer and closer to prom and he still didn’t ask me. He was even considering asking another friend of ours. So finally, I took it into my own hands and asked him. I was giving him a ride downtown, and as he was getting out of the car, I said, “So, we’re going to prom together, right?”

He was like “…Um, yeah.” Then he hugged me and left. I was so excited! So we made plans to double date with our friends Dylan and Lauren. I bought my dress, my shoes, and my jewelry. He rented his tux, and even asked me to stop buy to pick the color of his tie to match my dress. The night of prom came, and we all agreed to meet up at Lauren’s house to take pictures. When my parents were trying to get pictures of Steve and I, we were so awkward with each other! We could hardly touch. Looking back, it is the funniest thing. I mean now, we’re 100% comfortable with each other. Maybe even more.

After prom, things started to tense up. Basically, everyone was waiting for him to ask me out. It took our friend Lauren saying that yes, I did want to be his girlfriend; yes I would go out with him. Finally, in May, he got in my car and asked for a ride to his brother’s car, which was parked right down the road. I figured something was up, and finally, he asked me to be his girlfriend, I said yes, we hugged, and he went home.

That’s how you date in high school, by the way.

Our relationship in high school was a lot of fun. Our good friends Lauren and Dylan were also dating, so the group of us would go out to movies or go bowling. I think we both knew that it was more than just a high school thing. It didn’t take long for me to know that I loved him. I haven’t stopped since.

So anyway, things were going good. We were goofy kids in love. Our senior year started, and it was going to be the best year. Then, Steve decided to drop out of school. He was planning on joining the Air Force, and wanted to get his GED and join as soon as he could. This was a big deal to me. We ended up not seeing each other as much, and because of this, Steve decided to end our relationship. I thought it was the worst thing that would ever happen. Maybe I was a little dramatic, but it was horrible.

I spent the next few months in a daze. I just felt like my life wasn’t right without him. We kept talking on myspace, but didn’t see each other. We fought a lot. We talked about our relationship. We were friends, but there was still something there. We talked about getting back together. We talked about hanging out. We’d end up fighting again though. I always wanted to be with him. There wasn't ever a time when I was "over it". I just felt more at ease. I think in the back of my mind I always knew it would work out.

Yummy pork chops.

Ingredients


• 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 6 sun-dried tomatoes, diced

• 1 (10-ounce) bag of frozen spinach, thawed and excess water squeezed out

• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning

• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning

• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

• 1/4 cup (2 ounces) goat cheese

• 1/3 cup reduced-fat cream cheese

• 4 (4-ounce) center-cut pork chops

• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth

• 1/2 lemon, zested

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Directions

Warm the 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, salt, pepper, and thyme. Cook until combined, about 2 more minutes. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl. Add the goat cheese and the cream cheese. Stir to combine and set aside.

Use a sharp knife to cut a pocket into the thickest portion of the pork chop. Stuff each pocket with 1/4 of the spinach and sun-dried tomato mixture and close the pork around the stuffing. Season the outside of the pork with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl combine the chicken broth, lemon zest, lemon juice, and mustard.

Warm the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot add the pork. Cook until golden and cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer the pork to a side dish and tent with foil to keep warm. Add the chicken broth mixture to the skillet over medium-high heat. Scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan as the chicken broth simmers. Reduce the broth by half to make a light sauce, about 8 minutes. Spoon some sauce over the pork before serving.









Stuffed Pork Chops



So I didn’t have goat cheese, so I bumped the cream cheese up to 2/3 cup



1 cup of chopped tomatoes



I just sort of tossed the spices in. More thyme than the recipe said, but whatever.



Waiting forever for the pork to defrost in the microwave. I’ll probably abuse them with a tenderizer just for that.



I didn’t use lemon zest. I didn’t measure the lemon juice. Instead of Dijon mustard I just used a few dashes of mustard powder. And then I peppered it.



I wanted to clean out the tomato spinach chunks from the pan, so I fried some of the fat pieces I cut off earlier, to brown the pan.



So next time, I’ll probably put the sauce in while I’m cooking the pork, to keep them more moisturized. Also, I’ll make sure I defrost them earlier. I got into a fight with my microwave.



Overall, yummy. I served them with wild rice and mixed veggies, which I put some thyme in to bring it all together.

So short.

I have spent almost all of today on the couch. I feel like crap. I think my tonsils are trying to kill me.


All I want right now is for it to be March. Then I can see Steve. I'll be happy then.

A little bit more of the other side.

So, I feel like every once in awhile I should blog about a topic. Not just my day to day life, but an actual topic. Today, since I don’t seem to focus on it, is beauty school. I’m surprised that I don’t talk about it more, since it is what I do all day long.



I’m going to school for cosmetology. That includes hair, skin, and nails. That means I have been learning: haircutting, styling, coloring, highlighting, manicures, pedicures, acrylics, facials, waxing, and all that. Basically everything beauty related.



I LOVE cosmetology. This business is so perfect for me. I’m a super hero. Ok, maybe that is a bit extreme, but I’m good.



So here is how my school works. New classes start every six weeks. The new starts are added to the old class though, since they are always on a cycle. So let’s say it goes haircutting, nails, skincare, color. One group might start on haircutting, then go to nails. The next group would start on nails then go to skincare. So the people you start with are the only people who really are at the same level as you. There are three start groups in a class at a time, because the basics class is 18 weeks long. So as a new group comes in, the most senior group in the class moves on to 360.



360 is a sort of in between from working on the floor and being in the classroom. You have three weeks to do five cuts, five colors, and five perms. You get these clients yourself, so it’s likely to be people you know.



After 360, you are on the floor until you graduate. This happens when you get to 1600 hours and finish all required work. So from there, we work on the salon floor, taking clients, while still being supervised by teachers, getting graded, and all that. I also have class once a week, which sucks, but oh well.





So that’s what I do.

2010

So here are some of the things that I hope to accomplish this year:

1. Graduate cosmo school
2. Get my licsense in AZ
3. Move to ND
4. Get my license in ND
5. Stay organized
6. Find a job in a salon that I love



There are other things that I want to do, but they don't really go on my goal list. They are things that I can't just check off, they take a few more steps. I'm 19 years old. I have a lot of changes in my life. I feel like this is my year to really grow up. I've been in this limbo area of being a kid and being an adult for so long.

This is my year.

I'm going to be out of school. I'm going to start my career. Wow. This year, I'm going to be a cosmetologist. I'm going to work in a salon. I'm going to move out of state, by myself. Well, to Steve, but without my family.


I'm just excited about the changes that are coming.
I'm so ready.