Thank Goodness For Sundays

I love Sundays. Which is funny because as a child, Sundays were days that I absolutely dreaded and I didn't think that would ever change. Sunday represented being forced to go to church which I always hated so much. To make matters worse, I was forced to be an altar boy as a child AND join choir. If that wasn't bad enough, the nun who was in charge of choir decided she really liked my voice and would make me sing solos. I've always been an extremely introverted person, so this was not a good thing. I did love that Irish nun though...Sister Ann. I'll never forget her and still think about her from time to time. I was sad when her convent reassigned her back to Ireland. She wrote to me from time to time but we lost touch in high school. In addition to church on Sundays, there was also the reminder that the next day was school. It wasn't even so much that I disliked school itself, but I was bullied a lot in elementary school for my weight and the fact that I was a "fag" even though I was nowhere near ready to come out. I was in denial myself those days.

I've often said that if I ever went back to school to get a PhD, I think I'd do my dissertation on sexuality in childhood. It's a touchy subject, but something that I think needs to be addressed more. I think things are much much better now than they were when I was a child, but there's still a great deal of work that needs to be done. I wonder what it would be like to be born now into a world where gay marriage is legal. That's pretty awesome. And it's amazing when we look at how far things have come from 34 years ago when I was brought into the world.

The bullying that happened to me when I was a kid definitely changed me as a person and that's why I'd like to do research on that. When I look at home videos of myself as a child, it's obvious that I'm gay. I don't mean to stereotype here, but it's obvious. I had limp wrist syndrome :p I walked with my hips moving from side to side, my voice had more of a lisp to it. Things that are unrecognizable to me now. I consciously changed those things and worked on them for years until they were gone because of the bullying. I changed the essence of who I was as a person because of the cruelty that others put on me. I often wonder what life would be like if I wasn't bullied. Would I be more extroverted? Would I not have such horrible social anxiety? Would I not be so conscious about my weight or the way I look? Would I have come out sooner and therefore been happier sooner? Would I find it easier to date? The answer to all of those questions is surely "yes". I hope so badly that the somewhat normalization of the lgbt experience in today's society leads to kids these days knowing that they're ok as they are and that they don't need to lose themselves at such a young age.

Wow...I did NOT plan on this post being about all that :p My original point is that Sundays are now my favorite day of that week :p It's the one day where I have no obligations for the most part aside from doing whatever *I* want to do. And it's the start of my weekend. So today has been a good day. Yesterday was awful. I didn't wake up until an hour before work and barely made it to work on time, so most of what I had planned to do yesterday went out the window. I did pay a few bills though, I worked, and I talked to Austin who said he couldn't come down to help move furniture out of my dad's house, so that left today free for me to get stuff done! I called CVS to see what meds they had for me to pick up and I told them they can keep one of them. I HATE my insurance company. My doctor had prescribed me a different triptan for my migraines called Treximet. If you have migraines, triptans are pretty much the only medication that will get rid of them. I take Maxalt most of the time and since a generic has come out, it only costs me $5 now for 9 pills. But I've been on it so long that it's becoming less and less effective. So she wanted to give me a second one. The Treximet would've cost me $119 for NINE PILLS!! Screw that. I know the medication is expensive, but seriously?

I did finally get a hair cut today and let me tell you I feel like a new person!!! I HATE when my hair gets to a certain point. It drives me nuts. I found a place here on the north shore called Sports Clips and it will definitely be my go to place for now on for hair cuts! They specialize in men's haircuts and the stylists stay up to date on the "latest cuts" for men. Their big thing is that they have tvs you can watch with sports games on while you're getting your hair cut. She did a great job and since it was my first time there, she gave me a free shampoo and shoulder massage which was awesome. They sit you in a massage chair while they're washing your hair and wrap your face in a hot towel and then use this massager to massage your back, neck and shoulders. Highly recommended!

Then I came home and got laundry done which was so badly needed. I had no clean towels and two loads of clothes that needed to be done. AND I finally changed my sheets too. It feels so good to go to bed in freshly washed sheets :) I didn't get to clean the patio today like I wanted to because it's rained all day :/ BUT I do love the rain, so I think I'll spend the rest of the afternoon reading and listening to the thunder after I do a bit of blog reading :) Oh, also I found this Indian scarf/cloth/I'm not really sure what? that I got from I don't know where? and decided to use it as a table cloth for my table that I got from my sister and finally put out my placemats too! It's so nice to finally have a dining room table after being in my apartment for 3 years :p

Finally, I got to work on my reading room some more!!! It's still a work in progress, but I'm happy with how it's coming along and it's very cozy :) Here are some pics! This is what you see when you first walk in:

I have this really awesome book of James Jean prints called Kindling that I've been using to decorate that's an AMAZING deal. He's one of my favorite artists and if you're a fan of art, this is a must have book at an incredible price. It's a collection of 12 removable prints that are nice quality and nice size for about $20. Here's a closer look at the prints above the sofa:

On side of the sofa are the "floating bookshelves" currently holding a few RIP reads with one of my favorite prints, the Holstee Manifesto, above it:

Here's a close up of the Holstee print...I love everything that they do too. Here's a link to their website, but be forewarned, you may want everything they have :p

And finally, here's what it looks like across from the sofa...this area is a work in progress. There's a lot of crap over there still. This room was pretty much a storage room before it became the reading room, so I need to work on cleaning this up some more. The goal is for that wall to eventually be a full gallery wall:

Right now it's just two James Jean prints, a Neil Gaiman print illustrated by David Mack, and a collage that Megan did for me probably 10 years ago that I really love! Here's close ups of the art work so far:

And that's my Sunday in a nutshell so far! It's nice to be able to cross some stuff off of the list. Wish I could've crossed more off the list but oh well...it is what it is. Here's hoping for a good week with nothing but great news :)

#38 - Bake 100 Different Cookies Update

I made some of my very favorite cookies today! In fact, after One Girl Cookies Orange Butter Drops, these are my second favorites :p I have so many memories attached to these cookies. They're basically mexican wedding cookies but instead of using crushed almonds, I use crushed pecans. There was a chain of bakeries in New Orleans when I was growing up called McKenzies and my aunt Shirley would take us there every Friday and we'd get to pick something to eat. I'd get these :p McKenzies is long gone but any New Orleans native can tell you tons of memories associated with this bakery and what their favorite pastry was from there.

They're SUCH an easy cookie to make too! Here's how you make them. You need:

1 Cup (2 sticks) of butter at room temperature
1/2 Cup of white sugar
2 Teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 Teaspoons of water
2 Cups of all-purpose flour
1 Cup of chopped pecans (you can use different nuts if you want)
1/2 Cup of confectioner's sugar

Start by creaming the butter with the sugar.....I use an electric mixer and beat the butter and sugar together for about 3 minutes on medium until it's light and fluffy. Then add the vanilla and water. Slowly add in your flour while the mixer's on and then add in your chopped pecans or other nuts. Refrigerate the dough for 3 hours. It looks like this afterwards!

 

I used a cookie scoop but you don't have to, just scoop out round balls onto an unprepared (non-greased) cookie pan and bake at 325 degrees for 15-20 minutes. I baked mine right in the middle there for 17 minutes and 30 seconds and they came out perfect! They look like this:

 

Now comes the best part! Put your powdered sugar into a paper bag or ziploc bag and very gently shake the cookies in the sugar coating them. Don't be too rough or they'll crack. Also, don't try to do too many at once. I shook up three cookies at a time and it worked just fine. They look like this:

 

Last step...enjoy!

#38 - Bake 100 Different Cookies Update

 

I LOVE these cookies. They remind me of being a little kid and of holidays. In the family, we call them "Aunt Elma's Cookies" or "Winn-Dixie Cookies" but they're actually called Yellow Cake Cookies and I feel a bit like I'm cheating by counting them for this goal because they're so simple :p The family name for the cookies is because my Aunt Elma who's long passed away was famous for making these cookies and she always made them with Winn-Dixie brand yellow cake mix. Here's how easy they are:

In a bowl mix a box of yellow cake mix, two eggs, 1/2 cup of oil and 1 cup of whatever the hell you want to put in them! For this batch I used a mix of white chocolate chips, chocolate chips and heath bar candy pieces. Bake them at 350 degrees for 14 minutes. Ta-da!

Seriously....simplest cookie ever and SO GOOD! If you want to feel less like you're cheating you can make your own yellow cake mix of course, but I always just buy one, lol. Ah well.

#39 - Bake 50 Different Pies Update

I grew up with this pie and I'll always have memories of my gram attached to it. Lemon meringue pie. One of my favorites. For almost every holiday for as long as I can remember, my gram has ALWAYS had a lemon meringue pie at her house....this is my mom's mom. Right before I moved into my apartment, I told my gram at Easter that I was going to have to get her recipe for lemon meringue pie from her one day. I said it laughing, thinking it was a secret recipe that she was going to take to the grave with her because it tastes SO. DAMN. GOOD. So I can't even BEGIN to tell you how hard I laughed when she nonchalantly went into her pantry and came out with a box of jello lemon pudding mix and said "here you go!" Yep....she uses the recipe right off the lemon pudding jello box. She makes her meringue a tiny bit differently, but I use the meringue recipe off of the pudding box too. Three egg white and 1/3 cup of sugar. And I use a frozen pie crust too. This is a pretty easy pie to make but it's SO DAMN GOOD! See that, all in caps twice in this post....I promise you it really is :p