Be a Fashionista, not a Matchinista

I. Love. Fashion.  I don't necessarily have the money to spend on the fashion I love, but I love it nonetheless.  I have in my posession an Express credit card, and that little bastard gets me in so much trouble.  I only buy designer purses, and I am a firm believer in "you get what you pay for."

Recently, I discovered that I have an obsession with Michael Kors bags.  Can you guess my first purchase with my student refund money?

Beautiful.

Naturally, once I selected this fine specimen, I needed to find a matching wallet.  Unfortunately for me, Nordstrom only had the small wallet, and I wanted the large one.  They offered to order one for me and ship it to my house, but I declined.  I am in the process of closing on a house, and I did not know if it would arrive before our moving date.

I was stuck with an old wallet in my new-car-smell purse.  I immediately got online to see if I could find a matching wallet (hopefully on sale).  I found one on eBay, but I was outbid.  Fine.  Whatever.  I didn't need that wallet.  And for some reason, I could not bring myself to pay full price for the wallet, especially after what I spent on the purse.

And then I came across this beautiful thing:

Pink. Ostrich. Omg.

It was priced below retail.  It was probably in one of those outlet stores because of some cosmetic defect or something, because it was brand new, with tags.

My first thought:  It doesn't match.  And then:  So what?

When it came in, I inspected it thoroughly.  It is authentic MK, and is in perfect condition.  I couldn't find anything wrong with it.  Maybe it's not in season anymore.  Oh, well.

My new ensemble.

Who says it has to match?  I have a purse I love, complimented nicely with a wallet that I also love.  Pink is my favorite color, by the way, and I love Michael Kors for making this stunning wallet.  And I love eBay.

Grammar Lesson

I recently came across this picture while scrolling through Facebook:

It's pretty basic stuff.  However, there are still so many people who just don't get it.  So, being the hero that I am, I decided to give some examples - you know, use each word in a sentence - for people to use as a references.

1. You're going to bring your dog to the vet tomorrow.
2. They're setting their things down over there.
3. We were going to go to the movies, but now we're not sure where we want to go.
4. First, look in the box.  Then, determine the contents of the box. 
5. Six is greater than five.  I would rather have six dollars than five dollars.
6. I, too, spend too much time at Walmart.  I was there for two hours.

Like I said, it's pretty basic.

Recipe - Goulash with Chicken and Rice

There are so many variants of goulash recipes, it's ridiculous.  If I am correct, it is basically just a medley of ingredients thrown together into a soup.  If it's not that, whatever.  I call this dish I make "goulash," so there.  I always make enough to last for a few days, and it's a great use for leftover chicken or Thanksgiving Turkey.

I should probably mention, before I get started, that I never measure anything when I cook.  If you're looking for a recipe that has exact measurements, you will be sorely disappointed.  Also, I never make this dish the same way twice, so I will include different options.

I will start off with how I made it on this particular evening, and then offer different options for you to adjust to your personal taste.

What you will need:

• chicken (I usually use 3lbs of boneless skinless breasts)
• instant brown rice (4 servings)
• 1 can of cannellini beans - drained and rinsed
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can drained corn
• 1-2 zucchini and/or yellow squash - sliced
• chicken broth (optional)
• marinade (optional)
• very large mixing bowl or stock pot

Having this for dinner was a last minute decision, so I didn't have time to marinate my chicken.  I made the decision to boil it in the marinade (hooray for executive decision making!).  You can cook your chicken however you want (boil, bake, use leftovers), as long as it ends up ripped up or cut up in your dish.  For the purpose of the recipe, I will let you in on what I used for a marinade.

Marinade:

• honey
• soy sauce
• red wine vinegar
• lemon juice (about 3 capfuls)
• garlic powder
• salt
• pepper
• dried diced onions
• parsley

Instructions:

• Combine marinade ingredients in the pot with your chicken.  Fill the rest of the way with water, cover, and boil on medium heat until chicken is done.  Remove the chicken and let sit on a plate until it is cool enough to rip apart.  Save the broth.
• While the chicken is cooking, put zucchini and/or squash slices in a buttered skillet.  Saute on low until cooked through.
• Combine beans, tomatoes, and corn in a large skillet and heat on medium low until tomatoes and beans are done.  Season with salt and pepper.
• Rice: follow the directions on the box.
• Combine all cooked ingredients in a very large bowl or stock pot and stir together.  If you boiled the chicken, use about 1.5-2 ladle-fuls of the broth in the mixture to moisten the rice.

And this is what you get:

Well, this is what I got.  It looks funny.  It tastes awesome.

Now of course you're wondering about variations.  Like I mentioned earlier, I don't think I have ever made this the same way twice.  Here are a few ways to vary it up a bit:

1. Use leftover chicken or turkey.  You can pull it apart and warm it up in a skillet.
2. Steamed broccoli instead of zucchini.
3. Black beans (or any kind of beans) instead of cannellini beans
4. Pasta instead of rice.
5. Use whatever vegetables you want (example: leftover Thanksgiving veggies).

Enjoy!

Reheating Tip: Put some water in a microwavable cup and leave it in the microwave while reheating the food.  It helps prevent drying out of the food. 

Social Media is not Real Life

I love social media.  I am very active on my Facebook and Instagram accounts and post random crap almost every day.  I love catching up with people I haven't seen in a very long time (and, likely, will never see in person again), browsing through people's profiles to see how they've been doing (I enjoy this part because having conversations is very painful for me), and even shoving my nose in places it probably doesn't belong.  However, just because I love all things about it, does not mean I cannot recognize it for what it is: a shield.

Social media is such a good place to hide and pretend.  We can be whoever we want to be.  At least we can make people think we are the person we want to be.  We can pretend like we have our shit together, and everyone will think we're as happy as can be.  Or, on the other side, we can cyber bully anyone we want.  Who is going to stop us?  We can be mean and hateful with no consequences (other than a stream of angry comments).

My favorite, and probably the most common, are the healthy people.  They post all over social media about how they are going to the gym, how long they worked out, how much weight they've lost, and the super yummy salad they had for lunch.  In fact, it is actually very inspiring for other people who are trying to do the same thing.  However, what people fail to post about is the giant slice of cake they ate, Friday night's binge drinking, or how they vegged out on the couch all day.  I am way beyond the point of being guilty of this.  I used to log my calories where everyone could see, and if I didn't log it, it didn't count.  No wonder I didn't lose much weight.
Anyhow, many people actually are very healthy.  It was because of watching people on Facebook and pinning frenzies on Pinterest that motivated me to change my lifestyle.  However, I cannot in good conscience post about my healthy decisions when all I basically do is sit on the couch all day.  You know you're guilty of it.  And kudos to all of you who are actually succeeding! :D  Please don't stop posting! Even if you eat chocolate afterwards, you're still keeping me motivated.

Another situation is when people pretend to be super happy just so people will shut up.  I have seen women over and over again vouch for their significant other after people start talking about how he cheated, they fight all the time, he hit her, etc., etc.  They post things like, "It doesn't matter what you think, we are still in love and so happy", "I have never been happier", "We've worked things out and have never been better."  And then a week later they are changing their relationship status.  It makes me sad when that happens.  But what is even more sad is when we, as a society, feel like our relationship has to be validated by social media.  Personally, I don't really care what anyone thinks of my marriage.  I only post happy things about it on social media, because I know I will regret calling my husband a no-good-son-of-a-bitch-motherFer on a public forum.  Also, no one wants to know about all of the stupid crap we fight about.  (If you must know, we fight when he eats the last of the chocolate or watches movies without me.)

I also see a lot of passive aggression and not-so-silent cries for help happening.  I mean, it is easy to say something mean when you're hiding behind a computer.  "I love it when people invite you to go out with them, and then bail on you at the last minute," or  some other hurt and angry post right after a tiff with a loved one.  That person knows who they are, and now they're hurt that you posted all about it on Facebook, and they reply with a snarky comment.  Now the whole world knows who you're talking about.  Way to be subtle.  And then there's my favorite: "I want to just die right now. Don't ask.  I don't want to talk about it."

Personally, I am one of those people that likes to pretend my shit is all together.  I don't post unflattering pictures of myself, I brag about how happy I am about every single thing, yadda yadda yadda.  Also, I refuse to update any picture, no matter how flattering, if there is clutter or laundry in the background.  My Facebook/ Instagram life is perfect!  In reality, my laundry is never folded, I hardly ever cook dinner anymore, I don't exercise, I am ALWAYS stressed about something, and I spend lots of quality time feeling sorry for myself, and I'm almost always broke.  That is real life.