Home, sweet home :)
After working 60 hours each of the last 2 weeks, I am finally home and ready for a break! In typical fashion, I took a Greyhound last night at 11 out of New York, expecting to arrive in Columbus at 11 this morning. Well the bus that I was transferring to in Pittsburgh was running late, it was also coming from New York but was supposed to leave an hour before us and hadn't left when we did... After a 2 1/2 hour delay in Pittsburgh we were on our way again!
I was able to sleep on and off during the trip and was amazed that every time I opened my eyes, the scenery was more an more white! It was in the low 40's in New York and the more east I got the worse the weather became! I got in around 1:45, two hours and 40 minutes later than anticipated, and was happily reunited with my family :)
On the way home the roads were bad and the snow continued to fall and blow. Right in front of us, a man in a 4-wheel Dodge slide into a deep ditch. We pulled over and helped him get a tow and were reminded to drive slow and be wary. We passed another car being pulled out of a ditch on our own road later.
Once we were home, we were ready to settle in for the evening and enjoy being together again. I'm very excited to have this break from work and stress (hopefully) while taking care of a few things I need to do here. But most of all, I'm thrilled to be back with my family and ready to pick up on all our Christmas traditions and make new ones. It finally feels like Christmas to me :)
Friday, December 21, 2012
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Things I'm Thankful For
Sometimes it's easy to just look at the negatives (like that I'm going to be working about 60 hours a week for the rest of the month or that my space heater is trying to kill me or that I lost 2 $30 MetroCards over the weekend...) and it's times like these where I just have to enjoy the little things that make me happy. So I thought I'd make a quick list of some New York-specific things that have happened in the last couple days that have made me happy.
1. The super/man (hehe he's not Superman, he's a man who's the super of a building I walk by on my way to the subway) who's usually sitting outside his building and says hello and tells me I work too much and that I need to take some time to have fun because life is too short to work all the time!
2. Getting a computer right away at the library THEN getting my tickets printed no problem AND finding books I actually want to read! (Going to the library has always caused me problems here...)
3. Being asked by another graphic designer if I'd just redesigned the header on a website at my internship because it looked really cool! (Check it out if you like and if the background is just black, refresh it)
4. All week the D train has arrived at my 34th street station right as I was getting there and I was able to get on it right away!
5. My new phone. My first smart phone (I'm finally in the 21st century!) which I probably would not have felt the need to get if I weren't living in New York.
6. That I live in a house with some cool people who go into action when they hear the carbon monoxide detector going off in my apartment instead of a) not knowing what it was or b) ignoring it and waiting for me to get home and deal with it.
7. The awesome people I work with at Hill Country who notice that I haven't been around much and tell me they've really missed me.
8. Having entertainment during my commute on the subway - usually awesome breakdancers. Tonight a troop of 4 brothers, the oldest about my age and the youngest probably 8? They were done after performing for the car I was in, then they just turned on their music and were flipping and jumping off the doors and twisting around the poles just for fun and it was so fun to watch. Those guys are so talented! Much respect for breakdancers.
Those are just a few things off the top of my head, but those are the things I need to remember. Being thankful for the little things isn't something that should be reserved for Thanksgiving, it should happen everyday.
1. The super/man (hehe he's not Superman, he's a man who's the super of a building I walk by on my way to the subway) who's usually sitting outside his building and says hello and tells me I work too much and that I need to take some time to have fun because life is too short to work all the time!
2. Getting a computer right away at the library THEN getting my tickets printed no problem AND finding books I actually want to read! (Going to the library has always caused me problems here...)
3. Being asked by another graphic designer if I'd just redesigned the header on a website at my internship because it looked really cool! (Check it out if you like and if the background is just black, refresh it)
4. All week the D train has arrived at my 34th street station right as I was getting there and I was able to get on it right away!
5. My new phone. My first smart phone (I'm finally in the 21st century!) which I probably would not have felt the need to get if I weren't living in New York.
6. That I live in a house with some cool people who go into action when they hear the carbon monoxide detector going off in my apartment instead of a) not knowing what it was or b) ignoring it and waiting for me to get home and deal with it.
7. The awesome people I work with at Hill Country who notice that I haven't been around much and tell me they've really missed me.
8. Having entertainment during my commute on the subway - usually awesome breakdancers. Tonight a troop of 4 brothers, the oldest about my age and the youngest probably 8? They were done after performing for the car I was in, then they just turned on their music and were flipping and jumping off the doors and twisting around the poles just for fun and it was so fun to watch. Those guys are so talented! Much respect for breakdancers.
Those are just a few things off the top of my head, but those are the things I need to remember. Being thankful for the little things isn't something that should be reserved for Thanksgiving, it should happen everyday.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
A Good English Cuppa
It's been a crazy last few weeks, first travelling home for the weekend which turned into a week then returning to New York for 5 days before heading out to Kansas for Thanksgiving and to be reunited with my college friends in what is a big visitation weekend at Hesston. My days and body are very confused on the ever changing schedules but I'm pretty sure that today is Monday which can only mean one thing: it's recipe time!
I'm not going to get all fancy this week, this isn't even going to be a recipe for food (although I do have some great dessert recipes I've discovered... stay posted!). This may be cheating since it's a drink and drinks are commonly made in mugs... but my recipe for the week is simple English tea in a mug.
Yes it's simple and maybe this version of tea is cheating on another level because it doesn't involve a kettle and stove and whistle but tea means a lot to me. You see, my granny was born in England and although she moved to America at just 6 months of age, she was very English, her mother having grown up and living in England until that point. And what is more English than tea?
Grannie passed on the tea-loving gene to my mom who also raised my sister and I on it. Our coffee maker was even turned into a hot tea maker as my dad slowly gave up on anyone else in the house liking coffee.
Growing up, I might be greeted in the morning with a hot cup of tea to 'help me wake up slowly'. Whenever I was sick or feeling down, a cup of hot tea was always the answer and would be quickly delivered by my mom or my grannie. Before school started each fall, my grannie would host a tea party for the girls in the family, my sister and I, Mom, my youngest aunt, and my younger cousins. Whenever we would stop by Grannie's house after school, have a sleepover, or after a big family meal, a nice cup of hot tea was offered. At our tea parties, Grannie would educate us on the etiquitte of tea and always have a few different choices of tea. Sugar cubes were always on hand because that was the best way to sweeten tea.
My wonderful Grannie passed away almost a month ago. It's hard to believe it's been that much time already. It's been a crazy, surreal, emotional few weeks. I don't want to dwell on all that though. The important thing is her life, I know she's in a far better place now and all we can do is remember the good times and happy memories. It is also important to keep her memory alive through the little things and, for me, one thing that will always remind me of my grannie is hot, English tea.
I don't use a kettle and stovetop. And I don't have sugar cubes on hand or beautiful china teacups. But the taste is the same and that is one of comfort and warmth and love.
I'm not going to get all fancy this week, this isn't even going to be a recipe for food (although I do have some great dessert recipes I've discovered... stay posted!). This may be cheating since it's a drink and drinks are commonly made in mugs... but my recipe for the week is simple English tea in a mug.
Yes it's simple and maybe this version of tea is cheating on another level because it doesn't involve a kettle and stove and whistle but tea means a lot to me. You see, my granny was born in England and although she moved to America at just 6 months of age, she was very English, her mother having grown up and living in England until that point. And what is more English than tea?
Grannie passed on the tea-loving gene to my mom who also raised my sister and I on it. Our coffee maker was even turned into a hot tea maker as my dad slowly gave up on anyone else in the house liking coffee.
Growing up, I might be greeted in the morning with a hot cup of tea to 'help me wake up slowly'. Whenever I was sick or feeling down, a cup of hot tea was always the answer and would be quickly delivered by my mom or my grannie. Before school started each fall, my grannie would host a tea party for the girls in the family, my sister and I, Mom, my youngest aunt, and my younger cousins. Whenever we would stop by Grannie's house after school, have a sleepover, or after a big family meal, a nice cup of hot tea was offered. At our tea parties, Grannie would educate us on the etiquitte of tea and always have a few different choices of tea. Sugar cubes were always on hand because that was the best way to sweeten tea.
 |
| Back-to-school tea party - many years ago |
My wonderful Grannie passed away almost a month ago. It's hard to believe it's been that much time already. It's been a crazy, surreal, emotional few weeks. I don't want to dwell on all that though. The important thing is her life, I know she's in a far better place now and all we can do is remember the good times and happy memories. It is also important to keep her memory alive through the little things and, for me, one thing that will always remind me of my grannie is hot, English tea.
I don't use a kettle and stovetop. And I don't have sugar cubes on hand or beautiful china teacups. But the taste is the same and that is one of comfort and warmth and love.
Hot English Tea
Fill a mug almost full with water. Microwave 1 1/2 minutes. Place 1 teaspoon loose-leaf basic black tea (I like English Breakfast) in a tea ball, tea bag, or tea infuser of some sort (or use a pre-made, storebought tea bag, of a basic black tea such as English Breakfast. But PLEASE don't use Lipton :P )
Place the tea bag into the hot water and steep 3-4 minutes, depending how strong you like it. Remove the tea bag and squeeze out the bag with a spoon. Add sugar to taste (1 Tablespoon if you're a lady in my family ;) ) Add a splash of milk (about 1/2 Tablespoon) and stir.
*Tea etiquette: Only add milk to basic, black, English tea.
Curl up with a good book, sit and look out the window, use it in the morning to "wake up slowly," or invite a friend over to join you, set out some cookies and sweet bread and enjoy your tea.
<3 Ashley
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