Crafty.

I'm feeling particularly crafty these last few weeks. My massive brain for planning and plotting has been fragmented further into outsourcing people who charge too much.

This all began with wedding planning. Mom insisted that I cater the entire thing and I demanded that I be given the option to cook for my 75 guests and eliminate the price tag. I can cook Mexican food as easily as they can! So, middle ground: we're catering main entrees, but I'm making salsa, buying chips from a mass distributor and bringing in the cheeses, sour cream, guacamole, etc. for a fraction of the cost.

Similarly, when we planned on taking people out to eat and were questioning the price tag, the opportunity to grill at home pool side became an option. I can feed ten people gourmet food and beverage for $100 when it would cost like $3-400 out. Cha-Ching!

The food deal has been a big one. I've been trying to branch out of my typical cooking regime with new crafty dishes. I've planted an herb garden

and have been harvesting for freshness in these new dishes. My favorite new discover is Barilla pasta in cappellini, tiny tiny threads of pasta that go exceptionally well in Asian stir fry with noodles. Do it!



I keep approaching dinner unwilling to replicate the previous night, wanting something very specific I haven't ever done before, and somehow concocting something close to it with limited materials.

...but back to wedding business, I just managed to assemble 80 gift bags for my guests for $100--I painted the mini-maracas

ordered pounds of mexican candy, cactus shot glasses and managed to snag white boxes with custom labels for next to nothing.

Exhausting. I will get my second wind tomorrow morning when the Farmer's Market returns! Swooon!



Let the "what can I do with this!?" season begin!

Spectacle(s).

It is time for new glasses. These have been tried and true, adored and well worn. I initially planned to merely replace the lenses because I love them so, but I'm now questioning that move.

El took me to Eyes! On Broadway where I had my very own hipster specialist grab and try frames on me trying to narrow down what would both fit my tastes and look good on me.

Unfortunately, the frames I liked best were in the range of $300-400, quite out of my price range. Yet, there is an appeal in it all--getting fabulous designer glasses with amazing service. I've done the mass-chain-eye-glasses for so long and this latest trip left me utterly disappointed with selection.

Here are a few frames I'm considering. They are all between $300-400, which is ultimately what is stopping me (that doesn't include lenses, folks!). But oh! So pretty!



These they have in a dark mahogany with a tan/bone colored accent, which I may like better (this green is my eye color and may look weird). These are my favorite, but the sales guy says that he is reluctant to sell them because they are "sooo Portland" and that "everyone has some like them." I think I may be okay with that. I've rocked this style for 10+ years across the country, I can do it here.



I found these online and feel they are essentially a sleek, metal streamline version of mine now. I like the turtle-plastic chunk of mine, but would be willing to try these.



I'm a sucker for the shape, even though I generally go for something slightly more geometric that straight round cat.

+++

Alas, now I'm fighting the funds I need in order to make things work. Questioning my want to begin my half-sleeve with needing glasses, what I had initially dedicated my tax refund to. Or whether I should do either with the wedding expenses rapidly approaching.

In the words of Liz Lemon: Blurg.

30 Rock

We've been watching 30 Rock season 1 in order, a few episodes a week thanks to Netflix (and the lame programming on current TV).



Now, I was reluctant to begin with. I have only seen a few shows before diving into the season discs and was not sure how much I liked the heavy-handed comedy, absurdist nature and kitschy music.

Every episode, however, has been speaking to me in terms I never expected. I'm not talking about laughing at Jack or Tracy, but in some insane and ridiculous empathy that I have for Liz Lemon.



The first episode (not in season 1) I ever saw of this show was about Lemon's school reunion, which she classified as mortifying since she was bullied. Jack accompanies her and soon realizes that Lemon was not bulled, but was the bully. The flashback of her character harassing and making sarcastic jokes about her classmates struck me hard because I could see myself in the same position. This constant yearning for acceptance and friends, yet a ferocious mouth that attempts to vindicate the loneliness and drive away the rejection.

At that moment I began to see myself in Lemon (as did my husband, strangely). In Fey. Geeky and insecure, intelligent and silly, altogether lovable and misunderstood. A good person who in stressful situations has her lines crossed. A caustic tongue to keep people away for fear of them discovering vulnerability. It seems almost too good to be a character sketch, a ploy, a development of writers in a room somewhere. I can't help but believe that art is imitating Fey's life here. And mine, albeit far less successful, attractive and thin.

And so, episode after episode I learn more about myself through Liz Lemon. Learn that 30 Rock is an approaching age that I can no longer forgive. A personality type I've solidified and now have to trust and handle. That it is okay to be a bitch. It is okay to stand up for yourself. It is okay to revise personal history and be deluded. To be an extroverted personality stuck in an introverted mentality...



...so long as you look good doing it.