I've Moved

Yes, I've decided to switch over to Tumblr because Blogger has been doing some weird shit lately. Or should I say the people on blogger...??? I've been getting virus threats in my comment threads lately and I don't like it one bit.

Tumblr seems cool, but it'll take me a few days to really get comfortable using it and figuring it out. All I can say is, R.I.P blogger and Tumblr, don't fuck up!

My new site can be found here: http://thecandyqueen.tumblr.com

Rack Finds

Why do women always brag about how cheap they got "X" item? Whenever I get a compliment on an item of clothing or an accessory, I'm always like "Thanks, I got it at Target for like 15 bucks." Or "this is from the Nordstrom sale." But I never say things like "Yeah, this is very expensive," or "I didn't hesitate to spend $125 on that one ounce jar of Creme de la Mer!"

Well, lemme tell you, there's nothing like going to the Nordstrom Rack on a good day. A day when they just got a shipment in. Since I was out fake shopping for work anyway, I stopped by the Rack to look at handbags, since I'm convinced I need a better one to carry work related items and to keep me more organized. I neglected to find a bag at a price point I could live with, but I won't hesitate to tell you that I did find a pair of very flattering Marc Jacobs sunglasses for $29.98, a pair of pink terrycloth Juicy Couture pants for $24.98, and a super comfy AND stylish flip flops for $12.50. I actually saw a lot of shoes I liked, in my size even, but I don't really need any more...

Nordstrom Rack, I love you.

Today in El Dorado Hills

That's a whole lotta nothin'.

Let Me Introduce You...

I am now the proud owner of this Martha Stewart 20 piece spice rack...Thank you Jeff!
Yesterday's mega item hunting for work all around town proved to be not as fun as I thought it would be...I'm sure it'll take me less time the next time I have to do this, but since I don't really know where anything is in relation to each other, I spent a lot of time back-tracking. I started to develop some pretty bad road rage when my iPhone had spit out wrong directions and I followed them anyway because I'm a giant douche...twice!!! Note to self (and anyone else who has an iPhone), the map/directions feature is GREAT, but double check that you enter the right address, otherwise it'll default and take you all the way back downtown when you don't need to go there! I'm just glad I didn't end up in New Mexico like it wanted me to!

Anyway, I have to get going and do it all over again today. I have to hit three neighborhoods, so who knows how long that will take.

Oh, and the one thing that iPhone CAN'T do, is blog! I couldn't believe it wouldn't let me type on blogger! Well, I'm sure there is a way to figure it out if you're a super dork. Jeff unlocked his and got Super Mario 2 on there. The. best. game. ever!

Things for a Wednesday Morning

1. My adorable lil Beagle, Charlie turns 6 years-old today! Hip hip hooray!

2. Jeff got us hooked up with DirecTv, so now it takes me half an hour to scroll through all the channels and find something to watch. The cool thing is that we now have a plethora of HD channels and a DVR, so I can record anything! So far, I'm loving the "We" channel...I think it stands for "women's entertainment." And I can watch re-runs of The Young and the Restless on the Soap network!

3. The next two days I'm spending out of the office "in the field" so to speak, shopping for items all over the Sacramento area for our wedding gift guide. I have to find at least 40 items from different stores for brides, grooms, bridesmaids and groomsmen. It's going to be a LOT of running around, but thankfully, I finally got my iPhone so it will make finding these stores so much easier! I'm excited! And speaking of weddings, we have three finalists for our summer/fall cover. I met with one of them on Monday to fit her for dresses for the photoshoot. I have to say, it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. The actual shoot should be a really fun day.

4. Is anyone's body clock a little off since the spring forward time change? I swear it feels like I just can't catch up on my sleep! Jeff makes fun of me for going to bed early (even though I get up before he does), but it is so hard to put myself in bed at 10pm (my desired bedtime). So I usually end up staying up later than I want to.

All Aboard!

Last night I attended the first social gathering of my own, with my own people sans Jeff, since I've been here. I went for drinks with my co-workers! And I even enjoyed myself. The editorial office I work in consists of three people (that's including me) and three graphic designers. The other two girls I work with are both my age, plus or minus a year or two, so we're all pretty friendly. Last night I learned all about the inter-office mingle-ings, gossip, and what I could be in for in the future...There really wasn't anything that disturbing, so that was a relief. I heard a LOT worse at the Seattle Times. I actually think I might be able to move up the ladder pretty quickly where I'm at.

Next week, I'll get to spend two days shopping for items to feature in our wedding magazine. I work on five different publications so getting organized at work has been my biggest challenge. I think I'm getting there though. Organization is a huge part of my job, so I'm glad it hasn't taken me too long to figure it out. I'd definitely sink if I couldn't handle it. Let's just say, my computer has a LOT of folders on it, and sub-folders, and sub-folders...

Tomorrow Jeff and I are going on a brunch train ride through the central valley. I look forward to posting some pics from that.

Til then...

I Guess it's Permanent

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I am trying to get used to the fact that spring is already here. The temperature here in the burbs of Sacramento is already in the low 70s on a daily basis. It's lovely, but uhhh, I seemed to have missed the months that I was supposed to be getting into warm-weather shape...Seattle has an extra 6 months of indoor activity weather! Oy Vey!

Mad Cat Disease

Can't. Get. Enough.

Gaining Momentum

I guess it's true that when you're happy you've got less to say. At least for me. I haven't posted anything in the last few days because I've been both busy and happy. The last few months for me have been difficult, trying, depressing, etc...I completely lost momentum, self-confidence and even the hope of being hired somewhere. I even told Jeff that I was beginning to feel "un-hire-worthy." The less I did, the less I wanted to do. You'd think with all my free time I would have been exercising, organizing...just gettin' shit done. But I wasn't. I held out hope that the right job would come along, but I started to get confused, thinking that maybe I was passing things up because sub-consciously I just didn't want to work or something. But listening to that tiny glimmer of my inner ego (Rachel you're too good for Macy's, Rachel you know you won't be happy being the admin at "X" corporation no matter how much they pay you) was 100% the right thing to do. I almost can't believe this even happened for me.

It's only been a week, but my new job is perfect for me. Working in the editorial department in magazine publishing is something that I've always wanted to do. The best work experience I had was as an intern at a magazine, and the only time I've ever gone to a job that didn't make me absolutely miserable. My boss is awesome. She is the antithesis of micro-management. Our office environment, casual. Very casual, which equals very awesome. My editor and managing editor are women my age and we're getting along fantastic. I do a little bit of administrative work, but not much, most of it is creative, and best of all, I am trusted to make decisions. And even better than the "best of all" is that I get to write. I get to do restaurant reviews (which I've been wanting to do for a while), shop for items we want to feature, and eventually I'll even get to do some travel writing.

So yeah, things are better.

We have a lunch club on Monday's too, which reminded me a lot of this!

F-F-Finally!

Fucking A -that took long enough! I was finally offered a job in publishing! A great defeat for yours truly. I will be working as an editorial assistant for a small magazine publisher in Folsom. They put out a few local "lifestyle" magazines, including a wedding mag twice a year. It's right up my alley and should be really fun. Hopefully the first of many good things to come this year. Hooray.

So.Much.Pain.

I had a mole removed from my back yesterday. This isn't the first time I've had this done (yay for being pale and prone to skin cancer!) but I don't remember it hurting this bad! I feel like I've been sliced open, which I was, and then kicked in the kidney a few times. I asked the nurse if this was going to hurt after the anesthesia wore off and she gave me a pretty convincing "no." Boy, was she wrong. It didn't take long before I started to feel it. It's been so hard to get comfortable. It stings and throbs like a mother******! I'm pretty sure it's the stitches that make it hurt so bad, not the actual incision. I called the doctor's office practically in tears this morning and got some pain meds for the time being. As long as this pain persists, here I'll sit, drugged up and whacked out all weekend.

What are you up to?

Wanting

These are gummy bear lamps. Aren't they awesome? They look like Light Brights don't they? They sell for a whopping $125 a piece over here. If I had a candy store these would definitely be part of my decor.

LOOK!

Here I am as a Picasso woman:


And here I am as an alien:


All courtesy of this photobooth program for PC's.

The Original Candy Queen (The Original Swedish Version)

Today is my Half-Birthday...And Other Stories from my Couch

OMG. I'm just thrilled that I remembered this year. I told Jeff earlier this week that Saturday was going to be my half-birthday, but that I'd be surprised if I even remembered on Saturday. Usually, around the 19th, I gush "aww, shucks! I forgot yet again!"

So, folks, I am please to announce that today, I am exactly 26.5 years old.

Enough of that nonsense. Since I am still trying to get over this sore throat sickness thing that's boggin' me down, I've spent the last five hours on the couch in which I started and finished a new book, Diablo Cody's Candy Girl...A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper. Cody is the writer behind the acclaimed film Juno and apparently has some other screenplays in the works too. Who knew she was a stripper from Minnesota? Well, actually I did know that because I saw her on Oprah a few weeks ago, but I didn't know she wrote a book about it. It's safe to say it was an entertaining read seeing as I just sat here and read the whole thing, only putting it down to take a whiz and get a few more pieces of beef jerky. I can't remember the last time I sat and read a whole book at one time since my friend Dannielle, from my days at the Jewish Day School and I competitively read The Babysitter's Club books. We'd have a sleep-over and each produce our newest Ann M. Martin Schoolastic "novels" (there are probably hundreds of these books) and when we were done with our own (usually took 1-2 hours to complete one book), we'd trade and read each other's. I think we had a similar reading pace so it worked out pretty good for us.

And now it's time for a random video!

As Techie as I Get.

For many reasons, all of which I can't recall, I'm stranded with my iPod and am convinced I need a new one. You see, my iPod is of the first generation. Actually, I was surprised to find online today that the exact one I have was the 3rd model, but anyway, please examine exhibit A, my iPod (notice it doesn't even have the click-wheel):



My iPod has something like 2,500 songs on it with a capacity of 5,000. But since Rachel's Great Computer Crash of 2006, I haven't been able to put any new music on it. See, because my model is so old, and because I had formatted it to a Mac and now own a PC, and because I lost all those 2,500 songs that were on my hard-drive, I'm completely fucked. I spent $500 on this pod with my first real estate commission check. I want to listen to new music in my car, but I don't want to lose all of what I already have! Jeff says the only way to fix the issue is to reverse load the songs from the iPod onto a Mac and then burn it all to CD's and then upload all those CD's into the iTunes on my PC. But we don't have a Mac to do such with, and even then, it seems like a lot of work! Although, I would like to salvage these songs if possible.

My other issue is with my phone. I never feel happy with whatever phone I buy. Do you? Is this normal? It's not because I want the latest gadget. I'm not really into gadgets. Practical ones I suppose. I mean, the iPod is pretty much essential, but if it didn't exist I'd still be using one of those bright yellow Sony sports Walkman and taping songs off the radio and would probably be perfectly happy doing that! But last summer I switched to T-Mobile so I could get the Sidekick. Jeff and I were living in different cities and we did so much texting that I need something durable. Something that could handle pages and pages of texted love notes in a speedy fashion. But now that Jeff and I live in the same city and house, I really don't need the Sidekick, and the phone part of it is really annoying, not to mention how bulky it is (which I thought I liked so I could find it in my purse, but it turns out I don't).

We figured out we can save a good $50/month between our phone bills if I switch back over to AT&T/Cingular/AT&T/Whatever its name is now...So the real question at hand here is, should I get the iPhone?

Let's forget about the price for a moment and think about the practicality. If I need a new iPod at the same time I'm going to be switching service providers and have to get one of their phones anyway...Then there is the issue of being able to navigate in Sacramento. Most of the time I still have to bring directions with me everywhere I go. With the iPhone, I'd have the directions plus maps right there in my car with me! I could go anywhere! When I first got to this city, I was looking for a pet store that sold Charlie's brand of dog food and when I found one close, I wrote down the address/directions on an old envelope. But when I got to the address it wasn't there! It had gone out of business! Thank you Yahoo! But if I would have had the iPhone with me, I would have been able to find another store right there in the car, rather than having to go home and getting back on the computer. This also happened again recently when I was trying to find a shoe repair.

But I'm so confused! What should I do?

Bits and Pieces

Since Jeff spoils me so much, I wanted to do something nice for him for Valentine's Day. I mean, the man has been fitting the bills for a while now, and he cooks me dinner a lot, and he'll even go out at 11pm to get me ice cream or whatever else I think I want before bedtime. Basically anything I want, within reason, he makes sure I get. So, I made sure to get up with him yesterday and pack him a lunch with all his faves. A turkey sandwich, just the rye chips from the Gardetto Snacks, green grapes, a few beef jerky strips, and a couple fruit leathers (one is never enough).

For dinner I made a fresh Caprese salad and Martha's Perfect Roast Chicken. I've made this recipe once before and it turned out just as good as I remembered it. If you're looking for an easy but amazing roast chicken, this is it. The meat is so tender that it literally just falls off the bone. There is almost no need to even carve this thing. The ingredients are fresh, simple and not overbearing by any means. I think my oven gets hotter than most so I had to cover it with foil so that the skin didn't brown to fast. And for dessert, on top of the truffles Jeff gave me, I made these molten mocha cakes. They look all fancy and gourmet, but they were so easy and quick. I couldn't find espresso powder, and after some research, I found that it's something you can usually only find at specialty shops, so I just used some instant coffee instead. The coffee flavor wasn't very strong, I would have used more if I would have known. But I always try to use a high quality chocolate like Ghiradelli, and these little cakes still tasted great and were so gooey and warm...Just like in a restaurant!

Then we sat down and got our weekly dose of LOST. They're introducing so many new things this season that it's impossible to really know what's going on and isn't as suspenseful as the previous seasons. With only 5 more new episodes left, I don't have much hope that we'll get many answers. I hope to god that production starts back up soon! I've been getting sick and after the show my throat started to hurt really bad and I got cranky, and Jeff was all sweet and wanted to go get me Chloraseptic spray, but I wouldn't let him. That stuff is nasty anyway!

On another note, it's looking like Jeff has to go to Texas again for work for a whole week. What am I going to do for a whole week by myself, with no friends?! It's possible I could have job by then if things go well on Monday, but if not, looks like it's Netflix City for this girl!

I Want These!