rough start

my halloween is not off to the best start.

well, that's not entirely true.

i've carved not one, but two, wondrous pumpkins. i've already attended a costume party and was a hit. tonight, i bought a Maleficent headdress that will provide YEARS of quality last minute costume options.

but then i tried to apply scary fake nails. and after they begun to fall off, i gave up and pulled them off. and have spent the last 45 minutes trying desperatly to get the dried glue off my fingers. because even though this adhesive isn't strong enough to hold thin sheets of plastic to my nails, it is doing its darndest to stay put.

and somewhere in my frantic attempts to get this shit off. my. HANDS, i stubbed a toe and didn't notice until there was blood all over my foot. and now that hurts.

and woe is me :(

but i must rally, for i've straightened my hair and will don fake bling and a ballon baby in the morn!

feliz cumpleanos!

Today, my lovely mother turns 49. I kinda liked her being twice my age- the math was easy- but now I guess I'll just have to go back to adding 24 to my own age so that I can shock people with how young my mother is.

Friends, she's YOUNG! And looks it too. If I age with one half of my mother's grace, I'll be one lucky lady.

It is at this point that I would usually post a photograph as evidence but I know that she appreciates her online privacy, so you will just have to believe me when I say Marcela is an attractive woman.

So, happy birthday, Mommy! It was fun to go to a Halloween party with you as the Palins. You made a very cute Sarah in my new dress.

the only thing missing is the painted-on stockings

Betty Draper at a funeral.

Or me at a museum opening.

How I wish that I could dress like this everyday and not be a caricature.

I was so fancy looking that people didn't recognize me. No, seriously, someone who I sit next to 16 hours a week introduced herself to me as if we had never met.

Also, what do you think of the new curls?

(PS. Please disregard my messy messy room. But feel free to hold all the bird imagery in high regard.)

YES I THINK MY HEAD MAY EXPLODE

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You know where to find me on Friday night.

my new fav thing EVER

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and this concludes the bake sale coverage

I know that y'all are probably bake saled out- what with two in two weeks- but I just wanted to give an update.

Even though we had fewer people stop by, each patron seemed to buy more. Apparently, raising money for a presidential candidate tugs at the purse strings more than a broken heart. Go figure.

** drumroll **

We made almost $150! Woohoo, go us! And Sam just got an email saying that a previous donor will be matching our donation, amounting to a cool $300! Go us and being all politically active.

I promise to blog about something other than bake sales soon. Unless my mom decides to throw on for her birthday this weekend during my visit.

Thanks, Ed

"Hey Breakup Baker-

I saw your Bakeup flyer on a lamp post early Monday morning and I wanted to write you a note to say it brought a true smile to my face. (I'm sorry I missed the Bakeup itself, too.) I'm a habitual driver to work, but my beloved car, which I have had forever, finally broke down Monday as I was trying to get to work- her second transmission virtually exploded on me @ 195,000 miles- forcing me to be a "man of the people" and metro in. I was bummed about that and in a bad mood when you note popped into my line of sight. So, thanks for brightening my morose morning; I hope your culinary catharsis over the weekend worked for you. Take care and keep your chin up.

- Ed the Ambler"

a real note that I got today. Just when I'm feeling down in the dumps re: life (dramatic, no?), my friends throw me a bake sale and random strangers are sending me notes saying I brought them a smile to their day.

Bake sales will save the world.

breakup bakeup

so, what do you do when your boyfriend breaks up with you? if you are me, you take one day off from to work to completely wallow, complete with gut wrenching sobs. you pull yourself together for a debate party, you make it to work the following day, you only cry in public a little and then you let your friends take care of you. while the pain of a breakup might be the worst immediately following, i think that the first weekend as a new singleton is the hardest time. those routines that you had fallen into for months are erased in second and you are left with no distractions.

unless you are marvelous friends.

elle, juliet, and sam ate chipotle with me friday night and helped me drink wine while we watched young at heart. crying because you love old people singing is not the same as crying because you just got dumped.

saturday was the best. friday afternoon, sam decided that breakups could be sweet and that we should capitalize on my pain and have a bake sale. yes, you heard correctly- a breakup bakeup! i made rice crispy treats, colleen (another roomie) made chocolate chip cookies, brant (sam's boyfriend) made lemon bars, and the master baker herself made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing, homemade oreos, and double chocolate brownies with salted caramel buttercream. all from scratch. i made fliers and posted them at the main intersection near my house. and for a few hours on an early fall afternoon, we stood outside our front door, waving to people as they walked by, selling our homemade treats.

it got such an amazing response! we had three groups stop their cars, park, and get out to get food! we had runners come back with money to get treats! besides the simple fun of baking with friends, we meet some neighbors and brought smiles to a lot of people's faces. almost everyone had words of encouragement to share re: the breakup and one guy even made me cry for going on and on about how cool this all was and that there had to be a guy out there for me. with the money that we made (about $65! sam wouldn't take money for baking supplies), i think i'm going to get a massage and maybe mani/pedi too! but even if we hadn't made any money, it was a success just is raising my spirits.

to all my friends and family who have reached out- thank you so much. you don't know how much coming over to give me a hug, sleeping over, giving me flowers, making me eat, throwing a bake sale, texts, calls, emails- it all means so much to me. i went through a horrendous breakup about a year ago and was very guarded about it here, thinking that i couldn't put that out there. maybe things would have gone better for me if i had opened up to having people help me.

everyone should be lucky enough to have a breakup bakeup.

no title seems to fit quite right

so, i don't do personal details here but sometimes, life has a way of being just too overwhelming.

i'm not going to go into it to say other than i had a boyfriend for five months and now i don't. i'm sad. my face is red. but i have fantastic friends and family.

and i'll be ok. maybe if i keep on saying it, it will eventually be true.