Hard Knock Nanny Life

Why does the child always stay home from camp on the Thursdays’ that I haven’t written my blog ahead of time?

When you figure that out, let me know.

Until then, Happy Thursday!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies . . . ?

When you think of all the things you need to acquire when you move to a new city, you immediately think: place to live, job, and possibly a gym. But most things you will need won’t become a priority until you actually need them.

So, when I moved, I found an apartment, a job, and a gym.

The list of things I haven’t found include: a doctor (unless you include the specialized treatment for my run in with a car), a dentist because my 6 months check up hasn’t come up yet (or maybe it has . . .), health insurance, a local bank, ect.

One thing I have found though is a mechanic. Shocking, right?

Well in Maryland, there is a little thing called a state inspection before you are allowed to register your vehicle in the state. So basically I was forced to find a mechanic. A true tragedy.

But lucky for me, the first mechanic I asked to do my inspection turned out to be the best guy in the world! He did the inspection, and he didn’t try to take advantage of my stupidity. AND he even recommended where to get my car registered without having going to the DMV. Imagine my relief after having visited it 2 weeks earlier for my Maryland license.

Basically, in a nutshell, I love my mechanic! Every time I have a problem with my car, which happens more often than you think, my main man lets me stop in whenever, and he will drop everything to look at my car. So of course, I bring them cookies all the time because I need these guys to love me as much as I love them.

Now this brings me to my next point: chocolate chip cookies. They are definitely my “go-to” for thank you’s and get well’s and all of the above. Usually I use the recipes on the back of the bag (Tollhouse of course), but when I looked online to ensure that I have all the ingredients at home, it was a mess! Who knew there were so many recipes!!! Seriously! What is the difference?!

Apparently there is one! I know this now because I did not use the Tollhouse recipe this time (I only had a weird brand of chocolate chips, and I am still unsure why anyone would buy these), and they came out way more “cake-y.”

 See what I mean?

Now I am no baking scientist; I am not even a food blogger (even though its seems that way), but I think the ratio of flour to the rest would make the difference.

The major problem is the cookies I am baking aren’t for me. But even if they were, I am not sure which type of cookies I prefer. There are the fluffy ones like this recipe, the flatter crispier ones, and then other types I guess?

But you see all of these recipes on the Internet say they are for the BEST chocolate chip cookies. Why isn’t there just one?! I mean they are supposed to be THE best–the one and only.

I want to know.

Now, I have a new quest: find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. A quest I probably won’t pursue, but when I am making more chocolate chip cookies for people, I will have to take note of how they turn out.

So tonight, I didn’t include a recipe. I am hoping that y’all will tell me your favorites!

But until then, I guess I will have to go with Pheobe’s grandmother’s recipe. (Any Friends fanatics out there?)

Until next time, Happy Thursday!

I’m a Speed bump

People choose to do some pretty crazy things—lots of daredevils are there. Some take up skydiving or rock climbing as a hobby. Others like to drive cars way over the speed limit and get paid for it. These people do things that they enjoy everyday, but they risk their lives to do it.

Running isn’t something I would consider extreme. You don’t go super fast; you aren’t in risk of crashing into the Earth, or falling off a very high ledge. Unless you are me—somehow I made running into an extreme sport last Friday.

Want to add an element of excitement to a run? Just start dodging oncoming vehicles! Sounds fun, right? Just wait until one hits you. Not so fun then.

At risk of being repetitive, I will not dance around what I am trying to say: a car hit me while I was running last Friday.

Thankfully, I am okay! I only suffered a minor sprain and some internal bruising. But in the grand scheme of things, I was very lucky.

Throughout this week though, it’s been hard to keep such a perspective. I am not injured to the point where I can’t go to work, but I can’t run, work out, or even lift the baby without pain. It’s honestly just annoying. Like an itch that I just can’t scratch. And annoying things will send me to an early grave . . . but really. I don’t handle them well.

Because of this annoying, obnoxious pain, I have been forced to slow down and relax. (Again, this is so frustrating! But it has had to be done!) Instead of working out, I have finished three cartons of Ben and Jerry’s. Instead of running, I have slept in and had normal breakfasts before work. I have also been freaked out and silently screamed in my head every time I saw a pedestrian cross the street.

But also because of the injuries, I realized that the people around me really do care. Even though Baltimore is still new and unfamiliar, I have family here that will rush to the hospital to meet me when I show up in the ambulance (which, by the way, isn’t as cool as I was expecting. I didn’t even get the sirens!)

Sometimes, you have to look at the bad things that have happened to you and be grateful that they did. Like hugging the old crying woman who just hit you with her vehicle. You just have to be grateful that it didn’t kill ya and move on. You learn some great life lessons that way, and you learn about yourself and the people around you.

Now, I don’t want to sound preachy. That’s the last thing that this blog was supposed to be about. But I am sharing some of the things I have learned over the past week. Sometimes “life” hits you with a car, and the only thing you can do is eat three cartons of Ben and Jerry’s and relax.

So happy Thursday y’all! And seriously, go eat some Ben and Jerry’s.

 

 

 

P.S. The leaf is a leaf that was found in my hair at the hospital! My only souvenir that wasn’t an injury.

That Funk Stinks

I have read a lot about writing blogs, and every thing I have read says that each post will get a little easier. I am not sure that’s true.

I had a plan to write this post about my attempts to get up early each day this week and to start changing my attitude about mornings. I had a whole great beginning planned out, and it was going to be humorous, witty, and informative. That was the plan. But life always seems to get in the way of “the plan”.

This afternoon was a bit of a disaster. It was about an hour before work ended, and everything seemed to be spiraling out of control—I was spiraling right into a funk. I was grumpy, cranky and ready to scream. I sincerely hope that y’all have these moments as well because if not, I sound like a crazy person.

But let me continue with my insanity . . .

As most of y’all know if you read last week’s post, I had ballet this evening. It was also this evening that I was late for ballet. I hate being late, especially when there are only four other people in the class. You can’t really sneak in. To make it worse because of my “funk,” I did not want to go and point my toe or plié or anything else for that matter. But I went because it’s very difficult for me not to go to something that I have paid for in advance.

During the class, I was going through the motions—wallowing in my sour mood, when our instructor said something that caught my attention.

He said, “I want you to be Graceful, Confident, and Happy!” He then proceeded to show us how to act “Graceful, Confident, and Happy.” (Yes there is a certain technical way to do this in ballet. Who knew?)

Well that got me thinking . . . can it be that simple? A simple technique can make you look graceful, confident, and happy, but can it actually make you those things?

Each week I have tried to come up with a new challenge for myself to make my life more exciting and enjoyable. This week was supposed to be able taking advantage of all the time I am given (even the dreaded, awful, miserable mornings!), but life decided to give me another challenge:

“Be Graceful, Confident, and Happy”

If you act it, then you will be it. Basically fake it till you make it kinda thing. So this is my challenge for the next week: to be graceful, confident, and happy in everything I do. Even if I feel like screaming, I am going to try my best to put a smile on my face, tilt my chin slightly higher, and march on. Because if we don’t, we will be stuck in our “funk” and usually that just stinks!

So until next time, “Be Graceful, Confident, and Happy!” Oh, and Happy Thursday y’all!!

I Can’t Touch My Toes

For all the ungraceful, clumsy girls out there, this one is for you . .

And, for all those who are flexible, poised and float instead of walk, feel free to take humor in my attempts to gain a small fraction of elegant ease.

Did anyone ever read Angelina Ballerina as a child? (It’s also a TV show these days, but I wasn’t aware of this until this morning!) Anyway, I have always wanted to be a ballerina, but never pursued it because I was always playing sports instead. But reading books like Angelina Ballerina always made me want to wear the cute pink ballet slippers and twirl around like a little princess.

Now I’m 23 years old, but I still want to wear the cute pink ballet slippers and twirl around like a little princess, in the non-creepiest way possible of course. So that’s exactly what I have decided to do! My first new hobby that I have taken up is ballet at the Baltimore Ballet School. It sounds so official, right?

Coincidently, the classes are on Thursdays; one of the many reasons that this is being posted so late in the evening. So I wanted to share this new Thursday activity with everyone.

I went into the class with a few goals for myself:

1. Start building friendships by first learning everyone’s name.
2. Don’t get discouraged if I am terrible . . . which I am.
3. Have fun and enjoy the experience.

I think I began the class by checking off all three of these goals. I learned everyone’s name. Lucky for me, there are only 4 other people in the class besides Sarah and my self. I didn’t get discouraged either, and I absolutely had a blast. I forgot how fun it was to learn something new and to just enjoy the newness of it. As kids, I feel like we are always taking new classes and thriving in new experiences—it’s the prime age in which we learn everything for the first time.

Being in our early 20s, we have a unique opportunity to revel in our youth, and do things for the first time too. We don’t have to be concerned about anyone else’s schedule or opinion dictating our choices, so we can pick up new hobbies on a whim. Our 20s are for us! We need to embrace it!

For those who are wondering, I am absolutely horrible (I can’t even touch my toes). The instructor was a middle aged flamboyant man who called us all, “dears” and was the sweetest man ever! We learned the names of the positions in French, but if you asked me right now, I don’t think I would remember a single one. In order to get each of us to properly point our toes, the instructor told us to grab our ankles with our feet. “What does that even mean?!” I am still confused by that. But overall, it was a great experience, and I can’t wait till next Thursday!

Have y’all tried anything completely out of your comfort zone recently? I would love to hear!

Until next time, cheers to Thursday y’all!

39th Baltimorean Thursday

It has been difficult for me to write this first post. I have been in Baltimore for over 6 months now, so where do I begin?

Whelp, like most college students, I didn’t stay in Clemson, SC after I graduated, and like another large majority, I didn’t go back to my hometown either. Moving to a strange city in search of my “adult” life has left me searching for the comforts that we become accustomed to while living in a familiar place: close friends, favorite restaurant or bar, a “normal” routine. I was looking to find that natural rhythm in my new city, but instead I fell into a rut.

No longer was I looking forward to going out because I did not have the close-knit group of girls to go out with. I did not know the bar scene well enough so every time I went out, I was like a fish out of water. (If any of y’all went to a small college town, you understand that going to a bar meant hanging out with everyone there because you pretty much knew everyone. In Baltimore, it wasn’t this way.) But other than work, where are you supposed to meet knew people? (Being a full-time nanny does not include co-workers to go out with).

So by starting this blog, I am documenting the ways in which I am figuring out life in this brand new city—meeting people, finding fun hobbies, and genuinely enjoying my life. Here you will find my recipes for comfort foods, tips for healthy living, as well as all of my awkward moments trying to figure out my 20’s in a new city.

“When I am writing, I am trying to figure out who I am . . .”

– Maya Angelou

Maybe that’s a better way to describe what I am doing. (Side note: Maya Angelou knew exactly how to word things didn’t she?) In everything we do, we are subconsciously looking for who we are. I definitely don’t know who I am (as cliché as that sounds), but each day I figure out a little more. I can only hope that this blog will not only assist me, but others in living life, and learning from every experience along the way.

I hope you will join me for this journey–my pursuit of happiness, meddling through the awkward early 20s in a new city.