A Long Overdue Tale

So this is a much much much overdue post but I while it is a distant tale...it must be told for many reasons.

As you who read MansionMogul know, Brooke and her co-hab fled back to the Best Coast to leave me here, abandoned, missing them like crazy, and thinking I am out of my mind to stay here! (Ok really the cohab in all his smartiepants geniusness landed an offer in Seattle and so off they went). Anyways.

Brooke and I met up one final night at Matchbox (E- it really is a DC thing) to drink some beers, eat some pizza, devour some donuts and say our "goodbye for nows". Dinner was a usual display of our random, disjointed-but-some-how-we-follow-each-other conversation that reminded me that Brooke was honestly such a blessing to be brought into my life.

To back up and provide the back story. Brooke and I met at a Law School party where we were pretty much the only two non-law students. It was like finding a life raft to cling to in all my I-hate-dc-and-I-have-no-friends start that I got off to here in DC. I remember going home the night we met and telling my cohab at the time "I made a friend! Well I think I did. I hope she likes me. I hope she wants to be friends!" (gah just like elementary school all over again..no?). Well we did become friends. And not only is she from the Best Coast, she is from SEA and so basically it was freindmance. I know that Brooke and I will always look back at the time we lived in DC together and I know she is a friend I will always keep in touch with and have in my life.

I have to say I have started to really miss stories about B's crazy, dysfunctional co-workers and laughing about all the crazy cohab shit that goes down when you live with someone as well as just general girl talk. Somehow I am managing without her here :)

So back to the story. We have dinner, we walk to an ATM so I can get cash. True to form I never carry cash. We stand on this street corner. I was shifting from foot to foot trying to not be the total girl I am. It didn't work....

the flood gates opens and one tear turned into a lot of tears! Meanwhile cabs would slow down and look at us because you could tell one of us was going to get in a cab soon. Finally Brooke gets me calmed down enough and I pile into a cab that had pulled up. I give him my address and we speed off. I didn't want to be sobbing so I did the girl thing where you let tears slide down your checks and you wipe them away when they reach your chin and are about to pile into your lap. Well I finally had to sniffle and the cab drive looks in his rear view mirror and exclaims "Oh! Are you crying! Don't cry! Goodbye's are not forever". I kind of do a sniffle smile and he was like "I actually saw you two saying goodbye and knew you were going to need a cab so I circled a few blocks to come back for you. Is she a good friend?"

Me: "Yes, she is from Seattle which is were we are both from and she is moving back there"
Cab: " Well my family is very far away and I moved here to make a living and I miss them a lot, but it is so easy to keep in touch with people. There is email, skype, text messaging, cell phones and planes"
Me: I finally start to stop crying "Yes, we will keep in touch for sure"

So we pull up to my apartment and I go to pay and he turns off his meter and waves his had "No tonight is on me"

me: "No no, please let me pay"
Cab: "No, you needed a ride home and saying goodbye to a friend is not fun. Keep your money"

He finally accepted a small tip. But I entered my apartment and crawled into bed, and while I started crying again it was one of the most comforting things to know that in this big city some random stranger did a completely random act of kindness for me.

Warm fuzzies all around.

Ps...Brooke I miss you!

A New Addition

Sunday morning I met up with a close friend of mine from Idaho who is out here interning for a month at Eastern Market. I briefly checked out Eastern Market when Saramarie was here and I fell in love with the jewelry booths and fresh produce. E and I enjoyed some delish crepes (thanks for spotting me..I owe you!) and then picked out some really pretty necklaces. I had a hard time deciding what to get from Silverado Jewelry but I finally settled on this horribly classy and simple necklace:

It is a bit difficult to see, but it is two circles of hammered gold and silver and it sits on a really neat chain. I love that it has the two metal tones and I know it is going to be a staple in my jewelry rotation. It also was a complete steal! It was right around $30, which is very affordable for a piece of jewelry I am going to wear a lot! The website for Silverado jewelry is not up yet, but keep checking back here so you can check out all of the beautiful jewelry that is offered. E got a very similar necklace and I love the idea that I will think of how much fun I had with her while she was in DC when I wear this necklace!

Wonderbar Review

Image via Wonderbar

Wonderbar. I Wonder where to start. Wonder-ful? Wonder-ous? Wonder-ing if you should get one? Want to be Wonder-woman? It might be one of the Wonder-s of the world.

Well here is my review.

I was a bit nervous about trying the Wonderbar. Mainly for the price. $40 was a bit much for me when I was thinking about how much I usually spend on face cleanser. But I eventually caved and splurged. Shipping was awesome, it arrived exactly when it said it would and the reaction I had to the tiny little bar was exactly what the website predicted...."Ohmygod...I just spent $40 for THIS!". It is a really little bar, so brace yourself and try to remind yourself that it does last for a long time!

I started using the bar that night. I could really feel my skin tightening and when I rinsed after the 5-10 minutes my skin felt silky smooth. I had my first "healing process" about three weeks in as predicted. After that my skin got much much much better. I kept using make-up (ensuring none of it was mineral based) and eliminated using anything but plain soap to wash my make-up off before Wonderbar-ing at night. I also used it as an all night mask which seemed to have strong results in the beginning but oddly lead to my face becoming slightly oily throughout the day. We stopped using it as a face mask and now just follow the suggested once in the morning and once at night treatment.

I have been using the Wonderbar for about 8 weeks now (which I still have an incredible amount of my bar left -which just shows the $40 goes a long way with this product) and am still loving the product. I have stopped wearing make-up as I felt that my "healing" and "renewing" had plateaued; I tried alternating make-ups but I was eventually lead to believe that the reaction between make-up and the bar was just not working with my skin. So we are 4 days into no-makeup (just eyes), and so far I think things are starting to head in the right direction again.

My overall review: the Wonderbar is worth every penny and I will be a loyal customer. I highly suggest if you have been someone with problem skin for as long as your can remember, and you have constantly been in a struggle to try various products only to be let down weeks later: stop wasting money... swallow the price tag...and buy yourself a Wonderbar.

**I was in no way compensated for this review and wrote it on my own free will.

Ratatouille Part Deux

Last night I was determined to actually cook dinner. And not "cook" one of my Trader Joes means that I have survived off of for the last year of my life. When I was in transition and searching for housing last October Ben graciously hosted a dinner party (pretty sure it was to provide distraction from what was going on in my life...so thank you Ben!) and made this delish Ratatouille recipe from Smitten Kitchen. On a side note I need to start using more of the recipes from SK, as the ones I have tried are delish and nothing too complicated for my cooking skills and itty bitty kitchen. This recipe for St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake is calling to me in my late night IambloggingandIwantsomethingsweetbecausewhenyouareanadultyoucaneatwheveryouwantinthecomfortofyourownbedandnoonewilleverknow

state.

Anyways. Back to my Ratatouille story. Ben made this for me and then I made it for cohabs Erin and Paul when I first moved into my new place. They were the first people I had over for food in my new apartment and the other day I was thinking how good that dinner had turned out. So I made it again.

A few lessons:

1) when you are too tired to cook. You are probably going to stop reading the directions and therefore leave out an ingredient. Luckily with this I was able to improvise and throw the ingredient in later.

2) Just because there weren't any left overs last time (when you served three people dinner) DOES NOT mean you need to make a full dish of something for my single eating self. To put it lightly...I have baked veggies overflowing in tupperwear.

3) The goat cheese is what makes it.

4) Also splurge on the thyme, it really does add all the flavor that is characteristic of Ratatouille.

5) Find a rat to sit on your head while you cook. It will make the stress of the week melt away.

And finally. This is one of the most visually appealing things I have ever made in my cooking adventures. It is simply beautiful with the layers of color. It makes me really lust for a fancy knife set so I could cut my red bell pepper in whole slices rather than butchering uncivilized like with my IKEA knives. But nonetheless...it was a beautiful meal:

Strasburg Debut

Well thanks to company tickets and a co-worker who ended up being away on business and generously donating his tickets to us other company employees, I was able to see Strasburg's debut with the Nationals. I have really lucked out this year with the baseball tickets. Obama's opening pitch and then getting to see Strasburg's awesome MLB debut. A-mazing.

Bryan (Cheese), Sam (Check that Tiffany colored tie!), and Me (pearls at a baseball game) looking excited for Strasburg. (I made them look happy after the last sporting event, co-worker photo that was an embarrassment).

Note the "MLB Debut: Today". Awesome.

Also for your enjoyment...video of Strasburg. Revel. Enjoy.