Nouns that I love (in honor of Valentine's Day)

Posted in | at 12:40 PM

Notice my attempt at being clever in this title...I was going to say things that I love, but then thought I should include people and places as well!


1. God, of course. I love that I'm drawing closer to him and to this wonderful church I've been so blessed with the last few weeks. Along with that...

2. The Vineyard! How amazing to wake up each Sunday excited to go to church. They've also asked me to join the worship team, so I'm really excited about my first practice on Friday, although the leader is under the impression that I can play the jembe. We'll see...

3. My new North Carolina friends. The husband and I have met a lot of great people at the Vineyard, and I've also started to get to know the women I work with, and they're all kind, funny, and interesting stylists. I'm already learning TONS from them!

4. My "old" friends that have made the effort to keep in touch. It's been hard sometimes living so far away from all my friends, but fortunately I've got the kind of friends that stay true no matter the distance. From my NY-BF calling for help on the funniest, most ridiculous song he's written to date to my Kara, who's just about ready to deliver little Noelle, to El texting me pictures of the 60+ inches of snow in Baltimore, to Andrea keeping me caught up on Chicago, to Jessi becoming an aunt 7 times over, to Katherine and Michael keeping me abreast of their Colorado adventures, they've all kept me a part of their lives. I've also heard from work friends and Empire friends over the last few weeks, and it's been nice to be kept in the loop on everything!

5. My family. It's hard being away from them as well, but they've also been planning trips to come out here! My dad came and had dinner with Ryan and I and my mom will be here in two weeks for a few days. My mom even sent me a huge box of books to read, yay! And my Dad introduced me to the book The Shack, which if you haven't yet read, please follow the link on the left of my blog to check it out. I've also been talking more with my sister, who's almost 21! I can't believe that, it seems like she should always be 16 to me. :)

6. Last, and not least of course, it my amazing husband and our new life here. He planned the perfect Valentine's Day for me, including dinner and dark chocolate, AND he put up our curtains! I've been wanting the curtains up since we moved into this bedroom, as the walls are white and the bed is white, so it's all kind of devoid of color. The curtains are the ones from our basement, so they're orange and purple, and in the afternoon light (like I'm in right now) they make the whole room this gorgeous orange/rose color. It's awesome.

There are many other people, places and things I'm grateful for and love, but time for me has run out to list them. Onto the mundane tasks of laundry and cleaning...which is totally fine by me, I'm happy to have the time to do these things rather than working and schooling full time.

Love!
Jesi

PS - I also love you, dear reader! Thank you for reading this and sending your love my way!

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Work work work

Posted in | at 11:44 AM

I have a job! I think I said that before, but now, two weeks in, it's really really true. I'm working at a salon (or Sahh lon as Miss Deb would say) in Huntersville that I love. It's small but not too small, with five other very lovely women working there. I've been able to do a few cuts, a few colors, and even a perm in my two weeks here. I'm looking forward to meeting more people in the area so that I can get myself a few clients!


In other, very past the date news, Ryan and I headed up to Raleigh (which, side-note, I was saying wrong, calling it "Rally" rather than "Rahhh leigh) to see our friend Tiffany in the touring company of Xanadu. If you haven't checked out this show, please do, especially if you're lucky enough to catch Tiffany in it, she's amazing! We got to hang out with her after and also see a friend from college that I hadn't caught up with in years, it was a really good time.

That weekend we got hit with two inches of snow and ice. Now, I know that being a native midwestener, this should have been no big deal, but as the ENTIRE town shut down, we were some of the only crazies to try and go out in the ice! We found out that in Charlotte, there is no plowing or salting, so it took us three tries to make it out of our neighborhood to get to a previously scheduled dinner with new friends. The dinner and company ended up being completely worth our almost demise and perilous travel with the 10 other brave souls attempting to drive on the ice sheet.

Other than that, Ryan and I are continuing to try and meet people and get ourselves more established in the area. We are so fortunate to now have a church family that we can call home for the first time in six years. We never really found a place to connect at until we found the Vineyard here in North Charlotte. It's actually very near where I work, so I'm hoping to get some clients from church! Every week I now anticipate Sunday and wake up excited once it gets here for both the fellowship and most importantly, the worship. I'm growing so much there already and we've only been three times! It's really helping in my still ever present goal to be a "better person" out here in Charlotte.

Part of that better person lifestyle led me to purge some things and people from my life that were holding me down. I deleted a lot of people off of my Facebook who aren't a part of my life anymore. To be honest, a lot were people I hadn't talked to since high school, and in high school, it was the passing in the hall type of talking, not real friendship. I'm blessed with some of the more amazing close friends that anyone could ask for, and I'd rather share all of myself with them and with the people I continue to meet than people from my past that have not made this journey with me.

In other news, I may be going to NYC in April for a 4 day hair class. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Love,
Jesi

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Life got in the way...

Posted in | at 3:21 PM

Of writing posts more frequently. Sorry! I do have a lot of news to share!


First and foremost, thank you thank you thank you to everyone that sent their kind words and well wishes to my last post. I'm linked on Facebook, and wasn't expecting the outpouring of kindness and support. You guys are fantastic! It's really been helpful to me that when I start to get down, I just go read those comments again. Like Jody said, in three weeks I want to look back and see how much I've accomplished, not get mad at myself for being lazy.

Having said that, the walking project has been going well. I've been averaging about three miles a day, with a couple longer days thrown in there. Now, it's kind of gone downhill the last few days as the Husband has been ill and I've been taking care of him, but I'm going to be back on track tomorrow.

In other exciting news, I got a job! Starting on Tuesday, I'll be a stylist and assistant for Cutting Image Salon in Huntersville, NC. I'll be doing cut, color, perms, updos...and basically everything I was able to do on clients at Empire. For six months, I'll be an assistant, and then just be a stylist, starting at the bottom and working my way up! I'm very pumped and ready to start this new journey and new career. It's hard for me to market myself with confidence, so for right now I've been "faking it until I make it" to borrow an overused phrase. I've got about 100 cards giving anyone that comes in to see me 20% off all services, so if you or anyone you know is in the NC area, let me know!

It's also exciting as I'll be working 5 days a week, instead of 6 like I was when working at the restaurant. I'm also excited that my days off are Thursdays and Sundays! Sundays we have church and Thursdays we're looking to join a small group with our church so we'll still have activities on those nights.

In related news, I passed my theory boards for Cosmetology! I'm not allowed to tell you anything about the test, but I was very happy that I studied for the three days before, as I was more prepared for that exam than probably any test I took in college! Now it's onto the physical boards on March 1st, which I should be very prepared for now that I'll be working!

I'd be remiss to not mention the devastation that's been occurring in Haiti these last few weeks. I posted on my FB today a message I'll also share here. There were people on FB posting a status that basically said that we should be focusing only on our homeless in America rather than coming together for Haiti. And while I agree that we need to do whatever we can to help our fellow man, there's no reason to turn the horrible events in Haiti into a political movement. This is what I said in my status:


I have an idea. Rather than copying and pasting forwards about how we should be helping the homeless in the US rather than the people of Haiti, why don't we ACTUALLY help them? This is a time to reach out and love our fellow man, not spread messages of hate. Haiti needs us, and we're coming through for them. Let's take that as a step towards helping all who are less fortunate.


I also went through and cleaned out my Facebook. There's no reason to be friends with people I've never even had a proper conversation with, when I'm sharing intimate details of my life with them. I also want to surround myself with people that care about me like I do about them, and even through a mass social networking site, I can try and have boundaries. Now, I still have a LOT of FB friends, so obviously I wasn't too severe in my cuts!

I know my house mate and Husband are really going to miss the fact that now that I'm working I won't be cooking as much! This weekend I got us a rotisserie chicken and made it into a Mexican bake last night and then made chicken quesadillas today, along with cookie bars. I made banana chocolate chip applesauce bread as well to take to church today, and I guess it went over well, as when I went to pick up the bowl, it was all gone!

Speaking of church, we are so happy to finally find a church home. I haven't had a true church home since Riverside United Methodist (the church I grew up and was married in) and it's so comforting to find somewhere you feel you belong. We've only gone two weeks so far, but we've met a lot of great people and really been challenged by the messages. You can check out the church here!

As a final note...my Colts are going to the Super bowl! Woot!

Love,
Jesi

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A weighted issue...

Posted in | at 11:43 AM

It's been an interesting week. I had the revelation over the weekend that I've been becoming increasingly lazy with no real reason! If all I do all day is sit at home, why can't I work out and get myself back in shape? There's no good reason that I can't.


To be honest, I haven't been in good shape since high school. In high school, I was dancing almost daily, performing in 2-4 musicals a year, and running around with my friends all the time. I was tiny, I could eat whatever I wanted without consequence, and not have to worry. I was literally the same size (height, chest, EVERYTHING) from age 12 to age 18. It made clothes easy, I just wore the same things for years!

Freshman year of college, I dated a seemingly charming boy that was into RPGs and eating like a normal 20 year old college kid. I fell into a lifestyle of sitting around, staying up all night, and eating like I had been in high school with even more crap. It's always been rumored that at Millikin they inject the food in the cafeteria with more "nutrients" (aka calories) as college students don't eat enough, and I'm not sure if that's the case, but my weight skyrocketed. I was still dancing (thank you Millikin Pom Squad) but not nearly as much. I put on not only the Freshman 15, but the Freshman 30.

Over the summer between Freshman and Sophomore year, I met my now NYBF (New York Best Friend) who introduced me to my love of street tap. He even bought me my Alexandro Concertos! Over that summer, I went back down at least 15 pounds, and went to Millikin a lot better.

The rest of my college experience was full of stress, alcohol, late nights, and food. By the time I was done, I was back to a weight I just wasn't happy with. I was also engaged to be married at that point and really wanted to look better for my wedding. I tried Weight Watchers, gym memberships, and fad diets, but none of these really stuck. I did make it down to about 150 by the wedding which was fine, but looking back at pictures I would have liked to be smaller. I only recently was able to become okay with how I looked that day. Going to beauty school has made me more aware of what looks good on my body and hair, and I also wish I would have worn my hair down...but hey, it's not about the day in the end, it's about the wonderful Husband I gained from it. :)

So now we're 2 and a half years down the road from that day, and I'm at my weight limit. I stepped on the scale on Saturday and almost yelled out loud at myself. I had been doing better, especially with bartending as it kept me on my feet, but after the move, lots of time in cars eating fast food while we shuttled across the country had taken it's toll. I committed right then to be better, and I'm really trying now.

I've been working out all this week by trying a new system. My goal is to take 10,000 steps every day. This works out to about 5 miles. Since I don't have a job, you'd think this would be a cinch, but it's a bit harder than it seems! Monday, I walked to the library and back, which ended up being 6 miles. It was a little much to start with, so Tuesday I walked to the grocery and back, which was 3 miles. Yesterday I did Wii Fit step aerobics for a hour and some boxing. Today I'm going to take the puppy for a walk in a bit and take it a little easy as my legs and hips are still protesting from that 6 miles on Monday!

Why am I talking about this on my public blog? I guess I feel like talking about it will keep me a little more accountable. I've always been embarrassed about my weight as it's gone up and never wanted to really let anyone know how bad it's gotten. In a world with Biggest Loser and shows about people that weigh 600+ pounds getting TV time, I always thought I wasn't that bad. But it's not about other people's journeys, it's about my own. I don't need to be back at high school weight, but I would like to be back at wedding weight or lower! I'm hoping by letting this all out, my friends will be able to help me stay on track.

I am still cooking! I have been trying to be a bit more healthy about what I make and cut back on butter, cheese, and chips. I've been having a lot of chicken, veggies, and water. We'll see how I do!

Love,
Jesi

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Okay, I admit it...

Posted in | at 1:16 PM

I'm bored. I've been without a job for about a month now, and while it was fun at first, it's starting to become grating. I mean, if I knew other people that lived in Charlotte, then it might be more bearable, I'd at least have others to lunch with (or make lunch for, as I'm a cooking fiend!) but as that's not the case yet, I'm curled up in a chair with Charlie-dog and Bella-dog, my housemate's 50 pound lab that thinks she's a lap dog.


It's not a bad life, for sure, just a slow one. I'm waiting on hearing back from the NC boards to know when I can take my tests to get my license so that I can start working in the career I've been training over a year for! I will take a job at supercuts at this point, just something to get me started and to get me established in Charlotte, as most nicer places around here require a clientele...I don't know more than 8 people, much less a clientele!

So, for today, I'm cooking again. This time it's french bread (I make all of these in a breadmaker, less you think I'm really THAT good of a cook) and beef stew, adapted from this recipe. It's starting to smell very good, and it's still got 3 more hours to cook!

Other than that I've been reading, catching up on useless crap online (I have a pop-culture addiction that I'm pretty sure needs to be checked soon) and listening to music. I got a Itunes gift card from my dad for the holidays, and I've used it on Jason Mraz, Imogen Heap, Kris Allen, Owl City, Michelle Featherstone, and Stars. All have been very good choices so far! The last two were songs I got from last season's SYTYCD and as I'm always looking for music that moves me to dance, taking them from a dance show is a little like cheating, but still totally worth it. The Kris Allen cd has surprised me in how much I've been enjoying it, though I suppose with my love for Jason Mraz/John Mayer I shouldn't really be surprised, it's more along the same line as those two, with a little Rufus Wainwright/Jeff Buckley thrown in. The best song by far is "I need to know" which was supposedly recorded while Kris was very tired, at the end of a session, laying on the floor. It's got a power I usually see in more independent artists, not the AI scene.

Speaking of AI, the Husband is totally committed to NOT watching this upcoming season. I wish I could be the same, but that dang show always sucks me in. I guess, as a songwriter and singer, I like to torture myself by watching a lot of horrible singing. The people the audition and are awful HAVE to know it, right? Painful. I've had friends in the past, friends that have voices I'd kill for try for the show and get rejected for a lot of crap reasons, such as "you're too good for this show", "you're TOO talented", and "you can make it on your own, you don't need AI". I'm sorry, but don't you WANT talent on your show? Obviously not, they want people without training that they can mold into pop stardom. Give me strong vocals and meaningful lyrics over 90 pound model/singers and pop candy any day. I like my singers to SING, not just look pretty.

That's not to say that I'm not a sucker for Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, and David Cook, but I consider them exceptions to the machine that is AI. And that's quite enough on the subject.

Alright, I should get some more work done before the Husband gets home. (By work, I of course mean watching more Law and Order:SVU.)

Love!
Jesi

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Cooking Adventures

Posted in | at 4:47 PM

So I've been cooking a lot this week. As I'm waiting on notice of when I can take my boards, it takes my mind off of it and it's fun!

I started Sunday making beer bread in the breadmaker and potato cheese soup, both from my awesome cousins Jeff and Jennifer as a Christmas present! They got them from here. We used Miller Lite in the bread, and it was really good, though I'd like to do it again and use Blue Moon, I think the honey would be a really good addition to the beer.

Monday I made slow cooker chili and cinnamon raisin bread. It was really really good. I also tried my hand at making orange-cranberry bread, but I had some complications (I forgot that the breadmaker wouldn't tell me to add the cranberries and tried to put them in too late) so it didn't turn out.

That morning, for lunch, I made myself apple french toast. It was amazing! I used some bread that Nick and Stephanie gave us and used the recipe I found here. This guy comes up with AMAZING recipes, and this was no exception. Here's what it looked like...


Tuesday I didn't really cook as Ryan had a work party Tuesday night and I was being lazy. I made macaroni and cheese with bacon for the housemate and I, and it was tasty. I did make a philly cheese steak sandwich for lunch, which wasn't new, but I did add chopped garlic to it per a suggestion from the same blog I got the french toast from, and it made a difference! Pic here...


Today I made Italian herb bread in the breadmaker and then made Butternut Squash Ravioli and Caramel Apple Pork Chops. The ravioli wasn't great, I'm going to try a different sauce tomorrow. The Pork chops and bread, however, were fabulous. I love using apples with different kinds of meat, it really brings out the flavor of the meat!

Hopefully I'll have a job soon and not as much time to spend 3-4 hours cooking, but it has been fun while it's lasting!

Love,
Jesi

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The World's Gonna Wake Up and See, Baltimore and Me!

Posted in | at 11:04 AM

So after a cross country trek we made it! Moving all of our stuff from Illinois to Charlotte was a very stressful and tiring journey, but completely worth it now that all of our stuff is here!

After the big move, Ryan's parents drove me up to Baltimore to visit Ellyn, my best friend from college who's in law school there. I was there from Tuesday-Saturday, and oh, what a glorious time was had. I took a lot of pictures, so I'll try and tell this more through visuals than just rambling on and on.

Wednesday we went to Five Guys for burgers, as Ellyn had never been there before. It was in what's called the Inner Harbor, so we hung out there for a little while, although we didn't spend much time outside, it was freezing!

Five Guys

Ships on the Harbor

The Biggest Barnes and Noble I'd ever seen!

After that, we went to a couple different stores and then went to Ellyn's favorite store, called Lush. It's a handmade cosmetic store that carries a lot of different bath and body things. We got samples of three different face washes (I've only used Dark Angels so far, and it's fantastic!) We then got some great champagne for the next night (Chandon, the same from my wedding) and headed back to the house. But first Ellyn took me to the place she gets her haircut and I got mine cut! Neil's place was a small shop that is run by 3 50-60ish year old gay men that sing you showtunes and LOVE Bette Midler. My kind of place! Neil, the owner, made me 2 cds, one of misc. Broadway mixes, and one of his best of the best of Gypsy singers. He took his favorite recording of each song from Gypsy and made a whole cd out of it. Amazing! My hair looks a lot better too, I got it over-thinned a couple months back and it needed to be finally fixed.

That night, we drank one of our bottles of champagne and watched Inglorious Basterds, which Ellyn hadn't seen yet. It was fun to watch again with someone who hadn't seen it and much less stressful the second time around!

Chandon and Inglorious Basterds - a great combo.

Thursday was New Year's Eve, and as Ellyn and I had been invited to a dinner party, we had to do our share and make dessert. We made "Car-bomb Cupcakes" that were Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's frosting. They were SO good!

Cupcakes!

After that, we got ready...


After that, we headed out to the dinner party. I had Butternut squash ravioli for the first time (which was amazing and something I'm hoping to make sometime this week!) and met a lot of really cool people.


After dinner, we headed over to a street in Baltimore that does crazy lights every year on all the houses on the block. They had rigged their own ball to go down at midnight, and we celebrated and drank champagne in the street with everyone else. It was definitely a great way to start a new decade!






Now, after we'd brought in the cupcakes to the party, we noticed that one of the cupcakes had frosting missing from it. We had no idea what had happened but decided to figure it out later. Friday morning, we got in the car to go get lunch and saw this on the inside of the car door...

Mystery Solved!

We spent Friday morning trying to find somewhere for brunch. We started at Paper Moon Diner but as they had a huge line and a horrible hostess (she wasn't seating anyone, just kind of looking around for about 20 minutes) we decided to cut our losses and headed to Cafe Hon instead, which was great. It boasts a 3 story flamingo outside and has about 30 flamingos hanging from the walls inside. They love beehives, Hairspray, and everything from that area. It was fun! The food wasn't the best ever, but the atmosphere made up for it.

Paper Moon Diner

Cafe Hon

Harry Potter Flamingo!

We spent the rest of the day hanging out, watching Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, making tacos, and having a great time. I loved having my sister back (Ellyn's my SAI sister) and staying up most of the night talking about nothing.

Saturday morning I had to head back to Baltimore via Amtrak.


The ride took about 12 hours, which was 2 hours longer than it was supposed to, but I kept company with my trusty computer and a great book (Girl with the Pearl Earring) so it really wasn't too bad. I'll throw in a few more pics of all the great buildings in Baltimore here as they don't really go in the rest of my narrative!

Ellyn shows the way...




So now I'm back in Charlotte, ready to find a job and get on with our life here. Hopefully I'll be able to go back up to Baltimore in the summer, it's a great place to visit!

You have to admit though, how can you not love coming home to these guys?


Love,
Jesi

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