Ways to Make a Sunday Memorable

1. Have your boyfriend take the day off work.
2. Have brunch at a hole in the wall in midtown.  Pot N’ Pan is a breakfast and lunch joint on Piedmont Road.  Blink and you’ll miss it; there’s always a line on Sundays.  The food tastes homemade and the workers are kind, and there is no better place to people-watch, if you’re into that sort of thing.  Best way to spend a Sunday morning, hands down.
3. After you’re filled to the brim with eggs, bacon, biscuits, gravy, pancakes, and coffee, put on some workout clothes and go play tennis.  You will suck, and get a sunburn, but when your shoulders start to hurt later you’ll know you did something good, and you’ll want to do it again soon.
4. Fall asleep in the basement of a friend’s house, while said friend practices with his dad’s band.  Did I mention your stomach would be full of salad with homemade dressing, along with some baked rice, meat, and carrots?  His mom is great.
5. Speed home to watch last two episodes of Game of Thrones.  Speed back to friends house to watch the season premiere of Game of Thrones.  Discuss what level of unhappiness and anger will ensue if the advertised season premiere turns out to be an April Fools joke.
6. End the night by relaxing on the bed, prepping for a job interview and reading.

Readers, how was your weekend?  Did you watch Game of Thrones?  If not, WHY?

Clean up, Clean up

As I’ve probably mentioned before, Sunday is my cleaning day.  Some people spread the joy out over the whole week, doing several small things each day.  I don’t work like that.  I want to do everything in bulk so I can sit back and bask in the shining ball of joy that is our apartment.

Why am I talking about this today?  Well, because today I tracked dog poop in and got it all over my nice clean carpets.  Yay.  And while searching the internet for a legitimate cleaner, I happened upon several websites with advice on how to quickly clean your whole house.  Naturally, I decided to make my own list.

1. Put on some music (for instance, this past Sunday it was the swing music channel on Comcast).
2. Put all dirty clothes into the hamper.
3. Put all dirty dishes beside the sink.
4. Empty all trashcans.
5. Now, I like to clean room by room.  I always start in the bathroom, because, living with a man and two cats, it’s pretty messy.  Scrub the toilet with bleach mix and let it sit while you clean the rest.
6. Pick up clutter (i.e., Ry’s face lotion, Ry’s electric razor, my hair ties, my perfume bottles).
7. Wash the mirror.
8. Wipe down the counters and sink.
9. Wipe down the shower, tub, and toilet.
10. Flush toilet and you’re done.
11. Visit the kitchen!  Put away any clean dishes.  Then load the dishwasher.
12. Wipe the cabinet doors, the counters, and the lower cabinet doors.  Move things and clean behind them.  Clean out fridge.
13. Move to the living room!  Pick up all that damn clutter.  Put random things on coffee table where they belong.  Move the cat and dog toys into a pile in the corner.  Straighten furniture.
14. Do the same in the bedroom.
15. Now that the house is clean, go back to the bathroom and kitchen and use your Swiffer Wet Jet or mop and clean those yucky floors.  Follow this adventure by vacuuming every carpeted surface.
16. The house is clean.  Now you can do your laundry while you watch TV or clip coupons.

Alas, this is my Sunday, every week.  It also includes lots of procrastination, but if I’m super-motivated I can clean the whole place in just under two hours.

Readers, do you have any cleaning tidbits or helpful hints?

Sunday is the Day…

…of rest?  Sometimes.  Mostly, like today, Sunday is the day of ideas.  Here are some things I’ve been mulling over today.

1. I’m sitting on the couch tonight watching The Next Iron Chef; somehow, in these last few months, I’ve become somewhat of a happy cook.  I enjoy the grocery store, searching and browsing and exploring different ingredients.  I love chopping and dicing and slicing.  I’ve become one of those people you read about, tasting and throwing in a pinch of this, a dash of that, never measuring.  I always scratched my head at that one, never really understanding how people could do such a thing.  How do they know what to add? I wondered, carefully following my little recipes and only adding what it called for.  Now?  I made a stir-fry from scratch, never once looking at a recipe, just throwing in whatever sounded good.  Maybe all those Chopped episodes subliminally inspired me, but whatever happened, my cooking has changed.  I like it, honestly…it’s good to be adventurous, and discover new things, and to stretch yourself, in whichever way possible.
2. I’ve decided on a new blog I’m going to start this coming new year.  While driving around the city this weekend, I saw dozens of restaurants that piqued my interest.  Hey, I’ve read about that, I thought, while whipping my head around on the next block because of a restaurant that sounded intriguing.  Gastropub?  That sounds just terrible enough to be amazing.  Food trucks?  How wonderfully cute and convenient.  Locally grown, a burger restaurant, tacos – there are so many amazing places to eat in this city, and I feel somewhat ashamed that I don’t, and haven’t, explored.  I’m still working on the details, but adventures will be had and they will be written about for you, dear reader, to read.
3. Tonight, we spent an hour of so watching old home movies of Ryan.  That in itself is always fun, seeing your peers as tiny children, but it’s even better when the person has the cutest little country accent ever.  But it’s odd, and we talked about this all the way home, that, for that second on camera, that was real life.  That was Ryan and Connie and Mike’s life, no matter how strange it is to look back on it now, 20 years later.  Just like our daily life now is real life, no matter how weird it may look 20 years from now.  That’s all they knew, and, as far as they were concerned, it was going to be that way forever.  No one ever accounts for crazy changes, yet they happen, sure as the seasons, and it’s how you deal with them and what you make of them that really matters.  Think about it…where do you think you’ll be in 20 years?  Where did you think you’d be today, 20 years ago?  If you think about it too hard, it may blow your mind, but it’s definitely something that turns around in my mind quite a bit.

What about you, reader?  What things have been taking up residence in your mind?

Walking Sundays

1. My house is clean and I am tired, which is always the mark of a good day.
2. The Walking Dead, which Ry and I watch weekly without fail, completed the first half of the season tonight.  This means no new episodes until February.  This also means Sunday nights are going to be boring.  Thank goodness for the holidays.
3. Speaking of, there are a good number of Facebook friends who have already put up their Christmas tree and other holiday decorations.  Once upon a time that was me, but with the onset of visitors and the too-warm weather, the Christmas spirit hasn’t found me yet.  Here’s hoping this week’s good tidings of cold weather will inspire me; the only remotely holiday-esq thing I’ve done is take down the fall decorations.  I also put a box of white Christmas lights on the bar; they’re waiting for…something.  Not sure what, but it’s good to have them within arms reach should the mood strike me.
4. Check out this video; it’s beautiful.

That’s all today, readers.  Time to drink wine (followed by coffee), search for episodes of Ghost Adventures on tv, and try my damnedest to write something intelligent for my writing sample.

A Sunday Morning

Is there anything in life better than this?

I don’t think so.  I woke Ryan up with these this morning…I “accidentally” left the bedroom door open, and before long the smell of coffee and cinnamon and dough was floating through the house.  I opened the blinds to let the sun in, and there you have the perfect morning.  They will taste even better when it’s cold and we can sit on the porch and see our breath.

Life is good.