Pleasure Notes

Image via EatReadLive

This is the month I’m supposed to be writing every day, and in case anyone was keeping count, I’m four posts behind and it isn’t even mid-month. I have a legitimate excuse, I swear. I have been moaning and groaning and wanting to chop my head off but with too little energy to crawl to the kitchen and find a meat cleaver… Yes, I have the flu, or a cold, or something. I don’t think it has anything to do with pigs, but it has laid me up but good. So, I promise I’ll double up a few days to make up those four posts because, well, I get hung up on details and I did promise 30 posts in 30 days. But right now, I’m going back to bed. xo

I am working all day today, a Saturday, on my feet, with lots of children and even more people. And once it is over, I must traipse back to my hotel room. I would so much rather be returning to my own home to grant myself the indulgence of  lounging in a nice hot bath – a good book and glass of wine within easy reach, and some Yoav on the iPod. But, alas, I can only dream… And isn’t this the PERFECT bathtub to place in that fantasy?

Nirvana by Bathroom Tomorrow

If you’ve been around here for a while, you already know I have a thing for bathtubs. But I just stumbled upon this one and immediately got giddy. It’s made by Bathroom Tomorrow, a design company in Bangkok – I swear, design out of Southeast Asia and Japan continually amazes me. It’s so fun, romantic, silly, gorgeous! Someday, I really must own a home with many bathrooms so I can remodel the hell out of them and have a different style bathtub in each one.

For now, I’ll just ponder on the best bottle of wine, grooviest tunes and most appropriate book to accompany this particular tub… definitely champagne of some sort… Mazzy Star from the speakers… and maybe a picture book of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, do you suppose?

Available at Target

Whenever I travel by plane, I make sure I don’t have to check any luggage. It’s too much of a hassle. And normally I do a very good job of fitting everything I need for wherever I’m going into my trusty, old, beat-up, green carry-on bag. This time, however, I misjudged the weather. I checked the five-day forecast online and saw that it would be damn cold here in New Jersey – keeping in mind that I’m now a delicate SoCal creature who cranks up the heat when the mercury drops below 75 – so I packed a winter coat and some long-sleeve t-shirts. And guess what happened? A picture-perfect autumn day! So now it’s not cold enough for the winter jacket but too crisp for just the shirt. What is a girl to do? I went shopping. As luck would have it, my business meeting took place directly across from a Target, so I popped inside. Lo and behold, I found this adorable red-check vest and instantly fell in love.

Now, I don’t even normally wear vests – my arms feel so abandoned. And plaid tends to give me flashbacks to the 80s and lumberjacks – neither of which is a good thing in my memory. But this thing is actually flattering on me! (I’d include a photo of me modeling it but I didn’t pack my connector cable for my camera either – it’s been a hectic week, folks!) More importantly, it is warm in all the right places. No embarrassing headlights on this girl – woo hoo!

It comes in a bunch of different colors, though not black and grey which would have been nice.

I never would have considered purchasing a faux-fur trimmed, plaid vest if I hadn’t found myself shivering in the Garden State. Now, I’m going to rock it everywhere. In fact, I’m wearing it right now. And I’m utterly cozy and happy.

So this is my truly unexpected pleasure find of the week.

And I’m starting to like New Jersey.

Price: $29.99. Available at Target and Target.com.

Image via Sarasota Coffee Company

Halloween is over – thank god – but the piles of candy remain to taunt me. For most of the year, I can ignore all those delectable favorites of my childhood. Most of the brands I like best don’t get huge marketing budgets attached, which means I truly forget they exist for about 358 days of each year. But for some reason, during the seven days after Halloween, they come back to haunt me – all those retro brands that kids today eye suspiciously when they empty their overflowing pillowcases at the end of their night knocking on strangers’ doors, and then toss off to pushers parents, who then carry them to offices and let loose to seduce hapless “adults,” like me.

I have no power to resist the pull.

Which is why I’m currently suffering from a sugar crash of magnificent proportion… If only you could see me now!

So you can understand how I was caught unaware, here’s what happened…

I was at an event last night. With tons and tons and tons of candy. So much candy, in fact, that we were told to take some home with us. And who am I to refuse a direct order? Particularly when said candy is the good stuff – Sugar Babies and Pop Rocks and Tootsie Rolls and Nerds and– well, you get it. Besides, it was free and we’re in a recession and I have to spend the weekend in New Jersey. So, really, it’s remarkable I didn’t leave with the entire supply.

Instead, I thought it would be a good idea– and here, as any addict can tell you, is when I should have walked away but, alas, did not– to take a handful, or three, of Sugar Babies packets to accompany me on my lonely and long-ass-with-a-lay-over plane ride today. Security really should have stopped. I was PACKING, I’m telling you!

Then, it got ugly. I’ve eaten destroyed the seedy evidence of my debauchery. But I was not at my most lady-like today. And now, even though the trail of tears wrappers is gone, I am left feeling like crap and needing to mainline some protein STAT.

At least this only happens once a year.

Is it wrong to envy my cat? I can’t help it! She’s kinda got it going on.

Camera Shy

She draws focus when she walks into a room. She never shows weakness. She never even appears unhappy or discontent. I shouldn’t be surprised by that, I suppose. What does she have to stress out about? She sleeps all day long, damnit. And she has taken over my entire apartment. Every surface, whether hard or soft, is hers. She destroys my furniture with glee – which isn’t so much of a problem at the moment since it all come from a 20th century Ikea catalogue but will someday make me pull my hair out if I ever upgrade to all that designer furniture I consistently covet. She never cleans up after herself. She has no financial worries.

And she has her owner, me, wrapped around her tiniest, albeit sharpest, claw. How did it come to this?

I am a dog person, folks!

I grew up with dogs. I love dogs. I’ve always dreamed of owning a Burmese Mountain Dog, or a Newfie, or even another Samoyed.

And yet…

I am now a cat lady.

Hell.

And I envy the damn adorable fur ball to boot.

I might as well buy a rocking chair and learn how to knit.

Or buy a tight-fitting latex suit.