the never-ending saga of me driving a stick shift.

so last week was a bit of a horror as far as driving to work was concerned. okay, i can live to laugh about it. actually, i was laughing about it 5 minutes after it happened. however, i can assure you that i certainly was not laughing about it while it was happening.

so we needed to have our car serviced. i have just recently mastered (and was somewhat convinced i was a formula one driver in my past life) the art of driving a manual transmission. my guy told me we would be given a car to drive until our car was finished at midas (pronounced in french like me-da). i was actually looking forward to this part. my mom had a friend that was given like a 7 series beamer.

i was not so lucky. the car we were provided was probably birthed in the same year as me (1985). it also had MIDAS (me-da) written across the top in something that looked like house paint. my guy drove the car home and it stalled a few times. he was honking the horn and yelling out the windows because i was so embarrassed to be in this car! so i thought he was just too busy joking around with me which was why the car kept stalling. i didn't realize that the car actually just stunk!!! but in retrospect, the whole thing was pretty funny. him honking and waving out the windows, me cringing in the passenger seat, the car stalling... and then, the best part comes...

he got out and headed off to work and warned me that the car was sensitive to the touch and that i should be careful. i had some troubles (read: i stalled twice in the parking lot before even getting on the street) but was managing okay until i made a left at a traffic light to head up the hill to work. the car stopped. i could not get it to go up the hill. i would turn it on. go into first and gas it, and it would just stop again. she did not want to get up the hill. i just kept rolling further and further backwards and was getting concerned that i was going to roll right into the intersection. the light turned green and everyone was now sitting behind me trying to get their cars up the hill. they began honking.

i did the only thing i could think to do. put the car in neutral. yanked the e-brake on. clutched the steering wheel. and let out all the tears. i'm sure this was a very unusual sight for everyone passing me and everyone stuck behind me. it got even more awkward when they were opening their windows and trying to see what the problem was only to realize i was even weirder than they thought - i didn't speak enough french to explain the situation. i imagined it in the next day's headlines: weird american girl sits in the middle of the road crying her eyes out.

some very kind men had to push me up the hill. they told me the car was very shitty. i told them that this fact came as no surprise to me.

it just goes to show that you can always look back and laugh at something - even the things that have us bursting into tears at a dead stop in the middle of the intersection.

speaking of driving (or not driving, in my case) - have you seen the movie drive? seriously good. is it just me or does ryan gosling get better looking every day?

this and that.

Have you guys seen Crazy, Stupid, Love. yet? It is so good. I never really like watching trailers (although I usually do), because I feel like they give a lot of the movie away. In this case, yeah the trailer gives away the gist of the movie but it takes a turn that I never would have expected. It was one of those movies that had me sitting here laughing and crying. Uum... not to mention the fact that Ryan Gosling... WOW! His last few movies have been Indie and have him looking very grudge. Well, not the case anymore. If you loved him after seeing The Notebook, you're going to love him even more now!

My movie-going is limited these days. The French are very proud of their language so where as in other countries, they have subtitles, the French use a lot of voice-overs. I find this to be very comedic when you're watching a movie about, say New York, and the street signs are all indicative of such and then the characters are all speaking French. I have been able to find a few movies with subtitles in English or where they have the subtitles in French and the movie is in English. However, as I said, I'm limited. This means a lot of illegal movie watching because my guy and I both love watching movies.

Although it's not legal, it is nice to watch a movie on the couch. Last night I had planned for us to watch Crazy, Stupid, Love. while eating dinner so I prepared a lot of finger foods: zucchini quesadillas and bite size tuna and white bean melts. After we finished the quesadillas, we didn't have any room for the tuna melts. Boo!

Tonight I'm alone as my guy headed to Germany to get our car. Yay!!! I'm so happy that we're finally going to have a car and anxious to perfect the art of driving a stick. I'm going to polish off last night's tuna melts. I also made some homemade hummus (so cheap and easy I wonder how I could have spent so much money on hummus in the past). This time I added to the canned chickpeas some paprika, cracked red paper flakes, cumin, lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil, and a tiny bit of peanut butter for consistency (because I didn't have any tahini paste). I'm also eating a perfect for summer salad with lettuce, endive, avocado, blueberries, strawberries, tomato, and walnuts in a mint and lime dressing.

Well, after another day of fasting, I'm off to eat. If I can find it, I'm going to watch The Help as my Mom gave it two thumbs up!

Hope everyone is having a good week! It's almost the weekend! Isn't summer flying by?

a buffet style dinner followed by a day to myself!

My only issue with Ramadan is that after a day of not eating, I am craving 100 different meals. Normally you can squeeze in something you've been fancying for lunch and then another something for dinner and if you've been good, a sweet treat, too! That's just not possible during Ramadan. It makes cooking tricky because I know I need to prepare just enough - too little means our hungry bellies won't be satisfied and too much means the leftovers won't get eaten. Besides breakfast where we eat bagels, cereal, fruits, yogurt, or muffins, there is only one other meal. We want to have something new to taste everyday so leftovers are pretty much out of the question (normally, we eat leftovers for lunch). I guess I need to think more along the lines of: we are lucky the other eleven months of the year that we have the privilege of eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner so I shouldn't think this way... but I'd be lying if I said it weren't true.

When it comes time to make dinner, I just can't decide. I want potatoes but I want rice but I want pasta. I want a whole grain baguette but I want olive bread. I want cupcakes but I want that delicious chocolate bread or maybe even some sorbet. However, the reality is, after only a few bites, our shrunken bellies are full. I leave the food waiting... and waiting... in hopes that we will get hungry again, but we take the opportunity to drink all the tea and water we've been thirsting for all day until we hear it in our bellies sloshing around. We surrender to the couch and soon after the bed and wake up for our 4am feeding.

Yesterday my cravings were out of control. I was searching recipes for everything from chocolate cake to coconut shrimp to chicken curry. I took a visit to the delicious fruit and veggie market on the corner (such a gift it is having that market less than a block away) and after seeing all the goodness they had fresh that day, my decision was made.

I used to love when my mom made fajitas or something else, buffet style. We'd take our tortilla and go on down the line, adding our favorite toppings (I did fajita night two nights ago!). Just because I want some toppings doesn't mean my guy does, and I like the interaction involved. I decided I was craving a good, old American sandwich - gourmet, of course!

I roasted tomato, zucchini, and eggplant slices. I sliced fresh cucumber and avocado. I put it all on a serving dish - added fresh basil (my favorite), white asparagus, and some cheese. I added bread options: olive and pepper, olive, or whole wheat baguette. I served it with homemade oven baked french fries, roasted cauliflower, and an endive salad. We both really enjoyed our healthy dinner! Note: it ended up working out perfectly because we hit snooze this morning and woke up with only 15 minutes left to eat before sunrise so we each quickly made another sandwich for breakfast!

I feel so much better after having a healthy meal where I know what the ingredients are and everything is fresh, local, and homemade. I also liked chewing into a sandwich with a combination of crunchy, fresh veggies and savory, roasted veggies tossed in olive oil, sea salt, and fresh cracked pepper.

Today my guy is on the train for five hours with the end goal of buying a car and bringing it home for us. This means that he will need to drive another six hours back with the car. I hope he has good luck with this as he has really been busting his butt searching for the perfect car for us (as I need a car for my new job which starts in a little over a week). He won't be home in time for dinner which means dinner by myself. Today's craving: angel hair pasta in a simple tomato sauce with some fresh basil and topped with what is left of the roasted veggies! I think I'll make some bruschetta with the uneaten baguette, too!

So I'm off to watch The Notebook and some other chick flicks on this day to myself :)

Have a lovely weekend, friends!

carpe diem.

My favorite little phrase has been carpe diem for as long as I can remember. However, for as much as I say it and think it, I don't live by these words enough... Sieze the day. This will be my mantra.

Many of my favorite bloggers have been posting about their goals for the Spring as seen here, and I think I'd like to do the same. How can I really live by the phrase carpe diem? What do I want? Well, here's what I came up with.

My Goals (in no special order of importance):

~run everyday (even if it's just a mile)

~start doing sit-ups and pilates 3x a week

~be more patient

~take some time for me at the end of the day to do important things like flossing and moisturizing (this is the only body I'm going to have so I should respect it more!)

~turn off electronic devices and store them under the bed after 10pm

~become fluent in French

~become more informed: read the newspaper everyday from front to back and watch the news (in French!)

~read more

~pray more

~find a new hobby

~resume old hobbies like playing soccer, basetball or tennis... anything to get outside more often

~communicate through handwritten letters and postcards once a week (too much of my across the Atlantic communication is through Facebook and e-mail)

~travel as much as possible

~drink a green monster shake 3-5 times per week!

~as always, drink more water! (I am ALWAYS saying, I'm thirsty but never doing anything about it!)

~and this one I kind of loathe - but... ughhhh incorporate some chicken into my diet (more on my 16 years of vegetarianism in another post!)

~be more appreciative of the little things in life


**Share with me any of your goals for the Spring or for your life, in general. It can be super inspiring to know what other people value/what other's goals are.

And, of course, have a fabulous weekend! My French family is visiting and I'm excited!

           xx Kay