Tag: snow

Home, Life, Uncategorized

Foot on the brakes

by SymoneFLeave a Comment on Foot on the brakes

WHY is cleaning so hard? I think deep down inside I’ve given up because I know we’re moving and also I’m getting new bits of furniture to help keep me more organized but I really can’t bring myself to tidy up what I have now! Yesterday and Monday weren’t bad but I’ve lost all momentum today. I have been on point with cooking though… I did some killer bbq wings yesterday and.. OH YES! I drove on the freeway while it was snowing for the first time yesterday… SCARY SHIT! I’ve always hopped into the passenger seat when there was snow and let hubby deal with that but the snow came down pretty heavy as I got onto the freeway. Very sneaky as it wasn’t even falling like that on the exit to the freeway. *sigh* There was a lot of screaming.. “SLOW DOWN!” “I AM!!” *silence* “WATCH THAT CAR!” “I SAW IT!” *silence*. Needless to say, the tension was high. I’ve driven on the freeway with the rain falling hard (scary shit also) but the snow was just crazy, luckily it didn’t stick. We’ve been having some crazy weather and I’m really over the cold. I mean really over it. I am dying for one day of 50F. This 30/40F for a whole week is crazy, especially when going to the gym. And it never ceases to amaze me how I think I’m prepared for how cold outside may be but as I open the door and run down to the car I still jump like “where the hell did that cold air come from?!”. I swear I’m too delusional sometimes.

Anyway, back to the cleaning (*yay* cleaning >_>). I don’t want to keep buying things to help temporarily but at the same time it’s really hard to know what to do with things that you know you won’t be using for a while or before you move and have to unpack all over again. I think this weather is really turning me miserable more than anything. I’m probably staying home too much. Yeah, that’s it. I’ve been home a lot. It was better when I was home a minimum of two days a week and was busy… Well, time to get busy again then! But not cleaning. I’ll still attempt to do bits and pieces around the place throughout the day but this whole day of cleaning is so not working.

I think I’ll end this ramble here with a few favorites that I’ve been blasting..

I’m somewhat ashamed to put this song by Selena Gomez but I absolutely love it.. >_<

xx

Food, Uncategorized, Weather

Cabin Fever

by SymoneFLeave a Comment on Cabin Fever

This week the Northwest experienced a winter storm. For the 3 years that I’ve been here, I’ve experience the maximum of 1 week of snow for two years during the winter season. With that said, snow is something that hardly happens in this area and people are generally clueless as to how to deal with it. I personally don’t like the cold and even more so snow. I’m from the Tropics – I wasn’t made for this. Even though the snow can be very pretty, it’s not my thing.

I was to order groceries via Amazon Fresh but for some reason I kept putting it off and then when I finally did, they weren’t delivering Wednesday or Thursday because of the storm (snow) and my order was due for delivery Friday (I ordered Monday night) and then it got pushed from the pre-dawn slot to early morning then to Saturday morning so I cancelled it. We had ventured out Monday and my husband did ask if I wanted to go to the supermarket but I said no as I was ordering but that was the worst decision ever. I mean we had food but just not enough especially since we were home all the time. The first day of the heavy snow (Wednesday), my husband and I went to outside to embrace this white icy powder halting all activity and to get lunch. That in itself was lots of fun. We walked to a little strip mall and got Panera Bread and I got a new jacket as the zip for the hood on mine was broken and that jacket wasn’t thick enough to keep me warm in the cold. Here are some pics from Day 1 (Wednesday) and the last pic is some broccoli cheddar soup from Panera Bread.

Thursday I was definitely ready to get out of the house AND we were definitely in need of groceries. Seeing that my husband was working from home, I had to wait until his work day was done and then we went to the supermarket. We hadn’t driven the car since Monday and the roads had this thick layer of snow that had an icy top layer. We drove to the supermarket around the corner at 10mph just to be careful. Thankfully it took less than 20mins :). We did a huge shop and it was quite interesting thinking about getting everything inside when we had at least 3 to 4 inches of snow on our steps, and the hand rails had an inch that was hard and icy but broke off if you pressed tooo hard. I took it easy and somehow made it upstairs. Day 2 (Thursday – sorry for the pics, they were taken in the car and I wasn’t opening the window to get a better shot):

Yes, I still had that up but it’s down now, the last of my Christmas decorations 😛

With a fully stocked fridge, I made soup today. MMmMmMmMmM soup! It had: lamb, beef, potato, sweet potato, carrots, squash, pumpkin, split peas, barley, onion, thyme, garlic and seasonings. I also did dumplings (not like steamed dumplings you get at a chinese restaurant), ‘Bajan’ dumplings that we add to soup, basically spiced flour balls (I hope I don’t get attacked for that description but it’s the simplest way to describe it). I make it with flour, baking powder, nutmeg, all spice and sugar. Then add water to make it a little pasty and drop it in balls in the pot of soup and let them cook. My tummy was very happy! Then we went to the mall later. The snow has started melting and I can hear chunks of it dropping on my roof and outside. I was to start back the gym this week and I had an appointment for the hairdresser, luckily I’ll get to the hairdresser tomorrow or Sunday but gym will definitely be next week. I have gotten a little chunky over the season lol. So long 2 pack! Right back to the mall… I bought purple jeans!! I’m so happy with them! I will definitely be rocking them this Spring :). I may just go back and get another pair in the light blue seeing I have teal already. Here are pics from today and I hope you enjoyed my ramble of a post :D.

xx

Holidays, Uncategorized

MLK/Snow day(s)

by SymoneFLeave a Comment on MLK/Snow day(s)

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

You really feel like a foreigner when certain holidays come around. I’m aware of Martin Luther King day (it’s not celebrated in Barbados) but since I’ve been living here I haven’t really had the chance to really get a grasp of how it’s celebrated. Shame on me for not taking the time to understand it but at the same time, I feel like I’ll know when it’s time for me to really know and understand these things. This is where I’m coming from – I moved to another country after spending my whole life in another, and I feel weird jumping into another culture while I’m not able to fully celebrate the special days of my own. I’m not being petty and saying if I can’t celebrate my culture here I won’t celebrate yours, I’m saying I’d feel like a sell-out. I’m not in a part of the US that has an established Caribbean community, I feel so far removed that if not for the presence of the local news on social media I wouldn’t have a clue (besides my parents) of what’s going on there. I make it a point to know what’s going on in my country, sometimes I even know stuff before they (my family) do because of the time difference. If something happened at 2am (that’s 10pm my time) and it’s posted to Facebook or Twitter I know before they even wake up what’s going on and I’m following the story.

I still feel weird about Thanksgiving, it’s such a huge holiday here and I just feel lost celebrating it, especially when my country’s independence day is November 30th and I want to do something special for that because it’s what I know. I guess here is where you have people from different cultures celebrating the holiday but with their national dishes etc which is fine but it’s not something I grew up doing and even though it’s a great holiday, I’m yet to experience it in all it’s glory to fully grasp it. I’m sorry but that menu is not for me… I know the story so please don’t feel the need to educate me. There are people out there soooo eager to learn and understand different cultures (believe it or not, I’m one) but I like to observe and understand before I jump in clueless as to what I’m celebrating or whatever.

With that said, so far today, I’ve only seen people posting quotes from MLK but what else is done? Are there parades going on somewhere? Memorial services? If so, it’s definitely not in my town (hence why I’m still a little clueless, you can’t observe if there isn’t anything to observe). I’m pretty sure we’ll be here for years to come so if they aren’t doing anything really, how am I to really understand what’s going on? Turning on the t.v. isn’t much for me to participate in, I do that every day.

But today, I’m not heading out. I have a 3 day old headache that got worst today, I’m a bit congested and somewhat snowed in. We’re expecting snow every day until Wednesday (it started Saturday) and I won’t be driving in it so I hope my husband is up for driving Ms. Daisy :P.

This is the scene outside of my apartment yesterday and it’s snowing again right now. I’m out of water for my water cooler and I’d love some cupcakes to get me out of this funk. Hopefully we’ll be up for the challenge later.


“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

xx