Burning the Midnight Oil

I love blogging from unfamiliar locations. The sounds, the people, the smells, and even the lighting — it’s wonderfully intoxicating. Ironically, I feel more comfortable blogging in strange places than I do in the stillness and familiarity of my bedroom. Words tend to be more fluid and carry more substance when I can hide in all the commotion and noise of public places.

It’s liberating and I love it.

At the moment I’m blogging from Panera Bread over on Southside and Baymeadows. It’s 4:20 and the lunch crowd have long died down. Soon the dinner crowd will start corralling in. Until then all that’s left are others with their laptops: loners buried deep in their hoodies and probably checking out Facebook. There are also study groups who account for most of the background noise. The group to my left is passionately discussing chemical compositions relating to the atmosphere. It wasn’t difficult to tune them out. Personally, anything to do with the Periodic Table makes my skin crawl.

But, I will say that I did learn a joke or two in Chemistry class. Want to hear it? Of course you do:

So a Gold Element and Silver Element walk into a bar. The bartender looks up and yells at the Gold Element, “Hey you (Au) — we don’t serve your kind here!

Chemistry, how I loathe thee.

Last night I met with JC and a couple of friends at Denny’s. We aimed to discuss our cruise trip in July. If there’s anything memorable about that discussion is that as we were drove home JF was relieved to know we were flexible with our budget. He was really nervous that we wanted to go on something extravagant – nervous because extravagant also meant expensive.

Quite the contrary actually.

I truly believe that my friends think I’m immune to financial hardships and that my tastes for anything is always extravagant. I confess that’s partially true. I do like nice things. But… I don’t buy often and when I do it’s always what I want. Quality over quantity is my stance. Why waste hard earned money on the cheap stuff when it’ll only break, fade or tear shortly after?

In the grand scheme of things you spend more money on buying a replacement. JC illustrated an example of how her parents would buy (in bulk) the cheapest irons they can find. When one broke, they used another one.  Not only is this environmentally abusive but also economically contradictory. Why not purchase one really nice one that’ll last?

Last night, on the drive home we talked about relationships — my relationships in particular. For whatever reason that always seems to be a common topic of discussion whenever it’s just the three of us. KF said something (in the way only KF can say) that really added some perspective on my approach to relationships. She said that JC was the only relationship I’ve ever been in. All the others have been “test relationships” in which I simply go into it with the intent to just “try it out.”

I don’t know how completely accurate this statement is. But yes — I do think I go into every relationship with some sort of agenda. I know what I have, I know what I want, and I won’t waste my time on the cheap stuff. Maybe KF is right. Perhaps in some cosmic, divine way… I’ve finally found a good iron.

This is my dog. He is a 7 year old Jack Russell. He follows me everywhere I go — including to the bathroom where he just like to stare.

Hobbies include fetching tennis balls, jumping at low tree branches and kicking like a donkey. His name really is Kobe Bryant. When he was a puppy, the name was a running joke (since my last name was Bryant). Well.. then it just kinda stuck. The photo was taken right after he ate dinner. Apparently it was either delicious or he got some stuck on his face.

Last night the GF and I — along with several friends — stopped by the Adams household for a surprise birthday party. The birthday girl was utterly surprised to see us at her doorstep. I believe this is the first time anyone’s ever thrown her a surprise party and thanks to the careful planning of key people (including the hubby who was the mastermind behind it all) she was just tickled pink in the inside.

Beer Pong — one of the few games where you can make up the rules as you go. The more beers you drink, the more interesting th rules become.

Shipped directly from Chicago. Deep dish style: cheese and sausage. I had to admit these were quite tasty. I can only imagine how much better they would be fresh from the restaurant’s oven.

Chicago style and Filipino style. Can you guess which is which?

The ingredients straight from Heaven’s cookbook.

It’s not the marshmallows, the graham crackers or even the chocolate that makes s’mores the perfect treat. It’s gathering around the fire on a chilly evening with great friends and family that makes life all that much sweeter.