2009 Goals

1) Get in the dating game. I am a member of jdate and match.com but have I gone on a single date? Nope. I need to make these services work for me!

2) Lose weight/get fit. I started with a gym membership back in September and fell off the wagon this month but a new year will give a renewed motivation.

3) Get out of debt. Months of unemployment lead to out of control credit card debt so I need to get that down STAT. There's only so much 0% APR can do, you know?

4) Travel. Totally dependent on getting out of debt of course. Since I haven't been over to Europe for years, now would be a nice time to go back! Especially since I won't have to lie that I'm Canadian.

5) Move. I'm over oil heat and on-street parking with a round robin of asshole fellow tenants. It's time for me to vamoose.

6) Get involved. Whether it's through volunteer work or finding a temple that I actually enjoy, I definitely need to get involved somehow.

How Much Did Bush Suck?

I think my favorite quote from this article is the following:
"knowing that he [Cheney] was then going to be able to wade into the vacuums that existed around George Bush -- personality vacuum, character vacuum, details vacuum, experience vacuum."

So many vacuums and one poor wittle Bush...

Fun with Numerology

With a lot of free time at work, with everyone on vacation, I decided to check out my online numerology reading.

Your Inner or Soul's Urge: (7) Deep down, you desire the best life has to offer. This includes living your inner life in peace and silence. You have a keen sense of perfection and like to meditate and analyze, dissect, examine, and consider things from every angle. And you can definitely do without poverty, the transitory, and the noise and confusion of the business world. Pretty accurate except the business world part

You love huge libraries, old and well-maintained gardens, classic pictures, and time mellowed furniture. You are intellectual, scientific, philosophical, deeply intuitive, and a well of secrecy. You are sought after for your wisdom. Probably you are somewhat shy and deeply emotional, but with a horror of showing it. Spot on

For more complete personal understanding of life, work on expressing your emotions, trusting your feelings, less avoidance, and being sympathetic and understanding with people. You possess a tremendous inner wisdom. Hmmm...

Your Personality: (7) You appear dignified and poised, intellectual, and somewhat aloof. When first meeting someone, you appear hard to know, but are friendly and a good talker when better acquainted. You emit a strong sense of self-knowledge.

While discussing familiar topics, you are convincing and appear at ease. However, in unfamiliar areas you can make statements you later regret. Ha ha, yes I sometimes regret my BSing ability

Your personality gains when well-dressed and groomed; good style with straight lines and touches of color and sparkle, possibly of expensive materials. I guess I need to go shopping , huh?


Your Quiescent Self: (7) You have a cosmic connection with spiritual wisdom. The Ancients are no stranger to you. In fact, you share their knowledge. You are known for who you are, and people seek you out to hear your words of wisdom. You live in an old, beautifully restored house; your library is full of precious and rare books and your study is adorned with classic art.

Your thoughts and pleasure are meditation on the philosophical and spiritual wisdom of the masters of old. In my dream life maybe...

Your Destiny or Ultimate Goal: (5) Your destiny is to promote the idea of liberty for all; knowing that happiness cannot last without the right to be free. You know progress comes through change, by entertaining new ideas and trying new methods. Your destiny includes helping people live life more fully and with more joy. You are versatile and clever. Gay marriage for all!

You are comfortable interacting with people of diverse races and backgrounds, a natural lecturer or teacher, an artist with written and spoken words, and capable of understanding many different viewpoints. You insist on having freedom of action and speech. Your life changes often, sometimes unpredictably, and you enjoy it because each change brings new opportunities to understand and absorb yet more aspects of life. You love travel and the open spaces, and you have the best opportunities to succeed in occupations that have those qualities and also bring you in contact with people, including sales, acting, speaking, teaching, commercial artist, legal fields, or as a writer or editor. Maybe my pursuit of any career but teaching is futile?

You are striking, attention getting, entertaining, and find it easier to move about than to make permanent associations with people or undertakings. Ooh my job right now!

Your Life's Path: (11) You are drawn to movements or organizations with idealistic aims. You have a tendency to become caught up in fanatical cults or other fringe movements. Your path includes diplomacy in its various aspects -- smoothing the affairs of others with discretion, tact, intuition, cooperation, patience, persistence, persuasion, and loyalty to those you serve; being the peacemaker, cultivating friendships, and helping others reach their goals. Your path is easier when you express kindness and gentleness and are considerate of others' feelings.

Your path includes developing your talents of invention, seeking the discovery of new principles, and elevating everything to the plane of inspiration. If you decide to investigate the psychic, healing, and metaphysical fields, you will be able to put them to their highest use. Trust your intuitions. Inspire by your own example. You can effect more change through persuasion than by force.

Your opportunities are along spiritual lines or in the realms of invention, metaphysics, politics, or acting. You are liable to achieve great public attention and influence if you do not seek them from ulterior motives. You do well helping others reach their goals. Either I'm a guru or a cult member, awesome! Maybe I can start a Cult of Awesome?

Next Year's Path: (8) This is your year of achievement, your year to make great strides in business, employment, promotions, monetary compensation, and/or the accumulation of possessions. It is your harvest time.

You feel ambition stirring, a desire to better your financial condition. To accomplish this, it is necessary to be businesslike, efficient, and practical all year.

Many opportunities present themselves. To gain your rewards, move forward in a businesslike manner and with sustained effort. Your state of mind, mental capacity, education, experience, and self-confidence are all part of your success and financial advancement.

You feel desire to make a special effort to improve or bring to a successful conclusion some of the ideas and dreams of the past years.

This is a year of action. Place your abilities on the market with a sense of self-confidence and authority. Anna is getting paid in 2009! Woohoo!

Aaand I'm Back!

A 5 day vacation was lovely. I ate a lot of bad food and drank a lot of good booze. Present-wise, I cleaned up thanks to Hanukkah overlapping Xmas. I also scored for the family Yankee Swap! I love how my family every year cannot count participants - I wound up being #21 and got a fondue pot. I saw The Santaland Diaries at Watertown New Rep yesterday. It was very good!

Work today kinda sucks because everyone is on vacation and I have a lot of reports due this week. Plus, my email isn't working. On the up side, my morning commute was heavenly.

Happy Hanukkah

Baking Queen

My plan to bake a whole mess of holiday treats this weekend wasn't deterred by the snowstorms we had for the past 72 hours. I got up nice and early Saturday, got my car from the municipal lot and did my baking shopping. Unfortunately, I forgot one thing on my list when I got back home. And also when I was taking stock of the baking supplies I already had, I assumed the bag of white stuff was flour. Guess what? After shopping, I realized that it was a big bag of sugar. Luckily, I had a bag of wheat flour so all my sweets are a bit healthier. Not bad, huh? All these recipes are from the holiday issue of Cooking Light.


I first made peppermint cheesecake brownies. Look at that picture! It looks like it comes from a mix, right? Nope! From scratch and delicious BTW.

Next, I made anise tea crescents. Unfortunately the store was out of aniseed so I just got extract. These were really easy to make, tasty and light. Though, since I was using wheat flour, as I was shaping them they looked like little turds.

Next were oatmeal toffee cookies. Again I had to substitute due to store limitations. Instead of toffee, I used butterscotch chips. I think these were my favorite. There's something fun about working with rolled oats.

Finally, I made lemon cornmeal cookies or more exactly lemon breadcrumb cookies. Yup, cornmeal is the one ingredient I forgot from my morning shopping and I wasn't going back out in the bad weather to get one item. After a quick consult with my mom, I used breadcrumbs as a substitute. These were my least favorite cookies but they did taste good and had great texture. They were a lot of work and I burnt a bunch by trying to bake two sheets at once. Grating the lemon rind was a pain and I barely got a teaspoon.

What did I do with all these treats? Well, I split them in half. One half went to my parents today and the other half will be for our family holiday. I'll probably make another batch of the oatmeal butterscotch cookies for the big family shindig on Xmas Eve.

An Awesome Cheese Dip/Spread for the Holidays

My mom made this a couple holidays ago and we finally found the recipe:

Sweet Cheese Wreath
from The Silver Palate's Good Times pg. 322

- In food processor (with a steel blade) put 1 lbs of softened cream cheese, 4 oz of softened unsalted butter, 1/2 cup maple syrup, and 1 tsp of cognac.

- Process until smooth

- Fold in 1 cup copped pecans.

- Add cheese mix to small ring mold with double cheesecloth. Pat down firmly and evenly.

- Cover and refrigerate overnight.

- Before serving turn out onto platter and peel off cheesecloth.

- Sprinkle with chopped pecans.

My Snow Day

Remember, Remember the 13th of December

I can usually keep my anxiety and worry over storms at bay but the news coverage for tomorrow's storm has broken me. I'm not going into work tomorrow and will find nice municipal parking in Waltham before the snow starts. This winter, I will not be towed or be stuck in 8 hour traffic!

I wanted to try to work from home but since I'm a contractor, I'm not given remote access to email. I think that's a weird policy since at my other contract jobs, I was allowed access. But this is the same company that at first refused me access to the on-site gym due to liability concerns. I found a work around for that.

So all you working folk remember the lessons we learned last year:

1) Everyone leaving work at the same time en masse in the middle of a storm creates chaos.

2) A lot of companies offer options to work from home, take advantage of it. Heck, most of your kids are having half days anyways!

3) Gas up your car, have a good scraper handy, and possibly a nice weight in your trunk (sand, bricks or a dead body would work).

4) Now is not the time to be an asshole driver. Turn on your lights, use your signals,and stick to the rules of the road.

Hilarious Random CNN Headline

Child named Hitler refused cake

I am trying not to choke from laughter over here. Either we have a budding genocidal maniac, or the cake/death conundrum caught another victim.

Finding the Holiday Spirit

So, my earlier Grinchiness could be chalked up to hormones and a lot of sugary snacks. This weekend I went to a Nutcracker performance which was performed by my cousin's dance school. She's 10 and a cutie pie. I didn't go in with high expectations but I wanted to support my cousin. It's pretty nice to have a whole new generation of artsiness in the family. Heck, I had/have my share of concerts and my family supports me (from age 5 to 32)!

The performance was really good! I was incredibly impressed. Most of the girls in the show are already on pointe. The costumes were very elaborate and I coveted a bunch of the dresses. Plus, you knew it was a good show because all the little kids in the audience were silent and enraptured. It was so cute, during intermission, the little ones were trying out dance moves in the aisles. I started mentally mapping my cousins progression of roles in future years. Clara seems like the lead role but after the first couple of scenes, she doesn't do much. So, knowing my cousin started out as a baby mouse, I could imagine her being one of the lead candies in a couple year or the sugar plum fairy. Oh yeah, I am so going to be one of those moms when I have kids. With my community theater background, I appreciated the little things like the staging and backdrops. Also since the performance was given by a school, I started thinking through their funding. It's a lot more stable than community theaters. Hopefully, this will be an annual show for me!

And of course Act II is all about yummy treats and after the show, I had my fill of cookies. Inspired, I have decided to make this weekend all about baking cookies. Cooking Light has a bunch of good recipes that I will be trying out. Hopefully, my oven will cooperate. It tends to run hot so it's tough to get the temp and timing absolutely correct the first try. Even burnt cookies won't dampen my holiday spirit!

Retracting An Ear Drum Like a Vandal

Well folks, I have come down with my annual holiday season cold/infection. Last year I tried to ignore it and I wound up with pneumonia. This year I have wound up with a retracted ear drum. What does that mean? Well, on my end, I feel like I have a plugged up ear with constant whooshing sounds plus occasional dizzy/vertigo spells. I also get random shooting pain down my jaw. Medically, my Eustachian tube is so plugged up, there is a vacuum in my middle ear sucking my ear drum in. My doctor prescribed 10 days of Sudafed and if that doesn't work, we'll try something else. Oh yeah, he isn't a big fan of holistic anything so I have to stop using a neti pot and the Valsalva maneuver. And he hates ear candling which I tried out this weekend. It wasn't too bad. Pretty relaxing and it totally cleared out my ear canal.



If it were up to me, I'd replace my Eustachian tubes with something that, oh, actually works. I've had ear problems all my life thank to those useless tubes. I wish stenting was an option but I've read that that is really dangerous. I also kinda wish there was a way to stick a needle into my tubes and suck out whatever is blocking them.

As A Ford Owner, I Agree

Not the Grinch Per Se

For a while now even the prospect of presents and time off from work cannot make me cheery around the holidays. It doesn't matter what religion I am: nominally Christian or Jewish. It just hits me like a mack truck after Thanksgiving and lasts until January. The holiday blues.

There can be multiple explanations for it. Seasonal affected disorder, consumerism pressure, many parties to attend alone, or all the sugar and fat ingested wreaking havoc on weight and body chemistry. There is obviously no single, complete answer. All I know is that it sucks. Thanks to Snopes I learned that it's a myth that suicide rates increase around the holidays. I would be happy being a hermit around this time.

I'm not worried about gifts because I always kick ass at gift-giving and luckily I have a well-paying job so money isn't an issue. I don't enjoy the social aspect at all. I usually spend days debating about blowing off holiday parties but I wind up going and enjoying myself anyways. I just feel like it's a lot of effort of going through the motions. I think shopping kinda ruins the whole love for mankind thing around the holidays. I really don't need to be around people (especially inconsiderate and distracted holiday shoppers) and if I'm in too big of a crowd, I feel like scratching my skin off.

There is one aspect I really do love about the holidays - seeing lots of family. I have a big enough family that I can catch up with a good variety of people and get some alone time with no one thinking that I'm anti-social. It also helps that I find holiday cheer in liquid form. The second I arrive at my extended family party, I make a bee-line to the booze counter, and inform one member of my own family unit that they're the designated driver. I'm sure that I'm a joy.

It also sucks being single around the holidays. At every party you go to you see friends with their spouses or dates. Granted, sometimes it's fun being single and watching the holiday pressure work its dysfunctional magic on couples. But with every, "Thank God I'm single." there's that sting of AGAIN this year/what's wrong with me?

Unfortunately, since I started my job in August I don't have a lot of vacation time banked and plus my boss is on vacation for 3 weeks so I can't even take time off. Thems the breaks of working in finance when month-end coincides with year-end reporting mania.

I just want to stay in bed for a month.

How I Picture Time

Welcome to Moviefone...

I stole this little game from Sarah


1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search or other search functions

Let's go!

1)"Sand is overrated. It's just tiny, little rocks."
2)"Can I make a suggestion that doesn't involve violence, or is this the wrong crowd for that? "
3) "How come we only ask ourselves the really big questions when something bad happens? "
4)"Oh, I dunno. I mean I'd like to believe I'm not but I just... I've just never seen any proof so I... I just don't debate it anymore, you know? It's like I could spend my whole life debating it over and over again, weighing the pros and cons and in the end I still wouldn't have any proof so I just... I just don't debate it anymore. It's absurd."
5) "That woman? Do you know why I sat with her? Because she reminded me of you. "
6)"He became so powerful... the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew, then his apprentice killed him in his sleep. It's ironic he could save others from death, but not himself." Star Wars III Revenge of the Sith, Sarah
7)"What if I'm looking for a bathroom, I can't find one, and my bladder explodes? " What About Bob, good job Merri!
8)"We have enjoyed preparing many of your esoteric dishes. Your Monte Cristo sandwich is a current favorite among the adventurous. "
9) "He was Jewish! An odd crime for a Jew to commit. Ok, so we have an African Jew wearing a hoodie... "
10) "Listen... do you smell something?"
11) "Our people, our people. I would have would have followed you, my brother... my captain... my king. " The Lord of the Rings, Shaun kicked Sauron's ass on this one.
12)"t's still not finished yet. I'm hearing... more Aboriginal percussionists. And I want an army of digeridoos. Fifty thousand digeridoos! "
13) "Because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn. "
14) "Every civilization finds it necessary to negotiate compromises with its own values. "
15) "The pictures on the cereal box are supposed to make you feel happy. But I feel sad, like the time you forgot to pick me up at school. "

The Concert, She Was Good

Last night my chorus performed a kick ass holiday concert! I can't remember a single mistake we made and the audience really digged our performance. I have 3 weeks without rehearsals for the holiday break and everything starts up again Jan. 5.

We did movements 1, 2, 5, 9 and 10 from Carmina Burana. I love movement 5 because it's alliteration hell and the words sound ridiculous like, "o cupidis simus iussu cypridis" Carmina started off the concert strongly. Then we say Exsultate Justi in Domino, The Road Not Taken, and New Day. Exsultate is like a madrigal in latin so I loved it. The Road Not Taken wasn't something I enjoyed listening to or singing. But it was sandwiched in between two songs I adore. Next we sang Danny Boy - again not too thrilled. I've sung that oh about ten million times and it's such a downer song. We did two jazzy songs: Stompin at the Savoy and Puttin on the Ritz which were a long of fun with crazy rhythms and odd harmonies. Then we got into the holiday part of the holiday concert by singing Mary's Boy Chile, Hanerot Halalu, and Silver Bells. I loved the variety of songs and if you really tried, it was easy to memorize everything. I only needed lyrics cheat sheets for Carmina.

The final dress rehearsal, I was witness to an adult male throwing a tantrum over memorizing music (specifically Danny Boy). He appears to be a fully functioning adult in his 50's/60's but he literally threw down his music and stamped his foot while our director was giving us feedback on the song. I simply do not understand how memorizing music can be such a chore. If you attend enough rehearsals, the music gets in your brain and sure you might need a lyric cheat sheet because memorizing words might be tough. We had 3 months to memorize 2 songs and this guy hit the roof and threatened not to sing in the concert. It's freaking Danny Boy! Come on, what can be so hard about that song?

Our next concert is in February where we will sing the full Carmina Burana with 2 other choruses and full orchestra at Regis College. It should be AMAZING!

Manic Week

To start out with the good, Tuesday night I had a fitness assessment at my gym. Weight-wise, I went up BUT that body fat scanner thing said I have less fat and I've lost inches everywhere. Even my stomach and hips! Plus, my resting heart rate was in the 60's. I was told to do as many modified push-ups as I can. I did 12 last time. My trainer stopped counting out loud at 5 and when I got to the point where I could do no more, he asked me how many did I think I did. I said, "14." It turned out I had done 26!! More than 100% better. Kick ASS! Now, I have to focus on getting that weight down through cardio. I've been doing intervals on the elliptical and I'm still alive.

Well, as many of you know who work in finance, the beginning and end of months is complete madness. What is even more crazier is getting into month-end reporting mode after a 4 day vacation where your brain apparently completely checked out.

The bad was Wednesday. I had two reports I needed to work on and send out ASAP. The first report went out around 11 (published to a ton of people companywide). By 3pm, I had to revise it THREE TIMES! Ugh, ugh, ugh... Hello, I'm a moron who can't pay attention to detail. Every time I sent out a revision, it felt like a stab wound. And guess what? No one cared. I apologized until I was blue in my face and my managers shrugged it off. On top of feeling crummy about that report, there was a huge confusion about the second report. My manager had to give me instructions twice and the second time, I basically had to tell him, "I simply don't get it. Explain it to me like I'm 5." I could feel this swell of anxiety and frustration so I just blinked my eyes and soldiered through so I could have a good cry in the bathroom. The explanation is HILARIOUS though (now that I have some distance and perspective). The file named Report for Kelly, is actually not a report - just a pure data dump. Gee, silly me, thinking that file names should be descriptive.

I felt awful all day and decided to get some ice cream during my errand at my local Walgreens. While checking out, I noticed there was the regular cashier who always looks and acts like he'd 5 minutes away from slitting his wrists. So, I jumped at the chance when a second cashier arrived. I really didn't need more melancholy in my life at that point.

Great Idea Graveyard

I am bored very easily and have no problem dropping a project/idea in the middle of working on it. I have been this way all my life - just ask my brother. The poor guy had to put up with years of me playing with him and then suddenly announcing, "I'm bored." and leaving. He has much more stick-to-it-iveness than me. I wonder if it's a first born thing or a Sagittarius thing? I am always awesome coming up with ideas for other people (whether they follow through doesn't concern me).

My great idea corpses are:

1. Catching up on literary classics that I had missed out on. I started this when I was unemployed and got a list from my mom and cousin (English prof and English major). My mom had all the books. I got through The Sound and the Fury and The Crying of Lot 49. I lost steam with A Hundred Years of Solitude.

2. I have a basket of half-crocheted items in my living room

3. I have foreign language CDs sitting un-listened in my CD rack

4. I have given up on my idea of going to the Inauguration after hearing about what a madhouse it will be and that I might not even get close to the parade route.

5. Another reading goal: all of Jane Austen's books. I finished Persuasion and gave up when I got 30 pages into Mansfield Park.

6. I have a huge full keyboard sitting in my dining room that I use as a table basically.

7. For some odd reason this summer, I wanted to work on foreign accents. Apparently, I thought I was Meryl Streep or a super-spy wannabe. I found a bunch of audio sites and that was it.


I am pretty good with follow-through for the big stuff like school, relationships, and working out. But that is fairly easy because you are constantly evaluated or checked in on. Left on my own, I have the attention-span of a gnat.