Mission Accomplish - Tomatoes on the Horizon

Do other people not know what they should capitalize in these titles? Is it just me?

Anyway.

I managed to actually get out and buy gardening supplies and I successfully planted tomatoes, basil and forget-me-not seeds this weekend (in pots, in case you were curious. I can't afford a yard).  Tomatoes and basil are my annual summer staples, but I just couldn't resist the forget-me-nots. I think they're the sweetest flower around and if it wasn't morbid I'd say I wanted them planted on my grave one day.  Which I'm not saying because I'm not morbid, but if I WAS...

Hopefully, unlike previous years, the tomatoes and basil will actually grow and flourish and I might make back some of my investment in nice dinners.  Either way, I love how both plants smell.  They remind me of my childhood and my grandfather's wonderful garden.  Every year I try to emulate and live up to that garden in my own little way, and I think if I live to be 90 the smell of fresh tomatoes will remind me of my grandfather.

I'll post pictures once things start sprouting.  This year they will grow, I feel it...

Tomato Nation

  It's that time of year again.  The weather is warming up, the clothes are getting skimpier, and things are blooming.  I'm now in plant lust again, as happens every year, and am probably months late to be planting (as happens every year...).  This weekend is going to be my farmer's market weekend.  I'm going to cook, clean, plant and bake (myself, not anything edible - I need a tan).
  If I was feeling more poetic I could probably find some kind of analogy in the changing season for my current state of affairs.  Things in my life are approaching another transition, both professional and personal.  I have a lot going on and am trying to keep a lot of it private, both because I don't want to talk about things which involve other people and because a lot of things are still so up in the air I don't even know what to say.  And I don't want to talk to the internet about what I haven't even spoken to most of my friends about yet.  I'm a little nervous about what the future will bring, but am feeling a little more comfortable with things as they stand right now.  They won't stand there long of course but despite everything I'm maintaining a certain sense of zen.
  I started this blog for a reason, to write one thing every day and learn to put myself out there and connect with people.  I think every day might have been overly ambitious, but I will try for at least every week, if not more.
  Wow, this post was all over the place huh?  I'll see you this weekend. With my tomatoes.

Another song. So sue me.

I'm feeling musical.  I'm also feeling like I don't have the energy to post about my private life right now.  Not that it's all bad. Today was very nice, and very New Yorky.  But it's a bit confusing right now, so you all get music instead.

Music

I love Pandora.  And since I live in NY now and no longer listen to music in the car, it's my only source of new music.





I also love youtube.  It allows me to obsessively replay the songs I discover on Pandora.  This song, Almost Lover by A Fine Frenzy, I've played at least 20 times today.

On another note:  Sometimes days sneak up on me. Happy Birthday Uncle Gigi. I miss you.

Progress

I'm too tired to write much now, but looking at the headlines it looks like we did it.  We got 219 votes.  Now let's see this health bill in action.  I have a feeling a lot of people who were scared of it will really appreciate it once they see what it can do. Major victory for all Americans tonight.

Goals

Last year was a long, depressing bastard of a year overall.  Not that it was all bad at all, and in fact I think a lot of the foundations I tried to build career wise will end up helping me avoid another such year.  This year  is so far shaping up to be better (knock on wood. A lot of wood).  I'm trying to keep my goals simple though, so as to not set myself up for disapointment.  SO. Only three months late here are my goals for 2010:

1. Work more then last year. 

2. Make more money working then last year. Not quite the same thing as 1.

3.  Try to sort out my personal life so it isn't so up and down.

4. Be neater and cleaner - I'm too old for my apartment to look like a freshman dorm.

5. Don't let my family's craziness get to me.  Seriously.  

6. Learn to listen better and not assume mid-sentence that I know what someone is about to say and interrupt to agree or disagree. A really bad habit of mine.  I've been trying, but this one is hard to break.

7. Visit Italy before my family there forgets what I look like.  My grandfather is also in his 90s now, but I don't even want to think that I might not see him again.  

8. Save some money.

9. Make some new friends and become better about keeping the old. 

Those are my goals, but we'll see...I think they're realistic so I hope by the end of the year I'll be able to say I've made progress on all of them.

Mish Mash

Lots to report and not much at all.  I'm loving my new job, and just hoping it keeps going well - which is all I'm going to say about it because I also read Dooce. My brother is in the hospital and has been for the past four days for a bone infection that both my father and myself told him was probably just growing pains. Go us. And his friends told him he was being wimpy for complaining about, before we knew what it was.  He should be fine however and will probably be discharged in a day or two, finally, so I'm glad he finally got the help he needed and it wasn't worse.   And he can hopefully milk this for all he's worth with his friends and teachers. He has earned it.

Then there's the fact that I'm quite annoyed with my sister for something very petty and yet I can't help being annoyed.  I've been asking her to visit me in NY for a year and a half, but she keeps playing the busy and broke card. Well, guess who went on vacation to Philadelphia.  Obviously she can go wherever she wants, but I can also be pissed about it if I want.  If she doesn't understand why being considered less important to visit then (probably, I'm guessing) a boy she barely knows, then she needs to turn her brain back on.

But anyway, I've gone this past year from not working but wanting to, working in my field but barely getting paid, working and getting paid but in a job outside my field that I was severely overqualified for, to finally working in my field in a job that I'm thrilled about.  Things with my bf are going well, though he is going through his own drama, and my family is relatively ok, bone infections aside.  So right now, life is looking pretty positive.