Figuring Out How To Shut My Parents Up, Help Others And Pay My Bills

My mom said a lot of things to me while growing up that stuck with me. There is one thing that she used to say a lot to me that has been haunting me more so than lately, "You'll never amount to anything. You'll be living off of me and your father till you're thirty!" Well, thirty happens in April, I don't have a grown up job yet and I still get phone calls from my mom just to tell me how well my younger brothers are succeeding are life. You see, I've always been more curious about not sticking to the norms. I've argued with my parents numerous times about my beliefs and I've stuck to my guns, making my adolescence a bit rough and mostly screamed at...and grounded. We argued about everything, school, religion, food, politics, curse words. I gave up on school in middle school, just doing enough work to pass so I didn't get in trouble. I told my parents I thought the grading process was stupid and I basically only applied myself to what I thought was interesting...which from middle school on has still been minimal to date. I think the school system has gotten worse and needs a total makeover, it' s the reason I stopped halfway from getting a teaching degree. I've always been stubborn and I've especially been stubborn in life when I have to do things I don't want to do or believe in. I know it sounds childish, but I don't want to waste my time doing something I don't want to do.
I went to college to make my parents happy and to get internet in my bedroom. I didn't know what I wanted to do and I spent six years deciding what to do, I get a bill monthly for all that time. Over six years of college courses (I'm talking full semesters here people) I have an associates degrees in liberal arts, I have half the amount of credits needed for a bachelors degree in psychology, childhood education, film studies and (as of 2008, I believe) one class away from a creative writing  bachelors degree. On a job application though none of that matters, I have to mark associates degree on highest level of education. Sometimes that line from Tommy Boy comes across my mind, "Yeah, they're called doctors."
My youngest brother one time got mad at me for causing a family fight and asked why I had to be such a nonconformist. I explained to him that I couldn't help the way my brain thinks. One thing that my parents never could understand was that I didn't want a job without meaning and purpose. Sorry, but no desk job for me unless I'm saving puppies, babies or the elderly...catch my drift? Finding a job that interests me, gives back and pays my bills has been difficult, thinking of a career has honestly been just has difficult. I get sick in planes and cars so my dreams of being an astronaut and an archeologist were crushed along with anything else it seemed. One thing I've always known is that I want to be my own boss or work for someone with similar beliefs to my own. My parents would argue at this point to grow up and that isn't how life works. I in return would say fuck that and struggle until I reach my dream...and that's where I'm still at, struggling and stuck.
I've been racking my brain lately on how to prove my mom wrong, that I will amount to something, and also actually find something I want to amount to. My boyfriend and I started our own vegan baking catering business that we hope becomes successful one day, but for now we can't depend on cupcakes to pay our bills, someday but not today. I love our vegan lifestyle and I can't stress enough how much I wish I started eating and living this way years earlier. I've learned so much and I love the experimentations to "veganize" a recipe. There's definetely so much more to learn though. With that I may have finally figured out how to shut my mom up, help others and pay my bills!
Drumroll...I want to be a nutritionist! I've been looking into requirements and what it is nutritionists do and I think I'm excited. Look out world, I'm about to get you healthified. Yes, that's not a real word, that's just how healthy I'm gonna getcha...for a small fee of course, I have bills guys.

End Of Summer Round Up

Well it's the end of August. Holy shit. What happened to summer? Oh yeah, it was hot and a time suck. Here's what happened during the time suck:

Remember how I was freaking out over finding a job? Well I ended up getting one...or two. I'm working 3 part time jobs now, hopefully 4 come this fall! So I've been busy to say the least. Who needs sleep? I have a bit of an announcement to make though. DRUM ROLL The boy and I decided to start our own vegan catering business!!! As of now we are just taking baking orders, so let me know if you are interested! We'll have a website and email address set up soon! Cookies, cakes, pies, cupcakes, etc..*. We are still tinkering with a name so we can start advertising appropriately, but we are definitely taking orders in the mean time. We are so excited!!!

I've also been busy with automobile issues. My car accident in May just led to my car slowly falling apart. Let's be real, it wasn't safe to drive after that accident. It was totaled. I didn't have a choice though. I kept the driving to a minimum but it ended up losing it's entire exhaust pipe on the fourth of July. Needless to say, we saw no fireworks. I was without a car for a while, riding the bus and borrowing my mom's ride since we work opposite schedules. Then my mom decided she wanted a new car instead of me getting a new car. She gave me her car...including the car payment I can't afford and the V6 engine that costs me an extra $20/week in gas. My old car was paid off and a 4 cylinder, I miss that lemon. But while I was without car, my friend and now roommate, @sarrillmerah, sugguested I take pictures to share of things I find along my walking travels. Unfortunetly most cool things happen pretty fast and I'm pretty burnt out so sometimes finding my camera in time is an after thought. But one of the best things I saw over the summer that I wasn't able to get a picture was of a bunch of guys slowly pulling up to a curb on a busy road to scope out an xbox 360 on the curb. Without coming to a stop, the kid in the backseat opened his door and they snagged the xbox. Other picture worthy moments that failed: me saving a puppy, countless people that walk the streets of Rochester, NY, hitchhikers in Ithaca, our first catering gig, before and after pictures of the house, the people in line for the porta-potty at CMAC and I'm sure, many, many other things!

War Memorial

Aqueducts in downtown 

Part of the old subway station. Now just a place for the homeless and graffiti  (closed 55 years ago this June, for more info go to http://www.rochestersubway.com)

Quiet night in the south side of the city

My mom also gave us her house. Ok, she didn't just give it to us. She moved out and left us with the payments and bills. I miss being downtown but I like it here. We are still technically the city, but pretty close to the suburbs. In all honesty though, we love it here. It's quiet, which is a huge difference from coming from a filthy house with musicians as neighbors and roommates playing poker till 5am. We've been busy since we moved in two months ago getting everything set up. We've painted, sanded, weeded and scrubbed...and there is still more to do! We ripped out all the carpet downstairs with my parents. I'm still waiting for our prize for surviving that, or rather, not killing anyone. Speaking of murder, we had to live with my mom for a few weeks too. Luckily, we all got out alive. But trying to move and unpack while the old tenants shit is still everywhere is beyond frustrating. I had visions of dumpsters and flames. She is just about all moved out and we are (I think) unpacked!  I snapped a few pics of the house to share with you. Our walls are still bare but we are getting there! Still waiting to unpack the time machine to get our summer back though. House warming party this fall???

Records!

Music Room

Sun Room

Kitchen

Living Room

Corn!

More of the garden :)

We did get out a little this summer despite all the chaos between work and a new house, but leisure time was definitely limited. We saw Bootsy Collins at Party in the Park, Steely Dan at CMAC and went to Ithaca for a day trip.

Bootsy Collins

(sorry, these are from my phone)

Steely Dan

Ithaca!

We went to the Punx Picnic this past weekend. It was quite the site! Heavy music, lots of leather, fucking moshing, broken glass flying, booze, drugs, motorcycles, public urination and lots of chasing and punching/stick whipping. Hoping it becomes an annual thing.

Janet Reno's Dance Party

Classic punk: kid pissing in an open field, with a family party in the next shelter over

I think 16 bands played overall, but I could be wrong

The other half of the park was covered in broken glass

When we weren't checking out music from all different genres, we did some baking and even more cooking! I tried out some new vegan recipes this summer too! When you spend a lot of time in a grocery store you can't help but drool over all the non vegan items (burgers and reese's, I'm talking to you!) but then I go home and realize I can make just about anything and being a vegan becomes easy again. Here are some of the things I made this summer that I was actually able to snap a quick picture of before they were inhaled. Not pictured: "meat"balls, punk cupcakes (they had a green mohawk!), red velvet cupcakes, mixed summer veggies from the garden in a lemon garlic sauce over pasta, eggplant parm and some kick ass, but melty, frosting...among others!

S'mores Cupcakes (there's a marshmellow inside!)

Black Bean Burgers

I'm not so sure if it's the almonds, coconut or the chocolate that bring me the most joy

*If you are interested about placing a baking order, please send me a DM on twitter. You can find some of the items we've made so far by clicking on the 'baking' or 'vegan' label to the right or by clicking here and/or here. Rummage around, like I said, a website is coming soon. All baked goods 100% vegan :)

Even Alec Baldwin Can't Save You Now

There is a huge supermarket store about every 10 miles from one another out here called Wegmans. If you aren't familiar with the store, perhaps you remember Alec Baldwin mentioning it on Letterman. Since then Baldwin was contacted to make a few commercials.



Everything in our city is affiliated with Wegmans. I can remember attending grand openings as a kid and being excited when the "new big" Wegmans opened near our house. Then they started serving food, SUBS!!!!! This city went crazy, not only for Wegmans, but for their "old fashioned" subs. (Side note: I've never liked the subs.) The more recent additions to the store spread from beers from around the world to tea bars, veggie bars to wine bars and even restaurants. Wegmans had everything you needed and everyone shopped there. Notice the past tense. Wegmans used to have everything you needed.

We haven't shopped at a Wegmans in over a month and we plan to never shop there again. Why? Recently they started pulling brand names from shelves and adding more of their own brand. Simple things are now hard to find, unless you want a knock off that doesn't taste the same. That was the final nail in the coffin for us. But we had talked about starting to buy our groceries elsewhere before we noticed the product swap. Before they slowly and sneakily removed name brand products from the shelves they started to take apart the entire "nature's market" section (which included organic, vegetarian and vegan food) and spread it across the store. This became incredibly irritating for us since we are both vegan. We used to be able to run into Wegmans and grab just about everything we needed...fast. Now we would have to do a scavenger hunt to look for all our items, some where easy to find and sometimes we had to give up. For example, vegan soup is more than likely in the regular soup aisle now, makes sense. But it wasn't always that easy, haha, believe me. Maybe this was a good idea? Maybe Wegmans wants the customer to be exposed to more healthy options? I wish that was the case (and maybe it is) but upon looking for my soup, I discovered that they didn't just move my soup but they got rid of just about all the flavors. An almost two shelf selection was quickly reduced to four selections overnight. What the hell? Where's my soup?! It wasn't just the soup. Suddenly a trip to Wegmans was an instant headache. There was no bread or pasta we could buy anymore since Wegmans products were taking over and our grocery list from the store became smaller and smaller.

Then one day I was in another local, and sometimes forgotten, grocery store, Tops (it's hard to not think "Wegmans" in this city when you need groceries). I found myself in the pasta aisle and was surrounded by pasta on both sides. HOLY SHIT! LOOK AT ALL THE PASTA! We've been shopping at Wegmans for so long that we were used to only seeing one or two name brands surrounded by loads of Wegmans brands. I instantly started checking labels and what I found infuriated and excited me. Most of the pasta at Tops was vegan. There was nothing special about it, it wasn't organic and it didn't have a big V on the front of the box. It was regular pasta and (something Wegmans rarely does anymore)....it was on sale! Was I dreaming? I scoped out the oatmeal section next. SWEET JESUS! Wegmans now has just one box of Quaker Instant Oatmeal, the variety pack, surrounded by Wegmans brand oatmeal. Tops had what seemed like every flavor of instant oatmeal that Quaker squeezed out. Wanna know what else I found? BREAD! And it didn't cost $6 a loaf either! WTF was Wegmans doing? I hit the jackpot! They even had my soup! The Tops near our house has a lot of organic and vegan-friendly products. To be honest, a lot more than I thought they would. I look forward to going into Tops every week now and I'm excited we can have pasta again! I hope that Tops continues to carry organic products and more importantly (for us, at least) vegan-friendly products. We still have to travel into the city or across town from time to time to the smaller, more expensive, organic stores to buy our faux meat and cheese, but Tops already sells one kind of dairy free cheese, yogurt and veggie dogs and sausages! I can't wait for them to carry more!

I really don't understand what Wegmans is trying to do. When the organic products were scattered throughout the store I sent out some angry tweets. Wegmans saw them and responded. They told me that they would love to talk to me more about what was going on at the store. I was impressed and decided to reply back in a professional way (unlike the way I handled things with Verizon Wireless...I sent them a picture of a middle finger). Wegmans asked me to follow them on Twitter so we could DM one another. I did. After four days and no response, I stopped following Wegmans on Twitter and a few months later I have stopped shopping in their stores. I may sound bitter towards Wegmans and really, I'm sad about it. Wegmans really was awesome. It was a bragging right to visiting travelers. A one stop shopping store. I realize I may lose some friends over this, as quite a few work for Wegmans, but that's not why I wrote this post. I didn't write this to offend anyone at Wegmans. If any employees read this, I hope all these store changes lead to something good for the public. We are all people and we all live on Earth, let's take care of one another. Finally, I hope that the good people in Rochester, NY know that there are other options out there. Go to Tops, check it out. The one near us has way more cool stuff than any Wegmans in this area. In fact, that's a promise. If you need the address, I'd gladly give it you.

Working Girl: Hell, I'll Do Anything For Money At This Point

Gasp! Is it really the end of June?! Somehow I went all spring working just part time and it was pretty awesome (except for my thin, empty wallet). But I got a two more jobs in June so hopefully that wallet with plump up. I'm working for a catering business per diem to help with service and events. I've never done this kind of work before and since I kick it to work in a pair of bobos, my knees and feet take close to three days to stop throbbing. Make sure to tip your waitress. The other job I got is part time working for a data company that specializes in retail stores. What's cool about this job is that it offers benefits (minimal, but better than what I have now, which is nothing) and I get to make my own hours while working with a deadline which means I can still watch the boys part time! All of this couldn't come at a better time because we are moving into my mom's house next week and taking over her mortgage for her in the middle of July. Yes, this means we have to live with my mother for a few weeks. I mentioned something about the possibility of just being homeless for a few weeks (it is summer anyways) but apparently that wasn't taken as seriously as I'd hoped.

Busy. It's the word that could sum up all of our lives, but right now it's crowding mine. Packing, cleaning, moving, working, training, sewing, baking...and painting starts today. So I'll be busy over the next few weeks, don't think I'm ignoring you. In fact, I've already wasted too much time writing this...

Damn, Look Who's At It Again

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. Hello.

 I made these cupcakes for my mom and family on Mother's Day. Turned out to be addicting...majorly.

Vanilla and Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache and Raspberries

Chocolate Chip Brownie Cookies

Very Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache and Raspberries/Strawberries

Those banana chocolate chip muffins have tuned out to be a favorite of ours, but I realized this morning that we were out of liners...gasp! I did, however, have a loaf pan. Score.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

 I make these rolls almost weekly now. We use them for sandwiches and burgers. They're also awesome warm with butter! Instead of making a dozen rolls I only made four this time, just enough for our burgers, and decided I would see how well the dough worked to make a pizza pie...turned out to be delicious!

"a roll is a roll, and if we don't get no tolls, then we don't eat no rolls"

 

 

"pizza! pizza! pizza!"

 Truffles!

Busy Baking Bee

I've been really busy lately trying to benefit myself in every way possible...one being baking, vegan style of course. I've got to get better about updating my blog because I have way too many tasty desserts to share with you! I apologize for some of these pictures, they're from my phone. Anyways, enjoy!

vanilla cupcakes hot out of the oven!

vanilla cupcakes with blue frosting

homemade rolls with seasoning on top. we used these for sandwiches and veggie burgers. they were awesome warmed up with some earth balance butter!

chocolate chip cupcakes

chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate frosting and walmuts

chocolate chip cupcakes with vanilla frosting

peanut butter cup!

AMAZING!

cookie bars made with oats, my mom's homemade jam and chocolate chips

chocolate chip cookies

apple cinnamon bread

Philly or Bust 2011

The boy turned the big 3-0 a few weeks ago and I decided to surprise him by planning an overnight stay to see his favorite basketball team play and hang out in his favorite city the next day. Before we left Wednesday morning I wrote "PHILLY OR BUST" with my finger in the dirt on the side of my car. We stopped at the north end of Skeneateles Lake to take in the scenery. It was cold but such a beautiful day! The reflection on the lake seemed almost fake as we drove alongside. 

There were thousands of fish in the lake!

It seemed like forever to get there but we made it to Philly! I booked us a hotel room in New Jersey. So we had to drive through Philadelphia in order to get to our hotel room, but we were just a few minutes away from the city of brotherly love.

Yay Philly! Boo traffic!

This was our view from our hotel. Beautiful Jersey!

Benjamin Franklin Bridge...and mist.

We got a little lost going to the basketball game in Philly, and saw a hooker waiting for a trucker to step out, but we didn't miss too much of the game. We had awesome seats (second row, not floor) and even found some extremely over priced veggie burgers! A (crappy) veggie burger with fries and a rootbeer came to $17.50...and that was the combo deal. Ouch. When we came back to our seats we noticed that a mom and her two snotty pubescent kids had snuck down to the row in front of ours. I didn't care so much until the pizza faced little girl kicked my burger and fries. Luckily, I caught the burger and only ketchup and packets went all over (hey, the ketchup wasn't seventeen bones). This however angered my boyfriend as he's the one that was kicked and a pile of ketchup sat on his knee. He called those two kids curse words and the girl was embarrassed. I couldn't believe that the mother didn't get involved. Her daughter had jumped up and over seats and kicked someone's dinner and then put her head down out of what I assumed to be shame. And the little girl never apologized (nor did my boyfriend though for calling her and her family "mother fuckers"). I noticed the mother had a rock on her finger that couldn't fit up the common nostril so just assumed we were dealing with a bunch of rich snobs. It's too bad how some people think manners aren't necessary when money is involved. Towards the end of the game the girl turned around to me and asked what section we were sitting in. At first I thought she was going to apologize so I fumbled with my a words a bit until I muttered out the section number. Right after I told her the section my boyfriend told them to check their tickets (cue laugh track). Other than that bit of drama, and the Houston Rockets (boyfriend's team) losing to the 76ers, the game was fun! I'm not a basketball fans by any means and I have to suffer through many, many games on tv but going to a game and having cool seats made all the difference! I had fun taking pictures for my boyfriend so he could watch and enjoy the game. I'll say it, I'd go to another.

You could hear the swoosh

This was an obnoxious, hardcore Philly fan that entertained me throughout the game

The girl who kicked my dinner. Also known as "mole cunt"

The concert was in our section but we left before we got boxed in. I saw Matisyahu recently anyways.

We went back to our hotel in Jersey after the game to rest up for walking around Philly the next day. My boyfriend fell asleep almost instantly when he laid on the bed that we weren't quite sure was changed before we arrived. It took me a minute to drift off but after I finally rested my mind and assured myself that it was only for a few hours and I could shower first thing in the morning I fell asleep. However, I was awake most of the night from 2-4am, mainly the 3-4am hour though. That's where the action was at! I kept waking up to high heels clicking on cement, knocks on doors and men talking. When we got home from the game we realized our door didn't lock automatically like it should have but my boyfriend/hero fixed it before we went to bed. It's not that I didn't doubt he fixed the lock but I realized how shaddy of a place I booked and was a tad fearful of someone coming in during the night. We checked out first thing in the morning and headed towards downtown Philadelphia and South Street before heading home.

I stopped for gas before we entered Philly and paid only $3.33/gallon for gas! I couldn't believe how cheap gas was in Jersey (good for something)! When I handed my card to the attendant and said "fill 'er up!" he smiled an almost completely toothless grin and replied with something sounding like "yabba gabba." I'm not sure what his language was, but it clearly wasn't english. On the way home I had to fill up again...but this time at $3.67/gallon. Sigh.

Here's where the trip gets tasty! While checking out the sites and architecture downtown we walked to the Redding Terminal Market. The place was a food lover's dream with randomness strewn between like used book stores and incense shops. We grabbed lunch at a vegetarian place called The Basic 4 Vegetarian Snack Bar. They had quite a few options and a hearty handful of vegan meals too. I've never been much of a meat eater before I was vegetarian so I had never had a philly cheesesteak in my life but thanks to seitan I enjoyed my very first philly cheesesteak...only vegan! They added peppers, onions and soy cheese making the entire hoagie smell, and look, just like all the other "real" cheesesteaks! I would imagine it tastes pretty close to the original cheesesteak. Anyone out there ever tasted both? I'm curious as to how close the two taste.

Vegan Philly Cheesesteak

After lunch we continued our venture in downtown Philly to check out a few historic sightings at the Independence Mall. We were strapped on time because of the lunch rush in the market but we were able to get in a few quick glances.The foundation to the President's House was on display in a giant glass case after having archeologists dig it up and that was pretty neat. On the way to the Liberty Bell my boyfriend decided it was a good time to practice healthy grooming habits and began clipping his nails, thankfully pausing while we were searched for weapons. The Liberty Bell was, um...liberty-like. I'd never seen the Liberty Bell before so that was cool too actually.

Liberty Bell. Go head, give it a ring.

After throwing a few more bucks in the parking kiosk we started walking towards South Street, a hangout street filled with shops, restaurants and art. We took a few pictures (mostly on film...still needs to be developed) and checked out a few record stores. My boyfriend got some records at Repo Records and I was able to snatch a few at Philadelphia Record Exchange. I was actually disappointed by the inventory at both stores but I suppose all the good stuff is already gone in the bigger cities. Focusing on our stomachs next we bought cookies from Cookie Confidential, a bakery focusing on cookies (obviously). They had two types of vegan cookies that day, key lime and chocolate chip. We bought one of each and realized probably at least three of each would have been better...maybe an uneven five. So good! 

Delicious cookies from @cookieconfident

We bought more vegan baked goods from Essene Market & Cafe. It was a great natural food store, similar to our local one, Lori's Natural Foods, but Essense has a vegan bakery! There were so many choices! Cookies, pies, pudding and cupcakes just to name a few. There were shelves lined with deliciousness! We ended up bringing home a fudge brownie, chocolate chip scone that looks more like a giant scoop of cookie dough and a banana pecan chocolate chip pound cake. We've only tried the brownie so far and it was good! It was a little more cake-like than fudge-like but I'd gladly take another one if offered to me with no complaints. The chocolate chip cookie scone was a little bland but it didn't stop us from eating the entire thing rather quickly. I think I would have liked it better with some tea. Banana pecan chocolate chip pound cake, you're next!

Chocolate Chip Scone...bigger than my fist.

Banana Pecan Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

Fudge Brownie

We walked down to the end of South Street, Penn's Landing, took in the view of the Delaware River and started walking back towards the car. Our trip was just about over. We made sure to order a pizza from the all vegan pizzeria, Blackbird, but ordering was hard when there were too many good pies to choose from. Veggie Supreme seemed like a good one to try out...and it was awesome! We talked about maybe ordering with less cheese next time but honestly, we gobbled up our slices with no complaints and brought the rest of the pizza home with us for delicious left overs. Oh and remember the greenbox pizza box I tweeted about a while back? Blackbird Pizzeria uses them! I was so excited once I noticed the box! Blackbird Pizzeria fucking rules.

Blackbird Pizzeria and a stud reading the menu

Greenbox Pizza Box @greenboxny

Veggie Supreme Pizza from Blackbird Pizzeria
onions, peppers, mushrooms, artichokes, red sauce, daiya cheese

So that was our mini vacation to Philly (and Dirty Jersey). We had a really great time and can't wait to go back! Next time I'd like to check out the zoo maybe. The ride home was amazing and perfect. I can't imagine being anymore happy than I am right now. Thanks to Brooklawn, New Jersey for letting us crash and for the cheap gas! And Philly...we'll be back.