Spontaneity

I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't get red squiggly lines as I typed spontaneity. My instincts on spelling were correct: what?! Awesome.

Yet another reason I love Google Reader: blog deals. As I was perusing my feeds last night, I saw an ad for a hotel in downtown Philly advertising a Snow Package Deal: 50% off rooms for tonight and tomorrow night. I immediately called them and got a room.

It's perfect because #1 I love hotels: you have to have fun with a whirlpool and someone else making your bed, #2 We have a Friday night show with our Philly comedy improv group (late night partying), #3 My genius husband is presenting two of his papers on Friday and Saturday in the city, and he'll get some extra sleep (and less stress) without the (snow) traffic into Philly.

MORAL(S) OF THE STORY: Follow blogs from your local area. And then spontaneously do something.

Tomato Soup in a Breadbowl

Tuesday nights are busy for us since Bryan gets home from work at 5, and we have to leave by 6 for improv rehearsal. It's not that much time to change into casual clothes, have our after-work relax and get out the door - with food. Sometimes we swing by ChickFilA, but that can get old.

This is a great recipe that's cheap, yummy, healthy and FAST!

Tomato Soup in A Breadbowl
1 can of tomato soup
1 can of milk (same can as soup)
2 large rolls from your local bakery
grated mozzarella cheese



Empty the soup into a large microwavable bowl. Add the milk, stir and microwave for 3 minutes. Stir and microwave for another 2 minutes. (Feel free to use the stovetop instructions if you prefer). When your soup is microwaving, take a bread knife and slice the top off. Don't go too deep, and be sure to cut an angle. Think carving pumpkins, how you remove the top.

When the soup is done, stir and ladle it into your bread bowl (inside a regular bowl, in case it spills through the bottom). Sprinkle with cheese. Refill your bowl until your soup is gone. Easy peasy, guys.

Lady Fitness

With summer months and bikini sales approaching fast, I've been really serious about working out.

I've found a beautiful hour and a half of my day at the gym. I drop in, sign up for my treadmill, hit the mat for some strength exercises, then hit the treadmill for interval training and then stretch for a good fifteen minutes. It's wonderful. I get a chance to read all my magazines that sit dusty on my coffee table, think about all the crazy things happening in my life right now, listen to my awesome 90s hip hop mix and enjoy the solitude in the presence of lots of women getting theirs.

The whir of the treadmill belt, the beat of women's sneaks on the machines, the light murmur from the weight area, the Destiny's Child bumping in my ear: it's perfect. It's my escape, and it's also my means to a bangin' bikini body. Summer of 2010 is the summer of hot.

Baking Cookies with Photoshop

This is so cool.

Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.

Calzones for Dinner

These are Bryan's favorite. He loves them because he loves calzones but also because he can control what goes in them. They're a great way to please a lot of different kinds of eaters.

Pizza Sauce (you can buy a jar in the Italian aisle, too)

2 tomatoes

some garlic (we use minced garlic)

a pinch of oregano

a pinch of sugar

a pinch of basil

salt and pepper shakes

Using a food processor, grind up your tomatoes. Put in a bowl, add spices and stir. Done.

Calzones

pizza crust (I buy mine, but if you have an extra day, try making your own)

veggies: green pepper, onion

meat: sausage, deli pepperoni

cheese: mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 425. Get out a cookie sheet, cover with tin foil. Spray with Pam to prevent sticking. Roll out pizza dough onto sheet. Cut in half: perfect for two calzones. Spoon on some pizza sauce (less is more), then add your veggies and top with a sprinkle of grated mozzarella cheese.

Pull the nonfilled side over top the fillings. Pinch the edges. This is the important part: really pinch them until the dough seals. If you have extra dough on the corners, rip it off and help seal the parts that need it. Put it in the oven and wait. I don't want to put a time because all ovens are different. Keep an eye on it. You know what a finished calzone will look like. Let it sit for five minutes to let the sauce thicken. We like to microwave the rest of the pizza sauce for dipping! Also, I brush butter and garlic salt on top. Roll up your tin foil and you're done.

This is Bryan's calzone.


This is mine. I had trouble evenly cutting the dough, but it worked out nicely. It was like a stuffed breadstick.

Easiness: 4.5 out of 5
Taste: 4 out of 5
Cleanup: 5 out of 5

Lady Tip: Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping

Everyone has to eat. Eating out is expensive. Buying packaged or frozen food is not tasty. The solution I've found for affordable, healthy, yummy eating is cooking at home. This means having a well-stocked kitchen and planning ahead. It's not that hard, and this week I'm walking my lady friends (and my male lurkers) through how to effectively and deliciously plan a week's worth of food.

This week's lunch includes:

Salad with Mexican fixin's

Tuna Salad Wraps

Peppered Turkey Breast Sandwich

This week's dinner menu includes:

Texas Chicken Taco Salad

Spicy Sausage Jumbalaya

Chicken Parmesan

Make it Yourself Calzones

Spicy Vegetable Lo Mein

Tomato Soup in a Bread Bowl with Side Salad

Breakfast for Dinner

I went to the store to buy all the ingredients. This week's protein is chicken which means you can save money and buy a club pack. Pick out however many chicken breasts you're using and store the rest in the freezer for next week. Here's a picture of all the groceries I bought, and the total cost was only $65.


If you break it down, each meal costs $5.40 and per person that's about $2.75. You can't beat that with frozen food OR by eating out (even if you go to Wendy's). And you aren't just getting cheaper food, you're getting healthier food. Each meal has at least one serving of vegetables and one serving of protein.

Here's your grocery list:

bread (whole grain if you can), two large rolls for bread bowl & wraps (whole grain if you can)

cheese: cheddar, Mozzarella, Parmesan (the nicest you can afford)
tortilla chips (multi grain if you can find it)

medium grain rice

pizza crust (near cookie dough; you can make your own if you like, I just never have the time)

cans: crushed tomatoes and tomato soup (I like Campbells)

spaghetti noodles (whole grain if you can)

Belgian Waffle mix

meats: bacon, andoullie sausage and chicken breasts

deli: provolone cheese (.25 lb), peppered turkey breast (.5 lb for two days)

produce: broccoli crown, lettuce, avocado, tomatoes on the vine, green pepper, zucchini

snacks: bananas, grapes, raisins, dried pineapple slices, almonds

Look for pictures and the Calzone recipe tomorrow morning. I dropped the pizza crust and it exploded open, so I'll be making that tonight.

List of Today's Goals

In leu of a creative list, I'm attempting to get my butt in gear and start attacking my to do list. In an effort to blog and productively procrastinate, here is my real list.

• unpack suitcases from NCCAF week
• begin the laundry (all four loads of it)
• grocery shop for the week
• plan meals for the week pre-shopping
• pick up some lunch and take it to Bryan
• work out (one hour of cardio this morning: CHECK)
• deal with the mail
• beat Bryan's score in Rock Band: Garbage's I think I'm Paranoid
• finish one of the three pieces in my digital art project

Why My Mom is Awesome

1. She always answers no matter if she's at work, home or on the road. That is love.
2. She bought a webcam as soon as she heard about Skype, and we talk often over Skype.
3. She hates that I live far away, but she will never ask me to move or discourage Bryan and my careers in order for us to be closer.
4. She bought me the most perfect pink cardigan for Christmas from a store she never shops in but one that I love.
5. She bakes the most incredible chocolate chip cookies.
6. She never once told me or any of my sisters that we were fat. We all three grew up with incredible self confidence in our bodies.
7. She stood firm on issues of morality despite what the "cool" parents were doing. She intervened when she learned I was smoking pot and when I was getting too physical with my high school boyfriend.
8. She always takes off work anytime that I visit home, and she fully devotes her time (and her facebook status) to me.
9. She sends cards on every birthday, holiday, anniversary and they show up on exactly the right day.
10. She doesn't understand much about the arts, but she fully supports my exploration in comedy, writing and filming. She is my biggest fan.
11. She will always love me. No matter what.

Things I Need to Do More Of

1. Sleep. Oh, I love to sleep, but there's never any time.
2. Call my friends. It's always been forever before I call one of them. I should be better about it.
3. Dance. There can always be more dancing.
4. Travelling. If only there were the funds, I would be travelling every week.
5. Exploring. Just setting out and looking around and spontaneously deciding where to go next.

Things I Never Thought I'd Do (But Did!)

1. Live in the North. (I should have believed Dr. Suess: Oh, the places you'll go.)
2. Be a good cook. I surprise myself with each delicious meal and each time someone wants cooking advice from me.
3. Marry young. I thought I'd live the life my girl Becky has, the wonderful crazy life in NYC with girlfriends, but when I met Bryan, I couldn't help myself. Best decision ever.
4. Become addicted to video games. Wii has changed that: Rock Band, Sports Resort, My Sims, Mario. I love that system.
5. Get paid to teach comedy. Best gig ever.
6. Become best friends with my sisters. After growing up and fighting, I never thought my sisters would be the ones I'd call in a crisis. They are the best.
7. Sing in public.
8. Blog again. I thought livejournal would be the end.
9. Cow tipping. Oh, my days in Missouri.
10. Have a long distance relationship. Never again.

Things I Plan to Never Do

1. Live outside the United States.
2. Become a vegetarian.
3. Go to outer space.
4. Become a boring person/wife/lady.
5. Drink milk again.

Everyday Things I'm Really Bad At

1. Putting clothes away. Whether it be hanging shirts in the right direction (or rightside out) or stacking folded things, I'm terrible.
2. Checking the mail. I always forget. And there's always a motherlode when I do remember.
3. Putting my cups away. I drink juice when I check my blogs, and there are three cups on my desk. I drink water with dinner; there are probably a few out in the living room. I drink water before bed, and I know there's at least one cup by the bed.
4. Budgeting enough time to get ready. My hair always takes longer than I thought, and there's never a pair of matching socks when I try to find them.
5. Keeping tabs on my cell phone. It is always missing.

North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival

This week I'm spending time in my old stomping grounds: The DSi Comedy Theater in Carrboro, North Carolina. Not just for DSI, but for the incredibly awesome improv festival that's the best in the country. It's been rebranded and is now four weeks of comedy under The North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival.

I love this festival, and this will be my fifth year of attendance. It's a great way to reconnect with other improvisers (which later proves useful if you move somewhere like Carrboro or Philadelphia, because you can instantly find your home). It's an awesome way to see what other improv is out there and to get a lot of quality comedy in a row. I've grown up as an improviser at this festival, and I've grown even more as a member of the DSI Comedy Theater company. I would not be as successful with my new group The N Crowd of Philadelphia if I had not trained my heart out with DSI.

Here's some memories in picture form:

DSIF 2008: before our Red Letters performance

DSIF 2007: Hanging out before a Death by Roo Roo Show

2008: the weekend I moved to NC

The summer of 2008: teaching improv to kids

NCCAF 2009: performing in ComedySportz

Here's to another great festival, with friends, my hilarious husband and new people!

Happy Valentine's Day!

On this greeting card holiday, I want to take the time to remember my love and commitment to Bryan. He's an easy one to love, and I don't think I've ever made a better decision than saying yes to marrying him.



List of why Bryan is Awesome
1. He picks me up and throws me onto our bed (daily)
2. He sends me silly text messages
3. He is hilarious, all the time
4. He tries to scare me by popping out of closets or behind couches
5. He bought me chocolate and a necklace (durable goods!) for Valentine's Day
6. If you rearrange the letters in his name, you can't spell brain.
7. I have never seen him be mean or rude to anyone, ever
8. He's totally great on film/vlogs
9. He kisses me like he did when we were dating
10. We just click. The easiest friendship I've ever had.

There's more reasons, but I read somewhere that lists longer than 10 are boring to read. So, if you've read enough, watch me undercover record Bryan as he gets his Valentine from a ninja and then watch us play The Love Game:

Happy Valentine's Day - OR ELSE! from Bryan and Alyssa on Vimeo.

And that's enough Valentine's Day overload. This week I'm heading to North Carolina for the 10th Annual Comedy Arts Festival, and I have preloaded some lists for the week. I promise none of them are mushy.

Totally Materialistic and Shallow Things I Would Do if I Had Unlimited Funds

Thanks to Rachel for linking to this wonderful blog. Any fans of lists should check it out. Here's my list of Totally Materialistic and Shallow Things I Would Do if I Had Unlimited Funds.

1. Build a roller coaster in my backyard designed by the guy who made the Hulk and Disney's Rockin' Roller Coaster.
2. Enlist Gordon Ramsey to be my personal chef/cooking instructor. Hopefully, he'll talk to me like I'm a British person and not rudely like he does to most Americans.
3. Spend a month in Rome, Paris, London and Barcelona.
4. Go shopping with Clinton Kelly & Stacey London in New York City and buy anything that fit.
5. Host a party and fly all of my family from around the country (including my Buckleys) to party.
6. Host another party and fly all my best friends to get crunk on some kind of fancy drink.
7. Buy up E! and give an hour long special to Ross Matthews and make the Soup a full hour long show.
8. Recreate this scene from comic xdcx with a ballpit for me and my friends.
9. Build a stage in downtown Philadelphia and invite all my funniest friends to perform with me.
10. Have a private captain fly me to each and every state in the US just so I could put my foot down in each state - in the same day.

My Standards v. My Mom's Standards: Cleaning

Every woman must someday leave the home of her mother and build her own home. As a lady lives on her own, she'll start to develop her own cleaning habits. I, having lived on my own for five years now, feel that I have gained enough insight into my own living style that I can properly compare my cleaning standards to my Mom (who I love and admire). I have no idea how she kept the house so clean over the years with THREE daughters.

Changing the bedsheets
Mom: Every Saturday morning
Me: Every other week (I'm embarrassed.)

Vacuuming the House
Mom: Every other day
Me: I aim for weekly, but often find myself going longer in between vacuums

Doing the Dishes
Mom: What seems like hourly
Me: Thankfully, I've recruited Bryan to this task. Whew.

Washing the Laundry (and folding and delivering it!)
Mom: Daily
Me: When I have no more clean clothes that are cute enough to wear

Clearing the Kitchen Counter of Clutter
Mom: Daily
Me: Daily (finally! something rubbed off on me!)

I know I'm young, but when my Mom was my age, she had two kids already and a giant home to clean, cook for and care over. I'm thankful to have no kids, a place just right and a husband who pitches in with the laundry, the trash and the dishes. It seems I have a lot to learn from my mom. Hopefully, her skills are something that will appear in me within the next few years. I sure could use a little bit of a cleaner home.

Ladies, It's Him.

This is pretty harsh as it's so close to Valentine's Day, but it has to be said.

Ladies, it's him. I have heard so many stories in the news with Tiger & Elin and in my personal life from friends, but so many ladies blame themselves (or outsiders throw the blame on the women) when men do something wrong. I'm talking about infidelity.



There are exceptions, of course, but most of the time when a man in unfaithful, it's his fault, not yours, ladies. We all make daily choices: to flirt it up with the person serving you coffee - or not; to discuss relationship problems with your coworker - or not; to seek out cybersex or online erotic chatting - or not; to sleep with waitress despite your wife and two children - or not. These are choices, and in those choices, those men had to choose between their girlfriend or wife and this new, different woman.

Stop feeling guilty. If we can all learn something from Tiger Woods' situation, it's that no matter how hot you are, no matter if you are married, no matter if you have children, if a man wants to test out another flavor, he will. And we, as ladies, cannot stop him by hitting the gym more, talking dirty, wearing sexy getups and bad mouthing other women (or men). Please stop blaming yourself. He did it. He meant to do it - regardless if he regrets it now. Once you believe that, I think recovery by either repairing the trust or by cutting the cheater loose will be much easier.

Sleeping v. Sexing

A study, funded by Westin Hotels, found that 51% of Americans surveyed would choose sleep over sex. Sounds awful, but it sounds much more depressing when you learn that a decade ago, a massive 69% (hehe) of those surveyed said they’d choose sex over sleep.

Buy a better mattress, people! Let's get our priorities straight.

You're Not A Northerner Unless...

You Go Grocery Shopping in the Snow

With two feet of snow already covering my world and even more piled high on the sides of roads, I trekked to the grocery store. We'd been gone all weekend and another big snow is coming tomorrow. Food is a priority. But, I'm going on the record and saying that there is nothing worse than going grocery shopping in the snow - well, maybe grocery shopping in the snow by yourself! Which is exactly what I did.

My car was covered in about a foot of snow, and all I had was a scraper and my hands. Even worse, the ground around my car was covered in snow, ice that used to be snow and fallen icicles from the bottom of my car. A warm Wegmans, seven bags, eighty dollars and ninety minutes later, I made it home safely. I took off my snowy (and now soaking wet) clothes and put away the groceries. Success. Cross that off my Northern List, please.

Valentine's Day with an Economist

For the past four years, I've spent Valentine's Day with the same man. This man also happens to be an economist. Despite the stereotype that economists aren't romantics, he's done really well. On our first Valentine's Day, he showered me with flowers, a new shirt and a Japanese dinner. On our second Valentine's Day, he was going to propose the next month and didn't want me to think this was it. I got flowers and a cook-in-front of you dinner. On our third Valentine's Day, we were married and we continued the tradition of flowers and a dinner at a habachi Japanese steakhouse. I assumed the tradition would live on forever. I assumed each February 14th, I would wake up to a dozen beautiful pink roses and spend my evening dressed to the nines at an Asian restaurant.

Well, this Valentine's Day my Valentine has a PhD. This Valentine's Day my husband is a doctor of economics. This Valentine's Day my lover is as full-fledged an economist as you can get. And while I knew his economic expertise would impact our finances, our location and his job, I never considered its effect on my love life.

This year, Bryan said to me, "Alyssa, I love you, but I'm not buying you flowers this year."
"This is the only time of year you buy me flowers!" I pouted. Which is a mostly true statement if you leave out the rare instances of I'm-sorry flowers.
"I will buy you anything else. It just has to be a durable good."

And so, I'm at a loss. Partially because I think my husband hates flowers, but mostly because everything you receive on Valentine's Day is not durable: flowers, candy, chocolate, cards, dinner. What could Bryan possibly get for me?

The Philadelphia Snowcalypse

The streets of Philadelphia looked even more awesome in the snow.


We learned that friends, late morning brunches and drinking games are the tools to a great snow day.


Mayor Nutter's spokesman, Doug Oliver said Philadelphia had 34,000 tons of salt available, and planned to deploy 600 workers and 340 pieces of equipment at the height of the storm.


It was freezing but fun.

SNomg

Snow has yet to lose its novelty on me. This morning, I opened the blinds to see a beautiful winter wonderland. Our apartment overlooks a farm and some cute houses, and I remember moving in and thinking to myself, this will look so beautiful covered in snow. My imagination didn't do justice to what it looks like. It's incredible. It's breathtaking. It's more than what I imagined living the North would be like.

Everyone says you have to have a snow day tradition. Some people at work hit the diner before coming in, others make french toast. I make oatmeal and hot chocolate. As a lady who spent eighteen years in Florida, I feel that I can truly appreciate both oatmeal and hot chocolate now that there is snow outside.

For the Love of Reading

Although I was an English major, I've had a hard time keeping up with my ten books a year routine that I started my sophomore year in high school. Something about the real world squeezes your free time into planning for the next day, making dinner, working out, calling friends, spending quality spouse time and catching up on television.

Until this weekend. I bought myself an old fashioned novel. I could feel the love affair begin. I fingered the spines of the books on the fiction shelves, knowing that one of these crisp stories was going to be mine. Each title that excited me, I picked it up, cradled it in my hand and flipped to a random page. Some of the novels were stale and read like one of those terrible novels they make you read in high school like Obasan or M is for Murder. I never realized how picky I was about my leisurely reading. I wanted a novel that was sexy, one that had a love story just dripping with lust. I wanted a story that was funny - but not cheesy. It had to have a good flow, with words that made me think. And the title had to grab me.

By the time Bryan had found me, I was crouched between the shelves, torn between two novels. One was funny and the story of a Texas woman who, having recently fallen upon hard times, had taken to stripping at a place close to town. She falls for one of the guys, while at the same time trying to keep her secret from her gossipy friends: a definite funny read. The other was slightly erotic and told the story of a fidelity inspection agency owner who must return to "the field" for a particularly difficult case. And her current boyfriend proposes. Oh, the drama and sexuality, but the main character was witty in her banter with a divorce lawyer. So, I went with the latter.

So far it's incredible. I stayed up last night to keep reading, and at work, I just wanted to go home to keep reading. I've broken the dry spell. Reading, my love, how could we have been apart so long? It took such one good novel to get me back. I'm yours again.

(Book review to come when I'm finished reading.)

Work it, Make it, Do it

I'm not the kind of girl who turns someone down. After years of improv, I can't help but say yes. The holiday season is no exception. I embarked on our three week holiday with a fit body free of dessert and full of veggies. Well, at each stop of our journey, I was fed chocolate, pies, Kentucky fried goodness, muffins, cakes, steak dinners with french fries, mashed potatoes, everything bad, I had some. It was delicious...but it was also fattening. Bryan and I each gained some pounds over the holiday, thanks mostly to family.

Since we've been back, I've taken over the menu to involve more veggies, less eating out and more working out. Well, congratulations to me: I'm back to my pre-holiday weight. My hard work and dedication has paid off. I love seeing results, and thankfully, this is a result I can walk around in. I'm happy about my body and have now granted myself unlimited naked walks around the house.

How'd we do it? Living the Sweat Life.

Living The Sweat Life from Bryan and Alyssa on Vimeo.