oy vey.

well, in the last 24 hours my toilet has overflowed all over my bathroom, my dog got into the garbage and had it strewn nicely all over the house, and i'm pretty sure there is a dead something somewhere in my house. cause it smells like dead something.

regroup.

today is already better. i'm sitting on a bed with clean sheets (does wonders for the soul), listening to miracle fortress and drinking my coffee. there is still a plunger propped in my toilet from earlier, a stack of dishes waiting for their turn in the dishwasher, and enough dog hair to make a full-sized beulah clone.

but it is alright.

[back to the dog hair thing for a second: if anyone has a really high powered, dog hair capable vacuum that they're not using/want to give to a needy girl, i will be accepting offers at any time. thank you].

moving on.

i have mentioned a few times how much i love breakfast. the food, the feeling, the light in the morning, sitting with coffee, and you're in pajamas. what is not to love? i get a joyful feeling just thinking about it. well, i love this blog called: simply breakfast. go there. i really wish my breakfasts looked like this everything morning instead of stuffing down a soy joy bar on the way to work.

oh listen, this has nothing to do with anything, but, i'm going to tell you anyway.

so i don't have tv at my house. no, that is not some sort of stance against the state of american entertainment. i mostly love american television. i'm just poor, y'all.

anyway, so i have netflix, a dvd collection, and the occasional redbox rental. for a couple of months, i have been watching law and order svu. i had never watched an episode, but for some reason, sitting alone in my house watching a show about sex crimes is all i have wanted to do. [i know..] also, maybe the weirdest part about it was that i started on the last season and was working my way backwards. it makes total sense to me, so whatever.

yesterday i was watching an especially captivating episode about a cult leader that conned all these women and got a bunch of teenagers pregnant [i know..] but man, i was into it. and in the middle of that darn episode, netflix conspires against me, and takes all of the seasons of law and order svu off of instant play. in the middle of searching for pregnant 12 year old melanie at the garbage dump. what???!

all of this to say, i am accepting recommendations for television shows. especially from those of you who have netflix.

and to return the favor, i will give you a rundown of the tv shows i am watching and loving:

1. friday night lights. i am not even going to try to give you reasons to watch it. i would actually suggest that you get netflix just so you can watch season 1-3. i cannot say enough about this show. i was skeptical too, but trust me on this.

2. mad men. listen to what i am saying, do whatever you can to try to catch up. season 4 starts july 25.

3. parenthood. just watch it.

alright, so there are my recommendations. do any of y'all watch those shows? tell me what you think. what else are you watching?

[post edit: as i was pressing the button to publish this, the apartment maintenance man knocks on my door. cue beulah peeing everywhere and barking, me frantically throwing on clothes, grabbing my underwear that was drying all over my dining room table, and opening the door with pajamas and a crazy face with acne meds dotted all over. did i mention his 10 year old kid was with him? pretty sure he was traumatized by the stray bra that was hanging on my bedroom door. uggggggggghhhh]

my year according to my phone

i was looking through the 900 some odd pictures on my phone, and thought we could take a little journey. i don't have a camera, so my ever present phone captures everything. so, let's begin:

this year i

got ready for a wedding

loved this curly-headed nanny babe.

went to chicago.

played in a creek with my pup.

watched my boss run over my car.

dressed nanny kid up in a lobster costume.

got the crazy shingles and was stuck at home for 2 weeks.

made mini-smores with ally. (teddy graham, mini-marshmallow, chocolate chip)

found out we were adding a family member.

moved again..

went to john's on saturdays with lace.

dogworked.

felt shame about how i looked at the grocery store.

made some leisurely breakfasts.

spent a lot of time doing this.

was blessed with a new car.

got nervous while waiting in traffic to see jay-z.

made it into the jay-z concert, and feared for my life.

saw this peach get married.

spent my easter with a few friends.

fell asleep when i had people over for dinner.

got wayyyy too into seeing bon jovi. embarrassed ally.

it was worth it.

loved my city.

got some flowers at work on my bday.

met my niece.

drank coffee by lake norman.

so i think that catches us up.

june '10

i think i'll look back on these early days of my adulthood and laugh. a lot.

like this morning. i have next to no food in my house (until i get paid tomorrow:), so i laid in my bed thinking about what was in my pantry, and what i could create for breakfast out of those items. all i have is flour, oil, baking soda, sugar, bottled lemon juice, and half and half. so i threw them in a bowl and made some muffins. yesterday, i found a bag of no-name unground coffee in my cabinet, and i don't have a coffee grinder, and was not making a trip out just try to find someone who'd grind my coffee at 6am. so, i pulled out my cutting board and my biggest knife and went to town chopping that coffee. there were coffee beans flying everywhere.

but i ended up with a decent, albeit, watery cup of french press and some eatable lemon muffins.

all while checking every dish and nook for mice or evidence of their presence. trying to decide what i would do if i actually came face-to-whiskers with one of them. pretty sure i'd be on top of my dining room table before i could form a coherent thought.

i have been fighting the good fight against these mice for the better part of a month, and..they are winning. like mice: 1,026, lauren: 0. they have outsmarted every trap i've set for them. my mom even convinced me that they will start stealing my jewelry soon (did she mean my $3 urban earrings..?). i even considered getting a cat yesterday just to come in and get the job done, but then my sanity returned, and my resolve to catch these little buggers grew by a million percent. i love animals, but i want these things dead. and when i say that i feel guilty, and i think about the mousekiwitz family:

(we watched 'fievel goes west' approximately 319 times at our house growing up. and that's a conservative estimate.)

anyway, that is my life right now: mice and poverty.

and i don't hate it.