Heading north for the winter

Every unemployment-related website, blog, or posting seems to think that blogging is a great use of that extra time that we non-working folk often have an abundance of.

I get antsy. I have deeply engrained ideas of what productivity looks like, what I should be doing and accomplishing each and every 24 hours to remain in good standing as a decent and productive part of society, and I can't stand to live apart from this sort of structure for too much time before my cool and calm facade starts to chip. I've lasted this long (one month and a little less than a day) by playing the part of housewife (*note: I am nobody's wife, but you see what I'm getting at). The holidays brought a few handfuls of people to my current abode, as always, and so there was much in the way of preparation and then cleanup for the weeks before and after. My Grandma's house (which, by they way, is where I'm staying- I'm here to take care of the place until we can sell it) is on a lake in Northern Maine, a mile or so down a dirt (or muddy) lake road. Beautiful, quiet, peaceful, windy, frigid. Within 15 minutes of the house: a Dollar Tree, two grocery stores, a movie theatre, a Dunkin Donuts or two, and a smattering of local businesses that have little to nothing to do with my daily needs. All this to say, there's not a whole lot going on in the way of the entertainment I had grown accustomed to living in Boston, where anything and everything was at my doorstep.

So I have baked. And I have cooked. I have done these things excessively, actually. Much of my inspiration has come from a little site called http://www.pintrest.com . I could explain it to you here, but if you click that link you'll get an idea of what the site's purpose is much more quickly. Over the last two weeks I have tried at least six recipes that have been posted on the site. In fact, I should probably start chronicling these mini adventures here... I've made a spaghetti calzone (pasta inside of bread... didn't really realize the unnecessity of this until i was making it, but oh well), drunken gummi bears, marshmallow fondant (easy! and it keeps for months), chick-fil-a replica chicken nuggets (I didn't achieve chick-fil-a perfection but these were tasty, if a bit much in the prep and cleanup departments), and rainbow cake (SO MUCH FUN! we're about half way through the cake that I made and I am still delighted each time I see it!). Recipes I have on my radar include but are not limited to chocolate chip cookie cups, safe-to-eat cookie dough dip, three-bean soup w/ turkey meatballs and dijon mustard dumplings, chewy pretzel bites, and "crash hot potatoes". I'll keep you all posted.

Pintrest is also great for Do It Yourself crafty ideas, home decor, fashion, art, etc. I looked through a few outfits that were posted and got enough inspiration to head to the thrift stores, buy shirts and sweaters for a dollar or two each, and create some really cute, stylish looks. I have a lot of room to grow in the style area, I'll admit, but this is a start- also, having a super cheap and large thrift store in Bangor helps too.

Of paramount importance to me is that I dont lose my motivation to accomplish "things" on a daily basis. I am itching to get myself back into an exercise routine and hopefully I can get to this before I start working again (by the way- I'm job searching several times each day, every day, on about 6-8 different websites; I find that I submit 1-6 resumes/applications daily, albeit to jobs for which I'm qualified but not passionate. the job market up here is flat, but I suppose having a job at all is a blessing for the now).

So here's to a new start with this blog, I hope.