Category Archives: why

April 6, 2011

WHY leave?

By simply three cents

This week’s WHY Wednesday questions why some travelers leave their comfort zone, only to eat foods that they are familiar with and know.

This was in the NYT and is crazy! The best part of traveling is eating like the locals…I don’t travel to faraway lands so I can eat cheese fries.

I have so many fond food memories from my travels but some of my favorites are getting freshly sliced cheese from a Swiss cheesemonger, spicy sausage on a roll with the local sauce in Bosnia and some unidentified tapas plate in Spain that the bartender sent over.

Personally, I’m not traveling just so I can eat something that I would eat after a night out at the bars when I was 22.

Eating while traveling is about finding a local market, tasting things on the menu you can’t get at home and being offered foods that you wouldn’t otherwise try. I ate fruits I never heard of in Costa Rica, I ordered fondue in Brussels only to find out that was actually mozzarella sticks and drank locally sourced milk at a market in Denmark!

Yes, sometimes there can be a negative experience. Like the time the boyfriend ordered the daily special in a small town in Tuscany and wound up getting a plate of fresh meat. So fresh, and chewy, in fact that he, a meat lover, had to follow each bite with a glass of water and a sip of wine. The place was small, and the staff attentive. Not wanting to insult, he finished most of the plate. I went with the pasta special of the day. Even now, years later, I remember how good my gnocchi and wine tasted. But he tried his, didn’t like it and didn’t insult anyone either and now we have a great story.

If something is on the table that you’ve never seen or tried, at the very least, take a bite! You’ll find yourself eating foods you wouldn’t have otherwise found!

Now the exception to this french fry story is ordering pommes frites in Belgium…you’ll need to get them topped with a few squirts of mayo, just like the locals!

Do you have any fond food memories? Feel free to post in the comments section.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in food, things that make me smile, tips, travel, wanderlust, why, WHY Wednesday

April 4, 2011

Pedicure on the Brain

By simply three cents

The pedicure I had this past Friday, the color of the rented Nissan Cube that I want on my toes, and my scalding shower injury brought to mind pedicures and injury. Again, not so common. But for me, and my luck, it happened. 

I have a long, injury filled history with pedicures, and I can’t find the write up for “The Pedicure that Required a Tetanus Shot.” Instead I found this…a saved email exchange between myself, my sister and a friend while I was getting a pedicure. This happened a few years after “The Pedicure that Required a Tetanus Shot.” When I find that story, I will post it (yes I do save these things). In the meantime, happy reading.

me: Am getting a pedi and the woman is pulling the gross dirt out of my toenail and it looks like where she pulled started to bleed under my nail in that crevice with the skin. She doesn’t speak English well but she thinks its the old color. But she already cleaned thre old color off. What do I do? This place is right by work and work peeps go here. Ughhhhhhhhh is my tetanus shot still valid from a few yrs ago?? My foot is soaking in the water so I can’t see if its blood or not.
friend: Tell her its bleeding get some peroxide. I think you need to start getting the expensive pedis. The cheap places aren’t doing well for you — ouch!

sister: Why do you continue to go to those places? I’ve never had anything but problems when I get a pedi from someone I can’t communicate with. It may be pricier to go elsewhere but it’s well worth it in the long run. Also, why do you have so much dirt under your nail?

me: Dirt=Flip flops in the city! And it wasn’t dirt for that incident I think it was skin she pulled from under my toenail. It was long and skin like. It didn’t look like dirt when she pulled but there is dirt elsewhere. I just inspected and I think she pulled some skin off leaving me with a small hole. Nothing drastic. And some of it may have been color.

me: Ok I peeked at my toe. But can’t tell. She’s telling me polish on the skin. Why doesn’t she clean it off then???? I can’t tell and the color I picked is dark so I’m not going to be able to tell once she paints. But when I leaned she was spraying that stuff on my legs and I think it got in my face. I should be banned from pedicures.

sister: I only get dirt on the bottom of my feet from wearing flip flops… Anywho… try to enjoy the rest of the pedi but if you go back to those kinds of places again I love you but I don’t want to hear about it. You need to go to the type of pedi place where they give out sedatives like candy and wake you when they’re done!

1 Comment | posted in doctor, in and around NYC, observations, why

April 3, 2011

Idiotic Injuries

By simply three cents

Yep. I’m so good at it.

Most people when taking a shower, get the water temperature just right before hopping in. Especially when you are in a hotel and not as familiar with the faucet. Oh not me. I jumped in when I thought it was good.

First, it was a little too cold. So I leaned toward the faucet making it hotter. Too hot. So leaned again. INTO the stream of now scalding hot water. My poor left side of my head got the brunt of the stream.

I’m writing this a day later and scheduling it for yesterday but my head still feels hot. And achy.

Googling any combination of “scalding hot water hits head” directs you to faucet buying websites and blogs about people who got burned while COOKING. Clearly showering and getting scalded is not an event that many people ask questions about. Probably because it doesn’t happen to many people.

Just me.

2 Comments   |  tags: | posted in why

March 31, 2011

The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray

By simply three cents

In other words, expect the unexpected.

Knowing full well that I have a wedding this weekend I was planning on borrowing a dress from a girlfriend. I was also going to pack earlier this week so I didn’t have to jam it all in on Thursday night. But alas, plans change.

All week I came home from work, put on pajamas and settled in front of the television. (Hey, it’s been a long week with the unexplained stomach pains and not feeling my regular, perky self.) So of course, plans to borrow a dress from said friend kept getting pushed and pushed.

Because last night was the last possible night before leaving for the weekend, I had to revisit the plan and instead borrow from other friends who live closer…and now in merely one night of popping around town picking up dresses, I now have a whopping five dresses to choose from. I eliminated one already (too summery for this weekend’s winter weather) but I have no issues with packing four dresses. I mean, it’s not like I need to bring four pairs of shoes…two will suit me fine. The boyfriend seemed to have a slight issue with bringing four dresses. It’s not like we are bringing extra luggage…we’ve got the room, and I am a light packer so it’s really not an issue.

This is not a matter of procrastination. Like the title of this post, it’s just plans gone astray. I should have had the dress in my closet a week ago. I also should have started packing before last night. It’s just a weekend but still packing the night before, even for the most organized of packers (yes, me!) is just my thing. I like to pack a little and start getting through my list, throughout the week. At least I had the list written.

And finally, I would just like to clarify that packing of four dresses is not indecision. I have so many options now that it’s going to be a game time decision.

Leave a comment | posted in packing, shopping, why

March 30, 2011

WHY, Color Me Clueless

By simply three cents

Here’s the second installment of WHY Wednesday.

At work, I sit in an open plan with about 100 people. I happen to sit very close to a color printer, which I NEVER EVER use. When it jams or needs a new color cartridge, WHY do people that need help assume I know how to fix it, or where the cartridges are even housed? Just because I sit nearby? Truthfully, I have no idea how to fix it and besides, printer problems confuse me.

If I happen to know there’s a jammed printer around, I just won’t print. (Come on, you know you do it too.) And Sherlock, there are about 10 cabinets close to the printer so I’d deduce that the color cartridges might just be living in one of them. Happy hunting.

Brought to you by WHY? Wednesday.

Leave a comment | posted in observations, peeves, why, WHY Wednesday

March 29, 2011

Bruised Arms, Black and Blues and Broken Glasses

By simply three cents

Judging from the title of this post, you would have thought I got in a fight. I look and feel it but thats’ just not so.

Four days after my ER experience and I now look like a battered woman on both of my arms. The nurse’s needle work  from taking my blood and inserting an IV have caused my arms to look like I got beat up. Like seriously black and blue. And! Oh this is great, I have a wedding on Saturday.

Will need to find some fantastic makeup to cover these bruises up. Oh, what’s that you say? Go into my makeup and find the best cover up? Oh that’s funny. I am probably the only 30 something year old woman whose makeup supply is barely non-existent. Mascara, eye cover up that doesn’t work on plain old eye circles, a couple of lipsticks and an eyeshadow palatte is not going to cut it for these bruises. That will be a fun trip to explain why my arms look the way they do when seeking professional guidance.

And to sweeten the pot, just as I was about to walk out the door for the first of several doctor’s follow up appointments yesterday, I went to wipe off my glasses lenses, and wouldn’t you know it…they snapped in half. The timing is impeccable. Thankfully I already have a prescription for lenses and I did buy frames while in Argentina, so today I had the pleasure of figuring out my vision benefits and where I can get my lenses made. Now I just need to take care of that, oh ASAP, since I can’t see without contacts or glasses. As an added bonus, I have very dry eyes, so I like to take my contacts out as soon as I get home, so I really need to fill that prescription quickly — otherwise, no TV this week.

What also sucks is that I sleep in those frames and they had yet to break. Furthermore, I have had those frames for years, and they were going to be my backup pair for times like these. And that plan went haywire.

I know in the scheme of things, this is hardly a crisis. I think it’s G-D’s way of making me laugh.

Leave a comment | posted in doctor, why

March 28, 2011

Pain Poem

By simply three cents

I have unexplained pain
Does it mean that it will rain
Poked and prodded with more than one test
I need to know what’s wrong, alas I cannot protest
There’s been no one to explain
I wish my medicine was champagne.

1 Comment | posted in doctor, just silly, why

March 23, 2011

WHY? Wednesdays

By simply three cents

I have decided to introduce a new topic just for Wednesday’s posts…they will be called “WHY? Wednesday”

Feel free to participate! Send me your WHY? Wednesday moment and I will include in a future WHY? Wednesday post. Also, as with this entire blog, please feel free to leave comments.

So here goes…the first official WHY? Wednesday post is:

When you are waiting for the elevator and the button is already pressed, and lit up, why do people insist on pushing it again? Will it make the elevator come faster?

Brought to you by WHY? Wednesday.

1 Comment | posted in introduction, just silly, observations, why, WHY Wednesday

March 22, 2011

Super Soaker

By simply three cents

Doh! In the bathroom at work, there are three sinks. I went to use the middle sink (as there was someone on the far left). About the time I realized there was no soap, a girl I knew was about to use the right sink.

Since I knew her I excused myself and leaned over to use the soap dispenser, which was on the right side of that sink. Would have been all well and good except my arm happened to be directly under the faucet, which is a hands free, triggered by motion.

Because my reaction time was too slow, most of my sleeve got completely soaked through.

It was as if I had dunked my arm in a pool of water. Blotting with paper towels did nothing. I was so soaked I actually had to wring my sleeve out.

Note to self: roll sleeves up. So basic, really.

Leave a comment | posted in just silly, why

March 21, 2011

Who Would Have Thought?

By simply three cents

After weeks of hobbling up and down stairs, along with the knee, leg and achilles pain since we returned from Argentina, I decided to visit one of my bff’s…the orthopedist.

I tell him the story and he doesn’t seem surprised that I am in pain. He also tells me that my achilles is swollen. Of course I ask about it popping and he said the chance is so minor. Hello, do we not know my luck?

He did the exam and then took some x-rays of the left knee. He also had me hop on my left foot. Before I do it, I ask it if could pop. He said if it does, you are already in my office. This is not comforting.

Diagnosis: I have tendonitis in both my knees and in my achilles. He wrote me a script for physical therapy. The left leg pain, just under the knee, is just a massive bruise and we’ll just have to wait that out for the pain to go away.

What a relief. Don’t get me wrong because clearly this is a pain – pun totally intended. But, as I’m a bit of a hypochondriac I had actually been anticipating emergency surgery to repair whatever it was that could have been broken, torn or otherwise damaged. So tendonitis? I can take that.

What is surprising is that I must have injured both knees at the time of hopping over crevices and hiking up and down the glacier but then, the pain on the right was so much more. Who knew I actually screwed up both.

Back to physical therapy!

Leave a comment   |  tags: | posted in doctor, why