Peanut Butter Taffy

Happy Orthoversary to me! Oh, you've never heard of an Orthoversary? It's quite simple. Today is the one year anniversary of getting my braces on! (Actually it was this weekend, but I was busy playing in the snow). It has been one full year with my fancy ceramic braces, metals wires and rubber bands.

When I first had the braces put on, I was very nervous. So many of my friends had ortho as teens and they all had varying horror stories of how terrible their time in braces had been. There was the initial attaching, the tightening and the monthly adjustments. This all sounded terrible.

Fast forward one year. Let me tell you, this has not been a bad experience. Granted, most of my major tooth adjustments took place in the first few months. The past few months have shown minor changes in my bite and the way my teeth align. I hardly notice the brackets anymore and have learned to speak and smile with them. I can't imagine what it will be like when I no longer have them on!

At my last orthodontist appointment, I was told I was making excellent progress and should have them off by the end of summer! So while I haven't really had any problems with the braces, I'm looking forward to them being gone. Why? I miss popcorn! Biting into an apple! Chewy caramels! I haven't had a piece of gum for a year!

I've been trying to be really good and follow the list of dos and don'ts that I was given all those months ago. I feel like it will help my progress I I follow directions meticulously. Only six to eight months to go and that's when we'll really celebrate!

Wilde Week #3

1. It may be my inner Buffalonian, but I'm not seeing this most recent winter storm as the "Storm of the Century!"  I remember brushing eight inches of snow off my car before heading to school many a morning. And this stuff will be melted by the end of the week, in Buffalo - snow sticks around until May.

2. Success!  Wednesday night, Boyfriend and I hit the Willowbrook mall.  I was a woman on a mission to find my kelly green jeans.  After trying on at least seven pairs in five different stores, I settled on one pair and bought them.  Then while walking out of Bloomingdales, BF spotted a pair of even better ones - on sale!  I returned the pair I had just bought and got myself some kelly green Michael Kors skinny jeans.  I wore them to work on Thursday.

3. I've been totally obsessed with nail polish these days.  As a grad student and Postdoc, I spent so much time in the lab, elbow deep in acetone, there was no way to keep my finger nails pretty.  This week I'm wearing "Black Taxi" by Nails Inc - London, topped off with "A Cut Above" by Essie.  So SPARKLY! 

4. This weeks book - The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom.  Though this book is called an "adult fairy tale" I still feel like the age demographic for this book is much younger.  A story about the man who became Father Time, this book could easily have a book report written about it with the last sentance being - The moral of this story was..."  Luckily I got this book through the digital library and didn't spend money on a book that took only two days to read.

5. I began Crossfit this week!  Apparently you can't just start at a Crossfit gym, you have to go through a four-class fundamentals training.  This training has been really tough for me, not because I've never been to the gym before, but because I've been too much!  I'm a trained and certified BodyPump instructor and every move in Crossfit is contradictory to what I learned in BodyPump training.  I keep getting yelled at by the trainers because my brain is hardwired for Pump and I'm totally doing a squat "wrong." 

6. Everyone out there buried in snow, maybe you should set some time aside and make a snowman - Maybe like one of these!  It's heavy, packing snow out there.  Get to it!  Shoveling can wait!  Long Island, you probably have enough snow to make #11 happen!

7. I discovered one down side to moving to Brookyln.  No Sephora!  Can you believe that there is not a single Sephora in all of Brooklyn!  At least I'll save money, which I can spend on deep fried Mars bars at Chipshop.

Homemade Granola

I love commuting on the train, but it's days like these that make me really wish I drove to work.  Or that I owned a car.  My imaginary car would have a fancy remote starter so that I could warm up the car (and of course its heated seats) while I finished primping for work. 

Instead, I pile on layer after layer of sweater, jacket, scarf, earmuffs, hats, gloves and mittens.  Yes, it takes me at least five minutes to get ready to go outside.  This is funny actually, because I spend as little time outside as possible.  NJTransit has this fancy "departurevision" section on their website.  It tells me how much longer I can stay in my warm apartment before the train rolls into the station.  Love it.

So what has this winter brought me?  A smaller pants size!  Seriously.  I spent two months out of this winter completely ill.  Bronchitis, sinusitis, cold after cold.  I spent two months eating soup and orange juice, or nothing at all because "eating takes too much energy."

The cold weather has helped me keep those ten pounds off.  How you might ask?  It's too cold to go out for lunch!  Why leave my cozy office and go outside to pick up a (fill in your favorite unhealthy lunch here) when I could stay in front of my (illegal) space heater eating a salad I threw together at home.  I'm thinking I'll put back on those pounds I lost during the summer, when it's warm enough to go and get piles of Thai food for lunch.

A girl does not stay full on salad alone though.  Around four o'clock, after running around the lab for a few hours, I indulge in... yogurt!  I know, I'm so bad.  But you should totally get yourself some yogurt and make this granola. 

Can you believe that in my year of homemade everything challenges, I'm only now making my own granola!  I feel like you can throw anything in with a whole ton of oats and you've got granola.  You could be all - "Hey, I made this macadamia nut, coconut and dried jalapeno pepper granola, it's so good for you!"  Or "What?  You haven't tried the new beef jerky and fried plantain granola?"  Just put some oats with anything and BAM - granola.