Movie Club

Sunday my other half & I hosted "Movie club potluck" at our place. It was interesting and fun. I was a little nervous that either no one would show, or that so many people would show that I'd want to hide under my bed. Neither of these two fears came true, which was great. We had a small crowd, but it worked out great because no one had to trip over each other. Actually, I rather enjoyed it being a small crowd and would do it again without hesitation.

One of the "dishes" I made was this incredibly easy "appeaser pizza". It literally took like 5 minutes to prep and 10 to cook, and was pretty good... so here is the recipe in case anyone wants it. (Tam, this would be great for you!)

1 pkg. refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
fresh garlic (recipe calls for 1 clove pressed but I used 3)
tomatoes (chopped)
Italian spices
Parmesan Cheese (I didn't use fresh, but did add fresh Mozz cheese)

Preheat oven to 400.
1. Cut the buttermilk biscuits (uncooked) in half to double the amount. Form circle, and press edges of biscuits together.
Lightly coat with Olive Oil
Press garlic over biscuits
Add Chopped Tomatoes, season with Italian seasoning.

Pop in oven for 10-11 minutes, until lightly brown. Evenly spread grated Parmesan cheese, and add cheese if desired. Let cheese melt and serve!

Hmmm... good. The leftovers are going to be my lunch today!

Are you with the Cali Cartel?

I notice I've used this blog mostly to rant... so here is a funny story.
If you know me, you know I'm Colombian, and you know that's a source of humour for me as well. Colombia is notorious for coffee and the Cali Cartel which was one of the largest Cocaine import/exporters. Part of the humor is that I'm not a fan of either of those 2 products- so I can't be Colombian.
Anyway, as most of my previous posts have been about- I sold land. I've had some money movement on my accounts because of this. I went to my local bank, filled out my deposit slip and signed the check for a rather hefty deposit. Keep in mind I am only depositing the money, not cashing it, so this should be a quick transaction.
So the teller takes my deposit slip & the check and walks away from the window. I wait. I am waiting. I am still waiting. Finally she comes back to the window, looks at me and says "What is this money from? Is it legitimate? Are you planning on moving the money immediately?"

I'm in a little bit of shock, as this is my normal everyday bank, and haven't had any problems with deposit before.
I very politely say "I'm sorry but I don't see how that's any of your concern."

I think I've offended this older woman, and I think she thinks she's offended me, because her next remark is "Well. Well..ah.. I just want to make sure this is a valid check and not some kind of check fraud. We have seen more of that lately you know."
No I didn't know. Had I not been in a hurry, I would have liked to further concerned this lady and said "I'm told the check is real, and yes I'll be moving the money around to various accounts immediately to keep it from being traced."
But I don't, instead I kindly point out that the check has the name, address and telephone number of a local law office, so if she was concerned if I was involved in check fraud she could easily call the law office that issued the check.
There isn't much you can say back to that now can you? So she deposits my check and kindly reminds me that the money may not be immediately available. Ok lady, I get it, you see me and have heard that there is a high population of Colombians in the area who are pedalling for the Spanish mob, drug lords and other high profile cartels.

I thought this was hilarious, and was in no way offended at all, just purely funny!! I went back to my office and told the story of how my Colombian drug cartel roots must have been showing!

Lone ranger

So with selling my land, I have some cash flowing in instead of constantly out, which is by far a much nicer thing. I have goals of what I'm going to do with that money, like put some in a Roth IRA for my future, as well as set most of it aside as a down payment for when I find a house. Those are my bigger goals, however I also want to use just a tiny amount to go on a little trip. Now part of me wants this trip to be to India or Colombia for a month, but the pragmatic side of me says, no a week off is enough. So I'm going with a week or so off. Here's the thing, while there are so many places that I want to go... where do I go?
And another thing, I am awful about doing activities by myself. I mean it, I won't do something by myself even though I'll tell other people they can do the same things by themselves. I know, hypocrite right? For example, I will not go out to a restaurant and sit and enjoy a meal by myself. I won't go to the movies by myself. I know, I know... get over it already, but I really don't do either of those things by myself. I also get very shy when meeting new people, and even more so if it's a crowd of people. I don't talk to strangers, really I don't, I get anxious or something. So again, I want to go to all these places, but traveling by myself and being in all the fore mentioned situations makes me nervous. I know, I'm a big baby. It's not that I don't like people, (except in large hoarding crowds) it's just I get nervous and everything slows down, like my reaction time, my ability to think of quirky come backs, or to think at all. So I shut down, I just observe people and don't say much if anything. It's hard to meet new people like that. I am aware of that. I don't like that I'm this way, I just haven't been able to change my default reactions. I'm working on it. Also, speaking in public... for work or not... not a good thing, I try very very hard to avoid those situations, sometimes to no avail.
Also I was born much older than my age, even when I was twelve my dad would say I was going on 35. While I don't think it's bad that I'm a little on the serious side, it's not as much to be around than say someone who wears rose colored glasses. Know what I mean? Ok so as part of my efforts to become less uncomfortable with meeting new people, I've been "forcing" myself to go do group things. One of the sites that I often read & post on has a section titled "clubs", like a bowling club, a knitting club etc.. I've gone to the bowling club with hesitation because it's a group, plus I'm an awful bowler, and if I'm not doing well I'm not happy! Luckily I've been able to get my SO to go with me on those couple outing so that lessens some of my stress. I've also forced myself to go to the knit nights (S.O refuse :-p) and the first night I think I may have said 5 words total. It was hard, I came home and my S.O. knowing I get nervous asked me how it went, who went, was it fun, etc. Kudos for him for paying attention and asking, but I ended up feeling a little down. I confessed I felt isolated even being in the group, & how different I was from them and I wasn't sure if I'd go again. At home and around my friends, you can't shut me up, and I can be quick witted, and even funny! But with strangers...
Mike took in what I said, and sort of gets quiet while I'm talking and then says, "You sat in the corner and didn't say anything didn't you?"
I sort of hate that he knows that's what I did, because it's not what I want to do, but also glad that he understand me.
So I resolve to try again... and I do, sort of. This time I convince one of my friends to go with me, which I'm not sure if that made a difference this time or not. There was a slightly different mix of people this time, and it was at a different location and the "vibe" was somehow different. I actually didn't spend much time talking to the friend I brought with me, as another knitter was helping her with a problem. I'm not really sure what was different, I think because the group was different and the conversations were also different and more upbeat that I was more at ease, either way the second gathering was better.
I'm eager to meet new people because it would be nice to know more people with similar interests, but also to help keep this agoraphobia in check so that I don't become the locked in cat woman.

Ok, but I've diverged from my original point. I want to travel, but not by myself. My SO is unable to take time off because of transferring departments, and I don't want to wait an entire year to take vacation. My "solution" was to ask a couple of girl-friends who I've know literally since Elementary school to do a girls trip. Sounds like the ideal solution to me. So I email them both, we'll call them J and N, and told them of my thoughts and if they wanted to, when/where and what not. I send the email already thinking that I know what answer will be given by both. J of course was excited, but we would have to keep it short and work it around a weekend she didn't have to work b/c she had already planned a trip in November & didn't have earned time. No big deal, we can work with that, I had initially wanted to go longer than 4 days, but I'm flexible. So I count J in. I'm waiting and waiting to hear back from N, knowing she checks her email at least once a day. I don't hear back about the trip, but she responds to a later email I sent about something completely unrelated. I know she's read the other email. I also know N does very little in the way of time off without her husband, so I'm figuring the lack of response is her saying No. Her lack of ability to do anything without her husband has already been a sore point for me and J, but we figure it's her life and hope she'll come to understand that wedding vows don't mean you are only allowed to be with your husband. The old N used to be more spontaneous and fun to be around, and unfortunately we see the old N rarely these days. I keep hoping she'll lighten up, but...
So anyway, knowing N, I decide to call her and put her on the spot to why she doesn't want to go. She flows out all the same old excuses that she always has, and I call her on each one... we go back and forth, but it's useless. My point to N is that her husband takes vacations without her, he doesn't mind N doing things w/o him, and someday, probably when she's old, she'll look back and regret not doing more things in her life. We go back and forth again (neither of us are fighting, we're just reasoning) and finally I give up and say if you don't want to do anything, go anywhere or have any new experiences that's your life, but it's not the type of life I would want. I admit I was getting annoyed with her. I couldn't' help it, I felt like shaking her and yelling you're going to miss life while your living in your little bubble!! Augh.

So I'm beginning to think I'm going to have to take a trip by myself to save off the aggravation from trying to plan things that will work for everyone. Which pushes me back to dealing with strangers, while being a stranger in a strange place.