Jill of all Trades?

Folks! I'm back on the Rent-A-Center couch with my Richmond coffee and strange layering choices to ward off the chilly morning. Life is just sorta funny. Sometimes very. Listen to my week's highlights and I dare you to disagree:

+ I got a job! I am nannying for 2 precious little girls 4 days a week, about 20 hours total, 10 mins from my house. It's so perfect and I'm so so thankful for the blessing of it. So!

+ Leslie and I are continuing with our climbing escapades. We now belong to Rogue Rock gym, and now own equipment (minus a harness for me -- refer back to the no job thing). I gotta say... I feel pretttttty cool with my own climbing gear and can't wait to get all jacked up and whatnot. I've always been pint sized so maybe I'll get beefy and see if I can dominate those of you who have underestimated my scrappiness all these years.

- I ate beef. Why in the world did I think that was a good idea? For those of you who don't know, I was vegetarian for a year and very seldomly eat meat now... I'm a "high maintenance carnivore" or maybe "extremely selective/occasional meat eater" or maybe best - "vegetarian except when I don't wanna be." Either way - I bought some local beef. I cooked it. Ate it. Then died. For a few days. Saltines became my friends and I had a DTR with my stomach and we decided to not go there again.

+ As I said before, I love Craigslist. I especially love the "gigs" portion of Craigslist and somehow finagled a modeling job out of it this week with a local photographer, for an online Vintage store. Now, listen. Before you let your mind go any further with this... let's go back to college for a moment. Back to Kelli King and Facebook groups. Back to one particular group that was created to highlight how non-photogenic I can be ("Stacey Tester: so attractive yet photogenically incomprehensible"). As a fairly self-confident woman, I have NO problem saying this: I take some hideous pictures if I'm not careful. It's actually one of my favorite things about myself... so the fact that I am actually getting paid (sorta) for someone to take my picture might be one of the most ironic situations I've gotten myself into thus far.

But, alas, the irony continues:

- I agreed to do a photoshoot this week called "Trash the Dress" -- dress, like... wedding dress. And then. Disaster. The day before I'm supposed to do this... Leslie cooks that leftover death meat, the broiler starts smoking, and I go to open a window. I pull down on the blinds, hear a crashing sound, and feel something warm dripping down my nose. The blinds came off their hinges, pummeled down towards my face, and left a gaping wound right on the bridge of my nose. AWESOME. I think my email went something like this: "I was attacked by some window blinds. Don't think you wanted a trashed dress AND face. So next week if I'm healed?"

Moral of the story - beef killed me twice this week.

Moving on....

- Cooking dilemmas. I made sweet potato pie, which took me a good 3 hours. And here's why:Started off just fine! Peeled. Chopped. Notice Thomas Kemper Ginger Ale in the background.... Mackenzie Mumey, that's for you.

Realization 1 - I don't have a steamer. I didn't want to boil. Solution 1 - Collander. Propped up by 2 measuring cups so the potatoes didn't get soaked.

Realization 2 - Have to cover the collander and trap in the steam. Solution 2 - 3 pots. 1 lid. 1 pan. 30 minutes to steam. Can't say minimalism doesn't breed creativity.

OH, and here was my problem, and here is my face (before the swelling and bruising set in):

This weekend - we go to California and the Redwood National Forest! I'm stoked. But probably not as much as Lez, who has a serious tree obsession.

Love to all and I'd love some phone dates to connect our hearts. PEACE.