I got up early this morning.  Like, super early (for me).  7:20am was when I opened my eyes and rolled out of bed.  Why?  Because even though I’m unemployed, I feel I should adapt myself to a somewhat normal schedule and stop living like I’m in college.  Maybe an employer will take note of my initiative and think, “I really need to hire that girl.”

Please.  Please hire me.

Anyway, I woke up to a rainy morning and this adorable view:

Oh Seuss, you’re so cute I can’t even stay mad at you when you puke on the bathroom floor.

That’s true love right there.

I thought I’d have a wintery breakfast this morning since it seemed to coincide with the weather:

Irish oats with almond butter, raspberry Bonne Maman, raisins, and flaxseed.

I put on a pot of coffee, turned on the radiator in the living room and got to work job hunting.  I love when I get to turn on the radiator here.  Our apartment gets direct sunlight all day, so it’s rare that it gets cold enough to turn on the heat.  We pay a fixed fee for PG&E with our rent, so I always think it’s a little victory when I actually get to take advantage of that.

The heat was on for probably 20 minutes before the apartment got too hot and I had to turn it off.  Such is life.

I had a very productive morning.  I consolidated my loans finally, which is complicated and terrifying.  By the way law school, so far you’ve turned out to be a bang-up investment.  So glad I shelled out thousands to be unemployed almost a year after graduating.  (Yes, I’m aware the economy isn’t your fault.  But I still blame you.  A little.)

Enough about that though, let’s talk about happy things.  Like lunch:

Leftover fish taco with cabbage, apple-cucumber salsa, and Sriracha + coffee + cranberry water.

I don’t know what it is, but it’s almost like these tacos are getting better as they sit in the fridge.  Today’s was downright drool-worthy.

After lunch I put on my Lulus and headed out to the city on BART.  Alexis and I met at Peet’s for (more) coffee:

More important conversation:

I wish people would stop asking me how my job search is going.

It makes me want to roll my eyes and then fake a seizure to get out of answering the question.

I consolidated my loans.

What are your monthly payments?

Let’s hope $0.

And so on.

After coffee I took a private Bar Method class with Danielle.  (This is the benefit of being friends with instructors and working at the studio — private classes!)  We had a pretty good hour with the barre, and discussed many important boy-related topics.

After heading back to Oakland on BART, I realized it was sunny out.  Anytime you want to make up your mind on the weather, California, you just let me know.

Had a snack:

Orange and an egg.  Shocking, I know.

Talked to a recruiter who “can’t help” me.  Awesome day on the job front.  Awesome.

If you’re unemployed and looking for work — I feel your pain.

Had dinner at 5:34pm because I’ve turned into a 65 year old apparently.

Yet another leftover taco…  Not to worry, they’re finally gone now so I can get off this taco kick and y’all will see a new recipe on here soon.

The reason for the early-bird special (and my repetitive dinner) is because KC and I are headed to the A’s – Yankees game tonight (GO A’s!).  I’m making a pre-emptive strike against all ballpark snacks with my early dinner.  (We’ll see how this really pans out in a little bit, won’t we…)

Ok, off to put on my ballpark outfit!  I don’t think spandex Lulu pants and a hot pink workout top are really baseball appropriate…

Let’s go A’s!

I feel like I should add something to that title…  “Back with a Vengeance” perhaps?  Oookkk, crazy, let’s get down to business…

So now we’re at this morning — Sunday.  (Look at us almost up to date with the blogging!  Exciting.)  This morning was a little rough for some of us… (I’m not gonna name names, KC.  Errr, maybe I am.)  Anyway, after moving a little slowly, we finally made it out of bed and got this show on the road.

Kashi for breakfast:

Post-breakfast activities were super blog-worthy (getting dressed, sorting laundry, loading up my tiny car with said laundry, me arguing with KC about him playing his new 25¢ CDs in my tiny car…  Yes, this is the stuff of legends.)

Ok, so then we drove to Walnut Creek, as we do almost every weekend because KC’s parents are nice enough to let us do laundry at their house for free.  (No laundromat?  I’m in.)

After throwing in a load of towels, we headed off to Crepes Ooh La La for lunch.  I love crepes.  KC and I have been frequenting this place since it was Crepes A Go Go and it was over on North Main.

I had a savory crepe: tomatoes, avocado, turkey, and cheddar:

Ahhhh yum!  I almost finished this…  I try so hard, but I can never seem to finish one of these.  I have dreams where I finish this and then have room for a sweet crepe… Oh strawberry and Nutella crepe, where have you been all my life??  Sadly, today was not the day.  (Note to self: if you ever decide to get knocked up… as in many, many years from now… remember to make daily trips to the crepe place.)

After crepes, there was switching of laundry and then we jetted off to Costco.  Oh Costco… You never cease to amaze me with the aisles and shelves full of things I never knew I needed (in such giant quantities).  We made it out of Costco with organic chicken breasts, some farmed (because there was no wild fish!  What the heck Costco??) steelhead trout, Cheerios (well hello, addiction), organic farro (so excited to make this!), a Camelback (KC says we’ll use it for hiking — yay!), and some real-sugar Coca Cola (KC’s special treat).  What did we not get?  Q-tips!  Where the heck were the Q-tips today Costco???  I searched high and low, and nothing.  Disappointing.

After Costco, there was more dealing with the laundry (clothes: when will you learn to clean yourselves?) then we headed out to Yogurt Park (or YoPa, as I call it) for a mid-afternoon snack:

That’s KC holding my mini chocolate/vanilla with Reese’s Pieces.  KC had chocolate and Irish mint:

So I have a little confession to make: I’m really not that big on ice cream, but I love frozen yogurt.  I could probably eat frozen yogurt almost daily (but I won’t… I prefer to save my sugar for dark chocolate.)

I almost finished my fro-yo.  Again, I can pretty much never finish one of these.  I always think, “It’s so tiny!  I’m gonna OWN this.”  Defeat.  Humiliation.  Ok, well, not humiliation… but you get the picture.

A word about this: I didn’t grow up in a household where I had to finish what was on my plate.  I understand that some people have some weird feelings going back to childhood about having to finish what’s in front of them; but learn to get over this, if you can.  You don’t have to finish anything you don’t want to.  (And considering the portion sizes of most restaurants, you shouldn’t finish what’s in front of you most of the time.)  Learn to eat more slowly and thoughtfully — listen to your body, it will tell you when it’s full.  People always make comments to me: “You never finish!”  “Did you even eat anything?”; but truth be told, I’ve just learned to listen to my body (for the most part) and I stop a little before getting full (because it takes about 10 minutes for your stomach to catch up with your brain — thus, why when you stop when you’re already full, you often end up feeling overly-stuffed).

Back to today: After yogurt, more laundry, then KC and I headed back downtown to enjoy the beautiful sunshine.  We walked around a bit.  Most stores were closed (hello 6:30pm on Sunday, you’re boring), but we did walk through Barnes and Noble where I marveled at the fact that there’s a magazine called “Modern Dog” (as opposed to “Old-fashioned Dog”?  I’d prefer my dog to be old-fashioned, frankly.  Maybe a 1920’s rebel who sets up a speakeasy to fight Prohibition…)

I digress…  After a million hours our laundry was finally done (I dream of the day when KC and I have an in-unit washer/dryer…) and we headed back to Oakland.

This is where things get exciting: I made chipotle fish tacos for dinner!

I adapted the recipe from a… Bon Appetit?  Food and Wine? (one of those…) recipe.  The original recipe calls for salmon, but seeing has Costco had no wild salmon, and Steelhead trout is cheaper (and very similar to salmon), I used that.  (You could probably use just about any fish for this recipe, or even steak, shrimp, chicken, or tofu.)

Starting with the fish: I used 1 lb. of fish, cut into 4 pieces.  On this I rubbed a mixture of 2 tsp. sugar, 2 tsp. chipotle chili powder, and 2 tsp. orange zest (basically, zest of 1 orange).  This then sat while I prepared the rest of the “accessories.”

Chopped cabbage.  I don’t need to explain this, do I?

2 tbsp. mayonnaise + juice of 1/2 a lime to go on top on the fish.

One mashed avocado.

Apple cucumber salsa: 1 peeled granny smith apple, 1/2 a cucumber (I like English cucumbers because they don’t need to be peeled/seeded), 1/2 a red bell pepper, 1/2 a small red onion — all this was diced and tossed with 1 1/2 tsp. sugar, 1 1/2 tbsp. white wine vinegar, and salt.  Easy peasy.

I then grilled the fish on high until it was just about cooked through (3-5 min per side, depending on how thick your fish is).  Note about this step: maybe it’s just me, but this basically turned my kitchen into Iceland (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you should really read or watch the news more).  Chipotle + grill pan apparently equals crazy smoke.  (KC thought I was dying while I was making this.  I may have emphysema as a result of making these tacos.)  Luckily, the end result was totally worth the smoke inhalation:

Serious deliciousness people!  I had two tacos…

Can I just say I love Mexican food, especially with a cold beer?  And, if it’s healthy like this — BONUS!  I put together the tacos like this: corn tortilla (I bought organic hand-made ones at Berkeley Bowl), some smashed avocado, 1/2 a piece of fish, little bit of lime mayo, shredded cabbage, apple cucumber salsa, and some Sriracha to top it all off.  Fresh, crunchy, spicy, creamy, and that insane combo of warm fish and cold salsa…  YUM.

I definitely recommend this recipe.  Perhaps a good plan for Cinco de Mayo?  Maybe you’d like to invite your friend Chelsea?  How nice of you!  Anyway, you can definitely wow a crowd with this one.  There’s sort of a lot of sides, but it’s all really easy to make (and you could definitely do most of the prep work earlier in the day, or probably even the day before.)

Ok, I’ve been blogging forever now and KC is wondering what the heck I’m doing and if I’m ever going to hang out with him again, so I’d better wrap this up.  Again, sorry for the late posts, but I hope your weekend was just as fun and eventful as mine!

Also, Happy Birthday April!  We had a great time yesterday!  🙂