Halfway.

According to my calendar and this tree on my block, my semester is now halfway over. In less than two months, I’ll be finished with grad school.

That little fact hasn’t quite set in yet, but the cold weather is starting to.  Battling the urge to hibernate has proven more difficult than I’d imagined. Looking forward to seeing my family and home in less than two weeks. Looking forward to a brief change in scenery.

 

I love you, fall, for allowing me the pleasure of consuming pumpkin like a maniac.

Normally I don’t post about my baking exploits, but today I must. I made pumpkin scones this morning, and they were the most delicious thing to ever come out of my tiny oven. If heaven is anything like what I imagine, it will smell exactly the way my apartment smells this second. Good Lord I am a happy person right now.

Shamelessly proud of these

Glamour shots of scones are difficult

Shame on me for underestimating you

And here’s the recipe in case you’re interested:

Ingredients:

For the Scones:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 tablespoons half-and-half
• 1 large egg

For the Powdered Sugar Glaze:

• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with fit the paddle attachment, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Add the butter and toss with a fork to coat with the flour mixture. Mix on medium-low speed until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with the butter pieces no larger than small peas.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, half-and-half and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and form the dough into a ball. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form into a 1-inch thick rectangle about 4 inches by 12 inches. Use a large knife to slice the dough making three equal portions. Cut each of the portions in an X pattern (four pieces) so you end up with 12 triangular slices of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.
4. While the scones are cooling, make the powdered sugar glaze by mixing the powdered sugar and milk together until smooth. When scones are cool,  spread glaze over the top of each scone.
5. Consume scones and suddenly become the happiest person alive.

A new policy…for better or worse.

Last week was a big one. For no other reason except for that I decided I was going to implement a change in my basic life policy. You might be thinking, “Uh, what in the world is she talking about?” Easy. Let me explain.

Well I have a coworker at the salon named Cameron who moved to New York a few years ago to be an actor. Recently he has started to try to do stand-up comedy at an open mic night in Brooklyn every couple of weeks. Last week, he invited me to go as I was on my way out of work and I told him politely that I’d get back to him and proceeded on my merry way.

I got on the train to head back to Queens and was mulling over the idea of going out to Brooklyn to see the show. All of a sudden I thought, “What? Duh! Come on, Julia. Go.” Maybe my thought didn’t go exactly like that, but it was then and there that I came up with my new policy. So, here it goes: If someone asks me to do something, and it doesn’t put my life or anyone else’s in jeopardy, I will hands down say yes. No questions asked. My rationale? Whether I end up at places or events that I think are lame or I would have never gone to otherwise, they will all be opportunities for me to see parts of the city I haven’t yet and meet people I wouldn’t have met otherwise.  I need to stop shying away from an idea if it pushes me outside my comfort zone. Instead, I’m going to embrace the hell out of it.

Even in just a week, this policy has already brought me fond memories and bucket loads of laughs. The comedy show was hilarious, but not necessarily because of the comedians. That was just an added bonus.  As I strolled up to the bar to order myself a beer, I looked around and immediately realized I was 1 of 3 white people in the building. Not only that, but I was definitely the only white female. Who cares, right? Normally, that’s exactly right, but I was at a comedy show. From past experience I have learned that if you stand out in any way at such a show, you’re about to have it coming to you. That night I heard it all.  Luckily, I’ve got some tough skin and a good sense of humor so it was really no big deal. (even Cameron applauded me for it!)

I’d have to say the best I heard was a guy who sang the chorus of this song to me a few times:

Priceless. You can only imagine my face.

So, that was the comedy show. The next day my coworker Damon came up to me midday and asked me if I’d be willing to take some pictures for his wife who is just getting started in photography. Without hesitating I said yes. After work he styled my hair and we went out to take photos in Little Italy. She is photoshop obsessed so the pictures are all pretty strange. Here are some of the products of that night…don’t be alarmed:

whaaa?

Gettin' ready..

intense.

Gate shot

Swirls 'n twirls

Blurfitti.

kewl

Right. As you can see, they are all a little weird but interesting nonetheless. Plus, Damon bought me cheese pizza and diet coke: two of my all time favorite things in the world. It was totally worth it for that alone.

Then on Friday, I worked all day. Around 5 o’clock I went on my lunch break as usual. I normally like to switch it up between going to get sushi or walking up to Whole Foods and buying myself a wrap or Panini and some sort of “healthy” dessert.  This was a Whole Foods day for sure.  So, I stroll up to the WF and I get my food and wait patiently in line to check out. I finally get up to pay and my cashier starts talking about he wished he was off work so he could go get ready for his show later that night. We start joking about  work and start talking about the show. All of a sudden he says, “Oh, you should come! My band sucks but it will be really fun!” (First of all, clearly he is not a salesman. Thanks for the honesty, buddy, but you probably shouldn’t go around telling people that and expect them to come see you.) Anyway, he hands me a card with the band’s name on I run along and eat my lunch. As I’m sitting there eating I think to myself, “Oh no! MY RULE!”  Technically, he invited me to his show. You know what that means.  I text my friend Cameron (the actor) and inform him of the situation and he agrees to join me after work. The show was in the basement of a bar in Brooklyn. We get there and head downstairs. To our surprise, the band was awesome! Yes, his band that he told me “sucked” turned out to be really good. Of course it did. So Cameron and I listened and enjoyed, then headed upstairs for a beer after their set. After 20 minutes of sitting and talking, I see the guy in the band who was my cashier at WF. I let him know that yes, I had come down to see him after our brief conversation at Whole Foods. He was completely floored. “Whoa! That never happens! That’s awesome.” So then he bought Cameron and I both a  beer.  Success.

All in all, this policy hasn’t really failed me yet. I’m totally prepared if it does, but I can’t help but think this could lead me to some great experiences.

I’ll start posting all the stories that come as a result of this policy. Here I go..!!