Ramblings on autumn, personal goals and hummus | Hello Pretty Bird! - A beauty and not-so-glamorous lifestyle blog

19 September, 2013

Ramblings on autumn, personal goals and hummus

Ramble alert: I'm putting most of this post after the jump in case you don't want to hear me blather on about personal crap. You have been warned.

So, the seasons are changing again - as of Sunday, it will officially be autumn. Well, for those of us in the northern hemisphere. Autumn is a special time of year for me because it reminds me of new beginnings. It makes me nostalgic for the excitement of all those first days of school (before the realization that I would have to get up at the asscrack of dawn EVERY SINGLE DAY sunk in) - the possibility of new things to learn and of making new friends. Coincidentally, a couple of the times I've relocated across a great distance as an adult (cross-country and inter-continental) have been around August/September. So the change of seasons also reminds me of my life changing.


It's been a few years since I finished grad school and I don't plan on moving anytime soon, but as soon as the air gets a bit of a chill I get a big old whiff of nostalgia, you know? And that chill has finally descended upon New York over the past week or so. It's not cold yet, but it's jacket weather. Cool enough to wear socks inside the house, not chilly enough for the heaters to be on. Perfect. I've been cooking hearty soups and stews, like this monstrosity:




Pictured above is a creamy tomato and barley stew with kale. Not sure how appetizing that photo is, but it was really quite delicious. I used canned tomatoes and frozen kale, so this was a very pantry-friendly dish. Useful to have a few of those in your recipe box as the weather grows colder and the availability of fresh fruit and veg dwindles.

The change in seasons got me thinking about changes I'd like to make in my life in the upcoming months. While I have no plans to radically transform, there are a few things I'd like to work on:

  • I'd really like to keep improving this website. I only started blogging again three months ago (after a hiatus of several years), and it's been a major source of joy and amusement in my life lately. I don't really know what "improving" means yet, but I'm thinking about it.
  • I'd really like to get back into filming stuff. I've never been a Youtuber, but way back in the day before Youtube existed I used to make and edit short humorous videos. I can't guarantee that my future endeavors will be any good or that I'll still be funny, but I'll be damned if I don't at least try to make an ass of myself on camera. I'm looking into getting my hands on some equipment - stay tuned.
  • I'd really like to do more stuff that makes me happy. I'm not mega-depressed or anything, but being almost 30 and without a "real" career can make one feel awkward at times - especially here in New York, land of "work hard, play hard". The first question people tend to ask when they are introduced to you is "What do you do?" and I'm always like "This and that and some stuff hurr hurr hurr DERP." And then I talk about the full-time job I quit almost two years ago because it makes me feel more like a normal person. Anyway, when your professional life is a total mess I feel like it helps to at least have hobbies that keep you happy, so yeah, that.

Completely unrelated: Hummus! Stan (my boyfriend) keeps buying hummus because he thinks we're out of it (and we never are). So we currently have three half-eaten tubs of hummus in the fridge. He's also been doing the same thing with toilet paper lately - we currently have two and a half packages.  Is he stocking up because he's secretly building an underground bunker? Or is he just getting more forgetful? Oh, the mysteries of life.

OK, I'm done rambling now.


Do you have any personal or professional goals for the upcoming season? What would you like to see on this website in the future?

6 comments:

  1. That rice looks delicious! I'm gonna start studying in october so my goal will be working hard to get an internship and become really good at what I do..
    I'm not much into youtubing either and I prefer reading reviews more than watching them because they're always more precise and go to the point.
    Your boyfriend is funny haha

    X Laura

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    1. Good luck with your studies! I also prefer to read beauty reviews... a lot of YouTube reviews are too long for me to sit through. YouTube can be quite useful for tutorials and things like that though. I have some "creative" video ideas in mind that aren't strictly reviews, but I've got to get my hands on a camera first. :P

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    2. Thanks. What I hate about watching video reviews is how most of the people who make them spend 2-4 minutes talking about something irrelevant then actually start reviewing the product aftwerwards... Sometimes people don't know how to explain themselves properly in tutorials and I can't understand a thing :/! But oh well.

      I just noticed it's barley and not rice, I didn't even know what barley was until I googled it... lol, it's seldom used in spain I guess, but now I wanna try it :)

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    3. You should try it if you can find it! It's often used in stews and soups, but you can also cook it sort of like risotto, which is what I did above. It is much chewier than normal rice risotto would be though.

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  2. The stew looks tasty. :3

    I know the feeling of nostalgia. I tend to get a bit depressed in Autumn. We've just shifted into Spring now. It's my most productive season. Haha.

    Oh, man. The job question. It's what everyone asks to break the ice. But it just leaves me awkwardly like '... that thing about that is...'

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    1. I think a lot of people tend to get more depressed once the daylight hours grow shorter! Something about being in darkness constantly bums people out, go figure.

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