A twenty-something Hawaii transplant living it up on the East Coast for the past 10 years (Boston and Stamford, CT). This blog is to document my daily adventures and things that I find cool, uncool, hilarious, awe-inspiring, and annoying. Please feel free to email me at hawaiigurlinct@gmail.com.
February 9, 2012
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Connecticut, in a nutshell.
I have a co-worker that lives in Bridgeport. We tease him relentlessly about it. He’s this huge guy that can take care of himself. He also takes a cab for the 5 minute (walk) between the train station and his house when we work late because the one time that he didn’t he was harassed all the way home. Though he’s not sure if he was harassed by a girl gang, or hookers.
(via testeverything)
February 8, 2012
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People that take off their engagement / diamond rings before weigh-in at weight watchers
If it’s not some blinding 20 karat monstrosity - it’s not changing your weight.
February 7, 2012
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Chowdafest 2012
Saturday was for stuffing my face with 30 different chowders from Fairfield county restaurants at the Annual Chowdafest in Westport. I don’t remember ever hearing about a past Chowdafest but at some point in time I had written a note to myself to check out this February event. And who am I to argue with myself, after all? Turns out, I was not disappointed. Chowdafest 2012 was amazing!
(photo via The Daily Westport)
In a nut shell, 30 or so restaurants donate their time and their soup(s) to serve thousands of hungry fest-gatherers. Chowder loving people pay $6 for a ballot and a spoon in order to sample all the chowders and vote for their favorites. And all of that admission money goes to the Connecticut Food Bank. Pretty awesome… all the way around. But contributing to a good cause is not all you get if you are a winning restaurant. You also get the coveted chowdafest
trophyfootball helmet.
While almost all the chowders were extremely good, there were three that stuck out in my mind as the best of the best: Clam Chowder from Rory’s in Darien (already really good straight out of the soup vat but made infinitely better with a dab of sherry offered), and the Crab Chowder and Lobster Bisque, both from Stamford. Clearly I’m going to need to visit Rory’s this weekend to have an entire cup-full. And I’m going to have to start adding soups to my list of reasons to hit up the Crab Shell. I go there a lot during the summer, but it’s usually for the music and the beer.
And because I’m nothing if not service-y, here’s a couple of things I’ve learned to help you enjoy Chowdafest 2013 - because you really should go to it:
- Go
hungrystarving. Each serving was only a couple of tablespoons so I figured a professional stomach like mine was up to the challenge. But those tiny sampler cups are bigger than they look. I had to be rolled out of there when it was all over. - Go early. We got there with 2 hours to spare but already missed out on some that looked like they’d be sure winners in my book – especially an Oyster and Pork Belly Chowder from Nicholas Roberts Gourmet Bistro.
- Go with lots of time to spare. We were nervous about getting to try everything before they ran out (see #2) so there was a lot of burned tongues. Or just mine. But still.
- If you are lactose intolerant, plan accordingly. This is probably a pretty obvious one to everyone, but I don’t know what I was thinking. I have a pretty mild case of it – pop a pill before eating a bowl of cereal and no party foul. But somehow I didn’t put together that a) chowder has cream in it and b) I would be consuming A LOT of chowder (see #1).
Now don’t let a little thing like being lactose intolerant stop you. I subscribe to the Anthony Bourdain school of thought:
“Good food and good eating are about risk. Every once in a while an oyster, for instance, will make you sick to your stomanch. Does this mean you should stop eating oysters? No way.”
I can’t wait for next year.
- Go
February 6, 2012
February 5, 2012
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Day 2 - February 2 - Words
In particular, words that make me laugh. Yet, they are so true.
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Agreed.
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Spam absolutely loved the puppy bowl’s kitten halftime show!
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Day 1 - February 1 - Your View Today
Welp, here we go again.This was my view on February 1st. It was a big deal. A very big deal.
As you know, I am the queen of lazy-dom. The queen of making up hundreds of excuses why I cannot exercise today. Which isn’t a problem, because I’ll just exercise tomorrow. Or the day after that.
But that was all changing and I was on my way from couch potato to marathoner. Sure, that was a little presumptuous as I hadn’t even made it to a 5K yet but I was sticking to my work out for two months (I don’t think I’ve lasted that long consecutively working out since I was 20). Instead of saying my ankle or back was too sore, I massaged muscles with bengay and added ankle braces to my gym bag. When the pain got really bad I would yell to myself, “you are better than this!”
That peptalk worked on January 2nd when my abdomen was killing me from what I assumed was a prolonged New Year’s Eve hang over. It was hard to stand without being in pain. So I stared at myself in the mirror and said, “suck it up Sonja. You’ve come this far. You are going to do this!!!” And I did. I’m proud of that. But the next day all that work came to a grinding halt when I found out that I wasn’t in fact hung over (I didn’t think I had drank THAT much!) but that I had appendicitis.
One tiny, stupid, unused organ was not going to defeat me. That’s why the first question I asked the doctor during my discharge was “when can I work out again?” Not because I’m tough (world’s biggest wuss over here) or even enjoy running (that runner’s high is totally a myth!), but because if I stopped I didn’t trust myself to start again.
I read online about a guy that completed a triatholon 5 days after his appendectomy. That was going to be me. But then I wasn’t really walking too good 5 days later. And then when I was walking better it was with the help of some heavy duty pain killers. And so while I waited for my body to catch up with my newfound desire to run - I lost the desire. I got a clean bill of health from my doctor and was told I could exercise. I told myself, “what does she know?” So another week went by. And then another one.
But on February 1st I ran out of excuses. So I moved my C25K app back to Day 1 (sooo disheartening) and I started again. It was the worst experience ever. I was running for 45 second intervals only and I was barely able to breath. My heartbeat was coming in over 185 bpm. I had lost everything I spent two months trying to achieve. I came home almost in tears. And I found excuses not to go back the next day. Or the day after that. Or the day after that.
But I really couldn’t find anything preventing me from going today. (It helps that I forgot my wallet at work and the gym is one of the few places I can go without needing money.) So I went. And I completed Day 2 of Couch-to-5K. Again. I was embarrassed to be panting after running those 45 seconds when there were people sprinting through miles on treadmills next to me. But I felt good. The breathing came a little easier. The heartbeat didn’t go quite so high.
And now I’ve found the motivation I need to not quit. The motivation of being devastated to find out that after 2 months of running, stopping for 1 month got me right back to where I started. And I never want to be there again.
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(via tehvalerie; definitelyjennifer; heylaney; thegirlkyle)
When I saw this back in January I thought, here is something I can do daily to jumpstart my blog again. But with pretty much everything in life I get excited about doing… I’m late. So I’m going to have to step it up a little bit here.
February 4, 2012
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"You ask me, [Obama] should have put that mother-f*!cker on ice and defrosted his ass Nov. 1."
- Samuel L. Jackson on Osama bin Laden - @davecatanese (via brooklynmutt)
(via apsies)
