A Day In The Life Of Young Val

[Young Val]

(Or half a day, really, since my camera died half-way through).

Good morning!



Before I even got out of bed I checked Post Secret.



Yesterday was my friend's birthday, so I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting from scratch. This mini-cupcake may have been breakfast... Maybe.



Laundry time!



Folding is ones of my least favorite chores, but it's such a relief when it's all done and put away!



Then I made my bed and cleaned up the rest of my room.



And did the dishes.



Then I went to the deli on the corner to grab some odds and ends for lunch since I haven't been grocery shopping at all this week.



Watermelon and a toasted bagel with cream cheese. I could care less about NYC pizza (Boston's is better!) but I have to give props to the New York Bagel. Out of this world delicious.



After a few texts back and forth David and I made plans to meet up at Union Square with his aunt and cousin who are in town visiting.



Of course going outside means lots and lots of sunscreen.



I love my neighborhood!





This is the playground I cut through every day to get to the subway (which is about a five minute walk from my apartment). You can't see it here, but the elevated train tracks are behind that row of trees.



Stairs up to the subway!



Gotta have your metrocard ready!



I love the section of the train that rides above ground. It's so light and airy! Well, in the summer, at least.



My ipod is a crucial part of my daily commute. I will actually turn around and go back home if I find myself on the train platform without it. My ipod nano is beat up and dying rapidly. See how it's "locked?" It's really not. It just does that automatically. To "unlock" it so that I can change the song or volume or anything, I have to squeeze the middle left side with my thumb and forefinger. Quirky! I am so in love with this song right now.



Some people are still overly concerned about the swine flu.



Yay Union Square! Check out all those subway notices! Those are about changes to the schedule. Sometimes trains will not run during certain days or during certain hours because of construction. If you decide, like an idiot, not to pay attention to these notices, trying to get anywhere quickly becomes even more hellish than it already would have been. READ THE NOTICES.



Union Square is pretty great.













Then we went to Strand, the infamous bookstore!



18 miles of books, hmm?







Yeah, ok.

David and Heather browse the stacks.


I bought a book, even though I really shouldn't have.



I have no idea what they're doing here.



NYC has been infected.



The zombies are here, people! My camera died just then, which is too bad because there were about 20 other zombies on the train! We went back to queens and got Thai food and then went to our favorite Greek cafe for baklava! A nice day!


(I am definitely doing this again, so hope you're not bored already).

[Petra456]

I really love this project!

Your neighborhood is really cute and the cupcakes look amazing. I also really love what little I can see of your room.

[Rei]

I'm kinda liking the bookstore. That place looks mighty dangerous.

[CezeN]

Looks like an exciting day, with the "zombies" and swine flu freaks(or whatever).

[LilBee91]

I love your bed!

And the zombies. =]

[Mich]

New York seems pretty much spectacular, despite what residents say. *dreamy sigh*

Not that I don't love the West coast-ish.

[locke]

very cool, union square looks like fun.

Strand seems like a east Coast Powells. :-p

my 27 pics are currently uploading to photo bucket...

[Gravity Defier]

hope you're not bored already

Not even close.

[Eskarina]

I loved the plushies on the bed. Ahem. Infantility on rise. I could have helped it, but was too lazy to; they're too cute to not get a comment.

Also, above ground section of train is my shared liking.

[Ela]

I'm sorry, for a real New York bagel, you need to go to H&H Bagels.

[Young Val]

Oh Ela, BELIEVE me when I'm in the neighborhood I make a bee-line for H&H.

But in a hurry, the deli on my corner in Queens makes a very respectable bagel.

[Jayelle]

Oooh... I totally want to move to New York and be your best friend!!

[Young Val]

Day in the Life of Young Val Redux!

I took these a while ago, just before Halloween. Not a very exciting day. David was away, so it was just me, stuck at home.

I slept in! I never, ever do that! (It's actually about 7:45ish--we set our clocks a bit ahead to scare us into getting out of bed in the morning).



It was Sunday, so of course I had to check Post Secret first thing.



Got out of bed and went to say hi to Durp.



The best yogurt ever. A rare treat for me, these days!



Time for a shower. I have been getting all the toxic chemicals out of my household products, and this was my first time taking these organic, chemical-free bath products out for a spin. After I finished the Hugo Naturals I had to move on to another brand, Dessert Organics. Although the Hugo Naturals conditioner smelled AMAZING it just wasn't making my hair happy.



Then I did yoga.



Finally, time for coffee! I love my bodum french press so very, very much.



Sunday is laundry day. Luckily, we have machines in the basement. It feels like such a luxury after five years of walking my laundry to laundromats in NYC.



Just one load of many, waiting to be folded.



I can't bear to fold laundry unless I have something to distract me, so I usually watch tv. On this day I decided I was in the mood for 24, season one.



Then I put away the laundry (This is just riveting, isn't it?).



Sunday is also baking day. I realized that I didn't have all the ingredients I needed to make bread and muffins, and since David had taken the car for the weekend I took a walk to the nearest grocery store.

This is my building. The top left window is the living room of my apartment. It's actually the same window that Durp is looking out of in an earlier picture.



This is my neighborhood. I really, really love it. It's really residential, but it's got pockets of little shops and cafés and bars and restaurants. It's very clean and quiet, and reminds me a lot of Queens, actually.



Pretty foliage.

[

David and I are members of a local co-op and almost exclusively buy all of our groceries there. However, he had the car for the day, and the co-op is not walkable from where we live. I went to Kowalski's, which is just a few blocks down from my apartment. It is a really upscale, obnoxiously over-priced specialty supermarket. Not my number one choice, but really convenient in a pinch.



On the way home I noticed these homemade Halloween decorations. I didn't get a good picture of it, but this is supposedly a crime scene. The scarecrow in the chair has a sheriff's badge and then one on the ground seems to be pretty severely wounded.



Back home! This is my clean kitchen before I totally destroyed it by baking all day.



Time to bake oatmeal molasses bread! I tend to write out new recipes on post-it notes for easy access. If the recipe turns out to be a keeper, it eventually gets rewritten on index cards and added to our recipe box.



I'll spare you the play-by-play of the bread baking process. The pictures should suffice.











And then did the first round of dishes.



Up next was Apple Pumpkin Spice muffins. I threw in some fresh cranberries this time, too!







And the kitchen is usually a disaster at this point.



So I cleaned up and did a second round of dishes.



Now it's time for a break from the kitchen.

I've really been trying to drink more water, so I sat down and forced myself to drink a glass.



Durp jumped up on my lap for a little TLC.



I couldn't find my phone and freaked out for several minutes, afraid I had lost it during my grocery trip. Luckily, I found it.



The I cleaned up my room, which we STILL have not decorated, despite having lived in this apartment for a year. I briefly entertained the notion of hanging some of our things on the walls, but decided I was too lazy. Our bedroom isn't quite as sparse as this picture implies, though. We each have a bedside table with a lamp and various books and photos and things, as well as a small bookshelf that's filled with books and journals and jewelry boxes, etc. It's just that none of that is visible in this photo.



Even though David was gone, I decided to make a nice dinner just for myself. I made chicken piccata with pasta and broccoli.



Then I just read my book and cuddled with Durp until it was time to call David and say goodnight.

[Jayelle]

Man, your comment about laundry really put things in perspective for me. I've never had to go all the way to a laundromat (aside from a couple of times when things broke down) and I felt like having a basement laundry was such a pain, but I'll appreciate it more from now on!!

I still can't get over how insanely early you get up even on weekends.


Also... liberty yogurt... *droooooooooool*

[Petrie]

I love your bedroom window; I officially need lights around mine when I move out.

[Luet]

For 7 years, we had no laundry in our apartment building (and didn't live in a city) so had to drive to a laundromat every week and SIT there for a couple hours. It's a very safe area, so one time I decide to run a quick errand and leave some stuff there and I had a brand new comforter stolen. I was so mad! I love having my own washer and dryer now.

[steph]

Even though David was gone, I decided to make a nice dinner just for myself. I made chicken piccata with pasta and broccoli.

That is my favorite pasta shape, but no where around here carries it anymore.

[Mich]

Dr. Bronner's kind of freaks me out because of all of the crazy stuff written all over it, and something about the lilac scent made me somewhat nauseous, but I love seeing other people using it, for some reason. It's like how Burt's Bees used to be!

[Eaquae Legit]

I do the same thing with laundry! I haaaate folding laundry, so I almost always have a show on while I do it. It makes it a bit slower, I'm sure, but it means it gets done at all!

Love the baking pictures, and the post-its, man! I SWEAR it's your handwriting on the (blue) recipe post-it that was at work yesterday. Have you been sneaking up to Canada without telling us? *suspicious eyes*

And last but not least, KITTY!

[locke]

Bread!

Yeah, I cannot fold laundry without the television on.

[Petra456]

I'm still sooo jealous over your mixer. *sigh* Your bread looks beautiful!

I'm another person that hates folding laundry. I actually have about three loads that Will's done and I haven't folded yet...

[Eaquae Legit]

It's actually a goal of mine to surprise Rei with an empty laundry basket tonight. Who knows if it will actually happen...

[Rei]

I just got home and, well, the laundry basket IS empty. Atop a pile of clean laundry which we will be folding before long, I expect.

Kelly, may I ask why you drink from a pint jar?

[locke]

I'm still sooo jealous over your mixer. *sigh* Your bread looks beautiful!

I'm another person that hates folding laundry. I actually have about three loads that Will's done and I haven't folded yet...

if you get christmas presents in the $150 range (I generally don't so not for me) Wal Mart will have Kitchen Aid Stand mixers for 150 on Black Friday. Target will have them for 200. regular price for that size of Kitchen aid is typically 250, iirc.

[Young Val]

Mich: Dr. Bronner's used to seriously freak me out, too. That is some crazy random rambling packaging on that bottle! David has always used it; he always brought it with him when he went camping in the Boundary Waters because it was so multi-purpose and not terrible for the environment. Then the habit just stuck and became part of his daily routine. For a long time I thought it smelled odd. I'm used to it now, though--it doesn't really have any scent at all in my mind anymore.

Steph: We love that pasta shape, too! It's funny; that's one of the ONLY shapes available at our co-op, so we have it quite a bit! (Sometimes I miss a variety of other shapes, too. NYC was great for interesting shaped pasta!).

Jan: I only get up this early because of David! I loooooooooooove sleep. But he is such a morning person, and once he gets up and starts moving around it's impossible for me to fall back asleep. I used to lie in bed and be really frustrated and resentful and wish desperately for sleep. Eventually I moved on to getting up and sitting on the couch and being really sullen and resentful about the fact that I was awake at FIVE IN THE MORNING. I moved on from that, though, and once I got up in the mornings and started moving around and starting my day in various little ways it became really lovely. We run our errands on Saturdays--Farmer's Market, Target (for toilet paper, etc), the co-op if we need to supplement what we get at the market for groceries, the library, the bank, whatever. Usually we're up, showered, have run all those errands, and are back home again by 11:00 AM at the very latest. It's crazy! Then the whole day stretches out before us! On the negative side, I CANNOT stay awake past 9pm any longer and still function like a human being.

Ali (and Kirsten, if you poke your head in here, cause you're my Dead Like Me buddy!): The blue post-its are ubiquitous at our house! We use them for EVERYTHING. But recipes are a huge thing. If we've been really busy in the kitchen on any given week, the ENTIRE wall above our magnetic knife block is covered with them. I am constantly pretending that I am a very over-worked reaper. I'm also excited to know that I will apparently learn to time travel/teleport in the near future and sprinkle my recipe post-its thorughout your workplace! (PS awesome job emptying the alundry basket! That is a definite triumph!)

Brent: The mason jars are a relic from David's bachelor days! The are actually repurposed pasta sauce jars. Honestly. He didn't have any cups, and just kept buying and eating tomato sauce and then rinsing out and saving the jars. He is very attached to them. At first I was appalled, but I've somehow convinced myself that they are rustic and quite charming. We do have very nice wine glasses, which is a comfort to me!

Fred: I cannot recommend the Kitchen Aid enough. I use mine almost daily. That, and my food processor have radically improved my culinary life. Plus it's just SO pretty!

Alea: Ever since I started living in apartments I have always had sheer white curtains in my bedroom and white lights framing them. It is a little college-dorm-esque perhaps, but I love it. It's so soothing to get into bed with a cup of tea and a book on a cold night and turn on those little lights. The light also filters so softly and beautifully through the curtains in the morning. It's a lovely way to wake up.

[GS]

Kelly,

I have about an hour and a half until lunch, but your food pics are causing some serious cravings. And I doubt I'm going to get anything that tastes as good as the bread/muffin/pasta pics look.

[Petra456]

if you get christmas presents in the $150 range (I generally don't so not for me) Wal Mart will have Kitchen Aid Stand mixers for 150 on Black Friday. Target will have them for 200. regular price for that size of Kitchen aid is typically 250, iirc.

When I was younger my parents would spend about that much on a present for me, but I've convinced then that we are pretty much grown up and there is absolutely no need to spend that much on us anymore. It's kinda hard habit to break with them.

Anyways, is there somewhere you went to find out about the KitchenAid? I'm guessing it's probably an Artisan, I really want a professional, but I never see those go on sale.

[Young Val]

Fred, I wanted a professional mixer as well, and if I hadn't been given the artisan one as a surprise moving gift from my mother, my plan was to save up for the professional model. That said I LOVE my artisan KA. It is large enough an powerful enough to handle absolutely everything I've thrown at it (it kneads double batches of bread dough with ease). Most importantly, though, it doesn't take up too much counter top real estate. Because I use mine so frequently, and because it is so very, very heavy, I keep mine out on the counter top all the time. I understand that the professional model is significantly larger, and I doubt my current kitchen would have the space to accomodate it. I also really love the tilted head--I think the professional is a bowl-lift model. When and if I ever need to buy a second mixer, I'll probably stick with the artisan size; I've grown to love it that much.

[Petra456]

Well, and honestly i've been thinking of just going for the Artisan because of the tilted head. I was playing with them in Fry's yesterday and while I do love the bigger size of the professional, it's huge. I have no clue where i'll be living after here and it's probably way more practical to get an Artisan. It's definitely something I would keep out on my counter all the time.