a lil' help from my friends

i don't like asking for help.

in fact, i do everything in my power to avoid it. this means i work when i'm sick. i cook and do the dishes. and i've never learned to graciously accept help when others offer it. the only exception to this rule? carrying heavy stuff. like the cast iron mussels pot at work.

no. please. you take it.

i don't mind this trait. it doesn't even register on my list of "things to be worked on in this life."
(for the record, i don't have a list like that. fine. maybe i do. but it's a mental one... that i update constantly)

this week i discovered the one thing that being self-sufficient deprives me of. i can't think of a non-cheesy way to say it. but sometimes when you ask for help, the perk (other than being helped) is feeling the love from the people that step up to do the helping.

i have to do a project on a Spanish speaking country for my conversational Spanish class. shocker, i chose Mexico. (it's no secret i have a thing for the Mexican culture.)

i had no idea what this project would be about. possibly because i didn't understand the teacher when she explained it. it was my turn to go last week. i said i needed more time. beside the fact that i can't take ungraded homework seriously, i was a little intimidated by the project. other student's presentations were in PowerPoint. they had embedded YouTube clips. themes. notes.

inspiration struck. but i needed help.

none of the guys in the following film relished being in the following film. but they're my friends. so when i asked them to do it, they came through, which felt....indescribably great.

apologies to most people reading my blog. i haven't put subtitles on the film. i figured, what better way for my conversational Spanish class to improve than listening to conversational Spanish. the CliffNotes are that i ask the guys to tell me something about Mexico that most American's don't know (it's clean there! also in small towns there's no heat or air conditioning.) i ask about their favorite foods (which inspired Jose to talk about turkey eggs). and i totally flustered Cesar who couldn't really think of anything to say.

i love how many times all of them broke into English. in actuality, this films a bit of a farce. my Mexican friends are more American than anything else.

still, i'm proud of this film. i'm proud of my friends. and as i usually am when i break down to do it, i'm glad i asked for help.

re-doing yesterday today

so i do this suuuuuper annoying thing where i sometimes force myself to repeat days. this has to do with a. my indecisiveness and b. my cheapness.

yesterday is the perfect example.

my lil sis and her hubby are coming for a visit, so i trekked to Trader Joes to buy fun snacks. whilst in Brooklyn Heights, possibly the most beautiful neighborhood on earth:

 i treated myself to lunch:

and was also going to buy a new dress.

*pause for backstory*

i don't shop, because remember previously mentioned b? i'm cheap. also, more importantly, i've never caught the "things" bug. i don't need 'em. my home's not filled with homey knick-nacky things. i'm perfectly content to wear my clothes until they exhibit holes. in fact, i like holes. they make things look cooler. but since i'm about ready to set my entire wardrobe on fire because i wore it all last summer too, i decided that yesterday, i would look for a new dress.

*current story resumes*

and i found one. it wasn't terrific. it wasn't cheap, though it wasn't terribly expensive either. it was just a dress that i could envision myself wearing for the rest of summer. everyday. which would ultimately make the cost of it about 30 cents per day. and i have a few things coming up that make such an outfit a bonus.

unnecessary blog story short? i put the dress back. have been thinking about it all night. and now need to recreate yesterday, in order to go back and purchase said dress so that i may stop kicking myself over it.

this wouldn't be a big deal. if i didn't do this ALL THE TIME. seriously, there should be a support group for this. actually, i think there is. it's called psychotherapy.

the clincher? yesterday involved a train and a bus ride. a delicious lunch. a feeling of bliss. today involves a hot bike ride and none of that other fun stuff. because your not supposed to relive days. you're supposed to do them once and then do something else the next day. like go to the pool.

lesson learned, Corrie?

nah, i'll probably do something identical next week. but i'm working on it.

now on a completely other note which should have been the whole point of this blog post. i've picked a winner for the giveaway of Daughter of Smoke and Bone. did i use a computer program that makes sure the result is completely random? hells no! i used the old school, throw names in a hat method that still makes pretty random results. or kinda random results, because, complete disclosure, i picked Lauren's name again and i made a noise that sounded like GARHH ('cause even though i <3 Lauren, you can't win twice in a row. you just can't) and picked another name and that winner is...

can you read that? no, me neither. but the winner is MARIE!! yay! congratulations! i'll get in touch with you this weekend to get your mailing address. i'd do it now, but i need to go do some dress shopping before work :)