Elsja Down Under

Bouquet Toss Nightmare November 30, 2008

So last night started off great! We were at the wedding of Bec and Olly, it was beautiful, the wine was flowing, the food was delcious. 

Everyone was having a blast, until the time came to catch the bouquet. I kicked my heels off, you know, to prevent any injuries!! Kimbo and I had a strategy- we were going to pretend to fight it out. Well, turns out that it was thrown way over my head and I could tell there was NO way I’d even be close to catching it. But for some reason, I still managed to completely fall flat on my ass. Not sure how it even happened. I don’t even remember jumping, but clearly I did SOMETHING to cause me to eat shit. IMMEDIATELY I was in pain. LOTS of pain. I couldn’t stand up, I was halfway laughing and halfway fighting back tears. Someone helped me up- I don’t even know who (thanks whoever you are) and I just remember saying “I can’t walk, I can’t walk, I can’t walk…” Soon I was on a chair with people crowded around and ice on my foot. It swelled up REALLY quickly, it looked like there was a golf ball in my ankle.

After I threw up (I think the combo of pain and alcohol does that to you), I was wheeled out and taken to the emergency room. Thanks so much to Rob and Monica for driving Andrew and I there. The X-ray department was closed so I just got some pain meds and was given a referral to come back in the morning.

This morning I woke up and the huge golfball on my ankle was gone, but my whole foot had swollen up…

 

Sooo… we spent about 4 hours at the hospital today and eventually got the diagnosis. The ankle is just sprained, but my foot is broken! First broken bone ever! I’ve got a temporary cast on until next week. Then I have to go see an orthopedic surgeon to see if it looks like it’s healing. If it is, then I’ll get a permanent cast put on- but if it’s not healing right, I may need surgery.

I feel pretty crap. This cast is really heavy. I’m not comfortable. I have no energy to write a creative blog, so I’m just stating the facts.

At least the wedding was great! I posted some photos HERE and HERE (2 different albums).

Congrats to Bec and Olly!

Happy Thanksgiving November 27, 2008

 

 

 

Things I am thankful for at this moment in time:

1. My family and friends. I miss them tons but I am so lucky to have them all healthy and well.

2. Andrew and I both have jobs. Many people are not so fortunate right now.

3. Thai food. My yummy dinner tonight.

4. Thanksgiving dinner. I’m missing out on the big one in the US, but I’m attempting to make a mini feast tomorrow night. It will be my first attempt ever at making a pumpkin pie all by myself, I’m even using real mashed pumpkin.

5. Andrew. He’s my favorite

6. Yoga. I went for the first time in a LONG time on Monday and I could tell I really needed it. I plan on going once a week from now on. I’d go more if it weren’t so expensive!

7. Online shopping. It’s great for my family and friends back home but oh I WISH they would start offering better online shopping in this country. Seriously… get with the times people!

8. Wine. It’s good.

9. A strong US dollar. Its one of the only perks (for me) of this horrible economy.

10. Organizing and cleaning skills. I’m SO glad I’m not a messy, dirty person. I love my clean house!

Happy Turkey day to all my loved ones (and even those people I just kinda like) back in the US! For all the Aussies who wonder what Thanksgiving is all about… read THIS.

I Got Tagged November 19, 2008

Wow… I never get tagged. Sure I get the massive amounts of forwarded emails asking me to fill out surveys left and right, but never (that I know of) has someone actually posted my name on their website saying “I tag Elsja.” So when Daisy – this lovely lady mentioned my name in her blog, of course I had to politely oblige and fulfill my tagging duties (plus I needed something to blog about).  So here it goes…here are 7 of the most random things about me that pop into my head at this very moment in time. 

 

1. I was born at 11:11am and I still make wishes when I see 11:11 on the clock (and when I see shooting stars). And I think I’m cursed when I see 11:34 on the clock (that’s hell upside down for those of you who may be confused). Last year, I had this problem where every night in bed, I’d glance at the clock when I’d lay down and it would be 11:34… literally- like every night! It really started to freak me out.Â

2. I don’t like any seafood. And by “any” I mean “ANY.” I get really confused when I tell people “I don’t like any seafood” and they start going through a list of items, as if they are testing me to see if I REALLLLLY mean it when I say I HATE seafood! “Oh really…. so you don’t like sushi?”… “No, no seafood” …”Oh so not even prawns/shrimp?”… “Listen…if it ever swam, floated or just sat on the floor of an ocean, lake or any other body of water, I don’t eat it.” (So this would even include duck… ducks swim in lakes…and they are gross). It’s like people think they will go through a list and discover the one seafood I’ve NEVER thought of and I’ll have this “A-HA” moment… “oh yes, I forgot fish is from the sea… how could I be so silly? You caught me… I do love seafood after all!”Â

3. Speaking of things I don’t eat…I haven’t eaten red meat intentionally since I was 15. I say intentionally because even though I don’t eat beef by choice… I ACCIDENTALLY ate an entire beef burger awhile back THINKING it was a turkey burger. Once I looked at the bill and realized it wasn’t a turkey burger, I wasn’t too happy. Yes, I did throw up.Â

4. My mom and sisters have size 7.5, 7.5 and 5.5-6 shoe sizes respectively. I wear an 8.5 -9. Maybe this explains why I am also way bigger than any of them ever were at my age. Yeah, I’ll blame it on my feet.Â

5. I say “that stresses me out” or “I was so stressed” (and other variations) A LOT. Most of the time, I’m not actually STRESSED, I’m just thinking a bit more about something than I would like, or I have a dilemma I’m trying to work out in my head. It’s like a natural reaction, a phrase that just spills out of my mouth when anything even remotely unpleasant/confusing/frustrating is discussed. This has lead my boyfriend to think I’m the biggest stresshead he’s ever met. While that may still be true, it shouldn’t be due to my overuse of the phrase.Â

6. I’m horrible at making decisions. Really bad. I’ve been known to stand 15 minutes in the shampoo aisle at CVS trying to decide which shampoo would be best for my hair. I’ve spent HOURS upon hours reading reviews on amazon trying to pick the best phone/camera/etc. 2 weeks ago I spent about 20 minutes trying to pick out the best containers to use to organize my spice cabinet. One of the most embarrassing cases of my indecisiveness came at my 5 year old niece’s birthday party at Color-Me-Mine. Put it this way… the party was nearly over by the time I decided what I wanted to paint. I was at the shop for more than an hour after everyone finished. And let’s not get started on the choices I had to make for colors! Thank God I brought my own car!Â

7. The ONLY time I ever like rain is when there is a thunder/lightning storm to go with it. I know plenty of people say “we need the rain… drought this…farms that…” but that still doesn’t make me like it when it rains. Rain is miserable and it makes me sad and grumpy. But I will tolerate it if there is thunder to listen to and some lightning to go with.Â

Wow… that took too long. I should have been WAY less thoughtful and just said things like “I love In-n-Out” and “I wear a retainer to bed.

So I’m not actually going to tag anyone… because a) as mentioned above, I’m horrible at making decisions and I don’t know who to choose… and b) I might get offended if the people I tagged didn’t actually fulfill their duty. But I still welcome you all to join me in my obvious boredom and complete one of these for yourself. It’s pretty interesting to see the weird things that come into your head when you just sit and think about yourself.

Did Someone Say Yum? November 17, 2008

I don’t think I’ve ever shared my  favorite personally created recipe with you all. It’s not too hard to call it my favorite because I’ve really only ever created about 3 things on my own- so there’s not much competition. Regardless, this one definitely is on top. And since I shared it with a few people on a forum *AND* they seem to love it (yes people actually used my recipe to make their own dinner) I thought I’d share with everyone else too. We had it for dinner tonight and I could eat two more bowls but then Andrew would have to roll me around the house.  Sooo here it is for all my dearest friends and random internet strangers:  

 

Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup (for the crockpot/slow cooker)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• 1 large (300g) chicken breast
• 1 15oz can (420g) cream of chicken soup
  • ½ -1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • Tortillas

   

  • Cilantro/coriander 

   

   

   

   

   

   

  DIRECTIONS:

  1. Mix the salsa, cayenne pepper, corn, cream of chicken soup and bell pepper in the slow cooker
  2. Place the full chicken breast in the mixture. 

   

  3. Pour about 2 cups of crushed corn chips into the mixture and mix around. These will soften, dissolve and help to thicken the soup.
  4. Cook on low for 4-6 hours (or longer if need be)

   

  5. Uncover and gently shred the chicken into pieces with a fork
  6. Pour into serving bowls and top with grated cheese, crushed corn tortilla chips and fresh cilantro/coriander

   

   

   

  You can spoon it into some tortillas and eat it like a burrito. I just eat it like a soup but dip tortillas and corn chips in rather than crackers! One girl I know threw some sour cream on there and I do believe Andrew even added some guacamole once upon a time… the possibilities are delicious, and endless. 

   

   

  *NOTE* If you DON’T like any spice… don’t add the cayenne pepper

   

  �

• 1 jar of salsa (375g)
• 1 can of corn, drained

 

• ¼- ½  large green bell pepper/capsicum- chopped 
• ½-1 cup of grated cheddar cheeseÂ
• Bag of plain corn tortilla chipsÂ
   

 

 

Doing My Part November 11, 2008

It’s November and that means a few things:

1. It is Pancreatic cancer awareness month

2. It is the month of my brother-in-law, Brett’s birthday.

3. Ironically, Brett’s birthday 2 years ago was also the day he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which ultimately took his life 6 months later.

So, in his memory (and so many others who have lost loved ones to this terrible disease) I donate money in November to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PANCAN). I don’t have tons to spare, but I like to think every little bit helps.

November is also infamous in Australia for its “Movember” campaign where guys grow mustaches and help raise money for men’s health (depression, prostate cancer). Tons of Andrew’s friends are participating and while I can’t give money to all of them, I did donate a bit to one of them (the one I knew about first, sorry to the other guys).

So since I was on the donation bandwagon this month, I decided to start working on #29 on my 101 list- Find 3 charities that mean something to me and donate to them at least once/year.

Now, I haven’t exactly had a reason to have charities “of meaning” to me other than PanCan (that’s probably a good thing). So, I decided to go for a theme here this year and donate to all things cancer related. My 3rd charity is the American Cancer Society. I really had a hard time with this one, for the sole reason that I couldn’t decide if I should donate to the American or Australian cancer society.  Ultimately, I lived in the US for 27 years and in Australia for 1, so the US won out. Cancer is probably the one thing that I’ve seen hurt the most people in my life. Maybe not directly, but it’s all around and it’s pretty damn scary. So I hope my small donations will help here and there and maybe one day Cancer will be a thing of the past…

Some People are so Unaware November 6, 2008

So… my buzzer on my buidling buzzed and i just pushed the button without asking who it was. I do this by relfex because typically the only time it buzzes is when Andrew comes back from a bike ride. A minute later, no andrew (it wasn’t until about 10 minutes later that I realized andrew is not on a ride and he has his keys to get into the building).

So anyways, I go about my business, talking to my mom and niece on the phone when someone finally knocks on my door about 5 minutes later. I open it up looking SUPER scuzzy in my sweats and my shirt with a big toothpaste mark on it from this morning. Not to mention my hair is greasy, my legs are hairy and I wasn’t wearing a bra. (Hey I work from home so no need to get dressed or look pretty)! So there’s this cool looking girl at the door with some papers in her hand and I’m immediately curious. Who is this and why is she here?

She starts talking a bit and I respond a bit and then she says “oh you’re not from here either”- It was only then… after she had talked awhile and pointed out MY accent… that I realized she had a north american accent. I can’t help it, all accents sound normal to me these days.

I realize so far this story makes ME sound like the very unaware person- but it’s really her that I’m speaking of in the topic title.

So we converse some more and talk about where we are from, etc. Turns out she is from Canada. She had heard me through the door as I was on the phone with my niece and I was saying “So did your president win??” (My 5 year old niece voted for obama on the nickelodeon site even though her parents wanted mccain- she said it was because he has a cool name and he likes horses). ANYWAYS… the girl told me she heard me talking through the door and I said “oh yeah yeah” chuckled a bit and then this is what came out of her mouth next…

“So, who won?”

Um.. REALLY? Has she been living under a rock the last few days??? Even though this girl was totally nice and was really cute and trendy looking, I immediately thought she was a total moron.

My response (excitedly) was “OBAMA!”- then she said politely “oh, ok! well, I’m from Jehova’s witness…”

I’m guessing that she wouldn’t have been too excited about Obama with her being from a strict religious background- that is if she even knew ANYTHING about the candidates, which could be highly unlikely.

Blah. My excitement that a new potential friend just landed on my doorstep immediately went out the window.

A.) She doesn’t know who won the election

B.) Even though I respect people’s religious choices, I personally cannot be any part of a religion that doesn’t let me celebrate christmas and birthdays!

She was cool though, she just gave me her pamphlet and we chatted some more about visas for Australia. She was then talking about getting sponsored, etc. and mentioned that she could be a nanny. I said “that might be good considering the timing of the ABC Learning daycare* crashing…”

I don’t know WHAT I was thinking even mentioning that to her. If she didn’t know about Obama, she DEFINITELY wouldn’t know about that!

Sometimes I REALLY wonder what goes on in people’s brains.

*For the Americans…ABC Learning could be going under and it is a big news story at the moment

Moving Forward November 5, 2008

So obviously, Obama won. I guess that’s old news now and everyone and their mother will be blogging about it- so I will just say this…

CONGRATS OBAMA! I really hope things can now turn around and the rest of the world can start to look at the US in a more positive light.

I thought I’d point out to all the aussies, some of the benefits of voting for the US public. While Australians HAVE to vote by law (or put up with a fine if they don’t) there are MANY benefits of voting in the US. In addition to selecting the new president, you can also receive the following:

Free Chicken Sandwich: Most Chick-fil-a locations

Free Coffee: Any Books A Million store today

Free Coffee: Any Starbucks location

Free Donut: Any Krispy Kreme store (and it’s a red, white, and blue donut, too!)

Free Ice Cream: Any Ben and Jerry’s between 5 and 8 p.m.

Free Song Downloads: A handful of free MP3 downloads are available at MTV’s Rock The Vote right now for anyone pledging to vote

Free Taco: Any California Tortilla store (in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia)

Free Sex Toy: Snag a free Silver Bullet or Maverick device at any Babeland store in New York, LA, or Seattle. Limited locations, but we figured this one was unique enough to warrant a mention!

 

And that’s just a small list… too bad I couldn’t receive all these freebies here in Australia!

**

So in other more personal news, Andrew and I went to Perth this weekend. We went to visit his nana as well as his aunt and uncle who live just outside the city. Andrew lived in Perth until he was almost 7 so we were able to see 2 of the houses that he grew up in. It was a really quick trip- we arrived Saturday night and left Monday afternoon. Sunday we rode our bikes an hour to the main city of Perth and watched the awesome Red Bull air race. We didn’t plan our trip around the race, but it was kind of convenient that it was taking place the weekend we were around. Since my old version of wordpress is retarded and it no longer lets me upload videos to my blog… you will have to click here to see one of the cool videos we took:

CRAZY PILOTS FLYING PLANES REALLY LOW AND FAST

Then on the way back, we saw a random fire on the side of the freeway and had to call 000 (911) for the “fire brigade” to come out. It was small, but spreading quickly and heading towards a bunch of dry brush. That was pretty exciting.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

PERTH PICS

And here is the BEST picture from the bunch… this is a lovely photo of me flying in business class. Oh it was so wonderful. I got to fly across the country twice in a big comfy seat with loads of free wine (although I didn’t have as much as I could have) and I enjoyed pretty good food, a plate of cheese and crackers and chocolate covered macadamias while I watched movies on my own personal TV in our private business class area. You know that little curtain that separates business class from economy? Well, it was REALLY nice to be on the other side of that curtain for once  And, I even get to cross another item off my 101 list… #56. Fly Business Class. I really can’t wait until I get to fly business class on all my flights to and from LA. One day!