She's Back!

Hello, my lovely darlings! After a long silence, I am returned -- and I don't think you're going to see me disappearing again anytime soon. There are a number of reasons for that, but first, a recap:

When last I wrote, things had picked up at the Mrs. Degree household - in a very good way. Well, that trend is continuing: nine months out of college, I've found myself in a job that is perfect for me - I mean, really perfect for me. You know that feeling you're supposed to get when you meet the love of your life, where you can see tomorrow and the next day and the day after that and the year after that until forever, and somehow you just know that things are going to work out, but you still get a stomach full of butterflies anyway because you just can't quite believe it, and you're just so darn excited anyway? Well, this is kind-of like that -- except instead of picturing kids and a minivan (because who doesn't picture that, amiright?), I see a place where I can be myself, where I can feel valued and respected doing work that I value and respect, and I don't glance over my shoulder every five minutes to see what kind of trouble is coming my way.

What is the heaven-sent job, you ask? Did this bright young woman actually find a way to get paid to bake pies, make beds, scrub the floors, polish the silver, and still have every hair immaculately in place to welcome home the hubby after work?

Sadly, no -- I've sold my soul (more like lost my preconceived notions), and gone to the dark side. I'm working in marketing.

I guess there's some value in trusting that the universe is going to work things out, after all.

Baking Break!

Or more accurately, a posting break. Things have gotten a little insanely lucky around here, and I just can't keep up with my dusting and work full time and complete commissions and blog. I need my beauty rest if I'm going to keep it up, after all - so at least for a little while, Mrs. Degree will be taking a break. But don't worry - I won't keep my buns in the oven forever!

They might be a little well-done, though.

Confessions of a Shopgirl: Luck Unlooked-for

You may be wondering how my job is going -- and even if you're not, I'm far too tired to come up with a different idea for a blog post. As to my job, it's actually going really well! I like the people I work with (for the most part), I loooove the part where I get to do makeovers on people, and I'm really gaining a great deal of experience and knowledge with all the ins and outs of cosmetics (which will be very useful in my future part-time gig as a makeup artist). BUT, the transportation situation to get Mr. and I to work is positively unsustainable, and I don't just mean in the environmental sense -- so thus again go I into the breach, to find a job with better hours and a shorter commute.

Yet I cannot overemphasize how lucky I have been in getting this job - not in working it specifically, but in how this job has modified my story arc in wild and wonderful ways. First, there was the day I showed up an hour and a half early (I'm still getting used to this shifting schedule thing). Grumpy and at a loss for what to do, I wandered over to the craft store to pick up some holiday decorations and gift supplies - when lo and behold, I stumbled across a "2 for $1.00" one-day sale on mini ceramic casseroles. They were the perfect size and color for gifting little loaves of bread, so I snatched them up before any of the other deal-sniffing ladies that frequent craft stores could grab them.

Bummer.

Then there is the whole makeup application aspect of my job -- I'm learning about prepping the skin, matching and applying foundation, taking care of multiple-person-use products (aka testers) and more, all while getting paid for it instead of attending beauty school. Score!

But finally, and most surprising out of the bunch, is the unexpected arrival of an opportunity for me to pursue my *real job* - my job of being an artist. Through talking to one of the other employees, I found out he's in a band and that they're releasing an album soon. When I suggested that I might be a great person to do their album artwork for them, he picked me up on it, and now I've got a tidy little commission project tucked away to finish this next week! That, plus the incredible stroke of luck the Mr. and I had in landing a graphic and web design gig for a local candidate, has equaled many nights of sleeping far less than what qualifies as 'beauty sleep' - in fact, judging by the way I look and feel in the morning I suspect I'm only getting as far as 'ugly sleep' - and finding my social life and leisure time almost entirely taken over by work on my 'second' job. But, this is exactly what Cracked.com said I could expect, so I'm going to take it as a sign that I'm on the right track. And of course, had I not been working at the makeup counter, I never would have started talking to my new client for the CD cover, and had I not been unemployed at the beginning of December, I never would have thought I'd have the time to build logos and a website. But here I am, with even less time than I had then, and I am doing it, and I'm having a great time, and it sounds like some of my job prospects are opening up as far as finding something that fits more reasonably into my schedule. Otherwise, I just need to keep on chugging and remember, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

This Year, I Resolve to Dump My Resolutions!

Ah, the shivery start of January, the first day back at the gym after eating nonstop from Thanksgiving to New Years, the clusterf*cks that are the Iowa caucuses, the retrospective looks back at the year gone by, the resolutions to somehow make this one better. Personally, I love January -- wintery weather making hot tea and sweaters a necessity, feeling like the nighttime lasts forever. But I don't love New Year's Resolutions. In fact, as my grandmother once told my husband over a particularly heated game of Monopoly, they "can go South, butt thunder, and chew monkey tails!" Here's why in a nutshell, with the breakdown after the jump:

1) The New Year's Resolution is Overly Ambitious

2) New Year's Resolutions Allow Us to Be Lazy the Rest of the Year

3) They Don't Work

Stuffing: When Stale Bread Goes to Heaven

I know, I promised cookies and snowflakes, but here I am with stuffing. Such is life, as they say -- and it's a very yummy stuffing, too! Here's the recipe, originally from CountryLiving.com:




Sourdough Mushroom Stuffing

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoon(s) unsalted butter
• 1 pound(s) assorted wild mushrooms, sliced
• 3 cup(s) (about 9 ribs) chopped celery
• 2 cup(s) finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup(s) chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tablespoon(s) chopped fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon(s) chopped fresh sage
• 2 teaspoon(s) salt
• 1 teaspoon(s) chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon(s) fresh-ground pepper
• 1 loaf(s) (1-pound) sourdough bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 1/2 cup(s) low-sodium chicken broth

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 3-quart casserole dish with 1 tablespoon butter and set aside.
2. Melt remaining butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 10 minutes. Add the celery and onion and sauté for 10 minutes.
3. Remove from heat, add the remaining ingredients, and toss to combine. Transfer the stuffing to the prepared baking dish and cover with aluminum foil.
4. Bake, covered, for 45 minutes; remove the foil and bake for 20 more minutes. Serve hot.

So easy, right? I made this for Thanksgiving, and the Mr. liked it so much that I had to make it again (well, and still having a ton of leftover mushrooms probably helped make that happen, too). Any way, here are the results (and I do apologize for the picture quality; I couldn't find the charger for my camera so I used my phone.

It's all about letting it brown . . .

Having made it twice, I've learned a thing or two:

1) The taste is greatly improved by using really sour sourdough bread, and the texture is improved if the bread is stale and you cut it into smaller chunks than the recipe calls for.

2) Dried herbs will work just as well -- just keep in mind that 1 Tbsp fresh = 1/3 - 1/2 tsp dry. Otherwise you end up with rosemary stuffing, and not much else!

3) I really need to find the charger for my camera.

Yep, the 'manual macro' just isn't cutting it . . .

Until next time, Bon Appetite! 

On Friday, Mrs. will demonstrate her snowflake cutting prowess (probably involving a camera phone), and begin to stress about the fact that she hasn't even started on Christmas cards this year. Or sent last year's, for that matter.

Late for a Very Important Update! Or, Confessions of a Shopgirl, Day 1

I was supposed to publish this last night, as I know you are waiting with baited breath to hear the epilogue of "How I Lost One Job and Found Another," so I won't waste any time apologizing for my lateness. And sorry to be late posting this, by the way - by the time I got home, I was about ready to fall over, and Mr. was waiting to tuck me in before staying up too late studying for his exams. So, without further ado, onto today's topic: what's it like to be a shopgirl?




My first thought, given the infamous nature of the holiday shopping season, was that it would be like this:

Luckily, it wasn't a mad rush at all - I got to keep my coat, and there was even enough downtime for me to get a tour of the counter and see where everything's kept. Which was good - because up until that point, I had been almost entirely useless at the counter and felt constantly underfoot. Yet that's the learning curve, as they say, and if I'm honest with myself, starting this position is not nearly as terrifying as starting my last position - I have a better idea of what to expect, at least as far as being the "new girl," and that helps a lot. I even made a decent-sized sale, all on my own, without knowing a damn thing about what I was doing. A good way to start my first day, I will admit.

So if it wasn't a mad rush, what did it look like? As suggested by my previous post comparing my experience to Maribelle's in "Shopgirl," my second thought was that it would be like this:

Apparently with plenty of snobby customers judging you and white haired men leaving you in awe of their footsteps . . . though mostly what I saw was little old ladies stocking up on makeup and confused men trying to find the store's exit. There was plenty of standing around, trying to stay busy, and waiting for a customer, though -- which brings me to what I have concluded is the most accurate representation of working in a department store:

With wacky shenanigans and double entendres for all!

In all seriousness, being a shopgirl does not seem to be that far off from how pop culture's portrayed it - with one important exception. I wore flats yesterday, thinking I was being sensible and planning ahead, but after spending eight hours on my feet, the pain in my heels was so bad that I was standing on my tiptoes just to give my heels a break. I'm desperate to avoid repeating that experience. Keeping in mind that my uniform requires I wear "simple, fashionable black shoes," I am using my time off to go shoe shopping.

These are fashionable, right?

Tune in Wednesday to see the shoes, track Mrs.' decorating progress and examine the first batch of holiday cookies. Recipes will be included!

Sunday Surprise! A Bonus Post

I know, we're not supposed to see each other until tomorrow, but I was too excited to let it wait -- I know what I want to do for decorating.

This excited.

Paper snowflakes!! They don't melt, molt, or die, and they're super cheap to make. Add some curly willow branches in a vase, some votive candles and some faux wrapped gifts, and voila! A fun, contemporary holiday feeling that won't cost too much money and will last well beyond December. Here's the inspiration board:

I <3 Picasa, 'nuff said.

I'll keep you updated as things progress. See you tomorrow!