Sister is coming home today...where's my cleaning fairy?

So my sister is coming home today from NYC. She's been there for a month as a nanny for a movie director and his family. Since she's been gone I've had the entire apartment to myself. I've never had an entire apartment at my disposal for this vast amount of time before. I have always lived with family or roommates; so I must say it was nice to have the freedom to do what I wanted in the apartment.

And I did the usual things most people do when they have freedom like...

Walk around/Sing around the house in my underwear

or dance in it while I played music loudly and showed off my best dance moves inspired by West Side Story...


Or do the dishes in it...



NOTE* Just kidding, that's just gross!

But I did watch the movie "The Holiday" like ten times one week with a bag of chocolate chips in hand (that I intended for cookies, but yeah, I was too lazy to make them then!).


And sometimes forget to take out the trash...

All in all, I tried to behave. And in retrospect, I have to say it was MUCH easier to keep a place clean when there is no one to clean up after (if you are feeling so inclined to clean that is). I noticed that I could do my dishes in five minutes (which was really nice) or leave them for a couple days (HAHA!), and I enjoyed that freedom, lol. I also was feeling/becoming more domestic as the main hen in the chicken coop and even felt brave enough to try out new recipes (oatmeal cookies in particular, minus chocolate chips, but they tasted great, though much too crumbly I might add!). I am also proud to say that in my sister's absence I even cooked a whole chicken for the first time one Sunday night (a disaster I shall describe further down below).

Can I say something else about living alone though (even temporarily)? It can get lonely. I found myself leaving the TV on just to feel like someone else was around and felt a lot like this...

Wish I could have rented a pet cat or dog for a month, haha. Being the holiday season I just found myself feeling particularly sentimental...after all my Thanksgiving was a real bust. I didn't go anywhere that day! Was really planning on driving to Utah to join my family but was struck by mother's nature's curse to women (you ladies know what I'm talkin' bout), and that in combination with having adrenal/thyroid problems again I was much too tired to drive that long distance so I stayed home. In fact I didn't even go to my friend Alisi's house for Thanksgiving dinner, I stayed home, called my family and listened them laugh and chat animatedly in the background. (I know, I know, cue the sympathetic violin music).

So...in retrospection.... I'm looking forward to having another person in the apartment again. And its my sister's birthday today, so I'm planning on cleaning the apartment up real spiffy and baking a cake before she returns, a cake which I hope will turn out like this... (my latest culinary confection masterpiece) ...

NOT! Anyway, looking forward to the day but I can't say I'm looking forward to telling my sister about the missing bottom glass shelf in our fridge (refer to above chicken cooking mention then read on...).

I suppose I better practice fessing up about what happened to the shelf before she comes...so here goes, lol... After I toiled away in the kitchen for 3 hours one Sunday night not long ago (this includes thaw time, and being over paranoid about salmonella poisoning so it took longer to prepare/cook time) I had made the most beautiful meal of chicken, rice, potatoes and carrots. I was so proud. And it was delish!

I ate my portion for dinner and was REALLY looking forward to having my gourmet left-overs for the rest of the week. I covered the glass pan with tin foil and put it on the bottom glass shelf. About five minutes later I hear this loud shattering sound coming from the kitchen. I looked around and decided to open the fridge to figure out where the sound came from...suddenly tons of glass came pouring out of it like one of those jelly belly dispensers at the grocery store.

Why has no one ever warned me that if you put a medium warm pan on a glass shelf in the fridge, it will shatter the glass, and into pieces so small you'll be cleaning them up for a month? I've never heard of such a situation, nor witnessed it! My mother is a good cook, and mothers should pass this information along to their daughters; what gives?! I had to throw an entire chicken (minus one breast) out in the trash because tiny glass pieces had gotten inside it after it fell through the glass shelf and crashed into the produce bin. LOL, yeah, yeah, laugh all you want, but I was MAD!!!

Anyway, this month has been a grand adventure you could say. In closing I'd like to give a few thanks to the following.... THANK YOU MY CAR, MY PHONE -MOM, PETE, KIM, THE WORLD WIDE WEB - MYSPACE, MSN messaging, PEOPLE.COM, 7-11 convenience store, IN & OUT BURGER, and RED BOX, for graciously giving their services or company and making this long month on my own an enjoyable one.