What sacrifices have your parents made for you?

Six years ago, I sat my dad down at our house in Kentucky to ask him a very important question: Can I move to New York? He fired several questions my way, and I reassured him that I would bust my ass and make things HAPPEN. I was nervous as hell as I watched him think it over, and then...he said yes! He saw the desperation in my eyes and knew there was no other answer. Well, I think the main reason he said yes was because he wanted Liza and I to be together (she had already moved here), but still. Thanks, Dad, for helping me make my dreams come true!

When I first moved to NYC, I lived in a one bedroom apartment with Liza and one other roommate—talk about getting the true New York experience! I had a paying internship at a music PR company and Liza was freelancing at Lucky magazine, but I'd be lying if I said we didn't have to hit Dad up for money...often. I hated doing it—especially because financially I knew it wasn't easy for him to help me—but I just kept telling him that one day it would all be worth it.

Well, Dad's gone, but now I'm singing the same old tune to my mom. Of course I'm much more independent than I was back then, but I do on occasion need a little help. It's actually quite embarrassing for me to admit this at 29 years-old, especially when what I want more than anything in the WORLD is to be secure and successful on some level. And my unemployment certainly hasn't been easy on my mom—she's been there for me every step of the way. I can't even count how many times I have called her crying over the last year! 

Without my parents support, I never could have had the luxury to chase my dreams. Having people believe in you and invest in you, even if it means putting their needs second is just an amazing feeling. It actually makes me feel quite spoiled. I cannot WAIT for the day when I can look back and say, See it was worth it!

Tell me: What sacrifices have your parents made for you?

What's the food diary of your life?

Ok, so I'm doing something I've never done before—I'm straight up jacking an idea I saw on someone else's blog. But that someone happens to be my bloggy friend, Kelly, so I don't think she will be too upset with me! So here it is, the food diary of my life.

Milk. When I was a baby, I was OBSESSED with milk. My mom said I'd chug down my bottle and then chuck it out of my crib when I was ready for more. This lead to my love of cereal...

Cereal. I could have cereal for EVERY meal. Oatmeal is cheaper, which is why I've been eating it so much lately, but nothing is better than a big bowl of cereal. One time when I was like six, my grandmother let me eat four bowls of Special K for dinner. I couldn't believe it! It was easily one of the best nights of my child LIFE.

Peas. I despised peas as a kid, and my parents wouldn't let me leave the dinner table until I ate them. I made a big dramatic scene about it, too. I'd put just a few on my fork, hold my nose and scrunch my face up in disgust as I swallowed 'em down. I always snuck some into my napkin too, but I'm pretty sure I got busted every time. Looking back, I don't know what the big deal was—peas don't really taste like anything. 

Eggs. This was the first thing I learned how to cook, and still to this day it's one of the only things I can make! Shameful. I had this dish at Balthazaar several months ago—I wish I could make my eggs look this fancy!

Ice cream. By now you know that my love for ice cream runs DEEP. My first job was at Graeter's, so that might explain something there. I actually didn't eat much of the ice cream while I worked, but one time my boss totally caught me shoveling spoonfuls of Double Chocolate Chip into my mouth! It was soooo embarrassing! I quickly put the spoon down, wiped my mouth and went back to work. We both acted like it never happened! 

Ohh, and a funny ice cream story about Liza: When she was little, my mom gave her a scoop of low-fat vanilla (Oh no she di'n't!). After one little taste, she exclaimed, "WHAT THE HECK KIND OF ICE CREAM IS THIS?!?" Bless her little heart—she knew something wasn't right. The Collis girls don't mess around when it comes to ice cream!

Sushi. Leah, one of my best friends from college, introduced me to it junior year when the food court in the student union started serving it. I'd always get a California roll and dunk the hell out of it in that yummy orange sauce. I didn't like it much at the time, but I thought it was the cool thing to eat, so I went with it. Now, I LOVE sushi. When my boyfriend and I first started dating, we ate it as much as possible—like pretty much every time we went out to eat! I've tried some more adventurous rolls with him, but my favorite ones are super-basic: California, spicy tuna and cucumber. Mmm.

Pizza. It's cheap and yummy and I LOVE it. My bf and I shared this pizza at a casual restaurant in Park Slope last weekend. Shoot, I'm forgetting the name of the place! (New Yorkers, it's on Seventh Ave near 10th Street.) It's not the healthiest thing in the world, but I usually eat it by the slice with veggies on top, so it's not so bad. 

Wow, now I'm officially starving! Your turn: What's the food diary of YOUR life?

Do you have workout ADD?

I do sometimes and it SUCKS. I hate when I watch the clock at the gym when I KNOW I should be too busy working up a sweat to even think about what time it is! The other day I went to a spinning and yoga class back to back. (I've been doing double workouts on days I have the time because my schedule has been so sporadic lately.) In both classes I just watched the seconds tick, tick, tick on by. The spinning instructor was partially to blame though. She played the WORST music ever—it was a random techno mix, and I hate techno. Umm hello, teach, is a little Rihanna too much to ask for?! I just couldn't get motivated, so I left class ten minutes early to do some glute work before yoga.

I'm pretty good at concentrating on exercises that concern my ass, so for those 10 minutes, I was focused. But then it was time to get my downward facing dog on, and I was back to being distracted. Just as I'd start thinking about my To-Do list and what I was going to have for dinner, the teacher would say, "Don't let your mind drift. Bring it back to what you are doing in this very moment." Damn, the bitch is a mind reader! Well, she probably caught me glancing at the clock every five minutes. She also told us to "find our inner juiciness" and that "deeper doesn't mean better." Who the hell can concentrate with commentary like THAT?!

So yep, I'm diagnosing myself with workout ADD. Who else gets it? Is there a cure?

Karma's a bitch, BITCH!

In this post I told you about the miserable bloke (he's English) who FIRED my ass. Well, I found out yesterday that HE recently got fired. This, my friends, is what I call karma. And of course, instead of being civil and taking the high road, he threw a little bitchfest and wrote a bitter email to the entire office. I'm not surprised. 

So yesterday a reader (Hi Ashley!) commented about what I said about wanting to "strangle" recent grads who land jobs right out of school. 

While it might not be fun seeing people get jobs before you at least there are jobs to get! I believe in job karma, and hatin' on people for landing gigs before you is bad ju-ju. 

I believe in job karma, too. Did I actually want to strangle anyone? No. Was I a teensy bit jealous? Yes. It IS hard seeing people all around me land jobs and get promotions when I've been struggling (and busting my ass!) for a year. Sure. But I can honestly say that I am happy for other people's successes—even if the news initially is hard to hear. And Ashley's right, it does give me hope that there ARE jobs out there...somewhere! 

So no, I don't think the karma police will be knocking on my door any time soon. What about you: Do you believe in karma? Has it ever come back to bite you?

Things That Should Be Illegal: Take 3

1. A grandmother getting jiggy with her grandson. When I read about this story online, all I could think was, Please don't be from Kentucky, please don't be from Kentucky! Phew, Indiana.

2. Cell phones in yoga class. You know from this post what a competitive yogi I can be. It takes me a LONG time to finally relax and reach a place of zen, so when a cell phone goes off in the middle of class, I want to beat a bitch UP. Especially when the owner just keeps letting it ring and ring because they're too embarrassed to claim it. 

3. Lauren Conrad. She's a cute girl with a cute style. PERIOD. There is nothing more here. Nothing. Why does she have an "empire" built around her name? Every time I read an interview she's done, I just want to cry. She's so terribly boring, and every sentence out of her mouth is a cliche worse than the one before. 

4. PDA. I saw a teenage couple swapping spit at a restaurant with their entire family there at the table. It was disgusting. And they were so SERIOUS about it—looking into each other's eyes and shit. Honey, you know he did the same thing the night before with your best friend, right? 

5. College grads who get jobs right after school. A recent Columbia grad told me she's starting a marketing job with American Express in August. I wanted to STRANGLE her. It took me over a YEAR to land my first job out of school, and now, well, we all know what my situation is...

6. Celebs who renew their vows...over...and over. Mariah and Nick, Tori and Dean...just stop it. The only thing this proves is that you're total media whores.

7. Not paying the bus fare. It drives me CRAZY when someone steps on the bus knowing full well they don't have a cent on their metro card or in their wallet. Yet, they keep swiping their metro card with a confused looked, as if they just don't understand why it's not working. Then finally the driver gets fed up and lets them sit down. That is a FREE bus ride, and I consider that to be stealing. Stealing is illegal. 

8. For someone to spill your coffee on the floor...and then offer you a SIP of his. This happened to me the other day. Yes, the dude offered me a sip of his coffee. No thanks, you toothless bastard. You can practically catch an STD from just looking at someone these days—I'm not going to chance it. Not even for coffee. 

9. Canceling plans on someone AN HOUR before you're supposed to meet. Don't do this. It's not cool. It's selfish. Especially in New York where it can take almost an hour to get somewhere! 

10. Recording a song if you don't in fact have ANY musical abilities. Luann, are you serious? Momma, I know you're going through a hard time and you want to be all cool and hippity hop, but this is not good for your image. At all.

So tell me: Do you agree with anything on this list? What else should be illegal??

WHO LOVES YOU?!

I do, I do! I love you SOOOO much in fact, that I'm going to give away some of the Bumble and Bumble hair products I got at this event. 

There's a styling spray, masque, shine cream and conditioner, which all together retails around $100! I realized I hadn't even touched these products when Liza and I cleaned the apartment last weekend. And while they are totally fabulous, they just aren't quite right for my hair type. Plus, you know I'm always looking for ways to show my favorite people a little love :) 

For a chance to win:

1. Become a fan of Fired 'n' Fabulous on Facebook (Ahem—if you haven't already!)

2. Tell me how you'd spend $100 if someone gave it to you

3. Spill it: Your most hideous hairstyle you had growing up

4. Virtual pinky promise me you will tell at least one new person about FnF 

Yes, I'm making you WORK for it! Just a little. Ohh and Elizabeth, you never emailed me with your address so I can send you the Crazy Busy Beautiful book. (If your name is Elizabeth and you're not sure whether or not I'm talking about you, click here.) If I don't hear from you by Monday, May 24, then I'm going to pick another winner. And that's also when I'll choose the winner for these goodies!

XOXO

E

Photo Shoot Friday: Food Porn and a Rooftop View

OK, so the writing on this post is going to be minimal. I've been a little bonkers with this freelance PR gig I recently took on, and I just don't have the time or brainpower to come up with clever commentary at the moment. Not that the pics really need any. (Please ignore any typos. My bf already pointed out like three from the last post!) And oh, apparently food blog pics are called FOOD PORN. Works for me!

An editor friend invited me over to her Upper West Side apartment the other week, and I was blown AWAY by it. This is pretty much what I aspire to have...one day.

We all know what a fabulous photographer I am! I managed to only get half of the two-wall bookshelf.

People say that the "magic" happens in the bedroom, but I say it's the kitchen! Plus, you can make magic IN the kitchen. Ya dig?

We went outside to eat on the patio, but I'm an idiot and accidentally deleted the beautiful pic I had taken of it. Damn.

I loaded my plate with the healthy stuff first....

...and then I got to the good stuff! I rarely eat pasta anymore (not sure why?) It was de-LISH.

Fried cheese anyone? Yes, PLEASE!

My plate looked like this. Plus seconds of pasta and cheese.

We finished off the night with key lime pie, (more) vino and coffee. Yummm.

Oh, and this view. Isn't it ridiculous?

Until this night, I always said that I'd take an awesome wardrobe over an awesome apartment any day, but now I'm rethinking that. What would you choose: Apartment or wardrobe? And what's everyone having for dinner tonight? All this damn FOOD PORN is making me hungry!