high society...

Gossip Girl here… A, F and E spotted at Houston’ Simon Mall Fashion show.  The only question is: who had the bigger fall from glory, Faye or the runway model?

A while back, my friend Ellen got me hooked on Gossip Girl.  Essentially, I fell in love with it.  Then, Ellen invited Amir & I to a Houston Magazine event at the Galleria.  I just couldn't wait to wear my new dress from Bevello, get all dressed up and have a week-night out on the town!  We started off the night at the VIP pre-party at Armani.

Then we moved downstairs to the Simon Mall Fashion Show.  Amir and I stood for our first ever step and repeat.  We seriously felt so fancy!

They served free food and beverages all night long.  We even got a gift bag full of goodies like a candle, Grey Goose vodka (airplane size, sadly), OPI nail polish, a conception calendar (for future reference I suppose?), and a purse size mirror.  I think it was mostly cool just to get a gift bag on our seat! 

We watched the fashion show which was pretty cool!  One model stumbled, one model fell (see PS. story below), and it made me want to model in a mall fashion show just once in my life!

Then we went to an after-party at GiGis where they served martinis and there were naked women painted like bottles of Stoli Vodka!

All in all, it was a pretty awesome night!  I learned that being part of society is SO MUCH FUN! :)  That's our latest Houston update, xoxo Faye

PS. I must admit, I took a pretty awesome tumble at the beginning of the night.  My 6-inch platform shoes are a disaster I've learned to master but they are still no match for a Houston sidewalk.  Before we even walked into this swanky event, I fell on the concrete sidewalk outside of the Galleria.  I found the nearest Neiman Marcus restroom to clean up my knee.  I was hoping that it wouldn't be too bad in my less than knee length dress.  However, it was pretty gross.  Just then, the fashion gods sent a wonderful lady who magically found a giant knee-sized band aid from who knows where that just so happened to be my shade of white person!  Luckily, that was way less obvious than my totally cut-up bloody knee!   Maybe I'm not quite graceful enough for high society, but it sure does add to my story!

I'm just like my dad.

Typically, this blog is a life update with places I've gone and things I've done.  However, it seems that recently the vast majority of my life is lesson planning, teaching, and attempting to figure out the inner workings of 13 year olds...  So, today is the story about how I've come to the realization that, with age, I am actually becoming my father.

For a while now, I've been pretty obsessed with grocery shopping.  My typical rule is if its not on sale, or your don't have a coupon, you should probably buy something else.  There are obvious exceptions to this like "OMG WE'RE OUT OF ICE CREAM!" or "Amir...the milk in the fridge just asked how my day was...I think its time for a new gallon." For the most part though, it needs a coupon or a sale if its going in my cart.  I will also admit that I wish had the time and dedication to be an extreme coupon lady with the huge binder and calculator and whatnot, but alas, see above about the 13 year olds...  My frugal trait has very clearly been inherted from my father, King of Power Shopping.  I remember hating weekly Meijer/Kroger/VGs trips for a majority of my childhood, and I'm not really sure when I turned from whiny child into Faye Queen of Coupons, but its happened and there's no going back!  (ps. dad, I saved $26.37 at HEB today...so proud, right?)

I've known about the grocery shopping "I'm my father" thing for a while.  Today, though, I suprised myself with a new one.  Before grocery shopping this evening I was planning out meals for the week.  While thinking about my lunches, I thought to myself, 'oh I'll just make a bunch of PB&Js and freeze them like Dad used to when I was in school.' [Insert "OH MY GOSH I'M MY FATHER" moment here].  Now this may not sound like a big deal, but I also used to hate when he went into assembly line sandwhich making mode.  However, this evening I made a loaf of sandwhiches and my lunches are ready to go!

As I reflected a bit on this whole topic of becoming my father, I thought about how the quirks I have inherited are typically things that bothered me about him as a child.  I disliked spending my Saturday's grocery shopping; sandwhich assembly line was sooooo boring; I hated being scolded for putting things in the dishwasher the wrong way (but now I have a specific and efficent dishwasher set up and correct Amir's dish placement, as crazy as that seems). 

All that being said, as quirky as my fathers my traits are (and Amir assures me they are), they are also a sourse of comfort.  I do things that are like my dad and I can't help but think of him.  So, in the end, thanks dad for making me who I am!

Happy Turkey Day!

As I was getting our feast ready today, I couldn't help but think of Amelia Bedilia...After rinsing and blotting the turkey, making sure the wings were tucked back, prepping to stuff the turkey, I couldn't help but recall an awesome childhood literacy moment...

Here was the menu (all recipes are linked):

Turkey with Brown-Sugar Glaze

Basic Bread Stuffing (with cranberries, pecans and brussel sprouts)

Glazed Carrots with thyme

Green beans with caramelized onions and tarragon

Karabelski Cheesy Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Cranberry Sauce (a la Ocean Spray)

Biscuits (a la Grands)

As you can see, the November issue of Martha Stewart Everyday Cooking was a great inspiration.  I substituted all celery for Brussel sprouts since celery isn't really that special to either of us.  The Brussel sprouts added some delicious flavor to the turkey and stuffing.  Amir gave the whole meal two thumbs up, and I actually timed everything pretty perfectly!   Enjoy the photo-deliciousness! 

 

Getting the stuffing ready



How hot are you turkey?



I went all out with tablecloth & chair covers!

 

Our beautiful centerpiece (gracias mama por las flores)



Check out that turkey!!



Man of the house carves the turkey



A delicioso spread!



So, after a delicious feast, Amir and I had the traditional Thanksgiving "what are you thankful for" discussion.  Here is what we decided:

Each other (aww how cute, right?)

Our parents (Thanks moms & dads!)

My job ($$)

Law School (future $$)

Our friends

Having an apartment and more than enough food on the table

Vino (which made our dinner even more delicious)

West Wing Episode: Shibboleth (which we then watched in honor of the holiday)

Thanksgiving Eve

To continue along my journey to my first-ever, self-cooked, Thanksgiving dinner, I did as much "day before" prep as possible.

Veggies are chopped for soon-to-be delicious dishes...



Green beans with tarragon

Glazed carrots with tarragon



Brussel Sprouts for the stuffing



And then I made dessert for tomorrow...



melting chocolate like a cooking show



All the dry ingredients





 



 



I love you kitchen aide mixer!!



An hour and a half later....TA DA!

(well, actually, mine turned out as a less photogenic version of this, but I'm sure it tastes as delicious as this one looks)



Photo Credit: Joy the Baker





Exploring H-town

With our time off, Amir and I took the chance to explore our new city a little more.   We got a little "lost" on our way downtown, but our detour allowed us to take this pretty skyline picture.

Of course before heading downtown, Amir spent some time researching Houston buildings and architecture.  We spent most of our time at the JP Morgan tower.  Amir informed me it is the tallest building in Texas so that is kinda cool.  Amir took a serious picture, and then I jumped in and tried to do the" touch the top of the building" thing...but I only made it to the 10th floor.  Oh well!

We went inside to get a Starbucks, and discovered they had an observation deck on the 60th floor!  It was no Sears Tower experience, but still pretty cool!  From there we could see the 2nd and 3rd tallest building in Houston, and enjoy the sunset view.  (The 3rd tallest is far away on the horizon)

As a break from studying/lesson planning today, we trekked down to the museum distract in hopes to see the Jung Center (for those of you who don't understand my excitement, see how cool her is here) which I've wanted to see since we moved here.  However, they closed 20 minutes before our arrival so we'll have to reschedule.  Instead, we headed back downtown to the Public Library where some of my students' artwork was on display.  It was pretty awesome to see them "published" and on display!



Ready or not Thanksgiving... here I come!

Let it be known, I'm pretty stoked about making my first ever Thanksgiving Dinner! 

So, in preperation for this exciting 1st in my life, I have run full force into planning mode.  I chose all of the recipes I need to make dinner and dessert. I made one list of all the ingredients for each recipe that I did not already have in the house.  I made draft #2 of the shopping list by consolidating all of the amounts of each grocery I needed to buy.  The final draft included the item, the amount I needed, and the sale/coupon price for two different store. 

Amir watched silently throughout my furvent hunt for the best recipes, while making 3 versions of the grocery list and while clipping coupons/sale hunting.  His only comment as I was getting ready to leave for the grocery store was, "Have fun Paul."

For those of you who know my father, you will also recognize that I have already turned into him in many ways by the age of 25. 

 Anyway, I came home with everything needed for Thanksgiving 2011, and the preperation starts tomorrow!  Check back in for more Thanksgiving Adventures with Faye!

THANKFUL I'm not in law school

Since I have the week off, I went to school with Amir on Monday to see what this whole law school thing was about.  Let me tell you, I'm thankful I don't have to go every day.

Whose House? COOGS HOUSE!

The day started off with breakfast tacos!  Wait, correction: the day started with breakfast tacos because Amir and his entire 1L cohort had to turn in a 10 page memo that most of them have been working on for the entire semester.  As I delighted in my taco, I was happy to reap the benefits of their hard work!

Amir in his carrol

Amir's first class was Torts.  I think I follow the English-Spanish-Farsi conversations that happen across the  Roohi family dinner table better than whatever that professor was talking about.  I have no idea what happened, but I did finish 4 lesson plans for the week after Thanksgiving instead. (yay!)

Class number two was Civil Procedure.  The professor is infamous among UH law students and the bain of most of their first semester existence.  He doesn't allow computers and insults people when they don't know the answer correctly, so basically I learned about preclusion, diversity, forum shopping, loss of consortium and a 3 pronged rule that no one remembered.  I thought the guy was hilarious, but then again, he doesn't give me a grade at the end of the semester.

At the end of the day, I see why Amir is so exhausted.  Before this, I gave him a hard time because all he has to do is sit and learn (as compared to teaching 8th graders all day); however, law school is boring and draining and I wanted a nap afterward. 

So, I'm thankful my life isn't taking that path and kudos to Amir for sticking through that every day...