Hey there Squishies! This post is going to be a squish-squash of many different things, but I know you won’t mind too much. It will be all over the place, much like my life and thighs. So here we go. First things first. I’ve been really enjoying oatmeal for breakfast. It began with just Splenda, oatmeal, and cinnamon. That became kind of “eh”.. so I began mixing in pieces of banana with it and that became glorious, except for the fact that banana and I are not the best of digestive friends. I’ll leave that there for you to ponder the meaning of. So I left the banana sitting in my oatmeal dust and moved on to something we’ll just call “da shooga.”  I began thinking of my Splenda love affair, and thought to myself “self, you may be killing yourself slowly with 4 packets of Splenda EVERY morning” (2 in my oatmeal, 2 in my coffee.)  and need to look at a more natural option.  Then I found, DA SHOOGA. I ordered one of Starbuck’s “Perfect Oatmeals” a few weeks back, and it came with a packet of brown sugar…aka DA SHOOGA.  Trust me when I say that Starbucks’ Perfect Oatmeal is NOT perfect. It is instant oatmeal and just bleh. HOWEVER. DA SHOOGA revolutionized my oatmeal. I’ve been saying this a lot. “This book revolutionized my life.” “This conditioner has NOT revolutionized my hair. WOE. WOE TO THIS CONDITIONER.” Anyway, Da shooga did this to my non-perfect oatmeal, and this led me to believe it could revolutionize my perfect oatmeal at home. Thus, I began my love affair with da shooga. I began to think…brown things are healthy, right? Brown (wheat) pasta…brown(wheat) bread…brown rice…brown chocolate…brown….Oreos…BROWN SUGAR!!!! (Do you SEE how I made this jump? It was quite simple.)

So I began to add Da Shooga to my oatmeal, and the thing with Da Shooga is that too much is never enough.  Thus began the birth of what I lovingly call “Brown Sugar Bear Ears” in my oatmeal. You see, when I add my spoonfuls of Da Shooga they always take this little bear ear form…and I believe it’s a sign I’m adding too much (Another sign might be that by the time I get to work I’m humming maniacally to myself and wishing people a FIERCE good morning, let me tell ya.)

Now, in this picture, they do not look very bear-ish…but of course the morning I go to take their picture, they become unbearlike. But you get the picture. So, yes. When I’m done with this bag of brown sugar, I will go back to Splenda and shun Da Shooga forever. I have no self control. Don’t tell me to just add less. This is like asking an alcoholic to only drink half of the drink. It’s not going to happen. So that’s that.

Last weekend one of my very best girlfriends came from out of town to go to breakfast and hang out. She said that a friend of hers had opened a bakery and she wanted to support it. Bakeries and I are BFFs, so I jumped at the chance to surround myself with baked goods.  Oh heavens. This little place was adorable, and the owner was even cuter. She practically had an ” I’m the AWEZUM” stamp on her forehead.

I ordered a bagel with cream cheese and coffee, and 3 cookies (DONT YOU JUDGE ME). The bagel came with a strawberry on the plate. I died from the cuteness of it all. Also- homegirl Kendra knows WHAT IS UP. She kept bringing me more coffee, and it was so good I drank 4.5 cups while I was there. ASK ME IF I WAS TIRED AT ALL THAT DAY. ASK ME IF I’VE BEEN TIRED SINCE THEN. The cookies were chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, and peanut butter. ALL WERE THE AWEZUM.  Apparently the demand for Kendra’s cakes became such that she decided to open her own shop, and HELLO THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE BECAUSE OF IT.

Kendra is the one in the apron! She is the maker of the pieces of heaven I swallowed almost whole like my own little bit of Manna from the Lord.

Did I mention she makes cupcakes?

Yeah. I believe this was when my eyes rolled in the back of my head and my tongue fell out of my mouth.

It was a good day. I don’t have pictures of the food I ordered, because I ate it too fast for photos. Sorry. Anyway- if you’re ever in Central California, look up The Kakery.  Email me for specific information about her place if you’re interested! It was divine.

In other news, I haz a  real life reader of mah blawg. I know that like, my friends, and maybe …2 other people read my blog…but people I don’t know but know me through the innernetz? This is quite cool.  She works with Mr. Squish but I’ve never met her, and I was absolutely thrilled when she ran up to me all cute and  I LOVE YOUR BLAWG style, and I am not going to lie- it thrilled me to the core. Oh sweetness of the soul! I never think of real people reading this! Please don’t be offended, I know all 2 of you that searched for “squishy things” on Google (and WHY WHY WHY you were searching for squishy things is none of my business. Please don’t share.) and found this are out there somewhere- but I never really let myself think of the people reading this! Or that they exist…so yes, for a second I kind of felt like the happiest geek on the planet. So, this is a shoutout to Nikki too- THANKS FOR MAKING MY DAY!!! OH, AND I WROTE THIS IN CAPS BECAUSE IT’S A SHOUT OUT…GET IT?

Ok. Coolness factor has plunged a few points. Anyway. That’s all now. Thanks for reading wherever you are- I’d love to hear from you!!!

So let me lure you to tell me something about yourself….If you could open up YOUR own shop, what would it be…AND what is your favorite topping for oatmeal?

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Hello Squishies! I know, I haven’t posted since sleeveless dress suits for women were popular, but there has been quite an upheaval in my squishy life lately. Over Labor Day weekend, my family lost an amazing member, my cousin Evan.  Evan was 18, and the hardest working kid you could find. It was his work ethic- the one that drove him to work 14 hour shifts 6+ days a week to save up for school, that also led to his untimely passing from this world, onto the next. I’ve been dreading writing this post, to be honest, but I feel that it  needs to be written in order for me to continue posting light hearted fun posts again. I just can’t skip over this, and move onto writing something about nothing. So, this is going to be it for this post, and then I can bring you Squishies the fun, posts about nothing that you’ve come to expect from the squishness.

Evan was an amazing person, a fighter for the underdog, a laugh on a sad day. He will be missed greatly.

If I fall If I die

Know I lived it to the fullest
If I fall If I die

Know I lived and missed some bullets

I’m on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shine ain’t always gonna be gold
I’ll be fine once I get it, I’ll be good…

-Kid Cudi, Pursuit of Happiness (One of Evan’s favorites:)

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From the ages of about 7-13 I was a RELIGIOUS watcher of Saved By The Bell. SBTB for those of you so inclined to join me in my memories of the show. I would sit on our couch every Saturday morning, or lay in front of our TV with my bowl of Cheerios with 3 inches of sugar sitting on the bottom and shovel spoonful after spoonful into my mouth and pray that it wasn’t that awful rerun where Zack tries to make himself like Jessie, and it all goes just very very weird at the end and I am left with that unsettled feeling of the world not being right for the rest of the day. I swear when they kissed in that episode I heard whales breaching themselves on beaches ’round the world. It was THAT bad. Almost as bad as Zach and Lisa kissing.

::shudder::

Almost as bad as Slater and Jessie lip-synching  ”How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” while dressed in costume!

The reason I bring this to your attention is simple. I just saw Tiffani Amber Thiessen( Oh Tiffani- Amber, we continue to celebrate your need for two first names and an I instead of a Y unique first name spelling!)on an entertainment news segment, and Kelly Kapowski looks amazing (AS ALWAYS- DUHHH), however, she has definitely come into her own as a woman and is rocking some major curves (please note I did NOT say “gained weight” because I really feel that she is finally resembling a real woman with internal organs. Yay for livers and spleens TiffanI!!!) And my 13 year old bang wearing-acne faced- wispy side burned self began jumping for joy within me.

How many times did Kelly Kapowski wear cut off shorts and a shirt tied under her boobs while I sat in a nightshirt with some kind of sad looking princess bear on the front? HOW MANY TIMES? How many times did Kelly’s biggest problem revolve around Zack VS. Slater, when mine was frantically realizing there was only enough Peanut Butter  Captain Crunch left for ONE BOWL? HOW MANY TIMES?

And for this…for this I let my inner fat kid smile just  a little bit, that age has finally caught up with Kelly Kapowski. She too wears long necklaces to distract the eye! She TOO is rocking the long shirts in style now! She TOO is looking forward to winter layering weather! (ok,  I made up that last part, but I bet she is. We all love sweaters.)

Don’t get me wrong. Homegirl is still beautiful. But it’s nice to see that she might have just given into an Oreo craving or two, after many many years of cheerleading costumes and cutoffs.

I gotta say, I think she looks better now.

And I’m still jealous of her hair, even after all these years.

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As a teacher, there are moments where you want to pull your hair out and run screaming for the hills. When all you want to say is WHEN IS IT MY TURN TO USE THE BATHROOM? You wonder if they hear you. Do they GET IT? Are they mentally present? What happened at home last night to make her look so timid? Why is he so angry? You wonder and you wonder…and the moments of nonstop clouded multi-tasking thought upon thought begin to pile upon your shoulders…and then…

There are moments when a motherless child reaches for your hand to hold.

When a little boy who has struggled all of his life to find confidence, finally finds it in your presence.

When you finally break through the bravado and see that the tough guy is just so scared to fail.

When “come see my sandcastle” is really “please tell me I matter somewhere.”

These are the moments that matter. These are the moments that teach.

Happy 2010 school year to all the teachers out there!

No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure. – Emma Goldman

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Yesterday I had the chance to visit a place that is now very near and dear to my heart. And my stomach. My husband has been raving about this place since his little mini trip to the city a few weeks ago, and he just HAD to take me there. Now I know why. Put simply? Amazing. Delish. Outstanding. A place that makes you sing with delight as you chew.

I had never had a crepe before I entered the doors of Crepes on Cole in San Francisco. However, I can guarantee you that my first crepe, will not be my last crepe, now that I have experienced the joy.

I had a grilled chicken sandwich on a baguette with a side of the house potatoes(red potatoes with rosemary, holy delicious good), and mixed green salad. Mr. Squish had the french toast which I would have liked to have gotten a picture of but we didn’t think of it until after the demolition derby happened on his plate. Apparently it was good.

After lunch we had a banana (banana, cinnamon, brown sugar with whipped cream, thankyouverymuch) dessert crepe with a side of vanilla bean icecream. It was really…well, in heaven, I will eat banana crepes all day.

This is not the banana dessert crepe with a side of vanilla bean icecream because well…again, we inhaled it with the speed of  a fat kid with candy running from his teacher. This is a picture of the Raspberry Blintz.  They serve Savory AND dessert crepes at Crepes on Cole, and from the looks of it, both are extremely popular.

One of the best things about Crepes on Cole isn’t a crepe at all. It’s the owner. I had the chance to meet Sam, who had welcomed my husband a few weeks ago. Sam is quite popular amongst the patrons, and it wasn’t unusual to hear every person going in and out of the doors to greet him by name. He came and sat with us and talked with us awhile. And let me tell you, Sam is a very fun guy to talk to! While we talked, he offered me a coffee on the house- and if you know me, you know that one thing I don’t turn away is coffee. He made me a cappucino.

It was heavenly. Sam was about as nice of a guy as you can find. A guy that you want to give your business to, because, aside from making out of this world crepes, he’s a genuine guy.

Sam was such a nice guy, that he offered to make me another banana crepe, and Ed another french toast so I could get a picture for my blog. He’s just cool like that. I assured him that I would tell all of you dear squishies just how amazing his place is, and what an awesome guy owns the place!

So, for anyone taking a little vaycay to San Francisco, I HIGHLY recommend you stop there. You won’t regret it.

Here’s the info: 100 Carl St. at Cole St. San Francisco, CA 94117  (415) 664-1800.

And to Sam: Thank you for making our day just wonderful- filled with great food and lovely laughter! You’re a gem Sam!

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