I’m actually proud to say I’ve made it another whole week! Follow the jump for my second week of success — baby showers, days in bed, and more!

→ Web Design! At work we’re completely updating/re-doing/content overhauling one of our major web pages. I have had the joy of coding until my eyes were crossed for the last 70 hours or so. It’s been an incredibly high! In what little free time I’ve had, I’ve also finally settled on a theme (with original design and touches by myself, of course) that I’m completely in love with right here at theluckiest. What do you think?

→ Speaking of – I’m lovin’ getting to dork out about such things with new friends/acquaintances that are just as into web design as I am. Between co-workers, people I’ve met throughout the city, and lots of coding-inclined Young Democrats, I’m awash in talk of languages, tags, and aesthetics, and I’m loving it.

→ Senator Kristen Gillibrand’s Off the Sidelines online book club: the club chooses a book roughly every two months and is launching next month! The Senator will discuss social, gendered, and modern political issues (with both men and women!) through Facebook chat and streaming video, connecting with her campaign, her constituents, and political nerds like myself. If you’re into political punditry, policy know how, and awesome women – you should absolutely sign up and join me.

→ My newest Spotify playlist (I think I might end up listing one of these every week — Because we’re all Disney princesses). Who doesn’t need more joy, laughter, true love, fairy tales, and triumph in their life?!

→ Last but certainly not least, Boyfriend Piece and I got the Kindle App for our HP Touchpad last week and I am obsessed. First of all, the Touchpad cost us half what the Kindle Fire costs and has a lot more functionality. I have access to all of my Amazon ebook purchases via WhisperSync with an incredibly quick reaction time, and I can even use the app to ‘borrow’ library e-loans. From what I’ve seen there was frustration when the Touchpad first came out because the app wasn’t yet available. But it being released in July and me not getting my Touchpad until December worked out wonderfully for us! I haven’t had a single problem with the app yet and I’ve read more in the last week than I have in ages. Definitely something to love.

I first noticed her way back in The House Bunny, when she was clearly dressing down and playing against her ability to sell sex (well, at the beginning of the movie, anyway), but then she stole the show in Zombieland and stole Penn Badgley‘s heart in Easy A (face it, that movie is today’s Clueless, in all good ways). She’s also gone on to make some really smart movies; The Help and Crazy Stupid Love coming to mind first. What’s there not to like?

Check out after the jump for more of the redheaded bombshell.

“My parents are both very funny but they’re also relatively soft-spoken, normal human beings while I’m just a lunatic. I don’t know where this loud, ballsy, hammy ridiculousness came from. I’m just glad I followed my goals and my parents did too. It’s not like we even had a plan when I dragged my mom to Los Angeles.”

It started with drinks the other night. Then last night I has a great time catching up with the Greater Boston Young Dems, made some new acquaintances, and made sure to get the ball rolling on having dinner and/or drinks with people I don’t see nearly enough of. There are also plans in the works for another karaoke night, two weekend trips north (one to Kat’s family and one to my own), a dip party (thrown by other friends), a Bond movie marathon (thrown by yours truly), and a Pirate tour. Of course, this all already planned out.

This year I want more picnics, more lazy Saturdays. I want to actually walk the Freedom Trail, without ending up at Beantown Pub and missing the whole rest of the tour. I want to go to a baseball game (how have I been here for almost a year without seeing the Red Sox yet?!) and finally make it out to the museums (I haven’t been to the Boston museums since I was a kid). I want to go out to the Cape at some point, I haven’t been in years.

I want to read more books this year and see more movies (thankfully Kat and I have resolved to that one together). I want to save money and pay off more and more of my debt. I want to be debt free, if not this year, soon. I want to tour the campuses at Harvard and MIT, just because they’re so gorgeous. I want to go watch the Head of the Charles Regatta, and stay awake through the whole Boston Marathon this year.

What do you want to do this year? How is 2012 going to be your year of doing things?

When I made it, we came up with four servings, but I’m terrible at measurement. Everything – everything! - is to taste.

Garlicky Chicken Pad Thai Rice Bowls

• 1 bottle of Annie Chun’s basic Pad Thai sauce
• Boneless skinless chicken tenders
• A couple florets of broccoli
• A couple/three handfuls of pea pods
• A cup/1.5 cups of chopped mushrooms
• White rice
• Garlic
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil

I don’t normally use expensive sauces and pre-made products, but Annie Chun’s was only $4 at Shaw’s and it was completely yummy, so worth it! Plus, I did a good job of watching what I was snagging and I’d say besides the wine I only spent about $20 on all of this (so two dinners and two lunches – that’s $5.00 a meal! That’s cheaper than buying lunch on campus!). First I put water on to boil for the rice and then started with the veggies, cutting up the broccoli and mushrooms and mixing them in a large colander with the pea pods. I also smushed up two garlic cloves and set those aside for later use. I rinsed the veggies off and set them aside, too. I cut up the chicken into bite size bits (that’s just my preference for cooking meat, it speeds up the process), and cooked it in a large frying pan (a wok would be better/easier, I’m sure) with a base of olive oil to keep it from drying out.

Once the chicken was cooked I added the whole bottle of sauce, the garlic, and the spices (to taste). I let all of that mix in and heat up while setting up the rice to cook (most rice basically cooks itself!). I then added the veggies mix to the frying pan and kept everything mixing up. I cooked until the mushrooms and broccoli had really soaked up the sauce and the spices, and the pea pods were still crunchy enough to give the meal texture without still being cold.

Scoop out two big bowls of rice, pile the stir fry on top, add some sauce from the bottom of the stir fry pan as you like and you’re done! Prep and cook time was roughly a half hour, I’d say, and I had a bottle of mild, white chocolatey shiraz that brought out all the different tastes and the little kick of garlic spice just wonderfully.

Needless to say, I was really proud of myself. What do you think? Will you try it? What recipes have you tried lately? Help a girl out with some suggestions!

*featured photo from jennsfoodjourney.blogspot.com

→ The Swell Season’s “Low Rising” popped up in my morning Spotify mix and I was reminded of how much I love everything Glen Hansard has ever done in music/movies/writing/existing. And so I immediately built myself an All Things Glen playlist and have been breathing deeply to The Frames, Hansard’s solo stuff, the soundtrack from Once, and of course Strict Joy from The Swell Season all morning. While we’re at it, is Dance the Devil by The Frames not one of the best albums ever? Am I right?

→ Spotify in general. I’ve been super evengelical about the playlist/share service over the last week and I can’t help but give it another shout out here. It’s the only entertainment service I actually have a paid account with (and I’m flabbergasted every day at how much I get for my $10 a month), if that says anything.

→ Project 365: I’m so excited to be taking part and am really trying to keep up with it. I’ll have weekly posts of my photographs as well as a running year-long album on facebook!

→ My (sort-of) New Years resolution to cut toxic friendships out of my life. I don’t really do resolutions, thus the ‘sort-of’, but I think this one’s worth taking a stand on. I have a bad habit of trusting people at first sight – if we get along, if you put up with my silliness, I’m gonna work like the dickens to be your friend. I’m going to put my needs in a friendship second, or last, or completely forget them entirely. I did this in romantic relationships for a long time, too, and I ended up having to flit around sans-relationship for nearly two years before I had it together enough to try again. I clearly don’t want to do that with friendships, but I need to make some radical changes at the same time. And so it’s begun, I’m spending more time with awesome friends, people who support and love me, who don’t tear me down and I’m trying to recognize when that happens. I’m being better about being in touch with my long distance friends and family, and slowly but surely gutting my facebook ‘friends’ list of people I simply don’t need to be getting hourly updates from. It seems to be working so far. I feel better, though not entirely. The anxiety of dramas that aren’t my own, the stress of energy-sapping individuals, and the pain of realizing people I thought I could depend on were nothing of the sort… I’m probably going to feel this way for a while, and might even relapse into such relationships, but it feels good to know that I’ve recognized my problem and have already taken steps to right it. As The Frisky says so often, life is too short to spend with people who suck

I’ve been writing here as Atlimbo since 2009. I had been through a rough 2008 and in the new year I needed a hobby – thus atlimbo.com was born and I began chronicling my interests and evolutions. I started the site on a whim, as a wordpress blog with the advice of some musician friends and quickly found my niche. I covered the DC music scene as a music scene outsider. I covered dating in the music scene, as I dipped my heartbroken and burnt toes back into the pool. I explored what it meant to be 24 and single and scared and brave and I like to think atlimbo.com gave me a home for all of that. 2009 gave me courage and independence and I entered 2010 with the best attitude I think I’ve ever had about anything in my life. I felt I was ready to take on the world, and in a way, I did.

In 2010 I left the safety and security of the job that had been my life, to run a risky campaign on behalf of a friend. I wouldn’t change that experience, or my decision to do it, for anything in the world, for it was the campaign that pushed me to the ultimate truth: it was time to leave DC. I had been there, sheltered and shattered so many times, by it’s white columned buildings and green Mall for many years. But it was time, Limbo was knocking, and I needed to embrace it fully. What followed was ten months of cocktail waitressing, barista-ing, road trips, and relaxation. I tried to simply not think, and I rang in 2011 at a friend’s apartment in the middle of nowhere, in Southern Virginia.

And then we hit 2011. And it’s been one hell of a year. In some ways I’m so incredibly grateful for everything I’ve dealt with this year – I am in one of the world’s most amazing cities, I am with the love of my life, I have a job that may not last but is so much of what I want my career to be, I finally found a hair color I really adore – and in someways I’m very ready for the new start of 2012 – very difficult goodbyes, a 600+ mile move, 6 months of unstable temping gigs, living in a freezing, and moldy basement for two months with friends because the price tag fit to name a few of the reasons.

Mostly, I’m feeling tired of 2011. I will forever look at 2011 as a year I took a big leap of faith and it was entirely worth it. I didn’t know what moving to Boston would hold for me. I knew two people in the city (one from high school & one from college), I had no job prospects, no school waiting for me, I had a couple bags of clothes and an air mattress that a friend in Virginia bought me. I put on a brave face and thanked my parents profusely for taking the long drive with me. But I was terrified. I had never done this before. I’m someone who’s leaped off cliffs, charmed powerful & beautiful people, someone who’s taken on much bigger challenges without the bat of an eyelash.

But this… This was faith of a kind I’d never known. This was faith in my ability to persevere, faith in my ability to take the worst that might get thrown at me and make the best of it, faith in… In myself. Transitioning to life in Boston – living with a man I’ve loved for years but a man I haven’t even been in the same state as for five years, traversing new political waters and job hunting – was difficult, it’s been rough, actually, but I love it. I love it here. I’m grateful to have met the people that make up my every day now. I’m grateful to have rekindled old friendships and that despite years of distance and difference, Piece let me into his life without hesitation. We celebrated nine months just last week.

I feel like the last couple of years have been one big transition for me, actually. And 2012 opens up to the next step – the settling in, the working my ass off, the creating, the brilliance, the brightness, and the beauty of this life that I’ve built for myself. It’s almost like my letter to 2010: “I will not let my determination falter, my hope be extinguished, or my faith waiver.”

I’m ready for whatever next steps I may have in front of me. I’m confident that this is what 2011 gave me, the chance to take a big deep breath before heading through Limbo’s exit and into that Real Life that’s been so illusive for so long. I can’t wait.

I hope for all it’s filled with love, family, friendship, and of course, champagne!

which is Limbo and which is kitteh?

Rather obviously, no interwebz/kitteh list would be complete without the mother of all cats-on-the-internet website. The original of LolCats (and no, being a meme on 4chan does not mean it’s got a home, if you trust Wikipedia’s history of the LolCat): I can has Cheezburger. I’ve been following I Can Has since the site was only a couple of months old, starting with the Lolrus Bucket Saga back in early 2007, and I checked it daily for a laugh for quite a while. As the community grew and the site changed, I found myself reading it less (mostly thanks to it’s load times), but I still find myself there once every could of weeks for a giggle and a grin. In honor of the season, here’s what I would call My Current Lolcat.

Tumblr is always a wealth of information when it comes to memes, animated gifs, and silly little joys, and so of course there’s a Tumblr called Fuck Yeah! Cats!

Recently I discovered (I believe through an adoption site) the blog called Love, Meow, which focuses on daily adorableness without being saccharine. I’ve never been a fan of blogs like Cute Overload, but Love, Meow tells stories about adopted animals, advertises great animal organizations, and works with charity!

And here are pictures of Starbuck!