giaportfolio

Dress-up

Gia Portfolio — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:59:46 +0000

Startled to see
Charcoal-rimmed eyes
staring back at me
from my reflection in coffee
Black.

You sit
ashing your cigarette
on gray stones of patio

We laugh about time, circumstance.
You look at me
I look down
at new stiletto boots
Boots I wouldn’t think of buying before
now.
Now, when I’m to act sophisticated, mature

I am happy we can laugh like children
I still feel like a child
especially around you
older, smoother

In these moments
I know I’m in love with you
When I feel you looking at me,
and it makes me shy and insecure,
When I look at myself and see a girl
dressed beyond her years,
And then you see the image I project as me
Woman
I am suddenly secure
beautiful.

You ignore my naivete

And we embrace each other
as equals.

(2003)

Jambalaya/ Seafood & Sausage

Gia Portfolio — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:43:25 +0000

This was an experimental dish that turned out quite well. It’s easy because I’m the queen of shortcuts, but it still takes some time. If you’re more inclined, trip it to the fish and farmers’ markets, but I found this to work out deliciously.

Click below for recipe…(Serves 8)

1 package frozen pepper strips (16 oz)

1 package sweet Italian sausage links (16 oz)

1 package Trader Joe’s seafood blend (roughly 16 oz total of baby scallops, shrimp, calamari)—but substitute here according to your preferences.

1 box of brown rice (14 oz.)

1 T of Old Bay seasoning

1/4 cup Peter Luger’s Original Steak Sauce

seasoned salt and pepper to taste

cooking spray

Directions:

1. Saute sausages in a cooking-sprayed non-stick skillet on medium heat

2. After the sausages are about five minutes in, saute frozen pepper strips and seafood in a separate skillet (low-med heat)

3. In the meantime, cook rice according to package instructions

4. Remove the seafood and peppers from heat when they look almost done.

5.Once the sausages are about done, remove from heat and slice into 1/2 inch rounds.

6. Add sausage, peppers, seafood, and strained rice to one large (sprayed, non-stick) skillet. Add Old Bay spice, Peter Luger’s sauce, seasoned salt and pepper. Mix everything together with a wooden spoon and cook on medium high heat for about 7 minutes( or until cooked through), stirring occasionally and adjusting seasonings to your preferred taste.

Enjoy!

Pretty much sums it up ♥

Gia Portfolio — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:20:33 +0000

New Year

Gia Portfolio — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:12:18 +0000

It’s my new year, and therefore time for a resolution. Mine is to put myself first, to stop trying to be perfect and please/appease others. It’s exhausting, time-consuming and ultimately useless. Death could be tomorrow. Life is today.

The Things People Tell You About Yourself

Gia Portfolio — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:45:09 +0000

He made me believe that he knew me better than I knew myself. He had been studying me for 10 years and had a gift for the written word. I believed what he wrote (many, many poems) and said about me—whether it was when he loved me or when he was very angry with me—I believed these to be truths about my core, my essence.

Click below to continue reading…

Yet—I would never trust my parents or brothers to accurately describe me to that level of specificity. [Disclaimer.] You are the one who’s lived your life, so who really knows you, after all? So, how was it that this man on the sidelines observing me for most of our friendship and making assumptions could feed me invalid truths about myself?

Once we became involved and it crashed and burned, I felt so bad that I believed everything he said about me, to me, while dissecting “me.” It could have been because of my guilt. More likely, it was because he detailed his observations—about everything, not just me—acutely. He was so persuasive in selling his ideas of reality that he wrote my life story and sold it to me.

I don’t know how it happened, but I began to believe things about myself, terrible things that even my closest friends and therefore most critical critics would say are inaccurate.

How I could believe the b.s. when I have such an incredible support system is beyond absurd. He did apologize later, saying he was very bitter and had many heated moments, that he “didn’t mean everything he said.” But words sting beyond time, and those have had a lasting damage on me and my view of myself.

He convinced me that I was incapable of truly loving anyone, and because of this, I would never truly be loved. Retrospectively, I think this stemmed from the bare-bones truth that he could not justify the fact that I did not love him. I couldn’t quite justify why I didn’t either, at the time.

But being nice on paper or having a great companionship or sex life or whatever doesn’t mean it’s right. There is something that has to be there beyond all of those things, and I wasn’t feeling it. He got one thing right: I loved being loved. But being dishonest with myself eventually led to being dishonest with him. Years later, I realized his “love” was just some fabrication of his imagination, his idea of me that he super-imposed upon me rather than who I actually am. I could not live up to his fairy tale; he never really was a part of mine.

What I’m getting to is this: You know yourself better than anyone else. Don’t ever listen to someone who tries to tell you otherwise. You’ve got one you, you’ve got to live with you, and you damn well better live for you, in the life you want to live. Be authentically, lovingly yours. xo

Boys’ vs. Girls’ Toys: Are Gender Labels Outdated?

Gia Portfolio — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:38:38 +0000

A young mom recently said she wanted her son to have both “boy” and “girl” toys. At the time, I thought, What? But after mulling over it, is that really so strange in this day and age?

I dressed up my little brothers in female clothes. The boys (to me) were like real-life baby or Barbie (Ken?) dolls. Plus, they didn’t know any better. ;)

William LOVED the color purple when he was younger. He was also an extremely talented painter before sports took over his life. Piers loved Barbie, wearing my mom’s high heels, and was a witch every single Halloween until high school. That didn’t mean he was gay, not definitely, but did we even care? No. My cousin of the same age grew up obsessed with Disney’s The Little Mermaid and also wore high heels. He came out of the closet as soon as he hit his teens, and my brother came out a few years later, in college.

HOWEVER, my second cousin, also obsessed in his younger years with his mom’s high heels, is straight. SO… let kids love what they love and don’t judge.

I think there’s nothing wrong with a boy having a female role model or getting in touch with his feminine side. Is there something wrong with me because I obsessively played 007 on N64 in middle school or because I tried to start a girls’ football team in high school? I think not. And, for the record, I happen to be the “girliest” girl I know.

It’s easy for people to define things as black or white, but even our races are so intermixed now. So boy/girl toys, games, books, and even colors should be out. Why are we “genderizing”?

No toy or game or sport (side note: my mom called ballet my sport before I got into “sports” ha! but isn’t football a lot like ballet? think about it…) will “make” your child more “masculine” or “feminine.” Children are born the way they are and attracted to certain leisurely things naturally, and no amount of “control” over their interests is going to change their natural essence when they grow up. So why even try to do that? Introduce them to everything you can so they learn to cultivate their own interests as innocently as possible.

Bottom line: Let kids be kids. Stop genderizing. And let toys be that—just toys.

The Boyfriend Breakfast Sandwich

Gia Portfolio — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:09:34 +0000

One of my promiscuous former co-workers, much my senior, told me, “Don’t you dare ever make him breakfast. That effs with your emotions. That is you f*ing with your own head. You have just crossed that fine line right there when you start cooking breakfast.” This also applies to going out for breakfast or any sort of lingering after a sleepover. It’s called “hit it and quit it” for a reason. Don’t even cuddle. In, out, done and done.

Those were more or less my rules. Detachment. But one day, I just felt like cooking him breakfast. And here we are, three months later, committed. Early on, I created this recipe, and since he raved about it, I thought I’d share:

Click below for the recipe…

Please Note: *It came out a little sloppy when I tried to remake it for the picture, but trust me, it’s good.*

(Serves 2)

6 large eggs

6 slices turkey bacon (or any type)

2 square ciabatta rolls (again, any type is fine)

1 cup shredded cheddar/ monterey jack mix

1 roma tomato, sliced

1/4 cup white onion

1/2 cup pepper strips (the more colors, the better)

1/4 stick butter

1/4 cup of milk

2 tsp salt, divided

4 tsp pepper, divided

Sriracha sauce (optional)

Directions:

1. Place the chopped onion and peppers on medium heat in a non-stick skillet.

2. In the meantime, wisk together eggs, 1tsp. salt, 2 tsp. pepper, and milk in a bowl. Set aside.

3. In a separate non-stick skillet, place the bacon and cook on medium heat.

4. Add the tomatoes to the onion and peppers. Cook 1 minute, then add the egg mixture to that pan and turn down to low.

5. Coat ciabatta rolls on the outside with 1/8 stick butter each

6. Half-way through the eggs being done (roughly two minutes), remove the bacon. Set aside.

7. Place ciabatta rolls in bacon pan, keeping the heat off (to soak up remaining flavor).

8. When the eggs look mostly finished, divide amongst each roll, add bacon and cheese atop each, as well as the rest of the salt and pepper before replacing top buns. Turn on pan to low heat.

9. Use a spatula to pressure the melding together of everything, cooking for a minute or less. Serve immediately. And add the Sriracha to your sandwich if you’re a spicy gal like me.

Moment

Gia Portfolio — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:00:34 +0000

As the ghosts of January are approaching
Sorrow holds my head in my hands.

Even the light pouring through the window
leaks with grief.

Beside my gaze, he sits polishing the piano keys of yesterday.

Interesting Observations Re: That TOM

Gia Portfolio — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:32:39 +0000

Unfortunately being a female has some drawbacks, one of those being that monthly red devil. Don’t worry—we all know the symptoms that go with it and I’m not going to get into any of that. I have found, though, that among the horrific inconveniences this time causes on a lady’s day-to-day life, there are a few positives.

I’ll only tell the story from my personal experience, because we females vary greatly when it comes to how this particular demon affects us, and I haven’t asked any other gals about this.

Beyond the agony, agitation, and tiredness, I feel like an alpha female. I perform better at work this week more than any other in the month. I have an adrenalin rush. I have stronger, longer workouts. I have a drive and can kill anyone who comes into my path with my bare hands. I have an extreme hatred for men, which enhances all of these timely qualities. It makes me mean and more competitive (of course, all with a smile) and makes those dummies (XYs) take me seriously. No one, seriously NO ONE, can cross me at this time. It’s great. It’s a great time for getting everything I want when it comes to success.

And then when it’s over, I go back to my pleasant chipper self for three weeks and get to enjoy all those other things I want.

The Jersey Phenomenon

Gia Portfolio — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:13:11 +0000

Thank you Lydia for sharing!