De-Clutter

Merry Christmas Eve Eve today lovelies – I hope you’ve already eaten your share of sweets and gotten a tummy ache before the actual holiday arrives. That may have been me the last couple days at work. I can’t help it! When someone brings in snacks, why WOULDN’T I eat it all? I’ve been nicknamed the Candy Monster, because I love candy (duh – who doesn’t?) and any kind of sweets. I just can’t stop. Can’t stop, won’t stop. Blood in, blood out homie. Totally off topic – my bad.

Wait wait WAIT. I forgot about the AWESOME news I heard this afternoon… there’s a new yoga instructor in town WOOP WOOP! Nope – not me… maybe someday… but it’s officially official TODAY… Shayne is a brand new yoga instructor!! The audition was last week and it obviously went well since they want him to come teach. I’m SO proud of all the hard work he put in – mentally and physically – to get to where he is now. And now I have more classes to go to… and I’ll pass along the schedule as soon as I get it so you all can join in to the yoga community!

This past week was actually not THAT busy. I worked my normal Monday night (last week’s blog was brought to you during my front desk shift, as is this one) and Tuesday I had zero plans. Fighting Burrito got in my belly – it’s almost as good as it was in Ames – and then I watched a few episodes of The Office (my latest Netflix conquest… more on that later.) After the audition, we watched Elysium (SO good) and other crappy TV. Wednesday night was twin date night (long story short – one of my friends since kindergarten and I “look alike” per our dads – basically we both had blondish hair and wore a hat so we clearly were identical) at the Gramercy Tap. A yummy chicken burger with jalapeno cranberry mayo (sounds weird but it was delish) and a couple Tank 7’s later I was home watching a little bit more of The Office. Okay – so here’s my deal with The Office. I didn’t watch it when it was on, I just always heard people talk about how good it was. The first few episodes I wasn’t that impressed – until I got hooked on the Jim and Pam relationship. And now – I love it. I just finished up season 3 last night (I pretty much watched the entire season yesterday) and they are FINALLY going on a date. HOORAY! Is it weird how invested in their relationship that I am? I mean – it’s like me being invested in Lily and Marshall’s relationship from HIMYM or Blair and Chuck from Gossip Girl. Does that mean I watch too much TV? Nah probably not. Can’t stop, won’t stop.

Thursday night’s festivities consisted of lazing around watching Cops – that show is just INSANE. I was enjoying the lazy night because I knew the rest of the weekend wouldn’t allow for it. Friday was a crazy day – our president’s last day – and we were having a roast for him at the end of the day. Around 2:30 we headed to HyVee to pick up a man bouquet (a little plant in a basket with a 6 pack of Iowa beers) and enough beer for everyone to have a couple during the roast. The afternoon flew by and the roast was pretty hilarious. I haven’t been with the company long enough to really have developed a relationship with him, but it’s amazing to see the impact he’s had on people who have worked with him from the beginning. And who knows what the future will hold – maybe I will end up working for him again!

After the roast, I headed to the mall for a 6-11 shift. I HATE the malls during the holidays and the mall was nuts that night. Plus – holiday hours. Which means the mall didn’t CLOSE until 10, rather than 9. Lame for sure. I made it home around 10:45 and crawled straight into bed – only to be awoken at 7 am by the devil children upstairs. Before I move out of that place I WILL be leaving a passive-aggressive note on their door that says something along the lines of “control your children please” or “don’t give them a bowling ball at 7 am to drop through the ceiling on a Saturday morning.” One of those two. We’ll see. After my rude wake up call, I made some coffee and trekked across the parking lot to PLY. I put in my three hour cleaning shift and brought a newbie into the 11:30 freebie class. After the great sweat/stretch session, we headed to Palmer’s for an Apple Orchard sandwich (noms) and some chats. After lunch I headed home because I needed to prep for the Ugly Sweater Birthday Bar Crawl that would be happening later that night. Plus I was going to be playing “college girl” and pre-game and get ready at the same time. I needed a little time to decompress before shenanigans. And let me tell you – shenanigans were had. Who says turning 27 is lame? That shit was fun. I got to catch up with some people I haven’t talked to in forever, met some new people, and realized that I am WAY too old to be doing that. But it was so so fun! Plus – any chance you have to dress up is something you should ALWAYS do. Yay theme parties! (Sigh… I miss college.)

Sunday I was WORTHLESS. After waking up at 8 am with a nasty headache, I took some ibuprofen and headed outside to brush all the snow off my car. By the time I had to leave for work 3 hours later, the property management team still hadn’t cleaned off the sidewalks. After an hour at work, and plenty of people in the parking lot I wanted to punch, I got to go home. The store was SO DEAD and there were way too many people working. So I came home, sat my ass on the couch and DID NOT MOVE until it was time to go to bed. After season 3 finished. Rough life eh? Sometimes you need a day to do zero thinking. It’s healthy.

While I was working today, I tried to do a little organizing and de-cluttering. I’ll soon be taking on new responsibilities and felt I needed to be a little more organized at my desk. And that got me thinking about de-cluttering more than just my desk. I needed to clean out the clutter in other areas of my life as well. My apartment, my email, my social media – all could use a good cleanse. I’ve found myself becoming annoyed with a lot of things lately – mostly involving stuff I see on Facebook. It used to be such a great “networking” tool – aka finding people who lived on the floor of your dorm and creeping on them – and now it just seems like a sounding board for people to either brag or bitch. And those who bitch are the ones who annoy me. It’s usually petty crap that doesn’t really matter in the long run, maybe something that made you mad and then you forget about two weeks later. In hopes I don’t sound like a dick (although I’m sure I will) – stop complaining. Your life really isn’t THAT bad. Most people DON’T care and you’re really only writing it to vent. Just a thought – Facebook is NOT your diary. If you want to vent about something that made YOU mad and affects ZERO other people, write it in your diary. Stop bitching. [End Rant] And back to the clutter – or the process of de-cluttering. Think about that. Do it in your own life. What can you get rid of that doesn’t serve you in some way? Something else I’m slowly doing – unsubscribing. I wake up in the morning with 15 emails about literally NOTHING and I get them periodically through the day. They’re eating up battery on my phone each time I check them, and they’re all so unnecessary. UNSUBSCRIBE. I have a feeling there is going to be a mental de-cluttering coming up soon in my life – we’ll see how this turns out. I bet I makes me happier. And if you get more happy than you already are, why not do something to supplement that?

Spend time with your friends and family this week, next week, the rest of 2013. Let’s go into 2014 with a bang and kick some ass.

Take some names while you’re at it,

S

The Best

Happy Monday lovelies – hopefully it’s a good Monday, and not a Monday where you have a case of the Mondays… make sense? Hope so. Today was the first day it actually sunk in that Christmas is NEXT WEEK. I mean – I realize if I would have thought that last week I would have been wrong, but you know what I mean. It’s crazy how fast this year has gone. And in THREE weeks, I will hopefully be soaking up some rays in Hawaii!! I can’t wait to have a week to relax – not that I won’t miss you all TERRIBLY, but for realz – beach. Sunshine. RELAXATION. It’s going to be AWESOME.

Wanna know something else awesome? And probably a little unbelievable for those of you who know me pretty well? I am almost DONE with my Christmas shopping. Usually by this time of year – I haven’t even STARTED. I spent yesterday running around town doing some Christmas shopping and getting decorations for my tree (it’s so cute) and wrapped them all last night while watching Season 2 of The Office. I’ve even got the wrapping paper coordinated to who it’s going to and where I need to bring the gift. As I re-read that last sentence I’m confused at who wrote it – because it totes doesn’t sound like something I would do. But I’ve got my tree up and decorated (AWESOME deals on everything), presents purchased and wrapped, and I still had some time to finish up some laundry and clean my DISASTER of a kitchen. I guess that’s what happens when lots of cooking happened the past few weeks.

As I told you all last week, the week BEFORE I had baked 4 dozen sugar cookies and frosted them for the Woodward Academy boys. After that I decided I didn’t want to bake anything for the rest of the year. Yes I realize that only gave me a few weeks – but come on now. 4 dozen cookies is a lot. And it’s exhausting. And a lot of clean up. Mostly that part. So last week, we had book club and I volunteered to help bring some snacks. I got to use my new mixer and food processor to make my snacks – pickle dip and Oreo balls. The Oreo balls were AMAZE-BALLS (I hate that saying – but it fit so I had to, my apologies) and I had get rid of them the following day so I didn’t have them in my possession any longer than necessary. I mean – Holiday Oreos, cream cheese frosting and almond bark – why WOULDN’T you devour them in one sitting?? And then after I stuck those in the fridge I started on my pickle dip. Now my mom makes THE BEST pickle wraps – for realz, I could eat those in one sitting too – and mine never turn out quite as pretty as hers. So I decided I would just make those wraps into a dip. I chopped up my baby pickles, tossed them in the food processor to make even smaller, and then threw those, some cream cheese and ham into the mixer. And boom shaka laka – pickle dip! I still have some of that leftover – no way I’m sharing that. Except I need some more crackers… I’ll put that on my list to get tomorrow. Noms. Oh and in case you weren’t already jealous enough of that awesome food – I got to watch Despicable Me 2 AND Fast 6 while all that was happening. Because sometimes it’s fun to be 5 years old and sometimes you need to cry over Paul Walker.

I went in for my 6 month follow up on my brain – still no aliens – and they drew some blood while I was there. (Vampires.) Then I got a call from the office that said I have high cholesterol and triglycerides. Come on now. Thanks for sharing, Dad. Wah wah, so now I’m on medication for that. I’ll definitely do what I can do to help lower that number, but still – meds. Dumb. So I’ve got thick blood and the health of a 60 year old man. Turning 27 blows. Instead of my metabolism stopping (which I sure hope that didn’t happen either) I aged 30 years instead. Lame. Ah well – looks like working out and eating healthy WILL NOT be a choice for me. Sometimes I wish I still had the health I had when I was 17 – or at least that metabolism. I mean – I could eat half a large pizza, nachos, and a 48 oz Mountain Dew and still never fluctuate weight. Working out for two hours a day sure helped that out. Stupid college and drinking. And getting older and wanting to sleep instead of workout. Growing up is stupid.

Saturday night was my office holiday party – I was pretty excited to go considering I’m still fairly “new” to the office, and it would fun to see everyone NOT in work attire. The dress was “cocktail” so clearly I thought it was appropriate to dress like a 1950s housewife – pearls and all. The party was the Embassy Club West and we had one of our co-workers husband’s bands play while we were there. Lots of yummy appetizers and stuff to snack on too. After everyone had had their share of pricey drinks, the party slowed down but a lot of us met up at Blue Moon to close out the night. And people were RIDICULOUS. We had one of our sales girls act as a human pole while a few of the managers danced on her, and then later she fell off the stage. I’ve got a video on my phone as proof. Sometimes it’s fun working in HR. But look how cute we look! And we got to home with some party favors – logo’d stemless wine glasses. Yay swag!

Closing out 2013 and getting ready to head into 2014, I’ve got some ideas. Things I want to do, experience, conquer. I didn’t do nearly as many things on my list for 2013 as I’d planned, but I can always carry them over into next year – and that’s my plan. I want to do something that scares me, improves me and makes me happy. I don’t want to play it safe in 2014. I’ll be coming into something new beginning in January – and that scares me. It also excites me – and I can’t talk about it. Not yet anyway. Stay tuned till late January for more details…

I know January is a time of resolutions and goals – most that people will forget about or quit doing by February. But this year – I’d like to REALLY follow through with them. I’ll be coming up with a new to-do list for 2014, some will carry over from this year, but there will also be some new challenges for me. And I’m ready. Some physical challenges, mental challenges, and personal challenges. I can’t wait to share these with you and to have you follow my journey.

And one more challenge – I challenge YOU to challenge yourself. That’s one of the best ways to make you the best YOU, that you can be.

Love and best wishes,

S

The Cookie Debacle of 2013

Well ladies and gentleman – it’s officially been a year. I’m officially a year older, and my blog is officially a year old. It’s CRAZY how fast time has gone. I look back and think about how much I’ve done over the last year, and realize how much more I get to do in the future. How awesome is that? So far, I’d say 2013 has been pretty great. I tried new things, met new people, got a new job, and found new passions. I may not have hit all my goals, but there’s always the rest of my life to make those happen.

I had a busy pre-birthday week – I mean it was Thanksgiving week, so that makes sense. I worked Monday and Tuesday nights, had Wednesday night off, then Thursday was Thanksgiving. I ate my weight in delicious and amazing food, then had a quick early birthday celebration where I got really exciting gifts from my family. A gift card to the Half Price Bookstore (AWESOME), a food processor, a mixer that can be turned into a HAND MIXER, jeans, and a trip sometime this year to make my own WINE. Seriously – so cool. Turning 27 seemed pretty fantastic so far. After opening those, I headed home for a quick nap so I could get all ready for Black Friday madness. And actually, it was Black Thursday since I went in to work at 7:30 Thanksgiving night. I thought about staying out with the crazies to shop once I got off at 12:30 am, but then I saw the BAZILLIONS of people out at the mall and I thought mmmm betta not. I went home and went straight to bed, only to be awoken by the pitter patter of ass hole children from upstairs at 7 am. Not cool. I helped with the moving around of furniture from our storage unit for a while and then grabbed some yummy Palmer’s chili and an Apple Orchard sandwich (seriously the BEST sandwich there – it has turkey, apple butter, and apple slices on yummy bread – NOMS), cracked open a beer, and relaxed. I had to be back at work at 5:30 so a nap was obviously also in order. That night took FOREVER and I didn’t get home till almost 11. What a long ass day. Saturday morning are woke my butt up to head to Power Life for my trade shift, zen-ed out for an hour, grabbed some lunch and headed to the East Village for Small Business Saturday. Basically – it’s just a great excuse to check out all the awesome little shops down in the East Village that I forget about. It was a really nice day, so I didn’t even bother with a coat for most of the afternoon. To warm up a little bit, we ducked into The Up Down Bar for a little while. Now – this place is pretty new, and totally fantastic. It looks like a 1980s basement (or so I’ve been told) – complete with movie posters and console TVs. But the best part – ARCADE GAMES. Now I’ve never been much of a gamer, but there’s something about an old arcade game that makes me happy. Maybe it was the fact that I was carrying around a Winter Lager with me while I played pinball that made it that much more funner. Or maybe it was playing Ninja Turtles for a straight 30 minutes. Or maybe it was the fact that I totally kicked ASS at Mario Kart on N-64. Not really – I was actually pretty terrible, since SOMEONE stole it and held it hostage in Cedar Falls, I haven’t gotten a chance to practice. But now that it’s back closer to me – I’m on it. The rest of the night was full of adorable Miller High Life bottles and UFC fights. Sunday was a lazy morning and then a Friends-giving celebration that evening. I stuffed myself in 30 minutes and wanted to sleep immediately after. It was nice to see people I hadn’t seen for months and to catch up with them. I slept like a rock that night – pretty sure I didn’t move until my alarm went off. And at that point – it was my birthday!

I woke up to texts and Facebook messages wishing me happy birthday – and calling me an old lady. I didn’t feel any older – but then that usually doesn’t happen THAT DAY. I went about my day as normal, heading into work where I received a couple happy birthdays. And after work was when I got to officially celebrate. I didn’t work that night so I had a full night to celebrate ME. I was definitely surprised by the two “firsts” I received that night – I got some gorgeous red roses (which Toby immediately began chewing on) and some sparkly jewels! Birthstone jewels at that… I LOVE them. I pretty much haven’t taken them off since Monday – except to shower. After I took some pictures with my pretties, we headed out to Tumea’s for dinner – and yum. Raviolis, red wine, Chicken Diablo and cheesecake – that makes for one SUPER happy girl. After dinner, we headed to Wellman’s for a little while – because I could and it was my birthday so I could do whatever I wanted – stopped at Gateway Market and we were in for the night. Watched some HIMYM and went to bed. And that my friends – is how you spend your 27^th birthday.

Tuesday morning I spent four hours ringing bells for the Salvation Army at Dahl’s. Each year, we get 8 hours of volunteer time where we can volunteer somewhere (usually our Community Involvement Committee organizes these events) – and still basically get paid for our work day. Awesome deal right? We got a free trip to Bang Bang Mongolian Grill too that day, which was awesome since I needed some heat to warm me up from ringing the bell! Tuesday night was the annual Scarf Exchange and I ended up with yet another super cute scarf. I’ve gotten lots of compliments so far and I’ve only had it a week! Prior to the party, I mixed up some sugar cookie dough to make FOUR DOZEN cookies later that night. I volunteered to make these for the Woodward Academy boys – they were needing 256 dozen total cookies, so I thought I could handle making 4 dozen. Or so I thought. So the recipe was easy enough, and I thought I’d use my new mixer. Easy peasy. So here’s all the debacles. First off – baking powder and baking soda are NOT the same thing, so I had to hurry my happy little ass to the store to pick up some baking powder. I put my butter in the mixing bowl and was getting ready to scoop in some sugar when OH SNAP – my measuring cup handle breaks off. Awesome. I keep mixing and adding stuff together, and realize that as I’m adding in my flour that this dough seems pretty sticky. It wouldn’t be so bad, but I forgot to add the eggs. Son of a bitch. So I added the eggs and was getting ready to add in the last bit of flour, when I realized that I had been using the half cup WITH the handle, instead of the whole cup WITHOUT the handle. Blerg. After it was all mixed up I went to put it in the saran wrap to stick in the fridge for a couple hours – and turns out, I didn’t have any. Wax paper had to work because I needed a margarita RIGHT MEOW. Gah. They turned out well and tasted good, they weren’t the prettiest – but when you get 2.5 dozen cookies to yourself like these boys did, I wouldn’t be picky at all.

The next few weeks are going to FLY BY and before we know it, BAM – 2014 will be here. I plan to enjoy these next few weeks to its highest potential. Book club is Wednesday night, I don’t work ALL WEEKEND, and I have some holiday decorating to do. Plus – I have a growler full of Rauchbier sitting in my fridge that I’d love to have a glass of while decorating a Christmas tree.

Remember that. Just because your day wasn’t AWESOME, doesn’t mean that something awesome didn’t happen or won’t happen. I got to work today, a Monday morning that everyone dreads – and I had an email from the woman organizing the cookie gift for the boys. She told us that there were 8000 cookies for the boys and this was their biggest turnout yet. How great is that? Starting off your blah Monday with such awesome news like that. It really set the precedent for my day. Remember that. Something as simple as a happy email can completely turn your day around.

Eskimo kisses,

S