Day 1: I need to try harder

Well – Day 1 is here. I thought I was SO prepared for it too. Turns out – not even close. After being woken up at 6:00 yesterday morning by the devil child running sprints, I was immediately put in a bad mood. I had a day to sleep in and didn’t get to enjoy it. My original plan was to sleep till I woke up, go on a brunch date, do some grocery shopping for the upcoming #whole30, hit up yoga (pre 20/30 challenge) and then relax and watch the Super Bowl with some last minute beers. And you know what happens when you’re busy planning things? Life. Life happens. And that little life form who lives upstairs began sprints at 6. So I got out of bed (on the wrong side, mind you) and decided to get my grocery shopping done and out of the way. I stopped for a quick pick-me-up at Caribou (last day to have yummy, sweet coffee) and hit up Dahls. Well it was me and the retired crowd at the store, which was fine by me because then I didn’t need to fight for space with everyone and their mom. I’d made a list beforehand so I pretty much KNEW what I’d need when I got there.

My list included the basics: chicken breasts (frozen are so much cheaper), ground beef, frozen fruits (for smoothies), frozen veggies (cheaper than canned? Not surprisingly), kale, spinach, apples, sweet potatoes, bananas, olive oil, and eggs. My PLAN (remember that plan? The one I was busy with when life was happening?) was to make smoothies for breakfast (hence the fruits and kale), chicken and such for lunches, eggs intermittently spread throughout. I added in some avocados (those are a good fat), some sundried tomatoes and some balsamic vinaigrette for this awesome salad recipe I found. I’m golden. I can totes do this. I’m so prepared for the next week I’m impressing myself.

So I went on my brunch date (and was grumpy – sorry about that) to Waveland Café – probably the BEST place for brunch in Des Moines. I wanted some carbs because they are my favorite food – and I wouldn’t be able to eat them for the next month. So what did I do? Biscuits and Gravy on hashbrowns, with two eggs – over easy. I got a cup of coffee and poured in my signature 2 splenda packs (thanks for teaching me that, Dad), and with each refill, I didn’t add anymore sweetener. It didn’t taste terrible, so I figured I’d be good to go with my creamer-less and sugarless coffee in the mornings. Just prepping myself. After brunch I got dropped off so I could continue with my plan. I turned on Dexter (omg it’s so weird) and got started.

So first, I baked my eggs (325 degrees for 30 minutes) and let them cool for 10 minutes in ice water once they were done. I think I only had one half-explode which was pretty impressive considering I’ve NEVER MADE HARD BOILED EGGS BEFORE. Laugh all you want. This was pretty impressive for my first attempt. I can scramble with the best of them – but the rest will take practice. But I can do it. Then I decide to bake some chicken breasts for the week – may as well get it out of the way and put them in the fridge so I’ll just have to grab one and head to work right? I’ve got those done – and by this time it’s time for yoga! Hooray!

I got my sweat on, teared up a little reiterating our intention of “try” and held crow for the longest time yet. At that point – I thought it was going to be a good week. I spent a lazy night watching football – terrible game – and drinking some Angry Orchards and Canoe Paddlers. My PLAN (remember the plan?) was to get up at 5 am so I could work out at 5:45, be done by 6:30, and be good to go to head into work a little early. So you see what happened was… I slept instead. I was warm and comfy and I just didn’t want to be outside in the freezing cold at 5 am. So I slept. I got moving at a fairly decent time, still plenty to get ready for the day. Pack lunch and dinner, make breakfast, get my bag packed for a work out and work, and get on the road. So here are a few things I learned on day 1 of my #whole30.

1)      Kale needs to be liquefied before going into a smoothie, otherwise it’s chunky and gross

2)      I don’t necessarily like avocado in its normal state – I’d rather have it as a spread, or in guacamole

a.      No matter how many times I’ve seen someone cut an avocado, I am unable to do it in a pretty way

3)      Black coffee isn’t terrible

4)      Peeling hard boiled eggs is a pain in my ass

5)      I was not prepared for this week AT ALL.

By following #whole30, you eat 3 meals a day. I’m so used to having breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack (and more snack). That will probably be the biggest challenge for me. That and the fact that I would love a bowl of pasta. But it’s 30 days of my life. I’m sure I’ll feel better in 30 days anyway – it’s just going to be hard. And I would like a challenge. Plus – this is a perfect month to do this. No bachelorette parties, no weddings, no races – just Valentine’s Day where I can stare longingly at chocolate and wine all day long. But it’s okay – I’ll celebrate once I’ve completed my #whole30.

So here’s what made it on my plate today (in case you’re keeping track of me and making sure my food is clean):

Breakfast: smoothie (nasty) with blackberries, kale and banana with an apple and black coffee

Lunch: Spinach salad with chicken, sundried tomatoes, avocado, and cucumber with balsamic vinaigrette dressing with raw carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and celery

Post workout snack: pistacchios and tea (post workout snacks are allowed)

Dinner: hard boiled eggs, raw carrots, half a sweet potato and green beans

 

How’d I do? Plus – I’m not starving… which is good. Maybe this won’t be so terrible after all.

Like I said earlier, I teared up a little during our final discussion of our intention in yoga yesterday. That intention was “try.” Try to be better, try harder, try to improve in every aspect of your life. A very smart yogi told me that. It doesn’t go just for yoga either – it goes for this challenge, it goes for your work life, your personal life, your general OUTLOOK on life. Just try a little bit.

So here goes – day 1: done. Only 29 more to go. I’ve got a #whole30 date night dinner tomorrow… let’s see what we come up with to make. Noms.

 

TRY.

S

Whole Ass It

Hello hello all! It’s odd for me to be writing on any day but Monday – but I had things to do. Like getting over a NASTY cold and putting my Christmas decorations away. Yes I realize it’s damn near February, but I had things to do. Other things. Like going to Hawaii and not sticking around for post-holiday sales where I could get more Christmas decorations for 80 percent off, and a bag or box to keep my tree in. Other things. My bad.

But now I’m BACK! And if you haven’t gotten sick of me yet, well – you just might over the next month. Why you ask? Well. Since you asked – I shall tell. (I know you’re curious anyway.) So – here goes. Beginning on Monday (February 3^rd) I will be blogging DAILY. Because I will have two things that start on that day. The first is a 20/30 Yoga Challenge – 20 yoga practices in 30 days. I don’t win anything, but it’s a new challenge for me. And just think how calm and zen-ed out I’ll be after 20 yoga classes. My plan is to try out as many DIFFERENT classes as possible during that time. I mean – I get it for free anyway so why WOULDN’T I try out new classes? I want and need to build and better my practice as is, so more Power 1.5 and Power 2’s, more Sculpt (Embrace the Suck!), some relaxing Restore, and even some Barre classes. So if any of you would care to join me in this journey, please do! It’s always more fun to challenge yourself like this with friends by your side.

And the other thing that starts Monday… may just kill me. Or maybe it won’t – because whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger… right Kelly Clarkson? (Have I said this before? I feel like I have. Whatevs. Sorry I’m not sorry.) I’ve got a partner in crime or two or three who will be going on this journey with me as well… and this one is the Whole30 Challenge. Again – I don’t win anything, except for probably better health. So what’s the “Whole30?” Well here’s a link for you to check it out - http://whole30.com/ - and it’s pretty scary. Very similar to a Paleo diet, Whole30 takes you back to the Stone Age by not allowing any dairy products, alcohol, grains, or sugars. So pretty much – everything I eat on a daily basis. The part that seems to be the most DIFFICULT part of this – no alcohol. I mean I’m sure I can do it, but sometimes you just want a glass (bottle) of wine after a long day. Or maybe a couple beers while watching football. Maybe it’s a good thing we are starting this AFTER the Super Bowl so I don’t break my streak after ONE DAY. So basically – lots of protein, veggies, some fruit, and some “good” fats. We’re not allowed to weigh or measure at any time during this 30 day trip – which is fine by me, the scale is the devil’s little sister – and no calorie counting during that time. I’ve got MyFitnessPal on my phone so I’ll have to not log anything at that time. It feels a little like I’ll be entering a detox program, which I guess it kind of is. But I have my sponsor’s number – so if I feel like eating cottage cheese and chugging a beer, I’ll just give my sponsor a call and we can go for a run or take a trip to the yoga studio instead. (I use the term “sponsor” very lightly – as I am not in AA or any type of Anonymous organization… but it kind of feels that way.) It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be REALLY hard. But I’m going to do it. I haven’t done anything “hard” for a long time. Like since D2D4. And that was in June. I need to kick my own ass for a while.

Have I ever mentioned that my book club kicks ASS? Well it totally does. And you should all be jealous if you’re not in it. But if you do want to be in it, let me know and I’ll add you in J The more the merrier! I’ve met some awesome girls and deepened friendships with friends I’ve already got. This is probably one of the best things I’ve done. It’s so fun to read a book, talk about it, talk about everything ELSE, and eat good food with awesome people. So last night we met for a couple things – first off: to talk about I Am Malala. If you haven’t read this – DO IT. It may make you feel stupid (because this 16 year old girl knows way more than you knew at 16, currently know, and probably will EVER know) and also teach you so much about the culture in Pakistan, Muslim culture, and the fact that the Taliban is an extremist version of Muslim religion. I’ll be honest – I didn’t really know there was a difference. I associated Muslim with Taliban and just ASSUMED that the people of Pakistan were all a part of the Taliban. Not. Even. CLOSE. It will open your eyes to the fact that ONE VOICE can change so much. This girl is so brave – I mean, she left Jon Stewart speechless because he was in so much awe by what she’s done. I was pretty much the same. It just amazes me. The second reason we met last night – was for a dress drive. One of our newbie book club members sent me the link for GirlUp (http://www.girlup.org) and then more information about the Viva Dress Drive. Why wouldn’t you incorporate the strength of Malala with the giving of dresses to girls who can’t afford their own, into one awesome meeting? If anyone has any other dresses (for girls aged 13-22) that you’d like to donate, let me know. I’ll be sending them in within the next couple weeks. It’s such a great idea – because what girl doesn’t want to get dressed up and feel beautiful?

With all these things I’m trying lately, I thought it only fitting to quote some Hemingway today.

“Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.”

Seriously though. Just live your life. Live it to the fullest. Don’t half ass it – what a waste. Whole ass your life. It’s the only way to truly LIVE.

Running in circles, coming up tails,

S

Just - Do YOU.

I so apologize for not writing last week, but I was trying to recoop from my Hawaiian vacation! It was amazing. I loved everything about it. I want to go back – NOW especially as I look out the window and see the snow falling. Can’t it just be spring yet? I mean don’t get me wrong – the snow looks pretty, but when people can’t drive in it, that’s where I get annoyed. (I feel like I’ve already written this before… is it déjà vu or is this just being an Iowan?) It’s also really fun when the door opens here and the snow blows in at me. Maybe I should have called in sick…

But anyway – back to Hawaii. I kept notes during our trip to remember what I should write in my blog when I got back. Somehow it got deleted, but I remember the important parts. What I kept noticing, was that every day I used all five senses to capture the vividness of Maui. It was amazing. The sights, the sounds, the smells. The way I heard the ocean every single morning. The sand under my toes. One morning we watched the sunrise, and followed it up by watching the sunset. It was glorious. The food and drinks were delicious – and I tried something new every day. I ate poi, kalua pig, scallops, banana and sweet potato chips, Kona beer, Maui coffee, and so many other things I can’t remember. I went zip lining and it was the coolest thing ever. I went to a luau and watched dances native to Hawaii, Samoa and New Zealand. I rode a bike (for the first time in probably 10 years) down the side of a mountain. I watched the sunrise from ABOVE the clouds at 10,000 feet. I went whale watching. I got a sunburn. I meditated and did a yoga practice by the beach. I spent most of the day at Pearl Harbor. I ate so much fresh fruit and fish. I made the decision that I WILL go back. Everything about that place was beautiful. Even the homeless people living on the beach. I mean – if you’re going to be homeless, Hawaii is DEFINITELY the place to do it. (Not that it’s a choice – I’m just saying.)

I know I’d said I was going to work on my bucket list for 2014… but that didn’t quite happen. We didn’t have much free time so I spent a lot of my free time reading. I started two books while I was there and LOVE them both, I just need to finish them up. So I don’t have my list for you… maybe next time. I mean I still did lots of new things while I was there, so I think holding off on my to-do list for the rest of the year is okay, right? It’s my blog – I do what I want J

So now the snow is REALLY coming down – I’ve gotten texts from people saying that you can hardly see while you’re driving and that it’s as bad as last week. Which is PERFECT because hopefully by the time I head home at 10:30 it will have calmed down. It took me close to 45 minutes to get home during last week’s snow storm and I left work at 4… by that time it had only been snowing for about 30 minutes. We have a guy who works remotely from Georgia working in Des Moines this week. He’s never seen snow. Poor guy. We thought he may miss it – hopefully he went home before all these shenanigans started. Yikes!

Let’s see… exciting things that happened since I got back from paradise… hmm. I did laundry for three weeks’ worth of clothes yesterday – that was exciting. Five loads of laundry later… I’m finally done. I ate at my favorite sushi place when I got back – and it was still delicious. After that I watched Lone Survivor and cried. That movie is AMAZING and everyone should watch it. I can’t even imagine going through all of that. I really did have a pretty lazy week – which was nice. Friday night was spent with a new recipe – Spicy Mango BBQ Chicken and Quinoa (noms) and some more movies. Prisoners and The Butler – both so good. Definitely need to watch The Butler again – if you haven’t watched it yet, DO IT. It’s winning so many awards and it really is a good reminder of how far we’ve come. Saturday I did my time at PLY with some cleaning and Hawaii storytelling, then a quick shift at the mall. I had breakfast for dinner and then IMMEDIATELY took a nap. Maybe I was a little sleepy? I thought about going out for a brief moment, but after I got some old man comfy pants on, I thought eh betta not. ANOTHER awesome lazy night with a bottle of wine and Thank You for Sharing (Mark Ruffalo movie – watch that too) and then of course some episodes of Cops. Makes me feel good about myself. Oh wait – I forgot about the most RIDICULOUS show I’ve watched in a long time. Party Down South. Everyone – please watch this, at least once. It’s literally the southern version of Jersey Shore. It makes you want to punch someone – or yourself – but you can’t turn it off. Throw a little Honey Boo Boo in there and you’ve got yourself a night. It makes my brain hurt just thinking about it.

Yesterday started out with a yummy breakfast – biscuits and gravy over hashbrowns, with two eggs over easy. Noms. I could eat that DAILY. Except then I needed a nap when I was done. I headed home to start on some laundry and cleaning, and at 4 I got my yoga on. Much needed. And since it was damn near 50 degrees yesterday, I thought I’d go for a quick lap at Gray’s Lake. Probably should have done that lap BEFORE yoga, because by the time I was done it was pretty chilly. I think I got myself sick too – running outside with sweaty clothes in January probably wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had. Although – it’s also not the worst idea I’ve had either. It felt good to get a good run done – even if it was chilly. But I got to watch the sunset, so there’s that right? It’s the little things.

After watching The Butler this weekend, it was nice to be reminded of how far we’ve come. And today is now different. With it being Martin Luther King Jr Day, I’ve seen a lot of Facebook statuses, quotes, and other MLK quotes. I thought I’d join in and write one that I really life of his.

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

There’s a thought for you. Do what’s right, always. There will never be a BETTER time to do what’s right, other than right now. Live in the now. Don’t think about what you COULD have done, WOULD have done, or SHOULD have done. Don’t think about what you WILL do, say or want. Live in the NOW. And whatever you do now, well then – that’s right. And it’s right for you.

Peace and love – and stay warm loves,

S

Be Amazing

Happy 2014 friends and family and loves! Hopefully you celebrated the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014 in style. I know I sure did. After an early dinner at Zombie Burger with Buffalo Bacon, Loaded Fries, half a Raygun burger, and double flights of craft beers we headed to a little southside dive for a couple beers and to watch some bowl games. After leaving the bar (at 9:30) we stopped by HyVee to grab some champagne to celebrate the new year and watch the pre-ball dropping festivities. I’m not even mad about how the night ended up. I got a midnight kiss and went to bed. Lame? Probably a little. Awesome? Absolutely. I slept in and was lazy all day and it was awesome. I woke up to snow on the ground which was beautiful – and such a pain to drive through since NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO DRIVE IN THE SNOW. I mean it’s one thing if you have a license plate from Texas or Arizona and you’ve literally NEVER seen snow, but come on. If you’re from Iowa and you’ve lived here forever, you should remember how to drive in the snow. End rant.

So I went through my officially, official list that I made last year and realized I didn’t quite finish MOST of the things on it. Some of them I didn’t get a chance to do because they just didn’t come up – like Norwegian holiday baking traditions and buying a car (hopefully Little Red will make it through the winter!) I may not have done everything – or most things – on my list, but I still felt like I had a GREAT year. So let’s check out the (lack of) damage to this list:

1.       Get my spin certification (finally) – maybe in 2014… I did get back into going to classes though!

2.       Carve a pumpkin – I tried to buy one ON Halloween… turns out they were sold out. Fail.

3.       Build a snowman – with all this new snow I can do it soon!

4.       Go ice skating – I need to either go to a Bucs game and skate after that, OR head downtown to Brenton!

5.       Read 40 books in a year (start there and read more if I can) – I read roughly 20. Book club helped J

6.       Do a wine tasting – or five – I went to Wine Fest… does that count?

7.       Start a new tradition

8.       Learn to play tennis – all right tennis friends… make this happen come summertime!

9.       Learn to golf – samesies to my golf buddies, and my dad.

10.    Skydive – I’ll be ziplining next week in Hawaii… that’s pretty damn close to awesomeness.

11.    Send out birthday and Christmas cards – I sent out some… but not enough.

12.    Send out handwritten “thank you” cards – again – next year. I can do it.

13.    Become a yoga enthusiast

14.    Shop local

15.    Take a cooking class – I watched a lot of Chopped… does that count? J

16.    Learn to bake. Period. Cookies, cakes, pies, etc.

17.    Cook a Thanksgiving meal – turkey and all – I baked a casserole for Friendsgiving… maybe next year I can host!

18.    Attend a book banning rally/meeting and voice my opinion – I read a lot of book banning articles… no rallies

19.    Do the splits – after a couple more months of yoga I’ll get there

20.    Find my favorites – food, song, artist, restaurant – I definitely found a lot of awesome things… no favorites yet

21.    Attend an art exhibit

22.    Go camping and hiking – definitely hiking in Hawaii!

23.    Learn how to sew – I’ve got plans for sewing… maybe I need to get the sewing machine in my possession first

24.    Get a tattoo – I’ve got an idea… or a couple of them…

25.    Road trip to see friends

26.    Write fan mail

27.    Learn how to grill more than hotdogs – I can’t have a grill at my apartment… but I ate steak… samesies?

28.    Reconnect with old friends

29.    See Chelsea Handler – I watched many an episode and follow her on social media sites. Nothing in person.

30.    Assist in the adoption process at the ARL – nope. I’ll be starting back at that soon!

31.    Complete DIY projects

32.    Daily random acts of kindness

33.    Smile, laugh and learn something new everyday

34.    Become a cook

35.    Go to the State Fair – how did I NOT go to the fair?!?! Big fail. I’ll have family in town for the 2014 fair. No excuses.

36.    Participate in Norwegian baking traditions during the holidays – these didn’t happen this year as far as I knew

37.    Volunteer

38.    Make my bed every day – I started out so strong. But a messy bed is so comfy

39.    Do 12 races – yeah I did one. But it was the Dam to Dam sooooo that counts like 5 races right?

40.    Buy a car – stay alive Little Red!

41.    Enjoy a spa day – I got a massage after the D2D… but no full on spa day.

42.    Get organized (in all aspects of life) – meh. Organization is so overrated. Woops.

43.    Buy myself something sparkly – I bought glitter things… does that count?

44.    Read and watch the classics (list to come)

45.    Host a dinner party or two – do book clubs and OITNB/Daria date night meals count? If so – I owned this.

46.    Attend showers, weddings, parties for my friends

47.    Keep a plant alive – I didn’t purchase one… but I did get flowers that I kept alive as long as I could!

48.    Be spontaneous

49.    Go to shows and sporting events – locally famous or a little more famous

50.    Go to the Fleur Cinema by myself – with wine, cheesecake, and an Indie film – I’ll make it happen this year. Great movies coming out!

So as you can see, I didn’t quite finish all 50 – but I had a lot of fun. I ate lots of really good food, saw some hilarious movies, read some great books, spent time with amazing friends, and I was happy. 2013 started off a little so-so, and ended in a pretty kick ass way. I’m so excited for 2014 to be here and to dominate every year prior.

Next week I’ll be in Hawaii – and I’m SO excited to see the beautiful views, eat the amazing food, and check Maui off my bucket list. If I love it as much as I’m sure I will, I’ll have to put it back on my bucket list to go back. While I’m gone, I’ll be coming up with my NEW list for 2014.  And I’m super excited. Leading up to my trip to paradise, I came across this on Pinterest. I don’t think it could be any more perfect for a) a vacation, and b) a brand new year.

Life is pretty amazing. Take a minute each day and remind yourself how amazing life really can be. Have an amazing start to 2014 and the rest of the year. Make some lists yourself. See how well you can stack up against yourself. Make some goals, and reach them. If you don’t – it’s not the end of the world. But if you worked hard and enjoyed yourself, isn’t that still pretty amazing?

My number one goal for 2014: be amazing. At whatever I do. Don’t just go through life, pay attention to the little things. Do amazing things, meet amazing people, eat amazing food, just BE amazing.

Be amazing.

S

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