All Mixed Up

My hair is somewhat unruly this morning.

And by somewhat I mean that I went to bed with it wet and now it looks like it was blended.

Yum.

The good news: work for the morning was cancelled.  So I really don't have to dress up at all.

Instead I'm grabbing a hat and my new favorite motorcycle jacket-style sweatshirt, and then I'm off to run errands with my grandparents.

Don't think that's an easy task though.

It's one of the most exhausting things I can think of.  (Not counting running a marathon.)

The weekend has arrived early, in the form of a rainy, misty hovering fog that isn't supposed to leave anytime soon.

So padre and I will just fall farther behind on the mowing.  And there's nothing we can do about it.

Bleh.

Special Delivery

Today, weather-wise, is not so pretty.  It's been gloomy, cloudy, rainy all day long.

It's the type of weather that makes me want to put on sweatpants, grab a cup of tea and a book, and curl up by the fire.

The only good news of the day came in the form of new shoes--something that always makes me happy!

Take at look at these beauties.

How can shoes that beautiful not put a smile on your face?!

As my mom said, now I just have to figure out what to where them with, and what to wear them to.

Details.

At least the shoes made this soggy Wednesday a little better.

On the downside, I also had ordered a cute pair of wedges to wear to my cousin's wedding reception.  But the shoes are a little tight.

But oh, so cute!  Dang it.

They were a little pricey though.  Now I'm just trying to decide if it's worth trying to get them stretched out a little bit.

Maybe I'll go check out Target and Payless and see what my cheap options are before I do anything drastic.

Or maybe I'll just keep them and suffer through the pain.  They might stretch out a little, right?

Right???

A Quick Update

I've become the lamest blogger ever.  And my lameness is increased by me talking about it.

Really, I should just write when I write.  Right?

(And you're probably hoping I choose not to write after that last sentence.  It's okay to admit it.)

My sister came home for the weekend.  It was a surprise for the parents; she had only let me know ahead of time.  It was fun to have her here, and to go out with her Friday night.  We haven't really had a chance to do that since she turned 21 (in January).

My dad and I mowed 19 (19!) lawns this weekend (25 if you count Friday afternoon).  Needless to say, I'm starting out my week slightly exhausted.  This kind of work is why I don't feel too bad about not getting to the gym or out for runs more active.  I'm not exactly sitting on my butt all the time.

Other recent events include:

• Getting my hairs highlighted and trimmed (I have pictures, but am not quite sure how to get them off my camera since my cord has gone missing).
• Updated my tabs for my car.  Exciting, I know.
• Made tentative plans to celebrate this year's birthday (that I share with a friend) by going skydiving.  This event might occur a little earlier than the actual day as I run out of health insurance this summer.

There's probably more that I am forgetting, but my brain isn't really working.  I can't tell you how many terrible mistakes I made while writing this post.  Hopefully I caught them all.

Now it's time for some beauty/recovery sleep!

Type A, much?

I detest clutter, which you wouldn't necessarily be able to tell from my room (that's more of an issue of cramming my entire life into one room though).

Take my computer, for example:

• I have only have a few icons on my desktop.  One picture, just in case its needed in the next couple days, and a couple folders, one of which I access daily.
• In terms of my email, I get anxious if the inbox count gets anywhere close to 20.  
• It drives me nuts to have unnamed tracks in iTunes.
• I can stand not having "albums" of pictures named.

I like things to have their place so I know exactly where to find them.

Don't even get me started about my closet.

Laziness

I've become pretty lazy recently.

The gym has only seen my smiling and sweaty face once in the past two months.  Add to that a couple of outdoor runs and you have the sum total of all my work outs recently.

However, I am mowing lawns with my dad.  In fact, a couple weeks ago we mowed 32 lawns in 5 days.

Maybe lazy isn't the right word for it.

I miss my visits to the gym.  Believe me.  I miss them.

But between lawn mowing and my real job, one physically taxing and the other mentally taxing, I just can't seem to find the energy to get up in the morning.  Or take advantage of a rainy afternoon.

Luckily for me mowing lawns is hard work.  So I'm not turning in a flabby mess.  In fact, I've been able to maintain pretty well, without having to worry about what I'm eating too much (case in point, 3 pieces of banana bread).

But it's still frustrating and a little difficult not to feel guilty.

I can't wait for the summer, when I'll have the time (and hopefully the energy) to get some good workouts in.

Nail Fail

I'm battling my nails right now.  They keep chipping.

So I keep cutting them short and paint them with polish.

Then they chip more.

Rinse and repeat.

I really don't know what to do about it.

Help.

Rationing It

You know what's difficult, rationing milk properly.

I don't mean in the sense that there aren't enough cows producing milk for consumption.  More like, I just poured a glass of milk to go with my banana pecan cake with cream cheese frosting and I have to ration it properly.

There's nothing worse than finishing a piece of delicious (and I'm sure very nutritious) homemade cake and not having any milk left to finish it off.

Or not drinking as much as you want during the eating process and then ending up with a large amount of milk at the end.

It's just horrible.

That's why rationing milk properly is serious business.

And if I'm one thing, it's serious about my food.

I blame Starbucks. Kinda.

So I really should be going to bed right now.  You know, because I have to be at work a little before 10am tomorrow.

What can I say?  My life is rough.

Instead I have a million thoughts bouncing around my head, so I thought to myself, "self, you should write a blog post."

And you know the blog post will be a good when just a couple sentences in I have an internal dialogue.  Winner.

I'm not the only crazy one out there though.  Today is proof of that.

Let's talk about basic driving etiquette.  My dad and I are a stopped a red light in a turn lane.  The lane beside us has a green arrow.  Yet, before we know it there is a man stopped beside us.

Then I notice his turn arrow is on.  So I say something to my dad, to the effect of "what is he doing?"

The man rolls up his window.  The light finally changes for us and we out-accelerate him off the line.

If you ask me, however, he should have just waited until everyone in the turn lane went, and then turned left.  He was the front car in his lane.  No one is cut off, everyone wins.

Logical, no?

Did you know Starbucks is having happy hour every day from now until May 16.  Half off all frappecinos.  You should go.

I did today.  Twice.

That's a lie.

Except it's not.

You'd think excessive consumption would explain this post.  Except I didn't have caffeine in my drinks.

And I'm pretty sure the sugar high wore off around the 5th lawn of the day.  Plus, I shared the drinks with my dad.

Speaking of a sugar high, I was wondering can you build up a tolerance for sugar so it takes more and more of it for you to feel the "high."  Like with alcohol.

Someone Google that and get back to me.

Lastly, Neil Patrick Harris on Glee.  Next week.

Let it bring tears of laughter to my eyes.  Or a job.  But not to my eyes, because I'd rather all of me was employed.

(That's what she said.)

A Good Start

Today was the perfect kind of Monday.

The sun was shining, but it wasn't so warm that you just had to be outside.

Work lasted all of an hour or so, but I was paid for 3 1/2 hours.

I made it to the gym for the first time in .... well, I'll leave it at too long.  I only wish I was getting there more.  Nothing is as lovely as a good workout.

Except really delicious food.  Today's line-up: leftover pollo a la crema, as well as homemade chicken alfredo with broccoli and banana pecan cake with cream cheese pecan ice cream.

Now I just have to keep it going through the rest of the week.

It All Comes Tumbling Down

My dad and I stopped by the Toyota dealership today.  My parents had bought a new car a month or so back, and it's alternator gave up the ghost.

Because of that, Dad has spent the past couple days locked in a mortal battle with the dealership over how much the repair should cost him.

They argue somewhere between expensive and your first born child (yikes, that's me.), while he's more in favor of not having to pay for anything.

You'd think Toyota would be worried about it's reputation after the seemingly neverending recalls.

Apparently, not so much.

But I digress, my point was to complain about the local dealership.

As we were pulling into the dealership we saw a person (upon further examination, a boy around the age of 12) attempt a jump over a low light post (you know, one of the split leg leaps that teenage boys seem fascinated with).

The next thing we (and he) knew, he was lying in a heap on the ground with the light post beside him.

As soon as he got up, I let myself laugh.

I at least like to make sure the person isn't hurt first, you know.

Seeing that happen made me feel very justified in never having attempted such a leap myself.

I also couldn't help but feel like the dealership was paying for its treatment of customers with a mostly destructed post.

Things I Love:

• being able to look up and see the stars,
• a really hot shower, there's no better way to end the day,
• laughing uncontrollably, until your belly and cheeks ache,
• the feeling at the end of a tough workout, but not necessarily during,
• sweatpants,
• a rainy day with nothing to do but sit by the fire with tea and a good book,
• giving someone a gift that they love,
• music that makes me want to dance...

...for a start.

007

A week and a half ago (yes, I am lazy and waaayyyy behind) I ventured across the state, and even into the next one over, for a bachelorette/girls' weekend.

My cousin, referred to as The Tall One in previous posts, is getting married.

I'm one of her bridesmaids (My fourth time, for anyone who's counting--I'm thinking about going professional.  I can just imagine an ad for "bridesmaid for hire."  I'd make a killing, I'm sure.), so my sister and I, with some help from a few other key players put together a little weekend for her.

We had our moments of inappropriateness (drinking out of penis straws isn't considered appropriate?), a lot of relaxation, and a great deal of delicious food.

Rest assured that if I am planning an event of any kind, the food is a priority.  As it should be.

The weekend was fun, she got a few sexy pieces. and I got to play James Bond.  I'm not even exaggerating this time.

See, we got to the resort late.  Late enough, in fact, that the office was closed.  On the office door was a note telling me to pick up the phone on the wall, which would connect me to an answering service.

After picking up the phone I had to verify my identity (give them my name), and received a lock box number as well as a secret combination.  Inside the lockbox was a room number, parking pass, map, and key card all wrapped in a paper that contained "very important" information.

The packet did not, however, self-destruct after I opened it.  Luckily.  We made it safely to our condo.  And I felt oh, so stealth.

The end.

A Quick (but not short) Trip

This weekend I made a really, really quick trip.

It involved being gone 35 hours from home, driving over 700 miles, visiting with friends/family, going to the Vagina Monologues, catching most of a baseball game, sleeping in mostly un-updated hotel room, eating at some of my favorite restaurants, and consuming a significant amount of caffeine.

The trip was totally worth it, too.  It was great to catch up with a few friends.  Really, really great.  I only wish I had had more time.

The Vagina Monologues were excellent.  My little sister directed the show.  If you haven't ever seen them, you definitely should check them out.

The real bummer was that I hurried home to work today, and then it rained outside all day long.  So I sat on the couch, pretty much all day long.

To think the trip could have last over 50 hours.

Oh well.  At least the puppy is cuddling with me.  She obviously feels my pain.