Poor showing

Tonight I went back to yoga and I completely dragged ass through the entire class. I really need to stop being lazy and get my cardio activity back on schedule. Soon.

Today I had lunch with Kristin, and little baby Lexie has a cold. The poor thing was snorting like a little piggy all day. I felt so bad for her. Imagine if you were sick and stuffy and you couldn't take any medicine for it, and you couldn't walk around to loosen everything up. It sounds awful. I hope she gets better soon so that you can enjoy your Big Night of Drinking for the First Time in a Year, Kristin!

And an early happy new year to you all! It's Susan's 30th tomorrow, and her husband is cooking a five course meal for a small group of friends. And I am pumped about it. :)

Finally!

I've been trying to get Blake to break down and buy a new TV for our living room since we moved into our condo (nearly 3 years ago). Now, FINALLY, we're about to get rid of the shitty tube TV and get a fancy flat panel in its place. Today, we ordered our new media unit:

www.crateandbarrel.com

Yay. It's pretty. We're eyeing up a 52'' LCD to mount in there. We had liked the 58'' Plasma, but everyone we've spoken to says that LCD is better, so we're changing our minds. I think 58'' is a better size, but the plasma screens are more expensive and less bright, so that's lame.

I lifted and went back to pilates today. Baby steps. I need to get back on my normal exercise regimen ASAP.

Sale shopping

As always, I have gifted myself a number of Christmas sale items this year, so I'll show them off here.

In NJ, where I love shopping because there is no sales tax on clothing (which to me is like a 7.5% discount on everything I buy), I went to J. Crew on Christmas Eve. I left with a cashmere turtleneck in seafoam green and a gorgeous coat (shown below, except I got it in purple, not blue. Because I heart purple).

Back in NC, I went into Ann Taylor this morning and spent more money than I should have (I am not allowed back at the mall for a significant amount of time now). I got all of the goodies below, PLUS a black leather pencil shirt that I couldn't get a picture of. And then, I came home and ordered the cashmere sweater below in black and grey, because it fit awesome and it was on fabulous sale.

Yay me. Sadly, I tried to return the shoes Blake got me today for a smaller size and they were sold out...so that transaction is on hold.

I hope you all are having good retail luck! Now that I'm back in the CLT, life as usual shall commence. Except that for some reason, my right hip has been hurting recently, so I skipped the gym today. I'm going to lift later though. Back to yoga tomorrow morning. And I don't have to go back to work until January 5. Woo!

Hello Lover.

New purse purchased. Thanks, dad.

coach.com

I got the black. :)

Outlet Action

My mom told me to try to find myself another gift from her in the $100-150 range because she didn't think she got me enough for Christmas, so I went off to the new outlets this afternoon. I didn't find anything at the Uggs outlet, but I did find a pair of Kate Spade sunglasses that I really liked. My head is kind of small, so it's hard to find sunglasses that fit correctly, but these were great. And I'll be fully reimbursed for them!

We're going shopping with dad tomorrow, so I should have all sorts of loot to discuss here afterwards. Well, maybe not too much...I want a new iPod, so that'll take up most of my allotment. And this bag is on sale right now on Katespade.com, so if I don't see something that I like more at Coach or something, I might make this my new everyday bag.

I love not working. I'm making delicious pizza tonight. Yaaaaaay.

This is awesome.

I got in a bit late last night on what was surely the least awesome first class flying experience of my life. You see, for the past 3 days, flights to Newark from Charlotte have been getting cancelled because of the weather in Newark, so all sorts of people were on standby for my flight. And of course there were a bunch of empty seats in first class. So guess who got those seats. If you guessed "two families that had a total of 7 children under the age of 6," you win. KILL ME. Thank god for sound proof headphones. Unfortunately, I was not permitted to wear those for the HOUR that we sat on the ground before we were allowed to take off. I didn't land until about 11, and didn't get home until after midnight due to the horrible driving conditions. And it was snowing. Which just made me sad.


Anyway, today Mom's family came over to celebrate Christmas, and I of course ate WAY too much. It was nice to see everybody. I got a few gifts, but we've all decided that we're too old for this nonsense anymore so next year we are doing it up $20 limit Yankee Swap style. I'm going to make someone a homemade oven mitt (I'm referencing The Office here. If you didn't catch that, I don't really understand how we're friends).


This year however, my Aunt Lisa, who always gets us ridiculous things because she thinks it's funny (last year she got my sister one of those beer helmets; two years ago she got us all those infomercial spaghetti cookers that look like the tube that you use at the bank drive through), got me the item below. And I laughed so hard that I cried. And it's definitely being displayed in my house. Because it is both cute and absolutely hilarious.

Jealous? Sundog Company.

That's it for today. I'm going to go beach my fat self like a whale and watch the rest of the Giants game now. Tomorrow Jackie promised to take me to the new outlet center to check out the Uggs store before she goes to work. I also intend to hit up the gym for some cardio and lift a bit. I have to do something about the food situation that is currently going on. :)

I am the packing master

So my flight to NJ for Christmas (hopefully) leaves tonight around 8, and I just finished packing. And to my surprise, I was able to pack so that I can carry my bags on! My "personal item" is a bit borderline, but I'm in first class, so it shouldn't be a problem. I amaze myself. I'm going to be able to carry on 6 days worth of clothes, including gymwear and two outfits nice enough for church, as well as Christmas gifts for my parents and sister, my computer, my portable DVD player (so as to prepare for inevitable airport delays), and all of my other necessary items. However, I'm clearly going to have to UPS any Christmas gifts that I receive back to Charlotte. I know I'm getting at least two pairs of Uggs, so those alone will take up too much space to carry on to an airplane.

For our Christmas celebration here at home, Blake got me a bunch of these awesome(ly expensive) airproof cabinet-organizing containers that I've been wanting forever, and a pair of red slide on Simple sneakers, which at first I thought was an odd choice, but they're growing on me. I do have to get a smaller size though. We gave the cats their gifts too, and Norman has been absolutely obsessed with one of his, to the point where it is never out of his sight for more than 5 minutes and he's been carrying it around in his mouth everywhere. Today he took a nap on my lap while I watched the Wake bowl game (which we won despite a horrible start, yay) and he was very cute. I'm sad to leave the cats. But we have a sitter coming, and I'll be back on Friday night, so they'll be fine.

Thursday night, Dana came to yoga with me because she's in town to visit her in-laws, and we got our butts kicked. They made it SO HOT in there. But because of that I was able to stretch more and do some stuff that I usually can't, so it was good. We then ate our weight in delicious Italian food from the place across the street. I wanted to be able to see Reagan too, so today we did lunch and ice cream. And Reagan is easily the cutest little kid ever, so it was fun. We brought her here to see the cats, and they were pretty scared of her...but she looked like she enjoyed them. Hopefully we'll get to see each other again when we overlap in NJ next week.

Anyway, I have to leave in about an hour and a half if my flight is on time, so I have some stuff to do around the house. I'll check in while I'm at home. Especially to discuss all of my Christmas loot. Hope you all have safe travels!

Christmas time!

Ok I'm clearly in a better mood today than I was the last time I posted. Why, you may ask? Well, in addition to the fact that I only have to work two more days after today before my vacation, but also Blake and I are celebrating Christmas tonight! Although we'll both be up north for the holidays and might see each other at some point (my mom's house is about 2 hours from Blake's parents' house) it would be stupid to drag our gifts all the way up there. And because I have plans with Dana tomorrow night (yay) and Blake is leaving on Friday, tonight is the night!

I love Christmas presents, even though this year they're probably going to be kind of lame. Because we're making a large TV purchase when we get back from Christmas traveling, we decided to cap our purchases for each other at $100. Which, admittedly, caused us to shoot ourselves in our respective feet, because it was harder to shop within those parameters. So I'm intrigued to see what Blake comes up with for this one. He keeps warning me that I'm going to have to return things...haha. We'll see.

Anyway, I just have to power through two more days of work now and then I get to live in a vacation world, blissfully unaware of what horribleness awaits me in January. And I'm pumped.

That's all for now. If I don't post again before vacation, I'll have internet access while I'm in NJ so I'll be able to get on here somehow. Merry Christmas!

5 more days

If I can get through this ONE WEEK of work, I get to stop working until January 5th. That sounds easy enough. But they're making it as difficult as possible, what with their "meeting Monday from 11-4" and their "oh, I just stumbled upon ALL OF THIS EXTRA SHIT FOR YOU TO DO" and I just can't motivate myself at all. Sigh. And with this stupid meeting, I have to skip the gym this afternoon, which super sucks.

Also, I've been informed that, of course, one of my interns this coming busy season may be an idiot. As always. You might argue that I've never met this person, so I should reserve my judgement until I know for sure that they are incompetent, but I'm one step ahead of you. One of them always is. And I always get to work with them. Ugh.

I have a general bad mood situation going on today (surprise!) but really this weekend was pretty good...I mean I made cookies with the girls all day yesterday for god's sake. Who can complain about that? And AJ came over and brought Step Brothers for me to watch, and it was hilarious. So I can't complain about that. And it's almost Christmas, which is fabulous. What is not fabulous? The "raining all week" thing that Charlotte has going on. Damn you, Charlotte.

Ok, off to this asinine meeting. I'll post again when I'm in a better mood.

Complete 180

So I was thinking today about how I kind of hated the Y at first, but it's really not that bad, and if it was WAY cheaper than my gym I would be fine joining it. So I did some research. Regular membership is $65/month. So if you include the fact that I pay $15/month for locker and laundry service, I'd only save $180/year by joining the Y. Not enough. And then I found the "Center City Young Adult Membership" for people ages 16-29. That is $39/month. And would therefore save me about $550/year. THAT is a lot.

Considering that I only go to the gym to do cardio 4-5 times a week, this might be worth looking into. But I don't know how I can leave everything that I love about the fancy gym. I think I'm going to wait and see just how fancy the renovations make the fancy gym before I make my decision. Really though, I don't know if it matters if I'm only using it for cardio purposes. I really could use that $550/year for other stuff. And it would annoy me less when I'm out of town for months at a time that I'm being charged $40/month rather than $85. What to do?

I would probably do this right now if I didn't REALLY want to see the renovations to the fancy gym.

ok. time for a break.

I'm freaking exhausted. I went to the gym this afternoon, and it was fine, but I am just SO TIRED that I'm going to skip yoga tonight. I think that's acceptable.

Also, is it possible that I have some kind of weather-related Seasonal Affective Disorder or whatever it's called? Because it is super shitty outside, and I'm super tired.

As much as I like my Thursday night yoga class, I think that when I'm dragging ass like I am today, I have to give myself a break. Otherwise my body is going to revolt against me.

If this happens again next week, and I'm physically incapable of getting my butt to yoga more than twice a week, I may abandon the Tuesday night class so that I can keep going on Thursday and Sunday...because I like those classes better.

That is all. Is it bed time yet?

Busy week

Between the 'getting used to the Y' thing, and the fact that this is the first week since I started taking hot yoga that the yoga and pilates studies are fully functioning AND I'm in town, I've been pretty busy this week. The way I have my schedule worked out, I've been going to pilates or yoga Monday - Thursday and then again Saturday and Sunday. It's kind of a lot. While I like having something to do after work other than sitting on my ass watching TV, I'm starting to get a bit burned out I think. Also I've been sleeping like crap this week for some reason. So that's not helping.

Anyway, sadly, because I'm trying to conserve vacation time, I actually have to work this Friday. I know, what? That's crazy. And it's going to suck. Luckily, the partners and managers all have a meeting all day, so no one will notice if/when I bounce a little early. Saturday I have pilates and a lot of cleaning and errands to do; Sunday I have yoga and then the annual Christmas Cookie Making Day at Kristin's. Good times. I can't believe that I'm going home for Christmas a week from Saturday. It's crazy! It is, however, kickass that next Friday is the last day that I have to work untl Jaunary 5. Yay.

Ok I'm going to take my tired butt to the gym now. I don't think my mood is at all enhanced by the fact that it's been all gross and rainy for the past two days. Boo.

My Gym Might Spoil Me: Update

Ok, so I just went to the Y again...today I went at 1:15 instead of 11:30 and it was MUCH better. I virtually had my pick of cardio equipment and was able to get an elliptical that didn't look like a hotel gym reject. It did look like it might have been bought used at a garage sale, but it was at one time a quality machine. After my (stupid) 30 minute routine, I got on a bike. This was a far more successful outing today (also compounded by the fact that I don't have a lock for a locker yet, so I left all of my valuables locked in my drawer at the office...yesterday I may have spent 45 minutes worrying if my wallet would be stolen).

So it's not so bad. Also, I did not notice this yesterday, but there is a large indoor track in the upstairs region of the Y, which I suppose would be nice if I liked to run in a non-treadmill situation. I can tolerate this until January 5. But hopefully no later. I miss being spoiled.

Speaking of spoiled, I'm off to yoga tonight, and I'm still a bit sore from Sunday. Hopefully that will work itself out. It's only a 60 minute class today instead of the regular 90, so that should help things. It may not leave time for me to play with my headstand though.

My Gym Might Spoil Me

That was the most PC way I could find to express what I WANTED to title this post: The Y is for Poor People.

So as I've mentioned, I have to go to the uptown YMCA until January 5th because my gym is undergoing renovations (which HAD BETTER BE DONE ON TIME). I went for the first time yesterday. And oh my god. I hated every second of it. EVERY SECOND. Below is a list that you can read two ways: "What is Wrong with the Y" or "How the Charlotte Athletic Club Spoils Jen."

CAC: The locker room has beautiful wood lockers and leather benches to sit on while getting dressed. The showers are stocked with good shampoo, conditioner, and soap; there are hair dryers, straight irons, curling irons, deodorant, hairspray, hair ties, and everything else you might require to work out and clean off afterwards.
Y: The locker room looks like the one in my high school (pre-renovation). It has an endless maze of gross metal lockers, a small area with about 3 hair dryers if you need them, and showers which I was afraid to use.

CAC: I have my own permanent locker with my name on a silver plaque; every day when I finish my workout, I put my gym clothes on a numbered lanyard and the next day when I come back to the gym, the clothes have been laundered and returned to my locker.
Y: There are signs literally EVERYWHERE warning you against not locking up your shit. There appear to be permanent lockers available but they are small, metal, and have your name on a piece of printer paper across the top. There is no laundry service. Because I'm only a temporary member, I now have to go buy a padlock, drag all of my shit to work, the gym, and back every day, and I have a shitload of laundry every weekend because they won't wash my clothes.

CAC: Restricted membership. As in there is a waiting list to get in so that it's never too crowded for you to do what you want when you want.
Y: Do not enter with any premeditated plans about what you want to do for cardio today. You will use whatever machine is available, and in the event that nothing is available, you have to wait.

CAC: The cardio equipment is of the highest quality, and all of the treadmills and ellipticals have TVs with full cable attached to them.
Y: The cardio equipment is similar to the kind that I see in hotel gyms, there are 5 TVs hanging on the wall but you can only hear sound if you have some kind of radio frequency listening device (does anyone have those anymore? I don't understand). Also, you can't do more than 30 minutes of cardio on one machine. It won't let you set it for more than 30 minutes. Seriously.

CAC: The few times I have taken classes, the room is beautiful, and in a secluded area. All of the basketball courts and handball/squash areas are upstairs, away from the cardio and lifting areas.
Y: In the middle of the downstairs region, between the cardio area and lifting area, are basketball courts which are divided from the cardio/lifting areas and from each other by mesh fabric hung from the wall. So that when you're running, you can watch AND HEAR people playing basketball AND a step class going on in front of you.

CAC: 4 blocks from office.
Y: 7 blocks from office.

(And, because it wouldn't be fair for me to not acknowledge the one positive element of the Y):
CAC: Full use of the Omni Hotel's rooftop pool (not a lap pool, but it has lounge chairs).
Y: Large lap pool. If I had any desire to start swimming, I guess I could.

I literally can't believe that I only pay $15 more to be a CAC member rather than a member of the Y. I mean I got in right when the gym opened, so it's a bit more expensive now, but still.

Ok. End rant. Until I find something else to complain about (likely tomorrow). Am I just unusually spoiled, or does the Y truly suck? You be the judge.

I'm back in the CLT

I'm back in Charlotte this week, and next week, and then I go home for a week for Christmas! I can't believe it's Christmas already. It's crazy.

The only exciting Dallas incident occurred on Thursday night. Several of the people I was with insisted on going to a "country bar" so we went to Red River, which was quite a show. There was a live country band (I recognized approximately 3 of the songs the entire night, all of which were old school Garth) and this dance floor ring that looked like a track that people were twirling around all up in doing fancy country partner dancing moves. There were naturally a lot of bars and also a mechanical bull. And a shitload of people wearing cowboy hats, boots, and giant belt buckles. I felt a bit out of place. It was Ladies Night, so the girls got in free, and then at 11 they did a balloon drop which was madness because they put money in the balloons. Susan, Megan and I got a total of $5. Which we used to support the bull riding efforts of Horrocks, Cory, and Cristi. Good times. Also, during the balloon drop, they played about 15 minutes of Top 40 Rap, and then went back to country music. It was so weird. But fun.

Friday we had an early flight back to Charlotte and I was SO TIRED. Fortunately I got upgraded to first class for the flight, but I couldn't sleep. When we landed I had to go pick up my dress from the alterations place and I was exhausted. So I then took a nap before I had to get ready for the Christmas party. AJ came over early and we started drinking. We then met people at a pregaming bar and headed to the party itself, which was at Roof with a View. We got there like 20 minutes before they stopped serving food, THANK GOD, because we were hungry and the last time I drank heavily but didn't eat at a Christmas party, I wound up vomiting. Unfortunately, AJ did not heed these warnings, and refused to eat, and so she vomited. I did fine, and we rolled about 30 deep to the Breakfast Club afterwards, which, as always, was a great time.

Saturday I felt a bit like ass (this was the first time I'd drank vodka in probably two years...but my tolerance remains somehow), so I had to skip pilates. I basically sat around all day. I didn't even leave the house. I did some stuff around the house and made a cake because I felt like it. That was about it.

Yesterday things were back to normal for the most part. I got up, started laundry, lifted, went to church, did the errands, and went to yoga. I also made dinner. I should have cleaned the kitchen but I had to work in some relaxing time. I'll have to do that this week at some point.

Yoga was awesome last night. The normal teacher was out, and my favorite teacher was subbing, so it was great. I've noticed that the temperature in the room varies greatly depending on the teacher, and I do best with Christine because she keeps the heaters on before class and then turns them off when class starts. So it's only between 80-90 degrees in there for class. When I'm not worrying so much about sweating, I can do a lot more stuff. Sally (the Tuesday night teacher) sometimes keeps it around 90 but on Thanksgiving day almost killed me, and Daniel (the normal Sunday guy) usually keeps it close to 100 which is also difficult. I guess I have to get used to it. I felt like I got a lot more out of my practice yesterday, but that could have been because I'd missed a full week so I was really ready to go.

That's about it I guess. I'm back to normal for the next two weeks. Pilates lesson tonight. I do have to go to a different gym for these two weeks because my gym is doing renovations (pictures here) so that's going to be lame today. It's a few blocks further from the office, so it'll take a bit longer. Oh well. It's only two weeks (god willing).

Hope you all have a good week, and I'll update again soon!

Hi from Dallas

I had forgotten how much it totally sucks to have to travel for work all the time because I haven't had to do it in a few months. Also, our Christmas party is Friday, and we got word last night that there's a whole sketchy booze situation so we can't even get drunk. It's like management has decided to forge a battle against fun. And the economy is so bad that we all have to deal with it, because right now public accounting is one of the only reasonably secure jobs in the financial world. Awesome.

Anyway, after my shopping victory Friday, Dan and Leeann came to town so we got some dinner and then I picked up Blake from the airport. Saturday morning I went to yoga and then baked some focaccia before the football game. I've decided to avoid early morning yoga at all costs in the future. It's hard because I can't really eat first because I'll feel like I'm going to vomit. So I just have a protein shake to fill me up during class. But I still felt awful. It was similar on Thursday morning. I think I'll be avoiding all classes before noon from now on. I need something real in my belly before working out.

The football game was horrible...it was freezing cold and raining the whole time. The students were all home for Thanksgiving and most "fans" only come when we're winning, so it was almost empty, which was sad. At least we won. If we hadn't, we might have all killed ourselves. Worst conditions ever. Now we just wait to see which bowl game we'll wind up going to. But I probably won't be going to it unless it's in Charlotte because I don't want to throw down a bunch of cash to go to a sub-par bowl. And we deserve only a sub-par bowl this year.

Other than my Saturday yoga, I haven't done much working out. I didn't have time to do anything Sunday between the cleaning and laundry and packing, and we got in too late last night for me to run this morning. I did do about 20 minutes of pilates mat exercises when I got up though. I get my fat butt back to the gym tomorrow morning. I eat way too much when I'm out of town to not be working out at least once a day.

That's about it. There probably won't be much updating this week because nothing exciting really happens when I'm out of town. In fact, it's 9pm right now and I'm thinking about going to bed. I'm pretty lame on the road. But I have to get up early to get a solid workout in, so that's what happens. Hopefully between work and dinner tomorrow night, I can also get a lifting session in because I skipped that on Sunday. Good times.

Have a good week everyone.

Big day

Today, after I lifted, I knew I was supposed to go to the gym. But it was so pretty outside, that I decided to go for a walk instead because this 'unseasonably warm' thing was a one-day event. So I walked down to Target and didn't see anything great by way of sales, so I went across the street to Best Buy...and while I was there, I started and completed my Christmas shopping. All of it. And it was awesome. A little annoying to walk the mile and a half home with all of my purchases, but totally worth it (and a little resistance during a cardio workout never hurt anyone).

I must say, the economy certainly is hurting...because Best Buy didn't look any different than it would on a normal Saturday afternoon. And there was zero line to pay. Probably not great for business. But if it makes prices drop on fancy TVs before we buy one, I'm at one with it.

And now I'm making some focaccia dough and then I'm off to dinner with Tim, Dan, and Leeann. Blake gets in around 9 tonight. And then we may hit some bars. Big tailgate tomorrow after my yoga class. Yay.

Oh, and my yoga class yesterday was RIDICULOUS. The teacher apparently thought that because we'd all be eating so much that day, it was appropriate to leave the space heaters on for the ENTIRE CLASS. OH MY GOD I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO HOT. But it was good. And I did the tripod headstand I've been working on, so that was awesome. And sidenote: I did eat so much yesterday that I'm still full today. I feel like some kind of beached whale.

Happy Black Friday everyone. I hope your shopping experiences were as fruitfu as mine. :)

Hi from home!

It's a good time when I am given a wireless broadband card from work for the purpose of travel. Because I have to travel on Sunday, and now I have internet in my house all weekend!

I did not go to work today. I did, however, bring some work home with me. I haven't done it yet, but I will before the weekend is over. It's not too much.

I did all sorts of stuff today. I work up and lifted and then hit up Target for a few things. I then stopped at Blockbuster with the plan to rent a movie for the weekend but, as always, I got sucked in by the 3 for $20 previously viewed videos and got three of those instead. I've seen two of them before, but they were good, so no complaints. I got Baby Mama, Waitress, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It should be some good weekend watching.

And then I stopped to get my dress altered...I was a bit panicked about it because really no one but my mom and grandmother has ever altered anything for me, but the place was awesome and they're going to fix my Christmas party dress exactly like I want it. So yay. It might be pricey but I don't care. As long as the dress fits as it was intended to.

And then I stopped at the mall. I needed to get a sheet pan for my focaccia that I'm making on Friday at Crate & Barrel. And then this morning, I got an email $15 off a $35 purchase coupon for Sephora, but apparently I read it wrong and it doesn't go into effect until Friday. And I am NOT going to the mall on Friday. But it works online, so I went into the store today and picked out what I wanted so I'd be prepared for online ordering. I also stopped at PetSmart because we needed more filters for the boys' water bowl. And of course while I was there I got them some new toys that they LOVE.

You'd think that was it, but it was only 2pm when I got home. I made lunch, watched Baby Mama and made a pear pie for tomorrow. And now I think I'm going to watch another movie and make the caramelized onions for my focaccia. Good times. Tomorrow will be filled with morning yoga, cooking, and TV watching. I'm making some spinach and artichoke dip for during the Wake basketball game, and then a turkey and vegetable casserole with a side salad and some bread for dinner for me and Tim. We will probably also play Rock Band. Just like the pilgrims did.

I'll update again on Friday, aka my Day of Baking. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Ugh...

Yesterday I was SO BORED at work. SO BORED. And I left early. But I have to be here all day today (Susan and I are going directly to yoga at 5) and although I did save myself a little bit of real work to do, I still know I'm going to be bored out of my mind. All of the higher-ups and half of the other people are out this week for Thanksgiving...but since I'm not heading home and I'm trying to hoard vacation time so I can go to Italy next year, I swore that I would be here through Wednesday. I am now seriously reconsidering Wednesday.

Also yesterday, I cleaned out my gym locker because I had an extra bag with me. And when I brought my clothes home, I realized that it's going to be hard to have to throw together 4-5 gym clothes outfits for the few weeks that I have to attend a gym that doesn't do my laundry daily for me. I'm going to look ridiculous and un-matchy a lot. Oh well. I always look cute for yoga and pilates.

So I've been wrestling with this since I watched the AMA's Sunday night...I feel like I hate Miley Cyrus just because of who she is, but the song she sang on there was really catchy. Really catchy and probably good for working out to. And now I'm considering buying her Breakout album (on iTunes, obviously, so I don't have to actually pay for it at a store in front of people). My main concern? That when I'm on iTunes at work, my coworkers can see my music. And they'll probably make fun of me. I'm also considering the Leona Lewis album, and the new Christina Aguliera, however what angers me about Christina is that it is sold only at Target and you can't get 30 second previews of the songs on Target.com. So that is lame, and I may not buy it purely because of that. If I can't buy it on iTunes, it's hardly worth it.

Bad news - the dress I ordered from Jessica McClintock for the Christmas party? Yeah, the bigger size zips up, but it is ABSOLUTELY HUGE everywhere else. And Jessica McClintock won't take it as a return because it was on sale. So my options now are to get it seriously altered (pro: it will look exactly like I want it to; con: it will cost more money) or try to return it to Belk's or something (pro: not spending more money; con: losing some of the money I already spent). What to do? I'm going to try it on again tonight and decide if the alterations I would want are doable. Lame. Good thing I got another dress.

Blake left for home this morning...he had a 6:30 flight, and while he did not make me drive him to the airport (thank god for the bus station one block from our house), he still woke me up at 4. And I was fully awake until he left at 5. And then when my alarm went off at 6:30, I wanted to scream. This is going to cause me to go to bed around 9 tonight I'm sure.

Oh my god, it's only 9am. KILL ME.

Weekend and whatnot

This was kind of a lame weekend actually. I took my half day on Friday, lifted, and did some baking. As it turns out, I grossly overestimated the amount of people that were coming to a really cold tailgate prior to a really cold game, so I had all sorts of extra cookies to bring to the office today. The dinner and Rock Band party were fun, and Tim's new condo was very nice. Someday, when he becomes a real adult and gets matching furniture, it's going to be very homey. ;)

Saturday morning I did not feel bad about going to pilates because it meant that I only spent two hours at the tailgate instead of like 5. Again, it was cold at the tailgate. And then Wake completely blew their lead in the fourth quarter and as a result they pretty much crapped on their entire season. Because the ACC is full of sub-par teams, more of them are bowl eligible than there are ACC bowls to go to, so Wake probably won't even get a bowl bid, even if they win next week and go 7-5. So that sucks. We had such high hopes. The only way I'm spending money to watch us botch a bowl game is if we wind up in Charlotte again this year. Because that one only costs me the price of a ticket.

Sunday I got up and lifted, went to church, did errands, and went to yoga. It was a successful day. Except that we went to lunch with Tim and Dan and I ate too much pizza...to the point where I felt like I might vomit at yoga. I wasn't even hungry for dinner so I didn't eat any. I need to stop this whole overeating thing. I have problems.

I ordered a few new yoga shirts online. I like the Underarmor Heat Gear T's and tanks because they completely absorb my sweat during the hot yoga classes. So I ordered a few new ones last week. And then I ordered and received this new yoga bag. It's from Gaiam and it's huge and awesome for when I have to bring all of my gear to work with me. I have my mat in the bottom, my brick, strap, and yogitoes towel on the inside, and I've also added some make-up remover pads for before class and blotting cloths for after. Because seriously, I am really sweaty up in there. But once I leave I feel awesome. So it's worth it.

Anyway, just a regular Monday now, except that I have like nothing to do at work this week. I'm heading to the gym at lunch and then my pilates lesson after work. This will be my only stop at the pilates studio this week because they're closed from Wednesday - Sunday for Thanksgiving. Sad. I'm going to have to do my mat class videos once or twice to make up for it. I'm making some pasta with rotisserie turkey in it tonight so that should be tasty. Have a good Monday everyone!

Yay for Friday

I'm in the office again on a Friday, but not to worry, I'm leaving at noon. Yay. I'm going to visit Kristin and the baby and then I'm going to be making some tailgating cookies. I'm excusing myself from my scheduled cardio workout today because I've already done cardio 4 times this week and I successfully completed another 90 minute hot yoga class last night (and with minimal soreness today). And I dragged Susan into it with me. So now she is also hooked.

We're having our first Rock Band party in quite some time at Tim's new condo tonight, so that will be lovely. He moved in over a month ago and we haven't even seen it yet. It's crazy.

We have the football game tomorrow, but I'm going up there a bit late so that I can go to pilates in the morning. It's going to be really cold tomorrow (high is 47 degrees), so I'm not in a huge rush to get there and sit outside for 6 hours. Especially once the sun goes down. But Dan's in town for the game, so it should be fun.

Sunday, in addition to the normal cleaning and errands, I'm going to add in lifting, church, and yoga just like last week. I shouldn't have too many errands to run since Blake's leaving town Tuesday morning. I just have to buy food for the Thanksgiving feast I am going to be cooking for myself and Tim. And I'm planning to do some advanced baking for the tailgate on the 29th, so I'll have to prepare for that (I'm thinking about replicating the delicious focaccia bread that we learned how to make in cooking class last weekend. And also cookies and brownies and the like). I also want to make a batch of chicken soup to freeze because it's awesome to come home from work and defrost some real quick when I don't feel like cooking. :)

I hope you all have good weekends and stay warm!

I have problems.

Last night when I went home from work, my arms were still really sore in the tricep and shoulder regions. But I couldn't let myself not lift. So I did a bunch of squats and lunges and worked on my back and biceps as much as possible without being in too much pain. And you know what? Afterwards, my arms did hurt less. But I think this proves that I have a serious working out addiction. Also, yesterday, I did some research on yoga and pilates studios near my mom's house so that I could keep up with my classes while I'm home for Christmas.

Hi, my name is Jen, and I'm an exercise-aholic?

Divine Intervention

So right after I wrote my last post, I went to the gym. And when I got there, I learned that they are going to be closed for about 5 weeks to do the renovation they've been saying they're going to do for like a year. They close on Thanksgiving and don't open again until January 5. We get passes to the Charlotte YMCA branches while they are closed. Unfortunately, it's going to be nearly impossible for me to go the extra few blocks to the Y and get in an effective cardio workout at lunch within an hour and a half. Plus they won't do my laundry for me. So it looks like I may be unwillingly cutting down on my cardio activity for a while.

I'm really not all that annoyed actually, because of those 5 weeks, I'll be out of town for work one of them and at home for Christmas for another, so I'm only really dealing with 3 weeks of annoyance and then when the gym reopens (god willing on time), it will be all new and super fancy. Of those 3 weeks, I'm only working 2 of them, so maybe I can sneak out for a 2 hour lunch a few days a week without it being a huge issue. I probably can. I can't help but feel a little bit like life is telling me to take a break though. Which I am ok with.

I have been wanting to check out the Y, so at least I have that going for me.

Am I crazy?

So last night at my pilates lesson, I mentioned to the teacher that I was sore in the arm region because of my yoga class on Sunday. And then I mentioned that Tuesday was usually a lifting day, and I didn't know how that would work because of the soreness. And then she was like "so you do pilates, and yoga, and you lift...that's kind of a lot." And then I realized that I also bang out 45 minutes of cardio 5 times a week. So I'm wondering if my current schedule is becoming too much? Because right now, at least Monday - Friday, I feel bad if I don't work out twice a day. Which is a little scary.

Here is my current sched:
M: 45 minutes of cardio, pilates lesson
T: 45 minutes of cardio, 20-30 minutes lifting
W: 45 minutes of cardio, pilates mat class
T: 45 minutes of cardio, 90 minute yoga class
F: 45 minutes of cardio, 20-30 minutes lifting
S: pilates mat class (when I have time I walk there and back, so that's an hour of low intensity cardio)
S: 45 minutes lifting, 90 minutes yoga (starting last weekend...until then all I did on Sunday was lift)

I will point out also that I eat at least 1800 calories a day, and this crazy schedule that started in late September/early October hasn't caused me to lose a ton of weight or anything...maybe like 3 pounds. So I don't think I'm too nuts. And I mean what else do I do after work during the week? I make dinner and watch TV or read. It's not like I have kids to care for or anything. Although, I'm thinking that now that I'm getting into more vigorous yoga I might scale back lifting to only once or twice a week instead of three times.

So thoughts? Am I crazy? Do I do this because I seriously heart living on a schedule? The answer to that last question is YES. I love schedules. But seriously, is this abnormal and crazy? Because I don't want to be crazy.

Oh the humanity

So that awesome yoga class from Sunday? Yeah. I can't lift my arms above shoulder level or straighten them completely right now. I guess that makes it ok to skip my lifting session this evening? I mean it must have done something by way of strength training if I physically can't move right now.

I'm totally going back there on Thursday night.

Weekend Adventures

The weekend was full of adventures. Here's the rundown:

Friday when I got home from work, Blake had already left for Raleigh, so I didn't have much to do. I had stopped and picked up Chinese food on my way home. So I lifted, ate my Chinese food, watched some DVR'ed TV from Thursday night, read, and went to bed at about 10. It was good until one of the damn cats started crying at 6am because he wanted water out of the faucet (Wylie almost died this weekend as a result of his whining).

The cooking class was fun on Saturday morning, I ate all sorts of pizza and foccacia and we were sent home with delicious pizza dough and a recipe to replicate it with. Best foccacia ever: caramelized onions, walnuts, and blue cheese. Now, I hate blue cheese something fierce, but used sparingly and melted on this foccacia, it was amazing. So good. I will definitely be making this recipe at some point. And I used some of the dough last night to make pizza...it tastes just like the stuff my mom buys at the Italian bakery in NJ. So I will certainly be using that recipe again...a lot.

And then it was dress shopping time. A time which I normally hate. But it went so well that I got two dresses. I figure that between the Christmas Party, DLo's January 2nd wedding, Rachael's April 4th wedding, and potentially even AT's May 2nd wedding (if it's at night), I should be able to get plenty of wear out of them both. Bonus? They were both on sale for less than $100 a piece. And of course I got some kick ass shoes to go with them. Here are the goods.

Dress #1: Susan and I kind of went into the Jessica McClintock store thinking that we would only find dresses fit for senior prom, but both wound up getting stuff there. Who knew? I will definitely wear this dress to the Christmas party, and DLo's wedding, and I'm obsessed with it. At first, it appeared to be made out of some kind of upholstery fabric, but when I put it on it grew on me. It fits really well. Actually, I think it looks better on me than it does in this weird picture from the website, but that's probably because I'm extremely conceited.

Dress #2: Just before we went to go back to Jessica McClintock and make our purchases, we stopped at Belk. They were having a large sale. Susan actually found the dress she was planning to buy at Jessica McClintock for about $50 less on sale at Belk, so she got it there. I also wound up with this number. Because I love green, and although I didn't think this would be the case, these weird bubble bottoms make my legs look super skinny. This will be worn to the April 4th wedding (it's in NJ, so day or night, it'll still be chilly winter dress weather) and will be considered for the May 2nd wedding in FL if it is a nighttime affair.

Shoes: I wanted something tall and ridiculous, as always, so I wound up with basically these. However, the ones I got were this style but black patent leather rather than crocodile skin. And the band around the platform and the one around the top (where the buckle is) are velvet. I don't know if that description made sense, but I love BCBGirls shoes, and that's what these are.

RANT: WTF is with BCBG dresses? I went into the store and loved at least a dozen of their dresses, but they were ALL strapless. Literally, all of them. Except for the one I liked the best, which had just one weird diagonal strap that would still necessitate a strapless bra. I hate strapless bras. Which is why both of the dresses that I got have straps thick enough to hide a regular bra. Also, most of the dresses appeared to be to short even for me (and I'm 5'2''). Not appropriate for functions that the people who can afford to buy those dresses are going to be attending. END RANT.

Also on Saturday, Wake lost to NC State and effectively ended our chances of going to the ACC Championship game. Piss poor effort. I was so mad when the game ended that I immediately cleaned the bathroom to get my aggression out.

Sunday, I got up early (because of the damn cat crying AGAIN) and lifted and started the laundry and whatnot. And then, like a good girl, I went to church. Blake and I did the regular cleaning and errands, and then I decided to try the 4:30 yoga class at a different studio, Yoga One. So I packed up my stuff and headed over there. And when I got there, I learned it was a HOT yoga class. Like the kind where the room is 100 degrees that I assumed only crazy people went to. It said nothing about this on the schedule or the website. I hate a lot of things, and "being hot" is in the top three (also in the top three: "Being tired" and "Being hungry." When I have the trifecta, I am completely unbearable. The entire city of Charlotte will be in danger if I ever wind up hugely pregnant in the summer months). Anyway, I was already there and thankfully wearing one of my Underarmor heat gear shirts, so I stayed. And oh my god, it was AWESOME. For starters, when you're that hot, all you think about is how sweaty you are rather than how much holding warrior 2 for 5 minutes hurts. And the time just flew. And you can stretch so much because of the heat, and during the final resting pose they give you cold wet lavender-smelling cloths to put over your eyes, and I felt AWESOME all night...long story short, I bought a yogitoes skidless mat blanket (because the sweat was totally making me skid all class) and a package of 10 classes right afterwards. I WILL be going again. Amazing.

So that's about it. Clearly my whole "trying not to spend money" thing backfired a bit, but it was a great weekend. And now we're back into the swing of things at work. Today we get to leave at lunch and head to a hotel nearby for our State of the Firm meeting. It's pretty lame, but it's an excuse to do nothing productive for most of the day, so I'm in favor of it. And then I have my pilates lesson tonight as usual. Good times. Happy Monday everyone.

Weekend time

I wanted to post at some point during the week this week, but then I realized that I had nothing to say because it was just a regular old week in Charlotte and I'm trying to not spend a ton of money right now so I haven't bought anything cool to share with the blogging world. Oh well. I think most of the time I prefer these boring weeks in Charlotte to having to be in New Orleans or something, so I can't complain.

This weekend should be at least a little bit exciting. Blake and his friends are going up to Raleigh tonight to see the Wake soccer game, followed by the Wake vs NC State football game tomorrow. So I'll have the house to myself. Tomorrow morning, Susan and I have a pizza making cooking class at Johnson & Wales which should be awesome, and then we're going to the mall to shop for dresses for the office Christmas party (and for me, at least one winter wedding). That will not be so fun. I loathe party dress shopping. But I like party shoe shopping, so at least I'll have that to look forward to. We're hoping that we'll go into Nordstrom's, find something immediately, and then not have to try on any more dresses.

Now that I've been back in Charlotte for a significant amount of time, and I've done a good job of getting a weekly schedule together for myself to include my gym, pilates, and yoga workouts, I've decided that it's about time to do something I've been wanting to do for a while but have been avoiding: going back to church. I usually hate going because I feel like I look like a loser at church all alone (Blake refuses to attend a Catholic mass). But seriously. It's church. People there shouldn't judge me for being alone (but they will. We're Catholics. It's what we do). Once I find a church that I'll actually attend every week, I'm thinking about joining the choir, because I haven't done any serious singing since I took a choir class junior year of college. And I'm pretty sure that because of that, I sound like shit right now. Also hobbies are good, so I should have more of them.

That's about it. I think I'm going to try to actually suffer through a full day of work today because I don't have to go to Winston this weekend or anything, so taking a half day sounds kind of pointless. I'll check back in next week to talk all about my cooking class, which I'm sure will be awesome. Have a good weekend, everyone! I'll leave you with this picture that Blake just took with his phone and emailed to me, of Norman inside of a shipping box (the quality's pretty bad because it's from a phone, but it's still cute).

This is the perfect little cubby for me!

'Tis a sad day

Today when I got to work I went about my normal morning web-surfing and apparently they've updated our firewalls so I can no longer get on Facebook from the office. F. I have no idea when I'll get on Facebook ever now since I don't have internet at home. I may have to convince my partner that I need to permanently have a broadband card so that I can go online from my house. Also, they have blocked thesuperficial.com, which makes me super sad. Thank god they haven't caught on to hulu yet.

This weekend was pretty good. Friday I left work early, got Thai Taste with Carrie, went to see Kristin and the baby (she is literally the cutest newborn I have ever seen), and did a fair amount of baking for the upcoming tailgate. I also tried out a new dinner recipe for a chicken and veggie casserole that was delicious. And, of course, I went to Target and spent some money. Naturally.

Saturday we had a big homecoming tailgate. Several of Blake's friends came down from DC for the game as a surprise, so it got a bit out of hand. But it was fun. EW made grilled pizzas for the food, and it was awesome. And we beat Virginia, which was a huge win. There's a decent chance we'll find ourselves back at the ACC Championship game this year, and I'm excited about it. We just have to win our next two games (and Maryland has to lose one of theirs). I'm definitely going to the ACC Championship game this year if we make it. I was unable to go when we made it there two years ago and I was sad.

Sunday I basically did laundry and cleaning and errands and I read a bit. Nothing too exciting. We were supposed to have training today at work, which was going to render me unable to go to the gym, but it has been cancelled, so that's good. Especially since I decided to be lazy on Friday again last week. I ate like an absolute asshat all weekend, so I need to get back into my normal habits. Tailgates are fun and all, but even though I don't drink at them I eat enough to destroy an entire week of healthy lifestyle. Not impressive.

Well, it's a normal week at work now. Except that my head is not in the game today because I expected to have training (and therefore would be able to zone our for 8 hours) and now I actually have to somehow convince my brain to process actual work. It's going to be a struggle.

Weekend

Guess what? it's Friday, and I'm actually in the office! It's weird. But I'm leaving at lunch time. I only have a few vacation days left to play around with so that I can roll enough into next year to take my trip to Italy.

Carrie's in town this weekend for Wake Homecoming, so we're going to Winston tomorrow for the football game. There was some talk about going to the Bobcats game tonight, but Tim couldn't get us free tickets, so I don't know what we're going to do. When I leave work this afternoon I'm going to hit the gym, do lunch with Carrie, and then do my tailgate-related baking. And possibly clean the kitchen...it's been looking pretty gross lately and I'm almost positive that is because Blake is playing chicken with me and refusing to clean it because he thinks I should do it. Which is fine because I was lazy last weekend and didn't mop like I was supposed to, so I'll accept my kitchen-cleaning fate.

I have to skip pilates tomorrow because I want to get a full tailgate in, but that's ok. I don't have much to do Sunday but the regular laundry and grocery shopping, so I may go to the gym to make up for it. Or I may go to Target and buy shit I don't need. That sounds more accurate.

That's about it. Nothing too exciting going on. I hope you all have lovely weekends and I'll check in again on Monday. :)

Good watching

Ok. I've mentioned a few times that I tend to listen to TV shows while I'm working, as if it's music. It actually helps me to concentrate when I have some episode of The Office that I've seen 1000 times on in the background for some reason. I don't know. But now I've watched every episode of The Office, 30 Rock, and Family Guy that are on Hulu.com like 30 times, and I'm not super duper busy right now so I figured I could watch something that requires a bit more attention (read: something that I can't recite word for word anyway).

I had heard a lot of good things about It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, so I went to see how many episodes Hulu had. Most networks only have the last 5 or 10 episodes that have aired available to watch. Not FX. FX is the shit. They have EVERY SINGLE EPISODE of the show on there. How could I resist? Monday afternoon, I put on Season 1 episode 1 to see how it went.

And oh my god you guys, I can't believe I've never watched it before. It's freaking hilarious. it's a bit like a 21st century Seinfeld, in that it's essentially a show about nothing, and the main cast is three dudes and a chick, but it is just completely ridiculous. If you've never seen it, you should give it a try. It's really just crazy good. It's funny in that "everyone on this show is a complete jackass" way. And I love it. I'm about midway through season 2, and I did think season 1 was funnier, but it's still pretty good. I highly recommend it.

Ok, I'm going to bounce from work now, I have to stop at the grocery store on the way home and I have pilates class at 7. Peace out.

Why?

Why is it so important for everyone to change their facebook status to something along the lines of "I voted!" today? Isn't that a little bit like making your status "I had lunch today?" Yes, you were supposed to vote and you did, congratulations. And yes, I realize that I discussed the fact that I voted on here the other day, but that was more to bitch about the three hour wait time than anything else.

Also - isn't there a reason why we vote by secret ballot? It's great that some people believe in something very strongly and openly support it, but openly supporting something is not the same as being openly belligerent about the opposing viewpoint. I feel like for the past several months, people have been jamming their preferred choice down my throat via putting down the other candidate's ideas. Isn't it a little sad that for some of us, we go to the polling location and vote for the lesser of two evils rather than someone that we 100% believe in? Because I gotta level with you, I did not 100% believe in either of the presidential candidates. I about 60% believed in who I voted for, and 80% hated what his opponent said, so that's how I made my decision.

And seriously, celebrities, you're regular people...stop throwing your ideas around like they should matter any more than mine or anyone else's. They don't. You're not famous because you're smart (I'm looking at you, Madonna. And Spencer Pratt. And Paris Hilton. And anyone else who didn't even bother to get a college degree but makes about 300 times the national average salary).

On this election day, I just sincerely hope that everyone (a) voted, (b) did a lot of research before they did so rather than relying on TV commercials and celebrity endorsements, and (c) realized that the current economic crisis wasn't completely caused by the Bush administration...it was caused about 50/50 by democrats and republicans. Using your vote as a punishment for the high price of gas is completely outrageous. You should be voting for the person that you think has the better way to get OUT of the crisis, not against the person whose party might have caused it.

Comment as you will...but I have no desire to know who you voted for. Just like I'm not going to tell you who I voted for. Let's try to get through this election with a shred of dignity here. That's more than the candidates can say, given the preponderance of negative ad campaigning that has been going on. Best thing about today being election day: no more having to watch effing political commercials. Thank GOD.

Good reads

I know I promised this post yesterday, but I got busy at work with some truly horrible nonsense, which will continue to plague me for the next two weeks, and will likely cause me to threaten to quit (again) but actually suck it up and stay here because no one is hiring right now. Anyway, I've been doing some reading lately, so I thought I'd share.

Several months ago, I was bored at the airport, so I wandered into the book store and picked up The Other Boleyn Girl. I hadn't seen the movie, but I am a huge dork who enjoys reading about European history as long as it's exciting. Enter the Historical Fiction genre. Basically the events that happen are all real, but the characters feelings and actions are fictional. A good historical fiction writer does a ridiculous amount of research before writing a book, and then you get to enjoy the fun book without having to deal with the boring research. See how fun that is? Anyway, the book was excellent, and I've always had a weird fascination with Tudor England (no, I've never watched The Tudors, because I don't subscribe to fancy movie channels, but I'm planning to rent the DVDs when I'm bored over Thanksgiving). Anyway, the book was excellent.

So I went to the author's website, and she has all sorts of stuff about research on there and about her books and whatnot, and I decided to buy The Constant Princess, which took place before The Other Boleyn Girl. It is about Katherine of Aragon. It was so good, that afterwards, I went back and re-read The Other Boleyn Girl in order to go in the correct time order (see? I'm dorky). Last week, I purchased and read The Boleyn Inheritance, which is about Henry VIII's marriages to Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard (wives 4 and 5). It was also excellent. The next book in time order should be The Virgin's Lover, about Elizabeth I. I started it last night.

Philippa Gregory's most recent book moves out of England and to Mary Queen of Scots, but it's not out in paperback yet, so I have yet to purchase it. Seriously. These are good books. I briefly searched for a good book to read about Marie Antoinette after seeing the Sofia Coppola movie, but never found one, so if I have any other dorks out there that know one, let me know.

Well, I have to get back to the grind now, so here's a brief summary: I'm a dork, buy these books, they are good. I'll try to update again soon.

How did this happen?

So remember my whole "I'm going to take the day off Friday and get lost of things done" routine? It wound up being crap. First, I decided to get to early voting ASAP because I had heard horror stories about the lines. So I went to the library when it opened and OH MY GOD. The uptown library takes up a full city block and the line was wrapped around the damn thing twice. I walked directly out and went to another place within walking distance. The line was much shorter, but it still took me THREE HOURS to vote. Well, it really took about 5 minutes to actually vote, but three hours to get into the room with the voting machines. Seriously. Crazy.

So that not only ate up a substantial portion of my day, but also put me in a foul mood. So I skipped working out and went directly to Target, ate a soft pretzel because I was STARVING from waiting to vote all damn day, and bought a bunch of stuff. Then I went home and made some chocolate rice crispy treats for the tailgate. Then Blake came home and proclaimed that he needed me to go ski jacket shopping with him, and when he added in dinner at Moe's rather than me having to cook, I joined. By the time we got home, it was after 9 and I still had to bake cookies. Crazy.

Saturday was a little bit better. I went to pilates in the morning and then stopped by Cooking Uptown before heading to Winston to sign me and Susan up for a cooking class in January that is all different kinds of risotto. You know how I love risotto. Then I headed up to the game, tailgated a bit, and then watched Wake come entirely too close to losing to Duke. Seriously. WTF. The game went into overtime, and if it hadn't been for Duke's missed field goal that caused us to go to overtime, or the awesome overtime interception by Wake in the end zone, we would have lost. TO DUKE. Not acceptable. The only think Duke is supposed to be better than us at is basketball. And that statement was all-inclusive.

We were super grateful for the extra hour of sleep Saturday night, because good lord, these football games really take it out of you. Yesterday was filled with chores and cleaning and such. I also made some tasty chicken marsala. And throughout last week and over the weekend, I read a book. There will be another post about that later. So, to sum it up, even my long weekend was busy. Good grief.

It's just another normal week in Charlotte now. I'm planning to post later or tomorrow with some suggested reading that I've been hoarding for quite some time.

Now I'd like to take just a minute to congratulate Kristin and David Washam on the birth of their baby girl, Lexie Blake Washam on Saturday night. Best wished to the family, and I hope I can come and see her next week. Look how freakin cute.

Another Early Weekend

Well kids, I'm not terribly busy at work this time of year, so I think I'm going to take tomorrow off. For two reasons really: 1) because it's boring here and I want to sit on my couch instead, and 2) some children are coming to trick-or-treat around the office, and I don't generally enjoy kids.

Most of the reason that I need the day off though is because I want to early vote. However, apparently that takes about 2 hours around here because everyone and their mom wants to early vote. I almost wonder if it would just be faster to vote next Tuesday, but when confronted with the possibility of taking the day off and using voting as an excuse, it's a pretty easy decision to make. I actually just registered to vote for the first time this year (I know, it's pathetic that this is the third presidential election that I've been eligible to vote for but I only just registered, blah blah blah). And really, without sounding preach-y or forcing you all to listen to my political affiliations, I only registered because the mayor of Charlotte is running for governor, and as a property owner in Charlotte, I want him to win. Because right now all the governors have been from Raleigh, a city where everyone thinks that Charlotte doesn't need any taxpayer money even though we provide a crapload of the taxpayer money in NC, and that is lame. To be completely honest, I don't care for either of the presidential nominees, and I have seriously considered writing in Tim Calhoun, the character from SNL, as my selection for that race.

Anyway, after I get the voting out of the way, I plan to hit the gym, get my first Starbucks hot chocolate of the season (a payoff for hitting the gym 5 times this week), lift and do some yoga, stop at Target, do my baking for the tailgate on Saturday, and make dinner. Somewhere in there I'd also like to sit around and maybe read, but I don't think that sounds like it's going to happen. It's going to be a pretty busy day considering that I was supposed to come to work too.

As I mentioned, our main event this weekend is the football game Saturday...we're playing Duke at home and unfortunately there is a very real possibility that we will lose. I will be thoroughly embarrassed if that happens. Other than that it's just errands and chores the rest of the weekend. And an office watching party at Cory's tonight. Yay.

Have a good weekend. And Happy Halloween! And don't forget to set your clocks back an hour on Saturday night (yay).

WTF

I came to NC for college largely for the weather. And I stayed here after college largely for the weather. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Three weeks ago, it was still 85 degrees outside. We went out on the lake when my mom and sister were here on October 7th for god's sake. I was preparing for the NC fall...a string of 70 degree sunny days where a no coat or the occasional light jacket would be appropriate until roughly Thanksgiving. And that's how it went for about 5 days. And then last week was a bit chilly. Ok fine.

This week is has been in the THIRTIES when I walk to work in the morning. SERIOUSLY. I wore zero jacket three weeks ago and I have now moved onto wool coats and gloves. WTF. Where did the fall go? So help me god, if it snows here before January (or at all, really), I'm going to have a coronary.

Remember when I used to complain about how effing hot it was during Wake's home football games in September? I might be a bit concerned about the 4 coming up in November...because it's going to be chilly. Good thing we sit on the sunny side of the stands. And that I have Uggs.

Damn you mother nature.

Weekend in FL

First, let's just start with the awesomeness that was Must See TV Thursday. Because I didn't work on Friday, so that counts as weekend time. I've been giving Kath & Kim a go, and it was really really funny this week. You just have to completely embrace its ridiculousness and you'll be good to go. The Office was also awesome, and the SNL Thursday was great, with Will Ferrell showing up to play George W Bush one last time. Can we talk for a moment about how crazy it is that Amy Poeler did that hilarious Palin rap on SNL last Saturday and then went into labor this Saturday? I can't believe she was that boisterous less than a week before having a baby. I imagine that when I'm pregnant, at that point all I'll be doing is beaching myself on the couch with a bucket of KFC. And a milkshake of some sort.

Anyway, Friday I just got up, lifted, packed, and headed to FL. It was hot and humid, but cloudy and rainy the whole time we were there, which was lame. It was good to see the family even though Wake lost an embarrassing game on Saturday. We had an early afternoon flight on Sunday so it was a short trip. But we had lots to do Sunday afternoon.

So this made me want to kill USAir. On the way down, I didn't get automatically upgraded. However, once I was on the plane in my seat, they came over and told me they had a seat in first class for me. I declined because I was already seated and Blake had the middle seat so I didn't want him stuck there if I wasn't in the window seat next to him. Apparently, when I declined the upgrade, USAir somehow "lost" the fact that I was even on the plane. Because when I got to my dad's, I went online to check my email and saw that I had been automatically upgraded for the flight on Sunday. So I go to USAir.com to pick my first class seat (I like the window) and it won't let me because my reservation has been "cancelled." 45 minutes on the phone with USAir later (including about 20 minutes on the phone with an effing recording), I find out that they somehow lost track of my being on the first flight so they automatically cancelled my return flight. Fortunately, I saw this on Friday and not Sunday, so they were able to fix it for me and put me back in first class. The flight was oversold Sunday, so if I hadn't seen this ahead of time, I would have had to scream at airport people, and I was not prepared to do that.

Other than that nothing big really happened. It's back to the grind now. I guess I have to work a full week this week, which is lame...if I actually sit here until 5:30 on Friday I'd be shocked. We'll see. I'm not really busy enough this time of year to stay amused in the office on a Friday afternoon.

It's my weekend (almost)

I don't come to work tomorrow because I'm going to my dad's house in Florida this weekend. While we're there, we're going to go see the Wake vs Miami football game. And Wake had better pull their shit together and win this one. I don't need another Maryland situation on my hands.

So today's going to be a constant struggle to be productive when the weekend is upon me. Tomorrow before the flight I'm going to try to get to the gym and do a pilates video because I have to miss my pilates mat class on Saturday (sad). Our flight is at 2:30, so I should have time to do that and pack and then leave.

Tonight AJ and I are having an office viewing party at her house. I'm so pleased that new episodes of the office exist again. It really makes my life complete.

I'll be back in the CLT Sunday afternoon, when I'll be in a mad rush to get errands and cleaning and laundry done. And then next week it's back to normal. I'm hoping to be able to sneak out of the office early one day next week and go make my scooter purchase (I'm pumped).

It seems like Charlotte has gone ahead and made the executive decision to completely skip the fall this year and go directly to winter. Which makes me sad, because I love the fall time here. It's like 65-75 degrees out and windy, and a light jacket is all you need. It's perfect. However, it was still in the 80's two weeks ago, and now we've dipped into the 50's. It was literally 40 degrees outside when I was walking to work this week. I realize that this isn't really "winter" weather most places, but it is here. Bad News: I'm freezing my ass off in the morning. Good News: Ugg weather. There's no better way to show your coworkers that you refuse to care about your presence in the office than to wear Uggs and corduroys around all day. And that is my plan for the day. :)

2.5

The amount of time, in days, that I actually dealt with my bangs being in my face. Halfway through the day yesterday, I pushed them over to the side. They still look cute, and they're much easier to tolerate this way. But they're a bit short for this look...so I'm going to let them go an extra week before I get them trimmed so that I can continue to brush them out of my face. Bonus: that's what my hair wants to do anyway no matter how much I try to style it, so it makes my life much easier.

My private pilates lesson last night thoroughly kicked my ass. I'm going to try to use the instructor from last night for the rest of my private lesson life. She was awesome. I was really sweaty. Which was good, because when I went to the gym to do cardio yesterday, halfway through my routine there was a fire drill in the building. Eventually, they told us we didn't have to leave, but I had already dismounted from the bike I was using. So my cardio situation yesterday was piss poor. Today is lift/cardio/yoga day. Lifting was done this morning. And I'm going to have to push myself at the gym this afternoon to make up for yesterday's botch. Sigh.

Weekend Roundup

This weekend wound up being kind of boring. Well, not Saturday. Saturday I did a whole bunch of stuff, but then Sunday rolled around and I had run out of stuff to do so I read an entire 600 page book. I literally sat on the couch, did the laundry, and read for like 12 hours. Awesome.

Friday there was a partner retreat for the partners in the office, and for some reason a vast majority of the managers were also out of the office...so I left a bit early. Pretty much everyone did. I was planning to do something productive, but it started to rain when I got home, so I sat around and read instead. Then when Blake came home, he wanted to check out the new Trader Joe's, so we did. It was ok. It annoys me that you can't really do a full week's grocery shopping there. I mean they basically have zero produce, which generally makes up 50% of my weekly purchases, so that was lame. I'm going to have to hit the farmers' market tomorrow to make up for it. After that I made some pasta for dinner and then hung out.

Saturday I went to pilates and then I got a haircut. I got brave at the salon and went with the Katie Holmes short bob with the bangs and everything. It looks cute I think, but I'm going to be real tired of these bangs real soon. I have about two weeks to weigh my options, and then I'm either going to have to have them trimmed or grow them out a bit and push them to the side. It was important to cut the hair short now because my hair lady is going on maternity leave next month, so I won't be getting another cut until at least March.

After we watched Wake get completely dominated by Maryland (horrible), we decided to go look at scooters. And I've basically decided to buy one. I'm even considering going all out and getting a motorcycle license so that I can legally drive more than 30mph on it (it should be able to hit about 45 considering my weight). Here's a picture of the model I think I'm going to get...though I can't decide on whether I want the blue and white model or the black and gray.

After that, I did some house cleaning and made a tasty turkey and mashed potato dinner. We are going to have turkey left overs for at least the rest of the week. Haha.

Please watch this clip from SNL this weekend. Amy Poeler is hilarious. I can't believe how much she can move around given that she's due to give birth in like a month. It's crazy. And the clip is very funny.

I really have nothing to say about yesterday. I was so damn bored. I made cookies because I was bored. Which was a terrible idea because now I'm going to eat them. Oh well. They're delicious.

This is a short week because I'm heading to FL t see my dad on Friday afternoon. Yay. I'll post again soon.

The Office

Ok, so the first two episodes of the office have been a little bit off. The first one was funny, but it seemed to be much more of a plot moving episode than anything else. The second one had improved. Last night was awesome. It was just back to complete ridiculousness, which is what makes the office great. I think I'm also partial to the episodes that Jan is in because she's so freakin crazy and hilarious. I didn't even miss Pam. In fact, the scenes that they put in there with her didn't really seem to fit in the episode at all...I wish they had cut one and kept in the deleted scene that just posted to nbc.com...because it's hilarious.

I mean for real, Michael was calling the kid "ass-turd" and Dwight was fake-giving birth to a watermelon. These are the things that great Office episodes are made of.

"And the baby will be related to Michael through...delusion." ~Jim

You can view the full episode here.

I've been also giving Kath & Kim a chance because I think Molly Shannon is funny. The show is just ok for now, I'm going to give it a few more episodes before I commit. Selma Blair is really funny. I think my main problem with this show is that they remind me a little bit too much of my mom and sister.

The SNL Thursday Weekend Update was funny too. Blake and I had watched the debate right before, so the first skit made sense but...for some reason this year, the candidates are so ridiculous that the writers barely even have to change the dialogue for it to be funny. Which is pretty sad. I noticed this especially when they spoofed the Vice Presidential debate. Am I the only one that doesn't particularly care for either of the presidential candidates right now? I'm a little sad that I have to actually vote for one of them. Anyway, the weekend update portion of the episode was, as always, hilarious. Amy Poeler is going to be sorely missed when she leaves the show next month.

Last night, I made a tasty butternut squash risotto with a squash that I got at the farmers' market. It was good. I hadn't cooked much this week because I've been at pilates and yoga every night until 8. But it was nice to be able to cook again and not have cereal for dinner. Tonight I'm throwing together some ravioli, and I had to prepare the turkey I'm going to make on Saturday. I have no major plans this weekend, so I get to finally relax a bit. I'm going to pilates tomorrow and then I'm getting a haircut, watching the Wake game, and making some turkey. Sunday I'm going to lift, maybe go for a walk, do some laundry and cleaning, and go to the new Trader Joe's. I'm excited. I was hoping to go scooter shopping on Saturday, but the dealership will be closed by the time the football game is over. Boo.

Hope you all have a good weekend. :)

Tagged.

Jordana has tagged me. Tagging makes me embarrassed, because I don't have enough blogging friends to tag back. I'm a blog loser. But, to partake in the fun, I will share the 6 random things about me but then I will not tag 6 other people. Because I can't. LOSER.

1) I'm all pumped up right now because it's starting to feel fall-like in Charlotte. By "fall-like" I mean less than 80 degrees. I am very excited at the prospect that I can soon trot out my fall and winter clothing. Summer's great and all, but I really like cozy sweaters and they're just not practical in NC for the months of April - October. Also, I enjoy boots. And tights. And coats.

2) I got my first turkey of the season to make this weekend. I have a really killer turkey recipe. The first Thanksgiving that Blake and I were together, he didn't get to have a regular Thanksgiving at home because his sister was studying abroad in Spain, so his whole family went there for the holiday. When he got back, I told him I'd make him a real Thanksgiving dinner, so I made my first turkey. Then a month later, when I went to his parents' house over Christmas break and met them for the first time, he actually said to his mother "you should get Jen's turkey recipe. It's really good." I died a little inside. This weekend I'm trying a new recipe...hopefully it will be just as good.

3) I'm actually embarrassed about the amount of money that I now spend monthly on my fitness regimen. I really hope it pays off, so that I don't wind up being poor AND fat.

4) Blake and I are the only people we know who just straight up don't have internet access at our house. We tell people we don't feel like paying for it. And he has a Blackberry, so we can use that in emergency situations. But the real reason is that when we did have it, we found out our neighbors were stealing our signal. So we tried to security enable it. And we couldn't figure out how to. So we cancelled it, assuming our other neighbors also wouldn't be able to figure out how to security enable their internet and we could steal it, but we were wrong. And now we're so mad that our neighbors are apparently smarter than we are that we refuse to get the internet in the house at all.

5) We still have a working Wake Forest issue laptop, even though we graduated more than 3 years ago, and we got the computers 3 years before that. It is a behemoth Frankenstein that we created using half of his and half of mine, because we had to make up for the parts that had crapped out over the years. It currently has my hardware, but Blake's hard drive and battery. Not that we use it much (see #4).

6) I've been super unproductive at work lately and I think it's because I haven't had a proper vacation since July. But I'm trying to hoard my vacation time this year so I can roll some forward because I really want to go to Italy next October. I've been trying to plan this trip for three years, and I'm finally going to do it. I don't care if I have to go alone. It's happening.

That's about it. If you read this and have a blog of your own, consider yourself tagged. And please forget about what a loser I am and that I don't have any blog-friends. :)

Wedding Pictures

I have downloaded the pics from Kelli's wedding for you all. You can see them all here. However, the lighting in the ballroom was low, and I have no idea how to correctly use my camera, so most of them are useless. Here are some of my favorites.

Accounting girls that were not in the wedding party - outside the church.



My table-mates.



Picture with the bride!



Phi Mu reunion.



Sorry ladies, Ryan's taken. And he's heir to a grocery store empire. ;)



We all had a great time, but fortunately, we will all get to see each other again soon, as Dan and Leeann are getting married Memorial Day weekend in Atlanta. And it will be awesome. Congratulations again to Kelli and Adam Stauff, who are having fun currently in the south pacific (I hate them a little).

PS - my private pilates lesson was freakin awesome last night...I will henceforth spend 90% of my fun money at the pilates studio...and I'm ok with that. I start yoga classes tonight. Yay.

Busy Bee

I've been super busy lately, but I wanted to find time to update today. I forgot to bring my camera to work, but I'm going to upload my pictures from Kelli's wedding later in the week and post them. This will have to be just a text-only post.

Thursday I left work early to head up to Winston-Salem for the Wake vs. Clemson football game, and Wake won! The game was pretty terrible unless you really like watching our defense own people and our offense be unable to score. All that really matters is that we won, so now if we can beat Maryland this Saturday, we have a really good chance of going to the ACC Championship again this year. Yay!

Friday I fully intended to go to work, but then we didn't get home until 1:00 in the morning Thursday night, and when my alarm went off at 6:30, I was like "um...no." So I took the day off. I hit the gym, hung out a bit, and took care of some of the errands that we ordinarily would do over the weekend, knowing that the wedding would cause us to be low on time. I drove to the Vespa dealership, but then I didn't go in...I'm pretty afraid to enter vehicle-purchasing places without Blake. Because (a) I know nothing about buying vehicles and (b) I'm a huge impulse buyer, which is not a good quality to have when I'm in the land of $4,000 scooters. I'm going to try to get Blake to take me there this weekend. Also, Blake's still telling me that I should really test drive one of these things...because he's relatively certain that I'm going to be petrified to drive one, given how I act behind the wheel of his stick-shift car and his boat. But I've weighed options in my mind, and the scooter is pretty much a necessity for me at this point, so I'll have to get over my fear.

Saturday morning I hit pilates and it was good. I walked there to get in some extra exercise. It was really nice outside. While I was there, I signed up to try a private lesson tonight. I would like to do pilates 3 times a week, and I can only make it to two mat classes, so a private lesson is pretty much necessary...although really expensive. I've gone through my finances and made sure that I can afford this luxury. Because I've been really good lately about not shopping, I can do it. Yay. I'll let you all know how it goes later in the week.

When I got home, Blake had picked Bridget up at the airport, and we left for Greenville. And as soon as I got in the car, it started shaking and driving weird. Blake got out at a light before we got on the interstate to look around, but nothing looked off. So we get on the interstate, and no more than 15 miles into our drive, my front right tire blows. Awesome. Did I mention I had the car inspected A WEEK AGO? I mean how do they miss that? Fortunately I had a donut in the trunk and it allegedly can go for 3,000 miles up to 65 mph, so after Blake put it on there, we enjoyed a slow and steady ride to the wedding. I'm going to be buying 4 new tires later this week. Because that shit was scary.

The wedding was fun. It was great to see everyone. I'll post more about it when I get the pictures in. Yesterday we left Greenville around 11 and headed back to Charlotte with a stop at the Cracker Barrel and outlet mall in Gafffney. And then we were going to drop Bridget back at the airport on the way in, but like 5 miles before we get to the airport exit there is an accident that blocks off our entire side of the interstate. They had to re-route us, and luckily Bridget's plane was delayed, so we got her to the airport just in time. I was exhausted when we got home, but I had to do laundry and finish errands. And I had what was easily the most ridiculous and horrible Harris Teeter experience of my life (of maybe it just felt that way because of the tired-ness) and was too cranky to cook dinner. For the rest of the night I did my laundry and mopping and read a book.

I was super tired this morning, but it's going to be a full and busy week at work, so I have to get my ass in gear. The manager and partner that I'm working for are both gone for the week, so I can chill a little bit...but there is still much to get done. Also, I forgot that it is Columbus Day or something (we don't really get off for many fake holidays) and I'm concerned about my gym being open. I swear to god, if I get there at lunch and it is closed I am going to scream. And then I'll probably suck it up and go order some tires instead or something. Sigh. I missed a strength training session last week (it was supposed to happen yesterday but didn't due to the aforementioned crankiness), and I hate missing workouts. Boo.

I'll update again soon. I hope any of you that actually have today off have a lovely day. Also I hate you.