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.