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.