And the shopping continues

If you know me at all (or if you've been reading this blog for the past year) you know that I tend to shop more when I have to work a lot. Because shopping is how I deal with my depression about working so much. Thankfully, I make enough money at this job to be able to afford to shop a lot on occasion...if I didn't I'd be in a lot of trouble.

Anyway, traditionally, January - May are my work a lot and shop a lot months, and then once the summer rolls in I have a few work a normal amount and shop a normal amount months. Toward the end of the year, I have several work a lot, shop a little, and spend a ton of money attempting to lose weight months. I've been trying to even this out by maintaining the working out that I did at the end of last year while I'm working a lot. I'm also trying to either even out or substantially cut down on the shopping because I really want to go to Europe this fall.

Where am I going with this? Well, I'm getting my bonus in two weeks. This bonus is related to the year July 2007 - June 2008. We pay them out behind schedule as a way to trick people into not quitting right before busy season, because if you do that you don't get your bonus. Anyway, I'm planning to put a vast majority of said bonus into my savings account for the Europe situation, but I figure I should buy myself a little something. And I have a $50 Coach gift card burning a hole in my pocket (please, never buy someone a $50 gift card to Coach, all that does is make the person spend hundreds of additional dollars there). So I'm buying myself these. provided that they fit. Look how pretty!

Coach

Also, I just ordered these for myself. I saw the same model at Belk last weekend in a snakeskin print, and I really wanted them but I couldn't think of what I'd wear them with. This color pattern is much more wearable.

MICHAEL Michael Kors, Nordstroms

Yay!

Shopping and such

So I'm in my buying makeup phase again. I have been completely obsessed with Bare Escentuals foundation, finishing powder, and concealer for about 6 years. I love that it's all powder because I hate putting weird liquids on my face. And it's all SPF 15 which is awesome, because then I don't have to put weird liquid sunscreen on my face. Yay.

Some months ago, I tried out Givenchy mascara and I am now obsessed with it too. And I got a great blush from The Body Shop about a year ago that I also liked. The problem was that it was perfect for summerwear, when my cheeks are already a bit pink, but it was too light for the winter. So I needed new blush. I had heard in just about every magazine ever that this Nars blush in the color Orgasm was the best thing ever. And since that's how I heard about the mascara initially, I figured I'd give it a go. And it is very good. I also got the matching lip gloss and a fatty lip pencil, because I love those.

I've been also wanting to rehabilitate my eyeshadow collection. I like to wear two shades of the same color, and I had been using the loose powder from Bare Escentuals, but I had to match it myself and it was a bit messier than I'd like. So then I see that Nars makes eyeshadow duets, and they are very highly rated. I got the three below.

And then of course I needed matching eyeliner...for this I stuck to the Sephora brand $5 variety, because everything else was expensive, and I feel that eyeliner is a good place to save cash. Sephora's is good.

So anyway, now I have a bunch of new makeup, and I love it! I'm considering getting a couple more colors in the eyeshadow duets, like a grey and a mauve, but I'm not sure yet. I have to try not to go to Sephora for a while or I'll be poor.

That's all I have time for today, I'll try to stop back in soon!

Hi, remember me?

I'm finally checking in again. Yay. I'm back in Charlotte now for the month of February, so I'll have a bit more time to update and whatnot. I have some more to say about some shopping I did this weekend, but I'm busy right now, so I'm just going to make this a quicky post.

I'm getting back into my regular workout regimen now. And, I'm actually watching what I eat. I read an article about Kimberly Caldwell (American Idol season 2 contestant) about how she recently lost 15 pounds. She was never fat or anything, she just wasn't as healthy as she could have been, which basically describes me perfectly. I could stand to lose 10-15 pounds. So anyway, the story was all about how she always worked out but then just decided one day to be an adult about food and suck it up. I've been reading for a long time that you can't lose weight on exercise alone, but I chose to ignore it. No more.

I can control 100% of what I eat while I'm at home, so for the next month, I'm down in the 1200-1500 calorie range, which is a big change from the 1800-2000+ range that I usually roll with, but it's actually been good. So much of when I used to eat was because I was afraid I would be hungry otherwise. But I gave this a test drive this weekend and it was fine. I'm just being an adult about what I'm eating. Seeing it from the standpoint that food is fuel, not a hobby. I'm only putting things in my mouth that are healthy for me. Because there's no reason to eat anything else. Hopefully I can make this a habit this month and take it with me when I'm on the road in March.

Here's what I ate today (and I'm going to roll something like this all month I think)
bfast: Two scrambled eggs, one piece whole wheat toast w/light omega-3 smart balance, OJ
morning snack: handful of almonds
lunch: baggie of baby carrots, turkey on light whole wheat, jello pudding
afternoon snack: piece of fruit (today it was a banana)
dinner: Select Harvest Light Vegetable soup and a Spinach Artichoke Chicken lean pocket (shut up, I have to eat dinner in the office. I also got a few low calorie steamfresh meals to mix it up a bit).

Today the HR manager made a pancake breakfast in the break room, and I didn't have or want any. I walked right in there past the pancakes and grabbed a banana (we have fruit in the office during busy season...which is a plus).

That's all I have time for today. I'm hoping to drop 5 pounds this month. I'll let you all know how it goes. :)

Diets are for suckers.

Know what the main difference is between traveling with a group of boy interns and traveling with a group of girl interns? We went to Baskin Robbins tonight...for dinner. And we were all completely happy with our decision.

Of course, there's also the fact that none of my female interns have ever missed a flight because they were too drunk to get to the airport on time, or talked back to their superiors, or acted irritable and rude all day long either. So I think I'm going to make a special request to avoid having to travel with boy interns for the rest of my life.

In other news, Wake beat Duke in a bit of a nail biter tonight. Yay!

Endnote: I'll be in Charlotte for the entire month of February, and I'm going on a serious diet. I'm going to be super cranky for at least the first week. But it's impossible to lose weight on the road, which is where I'll be a vast majority of the time March - June, so I've got to get this done now. No more ice cream for dinner I suppose. Boo.

FYI

It's busy season now, so I won't be updating as often. I'm in TN for the next 2 weeks, babysitting two interns and a new associate. Fortunately, they're a LOT more tolerable than my troupe of extremely annoying interns from last year, so I don't want to kill myself yet. Yay.

I do nothing anymore, but work, eat, sleep, and, god willing, go to the gym. So I have nothing to say. Last weekend was good; we had a Wii party after going to Picasso's to watch Wake basketball beat Clemson and other than that I did some cleaning and packing and sleeping and just generally enjoying the last weekend for a while that I wouldn't have to work. Good times. I also went to David's Bridal with Carrie because she had to try on a bridesmaid dress...and I felt the need to join her because of how hilarious I knew it would be to watch Carrie trying on formalwear. And OMG. I've never see so many fat, unattractive, women trying on cheap formalwear in my life. The accents in that place were unbelievable. Never again. For either of us. We were terrified.

That's all. Hopefully I'll have something more to say sometime soon. Ciao.

Eagles Concert

So the Eagles concert was AWESOME last night. They played for almost three hours. Which is way different from most of the concerts I've been to, where opening acts play for the first two hours and then if you're lucky you get maybe an hour of the main draw. There was no crappy opening act. There were, however, a bunch of drunk middle-aged white people in the audience...haha.

They played a lot from their new album, most of which I didn't know, but then pretty much all of their old school hits as well as some hits from the band members who had solo careers. All four of them sang lead vocals on at least one song and played at least two different instruments. And they all sounded just as good as when you hear them on the radio. Again, this was super different than most concerts, where you're lucky if you're hearing actual singing live, and they have all sorts of special effects to detract from the fact that the artist doesn't sound as good live. I'll trade in the smoke and pyrotechnics any day to hear good music. These guys just stood there and played their music, and it was fabulous.

Not taking away from the situation was the fact that we had luxury box seats, which come with free food and booze. The last concert I went to see at the arena was Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban, and I had second deck seats...and the two adolescent girls behind me were having a "who can screech at the top of their lungs louder and longer" contest right in my ear. It was horrible. The concert was decent, but the experience was awful. I think I need to luxury box it from now on. I shouldn't have to sit with the peons. ;)

Next up: hopefully Billy Joel and Elton John, if we can wrangle some tickets for that. Apparently I really like the same music as most 50-year olds. Haha.

Victory is mine!

When I got to work this morning, I checked the internet...and most of what I ordered from BR last week is on further sale now! I should wind up getting back about $100 when I got price adjust that shit this weekend! And I think we all know what that means. I'm ordering the long sweater in tan. I am also keeping the blue sweater dress, and buying grey shoes to wear with it. Yay!

Also on the victory front, I'm going to the Eagles concert tonight for free! Tim won two tickets to his company's luxury suite in a raffle yesterday and Blake and Bill declined invitations. I asked to make sure that there wasn't some other lady that he wanted to bring (you know, one that would put out), but there apparently wasn't. Yay. And it's at Bobcats Arena, which is across the street from my building, so I won't even have to skip pilates class to make it there in time. Today has been glorious already and it's not even 9am!

Now about that whole "getting work done" thing...