Help me out!

If there's anything that busy season makes me, it's extremely quick to anger. But mostly I have trouble making decisions about anything other than work because I'm so tapped out by the end of the day. So I am asking for your opinions.

I came across these boots today, and I think that I love them, but I can't decide. On the one hand, I haven't had a decent pair of black pant boots in like two years. On the other hand, I've lived without them for two years, why go back now. Also, I'm afraid that the fact that they were originally priced $495 but are marked down to $139 is clouding my judgement. I love sales. A lot.

So what do you think?

I think that the most likely scenario here is that if I don't buy any other shoes this weekend when I go to the mall for a price adjustment (yay) I will probably order these (free return policy, no worries).

UPDATE: So today they updated the boot from "sale" to "final sale" so I won't be buying them. I don't feel comfortable with buying on final sale for a designer that I don't have experience with because I don't know if my fat feet will fit in there. Sad. But I saved $139 which will come in handy when I buy the purse above. Which, let's be serious, is certain to happen.

Random thoughts

First of all, i would like to say this: Campbell's 25% less sodium Classic Tomato Soup-at-Hand is delicious. I love tomato soup. You know what makes it even better? Dunking a cheesy (yet suspiciously low-calorie) lean pocket all up in it. I'm pretty sure this would be my dinner every night of my life if I didn't have to start cooking dinner for Blake again after busy season ends.

Second of all, I'm becoming very annoyed with the "free fruit during busy season" claims being made by my employer. Because they don't buy enough, so now by Wednesday afternoon there is no more free fruit. This week Susan told me she had heard that they were just making two trips a week now so that the fruit brought in on Monday wouldn't go bad, so I only hoarded two bananas and an apple on Monday, figuring I'd get through to Wednesday. And today? No new fruit. Now I'm going to have to hoard even more from my fellow employees...which is definitely wrong, but I really like to have a piece of fruit when I get back from the gym in the afternoon. The granola bar I had instead today was fine, but it was not the apple that I wanted.

I did something to my left hip lifting at the gym today. Now it constantly feels like i need to crack my hip, yet even after I do that it still hurts. Boooooo. I hope this doesn't affect my ability to do pilates and yoga this weekend, because that will make me sad.

I heard the wonderful news last week that a few restaurants have extended restaurant week menus this week (I missed actual restaurant week because I was out of town) so tomorrow Blake and I are going out to eat at Zebra with Susan, Chris, Danny, and AT. They've already gone there during actual restaurant week but it was so good that they wanted to go again so we're going to join them. It should be fabulous.

Tomorrow is Friday. Yay.

Bad news bears.

Sometimes you just get a lot of bad news in a short amount of time. You have to learn to make the best of it. Here's a few things that made me say "booooooooooo" in the past few days.

1) I went to the mall this weekend, and couldn't find the Coach shoes that I wanted in Coach, Norstroms, or Neiman Marcus. Poo. I think I'll wait a couple of weeks and then try again. I did get a couple of cute dresses at Banana, so I guess that's a plus.

2) I was informed of my bonus today. Oh my god, the crappy economy is seriously killing my buzz. I'm getting roughly half of what I thought I'd get. So I suppose I really should just save it all and not buy the shoes. (Spoiler alert: I'm going to probably buy the shoes anyway. I shop when I'm sad.)

3) I've been being so good about my diet and exercise for the past two weeks, and I have taken off three pounds. Three. And not necessarily even three...I weigh pretty much what I've always weighed. I just had three extra pounds chillin after the holidays that have finally come off. I've come to terms with the fact that this is just how my body likes to roll, and I'm fine with that. I would, however, like to add some muscle definition. So I'm going to be better about lifting 3 times a week. I also went back to yoga yesterday after almost a month. It was torture. But it was good. I have noticed that my stomach is getting flatter and flatter (thanks, pilates) so even if I don't lose a pound, I will still look good in a bikini this summer.

4) My computer got a virus so I had to get a loaner while the IT guy fixed it. It was only slightly annoying because I had to back up files and change my settings once I got my computer back, but it was still an annoyance on an already busy Monday.

Now maybe next time I post, it will be all good news.

All of my dreams are coming true

As I've mentioned at least 1000 times before on this blog, there is only one good thing about the 6-8 weeks a year that I have to spend in New Orleans, and that is the wine bar that is right next to the hotel. However, a particular situation has presented itself and now there are TWO good things about New Orleans.

Today I got tickets to see the opening performance of BRITNEY SPEARS'S TOUR which starts in New Orleans while I will be down there.

OH MY GOD I'M SO EXCITED.

I'll be without internet for the weekend, but I intend to shop so I'll probably update with some of my purchases next week at some point. Yay! Hope you all have lovely weekends!

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. :)