Friday Afternoon Randoms

*  I was up early this morning.  I opted to walk to work instead of being lazy and taking Metro.  Given what a great mood the morning walk always puts me in, it is vaguely ridiculous that I generally opt for the laziness of a Metro commute. 

*  I have finally made it through the week.  It is all uphill from here.  My weekend to-do list is incredibly manageable.  AND!  I have a lot of built-in, relaxing, me-time.  A much-needed decompress is eagerly anticipated.  One hour and 25 more minutes left until I can relax...

*  Strawberry vodka helps make mind-numbing paperwork less painful.  (**disclaimer: only after working hours, peeps, only after working hours...**)

*  Since my confession, my wish for an all-expenses, unlimited credit card has led to many a wasted hour online "window shopping."  I bookmarked a bunch of random pretties for someday.  But I keep coming back to these three:

First saw this LAST year.  Still drool over.

I want.  No, I need.  No, I want...

Perfect for work AND for play.  Give me a good reason why I should resist...

*  Those three pretties are the more conservative, cost-wise, "wants" on my online "window shopping" wish list.  Perhaps because I might actually splurge on these....instead of a $2,000 wickedly cool lamp for the house I don't own...

*  It is very out of character for me to ever ask for help.  More often than not, I find myself having to repeat the request several times before someone finally does what they originally promised to do.  But sometimes, people are awesome and surprise you.  I like those surprises.

*  PMac's high school football team is currently number one in the state, and number 19 in the nation!  So keeping my fingers crossed for the win at the state championships next weekend.

*  I have gotten awfully adventurous and creative in my cooking this year.  So many of my favorites are foreign to the classic meat and potatoes midwestern meals I grew up.  But I still hate my neighbors for always cooking delicious-smelling dinners.  One of these days, I'm going to catch myself knocking on their door to ask for a bite.

*  I also hate the neighbor who has a balcony but chooses to smoke like a damn chimney in their bathroom.  Translation: my bathroom now smells like the bar at 3 am. 

*  My bathroom is designed as a fancy dressing room.  Which means all my clothes are also in that bathroom.  Which means, even though I don't smoke, I don't have friends who smoke, and I stay away from smokey bars and restaurants, my clothes now reek like those of a two-pack-a-day smoker.  Can I stress just how much I hate this neighbor yet?

*  I have a lot to be thankful for this year.  I can't wait for Thanksgiving, even if our exact plans remain TBD.

*  One hour until I can go home.  Anyone figure out how to make time fly yet?

Love Google Images for making me laugh.

A Grey Sky Morning

Dalmatia.

Today, it's a grey sky morning.  It is one of those days where my mood and the weather match up perfectly.  The sky this morning reminded me of this picture.

I am overwhelmed.  I am exhausted.  I am tired of nothing but frustrations.  I am annoyed that it is only Thursday when in my mind it is Friday.  I am moody.

I know if I can make it through the next two days, everything will be okay.  Everything will get done.  Everything will resolve itself.  And I will be able to relax. 

But until then, I keep looking out my window at the disappearing horizon and wishing it were Saturday....or better yet, next Wednesday....

Ambition

My Michigan.

Tip O' the Day

Let's paint the scene...

It's 8:15 on Monday evening.  It's warm, especially for mid-November.  It's dark, the sun has set hours ago.  And on a quiet residential street, I'm jaywalking on my way home from running errands.

As I wait for a car to pass me, another car starts a U-turn.  So I jog to get out of its way, and as I head down the sidewalk, the car passes me and backs up. 

Now, as any street-wise city girl knows, this is where your internal radar should start chiming.  As the window rolled down, I opted to give the benefit of the doubt, and thought perhaps the driver was lost.  It happens far too often in my confusing neighborhood. 

So I stood solidly on the sidewalk.  Far away from the car.

"Excuse me.  You are very beautiful."  In another situation, the accent would've been seductive.

Polite, but tight smile.

"I just have a question."

"Yes?"

"Do you have boyfriend?"

"YES!"

And with that, he drove away.  After a beat or two, I continued my walk home. 

Guys, here's your tip of the day: This little pick-up scene?  Not cool.  Not cool at all.

Off-Kilter

Ever have one of those days?

The kind where you don't feel sick, but you don't feel right?

That was me yesterday.  No matter what I did, I just could not really wake up for the life of me.  Everything I did just sapped my energy.  I made breakfast and then crawled back into bed for two hours.  I wasn't tired enough to sleep sleep, but I was too tired to keep my eyes open long enough to watch an episode of It's Always Sunny.  I finally dragged myself out of bed long enough to shower, and then napped for an hour.  Ridiculous.

So I finally got up and forced myself to go for a long walk.  And if that long walk happened to involve trying just about everything on the sales racks at Macys, so be it.  Because it kept me out of my bed, and it gave me better insight into what now fits and doesn't.  I did good - I bought a new sweaterdress and a replacement pair of jeans - and otherwise avoided temptation in the name of new dress pants for work and sexy dresses for nothing other than sexiness.

But I still felt off-kilter. 

And today?  I'm conscious.  I'm working hard at work (hey, I earned this ten minute blogging break!).  But I feel like I have an off-kilter hangover almost.  So bizarre.  Anyone else ever have this problem?

Because we all need a reminder now and then.

It's a Sign...

Of what, I'm just not quite sure.

On my way to the Metro this morning, I grabbed a copy of the Express.

Because I'm ridiculously addicted to multi-tasking, I tried to scan the headlines as I ran down the escalator.

"Feds Act to Seize Mosquitos."

Huh?

So when I finally reached the platform, I read it again.

"Feds Act to Seize Mosquitos."

"U.S. seeks $500M in assets linked to Iran's government."

Huh?

Is that a typo?  Did someone play a prank?

It took me three times and half the article to realize I was really reading about "Feds Act to Seize Mosques."

It's going to be a fun Friday peeps.  Not a good sign.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Naw, this post isn't about the classic film, that I saw one time too many growing up with a Dad who has a shameless love of old Westerns.

Although, I could easily devote an entire post to debating the merits of his attire.

I'll spare you the trauma of reading such a post.  Instead, let's debate the merits of my attire:

The Good:
I have lost (and more importantly, kept off!) 30 pounds.  Yay!!  I am so proud of myself.  I am not losing weight out of a desire to be fashionably skinny.  I am losing weight out of a desire to live without regrets.  I realized that I am not going to live forever, but I do want to live as long as possible.  And I don't want to find out later in life that I have a cancer or a disease that could have been prevented by maintaining a healthy weight and eating habits.  So I'm shaping up, eating healthy, eating wisely, and working out. 

The Bad:
I'm not quite to my goal weight yet.  I still have more to learn about healthy choices and smarter substitutions.  And why, why, why does the universe feel it necessary to make sugary sweets and so-bad-for-you junk food the things you crave?  Why don't we ever fantasize about devouring a giant bowl of lettuce or chowing down on celery sticks?  And I really do need to become even better (read: more hardcore) in my work-out routines.  I also want to kick my pop-drinking habits for once and all.  I'm down to one a day, but I need to cut caffeine and that nasty aspartame crap out of my diet for good.

The Ugly:
When you lose 30 pounds, your clothes no longer fit.  Yay!  But, the bad news is, I hate spending money on clothes that will only fit temporarily.  I was all excited last month when I bought a pair of skinny jeans several sizes smaller.  Less than a month later, those skinny jeans are unfashionably unflatteringly wayyyy too big on me.  I'm thrilled about it, until I realize that I spent money on jeans that were worn for one month.  But more than that, I'm annoyed that I no longer own a pair of pants than need to be unbuttoned or unzipped before I pull them off.  I hate even worse not looking crisp and sharp and sleek and sexy in any of my clothes.  With several trips between now and New Years, holiday shopping, and your standard monthly bills, I just don't have the disposal income to pick up a few items to carry me over until after the holidays and the next size down in weight loss.  So I've become awfully creative in dressing myself, but I don't feel as confident in my clothes as I'd like, especially with such a phenomenal weight loss under my belt....which makes me feel ugly.  *Sigh*

Yes, yes, I realize, it's a great issue to have:  Oh, I lost all this weight and my clothes are too big.  But I can't help but wish my weight loss magically came with an all-expenses-paid, no-limit credit card to go on a shopping spree......

**Also, this is my solmen promise:  I will not start talking about my weight loss techniques or what I eat every day or whether or not I've worked out on a given day on this blog.  No one wants to read that crap, and I don't want to write about it.  I promise.**