Did I say 500 words a day...

I meant I would do some number of words a week, thus posting to my blog on at least a weekly basis. 

Cause yeah 500 words is a lot. 

Daily is a lot too. 

Especially when you spend all day at work on a computer and the latest episode of America's Next Top Model is on (Cycle 21!! Yeah I can't believe it either, but I'm still watching.) and you just discovered #OITNB and you have Words with Friends games to catch up on and are reading books before they disappear from your iPad cause they were checked out from the library. 

I mean evenings are packed. 

And mornings? Well those are spent hitting the snooze button because we'll get up early tomorrow and work out cause that ain't happening today. 

Except today is Saturday and we did get up and workout. In fact we did five miles. I did the dishes. I worked on a project for a friend's baby shower. I did some stuff for Junior League.  I caught up on the latest episode of Project Runway and even watched that awful Below Deck show on Bravo (bad TV is my opium).  

Currently, I'm cheering on the Gators while sipping a craft brew at our favorite local hangout, Freetail Brewing.

And while doing the above, I wrote this post. 

Laboring on Labor Day?

Labor came at us fast and furious this year.  Not only was it the first Monday of September, it was the first day of the month too.

This means summer is basically over that many days sooner.  Yes, technically summer isn't over until September 22nd, but Labor day is typically considered the death knell for sunshiny fun.  Unless of course it's college football.

Fall means full days of collegiate gridiron action and this year is no exception, even if your team doesn't get to play because of lightening. In fact over 8,800 strikes were recorded all over Florida between 7pm and midnight last Saturday.

Even though the Gators didn't get to play we still had fun hanging out with friends and rooting for other teams to make their season openers successful.

Yesterday was a fabulous Sunday Funday and then we had today- Labor Day.  The Barbour's didn't slack off just because it was supposed to be a day of rest though. We made sure to make the most of the day off, while also trying to balance the need to get work done.

Is Labor Day a day of no work for you?  Or is a day to catch up on work that needs to get done?

This year I was doing some Labor Day social media posts for work and my social media position with JLSA and somewhat shamefully realized I didn't really know the history of Labor Day.

This holiday is meant to be a celebration of the American labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of workers. First proposed as a holiday in 1882, President Grover Cleveland signed Labor Day into law as a national holiday in 1894, just six days after the Pullman Strike. #TheMoreYouKnow

This post is 294 words (as of the end of the above paragraph), but I don't think anyone wants to know the minutiae of our entire weekend in 206 words or more. Like the fact that I got to play two board games (Clue! and King of Tokyo) with two of my favorite people last night. It was a blast and it told me I need more game nights in my life. When was your last game night?

500 Words a Day

What does 500 hundred words a day look like?  Is this challenge something that's easy to accomplish when it's extracurricular?

So it's not just an email or a Facebook status. And it most definitely is not just a tweet (this would be a lot of tweets!). 

I want to write more, though you wouldn't know it from the neglected state of my blog. 

Is 500 hundred words too obnoxious a length for a yelp post?  Cause I want to do more reviews for yelp, I just don't do it, but if that could count... Game on. I'd of course cross post to my blog cause it feels sad and lonely and my life has not been sad and lonely.

Life is full of good times. Even watching the most depressing episode of HBO's The Leftovers is a good time because I am watching with Justin. 

By the way, the above sentence ending with the word Justin is only 145 words. 

And the above sentence counts in my word count as does this one. 

I know this because of Google. I searched for and found an online word counter tool (because I started writing this on my phone in the car while Justin was driving). It's a nice basic tool: http://www.wordcounter.net/

A short break was taken in the writing of this post for lunch at an awesome,local joint called The Cove. They are known for their fish tacos but I think their burgers and sweet potato fries are better. The Cove prides itself on serving food from sustainable (and mostly local) resources. So when you eat local it's paid forward many times over to their vendors and so forth and so on. They have "Eat well, live well" written on the wall. 

#LicenseToEatSweetPotatoFries #TheyServeThem. 

While at The Cove we enjoyed some live music and a few bottles of brew. If you haven't had a Shiner Premium in a while, or ever, I would say it's time to pop one open. Drink it straight from the bottle and remove the pretentiousness of using a glass. It's the only way to truly enjoy this beverage that touts itself as being "behind the times."

The live music was also fun, an artist by the name of Ashlee Rose. Her voice had the depth and slight roughness one wants from a soulful singer and her accent had the perfect Texas twang.

Justin made a joke that her wind machine was working overtime. Her wind machine was simply a fan. 

We are at 417 words people. 

 If you've read this far in the post then I am much obliged. I don't know if I would've read this far if you had written this much. #honesty

I think part of the challenge is that you can't cheat by writing ahead of time and stockpiling words. It's about taking the time each and every day to do this. That said, if this goes the way other 30 day challenges have gone for me...  Let's just say I'm great at throwing myself into little self improvement projects but when it comes to seeing it through to the end, not so much. 

I'm now over 500 words!  Now you know what it looks like. And now I know what it takes. (It takes more than I thought it would, but I also wrote the whole thing on my phone.)

Don't Walk this Way

It's the new year!  Technically it is, right? We aren't even out of January yet!  

Well I haven't blogged since September, even though I actually have a draft of a blog from Thanksgiving started.  So much has happened and I have so many pictures to prove it.  

This year has also been pretty exciting too. I will recap little by little soon.  

I'm trying to get back in the running groove after taking a fairly long hiatus since completing the Sticks and Stones 13.2 miler with Justin back on December 1. For a little while I battled some top of foot pain caused by running on uneven pavement for that entire distance.  When the road isn't closed for the course you put safety first, and run close to the grass (no sidewalks in these neighborhoods) and against traffic. Good for seeing cars, bad for the top of my feet.

Given my <insert sarcastic font here> extensive experience with road running (in my neighborhood counts right?),  I thought it was pretty much a given that when out for a stroll in the neighborhood you walk (or run) against traffic. 

Like I said before, safety first! Right?

Sure, sure every now and then you cross the street to avoid an animal, or in my case I cross the street so I don't scare the bejeezus out of some ahead of me and my almost 80 lb dog. 

Tonight was a little bit different though. I came upon a couple, a man and a woman, moving with traffic- so towards Wookie! and me- and they didn't cross the road, in fact they barely gave any way. 

So while I have Wookie! on a short leash (think a foot longer than him and It's wrapped up around my hand), he's going to think these people might want to love on him, so he'll move their way. I figure if they are okay with being that close to my dog then that speaks for itself. Also an 80 lb dog wanting attention has more momentum then people would think. And besides, they have the whole road and technically should be on the other side of the street.

Well, while the man barely flinched when passing Wookie!, I can only assume the pup was confused that no love was given, so he went towards them and the woman didn't say anything to me, but she definitely acted put out. 

Wookie! shook off the confusion of not getting any love from a stranger and I shook off the frustration of knowing that the woman stayed so close to my dog even though she was obviously uncomfortable. I personally don't go into the reptile house at the zoo for a reason people.  

Near the end of our run before the turn around to hit the final half-mile another woman came jogging towards us with traffic and barely gave us any room.  In fact she didn't smile or wave or anything. Which just always puts me off.  Justin can attest to that.  I hate unfriendlies in the neighborhood.  It's not as though we know everyone's name, but a wave or a head nod or some eye contact is all I'm looking for people.  

So I'll continue to wave, make eye contact and smile, as long as they continue to stay on their side of the road. Who am I kidding, I'll do it anyway, they just better be ready to pet Wookie! too.

Needing versus Wanting

Justin likes to point out the obvious line between needing something and wanting something.  I can be a 5-year-old sometimes.   That said here are some things I need want. (inspired by Charlotte's Web)


1. I have some Converse that are like these but much older.  Like I-only-wear-them-to-the-dog-park-with-socks-I-don't-care-about-cause-there-are-holes-in-the-sides-of-them older .  I want some new ones, but maybe in a bolder blue? But these go so well with everything! Like everything, everything.

2. These are the converse I was thisclose to buying to wear during our wedding. But at the end of the day I'm not that original. Our colors were royal blue and cream.  It fit. And I still want. 

3. I need want a new pair of classic Reefs. Wookie! chewed the the strap on the ones I have and those we relegated to house only shoes a few months back.  Now do I go for the blue/black or the brown/tan ones? 

4. You know what would be nice? Some new sunglass that aren't so cheap the plastic coating starts to wear off after 3 months of good use.  Some polarized Ray-Bans would be ideal, perhaps these tortoise shell frame RB4140... with the polarized lenses of course.

5.  I have a shuffle and it does just fine at the gym, but what I really want is an iPod- I'm cool with the classic since my classic (which wasn't a classic when we bought it in 2005) died about 2 years ago and become a paperweight and now we can't find Justin's (poof it's disappeared like magic).  The only question is silver or black?  I'm thinking silver.   It's all about the music and the podcasts and the walking tours for Europe and the 160 GB of memory.  Have I ever mentioned my computer in college had a total of 4GB of hard memory. Yep- 4GB.  This thing holds 40 times that. FORTY!  We'd look a little silly sharing one machine and one headset.  Plus I think i can get some sort of rebate when I turn in my paperweight. And I hope to get the iPhone w/ Verizon when my current Verizon contract expires- hence the iPod Touch isn't on the table.

6.  I love books. Real books.  Smell like the public library books. Hardcover jackets that crinkle books.  But somethings got me thinking that an investment should be me in the digital age readers. So the question I posted on Facebook the other day was: Nook or Kindle? Kindle or Nook? Who has the same reading tastes and me and from whom can I borrow the most books?  The NookColor can get library books though. Oh the decisions. 

Justin- if you paid any attention at all- you will know want to get me each month for the next six months leading up to my 30th birthday. You know, once you hit a small lotto jackpot and we each get 4 new tires on our cars. 

Just pick one already...

That's what I was saying to myself as I thought about what to name this blog.

My husband said "You're doing this for yourself right- cause I wouldn't expect people to read it."
I said "yes," while secretly dreaming of world domination through the written word and my own narcissistic introspection.

Reality check:
If people read it that would be great, if not, then that is fine too.  I get to document what I want to try to do to satisfy my curiosity about what makes me happiest.  Not that life is bad.  Not by any means.  I n fact life is great.  I work with good people, I belong to a volunteer organization, I have great friends and I just turned 29.

I think it was the 29 thing. I remember thinking hard about the fact that I was another decade older when I turned 20.  Well the next decade mark will be 30.  It seems like 30 has become this new marker with this significance I never thought I would grant it.

I know a lot is going to happen in the next year and I want to focus on some things.  I actually had a list of things I could focus on.  I like lists.

But first things first- gotta have a name for the blog.

In a nod to my dear friend who thoughtfully defined the words that perfectly defined her, I did some thinking with the dictionary in my lap and to define the titles for my blog and I chose Corkscrew Curiosity.

Corkscrew vt
1. Wind
2. To draw out with difficulty
3. To twist into a spiral
4. To move in a winding course

Curiosity n
1. Desire to know
2. Nosiness
3. Interest leading to inquiry

Hopefully I can ask some good questions and fulfill whatever nagging need I apparently have to create something.  Thanks for sharing in the journey!