Be Anything

"We are the girls with anxiety disorders, filled appointment books, five-year plans. We take ourselves very, very seriously. We are the peacemakers, the do-gooders, the givers, the savers. We are on time, overly prepared, well read, and witty, intellectually curious, always moving. We pride ourselves on getting as little sleep as possible and thrive on self-deprivation. We drink coffee, a lot of it. We are on birth control, Prozac, and multivitamins. We are relentless, judgmental with ourselves, and forgiving to others. We never want to be as passive-aggressive are our mothers, never want to marry men as uninspired as our fathers… We are the daughters of the feminists who said, ‘You can be anything,’ and we heard, ‘You have to be everything.’"

Courtney Martin

A friend shared this with me today and I found it to be very poignant, as I am at a point in my life where I find myself full of questions regarding what I want to be in my life. Career, home, socially, you name it. And with the word "anything" hanging out there in space as though it opens up all of these doors, it leaves me feeling like there so so much space to fill in.  Hence the bullseye that is hit with "everything" because that is what fills up the space in the effort to be anything in life.

We hear about leaning in and it at first feels awesome and empowering like you can really be everything! But then you go back to the grind. You make it from point A to point B and back to point A. And then you go to sleep and you wake up and do it again tomorrow.  Like an album on repeat. And that's when you're lucky. 

Whooah, we're half way there...

Livin' on a prayer...

At least I am.  I'm not livin' on a prayer- no, no- but I am half way there in my quest to complete 60 miles in the month of August (on Instagram and Twitter #60AugustMiles). Actually I am about 68.73% of the way there, having logged 41.24 miles as of yesterday.  I'm counting some leisurely dog walks (in purple), but I'd say that is still pretty darn impressive. This crazy idea is courtesy of Elizabeth (she's also more than 1/2 way there) and Erica (she did #100JulyMiles).

I use MapMyRun

Also, my shoes. My shoes! Here's a shot of what my "new" shoes looked like in comparison to my old shoes about 26 weeks ago.  

Here's a shot of the "new" shoes in comparison to the old shoes now.

It might be time for my some newer "new" shoes. Maybe I'll give that to myself for my 32nd birthday, which is this week. Not a bad way to ring in a new year. 

Only thirteen days left- counting today.  That means not even 1.5 miles per day and I'll be there.  Then I'll find a new tune to share.

In the meantime enjoy:

The groundhog saw his shadow!

Phil, up in Punxsutawney, saw his shadow.  This means it's already February. Holy cow.

It's been a busy year already and I was hoping to have posted more by now. I had big plans for that today and went to get some pictures off my iPhone when my lovely little Macbook told me that I didn't have much space left on my computer for many images. So, I'm gonna hold off on exciting posts about my failed spaghetti squash adventure and the successful quinoa "mac" and cheese.

A few firsts for the year though (with pics to come later):

• I gave blood and it was easy and fast and I'm looking forward to doing it again!
• I 've already jogrun two 5ks. One was this morning- Superbowl Sunday!
• I've checked into a gym on 4square 8 days in a row (partially cause the race this morning started at a Spectrum, but I worked out so it counts)

I think this is going to an awesome year, full of fun times with friends and I still can't believe it's already February!

To sleep or sell...

We choose sleep. Why? Well because there's just not enough in it for us apparently to make a yard sale happen.  We even went so far as to purchase the fluorescent signs to lure people into our neighborhood after going to the gym and on the way home from that purchase decided to just donate everything to Goodwill. 

We did not come to this decision lightly.  But we did make it quickly so that we could rip that bandage off and have the decision made.  Stuff will still be hauled off to Goodwill during the previously designated time of the now cancelled sale.  That stuff still has to get out of the house. We haven't needed like 99% of it since we moved into our place 4 years ago.  This will also take care of my JLSA quota (I inventoried all of it!)

This lack of ability to make things at the house like this happen is probably why I'm not a home improvement blogger and never posted after pics of our 1/2 bath on twitpic after we updated it slightly. 

But ask us to plan a trip to Europe and we're all over it like melted butter and syrup on pancakes. (In an effort to get healthier, my food intake has been reduced this week. I'm hungry. Send food.)

So onward and outward with the junk and maybe I can reclaim the "Room of Non-Requirement" before our guests arrive for the Fourth of July. (Maybe they'll bring food.)

Anyone have an extra three hours lying around...

or do I just need to sleep less. I'm an 8-hour sleeper people. 


But is that the key, go to bed later, wake up earlier and get more done? Seriously, I don't know how some people squeeze everything they do into their day.  Yes, this is a little bit of a whitewhine.com complaint, but yesterday my day was like a blur. 

6:40 am Up to walk Wookie! with Justin.

8 am Dressed for work and drinking my breakfast smoothie

8:30 am At work and busy bee until lunch

Lunch- home for lunch, chatted with my pal and started pricing stuff for our yard sale this weekend

Back to work by 1:30 pm and busy, busy, busy until 6 pm

6:20 pm Back home and inspected the fact that the house was 85 degrees. Reported my findings to Justin. Changed for the gym. Made a snack and waited for Justin to fix the AC. And yes, I played some Words with Friends. 

7:15 pm at the gym for a class so that we were home by 8:30

9:15 pm feasting on a dinner of grilled salmon, grilled zucchini, convection oven roasted brussel sprouts and red potatoes while watching South Park

9:55 pm Rosetta Stone to prep for my studio session en espanol with a native speaker that I have at 10 pm tonight. 

11:10 pm Made one last move in my Words with Friends games before hitting the light because I was up at 6 am for meeting at 7 this morning. 

So really. Do I just need to figure out how to function on less sleep without injecting coffee into my veins.  I know other people can do it. I guess I need to become other people?  I don't really like the sound of that. (Side note- I can't get this paragraph to be the same size font as the rest of the entry.  If you are seeing this as smaller than the rest just know I tried.)

Red hot...

This one is about the color red. The life it breathes into some old folding chairs. The fact that they now look hot(t- added for those who like super slang).

We inherited some chairs from hosting some poker parties at our place and they found an unfriendly home on our back porch. This is one of them. 

No way would this tush touch that seat.

This is not the worst of them. I am too ashamed of those to post pics.

This is how this baby looks with a shiny, happy coating of pocket book friendly (read found on sale!) red Rustoleum spray paint.  

I'd sit on that!

We have 4 or 5 chairs.  I completed 2.5 of them.  We greatly underestimated the amount of paint needed to complete the job. Justin bought more today on his lunch break, but sadly it was no longer on sale.

Sidenote: Justin commented on my ability to make sure I didn't miss the ground. Well, when we go to make a pretty little garden back there, all that stuff will get covered up anyway. You might be asking yourself when you'll be able to pick up fresh produce from the Barbour market.  We'll talk later. Much later. 

It's getting hot in here...

So last night after busting our butts in the back and front yard, after we both put in full days at work and I did the HEB (grocery store) run and Justin ran by Lowe's for the yard goodies, we finally were ready to cook dinner at about 8:50 p.m.

The menu:

1. Oven Roasted Cauliflower and Brussel Sprout drizzled with Olive Oil and Salt and Pepper

2. Boiled Fingerling Potatoes

3. Little 5 oz bacon wrapped HEB tenderloins

While everything was bubbling/sizzling away, I was going to do my Spanish Rosetta Stone that my mom got me as an early birthday present.  (I knew before, but reiterated my awesome language skills such as- La mujer nada. Translation: The woman swims.)

I got the veggies in the oven and the the water on to boil and am cleaning the potatoes when Justin came into the kitchen and noticed smoke pouring from the 1984 oven. I looked in the little 1984 glass window of the little 1984 oven and noticed flames! 

(Please excuse the fact that there are no pictures of our actual experience as we were working to put out said 1984 oven fire.) 

Photo from: http://cucinadivina.blogspot.com/2010/11/fire-in-hole.html

Somehow this blogger kept her stuff together and snapped a pic, whereas Justin was trying to fan it out while we, both postgrad educated people, were trying to figure out if corn starch or baking powder could be thrown on the baby, yet still totally terrifying, flames.   Our fire looked similar to this but was mostly isolated to the front right corner. 

Turns out when you are cooking with olive oil and heat, you should have a lip on the baking sheet to contain said natural goodness and prevent losing all of your possessions.  Lesson learned and new baking sheets with lips are to be purchased. 

We finished off the veggies in our counter-top convection oven in two batches in little round cake tins that fit in there. Justin showered, and then finished the meat while I cleaned up. 

So when did I master my basic Spanish sentences?  After we ate dinner from about 10:45 pm until 11:30 pm I played worked diligently with Rosetta Stone.  I think the full stomach helped my concentration.  

Springing Forward...

This is undoubtedly one of our (mine and Justin's) least favorite days of the year. You lose that hour while sleeping. And you wake up and there's less time in the day. You're already behind and you didn't even have a chance to get ahead cause a whole hour is gone. Poof.

Image from:
http://technabob.com/blog/2009/04/04/twirling-dali-wall-clock/

So there's always those articles about what you do with that extra hour in the fall. But what do you do when you lose that hour.  Just stay in bed and call it a day? Watch basketball with baited breath hoping your team makes it past the bubble. Act like you don't know why you're late everywhere your supposed to be that day? Bask in that extra hour of sunlight (if it's not overcast out like it was in San Antonio today?)

Oddly enough I have been incredibly productive. Well for me. Especially for me on a Sunday.

• We checked out the place at which we'd like to board Wookie! when we travel in the future.
• I got laundry going. It's still going.
• I grocery shopped.
• We went to the gym.
• I read a little (Eat, Pray, Love).
• Took a nap.
• Currently cooking my food for the upcoming week (Potential winners of the office's Biggest Loser competition have to make game plans you know.)
• Watching Hitch on TBS right now.
• And of course blogging. Which I hadn't done in a little longer than I'd like to admit. But you can see exactly how long it's been.

Now I need to go fold some laundry.  Just as soon as Hitch is over.