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.)

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. 

Insanely Bad

I love to eat.

You want proof? I've got proof. Just check out my Instagram feed. That's what I've been doing instead of blogging the past few months. And yes that beef rib is as big as my head.

It's been insane.

Insanely tasty.

Insanely fun.

And insanely bad for me.  

I know this because even though I've been doing p90X 3 for about 3 weeks, I feel like I haven't majorly increased my fitness (and definitely haven't lost weight) and I'm apparently so dehydrated from all my fun that my arms (actually they do look pretty good) hurt so badly I can barely put on the support garments that are much need by most any woman in her day-to-day routine. 

Houston, we have a problem. 

We had a problem. 

Yesterday, during a simple walk with Wookie!, Monday became THE day when I stopped the insanity (I winced too). For the next 30 days I am going to treat every day as a day to look back on and be proud of and a day that will not require a restart the next morning. 

All I ask of you is that you not offer to buy be a drink or tempt me with any other sort of deliciousness until around the 4th of July.  Cause who's gonna want a slice of cake on the nation's 238th birthday. This girl. 

Any changes you're trying to make? Maybe it's going to bed earlier, watching less TV or maybe even watching more TV?! (Summer can mean the perfect time to binge watch those shows everyone else is talking about- Mashable tells you exactly how much time to block off.)

And now enjoy this blast from the past:

All I Do is Win

All I do is win, win, win no matter what…

No, not really. But...

I did win tickets to see Fun. tape their show at Austin City Limits Live last September, thanks to KLRN and their Facebook post. It was fun and awesome and amazing!

That's how close we were to the stage!

I won cookies from Cookie Cab  about a week ago on Facebook. I still need to order them!  I know, I know, who can resist ordering fresh cookies that will get delivered to your door?  Somehow I have.

And my latest prize?  A fun gift basket from Evite thanks to the fun of retweeting. It’s full of cute owl goodies that are supposed to be for a kids playdate.  But I don’t have kiddoes. I am however planning a baby shower for a friend that is having a little girl.  Owls are smart and most of the owls on the printed materials have bows, so I think it’s kismet.

The basket itself is awesome too!

How cute is everything!

In the mean time I’m gonna keep following, sharing, retweeting and hashtagging.  I’m still convinced the Eursance people went to the wrong house with the $1.5 million they gave away after the Super Bowl.

You can't win if you don't retweet, share, like, follow, hashtag, etc...

What have you been lucky enough to win using social media?

In the meantime try to get this song out of your head.  

Please note: None of the entities from which I won anything asked me to blog about it.  That would have been insanely flattering. I just wanted to give a shout out to all of the organizations in one place. 

Splurge on Spanx

I can attest to the fact that all shapewear undergarments are not made the same.  There is a difference between the $30 piece at your local bullseye store and the department store's full priced $75 shock to your wallet.

Initially, you stand there in your hot little number with generic shapewear shaping the areas that need a little shaping, staring at yourself with a shockingly approving eye thinking "I really can carry this off, who needs that expensive stuff, this works just as well!"  You grab your naturally fabulous clutch and stroll out the door.

Then you sit down. In the car. You aren't even out of the garage. And that's when it happens. The top rolls down. The legs roll up. Your circulation gets cut off. And the loss of oxygen brings a clear picture of your future.  You will have to master the unroll with the coolness of a secret agent and grace of a center stage ballerina.

Yes, you will have to manage to maintain this grace and coolness every time you get up from the table. Really, before you get up. You will discreetly (no one noticed right?) manage to unroll the bottom and the top to remove any unsightliness before making a trip for the heavy duty task of actually righting the situation in the bathroom.  During said trip you will reassure yourself that this won't happen the next time you sit down. No hallucinogenic drugs were consumed to make you think this thought.  It's just the optimism that goes with needing to wear shapewear in the first place.

I have been there. Many times. Swearing in the bathroom, wondering how I got there and thinking about how I'll be more careful the next time I sit down. It won't happen again.

It happens. The curling starts and continues. As does the secret unrolling dance. Over and over and over.

So I did it.

I went to one store looking specifically for SPANX and they had another line from the maker. I asked a rep if they didn't have the actual SPANX  and if these other ones worked just as well.

The truth came out.  "No, if you want SPANX , you need to buy SPANX ." She told me where to get them them and I went on my merry way.

The SPANX  sales woman guessed my size in the shapewear (she probably could have guessed my weight). She even gave me advice on how to put them on. Yes, these things need instructions. Shapewear that works this well shouldn't be that easy anyway.

I put them on and knew the truth.

I plunked down the full price of a pair of those hold it all together SPANX. The ones that go from just below mid-thigh to just under the bra.

They work. And in the way I imagined all of those other impostors would work.  They look good standing and sitting.  I've finally found the freedom to keep it all together.

I was late to the party. I thought I could outsmart them. I thought I could save my pennies, but I've squandered them on everything before these.

And I learned something in the process.  I'm really good at putting them on.  It's a good thing because I just can't bring myself to use the handy-dandy discreetly described "cotton double gusset for comfort and ease when nature calls." For simplicity's sake I call it the pee hole. TMI? Well, I bet you're afraid to use it too.

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.

Tiny Dancer

This was all over the interwebs this week. I feel it is my duty to make sure you've seen it. So I am sharing it here.  It's a sing-along contest and Joseph Gordon Levitt killed.  Just sayin'.