I know, I know I should have done this last year when I changed to the new focus, but better late than never.
When you pop over there, it won't look any different, as I've kept the same layout and design. For now. I have removed a few posts that weren't really relevant to the new focus/theme that I rolled out on Jan 1, 2012, but most of my old posts made the move, too.
So, please head on over to my new site and say hello!
To stay up-to-date on all my adventures, please remember to update your RSS feeds to the new site or, better yet, sign up for email updates. Tweet
I really don't understand what's happening with me and the middle of the week! Meloncholy and crabbiness begin setting in Tuesday afternoon and seem to continue through Wed and sometimes Thu.
SO IT'S WHINY WEDNESDAY!!
Well, I don't want to be whiny today.
Driving into work, I thought about all these different things I wanted to whine about, but now, even though I'm still feeling overall blah, I can't seem to remember the specifics.
Instead, how about hearing about the wonderful weekend I had last weekend? **warning: might be slightly solipsistic going forward, but isn't that the point of a blog?**
Friday was our Christmas party at work.
Every department decorated a tree.
Ok. So, I didn't actually help, but I'm still a part of the department that won. :D Only in Vegas would there be a Showgirl themed Christmas tree. Ha!
We enjoyed a delicious lunch! With, of course, lots of sweets for dessert.
I had prime rib with horseradish, turkey, cranberries, corn, TWO salads, cheese/crackers, and a roll. There was also lobster and shrimp, but seafood makes me gag. It was bad enough having to walk down the hall where they were serving it. Ick!
There were also drawings throughout the day for random gift cards. At 3 pm there were drawings for larger prizes including a 60", a 55", and a 40" flat screen TV. Wow!
After all the drawings were finished, there was one more surprise drawing left.
A $500 AMERICAN EXPRESS GIFT CARD!
I was standing in the back of the lunchroom, when the drawing took place. After the name was pulled, there was hesitation. "I don't know. Someone from Advertising."
AND THEN THEY CALLED MY NAME!
I had to walk all the way to the front. My face turned bright red someone later told me and I was fighting back tears. I couldn't believe it!!
The last couple hours of work are a blur. Lots of people stopped by and congratulated me. It was amazing.
Saturday was a pretty lazy day, but I did go shopping in the evening. I bought a great pair of boots + a super cute pair of heels. Total for both? $35. Score!
Then I headed to Target to spend the $25 gift card I'd gotten on Thursday. I bought some make-up and nail polish. I guess I was feeling all girly.
Sunday I got to meet up with a good friend that I haven't seen in over seven years! She was in town with some friends, but I was so excited to steal her away for a couple hours. It was so fun to see her again. Despite the years between visits, it was like no time had passed.
We met for breakfast at Coco's Bakery and Restaurant and I had the most delicious multi-grain pumpkin nut pancakes. It was a struggle at the end, but I managed to eat the entire plate! ;-)
It was such a gorgeous afternoon when I got back home, and I was in love with my new boots and my outfit, that I walked around our apartment complex for a little self-portrait photo shoot.
Aren't my new boots adorable?!
I finished the weekend off with a 3-hour soak in the hot tub with my husband. We only had the jets going for like 20 min, but the conversation was so good that we just didn't want to get out. I was shocked to see the time when we finally got back to our apartment.
Tomorrow, we get the keys to our new apartment. Yay! We have until Sun to turn in our old keys, so this shouldn't be too bad of a move. Especially considering we don't have that much stuff + it's at the same complex. Just closer to the hot tub. It will be practically right out our back porch.
This. Could. Be. Dangerous.
Plus, I'm planning on lunch with another friend that I haven't seen in YEARS on Sunday, so it's looking to be a great weekend ahead!
How was your weekend last weekend? Do you ever go on random self-portrait photo shoots just because? What are your plans this coming weekend? Tweet
I thought it would be fun to share a few songs that I love that are kind of obscure. Or maybe I'm just not cool enough to know that these songs were/are popular...?
10 somewhat obscure SONGS I LOVE
Sick & Beautiful by Artificial Joy Club
Reasons Why by Merrill Bainbridge
What it Feels like to be a Girl by Madonna
Sexy Silk by Jessica Cornish
Anxious Jenny by Canoe
Leave Your Boyfriends Behind by Leona Naess
The Wolf by Miniature Tigers
Gotta Have You by The Weepies
Merry Happy by Kate Nash
Gift of the Magi by Squirrel Nut Zippers For good measure, I've included one Christmas song. :D
All of the above songs make me want to either sing or dance or both. And, yes, I have been known to listen to them on repeat over and over and over again.
But I want to include two other songs that I love that are far, far from being obscure, but I LOVE THEM. I love the music, but more I love the lyrics and the messages. To me, these songs are so POWERFUL and I love that we have songs like this out there today that can be empowering and fun.
Sometimes just writing a whiny post is enough to help turn things around. Thanks for all your wonderful, supportive comments.
One whiny thing I hadn't mentioned in the post was my lack of warm clothing. I really only had one versatile sweater, and I had worn it everyday for too many days in a row. So, after work I stopped at Savers for a little retail therapy.
For $20, I brought home two pairs of work pants + 3 sweaters. Yay!
1 new sweater + 1 new pair of work pants
Thursday morning brought a surprise bonus from work. Everyone got one, and the amount depended upon how long you'd worked there in 2012. Since I started after July 1st, I didn't actually get a check but a $25 gift card to Target. Sweet!
Now, I always bring my lunch, but I'm also never one to turn down free food, so when invited out to lunch, I couldn't say no.
I had a delicious veggie stir fry at Le Thai in downtown Vegas.
Level 2 Spiciness
How spicy do you want it? 1-5.
1 is mild.
2 is medium.
3 is hot.
4 is fire. All I could think was, if 4 is fire, what is 5? Nuclear?
The super fun looking restaurant next door had this sign outside.
At least two of us had to take a picture. :D
And then my day ended with some TV and hot cocoa with my husband.
So, yeah. It was a good day.
Now, today, we're celebrating Christmas at work. Instead of having a traditional company holiday party, they've devoted the entire day to celebrating. We started off with a continental breakfast. I *wanted* to take a picture, but I left my phone at my desk and ended up eating in the cafeteria.
I had some light peach yogurt, and mammoth-sized blueberry muffin, and the most delicious to-die-for mini quiche.
Yesterday, they sent out a menu for today's lunch:
Prime Rib
Turkey
Pork Tenderloin
Lobster
Shrimp
Variety of vegetables
Variety of salads
and of course Desserts
Good thing I worked out this morning. *wink*
Being all festive with jingle bell earrings.
Anything fun planned for the weekend? Does your company do anything special for the holidays? Tweet
and broke out the purple nail polish and purple tights.
I bought the nail polish several days ago and was feeling guilty for not using it yet.
BUT TO NO AVAIL.
I was trying to figure it out, when it suddenly hit me. I haven't been outside in the daylight in several days. We're going through a bit of a cold snap here in Vegas hopefully just a snap and not something that will last weeks or (gasp!) months with highs only in the low 60s.
I know, I know. THAT'S NOT COLD! But it is. To me. Too cold to sit outside for lunch anyway - especially when that sun is hiding behind a thick layer of clouds.
**sigh**
There are other issues as well.
I'm making way more mistakes at work than I'd like to admit but at least I do admit them and accept them instead of trying to blame them on someone else. I know it's only been two months, and there is so much room for human error, but it doesn't make it any easier. So frustrating!
We can't seem to get ahead financially. I know I've only been working for just over two months, but it seems like we just aren't making any progress. And now, we're (hopefully) moving in the next week or so. I'm excited for the new apartment, but it will also mean another $200/month. Where is that going to come from?
We've met a few people here, but I really long for more friends. Yes, I'm lonely. There. I said it.
At least I'm still exercising, right? Despite taking a brief running hiatus, I've still been working out, so at least there's that.
Today's quick workout (Wednesday's are my light/easy day).
Sort of.
I'm not quite to these full lengths. Yet.
And while I have been noticing some improvement in the way I look, and I am very happy with said progress, sometimes like today it still makes me sad that I'm not where I want to be.
Wow. This post is so whiny! The last post I wrote on a Wednesday was also a little on the whiny side. Am I sensing a pattern? Maybe I should start a Whiny Wednesday meme? :D
At least it's almost time to head home.
What do you do when you're feeling a little down? What makes you smile? Tweet
I've been holding off sharing this with you, but now it's officially official!
I've been accepted as a Fitfluential Ambassador. Whoo hoo!!
Ever since I first heard of Fitfluential, I've wanted to join the team, so I'm super excited about this.Yes, I had to apply a couple times before being accepted, so I'm taking this as a sign that my presence is actually growing.
What does this mean for Enjoying the Course? I'll still be blogging regularly (as ever) about my regular topics, but I'll also have the opportunity to work with exciting brands. You might see an increase in reviews and such, but overall, it's just an opportunity for me to embrace my fitness goals and share my experiences with even more fantastic people like YOU!
In other news, if you didn't see my message on my FB page yesterday, I'm taking a short break from running until 2013.
Today's Monday Listicles is all about food. Bridget suggested the topic and gave us free reign over interpretation.
Ask anyone in my family, and they'll tell you stories of how picky of an eater I was growing up. The list of foods I wouldn't eat was probably longer than the list of what I would try.I'm much more adventurous now.
Still, I thought I'd take a slighty different approach, and try to come up with a list of foods that I love to smell.
TEN GREAT SMELLING FOODS
Fresh bread
Pumpkin pie
Roast - turkey, beef, pork
Potato soup
Chocolate chip cookies
Pizza
Flavored coffee
Warm apple cider
Buffalo wings
Peanut butter
There's a reason fresh bread is #1. That is without a doubt my all-time favorite. When I worked downtown Minneapolis, every morning I would walk by a Subway restaurant. I looked forward to the delectable smells wafting out into the skyway. It always made me smile, and took a lot of willpower to keep walking and not stop to simply relish in the moment of the wondrous smell of baking bread.
What are your favorite smelling foods?
Do you have any memories of the smell of a favorite food?
Several weeks ago, an email appeared in my work Inbox asking that anyone interested in signing up for the Great Santa Run to contact HR. I asked a couple questions, went to the website, got super excited, and immediately contacted HR to add my name to the list.
Here's a little video about the 2011 run.
Since my work is a major sponsor, my registration was actually free. Can't beat that! When you register, you get a Santa suit to run in. The hope is to get as many Santas together in one area as possible. Last year, they won the World Santa Challenge and raised over $400,000 for individuals with disabilities! How cool is that!
There were over 8,000 Santas in 2011. The numbers weren't available yet on the website of how many were there this year, but I'm glad to have been a part of it. :)
Around 8:20, my ride arrived to pick me up. I knew that parking was going to be, um, complicated, so I asked a friend if he wanted to carpool. And yes, by carpool, I meant him pick me up. This is, I think, the 2nd race he's picked me up for, so he's kind of becoming my race chauffeur. (Thanks, Crosby!)
I'd picked up my Santa suit, race number, etc the day before (conveniently at work. yay!), but he'd registered with a team, so we needed to meet up with them to get his race packet.
He had brought his sweet girl, Maya, with him, so I didn't mind the wait at all.
I couldn't get her to look up at me, but isn't she a cutie!
Finally, the four of us were dressed as Santa and ready to go!
While we waited at what we thought was the start line, we got to see 4 skydiving Santas glide in to the starting area.
The race was supposed to start at 10am, and shortly after 10, they started announcing that all 5K participants should line up behind Santa. Um. We were ALL dressed like Santa! ;) So, we just started following the crowd and 10 minutes later, we were at the starting line. Phew!
I got my CharityMiles started on my phone just as we crossed. I ran for The Global Fund to fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, since yesterday was also World AIDS Day. I didn't want to lose sight of my ride home in the sea of Santas, so I did my best to keep up with him. He's normally super fast, but I had two things in my favor yesterday. 1) There were a ton of Santas, so it was hard to run very fast anyway, and 2) He was running a marathon the next day (today!), so this was just kind of a slow warm-up, make-sure-everything-is-working-okay type of run for him.
Our final time was just shy of 32 min (31:58). Definitely no record for me, but it was fun! Weaving in and out of the throngs of Santas was exhilarating!
At the finish, we were just finished. There wasn't any food that I could see anyway. They were handing out bottles of water as you crossed the finish, but they had also handed out bottles around mile 1 in lieu of a water stop. It was kind of cool to get a whole bottle - except then you had to run with the bottle for the remaining 2.1 miles.
Also, the first 1,000 finishers were offered a shirt, but we didn't feel like standing in line. Plus, we had no idea if we were in the first 1,000, so we headed back to the car, where he completely changed out of his Santa suit before we headed back to the finish to meet up with our friends.
Ugh. I hate this picture of me. Next year, I'm wearing my own suit that will actually FIT! :)
After the race was finished, and before heading back home, I headed to the portapotty. I'd been holding it since before the race began and knew I wouldn't make it home. Now, I only mention this because instead of simply having hand sanitizer stations for disinfecting those germs, they had actually set up portable handwashing stations. This was a bad idea. I thought it seemed pretty cool, but the water didn't work very well, and there were no paper towels or anything for drying. I couldn't rinse off all the soap or try to wick it off with a paper towel, so I ended up wringing my hands continuously until the suds kind of went away. It was annoying. I'll take simple hand sanitizer any day.
All in all, it was a great way to start the Saturday! Now, if I could just figure out how to run a race in the morning and then not veg out and eat like shit the rest of the day!!
Have you, or will you, be running in a Santa race this year? Do you ever accidentally type Satan when you mean to type Santa? oops! Tweet
