Bits n’ Pieces

1. My mom and 3 of my aunts are having a girls road trip up to Chicago to visit their respective daughters, some of which are also traveling into the city as a meeting point. If you live in Chicago and feel the weird shift in crazy, no worries- it’s just us.

2. My cousin requested Italian the night before our Sunday race (5k for me, half marathon for her). I love going to a nice Italian spot and enjoying a fabulous glass of wine. But funny thing- one of my favorite types of wine is sauvignon blanc. However, I rarely order it in a restaurant because “sauvignon” is a word I simply cannot seem to say. Chardonnay it is…

3. Has anyone watched “Adam Richman’s Best Sandwich in America” on the Travel Channel? I’m hooked. And I now need to go to The Fifty/50 to try their showcased sandwich. It involves wafflized mac and cheese. On the sandwich.

I’ve been to this bar before. Their vodka is exceptional. But now, I’m all about THE SANDWICH.

4. There’s a little feeling of regret in how I named the blog post today. My friend Mon often refers to her lady parts as her “lady bits” and it really grosses me out. Right up there with the word “moist”. Shudders all around.

5. The new job (started this week) is going great! I very very much miss my old coworkers. However, people in my new office are nice and I’m already on a project! It’s intimidating and scary. But in a good way.

6. My roommate is completely to blame for me getting sucked into this season of Teen Mom on MTV. No idea how she did it. But I feel as if I’m digressing as a person.

7. After a few days of my new life as a public transit commuter, it seems I’ve added a little more than a mile of walking to my daily routine. This makes me oh so happy. The commute isn’t as comparably shorter as originally thought, but I’m not sad because I spend that much time getting to be active. Because for reals, guys- who couldn’t use a little more movement in their day?

8. Time to walk out the door and get to work. Because there are important things to do before an office-wide hacky sack and coffee break. Yep. You read that right. This is my life now.

Happy Friday, kiddos!

Excitable

Is it just me or has it been a slow work week? Let’s blame the rainy weather. Because, let’s face it, we can blame everything on the weather somehow or another. Think about it.

At least there are a few things I’ve got going on that keep me slightly upbeat. Which isn’t hard. I’m excitable over the littlest things:

1. The schedule of the rain. It’s been conveniently starting after my commute home and ending before my early morning walk to the gym. That means I’ve only noticed how much it’s helped me sleep through the night. I never have this kind of luck.

2. Our boss took staff (three of us) out for lunch this week as a form of Staff Appreciation Day from last week. Which means free lunch that doesn’t consist of salad or deli. As a girl of serious deli/salad routine during the work week, that’s a welcome change.

3. My plate at lunch being so big that I stuffed myself and still had plenty leftover for dinner.

Oh hellooooo blurry pic of semi-free food!

I did add a few more roasted veggies to the side of my salmon that were laying around for extra bulk. Then gave myself a pat on the back for being healthy and well-rounded. What? Do you not have roasted brussels sprouts just hanging around in the refrigerator at any given time?

That’s weird.

4. My morning workout motivation has not failed me yet. To be truthful, Tuesday was a little iffy (damn Tuesdays), but since my roommate swore up and down she would get up that day, I had no choice but to go. And didn’t regret it once I got there. Every other day? Jumping up with the alarm.

5. Colored skinny jeans. Considering how apprehensive I was about skinny jeans when they first came out, it’s hilarious I can’t stop buying them in every shade under the sun.

Ok fine, “every shade” is actually just two pair. On sale. At Target. Mint green and sky blue. They’re so bright and fun and give me the urge to do cartwheels.

Oh… that’s just me again? Crap.

6. God Bless “Candy Wednesday”.Because if there is anything from this list that will get me through the slow-moving week, that would be it.

Refer to #3 to discuss the importance of a “well-rounded” diet.

7. After being sad about not being able to track down the 50 Shades trilogy, a friend helped me out and let me borrow all three! With the help of my rest weekend, I’ve been able to almost finish all three of the poorly written yet addicting trashy romance novels. And my opinion is just that. Poorly written. But an addicting storyline. 

There’s a good chance this may be one of those rare cases where the movie that is supposedly in the works may actually be better than the book…

Anyhoo, that’s all I’ve got for you this Thursday morning. Let’s get to it!

More Randomness For The Files

1. I hate packing peanuts. They’re awful. Why not bubble wrap? It doesn’t make a mess and is fun to pop. It’s the obvious way to go. But packing peanuts? They make a mess of my work area. And when they’re not all over the place, they’re clinging to my pants, my top, or whatever else on my person. Much like my last boyfriend. I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now. STOP WITH THE PACKING PEANUTS!

2. My college friend is coming tonight to stay with me through the weekend. He doesn’t care if my place is dirty (trust me- I’ve seen his and that would be highly hypocritical), but yet things needed to be done before his arrival. Laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, etc. Which means the entirety of this week has been meticulously planned out.

Something I didn’t plan for? Cubs/Sox/Bulls/Blackhawks traffic. An extra 30-45 minutes spent on the interstate each night is really screwing this up.

It’s also screwing with my sanity, but at this point, that’s a non-issue.

3. My obsessively planned out week has left me with no time to watch the newest episodes of New Girl and Modern Family, along with a few others I don’t care to admit I tape on a weekly basis. This saddens me. #FirstWorldProblems

4. Another thing that saddens me? A zit on my cheek. Seriously. My cheek? GET OFF OF MY FACE.

Excuse me while I go drown it in zapzit.

5. Baking happened last night. We’ll discuss that later. But the sugar high may or may not have been the reasoning for nonsleep and the lackluster workout this morning. It was less than stellar, but I guess it’s better than hitting snooze and turning over. Which was an option I weighed heavily. 20 minutes on the stairmill and a 1-mile run before saying screw it and going home to finish out with a few circuits of No More Trouble Zones by Jillian.

So at least it was something (with weights!).

That means I can eat more baked goods, yes?

6. Last night also marked a momentous occasion. Remember how I talk about my parents supplying me with food from the garden back home? One of the things they hauled up was a big box of sweet potatoes. Each one being the size of my arm. Last night marked the end of those sweet potatoes.

Asparagus grilled cheese and sweet potatoes. I used a slice of Munster and some crumbled feta for the sandwich. Not sure if cheese experts would approve or not, but it's what I had on hand. And I liked it. So whatev.

It’s amazing I haven’t turned orange.Which is unfortunate. Because Pauly D is cute and I need to attract his attention somehow…

7. I have had the worst time trying to track down a copy of 50 Shades of Grey. Or at least a free copy (I’m looking at you, Chicago Public Library.) Apparently we all have dirty minds and need to read this book. Like now.

8. The phrase “This is my Friday!” really rubs me the wrong way. It was really only amusing the first 50 times I saw it as an update on facebook.

Ok, actually, it never really was.

However, if I were to consider using it, today would be a good day.

I think you know where I’m going with this.

Extended weekend. Holla’.