Recurring Series

Currently in April

Feeling… worried about my poor sick pup! Over the weekend, my mom made him homemade dog treats (coconut oil cubes & “Beggin’ Strips”) because we’ve noticed he’s been having an issue with dry skin again. Currently, he gets regular oatmeal baths every 4-6 weeks and we started feeding him a grain-free pet food that’s good for dogs with sensitive skin, which has really helped. But the last time he was given a bath (we take him to PetSmart because it’s just easier and the girl who takes care of him loves him to bits and pieces), she mentioned he had dry skin again and sure enough, he’s been itching a ton lately! So we wanted to switch him over to all-natural, grain-free pet treats, too. (We currently feed him “junky” treats, like Beggin’ Strips and Snausages. It’s bad, I know!) Long story long, my mom made homemade pet treats and Dutch’s sensitive stomach did not handle it well. Let’s just say we had to get out the steam vacuum to clean up our carpets. Yep. Very fun. So! We’re going to try giving him actual dog treats (all natural) which I think his stomach will handle a bit better. We may try giving him the coconut oil cubes again, but in a smaller dosage, and after he’s feeling better. I think those would really help his dry skin!

Reading… The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult. I just started it yesterday and I’m less than 50 pages in, so I don’t have much of an opinion yet. It’s this month’s pick for book club and everyone on Goodreads has nothing but great things to say, so I just hope I love it as much as everyone else does!

Watching… Crisis! Is anyone else watching this show? I am hooked. The premise is that a bus full of high school students gets kidnapped and nearly every kid on the bus has an influential parent. (The President’s son, a senator’s daughter, etc.) And the kidnappers are forcing these parents to do something illegal to get their kids back. (There’s some sort of conspiracy plot, or something, related to these illegal incidents, I think, but that hasn’t been revealed yet.) The FBI is involved, but the kidnappers always seem to be one step ahead of them. It’s such a good show and I look forward to it every week!

Anticipating… starting my first sewing project! I am honestly the last person you would ever think to tackle a sewing project, but a good friend (my writing partner, in fact!) hosts a fun “Stitch & Bitch” sewing group every Thursday and invited me to come along and learn how to sew. I decided, why the hell not, it’s not like I have this super busy life and couldn’t handle another hobby/social group. So in a few weeks’ time, I’m going to attempt my first sewing project (I’m thinking of a pillow?) to see how I like it.

Planning… to start coloring my hair myself. The whole reason I went back to brunette in October was that being blonde was expensive. It was easily costing me upwards of $100 every 6-8 weeks to keep my roots fresh. Well. I went to my hair salon on Friday to get my color freshened up and it cost me $84! Eighty. Four. Freaking. Dollars. That’s ridiculous. So, it’s time I start coloring my hair myself. I’ve done it once and it turned out just fine, but I always worry I am going to royally screw the dye job up and wind up with awful-looking hair. (Any tips? Best brand to buy?)

Wishing… that these next few weeks would fly by! My cruise is 25 days away and this time four weeks from now, my mom and I will be relaxing poolside in the Bahamas, sipping fruity drinks and enjoying the island breeze on our skin. I. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

Wondering… if I should hit “check out” with the items currently sitting in my Loft.com shopping cart. I am in desperate need of new work clothes, but I keep putting off shopping because a) I have a little thing called debt I’m trying to take care of and b) I want to lose weight. Well, this mentality can serve me well in some cases, but it comes down to the fact that I have one nice pair of well-fitting dress pants (and I “get away” with wearing a pair of black Old Navy skinny jeans most days, but those are quickly getting worn out and faded) and a bunch of shirts that are losing shape. Right now, I have a pair of dress pants and a cute blouse sitting in my shopping cart and I think I’m going to bite the bullet and buy them because a) they are a necessity and b) they’re having a sale that is kinda too good to pass up!

Loving… sunshine, being more social, homemade egg sandwiches for breakfast, chocolate-covered espresso beans, getting back into an exercise routine, playing with sting rays at the marine aquarium, and having funny conversations with coworkers.

What are you reading, anticipating, and wishing for currently?

Categories: Recurring Series

Three Things Thursday

Happy Thursday! Is it just me or is this week taking fooooorever? It’s been a long one for me, with social plans almost every night. (But all good, fun things so I can’t complain!) Lisa posted a fun “three things Thursday” post last week that I loved so much, I wanted to do the same. Enjoy!

Three confessions:

I really hate massages. The two massages I have had have been the most painful experiences of my life and not enjoyable in the least. Maybe my body is just too sensitive? I don’t know, but it just hurts and I spend the hour trying not to cry from the pain. Not. Fun.
I only type with my index fingers. I’m a fast typer (around 79 WPM, if you’re wondering), and I do it all by only using my index fingers. BOOYA!
I get irrationally angry when I hear of people not loving books that I love. (You should hear the reaction I gave when a friend told me she didn’t like Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling. A friend recorded it. It’s epic.)

Three things that made me happy this past week:

A full week of social plans
Daily emails with Linda about dating (she gets me!)
Seeing Divergent with friends on Monday (I loved it!)

Three favorite tweets:

“Here’s what writing is: going over and over the same sentences and phrases, until they are not as bad and fraudulent as they were before.” – Anne Lamott
“I heard a bird chirp and thought it was a ringtone.” – Maude Apatow
“Ski jumping feels like less of an Olympic sport & more like something a super villain makes you do if your family doesn’t pay the ransom.” – Jon Acuff

Three great podcasts everyone should listen to:

The Lively Show
Joy the Baker
The Jillian Michaels Show

Three bucket list items:

Travel to Europe
Go skydiving
Get married

Three U.S. cities I want to visit:

New York City
Chicago
Washington D.C.

Three TV shows I can’t stop obsessing over:

The Voice (I love Adam & Blake’s relationship more than any other relationship in the entire world.)
Scandal (Can I just say that I would feel 100% comfortable with Olivia Pope running our country? Because I would.)
Hell’s Kitchen (This show is such a train wreck but I can’t stop watching!)

Three movies I want to see:

American Hustle
Frozen (my nephew is coming over Saturday – maybe I can convince him to watch this with me?!)
The Hunger Games (and Catching Fire because I’m nothing if not behind on pop culture)

Three favorite pins:

Spelling matters #someecards #funny

A good reminder for the bad days of singleness.

Three things I’m looking forward to this year:

My cruise (31 days!)
Paying off more debt (and upping my credit score!)
More weekends in Orlando

What three things made you happy this week? What three U.S. cities do you want to visit?

Categories: Recurring Series

Five For Friday (v. 32)

1) I joined a new dating website. Sorta. It’s called HowAboutWe.com. Has anyone heard of it? It’s touted as the “offline dating site” where people submit date ideas and if the date and/or person seems interesting to you, you tell them you are “intrigued.” I don’t know what happens from there because it’s not a free website – you have to pay to message with people and set up dates. (Anywhere from $12 to try it for a month or $60 to try it for a year.) But I really love the concept. I’ve been feeling a bit disenchanted by OK Cupid lately. I feel like I waste so much time and effort getting to know these guys – spending weeks and weeks messaging and texting, only to go on a date and not feel anything. I’d rather get that date over first and be able to move on! (Does anyone feel me on this?) I may pay the $12 fee to use it for one month, just to see what it’s all about and put myself out there.

2) Who else got an email from Amazon about getting a Kindle credit, due to their antitrust settlement? I was pretty excited to see I got an $18.50 credit to my account! I guess that year I spent over $650 on Kindle books wasn’t for naught! (Yes, that happened. No, I’m not proud of it.)

3) On Saturday, Dutch had his yearly teeth cleaning and his biyearly comprehensive exam. He had no issues with his teeth cleaning (still has all his teefers!) and all his blood work came back fine. He is developing cataracts, which is something my mom and I have already noticed. (My nephew says he has “bad guy eyes!”) He seems to get around just fine, but there are times when he’s looking for me and can’t find me and get scared, which is really sad and heartbreaking. But he runs up and down our stairs like they ain’t no thing. And for a 12-year-old pup, to come back with clean blood work results? I couldn’t ask for anything more.

4) I’m joining a DietBet for April! My friend Amber is hosting one that starts April 7th and ends May 4th (the Friday before I leave on my cruise! Hello, perfect timing!). I’ve never done a DietBet before, but have always wanted to so I’m excited to begin. In this DietBet, we have to lose 4% of our starting weight in 4 weeks, which amounts to around 7 lbs for me. Totally doable! If you’d like to join, there’s plenty of time! Go here and sign up.

5) Happy, happy, happy Friday! This week has been long, a bit stressful, but I am ending it on a high note and that’s all I can ask for. My weekend plans involve knocking off some pesky to-do’s (like washing and vacuuming my car and dropping off a bag of clothes at Goodwill), and I’m hoping to fit in a shopping trip (I’m on the hunt for a shoe organizer, as well as some dress pants for work and a swimsuit cover-up!).

Happy weekend! Any fun weekend plans for you?

Categories: Recurring Series

Five For Friday (v. 31)

1) For the past three weeks, I’ve been having a smoothie for breakfast and I think I can safely say I enjoy smoothies now! I’ve never been a huge fan, because they either had too many fruit bits swirling around (fruit bits make me gag… this is also why I don’t really love yogurt) or I got sick of the taste after a while (I’m looking at you, green monster smoothie!), but then my mom showed me a recipe for an easy-to-make, sounds-delicious smoothie and I am a fan! The recipe is super simple: just pineapple-orange juice, water, protein powder, and some frozen fruit. Voila! I’ve been blending up a bunch on Sundays, freezing them, and popping one out in the morning to defrost and have for my mid-morning snack. (I was defrosting it overnight in the fridge, but I found I enjoy the smoothie more when it’s still ice cold!) I have my eye on this chocolate peanut butter smoothie, which I think I will have to make very soon. (After Lent, of course. GAH.) (But! Chocolate for breakfast! CHOCOLATE! FOR! BREAKFAST!)

2) My friend Krysten sent me a pin of this shirt the other day and how perfect is it? I have to buy it. There’s really no other answer than that.

I Kissed a Dachshund

Image found here. They have so many awesome t-shirts!

3) 51 days to go until my cruise! I can’t even tell you how excited I am about this vacation. I need it so, so badly. Can you believe I was going to go this entire year without a nice vacation? Psht! I know some people may not understand why I decided to book a vacation when I have some major debts hanging over my head but the truth is, I need this more than anything. I need to get away and hang out with my favorite person for a week. And I am SO looking forward to nine days away from my job, which I do enjoy, but holy god, I am looking forward to not thinking about writing or SEO or keywords or anything Internetty for nine days.

4) I’ve been dealing with Impostor Syndrome all week. It’s a terrible feeling, really, because it makes me question everything I do and feel as if the rug is going to be pulled out from under me at any moment. And there is the chance that the feelings I’m internalizing are overexaggerated and all in my head, but it’s hard when you’re a naturally anxious person to not take one little comment and run with it so far that you start imagining what unemployment will be like. At my last job, I lived in a constant state of anxiety for close to a year that I was going to be fired at any moment (even though I never had a bad complaint from any of my bosses!). If my boss was in a closed-door meeting with my other boss for longer than five minutes, I would have literal panic attacks that they were talking about firing me. I guess the acronym for fear is accurate: false evidence appearing real. I know this fear comes from the time when I was fired from a position (well, an internship) so I know that feeling of deep disappointment and distraught so well. I never want to feel that way again. So it’s easy for me to internalize any negative comments about my job performance (even constructive criticism that only serves to make me a stronger writer) and go into a downward spiral about being fired. I know it’s all in my head, but it’s hard to get out of there once I’m spiraling.

5) Weekend plans? I have none! I am actually very happy about this because I’ve been feeling very overwhelmed by this week. Sometimes, day-to-day living just feels hard, doesn’t it? I’m really looking forward to some downtime and a weekend of relaxing. Perhaps I’ll spend an afternoon at the pool, make a new recipe, binge on episodes of Friday Night Lights, work on my WIP, or read a trashy romance novel. Who knows! It’s all up in the air and for that, I am very thankful.

What are your weekend plans? What’s your favorite smoothie combination?

Categories: Recurring Series

Five For Friday: On Dutch

On Sunday, Dutch will turn 12 years old. This makes him 64 in human years. (Fun fact: small dogs age slower than larger dogs and only age about 4 human years per dog year after age two. He’s still a young’in!) We are planning a visit to a fun dog park in our area and he’ll get his own cupcake to eat while we sing happy birthday to him. He will have no idea what’s going on, other than the fact that hey! My girls are taking me to a dog park AND I get to eat human food? IS IT MY BIRTHDAY OR SOMETHING?! But my mom and I will enjoy our day with the special guy in our lives. And because it’s his birthday this weekend, here are five fun facts about my little man:

1) He is an extreme cuddler. I think all dachshunds tend to be so if you don’t like cuddling, don’t get a dachshund. Dutch wants to be next to me at all times and that means as close as possible as he can get. I love to lay him on my chest and have him just sleep with his face tucked under my chin. Sometimes, he’ll even fit his head next to my face and sleep that way. Look, I am not the most touchy-feely person by nature, but I am with him. I can’t get enough of him and his snuggly ways!

2) He’s an explorer and would probably regularly go on hour-long walks multiple times a day if we let him. We have a lot of open grass and lakes around our apartment community and Dutch loves just sniffing and exploring the area. Sometimes, I’ll let him take me on a hike to wherever his nose is telling him to go, and sometimes, it just drives me mad. My mom’s fiancee, though, lets him take Dutch around wherever Dutch wants to go when they go on a walk. Let’s just say that dog has more people wrapped around his little paw than he knows what to do with!

3) He loves napping, blankets, sleeping under blankets, kissing me, table food, being under our feet when we’re in the kitchen, being outside, running up and down the stairs as fast as he can, babies, and I think he believes he is my boyfriend. If you want to ensure your furry friend maintains a healthy weight while enjoying his favorite activities, buy a weight gainer for dogs here to provide additional support for his nutrition needs. He dislikes the beach, taking a bath, being alone, when my mom tries to hug me when I’m holding him (he barks at her, silly boy!), too much commotion, and other dogs. (He’s a bit antisocial, which I can’t say makes me sad. Other people will bring their dogs over to Dutch and he could care less. He’ll give them a cursory sniff and then meander on his way. He can’t be bothered.)

4) He loves me. He loves me with the kind of devotion you will only get from a dog, completely loyal and fiercely protective. He always has to be near me when I’m at home and he sleeps with me at night. I honestly feel weird if I’m ever alone in my bed without him. The funniest part of this is that, while he does love my mom, he just loves me more. (Sorry, Mom!) Sometimes, I’ll be sitting at the dining room table, my mom on the couch, and Dutch in his bed. My mom will ask him to sit with her and he ignores her. Then I’ll get up from the table and lay down on the couch and within .44 seconds, he’s at my side. It’s basically a running joke now.

5) I talk to him all the time. Like, all dog owners do this, right? I tell him about my day, ask him about his, tell him about upcoming events and sometimes, even my hopes and dreams. My mom and I also like to talk for him, in this really crazy, made-up voice and in our heads, he is extremely sarcastic and hilarious. Maybe I’ll get this on camera one day (but probably not, because it would be incredibly embarrassing).

If it’s not apparent, I love Dutch with my whole heart and soul. It’s a scary kind of love, because he takes up such a big piece of my heart and my life and I am terrified of the day I will lose him. But it will happen, hopefully not for another few years, and I will be okay, and there’s no point in dwelling on it now. For right now, I just have to enjoy every single minute I get with him.

Share a random fact about your dog or cat! If you don’t have an animal, how about just a random fact about YOU!