Recurring Series

Five For Friday (27)

Happy Friday, friends! I woke up on Thursday thinking it was Friday, so I don’t think I need to say how very, very thankful I am for today. How about a little “Five For Friday” to ease us into the weekend, eh?

1) I’m still not over Sunday night. On the one hand, I’m glad Seattle won so we won’t have a divided house for the Super Bowl, but on the other, I am just devastated about the Niners losing. And losing they way they did! Sigh. It was a hard, hard ending to a well-fought battle. In any event, we are all rooting for the Broncos! Peyton needs another ring!

2) My laptop is currently infected with malware/adware/spyware. All of the above. I don’t have any sort of virus protection, but I can still use the computer, it just runs a little slower and I get these random pop-ups from time to time. I’ve tried running software to find it and get rid of it, but it can’t identify it. I think my only real option is wiping my hard drive clean and starting fresh, and that doesn’t really appeal to me. I may end up doing it as a last resort, but I honestly just want to go out and get a new computer. This one is on its last leg as it is (the battery is basically toast and only works when plugged in) and I’m ready for something new. I mean, I still have all my debt goals to take care of, but I am hoping my tax refund can help me with buying a new laptop. (I’m talking a cheapo $300 laptop. No MacBooks for me!) We’ll see!

3) One thing I failed to mention in my post from Monday is that I’ve teamed up with Allison to be accountability buddies for this year. We both want to lose weight and we both have been trying and failing for so many years that we totally get each other. Every Sunday, we email one another and talk about how our week has gone. The good, the bad, the successes, the failures. We also weigh in with one another to give even further accountability. I’ll tell you, there have been times when I’ve wanted to get something super unhealthy for lunch or dinner, but then realize I have to check in with Allison, so I don’t. It’s great motivation! But what’s even better is that we’ve raised the stakes and made it a competition. At the end of every month, the person with the highest percentage of weight loss (I sound like Allison from The Biggest Loser right now, don’t I?) gets a $10 gift card to the store of their choice. How’s that for some motivation?! I am really happy Allison and I are in this together, makes this whole weight loss journey seem a lot less lonely and a lot more fun.

4) I am having the hardest time drinking 50 ounces of water a day. I don’t know if I just don’t get thirsty as much as other people but it’s all I drink throughout the day, and I’m still only hitting 30-40 ounces a day. It usually takes me a full workday to drink 24 ounces (and sometimes, I drink even less) and then I’ll only drink a few more ounces (maybe around 10?) with dinner. I’m not drinking anything else, really. (Though I do drink Gatorade during workouts because I just can’t stomach water at 5 in the morning.) Is it possible to not need as much water as other people? I don’t feel like forcing myself to drink when I’m not thirsty, or guzzling down 10 ounces right before bed to get in my daily count, but what else can I do? HALP?!

5) My weekend plans are pretty light, which I’m thrilled about. I plan on getting in some really great workouts, organizing around my apartment, seeing family, writing (both blog and fiction!), and going on a date. It should be a wonderful weekend!

How much water do you drink daily? Who are you rooting for in the Super Bowl? Any fun weekend plans?

Categories: Recurring Series

Currently – the January Edition

Reading: The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin. I’m only about 100 pages in, but I love it so far!

Loving: That my brunch date on Saturday brought me a flower. It was so unexpected and so sweet! I highly approve and he earned a bajillion bonus points from me. Dating can be really disheartening at times, but not all the time. 🙂

Thinking: About the NFL championship games this weekend! Oh, I am the most nervous! If you must know something about me, it’s that I am the biggest fan ever of Peyton Manning. (Um, I cried when he won the Superbowl. Yes. Cried.) And, honestly, he needs a second ring so his critics can stop talking smack. And! San Francisco, of which my brother is a diehard fan, is also playing in the other game. So, basically, I’m going to be a nervous wreck for all of Sunday.

Feeling: Content, restful, happy, present. January always feels like such a calm month, after the busyness of the holiday season. I am really enjoying 2014 so far. Hoping it is a year of big changes, but also love and happiness.

Anticipating: Starting Best Body Bootcamp on Monday! This will be my third time doing Tina’s program and I am really looking forward to it. She really puts together the best workouts and I can’t wait for that “toilet sore” feeling! My workouts have been very lackluster lately, and I know I can count on BBB to shake things up.

Inspired by: A ton of personal finance bloggers. Gina was kind enough to forward links to some really great personal finance bloggers who are in the same boat as me – paying off debt – and it’s been really inspirational reading their stories. My favorites are Blonde On a Budget and Girl Meets Debt.

Watching: Scandal! I am so addicted, you guys. It’s not even funny. I love this series and these characters and I just want them all to be okay and in love and happy.

Sad: When I think about the pain and tragedy and heartache some of my faraway friends are dealing with. It tears me apart thinking about what these wonderful, amazing, incredible girls are going through. It’s SO not fair and I can’t stop thinking about them and wishing I could somehow take their pain away. It just sucks, you know? I feel so helpless. My heart is very heavy.

Working: On my budget, all the time! I’m using a spreadsheet I adapted from Blonde on a Budget and I’m basically obsessed with it.

Grateful: For awesome coworkers, half-day Fridays, and the knowledge that there is a long afternoon nap on my agenda for today. Have I mentioned how much I love my job?

Listening: To Lorde’s album on repeat. I bought it a few months ago and I still can’t pick a favorite song. So good!

Wishing: That I had a fancy cruise on the horizon. Originally, my mom and I were planning on taking a 7-day cruise in May, but we never got around to booking it and a part of me is glad because I know I can’t really afford it. I’m crossing my fingers, though, that my tax return is sweet enough to allow me to take a 4-day Bahamas cruise sometime in May. I want to use the majority of my tax return to pay off my credit cards but also may use some of it to put towards a short vacation in the summer. (And since Carnival is showing rates for Bahamas cruises for under $350, I think I can manage it!)

What are you currently reading? Anticipating? Inspired by? Wishing for?

Prompt inspired by Caroline

Categories: Recurring Series

Five For Friday (v. 26)

1) Well, my mom and her fiance have picked a wedding date. (I know – they don’t waste time, do they?) They’ll be married on October 11, 2014 on Clearwater Beach. I am SO excited! I will be the maid of honor and I honestly have no idea what that entails or what I need to do. I’ve been Googling like crazy for beach wedding packages and venues and trying to figure things out. They want something small and intimate, with just close family members and a few friends. And now… I have 10 months to lose 50 lbs so I can look amazing in my dress! Let’s do this!

2) So let’s talk Scandal, shall we? I have never watched this show, until a few weeks ago when I decided to download the pilot episode on my iPad. And now I am hooked. I flew through the first season and I’m working my way through the second season and I’m just in complete unabashed love with this show. It is really, really good and all I can think about is when I can watch the next episode. My thoughts so far: Huck is my favorite character with Quinn a close second, I think Mellie is kickass and I kinda love her even though I feel like I shouldn’t, Fitz is a putz and I kinda don’t love him even though I feel like I should, and Olivia is just plain awesome and dazzling and wonderful and scary. We’ll see how my feelings change throughout this second season.

3) My mom and I have been talking seriously about quitting cable. Right now, we pay around $164 for a digital cable with two DVR boxes + a high-speed Internet combo. If we keep the high-speed Internet and then add Netflix and Hulu+ accounts, that brings us down to $68 a month, which is a much nicer price, wouldn’t you say? Almost 60% cheaper! My only qualm with quitting cable is what to do when football season is back, but I figure there has to be a solution for this and I have until September to figure it out. (We wouldn’t get rid of cable until after the Superbowl.) But it just makes so much sense to go this route. We’d definitely order a Roku box so we can stream to our TV and we both have tablets so we can watch on there if we want, too. Here’s my question: should I go the Netflix & Hulu+ route, or just stick with Hulu+? (I wouldn’t just do Netflix, because I would need current TV shows. And I’m not terribly concerned about a great movie selection.) And if you have a Roku (or whatever you use to stream to your TV), how do you like it?

4) This past weekend, I saw my dad again. My mom and I were in the car and leaving Target and my dad biked past us going the opposite way. He was pretty far away so I know he didn’t see us, but it was still so startling. Every time I see him, I just remember that he still exists. He’s still here and his face is so familiar and I can still hear him laugh and say my name… but at the same time, he’s not here. He’s gone. He’s left. He was a toxic force in my life and I had to exorcise him from my life. It’s just weird because it’s what I want but then I don’t. I just want to have a dad again. Especially because I can have a dad when so many others can’t. I wish things were different. I wish he was different and I was different and we both knew how to have a functioning relationship but we didn’t and we don’t and I just couldn’t do it anymore. Deep breaths. I still hold so much hope we can one day have a relationship. I still have hope he will walk me down the aisle and I’ll be able to tell him I love him again. There’s always that hope.

5) On a happier note, I have a full weekend planned! Tonight, I am attending a farewell dinner for one of my book club friends at The Cheesecake Factory. (She’s moving to Texas and I am basically devastated because I love this girl and was hoping to become closer to her this year.) (Also, I have never been to The Cheesecake Factory. Never!) Then, on Saturday, I am going on a brunch date and later, my brother is coming over to watch the NFL playoff games. On Sunday, I need to get the headlights in my car replaced (oh, fun) and then my brother is coming over again for the games. I’ll be rooting for the Saints, Colts, Niners, and Broncos this weekend. It should be a great weekend for football!

Categories: Holidays, Recurring Series

Five for Friday: The Christmas Edition

Happy Friday, friends! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed their time with family. I took a little bit of a blog break for the holiday, but I’m back with a Christmas recap, Five for Friday style!

One – Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a busy day for me! I woke up early, so I decided to spend some time finishing up Holiday Council work (including listening to the last live call! How is it over so quickly?!). There was a quick stop at Target to return a few gifts (emerged unscathed!) and then I picked up lunch at Publix. The afternoon was spent baking cookies, wrapping Christmas presents, and watching Christmas movies (A Boyfriend for Christmas and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation). That night, my mom’s boyfriend (who is home for the holidays, after being on the road since early October!) took my mom and me out to Carrabba’s for dinner. Yum, yum. He is further endearing me to him, that’s for sure. There was a round of peach sangria, multiple baskets of bread consumed, friendly service, and delicious food. While I intended to make another batch of cookies for our holiday celebration tomorrow, I just wasn’t in the mood when I came home from dinner. Instead, I took a long, relaxing bubble bath and read for a bit before calling it a night.

Two – Presents!

Oh, I was completely and utterly spoiled this year. I received an iPad Mini + case, Otterbox case for my iPhone, two gorgeous bras from Victoria’s Secret (I don’t even want to tell you how much I needed new bras! TMI?), two planners (one for work and one for home!), a new cardigan, a new blouse, cute headbands, and a most generous Target gift card from my mom’s boyfriend. Spoiled, I tell you, spoiled!

Three – Family!

My aunt and uncle hosted the family for a wonderful Christmas dinner. There were presents, pictures in front of the tree, tons of laughs, yummy food, spiked eggnog, and so much fun. It was also the first time some of the family met my mom’s boyfriend! (Can you believe they’ve been dating for a year now?!) It was such an enjoyable afternoon, though, and it made me realize how much I love my family. No, we’re not perfect and we’ve been through many trying times together, but through it all, they’re my blood and nothing is more precious than that.

Four – Nephew time!

After enjoying Christmas with our extended family, we still had to exchange gifts with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew! We all left the party around the same time to head back to our apartment and do more present unwrapping. My nephew was spoiled, as per usual, and he loved all his gifts. Lots of action figures, LEGO sets, clothes, a coloring book, and a remote-controlled helicopter. He made out like a bandit! After all the gifts had been opened, he, of course, wanted to open up every single box and play with everything! By this time, I was exhausted from an already busy day (as were all the adults, it seemed!) but this little boy has unlimited amounts of energy. Toward the end of the evening, I showed him Photobooth on my iPad and he thought it was the greatest thing ever. We had a blast with it, as evidenced above!

Five – A Silent Night

After the busyness of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I was thankful that Christmas Day night was peaceful and quiet. Once my brother and his family left, I took a relaxing bubble bath and then settled in with a good book and some goal-setting prompts to brainstorm with. I am in full-on goal-setting, dream-envisioning mode, as I prepare to set my resolutions for this upcoming year, so it was the perfect way to round out the holidays.

How was your Christmas? What was the best present you received?

Categories: Recurring Series

A Virtual (Christmas!) Coffee Date

I think it’s high time we sat down and had a virtual coffee date, right? The holidays are fast approaching, so let’s wrap our hands around our warm mugs of coffee (I’m having a mocha!) and get to chatting!

If we were having coffee today, I would probably talk about how overwhelmed I feel at work currently. This is my first month with a full workload. Together, with three other coworkers, I’ve started a massive rebranding project for a big client, which involves proofing and editing all of their content that has been posted on their website for the past few years. It’s a lot of work and it was a bit like fumbling around in the dark in the beginning, but we’re all slowly getting better at what needs to be done. Along with that project (which consists of proofing 200 pages a month!), I also have five clients of my own I am writing for. It equals out to a little over 50 pages of content a month, with each page being around 300 words, give or take. I feel a little frantic most days, but I think it’ll get better as the months go by. It makes the days go by fast, that’s for sure!

If we were having coffee today, I would tell you that I’m feeling completely unmotivated for healthy eating and exercise. And that I haven’t exercised in over a week! I’m falling into the “I’ll start on January 1st” mentality, which isn’t good at all. I don’t want to end the year feeling like a lump, but it’s just been really hard lately. Harder than usual.

If we were having coffee today, I would talk about how I’m two books away from hitting my goal of reading 100 books in a year. I have 11 days to read two books, something absolutely doable, especially with my upcoming holiday time off. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to read 100 books in a year again (it’s really an insane goal!), but it was fun to shoot for this and make it happen.

If we were having coffee today, I’d share a funny story about Dutch. My mom came home on her lunch break this week to find out Dutch had gotten into a present under the tree! Thankfully, it was just a pair of socks my mom bought for her boyfriend and nothing I bought her! And it was the only present he got into, which is strange. The weird thing is that we’ve had presents until the tree since Friday night and he didn’t touch them. The other weird thing? It was a present to my mom’s boyfriend from Dutch (yes, we do this. No, it’s not weird.) so, like, he’s a genius! He can read! He thought it was for him! Ha.

If we were having coffee today, I would talk about my work holiday party that took place yesterday! It was held at a nice restaurant right next to my work and was a lot of fun. There was an open bar, delicious food, and everyone dressed up! It was a good time, indeed. It was fun to chit-chat with coworkers because we’re all stuck in our little cubicles all day and interaction is at a minimum. We even held a white elephant gift exchange and I ended up with a “booty slide” workout DVD system. Ohhh, yeah! 😉 They also held a raffle at the end of the night, with some incredible prizes, and I won a $50 Amazon gift card! What what! (Makes up for the white elephant gift, yes?) All in all, it ended up being more fun than I anticipated.

If we were having coffee today, I would tell you how nervous I am about the Dolphins’ next two games! I know I don’t talk a lot about football, but it’s such a huge passion of mine and, though I know we won’t make it to the Superbowl or anything, just making the playoffs would be amazing! We need some help, as in winning our next two games and hoping Baltimore and/or Cincinnati falter in their two games (though those two teams play each other Week 17, which should be a great match-up!). I spent probably 20 minutes on ESPN’s playoff generator yesterday, looking at the different scenarios. The way it appears to me, if we win on Sunday, we’re in the playoffs, no matter what. So I’ll be on the edge of my seat all Sunday afternoon. Go, Miami, go!

If we were having coffee today, I would confess my anxiety has been feeling a bit unmanageable lately. I’m not sure why, but I feel a bit off-balance with my emotions, as if one little thing has the potential to set me off, but I’m so concerned with keeping it all together that I’m not properly dealing with my emotions. I don’t know. I just feel a little shaky, a little uncertain. (Therapy starts in January! Declaring it!)

If we were having coffee today, I would talk about my weekend plans! Tonight, my mom and I are going to a holiday lights show at the Florida Botanical Gardens and then on Saturday, my brother and nephew are coming over to decorate Christmas cookies! There will probably be some last-minute Christmas shopping thrown in there (I’m mostly done, just need a few little things for family members). The weekend will be mostly low-key, though, and for that, I am grateful. I need it after the crazy week I’ve had!

If we were having coffee today, what would you tell me?

I’m going to take a bit of a blogging break for the holidays, so I want to wish everyone who celebrates a very merry Christmas! I will be back in a week with a Christmas recap, and then I’ll dive right into recapping 2013 with a whole slew of fun posts. Enjoy your holiday!