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.
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?
I can’t do smoothies either – I’ve tried so many different kinds and I still can’t get on board. I don’t know if it’s a combination of texture and taste or what!
Not too much going on here this weekend – we’re getting our taxes done tomorrow morning (say it with – big fat return, big fat return), but otherwise I’m hoping it’ll be a low-key weekend.
My weekend is PACKED. I would be kind of upset about no downtime, but let’s be honest – I’m no good at downtime. Plus, I’m out of town Monday through Wednesday next week for work so it’ll be nice to pack in some family time. Tonight I have a date with a bowl of popcorn, my bed and the Veronica Mars movie. Tomorrow we are doing Disney, of course. Sunday I’m taking Spencer to the Antiquarian Book Fair at the Coliseum in St Pete, and then my husband and I get a late-afternoon date while my mom watches the kids. I hope your weekend is relaxing!
I vote that you enjoy a smoothie, by the pool, with a trashy romance novel in your hand. To me, that sounds lovely!
Awh. Impostor Syndrome. I’m so sorry you’re dealing with that right now. I know that one. If it helps, I think you’re pretty freaking amazing and that your accomplishments are inspiring. 🙂
Definitely trying the chocolate peanut butter smoothie this weekend!!
Chris and I have decided to go on a vacation, too! Like you, we know we have debt to pay, but we don’t want to stop living our lives because of it. Plus, we want to travel more before we have kids, so we need to do it now! 😀
My fave smoothie recipe is 1 banana, 1 cup frozen strawberries, 1 cup almond milk, 1 big handful of spinach, and a tablespoon of peanut butter. So good!
I can’t wait til next weekend when I have no plans. Love the shirt!
We got a nutribullet for Christmas and it works SOOOO much better to blend smoothies than a magic bullet. No more nasty fruit chunks! My favourite combo as of late has been frozen papaya, frozen mango, banana, spinach and chocolate protein powder! Yummy!
Have a great weekend. I have a low key one ahead of me too!
I think Impostor Syndrome is one of the (many) aspects of what makes my job search hard, because even though I’m an accounting major and I do learn things quickly, I feel like I don’t *really* know how to do anything. They also started me on a new project in accounting at work (because of my major) and I have the same feelings – they think I’m going to do well but I’m so nervous I’m going to be really bad at what they’re teaching me! I hate it.
This weekend Erik and I both took a day off, so we have a 3-day weekend together. We’re probably gonna find fun stuff to do outdoors because it’s supposed to be really nice. And for smoothies, I like green monsters with strawberry added in because strawberry-banana is my favorite flavor combo. Yum!
i can’t stand fruit bits either! it totally grosses me out, eck! but i’ve come to love smoothies as long as they are fully blended.
as for the weekend, i plan on relaxing and reading and getting a bit of Irish celebrating in there.
happy weekend lady!
I hope that your feelings of anxiety start to dissipate as it’s exhausting and stressful to be stressed about your performance at work. I know this first hand because that is how January and February were for me. I still get anxious when my bosses are meeting because I just worry that it’s related to me, but it never seems to be (to my knowledge).
I am having a low key weekend. I stayed in last night after running some errands, did my race this morning, and will stay in tonight as well. I have been gone a lot lately so it’s been nice to be here this weekend so I could get caught up on cleaning and other organizing tasks.
Your smoothie sounds yummy! My current fave combo is this: almond milk, yogurt, frozen mango, frozen strawberry, spinach, almond butter and sometimes frozen blueberries or fresh banana. I always eyeball the amounts. I think frozen mango gives smoothies a really great texture.
I can’t remember if I knew you were going on another cruise or not… Either way, I AM JEALOUS!!!