Things I'm Good At

I would recap you my weekend but honestly it was pretty low-key. It is the calm before the storm that will be this weekend with T's graduation and graduation party. I'm in the midst of getting all the little details together for his party and it is a little stressful.

So I'm stealing this blog post idea from the hilarious Whitney @I Wore Yoga Pants instead. I am the kind of person who finds it easier to rattle off a list of things I suck at, so I'm flipping it and looking at the positive.

1. Sleeping. I have an unnatural sleep for naps and sleeping in general. Even in my 30's I still look forward to sleeping in on weekends. I never waste an opportunity to catch up on my sleep.

2. Researching and finding good places to eat when going on vacation.  I discovered this hidden talent on T and I's first trip down to Key West. I was so excited about the trip that I start researching good places to eat and dive bars (oh I love dive bars).  When we finally got down to the Keys my husband was amazed that we had great food at all of my suggested restaurants. So now I am always in charge of researching before a trip. The nerd in me loves it.

3.  I have an uncanny ability to insert my dog's name (Kavalier) into popular song lyrics. I annoy my dog and husband by singing them around the house.

4. Name the life moment or event and I can find the appropriate Sex and the City episode for you.  Moving in with your mate? Watch the episode where Carrie and Aiden move in together and you will appreciate their realistic fights. Having money troubles? Watch the episode where Carrie realizes that she spent all of her money on shoes and now can't buy her apartment.


5. Mastering the art of the over achieving procrastinator. I have a penchant for waiting to do things at the last minute (trust me that was quite interesting in my teacher days) and yet have managed to still be a little over achiever. Those procrastinating ways took me all the way from my undergraduate days to graduating with a masters degree at 29. Guess procrastinating pays off.


Be on the lookout for some changes on the blog. I just got a preview of my new blog design and I love it already.

Friday's letters

Dear Weekend: What took you so long? This week has been crazy busy at work and I can't wait for time to relax.

Dear Netflix: Thank you for the great television that is House of Cards. I had heard all the buzz about this show and so far (4 episodes in) it is well deserved. Can't wait to watch more episodes this weekend.


Dear Husband: You graduate in exactly a week with honors and I couldn't be a prouder wife. Next weekend is all about you.


Dear Soda: I just finished up 21 days without you and it got easier as I went along. I'm not saying goodbye forever, but definitely kicking the one Coke a day habit. You will now be an occasional treat.


Dear Zach Braff: Don't get me wrong I loved me some Garden State back when it came out. I was going through my quarter life crisis when I first watched so I completely related and of course the soundtrack was filled with great music, but a sequel? Why? Wouldn't a sequel just focus on your 30's? Um I have no interest in watching that since I'm currently living that. Try again.

                     

Guilty TV Pleasures

Something you should know about me is that I love me some crappy reality t.v. My love for reality shows started way back in the early 90's when my middle school self discovered the first season of The Real World. I was obsessed with that show all through the 90's and even thought of applying to be on the show when I was old enough. I actually have had my picture taken in front of two Real World houses (Boston and New Orleans), yep I'm a dork.

T and I only have cable for football season, so that is from late August to the Super Bowl. The rest of the year I'm regulated to Hulu and Netflix. I originally thought that cutting off cable for half of the year would get me cured of my reality t.v. addiction, but alas it didn't. I can still watch The Real Housewives  on Hulu and various other shows on MTV and VH1 websites. My husband likes to tease me about my love of the Housewives and such, until he started watching Teen Mom with me and got sucked in. I wasn't planning on watching this 3rd group of teen moms, do we really need another season of 17 year old moms complaining about their baby daddy? Probably not. That was until I watched the trailer and realized that one of the girls is from Orlando, oh I have to watch now.

First impressions aren't always right

So I have decided to participate in Two Thirds Hazel and One to Nothin's Flirting with Disaster Link Up. Hey, they said us old married ladies could share our stories from our pre ball and chain days, so here I am.

I first met my now husband back in the summer of 2006. I had just been dumped by my boyfriend of 10 months and was taking it pretty badly. By pretty badly I mean crying, not wanting to leave the house, and basically just throwing myself a pity party. My best friend was trying to get me to go to an old mutual friend's birthday party that weekend. The three of us went to high school together and had been reconnected due to the beauty that was once MySpace, and Tom had invited us to his birthday celebration. So after much prompting by Liz I made myself look presentable and decided that a night out might just be what I need to lift me out of my post break up funk.

As Liz and I walked into the smoky, dive bar where everyone was meeting up for drinks before dinner i couldn't help but notice this one guy out of Tom's group of friends. He was loud. Really loud. He was cracking sarcastic jokes that I swear the whole bar must have heard due to the overwhelming volume of his voice. Liz and I kept cracking jokes to ourselves on how he was the shortest guy in the group and yet he was the loudest. Honestly I do remember that I found some of his jokes funny and it was the first time in 3 weeks that I had really laughed. The plan was to play some darts, chat, and grab beers before heading out to the Olive Garden for the birthday dinner. When we got to the restaurant I somehow ended up sitting next to the loud guy.

Loud guy starts conversation with me and we get on the topic of sports teams. I love me some football, especially the college variety, and I bleed garnet and gold for my Florida State Seminoles. I don't exactly remember what he said but he was making fun of my Noles and I just wasn't having that. I kept shooting Liz that "please help me" look across the table. Eventually I just ignored him and moved on with the rest of the evening.

A year later for the same friend's birthday, I met loud guy again. This time he seemed more subdued, so I actually started talking to him and found him to be fun, smart, and funny. We became a couple a few months later and have been married for 8 months now. Ours is a story that shows how first impressions don't always tell the whole story. Oh, and yes he knows this story.

Apologies from Florida

You may or may not know that I am from Florida. So all the media attention on us with the Zimmerman trial is literally in my backyard. Well, technically it is 35 minutes away from me, but I am more than familiar with the Sanford area. It was worse with the Casey Anthony trial two years ago since it was right in my hometown. The apartment complex where she claimed to have dropped off her daughter at before her disappearance is less than 10 minutes from my house. One of my old co-workers actually lived in the same neighborhood as her parents and would tell us crazy stories of Casey as a teenager. I'm not going to get into my opinions of those two verdicts, but I cringe at how all of this media attention is making my home state look like the idiot state. We have been the butt of jokes since the botched 2000 presidential election and all those hanging chads. Insert a Florida joke during an election year and people still laugh. To be fair, I laugh too. 

So to the rest of the country and world, please don't paint all of Florida with a broad brush. We are the southern most state, yet the rest of the South won't claim us. In my opinion most parts of the state do have a Southern mentality. Just wanted to remind non-Floridians that educated, progressive, forward thinking people do inhabit the sunshine state. And yes we shake our heads too on our state's decisions.

On another note I was saddened to hear of Cory Monteith's death. Even though my Glee love tapered off with the new season, I love me some Glee. My thoughts and prayers are with Cory's family and Lea. 

Friday's Thoughts

I have made it to day 5 of my 21 days of no soda challenge. To be completely honest the second half of day 2 and most of day 3 were filled with headaches and low energy. Monday at work I felt zapped of energy all day, it was like having the 2pm slump all day long. My caffeine withdrawals were at least kind enough to leave my headaches on day 3 to after work hours. Yes, thank you withdrawals for your kindness. I have had a few cravings for a cold can of Coke, but I'm determined to cut this nasty habit. Or more realistically learn to just the occasional soda as opposed to the daily dose of Coke. Small steps forward.

Sorry not sorry but I'm loving the new John Mayer song Paper Doll. I get teased by the husband for my John Mayer love, but I've loved him since his first album which was the soundtrack of my quarter life crisis. I can still listen to that whole album start to finish and still love it. So what he became Hollywood's resident player man whore? The man makes good music.

Best news this week is finding out T's best friend got us tickets for the Nine Inch Nails concert on Halloween night! I had the biggest crush on Trent Reznor in my high school days and have never seen him perform live. So excited!

    For back that azz up Friday I leave you with an oldie that takes me back to freshman year of college when weekends started on Thursday, pre drinking was required, and everyone was single.

4th of July Recap/ No more soda

I enjoyed my 4th of July this year mostly because my sister and nephews were down for the whole week. My sister is 20 months older than me which means that we often bumped heads in our teenage years over bathroom space, boys (they preferred her), and sharing clothes. But now that we are adults we actually get along, too bad we live in different states now.

                           You know you are an adult when bringing a bottle of booze is not enough to bring to the family BBQ. So I made some baked mac and cheese instead.

This Saturday I also decided to have my last soda. I have a long, torrid love affair with Coca Cola since I was a teenager and have been drinking 1- 2 cans a day. So I am on a no soda diet for the next 21 days. Right now I am almost done with day 2 and I felt low energy most of the day at work and came home to a nasty headache. Withdrawal is a bitch! On the upside I have been drinking lots of water.

Thirty gets a bad rap

I remember a few years ago as I was approaching turning 30 freaking out about the milestone birthday. Would I be married by then? What is up with finding my first gray hair at 28? Everywhere I looked I would see an article or blog post on 30 things to do before you turn 30 lists. After finally turning 30 and realizing that life didn't just stop and that your thirties are not as bad as described by Cosmo magazine, I thought about what was still left to be accomplished in this new decade of my life.  Instead of dreading my 30's I want to fully embrace them, so I made a list of things I had yet to accomplish that I wanted to do before the end of my 30's. I stole the name for this list from the ESPN series 30 for 30, since I have 30 things to do before the end of my 30's. So far I have come up with 24 things to put on my list. Do you make any life lists?

30 for 30 List

1. Visit Europe.
2. Take a photography class.
3. Take a calligraphy class.
4. Visit New Orleans (completed 12/12)
5. Become an educational consultant for side income.
6. Pay off a significant chunk of my student loans from my masters.
7. Visit the Pacific Northwest.
8. Buy a pair of designer heels.
9. Go skydiving.
10. Take rock climbing classes.
11. Make a career change from teaching (completed 4/2013)
12. Really learn to mediate.
13. Learn to bake something not out of a Betty Crocker box.
14. Do a zipline.
15. Make more visits to see my nephews.
16. Continue to learn to feel more comfortable in my own skin.
17. Host a dinner party.
18. Take an improv class.
19. Get into freelance writing.
20. Visit at least one part of Asia.
21. Live abroad for at least a year.
22. Visit South America.
23. Get back into doing yoga regularly,
24. Go to a UF?FSU game on Gator turf and proudly wear FSU colors.

Currently

Watching: We only keep cable for the football season. T and I are huge college/NFL football fans so we need to watch our games (Florida State for me, Notre Dame for him, NFL for both). This past week I spent 3 days for a work training in Tampa and was able to indulge in watching cable. I discovered the show Catfish on MTV. This show is based off the Catfish documentary that came out a few years ago and has the same guy from the movie investigating online relationships for others. I posted my new found love for this show on my Facebook and was quickly informed by a few friends that I'm way late on the Catfish train. Pfft, whatever. Still love it. Oh and I got a little crush on Nev.

Lusting for: I really am lusting for a Michael Kors purse. You might not know this about me but I love purses the way some many women love shoes. Definitely dropping heavy hints for my August birthday.

Waiting for:  My husband is weeks away from finishing his thesis and a month away from graduation. It has been a long journey of him working and going to school at the same time. I'm sure I will get emotional seeing him walk across that stage to get his diploma.

                                                      Our first picture as a couple. 2008