If Packing for Spring Break was Neccessary

Oh Spring Break, you are back to haunt me exist…. sorta. I know March/April is Spring Break season since this is when all the airlines jack up their fares so the masses can join the other masses in a different place where there are even MORE masses of people. While that is a silly sentence, it makes sense in that Spring Break means going somewhere when EVERYONE else and their screechy/obnoxious/crying/drunk/”pick a cliché not listed” friend x 15 is also going. I’ve clearly watched too many late 80s/early 90s teen movies.

I never went on a trip during Spring Break probably due to the crazy airline prices and whatever other reasons made sense at the time. College was a long time ago… well not that long but long enough. All snark aside, I’m not anti-trips especially if we are talking somewhere warm. I just want to be able to relax if I’m on a beach before I look like a lobster, wander about the area hunting down various shops that often sell yarn, restaurants and places that sell cupcakes, and find something historical or cultural as well.

One thing though pertaining to Spring Break that I do love though is the sales and the surplus of cute clothes that appear about this time. While I don’t need to purchase another bathing suit though Target has a ton of adorable ones out, I like putting together trip outfits.

IF I had to pack to head out of town for a week though, this could appear in my bag and I wouldn’t complain. The TOMS would just need to be a bit “small” since I hear these run big.

I’ve got the Spring blues by yarnalone featuring an urban decay eyeshadow

Wallis chambray shirt, $49
Hudson Jeans straight leg jeans, £199
Toms shoes, $58
Kenneth Cole turquoise earrings, $32
Beaded jewelry, $14
Vintage sunglasses, £106
Urban decay eyeshadow, $17

Cooler temperatures means I’m back to being a pet bed

I’m typing over the cat who is sprawled across my lap… again.   My feet are half off the couch because of the dog who prefers to take the majority of the couch… again.  Realistically I don’t care since it has been below 75 for the past few days. While I didn’t mind our mini time travel style break into summer, I really don’t mind having an actual Spring. Last year we had Snowmageddon. This year I didn’t have to dig out of waist deep snow drifts.

See. Photo proof… missing a yardstick for actual height verification but believe me. It wasn’t pleasant.  I will take mid-summer temps for a few days in March over dangerous snow any day.

The warmer weather did give me a kick that I was expecting later.  Warmer temps means the garden starts taking over coming back. I can walk around barefoot and drive Darth Husband crazy by doing so. It’s only around the house/yard though since wandering everywhere else would just be odd. I start planning out what veggies and herbs will be added to the norms of tomatoes, bell peppers, and basil.

It’s a good feeling over all. I’m starting other plans to get my butt even more in gear (possibly joining a gym,) getting my frivolous spending in check (an upcoming month challenge,) and focusing on how I can balance out my knitting (still same work in progress  aka WIP) with my general crafting (too many great idea on Pinterest.)

Music for this post: Florence + the Machine

Running at Dawn: Helping the American Cancer Society

Dawn at Running at Dawn recently wrote a really great post about raising funds for the American Cancer Society. She will be running the Seattle Rock & Roll Half Marathon.  It really hit home for me. I’ve seen too many people that are part my life  fight cancer in the past ten years.  Some are still here but too many are no longer with us.

Someday, I hope to so something like this but for now I’ll be cheering Dawn on over 2,000 miles away.  Dawn’s DetermiNation page is here but seriously, check out the full post.

Battling the Shoe Box Monster

Recently I must have recycled a good dozen shoe boxes. Maybe they aren’t all were complete boxes and most were on their last leg. It was like a mini half-flattened lid party in the back though unlike the mullet it wasn’t much business in the front either.

I’ve been wanting to totally reorganize my closet for ages, years even. I mean seriously redo like new cute colored bins and some sort of nice shoe rack to be used for the snap-lid boxes since this protects the shoes from random kitty closet invasion. Then I looked at how much this would actually cost. EEK! I couldn’t spend hundreds of dollars on just baskets, bins and whatnot. True, I lucked out that the people before us put in the white fiberboard closet systems. One drawer is completly broken but for the most part it has held up well. Who needs three working drawers right? Having to pull two out at a time makes perfect sense. Hmmm. So I started waiting and buying random bits and pieces from dollar stores, the at least $50 spent store Target, and where ever else.

So I ended up with the stuff but not the motivation to actually get it done, and by done I mean seriously done.  I know some people can force themselves to do massive organizing and make a pretty little check mark on their to-do list. Whether it is an actual list ,which is rare, or a mental list, which is more common, I might not get to a full check mark.  Sometimes it is the little part. Sometimes it is the bigger part.

This time it was the bigger part. The morning I woke up bitten by the cleaning/organizing bug I decided to run with it. I wasn’t fighting a cold/plague, wasn’t exhausted, and had the full day to work/rest/work. One thing I do know is if I do too much at too fast of a pace I’ll get a doozy of a head cold.  As silly as it sounds, it always happens. Darth Husband was out of the house helping a friend move so I had the house all to myself as I created a fort of misc stuff, junk, and clothing. I am a firm believer that sometimes small amounts mid-process chaos is therapeutic. Too much ends up creating too much work at the end though.

Overall I am quite happy with the progress. I know a response could be “whoop-dee-doo” but this one change has really helped me out. I am not a morning person at all and having to not deal with a cardboard avalanches especially if I’m rushing has really helped.  One step is done. Now I need to figure out if it is worth trying to fix the drawer again or just figuring out a new plan for that section so I can add new shoes.

Adventures in Zumba-ing: Getting back on track

As I had mentioned before, I’ve found a Zumba class that works for me.  I come home a gross sweaty mess but with a huge smile on my face since I’m finally getting the level of workout that I’ve been needing.  If I can’t give it 100% for whatever reason (once time because if I put in too much bounce my scary cough started) or if I want to push myself to my limits for a song (to dance out frustration about something,) I can.

I’m learning from it all. I’m not at all where I was before cardio wise. I used to go to two or three classes a week several years ago. I’m definitely not there right now but I accept this and take it as a challenge. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve taken years of dance classes back in the day and so I truly enjoy the dancing part of Zumba. There is one step that is really quick and I can get it or I think I can for part of a routine. It is a mini-victory that makes me happy.

Being happy is important too because if I don’t enjoy it, I’m not going to stick with it. I’m being completely honest. I totally understand it takes awhile for something to be a habit or my body to get used to a fitness routine but if I genuinely hate it, no deal. It’s like listening to Rush. No deal. I will stop mid-whatever and change the station.

Music for this post: random via iTunes (NO RUSH!) & Molly complaining if I stop petting her since she wants to go outside again for the umpteenth time only to get let back in because they are barking at anything and everything today

Walk! Color! Walk!

Last year I didn’t participate in any sort of run or run/walk. I had planned to but realistically I needed more than just plan. This year I wanted to change that and registered for my first 5k – The Color Run.

I learned about it via someone I met via Stina at my first 5k.  Basically you end up looking like you got thrown up on by a clown  or  sneezed on by a Sprite. It sounds gross and yet amazingly hilarious at the same time.  I was all ready to get working on being able to run it.

I put the word out and waited.  I actually didn’t need to wait because people were interested in joining me right away.  One person got looped in and then another. It was like a pre-run version of tag with people just being mentioned and not really asked.  Kelly saw my tweet about it and she’s coming down from WI too! It all worked out and we have our team.

Thing is, no matter how much I mentioned before of wanting to run, we (as in the IL people) aren’t running it.  One of the team members can’t run (and has the surgical scars to back her up) but wanted to do this. Since I actually have two 5ks planned for the same weekend, this works for me!  The main focus of this 5k, or so it seems on their site, is to have a fun time. So our team, which is a mix of family and friends, will be a laughing mess at the end.

It will totally be worth it. I just hope I don’t have to be purple-ish the next day. If you see anyone with Awesome Waffles Don’t Fall Down on a shirt, that is us!

Music for this post: Lacuna Coil 

Cue end of Veggie-dom

It’s March which means we are “done” with eating and/or trying to eat vegetarian for a month in the CSYA household. There were a few meh moments but overall I’m glad we did this.

A few of the good:

• I love chickpeas and adding them to almost anything was easy for me.
• Mushrooms and bell peppers eaten constantly to begin means having them as the bulk of a dish wasn’t that big of a deal.
• Grocery shopping led to more meal planning based purchases. (While fresh produce can be frozen, we generally don’t and so wanted to eat it before it went bad.)
• Spanish & cheese stuffed poblano pepper will be repeated in the house.
• My stomach was less cranky at times with dishes sans meat.
• I’ve gotten much faster at cutting veggies.
• We ate less take-out/restaurant food = saved $.
• I got a chance to cook more.

A few of the meh:

• I had wanted to get vegetarian cookbooks but we ended up modifying the majority of the recipes we usually make.
• I read eating vegetarian meals will lead to weight loss. Good thing this was not my goal because I have no significant change since the end of January.
• A frustrating experience trying to get Panda Express sans meat and the employee looking at me like I was crazy and then me getting a horrible meal.
• More stove-top based meals meant more prep time in the kitchen, more dishes to wash, and more time overall.
• More kitchen time meant less time elsewhere including blogging, reading and knitting.
• Darth Husband isn’t a fan of tofurkey sausage.
• I never made the tempeh dishes and now have two packages in my fridge which will probably be there awhile.

I don’t know if I will have a designated veggie month again. We intentionally kept it veggie for the most part minus Super Bowl Sunday, our anniversary and a day that I had a hard day and really wanted a cheeseburger and onion rings. There were probably a bit here and there as well. I did learn buying canned soup that just because it says vegetable doesn’t mean there isn’t chicken stock involved.  As I had said before, this wasn’t a lifestyle change for us but I know it will influence our future eating.