Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Dichotomy

I shy away from posting some of my crazy irrationalpotenitallyrationalbutidon'twantogothere thoughts right now.

 Readers Digest version: Things are really hard right now.  

But in the spirit of dichotomy and trying to see the two sides to everything right now I am going to follow some Rockstar Diaries inspiration and tell you 10 things that are making me happy right now. (I know--right?)


1) My family. My sister calling to tell me she wants to talk steam mops when I know she is just calling to make sure I am still going to work and taking showers. And my mom leaving me facebook messages. And emails from my dad. And videos of Wyatt.
2) My new boat shoes. (Alright Sam....you win)
3) That fact that fall is right around the corner. So close you can almost feel it.
4) Friends. 'Nuf said.
5) Knowing I am not the crazy cat lady with the really dead Christmas tree that I met tonight.
6) Paper straws.
7) Listening to songs from the Jazzercize days with E.
8) S'mores bars. These are unreal.
9) Grey's Anatomy is back on!
10) Fall beers. And Cider.

Monday, September 26, 2011

What Gets You Through

This has been on my Spotify non-stop this weekend. I don't claim to have even remotely good music taste. But I know what makes me feel certain ways, and this was just what I have been needing to keeping moving forward right now.




This happened tonight:



I have dropped this phone so many times and naturally when I just can't possibly take anymore I drop it and crack the screen. So minor. But I was hysterical. Naturally.

And before I sign off to head to bed and to start the week. I want to say "Thank You" to some people (I hope you know who you all are!) . You are the absolute most amazing people, and I am blessed beyond words to have people like you in my life.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Pittsburgh..The Place to Be

I have been meaning to take advantage of long weekends for awhile now. There is always the "oh let's go to ____[fill in blank with city/town]____" and then nothing happens. Not to mention I always look at a three day weekend and go "wooo sleep!". Labor day rolled around and I finally took advantage of a long weekend and was able to get up to Pittsburgh and see the city in the pouring rain (luckily me and rain are long time friends). Despite the nasty weather we had a really enjoyable weekend full of comical errors.


One highlight was getting to see Falling Water outside of Pittsburgh. Photos can not to this house justice. You are not allowed to take pictures when you are inside but the inside was just as inspirational as the outside. There were so many amazing architectural elements (a ship hatch that opened to stairs that went directly down to to the waterfall, a central 'trunk' of the house that had unique folding windows, the 'canopy' that covers the walk from the main house to the guest house, boulders that were build around, of course the waterfall, and all the elements that forced ones eye outside as Wright intended). Our tour lasted around an hour and we were in a group of about 15 people. The tour was very informative but I sure it would vary with every tour guide. As I am sure some of you have heard, the house did encounter some structural issues that have now been corrected. There is a movie on the renovation and how they ran cables under the existing floors to pull the structure back up. I will have to get my hands on it after seeing the house in person. I think what really stood out to me is that Falling Water is one of the only FLW houses to have the original structure AND the majority of the original furnishings that were all designed by Wright as well.

I have a bajillion photos so I will spare you and share just some of the highlights.


 These are the stairs that have a ship-like hatch at the top and the lead right down to the stream and falls so the family could swim and fish and feel like the stream was right in the living space.
 These windows are what was all the way up the "trunk" (there is a real name for it but I don't remember) of the house. It was really neat to see them open and see how Wright was breaking down the idea that structures should be made of boxes within boxes.
 I loved seeing the natural elements meet the structual parts of the home.
 Care was taken to not destroy something just because it was in the path of something structural.

I can also say that we are also just grateful that we actually got to take our tour. We cut it real close with our timing but luckily pulled it off!

After Falling Water we headed up to Pittsburgh. Found our hotel and rested for a bit. Ok we rested for awhile becasue we soon figured out that our picks for places to eat that night were all closing and we were kind of out of luck to find someplace to eat. So we ate at Morton's. Yes, we had $50 steaks and delish wine to top of the day. While it was comical since we had no intentions of such a over the top meal, it was very tasty and definetly filled us up!

The next morning the grey had settled in. We were in no hurry to get an early start to just get soaked so we took our time getting ready and watching some classy and fabulous TV about hunting. Love. it.

We decided to head over to the Monongahela Incline and take it up the side of  Mt. Washington. These rail car systems were build in the 1800's to transport people from work sites from their homes. They are still in use today and they take you to a breathtaking (even in the pouring rain) view of Pittsburgh.





Completely drenched we headed back to our hotel to get the car and then we grabbed some lunch at Primanti Brothers which serves these HUGE sandwiches that have fries and coleslaw on the sandwich! Needless to say, it was really good. After that we did some driving around through some different neighborhoods, saw a few of the schools up there, the ball park (which we had planned to see in a game in, but didn't want to sit in the rain) and then started our drive back home. The crowning jewel to the weekend of error and unexpected issues was the 2 miles we went in about 2 hrs. It was torturous traffic! Luckily we laughed it off, found some back roads eventually and made it home.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Running Roadblock and Back On Track

I had finally gotten the courage to run outside and I can say that I actually enjoyed it! I was not nearly as self conscious or overwhelmed by the natural landscape as I thought I was going to be. I did notice that I was running faster and was also getting some major cramps really early on in my runs. I worked on pacing myself, warming up and stopping to stretch as needed. After a few of these runs I started feeling my right hip the next day. It was the pinchy, uncomfortable, achy, not so great feeling. Unfortunately I think I had aggravated an old dance injury from freshman year. I have been pretty lucky that I have never had any major issues with the injury and at the time we were able to treat the injury with a non-surgical option.Granted everything I read about the injury back then and even now says that you will have an increased chance of arthritis and then since there is a lot of scar tissue that forms there are times that there will be discomfort.

Discouraged from the pain, I took a break from running. I figured no point in aggravating something that hasn't given my problems for years. After a week or so of zero running, I finally noticed that I wasn't having  pain anymore. I did do some reading and there are other people out there with my injury and they all had some advice on how to continue running safely. The key point being that if it hurts- stop. So listening to that I have moved my running back inside for the time being and really slowed down my pace. I have done three runs now under those conditions and I have had zero pain which is great! My idea of running in an actual 5k my be thwarted if running outside is causing some of the pain, but I will take this compromise so I can at least keep challenging myself in the gym. At some point I am sure I will need to reevaluate if it is time to possibly have the surgery and clean up the hip joint, but luckily for now I am feeling 100% better and my runs are still continuing to improve.

Image found via Diana S Pinterest

Friday, September 16, 2011

This is the Kind of Week it Has Been...

Yes I am so out of it this Friday that I put not one, but two heat sleeves on my cup of coffee this morning. I am really in need of this weekend!

And yes that is my Miss Potato head that sits in my window to keep me grounded and remind me where I came from. I-da-ho represent!

I have been going going going going at work for weeks now. I am recruiting for about 15 positions, and still trying to work on this big project that seems to be going no where, and then also fit in all my other "duties". It has been slow and frustrating progress for sure.

Amazingly we finally have fall here in DC. Yesterday it seemed like in a matter of 2-3 hours the temperature dropped and mother nature decided that it was in fact time for it to be fall and to have some brisk weather. I love it! I walked to work this morning just to enjoy the fresh air and the fact that I didn't break a sweat after 2-3 blocks of walking. It is supposed to be like this all weekend so I can not wait to get some relaxing, blogging, reading (the book I seem to have lost), studying, shopping, and crafting in.

Happy Friday!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Nothing Exciting.

My new "Big Girl" camera is a wonderful new toy. I spend a lot of time photographing the same thing over and over again just playing with the aperture, shutter speed, ISO and exposure features to see what I can get. I am know where close to getting comfortable with the new camera, but I enjoy her and like the learning experience. I have a ton to learn no doubt but I am also always so overwhelmed with the quality of photos.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Being an Adult: Whatever that Means

I remember when I was younger (lots younger) and thinking that twenty-five was old. Like really old. I also had images that twenty-five meant you had your shit together. You were supposed to know stuff- like real stuff when you are twenty-five. Well here I am at the ripe age of twenty-five and while I will admit I have a long and undoubtedly very interesting and blessed life ahead of myself I can't help but think about the things I thought I was supposed to know how to do or understand at this point and realize that I may actually be farther away from figuring these things out than when I was eight. Here are some things I thought any twenty-five year old would have under control:

  1. What you are doing with your life.
  2. A job you love and are really good at.
  3. The idea of what "comes next".
  4. What you want out of everything. Everything.
  5. A group of friends that provide endless entertainment.
  6. A flawless relationship.
  7. Love.
  8. Classy bedding. Adults sleep in nice bedding. And their beds are always made. Perhaps even when they are in them.
  9. A stocked fridge and pantry. And the culinary skills to just whip something up when they get home.
  10. Lots of heels that you wear all the time.
  11. A place for everything
  12. A house with enough bedrooms for all those little tiny humans you plan on birthing any minute.
  13. People who report to you. Kids, employees, husband, etc.
  14. Eating breakfast. That you made. With your significant other. Reading the paper.
  15. Adult clothes.
  16. You magically exceed being five feet tall.
  17. No crying. Except when you are really sad. Your a strong woman that people respect.
  18. Coming home to your very own dog.
  19. Credit cards.
  20. A nice shiny new car.
  21. Vacations with family, friends and significant others.
  22. Christmas trees. You start having your very own real one.
  23. Season tickets to the ballet or philharmonic.
  24. Brunch. Every weekend.
  25. Lots of skiing. Every weekend (after brunch naturally)
I will leave it at twenty-five. But the point I am getting here is that life is anything but what it seems. I have a hard time not beating myself up for not even coming close to being the "twenty-five year old" I am supposed to have turned into. While some of my ideas of what being an adult ended up being plain wrong- some of them are still things I hope I grow up into.

Right now I am a perfectly underdeveloped twenty-five year old who buys too many sponges:


Can't make her bed in the frenzy of the morning routine (and sleeps with bears):


And who survives on cereal, coffee and wine (when things get really rough):


Thursday, September 1, 2011

Blogging with Bullet Points

  • Today was insane. Yesterday was busy. Tomorrow is crahzay. Friday is a little better. Tuesday and Wednesday last week don't have a single open time slot in Outlook. Pray for me and my job. I am recruiting for what is about 1/3 of our current staff level. It. Is. Insane. Not to mention---I am not a full time recruiter. I have other things going on with my job too.
  • I am super behind on life. Like real life. Like all that stuff that is supposed to happen when you are out of the office. I feel like my apartment is "not dirty" but it doesn't feel clean to me. I need to just scrub nooks and crannys and get the bag of my old dresser parts into a dumpster. Take a bag of clothes to good will. Dust. Steam mop. Organize paper. And clean my stove top-blech. But it must be done. Hopefully tomorrow. If I don't work 12 hrs.
  • The weather has been fantastic! I have my windows open. No air conditioner. Just me, sleep and a ceiling fan. It is magical.
  • It is SEPTEMBER. Wowza. Where did that come from I ask? Yesterday it was May. I swear. I just turned 25. Now I am 25 and 3 months. Not ok.
  • My hair is looonnnnggg. Like really long. Not like it was in high school (amen) but we are getting really close to those 10 inches for my next Locks of Love donation. Not only am I going to cut it this time....I think we are going to do some blonde. I am tired of the dark hair bs that occurred sometime in college. So short. Blondish. And hopefully more adult looking. Not to mention I am ready to get rid of these headaches that seem to occur daily from this mop of hair I cart around with me.
I think that is all the random thoughts from my head right now. I am pooped. Tired. Exhausted. Oh so ready for my big comfy bed!