Never Long Enough

How is it that 5 days of work always seems like a month and two days of weekend seems like 15 minutes?

Other things that never last long enough (but perhaps because I just love them so much!) are my Toms. I can usually wear through a pair of Toms in about 6 months flat, but I somehow stretched the life of my current pair for exactly a year. These ones went to Turkey with me, survived the holidays in Idaho, a whole DC summer and a good chunk of fall this year. Sadly, they have finally bit the dust! Past the normal holes I wear in the toes and heels, I wore a hole in the BOTTOM!!!

Not much one can do once you have worn a whole like that in the botton! So to the trash they went.
 
I already miss them. My shoe selection is pretty much Toms-less at this point, and it breaks my heart!
 
Last night I started dreaming about what new pair of Toms I would like to add to my shoe collection. I found a lot more than just Toms that I want!
 
I am really liking these Toms though, not sure I could pick if I had to:

I also got a little carried away and found some other shoes I wouldn't mind getting my feet into.

 
These come in so many fun colors! A perfect weekend shoe (that maybe would keep me from wearing out my Toms so quickly!).
 
My boat shoes that I also got for our Turkey trip are on their last legs, and I am torn between a few different replacements to mix it up.

 

 

 

I also found this pair:

 

Love. Lust. Want.

 

The grey and cranberry colors are so perfect. I just die every time I look at them!

 



 Which pair would you pick for me to replace my beloved Toms?

 

Something besides cereal for dinner!!

After the fire alarm debacle of 2012, I have been a bit shy to cook anything past a bowl of cereal. Typically the bf is around to help me cook (we do Sunday dinners almost weekly), but with him gone for work, I am left to my own devices. Cereal just wasn't doing it for me tonight so I decided to copy a dish I had a long time ago at Cork Wine Bar. They serve avocado on toasted bread, with pistachios, and olive oil. It is salty, savory, and delightful! I made my own version tonight and it was pretty close to the original!

Under 15 minutes and a perfectly filling and tasty dinner that didn't come out of a box!

"Oui"=We: Speaking in Parisian

Has anyone heard the relationship phrase "You should be speaking in Parisian"?

I hadn't! Apparently it is lingo for saying there should be a lot of "Oui" or "We" rather than "I" in a relationship.

Catchy huh? So go...speak Parisian to your love.

Or buy them a poodle....they are french!

Or that was just a weak attempt to include a picture of Theo, since he is so cute.

Meditating without Laughing

We tried something new tonight. We meditated.

Not like the  "I just thought deeply about something for a long time". I really went to a Buddhist center and was coached through a 30 minute meditation session. Nothing complicated, for the true beginner, but just a quick class to cause the stress of the day to melt away.

I was skeptical. There were only two of us who came to the class. I really thought I was going to end up giggling the entire way through. I also was trying to figure out the jam, pretzel chips, and Starbucks canned drink on the "alter". Where they "offerings"? Regardless, sitting there, all I could think it this was not going to go well, and that my back hurt.

Well 30 minutes later and a lot of focusing on the "clear water" space in my mind and letting "thoughts come and go like the waves", I left feeling more centered, more rational regarding some of my emotions and my back stopped hurting.

While I am not anywhere near understanding all that is meditation. I found it relaxing and it did help make me feel better and more focused.

If you are looking to try it out yourself, this is where I went.

Hiding Something So Well you Can't Find It

I do this a lot.... buy a gift, or something you need to hold on to for awhile before you use it, so you hide it from yourself or others, and then it vanishes  crawls into a corner of your closet you didn't know you had. Then I forget about these things and when I am moving or doing a spring cleaning I find things stashed away and it is like Christmas morning mid-year.

Today was like blogging Christmas for me! I discovered a huge and important thing that I had squirrelled away so well, that I not only forgot about, but didn't even remember hiding!

Now you are going to laugh. I laughed. Then I teared up a bit.

So, when I decided "Let's do this!" regarding the blog (i.e. continuing to write and post on my own terms) I created a separate email account thinking it would help me stay organized and assist in any "branding" I ever wanted to do. Well folks...it kind of helps if you remember that you set-up a separate email and if you checked that separate email and if you knew that you linked your blogger profile to that email. Epic. F-A-I-L.

So here I am reading over Allie's post on making friends in blogworld, thinking to myself "man I would LOVE to have those awesome connections with all these greater readers out there!". Reading her post, I decided to check to make sure my email was attached to my blogger account and the BAM! I found that hidden treasure.

Oh looky here...an email account I forgot I had. Oh and an email account full of emails from readers!!! Say WHAT!?!? These people like me? They really really like me!?

(This is where I pretty much flipped my chair over standing up so fast to do a happy dance)

Needless to say...that blogging community I have been wanting to build for myself. It is there! All neatly categorized and tucked away in my lonely email account!

So this is a HUGE "thank you". Thank you to the people who have emailed, started conversations with me, asked me follow-up questions and generally just have kept reading. This is also a HUGE "I'm sorry" for doing such a good job of hiding this gem from myself and not taking advantage of all you wonderful people!

I am pretty excited about my discovery! Hopefully some of you don't mind some really delayed follow-up emails as I try to restore my dignity by digging through these emails!

Now for all of you...how do you connect with the blogworld? Do you have a strategy for emails/comments/tweets etc. to keep everything organized?