It's Working! (At Least for Now)

Most of you have heard me bitch, whine, and moan about how I believe my overnight shift makes it harder to lose weight because it effs up my metabolism. I still maintain that reasoning, BUT I think I may have found something that works! Or, at least, a multitude of things that work.

Here is my new routine: I bought a dry erase board calendar that I hung up on my wall. I write my workouts down EVERY DAY. That way, I can look and see that I didn't work out Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. OR I can see I worked out five days in a row. It's really been motivating me! Also, I went back to logging my calories on LIVESTRONG . I've been trying to stick to around 1400 calories, and just make smarter choices on the weekends, although I'm not going to beat myself up for an occassional splurge. ALSO- and I think THIS is key-- I started adding two mile walks in addition to my workout DVD's. So, I wake up, drink some coffee, eat breakfast, walk two miles, then come back home and do an hour long workout.

So, doing ALL of this stuff has currently put me at a weight I haven't seen since I went on vacation to Virginia Beach in August. I'm pretty proud of myself! And I feel awesome!

Steph and I have also done a really great job of encouraging each other and checking in with each other daily...It's nice to have someone on your side cheering you on, even if it's via text!

Plus, I just saw last night on the biggest loser that some dude lost 400 POUNDS ALL BY HIMSELF. He wasn't even on the show! The show just inspired him! If someone can motivate themselves to lose FOUR HUNDRED POUNDS, I think I can get that last ten off.

Man, This Sucks.

I'm sorry guys. I really have NOTHING to write about. Work is work, life is life. Nothing bad happening, nothing overly fantastic. The weather's nice...it COULD get up to 78 degrees on Friday and Saturday, which is awesome.
Friday is a little work get together for mine and a coworker's birthdays, so I'm excited for that, and Sunday my parents are coming up for Easter, and I don't know what to cook. Other than that, I'm boring as boring bored bored bored. BORED.

Happy Tuesday!

Happy Music Monday!!!

The person this Happy Music Monday goes out to knows who they are, and I LOVE that you thought of me. It means a TON...and thank you:)

There Once as This Ibuprophen....

Ok, there are a few blog topics running through my brain right now, but I feel too disorganized to really THINK about them enough to write about them...maybe later this week.

For now, I just want to take a moment and talk about this Advil I have had laying on my kitchen floor for approximately a month. That's no lie. It's right in front of my microwave cart, and I see it ALL the time. I'm not sure why I don't just pick it up and A) throw it away or B) take it. But I look at it every day. I sit on my couch with my laptop and my feet up on the coffee table, and stare into space trying to think of something to write about, and I stare at this pill. I even swept the floor (and swiffer wet-jetted!) and somehow managed to miss it. It's still there.

And I know it's been there for a month, because I even remember the night I dropped it. I came back from Quaker Steak N' Lube slightly inebriated A MONTH AGO..and managed to spill most of the bottle on the floor before I went to bed...and I woke up to errant Taco Bell tomatoes on my couch (we've all been there), and ibuprophen all over my floor.

There's no deeper meaning to this, I'm just trying to demonstate how utterly lazy I can be sometimes.

Caturday.

Jesus Friday.

My coworker Sam is very active in his church, and was picked for the part of Jesus for this year's Easter play. He asked us to come, and me and a few friends went last night because I knew how important it was to him. Here's a picture of him in the play...Hmm...I wonder WHY he got the part of Jesus? HE LOOKS JUST LIKE HIM.

Dare I Delete?

So, my friend in D.C and I were G-Chatting yesterday, and I won't go into details about how it got brought up, but she said I need to delete Felix from my Facebook friends. I know that I probably should, but for some reason I just CAN'T. He's not even active on it. And he didn't even GET a Facebook page until after we broke up. BUT- I do admit I look at it..several times...a day. Sigh. I think part of me hopes he looks at MY Facebook page and maybe gets a little depressed about how much FUN I'm obviously having... It's comforting somehow.

Then I Read This.

I know I'm gonna have to do the dump and delete. Someday.

Time to Vent.

I REALLY need to vent a little here. I wish I could go into more detail, but for the sake of my job, I can't.

so there's this person who thrives on hatred. I just don't get it. It's poison. I feel like it's such a complete waste of time and energy to HATE someone so much. There are plenty of people I dislike, so what do I do? I don't talk to them. Or I vent to my mom, or a close friend. I don't spew hatred out of my mouth to anyone who will listen. It's uncalled for and it's NOT HEALTHY. It's also completely unprofessional. I'm sick of hearing the same stories over and over and hearing the same insults, one after another. GET A LIFE. It makes me wonder what happened to this person in the past that makes he/she so mean now. And even if he/she HAS been through alot, I'm sorry but it's not an excuse to be a hateful person. We've all been through some shit, and you overcome it. You don't dwell on it, and you don't let it simmer and fester. You try and get over it. I used to feel sorry for this person, but anymore I'm just done. DONE. I avoid contact with this person at all cost, but trust me, given my work situation, I can't avoid them completely. It's gotten to the point lately where I dread coming into work because it's turned into such a toxic environment. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Ok, I'm done venting. Sorry 'bout that.

Random Thoughts for Tuesday.

***I've had a stiff neck for three days now and I've been waking up with awful headaches. So, if I miss a blog post, it's because I've died of spinal meningitis.

***I'm watching American Idol right now and I CANNOT believe they picked Miley Cyrus as one of the artists to mentor the singers. Miley Cyrus? Really? And this young girl singing the Phil Collins song? She should've gone home a long time ago, and if she doesn't this week, somethings up because she's TERRIBLE.

***I also am feeling anxious and my chest feels congested. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I'm probably dying.

***Speaking of dying, I have an irrational crazy fear of my parents dying. I know everyone is scared of that, but I worry about it all the time.

***Oh Snap! Randy Jackson just told this girl she was TERRIBLE. YES!

***I realize this is a sorry excuse for a blog post, you don't have to tell me.

*** That girl's name is Paige (on American Idol), Simon just said it and I figured I'd point out who I was talking to.

***Ortega makes a jarred guacamole. It's not very good. Don't waste your money.

***Did you realize the only difference between fat free refried beans and regular is .5 grams of fat? What's the point?

***I watched the first two episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". Seems like a decent show. Everyone says it's amazing so I'm going to stick with it.

***I HATE Tuesdays.

***That is all.

Happy Music Monday!!!

Today's pick is courtesy of my wonderful friend Sally!

In Repair.

This song has been on my ipod for years (not kidding) and I never really listened to it. I finally did on my way home to PA over the weekend, and it's one of those songs I feel John Mayer wrote just for me..LOVE the lyrics, so I'm gonna be super corny and post them:

Too many shadows in my room
Too many hours in this midnight
Too many corners in my mind
So much to do to set my heart right
Oh it's taking so long i could be wrong, i could be ready
Oh but if i take my heart's advice
I should assume it's still unsteady
I am in repair, i am in repair

Stood on the corner for a while
To wait for the wind to blow down on me
Hoping it takes with it my old ways
And brings some brand new look upon me
Oh it's taking so long i could be wrong, i could be ready
Oh but if i take my heart's advice
I should assume it's still unsteady
I am in repair, i am in repair

And now i'm walking in a park
All of the birds they dance below me
Maybe when things turn green again
It will be good to say you know me

Oh it's taking so long i could be wrong, i could be ready
Oh but if i take my heart's advice
I should assume it's still unready
Oh i'm never really ready, i'm never really ready
I'm in repair, i'm not together but i'm getting there
I'm in repair, i'm not together but i'm getting there

Caturday.

Crap Post.

It's a beautiful day, I'm running late, and remembered I had to blog. So here it is: I have 42 posts left until this Blogging for a Year Project is over.

I feel like I should throw a party or something. I know it's going to be super anticlimactic and I'll just wake up one day and be like, "Oh. I don't have to blog."

There's something sad about that.

The Aftermath.

I COULD be getting sick, but I think I'm just lame.

I was a WRECK today. I didn't get out bed until almost 6:30 pm (as opposed to 4:00 pm at the LATEST), and I sat in my robe and watched TV until 9:00pm, when I FINALLY got up and took a shower and got ready for work.

I watched The Biggest Loser instead of working out (in case you didn't know, those two things really DON'T equal each other out).

My laziness and grouchiness could be one of three things.

1. PMS.
Very possible choice.

2. Cold.
Ehhh, I don't get sick that often.

3. I'm totally getting old and can't get less than 5 hours of sleep and run all over the countryside celebrating St. Patrick's Day and then going into work later that night (and yes, only drinking one beer).

I go with #3!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

I've never seen St. Patrick's Day celebrated like it is in Youngstown. Yes, I'm aware places like Boston, NYC, and Chicago, even Pittsburgh have amazing celebrations celebrating the luck o' the Irish, but I've never been to any of these celebrations.

People here go CRAZY over it. And I never really get to celebrate because it usually falls on a weekday and I've yet to deem it worthy of a vacation day. ALTHOUGH-- now that I'm thinking about it, I did go to Erie one year to celebrate with Sivillo and pushed him off the porch into a mountain of lake-effect snow in front of all his friends. Now THAT was a good St. Patty's Day, folks.

Anyway-- I didn't really have any plans this year, being St. Patrick's Day fell on a Wednesday, and I'm trying to save up my vacation days just in case I end up needing them for some sort of move sometime this year....

So, when my friend Sally asked me Sunday if I wanted to go to a Cleveland Cavaliers game, at first I thought, no, definately not. I'd have to wake up super early, and get back in time to go to work. But the more I thought about it, I figured, why not? What could be better than going to Cleveland on St. Patrick's Day to see LeBron James? (well, there are a lot of better things, actually, but I've never been to any kind of NBA or NFL game and figured it'd be a good time.)

We left Youngstown around 3:00 in the afternoon and headed to the Winking Lizard right by Quicken Loans Arena (I quickly learned that I needed to call it "The Q" to avoid being laughed at by the locals).

Downtown was NUTS. There were drunk people EVERYWHERE. All the bars were wall to wall, and I loved it! We headed into the Winking Lizard for dinner, but obviously couldn't get a table, so we ordered a few pizzas, got a few green beers (I've never had green beer before!! Me? Love of beer! First time!) and headed to The Q.

I LOVED IT.

The game was soooo much fun and our seats were SUPER high up. I can't imagine what it would be like to be courtside. Here are a few pictures

This guy was some random dude at the bar who was SOOO drunk he could barely stand. He kept trying to pull his shirt down to no avail. My friend Tina went over and dropped a drink stirrer in his crack and it stayed there the rest of the night..at least, it was still there when we left.

Me, Sally, and Tina...notice I'm rockin' the Cavs gear. Brought to you by Wal-Mart. $12 thankyouverymuch.

My first ever green beer. Somehow, the green food coloring made it taste THAT much better.

The view from our seats. Totally up high, but for $28 bucks? It was still super cool.

Tastefully Expensive!

I feel like the older we women get, the more Tupperware Parties we have. And by Tupperware Parties I mean jewelry-food-stupid-kitchen-utensils-nobody-uses parties. I promise you friends, I will NEVER throw one of these parties. Not that I mind that YOU have one, I will come and apparently spend my very hard-earned money on all your crap you're doling out.

My friend Lyz had a Tastefully Simple party tonight. I had it in my mind I would NOT buy more than $20 worth of stuff. Then the taste-testing began. That stuff was GOOD!!! The best part? Everything is a mix, and you only need to add two MAYBE three ingredients!

AND THEY HAD BUCKETS....BUCKETS!!! OF SANGRIA!!!

$65 dollars later, I'm hoping my checking account doesn't overdraw before I get paid on Friday. Womp womp. Foiled again, Wynkoop, foiled again.

Happy Music Monday!!!

Since we're on the subject of dreams, today's Happy Music Monday has to do with yet ANOTHER weird dream I had the other day.

First, watch this video then read on:



Ok, so in my dream, I was visiting Pat and the boys in Connecticut and they had a party. Luckily, I had my acoustic guitar handy, because Pat and I decided to do an acoustic rendition of the above song. It was hysterical. I sang and played guitar while Pat did the rap at the end and snapped. Kind of like THIS video:

Analyze This.

I had the WEIRDEST, most VIVID dream today during my nap before work. I had a dream that I was driving home to Youngstown from my parents house in western Pennsylvania, and I decided to take a shortcut I had recently learned, that involved a big hill and a dirt road.

During my drive, I heard on the radio to be on the lookout because Siberian Tigers had been spotted in the area carrying flashlights. I remember I was like, "Seriously? Siberian Tigers? Whatever. There are no tigers in Pennsylvania."

So, as I turn onto this dirt road "shortcut" to my house, I see a tiger walking along the side of the road, with a flashlight in its mouth, pacing back and forth like it's shining the light on the road and looking for something. I'm all, "Holy SHIT! A tiger! What do I do? I guess I'll drive around it". I start driving past it, and it started growling at me. I was looking out my window at the tiger, so I wasn't looking straight ahead...at the last second, I look up and there is ANOTHER tiger standing in the middle of the road. I almost hit it, and it jumped out of my way at the last second.

I continue driving down the road, and see all these people walking and want to stop and say, "Don't walk on the road, there's tigers around here!" But for some reason, I didn't. My phone starts ringing right as I'm pulling into this old-fashioned convenience store, and I look at the caller ID and see it's Felix. Since he hasn't called me in months, I was concerned something was wrong, so try to answer the phone, but my phone won't let me pick up the call. It's ringing and ringing, and I can't answer it, so finally I pull into this little driveway by the store. My phone finally picks up and here is the conversation:

Me: Hello?
Felix: HEY!!
Me: Hi! how are you?
Felix: I'm good. I just have some exciting news.
Me: Really? What is it?
Felix: I finally grew up, ash!
Me: WOW! Congratulations!
Felix: Yeah, I wanted you to know that before I posted it online. I just didn't want you to find out that way.
Me: well thanks for the call, watch out for tigers.
Felix: Tigers don't scare me.
Me: well I saw them, and they're scary!
Felix: see ya.

After I hang up the phone, a woman taps my window. I look up and roll down my window a little bit. She started yelling at me and said, "If you're not going to buy something at the store, you NEED to leave!"

For some reason, this caused me to floor my car, and I begin driving up this long, windy road. All of a sudden, my car gets stuck in the mud and I can't drive through it.

That's all I remember of the dream.

Someone please tell me what it means!

Caturday.

Two Monks by the River.

I was told this story last night, and it really kind of hit home. I'm surprised I had never heard it before. Thought I'd share:


A young Buddhist monk walked with an elder monk on their way
back to their temple after several days of travel. On the way,
they came to a creek bed, the banks of which had softened to a
wet, slushy mess. At the edge of the creek stood an attractive
young woman dressed in traditional gowns, who was obviously
wanting to cross the water but had no idea how to contend with
the mud. If she attempted to traverse it, her legs would surely
sink shin-deep into the muck.

As they approached the young lady, the younger monk averted his
eyes and looked down, for theirs was a stern discipline, and
monks were not allowed to gaze upon a woman, let alone speak to
or interact with her, particularly when the woman was as
fetching and young as this one. To his horror, however, the
older monk walked straight toward the woman and asked her if she
needed to cross.

The woman shyly said yes, and without another
word, he hoisted her piggy-style onto his back and carried the
woman across the creek. The younger monk followed them across
the creek, stunned. Once on the other side, the woman profusely
thanked her new friend, shook his hand, and resumed her journey,
disappearing into the trees.

The young man was aghast, but respectful of his elder, he held
his tongue. For three hours they walked side by side, all the
while the student confused as to how his companion could so
flagrantly violate one of the cardinal rules of their temple.
The older one had, after all, not only engaged the woman, he had
spoken to her, and then not only did he touch her, he carried
her on his back! How could such a thing be justified?!

For another hour they walked in total silence, and finally came
the point when the young man could stand it no longer. He
stepped forward two paces and then whirled on his walking
companion to face him in anger.

"How could you do that?!" he shouted.

"Do what?" asked the older monk, looking at him.

He rolled his eyes. "It is a sin to touch a woman, a violation
to even gaze upon her, and yet you spoke with her.
You...you...shook her hand!" He sputtered in his anger. "You
carried her across the creek! YOU CARRIED HER!!"

"And you still carry her," said his older friend, smiling the
faintest of smiles and bowing slightly. "I left her back at the
river."

So, in other words, quit carrying around the baggage you can't change, the situations you can't control. Let it go. You're missing out on what's around you if you're too busy dwelling on what happened in the past.

I Just Don't Think He's That Into Her.

This very well may be the most pointless, dumb blog I've ever posted. But let's face it, I've got mere DAYS (the rest of March and April) of blogging left and I feel like I've exhausted a lot of topics.

Anyway, Justin Timberlake came on Pandora a few minutes ago, and it was "My Love". I remember Scarlet Johanson was in the video and there were rumors they were screwing around on set. So THAT thought led me to think about he and Jessica Beal.

I just don't think he's that into her.

Don't ask me HOW I know, I just have a feeling. And I'm usually right about these things. (I totally called the Garth Brooks/Trisha Yearwood relationship when I was like, 7. Ask my mom. There was just something really funny how she was singing backup in ALL of his songs...but I digress).

I mean, LOOK at this picture. She's hanging onto him for dear life, and he's totally uninterested. Granted, I may have become somewhat of an expert at turning a blind eye and holding on to a man for dear life, but STILL. Come on, Jess. Grow some balls. He keeps you around as arm candy. He's not going to marry you.

Even more proof: He just signed on to do a movie with his ex, Cameron Diaz. Really? Come on, he's TOTALLY trying to get rid of Jessica without being the bad guy.

And that is the end to the dumbest, shallowest blog I could think of. Sorry for wasting 47 seconds of your life if you made it this far.

Face is STILL Exploding.

Around two or three months ago, I wrote about going to the dermatologist and how I thought he was an idiot.

Two months later, my face still looks horrific (thank God for makeup), and a new dermatologist has confirmed my old dermatologists idiocy.

I finally went to the "good" derm that everyone recommends. I didn't go to her before because it was impossible to get an appointment, and then when I finally had one, I accidentally missed it.

So, I go in and she asked me what my former doctor had prescribed. After I told her, she said: "Are you sure?!" and I told her yes, I was sure, because I knew she was going to ask and I doublechecked before I went. Turns out (at least in her opinion), my doctor wasn't prescribing me enough of an antibiotic to actually get RID of the acne, but just enough of an antibiotic to bring all the bacteria to the surface. Causing more acne. Which is why my face actually got WORSE.

Awesome.

I am now on a new antibiotic called Solodyn, which gets both rave and horrible reviews online. Either my skin is going to be AMAZING in eight weeks, or all my hair is going to fall out and my kidneys are going to fail.

Oh, the things we do for beauty.

Best. Website. Ever.

I had to find another good website to read because I've read every single "Texts From Last Night" about a gazillion times...so I was super excited when a coworker introduced me to www.failbooking.com. Mom, don't even bother checking this out, because you don't have Facebook, and you won't understand a lot of it. But for the rest of you, if you haven't found this website yet, you'll thank me later.

Any other recommendations??

Happy Music Monday!!

This week's selection comes from Sivillo...and I'm just taking his word for it that it's a good song. I didn't have the chance to listen to it, and I just realized it's almost midnight and had to get my post online!

This About Sums Up Where I Live...

On the Edge of Apocalypse.

By the way my Friday started, I felt for SURE this weekend was going to end up being WEAK. As most of you know, I get off work at 7 am, and on Fridays I wake up around noon, so there's SOME chance I MIGHT sleep Friday night.

I woke up at 11:30 on the dot this morning, because the power went out. Keep in mind, since I work overnights, my bedroom window is covered with blackout curtains. The only other window in my entire apartment is a sliding glass door in my living room. So, the bedroom and bathroom are PITCH BLACK. I figured I'd fall back asleep for awhile, since I wanted to wake up and work out, and it's kind of hard to do a Jillian Michaels DVD with no power. I doze off until around 12:35, the power is STILL off. So, I do the best I can to put some makeup on in the dark, throw some clothes on, and head out to run some errands. I couldn't make coffee because THERE WAS NO POWER, so I pulled into Dunkin Donuts. Closed. Why? Power outage. Crap. So I head across the street to my bank because I need some check register books. Closed. Why? Power outage. Apparently 10,000 people were without power because a main transformer blew (found that out thanks to the lady smokin' a cig outside of PNC Bank).
By this time I'm HIGHLY agitated. So, I head to the mall. Being that I felt ugly and dirty and had no caffeine, naturally EVERYTHING I tried on was ugly on me, and I came home with a scarf. That was it. I stopped and spent 4 bucks on a crappy skinny latte at Starbucks, and prayed the power would be back on when I went home.

It wasn't.

By this time my laptop was dying, my BlackBerry was dying, and I STILL couldn't shower because I wouldn't be able to blow dry my hair. Needless to say, I was getting furious.

I send a frantic text to my friend Susan to see if I could go over there to shower and get ready before we headed out for the night, and low and behold..what do you know? Everything electronic in my home suddenly flickered to life!!

I still had time to workout, and now I can shower and get ready for the weekend in the privacy of my own home. This weekend is looking up!

My Sister is Funny.

So, you know those email forwards that ask questions about you, and you fill 'em out and send them to all your friends? Well, my sister Morgan LOVES them.

They always make me laugh because her answers are always hysterical. Here are a few of my favorites:

Q: List some names you go by?
One of her answers: BTG (stands for "bug turd girl"...never heard this nickname before)

Q: List three things you're wearing
A: Underwear, pj's, a puppy (I didn't know you could wear a puppy...and when did my parents get a dog?!)

Q: Two things you dislike today:
A: snow, most people

My Mom is the Best.

My mom sent me a card in the mail the other day. You know those long, skinny cards you know immediately are going to make you cry? Yup, it was one of those. This is what it said (and I hope she doesn't get mad at me for putting something personal she gave me on this blog...but SHE didn't write it, so I think it's ok):

Daughter,
You're an original.
You have your own special way
of doing things,
expressing your needs,
looking at the world.
I've always loved that about you.
By being who you are,
you bring excitement to life.
You stand by your own values,
view life from your own fresh perspective,
and invigorate the people around you.
From the very first,
I've admired you,
enjoyed and been so proud of you,
And as the years go by,
my love for you only grows deeper-
my honest, amazing, truly original daughter.


Is that not he GREATEST card ever?? And if she even means a LINE of that, it's worth it and makes me happy. Thanks mom for making my day. I love you!

This Could Be It!

I'm not gonna lie..blogging has been the bane of my existence lately. I'm not diggin' it. BUT- it'll pass and I'll be blogging up a storm in no-time.

For now, there's an opportunity that has opened up that I REALLY REALLY REALLY want. I can't say what it is right now, but please, if you're the praying type...say a little prayer for me, and keep your fingers crossed.

Happy Music Monday!!!

I heard Justin Timberlake's "Rock Your Body" on Pandora today, and I had to smile because this song reminds me of Becky and how, in high school, she used to stick metal tacks in the bottom of her shoes and pretend she knew how to tap dance.