Merry Christmas!

Hey fools! Sorry for the silence lately. I don't know what happened!

My Christmas Pajama Party was soooooo fun!



I made all the treats I said I would, and the spiked hot chocolate. I then asked everyone to bring a bottle of wine to share since I don't have the money to provide everyone with alcohol beyond the spiked hot chocolate (which was amazing. Spiked with salted caramel vodka. Hello.), annnnnnnd the next day I counted 8 empty bottles of wine. EIGHT! Yep. Sooooooo you can all imagine how the night turned out :) It was awesome.

I also may have stolen the dirty santa gift that I bought. Don't judge me. I'm a good gift-picker ok?

Anyhoo. I've been running semi-regularly, but lessssbe honest. I've been eating horribly. We had our Secret Santa exchange and party in my office last Wednesday and there are STILL leftover treats. On the desk next to me, of course. Eff.

Funny running story though (which you've probably already seen if you follow me on IG)...So when I was a little girl, like 3 years old, I went to the park with my mom to feed ducks. Well, there were also geese, which are big and mean. The geese bullied the ducks and then chased after me when I refused to give them any of my bread. THEY CHASED ME. And I still wouldn't give the bread up. Luckily I got away, but the deep-rooted fear of geese has stuck with me. So I've been going to the lake by my house to run, and there's this little trail that goes down along the water at some points. I like to take it because it avoids a big unnecessary hill (yes, I just called a hill unnecessary) and I thought I was going to run through a group of harmless ducks. Well when I got close (like within a few feet close) one of them stood up and gave me a death stare and I realized it was a giant goose!


That big white one is the bitch that stared me down.

So, I screamed. Like, literally screamed, and ran in the other direction, up the unnecessary hill. Luckily the geese have been in the water the last few times I've gone. But that was terrifying.

Something else that's happened since I took an unexpected hiatus was this Phil Robertson-Duck-Dynasty mess. I'm sure you all can assume that I think it's a giant crock of shit and I hope A&E loses enough money to make it go belly-up altogether as a result of making the decision they did. I am currently boycotting the show, and I sure hope y'all are too.

But if you aren't, I still love you. Because just because you don't agree with a person's lifestyle or their views on things doesn't mean you can't love them, be friends with them, or anything else! IMAGINE THAT.


Amen, Pastor Warren.

Anyway, I can't believe it's already Christmas Eve. The holidays went by way too quickly this year. I'm exited to go to church tonight and then spend tomorrow with our family friends :) I hope y'all have a wonderful Christmas too, and please send up a prayer for our military men and women who won't get to be home this Christmas and New Years!






Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!!!

tGIF!

Thank God it's Friday, fools! This has been a long week. Idk why. But I'm super happy it's Friday!! And because I'm feeling clever, as I TGIF, I will post some of my favorites gifs from this week :)

As Andy Cohen said on WWHL on Monday after the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Kim just gave too many gif opportunities to count:





And I just love Honey Boo Boo and Mama June. Hate all you want, but if more women could think like this, we would probably all be in a much better mental state:


All above courtesy of Reality TV Gifs

And some of my favorites from What Should We Call Me:

Every time I think I have my life together

When I realize next year is less than 3 weeks away


Annnnnnnd not what the blog used it for but how I feel about effing Kanye West after his whole "I put my life on the line every time I go onstage. I'm like a police officer or a soldier" comment:


Seriously. I have to get on my soapbox about Kanye. I cannot tell you how fucking insulting it is to have numerous family members and friends who actually DO and HAVE put their lives on the line every single day being in the military or police force, and have this delusional prick say something like this.

Moving on.



I want to tell y'all about my pre-work adventure yesterday. I decided not to include this story in yesterday's linkup post because, well, that was about Christmas and I didn't want to ruin the mood. So yesterday I went to the doctor before work to get my birth control prescription renewed. I thought I would just go in, get the prescription, and leave. Luckily I scheduled it 2 hours before I needed to be at work because my doctor said I was overdue for a pap smear (by ONE FREAKING MONTH) and she wanted to do a pelvic exam. And a breast exam. So before I knew what hit me I had my doctor all up in my business. It was not fun at all. THEN she proceeded to terrify me into getting the HPV shots. I had no idea that that shot is like the most painful shot known to man. I still feel like I got punched in the friggen arm a whole day later.

Anyway. Yesterday morning was not fun. But, better safe than sorry I guess.

This morning I got up and went to the lake by my house, knowing I would run it twice for 1.5 miles. It was perfect weather. I was fully planning on tracking it and timing it. And then I pulled up and immediately felt like I needed to go, if ya catch my drift. I decided to try and just get it done anyway, but I was scared because of all the horror stories I've read of having to go poo mid-run. I mean of course the park has a porta-potty, but ummmmm gross. And I bet there isn't toilet paper. So I decided to not track it just in case. Luckily I had no accidents, and I kind of wish I had tracked it because I think my mile time is slowly but surely improving. Oh well, there's always next time :)

Alright fools. Have a wonderful weekend. I promise to try to be a good blogger and takes lots of pictures of my Christmas Pajama Party tomorrow night!

Christmas Finish-the-Sentence

Hey fools. Today I'm partaking in another one of Holly and Jake's Finish the Sentence Linkups, because I like them.

And this time it's Christmas-themed!



1. My favorite Christmas was....1997, when I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of a crying puppy outside my door. I found the cutest, sweetest little puppy ever. My uncle had "played Santa" and brought him over in the middle of the night, so I legitimitely thought Santa had brought him. He also had a big bow tied around his neck. I named him Buddy, and he was with us for 12 wonderful years :)



2. The worst Christmas I had...I think I was maybe 8 or 9 years old and on Christmas Eve I got the stomach flu. I was puking (and other things) all night. I felt better the next day, but it sucked in the moment.

3. That one gift that made me scratch my head and say, "Hmmmm" was...I honestly don't know the answer to this one.

4. One year I....Knew one of my gifts from my dad was the new Gwen Stefani CD (so I was about 14) and I just couldn't wait till Christmas to listen to it. So I carefully unwrapped it, downloaded it onto my iTunes, and re-wrapped it and stuck it back under the tree. Yep.

5. I think the worst gift to give is....GIFT CARDS. I. HATE. GIFT. CARDS. Seriously, I think they're the most thoughtless present you can give someone. Sorry for my rant.

6. At Christmastime I typically....Go nuts with decorations and play Christmas music as soon as (and sometimes earlier than) it's somewhat socially acceptable.

7. Typically, family Christmas....I haven't had to worry about this yet. We have no family here so we usually spend Christmas morning just my mom and I (now that grandma's in the nursing home), go visit her, and then go to my non-biological aunt and uncle's house, where we drink lots of wine and eat lots of good food.

8. If I could change one thing about the Holiday season....Ummmmm it would last longer!! And people wouldn't get so crazy about shopping and instead focus on what it's all about.

9. It is so hard to buy for....my dad. I've made a tradition out of buying him boxer shorts that are funny, because he never wants anything. He's a very simple being. He likes to be outside, naked. Yes, he's a nudist. Don't ask.

10. My favorite Christmas tradition is... Going to church on Christmas Eve. I know, not very exciting. But I just love it. My church is pretty over-the-top on Christmas and usually there's thousands of people that show up, and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

11. Santa, baby, bring me a .... fat wad of money so I can pay off my debts! Also, the man of my dreams, please.



Alright, that's all for me! Hope everyone's having a great Thursday and I can't wait to read everyone's posts!

Trying to get serious.

Wellp, it's Wednesday again so I weighed in. And again, no change.

I know why. It's because I'm not being aggressive with my diet. I'm eating well so I can eat bad things and/or drink, and running to also cancel that out. I know it will all be better after the holidays but geesh. This is like the 3rd or 4th week of no change. Guess I need to really start taking my diet seriously.

But Monday I got up and ran a mile around the neighborhood, and today I went to the lake by my house. I was shocked at how many people were there at 9:30 on a weekday................but that speaks to the kind of neighborhood I live in, if ya catch my drift.

Anyhoo, I wrote before that it's a mile loop. Then before I went I looked on the lake's website and it said it was a 2 mile loop. Then while I was running I thought "there's no way this is 2 miles because I haven't been running long enough." So I went around again and stopped halfway, and then looked at my Nike App to see this:

Wommmmmp wommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmp.

I walked back to the start (where the green area is in that corner) and passed a sign that said "Lake Chollas Running Trail: 1 Lap=.8 miles, 2 Laps=1.6 miles..." and so on and so forth. So, both of the information I had was wrong. I wasn't necessarily mad, but just a little aggravated I didn't know that before because I didn't walk by that sign when I started, and then when I passed it and kept going I didn't even notice it. But at least now I know for next time, I need to go around twice to get my 1.5 miles in for my 5K training. Which I wrote about on Monday.

Anyway, at least I had a nice view today, not of the trailer park

It's a gorgeous day today (finally). It's going to be in the upper-60s at the beach. Holllaaaaaa. (I work at the beach).

In completely unrelated news and just because I need to get it off my chest: We're probably going to be putting my sweet kitty, Jewel, down this week or next. I don't know if I've ever written about her on here, but she's been in my life for 15 years. That's the majority of my life, people. That's a long time. We got her when she was a kitten right after we got my childhood dog, Buddy. Buddy passed away two and a half years ago and at first Jewel was devastated (like my mom and I) but then she got used to being the queen of the castle, basically. So, when I got Winnie, she was pissed. She never liked Winnie, but it wasn't until I took Winnie to Memphis and brought her back 6 months later that Jewel got seriously mad. She didn't mind my mom's dog (probably because she can tell he's too stupid to do anything to her. Winnie is smart.) but she hated Winnie. She started refusing to leave my mom's room and peeing on my mom's bed out of spite eeevvvverrrryyyy single day. So we moved all her stuff into my bathroom and that has been where she lives for the last 6 months or so. I hate that she's stuck in there, but she just couldn't be trusted. Recently, she started having obvious mobility issues. She's stopped trying to get on the counter because, well, she can't. When she tries to walk she basically drags her butt around. She can get in and out of the litterbox sometimes, so there's always a mess to clean up. And the last couple days it's gotten really bad. And it's become clear she can't even control it anymore. I've been saying for a while that we need to put her down and I think my mom might finally be on-board. Of course we go in and spend time with her every day, and I see her every time I go into the bathroom, but she's not happy anymore and on top of that she's losing control of all her functions anyway. She's 15, too, so I know it's just about that time for her. But it doesn't make it any less sad.

Alrighty fools, that's all I got for today. Hope y'all are having a better week than me. Say a little prayer for Jewel if you have a heart for animals. I just want her to know how much I love her.

I'm feelin' Christmassy

Whaaaat I'm posting on a Tuesday??? When was the last time this happened.......

Anyhoo. I'm feeling all Christmassy today since we finally started decorating. My mom scheduled our carpets to get cleaned yesterday, so we didn't want to put the tree up and have to somehow move it off the carpet, fully decorated. So last night, we started decorating.

We have a nice fake tree, but I like real ones better. Last year we got a gorgeous real tree, but this year my mom won the battle and we put up the fake one (which is more of a hassle than wrestling a real one, in my opinion!). In the last few years we've acquired a theme for our tree, and therefore the rest of our house. It's blue, silver, and white and very pretty and classy. But I'm over it. I wanted to use all my grandma's old ornaments and go for a more classic Christmas theme. My mom thought that meant tacky, because she's dumb. Just kidding, but she didn't get my vision at all until this morning (when we decorated). Anyway, it's not done yet, but this is what we have so far:



It's hard to tell in the picture but the string lights over the TV have clear bulb ornaments around them. It's like a Christmas orgnament garland. I love it.

I also want to add this to the tree:

source

But maybe have it say "Merry Christmas" instead of Tis the Season. BTW, that's my dream tree.

I will have to get that done by this weekend because as I mentioned yesterday, Saturday is my 2nd Annual Christmas Pajama Party!!! I'm soooo excited!!! Last year was so much fun. I made sweet treats and invited my girlfriends over for a Dirty Santa exchange (like white elephant but with legit gifts, not joke gifts) and games. This year more girls will be coming, so I'm starting to freak out a little bit about the food situation. So far this is my menu, thanks to Pinterest:


source

Chocolate Peppermint Bark:

source

Red Velvet Cheese Ball:

source


And spiked hot chocolate with this stuff on top:
source

So yeah. It should be a good time. We'll probably play Cards Against Humanity (I know, not very Christmassy. But it's so much fun!) and drink lotsa wine, but we'll be in our Christmas PJ's and it will be a good time :)

I'm pretty excited to bust out my Christmas Story onesie.

Yes, it has leg lamps and bunny slippers all over it.

So anyway, I'll try my hardest to be a good blogger and take lots of pictures.

See y'all tomorrow for Weigh In Wednesday!

It has begun (again).

Hey fools.

Hope y'all had a great weekend :) Mine was good, but not because of December Nights. I've talked about my issues with the San Diego Alumnae chapter of my sorority and Friday night didn't make it any better. The president didn't plan anything. We all discussed going as a group a month ago at our meeting (which SHE held to get the chapter organized) and I made a newsletter with that explicitly on there, and then I text her on Thursday and she says she doesn't know if she's going or not. I went with Lindsey, we met up with one other girl, and none of the other women said anything about going or not going. Turns out, the president went both nights, just didn't tell us. And either way, December Nights sucked. When I was younger, it was actually called Christmas On the Prado. Then they had to make it all PC and shit and it was basically a giant Octoberfest. There were a bunch of fried food stands and small businesses selling their stuff. There was no caroling, no performances at the Organ Pavillion (it was just lit up with a tree), and no live nativity. Heaven forbid anything at a public park endorse a Christian holiday.

So, we spent an hour at the Beer Garden (see? Octoberfest.) before we bounced. Needless to say I was disappointed and will not be turning that into a Christmastime tradition.

Anyway. The rest of my weekend was fun. I wanted to get decorating done but we're having the carpet cleaned today so it's going to have to wait until tomorrow morning (not very Christmassy right?). But I'm super excited because I'm having my 2nd-annual Christmas Pajama Party this weekend!!!! I'll post more details tomorrow :)

So anyway, I found a 5K in the beginning of February called the Mermaid Run. It's all women, there's no cut-off time (it's also a marathon and half-marathon, and there's a 1-miler for little girls) and it just sounds like a good race to be my first. Brittany and Lindsey say they'll do it with me, so we will see.

This morning marked day 1 of my 5K training. I made a schedule based on the one Hal Higdon has for beginners. I replaced most of the "walk/run" days with 30 Day Shred, since, ya know, I just stopped doing it halfway through. Some days I may decide to just go for a walk, but I'm putting it on the schedule to hopefully just keep me on track:

I know with the holidays coming up (and therefore my work schedule getting a little out-of-whack), it may be difficult to completely stick to this schedule, but I'm going to try my hardest to make it work. There's a little lake about a mile from my house that's just got a dirt path around it. It's only a 1-mile loop so pushing the distances should be easier than around my neighborhood, which is a 1.3 mile loop and hilly. The loop around the lake is relatively flat, and more interesting scenery than a high-school track. I also fully intend on using the Sunday walks at Mission Trails and hiking.

If you've followed my blog for any of the *almost* year it's been on the internets, you know I haven't stuck to anything I've said I was going to do. But I haven't ever felt like I wanted it like I want to be a runner. I like running, as much as I hate it. I want to be good at it. So I'm really praying I can stick with this.

Anyway, enough rambling from me. If any of you are planning any runs in the near future, tell me! Also, if you've ever used Hal Higdon's training programs, how did they work out for you??

Alrighty fools. Have a great week!

Just some thoughts.

I feel like it's been forever since I've done a post on a Friday. Probably because it has been forever. Anyway. I don't have a whole lot to say today (famous last words), mainly because I set my alarm for 5:15 to go run (I'm working 8-430 today) annnnnnnd when I woke up it was still dark outside and freezing cold (by freezing I mean around 40 degrees) and there was just no way it was going to happen. I don't know how you fools that live anywhere other than So-Cal live. Honestly. When you're raised in this weather, you can't imagine how easy it is to get the shivers! Seriously, I was shivering uncontrollably waiting for my shower to heat up, and it took half the shower to stop!


This was def. me this morning. Source.

I'm sure none of y'all feel for me, and that's ok :) haha.

You all know how obsessed I am with Carrie Underwood. She's just freaking fabulous. Well, I watched the first half of Sound of Music last night when I got home from work before I had to go to bed, and I must say, Carrie Underwood is not an actor. But who gives a fuck. I'm tired of seeing people bashing her and the whole thing. It was supposed to be a fun family event. The music was amazing adn there's no way anyone can deny that. Basically, I think everyone needs to just STFU and be nice for once.



I'm glad she's proud of what she did. She should be. I don't really pay a whole lot of attention to tabloids and celebrity news, but as far as I know she's painfully shy. And I remember how awkward and timid she was when she was on American Idol, so I would imagine doing a LIVE THREE HOUR LONG PRODUCTION of a LEGENDARY musical was a huge leap outside of her comfort zone. Give her a break, people.

Moving on.

Tonight I'm finally going back to December Nights! It's this Christmassy festival type thing at Balboa Park (basically San Diego's version of Central Park). It's been years since I've been.......as in I was in elementary school the last time I went. Parking is always a nightmare, but it's a Kappa Delta Alumnae event and I'm super excited to go. They have (or at least they used to have) a live nativity setup, and Balboa Park also has all these little cottages that represent different countries around the world and they all open up and display their holiday traditions. It's just a really cool thing to go to and it's only 1 weekend a year, so I'm pumped! Here's some pictures I could find (since we all know I'm a terrible blogger when it comes to taking pictures--among other things--and probably will forget to take any tonight):







Do your towns do anything like that for Christmas? We usually have this along with the Holiday of Lights at the Del Mar Racetrack (horse racing), which is always AWESOME. I was so excited to go this year, and I foudn out a few weeks ago they're not doing it because they're widening the track. I'm. So. Bummed!

Anyhoo. Enough rambling. I'll leave you with two of my fav gif's from this week on What Should We Call Me:

Getting in shape--
expectation


reality


Me trying to work on a Friday


Hope y'all had a great week, and have an even better weekend! Stay warm, my bloggy friends!