Friday Eve

After navigating a long and winding work week, it's finally Thursday!  I do love a good thursday, as it's Friday Eve.  :-)  Work has been fairly non-descript this week, which I suppose can be a good thing on occasion.  I am definitely ready for my long weekend, though.

I leave bright and early Saturday morning for Kansas City for the wedding.  Still hammering out a couple of details (car rental v. airport shuttle), but I'm mostly situated, aside from needing to pack tomorrow night.  I do at least have a packing list in the works.  Tomorrow night will likely be pretty busy once I get home from work.  I'll need to paint my nails (last second so they have less time to chip!) and get packed.  I'll also want to spend some quality time with BF and J before I'm gone for a couple of brief days.  :-)

I'm glad my dress is of the non-wrinkly variety, as I will likely be packing it in my bag (carry-on only) and changing upon arrival.  I have some super cute bright pink heels to pair with it since it's just black and white and I needed a pop of color.  Hoping to decide on some fun jewelry to finish out the look.  Undecided so far on my clothes for the rest of the weekend, though.  I want to bring something cute to wear out Saturday night, as we're supposed to go out for drinks and things with the bride and groom on the Country Club Plaza.  Sunday will be clothes for KC exploration with my awesome friend, T, so nothing fancy, just comfortable, and Monday is early morning flying so....not a lot of concern there.

I also got a super cute pair of shoes from Payless.  Good spot to shop for trendier looking shoes that I don't expect or need to live forever! I'm hoping to maybe get away with wearing them Saturday night, but depending on where we'll going I'll decide if it's worth the risk.  Cheap, Cute Shoes!

Last night after dinner I decided to go check out the gym I'm looking into.  I got a two week trial pass that started yesterday.  I wasn't SUPER excited to go back out into the gloomy weather after a long commute home, but I'm really glad I did!  I actually really like the gym.  It's much smaller than my previous gym, and even smaller than the other local gym I looked into, but it has a much better vibe for me than the other one.  The cardio machines are really nice with built in TVs and internet/bluetooth/etc. capabilities, and the weight machines count your reps for you and time out your breaks between sets.  They have a lot of other equipment I like, too, ie resistance bands, Bosu balls, exercise balls, steps, etc.

I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and then spent about 20 minutes doing a handful of weight machines.  I have to say that it felt really good to be back at the gym.  For me, there's such a huge difference in motivation between working out at home and working out in a gym environment.  I like being there with others doing the same thing, I like the options, and I really just liked this place.  All that on day one of my trial!  At this point I'm pretty certain I'll be joining the gym once the trial runs out.  Unfortunately it is not any cheaper than the other local gym, which is almost 3 times the monthly cost of my previous gym.  However, since I am not doing the trainer thing anymore, I'm still coming out saving money compared to my previous workout expenses.

I also forgot how invigorating a good workout could be.  After work I was tired and moody (yay, hormones!).  But after the gym I felt so much better---stronger, clear-headed and proud of myself for getting back to something that I really need and really enjoy...even if I dread it until I'm there.  I was also happy that I didn't feel intimidated about using the weight machines--maybe because it's a smaller gym?  Or maybe I just don't care anymore, and I know that I know what I'm doing.

I did have to take a moment to order an armband for my ipod touch while I was on the elliptical. Now that I'll be responsible for doing weights on my own, carrying around a loose ipod like I did with trainer isn't a great plan.  Luckily it was cheap and thanks to Amazon Prime it will be here tomorrow.  :-)

I guess that's all I know for now.  I get the joy of taking a field trip to the DC Office of Public Schools this afternoon over lunch to get fingerprinted for my firm's volunteering project we do with an area school.  I had to get a TB test for this as well, and I went over Tuesday to do this originally.  I took a cab in the interest of time and was the next in line to get printed when...the power went out! There ended up being quite widespread power outages in various parts of DC, and I was lucky enough to be part of that.  I waited for about half an hour, but gave up because I had to get back to work.  Took Metro back and now because of said power outage I have to go back today.  SIGH.

Tonight's plan:  Mahi-mahi fish tacos for dinner with BF.  Gym?  Laundry!