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Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Evolving Opinions

Four days of work left!

What I really came in here to post is that I've changed my opinion on the book I'm reading, "It Ends With Us".  It suddenly got really good in a totally unexpected way.  It took awhile for it to make that turn, but it did and now I keep thinking about getting back to reading it.  Now mind you, the turn it took was dark and twisty.  However, it's totally compelling and well-written.  I'll try to remember to update once I complete it to see if my overall opinion shifted or not.

In other news, my car is finally getting the second recalled airbag replaced tomorrow.  It will be really nice to have my passenger seat back in commission for our road trip to OBX this weekend.  I get to trek to the dealership in the morning for the recall fix.  Reading time!  Depending on how long it takes I will either go into work after or go home and telework.  Obviously I'd prefer the latter, but we'll see.

Speaking of OBX, they're currently under a Tropical Storm Warning.  I'm really glad this weather is supposed to clear out by the time we head to Duck.  I know there's a second system coming through later this week, but currently they're predicting it to take a turn and head back out before we get there. Crossing fingers!

Monday, August 29, 2016

Five Days

All I need to do this week is get through five work days.  FIVE.  And then vacation time is upon me! 

This weekend was a mix of good and bad.  Friday night BF had his fantasy football draft with his friends, so I spent the evening home with J.  We ordered Chinese food for delivery, chatted and watched a scary movie.  It was nice to have a solo night with her!  Saturday we had to take BF's car to the dealership for an airbag replacement and we ran a couple of errands in the interim. Unfortunately, I got knocked down by a migraine that afternoon and ended up taking a three hour nap to try to kick it.  It only half worked, but I was functional for the rest of the evening.  While I slept BF and J washed all three cars, which was nice!  We spent that night cooking dinner (chicken stuffed with roasted garlic cheese and wrapped in proscuitto, grilled asparagus and a youthful classic of crescent rolls, LOL.

Sunday BF and I ran a couple of errands while J hung out at home and then I got to the gym while he watched the race.  We went to the grocery store and made dinner and had a low key evening.  Sadly, I got hit with yet another doozy of a migraine that woke me at 2:30 am, when I took my migraine meds and went back to sleep.  Woke up feeling better, but it was a rough weekend headache wise.  It's my "migraine week" as I call it, but it was the roughest I've had in awhile! However, I'd much rather have had it this week than next when I'm on vacation!

We tried to watch some of the VMAs last night for some reason, and it was PAINFUL.  It made me feel super old, but I think honestly it was just really poorly done.  I ended up turning it off and just watching the performances I was interested in this morning online.  Much better option.  Good old Britney with the lip syncing, LOL.  However, Beyonce was amazing as always.  

Managed to watch 3 more episodes of "The Night Of" this weekend, but I still have five left including last night's finale.  My goal is to get that finished this week before vacation!  Such a fantastic show.

Finished another book, "The Mourning Girls", which was actually really, really good. Finally!  A book that didn't disappoint me.  Started and am currently reading "It Ends With Us" by Colleen Hoover.  It's all right so far.  Better than the books I read before "The Mourning Girls", but not as good as that.  Totally different kind of book, though.  I'll definitely finish it, as there are parts of the book I like more than others.  Still looking forward to reading a book or three (the real, paper kind!) on the beach trip next week!  There's not much better than reading on the beach or from one of the decks with a beach view.  :-)

The only thing I'm really looking forward to this week is my appt. with my hair boyfriend.  I'm overdue for a visit and I definitely am excited to have a couple of really good hair days before the wild and crazy beach hair days.  Appt. is Thursday at 1pm.  Cheers to that!

Time to start making my packing list.....  I can legitimately feel the vacation excitement starting to build!  

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Let Me Down, Pick Me Up

So I finished a couple of books in the last couple of weeks.  The first was "One Less Problem Without You" by Beth Harbison.  When I first finished it I thought I'd liked it enough.  It was OK. But the more time that passes, the more I'm annoyed with it.  It felt rushed, underdeveloped and inadequate.  I was pretty disappointed with it.

Next I read "The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry" by Gabrielle Zevin.  I added that to my list because J is reading it for summer reading for school and I thought we could talk about it.  It was actually a good book.  Well written, good storyline, good heart.  However, I didn't really connect with it on any real level.  It's like certain music or other forms of art that I can recognize logically are well done or noteworthy, but I'm personally unable to love it whole-heartedly.  So it was more of a success than the other at least!

I then started to read "By the Numbers" by Jen Lancaster.  Usually her books are very entertaining, but this one is just NOT working for me.  I barely got into it before I was bored and decided I would read something else, at least for the time being.  So I started "The Mourning Hours" by Paula Treick DeBoard and I'm still very early into it, but it's already more interesting.  Hoping for a better read! Everything feels like a bit of a letdown since I read "The Woman in Cabin 10" since that was so captivating to me.  Such a great read!

In other news, I only have 9 work days left until vacation, including today.  I'm under the two week wire and I'm so excited!  I definitely need this trip.  Work is seriously burning me out and I've been watching everyone go on their week long vacations all summer and I'm ready for my turn!  We've got our petsitter all lined up, I've got my new swimsuits at the ready and all that's left to do is count down the days.

I've been much better about working out for the last few weeks.  I'm managing to get to the gym or do a home workout 5 days a week, which is the goal.  Yesterday at work I was exhausted from lousy sunday night sleep, I had a headache and the day itself was just very frustrating.  I went to the gym out of obligation, but wow, it turned my entire mood around.  I did 45 minutes on the elliptical, 15 on the treadmill walking on an incline and about 15 minutes of strength training.  It was just what I needed.

We finished watching "Stranger Things" last week.  Oh, how I loved that show!  I loved the general atmosphere of it, I loved so many of the actors, the music, everything.  I am still thinking about the finale!  Very happy that it got renewed for another season.  Next up I want to find time to watch the newest season of "Catastrophe" on Amazon.  That show is hilarious and real and awesome.

In the meantime, I guess I'll go get some breakfast.  Kix cereal for the win!  :-)

Monday, August 15, 2016

Things to Do When You're Old

This last year has made me feel really old in some ways!  Throwing your back out for the first time can do that.  ;-)  I happened to do that the day after my 38th birthday.  Ouch.  That was truly the worst pain I've ever felt.  Luckily, I did manage to recover and am no worse for the wear a month and a half later.  I did, however, purchase a back pillow to use for our Myrtle Beach trip and at work in the wake of that injury.  The pillow was a lifesaver on the car ride and I do use it still occasionally at the office.

Maybe it's all the vitamins I take that make me feel old.  I take a multi-vitamin, Vitamin E and Fish Oil.  A Dr. rec'd the fish oil to me a few years ago when my blood work came back with borderline high triglycerides.  I recently had a physical and found out that everything is where it's supposed to be level-wise, and my good cholesterol is actually really high!  I attribute that to the fish oil.  :-)

I bought a dry brush the other day.  I've noticed recently a very unfortunate appearance of some spider veins on my thighs.  WTF, mate?  Not sexy.  So I did some google research and among the various remedies I've found are using a dry brush to increase circulation (Side perk: decreased appearance of cellulite?!).  I've also read about using apple cider vinegar as a scrub on those same spots (circular motion, baby) as well as olive oil for the same thing.  My bathroom is going to turn into a kitchen, LOL.  I figure these things may not work, but they're all harmless enough that they're not going to hurt anything.

Today I bought a foot rest for my desk at work.  It's also aimed at increasing circulation, with an added bonus of perhaps making my desk job a bit more comfy.  I've read that crossing your legs is not great for circulation, and I'm guilty of that constantly.  Hopefully having that little foot rest boost will make it more comfortable for my legs to just hang out instead of being compelled to cross them.

In the wake of my physical I've been making a small effort to make more healthful choices in my daily life.  Small things like trying to have a veggie at every dinner, sticking spinach on my lunch sandwiches, eating a salad once or twice a week.  More fruit, more whole grains, less Starbucks. More water, fish once a week.  Less added salt and sugar.  More protein in my breakfast to make it last longer.  I've also been much better about going to the gym the last two weeks.  Progress!

The Dr. did recommend I lose some weight, like 15-20 pounds.  Sigh.  But I knew that.  In spite of this, I still bought a new bikini for the beach.  Life is too short to worry about what I look like in a bikini, and I'm going to keep seizing the bikini moments!  It's super cute and the top accents one of my features that HASN'T aged yet.  ;-)

Less than three weeks until vacation......