Thursday, September 30, 2010

Why Morning Runs Are Not My Thing

I've been getting into doing short road races lately... mostly 5K's.  I like them because they are short enough that I know I will finish without totally killing myself but long enough so that I have to keep working and running so I don't suck... and even so I can get faster.

I made a commitment to myself that I would stop doing cardio at the gym after my weight sessions and just focus on running longer distances and harder on my in-between days.  That's been working out pretty well, until it got hot again this week.  Before this week it's been cool and some days even cold so I can go straight home, throw on running gear and take my run in the late afternoon/early evening.  This week it's been close to 80 every afternoon and we've had 90% humidity so outside feels like a broken sauna.  UGH.  I hate running in the heat so this doesn't work for me.  My options were to move my running time to later in the evening after it cools off (around 9 or 10) or wake up super early around 4am and go.  I've done BOTH of those options this week and I feel that late night runs are much more suited to me.

I got up this morning to run at 4am.  I changed into my running stuff and then promptly went back to sleep for another 15 minutes.  THEN I grabbed my iPod and ran out the door.  I usually don't get a good rhythm going until about 5 or 6 minutes into my run.  This morning I just couldn't get into a rhythm.  I felt all clunky and awkward and like I was running against the current in a molasses river.  My legs just wouldn't move.  I was SHOCKED to find out when I got home that I ran 11. minute. miles...  I haven't run that slowly for over a  year!  Just two days ago I was hitting an average of 7 minute 50 second miles.  Plus my nose was all runny and I didn't bring a tissue so I kept sniffling as I ran. 

When I ran the other night I felt AWESOME... and I think that it is due to having a day's worth of food in me to pull energy from.  Also, I like running at night when I have things on my mind.  I get my frustration and anxiety out and think more clearly.  I can hardly think about moving my feet in the mornings.  The only downside to running at night is that I go to bed later and usually have to rush around in the morning because I didn't get stuff done the night before... while I was running. 

I may give early morning running 1 more try.  Eh.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Baking Soda is a Miracle Item

So we know that I use baking soda and water instead of shampoo, and I've been looking up ways to make my own household cleansers and most of them call for baking soda as part of the recipe, but I didn't realize that Baking Soda was SO awesome until last night.

I told you about my face rash.  Most of the day at work I spent my energy trying not to scratch at my face which made me pretty grouchy.  I did a Google search of remedies for rashes and allergic reactions and found that a baking soda and water paste has long been used to soothe rashes and bug bites.  Before I went to bed I made a thin paste and gently spread it on my face.  I let it set for a few minutes until it dried and then I rinsed my face in cold water.  As soon as I patted my face dry my skin was noticeably less red and a lot less itchy.  This morning when I woke up my face had cleared up considerably, but still some rash remained so I made some more paste to put on my face while I got dressed.  I'm not wearing any make-up or lotion today because I don't want to irritate my skin further.  I'm totally impressed by baking soda. 

The cool part is that baking soda is inexpensive and easy to find at pretty much any store.  It's way better on your and the environment than harsh chemicals and has a billion uses (as I am finding out).

Monday, September 27, 2010

It Has Begun

... the craziness, that is.

Last week I didn't post at all because it was our annual huge work conference and I worked twelve hour or so days for most of it.  It was a long, but very fun, week. 

Friday I worked in the morning before heading to Beverly Beach state park to camp with BF.


Beverly Beach



Along the Nature Trail



Ancient Stump... duh




HUGE ROOTS!




I'm under the tree!




Dinner!



We got out there in the mid-late afternoon and set up camp and then just hung out.  Saturday I woke up with my allergies all a-buzz and my eyes/face/neck covered in a lovely rash.  Who knows what it's from.  I spent the rest of our weekend and most of today chowing down Benadryl and slathering on ointment.  Awesome!

Despite the allergic reactions to camping, BF and I had a great time.  Saturday we walked along the beach and collected agates and jasper for my mom (she is now what the call a "Rock Hound" and has started collecting and polishing them).  After our stroll on the beach we wandered to see the Beverly Beach State Park attractions.  We found the really old stump, a nature trail that lead us around the wooded area of the park through groves of trees with huge roots above ground that we could fit under, and then finally we wandered back to camp to roast our dinner over the fire. 

Saturday evening we stayed up late in the tent and read the last Harry Potter book out loud to eachother until we were too tired to continue.  I woke up around 3am when I heard the strangest sound.  As I sat in the tent I realized what I was hearing... the wind coming up from the beach through the little grove we were camping in before it got to us.  It was pretty cool, and then all of a sudden the wind hit our campsite!  A few minutes later it started raining pretty hard.  As the wind and rain lulled me back to sleep, it also knocked a few branches from the trees and woke BF up with quite a start.  We got up around 7am and everything was SOAKED.  We ate breakfast and packed camp up as I tried not to scratch my face.  We were done in record time and headed back home around 9:30am to get ready for our week.

Up next:  Packing and moving this week and next.  Then I'm off to meetings and store openings! 

Friday, September 17, 2010

Adding to the List

Only when I have a completely full list of things to do are more things added.  That's just the law of life I guess.

But this added "to do" on my list is more exciting than anything!

BF and I are moving in two weeks!  Yes, that is right in the middle of everything happening that I posted about the other day, but I WANT to do this!

So today we are off to put down a deposit and sign paperwork and all that jazz that goes along with moving to a new place.  I also need to cancel my storage space, change my address, look into cable/internet, and then look up the utilities for our new place. 

I also need to buy a few house things- but that's just another excuse to go to Ikea. :)

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Before You Know It...

... it will be Christmas.  Seriously guys. 


This week at work has been hectic!  We have a huge meeting next week where everyone from all over the United States and Canada comes to campus and we have this week long meeting thing with food and fun and festivities planned.  It happens every September.  So I was looking at our agenda for next week and then also looking at my calendar and realising that HOLY CRAP it's almost the holidays.  There are Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations at the store already and Costco already has Christmas decorations. 

My next few months look like this:

Next week: Big meeting until Friday.

Week after:  Get ready for 3 new store openings, only 2 I have to actual travel to.  And it's BF and my anniversary.

First week of October:  New Store management teams at work for training.

2nd week of October:  Meeting in Southern California with boss and business partners.

3rd week of October:  Meeting in Sunriver with business partners.

4th week of October:  last meetings for new store openings and holiday prep.

5th week of October:  go to Burlington, WA for the week to set up new store before it opens.  Also it's BF's birthday AND Halloween.

1st week of November:  Back in office to get ready for another store opening and Black Friday prep.

2nd week of November:  go to Jordan, UT for the week to set up new store before it opens.

3rd week of November:  Catch up at the office from traveling for a month.

4th week of Novemnber:  Work, and then Thanksgiving.

5th week of November/1st week of December:  WORK WORK WORK.

2nd week of December.  Work like a fiend to get ready for the holidays.

3rd week of December:  Work until Friday, go to Disneyland with BF and his family.

4th week of December:  Come back from Disneyland and then it's Christmas.

5th week of December:  Work, and then New Year's.



OMG.  In all of this BF and I will probably be moving... hopefully sooner than later.  What happened to 2010?

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

HALLELUJAH!

Holy Crow, BF got a job. 

A million pounds has been lifted off of his shoulders and we can both relax and then start worrying about moving now.

BUT... we can move now, so that's nice.  We are going to Cha Cha Cha for dinner to celebrate.  I'm freaking out right now I'm so happy. 

What a blessing.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Our Relaxing Weekend

OH MY GOSH, I'm going to get more massages.  I had forgotten how awesome they are.


Friday afternoon BF and I ventured down SE Hawthorne to Dosha for our couples massage.  It. Was. Fabulous.  I'd never had a massage there so I was a little unsure of how they did things, but it was very relaxing and probably the best thing I've done for myself in a while.  The therapist started by having me choose an essential oil that I liked the smell of, then he dropped a few drops of it on the massage table's head rest so I would smell it the whole time.  He started the massage by putting a steamy towel on my back and a hot one on my neck for a couple minutes which felt awesome.  Later when he flipped me over he put a steamy rolled up towel under my neck with a few drops of Blue Oil on it which really cleared up my sinuses.  From what I can tell, BF's was about the same, but I wasn't really paying attention because I was close to sleep the entire time. 

At the end of the massage I felt so light and relaxed it was hard to drive back home! 

Friday night was Fall Softball for BF, so after running semi-fun work errands I headed to the field to watch them play.  We went out with the team afterwards, which is always entertaining, and the old guys were in rare form.  There's something sort of awesome about hanging out with old people; tons of great stories, off-color jokes, and hilarious advice.

Saturday was unplanned, but turned into a big day of shopping with my mom.  We haven't gotten to spend a lot of time together recently, so it was nice to get out with her.  We went to Ikea and ended up shopping a bunch of the other stores in that area.  The only thing I got at Ikea was a lamp to match one that I already have, but I found some great bathroom accessories at Home Goods for our new place... which we don't have yet but probably will soon.  I got some great ideas though at Ikea and can't wait to take BF there to do some more housewares/furniture shopping.  We are in need of some more bookshelves I think.

Saturday night we met up with Kyle and Kate at Red Robin for drinks and dessert before we saw "Resident Evil 4", which wasn't too bad, but was pretty cheesy. 

Sunday I ran more errands, went grocery shopping and made a list of what we still need to get before we move.  I also decided that we should have a garage sale after we move.  Then I did massive amounts of laundry and researched better detergents and home cleaning solutions to use. UGH.  It's a little daunting to have to sit and read the labels so thoroughly and then Google all of the chemicals that I don't know about.  But I'm doing the work now so I don't have to do it later, plus I'll know what is what when I read labels in the store.

Today I'm scheduling another massage for BF and I at the end of this month because I will need it.  The weekend is over and I'm missing it terribly.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Alternative Toiletries Update

So I've successfully gotten through a little over two full weeks of not using shampoo or conditioner and you know what, I don't think I'll ever go back. 

There are a few things I've done to tweak my recipe, and I don't know if I've got it right just yet, but I love being able to be so flexible with my ingredients.  I've kept the cleansing recipe the same, but the sealer/conditioner is what I've been playing a bit with.  This week I added clove bud oil and cinnamon oil to my vinegar and water and my hair smells like spicy autumn.  It's awesome.  I've also cut down to using the solution about every other day and then in the inbetween days I just rinse my hair with some water if I need to. 

I also added a step to my face wash routine.  I found some rosewater and glycerin spray at New Seasons to use as a moisturizer.  The rainy week has dried my skin out a bit (weird, I know, but that's how my skin is) and I was hoping to find a good moisturizer that wasn't straight oil.  It's made from distilled water, roses, and vegetable glycerin (no animal products) and you just spritz it on your skin.  Plus, it smells like roses.

I also bought some sweet almond oil to start putting on after I shower because with the weather changing my skin is getting a little dry all over.  Almond oil smells wonderful as well. 

I'm still struggling with the deoderant thing.  I still have left over regular deoderant that I'm trying to use up, so I'm still alternating between regular and natural ones.  I think it'll be easier as the weather gets colder because I won't worry so much about the sweating... not that I sweat a lot, but you know, just self concious that way.  It's so hard for me to switch my thinking from "sweat= smelly" to "a little sweat doesn't necessarily mean smelly".

I've recently found a couple of good books at Powell's.  The first one is "Make Your Place", a little 'zine published by Microcosm Publishing about sustainable, affordable living.  It is full of recipes for cleaning your home and your self, first aid recipes, and how to compost and garden more effectively.  It was a great buy at $7 because it explains exactly how to do things, what is in what you are using, and why there are better alternatives than mass produced chemical concoctions. It even has an all natural pest control section to deter creepy crawlies from your living space naturally- LOVE IT! 

The other is "The Naturally Clean Home"  which has very detailed recipes and instructions for cleaning with ingredients like baking soda, castile soap, lemon oil, vinegar and borax just to name a few.

Anyway, just wanted to pass along the info!

Reasons I Know It's Fall

Oh, what happened to my summer?  I bought cute shorts for this summer that I never even got to wear.  UGH. 

But I really love Fall.  It's probably my favorite season because it's not too cold, there are beautiful colors everywhere, people start baking wonderful goodies, and it's close to Christmas.

Anyhow, this week has abruptly thrown us into Fall for good, I think, and here are my reasons I think so:

1.  There are spiders EVERWHERE.  Seriously.  At work they have built these huge webs between all of the pillars of our walkways and hedges and they are definitely fattening up.  I've found a ton of spiders in the house recently, just hanging out.  When I start seeing more spiders, I know the colder weather is coming.  They are fattening up for the winter and heading indoors!

2.  There are brown leaves on my front doorstep.  Every morning for about a week now I've woken up to find a collection of small brown crunchy leaves strewn about my entry.  Then I look up and realize that some trees and bushes are already turning colors.  I'm excited for the yellows, reds, and oranges.

3.  I have to wear a sweater to work.  The past week or so I've had to bring a sweater or jacket to work with me because I am freezing in the morning and then freezing again as soon as the sun starts to go down.

4.  It rained buckets yesterday. 

5.  I made cider this morning.

6.  They have soup in the cafeteria at work. 


So here comes Autumn, ready or not!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Community Rules

Dear Coworkers... but specifically one of you,


We are very lucky to have an awesome beverage machine in our kitchen/breakroom which makes all sorts of fancy drinks for our pleasure at no cost to us.  Isn't that nice?  Yes, until one of you breaks it and leaves messes and runs away before cleaning it up without leaving a note that the machine is now broken.

Now, the first time it happened, two weeks ago, I wasn't that upset because I figured it could be that someone was having a very bad day and knocked over the beverage machine and broke it and spilled used coffee grounds all around.  It's happened to everyone at some point.  But then, two days later, it was the SAME SITUATION... so I shrugged it off and figured maybe someone else had a bad day and the same thing happened to them.

But now, ever few days, just when I think people have learned to fix what they've broken and to clean up what they've messed up, I realize that the same ass of a person must be doing this.  It's the SAME MESS every time and it's always the same part of the beverage machine that's messed up.

I've tried figuring out how you are doing this and I cannot.  I don't see how you can put your fancy beverage cartridge in the wrong way- because they designed it so that even kindergarteners could put the cartridge in the proper way... it only fits one way.  I don't see how you keep breaking off the little plastic lever that holds the cartridge in.  And I don't see how you are getting FREAKIN COFFEE GROUNDS all over the kitchen when the coffee grounds are CONTAINED IN AFOREMENTIONED CARTRIDGE.  You see, the whole reason they invented those cartridges is so that you don't spill your beverage makings all over the place like you probably normally do every day at home.  They CONTAINED them for easy use and clean up. 

I just want to go to the kitchen and make my fancy sugar free hot chocolate/cider/chai tea.  I don't want to have to clean up after your assinine ways before I can make my beverage.  I am not your mother.  No one else in the office is your mother.  No one here is a janitor.  We are all adults.  I don't want to have to take out the little plastic lever and face it the right way every time I want to put my drink cartridge in the machine.  I do not think this is awesome or funny.  Mostly I think you should never leave your house again.

I will henceforth be prowling around the kitchen at work... lingering to see who the culprit is.  And once you've made your mess and start to make your getaway I fully intend to tackle your face and rub it in the coffee grounds you've so carelessly left for the rest of us to clean up.


Warmest Regards,
H

Dishes and Placemats and Apartments, OH MY!

It was Labor Day weekend, as you probably know, which meant BBQ's and an extra day off.


We didn't have much planned for the weekend, but we did have a big event!  BF's parents came to my parents' place for a BBQ on Saturday to meet for the first time!  Everyone got along great and I think it was pretty successful.  We also had a wonderful meal of bbq ribs, bbq chicken, corn on the cob, scalloped potatoes, shrimp, salad with fresh veggies from my mom's garden, and ambrosia.  I thought I was going to pop.

Sunday BF and I went to look a few places and I think we may have found a good one.  We still want to go look a few more places, but this one is a definite option.  I don't want to jinx it so I'm not going to post the location just yet though.


We also ventured out to look for dishes since I'm getting rid of mine and we need a set to eat off of.  I had a 20% off coupon to Bed Bath and Beyond and so we started our journey there.  We found  a great set pretty quickly and bought them, thusly ending our journey very quickly.


They aren't super patterned or flashy because I tend to pick things that will blend well with any color scheme or season.  I love the delicate red berries on these, they add just enough color without being too much.

We also found some great placemats on sale at Fred Meyer (no picture of those, sadly), but the great part is they are a nice red that matches the berries on the plates AND they are reversible- the other side a nice rich chocolate brown. 

I'm so excited to move I can't even stand it. 

Anyhow, so Sunday evening we saw that new movie, "Going the Distance" with Justin Long and Drew Barrymore. It was cute and full of awesome people like Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis from SNL. 

Monday I did a lot of cleaning and organizing since I had time and then BF and I went out for dinner and gelato.  After our gelato purchase, we walked around Powell's which I one of my favorite things to do. 

All in all it was a pretty nice weekend.