No Summer Time

While I will be able to enjoy the sunshine and possibly get some beach days in, this summer will be the first that I don't have a summer break. I will be continuing with my classes as well as be working pretty much every weekend (aside from that of my brother's wedding). It's tough having free time that doesn't work with that of events or Alex's free time. He can stay up late on Fridays while I can stay up late on Sundays. It'll be nice to some day have similar schedules and be able to go out on the weekends without worrying about sleep. Someday.
Today I mailed out my mom's Mother's Day gift and surprise surprise there is a "post office" just around the corner from me that I totally could have rode my bicycle to. I put post office in quotations because it's actually a shipping company that ships for USPS but don't do any of the other services. It's good to know it's there; I will definitely be riding my bike next time because it seemed pretty silly to drive there. It's kind of like living across the street from the grocery store and driving your car over even though you only need less than a few items.
After the quick trip to the post office Alex and I came back to the apartment and just hung out-- sifted through our Pokemon cards and traded some. Then we took Penny to the dog park on Davis Island which turned out to be a big success. There were numerous dogs there and they were all pretty chill. One was part boxer so they were able to help Penny play to her full potential: boxing and lots of running! I was really happy to see a Great Dane as well-- such a sweetie and so gentle with all the dogs (even the tiniest little ball of fuzz). We stayed for a little over half an hour but that was more than enough time because Penny is super pooped.
When we got home I started on some dinner: roasted potatoes, peppers, onions, and butternut squash. I think butternut squash is my favorite because I never seem to get enough of it. I love it in macaroni and cheese (I totally had the idea before I even knew Annie's has a frozen dinner of that), roasted, in rice-- there is so much potential for this marvelous winter squash.
While dinner was cooking we FINALLY watched the new episode of GOT. Yay! Good stuff, lots of great stories moving along. Overall today was a good day. I wish I didn't have to work tomorrow so I could enjoy what little summer break I have left but I have to go. It's a good job, pays well, and the people I work with are pleasant. To top it off it's pretty easy. I think I'm just ready for something different. I'm looking forward to my field work time, whenever I can finally get it started. I don't think I'll get paid for it but you never can tell, it's possible I'll land a paid internship of sorts.
Hope everyone's weekend starts off well. Enjoy the company and experience of the world around you.

Flashfire Sleepyhead

I have no clue what's going on with my body lately; I just get so tired and I'm tired of it! Alex and I finally fit in a bike ride (a nice sunny seven miles) and afterwards I was so dead that I napped in the car when we went out to find some Pokemon XY Flashfire. We ended up going to the ghetto Walmart to buy some and Walmart is just not for me anymore. Sacrifice quality for a dollar or two? No thank you. Hopefully target gets their shipment in soon because it's so much cheaper there. The base price is a bit lower and then we have Alex's team member discount plus the Redcard. Lots of cute new Pokemon to use.

Other than the nice bike ride, we went to the mall with Aaron and we got some smelly goods for my mom for Mother's Day (hopefully it gets there in time) and a new bathing suit for myself. Much needed. I was a little bummed when trying clothes on in the mall today. While I haven't gained much weight in regards to the Bridesmaid dress measurements, I have gained weight in general-- as in my body is jiggly instead of more tight. I'm disappointed with myself and how I've let it get to this point. I want to be more active everyday like I used to be. I want to walk or bicycle more places and somehow regain my appetite for healthy food (my stomach has been craving crazy things and I've allowed myself to to be lazy in the kitchen). Along with the change of my relationship with this blog, I need to change my relationship with activity and the kitchen.

After the bike ride and such, we took Kaitlin out to a Ellas for dinner and put on The Internship since she hasn't seen it before. Definitely a must see movie. I can honestly say I'm tired of eating out though. No more please. I just want home cooked food and to treat my body better. 

Still haven't seen the new episode of GOT but it will happen. It will happen even if I have to do a two hour sit down with Alex next Monday to be caught up. 

Hope everyone had a good hump day.

We will watch Game of Thrones because I am the Queen. We will watch Game of Thrones or heads. will. roll.

My Screen Is So Bright!

I got to see Kaitlin today! She went to the dog park with us and then we attempted to go out to lunch with Penny but it turns out that Ella's Folkart Cafe doesn't serve lunch during the week. We had planned on Ella's because it's awesome food and atmosphere as well as being dog friendly.

So we ended up debating on where to go and what to do. I wanted to take somewhere she hadn't been before that I feel she would enjoy-- we re celebrating her graduation afterall. (Colie I promise we will make something happen to celebrate yours too). 

After taking Penny home we made our way to Macaroni Grill and we all stuffed our faces. Love them olive oil herbs and peppercorns. After lunch I had Kaitlin watch Cloud With A Chance 2 and then proceeded to chat and then play Mario&Sonic Sochi. Figure Skating on teams is so so so cute!

It's been far too long since I've had proper girl time. I'm sure I've said that before but it still rings true. 

Here's to many more girl nights this summer-- full of laughs, cute animals, and girly stuff, but, first, let me drink some protein. (Search selfie spoof protein on YouTube to understand). 

Before I pass out for bed I just want to update you with what's happened to the Race to Abs. We both failed I think but it doesn't mean we re not going to continue trying to be as active as we can or stop eating healthy. I think having at least one other person I can hang out with will keep me in lighter spirits. 

Hope you all are having a good week and enjoying some summertime. 

Don't Stab Me With An Oak, I'm Not A Vampire

I am officially allergic to everything. I mean everything. Trees, grass, animals, dust mites, etc. My allergy appointment went good-- I didn't die. Though, I did almost faint. The doctors said it was most likely because I had a small lunch; the same this has happened before and each time it was someone who didn't eat enough prior. Fortunately I had a fun group of doctors that made me almost fainting exciting. Once they had me laying back, the doctor doctor came in to check on me and instead of asking if I was alright he said "Woo! Exciting! Something happened!" With this very handsome smile on his face. We all giggled. I started feeling better. They gave me Belvita biscuits to eat before they started the full allergy tests. All the tests resulted in big bumps where the injections were administered. I am allergic to everything. Dust mites and Oak tress most of all.
Yay for being back on my allergy pills now though! The next step is to figure out how I'm going to pay for the allergy injections to slowly get my body used to everything. It'll be a three to five year process but I really feel it will be worth it because, at a 90-98% success rate, I could very potentially have a life with less sneezes, itchy throats, and asthma attacks (since allergies are one of my triggers for asthma, this would allow my broncs less opportunities to close up). I drove home feeling bummed that I'm allergic to everything but at the same time filled with hope for easier breathing and less mucus down my throat and into my chest.

You're probably wondering what's with the title. That's a joke I made with Alex about my allergies and how I'm strongly allergic to oaks. To keep it short, he asked if we could still have oak furniture. I said yes and then something along the lines of not staking me in the heart with it because I'll die from allergies and not the stake in the heart. Then I made some jokes about vampires and how if you died from a stake in the heart, you're a vampire. I said that if I were back during such a time I'd be like "But you didn't ask if I like garlic!" (I love garlic). Yeah, I know, nice story Catherine. Thanks for listening. Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine and their summer break when it gets here.

Namaste.

Monday Monday

So my skin has been itchy all weekend and it is my deepest wish at this moment that my allergy test today will help me out. It'd also be nice to not be sneezing so much anymore. It's worst at night time when I go to lay down. It wasn't nearly this bad when I took my allergy pill. Please, please, allergy person help me!

My appoint is today at 2 and before that, after I finish this post, I'll be doing my morning yoga followed by some breakfast and then some painting and Once Upon a Time. I totally got spoilers for it while at Moe's last night. Who knew that Moe's would have that channel up and didn't tell me? 

I'm not sure what's planned for after my appointment. I do need to text Katilin and ask when she's free so Alex and I can take her out for dinner to CELEBRATE (<-- Cloud With A Chance 2 reference). And just hang out. I'm around guys all the time; it'll be nice to have some girl time.

Tomorrow I think Alex and I will be taking Penny to the dog park. We try and take her at least once a week because other dogs and other people are her favorite. 

Monday for Sunday

Whoever made this advertisement clearly doesn't know what it's like to actually live in Florida. They also clearly did not experience all that rain on Friday.

Yes, it's Monday not Sunday but I'm putting an effort in.
Yesterday I went to work; it was a busy day-- lots of people, decent amount of profit. I like working at Worm's Way because even when it's slow I have friendly coworkers who always have an interesting story to tell. I also enjoy helping people learn about indoor gardening with a heavy dash of science that they didn't know was important to plants. The weather was gorgeous.
After work I came home and spent about an hour trying to decide what was for dinner. I settled on Moe's even though I seemed to have a big craving for pasta. I don't like to pay so much for food I could make at home with ease. Note to self: definitely getting pasta when I finally make it to the grocery store.
We came home and I worked on and finished my Final Project and Authority Quiz for my Cataloging Nonbook Materials class (I'm going to miss it; it was my only physical class). Alex and my friend, Aaron, came over and hung out. We talked about our thoughts on apartments we've been looking at for the fall. We have some good options, the only thing left to see is where they price us at. I think it's dumb how they can't have a standard range for their apartments. This BS about, Oh we won't be able to tell how much or even if we'll have something for you until exactly two months before that date. At least that's better than being lazy butts like some apartment complexes that say they can't tell until a week before.
After Aaron left Alex and I wound down for the night and got to bed.
I didn't get any painting done but I'll have time on Monday for that since I can't go to the gym without taking my allergy pills.
Overall it was a regular Sunday. As regular as a Sunday can be.

The Daily Dally-Do

Aaaaaand I totally should've just posted this yesterday before I got off lunch break but I wanted to wait to add a picture. Oh well, no picture and it's late. That's life. Here's day one post, I'll write day two tonight once I submit my final project.

I've realized it's been a while since I last posted. It'd be a lie if I said it was all due to school. While school has kept me busy with final assignments and deadlines I have, for some reason, been avoiding my blog. So much has been going on and each week I plan to include it in my weekly blog post but when the day comes I don't feel the same as I did the day of the event or it slips my mind all together. 

Yesterday I caught up on Kaitlin's blog and I was thinking how it's nice to be able to look back on each day and have that much needed trigger to recall things. Then I thought, why don't I post every day-- even if it's a short blurb that means little to nothing to you readers. If anything it may help me gather my thoughts for one weekly full post. Well, as you can probably tell by now I have a hard time committing to a specific activity-- I thrive in change. People like to have their routines and know exactly what to expect. Whenever I have such predictable days and routines, well, that's when I seem to fall. I need change because change means that I'm alive. For the past few years I've been able to change my major, change the places I go, and where I live, then maybe have some routines that fit within all the changes just to give me breather time (yes I counted going to the gym as breather time in undergrad). 

Now most of my time is routine and I think initiating change will be good. It'd be nice to have this blog, walking Penny, and the gym as my routine breather times but my job has to be apart of that list as well. So, here's my attempt at starting a new change: Daily Blog #1. 

Today I woke up five minutes earlier than I usually do for work so that I could make sure I got to work on time-- which I did so I'm going to continue waking up at that time. It's been raining here in Tampa since yesterday's rainstorm and I'd very much like some sunshine instead. I'm prepared to endure the summer heat because I'm a born Florida girl but this rain just keeps my mood down. I need my daily Vitamin D. 

I get off work around six. I had thought to stop a the market to do grocery shopping but we have enough food at home so I just want to use all that first. I'm thinking something with quinoa. After dinner I want to try and finish my final project and quiz. Then if I have some time, finish up Colies gift even though she'll be in Colombia by the end of today. It'd just be nice to finish that project up then work on the pokemon area board Alex so badly wants finish lol. 

There usually isn't much time after I get home from work and cook dinner so I'll probably head to bed after all that, maybe get a chapter of reading in. Then tomorrow wake up and do much of the same, except I have the option of staying up late-- kind of. Alex works Monday mornings. I'm not going to lie, I kind of like that we have different work schedules because it allows me time to do things around the apartment and work on assignments without the temptation of being right next to him. At the same time I miss him so much during the weekends and I feel like I'm losing precious time. The truth is we re always 'losing' time-- using time would be a better descriptor. While I would much rather be doing things I enjoy instead of working, I know I need to work to be able to do things I enjoy when I do have free time. 

When I think like this it helps but it also makes me feel like I may never be able to afford or have good circumstance to do the things I want. Like taking Yoga Teacher Training classes and getting my yoga certification. It's a big investment not only with money but with time. Much of the classes are held on the weekends which will cause a predicament with work (I'm only hired to work weekends). I had estimated working for Worms Way for about a year but i think I may have to stay with them until I graduate... We shall see. 

Something I need to do this coming week is get all the details on my fieldwork requirements because that is going to affect a lot as well. I also need to find out what textbooks I need to buy for the summer semester.