Friday Round-Up

Twenty-four hours from now, I will be back on the beach. It's only for a few short days, but I take what I can get around here. And I am very, very lucky that I live close enough to the ocean that Brigid and I can tag along on my parents' spring break trip, without having to commit to the full week that they're taking. And I'm also very lucky that my parents agreed to head to Florida via Georgia this time, instead of the Alabama line they usually take, so that my sister can entertain Brigid spend some quality time with me in the car between Atlanta and and the coast.

Where I am a little less lucky is the five hour trip home on Tuesday, when it will be just me, a two-year old, and a whole lot of nothing to do, but I'm choosing not to think about that right now...

(But, if you have a free second on Tuesday, please, please, PLEASE send a couple of unicorn and sunshine thoughts my way, mkay?)

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And now, a few things I found while trying to catch up on my Google Reader list, again:

I love this idea on overcoming the post-vacation blues, because hoooooo buddy does the week after vacation get me down.

This is just all kinds of beautiful writing, right here.

I find these bags kind of cool and kind of freaky, all at the same time. And I kind of think I want one because of it.

This makes me want to go out, buy ten Oxford shirts, and wear nothing but for the next three months.

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Have a great weekend, friends!

The Months That Were: January through March

Well look at that...March has (almost) come and gone and we are now (almost) officially a quarter of the way through the year. You know that saying, 'the days are long, but the years are short...'?

Yeah, that pretty much sums it all up.

Anyway, because I'm a finance person, I live my life primarily around quarter close, so the end of March seemed as good a time as any to revisit my 2012 list, just to see how things are going...

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1) Clean/reorganize my closet. - Haaaa...no. If anything, it's actually gotten worse.

2) Institute a monthly date night with Steve. - So far, so good. We've done a movie night in, after Brigid went to bed (no cell phones allowed, which is tough for us...), a mid-afternoon brewery date for his birthday, and a basketball night out, which was probably my favorite of the three.

 

Although, the brewery date did include dinner (at 4PM...we know how to roll with the early birds, over here...) at Flip Burger, home of the s'more (with nutella) and Krispy Kreme doughnut milkshakes...and that's tough to top, right there.

3) Make sure one of those monthly dates is a really, really nice dinner somewhere. - I'm still waiting.

4) Put together a Christmas/Advent activity calendar for Brigid. - Like I would ever actually take the time to plan this far ahead...

5) Do one Pinterest-found craft or implement one Pinterest-inspired design idea each month. - Eh, not so good. I haven't been spending as much time as I like on Pinterest lately. I really need to work on that. My time won't waste itself, after all...

6) Call my college friends at least once a month. - Do text messages count?

No. No, they do not. Must. Get. Better.

7) Facetime with my sister(s) once a week. - This one...well, this one, we totally own! Brigid LOVES facetiming with her Auntie Jess, and I like actually seeing my sister every week.

 

Except for the week she was on her honeymoon, anyway. I mean, really? She couldn't have found time to talk with me from Antigua?

8) Make a meal entirely on my own (I don't cook, so this might be the biggest one of the year!) - I tried to make my own butternut squash soup, to work up to this whole meal thing, but once I got past cutting up the squash, Steve took over because he just thought it would be easier.

 

This. Will. Happen.

9) Create an art wall in my staircase. - No.

10) Organize a playroom for Brigid. - No.

11) Organize a workspace for me. - No.

12) Give up meat for a month. - No.

 

Well, this was a rough stretch of the list, wasn't it?

13) Take Brigid on a picnic in the park, just the two of us. - Oh, yeah. We've done it once already, but I have big plans to do it at least a dozen more times this year.

14) Read at least one book a month. - I am actually ahead of the game on this one. I made it through all three Hunger Games books, and two of the Dragon Tattoo books by early March, before realizing my reading selections had been especially depressing this year. So, I took a break to read both the Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling books.

 

It was a nice break. It was a FUNNY break.

 

Now it's on to the final Dragon Tattoo book, then...I don't know. Suggestions?

15) Take Brigid to South Bend for a weekend. - I'm starting to think this probably won't happen this year. Vacation is getting scarce, and it's only March.

16) Get a mirror or painting for the dining room wall. - Not yet.

17) Do the 30 Day Shred for the full 30 days. - Oh, I did it, all right. But I do NOT look like Jillian Michaels, and I would like my 30 days back now, please.

18) Research/practice meditation. - No.

19) Find a 'mommy and me' class of some sort for Brigid and I to attend. - No.

20) Write something, anything, not blog related. - No.

21) Take a bubble bath once a month, just because. - Yes. Just because.

22) Take one lunch break a week, even if it's only 15 minutes, to sit somewhere quiet and recalibrate/reflect/replan the next few days. - No. In fact, I am failing miserable at this one.

23) LAPS everyday. - Ditto.

24) Implement a $50/month budget (for all gratuitous expenses: make-up, lunches, coffee, clothing, accessories), and stick to it. - January and February? Excellent, excellent work by yours truly. March?

 

Eh, not so much. A $100+ trip to the Gap outlet kind of did me in.

 

But. But! I followed that up with a trip to Target where I didn't buy anything for myself, not even the brightly colored sunglasses I tried to talk myself into buying, AND I managed to get out for $30. So, back on the shopping wagon, I am...

25) Give up carbs for January and February. Except maybe birthday cake, because I am not a machine. - HAAAAAA! No. Maybe April and May?

Game Time

My grandfather raised me to love Indiana basketball. Watching games together, or watching games separately, then coming together to discuss them at a later date...that was OUR thing. My mom didn't like basketball. My sisters didn't like basketball. My aunt was a Duke fan.

My grandpa and I always had our Hoosiers.

When my family was gathered around him in the hospital several years ago, while we were waiting for the doctors to take him off of life support, while I was trying to figure out what my final words should be to the man I loved so much, my mom said, 'tell him about IU winning last night'.

So I did.

I still have a box of tapes in my basement, video evidence of every win (wins only, of course, because he taped over the losses) IU had over a good twenty year period, that my grandmother gave me after Papa's funeral. I still love Bobby Knight with all of my heart, because that's who Papa loved. I went to Notre Dame, but I've never stopped cheering for IU in basketball, even though they play each other every year.

In fact, I actively tried to root against them when I went to those games when I was in college, since I didn't want to get boo'd out of the student section, but I just couldn't do it.

It drives Steve nuts.

I can't help it...

So, if you need me tonight, I will be sitting in the nosebleed section of the Georgia Dome, waaaaaay past my bedtime at 9:45PM, wearing red in the sea of blue-clad Kentucky fans that I can GUARANTEE you will be descending upon my city tonight, trying to cheer my Hoosiers past those #1 seeded (and very much hated) UK Wildcats.




My Papa would be so proud.

Spring is in the air...

I know I'm a day late to the party, but happy spring, everyone! Without a doubt, and completely disregarding the absolute dust storm levels of pollen we have floating through the air right now, spring in Georgia is by far my favorite time of the year. The weather is warm, but the sweltering heat of summer hasn't hit us yet. The flowering trees are all blooming. The bugs aren't terrible. You can be outside for longer than five minutes without calling BS on this whole nature thing, and heading for the nearest indoor location available to you.

I love spring.

And I love the good mood that spring brings with it....

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And in other happy news...did I mention that I interviewed for a promotion a few weeks ago?

(I honestly don't remember if I did or not, and let's be honest, I am much, much, MUCH too lazy to go check my own archives to see whether I did or not...)

Well, if I didn't mention it, I'm mentioning it now...I interviewed for a promotion a few weeks ago. And I met with my boss's boss today, as sort of a second interview, and...I found out this afternoon that I got the job!

It will be more responsibility, and I'll be managing people that were my peers just over a year ago, which will be a challenge in and of itself, I think, but I'm always up for a challenge, so I couldn't be more excited!

Also, terrified. But mostly excited. Ok, maybe about 70/30 excited to terrified. Or 60/40? Definitely more excited, though.

But yeah, still a little terrified. Maybe just do me a favor and keep your fingers crossed for positive reactions from the rest of the team when the announcement goes out next week? Thanks...

Luck of the Irish

I am half Italian, without a single drop of Irish blood in my body, but I also went to Notre Dame, which means that St. Patrick's Day is something like a religious holiday to me, purely by association. And as such, I wore green every day last week.
It's just something I do, I guess...

(Also, I think I'm more likely to actually post outfit shots if I take them with my phone, because I'm probably going to remember that I want to take pictures when my phone is all I have, but I'm still trying to figure out the quality aspect of things. I'll get there. Maybe...)

Dress: I don't remember, but I know it's from Dillards

Sweater: J Crew (outlet)

Boots: Another brand I don't remember, but these are from DSW