Fall new loves

Starting to get my blogging mojo back....hopefully it's back for a while.

Eddie Bauer pants. My new Eddie Bauer pants that are super comfortable. They roll up into capris if it gets hot out and are lightweight enough that I could go hiking in them.

Columbia pants. My new Columbia pants that are seriously the MOST comfortable pants I have ever worn. Plus, they make my butt look good (always a good thing). :-) The fabric is some sort of soft, dri-fit material that is medium weight. I guarantee I will be wearing these A LOT this fall.

L'Oreal Double Extend Mascara. My sister and law raved about her mascara on our trip to CA and I tried it out one night. I have been suckered into buying expensive mascara from MAC and after trying out this mascara, I am hooked. I have long eyelashes already, but the best feature about this mascara is how easy it is to take off. We went into the pool with it on and instead of looking like a raccoon and having to practically rip skin off under my eyes to get rid of the mascara, one quick swipe with my finger and it was gone. As soon as I got home I ditched my MAC mascara (which I have had for way longer than the recommended three months!) and bought the L'Oreal stuff. Love it!



Spotify. I really enjoy Pandora and have made a bunch of playlists. I also downloaded the new I Heart Radio iPhone app because you can create playlists that will run commercial-free through the end of the year. I love the IDEA of creating my own station and then being able to choose more discovery (aka unknown artists) vs familiar artists, but unlike Pandora, I Heart Radio doesn’t go back to the original artist. So if I create a playlist on John Mayer, Pandora will play a JM song every 4-5 songs (which I like). I Heart Radio’s app never goes back to the original artist.* Spotify is great because I can listen to an entire album (currently Mumford & Sons “Sigh No More”) or listen to the current top songs. It will be a great way to figure out whether I should buy the entire album or just the few songs that I like.

*I will never quit I Heart Radio though because I ADORE the KBCO Studio C channel. If you haven't heard it check it out!!

New television shows. So far I am enjoying Revenge, Ringer and Modern Family (I’m late to this party). I tried Up All Night last night and couldn’t get into it. CP and I are new to Game of Thrones and it is awesome! We watched the first season right before it was taken off of Directv’s video-on-demand. It took me a few episodes to get everyone straight but it is enjoyable (CP especially likes all of the boobs). Too bad the second season is not until next spring! We are still watching Community, Parks and Rec and The Office. Andy has so far been a good stand-in for Steve Carell. Next week is the premiere of American Horror Story on FX and I have to admit, I’m intrigued based on the teasers.

What are your new fall loves?

Changes at work

Last week my offices moved. It wasn’t a big move….just a few floors down in our building. The move means that although we have fewer open cubicles and are crammed together a bit more, I actually end up with more privacy in my new cube. WIN. Not to mention I am farther away from my boss so she can’t yell at me from her office anymore/ I can pretend that I don’t hear her. DOUBLE WIN.

Speaking of my boss, late Friday afternoon she came over to talk to me and gave me some surprising news. The woman that has my same position but has been with the company a lot longer (and thus makes more money) has been reassigned to a different office in a new state. I will miss her company, but her departure in about a month means more work for me! While I still won’t love my job and will try to leave as soon as my surgeries are over, I will at least be busier and have more bullets for my resume. Yep, trying to stay positive.

In other news, my closest friend at work has decided to transfer to another office down south. Although it will be great for her (especially personally because her problems have grown since this post), I will miss complaining about work with her and laughing with her. Her departure means that I will lose my close confidant at work- which means CP will most likely hear more of my b*tching (poor guy).

Vacation pictures

Sadly, CP forgot his nice camera, so the only thing we had was my iPhone. I think that it still took some good pictures.

California

Mission Inn in Riverside was absolutely beautiful! CP's dad and new wife hosted a brunch for all of the wedding guests here on Sunday morning. (Yesterday when I was catching up on "Bachelor Pad" I saw that one of the couples had a date here!)

Barker Dam hike in Joshua Tree National Park


Joshua Tree National Park

A Joshua Tree

View of San Jacinto Mountain (in Joshua Tree NP)

Chollo Cactus. There were warnings everywhere to not get too close as getting the spikes out of your clothes body is a very painful process!

Chollo Cactus garden in Joshua Tree NP. I had never been down to the southern section of the park and it was completely different!

Santa Rosa and San Jacinto National Monument hike. We kept seeing these plants and thought they were so cool.

Santa Rosa and San Jacinto National Monument hike

Northern Santa Rosa Mountains

Colorado

Air Force Academy chapel in Colorado Springs. The Academy is open to the public and seemed to be having reunion weekend while we were there.

Inside the Air Force Academy chapel.

The ceiling of the Air Force Academy chapel. It was really neat inside.

The good and the bad of our vacation

The Good:

*Spending time with CP’s family.

*Spending time with law school friends- some that I haven’t seen since graduation. It’s amazing how many people in my class have had to open up their own law firms because they couldn’t find a job after graduation.

*Spending time at the pool, walking around National Parks/monuments and then hiking near Rocky Mountain National Park.

*No Lupron freakouts. Yay!

*RELAXING.

*Adding a new TV show to the list of shows that we can watch together. CP and I had never heard of Archer, a cartoon on FX about a secret spy who is completely self-absorbed. The show is HILARIOUS. Chris Parnell (from SNL), Aisha Tyler (Ross’ black girlfriend on Friends), Jessica Walter (the mother on Arrested Development) are all voices on the show. Do you like inappropriate humor? Then you would love this show.

*Eating DELICIOUS Mexican/Southwestern food that we simply can’t get in CT. Boy I miss things that contain green chili sauce in them/on them.

*Luckily for us, New Mexican hatch chiles were in season and we found a place to buy two bushels. We gave some to my SIL and some to our friends for letting us stay at their place in Denver. This week my SIL is shipping us the frozen chiles. I can’t wait for CP’s green chili stew!!!

*Spending some time with one of my bridesmaids, her husband and her new son. He was adorable! We also found out that she is expecting another one!

*Hearing that two more law school friends will be starting to try for a baby in about a year or so. I hope that they don’t have the problems that we are having.

*Hitting up the outlets in CA. I was able to snag some great deals on cute clothes and some new shoes.



The Bad:

*Not making it into Rocky Mountain National Park for the start of the elk rut.

*Although my hormones stayed in check (partly because my doctor had me take 5 more days of birth control pills after the shot), I started getting hot flashes two days after I stopped taking the pills. It feels just like it sounds- the heat runs through your body and lasts a minute or two. It’s not too bad so far….although they would have been awful in the heat in CA! My mom said that the worst ones wake you up at night.

*Not only am I getting hot flashes, but my body decided to (ahem) “flush out” my system before my ovaries shut down so I started going through super tampons like it was my job the past two days. I had to leave brunch at dim sum to run to the store to grab more tampons with my friend’s car because it was that bad. Mr. Fibroid must know that his end is near and is trying to aggravate me as much as possible while he is still around. Bastard.

*CP had some flushing out of his system too- except from a different orifice. He is such a giving guy that he gave whatever illness he had to me yesterday. That’s a very uncomfortable illness to have on a four hour flight home on 9/11 when you don’t want to arise suspicion for going to the bathroom too much. Thanks sweetie!

*Jet lag. Once again CP and I were not tired when it came time to go to bed. So we were up until almost 12am. That 5:45am alarm came way too early….

*Thanks to our poor eating, yesterday morning I weighed in at 208. Must get back on the workout train!!

I'm baaaaack

I’m back at work and it sucks. Even though we only took a week off from work, it seemed like longer….and we certainly didn’t complain about that!

The first six days were spent near Palm Springs, CA as CP’s dad was finally marrying his girlfriend of 12+ years. The two of them tying the knot was more of a legal formality, but it was still cute. It was a short ceremony with only 20 people or so. CP and his sister were tasked with giving the toast afterwards. Neither of them are very sappy, so they went with a story of how they were so excited to have a little brother or sister coming (thus the need for the short engagement). Needless to say, CP’s new stepmother is almost 60 and won’t be having any children…. Everyone thought it was great.

It was great to see my sister in law, her husband and the kids. My nephew wanted to watch Ice Age or Ice Age 2 every minute of the day he wasn’t in the pool. He also has decided that he knows how to speak Chinese and will make up words that sound more Spanish. Silly kid. Now that the kids are a bit older they are better behaved and more fun to hang out with.

In addition to wedding activities, we did a few things around Palm Springs. At times it was difficult to do things outside because it was over 100 degrees every day. Blech. I don’t care that it is a dry heat it is still ridonkulously hot! We went to the Living Desert (basically a zoo) where we saw many of the animals we saw on our honeymoon in Africa. Obviously it was much cooler to see them in the wild, but the kids loved our various tidbits of information on the different animals. We went to Joshua Tree National Park and did a few quick walks. I have been there a couple of times but have never driven to the southern section of the park. There was a really cool cactus garden (pictures Weds). CP and I did a hike in the Santa Rosa & San Jacinto National Monument, along with driving through the San Jacinto Mountains.

Then on Thursday morning CP and I flew to Denver for our second wedding for a friend of mine from law school. The morning of the wedding we got up and tried to drive to Rocky Mountain National Park for a hike, but there was either an accident or the park was simply too busy and we hit traffic a few miles away from the entrance. After waiting for a while, we decided to hit a trail a few miles away instead. I was SO BUMMED because that was the ONE thing I wanted to do. :-(

The bride is Chinese so our friends had a non-legal ceremony already in China, but were making it official in Denver. The wedding was fun, but ended at 11:30 so had an after party (aka drunken dance party) at a friend’s house that lasted until 4am. Yikes. The next morning we all got up for dim sum and my head was pretty cloudy.

We ended up getting home at 12:30 this morning so CP’s alarm at 5am came waaaay too early. I suspect that it will be an early night for both of us tonight.

I can’t wait to pick up the puppies in an hour! I bet Buster grew a bunch while we were gone.

What have you been doing while I have been gone? I haven't checked my Google Reader today- I can't imagine how many posts I have to go through!!!

The State of NSC- August 2011

A monthly take on my world.

Weight: 205- which means I gained weight again this month. I’m going to blame it on the processed food I had to eat during the power outage and the birth control pills that I had to take before my Lupron shot. Yep. That’s the ticket.

Current Feeling: OVERWHELMED. But hopefully that goes away tomorrow.

Running Stats in June
Total Miles Run: 5.5 miles
Time Spent Running: Nike+ is being a b*tch and won’t load but I am guessing a bit over an hour. Haven’t run since August 20th. I suck.
Longest Single Run: 1.9 miles

Current aches and pains: I am hobbling around these days not because of plantar fasciitis, but because of some mysterious pain on the outside of my left ankle. I have been noticing that I am rolling my ankle a bit (maybe due to wearing flip flops?) and so I am trying to make a conscious effort to change my stride. Sadly it doesn’t seem to be working.

Current Favorite Song: I keep singing “Moneygrabber” by Fitz and the Tantrums.

Looking forward to: VACATION. We leave tomorrow for two weekends of weddings and while that is not technically a vacation I DON’T CARE. I will be away from the office for a glorious 6 full work days and with CP’s family and then friends from law school. Here’s hoping hormonally-unbalanced NSC doesn’t come out on this trip… Speaking of which, I didn’t have enough time to write any posts in advance so you will just have to pine for my words until I get back. :-)

Annoyed about: The price of ONE shot. $1024 out of pocket for ONE shot. That still blows my mind. Also the price of where we have to board the dogs. Almost $100 A DAY until Wednesday. We have NEVER paid more than $25/day before (for one dog). The fact that it doubles because we are in CT? CRAZY.

Proud about: Uhhh that I am not bat-sh*t crazy yet? Because I only get one shot for the entire three months the side effects are going to be bad in the beginning but will taper off. The nurse who gave me the shot said that although it is a bigger dose, it’s better to get it once instead of once a month. Although I was hoping for a hot flash today at work because they have the AC turned up to ungodly levels…..

How are you feeling with the start of this new month?