You realize the sun don't go down, it's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round*

Today has been quite the productive day.  I did all sorts of fun things:

• I got to draw a PFD (and for you non-chemical engineers out there, that's a Process Flow Diagram...not a Personal Flotation Device).  I love logical process flows.  So much fun. 
• I learned how to play cribbage.  Well technically, I suppose I re-learned.  J taught me how to play when I was in high school, but I haven't played in over over 10 years, and I had completely forgotten how to play.  So, Mike taught me how to play online today.  Amazingly, I wasn't TERRIBLE.  I lost, but I didn't get blown out or anything.  So...I was happy. 
• I made a roast beef last night.  I thought I had overcooked it and I was worried it would suck.  It was surprisingly really good.  I think it was probably the beer I cooked it in.  How can anything taste bad when it's cooked with beer?  (So...I guess following the productive day theme...the productive thing I did today, was to eat it?)
• I made some pulled pork tonight for my dad and JH.  (I had some frozen meat in my freezer that I wanted to use and clear on out, hence the roast beef and pulled pork in the same week).  So, that also counts as my nice deed of the week.  My mom doesn't really like pork, so my dad rarely gets to eat it.  Therefore, I figured pulled pork would be a nice treat for him.  I also put some aside for JH just because.  I just hope it doesn't suck.  :-)
• I'm planning to do more jumping jacks.  Screw the people downstairs.  Go ahead and call and complain.  They got nothing.  (Can you tell I didn't get to go running?  Stupid hail storms).
• I'm planning to do some knitting tonight after the 30 Day Shred.  We'll see if I can continue this whole "productive" trend haha. 

Um...I do realize that I wasn't all that productive, I just had a good day (other than the whole not-running thing, and just felt like sharing.  :-) 

*The Flaming Lips

Without you this sky of blue clouds up*

I was watching TV today after work, and saw an asics commercial about running.  It had a guy and a girl running and these emotions were just sweating out of them. 

As soon as I saw it, all I wanted to do was go running.  

However, I was trying to wait until the end of this week before trying to run again.  So, I laced up my shoes, and put in the 30 Day Shred (ugh I hate Jillian Michaels, and yet, kind of like this workout).  FIVE seconds into my jumping jacks, the asses downstairs call the front desk and complain that I'm jumping up and down too much.  

Seriously?  I was even doing everything I could to land on my toes and be as quiet as possible.  It couldn't have been that bad.

Besides, I hear SO MUCH CRAP in this place, and have never once complained.  Karma?  Anyone????

So, I still did the strength and abs part of the workout, but I couldn't really do any of the cardio, because it mostly involves, jumping or running in place (I assume they would complain about that as well?).  

I'm so irritated.  I just want to run, and my alternate outlet gets taken away from me.  

I may end up ending my run moratorium tomorrow.  I'm getting fidgety and irritable.  I NEED to go for a run.  A few days early shouldn't kill me right?

*Todd Snider

Never was a girl with a wicked mind, but everything looks better, when the sun goes down*

I went to Wegman's today and bought some new produce to try.

I bought:

So, I am REALLY not happy with Blogger and it's picture lay-outing right now.  So, I apologize if it's not lining up correctly.  

Anyways, up there I have a starfruit, a chacaya squash (which I can't seem to find ANYWHERE on google...so I'm not entirely sure how to eat it), another pepino melon and some raspberries and strawberries.

Stocked up.

So, if anyone has any idea how to eat that green thing up there.  Let me know.

I have also been spending the past few days using the foam roller like crazy on my left leg because I sure messed it up somehow recently.  It's crazy to see the difference in flexibility my legs have.  I can bring my right leg up over my head and my left leg?  Doesn't even come close.  Sigh.  So, I'm working on that.

Because of this, I decided to take a couple weeks off of running and focus on stretching my hip/leg/knee.  I am still doing other workout videos and and lifting, so I'm not entirely skipping out on the exercising, but, I had to cut back a bit.  

Frustrating.

So, nothing very exciting happening right now.  

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend :-)  Mine was fantastic.

*The Pretty Wreckless (the shame that I listen to this is almost overwhelming)

You'll pay me back in kind and reap just what you've sown*

I've been a mission to try new types of produce this week.

So far, I tried baby squash (which OMG are so cute and tiny).  I honestly don't even know if they have other names besides baby squash.  But, they're about the size of a brussel sprout and sold at Wegmans.  And I had yellow and green ones.  I basically just steamed them and cut them all in half and added a few sprays of I can't believe it's not butter! spray and they were yummy.  I will definitely add this to my repertoire of vegetables I like (I find that so far I have liked every type of squash I have tried, so I'm not surprised I like these.).  Now I need to branch out AWAY from the squashes and find some non-squash vegetables I can eat.

I also tried a Pepino Melon, which tasted oddly like a pear mixed with some kind of root vegetable.  It had the texture and taste of the pear, but it was missing the sweetness of the pear.  It wasn't terrible, just a little bland.  If I were planning to serve it with dessert, it would need some yummy sugary glaze added to it.  However, I could see myself adding it to a fruit salad or something.  On my list of acceptable fruits.

Today, I tried the Kiwano and it was not something I'd eat again.  I was totally sold by it's spiky orange appearance.  It just looks like a bad ass piece of fruit.  However, it felt like I was eating Slimer from Ghost Busters.  The inside, is a slimy green gelatin-ish "sac" with seeds in it.  It tasted like a mix of a cucumber and a banana.  Which is not the most...pleasing of flavors.  I ate about 1/4 of it before the texture and consistency forced me to stop.  It was too slimy for me.  

So, I'm on the lookout for the next weird bit of produce to try.  Any suggestions?

*Adele

And your eyes must do some raining if you are ever going to grow.*

So, I've always had really vivid dreams, and I tend to remember a lot of them.  I also would really like to go to someone and have them analyze my dreams, because they are INSANE.

Example, this weekend, I had the following dream:

I had to drive home and visit my mom and dad.  While there, I was given notice that we were going to be killed that night because my dad had pissed off some important people by talking too much about global warming and pollution.  However, since I KNEW what was going to happen, I had a chance of stopping it.

So, that night, I am looking out the window and see an old white beater car pull up and I knew they were the ones.  I screamed for everyone to stay out of range of the windows b/c they were here to kill us and ran to the kitchen to grab knives and other weapons I could find.  Where, by the way, my mom apparently keeps bolt cutters and garden shears in her knife drawer.  

My dad came downstairs to get us to all go hide in the garage and told us he had called my grandma and grandpa (which is weird enough to begin with, but I couldn't understand why my dad would even THINK to call and have them come over and stop the people from shooting us).  Then, he comments how they were a day away from moving to Paris and this shit happened (um, he never mentioned to anyone he was moving to Paris, this was the first I was hearing of it).  

So we're cowering in the garage, and I'm pissed at him and yelling at him that he was moving to Paris, and why didn't he bother to tell us, and my grandma knocks on the garage window.  And she and grandpa had pulled up in his old Crown Vic and were standing outside the window, and my dad made a comment that those guys wouldn't be coming back even if the Crown Vic did have a great motor.

The cops eventually showed up, and my dad was outside trying to explain what happened to them by doing some weird interpretive dance with the lady detective while I was upstairs packing a suitcase and being super pissed, because I was told I had to enter the witness protection agency and would have to leave everyone I knew that day and couldn't say goodbye.  And I was so mad to have to leave all my friends, and not show up at C's wedding, and everyone would just think I was an ass for standing them up and they would all hate me.

So.

Yeah.

Anyone?  Interpret?  I would REALLY like to know what's going on in my messed up mind.

*Bright Eyes

I see the road now, I know just what I need, to find my way back to Tennessee

So, one of the reasons I've been too busy to write the past week, is because, I'm spending this week in...

NASHVILLE!

This is the swanky hotel we're staying in.

My pictures don't do this place justice.  I don't feel important enough to be staying here.  It's way nicer than anything I would be able to afford. 

Check out my swanky room with the 18 foot tall ceilings (even if it DOES only have two double beds instead of the king bed I've grown accustomed to).  I actually really like the headboards on these beds.  They kind of remind me of something from a Dr. Suesse movie or something (I have no idea why).

Can you tell I forgot to pack my camera on this trip? 

During our free time (we can't work ALL day), we have gone on a few tours of the city.  The first day we just walked up and down Broadway (our hotel is right downtown, so not a far walk).  I took this lovely picture of this giant boot...

Just...because I felt like it. 

Then, we took a real city tour (on a trolley no less) today.  I got pictures at both Centennial AND Bicentennial Parks. 

The Parthenon replica is at Centennial Park, and the columns looking up towards the Capitol Building is Bicentennial Park. I'm curious what they will build for their Tricentennial Park in 2096.

As we were on the city tour, I got a little distracted by the awe inspiring view of this shirts and skins game of soccer

In case you can't tell, The "skins" team is playing in their speedos (and looked pretty damn good for guys wearing speedos), and the "shirts" team, is fully dressed.  (Click on the picture for a larger view). 

Nashville is a great city. 

*Billy Ray Cyrus

Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard, their shadows searching in the night*

Man, I'm all about feast or famine over here.  I either post every day of the week, or you're lucky to get ONE post in the week.  

But, I saw an interesting post somewhere the other day (honestly my reader has over 200 subscriptions in it, I can't even remember where I saw it).  And after today, I felt inspired to write something about it.    This post was all about their biggest flaw.  And, I think that's a really interesting topic and I'm going to attempt to do that here.  

However, this is REALLY hard for me, because my biggest flaw is that I am terrible at being open with people.  Don't get me wrong, I have no problem talking about myself, or what I want, to an extent (hello, I have a blog, and I write about stuff all the time).  But I guarantee, there's a lot more going on that I won't even scrape the surface of.  

Today was a great example of this.  JH is one of my BEST friends.  We were roommates for 3 years of college, and she's one of the few people that I still make an effort to keep in my life.  Even when I lived in VA, I would make sure I made an effort to see her when I was home for holidays, and I know she feels the same way.  

However, I was talking about someone I used to date in VA, and she had no idea who I was talking about.  And it has NOTHING to do with her being a bad friend, and not remembering the guys I dated. It was because I never told her about him.  I dated the kid for four months (which while not exactly a world record for dating, should probably have been significant enough to MENTION), and I never told anyone about him until AFTER we broke up.

Or, the last guy I dated.  There's the real break up story, and the one that I told most people.  I lied to two of my favorite people and told them the "not real" story, because it was just easier to tell at the time.  (Nope, still not going to tell you guys the real story :-P  Guess that's a fail at being open).  I did eventually tell them the real story (although, one of them only heard the corrected version today, so still not exactly a win at the whole open and honest communication).  

So, I hurt my friend's feelings because I hate opening up to people.  And I had to explain, that no, it's not personally against you.  I trust you, I like you, I just...don't talk about stuff.  (And I know that my sisters don't understand why I'm like this either).  

And it's not just about guys I'm dating (I do this with SO MANY THINGS), it was just an easy example to give, since the conversation happened today.  

I have no idea if this is making any sense.  

And seriously, the irony of this post is killing me.  Do you realize how hard it is to be open about how you're NOT AN OPEN PERSON!  Pulling out my fingernails would almost be more pleasant than this  (and it's not like I'm exposing any big secret here or anything, so really, I shouldn't feel this awkward). 

But anyways, while this is in no way my only flaw, I do think that this is my biggest flaw, or at least the  flaw with the most potential to hurt others, and I need to work on it (and probably the hardest thing to write about for me).  

So, any questions?  :-P

*Journey

Take me out to the ballgame...

I'm exhausted this week.  Mostly from not sleeping enough.  And it all started with this weekend. 

But more on that in a different post.  (Too much effort to write a good post about the weekend...maybe when I'm not so tired).  

However, part of the reason I'm tired today, is I stayed up way too late to go see the Phils play Tuesday night. (Ugh, don't remind me of that terrible score...stupid Hamels and 6 runs in one inning).

We had SRO tickets, so my friend/co-worker and I decided to go eat at Harry the K's and watch as much of the game from there as we could.  We got GREAT seats right along the railing, and since we sucked so bad, the place cleared out pretty quickly, and we were able to stay as long as we wanted.

Yeah, that was taken with my phone.  See those little ant-like white figures out there?  Those are the players.  However, seriously, a great view.

This guy, on the other hand didn't seem to care about the view so much.  He spent all game on his laptop (I think he was on reddit.com the whole time actually).  At that point, if you're that bored, why not just go home?

At the end of the 6th inning, we were pretty cold, so we got up to walk around and went to the store there.  Of course I felt compelled to buy Baby V a pink Phillies outfit.  I contemplated buying mini bats for Little J and Little H and Baby T, but honestly, I'm pretty sure they'd use it to beat each other up, and L would kill me.  And, since they're not exactly a Philly sports fan family, I didn't get them anything else (worst aunt ever...I know).  

We walked back out and thought about staying for the end of the 8th inning, and said screw it, we're cold and went home.  

So, even though we lost, I had a great time.  If only it could have been a bit warmer...

You've got a nerve to be asking a favor*

Random Friday

• Half the time during the week, I have one of those commutes where if I leave by 6:30am, it takes me about 20 minutes to get to work, but if I leave at 6:40 it takes about an hour (the other half of the week it takes me 2 minutes).
• When it rains or snows, it takes me about an hour no matter what time I leave.
• I left super late today, and it was snowing. Only took me 25 minutes. I’m still in a bit of shock.
• It was raining last night, and I did the trash run anyways. I am so ridiculously sore today. I definitely need to start lifting again. I’m weak!
• There was an older guy walking in the rain on the trail at the same I was running. He was weird. He had on his big trench coat and golf umbrella and was kind of skipping along. He gave me a “Good for you!” when he walked (skipped?) past me doing my push-ups. Thanks strange guy!
• I am so sore today. I know I mentioned this earlier, but it’s worth repeating. It kind of hurt to turn the steering wheel this morning (not like excessively hurting, but a definite…oh hello there muscle I haven’t used in a while).
• I am so irritated with my insurance company right now. I’m STILL waiting for a check that they supposedly mailed two weeks ago. When I called to complain, they were the most unhelpful “help” ever. They have cancelled the first check and sent another one.
• Also sent by mail. Which means, who knows how long it will take to get here. I tried to make them overnight it (I even offered to pay for the cost of shipping it overnight), and I was told they don’t have the “technology” to do this
• Seriously? You don’t have an envelope and a phone to call Fedex? I feel there is something wrong with that statement.
• So, I still can’t pick up my car (this check is required to be signed by the repair shop and me so I can’t even pay it with my money and then cash the check when it arrives). And don’t even get me started on why they’re mailing it to me and not the repair shop. Ooooh…I’m pissed.
• However, I don’t want to end my Friday post on a bad note. So…happy news. Hmmm…
• I’m hanging out JH tomorrow night in New B to see my friend’s boyfriend’s band play. Super fun. :-)

Have a great weekend everyone!

*The Walkmen (as suggested by Mike when I asked for a song to use...I thought the opening line kind of fit).