Life Posts

12Aug
0

C25K Hiatus

Maybe you noticed that I haven’t been updating my C25K progress lately. And then today I took that page down. Why? Because I can’t run anymore.

Anymore = indefinitely.

I went to the foot doctor yesterday. Apparently my feet are “not anatomically designed for running”. What does that even mean? I have feet. They work (sort of). One in front of the other!

But apparently running is a problem. Something about everything in there being defective in some way, causing pressure in all the wrong places but especially on my nerve. So to avoid further nerve damage, I can’t run for the foreseeable future.

I like running though. And I certainly don’t like being told that I can’t do something. This might be a tough one for me. But I guess now is as good of a time as any to learn how to swim better. Or take my bike out. Pretty much anything that will give me exercise without another cortisone injection.

Posted by Caro in Fears, Health, Life, Rants and raves, Sports, Things to do
09Aug
0

I Suck @ This Right Now

Sorry for the epic neglect folks. Life is BUSY at the moment. Here’s a quick status update on a lot of miscellaneous fronts. And read all of them, cuz some are kind of exciting :)

1. Work: Same shit, different day. I’m still working 3 jobs. I still hate working 3 jobs. A major source of my blog neglect lately has come from one job in particular, wiping me out so I have NO energy to blog when I get home. I mean 4 grants + coordinating a scientific conference? I’m one person, and I work there 20 hours a week. Whew!

2. Marla: She hurts. I saw a neurologist and got an EMG and NCV on Friday. SO STRANGE. They put things on my foot then shocked me with a cattle-prod-thing. Get the results on Wednesday.

3. Italy: Um….I have done NOTHING Italy-related in a month. I’m starting to feel bad. But I have other things on my mind…..

4. Love Life: Well, I’m 7 years into my current relationship. We live together. AND WE’RE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!

J took me on a weekend adventure, and wouldn’t tell me anything. I had a feeling, but then again, I’ve been waiting for a while for this and thought maybe I’d have to keep waiting (boys are kinda dense). But then he took me to Sea World, where we did a behind the scenes penguin encounter. Apparently everyone else on the tour knew but me. I have tons of pics and a video of me/us petting penguins. Then we went into the back of the exhibit, and magic happened :)

Basically you can go right up to the barrier that separates the staff and the penguins, but you can’t go onto the snow (oh yeah, it’s about 20 degrees in here!). J and I walked up to this barrier, and as luck would have it, a penguin was intrigued and waddled right over to us. The little guy came all the way to the barrier and stuck his beak through it. SO AWESOME. I think I squealed in delight, and then said (to the penguin) “I love you!”. J thought I was talking to him, so he said, “I love you too, (pulled out a ring) will you marry me?”

And so we’re engaged. And we’re 100% ecstatic about it. I feel lucky to have found the love of my life, who is also my best friend, and to know I will spend the rest of my life with him. I mean, he proposed with penguins. This is clearly the guy for me! And that brings me to #5…

5. Wedding Planning: I’ve been engaged for 9 days, and I think I have a venue set. We’ve come up with our first two choices for dates (2011) and are waiting to hear back from the event coordinator. I went out to dinner with some of my friends 2 days after the proposal and they had made a bet as to how many spreadsheets I had already created (2). A week later, I have 5 total. Although the big day is over a year away, I’m not wasting a minute. Planning a wedding is kind of fun (remind me I said that if I start getting stressed 10 months from now). J is totally wonderful too. He is totally interested in this, at least so far, and while I’m the lead on the wedding planning, he’s taking the reins on the honeymoon.

So yeah. I’ve been a busy bee. I really don’t want my blog to turn into a wedding planning frenzy, so I’ll do my best to keep variety. I’ll also do my best to keep up, rather than go for weeks with no posts. And on that note, I’m going to bed. Good night world! :)

Posted by Caro in Blogging, Health, Life, News, Things to do, Travel, Weddings, Work
08Jul
0

C25K

When it comes to some things in life, I need a little motivation to get started. Like working out. I mean I love the idea of being in shape, looking good, feeling good, and being able to do fun outdoorsy activities without getting winded. But do I like going to the gym? NO! Are you crazy?

Over the past few months I was blessed to have a friend who felt the same way. Coincidentally, he lives a mile away from me. So a couple of times a week we go get pumped at the gym. It’s awesome. Sometimes you just need that little bit of motivation (a person coming over) to get you started. And I know once I’m started, it’s all good. Get me TO the gym and I will workout.

But then summer came. My gym buddy works for a school, so his lucky ass gets summers off. So he surfs all the time, and doesn’t have the time or desire to come to my janky apartment gym.

What have I been doing since summer vacay started? Well, lots of things. But sadly, not one of them has been “gym time”.

Then I saw some tweets from @itsKrust about C25K. What is that? So I google it, and it’s pretty awesome.

Basically it’s a running program designed for the person who is 100% completely out of shape and is literally starting at 0. Hence the name “Couch to 5K”

3 workouts per week for 9 weeks and you’ll be off your couch running about a 10min mile pace for 30 minutes. This is my cup of tea. I did the week 1 workout 1 yesterday and found it quite easy. So I mixed it up a bit. Added a 1.5 incline and sped up the walking portions. Also ran the last 5 min. Not too bad. I think I’ll skip ahead to week 2 next time.

The only potential setback I might have is that my current workout schedule is 2 days a week. This means I’m going to have to actually get off my couch on Saturday or Sunday to do the 3rd one each week. J said he would do it with me on Saturday. For him, this really is couch to 5K.

Wish us luck!!

Posted by Caro in Discoveries, Health, Life, Sports, Things to do
08Jul
0

Noise

I got a noise complaint last night. For “walking too loudly”

Can I just start by saying that 1. I never wear shoes in my house and 2. There are 12 inches of concrete separating me from my neighbors below. And to top it off, I was sitting on the couch and the boyfriend was sitting at the computer. WTF?

This isn’t our first noise complaint. The same people complained for the same reason a few months ago. Too bad we were out of town that weekend!!!! We actually freaked out that time – did someone break into our apartment and take all our shit? Nope, just a crazy lady downstairs!

So this morning I stopped in the leasing office and asked about last night’s complaint. Is this going in my file? Because I don’t think I did anything wrong.

Turns out the lady below me just is a crotchety crazy lady. The best part: this complaint isn’t going in my file – it’s going in hers!

Posted by Caro in Life, weird
06Jul
0

Busy Busy

Between the jobs, miscellaneous random travel, my eBay business (well the 10 things I have listed), and everything else going on at this current moment in my life, I find that I have no time left to do anything else. So here’s a list of some of the things I’ve promised myself I’ll get around to this week:

1. Go back to the gym. I went once last week and 0 times the week or two before that. I blame the World Cup. I mean, I get up early, go to bed late, and of course spend my lunch breaks glued to ESPN3. So when am I supposed to burn all those calories I’m taking in while on the couch watching soccer? I guess after soccer is over!

2. Call my doctor. My gyno thinks I have GI issues, not gyno issues. So back to a different doctor I go!

3. FINISH my spring cleaning. Yeah that nice project I started like 2 months ago? Still not done. On the bright side though all I have left really is my filing cabinet and ALL of J’s stuff. He’s such a packrat. The floor area next to his side of the bed could take all week!

4. Catch up on notes. I kind slacked off last month on entering notes for my unpaid job. I guess it really goes to show that external rewards (like paychecks) are required to do the more mundane aspects of work.

5. Read another book. Ok let’s be honest. I’m not going to read a whole book this week. But starting one of the many I’ve purchased for the summer would make me happy. So let’s list this goal as “read 1 chapter of a book”

6. Go back to the gym. I’ve already listed this, but I have to go more than once this week if I’m going to fit into my “summer” clothes before the end of summer.

That should suffice. Words of encouragement are most definitely appreciated. After all, this is a short week!!!

Posted by Caro in Life, Random, Things to do
28Jun
0

Cranking It Out

I’m laying here on my loveseat, enjoying the Netherlands vs. Slovakia game (despite already knowing the outcome) pumping myself up to crank out some posts. I slept funny on my neck 2 nights ago and it hurts. Not just a little. The pain randomly radiates down my shoulder blade. So I’m propped up with pillows, a heating pad, and a glass of wine (alcohol: the oldest analgesic known to man. Or something. lol)

Let’s see how many I can do :)

Posted by Caro in Blogging, Health, Life, Things to do
22Jun
1

Austin

I went to Austin this weekend. Yep, this Cali girl went to Texas.

I’m not going to lie. I had a lot of preconceptions about Texas. And given that I was in Austin (which I understand is not in anyway representative of the rest of the state of which it is a part), just about none of those were accurate. Did I see cowboys? Maybe one. Did people have GIGANTIC belt buckles? Nope. I didn’t see a single one! Was everyone packing heat? Not as far as I could tell.

In a way, this disappoints me. I mean I kind of wanted to see all these things. But at the same time, I felt pretty safe (vs. fearful of getting shot for making some hippy-liberal remark) and actually really enjoyed Austin. Minus the weather of course. Sweet Jesus, that heat + humidity was like a punch to the face every time you walked outside!! (97 degrees + 80% humidity!)

Here’s the summary/highlights:

Friday:

  • We got in around 9. I was wearing capris and a short sleeved shirt, thinking this would be suitable for night time. False. I wanted to be in a bathing suit running through sprinklers.
  • Our group of 9 somehow ended up at three separate hotels, each a solid half a mile+ from each other. We headed straight to one of them when we got in. I met Grant’s new girlfriend, and was expecting to see Danny and Sabrina’s new (6 month) kid, but I guess he was tired and cranky so Sabrina took him back to her hotel. Sad.
  • We walked for what seemed like forever and got some food. Apparently there’s a lot of bats in Austin. We saw a few under a bridge on our way to the restaurant.
  • It was J’s birthday so we hit up 6th Street for some drinks and shuffleboard. 6th Street is apparently like Bourbon Street – no cars allowed for several blocks, and just a long row of bars and drunk people. It was pretty cool!!
  • Apparently you can get into a bar in Austin with a photocopied ID. That’s totally legit right? lol

Saturday:

  • Got up ridiculously early and headed to Danny & Sabrina’s hotel. We got to meet their son, who is SO CUTE – little chunky monkey! Spent about an hour there before meeting up with the others.
  • Grant brought his boat, so we headed to Lake Austin for some wakeboarding and swimming.
  • Sabrina wasn’t comfortable bringing the baby on the boat, and I’m not sure what happened after that, but the three of them ended up driving back to Corpus Christi. Seriously? I was both upset and sad when I realized what had happened (seriously, I wouldn’t have gone to Texas if they weren’t going to be part of the weekend)
  • J attempted to wakeboard for the first time. He made a noble attempt, but didn’t really ever get up.
  • J and I shared a Hu-La-La at the Hula Hut off the lake. It was 2 kinds of Bacardi + fruit juice served in a fish bowl. DELICIOUS! We then shared a Texas style FEAST.
  • Hit up the hot tub after we got home. J toweled off, and realized his stomach was red and in pain. He cried out “OMG I think I’m allergic to this towel!” Upon further inspection I had to explain to him that, actually, he was just sunburned. Yeah, he forgot to put sunscreen on his front. I applied sunscreen like 12 times. How do you forget that substantial of a section of your body?! lol yeah he’s magenta. It’s hilarious
  • Headed to a couple of lounges, which were fun, but I was tired. Headed back around 1. (Several of the lounges played music straight from the 90s. What’s up with that?? I thought Austin was the homeland for new music? At least the last place we went was awesome. Like seriously the best place I’ve been to in a long time. I’ll have to find out the name of it so I can properly review it, but dude, this place had free skeeball!! And pacman! What not to love? Also, they had a Chuck Norris painting on the wall. Don’t mess with Texas!)

Sunday:

  • Tired Caro and hungover everyone else decided to sleep in. Then we headed to Uncle Billy’s Brew&Que for some Texas style BBQ. Why I didn’t take a picture of my food is beyond me, but it was AMAZING. I got ribs with a side of glazed carrots and a side of mac n cheese. A great meal experience.
  • It was father’s day. I had to get a gift for my dad, and he wanted something from Texas. Too bad we were scrambling to make our flight!! Thankfully my dad is the easiest person EVER to shop for, so I spent about 5 min in the gift shop and found some treasures: jalapeno hot sauce, ‘ass-kickin’ raspberry jalapeno jelly, hot beef jerkey, a ‘Don’t mess with Texas’ mug, and of course a shirt. Sadly they had no belt buckles, but I think my mom was really happy about that (she begged me not to get him one lol).

All in all a great weekend, and I’m the slightest bit tan to boot!

a fishbowl of liquor for two

Don't Mess With Texas

random sign at a parking lot

Posted by Caro in Food, Life, Music, Travel and tagged with
10Jun
0

Ruined

My new boss has RUINED my diet.

Now before I lay this all on him, I need to take some of the credit. I had been working to get in shape, drop a few pounds, and tone up a bit before Rhianna’s and Jessica’s weddings. Did I succeed? No. Not really. And this was my own damn fault, because I skimped on the gym about 1/3 times that I should have gone, I ate a TON of chocolate (please refer to the title of this blog – that’s my life motto, which unfortunately allows me to eat any and all things chocolate), and with stress comes less than stellar willpower to snack on salads and fruits and veggies instead of chips and cookies.

But while I’m not overjoyed with where I ended up, I’m OK with it. Because I did lose a few pounds, I am in way better shape (yay being able to run for longer than 2 minutes at a time!), and I see the slightest bit of definition in my muscles. Score.

So why this angry blog you ask?

Because I had reached a happy equilibrium where I was eating the foods that I wanted to in moderation (aka no deprivation!) and working out somewhat regularly, and not gaining or losing weight. A nice happy balance between food, exercise, and my clothes fitting nicely. Again, score!

And then my boss ruined things. With bagels.

The man eats two bagels every morning. Two. Gigantic. Bagels. Toasted, with cream cheese. We share tight quarters – if I were to stick my arm all the way out to my right, I could probably touch him. So yeah, I smell them, and boy do they smell delicious!

So I’ve started indulging in bagels. It started as once every week or two, then once a week, and now I’m eating one – in addition to breakfast and lunch – every morning at work. The bagels in the cafeteria are gigantic so of course they require 2 little packets of delicious cream cheese. So if I were to start tracking POINTS! with Weight Watchers again, I would be fucked. Because this bagel + 2 cream cheese is at least 10 points, and I only get 19 per day.

My clothes are getting tight. As previously noted, I can’t afford to buy a whole new wardrobe. Back to the gym I go. And for the love of god, if you see me eating a bagel slap it out of my hand!

Posted by Caro in Food, Health, Life, Money, Things to do, Work
10Jun
1

Will-Power

I need some, and I need it ASAP.

I’ve previously posted about my dire financial situation. I know I shouldn’t spend money. And honestly, I’ve actually been pretty good about containing myself.

And then it happened. The stars collided.

I entered my closet yesterday after doing a bit of a spring cleaning. It seems that I have ditched a substantial portion of my clothes. Anything that a) doesn’t fit b) was worn out or c) caused me to wonder what I was thinking when I purchased it in the first place was tossed. And now there aren’t many things in there.

So add to that this flier I received in the mail for 30% off this weekend at the Gap, and I’m having a bit of a situation over here.

I mean I can’t go to work naked. And I can’t go looking like a schlub either. And the clothes are on sale….

What do I do?

I’m leaning toward the idea of “I’m going to buy new clothes at some point soon anyway. They might as well be on sale.”

Thoughts? :)

Posted by Caro in Life, Money, Shopping, Things to do
10Jun
0

At Least You Can Laugh

My sister has a VERY bad track record when it comes to hear health and well-being. She’s broken several bones in some seriously freak incidents, had a couple of surgeries (see previous point), and gets these weird mystery illnesses. She also is a klutz. So much so that our uncle made up a name for her – Katrinka – because that sounded like the name of someone who would fall a lot. (I would like to pause this post for a second to express complete shock and amusement that my spell-check actually likes the word “Katrinka”. wtf). Basically, when there is a minuscule chance something can go wrong, it does.

In keeping with this theme, she has recently had a minor surgery to remove an ovarian cyst that just wasn’t going away. Just a couple of weeks later this girl texts because she’s broken out in hives on her chest. OK? What do you want me to do about it? Texts keep pouring in. “Hives are moving up my chest and down my stomach.” “It’s on my neck now.” “I can’t breath and I’m freaking out.” Finally, “I’m going to the ER.”

So she goes. With a 4 year old.

After shots of adrenaline, benadryl, and steroids, I get a text complaining about the needles. Then another one, “My blood pressure is 72/40. Is that bad?” LOL yes, yes it is. Good thing you’re at the hospital.

So they release her, now armed with Prednisone, Benadryl, and an EpiPen. Next day she heads to the doctor for labs so she can find out what in the hell she is apparently very allergic to. Today the labs came back and I got this text:

My doctors called. My lab work came back negative & they’re like ‘so that’s good’. How is that good? We are no closer to finding out what I’m allergic to. And they’re like ‘u have to make an appt in August so until then keep a lot of Benadryl on you’. Ummmmm …? FAIL doctors office! LOL

And this is why I love my sister. Because her body hates her and even though none of the doctors can figure out why, she is able to laugh about it and entertain other people with her misfortunes.

Posted by Caro in Family, Health, Life
Next Page »