Snowpocalypse Essentials

Well folks, it’s a Tuesday and we are stuck at home due to a bout of nasty winter weather. Luckily, I’m feeling pretty good about it.

What I’ve Got-

Flowers-Just because they are pretty, smell nice and make me happy. We are stuck inside so it’s nice to bring the outside in.

Adult Beverages-It is Fat Tuesday.

Hot Cocoa-It’s cold. Warm chocolatey goodness makes everything better.

Food-A massive spaghetti squash (we could live on it for days), french n onion dip and ruffles (my favorite snack) and eggs and bacon (cause that’s always a good idea)

Survival Gear-We like to camp and we like to be prepared. We also watch Walking Dead. Snowpocolypse doesn’t seem much different.

Cozy Clothes: Muk-Luks. Must have!

A Roaring Fire: Yessssssssss. Besides the warmth, everything looks better by firelight.

Books: I’ve been meaning to read these….

Hula Hoop: In case of stir craziness.

What I Don’t Have and Will Probably Miss

Sleds-Last year when this happened it was sledding mania. This year we are sledless, but resourceful. It could still happen…

YakTrax: I was way to cool for school when I lived out west to purchase these, but now I’d love a pair. Basically, they go over your shoes and make them grippy so that you don’t slip and slide. It’s pretty much guaranteed that if I step foot outside I’ll be on my back immediately.

What I Won’t Miss

Going to work. I mean everyone deserves an extra long weekend every now and then.

Leaving the house. Maybe after a few days. Right now I’m perfectly content where I’m at with what I’ve got.

Anything you’d add to the list??

This is how we do it.

Oh, Right….

Last night we were streaming an old episode of Jeopardy from YouTube–because what else would we be doing on a Friday night–when a weather alert scrolled across the bottom of the screen.

Me: Ahhhh! A winter weather advisory. Dangit, I was hoping it’d wait till Monday. Hmmm, those counties don’t look familiar….

Radio Silence.

Oh That’s Where the Time Goes…

The florescent lighting in the bathroom at work is just sooooo flattering. It’s also the perfect lighting to accentuate all my grey hairs silver highlights. Now that I’ve discovered this, it’s like I can’t stop searching for those beautiful signs of age. Can you guess what follows?

a) I can’t stop admiring how those random silver hairs glint in the light. And spring from my ponytail in a deceptively youthful way.

b) I hunt them down like the traitors they are to my brown locks and pluck them out. No mercy.

c) I don’t give them a second thought. I’ve got work to do!

d) I run out of there. It’s like the first time every time. Horrifying. And proceed to request more flattering lighting in the bathroom. Surely I’m not the first one to point out that florescent lighting should be outlawed.

Did you guess B? It’s turning into quite the pastime. And it’s strangely satisfying, and a great way to pass the time at work. I wish that I could say I took the high road and embraced those wayward strands as a sign of wisdom. It just seems strange to have grey hairs when you still don’t know what the heck you want to do with your life. So until then, it’s sayonara suckers. Until tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Where Does the Time Go?

Well hello February! Fancy seeing you here. I mean for the love of pete we just took down our Christmas decorations this weekend. Once I realized the stockings weren’t going to replenish themselves it seemed like a good idea to move on.

Time is zooming these days. And I’m struggling to make blog posts happen. It’s not that I don’t want to blog, I want to blog all the time. The problem is timing. I have flashes of blog inspiration throughout the day when I can’t blog. Like when I’m driving to work, when I’m working, oh yeah still working, goodness gracious is it time to go home yet, and finally time to go home. Yippee!!

Finally. Now I can do the things I want to spend my time doing like blogging, and I’m exhausted. My brain is mush, my head is pounding, my back is throbbing and my main desire is to get home ASAP so I can relax. Maybe do some light chores, watch some tv, eat some dinner, hang out, paint my nails…I mean I’m not completely worthless. Basically anything goes except spending more time staring at a computer screen.

I spend 8 hours a day Monday-Friday at a desk working on a computer. Well probably more like 7.5 if you count bathroom breaks. Still. That’s a lotta screen time. And I realize that I am not alone. I’m sure there are legions of people pining away in an office all day who manage to come home and put on their blogging hat.

So there it is. I think I just wrote my way to a solution. Clearly, I need a blogging hat.

I am still wondering  though where the heck does the time go??!

 

 

Cautionary Tales-Adventures in Cleaning

Since sharing is caring, I thought I’d share a cautionary tale. I know it might seem strange taking advice from me, but I’m usually pretty spot on when it comes to what NOT to do in life. I’ve gained a lot of experience by routinely doing the wrong thing.

I wanted to try cleaning with vinegar and water, but I didn’t have an empty spray bottle. I did, however; have a spray bottle on hand that was halfway filled with J.R. Watkins Natural All-Purpose Cleaner. I didn’t want to waste my bought on clearance at Target natural cleaner, so I poured it into a glass and sat it by the sink. Garett commented that maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. Well, what if cleaning with vinegar and water wasn’t such a good idea and I needed a back-up cleaner? Plus it’d be wasteful to throw it out.

Fast forward to early the next morning. Blurry-eyed and parched I stumbled into the kitchen for some water. Ah-Ha! Perched next to the sink was a glass of water. Yessssssss, score. I grabbed the glass like it was a lifeline (there may have been some adult beverages consumed at our house the night before), and threw it back. And then immediately spit it out. I’d been punked. By myself. The “water” was the J.R. Watkins cleaner that I’d strategically placed there yesterday. And it was awful. There was nothing natural tasting about that nightmare in my mouth.

Thoughts flew through my head. Ahhhhh, my throat is on fire. I could be dying. Oh shut-up you didn’t even drink that much and it’s natural. Natural products should be safe for consumption. Right??!! Oh crap. I don’t know. This is the worst taste ever. I should brush my teeth. Accckkkk that didn’t help. I’ll eat something. Ugh is it possible it’s getting worse??!! What now?? Why didn’t I listen to Garett?? Ok, think. What to do when one drinks cleaning solution? 

A few minutes later, I was on the phone with poison control. And it wasn’t embarrassing at all explaining that I was a 30 year old woman, nope not a kid, that accidentally drank all purpose cleaner. I was told that I should be fine, to take it easy, the after taste would probably fade at some point and given a lecture on the safe storage of cleaning products. I’m pretty sure that was a one and done kinda situation, but I guess you never know. Just to be safe the J.R. Watkins bottle now holds a mix of water and vinegar. Safety first!

 

Dream Reader

My Blogging 101 course asked us participants to publish a post meant for our “dream reader”. So of course I can’t get the song Dream Weaver out of my head now. You see how that could happen, right?

But I digress. Sure it’d be nice to have a dream reader that could read this blog and magically make all my bloggy dreams come true. Yes, I have a few. But really, I’m happy if someone reads my blog and it resonates with him or her. I love it when I come across a blog that feels like a long lost friend.

So, if you are reading thank you for being my dream reader. If you want more, make sure to follow me so you’ll always get my latest and greatest posts. I promise not to make you cry too much. In case you didn’t notice, I really, really, really just wanna make you laugh. Or smile. I know some of you aren’t as easily amused as others.

Hair Cuts and Barber Shops

So, I got my hair cut at a barber shop and it was awesome. To clarify, Arrow is a not straight-up barber shop, options are offered for all sexes. But the vibe definitely leans toward the masculine sex. It’s a modern barbershop complete with a complimentary beer and straight razor shaves. Not the place you’d envision me (I have long, wild, thick curly hair and I’m scared to death of hair cuts because I just know they are going to screw it up like that one time my mom took me to Fantastic Sam’s when I was a kid) voluntarily booking an appointment.

What had happened was, I booked an appointment for Garett at Arrow and tagged along because I’m not only crazy about my hair, I’m also crazy about his. Probably because the last time I took it upon myself to organize a hair cut for him it was a bit traumatic for the both of us. And this time actually started off a bit rocky too.

The first go round, we arrived to find out the appointment was actually the next night. I booked the appointment that day, and I still stand by the fact that the computer said it was indeed that day. I might have been on the verge of a massive argument with the receptionist, but the voice of reason Garett questioned if I really wanted to make a scene at the establishment that would soon be in charge of his hair. Yeah, probably not. So I conceded the point and we went to the ABC store for some scotch. I am so easily appeased.

The next night was game on for the hair cut. To be honest, I was a little intimidated by the hipster environment. Imagine my surprise when I proceeded to hit it off with the receptionist. It helped that he was an enthusiast contributor to the conversation that centered around my hair woes. And he was happy to provide a recommendation with a stylist at Arrow.

When I realized that the stylist he recommended worked at the location right around the corner from my office, it was a done deal. I’d nip out of the office during lunch for my haircut and be all ready for the impending holiday photo opps. The night before the big event, I dreamed of hair disasters. Before I knew it, the time had come. I was used to a salon full of women populated with gossip and hair spray. This was a room full of men drinking beer and getting their hair buzzed. Errrrr, what was I getting myself into?

Since I had to go back to work I couldn’t even attempt to fit in by drinking a beer. Soon enough I was in the chair and McKenna was bravely struggling through my dreaded locks. Unphased she noted that a few inches of dead and frizzy hair needed to come off and she got to the task at hand. As she snipped away, we chatted and I relaxed. Hey, so what if I was the only girl here? The guys around me didn’t seem to care I’d intruded.

Before I knew it, she announced she was done. I’d survived. It was quick, inexpensive and the best haircut I’ve had in a long time. Sometimes you gotta try something different. The only thing I’d do differently is go after work and have a beer…

Blogging 101

Sooo, I signed-up for a blogging course/challenge/primer through WordPress. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but from the first assignment it seems to be the massive kick in the bum I need to incorporate more writing into my life. Right off the bat, our first assignment is to introduce our blog and the purpose behind it.

I wrote a welcome back post for the new year that touched on my goal to write more this year. The assignment got me thinking about why I’m choosing to do it via this blog. Because honestly it’s pretty flippin scary to think about any one but you guys (you know who you are) perusing through here.

Well, let’s see…

I am pretty attached to this project and ready to take it to the next level….I’ve come this far….I still kinda, sorta, maybe, really want this blog to take off and help me achieve my writing goals….For your enjoyment and entertainment….Biographical purposes to preserve my life’s little adventures…..It’s complicated.

For more clarification check out these posts–(I took the liberty of updating the titles to better reflect what you are getting into here)

Welcome to the Awesomeness

What the Heck is L-Bonics?

This is Why I Did It

And Why I’m Still Doing It

 

 

 

New Year’s Eve

First of all, we had a fantastic New Year’s Eve. Dinner at a fancy restaurant and then a concert. Sheer perfection. And then I went to the bathroom, and missed the NYE countdown. Horrifying. Who does that? In my defense, anyone who knows me knows that I go to the bathroom a lot. So maybe it’s kinda fitting that’s where I spent my first few moments of 2015??

Needless to say, I burst out of that bathroom like it was on fire to find Garett. He was waiting for me ever so patiently to ring in the new year together. Even so, I think it’s going to be a long time before he lets me off the hook for that one…

Where’d you spend your first moments of 2015? I hope it was wonderful!