eclipse

my mind is aswirl! so many things going on and not enough time to sit and think (probably the reason why i have been sick now 2 times in 2 weeks, no bueno). being involved in 2 non-profits while trying to put myself in a position to be promoted at work by this time next year is trying. the good thing about being sick and having to stay home is that i can finally take the time to catch up on some much needed reading. can you believe i finally started reading eclipse, the 3rd book in the twilight saga? i didn't take long to get hooked again in the whole vampire vs. werewolf drama. :) it's sad that reading a book is my only release from an overly stressful time, but there it is...happy reading!

the rest of the story

so, my friend survived! on sunday, he jumped out of a plane in san marcos and made it to the ground safe and sound - even with a smooth landing. after lunch at a tacky place called bikinis (he picked), his wife and i visited a local winery we passed by called three dudes winery. the name sounds a little sketchy, but it was actually a nice little niche on the river. it might possibly become a refuge after a long day. i love finding places like that.

is everybody sick these days?

sick...again. i ended up leaving work at lunch on friday because i couldn't take it anymore. today, though, i was a trooper and did a bit of do gooding promoting my non-profit organization at a local health fair. it amazing the people you meet at events like that...always learning something new and unexpected and always leave loving the non-profit work i do. with a full time job, it's hard to juggle the time, but i make it work and love it. someday down the road, i'd love to be an executive director of a non-profit. it's a tough job, but one of the most rewarding.

anyway, tomorrow i'm watching a friend jump to his death, or, as he calls it, skydiving. eesh, i don't know if i'll be able to watch.

a new week.

while there is so much going on that is causing stress, frustration, etc. (esp. at work), i'm trying to spend more time focusing on the good things that are going on because that's what matters, right? so, since i'm a visual person, i have to write things down so i can see them (and, hence, remember them!). here are some that immediately come to mind:

1. i FINALLY finished a book, in the time of the butterflies by julia alvarez. sadly, i have had the worst attention span for like a year, but i'm hoping that is coming to a close because reading is one of my favorite hobbies.

2. the movie Coco Before Chanel will be coming to my town in less than a month - CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

3. another week means more lunchtime pilates. totally my new favorite thing to do.

4. my fav yoga studio is moving into a new, fabulous building. can't wait to take class there.

5. this week i'm chopping off my hair! time for something short and cute for the fall. may even go lighter with the color.

anyway, just a few things to keep my mind positive while work is overwhelming.

le weekend

after a whirl-wind week of too much work and too much sickness (boo), i started my weekend at a local community resource & health fair. it's events like these that make me feel so blessed that i do the work that i do and have the opportunity to participate in things such as this. this fair was at a local church in the less affluent part of town. local vendors, doctors, dentists, etc. participate and do free screenings of this and that. just an awesome do-gooding thing. i, along with two other ladies, were there on behalf of a local non-profit that we belong to. finally, a truly beneficial way to start a weekend (plus it got me up at 8:30 in the morning on a saturday rather than noon or 1:00). afterward, i holed myself away at a starbucks while much needed rain poured down and made my way through the joy diet. just a good and lazy day.

today, my sweetie and i ventured to Gruene and had yummy mexican food and then stopped by a new, totally adorable coffee shop. we also drove by the new home of my local yoga studio. it's so amazing seeing young entrepreneurs grow, especially when they do something i support so much. then again, it starts making me feel like i did when i first stumbled onto kimberly wilson's blog oh so long ago. on one hand, i absolutely loved everything she was doing and i was immediately hooked. on the other hand, i was sad that someone else was doing all the things i had thought of doing myself but just never took the leap. it makes me feel like i'm wasting my life doing something that i'm not 100% committed to. UGH - this is my daily struggle.

victory!

after searching through literally every bookstore in my town, i finally found a copy of the joy diet! i'm so glad because i'm not a big fan of ordering online (i think it's that instant gratification need). so, i'm well into chapter 1 and am loving it, but i have some catching up to do. tomorrow will be my first foray into doing nothing (i may just decide to do it in court - ha!). we shall see how it goes.

nothing - literally

when it comes to participating in the joy diet's first chapter - nothing, this past week was an utter failure.

problem 1: no book - i've literally been to every bookstore in my city and the book cannot be found. looks like i'm resigned to ordering online.

problem 2: the past week was chock full of problems, stress, and chaos. while it was certainly the most needed week to take a few minutes to do nothing, i have to admit that i spent it enjoying a few cocktails instead. sigh...

last week was supposed to be a little break away from life while our entire office went to corpus christi for a work conference. i had planned to leave for the coast on tuesday, but for some reason i decided to work in the morning and then leave in the afternoon. thank goodness i did! while i was doing some prep work on a huge case that is quickly approaching trial, i discovered that the detective had not sent extremely important dna evidence to the crime lab to be tested. i cannot begin to express how big of an error that is, so i got to spend tuesday writing memos (aka - hate mail) to the officers on the case and contacting the defense attorney about the mistake. the silver lining is that i discovered this before trial and not during. can you even imagine how stupid all of us would look when the jury learned that the evidence was just sitting there, never tested??? UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! needless to say, the trial will have to be reset and i have the distinct joy of explaining this to the victim. anyway, this situation was the biggest impetus for me to head to the bar rather than do nothing. probably not the best reaction. breathe in...breathe out...

the rest of the trip was nothing to complain about, but i ended up leaving on friday completely exhausted and so happy to be home. so, my first entry is way too negative. next week will be better!

when can i slow down?

so i finally joined 2009 and converted my page to the new layout feature. thank god! it's now so much easier to pretty up my page. unfortunately, my old template is no more and instead of a pink space it's become more of a peach and brown, but whatever. it's all pink in my head. :)

seriously, though, september has been a month of sheer craziness for me. hence, my absence from blogging or tweeting or just communicating in general. i already posted about our SANE room cutting ceremony at the beginning of the month (complete with paintings done by moi!). my artistic inclinations were put to the test again when i volunteered to participate on one of the judge's bbq cook off teams. i'm not particularly fond of bbq, but it was good to socialize with work peeps and i delegated myself to the booth decoration committee rather than actually cook any meat. so, me and two other girls spent all our after work hours last week literally creating a ring of fire. check out the picture - an entire fence of plywood that we sawed flames out of and painted. out of 80-ish teams, ours was one of four that received a showmanship award. holla!

in other news, i also got to be on stage with george strait last week! he was emceeing at a local fundraiser (for the love of kids and harleys) and i not only got a free VIP ticket, but i also got to stand on stage while he did his thing. like 2 feet away from him! eek! didn't get to actually meet him though, which bummed me out, but oh well.

with all the craziness that has been going on this month (including prepping for 4 upcoming jury trials and getting sick) i haven't been to good to myself physically. but today i finally went to a lunchtime pilates class and ate a healthy lunch, but boy am i sore now. better get it together because tomorrow i'm heading down to corpus christi for the rest of the week for a work conference. a much needed break!

doing good

this afternoon, we had the ribbon cutting ceremony for our new SANE (sexual assault nurse examiner) room at the local hospital. amazingly, this day has been many years and tears in the making. it's hard to believe that professionals are so difficult to convince that sexual assault is actually a problem, but i suppose many prefer to bury their heads in the sand than acknowledge it. but, we finally have our dedicated room and multiple nurses in training to become SANEs. as we were preparing for the ribbon cutting, somehow i got picked to create the wall art for the room. so, the past 2 days have been spent in my garage creating "art." i don't paint very often, so i was seriously nervous about how this would turn out, but i really surprised myself. the canvases looked fantastic and everyone was so excited about how the room looked. i felt fabulous...plus, i get to say that my artwork is hanging in a hospitals. how cool is that?!?

so, august is over and so i looked over my goals for the month and sadly came up short.

1. Cook dinner at least twice per week - 1 weeknight and 1 weekend. FAIL, didn't cook dinner at all (but did see Julia & Julia and was very inspired by cooking) :/

2. Attend lunchtime pilates class at least once a week (LOVE lunchtime pilates). I haven't been at all in the past 2 weeks, but the first half of the month i was good. I'll try to keep it up in September.

3. Finish reading Living Artfully by Sandra Magsumen. Ugh...fail. Lately, I have not had the attention span to pick up a book and finish it. So not me.

4. Create a nighttime routine that includes yoga, walking my dogs, a healthy dinner, etc. FAIL, especially since I've recently become addicted to the TV show Dexter and have spent all my non-work hours watching Seasons 1-3.

Looks like I need to do some major work. On a high note, though, I've spent the past 2 nights doing a fun little (or not so little) art project for a non-profit organization that I'm a board member on. Basically, I've taken it upon myself to decorate our hospital room, which currently consists of stark white walls, filing cabinets, and a gyn bed. Instead of shopping around trying to find the "perfect" art work that will appease both adults and children, I decided to do it myself. Yikes! However, I have surprised myself because it is actually turning out well and I've recruited my sweetie to help so we've had lots of fun hanging out in the garage painting together. So much better than our typical vegging in front of the TV. I'll post a picture when we're done.

living abroad

ok, one of my big fantasies for a long time has been to move to europe (preferably france, of course) and live and work there for several years. i could fully immerse myself in the culture plus have the rest of europe to explore much more conveniently. but, i always kind of dismissed it as a pipe dream because i just couldn't see how an opportunity like that could open up for me and i don't think i'm ambitious enough to just move over there and hope to find a job (plus, don't you have to have a work visa or something before you move there?). anyway, it all just seemed too complicated and too unrealistic to seriously consider...until now!

a dear friend of mine is in the process of applying for jobs with the department of defense in such places as germany and italy(!). she hit her breaking point at her current job and so she and her husband have made the decision to move out of the country with their 3 year old son. they have lived in germany in the past when her husband was in the military, so this isn't some spur of the moment crazy decision. plus, can you imagine the opportunity living abroad will have for their son? so, i've been listening to her as she goes through this process and have asked TONS of questions. seems like the possibilities are there as long as i'm willing to take a chance and think a bit outside the box. i'm pretty content where i'm at right now, but i'm seriously looking at the possibility of moving abroad while i'm in my 30s. can you imagine???

friends, fun, and g.i. joe (seriously)

so excited about this weekend and am so sad that it is over. friday evening my sweetie and i met up with another couple at their tavern (aka, their fabulously decorated garage) for a late night of playing games, drinking, and just having a good time. saturday, we headed over to a co-worker/friend's house for her margaritaville party, and today a big group of us went out to see g.i. joe (yes, i know everyone else is seeing julie & julia, but don't worry, i'll be dragging my sweetie to see it soon) and then had dinner at a yummy italian restaurant. honestly, i don't know the last time i have been so social in one weekend and i have say that i'm loving it. normally, the bf and i bum around all weekend and before i know it it's time to get ready for monday and i haven't really done anything special. so glad this weekend was a change.

speaking of change, i started looking around the house this weekend and noticed that i have NO personal pictures up anywhere. is that not bizarre??? i guess it's because i don't like things to look cluttered, but really, no personal pictures? so, i started by buying one of those collage picture frames and filled it with old pictures of my bf and me from college. boy, do we look young in them! i then started sifting through all my pictures picking out the ones i want to frame and i can't believe the wave of nostalgia that overcame me. some of those memories seem so far away; many of my dear friends in those pictures i haven't spoken with in years. it's just so hard to believe (it's also hard to believe how much i've changed physically since college, but i'm trying not to go there!).

july into august

tonight i'm sipping a glass of wine, cuddling with my 3 puppies, and catching up on my fav blogs and podcasts. some how july snuck past me. i'm getting kind of annoyed for always finding myself at the end of a month wondering where the time went. seriously, at some point, i want to reach the end of a month and really feel pleased at everything i accomplished (outside of work) or did for myself.

but july wasn't without its high points. my bff turned 30 (but i'm still working on finding the "perfect" present to give her when i visit her in september), this weekend my sweetie and i drove to odessa (okay, not a high point) and attended a baby shower for his sister, i got to shoot some guns, and we had a couple of fun toobing trips.

but, august can be better. it's been a couple of months since i've made a formal monthly goals list, so...

August Goals:

1. Cook dinner at least twice per week - 1 weeknight and 1 weekend.

2. Attend lunchtime pilates class at least once a week (LOVE lunchtime pilates).

3. Finish reading Living Artfully by Sandra Magsumen.

4. Create a nighttime routine that includes yoga, walking my dogs, a healthy dinner, etc.

we'll see how i do!

bang, bang

this afternoon involved a very unexpected trip to the firing range! our chief set it up as an initiation/welcome aboard for our new attorney (our civil section is entirely female and we all seem to have this desire to do "tough" things). i shot a .45 and a .380 and we had a great time despite the overpowering heat. i can't ever imagine carrying a gun in my everyday life, but it sure is nice to release some frustration every now and again.

monday, monday

another fun start to another week. my bench trial that was set this morning was continued because the defendant decided not to show up. i enjoy nothing better than getting warrants issued for people who waste my time.

AND, i'm so proud of myself because i went to pilates class again during lunch. this is the second monday in a row - a major accomplishment during my overly excessive exercise drought. i've found it is so much easier to just make the time during lunch rather than drag my tired body to class after work. so, looks like every monday and wednesday i have a lunch date with my pilates instructor.

my rant

you know, i have a hard time understanding how i can give so much to my job and to others that i work with and still be treated like crap by someone who is never there, who has no authority or control over me, and who simply doesn't take the time to make sure that her employees are doing their job. i also have a serious problem with anyone who deems it appropriate or professional to try to accuse, gripe, or berate someone via e-mail. are you kidding me??? are you that spineless??? oh, i also have a serious problem with anyone who deems it appropriate or professional to cc a million people on these hate e-mails. again, are you kidding me???

i fell victim to such a person today and, given the drama that happened a couple of weeks ago, i just about threw in the towel. do i really have to put up with crap from someone who doesn't bother to properly supervise her employees, thereby making my office and other offices do more work in order to correct all of their mistakes? do i really have to be the bigger person and not respond in kind?

unfortunately, i do, and i did. i'm not going to fall victim to some immature e-mail war. all it will do is make me look like the irresponsible one (funny how that works). instead, i responded by telling her that we should set up a time to meet in person to discuss the issues, which is something i get to look forward to next week. UGH!!!! i don't hate much, but i hate hateful people.

sunny days

had a blast today toobing on the guadalupe river with my sweetie and some good friends. what was supposed to be a 3 hour float turned into a 4.5 hour float thanks to the slow moving river. so, suffice it to say, i got lots of sun, drank a few more beers than expected (though not nearly as many as the poor guy who ended his float puking in the river - yes, in the river), and just generally got some nice relaxation time. even though i've lived in the area for over 2 years now, i've only just discovered the joys of river floating - very relaxing and cheap way to spend a sunny saturday. afterwards, we had a yummy bbq dinner at cooper's (complete with blackberry cobbler - yum!) and now i'm ready to change into some pj's and veg out on the sofa. yea for a good day!

last night, a co-worker of mine and i went out after work hours for the first time in the two years we've worked together and we had a blast! first, we had dinner at the melting pot (she had never been - for shame!) where we had a cheese fondue and a to-die-for white chocolate fondue. then we headed to the movie theater to watch bruno. it was pretty much as vulgar and tacky as we expected, but also hysterical and we both needed to see a mindless film that would make us laugh.

no idea how i plan to spend tomorrow, but it's probably about time to do a bit of yoga, a bit of reading, and hopefully not have to nurse to bad of a sunburn.

no sleep

i don't know what is with me this week. i'm not typically a morning person (gosh, that's putting it lightly), but this week has been especially difficult. as in, i've been SERIOUSLY late to work each and every day. i even had to call my assistant one morning and give her a lame excuse that i had forgotten something at home and had to turn around and go get it because i was so late. and i'm supposed to be focusing on getting a good night's sleep this week for my work's wellness program. sigh...

i'm so ready for friday, though. i keep wanting to go up to austin and maybe take a stroll on the hiking trails around town lake. i need to do that before august hits and the heat becomes really unbearable. i also keep getting the urge to play tennis and golf. really? i'm not an outdoors person, but maybe that's my body's way of telling me that i need serious exercise (along with the insane case of the blahs). but, it's 11:30 now and it's time to get some sleep.

happy friday everyone!

sleep

so, in my pay stub envelope was a Fit For Life 9 week program sponsored by the county's wellness committee. normally, i don't pay much attention to the junk mail included with my pay stub, but this actually sounds really cool. each week, we'll be focusing on a different wellness issue - sleep, volunteering/community involvement, organization, nutrition, physical activity, social/relationships, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. this week, the focus issue is sleep and here are some suggestions made to create good sleeping habits:

1. develop regular sleep habits
2. slow down and unwind before bedtime
3. get up at the same time seven days a week, no matter how long you have slept
4. your bedroom should be a comfortable resort for sleeping
5. breathe deeply to induce drowsiness
6. exercise daily to promote good sleep
7. accept occasional nights with less sleep (boo)
8. if your sleep is consistently disturbed, ask for help

next, i'm supposed to pick one of the following tasks to do three times this week:
1. keep a sleep journal
2. try to get 8 hours of sleep
3. try increasing your amount of sleep by one hour three nights this week.

i know i don't get enough sleep and that i don't get "good" sleep, if that makes sense. i'm thinking i'm going to go with task 3 and maybe task 1. we'll see how i do!

artist date

thanks to the lovely carolyn of hang on little tomato, i had a lovely little artist date this evening with all the goodies she sent me (including an awesome cd mix of fun, creativity-inspiring songs). while sipping a yummy glass of wine, this is what i made. thank you, carolyn, for being so sweet. i'm going to have to think of something to send you in return.

here's the spot i found for it on my wall in my pink space. :)