Let’s Hang Out and Eat

After this weekend, I realized that I don’t have any friends who aren’t big into eating. The foundation of all my friendships is eating. Even my athletic sporty healthy friends, they are always ready to throw down some cookie dough at any opportunity. I don’t even know what I would do with someone who wanted to go eat a salad then go hiking or something. Ewww. Why would we want to do that???? Look what we could do instead:

We even planned ahead and ordered the biggest pizza option so we would have leftovers for after the bar. I’m not sure if we should be ashamed or proud.

Things started off a bit rocky early on Saturday morning thanks to the sweet sounds of J.Lo and loud traffic blaring into my bedroom. I completely forgot that the  Beach to Bay marathon finish line was right in front of my apartment. Guess the 547 port-a-potties they set up on Friday should have been a clue. Since traffic had been redirected around my apartment because of the race, we spent most of Saturday trapped at my apartment.

With the assistance of alcohol and Cheez-Its, we were able to enjoy the finish line entertainment from the comfort of my pool. There has never been a moment over the past five years that I have been sad to miss out on that race. It was about 100% humidity and 85 degrees by 9 am, that does not sound enjoyable in the least.

Watching people stagger in from that race has probably sealed my decision to not run another marathon. I have zero desire to do that again. Although, I actually decided to dedicate more effort to  running starting this week. I actually miss it. Also, running four miles a week just isn’t really cutting it in the managing stress and getting in shape departments. You win running, you win.

After recovering from the pool with a nap, we headed out for pizza and some nightlife.


It’s much easier to get a table if you eat at 4 and the bars are also much less crowded at 6:30 pm. We forced ourselves to stay out until it was at least dark, and we barely managed that.

Maggie was determined to have a drink by the water, so I took to Harrison’s Landing which is on a floating dock at the T-Heads downtown. It is really disorienting to drink there because the dock was constantly moving. It made me feel drunk even though I hadn’t finished my first drink. It wasn’t a good feeling. Shortly after sunset, we were back at my apartment and in bed with the pizza. That turned out to be an excellent decision after all.

I was so worn out from all that eating and not staying out late that I was barely able to stay awake for Game of Thrones on Sunday night. Digesting is exhausting.

Now back to the real world of more exercise and less pizza since I’d really like to be able to fit in at least one pair of my shorts when the weather hits 100.

27 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Magnificent Men of Monday

It wasn’t until the most recent season of Game of Thrones that I even realized Jaime Lannister (he has a real name, but I don’t have the patience to Google it so I can spell it properly) was human. I was so disgusted by his attitude and sister loving ways that I was blind to the hot guy below all the grit, grime, and incest. Thank God Brienne (First Lady of Fantastic) came along.

Failing at dinner is never fun (and why didn’t he just pick the whole thing up with his fork and take a bite?).

22 Comments

Filed under magnificent men of monday

15 Thing Friday

1. I might not make 15 today because I’ve been sick all week and I just used the last of my energy to halfheartedly shove my vacuum around my house since my college BFFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE is coming in this afternoon and there’s cat hair all over the damn place. Holy run-on sentence. Sorry. Stupid rude hairy cat.

2. Speaking of cats, 27 Cats Who Could Clearly Be Male Models.

Even if you think it’s dumb, it’s worth clicking on for all the shirtless dudes (FYI: there’s an exposed fanny if you are at work).

3.  Some genius made a business card that is also a cheese grater. Please let me meet you someday. Please. I could really use one of those in my life.

4. A man died after having sex with a hornet’s nest. I just don’t even know what to think about this.

5. I’m supposed to move to a new office area soon. Actually, I was supposed to move back in February, but since the furniture hasn’t even been ordered, I’m still weeks and weeks from that happening. Anyway, people keeping popping in and asking me when I’m moving, why I haven’t moved, and what I’m still doing up here. It’s really starting to hurt my feelings. Why do they want me to leave? I’m so cool.

6. I cannot get this song out of my head. I don’t know what that says about me, but I can’t quit singing it.

7. 21 Most Swoonworthy Moments of Prince Harry’s Visit to America

He sure wears the hell out of a white button up.

8. And with that, I’m out.

33 Comments

Filed under 15 Thing Friday

Not So Good Reads

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted on what I’ve been reading. So, here we go.

Fiction:

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

I could not stop reading this novel; it consumed me for an entire weekend. I made the stupid mistake of not reading anything about it before I picked it up (a friend recommended it and I just bought it and started reading), so I was very confused for probably the first 30 or 40 pages. Once I realized what was happening, I was hooked.

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.

Does Ursula’s apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can — will she?

The concept of multiple lives and that the feeling of Déjà Vu is actually the memory from some mistake or decision you’ve made in the past is an idea that I think is intriguing for most people. I constantly felt panic and anguish while watching her repeat errors of the past or narrowly miss death. Again. It was a haunting reminder that there really is a “a fine line between living and dying.” The fantastic development of the characters and the vivid imagery of her world gave me that incredible feeling of missing somebody and something when it was over. I’m pretty sure I was depressed for a solid two weeks when it was all said and done.

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian

I really wanted to like this book, but I just never really got into it. The alternating narrators and time periods just didn’t work for me at all. The narrating characters changed within paragraphs and I spent way too much time just trying to figure out what year I was in. I also never really felt like there was an actual building of feelings between the two main characters. This book pretty much had all of the things in it that make me hate fiction. The only decent thing to come out of this novel was that I did not know anything about the Armenian Genocide and I ended up reading The Burning Tigris, which was an excellent.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived–and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her.

After reading Gone Girl, I picked this one up hoping for some of the same twists, turns, and truly awful people. I was not disappointed. I’m not sure if I liked this book because it was quite disturbing and all of the characters were about as despicable as they could be. It definitely kept me me interested, but I was so glad when it was all said and done.

Nonfiction:

Bunker Hill:  A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

Unsurprisingly, it’s a historical account of the Battle of Bunker Hill (which I once got confused with the Battle of the Bulge in fifth grade and cried in public). I prefer to read historical narratives that are focused on singular events or very short periods of time because I feel like I don’t get so overwhelmed with ALL THE THINGS THAT ARE HAPPENING. It’s much easier for me to focus my ADHD when all 400 pages are dedicated to one thing. I think this story is well worth your time and I learned quite a bit from it.

Eiffel’s Tower: And the World’s Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count by Jill Jonnes

I was looking for something that would do for the Paris World’s Fair what Devil in the White City did for Chicago’s, but that was probably unfair. Maybe if I had gone in with lower expectations then I would have enjoyed it more, but the unnecessary length of the subtitle should have been a clue. The entire thing was kind of jarring. The author bounced around subjects frequently without any sort of meaningful transition as to why we were suddenly talking about Annie Oakley. There was plenty of interesting information, but I was just too frustrated with the writing to ever enjoy it.

Have you read anything fantastic lately? Preferably of the historical variety…

Blitz Diary: Life Under Fire in World War II by Carol Harris

After reading Life After Life, I really wanted more information on life in London during the Blitz (since Ursula spends several lives in the midst of that misery). This book completely satisfied that desire. The devastation was far more widespread than I ever realized. I cannot imagine how anyone survived that and how people today still manage to go on with their lives while living in war zones.

51 Comments

Filed under Books