What are you enjoying?

After my most recent unicorns and rainbows post, I thought it best to temper the salt with some sweet, and say some things that I'm really loving these days:

being warm

I hate being cold (why it didn't make it onto my annoy list because being cold goes far beyond that).

Note proximity to space heater and fingerless gloves.  Absolutely necessary.

cooking soup

Hello, cold weather.  One of the (few) perks of you being here is that it's soup season!  And I'm making soup every.  single.  week.  So far this year I have made chili, lasagna soup (*don't use broken up lasagna noodles.  Just use noodles.  WAY easier), chicken tortilla soup, and later this week on the schedule is white bean chicken chili.  And I can pretty much promise that if you get a dinner invitation to my house, soup is on the menu.

*Side note, someone saw me meal planning and they went, "oh that's cute!"  She is in her early 20's.  At what line does meal planning cross from "cute" to "budget necessity?"

baking

Another cold weather staple (side-note, how do I NOT gain 20+ pounds during this time of year, good grief) is that it is BAKING time!  Wee!  I've done cupcakes, brownies, Halloween bark, cakes and brownies for a friend, and I'm just warming up.

Starlight yellow cupcakes with butter-cream frosting and candy corns for an event at work.

Pioneer Woman's Halloween Bark.

cold weather runs

I do feel like a bit of a hypocrite here, but I can run for longer with less pain in the cold.  It's just getting going that is HARD.  My running companion is used to a few minutes of me groaning and full body shivering, but then I'm good.  I do have a gym membership, but it's so hard to be inside running 5+ miles when it looks like this outside--

daylight savings time

Long runs in the pitch black are terrifying.  Long runs half in pitch black, half in sunrise are winsome.  I love sunshine and I love early mornings, there I love me some DST.

early mornings

Y'all.  On days when I get up at 4:30/5, it is AMAZING how much I get done--I exercise.  I clean.  I organize.  I cook.  I make sersies.  I get to work on time.  Early mornings for the win!
*Do note that early mornings require me to begin winding down at 9 p.m.  Hipster right here, ladies and gentlemen.

What are some things you're really enjoying these days?

What annoys you?

Hi friends.  It's been awhile.  I do have some things to note in this online scrapbook of mine, but instead I'll begin with this post I've had in draft mode for a couple months.  Be forewarned.  This post is not edifying.  Or practical.  And probably not even that fun.  I started writing it when I couldn't run because of a hurt knee, so I was pretty grumpy.  That being said, this post is nothing but a list of things (first world problems) that just get to me, and I freely acknowledge I just need to chill out.  Saying them out-loud is the first step to recovery, I believe.


"th" or any other letters after numbers.
If I see it in print on something I'm editing, out comes the red pen.  If I see it in something I can't fix, out comes the twitch.

Properly writing married couple's names
I've been told and taught that when writing out a married couple's name, you never split the man's first name from his last name.  So this, Wife-First-Name and Husband-First-Name Lame is correct.  Tom and Jane Smith, no.  Jane and Tom Smith, yes.  I don't know why this rule stuck like glue but it did.

Not parking in the lines
Especially when I can't park by my house when it's cold because you're taking up two spaces.  That's my favorite.

Not using turn signals while driving
Fellow drivers, I promise they're just not accessories on your car!
*Can you tell I've had a few too many (literal) near run-ins on my runs?

Speeding through parking lots
This.  kills.  me.  Yes, let's fly through an area that is full of pedestrians and people backing out of parking spaces in reverse with limited sight views.  Because speeding makes sense in those conditions. 


"It's my OCD."
No, you probably do not have this diagnosable, treat with medication and therapy, mental health condition.  You're just particular about something.  It's okay.  It bothers me more than I care to admit when people say, "I just have to do such-and-such, it's my OCD coming out!"  No, it is your standards and it's okay to have them.

Addressing or spelling my name any of these variations Diane/Dianna/Dyanna/Dana after I have emailed you, when I'm a customer of an establishment, or if you helped flipping NAME me.

Okay, so that's off my chest.  What are some things that get under your skin?
**If you do any of these and I actually know you in real life, I probably don't even notice.  I really notice these when tired/over-worked/stressed/hungry*hangry.

midweek confessions | august 28

Linking up with

for Midweek Confessions:

 I have only fallen asleep in my bed one night out of about the past ten.  Why?  Because I've apparently developed narcolepsy.  As soon as I sit down in the evening I fall asleep with NO preamble.  No drifting off, no fighting sleep.  Or if I do have to fight, I give in pretty fast.  Most nights I wake up between 2-4 a.m.  Tonight was the best, since I fell asleep around 6:30 p.m. sitting sideways in a chair.

At church on Sunday I was taking notes during announcements and after one announcement about a meeting at 7:30 I turned to my friend and said, "do you think that was a.m. or p.m.?"  *It was definitely p.m.

I just went to upload pictures from my camera and came across 3 batches of photos people asked me to take that I had forgotten about.

Last week I made my pound of okra from the farmer's market roasted in the oven.  It was also the first (and last) time I ate about a pound of okra in one sitting.  It was amazing.  And I'm sad if I don't get to a farmers stand on Saturday to pick up some okra.

I received a number of butternut squash from work that I have had full intentions of roasting and freezing.  They have been on my counter for almost 3 weeks now.

Speaking of delayed goals, I'm still not done with the detail work of getting settled living alone.  I wish I could say it was for an exciting reason, but see confession #1, which is why my new clean bed shams and duvet covers are still sitting unstuffed on the partially made guest-room bed.

Friday Five.

**I'm not linking up anywhere, because I'm honestly too lazy to go find places/buttons/etc. to link with.  I do though, recommend Lauren Elizabeth's High Five for Friday.  It's fun.

1. I ran this morning with no pain.  It was slow.  It was flat.  But I was running!  Well, more like jogging, but let's not get caught up on the details. 

2. I have had something every single night for the past almost 3 weeks (church-work-guests-birthday celebrations-catch up time-etc.).  Loneliness is clearly not going to be an issue with living alone. 

3. My new face wash involves sulfur, and yesterday I did an apple cider vinegar treatment on my hair...I was not smelling so wonderful.

4. I'm getting a new planner at work and it is going to be fabulous.  It's personalized!  I just need to choose my cover now...

5. Last night I went to buy light bulbs and wreath bases.  Easy in, easy out. One would think.  This excursion ended with a text saying, "Wal-Mart failed me, and Target confused me."  Wal-Mart did not have the bases, so I knew I'd need to run to a craft store that closed at 9, and I had about 15 minutes.  I quickly went to where the light bulbs had been a while back and they were not there, so I ran out.  I got to the other store, grabbed my bases, and then went into Target.  Y'all.  Lighbulbs shouldn't cost $14.  Right??!!??  Right.  I'm all about good stewardship of our planet, but the stewarding of my bank account says "why would you pay $14 for a lighbulb for a lamp that may actually break before this bulb burns out?"  So 10 minutes and a dramatic sigh later, I find a marginally-overpriced version of what I need.  Sorta.  Till I get home and realize I could have gotten a higher wattage.  Oh well.

Light bulbs and lentils...I'm ending these on strong notes.

photo-worthy, vs. note-worthy.

If a photo is worth 1,000 words, then this post is going to have the value of a couple hundred max, because I haven't taken photos in a while.  Which got me thinking, what do I deem in my life that is "photo-worthy?"  Time with friends, obvi (bonus points if they are from out of town).  Successful recipes and pretty craft projects.  Projects, overall.  Thought out outfits.  Mishaps.  But the day-to-day?  That's a bit tougher for me.  I deem most things more note-worthy than photo-worthy.  It's hardly photo-worthy that I organized the stew out of my office and finally got a grasp on my workload after a week of crazy-pace.  Or that I handled a major work project, complete with spreadsheets and tags?  Thrills my heart, but again, boring on film.  Getting a school group launched?  Exciting, but no real snapshots. Living alone and running a home for the first time solo--well, I may still blog about that (complete with PHOTOS of the new layout) but still, currently not a lot of picture fodder.

The noteworthy today and this week--

• I'm about to have my first run in a week.  I got hit with a case of runners knee last week.  Not.  Cool.  Want to talk about an irritable Diana?  
• Guests are in from Scotland!  (BTW, I need a plane ticket there.  Know of any tickets lying around on the ground I can pick up?  Or just the airfare?)
• My work load will be reduced as of September 1.
• I actually picked up the acne prescriptions from my over-zealous dermatologist and they're working! (Fancy that, trusting a man with a medical degree.  I kid.  He's great; let me know if you need a dermo in Athens.)  But the face cleaner is made with SULFER, which means that I smell like rotten eggs for a few minutes each morning and evening.
• I made lentils this week.  I forgot how much I 1.) love making them and 2.) love eating them.

Did I really just end a post about lentils?  Oi.

This Weekend

During the summer I normally run before 8 a.m., or at the latest get started on a weekend run by 9 a.m. This morning I got distracted around the house and didn't get going until 10.  Oh.  my.  gosh.  I checked the weather when I got done sweating to near-death (obvi not death because I'm here typing this) but it was 82 with 75% humidity, and "felt like" 88.  No kidding.  I think it "felt like" 100, but whatever.  What killed me though is that as I got back to my car (looking like I had gone SWIMMING) this girl runs past me and into the gym without even a sweat.  What the what?

Yesterday I tried to cross-train at the Botanicals.  Between while tripping over a root and having a man shush me as I rounded the corner because I disrupted his filming of a bug "dropping her larve" (yes, disgusting reading that as hearing it yesterday), the mud pits, mosquitoes the size of quarters, the freshmen boys who didn't understand that as they are walking side-by-side 4-across on a path that it wouldn't hurt to give a bit and not run me off to the side, and the rain, I was done.  I'll look forward to going back in a few months when bugs are dead and the mud is dry.

That's all I got this weekend.  No fashion posts because honestly, runs cut into getting ready time and they've had priority M-F.  I have done a ton of work around home, but nothing is picture ready yet.  All weekend I've been busy getting paperwork ready for a group I volunteer with, but that's hardly photo-worthy.  I haven't cooked anything this weekend more complex than a block of frozen spinach with some cheese.

Yay for weekends!  Seriously.  But yay for fun work weeks too!

summer mode.

I was talking with a friend a few weeks ago about running in the rain and I was advised against it.  I have a lot of hair, the roads get slick, etc.  I heeded this advice, and was prepped to stay away from running in the rain.

On Wednesday I head out for my mid-week long-ish run.  The air is heavy, but the weather app just says that it's foggy, NBD.  I take off and get going.  Two miles in and WOOSH.  Down.  pour.  I was at the point where I was the furtherest away from my car, and I assumed that it'd blow over.  It didn't.  I made great time on my miles because I was so flipping miserable!  The rain mixed with sweat to completely blind me.  My too big running clothes were not staying on.  The worthless lifeproof iPhone case was separating, making me worried I was about to drown my phone.  I felt like I had an additional 10 pounds on my head (sodden hair).  The roads were slick.  Cars were threatening to waterfall me.  Whine, whine whine.  I get back to my car, and it stops.  Running is my favorite stress reliever, but I'm pretty sure I had anti-endorphins in my bloodstream I was so grumpy.

Running is going well.  I keep hearing that if you want to drop a ton of weight fast, run marathons.  I'm trying to couple that desire with not wanting to kill my knees, and up my mileage gradually.  Patience has not been my friend in this regard.

I'm house sitting all over the place right now (yeah!), and my favorite part of this is that I get to run in some awesome neighborhoods.  Awesomeas in great new scenery to run alongside (and not having to drive somwhere to run), and awesome as in killer new territory.  If a neighborhood has "hills" in the name, this should indicate that you will probably want to die at some point during your run.  I know I sure did.

I'm in full-on summer mode now that the magic of June is over.  Summer for me has been meaning--

• Waist bands are negotiable. I cannot remember the last time I wore trousers other than leggings to run in.
• Summer dresses are always appropriate.
• Skirts are now high-maintenance.  They haven't really been on the rotation because of the amount of thought it takes to pair them with a blouse. 
• There is a difference between "fancy" flip-flops vs. "around the house" flip-flops.  The first is worn far more often than cute sandals, espadrilles, or even chacos.
• Home time is rare.  I house-sit a ton (yeah!) and accordingly, I'm rarely home.
• Cooking is optional.  I can't remember the last time I made a meal that was more complex than eggs.  I baked blueberry bars this week and I think my flour box may have had dust on it for lack of use.
• My hair is on vacation, even if I'm not...I have stopped blow-drying my hair M-F.
• Sharpening the mind--I'm (finally) reading a ton.  
• Overpriced gym visits.  I figured out my sporadic gym visits are costing me about $10 each because I'm going so infrequently (I'm running outside instead).

 So basically summer Diana is a lazy cook wearing dresses.