'Tis the Season: PMS

I've discovered something worse than dealing with Christmas stress: having PMS and dealing with Christmas stress. I ran up to the mall for part of my lunch break, thinking I'd get my nails done real quick since I have no other time this week, having too much to do and not enough time. When I walked into the salon, I was in luck! (Rather, I thought I was in luck.) There was no one there! I could get right in! One of the girls told me to have a seat for 10 minutes or so - they were just finishing lunch. Okay, that would set me back a few minutes - but no problem. I was first in line if anyone else came in. Right?
WRONG.
They kept me sitting there for 10-15 minutes waiting. Finally, they came out and sat me at one of the nail stations. Another lady came in - apparently they had told her to come back, which she did - so she was there before me, no problem - there were two nail techs, one for me and one for her. Pretty soon a second lady comes panting in, saying she had called and made an appointment that she was a few minutes late for. The two nail techs jabbered to each other for a minute (they speak Mandarin or some other form of Chinese), and one of them came over to me and asked if I could come back later, because they had forgotten to write the second lady's appointment down in their book. Now, at this point, it shouldn't be a big deal. It's a vain waste of time to have nails done, right? And so what if I had to go back later? Well, apparently it mattered to me a lot, because I stood up in a huff, told the girl who asked me to come back later a firm "NO. I don't have any other time." I got my coat on in a huff, amid the weak apologies from the nail techs, and freaked the second lady out in the process - she looked at me apologetically and said "Sorry." It wasn't her fault. And it wasn't the first lady's fault, either - they both had made appointments early. But I stormed out of that place, furious that they made me wait all that time for nothing, determined to never go back, and I was on the verge of tears.
TEARS.
I almost cried just because they asked me to come back later. How unreasonable is that? I asked myself why I would react like that and then realized what week it is. The week before Christmas and PMS time. So I stopped at the Mrs. Fields cookie place and got myself 6 little nibblers, and ate them ALL. Right after I'd participated in the office Christmas Potluck party and ate tons of salads and desserts, I got cookies to make myself feel better.
Wow. Stress + PMS= Possible Homicide / Increased Sugar Intake
On the upside (because there IS an upside, isn't there?), people at work are really generous with their gift giving! Thanks everyone!
Happy friggin' Holidays.

Diet Lite

I can't lie. I miss sugar.

Not that I don't have enough of it every day... I allow myself a little chocolate once a day, and I even eat pie and cake every now and then. So why do I miss sugar, you ask?
Well, I LOVE drinking. No, that sounds wrong, let me re-phrase... I love liquids. If I could just have juice, soda, slurpees, hot chocolate, milk, egg nog, Orange Bang... anything liquid, and just drink my calories, I would! If I could have my all-time favorite beverage -Coca-Cola- with every meal of every day, I would. Unfortunately, that's exactly what I've been doing most of my life... drinking my calories, on top of eating my (sometimes not-so-healthy) meals.
Alas, age and genetics are catching up with me. After years of eating what I want when I want and watching my weight fluctuate, I hit my heaviest (so far) this year. I've tried dieting with Mar and Mike and Melissa, but I always lost control and gained back any weight I'd lost. This year, I've made exercise a priority - ever since March, I've walked between 6 and 9 miles a week, and in the same month, I made myself start running. Mar is my running buddy, and though I have a long way to go before I can catch up to her level of endurance, I enjoy running- and even managed a 10k over the Summer.
But I was still drinking too many calories.
After seeing photos of myself in a trip to Hawaii in May and a California trip in August, I buckled down. I was determined - I allowed myself no more than 1500 calories a day, no less than 1200. That meant I had to give up drinking my calories. OOOHHHH... how could I give up Coca-Cola? I LOVE it! But I did it. I went from despising diet and lite drinks to tolerating them, and now to actually liking them. I don't drink sugared drinks much anymore. I drink water and light drinks... and I even like Diet Pepsi. So with the combination of exercise, guilt, and watching what I eat and drink (duh), I've managed to lose somewhere between 15 and 20 pounds. I have to buy smaller clothes now because everything I own is too big.
The payoff of dieting is fun, and though I cheat a little with an ounce or two of egg nog or a bit of juice every now and then... OH, I miss my Coca-Cola!

Farmer's Market

We had our family pictures taken this past weekend at Murray Park - it was really pretty! After we were done, I walked across the parking lot with my mom over to the Farmer's Market. I'd never been to one before - it was so cool! Fruit, veggies, bread, honey, snacks, pumpkins... I got some apples and pears, some orange-cranberry bread, and fresh honey. YUM!

SLC: The New NYC??

A few weeks ago, I was walking up Main Street in Downtown Salt Lake with some friends, when we passed what was the Main Street Coffee House; it closed down several months back. I expressed a desire to know what the city was going to do with the space; a new restaurant, maybe?
Then someone in the group told me that the space had already been sold. Apparently, a retired couple from Manhattan love how 'metropolitan' Salt Lake City has become. They bought the coffee house and are going to turn it into their home! City regulations require them to have some sort of a store-front in the windows that look out to Main Street, and since they collect art, they're going to have a small gallery on the main floor, and make the upper levels their residence. Salt Lake City? Metropolitan? I mean, I love working downtown - I see all kinds of people every day, and I can find my way around almost blindfolded. But people usually laugh when it's compared to a 'big city' like New York City or Chicago or Detroit or Los Angeles!
So the other day, I got curious about the parking for that particular spot on Main Street, and it looks like the owners will have a little parking cubby down this shady-looking alley...
I love it! Salt Lake City, thriving metropolis!

Two-second Autumn

What happened to Autumn?? We went from 80 degrees to 45 degrees in one week! One weekend I was admiring the incredible colors, and the next... watching those incredible colors suffer under a pile of snow. That's right, SNOW. If you click on the picture for a larger image, you will see red and orange struggling to stand out. Mike wrote about it on his blog too... I'm not ready for snow yet! October JUST started. Can we have a normal Autumn, please?
No?
FINE.

It's only been this year that I've learned to love running. I like to do 5k's, and I did a 10k this summer. I go running with Mar (my sister) at least three times a week; she's my running/racing buddy.
Last week, I randomly found a 5k that was being held up in Midway - good practice! So I talked Mar into signing up with me. We're used to the big races that include hundreds (sometimes thousands) of runners; but when we got to Midway, we found that we were two of twenty - yes, you read that right, TWENTY - people that had pre-registered for this race. It seemed like it was close to about 80 people that actually raced; the 60 that hadn't signed up consisted of the Midway High soccer teams and cross-country teams. Yeah... we felt like we were crashing the town festival. But hey - it was our workout for the day.
Before the race started, we overheard someone talking about the course - and how the first mile or so was a pretty steep uphill hiking trail - up a MOUNTAIN?? What had we gotten into? - until it leveld out for a while, and then went through a pretty steep downhill area on the other side of the mountain. (That was paved road, thank the dear sweet...)
Talk about an adventure! The guy wasn't kidding when he said 'steep' - I about passed out! I almost twisted my ankle on rocks about 7 times (no lie, I counted), and when we finally crossed the finish line, some guy handed us a little card telling us where we placed - I was 64th.
Hey, at least I wasn't last. We beat some guy with arthritis, as well as some other aged racers and fun-walkers.
On the up side, the trail was absolutely beautiful - it was like jogging through Rivendell in the fall! Gorgeous colored leaves were scattered all over the trail we ran on; the trees created kaleidoscopic archways over us; and the hillsides were dotted with the most intense colors I've seen in years.
I love fall!

Bindy Bob and Bobo... What am I going to do with you?? I recently moved home for a temporary period of time so I can save some money and buy my own place. It's an adjustment - though it's fun to hang out with the family all the time. (Well, for now, anyway.) :) Since Muti and Vati went to Las Vegas yesterday, the doggies are a little insecure without her; so last night, Bo camped oustide my bedroom door (even though it was open), and at some point during the night, Indy (or Bindy Bob, as he's affectionately known) curled up on my bed with me. No, let me rephrase: he SPRAWLED OUT on my bed. I woke up around 2:00 a.m. at the very edge of my bed, with a dog plastered to my side. I think he woke me up because he was dreaming, and his back legs were kicking at my pillow... I'm lucky I didn't get a foot in the face. Yep - that means that his back end was almost in my face. I don't know what he ate yesterday, but WHOAH. As soon as he felt me wiggling around, he woke up, realized how hot he was, and slithered onto the floor.
I was almost scared to sleep where he was laying.

Welcome to my world! If you don't like it, leave. :) My brother Mike has been trying to get me to start a blog forever... so here I am! I will post as often as I can - with photos, even! Suggestions on topics are welcome for now...