What a Week!

My Miserable Schedule this week:

Monday - Office 7-7:15, gym, dinner, workworkworksleep

Tuesday - Work 7-8:30, Dinner at 9, Gear up the laptop and work til 12:30

Wednesday - Work 6:30-7:15, Dinner, Suffer through more work, Sleep at 12

Thursday - Work 6:30-7:15, {quick} date, work until 11:45

Friday - Work 8-6, Happy Hour, completely CRASH

I'm so exhausted. Now I am focusing on relaxing. And gearing up for a fun day in the office with the boss on Sunday...Grr. Is it March yet? I can't keep this up much longer...And I'm pretty sure if I calculated it, my salary would equal about 62 cents/hour at this point.

However, by continuing to focus on the positive I am actually feeling pretty happy. 

The good stuff:

• The guys at work have been cracking me up lately. We are a random bunch...the token black guy, the 23 year old klutz {me}, the brainy Harvard grad, the white Republican, and the mexican. Our differences teach me so much, and I appreciate the humor that each individual brings to the group.
• Somehow I forgot to bring money to the cafeteria twice this week when I went down to grab lunch...distracted a little I guess. Luckily, random guys in line behind me offered to buy my lunch for me. How kind :)
  
• I went on a really fun date last night! It made me realize a) I don't really have a social life, b) I miss feeling wanted, and c) I still have a passion for BBQ Chicken Pizza. He also reminded me that I am still young, and work is not my entire life.
• I get to sleep in tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited. I might also treat myself to some retail therapy.

Life is what you make it, so I'm choosing to focus on the good stuff!

I will choose JOY

Amongst life's many stresses, several things are bringing a smile to my face at the moment:

• My butt has been to the gym 3 days in a row...I love the way I feel after working out, and I want to keep it up!
• York Peppermint Patties {to balance out the workouts, duh}. This girl's got a sweet tooth.
• The fact that several of my friends have started blogs...hint, hint to the others out there...
  
• Country music ~ particularly the "Black Dress Song" and the song about dancing through the house...whatever it's called.
  
• My wonderful friends that I don't get to spend enough time with, but love that when we hang out it feels like no time has passed :)
  
• Ol' Boy asked me to dinner this week. I've decided {per my New Year's Resolution of being more open and accepting} that I wasn't right to judge him so quickly. From all I know so far, he is extremely nice and easy to talk to. And 2 bomb points to him for actually asking a girl on a date!
  
• I am trying to limit the stress in my life ~ and feeling good so far this week {ha, I know...it's only Monday, we'll see how the rest of the week goes}. I am trying to stress less about work because I am doing my best and that's all I've got.
• Finally, I am already looking forward to the Starbucks I'm going to get tomorrow morning...because I deserve it ;)

Hope everyone had a Happy Day...despite it being Monday! 

Bomb dot com recipe

I enjoyed catching up with a friend from high school and his wife on Saturday night over dinner. They live on the other side of town, and we do not see each other often enough. They are very generous and I always love spending time with them.

For dinner, I made simple Chicken Fajitas and Beef Tacos. I also made homemade Corn and Black Bean Salsa {thanks KB for the wizard chopper that made this task SOO easy!} from a sorority house recipe. I am obsessed with this salsa {I may or may not have had chips and leftover salsa for lunch today}:

1 yellow, red, and green pepper (chopped small)

1/2 cup diced (real small) red onion

1 pkg green shoepeg corn (thawed)

1 15-oz can drained black beans

1 clove garlic (minced)

1 tsp cilantro

1/2 cup olive oil

5 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

1 tsp. lime juice (2T real lime)

fresh ground pepper (or 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper)

salt to taste

Top this meal off with Ghiradelli brownies {thank you, Chelsea} and great conversation, and it made for a wonderful evening! :)

Wine-O Update

The wine tasting last night was a blast, I'm so glad I went even though it is intimidating to put myself in these uncomfortable new situations.

Thank you for all the suggestions {yay comments}! Unfortunatetly, I was not the winner of 39 {!!!!} free bottles of wine, but I did meet several new people and experienced a new bar in the area.

I met a guy {that works at the same company but still lives like a total college kid...think get blackout every weekend...not my style} that I talked to for a majority of the night. In the middle of our conversation, his friend came up to him and loudly whispered, "Why are you even talking to her? She's clearly engaged."

Note to self: Remove all rings before leaving the house. Yurman is obviously giving off the wrong vibe.

Note to others: The piano bar where the event was held had a dance floor. With a stripper pole in the middle. And neon lights throughout. Interesting.

Wine Tasting

So, this post is going to be very fast because I have at least 3 more hours of work ahead of me for tonight {can you say week from hell?}. I have been working no less than 14 hours a day. Plain awful.

Anyway, tomorrow there is a new hire event {first I've been invited to in my 6 1/2 months with the company..better late than never ;) } and it is a wine tasting. Everyone brings two bottles of the same type of wine - one is used for tasting and the other is given to whoever's bottle of wine gets the most votes. Read: A lot of FREE wine to the winner!!

Now the question is what to bring....Franzia doesn't come in bottles...so I guess it will be "2 Buck Chuck" from Trader Joes {although the price has now increased to $3.79}. Does anyone have other suggestions before I embarrass myself at this event!?

Ok, back to work...ahhhh, I don't want to! But tomorrow is Friday, thank goodness.

If my walls could talk...

...they would probably just laugh. at me. trying to be domestic.

I finally put away my Christmas tree tonight almost 3 weeks late. I don't know how they initially got the tree in the box because it didn't seem to want to squeeze back in there. Maybe the tree also gained weight over the holidays.

I then had to lift the box full of tree into the top shelf in my closet. Comical.

And then decided I wanted to re-organize my living room because it looks bare without a tree. Hard to do alone. Is it weird to put my sofa in front of the window? I think it might make the room look larger...

Finally, once the living room looked clean and renovated, I had to completely clean the kitchen. It's sparkling now.

I'm sure many people have wierd quirks that come out when they are alone. My secret habit might be my frequent urge to organize/clean/disinfect. Does anyone else get a thrill out of Clorox wipes and a Comet cleaned sink?

No? Ok...that's understandable. To each their own...

FYI

I learned two very important lessons tonight:

1. Wine should not be stored in the refrigerator. Even though I like a cold glass of wine, most guests do not agree.

2. When you do not have vegetable oil, olive oil also produces very dense edible brownies {when drenched in chocolate frosting}.

A Day in the Life

Please refer to the following regular occurances in my life. I'm not sure whether to feel slightly embarrassed that my life is so lame or flattered that after many "run-ins" I'm apparently memorable. Or maybe this shows my resulting loneliness caused by living alone...I get too chatty with strangers when I leave the house and enter civilization. Either way, I enjoy having all these new {friends}.

• As mentioned multiple times before, the shuttle driver l-o-v-e-s me. The day he started giving me suckers I was concerned. And then he asked me on a date. No words.
• The security guard at work generously gives me free cookies on Fridays. When the bakery in the lobby closes, he gets to take home all the leftovers. I'm so honored to get some of his loot.
• The cashier at the Panera across the street knows my order. She tells me if I get there as they close she'll give me free bread.
• Starbucks also knows me as a regular....but I confuse them by alternating between a Caramel Latte and a Pumkin Spice Chai...so tricky.
• Whenever I go to Kroger, the pharmacist yells hello to me by name when I pass by the counter. Thank goodness he only asks about my healing UTI or how I liked his recommended gyno when I come within a 4 foot radius of the pharmacy.
• The workers at Banana Republic know that I love to look around and rarely make a purchase. And on the off chance I convince myself to spend money, they've caught on to the fact that there's a high chance I'll return. I'm queen of returns. Sad that they have started asking, "Is this an exchange?" instead of "Did you find everything ok?" ha...oops! At least I follow their 30 day return policy.
• {Sadly, no stories of my "friends" at the gym...haven't been there in two weeks.}

At this rate, this place will feel like home in no time...

Teen Mom

I am ashamed to admit I LOVE this show. Probably because it is just so stupid. Mindless entertainment. Is anyone with me on this?

Each girl is extremely annoying...except Maci, she's sweet.

What's up with Catelynn's mom being married to her boyfriends dad?! And Butch being in jail all.the.time.

Amber has the most annoying whine I've ever heard. And she's lazy.

Maci's boyfriend is also lazy.

Farrah should clearly not have a baby. She gets more dates than I do and she's a baby momma. Something's wrong.

...Hopefully I have something more entertaining to write about tomorrow....work is all that is on my mind right now and this show is my attempt to distract myself. My apologies for filling your thoughts with this garbage :)

Seriously looking forward to the weekend.

I'm baaaack!!!!

That's right, kids. I just got done repairing my laptop on my own.

Now after $113 at Best Buy to save all the data on my hard drive and $37 for a recovery disc from Sony, I am good to go.

No pictures. No schoolwork. No iTunes. NO NOTHING is left on my laptop.

But...I'M HERE!! 

Can't wait to start blogging regularly again. Add that to my "resolutions."

Happy New Year!

This bright new year is given me

To live each day with zest

To daily grow and try to be

My highest and my best!

-William Arthur Ward

Happy New Year!