Top 10 Signs I've Been a Little Too Busy Lately...

10.  There are 3 suitcases in my bedroom / living room, all which are leftover from trips I have already taken, and none which are being prepared for trips in the upcoming weeks.

9.  Charlie is a permanent fixture on my lap whenever I am home.  In fact, right now she is shoved between the computer and my stomach, which her head propped on my arm.

8.  Lady Bug has been sulking for the last 6 hours.  Apparently she's over this whole "Mommy never being home" thing.

7.  My to-do list for work just keeps getting bigger and bigger, while my to do list for home is about 5 pages long.  Thank god I had time to do two loads of laundry Friday night.  Not that it's been put away but at least I have clean clothes for this week.

6.  My DVR is 45% full, which wouldn't be so bad if it was just the Cold Case reruns that I record for when nothing else is on.  But instead, it's 4 weeks of Criminal Minds (a show I never miss for this reason), 2 weeks of Project Runway, and numerous Bravo shows.

5.  My refrigerator is full of food, but all of it is really old leftovers that should have been thrown away before I left for Indianapolis last week.  Even the milk is spoiled.

4.  My house is in a constant disarray - shoes everywhere, dishes in the sink, and a bathroom that looks like the recent tornadoes actually hit my house.

3.  I was supposed to have book club on Friday and I still haven't picked up the book.  Good thing it was a) rescheduled and b) couldn't make the new time.

2.  I am yet again ordering pizza for dinner because the thought of doing dishes just to make something simple like mac n cheese is more than I can handle.

1.  The bag under my eyes are big enough to serve as a new purse.


P.S. I am in no way complaining that I've been busy.  It's been an honestly excellent week.  I just could use a life coach / maid / assistant to help get caught up!

P.P.S.  Look who decided to join us...

Another Gem from the Magazine Purge

An article called "Girls of Wisdom" in the January 2011 issue of Better Homes and Garden got me thinking.  How would I answer their (random) questions.  For that matter, how would me many girls of wisdom who are out there answer?

If I were stuck on a desert island, I'd need:
A rubber band & handful of bobby pins, and my Kindle (the desert island magically has internet access right?) 

How to save a bad hair day
Aforementioned rubber band and bobby pins 

Worth the Splurge
I don't really splurge on beauty products because I've never had to.  I swear by my Aveda shampoo, mostly because I only have to shampoo every couple of days and it only costs me $20ish every 6 months.  I don't really splurge on clothing either - unless buying everything on sale so I can buy it all counts!

Cheap, but worth a million
Chapstick in every location I could possibly use it - next to my bed, in the bathroom, a couple in my purse, one in my desk, in the car...

I wish someone had told me
Even though I had perfect skin through college and high school, it isn't always going to be perfect.  Now that I'm stressed out as an adult, I break out when someone looks at my crooked.

I'm so glad someone told me
My mom was a big proponent of the "God made your body the way it's supposed to be" talk when we were kids.  I'm thankful for that every day because it takes the pressure off of looking "perfect."  I'm never going to be a 5'7", size 2.

Beauty pet peeve
Women who get gussied up to go to the gym, grocery store, etc.  It's really ok to go out of the house without making an effort to get ready.

Best bygone beauty
There is nothing better than old-fashioned cold cream to soften your feet over night.  I'm sure it's out there still, it's just harder to find in the generic brands!

I don't leave the house without
(First of all, I hate the answers these women gave.  You really don't leave the house without lipstick and t-zone powder?!  I don't think I actually own t-zone powder.)  My answer is so very simple.  I never leave without my wallet, my keys, and my phone.  That's it.

I wish someone would invent
An instant cat hair remover

Aging is
not scary to me because all of the women who have gone before me - mom, grandmas, great-grandmas - have all aged remarkably gracefully even when they haven't lived easy lives.

Lipstick or gloss
I have never liked lipstick.  Gloss all the way.

I feel confident
Almost all the time.  Whether that's a good thing or bad thing, it's the truth.



Any of my ladies have anything to add?

My Color Personality Is...

I've been meaning to downsize for a while and decided to waste a bit of time this afternoon going through old magazines, pulling out things that interested me, and recycling the rest.  6 months worth of Better Homes & Gardens later, I've barely made a dent in the downsizing but I have a stack of "decorating to-do's" an inch high and 57 new recipes to try.

As I embarked on month number 7, February 2011, I decided to check out a web link I had bookmarked during my first perusal of the issue.  What's Your Color Personality?

After answering questions that I thought probably made me sound a little too eclectic, I shook my head at the answer.  Like I needed an online test to tell me this.

 Let's for a moment look at the photos I took when I first moved into, and re-decorated, my current apartment because I don't believe I was blogging when I took these.

I had always wanted a grey room so instead of creating one, I created three.

My bathroom was lime / neon / truly horribly green.  Now it is moody, soothing grey.  It is calming without being boring.  I've paired it with crisp white and pops of color to help energize my in the early morning while I get ready for work.

 

In the kitchen, I wanted to allow the natural light to do most of the decorating work.  I like that my food shines and I while I at one time believed I would want tangerine orange cabinets, I am so happy to have the calm surround me every time I step foot in my kitchen.  Cooking is one of the ways I de-stress so this color is perfect. 

The need-for-grey actually started in the bedroom.  I have always wanted a grey bedroom.  Interestingly enough, I used the exact same paint in all three rooms but the bedroom feels the warmest.  It is quintessentially cozy and girly and moody all at one time.

Like I said, who needs an online test to give me my color personality?  Grey makes me feel cozy.  It's versatile.  It allows me to change my mind almost daily, which we all know is important to a woman.

Things I Have Said Today...

It's one of THOSE days...

Via Text Message (Regarding the fact that I'm a grouch): I did wear awesome shoes today.  This way if I have to stab someone, I have a weapon AND they make my legs look great.  So that helps.

To My Best Friend (Regarding dating): I really don't know why I ever try... I literally do not have time for this.  But I also don't want to die alone and have someone find me 8 days later after my cats have eaten me or something like that.  So I guess I have to keep hoping there is someone out there who will want to be there to save my dead body from cats.  And that is the most morbid thing I have probably ever said.

Hunger Games

Last Sunday, I spent all day in bed reading.  I haven't allowed myself to do that in ages.  I don't even think I turned the television on.  Saturday night I didn't get home until 2:00am so I slept in on Sunday, rolled over and remembered there was a book on the nightstand.  I should have known then that if I wanted to get anything done that day, I should have ignored it.

I read the first two Hunger Games books not long after they came up.  For whatever reason, I never got around to reading the third.  A few weeks ago I borrowed what I thought was the third (clearly we'd had one too many cocktails by the time we were discussing the book) and discovered the next day I had in fact brought home the first.  So of course, I reread it.  Considering how much I enjoyed it the first time around and the fact that the movie comes out in just over a month, I figured it was a good use of my time.

The first book is so incredibly engaging.  You have to wonder what you would do in the same situation. 

What if you were forced to put your own life on the line to save a family member?  I certainly hope that I would do the same thing that Katniss does.  But what if, like in the books, it was an annual occurrence?  By saving her this year, that does not ensure she will be saved in the future.  I know that when we were children, my baby sister would have stepped up to take my place any time and I know that I would do the same.  In fact, she's probably more equipped to deal with a situation like the Hunger Games than I am.  But I cannot imagine subjecting her to the torture and not stepping up to take her place.  But again, we say that now, in a world where chances are I'll never have to make that decision.  What if I had to potentially make that decision multiple times in one year?  What if that were hanging over your head constantly?

Could you, really and truly, hunt other human beings in order to save yourself?  To make your family's life better?   I really don't know.  There are characters in the second book that very much step up so that others do not have to die.  They are not there to kill, however.  What would I do?  Could I kill an innocent on purpose to save myself?  I hope that I would, again, be like Katniss, who really only kills when necessary.  She is not a hunter while playing the games.  She is a survivor.

If given the opportunity, knowing that people in power could make your family's lives so horrible, would you rebel against the situation in any way?  Again, I don't know what I would do.  I can't help but think of the many times in our history that people were just swept along into a situation and couldn't do anything once they realized it was wrong (slavery, Hitler, pretty much every war).  What do you do when doing the right thing could get everyone you love killed?  I'd like to think I'd do the right thing.  But even that isn't so easy because what is right and wrong in a world where the norm is so obviously unethical?  And what if you unknowingly started the rebellion?  Do you try to stop it in order to save yourself, your family?  Do you keep the momentum going?

These books make you ask yourself so many questions.  So after rereading the first book, I couldn't wait to get through the second and third.  I will say that I was a little disappointed with the third book - it just wasn't how I saw the series ending and I think it was a bit of a cop out - but I still read it in one sitting.  From 11am-11pm on Sunday I laid in bed and read both two and three.