Wednesday Confessions - Not much to see here

Hello Wednesday!

OMG, I am draggggging today. I seriously thought about skipping this post but bloggers have to suck it up even when they'd rather hide under their desks and take a nap. I so want a nap. I've already looked at my calendar to see when I can step out for coffee #2 and maybe #3.

This past week has been sorority recruitment at NC State and last night was their preference party. It was a late night for me (even later for them) and my brain is mush. But today is Bid Day when they get their new members! And really, we find out how well we did in comparison to the other chapters. :)

Alright, things to confess.

1. I don't have much of a filter, and said filter disappears even more when I have an adult beverage or two. If you need someone to ask a random or slightly embarrassing question, I'm your gal.

We were at a beer and bourbon festival a few weeks ago and there was a Great Dane rescue with a table there (odd combo). There was also several people who wanted you to renovate your kitchen and bathroom. I guess those vendors capitalize on people who make bad decisions. Copious amounts of booze and new cabinets just don't mix. Anywho, I kept asking Kev about the size of Great Dane poop. How big is it, can it fit into a baggie or fill an entire plastic shopping bag. Finally I asked the rescuers and learned that Great Dane poop is the size of horse poop. #themoreyouknow

2. I'm on a poo tangent today.
This weekend I was at the pet store getting cat food and saw what might be the smallest animal I've ever seen in my life. It was a chihuahua and might, (I'm being generous) MIGHT have been 3 pounds. I was so startled to see something that small I exclaimed "My dog makes bigger poops that that!" #mydogpoopsyourdog

3. My food has stunk this last week. Too much eating out or eating what's convenient. I need a salad, lots of salad and vegetables. I don't eat fast food and haven't in probably 3 years which is a good thing that I'm not running through a drive though but it's been too many carbs and not enough protein. I need a week of meat and veggies to break through some of this sluggishness.

Thankfully my exercise has been decent, My "Exercise week" runs from Saturday to Sunday which is a throwback from my Jenny Craig days when I used to weigh in every Saturday morning. So far I ran on Saturday and Sunday and will be going to Body Pump Class Thursday and Friday.

4. What is up with all the Wrap people on Instagram??!?!?!
I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said that I've had at least 20 people who sell those dang wraps follow me on Instagram. They never reach out to me, they just follow. I really don't understand it. When they have the monthly wrap calls or go to the wrap convention do they tell them that this is a good idea? I've been in sales for a long time and have been training or managing sales people for most of the last 8 years. I would NEVER advise anyone to just creep on people and not reach out to them.

People, if you want to sell your product, less than 10% of the random folks you reach out to will be impulsive enough respond back and say they're interested. So, you have to follow 100 randos and MAYBE 7 people will want to give it a try. That's a lot of work for a poor rate of return. Here's some advice. Make a connection, follow people for other reasons, start a conversation, THEN pepper in info about your products, like how well you've been sleeping at night since using Vetiver on your toes before bed. Then they ask, Vetiver, what's that? and you say, "Vetiver is an awesome essential oil that's great for sleep. It helps me and Kev sleep much deeper at night and wake up far more rested. I never knew how helpful essential oils could be." Then you offer a sample, direct them to the website (like the doTerra one on my sidebar) and ask them to come to or host a party.

I should hold a sales training class for direct sales people. Perhaps that's my next venture.

 

I'm not posting a picture of those other wraps because it makes me all ragey. Have some turkey instead.

5. It's always better to end on an odd number, don't ask me why.

Linking up with these awesome ladies!

 

Who else loves the instagram?

 

Stomach wrap or turkey wrap? Discuss

I'm a high maintenance runner

This weekend, for the first time in a very long time, I did back to back runs. No, not like real people who run in the morning and again in the afternoon (crazy), but 2 days in a row. I signed up for the North Hills 5k on Saturday and had 5 miles on my training plan for Sunday.

It was still crazy humid this weekend but I knew I needed to man up and get my runs in. November 2nd will be here in no time and I need to build my base back up.

This is the 4th year I've done the North Hills 5k and I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love that it's 4 miles from my house and their shirt is seriously my favorite race shirt. I wear the ones from the last 2 years all the time. I hate the hills. There's one enormous hill and literally, most of mile 2 is on an incline.

This race usually starts the race season for me and it's the first one I'll do after spending most of the summer not running in the hot and humid, which means I'm always crying about how out of shape I am.

This year ran it in 36:15 which is better than last year and a little worse than 2012. Honestly though the humidity was killing me. I didn't feel that my fitness was off by all that much, but slogging through 99% humidity was awful. I don't know that I've ever been that sweaty before in my life.

Sunday morning I knew I had to get in 5 miles for my "long" run. I kinda blew off last week's 4 miler long run and I had to get on the wagon. I waited until 11am to head out since it was supposed to get a little less humid. Thankfully it did, the longer I went, until it was positively pleasant when I was standing in the Whole Foods parking lot... I should have started an hour later.

As I was getting ready the last 2 days I was thinking about how I'm NOT one of those pull on a pair of shoes and head out the front door kinda runners. For me, all the stars and moons have to come into perfect alignment for me to make it through.

I have a few must haves that I can't leave home without. Let's be honest, it's more than a few.

1. My shoes. I can't just pull on whatever shoe I have laying in my closet. I've tried several brands and styles and I'm a Saucony gal. Saucony, neutral support with inserts. I ran my 2nd half with the Ride 5s, my third in the Ride 6s and I'm currently training for #4 in a pair of 6s but might end up at the store to try out the new Ride 7s. They're the only shoes that don't give me knee issues.

2. My tunes. I can't be by myself with my thoughts for any length of time, I need something to listen to and distract me from what I'm putting myself through. I like running in my lulu capris because the butt pocket is big and stretchy enough for me to fit my iPhone. I don't like those arm bands, they never stay up on my arm and they get all sweaty and gross. I'd rather put my phone in a baggie and shove it back there.

BTW - I'm super excited to be a new Swirlgear Ambassador and their running pants also have a butt back pocket. I'll be sure to post my thoughts as soon as they arrive!

3.  A head band. Like I mentioned before, when I run, I'm a sweaty gal. I need something to keep the sweat from running into my eyes. Biondi bands are one of my favorites because they're big enough for my enormous head and they'll sop up a bunch of head sweat.

4. My Garmin. I'm type A and love numbers. Love all the numbers so much. I can't just go off and not worry about my time. I need to know how fast I'm going, how fast I should be going, how far I went, all that fun stuff. Kev bought me the Garmin Forerunner 10 2 years ago for my birthday. I love it. It's pretty affordable at $130-ish and it tells me what I need to know without a lot of BS.

5. Water. I get thirsty and I get really dehydrated and am a mess when I get home if I don't have something to drink on my run. This applies to all weather, all distances. Also, I need a place to stick my key and my chapstick and a few dollars in case I have to stop and bribe a small child for a beverage.

I have this one and it's OK. It only holds 10 oz and I had to refill it a bunch of times during my last half. I like that the big pocket holds all my stuff. but I could so with a few more ounces of water.

I used to have one that held 16oz and it was awesome, but Cleo ate it. :(

6. Sunglasses. If it's sunny, these peepers need a cover.

I'm sure people run past me and think, "Damn, girl, that's a lot of stuff!" Yes, yes it is. #sorrynotsorry.

Don't forget! There are still a few days left to enter my giveaway!

What are your running "must haves"?

I might be the smelly blogger

Last night I went to my very first blogger meet-up. It was hosted by a new organization, the NC Blogger Network. It was held at Brandywine Cellars in Durham which is a great little wine bar, and the lovely folks at PDQ were nice enough to donate some cookies and chicken strips, and really, what else do you need? Wine, chicken and cookies.

So, the good stuff, the organizers did a great job of putting together a panel of speakers. I got some interesting tips to help this ol' blog of mine, like making the title of the post more interesting (just you wait to see what comes out of my brain.) And I have some things to think about, like maybe moving to Wordpress or a self hosted site. Oh, and I need a media kit. Like, really, really need one. Hey potential business partners, you want to team up with me and my 6 followers! Heck yeah!! Check out this link for a list of the speakers and links to their sites.

Alright, time for the rest. As it is in most parts of the country, it's flipping hot here in NC. Like pit and boob sweat hot. I generally don't sweat unless I'm engaged in some sort of physical activity but the past few days, DAMN. I need to take some pictures for a review I did and it's been too damn hot to do it. I'm sure the company doesn't want to see melted make-up and pit stains on their outfit. On top of the hot, as of Weds morning, my air conditioner stopped working in my car.

Let me tell you why this makes me all ragey. My AC hasn't ever worked really well in my car, and I bought it new 5 years ago. Well each summer it got worse and worse until last year when it barely worked. Finally in April of this year I coughed up a few hundred dollars and got the compressor replaced. It lasted for 4 months! FOUR and died on the hottest day of the summer. I called the VW dealership in a big of a pissy mood because I was driving home with sweat dripping off my upper lip. They can't see me until Monday afternoon. I can drop it off and leave it for a day or two or wait until Monday. I'm going to sit there ant stare at them and not pay for the repair. VW service, VW parts, I KNOW there's a warranty somewhere.

I FINALLY HAD AC, FINALLY and it's gone. Now I have drive with the windows open and my hair blowing and getting all tangly. At least we only have a few days of hot left. Then it will be 70 degrees and I won't need the AC.

I was driving to the event and getting angry as I felt myself getting warmer and warmer and thought about turning around, but I didn't because I already spent $16 for the ticket and I paid to get some business cards printed and didn't want to eat all of that $.

So, I walked in a little cranky and more than a little paranoid that I smelled. It's really difficult to be discrete and sniff your pits in a room full of other people. I said hi and introduced myself to a few people but some of the bloggers weren't terribly inviting. They went right back to whatever they were doing. Now I can talk to a brick wall, I have 20 years of sorority and 15 years of sales experience. If there's one thing I can do is talk and no one wanted to engage in a conversation. Obviously this made me even more paranoid that I was the stinky girl.

I headed over to the wine bar where they were doing free tastings. I WAS THE ONLY ONE AT THE BAR. There was FREE WINE AND IT WAS JUST ME. I had a lovely time tasting wine with the bartender/owner  and I'd definitely go back even though he gave me a wine that sucked all the moisture out of my mouth. (He thinks that's delicious) I asked him for some Reunite. Instead he gave me this, which according to Google, means blood of a leader. Perfect.

 

It was sweet, red, and bubbly which is exactly what I wanted. And, since I was a little paranoid, I had 2 glasses. Now I'm the slightly buzzed, smelly blogger. I was clearly winning at life last night.

It ended at 9pm and I headed home in my slightly less sweaty car. I did ask Kev if I smelled and he was very nice and said I didn't. That's why I married him.

All in all it was a good event, I just might need a smaller subset of the blogging community, the chatty wine drinking group who doesn't mind of you might smell a little.

Happy Friday!
BTW - GOOD LUCK TO MY NC STATE KDs!!! Recruitment starts today and it's the largest group of women to ever register! I know they'll be amazing and recruit a fantastic new class!

Linking up with:

Have you ever been to a blogging event? What'd you think?

Mug Swap!

A few weeks ago I was trolling through my blog feed on BlogLovin and ran across a post by But First Coffee. Kallie had done this before and it was so popular, she decided to do it again!

We filled out a Google Doc and a few days later she sent us the email for our swap partner. It was pretty simple, learn about your partner choose a mug and send it off by August 30th. We had a price limit of $15 and should scale it back a little to cover the cost of the shipping.

 I was paired up with Rebecca who blogs over at xoxorebeccamae. She's pretty cool and you should go check her out! Come to find out, we both live in NC, are doggie parents and huge fans of rescuing animals. We both love coffee (obviously) that's flavored, but not flavor added.

I got my box in the mail and I'm super excited! She absolutely "got" me based off our conversations.

There was a super cute "Must Love Dogs" Mug, Birthday Cake coffee (YUM!) and even a treat for Cleo!

I love the paw print detail inside the mug!

I gave Cleo her treat and she immediately lorded over it. Because the cat wants your treat. The cat doesn't care about your dang treat. On a side note, I FINALLY caught her in the act of eating the cat food. She knew she was in trouble and spent most of the day pouting. But you know what? She hasn't snuck in there again.

The mug swap was a great idea and I'd definitely do another one! It was great getting to know Rebecca and making a new blogger friend! 

Wednesday Confessions

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I do love the Wednesday Confessions but like I mentioned earlier this week, I think I'm getting in a little blogging rut and constantly talking about the same old things.

Today I'm going to keep with the confessions theme and going to talk about something that's been bothering me for a while. My appearance. I'm not hating on my body or these pesky 10 pounds, it's been my hair.

A few months ago, right before I started my job search, I went to the salon and asked them to cut off about 3 inches and give me lots of layers. In theory a great idea but it just did not work with my hair. It's strange, my hair has always, and I do mean always, been absolutely straight. Until the last few years when it started to get a little wave to it. It's not a nice wave, it's a pain in the ass, have to do something with it everyday or it looks frizzy wave. I can't even begin to explain how annoying it is. I can't wake up and just go. I seriously envy people with was and go hair because that's not, and will never be me.

There's something about this new cut that just makes my hair look stringy and gross. The only way around it is to curl it. every. single. day. I have a nice straightening iron and it never looks right. The weird layers don't translate into straight. In fact, I don't know how she even styled it. I'm not meant to have layers, they're for other people.

I can't make them grow out faster and I have no desire to cut my hair shorter to even out the layers so I have to try and figure out how to diminish the frizz (I'm sure the humidity isn't helping.)

Instead I headed to Ulta to get some new products.

I ended up with a no-frizz serum for curly hair (even though mine isn't really), a new mousse and some heat protecterant. Thank you Ulta for your bogo sale and your $3.50 off $10 coupon. Let's see how this goes and if it calms down the frizz. Seriously though, any suggestion on what to do with my hair would be greatly appreciated.

I've also been unhappy with my make-up. I bought a full container of the Smashbox BB cream but I need a setting powder on top of it, if not, I can feel it on my skin all day which is annoying. The Smashbox sample powder was great but the price for a full sized container is $50. Um, no. I've also been out of my favorite blush for a while. I've been using a $3 elf one which is fine, but it's just not cutting it for me.

Friday after the gym I made a detour to the mall. MAC Studio Fix is the best powder ever and it was time to bring it back into my life.

The last few times I went to the MAC counter / store they were stupid busy and no one was able to help. Apparently Friday night is the time to go. After the MAC store, over to Sephora to get the last NARS blush in Orgasm. It really is the best blush ever, a perfect color for just about everyone. 

On top of all of that, I re-cut my bangs. I'd been letting them grow out and they were pretty long, they just looked dumb. 

So, operation reclaim my face and hair is back in full swing. Hopefully my hair behaves or else it's back to the drawing board.

Don't forget to check out my giveaway!

Linking with these awesome ladies:

Have you ever gotten into a rut with your hair and make-up? What did you do?

How do you get through a bad hair cut?

$25 Gift Card Give Away!

Hey everyone!

Last week was a really great week, I received some amazing news that was a direct result of this little ole blog. I've only been doing this for a little over 3 months and it's been just fantastic, I love having an avenue to share my ramblings and random thoughts and I just can't believe that people actually want to read them.

Thanks to the blogerverse I've met some fantastic people. Every day I look forward to your comments and can't wait to read their blogs. I'm so glad I took the plunge and decided to start blogging again.

I've gained so much, that I wanted to give a little something back to you. I'm giving away a $25 gift card for Landry's Inc. The great thing is the number of restaurants you can use it at, like McCormick and Schmicks, Bubba Gump, Rain Forrest Cafe and my personal favorite, Morton's Steakhouse. Check out this link to see all of their restaurants.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks everyone for being so awesome!

Disclaimer - Landry's doesn't know my blog or that I exist, this one is all me. :)

Random Thoughts

Happy Labor Day!

I hope you're all enjoying your 3 day weekend! If not, I'm sorry and I'll try not to gloat. I'll warn you all in advance though that I will be gloating on both Columbus and Veterans Day as I enjoy those 3 day weekends. LOVE BANK HOLIDAYS!!! SO HAPPY TO BE BACK IN BANKING!!!

This post is going to be a random collections of thoughts so, yeah. I realized I was getting into a little rut with lists and similar types of posts and I'm gonna make a conscious effort to break out of that.

Check out the link on my sidebar! I'm a Swirlgear Ambassador! I just love this company and their snazzy gear. I love being able to show my personality in the clothes I wear and now I can do it with my work out clothes! Check them out here or by clicking the link on my blog!.

So, I'm sitting here writing this, drinking red wine while Kev is having rehearsal at the house. I haven't mentioned yet but Kev is in a super-awesome vocal jazz group, Avante. If you're into accapella and vocal jazz, definitely check them out! Their CD is available on the website and soon on iTunes. Every few weeks they have a potluck and rehearse at the house. Tonight was pizza night, and wine, because there's always wine. I might be a little dehydrated after my work out and this wine is delicious.

Has anyone seen Drunk History yet? I LOVE IT. I also think I would be FANTASTIC on the show. A martini and an half in and I must say, I'm brilliant. I just need something historical to talk about. I wanted to tell the story of how Celine Dion started her career but Kev said no one cares about that. He's probably right. I need a good historical topic to talk about. If someone has a good one, let me know and I promise I'll drink some martinis, record it and post on the blog. But really, it has to be a GOOD one. Annnnnnnnd go.

Kev asked me to make something for the potluck and thankfully I usually have supplies to always make cookies, a cake or some sort of dip. Today I pulled out a beer bread mix from Tastefully Simple, added Parmesan cheese, oregano, garlic powder and basil and baked it. When it came out, I sliced it, brushed with butter, added more garlic powder, Parmesan cheese and shredded mozzarella cheese and put it under the broiler. It was amazing, but really anything with warm butter, cheese and carbs is stupid good. Annnnd I have a stomach ache.

I need to start half marathon training this week and I've been waiting for a decent day to run outside, instead it's been 90+ degrees with 89% humidity the last two days. Grrrr.... I'm ready to run dammit. After grocery shopping, I broke down and faced my nemesis, the treadmill. I don't know when I started hating the treadmill so much, I did Couch to 5k exclusively on the treadmill and most of the training for my first half was on the treadmill as well. Now, I avoid it like the plague. I was planning on going to Body Pump class at 3:15 and that gave me 35 minutes for the treadmill. I did 2 miles and have to say, it wasn't awful. Don't get  me wrong, I was bored as heck but I made it through. I was watching some cartoon about a horse on Netflix and it was OK, I needed to put on some Supernatural, which is a GREAT treadmill distraction. So's any Rocky movie and any movie about running. Spirit of the Marathon is my jam. 

I feel really good coming into the fall season. I've ran more over the summer than I have in the past and unlike last year, I'm not injured. I'm doing the North Hills 5k next weekend and I feel much better about it than past years. When I did it last year I hadn't ran in 4 months and had no business being there. It's a great race with a big-ass hill in the middle but the best part is the shirt. Hands down the BEST RACE SHIRT EVER. I'm actually wearing last year's right now. I'm a little paranoid that they changed the shirt this year and I might cry if they did. 

Can't heading over to recruitment afterwards

Last year I head no business doing the Bull City Race Fest. I did the 5 miler and didn't run at all leading up to it. I thought I was going to die and barely made it to the end. The WORST part though was the course. The 5 milers ended over by Duke and the half marathoners continued on to finish where we started. Our finish was 2 miles away from the start (and my car) and ever though there were supposed to be buses, I never saw a single one. So after trudging through 5 mile I had to walk 2 more back to my car. I'm still salty about that one. Nope, not doing it this year.

On a happy note, Kev and I FINALLY saw Expendables 3 last night because I LOVE Stallone. Like love love love love me some Stallone. I know he writes all of these movies and sometimes he does and awesome job, like Expendables 2, and sometimes I think he craps out something. 3 wasn't bad, but it wasn't amazing. I think it really needed an unexpected cameo, like from Jesse the Body Ventura or Steven Seagal, (but I think Steven Seagal is a little out of action hero shape, if you know what I mean). The one thing it was missing that I also really wanted was a training montage. It would have been AMAZING if the old team did a training montage where they got into better fighting shape, and then Dolph Lundgren should have been running on a treadmill with the incline getting steeper and steeper and I would have screamed with happiness. (If you get that reference, you're my new best friend)

(Don't care, it was still better than 95% of the action movies out there today)

Alright folks! Have a great Labor Day! Picnic if you are, enjoy your 3 day weekend and wear all the white pants! Boots and leggings are coming!!

By the way, don't forget to stop by tomorrow! I have a great give away starting!!

Linking up with these awesome ladies!