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Monday, June 29, 2015

I met someone on the internet and wasn't murdered



As part of the ongoing series, "-Ish I didn't Blog about when it happened" I need to tell you about the time I met Teh Megan! She had the great distinction of being the first person I met blogging AND then met in person. She didn't shank me or leave my lifeless body in a ditch somewhere so I'm one for one when it comes to meeting non-psychos on the internet! Wooo Hooo!!!

It all started when she blogged about siging up for the Tar Heel 10 miler and having to run it alone. Me, being the good commenter I used to be, (I swear I read all the blogs, it's just on my iPad where it's a pain in the ass to comment) said "Awww, I would totally run it with you but I'm not in 10 miler shape." She reminded me that there was a 4 miler as well.... Next thing I knew, I was signed up for the 4 miler. 

She was coming up from SC and we chatted back and forth a few times and decided to meet for dinner Friday night and carb load. Her one request was a cannoli and I recommended Bocci in Durham, Their food is yum.

I ate this.


And this...


They made a swan out of the strawberry. So fancy, so yum.


We had a great time and non-stop talking, I finally met someone who can talk as much as me. :)

The next morning I strapped on my running shoes and drove to Chapel Hill


Before the race started we grabbed a selfie to prove that it really happened!


The next thing I knew, we were off! I was running at a decent pace for me. I was thinking, boy this is great, I'm going to run this entire race, no stopping, yay me!!

Then I saw this. Fuck.


Note to self, whenever you see the Ricola man playing an ALPINE HORN, it's not a good thing. it means there's a hill. A BIG ASS UNNECESSARY HILL.

A hill that needs it's own motivational speaker.


Here was my final time.


Queen of the positive splits, right there. Thanks hill...


Everyone got a medal at the end, regardless of you ran the 4 or 10 miler which was nice but I kinda felt like a poser with the 10 miler medal. Medals are always nice, but I would have felt like I earned it if I actually ran 10 miles.


Linking up with BLoved Boston!

AND




Friday, June 26, 2015

What Do You Bring to Convention?



It's FRIDAY and I'm on my way to meet up with 100s of Kappa Deltas from all across the country for Convention!


I might have mentioned it a few times, so yeah, I'm a little excited. It's a great chance to reconnect with all the other National Advisors I only get to talk to on conference calls, I get actually meet my long distance advisees face to face, we get some great training and let's be honest, I can't wait for the awards ceremony. :)

I what better way to celebrate convention than to talk about some convention must-haves!

Clothes - Let's be honest, I might have done a little shopping for this trip, I wasn't a fan of the formal dress I wore last time and I "needed" some new outfits. :)

I ended up finding my formal dress at Ross. I swear, I'm going to have to do an entire post about shopping at Ross.

$15!


This dress made the cut too. I think it needs some pearls though.


So did this one



White Dress - We need to wear all white to all of the business sessions so a white dress is a must-have. Yes, I "needed" a new one. Again, found it at Ross.


 Spanx - With all these dresses and all the pictures I'm about to be in, I need some Spanx. Hell, I need a lot of Spanx. I might have bought more Spanx for the trip, so I'll be all sucked in and ready to go!

Pens / Notebook - There are a lot of meetings, a bunch of handouts and many notes to take. I have my handy dandy zebra fine point blue pens all packed and a new May Designs notebook. Well, it isn't new, but it is for KD notes.

Snacks - Bring snacks! Yes they feed you but I'm responsible for breakfast and any snacks. I have food issues and a giant morning muffin just brings pain and sadness. I have some new Vega protein bars that are delish and soy-free. I also grabbed some individual packs of almond butter, almonds and a few quest bars. I really should get some mints too. I just need to make it through the next few days without an awful stomach ache.

I'm totally bringing Skittles.

Water Bottle - those conference rooms are DRY and you'll get thirsty! Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! I'm bringing my coffee mug too. This gal needs lots of caffeine in the morning.

Chargers / phone / camera - There will be a LOT of pictures and you need to make sure your -ish is charged. Nothing worse than your phone dying in the middle of the awards ceremony.

First Aid - Bring band aids, tampons, aspirin, you never know when you'll need it!

Extra Space in your suitcase - At convention you get lots of swag, Save some room for your swag and souvenirs. I am already failing miserably at this. If I can't free up some room, I'm gonna look like Joey on the plane ride home.


Most of all bring yourself and get ready to have a blast! Oh, and don't forget your pin!

(Me and the fantastic ladies of Eta Upsilon 2 years ago in Boston!)

See you in a few days!

Linking up! Meet at the Barre


Tuesday, June 23, 2015

GYPO Summer Style - Week 1


Well, well, last week was the first week of the GYPO Summer Challenge! I'll be honest, I totally struggled with this one. I was good, seriously, I was really good for this round and then the fiery gates of Hades opened up and it was too damn hot to wear most of my creations. Don't get me wrong, I still wore some of the loner sleeved outfits, ans thankfully my office is an icebox most of the time.

Alright, let's get on with what I wore. The first day called for patterned shorts, a drapey tank and a denim vest. You know what the perfect outfit would have been? This one. Except I wore it the week before. Le Sigh...


Instead I subbed for a patterned skirt, pink tee and a white cardigan. I like to think that I "re imagined" the outfit and made it work appropriate.


Day 2 called for a graphic tee and brightly colored shorts. No shorts for work but I did have some orange pants from the Limited and a graphic tee with gold pineapples and gold sandals. I was still waiting for my graphic tee from Jane.com (which FINALLY arrived)


I felt super summery and then I went outside for lunch and when I came back, felt super smelly. I'm sure it wasn't as bad as I imagined.

Day 3 was the white dress, denim vest and nude sandals. I really, really wanted to wear my denim jacket with this dress and some turquoise jewelry. But again, it was too stinking hot to wear a jacket. Instead I subbed for a navy cardigan but I didn't love it. I actually think it makes me look larger than I am. I liked the shape of the dress a lot better without the sweater but I hate my arms. I know it's good to accept yourself and love every part of your body blah blah blah but I swear, no matter what size I am, my arms are gigantic. It's not for lack of work, I even have muscle definition in my biceps and triceps but I still won't go sleeveless. Ehhh,,,,


I scored this denim jacket at Goodwill for $5 and I had every intention of cutting off the sleeves and making a vest. But the more I looked at it, the more I liked the shrunken look of it. It's a small, and I'm definitely not but it think it's pretty cute. 

Day 4 - Patterned kimono, flowy tank and boyfriend shorts. Yeah, none of those were happening. I did look for a kimono and tried on a bunch. I mentioned before, they didn't work for me. I looked like the madam of a whorehouse every time I tried one on. 

For my work wear version of the outfit, I swapped for a flowy patterned tank and a flowy cardigan. No shorts for me so I wore more Limited exact stretch cropped pants. Please don't ask how many pairs I own... it's embarrassing.


I took a break from bathroom selfies to show a glimpse into my Skittles OCD. My intern had a bucket of Skittles to share and I perhaps had catch the rainbow. I always have to line them up by color and if there are extras, I eat them first.


Day 5 called for brightly patterned shorts, an eyelet white top and a colored necklace. I went complete off the reservation on this one. I scored this super cute jumpsuit at Ross and needed to wear it instead. :) It's bright, right? and there's white on the top.


Yes, I had to get completely undressed in the bathroom every time I had to pee but damn it was comfy. It might have been a little too "resorty" for work but 1/2 the office wears superhero shirts and ratty shorts, I think this is just fine. 

When I got home I changed into the casual version of the outfit. The shirt is over sized but I think it might be a little boxy for my taste.


Day 6 was supposed to be white shorts and a chambray shirt. I planned for white pants and a jean jacket but that wasn't happening. Instead I had a chambray skirt and a white shirt. I didn't love it, I usually wear a blue shirt with that skirt. Since I wasn't a huge fan of it I changed into a different skirt


Day 7 was a maxi dress with the denim vest. I'll be honest, I wasn't wearing a maxi dress to go to the gym and get groceries. Part of the challenge is to force people out of the comfort zone and not look like a slob while out and about and I think I'm pretty good at doing that 95% of the time. But wearing a dress to get groceries? Nope.

Instead, here's a picture of me, in a patterned maxi dress and my denim jacket. If I had dressed on plan Sunday, it would have looked like this. :)


What are you wearing this week??

Linking Up!


I do deClaire
Monday, June 22, 2015

Scenes from the Weekend

Every Monday you all are subjected to looking at what I did the previous weekend. Well, this weekend, it was a whole lot of nothing. Seriously, big old pile of nothing. 

Thursday I was supposed to go to Body Pump but my back was bothering me and I felt a bit of  cold coming on so I decided to skip and Kev and I went to see Jurassic World instead. 


I thought it was awesome. Dinosaurs and drama and eating people, fantastic. As I was watching it, I realized I'd never seen the original movie. Yes, I'm the only person who hadn't seen it. In my defense, there's an entire chunk of movies / TV Shows from the mid-90s that I've never seen and I blame it on being in college. We had no $ to go to the movies and I wasn't exactly setting my VCR to record Seinfeld. Hence, the 202 episodes of the X-Files I'm currently watching. Can I just take a moment and say that Mulder and Skully are some of the worst agents ever? Seriously, Skully has been abducted 4 times now. FOUR FLIPPING TIMES and  it's only episode 44. She STILL goes places alone. NEVER GO INTO A DARK ALLEY BY YOURSELF SKULLY!!! But I digress...

Friday night Kev had rehearsal and instead of going to the gym, I still felt like I was getting a cold and a sore throat, so I stayed home, watched Netflix with the dog and diffused some OnGuard.

Saturday morning I slept in, it was delightful. Then Kev and I went to look at houses, We decided to take a Chapel Hill run to see if I'd be willing to live there. We did see some houses we liked but I'm not 100% sold, I like living in Raleigh and want to stay in Raleigh. I'm still convinced that when the time comes and we sell this house, We'll find something that will work for us... in Raleigh. :) Thankfully no booger houses this time. BTW - someone bought the booger house! Ugh, I do hope they paid a decent amount for it, boogers an all, it's a comp for our house. 

Then we stopped at a birthday party and headed to Nantucket Grill for dinner. After we got home, I rented Jurassic Park for .99. Started watching and ...yep, never seen it before.


Jeff Goldblum was the best part of the movie. I have no idea what he was there to do except try and be sexy? He was a mathematician or something but the other 2 actually knew something about dinosaurs. He didn't seem to be an expert on anything pertinent. Maybe he was and I just missed it? He really seemed to spend an extraordinarily long time shirtless and what was up with those tinted glasses?.

For more Goldblum check this out.

Sunday morning I got up and headed to 1030 am Body Pump class. The classes at the gym close to me are in the afternoon but it was worth it to drive a bit and get my workout out of the way. I haven't really been posting about my workouts recently, really, they've been nothing special. It's hot as heck so I just want to get in, do my workout and get out. Which is what I did this morning.

So, gym, shower, grocery shopping, computer work and then Kev and I headed to dinner. Now it's bloggy time. Yea, totally uninteresting and low key weekend. 

Tell me you did something fun this weekend!


Linking up with BLoved Boston!

AND




Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Summer GYPO Style Challenge

Yesterday the Summer GYPO Style Challenge started and my capsule wardrobe is ready to go! OK, let's be completely honest, as awesome as the idea of a capsule wardrobe is, I'm just not going to wear the same dress to work one week and again the next even if its with different accessories. 

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of a capsule wardrobe, you choose only a few quality pieces of clothing that can coordinate with each other and make multiple outfits with fewer pieces. Great idea and it really helps me to re-imagine how to wear the pieces I already have. 

When you sign up for the challenge, you get a shopping list and several alternatives. Being the Summer Challenge, I knew there would be a lot of shorts featured and I'd need to adapt to make the outfits adapt for work. In a fantastic twist of fate, I either already had the necessary pieces, already bought the clothes as part of my convention shopping OR bought them when I returned something else. Kev will be very pleased, especially if he reads this today. :)



Who's ready for some poorly lighted pictures??? Reason #275 why I will never be a famous blogger, no fancy camera and I'm taking pictures at 8:30pm in a dim bedroom. Sorry folks, love me, love my crappy pictures. 

First up, we needed patterned, brightly colored and denim shorts. I subbed with a patterned skirt and I have a red and orange skirt. I also branched out and got some palazzo  or "soft pants" in the black and cream and the blue pattern. 


Patterned pants which I also wore last week...


And I subbed the romper for the black jumpsuit I found a few weeks ago.

For the accessories we needed a brightly colored necklace, colored earrings, statement earrings and a head scarf. I decided to pass on all of those, mainly because I've never seen a colored necklace that I actually liked, They all look like a 5th grader made them. Sorry nope. Me and headbands don't really mix either since I have a freakishly large head.

Instead I'm going to use this gold tone bracelet from Target, earrings from The Limited and a knock off Stella and Dot necklace from Etsy.



Boyfriend shorts, a white eyelet skirt to sub for white shorts, patterned maxi dress and white pants.


The dress was part of my Convention purchases and I got it at Kohls, It's really cute on and not too long! 


I kinda love this white eyelet skirt from Steinmart. It's perfect for the summer,



As I look at the capsule, I'm realizing there's a lot of white. I might need more Tide sticks. They're my best friend.  

Here we have a white cami, white eyelet shirt, pink tee, another patterned maxi and a white eyelet dress. Several tees will be styled during the challenge and I'm sure I'll wear more than just this one. I have a bunch of t-shirts that would work. 


The white dress I got at Ross and I'm really stoked about it. I'd been looking for a new white dress for convention and sorority stuff and this one is perfect! I've honestly never worn a white dress outside of sorority stuff and getting married. It's definitely outside my comfort zone, but hey, that's why it's called a challenge!


This is the other printed maxi I picked up at Ross. Can I become a Ross poster child? Seriously, I rarely walk out of there empty handed. 




What else, I have another white flowy tank, a patterned flowy tank, 2 graphic tees and a denim jacket in place of the denim vest. Side note on the graphic tee. I ordered one from Jane.com at the end of May and it STILL hasn't arrived. I know these are small vendors who sometimes get overwhelmed with the volume of orders but when it's ordered on 5/28, "shipped" on 6/4 and still showing as being in transit, that's no bueno.





The black drapey tank. 
Still waiting...

And we have metallic and neutral sandals and some stripey espadrilles. We were supposed to try colored sneakers too but I don't need patterned sneeks when I have plenty of brightly colored running shoes.


And that folks, is my capsule wardrobe! Really though, who am I kidding, it's the second day and I'm already wearing something that's not in the capsule. It's just orange pants instead of an orange skirt, but hey, why not.