Tuesday, June 28, 2011

My Stand Bys

In other words, crap I cannot live without. One of my favorite Bloggers, Amanda at MODG Blog, did this crazy cool list of baby products and paraphernalia she needed to have for her six month old (and all the stages in between). Peeps, I don't even have a baby, and I was licking that list up. Then she did a follow up list of things she needed to survive for herself having a six month old baby, and all her readers were like "preach". I mean, once Oprah made this sort of of stuff famous with her Favorite Things, we were set up for life. Without further ado, my list...


Every year I go to the Costco Scholars breakfast. It is actually not that great. They have weird food, and I am forced to small talk with higher up people at local companies, who seem really disappointed that I am an English major, and stop talking to me. The highlight of the event is at the end, when I go around my table and take the like 250 page stack of Post its (and the centerpiece). I have been known to take two or three at a time, and bequeath them to family and friends. These post its are my life. I literally use them every day. I write my to do lists on them. They're portable and huge so I can write a lot. Plus they're super cute because the base is a Costco pallet. In addition to these beauties, I also own a stockpile of free post its that I store in my desk. I truly never have to buy any again. I love organization.

Rubbermaid White Ice Cube Tray, $2
I am spoiled. At home, we have an ice dispenser that serves cubed or crushed ice straight from our refrigerator door. But before we moved here, we didn't have a fancy schmancy fridge. And at school I use a straight up old fashioned ice cube tray. For my Coke in a bottle (obsessed!). I love the way it makes it foam, ok tangent aside, if possible I would take one of these to a desert island (well, and I guess er some fresh water). 


iPhone4 Defender Series Otterbox, $49.95

I have, uh, kind of bad luck with phones. Not only do I use them to death, but I have been known to drop them in running water or leave them in a Macy's bathroom for someone to take and then Macy's doesn't call me back til a month later. Or whatever. So when I got my iPhone in February, I decided I was going to protect it from everything. This case has three layers: the clear piece of thick plastic that goes over the screen, the plastic white cover that encases the phone, and the pink silicone that goes over that. It may make the phone three times bigger, but its indestructible. 

Burt's Bees Chapstick, $3

My lips are unnaturally chapped these days. I am not huge on slathering chapstick on, usually because I forget. But Burt's Bees is my go to lip saver when my lips need to be smoothed. For some awful reason I have misplaced both my Burt's Bees lip balm and my back up, the lemon lip balm from Bath and Body Works. So last night I had to make do with classic Chapstick and it just wasn't the same.


Longchamp 'Le Pilage- Small', $125

Normally, I have the habit of changing my purse every other month or so. I am not exclusive either, I will switch up Juicy Couture Day Dreamers with a tote bag I bought at Urban Outfitters two years ago. That all changed in December when I got my Longchamp Le Pilage for Christmas. I have been carrying this purse in Billberry (a deep plum, not like the ugly green color above) for a record shattering six months. I LOVE it. It's versatile and I get tons of compliments on it. It's also really classic, trendy without being so trendy that I won't be "in style" a year from now. It's timeless. More importantly, the material it's made from is easily cleaned so it rarely looks dirty. It's smaller than what I normally carry, but still fits a lot in it. So recommend it!

What are the items you cannot live without?!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Remember kids, if a stranger offers you drugs, say thank you, because drugs are expensive

I saw the above post on tumblr, and my immediate response was "Eww? Drugs?! Eww! Gross! I would never! Yuck!" And while I have never even touched so much as a cigarette (see above reaction), let alone anything stronger that one would be inclined to smoke or inject, part of me forgot what a hypocrite I am because I do in fact take excedrin like they are the newest flavor of M&M.

I had a headache last night in fact. I could not exactly pinpoint why, but whined to my dad, also a frequent sufferer of headaches, and he said I should go to sleep and hopefully it would go away. By 3am, when I got up to get a drink of water (A recent revelation: I sleep rather poorly in summer),  the demon that had decided to nest in my forehead was gone.

This was after my dad and I had a conversation then went a little like this:
Me: I want to take excedrin but did you know you can only take two excedrin migraine in 24 hours? (I just found this out in May. Thanks to my friend Lisa, and uhm, actually reading the label).
Dad: It's the same ingredients as the other one (the non-migraine excedrin I assume). I take two every four hours.

Which I used to do up until May. Therefore, either he and I are destroying our livers 2 excedrin at a time or... we're not.

I had a headache this day, I distinctly remember. Hence the face and the eyebrow rubbing. There is no explanation for the grody green nail polish that is chipped.

The fact of the matter is the reasons I get headaches are vast and many:
- I haven't eaten enough that day
- I didn't start eating early enough in the day
- I got too much sleep (more than 10 hours)
- Certain head bands that I wear
- Wearing fragrance that is too potent
- Sinus problems or seasonal allergies
- The last week of every month ahem etc.
-Other random things that I cannot think of
- No reason at all. Just... Bam! Pounding and throbbing, etc. etc.

I am not the sort of person who gets light sensitivity, but I do get nausea like nobody's business.

Why do you get headaches (i.e. what are your triggers)? And more importantly, how do you stop them?!

Me today. Headache free!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Zumba!



In an interesting turn of events, I am following in the footsteps of Jordan Sparks.

Since Spring Quarter (April) I have been taking Zumba classes on and off, at least once a week.

I started because I was curious and heard a lot about this fun form of exercise, while never trying it myself, save for one RA In Service, where we danced to about three songs to "stress relieve". But the small taste of upbeat music and dance moves that were simple enough to follow was enough to make me try a second time.

I paid a cheap $13 for 8 classes at SU's gym, and the instructor was really nice, and at the very least, when I was trying to be healthy but falling off the wagon at the same time, this provided me at least one chance a week to go to the gym.

The things I like about Zumba:
-It's one hour of cardio. Plain and simple.
- It's easy; and even though it involves "dancing", you don't have to be a good dancer. You just have to move.
- The music. Most of it is Latin or Middle Eastern inspired, and it's all modern sounding. Except the one song I danced to today, that reminded me of being in Grease.
- If you find the right places, it's not too expensive.
- I know I'm getting a good workout because I sweat a ton. There's no set amount that one person can say they burned, but on average it's about 500-800 an hour.
- The hour spent in a zumba class goes by faster than one on the elliptical.

I chose the above video to show you what zumba is like because it demonstrates how there is an instructor and you follow along, plus it shows a lot of the same basic moves you use over and over in many different songs. Unlike the above class, though, most of the ones I have been to, the instructor does not talk a lot, they just gesture with hands and legs, and that's how you know what to change what you are doing.

Oh and the instructors sometimes wear Zumba pants where tassels hang off of them.

Bringing it all back, Jordin Sparks attributes her weight loss of two dress sizes to eating healthier and taking Zumba. As we all know, because I have documented it here, I am trying to live a healthier lifestyle and lose weight, so this is one stepping stone in the process.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Present To Myself


Juicy Couture Raglan Sleeve Pullover, 79.99

Believe it or not, I will begin my second quarter of SENIOR year in September. That's right folks, I am two quarters shy away from graduating (but I will still walk in June).

This last quarter, well probably this last school year, was pretty difficult.

I encountered the equivalent of my Senior Synthesis class for my Humanities Degree, the Humanities Capstone. I thought it would be easy, like all the other senior synth classesmy friends took, a snoozefest that resulted in an easy A. I was wrong. I was dead wrong. From the teacher who did not let even shy students get away with not participating, to endless papers rife with policy on education, to the culmination of a 30 page paper for our group  of three to turn in (ours ended up being 59 with the bibliography) AND a presentation of our final policies for the entire college (okay, so only five people showed up). Did I mention the teacher was hard? And the drama teacher he brought in to prepare us to be public speakers was even more challenging (at one point she told us to go to the seventh floor of a building and yell down to the sidewalk, asking people the time. If they could hear us then we had loud enough voices. I wanted to punch something). Through that entire class, the one where I considered dropping the entire major so I wouldn't have to go any more and had convinced myself it would be alright to have one degree), and where one girl said she literally had never had a class where the assignments felt beyond her reach, I struggled, cried in front of my class, and yelled afterwards.

Throughout the same time, because I am a glutton for punishment, I decided to commit to being healthier again. I went to the gym every morning for about three weeks at 6:40am, ate with awareness, and tried to drink more water. Then finals week came, and the bad habits came along too, with a vengeance.

Now it's the week after school has let out and I am finally piecing it altogether. The residence halls have closed and I am no longer an RA, a bittersweet memory. I am back in with my family, in my newly painted room with flat screen TV. Costco is hoppin', and I get 30 hours a week. On my days off, I schedule play time (other than this week which was for cleaning and organizing) pretty aggressively.

My final paper for Latina Literature was entitled Weaving the Thread Across Decades: The Significance of Clothing in Latina Literature. Like themes that weave their way across my life, there is one article of clothing holding together the two proudest moments I've had this week. It is shown above.

I am working out at the gym every day again, this time at 8am. I am making a more serious effort to eat healthy, and it helps that all the adults in my house are trying to do the same, despite the Twinkies in the pantry staring us in the face, leftover from when we shoveled in lard by the mouthful. I bought the above as a "goal sweater", something to fit into as a reward for getting fit and avoiding diabetes. Unfortunately, it already fits now, defeating the purpose of a goal to work too. Granted, it could look way better with a flatter tummy, so into the closet it goes.

Before I even considered the weight repercussions, I thought to myself, the day that I finished my public presentation; sweaty, nervous, and my voice catching in my throat, that I deserved a gift. My eyes gleamed and my first thought was "iPad!". But Ally is po and can't afford that. Then I saw the above sweater: Beautiful, sequined, Juicy Couture. And I said to myself, "Self, you do need a gift. It is this sweater". It arrived Monday, but the real gift came today, in an email. Grades, to be specific, two As and a B+.

You best believe one of those As was in my Capstone class. So delicious.