(3.8.12) Scrapbooking is underway. My dining room table has been converted into a work zone complete with pictures, all types of contruction and specialty paper, stickers, letters, tape, scissors. All I'm missing is my glue stick! I can't find it anywhere. Anyway, I actually began the scrapbook for my niece last night. It's nice to have a creative project to work on again; it's been awhile. I think really hard about each page. I don't want to just throw crap together. I want it to last a lifetime for her and I to keep our sweet memories.
(3.7.12) I hate to admit it, but I have been turned on to frozen meals. Wednesday night, my co-worker had a frozen meal that smelled incredible. On my next grocery stop, I picked up three varieties of Weight Watchers Select Ones for $2 a piece. What a steal! Those meals are delicious. I mean, who woulda thought something out of a box would taste so good. The sodium is about 1/3 of your daily intake, but other than that, the nutritional values are reasonable with only 250-330 calories.
P.S. Yes, I've had a frozen dinner before, but never a Weight Watchers one and never in the past three years. They are just not something I've included in my diet... until now!
(3.6.12) I've only done one scrapbook in my life. It was five years ago when I studied in London. After completely 50 or so pages, I lost a bit of interest so I never actually finished it. But, I made a big mistake: I tried to scrapbook every picture I had. On my newest album for my neice, I will be extremely selective on what pictures make the cut. I want this album to span her whole first year of life and only 40-60 pages fit in the book. I bought supplies Tuesday night at Walmart. I checked Michael's too, but Walmart was just as cute and half the price.
(3.5.12) Monday was such as beautiful day I wanted to take full advantage of it. Instead of running nowhere on a treadmill at the gym, I went for a run outside. I took a new course: north on 31st St to University, west to 42nd St, south to Grand and east to 31st. It was a big square, just shy of 4 miles, yet I managed to run against the wind the whole time. It sucked. My goal is to be running a solid, comfortable seven miles by May 19, the Tough Mudder. Gotta step it up.
(3.4.12) It was way cooler than the movie. My friend recruited me for his dodgeball team a few weeks ago. It was a one day tourney at Clive Elementary School. For people who say there's nothing to do in the metro, take that! Come on, it's a dodgeball tournament. How fun and random! Team Raygun Corporate Sponsor came in 3rd place out of 8 teams. Not too shabby. I honestly was the weakest link of my team. I wasn't a very good dodger, catcher, or thrower. Yeah, not good. I'll have to practice before the next one so I can redeem myself.
Our stellar finish, got us $10 in Godfather's Pizza gift certificates. So the team went out to celebrate. I've never eaten at Godfather's, man that is some good pizza. The seven of us also thoroughly, maybe too much, enjoyed the pop machine (pictured at the right). You use the touch screen to select which drink you want. How futuristic! It was new to all of us. We were like kids in a candy store.
(3.4.12) Party Time! Not only is it my one year anniversary of My First Time, it's also my two year anniversary of living in this great city I now call home. In celebration, I had some friends over for my first cowboy/farmer themed party. It was a great time. I have met so many amazing people in my time here. I'm so glad a good chunk of them made the effort to stop by and celebrate with me. Cheers! To many more awesome times in Des Moines.
(3.2.12) I began this challenge, this attempt to make each day count, 365 days and 73 pages ago (that’s how long my journal is that I’ve kept from March 2, 2011). I can’t believe it’s been a year. I can’t believe what I’ve been through, what I’ve experienced in just one year. I can proudly say I’ve done nearly 400 new things. What did you do this year? I’m drinking a glass of wine in celebration. I mean, that’s how this whole thing started. Well, I might have had more than one glass of wine that night. There’s been some highlights on my journey: I’ve made some great friends, traveled to Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, KC, STL, Joplin, Columbia, competed in a sprint triathlon, ran a 5 mile race, eaten at some great local restaurants, cooked a lot, drank a lot of coffee and wine and beer, donated to great organizations, invested in my health, read more books than ever before, attended different events, listened to a lot of new music, started a blog, and became an auntie. Again I ask, what did you do this year? I feel like some days were small things and some even cop-outs, but that’s the point. Life is busy. I work two jobs, am training for a race, and still trying to experience new things and blog about them. Without this challenge, I wouldn’t have put in that extra effort to make each day count. Whether it was doing a new exercise, checking out a new store on my lunch break or having a photo shoot, I pushed myself to live each day to the fullest.
I was thinking earlier this week how long this challenge will continue. I thought about ending at one year. It seemed like a nice, round length. But instead of picking a specific time period, I think I’ll get a feeling. Amanda told me she’d have a third child if it felt right. I’d never thought about that before. I’ve always just thought about a nice, round number of kids. This is similar. I think I’ll know when the challenge has been accomplished. I’ll feel it.
I think this is a part of my life I’ll look back on and brag about. People won’t always get it, and that’s OK. It’s not for them to get.It was for me to get out of my rut. And it worked. I haven’t been in a rut for awhile. I still don’t know my calling in life, but I can’t expect that to fall into my lap in one year. If I hadn’t figured it out in the previous 24 years, who’s to say it won’t take a few more to see the light.
Do you ever think about dying? I do. I wonder if I died tomorrow, would I have made it worth it? Would I have lived life to the fullest? Would I have made the gift of life count? I’d like to think I could answer yes to all three, but I’m not sure. I’ve done a lot of things for myself over the past year. I’m very glad I did. But maybe now it’s time to re-focus my efforts. If I died tomorrow, what regrets would I have? I’d regret not telling my family enough how much they mean to me, not calling my brother more, not leaving this world a better place. That’s part of my facebook profile is that I want to make the world better in some small way. This is where not knowing my calling in life comes into play. Will it hit me like a brick one day? Will I have to fight for it? What can I, or should I, be doing to make my life meaningful? I like being a journalist because I feel like I can help make a difference. I have several passions that could be my calling. I guess I won’t know until I make the conscious effort to try. Maybe once I start trying, God will give me a nudge.
So how would I describe my year? Discovery. Reflection. Immediate. Alive. Present. New. Challenging. Busy.
(3.2.12) On my one year anniversary of this challenge I wanted to do something extremely memorable... like sky diving. Well, that didn't really pan out. Instead, I checked out not one, but two restaurants in the metro. I went to Open Sesame in the East Village for lunch time coffee. I was recommended to try the Turkish Coffee. I'm open to new things and decided to order it. It came served in a tiny tea cup. Whoa, was it bitter. There was barely more than a shot there. Each sip was just as bad as the one before. I was hoping it would get more tolerable. My friend ordered a fruity drink of sorts, and of course I can't remember the name of it. Something along the lines of "jalab." It was pink and looked refreshing. When I asked how it was he said it tasted like perfume. With that great of a set up, I had to try it. Wow, it tasted just like perfume. He drank it all though and said he liked it. I would like to go back and actually try the food. I'd hate to cross off a place based on two drinks.
Then for dinner I popped over to Cool Basil with my man. I've heard great things about their food and was excited to try it for myself. I ordered two sushi rolls: the Alaskan and The First Date. Both were very good. The First Date was tempura red snapper with a tangy mayo sauce. I recommend it. After taking this picture, I realized Instagram does not do a good job of making food look more appetizing. All the filters made the sushi look awful or spoiled. I also tried the Thai Pumpkin Curry. It was a two-star spicy level out of six stars. It was still too hot for me.
"I never get sick." I say this a lot and knew one day it would catch up with me. Today was that day. Everyone at work is getting something and giving it to me. I almost never take cold medicine but decided I would today. As I was looking for the cold medicine, I saw the vitamin section. For all the working out I've been doing lately and how I try to be healthy, I've never been a vitamin taker. I'm not an impulse buyer, but come on, it's a bottle of vitamins. We'll see if it makes a noticeable difference in my life. The label says it has 100% of my daily value for several things including B12 and Iron. Those sound like they'd be helpful for my overall health...
(2.29.12) It's pretty clear I enjoy photography. I wish I was really, really good at it and had a jazzy DSLR and knew how to use it. But I don't. So today I joined Instagram. The app gives you some editing options for the photos you take on your mobile. I use my iPhone for a lot of the pictures for my blog so maybe now they'll be a bit jazzier.
My first Instagram photo: Part of my shot glass collection