365 Questions: 216 - 224

216. If you had to move 3000 miles away, what one thing would you miss the most?  The amazing winters here! Arizona has the best winters ever. 


217. What worries you about the future?  Um, everything? I don't know what I'm doing with my life. 

218. What one ‘need’ and one ‘want’ will you strive to achieve in the next twelve months?  I need to figure out what my next step is in planning for my future. I want to run a half-marathon. 


219. What life lessons did you have to experience firsthand before you fully understood them?  Love is hard work. Keep your damn house clean. 

220. Do you like the city or town you live in?  Why or why not?  I do! I live in Tempe which is a super cute college town, but a big enough urban area that I have pretty much everything I need within a 10-minute drive. I'm also bordering Ahwatukee, which might just be my favorite town in the Phoenix valley. So yep, I definitely do like it here. 


221. What’s the best part of being you?  My wealth of knowledge. Or my rockin' red hair. Or perhaps my sunny demeanor. 

222. When you look back over the past month, what single moment stands out?  The Brahms Requiem. My last choir concert of the semester. I am still surprised that I came back to choir after five years away, and every day was a joy. 


223. What do you do to relieve stress?  Take a bubble bath with a book and a glass of wine! Or laugh with friends. Or get a back massage. It depends on why I'm stressed, I suppose. 

224. What is your happiest memory?  Happiest memory ever is probably still Homecoming. And by happiest memory I don't mean one that makes me smile now, because that one doesn't. But in my memory, that is probably the time I was the happiest. 

Where should you live?

Apparently the graphic is a little messed up. My rankings are:
1. Canada
2. Sweden
3. Australia
4. New Zealand
5. Norway


Check it out and create your own! I was definitely surprised that Germany and Austria were both ranked lower than the US, which came in at #11.

Your color personality

I came across this awesome chart today on one of the blog I follow. Make sure you check out the link at the bottom for the real chart. (This one is missing my favorite blue.)

My wedding colors were going to be dark green and light pink. I tend to wear greens and blues most often. And my home is decorated in earth tones. Interesting! I love how the two colors I would never choose for anything (poppy and red) definitely don't apply. Party person? Not me. Pessimistic? No way. And knowing what I want? I wish!

On the other hand, I love all the greens, pool (not shown here - click the link at the bottom!), night (probably the color I wear most often), and blossom. They're all totally me!

Check out Rae at The Color Issue for more, similar goodies!

Get your own chart from Paper Source here.

Get a yob.

I walked into my old place of employment today and was asked to come back to work. For real this time; not just a tentative "we think we're getting rid of her" like it was a few weeks ago. So, provided they're willing to negotiate a fat raise, I think I found where what little free time I have is going to go.

Finals start next week. It's 11:40, I've already taken a nap today, and I can still hardly keep my eyes open. I've forgotten what day of the week it is at least three times today, even though I had obligations that are specific to today.

In other news, when I hopped in the hot tub at GI Joe's after dinner last week, I didn't realize they had just put a chlorine tablet in the day before, and I forgot to take off my ring. I woke up the next morning to an incredibly disappointing, tarnished, almost-purple piece of silver encircling my finger. G's mom works for the company that owns Fred Meyer Jewelers, so he was able to take it in and get it cleaned and polished for me for free! Rock on.

I still don't know what I'm doing with my life. I've had a few discussions with people whose opinions I value, and I know I need to get a degree within the next year. I'm just not sure how I want to get there yet. I plan on looking into courses offered at the local community college to see if I can take any of my remaining math or statistics classes there in the fall, and just come back to ASU in the spring. Unless that's not an option, in which case I might be screwed. I still have to petition for financial aid (since I'm over the credit hour cap) and haven't submitted my FAFSA yet for the coming school year, which was probably a poor decision on my part.

I'm feeling a lot better about everything, though. Maybe because my life for the last two weeks has centered around music, which doesn't leave a lot of room for stress, but I feel like everything is going to work out. We'll see.

Sleep sweet!! xoxo

If you're healthy and you know it...

Since I started my little weight-loss challenge with the ladies of MSOS (on March 23rd), I've lost more than five pounds. I haven't really been exercising much more, but I've been downing more than half my weight in ounces of water every day, and changing the way I snack. And it's working!

So Thursday, I rewarded myself with a beautiful loaf of bread from Great Harvest. And for perhaps the first time ever, I was disappointed. Their Maple-Nut Pull-apart was good, but not my favorite from them. So, again for the first time ever, I didn't finish the whole loaf. That probably shouldn't be something I'm super proud of, considering eating an entire loaf of bread by myself is not exactly conducive to weight loss, but oh well. Go me.

I had a super fabulous weekend! Miranda came over after work on Saturday, and we watched Bounty Hunter. It was really cute. Plus Gerard Butler is in it, so neither of us were complaining. I ended up working GI Joe's shift for him on Easter Sunday, so I had to be in at 6AM. I put in 8 hours at time & a half, and unloaded three pallets of freight all by my lonesome. Then G came over for dinner, and grilled me up the best steak I've ever had in my life.

Note to self: Never marry a man who can't grill a steak. That shit's important, yo. (Because God knows I'm super fail at grilling. Somebody's got to do it!)

We went to The Melting Pot last night, and for a variety of reasons, it was absolutely my favorite time there. I love playing dress-up; I went in planning to pay for everything so I didn't have to worry about a fight over money; we had a parade of servers and managers stopping by our table to say hi, check in on us, and invite us to parties (rock on!); G may have stolen a few extra mints from the jar on our way out for me; and he blew my socks off and ended up paying for everything. Seriously, everything. He handed my credit card back to me and said I could pick up the tab at Oregano's after my concert next week. We spent the whole night laughing and having a wonderful time. Plus our server was hilarious and awesome. Huge fan. That's an experience that needs to be repeated.

Speaking of dress-up, I commissioned some hair pieces yesterday, too! My awesome friend Candice is crafty and makes beautiful hair doodads, so I asked her to make a few for me. One of 'em I commissioned with an occasion like last night in mind. Bohemian, something to add a little flair, but elegant and classy. I'm super excited to see what she comes up with!

I went to the Apple store this morning to have them take a look at my phone. I walked out of there without spending a dime, with a phone that works! Amazing. The last 24 hours have been so fantastic I can't even handle it.

Tomorrow I have a dinner date with GI Joe, since he bought me an amazing bottle of (Gaja) wine for taking over his shift. I'm making veal parmesan for the first time ever, so here's to hoping it won't be a disaster. On a related note, I have tons of homework to do, and some more marinara to make, so sayonara! May your day be as wonderful as mine has been, and may all your camels be fertile.

xoxo!

March 101 update, and April's Fool

Today felt like one awful April Fool's joke.

I made breakfast burritos this morning and somehow managed to burn a little bit of egg to the bottom of the pan. I've never done that before and I am still not quite sure how it happened, but now it doesn't want to come off. Then I was two minutes late to work. I was all flustered leaving the house because I figured I was going to be late, and I forgot my lunch. I'd been at work for a while when I got a phone call asking for one of our managers. When I said he wasn't there, the caller announced she was his girlfriend and he had told her he would be working at 6AM. Yikes. Way to make things awkward for me.

I headed back home for lunch to enjoy the baked salmon I made last night. Called my bff and discovered my phone has decided to stop working again. Got home, stuffed my salmon in the microwave, and headed to the potty. Through the wall, I heard a huge explosion. I was surprised to see the Snapware in one piece, and not terribly pleased to find salmon covering every inch of the inside of my microwave. I ate what was left in the container... until I got to the middle. I had baked it for 12 minutes, thinking it would cook a little more in the microwave, and I didn't want to over-cook it. Well apparently that was a poor decision because the middle was still uncooked.

Headed back to work grumpy, hungry, my tummy a little upset from just eating undercooked fish, and had a few irritating/unsettling/intrusive text messages that did nothing to help my mood. Got in trouble for texting at work.

And I've had a few thoughts running through my head today that have been bugging me. Ugh. I'm looking forward to a good baking sesh with Miranda this week to clear my head. I think I have a dinner date with a friend on Wednesday, too, that I'm really looking forward to. (He's never taken me anywhere bad! The first time we went out was to BJ's. The most recent was to the White Chocolate Grill. Yum!)

Anyway. I'm drinking a glass of wine (Dominican Oaks Napa Cab. OMG yum!) and eating some chocolate, about to cook dinner. (Yes, at 10:30 at night.) I like to enjoy my dinner so I needed to relax a little first. (Plus I needed to do some dishes.)

So I'll leave you with another 101 update, for the month of March!


Since the one-year update, I have accomplished the following goals:

• Host someone from CouchSurfing
• Complete a puzzle of 1000+ pieces
• Discover my blood type (B positive!)

And have made the following progress on others, as well:

• Five books read
• One more trip to the recycler (only one left!)
• One new tea tried
• $5 in coupons used
• Answered 215/365 questions
• Watched one new-to-me old movie 
• Donated 2,000 grains of rice

I have completed a total of 21 goals now. I'm a little behind, but I'm going to aim for three goals per month from here on out, plus progress on at least five others. 

The stove is calling my name!!

xoxo