Just a Little Reminder

As we all bounce back from Thanksgiving and the extra 20 lbs it added to our booties, just a little friendly reminder:

I saw this on Pinterest and thought I'd share. 

Cheers!

LC

Wish List

So. I haven't really made a wish list/Christmas list in a very long time. But I'm going to this year (not that I'm anticipating presents or anything -- it seems this year has been extra tight where cash is concerned)! I've just found so many things on Pinterest that I find useful and amazing and pretty cheap (sometimes the opposite, though!). 

Either way, it's a fun thing for me to do, since I like lists and am currently procrastinating everything I can think of doing (you know, exercising, juicing, planning Thanksgiving . . . just the usual stuff!).

Key Socks

I would actually wear heals if I could wear socks with them! This is an amazing invention and I can't believe no one thought of it sooner.

Sailor Moon Broach

I admit it -- I'm a bit of a geek. I absolutely adored Sailor Moon when growing up. I always wanted to have something like Usagi did (yes, I've read the manga, too. I still even own the comics!) and this would be amazing! It's only about $20, too, but it's on eBay so who knows if that's a fixed price or not . . . 

Time Key

I don't have any clue how much this is going to be but I'm assuming it'll be over $300 . . . The key to the fifth dimension? Yeah, I'd say $300 is worth it. 

Lunch Crock

I love being able to "set it and forget it." I would love to cook meals at work and make my co-workers suffer. Plus, it's small, so it won't actually take the usual 6-8 hours to cook. And it gives me a single-serving meal. 'Cause I'm snazzy like that.

Educational Decree White Board

I loves me some HP. I loves me some white boards. Do I really need to say more?

Heated Ice Scraper

Don't judge me! You want one, too. For someone who goes to work at night and comes home in the morning, this could come in handy. Some days, I have to scrape before I leave for work and again before I come home. And for someone who's worked 10 hours already, who wants to have to do that again? Forty bucks is a small price to pay, I think. 

Custom Car Emblem

Because I can. I don't need any reason whatsoever.

I told you I was a nerd, right? Yes, yes, yes. Run along now. Bip, bip, bip!

Jungle Tribe Blaster 3.0 (AKA: best purse ever)

Yeah. It's not going to happen though. This happy present would set whoever loves me oh-so-much back about $300. I'm not quite sure I'm loved that much. But it would be awesome to use while running (since no one thought it would be a good idea to put pockets in yoga pants -- where am I suppose to put my house keys or my iPod?!). How is it that people can be so clever?

Snitch Necklace

Another high-priced item ($150). Again with the HP lovin'. 

Supernatural Protection Necklace

Carry on my wayward son. I'm noticing a pattern with my "wants." They all have to do with geekery. Meh. I'll get over it someday, I'm sure. It's under $20, so we're doin' good.

Shiny Car Decal 

I'm not one for messing up my car with decals and stickers. But if I had this, I would make an exception. $5.

Kneel Before Loki Decal

Another thing I'd make an exception for. $10.

Gadget Holster

Here's my cheaper option to the holster above. $25.

Reusable Produce Bags (set of 5)

Great idea for someone who is going to be shopping exclusively at a produce stand. (Didn't you read my last post?) $12 isn't too bad for reusable, machine washable. 

Seat Belt Adjuster

Yes, I know. Just -- don't judge me, 'kay? It's super uncomfortable when driving over long distances to have your seat belt gouging into your carotid the entire drive. At least it doesn't have Hello Kitty on it, okay!

Nouveau Gate Stacking Mugs, Set of 6

One of my Aunts has two sets and I absolutely fell in love with them when we were over at her house. They stack easily and are pretty enough to be left on the counter, by the coffee pot my roomie has. $15. 

********************************

So, yeah. Those are things I wouldn't mind owning. Maybe this gives you a better understanding of how my mind functions?

It doesn't work for me.

Understanding, that is.

Cheers!
LC

$45

Produce stands rock.

Seriously! 

They're pretty epic. 

They feed you, they're hugely knowledgeable of their wares, and they know how to bag your groceries so they don't bruise your food. 

That last bit is super important to me (I'm that crazy lady in the supermarket who lines up her cart on the conveyor belt by sections: frozen, canned, produce, breakable things [like bread and eggs], chemicals, etc. Yes, I'm aware I have issues. No, I don't want any medications for them).

And the part where they feed you. I like that, too.

My sister, K, and I went to the produce stand for the first time last Wednesday. I finally convinced her to watch Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, and Hungry for Change. When she finished both, she was all gung-ho to buy a juicer. Only nothing was open at 3AM so she contained herself until the next day. Which is when we bought an entire cart full of produce. For $45.

$45.

Yep. A lot cheaper than we would have paid at Safeway or Haggen. I know, I checked my prices paid on Monday vs. the prices we paid on Wednesday. 

And that $45? Yeah, it's her groceries for the entire week.

No fair, K, no fair.

But that just goes to show I should totally have checked around more than I did. Shame on me!

And the people are so friendly! Plus, when we went, we were practically the only people in the stand. No lines, no annoying noises, no crazy people (myself excluded, of course). It was one of the best shopping experiences I've had in a long, long time.

And I'm totally only shopping for produce there. Ever.

Juicers

JE2200B.

My juicer.

Sort of. 

It juices. But I feel like it could be better, maybe. Like it's not really giving it's best effort or something?

It takes way too much time for me to juice a single serving. I have to wash my produce and then cut it up. We're not talking in half or in quarters, here. We're talking bite-sized pieces. Which takes a lot more effort and a lot more maneuvering around my (tiny!) apartment kitchen than I was thinking it would.

My biggest peeve, though, would have to be my pulp.

I could stick it in a cheese cloth and squeeze a bit more juice out of it, I think. 

But only for some fruits and vegetables. Carrots and spinach have a super-dry consistency while celery or cucumbers are nearly sopping. And don't get me started on fruits. Yes, I understand the water content is higher in both celery, cucumbers (which is why they make a good base), and fruits. And, yes, I understand carrots are roots and don't really have much water to them. But dang it! I don't want to lose my juice in my pulp! That's what I'm suppose to be drinking, not the garbage can!

But for $50 ($40 on sale at Khols), could you really turn down the price for a starter juicer, just to see if you're even interested in juicing?

Not really.

But I'm going to return it and buy a Breville Juice Fountain Plus. 

I watched a few YouTube videos (just search for "breville juice fountain plus reviews" and you'll get a few different ones) and this is more what I was thinking when I thought of juicing. I'm not quite sure what the pulp looks like (they don't show it much, for some reason) but I'm sure it's a lot better than almost-pulp. 

The Juice Fountain Plus is a bit more expensive than the Black and Decker model ($150 vs $50) but I'm thinking it will last me a lot longer and be less time consuming in the long run. I just have to return the one juicer and save up another $100 for the other . . . 

Fingers crossed, guys!

Cheers!
LC

Bad Call

I didn't get much sleep today and that's what I'm blaming for my "bad call."

Good call: saw a friend today who I haven't seen in a while and got caught up on each other's lives.

Bad call: went out for lunch at a Mexican restaurant*.

The food was great, actually. I felt it was fresher than other Mexican foods I've had in a long while. But after lunch, on my drive home, I was really feeling the aftereffects of eating out. I especially noticed them when I woke up from my nap (yes, a nap after lunch. I work graveyard and it was technically my "4AM" to "7AM" sleep time, so lunch really was an evening snack, if you want to get technical on me . . . ) and was feeling . . . off.

Bloated. Puffy. Heavy.

Over the past week, I've been feeling stronger, feeling leaner (even though my mirror says differently. But me and the mirror-woman don't see eye to eye, yet, so that's to be expected), feeling stronger. And it's only been about a week. What caused this amazing feeling?

For the last few days I've had juice (a mix of cucumber, celery, carrot, apple, spinach, kale, and parsley) with my breakfast and lunches. I've not been able to juice enough before work to just have juice for the entire night (but I'm working on it! I think I need a new juicer since I have to cut up my produce into pretty much bite-sized pieces before I can juice them) so I just have it with those two meals. I tell myself I'm "easing" into, since I don't want to freak my body out by saying, "oh, look. No solid foods for you ever again. Nener, nener, neeeeneeer!"

I didn't think I would feel this much of a difference in this amount of time.

Which says quite a lot about the lifestyle choice, if you think about it. If you can feel a difference, even after such a small change (juice plus my regular meals) in a small amount of time (I went grocery shopping on Friday and today is Tuesday), what is it going to be like when I kick it up and drop the "regular" meals and run it out over a month?

Hello, Bikini Season!

Which is kind of a goal. I'm going to Florida in February and am planning on spending one of my days there laying on a beach (I'm from Washington, guys! Florida February is like Washington June or July, nice and sunny without cloud coverage. *sigh* I wanna be there already!). One does not lounge on the beach all day without wearing a swim suite. And I want mine to be a bikini. 

I guess that means its time for more produce shopping, right? And I guess I'll just skip lunch and bring juice next time?

Hmm . . .  how on Earth do I socially get around that hump?

Cheers!
LC

*Check out Avocado in South Everett, WA if you can. They're really tasty and the lunch menu has entrees under $7 (at the time of this post). And don't forget your chips and dip! . . . which is why I'm still feeling bloated . . . But they're so nommers . . . *sigh*

Exercise and Food

Working out is hard work. 

Finding time to workout is even harder work. 

The hardest work of all is trying to convince your brain you actually do want to get up and workout instead of lay in your bed and sleep an extra hour.

Stupid bed.

(Just kidding! I love you please don't be mad, Bed. We'll be together forever, I promise!)

But seriously, if it wasn't so comfortable I wouldn't sleep so much. 

I haven't done as much as I would have liked but I've done more than I usually would, so that's a plus, right? Here's the schedule I'm trying (and marginally succeeding) to use: 

• wake up
• get dressed in running clothing
• jog for approximately 1 mile (if I can't jog the whole thing, walk for one light-pole-to-light-pole distance, and start again)
• do planks (increase duration every two days or so) and an exercise (switch between squat sequences and ab sequences, increasing repetition every few days or so)

That's it. That's my master plan for the moment. I'll eventually increase the 1 mile to 1.5, 1.7, 2.4, 2.7, and 3 miles. Anytime after I want to run 3 miles, I will need to run the Centennial Trail.

I'm super excited for being able to run those distances but at the same time, I'm, like, "have you seen my booty run? Not a pretty sight. It's kind of like Jell-o in an earthquake."

I'm not giving myself enough credit, though. I've almost made it the entire mile without walking. It may not be an eight-minute-mile but it's almost completely done by jogging and that's what matters most. 

Even more difficult than working out is working on what I eat. I know nutrition is super important and I'm a firm believer that 6-pack abs are shredded in the kitchen as well as in the gym. 

But that doesn't make it easy.

In fact, I think it makes it harder. Come on! Who is going to give up powdered donuts for tofu curds? Really?

sigh

Of all the "lifestyle" diets around, I'm leaning more toward the Paleo in style. I haven't actually read anything about it. I've just seen trends on Pinterest. But from what I understand, Paleo advocates non- or minimally-processed, GMO-free, heirloom foods. They encourage grass-fed, non-hormone and -antibiotic treated animal proteins. The discourage white sugar.

I'm just not too keen on all that coconut and almond flour nonsense.

If you can find a farmer who grows heirloom, GMO-free, organic wheat, why not use it? The problem with our current AP flour (and other varieties, of course) is that it mostly comes from genetically modified grain. More grain per stalk equals a higher yield come harvest. Better for the farmer, right?

Definitely not better for the consumer. 

As long as I can stick to organic, heirloom wheat, why can't I enjoy pasta and bread? (Speaking of bread, I have an amazing recipe I want to try! It's more nuts than flour and it looks amazing for toast. Check it out here.) I can grind my own wheat into flour using an attachment for my Kitchen Aid and go from there. 

Other than flour, I'm totally on board with the Paleo thing.

Well. I guess I would change a few things. Like vegetables at the base, fruits at level two, animal-protein, grains, and legumes/beans at level three, and desserts and fatty foods on top.

Enough ramblings for the night,

Cheers!
LC

Change Your Life

My sister, K, is quite lovely. She sent me a Pin this morning and I want to share it with ya'll.

The reason she sent this to me is on Thursday my sister, J, cut, colored, and styled my hair. When she first started parting for the color, she asked me what happened about eight months ago that was stressful. I counted back and said that would be about March and that's when our parent's separated. She said, "that explains the three gray hairs I've found." 

Three.

Gray. 

Hairs.

At 26.

THREE!!

Who needs this crap?!

She moved on and then said, "I'm not going to count them all, that would take too much time. It's a good thing we're doing color today!"

Too much time? Count them all?! How many are there?! 

GAH!!!

As she was cutting it, I felt like my shoulders were getting lighter, my worries were going away. I kept having thoughts go through my head, like, "this is it. This is where I'm changing everything. This is it." 

We've had a rough few months, my family and I. The last week or so, I decided I'm not going to play this game anymore. It's no fun and clearly not good for me (Gray. Hairs. Gray. Hairs.). I'm sick of the drama and the unnecessary chaos it adds to my daily life. I found a few quotes (on Pinterest, of course) that made me really think about my life and what's really going on in it and how I can change.

There are a whole bunch of people doing a whole lot more than me. Mothers who take care of their families, keep the house clean, work a full time job, and still manage to look fantastic, for one. They're clearly better time managers than I am. And I want to be one of them. We all get the same time. How on Earth do some people do so much in so little of it?

My other quote has a bit more oomph to it, I guess. Change something, just one thing, daily, in order to find success in life. Well, duh! Why didn't I think of that? I have thought of it but I've not thought of it how John has. Thanks, John!

Today is just one of those days where quotes are the rage. I'll leave you with one more: thanks, Veronicas, for the lovely workout thoughts:

We wanna change [your] worldWe wanna change your attitudeYeah, we wanna change your life We wanna give it back to you (O, yeah)

Gotta love those girl bands. 

Cheers!
LC 

Food Wardrobe

My co-worker, MT, said something to me that made a bit more sense. We all have a food wardrobe that we wear daily. We can pick and choose the things we put on, like fruits, vegetables, and animal-proteins. We can also change it, weekly, daily, even hourly. It's just like your clothing wardrobe, in that sense.

My closet is filled with plain, boring clothing. Mostly neutral colors like black. There's very few whites (just undershirts), and even fewer amazing colors like lime green or neon pink ("fewer" is read "n-o-n-e"; not even socks).

Clothing is like our diet -- the funner the colors, the more the variety, the more options we have. Add those colorful veggies and fruits!

 

vs.

Look at all the colors and vibrancy of the color wheel vs. fast food. It seems more alive, more active. To me, it even seems happier. How can you not internally smile when you're faced with so many colors?

So, I guess the point I'm getting at is eat the rainbow, wear the rainbow. 

Cheers!

LC

Bicycle Donations

If you have a bike you don't want or don't use, check out these wonderful people in the PNW: http://bikeworks.org/

They take all sorts of bikes and make it so they're not guttering up our landfills. If they can't use it or fix it, they recycle it.

Pretty snazzy, huh?

I'm hoping to get my bike to them sometime in the near future. It's too small for me and the seat is a literal pain in the . . . well, you know.

Yay for recycling!! :D

Cheers!
LC

Dine Around Seattle

Guys!! Go do this: 

http://dinearoundseattle.org

Great food at great Seattle restaurants! It's $15 for lunch and $30 for dinner. That's three courses: appetizer, entree, and dessert. In Seattle, that's pretty darn good for lunch or dinner!

And check out some of the restaurants that are participating: 

• BOKA restaurant + bar (dinner)
• Steelhead Diner (lunch and dinner)
• The Georgian (lunch and dinner)
• Chiso Sushi (lunch and dinner)
• Hunger 2.0 (lunch and dinner)
• The Olive and Grape (lunch and dinner)
• Chan Seattle (dinner)
• Ponti Seafood Grill (dinner)
• ten mercer (dinner)
• Monsoon (lunch and dinner)

48 different restaurants to eat at, all of them om-nom-nommy!

"Are you ready to Eat Your Local Heart Out this November? Dine Around Seattle is the area’s premier biannual dining promotion – giving diners a chance to try some of the areas best restaurants for a great deal – all while helping support these local businesses." -- DineAroundSeattle.org

 They do this every March and November. For the last tweleve years. How am I just finding out about this now?

Doesn't matter! What matters is supporting local businesses and eating great food!

Go! Consume! And make sure you donate. You don't have to but it's a great way for us to get even more restaurant selections. 

Cheers!
LC

Green Bag

One of my friends (I can't for the life of me remember who it was but I have a sneaking suspicion it's SJ) mentioned something that really stuck in my brain.

All of our social gatherings are surrounded by food and we eat as a social activity.

Huh.

I hadn't really thought about it but it's totally true. You meet up with one of your good friends for a mani/pedi and it turns into lunch. You go to a movie with your sister and it's dinner-before-a-movie. You go shopping with more of your girlfriends and there's the need for a coffee or Jamba juice halfway through your adventure, followed by lunch or dinner when you're flushed with shopping victory.

Everything is totally focused around food.

Which makes "dieting" healthfully really, really hard. 

No one is on the same diet, so to speak. When I'm talking about a diet, I'm talking about the food we, as humans, consume in order to survive. Not South Beach or Atkins or Weight Watchers. Add into the mix the fact that most of our food is being consumed outside of the home. So, we've got foods that don't mesh with our diets and we've got highly-processed, highly-refined, and filled with more sodium than we should be consuming in a week.

Great.

I'll be in my bedroom, making no noise at all and pretending I don't exist. {Thank you, Harry Potter, I use that quote all the time!}

No freakin' way. But I don't want to abandon my friends. That's what it would feel like, isn't it? Maybe I should just brown-bag it everywhere I go. That's what my sister does for LJ. But then again, LJ is only one and doesn't really need to be eating a gyro. 

Even if she really, really wants to.

I hate it when reason wins out.

*sigh*

I'll just have to make sure I explain to friends and family that I'm trying to change my spots and make a healthy stand on my food. Juicing is a great way to consume your daily vegetables and fruits, including my vitamins and minerals. Jason Vale, the best selling author of 7 lbs in 7 Days, founder of "Juice Master," and an addiction specialist, had the following to say about juicing: 

Juicing is important for two main reasons. People often say to me, well, why don’t, you know, why don’t we just eat it? That’s a good question, first of all. Why don’t we just eat it? We don’t. So that’s the first thing to address. The point is that most people don’t consume enough raw fruits and vegetables in a spectrum of colors. So that’s the number one. Secondly, most people are overfed and they are undernourished. And so their digestive system is beaten up over years and years and years of trying to digest, extract the nutrients, and dispose of the waste of the wrong kind of foods. Juicing is important as well because it’s easy to absorb. It’s the ultimate fast food. People say I want a fast food diet. Get juicing. Because, you know, if you think the average dinner will take anything from four to 16 hours to leave the stomach and the body try and digest it, freshly extracted juice is a 15-minute nutrient express to health. That’s what it is. It goes into your stomach, goes 15 minutes into your cells, and also, let’s be fair, you will consume far more raw, fresh vegetables, the kind of vegetables you wouldn't normally eat.

So can you imagine, you remove refined sugars, refined fats, junky-type foods, all the wheat, the breads, the man-made foods going into your body, and all of a sudden overnight you replace it with high water content – that’s what it is – pure high-water content organic rich mineral vitamin-rich fuel, going into every single cell of your body in the most easy-to-digest and absorb form and with a spectrum of colors, with everything the body requires, what do you think they body is going to do? It’s not going to reject this at all. It’s going to look and say, "No, I’m on board. Now you’re good to me? Let me shine for you."

It's said in such a nice accent, too. I'm a sucker for accents that aren't American. . . Anywho! That quote was given on the movie Hungry for a Change (about 57 minutes or so into it). It's brilliant. Go watch it on Netflix. 

My friends will support me, I'm sure. They'll giggle quite madly when I pull out my juicer in the back of my car, plug it in, and start going to town. But they'll pat me on the head and say, "good job. Way to Green-Bag it." Hopefully I'll someday be able to juice two glasses, one for them and one for me. 

Cheers!
LC

Moving On

Hey All!

It’s been about a week since my last post. I've been super busy! Don’t believe me?

I have moved.

Yes, it’s true! I, resident for 26 years at my previous home, have moved. It’s a cute little apartment and I have a roommate who I wasn't raised with. It’s weird, a little. I’m not sure about our upstairs neighbors, though. They make lots of noise. Well. I guess that’s to be said about everyone’s upstairs neighbors, right? I’m used to living in the country where all you had to worry about were the occasional gunshots in the far distance. Now, though. Now I have to worry about walking. How can people walk so loud?! I didn't know it was that possible to walk so hard on the floor. This isn't a problem, though, if I don’t have to sleep during the day.

Oh. Wait.

Yeah. Hello, Graveyard-er. How was your “night”?

My “night” was actually more of a nap. Which is not conducive to a brightly shining mind in the “morning.”

Other than the neighbor thing, I think I’m going to like it here.

Updated, 11/9/13: As a side note . . . neighbors aren't so bad -- I use a fan to block out most of the noise and I sleep quite soundly. It's the middle of the night, on my day's off, where I have the most problems . . . no internet, no Netflix, no Pinterest . . . Gah! Those nights are long . . . 

So. Moving on (hah! See what I did there?)!

Wednesday was busy! After getting off work, I took a nap until noon and then I went on a photography adventure with my sister’s sister-in-law, JH. She takes amazing pictures! I took pictures, of course. But you’ll not see them until I get them edited  And since I don’t have internet or cable at the new apartment, you’ll likely see something before the end of the year. ;)

After the photography, I went Trunk-or-Treating with my sister (J), her husband (B), and my baby-girl niece (LJ), who just turned one year old. My niece was a butterfly thingy, I think. She got to wear a tulle tutu and wings my sister picked up at Spirit. LJ was super adorable and totally rocked her “I’m quite adorable and you should let me rule the world” vibe. J rocked a poodle skirt and B went as . . . A band director. Yeah. He got off work and didn't really want to dress up so he wore his pep band shirt. I, on the other hand, decided about a half hour before they left that I wanted to go, too, and wanted to dress up as well! I decided to be a cat burglar, minus the ears and whiskers (since I don’t keep them in my makeup kit and all). I thought I pulled it off pretty good considering the short amount of prepping time I had. Off we went to T-or-T! I volunteered for trunk duty since this was their first Halloween as “real” trick-or-treaters. The kids started off with a BANG and didn't let up until there was no more candy to be found, except the ones I had dropped on the ground in my haste to make the munchkins leave me alone. Children in search of free candy can be vicious! And rude. And I swear, they think you’re dumb. Like they think, “Oh, I was just here two minutes ago. She won’t remember me!” and then they proceed to reappear. About five times. In about ten minutes. Yes, I understand this was to give them a nice, safe environment in which to collect candy. But geeze. “Please” and “thank you” are still in the dictionary. Come on, Monsters! All-in-all, it was fun and I would totally do it again next year. But I’ll be sure to have more candy and make sure to scare the crap out of those beasties so they can earn their candy. And that’s how another board was added to my Pinterest account . . .

Thursday was Halloween, of course. Since we live in the boonies, we didn’t have any trick-or-treaters. But J, my other sister, K, and I hosted a “Baby Halloween Party.”

Is it just me or is my family starting to sound like MIB agents?

I like it.

Anyway, back to the party! My friends NMS and TN came over with their adorable baby-faces, E and C. Both babies were dressed as Pebbles, from the Flintstones. Adorable!! I loved how their Mamas were super creative (and thrifty!) in their costume designs. Food and drinks were had by all and we watched the munchkins crawl, walk, and cry all over each other. At least there was no food fights. That’ll be next year, right? The day was going great until TN decided to ask J, “have you and B decided when you’ll start trying for another baby?” Innocent enough question, right? J looked at me. I looked at J. Just then, B walked through the front door and J turned to B and said, “You answer that question.”

J said this because she knew she couldn’t lie.

I knew she couldn’t lie. She couldn’t lie to me, two weeks previous.

They already tried.

And are now expecting June 9, 2014.

Which is why my sister can’t run a half marathon with me on June 14, 2014. Understandable, I suppose.

So. B answered and the women squealed and happiness was had by all. That night, J, B, and LJ went trick-or-treating at the homes and businesses of Grandparents and Great-Grandparents. She wore her butterfly outfit from the day before but instead of a white onesy, she had a black t-shirt with the words, “Big Sister” printed on the front. More squealing and happiness ensued (I wasn't there but I heard about it all later).

Friday was a lot of packing and moving stuff around. B took my twin bed (yes, I know, but it really is super comfortable!) to my apartment and we settled it in. I took a trip down to Shoreline to hang out with my good friend JD and have Indian food and go shopping for bookshelves. We were able to hang out (something we don’t get to do often but both really enjoy). She told me her boy problems while I listened and stuffed my face and we both squirrel watched. Even though it was cold. The Indian food was enough fuel to keep us warm, I assure you! After I dropped her off I drove back to the apartment and moved the bookshelves in. I set up one of them and decided to call it a night.

Since Friday, I have set up all three shelves, moved my hope chest (with the help of two great volunteers!) and nearly all of my totes into the apartment (and put them on the lovely new shelves), and have gotten nearly into a routine. And now, I get the privilege of working a 12-hour shift. This is a first for me. I've only ever done ten hours at a time so we’ll see how I fare.

Now for Pinterest and Netflix. The only thing left to console me on this, the longest night of the week.

Cheers!

LC