A gift

After a gray, rainy day, and sitting in rush hour traffic for an hour and a half, there are few things better than coming home to a care package tucked neatly under the doormat at your front door. Especially if the care package is a totally unexpected and unnecessary surprise from a good friend, and included three things that you specifically said you loved, wanted, or needed.

First, loved: Graham crackers. We were in the car one day, and Julia asked me to list my top five favorite foods. I couldn't. You may have noticed, but I'm not an enthusiastic eater. I don't really like a lot of foods, let alone "bad" foods that most people would list as their favorites. But graham crackers are the one snack over which anyone who knew me in my early 20's could attest that I have little control. I rarely buy them anymore for that reason, but once in a while will indulge myself with a box that will usually be gone in a few sittings.

For the record, I listed coffee and wine as two of my other favorite foods. I don't think I was able to come up with a four and five. Cheese, maybe, if I had thought of it. Yogurt? I'm really lame.

Wanted: a phone charger for my car. Would be nice not to worry about a low/dead battery in case of an accident. It looks like the charger will also work with my iPod as well, which is a nice bonus.

Needed: a new rubber case for my iPhone. Mine was torn along one side which, while still usable, compromised the safety of my phone, should I ever drop it. Which you know I do. I actually almost bought a new case at Target last week, but none of them were the right model, color, or price, so I passed. How cool is it for one to literally appear at my fingertips, in the exact color I wanted?

And how cool is it that Julia took note of and remembered all that? In this day and age, I feel like so few people really listen. Everyone skims and nods their head and takes back bits of the bigger picture, but details get forgotten if they were ever even absorbed to begin with. I do it, too. We're all so busy and distracted and not entirely engaged. This was such a welcome reminder of how good friendships can be.

This may well be the laziest post I've ever written

... but Cara has graciously recapped our weekend so I don't have to.

Oh, and in addition to Wanda Sykes, we also had a random Top Chef, Season 3 sighting. I didn't even watch that season, but he's so tall, there's no missing him.

My bathroom is done, kind of. The shower doors and tile look good, but the floor is a mess. It's uneven and sloppy and I'm the last person in the world who notices that sort of thing, but even I can see it's lazy, rushed work. They've already agreed to re-do it.

I've also mentioned before that my carpets are kind of a disaster. It took the workers leaving such a disgusting trail of plaster, drywall, and odds and ends that they were dragging in and out for me to finally do something about it. For $100 I bought a Hoover Steam Cleaner at Target, and spent an hour or so steaming the carpets on Saturday. And oh my, do they look good. I'm kicking myself for not doing this four years ago. Not to overstate things, but the entire feeling in my apartment has changed. Suddenly I am living in less of a crack shack and more of a modern-looking abode.

Or at least I will be until Linoleum Installation, Round 2.

Home improvement

After entertaining a house guest for six days and exercising my brains out for five of them, there was nothing I was looking forward to more than a long, hot shower in the privacy of my own home.

Mmm... Nothing says "relaxing" like bare bathroom foundation. Restoration Hardware should take note.

So naturally, yesterday would be the day that my bathroom was being remodeled, requiring me to take my next few showers at the gym.

I'm not, despite appearances, complaining about getting a new bathroom. Last week, my shower curtain rod collapsed, bringing a small chunk of wall down with it. After discussing with my landlord, she decided they should just install shower doors, and sent someone over to my apartment to take measurements. That's when they found that my tile and linoleum floor were so old they were a health hazard (awesome!) and decided to redo the whole thing.

The landlord told me the process would take all of Monday, but would be finished by Tuesday morning. The above photo was my bathroom Monday night. Tonight, things are bit further along, and I am told it will be finished tomorrow, but I am afraid to be optimistic. I am, however, thankful. Thankful that this did not take place while Julia was here. And thankful that my gym is actually a lovely place to take a shower. They offer free Kiehl's products in the locker rooms now. I passed some delightful quiet time in the steam room yesterday. The challenge is navigating through the busy morning rush, fighting for a hair dryer, and remembering to pack along everything I might need to get ready for the day. I almost forgot shoes to match my work outfit this morning.

But overall, I have little to complain about. Except that all this is making it very hard for me to ever move out of this apartment.

Working on my fitness

You know how most people go on vacation, or have guests come visit for a week, and their whole healthy lifestyle gets temporarily put on pause? Homecooked meals are forsaken in favor of restaurant dining, and exercise is all but thrown out of the window?

This has not been one of those weeks.

My high school friend Julia came to visit me this weekend. Well, she traveled here specifically for her cousin's bar mitzvah, but flew in a few days early to spend time with me. Julia is a triathlete, marathon runner, trail runner, and all-around exercise fiend. You thought I was dedicated to the gym? She wakes up at 5 AM to train every morning. In the cold/dark/rain/snow of west North Carolina. So nothing was getting put on pause this week, and in fact, my schedule has been set to Fast Forward.

She arrived Wednesday night, and we had a nice evening in, catching up over a bottle (or two) of wine. Thursday morning, we got up, made breakfast, then went to yoga, and then went on a hike. Friday morning, we got up, went to 8 AM pilates, and then went on a power walk around the neighborhood. This morning, we got up and went on a 7 AM walk, to fit in an hour of exercise before her cousin's event.

I am EXHAUSTED. In a good way.

My muscles ache mildly - not enough that I can't walk, but enough to let me know they have been challenged. My arms, legs, abs and ass feel tighter, even when I am lying, spent, face down on the floor. What's more, Julia - in a complete coincidence - has also been using the Lose It program, so we're both helping each other record every single calorie.

In between all of this activity, I've been accompanying her to some of the more informal family events, and generally running around town trying to fit everything in. I expect we'll go on one final walk tomorrow morning, before attending the farewell brunch on the beach, at which I will happily help myself to unlimited mimosas and possibly pass out in the sun. Not from being drunk, of course, but from sheer physical exhaustion.

Which, in the expected 75 degree weather, sounds like a perfect way to spend the day.

Rent-a-bachelor: rose ceremonies, Chris Harrison not required

I'll take a 5'10, blue-eyed creative type with a gym membership and full-time job for Valentine's Day, standing Saturday nights, plus assorted holidays and mandatory work functions.

Cheesy airline pilots need not apply. Brad Womack, of course, is welcome.

On the table: taking up tobogganing

I've been sicky/coldy/sneezy for the last half of this week, and now, after staying home from work yesterday and after two nights of 12+ hour sleep, I can't decide if I'm finally feeling better or just feeling the effects of my coffee's caffeine powering its way through my empty stomach.

A flatter-than-usual empty stomach, mind you. I do love being sick.

For the past two weeks, I have been kind of obsessed with this iPhone app called Lose It. You enter in your height, current weight, and how many pounds you want to lose over a period of time, and then it tells you how many calories you can eat, per day. You then enter everything you eat and how much you exercise, and the app calculates how many calories you have banked and how close you are to meeting your goal.

Like a good piece of technology, it has a lot of information pre-stored. So, for instance, you can enter that chicken drumstick you ordered at a restaurant and it will likely have calculated all the oil and fat that went into it. On the flip side, it has at least 50 different types of exercise, including my favorites like like running, walking, elliptical, and yoga; to sports activities like archery, badminton, baseball, and billiards; to the daily mundane calorie-burners like carpentry, gardening, house cleaning, and music playing. I always get a laugh when I scroll through these activities, as they include such random (to me) things as: Broomball (wtf?), Fencing, Hang Gliding, Jai Alai, Luge, Sexual Activity (!), Tobogganing, and my personal favorite, in case you are using this app in the mid-1980's, Slimnastics.

An hour of Slimnastics, by the way, burns 300 calories. An hour of sexual activity only burns 18. Possibly why people gain weight when they are in relationships.

The first week, I went over my daily calorie limit every day. Mostly because of wine/alcohol. That was okay with me, though, figuring I needed a week to see exactly where my calories were coming from before I could wrap my head around making changes. This past week, I have been under every day except one, though from Thursday on, that has been due to being sick. This coming week might be tough, as I have a friend from HS coming to stay with me, and I expect we'll go out to eat some and drink wine, some, but I know we'll also be exercising a lot as long as the weather holds up. Overall, I am only looking to lose five pounds or so, and it doesn't even really need to happen that immediately, but I have been the same weight and have had the same stomach/ass/hip issues for so long, I need a little help and reassurance that I can actually do something about them.

I bought my first pair of skinny jeans a few weeks ago. (Yes, I know - three+ years after they came back into style.) I fit into them and even look flattered by them; however I would just like to feel a bit more confident in them. I've never been one to care about the numbers on the scale as much as the numbers on my clothes - and those have pretty much remained consistent - but I think I could look just a little bit better.

I'm interested to see if/how much this changes my habits, or if I'll lose interest at the first sign that I can't change, at all. But, for now, it has been enlightening to see exactly what I'm putting into my body, and has made me feel like just maybe I have a little bit of control.