Sunday, December 22, 2013

Immune System Boosting Tea

I recently read an interesting quote.  "The flu is not a season!  It's an inability to adapt due to decreased sun exposure and water intake combined with increased sugar intake and stress!"  The best way to deal with "flu season" is to take build up your immune system.  How, you ask?  Get plenty of sleep, drink lots of water, eat healthy food, and exercise.  In my experience, it's really difficult to do all of these things in once day, or for an entire week.  Life gets in the way.  One thing I do religiously is drink tea.  I love to start my day with a cup of green tea, so lately I've been adding some extra ingreds to give my tea more immunity boosting power!
How do you get a job writing inspirational quotes on the tags of tea bags?  Talk about a dream job!

I start with one clove of crushed garlic which I put into the mug while I wait for my water to boil.  After I've added the hot water and the green tea, I add the juice of a quarter of a lemon, about a teaspoon of turmeric, and half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper.  
 It sort of tastes like an earthy soup.  Weird, I know.  But undeniably warm and comforting.  Seriously, you will become healthier just by reading the list of ingredients....  green tea, water, lemon juice, garlic, turmeric, cayenne pepper....  Mmmmm....

This is the first holiday season ever that I'm not traveling and I am hosting as well!  Staying in town is great, and there's not much work to be done so that gives me plenty of time to goof off.  I met some girlfriends this morning for brunch where I consumed too much sugar (in the form of champagne) so I will be drinking my flu-prevention tea tonight.  And tomorrow morning.  Stay healthy my friends!

Monday, December 9, 2013

I Survived Icemageddon

Happy Monday!  This may be the last time I say this, but I am thrilled this weekend is over.  And it was a long one.  It started Thursday with the weather reports telling us to expect the worst and for once, the meteorologists were right.  I made sure to get my errands out of the way (bank, gym, grocery store) so I could be home before the ice rain started.  No pretty fluffy snow flakes, just sleet and icy rain.  Thursday night was spent at home with the bf.  We were both looking forward to staying in and catching up on Netflix, and I had just bought a load of ingredients for some new recipes I've been dying to try.  Doesn't that sound delightful?  School closings for Friday had already been announced, so we looked forward to sleeping in a little and working from home together the next day.

We awoke around 7:30am on Friday morning to the sound of tree branches creaking and snapping.  Otherwise, the world was silent.  I got up to make tea and turn on the news for a weather update.  Roads around the city were completely iced over.  We weren't going anywhere.  I started to get a weary feeling in my stomach that this wasn't going to be good.  There were already reports of power outages.  By 8:30am, ours went out.  When this happens, you know a tree fell down and took some critical power lines with it.  It's not a simple fix- the outage has to be reported, and then you wait for the trucks to roll in and the heroes to get things up and running again. 

I know people in other parts of the country make fun of Texas for shutting down in winter weather, but this is what happens to us here!  This happened a few miles from our house.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

New York State of Mind

This weekend the bf and I took a little trip to NYC!  There were a lot of things going on there this weekend: the New York City Marathon, the Saints vs. Giants game, and your everyday general revelry.  We had a terrible time finding a reasonably priced hotel room for a Saturday night stay (nothing under $300), and as luck would have it, a friend of a friend needed a dog sitter that night, so we found ourselves in a fabulous Greenwich Village apartment hanging out with the cutest puggle named Levi!

Catching the sun rise on the plane... It was an early Saturday morning flight!

The bf and I have both been to NYC before, so this trip was about enjoying the fall weather and eating delicious food rather than running around to tourist destinations.  We enjoyed Greenwich immensely.  Saturday's highlights included:

A late lunch at Meme...

Friday, November 1, 2013

Surviving Halloween

Happy Dios De Los Muertos!  As I type this, I'm sitting in my kitchen having just scarfed down two breakfast tacos from Taco Joint and am making my way through my second cup of coffee.  I was a zombie yesterday.  And I'm a zombie this morning (which I guess is appropriate for DDLM).  But with no less makeup on my face/neck/arms/legs.  I'm still rocking dark circles under my eyes.  Oh Halloween, you're a harsh mistress. 

If you're strapped for cash and don't want to spend $40 on a Halloween costume, the zombie look is for you.  Just run over some old clothes with your car and slap some cheap white/black/gray makeup on your face and you're ready to go!

Yesterday started innocently enough: at work.  Buuuut there just happened to be a Bloody Mary and mimosa bar in an empty cubicle.  And Jell-O shots.  Lots of Jell-O shots.  I was proud of myself: I only had a Solo cup of champagne (filled up about a quarter of the way) and one Jell-O shot.  I should explain... The company I work for is big on celebrations and Halloween is the biggest.  Which is pretty awesome, albeit exhausting. 

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Land of Enchantment

I absolutely LOVE New Mexico.  My bf and I recently took a weekend trip to the southern part of the state, which I'd never visited before.  Last year my brother moved to Santa Fe to work at an art gallery there, so I advantageously visited him four times.  The food, the art, the breathtaking scenery, the afternoon storms that roll in...  It was heaven to me, but for my brother who was 24 at the time, it was boring, as the average age of a Santa Fe resident is 70.  He had some incredible opportunities to work with local artists such as Forrest Moses.  It's no wonder Santa Fe is  home to so many creatives.  The surroundings are inspiring and I believe there is something otherworldly that draws people to the Land of Enchantment.  Here are somethings I adore about Santa Fe.  Let's starting with the Great Outdoors.  On one visit, my mom, brother, and I hiked the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument...

Monday, October 21, 2013

Exploring OKC

This weekend I made the drive to Oklahoma City to hang out with family and attend my ten hear high school reunion.  (The bf got a pass since he was in conveniently in Denver for a bro weekend.) My high school career was... interesting.  Let's just say I enjoy grown-up life much more.  The reunion was a trip.  I'm in favor for calling it what it is: "Popular kids meet at the bar." 

I met a friend across the street at this dive for a pre-reunion drink.

The night started out just like my first day of high school, with my mom dropping me off and quickly taking a pic of me before anyone driving by could realize what a huge dork I am!
Even though I did not hang with the cool kids in high school, I had a surprisingly good time at the reunion.  Everyone was really nice and this time around I felt confident enough to talk to anyone.  I just asked them about their kids and then they did all the talking.  In my real life, most of my friends are not married and only two friends have kids.  These people have wasted no time making babies!  I was part of the 5% in attendance who were unmarried.  Which explains why a couple of the jocks were hitting on me towards the end of the night.  They were drawn to my unadorned wedding ring finger like moths to a flame.  I didn't take any pictures at the reunion because it's going to be another decade before I see these kids again and if I really need to look at any them there's always Facebook stalking.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Faux Comfort Food

To state the obvious, fall is here!  This is how I know:  #PSL.

I've never been a coffee drinker.  The taste of burnt dirt was never appealing to me in the past, but since I work from home I like to spend some time out of the house around other humans, and that inevitably brings me to coffee shops.  Recently I've started to acquire a taste for plain, black coffee.  It still takes willpower to not order a cafe mocha when I approach the counter, but I've been clean for months.  Today I visited a new (to me) coffee shop in my new-ish hood.  I saw "pumpkin chai" written on their chalkboard under "Specials" and I ordered it.  Not because of the pumpkin, but because of the chai- I was expecting some decaf earthy tasting tea (like the chai tea I have in my cupboard at home).  I realized my mistake when I took my first sip of the sweet, creamy concoction.  It was a pumpkin spice chai latte!  I accidentally ordered a PSL!  Ugh.  Now I have to tell you all the reasons I love fall...  Just kidding.  :)  Once the drink was in my hand, there was no turning back. I drank the whole thing.  All 354,782 calories.  And. it. was. so. good.  

Sunday, September 22, 2013

New Mexico Get Away

This weekend the bf and I made a quick trip to Southern New Mexico to spend some time outdoors.  (This city girl usually counts brunch on a patio as an outdoor activity.)  We left early Saturday morning and flew to El Paso, Texas, picked up our rental car, and made an hour drive to Las Cruces, New Mexico.  We stopped for breakfast in a cute little cafe called Josefina's Old Gate in the town square of Old Mesilla.  I was so hungry, I didn't even photograph my food.  For your viewing pleasure, here is a pic of the place, courtesy of the interwebs.

With our stomachs full (the "bowl of papas" is divine) we were ready for a hike, so we drove another half hour to Dripping Springs.  I read some good reviews on Trip Advisor about this place, but my boyfriend and I were both blown away by the beauty of it.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

That time I was a total sucker

Since we moved into our new house, we've been getting a ton of junk mail.  Like pounds of it.  Junk mail is one of my pet peeves.  A weird one, I know.  I can't believe companies spend money on direct mail pieces (my employer included)!  I spent a few minutes every morning this week calling companies and asking to be removed from their mailing list.  One of the pieces of junk mail I received (addressed to "Resident") was a shiny, colorful piece of card stock from a local car dealership telling me that I may have won a new car, $15,000 in cash, an iPad, or a Wal-Mart gift card.  Enticing, I know, especially the last prize.

I called their main line and simply asked to be removed from the mailing list.  Standard procedure.  Now, I have to give major props to the girl on the other line.  She asked which mailing piece I received, and I described it to her.  She then said, "Don't you want to claim your prize?"  Um, what?  She then proceeded to explain that if the number in the scratch off box matched the number printed on the paper, I was eligible for a prize, and to claim it I needed to make an appointment and come in.  I told her, Sorry, I'm not in the market for a car.  She said it's no problem, but I should come in and retrieve the prize that's rightfully mine.  I'm embarrassed to say that I made an appointment for 12:30pm that day.

I told my bf about this via text.  Surprisingly, he did not discourage me from going.  I would almost say, he encouraged me to go.  Probably so he could hear about how I awkwardly showed up at a car dealership demanding to be given the grand prize.  Well played, sir.

During my lunch break I drove to the car dealership on the other side of town through rush hour traffic, nervous that I'd look like a schmuck or a freeloader, or a wicked combination of both.  I arrived at the dealership and was welcomed by a super nice sales guy, whom I told, "I called to ask to be removed from your mailing list and the girl on the phone talked me into coming into claim my prize", as I proudly flashed the mailer to everyone in the show room.  "My appointment is at 12:30," I told him, thinking he'd bring me to a room behind a velvet rope where the prizes are kept alongside chilled bottles of champagne.  Instead, I sat down at his desk and he filled out a form with the info from my driver's license.  So now I'm probably on their permanent mailing list. Awesome.

"Now we'll walk over to The Board to see which prize you won!" he tells me, and parades me over to "The Board", which is in the back of the showroom, so everyone can laugh at the girl who came in to claim her prize.  I hate to admit that during this time I was thinking about all the house projects I could complete when I win the $15,000 grand prize.  I'm such a loser sometimes!

To win the good prize, the special number on your mailer has to match the number next to the picture of the pile of cash.  Mine didn't match that, or the new car, or the iPad... But EVERYONE is a winner at this dealership, so I won a Wal-Mart gift card in the amount of $5 to $25!  YEEE-HAW!

At the end of the day, I spent an hour of my time to drive to some obscure car dealership.  I came away with a Wal-Mart gift card and a purse full of business cards from the sales guy to pass out to friends.  The moral of the story: Direct mail really works!

Now I'm off to Wal-Mart to spend my gift card.  We're low on Funyuns.


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Shelves: Splurge or Save

I just loooove online shopping.  Not for clothes or shoes- I have to try everything on.  But for household items and gifts, it's the best.  The bf and I use Amazon Prime and it has saved us bundles of money on shipping.  Need a bed frame for the guest bedroom?  Shop around on Amazon and BAM!  Two days later it's at our doorstep.  In our new place I decided we had to have a pair of shelves flanking the TV in the living room.  I'm not a fan of traditional TV stands.  Our TV is now mounted on the wall above an antique sideboard we found at a thrift store.  I wanted some open shelves on either side to add some height to the wall and to display some chotchkies from our travels and our books.

I found these in the Pottery Barn catalog for $349 each...

After hunting around on Amazon, I found these for $62 each.

I'm sorry to say this is a teaser post.  Did you think I was going to show you how they actually look in our coral-colored living room?  Well, I'm sorry to say it's not ready for the big reveal just yet!  If I showed you what our living room looks like right now you'd think we're hoarders.  The moral of the story is: Amazon Prime is worth it (and no, I'm not affiliated with Amazon, although it would be awesome to get paid for saying that, if anyone at Amazon wants to throw a few bones my way after the fact).

I'll try to have some real house pics to share soon!  :)



Monday, September 9, 2013

Summer Scrapbook

It's Monday and I'm a little sad that the weekend is over... and so is summer.  As the smell of Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes fills the air (and pictures of said drink overload my Facebook and Instagram feeds), I start to get reminiscent of the summer that's passed.  Just for fun, here are some highlights of this summer of 2013!

We went to a beautiful wedding in La Jolla...

Followed by a gorgeous wedding in Oklahoma City...

We rode the mustache train to Fort Worth...

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Our New Hood

I took a walk this morning to check out our new neighborhood on foot, since I've only driven through it and haven't had time to pay much attention to my surroundings.  Maybe we should have done this before we bought the place?  I was pleasantly surprised at how nice our neighborhood is!  American flags, live oaks, and even a duck pond!  All we need is a white picket fence around our place and we're suddenly The Cleavers.




Does anyone else feel awkward and/or creepy walking the streets of a residential area without a dog or a stroller?  I ran into my neighbor and waved at her from a distance, and I could tell she didn't recognize me.  She was pushing her two kiddos in a stroller and I could see in her eyes we had that awkward "do I know you and what can I do to protect my kids from this stranger walking towards me" moment.  Maybe it's time for a dog??

Friday, September 6, 2013

Bachelorette in the Burbs

I feel guilty blogging about one friend's bachelorette weekend and skipping over another equally fun one, so it's time to play a little catch up.  One of my high school besties tied the knot in Oklahoma City in April, so a couple of weeks before her big day, her girlfriends from Dallas, Fort Worth, and Oklahoma City all met in neutral territory- Grapevine, Texas, Murica.  Isn't she a gorgeous bride?
If you're a North Texas local (or an Oklahoman, which is pretty much the same thing), you know Grapevine for the mall Grapevine Mills.  For high school kids in OKC, one of the really cool things you might get do on a special occasion was to take a weekend trip here.  I have literally come to this destination as a "vacation".  My parents tricked me into thinking this was fabulous.  Now, another thing this area is also locally famous for is its wineries.  (I didn't say the wine is good.  It's just wine.  No one's complaining.)  I don't know which came first for the city: the name or the vineyards. There's an annual wine festival (happening next weekend) and any time you can tour the wineries.

For this particular trip, our group stayed at the Gaylord Texan.  My first time to stay here was New Year's Eve in 2010, which was a solid good time.  The weekend started off with (what else?) a group dinner.  I was in it to win it this weekend, so when the majority of the group decided to call it an early night after dinner, we (the cool kids) had a little dance party in our room.
The next day we did normal things and had a Pinterest-style bridal shower in a suite at the hotel and played cheesy wedding games. 

Thursday, September 5, 2013

A Very Merry Wedding Weekend

It was a very merry (albeit short) wedding weekend in Copper, Colorado this Labor Day weekend.  After a hellacious day of travel on Friday which caused us to miss 50% of the weekend events we were going to attend, the other 50% was fab!  And yeah, it was worth the money spent and stress to see the world's best boss get hitched!  Here are some totally gorgeous pics of the bride and groom that I stole from a co-worker's Instagram account. 

Doesn't the background in the first pic look fake it's so perfect?  That was no green screen, folks!  The bride and everyone else rode a ski lift up into the mountain to get to that picture perfect spot.  It's so much easier to get on and off these things without a stupid snowboard hanging from my foot!

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Travel Style

Helloooooo down there!  I'm looking down at some beautiful "flyover states" right now as we head to another wedding.  This one's in a little Colorado mountain town so it's perfect timing.  We're looking forward to trading 100 degree temps for low sixties.  Do I sound like a country bumpkin or a really old person if I say it always blows my mind when I'm connected from 35,000 feet?  Our two hour flight is nearly over, and I've replied to multiple work emails and set up two contracts since I've been on the plane.  Crazy awesome.  (Crawsome?)  I wish I didn't  have any work to do so I could enjoy streaming live TV like my bf over here!  Kidding... he's sitting next to me closing deals too (after he caught an episode of 30 Rock)!

When Good Trips Go Bad

If you travel enough, you know (really, you expect) that every once in a while, a trip is going to go horribly wrong.  There are too many moving parts, too many uncontrollable variables in play, for every trip to go off without a hitch.  Let me tell ya about our journey to the Rockies yesterday...

First, I have the world's best boss.  I need to buy her that coffee mug... So when you get invited to her destination wedding, you go.  Yesterday sucked because basically, we left our house at 10:45am and arrived at our hotel in Copper, Colorado  twelve hours later.  To give you some perspective, the drive takes thirteen hours.  We flew into Denver International Airport (arriving on time), which is a very nice airport, but logistically, it's a beating getting from terminal C to ground transportation.  The rental car lots are all located off-site, so by the time your shuttle picks you up it's a fifteen minute ride to get there.  And on Friday afternoon (4:00pm to be precise) of a holiday weekend, you're gonna stand in a long line to get your car.  By the time we got ours it was close to 5:00pm and traffic was bad, to say the least.  Over four hours later, we completed the 100-mile trip to Copper.
At least the view (beyond the miles of cars) was nice!  The company wasn't bad either.  :)  I practiced taking selfies to pass the time, which I regretted this morning when my camera died.  And of course I didn't pack the charger.  Since our house is a wreck, I wouldn't have been able to find it if I tried.  (I apologize in advance for the crappy cell phone pictures I'm going to post later this week.)  Here's what ya get for now...

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Vegas, Baby!

Today I'm allowing my brain a little break from work (as in my job and house work) for a virtual Vegas vacation. I mentioned earlier this summer that 2013 is the year of the wedding.  In fact, we're going to one this weekend.  With weddings come showers, bachelor and bachelorette parties, bridal lunches, etc... Basically, there are lots of ways to spend money on celebrate the betrothed couple.  Before one of our couple-friends walked down the aisle in July, I attended the bride's Vegas bachelorette party in May.
I've been to Vegas too many times over the last seven years, and some of my favorite trips there have lasted only twenty-four hours.  IMHO, that is the perfect amount of time for Vegas.  This is not my old age talking.  I've felt this way since I was 22 and made my second trip to Sin City.  Now, there are many different ways to approach a Vegas vacation.  The agenda can be centered around gambling, dinner/shows, partying (day at the pool, night at the club), or general entertainment (indoor sky diving, roller coasters, bungee jumping).  You can keep it classy on the strip, or go ghetto old school in downtown.  I've done Vegas on the cheap, staying at a place called Terrible's Casino (the name says it all), eating at convenience stores and Fat Burger, and playing nickle slots.  This particular bachelorette trip was Vegas done right.  Five girls + one room at The Cosmopolitan + (???) bottles of bubbly = one epic weekend.  I'll break down our trip into the following categories: restaurants, pools, and clubs.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Working from Home

Two years and one month ago, I landed a sales job that requires me to work from home in my territory (Texas, excluding Houston).  The timing was perfect, as I had been "nomadic" until April of 2011, so I had a few months to settle into my place (at the time it was an enclosed porch of my friend's apartment) before I moved out of my cube.  It's funny to think that I spent over four years in this environment!  When this picture was taken I think I was on the brink of scurvy due to lack of sunlight.

When I interviewed for my current position, moving to a home office was the part that intimidated me the most.  Most of my co-workers also work virtually, so I've asked many of them how they do it.  Everyone's challenges and motivators are truly unique.  I don't think there is one formula that would help everyone adjust to this type of work environment.  In case any of you are like me (I'm ENFP according to the Myers & Briggs personality test), here are some best practices that have helped me be successful and not go crazy being alone most of the time (E stands for extrovert).