I love weekends.

This weekend I:

• Ate great food at Hightopps and got to watch Courtney Upshaw get drafted with a bunch of Ravens fans. It made me really happy and made me want football even more. Can't wait for it. 
• Met Reagan from Mix 106.5 while we were at Hightopps. He was sitting next to us the entire night and Shannon (who is a huge fan, haha) didn't realize it was him until right before we were about to leave. We got to talk to him for a bit - he was really nice! 
• Went to the Orioles game with Paul (as part of his birthday present from a few weeks ago)! It was 100x more fun than I expected and the O's did awesome. The worst part was the temperature but it wasn't even that bad. It was quite the adventure. 
• Walked in the March for the Animals with Paul and Sasha! I'm really, really, really glad we did it. Not only were there a ton of puppies, but Sasha was so good and well-behaved. I love her. She was exhausted on the way back. That 1.5 mile walk seemed like 15 miles to her...and me. I was pretty exhausted too. What does that say about me?
• Played trivia for the first time - thanks, Kyle! I've always wanted to. We came in last (whoopsies) but at least we tried, haha. It was everything I hoped for. Now I want to do more more more more more.

I love March for the Animals + puppies.

Everyone probably gets it by now if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or read my blog ever. I raised money for the Maryland SPCA March for the Animals the past few months with a few people at my work.
I was thrilled when my work suggested we be a part of the March for the Animals. To be honest, I've never really done any fundraising thing or anything like Relay for Life before and I think I'm glad the first one I ever got to do involved animals/dogs. Now I feel less intimated by the whole idea of these kinds of events and I want to do more because I love the idea of these kinds of things and things like that and things and things.
This morning was the walk, weeeeee. Paul joked that it would be like heaven for me but he was actually right. There were so many puppies. Puppies wearing jackets. Puppies wearing shark costumes. Puppies wearing Ravens jerseys. Puppies drinking water at little cute water stations. Puppies sniffing each other. Puppies walking so happy with their tails wagging. So cute so cute so cute. So many nice people with their nice puppies and did I mention the weather was nice? Because it was beautiful. Amazing day. 
    
Here are some pictures!

I love quotes.

"Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice." 

- Wayne Dyer

I love playoff hockey.

I call myself a bit of a poser (haven't used that word since middle school) when it comes to watching hockey/hockey in general. I don't really watch any games during the regular season - I'm actually kind of bored by them + I am kind of impatient. I just want someone to get a goal as soon as possible and it drives me nuts to watch them hit the puck around and it gets nowhere (usually).

But hockey becomes a completely different story in Lindsayland once playoff time comes around - but only if the Caps are involved. I love watching games and they're actually extremely exciting to me. I suppose it's because it's the playoffs and you're either moving on to the next round...or you're out forever and all the hard work you put into getting to the playoffs doesn't matter because you didn't win it all. Everything about the playoffs is exciting and awesome and scary. 


Here are my top five reasons for loving playoff hockey/hockey, in general:

1. Like I said, super exciting. I enjoy being able to scream at my TV. Playoff hockey gets me "pumped" (I can't think of a better word) enough to yell - when we win and when players are MFers.
2. I also enjoy being able to call other teams "bullies." This past series against the Bruins, the whole team wasn't "bullies" (hahaha), but CHARA WAS. Chara is a bully. BULLY. 
3. Mike Green. He's attractive. He's very nice to look at. And...he has my last name (we're not related, thankfully) so if I wanted to get Caps jersey, I could get his and the last name on the back would actually be real life.
4. Ovechkin is hilarious. Just looking at him makes me laugh. I appreciate him - just in general. Can I listen to him talk all day? I don't think I would understand a lot of it but it would be pretty funny.
5. When the Verizon Center is full of people wearing red, I just get so happy. It looks so cool. Yup. (I know what you're thinking...I should be a sports writer. I'm pretty good at this.)

I love weekends.

This weekend I:

• Listened to Paul do vocal warm-ups. Very entertaining and educational. I used to do vocal warm-ups in chorus class when I was a freshman in high school. They were the best part of that class. They're fun to do.
• Went on a joy ride and saw my future house. I'm going to live there when I win the lottery or somehow get handed $25 million by someone.
• Had a sleepover with my dog. I love her. I'm still in middle school apparently so I love sleepovers of all kinds. Even ones with my dog where she barks and whines in her sleep and wakes me up every 20 minutes. 
• Celebrated my dad's birthday - he's great. So was the dessert he picked for his birthday dessert. 
• Celebrated Paul's cousin's daughter's (phew, yeah) first birthday with a family-ish birthday party. Lots of cute lil kids and good food and seeing good/awesome people.
• Baked a cake for my boss's birthday :)
• Explored an abandoned "mall" in my hometown. Spoooooky.

I love healthy goals.

I go through phases with a lot of things.
I go through phases with food - like pretzels.
I go through phases with TV shows - like Jon and Kate + 8. 
I go through phases with celebrities - like Josh Harnett. He was so cute. He still is. But I just don't see him around that much anymore so I don't think of him that often/think about how cute he is that often. Same with JC Chasez. Why did I think he was cute? I don't know but I definitely had posters of him all over my wall (along with Justin Timberlake - but he's still cute). 

I definitely (very definitely) go through these phases where I am super into working out and eating good. They come like once a season. They always have. Or at least since I started college. So, about four times a year, I get on these little kicks where I'm like this (just imagine that I'm really pumped and yelling/screaming):

Running is SO FUN. RUNNING IS GREAT. THIS IS THE BEST. Running makes me feel AWESOME. I really LOVE EXERCISE. This salad is the best thing I'VE EVER EATEN. These celery sticks in peanut butter are SO BANGIN'. I just can't get ENOUGH. Apples for breakfast? Yes, PLEASE. GIVE ME. I don't need dessert. WHO NEEDS DESSERT? NOT ME.

Those kicks are super intense and last about...maybe...at the most...one week. And then I'm back to eating potato skins with cheese and bacon on them and stuffed-crust pizza and Reese cups as snacks and maybe even for breakfast. But in the moment, before breaking down and eating all of the chips ever, I really think that I could eat healthy and be healthy and run for the rest of my life and be content with it.
    
I guess what I am getting at is that I want to work at somehow making this NOT be a phase like everything else. The magic key to this not being a phase is realizing that I don't have to be so intense about it. I should just ease into and do the things that I like to do because I want to do it for my health, in general. 

Running really is nice. Eating healthy is nice. Losing the poundy pounds (the cute way of saying 'chubs') that I gained over this past winter so that I can feel more confident in my shorts and dresses would definitely be nice. 

My goal for the rest of spring is to run 3x a week and eat as healthy as I can but not go overboard.  If I can keep it up after spring, that would be great too! I really think I can do it.  I'll keep everyone updated - if you guys care. If you don't, you can just read over those updates. Sound good? Okay, good.

I love Pottermore.

I don't really get it (completely), honestly, but Pottermore finally - it seems like it's been a year or two since they announced it - started letting lots of people in to start playing. Is that the right verb? I'm not even sure! Probably.
Anyways, Shannon has been playing it and here are some hilarious things she says to me about it via Facebook chat and Voxer:

• I'm afraid my battery is going to die before my potion is done brewing.
• I can't do that potion. It's too hard. It keeps saying I can't keep the temperature in range. And I keep wasting [mistletoe] berries trying to do so. 
• Hahaha another stupid Slytherin b!@# is challenging me, just beat her twice.
• I scream when I'm casting a spell and I hit the wrong key. 
• Oh my god, that thing I just knocked over cost 7 galleons.
• What the f@!#. The unicorn horn costs 21 galleons. Mother f!@#.
• I was making a potion earlier and I knocked over this liquid and I yelled "MOTHER S!@#!"
• There's a part of the book where I found unicorn blood. And there's a dead unicorn in the back so I thought I could get his horn.
• Be back in a minute....I'm gonna make herbicide. I have successfully brewed herbicide and have been awarded 9 points for this achievement.

I'm seriously laughing out loud as I type/read those. Seriously, it is so hilarious to me. I hope someone else finds these funny. I can't get over how ridiculous she sounds.

She talked me into make a Pottermore account. I have yet to mess around on it but check out my name. I love it. Everything is so funny.

I love being lazy.

I have really been slacking this week. Really slacking. 

1. I planned on going running tonight. Didn't do that. Instead, I'm laying on my bed and I just finished eating a handful of potato chips. I also had pancakes and two muffins for dinner. I'm judging myself. 
2. One of my goals for April was to blog 3 times a week. This will technically be my second post this week and it's only Wednesday but it's not a real post. It's just showing everyone how lazy I am! 
3. I was going to bake tonight (before/after running) and then I was going to bring in some goodies for my coworkers. Didn't do that. Too lazy to even think of/find something to make.
4. Yesterday night, I complained to Shannon about how I didn't want to go to put gas in my car. The gas station is only 2 minutes away. I just didn't want to get off of my bed. Lazy. I also was too lazy to get up and turn on my TV before Glee came on. I made her do it for me, haha.
5. I need to get my bangs trimmed...bad. I need to make an appointment to get them trimmed...bad. I could easily call them now and make an appointment for Saturday but...I'm lazy so I told Siri to remind me to make an appointment when I get home from work. (To be honest, part of the reason why I told Siri to remind me is because I wanted to do what everyone does on the iPhone commercials when they tell her to remind them to do things and she responds by saying "Here is your reminder for ______ at ____. Shall I create it?" Ugh, I love Siri.) 

So there you have it, everyone. Just a few examples of my laziness and slacking-ness this week. To be honest, I had a rough beginning of the week - I was grumpy Monday and Tuesday and kind of down - so that is partially an excuse for my laziness. Maybe I'm not even that lazy. I'm just not as productive as I usually am.

GOOD NEWS, though. I'm beginning to feel happier and more productive already so let's hope that this carries over into tomorrow and the rest of my week! 

Speaking of how much I love Siri and her making reminders for me...I asked her to remind me to brush my teeth at 8:00pm tonight. I don't really need to brush my teeth then. I just wanted to make a reminder. Check it out. She really did remind me to do it at 8:00pm. Siri is the best thing that ever happened to me and my bad memory. I'm excited about this. I'll never forget anything ever again (as long as I remember to tell Siri to remind me).

I love weekends.

 

This weekend I:

• Ate a ton of strawberries. I didn't want them to go bad...so I ate almost two boxes in one sitting. Totally normal, right? Right. Correct. I'm normal.
• Had the longest conversation ever with the woman who was putting helium in the balloons I was buying. We talked about her grandchildren. It was actually pretty interesting. Last time I saw her, she told me that people die all at the time from inhaling helium. Pleasant. 
• SAW THE HUNGER GAMES. Oh, man. Ohhhhh, man. Peeta. He's so cute. What a good movie. Now I can't wait to see the second one and the third one. Katniss is so COOL. I want to be that COOL.
• Celebrated Paul's birthday! Weeeee triple dippers from Chili's foreverrrr.
• Watched the Caps win! Yaaay! And the Penguins lose! Yaaay!

I love Paul's birthday!

Paul's birthday was yesterday. Happy (late) birthday, Paul!
   
For part of his present, I did a mini-photoshoot with Sasha (shot by Catie - thanks, girl!) because I had bought a two-picture picture frame for his desk at work. Obviously, his #1 girlfriend (Sasha) and #2 girlfriend (me) belong on his desk so he can stare at us all day. 
Here are some of the pictures because they're hilarious to me:

Both of us are really cute in this one - one of us may be a little cuter than the other (probably not me - just look at my face and look at Sasha's eye).

 She let me hold her like a baby - this is so rare. It took a lot of wiggling from her and a lot of her hating me to get a picture of like this. But I'm really happy it exists because like I said - it's so rare that she'll let me do this! She has no problem doing this for Paul, though. She loves him more than she loves me and I'm her sister.

Typical life. Me trying to get her attention and her not caring/looking away. Sums up our relationship most of the time.

This one. This one is just this one. Nothing to say about this one.

I think these turned out awesome, hahahaha. I want to put some on my desk at work too but would that be weird? 

I love (birthday) lists.

I'm turning the big two-three (23) in less than a month! I love birthdays (I don't dread mine yet - that'll be 25, I think) and  I love making lists and I love wanting everything ever so I figured this was a good time to list out all of the things I'd like for my birthday. Everyone can buy me something but no pressure or anything.

1. This Remington Curling Wand. I've wanted it for a few months now. My cousins came up from North Carolina in the fall and my cousin Kimmy curled my hair for Thanksgiving with this wand. I was so in love. I can't justify spending $25 on it even though I would use it all the time. 

2. Nike Revolution sneakers. Look at them. So pretty. I haven't had a pair of sneakers (besides my running shoes) in a long time - partially because I'm so picky! These are winners. I stare at them all the time on Zappos. 

3. Okay, this is $800 but still. I got to mess with a Canon similar to this one in my photography class that I had to take last summer. So so so dreamy. I'm apparently without a camera (I've been borrowing my mother's - life. - and now I have to give it back! What am I going to do?) moving forward so this is me pleading to everyone to put their money together and buy this for me. I definitely forgot to mention this little guy in my lottery post. I'd definitely buy this guy if I had $640+ million dollars lying around. 

4. This PowerShot would work fine too! It's a teeny tiny bit cheaper. Just saying.

5. It's not often that I'll laugh so hard that I cry (or that I'll pee my pants, hahaha). But trust me (you can ask Shannon), when I read this book, I go f'ing crazy. I need this book for any bad days I'm going to have. It would definitely make me feel 100% better. Too hilarious. I'm laughing just thinking about the things that are in this book. 

6. I want go to to Georgetown Cupcake. Badly. So badly. Very badly. Badly badly badly. 

7. This Coupons Receiptables from Knock Knock would make my weekly grocery and Target trips a lot easier! So many coupons and so much disorganization right now. 

I love quotes.

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." 
- Winston Churchill

I love Easter.

To be completely honest, Easter isn't my favorite holiday. I think what I love about it is that its a sign of spring (finally) being here and there's pastel colors everywhere and I love it.

I also love the ideas of holidays, in general, so I try to make them as special as I possibly can by doing things that are very Easter-y, Christmas-y, 4th of July-y, etc.

This Easter I:

• Made Bunny Bait. I thought it turned out pretty amazing. I didn't use any pretzels because I didn't have the right kind but it's fine without them, I think! Sasha loved it (see pictures below, hahaha).
• Did an Easter egg hunt in my backyard with my 7-year old sister, Brooke. I've been wanting to do one for a few years now but I use to work the 6am-1pm shift at Panera every Easter before now so I never got to! I'm glad I got to this year :)
• Ate great homemade mac and cheese...and cheesecake. I've been trying to eat "good" but when that kind of stuff is in front of my face AND it's a holiday (aka an excuse to eat "badly"), I can't resist it.
• Spent time with my family and with Paul's family. Paul's family is pretty awesome. I like hanging out with them...a lot. Most of his family "gets it." 

I love weekends.

This weekend I:

• Drank Natty Boh for the first time ever. This is worth noting because it's the second weekend in a row that I drank beer. So rare so rareeee. 
• Shopped with the crazy moms at Target on Saturday (the day before Easter). So many people. So many crazy moms last minute Easter shopping. So much anxiety when you enter the Easter section in the back. Carts hitting each other and moms staring at walls of candy. It was fun, though.  
• Finished birthday gift shopping for Paul. This is actually pretty late/too close for comfort for me. I'm excited and happy to be done! I love birthdays.
• Was pumped that the O's won THRICE (or three times) and the Caps won! Yaaaay sports!
• Got Starbucks with my long, lost friend Amanda that I don't get to see often. It's awesome when I do get to see her. Fun, fun, fun, fun. 
• Went to Kmart...twice. This is worth noting because I NEVER go in there. It depresses me...a lot. But I went two times this weekend - so crazy! RIGHT, YOU GUYS? My life is exciting! 

I love pretty iPhone cases.

It's true. It's so true. I'm finally becoming like everyone else and getting an iPhone. I'm lucky enough to have my birthday be around the same time of when my BlackBerry contract ends so I get an iPhone for free (as a gift). 
I'm excited.
Really excited. 
I've waited all of my life for this.
My BlackBerry has been so...not fun. It was fun in the beginning and then as time went on, it broke and broke and broke and broke and got replaced and replaced and sucked and was lame and sometimes was cool.

Yaaay for getting an iPhone. You know what that means...the time has come for me to buy a pretty case to put on it so that it doesn't break because I'm not going to be getting insurance on it! Yaaaaay. Which one will I get? Who knows? I'll decide later - they're all so cute.

1. Red (or is it pink? or is it orange? Or it is red-orange-pink?) polka dot case from NapPage on Etsy.

2. Vertical stripes (oooh cool) in different shades of teal/coral/green-blue from incase. 

3. Colorful, pretty circles overlapping each other on a pretty, white background also from NapPage on Etsy.

4. Yellow and chevron bright, bright, bright case from redtilestudio on Etsy.

I love Nutella-filled sugar cookies.

I always find recipes for baked goodies that have the potential to be an extremely huge mess when I am making them. I'm drawn to these types of recipes/goodies even though it doesn't make sense. I get so anxious and frustrated and messy and have fingers that are sticky that I have to wash every two seconds. 

Of course when I saw a recipe for Nutella-filled sugar cookies, I instantly felt the need to bake them as soon as possible. After making these, I'm come to the conclusion that it seems like anything (cookie, etc.) filled with something else (Oreos, Nutella, etc.) in baking means a hot mess is going to be made. Flour EVERYWHERE. Dough EVERYWHERE. Sugary, sticky counters EVERYWHERE. 

Anyways, the messy life that these cookies caused was definitely worth it. Cookies + Nutella = always a good idea. I think it's hard to please everyone when it comes to baking things in my house sometimes. Everyone has different tastes and likes different things. But I'm pretty sure everyone on the planet loves Nutella and who doesn't like sugar cookies? Exactly. 

Side note: it seems like every cookie recipe that I follow never calls for enough flour. Or maybe I'm just crazy. I always end up adding, at least, 1/2 cup more than it says to use because my dough is just slimy (gross word, I know. I'm sorry, you guys). Does anyone else feel this way? That's a rhetorical question, I guess. I don't expect anyone to answer it. I just feel crazy and I think maybe that my obsession with adding too much flour to my cookie dough makes sense as to why I feel the need to flour bomb the people I can't stand. That's all. 

I love weekends.

This weekend I:

• Had my first beer(s) in a looooong time at Pub Dog in Columbia. It was called Raspberry Dog so obviously I thought it was going to be awesome (raspberries are good and dogs are awesome, so...). Anyways, it was pretty alright. Drinking beer this weekend reminded me why I stopped drinking beer years ago, haha. I'll stick with my wine and margaritas. 
• Didn't win the lottery. Ooohhh maaaaannn.
• Went to Target with Catie and had to be evacuated out of the store for 20+ minutes because someone smelled smoke. I had straightened, then curled, then straightened (again) my hair earlier that day. I joked that someone just smelled my hair and thought it was smoke/something burning - because my hair smelled bad/like burnt hair, haha. Mmmm.
• Surprised JD for his birthday! Shout out to Lindsey for planning such a cute/great surprise party! It was really fun! I love the Velaro crew + their girlfriends. Also, the candles for the cheesecake (see above) were lit a little too early as we waited for JD to show up so they melted into it. Hilarious.
• Tried vodka gummy bears for the first time at the surprise party. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm obsessed with gummy bears. They were everything I always dreamed they would be.
• Baked Nutella-filled sugar cookies - I'll post on that later this week. Yummy.

I love(d) March.

March March March. In March, I:

• ate 6 too many bear claws from Panera. I don't regret it, though. They're amazing.
• learned how to play one song on guitar - thanks to Paul :) and me finally having enough patience with myself.
• was f'ed up about Pretty Little Liars for days after the season finale. I had several nightmares about Mona being in my room/trying to kill me. This is my life.
• didn't watch enough college basketball. I wish I had watched more!
• had to leave my parking garage in the city because there was a car on fire - what?
• saw lots of cute puppies walking the streets of Mt. Vernon because it was so nice out.
• made friends with lots of babies at Target.
• got to wear a dress without tights for the first time this year! 
• raised $220 for the Maryland SPCA March for the Animals. I'm $30 away from my goal!  Please donate right HERE. :) Time is running out!
• went to friends' apartments and saw great views of Towson (see above) and Canton.

It was a good one! I'm happy it's officially spring. Now, all I need to do is get a pair of rain boots so I can be prepared for all of the rainy April days ahead!