I love planning surprise parties.

As recent as when I was a junior in college, I thought I wanted to be a party planner. I liked planning small get togethers and minor surprise parties then. I liked using my planner. I thought it made perfect sense. 

Flash forward to July of this year at about three in the afternoon on Saturday. I'm sweating in my tank top and shorts. I'm anxious and can't blink because what if I miss some small detail. I'm so irritable and worried about the surprise party for my mom's 50th birthday not going off without a hitch that when Paul tried to hug me in the midst of putting up decorations and straightening the chip bowl for the tenth time, I said "DO NOT TOUCH ME." 

Yup, that's my life now. A few years after saying in my public speaking class at Stevenson that I wanted to be a party planner and there I was having a meltdown 30 minutes before my mom was going to come home from her hiking adventure with her friend, Jody, and worrying about ridiculous things like: What if she isn't surprised? What if she hates this? What if she's mad she's coming back from hiking all sweaty and she walks in to 15+ friends, family, and neighbors who want to eat food with her and drink sangria? What if there's not enough people here? 
Uh, yeah, nope. I wouldn't have worked in the party planning world. I'm too big of a worry wart and a perfectionist. 

The good news is -- despite all of my anxiousness and worrying, the party was even more awesome than I could have hoped for! I had a lot of help from my dad (who had the idea for a surprise 50th birthday party in the first place), my sisters, Shannon, Paul and everyone else that came from near and far to make it to the party. 

My mom was surprised and seemed (and I think she actually was - right, mom?) happy! She didn't hate it, wasn't mad about the hiking sweatiness she had in front of everyone, and was happy to drink and eat food with everyone. Not sure why I expected her not to want to eat and drink, however. 
Naturally, the cake pops I made the night before at Shannon's were a hit - which tends to be the case when cake pops are around and despite my worrying that we wouldn't have enough food -- almost all the food was gone by the end of the evening. And yeah, at the end of the evening, I realized that maybe I do like party planning. Maybe it is a rush for me, my worst, horrific, and most anxiety-filled nightmare, and then a really good pay off at the end. 
I'll still volunteer and want to plan parties in the future. I'll have fun buying the food and the decorations and inviting all of the people. And if anyone wants to see a girl melting down the day of that same party because what if the cupcakes don't look just right or what if the one person that couldn't make it to the party ruins the whole thing -- you can count on me. I'm your girl. 
Oh, and happiest belated 50th birthday to my mom! 

I love (and terribly miss) Disney World (so here are some pics from my trip last month).

I love Mother's Day: Etsy Gift Guide Edition.

Obviously, the card is one of the most important parts of your Mother's Day gift. It's the first thing she opens so it's gotta be heartfelt and make her want to cry a little. Unless you're me. Then you want to buy her a card that makes her smile but isn't too cheesy. I think this card definitely does the trick and at least makes her feel like I'm implying that she can be considered awesome. 

Mugs are always, always, always a safe bet for moms. All moms drink coffee or at least...right? If not, hopefully this mug is cute enough to make your mom want to start drinking coffee/tea. You could fill this with candy (my signature gift for anyone - all gifts have to somehow include candy of some kind) or a gift card! 

If your mom is like mine, she likes (a lot of) rum and she pretends she doesn't like sweets and says they're "too much" for her. I highly doubt she would be able to say "no" to these. They're Captain Morgan whoopie pies! 

Moms love decorative pillows, right? I feel like that's what advertising has told me. This one is perfect and timeless and true! If I'm being completely honest, I'm hoping my future children somehow find my blog on the internet and buy me this pillow for Mother's Day.

I am 98% positive that the only people that truly, really care about whether or not people use coasters are moms. I'm also 98% positive that most moms actually are superheroes. So these cute, colorful, fun coasters are a 98% win and great for summer! 

And to use on those coasters (see above), moms who like the O's and the Ravens obviously need these stemless wine glasses to get their drink on this summer. I'd suggest buying a bottle or two of wine to go with these with some flowers and you're set! Again - pssssssst -future children who are reading this, I want these. 

Just like mugs, candles are always a good gift for moms, in my opinion. As long as they're cute and unique and smell good. Bears, honey, and hugs are also great gifts. I imagine this cute little Bear Hug candle smells amazing! Mmmm.

Another good treat (for anyone but specifically moms) -- chocolate peanut butter cupcakes in jars. Moms need chocolate at all times and this is 100x better than a box of chocolates from the grocery store. So Pinterest of you to make cupcakes in jars. These really look like you made them. But you didn't. Someone on Etsy did and charged you a little bit more than necessary but it's so worth it. 

I love the Color Run + weekends + my dad's birthday.

HIIII. I feel like all of my blog posts in 2014 start off with me saying "LONG TIME NO SEE" or something along those lines. And if they don't, it's because I feel like I'm always saying it on here. But really - long time no see. 

To be real, I haven't been in the best of moods lately. I'm not in a bad mood, I'm just not feeling 100% Lindsay. And because of that, I've been neglecting this. But, here I am! I had a good weekend and am feeling pretty Lindsay-like so I'm back and hopefully back for good! Ayooooo. 

This weekend I ran (eh...mostly walked) the Color Run with Shannon, Catie, and Natosha. It was hard waking up 6:45am on a Saturday but do what you gotta do to make sure you can get some Starbucks and a crossiant before speeding to the Color Run because you're super anxious about parking and not making it there before 9am when the first waves start the run. Great news though: we got there at the perfect time and were one of the first waves! Like I said, we mostly walked -- and by that I mean, we only jogged a few times: through the color stations and then again at the end to make it seem like we jogged/ran the whole thing. We are maybe posers for running at the end like that. I like to think we got to enjoy the course more than anyone who ran because we walked! 
The finish line "party" was a great time and everything but the weather and being able to be near the stadiums (ugh, dreamy M&T -- heart eyes) and hanging with my BFF and sister and Natosha were the best parts. I miss it already! 
It won't be too long until the next little fun run, though. Shannon, her cousins (who I love - hi!) and I are running the Electric Run in July. Excited for that :)

Easter was also obviously this weekend BUT it was also my dad's birthday! 
We're not a super religious family so Easter doesn't mean going to church or doing anything tradition-wise at my house. It normally means I have to be punished by hearing we're having ham for dinner (ham is not one of my favorite meats -- ick!) and just hang out with my family for half of the day and Paul's family for the other half. 
However, today was a bit different with it being my dad's birthday. Lots of Easter candy, dessert, playing outside, present opening and pictures on the deck. As an almost-25 year old adult person, I still get pumped on Easter baskets. Living at home has its perks - thanks, Easter Bunny! Paul surprised me with Easter treats too (Mr. Nice Guy) and I got to try the Summer Honey Wheat Blue Moon (heart eyes again). Wound up being a pretty great day!

Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this whole blogging thing again. I have plans to try a few new cookie and brownie recipes in the next few weeks so I'll post those on here! With my 25th birthday in a week and a half, I am trying to come up with a year-long fully-pre-planned Happiness Project especially for my 25th year of life which I will also be posting on here for all to read. Fingers crossed I can have enough brain power and energy this week to get something going with that!

I love these things lately.

Lately, I love:
March for the Animals! It's the time of year again. The time of year where I beg anyone and everyone to donate and help me reach my goal of raising $500.00 for the Maryland SPCA because Sasha and I will be walking in the annual March for the Animals in April! That being said -- here's the link to my page. Please, please, please, please consider helping me out with this. It is so worth it. Your money really, truly does make a difference: 
     $11 pays for one feline leukemia test
     $25 vaccinates 20 dogs for kennel cough
     $43 provides flea treatment + heartworm protection for a dog
     $300 pays for an animal's vaccinations, food, and care at their shelter until it's adopted
The Man by Aloe Blacc. I have a thing with associating certain songs to certain times in my life. Last year, I associated Clique and Hall of Fame with the Ravens SuperBowl run so whenever I hear those songs, I get extremely overwhelmingly happy. Even though I despise Colin Kaepernick, the Beats by Dre commercial with Kap in it came on so much during the end of the football season when I was feeling really sentimental about football and guess what song is in that commercial? The Man by Aloe Blacc. I bought the song and have played it basically nonstop on my way to-and-from places for the past month. I am so in love. It's so good. It makes me feel happy like it's still football season and momentarily makes me forget that it's only barely mid-February/still winter/going to snow every day for the rest of my life/I'm never going to be able to open my car windows ever again.
Greeting cards from Target. Yeah. Give me all of them.
Sharpie ultra-fine permanent markers. Yup. Only want to write in them.
HGTV. Really been into House Hunters and Love It or List It lately. I'm not sure how I didn't get addicted to these kinds of shows sooner. If the Bachelor or Pretty Little Liars aren't on TV, I immediately turn to HGTV. I've even got Paul into liking these shows. I really do feel like I have a keeper with him - he likes The Bachelor/Bachelorette annnnd HGTV? Really feel pretty lucky. He's also got a girlfriend who actually enjoys sports of all kinds (with the exception of golf #snoozefest) so I hope he considers himself lucky too, haha.
Dove chocolates that have peanut butter inside of them. Ya. Had them for breakfast Sunday.
ModCloth and their customer service. Not only has ModCloth.com been on point for me the past week or so, they also have amazing customer service. When I got home from work last week, I got a package from ModCloth -- it had my itemized list of things I bought and some stuff inside the box...that I didn't order. Some weirdo tights and some other strange clothes that I didn't even bother to bring out. I knew it wasn't mine the moment that I didn't spot the shirt with dogs on it that I bought. I was confused on how to return/exchange the things I didn't buy for the things I did buy (because what a strange thing to happen) so I decided to live-chat with someone at ModCloth to figure it out and it was the best experience ever, haha. The woman I talked with was so nice and so helpful and got it all sorted out in the matter of 5 minutes. I am forever impressed with great customer service. Now I love ModCloth even more. Even when they mess up, I love them.

I love life lately.

celebrating Nick's birthday with a surprise party thrown by Shannon that was really great and had Chick Fil A and good times and arguments about the Ravens. I'm sorry. I can't be tamed.

making cupcakes with Catie around and realizing that you can dip cupcakes in sprinkles if trying to sprinkle them on top of the cupcakes isn't working. Catie is a baking genius - WHO KNEW? 

looking at ModCloth 3x a day trying to find something to buy but I don't like anything enough to purchase anything #roughlife #feelbadforme

drinking hot lemon water every morning - it's refreshing and apparently great for you so just doing that to try to counteract the pizza and cookies I'm eating for lunch

listening to One Direction non-stop to-and-from anywhere I drive and humming them forever at work 

trying hard to memorize my expiration date for my new debit card so I can become a pro at online shopping once again without having to look at my card

wearing exclusively leggings or jeggings on the weekend because I'm sick of wearing jeans but I have to during the week for work and also I'm an adult I make my own decisions so yolo
obsessing over my new camera that I am in love with and want to cuddle with all day but when I'm not cuddling I want to be using it to take pictures of Sasha
wishing I could commit more to my Happiness Project. February is going to be my month, OKAY?

I love December Resolutions.

My first month of my Happiness Project went pretty well! Most days I felt really good after checking off that I had followed all of my resolutions but some days, I really didn't stick with my resolutions and it made me a bit unhappy with myself which is the opposite of what I'm trying to do. I realized I have a lot to work on when it comes to seeing things in a positive light instead of jumping to "I SUCK I CAN'T BELIEVE I DIDN'T RUN OR MAKE AN EFFORT TO NOT EAT A LOT OF CANDY TODAY." That being said, December's resolutions focus on trying to be more positive -- which is something I already knew I had to work on. 
Obviously, once November has come and gone, it doesn't make sense to just forget about those resolutions and just move on to a new set. So, in addition to this month's resolutions, I will also be sticking with November's as well. 

Here's a mini-recap of my November Resolutions:

1. Go for a run or do a 20-minute workout routine 
Not making excuses (or maybe I am) but November got pretty busy toward the middle and end of the month which actually made it really hard to fit in a run or a workout. The good news is it's on my radar now that I can go for a run instead of pin on Pinterest and I've been running more frequently. Running makes me happy - even if I dread it and Pinterest sounds more fun at the time - and remembering that will hopefully keep me running more often/whenever I can.
2. Stick with Weight Watchers
Thanksgiving week made life really hard and I got extremely off track. The rest of the month was easy. In addition to Weight Watchers, I started participating in a fun, little weight-loss challenge called Diet Bet (here's how it works). I started the first week in November and it ends this coming week on December 6th. It pushes me to stick with Weight Watchers and eating right even more -- but makes it fun to do it. Also, money. 
3. Walk + talk 
I got pretty cray and bought a $1.99 pedometer app for my iPhone called "Moves" and it has made me addicted to walking (or as I like to say "stepping"). It's pretty ridiculous but apparently you should walk 10,000 steps a day if you want to be considered "active" -- oh and I want to be considered active. The most I've walked is around 4,000 and that was a lot of walking so every day I try to walk as much as possible so I can beat my "All-Time Record." That's life. 

4. Say no to sugar
This gets easier as time goes on. Sometimes I just want a mini Crunch bar with breakfast though. I'll never be able to say no to sugar forever. It's all about portion sizes for me. 

December's Resolutions:
1. Think of the good that will come out of it -- even if there doesn't seem to be any good at all. This is especially important for me to do at work. 
2. When in doubt, say something positive -- I sometimes have this fight in my mind, especially within the last few months, where I know that I could say something positive but what comes out of my mouth is something negative. I want to make the effort to say something positive when I feel like I definitely have the choice to be positive or negative and hopefully it will become a habit (like it used to be for me).
3. Smile, smile, smile -- I've heard/read in several articles that just the act of smiling, even when you're alone (creepy, I know) or there's no reason to at that current moment, can make you feel positive and happy. I try to do it in the car sometimes when I can feel my road rage getting out of control and it really does help so I want to do this more often - especially in situations that I consider to be "negative."
4. Truly compliment someone else (and myself) -- something else I've had to fight in the last few months is the urge to say something negative about someone/something or insult them. It started happening by default when I was struggling in September and October of this year and that's really not who I am. In an attempt to get back to positivity, I'm going to make the effort to truly (not a forced one) compliment anyone/something/someone on a daily basis. I say "(and myself)" because as I talked about in my first Happiness Project blogpost, I'm not very fond of myself sometimes. I think in addition to complimenting those around me, I need to also take the time to compliment myself. 
5. Read at least one positive quote a day -- I've always been a fan of quotes in my "adult life." Whenever I'm feeling especially icky or mad, I'll Google "positive quotes about ______." Then I read a few and it will usually bring me back to feeling pretty decent. Cheesy, right? That being said, I think it would be helpful for me to read quotes that make me feel good on a daily basis, instead of just when I'm not feeling great. Super cheesy on a daily basis. I think it'd be fun to keep some sort of journal or Google doc (I'm addicted to Google docs) with all of my favorite quotes! 

I love happiness projects + November Resolutions.

“When I thought about why I was sometimes reluctant to push myself, I realized that it was because I was afraid of failure - but in order to have more success, I needed to be willing to accept more failure.” - Gretchin Rubin

After a pretty rough October for me and deciding to finally buy the Happiness Project in audiobook form so I can listen to it to-and-from work, I've decided to do my own little happiness project.

For those that don't know, The Happiness Project is a book in which Gretchen Rubin, the author, spends an entire year dedicating the time and effort to 'resolutions' each month in an effort to become even happier than she previously was. I, myself, consider myself a fairly happy person - even after the rough month I just had, just as she describes herself as being before starting her project. And just like she mentions in the book, I have acknowledged that I can be a happier person and that I'm the only person that can make that change. 

I know I could be more positive, happier with myself and more confident, less judgmental, more loving to the people in my life, etc. and that if I were these things, I'd be happier overall. 

Unlike Gretchen, who basically logged out her entire year and knew what each focus would be each month, I don't have that. I don't know if I'll do this for an entire year and right now I only have about 3 months worth of things I'd like to work on.  Ideally, I would start this in January because it's the mark of a new year - being that most "resolutions" come into play on New Years' Day - but I don't think that I can't wait until then I feel like I need to start now. I feel motivated to start now so I'm just going to start at the random month of November.

My November resolutions focus on becoming a healthier and more active person -- as if it were actually January 1st except I'm going to try to make this a lifestyle change (everyone's favorite buzzword when it comes to eating better and being more active, hahaha). I don't like to admit this to people that I'm not close with, but for those who don't know, I struggle with feeling confident about the way I look when it comes to my weight -- no matter how much I'm told that I look good. It's been an issue with me for about 8 years now. It started out terribly where I was young, not the brightest, and doing all the wrong things to stay thin and has now gotten to the point where I feel like I'm able to make smart and adult-like decisions. However, I still have a tough time sticking to a 'plan' when it comes to losing weight (and maintaining it) and getting to a weight where I know is good for me and my confidence. 
In a perfect world, I wouldn't start off focusing on this but it is something that is unfortunately very important to me and I know will give me the confidence to move forward with my other goals and resolutions in months to come. 

All of that being said, here are my November Resolutions.  
I keep these in a chart where each day, I check off whether or not I was able to stick to that resolution -- all in hopes that that will encourage me to stick to it!
1. Go for a run or do a 20-minute workout routine -- no excuses! 
2. Stick with Weight Watchers -- it truly is the best. I get embarrassed to say that I use it most times because I feel like I don't need to lose that much weight so people probably think I'm crazy to use it but it really is super easy and it's a way to keep myself on track without tracking my calories because I hate counting calories. I can also eat whatever I want basically which works for meeee! 
3. Walk + talk -- make an effort to move around more at work and at home because I have a terrible time being alive/active once I get home from work and I should make an effort to get up and walk with coworkers to lunch or just around the office. I don't need to be glued to my chair at work or my Macbook @ home
4. Say no to sugar --  most of the time. 

At the end of each month, I'm going to try to make a new blog post updating on how it went and what my new resolutions will be for the next month! Wish me luuuck :)

I really (don't) love juice cleanses.

Some may remember two months ago when I decided to try to lose a few pounds before Shannon's wedding (in order to fit into my bridesmaid dress...yup, that was my life) by going on a three-day juice cleanse. I posted several Instagram pictures of my juices when I first got them and a lot of people wanted to hear what I thought and how it was. 

Welp, it was horrible. It has taken me two months to write this because it's taken me two months to get over how awful it was, haha.

It seemed like an amazing idea. I love juice. I could easily drink juice nonstop for three days. I read up for weeks before trying to find the best (and the cheapest) ones based on reviews on other blogs, etc. I finally made a my pick -- the BluePrint Cleanse (Renovation). They had great packaging and the juices seemed decent. I found several awesome blog reviews of BPC, so I went for it. I spent $225.00 on 3 days of juice. 

Here's a little, mini-journal of what I went through. 

Day 1

Juice 1: Made my breath smell horrible - or so I thought. Wasn't the best way to start the day but it could have been worse. Drank it during a morning meeting so it got real warm and gross. The last few sips made me want to vom but I made it through somehow. Felt really accomplished.

Juice 2: Sounded amazing. Thought it would be one of the better ones. then I smelled it before I drank any of it and wanted to die. The first few sips are very minty...too minty. But the more I drank it the more I liked it.

After Juice 2: I was pretty alert and awake and not hungry and not wanting food immediately after. I felt kind of light and air-y and the mint taste stayed in my mouth for a bit after so when I was drinking water, it tasted really weird. After about 30 minutes of finishing, I started to feel tired and sleepy. An hour after that, things escalated quickly and I wanted real food for the first time all day. I became extremely hungry, heard a coworker making food in the microwave and thought I was going to die. At around 2:00pm I started to crave weird foods like tomato soup - the kind that they served us in our cafeteria in high school that was just water-y tomato juice. 

Juice 3: Same as juice 1 - my LEAST favorite. So yucky the second time around. It was a rough afternoon. Where's the pizza?

Juice 4: Really spicy. No joke about it being spicy lemonade. I had to drink it through a straw but that helped get it down. I still avoided it for about 45 minutes and then right before work, I just chugged it to get it down. It was not fun times.

On the way home, I felt a bit lightheaded again and kind of grumpy for the first time all day.

I got home, saw brownies on the counter, and wanted to die. 

Juice 5: As I started drinking it, I heard the ice cream truck. Never wanted ice cream so badly in my adult life. It hurt my heart. Ouch.

Juice 6: Clearly the highlight of my day. It was actually normal -- but it was chunky. I honestly thought that if the rest of my juices were like this one, I could maybe actually do it for the remainder of the cleanse. 

Day 2

Juice 1: Attempted to drink Juice 1 after waking up feeling sick to my stomach. Had one sip, almost got sick. Took a 5-minute break and came back to it. This time I tried to drink it while plugging my nose (because that's supposed to help me not taste it...right?). Couldn't do it. Went to the kitchen at work and threw it away. 

After Juice 1 (or the sip I had of it), things went downhill extremely quickly. I couldn't even think about drinking Juice 2...but I tried. 

Lunchtime rolled around and it was time for Juice 3 (same as Juice 1) again. Couldn't even look at it so I decided I just wouldn't drink any more juice that day. I wasn't going to break the cleanse, but I wasn't going to drink any of that juice either. 

Spent most of the afternoon with my head on and off my desk, looking exhausted. My lovely cubiclemates agreed that I looked pretty awful. Around 4:30, I really, honestly thought I wasn't going to make it. Decided that I was going to get a salad from Panera - just a regular ol' salad with tomatoes and cukes - nothing else. 

Got to Panera, decided I wanted a baguette too. Why not, right? Got home, ate my salad, went over to the kitchen and there were those same brownies that I saw the evening before and wanted so badly. I felt so sick to my stomach (as I did all day) but I knew that eating something more was going to feel really great. So I did it. I ate a brownie and never looked back.

So, that's that. So awful and horrible tasting that I actually gave up after 2 days and threw the rest of my juice away. I couldn't even give away. No one wanted it! Still, even two months later, I will randomly be sitting at work or in my car and I'll get a whiff of Juice 1/Juice 3 and want to gag. Forever punished. 

I love Shannon('s birthday).

Happy birthday, Shannon! It's your golden birthdayyyyyy. Weeeeeee. Here are 24 reasons why you're awesome. 

1. You're the best. 
2. You've got nice hair. 
3. You've got a nice cat - see what I did there? Your cat is friendly - I can't deny it. 
4. You make me laugh more than anyone else. You make everyone laugh because you're hilarious and ridiculous.
5. You're so friendly. Actually friendly. I'm not saying friendly because you say friendly. You're actually friendly. 
6. You make people feel great. Thank you for that. How did we all get so lucky to have you in our lives? Not sure but thanks for that too. 
7. You are very generous. 
8. You're a good walking partner. Walking forever. 
9. You're good at making cupcakes. And also eating them with me. Cutcakes.
10. You are good at talking about Ed Sheeran. And Zac Efron. 
11. You love Disney as much as I do. Probably more but I appreciate you helping my love for Disney grow. I can't wait to go to Disney World with you and cry with you over Wishes. Cry is an understatement. I think we'll be sobbing - or at least I will be. You're the only person that I could ever do that with.
12. You're extremely understanding.
13. You love sports as much as I do. Mostly football. But baseball is okay too because Mannnyyy Achadddooo.
14. You love food as much as I do. Talking about food while we eat food.
15. You have a great taste in restaurants. Example: you love Chili's.
16. You are still friends with me even if I'm A. Also, I'm A. 
17. You remember everything. 
18. You are great at sports. 
19. You're awesome at school. So great at grad school right now. 
20. You try to see the best in everyone. 
21. You love Christmas so much. Happy Half Christmas Eve.
22. You're my blog's biggest fan.
23. You have some road rage in you which I can appreciate.
24. You're an amazing friend to me.

I hope you have the best day ever. Can't wait to celebrate with food. The only way to celebrate. 

I love(d) my four-day birthday weekend.

My birthday was Thursday. I'm 24 now. I had the best four-day birthday weekend. I'm a lucky gal. I'm also old (or getting there). Here's to hoping year 24 is as good as this weekend was!

During my birthday weekend, I:

• went to Chili's for my birthday lunch - it doesn't get much better than that. Shannon + I had the most energetic waitress (whose name was Lindsay - that's some birthday magic right there) and I basically yolo'ed on appetizers and Blue Moon. Best life.
• broke a plate or two and ate the best nachos and drank the best sangria at my birthday dinner with Paul at Cheesecake Factory. So yummy + so clumsy. 
• got a birthday shout out from my favorite NFL player on Twitter - Anthony Allen. I think I laughed so hard I cried for about five minutes. Seriously - anyone who knows me, knows I love the sht out of him. I was so happy. 
• ate the best birthday cake of all time - triple layer banana cake with peanut butter + cream cheese frosting. Mmmmmmm.
• made the trek down to Bethesda for dinner with Shannon + Catie. I love Bethesda. So many stores and great restaurants and most importantly of all - Georgetown Cupcake.
• made the tipsy mistake of purchasing an entire dozen of cupcakes. Why? I wish I knew. I can't eat 12 cupcakes on my own. That's not true. I probably could but I don't want to be sick everywhere (TMI or...?) and/or gain 10 pounds overnight. I learned that I shouldn't be going into a cupcake shop while tipsy because this is going to happen and it's just not a good idea.
• had my first frozen yogurt of the season. Also, it's worth noting that I ate gummy bears for the first time in a long time on my froyo - ugh, I love them. Such an addiction to gummy candies + Twizzlers lately. I'm a child. 
• spent the last afternoon of my weekend at the Fine Art + Wine Festival in Sykesville. Sangria, getting to see the new GypsySysters store, spending time with fun people. It was the best way to end my weekend.
• decided to commit to being a part of a football league with Shannon, Nick, Paul, etc. Should be good if all goes well!

I love May goals.

A while back, I was coming up with six goals per month. After a couple months, I noticed that the number of goals I was actually accomplishing was going down and down and down (and down and down and down). I went from doing six goals, to three, then doing zero. 

Goals are back, though! I wish I could call them "challenges" because that's more accurate. For example: since January, I've had two fairly huge "challenges" for myself. One was to go without Starbucks for as long as I possibly could. I went a whole 47 days without it! I think I broke the addiction because I think I have only gone twice since I broke. It's really exciting for me. 
The second challenge I had was to go as long as possible without drinking beer. I was just curious to see if I could go without it - but I'm not sure where I was going with that because clearly I need it. I attribute my love for beer - that has developed over the past year - to the pounds that have been added to my body. I guess what I learned from my 20 days without beer was that moderation is probably better for my life than no beer at all. Lesson learned.

Anyway, here they are!

1. Run 40 miles in the month of May
This shouldn't be too hard if I can stick to my running schedule. I've been able to easily run 2.5 miles -- which is huge for me. So if I can keep that up and throw in a couple 3 mile evening runs, I should be good. I'm excited! 
2. Organize my closet.
Here's a before picture for you. 

What a hot mess. It's gotten worse and worse over the last year - since I started working full-time. I have no time to clean it. That's a lie. I do have time, I'd just rather watch the previous night's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon than clean my closet out.
3. Make cake pops. 
Yup, this is actually a goal. I finally have all of the supplies to make cake pops - thanks to Shannon - so I need to do it. Pretty great goal.

I love(d) April.

I want to start off by thanking everyone who donated and helped me raise a (grand) total of $440 for the Maryland SPCA through the March for the Animals. I started out with a goal of $300 for this year which was around what I was able to raise last year. Of course I hoped to raise more than that but I never thought it would happen. It really means a lot to me (as I probably told you when you donated) so thanks times a million.

The walk itself was pretty great (after a fun morning of realizing Sasha had TOO much exercise the day before and was limping all morning because she was sore, haha). It was a chilly + windy morning which was kind of a bummer but I ended up getting pretty sweaty after having to pick Sasha up towards the end of the walk. Nope, I wasn't picking her up because she was sore still - she was actually fine the entire time. It was because at the end of the walk, there's a ton of vendors and a million dogs wandering around that are about 3x her size, haha. She can't handle it. She gets really timid and weird and won't walk - she'll just stand there. So I had to pick her up in order to get through the end of the walk without it taking 2 hours. Or rather, Paul and I had to take turns carrying her. Teamwork, haha.
One of the best parts of the walk was Art Jones hanging out at the "finish" line. He's huge. I should've chatted but I was too scared - typical life. Anyone even remotely famous intimidates me too much for me to go up and talk. What am I going to say to him? "You're awesome you're a Super Bowl champion let's go hang out at Hightopps come on let's hang out tell me what Flacco talks about in the lockeroom tell me all of the secrets." I'd say that all in one breath. That'll go over well, hahaha. Yeah...so didn't talk to him but got close to him and that's enough for creepy me.

More highlights from April:

• My dad's birthday - he's the best! Got him a card from Minted - I mentioned it a previous post but look at it (above). It's awesome. He liked it, of course. How could you not? 
• Two O's games in one month? Best. 
• Got my first Birchbox. I'd give it an 8 out of 10. The box it came in was probably the best part about the entire thing. I'm going to give it another try this month and see if it gets any better!
• Started running a lot more and worked up to being able to run an actual 5k (or 3.2 miles) without a problem. Here's to hoping I can do that next weekend at the Color Run! 

I love things lately.

Okaaaay. The title of this post isn't entirely true. The past week and a half have been a little bit on the rough side. If I'm being real, last week may have been the worst week I've had in years - so that was fun. Really great times. Luckily, this week is better and the good news is only two days until the weekend!

Instead of whining (and trust me, I could do it) about how incredibly annoying things/events/people/life was/were last week, I'm going to update you guys on some of the positive things that have been going on! 

I enjoyed Paul's birthday. I think he probably did too. We went out to his favorite restaurant - the fancy, magical Olive Garden - but went to the new one in Owings Mills which was surprisingly amazing. It's so new and nice and our waiter was kind of an a-hole but I didn't mind because he just did his job and didn't try to be too obnoxious - and I respect that, haha. Other than dinner, we didn't do a whole lot on his actual birthday - Sunday. Mostly just hung out with Sasha - which is enough fun on it's own, haha. We could have just done that the entire day. I love birthdays. Mine's next! Can't wait.

The weather has been amazing. I wish I had a better word to describe it but I don't want to go to thesaurus.com to look for another word and end up using something cheesy. I'll just stick to amazing. Traffic has been a hot mess (infuriating) disaster the past week and a half which is confusing but the best part about it is: I get to (kind of) be outside during my weekday. I like to think it's the traffic gods giving me a chance to enjoy the nice weather before heading inside to sit at my desk for 8 hours. Thanks, traffic gods. Love ya.

I do love me some new apps. Thanks to Kayleigh from Elliot in the Morning and her Instagram, I found the Nike Running app. This thing is the best. Not only does it track how much I've run/ran but it yells nice things at me while I do it. Well, not really. It just tells me how fair I've gone and my pace, etc. I like to think she's trying to motivate me and I like that. I run on a treadmill and didn't think that running apps could track how much I've run but I was wrong - this one can! I'm sure it'll come in handy once I start running outside too! I'd highly recommend it!

I've got a lot of work to do coming up. Doing a lot of thinking about my future - which is something I tend to try to not think about. Gotta do it sometime, I guess. 90% of me thinking about my future has been questioning "how soon in my life can I make cake pops because I'v never made them before and that needs to happen?" Things are getting serious, obviously. 

I love these things.

1. Minted -- sure there are plenty of sites where you can make customized cards with pictures, etc. but this place has free shipping. And it's easy peasy. And everything is so quirky like Zooey Deshannel. And I made the best birthday card for my dad on it.
2. Charm City Puppies' Easter-themed new puppy pictures. Seriously?
3. Finding out a new, less expensive and BETTER way to clean my make-up brushes. I had been using this weird concoction for months and it smelled SO BAD and it didn't work that well but I'm new to make-up brushes so I thought it was the only way to do it. Shout out to Pinterest.
4. Puppy Weather. Best app ever or best app ever? 

Also, HI. Woodbine Hotine's EP release show (and Benn's last show with WBHL) was announced and it's super soon. Come. Their new stuff is so good. It's only $5 and it's going to be great times. Here's some more info.

I love that food is the highlight of my life.

This week has definitely been a week. It hasn't been completely horrible but it hasn't been fantastic. Lots of stress (hi, work life), lots of ouch (hi, sore muscles from running more), and lots of sad life (bye, REEEEEEEEEED).

However, it is worth noting that I took a chance at the grocery store on Sunday night and tried yogurt that I wouldn't normally buy and it was one of the best ideas I've ever had. If you're at all interested in the type of yogurt I eat, I'll tell you. I normally only buy the honey Chobani and I eat it for breakfast every day when I get to work. And because I eat it for breakfast every day, I have a hard time seeing yogurt as something that can be eaten for dessert.
I guess I was feeling pretty yolo and wanted to live it up so I tried one of the dessert-y Chobani Flips...the almond, chocolate chip, coconut kind and it was incredible. 
After a rough day (oh, sigh) and the sad news about Ed Reed, I decided to try it and it seriously brightened my life and made me feel a little bit better. That's how I live, though. Typically food makes my life a lot better, hahaha. No shame.

It's also worth noting that at least March Madness has started. And at least Jacoby on Dancing with the Stars. Am I right?

I love J. Timb.

This past work week was one of the worst weeks I've had in quite some time. Why? Did something horrible happen? No...nope. Nothing horrible happened. I can't think of one bad thing that happened all week - other than traffic, maybe. And at this point, I don't consider that bad, really. Just normal, haha. 

Why was it so bad then? I had a serious case of Negative Nancy-itis and I could not shake it. Nothing was bad - but I was able to make anything bad in my head just by putting a negative spin on it. FUN. One of the most frustrating things for me is being in a negative mood/grumpy mood and not being able to get out of it - no matter how hard I try. It actually ends up making my mood even WORSE because I'm mad I can't change it. That's my life.

I was starting to get really wild and out of control by Wednesday evening -- not even some online shopping and a run while watching Ellen could help me at that point (WHATTTT?).

And then...Thursday morning at 10:00am happened. 

After a lot of anxiety (hey, Jackie) and stress and finding out (the hard way) that apparently our work computers hate it a lot if you try to buy tickets from Ticketmaster so they won't let you order them, I was able to get Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z tickets at M&T for me and Paul! Ahhhhh yessssss. We're way at the very top, in the back - usually where we sit for Ravens games, haha. But that doesn't matter! Tickets weren't that expensive and I get to see my crush that I've had since elementary school in real life again and be in the presence (it kind of counts...even if I am really far away) of Jay-Z. 

After this, my brain and my week got good and life is normal again. So, just want to shout out to the Ticketmaster gods for hooking me up with being able to buy tickets under $100.00 so I could afford tickets. Thanks a lot. 

Oh, and P.S. - feel free to click here and help me raise $$$ for the little puppies and kittens.

I love 5ks + animals.

Christmastime craziness + work ridiculousness + being lazy because it's winter and cold weather and snow make me lazy + Disney vacation life + being astronomically (yeah, it was that bad. I don't think I've ever used that word in a sentence before) sick have kept me away from blogging for the last 2-ish months. But I'm going to try really hard to update a lot again!

A lot has happened but luckily (or is it lucky? I graduated college) for everyone that reads this and doesn't care about any of my life recaps - in which case, you should stay away from my blog, I have a horrible memory and can't remember anything that happened (in detail). So...instead, I'm going to talk about two things that are coming up that I'm really looking forward to.

It took indecisive me about 2-3 weeks to decide I was ACTUALLY going to do it, but I registered for my first 5k and it's the Color Run! I'm doing with some of the same lovelies that I spent my SuperBowl night with (AHHH RAVENS AHHHH WORLD CHAMPS WHAT'S UP). They've already seen one bad side of me - the side where I drop all of the bombs (F bombs, etc) and make up inappropriate insults (like Kaeperbitch) - so I'm excited for them to also see the side of me that's sweaty and gross too! Bonding. Obviously, I'm also pumped about just getting to do my first 5K and it being the "happiest 5k on the planet." I started running again today. Doing a mile has been my speciality for years so stepping it up to 3.1 miles might be a challenge but I'm excited about it! I gotta get myself in shape anyways so it works out. 

Remember last year when I first started this blog and blogged about the Maryland SPCA March for the Animals? Did you hate that I would always talk about it and ask for you to donate $$$? If so, I'm really sorry because here we go again, hahaha. 

Here's a link that will take you where you can donate: My Fundraising Page.

Please donate? Please? For me? For Sasha? If you don't do it now, be grateful that I'll give you other chances via Facebook, Twitter, etc. over the next few weeks! 

It really is for a good cause. The Maryland SPCA is the greatest. And a big bonus is if I get to my goal of raising $300, I'll buy Sasha an adorable costume to walk around in (TBD)! Last year there were a few beagles dressed up as sharks. COME ON. Imagine the pictures. 

Last year, my goal was $250.00 and I'm pretty sure with the help of a lot of really great people, I exceeded that. Please donate and just imagine Sasha (possibly) in this costume: