Monday, Monday

Today was a really crappy day.  First it was Monday.  Second it was raining.  Third, and most importantly, I had to wear pants AND shoes.


It threw my whole day for a loop.  In the little more than a month that I've been here, I hadn't yet worn pants OR shoes.  To do both in one day was pretty scarring.  


Needless to say, it kind of ruined the rest of my day.  


I never knew that basic items of clothing could have such a huge impact on my psyche.  


AND I haven't started my unofficial half training yet.  It has thundered and lightninged ever since I decided that one yesterday.  I don't mind running in the rain, but I'd really like to avoid getting struck by lightning....


Well that's Monday for you.

New Pics

I took these on Isle of Palms on Friday.  The restaurant we were happy hour-ing at looked out over the water so I got a rare East Coast sunset over the water opportunity.

Marathon

Once upon a cold day in March I decided that I was going to start this blog as a way to help me with my ever-ongoing struggle to lose weight.  Fast forward 6 months and its downward spiraled into a chaotic mess that resembles my sleep-deprived, time crunched, overly stressed, exceptionally over caffeinated, law school absorbed, tv addicted existence.  So my b...


I don't really want this to revert back to something that focuses on what I'm eating, what I'm not eating, how many calories I've burned, how many ounces I'm up or down on any given day. Its not fun.  Plus it doesn't let me be a complete spasoid on the internet.  


But I have been doing a lot of thinking lately.  Everywhere I  look I hear all of these similies about how this or that is like a marathon.  Losing weight is a marathon, law school is like a marathon, etc.  And I think its ironic that I've signed up for my first half marathon (which is like a marathon, except it's half...) while I'm doing all of these other "like a marathon" things.  Its especially poignant because I'm unofficially starting my half marathon training today.


School is really time consuming.  Especially lately.  I have my first "memo" due on Tuesday and its more than a little consumed every spare second of my life for the past month.  Running, exercising, eating right, getting a good night's sleep, and avoiding stress eating have all taken a backseat to the nine page baby I've spent countless hours pouring over and over and over.  


But that needs to change and it's changing today.  Last week I couldn't sleep.  Like at all.  I think I got about 15 hours combined from Sunday through Wednesday.  That is way not enough for me.  I need 15 hours in 2 days, not 4.  One of my classmates said its probably because I wasn't exercising, which is probably true.  But I didn't have time to fit the gym in either.  But I know I have to make the time to get it all in.  


I'm a calmer, saner, more at peace individual if I can work out my stress by pounding the pavement.  I sleep better when I put all of my extra nervous energy into my runs or my spin classes or whatever else.  My brain works better when I give it thirty minutes or an hour to think about non-school things, even if I think about nothing at all except putting one foot in front of the other.  


On a much sadder note, I faced the music and bought a bathroom scale rather than just using the one at my gym, which I don't think is 100% accurate.  I was up a few pounds, four to be exact.  While I've had some extra life stuff going on lately (namely company in from out of town = more drinking and out to dinner more than usual), I was NOT happy to see the scale slowly but surely rising.  


And company's not an excuse to forget EVERYTHING I've EVER learned about losing weight.  Its no reason to eat when I'm not hungry just because I'm craving chocolate.  And eating not chocolate when you're craving chocolate isn't cool either.  And its way less cool when it happens at 1 AM.  


So here I am.  Starting over or at least picking up from where I left off.  Its back to basics for this girl.  Well basics and half marathon training.  Today's run: 3 miles through downtown Charleston.  Wish me luck!

The Horror! The Horror!

**** Five points if you can name that book****


Here's a hint: If I've ever had a conversation with you about books I HATE, it comes either immediately before or after Great Expectations......


Anyways that's not what this post is about.  At all.


Its about my feet.


I think my new-found/rediscovered flip flop lifestyle and my newfound/rediscovered love of running are destroying my feet.  I'll spare you the details, but its not pretty.


I need a pedicure.  Desperately.


If you'd like to help me out with that one, comment below.


And five points if you guessed Heart of Darkness


P.S. My first memo/paper/assignment is due Monday at 5.  I'm hoping some of my sanity comes back to me after I turn it in, but I'm not overly hopeful.

Check it Out

I've been playing around with some of the features on Blogger....and making some changes to this blog.

I guess you could say my site's "under construction."  The fact that I am doing any kind of web design just goes to prove how easy the new Blogger features are.  

More specifically, I've added some pages.  Even more specifically, I've added a photos page where I posted some pictures of Charleston.  I'm a point and shoot kind of gal, and it shows in the pictures, but when your subject is pretty, the pictures come out kind of pretty.  Or at least that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

I've also added an "About Me" section, but haven't had to actually write anything "about me" yet.  So be on the look out for that.  But it won't be until at least next week. I have my first memo due on Tuesday (yikes!) and I'm still not sure I'll make it through then....

Good-bye Summer!

So I meant to post this Labor Day weekend when it was more applicable, but I had company and lots of work to do.  

So I'm posting it now, the last official day of summer.  I still have lots of work to do, and I still have company, but its different company and they're not staying with me.

This was an AWESOME summer.

My little brother graduated:

Meredith and I dominated at bocce.  Twice.

ok, so pretend we are both holding bocce balls and looking badass

Ginger made a new best friend...

...and taught her bad things, like how to jump off of the deck while running at full speed.

I went to FOUR concerts in the month of July.

I moved to Charleston...

where my new closet is literally an entire wall of my room:

And I made it all the way through the entire summer with a white pocketbook.

Summer 2010...I approve.

Sweet Friends Blog Award

Its official!  I won my first blog award thanks to my pal Julia over at Keeping Up With Goliath (a fantastic running/dog lover blog that you can check out here)!  Ironically it came in the same week that I lost two of my followers...so maybe this is a break-even week for the A List?


So these things work like this: I list ten things I like and tag ten blogs that I enjoy.  The people who write the blogs I tag will do the same thing and tag ten people and so on and so on and so on and so on.


So Ten Things I Like

1. Sleep 
2. Running
3. Rainbow sprinkles on ice cream
4. Pink highlighters
5. Clean kitchen floors (seriously anyone know how to get laminate really clean?)
6. Dogs
7. Harry Potter
8. Coffee and Today in the morning
9. Baseball
10. Going to the movies

And the ten people I tag (ok so I think the only people who might even see this are listed here...I don't get out much with 6 followers).  Hopefully you guys can do better than me! 

1. Meredith @ Budding Branches
2. Lauren @ Starfish Road
3. Garrett @ And Now for Something Completely Different
4. Chris @ Tales from the Man Cave

Flippie Floppies

I've now been living in Charleston for over a month.


With the exception of the time I spend at the gym/running, I have not worn real shoes since I moved here.  


Its been more than five weeks of completely uninterrupted flip flop wearing.  And I don't see an end in sight.


I think I may have died and gone to heaven...


...with the exception of the vast amount of reading/writing/stress/lack of "free time" I have on a daily basis.


But for a shoe-free existence; it might just be worth it.

What blogging means to me

So yesterday I had a rare moment of free time and I posted a blog entry.  And I felt FANTASTIC!  


It got me thinking about blogging in general and what blogging means to me, and I've pretty much decided that its pretty important for me to blog and blog often.  Not because I'm deluded and think I have tons of people following me.  Or because I think people are necessarily interested in whatever I have to say about whatever's on my mind.  


But I need to do it for me.  


I have been absolutely LOVING law school (I mean as much as you can love anything you spend 18 hours a day working on while continuously feeling somewhat behind and lost and unsure of).  And I have been loving living in Charleston (seriously, its a great town...come visit, I'll take you out to lunch and then return promptly to the library in order to get my 18 hours in for the day).  


But one thing that I haven't been super crazy about is that I hardly know anyone here.  Don't get me wrong: I have met some awesome people.  And I've made some awesome friends.  But I don't know any of them well enough to let all of my crazy out.


Which is why I even have my blog in the first place.  Its where I can vent and relax and just be myself.  Its the one place on earth where I can rant and rave and not really care if people reading think that I'm overly whiney.  


I'd love to be able to promise that I'll blog everyday or even three times a week, but I know that's a lie.  I won't even try to promise that it won't be about law school, because I have a feeling that one day soon I'll be venting my frustrations with personal jurisdiction theories.  But here's a promise I can live with: I'll blog as often as I can, even if its just a sentence or two.


You know just enough to keep me grounded.  And from going totally crazy in Charleston.

The Start of Horror Season

I've blogged before about my somewhat gross obsession/addiction with TV.  But there is a sort of a parting of the ways that happens in the beginning of September.  

The beginning of September means Labor Day which means the "unofficial end" of summer (also, I wore white shorts today...fashion faux pas or ok since I don't give a shit because I live in Charleston and its constantly 87546385969743382048 degrees here?).  The "unofficial end" of summer also means the "unofficial start" of fall (how's that for some deductive reasoning?).  And apparently the unofficial start of fall marks the beginning of the most horrifying season in television advertising....previews for Halloween horror movies.

There aren't a lot of things I hate in life, but horror movies ranks pretty high on the list of things that I actually do hate in life; right after ranch dressing and the sound that alarm clocks make.  

The truth of the matter is that I hate to be scared.  And an added truth is that I scare easily.  I kind of like to blame it on my older cousin, Regina.  When I was maybe 4, we were visiting my aunt and cousins in the country that is upstate New York.  My dad and uncle went to go see whatever Dracula movie was out in theaters when my cousin asked me if I knew what Dracula was and proceeded to terrify me to my core with her 7 year old understanding of what vampires were and if they can in fact descend off of movie screens in an attempt to make my father the newest member of the undead.

Often irrational, but ever relevant, this deep seated fear has played a prevalent role in my life.  Not only do I refuse to invest anything (time or money) in pursuit of something designed to scare me (and as a result take away from my precious sleep schedule) but I'm willing to give up general social acceptance in pursuit of nightmare free nights.  Because of this I spent high school Halloween parties in the kitchen while The Exorcist played in the next room.

Which is a reason why I kind of hate the month of September...every scary movie of the year debuts in the month of October meaning that they all play their previews throughout the month of September.  Which means I spend the month of September covering my eyes during half of the commercials on TV.  And my ears.  Or else I dive for the remote and change the channel ASAP.  

As a result, my entire attention is focused on avoiding the scary commercials, which diverts my full attention from Primetime television, which I'm really not ok.