2008? Not so bad.

Ahh, the cliche end-of-the-year blog post. Here goes....

2008

The Good
Started grad school
Lost 20 lbs
Visited Tiffany in NYC
Got engaged
Bought a house
Got married
Used passport for the 1st time
Obama victory
Worked out consecutively from July-Nov, including a 6-week bootcamp class
Realized we kind of have the best friends & family in the world

The Bad
John & I both lost a grandfather
4 week Statistics class
Tennessee politics

The Ugly
Gained back 10 of the 20 lbs
The current color of my bedroom

Plans for 2009:
Lose 50 lbs, obviously
Spend more time working on the house
Get a dog!!!
Work-out enough to stay healthy, not so much that I incur an injury...
Cook/bake more
Entertain in our new house!
Read something, ANYTHING, not written for tweens
Make a budget & stick to it
Travel! Hopefully see Tiff in NYC & Sally in Boston

Well, that's about it. I could probably think of more meaningful entries if I kept at it, but I've got to start getting ready for tonight. Speaking of... If any of you are looking for something to do tonight, How I Became the Bomb & The Privates are playing @ The Basement. Discounted cover charge for anyone dressed in formal attire. Happy New Year, everyone!

Peace out, 2008. 2009, here I come!

Christmas In Maryland: The Deleted Scenes

The title of this blog post pretty accurately sums up my Christmas in Maryland. Here's the breakdown:

Christmas Eve:
Mary Katherine braves the monsoon & comes to pick me up & drive me to my parents' house in Smyrna. She comes bearing Starbucks & we visit for awhile & swap gifts (she got me the CUTEST Anthropologie apron -thanks, MK!). She drops me off in Smyrna & heads to M'boro to spend Christmas with her family. Later that night my immediate family eats dinner & opens gifts. My parents got me the 3rd & 4th books in the Twilight series, fueling my teen vampire addiction. I got a lot of great stuff. It was a really good Christmas.

Christmas Day:
I wake up Christmas Day & fly to Maryland. My annual Christmas Day pilgrimage to Maryland is usually complete hell. I should have known by how smoothly my flight went that something bad was waiting for me in Maryland. John picks me up from the airport & we drive straight to his Great-Aunt Ginny's house in Catonsville. I always enjoy going to Aunt Ginny's because she makes this amazing seafood casserole. As usual, the food is awesome. What isn't awesome is John's crazy f*cking Uncle Jim, who apparently is a full-fledged racist. The majority of John's family is Republican. So is mine, big deal. Well, it was a big deal because crazy f*cking Uncle Jim proceeded to mouth off about Obama during the entire Christmas dinner. So while we're eating our scrumptious seafood casserole off of Aunt Ginny's fine china, crazy f*cking Uncle Jim is saying things like, "Monkey-man Obama", which prompts John's Nana to join in on the fun. Nana is 84, but has the political acumen of a 7 year old. So Nana says, "I heard they're not even going to swear him in on the Bible!". This is the first of what will prove to be many priceless quotes from Nana over the next 48 hours.

Friday:
John & I get up & drive into Georgetown so I can do a little post-Christmas shopping. I only hit H&M & Urban Outfitters, but I'm pretty pleased with my purchases. We leave Georgetown & head to Glen Burnie to visit John's good friend Grant & his wife Natasha. We were only able to stay for a few minutes because we had to go pick up Sally from the airport. With Sally in tow, we head back to their Dad's house. We open our presents with Sally, then head to Annapolis to visit with John's grandparents. Nana, being at her limit with John's dad, decides to come with us. We get to John's grandparents' house & Nana says as she's walking up to the house, "It's awful dark out here. I hope I don't fall." She fell about 1 second later. It was awful. She cut her brow bone, broke her glasses & bruised her arm & knee. Nana takes blood thinners, so she bled a lot. A LOT. It was scary. Luckily, John's Aunt Joyce was there. Joyce is a nurse & had a first aid kit in her car. She had Nana fixed up in no time. So we visit for awhile & open presents. It was a good time. We take Nana home & then me, John & Sally went to the local Crofton bar/restaurant Jasper's to eat a late dinner & have a couple of drinks.

Saturday:
Nana wakes up with a shiner. It's possibly the worst black eye I've ever seen. John's other Great-Aunt, Mary Lou, was having Christmas dinner at her house in Elkridge at 1:30pm, so John's dad takes us by his friends' Buddy & Nica's house beforehand. Buddy & Nica are family friends & we usually see them while we're there. They're really nice, although apparently Buddy drank the same Kool-aid crazy f*cking Uncle Jim did. As every conversation did while we were in Maryland, this one also quickly turned to Obama. Buddy states that he doesn't like him because he's from the South & has always been racist & gets more so with age. Humph. I like Buddy, so I let it slide, especially since his very nice wife is feeding me gourmet coffee & homemade pie. But Nana, oh Nana... Nana says, "He's the Anti-Christ. I read it in Newsweek". Aside from the faint sound of John chuckling behind me, you could have heard a pin drop. I think we left shortly after that.

John & Sally had both warned me extensively about how miserable Mary Lou's was going to be. Apparently the food is weird & the family is even weirder. The food was definitely weird, except for this awesome crab soup she makes. It was seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten. I will preface this by saying that everyone there was very nice.... But yeah, definitely weird. And then, of course, there's crazy f*cking Uncle Jim walking around, spouting bullshit & generally making everyone uncomfortable.

Apparently one year John's dad turned all the Santa figurines in Mary Lou's house backwards & she made him leave. We got there at 1:30. Around 3:30/4:00 I was begging John's dad to do something to get us kicked out. The anti-Obama rhetoric had hit an all-time high & I had taken all I could take without losing my cool & embarrassing John. I went outside & stayed outside until it was time to leave. Aside from the crab soup, it was a pretty miserable day.

From Mary Lou's, John & I head back to Grant & Natasha's house in Glen Burnie. There was a party later & everyone was meeting there to hang-out beforehand. A lot of John's friends from high school were there. We played some games, drank a little, ate a little. It was actually the highlight of the trip. We had to get up early the next day to drive home, so we left when everyone else went to the party. Lame, I know.

Sunday:
Woke up. Drove home.

Monday:
Woke up sick. Stayed home from work.

Tuesday:
Still sick. Stayed home from work again.

Wednesday/New Year's Eve:
Time will tell......

Pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16828091@N04/sets/72157611834116982/

Ho, Ho, Ho!

I'm officially shopped out. The presents have all been bought & wrapped (except for John's, who's gift was on back order, but now is out of stock & no longer available. Eff you, Pottery Barn).

I'm going to my parents' house today, then off to Maryland tomorrow. See you all next week.

Merry Christmas!

Weekend Wrap Up

Friday afternoon I left work a little early & did some more Christmas shopping. I went to Trader Joe's for the first time. Love it! Then we went to dinner @ Kien Giang with Delaney & Austin & their friends Anna & Brad.

Saturday I spent pretty much all day running around buying the last of my Christmas presents. I did eat at the new Blue Coast Burrito by my house for the first time. The food was really good, exactly like Baja Burrito, but the layout was kind of weird & there were 1,00,000 kids in there. Who knew burritos were such a hit with the under 10 crowd?

Saturday night we went to Carolyn & David's annual Christmas party in East Nashville. As usual, I ate way too much & stayed out way too late. But it was fun. Full photostream here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16828091@N04/sets/72157611412407953/

Yesterday John did the last of his Christmas shopping & we did a lot of work on our house. John stayed downstairs organizing the "dude den", while I worked upstairs arranging all of my jewelry, re-arranging furniture & hanging some pictures. I'm really pleased with how the upstairs turned out. I'll try & upload pics this week.

Last night we went to Siam Cuisine with our friends Ben & Erika. The Wrench was working & he hooked Ben & I up with this combination of Kang Ped (Red Curry) & Panang Curry. It was so good! It's my new favorite thai dish. Thanks, Wrench!

Tiffany got into town late last night, technically early this morning. (Poor Tiff....) She's hanging out on the East side today while I'm at work. Tonight we're going to 8 off 8th @ Mercy Lounge, then to the infamous "dance party" @ The 5 Spot. Tomorrow she goes home to West Tennessee & John heads home to Maryland. I'm in town until Christmas Day, when I join John in Maryland. We'll be back in time for New Year's Eve.

Merry Christmas!

For Jacob Black

Dear Jacob,

I *heart* you & your werewolf ways. Keep on "protecting".

Love,
TBM

Gym Class Hero

I've decided my body just isn't cut out for exercise. Two years ago I had ballooned up to almost 200 lbs. Instead of curbing my eating & working out more, I decided to train for the Country Music Marathon. All of my friends that were runners ate whatever they wanted & stayed pretty slim. This was the plan for me. What I didn't know was that I was apparently born with the fragile hips of an 80 year old. I started "training" in November 2006. I was doing good. I got to where I could run for 90 minutes. My hips hurt, but no pain no gain, right? Plus, the weight was melting off. Well, by February 2007, I was in severe pain & could hardly walk. I begrudgingly went to the doctor & was diagnosed with bursitis. Thus ending my short running career.

I doubled in size virtually overnight. I couldn't work out at all. Plus, it was my first Session & I was stress eating like nobody's business. By my 30th birthday in May, I was back up around 200 lbs. Not how I wanted to ring in a new decade. After months in physical therapy, my hip finally healed enough to allow me to work out again. I spent all summer trying to lose weight, to no avail. The final straw was seeing pictures of myself in a bathing suit from a trip to Florida we took in August 2007. I joined Weight Watchers in September & lost 20 lbs. It felt great. I was back in clothes that I hadn't been able to wear for years.

Fast forward to December 2008. I've gained a little of the weight back, but not too much. It helps that I've been working out like a gladiator since July in preparation for the wedding. After the wedding, I had planned on taking a break from the gym. And I did. I didn't work at all for 2 weeks after the wedding. I've started back & it really does feel good to be working out again, although my body has clearly turned against me.

I take a "Body Sculpt" class at the Y 2 mornings a week. For awhile now, my left shoulder has been really bothering me. I've tried to take it easy on the shoulder exercises & use lighter weights. Well, apparently my shoulder has taken all it's going to take. I woke up this morning & couldn't move it at all. It was a blast trying to dry my hair & get dressed with a dead arm. I knew this was coming. I knew I'd just wake up 1 day & that would be it, no more shoulder work for me. Just like my hip. I assume I now have bursitis in my shoulder (because I apparently have the bones of the Crypt Keeper). Oh well, I was going to have to give up Sculpt once Session started anyway. I can still work out. And I can probably still do bicep & tricep work. I just need to chill the eff out on any kind of shoulder exercise. Ugh.....

Oh -and to add insult to injury, I sprained my left wrist in Sculpt yesterday. Apparently the left side of my body hates me. Good thing I'm right-handed. So our Wed AM teacher has been out for weeks (we assume, recovering from more plastic surgery) & we had a new sub teaching our class yesterday. She was awful. One word: grapevine. If I want to do the grapevine, I'll take an aerobics class, thank you. Anyway, Senorita Leotard had us doing all this shit on the stability ball, emphasis on "stability". Well, of course, because I suck at working out, I fell off the ball & all of my weight came crashing down on my left wrist, thus the sprain. Maybe I should just stick to yoga......

Where For Art Thou, Edward?

I've been too busy reading New Moon to blog lately. Here's my complaint with New Moon. I'm about half-way through the book & it's all about Bella. No Edward. I'm not reading these books to read about stupid Bella. I need Edward. I'm assuming Edward is the bear that everyone in the city is scared of, but it hasn't been confirmed yet. If you know, don't tell me. I'll report back once I get to that part.

Oh, and what's with Jacob Black? Are the people of La Push vampires too? Indian vampires? Again, rhetorical. Not really looking for answers here.

Super Fudge

Thank you for all the wallpaper advice. Luckily we discovered that only one wall in our bedroom is wallpapered, so it doesn't seem nearly as daunting of a task as it did initially. I think we're going to wait until after Christmas to deal with it. We also need to paint/stain our guest bedroom furniture, so I'd rather wait until I have the time to do it all. Two weeks before Christmas is not that time.

Speaking of Christmas, I'm doing my first major all-day Christmas shopping extravaganza tomorrow with MK. We're staying local: Green Hills Mall, Hill Center, etc. We're going to get started early, so I can get back home & over to the East Side for Delaney's house-warming party! Then tomorrow night, I'll be at Mercy Lounge for the How I Became the Bomb show. John is playing with them on some songs, so it'll be fun.

No real plans for Sunday. Might do some joint Christmas shopping with John. Might see a movie (really want to see Milk), might stay home & watch TiVo all day. Who knows.

Oh! I finished Twilight last night. I'm addicted. I'm going straight from work today to buy the sequel, New Moon. I really didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. I've always had a thing for the supernatural, especially vampires. I loved, loved, loved Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. In fact, the official, registered name for my iPod is The iPod Lestat. I'm totally serious.

At times, I felt a little silly liking Twilight as much as I did, mainly because it's core demographic is 13 year old girls. Whatever. I loved it. And I'm totally reading the rest of the books in the series, which will round out my year of adolescent reading. Since this summer, I've read the first 4 books of the Harry Potter series & now Twilight. I wonder if 2009 will bring back Adventures in Babysitting or Judy Blume...... Are you there, God? It's me, the Blonde Mule, and I'm spending my 32nd year on this planet reading books for tweens. Help!

Let's Talk About Wallpaper

The only 2 rooms in our house that still need to be painted are the guest room & our bedroom. The guest room has 1 wall that is wallpapered, including a border. We assumed we'd have to strip the wallpaper off before painting. Not a big deal. Now our bedroom, that's a different story. First of all, it's painted this heinous shade of dark green. It's bad, but to make matters worse, we've recently discovered that underneath that horrible green is yet more wallpaper, presumably covering the entire room.

So here's my question, do we strip the wallpaper under the paint or just paint over it all as is? John is pretty anti-paint-over-it-as-is & wants to spend the time stripping the painted over wallpaper. I have zero experience in this arena. Have any of you ever had to strip wallpaper that's been painted over? Suggestions? Comments?

Ikea

John & I drove to Atlanta on Saturday to pay a much needed visit to our friend, Ikea. Our house kind of got put on hold because of the wedding, so we're trying to get back in house-mode. We moved in in August, & we've done a lot, but there's still a lot left to do.

John has had his eye on this piece of furniture from Ikea for months. We had some wedding money left over, so I thought it only fair to let him spend it on something he wants, since every wedding present we received is basically for me.

Ikea didn't disappoint. We made out like bandits. John bought his cabinet/console thing for downstairs & we also bought:

coffee table for upstairs
rug for upstairs
rug for downstairs
wall-mounted wine bottle rack
big, black, ornate picture frame
champagne glasses
a plant waterer thing
2 animal hand puppets for my niece
a tray with same colors as my upstairs office
yellow jewelry tree.

I'm pretty pleased with our purchases. There's still more I'd like to buy, so we're already planning another trip. Our kitchen needs work & Ikea has a lot of cheap fixes. We just need to go prepared next time with measurements, etc.

So on our way out of Atlanta it was chow-time & John remembered there's some Chinese place in Marietta that his friend Reid is batshit for. John calls Reid & finds out where it is while Reid emails us what to order. This email turned out to be almost 4 pages long. Not sure how much Reid thought we could eat.... Anyway, he didn't lead us astray. This was definitely the best Chinese food I've ever had.

When we told the waitress a friend of ours from Nashville sent us, she knew exactly who Reid was & proceeded to tell us what he would want us to order. She was dead on. She recommended the same things Reid told us to order in his email. It was soooooo good. We ordered 3 dishes. Unfortunately, I only remember the name of 1: dried, fried eggplant. It was my favorite. I was worried it was going to be some kind of eggplant jerky, but it wasn't. It was basically a plate of big fried eggplant strips. They looked like french fries. They were good as shit! Once those came, I quit eating everything else. Dried, fried eggplant. Who knew?

So if any of you are going to be in Atlanta/Marietta anytime soon, the place is called Tasty China & it's @ 585 Franklin Rd SE, # 215, Marietta GA 30067. Do it for Reid.

An Unhealthy State

I read this morning that Tennessee is ranked among the five unhealthiest states for the fifth consecutive year in an annual report. From the AP:

The United Health Foundation ranked Tennessee No. 47 in its 19th annual America's Health Rankings released Wednesday. The state dropped one slot from last year's rank of No. 46. Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina are behind Tennessee. Vermont tops the list for the second year. The rankings are based on factors including smoking, obesity, high school graduation rates and the environment.

I would like to take a bow for personally contributing to this ranking. I started my period yesterday & quite possibly ate enough to not have to eat again until Monday. Here's the breakdown:

Breakfast: Quaker Naturals Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal. Good start, right? Wrong. Keep reading.

2nd Breakfast: 1 glazed donut covered in green & white icing with red sprinkles. Also, and this was an added bonus, it was filled with cream.

Lunch: Pasta left-overs. This actually wasn't that bad. It was whole wheat penne with chicken sausage, sun-dried tomatoes & mushrooms. Finished it off with a sugar free banana fudge sundae jello pudding cup.

3:00pm: Snickers bar. (I don't even like Snickers bars. No idea why I ate this.)

3:30pm: Left work due to an angry uterus & an insatiable need to put on yoga pants & lay on the couch.

4:00pm: Ate entire bag of popcorn. Skipped over the low-fat snack size Kettle Korn & opted for the full size Movie Theatre variety.

4:15pm: Needed sugar to balance out the salt. Ate Little Debbie Star Crunch. Slipped into TiVo watching/digestive coma until about 6:30pm when John came home.

6:30pm: Assuredly low on iron & craving meat, sent John to Sonic. Had cheeseburger & cheese tater tots. Would have liked chocolate shake to wash it down, but restrained out of fear for waking up diabetic today.

Also worth noting, I was asleep by 8:30pm. Like a bear, my body needed the 9+ hours to digest. But I did wake up this morning & go to Sculpt class. That counts for something, right?

Lastly, for those of you who complain about your period every month, take heed, because this is what happens when you go 4 months without one. You turn into a big, bloated bear lashing out at everyone & eating like you're going into hibernation.

What The PMS Wants, The PMS Gets.

This is going to be way too much information for some of you, especially if you were born sans vagina, but bear with me. So I was supposed to have my period the week of our honeymoon. Obviously, that wasn't go to work, so I called up Mother Nature (aka, my Ob-Gyn) & got a new pack of birth control pills. This gave me 4 more weeks of non-bleeding bliss. Well, this week my friends, my number is up. I don't know if any of you have seen that SNL commercial for Annuale, but that's kind of what I've been like for a good 5 days now.

So this morning I got up & went to Sculpt with MK. I was running late, so I decided to skip breakfast & grab a Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Twist instead. There's not a free-standing Starbucks by our house, so I have to go into Target to get my fix. Whatever. On my way into Target I noticed the building I assumed was going to be the 100th Panera in West Nashville is actually going to be a Blue Coast Burrito. I almost drove off the road trying to read the grand opening date on the banner. Do you know how fat I'm going to get having a Blue Coast Burrito that close to my house? Just wait, bitches!

Once safely inside Target-Starbucks, I impulsively decide to buy their $15.99 Winter Wonderland Christmas CD. Why did I do this? I have no idea. I guess the PMS wanted a new CD. The kid behind the counter even said, "You're the first person to buy that CD." I felt so ashamed, but I had already paid for it, so I just put it in my purse, grabbed my mocha & schlepped out to the car. What the PMS wants, the PMS gets.....