Weekend Wrap Up: Weekly Goals Edition

I'm not feeling these Weekend Wrap Up posts anymore. So instead of telling you what I did this weekend, how about I share what I wrote for my to do list this week? Last year, I bought my first Erin Condren life planner and used it to track my Ironman 70.3 Augusta training. I bought my second one this year to track what I thought was going to be another year of Ironman 70.3 training. Turns out, not so much. The first page of every week has a section for goals and notes. Here's what I wrote this morning.

Weekly Goals and Notes:

quit 70.3 training

eat out less

drink more

think about new fitness goals
-hire trainer?
-become yoga instructor?
-join a gym?

I also spent an hour making sure I own all the right Nicki Minaj songs. Why didn't anyone tell me she is an amazing, hilarious, filthy rapper? It's like no one knows me at all. In related news, I also bought the entire back catalogue of Drake, Beyonce and Katy Perry. I was missing a lot of Beyonce albums, y'all. THANK GOD that's taken care of. John's torn between continued disgust in my taste in music and pride in that I paid for something on the internet.

If you want more weekend activity, find me on Instagram and Twitter. Related, why aren't more of you on Twitter? I need more people to follow than Kim Kardashian.

Weekend Wrap Up: Organize It Edition

My friend, and graphic designer to the stars, Meg, bought a totally rad new house in East Nashville and invited us ladies over to check it out. I have a huge crush on Meg's new digs and won't rest until my entire house is painted grey.

You know some days you wake up and your brain's like, 'Not today, bitch'? Saturday was one of those days. I published this post about maybe not doing my race, which begged the question, if I'm not doing the race, am I still going to ride my trainer for an hour? Turns out, no. But then I sat on the couch and beat myself up for not riding my trainer. Then I started eating. Then I closed the curtains, laid down on the couch and started watching House of Cards. Thankfully Carolyn texted and asked if I wanted to go shopping. Yes! Yes I do.

I was on a quest for acrylic makeup organizers, but needed to expand my search beyond Nashville West and Bellevue, so we went to Rivergate. We hit that Rivergate TJ Maxx HARD. I think we were in there for three hours, #2Legit2Quit. Then we went to Goodwill where I scored this vintage Pendleton blazer. I tried it on, then decided I didn't want it and set it down, but Carolyn made me go back and get it, and after looking at these pictures, I'm glad she did. I don't know what I was thinking (probably that I was hungry), but good save C-Bass!

My entire existence hinged on whether or not I worked out on Sunday. The only answer was to do the GD run, so without giving it another thought, I got dressed and drove to Belle Meade Blvd. I ran 7 miles. Alone. In the rain. I rewarded myself with Tequila's. John and I feasted on fajitas, and not just any fajitas, Fajitas Texanas, because sometimes you have to splurge for those two pieces of shrimp.

When I'm stressed out or working through a big decision, I clear my mind by tackling an organization project. I typically organize existing systems, like shoes, scarves, jewelry, etc. But sometimes I have to go buy new systems and re-work the whole thing. I've been real pissed off at my makeup zone lately. I need to see it all in one place. And I need acrylic organizers.

I realized these suckers exist all over the place, but the ones I found were either the wrong style, or the right style, but broken. I finally found what I wanted at the Rivergate TJ Maxx. So I sat at the dining room table yesterday, pulled all my makeup out of everywhere and organized it into this thing. It was very cathartic. I only kept what I actually wear, or new samples from Birchbox that I haven't tried yet. I threw away a ton of stuff and made a give-away bag of stuff I've only used once or twice. I feel so much better!

Weekend Wrap Up: Old Slickory Edition

We had an ice storm in Nashville last week. I couldn't drive on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, tried driving on Thursday - mistake, and went back to not driving on Friday. Our driveway kept re-freezing, as did the street in front of our house. By Saturday afternoon, I decided I was going to Target if I had to put on my wetsuit and walk there.

It finally melted enough on Saturday afternoon for me to drive. I made it to Target. And Marshall's. And Old Navy. I needed new pajama pants, a black pencil skirt and ankle-length black pants. Target had absolutely nothing in my size. So I bought this candle. It was $10 and smells like the fancy one from Anthropologie. I got the rug and two black shirts at Marshall's. I heart that rug so hard. They had a million of them. This one was $30, but they had a bunch for $15 and $20, FYI. I hate Old Navy, but I knew they'd have pajama pants (on sale for $9), and they had nice-ish black pants and an okay black pencil skirt. Done.

My #1 homegirl, Lana, is running a full marathon on Saturday. I haven't done a long run in 2 weeks, but Melanie and I really wanted to run Lana's last long training run with her. She needed to run 8 miles, so we met at Belle Meade Blvd and ran the last 6 miles with her. And shockingly, none of us fell! (Everything was still covered in ice, except it was black ice now.)

Good luck on Saturday, Lana! Show Arizona the HAM!!!

Later on Sunday, I got to watch this little guy blow out the candle on his first birthday cake. Happy first birthday, Charlie! Your mom throws a mean party! (Alexis, I hope there's less babies at the Christmas party though.)

My plan on Sunday night was to watch the Oscar Awards a la our digital antenna. Nope. ABC was blacked out for the night. No problem, it's streaming online. Nope, not actually streaming. Only streaming things you can't see on TV, like the "backstage cam", the "audience cam", and my personal favorite, the "thank you cam". I hate you, ABC.

Weekend Wrap Up: Pizza Pizza Pizza Edition

I just realized that I ate pizza every day this weekend. On Friday, I celebrated a friend's birthday with homemade lobster pizza; on Saturday, I had pizza at City House; and on Sunday, John and I ate lunch at Desano. Tragically, I have no evidence of this pizza bonanza, so here's a picture of this car I was fortunate enough to park beside on Friday morning in Hillsboro Village.

On Saturday, I did my first outdoor ride since September. It was supposed to be a lot warmer than it was, of course. I basically just took what I'd wear for a long run and doubled it. My stomach hurt for hours because of all the different waistbands I had on. I was cold, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. I tagged along on a group ride that started at Shelby and went to the Percy Priest dam and back, about 24 miles. I had a lot of fun and miraculously remembered how to shift and clip-out. Yay, muscle memory!

Another thing I remembered, riding my bike makes me really hungry. Luckily, my friend Carolyn was nearby, so we met up at Mas Tacos where I ordered, and ate, all of the things. I don't remember what I did the rest of the day, but that night, I met my friend Meg at City House to thank her for designing my logo. Oh hello, belly ham pizza, WITH AN EGG. Per Mary Katherine's recommendation, we also treated ourselves to the Tennessee Waltz cake. Y'all. Go get that cake.

Early Sunday morning, before the rain set in, my lady gang met for a long run. We got rained on a little, so we warmed up at Dose with coffee and breakfast biscuits. You'd think eating an egg and cheese biscuit for breakfast would deter me from eating pizza for lunch. You'd be wrong. Hello, training metabolism!

Last night, while most people were watching the SuperBall-FootBowl, I was down the street being an extra in a photo shoot with my friend Freya. I played the part of rhythmically-challenged triathlete turns to burlesque for alternative fitness. Look for me soon on the Delinquent Debutantes website in the back row robotically doing all of the wrong moves.

Weekend Wrap Up: Popping Tags Edition

Oh hey, my face. While it was sleeting on Friday night, I kept warm under a blanket of chemicals and aluminum foil. Like the US Postal Service, neither rain, sleet, nor snow can keep me from my bi-monthly hair appointment. Also, for those keeping score at home, I didn't cut my hair. I'm not stopping until I achieve Crystal Gayle status. Apparently.

So the good news is, my fancy, new bike trainer is so quiet that Linda can sleep through my living room work-outs. The bad news is, Linda sleeps through my living room work-outs, #rude.

My friend April started an Article Club. She posted three articles online and we met at her house to discuss. We read this, this and this. As you may have deduced from my going off of Facebook for a month, I don't search out opportunities for tenuous conversation. But I've known April a long time and I trust her, plus few things get me going like group activities and meeting new people. There was also pizza and wine, so... duh.

I had a blast! April did a great job curating the right mix of attendees. We varied in age from 29-40+, single/divorced vs. married/re-married, children vs. no children, corporate vs. self-employed, cat vs. dog. It worked. We had real awesome, real respectful, real-talk. I had so much fun and can't wait for the next one.

My Sunday lady gang is a little disbanded at the moment, so I ended up running on my own yesterday. Sundays are supposed to be my long runs, but I keep not actually running long distances. I hurt my knees running that half marathon in December, so I've been slowing building back up. I ran five miles in Shelby yesterday, pretty fast:  10:22, 10:25, 10:26, 10:04, 9:34. Hooray, almost negative splits!

Because I don't have any friends anymore (kidding, kidding), I didn't do my post-run breakfast biscuit at Dose, so I was STARVING. John and I went to lunch at Kien Giang. Y'all, I'm not even kidding, I ate that banh mi as an appetizer.

File under: Duh. John and I are going to the Grammy's next week. There are three events that I need outfits for and finding those outfits will stand to be the greatest stressor of my life. Have I enlisted the help of a stylist? Yes. Have I ordered everything from everywhere? Yes. Do I have any idea what I'm wearing? No.

I found a gold blazer on Nasty Gal that I tried to buy only to find it exists solely in Mary Kate Olsen size. I've since made it my mission to find a gold blazer. I kind of found one. I think. I found this guy at the Rivergate Goodwill yesterday, where, pro tip, their blazer game is ON POINT. It's Calvin Klein and it appears to be brand new. It may need to be taken in a little, so we'll see (more pics on Flickr). To be continued...

Weekend Wrap Up: Chili Dog Birthday Edition

Is it Wednesday already? Oops! Let's dive right in. Remember Gone Girl, that book I read and said I wanted to punch in the face? Well, on Friday night, a small group of us face punchers gathered to drink wine, eat delicious pizza and watch the movie adaptation of the book. I liked the movie, but full disclosure, I'd watch Ben Affleck weed-eat for two and half hours. I still standby my review of that terrible book, but the movie is good.

We have a birthday in the house! The initial plan was a low-key, 'Hey, we'll be at The Stone Fox. Come by and say hi!', but The Stone Fox booked a private party, so... a house party it was. The weather was gorgeous on Saturday and I meant to go for a bike ride, but I never made it. I cleaned my house and made browned butter chocolate buttercream cupcakes instead. I'm fine with my choice.

When we were in Arkansas for Christmas, John had the epiphany of his life: you can make, and eat, chili dogs anytime you want. So I decided to make chili dogs for his birthday. No one would eat them sober, so the chili dogs just sat there, taunting me. But as the bourbon kept flowing, people's chili dog inhibitions fell away, and then, like magic, I looked around and everyone had a chili dog in their hand. John ate like five. I'm not even kidding. It was amazing.

Jessica, who shares my gift of thrift, gave John the Ten Commandments. Why? Because she's awesome. John, ever the Boy Scout, went out to the garage and came back with not just a nail and a hammer, no, he came back with a picture hanging kit and securely hung that plaque on the wall. (It's still there.)

Oh, Sunday, the day of lost workouts. Did I get up and do my long run? No. Did I go to my 90-minute masters swim? Nope. Did I sleep late, make poor food choices and go thrifting? Yes, yes I did that. I obviously didn't buy this, but it's a $5 Diane Von Furstenberg sweater vest. I feel like everyone my age owned a department store version of this in middle school, probably, as my friend Casey points out, from either Esprit or Liz Claiborne.

True story: when I moved to NYC, I bought this fancy purse at Bloomingdale's that I LOVED. It was one of those early 2000's Sex & The City saddle bags that fit right under your arm. I couldn't afford Christian Dior, so I bought an Esprit one (tomato, tomahto). The fabric was red, black and white paisley and the foldover flap was black patten leather. I loved it! I called it the paisley hotdog. I kept that purse for years because I wanted to always remember the first fancy thing I bought myself as a New Yorker. There are assuredly two years of pictures of me carrying that purse. I'll try and find out for #tbt.

Weekend Wrap Up: Holiday Hangover Edition

Oy. It's been a rough start back from the holidays, right? I think I have a holiday hangover. I did really good over the holidays and didn't buy myself anything, which I usually do the entire time I'm Christmas shopping. So to reward myself, on Friday I bought some stuff. You know, small ticket items like a Cycle Ops indoor bike trainer. Thanks, Red Kite! Then I went to Target and got new running tights (with a drawstring!) and this super cute/my new favorite sweatshirt. I needed a $40 sweatshirt like a hole in the head, but... #womenbeshopping.

I have exactly one friend from my youth, and this is her - Dawn. We met in middle school and have been friends and off and on roommates ever since. She moved to LA this year, but she was home for Christmas and wanted to check out Adele's, so I met her on Friday night for our fancy, lady dinner. Adele's - thumbs up!

More friends home for Christmas! On Saturday morning, I met my friend Hot Koh Koh for a run and coffee. And when I say run, I mean walk. Because we straight up walked for 4 miles. Whatever! My knee has been bothering me and it's easier to talk while walking anyway.

Okay, I did run on Sunday. Shockingly. I met Kristine, Melanie, Lana and Jessica to run various lengths in/around Belle Meade Boulevard. The three of us weren't feeling it, so we ran 3 miles, peaced out and went to Dose for coffee and biscuits.

Last week was my first week of Half Ironman training. I didn't actually start training, unless thinking, 'I should really start training' counts as training. I swim with NAC Masters and they sent out an email for their triathlete swimmers inviting us to show up at 3:30 on Sunday with our bikes and trainers for a 90 minute bike/swim brick workout. I just bought a bike trainer! I was super excited about this!

In not necessarily chronological order, here is a list of everything that went wrong. There was hockey practice and kids' swim practice, so I had to park a million miles away. It was freezing cold and raining. I was in flip flops. When I took my bike out of my trunk, my front tire wouldn't attach. I had to carry my bike, trainer and swim bag the million cold, wet miles into the building. I kept dropping things and sliding, because, flip flops. I got everything inside and up all the stairs to the bleachers only to realize that I didn't buy the training skewer to attach my bike to the trainer. No problem! I'll just park my bike and swim. The only lane open was so far away that I couldn't read the board, so I just swam freestyle for 45 minutes & got out. Wet, I walked my bike, swim bag and trainer back to my car. Still dropping things and sliding. I couldn't get the front tire back off my bike, so I couldn't get it in the trunk, and I couldn't get it in the backseat either. It was a disaster that ended in me crying all the way home. Interspersed in all this, were condescending remarks from men about bike maintenance, who I should be taking classes from and how bike trainers work. Thanks, men I don't know! You're why no one likes triathletes!

Christmas Wrap Up: You Might Be In A Holler If... Edition

John and I both spend all day staring at screens and typing on fancy, back lit keyboards. We're lucky to have had success this year, one of us real, actual success, and one of us, mental success, in that I mentally made it through 2014. To reward ourselves and unplug, we rented a cabin in the Ozarks. In Arkansas. In what turned out to be a straight up holler.

You might be in a holler if you're 15 minutes off the highway on dirt roads with no stop or street signs. (Or mail!)

You might be in a holler if your address is GPS coordinates.

You might be in a holler if your cabin has its own electrical power supply.

You might be in a holler if all the trailers you pass en route are A) trailers, B) smoking meat, C) cooking meth, or D) all of the above.

You might be in a holler if the chickens are more aggressive than the dogs, and both are roaming at-large.

You might be in a holler if a truck follows you from town to the cabin because they're suspicious of anyone in a Camry. (That really happened. We were TERRIFIED.)

You might be in a holler if people are bowhunting while you're hiking, on a hiking trail, meant for hiking.

You might be in a holler if you get shot with an arrow while on Christmas vacation in a holler. (That didn't happen, but it could have!)

John was never scared. Apparently there are hollers in Baltimore. Who knew?! But seriously, we had a blast. Our cabin was in the middle of nowhere with no one around as far as you could see - total privacy. On the first morning, I woke up to a deer party going on in the back yard. I woke John up because I thought they were elk. Turns out, I've just never seen real deer. But on the second morning, I woke up to a BALD EAGLE. I've never seen a bald eagle! I woke John up again and he confirmed that it was a bald eagle, albeit a teenage one. It was a PYBT:  pretty young bald thing. It flew off and made this huge circle in front of the cabin. Nature!

We brought piles of books and mostly stayed in the cabin reading, eating and drinking. We ventured out twice. Once to Eureka Springs, which was awesome. And once to Branson, which was heinous. But I got a concrete from Andy's Custard and John got to go to the Titanic Museum, so not all was lost. But seriously, Branson, thumbs down.

On Christmas Day, we did a 4-mile hike down the mountain to Cave Creek and goofed around there for awhile. I found an antler and a pile of bones that John thinks were from a cow. It was a lot of nature for one day. A young guy deer hunting passed us, noted my spandex running tights and John's collared shirt and peacoat and asked, 'Y'all stayin' in the cabin?'. We did not pass the test. Everyone everywhere asked where we were from. One man told John, "You some kind of TV Anchor or something?" I mistakenly wore my 'The Struggle Is Real' t-shirt. Guess what people in a holler don't think is funny? Ironic message tees. In fairness, I was also wearing striped leggings and high-top Chucks, so I did look insane.

We had such a great week. I had the shakes the first day from being offline, but I eventually detoxed and forgot I even owned a phone. Mostly. The cabin we stayed in is actually for 17 people. There were two whole levels of cabin that we didn't even use. We found it on VRBO. So if you're in the market for a 17-person cabin in the Ozarks, give me a holler ("holler" -ha!) and I'll give you the info. Disclaimer:  you will need either an Eagle Scout or the 1995 Maryland State Orienteering Champion to get you there.

Full holler photostream (with captions) on Flickr (and maybe Facebook later). I leave you with this video montage.

Weekend Wrap Up: Vaping, Baking and Barking Edition

On Friday afternoon, I did a photo session (shoot?) for my business website. Because I don't half-ass anything, I asked my friend Gio to do my hair and makeup. It's the best I've ever looked. I'm talking Kardashian-level contouring and highlighting. It took 2.5 hours to get me there, but man. Gio - thank you!

I worked with photographer Brian Risse, who some of you may know as Mr. Courtney Krampf. Brian spent about 2-3 hours shooting me in/around my house. Lot of prop changes, lot of outfit changes. Speaking of, shout-out to my girl Anjeanetta who came over earlier in the week to style my outfits and accessories for the shoot. It takes a village, people.

On Saturday, I put my dancing shoes (literally) and my santa hat in my cute, new Light In the Attic tote and headed down the road to Delinquent Debutantes for my Santa Baby Burlesque workshop with unicorn to the stars, Freya West. I had so much fun!!! It took 2 hours, but Freya taught me a 3 1/2 minute dance routine to "Santa Baby". Believe it!

Little known fact:  Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year for recording engineers. John Baldwin basically doesn't sleep in December. On Saturday night, he needed to pick some stuff up in East Nashville, so we grabbed ramen while we were over there. Yes, this is my second time in one week. I'm addicted!

On Sunday morning, I drove to Brentwood to meet Melanie and Jessica for a 6-mile run on the greenway. Afterwards, we spent easily 20 minutes taking pictures of ourselves with this bear. I call this one, "Bearly" Made the Podium. Ba da bum!

I ran a few last minute Christmas errands and then went home to bake all the things. And eat too much of the things. One day I'm going to get salmonella from raw eggs, but until then, COOKIE DOUGH FOR LIFE.

I was listening to Christmas music while I was baking (duh). John had ran out to get more vaping supplies (I know). When he got back, this hilarious Stephen Colbert Christmas song was on that we both love, so he grabbed his guitar and sat down and learned it. Our house is real ridiculous sometimes.

Weekend Wrap Up: Women Be Thrifting Edition

Friday morning was our annual holiday Pancake run and breakfast at Mary Katherine and Marshall's. We ran a cold 3 miles and then came in and ate a HUGE homemade breakfast. I'm talking monkey bread (with browned butter), frittata, cheese grits, biscuits, jam and Starbucks coffee. It was so nice! Love my Pancake girls. Bonus points if you spy the cat in this picture.

On Friday night, I met Katie and Alexis at POP for Otaku South. This was a whole lot of firsts for me. It was my first time at POP, and it was my first time eating ramen. I know. I have no excuse. I've been obsessed with eating ramen since watching Season One of Mind of a Chef with David Chang. I got the hot chicken bun, spicy paitan ramen, and they brought us these super tasty little bun/pies. I loved it so much! I also really loved the POP space. I'll definitely be back, #eatmoreramen.

I dedicated Saturday to Christmas shopping. Carolyn came out and joined me and we shopped until we dropped. I started at 10:00am and didn't get back home until after 4:00pm. It was intense. Carolyn took this hilarious picture of me at lunch. I was very confused about what was happening. She's calling it my 'wait, what?' picture.

I met my lady gang on Sunday morning for a 5-mile run in Shelby Bottoms. I wasn't sure I wanted to run at all, let alone 5 miles, but it went by super fast and my knee didn't bother me. Thanks, body! On my way home, I stopped at Red Bicycle and grabbed a latte (and then I secretly went back to Nashville West and bought more stuff - shhh).

John and I grabbed lunch at Thai Kitchen and then decided to hit the thrift stores on Nolensville Road. I hit the motherload at Music City Thrift. They had probably 15-ish of these painting in various sizes and prices, all signed by the same artist from 1971-1975. I wanted all of them, but I only bought this one. I also bought a box of Scripture cat cards, which some of you may see in your mailbox this week...

After Music City Thrift, we went on down the road to Thrift Smart. I kind of hate Thrift Smart, but their book selection is NUTS, so I always go. I'm going through a serious coffee cup phase right now in my thrifting. I bought all of these except the Expect To Win one because it was chipped. They were only a quarter!

On our way home, John ran in to Grimey's to buy the MOJO he's in and Rollum was there, so they made dinner plans for the four of us. It's always funny when the men make the plans. (John) "We're having dinner with Katie and Rollum!" (Me) "Okay. Where? When?" (John) "Oh, I don't know. But we're having dinner with Katie and Rollum!" Alas, a plan was made and we feasted on this fine array of vegetarian Indian fare.

P.S. You have got to see the rest of my thrifting pictures. Someone please go buy those paintings. Full thrifting photostream here.