Sunday, October 30, 2011

Week 8

Wow! That was an emotional game. After last week's devastating loss to the Jaguars, I just could not stand to watch us lose again. I for sure would have turned into this little boy again. In the first half when we were down 3-24, I just couldn't take another moment! I went out for a run to calm down my anger and anxiety. It turns out that was a great decision. I put all of my emotion into my run and had a great overall pace of 8:53.

I really find it difficult to run that fast when I'm running alone because I thrive on competition, and I usually just run to clear my mind and enjoy myself. I usually just enjoy the ride of the run rather than push myself. But Whenever I'm angry, I run so much better. And usually much longer. But with a football game going on, longer wasn't exactly what I was going for. By the time that I finished my run, the Ravens scored 10 more points, taking the score to 24-13. I can handle being 11 points down. Joe told me that we'd been playing great, which made me feel optimistic.


I stood through the rest of the game. Not even kidding. I was so nervous about this game. Even when they set up that last field goal with 3 seconds left, I was clenching my fists, unable to relax. But, as soon as that ball went through the goal post, I was finally able to relax and celebrate the sweet, sweet victory. I can't believe that we were down by 21 points at one point, and came back.WOW.


Next week is the 2nd Ravens v Steelers game of the season, which I'm really excited about. I share my office with a Steelers fan, so we're planning on having a fun week egging each other on. I plan to wear purple every single day, which is quite the feat. I don't even know if I have enough purple to make it through the week, but we'll see. I might also make some Ravens cookies. And I totally plan to cover her desk in black and purple. I can't wait!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Don't talk to me, I'm mourning

This is exactly how I feel right now. I seriously had the same reaction to last night's loss, tears and all. This little boy is my kindred spirit. How can I continue to love something that makes me hurt so badly?



I hate the Jaguars. And the refs.

I guess all is fair in love and football.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

House Fantasy

I am obsessed with buying a house. There, I said it. Obsessed. I find myself fantasizing about my future house on a semi-regular basis. Like, at least 264 times per day. I daydream about layout, furniture, artwork, paint colors, gardens, parties, holidays, how many Christmas trees we'll have, where we'll put said Christmas trees, and many other psychotically obsessive things completely irrelevant to my apartment-dwelling everyday life. I try to stay away, but about once per week I binge on zillow.com, and spend several hours salivating like a puppy on BLT night. This obsession is both fueled and complimented by my Young House Love obsession. Fun fact: I am strongly opposed to painted brick, much unlike YHL, and I strongly desire an exposed brick wall in Fantasy House.

Joe is positively bored and exhausted with all of this house talk. I can't blame him. It's not like I'm soft spoken about this obsession. And we never go anywhere because we're trying to turn our savings account into Haloti Ngata in order to buy this aforementioned future house. So, many hours of boredom due to staying in inevitably lead to many hours of me babbling like an idiot about Mr. Future K. Housington.

Despite the fact that I know that this obsession is unhealthy, and that I know we aren't buying a house until Spring 2012 at the earliest, I spent the last 1/2 hour on polyvore.com visualizing my future basement. Looky:

























future basement by ccandfbbaby on polyvore.com


Ahhhhh. It's so beautiful and perfect.

I'd have to say that the basement is the room I dream about the most, probably because it's the place in which we'll spend the most time (Because of this, I fantasize mostly of split levels due to their abundance in finished basements). Obviously, we'll watch football in the basement. It'll be a football cave, if you will.

I also find it very important that our basement be semi-scary. Basements are supposed to be scary. That's just how it is. A universal rule. To help with the scary factor, I want an ornately-framed picture of Edgar Allan Poe and an ornately-framed picture of Zombie Lincoln. You might be thinking "Oh SJ, It must be hard to find a picture of Zombie Lincoln. That's oddly specific." Actually, it's not hard to find AT ALL. I've located several on the interwebs.

Oh. That's not what you were thinking? You're siding with Joe on this one? You think it's weird to want a Zombie Lincoln as the focal point in the imaginary room in your imaginary home where you will spend most of your (imaginary) time?

That is BULL.

ZOMBIE LINCOLN IS A BEAUTIFUL WORK OF ART THAT SHOULD ONLY BE GAZED UPON WITH WONDER AND ADORATION.

Excuse me, please. This is very important to me.

Moving on, I also want a huge black leather sectional in the basement. You know what? I want the basement to look exactly like that polyvore board. I don't think any further explanation is necessary.

Back to Zombie Lincoln.

So tell me, are you on Team Zombie Lincoln or on smelly Team Joe?


Is a Zombie Lincoln picture a totally awesome and beautiful work of art suitable for a family football cave?
ABSOLUTELY. I'm awesome.
No. It's weird. Also, I smell terrible.
Results


I'll eat your brains. Recognize.

PJS 4EVA

It is a well established fact that I adore PJs and believe strongly that they are the only acceptable attire within the home.

Well here are some more pictures of me expressing my passion and adoration of the sacred PJ:

2007, during college, at a friends house, playing charades.
Macaroni was the answer. You're welcome. That is joyous laughter on my face. Not because I'm funny, but because of the joy that only wearing pajamas brings me.

These are my "fancy party PJs," worn to a New Years 2011 party.
While others might wear a fancy dress to a New Years party, this is my "cleaning up nicely." Classy, I know.

It was a pajama party after all!
Party like a rock star. Word.

I'm only 3 months old here, but my love of pajamas is already apparent and deep.

Here I am playing hungry hungry hippos in my Sponge-B PJ pants. Also in college, 2005. The game isn't that great. The pants are more fun and entertaining. You cannot see my face, but I assure you that it is plastered with an expression of deep contentment due to my wearing apparel.

Only while wearing PJs is it appropriate to sip adult beverages while looking through a children's doll catalog. Here my face isn't exactly plastered with contentment, just plastered.

PJs 4 eva. Word.

Friday, October 21, 2011

PF7

I really don't know what to say, except it's the 7th Purple Friday of the season. I'm off today, and it's way too early for a blog post on my day off. Don't go congratulating me on my day off just yet. I have to work tomorrow, so it doesn't count. Yes, tomorrow as in SATURDAY. OH THE HORROR! I didn't get my Master's degree to work Saturdays!

I know I'm being a little dramatic, but I seriously don't care. Working Saturdays sucks.

Anyway, I'm going for a run, then going to the Amish market for donuts and chicken salad (don't hate), picking up my mom, eating chicken salad with her, and then visiting my grandma and grandpa while bearing donuts. Much better than rush hour and traffic.

Now excuse me while I eat a home cooked breakfast and get my Purple Friday on.

No pic for you.

SUCK IT.


PF1PF2PF3, PF4, BYE, PF6

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

PJ4L!!

Sometimes I wonder why there is always so much laundry to do. We can never, ever, EVER, EVER get caught up.

Then I thought about how many clothes I wore yesterday alone. Dress pants, knee highs, bra, underwear, blouse, cardigan, t-shirt, sweat pants, sports bra, socks, another pair of underwear, pj pants, another pair of underwear, and another t-shirt. That's a lot of freaking laundry!

However it may seem, laundry woes are not the point in this post. The point in this post is sweatpants. And pajamas. Sometimes they are interchangeable. Who hasn't worn sweatpants to bed? Or pajamas to the gym? (Just me?). Well, in this case they are interchangeable.

I still haven't gotten to the point in this post yet, have I?

SORRY

Approximately 12 seconds after walking into the front door each and every night, I frantically tear off my dress clothes and replace them with PJs. Most days, it's completely unconscious, and I don't even realize I'm doing it until I'm tottering on one foot, while trying to yank my dress pants off over my high heels, that I somehow always forget to take off first. Today, mid-change-session, I wondered if Joe minded that I always transform myself from polished professional to slobby hobo as soon as I get home. I then looked over at him to ask whether or not this bothered him, only to realize that he was cooking dinner in a t-shirt and underwear. He does it too! WE ARE A PAJAMA HOME!

My name is SJ and I have a confession to make. I ONLY WEAR PAJAMAS AT HOME. No, not I refuse to wear them while venturing out of my home; that's not me at all. Rather I refuse to wear anything else except pajamas while home. I can get dressed, go out grocery shopping, be home by 11:00am, and as soon as I walk in the door, the jeans come OFF! Same goes for dress pants at the end of the day. I just cannot bear to wear them within the borders of my home. I do not water my balcony plants often enough solely because that would require pants. Sometimes PJs are pants-less, OK? Joe agrees. Haters gonna hate.

Is this normal? Joe says that everyone who wears dress clothes all day does this, but this is the kind of thing that people don't talk about. I don't care if people are all hush hush about this. I need to know. At what point in the day do you change into PJs?

Whatever your answer, mine will always be:

A.S.A.P.


PJs 4 LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Baltimore Running Fest 2011

So, I did it! I ran in the Baltimore Marathon Relay yesterday! It was such a beautiful day to run; the weather was perfect! I spent the night before dutifully eating my carbs (CRAB FRIED RICE! SERIOUSLY!) and going to bed semi-early, and it really paid off. I had great run. My husband Joe and my best friend Kelsey came to watch and cheer me on! Kelsey is awesome. She made shirts and everything. They had bacon cheeseburgers on them and said, "SARAH!" So fitting. I had been saying for weeks that as soon as I finished running, I was going to eat a bacon cheeseburger for lunch. And oh did I!

As for the race itself, I did really great. As you can see in this post and this post, I've been running at a 9:30+ pace all while training. But in the race, I pulled off a 9:03 pace, and finished my 7 miles in 1:04:04.


I ran one of the two longer legs of the race, and had the best pace of my entire team. I feel like that's something to be proud of! My pace looks slightly slower when you look at the team score compared to my tracker, but that's due to the fact that I had to stop and take off the time chip, which was secured around my ankle, and pass it off to my teammate. My time didn't technically end until she left the exchange zone with the chip attached to her person. Overall, we had a pretty good time for the entire marathon with 4:29:43.

Individual leg lengths:



Our Team's time:

Speaking of tracking my pace, I've never been happier to have my iPhone. I really had a hard time deciding to get one, and everyday I feel more and more like it was the right decision. Not only did I love using my iPhone to track my run and listen to music (today and throughout training), but I was able to snap pics throughout my run so easily. I sent picture texts to Joe and Kelsey to let them know how far along I was. I mainly sent pictures of the mile markers:


Doing this while running was so much easier and understandable than sending a text message saying "I'm at mile 8" would have been. Plus, this way there was no confusing between mile 8 of the entire marathon and how far I'd run personally. By doing this, they knew when I was getting close to them so that they could easily snap a photo. Here I am:


 Overall, it was a really great race, and a good experience. But I think next year I'll do the half-marathon. I've done the relay twice, and I think I've gotten all of the satisfaction I can out of it. Especially when I work really hard to have a great pace, and my teammates really don't measure up. Not trying to have my nose in the air, but when one of your teammate's pace is a full 3 minutes per mile slower than yours, that overall time is kind of a let down. Plus, I barely trained for this, and with a little more effort toward training, I think I could pull off the half. Not to mention, I really want one of those nifty "13.1" stickers for my car! Vain? Probably. I don't care though.

Speaking of vain, here are a few more pics of the day. Eat your heart out, bitches:



 Word to your mother.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Purple Friday Week Six

It's Purple Friday Mehhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

That face is for you. And for the future. Treasure it.
Go Ravens!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Three Ways to Eat Honey Daily That Are Actually Doable

I mentioned in this post that I am trying to eat raw local honey daily to help combat seasonal allergies. I can't say whether it's working or not yet, because I oh so wisely decided to start this regimen in the beginning of Fall. Genius, I know. Anyway the point in this whole thing is to expose myself to allergens over time via ingestion so that perhaps they will not cause my eyes to bleed and my nose to fall off come the Spring.

And Summer.

I know that there are endless fancy-schmancy ways to eat honey, but to be honest, I probably would neither stomach nor bother with them on a daily basis. Take Greek yogurt with honey, for example. Have you ever tried it? Perhaps with nuts for protein? Did you, by chance, desire a barf-fest approximately 1.14 bites in? I know I did. Who thought of that anyway? That shix is a super disgusto combo.

Then there's baclava. Delicious, I know. But who the fux takes the time to make baclava? Am I right? And wouldn't I have to cook the honey anyway, thus defeating the purpose in buying raw?

Here are some real ways to eat honey every single day, that I've been able to do today, yesterday, and for the past few weeks, and that I'll surely be able to keep doing hopefully indefinitely:

1. Eat it plain, right off of the spoon. No shit, right? Honey is good enough to just eat, so why not just go ahead and eat it! It feels like a sinfully indulgent thing to do, but really it's not. You have to eat it anyway, so just do it!

2. Put some in your tea. Whether hot or iced, honey sure does taste great in tea. If your not a tea drinker, I get it. This is probably as disgusting to you as the yogurt thing was to me. But if you were raised in a house of tea, like moi, it's a delicious suggestion! I've been drinking hot Earl grey tea with honey and a lemon wedge. A lot.

3. This is the last real suggestion. Anything I could suggest after this I haven't personally done, so it'd probably be complete bull. But this one is my favorite if the three, thus saved for last. Honey on a buttered toasted bread item. I prefer a honey wheat English muffin as my "bread item." I shouldn't really have to elaborate this because everyone (worth knowing) has gone gaga over honey butter at some point in life. Like in college when they accidentally ordered it for the dining hall and word spread like wildfire. More than one person jumped to their feet exclaiming, "honey butter!" before making a mad dash to the butter and jelly section. Soon they were out of bread, bagels, and everything else h-butter could be spread onto. After that, we checked the butter every morning at breakfast until graduation, hoping for another delicious ordering mistake.

Yeah, it's that good. So why can't one just add honey and butter to their daily English muffin, and call it the same thing? ONE CAN, OF COURSE!


So, eat honey, get money.
Word.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Un-Purple Friday

It's Friday, but not Purple Friday. There is not a Ravens game this weekend. I am wearing stupid blue and gray. When I walked down the streets this morning, I was not drowned in a sea of people wearing their Friday best. No purple blouses, polos, dress shirts, sweaters, tees, jerseys; nothing. Just regular people on a regular day.

I'm so sad that I want to put on my jersey, get back in bed, eat McDonald's and cry while watching game clips on YouTube. And drink Malibu.

Just kidding. Except about the Malibu. And the McDonald's. And the YouTube. OK, I wasn't kidding.

In all seriousness, this bye week is actually gonna be pretty nice. What will I do instead of watching football this Sunday? I'm gonna go hiking and enjoy this beautiful fall weather.

And maybe get caught up on laundry.

Just kidding.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Early Onset Holiday Fever?

I think I have a problem. I am a little bit too ready for the Holidays. It is October 2nd. Do I really need to be this excited, so soon? Could it be my mental health day making me ready for another day week off? Could it be the sudden onset chilly weather and the leaves turning overnight? Could it be the Apple Festival we went to yesterday filled with ciders, pies, and fall and wintry treats? Did I really just buy a Santa Claus statue yesterday?

A Ravens Santa? OH YEAH!
Did I really start making my Christmas shopping list already? Did I really just make a turkey and stuffing bake for dinner that tastes just like Thanksgiving (thank you Everyday Food!)?

Did I really just eat pumpkin whoopie pies for desert? Seriously? Did I really eat it so fast once I unwrapped it that I couldn't take a picture of it in its unwrapped glory before it was demolished by my pumpkin-crazed alter-ego (45 secs, yo!)?

Is this a common phenomenon, this Early Onset Holiday Fever? Am I alone in this obsessive all-consuming sickness? Are any treatments available? IS THAT HAM? WHAT'S A GIRL TO DO?!?!? HELP! MEEEE! PLEEEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




p.s. GO RAVENS!