I’ve been window shopping all morning on the interwebs, which is alternating making me happy to look at all the pretty clothes and sad that I have no money to buy any of them, but a girl can dream right? So I thought why not make everybody suffer with me! I have a Christmas party this Friday and while I will wear some old dress or skirt I’ve had for years here’s what I wish I was wearing:
I LOVE this Octopus bracelet from Anthropologie. Of course, it is way over my jewelry budget at $198, but I think you could wear it with a simple LBD and black shoes and it would make the whole outfit interesting instantly. I love fun accessories for that reason alone.
I think this 7 for all Mankind Asymmetrical dress would be perfect for holiday parties – Simple with just a little bit of embellishment on the shoulder. I would definitely wear a skinny black belt around the waist to give it a bit of shape.
And to complete it a pair of simple black pumps by Michael Antonio with a ruffle along the edge. Surprisingly, these are affordable at $50, but they don’t have my size. (My bank account is grateful.)
Well, that’s my dream outfit for this Friday night. What are you lusting after this holiday season?
I filled out my class evaluations today and for the first time since I started graduate school I gave both my professors glowing reviews. They were both interesting and explained everything clearly, not to mention, managed to make two subjects that had the potential to be excruciatingly boring fascinating. Because of this I am almost sad to see this quarter end for you never know what kind of nightmares I’ll have to deal with next quarter.
I say almost sad because I have never had so much reading assigned before and, therefore, have never been so behind before. That and when I turned in my legal paper rough draft I was told it needed “extensive rewording” which gave me heart palpitations because I don’t handle criticism well.
It also makes me nervous because, while normally I’d be looking forward to a leisurely break this break will be the complete opposite of leisurely thanks to Christmas and wedding planning and my life is only going to get more busy in the next nine months. On the positive side this means they’ll go by fast, which is good because I am very impatient and ready to get married.
I am also looking forward to getting back to training and exercising more regularly. I get so caught up in studying for finals because I’m crazy and think that anything less than 100% is a big fat FAILURE that everything else in my life has to take a backseat for those two last weeks in the quarter. So starting the 13th I am going to start seriously training for my half marathon and I really can’t wait!
I wish I could make time this weekend to run because the temperature here took a severe and sudden drop this week and I would like to get some experience running in the freezing cold before my race on the 12th. Unfortunately, I am afraid that 10K will be my first attempt at running in the snow. So at this point I am just hoping I am able to run it. I asked Chuckles to get me some runner’s cleats just in case it’s really icy.
Well…those are my rambling thoughts for the day. It’s pretty representative of how all over the place my head is lately.
I’ve been running regularly for over a year now and have seen a lot of improvement in my speed and form and yet I still don’t feel like I belong to the “runner’s club”. I read other running blogs and runners world forums and feel pathetic that I have yet to run even a half-marathon.
Of course, I know this shouldn’t bother me at all because everybody has to start somewhere. Regardless, when I see other runners out on my run I always feel my pace speed up a little as I try to prove myself.
I went on two runs this past weekend in an attempt to burn off the Thanksgiving calories and they were difficult, painful runs. It was quite possibly the amount of booze I drank on Thursday or the biting wind, but by the last mile of my nine mile run on Friday I was barely able to walk.
And (I warn you – this might be TMI) it was also difficult to run because there was a distinct possibility that I might shit my pants. I know I am not the only one that has this problem on long runs and the best advice I have found on runners’ forums is “Run near toilets”. Great. Advice.
Anyway, as I was walking up the hill toward my car a girl was running towards me with a runner’s belt, skinny runner’s body, and judging eyes. Yes, Judging Eyes. Because I was walking. It took all my willpower not to yell, “It’s because I don’t want to shit my pants! Lay Off Lady!” Yeah, take that.
I rarely use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to think about what I’m thankful for. Instead, I see it as an opportunity to eat a helluva lot of food and sit in front of the TV all day and while this year really isn’t that much different, as in I’m still going to eat a lot, there were reminders about why I am thankful for many things in my life.
First, I was reading Postsecret on Monday and there was one secret that stood out to me:
It made me so grateful that I have such a great support system around me - a great family, friends, and fiancé. I just can’t imagine going through life all by myself.
Then yesterday on my way to the gym after work I was listening to an NPR story about soldiers coming home and how a family whose son had died was at the homecoming anyways as some sort of closure and they were sobbing. So I was sobbing, of course. I got some weird looks when I got to the gym from my body pump instructor who said hi to me and then quickly walked away because it was so painfully obvious that I had been crying. It was Awkward and if it hadn’t been Thanksgiving week I would have skipped.
But, seriously, I am so blessed with my wonderful parents, my bossy big sister (I’ve grown to love the bossiness about her…especially as she takes over wedding planning) and her family, and my amazing fiancé.
Also, I’m thankful for my ability to walk forever in heels. I think I was born to wear heels. Thank god because it makes up for my short legs, which I am NOT thankful for. Although, I am thankful I can run on them.
Ok…I’ll stop now. What are YOU thankful for? Mashed potatoes? Booze? Larry David?
So I really like the idea of thigh-high boots, but, at the same time, am unsure how you pull them off without looking like a hooker ala Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. I suspect that they only way to wear them is over leggings or skinny jeans. Neither of which I wear because I feel like they only look good on girls who are a size 2. Although…I’ve been tempted to get some leggings lately, but I would always wear them with a dress (as if that somehow makes it ok).
I think in the pics below that Hayden Panettiere and Cameron Diaz really pull them off, but is it just because they’re hot celebs?! Or can a nobody pull them off? If so, how?
And, it has to be said, they look incredibly difficult to get on and off so would I end up wearing them constantly? To bed? In the shower? Not to mention, what if they’re so tight they cut off circulation to my legs? So, what are your thoughts on thigh-highs?
I was going to write today about gift guides and recycle the age old topic of how utterly difficult my dad is to shop for, but luckily I came across this article that lists literary characters the author would get down and dirty with, which is waaaayyy more interesting than Christmas shopping.
Of course there are a few on the list I disagree with. Specifically - Carlisle Cullen? Puh-lease. If I were to sleep with any character from Twilight it would be Jacob. Who in their right mind would choose Carlisle over Jacob?! And, for that matter, who would choose Edward over Jacob?! You’re a nutjob if you’d pick Edward. I’m sorry if that seems harsh but those are the facts.
However, I wholeheartedly agree with Gilbert Blythe. Oh, how I love him. Nummy. I’m drooling just thinking about it…Rhett Butler is another one. I just think he has to be a-mazing in bed. I can’t believe how stupid Scarlet was to not figure it out. Once again, who in their right mind would pick Ashley Wilkes over Rhett Butler?! SCARLET! I wish I could slap her silly.
I also have one character I would like to add – Laurie from Little Women. I was devastated when he didn’t marry Jo because Jo is a stupid stupid lady (I was going to say bitch, but I don’t hate her that much no matter how hard I try) and married Amy instead. Obviously, Jo didn’t deserve him because she didn’t know what she had and Amy didn’t deserve him because she was a little snot. I might be biased thanks to the fact that he was played by Christian Bale in the movie, but I really did love him in the book. In fact, I refused to finish the book the first time I read it when I realized that Jo wasn’t going to end up with him. Jesus, I’m getting myself all hot and bothered just thinking about it.
So what literary character are you dying to bump uglies with?
I participated in the Pineapple Classic this weekend for the second year in a row. I was on a team with my friend, Linda; the Sandy Bee-yotches. I know, we’re dorks. It’s a fun race – it’s a 5K obstacle course. There are walls to climb over, tubes to crawl through, and nets to climb across. Needless to say you end the race covered in mud.
Well, this year I was lucky enough to have an asshole following me throughout the course. First, there was the wall that had no footholes and was so tall that even with a running leap I still couldn’t touch the top. As I tried to do a running leap and failed I shrugged and turned to walk around and saw AH give me a distinctly dirty look. I tried to shrug it off thinking I had just imagined it.
Next were the dreaded monkey bars. I didn’t even attempt these last year. It still boggles my mind that I could do this at any point in my life. This year though I at least tried it. It took me three tries to even grab a hold of the stupid bars (in case you haven’t figured it out yet I’m a tad bit shorter than your average female). When I finally did get a grip on them my hand immediately slipped off and I consider myself lucky that I didn’t fall flat on my back in the middle of a mud puddle. So I said, “Screw it!” As AH behind me said, “What you’re not even going to attempt it?!” I answered with the same dirty look he gave me earlier.
So throughout this race every team has to carry a pineapple with them and every time we got to an obstacle Linda would stick it down her pants to free up her hands. And, yes, it was as funny as it sounds. At the second wall as Linda stuffed it down her pants I told her that she didn’t have to stretch her pants out this time she should just throw the pineapple over the wall and pick it up on the other side. AH interjected here and informed us that you are NOT ALLOWED to let the pineapple touch the ground EVER. I told him there was no need to worry we’d already been disqualified multiple times so SUCK IT. I didn’t actually say suck it out loud because I have no balls.
Next was the net that we had to climb up and over. I watched as Linda climbed up it with a pineapple stuffed down her pants and when she had climbed over the top I started climbing up it. When I got to the top I swung my leg up and over only to hear AH yell, “Thanks for not kicking me in the face!” Shouldn’t he have been farther down the net knowing that I was going to have to move my leg that way to climb over the top?!
So…yeah…that’s my rant about AH at the Pineapple Classic. I really did have fun on it and will do it again next year. But seriously it’s supposed to be a fun and crazy race – people running it shouldn’t appoint themselves the Pineapple police, instead, they should be encouraging everyone else. Like the people at the second wall who cheered for me when I made it over because I still had to stretch like crazy to reach the top despite the footholds.
