Snack Salvation

I am not one for squirreling away snacks - I am trying to do 6 small meals a day and as such, don't find the need for little treats too often.

Interestingly enough, I was searching in the pantry drawer for my trail mix this morning when when I found a bag of Dove dark chocolate. They are left over from Christmas (our delicious peanut butter blossoms got an upgrade this year from the run of the mill Hershey Kiss!) and because David & Holly are partial to milk chocolate, the dark chocolate sit unattended. I can't begin to tell you what I was thinking when I grabbed two squares - it was 4:45 am - and I threw them both into my purse without any purpose.

Enter the later part of the afternoon. I have successfully (perhaps relative, but for the sake of this conversation let's say it was successful) completed 6 of the 7 MUST DO tasks that I had upon my arrival in the office today. The last one looms and is going to take me a while...it is about 12 hours since that unconscious moment in my kitchen. I am sitting at my desk, trying to get my groove on, wondering what it will take to power through it when suddenly I remember...I have dark chocolate!

I am happily savoring the 2nd square now as I type this. I even had two different messages inside the wrappers...the first one said, "Do all things with love" - good advice. The second one was custom made for me - "Take a deep breath and exhale."

I did just that, chocolate breath and all!

The Season Has Begun

Sunday launched the 2011 event season in a very grand way...the Carlsbad 1/2 marathon. Dubbed my favorite course of all run so far, Kris & Elizabeth decided that they needed to check it out and see what all of the fuss was about. Lynne also joined us, a milestone because this was her first 1/2 marathon, with her longest run to date having been a 10K back at Thanksgiving.

The weather and course did not disappoint. It started out a bit chilly, but by about miles 2 or 3, we had all stripped off our gloves, sleeves and sweatshirts and were ready for some serious mileage. Lynne had a beeper thing that chimed at 4 minutes (running time) and then again at 2 minutes (walking time). We made it through what I think was about 12 rounds of that before we opted to just turn it off...it was far too much a distraction than it was helping and quite frankly, I think that it was putting undue pressure on the group to be structured. We finally settled in on a pace that allowed everyone to be comfortable and enjoy the run, or walk, or whatever you wanted it to be.

Things always get a bit grueling (in my opinion) after about 10 miles, and if you are experiencing any aches or pains (as Lynne was with her knees), they are magnified about 100 times at this point. We shuffled along a bit, chatting it up and trying to distract until we landed on the ultimate game...Better Than.

A friend of mine that we bumped into before the race talked about this game - when you get to the point where you are just about over the whole running/race thing, compare the things that your run is better than. We started out easy (being poked in the eye with a stick, getting hit by a car) and then we got incredibly detailed and specific (scalding your tongue on hot coffee and then getting a paper cut when you lick an envelope). The best part about our little game besides entertaining the people around us? The finish line was suddenly upon us and we completed our 13.1 miles!! Lynne cried a little bit.

The season has officially begun!

One Book, One Life

Last night, I went to a benefit show for a program called One Book, One Life. In addition to being a great show with 3 different bands, starting from the Youth band to our worship music director all the way to "Steve" and his daughter (I am sure that his band had a name, but I didn't catch it and everyone kept referring to how much they liked "Steve", so that is the extent of my education on who was playing). The point is that we had some great entertainment and spent a couple of hours with some great music - both familiar standbys and some new, original material.

Impressive to me is the formation of this organization - these are all what I would call kids (between 20 and 23 or so) who had a vision for making a difference in our world and took that vision to action. Most adults struggle to do something like this, making this even more special.

Each one of the 4 officers in the organization got up in front of the audience near the end of the concert and gave thanks and praise for the work that has been done so far, and it is clear that much more work will be done this year and moving forward.

I love to see how amazing things can happen with the right attitude and mindset.

Abundant

This has been a full week and admittedly it started out with my head in the wrong place - I was feeling cranky around how many demands are placed on my time at work and in that I was losing sight of everything else that I have going on and just HOW MANY great people that I have in my life to enhance, enrich and make it fun.

I squeezed in a dinner with my Emmaus peeps on Wednesday, had a couple of GOOD belly laughs in a few different quick conversations on the phone with David, Holly and a couple of other friends over the course of the week, I made it out to SOTHUMC Friday night for Centering Prayer and then met with some old friends for dinner and then I attended my first training of the season with the MIMs this morning!

Add to that a benefit show tonight, a 1/2 marathon in Carlsbad tomorrow, lunch with a friend and her kids, followed by a visit from an out-of-town friend...whew! There are a couple of key words that come to mind..Blessed. Lucky. Abundant.

There are a lot of great people in my life, all of whom add amazing diversity, dimension and joy to my days. If you are reading this, you are one of these significant people in my life, so thank you!

Treats for the Soul

I must declare my love for 3 things this week (beyond of course the very long list of things that I already love!) 1 - Annette; 2 - Cookies; 3 - Facebook...and in that order.

I have put myself on a 2x per day Facebook check. I don't leave it open anymore because all too often I will get distracted if I see something pop up and then I realize that I am cutting into my brilliant efficiency by goofing off and scrolling through posts. I did the same with my personal email account, because good grief...I get a lot of email. At any rate, the point of me describing my daily routine is to identify how I came to this love of 3 things on Thursday.

I start work in the office at 6 am on Tue and Thu (conference calls with our new international markets in Europe), so the posts that are listed when I check early in the day are often from the previous night. There was a posting by a lovely General Manager who works in the 3rd Street Promenade store, proudly displaying her cookies and asking anyone if they wanted one. Jokingly, I commented on Annette's post that if she was going to drop by the office, I would love one, then I signed off and thought nothing more of it.

Imagine my surprise (and delight) when Annette showed up at the office at about 4:30 pm with a bag of 6 super sized cookies in tow. Super cool! I made 5 new best friends by sharing these AWESOME cookies and had a rather enjoyable visit with Annette who really wowed me with her good baking and thoughtful gift.

These are the kind of treats that are good for your stomach AND your soul!

Urban Dictionary

A co-worker sent this email to me on Wednesday, and for some reason it hit my funny bone:

"Urban Dictionary should put my picture up next to the definition of this phrase:"
Premature Exasperation - becoming upset about something before knowing all (or any) of the details

In addition to being funny, it is TRUE! We work in an office filled with anticipators, ready to fly off in a rage or emotional rant well before any actual facts are introduced into the situation. It simultaneously frustrates and amuses me, but this new definition (and the thought of my co-worker fully admitting his leading role in this) puts a far more entertaining spin on the whole situation.

A little bit of humor, a little bit of sad truth and a little bit of sarcasm mix in for the whole Urban Dictionary experience. I may not enjoy all of the crazy definitions that are out there, but for the most part I have to admit that they get it right on!

We REALLY Love Lucy

While in Orlando, the Schnoogs and I got into a long conversation about Lucille Ball - I think it was while we were eating dinner in the Brown Derby, recalling the whole episode where Lucy stalks Bill Holden - we agreed that not only was she brilliant at taking the mundane or ordinary and making it funny, but also how her humor endures...minus the overly demure housewife stereotypes that were typical of the early and mid 50's.

In classic Schnoogs form, she came home and found a complete set online, sweet-talked David into getting it for her and BAM! Upon my arrival home Tuesday night, there was the set and the first DVD was already loaded in the player.

The pilot was (in Ebe-speak) fascinating. The set was very temporary and small, there was a lot of focus on Ricky's performances and singing, it was an odd 33 minutes long, but when all is said and done, it launched a whole new generation of entertainment to the world.

Vitameatavegimin is among some of the first episodes, I can't wait for that!

Grubbin' on Grapefruit

I have been reintroduced to the delectable treat of grapefruit. David comes across a fair number of fruits, vegetables and flowers in his line of work, so we periodically benefit in the form of something fresh and organic grown to abundance by a customer and shared with us.

A bag of grapefruits materialized at the house while Holly and I were gone in Orlando and while they smelled very good, it wasn't my first inclination to eat one, but after David issued a ringing endorsement, I decided to section one and give it a try. WOW. Delicious doesn't even begin to describe, it was awesome and a great element of my "on the road" breakfast.

I brought a whole one to work today to enjoy at "breakfast 2". I subscribe to the six small meals a day program when I can, which means it seems like I am always eating something...not a bad deal! At any rate, I had a strange combination of a chocolate pomegranate Vita Top, a piece of string cheese and a grapefruit. Not to be eaten all at once, but it was good and it was yet again a reminder of just how good these grapefruit are!

I have already placed my request for another bag for as long as the bountiful harvest lasts!

Making the Magic Happen

I am sorry to report that I did not realize that I had completely zoned on blogging yesterday until just a few minutes ago...I am not yet in the disciplined state of consistency as my friend Elizabeth, who is on track to complete an entry every day for the month of January...and then I am sure she will carry forth into all of Q1, the first six months, and eventually the whole year. Let's just take it a day at a time here.

The day was long yesterday and admittedly, I was not in the most delighted of moods at the prospect of coming back to work after a SUPER fun week with the Schnoogs in Orlando and quite frankly, just some time away from the crazy yogurt place where everything is a burning priority.

I decided after the incredibly long day yesterday and early start today, I need to think about what is right with this scenario rather than what is wrong. I sat at my desk for a moment and just took it all in and realized that, while things do go at a frenetic pace all day long and I am continuously interrupted with questions, requests, demands, inquiries and solicitations, I have created a pretty nice space for myself that both represents who I am and keeps me grounded in what is important.

Two computer monitors (phenomenal for multi-tasking, you must consider trying it!) sit amongst the basics I need for answering the however many questions I get a day, but if you look closely, you can also see nestled in amongst the required desk items a few pictures and tokens of what keeps me ticking - the faith hanger that a co-worker gave to me, pictures of the dogs, Holly and us as a family, my ever-full cup of tea and bladder-buster cylinder of water, a silly business definition of "job spill" (I live it!) - these are the things that remind me constantly that life is good and I have a lot to be thankful for.

Yep, this is where I make the magic happen. I will not deny however that it will be nice next week when I make that same magic happen from home, a far more enjoyable work environment in my humble opinion!

The Routine

Trying to get back into the routine of things after having a full week of vacation. A bit of a slow start this morning, as I intended to run first, but got caught up in my book (really the kindle, but the end result of reading is the same!), then decided to check some Facebook stats, see what blogging activity has gone on, and took a peek at the number of emails that await for review tomorrow (it is still loading, so I shudder to think about what that number is going to net out to) and get a plan going for the day.

It is always interesting to me to realize just how much I pack into a "normal" week and what my routine really looks like some days. You might say crazy, I prefer "full". At any rate, the full day is about to commence and when the sun sets, I will have run a 10K, gone food shopping, shopped at Target, done the laundry, cooked 3 of the dinners for next week, vacuumed and walked the dogs (the evening walk only; I missed the am walk at the beach).

Glad to be back in the routine!