Adventure #49: A Good Friday Indeed

A Happy Belated Good Friday to you!  Significant to me because there was no work on this glorious day, and I was determined to enjoy and relax.  Which I did.  Spent way too long in my pj's initially, but nothing wrong with that!  I got some good reading done from my book, had some breakfast, and even witnessed the repairman fix the kitchen sink and my squeaky bedroom door.  Not a bad start to my day at all.  (Honestly, getting to stay in my pj's for that long was enough to make me happy!)

Yikes!  To the left is my chronic problem of snapping pictures of my computer screen and forgetting how distorted the resulting image will be.  Ah well, I needed to prove to the world that Brian and I still frequently battle each other at Facebook Scrabble.  Lately he's been really good about playing on his turn, too!  (Life typically gets crazy for him and quite some time may pass before he thinks about his move for Scrabble).  Oh and a little secret--I won the last game.  It was pretty epic.

Do you see the AWESOMENESS that is in the picture below?  Maybe you are having a hard time seeing, so let me help you out:  MY MICHIGAN TRIP IS APPROACHING!  Yep, it's officially on this calendar that I will be heading out to see Brian graduate and visit with some of my favorite people!  I'm so pumped and am so looking forward to it!  (Also, you will notice another non-productive pasttime on my computer, good ol Pinterest.  Oh goodness.)

 What is it?!  What could possibly be in the two large boxes that I retrieved from my apartment's front desk?!  Well, it was obviously sent from home and obviously related to the Easter holiday, but I didn't have many more guesses...so I opened the boxes!  (Much easier said than done...I struggled with the tape on those damn things for far too long!)

Oh hey, look!  An Easter basket with all kinds of delicious goodies (most of which I can eat, even with my dumb dietary restrictions) AND four GIANT chocolate eggs, two filled with peanut butter, two with granola, nuts, and dried fruit.  YUM!

A lil more of a close up of the treats is to the left.  That Easter basket had tons of chocolate goodies AND a tea pot/tea cup combo with English breakfast tea.  Chocolate + Tea = the perfect gift basket for Ali.  Thanks so much to the family again for the Easter treats!  It's definitely making for a great weekend for me!

Ok, so it came to be time to put the candy/tea goodies away and eat nourishing food.  I got to work whipping up one of my favorite corn tortilla wraps for lunch.  Usually I eat these things for lunch at work, but with no work on Good Friday, an exception had to be made--and my tummy was happy with every bite!  (Have I mentioned that I still haven't showered at this point?  Merely put clothes on...)

 So.  I went for a walk after lunch.  The day seemed nice and warm, and I had nothing else planned, so I figured--why not?  I kinda took a risk and went down a path I'd never been on before, but the Adventure paid off because I discovered it led to the path that I am used to taking--and brought me right back home!  Lookee here at what I found--cacti!  I always get excited at seeing these.  I may be in Texas, but there's sometimes very little proof of it in Austin (other than the weather).  Lots of cacti nestled in the bushes and weeds off this trail.

Ok, ok, so I returned for the walk and decided that before finally showering for the day, I'd make sure that my face was extra clean and put a face mask on for a bit.  GAH!  MONSTER ALI!  Haha, it was refreshing, trust me.

Oh look, to the left I'm all squeaky clean and am no longer a monster!  Almost ready to head out to the grocery store, but first I cooked up a yummy quinoa dish.  I cooked the quinoa, added some catfish filets, garlic infused olive oil, thyme, and salt and pepper.  Was very delicious, though it really tested my patience since I had to wait for the quinoa to be cooked and then the catfish after that.  Luckily I chopped the fish up in little pieces so that it wouldn't take THAT long.

 

Real talk:  my stomach was really acting crazy yesterday.  First it was the usually tummy complaints I have but then it was all crampy and such.  Not cool.  Not cool at all.  At any rate, I had a chill rest of the evening.  I Skyped with Brian pretty early on, watched episodes of both Dinosaurs and Good Eats online with him.  Talked a lot.  Ate tangerines, a giant chocolate egg, and some other chocolate munchies.  And hey--I also used my new teapot/tea cup combo!  So cute, though I might admit, takes some getting used to with pouring it in the cup without dribbling everywhere.  I felt like a little girl playing tea party again...

 

 

Ok, well at this point you'll probably agree that Adventure Day was overall good.  (Well, except for the torturous tummy part later in the day.)  There's seriously only a couple more 'official' Adventure Days for this blog, so please pop in again next week and savor all the Adventures while you can, ok?  Better yet, let me know what you think of the Adventures.  Or the posts.  Or even the many typos.  (The typos are part of the charm of the blog, so feel free to point them out, but don't expect many edits!)



Adventure #48: A Not-So-Thrilling Thursday

 

No, I'm not praying.  It's the Thursday-Morning-Stretch!  Up and attem!  Adventure Day!  One way to guarantee a good start to the day is to get the blood moving--and here I am, showing off my child's pose.  Good stuff, eh?

 

BUT guess who interrupted the stretching?  BRIAN.  Tisk tisk, not ok.  Haha, just kidding.  I gladly halted the poses and such to pick up the phone and wish him a good morning and a great day ahead.  (No worries, it wasn't a 19 minute call as it looks on the picture--I just took the phone pic awhile after the conversation, tehe.)

Ok, so after the stretching and the chatter, I got my butt grooving into the routine of 'getting ready.'  Probably a good idea, since work starts at 11, though I always give myself PLENTY of time on Tuesdays and Thursdays to stretch and do other projects and tasks before work.  Yay for not being rushed!

 And what's that there to the right?  It's the second set of Lil Buddies, sprouting their way to existence!  Honestly, it's been less than a week, and I'm SO PROUD of how tall they've gotten already.  Maybe it's the environment of being in my room by the sunny window.  Or maybe it's just the timing, who knows.  I DO know that I loved waking up to that gorgeous sunshine!

Did I mention I had lots of leisure time before work?  Because it's true!  I do that on purpose, especially because I'm such a morning person.  Pretty neat picture what with seeing me in the reflection of my laptop, right?  I spent awhile internetting, paying a bill, FoodGawker-ing and things of that sort.  Most not as productive as I could be, but honestly, what is there for me to be productive with these days?!

 

 WHOA!  GIANT SALAD.  What's with it?!  Oh yeah--lunch.  Waking up so early, getting my stretch on, and then arriving at work means that a girl's gotta get some food in me shortly after my 11am arrival.  And I started out fresh:  a lovely salad spritzed with lime juice.  Oh yeah!  Haha, a sandwich shortly followed.  Got that energy boost to take on the rest of Adventure Day, y'all!

Oh ho ho!  And here it is!  An opportunity to use my newfound energy (and strength?).  Haha, there was a request for helpers to bring in supplies for the Saturday CoFo event.  I got to carry the Cuties.  Good times.  It actually gave me a little something to do, since you'll soon find out that I'm kinda at a loss of how to keep myself busy at the end of this month...

 

As hinted at, I tried to busy myself.  I really truly did.  I'm happiest when I'm productive and...well...busy.  I tried helping Hans with his work stuff, but he just felt he was far 'above' me.  Haha, just kidding!  He's adopted the notion of a standing desk, and recently elevated himself on a chair to better be able to type.  Makes me feel extra short though!  Not sure how I feel about this...

 



What's this?  What's this?  A handwritten note from me?!  To who?!  To Ray Blue!  I still had a few items chillin on my desk (CoFo ribbon, clothespins, and fabric scissors) from the Austin Marathon.  I figured since it has been well over a month since the event occurred, it's about time to return that stuff.  I did a mini organizations sweep of my desk area, and that was just one bit of proof of the task.

It's me!  In my awesome state of boredom!  Haha, oh boy...not so many people in the office yesterday either because of high school classes, campus visits, etc.  I was losin it!

What else occurred in my desperation to keep busy with work-related things at the office until 7PM?!  Well, I re-discovered this link that I'd saved of an Austin Community College Presentation by special guest Temple Grandin.  I figured that I'd stream it on YouTube and watch it in the background of other stuff, since so few people were in the office using bandwith.  Temple Grandin is pretty awesome--she's a successful adult and professional who also happens to be on the autism spectrum.  Fascinating stuff.

And then:  I finally made it home!  I was glad to change out of the Adventure Shoes, peel out of the socks, and let me blue-painted toes go free as I took a chill pill for the rest of the evening.

 

WHAT am I doing with thi curious device?!  Well, de-linting tomorrow's outfit, of course.  Yep, I'm one of those anal people who picks out her outfit the night before.  And the particular pair of capris (that I'm actually wearing right now...) desperately needed to be de-linted.  So I hopped on that task while simultaneously thinking about how often I've been using that lint roller lately...  What is going on?!  Oh yeah...I washed my fluffy fuzzy robe with a bunch of other clothes.  Hello there, lint.

 

And now what is this here to the right?  This is called a FAIL.  I thought it was a candle.  So I put it in a lil dish that I use to typically hold candles.  It smelled glorious.  But it's NOT a candle.  It's for a candle warmer.  So the smell will not really go anywhere.  And I guess I'll have to make a candle some time to make up for my error.  Ah well, I burned my homemade candle last night, cozied up to the computer with a tangerine, some chocolate, and some tea, and Skyped the boyfriend.  A not-so-thrilling Thursday, but overall, a good day nonetheless.







Adventure #47: Oh hi, Spring Break

 

Good morning, Friends and Fair Readers!  Welcome to the 'official' day one of Ali P's spring break!  Let's make it an Adventurous Day One, ok?!

 

^^^Oh hey look!

I awoke after sleeping in a bit (c'mon now, you know I don't typically sleep in much!), and layed in bed to READ for a bit!  It really was just 'a bit' because I literally had about ten pages left of the book I'd been reading.  But you know what?!  Good riddance!  I'd been reading that book since JULY!  Luckily the ending was legit enough for me to justify the months of reading, but still, I was ready to move on.  Also, notice my spring break list chillin on my bedside counter, too.  I always need a little something to motivate me, especially when things are so seemingly dull for my 11 days off work.

Breakfast dishes!!!  Boooo!  Nah, those never typically stack up at all, I had just run the dishwasher the night before and decided to save the unloading for after breakfast.  Hey, a girl needs sustainence!

 

OMG LOOK!  Alton Brown's Good Eats show is ON TV!!!  A spring break discovery that I am quite satisfied with knowing about.  Brian and I have developed a slight addiction to Good Eats, and this discovery of the show NOT online and on regularly at 10AM CST (yes, I've realized that it is also on during my Tuesday as well!) is something worth getting excited about!  I may or may not have bragged a bit to Brian about my discovery, since he is all kinds of busy with work and classes and such.  Tehe.

I suppose I should get my butt 'ready' for the day, eh?  I did...eventually.  The cool thing is that I was wearing a new-ish shirt.  New-ish because my program manager, who has moved on to New York City as of this past weekend, gave me a bunch of clothes that FIT, and I'm going to thoroughly enjoy sporting my new additions to my wardrobe.  Exciting stuff for me at least!

I have no idea what the picture is to the right.  It may or may not be a surprise for someone.  No idea.  Moving on...

 Before I could do more 'stuff' during my Adventure Day, I had to eat again.  Hey, I'll tell you this secret:  there's this weird thing about me where I have an internal button.  One never knows when the button will go off, but when it randomly (and frequently) goes off, I get hungry.  It's pretty awesome on days off because it's easy to snag myself some food whenever the button clicks off.  So yeah.  It got to be lunchtime!

 

Ok, I think I'll venture outdoors now.  Like the new jacket?  It's from Jessica, too!  (Loooove new-ish clothes!)

 

Where did I go?!  THE MALL!!!  Haha, Matt and I had gone to this particular mall last Friday to see Oz the Great and Powerful.  I needed to make a separate trip because I needed to use a free underwear coupon for Victoria's Secret (Yes, it was a need.  Ok, ok, maybe not, but free underwear is something one can't let expire!).  And look!  I found a Teavana!  I'd never actually been in a Teavana before, so this was quite th special occasion!  I tried some different teas, ogled the teapots for awhile, and talked with the store clerk about my awesome friends Vannessa, Bearman, and Faye who spoiled me in the fall by giving me a GREAT Teavana gift!  I'm such a lucky girl!

 

 LEGO STORE?!  Yep, this mall was super-awesome.  What mall has a LEGO STORE?!  (Obviously this one, haha).  But yeah, I immediatlely thought of Doty and then followed that up by thinking of Brian because of the lil yoga dude out front.  I didn't care that it took me a good five minutes to snap this picture, it was worth looking like a goob as people passed in front of me.  I needed proof of the awesome-ness!

 

 Next up:  gotta go to the craft store.  Hey, I have a spring break goal of making my own candle (tons of wax remnants from old candles lying around), so I need myself some wick.  I found a Michael's and got that bought.  But while roaming the endless aisles of pom poms, glue guns, and beads, I got a call!  It was Brian!  He was between classes and gave me a surprise ring.  I was sure to check out nice and quick and headed out to the van to chat it up with the boyfriend.  What a beautiful sunny day it was turning out to be!

 

K so I arrived home and actually took a lovely nap.  Really truly, I DID!  I mean, hey, it's spring break, I've been staying up late (mostly because I can and Brian is a night owl, so I finally am able to spend more time with him in the nighttime without a curfew/bedtime).  But anyway, yeah, I was sleepy, so I napped.  It was just a lil cat nap for 30 minutes, but that snooze was glorious!  Afterward, I decided that I wanted to plant some more herbs.  I enjoy watching my other Little Buddies grow tall and green and leafy, so I need more.  This time:  Dill, Sweet Marjoram, Parsley, and Savory.  The lil seeds need to soak for hours before they can be planted, so I got that done to be ready for their dirt burial the next day.  Like my lil seed-soaking containers?  They used to hold tea!

 

So what next?  Well, I read my book for a bit.  I wasn't super-hungry but very-much antsy (Brian calls it 'cabin fever.'  Weird though because the weather outside was GORGEOUS, and I could have easily spent time in the 65+ degree weather.  Just wasn't feelin it.)  So what did I choose to do?  I decided it was Kitchen Time.

 

What happened during this kitchen venture?  Well, I can guarantee that I definitely dirtied some more dishes.  (I'm pretty good at that.)  I had a spare potato lyin around, so I though, "Hey, I need to be rid of this potato AND some of this cheese chillin in the fridge.  Twice baked potato!  YES."  So it happened.  Curious of my method?  I laid it all out for y'all in my Foodie Files Part II Facebook album.  Enjoy.

 



 

 Did I mention I was antsy?  Twas true.  I needed to get OUT.  So I went for a walk.  Threw on the running shoes (no worries, the Adventure Shoes made their appearance earlier in the day on my first outing).  I scooted off down this path off down the street from my apartment complex.  I found out that it's a far trail and actually opens up out to a softball/baseball complex.  Cool stuff.  There was also a disc golf course.  Yeah, lots of discoveries on Adventure Day.  A super-cool part of my walk was getting to chat with Mom.  It was so uplifting to just chat with someone, especially about stuff so detached from the droning day to day of my reality.  What would the world be like without Mom's to make us feel better?

 

A lot of stuff happened after the walk, but I didn't document it all.  That's ok though, nothing extraordinarily exciting.  I wrote a letter.  Read some of my newly started book (from Allie, Tara, and Kristina!), and watched some HGTV House Hunters.  Good times.  Eventually I jumped online for some internetting.  Spent a good long time chit chatting with Brian.  We had some really good conversation about some pretty deep stuff.  (No worries, I won't go into excrutiating detail, just relationship talk.)

 

 

Guess what though?!  I 'won' a 'game' of sorts.  See, I'm usually always the one on Skype who is like, "Hey, I gotta go to bed, it's late and I'm tired."  But last night, Brian said it.  True, he had work in the morning, but still, it was 1:30AM my time, and 2:30AM his time, and I was uncertain if he would ever give in and actually SAY it!  But he did.  And I'm glad he did because not only was I more than a little tired, but I truly didn't want him tired the next day.  But still.  I 'won' the unofficial 'game.'

 

Doesn't my bed above  look so good and comfy?  So inviting?  Whew, it was an Adventure Day, and this girl was sure to make it in bed by 2AM to get some shut eye.  I did get woken up obnoxiously by some arguing/fighting individuals out in the parking lot making a ruckus and threatening each other, but I rolled over after listening for a bit and decided, "It's Riverside.  It's South By Southwest week.  I really don't care."

 

And then it was good night to me and good night to my Adventure Day.



Adventure #46: A Return to Campus!

Let's make this short and sweet how bout?

 

I got up this morning and said, "Ughhhh."  I don't now--just one of those mornings, ya know.

 

But THEN:  I decided that today would be GOOD!  I was gonna have a DAY!  (And yes, I texted that to Brian shortly after I woke up, haha.)  Everything was all layed out for me because that's what I do the night before, so I was well on my way toward breakfast and then taking off to Texas State for the March campus visit!

 

Must use the hair products.  Can't be unfashionable and all mussed up when visiting the Texas State Bobcats!

 Oh hey--BREAKFAST TIME!  Yum.  Chocolate Chex.  Gluten Free.  Nothing in it that I can't eat.  Eaten with rice milk.  Delicious.  AND I finished off the box, so I got all the sugary goodness.  YES.

 

 

A FULL DAY AT TEXAS STATE!  Oh my!  So many students!  Chit chat about classes, tests, FAFSA, jobs, spring break, summer, next year, and so much more.  To the left is the 'after' picture.  Of course I don't think to document these things when they're actually occurring.  Ah well, fun day and hey, I'm giving you a snapshot of some of the interesting food options in the food court at the LBJ Student Center.  So there.

I sat at this table almost all day.  Good times.  At this point though, stuff is all packed up.  Sadness.

Below is Hans.  Hans is a Completion Coach for Texas State.  Hans is a friend.  Hans is a tired individual who spent his day serving his students, socializing and BEING THERE when needed.  GO HANS!  (I like to think I did all those things today, too!  Go me?)

 

Hans said that this caption should be:  "Oh bother."  Tehe.

Also, this is slightly related to Hans because he and I discusssed it, but BELOW is the cover of a documentary about a sushi chef MASTER.  I'm not too far into it myself, but it's a goal of mine to finish it tonight.  Hans has seen it and enjoyed it, so my evening ahead is looking up!  Brian is off doing Spring-Breaky Fun Things, so Skype probably won't happen, but I'll watch my documentary and eat my usual nighttime snacks, and call it a night. 

 

What will tomorrow hold?  Well, another campus visit!  To ACC Round Rock I go!  (Local community college, FYI.  Luckily, I looked up directions tonight.  Directionally Challenged Ali successful drove her co-workers to Texas State today, and tomorrow will hopefully be just as successful for this solo trip.  Wish me further luck!)