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!)

 



Adventure #45: TAKE NOTICE OF THE SHOES! (Oh & that it's Friday)

 

 MORNING TIME!!!  ON A FRIDAY!!!  TIME TO WAKE UP!!!

Ha.  I was so ready for the weekend yesterday.  Yes, I only worked for three days this week, but that means that I had arrived back from my trip Tuesday night without any time for much-needed R&R.  So.  It was a much-appreciated Friday, to say the least.  Rolled out of bed, remembered it was Adventure Day, and dawdled my way to shower/dress/get ready for the day (after making my bed, of course!)

 

 

Following the getting-ready routine was breakfast time.  I've been a snack monster lately at nighttime and haven't been extraordinarily hungry at breakfast, but I definitely eat anyway (because you better beli

eve the hunger hits me eventually during my busy mornings!)  Ooo look!  Yummy raspberries with my breakfast!  It was kind of a treat since I don't think I've had raspberries at all in 2013 yet (AND I had just bought them the previous morning before work when I managed to fit in some grocery shopping).

 



TIME TO WEAR THE ADVENTURE SHOES AND GO TO WORK!  I feel like I've cheated on way too many Adventure Days during the course of these many months and hadn't worn the shoes.  No worries--I did actually put the shoes on for all of my out-of-apartment ventures and disregarded the mis-match of my outfit.  (The shoes were actually noticed by a person or two at the office!)

I made it to work and had many-a-thing to do (well...for awhile at least...), but I have chosen to talk about TWITTER to you all!  Yep, it's my lil project this spring.  Hannah, Alissa, and I have created our own CoFo Twitters and we got together yesterday to chat about the progress.  Jessica and Lauren (program managers) joined us and a nice little conversation was had.  AND the previous day Hannah had even called her and I the 'Twitter Queens!'  I'll take it!

Post-meeting notebook page!  Yay productivity!

Pre-meeting notebook page...

Thought I'd had enough of the social media stuff at work?  Think again!  Facebook is mucho important to my job as a Completion Coach and is a key way to keep in touch with my students--it's basically always logged on my computer, so you better believe I had a Friday full of Facebook Time!

 



 

Oh hey!  Do ya like my lunch bag above?  It's one of my favorite bags and while I don't carry around a lunch bag often, I usually choose this one when I do.  (Thanks Vannessa, Bearman, and Faye for the bag accompanying the great Teavana gift a few months ago!)

 

 

K so how about we just skip all the other work stuff that I did and skip right to snack time?  I like that idea.  Yep, I munched on peanuts.  Good times (and to be honest, snack time wasn't that far off from lunchtime...what can I say, I'm impatient for these things!)

 

Can you see it?  It says the time is 5:13(pm).  A lil later than
usual leaving the office (haha, we're usually right on the hour),
but I had a student and a parent get some FAFSA help from
me, so I delayed carpool a bit.  Whoops.

CAR RIDE HOME!  Yep.  I was 'chosen' to sit in the middle.  Full carpool means we're all a lil squooshed.  Ah well, saves us all gas money, so it works out.  Wooo!  Headed home for the WEEKEND!

 

 



YAY DINNER TIME!!!  I've been enjoying this yummy dinner this week:  white rice heated up with rice vinegar and dried parseley alongside cubed firm tofu drizzled with a peanut sauce.  The problem?  After three nights in a row of eating that delicious peanut sauce, my stomach retaliated and gave me troubles last night/today.  (The sauce has garlic and corn syrup in it.  Grrrr!  It was so good!)

YUM!!!  Close up shot for ya.
Oh.  And to the right is me getting excited about
cooking again for myself.



 

Ok so summarizing the rest of my day:  I realized that it was free online yoga video day for the studio I go to, Black Swan Yoga.  I hadn't done yoga in a whole month.  I was bound and determined to check out a video or two.  Turns out, I was tired and ended up just watching most of the video that I chose.  Oh well, I made an attempt!

 

After that, I started watching a documentary called 'Be Happy!'  It was really good!  But...I fell asleep halfway through it.  Brian ended up calling me after I slept for half an hour, and we got on Skype and had a lovely 'date night' of watching an episode of Dinosaurs, an episode of Doctor Who (such a scary episode--there were statue monsters!), and the finale was Good Eats (seriously, the carrot episode rocks!).  I ate a tangerine, ice cream, and candy during all of this, haha.  (But one musn't leave out the fact that Brian also ate cashews and Airheads.  We both had tea.  And I have an awesome memory that I'm quite proud of at this point, haha.)

 

ANYWAY.  Both of us fell asleep on Skype right after Good Eats ended.  It would have been funny if we were awake enough to laugh when we both woke up at 3am (4am his time).  Called it a night and hit the hay!

 

And THAT, dear readers, was the 45th telling of Ali's Adventure Day.  Enjoy much?  Well good.



Adventure #44: An Early Rise

 

4:45AM

 

 

THAT is when I awoke this morning.  Above I am coming to that realization after having been awake for 5+ hours already.

 

 

Worth it?  I say yes!

 

It was the day of the Austin Marathon, and I was proud to represent CoFo and cheer on the hundreds of runners who sprinted, jogged, ran, and walked right past me as I offered them water.

 

 

Busy day.  Busy weekend.  BUT on the verge of what is only half of a work-week!

 

 

Yep, I'll be heading back to Michigan on Wednesday!  Am I excited?

 

 

Heck yes!  I packed today.  I cleaned the apartment (swept, mopped, dishes, laundry, cleaned surfaces, cleaned bathroom, vacuumed--you name it, I did it!).  And I even went to HEB for a couple things to last me throgh til I leave on Wednesday.

 

 

Good stuff.  I'm pretty beat about now (although I did take an hour-long nap earlier).

 

 

I even rewarded myself by painting my tootsies.  (It's been awhile, and I always feel good having some color on my toes!)

 

A lot will have happened between this and the next post, but I look forward to sharing all!

Adventure #43: Experience the Whirlwind!

OMG WHOA OMG!

 

Yep, sometimes I feel like that lately because time is just flying by, and I can't seem to catch my breath!  It's an understandably busy time, but c'mon now--a breather would be nice!  Well...I guess that's what March is for!

 

Anyway, an Adventure Day Friday for me yesterday, which means some light reading for you as you review my day.  And what a day it was!

 

Yep, that's me, all ready for a busy Friday!  Up and attem at 6:45a.m. (which I actually SNOOZED for 15 minutes because I was feelin tired!  And if you know me at all, you know that I barely know what the snooze button IS!)  Haha, but yeah, I actually got up that early just to give myself some 'time.'  I had tried to get my taxes done the night before, and they kept getting rejected with the online submission, so I was doing some work to figure out what was going wrong.  So yeah, I just needed time before devoting my day to CoFo.  (CoFo representin day--hence the shirt--but I'll go more into this later.)

 

Wow this bracelet is ancient!  Once upon a time, charm bracelets like the one above were super trendy and in style--and I actually owned/own one!  I didn't get very far with charms--I think I have four total, haha.  But  yeah, how's that for a throwback moment?!

 

 

Brr!  Cold morning in the apartment!  What happened to the warm temps right off the bat--we just left a warm spell, and I'm not ok with the 'leaving' part!  I mean, sure, it got up to 70 degrees later in the day, but 'later' wasn't soon enough yesterday morning!

 

Oh look.  I'm on hold.  With the IRS to try and get an AGI for a tax year that I didn't need to file taxes for...just to file electronically.  I got impatient and then called H&R Block.  I got impatient being on hold then and had to go to work.  Sad story, I know.

 

Oh wait.  I never explained that I went into work late for a Friday.  Mostly because I was carpooling with Beau (who was going to the aforementioned CoFo event that I'll go into detail on later), but also because of the chaos of this weekend that I will MORE THAN make up hours for.  So yes, started work at 11.  Good stuff!

 

 

Don't those look pretty?  I felt damn artistic taking that picture!  Those candies don't even taste that great, but I was desperate for something sweet to munch on before leaving for the CoFo event in the afternoon (will explain more later), and I couldn't eat the glutinously-filled treats that had been left in the office kitchen (those treats were tempting me something wild!).  So candy hearts it was!

 

Alright, alright, I'll explain the event!  Look at the awesome CoFo reps above!  That's at the Austin Marathon Expo, specifically in the 26 Charities for 26 Miles portion of the event center, where CoFo got its very own booth!  AND myself, Beau, and Abdo (my awesome student from Texas State), all went for the first shift from 3-7pm yesterday.  It was a loooooong shift, but good times were had, with plenty of chit chat, downtime, and meandering (along with a brief visit from a puppy from Austin Pets Alive!).

 

 

Basically, we got a pretty good booth location out of all of the other charities, in my opinion!  We were front and center, placed facing the main stage.  Granted, there wasn't A LOT going on at the stage area, but there were running speakers who told stories and had Q&A, so that was at least mildly entertaining.

 

FREE COFO SWAG!  Haha, at the office, these pens are in such high demand.  We're allowed to give them away for the expo though, so I felt pretty special.  Honestly, it's why most people stopped by in the first place is to snag a free pen.  Sad but true.  (No worries, we still gave them the schpiel about us.)

 

 

Fast forwarding through the rest of the expo, I got done and was SO TIRED (yes, lots of caps in this post but whatever, fits my mood).  I got home, ate food, prepped everything for another early moring (CoFo's huge College 201 event for high school seniors--5:45am wakeup for me!), and then went to BED.

 

It was glorious.  In bed at 10pm.  Glorious.

 

Did I mention I appreciated the early bedtime and the sleep?  Well, I did!

 

 

 



Adventure #42: Reverse Away the Months (And a Few Days, Too!)

Ok.  You got me.  Last week's Adventure Day is getting post THIS week--but I surely don't plan to skimp on the adventuring this week, so no pre-judging me!

 

Last week was crazy.  And hectic.  And so is this week.

 

But hey, recap:  I went to Michigan last week.  I also went to Indiana.  I also went to Ohio.  And back to Texas.  Oh yeah, and I also worked for five days, interviewed at a grad school, and spent a day reminiscing at my alma mater.  Good stuff.

 

But let's not leave the reminiscing quite yet.  In fact, let's devote this Adventure blog post to reminiscing completely.  Remember way back, 41 weeks ago, when I 'created' the Adventure shoes?  (Ok, technically it's 42, but I'm fully acknowledging that I'm a week off currently.)

 

Well.  I'm ready to see the colors that I chose.  I'm ready to dissect the shapes, the symbols, the letters.  I'm ready to discover the wear and tear.  I'm ready to assess the honest adventuring that has occurred in these many months.  Are you ready, Dear Reader?  Here we go...

 

A four leaf clover for good luck in the year ahead?
A silver lining edging from the inners of my shoe?
A mess of scribblling to indicate my impatience to
just be 'done' with it all?  Yes.

The arrows of optimism, pointing further and
further forward, into the distance and to a
horizon that I cannot even see?  The fading of
colors, a wearing and tearing as evidence of
weekly adventures had and stories well-told?
Yes.

And here it is:  the length of the shoe.
Notice the colors--not corresponding?
A mere measure of my rebellion?
Again, the fading away from the bottom up.
The intricacy, the thought put forth.
And now, the Adventures had without
much thought at all.

The smiling face of a familiar friend?  The
grimace of a newfound acquaintence?  The swirl of
confusion?  Distant colored hearts from above?
Dots of snow pellets--or rain from above?  Sure signs
of future struggle?  Yes.

 

An 'E' for everything that I've done?  Everything
that I will do?  Here, in the NOW?  A pop of color,
a fading of black.  The dirt, the grime, the shoe's
soul showing through?  Yes.

And here it is, what drives it all?  The ambition
sought from within to keep going, the success from
years gone by?  The pink, laced in familiarity,
drags along the many colors of the shoe into something
more palatable, more easy to tread on?

And there it is, a declaration in itself?  Not-so-much
of a giant 'E' anymore, but an 'M'...for wanting
more?  The blue waves of trepidation, scattering
beneath?  The hovering colors overhead, a
rainbow as an omen?  Yes.

Here we are:  to the root of it all?  The bareness
of my feet below, the heel of the adventures, wearing
thin to expose the whiteness and purity of what has not
yet been experienced by my own two feet.  The
adventuring cannot continue forever?  Ending in so
few weeks?  Yes.

Yes, Dear Reader.  Yes.



 



 

Adventure #41: A Day's Progression, A Night's Adventure!

 

YESTERDAY was a BIG DEAL!

Yesterday I packed my NEW suitcase (got it for Christmas--and it's pink!) for my awesome trip back to the Midwest that happens this Friday!  It seems like I've been unofficially prepping for awhile, and I finally felt like it was time to pack the suitcase.  Yes, I'm strange.  I like to pack for trips.  Makes me feel more 'set' for the trip, ya know?  And gets me way more excited!  But no worries, Adventure Day #41 had plenty more excitement than me just packing a suitcase, Michigan-bound!

 

 I think I'll spell out my Saturday giving away little pieces of myself from head to toe.  So starting at the top:  I got up and realized that it was a weekend.  I sure as hell wasn't going to wash my hair on a Saturday!  (I usually save that horrendous task for Sundays!)  So I threw it on top of my head and started on productive tasks until it would be closer to yoga time.

 

 

This brown-eyed girl had an outlook of positivity on the beautiful 70-degree day that was my Adventure Day!  Washed my bedding, typed out and printed my trip itinerary, packed my bag (as mentioned), and did some dishes, all before yoga!  Go me!  Most people sleep in on their weekend days, but I just came seem to get to that point...ah well!

 

 

Teeth all bright and clean after breakfasttime!  It's interesting to look at a smile up close actually...something I've never actually noticed about myself.  Oh the things that are brought to my attention by fulfilling this blog, haha!

 

Hunger struck before yoga, so I grabbed a lil more munchies before heading out.  Below is the final rice wrap in a package I bought two weeks ago--those things SUCK!  They fall apart ridiculouly, but I did manage to keep it together with peanut butter and coconut flakes.  YUM!

 

Post-yoga shot:  You better believe that long t-shirt wasn't going to let loose on a hot February day!  (Yes, I typed that statement correctly--70+ degrees in Austin, Texas on Groundhog Day!)  I've pretty much got used to grabbing a hair tie to keep my yoga shirts from dangling/getting in the way during class.  MUCH cooler that way, too!



Cheating a bit below because that picture is definitely not of me, but it was such an important event in my day that I don't even care.  I got to talk with Doty, Tara, and Kristina over Skype!  Granted, the video wouldn't work because we don't have the upgraded version (don't ya love Tara's Skype picture?), but that call was an hour and a half long!  That was some much-needed catch-up time, and I can't wait to be reunited with those ladies SOON!

 

So I'll continue on to the next bit...I finally ate a full meal (pizza!) and got showered and readied myself to go legit grocery shopping.  I really had to get my butt going because Matt was coming over later--so off I went!

 

A lil later on after my successful shopping trip, I walked in my room before Matt was to arrive and just got so excited at seeing the filled-up suitcase!  Look at that, I even have my 'liquids' bag ready, haha!  Alright, alright, I'll stop obsessing over it now...

 

 

Above is Matt, hard at work with the
AWESOME cookie press!  It's harder
than it looks, believe me!

BAKING TIME!  AND there was wine involved! 
This is my 'Matt's-wine-has-some-zip-to-its-do-dah'
face.  But hey, it was yummy--a savignon blanc.
Do you like my wine glass coozie and my apron?



 

For the night's end, I actually treated myself to a delicious bowl of chocolate peanut butter ice cream that is ok for me to eat on my special diet.  It's made with coconut milk, so it's lactose-free, and it has no additives that I can't eat.  It was pretty delicious, too!  I shared the amazing ice-cream eating moment with Brian over Skype.  You can see by his smile above that he was pretty happy for me, too!  What a great day!  Thanks for being apart of the experience!