This morning I had to go into the French Quarter for a meeting at the Louisiana Supreme Court building. Because the meeting was close by my house but not til 10 am, I got to take it slow and that was just perfect. The LASC building is gorgeous too…i spent a good part of the meeting staring up at a beautiful stained glass domed ceiling. Being in beautiful places really does affect how you feel. Even when you are in an rather boring meeting! Thankful for taking slow and getting to see the beauty of the FQ and LASC bldg today.
2/23–odd couple
On Sunday after my workout I sat in my yard enjoying the sun and 75 degree day. It was wonderful. I was stretched out, eyes closed, face turned up to the sun. I opened my eyes for a second and looked at Baba who was doing exactly the same thing as me. Guess we really do have a lot in common with our dogs! 😉.
Tonight after work I decided to exercise right away and then make dinner. Baba is not allowed on the couch or to sit next to me when I eat which apparently was not pleasing to her. My workout and then dinner delayed her couch time and she was not having it. Mid dinner I look over and see her with her head in the curtains staring at me. She was showing me her displeasure I guess. The dog is weird and I couldn’t be happier she is mine!!
2/22–death defying workout
I used to go to a great workout class every Sunday and then I started getting horrible headaches afterward that would knock me out of commission for the rest of the day. Sometimes I would end up vomiting and unable to do anything but cry. Turns out I was dehydrated. As I have mentioned, I sweat A LOT when i exercise….it’s freakish. But I also drink a lot of water so I never really thought I could get dehydrated. Anyway, I decided to go back to class today and just make sure I pace myself and drink a ton of water. I am so glad I did. Great workout, although at times I wondered if I was going to die! And afterward I ate a banana nut muffin and didn’t even feel guilty!
2/21-Saturday and 70!!!
While much of the country is suffering from temps far too cold to even think about, NOLA is complaining about being in the 40’s. Then today we get mid-70’s and it is wonderful. I went for a run, went for a walk, and got some tacos. I also did very little of anything. Basic weekend perfection. So thank you New Orleans for the great weekend.
2/20–lazy fridays
I probably spend far too much time on my couch—but I love it. I am afraid what would happen if I got a really really nice couch. Thankfully, that will not be happening for some time to come. Last night I went straight to the wine shop after work….got some good bread, good cheese, and a couple bottles of wine. I then curled up on the couch—devoured the bread and cheese (shhh…don’t tell my trainer b/c it wasn’t a workout day!) and enjoyed some wine while watching Gossip Girl and then Grand Budapest Hotel. The pup was curled up or sprawled out beside me the whole time and it was perfect and relaxing. Exactly what it needed to be. I didn’t drink so much that I couldn’t get up and run this morning but just enough to relax and enjoy the evening. I’m also really excited because I got one of those electric wine bottle openers from my uncle and I got to use it last night. Yeah to small pleasures! So thank you wine, cheese, bad tv, and good movies—and the pup of course.
2/19–back to the real world
After so many days of parades, parties, over-indulging in food and drink you need a break. Ash Wednesday is that break in NOLA. We rested, we recovered and then we were thrown back into reality on Thursday. Back to work, back to eating like normal people, back to realizing that just because it’s Mardi Gras doesn’t mean the scale doesn’t notice. But guess what, it’s not a bad reality so who am I to complain. Getting back to work wasn’t easy, I think I stared at my computer more than I actually used it. But then I decided to buckle down and convinced a friend to bring me a giant vanilla latte and that certainly helped.
My gratitude comes from having a friend who would do that for me and having a workplace where everyone understands that even though you just had 5 straight days off, they weren’t really days of rest so we all know that today wouldn’t be the most productive. So thanks for the coffee and thanks for letting me be lazy all day world….I appreciate it.
2/18–Mardi Gras reality
You sit down, resolve to write on your blog every day again, make a blog post to that effect and then realize that it’s Mardi Gras and your plans and intentions are meaningless. For the past 10 days I have been bouncing from parade to party and at first also balancing work and home. Conversations centered around costumes, transportation around parades, weather, and drinks. Then it got epic, as it does and work stopped, home became a feather and glitter filled mess with a dog who wondered where I kept going. But it was fabulous and I had such a great time. My body still aches from all the dancing, walking, and merriment but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Tomorrow is back to reality and hopefully I’ll find time to clean my house and re-organize my costumes so they aren’t just piles of clothes. But for now, I’m just laying around, enjoying the day off of work and parties and thankful I live in such a wonderful place!
1/18-2/8–Oops, lost track of things
Writing every day is much more challenging than I had anticipated. Plus I got sucked into a Walking Dead binge and watched the entire series from beginning to present in the past few weeks I just didn’t write anything. So much for my commitment huh? So it goes.
That’s not to say I don’t have a lot to be grateful for during the past few weeks. I really do. I continue to work out weekly, see new art on buildings all over the place, my dog does cute and ridiculous things on the regular. Last week I got sicker than I have been in many many years—could barely stand—and it hit me moments before I had guests arriving for a party to watch a parade. I tried to rally and finally called it quits and crawled into bed. Thankfully, I now have an upstairs bedroom which was perfect. The party continued my dog played hostess and my friends were awesome and cleaned up for me after they wrapped up the party and moved everyone on to other events.
I’m thankful for delicious king cake, friends that listen to me when I really need to vent, new bed sheets, and to be able (and expected) to buy ridiculous costumes for Mardi Gras.
For today—I ran a 5k—the weather was amazing. It benefited Youth Run NOLA and the kids were awesome. The race was great—with live music and a great DJ afterward in addition to good coffee, beer and food. What? You don’t have beer at the end of an 8:30am 5k in your town? People would probably riot if there was no beer truck at the end of a race here. It’s a must. And I love it. Plus having friends to run with and get me to run my fastest 5k ever—even better!
So there have been no shortage of things for which I must and should show my gratitude. I’ve just been lazy. But I’m back bitches.
1/17–NAPS!
I’m going for a world record in napping this weekend. Soonest nap after waking up, longest amount of time napping, amount of time spent in bed before and/or after nap. I’m going for it. I was so lazy this weekend it was ridiculous. I did stuff, like clean but I also did fuck all. It was perfect. I ended up rested and with a clean house. I eventually got out of bed and went to a friends house to watch Whitney (the movie on Lifetime) which probably should have been called Bobby. Anyway, perfect day all because of naps. Naps make the world go ’round.
1/16–lunch breaks
I got to go home for lunch today. Woohoo! Sitting on the couch, hanging with the pup, enjoying the weather, and eating a good lunch. Perfect. Then I got to work out and head out for beers after with my friends (beer with your trainer….immediately after your workout—that’s job security practice right there!).
So it was just a nice day all around…so yeah for lunch at home, beers, and all that jazz.
Forced Gratitude 