Beauty in the Everyday

Hello lovelies!  Life has been so wonderful lately!  So many exciting things have happened this past week; it’s been so great.  As some of you know, this past weekend my brother and I went to Los Angeles to meet up with his fiancee, Jessa, who was flying from the Philippines to America.  This was her first time to the US and her first time meeting me.  We had a great, short, whirlwind of a weekend in California.  Monday and Tuesday I took off of work to get Jessa settled at my place and to have some fun times around Milwaukee.

Monday we went to the beach/lakefront.  It was cloudy when we first got there, but then the sun came out and it ended up being an absolutely gorgeous day.

Tuesday we made our way to the Mitchell Park Domes.  Jessa absolutely LOVED it!  My brother got her an i-Phone so that she could skype and talk with her friends and family back home and also so that she could take pictures.  As we both learned, she really loves taking pictures.  She took so many at the Domes…and I took some, too! 🙂

Sadly, after my five-day weekend, it was time for me to go back to work.  But, I had a really great three day week back at work and got so much stuff done.  I felt really great because two people were out in my department PLUS I had all the work to catch up on while I was out, so I was essentially doing the work of three people!  Oy!  I was a busy little beaver, but by the end of the week I felt super proud of the work that I got done!  Yay me!

Friday was a HUGE day for me!  My best fraaaaaand, Rachel, who had gone to New York for the WHOLE SUMMER for an internship, was coming home!!!  After work, I headed straight to the airport to welcome her back home!  It was such a great reuniting, plus, she made a ‘big boom’ entrance, which made it that much more enjoyable.  I can’t tell you how good it feels to have this girl back after three months away.  She is one person that truly just gets me for me.  I missed her like crazy and I can’t wait to pick up where we left off and start making some more fun memories together!!

The rest of Friday evening was spent with the hubster (since Rachel had to go home with her mom :(), but it was a great evening nonetheless!  We took a nice walk together and watched Modern Family, one of our absolute FAVORITE shows!

Saturday morning I woke up early, took a nice walk, then went over by my parents’ for coffee.  We caught up a bit, which was so nice.  Then they mentioned how they had tentative plans to go with Travis and Jessa to Cedarburg, a cute little town close-by to where we live, that afternoon and mentioned that I should come along.  I jumped at the opportunity.  So we spent our afternoon in Cedarburg!  It was absolutely perfect.  The weather was so gorgeous and we had such a great time with one another.  Jessa is just the sweetest little thing and I can already see her starting to get more comfortable with the family!  We went in the shops, got coffee, and went to the Covered Bridge park.

I got this awesome thing in one of the shops, too!

What an absolutely perfect day we had together!  My family means the world to me and I’m so glad we could have that time together.  Life has been so great lately and I have so much to be thankful for right now.  Yippee!!

What about you?  What do you have to be thankful for in your life right now?

Anything you’re looking forward to or have done lately that’s made your life feel pretty awesome?

 

My Life, My Life…Currently!

Happy end-of-the-week!  Thought I’d end the week with something a little fun!  So, let’s talk about my life currently!

Current Book: I just finished Mockingjay today!  (The last book in the Hunger Games trilogy) 

Honestly, I am a little bit sad that it’s over   This was the first book series that I ever really got into.  It drew me in right from the get-go. 

But I have mourned the end and have decided that I really REALLY missed reading on a regular basis, so I stopped by the library after work and grabbed another book to start in on right away!  Books are so fun and exciting and I LOVE a good book that you just can’t put down.  Since I’ll have a lot of opportunities to get some good, quality reading time in with traveling tomorrow/this weekend, I knew I needed to get a book!

Current Music:  After a huge, long country music hiatus, I think I’m finally getting back into it.  A little late, since I usually get my country music kick in the summer, but better late than ever!  I think I’m just getting so annoyed by the same songs playing over and over and over again.  I’m also loving Safe and Sound by Capital Cities.  Plus, I’m on a 90s kick right now.  This was started by listening to Darius Rucker on Pandora, which then brought up 90s songs that I haven’t heard in SO long, but really love!  Oh AND See You Again by Carrie Underwood.  I’m all over the place on the music scene haha 😛

Current Guilty Pleasure:  Sleeping in an extra 20 MINUTES!  You’d be surprised how 20 minutes really can make a difference!  I’ve switched up my routine and the night before I prepare my lunch and snacks for the next day, which cuts down the time it takes me to get ready in the morning.  So 5 am wake-ups have now become 5:20 am wake-ups!  But the truth is….I really love my early mornings.  Love them!

Current Drink:  I am loving me some lemonade!  I’m hooked on Walmart’s Sparkling Zero Calorie Lemonade…yeah, Walmart, I know!  It’s good stuff and perfect for summertime!

Current Food:  Peanut butter on anything and everything.  I don’t know if you feel the same way I do, but peanut butter makes EVERYTHING better!  Seriously.  Let’s take some examples…

Not pictured: my finger.  😛  Yeah, my finger is definitely better with peanut butter!

Current Show:  Well I LOVE So You Think You Can Dance!  That is like the only show that I have to watch each summer.  I can’t get enough of it!  Andddd I just found out that So You Think You Can Dance is going on tour and coming to Milwaukee in October!!! 😀  Sign this girl up! 

I’ve also been loving re-runs of Friends at night.  Before bed, I often will look for something funny and lighthearted to end the night and Friends is always on Nick at Nite.  So, I’ve quickly become hooked!  I never really watched it in the past other than catching episodes every now and then.  But I am so glad I’ve been watching it regularly now!

Current Wish List:  Hmmm…I really can’t think of anything that I’ve really been wanting all that much.  Which is actually a pretty awesome thing to say 😀

Current Triumphs:  Going 4 nights in a row without a binge!!!  YAY!  This is huge for me, so I really feel proud of this.  I can’t wait to keep pushing myself and work on leaving that behind me. 

Current Needs:  Some R & R time.  I’ve been getting antsy at work lately and just can’t keep my focus as much as I could…so I’m pretty sure that means that I need to get away for a little while.  Which, lucky me, is happening starting tomorrow!  I’ll be off and returning to work next Wednesday.  I’m making my way with my brother out to LA tomorrow to meet up with his fiancee who’s flying in from the Philippines!!  YAY!

Current Mood:  I am really excited for the weekend!  Plus I’ve been really, really happy and proud of myself lately.  My whole mindset and attitude has improved so much in the last week or so and it feels SO good.  I missed this and I’m glad it’s back! 

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your week and a fabulous weekend!  Can’t wait to share all of the exciting info from the weekend!!

 

 

My-Oh-My…Monday’s Feeling Marvelous

Happy Monday!  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are now having a Marvelous Monday and start of your week!  It’s Monday so that means it’s time to link up with Katie! 

So first things first, Marvelous is…super chill, easy going weekends!  This weekend was absolutely amazing.  It was so relaxing and just the type of weekend I love.  Friday night was dinner at the Sutherlands.  We had TURKEY AND STUFFING!!!!!!  I LOVE stuffing!  [I may or may not have eaten a HUGE amount of stuffing cold right out of the pan before dinner….this girl CANNOT be expected to way for stuffing! ;)]  MARVELOUS IS STUFFING IN AUGUST!

Then the hubster and I took a nice bike ride after dinner and watched Broken City together with his mumzilla.  (That’s what the hubster calls her, I swear, it’s not an Elise-original!)

Saturday was a relaxing day…morning walk, errands, yoga, and then the fam over for a movie at night.  Sunday was about the same, instead of errands I went to the Milwaukee Public Market with the hubster and we watched a movie at night.

Marvelous is…Sunday!  I love Sundays.  There’s something about them that is just so enjoyable!!  This Sunday the hubster and I made our way over to the MPM to check out some goodies over there.

Got some yummmmmy curry chicken salad here! 😀

Marvelous is…feeling good!  I’ve been really keeping up with the positivity the last few days and I’m feeling really good about that.  I was in a pretty crappy slump there for a while, but I’ve totally refocused and am keeping my mindset on positive things.  🙂  It’s such a refreshing feeling.  Plus, I’m being a lot kinder to myself when I have setbacks and struggles along the road.  I know recovery isn’t going to be easy schmeasy and {poof} everything will be instantaneously 100% better…but with a positive mindset the lows and bad moments are so much more tolerable!

That’s me, 😛

Marvelous is…FLYING OUT TO LOS ANGELES ON FRIDAY!!!!  I’m flying with my brother to meet up with his fiancee who is flying to the US for the first time from the Philippines!!!  FINALLY the moment has come where my brother and Jessa can finally be together!  Ahhh we’ve all been waiting SO long for this moment to finally arrive!  I am so happy that I get to come with my brother on this fun adventure and meet up with her in LA!  I get to finally meet my future sister-in-law!

Feeling marvelous on this Monday!  Hope everyone else is too!!

 

Monday’s Feeling Pretty Marvelous

Happy Monday e’erbody!  First of all, I must start off by saying that this evening I am feeling in MUCH better spirits.  This past week and weekend was pretty rough.  This morning started off pretty rough, too, but I was able to gain a better mindset by mid-to-late morning and things just kept improving!  So since today is Monday and it’s all about focusing on the marvelous (thanks to Katie!) I still won’t be updating on any of the negative stuff from the prior week…but rather, will be keying in on some awesome things. 🙂

Marvelous is…sunshine on a Monday after three days of dark clouds and COLD weather!  Seriously, this weekend was nothing short of depressing.  We had weather in the 50s and low 60s and dark and cloudy.  Brr.  Yet today, it warmed up into the 70s and the sun came out!  Not too bad to kick off the week!

Marvelous is…the support of my family and friends.  I have been truly blessed to have such an amazing group of people in my life who have stood by me through thick and thin.  I’ve probably tried their patience many times, yet they are always there for me, no matter what.  I have been having a hard time lately and to have their love and support means everything in the world to me.  I don’t know if I’d be where I am today without them.

Marvelous is…a fun dinner out with some really fun people!  Last night the hubster and I went out with some fun people to celebrate my friend’s birthday.  (I’ve known this kid for 12 years now and am so thankful we’ve been able to stay friends this long!)  We went to Ninja Japanese Steakhouse and the food was absolutely ah-mazing!  Sushi was the name of the game for me, but a lot of the others got the hibachi dinner, where they cook it all up right in front of you and literally put on a show for you!

The birthday boy got extra sake shot in his mouth!  It was the wildest thing I’ve ever seen!  I’ve done hibachi dinners before, but NEVER have I seen anything like this!  They squirt the sake into your mouth and you chug, chug, chug it.  Bleck!  Not for me!  But it was totally hilarious to see some of the boys do it!  Mack was soaking by the end of the night!

After dinner, four of the guys did ‘sake bombs’…which again, was the WILDEST THING I have ever seen.  Especially because there was a song that accompanied this drink!  Haha.  So we proceeded to sing the song, then the guys start pounding their fists next to the glass, which makes the sake shot drop from between the chopsticks into the glass!  Crazy!!

That was SUCH a fun time!  Just what I needed!

Marvelous is…the power of positive thinking.  I had been stuck in a negative mentality for quite a while and it was just perpetuating my negative, bad mood.  Today, I decided that I can’t change the past and the mistakes that I have made, nor is there any benefit that will be gained from beating myself up over them.  I have been really hard on myself and the struggles I’ve been having.  But I need to start being kinder to myself.  Yes, mistakes happen, but I can pick myself up and start new again, without letting those mistakes hold me back or keep me stuck in a negative place.  I told a friend today that ‘fall down seven times, stand up eight’ was a little different for me…

She reminded me that as long as I’m standing, it doesn’t matter how often I fall.  🙂  That’s what best friends are for.  She’s right.  I may fall, and fall, and fall again…but if I keep getting myself back up, that’s all that matters.

So with my positive mindset back and focused on setting and following through on some pretty big goals for myself, I have the week starting off on a really good, positive note.

Happy Monday and I hope you all have a wonderful week!

 

What a Week!

Good morning all.  This week has been a pretty rough one all across the board.  I’ve been having a lot of personal demons resurface and have been stuck battling with those.  It’s been a pretty tough, long week of personal struggle.  It’s been exhausting, to say the least.  But I know I need to try and get myself out of this ‘blah’ place and try and get back on better ground.  A step at a time…

I did have some great moments this weekend, mixed in with some bad.  But I thought that I’d focus in on the positive a bit and let that be what carries forth in my post today.  No need to share the negative right now.  Maybe I’ll open up about that a little more in a later post…but with it so fresh and real right now, I don’t think I’m quite ready for it at this point.

Regardless of the week, I had already made some concrete plans for the weekend and wasn’t going to let my bad week prevent me from following through with these plans.  Friday night I had made plans to go to the Washington County Fair and see Darius Rucker with my mom, dad, and brother.  It was going to be a cool, chilly night, but we decided we’d go and tough it out.

Despite the cold, we ended up having a wonderful time.  Darius Rucker was amazing.  I think I may be biased though, simply because I love him like no other.  I’ve been such a fan of him for years, starting with Hootie and The Blowfish, to currently with his country kick.  There’s something about his voice that just makes me really happy.  I can’t listen to his music without just feeling good!  That’s the best kind of pick-me-up.  I definitely think he is my favorite male singer of all time.  Hands down.  (As just a side note, I have Hootie & The Blowfish on my Pandora Radio right now :P)

Saturday morning I had made plans to go on a coffee date with my mom.  I think she just really needed that time with me after the crappy week I had and after she knew just how much I was struggling lately.  I think she just wanted to reassure me that she (as well as my dad and brother) were always there for me, no matter what, during the worst of it all…and to just try and keep my mind focused on the positive.  We had a really nice visit. (Plus their coffee flavor-of-the-day was snickerdoodle which was amazing!  I added some nutmeg and it tasted just like a fall drink, which was rather appropriate since it was in the 50s!)

After my coffee date with my mom, I had a long overdue video-chat date with my best friend and sister, Rachel.  It’s been rough having her half-way across the country the whole summer, but I can’t wait until she comes back home!  August 16th at 6:05 pm she lands in Milwaukee!!! (Not that I’m really keeping track, or anything ;))  I realized just how much I really miss this girl.  It’s a wonderful, beautiful thing when you have a friendship as strong as I have with her…someone that just makes your life that much better…and that just loves you and accepts you the way you are.  Also someone that makes you want to be a better version of ‘you’.  She’s a pretty inspiring person and I get so much strength and motivation from her.

Yeah, we’re like that.  (And I love it!)

After our chat date, I had to run some errands.  Then met up with the hubster.  We headed up to hear a friend of mine/ours play at some fundraiser with a band he is hopefully going to be a part of soon as the lead guitarist.  So we came and showed our support!  I was really in a crummy mood in the afternoon…partially because of everything that’s been going on in my world lately, and partially because the weather was absolutely HORRIBLE.  And I mean…horrible!  It’s July and the weather is cold and cloudy.  I think we may have been maxed at about 60 degrees yesterday, windy, and super dark clouds…all day!  But, I decided I really didn’t want to let my friend down and was hopeful that going out and doing something social would put me in a better mood. 

He was sooo appreciative that we came to hear him and support him…plus it really did the trick.  My mood was like 100x better!  From there, the hubster and I headed over to the Washington County Fair to see Daughtry.  (Seriously, two concerts two days in a row that I was really excited about!  I’ve always wanted to see Daughtry live!)  The only negative about going was the weather.  It was ridiculous.  I had on a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, a fleece, and a huge winter coat.  Also, an extra sweatshirt wrapped around my legs.  (And I was STILL freezing!)

We ended up enjoying it, even though it was cold!  The tasty food definitely helped. 🙂  The concert was really good, even though by the end of it, it started to rain a bit.  Despite how crappy the weather was, it was a really fun time!

The ingenious hubster crafted a “device” to carry both of our chairs on his back, using my sweatshirt.  Haha.  I thought it was too good not to document! 🙂

Well the weather this Sunday morning was a bit similar to yesterday.  Except we did have a bit of sun peeking out.  I took a nice, relaxing 4 mile walk this morning around my neighborhood…to center myself.  And ended up feeling much better this morning afterward.  I think the rest of the day I am going to take for just ‘me’ time to focus on myself and how to get myself back on track again and in a better place.  Then tonight, the hubster and I are going out for dinner for a friend of mine’s birthday.  I’ve known him since 6th grade (and he was my “first love”)  So glad that we are still friends to this day and really hoping tonight will be a good time.

Have a wonderful rest of your weekend.  ❤

 

Life Lessons I’m Learning Lately

1)  Be true to who you are (AND accept it!)  These are two very separate things.  You can be true to who you are, doing what you wish or like, yet not be okay with it.  I personally have struggled with this.  I am who I am and I know that I can’t force myself to change, but, I have been feeling as if I need to change.  My example: my personality, i.e. being more of an introvert and feeling like I should be more of an extrovert.  For so long I felt like I needed to be more social, more outgoing.  I felt odd for not being that way.  I also, too, felt like I put a lot of pressure on myself to be someone other than who I am.  Especially in relation to my ED.  I think I felt that when I was in recovery/recovered, I would need to be this social butterfly, very outgoing, personable and social.  My ED kept me isolated and closed off and I felt that to truly be recovered, I would need to be this very outgoing person.  Granted, I am a lot more social than I was when I was really sick, yet realistically, I am just not going to have a complete change in character “on the other side” and I’m finally accepting that. 

2)  Be patient with yourself.  Oftentimes it can be easy to get frustrated with ourselves, to wish we did ‘xyz’ better or that we could achieve more, do more, etc.  Yet there is absolutely nothing that can be gained by being impatient with ourselves.  If anything, it only makes things harder on ourselves and makes us look down on ourselves.  Patience, though hard to have at times, is necessary…especially when dealing with obstacles that come our way.  I know for me in recovery, I have lost a lot of patience with myself, time and time again.  I assumed or thought that I should be much farther along in recovery, or that I should just be ‘over it’ by now.  Yet, that is unrealistic.  I was putting way too much pressure on myself and minimizing the reality of the situation.  But by putting that pressure on myself, it essentially made the whole recovery thing that much harder.  By quantifying what recovery should be and comparing it to where I was, I made myself lose hope.  Yet, when I really stopped and took a minute to step back, and to practice patience with myself, I started feeling a lot better about where I was in recovery and how I was doing.  And I actually started feeling a lot better about myself in general, which translated to me working harder in recovery…and really pushing myself that much more.

3)  Make time for the people you love.  It doesn’t matter how much time you have to give, but just give it freely.  I am fortunate that I have my family and close friends very close to where I live.  My parents literally live just a few minutes away from me.  Yet, the sad reality is, we rarely spend any time together at all.  I’m busy during the week with working full time during the day, and evenings are usually busy too, or just time I usually spend doing my own thing.  Yet, I really stopped to think how if/when something happens to my parents, I don’t want to look back and realize that while they lived so close to me, I was too busy to spend time with them.  I know I’d have regrets about that.  So I decided to start making changes.  I think a big reason, too, why I wouldn’t spend that much time with them was because I had a lot going on…and felt that I would need to devote hours upon hours with them at a time.  I’m finding that that isn’t necessary.  Even something as simple as stopping over for 15-20 minutes, just to talk for a little bit, is better than nothing.  And so, lately, I’ve really been making that a priority.  No matter how busy I am, there is always, always a few minutes to spare here and there.  When I can give them more time, I do.  But when I only have 15 minutes to spare, I give that to them too.  The same thing I believe should carry over to other people in my life who really mean a lot to me; who I truly love and value.  I never want to look back and regret how little time I spent with the people I love.  Again, it’s not about how much time I spend with these people, but how often, and the quality of the time that I spend with them.  It also shows that you really want to be with them, too.

So take that time, whether it be 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon, or 10 minutes after work on the way home.

4)  Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want/need.  I think for a long time I really had difficulty in really being honest and asking for the things I needed from other people.  It may be because I didn’t want to feel/seem needy or like I couldn’t handle things on my own.  Maybe I didn’t want to come across as weak?  I know I definitely didn’t want to ever be viewed as a burden.  Either way, for the longest time I had a hard time really being straight with people and asking people for certain things.  In talking with my therapist, I’ve realized that sometimes you just need to be very straightforward about what it is you need.  You can’t expect people to always know what it is you want or expect from them.  You just need to simply tell them.  Yes, it may be hard to do at first.  But it’s essential.  Otherwise you will never get what you want or need from others, and conversely, they will never know what to give to you or what you need from them.  Be upfront and it will only benefit you in the long run.

5)  Let go of things that have happened/you’ve done in the past.  How often do we tend to hold onto things we’ve done in the past or things that others have done to us in the past?  We all do it.  It’s so easy to do, too.  Yet, if we have this mindset or mentality, we’re only keeping ourselves stuck.  There is no good that can come from keeping our mind focused on all the wrongs that have happened or all the mistakes that have been made in the past.  We will only keep ourselves stuck there…with the inability to move forward.  We can become so weighed down by those things from the past, that we simply can’t ever shift our focus to the present, or even more so, the future.

6)  There are things more important than exercising.  I know I am not the only one who has had the mentality that it is important to exercise every.single.day.  I oftentimes only felt like I had a good day if I got some sort of exercise in.  I’d also use my workouts to dictate what I could or could not eat on any given day.  Exercising slowly but surely started to be a priority in every.single.day.  If I couldn’t exercise because something else came up, well I’d just have to switch things around to accommodate and to make sure I could exercise; even if that meant missing out on a fun time with family or friends.  I’ve learned that not only is it okay to take days off, even days that you had planned to exercise on, but it’s a good thing.  If you are living your life for your workouts or letting your workouts dictate what invitations you choose to accept or decline, that is a problem.  Again, there is nothing wrong with working out and being healthy, but you need to find a balance.   Also, let yourself have rest days.  There is nothing wrong with taking time off from working out.  Actually, it is really important to do so.  It allows your body time to rest and recharge.   Being healthy and living life also includes spending time having fun and making time for the unexpected.

7)  You don’t have to justify or explain who you are and why you are the way you are to others.  This had been a very hard thing for me.  I felt like it was necessary for me to explain why I was the way I was.  The perfect example is my personality.  I am more of an introverted person, that is just simply who I am.  Being an introvert can often be construed as either being bitchy, snobby, or closed off.  I often always felt like people got that impression from me, or assumed that I was a bitch/snob/closed off person.  So whenever I could, I felt I needed to explain to people that ‘I’m just shy until I get to know someone!’ or ‘I’m just a quieter person’.  But I realized something lately…I don’t have to explain myself.  I am simply an introverted person…and that is okay!  I am not a bitch, I am not a snob, nor am I closed off.  If people want to assume that about me, that is their choice.  But I don’t have any reason nor need to explain why I am the way I am.  You will never find an extroverted or more outgoing person have the need to explain why they are an extrovert, so why should I have to explain why I am the way I am?!  Exactly; I shouldn’t have to.

Lately at work I had found myself needing to justify who I am.  We have two new girls in the department and I am not the type to be very outgoing and social.  Nor am I the type of person to ask to go to lunch with them or take the intiative in going out for drinks after work.  So I caught myself a couple weeks ago, telling one of the new girls that I’m just really shy until I get to know people.  That statement alone isn’t a bad thing to say.  Yet, my motivation or reason for doing so was.  I felt like the two new girls had made assumptions about the type of person I am and that I needed to “defend” myself.  Now I see that I don’t have to do that anymore.  It’s a great feeling.  I’m finally learning to accept the type of person I am, not feel like I need to change it or justify it, and am finally just okay with being me.

Questions: 

Can any of you relate to these ‘life lessons’?

Have you had to learn any life lessons the hard way?

 

 

I Love Weekends (even bad ones!)

I was so ready for a nice weekend after working all week.  The weather all week had been rainy, gloomy, and cloudy for the majority of it.  Granted, we did have periods of sunshine in a few days during the week, but it seemed like the rain and storms crowded out the sun.  Friday night was a nice relaxing night in.  I had my brother and one of my best friends over for a movie night, which was just perfect.  We watched…

It was really, really different…but I actually really enjoyed it!

Waking up Saturday morning felt like it would be a repeat of the week.  It was cloudy and gloomy, looking like it could start raining at any moment.  I had wanted to go for a run, to test out my new purchase which I just got in the mail this week.  My Garmin Forerunner 10!

I love running in the morning and really wanted to wake up and run right away.  But I was worried a bit about the weather (again!).  I checked the radar to see if rain was in the area…there was some surrounding our area…but none too close.  So, I thought I’d go for it and give it a go!  I’m so glad I did!  The morning was still cool since it was cloudy and I felt really strong running!  I ran a 5ker, and felt good about that.  I did it in about 30:43, which for me was good.  I’d love to get under 30 minutes…and if I keep at it, I think that is a realistic goal.  I had fun hooking up to Garmin Connect and checking out all my run stats and info.  I’m definitely loving my Garmin 😀

After my morning run, I felt pretty energized.  I had some cleaning I wanted to do, so I killed that off…cleaning my bathroom, kitchen, and the fridge.  I felt really productive and everything looked sooo nice and clean!  I love that feeling.

I ran some errands, including the best part of my errand running, getting sushi for lunch!  We have a local grocery store that has a really nice sushi bar.  They make the sushi fresh daily and have such a huge selection.  So I picked up a couple different types! 

Yep, $5 sushi on Wednesdays!  I was informed of this by the cashier and I was overjoyed!  😀 Looks like Wednesdays will be a sushi night for me!  Yay!

After lunch, I stopped over by my parents for a bit to visit, came home and did some yoga, and then just relaxed a bit.  We had made plans to go with some friends to Summerfest later that night to go see Imagine Dragons.    Summerfest is like the largest music fest in the area, based out of Milwaukee, and they do it annually.  Now, I have lived in Wisconsin, about 15 miles outside of Milwaukee my whole life…and I have never been to Summerfest!  Crazy, I know, right?!  So this was going to be my first time going!  (Also, a check off for one of my 101 in 1001!)

The hubster and I met up with our friends, then made our way down to Milwaukee.  We had a little “friend” in the backseat with us…

Um, I didn’t ask why this little guy (Yoda) was buckled into the backseat, but I do know the guy is a huge Star Wars fan…so I guess it’s self explanatory?!  I actually thought it was really funny, in a good way.  The guy is 20 and has this buckled into his car.  Love it.

Of course we had to take a picture with our new friend.  😀  Too funny!

We got down there and it was literally chaos.  I would like to say that I had a good time, but overall it was just not a good experience.  It was SO busy, everyone was SO rude.  The majority of the crowd was comprised of young people (20s and younger) and it literally seemed like everyone was drunk.  We got to the stage where Imagine Dragons was set to play about an hour early and it just continued to get worse as it got closer to the concert.  It really was just not my scene.  The hubster and I eventually decided we had enough of being slammed into other people, being pushed past, elbowed in the face, and stepped on, that we told our friends we were going to pull back a bit and get out of the crowd.  We literally only stepped back about 10 yards, and it was way better.  Less people, less chaos.  And I could actually see the stage better at that location than at the place we were at before.  My question is why does everyone feel the need to push ahead to get “closer” when they realistically won’t be able to see any better anyways?

The show started and we couldn’t hear anything.  We were close enough to the stage to be able to hear it, but there was another stage super close by which was REALLY loud and that was all we could hear.  So, we decided to get away from all the people.  (and all the vomit…I can’t tell you how many people we saw throwing up or how much vomit we saw on the ground)  It was disgusting.  We went as close to the perimeter of the grounds of the fest as we could, just to get some breathing room.  There were just SO MANY PEOPLE.  I later found out that apparently the fest was nearing maximum capacity, so I guess it makes sense.  (http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/213739811.html)

The hubster and I couldn’t have been more out of place.  We both agreed that we would have much rather been having a bonfire (since it was a bit chilly out), with a bottle of wine, snuggled up under a blanket and looking up at the stars.  I love that we are alike in that way.  We walked around a bit and ended up finding a much smaller stage with a band playing.  The crowds were a lot less wild and it was just a way better setting.  So we stayed there for a while and listened to them.  They were actually really good.  They were called Cracker.  I had never heard of them before…but they were really good!  We ended up in the mood to actually smile again by this point 🙂

We headed out around 11:30, meeting our friends outside the gates.  And then things just kept being crazy.  We got to our car with no trouble, in the parking structure.  And again, mass chaos to try and leave the place.  We literally moved about a 0.05 of a mile in a period of an hour.  Then, to make matters worse…we had to contend with all of the drunk idiots who decided they would try and cut in front of us after they just got to their car, while we were waiting for over an hour.  Oh, and did I mention that everyone thought blasting their horns non-stop would be a great solution to the problem!  Nothing like sitting at a stand still and blasting your horn to really make the situation better!  Ugh, we finally got out of there by about 1:15.  Almost two hours in the parking structure.  What a total nightmare!

I was so, SO glad to finally get home!  Lesson learned…Summerfest just is NOT your scene, Elise.

I got about 5.5-6 hours sleep last night, but just couldn’t sleep longer.  It was too bright and sunny and breezy, which made the shades hit the window and kept me distracted.  So, I got my toosh up.  And decided I’d go for a run.  The sun was shining and it felt like a beautiful morning out there!  I did another 5ker and almost got it in 30 minutes!  30:04!  Close! 

Now, just having a mellow rest of the day.  Doing some blogging, heading to the grocery store in just a little bit, then dinner at my parents later this evening.  Granted, it wasn’t the best weekend, but overall, it wasn’t bad either.  I got to spend time with myself, going for some nice runs, cleaning the apartment.  I got to spend time with some people I love, my family and a good friend.  I got some “quality” (haha, no I kid) time with the hubster.  All in all, pretty decent.  🙂

 

Time for Me

I have been given an opportunity to spend a considerable amount of my time on my own, able to do my own thing, come and go as I please, to do what I want when I want.  This may sound like a normal way of being, but up until this week, my circumstances were different.  Now, things have changed.  Now I have “me” time.

I’ve been enjoying coming home from work and getting right into yoga (yes, for now I just do it at home, but that will change soon!).  I try and do either a half hour or an hour each day, if I can.  It has been truly a highlight of my days.  It helps set the pace for the rest of my evening, calming me and relaxing me…I’m always left feeling so good afterward!

I’ve been enjoying tidying up my apartment.  I’ve had the weekend to clean clean clean and I absolutely loved having some time to do that!  Yesterday, I scrubbed the kitchen floor and both bathroom floors and vacuumed the whole place.  Today, I tackled dusting everything and cleaning all the glass in the place.  It looks AMAZING.  A clean home is a refreshing, good feeling.  🙂

Friday evening I had a nice night in.  I snuggled up on the couch with Dexter and watched an amazing movie I never heard of before, but absolutely LOVED.  Sooo good.  And it hit a bit close to home, too.  I ended up crying at a few points (which would never had happened normally…I really don’t cry during movies, especially a more “chick-flick” type of a movie!) but I thought it was really good!

Saturday evening my brother and I took our parents out to celebrate their anniversary (which was May 16th) but our gift to them was to take them to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and we got tickets for the show for last night, since that particular show was one that interested us.  It was such a fun night!  My family is so crazy when we’re together.  The show was at 8 and lasted til about ten and my parents couldn’t have been happier with the gift we got for them!  They were SO impressed!  It was a really amazing show!  Totally awesome.

This morning I met a good friend for coffee down in Milwaukee.  We went to Alterra and nestled ourselves in the little nook in the back on the comfiest couch EVER!  It was so good meeting up with her and catching up a bit.  We hadn’t gotten together in SO long so it was well overdue!

We headed across the street to Indulgence Chocolatiers afterward, where she works.  She had to start working soon but she decided to show me the place before she had to open.  (Bonus, I got a free dark chocolate peanut butter cup truffle! oh.my.gosh. Amazing!)  I picked up some truffles for my parents, since they are coming over later today.

My friend and I were talking about my new-found love of yoga and she told me that she used to do yoga all the time but hadn’t for a while.  I told her about my first class this week doing bikram and she said she LOVES bikram.  So after this first class I have she and I are going to be bikram-buddies and go to classes together, looks like on Sundays since we both usually have off that day.  So yay!  I’m super excited about that! 

I feel like things have been going well right now for me.  Yes, I am facing a huge transition right now in my life, but I’m making the most of it…finding the silver lining.  I view this time as a time for self-discovery and “me” time.  Turns out, I’m not such a bad person to be around. 🙂