On the topic of resolutions:

So, I am forever in a battle with my self over staying healthy. I often sway between NEEDING those chili-cheese fries and NEEDING to fit into my size 4 skinny jeans. However, slowly but surely the healthy part of me is getting more confident.

1) There is a gym in my basement which means: no. more. excuses. It's a very basic little place but it has a weights, different machines and a sauna. Basically, I can't use my schedule as an excuse - there is always time, now (especially since the gym is 24 hours and always empty).

2) I've been using LivingSocial and Groupon to purchase different exercise trials around the area. (See the Hot Yoga debacle of 2010). Most recently I signed up for a Pilates Introductory course which not only seem fun BUT should help with strengthening my blasted, useless knee.

3) I've cut bread (almost totally) out of my diet. The only way it works is: if I want bread, I get bread but I have to be honest about what it's doing to my body. I never deny my self those healthy carbs just because but I DO force myself to pause and think: is this really where you want to spend those 150 calories?

4) CALORIE AS CASH! Basically, I wake up in the morning with 1800 dollars and during the day I GET to spend it, guilt free, on whatever I want. This way I meet a piece of cake and I think: Is this worth 300 dollars? Probably not. (This thought process is inspired by Cosmo, I think. They feature a mini-article each month wherein they say: You could have this cheeseburger with fries for 550 calories OR you can have this hamburger salad, with a margarita AND chocolate mouse for 475 calories. . . etc, etc).

ANYWAYS, I'm doing it. I feel healthier, I eat food without feeling guilty, I drink less alcohol and a little more water. And, it's all for me - I love looking in the mirror and thinking: I control this image.

Sick of me yet?

about this funny thing that happened . . .

Hokay.

So, this thing happened wherein my lovely bank, the bastards, decided that my debit purchase at Pitaya was unusualy for my account and they put an effing hold on my card. During this hold my domain name was set to automatically renew . . . . which it could not do because it could not charge my card. As such, my domain has now lapsed and I have been returned unceremoniously to the blogspot world.

The address here will be: www.ordinarycircus.blogspot.com for the foreseeable future.

Dammnit it all anyways.

nip/tuck, boot camps and more!

Still working on that getting healthy thing. So far, so good. I feel like I'm eating in a more healthy fashion - at least, I'm more aware of my hunger and I tend to over-eat less. However, I did have a huge plate of nachos last night - you win some, you lose some.

I'm watching nip/tuck obsessively and have come to the conclusion that plastic surgery rarely looks as good as its meant to. And so, to ward off any lingering fantasies of a lipo-fixing everything-lunchtime procedure I've signed up for a boot camp. Of course, the pre-req is being able to run a mile so. . . . . you know, it'll be awhile before I attend class.

Speaking of class! I haven't given up on writing, those programs are still waiting and Boston is still calling, but! to pass the time, I've signed up for an entrepreneurial class. I avoided all business/math/accounting/economic-esque classes my entire life; however, the older I get the more I think it's probably smart of have a small idea of what it takes to run my own life.

This post is extraordinarily boring, maybe because I just finished an awful book about an amazing kid: Dove.

This kid, at 16, circumnavigated the world in an abysmally small sailboat, got married, had a kid and moved to Montana. In 6 years. Pretty outstanding, except that the book was horrid. Boring, cliched and written as if dictated by one of my mother's third graders. I was more entertained by the Wiki article about the same boy than the book which I finished in two evenings. Back to Bill Bryson, I guess.

A Non-Milestone

This is my 100th blog on this site and to celebrate I am going to write about the Gap. Or rather, about how the Gap online store is closed and how stupid I think that is on a Sunday afternoon when everyone AND their mother is at home and too lazy to go to an actual store. "We're sorry, our site is temporarily unavailable," is just NOT the message I want to read when I'm coming down from an argument-cum-panic attack. Hello, shop therapy anyone? Gap, you are contributing to my psychoses by withholding my prescription.

Also, withholding has two "h"s. Who knew?

HGTV . . . again.

Okay, so I promised myself I would stop with the HGTV-nesting thing. But, BUT I'm annoyed. So, here it goes. It is no secret that I watch My First Place and House Hunters as obsessively as some certain people watch football (I'm looking at you, you crazy fantasy footballers). After several hundred-million episodes I have developed one serious tic. I hate, yes hate, when people walk into a home and go: oh, but I hate this paint color. . . really? I mean. REALLY?

The paint color?

It drives me crazy.

There's no dishwasher, the bathroom is tiny, the master is cramped but it's the PAINT that you're worried about? Please, take your $500,000 elsewhere you design-dumb douchebag.

Body Image Issues

I have a serious issue with the way my body looks. Regardless of how active I am (or aren't), how thin I am (or aren't) I always see the same flabby body in the mirror. I am super self-conscious and self-degrading.

In an effort to fix this, because logically I know it's ridiculous, I did a Juice Cleanse last weekend (which was a disaster, basically) and now I've started on a regimen that Glamour (yes Glamour, the magazine) has put together.

It's a twelve week program that regulates my diet, creates work out plans and forces me to blog (there and here) which keeps me honest and hopefully active.

This will hopefully get me on track to be HEALTHY (versus thin) and hopefully, happy. I'll be eating better! Working on my strength (which is important, especially because my knee has been hurting)! and Getting me moving!

Day 1 is tomorrow at 9 am. Wish me luck!

The ZOO

This is a zoo post. Seriously, I am posting about a trip to the zoo. A trip that I took.

I am twelve years old and this is show and tell.

All pictures were taken with my iPhone at the Tacoma Point Defiance Zoo. My last memory of this particular zoo were pretty dim; I think there was construction, the animals were subdued.

Today, the weather was cool-ish and we (my mom and I) went during feeding/play time. It was probably one of the better zoo experiences I've had recently or ever. There were baby tigers feeding with their mama and NEW! clouded leopards which are extremely rare. The keeper was playing with one of the leopards which acted exactly like a puppy except, you know, lethal. The Polar Bears were pretty frisky and crowds were decently low. I was able to snag a front row view at every habitat.

Rare Clouded Leopards




Leeeeeeeeeeemurs




Fighting Polar Bears. I am an awesome photographer. This was totally planned. . .

??

Um, an egg recall because of a salmonella scare?

. . . wait, what?

WTF, Nebraska!

speaking of saving money

Ok, so, even though I'm making more money this summer and spending less than I originally budgeted I'm still all about a good coupon.

I introduce: GROUPONS!

I got $50 dollars worth of GAP clothing for TWENTY-FIVE bucks, yo.

The deals range from Zoo memberships to cheap-as-heck haircuts. Just recently a top-salon featured a haircut and styling for on 30 bucks. They have everything from restaurants to bars to mani-pedi packages.

It's sweet, really. I hear-by recommend.

Rent the Runway, juice cleanses . . . wait, what??

Two things that are absolutely girly of me:

1)I'm starting a Juice Cleanse similar to the BluePrint Cleanse lauded by all celebrities except that I'll be making and/or buying all my own juices rather than having a company ship me my menu. I've already started by eliminating caffeine, albeit slowly, avoiding meat and eating more veggies. I'm only going to do it for 3 days, days during which I won't be working because I'm little worried that the all liquid diet will leave me a little weak-kneed.
I'm excited because I've been filling up on crap - working at a sausage restaurant will do that for you - and I've been feeling sick for awhile. Hopefully, I can stick with it.

2)OMG! I'm in LOVE with Rent the Runway. For serious, it's about the coolest thing I've ever heard of. Girls, you can get thousand dollar dresses for a simple rental fee of 100 dollars. You get the dress for 4 days, you can spill wine; stick the zipper; lose a jewel from the fabric - no harm, no foul! It's perfect for those weddings, high school reunions or meeting-the-parents situations where you want to look on-of-a-kind snazzy but don't or, these days, can't drop the cash. WELL worth signing up, even just to window shop all the gorgeous designs.

Check it out!




It's strange for me to find this inner-girl, but refreshing too. My inner mean-steak has been peaking a lot lately so I'm hoping the cleanse plus this opportunity to save money are going to help me calm down, and get nice again. Not that I was very nice to begin with, but you know. If wishes were kisses...