Monday, February 25, 2019

Step Into My Week

I’ve discovered that Monday’s are often my most productive days of the week. On Friday’s I usually add a few things to my to-do list for Monday so that I can hit the ground running when I get into the office. From spreadsheets to feature drafts to responding to comments and emails, I was able to make my way through most of my to-dos. After work, I went to the Y and ran a little bit and stretched and did some strength exercises before heading home. My roommate and I watched The Bachelor while eating dinner before eventually going to bed. 


Tuesday was spent working on organizing my thoughts for a piece I’m working on while also doing some outreach and scheduling social media posts. After work I went to the Y and ran 4 miles and came home to clean up, eat, and get in bed early. It was rainy, so a cup of tea and some new magazines in bed by 8:30 sounded like a dream. I’ve been especially tired the past two weeks even though I’ve been getting plenty of sleep, so an early night in bed was ideal. I read for a bit and was asleep before 10:00. Wednesday was similar with a meeting thrown in. After work, I went to the Y to work out before meeting friends to play trivia at a place called Rojo. For those of you in Birmingham, it’s in the Highlands area, and I believe they do trivia each Wednesday night. I was the least helpful person our team (not surprising there since I don’t know anything about pop culture and can’t remember actors or musicians’ names to save my life) but it a fun change in my typical routine. I got home around 10:00 and quickly showered, dried my hair, and got in bed. 

It was another rainy day in Birmingham on Thursday. I think everyone here can agree that we are a bit tired of being waterlogged and unfortunately rain remains in the forecast for the upcoming week. I was really productive at work, and before I knew it, it was time to leave. I went to the Y to work out and didn’t have quite enough time to get my entire run in before needing to head home to eat quickly before bible study. Bible study ended around 9:00 and I headed home to shower and read before going to sleep. 

Friday morning, I slept a bit later than usual and arrived at Starbucks around 7:00 to work on blog tasks before work. I was reminded of how small a world it is when a guy I went to college with and hung out with our Greenville group this past summer walked in and apparently just moved to Birmingham. I headed to work after being relatively productive at Starbucks and was able to check a number of things off of my to-do list. After work, I went home to start laundry, change, and eat lunch before heading to the Y to finish the previous day’s work out. When I got home, I showered and relaxed before trying to get some blog photos done despite the gloomy weather. Friday night a friend had invited some of us to have a wine and cheese night at her apartment. With the weather being so gross this was the perfect way to be social without having to put in too much effort. 

Saturday was very laid back as well since the weather was pretty gross. The only thing I had on my agenda was grabbing dinner with friends that night. I spent my morning listening to the audiobook of Ghosted which I finished during my run on Sunday and loved. It was a chick flick mixed with a bit of a mystery making it right up my alley. I worked on some blog work for the week and generally just had a slow morning. Around lunchtime I went to get my grocery shopping for the week out of the way at Trader Joe’s while there was a break in the rain. That afternoon I decided to go through my closet and get rid of anything that I hadn’t worn this season since it was just taking up unnecessary space. I don’t always love the process of doing this, but it was nice to have it done. I ended up pulling out lots of clothes that I no longer wear, and now my closet feels slightly more spacious. I do need to figure out what to do with these clothes (sell them/give them away/a mix of the two?) especially since I’ll be wanting to put away all of my winter clothes soon to have room for the spring ones I’ve been storing at home. Eventually, I got ready to go to dinner with my roommate and two of our friends. We had the hardest time deciding where we wanted to go and ultimately decided on Babalu. I had never been there, and it was pretty good. The tableside guacamole was the real selling point in my eyes. Afterward, we dropped our friends off at their apartment, and my roommate and I decided to watch A Simple Favor (more on that below) before going to sleep. 

Sunday the sun finally decided to come back out (thank goodness), and I used that as my motivator to go on my last long run before my half marathon this coming Sunday. I ran 8 miles, and it had been so long since I’d seen the sun that I ended up with a bit of a racerback tan. After my run, I showered and took some blog photos before going to Starbucks to sit outside and write blog posts and enjoy the sunshine (despite it being a little bit cold). I called my parents after that and did some meal prepping. Overall I can’t claim to have had a very eventful weekend, but a little bit of sunshine reassured me that socializing is definitely more of a thing when the weather isn’t so gloomy.

Lately

In the midst of my book buying ban (aka me trying to save money by not constantly purchasing books on Amazon and instead relying on the library) I realized that this book by Stephanie Clifford had been sitting on my bookshelf unread. I decided to pick it up as my night time read. Although I’m not very far into it, it seems like a light read. I’ll be sure to keep y’all updated with how it is in the coming weeks.

The other book I’ve been reading is one that I started (read 80 pages in the span of a few hours) and had also forgotten about. The Myth of the Nice Girl has been my morning read and would be a great gift to give any girl applying to jobs for the first time or even just considering a job change. I love the tips the author gives and how the book is organized. I may be a bit of a nerd when it comes to loving career-related books, but if you have any recommendations send them my way! 

Watching: A Simple Favor
Shockingly, this was a movie that I actually had seen commercials for before it was in theaters. I thought it looked interesting, so my roommate and I decided to watch it on Saturday night. We sat there so confused as we were watching it because there seemed to be a lot of plot lines attempting to tie into the overall storyline. I think they were trying to be funny at parts, but it ended up being weird more than anything. I was shocked after when I looked it up on Rotten Tomatoes to see that it scored 86%. I’m no movie critic, but I think my rating would have been lower. 

I am so ready for spring clothes to be acceptable to wear out and about. With cold weather and rain, I know that won’t be a reality for a little while longer. In protest, I’ve been finding comfort on weekends in the best yoga pants I own. They fit like leggings until about the knee (depending on how tall you are), and then they flare out in a flattering way to look more like yoga pants. I’ve had my black pair since high school and got a navy pair on sale a while back and am shocked with how new the black ones still look. 

Listening To: The Lying Game
Remember my new best friend from last week? The Libby app. Well, I made way through another book on it this past week. The Lying Game by Ruth Ware could best be described as a thriller. I really love the author and thought this book was good, but it wouldn’t be one of the first thrillers I’d recommend to a friend interested in the genre. As an audiobook, it was very long (13 hours) and with about 5 hours left I felt like it could have been wrapped up. While there was another twist in that time I got to the point where I was ready to have all of the answers. Next up I think I’m going to listen to something aside from a thriller since I think I prefer reading those as opposed to listening to them. 

I had been extra tired over the past couple of weeks and eventually realized it could be due to not getting quite enough iron. The fatigue mixed with working out longer and a few other factors had me pretty sure that this was the case and being intentional about adding in more foods with iron to my diet in an attempt to combat the tiredness. When I thought about the last time I had had red meat I honestly couldn’t think of when that would have been. I got the ingredients for these easy Meatloaf Burgers that I had shared in a Meal Prep In Your Step post a while back. They are delicious (especially since I’m not usually a burger person) and a nice change from the amount of chicken that is usually in my diet. 

Excited For: A Beach Trip + Seaside Half Marathon
I am so excited for this upcoming weekend because I’m taking a vacation! It’s wild to me that I no longer have to plan when I want to take a vacation around school breaks or the two personal days we’d get for the whole year. This is my first time taking advantage of choosing when I want to take off based on my own desires next Monday and Tuesday. I somehow convinced my parents that we should take a trip to 30A for me to run the Seaside Half Marathon on Sunday since it coincided when they were already going to be off for Mardi Gras. Conveniently my dad has a bike race nearby on Saturday so the timing couldn’t be more perfect and they thought it was a fun idea. So, I am beach bound on Friday after work for a relaxing (aside from the 13.1 miles of running on Sunday) extended weekend in Seaside. We’ve rented a house (that allows dogs, so even Scout gets to join) that has bikes and a golf cart so I have a feeling we will be exploring in style during our getaway. 

Loving: Icy Hot
As I’ve been training for next week’s half marathon, I’ve had an old injury start to bother me again, and Icy Hot has been my savior. While it doesn’t bother me all the time putting icy hot on it before and after long runs has really helped. I have never used the Icy Hot patches but went ahead and got a pack to take with me to the beach in case I want them.

Posts From This Week:

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