titilating tuesday news

Titilating.

Now that I have your attention, please enjoy this very Mundane Tuesday Post ;)

Stinker, aren't I?

In blog news, I'm apparently too stoopid to figure out this whole own and setup my own domain thing. I've apparently created two accounts at Domain.com and Dave from Domain.com has (literally) called me 7 times today trying to get it all figured out.

Yes Dave from Domain.com, I have a day job, and no direct access to my laptop, so please leave ONE MESSAGE and I'll call you back.

K thanks. Bye.

Some day we may need to adjust our book marks, but until then, same bat time, same bat channel.

Side note - we're cooking Quinoa in the rice cooker. Intrigued? So am I! Very excited to see how it turns out. Okay, maybe not "excited", but definitely mildly enthused :) Culinary Adventures, HO! (as of this posting, it turned out great, we used some veggie stock instead of water to add some flavor)

I've also been spending a WHOLE lot of time wrestling with my wanderlust bug. I spent two hours online today looking into Round-The-World plane tickets. Expensive yes ($3-10K) but you essentially travel unlimited for one whole year, wherever your little pre-planned-trip heart desires :)

I know its kind of crazy, and really not financially feasable in the next year, but its nice to have something to look forward to and plan for. Something as a goal!

And I've also (again) thought about, (shock) going back to school for a graduate degree. I mean really, isn't a bachelor's degree the "new" high school diploma? A dime a dozen so to speak? I'm pretty sure my cousin found one as the prize in her Lucky Charms box. So I've been thinking about maybe going somewhere new for grad school, which would kill two birds with one stone.

Again, planning.

Tomorrow, I PROMISE I will write my post about the super awesome Color Me Rad 5K I ran a few weeks ago.

And its Tuesday, so here's some tunes ::
Seriously addicted to Melancholy Hill by the Gorillaz
It popped up randomly on Spotify a few weeks ago and haven't been able to get enough of it.
I can't find anywhere online to embed it here, so go, find, and enjoy!

Need a Vacation? Pretend you're in Italy
Drive fast with a cappuccino in your hand.
Beep Beep!

xoxo, McGriddle Pants

nothing and everything

I am now entering day three of "Snot Fest 2013".

I went home early on Tuesday feeling achey, and then when I woke up 7 hours later, I realized I indeed, have the flu. I'm finally feeling better enough that I feel guilty for not getting anything done. Isn't that fun? I usually take some more NyQuil and sleep it off, just so I don't have to think about it. I'm going back to work tomorrow, but have Saturday off again, just in case I'm still snot-riffic.

So many things going on right now. I hate having my mind free to wander and think about crappy things in my life. I've been having some SERIOUS wanderlust lately. It happens every few years when I hate my job. Hate my friends. Hate my house. Hate my life.

You get it.

I just want to dump everything and run away. The main point here is I really need to find a job in my life that really makes me happy and fulfilled. IE: Lets me travel more. I really really really really need to travel. I've come to this conclusion that its in my genetics.

I've put notice in at one of my jobs. Le Restaurant. I'm just so tired of being unappreciated (aren't we all?!) and pretty much useless. Yes, the money was nice, but I can make up for most of it at Le Cafe, and will be home by 5 every night. Small bonus, especially in the summer months. I liked it there, but I was honestly going NOWHERE, which again, makes me hate my life.

I really need to go grocery shopping. I mean like really really. We're don to just condiments and old boxes of take out. Oh and that stick of butter. Hmmm... what should I make for dinner?

And on the website front. I've officially purchased "serenitynowinsanitylater.com" but am now in the fun-filled conquest of finding a web hosting page, and a web design that I like. What the crap did I get myself into? I had no idea that each thing cost its own amount of money. Lame. Whatevs. I hate blogspot. I must spread my wings and flyyyyyyyyy!

I'm also procrastinating planning my trip to Hawaii. I've had travel books on my coffee table and in my bag for weeks now, and they've yet to be cracked. Why am I putting it off? What is wrong with me?!

Bazinga.

Anyway, enough ranting/rambling. Happy Thursday all, and enjoy your friday and weekend if I don't get back at ya! :)

xoxo, McGriddle Pants

observations

There is a great need for a sarcasm font.

"Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this. Ever.

I think obituaries would be much more interesting if they told you how the person died.

I honestly can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

Seriously, how the hell do you fold a fitted sheet?

I would rather carry 10 over-loaded plastic bags of groceries in each hand than take 2 trips into the house.

I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear you computer history if you die.

Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Jeans? Jeans never get dirty.

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blu-Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection... again.

I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Bud Light than Kay.

Is it just me or do high school kids get dumber & dumber every year?

Google Maps really needs an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea hat was going on when I first saw it.




Have I missed anything?

xoxo, McGriddle Pants

my domain

I've been thinking for a while that I hate blogspot.

Its been a great little platform for starting my bloggy blog, but I feel like I'd have much more control of how my blog looks and how things work if I got my own domain.

My problem is this: What shall my domain name be?

I'm currently anne-a-bell.blogspot.com, which worked at the beginning, but is honestly hard to tell people, or to type in. Plus, most of the time I don't go by Anne-A-Bell on my blog.

I've been thinking about mcgriddlepants.com, but am afraid McDonalds will send me a cease and decist letter or something. And serenitynowinstanitylater.com is taken (however there are some lovely variations available for purchase) but again am wondering if nbc or jerry seinfeld would be able to come after me. Or would they even care?

Anyway, was just wondering if any of you had any thoughts on this. I have a few blog friends who are on their own domain name. How was the process for you? Did you have a hard time picking a name? Which site did you buy the domain name through?

I'd love some input if anyone has any suggestions or advice on the subject! Or if you have a fantabulous domain suggestion for me! ;)

xoxo, McGriddle Pants

for Boston

I know everyone is on Boston overload right now, but in all this chaos and uncertainty, so many wonderful stories of human compassion and kindness have risen from the dust.

There's not much that I personally can say about what happened, that hasn't already been said. I just feel that out of all the maddness, we are reassured how good the people of Boston are. How good we all are. And how despite all our differences, when given the opportunity, we jump at the chance to lend a hand and help our fellow man.

I just wanted to take a minute to share with you some of the tremendous offerings of support given from all likes of people.

After running for 26 ridiculous miles, when hearing what happened, runners continued on, past the finish line, running another TWO MILES to Mass General to donate blood.

Absolutely amazing.

Other people opened their homes to those who were stranded, or offered lifts to people without transport. A Google document was set up with offers of help. People offering what they had and where they were located.

I love the people of Boston.

And others offering something simple like blankets, a bathroom, and something to drink. They had afterall, just ran a freaking marathon!

 Of course first responders are amazing. Civilians too. Running toward the chaos to help those injured. Some carrying people away from the danger and then going back to help more. One man was caught on camera rushing straight to site where the bomb had detonated, where bloodied people were lying dazed on the pavement. He ripped off his belt to make a tourniquet and stem the bleeding, before turning to assist other seriously-injured victims.

And of course this made me smile:

So I wanted to say Thank You.

Thank you to my friends in Boston who stayed safe and sound.


Thank you to everyone who is good and caring and loving.

Thank you for doing what is right.

Thank you for restoring my faith in humanity.

Some of you know that I ran my first 5K Saturday. (I'll tell you about that later.) I had no desire to run a 10K or a Half Marathon, or even God forbid, a whole, actual Marathon. On my run today, I was mentally complaining to myself about how I was tired and wanted to be finished. But then I remembered the picture of the man in a wheelchair with his feet blown off. I thought to myself "I'm running for those who can't run anymore. I'm running for the man in the wheelchair. I'm running for the little 8 year-old boy who will never run again. I'm running for anyone would give anything to walk, let alone run again. I'm running for Boston."

I know this sounds cheesy. But, this mantra gave me the endurance to finish my run strong. Its moments like these that make me realize how small and trivial most of my problems really are. A perfect time for that ever-so-popular phrase First World Problems.

So I've decided to run a 10K, and dedicate it to The City Boston, and to those affected by this tragedy. To all those who can't run, or will never run again. I know it sounds sort of self-righteous to do this, but I'm not going to make a big deal about it. I'm telling you my bloggy friends, and maybe my boyfriend and mom. It just seems like the right thing to do, for me, to help me make some sense of all this insanity.

xoxo, McGriddle Pants

For Boston, for Boston,
we sing our proud refrain
for Boston, for Boston
'tis wisdom's earthly fane
for here are all one
and our hearts are true
and the towers on the heights
reach the heavens own blue.
for Boston, for Boston
'til the echoes ring again

Lyrics by The Dropkick Murphys

thirty-five

I'm turning 35 this year.

This of course begets the, "What am I doing with my life?", "Am I happy?", "Why the hell am I still friends with this person?", thoughts.

This is the thing: When you hit 28 or 30, everything begins to divide.

You can see very clearly two kinds of people.

On one side, people who have used their 20s to learn and grow, to find themselves and their dreams, people who know what works and what doesn’t, who have pushed through to become real live adults.

Then there’s the other kind, who are hanging onto college, or high school even, with all their might. They’ve stayed in jobs they hate, because they’re too scared to get another one. They’ve stayed with men or women who are good but not great, because they don’t want to be lonely. … they mean to develop intimate friendships, they mean to stop drinking like life is one big frat party. But they don’t do those things, so they live in an extended adolescence, no closer to adulthood than when they graduated.

I don't want to be like that. Don’t be like that.

I feel like I'm stuck. Don’t get stuck.

I work with a dear, sweet wonderful woman, who forgets to live today. She lives in yesterday and tomorrow simultaneously. She refuses to "grow roots" because she knows shes moving in a few months. It makes me sad because I feel like shes not giving me a chance to be her friend. I have to remind myself that its her loss. Making herself unhappy because she misses people of yesterday, but never looking at today because all she can think about is tomorrow.

I don't want to live like that.

Move, travel, take a class, take a risk. This is what I feel like I need to do. But what? But how?

There is a season for wildness and a season for settledness, and this is neither. I feel like I'm in the inbetween.

This season is about becoming. Don’t lose yourself at happy hour, but don’t lose yourself on the corporate ladder either. Stop every once in a while and go out to coffee or climb in bed with your journal. I'm asking myself some good questions like: “Am I proud of the life I’m living? What have I tried this month? Do the people I’m spending time with give me life, or make me feel small? Is there any brokenness in my life that’s keeping me from moving forward?” Now is the time.

Walk closely with people you love, and with people who believe life is a grand adventure. This is a big one.

Trying SO HARD to not get stuck in the past, and not try to fast-forward myself into a future I haven’t yet earned.

I try to constantly remind myself life is a journey, not a destination. Try to give today all the love and intensity and courage I can. Think positive. Plan, but not forget about today. This moment. This now.

Do small things. Do big things. Do the things that make me happy. That make me move to where I want to be, but not forget where I am right now.

Today is a gift. Not everyone gets a tomorrow.

xoxo, McGriddle Pants

the one where I lost my shit

*Warning. The post is laden with profanities. 

At times, you may need to avert your eyes*

Do you ever have one of those days?

I mean one of THOSE DAYS?

And it all happened in the course of 20 minutes.

If any of you are Instagram followers, you'll now have the details of my cryptic angry note I wrote out at midnight that night.

Ready? Set. Go!

We all know Mondays and Tuesdays I work doubles. And since the state of Oregon thinks I can't be trusted to drive an automobile, and I live 22 miles away, I've been carpooling (aka begging and mooching rides).

Monday morning, boyfriend drops me off at 545 am at Le Coffee Shoppe (yes, Shoppe, cause I'm fancy like that) with my stuff and the bike. I work there in the morning and then at Le Restaurant during the evening, which I manage, and am off at around 11pm. Since I work the next morning again at 6pm, I've started staying in town at a friend's apartment. Biking the mile there, and then back again in the morning. Think of all the gas I'm saving!

This also means that I have to get all my shit, for two days, packed and put together Sunday evenings.

Cut to Le Restaurant. I have to wait for the dishwashers to finish before I lock up. This usually involves me sitting around for an hour playing on Facebook and Instagram. Waiting. Waiting.

Well this night, Eddie was feeling most-unproductive and took an extra 40 minutes to finish up. Can you say milking the clock? I finally closeup and get my bag and bike all ready to go, head down the stairs and feel for my key.

Fuck.

My Keys.

My fucking keys.

My fucking keys that are on the fucking break table at the fucking-fuck coffee shop.

Its 11:30 pm.

So. Not only can I not get into my friends apartment TO SLEEP. But I can't get INTO WORK IN THE MORNING.

Fuck! Fucking fuck fuck fuck!!!!!!

Side note :: At any normal job, I could come into work with the cook, who is also scheduled at 6am. But since our cook is thinks he can do whatever he wants, he usually strolls in at 6:20. This WOULD be a funny way to let the owner know how late he always is, but I don't wanna be a narc, and also get myself into trouble. He'll get his, someday. Oh yes, someday.

Whats really funny is, these businesses are literally  2 blocks apart. I'm SO CLOSE, yet so far away.

I text an co-worker who might be awake.

Nothing.

I text another.

Nothing.

Fuck.

I text another.

Nothing.

Fuck fuck!

Just when I'm about to freak out, someone gets back to me and offers to come let me in.

BLESS YOU MY CHILD!

So I peddle on over to Le Coffee Shoppe and meet her and grab my fucking keys off the fucking fuck break table. We laugh at me, lock up and say good-bye. Oh won't this be a funny story.

I look at my keys and about to put them in my pocket, and bike the mile to friend's apartment.

When I notice.

Friend's apartment key isn't there.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Oh no. I gave that key along with my P.O. box key to MY MOM when she checked my mail.

I'm the most brilliant fucking person in the universe.

This is where I almost start crying.

Its now midnight.

I can call boyfriend and have him come get me. Or even bring me the keys to her apartment. But I know he's been asleep for hours. Plus, he'd have to get up and drive a half our, get me, drive another half hour!

I text him my situation. I figure if he offered I'd let him, but I felt really bad punishing him for my stupidity.

I say FUCK IT! And decide to stay at a hotel. There's one a few blocks away. Its a Travel Lodge, it should be cheap, right!?

Ha.

Even ghetto hotels cost SIXTY FUCKING DOLLARS in this town.

Lame.

Meanwhile boyfriend is asking if that's the best rate? I should check the internet... blah blah blah. I'm pretty sure the conversation went like,  "I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS. ITS MIDNIGHT. I'M ON A BIKE. I JUST REALIZED I DIDN'T EAT DINNER. I DON'T HAVE THE LUXURY TO CHECK EXPEDIA FOR THE BEST DEAL. I'M OVERREACTING AND TAKING IT OUT ON YOU VIA TEXT MESSAGE THANK YOU VERY MUCH!"

This is not an exaggeration.

I claimed poverty and stupidity, and the sweet Indian lady laughed awkwardly at me, and got me a $20 discount for God Knows What.

Either way it still cost me $50 to me a moron.

She tells me to take the hallway down and my room is on the left. I can't find the hallway, so I end up walking all the way around the building. Oh, there's the hallway.

I collapse on the bed and can't tell whether or laugh or cry. I text boyfriend, who bless his heart can only say "I'm sorry you're having a bad night." He knows better than to interact when I'm spazzing out.

I brush my teeth and go to bed, as my stomach growls. Stupid stomach.

On the bright side, at least I didn't get bed bugs.

Its okay to laugh now.

I know I am.

On another bright side, I'm now running 32 straight minutes and my 5K is Saturday! Whoop!

xoxo, McGriddle Pants

Twister meets Simon Says... Anti-Gravity Yoga

I love yoga. I've been practicing yoga for a few years now. And by "practicing" I mean mayyyybe once every two months I'll get together with a friend and go.

Inspired by a post written by Salty Mom I decided to drag my friend Allison along and give Anti-Gravity yoga a try.

The class was at Gravitas in Portland, a facility that I HIGHLY recommend.

The whole hour ride up there I was nervous and excited. I couldn't figure out if I should eat before? I didn't want to be full and upside-down. Should I drink before? I didn't want to be dehydrated, but I didn't want to have to pee. Oh life is so hard!

We were about 40 minutes early (oh the excitement!) and were greeted by our instructor. She was super friendly and even gave us a tour of the whole facility.  I instantly felt at home here, and you can't say that about all yoga studios. The space is bright, well lit, painted in rich colors, very feng-shui, comforting, spacious, and all around beautiful. They also have some sort of "wall" yoga, and Gyrokenesis. I'll have to try those too since I have no idea what either of those are.

After she checked us in, she let us play around in the room and get used to the swings.

Nope, not excited at all.

I was also afraid the class would be really big, and I'd be lost, but there were only 9 of us, and six of us were first timers.

Relief.

We were taking a beginning class called "foundation" and it wasn't intimidating at all. We started off with a few easy stretches and simple moves to get us used to the swings.

The whole "swinging" action had me nervous enough, but when our instructor asked if anyone had any issues with seasickness, so I immediately started to feel sick to my stomach. Yay hypochondria! I really didn't want to be "that girl" and ralph all over the yoga floor. Ewww. And even when you're not moving in the swings, you are MOVING. But once we did our first inversion (being upside down) that whole feeling went away and I had no problems. YAY!

The class was not as difficult as I expected.  She did a really great job of showing the class the moves first, then having us try it on our own. She also went around to each person and helped them into more difficult moves. The hardest part is honestly trusting the swing, and trusting that you won't fall out on your face.

One main thing that struck me, as that there aren't many poses with different modifications for different difficulty levels. Its pretty much go, or no. There was only one post that gave me much trouble, and mostly because I'm not super flexible, so I only stayed in it for about ten seconds.

It's definitely a foundations class but there were lots of very nice students in the class and I was surprised at the diversity of the students.  Young and old, equal amount of men and women, some were very fit and flexible and some were like me, not that fit or flexible and needed modifications.

 

"Vampire" was the only pose I really had trouble with.
Stupid shoulders.

 To be honest, there were definitely a few "hurt so good" poses. A few really dug into my hips, which as our instructor called it, were "giving me physical feedback".

Definitely felt this one the next day.
No blood left in my feet.

My friend Allison, the former dancer, dominating "Swan" pose.

 
But the next day it felt sore, like I worked them out, not sore, like they were bruised. It was the weirdest senation, but awesome!

I HIGHLY recommend giving Anti-Gravity Yoga a try! Even if you aren't a big yoga person, its different enough that I think you'd enjoy it. It as SO FUN and I'm pretty sure I'm an inch taller.  Plus, after class, she let us all take pictures, and helped us get back into the poses for photo ops.

We are definitely going back. And we're dragging as many friends along as we can.

xoxo,

McGriddle Pants

 

the one where nothing happened

Its Thursday and its the second of my two days off.

These are the days I try to be the most productive. However I find myself being very unproductive, indeed.

Is this what people who have 9-5 jobs feel like on Saturday and Sunday? Or are weekends usually so packed full of "things to do" that you do more than sit on your ass and do laundry for two whole days.

My busiest days at work are Mondays and Tuesdays. I work TWO doubles, both which total to about 15 hour days, so by Wednesday morning, I am BEAT! I spent most of yesterday sitting on the couch, playing with my blog, NOT writing a blog, doing laundry and a small bit of cleaning.

When tweaking my blog, I made this to put in my "about me" section, but couldn't get the code to work corrently. Stupid blogspot. Someday I'll pay for the mcgriddlepants domain name. I'm pretty sure no one has it. Since I didn't want it to go to waste, here's this:

If it hadn't been for Alison coming to get me to take me to Target, I really would have done nothing.

Success was found in the form of a new pair of shoes. Huzzah!

Today I managed to go for a run even though it was POURING out today. I somehow got outside the 24 minutes it actually WASN'T raining. Thank goodness. The wind was blowing 492 miles an hour, but whatevs. Unbeknownst to me, it was really warm out. All bundled up, ready for it to rain, I set out. about 5 minutes in my eyebrows were sweating. It was, for a lack of better words, uncomfortable.

I did finally find my old iPod. I honestly thought I'd lost it. Its the old-old-old style iPod before there were nanos or touches. I really wanted to find and recover it because it has all my music on it. And I mean ALL. Its been charging for 20 minutes, and it JUST NOW came on. It was that dead.

Back to work tomorrow. Only 8 hours. Yipee!

Then Saturday I will venture to my first Anti-gravity (or Aerial) Yoga class.

A review will be sure to follow.

Happy Thursday/Friday!

xoxo

McGriddle Pants

Tuesday Tunes!

Heard this BLARRING from the dish pit last night at work.

Just amazing.

Absolutely genius stuff.
I immediately kazaamed that shit like Shaq.

Is that a verb?

It is now...

Check it out.
Just do it.
You know you want to.

Xoxo
McG
Mobular and Shit