How many cups of coffee does it take?

I’ve got a busy day ahead. I had a really great day yesterday and ended up being really productive. Ish… my bedroom and car are both still messy.


But on the workout front I rocked it. I dyed my hair and then I went shopping and spent a lot of money. Story of my life.

I shop a lot at Plato’s Closet which, if you don’t know, is a gently used clothes store. I’m really cheap and Plato’s is perfect for me. However, I generally try on 20 items of clothing and find one item that I actually want. It can sometimes be disappointing when you really like something on the hanger but when you try it on it looks like crap… and then that happens 20 times. Yesterday I hit the jackpot though. I would get up and count how many things I got but I’m too lazy. I got a lot.

I also stopped at Target. I bought some workout clothes and went to the gym after Plato’s and wore some of my new purchases. You know that warning that a lot of clothes have, “wash before wearing?” Well… I generally don’t follow random rules like this “don’t remove tag,” “wait 15 minutes after taking to drink,” etc because I don’t understand the why. If the why was explained and I knew that it was really important to follow the rules than I would. Well… unfortunately my disregard for rules left me with a lovely teal tint to my skin. It makes sense, I just never would have thought of it. Apparently the dyes can bleed if you get sweaty and then they might just stain your skin and you might not be able to get the color off of your skin.

I got really crazy last night and stayed out until 11:30 PM. I’m pretty much always in bed by 10:30 at the latest. I’ve been known to head to bed at 8:30 if I’m tired and have an early morning coming up. It wasn’t by choice though. I’ve joined a new drama group at my church. I was sort of roped in without any foreknowledge of how late the practices would go (or that they often go 30-45 minutes later than they’re supposed to). Once I was there and had practiced with them I didn’t feel like I could leave them just because they had a late finishing time. Next time there’s a good chance I won’t be joining them though.

So I got home at 12 and hopped right into bed. I’m not sure why but if I’ve been out driving it doesn’t really seem to matter how tired I feel, I seem to have a harder time falling asleep than usual. It probably didn’t take as long as I felt it did but I doubt I fell asleep before 12:15. I’m thinking more like 12:30. So when my alarm went off at 4:15 (I know, I’m a crazy person) I convinced myself that I would lay in bed awake for a few minutes before pulling myself out of bed. I’m not sure how I’m able to convince myself that this works because it never does. An hour later… I awoke and realized I had fallen back asleep and forced myself out of bed.

All I can say is, today is going to be a coffee day - preferably organic and freshly ground ;).

The Loot

I should warn you before you read more: This post is all about me.  I mean, really, they all are but this one even more so.  If you're not in the mood to see a bunch of self-timer self portraits then you should probably go somewhere else.  If you do want a good laugh though you should scan to the bottom of the page and take a look at my "bloopers" - who am I kidding, pretty much all my photos are bloopers.

I went shopping on Thursday with my mom and grandmother and then I hit up a few stores on Saturday and finished up the week with a stop on Sunday.  Did I need anything?  Uh... not at all. 

Remember in middle school and high school when you bought clothes from Wal-Mart and tried to pretend they were from some really expensive store in the mall?  Oh... that was just me?

Well now I buy clothes from Wal-Mart (okay, not true, I just buy cheap clothes) and I brag about it.  In my mind the less money you pay for an item of clothing the more valuable it really is.

FOREVER 21

(aka my favorite store)

Scarf - $5.50

Goes well with skirt/shorts and probably jeans

Super comfy pants for $8.50... sadly they make my legs look like tree trunks (did I mention I have 4 of them in various colors?  Oops)

Cream top that I also have in red - $11.50 - want to hear something kind of pathetic?  I almost never ever pay that much for just a shirt.  I'm moving up in the world.

Plato's Closet

If you've never heard of Plato's then... well, you're missing out big time.  Basically you pay dollars and pennies for gently used name brand clothing.  This is my kind of store.  You can also sell your clothes there, also for near nothing. 

Really comfy, long tank with small pocket for dance (and sleeping, yes please) - $2.40

Basically my favorite shirt in the entire world.  Now I have it in three colors.  I still want more. $5.60, shorts $4

$3.20

$2.40

This shirt for $3.20

On Sunday I hit up another one of my favorite places in the world:

TJ Maxx Homegoods

Shirt for $7.99

The front

The back.  $10 - originally $58.  Who the heck pays these prices?

Running capris - $19.99

Now I am forbidding myself to set foot in a clothing store for... well, at least a week

BLOOPERS!!! :)

I really have no words of explanation... it is a little odd that all the really bad pictures happened with these pants

Okay, I promise not to post this many pictures of myself all at once ever again ;)

Why I have to marry a rich man...

I LOVE saving money and I love getting good deals... or at least I used to.

Suddenly I am spending all of my money on food and I'm not really giving it a second thought.  I figure now is the time to do it when I'm living at home mooching off of my parents hospitality with no husband and no kids.  That being said, there's a good chance that unless I find someone who rakes in the big bucks, at some point I will have to stop living so frivolously and go back to the basics.  I don't want to give up my health food store addiction!

Today I spent 62.92 - I meant to pick up "a few things" - I only bought 8 items but wow, it adds up fast when you're buying organic and all natural. 

I'm planning to make it official on April 1st and go Vegan!  I realized today that April 1st is April Fools Day.  It's not a joke though, I really am going Vegan on that day.  I'm taking the rest of this month to ween myself off of dairy... like I ever really consumed much in the first place.  It shouldn't be that hard.  Right now I have 2 blocks of almond cheese in the fridge that have milk casein in them... whatever that is.  I've been LOVING Maranatha's Dark Chocolate Almond Spread but it has milk in it.  Oh, and I have some fish oil pills that I've been taking.  The whole point of today's trip was to pick up some vegetarian capsules.

Well, after much searching I found only two tiny bottles, each around $25 of capsules that not only had non-animal sources of Omega 3's but also didn't have some form of glycerin or gelatin in the capsule.  Well, $25 later I am set in that department. 

I also found some chocolate almond butter that was milk free - Yay!!!  Too bad it costs $12.  I did end up buying some.  Two actually, but only because they were buy one get one free.  I think I got a really good deal but that's still a lot of money to spend. 

Speaking of money and needing to find a rich man so that I can continue my consumption of super expensive foods: A woman I babysit for promised me she would lookout for a resident where her husband works to set me up with..  I kind of laughed at her and agreed because, well, I'm lame and never meet any guys.  I didn't expect her to find one so quickly!  It's been a few weeks and she's found me someone.  I don't know too much about him, just that he's 28 (I'm 2 months away from 23) and that he's a resident in urology.

I think I'm super awkward around guys but I guess I should give this a try?  If nothing else I can at least be able to say that I've had a blind date before... and by blind date I mean we will exchange pictures beforehand.  I'm not sure if I should go through with it though - one of my absolute musts is that the guy has to love Jesus a lot.  I have no idea whether this guy does/does not but it seems like a wasted date to me if he does not.  What do you think - should I go or should I find some excuse? 

After my expensive trip to the health food store I stopped in at the mall.  We recently got a much bigger Forever21 in our mall and I've been reading status updates on facebook all about it for the past several weeks so I finally caved and decided to check it out today.

It is HUGE.  Now our Gainesville mall is super tiny and I haven't really been shopping anywhere with lots of big stores so my "huge" forever21 might actually be pretty normal sized but to me it went on and on forever.  It was really overwhelming and I'm still not sure at all what the organization of the whole thing was at all or even if it was organized.  Whatever the case was, I ended up finding more than I wanted to find to buy.

New shirt: anything with pockets is a winner in my book

3 pairs of the same pants.  I'm pretty sure I already have enough lounge/active pants but you just can't beat $8.50, super comfy, pretty cute and I can wear them to bed, to teach ballet and various other activities if I don't feel like wearing real clothes

A pair of hoochie shorts that will be restricted to indoor use only.  How could I pass up $3.50 though?

In case you weren't aware, I actually model in my spare time.  This is me giving you my fiercest, most couture pose and facial expression.  Notice the dress is on top of the tank (and shorts).  I'm not keeping this one.  I didn't try it on because I had already waited to get into a dressing room for 30 minutes and wasn't about to do it again.  My mom told me this dress allllllmost bordered on looking okay - I'll take that as a no.  Thanks Mom for the always brutally honest opinion!

New shirt - not to be worn with these grunge shorts :)

And last but not least... my new setup.  Keyboard still not working so my dad brought me home a keyboard from his work... that I will be using until he remembers that he brought it home.  I feel really discombobulated though, I keep trying to type on the old keyboard.  I still have to use the mouse on the laptop so having the keyboard separated from the mouse is a strange feeling.

Go insane go insane

I might even throw some glitter and make it rain...

I got an email last night from DISNEY WORLD!!!  Yes, they love me that much.  No, they just want my money.  I told myself after the Disney marathon that I would never be back.  I wasn't swearing off marathons, just the Disney marathon.  That was a little over 3 months ago and I guess enough time to start making me think a little differently?

If I register between March 15 and May... something, I'll get a decent chunk of money off the registration price which is super enticing since marathons are so expensive (especially Disney).

Here's the part where I am insane... I think if I register I won't just register for the marathon.  I think I'm going to register for the Goofy challenge.

What is the goofy challenge you ask?  It's a half marathon on Saturday followed by the full marathon on Sunday.  Um, please sign me up for torture?  Yes please!  But here's what's really making me want to do this... other than proving to myself that I am a super amazing endurance athlete (It's okay, I'm laughing at that statement too).  If I do the goofy challenge I get not one, not two but THREE medals!  I also get three shirts!  Not that I ever get any use out of my race shirts but that is beside the point. 

Do you want to know what is making me feel like this is even possible?  I sure would like to know.  I've been running a lot of back to back long runs.  10 miles one day and 10 miles the next and for some reason this makes me feel like I would be fine doing 13.1 one day and less than 24 hours later completing another 26.2.  INSANE!  If worst comes to worst, I measured my walking pace and it's about 15:30/mile which means I wouldn't get picked up by the people who come and pick up all the people who are going too slow and disqualify them.  This is great news because there very well may be a lot of walking involved.

Since it's a whole year away it doesn't seem that scary at all.  If, however, I do end up registering, I will probably be peeing my pants come December. 

I wore my 26.2 apparel shirt and shorts today.  I love them!  They don't quite live up to the reviews I read prior to buying but they're still really nice.  I had heard they were the softest workout clothes ever and they're soft but nothing out of this world.  The thing about them being so matchy matchy is I feel like I'm on some kind of running team which I am definitely not.  I feel like everyone who sees me out running thinks I'm trying too hard.  Why I care about what people driving by think is beyond me but I can't help it.

Last night I ran 7 miles without my knee brace.  I think that knee brace has sort of become a safety blanket for me.  The run was great.  I got a little sore at the end of it but I get sore with the brace on too.  I wore it for my 10 miler today though which just erased all the work I've been putting into evening out my striped legs.

I'm out of all of my normal smoothie ingredients so I decided to be brave today.

Almond milk, frozen blueberries, banana, splash of lemon juice, scoop of Amazing Grass Green SuperFood, a scoop of vanilla Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer, several ice cubes and about 10 leaves of romaine lettuce with the stems removed.

Not the best smoothie I've ever tasted but really nice after a long HOT run.  I think variety is better than having the best food on the planet day in and day out.  Spinach is thought to be better for you than romaine but I'm all for rotating your greens as long as everything tastes okay.  I'm excited about finding more ways to use up those salad greens that I buy and then never use.  I go through salad phases where I want them multiple times everyday and then suddenly I really don't want them at all.

I have a busy second half of the day filled with piles of laundry, teaching dance, dance meeting and grocery shopping.

I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday! :)

haha, why yes, I do spend most of my time with children under the age of 10.

What is your favorite brand of exercise clothes?  Do you have an addiction to buying more and more exercise clothes like I do? 

Run Like A Girl

Workout: Stadiums/40 mins, 6 mile run/53:45m

This morning I made it to the stadium for a glorious workout.  It was the perfect temperature, about 42 degrees.  It's been awhile since I've done stadiums in the morning.  I keep getting rained out or schedule just doesn't allow for it... orrrr I plan to go and can't seem to drag myself out of bed in the morning.

I didn't realize how much REST marathon running required.  I thought rest meant "don't run".  Maybe it does for some people but for me that meant a lot more sleep than my body usually needs (and it usually needs a lot).  It was workin hard to repair all those muscles :)

Then right around lunchtime I went for a 6 mile run.  This has been my longest run since the marathon.  I was pretty sure it would go well, my 3 mile runs have been great the past week.  Sure enough, I feel like I'm back to normal.

Today I wore my new running skirt.  I've been seeing them around recently and finally broke down and bought one at the expo at the Disney Marathon.  I thought they were silly at first but I've decided I really like them.  Why not run like a girl?  Not to say I don't run like a girl when I wear shorts or compression tights but I felt super girly.  Part of me enjoyed feeling girly while running, you know, all that girl power stuff but the other part of me felt a little self conscious.  They were super comfy though and I'm sure I'll get over the self conscious bit.  In all honesty I could care less what people driving by think of me.

Sometimes I run like a pirate too ;)

Then I came home and almost burned the house down ;).  Well okay, I just made kale chips.  I have a bad track record with any food that you have to keep a close eye on.  Any nut toasting or kale chip making usually ends up in at least one completely charred batch.  Oops!  After I realized I had burned them the fire alarm decided to also let me know that I had burned them... then the battery died so it's been making it's annoying "replace my batteries now" sound.  Second batch was a success - mmm, what a delicious, healthy and mostly easy snack to make (if you're good at not burning things that is...).

I hope you all have had a productive day!  Or a relaxing day!  I like productive and relaxing but none of that unplanned bored/do nothing days.  Oh wait, I forgot, only people like me who don't have real jobs have time for those kind of days ;).

Post run:  Dang it was hot out there!