Category Archives: Uncategorized

Oklahoma FTW

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There are probably two million seven hundred fifty four reasons why I like living in Virginia more than I liked living in Oklahoma.

I’m suited to live here, and I love it.

However, sometimes Oklahoma just kicks the big city’s ass.

Example #1: Football

Oklahoma Sooners > any other NCAA or NFL team

I went to the Washington Redskins/Pittsburgh Steelers preseason game Friday night.

It was exciting to be at an NFL game and all, but I just didn’t get the same rush that I do for my Sooners. I am not good at bandwagoning.

I can’t wait to go home in three weeks and see some real football.

I was happy that Washington won though! Go Skins! (That felt weird, I’m not quite there yet…)

Example #2: Salad Eateries

Coolgreens > Sweet Green

Coolgreens is an Oklahoma local chain that was actually modeled after DC’s local chain, Sweet Green.

The concepts are very similar: sustainability and healthy eats. I love both of those things and think it’s great that there are restaurants out there committed to providing nutritious food in an environmentally friendly manner.

However, Coolgreens just does it better. They have friendlier staff, more salad options, more food options in general and better froyo.

I tried a seasonal salad from Sweet Green Saturday with local tomatoes, feta, mint, watermelon, sriracha and cucumber mint dressing.

It was good, but nothing compared to Coolgreens.

There’s supposed to be a new salad place opening in Clarendon soon, so I’ll be excited to check that out.

So yeah… sometimes the underdog is just better. Oklahoma, for the win.

Other than all that, I had another fabulous weekend in Virginia. Friday and Saturday I hung out with the new boy, who we shall refer to as either Mr. T or Mosby. I haven’t decided yet.

Last night we went to dinner at Shiki Sushi in Ballston Common Mall, which was surprisingly really, really good. He took a picture of our rolls, but I didn’t. Maybe he should be the blogger?

We got a Dynamite Roll that was topped with scallops (so good), a Super Philly Roll (extra fish and honey mustard made it “super”), and a Spicy Yellowtail Roll. Very good sushi, I highly recommend it.

I ended up only having to work one day of the weekend, which was pretty sweet. I’ll take random days off of work any day.

And that’s where we stand. I’m kind of exhausted from the past week’s activities, but I’d better put my big girl panties on because next week is DC Restaurant Week and I’m checking out a minimum of three new restaurants, then heading to Philly Saturday morning! I need a nap.

Enjoy the remaining hours of your weekend all!


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Cafe Pizzaioli

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15

My day off from work yesterday turned out to be rather expensive. I had a lot of errands to run, including a trip to the car dealership where my usual service cost four times as much as it did in Oklahoma. Guess I’ll be searching around for cheaper options in the future.

I didn’t end up getting anything from Great Harvest. I wanted to, but I was starving and needed a place I could sit down to eat and relax. I wandered around until I found Cafe Pizzaioli.

The vibe of the restaurant was really cute, but the service was a little brash. I dealt with it though because I was starving.

Sadly, I fear I ordered the worst item on the menu.

I got the Cafe Pizzaioli salad, which was okay but nothing to write home about. As I sat eating it and watching other people’s food leave the kitchen I realized I definitely should have gotten pizza or a sandwich.

I redeemed the less than stellar meal with a delicious latte.

Delicious.

By that time, my car was ready so I paid five million dollars for it and then went home to clean, work out and lay by the pool until time to get ready for a date in DC.

We went to Eighteenth Street Lounge for a going away happy hour for one of his friends and then to Hank’s Oyster Bar for dinner. The food at Hank’s was awesome. I definitely recommend it.

Now I’m currently blogging from bed and trying to decide what to do with my day. No money spending is the top priority.

I’m going to the Redskins/Steelers preseason game tonight, which I’m really excited about. I’ve never been to an NFL game, and even though preseason doesn’t really count I’m still pumped!

Also, today is my brother’s birthday. He never reads this blog and hates the internet, but I just wanted to throw it out there. I love him lots.

Have a good Friday, all!

All fixed up

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It’s kind of weird not to be at work right now. But not bad weird. I rescheduled my car appointment so while she’s getting all fixed up, I am too with a mani/pedi.

I’m spending money lately like I actually have it. That should probably stop soon.

Maybe after I stop in here and have a gander…

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I’ve never been to a Great Harvest before. What should I get?

Have you been?

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24

You all know I have a new love for happy hours. They are truly a broke gal’s best friend.

Have you been to McCormick and Schmick’s happy hour? It’s pretty righteous. Check out these prices.

I went with the $1.95 cheese quesadilla thinking it would be the most meal-like of the cheaper options.

It wasn’t the best quesadilla of all time, but for $2 I’m not complaining. My friend had the sliders, which were $5 I think, and they were delicious. We also shared an order of sweet potato fries $3 that didn’t disappoint.

Then we went to see Crazy, Stupid, Love. It was alright. I had high hopes for it. I always like the “romantic comedies” that are more realistic and the previews made this one look like it would be, but it turned out to be your typical run of the mill happy ending story.

There were some funny parts and even though Ryan Gosling isn’t my type, I didn’t turn my eyes away from him. The cast was solid as well, so it was worth the $6 I paid to see the movie.

I’ve actually been meaning to do a post on my thoughts about that crazy, stupid thing called love for awhile, but I keep putting it off. Maybe someday this week.

Also, be warned that there may be some random blog outages this week. My web guru is beginning the process of switching Low… and Behold! over to a self-hosted situation.

Seeing as how I’ve been handling the workings of this website for the past 2.5 years, it could get complicated. I have no idea how to do that stuff and I think I’ve screwed it up quite significantly. We shall see though.

Do you prefer movies with or without happy endings? This probably makes me weird, but I typically only really like a movie if it ends badly, or at least very realistically. Fairy tale happy endings typically just piss me off. Don’t forget, I’m kind of dark and twisty inside.

wrong number

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15

So it turns out today is my Friday. My boss asked me to take the next two days off in case I need to work this weekend, but I won’t know about that until Friday. So I might get a four day weekend, or just have a really weird work schedule.

Kind of weird, but whatever. I’ll take two random days off to be productive. Or to re-watch all four seasons of Mad Men. It could go either way.

So, because of all that, I had to reschedule an appointment to get my car serviced from Saturday to Thursday. A funny story ensued. Cue reenactment:

Me: (looks up car dealership website to find phone number, dials number on phone)

Phone operator: (very loudly) Hi, we have lots of horny girls ready for you to talk to, for—-

Me: (hangs up frantically, looks around the room horrified, meets the stare of many curious coworkers) Ummm, did you guys hear that?

Coworkers: Um, yes.

Me: (laughs awkwardly) Hahaha, clearly I dialed the wrong number! Woopsie…. Um, I’m totally, er, I didn’t, I mean I wouldn’t. (hangs head in shame)

Coworkers: (blank stares… crickets… internal thoughts… turn to computers to check and see if I’m a registered sex offender)

So yeah… that happened.

It takes a lot to embarrass me, but I must say I was pretty mortified. It may take awhile to recover.

I did however, get the car appointment rescheduled afterward. So there’s that.

Not sure if it was worth it though.

What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you at work?

back to school?

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It has come to my attention recently that I need a refresher course in Geography.

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I took the class in 8th grade and passed with flying colors, but somewhere between then and now I seem to have lost all knowledge for our nation’s cartography.

It all started when we were talking about the East coast at work and someone mentioned Maryland, and I pointed to a map and asked “it’s that pink squiggly one, right?”

Apparently, that was funny. I was serious though. Those East coast states are confusing, man. They’re all small and bunched together. I really can’t keep them all straight.

This lead to my entire office playing this game.

I actually did better than the majority of people, but I am still known as the girl that sucks at geography at work.

I was a little upset about this, until just now… when my SIL caught a little mistake of me thinking Chicago is West of the Mississippi River.

Perhaps I should enroll back into junior high.

If you had to go back to school right now, which subject(s) would you fail? In addition to Geography, I would get owned by junior high math. No question.

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A change in approach

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25

So, yesterday I mentioned that I was in sloth mode. And well, I still am.

I’ve been a gym hater lately, and nothing I do seems to motivate me to start going again.

When in a slump of this sort, it’s easy to focus only on what I’m not doing well and feel like crap about it.

However, in addition to not working out as regularly as I should be (read: about 3 times per week instead of my desired 5), I’ve also been going strong on my resolve not to eat sweets until I’ve broken my candy habit, and have also been getting more sleep.

After I remembered that, I stopped being so hard on myself and also got to thinking that maybe I should change my all or nothing approach to working out, and well life in general.

I think because I know I can run half marathons and be an OCD exerciser on occasion, I feel like that’s what it has to be all the time. I have the mentality that if I’m not killing myself in the gym, then I’m a failure. But the reality is that my life has changed a lot since the days when the gym was king.

I have a much more active social life, a different work schedule, busy weekend plans that prohibit intense training and just a general enjoyment of life.

Thinking of that as “getting in the way” of my workout schedule is not a healthy mindset.

While I don’t think that skipping out on social activities to keep up with a workout schedule is a bad thing, I also don’t think it’s entirely necessary for me right now.

I did that a lot in Oklahoma, and I wound up quite miserable as a result of it.

Someday I’ll probably get old, or worse – married!! (kidding, sort of) – and I won’t be able to throw caution to the wind and party down as often. Or just do what I want, when I want like I can now.

So, my decision is just to stop stressing out about it. If I workout, great. If I don’t, I’ll live.

I’m also thinking that after I conclude my sweets hiatus, I’ll give myself the challenge of getting in 20 minutes of activity each day, regardless of what it is. It could be longer than that and a full fledged workout, or just a 20 minute walk at lunch (or dancing around in my underwear, whatever).

I really like the idea of taking on a really small goal, and doing it for an extended period of time (a month is working for me so far) to really commit to a good habit.

So that’s my change in approach. No more whining about not working out. Do it when I can. Don’t when I can’t. Live life. Celebrate freedom. Party on.

What do you do to change bad habits? Do you like to tackle them all at once or one at a time?

sloth mode

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26

Less distraction today. I’ve settled down. Things will work out as they should. I knew this all along, but a girl’s got to freak out every now and then.

Anyways, I had a lovely weekend.

I had to stay in Friday to recuperate from the week. This happens to me often. Work weeks are tiring, especially when you tack on multiple happy hours that turn into happy nights and not getting home until midnight.

Saturday was busy, and ended with a night out in DC. It was a friends birthday so we had drinks at her sister’s house and then went to a club in DC.

I’m usually not a big club person. I can see the appeal, but I don’t really fit in. But I like to see and do different things, so I go occasionally.

I skipped out ‘early’ though because I was not functioning too well by around 3 a.m. – for multiple reasons that I’m sure you can assume. Yes, for that group of friends 3 a.m. is early. I cannot hang like that.

Sunday was far less productive than Saturday. It started with Pizza Autentica. I’ve raved about this place before, but I have to do it again.

All of this food?

$3.47. Un. Real.

I realize my photo efforts have gone way down recently, I’ll work on it.

Also, the ranch dressing was both for topping the salad AND dip for the pizza. Pizza + ranch takes me back to college every time. One of the world’s most perfect food combinations.

After stuffing my face I went to retrieve my vehicle and then to Target to spend a bunch of money I shouldn’t have. Typical.

I spent the rest of the day being lazy, intermittently doing laundry and cleaning and not working out. I’m currently in full on sloth mode. I’m going to try to end that today though.

Ranch: love it or hate it? I think it’s more common to dip everything and your dog in ranch in the South and Midwest than in other parts of the country, but I contend that all should jump on the train.

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A Healthy Habit Journey: Post #18 from the SIL- Booze Don’t

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12

I’m on a ban again…a NO BOOZE ban.  I do these from time to time to make up for the massive amounts of alcohol that are consumed on a regular (read: daily) basis.  I’m going to take the Hubby on a birthday trip on the 12th so I figure no booze till then…that birthday trip will be followed by a work conference the 17th thru 19th.  That is 8 full days of traveling with only a 24 hour window at home.  I’m scared.

It’s been another 2 weeks of up and down on the scale- no weight loss to report yet.  I think my body is trying to come to equilibrium with the new exercise routines, and I haven’t figured out when I’m really actually hungry or just wanting a snack for no reason at all (stress??).  I am taking it easy on the yoga right now just because my work life has gotten so hectic.  I’m lucky to make it to the gym once a week for that.  I have been sticking to my guns about 5k and strength training though.  So that’s good!

I did find my new favorite breakfast though: one low fat whole wheat Eggo waffle with ½ cup reduced fat cottage cheese and a piece of fruit (or multiple little fruits like when I find BING cherries on sale- my favorite!!).  My belly has been acting up lately and it’s best to eat things that calm it down.  No butter or syrup, just a plain waffle.  Sometimes a Nutri-grain bar gets substituted for the waffle.

Then, there was the caprese salad that wasn’t the other night.  I FINALLY made it to the Edmond Farmer’s Market and bought the most beautiful tomatoes.  I wanted a caprese salad.  I went to buy Basil from 2 stores and NEITHER PLACE HAD ANY!!  Ugh.  So frustrating.  So I subbed in some greens.  Then I realized I was out of fresh mozzarella.  Behold Sargento string cheese made with 2% milk.  Yep.  But it worked.  Added in some olive oil and balsamic glaze and oregano for good measure.

Question:  What is your favorite produce of summer?  Mine is definitely tomatoes.

busy-ness and b-days

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Oh, what a Saturday. It’s been a busy and productive one so far.

It’s also a very  important Saturday because it’s my friend Taylor’s 25th birthday! I went into great detail about my friendship with Taylor here, go read if you’d like! She’s definitely one of my favorite people, she was even my first DC visitor!  Happy Birthday Taylor!!

So yes, this Saturday has been busy. After a wonderfully restful night of sleep that was oh so needed I woke up to a gorgeously cool morning. I celebrated all those good tidings with a lovely trip to… the DMV.

Eff. This was the line just to get into the building.

It took 45 minutes to pass the threshold, and then another hour and change to get to the counter for help, but I was glad to finally get it taken care of. In two weeks I’ll have my VA license and hopefully my front license plate holder installed (we didn’t have to have them in Oklahoma and no one here will install it except a dealership) and be officially Virginia legal. Whew.

After that I continued the car care with a wash and a fill-up and then trips to two separate banks. I did all this before eating anything. It was just go go go!

I celebrated with some eggs for brunch, a trip to the pool, and an OnDemand workout. Now I’m about to watch the season premiere of Jersey Shore to get in the mood for a night out in DC to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

Enjoy the rest of your weekends!