52. My favorite season is fall. I love it when the leaves change color and it gets cold outside. I think it’s the prettiest time of the year, and the most comfortable weather and clothes wise.

53. I hate it when people I don’t know very well call me “Little Tess”. It bugs me a lot, and makes me feel like I’m a little kid. From my friends that I know and love I find it endearing but when my secretary does it I want to punch her in the face.

54. I’m a lil bit fiesty.

55. I used to have a really hard time falling asleep. I’d lay in bed and my mind would race, and then I’d toss and turn and get up ten times a night. Now I sleep like a log-I think it’s because I let go of a lot of stress in my life.

56. I lost a lot of friends when I stopped drinking for a year. It really showed me who my true friends were.

57. I can’t stand it when people say “What can I do you for?” It sounds dirty and it’s a dumb phrase.

58. I hate fake phone voices-like when people act super sugary sweet on the phone and it’s not their normal speaking voice. What is that?

59. I love Christmas. I decorate like crazy for it and I love everything from the songs, to the family time, to the food, to the specialty drinks (peppermint schnapps you are so good). Every year it looks like Christmas exploded in my house.

60. When I was a little kid I used to insist that we cut down our own Christmas tree instead of buying it. This would already result in super ugly Charlie Brown looking Christmas trees that I thought were beautiful.

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I stole this from my good friend, The Queen, first because I love these kind of things, and second because this is my 102nd post! I can’t believe that I’ve written over 100 posts-for those of you who do read my blog, thanks for tuning in!

So here are 102 random things about me, starting with the first 51

1. I waited to be born till after my dad came home from work, and I was apparently a very quick and easy labor. My mom said I’ve been trying to please people ever since.

2. My older brother was my best friend till he went into 1st grade and some kid told him it’s not cool to be friends with your sister. To this day I wish we had a closer relationship.

3. I grew up on a quasi farm-we had goats, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats, a hamster, at one point a ferret, and one sheep. Not a herd, just one.

4. My stepdad killed and ate the lamb-her name was Precious. He actually said, “Mhmm, Precious sure tastes good.” Mean. He was just playing around though.

5. My stepdad has been the best father to me I could have ever asked for.

6. My stepdad was my track coach in high school, and I couldn’t run a race without hugging him first and getting a pep talk.

7. I have a really strong connection with my mom. Sometimes I think we can read each other’s minds.

8. My mom is manic depressive, but she doesn’t let it rule her life. She is the strongest woman I know.

9. When I was a little girl I loved the color pink. I wanted a pink house, pink car, pink everything. When I got a little older I was a huge tomboy and hated pink. In college, I dyed my hair pink.

10. In 6th grade, I was part of the junior pep squad. We performed at half time for a high school football game and I thought I was really cool. I watched a video of it when I got older and it turns out I’m really uncoordinated.

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Technorati Tags: lists, things about me, tomboy, treadmills

It’s finally fall! I’ve been waiting for this season for a really long time. I love that the nights are chilly, where Dylan and I can burrow under the blankets and snuggle. I think it might be time to break out the electric blanket because it’s getting downright cold. I love it thought! I think that there is just something about the seasons and change that makes me happy. Plus the fall leaves are gorgeous!
It’s only a few days until Halloween, and I’m getting excited to flaunt our costumes. I’m dressing up as Alice in Wonderland, and Dill is going as the White Rabbit. I’ve never done the couple costume thing, so it should be a pretty fun time. Check back for more funny pictures this weekend. This picture was me trying on Dyl’s rabbit hood. I think it’s just a lil bit too big.

Technorati Tags: blanket, cold, Fall, fall leaves, seasons

Work has drastically slowed down lately, and I’m pretty sure it’s because of the current economic crisis. I think most people are pinching their pennies, including me. Still, it doesn’t stop me from daydreaming about owning a home one day, instead of this drudgery of apartment living. Our place isn’t that bad, but the neighborhood is lacking. Plus there are a limited number of covered carports so Dylan and I are constantly switching. I can’t wait to have a garage, so we can both park in a covered spot. Also, I hate that poor Oscar has  no backyard to run around in.

I have been walking the poor pup at night, but I get nervous as it gets darker. This isn’t the safest neighborhood, and I don’t feel as secure without Dyl there with me. Just today, when I got home from work, some really creepy looking guy started following me! I was walking upstairs, and Dylan pulled into our parking space at the same time. He said he watched the guy turn at the last minute and walk the other way. It sent chills down my spine! January and the end of our lease can’t get here fast enough.

Technorati Tags: buying a home, economic crisis, unsafe neighborhood

Normally every weekend I dedicate one day to doing all the deep cleaning in the apartment, but since I was at my business meeting, I couldn’t get to it. Dill was great, and vacuumed and tidied up even though he was busy with class, but he didn’t get a chance to get to the deep cleaning.

So my bathroom unfortunately smells like old lady moth traps and my kitchen floor needs a good scrubbing. I’m still so exhausted from the weekend that all I want to do is sleep! I missed Dylan so much too, so last night we snuggled and I didn’t bother unpacking, which is unheard of for me. Usually I unpack and clean the same day I get home, but I was beat! Looking forward to next weekend when I can recoop from last weekend.

I guess I sort of did my check in on Saturday, with my blog about my record 12 mile run. I am still so proud of what I accomplished. Sunday was ROUGH on my body. I did my best to eat healthy, but I have to confess I caved and ate a couple of girl scout cookies. I look at it as getting rid of the bad junk in the house, and as soon as they are gone I won’t replenish them. So really I was helping!

I iced and recooperated Sunday and Monday, and tonight I’ll be back at the gym again. I’m nervous to run on my sore legs, but if I don’t run now, I’m just going to fall behind in my training. I’m not nearly as nervous as I was about completing the half marathon, especially not if I can keep up the 10 minute mile times. I’m just so ready to be done, and moving on to the next workout routine. I can’t wait to do something other than run! Pilates, yoga, swimming, anything besides run.

Besides working out until my kneecaps just about fell off, I puttered around the house for the holiday weekend. I scrapbooked, I organized, I put pictures in frames. I know I know, I am the most exciting nearly 25 year old on the planet. Speaking of nearly 25, my 25th birthday is on the 14th, and I tried to think of what I wanted. Honestly, number 1 on my wish list is a house, but that’s still a little ways off. If I did own my own place, I’d probably be asking for Hansgrohe faucets, maybe some Ethan Allen furniture, and definitely new pots and pans. I am such an old lady when I daydream. So what did I tell my mom when she called asking what to get me? I asked for a new iron and ironing board. Because I’m THAT cool.

Hip hip hooray for a three day weekend! I am so excited to have some time to relax. Monday Dill Pickle and I will get a full day off together because of the holiday. I’ve got a surprise date planned for Sunday night which will hopefully go over well.
It’s Friday and I’m having trouble focusing at work. I can’t wait to go to Dyl’s parent’s house where we’re going to bbq and swim. With this heat that’s all I want to do is cool off. It’s been in the high 90s, low 100’s every day this week I think. I just wish I had some sexy swimwear to wear for the backyard pool party. The one I have now is about 3 years old. Right now I’m still not feeling too confident in a bikini, but that’s why I have my workout goals. Swimming is an excellent workout, and it will help ease my guilt over eating hamburgers and sausages. I hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend!

I had a nice talk with the roommate the other day, and we agreed that we’re both just watching the calendar, itching to get out of our lease. Our lease isn’t up until January but we both want to move bad. It’s not that we hate each other, it’s that we both want to live with our guys. I’m excited at the prospect, and also the possibility of saving money on rent. Rent is such a huge expense, and such a waste. I can’t wait until I can finally buy a place. The plan is to move someplace cheap, hopefully not too ugly, and save as much as we can, and then buy a house when the time (and income) is right. I blog about it so much, my dreams of owning a home. Just the idea of having a yard again, with cute patio furniture covers and maybe a hammock. I want to try my hand at gardening too. I think it would be really cool to grow my own vegetables instead of having to buy produce at the store. Homegrown lettuce tastes a million times better, and it doesn’t go bad as fast.
But alas, we are still stuck in the lease for now. We’re going to try to convince the landlord to let us leave a month or two early, and let them rent out our place at the new higher price. I think they’ll let us out of the lease since it means more money in their greedy little pockets. So Dyl and I have started scrimping and saving for the move out/move in costs. It’s spendy bouncing around from place to place. I can’t wait for that day when I can finally call my home MY home and have that be true for more than a year.

I just want to shout out a big THANK YOU to all of those wonderful people out there who donated to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society so I could run for team in training. I managed to reach the insane goal of $2500 needed in order to participate. It has been a stressful endeavor and I’m glad that part is behind me. Now the real challenges begin.

As some of you know, I’ve been training since early June for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon that’s happening this coming October. Well when I started feeling like I might not reach my minimum amount of donations, I admit I started slacking in training. Don’t get me wrong, I still did the workouts, just not with the amount of zeal I first had. Now I’m going to train harder than ever, and really make my donators proud!

I will say that training for a half marathon was starting to get discouraging, especially when I reached a plateau in weight loss. It seemed no matter how hard I tried, I was still jiggly all over. My pants were actually tighter than they were before i started working out. How is that possible? I even started reading Apidexin reviews on diet pills because I was so frustrated. But I don’t think I would ever actually resort to taking something unless I knew for a fact it was healthy. But it really is incredibly frustrating to work out 5 days a week and not see results. Luckily I rode out the plateau and I’m finally seeing an improvement. Still, running has made me bulkier than I would like, and as soon as this marathon is over, I’m joining a gym and taking up pilates!!

Our trip to Oregon was incredible-we had such a great time. Coming home on a Tuesday had it’s drawbacks though. We had to get up first thing in the morning and head back to work and there was no time for cleaning. Wednesday night I met Dyl’s friend K at her going away dinner. She was moving to San Ramon so we wanted to be sure we saw her, even though we were exhausted. We went to this Indian Restaurant where the service was so bad I had to give them one star on yelp.com Then we had a couple of our friends over for dinner on Thursday to tell them all about our adventures in hickville. Needless to say by Friday I was so tired and cleaning was the last thing I wanted to do. So instead Dill PIckle and I went out for a great sushi dinner followed by a fun round of mini golf. It was nice to just relax, but I couldn’t help fretting over the state of my apartment. I am such a neat freak, and having my living space disorganized causing me to freak out a little bit.

So today after much procrastination I finally had time to clean. Dyl was awesome and helped me out with everything. We reorganized the house, vacuumed, deep cleaned the fridge, and even bathed the pooch. It was a little frustrating because the indoor lighting in my apartment is really weak even during the day. I couldn’t see my carpet so it was hard to clean thoroughly. I can’t wait to move-hopefully to a place with better lighting. So after a day filled with Virgoness cleaning we finally got everything done I was hoping to. It was so sweet of my man to help me out, and I can relax knowing it’s all finished. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to curl up on the freshly cleaned floor with an ice cold beer. I earned it!