Three Months Later

Summary: Lots of words. Not a lot of pictures.

It’s been awhile. Again. I’d like to say I’m back because life has slowed down a bit, and maybe I am. But also, maybe I’m not. Here’s what’s been going on and (spoiler alert), it’s been a lot of steamy dook. But it’s slowly getting better.

I deferred both of my races this year which is probably no surprise given that I posted about not feeling them and then life went downhill in more ways than one. So now, I will be running those halves in January and March next year. I have some time before training needs to start which is good because summer is here and that also makes me not feel running.

The steamy dook I was referring to started toward the end of my semester (Novemberish) last year. Somewhere in there, school started majorly stressing me out. Taking two graduate classes and working full time while still trying to have a social life, do chores, take care of Pants, and not completely ignore my husband is hard. My semesters can go either way. I’ve taken two classes at a time and thought, “This is it? How am I getting credit for this!” or they are like my last two semesters where I have no idea how I will ever get through them without a breakdown.

Around this time, I started losing a good amount weight without trying. If you know me at all, I’m always trying and never losing. So probably not trying that hard.  When the weight started coming off, I thought I was doing something right! But looking back, it was just stress. Which, duh Paula, you posted about being really itchy for over a month, barely sleeping because of it, and finally going to the doctor, just to find out it was stress symptoms. Once my semester ended, things started to get a little better. But then I found out my brother was diagnosed with terminal cancer mid-December and things weren’t better anymore.

On December 31, I went on a cruise to Mexico with some great friends which was such a fun getaway but still peppered with thoughts of, “Should I even be here when I’m so worried about my brother?” While writing this, I realized that I didn’t mention the cruise on the blog, which is a shame because we saw some awesome things and had an awesome time, and there was lots to talk about. Plus, I was still stress-skinny, so even though I was miserable on the inside, I looked great! I got the see the Chichen Itza pyramids and live my life dream of going to a swim-up bar.

The Spring semester started and it was probably the worst of them all. I intentionally took only one class with group work (my program is mostly group work) because group work can be stressful. You know how you sometimes have those shitty co-workers that can’t do their job and make your job harder? That’s also the problem with school group work. I had two other people in my group – one who was great and one who wasn’t. The “wasn’t” almost put me over the edge because she could never understand anything, never do her work correctly, and was full of excuses why which generally involved blaming anyone but herself (including me). I have text messages from her that are just unbelievable.

Suffice to say, I have never experienced anything like it before. This was coupled with constant worry about my brother and a project at work that was driving me insane. Imagine a customer that hates everything that your company does and constantly asks for it to be redone in a slightly different way that causes a ton of rework. So for a full year and a half, I made zero forward progress because the client kept going back to square one and therefore, so did everyone else. It was maddening. So I dealt with that at work all day, came home and dealt with my two stressful classes, and then worried all night and day about my brother and how much it sucked to be so far away from him. This led to a stress smorgasbord, if you will, and resulted in me breaking out in full body hives on the day I was supposed to get on a plane to see my brother. Which incidentally, that flight was cancelled, and caused me even more stress because no one knew how much time he had left.

My work let me work remotely from California for a month so I could be near my family, which I’m really grateful for. I was relieved there wasn’t a billion states between my family and I anymore (cue Tom Hanks explaining to his son how far Seattle is from NYC in Sleepless in Seattle), but that was still an extremely stressful situation in itself. I’m not complaining and wouldn’t change it but it is what it is.

Fast forward to today – I’m on a different project at work (FINALLY), my classes ended a couple weeks ago (the most deserved A’s I’ve ever gotten), and  while I’m still struggling with losing one of my favorite people on the planet, there’s a part of me that is at peace because he is. This has of course led to me gaining all that weight back (another, different stress!), and my running taking the fast train to Suck Town.

So that’s what’s been happening and I’m kinda decompressing from all that. I just finished Felicia Day’s book You’re Never Weird on the Internet. It’s SO GOOD and it inspired me to pick back up here because it’s something I enjoy. So hopefully I’ll have more, and possibly non-complainy things to talk about in the next couple weeks.

 

 

Thank You

Thanks to everyone for all your comments on the blog and on Facebook about my last post. Even though I didn’t respond to each of them personally like I usually do (that would be too emotional for me right now),  please know that I appreciated all of them. It’s heartbreaking to see how many people have gone through the same thing but also gives me a little comfort that I’m not alone.

I’ve been coming across older pictures of my brother(s) lately and they’re making me smile. Like this one:

And this one:

I think my nails are painted red in the above picture? I was saucy then!

Anyway, I wanted to share a recent memory about my brother. Many years ago, he wrote a book. (Because of course he did. He’s awesome and write books. It’s about business so don’t get too excited. I told him it would probably be a good cure for my insomnia.) About a month ago, he was signing a copy of it for me. I’m pretty sure he was covertly trying to get rid of copy because he has a ton them. I also already have a copy, but I really liked the sentiment.

During this time he was tired a lot. He would take naps during the day, but also he could fall asleep in the middle of a conversation for a full minute, wake up, and be right back in the conversation where he left off. Or he could fall asleep while eating, wake up, and lift the fork to his mouth like nothing happened. It was kind of impressive.

So while he’s signing his book for me, he falls asleep for 15 or 30 seconds, wakes up, and keeps writing. Except, he was definitely in a different mind set when he opened his eyes. He finished signing the book, read it, and started laughing. He showed it to me and said, “That’s about right for my life right now. I’m keeping it.”

Extra funny because I was staying at his house, sitting right next to him, and he had no reason to call me.

It’s a little sad and funny all at once, but I’m glad I’ll always be able to look back on this and remember that story.

 

 

 

Bittersweet

I made a conscious effort to start blogging more often in mid-December and even wrote a couple posts within a week to get back into it. The day after my last post, and the morning of my flight home after visiting my brother in San Diego, he told me that he was just diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and that he wouldn’t be around to see next Christmas. Here I am less than 10 weeks later and he’s gone.

So needless to say, it’s been a really rough couple of months for my family and I. I don’t like to get *too* personal on the blog, not because I’m afraid of putting stuff “out there” but because that’s just not my personality. I also don’t want to not write about him because he’s on my mind all the time. So I decided I’d put together some of my thoughts:

I’m heartbroken that your time was cut short.

I’m heartbroken that you were in so much pain.

I’m heartbroken for your three kids that lost an amazing father.

I’m heartbroken for my mother who had to outlive her son.

I’m amazed you were able to become an ordained minister (what?) while you were sick to officiate your best friend’s wedding.

I’m amazed by the outpouring of love and support you had from your friends and family near and far (that even the hospice nurse couldn’t believe).

I’m happy that I was able to spend the past month with you.

I’m happy that you we’re able to keep your sense of humor somehow through the whole thing.

I’m happy I was able to tell you how much I love you.

I’m happy I had the chance to say goodbye.

I’m happy I was with you for your last breath because I know you would have done it for me.

My brother wanted his life celebrated, not mourned, so I will remember you, not as someone who is sick and in pain, but as the fun, funny, intelligent, level-headed, advice-giving, concert-loving guy you were.

I will remember you for all our fun evenings together.

I will remember you for giving me away at my wedding when Dad couldn’t.

I will remember you as the guy with an amazing sense of patience and giving. (Where did that come from? Because I certainly don’t have it.)

I will remember you as the guy that always took care of me when you could.

I will remember you as the guy that took care of everyone else.

I will remember you as the guy who loved his family more than anything.

I will just always remember you.

 

 

West Coast Leisuring

Hello from San Diego!

I’m out here visiting my mom, brother, and nephews and living the life of leisure. My nephews picked me up from the airport which was a whole new realm of weird since I knew them when they were zero years old. HOW ARE YOU A MILLION FEET TALL AND DRIVING ALREADY?

That’s a picture from last year since I haven’t gotten a group picture yet this time.

My days consist of waking up in the morning, going for a run, eating, napping, and eating. It’s the life I’ve always dreamed of. Speaking of running, my runs have been getting better. I haven’t tried a speed run yet but my breathing on my regular runs has improved as long as I’m not running up a damn hill. Here are a few views from my runs:

That is a season the locals like to call “fall.”

The whole itching thing has also gotten about 80% better and I’m assuming it’s from my school semester ending and the increased amount of nothing I’ve been doing. I don’t think the steroid pack that the doctor prescribed helped anything and the cause was psychosomatic like she said. I tell you, there is nothing more irritating than going to the doctor to find out your problem is in your head.

I go back home to Orlando tomorrow and I’ll be sad to leave. It’s fun getting spoiled by family and having your mom hand you $20 bills because “you look like you need it.” In the meantime, I’m going to finish the second batch of cookies my mom made and soak up the lack of humidity while I can.

 

 

That Running Thing

As I mentioned before, I’ve been back to running. I took a nice, long, five month break where I would run when I wanted to – usually just a couple miles, one day a week. I’ve been running regularly for a couple months now. Two short runs (3 miles) during the week and a long run (8-10 miles) on the weekend. I haven’t been talking about it because everything has been fine and boring. Until recently, that is.

A couple weeks back, about a half mile into a 10 mile run, I felt really short of breath and nauseated. I had to stop for a bit to get my bearings but finished the run by walking half of it. I figured the cause could be nutrition. I never eat before a run that’s less than 12 miles, and I was feeling particularly hungry that day. So I brushed it off as a one-time weird thing and maybe I should start eating before my shorter runs. The following week, I tried to do my two week day runs. The speed run turned into a jog/walk and the other I gave up on after a mile. And that’s about how all runs have been going since: my chest feels heavy when I run and I feel like I’m not getting enough oxygen and basically half ass it.

About a week later, I started feeling really itchy. EVERYWHERE. It was mostly happening at night and in the evening and mostly on my stomach, back, and legs, but still pretty much everywhere. I thought it might be allergic to something new so I took an allergy pill for a few days and that didn’t work. I thought I might have dry skin, so I tried lotion after showers and that didn’t work. I would shower and aggressively loofah myself to exfoliate and that didn’t work either. I haven’t changed my detergent or soap and nothing else is different so I couldn’t figure it out. The itching was maddening and it starting keeping me awake at night. Google told me I was dying from kidney and liver failure so I went to a walk-in doctor only to find out that it’s most likely stress/anxiety (which is what my mom said when I told her about it but I really enjoy verifying the health of my kidneys and liver). So I’m wondering if that’s what’s affecting my running too?

The doctor prescribed a steroid pack (for itching) and Benadryl (for sleeping) to see if my symptoms lessen. (They have a bit but ehhh, not enough.) My school semester ends this week and I have a vacation coming up that I’m hoping will help me relax and destress so everything can get back normal.

So here’s my problem: I have two races coming up and the first one is on January 14. That’s a pretty tight schedule for my less than stellar running, so I’m considering skipping it. Or walking it. I dunno, I just know I WANT THAT MEDAL BAD.

So pretty.

In an effort to pep my running self up, I bought a new pair of running shoes.

Those are the Brooks Glycerin 13s. I’ve been running in the 10s for awhile now and I like everything about them except the 10+ ounce weight. I was going to switch to the Ghosts because they’re a couple ounces lighter but I just couldn’t pass up a 50% discount.

So that’s my running update, or lack thereof. Even if my running doesn’t improve by race time, I’ll still have a new pair of shoes to hold me close at night.

 

The Last Day *sniff*

As I mentioned previously, our second-wind Saturday night didn’t make for the best Sunday morning. I’m pretty sure I broke Lindsey and Evan, but they were super troopers anyway for our little Lake Eola adventure.

The outdoor theatre in the middle there was painted in rainbow colors after the Pulse massacre in support of our gay community. It makes the theatre look so much more interesting. It was a dull, boring green for so long. I love it and the meaning behind it.

Lake Eola is my favorite place in Orlando. Hubs and I go there almost every week to have lunch, get a drink, or walk around and play Pokemon. This time of year, Lake Eola is all decked out for Christmas.

(Side note: If you love Christmas, you should read this Buzzfeed article. It made me laugh this morning.)

We went to Relax Grill  for lunch which is probably my favorite restaurant in town because the food is good,  it’s outdoors, and it has a direct view of the fountain and people watching. Every time I’m there, it feels like I’m on vacation because it has a really chill vibe. I didn’t take any pictures of my food (surprise, surprise) but Lindsey and I ate our veggies in the form of a salad and a Bloody Mary.

After lunch, we walked around the lake to check out the swans in interesting sleeping positions.

He opened his eyes right as I took that picture, jerk. Sleeping and balancing on one leg must give him great core muscles. Don’t let that swan sweetness fool you. They are mean! There is swan food you can buy at the lake. A month ago, I was trying to feed a swan (that was hanging out by the food dispenser so I figured he was waiting for it), and he bit me on the leg. He actually broke the skin and left a month long bruise. Not cool, swan.

We also checked out the farmer’s market that goes on at the lake every Sunday. Lindsey and Evan bought some goodies and we all posed for pictures with our lovers.

After Lake Eola, we went home and took a nap because we are all old and can’t handle our night’s out. Toward the end of the night, a few of us weren’t feeling that great so we ate dinner at home and watched Finding Dory. The next morning, Lindsey and Evan left for Universal and then Bradenton to continue their week-long Florida adventures.

I gotta say, I was so sad to see them go! It’s always a fun time hanging out with those two and I don’t get to see them as much as I’d like. I need to plan another trip to Toronto and figure out a way to sneak into Cuba for their wedding in May.

 

 

 

 

So, I’m running again…ah who cares, Lindsey came to visit!

I’ve had a half written post saved in my blog for a month now about how I’ve been running again for the past couple months. But now that post can wait cuz look who came to visit me!

That’s my online turned IRL lovah, Lindsey and that picture was from the last time I saw her in June 2015. And then in April 2013 before that.

It is clear I cannot decide on a hair color.

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve seen Lindsey and Evan, so I was super excited when she told me she was coming to Florida. Before she left, she asked if I had any requests for Canadian food so of course I needed some ketchup chips. She was nice enough to bring me an already open bag.

Ahhh, the land of English and French.

Ketchup chips sounded horrible to me at first but I was proven wrong by those delicious beauties. President’s Choice ketchup chips are good and I plan to eat every last one, but I think Lay’s wins the ketchup chip game so far.

Anyway, Lindsey and Evan arrived before noon on Saturday and hubs and I had quite the touristy day planned for them. Our first stop was the Black Hammock air boat ride.

Black Hammock is on Lake Jessup, which is the most gator infested lake in Florida and 6 feet deep on average. Problem gators are brought to this lake from other lakes. So yeah, lots of danger! If you read Lindsey’s blog at all, you know there is no lake she won’t swim in, so this lake made her quite sad. We had a little time before our boat left, so we walked around, checked out the (caged) gators and got our picture on.

Any my favorite picture of the weekend…

The side view of Evan posing in that wooden gator was much more delightful than the front view.

Then it was time for the airboat ride.

The ride was a good time but since it’s cooler in Florida this time of year, there weren’t as many frolicking gators. The first time I rode the airboat, gators were aplenty. But still, it was fun riding through the marshes of Lake Jessup. There were a few places I wasn’t sure the boat should be and other times that people on the sides of the boat had to duck to avoid getting hit in the face with a branch. I like danger in my air boat rides.

After the boat, we had lunch at the Black Hammock restaurant which was delicious. We also got to hold a baby gator which Evan took a hard pass on.

After the Black Hammock shenanigans, we went back home, chilled for a little while out at the pool, and then got ready for the night’s adventure: a ride on the Orlando Eye.

The Eye is 400 feet tall and instead of seats, you stand in little air conditioned pods and listen to music while taking in views of the city.

I was a little bummed that the eye was completely red. It’s usually a ton of different colors and constantly changing, but Coke just sponsored it so now it’s red 90% of the time. Meh. I do not look at an all red Ferris wheel and think of Coke. We actually thought it was closed when we saw it from a distance because of the color. At least red and white would be better Coke colors, but I digress.

It takes about 30 minutes to make a full revolution, and let’s be honest, this is Orlando we’re looking at. It’s flat and it’s cool to see everything from above, but it’s not like we were looking at a million skyscrapers or mountains. Either way, I was glad I did it because I’ve been wanting to go on it for a year now. Evan is not a fan of heights and was not looking forward to it. I’m pretty sure he did it out of pure love for Lindsey. He was a trooper.

After The Eye, we went to dinner at an awesome tapas restaurant called Cafe Tu Tu Tango. And this is where I realize I took no pictures of food over the weekend. I used to take pictures all the time, never use them, and delete them when I realized I had tons of pictures of food for no reason. Now I could use them and don’t have them. Just know that I am still adhering to the “Eat” portion of my blog name.

We were pretty full after dinner and not really in the mood for drinking, but we hit up a bar anyway because going home at 9:30 is lame. Around 11:00, we still weren’t feeling it and ALMOST went home. That’s when the music at the bar markedly improved (ahem, Kesha) and we all got our second wind which consisted of a lot more drinks, darts, and giant Jenga.

I only managed two pictures at the bar. Lindsay and I doing our best Trump impression.

Hubs playing the ground guitar.

And the bathroom door from the inside.

Terrifying.

Edit: Ok, that was three pictures.

The night turned out to be a fun time and I’m happy our second wind hit us. However, not all of us were happy about that second wind the next morning. We had some more fun, light shenanigans on Sunday, but more on that in the next post.

Is This Thing On?

Oh hai neglected blog.

I haven’t been around these parts much but it’s not for a lack of wanting to. School is kicking my ass this semester so my time has been extremely limited. If you follow me on Instagram, you know what I’ve been up to for the most part. I always have something going on, so having no plans is currently my favorite plan. Any free time I have is spent doing chores playing Pokemon Go. (WHY do I love that game so much? Damn.)

Anyway, enough of that. If I had more time to write, I probably would have written about Texas Melissa coming to visit for the weekend to destroy my liver.

Then I might have mentioned meeting my friend Linda’s new cutie patootie son, Ryan.

Babies love me.

I would have written about how I went to see Maroon 5 and was THISCLOSE to Adam Levine.

And I definitely would have written about how I went to get my hair dyed “rose gold” and it came out magenta.

I was a little surprised but overall thought it was fun and different so I kept it. Since that picture was taken, it’s faded a lot and is now more of a light pink with magenta highlights. I get a ton of compliments on it, so it was quite the happy mistake.

Let’s see…I would have written about hub’s Labyrinth/David Bowie themed birthday party, which I don’t have many pictures of.

oh hayyy, I look skinny in that picture! Frame it!

And of course, I would have talked about how Pants continues to be adorbs all day every day.

This past weekend, we made it through Hurricane Matthew without damage to the house and without losing power. It is literally the first hurricane I’ve prepared for and taken seriously in the 30+ years I’ve lived here. It was on a scary track. Thank goodness the storm moved a bit East just before it hit the Melbourne coast because it could have been a lot worse for Orlando.

If anything good came out if that storm, it is some of the most beautiful weather we’ve had all year. Temperature and humidity are way down, so Saturday morning’s 7-miler was extremely pleasant. Then on Sunday, hubs and I spent all day walking around Lake Eola which was hot spot for Dratinis! (If you understood that…welcome fellow nerd.)

Today, our high is 80F with a cool breeze so it’s basically winter. It’s that time of year where I get to shop for cute, expensive jackets that I’ll only wear once!

So now you are up to date. Hopefully I won’t be such a stranger in the last two months of my semester.

 

More Books

I need to change the name of my blog to Eat: Read: Couch at this point. Sheesh. My reading hasn’t slowed down so apparently I still have free time on my hands. That should change any minute now that school has started again. So let’s get to it.

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

This one is about a couple that goes to China for the summer so the girl can meet the guy’s family. The family is ridiculously rich and most of his family are gossiping assholes. Soap-opera-y antics ensue. I thought it was cute but not as funny as everyone has made it out to be. The book has a ton of footnotes and I hated that. It especially sucked on a first gen Nook so I skipped those completely. The first half of the book is meh and I considered not finishing. The second half totally redeemed itself and now I’m interested in reading the second one.

The Sinner (Rizzoli and Isles #3) by Tess Gerritsen

This one is about a nun that was murdered and another that was savagely attacked. Enter Rizzoli and Isles to find their killer. It’s your basic formulaic murder mystery. I found it entertaining but it was pretty much the most predictable book I’ve ever read.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I feel like I’m the last one on Earth to read this but I’m glad I finally did! It’s about a nine-year old girl living with foster parents in Nazi Germany. It’s so bittersweet and heartbreaking. I could barely see the last 100 pages through my tears. It’s the best book I’ve read in a year, and this is coming from a girl that hates crying and avoids sad movies/books at all costs.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

This one is a love story between two 16-year olds who are very different from each other. It’s a super fast read and really cute, which is just what I needed after The Book Thief destroyed my very tender emotions. So if you’re looking for something light, I would definitely recommend it. It was also a reader’s choice winner on Goodreads in 2013, so you don’t have to just take my word for it.

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

This one is about a plane crash, its two survivors, and the search to find out what caused the crash. The book tells the story of what happened with each character before they got on the plane intertwined with what is happening in the present with the two survivors and the investigation. I thought there was some extraneous information with some of the characters, so the book could have been 50 pages shorter. Other than that, I really enjoyed the writing and would recommend it.

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

I know I’m going to lose some of you on this description, but here we go…this one is about mysterious giant robot parts that are found around the world and a secret group’s quest to find all the parts and put the robot together. Sounds silly but it was surprisingly interesting and a fast read. It was also short and I love short books because they make me feel like I’m a fast reader. So if you like science fiction, this might be for you.

Day Zero by Kresley Cole

This one is part of the Arcana Chronicles series which I LOVE. It’s book 3.5 so it’s an offshoot of the main story, and was written because the books are being made into TV show and the producers wanted some back story on the characters. Well, the book was eh. There were some interesting back stories but also some I didn’t GAF about and skipped, so I would suggest passing on this one even if you’re a big fan of the series. You don’t learn anything new that matters.

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

It’s hard to talk about this one without giving anything away. So, I’ll just say it’s about two sisters that come together after some time to figure out what happened to two of their family members. It’s got some dark content, so much so that there is a warning in the answered questions on Goodreads about it, and one of my friends told me not to read it. Now, this is where I tell you that my soul is black so I quite liked it! If your very sensitive to darker content like torture and rape, don’t read it. If your soul is black like mine, I definitely recommend it.

Running and Fun Stuff

Oh, hi there.

It’s been awhile since I’ve written but I’ve been busy, so any downtime I have is blissfully spent doing nothing at all. Doing nothing is my third favorite thing to do (behind eating and sleeping) so here is all the not nothing that has been going on. Let’s start with the important stuff first:

I ran once!

Last weekend my running bud, Brad, texted me that he was fat and in desperate need of a run. I’m not training for anything (yet) but I agreed to meet up with him at 5:30am on a Saturday morning out of the goodness of my heart. Neither of us had run more than two miles in four months, so really it was a test of will. We set out to do 8 miles and turned around like big babies at 3.25 miles for a total of 6.5. It took us the same amount of time it usually takes us to do 8 miles, so we are definitely out of practice, but it was so good to catch up with Brad that I might agree to run again at some point before October when I need to start training again.

I went to Savannah for a girl’s weekend.

Every year, a bunch of girlfriends and I get together for a girl’s night out. It usually involves getting a hotel in downtown Orlando and going out on the town for the night, but this year someone had the bright idea to make a weekend out of it and go to Savannah. Savannah is hella hot. I know this is coming from an Orlando girl, but damn. No breeze. I was actually telling Cheyanne to hurry up and take the pic above because I was melting to death.

Surprisingly, twelve of us decided to go which is amazing since it required all of us to make a commitment and pay four months ahead of time. It’s a four hour drive from Orlando, so we carpooled in three cars. We rented a house downtown (the house was on top of a Pokestop!) and had the BEST time bar hopping, eating great food (the pimento cheese, omg), shopping, and sight seeing.

#notnaked

My favorite thing we did was a bar hopping 15-person bike ride through downtown Savannah. This is the bike.

All we had to do was pedal and drink. The steering and braking was done for us. We stopped at five bars in two hours and we wished the tour was four hours it was so freakin’ fun. Oh, and Savannah is open carry like Las Vegas or New Orleans so…yeah. We always had drinks in our hands.

Seriously, if you find yourself in Savannah, I highly recommend Savannah Pedals. It was non-stop laughing, singing, and drinking for two hours with some pretty fun tour guides. There was a great video that I wanted to post here of the ride but I can’t get it to save so I can upload it, so you’ll have to imagine all of us singing Apple Bottom Jeans and dancing in our seats while Michelle pulled on one of the poles like a stripper.

On our way out of town, Lisa and I stopped at the Bonaventure Historical Cemetery. Bonaventure is famous for having the Midnight of Good and Evil grave stone. Unfortunately, I learned while I was there that they moved the grave stone to a local museum because of the foot traffic on the grave and because tourists were vandalizing it. Ugh. People are a-holes. But the cemetery is still amazing.

The cemetery is so big, it’s easier to drive to see it all. It’s also still used today. We saw gravestones from the 1800’s and from 2014. We got there early and I’m glad we did because it was getting pretty crowded by the time we left at 10:00am.

I saw Gwen Stefani in concert. On a Tuesday.

I was not loving Wednesday at work but man, that was a great concert. She even did five No Doubt songs so it was like two concerts in one. I’m really good at losing my phone, so it makes sense that I left it in the bathroom at the concert. I realized it about 5 minutes later and went back to look for it and it was gone. Someone actually turned it in to lost and found so thank goodness for honest people. To the girl that found my phone and didn’t keep it – thank you.

Hubs and I finished season 1 of Stranger Things.

If you haven’t heard of Stranger Things, it’s a new Netflix show that literally everyone has been recommending to me. It’s best described as “Stephen King meets The Goonies.” Anyway, I liked it but it did not live up to the hype for me. Everyone is talking about how terrifying it is and after I saw it, I wondered if we were watching the same show. It was not terrifying. Or maybe I am slow to terrify? Either way, I thought the acting was great (minus Winona’s over-acting), the music was great, and it was good enough to watch a second season. But I would not go so far to say that it was the “best show since Game of Thrones” like one of my friends did. Those are fightin’ words.

We also finished season 3 of Bojack Horseman.

If you are not watching that show, you NEED to. Do not be put off that is it a cartoon. It is funny as hell and touches on some really serious topics like mental health issues. I’m surprised a show like that can be so funny and so intense at the same time. It’s already been renewed for season 4 so, woo hoo!

And of course, some gratuitous bunny shots. (Pants has an instagram now if you are into things that are adorable.)

Alright, so that’s it for now. This weekend will be a blissful weekend of nothing and then I get a visit from my favorite Texan next weekend! That’s sure to be a shit show. She’s already asked me if we’ll be running while she’s here. <—- LOL, no, no we will not.