things you need to know. for real.

Well hello there, world. Long time no chat. But don’t worry. That’s all about to come to an end. (The not-chatting, that is. Not the world.)

When the Snow-pocalypse is immediately followed by a four-day-weekend out of town and then a slam-packed week…you get this. No blogging. It’s a sad situation. But lucky for you, I’ve been taking notes all week. Yep, notes. They started out as mental notes, but progressed into full-fledged NOTE-notes. Notes about things I wanted to blog about.

When you’re 28, you can’t just trust your brain anymore. That thing’s likely to fail any day now. You can only trust a notepad in your horrifically-heavy-and-full-of-everything-I’ve-ever-received-since-1998-purse. That thing is like a vault. Nothing escapes. Not even notes about Things to Blog. Anyway, I’ve already digressed. Since none of my Noteable Thoughts are connected, we’re going to go list-style. But just in case you’re not interested in a list tonight, may I suggest you at least scroll down to #5? I think it is something you would like to know.

(But before I get you all needlessly excited…no, #5 is not that. You think I would put a pregnancy announcement up here as a measly little #5 on a list?? Like “oh, I almost forgot to mention this little tiny ol’ bit of news, it just practically slipped my mind, let me mention it here at the end of this long rambling blog….” Ha. No.)

1. So, after a grueling work of forced-slothdom due to the snow, we departed for the beach last Friday. I am now on the leadership team thing at church, and there is a retreat every January. Matt and I rode to the beach with Mollyanne and Jonathon. I must say that the seven hour ride was surprisingly tolerable (for a person who hates car trips). I think it was the combination of extra humans and fun technology that made the hours pass quickly. Well, quickly until I decided I was hungry and tired of being in the car. Then time drug on. But we made it eventually, and were happy to find we were staying at one of the coolest beach houses ever built, complete with about 8 king-sized beds and an elevator. Which I rode up and down just because it was awesome. Don't worry, I have the maturity of your average 8 year old. So my pictures aren't great because my camera was generally dead, but just imagine a beach in January. It was surprisingly nice. We got to see lots of dolphins one morning, and you know my affinity for marine wildlife. Obviously it made my life infinitely better. In addition to seeing dolphins, we spent lots of time hanging out with friends old and new. It was good to be around people. Sometimes I forget how much I like that. All in all the weekend was productive and encouraging. And there was internet there! I really couldn't ask for more, could I?!

2. So the weekend was great, but unfortunately a week of no work followed by a long weekend of...no work...meant that I started off Tuesday morning way behind the proverbial eight-ball. Instead of starting the work week feeling like I was on top of everything and ready to rock, I felt like I needed a...um...another week off? Or maybe a drink? Not sure, but I didn't feel like I was ready for work. And I didn't really catch up on work until today. In addition to that, it seemed like we had stuff to do every night and we were busy from about 6am until 11pm. Whew. It was exhausting. The laundry we put in the washer on Tuesday afternoon was STILL IN THE DRYER tonight at 6. Thoroughly wrinkled, I might add. Anyway. So I've had no time at all to hang out at the library and catch up on my all-important social networking. But take heart!!! Rumor has it that we may be eventually thinking about considering getting internet at home again!! I know, crazy.

3. I just started a Beth Moore Bible study with a bunch of girls (women?? ugh, I hate that word if I think it is referring to myself) at church. We're doing the Esther study. I haven't done a Beth Moore in about 10 9 years (YIKES, was I really in college 10 years ago?!??!! Well, I was a freshman.) and I think I am going to like it a lot more this time around. So far, about 3 days in, I have already learned a lot and am really excited to have the opportunity to learn and share with a bunch of girls. Anyone else done this study?

4. OK, on the radio today they were talking about how long people go wearing jeans without washing them. This one radio host (hostess?) who is about my age sounded like she was feeling really guilty about admitting she sometimes went --wait for it-- two or three days without washing jeans.

::crickets::

Um...two or three days, honey?? Wow. Aren't you ambitious. Am I the only person who thinks that jeans still have a LOT of life left in 'em after three wears? And I guess it's worth pointing out that I generally don't wear jeans for a whole day. You know, a couple of hours after work, max. But even if I did wear them all day. I think I could go a lot longer than three days. In my (humble but always right) opinion, jeans aren't even comfortable until like 2 wears post-wash. Unlike towels, socks, undies, and most anything else...freshly washed jeans are TERRIBLE. I loathe the thought of trying to squeeze into a pair fresh outta the dryer. Ugh. It's enough to make a girl rush back into her leggings and sweats. But maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm certifiably nasty. I'm questioning everything, now.

5. If you made it this far, congratulations. I think it will be worth your wait.

So since the snow-week and beach-weekend didn't exactly involve a lot of working out, but did involve a lot of laying around and eating junk food...the gym was inevitable this week. It had to be done. Penance had to be made (paid?). So last night, there I was, doing my thing on the treadmill.

Oh, the treadmill.

It's funny how during our car ride to the beach, I was explaining to Mollyanne my fear of trying this "new thing" on the treadmill. I see people (both at my gym and on Biggest Loser) doing this sideways skipping thing on the treadmill. It looks like a good workout, but I just couldn't figure out how to turn sideways and get going without getting yourself into trouble. So I've never tried.

Last night I decided to overcome my fears and give it a whirl. I slowed the thing way down and hopped off, then slowly got on and started "skipping" (I can't really describe it), and increased my speed. It went really well and was quite fun, although it required a lot of concentration. After I did one side for a few minutes, I wanted to switch. I hopped off and just did some regular jogging to get a little break. Then I hopped back onto the sides and turned the other way. As soon as I tried to get back on and do my skipping thang, I realized my mortal mistake: I forgot to slow it down. I almost didn't have time to realize my mistake, since I immediately crashed and burned...as in fall down, nearly taking out the girl next to me, and then FLY off the treadmill, because of COURSE I don't wear the little clip thing that would cause it to immediately shut off in such a situation as this. Of course I don't. Instead I catch a 6mph ride to the end of the 'mill, where I fall off the 3.5 incline and hit the (very hard, very unforgiving) ground.

Um...ouch.

Of course, being the cool cucumber I am, I hopped RIGHT back up and got on the treadmill. "Are you okay??????!!?!?!" the scared patrons next to me asked. "Yeah, I'm fine," I lie, as I contemplate whether I'll EVER be able to go back to my gym. I walked for 10 more minutes just to prove how fine I was, and then I very bravely went and informed Matt that we would be leaving real stat-like, and then I limped my broken booty and broken pride back to the car.

And I've been limping ever since. And when people ask why, I have to tell them, and then they laugh at me. And I can't help but join them, because really?? That was RIDICULOUS.

So, the end. If you notice me growing to be 28195 pounds, it's because I can't ever go back to the gym, and it doesn't matter because I've totally given up on wearing jeans anyway.