Little Rock, Day 1

So...getting to Little Rock was a little bumpy, figuratively and literally.  There was a mentally handicapped person on the metro talking to himself and blasting Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel" on a tape player very loudly.  It was getting uncomfortable when other riders started laughing at him.  OMG, I just want to get to the airport and be on my merry way.  Please, no one make any sudden movements or get the guy upset!

I got to the airport and printed out my boarding passes.  I noticed that on the second leg ticket, it said that my layover was going to be 3+ hours.  o_0  What?  That's not right.  I'm supposed to get in at 2 PM something, not closer to 5 PM.  I talked to the ticket agent and she was confused too.  I guess they cancelled the flight and put that flight number on the new flight.  Oh well.  Not much I could do.  I had lots of time in ATL to people watch and eat my salad from the Corner Bakery Cafe.  The flight from ATL to Little Rock had other coworkers on it and that worked nicely so we could get on the hotel shuttle together.  I sat next to someone that turned out to be a meeting attendee.  Time to be on my best behavior.  You never know who's around the corner when you attend these big meetings. 

For dinner, two coworkers and I walked downtown to find something to eat.  The place that I had been looking at, the Flying Fish, had a line out the door.  That's an encouraging sign to know that people liked it, but the three of us were very hungry and therefore looked at Bosco's across the street and decided to go with that.  I had the pulled pork sandwich with a cocktail called the Rivermarket Sunset: Absolut Mandrin Vodka, Stolichnaya Vanilla Vodka, and Malibu Coconut Rum with Cranberry, Orange and Pineapple Juices. Served on the Rocks with an Orange Slice and a Cherry.  Yum!

I got an email a few days ago from the meetings coordinator and apparently a whole slew of us had to move from the conference hotel to another hotel because of incomplete renovations at the conference hotel.  The walls are paper thin.  I can hear the guy next door yakking on the phone.  I hope this won't be a regular occurrence.

Day Off Before Little Rock

I decided to take a day off today because tomorrow I head out to Little Rock for work (come back on Wednesday).  No real weekend for me. Blah, oh well.

My initial plan was to go see Malificent, but I didn't see amazing reviews of it.  Looks like I'll be catching it on Redbox when it comes out.

I ran some errands instead.

• Cash for the trip.
• CVS for travel snacks: Starbursts, Chewy bars, Twix fun size bars.  Because of some Extra Care Bucks that I had, the total came out to $0.79.  Even the cashier was impressed.
• The mall to wander around (and get some Fitbit steps in).  I found a topsy turvy tool set on clearance.  It was fate because I had been looking for one.  I knew that Ulta and CVS had one, but I was holding out for one that was cheaper.  It was meant to be.  I also threw away my two tubes of mascara: one was old, one irritated my eyes.  Again, I got lucky to find this Maybelline mascara on clearance.  Plus, I had a $1 coupon.  I also got a set of cute earrings (60% off sale and I also had a 15% off coupon).  The kitties totally sold me.  I had to have them.  It was a good shopping trip. :D

I tried out the topsy turvy tool this afternoon and did a modified ponytail by wrapping a strand of hair around it and tucking it in the elastic.  When I went over to my parents' house to pick up a computer backpack, I did Julie's hair.  It was my first time doing a rope braid that I saw on YouTube recently.

Funny Things People Have Said to Me Recently

Funny thing #1: I almost never wear my hair down at the office.  It's usually up in a ponytail or some hairstyle that keeps hair out of my face and off of my neck.  I wore it down today and when my coworker got into the office, she said: "Your hair looks nice today, like out of shampoo commercial."  Aw, that was nice.  Especially since I did wash it last night.  Conditioner and a flat iron does wonders! :)

Funny thing #2: At a coworker's goodbye party yesterday, the policy director was telling some folks, "Tina is the most polite driver.  She turns on her signal at the top of the garage ramp and when she's turning into a parking space."  He was driving behind me this morning and there was no one else driving in the garage, but out of habit, I made sure to turn on my signal.  Fortunately, he's never seen me when someone cuts me off.  I'm not afraid to use a lead hand on the horn in those instances.

My body aches so much from doing the workout DVD last night.  At least I know something was working.  And it's nothing that a good night's sleep and some icy/hot won't fix!

Jillian Michaels: No More Trouble Zones

I decided to try out the workout video that I bought over the weekend.  It's called Jillian Michaels' No More Trouble Zones.  I liked her 30 Day Shred DVD so I figured this would be worth a try for $2.

Oh boy.

What a mistake.

I mean, it was a healthy decision to do the workout, but wow, if my body aches this much right after doing the workout (see picture below as a reference), I'm scared to find out what tomorrow will feel like. 

All that aside, it was a good workout.  There were parts that were challenging so I had to do some modified moves, but for the most part, I was able to keep up.  I'm glad that I could do this at home because I was a sweaty, wincing mess at the end.

New Nails

What do you do at 11:30 PM when you can't sleep?  Oh, paint your nails of course!
This is 2 coats of China Glaze's Deviantly Darling. Hmm...interesting name.

Yard Sale Finds

After spin class this morning, I went to a yard sale near my parents' house.  The lady had tons of toys like Pokemon and that sort of thing.  I picked out two Pikachu figurines because I thought they were cute.  A little boy and his father were looking through the toys as well. The boy asked me, "Can I see that?"  I said sure and gave him one of the Pikachus.  To my surprise, he put it in his grocery bag!

o_0

Hey, I was going to buy that!

I debated on what to do.  On one hand, I had it first.  On the other hand, he was a cute little, probably around 5 years old, and maybe too young to know that was not a kind thing to do. 

I asked him if he was going to buy the figurine, in earshot of his father.  "Yes."  "Well, I had it in my hand first."  The dad took over, "Now, Michael, who had it first?"  The kid had the gall to say "I did!"  Nope, nice try.  What a little fibber.  I eventually got the toy back, paid 25 cents for the pair and went on my merry way. 

I think if he had told the truth, I would have given it to him.  You just don't take things from people.  That's not a nice thing to do.  Sighhh.

Yard Sale Finds

Today's yard sale run was good and bad.  The first place that I went to had craft/stamp supplies in their listing and as I was walking up the driveway, some pre-teen and her mom walked away with those items.  Dang it, if I had gotten there 5 minutes earlier!  I was too busy looking at stuff at the house across the street.  Oh well.  Finders keepers.  Another yard sale had old video games.  The guy selling them said $1 each.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to take them so I went back to my car to check on my phone how they'd do on Ebay.  I decided to take them and sure enough, I bought them at 9 AM (thankfully the guy had batteries so I could check to make sure they worked), cleaned them up and listed them on Ebay and by 2 PM, the blessed Ebay chime went off on my phone.  $14.99 for the lot of 2.  At the third yard sale, I bought a Jillian Michaels workout DVD for $2 for myself to keep.  Not a bad day today, especially since I already made money!  It's been a while since I've done some treasure hunting, but hopefully this means I'm getting back into the groove.

For dinner, I picked up some cheesesteaks and went to my parents' house to hang out with Julie and my cousin.  It's been a while since we've hung out, so this was a perfect opportunity.

Fall-To Layout #292

Movie: I had big plans today on my day off.  X-Men: Days of Future Past came out today so I was at the movie theater at 9:00 AM for the 9:15 AM showing.  I didn't want to deal with any crowds so the timing was perfect.  I used some credit card points to get a Regal Cinemas gift card and that's what I used to pay for my $10.50 (?!) ticket.  Yay for some free fun!  This is probably how I'll be spending next Friday, when I've scheduled another day off.  Hello, Maleficent.  I'm very curious to see how they put a twist in the Sleeping Beauty story.

Anyway, the movie was awesome.  The special effects were awesome.  The cast was awesome.  Notice a trend?  It totally met my expectations and made up for how much I didn't really like X-Men: The Last Stand and the first Wolverine movie.  I would totally buy the DVD when it comes out.

Shopping: After the movie, I went to the gym for a workout and get my Fitbit steps in and also go grocery shopping.  I came home to get something to eat and then headed back out to the mall to pick up an online order.  I bought 4 dresses from JCPenny that I'm excited to wear to work this summer.  It also helped that I bought them with a 20% coupon and 15% Ebates cash back and free shipping to store.  Yay!

Card: I was looking at my previous entries and I haven't made any cards since early April.  Yikes.  Talk about a creative break.  Time to revisit my crafty supplies!  Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #292.
Card Specs:
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- The Mini Stack
Ink: Colorbox Chalk Ink in Blackberry, Charcoal
Stamp: Studio G, Hero Arts- Everyday Sayings
Punch: Fiskars Apron Lace Border punch
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

Books #3 and #4 of 2014

My library books were due this morning, so I had to quickly finish up Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World  so that I could return it after work.  I also recently finished Bobbie Thomas's The Power of Style.  I was curious to see how this book would compare to Stacy London's style book and I liked Stacy's more because I like how she used real models and I felt the book had more personal stuff in there that I could relate to.  Bobbie's book was a nice quick read though.

Trip to ATL

Ah, home sweet home.

My boss and I went to ATL on Monday for a day-long meeting with CDC today.  Instead of taking an earlier flight, my boss and I flew in around 7 so that we'd have most of Monday to get work done.  After getting off the plane, we made a beeline for dinner at La Tagliatella. Even though I had Italian with Meg and Robyn on Sunday, I still hadn't had my fill.  My boss got chicken picatta and I got beef lasagna.  By the time we finished with dinner, it was almost bedtime.  At least we were full and sleepy!

The meeting went well, thankfully.  Sometimes there's only so much that you can accomplish over the phone. And as usual, even though the hotel bed was nice, I'm happy to be home to sleep in my own bed with RJ curled up at the foot of the bed.

RJ's Recent Shenanigans

Sigh...RJ.

I put the blankets on the drying rack while the sheets were in the washer and went downstairs to watch TV.  I came back to see this.  Part of me was annoyed because as you can see, the drying rack was about to buckle under his weight (he's about 14 pounds), but another part fo me was amused.  That's quite a leap.

For dinner, I met up with Meg and Robyn since it had been a while since we've caught up in-person. We went to Piola, our go-to Italian restaurant in Arlington. Meg and Robyn both have had some stressful work days recently, so we also ordered a carafe of sangria. I ventured out of my usual spagehtti and meat sauce and went with the gnocchi. I was hoping that the gnocchi here would be the same as the kind of Pacci's, but it wasn't as cheesy as Pacci's. It was just sauce. I should have known since it did just say sauce on the menu. Blah.  I think I'll go back to my noodles and meat sauce next time.  We went back to Meg's place after dinner and chatted until 11 PM.  It could have been later, but sigh, work tomorrow :(  Luckily I was planning to work from home.

Yard Sale Finds

I went to 3 yard sales today and didn't come back with much.  A sealed DVD (sigh, George Clooney) for $1 and a "Life is Good" mug for $1.  The other side of the mug says "Do what you like.  Like what you do."  I thought it was a cute mug and it's pink!  I'll keep these findings for myself.

For dinner, I went to my parents' house and enjoyed some steak and grilled vegetables.  Julie and I went for a walk afterwards to get some exercise in.  I paced around when we got back and Mom was like, "Why are you walking around?"  I need to get some more Fitbit steps in!  By the end of the night, I was able to get 20,000 steps in, the first time since I got the Fitbit back in March.  That was equivalent to 8.36 miles!

On Wednesdays, we wear pink.

I got a message from the Informatics department that they wanted staff to go business casual for Wednesday and Thursday because of an in-person meeting happening at the office those days. Ok, no big deal. We gotta look our best for our guests, right? I went with pink. Julie IMed me this morning saying that she was wearing pink and 2 guys at her office were wearing pink too. I laughed and typed "On Wednesdays, we wear pink," an ode to Mean Girls, which we watched this past weekend.

A New Neighbor

As I was brushing my teeth on Sunday night, I looked out the window and saw something on the neighbor's deck.  At first, I thought it was Neighborhood Cat aka Max. I looked more closely.  Oh no.  Definitely not Max, unless he's doing a Zorro impression.  It was a raccoon looking through the neighbor's trash (very reminiscent of Over the Hedge, where RJ the cat's name originated).  He stayed there for about a hour, since going through trash is obviously exhausting.  I hope he doesn't come back!

Two-a-Day

Since I was already up and awake at 7:30 AM I decided to go to two spin classes this morning. I was there for so long that the counter on the bike started back at zero.  Surili (my coworker) was kicking my butt on Fitbit steps and I ate a lot of good food from Pacci's last night, so I was feeling motivated to get moving this morning.

I took the $3 Extra Care Bucks I got yesterday and a Sally Hansen $1 off coupon to CVS after class and got a matte top coat and a green nail polish (I-rush Luck).  The Buy 1, Get 1 50% off sale also helped.  I can't wait to try them both when it's time for a new manicure.

When I got home and took a shower, I got on a cleaning spree.  I did 2 loads of laundry and washed my makeup brushes.  In the first round, I used a liquid spray cleaner that I got from CVS last year, but afterwards, I decided to do round 2 with some Dr. Bronner's peppermint bar soap (purchased at Target for 10% off...which was nice because it's a little pricier than other soaps).  I saw many makeup folks sing its praises in getting the job done (specifically Hollie Forrest and Rachel from Glow of Grace).  Oh yes.  They were not kidding.  The soap got out what the liquid cleaner couldn't.  So much so that the white tips that I thought were stained with foundation and blush came back (well, closer to white at least...)!  You could see the foundation color the suds in Round 2!  It kinda grosses me out that all this time, only doing Round 1 was not effective enough. 

CVS Haul: New Lip Products

Well, they aren't new...they are just new to me.  CVS was having some good deals so I couldn't pass them up.  I purchased the following with a Wet 'N Wild $1 coupon from the Sunday ads, Revlon $1 coupon from the Sunday ads, $3 off $15 makeup CVS coupon. CVS was having a Buy 2, Get 1 Free Wet 'N Wild product and Buy $10 Revlon, Get $3 Extra Care Bucks.  Whew.

2 Revlon Matte Balms in Showy and Unapologetic
3 Wet 'N Wild Megelast Lipsticks in Wine Room, Stoplight Red and Sugar Plum Fairy
Milani Anti-Feathering Lipliner

I did my Mother's Day duty this morning before my CVS trip to deliver flowers to my mom and my aunt. :)

Julie came by for dinner (Pacci's) and we watched Mean Girls.  I can't believe that movie is 10 years old now.  That's just crazy.  We still laughed at the same jokes, even though we've heard them a billion times.

On Wednesdays, we wear pink.

New Nails

Hooray for Friday!  After spin class this morning, I decided to take off the Sally Hansen Lightening polish I had on and replace it with 2 coats of Orly's Lollipop.  What a totally spring-y color!

Office Field Trip to Nationals Park

Somehow Human Resources was able to score some tickets to the Washington Nationals and LA Dodgers game today at 1:00 PM.  I showed up to work and did a few hours, and then before I knew it, it was time to leave for the game.  Best work day ever!

The tricky thing was that it was raining and I forgot my umbrella.  Fortunately, the Office Depot next door had ones for sale, so I am now the owner of a hot pink umbrella (which goes with my neon green umbrella at home).  3 of my coworkers and I Metroed down to Nationals Park and found other coworkers that were there.  There was a rain delay so to keep us entertained, we went to find food.  The tickets that we got came with $15 you could buy food or merchendise with.  I went with chicken tenders, fries, and a bottle of water for $14.50.  I just squeeked by!  I saw Robyn and Pat there playing hooky, so that was a funny surprise.  Finally, about 1.5 hours later, the game started.  I didn't stay too long because I wanted to go to the gym before it got crowded with the after-work bunch.  13,000 steps today, whoo hoo!

Protest at the Office

During the staff meeting today, the director of contracts alerted the chief operating officer that there was a protest going on outside our building. There was a police presence, complete with cop cars and cops with motorcycles. The main road went from three lanes to two lanes, jamming up traffic. They had to shut the elevators down and the only way we could exit the building was through the stairs. This way would prevent the protesters from coming into the building as much as possible. 

My coworker Jennifer and I had to go down 7 flights of stairs to the ground floor, cross the street to another garage, go up on the elevator to the floor that has a bridge that leads back to our building so we could access our cars to go home.  SIGH.

It made for an interesting afternoon though.  Lots of us were laughing because the sign that the protesters had a misspelled word.  Too bad they forgot to spell check!

Friend's Housewarming Party

Talk about a blast from the past...

Last week, I got a Facebook invitation to a housewarming party.  The interesting thing about this is that this person was someone that I went to high school, but haven't seen her since then. I only know what she's been up to these days because of Facebook. Anyway, I debated whether or not I should go.  On one hand, was this going to be awkward since a lot of time has passed since we've seen each other?  On the other hand, I felt compelled to attend and congratulate her in a gesture of solidarity.  She's also a single, unmarried woman without kids and I was in the same situation (well, still am...) when I bought my place almost 3 years ago.  I wanted to give her a big hug and basically tell her, "You go, girl!"  I was also very curious to see what her place looked like. 

She was able to lock down on a studio aparmement and to make it a place of her own, she painted over the eggshell walls with a coat of lavendar paint.

Ah, homeownership. :)

Ah, Saturday

Yay, weekend!  First order of business, need some groceries (check!).  While I was there, I bought a box of hair dye because I'm well overdue.  The Annual Meeting is coming up and the greys will not be following me to Little Rock.  I'm trying out this Loreal Feria in Starry Night.  Catchy name, but let's get real.  It's black.

I came home to drop them off and eat some lunch and the I headed out to Target for some flip flops.  I bought some a few weeks ago and before I could wear them anywhere, RJ had chewed up some of the rhinestones off the straps.  Sigh.  I saw that there was a 20% off coupon on the Cartwheel app.  I found some plain black ones, thankfully!

I came home and basically vegged the rest of the afternoon on the couch.  I played with makeup a little bit by dressing up what eye makeup I already had on when I went out.  One of these days, I'll have the guts to wear a red lip out.

I've been on a Fast and the Furious kick lately.  Well, if you can call 2 movies back to back a kick.  I watched Fast 5 on television last night on a whim and then since Redbox had a 75 cent promo code, I watched Fast and the Furious 6.  You never know with sequels, but both movies were pretty good.  Paul Walker, sigh.

A Cheerful Face

I went for a walk today after dinner to get some Fitbit steps in and on the way home, I passed a church where the dads were spray the sidewalk to kill the weeds and the kids were playing around.  One of the little boys gave me a big smile and I couldn't help but smile and wave back.  I could hear "Daddy!  I said hi to that lady!" as I walked by.  That made me smile on the inside, how cute!

That's kinda what I needed.

The weather was really dreary earlier this week.  Work has been slightly stressful. 

I was just in a general funk, but I think my mood has lifted with that cheerful exchange.