Korean Lunch with Coworkers

I went with 3 of my coworkers to a Korean place for lunch. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. I got a rice bowl and you got to choose from a selection of things to add to it. I went with eggs (both sunny side up and omelet style), cucumber, and bulgogi beef for around $10. I would totally go to this place again, but there are other restaurants in the area that we want to try out first before circling back to this one.

Even though I went to CrossFit this morning, I still had gas in the tank to go to spin class tonight.

I went to my parents’ house afterwards and my sister and I split the last of the curry rice. Harry the Homeless Cat paid a visit, WITH A BABY BUNNY IN HIS MOUTH. It was still alive too! We yelled and chased him into the garden, hoping he’d let go, which he did. My sister went to pick up the bunny with an old towel and it leapt out of her hands. The scene was like something out of a cartoon: Harry chasing after the baby bunny and the sister chasing after Harry. We have no idea where the little guy ended up; I hope it’s still alive!

Surprise at Target

I decided to take a rest day today from CrossFit. I'll be going to class tomorrow anyway.

"Personal space? No such thing,"- RJ

Blast from the past: I was at Target earlier this evening, and I was surprised to see my very first boss in line too! In high school, I worked as a library page, reshelving books. Over the years, we’d chat when I was there to check out a book or return something. She told me to come by sometime because the building recently got a facelift.

There was a Target Cartwheel app coupon for Champion workout apparel and some brands of cosmetics. I came away with a new workout top and a eyeshadow blending brush from E.L.F. 

When I was in the dressing room, there was a woman who wasn't able to get out of her dressing room! Yikes! Target staff had to figure something out.

“If you ever need a job, you know you can come back!”

CrossFit and The Jungle Book

9:30 AM CrossFit, check! My sister and I worked on our shoulder presses. I did 3 x 5 at 50 lbs. 

WOD: 3 rounds of…

15 DB thrusters (15 lbs per hand)

10 pull ups (with green and red bands)

400 m run


Time: 12:40

It was raining outside, so Coach Mike gave us alternatives to running: 500 m row or 50 double unders or 100 single unders. Meh, running in the rain wasn’t so bad. It was cooler and not humid. My shoes were definitely squishy on the way home though (yuck).

The Jungle Book was awesome! I highly recommend it! Shere Khan was a little scary and brutal, so kiddos might get freaked out. Next up: Captain America: Civil War. Regal Cinemas might as well take all my money this summer. Heh.

This evening, I went to the grocery store to get a balloon for Maria for her race tomorrow, but the selection was meh so I went with flowers. A little boy came up to me. “Do you like Pokemon???” Umm…I think Pikachu is cute, so I bought the shirt. And then he launches into telling me which Nintendo games you can play as Pikachu.

This really wasn’t what I was envisioning when people talk about getting hit on at the grocery store

Volunteering at the Local Elementary School Science Fair

A few weeks ago, work got an email asking for people that had a science background to serve as interviewers at a local elementary school science fair. Hm, ok. I have a science background (chemistry), not that I use it anymore. This is elementary school science, how hard can this be? Plus, I'm curious!

I got to the school, and all the volunteers went into one room with their folders of materials (sample questions, buttons, pencils, certificates). I noticed that all the chairs were for kids. This wasn't a problem for me since I'm already short, but it was really funny to see the tall gentlemen sit in those chairs to eat their pizza.

My assigned table was a bunch of first graders:

• What gum has the longest lasting flavor? (Orbit)
• What’s my dog’s favorite food?
• How do you make a pet cloud?
• What beverage cleans pennies the best? (Coke)
• How do you grow lentils?

I was a little surprised that the kids were not more shy to talk to me. They were very enthusiastic to talk about their projects. One of the kids was a little fidgety, and her mom had to put a reassuring hand on her. "Don't tell me. Tell Tina about your project." After a few minutes of Q & A, I gave each project a pencil, button and filled out their certificate.

I knelt to talk to the kids so that I would be eye level with them, so by the end of the night, my knees were kinda hurting, ha ha. It was both a fun and funny experience!

Yes, you do!

Physical Therapy Appointment

The physical therapist that I went to today was recommended by 3 people at my CrossFit gym. When I told him, he was like "Yikes, no pressure (nervous laughter)!" He asked me a bunch of questions about what had happened to cause such an injury and then he had me do some mobility work to see how far I could move without pain. Then we did some dry needle work, which was actually not as scary as it sounds. I'm feeling so much better since Thursday. I want to get back to beast mode so badly because it totally sucked to not be doing the same workout as everyone else yesterday morning at CrossFit, but I know I need to take it slowly so as not to tumble backwards.

I worked from home the rest of the day, one eye on the computer and honestly, the other eye on the television coverage of the Belgium bombings. Ugh. Not again.

CrossFit and Baking for Julie's Birthday

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! We worked on our pull-ups this morning.

WOD:
3 x 500 m row
Cash-out: 300 m farmer carry, 26 lbs kettlebell in each hand.

After CrossFit, all I did was bake for Julie's birthday (I'm taking today and tomorrow off from work). I made chocolate chocolate chip cookies for her to take to her office. If I made a batch and she made a batch, there would be enough for everyone. I also made her chocolate birthday cake (I didn't soften the butter as much this time around, compared to when I made this cake for my birthday last week, so it wasn't as runny. Thank goodness!).

AND because I had leftover frosting, I made a batch of chocolate cupcakes, some for my coworker and some for the 6:30 AM CrossFit class tomorrow.

YUM!

Double YUM!

Don't mind the empty space. It was used for quality assurance.

Push-Presses and a Surprise Interview

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! We worked on our push presses. 3 x 5 at 80 lbs. I surprised myself because I thought 75 lbs last week was already pushing my limits!

WOD…AMRAP for 9:00
10 Pistols
20 DB Power Cleans
60 single unders

I took a different route to work today, hoping there would be less snow-related traffic. Nope, wrong. 3 lanes had to merge into 1 to make room for an army of trucks and other snow removal machinery. I thought I’d be late for a 10 AM meeting and also miss the staff breakfast, but I made it just in time!

Busy day today:

• meeting about website stuff
• presentation to some staff
• interview. We interviewed someone for this position not that long ago, and we all liked her. I was really confused when I got a calendar appointment for this interview, so I asked the Executive Director on what happened to the first candidate. It turns out that she lied during her interview! She said she was still working at her job, but when Human Resources called to check on her references, we found out that she has since left that job. What?! How do you lie about something like that? Yikes.
• chat with boss about some documents that are due tomorrow to the senior director. We wanted to get them turned in today because both of us are taking the day off tomorrow. I think I’ll take the day off tomorrow!

Workgroup Meeting, Day 1

Today’s full day meeting was a success! Everyone was participatory, and ideas were flowing. There were a few moments where it got super technical and I had no idea what was going on, but fortunately, the workgroup chair took notes on that part. There was some brainstorming on next steps and wow, these people are very ambitious about what should happen next. Hello, let's try to get to through the annual meeting in June first, okay?  Why are we even talking about building a website right now?  We have no material TO PUT UP on the website. And who do you think is going to do all this work? Um, this is not the only project that I'm working on and stuff just doesn't appear out of thin air! One step at a time, folks!

The workgroup and staff went out to dinner afterwards. I got the chicken tacos, but only ate 2 of them because I was so full from other stuff we ate today. My boss and my former committee chair gave me their leftovers since they don’t have refrigerators in their hotel rooms. Is that weird? Meh, we’re like family. Yay, I can hold off on real grocery shopping for another two days!

Here’s tonight’s stitch session. Off to bed for me…only a half day meeting tomorrow.

P.S. RIP Alan Rickman, aka Professor Snape. Also, Julie and I got an email from Dad. He lost his American and Taiwanese passports!  AHHH!  (Sigh...)

Hang Snatches at CrossFit

OMG, brrrrr!

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! We worked on our hang snatches. I hadn’t done this movement before so I went with 25 lbs to work on technique first. I am so glad there was no running involved today.

WOD:
7:00 Ladder…3,6,9…etc.
Front Squats (45 lbs)
Medicine ball sit-ups (8 lb ball)

It took forever to get home from CrossFit this morning. There was an accident that closed the middle lane and then a cop car was blocking the right lane. It was close to where two major roads merged, so everyone had to be patient and work together so we could all get into the left lane. When I drove by the accident site, the car that was being loaded up on the tow truck had a smushed front end. What a sucky way to start the day. I hope no one was hurt!

We had a mandatory accounting/grants/legal training today at 1:30 PM. It was scheduled for 2 hours, but only took 1 thankfully. Since I've been at the organization for a while, I've heard the same shpeal several times already, but I understand why it's necessary to do it on an annual basis.

I got my first sale of 2016 today, whoo hoo! It was for an origami panda Valentine's Day card. This customer is definitely thinking in advance!

New Jeans, CrossFit, Housewarming Party and Uncomfortable End to the Evening

I headed out earlier than usual to go by Old Navy to get a pair of skinny jeans (the jeans I bought yesterday were bootcut). It surprisingly didn't take too long, even though the jeans section could have really used some straightening up. An added bonus was getting a set of 3 pairs of "diamond" studs: tiny, small, and medium. I also browsed Marshalls to kill some time, and when I was leaving to go to CrossFit, Julie texted me saying that she got a message from the co-owners that the parking lot was being paved so no one was allowed in the gym. I started heading home and she sent me another text message saying that the coach was going to do an outdoor workout in the back parking lot. I made a U-turn and headed back. Fortunately, I wasn't too far away. The 10:15 class was closing up. I think it's cool that the coaches made it work AND that a good handful of people showed up anyway, despite what must have been an unfortunate surprise this morning.

Hello, Fall.

I headed out to Hilary's place for her housewarming party with my tray of banana pudding in tow. I was the first one there, which worked out fine because I wanted to could catch her up on office gossip and how her new job was going. I had 3 helpings to the macaroni and cheese that she made and 2 pumpkin whoopie pies and some yummy spicy chips (heh). I met her 2 other roommates and other friends. I'm glad that another coworker was there so I didn't feel like I was by myself. I stayed for about 2 hours and then headed back home (the introvert in me was wiped out).

Sephora lip stain in Blackberry Sorbet.

When I got to the parking lot, I saw some of my neighbors chatting and drinking. They invited to me to join them. I thought it'd be rude if I didn't stay for a little bit. One of the neighbors has been trying to get me to join his gym. He went inside to get something and came back to hand me a free 7-day pass. I accepted it, but realistically, I have no interest in going to that gym, even if the membership price is significantly lower than what I pay now. My loyalty to the gym and CrossFit box that I go to has nothing to do with the cost. It's about the people and experience I have while I'm there. It didn't take me long to realize that he was a little tipsy. "When are we going to the gym together?" Uh, never? He kept touching my arm and ranted about religion. "...They don't have sex... they don't drink!" And then he proceeded to touch his junk. I was so uncomfortable. He offered me a vodka and orange juice, to which I took a sip of and held in my hand for pretty much the entire conversation, only to pour it down the drain when I got home. Finally, I just had to get out of there. I told everyone good night and the guy gave me a sloppy hug and it took everything in me not to run around the corner to my house.

Ugh, I feel so gross and angry. WTF. What a way to end an otherwise nice day. I can't wait to go to MY gym tomorrow and work out this frustration.

Kensington 8K and a Flat Tire

I woke up bright and early today to do another round of volunteering at the Kensington 8K packet pick-up (Volunteer Activity #6 of 2015). There weren't as many bibs left, so I'm assuming that many people came to pick theirs up after work last night. I went down to the start line and wow, you could feel the energy in the air. The race benefits 3 schools in the area so there were lots of kids and strollers and pets running around to cheer the runners. I went looking for a childhood friend's father who was going to be running in the race (Cait- are you reading this? Ha ha), and I was successful! We caught up for a little bit and then it was time for the race to start. He mentioned the Turkey Chase that's happening this November, so I'll probably see them at packet pick-up again.

One funny moment was when the volunteer coordinator asked me if she needed to sign my SSL(student service learning) form. Students in the county have to do a certain amount of community service hours prior to graduation. Aw, she thinks that I'm in high school.  Hah. I told her "No, thanks, I'm good" but didn't explain why.

The rest of the morning/afternoon didn't go as smoothly. I noticed my tire pressure indicator go off as I was driving home. It was weird because it had gone off on Monday and I addressed it before work. Why is it going off again? When I pulled into the nearest gas station, I realized my front passenger tire was almost flat. I could hear the air hissing out of the tire! I eventually got a tow truck to drive it to a tire store and since they were backed up, I didn't get my car back for another couple of hours. So much for going to CrossFit this morning! Sigh, oh well, good thing I didn't have anything pressing to do today, and at least the car is back to its regular self!

Robyn came over to eat dinner and hang out...mmm, Pacci's!

CrossFit and Sad Day in News

Julie sent me a text message last night. "You haven't signed up for class tomorrow." Gawd, crazy stalker! -_- Ok ok, I've signed up. Geeze.

Good class today. I learned how to do a clean and jerk. Anddd we had to do 30 of them during the timed part of the workout. We also did pullups, so tough!

I decided to switch my telework day from Friday to today and take Friday off. My phone went off and I noticed a Twitter notification that something had been retweeted by several news outlets. Hm, something's up. Must be serious. It was news that there was a reporter and her photographer that had been killed during a live broadcast. WTH?! That's so sad and wrong on so many levels. I had the news on all day as the police tracked the killer. I think the fact that he died from his self-inflicted gunshot wound makes it worse because he won't be brought to justice. And then later on today, the Smithsonian released news that the smaller of the baby pandas died. UGH, no more bad news please. This is enough!

I went over to my cousin's house tonight to say bye to my uncle who is leaving to go back to Taiwan tomorrow. They informed me that my parents were going to go back to Taiwan in December. What? No one told me that! How am I the last to know about this news?! At least they will be here to celebrate Christmas before they go on their second vacation of the year.

Weird Dreams and Spin Class

Ugh, I had some really weird dreams last night. They involved getting into a verbal fight with a friend and then her also telling me that her parents were getting a divorce. o_0 Too bad there isn't a reset button. I'm really hoping for some restful sleep tonight.

I didn't let the morning funk get to me though. I cranked through a lot of my to-do list at work: 1 contract, 1 session proposal and 2 poster abstracts. It's a race to get a bunch of things done because my boss is leaving for vacation in a week and I don't want some of these things to wait until she gets back on September 9 (?!).

Because Sadira is leaving, I got pulled into two future meetings. I already had a planning meeting about it last week when I was in Atlanta, but then I got pulled into a committee meeting that's happening in September. The email from the director said "You know we will feed you." My boss told me they'll probably invite me to the committee dinner that night, "You can network with members you haven't met before." Sure, that sounds great, but really, I just want to eat.

WILL WORK FOR FOOD.

I was feeling uninspired on what to have for lunch, so I went to Safeway with Reggie. I ended up getting some soup and a large sub from the deli. I was hoping that no one was going to be around as I came up the elevator and was going to put the sub in the office fridge. Nope, no luck there. I definitely got some raised eyebrows and of course, Reggie had to call attention to it. "Look at Tina's big sub!" Hey, don't be jealous. I think it's more economical to get the sub which will last longer than something you'd get at Potbelly.

I took a break from lifting today, but I did make it to spin class. I told Julie that I'd go to CrossFit Wednesday morning, so we'll pick things back up tomorrow (har har, get it?). I arranged a Happy Hour for Sadira on Wednesday after work and I know my motivation for going to workout afterwards will be slim to none, so it'd be best to get it out of the way at 6:30 AM tomorrow. I never thought I'd say that...EVER.

Hm, I think I see some shoulder muscles coming in. :D

CrossFit Class and New Piercing

CrossFit Class: Ahhh, so many wall balls at today's CrossFit class. I originally had a 10 lb. ball, which was fine for the first round of 10, but then with 20, the trainer asked if I wanted to trade and he handed me an 8 lb. one. Those 2 lbs really do make a difference, but it was still hard because the amount went up by increments of 10. Whew!

New Piercing: The thought of getting my nose pierced started last year around my birthday. Every time I thought about it, I would chicken out because I was scared of the pain. The thought has been resurfacing lately, so I rewatched some YouTube videos and reread some Yelp reviews of tattoo/piercing places. After I cleaned up from the workout this morning, brought RJ home from my parents' house, I went to gas up my car, got money from the ATM and went to the tattoo place (Tattoo Paradise in Wheaton, Maryland).

The shop was small, but clean and the front desk guy was friendly and was patient with answering the questions that I had about the jewelry being used, the price, the aftercare, etc. They asked me to fill out a form, so I did and paid for the piercing. They asked me to have a seat, while they set up in the back. The piercer (who wasn't the front desk guy), at first glace, would be very intimidating. He had multiple piercings, stretched earlobes and some tattoos, but he was friendly and explained the process, which put my mind at ease. He marked the spot, asked me to check it, asked me to lay down...breath in, breath out, anddd DONE!  There was no time to worry about anything because the process was so fast! All things that I was worried about from watching the YouTube videos didn't even happen. I didn't tear up. I didn't bleed. It didn't hurt when he threaded the jewelry through. Easy peasy! Sheesh, I should have done this a while ago!

Does this still count as impulsive if I've been thinking about this for a while?

Is it weird that I'm wondering what my mom is going to say?  Heh.

An Unwelcomed Blast From the Past and Leg Day

Dear Unwelcomed Blast from the Past,

I would be dumber than a box of rocks if I accepted the Facebook friend request that you sent me last night. I haven't responded to any of your attempts to contact me over the years with good reason. I don't understand why you thought this time would be different. Was the silence not loud enough? Your request was promptly deleted, as I have no interest in dealing with people who have taken my kindness for granted.

buh-BYE.

Sincerely,
Me.

Geeze, some people just can't take a hint. (eye roll)

P.S. I had a pretty awesome leg day (well, we'll see how awesome I'm feeling tomorrow morning...). Day 12 of Crush60, done. I had a minor panic moment when my Bluetooth earbuds stopped working. Oh, heh, that's because they ran out of power and needed to be charged.

I also watched Kingsman: The Secret Service via Redbox. It was pretty cool! It had shades of Harry Potter. Underdog kid goes through training and eventually kicks some serious butt.

Rest Day

Today didn't really go as planned, but that's okay.

I was supposed to go to lunch with one of my former coworkers, but I got an email from him early this morning (never a good thing) saying that he was at the ER with his wife and they won't know more about what's going on with her until a CT scan (?!). Oh nooo.

I thought the office would be super dead because of the teleworking folks, but fortunately, many of my friends were there to hang out.

I signed up for a 10-class punch card for the CrossFit gym that I went to 2 weeks ago and reserved my spot in tomorrow morning's class.  Oh yes, this was voluntary. Never ever thought I would say that...ever. With that said, I decided to skip the gym after work today; my shoulders are a little sore from yesterday anyway. I must have needed the rest because I fell asleep for 3 hours after getting home. I watched the second half of Stephen Amell's Q & A for Nerd HQ at Comic Con (because I was asleep during the first half) and then worked on my office card order. Happy Friday!

Favorite Coworker Award

My friend Michelle was very happy that I brought in banana pudding to work today. She had some help since the pan had maybe 6 cookies worth of pudding by the time I went to the kitchen to do a status check. The cookies that I brought in were all gone too. Great, none for me to take home. Less temptation for me and coworkers are happy. Win-win in my book!

This dress that I got from JCPenney got many compliments from members that came in for a workgroup meeting today. Someone even called me "sharp."  Ha ha.

It was raining like crazy after work today, so I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to spin class. Fortunately the rain let up and it was actually sunny on my drive. The bad thing that happened on the drive was that some pebble flew and hit my windshield so there's a tiny crack in it. Nothing that would require a replacement windshield, but ugh, my baby! My poor car! :(

When I got home, I did some weighted arm exercises (no FitnessBlender tonight) and 30 burpees. Whew!

Comp Day and Fitbit Death?

The office gave me a comp day to use before June 17 since I had to travel to Indianapolis on a Sunday for our Annual Meeting.  Since there wasn't anything pressing on the schedule or on my to-do list, I decided to take it today. I used the time to go to spin class and Target and work on some cards for the Etsy shop.

One weird thing was that I noticed that my Fitbit died!  Nothing is being displayed, no matter if it's plugged in or not. I tried resetting it, and that didn't work either. I contacted Fitbit support to see if they can help me out. I've only had it for a little over a year, so what gives??

New Nails

It was pretty alarming to turn on the news this morning to see Baltimore up in flames.  That was not what was going on when I went to sleep last night. They also said something about a curfew starting tonight, but why couldn't they have started last night when things were already really out of control.  I guess they didn't have enough law enforcement and military to enforce the curfew?  I just hope it gets better as the week goes on and that officials learn from this event and be more prepared/take more initiative next time (not that there should be a next time).

I was inspired by the nice weather today and did some nail art.  Hello spring! This is Cheeky Happy Nails plate with Sally Hansen in Mint Sortbet nail polish for a base coat and Sally Hansen InstaDri nail polish in Presto Pink for stamping.

Trouble in Baltimore

I got home from work today and turned on the television.  The news was showing lots of rioting, looting and eventually in downtown Baltimore.  It was so sad to watch. I know there's a work conference going on this week in Baltimore, so I'm hoping that it won't be affected by this violence. Sigh.

In other news, I did a new FitnessBlender workout tonight: Fat Blasting Booty Builder - HIIT Cardio and Strength Training Workout.  AND I did it without pausing too (pats self on the back...).