Currently I Am, Lately I've Been

Whoa. Hello, unexpected hiatus. I haven't mustered up the energy to even update yous guys about either fitness or my acupuncture treatments let alone set aside time to really write in a way that satiates my soul. I miss really writing, but I'm having trouble finding things to really write about. (Really.) It's exhausting to try and tell a story when the only thing going on in my life at the moment is work, working out, and my strange now-not-so-new diet.

So, in an attempt to break through the writer's block and to hopefully curb the redundancy that has been so present in this space lately, here's a Currently post. (Please, please contain your excitement and hold your applause until the end of the post. Thank you, The Management.)

(If you don't follow me elsewhere on the internetz, I'm platinum now. Oooh, aaaah.)

 
 
Watching: Breaking Bad, finally. Jamie started watching it last year. I initially watched it with him, but I just couldn't make it through the first few episodes without losing my mental shit.

If you live in this world and still somehow don't know the premise of the series, the main character is a chemistry teacher who finds out he has lung cancer. In order to cover his ever-growing medical bills, he turns to cooking meth. Unfortunately, the first few episodes were heavily peppered with coughing fits that too closely resembled those of my dad's during his last few years after his colon cancer had spread to his lungs. It was still too soon for me, so Jamie watched the show on his own.

But! One day, Jamie decided he wanted to re-watch it while I was tooling around on my iPad. This may have been strategery on his part as I found myself paying attention. We watched a few episodes a night before he had left for a work trip. While he was gone I kept watching. When he came back, we kept watching. Within two weeks, I was caught up on 4 seasons of Breaking Bad. Now that's some master couch-potatery.

Listening: Early 90's jamz. For real. It puts me in a good mood and makes me wanna shake-m'booty. Hip hop hooraaaay hoooooo, Motownphilly is back again, that girl is poison, and I wanna sex you up, too.



Thinking: I need to get back on track with my To-Do lists. I stopped making lists and now the house is a disaster. D'oh.

Eating: After 6 weeks of adjusting to my TCM diet by excusing myself to eat junk just because I couldn't eat a lot of what I used to eat, I've finally cracked down. I'm readjusting to both this new TCM diet and fitting it back into a healthy everyday non-diet diet. It's only been a short time, but I feel a difference. My body definitely prefers a healthy lifestyle.

Loving: Weddings. I love weddings! I get really sappy at them and I think Jamie does too. Our good friends Jarrod and Kaitlyn got married last weekend and it was just beautiful.

We were feelin' romantical.

Anticipating: BABIES. No, not an announcement. But we do have two nephews and a niece due to arrive before the end of the year. I'm so excited to have babies in our family. I know a lot of women dealing with infertility don't want anything to do with anyone else's babies, but I'm somehow the opposite. It's like babies are my drug and I just need my fix? Sure. If anything, I'll get to see more of this:

Men holding babies = swooniness.

That's from a dinner date with our friends Jon and Amanda who moved away but were in town last weekend. They stole this baby for us had a super cute li'l guy named Edison James back in April and we were stoked to spend some time with he and his 'rents. My insides may or may not have mushed out when that homie fell asleep in my arms.

Thankful for: Pie.

Currently I Am, Lately I've Been

It's time again for one of these Currently posts. I know that I had planned to post my dad's letters on Thursdays, but I've gotten lazy and haven't taken the photos I need to for them nor have I sat down to transcribe them. One day I'll get back to it... but for now, you get this.

This photo is irrelevant. 

Listening: I've kind of left Pandora behind when I'm using my phone for music. I've since been using Songza. Depending what day and what time of day it is, they give you activity options to find just the right music. For Thursday, Late Morning they offer things like "Enjoying the Morning", "Doing Housework", "Working (No Lyrics)" and "Working (With Lyrics)". Say I choose "Enjoying the Morning", it then gives me more options: "Happy 90s Hits", "Summer All Year Long", "Timeless Pick-me-ups"... etc etc. THEN! If I choose "Summer All Year Long", it gives me three playlists: "70s Pool Party", "Summer Fling", and "SoCal Summer", each with a description of the type of music and examples of the artists on the playlist. It's a lot of fun, but lately I keep going back to their Trans Am Rock playlist which includes Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Van Halen, The Allman Brothers, Peter Frampton... you get the idea. So, short story long, that's what I've been listening to lately.

Watching: The Walking Dead! Jamie and I finally hopped on this bandwagon not long before the current season started and were caught up on the seasons we missed after probably only 2 or 3 weeks. I'm not really into the gore, but I'm in love with the show otherwise.

Eating: I've been trying to cook dinner a lot more. I do my best to keep my meals as clean as I can and so far I think I'm doing okay. I'm fine with the food I'm cooking, but Jamie has trouble giving me feedback for some reason. "Not bad", "It's alright", and "It's okay" don't really translate any good information to me, and honestly are really frustrating, but hey, I'm making an effort.

He didn't eat my roasted asparagus because he got a bite that "tasted burnt". *shakes fist*

Thinking: I really need some new jeans. I've lost 2 inches off of my butt/hips, 1.75 inches off each thigh, and 1.5 inches off my belly and am still wearing the same jeans. They fit so awkwardly and are pretty unflattering now. Unfortunately, jean shopping sucks.

Loving: I used to feel great just working out, or so I thought. Since cracking down on my eating a few weeks ago, I feel even better. I'm still having trouble kicking the beer and wine, but I've indulging less than I used to. (Eating at home helps.) I love that I had two Thin Mints and a Peanut Butter Pattie last night and the only dissatisfaction I experienced was from how they didn't really taste as good as they used to.

Anticipating: My family is coming to visit! My mom, brother, his wife, her baby belly, and my niece and nephew will be here in 3.5 weeks! I'm excited because my niece and nephew have never been out here, so of course we're taking everyone to Disneyland.

Thankful for: The support I've had lately from my friends and family has been amazing. It's been helpful between Mom's surgery, Darrell Day, and of course during our ever present infertility. Thanks y'all!

I nabbed this "Currently" idea from Sometimes Sweet.

Currently I Am, Lately I've Been

It's safe to say I've been lacking the inspiration to really write here, let alone put together some daily posts. At first, I blamed it on being busy with planning our Ping Pong in a Winter Wonderland party, but now that that is over, it's clear that I've just got a major case of blogger's block.

To help me push through, I've been searching for things to write about (to no avail) until I remembered that I used to do "currently" posts! I looked back to find the last one I posted and it was way back in the beginning of August... so, today you get a new "currently" and hopefully I get a new lease on life blogging.

Listening: Since getting our new Jeep, I've been taking advantage of the free year of satellite radio. Particularly the seasonal holiday channels. And when I'm not in the Jeep listening to Christmas music, I'm probably in the house listening to Christmas music on Pandora. Tis the season, yo. My favorites are anything Vince Guaraldi from A Charlie Brown Christmas, Baby It's Cold Outside by anyone except Norah Jones and Willie Nelson, and my most favorite ever, The Drifter's arrangement of White Christmas, which you probably know from Home Alone. Duh.



Watching: Well, I should be watching Christmas movies, but we haven't made a point of it yet. Home Alone is up there on the list for me, so I'm looking forward to watching that hopefully soon. Lately we've just been all up ons our DVR. So much so that we catch up too quickly and have to flip channels for the rest of the night. That's not always bad, though. The other night we landed on Ferris Bueller's Day Off (during which I annoyed Jamie with my line-reciting) and last night we caught the first half of Back to the Future (during which, I also annoyed Jamie with my line-reciting).

Eating: Poorly. Well, I've been eating well if by "well" you mean "really delicious", but poorly if "well" means "healthy". To try and counter this, I've upped my cardio to 5 or 6 times a week, and so far that's working to ward off the holiday 5 that I usually gain.

Thinking: I'm wondering how I'm ever going to learn to budget my time appropriately. I'm a procrastinator in the worst way and it makes for things only getting half finished around the house here. I think I need to start making a list at bedtime of what I need to accomplish the next day, then scratch'em off as I go. I know for a fact that I do better with breaking big things down into smaller bits, so if I can complete just one load of laundry a day until all of the loads are finished, it will be much less overwhelming than trying to do all of the laundry in one day. I need to apply that to probably everything around here, then maybe I'll actually get something done in a timely manner.

Loving: So far, I'm loving the kinda gloomy, rainy-ish weather that we've been intermittently experiencing lately here in SoCal. I'm happy to finally be wearing sweaters, jackets, scarves and boots without feeling silly because it's nearly 80 degrees. I just wish I had more sweaters and jackets and scarves and boots so that I didn't feel like I'm wearing the same outfit everyday.

Anticipating: Ohio! Kind of. Last month, we learned that my mom has breast cancer. Originally, she was to have a lumpectomy, but after some reconsideration, her doctor as recommended a mastectomy. Being that my dad isn't around anymore, my mom's on her own with no one to take care of her, so Jamie and I agreed that I'll be flying out for her surgery and post-op care. So, I'm anticipating spending time with my family and taking care of my mom and her new boobies (which she's looking forward to having!)

Thankful For: I am really grateful that Jamie and I are in a position that I can take time and fly to Ohio somewhat on a whim when I need to. It was really helpful during the 6 years my dad battled his cancer, and it's really helpful now. I definitely didn't want my mom to have to be alone during her healing and not really have any help.

I nabbed this "Currently" idea from Sometimes Sweet.

Currently I Am, Lately I've Been

Wowza, I went over a month without a Currently post. I'm sure you definitely noticed and were on the edge of your seat waiting for one.. right? Yes.

Uhm, banana.

Listening to: I haven't listened to much other than the music from the show I'm doing for a few weeks now. I don't think I've even turned music on in my car since I started rehearsals. I use driving time to focus on the songs that I perform. Now that we've finished tech week and are opening tonight, I almost constantly have some song from the show in my head, and it's not usually any of my songs! I'll get back to normal music after closing night.

Oh, you know. 

Eating: I'm still trying to eat delicious salads as much as possible, but with the past couple weeks being a little hectic, I'm grabbing what I can. I've managed to eat pretty healthily most of the time, so there's that. But while in Seattle last weekend we had the most amazing salmon crostini at SPUR gastropub. It came with a heavy smear of the most delicious mascarpone, a generous chunk of the freshest raw salmon I've ever had, and was topped with a few pickled shallots and fried, crunchy capers. We had a few other small dishes, but the other one worth mentioning are the pork belly sliders. They were so flavorful, and so fatty, but in the best melt-in-your-mouth way. I want to go back.

Watching: Not much. Once again, my hectic rehearsal schedule as of late has kept me away from evening television.

Loving: All of the Special Friend Time we've had during the last month or so.

There's a story behind this that doesn't fit in a caption.

Alexis, ridin' fancy on a Sunday Funday

Anticipating: The busy weekends ahead! I have the show this weekend and next, then possibly a weekend with nothing planned, followed by Ohio for my big brother's wedding. The following weekend is a Vegas trip for my brother-in-law's fiance's bachelorette party. THEN a concert, Dave Matthews Band... a weekend with no plans (yet)... then another concert. Then Mike and Renata's wedding (aforementioned brother-in-law and fiance). Then my birthday weekend, whatever that will involve followed by three weekends of the NEXT show I'm doing. Ladies and gentleman, this brings us to the end of October. Holy crap. Looks like November's free if anyone wants to get together...

Thankful for: Beer.

Lagunitas, from yesterday. It was IPA Day.

Fremont Summer Ale, in Seattle

Totes not a beer snob. This is the shadow of my Bud Light.

I nabbed this "Currently" idea from Sometimes Sweet.

Currently I Am, Lately I've Been

Why do work out clothes make me feel strong?

Listening to: 



Well, that's not entirely accurate. I've been listening to the band Rooney and not just lately, for like, a year or so, and often. I discovered them on Pandora and never looked back. I love those guys. And Cameron. 




Eating: I've been eating Safeway Select Cafe salads for lunch a ton the last year. They're easy to grab on my way to work and some are super low-cal. I've eaten the Greek salad the most out of all of them. It has feta! and olives! and cucumbers! and red peppers! I love it. But have you ever eaten something so much that all of a sudden, you can't stand it? That happened today. I had the worst, uncontrollable gross-out face reaction. I had to document it.

This was the worst tasting salad I've ever eaten... and you know what? It tasted exactly as it's supposed to. I guess I've ruined it for myself. I did this to myself back in high school with the cheese sticks at the bowling alley, too. 

Watching: The Olympic swimming trials! My and Jamie's favorite Olympic sport to watch is swimming. I really don't know why, but we love it, so we've been trying to catch the trials the past few nights.

Thinking: I'm thinking about how happy I am to spend my life with someone who consistently makes me laugh. We have a little half wall just inside the front door that collects all of our miscellany. After being fed up with not knowing what to call it other than "the thing by the door", Jamie decided that from now on, we will refer to it as The Montgomery. I thought this was a real name that he had learned on the internet. I was wrong. He just made it up and claims it will be easy remember. He's right.

The Montgomery

Loving: This is a no-brainer and probably not a surprise to anyone who reads this blog, but I am still--STILL loving Pilates and Spin. I'm feeling so good about myself and my results and it is keeping me motivated to be healthier.

Anticipating: I have a hair appointment this afternoon. I've decided to shell out the cash for the Keratin Smoothing Complex Treatmant. It's pricey, but I found a salon that offers the treatment for $100 less than everyone else around, so I went for it. I've been growing my hair out for a while now and it's finally longer than it's ever been in my whole dang life. The reason it's never been this long before is that it is so unmanageable at longer lengths. It takes way too damn long to style if I want to wear it down and I just don't have the patience for it, so I decided to try this treatment. It won't make my hair stick straight, but it will smooth out the curls and significantly reduce frizz cutting my styling time down majorly. I'll be sure to dedicate a post to it with before and after pics.

Thankful for: Those big, funky flavored chocolate bars. One or two squares curb my craving for sweets in the evening. Recently I've been enjoying Ghirardelli's milk chocolate with almonds and sea salt and Safeway Select's dark chocolate with lemon and pepper. The serving size for these bars is one third of the bar for between 130 and 180 calories, but I'm only eating one or two squares which is like a third of one third of the bar! So it's really not bad to satiate my sweet tooth.

This photo is irrelevant. 

I nabbed this "Currently" idea from Sometimes Sweet.

Currently (or maybe it should be called "Lately"?)

Food choices are improving.

Listening: I've been spending a lot of time with Jack White's new album, Blunderbuss, on Spotify. While do I love his originals, I'm in love with his cover of I'm Shakin'.




Eating: See above! Since making the decision to join the Pilates studio, I've been trying to make better food choices. One of those is to eat breakfast regularly, and it can't be leftover pizza or cookies. (Too bad.) I picked up a tub of vanilla Chobani greek yogurt, some store-brand granola and some fresh berries and, oh hey look, now I have breakfast! I chose the Chobani because, out of all of the yogurts, it had the least amount of sugar at 16g per serving. That's still a lot to me (when grocery shopping, I look at labels and try to keep it under 10g of sugar per serving) but everything else had 22-26g of sugar per serving. Yikes. The store-brand granola was the best choice as well with only 6g of sugar per serving. It was also only $2.99! My next project will be figuring out lunches to take to work. That's so much more difficult for me.
Watching: We have so many shows right now! Nurse Jackie and Mad Men are coming to a close for the season, which I'm sad about, but True Blood started up again last night! I just love that show. It's so ridiculous, but how can it not be? The humor is great. Fashionable Vampire Pam changing into a borrowed yellow sweat suit with kittens on it from Walmart because she doesn't want to get her clothes dirty when she's buried to "turn" a human and then complaining about it? I love it.
Thinking: OUCH. Ow. While most of my sore muscles have gone back to normal, my abs are still killing me from my first Pilates class. They were so sore Saturday and Sunday that I was having trouble laying myself down and getting up from laying down. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I still am kind of sore elsewhere, but my abs definitely were and still are the worst of it. Tonight is a full hour of Spin; I don't have Pilates again until Wednesday morning, so no planking for a little while, yet.
Loving: The weather! Is it just me or has June Gloom not been around much this year? It's overcast in the morning, like usual, but the marine layer hasn't been sticking around all day like in June Glooms past leaving us with beautiful 80 degree days. I'm enjoying wearing some of the summer dresses I'm trying to stock up on. 
Anticipating: Weddings! First up is my brother's wedding in late August. I am so so excited and can't wait to get to Ohio for it. Then, a month later in late September is Jamie's brother's wedding which should also be super fun. 
Thankful For: My husband, man. Sometimes he's just too good to me. 

I nabbed this "Currently" idea from Sometimes Sweet.

Currently I Am

Unrelated: When I first got contacts, I struggled with how I can't hold my eyelids open very far.

Listening: My Pandora is currently on quickmix. It's playing a lot of Boston, Justin Timberlake, Ben Folds and Lady Gaga. It's also helping me rediscover Bare Naked Ladies... yeah, BNL. I'm not that cool sometimes when it comes to music.

Eating: Too much junk. Yuck. I'm kind of in a health funk that I can't get out of. It's really frustrating. I know how to eat healthy and exercise, I'm just choosing not to do it and it's getting a little depressive. Yikes.

Watching: GIRLS on HBO. This is just a spectacularly written, acted and directed show about some ladies in their early 20s and their general life issues. The main character is a female every-man portrayed, quite rawly, in a very realistic light. I just love it.

Thinking: I'm going get a little extra-personal here; my boobs have been PMS-style sore and huge for about a week now. I know what you're thinking, and no. The timing just isn't making sense and I'm stumped here, folks.  They've been this way since last Friday, which was day 16 of my cycle (today is day 22). Normally, my sore boobs come about five days before my period (or three days before I start spotting - oh hi, TMI?), which isn't due til like, the 13th. So, uh, what the eff, boobs?

Loving: Starbucks black iced tea, unsweetened, please. If I get a trenta size, it lasts me all day at work!

Anticipating: My period, oddly. (Come on, guys, you know that deep down this is a trying to conceive blog!) Okay, it's not really odd when I explain why. One, for the boob issue to be settled? I don't know. Two, so I can schedule my hysterosalpingogram and see how my tubes are doing. Which I'm also anticipating since it'll open my tubes up a li'l bit more making conception chances higher!

Thankful For: The super great circle of friends that Jamie and I have somehow managed to gather in the past year or so. They're all such good people and so fun to spend time with. We're lucky to have finally found them! You know who you are. *wink*

I nabbed this "Currently" idea from IRockSoWhat and Sometimes Sweet.