Weekend Recap: Don't Make Me Talk to You

Welp, here we are again peeps. Monday is upon us and time for yet another weekend recap. I didn't do much this weekend because I was in one of those moods where I didn't want to talk to anyone. Not because I was mad or annoyed or anything, I just literally didn't want to speak to anyone. I didn't want to have to be "on." I was "on" in a big way all week starting a new job and trying to make good first impressions and by the time Friday afternoon hit I was over it. I just wanted to be at home, sit quietly by myself with my thoughts, my pizza, my wine, and the Suns game and not have to say a word to anyone. Including Nate. He's not much of a talker anyway so it works out. There were things I could've done, maybe should've done this weekend but I just flat out didn't want to. Nothing personal, nothing's wrong, I really just wanted to turn off this weekend. ...See what I did there? Turn up? Turn off? I probably don't listen to enough rap music to make that joke, but whatever.

Saturday morning I slept until past 11am (it's fine, judge me), made myself breakfast, caught up on some Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, then got an invite from my mom who was at The Great American Barbeque and Beer festival downtown with my dad. I thought to myself why the heck not? You're probably like, "I thought you didn't want to talk to anyone all weekend, now you're going to a festival?" I can assure you I didn't talk to a single stranger (actually that's a lie, I had to say "I'll have the pork please" to the gentleman working the food truck), and my parents and I can sit comfortably in the cool grass, eating our BBQ sliders and no one's obligated to make conversation. No one's obligated to be "on."

Saturday night I had all to myself since Nate was gone for the weekend. I've been trying to make an effort to enjoy the amazing weather here in AZ before it gets too hot, so I decided to shake things up a little bit and took my blog reading outdoors to my patio.

Yes, that computer you're seeing is a 2007 Macbook with dirty keys and dirty palm prints on it. I'm terrible at both cleaning my technology and updating it. It's fine.

I was hundreds of unread posts deep after being absent most of the week, so I think I'm finally all caught up with your lives. Also, if you had like, a barrage of comments from me in your inbox all at once...that's why. I can't guarantee it won't happen again this week. 

After the sun went down I went back inside to catch up on some Real Housewives of Atlanta, then watched my first regular season major league baseball game, cause guess what?!

The Diamondbacks have been in Australia this week for the opening series of Major League Baseball. I won't talk about the outcome cause there's some serious mud slinging going on in my family between Diamondbacks and Dodgers fans and quite frankly, I'm a sore loser and don't really wanna hear about it. Also, I haven't really stepped up my s**t talking game yet so there's that too. What I will talk about however, are a few fun factoids I learned about Australia throughout the broadcasts: 

1.) Koala bears sleep 18-20 hours a day ...I must've been a Koala bear in my previous life.

2.) Cricket is a sport, not an insect. In this context anyway.

3.) The average age of the Australian population is 37. ...Social Security probably isn't high on their list of political priorities eh...mate? Wait, do they even have Social Security in Australia? 

After the baseball game...actually I take it back, it was probably more like the 7th inning (yes, it was that bad), I probably made the biggest mistake of my entire weekend. I subscribed to Netflix. And then I proceeded to binge-watch New Girl until 4:30 in the morning. 4:30 in the morning! 

I think this is why I never tried drugs in my life. Cause if I start, I just don't know how to stop. I've completed the entire first season of New Girl and the first 1/3rd of the second season all within a 15 hour span. That's probably not healthy.  

With Monday upon us I'm definitely gonna have to flip the switch and turn back "on" again, but I sure did enjoy a weekend to myself not talking to anyone. No offense or anything of course...

Things I Think About on My First Day of Work

Alright people, I have good news to report: I made it through my first two days of of my new job. It's true, I started the new gig and have gotten through two days without the world coming to an end. You all were right. I had nothing to worry about. That's what the blog world is for right? I come and tell you how worried I am about things, you tell me I'm silly, I don't believe you, and then it turns out you're right anyway. Good job guys, you win again.

I have a few housekeeping items I want to let you all know about before we get much further:

1.) Totally not related to this post, but puh-leaaaaase go HERE, read the post, check if you are a no-reply blogger, and then fix it. Some of you might be like, "what the heck is a no-reply blogger??" It's when you have your blogger profile set up so that I can't reply to your comments via email. I didn't even know such a thing existed when I started blogging until a blog friend let me know I was one...so now I'm returning the favor. You can thank Haley Joel Osment for this Pay it Forward moment...

Also, you veteran bloggers aren't exempt either cause Google+ keeps switching you back and forth. You didn't know Google+ was switching you back and forth?? It is. And it's just as much of a pain in my ass as it is yours. Stop trying to make Google+ happen OK Google? Am I right or am I right? 

2.) Also, along with a new job rocking my world and creating all these changes in my life, so too has my blog reading routine changed. See, I used to do all my blog reading in the morning at work (cause why read blogs at home when you can get paid to read them at work??), but I'm thinking that's not gonna fly at the new sitch. So in the meantime, my Bloglovin' feed will get up to hundreds of unread blogs until I figure out when the heck to catch up on all your lives. Forgive me.

I told you I had a "few" housekeeping items to touch on, but it turns out I only had two. When I was a kid, my mom explained to me that a "few" means 3 or more, and a "couple" means 2. So I lied. I only had a couple housekeeping items for you versus the few. Forgive me.

Moving on.

As I was going about my first day at work on Monday I was trying to make note of the actual thoughts that came to my head...for no other reason than I've been low on things to blog about lately so I thought that might make for an interesting post. I'm probably wrong but I'm gonna do it anyway...

Things I Think About on my First Day of Work

"If this 'temporary badge' doesn't work and the door doesn't open for me when I scan it, I'm gonna feel realllly stupid."

"You call your IT desk SPOC??...so.many.jokes."

"Is it too soon for a smiley face in this email?"

"Microsoft Lync...so like, AIM for adults who work in an office?"

"These microwaves aren't in an enclosed area. I wonder if people will be mad when I heat up my fish from last night..."

"Do I look as "new" as I feel?"

"She is sitting right next to me...do I have bad breath?"

"SWAG!! Stuff We All Get. ...I miss Michael Scott."

"I wonder if Instagram will load better than it did at my old office."

"Will my Duck Dynasty Poster fit in this cube?"

"'Employee Ergonomics Program?'...I thought "ergonomics" was a made up word"

"Will I look lazy if I ask about the telecommuting policy?"

"This floor is really squeaky. I hope people don't think I'm...tooting."

"I wonder if I should just go to lunch or if I should wait until someone says it's OK"

"Does it make me look bad if she asks me, 'Do you have any questions?' and I don't have any?"

"I miss Evan."

"I miss Quan."

"Will I look too eager if I bring in stuff to decorate my cube with tomorrow?"

"Wait, what?"

"If this were DES Evan would be sitting over there."

"Praise the Lord for electronic time sheets. ...We're not in state government anymore."

"There's a gym here? As in, on site??...We're not in state government anymore."

"That guy's wearing cuff links...and she's wearing jeans. I'm confused."

"Do I have any wine left at home?"

"I miss Evan."

"They're all typing during this meeting. Should I be typing something?? Did I miss something?? Something worthy of typing??"

...and so on and so forth. I could go on, but I'll spare you the pain. Cause the thoughts that run through my head on a first day of a new job are painful. Way too many of them.

And with that, I'm out-y like a scout-y, cause tonight I broke my rule of no wine during the week and I have a serious case of wine eyes right now...as in...must.go.to.sleep.

Pre-Employment Vacation

Before I get into things tonight I just want to say thanks to all of you who reached out and encouraged me from my last post. I'm super nervous about starting my new job in approximately 10 hours from when I'm writing this post (speaking of which, maybe I should be sleeping right now instead of blogging??) but I'm definitely less nervous thanks to you all and your kind words!!

All that to say, I took all last week off before I started my new job for a little pre-empoyment vacation, if you will. I should have exciting things to tell you about, but I really don't. And that's how I planned it all along. Just a week to myself to sleep in every morning, catch up on things around the house, relax a little, and enjoy the spring weather. And that's just what I did. Most of my mornings looked like this:

Coffee and blog reading in my jams. But you're not gonna see the jams part. The interwebs doesn't need to see me in my jams.

I celebrated the marriage of one of my dear friends, Mckenzie. The wedding was gorgeous, she was gorgeous, the whole thing was just, well...gorgeous. 

You know what else was gorgeous? Her necklace. It was this perfect concoction of diamonds and pearls and I was eye balling it all night and wanted to rip it off her neck. But then the Fat Amy in me said mmm...better not.

I got my baseball on and went to two Diamondbacks game in one week...cause why not when you're off work all week?? Once with my mom (by the time this spring is over I'll have converted her to a baseball fan, I just know it)...

...and once with a couple of my best girlfriends.

What is it about spring training games that makes life seem so perfect? You literally walk into the park and you smell the hotdogs and the fresh cut grass and there's a buzz cause everyone's excited that baseball is finally here and you forget about everything else going on in life. It's probably Paul Goldschmidt (herein referred to as "Goldy)'s face. Goldy's face definitely makes you forget about everything else going on in life.

I also spent time hanging out with family that was in from out of town, and ate the most amazing home-cooked ribs my aunt makes...except I was a terrible blogger and didn't take any pictures. In my defense, how are you supposed to take pictures of a rib cook-out with barbecue sauce all over your fingers?? I did however, manage to get this picture before we started eating, of Gunther thinking he's a lap dog (again):

And the rest of the week looked a lot like this:

Peaceful solitude. Unhurried, relaxing days. 
And with that, before it gets too late, I'm gonna go to bed and try not to lay there and worry about starting a new job and meeting new people and being in a new place tomorrow. Wish me luck... 

On Change

So Last week I alluded to the fact that I got a new job. I did. And I'm really excited about. But I'm also pretty nervous about it. It's not uncommon for someone to be nervous about a new job, but I'm afraid I take "nervous" to a whole new level. Cause here's the thing, I don't do change well. 

Some people welcome change, they thrive on it and constantly seek it out. You tell me things are changing and I get that knot in my stomach, my hands start to get sweaty, and I break out in a heat rash all over my chest and neck. Sidenote, fun fact about Carissa: when I get nervous I get really warm, and when I get really warm I get a heat rash (i.e. red splotches) all over my chest and neck; that's how you can always tell I'm nervous...cause I'm splotchy. Or drunk. Drunk makes me warm and splotchy too. 

As I was saying my goodbye's last Friday at my old job and to my now former coworkers, I got really emotional. I cried as we gave hugs and said the things you usually say when you leave a job, and then I cried all the way home from downtown Phoenix to the east valley, and ever since, I've been trying to figure out exactly why this tugs at my heart strings more than any other job I've left. 

I've decided it's because there was a safety there, at that job and with my teammates. We started with a group of four of us who were either still in grad school, or fresh out of it. So we were all the same age, all part of this brand new unit, and all learning at the same time. We all grew together at the same time too. It was my first "real" job in the sense that it actually had something to do with my education, my degree, and what I wanted in an actual career. Yet, because of the environment, the nature of the work, and my teammates, in my head I think I still associate it with being in school. Like, these are my classmates and we're working on a group project together and we have homework due at the end of the week. Except now we're getting paid for it. So now that I'm leaving and I have this new job to go to, I almost feel as if I'm entering the "real world" all over again. By myself. 

I won't have my buddy with me in the cube next to me anymore, and more importantly, I'm not gonna be able to sign my emails with "Sincerely, your next-cube-neighbor" anymore either.

And what good is a work email without a good pun included?? 

I'm excited for this new job. I'm excited to develop my career and learn something new. But that's the thing...it's new. New means it's different. Different means things are changing. And change, well, makes me splotchy. 

I remember when I was young and I was dreading the transition from jr. high to being a freshman in high school. I was talking to my dad about it in the car one day as we drove past my old school, and how I was scared and how it was gonna be sooooo different. Considering this was a recurring theme (e.g. switching elementary schools in the 4th grade, the transition from elementary school to jr. high, and so on and so forth), my dad only had one piece of advice for me; he just looked at me and said "Rissa, you're a teenager now. It's time to stop being afraid."

I always try and remind myself: Rissa, you're 27 now. It's time to stop being afraid.

It is. But it doesn't make it any less difficult.

After taking this entire week off before I start my new gig on Monday, I'm already feeling refreshed and ready to go. I have no idea what to expect in my new position, I'm just trying to not be afraid. Cause it's time to stop doing that. After all, what you seize is what you get ...pun intended ;)

How do you deal with change? Do you love it? Does it make you uncomfortable?

Bloggers Give Back: Well Boxed AZ

Happy Monday everybody!

Instead of giving you a weekend recap of sorts I'm instead going to give you an important announcement, cause I'm just so dang excited about it that I couldn't wait to post it! If you're a blogger and you're in Arizona listen closely...

I'm teaming up with my dear blog friend Kai, from Hey Kai to host a Bloggers Give Back event right here in Arizona. 

Now, let me stop there and back up a little bit. If you've been a reader around these parts for a while you know my husband was in the military for eight years and served a 15 month tour of duty in Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom (I've written about it here and here). The military has been a huge part of our post-high school/early adult life as he left for basic training in 2007, deployed to Iraq the same year, and we got engaged during his two-week leave.

 

So when Kai told me this event was to help soldiers overseas I jumped at the chance to participate! That's right, this Bloggers Give Back event is aimed at "sending blogger love to soldiers abroad" with the Well Boxed event. 

And since I'm all about not reinventing the wheel, here's how Melyssa from The Nectar Collective describes it:

"...we'll  be putting together care packages for soldiers who are living abraod, but don't recieve mail or packages from friends and family back home...We're bringing together bloggers from all over so that we can decorate our care packages and send fun and helpful items to our soldiers. We'll also be dishing out wine and pizza, because this event is just as much about giving back as it is about having a fun girls day with other bloggers in our area." (Source)

All that to say, if you're a blogger in Arizona we want you to join us!

You heard right, there's pizza and wine! So bring your pretty little self to Kiwanis Park in Tempe on March 29th! All you need to bring is the contents of the box(es) you wish to send, and Kai and I will provide the boxes. For ideas on what to include in your care package visit this post here. 

Also, please note: prior to your arriving you will want to visit AnySoldier.com to pick out the name and address of a soldier you wish to send to.

Lastly, please RSVP by clicking this PayPal button:

The $20 fee, as mentioned above, goes towards the wine and pizza, and the boxes we'll use to ship the packages! So, to summarize, here's what you need to do:

1.) RSVP by clicking the above PayPal link

2.) Visit AnySoldier.com and select a service member you wish to send to (i.e. their address)

3.) Shop for the contents of your care package

4.) Show up on March 29th for pizza and wine, and we'll package and decorate our boxes!

If you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to contact me or Kai at:

carissatownsend@gmail.com or hellocoffeekai@gmail.com

We really hope to get this Bloggers Give Back campaign going in Arizona, so please Mark the 29th on your calendar and spread the word so we can hang out, meet new friends, and serve our soldiers overseas!

Hope to see you all there!

T is for Townsend on Facebook

Alright guys I did it. 

Did what, you ask? I made a Facebook page for my blog.

All the cool bloggers have one, and Helene told me I need one; and if Helene says it we all know it's true. Cause she's basically blog famous and knows all about that stuff.

All that to say, I'm going to kindly request that you to go "like" my Facebook page so that I don't feel like a loser who created a Facebook page for their blog and nobody likes it. Because that's what I might feel like. Because my self-worth lies in Facebook and Instagram likes, and blog comments, and other social media feedback of the like. I'm kidding of course; my self-worth lies in the number on the bathroom scale, just like every other woman. Kidding, again. I should probably stop with the jokes. The thing is, it's past 11:00pm and I really had nothing to write about tonight, but since I just made my super cool new Facebook page for my blog I felt an obligation to come post something new. But I couldn't really think of anything good. So I sat here for a few minutes and decided I'll just open my computer, log onto Blogger, and see if I have anything to say by the time that cursor starts blinking at me. Turns out all I have is bad jokes. Bad jokes and no pictures. What kind of a blog post has no pictures?? Cause I'm a child and I still require pictures to go with lots of words. Too many words, not enough pictures - me no likey. 

So anyway, it's there now, out in the Facebook world and if you decide you want to mosey on over and hit that button with the thumbs up on it, I wouldn't be mad.

K bye.

Stream of Conscienceness

I've read before, that when you can't think of anything to blog about, just set a timer and just write your thoughts out as they come to you. Like, no editing or hesitating, just write out what comes to your head at that moment. So that's what we're gonna try here. I tried playing this game, or a version of this game on a road trip with Nate once. I said, "Ok, I'm gonna say a word and you say the first thing that pops into your head!" And it went something like this:

Me: grass

Nate: grass

Me: car

Nate: car

Me: Albuquerque 

Nate: Albuquerque

I'm like, "That's not how you play, you have to say the first thing that comes to your mind besides the word I just used." And he said, "I can't help it, when you say 'grass' the first thing I think of is grass." So you know, we don't play that game anymore.

But anyway, back to this writing game thing. 3, 2, 1, and action:

This kind of reminds me of that time I took a class on creative writing and the first 15 minutes of the class was spent "journaling." That was when Nate was gone for basic training, and so every morning for the first 15 minutes of class I'd whine to my journal about how much I missed Nate and how it's so hard and blah blah blah.

How embarrassing. Also, I totally just spelled the word "whine" like "wine." Talk about a stream of conscienceness. 

You want to know how I remember to spell "conscience?" 

Con science. The word con, and the word science. Cause for some reason that's one of those words I can never remember how to spell. Or say. It sounds weird when I say it too. But since this is a blog, and this is the written word you can't really listen to me say the word "conscience."

You know what I was thinking about the other day? If I didn't know me, and I was looking at my Facebook or Instagram account, I'd think I was some sort of drinker:

 I'm not, really. I mean, I like to drink, but I don't drink to get drunk. I've actually only been drunk drunk one time in my life and it was on the night of my bachelorette party. I threw up and everything. The whole 9 yards. I followed my out-of-town bridesmaid around all night trying to convince her "I'm not a cliche! I'm not usually like this! I swear I'm not a cliche, I don't get drunk at my bachelorette!" 

Except I did. And I was. I don't like being drunk though because A.) I hate throwing up, and B.) I feel like that's how crime happens - when you're out of your mind and have no idea what's going on. Call me paranoid...

Speaking of paranoia - ish (don't tell Nate I said that). You wanna know what I learned from my husband the other day? He said when you sleep, you should always sleep with your arms out from under your covers so that if someone breaks into your house and sneaks up on you while you're still sleeping, they can't wrap you up like a burrito and do whatever they want to you (e.g., suffocate you or something), and you'll have your arms free to fight back. Except I added the "like a burrito" part...he didn't use those words. A burrito actually doesn't sound too bad right now.

Sometimes when I scroll through Instagram I end up Googling some of the things people hashtag. Like, I didn't know "bae" was a thing. And I've definitely typed "what does chuuuch mean?" into my search bar a time or two. At first I just thought it was a typo for "church." I think I just need to listen to more rap music maybe? 

I've been sponsoring a couple blogs over the last few months and each one of them requests a photo, and I've found out that I don't have a lot of pictures of just me. I know, what kind of a blogger am I?? I have to look deep into the iPhoto archives for pictures of just myself. Maybe I just need to get over my selfie-phobias and channel my inner blogger and start taking some? Or just bite the bullet and ask whoever I'm with, "hey will you take a picture of me?" I hate asking that question. It's literally one of the worst questions to ask. I hate doing it. It makes me sound so vain. 

You're so vain. 

You probably think this song is about you, don't you, don't you??...

And that's where I think I'll stop for the night before this turns into some sort of pseudo-blog-karoake-thing. That and plus the Coyotes and the Suns are playing tonight and I need to go lay claim on the TV before Nate gets to it. He's fixing the lawn mower right now. How does he know how to fix everything?? Like literally, everything: cars, lawn mowers, firearms, refrigerators. How do you know how to fix all that?? Where did you learn all of this?? I couldn't hardly figure out that the washing machine had a separate setting for fabric softener. Ugh I know, I'm a terrible woman.   

Let's do this again sometime shall we?

Birthdays, Baseball, and Stuff

Firstly, before I begin this post I just want to say thank you for all the birthday love last week! I appreciate all the birthday wishes and comments and tweets; you all know how to make me feel nice and special!

I definitely had an awesome day considering I spent it watching baseball for the Diamondbacks spring training opener vs. the Dodgers.

It was actually the first spring training I'd ever been to, which, considering how much I love baseball, is kind of weird. So, I'm making a point this year to get out to a few of them, because now I definitely see what all the fuss is about. 

The day was absolutely perfect. Sunny, low 80's, and a nice breeze. It smelled like hot dogs and fresh cut grass...separately, that is. I don't put fresh cut grass on my hot dogs, I dunno about you. And since it was my birthday I splurged and spent $10 on a sangria. And then I splurged again and spent $10 on another sangria after I finished the first one. And then I tried to pretend like I wasn't a little drunk tipsy because Nate would've made fun of me for being drunk tipsy in the middle of the afternoon.

When in Rome.

Weather you're actually in Rome or not, you'll definitely know you're in Arizona because there will be complimentary sun screen at your spring training games. Exhibit A:

It almost felt like a crime using it knowing most of you are still watching snow fall from the sky. But nonetheless, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, so I said a prayer for you all as I applied it. 

It was a good game, we beat the Dodgers which, is all I really ask for in life, and I went home one happy drunk tipsy birthday girl.

And then I got even happier that night when I had my birthday dinner with my family and my mom made mac n' cheese for me. And bundt cake for dessert. With lots of frosting. That's a helluva birthday dinner if you ask me.

In other news, I got both Tone it Up Beach Babe DVDs for my birthday

So, now with both DVDs and the Nutrition plan, all I have left to buy is the Perfect Fit Protein and I'll have the complete Tone it Up trifecta. Is it weird that I just got done telling you about my mac n' cheese and bundt cake birthday dinner and now here I am talking about workouts and nutrition plans? Ugh, I don't have a lot of faith in me either. 

Plus, my mother-in-law got me an electric wine opener for my birthday (cause she knows me too well), which means I'm gonna have to break that in too. 

When in Rome.

So with no birthday this week, I don't really have anything to look forward to. I hate when that happens. Actually, I take that back, I kind of do have something to look forward to, because this week is my last week at my job cause I went and got a new one. A new big girl job. Cause now that I'm 27, have my Master's degree, and two years of my first big girl job under my belt, I'm like officially a big girl now. 

But more on that later I suppose.

Happy Monday friends!