Three Things Thursday: Biking and Not Biking

1. I've decided not to do the Seattle to Portland bike ride as I'd planned on my 2015 race schedule. I do want to do it eventually, but I'm just not ready for that now and I won't be anytime soon. I particularly realized this as I read about it often filling up quickly, and turned out I wasn't too disappointed about the idea of it already being filled up by the time it opens to non-members of the organization that puts it on. 

As such, I'm also going to reduce my biking mileage goal for the year down to 1,500 miles.

2. But, I will be biking more, because I got a new toy for my birthday! I haven't had a chance to install and try them out yet, but looking forward to it, probably tomorrow. :)

3. And I still want a big last hurrah* before trying to get pregnant, so I'm seriously debating doing a full marathon this year. But I can't do Portland (first weekend of October), because that's potentially a smidge too late in our plan. I might do the full at Foot Traffic Flat, which is July 4 (I've done the half for a few years). It is, as the name suggests, a very flat course which would be nice. Though I'd like to have more time, and do one in August or September, I can't find one, and I suppose those months should be dedicated to Hood to Coast and triathlon training, respectively, anyway. I'm going to work on increasing my long runs, and if I'm close to 10 miles by mid-March (providing a 16-week official training cycle from that point), I think I'm going to do it.

*My instinct was to spell this hurraw, because the lip balm is awesome. And so is the company - when I ordered a bunch in December (some for stocking stuffers, some for me), they included the night treatment "moon balm" as a freebie. I'd actually considered ordering it, but the scent combo sounded weird. And honestly, the scent isn't my favorite, but I do feel like it's relaxing and helping me sleep (or is a really effective placebo). 

Four Things Friday

1. Though I only do an "official" weigh-in at the end of the month (I don't, and am not trying to, lose weight quickly enough to register much more often than that on our analog scale), I do step it on about once a week or so. After hovering just above and below 145 for a while, I'm finally down a couple pounds! Hoping that holds through the next week, and continues on that trend. 

2. I'm so excited that we're almost to the time of year when there's daylight for evening runs! Tuesday I was at CPE all day, rather than the office, so I got home much earlier than usual this time of year, and was able to head out shortly after 5 and be in quasi-daylight/sorta-dusk - but not complete dark, no headlamp needed! For much of busy season, I'm working much later than typical sunset, but if it's daylight after "normal" business hours I can head out for a run at 5, and then come back to the office for a couple hours, and at least enjoy a small bit of daylight.

3. When you split chore responsibilities with your SO, how much do you weigh available time to do a chore versus amount of caring about the chore? Ummm, asking for a friend.

4. I recently realized that I don't actually like lasagna. I've always loved my mom's lasagna - a basic recipe, just noodles, sauce, cheese, and cheese. I've never found another lasagna that I really enjoyed. I thought, for the longest time, that it was just those other lasagnas that I tried weren't to my liking. But now I think it's that I don't actually like lasagna, and my mom's is the exception, not the other way around. It's like pudding - I can't stand pudding (the texture is so gross!), but I love chocolate, so chocolate pudding's fine. Similarly, lasagna in general, which often includes things (meat or veggies) mixed in the sauce or between layers is not ok, and that's what most lasagna is; it's only when it's pared down to the bare minimum, which are all things I love, that I like it.

Three Things Thursday: Good Movies Seen Lately

1. The Theory of Everything: The life of Stephen Hawking, as told in his wife Jane's memoir. (The main actor I couldn't place, and then finally realized that I recognized him from playing Marius in Les Miserables. 

I tend not to always like these types of "historical" (using the word loosely, as it's such recent history, but I think it's still roughly that genre) movies, but although somewhat slow moving and long, this actually kept my attention fairly well throughout. Though I was aware of who Stephen Hawking is and a very basic outline of his life, I wasn't aware of a lot of it, so it was really interesting to learn about! Definitely considering reading the memoir it's based on.

2. Into the Woods: A movie version of the Sondheim musical. I've seen stage productions of it at least twice (that I can specifically recall, but I feel like I've seen it more than that?), and it's one of Abe's favorite musicals. They stayed pretty true to the stage version, with some minor changes but most notably cutting out anything that overtly or subtly referred to sex (including the reprise of Agony, which is especially sad because they did a great job with the main Agony song). Which, I guess makes sense that they had to Disney-fy it, but still annoying. Overall enjoyable, nonetheless.

3. Gone Girl: Based on the book of the same name, which if you're anyone but me you've probably already read. I went into the movie with only a very vague concept of the general plot (and no idea about how it changes mid-way through), so it definitely kept me on the edge of my seat! Abe apparently had no idea what it was about at all, and was disturbed by the first half, but got caught up in the intrigue in the second half.

I don't know yet how it compares to the book - I am reading it now but only a few chapters in; so far there are some minor discrepancies but moving along the same track as the movie (I heard the ending in the book is different - but closed the website saying so before reading too far, so as to not be spoiled for the book). So I don't know if reading the book first makes the movie better or worse, but if you haven't read it, it's really great, very intriguing, and I would imagine it makes it better to not know what twists are coming up. 

I don't know if I can re-watch episodes of HIMYM without having an entirely different view on Barney, though. 

Three Things Thursday: My Favorite Things About Christmas

1. Cookies. Of course! In my family there are always Nanaimo bars, meringues, spritz, hello dollies, sugar cookies, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something else. I've gotten better in more recent years at not going too overboard in eating them, but really I think it's ok to go a little overboard on special occasions.

2. Playing the piano. I took piano lessons growing up, and played sporadically since, even after I bought a digital piano. I enjoy it, it just seems like a lot of work, I guess, to get back to a level that I deem acceptable. But ever year at Christmastime I still sit down and re-learn some carols, and really enjoy it.

3. Stuffing stockings. The general gift-giving stresses me out a bit (worried about spending too much money on something they won't even like), but I really like buying stocking stuffers! Which is kind of odd since I lean somewhat minimalist, don't buy random crap just to buy crap, etc. But I like buying small, but useful, things for my loved ones - chapstick, nice chocolates, pretty soaps, and so forth. 

Merry Christmas!

Three Things Thursday: A Few Years Behind

It takes me a while to jump on bandwagons sometimes. Sometimes because I haven't heard of it, sometimes because I'm just scared of doing the trend wrong.

1. Leggings. This is the first winter where I've explored the wondrous comfort of leggings with a dress. It's workplace appropriate but basically feels like pajamas! I'm really hating myself for not joining in on this earlier. So much loungewear-in-the-workplace that I've missed out on. :( 

2. The TV show Commander in Chief. Airing for only one season in 05-06 before being cancelled, it's about a female, independent (as in, no political party affiliation, though she's "independent" in the more common sense, too) president who gains office when the president for whom she's VP dies. The whole series is currently available on Hulu; I just started watching it a couple weeks ago and it's really interesting! There's some family/teen drama mixed in which maybe isn't entirely necessary (but adds some lightheartedness that maybe is good to contrast the missing warheads and such), but overly it's a very intriguing political drama, based on a dream political situation.

3. NROLFW - New Rules of Lifting for Women. As with many, if not virtually all, of the runners I know in real life or on the internet, strength training is not my strong suit (heh! no pun intended). I've tried a few variations - DVDs by Donna Richardson (popular-ish in the 90s, I think) (circuit training), Kemme Fitness (functional fitness), DVDs by Jillian Michaels. Hard for me to stick to any one plan long enough to see real progress, though. It's just not as much fun as running, and so hard to motivate myself to fit it in the schedule.

I've done a couple workouts and read a few chapters of the background and advice so far. I really like the attitude - yes, it's a book for women written by a man, but he has a very no-nonsense, don't let them tell you to do something stupid just because you're a woman approach that I really like. 

Three Things Thursday: Confessions Part 2

1. I can't peel an orange in one piece. It ends up in so many little pieces, it's ridiculous. I don't know how people get the peel off in one continuous spiral! Since we're now entering the season where the bags of little oranges are all over the place, someone, tell me what the trick is!

2. I sometimes put one song on a playlist and play it - the one, single song - on repeat, continuously, for hours. At one point in college I know I did this with Bohemiam Rhapsody. Right now my work music is "I Choose You". On repeat, for 8 hours. You'd think I'd get tired of it, but I don't! And it finally clicked the other day that that's what I should do for running playlists (I rarely listen to music while running, just when I know I'm exceptionally likely to be bored, on the treadmill or long runs.) So a repeat of that same song is also what got me through last weekend's 10-miler.

3. To be on theme with today's writing prompt: When I was a kid I was very messy and a bit of a hoarder, and eventually had stuff piled in my half of the closet literally a few feet high. Finally one summer I bit the bullet and cleaned it out, throwing out and giving away bags of stuff. It was like an archaeological dig, layers of school papers and brightly colored leggings in decreasing sizes. 

I think I'd accepted that as a normal state of being because my mom is also a creative messy type, but letting it get to that point was a bit of a trigger to go to the opposite extreme. By the time I got to college, my roommate were able to tease me by knocking a poster out of alignment. Since then, I've started to swing back the other way, but am generally more moderate, and my tolerance for clutter varies depending on my mood and stress. When I'm stressed though - I must have clean surroundings! Even today, while working on a presentation at work, I took 10 minutes this morning to clean off my desktop, in order to maintain a better frame of mind and really focus on the task at hand.

Three Things Thursday: Fun Things I Found On the Internet Lately

1. This equational limerick. 

I actually found it from this post by Leah on Good Night Cheese; it wasn't the point of the post (though it was a good read otherwise), but it was the aspect that stuck! It's not the only math limerick, here are a few more. 

2. This Washington state map corn maze, that I found via this post by Mellzah. There are some things I don't like to put in type on here to avoid being googleable in certain ways, but I will say that I find it awesome that my hometown is one of the starting "cities" - the southernmost one. 

3. This video of tattooing in slow motion. 

I haven't decided yet if this makes the tattoo I want to get more or less scary - but I think less scary! I'm seriously considering getting it done sometime this winter, before triathlon season starts back up (since I'm pretty sure you have to stay out of the pool for at least a couple weeks after). I'm pretty sure that my current idea is what I want, and will be ok with for the rest of my life, but not 100% yet.

Three Things Thursday: Currently Making Me Happy

1. This blazer from Target. It's knit, so it basically feels like wearing a sweatshirt and pulling it off as business professional wear. The fit is short (even the sleeves aren't excessively long) so it seems flattering on my shortness, and I love (1) the buttons on the sleeves and (2) that the sleeves can be pushed up (I really don't like sleeves on my forearms). I'm even 98.62% sure that no one can tell just by looking at it in normal usage that it's not actually made out of suiting material.

2. I found my barrette! To keep things easy without being sloppy, I wear my hair half-up pretty much every day for work (with the very occasional deviation when I'm feeling adventurous). But this is the only barrette I've found - and trust me, I've looked for backups - that holds just the right amount of hair and has just the right amount of tension. About a month ago, I couldn't find it. :( I've had to make do with a small hair band to do my hair, and it's just not the same. But yesterday morning I had to dig a bit deeper into my main container of toiletry stuff to find my eyeliner sharper, and I found the barrette (and the pencil sharpener).  

3. The cats are making significant progress in coexisting. Ok, they're not exactly cuddling with each other yet. But this situation is starting to happen on a regular basis, where Imogene is willing to come sit on a lap even when Hera is already somewhere on the couch, and/or stay put even when Hera joins us on the couch. 

There's still some hissing and swiping going on, especially when Hera seems to be getting ready to pounce on Imogene (I think in a playful way, not an aggressive way?) and Imogene is rightfully annoyed, but she's allowing Hera to get pretty close before being too expressive. They just might become friends yet!

Three Things Thursday: Never Thought I'd Own Part 2

1. Ballet slippers. 

I took my first ballet class on Tuesday. :) I did do "ballet" in preschool, and then jazz and tap classes through high school, but it's been years since I've done dancing, and never had a solid technical foundation. Every summer I watch SYTYCD and wish I could do that (I mean, I know I won't ever be at that level, but I miss dancing at all). 

It's a 10-week "absolute beginners" workshop through Oregon Ballet Theatre. It appears they do a season of adult workshops two or three times a year; after doing the absolute beginners class for a few seasons, you can move up to the "beginners" class. 

A lot of the terms introduced in the class are familiar to me from my jazz experience (chane turns, chasses, rond de jambe), but my muscle don't fully remember how to do them as well as they used to. I'm concerned the tendonitis issue with my left ankle might be a hindrance; while plieing and jumping it was not too happy. But overall, it was quite fun! I'm glad I finally got around to doing this. 

2. A baby gate.

Well, I suppose I knew we'd buy one eventually, but this is a couple years early for needing it for kids. To help Imogene and Hera get to know each other, we got a gate (Abe found one used, it's one of the nice ones with an actual gate, so you don't have to step over it or remove it) in the doorway to Hera's room. It allows Imogene to see into the room without access for attacking, and makes us feel better about not completely shutting Hera in a room when we're not closely supervising.

However, the other day Abe left the door open, baby gate shut, while we were out of the house for a few hours. I come home, glance in the room to say hello to Hera, and don't see her anywhere. Not super weird, she sometimes hides under a blanket or could have been in the closet using the litter box. Then I happen to glance to the side into our bedroom, and there she is, sitting on our bed!

The next morning I witnessed how she did it - she has to turn her head sideways to fit in between the rails of the gate, but she can fit through. I caught her halfway out, and once I shouted no and she knew she was in trouble, she adorably wriggled her way back into the room. I'm sure she's also capable of jumping over the gate, but I don't think she knows it. For now, I think we'll only leave the door open when we're at least in the house to hear if anything is going on.

3. Skinny pants.

I've been successfully (albeit gradually) losing some weight, and finally got to the point where my work pants were too loose. I'm not super creative in my wardrobe, especially when I'm hoping to change sizes in the near future, so I mostly just stick with a couple pairs of plain black slacks, replacing them as needed, and mix it up with more fun colored sweaters and tops.

After a couple weeks keeping my waistband up with safety pins, I finally made it to Target to get a couple cheap pairs of pants. I bought one basic, trouser, straight-leg pair, and then another style stood out to me. Skinny pants. (Is that the correct term? I know if they're denim, it's "skinny jeans", "skinny pants" doesn't seem to quite have the same ring, but follows the same convention.) I tried them on mainly because they were ankle length, and I hoped that meant if they fit I wouldn't have to hem them.

Alas, I still had to hem them an inch and a half, but I found them surprisingly flattering! The fabric helps - it's a nice stretchy, thick but not too thick, twill - but I think the cut somehow actually works on me! 

Three Things Thursday: Trivial Things That Are Annoying and Not Really Trivial

1. People talking about finding out the "gender" of their unborn baby via ultrasound.

No. Ultrasounds do not show anyone's gender. They show indications of one's sex. As we were taught in intro to sociology: You learn gender, you have sex. (A particularly funny choice of phrasing to 20-year-olds at a Christian college that forbids premarital sex.) 

Is the gender you're imposing on them going to match its sex? Most likely. But not necessarily. Will a baby care that she's in a pink tutu when she really wants to wear blue overalls? No, but putting her in a tutu imposes the expectation of feminine traits on everyone around that baby, making it that much harder for her to express herself in any contrary ways as she grows up.

You'll have plenty of time throughout the kid's life to enforce gender roles on it, at least let it have the first nine months in the womb without that. 

2. Addressing a couple as Mr. and Mrs. HisFirst TheirLast, or a woman as Mrs. HisFirst TheirLast.

I'm not even talking about last name choices (you've already read my thoughts on that). Even assuming that the woman in a hetero couple has taken her husband's last name: she continues to retain her own first name. Mrs. HisFirst TheirLast completely erases her identity as anything but His Wife. He can divorce or be widowed and remarry, and his new wife will also be Mrs. HisFirst TheirLast. It's all about her relationship to him. 

There's a reason that traditional "etiquette" uses this as the proper address for a married woman. It's derived from a time when being married to a high status man was the pinnacle of achievement for a woman. Called a woman Mrs. Bob Smith would be akin to referring to her as Dr. Smith - an acknowledgement of her status in society being determined by her marriage.

It's also related to the concept of coverture. She didn't need her own personal identity, because legally she was the same as her husband. Women at times in the not so distant past had no control over their own assets and income, everything belonged to their husband. 

It's not quaint or proper etiquette to erase a woman's name and personal identity; it's an incredible lack of respect.

3. Using someone's mother's maiden name as a security measure. 

This is oddly an issue that didn't fully occur to me until recently, when Abe and I opened a joint account together, and the banker asked him for his mother's maiden name to put in the records. Ummm, my mother-in-law's "maiden" name is her current name! His parents were married, she just chose not to change her last name.

The concept of making one's mother's maiden name as a required piece of information assumes two things: everyone's mother is married, and every woman who's married changed her last name. Now, this may have been a reasonable enough assumption 30 years ago when my MIL was a, likely rare, exception, but it's far from unusual now!

Nowadays, I can choose to keep my name, my husband could choose to take my name, hell, we could even create a brand new name to both take. Sure, you can still give whatever answer you want to the question, but even asking the question reinforces the norm that taking your husband's last name is "just how it's done". It's cultural infrastructure that supports the continued belief in a patriarchal expectation. That's not ok. 

Three Things Thursday: New Experiences

I'm a person who thrives on routine. I love the familiar. I can eat one dish for dinner 70% of the time for months on end. I can listen to one song on repeat for hours, for weeks at a time (I assure you that my college roommates loved me for that). 

I like to call this trait "loyalty". And while it does have some positives, it also has the downfall of keeping me from trying out new opportunities. There are times when, for the sake of my mental health, I feel I have to keep myself fenced in like that. 

But this year, I'm in a pretty good place, and I'm trying very hard to push myself to experience new things. That's why my goals for the year include trying new restaurants and new recipes. And just in the last month, I've stretched myself quite a bit: 

1. Re-learning how to swim and bike, and joining a triathlon team. Swimming has been fun; biking is a bit terrifying. I can feel new muscles in my body being worked for the first time, and I think I'm finally losing some weight without much deliberate effort. Interacting with team members and doing group workouts is something that doesn't come easily to me, but I know will be helpful both in terms of the sports and otherwise.

2. Joining Toastmasters. I've brought up the intent to join in my annual eval at work pretty much every year, but hadn't yet committed to it. I'd been to a couple meetings at different clubs - one was in the evenings, and out of the way once I moved a few years ago. Another was in a building that required going up to the host company's office, than being accompanied to the secured area where the conference room was - just a bit of pain.

Finally, after mentioning it yet again in this year's evaluation, I checked the available meetings again, and found a lunchtime one near by. It seems like a really great group of people, with a wide variety of ages. I'm actually looking forward to scheduling my first speech!

3. Learning to use TriMet public transit. Ok, this one might not seem like a big deal, but it's a new thing to me! I grew up in a little town with no public transport (nor any real need of it); and since then have lived in various suburbs of Portland. Technically TriMet reaches out to the suburbs, but in limited ways - for example, the area I work in only has buses, no lightrail, and only during a couple hours in the morning and evening for rush hour on weekdays. 

I finally live in an area a bit closer into downtown that's on the MAX (lightrail) line, though, and it's quite convenient to take into downtown Portland for evening or weekend activities. I'm still a bit nervous that I'll miss my stop or end up walking 5 miles around downtown trying to find where I'm going, but even after just a few trips I feel way more comfortable. And thank goodness I live in the era of smartphones for instant access to google maps!

Three Things Thursday: Buffy

I recently finished binge watching Dexter (I'm a bit torn on how I feel about the ending!), and decided on the next show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I suppose I was the right age for it when it was airing, but wasn't really the type of show condoned by my parents (magic and violence), so I'd never seen it before. 

1. So fun seeing young versions of actors I know from other shows! Rita, Booth (seriously swooning - ha! I googled "swooning" to make sure my understanding of its usage was correct, and the example in google's definition is "I don't want a nurse who swoons at the sight of blood" - it's funny cause we're talking about vampires!), Lily, Tegan (yes, I'm embarrassed for watching Greek. Multiple times.).

2. I feel like Stephenie Meyer must have been a fan. Or maybe both franchise just took advantage of vampire cliches? 

3. Was everyone actually wearing such short skirts in the late 90s?! Seriously, so many of Buffy's outfits can only be described as crotch-length.

What's the best season of Buffy I should be looking forward to?

Four for Friday

1. After the snow last weekend, we had a couple days of rain to wash it away, and then finally a couple clear days. Yesterday, I was able to take a break from work at 5 to get in a run - in daylight! It was so exciting. Weekends have somehow been harder to find motivation, and weeknights I've been running loops in the dark around the parking lot, so I'm glad we're finally to a time where weather and sunsets cooperate to allow for daylight runs!

2. But when dark and rainy or the treadmill have been the only running options - biking inside has been a much more fun alternative! I'm still getting used to sitting on a real bike seat for long periods of time (I think 40 minutes is my max so far), even with the padding from a pair of bike shorts. Bike shorts are weird though - basically feels like wearing a really really huge overnight pad in your pants. Very odd.

The trainer is worth more than the bike.

3. I haven't been doing as much biking or running as I'd like to this week, though. Last week's snow days were kind of nice, but I only got 45 hours in, when I should have been doing 55. So this week I'm on track for about 65 to balance it out and get some stuff off my to-do list. I'm also feeling a bit overwhelmed with new responsibilities in my first busy after being promoted to manager. Previously, it's more about the projects that you're responsible for doing. Now, it's about being responsible for just making sure the projects get done - by someone. So I feel a bit less hands-on than I'd like to be on some clients (especially ones that got handed to me this year that I haven't worked on before, as I wanted to review them to help familiarize myself with their circumstances), simply because the returns need to be done and I don't currently have time. It's a bit of an adjustment.

4. I deal with food scraps by putting them in a container in my freezer (in an apartment), and then Abe takes the container and adds it to his compost bin (in a yard at his house). The container usually ends up sitting outside for a while to thaw out so he can easily dump the contents into the compost bin. As he returned the container this week, he realized that a slug had hopped on at some point. My first reaction, visualizing a large banana slug, was to ask him to immediately take it outside. But as he passed me to take it out, I saw it just a little bitty thing! And actually kind of cute. Worthy of taking some photos - and then taking it outside asap, please.

Three Things Thursday: Confessions

1. I don't know how to snap my fingers. I've tried, and people have tried to teach me. I just can't get my fingers to do it. What's the secret?!

2. I don't like wearing socks. I occasionally make an exception for compression socks (feel so good on my calves and ankles!), and if it's really super cold, but otherwise, they're just not worth it. My feet just feel, I don't know, overly constrained. 

3. I switched phone providers last June, and still haven't set up the voicemail. On my last phone, the outgoing message was something to the effect of "I don't like voicemail. Leave a message if you must, but I'd rather you text me." Dialing into voicemail just seems like such a waste of time, and rarely for an important message. So much more efficient to open and read a text message! Or, if you're just letting me know you called, you don't need to - that's what caller ID is for. I'll see your call, and call you back when it's convenient, I promise.

Three Things Thursday: What I Learned Last Weekend

1. The storyline of Evita. I knew the song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina", and thus that it had something to do with Argentina, but not really anything else. My friend Karey invited me to join her Sunday for the Broadway touring show of Evita, as it's one of her favorite musicals. I really enjoyed the music, and upon reading the synopsis in the program and doing some smartphone research during intermission, it's a really fascinating history. 

2. The game Tichu is really fun. I was hesitant, because it's a trick-taking game, which I usually find confusing (like pinochle). I definitely referenced the instructions a lot (especially for a couple of the special cards, two of which are similar in image and sort of similar in purpose), but after a couple rounds we all got the hang of it and enjoyed it! It involves some risk-taking to really gain the advantage (you can call "tichu" before playing any cards in a round, betting that you'll be the first one out - for huge points if you're right, and negative points if you're wrong), and that's also not usually my favorite thing - unless you take a risk and win big, which happened a couple times. :)

3. How to make a great salad: mix dressing with the toppings separately, and then add the toppings to the lettuce. Maybe everyone else in the world already does it like this? But Abe just showed me this (he's trying to help me increase my veggie intake), and it's revolutionary to me! Creates the perfect amount of flavor from the dressing without getting the lettuce soggy.

Three Things Thursday: Trivial Annoyances

1. People who leave the label on storage bins. You know, the multi-gallon plastic bins, with a sticker on the front that shows the brand and size. Dude, does it look like that's an intentional part of the aesthetic design? (Hint: it doesn't.). It's exactly the same as the size sticker on a t-shirt - do you leave that on when you wear it? 

2. People who refer to the receipt of money from overpaying their taxes as a "tax return". The paper (or digital) forms that calculate your taxable income and tax is your tax return. The money you get when you've overpaid is a tax refund. If your credit card company lets you pay your bill with a tax return ("I'm going to pay off my bill with my tax return"), i.e., a Form 1040 with your information for the prior calendar year printed on it, let me know cause I'd love to do that instead of paying money for mine, too.

3. Drivers who don't bother to park straight within a parking spot. The person who has the reserved carport space next to mine seems literally incapable of not parking at a diagonal. It's not so bad when they park their sedan there, but these are older (read: smaller) carports, so when they park their SUV there, at a diagonal (oh, and not only is it at a diagonal, but one wheel will be touching the line - every single time), it's next to impossible for me to squeeze in between to get into my car.

Three Things Thursday: Fun Twitterers

Some celebrity-ish people I follow on twitter, and highly recommend if you're looking for entertaining tweets.

1. Nathan Fillion (Captain Mal Reynolds): He frequently retweets questions and gives answers - sometimes legit, often sarcastic. Basically, he seems like an all-around nice, funny guy.

“@Hoigwai: @NathanFillion what woman makes your heart stop?” Lady assassins.
— Nathan Fillion (@NathanFillion) November 21, 2013

2. Mara Wilson (Matilda): She's not afraid to say what she thinks, even if it stirs up controversy, but she also posts random crap like any other 20-something.

"YAY! A new thing to destroy!" - Cats, re: Christmas trees
— Mara Wilson (@MaraWritesStuff) December 9, 2013

3. Healthiest Bitch: What HLBs really mean.

I don't want anyone to get too excited already, but we will be FILMING our dog going for a RIDE in the car. #revoluntarymaterial
— Healthiest Bitch (@ShitHLBsSay) November 20, 2013

Three Things Thursday: Never Thought I'd Own

1. A smartphone. I really don't think it's healthy to have constant access to gmail, facebook, etc. (even though I do spend way too much time on such apps now that I do have a smartphone), but I decided it would be worthwhile a few years ago because I'm not a phone person. I'd much rather text people, and so it's worth having the full conversation with someone accessible, which wasn't possible with my previous flip phone. 

2. An e-reader. After too many trips where my suitcase was ridiculously heavy because of the number of books I wanted to bring along, I finally caved and bought a Kobo about a year ago. Although I still sometimes just want to hold a paper book in my hands, it's been pretty nice on trips. I'm particularly liking it while riding the stationary bike (so much more fun to exercise indoors that way than on the treadmill, where the movement makes it impossible to read!).

3. Leggings. I was at Old Navy this weekend, they were 50% off. I've been seeing leggings worn more and more often, and realized I don't always think it looks bad. Though - they are absolutely to be worn as tights, NOT, never, ever, in lieu of pants. But... I've tried them on with a few outfits I had in mind, and it doesn't look quite right. I don't know if I just can't pull it off, or I'm just not seeing how it really looks because I've looked down on them for so long. The last time I wore leggings on a regular basis, I didn't exactly worry about how to properly style them:

Circa 1996

Three Things Thursday: Currently Making Me Happy

1. Black toenail polish. It just feels so delightfully subtly subversive!

(Crap. Just realized since it's Halloween, black polish isn't quite as subversive. But it will be again in a few weeks!)

2. Perfectly fluffy pancakes (only slightly burned). Made with sprite for extra fluffiness, just like my Grandma Van made.

3. My masters degree diploma! I finished the last class in August, and finally received the diploma yesterday. 

Three Things Thursday: Awesome Blog Posts

I'm not a parent* yet, but a lot of blogs that I read happen to be written by moms. These blog posts, although ostensibly about being a mom, contain some useful ideas about being human.

*My word choice of parent, rather than mom, when not only the below posts, but most discussion about work/life balance centers around moms, is deliberate. Why the hell are women the only ones that are supposed to be concerned about this? Perhaps both men and women could find balance easier if both men and women valued balance between work, family, and self-fulfillment.

1. Having It All by Michelle of Crazy Running Legs

What is "all"? Shouldn't having it "all" mean being happy and content with your life, whatever that life includes?

2. Transitioning to Being a SAHM: Emotions by Brittany of A Healthy Slice of Life

Finding your identity and internal validation in tasks that aren't conventionally considered accomplishments.

3. Of Maria Kang, Motherhood, and Fitspiration a guest post on Fit and Feminist.

The (or one of the) problems with "no excuses" is that it assumes there's a certain end goal we should all be trying to achieve.