The Weekly

a weekly processing, a record. a mix up of currently, around here with a hint of time/money/energy expenditure analysis.

It seems it is half way through the month and all I've written is a round of for January. Don't think I haven't been drafting blog posts in my mind, but that's just it, they are drafted and never finished, in my mind. I wonder sometimes if it's because I don't have anything I want to write about but then I know, after looking at drafts saved from past days that this is not the case. There's a challenge that I'm not addressing, and when I do, I'll be more apt to post frequently.
And beyond my normal little hurdles to posting the internet at my house is on a rampage of pretending to work and then losing a signal at the most annoying of times. I keep trying to get it fixed but it is a little out of my hands.

Thinking about: Valentine's Day and how I use to be a bitter, bitter bunny. Totally admit I was one of those people that hated it just because I didn't have someone to share it with. I have had three decent Valentine's Days before this year. I probably could have had more but I was set on being bitter so there. Two were in high school, one of those with a boy who had asked me out 2 days before, at lunch he brought me a bouquet of red roses and an impossibly huge (for being together 2 days) teddy bear. Unfortunately our break up 2 weeks later blotted out the joy of that one. The second was a girls night out, I'm pretty sure we went dancing and coordinated it so we all said we were staying at someone else's house or something. I'm pretty sure that dancing trip took us up to Orange County. That was the extent of my sneaking around.
The third good Valentine's Day was a couple of years ago. The guy I was seeing and his friend were walking around Oceanside and asked me to join. It wasn't a typical V-day but it was cute and fun and I wore a dress. The three of us walked to Ruby's at the end of the pier and had milk shakes and french fries and laughed a lot.
This year... this year takes the cake. I am so so very grateful for the man in my life. Dan knocked it out of the park with flowers, heart shaped balloon, frog holding a heart sign that says "kiss me" shaped balloon, Ferrero Rocher chocolates, a gift card for the Kindle and something else coming in the mail (only the best art print ever of a gorgeous mermaid with traditional tattoos). I am so absolutely spoiled and it brought tears of joy to my face. Best Valentine's Day ever.

Adventured to: Wilderness Gardens Preserve off of the 76. It was a mellow walk for most of the trip, there was one hill and about 20 steps for the hardest of the trails, but mostly it's just a place to wander for a mile and then walk back. It had some green, which I appreciated very much.

Loving: My new tattoo despite how difficult it is to walk with it. Day 1... Day 2 and there on should get better and better.

Signed up for: A gym membership. Don't worry, I'm almost as surprised as you are. It's right by my house, it's $10 a month and I'm actually really stoked on it. My planning could have been better however. Not suppose to wear sneakers for at least 10 days... guess I'll be doing my work outs at home, barefoot for those days.

Cooking:
Sugar Cookies in heart and X and O shapes
Upside down banana cake/bread in my cast iron skillet
Pra Ram
Pancakes that just aren't quite working out

Learning: How to clean a cast iron skillet, after cooking banana bread in it I cleaned it like a normal pan, probably wasn't suppose to do that. It still has banana slice imprints on it too. I think it's time for some coarse salt and then I'll need to re-season it.

Anticipating: My birthday weekend. Not to be ungrateful for this weekend. I am just really excited for a Palm Springs adventure!

Read/Reading:
You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero (for the 4th time)
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Bread & Wine by Shauna Neiquist

Randomly Searched: how much to tip a tattoo artist. It came up with a bunch of different answers. I went about 20% because my tattoo is beautiful. (if not incredibly painful)

Feeling: The pulsing of my foot. I cannot say this enough, the foot is the worst spot for me thus far, and I covered all the hard parts of it. From the outside edge that's close to the bottom, to around the ankle, to the top bony area to... and this is the worst the second day, the area where your foot bends, the front ankle if you will. I'm usually pretty good about zoning out and being able to pay attention to the vibration instead of the needles after about 10 minutes, but this time, NOPE. I'm not sure if it's because I'm getting older or what. But ouch.
Also worth mentioning, my foot is just a puffy thing right now, and when I walk it feels almost gelatinous on the top, like a thick layer of pudding moving back and forth. Weird? Yes.

Planning: Something big to come by the 1st of June. That's my deadline, I'll write it in big numbers and hang it on my wall.

Motivational quote for the next week (and possibly all of my life):

Start where you are.

xoxo