It's Almost Christmas Confessions!

Welcome back to Wednesday and Merry Christmas (eve)! 

It makes me so happy to be looking forward to an entire day off of work, knowing that it's likely one of my very last for a while. There's quite a big event on Monday that is going to likely take quite a lot of my time over the next few months. 

Since the last time I was here, the following things have happened:

- I planked in front of a crowd at my holiday work party - twice

- I photo-boothed at my holiday work party - twice

- I've sent 15+ triple-chin snapchat selfies to some lucky recipients

- I've scrambled and failed at Christmas shopping

- Succeeded with buying a selfie tripod. Worth a shot, right?

- Mom successfully delivered toys, food baskets, clothes and miracles to seven families in need.

- Seriously, it took a village ^

Now we're ready for  a few quick Christmas confessions as I watch Christmas Story over FaceTime with my handsome guy who has been working way too hard. I'd show you how hard but don't think I'm allowed to show that frazzled look on the internet. Thanks for the extra MCM love this week!

:: Here is our very sad Christmas tree. What's even sadder is that it's at my boyfriend's house across the country, is decorated with $5 worth of "ornaments" from the dollar tree and some lackluster short cord lights. The redeeming quality is a pretty sweet Bear-necessities ornament that we found at Hallmark and wouldn't leave until we were the proud owners. It seriously sings and everything - the perfect start to creating our Christmas magic. 

:: I am probably on Santa's naughty list this year, and mostly for being a jerk to my body. Workouts aren't a priority anymore, #paleo is a guideline and not a rule, more days are "off days" than I'd like to admit and my kettlebell strength is lacking. Ps did you know my mom can swing a 55lb kettlebell? My hero. 

:: I've had the same bathroom hand soap for as long as I've lived in this house. Literally the same bottle. This week as I was goofing around in the same aisle as the pumpkin spice ice cream (so basic) I found a brand new hand soap that I truly couldn't pass up. The smell was heavenly. Here are some other amazing beauty products at Trader Joe's.

:: I still don't have presents bought, wrapped or even decided. It's too late for Amazon Prime to save me now, isn't it? 

That's all - stay merry & bright! Enjoy the time with your loved ones!

Are you ready for Humpday Confessions to return in January with Melissa?

You're Welcome for these Confessions

If you wrote a confessions post today because of the news I shared yesterday, you're welcome. 

I really don't know if Melissa planned to start the link-up today or not, but I was hoping that my blog would either cause that to happen or get so much hype going around to breathe a little flame back into hump day. If there's no link-up actually live today, don't shoot the messenger... even if the messenger was also the creator and distributor of the rumor. Fact checking isn't my strong side. Hype generation might be. 

I feel so rusty about the whole thought of confessions - go easy on me today as this entire post based on facts while also an honest attempt to not ramble.

+ My poor guy has been working to the bone. 14-18 hour days in the office and on the actual hamster wheel of life. It's magical if he can leave before 10pm and it's even better if he can eat something other than Taco Bell for dinner. To add insult to injury, my #MCM photo on Monday was this, and as I type this post it only had 6 likes. Six! Including him! He's handsome, I know - but I think I've taken photos of my left thumb that had more likes. Go give him some instagram love, won't you?

+ I confess that I just realized my About Me page hasn't been updated since I first made it. It still said "I'm single and the mother of a betta fish". Well, I haven't been single since June (sorry babe) and my betta died while MaryMack was in town back in August. Pay attention, Jessi - being busy is no excuse. 

+ My daily breakfast includes a 20oz coffee, eggs and sausage patties. This runs me just under $5 at work and I can't stop, won't stop. It's gotten so good bad that me and my co-workers now sing "Nothhhing Compares 2U" by Sinead O'Connor, but rather than "2U" it's "2Sausage!!!".  Then if I'm lucky I follow it up with a bun-less cheeseburger, brussel sprouts, tots and bacon bits (heart eyed kitty emoji!)

+ I'm convinced that this high protein breakfast routine is contributing to these gainz, because since we're being honest I have hardly had time to work on my fitness in a month. Yes I feel strong and yes I feel healthy but I still can't do a pull-up. Selfie Level: Intermediate.

+ Speaking of working on my fitness, ClassPass is amazing and allowed me to defer my month pass to the new year because of the crazy work-life balance I'm unable to work around these days. I am quite thankful and also a little psyched because I saw that new studios were added in Portland this week!

That's all - I have to save some confessions for later because Hump Day is back!! Are you confessing today?

Go tell Melissa what handsome piece of man-meat should be the image here.

A Christmas Confessions Miracle!

It's a Christmas miracle! 

Remember how we used to have an amazing excuse in the middle of the work-week to publicly embarrass ourselves and just chalk it up as a "confession" for the whole internet to see? It was called Humpday Confessions and was hosted by a pretty rad chick named Kathy who has zero filter, gives two shits and is my fitness Jesus. She invited any and every blogger to confess whatever they please on their blogs, to find other bloggers who had awesome things to share and ultimately made us all come up with the most ridiculous things possible - all in the name of a good confessions post. 

Like that time I shared the photos of when I dropped trou on a trip for a roadside tinkle, or when I came out of the closet about a boy I'd been dating - some of my favorite blog memories came from my confessions posts. 

We sadly and formally lost this link-up in October, but I've seen many bloggers still confessing on Wednesdays and day by day asking for this link-up to come back. 

We can all confess in the privacy of our own blogs, but there's something magical about bloggers coming together and tilting the universe with confessions on confessions on confessions (and a lot of mentions of hump-day, hot men like Ryan Gosling and Ian So-my-hot-what and more gifs than you can imagine). 

This past week in between the madness of work and life, I heard the most amazing news. My great real-life friend Melissa will be taking the throne and wearing the crown for the new regime of Humpday Confessions. 

I'm ready, you're ready, we are all ready for confessions to be back. Hallelujah!

It's almost like that scene at the end of the Lion King where all the animals return to pride rock and rejoice over new beginnings and the promise of something good and comfortable that they know is going to be a beautiful thing. 

I could have included that gif below, but feel like this one is better:

Any guesses on which handsome hunk of man-meat Melissa will invite us to "hump the shit out of"? I think I have a good guess but you'll have to see tomorrow! 

By the Seat of My Pants

Dear fellow writers of blogs, have you ever been so caught up in the flurry of work, holidays and happiness that you actually forgot that you have a blog? 

This phenomenon called "oh-my-goodness-I'm-way-too-busy" otherwise known as "hey-look-my-job-rules-my-life" has been creeping up on me pretty hard lately that I'm having a tough time keeping it all together. 

Maybe it's time to take back the reins and be a little more methodical about things like meal prep, my workout schedule, pre-writing blog content and assembling outfits with accessories rather than throw on the same boots, skinny jeans & sweater combination I've been living in lately. 

Organize, plan, take notes and live by the pages of a trusty Moleskine planner in the new year. Keep commitments with friends. Read. Wash my face at night. Make my bed every morning. Do laundry start to finish rather than the 1 week cycle time I'm currently in the middle of. Simple things like that would make my days a little easier right?

Oh, but friends! Don't you know how good it feels to live by the seat of your pants? 

From jet-setting across the country for an "everything makes sense now" weekend with my guy, a random public transportation adventure downtown or an impromptu Sunday coffee date with Brooke - there's a lot to be said about not having everything figured out and not knowing what the plan is. 

Like everything, it will take patience and baby steps to get my world in order.

In the meantime I'm going to try to remember that I have a blog and make sure that I'm keeping some balance in my world. Oh, I'm also going to do my Christmas shopping - likely online and likely in my pajamas.

What are you going to work on this week to make yourself a little better? 

You Miss 100% of the Shots You Don't Take

Being in a long distance relationship, my guy and I play this game where we see "what it would take" to see each other. We make bets on how much the flight would cost (one way vs round trip) and we say ridiculous things like "I'll be at the airport at 10am waiting", or "You want to go try that new breakfast spot tomorrow?".

We know it's all in fun and maybe a little counter-productive because 99/100 times we're not actually going to make good on our plans. 

This week was the 1 time out of 100. 

We played this game on Tuesday and I found an amazing round trip itinerary that cost as many airline miles as it would take to get to Seattle and back. After the months of playing this game, it seemed outrageous to have this golden opportunity in front of me and not even make the attempt to execute. After all you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, right?

So what did I do?

I arranged my schedule so that I could work remotely across the country and I hopped on a plane yesterday afternoon. (heart eyed cat emoji times 1,000,000)

Willie was game to lay on the famous carpet at the Portland Airport to get a shot of us pre-trip and how excited we were to get to sit in the middle seat for 5 hours. I got some flack for this shot on social media because people were disgusted that I was laying on the floor, but really guys - you know that I went down to an empty corridor with good lighting so that I wasn't "that girl" taking 40 selfies till it looked just right. And for the record it only took 3. 

Happy weekend friends, go check out the fun on Melissa's page with some Relationship Q&A from your favorites!

Merry & Bright

This weekend I didn't go pick out a tree, I didn't hang the stockings, reminisce over cherished ornaments or wrap any gifts to go under the tree. I didn't hang lights outside and I may have lights strung around my room but those have been there all year long. 

However, I did take the time to get down and dirty with one of my secret guilty pleasures; Sending mail by hand.

Nothing beats the simple joys of hand-writing letters, adding special personal touches, asking loved ones for their current address and slapping your coveted forever stamps onto the envelopes. Especially when it's done on a Sunday while you're sipping coffee out of your favorite sleepy panda mug that good friends like Brooke gifted to you.  

Since sending these cards, I've been doing all that I can to make my December Merry and Bright - more coming up on that soon once I get the crazy of this work-week out of my way and in the rear-view. 

Just about the only thing that beats sending holiday cheer via postage is receiving it. Don't you agree?

Keep feeling those merry & bright vibes this holiday season!

Thanksgiving Up North

Thanksgiving weekend was a serious success as my family flocked north to my brother's brand new home in Seattle. 

Dad liked the idea of Thanksgiving away because there is a 7-11 within walking distance where he could replenish his daily 64oz of soda.

Mom liked the idea of Thanksgiving away because going into it, she truly believed that she wasn't going to have to cook at all (and the truth is brother did most for actual Thanksgiving, but mom was the resident chef for the rest of the weekend).

My brother liked the idea of Thanksgiving at his house so that he wouldn't have to drive, could get his internet installed, would have special delivery of his TV and other things he'd shipped to mom and dad's house - and the obvious fact that we'd leave with the place cleaner than when we got there. 

My sisters (two golden retrievers above) loved the idea of Thanksgiving away because they've never been to "Matt's place". He's lived in Europe for the last four years and he's the one who has been making the visits. 

I liked the idea of Thanksgiving away because with no Wifi at my brother's place, it was very unlikely that I'd feel the pull to work during the holiday. This doesn't mean I didn't refrain from pulling out the laptop on Saturday and Sunday, but at least the stress wasn't present during family time. 

We all enjoyed the way that Thanksgiving actually turned out and no credit cards were maxed out with the peer pressure of Black Friday. I may have popped onto Amazon for a few books and this 64oz Hydro Flask that will be everlastingly awesome - but nothing overboard. 

The feast itself was plentiful - with more carbs from potatoes, pie, stuffing and bread rolls than I'd expected - but all consumed with consciousness and zero regrets. 

Wish me luck this week with my attempt to navigate the awesomeness of ClassPass during my crazy-busy work week!

How was your holiday weekend? Eat everything you wanted? Sweat a little? Shop till you dropped?