Friday's Fair Fast 5

Fast Five: Fair edition!

1. Jarrod and I are not going to the fair this year. Anymore, if we don't care to see one of the main stage bands, we don't go. 
2. Plus, it's gotten more difficult for me to go to the fair. Being in the heat can really bother my breathing, so if it's ridiculously hot, it makes it hard. And there is the dust and dirt, and the second-hand smoke that sometimes you just can't get away from. I almost always have a really rough next couple days if we do go.
3. Every year during fair season, I wonder to myself how pig scrambles are still a thing. I get it, it can be funny. But it's hard to ignore the shrieks and squeals of terror from the piglets. It is so obvious the animals are stressed out to the max with all these kids running around. I'm not a member of PETA or anything, but the event strikes me as kind of cruel.
4. This year the fair has a moving 9/11 memorial thing as an exhibit. Four years ago, when we went to the Vietnam Moving Wall, a memorial replica that travels around the country, it was very somber, as I think all memorials are meant to be. The Moving Wall was set up at the fairgrounds, but it was the only thing out there at the time. It seems weird to me that you would visit this 9/11 memorial—at the fair. The exhibit is going to be set up by the north gate where you'll be surrounded by constant noise from the shuttle buses, all the loud events at the motocross arena, and crowd noise. I know this exhibit travels to fairs all the time, and it sounds interesting but, in my humble opinion, does not seem best suited for a fair setting (something I'd argue is the creators fault, not necessarily our fair board for bringing it here.) 
5. In a way, I guess enjoying walking through that exhibit could just come down to how easily you can tune out background noise. I can't, and it gets really, really annoying sometimes. I can't stand what I've termed "conflicting sounds," like when the radio and the TV are on at the same time and the sounds overlap. My brain tries to hear and process both. I am completely unable to tune one out. Some people, I've found, have no problem with this, and can focus on one set of sounds or not even notice the other one. It's for this reason, also, I've noticed that some people are less annoyed by ticking sounds or beeps or repetitive noises. There have been many times in my life where I point out an annoying noise, and someone is like "Huh? I didn't even notice that." while I'm going nuts like "OMG make it stop! How do you not hear that?!" It's fascinating, really, the huge difference between people.
   
   So I ask you: can you block out background sounds? or are you like me? For this reason I've also begun to get very annoyed while shopping at Kohl's, because they have a different type of music playing in many areas (pop music in juniors, rock music in men's, lighter music in women's, etc.) If I'm standing in a spot where the two bleed together (which is common), it drives me bonkers and I have to move soon otherwise I get anxious and upset.

#dogsofinstagram

Storytime!

So, Josie has her own Instagram account, if you didn't know that. She has over 600 followers from all over the world, most of them being cairn terriers like her. I know, it's mega dorky and probably lists me in the crazy-dog-mom column, but it's actually quite fun. It's hard to explain, but after a while, you kind of start to feel a connection with these other dog owners. Some dogs have actually started sending each other postcards in the mail. Back in May, I actually met a woman from California who is a sweet lady and owner of 4 cairn terriers (who follow Josie, and we follow them too.) It all came about because in one of her photos, she mentioned they were prepping for a trip to Purina Farms for a big event. I messaged her saying I lived nearby, and she wanted to meet up! It was great! 

Today, one of Josie's Scottish cairn pals had a photo saying they were raising money for cystic fibrosis.

Record scratch... what!? Really? I had to reload the picture twice to make sure my eyes weren't making things up.

They had a link in the profile for their little charity type thing. I sent them a private message and got a reply from the dog's mom, who has CF. She was pretty excited I had reached out.

But wow. Like, what are the odds? How amazing, that I would 'meet' someone from Scotland with CF via my dog's Instagram account? Crazy.

Friday Fast 5

1. A couple weeks back, I got sunburnt in 5 major spots while we were at the Lake. It sucked.
2. Speaking of that, and my deep regret of not being more diligent of putting on sunscreen, remember "The Sunscreen Song"? If not, here's a link for reminder. That song's been on my brain a lot in light of my sunburn. I liked it back in 1999, but I admit that as I get older, more and more pieces of advice in it ring true. 
3. Allow me to nerd out for a second here... but I play this video game on my iPad called Hay Day. It's a cute farming game. I've been playing it for two years, it's the longest I've ever played a game, and I still love it. The game is currently celebrating its 5th birthday, and the developers are making a big deal and having fun with it. But really, what an accomplishment! When was the last time you heard of anyone playing Trivia Crack? Or Farmville? Phone games typically burst on the scene, have a huge following for a year—if they're lucky—and then get deleted, but it's rare that a game has staying power to last this long. They still update the game and add new content, which definitely helps, and I am always seeing new farms. It's just a great little game and I hope it'll stay around another 5 years.
4. We need better Asian restaurants out here. China King is not cutting it. Jarrod and I love Asian food, and we both constantly wish we had either a Thai or Vietnamese place. Or both, but I won't get too greedy, haha. Overall, though, I think we just need more restaurant choices in general, places that aren't fast food. But if they were Asian restaurants, that would be great. 
5. I saw a young woman at work today who was wearing a light yellow dress, and dark blue underwear. I feel like young women these days never wear slips under their dresses anymore, like no one's even heard of them! I wish I could send out a PSA or something, begging the young ladies of today to please buy a damn slip (or learn to better match the color of your underwear with the color of your garment.) I'm tired of seeing so many outlines or knowing the color of your underwear. It's not proper, and there's a simple solution. Most of all I guess I'm just baffled at how much they seemingly don't care about this. Seriously, do none of you turn around in the mirror, hold your dress against yourself, and check if your underwear are visible through the cloth? Come on!

30 Weekend

It all started on Friday. You already heard about the "Doughnut Debacle" of Friday morning. Jarrod tried to surprise me with breakfast, and I ruined it. Oh man, little did I know the surprises that were in store...

Around 11 a.m. he called me upstairs from my office. He had a card, wrapped gift, and suitcase set out for me. He wanted to give me my gift early, and then told me I needed to pack for the night. We were going to stay somewhere, but that was all he told me. The original plan (for Saturday morning) was I was supposed to go to the mall with my mom. That was made up and not happening. Mom and dad were watching the dog, but we had to come back mid-Saturday because they couldn't watch her all weekend. When I said "Huh, I wonder what they're up to, I wonder why." he replied "I don't know, I think it was something with the Corvette Club."

So I finished work at 1:00, met with a lady at church, called mom, and we headed out around 2:30.

I still didn't know where we were headed, but we ended up at the Moonrise Hotel in the Loop. We've stayed there once before during another staycation, which this kind of was in itself. We were both getting hungry, but I found out we had a dinner reservation at 6:00. Again, I had no idea where.

Staring at the chocolate...

We walked to dinner about three blocks away, which was at... The Melting Pot! We've never been, but it was great. It's definitely an "experience" as they call it. The food was so good, but there was so
much, both of us felt ridiculously full afterwards. We did their four-course thing and started with the cheese, had a salad, then our meats, then chocolate for dessert. Our waitress brought me a rose, as well, which was a nice touch. Jarrod couldn't remember if he added that to his reservation or not, lol! It wasn't on the bill, so I guess it was from them since they knew it was my birthday.

We walked back to our hotel to go to the rooftop bar, which is a really cool spot if you're never been. It was a nice night out too.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel before heading onto other surprises. Ever since we left on Friday I was so excited to see what in the world Jarrod had planned! It was all in his hands, I had no clue what we would be doing.

So we left the hotel to head to the art museum, yay! We walked through most of it, except the new addition since we did that last time. Jarrod kept saying he had to watch our time, so we went to the second floor to check out the American and Native American art. It wasn't that great and I blazed through it. Jarrod kind of lingered a little bit. We finished up a bit early and I felt up to walking back to the truck; he had to park far away, but it was all downhill. We headed to lunch which was at...

Mai Lee in Brentwood, a Vietnamese place we wanted to try. We both got our usual pho and it was delicious! I had commented as we pulled up maybe we should check out Total Wine if we had time. Our lunch only took 30 minutes so we definitely did, and apparently needed to...

Total Wine is impressive, from a wine standpoint. Since we're more beer people, I'd say Friar Tuck's is better for that, but both are good places. It's a shame we don't have something like that closer to here. Anyways, I picked up a bottle of wine recommended by Wanda, and Jarrod got some beers. It took a while to check out, but then we were on our way home.

Driving home, Jarrod said I should go ahead and do my aerobika because he didn't think I'd have much time for my vest before we had to turn around and head back out to... whatever else he had planned. So I did. He also suggested I grab a hat before we left.

We pulled into town, up the road, turned onto our road. And there were a bunch of cars, which I kind of wondered about. But it's not uncommon for our neighbors at the end of the street to have a bunch of people over, so it wasn't too weird. Then I saw our garage door was open... and there were a ton of people in our driveway!

How it looked from my view.

Oh-my-goodness. How amazing it was! There were so many people here, from all over, to surprise me for my birthday! It was so awesome. I got out of the truck, and my dad was the first to greet me with a hug. I couldn't hold it in, I started crying. I was so moved. It was a bit of a whirl, I can't even really remember if I made it back around to Jarrod to give him a hug or say something, but oh man. What an amazing feeling.

How it looked from everyone else's view.

I walked inside to find my grandma Watson had made it down here too, which was awesome. The house was decorated to a T with banners and photos, an awesome little board with all kinds of facts about the year I was born, a lovely cake, food, drinks, the deck had tables and a popup tent over it, and I was told to also go downstairs. I found a big 30 covered in photos, and a jungle of balloons (that's what I'll call it, lol) with pictures of me hanging on them.

The rest of the day was spent mingling with everyone. I tried so hard to spend a little bit of time with every person. I wished I could have sat down and spent like an hour with everyone, but that's just not possible. Slowly, people started heading on their ways, and it was just a group of our friends that remained.

I told Jarrod I wanted the whole backstory to all of this, once everyone left. So once they did, he started diving into that...

Turns out he'd been planning this since February. February! And even so, he said that he knew he wanted to do this for me before my 29th birthday. Wow. That's just... awesome.

For the longest time, he was trying to figure out how to get me out of the house, so everyone would have plenty of time to set up our house, and determined that us staying somewhere Friday would be best and seem least suspicious.

Turns out while we were eating breakfast at the hotel, his mom and dad, my parents, and Julia all got to our house around 9:00 a.m. that morning to start setting up.

He had started asking for addresses from people months ago because, as he told them, "I can't find the address book, and I obviously can't ask Jamie where it is." Ha! Formal invitations were sent out—who knew?—with RSVP to his mom, who was even out of town during a lot of the planning leading up to this.

Then all kinds of minute details came into play...

Like the day before, when I called my mom? He had JUST gotten off the phone with them, like right as I was calling her. He was in the garage and had called them to tell them what the deal was so their stories would match, and they should say that they had a Corvette Club thing and that was why they couldn't watch the dog all weekend. Wow, what are the odds. And just in time.

When we were leaving the art museum, we were ahead of schedule, and he was debating every little way to draw it out more. That's why we went to check out the American art, but then I rushed through it. He tried to look at some pieces longer, not because he was interested, but because he wanted to kill time, haha! And then I said I felt up to walking to the truck, which was perfect because that took more time, lol.

We pretty much NEEDED to go to Total Wine after lunch, because otherwise we would arrived at home way too soon. The invite said for people to be here at 2:30 sharp, with the plan that we would get here at 3:00. Jarrod even doubled back and looked over a aisles more than once to kill more time so we wouldn't be too early.

And there were so many other little things.

It makes sense, now, why he was on his phone more that day. And why it wasn't synced up with his truck, something he almost always does. I had noticed those things, but didn't think much of them.

I think a lot of people were wondering if I was truly surprised, but I was! It was such a great day, and made me feel so special and so very loved by so many people.

(If you haven't seen my video on Facebook, I posted one the other day thanking everyone for coming out and telling a little bit of this story.)

Friday Fast 5

1. A new book store opened in Washington yesterday. I wish them the best, but they have a definite uphill battle to fight, it is just impossible to compete with online sites like Amazon. 
2. Jarrod and I went to the Thirty Seconds to Mars & Muse concert on Tuesday. What an awesome show! Jarrod isn't so much a Muse fan, but I am, but we both like "Mars" so he bought me tickets for Valentine's back in February. Thirty Seconds to Mars was really good, although they were just the opener, so they only played for 45ish minutes. The lead singer, Jared Leto, busted his knee in another show two days prior, so I think he was maybe a little less energetic than normal. That's not to say he mailed it in, he definitely didn't, but I would guess it would have been just a tad better if he could have ran around like normal. Then Muse... oh wow. I've read bits and pieces through the years saying that they are one of the absolute best acts to see live, and I'd agree. They put on an awesome show, and even Jarrod was impressed. I'd totally go see them again in a heartbeat if the chance arises. And we both already want to go see Mars again as a headliner, I know it would be an even better show. Luckily, Mars is releasing a new album this year, and Muse announced they will have a new one in 2018, so I think we will probably have our wishes granted in the near future.
3. This upcoming week is the Race Across America bike race. If you never read the story from two years ago when I met the team Love, Sweat, & Gears, I recommend it. It is one of my favorite blogs I've ever written and is still a story that blows me away. I hope I can get a chance to say hello to them again this year.
4. I saw a video yesterday that was interesting... it was in some foreign country, two people were using pitch forks to stir up dirt on their farm, and there was a pack of terriers. As they worked the soil, rats came out—I didn't even know rats lived in the ground like that, like a mole. The dogs went after them, caught them, shook them in the their jaws and killed them. Every time my Josie shakes her head, with a toy in her mouth, so hard it seems like she'd hurt her neck, that's that instinct right there; that's exactly what those dogs were doing to those rats. It was A, kinda gross, the size of some of these rats was disgusting. B, kinda brutal, even though completely natural. And C, kinda neat to see the dogs doing the jobs they were bred to do. Terriers are ratters, they were bred to hunt vermin and protect farms back in the old days, and somewhere in the world they obviously still serve their very useful purpose.
5. While I'm talking terriers, have I ever told you that Josie is left-pawed? She is!

Doughnut Debacle

I have to tell the following story, because it is just too funny...

I woke up at 5:30am coughing; decided to get up and go do my treatment. Once I was done, I was really awake, and decided going back to bed was pointless. I thought to myself I wonder when Shulte's opens? They open at 6am. It was 6:05am, perfect!

I threw on some clothes and left to go get fresh doughnuts as a nice little treat and surprise (and it happens to be National Doughnut Day, which is a total coincidence.) All the while, Jarrod is still asleep, he has no idea I left. I got back, doughnuts in hand, made covfefe, and sat on the couch to wait for Jarrod to get up and get ready for work.

He finally got up at 6:45, which meant he was running late. He came out to the living room to find me sitting there, on my iPad, and asked "What are you doing?" I told him how I woke up early, blah blah blah. But that I'd been to Shulte's and back, and I had doughnuts! He asked why I didn't come wake him up sooner (since he'd be kinda late for work.) I didn't realize the time.

Then he laid down on the couch—weird, seeing as he was just commenting about being late—I asked what was up. He told me... He actually didn't have to go to work, he took the day off. And he was planning to make me breakfast while I was doing my vest (which takes 30 minutes.) He had no idea I had gotten up early, only noticed I wasn't actually in bed right before he got up at 6:45, hoped I was vesting and he could surprise me. But no.

Oh man... what are the odds. My surprise ruined his surprise.

Friday Fast 5

1. I stopped by H&M the last time I was at the mall. In my younger years, I liked H&M. Maybe it was because my first introduction to the store was during a New York trip in high school. At the time, H&M was a European import store, only found in major cities. Then they expanded to malls, and they are fairly common stores now. Anyways, back in the day I loved that store. It was hip, the clothes were cute and cheap. But now, not so much. Maybe it's because I am willing to spend a little more on my clothes now for better quality, or maybe it's because I'm a pickier shopper, or maybe it's because I'm an adult now. Everything in there is just so cheap, and I can't help but wonder if after like 5 washes it will look like a piece of junk.
2. I stopped in another store I went to in my teen years: Hot Topic. In high school, as I started to create my own weird style, I definitely dived into the punk attire. Plus Hot Topic was my store where I found all of my sarcastic buttons. I don't really resemble their main target customer anymore (that day I was wearing a striped fitted shirt, skinny jeans, and floral Nikes), but I ducked in there to check out the t-shirt walls. I was greeted by a worker wearing blue lipstick. It was kind of nice.
3. This week I took a self-imposed hiatus from my iPad. I just felt like I was on my phone and iPad too much lately. I turned it off on Monday morning. At first, I took note of the times I would have usually reached for my iPad (especially when I did my vest) but fortunately I didn't feel any withdrawal issues not using it. It hasn't been that bad, honestly. 
4. I've cut myself twice in the past two months, which is more than I have in the past ten years. Ugh!
5. Does anyone else find it hard to concentrate when reading a book? My friend and I were talking about this the other night. As kids, we both were able to read for hours (her even more so than me) but now, we're lucky to make it a few pages without losing focus, thinking about all the stuff we need to do soon, or dozing off. I'll probably expand on this in another post of its own, but I'm wondering if others have this problem too?

Favorite short of the day

I found this video and wanted to share. It's a sweet little animated short. I won't preface it too much, other than it brings up some great questions to ponder. What does work/life balance mean? Where do creatives fall in a world that isn't built for them? How do you keep that creative spark alive while still being a responsible adult? How do we unknowingly foster, or squash, creativity in children?

Enjoy! And don't forget to stop and smell the roses, appreciate the art and beauty around you, and thank the artsy weirdos in the world who strive to keep it that way!

(If video does not show up in the email, click on the blog title to see it.)

Friday Fast 5

Five quick things!

1. During my weekday mornings, I used to make a point to watch CBS This Morning. But for at least the past month now, I don't even turn the TV on in the morning anymore. And I gotta say, I'm not missing it. I used to enjoy watching Charlie Rose and the rest of the hosts, but now I'm perfectly good not even watching. 
2. I decided to try a few of those Naked juices... in efforts to, I don't know, pretend I'm being a little healthier? But like all fruit juices, they are packed with sugar, so in reality they're not that healthy. And I'm pretty sure the company has been sued for false advertising by making their product look and sound extra healthy, when it's got like twice the daily recommended limit of sugar. 
3. Spring officially started. I'm happy about that and also not, since my allergies really bog me down. I can't spend any bit of time outside otherwise I pay for it by coughing all night long so... yeah. Boo. I gotta stay cooped up in the house like a hermit to survive the season.
4. I just finished the book Scent of the Missing, a book about search and rescue dogs. What a great book! If you are a dog lover, like me, I highly recommend this one. Finally, a dog book that isn't an emotional roller coaster that makes you cry! (I'm looking at you A Dog's Purpose...) It's quite fascinating to learn about everything that goes into the finds, training the dogs, and what sorts of jobs these dogs are called to do. If you are interested and live near, I can lend you my copy.
5. I have started to be very picky about the content I consume. I love books, movies, good tv dramas, and podcasts, but fitting any of that into my life has become a bit of a contest. What do I listen to first? Would I rather watch an episode of this show or read a chapter in my book? So I have decided to be much more picky about what I watch, read, and listen to. I used to always, always want to finish every book I read, or every movie. I am finally at a point in my life where I am okay with not finishing something. I know, it sounds silly, but it was a hard self-imposed stigma to overcome. I have wasted too much of my time on shows and books that were not enjoyable. I guess there was always something about actually finishing it, learning the ending, feeling accomplished. But why continue to read a book that isn't enjoyable? If you dread reading it, why not just put it down and move onto something else? I've kind of created a rule for myself regarding TV shows which is: If I am not hooked onto the plot by the 5th episode, I bail. I'm sorry but if it takes that long for a TV show to develop a plot or characters, it is not worth my time. And if I'm just not interested, that's fine too; we all have different tastes and what might be "The best show ever" for someone might just not do it for me, and that's fine. Moving on, DNF.

Friday Fast 5

1. I'm so glad those storms on Tuesday didn't amount to much. They kept saying they would likely be severe, and a few places did have some devastating tornadoes, but it missed us. Thank goodness. Josie still woke up once the storm was almost here. I swear, she can feel the air pressure change or something because when it is supposed to storm, she tends to act funny, sometimes a whole day in advance. She did better this time, though, and didn't pee anywhere in the house when she was scared. So that was improvement!
2. I started 2017 off by reading Better Than Before, by Gretchen Rubin, who studies habits and habit formation and how they can help us live happier, better lives. One habit she really believes in is setting a bedtime for yourself. We all have one as kids, but most of us don't have one as adults. I decided to give it a shot, and I made a concerted effort to be in bed by 10:30 during weekdays. Obviously, my nighttime routine is a little different than most. Depending on what we're doing, I may or may not get to bed late because I need to do my vest for 30 minutes, then sometimes an extra neb after it that will take 4-10 minutes. The point is: it takes some planning ahead. Well, more and more lately I've actually been meeting my goal. And most nights this week, I was in bed well ahead of 10:30. It seems to be a little easier for me to fall asleep, but I'm not sure if I'm actually getting more sleep because now I'm having trouble sleeping past 5am. I'm also finding I get tired earlier, which kind of sucks. So yeah... not sure how this is going to pan out for me. I 'feel' good about myself for going to bed earlier, but I'd honestly rather stay up a little later than wake up a little earlier. 
3. I have had Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's song "The Crossroads" stuck in my head for 3 straight days now. It's getting a bit old...
4. Lent really snuck up on me this year (side note: apparently "snuck" is not a word. But to say it sneaked up on me just sounds really weird...) Anyone else? I had no idea what to do for Lent until Wednesday afternoon. 
5. A new season of Survivor starts next week!