Happy Valentines Day

The worst part of Valentine's Day for me has always been unmet flower-related expectations.

Either you are single and hoping a secret admirer will send you flowers at work, or you have a boyfriend who will fail to meet your totally reasonable expectations of sending you flowers at work.

Basically I just love getting flowers at work.

Anyway, after years of only ever receiving flowers sent from my family (thanks, mom), I decided the best way to remedy my February 14th depression was by quitting my job and thus losing all flower-related angst.

Not to put words in your mouth, but you could call me a problem solver if you wanted to.

So instead I spent Valentine's day skiing with my dad, sipping boxed red wine out of a flask on the chairlift.

Keeping it classy, like father like daughter.

Eat, Pray, Ski: A Rotating Emphasis

You might have noticed my updated masthead dedicated to my time in Colorado.

(Note: The runner-up title for this sabbatical was "Guide to Menver" but considering dating has taken a back seat to "losing weight" and "writing" I figured this was a good source of inspiration. Finger snaps to my mom for coining it.)

Unfortunately much like in Eat, Pray, Love, eating has taken the early lead for my numero uno activity. Pray (yoga) is gaining momentum thanks to the Groupon Shawn alerted me to at the best studio ever. And skiing will hopefully enter into the rotation this weekend.

But the eating part, man, do I need to get that under control.

It is no secret I love food. It is no secret I have a problem with food. And as you can imagine, hanging out all day within such close vicinity to the fridge and pantry is not doing me any favors. Those leftover Fruity Pebbles are not going to eat themselves!

Seriously though, I'm trying. As a newbie to the Stay at Home Person (SAHP) lifestyle, I know I need to set some limits and make a real commitment to change.

I decided to start by filling out the questionnaire included in Bethenny Frankel's book Naturally Thin. Effort comes in all shapes and sizes! 

As you can see, this doesn't exactly crack the code to fixing my eating habits (besides maybe offering the blanket suggestion Seek Professional Help Immediately), but luckily I have good influences on my side to help me work on things.

Shawn's new snacking self-control is impressive and inspiring. And, bonus, next weekend Lauren comes to visit - she is my SAHP and weight loss inspiration! (And wedding planning inspiration - she was on Style Me Pretty!!)

Here's to self-control by association!

P dot S: Masthead graphics taken from the Erin Jang 2011 calendar that used to be on my wall.

Making Me Feel Worse About My Lack of Productivity

Make no mistake, my grandma Dolo is an incredible woman. I'm always bragging about her and her work ethic (and only partially because I think it makes me sound cool by association). 

But what can I say, I'm proud of her. I mean, how many other octogenarians worry about getting fired when they book a trip to visit their granddaughter in Europe? And then display crazy high levels of sight seeing endurance, enough that all of my friends commented on her perseverance to make the most of her day. I explained that's how she always is. 

Anyway, I figured Dolo was in a class of her own until I saw this precious woman who was ringing me up at Target the other day.

Sorry, Dolo, "Miss Dee" might have you beat.

In other news, my unemployment, perma-vacation guilt has been rearing its ugly head (until I want to take a nap and then realize I should stop wallowing and enjoy it).

Nowhere But Down

Well, I've figured out my problem one of my problems. I make too good of a first impression.

Wait, what? No, seriously. And it sucks.

You see, recently it dawned on me that I've had plenty of amazing first dates that left me feeling awesome. Then, sure enough, exactly when I was starting to feel confident that it was actually going somewhere, everything would fall apart.

Clockwork is a bitch!

Now that I have the time to marinate over pressing problems such as these, I have sketched out the common trajectory of my dating life so you can get the idea (plus, considering my wizard PowerPoint skills are my most revered professional trait - sadly not even joking - I might as well keep 'em busy).

Initially he and I seemed to be getting along so well! He thought I was so great! And then all of a sudden the sentiment flipped. Now he doesn't. (Here is the breakdown of The Fear.)

This seems to be a common problem for many of my friends too. The issue seems to be that we are just so damn likable at first that we literally have no where to go but down. We are charming, we are fun, we are fireworks. We will light up and dazzle that damn date!

But you know what? It's exhausting being that awesome. Eventually my first date sparkle will wear off and you just get me, more frazzle than razzle unfortunately.

(Which, considering I have a fairly healthy self-esteem, I am not afraid to tell you is still fun to be around*.)

Yet it doesn't seem to be enough.

So that leaves me with what? Slowly adding in my awesomeness a cup at a time? Like how you're supposed to pour in the oil while you're whisking the vinegar to make salad dressing. And unfortunately it involves a lot of hand-eye coordination that I am obviously lacking so I always make a big mess and it never turns out right.

Gah. Life is so hard.

And this blog post has been brought to you by: White Girl Problems, The Unemployed Humble Brag Quasi High Self Esteem Issue.

P dot S: If any of the guys I've gone on dates with reading (hi!) would care to share their thoughts on this, please feel free to leave a comment.

*Unless I am hungry and/or PMSing

So Far So Good

I arrived in Denver on Saturday afternoon, and since then it's been non-stop fun. I mean, there were a few hours when I was asleep that I can't totally vouch for, but I'm pretty sure they were great too.

For starters, I realized I haven't seen Shawn since this time last year when we went to Breckenridge. Ya'll, that's cray! Secondly, her apartment is amazing with a giant kitchen and a view of a (currently) snow-covered park. It is the kind of adult apartment I aspire to have for myself one day, but for now I'm happy (and lucky) just to inhabit the couch.

My two new pals. My snow-covered BFF is in the background.
He's an Old English Sheepdog/Golden Retriever mix.
Giant, hypo-allergenic perfection.

I had also heard what fun friends she's made in the last year or so and now I can vouch for it.: Fun people indeed!

Even better, one of the guys lives directly upstairs and - please let an adequate amount of anticipation build up - has the greatest dog I've ever met.

We are already best friends.

I know what you're thinking. "Rachel, why do you always have to rush into relationships? Can't you just take it slow?" No, you know that's not my style, and anyway this dog is the best.

His Super Bowl behavior was way better than mine (my brain instructions =  see food, put in mouth), but hopefully I can learn from his self-control. That's how the best relationships are, you know, teaching one another stuff.

(Side note: We - meaning Shawn and I, not the dog - made some Pinterest recipes like Crescent roll French dip sandwiches, fruity pebble & dark chocolate rice krispies, and Chuy's creamy jalepeno ranch dip. Yuh-uhm.)

Anyway, after having a mini personal intervention involving some rice krispy leftovers this morning, today I've tried to make myself useful around the house and getting stuff organized. (Plus a Target trip, which just solidified my happiness with being here; I'm a simple girl.)

I don't want to jinx myself, but I seem to be doing a pretty great job acclimating to the life of a Stay at Home Person. Who would have guessed it??

Childhood Chic

I have quite a few souvenirs from my European travels that I love, but among my top favorites are my blue elephant lamp from LillyBerlin and my original Babar print from a Parisian flea market.

This new collection has been coupled with my crustacean paraphernalia...

 Leaving me with what I will now be referring my decorative taste to as "childhood chic".

(And The BFF lets out a sigh of relief she no longer has to share a living space with me and "style.")

My Docking Station

I flew from New York to Austin to drop off the rest of my stuff, get organized, and recharge my batteries a bit before my next adventure. 

Although my normally very supportive mother laughed in my face when I insisted I was actually going to unpack everything in an orderly manner, I did it. Victory. 

But after the endorphins of proving her wrong wore off I realized I didn't actually feel very good. And I still don't. (This could also be directly linked to the fact I accidentally took a headache medicine with caffeine in it at 11pm last night making it impossible to fall asleep. Genius!) 

So productivity can suck it. I'm going to lay in bed and read the rest of the Hunger Games trilogy, which for a girl who has never been into wizards or vampires I am obsessed with it. It's a perfect read for traveling and/or laying in bed feeling sorry for yourself since you have a sore throat and also your last blog post about NYC somehow got deleted and is now gone forever. 

And this now concludes The Worst Post Ever. Happy Thursday.