They Say Black Friday - I Say Quality Time

Growing up, I was a good kid.  And I was pretty close to my parents.  but I was SUPER close to my dad.  I was the quintessential "Daddy's Girl."  If my mom said no, I would go to him.  Big alligator tears in my eyes, quivering lip, the whole deal.

And I would always get my way. 

Now - that being said - I wasn't actually a spoiled brat.  They did say no.  I was a good student, polite, and well-behaved.  So the story above is more about how I could wrap my dad around my pinky finger.

But now that I am (dare I say it), an adult, I am very close with BOTH my parents, and more than I have ever been with my mom.  We both love a good book, movie, or bottle of wine.  And she supports me through every single thing I have ever chosen to do.  Even more, she has been here for me the past 7 months more than I could have ever imagined.

But one random thing is that ever since I went to college, one of our favorite mom-daughter traditions has been Black Friday shopping.

We aren't the crazy Black Friday shoppers that stay up all night and try to break arms for the $1 television.  We aren't the people waiting for the hot toy of the season.  We're just out there to see what's available, and essentially shop for each other for Christmas.

It's one of my favorite quality times with my mom.  ALL YEAR.

The night before, after dinner is done and we are in our PJs and all comfy, we tediously go through every ad and decide if we are going to the store or not.  Then we decide what we want from each store, and based on opening times plus desires, we make a strategic plan of attack.

That's right - a list, a plan, and timed goals for hitting each store.  If you know me, this isn't really a surprise, is it?

This year the stores opened earlier than ever.  2am.  Read it again - 2am.  And despite the craziness of it, we decided to still do our traditional shopping.  Even worse - we were going to hit 14 stores.  Because we are gluttons for punishment.

We were out there at 1:45am, ready for our first store.  It was cold.  It was windy.  It was dark.  But then the stores opened and we were in.  And then out!  And then in.  And out!

We're pretty much a power team.  We weave and bob through the stores with the best of them - one shops while the other gets a prime line position (if necessary).  We know what we want, so we grab as needed.  And we know to avoid prime Black Friday real estate (electronics, toys, etc...)

So there we were - the Best Black Friday Shoppers Ever - and then we hit Victoria's Secret.  And suddenly, our whole day came to a halt.  We were stuck in the world's smallest store, with the slowest checkout, folding every bra into pale pink tissue paper.

I thought I was going to lose it. 

*To this day, I'm still on an "End the Pink Tissue" campaign.  Pink tissue paper has no place in Black Friday!

We lost a lot of time, but we were together.  And we laughed and made friends with the people in line.  I showed my mom Twitter and Foursquare and Facebook - all from my iPhone.  And eventually, we made it out.

By the end of the morning, we were exhausted and settling in for a hard-earned brunch at one of my favorite local places.  We were ready for the nap that we had definitely earned.

But I was also really content with all the quality time I had with my mom.  The whole weekend was great (and I totally cried like a baby as I pulled out of the driveway to return to Indy).  But I'm already looking forward to next year - even if the stores are going to open even earlier!

I'm back!

Okay, okay.

I did it again.  I disappeared for weeks upon weeks and left my small but mighty blog followers in the dark about what was going on.

I think it's pretty clear that I am not great at this blog thing.

So thank you, dear readers.  Thanks for hanging in and still being my friend, despite my clear lack of follow through here on the adventures of Liz.  I promise to try harder (again) and write more consistently.

I seem to do better with goals - so here are my blog topics that I have milling around my head:

• My half marathon (oh yeah, that thing...)
• My new job (What!? You say what!?)
• The holidays
• Bobo and Tucker Update (I just lost at least 25% of you, I know.)
• Fun adventures (murder mystery, Black Friday shopping, and more!)
• My next BIG goal (Did that get the 25% back?)\

I need you, my favorite readers, to push me to finish these goals.  A few of you faithful may even bring up topics that I promised to write about, but alas, never appeared.

That's right - I need peer pressure.  Say what you will.

But it will get me to post....

Less Than Three

For those of you that don't know, less than three is the long way of saying "love."  It's computer speak.  It's shorthand - <3.  A heart.
My friend Meggie pointed me to a blog post (via Twitter!) that was titled the same thing as my blog post right now.**  And it got me thinking...

This women's post was fabulous.  Amazing.  I loved that she did it.  And I wanted to do it too.  I have so many things that I love.  Sometimes it helps just to list them out.  So I did, and they are in no particular order:

• Ice, cold Diet Cokes
• My ever-present companions - heating blankets at night, protectors by day, snoring little mischievious devils - Bobo and Tucker
• Things that are made in crockpots
• Starbucks - standard Skinny Vanilla Latte order, and the seasonal specialties of Pumpkin Spice and White Chocolate Peppermint
• The invention of DVR
• Wine - red, white, I don't discriminate
• Candles that smell like Christmas
• Dryer sheets
• Advil, ibuprofen, Tylenol - all the drugs that make my legs work after 13.1 miles
• iPods and their playlists - especially the totally embarrassing songs by Miley Cyrus and Justin Beiber
• Friends - the ones that push me out of my comfort zone, and the ones that catch me afterwards
• Frozen Yogurt
• Delta Gamma - I love the women that are my sisters forever
• My parents - they are always there - enough said
• Blue Moon, Leinenkeugel, Gumballhead....and their friends Bud, Miller, and Coors
• My iPhone - I don't know how I existed before it
• Flip flops

I think that sometimes I forget that the littlest things in life can really make me smile.  These are the things (big or small) that totally make my day.  I'm going to try harder to make sure that I take more time to notice these things.

Who knows - maybe tomorrow there will be another set of things that I <3.  I feel like this should be a never-ending list.

**My apologies to the original blogger....I can't remember where I found you!  Meggie - point it out if you know what I am talking about!

Sometimes I don't want to blog.

My first thought when I am sad or upset is not to blog.  If anything, I use it as an excuse to avoid blogging.  As I said a few posts ago, I thought that this area would be my outlet, and it actually became a scarier place than I originally imagined.

But, I promised Nicole so much on my Pursuit of Happyness.  And that included regular blogging.  I think that she is giving me an easy pass on the past two weeks - a lot of pre-user conference blogging in addition to exhaustion - basically she isn't harassing me about the blogging.  (And I appreciate it!).  But here I am.

Back to the point - I'm here tonight, and I don't want to be.

Getting out of the relationship wasn't easy.  Far from it.  But I did it.  And I was okay.  I really was.  But then sometimes I realize that I lost my best friend, in addition to my boyfriend.  And that is so hard.  Some days there are just things that I want to talk about, work through, have someone comfort me on. And who is that person now??  I do feel especially lost at moments like this.  Am I that crazy person that talks to her dogs?  The answer is yes.  But they don't hold my hand, or give me advice, or tell me that it is all going to be okay.  They smile up at me with their loving eyes, and silently wish for me to give them another treat.

But they don't tell me what to do or how to handle things.  So I tell them I am fine.  I tell everyone I am fine.  Because I will be.  I will be just fine by the time tomorrow morning rolls around.

And so on nights like this, I don't want to blog.  I don't want to do anything.  I want to talk to my best friend.

But I blog.  Because that is what this is for.  Because that's why this blog was started.  And because I know that I am not the only person that has felt like this before.

My Own Pursuit of Happyness*

*I need to preface this post with the fact that I do realize that is is spelled "happiness," not "happyness."  The perfectionist in me is going nuts.

I think that most people know that I have been pseudo-unhappy lately.  I say "pseudo" because it has just been like a cold I cannot shake.  It's not there all the time, but sometimes I am just BLAH.  It's work, it's training, it's exhaustion, it's everything.  And while I consider myself a relatively happy person, it has just seemed harder lately.

I have a tendency to not be committed to myself, but instead by committed to everything else that is in my life.  I used to think that I was selfless.  In my worst days, I felt like I was trying to be a martyr.  But really, what I have come to discover is that I was just avoiding discovering what I really wanted.  So many of these types of realizations go back to the "Breaking Through" class that I took with Nicole....so we'll expand on these later.

For now - back to my Pursuit of Happyness.  I didn't necessarily know what truly made me happy anymore.  And although that concerned me, I didn't want to spend any amount of time thinking about it.  Luckily for me, Nicole did.  Going through her own journey has made her a wonderful person to chat things out with, and she has tons of great ideas for me.  So, much in the spirit of "The Year of Exploration," I handed over my happiness and asked her to put together some type of plan to get me through.  Her job: give me things to do that will create happiness, and allow me to discover what I like.  My job: do them.  NO EXCUSES.

So, we met 2 weeks ago and she handed me a bag.  Inside the bag was a day planner, 2 gift cards, and a list of instructions for my own personal "Pursuit of Happyness.".  I'll summarize here:

• Create a Happy Book (read about Nicole's here)
• Write in the day planner each night before bed - only write the things that made you happy
• No negative or neutral comments
• No skipping days!
• Review each week to remind yourself of what the week brought
• Pursue Life Outside of the Office
• TRAIN - even though I sometimes think it's a chore, I committed to Team in Training, and I do truly feel good after I do it
• Host 1 dinner party a month - invite different types of friends
• Go to the bookstore 1 night a week - buy a foofy drink, grab a book, and read for 2 hours
• This is where 1 one of those gift cards came in (no buying books - just drinks!)
• Make Work Happy
• Buy 1 iTunes song a day
• Hence another gift card...
• Only songs that make you happy
• Create a playlist out of these songs, and make it your "drive to work" mix
• Work semi-normal hours (no more killing 16 hours at the office!)

There were a few other random items, but this is the basics of it.  I live for lists, so this appeals to me down to the very core.  I also am totally ready to allow someone to run my life, tell me what to do.  I'm tired of doing it!

So, how am I doing?  Pretty well, actually.  I am dedicated to the "Happy Book."  Without a doubt, it makes me smile every night.  The other stuff is coming along.  The one that has been hard for me is the work hours - it's right before our large user conference.....Can I use that as an excuse?? 

But I am dedicated to the project because I really want to find out what makes me happy.  I really, really want to be able to make decisions....this is just the first step in that!

It's All About the Energy

Energy.

It's something that I never thought a lot about.  I mean, I've said "I have no energy" or "I feel energized," but I don't know if I have thought about it in different ways.

That changed a little bit this weekend.  Saturday morning was when it all started.  I did another group training run with Team in Training.  I was really, really nervous about the run because it was the first true "long" run - 1 hour.  I didn't necessarily know if I would be able to do it.  I was okay with walking if I needed to, but I still didn't have tons of confidence.  (A big problem - and a post for another day).

Upon arrive at the Leukemia and Lymphoma offices for the run, I ran into an old friend from DePauw.  One of the first things in my head was the memory of how much great energy she always has.  Just that great feeling that exudes off of her body - it's something that I wish I had.  It inspired me to run hard on Saturday morning, and I felt thankful that I had run into her.

Sunday led to another great "energy" experience.  An good friend was in the neighborhood and called me out of the blue for lunch.  Excited, I hurried to meet her.  One of the big things about Katrina is the new energy and calm that just pours out of her.  She has made a lot of changes in her life (better diet, more exercise, different work load), but one of the biggest things that I attribute this new energy off of her is from a class that she took called "Breaking Through."  I honestly don't know a lot about it, but I can tell you one thing - it has truly changed the way that Katrina looks at life.

Our other friend, Nicole, joined us at lunch and Katrina was very excited to ask us to take the class.  Nicole is on her own journey right now, and she definitely is trying to break out of the norm.  I am just ready to spread my wings and learn more about myself.  Because of these things, Katrina was pretty sure that we needed to take this class.  After some discussion, and a little trepidation, Nicole and I have signed up for the class.  I am not sure how I feel about it (there was a part of the application that required me to verify I wasn't pregnant.  What are we doing that pregnant women cannot do!?).

I'm looking forward to seeing what the class has to offer.  If it provides me some new friendships, or even a clearer insight to my own needs, it is probably worth it.  If I can have the type of energy that Katrina has, it would be a miracle.  Nervously, I am worried about having to trust fall (clearly an issue, as I don't trust fall).  I can't imagine a better friend to experience something like this with, so I am cautiously optimistic. 

But you might want to tune in and see how I feel August 24th (the day before the class starts....).

Single....and Loving It?

It's official.  I'm single.

I get that the statement above isn't really that special.  But it's pretty life-changing for me.  I have been with the same person for 6.5 years, and my decision to end the relationship wasn't an easy one.  We live (lived?) together for the past 3 years, and had been making life decisions as a couple for what feels like forever.

I agonized over what I was doing, the whole time knowing that I was making the right decision.  And after I verbalized "I'm unhappy," the ball of "being single" started rolling.  So now, I am single, 25, and embarking on a really big new journey.

Everything is going to be new.  I've never lived alone.  I've never been on a real date (high school and college no longer count).  In 6 years, I have never made a decision that was all about me.  And all of a sudden, I am only making decisions for me.

Everyone asks how I am doing.  And I appreciate it.  But the best way to explain how I feel is to liken it to a graduation.   Graduations are always so bittersweet.  You've just had the best 4 years of your life, and then you have to say goodbye to all of it.  But the experiences and opportunities in front of you are always so exciting.  That's how I feel.  I love my memories, but I know that there is so much more out there for me.

During the whole process, it became clear that I needed to do a few things for me.  After many, many suggestions from my friends, I landed on my 1st decision:  Team in Training.  I decided that I would join The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training group.  What better way than to start a fresh life than with getting myself in shape while helping others?

So, here it goes.  I rented my first apartment alone.  I am packing and moving out of "our" home in the next 7 days.  The pups and I are off to new adventures.  Want to join in?  Keep an eye on the blog!  Follow me through half marathon training, moving, dating, and new adventures.  I promise it won't be boring!


Single....and Loving It?  Correction: Single - and definitely loving it.