gobble gobble

thanksgiving used to be my favorite holiday. not because of the food or drink or family time, but because it was the only 4 day weekend that i got to to take all year. now that my job is so much more flexible, the time off isn't as important to me. and lately i've been taking a look at people's holiday behaviors and traditions, and can't help but wonder if people do what they do because they *want to* or because you don't mess with tradition.

even as a kid, i've always thought that the macy's day parade was super cheesy. i don't understand the excitement over huge balloon cartoon characters. and don't get me started on the dance numbers..

you'd think as a frugal shopper, black friday would be right up my alley, right? the answer to that is not just no, but HELL NO. i can't understand why *anyone* would wake up early in the cold, stand in line, and run the risk of getting trampled to save $100 on a printer. i like to find my deals without so many people, preferably on the computer while in my jammies. i save my energy for the day after Christmas sales, which are much less crowded.

this year jared had to work, and i had 4 options on how to spend my holiday.
#1) just me, the pups, and a big pumpkin pie
#2) hang out with my friend marc and his two bachelor buddies
#3) dinner with my friend jess and her family in castle rock
#4) 4 mile turkey trot with my friend deb and dinner at her house afterwards, pups included

since i am now facing the realities of looking good in a wedding dress, i opted for #4 and planned to be ready at 8am to make our race costumes*.

thursday morning, i woke up with a killer sore throat and felt a cold coming on. i knew deb wouldn't believe that i was sick, so i decided to load up on throat lozenges and just take it easy during the walk.

our costumes took a little longer to make than we anticipated, so by the time we checked into the race, we were already in the last wave, the family fun run. we started the race and right after passing the 1 mile walk, a friend in our group wanted to cut across the park and finish early, "before they run out of beer!". suddenly, i started to see the appeal of these races and realized why so many people participated.. it's not the exercise, it's the party afterwards!

luckily, several others in our group, myself included, wanted to keep walking. so we did another mile and a bit, and then we walked by the bathrooms. some people had to go, so we stopped, fully intending to keep going. but then we passed the beer garden and decided that we would just take a quick stop to have a beer and then finish the race. i'm sure you can guess how well that plan worked. before we knew it, they were packing up the beer garden and shooing us out. the race was over, and we hadn't even crossed the finish line or returned our shoe timer chips. oops.

the rest of the day was fairly uneventful - we cooked and ate and drank and burped and loosened our pants and watched movies. we were interrupted for about 30 minutes by my friends 23 yr old roommate and her guy friends who stopped by on their way to the game. after listening to their stupid, 23-yr old banter, i felt about 100 years old, but i digress.

throughout the day, my sore throat started to develop into a full blown cold, which i am still battling today. i decided to take my pie with me and leave early because i'm pretty sure i was grossing everyone out with all my sniffling.

but even with my cold, i had a great day - the trot was definitely outside my comfort zone at first, but something i realized that i enjoyed and could do again. it's so nice to have the freedom to do what i *want* on my holiday's, instead of what is expected, and that's a tradition i hope to stick with.

*which consisted of t-shirts that said "goofy gobbler" on the front and "shake your tail feathers" on the back, along with a headband and tail made out of real turkey feathers that deb found on the internet. they were quite the attention grabbers at the race.

say yes to the dress

i received a call from the bridal shop 3 weeks ago saying that my dress was in. this made me more anxious than i would have thought.

i have never been the type of girl who dreamed about her wedding dress. when i got engaged, the dress choices were so overwhelming. i just wanted to find something that looked ok on me and didn't cost a fortune and get the heck out of the dress shop. there is something about being the center of attention and surrounded by expensive white delicate material that is very unnerving to me.

the first time i went shopping was with my mom and my friend erica. we went to a little boutique in seattle and i cursed myself for not wearing cuter undies. i was very nervous because i am not thrilled with my body right now and was convinced that i would be the only girl in the world who couldn't find a wedding dress that would look good. to my surprised, there were a few that i liked, but i refused to buy them because it was my first foray into dress shopping.

the second time i went was with my mom and sister in law when they were visiting me in denver. we went to a larger store and started grabbing anything that i thought might work. three dresses into it, i put one on, looked in the mirror, and thought hmm.. this actually isn't that bad.. wait a minute.. do i have a WAIST?? my mom and sil both loved it, but i wanted to try on a few more*. so after rejecting 4 or 5 more dresses, i stopped and told my mom that i actually think the one we all liked was it, and, priced at half of what i was planning on spending, it was a deal i couldn't refuse.

so my mom and sil kind of squealed and had me put it back on and i studied myself, mentally taking note of what i needed to spend extra time on at the gym.. i wondered aloud if it was really the one.. could it be this easy? is it ok that i'm not over emotional and crying? is it ok that i am being so practical about this and will i end up not liking it as the wedding day nears? will i kick myself for not trying on 100's of dresses until i found one that i didn't want to take off?

since the price was right and the dress looked good, i decided to get it.

so today when i went into the shop to pick up my dress, i was a little nervous that it wouldn't fit or look as good as i thought it did the day i picked it out. to my relief, it zipped up just fine. and i still like it. it's not uber fancy or frilly, but you know what? neither am i! and that's when i smiled to myself and realized that i *had* found the perfect dress *for me*, and i'm sure with a few alterations, i will be over emotional and crying and refusing to take it off.



*had i given into my ocd, i would have tried on every dress under the sun just to make sure that there wasn't something better. luckily, we did not have the time for that. and i got tired after about 10 dresses - those suckers are heavy!

boring blog = boring life?

a friend recently told me that my blogs have become way less interesting since i started dating jared. i do not deny this. fortunately, boring blogs don't mean that i have a boring life, it just means that i have less time to write about it.

when i was single, i didn't have someone to listen to my rants in person. i didn't have someone to tell about my day every night. now that i do, it seems like it's too much effort to post it here as well. i don't feel the need to get it out anymore.

plus there's facebook.

it's been hectic lately. i fell like time is zooming by. work has been having me travel to albuquerque and salt lake city 2 times per month. we have our house on the market and are fixing up the destroyed rental. the wedding is only 6 months away and i am trying to keep the planning on schedule. and the stress of having too much weight and not enough money are really starting to show.

and as wonderful as it is to live with j, sometimes the things we do are not always in my best interest. like when i should be going to the gym, yet i am sucked into some dumb show j is watching on animal planet. or i should be cooking some healthy meal, but agree with j that we should order pizza. or i should be not spending money, yet drop $200 on a new GPS because j doesn't have one. he is able to help me justify all my bad decisions. he adds an extra layer of needed will-power to do something good.

of course, we have had several discussions lately where he has been made aware of this. but ultimately, it is not his problem - it's still my (bad) decisions. so i'm stepping up. going to the gym. cooking a healthy meal. and he has started to become very supportive, even willing to start changing some of his habits.

we'll get it figured out, and i can stop making excuses.