Let's hop in the car & drive!

That's right, in less than 12 hours I will be driving up the coast to Northern California on a little vacation!

You might be wondering "why don't you just fly, its only a 2 hour flight." Well, a little background on my father, he loves to drive. This is the man who wanted to rent a car in public transportation friendly Seattle. So, driving is the logical choice.

Our little trip is actually to visit great-aunt to make sure she's doing okay, but I thought "why don't we make it fun!" Since we are driving, I planned little pit-stops along the way. I took 2 days off of work and we are going to Hearst Castle, Monterey Bay Aquarium, California Academy of Science, and Fisherman's wharf. I'm so excited!!

I'm taking my brother's dSLR and hope to some good pictures!

See you on the flip side :)

Six on Saturday

1) Farmer's Market
Now that I am back in my hometown, I go to the same farmer's market my mom took us to as kids. I still remember loading up our canvas bags with peaches, plums, and apricots.
I woke up early to enjoy tables and tables of fresh fruit and veggies (seriously, they were piled high.) It was so crowded! Guess the organic/all natural/support local growers trend has really caught on.
There's also food from local restaurants and bakeries. That's how I found out about this wonderful bakery that makes gluten-free things!

I'm looking forward to noshing on these goodies in the upcoming week. It's a race trying to eat it all up before the fruit spoils . Usually I win ;)

2) Library
Free books? And free dvd rentals? Yes please! Am I the only one who checks out an obscene amount of books? I don't know why I get so greedy, but I do know that there is no way I can read all these books before they are due.


3) Animal shelter
Today also consisted of a spontaneous stop at the shelter (the same one I got my dog from!) I missed the turn for the gas station and my sister convinced me to continue driving to the shelter. There are so many wonderful animals there!


4) Running
Besides going to the animal shelter, my sister also convinced me to go running with her. I avoided it and hoped she would forget, but it didn't deter my ex-cross country running sister. I felt really good after wards, so thank goodness I have a sister!


5) Sleeping/napping
Weekends+ warm doggie... pretty self-explanatory.


6) Movie night!
I am not a scary movie fan, but am some how I did want to watch the original version on "The Ring." The ironic thing is that I stopped liking scary movies because of "The Ring." I was seriously freaked out after watching it in high school. I watched most of the movie hidden between my fingers, and still screamed (I think I heard everyone else in the theater screaming.)

I'm going to call this my "spontaneous sister Saturday," how's that for alliteration!

Hope everyone's weekend is sunny and fun!

Wednesday Words

I have a friend who loves nothing more than collecting quotes. She can read books, watch TV, and find quotes to fill up her journal. Yes, she has an entire journal. I read some of her quotes once, and wondered what made them significant to her. Some seemed profound, while others didn't appear special at all. They ranged from classic literature to Gilmore Girls. When I asked her why she chose those quotes, she said that they made her happy or they reminded her of a moment in her life.

Since I've been away from blogging for a while, I was going to write some excuse on how I busy I've been..blah..blah..blah.. but instead I stumbled across this quote:

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangeo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."
- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

And I realized, that I have been busy... however I also been lazy. I've been making to-do lists (as suggested in a previous post), but still I have plenty of time to go online (like now!), watch TV, walk around the house bothering the dog and looking for food, and lie in bed.

I'm going to try to keep this in mind all week! But for the record, Einstein and Pasteur never had Youtube or dvr to distract them :)

Any good quotes pushing you through the week?

One month reflections!

It's been a little over a month since I "started" my list, and how am I doin'?

A little recap of May:

• I took the GRE, now know I need to prepare harder for it. Ooops
• Finished my Thailand album, all I need to do is journal!
  
• Had a pizza party and in the process found a really great recipe
• Started biochemistry as a vet school pre-req
• Watched "Some like it Hot," only one out of the very large list!
• Commenting on blogs I like, and have found great ones to follow. With my new found health-kick, I love reading about others who are exercising and eating well :)
• Bought me a very large box of vitamins (fingers crossed, gave me the boost I needed to avoid the colds floating around work)
• Wrote the opening line of my personal statement, and brainstormed! I think blogging has helped me find new writing skills.
  

In May I think I've done more than I did in the last 6 months! Its a slow, but steady start :)
I'm really glad I made this list, though the 101 tasks still seem daunting. Having this tangible list has pushed me to do things I've put off for the past 4 years (my college years!)

Its weird, in a month's time I have felt a slight shift in myself. I am actually planning events, instead of being the passive person. I've already planned a hangout with my near-by college friends, and some old high school friends. I feel so proud of myself :) Especially since losing touch with people is a bad habit of mine. I want to kick myself when I think about it. I had 2 really good friends in high school, we were inseparable (I even lived with one of them). But somehow, during college I drifted away from them.

I feel a bit like a "debbie downer" with the end of this post, but that's how my May went! I'm making a smallish dent in my list, learning new things about myself, and trying to improve on my faults!

No time for June gloom!

Exciting, exciting... can you believe its JUNE?! That means, to me, its summer. I feel like every month I say, "can you believe its January, May, etc?" But seriously, June is big for me. It means I've been graduated for over 1 year?!?
I don't want to say I've accomplished nothing in that year (I did get a job and some other small things), but let's just say I'm far from what I expected. For example, I had envisioned being done with a personal statement, pre-req classes, and running multiple 5 or 10k races.

Ok, ok.. this isn't complaining and pity party time. Just wanted to say that I was a little disappointed in my laziness. And my whole reason for this story is to explain that blogging and my 101 list are a way of getting out of my funk. Get going. Don't let my twenties pass my by. Live it up (or something like that..)After reading reviews and opinions on Jillian Michael's 30 day shred, I finally dished out the $9 to buy it. Sometimes I go through the looongest process of rationalizing a purchase. I knew that $9 was very inexpensive, but I kept thinking "what if it doesn't work" or "what if I hate it." Really, that was just procrastination speaking. For goodness sakes, sometimes I spend that much on a meal! Day 1 starts now, I hope I'm not too out of shape!

#51 is drink at least 1 liter of water daily, but I just read on Mayo Clinic that its really is 2 liters for fluid maintenance. Should I change it? I usually measure my intake in units of "nalgene," and I do 1 nalgene no problem. Hmmm, if I'm going to be exercising I'll need more water too.

Also, thanks for the suggestions on how to organize. I was, and still am, a little overwhelmed. It's as if I was able to survive and organize in college, but it all blew out of my brain upon graduation. Here I go, I'm reverting back to intense college mode: complete with making to-lists of everything and micromanaging. Rawr.. Chaos and procrastination, you should be scared. Very scared.