why do they call it a bandwagon?

so, a friend of mine and a friend of hers are both involved in new efforts to trim waistlines and get in shape...

for the last 3 months or so, i've been making an extremely good effort at going to the gym regularly, working out 3-4 times a week... i do feel like i'm making progress, but i feel like it's time to change it up a bit...

i'd heard some buzz about the couch to 5k program for some time... and since i have a few friends trying it out AND i want to start participating in 5ks, i thought it might be a good specific plan to start on...

i have already been doing some running as part of my work out plan, but this will help me to be more intentional about it...

fortunately, i'm already in the habit of going to the gym, and at first, this will actually shorten my gym time... which is a good thing this week due to a bit of a hectic schedule...

i'm incredibly sleepy today... 5 shots of espresso just weren't enough... sad commentary on my life...

maybe running will help!

9:15 a.m. on a saturday.

there have been many times over the last few days where i have had the following thought, "i need to blog about that." unfortunately, right now, i have no idea what any of those situations were that led me to think that.

this might have been one of those things... there is a personality test that categorizes people by the following 4 animals: lion, otter, golden retriever, beaver. One will have different levels of each one as a part of their personality makeup...

i am a lion... it didn't really come as a surprise to me when i took this a year ago... but this week at work, we had a team-building exercise when we looked at our team's personality makeup and i found a lot of it almost comical... so i had to go back and look at the whole personality profile... i sent it to a couple of friends who said they laughed a lot and picked out some comments to send back to me... like this one...

When communicating with Robyn:
Don't ask rhetorical questions or useless questions.

There are good aspects to my personality... and positive aspects of it... but this section made me a little sad, but mostly made me laugh... i sound like a total jerk... oh well.

Robyn tends to influence people by being direct, friendly and results-oriented. She may lack the patience to listen and communicate with slower acting people. She may lose interest in what others are saying if they ramble or don't speak to the point. Her active mind is already moving ahead. She challenges people who volunteer their opinions. Robyn likes people who present their case effectively. When they do, she can then make a quicker assessment or decision. Her creative and active mind may hinder her ability to communicate to others effectively. She may present the information in a form that cannot be easily understood by some people. She should exhibit more patience and ask questions to make sure that others have understood what she has said. She likes people who give her options as compared to their opinions. The options may help her make decisions, and she values her own opinion over that of others!

and to be fair, i have an "adapted" style... and in that one, my "lion-ness" is way lower...

sometimes it's not easy to look in the mirror...

speaking of mirrors... i had become weary of looking into them and not liking what i see, physically...

for the last 3 months, i have ventured to the gym on a regular basis (at least 3 times a week, except for one week off)... and no, i haven't just gone to the gym... everytime i've been there, i've been working out, too!

i am finally getting to the point where i feel like i can actually see some results...

and this week, i started walking/running on the treadmill instead of just always sticking with the elliptical... i love the elliptical, but i want to start doing some 5ks... and i realized this week (painfully) that running uses different muscles than the elliptical and that it is REALLY important to stretch before/after running... (that was an extremely painful lesson!)

there is a 5k the first weekend of may that i may try to participate in... i don't think that i will run much of it, but i at least want to get out there and start it up!

it's been really helpful to have support of others - a friend to go to the gym with, and friends and family who have been supportive in my efforts... my workout mix on my ipod is also a tremendous help!!! :)

speaking of supportive friends... i have had a few people tell me that they would love to see my name on a byline for some entertainment-type articles... so, in what little time i have in my life, i might start a tv blog... just thoughts and recaps of some of my favorite shows... and i think i might submit a few... i probably should look at the possibilities before i start... but that wouldn't be very "lion" of me... it would be a fun thing for me, though.

ok... need to go pack... due to a fun, unexpected schedule covering for me at the bux, i'm taking a mini-break with my mom... and i am very much looking forward to going away... even if it's only for 24 hours or so...

i can't believe i've put together coherent (somewhat) thoughts this early on a saturday... and without any coffee yet today (my venti mericana - as the "locals" call it... a venti americano--sometimes with a 5th shot of espresso--with cream and sugar is my current drink of choice...)

coffee and packing await... happy weekend, everyone!

the great buck howard

last night k asked me if i wanted to go see the great buck howard... i hadn't heard anything about it... so she told me it had john malkovich, colin hanks, tom hanks, and steve zahn... and that it was about a washed up magician who gets his second break... i am mostly creeped out by john malkovich... but i just washed burn after reading not too long ago... and i actually liked him in that... and i like little hanks and big hanks... and steve zahn (and emily blunt, who was also in it)...

and i didn't have anything else to do last night... so off we went...

i'm wondering if the best way to go see movies is to have no expectations going in... this is the second time k has suggested a movie that i hadn't seen a preview for (the last one was slumdog millionaire - pre-oscars, btw)... and that second time that i've been really impressed...

it might not have been a great movie, but i found myself "buying in" a lot... and it was not trashy... it was one of those movies that has glimmers of goodness in it... so it won my approval...

good times, indeed...

now on to gilmore and A LOT of chores and laundry before work tonight...

p.s... after i wrote "slumdog millionaire," the song from it came on the music channel on tv... weird.

work...

i'm working late - waiting on stuff to finish printing so that i can collate it... technology has been helpful this week... but it's not perfect... and until it can not only do all that i need it to concerning mail merges and duplex printing (and knowing that i need a different piece of paper for page 1 than pages 2 and 3) while making me a cup of coffee or changing the oil in my car, i will not give it my full loyalty...

and in all honesty, i would settle for the "doing everything that i need it to concerning mail merges and duplex printing with multiple types of paper" bit...

..::hold my hand::..

i might be starting a new project involving a mannequin hand i recently received in the mail.

kind of like a chain letter only less involved, more fun, and a lot crazier...

here's the idea:

i will follow these steps and then send the hand to someone else who would follow the process and then send it on to someone else...

1. paint/decorate the nails any way you would like... no writing on the hand or altering it in such a way that would hinder the integrity of the hand...
2. take a photo with the hand in a prominent location in your city or town... or something that represents your city/town/state... but it should be where you live, not where you're going on vacation...
3. send the photo along with the location information and a clever title involving the word "hand" to [the email address i will create]...
4. send the hand to a friend, including the instructions of what to do with the hand...
5. track the progress of the hand on [blog for hand around the world or some other clever title]...

i'm wondering if it will be as fun as i think it will be... the sad part would be that i would have to part with the hand for an infinite amount of time... i'm wondering if i should buy a new hand for the project or send mine and replace it with another...

it could be a lot of fun...

what do you think? would you participate if the hand was sent to you?

weekend update.

it's been a great weekend... i mean, the time is too short, but i have been incredibly thankful to spend time with some good friends... see a good show, eat some good food, watch some great tv...

it's been amazing to spend time with some people who know me and who love me...

highlights:
time with friends, in general
butch walker show
us border cantina
nashville flea market
hello kitty waffles
otter's
mckays
an incredible music swap
gilmore girls

lowlights:
the somewhat crazy weather
my feet not being prepared for long walks in flip flops yet this year
not being able to spend as much time with people as i want to

it's been a good weekend... but it's not over... and i still have a long drive tomorrow and more friends to see...

the first of what i'm sure will be many...

so there are a lot of things that i want to write about... the bachelor, my bad experience today at the job, an annoying lady at the bank, potential layoffs happening soon, the song "Africa" by Toto, pandora.com, the song "Taylor the Latte Boy" by Kristin Chenowith, the interesting people at the gym that i see at least 4 times a week...

but for tonight, i will focus my attention on something that happened recently...

i was on my way to work last thursday... i had just been to the dmv where i had a minor crisis/heart attack scare/panic attack... it all worked out, and i left the dmv and drove up the road to make my way to work... i stopped at a stoplight and looked in my rearview mirror to check my makeup (i gave up putting on makeup on my way to work a month ago... so i was NOT putting on makeup - seriously.)... and i saw something that i haven't seen before...

sticking out of the top of my head (not laying down) was a greyish-white hair... not only was it being rebellious by turning a different color (that i'm not fond of), but it was also being unreasonable by sticking up rather than laying down like the rest of them...

now i know that by pulling out that one hair, i was ensuring that "2 more would grow in its place." but i am pretty sure that is 1) a lie, and 2) not something i want to think about when i have one sticking out of my head... i had lost the ability to think about it logically at that point... i also needed to make sure it was real and that i wasn't just imagining it (i am feeling older these days)...

i didn't pull it out and discard of it... instead, i carefully clutched the teenager-ish-rogue-greyish-white hair between my index finger and thumb for the rest of the car ride and all the way into the building, up the elevator and to my desk. i then placed it on a green post-it and put tape over it, much like a mother would do with a baby's curl after a first hair cut... this is one memory i don't want to forget... i want to be reminded daily that life is short... i must make the most of it... and that i must remember to buy hair color the next time i go to wal-mart.