A Starbucks day

This past weekend was wonderful though busy. B was in town, and we had a wonderful weekend together, me showing him around my hometown (and demonstrating the fact that there's not a whole lot to do here).

Today, I got to slept in and slept great (though with very weird dreams, as usual). I got ready, went to Planet Fitness and joined the No Judgement Gym, aka Purple Gym. I worked out on the Arc Trainer (I like it much better than the ellipticals), and then went home to get ready for a Starbucks work sessions with Beeya. After getting my shaken black iced tea, we went to Panera to get her some food, followed by hanging out at Starbucks for several hours. I got a recommendation letter written, wrote in my journal, read some of, Traveling with Pomegranates wrote in my journal about my favorite parts of the book I read, played around online, helped B with her paper stuff, and drank a delicious frappuccino (I'm addicted to caramel frappuccinos).

Afterward, I walked across the parking lot over to Target to get myself the bedspread that I'd been wanting (for only $28 thank you). I'm still reading through Full Catastrophe Living too, trying to get started on my mindfulness practices while I'm here.

I'm thinking I'm going to go to the Career Center here at USC, just to see if I've overlooked something totally awesome that I could be doing, rather than doing research that I don't love. We'll see - probably end up telling me that I'm best suited for a job teaching math, but who knows!

Also, I think the airline industry is totally bizarre, though I'm glad I've figured out the pricing on the route to DC from here. Turns out that if you try to buy a ticket more than 2 weeks ahead, the ticket cost $270. Then, two weeks ahead, on a Friday, the price goes up to $539. Then, if you wait until Tuesday (so now about 10 days ahead), the price for the last flight of the evening drops to $179, only if you fly on Friday evening and come back on Monday or Tuesday. All other times are still $539. So, if you're flexible about your timing, or if you plan on flying Friday - Monday, you can get a cheap ticket. Weird, very weird.

In other news, I'm hoping to go back to Ithaca the weekend of Oct. 22, probably coming on Thursday the 21st, although it depends on the plane ticket price going down from the current price of about $420... I miss my $200 tickets I used to get to go home.

Gym #3

Today I started off the day meeting with a personal trainer, Karen, at Hampton Hill Athletic Club. The benefit - it's literally 3 minutes away, next to Target, Marble Slab, and Starbucks (yep, that's dangerous). The training session went well, I like the gym, and I got a very good workout. We'll see how sore I am tomorrow, but hopefully not too bad.

After some time for rest and doing my mindfulness meditation time, I went to hang out with Beeya and swim in a salt-water pool, while soaking up some sun! I love having sister time whenever we want it! We went to Chipotle followed by Target for some meandering.

Tonight, my parents and I had pulled pork sandwiches for dinner, slow-cooked in good old Sticky Fingers Carolina barbeque sauce (yes, it's the yellow BBQ sauce, mmmm....).

Right now I'm reading Traveling with Pomegranates and really enjoying it. It's by Sue Monk Kidd (author of The Secret Life of Bees) and her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor. THe mother daughter relationship reminds me a lot of my mom and I. I'm only 50 pages into it, and sadly have to return the book to my mom's friend tomorrow, but I'll get it back in a couple days. (After their book club meets at my mom's friend's house, where she leads the discussion.)

Last night, I discovered gluten-free peanut butter and chocolate swirl gluten-free cheesecake at the local natural foods store! It was quite tasty :). Although it's kind of dangerous having all these new, yummy gluten-free foods to eat. Good thing I'm finding a gym!

Great weekend

Yesterday included breakfast with my mom (with a fantastic peach), a leisurely walk, seeing Alison and Erin, going to Yogenfruz for the first time, and decorating my room! I like having color up.

Today - pancake breakfast, coffee with Alison and Erin, a walk around the Horseshoe with a puppy and a dog, shopping around 5 points, caramels with sea salt, and a chill evening. It was a great day.

This week: chiropractor, trying out another gym, doctor's appointment, scheduling more doctors appointments, and more reading.

The puzzle

The finished, glued, and framed puzzle! Note how absolutely large it is! More pictures available on my Flickr stream above.

Home!!

I made it home today! Good old Columbia, SC... My car has been emptied, my room a bit overwhelming in terms of the stuff to sort and find somewhere to put away. I am so glad to be done with the driving - an hour into today's 8 hour drive I was already ready to be done. It's nice to be home though, and I'm ready to get started on the process of feeling better.

Just happy!

Today, I'm happy. Just happy. It's great! I got to sleep in (until 8:45!!!), have a leisurely morning, said an unfamiliar prayer* which I really liked, leisurely breakfast, got to chat with my sister finally, worked on my awesome puzzle**, rest, relax, take care of some business, and tonight I get to go out to dinner with B and his friends followed by mini-golf. I haven't played mini golf in forever, and I'm planning on having fun with how bad I am tonight ;).

It's an amazing feeling of freedom to do only what will make me feel better, in the short term and in the long term. I AM SO GLAD I DECIDED TO DO THIS!!!!!

*The prayer this morning had this phrase that really sums up my goal for this fall:

"Send down, then, upon him Thy healing, and make him whole, and endue him with a constancy vouchsafed by Thee, and a tranquillity bestowed by Thy highness. Thou art, verily, the Healer, the Preserver, the Helper, the Almighty, the Powerful, the All-Glorious, the All-Knowing." - Baha'u'llah

I think I want to look into more of the Baha'i writings about tranquillity. I like the word and the idea.

** Over the last week, I have been working on a 2000 piece puzzle of Vincent van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night. It's crazy hard but a lot of fun actually. I really enjoy doing puzzles, and it's nice to have the time and space to work on one. Plus, B and my host have helped me, and it's been good times. It's amazing how a puzzle can fill as much of your mental space as you want it to - you can do it while having a conversation, while singing along to music, while listening to music, or let it occupy your mind completely. I've been listening to Pandora a lot - my Glee station is fantastic for puzzling. It's dangerous though, because I want to buy so much music.