Give Up.

Posted on October 31, 2011 by la_florecita

Yesterday I made a not-too-ambitious to-do list, or so I thought. It included yoga, buying a shower curtain, buying succulents/cactus since apparently this drought is going to last 10 years, planting them and going to a group meditation (my first since moving here).

All that’s doable, right? Unless you’re in a Philadelphia [one documented here]. I went to yoga, a class I hadn’t been to before, arriving 1 minute late and I went into the foyer-room and peeked into the class. Everyone was laying in savasana with blankets and blocks as props. Wait, I thought I was late, not coming in at the end of class. No one was moving. I crept out and checked the schedule. Yup. Right place, right time. Two more people went in. I waited and looked in again and there still seemed to be no sign of an instructor and everyone was laying still. This was unlike any yoga class I’ve ever been to and it freaked me out and I left.

My friend texted me before yoga to see if I wanted to buy new running shoes today. I said sure and that I’d pick her up after yoga. Or, I thought I said that.

Since I was now skipping yoga, I decided to go to Whole Foods Market and get a smoothie and some cactus in their garden section. But I didn’t want to park underground and make a big ordeal out of it, using escalators and whatnot. I wanted to zip in, zip out. I circled the lot 5 times and got no spots but did notice they’d replaced all the cactus with pumpkins.

So I left and went to pick up my friend, who was all, “Why are you here?” I scrolled up through my texts and sure enough, never said I’d pick her up, just that we could go after yoga. At any rate, we did go shoe shopping and the girl was super helpful and I got a new pair of running shoes. (You’re supposed to replace them every 8 months… ooops.)

 

This was the first and only productive thing that would happen.

We left the running store and went a few blocks over to West Elm where I was going to buy a shower curtain I’d already picked out. Which they didn’t have. Not even a display version. Every other shower curtain? Yes.

So I gave up and we went and had lunch on the lake and I had a giant michelada in a Mason Jar. It’s all you can do, at that point.

I dropped my friend off and on the way home decided I did have control over one more thing and I could at least do something productive that I needed to do this weekend. I went to the metro station to buy my bus pass.

No lie. I came home and knew better than to do anything else on my list. If I tried to go to the group sit, I’d get lost. If I tried to pour myself a gin drink, the bottle that’s been on our fridge wouldn’t be there. Dave suggested we have sex (surprise!) but I’m sure even that would have gone wrong somehow and I didn’t want to find out how.

So we ate cereal and watched Halloween Simpsons and today is a new day.

 

Posted in Austin, bleeding heart, design, food, gardening, green, maybe, meditation, non-/consumerism, product, running, stabby, the boy, yoga | Leave a comment

Happy Day

Posted on October 26, 2011 by la_florecita

I should have played the lottery yesterday. Everything was coming up Jen.

Remember how I threw a fit last year about my bus route changing right after I had decided to ride the bus all over town? Well, the route changed again. In August, apparently. I’d seen my bus on the west side and then I noticed that the route name had changed. Yesterday I decided to look into it.

You guys, they changed my route so I can take ONE bus to work. Walk 1.5 blocks, hop on the bus, 12 minutes later, hop off and walk half a block to work. I was over the moon. I looked up work -> volunteering -> home and those are one bus and minimal walking as well. Over! The! Moon!

Then after lunch we got a bunch of samples at work. I asked my coworker if they’d be putting anything else out since we’re downstairs and nobody ever tells us- I’d need to know. He said, “Are you looking for anything specific?” I was caught off guard, no, I’m grateful for whatever samples there are, I just enjoy the “shopping.” Buuuuuuttttt if he were to have anything by this one specific facial care line, I wouldn’t turn it down. His response? “Today is your lucky day! Come up here and don’t tell anyone, I don’t want to get bum rushed.” I got a whole box full of expensive facial care products!

And then I had a good talk with my boss about my future!

And then I came home and made soup. I’d tried to make 2 squash soups in the past few months. The first squash I tried it with was a Hubbard and when I cut it open all the seeds has sprouted. I tried to make the soup anyway since people on the internet insisted it was fine. Soup was a giant fail. And last week I tried to make a winter squash and apple soup. I peeled and cut up all the apples. I cut open the butternut squash and the seeds slopped out all slimy-like and the flesh was gray.

Gross, right? We had pasta instead.

I exchanged it this weekend (not the actual squash, I showed the photo) and last night finally, FINALLY made a delicious fall soup.

I gotta say, it was a good day.

[This post was too happy, I promise to bring some hate in the next post.]

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Back on Track. Except Not. [UPDATED]

Posted on October 24, 2011 by la_florecita

At work, we say we’re “on track” when we’re working out regularly and not eating, say, queso at every meal. Around our office you’ll hear things like, “I’m getting back on track tomorrow,” or “OMG I won’t be able to get back on track until Monday.”

I’ve been “off track” for about a month and a half now. Last weekend I was exhausted. I got rest and I chilled but the previous 2 weeks had definitely taken a toll. Know how I knew? After a chill weekend, I poked myself in the eye repeatedly on purpose on Sunday night. Man, those contacts were really stuck to my eye! Come on contacts, get out!! Argghhh, why won’t they move?

Wasn’t wearing contacts. All day, didn’t wear them. Wore non-prescription sunglasses, went shopping (usually involves reading signage far away) and had the thought that my contacts weren’t that good anymore and maybe my eyesight has gotten worse and I should go for a checkup. Nope. Naked eyeballs. And now? Watering eyeballs. Lots of water, even the next morning.

So I decided maybe I was still tired. I didn’t attempt to work out last week and couldn’t work out over the weekend due to a certain monthly cycle. Unless you consider watching Netflix and drinking hot tea while snuggled with a heating pad working out.

Let’s not.

So today was going to be the day. I packed up my yoga clothes AND my running clothes (because WHO KNOWS how I’d feel once I got to the gym) and set off to work. Lunch was packed, apple for breakfast, I was on track!

AND I was going to start a new yoga class. I decided on the Beginner 1-hour class at 4:45. I was too scared to be in an intermediate class for 2 hours. And then I decided to stop being such a pussy and just go to the 6pm intermediate class. I’ve been doing yoga for 10 years now! If the poses are too intense, I know how to do easier variations. I know how to listen to my body.

Yay new yoga class!

And then we had to get an ad to press by 5, which became by 6, which became by the end of the day. I left work at 6:30pm NOT on track. I thought, “I’ll just go home and do some stretches I read about in Yoga Journal.”

HAHAHAHAHA.

What I meant was, “I’ll go home, walk IKE and make dinner, then watch Luther with my husband and blog while he watches Top Gear.” [Actually, this can be considered "on track," it's just a different track.]

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I can hit the treadmill before work. Let me just set that alarm for 5:30…

[UPDATE: Do I need to mention that I did NOT get up at 5:30? No? But I did go to Pilates the next day so I am indeed, back on track.)

Posted in Austin, blog, food, joys of being a woman, running, stabby, the boy, workahol, yoga | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

I Saved Up for This

Posted on October 19, 2011 by la_florecita

Well, we opened a store a week ago on Wednesday and if you’ve been reading my blog, you know how stressful that is. If you haven’t, read this.

Knowing what I’d be getting into, I began conserving my energy weeks before the opening. I stopped attempting to work out, I didn’t do extracurricular activities. Some nights I didn’t even turn on the TV (I KNOW). I kept the house clean because I didn’t need any extra stress. I had invitations to things and plans to make and I couldn’t even think about them. AND I knew that once I got back from the store opening I wouldn’t get my normal makeup days because we had some crazy deadlines. The thought of all of it made me tired.

Which is what Steaz is for. I tweeted that this stuff is nap in a can.

Tired? Just have a Steaz. It won’t make you jittery like coffee, but you will find yourself sprinting when you’d normally walk. Like down the hall back from the bathroom.

(Polish? Shellac, of course, a new store opening tradition.)

At any rate, after a busy 5 days of work, I boarded a 6:50am flight to go open said store. What followed was 10-15 hour days, 5 of them in a row. Coffee or chai latte in the morning, Steaz in the afternoon, projects lined up and knocked out like a row of dominoes. With a smile. Mostly.

The first night I was there, I was working on a project that would end up taking me 2 full days and I was like, “What? We’re leaving? Already? I can go all night!”

Everyone looked at me crazy, but hey, this is what I was saving it all up for.

 

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Sorry, no beige.

Posted on October 5, 2011 by la_florecita

I have to blog this now before I read any more super awesome tributes/articles and I decide I’m not worthy to add to the remembrance.

You know how there are bumper stickers and t-shirts that say, “I’m not from Texas but I got here as fast as I could?” No? Because you’re not from Texas? Well, they exist and that’s how I feel about Macs.

I didn’t grow up using a Mac like lots of people are tweeting/posting. My dad was a PC guy the whole time I lived at home. I used a Mac for the first time in college for a Commercial Art class. And I hated it. I hated dragging the disk icon to the trash can to eject it. I hated “delete” instead of “backspace.” Eventually I got used to it and it was just something new I was learning, like Quark or Illustrator. And then something inexplicable happened and I preferred it.

When I moved to Colorado to finish my bachelors, I only used the Mac lab. (Also because it was always empty. I could work on my graphic design projects or write my papers in peace. After learning Quark, I wrote all my college papers in Quark instead of Word.) I had this sticker on my dorm door.

I graduated and moved back to Houston and got my first (of many) graphic design job(s). My boss, for all his faults, loved to update the computers and make sure we had the latest and greatest computers which meant there was an Apple graveyard in the back of the office. I asked and he gave me my first Mac. Er, a beige one.

Many more years later I applied to work at Apple because I hated my job and just wanted to do something fulfilling. I got the job and opened the Memorial City store. Check out this photo I found of myself from that summer.

From the moment I met Dave during Apple training I couldn’t stop talking to him. I still haven’t. We got married almost 3 years after meeting in that freezing conference room at The Galleria. He was the first guy I dated that used a Mac. While I can’t attribute that to our compatibility, it’s probably 30% of it. (Not kidding. If he’d been a die-hard PC user and we’d met under some other circumstance? MAYBE 2 dates.) When we got married, I emailed Steve Jobs to say thanks. He didn’t write back, but he was probably figuring out what consumers didn’t know they wanted and inventing it.

RIP, Steve Jobs. And thank you for everything.

Posted in colorado, design, elopement, la familia, manzana, non-/consumerism, product, the boy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Missoni for Target: follow-up

Posted on October 5, 2011 by la_florecita

The day the collection came out (Tuesday, September 13th) I had a 7:30am flight to Honolulu. And the online site wasn’t supposed to go live until 8am. So I was just going to take my chances trying to order on my phone or see what was left when I landed in Honolulu.

On a whim, I got online at 5am (when I should have been finishing up packing) and Missoni items were totally there. I picked a few things and put them in my basket, still sort of in disbelief. I was waiting for the “YOU CAN’T BUY THIS UNTIL 8AM” screen. It never happened.

I didn’t go crazy like a few people I know who may or may not have knocked over other people’s carts on accident or nearly snatched a throw out of someone else’s hands. No, I bought a few choice pieces that I thought would make nice accents.

The transaction went through fine and they estimated my delivery around the time I got back from Hawaii. After landing in Honolulu, in spite of the beach visible out my window I still wanted to try and get to Target. I was worried about which buses to take and how would that fit in with the dinner plans I had with my old coworker? Then I called Target. Were they sold out of Missoni? Yes? Okay, thank you. Now back to your regularly scheduled vacation.

When I got home, there was no shipment. And I got an email asking me to log in and approve a new estimated arrival date. I tried but couldn’t, I kept getting an error. I also began to get emails that some of my items may never ship due to their not being able to fill orders and if I wanted to, I could go online and cancel what I no longer wanted.

Nope. Still want them.

It must have worked because eventually, my items did begin to arrive, one at a time. I’m waiting on one more item and I’ve already received the “your item has shipped” email. In all, I’ve received no fewer than 13 (THIRTEEN) emails from Target during this whole thing.

At any rate, here’s what I’ve ordered (and actually received).

The pink/black tights in the middle.

 

 

The scarf/handkerchief on the left. It’s smaller than I expected and I’m not really sure how to wear it. Guess I could go all 60s and tie it around my neck.

These arm warmers. I’ve already worn them at work 3 times.

 

For Dave, I bought the scarf on the left.

 

And the matching socks (on the right).

 

 

And the last thing I’m waiting on (but already got the “it’s been shipped” email) is this infinity scarf. [UPDATE: IT ARRIVED!]So, in all, a success. I didn’t beat up any Target employees or buy any soap dishes just because they were Missoni (let’s be real, only because I wasn’t there in person). I got just a few things to make a small statement and not so many that I look like this girl.

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Ale

Posted on October 1, 2011 by la_florecita

Dave’s youngest aunt had been sick and in and out of the hospital for years. She also suffered from fairly serious epilepsy and had just been in a fragile state for quite some time. In August, she threw in the towel and went to [insert personal afterlife beliefs here].

I couldn’t go with Dave to Mexico for the funeral and I mentioned my super chill weekend here. It was a good thing I’d chilled. Dave called from Mexico and asked me if he could bring home his cousin for 2 weeks. She’s 17 and apparently didn’t get into the college program she’d applied for and was kind of down. So Dave invited her to Austin (she’d never been) for 2 weeks so she could hang out, get to know Austin and practice her English.

I was like, “Um, sure?”

I secretly hoped the plans would fall through. What was I going to do with a 17-year-old girl in our place? I couldn’t picture it.  When I was 16, I stayed with a family in Mexico for 6 weeks but that was different. They were stable, had a big house and 3 young boys and lots of free time (and probably money). We visited family and traveled. Dave and I just eat at restaurants and are in bed by 10. Dave bikes, I’ll watch bad tv and knit.

The plans didn’t fall through and she was coming to Austin. I do like to pride myself on being a grown-up and I knew everything would be fine. And the thought that erased any last bit of resentment I had was the thought that this had to be much scarier for her than it was for me. She was so brave to decide to come stay in another country with a cousin she hardly knew and his wife who she’d met once. I made the vow to make this as fun as possible for her.

They arrived on a Tuesday night. The next night we went out to eat with my cousins who were in town for the night. I flew out of town for work and came back Friday (I think?) and took Ale to Deep Eddy that night to swim. It was our first time to really bond and it was good. She’s sweet and I was glad we got along. Dave met up with us to swim and then we went out to eat dinner.

The next day I got distracted test driving a car I wanted to buy. But afterwards I took Ale kayaking. I sort of thought paddling/rowing is a motion people just know how to do. It’s not. Ale was spinning in circles behind me and I was like, “Why is she doing that?” Turns out it’s also not something I really know how to teach. I think she basically figured it out more than I actually taught her. We rented the kayaks for a hour and after 30 minutes she had it down.

Over the next few days we took her to San Antonio to visit my cousins, took her shopping, took her out to eat, took her running (really she took ME running), I took her to Talk Time (where I volunteer), took her to buy me a car and the following weekend we drove her back to McAllen, where she would spend a few days with Dave’s parents and then return to Monterrey.

And I missed her. She’s a beautiful human being, wasn’t a picky eater, was happy to go on any adventure or try any new thing. (She also cleaned my kitchen every day so you KNOW I was happy!) She was always in a good mood and every day I asked if she was bored and every day she said no but I don’t believe her. (Actually I do, she probably would have been on facebook all day at home, too.)

We did end her stay on a high note. She’d never tried sushi and some of our friends texted us and were like, “Let’s go to Uchi tonight!” Um, okay. And Ale was totally game, she tried every single thing and loved it. I told her that if she ever tries sushi again, it probably won’t be like this. Not every sushi restaurant owner has just won a James Beard. She said it was her favorite thing of the whole trip.

Come back next summer, Ale!

Posted in Austin, civic, Fit is go!, food, la familia, running, the boy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Market.

Posted on October 1, 2011 by la_florecita

I’ve been blogging for 6 years (oh, happy belated birthday, blog!) and I don’t really market it. I realize I have this apologetic attitude about my blog, like, “Oh you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to.”

I never tweet about the fact that I’ve posted a new blog post. When bloggers began doing that I got annoyed. Felt like I was following them on twitter as a supplement to reading their blog, not so that they could market themselves to me. On the other hand, there are people I follow on twitter that tweet their blog posts and I think, “Hey! I didn’t know you had a blog!” And I’ll go read it.

I still don’t tweet my posts.

This blog has 6 years of life in it, including (probable) mild depression, unhappy jobs, breakups, family, vacations, happy things!, meeting my husband, moving to Austin, etc. And there are lots of posts that I don’t remember writing and I’m scared of people reading. What if it’s embarrassing?

Essentially, I’m a chicken.

For some reason this is all coming to the surface because here at BlogathonATX people are asking for business cards and my “business” cards are completely unrelated to my tweeting, blogging, etc. I guess I need to make blog/twitter personal business cards. (Shit, I could do it over lunch.)

And that comes back to marketing myself. The thought of which descends into my worrying about blogging regularly (because I can’t market my blog and then not blog for 3 weeks (which I should be MORE worried about, frankly)), fear that, wow, ultimately it’s a fear of rejection. There it is. I don’t put myself out there because if I don’t put myself out there, I can use that as my excuse for not being a successful blogger.

Goddammit. This is why I should write more.

Time to face my fear. Off to design my la_florecita business cards.

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Blogathonning

Posted on October 1, 2011 by la_florecita

In January I went to BlogathonATX and it may have changed my life. Now I’m here again. I’ve been looking forward to this for weeks. Months. I don’t know when blogging regularly fell off my schedule but it did.

You: ARE YOU KIDDING? “Regularly” is not your strong suit. See: meditating, running, blogging, you can’t even wreck a journal.

Fine. So it’s my eternal challenge.

I told a friend of mine what I was doing today and she said, “Good, because your blog has been sucking.” I love honest friends.

I didn’t expect BlogathonATX to recharge me the way it did in January and I’m looking forward to learning whatever BlogathonATX has to offer me this time. Here we go…

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Accidental Life List Thing

Posted on September 28, 2011 by la_florecita

Let me just say that the Life List thing I’m crossing off is NOT “take a vacation without overplanning it.”

In my planning for Hawaii the 2 things I did the most planning for were what I was going to wear to the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. These things are a big deal! Photos! Immortalized on facebook until the next social media comes out forever!

I shopped for a dress for weeks. I wanted a summery dress but not too casual. I didn’t want fall colors or styles because we’d be on the beach. And I didn’t want anything too edgy, this was Honolulu, after all, not Milan. And I found a nice, classic strapless floral print dress that looked like something Trudy from Mad Men would wear.

For the rehearsal dinner I wanted to be still more casual so I decided to wear a pair of pants my friend bought me for my birthday. I know, sounds weird, right? Who buys their friends PANTS? I won’t even buy my husband pants. My friend called me last year from a thrift store, frantic, “OMIGOD JEN I FOUND PAIR OF DIANE VON FURSTENBURG NAVY BLUE VELVET TUXEDO PANTS! THEY’RE $5 AND SIZE 6 AND I’M BUYING THEM FOR YOU! THEY MIGHT BE A LITTLE SHORT BUT WITH SOME STRAPPY SHOES-I DON’T CARE, SHUT UP I’M BUYING THEM FOR YOU! FIVE DOLLARS!!”

They were a little short. Not cute short just too-short short. So I had them cropped a bit more and thought they’d be great for the dinner. Dave and I went shopping the weekend before the wedding and I bought a blouse, strappy shoes and some funky necklaces to dress it up.

And I wore it to the rehearsal dinner. On the way, we stopped at Pali lookout and you can see the shoes I was driving in. The next photo (with my aunt) shows the shoes I actually wore to the dinner.

In another world, this would be considered casual. When we walked in to the restaurant I realized I’d overdressed. People were in flip flops, shorts, beach cover ups over (YES) bathing suits. This has never happened to me before. I’m the girl who thinks eyeshadow and boots = dressing up. Jeans and a tank can be accessorized for everything! Grocery shopping (flip flops), the movies (flats + cardigan), drinks with friends (heels and funky jewelry). (You could even argue that what I’m wearing is a variation on jeans/tank top. An extra fancy version.) Overdress is something I never thought I’d do so I put it on the Life List as a joke.

And yet there I was. But I rocked it, didn’t even change into the flats. And there was an upside, it turns out. My cousin turned to me just before dinner and said, “Well, everyone here has voted you Best Dressed.” The people at the table agreed.

!!!

As you might have guessed, I’ve never been that before either. So I might have unofficially been the best dressed of 30 or so people at a tiny restaurant on a Thursday night in Ka’a'awa, Hawaii, but I’ll take it.

Posted in blog, jeans, life list, non-/consumerism, the boy, travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment