Dirty 30

  The first of my girlfriends, Allie, turned 30 today.  Her birthday starts the rolling calendar of all the girls becoming a year older.  I'm next in January and the idea of turning 30 is a very foreign one to me.  

    Obviously I have never turned 30 before so it should be, but I can remember growing up always saying that I would be so old when I turned 30.  Now that the number is only a few months away, I realize how wrong I was about my future (just one of the many ways I was totally ignorant about my future).   The thing is, I now realize 30 isn't old at all.  Physically I can feel the differences between my early 20s and now.  I find myself falling asleep at the bar if I stay out too late and it isn't because I have had one too many to drink.  I threw my back out for the first time about six months ago, leaving me unable to walk comfortably for over a week.   Mentally and emotionally though, I still feel young.  Really young.  I don't think of myself as an adult and when I am with a large group of people, I look at people 20+ years older than myself as the grownups.  When I see that someone is 35 online, I have to remind myself that I am only five years away.  If you ask me how old I am, the first number that pops into my head is 27 and I always have to remind myself I passed that number a bit ago.   I own a house, two cars, have been in a relationship with Boyfriend for over ten years now.  If those things don't make me feel like an adult, having a kid should.  But I just don't.  I still feel young.  I still feel like I will get in trouble with my mom if I don't clean my house (ok-that actually does happen when she comes over).   I'm not quite sure when I will decide that I am an adult.  Maybe when I hit 40.  Or maybe when Baby's friends refer to me as "Mrs. So and So".  I'm starting to really understand the cliche of, "age is just a number".     Or maybe, as long as I am friends with my girlfriends, I will never feel like an adult.  Our group became a group nearly 20 years ago.  I imagine just ten years from now, when Allie is turning 40, I will be posting (if there is still blogging going on) something very similar looking back at myself and shaking my head at my naivete.  

I Hate Candy Crush

  This past July, I noticed that half of my friend's list on Facebook, they were playing Candy Crush.  Then I noticed my mom was also playing and she was at what seemed to be a high level-in the 100s when I was seeing all of my friends in the lower 30-40 levels.   I don't know why this is, but if it is a game against her, I want to win.  I think she started it with the old school Gameboy and Tetris.  I can remember playing while we were on airplanes just trying to beat each others scores.   The rule was when you died you would have to pass it back to the other person, but I would always die and quietly start another game.  Eventually we had to add in another rule the person playing had to play with the sound on so we could tell when the other person died.   The day I beat Tetris was a momentous mark in my history.  I have no idea why, but for someone who really isn't into video games, I'm freakishly good at them. In 9th grade, my boyfriend at the time was so excited about the new Zelda game and I wanted to impress him so I had my mom rent the game for me at Blockbuster and I spent the entire weekend working towards the moment I could call him and tell him I had already beat it.  Silly 14 year old me thought he would think it was cool-instead he was pissed that his girlfriend had already surpassed his video game prowess.     I don't remember the exact day I started Candy Crush, but I can tell you it has been probably my biggest regret of the Summer.  At first it was innocent, I would pick up my phone when I had a few moments but very quickly (as in-48 hours after the download completed) every free moment you could find me with my phone battery at 10% begging it to last so I could just get rid of "one more jelly!"   Then came the days I  am really mortified about.  Candy Crush consumed my free time, I couldn't go to bed until I had depleted all my lives.  I would get into bed at 10:00 feeling proud and then look at the clock after a "few" games of CC (my term of affection for the game) and it was 11:30 and I had lost a substantial amount of beauty sleep.     For those of you who play CC-you are probably wondering, "How did you play for an hour and a half straight?!" I took my level of addiction up a notch on the embarrassment scale-I scoured the internet to figure out how to get free lives and found a glitch that if you move your phone's clock ahead three hours, it filled your lives up.     Obviously the picture I posted above implies that Candy Crush hurt my relationship, and boy did it.  My addiction to the game was so severe that I was constantly ignoring Boyfriend to play.  Our evening discussions before we drifted off to sleep were filled with him just turning me over, lighting the bedroom with that bright orange start screen.   I'm not sure where my turning point was.  Some point in the last month or so, I have started to calm down on the CC.  Maybe it was the day I realized I had played for an hour at work, thinking I had only taken a 15 minute break-not an additional lunch hour.  Maybe it was the day I screwed up my phone so badly I couldn't receive or send texts because I had messed with the time so much.  Perhaps it was the day I had to justify why I spent nearly $10 just to pass a level (Level 65).   Either way, about a month ago, I jumped off the speeding train and onto a leisurely carriage ride.  I still play, but not every day, and I never add more lives that I didn't earn-I don't need my phone to die on me now.  The creators of this game are absolutely brilliant and think they deserve every dollar they have earned by sucking our hard earned money, creating levels that are seemingly impossible-but you know they aren't because you have friends ahead of you!   All in all, I probably spent $20 on the game, and that is all I'm going to spend.  I honestly have gotten to the point where if I can't beat a level I would be ok with just uninstalling it.  The only thing that stops me is I still haven't passed my mom, but I am only 10 levels behind.    

Trashing Your Bread and Butter

 

Post by Smyth.

I have never heard of this place (mostly because I am lame and never go out) until having several different people link to Smyth's Facebook post about the owners calling out the specific guests, by name, who did not show up for their reservations.   Please don't get me wrong-I absolutely think that the individuals who did not honor their reservation are in the wrong, there just isn't an excuse.  But as the face of customer service for my company, things like this just make me cringe.  You can't turn on your guests that way, your bread and butter, and expect it to be ok.   I get where the company is coming from-all of the reservations that didn't show, that is a considerable amount of potential revenue that could have been lost.  I don't even disagree with them making a public post about people not showing up and how it hurts them, and other guests.     But calling people out by name?  There are over 40 individuals who were referenced (if you are considering group size) who I have a feeling will not be a future patron of Smyth.  I am sure the feeling is mutual, however why didn't the owner of Smyth take into consideration that word of mouth, especially for new businesses, can make or break your establishment.   Who knows, maybe this is just a publicity stunt.  It definitely got my attention-but in a negative light for me, because for a company that so could so easily turn on it's customers is not one that I want to ever spend my hard earned date nights on.    

Baby's Shoes

  Over the last few months, I started to accept that Baby isn't really a Baby anymore.  I look at her and the soft roundness of her face has started to mature, her facial expressions can remind me of a sullen teenager.  She has very much become her own person and will not hesitate to tell you how she feels.   Maybe it is because she is so tiny and the fact that she is just now can unreliably fit in size 24 month clothing, but I had a hard time catching up my growing girl to also be in "big girl" clothing and shoes.  Putting her in a onesie at 3.5 years old (even though it can still fit with room to grow) probably isn't the cool thing to do and she will resent me when she looks back at the pictures.  I can already imagine her saying, "Mom, just let me grow up!"   Baby's latest obsession is Hello Kitty.  I thank the BFF for this one, and I honestly am thankful because it was transitioned from Dora who just slightly gets on my nerves.  Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a Blogger event hosted by Dallas Moms Blog and Famous Footwear.  I was provided with a gift card to use towards a purchase of my selection.   After checking out all of the shoes for myself and even Boyfriend-I have been trying to convince him Converse is the way to go, I came upon the jackpot of shoes for Baby.  I literally had an entire row of Hello Kitty shoes to select from and knew what I had to do.   I had a really difficult time committing to purchasing the shoes for Baby, I wanted to be selfish and get a new pair of boots or maybe finally just buy Boyfriend a pair of Converse (for whatever reason, they are not his favorite but I think they are so cute, and versatile!).   Ultimately I thought about how excited Baby would be when I came home with Hello Kitty sneakers, and knew that if she was shopping for herself-that is what she would pick out.  I wasn't disappointed one bit when I came home, she literally squealed and jumped up and down.   I was actually really impressed with Famous Footwear.  I'm going to be honest, it was never a place that would enter my mind to go shopping for shoes.  That is what I love so much about these blogger events-they do exactly what they are designed to do and introduce products and retailers that you wouldn't normally know about or consider.   Even though I left that night slightly disappointed I didn't go the selfish route, it didn't last long.  I actually went back a week later and took advantage their BOGO (buy one, get one 50% off) sale and purchased two pairs of sandals off their awesome clearance rack for less than $25!   I love Baby's Hello Kitty shoes.  I think it gives me tangible proof she is becoming her own person.  I am happy to oblige in her clothing and shoe preferences and know she feels confident and happy.  At least I say that until she does become an actual sullen teenager and wants to wear a crop top and cutoffs.  I'll have to pull the mom card then. 

Habits Are Hard to Break

Well, Bikram didn't last more than a week.  Last update, I had completed the first two classes, the next four went like this:   Class Three-Best class I had been a part of so far.  I think because the class before was so difficult for me, I was expecting the same but found that I was able to participate more than I had been able before and I wasn't overwhelmed with the heat.   Class Four- I was very, very tired.  I had taken an evening class the day before, getting out at 9:45.  I was in bed by 11:00 but had a horrible time sleeping and was back up at 5:15 for the 6 a.m. class.  I was able to participate most of the time but just drained.  That day at work I barely was able to function, I knew I pushed myself physically too far and was in serious regret mode.  My productivity level was embarrassing, so much that I went to my boss at the end of the day and apologized.   Class Five-I felt GREAT at this class. This was on Friday, my day off so I was able to sleep in a little later than usual and felt refreshed.  After class four, an instructor gave me a couple tips to help with my postures and it really improved my practice this class.  I left feeling really proud.  Strangely enough, as soon as I got home I threw up.  The nausea came out of nowhere, I assume it was because I drank too many liquids too fast immediately following class. After throwing up I felt normal.   Class Six-I struggled quite a bit.  This was the hottest feeling class and I think everyone around me agreed, people around me were dropping to their mats like flies.  This was the first class since class two that I had to bargain with myself just to stay in the room.  After class, I made sure to slowly drink my water so that I didn't get sick again, and it worked.   I would have gladly gone the next day but they were closed for staff appreciation.  I still practiced yoga though, a few of my girlfriends and I took a Standup Paddleboard Yoga class at Float on Yoga which was a ton of fun and challenging in a different way.  I actually noticed that I had improved in some positions and then struggled with a few that I hadn't before, not sure what was up with that.     Unfortunately, without going all TMI, I think I managed to catch some sort of bug or parasite from the lake because I spent Monday-Thursday in the bathroom.  After farting in the first class I was petrified to go back to yoga, I am sure it is obvious what I was concerned would happen.   Friday I finally felt 100% after some prescription meds but I didn't attend go to a class. Boyfriend and I had a day date and I just didn't want to honestly.  I started thinking that while I enjoy the practice of yoga, I think going everyday was just too much for me.  After the way it drained me on the prior Thursday, I realized it needs to be in serious moderation.  Not to mention, if I took an evening class I only saw Baby for the 20 minutes we were up in the morning on our way to daycare.   So now I am trying to figure out what is next to keep me active.  I don't think I'm completely done with yoga itself, but I think I am with Bikram.  It isn't something I can just pick up and drop off like I can with regular yoga because of the adjustment it takes to accept the heat.  My brother just moved back into town and knows his stuff (so he says) around a gym so I am working on convincing him to join my gym so he can be the boss of me for once and tell me what to do around the gym.  All I know is I am ready to break the habit of being lazy.