Starbucks & Earth Day

Here's a cool video from the Starbucks website for Earth Day!
Definitely had to share!

What's going on?!

I feel like I’m having a really strange week.  Like my whole “self” feels off.  I’m not sure what’s going on but I have to tell you, I don’t like this.  It’s like cranky keeps coming by and lingering for awhile, disappears and then comes back.  So annoying.

I don’t think allowing my schedule to be adjusted so much is probably helping.  I haven’t had a generally consistent schedule this past week and I immediately took my body from working really late hours (like until 3 am, then midnight) almost directly into working mornings again.  And the only day I gave it to “adjust” I spent sleeping and being a cranky, lazy bum.  I know my body doesn’t handle these sorts of changes, I should know better.

Anyway, Obama was in LA today.  Correction: Obama was in my neighborhood today.  I did not see him, but he was here and you could feel the stress radiating through people as they imagined their commutes home from the west side.  ie: OBAMAJAM in LA!  I went into work a little early this morning so that I could leave a little early and I avoided the freeways and made it home in less than 30 minutes!  That was definitely good news but I had prepared myself to potentially spend part of the evening in Santa Monica avoiding traffic.  I brought my laptop & a book so I could read and blog after work.  I also brought along my yoga pants + tank top so I could hit up a yoga studio right on the Promenade that had a class at 6:15 (I forgot my yoga mat but was willing to buy a new one so that I could have a “spare” in my car).  I couldn’t commit to the class because if I felt like I should make the run for it if traffic didn’t seem awful and just head home, and obviously that’s what I did.  But I also think I got my hopes up about this class and when I got home, I had no direction as to what I should do with my time.  I didn’t feel like making dinner so I ate a random assortment of “crap” and then I fell asleep on my couch.  Clearly this was not a good move for my mood.

I need to work on that.  When I eat poorly, it doesn’t help my mood, it generally makes it worse because I know the food I’m eating isn’t healthy and that I’m probably just eating it as an attempt to comfort myself.  That’s such an awful habit and I’m trying very hard to break it.  We can look at the upside, at least it’s not drugs.  Though sometimes my cravings for sugar feel like what I would imagine a drug addict goes through.  Just give me an IV of sugar.  ...not really.  Please don’t actually do that.  That would be bad.

I’m trying to find the root of the problem and snap this week’s cranky mood because it’s getting really annoying.  I have too much that I’m trying to work through right now to potentially have some really petty things weighing me down so badly.  Watch out people - a new and improved Katie is on the way!!

With that, let’s hope for a better tomorrow.  I’ve decided that aside from packing a few snacks, I’m allowing myself to buy lunch tomorrow.  Right after work, I’m meeting a friend for a quick vent session before we meet with some more friends for a coworker’s “going away” party.  He’s just going to a different store in LA and while I’ll still see him because we’re good friends (or at least I better!!), I’m still sad he won’t be at the store anymore.  He gives the best hugs! 

And for now - think yoga thoughts and find your balance.

Foodie for a Day Wednesday

Todays version of me pretending I’m a foodie features the birthday present from my parents: my new red food processor!

Today I finally decided to open up the food processor and take it out of the box.  This is when I found out it was red.  Can you believe that?  I didn’t actually open the box!  I was saving it for the first time I wanted to (clean it and then) use it!  This was definitely a fun, exciting and well received surprise!  For a moment, it was my birthday again!

(Yes people, it is the little things that make me happy.  Deal with it!)

On the menu for today - HUMMUS!

I found an easy recipe on allrecipes.com for an ‘extra easy hummus’ and that it was!  I’m sure there are tastier recipes out there but I wanted to start off with something super easy, even though hummus is a pretty easy thing to make.  “Extra easy hummus” is also super delicious hummus!  The ingredients were garbanzo beans, salt, cumin, garlic (I didn’t have fresh but garlic powder worked just fine in a pinch), olive oil and a little reserved liquid after draining the beans.  Blend and add additional reserved liquid until you reach your desired consistency. 

After finishing, I had to have a quick snack. :)

No I did not eat the whole tub of hummus.  But i thought about it. :)

Thanks again Mom & Dad!!

Feeling Nostalgic

Aside from the first year and a half of my life (to which I have zero recollection), I lived in the same house until I was 18.  My parents still live in that house.  When I left, I was moving to Boston for college.  In the last 6 years (whoa that’s a long time!), I have lived in 7 different apartments (+1 dorm room) in 3 different areas: Boston, New Jersey and LA.  Boston was for college, New Jersey was to be near NYC / music and LA for music.  It’s kind of crazy to think of just how much moving I have done after spending my life in one place.

Always moving has it’s ups and downs.  I enjoy the ability to start fresh in a new apartment, having the opportunity to reorganize for the beginning, starting with a clean space.  But when you move to different areas (Boston to NJ, NJ to LA), you’re basically starting from scratch.  You have to meet new people, get accustomed to new surroundings, build a new support system, find your way around and get lost a few times.  

And then you miss the old places you used to live.  You go back to visit and it’s just weird.  You feel like at the end of the day you should be walking/driving back to your old apartment.  Waking up in the morning and continuing to live the life you once had while you were there.  Sometimes those times of my life feel so far away I wonder if they ever actually happened.  And sometimes they feel like they happened yesterday.

Sometimes I contemplate where I’m actually supposed to end up.  With all of this moving, is it really helping me determine where I want to live and spend the rest of my life?  Because I feel like I have no idea.  I assume that someday it will all make sense to me but right now it’s just frustrating as I find myself missing different aspects of my old life, while also not being able to imagine leaving aspects of my current one if I chose to do so.  Don’t freak out everyone, I’m just thinking out loud.  And missing Boston and NYC.  I don’t ever really miss NJ, just the friends and “family” I made during my two years there, but I was close enough to NYC that I miss that.  But I often find myself missing Boston more than I can explain.  And I’m not sure if it’s college I’m missing, the city itself, or different aspects of my life that felt in place while I was there.  And the few times I’ve gone back since college, it’s been weird for me, so why do I spend so much time missing it?

A couple days before I moved from Boston, I went on a long walk around the city, taking pictures of places I’d been, places I hadn’t, cool buildings, pretty scenery, everything that I wanted to remember about this city.  Here’s a few of those pictures.

Not from my last days in Boston, but this was my room in the apartment Justine and I lived in together.

Our living room / kitchen / stairway to the bathroom.  This apartment was pretty awesome. 

The building of my first studio apartment.  There's a small red box (and arrow) to my apartment on the 4th floor.  Loved this studio.

The strip of apartment building across from the Fens where I used to live.

A corner of my studio. :)

These pictures are from my parents visit.  Looking down on the strip of the Starbucks I used to work at on Newbury.

Gorgeous views of Boston.

Looking down on the Christian Science center.

Beautiful Charles River.  I wish I took advantage of the city more and spent days down there or went running along the river.  Too bad I didn't run in those days.

Now here are pictures from my last days:

My "backyard" aka: Fenway

I love this statue outside Fenway.

Cool view.

I keep this picture framed and always displaying in my apartment. Love it.

Probably one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken in Boston.

The gardens.

I spent a LOT of time on Newbury St.  Not shopping but walking + working. 

Berklee!

BPC

Love this picture.  Mass Ave & Boylston intersection.

More Berklee.

More Berklee.  Mostly business classes took place here.

Okay, okay.  So a few turned into a LOT! I love (& miss) Boston! :)

Organization & Technology

I’m a pretty organized person for the most part.  I generally keep my apartment clean and tidy (on occasion it gets a little disorderly but I hate when that happens, so it doesn’t last long).  And for the most part I know where everything is.  Everything has a place.  But while all this is going on, I’m always in this feeling that I have more work and organization to do.  Like it’s this non-stop task on my to-do list.  But it isn’t just organizing things in my apartment, it’s how I keep myself, my life organized on a day-to-day basis.  And lately, I feel like I’ve been struggling with this.

Think about it for a minute.  We have technology at our fingertips.  Literally, I work around it and with it all day.  I sell it to people.  I teach them the benefits on how they can streamline different aspects of their lives with this amazing technology.  And don’t get me wrong, I stand behind this 100%.  I have seen for myself how the technology I work with helps me everyday, helps me do my work when it isn’t convenient to carry around a laptop, and helps me remember things I may otherwise forget.  

But despite all of this, the thing missing for me is the general sense of accomplishment I feel when I take a pen to a piece of paper and cross off a completed task.  I find myself ignoring the “9” on top of one of my to-do list apps because seeing how long it stays up there stresses me out.  Why is it when technology is so easily accessible and advanced am I finding it hard to use consistently?

I want my to-do list to look like this! :)

A Touch of Spring

Let me start off by saying I am pretty sore from yesterday’s class but not nearly as sore as I was anticipating which is good.  I’m hoping to get to the gym in the next hour or so for a little cardio.

I woke up this morning and quickly decided the gym was not the first thing on my agenda - I was hungry!  I started thinking about what I wanted for breakfast only to realize that I had no bananas.  This may not be the end of the world for most people, but it’s a part of my everyday complete breakfast. :)  So I dragged myself out of bed, coffee-less and headed to Trader Joes for my grocery shopping.  I walked in and was immediately distracted by a bundle of bright pink flowers.  I grabbed some produce and thought about whether or not I should get any flowers today, only to find that I couldn’t stop thinking about them - so I got ‘em.  

It’s all gray and cloudy in LA today and these are adding the perfect touch of spring to my apartment.  I sure do love flowers.  Here’s a few pictures that can hopefully bring a touch of spring to your day as well, where ever you are. 

No filters were used.  And these were all taken on my iPhone. <3  

Eat Pray Love

I’m not much of a reader.  Aside from magazines and blogs really.  I know that’s sad and it’s one of those things I’ve always wanted to be better about and try and do more of.  But I find I can never finish a book.  Or hardly ever at least.  Generally I find the time to read before I go to bed and I fall asleep, losing track of what page I’m on, or forgetting what I had read the night before because I was trying to push through until the end of a chapter or some other good stopping point but really I was already in a state of unconsciousness.  Basically, it never works out for me.

Based on that back story, I’m sure you can imagine, I did not read the book before I dove into tonight’s Netflix movie choice, Eat Pray Love.  And if it goes as most people say about the book is always better than the movie, then I need to read this book.

Maybe I just related too much to Liz, aside from the whole divorce thing but more on the spiritual nature of feeling lost and confused.  The feeling that you’re living your life each day but it’s the life you’re expected to live, not necessarily the one that you want to live.  Almost to a sense that you’re losing your balance of yourself in your day to day life.

Am I totally on the extreme of these feelings?  No.  But sometimes I do feel lost.  I do think the majority of these feelings are due to the events of a month ago.  I had a plan.  I had a focus.  I had a direction.  And suddenly, that plan, that focus, that direction was thrown off track and I’m having trouble getting my balance to stand back up and keep moving forward.  I’m doing it, but I’m at more of a crawl.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that either.  In fact, sometimes when you hit a road block, it’s better to take your time and find the best way around - which may or may not mean climbing over.  I’ll get there.  I have no doubt I will get there.  For now, I just need to let go of the wheel and let the car drive itself.

It reminds me of a speech by my boss (Steve Jobs) given to the students at Stanford University: 

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

(You can find more of the speech online or the link to it on my blog somewhere.  And I do highly recommend checking it out.  It's truly moving.  I may need to watch it again.)

But I will admit, the movie really made me want to travel and step outside of my comfort zone.  I don’t know how I’m going to do that yet but I will figure something out.  And while traveling would be nice, it’s not in my budget.

Long story short, that movie was great!