Friend Makin’ Mondays: Taboo Topics

January 12, 2014 by Laurie

It’s been a good week. P90X3 has been hard. My body has felt beat up. But I made it through to the other side. There’s no doubt I’m getting stronger. 30 minutes, yeah, I can handle that. It’s the 2-a-days that have been pushing me to the edge. I haven’t given up my other training schedules. So I’m still doing circuits, yoga and TRX. And a crap ton of walking some days. 80 some odd days left!

Yoga was hard this week, yo!

I’ve always been pretty much an open book. I’m trying to be more transparent when it comes to health, weight loss, fitness and how I’m feeling about myself. I’m trying to be more true to my boundaries when it comes to my relationships, things that don’t have much to do with me and my family. But, I’ll take on this Taboo Topics list!

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Taboo Topics

1. Are you a registered voter? Yes, have been since I was 18.

2. Do you believe in GOD? I do. Listen, I’m not going to pull that “I’m not religious, I’m spiritual” bullshit. I don’t go to church, and I’m okay with that. I live my life in accordance to my values, and that includes how I feel about God. I’m not quite agnostic, but I don’t think we really know what the plan is. If that makes sense.

3. How has your readership changed since you first began blogging? I have some readers, not a ton. But I do get giddy when I read comments from new people.

4. If you could choose between a serious relationship or $100,000, which would you choose? My relationship with my husband is the most precious thing. It has no price.

5. Have you ever changed political parties? Twice. I was a registered Republican as soon as I could vote. My own views became more left centric. But, I’m from Maine, and our Republicans would make awesome Democrats anywhere else. I switched to Independent when I moved to Georgia. And now that I live in California, I’m an official Democrat. I vote bipartisan. The best person for the job gets my vote. I put a lot of emphasis on social issues when it comes to who I vote for.

6. If you were put in a position in which you had to be in a room with someone that you can’t stand, how would you handle the situation? I always act professionally. I think poise, I think grace, I treat people how I would like to be treated.

7. Do you ever eat in secret because you don’t want anyone to see what you consume? I did, and I still do sometimes. I try not to, but it is something that happens sometime. It’s not great, I know that. I know that I certainly still have issues I’m dealing with. But, hey, honesty, right?

8. Do you use curse words in your daily conversations? I do. I try not to when I’m around people I don’t know well. I REALLY try to watch my language around kids and strangers. But my vocabulary is often “colorful”.

9. How much do you tip when you’ve had decent service at a restaurant? Usually 20%, unless the ticket is really small, and then a $5 minimum.

10. How do you respond when someone confronts you? I hold my own. I don’t get super defensive and confrontational in return. I’m a bit hotheaded, so I try and calm myself. But I don’t let anyone walk on me, and I’d walk away if I had to.

Friend Makin’ Mondays is Back!

January 6, 2014 by Laurie

Yay! I’ve missed FMM! I’ve found some really cool people to follow through these posts in the past and I look forward to finding even more.

1. What has been your happiest moment in 2014 so far?
Probably 12:00 on the 1st. I had a bunch of friends over for a party and we were all having so much fun. Every year we have a party where we dress up and stay at our house playing games and chatting.

2. Share the last compliment you received. I went to the makeup counter with a friend of mine and the lady working there told me I had great eyebrows and asked where I had them done.

3. What is one thing that you plan to accomplish in the next week?
I want to get my kitchen deep cleaned! It’s been too long. There’s still dust from the regrouting I had done. My husband promised he had cleaned when it was finished (I was out of town.) but I haven’t been happy with it for awhile and my pantry is begging to be purged of all crappy food.

4. What is your favorite TV show currently on air?
Right now I’d have to say American Horror Story: Coven. I love those witches!

5. If you could go anywhere in the world free for the next two weeks, where you go?
I’d go to Australia to visit my friend Edmund. I miss him! And I really want to hold a koala. I saw some at the SD Zoo a few months ago. I just want to pick one up!

6. Describe a significant event in your life that caused you to change your values system.
I think, when I went to college and started to make friends with people who were different than me – that was a big shift. It really opened my eyes to the fact that the world is made up of lots and lots of people and no one is the same. And that you can’t impose your rules and ideas about what is right and wrong on them.

7. What made you decide to live where you currently live?
Well, we moved to California for my husband’s job, but we moved to our home because we wanted to buy a place and live near the ocean. It doesn’t hurt that it’s also near some of our closest friends.

8. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about GOD? I think He must be really disappointed in how humans use His name to treat each other and this world so badly. I can only imagine Him saying “I never meant THAT!” whenever someone tried to reference the Bible for their own agenda.

9. If you could have a long conversation with someone famous (and alive now) who would you choose?
I’d love to talk with Richard Simmons. I’ve caught him on the news recently and I don’t think there’s one other person out there who cares more about people than he does.

10. List three things that you’re thankful for today.
I’m thankful I finished traffic school. I’m thankful that I’m able to get up every morning and do P90X3. I’m thankful that my husband came home safe and sound at the end of the day.

Devoted to P90X3

Friend Makin’ Mondays: Unforgettable Moments

December 3, 2013 by Laurie

Yeah, it’s not Monday, but I’m going to post anyway. I really, really like taking part in FMM, but sometimes I can’t get it done in time. 😦

Unforgettable Moments

1. Share the details of your first kiss. Really embarrassing! I was in college, he was my friend, we were probably more than a little drunk. It happened so fast I don’t even remember. Nothing even slightly romantic or anything! Which, of course, is disappointing when you are in college and had never been kissed.

2. Did you put your foot in your mouth in 2013? If so, tell us about it. I try and be careful what I say. It probably wasn’t a great idea that when my husband’s co-workers in Palo Alto asked me when I was moving up there from San Diego I said “Never!”

3. Share the story of one of your most embarrassing moments. There are so many. I’ll tell you the first I remember. I was pretty little and just joined the Sunday School at a church. I hadn’t been there for more than a couple of weeks when I got cast to be a camel in the Christmas pageant. I studied my lines and was all set, until showtime. I got up to say my bit, froze, started crying, and ran down in to the audience to my mom.

4. Tell us what it was like when you traveled outside of your home state or country for the first time. I went to Italy and Greece when I was 15 years old. I actually turned 16 on a ferry to Greece. It was overwhelming. I was not with my parents, I was with a group of teachers and students from my high school. I was pretty on edge and I thought the bathrooms were SUPER weird. But after a couple days I really started to appreciate the differences and I would totally do it the same way again.

5. Share something that forced you outside of your comfort zone in 2013. I started training with other trainers in 2013. I’ve been working with my main trainer since the beginning of 2012 and he was trying to start a group circuit training class with some of the other trainers. So I got to get to work with them, and of course, they had me do some different things. I graduated to working with a group of women who were all really fit. It was intimidating, but I held my own pretty well.

6. Tell us about a gift that you received that meant a lot to you. My husband bought me the band that matches my engagement ring this year for Valentine’s Day. When we got married we really couldn’t afford it, so we bought a smaller, less expensive wedding band. Now I wear all 3 together.

7. Share the details of the best date that you’ve been on in the last year. Every date with my husband is fantastic. We went to the Zoo at the end of the summer for an evening. They aren’t usually open at night, but they were for awhile and we got to see the koalas when they were more active. I even was brave and rode the gondola across the park and back.

8. Describe one beautiful moment that was not captured by a photo. Getting in to Maine late at night and finding my friend who was picking me up the airport was great. I miss her and seeing her was just awesome.

9. Share one important thing that you hope to accomplish before the end of the year. I hope I actually get my business license for my pet sitting business set up.

10. Tell us about one defining moment of 2013. When someone asked when I was due and I looked her straight in the eye and told her I was not pregnant. In fact, I was just fat. But I was working on it. And I didn’t cry about it.

Friend Makin’ Mondays: This or That?

September 30, 2013 by Laurie

It’s been a really busy couple of weeks in Laurieland. I’ve been picking up more clients with my petsitting business, including some emergencies (unfortunately). I’ve had a great run of classes at the gym. After 5 days straight of circuit training, TRX, pilates and yoga I was broken! But, in a good way. Capped off the week with the 5K Heart Walk with my sorority and more yoga.

Here’s our team for the 2013 Heart Walk.

I’ve also become a Beach Body Coach. I don’t quite know what I’m going to do with that quite yet, but I like the message of the company and I like the products, so I figured why not?

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

This or That?

1. Meat and potatoes or pasta? Both have special places in my heart and tummy, but I’m an anemic Irish girl, so I’ll go with meat and potatoes even though I really do love the pasta.

2. Do you prefer Apple or Android? Oh, no considering on this one – Apple all the way. My Android was always crashing and failing. The best is when I did a mandatory update of apps which then completely broke them. No thanks. I don’t need an open source platform. I need it to just work, and my iPhone always does.

3. Do you kiss and tell, or do you keep it private? I’d like to think I could keep it private, but I’m a blabber mouth. I kiss and tell. And tell. And tell. And tell.

4. If you had to choose one, would you choose Facebook or Twitter? I really like Twitter better, but it’s been a lot quieter on there. I use Twitter to speak my mind. I like that it’s just status update and photos. No apps. No games. No stupidness. Plus my mom doesn’t know how to use Twitter. 🙂

5. Christmas or Valentine’s Day? Valentine’s Day has more pink. But neither one is Easter, the best holiday.

6. If you joined a band, would you prefer to do vocals or play an instrument? In a perfect world, let’s say I COULD do either of these. I think I’d like to do vocals. I love to sing, I’m just terrible. I like to entertain and be the center of attention. I want to be the front woman!

7. Hot weather or cold weather? Honestly, I dislike either extreme. I’m going to say hot weather even though it goes against sage advice from my Grammy : You can always put more clothes on but you can only take off so much!

8. Calorie counting or tracking points? Tracking points. Calorie counting drives me crazy. I really did like WW when I did it, but it was a long time ago. I track my food now, but I don’t get obsessive.

9. Yoga or kickboxing? Another hard one. I like both. Yoga makes me feel more complete though.

10. East Coast or West Coast? Born and raised on the East Coast, but the West Coast is the Best Coast.

Friend Makin’ Mondays: Relationships and Dating

September 15, 2013 by Laurie

This will be interesting, fun and probably a little hard of a blog post to completely finish. I’m married. I just celebrated my 4th wedding anniversary and I’ve been dating my husband for 12 years this Christmas Eve. That’s a long freakin’ time! We’re a very solid couple. Right now we aren’t living together for work reasons. He has a fantastic job in a start up in Silicon Valley, and I’m in San Diego living in our condo. There’s a ton of reasons why I’m NOT moving up to be there. San Diego is home to both of us. We’re incredibly grounded and happy here. This is the place where we want to live our lives. Having a San Diego base keeps him from getting caught in the craziness of the Valley. To sell or rent our condo, we’d need to do significant upgrades. I’m starting a business here. Our friends are here and the friends we have here are seriously our family. We belong here, but this is not where his best opportunity is at the moment.

So, we’re making it work. He flies back on weekends. I try and go up for a week once a month. We have a lot of IM conversations during the day, which is pretty much normal if you’re with someone in the tech industry. He gets to work the hours he needs to work without any guilt of his wife at home.

It’s tough. I miss him. When we’re together for a week or more the separation is much worse and raw. I expect change to happen. I don’t know when, I don’t know what. But for now we are going with it all. So I’ll do my best to answer today’s questions. I have friends who are back to dating after divorce in some cases, so maybe that will help me?

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Relationships and Dating

1. List five characteristics that you think are important in a significant other.
Willingness to communicate. Crucial! Things need to be said.
A sense of humor. Life is crazy, you have to laugh about it all.
Honesty. There’s never a good reason to not be honest. I’m lucky I married a terrible liar.
Sense of present. Not the gift variety. Knowing that here and now is important. Enjoy the present. Live for the moment. Don’t take today or tomorrow for granted. Appreciate what’s around you now.
Integrity. If you are hitching your star to someone else’s, it better be going in a direction you can appreciate as well. Someone you believe in, who believes in you, and that you can stand together and know that you are being the best you can be.

2. If you had to choose between staying single for the next two years (as in, no dating at all,) or receiving $10,000, which would you choose? Even if I was single, I’d pass on the money. Having a good relationship is such a gift, and if you are single you have no idea who is just around the corner. Timing is everything, and why mess with what could be your time over some cash?

3. What is your relationship status? Are you satisfied with it? I’m happily married! I covered everything I wanted to say about this above. I’m so glad I married the man I did. We’re better together than we ever were apart.

4. Would you date someone who has children? If I found myself single at this point, sure. I don’t plan on having children myself. I don’t like ALL kids. But, I don’t hate them either. At some stage in your life, having children in the mix is all but a given with dating. (And like I told a friend earlier tonight – if you are ever dating a man with kids who rails on his ex-wife as a harpy who makes his life hell – better run. Men that diss their baby mommas better look in the mirror. They were in that relationship, too.)

5. Would you date someone who’s shorter than you? I probably would have said no in my 20’s, but I don’t think it really matters much. I find myself attracted to really tall men. 6’4″ used to be my magic number, but I married a 6’1″ who slouches. A women being smaller than a man is such an outdated part of our collective culture. Women are not less than men, in any way. We can make more $, have a great job, and yes, be taller. I hate that diminutiveness is considered attractive in a woman.

Celebrating our wedding anniversary by doing one of our favorite things – drinking wine!

6. Would you date someone who has different political views? I think that depends on HOW different. My husband and I have pretty similar views, but they definitely diverge in some areas. We’re both liberal. He’s more of an anarchist and I’m more of a socialist. No, I’m not a member of the Communist Party and he doesn’t destroy stuff. I think that political views and alignment over some issues are certainly part of the mix when finding someone you get along with. Some couples like Carville and Matalin find a way to make it work, so it can happen. (FYI, in college, actually before I got really liberal and I was still a registered Republican, a guy broke up with me for being “too liberal”. He’d really run now!)

7. If you were going on vacation together, would you choose the beach or the mountains? The beach because there’s likely more going on. My husband is a city boy through and through and quiet drives him crazy. Not having WiFi would kill him on vacation. I’d prefer the beach because I’m so comfortable whenever I’m near the water.

8. How do you show someone that you’re interested in them? Back in THE DAY (College!) I’d say I would show them I was interested basically by stalking them. I’d just happen to be where they were! Imagine that! In high school I’d time roughly how long it would take for a certain someone to go to his locker, get his stuff and walk by where mine was, so we always left the same time. In college I’d go to the dining hall nearest to his dorm. I would totally do drive bys! It was moderately creepy, but it got results for me AND my friends. I’d do crazy things to get a number for a friend. As I got older, and ballsier, I’d just tell them. But probably after a little stalking.

9. Do you prefer to date people who are older than you or younger? I always preferred older. But not too much. I dated younger guys and married someone 2 years younger than me. My rule was “Must be born in the 1970’s” when I was an active dater. I never broke it! I went from 1971 to 1979 though. 🙂

10. Share some details of your dream date. Okay, dream date with my husband! It would be here in San Diego. We’d spend part of the day at the Zoo or just doing stuff around the city. Then we’d have a nice dinner, hopefully involving red meat to help with my anemia. We’d go to a fantastic dessert restaurant to top it off, and then at the end if we could manage to keep going (but this is a dream, so let’s say we do) we’d end up at my favorite dueling piano bar.

Friend Makin’ Mondays: Getting to Know Each Other

September 9, 2013 by Laurie

I am back from my wedding anniversary trip! I got home around 10 last night and found a very cranky, needy kitty waiting for me. It was a rough night, she really missed me. She had a lot more separation anxiety than she usually does.

We drove to Paso Robles from Palo Alto and spent a day wine and olive oil tasting. It was a very low key trip, but super fun. And now, no more wine as we’re embarking on another Paleo cleanse. I’m not calling it Whole30 this time because I know I’m not going to be as strict and Patrick’s only committing to 28 days. So Whole28(sorta) wouldn’t be a good name, now would it?

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Getting to Know Each Other

1. What is your favorite flower? By the strictest definition of this, I’m going to say Star-gazer Lilly. But, I also love lilac blooms. They smell amazing.

2. What is a date on the calendar that you’re looking forward to? October 12 because my friend Amiyah will be home from Singapore briefly! I miss her. She’s there working for 2 years and I definitely intend to go visit.

3. List at least five characteristics of your ideal mate. Sense of humor, integrity, open-mindedness, kind, must love cats.

4. What is your favorite travel destination? I’ve only been once, but I’d love to go back to London and show it to my husband. I love that there’s so much history there and that things have been there for a long time. We take for granted what a young country we are.

5. What is your idea of the perfect date? I’m a fan of dinner and a movie! A chance to talk, a chance to get entertained, it doesn’t get much better than that. I know it’s simple, but sometimes that’s better than the more elaborate things. I’m sure zip lining in the rainforest is awesome, but I like just being present.

6. What is your relationship with your family like? I’m close to my parents. We talk once a week and I think of them both often. My mom and I have a little trouble with boundaries. My dad is difficult to get to open up. I love my extended family, but there’s lots of hurt feelings that taints things. My mom has a lot of half siblings and I’m not that close to that side of the family. They are nice and we sometimes spend holidays with them, but I didn’t grow up with them. All of my grandparents have passed.

7. What time did you wake up this morning? 7:14 officially, but my cat didn’t let me sleep much at all. So probably that could be MANY times.

8. What characteristic do you like most about yourself? Which do you dislike most? I really like my memory. I retain so much. It annoys my friends that I can recall the dumb things they do. It helps me with trivia. It helps me remember which cart I was in on a ride so that I can collect my sunglasses when that cart comes back through. True story. Dislike? I’m not brief at all. I have to express myself in way to much detail. I have a really hard time distilling things to their core.

9. What is your favorite sport to watch?I love hockey, but I think tennis is my favorite. Since I play it, I understand the rules well and I understand what a mental game it is. It’s almost as dramatic as wrestling to me!

10. Share a few interesting things that you did over the weekend. We went olive oil tasting and I realized how different olive oils can taste – not just the infusion oils. I also tried ghost pepper salt, which was HOT. Of course we went wine tasting. We also saw The World’s End at a theater in Paso and that was really a fun movie! Of course, I had fun just being with my husband since we usually spend the week days apart.

This is what olive oil tasting can look like after 2 wine tasting trips. Messy!

Triathlon-My-Ass-Along

On my way to swimming, biking and running to a new life.

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