Author: Melissa

What, pray tell, have I been up to lately?

Work, work out, track calories, sleep, read the internet, nail polish, wash rinse repeat.

So I’m trying to remember what I was doing all month besides the above… (Twitter has failed me, aside from documenting how much I love almond milk on like 3 separate occasions, *sigh*.) One weekend we went to the Bay Area Bead Extravaganza at the Oakland Marriott – this is the best bead show of the year in the area, in my opinion. There are two very good ones, this one and the NorCal Bead Expo in the first half of the year. There are others throughout the year but those two are the best and I always look forward to the November one the most. I missed the NorCal show as I was in Reno (Gem Faire was that weekend too – a lot of stuff going on while I was busy having food poisoning in Nevada! LOL) and in fact BABE was the only show I made it to this year! Alas!

That same weekend the 4th bore of the Caldecott Tunnel opened. For those of us in the Bay Area, this was pretty exciting! Historically there have just been three tunnels (at least in my lifetime) and the middle tunnel was reversed back and forth (east/west) depending on the time of day/flow of traffic. So the fact that both directions of 24 now have two tunnels?? EXCITING! I’ve been stuck in terrible traffic on the way to Oakland during the lane switch way too many times to count, and now that should be alleviated.  Anyway, it is a delightful tunnel, and I’m still pretty stoked that it’s open!

Thanksgiving was a very nice, low-key weekend. We had the main event at my parents’ house and my aunt and grandmother attended in addition to my sister and parents. I brought my famous “Corn Pudding Thing” and we had a delicious feast. My aunt brought her salami and cream cheese roll ups that we all spaz about because they’re so good, and let me tell you, I’ve been eating so healthy/clean lately that when I put one of those in my mouth, it was as if angels were singing a glorious tune. I have never had a more delicious salami roll up in my life.

I didn’t leave the house on Black Friday but I did order some nail polishes off the internets! Saturday I headed into the dark abyss of THE MALL because I wanted to look for jeans – all my current ones are too big (a problem that is the opposite of my usual! haha) but I struck out. I only had the energy to look at two or three stores though – jeans shopping really takes it out on you! So then I stopped at the Nail Polish Guy’s store and they were running a 3-for-$20 sale and I picked up a couple of blingy Morgan Taylors and an Essie I’d had my eye on. Since I’m a regular at the store (I try to stop in every six weeks or so) I’ve gotten to know the people who work there, and NPG’s wife totally hooked me up with some great free samples of hair care! Since it’s a beauty supply store, they have other stuff besides nail products. They have also started carrying Kerastase and I’m super stoked about that, because I had to order my last bottle since I can’t find it locally. Yay! On Sunday my dad and I went to the reservoir and then later in the afternoon we went over to my uncle’s house for a small birthday celebration for the December birthdays (my dad, uncle, and grandma). My uncle had grown a mustache for Movember and hadn’t shaved it off yet.

Abby and I went to see Catching Fire and it was pretty good. I haven’t read the Hunger Games books, but from what I know about them, the movies seem like they’re pretty close to the source material.

So far in December I have just been really busy at work, as the “communications liaison” for a manager who is out on leave, and we have been having a lot of parties and events. It’s been a weird mix of stress and fun! We had our big Christmas party the first week of December, where we shut down one of the restaurants in downtown WC and partay for hours. They had really good sliders (Angus beef patties with cheese on Hawaiian rolls) and the clam chowder there is TDF. I didn’t really waste my time with anything else and I totally had three sliders, not gonna lie! LOL

Last week we had a couple lunches brought in and then Friday night we had happy hour with one of our vendors at Havana, which is where I went for my birthday (because we go here with the vendor every year and it’s good!) and I had two mojitos and managed to get my paws on 1.5 crab cakes – they are SO GOOD here, I really just need to come down and order a mojito and a plate of crab cakes just for myself some time.

This weekend my plans for Saturday fell through since my cousin was sick, and I wound up not even leaving the house! Which was nice. I didn’t even get stir-crazy which does happen now and then. I will confess I spent a considerable amount of time downloading free books onto my Kindle app.

Sunday was the reservoir with my dad like usual. We’ve shaved off about three minutes from the walk thanks in part to my extensive working out and are able to walk it under 55 minutes now – previously we were doing anything from 58-62 minutes. Anyway, so that’s pretty cool!

Later in the evening my parents and I joined my grandma and aunt at my grandma’s church for an evening of Christmas music. It was very nice but I would have enjoyed myself more if I hadn’t spent the entire time worrying about whether or not I had turned the stove off (…I had. Sigh.). This church has several different choirs and they are pretty accomplished for “just” being church choirs. There’s the little kid choir, the high school choir, and the adult choir. I found it impressive that the little kids had memorized all their songs and were well behaved! Also adorable.

The adult choir performed “Carol of the Bells” which is one of my all-time favorites. Back when I was in concert choir, lo those twenty (!!!) years ago, we sang it, and to this day, I still only know the alto part.

This church also has a handbell choir, which is very fun to listen to, too!

Next weekend I will probably go to my mom’s church for the last Sunday of Advent, and that will be a grand total of four (4) times I set foot in church this year (I also went at Easter and went with my Grandma to another music concert at her church) and I didn’t get hit by lightning once.

HOBBIT UPDATE: I finally saw the first Hobbit movie and it was boring.

For the first time in forevvvvver, I dressed up today! We had a festive time at the office with a costume contest and a potluck (I made a layered bean dip – let it never be said I can’t rock an appetizer, as that seems to be my forte, hmmm).

I dressed up as Aphrodite, Goddess of Looooove, but only because I A) couldn’t find a Medusa costume and B) one of my co-workers was already Athena, haha. I rocked a gold crown of leaves, huge gold chandelier earrings, etc. Most of my coworkers dressed up too! Since I have this costume now, next year I might dye it a green color and turn it into a Medusa costume if I can figure out a snake hat/wig. That would be rad.

(I had to ask one of my coworkers: “Are you a witch or a wench?” She laughed. She was a wench of the pirate variety.)

I even bought candy to hand out to the three trick or treaters that may or may not come to my door… some years I’ve had zero.

The above picture is from Hocus Pocus, my all time favorite Halloween movie. (My other favorites include the Disney Channel Halloweentown movies.)

Gosh, October was full of a lot of stuff. I was sick for two weeks with a head cold (I had a sore throat for like ten days straight, it sucked). I went on vacation to LA and visited with friends – we also went to Disneyland and ate at Carthay Circle and Steakhouse 55.

CARTHAY CIRCLE: The Story

So, Carthay Circle is a fancy restaurant in California Disney that is apparently a replica of the original Carthay Circle in Hollywood where Snow White and the Seven Dwarves premiered. It’s quite nice; the attention to detail is impressive. So, we got seated and were waiting for our food when the following thing happened:

Picture, if you will, the golden interior of the restaurant, a luxe forties theme with beautiful wood and painted ceilings. Chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, a quiet ambiance.

The ambiance was broken by a woman rushing by our table with a young blond girl who was about eight. I saw it, as if in slow motion, the vomit spewing forth from the child’s mouth. Spewing all along the carpet next to our table. The woman and child turned the corner towards the exit of the restaurant, presumably to the bathrooms.

A pause. I caught S’s eye. “Did I just see what I think I saw?” I asked, hoping that I had not just witnessed VOMIT, but knowing that the truth was hidden on the other side of the table where, thankfully, I could not view it in its chunky glory. He glanced over at the floor, briefly. “Yes,” he replied.

And then the waiters started walking past our table, not seeing the vomit. S flagged one down to let them know so they would stop TRACKING IT ALL OVER THE RESTAURANT. And so, Miss Julie Ann stood by our table to direct traffic. She stood there for a good twenty minutes, guarding the napkin covered vomit. Our food arrived, vomit still on the floor.

The hazmat team (a guy in a white jumpsuit with a bucket) arrived and finally cleaned and disinfected the rug.

There is no telling what happened to the mom and her kid.

It was pretty funny.

All in all, our experience at Carthay Circle was one for the books! I would give the food a solid B. The pumpkin soup was delicious, as was the apple cake with apple sorbet for dessert. My Angus steak was just okay; I’ve had better (actually the filet the following evening at Steakhouse 55 inside the DL Hotel was pretty awesome). I don’t know that I would go back but it was fun to go once. I would like to work through trying out the other restaurants in the parks.

Anyway, we had a good time and now I’ve gotten Disneyland out of my system for the next few years.

So! Goodbye October, you were real. Hello November, with gravy anticipation and colder temps. One of my favorite months!

So, MyFitnessPal tells me I’ve logged in for 30 days straight. In that time, in addition to working on the 30-Day Shred, I’ve lost 9 pounds. WHOOP WHOOP!!

I actually haven’t been at this weight in several years, and while 9 lbs doesn’t seem a lot, it’s the most I’ve ever managed to lose. And I did it in one month. I’m looking forward to future progress!

I got sick last week with kind of a brutal head cold and have had a sore throat for like ten days, it sucks! Not gonna lie, I think was exacerbated by visiting friends who have a short hair cat. I am still allergic to cats, so that was sad. I went into the office Monday morning with no voice to merge a spreadsheet into labels and then was like, “I’m out!” and went home and pretty much slept all day. I’ve spent the rest of the week in zombie mode.

Today I managed to put some makeup on so I guess I’m feeling a little better. I have a work event tomorrow where I have to get up at the crack of dawn and be “on” all day on a Saturday, so here’s hoping there’s copious coffee! There is definitely copious overtime, so that’s cool. The event should be fun and we put a lot of work into it so I hope it goes well!

This week since I feel like roadkill I haven’t kept up with The Shred. I’m disappointed about this, as I only have 6 days to go before I complete it! Hopefully I’ll feel more up to it soon because I want to finish it before I head off on vacation on the 13th. For the most part, I’ve really enjoyed this workout and will definitely be repeating it in the future. But this week is definitely a wash as I feel more like lying down and sleeping. I don’t want to overdo it and be sick for 32 days again like I was in January.

Not that I was counting. :/

I really need a nap.