Seriously? Today?

Dear Quitline.com,

I don't smoke but I appreciate that you are trying to positively impact the world by enabling people who do smoke to quit.  As the daughter of an ex-closet smoker (sorry Papa, but you've quit and there's just no reason to be in a closet anymore) and the girlfriend of a current smoker, I applaud these efforts.  Research has shown that five years of not smoking can outweigh 15 years of smoking - this is something worth letting people know. 

What I don't appreciate is that your 30 second add is currently hindering me from viewing the lyrics to Mumford and Sons' "The Cave."  While I'm sure a lot of thought and research went into your commercial, as a non-smoker the images of chest x-rays, smokey backgrounds and earnest looking actors-playing-physicians were as influential on my life as the shenanigans of the Jersey Shore Crew.  That is to say, it was a waste of my time!   Couldn't you have included an I'm-not-a-smoker clause that enabled me to escape? 

Sincerely,

Anna

OotD: this one's for Leslie and Laura :)

"Kids are definitely the boss of you. Anyone who will barge into the room while you are on the commode is the boss of you. And when you explain to them that you're on the commode and that they should leave but they don't? That's a high-level boss."

- Tina Fey 

Redemption

Usually I don't blog about the interesting things that happen at work, primarily because I am interested in keeping my job.

Let it suffice to say that I HAVE BEEN VINDICATED!!


(please insert vindicated laughter here)

Adventures in Hot Yoga

When a friend texted me yesterday to see if I wanted to go to hot yoga I thought, "oh...well that might be fun." Wrong.  So very very wrong.

The first time I heard about hot yoga I couldn't help but wonder why.  I live in Florida where it's a virtual sauna four months of the year and during the three months that it's cool and breezy and wonderful, I'm going to go sit in a stuffy 105 degree rooms that smells like sweat?  Right, awesome idea. 

I think there might be something to yoga that I'm missing though and so I went.  I am increasingly convinced that there is something very awesome about practicing yoga that I just can't quite put my finger on yet but last night the only thing that was missing was oxygen.  I'm not sure if my heart was racing due to exertion or because it was about to explode from over-heating.  It was around the time that I got dizzy wiping sweat from my shins that I started wondering if maybe there's also something to the whole concept of hell too, because if there is, I'm pretty sure it's an eternities worth of hot yoga...and in hell there won't be Jolly Ranchers either. 

I came home feeling like a rubber band that's been stretched out and then let to snap back.  I swore I'd never go back and then the next day happened.  It was awesome.  I didn't wake up even once in the middle of the night and then the next day, well it wasn't necessarily a good day but it was....smooth.  It was a busy day and while I generally hate recruiting to multiple studies simultaneously (keeping them straight makes my brain ache) today it felt, productive and doable.

I can't help but think that maybe it was the yoga, next time I'll go somewhere not-hot instead.

Ski Utah

A little over a week ago Wes and I hopped a plane to Utah to tear up the slope with some friends and some not-yet-but-soon-to-be friends.  I say not-yet-but-soon-to-be because there were a couple people on this trip that I had never met, including V, the mastermind of the whole event.  I've been told that it's a brave (or stupid) thing to embark on a 5 day vacation with 9 other people whom you may or may not know but I have a history of making "brave" vacation decisions that ultimately turn out well.  Exactly one year before this trip I flew to the Bahamas for a friends Dirty Thirty birthday and found myself at a rapidly closing airport in a field in the Bahamas realizing that if my ride didn't arrive in the next two minutes I'd be sitting, quite alone in an empty field in the middle of the Bahamas.  Talk about being the dumb girl at the beginning of the very bad Lifetime Movie Special. This years endeavor was far less nerve wracking in several ways, the least of which not being The Wes by my side, but quite similarly it worked out brilliantly. 

This was my first trip to the mountains out west and they completely lived up to the hype and then some. The mountains are insane.

The view from our front balcony at sunset

People warned me that skiing out west is different from the north east but I didn't understand it until I got there.  Suffice to say that it made me re-assess where I place my self on the ski-competency / skill scale.  .  One run down a double blue mogul run put six of us firmly in our place on the first day out. I generally don't get cocky about physical pursuits but I apparently I did with skiing and have since cheerfully placed myself  much more on the mid line than previously.

Thanks to V's impeccable planning skills we hit up three different resorts.

Park City: 

Nothing like a Blue Moon to make this even better

Brighton:

and Canyons:

There's nothing like a gondola ride to get you pumped for the slopes :)

WINNING!!

The skiing was unreal and one of the most fun things I've ever gotten to do, though I have to say that the three and a half mile run at the end of the second day was the longest thing ever.  The quads they were a-burning by the end of that one. 

After long days on the slopes we went home to to relax like the very fancy people do: next to the fire or with some drinks in the hot tub.  Yes I know, we are quite fancy.

Who would want to come home when life can be like this?! 

I'm not sure that any of us really wanted to go home at the end of the weekend, who would want to get back to business when there's hot tubs to lounge in, ski slopes to cut-up and friends to laugh with?! 

Still home we went to warm and breezy spring temperatures (well, at least the Florida contingent did, WINNING!) and the affections of two very snugly kitties.  Verdict: vacation well spent. :)

Resolved

I am resolved to, should I ever get arrested and require a mug shot, to smile in my mug shot.

I mean admittedly I'll be in jail and that alone would probably warrant a sour puss but trouble doesn't seem to stop Joe Lewis or Murry from purring so why should jail make me frowny?  After all, there's always time to gloom and doom once I've hit my cell.

so about that 5K...

So the thing about writing things on the Internet is that sometimes details just have to be omitted for the protection of those around me.  Usually it's a details schmetails kind of situation but other times, well...the whole story just doesn't get told.

About a month ago I ventured down to West Palm to run in a 5K with Club Fun and I blogged about it here.  Looks like a lovely weekend yes?  Well it was, but it was exceptionally lovely due to a delightful little tidbit that I may have left out. Yes, Club Fun ran a 5k but it was a Club Fun of 4 instead of 3 as we had a new member along for the ride in Ashleigh's tummy.  Nine weeks along, little Blueberry Bullivant participated in what has become a Club Fun tradition to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research, such a little activist already. :)

So now that this news is out (with the permission of the proud parents of course) I need to call attention to the Club Fun Incubator who ran the race 9 weeks pregnant and distinct shade of pale green.  I can only tell you what a trooper she is and how I will never, ever be caught running a 5K at 9 week pregnant.  Squdges to you Madame Incubator, you are all that is woman. :)

I have to admit that when they first told me that they want to put someone up for consideration of membership I was not so sure, but one glimpse at the little tadpole in the ultrasound pic and I was convinced as to what a perfect fit he/she will be.

Welcome to the Club Mini-Bullivant, I am beyond excited to meet you and I promise that I will always share my Cheerios with you.  

why I believe in hugs

I found this on Facebook this morning (who say's Facebook isn't good for anything!?) and have fallen off the deep end for it.

The back-story: Juan Mann (the guy holding the sign) comes home Sydney, Australia after loosing his job and ending a long-term relationship.  There isn't anyone meeting him at the airport so he makes the "free hugs" sign.  Nobody stops for 15 minutes, then someone stops.  An elderly lady, out looking for her dog that went missing that morning, stops:








Now tell me that doesn't make you want to go out and hug somebody.