Super Bowl Sunday and Changes to My Bloggy World

I was at loose ends yesterday since I STRICTLY enforce my Sunday rest day (stupid shins) ... for now. Fab Ab February has Sundays designated as rest days too, but at least I did my #plankaday to keep me straight with those pesky @plankpolice. Instead of going crazy with boredom (or working on my Masters paper or picking out a new book to start reading), I started cleaning. Even worse, I started PLANNING cleaning! After stripping every bed in the house of its sheets and starting laundry, I wrote out a list of every major cleaning task in the house (that my parents would let me do), ball-parked a time and frequency, and actually wrote out a freakin' schedule! Yea, besides spreadsheets, organizing and planning are my bread and butter. If I were more outgoing and friendly, I could have made a career out of it.

Dad finally called a cease fire to my craziness when he came inside from washing the cars (somehow mom and I convinced him to wash our SUVs too when he had only planned on washing his truck) and saw that Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl was on! Since we don't have a dog right now, we have to get our fuzzy cuteness quota SOMEHOW! OH MY GOODNESS, YOU GUYS! THOSE PUPPIES WERE FREAKING ADORABLE! And the piggy pep squad?! Squee! I'll admit, I even logged onto Twitter and was following along with Meep the bird's tweets (hehe) ... So sorry if you follow me and were confused by the bombardment of randomness. lol.

I hadn't planned on caring who won the game last night since my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers weren't playing (thanks for nothing, Ben), but I was quickly reminded how obnoxious Tom Brady is. Oh, and he went to the school "up north". That would be University of Michigan for those of you not initiated into the Buckeye/Wolverine rivalry (Born and raised in the Toledo area ... right in the heart of the border battle, baby!). Yes, TEHNICALLY both teams had 2 former-Wolverines playing, but Tom Brady tipped my favor for the NY Giants.

Did anyone else think the game flew by surprisingly fast? One minute, Brady was being pressured into giving up a safety (his first play of the game - HA!) and then there were 2 minutes left until halftime. Sheesh!

Whether you like Madonna's new single or not (and I'm definitely in the "not" category here), you have to admit she's an amazing singer and performer and that halftime show was one of the better ones over the last couple years. I love Cee Lo and LMFAO, but I could take or leave Nikki Minaj and M.I.A (I actually had to look up who the heck she was!).

During the second half, I had just as much fun watching the game as I did watching my mom spazz over the score. If NY would have just kicked the stupid extra point instead of botching the 2-point conversion, mom would have won $25 in her office pool! She was NOT happy. Dad and I kept shifting our eyes back and forth between the tv and the bowl of chex mix sitting next to mom. Lol.

Ted and I, Yellowstone NP. August 2010

As you may have noticed, I'm trying to make some changes to my blog. I want it to be more personal - more of a reflection of who I am and the journey I'm on. I threw together the new banner in about 10 minutes last night when I couldn't sleep (which was when I started writing this post too), and there is still some things I want to work on, but I'm liking where's its heading. In regards to the banner, thanks (x 1 million) to Ted for being an amazing friend and taking the picture (Badlands National Park, August 2010), kevinandamanda for the AWESOME font, and school instructors over the years for INSISTING I know how to use Adobe Illustrator. Anyways, I need to either make it a bit wider or, at the very least, figure out how the center the darn thing. And I have NO IDEA what the heck is going on with the background yet. I just threw in a generic texture from the template library for now. If you have any tips or suggestions, let's hear 'em! Seriously.

I know I've been trying to keep this blog as much about health and fitness as I can, but I've had a couple questions about my "101 Things in 1001 Days" Project, also known as a "Day Zero" Project. If there's interest, I'll gladly devote a tab to it with info and updates on my progress. Just like with my running and diet, putting it out there keeps me accountable. What do you think? Is there any interest?

Anything else you would like to see on here? I'm really trying to make 2012 the year I change my life for the better, or at least make a huge step in the right direction, and I want to be able to share that with all of you in the best ways possible. I'm already working on re-writing my "About Me" to better fit who I am and who I want to be.

2012 Goal/ Resolution-type Thingies

Yep, "thingies" is a word. Don't bother looking it up. Trust me. ;)

I had planned on digging up my "resolutions" from last year just to see how I've done, but I CAN'T FIND THEM! I checked my old blog and my written journals, but nope. Oh well. I guess I can count that as a blessing in disguise. I had plenty of smaller goals throughout the year and I focused on those more than anything (woo hoo, looking good in that bridesmaid's dress!). (:

If you read my post on my New Years racing extravaganza, you know I HATE "resolutions" and really don't think January 1st is the only time we should be setting goals for ourselves. That being said, I decided I wanted to sit down and figure out what my goals actually ARE.

1. I may as well start with the one I put on my Resolution Run Bib this weekend. Keep running ... and ENJOY it! I don't want to think about running as a replacement to rowing, always working towards medals and records. I want to ENJOY the running as much as the racing. I'm not just running to *hopefully* loose weight, I'm doing it to help deal with stress and to be proud of myself and my accomplishments (even if there isn't recognition for them).

2. Be more mindful of what, when, and how much I eat. I'm tired of diets (and most are a pain in the backside when you're trying to eat enough calories to fuel your body for running). Living at home with my parents makes food choices even more difficult. I just have to do the best I can every day and be AWARE.

3. Along with the whole living-at-home thing, help out more around here. My parents don't make me pay rent and they still help me out with a LOT of my bills (even though I don't ask them to) while I'm trying to finish up my masters and find a job. And I almost feel bad because I KNOW how much money mom spent on my brother and I for Christmas this year (Zensah, a payment on my car loan, AND tix to see Beauty & the Beast live ... yea, not cheap). I'm already taking the recycling over to the bins in town whenever they get full and helping mom get the garbage ready to go out on Monday mornings. I keep an eye on things around the house and fix them on my own when I can. I'm even pretty good about running the sweeper and dusting the 1st floor, though I stay on top of those to relieve my sinus issues as much as anything else. I don't expect recognition for what I do, but I wouldn't mind if dad stopped thinking and telling people that I just sit around all day and "mooch" off him and mom.

4. Be more consistent with my blogging/ journaling. What I'd really like to do is finish off another item on my "101 Things in 1001 Days" list (Sunday will be day 100 already!) and journal every day for 100 days. I've made this task a little easier on myself by allowing the journaling to happen on my blog (here), in my running journal, or in my actual writing journal for those days my mental wanderings aren't about fitness or anything important enough to blog. The whole point is to just write SOMETHING every day. I did this task a couple years ago and it lead to some GREAT ideas that turned into poems and short stories, several of which were actually accepted and PUBLISHED!

5. Work on my organization. Don't let emails sit in my inbox for more than a couple days. Don't let my newsletters and blog reading get too far behind. Work towards a better organization method for my clothes (I hate feeling like I'm sleeping in a closet). If I don't need something any more, get rid of it. Those boxes of tee shirts? Make those quilts I've been talking about for years! It's all about being more efficient with my time.

6. Read more thought-provoking books. I LOVE my trashy romance novels, don't get me wrong, but I want to read more intelligent books too. I have a stack of them just waiting to be read, most concerning global climate change, environmental policy and politics. Heck, I even have a couple running books in there that I haven't found time to dig into. One of my other items on my "101 Things in 1001 Days" list (also known as "Day Zero Project" is to read a book starting with every letter of the alphabet and I'm only done with 4 letters (darn my favorite Christine Feehan series for all starting with "D"). Heck, it wouldn't hurt me to re-read some of my more important enviro/ geology text books either. It's been a while since I used those methods and studied those theories.

7. Work on my financial stability. If I'm not going to be able to finish my degree and defend my paper within the next couple weeks, get a part-time job. As soon as I start making money, save some for (inevitable) future expenses and put the rest towards paying off my car loan, and then my student loan. I'm actually already working on the part-time job thing as I'm looking at environmental internships and other opportunities in my field for this summer.

I'm sure I have more ideas for goals, but these seem to encompass the majority of the things I want to work on this year.

Coming up tomorrow ... maybe ... (I swear I'll run out of things to blog every day) ... today's run (oh, it was *fun*), the end of HBBC and what I've learned from it, and (sooner or later) my favorite things!