You know you are having a rough week...

When American Idol makes you cry.

Watch this performance and see for yourself. I love this kid so much.

I signed up for "Basic Aerobics" at the gym and had my first class on Monday night. My second class is tonight. I was a bit nervous about this commitment because I had to sign up for the class and pay a little extra, so this isn't something to fool around with. I need to be strict with myself, so I thought if I committed myself to it, I would do it. Plus, I was looking for a good aerobic work out. The class was full of women and two men. I think it is funny to watch guys do aerobics. Is that bad? Everyone knows it has some comical appeal. I overheard that one of the guys just had heart surgery (or was it knee surgery? ah...) and he was in the class. That made me feel like my accomplishment wasn't that great after the class. I didn't just come out of surgery, but I couldn't help but feel a bit proud of myself. The class was tough, I was sweaty, and felt like I had a good work out. Honestly, I started looking at the clock 15 minutes into the work out. I couldn't believe only 15 minutes had passed, but I made it through the whole thing. Due to my competitive spirit, I even jumped on the bike for a couple miles post-class. I get excited to track my work out for my work competition, but aerobics doesn't look good on paper. I only got 3 miles for my sweat-inducing, tiring, action-packed work out and it ticked me off a little, so that is why I hopped on the bike to rack up some miles. The only downfall to the class was that this woman was all up in my mirror space. It kind of forced me to move closer to one of the guy's space and I felt bad about that, so I just squeezed between the mirror hog and the dude. Hopefully that mirror situation will improve tonight. My aerobics instructor said we will build upon our work out routine, so I hope I remember everything from last week.

Winter Blues and The List That Follows

I am really starting to detest winter. I am officially over it!

Seasonal affective disorder is setting in. Gloomy skies, icy sidewalks, ice chunks falling in my eyes...Over it! The other day I thought it was fine outside, so I walked down the street to run an errand for work. Little did I know, ice chunks were falling out of the sky. I was forced to take baby steps in my heels the whole way and returned to work looking like a drowned rat. Then there was this one day last week, I curled my hair to look all cute and was ready for the day, until I stepped outside. Again, those freakin ice chunks were falling from the sky. I went into "winter morning mode" which entails taking baby steps the car, slip-sliding all over the place, opening the car door (with varied force - it depends if the ice sealed it), getting the keys in the ignition ASAP, turning on the defrost FULL FORCE, grabbing my ice scraper, cursing about how my hair looked cute without ice chunks in it, finding some stable footing to use the appropriate force to chip away at ice, resort to car, and finally arrive at work looking frazzled, wet, and red-cheeked for the morning meeting.

Spring, please hurry up!

Dirty Looks, Kitty Style

Here are a couple videos of my cats having their little stare downs. I can usually see at least one a day. The ones I captured below aren't too exciting (they are often a lot more hilarious), but these are the ones I snapped so far. I think Bella won these, but in the news it looks like Obama is the stronger candidate as of now, so I'm not sure if my cats know more information or will predict what will happen.

Enjoy!

Persistence and The Year of Me

I have some good news, my readers...All my hard work is paying off. I am seeing results on the scale and I couldn't be happier.

Cheers to persistence!

Hoo Hoo Hoo HOOSIERS!

If you have been living under a rock, IU beat Purdue on Tuesday night. It was a really fun game to watch (once we were winning!) and I felt scandalous going out on a "work night." Amy came down from Indianapolis for a sleepover, so I took her to Yogi's to show her IU territory. She went to James Madison and is an east coast transplant and now IU fan. I bought her an IU shirt a while ago and she has confessed that she wears it all the time. Nice work, Amy. Matt joined us out at Yogi's for the game and we all enjoyed catching up.

Amy & Matt

Enjoying the game

Amy loves the Hoosiers

Happy Birthday, Kyleigh

Happy birthday to a sister who

loves to laugh
makes me laugh
sings "sister" songs
keeps in touch
has long talks with me
plans lots of "meetings"
is bossy (I act like I don't like it, but secretly I do)
is a great teacher
is compassionate
is a forever best friend.

You've been right next to me through it all...I love you Ky, and wish you a very, very happy birthday.

Treat Time II

New Camera!

Say goodbye the old crappy camera! I got a new one from John for Valentine's Day and I have been click-happy every since. It will be nice to go out with friends and not have to whip out my brick of a camera and have everyone say, "Whoh.....look at that. When did you get that? You could lift weights with that..." Now people will say, "Whitney, what a chic camera" and "Wow, what a modern piece of technology."

Since I don't really have anyone to video at home, my cats will be a common subject. Enjoy what treat time is like and how chatty Bella May is when treats are in store.

Call Me Crazy

Groundhog's Day came and went with me barely noticing. I think I saw one clip of the poor guy being thrust into the air with his long and not-so-cute teeth showing. His shadow (Or lack there of? Why do I have to relearn this every year?) was seen and now we have 6 more weeks of winter. We are all so delirious from lack of sunshine, cold feet, bulky clothes, and shuffling feet upon icy surfaces that we call upon an animal, a groundhog to be specific, to tell us about the weather. Is this something the writers of Alice in Wonderful came up with it? Ask the smoking worm when summer will come...

I have a little animal prediction going on in my apartment. Bella and Diego have become quite a feisty pair of felines. Bella is usually quite coy, submissive, and somewhat on guard with Diego. Diego usually walks around not knowing his presence effects Bella at all, but things have changed recently. Bella crouches down with large pupils and pounces on Diego. She chases him around the apartment. She corners him and does slow motion tao kwon do in his face. He returns the favor by slowly lurking around corners, rolling over when she eyes him down, and mirroring her slow movements. I absolutely love when they do this. It is hilarious to see two cats slowly going after one another. They look like two mimes mirroring one another. If I didn't have such a "vintage" digital camera, I would capture it and share it with you.

But, this leads me to my point. I like to consider their battles to be a larger representation of what is going on in the US right now - the political battle. Bella May represents Hillary Clinton and Diego, obviously, Barack Obama. Call me silly, but remember we do ask a groundhog about the weather, so it is okay that we ask my cats who will win the democratic vote. You probably want me to tell you what my cats' prediction is, right? But I can't give that up this early. They are duking it out right now and it is hard to tell who is leading the everyday battles.

Their little play fights resemble this one, with less biting and more slow motion movement:

Hilarious Sequence of Expressions

Monkey Wrench

I don't know what has been with me lately, but I've been in a funk. Honestly, I think it started after the Project Runway repeat last week. I feel like a little gray cloud is floating above my head. Maybe it is because the winter is holding on too long, I haven't seen the sun in days, I haven't been sleeping as hard as I should, and I'm putting in 11-hour days at work. Last week I found out that I am going to take over a few accounts from our Chicago office. It has kind of thrown a monkey wrench into the smooth process I used to know. So I have been trying to get up to speed on those accounts and make the transition as smooth as possible.

We started a fitness competition at work and that has been the talk of the office. We split up into groups of 8. I think as of now, there are 12 teams. We are supposed to track our activity, like working out, walking, and even housework counts. My team is called the "Huff and Puffs" and we are totally going to win. The Huff is the one guy on our team, Brad, and all the rest of us girls are the Puffs. The only problem with this whole thing is that my work out buddy (Sarah - grrr) is on another team. I guess we will just work out until someone faints - that is how competitive this whole thing is.

You know what I just thought of? I think I might know another thing contributing to my funk. It is hard to admit this, but I have become an avid watcher of Nancy Grace (ohh gasp!) in the recent months. I don't know what it is, but it is such a guilty pleasure to watch her at 8pm on the couch or at 10pm in bed. She is so feisty and I am fascinated by all the people who get so involved in her life. As some of you might know (but you won't admit it), Nancy recently had baby twins. They had some medical issues after they were born, which is the reason why every single person that calls in says, "Congratulations on your babies. I'm so happy for you. About that kidnapping..." For some reason it strikes me to be a very strange transition into the news stories. Babies. Harsh news stories. But back to my funk, Nancy Grace isn't exactly the most "positive" thing to watch, so maybe I should cut back.

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, my little black cloud has inhibited me to do so. I feel like things are going to get better soon. Let's hope that my quick weekend getaway helps!

Sent to Clean Up Your Act

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