YAY!

yay yay yay!! i passed my first qualification that was on my to do list!! i am CICWO qualified!! this is super duper exciting for me and puts me on the right path for advancement!! yay!!

the end of overeating

i bought the end of overeating at costco before we went on this underway (out to sea) period because a friend had mentioned it to me. back when i first started becoming a little weight/food obsessed (right around when i read skinny bitch), i did a ton of research on compulsive eating and why we like foods that aren't good for us at the university library, but the primary result was me becoming a vegetarian. the end of overeating goes above and beyond that - after the first four chapters explain the 'why' behind why some people compulsively overeat, it creates a series of rules that promise to help limit overeating. basically, to stop thinking of food as a 'reward' or thinking of it as a 'treat' or something you 'deserve'. instead, food is simply fuel. there is bad food if you know that once you start eating it, or once you open the package, you won't be able to stop until it's gone. bad food is actually engineered (seriously) to make you crave more of it the more that you eat - your brain really gets happier the more that you eat! how sick is that? i hate the thought of being manipulated by FOOD!

the countdown for my birthday and birthday pub crawl is near - only one week! i'm sooo excited...i bought a teeny bright blue tennis skirt that will hopefully look nice after this 10 day diet period, but i can't decide what to wear with it. i don't want to look too matchy matchy (it's a pub crawl for goodness sake) but i still want to look like i dressed to the theme - i picked it out, after all! i'm thinking maybe heels, a white tank/wife beater/climate-cool top, and a cute white visor? but i don't think i want to wear my hair up!! maybe pigtails? isn't it great when this is the hardest decision you have to make for a week?

i have a board for my first milestone in my goals list tonight at 6pm...going to take a nap till noon and then cram for 6 hours!

well, ITAP was definitely a success... becky and i:

it was very fun, nobody drowned (to my knowledge) and i had a reason to wear my new bikini :)

so two of the girls at work and i decided to do a mini 'Biggest Loser' amongst ourselves. we each had $50 riding on it so the winner would make $100. i purposely gained about 5 pounds before the weigh in (like that afternoon) becuase it's by percentage of body weight, and normally i can drop 'fake' weight like that pretty quickly. welllll my overconfidence was obviously a jinx, as i am STILL AT MY POST FIVE POUND WEIGHT GAIN WEIGHT and it's been TWO WEEKS! the competition is over in 10 days and i may have just screwed myself over - out $50 and five pounds heavier!

buying stock in slimfast as i'm about to go to wal mart and stock up on it before this gets any more out of hand!

when i grow up..

when i get back from deployment i will probably, inevitably, (hopefully, according to my parents) have to grow up a little and settle down. i've been in limbo ever since breaking up with C - 6 months in a new apt, and then when that lease expired i moved in with my best friend B at her home by the beach. after 7 months of deployment and no rent, i'll hopefully have a little somethin-somethin saved up for a down payment...and thus, today's list of things i'd buy if i didn't spend 3/4 of my paycheck on bills: HOME ACCESSORIES!

look at the colors you can accent this furniture in - shades like: bermuda, hibiscus, sunset, flamingo, seabrook red, camellia, jampalaya, fuzzy beach, gumbo, oyster roast, seabrook yellow, sun porch, victorian white, seabrook green, veranda, margarita, sea mist, lime zinger, mint julep, island blue, st. croix, key lime, sailing, beach, bayside, coastal, regatta...the list goes on and on. doesn't it make you want to order a million pieces of complementary furniture and have a palm beach style-color explosion?? all of it can be found at Mermaid Hut.
and now, i tell you my story with pictures...unfortunately i loaded them in the wrong order so this story may be a bit convuluted. please close your eyes and visualize as you read (i have no clue how you'd do both at once...maybe close one eye? squint?)

you step out from behind your beautiful bendy-flexy shutter thing dressed in your supercute outfit of the day.
this supercute outfit is only complete with a tibbon that you pull from one of the jars you have on the shelves in your gorgeous hutch, so you grab one to match said outfit.
then you take your keys from a dish on the side table next to the couch that you finally finished paying off (FINALLY. finally. finally. stupid couch).

and smile over at the photos you have lining the shelves of your absolutely adorable tonal bookshelf with plantation shutters, admiring how cute you and your boyfriend(/fiance/husband/children...) look in the photos you have taken every easter(/other brightly colored holiday that is unfortunately not christmas because red and green doesn't go with your color scheme...pink and green, yes).

you remind yourself once again that you absolutely have have have to get a cute candle or something to dress up your adorable plantation shuttered *other* end table...

maybe something like the adorable (whatever it is) you have on top of your gorgeous coffee table.

sitting on your awesome bench, you slip on your gorgeous strappy heels, and head off to delight everyone else in town with your FREAKING AWESOMENESS.

oh ya, during this adventure you also stopped to relax on the gorgeous, downfilled, super soft couch that you are SO HAPPY YOU'RE DONE PAYING FOR! [Z Gallerie, Palisades Sofa]

and btw, here is the theme picture for my birthday bar crawl invite...even if i'm the only one dressed up i know that i will be pleased :)

lest you think i'm leaving you with too classy of an adventure, here is my planned coverup for ITAP since i am currently the size of a pregnant cow. (or just a regular cow. i'll probably be the size of a pregnant cow once I actually get pregnant). tres chic, non?

dream a dream

jean over at Essential Luxuries guessed that i was in the army, and just for clarification's sake, i'm actually in the navy.

on to slightly more pressing matters: you know when you have one of those dreams and you realize you can relate it to every single thing that's on your mind? i dreamed that i was idly floating about in mission bay when a huge tsunami swamped us, drowning bazillions of people. my coworker john and i (who was my brother in the dream) managed to escape and fled to the northern states to avoid the water, accidentally stealing the regional MWR representative's golf cart and parking sign in the process.
1) this weekend i will be at InnerTubeAPalooza in Mission Bay. The idea behind ITAP (which I think i'm the only one abbreviating but i doubt that many people are blogging about it so i'm fairly safe)? San Diego eliminated drinking on the beach a couple years ago (I think this will be the third summer) and while it has made the beaches more family friendly, it's made them a lot less fun. the days of burying a keg in the sand and saying your ID 'wouldn't fit in your swimsuit' are unfortunately gone. Hence ITAP. Evidently once you get 8 (feet? yards?) into the water, you're allowed to drink again. While this was probably started for the boaters on the Bay, the ingenious men of SD have organized a huge event where everyone shows up with their own personal innertube, or, if you travel in style, a floating island. we're obviously going island-style so we will be able to see the MARIACHI BAND ON A PONTOON BOAT that arrives around 2.
- point being, does anyone else see the danger in a million (cough, couple hundred, cough) drunk people being ROPED TOGETHER?
2) i don't know why john was in my dream except that we've been working together a ton and i do think that if anyone was going to successfully escape from a tidal wave it would be john. unfortunately he doesn't drink much so the tidal wave would've had to happen fairly early in the day for us to survive. i digress...
3) yesterday i was driving home and there were people at the stoplight in a golf cart. i noticed the hot guy first, then the golf cart...then i thought about how annoying it would be to be stuck behind them. typical hot guy move.
4) and finally mwr is my biggest collateral duty so it RULES MY LIFE...but what is more fun then focusing on morale, welfare and recreation?

also this guitar playing girl is very talented - i wonder if we'll see her on american idol once she's old enough?

So, Lee Beth over at Love the Life That You Live tagged me to post about six things that make me happy...normally i'm really happy but i'm getting frustrated because i'm trying to google an award (in order to win it for of one of the positions i hold at work ) and i just can't find it anywhere! this will be a nice distraction!
1) SPARKLES. not lying, i'm sure you could ask anyone at work and they would annoyedly agree (sparkles and the military don't really go together, unfortunately). i looove sparkles and glitter and just shimmery things in general so much - i feel like a raccoon. the other day i spotted a piece of glitter in someone's mustache and creepishly enough it made me so happy to talk to him even though i really didn't care about what he was saying at the time. unfortunately it probably also made him think that i had an unhealthy obsession with his mouth, but we won't worry about that, now will we?
2) New music. don't you love when a new song comes on the radio and you sit in your car to hear the whole thing and then make a note in your blackberry to download it later? [listening to jason derulo's 'whacha say' on repeat, can't wait for the music video.] or when you have the best song stuck in your head and you don't even care because all it does is make you want to dance!?! (also another thing discouraged while in uniform, sigh)
3) Straws. any drink is sooo much more delicious through a straw (except beer). it doesn't smudge your lipgloss, it won't stain your teeth (it's actually better for them because the sugars o whatever you're drinking spend less time in your mouth!) and it's something to do when you're talking to someone boring...you look a lot more like you're paying attention when you can still make eye contact over your glass, as opposed to when all they see is the bottom of your cup.
4) BOYS. enough said. i am so immature this is embarassing.
5) People in general. i would waaay rather be waiting in line at the grocery store then be at home alone watching TV. i hate being home alone - i always feel like there's something more productive i could be doing (like standing in line at the grocery store, obviously).
6) Kindness! soo cheesy, i know, but what makes your day more and makes you want to be a better person then seeing a random act of kindness performed by someone? I was at Costco talking to someone near the ATM, and a woman came up to us and asked if we'd seen the man who used the ATM before her - we were both like no, sorry...except then I did see him and i pointed him out to her, and she ran over to him and gave him the $20 bill that he had accidentally left in the cash slot. She found a twenty dollar bill in an ATM and hunted someone down to return it. She didn't just look around and then pocket it, she actively asked other people around to track down this man in order to return his money.

Yayyy Lee Beth thank you so much for tagging me in this! Just remembering this story has made my day a million times better!

Also, my current to - do list that I have posted next to my computer at work (it's supposed to keep me motivated, right?)
Get [military qualification] qualified
- I have explored the jewelry at Tiffany as motivation.
Weigh 133 pounds
- I have signed up for the SlimFast website. We're also competing in the Biggest Loser here at work and i have $50 riding on it (winner gets $100...in case you can't tell there are only 3 people competing lol)
Get [next military qualification] qualified
- yup, more Tiffany.com
Win MWR Award
- the award I was searching for when I stopped to blog. oops.
Get [major military qualification] pin
- have to jump the other two hurdles first. goal date - december?
Pay off all debts
- heh. we'll see about this one. deployment should be helpful.
STAY ORGANIZED
- ya, another 'we'll see' one.

Have an awesome day everyone! I am really going to try to blog and comment more - we've been incredibly busy at work and our internet connection isn't the best, but what better way to develop a portfolio then to freewrite, right?

ETA: wanted to say thanks again to Tamela over at A Brunette Making it One Day At A Time for tagging me with the Honest Scrap Award! My first award yay!!!

just another business trip...

These are the things I tried to post last time - the Lilly Bowen Dress, the Shoshanna Bikini, and then another bikini that I can't remember who makes but i lo0o0o0ove:

so, if it hasn't become obvious yet, i'm actually in the military. i feel really nervous revealing anything else besides that as i do talk about a lot of other people in the military (mostly guys, ha!) on this blog, but it's kind of pertinent given that it explains why i don't update very often.

that being said, we leave very, very soon for a seven month deployment!! i am not really looking forward to it, except that it will be a great way to save money. it'll also help calm down the boy situation (hopefully. after seven months of "water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink" i may actually be even more boy crazy then i already am) and give me a chance to get really fit and get geared up to get some major accomplishments in at work. especially since my good friend joy (who's also a coworker and was previously classified as my cubicle-mate) and i have decided to start rewarding ourselves for major work accomplishments with things from tiffany. i'm going to start very small, because the first qualification i'm going to get isn't that big of a deal, but the Elsa Peretti Diamonds by the Yard aquamarine bracelet or the Tiffany Keys Heart key charm (so Kappa!! it's even blue!) are both more initiative then just the idea of getting qualified.

while i was at school i did meet two 'potential future husbands' (henceforth PFH's). the first is really, really, really cute and so well built (6'4, enormous muscles, tan, superwhite teeth) that girls literally poked each other to look at him when we'd go places together. i didn't have to spend a dime whenever we hung out, he always made me feel like the prettiest person in the room, and he didn't mind watching The Real Housewives of New Jersey with me. he was an absolute doll and just the sweetest thing, but a little too...questionable. i'm talking straight up, is he gay, is there potential that he might just be that great because he's gay, etc...now the thing is i know for a fact that he's not gay, but that doesn't mean he's not bi, you know? which is all fine and dandy but does cross him off the PFH list. i've been back from school for a month and a half now, he lives on the east coast, and while he's still calling, texting and emailing (he wanted me to visit before we went on deployment) i'm kind of, sort of..totally over it.

other PFH i met in a cab (like one of those rideshare/shuttle ones) on the way to the airport and we talked for a solid hour in the cab (i'm sure everyone else was pleased) and then sat at TGI Fridays at the airport for another couple of hours before our flights. he was just moving to SD and so i said i'd show him around when i got home. he is a supertall (point #1!!) dentist (point #2!!) who likes to party (point #3!!) so i thought maybe this was serendipity (oh, how that's failed miserably before). well, the one night we both had free i was baking cookies for a bake sale the next day, so i said i couldn't do dinner or a nightcap but he was welcome to come over and help me bake cookies. He did, but after two beers he decided that it was time to get down to business!! i'm not talking, "i know we just met and this is in reality our first time hanging out but can i kiss you?" but instead "come sit on my lap while i try my hardest to take your shirt off and maybe we should go to the bedroom"!!!! i was like WOAH. WOAH. WOAH. this isn't college anymore, buddy! i'm not impressed by the fact that you were varsity basketball and everyone knew your name...this is SAN. DIEGO. there are a million more of you and there always will be and the fact that you invested a solid hour and twenty minutes of your time does not mean that your "investment" will pay off! i finally told him that absolutely nothing was going to happen and i had to be up early tomorrow morning, so he could call me when i get back from deployment but i don't really see us hanging out again before then. MEN! WTF!

annnd i think that's all i have to say..oh ya! i'm having a bar crawl for my birthday and everyone is going to dress preppy so i can't wait to post pictures!! i only have a few more weekends in town before i head off for the big D, so hopefully i'll be able to make them count :)