Never Miss A Chance To Run the Town Lake Trail

It’s gotten cooler and I’ve taken advantage.
If the high for the day is less than 90 I’m going to go running after work. Why run here instead of in your local neighborhood? Let me count the ways.

First of all it is absolutely beautiful.




But aside from the scenary - the most fun part is all the weirdo spotting. I wish I had some of those glasses from the movies with a little camera in them so I could bring some of this joy for everyone to see. But Alas! Earwax - Everyone must go running on their own and experiecne it first hand.



You can't get bored because there is always something to look at – something to keep you running:

-Girls who cannot control their dogs. It’s fun to watch the struggle.

-Chasing gross back hair man until I catch up with him and pass him so I don’t have to look at his gross back hair.

-Friend and celebrity look alikes – whether it’s a skinnier sweatier version of a boy I went to high school with, a chubby co-worker, or the naked Ghandi, it’s always fun to look forward to spotting strangers I see often and have re-named.

- Hot young dudes I try to keep up with. As a hot dude passes me I try to keep their pace – it usually lasts for 45 seconds to 2 minutes. A day with a good hot dude can greatly improve my overall time.
(Hot dude = ex-football player looking guy, most likely in basketball shorts and a t-shirt. Not to be confused with hot runners – they are super skinny and run with only very short shorts on – nice, but I don’t even attempt to keep up with them)

-Tennis skirt ladies. Why are you running in them? They flap up while you jog.

-The dads with their double stroller. They just walk and push their kids together.

-The dad with his triple stroller full of toddlers. He passes me. He makes me feel weak but want to be strong.

-The Livestrong man. Yellow shoes, yellow shorts, yellow iPod band. Done.

-The speed walker – I hope he’s training for the next Olympics.

-People going on a walk in their cowboy boots. I don’t get it but I love it.

-80’s workout clothes wearers. Those black and white vertical striped spandex cannot have any stretch and support left in them!


But the best part of the run is getting to the dog park. Dogs everywhere, playing in the water, splashing, barking. It’s fun. I don’t want a dog but I like other people’s dogs, and it’s fun to see them being crazy and having some fun.

I’m telling you – never miss a chance to run at Town Lake!

Let's Sail to Greece

Right now - This is all I can think about. I want to eat it for every meal. It's only $8!

Central Market Cafe

Mediterranean Salad

Romaine lettuce
roasted red peppers
dolmas
tomatos
pepperoncini
kalamata olives
red onions
crumbled feta cheese
hummus &  oregano-feta dressing

Heaven on Earth



One Street - Two Names. One Name - Three Streets

Whoever came up with this little statement wasn't kidding. And I'm not talking about all the weirdos that live, work and play here but even the city does it's part to help things in Austin make no sense.

Remeber how on my drive home I take Mo-Pac to 183 - or do I take Loop 1 to Reserach Blvd - it's the same thing. Also, if I wanted to detour for a beautiful drive I could go on 360 aka Capital of Texas Highway. 2244/Beecaves could take you back to down town. If I'm driving from work to the airport I can take Ben White which is also 71.

What's going on here Austin?

But don't worry - it gets worse. Why are there three 290s? One is down south and hit's Ben White, I-35 is called 290 for a while before another 290 perpendicular to I-35 takes you out to Houston?

I'm going to start calling everything to opposite name of what I used to call it.

183 -->Reserach Blvd.

Mopac --> Loop 1

360 --> Capital of Texas Highway

Ben White --> 71

Beecaves --> 2244

Over and Out.

Mint.com

Budgets:
The Institute has a personal finance lesson I was not able to attend becasue I worked late and still wanted to run before it got too dark.

Luckily I found Mint.com. I've been playing around with budgeting my expenses.
Luckily I gave myself two hundred and forty dollars a month for clothes/jewlry/makeup. It seems like too much - I know - but that way I won't go into this knowing I'm just going to break my plans.
Luckily I am actually quite disciplined until I just binge at the end so I think this will keep me from spending too much money at the beginning of the month and then leave me with most of it to spend at the end, and hopefully this will cause me to spend it on a few big ticket items that I really really do want.
For example, so far this month I've already spent sixty dollars in this category. Now I want this jacket from the Fossil Store.

It's one hundred and fourty eight dollars. For me, that is way too much to spend on one item. But I just want it oh so bad. I want to wear it over dresses, with work pants, and with pencil skirts. Oh my gosh. It's lovely.

Now if I stop mindlessly spending money on silly little cute items of clothing between now and Haloween I will be able to afford it! I just need to but about tweny dollars more worth of little things to complete my Costume so I think I'm going to be all right in this category!

Wish me luck!

I'll make a mental note of that

tengo que recordar esto

Grown Up Purse

  

For five years at the BYU I carried only a backpack. I had a few random purses, but none of consequence. Then I went and did the best thing imaginable, I graduated! Yay me! Right about here I’d normally post a picture of that illustrious day except I was having a fat day/month/semester and was not really in love with the camera so I don’t know if any photographs were even taken. Oh well. I’m still a college graduate, which I highly recommend to all my friends in school who are always too busy to do things because they have homework.

     College Back Pack/ Love of my Life>>>

Well when you graduate you need certain things: a job, a place to live, work pants, work shoes, a distinguished lunch box and a grown up purse. And that’s why I’m here blogging today ladies and gentleman. I finally have it. The grown up purse that makes me smile. It’s cute! (please refer to blog post number 2 to get this inside joke with myself).

Now this was quite a long and not quite so lonesome road I had to take to find the purse. Back in Easter my mom bought me a small green leather Fossil brand purse. It was not exactly my cup of tea, but it was a good start to get me on the path of self grown up purse discovery. To go from no purse to big purse would have been an impossible feat so it was nice to start small but keep it on the grown up side with the leather. So I move home and the small green is serving its purpose as the new carrier of my credit card, driver’s license, keys, gum and Chap Stick. But I’m not in love. It was a bitter relationship between me and  small green. It is doing it’s job and it is doing it well. But it’s painful to dedicate so much time and give so much power of my style to my constant companion. At that time in my life, small green was the thorn in my side.

So now I'm shopping around. I'm in the market for a new purse. And the only things that are speaking to me are well over $200. I don't want to spend that much.

Then I make a new friend and she works at the Gap and she has an exqusite grown up purse – even though she is currently a student. I compliment her grown up purse and she tells me she actually has another one from the Gap that she got at a discount and has never used. "Would you like to buy it?" she says. I'm not in love with it but it’s more grown up than my current one and only $30. It’s bigger and a little bit military. I feel it’s more stylish and I could breathe with it on. Small green was suffocating me. So I end up with the military purse from the Gap. And I don’t love it but I like it. I like it a lot. We had a good short run. We had a wonderful week in New York City and it was very easy to use. Very easy to carry. Practically perfect in every way. I have no complaints about military green. There was nothing wrong with it, no reason that I moved on. The only reason I did was that I found THE best grown up purse. It  is perfectly perfect for me.

Military purse, T-Rex, and Me

I’m browsing at a Gap. And not my normal Gap, I was at the Gap by Central Market because I needed to kill about 20 minutes in that area. What to do? Go to the Gap!

Side note:

Old logo, New logo
You're thoughts?

I see this grown up purse hanging on a rack over younder and think "Man that looks so nice and expensive. I am going to go lust after it. I’ll check the price tag. $13.99! What! What! What! I cannot say no to this maybe hideous but absolutely wonderful, devistatingly bizarre , one of a kind, grown up purse in RED! And after the 25% off sale items it is only $10."

Red and I have never been friends. There is no animosity, but we are simply mere acquaintances. My sister and red are pretty much best friends and that is just how it has always been. But not me, the only red I like is the word Coke on my silver Diet Coke can. That’s as far as we’ve been together. But this red grown up purse was just something else. They also had it in rescue raft bright yellow, which usually would be much more my speed. But I decided to take a dive and kindle a friendship with something new.

That is how I found the perfect grown up purse for me. I love it I love it I love it and I need to get a picture of it up here. It’s not exactly wonderful for everyone, but it’s perfect for me. I’m sure you understand.
The reason I decided to blog this blog was because today at Costco (aka Heaven) a very dignified yet sytlish older lady came up to me from far away just to say "Where did you get that bag? I absolutely love it!"
It was thrilling. Perfect Purchased. Mischief Managed.

VICTORY!



Ginger Balls

I want red hair but I'm too chicken to dye it.

Short Story that this sentence just made me think of:
This morning my sister called when I was out running so when I got back I called her and she didn't answer. The worrier that I am became concerned but I still went on with my morning. Then she called me and was like "Guess what I did, I died......." and then she paused for some reason, and I was very very concerned, until she came out with "I dyed Rosalie's clothes blue"......

Anyway, here are some pictures of hair that I admire. I'm jealous so I'm going to blog about it.

"I don't ever dream about you and me. I don't ever make up stuff about usthat would be considered insanity." -Kate Nash.

She is my soul sister, heeeey, heeeeey (that was me sing/typing that terrible Train song).

Also I want her hair, especially in the Foundatioins video, where I also want all her clothes and her staircase.

"Love doesn't need all the right ingredients. It's heartier than that." - Charlotte Charles

Her hair is THE best thing about THE best show ever. Also, her clothes rock too.

"I love your hair. What's going on there?" "Everything" -Marie Antionette

Her hair is the best part of the movie. Her clothes are beautiful but I do not evny them.

 

So I also had a super funny convo yesterday that this hair thing made me think of.

I was telling my friend Karla how I want to be the human form of the store Anthropologie . I stated how there is a major problem with this decedant store. The problem is that the clothes there are made for smaller girls, with a waist and no boobs. Karla and I went on to discuss how girls always want the opposite of what they have. My classic example is the curly hair vs straight hair cunundrum. I have stick straight. I want crazy curly. Then we went back to boobs and she said "Maybe one day I'll buy myself some."  I made myself laugh out loud in my office/library by saying "Maybe one day I'll get a perm"

Cool Story Hansel- I know but whatever.

XOXO or as Taylor Hoyt says "xx"

Aubrey