wine & love6

i really should do this weekly. there are some really rough weeks, but there have also been some spectacular ones. thanks to nora for starting this so i can learn to appreciate the good things a bit more :)

reasons my glass is full:

- bartenders in training who don't know how to make mojitos. only the second time in my life i've sent something back. [i thought it was the first. i forgot about the order my server got completely wrong and tried to tell me was what i had said when it totally wasn't. some assholes DO need to write down orders, especially in large groups]

-being late to child & adolescent again. we start 15 minutes early because no one wants to be there til 1045pm, but i have a class that is supposed to end at 8pm. i would be late regardless, and i told dr. p that on the first day. yea well group therapy has gone over every week because none of us wants to shut it (i'm one of the worst offenders). this week, i missed 10 minutes and the entire discussion of ODD. i might email dr. p cause i really think this isn't fair to me

- my headphones are starting to die. they're just a little over a year old *sigh* i have my eyes on a new pair, but won't be getting them quite yet because of other purchases...

reasons i'm loving this week:

- happy hours with leslie and julia, despite the liquor problems. also getting frozen yogurt after delicious guacamole and cuban sandwiches

- wednesday nights in general. jesse and i skype every week (yes, it's on the schedule. schedules keep me sane :)). we don't always have a ton to say, but seeing his face always makes me happy

- getting homework done ahead of my schedule. i have whole days i can spend reading blogs and tweeting sans guilt. i feel way more on top of my game than i have since undergrad

- no more limits on pandora. i've been listening to SO much good music this week

- my ravens beating the titans, keeping us on top of the steelers. love my boys! i finally bought a ray lewis jersey (2011 probowl), which should be here next week. the other one i really really want has to wait a little bit longer. it'll make a nice christmas gift to self i think :D (even though they don't make women's authentic ray lewis jerseys)

so what has you reaching for that second glass (in frustration or celebration)?

we heart mondays 2

so very very true (via)

bear day at the beach? :) (via)

<3 (via)

eh to paris. yes! to escape (via)

colorful :) (via)

truth (via)

never (via | originally flickr)

i love when images are pulled from tumblr. i have so much stuff that's easily reblogged :)

we heart mondays

so the next challenge round (fire up for fall) starts today, but i'm bowing out of direct participation. i have only two goals for the fall: 1. ace this semester. 2. take care of myself. same old ongoing goals :) even more necessary since i gained another pound this week. must. get. ass. in gear! because of the challenges, i've kinda fallen in love with starting my mondays on we heart it. so i think i'm going to keep posting things that make me smile to cure my weekly case of the mondays. i also may occasionally respond to some of the challenge questions cause they're fun. for now, enjoy this week's "we heart mondays". couldn't we all use a little attitude adjustment?

i miss sid (via)

love love love alice in wonderland + want more tattoos (via)

(via | originally flickr)

(via)

(via)

like a shark, i have to keep moving forward (via)

i like to pretend (via)

so cute i want to bite their little heads off! (via)

everyone needs a snuggle (via)

getting it together

this week has been driving me crazy. to start, i freaked out the other day about my finances. i'm still paying off my last minute trips to georgia, and i just got slapped with a $1500 estimate for car maintenance. the one item i absolutely need is the most expensive on the list, which i most certainly can't cover right now. although, the guy who wrote up the estimate put in the wrong quantities for a couple items so i had to recalculate. i think i might run by when my girl is working to get a proper one done. it's still gonna cost my first born, but at least i'll have all the right info

my first instinct was to take care of my car and not put money in my savings. this is when i really started to lose my shit. all of my savings goals are carefully calculated. i'm already not sure i'll meet my "quitting my job to be a full time intern for a semester" goal, but that's only one of five goals that i am actively working on. there are seven others on hold. i am a saving fiend! one of those current goals is for a new car at the end of the year. forsake the new baby for my old lady? um... um... no? but then i'll be giving the car back to my mom in double crappy condition. she also needs some major body work done. i usually treat my things very nicely, but i could never afford to have the damage fixed. and i refuse to let my mom pay for it. so i'd like to at least have her regular maintenance taken care of; i'll figure out the body work some other time. i know i can give the car back with the understanding that i would have her fixed up over time. i just dunno if i wanna do that. and mom still doesn't know what she wants to do with the car

so i started thinking about my budget options. looking at my debts and living expenses to see if there's anywhere i could squeeze some extra cash for car expenses. not unless i want to pay the absolutely minimum on my debts. uh no *sigh* i need an extra paycheck, but that just ain't happening. on the upside though, i realized i might be able to get my credit cards paid off sooner if i made a few small adjustments. double nice because i want to close one of the accounts after i get the car. i need the credit history for now, but i'm really not liking the issuing company. two days later, i'm feeling much more confident about the new plan to take care of business financially, staying within my current means

making better budget plans led to a new homework plan. i have a million pages of reading each week plus a video to process and workbook pages to complete. i constantly feel like i'm going in too many directions, and i haven't been able to keep up. this is week three, and i was still catching up on reading from week one. no bueno. so i sat down with my syllabus and planner to figure out what the fuck was going on. instead of focusing on catching up, i also looked at the next two weeks. basically, what needs to be done through the end of the month. instead of trying to read as much as possible during a certain block of time, i gave myself one assignment per day. narrowing my focus to avoid "i'm such a procrastinator" frustration. i walked into work wed with every intention of reading a chapter because i normally have nothing to do. instead i had my second panic of the week...

last week, my team informed me that they hadn't, as yet, found what we were looking for in this audit. really not good. i had a file on wed of what had been researched so far. i opened it and immediately ignored it. ugly spreadsheets make my head hurt. instead i putzed around online for a couple hours. wed is my short day so putting off work until 2pm was not my brightest idea. i spent the next two and a half hours trying to make sense of the file and freaking out. i was pretty sure my team was confused about a certain point. however, i was convinced i was also missing something important. not having an inkling of what it was, i couldn't formulate a question to pose to my POC. so i put it off until yesterday. i spent most of the day refreaking out over the file before i just gave up. i sent a note back to my team to clear up the confusion. i could wait another day to see if i could sort through what we could possibly be missing...

in the midst of all that work insanity, guess what didn't get done. my fucking homework. frustrated, agitated and convinced i was gonna give myself an ulcer before the week was out. by some miracle of awesomeness, i got the two chapters i wanted to read done with plenty of time for other stuff. i even dozed off for a minute last night halfway through the chapter. new plan of attack might actually be working. it probably helps that last night's business meeting was cancelled. i had a couple extra hours to play with... i walked in today to a response from my team and my boss. i touched base with my POC, and i think all is ok. we may be missing a piece, but it's not vital to the audit. i've checked all my usual time wasters this morning and even spent some time looking at car dealerships. dude i want to work with hasn't responded to my inquiry yet so i'm searching for a potential replacement. i'm very selective about who i do business with. i need to find someone i feel comfortable with who isn't going to harass the shit out of me until i buy something...

i hate these occasional panics, but i just might be in a better position because of them. today, i've got my shit together, and i'm ready to face the next stretch head on. now i'm gonna go make my lunch and start this next chapter. should be a good one; it's conduct disorders :)

power of groups

i miss weight watchers meetings. neal calls it a cult; i call it group therapy. i'm taking a group therapy course this semester, which has me thinking more and more about groups. i never thought about ww in that context, but it absolutely is therapeutic. using the counseling jargon, it's a psychoeducational group. basically, a group that has a central theme around which there is discussion and skill building. AA is another good example

i don't believe i took it for granted how much benefit i'd get from ww. i knew going in that i was a meetings girl; i needed face to face support when i was starting out. i definitely overestimated the ability of the online community to replace my meetings though. not to say my online support isn't spectacular, but i definitely believe there is a piece missing. the weekly #wwchat fizzled, iitgi floundered and i don't want to join the mfp discussion boards. all i have are blogs and twitter, which i'm not utilizing to their full potential. i could be doing so much better. i could reach out to others for help. i could implement a plan based on ideas from other bloggers. i could start documenting my struggles and successes again. but i won't. something gets lost in translation online. because, short of expressing myself in tumblr posts, i'm finding it extremely hard to convey precisely what i mean

it's frustrating. i'm frustrated with the same information. i'm frustrated with the support inconsistencies. but mostly, i'm frustrated with myself. intellectually, i'm there. i know what to do and how to do it. i'm just not emotionally involved. i can't work up the excitement i used to have. for myself and for others. i love the internet, but it just can't fulfill the role i need sufficiently

feeling a bit lost (via tumblr)

feeling special

i finally spent some time catching up on my fave blogs today after days of ignoring my reader. grad school is all consuming as usual :p scrolling through, i saw my name. who me? really? for good things? yep :) someone thinks i'm bootiful

thanks, sophia!!! the award is for beautiful bloggers. not just the blogs, but people who are beautiful on their insides and outsides :)

rules first. because there are always rules, and they're less fun than the nominations:

1. link back to the person who nominated you
2. choose as many bloggers as you'd like. share their blog links, and let them know about the award
3. don't remove the link to JessieMariem.blogspot.com from the award (that's just rude)

nominations after :) the hard part... other than the wonderful sophia, here are some of the bloggers who continually amaze me:

Tillie [a nuttier life]
Rini [adorkable me]
Emily [Emily Jane]
Lexa [Lemmonex]
Amy [life's journey with a smile]
Sarah [Silly Grrl]
Nora [Walking with Nora]

beat the heat week10

summer goals:

1. drink six glasses of water per day
2. workout at least three times per week
3. leave for work by 830
4. stop dicking around with staying on budget
5. write in my journal weekly

results:
(1) i've done pretty well with this goal. i only faltered one week out of the whole challenge. two years ago, i barely drank any water at all. it still surprises me how much that's changed :)

(2) ha! this was, by far, my absolute worst goal. i didn't realize how bad until i was looking back over the whole challenge. i only accomplished this twice the entire time. twice. ugh! i'm still trying to build it into my schedule cause i need to move my ass as much as possible

(3) another happy surprise :) not only did i successfully change my morning routine, but i found extra time in my day for whatever i need. i'm going to try to take a small chunk of that extra time to do quick workouts (seriously, goal #2 is still a must!). joyce and reuters tell me i only need 15 minutes a day so that's my goal

(4) i only slipped up a little on the budget. i counted one week as a half win because i went over one piece without balance among the others. last week, i totally screwed the budget because of groceries. this week's groceries will be very light. good thing i have extras of stuff :p

(5) bu bu bust! just like the workouts *double sigh* not that i really needed journaling, but it can be helpful at times. i'm definitely not as disappointed about this goal as i am with my fitness failings though. maybe one day i'll start journaling regularly. maybe one day i'll also be a more consistent blogger ;) *shrug*

via we heart it

via we heart it

via we heart it

i couldn't pick just one so enjoy some adorable, carefree lovey feelings. isn't that pup just too precious?! i needed a wee bit of cheering in recovery from week one of grad school exhaustion. so. much. reading. i'm already behind ugh. but i'm hoping to catch up this week. until then, i'll be dreaming of floating away in a sea of balloons

{follow my progress and all the weekly questions}