Tuesday Things

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Caitlyn

This weekend I knocked over a bottle of nail polish that for some stupid reason I had only put the lid on halfway. Ah, this is the price I pay for accepting mediocrity in everything. Of course I didn’t notice the nail polish fall because I was looking for my I-pod and naturally it fell at the most perfect angle so it got all over my hardword floor, you know, the hardwood floor that my landlord calls “his pride and joy”? I spent all weekend googling how to get it off, buying supplies and scrubbing accordingly. It’s 98% off but I probably still need to scrub some more.

On Saturday I went to Zumba. I used to love Zumba and go all the time but I haven’t found a good instructor here yet. Instructors can make or break for me. I went to the gym near my house. It’s about a mile away and because I hate driving, I walked. This Zumba instructor was mostly a miss. She looked up at the ceiling the whole time, which was so weird. It’s like you could literally see the gears in her brain operating trying to remember the choreography.

On Sunday I took the next step in my relationship with BodyPump. I went to another class. I was expecting some lady named Jamie, and some tattooed guy named Heinz gets up there. He was no Sherri, haha. He was tough. This class reminded me of how ignorant I am. Heinz kept yelling OH EM GEE KNEES BEHIND TOES and I can’t figure out what that means. Sherri says this too. Just say “Bend your knees more!” or “Move your feet back!” or something.

I’ve never been a good sleeper but it’s getting worse. My house is SO HOT and I can’t sleep because of it. I live with 3 girls who get cold at 74 degrees (wtf) so I let majority win that battle. I have 3 fans yet I can’t sleep at night because I’m so hot. I was talking to a co-worker about this and she said she prefers to sleep when she’s hot. I think these people are CRAZY. If you’re cold, you can add on more covers, blankets, clothes. You can do something about it! Or if you’re hot, there’s nothing you can really do.

Yesterday at work was data entry all day. It was horrendous and at the end of the day, I was all but skipping out the door. Woohoo that I have even more to do today. Yippee.

I need friends. I’ve been here 9 months and I still don’t really know anyone. My only kind-of friends that I met here are my roommates’ co-workers and I still don’t really gel that well with them considering they spend 45+ hours a week together and have all these inside jokes I don’t get. There’s Jenna and the new girl at work, but we don’t really hang out on weekends. But I don’t know how to meet anyone besides work. I refuse to join a sports league because I’m so terrible I will most definitely not be making any friends thata way. Blergh.

This morning was going to be my first BodyCombat class. I’ve been wanting to go forever, especially since I loved the boxing part of the Xercise Labs. I got out to my car at 5:20 this morning……and someone was parked behind me in our parking pad. It wasn’t my roommates’ or any of their boyfriends. I had no idea whose car it was. I didn’t know what to do as there was no way I could get out. I wasn’t about to rouse the neighbors so early in the morning. And plus, the neighbors have their own parking pads, so it probably wouldn’t be them. Do I call a tow truck? My brain was still half asleep and not churning out terrific ideas besides call 911 so I just went back in the house and went back to bed for 45 minutes When I got back outside an hour later, the car was gone, thankfully. I was so mad then. I realllllllllly want to go to BodyCombat! Sigh. This is the class that best fits my schedule so I have to wait until next week, I guess.

THIS SONG. Kelly Clarkson is my spirit animal. I can’t think of a song of hers that I haven’t loved. Obsessed.

how do you prefer to sleep- hot or cold?

Baked Oats Gloats

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Caitlyn

As you may or may not know, my culinary skills are severely lacking. Yet there I am loudly participating in What I Ate Wednesdays every so often with no shame in my lackluster game whatsoever. I blame it on Jenn being so nice.

I’ve been in a banana love mode since last WIAW where I gave bananas a shout-out in the post title and everything. I’m happy to report I no longer need to send co-workers e-mails from the grocery store aisle asking them how to buy bananas. Moving on up in the world. Anyway. I have been doing my dutiful, diligent research via Pinterest, WIAW blogs and blogs on other days of the week to find out HOW CAN I INCORPORATE BANANAS INTO *EVERYTHING*. It really grinds my gears when I find a good-lookin’ recipe on Pinterest and double clicking the picture leads nowhere. I need detailed directions, ingredients, the recipe maker to hold my hand, etc. Thankfully I rarely have that problem with blogs but if you all wanted to come over and hold my hand through it, that would be just swell. Now I’m being creepy and we’re like five run-on sentences in. High hopes for this post.

So I became obsessed with the idea of baked strawberry banana oatmeal. I love strawberries. I love bananas. I love oatmeal. Sure I could microwave oatmeal and throw the fruit on top, but it looks so good baked and I want to flex those non-existent culinary muscles. I spent a good 1.5 days (not an exaggeration) searching the Internet, blogosphere and Pinterest for the right recipe.

the right recipe definition: doesn’t require much prep, doesn’t require much time, doesn’t require many ingredients I have to go searching for or thinking too hard about, directions are not confusing, doesn’t require stove use, has positive feedback from recipe users, none of feedback from recipe users mentions occurrence of fire.

I found a few and bookmarked them all. Hours (no lie) were spent inspecting the directions and Googling accordingly when directions said stupid things like “lightly beat the eggs” (how lightly? what the heck is ‘lightly beaten’ supposed to look like?! is there a special method to obtain this nonsense?) or listed ”baking powder” thus I had to ask Google if I could just switch in baking soda in its place because I had no idea what baking powder was? Verdict was a big, fat n-o.

After all that extensive research, Skinnytaste emerged victorious. They got bonus points for having the least amount of calories- 211. I was not about to be deterred by Skinnytaste’s recipe being for blueberry banana baked oatmeal. So not an important detail. Some commenters commented that they used strawberries instead, and my plan was (is always) to live the words of esteemed philosopher Tim Gunn and “make it work.”

I only needed to buy oats and a baking dish! The rest I already had (I bought honey 5 months ago for a long-forgotten reason and it’s been collecting dust in my pantry because I know no Pooh Bears) or was going to helpfully borrow from my 3 roommates. I went to my favorite place, Trader Joes, but in a trademarked Caitlyn move, forgot what kind of oats I needed. I bought rolled and steel-cut and figured it had to be one of those two.

I finally made it Wednesday night immediately after I got home from work. Imagine my stunned reaction when I opened the recipe up and read I needed quick oats. Seriously? I turned to our pantry and found old-fashioned oats. How many kinds of oats are there?!?! A commenter said they used old-fashioned oats and it was fine. So after spending my hard-earned money on two ginormous bags of oats, I had to dip into my roommates’ free stash. And I’ve thrown out the receipt. When will I learn about throwing out receipts? Never. I guess I have to step my baking game up and find some recipe to put them to use. Or find another recipe to use them and just eat tons and tons of oatmeal for the rest of my days.

I think I messed up the measurements somewhere along the line for the honey and the cinnamon. Then I realized I had no idea what to do with the strawberries, but hey, I forgot I bought blueberries and when did I buy those? So I just half’ed it with blueberries and strawberries. Um, this is the worst post in the history of posts. I wish I could say I’m sorry but I’m just too proud of myself.

Anyway. The recipe was pretty easy even by my dunce standards. I managed to crack an egg and only half of the white shell thing fell in the bowl. Success. The recipe said to whisk but I don’t think we own one so I just used a spatula, same thing amirite? The dish turned out fine. No fires. Here’s really bad pictures to commemorate.

voila……….this is instagramm’ed.

It’s SO GOOD. I had some with chobani vanilla and I’m stuffed and in love. So proud.

what is your favorite breakfast?

are you an oatmeal fan?

Caitlyn Currently

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Caitlyn

This survey has been all over the blogverse. I love reading peoples answers and I love details so I figured I’d do one.

Current Books:

Alternating between healthy / leisurely / inspiring reads. I switch off and on at night. Sometimes I’m only in mood for one or only get to read from one before my eyes are shutting. I know a lot of people can’t switch back and forth between books, but I like to. I usually just use my Kindle but I had a B & N gift card and felt like going back to the good ol’ days of paper. For the record, I was anti-Kindle until I got one for Christmas but I love how convenient it is. No more trekking to libraries or bookstores? I don’t have to leave my house? I get a new book in a minute? Score. I just finished Susanna Kearsley “Firebird” (she is one of my favorite authors) and even though some parts were pretty hokey, I loved it. But now I’m reading…

I just got this book (below) and CANNOT FREAKING WAIT.

Current Music:

Demi Lovato – “Heart Attack.” Yeah, yeah, Caitlyn, you’re three months late on that. I know, I know. I don’t listen to radio no mo’ because I can’t stand commercials or the DJs talking, so when I drive to and from the job I have to go to EVERY DAY (so lame) I only listen to my I-pod, which consists of pop songs (with Dr Dre, Eminem or a random country song thrown in because variety is the spice of life) from the 90s and early 2000s that finds me muttering to absolutely no one about the good ol’ days. I accidentally heard this song and love it. I think the line “play ‘em like a Ken doll” is brilliant and I may or may not rewind the song a few times just so I can sing that part over and over (finger snapping may or may not be involved) pretending I’m fierce enough to actually pull off that line in real life. If you heard my warbling attempt at the chorus and those ridiculous high notes in a ridiculous high register, you’d probably have a heart attack yourself.

I love me some Carrie. Girl can SING. Girl is gorgeous. Girl has the best legs. I love to sing the chorus of this song when I’m feeling irritable. Which is never, of course.

Miley Cyrus new song. It sounds like a Rihanna song and took a while to grow on me. “Party in the USA” is my top 5 played songs on my I-pod. It was number one for awhile but I’m assuming it slipped and don’t know what song now sits pretty at the coveted number one. Probably Call Me Maybe. I think “Party in the USA” is perfection, so I wish she’d make more music like that but whatever.

Current Guilty Pleasure:

Trader Joes Chocolate Orange sticks. They get a C- in my Fooducate app but I lurve them.

Current Nail Polish:

Essie- Mod Square. Fun color that is great for summer.

Also because I want you to know. Essie- Bachelorette Bash is another fun color that I love (how could a color named that NOT be fun?) I bought this after I bought Mod Square, came home and placed it on my nail polish tray and wailed in despair seeing the two of them side by side. I thought they were the same. Such a novice. The bottle is pictured below with my nails that are Mod Square, not Bachelorette Bash. Bachelorette Bash is on my toes but I can’t bring myself to take a picture of my feet for the Internet. You’re welcome.

Current Drink:

H20.

Current Food:

Chobani Flip Vanilla Golden Crunch.

Current Favorite Show:

Newlyweds: The First Year on Bravo. I am Bravo’s bitch. I hate-watch most of their shows (aka all the Housewives) but I really like this show and haven’t gotten sick of it yet. Maybe because it’s only in its first season? Also PRETTY LITTLE LIARS comes back tonight! This show has gotten ridiculous and I hate-watch it as well because I know nothing will add up and the plots are so stupid….yet I tune in every week and talk conspiracy theories alllllll week long. I never claimed I had good taste in music or TV.

Current Wish List:

More money, always. It’s like I don’t even get paid it’s gone so quickly. My allerGEEEEEEEZ to ease up. Also Princess Madeleine’s wedding dress. That I could walk to work everyday.

Current Needs:

Green bell peppers. Toilet paper. Sleep. A blender that’s cheap but can at least chop bananas and/or strawberries unlike the one my roommate has now. Laughing Cow Cinnamon Cream Cheese wedge because I want to make this smoothie.

Current Indulgence:

Fro yo from down the street. Got it yesterday! This is an old pic though.

Current Blessing:

This is corn to the e. But as I was speed walking back from my weekly lettuce/dressing/fruit Trader Joes trip a woman hooked it out of a store on the street and got in my way. She was old, hunched over and walking with a severe limp and a cane. She was walking v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. I was going against my lunch half hour so I had to largely side step around her to continue speed walking back to my office. I instantly felt like an asshole. Major assumption here but this woman once had young fresh legs that could speed walk. I started thinking what it would be like for me when I am old and slow on the sidewalk and how sad / mournful I’d probably feel when I’d see young people blitz past me knowing I could once do that but now my body couldn’t. Man. So I felt really blessed to have healthy legs that get me places (quickly! easily!) when I need them to.

Current Outfit:

Werk clothes. (my staple black work pants are loose- squeal)

Current Excitement:

Um. Work week to be over. To go to bed. Kate Middleton’s baby (please be a girl, little fetus). Trying Les Mills Body Combat (I was supposed to go today but forgot– NEXT WEEK! I want to go so badly)! PLL!!

Questionz.

If you got the chance to sing ONE song (vocal abilities notwithstanding), live in front of an audience of adoring fans, with ONE artist (it doesn’t have to be the artist who originally sings your song choice) what song would it be and which lucky singer would you pick as your duet partner?

Blender recommendations?

My Day in the Lab (with Burpees)

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Caitlyn

I made my return to BodyPump yesterday morning after my first class. I really love Thursdays because of BodyPump. The class is at 6 a.m., which means I get to sleep in an extra hour!! Woohoo. I wake up at 5, instead of 4, which of course is amazing. But like all good things bestowed upon me, I ruined it yesterday morning and overslept by 12 critical minutes which left me scrambling. I arrived with two minutes to spare but whenever I’m running behind, I turn into (even more of) a disheveled mess. After all of two classes, I’ve deemed that I do really like BodyPump. I now understand why it’s as popular as it is. I love feeling my arm muscles tremble and knowing that they’re finally getting the attention they deserve after being largely ignored for 24 years. I like how the class isn’t boring, how I know all of the songs they play, and how we work sooo many muscle groups. It also seems the class flies by. In 99% of things I do I have a very limited attention span and become “over it” pretty quickly, so I’m always pleasantly surprised when Sherri (she still rocks, by the way) announces we’re going to warm down and stretch.

Merritt, my gym, sent out an e-mail last week to members announcing that they were doing a demo of Xercise Lab classes to decide if they wanted to add it to the group fitness schedule. They were only hosting the demos at three locations, and I was excited to see that the location I go to was one of them! The class was the same day as BodyPump so I gave serious thought for all of 12 seconds as to if I should skip one. I declared I could handle two-a-days. I didn’t want to skip BodyPump so early into my “career” but Xercise Lab: Burn Lab class sounded intriguing.

Merritt has two locations a few minutes from my house, but the one I go to is right down the street from work (which is 20-25 minutes from my house), and is much easier and more convenient. I think its the nicest one too The class was at 5:30 p.m., and since I leave work around 3:40 each day, I just hung out at the gym for an hour, reading and doing light cardio because ya know, I am a delicate flower that tires easily and I wanted to be in as best of form as I could muster up for my butt kicking.

Burn Lab is 45 minute, high intensity cardio workout. It kicked my butt all over town. I was drenched in sweat, beet red, the whole pretty enchilada. It was INTENSE. It was fast. No rest for the weary… you have to grab water in between songs, they don’t give you breaks. There was a lot of boxing which I surprisingly loved. We did a lot of jump lunges. In the link above, there’s a video that’s a pretty good summary of it. I can only imagine how many calories I burned.

I read a lot of blogs and always hear about burpees and how they’re designed by Satan and all that. I never looked up a video or anything, didn’t know what they were, I just knew they had to be bad. So when Breann, the Burn Lab trainer, announced the next song included Burpees, I involuntarily groaned. They were awful. I don’t know how everyone else seems to just spring back up, but I seemed to require an extra step or two to haul myself back up. I can only imagine what I looked like doing them, ha.

The nice lady working out next to me said the class was a lot like Insanity, which I have never done or even looked at, because I am not that insane. Another girl said it reminded her a little of Les Mills Body Combat, which she loved. We have to give the gym our feedback and I mulled it over the whole ride home. Burn Lab is a class I’d love to do once a week. Seriously, after the class ended I was a dripping mess. It was hard. It was intense. It was fast. It is the perfect class for a day after Thanksgiving or Christmas where you eat waaaaaay too much.

After the class they held a Build Lab demo. I wasn’t going to stay, but my new gym friend Frances (sp? some friend I am) was staying and I felt bad because not many people seemed to stay. Also it was raining and I hate driving in the rain so I was giving the sky some time to sort itself out (it didn’t). Build Lab is also 45 minutes and is described as weight training without weights. I should have left right then. We did a lot of planks. A lot of push-ups. Some burpees. NONE OF WHICH I AM GOOD AT. It took me half the class to realize I should probably get a mat to ease the pain of all the push-ups and planks. BodyPump is about all I can handle. I was a pitiful, embarrassing sight but the trainer who taught this class, Sasha, was tough. We also did a lot of lunges and jumping, that which I can handle. Frances – a 53 year old who was 50 pounds heavier until she started working out 1.5 years ago, so great — said the class would pair perfectly with spinning.

Sasha, in a picture that is not at all creepy.

Frances liked Build Lab better, I liked Burn Lab (duh). Of course afterward I asked the two trainers, Breann and Sasha, obnoxious questions because I can’t help myself. Xercise Labs is only a year old (!) but they are in a lot of gyms all over the US, Russia and Switzerland. Breann and Sasha said they fly all over and have been doing a lot of demos lately. Breann and Sasha were super energetic, annoyingly gorgeous and seemed to be having so much fun. I think it would be incredibly important with these classes to make sure the trainers are really good because the classes are hard and intense (have I mentioned that part yet?). Breann (and she works for the company so…who knows) said in her 13+ years she’s never seen people get such great results as they do when they go to 5 Labs a week. I think it was 3 Burn Lab / 2 Build Lab, but it might be other way around. She also noted that people have told her they’ve dropped minutes off their running pace because of the Lab classes.

People seemed enthused so I think we’ll probably take them on….and hopefully I can start going to Burn Lab semi-regularly, and when I get stronger, give Build Lab another whirl and seek redemption for myself.

Maybe I am a little bit insane as I did THREE-A-DAYS technically yesterday. Three fitness classes in one day!! Who am I?!!!?! I came home at 8:00 and slept like the dead. So. Breann gave me 5 of her business cards, I have no idea why. This isn’t a sponsored post and I’m not a PR plant or anything but if you’re interested in the labs and want ‘em for your gym or just want more info, I have their contact info, just send me an e-mail and I’ll give it to ya for you to forward to your gym or whatever the heck you want to do.

questions.

1. What’s the most you’ve ever worked out in one day?

2. burpees: the worst? yes or yes?

3. have you tried any new fitness classes lately?

Letting Myself Talk and Making Myself Listen

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Caitlyn

Through trying to get fit and learn some things about how to be healthy, I am not only learning things about health, but……me. Duh, right? I feel like I knew that might happen but didn’t want to get my hopes up that I’d learn much beyond “Oh..I still can’t touch my toes? I assumed that would happen at some point after I stopped checking in 8th grade?? What B.S.” The other day I was on my hands and knees actually scrubbing my bathroom floor (my bathroom thankfully doesn’t have a window but if it did I’m sure I would have been distracted by all the pigs flying right outside of it and not finished) and I realized I was hungry. I still had a little bit more floor to clean so I kept going but I began thinking about me being hungry.

Looking back especially over my college years, I don’t know how often I actually felt hungry. When I was lounging in bed watching Million Dollar Listing LA marathons I’d grab Goldfish by the handful out of those gigantic cartons because it felt natural. I’d do this for hours and those cartons were endless. I don’t know if I was ever really hungry, but it was just what I always did: Lounge in bed watching Bravo while eating. It all went together. When my roommate left for class I’d go get the box of cookies and eat an entire sleeve because I was alone and I could, because nobody was there to see or judge. Was I hungry? I don’t know. Maybe eventually I trained myself to equate being alone with feeling hungry. I ate because I could and because I just wanted to eat mindlessly without thinking about it or anybody knowing.

Now that I live in a house with my own room with my own TV, whenever I would buy the junk food I would just bring it straight up to my room concealed where if I ran into a roommate that they wouldn’t see what it is. I kept the junk food in my room because I definitely did not want to run into my roommates in the kitchen or on my way back up the stairs as I’m lugging the gigantic carton of Goldfish up to my room and feel ashamed.

The first thing I did to address this was to, for the most part, stop buying junk food. And if I did, I wouldn’t allow myself to keep it in my room. So it’s not as mindless and easy to just reach for the bag of doritos from my floor. I have to be mindful and pay attention to my body and the signs that I’m hungry then actually go downstairs to grab a snack. Before, my body never really had the chance to ever communicate with me and let me know it was hungry (on second thought: or even really get hungry a lot of the time), I was just shoving food down it regardless and overstuffing myself because I could.

Now before I go to snack I pause and make myself think about if I am actually hungry, if I’m just bored or doing it out of habit. This has been instrumental. If I think “well, yes I am actually hungry” I drink at least half a glass of water first just to make sure I’m not mistaking my thirst for hunger. If I’m still hungry then, then I will snack. But for a while, I’d feel annoyed that I was hungry, because as I alluded to a few posts back in a frustrated post that was a long time coming, healthy eating and I are still figuring each other out and I just want to crave healthy things dammit.

So, now I am working on that. Allowing myself to get hungry so I can start to learn and recognize the signs of hunger (being even more irritable than my usual self is one of them, hehe) then not getting annoyed at being hungry. I went grocery shopping last Friday (along with everyone else preparing for Memorial Day, ugh that was dumb and a miserable experience) and this weekend found how much I LOVE celery with hummus. I got a few healthy snack ideas from blogs- especially a string cheese quesadilla from Julie that I had for the first time a week-ish ago and love, so simple but I probably would have never thought of it, sadly. Finding snacks I love -like the bananas and the new PB I think is healthy also from my most recent WIAW post- takes time and lots of trial/error but when I find winners it feels almost close to Christmas.

It’s only been a week, but I’m heartened by the fact that I especially ate so well over a long holiday weekend and last weekend. Weekends are usually when my eating habits are the worst. So much spare time. Nothing at all to do. When I have found myself hungry over last few days, I haven’t been annoyed. I’ve been proud to feel and recognize the signs. I’m pretty good about eating healthy at work since I usually have to plan it out.

Snacking and I are also starting to come to terms that a snack can be more than a granola bar and that I don’t have to be ashamed to have a snack. It’s natural! You’re supposed to eat more than breakfast, lunch and dinner. I am also now realizing after my few wonderful good eats days that I could maybe string together a whole lot of good eats days. My good eats days are GREAT (I think) as long as my refrigerator is stocked. Once the produce goes bad or I’m out of things to eat, it takes me a while to go to grocery store because I hate going and the crowds overwhelm me (if only Trader Joes opened at 7 instead of 9). So that is when I fall into terrible eating habits. Really terrible eating habits. I also don’t like to go grocery shopping because I buy a lot, I have three roommates who buy a lot and I hate rearranging the fridge and freezer to fit everything (translation: I’m not good at it and get SO FRUSTRATED). What a sad tale, right? Moral of story is if I’m not so lazy, I could possibly be healthy ALL THE TIME. So shocking. Not.

While I’m not yet booking any parades, it feels good to finally feel like I’m starting to right the ship and figure it all out. I formerly had a snarky line written right here that was like “but of course you could check this blog next week and find i fell off my newly established perch in the wagon right back into my own bag of spicy sweet chili doritos” but no! No negativity! And if I do find myself in a bag of spicy sweet doritos, there’s no need to beat myself up over it. I can easily get back on track since I’m starting to come to terms with snacking and finding healthy snacks I really like. Finally realizing that it is not the end of the world everytime I have a cookie someone brings to a meeting (it’s rude to say no!! heh) and that I can easily get back on track is a pretty cool feeling.

Liebster Award

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Caitlyn

A long time ago birthday girl Charlotte nominated me for the Liebster Award. WOOHOO! It took me forever to get my act together and answer her awesome questions. Liebster apparently means “dearest” in german- d’aww! I didn’t fact check that so if it isn’t true, you read out on some other blog, not here.

Thanks, Charlotte for nominating me!

In the spirit of honoring procedure, here are the rules that I see used most frequently.

The Liebster Award works:

Acknowledge the nominating blogger(s).
Share 11 random facts about yourself.
Answer 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
List 11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers (as best as you can tell based on the info provided!). They should be bloggers that you believe deserve some recognition and a little blogging love!
Post 11 questions for the bloggers that you nominated to answer.
Let all of the bloggers know that they’ve been nominated. You cannot nominate the blogger that nominated you.

How many siblings do you have and where do you fall in birth order?

I am the oldest! I have a 21 year old brother and 19 year old sister. A lot of times people think my sister is the older one. She really should be the older one. She’s all up on the fashion, beauty and hair trends. She’s the one with the serious boyfriend of years and years. I also have a dog sister is 9 ½ (Labradoodle!!!!)but still acts like a crazed puppy with boundless energy. She’s everyone’s favorite sibling so no competition here. Who can compete with this sweetheart…

2. What is your most embarrassing childhood memory?

Childhood? Nada clue. But I do have a one for teenage years. It’s a good one, I swear. This awfulness comes from my summer job at a bakery when I was 19. I was a cake writing guru (thank you, Catholic school, for my perfect cursive).

Super cute boy at counter: Hi, could you please write on my cake?

Super eager Caitlyn: Sure. What would you like it to say?

Super cute boy: Can I have your number?

Super EXCITED Caitlyn: Sure.

Super excited romantic Caitlyn, thinking this is finally my big epic love story starting off with an adorable “meet cute” writes my phone number on the cake in blue icing.

Super EXCITED Caitlyn with a heart going 9000 beats a second hands cake back to Future Husband / Super cute boy: Here you go.

Caitlyn stands there.

Future Husband / Super cute boy: Thanks.

Future Husband / Super cute boy leaves. (????????) NOT IN THE SCRIPT.

Future Husband / Super cute boy takes a few steps away (Caitlyn notcreepily watching), glances down at cake, stops walking, pivots to walk back to bakery (Caitlyn, still standing there watching him, rejoices).

Future Husband / Super cute boy: Um, I’m sorry, there’s been a confusion. I need you to write ‘Can I have your number’ on the cake. It’s an inside joke for my friend.

Caitlyn (smile falls): Oh. Okay. Sorry.

Future Husband / Super cute boyhands back cake, Caitlyn scrapes off her phone number with BURNING red cheeks, writes “Can I have your number?” on cake, all but throws cake at boy and runs and hides in the back.

cringing. forever. cringing.

3. What is your favorite junk food snack?

Cheez-its , Goldfish or Double Fudge Pop-tarts.

4. If you were a super hero, what would your name be?

I’ve always loved the word Enchantress. Fun fact when I was little I used to pretend I was queen of the ocean (because the ocean needed a queen and Ariel stupidly abandoned that throne) and that I controlled the waves. Of course when I’d hear about someone drowning I’d feel really bad because ya know, I could have helped them out. So we’ll say I’m Water Enchantress. Oh yeah.

5. What is one thing you can not live without?

My I-phone. That thing has my life on it. Kind of scary.

6. What was your undergrad major and does it relate to what you’re doing now?

I majored in Communications with an English minor. I do marketing now so it definitely fits although I never took any marketing classes. Oh yes, so incredibly glad I took classes like personal writing where we all adopted a plant that was in front of the building where the class was. Professor would have us “visit” our plant (aka I’d sit there and stare off into space or make a sarcastic Facebook status about my stupid class) for the first 20 minutes in every class. We then had to ID our plant and because my plant was not a gerbera daisy, rose, or tulip, I had no idea what the hell it was. Mission FREAKING Impossible. I took a picture of it on my then blackberry and drove 30 minutes to a freaking plant nursery for help. Personal writing was not a good class. Why did I go off on this tangent?

7. If you were a sitcom character, which one would you be?

Probably Phoebe from Friends. Haha, nobody ever wants to be her but I love her and I think we are a bit similar.

8. If you could get any celebrity to play you in the movie of your life, who would you choose?

Kristen Bell or Amy Adams. I look nothing like either of them, but I love them and I think they have enough talent to do my portrayal justice and accurately depict all depths of my personality. Eyeroll.

9. Would you rather win an Emmy, an Oscar, a Tony or a Grammy?

Great question! My first thought was Grammy, but I don’t think they’re relevant anymore and I think more than half of the winners of the Grammys lately have been beyond awful so the Grammy’s aren’t as “prestigious” as I once thought they were. Taylor Swift winning awards for vocals? Rihanna even being nominated for vocals? Come on. THAT IS ABSURD. Even I who am tone-deaf recognize how awful they are. The Grammys are doing okay keeping the Biebs out of it though. I’ll say a Tony for my role in “Wicked”. I would like to play Elphaba although Glinda would be enjoyable because “Popular” is a fun song. But Defying Gravity > Everything. I freaking love that song. I saw “Wicked” live 5 years ago and when NotIdinaMenzel sang “Defying Gravity” I wept. I probably was born to play a witch lets face it. Plus, I think the Tonys are probably so much more fun than the Oscars. Neil Patrick Harris as host!? No brainer the Tonys are more fun.

10. If you could go on a one month vacation starting tomorrow, where would you go?

BORA BORA. I want to be in those little huts over the turquoise water, stat.

11. Are you a morning, afternoon and/ or evening exerciser?

Morning. Up at 4 am, baby!

Thanks, Charlotte! I am supposed to nominate people but…I’m not going to because I get nervous about excluding people. I was the girl who threw up the night before I was supposed to be captain in gym class because I didn’t want to hurt peoples feelings by not picking them for my team. I know. If you read this blog, I think you’re great and nominate you.

feel free to answer one of the questions in the comments section! or tell me about a dumb class you took in college.

Caitlyn Goes to Body Pump

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Caitlyn

……..and lives to tell the pointless tale.

I’ve been meaning to go to Body Pump for a while. But every morning I chickened out.

“I’m not ready!!!” (what signs I was waiting for to alert me to my ‘ready’ status, I know not)

“Today doesn’t feel right.” (haha oh i’m good)

“I should really do more treadmill/elliptical for the 12th day in a row.”

I was just nervous and making excuses. I really don’t like being the new, out of shape kid fumbling around in a class full of fit, strong people who all seem to know what to do. But this morning I woke up and I was just over it. Over all my dumb excuses and fears. I’ve always known I want to start going to weekly BodyPump classes so what the heck was I waiting for.

The fitness studio at my gym is super wide, which I love because that way there’s nobody behind me that I can imagine is laughing at me all class long. It also has that wall of mirrors all fitness studios seem to insist on having. I really don’t want to look at myself, thanks.

I purposely got there 20 minutes early to figure out set-up. I was second to arrive, but no instructor. I just grabbed all the stuff the other girl seemed to have. I didn’t know what to do with weights so I took all the light ones and assumed I’d figure it out. A few more people filtered in and finally, the instructor.

She immediately came over to me and introduced herself as Sherri. Ever so charming and never ever awkward, I replied “I’m new and I’m scared” (five second pause), “Oh. Right. I’m Caitlyn.”

I was at ease right away. Sherri exclaimed over and over how glad she was I was there and I’d be fine, we all start somewhere. It was all the things my sensitive soul had to hear from someone else. She helped me figure out weights to start with and promised she’d help if I needed her. So when she did get up to begin class, I was feeling fine. I was thinking, Sherri’s so nice and will help me. I can do this.

My brain has already blocked out the details of the class because it was painful. I had a pitifully light amount of weights on my bar and my arm muscles were trembling halfway through. Sherri was the kind of instructor my fragile ego needs. Super sweet, cheerful but not annoyingly so, smiley. She kept looking at me to make sure I was still breathing or hadn’t run away screaming and would wink or mouth “Great job!”

There were about 15 other people in the class and I was the youngest (I’m assuming, based off appearances). It is very humbling to be the youngest but use – by far – the least amount of weights. I looked around and was like embarrassed, wondering what they possibly thought of this young ‘un barely putting any weight on the bar.

michelle probably is lifting more than i did all class.

The thing I’m most excited about is…I didn’t hate the class. I actually kinda liked it and am planning to go back every Thursday. I I liked that we did a lot of different things and it was so varied. I worked up a sweat and it felt goooooooooood. My arms are already sore and I attempted to put mascara on but when I started applying it my my muscles started trembling again and I got some in my eye.

I’m so glad I got over my ridiculous fears and finally got started. I feel like this might be the beginning of a beautiful thing.

city & the cubicle

Single, young, un-domestic professional trying to find her way in the land of the cubicle and in a new city.