theinbetweenismine

just a girl living the expat life

Awkward & Awesome

filed under: awkward & awesome

I used to regularly post this kind of post, but it’s been (almost three) years since I last used this format I thought it would be fun to revive it. See the archives here.

AWKWARD

+ Have you bought stuff off of Facebook Marketplace? Or NextDoor? What is it with people? Why do they not have the decency to respond or tell you that an item has sold after you’ve been sending messages back and forth and you’ve been trying to schedule a viewing? I do not get it. Common courtesy, anyone?

+ When people come to cycling class and leave midway through the class. Why? Why do you do that? There were people who couldn’t get a spot and you didn’t even stay for the whole class.

Okay, I understand that maybe there is a time where you have to be somewhere and maybe you gotta leave a few minutes early this one time, but 60% of people in my cycling class last week left before the end of the class. Some left after 30 minutes. I mean, come on.  It’s rude and it’s disrespectful, not just to the people who didn’t get a spot in class, but also to the instructor! 

+ I’ve been getting the “Parents” magazine in the mail for the last two weeks. I am so confused why, because I do not have kids and I definitely didn’t order it, so I have no earthly clue why I would be getting this magazine, but it has my name and address on it. What’s happening??!

AWESOME

+ Even though I had an unpleasant experience dealing with people on FB Marketplace last weekend, we also did score a new-to-us coffee table for a reasonable price. I win.

+ I just found out that the book “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein, which was one of the top 5 books I read in 2017, was made into a  movie. I am usually a bit sceptical to watch the movie, if I loved a book a lot, but for some reason, I am intrigued to watch this one when it comes out on August, 9th! Have you read the book, and do you want to see the movie?

+ ICYMI, J walked the Davis M00-nlight Run 5k with me two weeks ago and I’m so proud of him.

+ Scored a $5 for 10$ Starbucks eGift Card via Groupon. I always take advantage of those offers. I don’t go to Starbucks very often, but this way I also make sure I never pay “full” price when I go.

+ When co-workers, friends, and gym buddies bring you the bounty of their vegetable gardens and you don’t have to buy produce from the store. So far, we have been given zucchini, cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. We’ve also been able to eat everything up and that feels awesome. (Zucchini Scones anyone?)

Tell me something awkward or awesome! 

Awkward & Awesome

filed under: awkward & awesome


This is a regular feature post on my blog. See the archives here.

AWKWARD

+ Slow computers. Or huge data sets. Or both. I just don’t have patience for this. Especially when I need to get things done.

+ People who talk very loudly. There is this maintenance guy in our office building and he basically ‘yells’ at you every time he comes by to check on something (which he does a lot). I wonder if he has a hearing problem.  

+ We watched the 2nd presidential (town hall-style) debate on Sunday (with my parents, who probably only understood half of what was said, but were able to get the vibe nonetheless and wanted to see the ‘trainwreck’). So AWKWARD.

 

AWESOME

+ Hosting my parents. It’s been so fun having them stay with us the last couple of weeks. I will be so sad when they leave again.

+ Having one-on-one time with my parents. I took my dad to my gym for a workout (I wish we could go work out together more often) and to a pre-season NBA game. I also enjoyed a ‘girls day’ with my Mom at Apple Hill.  It’s just so nice to spend some quality time with each of them.

+ Dutch Apple Pie alla mode. That’s all.

+ Our new couch. Love it so much.

+  I haven’t talked about my homemade granola enough lately. I’ve been having it for breakfast pretty much every single day these last few months and I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. It’s just so good (and less sweet – only ⅓ cup of sweetener and oil). I’ve been thinking about switching up the recipe a bit, but I am hesitant to get too fancy. With a lot of other food things, I like the plain versions best. How do you like your granola?

+ Gunther’s Ice Cream. Oh eM Gee. So delicious.  Now I know why there is such a long line out the door all the time.

+ A run on the beach this week. It’s a special kind of treat. I wish I lived near the ocean.

+ A delivery of Stumptown coffee right to my door step. (I am always taking advantage when they offer free shipping!)

Awkward & Awesome

filed under: awkward & awesome

Untitled

This is a regular feature post on my blog. See the archives here.

AWKWARD

+ When a couple goes shopping at Trader Joe’s and both stand there, arms crossed and watch the store employee bag their groceries after ringing everything up. This annoys me especially when there is a long line at the checkout and they brought their own bags and could have just started bagging their own stuff. What the hell?

+ Not having met our next-door-neighbors (the ones to the left) despite the fact that we’ve lived in our house for 4+ months now. We even knocked a couple of times to introduce ourselves, but they were never there. Hmpf. Awkward.

+ Did you notice how much spinach you have to cook to get a decent serving? I am always shocked how much spinach dwindles away when you cook it. I usually buy frozen spinach for cooking which is a little less disappointing than seeing two 8 oz bags of fresh spinach shrink down to the size of a tiny side dish. (What I am saying, though, is that I love spinach.)

AWESOME

+ My bff finished her proton-radiation therapy (don’t google this. It’s awful and I am so proud of her for going through it!)  and I really, really hope that it did what it was supposed to do: kill the leftover cells of her brain tumor. The sucker needs to be gone for good now.

+ Running at Santa Monica Beach. I can’t tell you how excited I was to be training in a different environment from my usual running route. I (feel like I) don’t have too many options when it comes to running routes around my neighborhood (the park it is! And to be fair, I like our park. A lot!), but being able to run a long run at the beach two weeks ago was awesome!

+ Weekend Netflix catch-up sessions. I don’t really watch that much TV during the week (besides the news) and I’ve been enjoying some Netflix catch-up time on the weekends lately. A couple of uninterrupted me-time (watching whatever the hell I want).

+ Watching my little (potted) garden grow. I hope I’ll see some fruit-bearing soon.

+ My Mom put together a little photo book from our birthday party in March and sent it to me as a surprise in the mail. What a sweet gesture! I love it! Thumbing through the pages made me realize though – we barely managed to think about taking pictures that day. Time flew by so quickly and there are so many photos with people I wish we would have taken, but didn’t (for example: a picture of my sister and me with both our parents *fail*).

+ Homemade granola. No, seriously. I feel so stupid that I hadn’t tried making granola at home yet until I had an a-ha moment a few weeks ago. It’s so easy, relatively cheap (cheaper than store-bought stuff for sure), you have full control over the ingredients (mostly the amount of sweetener that you use!), and it’s a healthy (and may I add: delicious!) way to start your day. Why wouldn’t everybody do that??

19: Awkward & Awesome

filed under: awkward & awesome, NaBloPoMo

Untitled

This is a regular feature post on my blog. See the archives here.

AWKWARD

+ When the landlord of the apartment building next door has the roof cleaners come out to blow all the dirt off their roof with leaf blowers and have your windows covered in dirt as a result of that. Seriously?

+ Trying to make sense of what is going on in this world. I saw some people quit Facebook yesterday. The overload of hateful posts, unsolicited opinions that were shared in response to posts, and general disrespect is a little quite demoralizing. Come on, we’re better than this!

+ Feeling a little bit frustrated with work right now, because I am currently splitting my time doing odd jobs for different people on different projects. I’d rather have a couple of dedicated projects to work on than so many different small tasks.

AWESOME

+ Fresh bread with French preserve. Yum!

+ I’m looking forward to the long Thanksgiving weekend. We’ll host a dear friend from Germany for Thanksgiving this year and I couldn’t be more excited to have her visit! 

+ I added some cinnamon to my coffee this morning and I am declaring that the holiday season begins now!

+ Inspiring new blogs and interesting and awesome ladies who run them. ♥

+ Last night, I made my first casserole for this winter and it was so delicious! I love how easy it is to throw all the ingredients in a baking dish and let the oven take care of the rest! If you have a good recipe, please share it with me!

+ Have you guys seen the “Charlie Brown Christmas stamps”? Oh goodness, they’re so cute! I almost don’t want to put them on any letters. 

+ My evening routine includes at least one or two cups of tea again. My favorites are vanilla-cinnamon and rose hip-hibiscus right now.

Awkward & Awesome

filed under: awkward & awesome

Untitled

This is a regular feature post on my blog. See the archives here.

AWKWARD

+ I ordered something from Amazon (well, actually through the Amazon Market Place) and I – as usual – tracked my package (because I am always so excited for stuff in the mail) only to find out today that my package was delivered – yay! Only, it wasn’t delivered at my home, but at an address in Washington, DC.  Not sure what happened… if I was provided a false tracking number or if they actually messed up the recipient/delivery address, but I’m telling you, I kinda had it with the USPS screw ups lately.

+ Transitions into new jobs. Why can’t that ever go smoothly? I submitted all my paperwork on day one (over three weeks ago), but nothing has been processed correctly or in a timely manner.  I am kinda tired having to make sure that other people do their job.

 

AWESOME

+ Super-excited to be ordering another Inkwell Press planner for 2016 again in the fall. I switched from the ECLP last year and I haven’t looked back. I don’t know if you’re a planner person, but I’ve been using (paper) planners ever since I can remember. It’s calendar/planner/journal/to-do list all wrapped up in one and Inkwell Press is an awesome company all around.

+ I am really intrigued to buy wish for a Fitbit (or other fitness tracking device). Give me your opinions, guys! Do you own one? Do you like it? Which one would you recommend?

+ I’ve been working on some new cards for my Etsy shop, if you wanna take a peek.

+ I bought a Groupon a couple of months ago to try out Farm Fresh To You – Organic Produce Delivery and we received our first box this week. So far, I am really impressed with the freshness and taste of the produce. I’ll have to figure out if this is a good investment or if I should keep going to the Farmers Market instead. Have you tried produce box delivery before?

+ I am really excited about the 4-day weekend that is coming up. I’m looking forward to some down time (Excel has been killing my brain this week!) and seeing my friend Susi on Saturday! We haven’t seen each other since our awesome day at the Willow Stream Spa in Sonoma in April!

Awkward & Awesome

filed under: awkward & awesome

Untitled

This is a regular feature post on my blog. See the archives here.

 

AWKWARD

+ When your mailman doesn’t bother to ring the bell to deliver a (certified) letter on your day off (even though you were home all day!), you can’t go to the post office until the next day to pick it up and then they can’t even locate the letter that the mailman should have at least tried to deliver at your home in the first place. Classy, USPS, real classy!

+ I sat on the couch on Sunday afternoon and when I looked up and out the window, a huge
branch swirled and fell from the tree across the street into the middle of the street in that exact moment. It wasn’t even windy! Bizzare! I guess it’s another ‘side-effect’ of the drought.

+ It’s 95+F degrees outside and they’re freezing us out in my office. The HVAC is constantly blowing 64F degree cold air right above my head. Brrrrrrr.

AWESOME

+ I unexpectedly got to see hug Nilsa, a dear blog friend of mine, and it was the highlight of my weekend. She and her family traveled through my town this weekend and we got to hang out at the park + talk for a little while (and turn another URL into an IRL friendship)! Yay!

+ Sweet mail from sweet friends. ♥

+ Popsicles. That’s all.

+ Running again. I took a – more or less – forced break when my family was here, but it’s good to get back into a routine!

+ Long catch-up phone call with my bff from home this week. She had some news, I had some news. It was necessary.

+ Completely wiped our (four-year-old) DELL laptop last weekend and reinstalled everything. I am surprised how well that went and am stoked how much smoother it seems to run again (however, we had – and still have – a little trouble with slow browser performance on the laptop, mainly “resolving host” or “establishing secure connection” issues. It can’t be the Internet connection, because it’s working fine on all our other devices. Any ideas why that could be? I promise, I already consulted Google and have tried multiple things to resolve the issue – to no lasting avail. Any other suggestions are appreciated.)

 

Awkward & Awesome

filed under: awkward & awesome

Untitled

This is a regular feature post on my blog. See the archives here.

AWKWARD

+ Co-workers, who work in the same office suite, but never say good morning or good-bye when they arrive at/leave the office unless I say something first. What’s your deal???

+  When you feel a slight summer cold coming on (Go away! I really don’t need you right now!)  and coffee tastes nothing like it’s supposed to in the morning….

+ Random spam calls from around the country (I can’t keep up with blocking all those numbers!) How do I make this stop?

+ Less awkward than actually freakin’ outrageous: another day, another mass shooting in the US. When are we finally going to do something about this?

 

AWESOME

+ Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of apartment-overhauling. We’ve done so much decluttering, rearranging and cleaning up in the last three weeks that we almost feel like we did a tiny move (because some corners of our place feel almost new to me!), but it’s been oh-so worth it!

+ Also awesome: finding old pictures/letters that I sent to J during our long distance relationship. Quite entertaining.

+ A new book!

+ My parents (and my sister) will arrive in 5 (9) days !! I am so freakin’ excited (don’t worry, the obsessive repetitions will soon be over, I promise.)

+ The Golden State Warriors won the NBA championship title for the first time in 40 years on Tuesday night! J and I used to be avid NBA watchers back in the day (when the Sacramento Kings were winning games!) but have exclusively followed ML baseball in recent years. However, the NBA finals got us back into watching basketball again and what a final series it has been!

+ A new season of “Hoarders“. I have a strange fascination with this show (especially after completely decluttering our own place) and I constantly go between “OMG, these poor people!” to “How is it even possible they let it get that far?”.

+ New Saltwater Sandals. Ahem.

Awkward & Awesome

filed under: awkward & awesome

Untitled

This is a regular feature post on my blog. See the archives here.

 

AWKWARD

+ It’s awkward when perfectly fine and functional apps + websites make design changes just because (I’m talking about you, Google). The latest offender: Instagram. Why oh why did you have to put the “like” and “comment” button up at the top (right under the image) and change them to “icons” instead of “words”? Do. not. like. It leads to unnecessarily having to scroll up and down. I feel it was easier to reach to the “like” and “comment” button right underneath the capture (especially when it is a long one). Just me?

+  I know it’s supposed to be nice/friendly when the clerk at the supermarket checkout asks you casual questions about how your day is going or what your plans for the weekend are, but sometimes I just don’t want to answer those questions! Leave me alone!

 

AWESOME

+ Mason jar salads for lunch. I am so glad that now that the warmer season is around the corner, I can take advantage and prepare some easy lunch options in advance. I tend to forgo salads in the winter for something warmer and more soothing (soup), but I am excited to go back to salad lunches this summer. (It’s ironic that on the day I post this, it’s cold and rainy here in California.)

 + May is our anniversary month. We’ll be married for 9 years in a couple weeks. Crazy how time flies. I don’t think we’ll go on a trip (like we did last year), since my family is coming to visit so soon, but I am sure we’ll do something to celebrate the occasion!

 + I started a new Runtastic training plan and my next goal is to run a 10k. (Just for me, right now. I haven’t signed up for a race officially, or anything, but we’ll see how that goes).

+  Early bedtime. I’ve been trying to go to bed earlier for about a week now and get at least 30 minutes more shut-eye and it seems to be working quite well. I wouldn’t say that I jump out of bed at 5:45 a.m. with excitement, but I don’t feel so groggy in the morning  as I did a couple of weeks ago.

Awkward & Awesome

filed under: awkward & awesome

Untitled

This is a regular feature post on my blog. See the archives here.

AWKWARD

  • Bad communication. OMG. It’s like the most awkward (and annoying) thing in the world. I don’t know or understand how some people navigate their lives without clear communication, but alas, here we are.
  • All the series we were watching (on actual TV) ended (The Newsroom, Girls, The McCarthy’s…) and we have resorted to Netflix for now. Strangely, I kind of miss having a show to look forward to on a specific day of the week (says the girl that always claimed to be a big advocate for watching shows on her own time after they come out on Netflix!).
  • I’m frustrated with my knitting project (my cardigan) and need some pep talk to finish the sleeves. Help!

 

AWESOME

  • I finished my 6-week Runtastic training plan (‘Run 50 min after 6 weeks’) yesterday and am happy to report that this has really helped me get back into a running routine. I wasn’t  really concerned about pace or distance at this point, but was positively surprised when I finished my ‘race’ (= last day of the training) with a PR last night.
  • J asked me if I was going to take a break from running now… haha. Uhm, no, this was just the beginning! I want to try and keep this up!
  • I have the next three Mondays off (I need to take some vacation days, before I hit the limit of allowed vacation hours and won’t earn any more) and I am not mad about it. Extra-long weekends? Yes, please!
  • Baseball season is upon us! I’ll be going to a SF Giants game this summer (when my family is here) and I am so excited. Also: Go Red Sox!
  • A new coffee shop in our neighborhood. I see coffee dates + park walks with J in our future.

Tell me something awkward and awesome about your week!

6: Awkward & Awesome

filed under: awkward & awesome, NaBloPoMo

Untitled

This is a regular feature post on my blog. See the archives here.

AWKWARD
  • Only ⅓ of the eligible population turned out for the election on Tuesday. People, you don’t know what a privilege it is to vote. I lived in the US for almost 10 years paying full taxes and everything and had no voting rights before I became a citizen. I never appreciated my right to vote more than when I started my life here and didn’t have it and it was really important to me to get it back.
  • The window cleaning for our apartment building has been rescheduled and canceled three times in the last three weeks. Might as well cancel completely, as cleaning hasn’t happened ever in the 3,5 years we’ve been living there. (Don’t even try to imagine the state of our windows.I am keeping the blinds shut, mostly.)
  • People that say one thing and then do another. You know, everybody can change their minds once in a while. No big deal. But if it’s a pattern? It makes things awkward.
  • Not knowing how to bring up an issue with my downstairs neighbor. She’s been playing loud music at odd hours lately and I really don’t know how to bring it up without being a stickler. I assume it’s not even on her radar that her music is so loud that it might bother others, but it is getting kind of annoying. I don’t really mind on weekend nights, but 6:30 am? Although I am up at that time during the week, I don’t necessarily need club music blasting from below to get my day going.

AWESOME

  • I have an un-expected 5-day-weekend in front of me. Tomorrow is my regular day off (RDO) and Tuedsay is a holiday (Veteran’s day), so I switched my RDO next week from Friday to Monday and voíla, 5-day-weekend! Don’t mind if I do!
  • I got some happy mail this week! Tina is the sweetest and sent me super-cute Halloween-greeting (including a bag of pumpkin spice tea!) and I received a package from my mom with new (long-gradient) yarn and some yummy German goodies. I love happy mail days!
  • Added some cinnamon to my coffee this morning. Declaring that the holiday season begins now!
  • I am very excited about the “Postal bookclub” that I signed up for through Kathleen’s blog. I’ll be sending my book out this weekend and can’t wait to see which book I will receive in the mail  and from whom!
  • “The Newsroom”(Season 3) returns on HBO this Sunday. Cue the excitement! I am really sad it’s going to be the last season though. I thought this show really had some potential. Oh well, proves once again that my taste in TV shows is not always mainstream.
  • Making a trip to “World Market” and splurging on German foods, some of which are ridiculously expensive here, because I had a $10 off- coupon! Win!