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??

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!

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.)

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.

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.

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!

• Salted Caramel Macademia Clusters. Get in my bellah!

• 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!