Cinco de Mayo - Siestas, Zumba, Modelo

Adulting is difficult. It's funny - none of us wanted to stay kids... it was all about "I can't wait until I'm older so I can____". Of course there's Peter Pan who never wanted to grow up, but let's be honest, most of us thought he was weird. Now, as an "adult", I think he had the right idea. Being an adult is hard. My biggest question: why did we give up on naps as adults? It's as if society now tells us that if we nap during the day we are "lazy" and "unproductive". Dude. Naps rock. I always feel pretty good after a nap - and more often than not I feel MORE productive. So why'd we give them up? Being that it's Cinco de Mayo, I gave this a little bit more thought today... especially after my big lunch. The Spanish had the right idea. 

Siestas. I want them back.

I read this today:

"A siesta is a conscious effort to take a break, to stop and reflect, and to take time for yourself. In places where siestas are common, you might find that churches, shops, or even public buildings are closed during the siesta hours. Siesta is for resting, be it physically, mentally, or otherwise.

But the honored place of the siesta is far from secure. Spain recently ratified new laws that allowed stores to stay open twenty-five percent longer each week. The implication is that stores would then stay open for the mid-day period usually allotted to siestas. The move was in an effort to fight effects of the ongoing financial downturn by creating more commerce – at the expense of naps."

Granted, that same article went on to say that long siestas contribute more to the sedentary lifestyle which is not something I honestly want to do. In the same vein of Cinco de Mayo thoughts, I've begun Zumba with a new teacher on Wednesday nights, and honestly I cannot wait to go to her class tomorrow. A lot of her dances are similar to those that I did back in Orlando, five of them are essentially exact, so it's awesome to be ahead of the crowd, know the dance moves, and get to stepping! I get a fantastic workout from it. 

Tonight we are staying in - something I haven't done much on Cinco de Mayo, but since we are adults without siestas... we are tired. My OFM did pick up some Modelo though, and I have a few limes, so along with some turkey burgers and some chips and salsa... we'll have a little mini celebration. I wonder if I can get him to play Scattergories with me since it's a holiday...

January... February... It's March Already!?

Wow has it really been almost two months since I last posted? Sorry about that - I really thought I would be a bit better at posting than I have. I promise to be better about it from now on...

2015 has gone super fast so far. I cannot believe its been just about 3 months since we moved up here. In some ways it feels like we lived in Colorado only yesterday, but in others it feels like an eternity since we left. Life has been really busy up here between work, taking care of a household, spending time with new friends and going to Zumba! I've made a bit of a routine for myself up here and I'm loving every minute of getting to see my husband every day. My only real complaints are the FREEZING weather that I'm still not used to, and the cabin fever that is sneaking up on me steadily. Working from home and yet being in every night is driving me crazy slowly. My only real outings are to the store, to the ARC for Zumba and to my friend Rachel's house. The latter two are super fun, the grocery store... not so much. I'd switch it up except there isn't much to switch it up to. Friends and family back home tell me to "go to a spa" or go "shopping in town" and honestly I just have to laugh. A spa!? In Williston!? HA! Shopping isn't exactly done here in Williston either... you have to go 2.5 hours to Minot to just go to Target.

A girlfriend of mine and I made that trip a couple of weekends ago before she went on her trip to Aruba and completely stocked up. Even just going to Starbucks made us ecstatic. Imagine that... Starbucks are absolutely everywhere, in some cities, they are basically kitty-corner from one another. Not here. We do have a McDonalds and a Subway though so we aren't completely barren... there's even a Hardees (not that anyone really cares too much about either of those three). No, there's no Chipotle, there's no Home Depot, Massage Envy, Mattress King, or any other chain type place you would expect to be in every town. We DO have a Walmart. A very busy, overwhelming, highly-picked-over Walmart. You know how stressful your Walmart is? Times that by at least 3 and then add some mud and the smell of oil. Welcome to Willi Mart (my nickname for it).

That same girlfriend and I have become very fast friends through this time in our lives, and make a habit out of watching Chris Soules kiss every girl on his season of the Bachelor. Much to our husbands' chagrins, we drink wine and yell loudly at the TV while her husband minds the kids and mine tries to steal his focus with talk of work. We sometimes order chinese, other times we eat healthy salads, sometimes we even go to Zumba before we watch... though that turns into a very late evening what with all the chit chat that occurs as well. I'm grateful for her friendship, because without it I'm sure to go a bit crazy.

All in all, Williston isn't anywhere near as bad as people said it was... its just lacking in things to keep a city girl's attention for too long.

A month already!?

I'm just not sure where the time went. On December 10th, we packed up our stuff and left our gorgeous Louisville apartment and all of our Colorado friends to come up north to Williston, ND. It's been a month already, and I barely know what's hit me. In some ways, it feels like we left just yesterday, but in others it feels like forever. I think the biggest part of what I miss are our friends. We has some pretty incredible friends out in Louisville, ones I think we'll have forever. I'm hoping we'll make some spectacular friends up here as well, although I don't think we will find them in the form of our neighbors. I haven't met one yet.

In the first month though, I've been to two company Christmas parties, met 50 some-odd people (maybe more?), and have had fun plans every single weekend. This weekend I had to turn some down strictly because we absolutely have to focus on getting this place together or I will lose my mind! Also driving me to cancel plans this weekend, is that I cannot wait to have people over. I'm an entertainer at heart, and we really didn't get to do much of that at our last place. Once this place is clean, I'm looking forward to having people over for dinner, games, and girls nights. The Bachelor at my house anyone?

So... tomorrow we are spending the day unpacking, which we haven't done more of since last weekend. We've gotten pretty far, the office,  kitchen, master bathroom, and master bedroom are all unpacked and functional, but that's all. We still have the living room, and the second bathroom, all of the paintings, and a bunch of little things to put away. We own way too many books and nothing from the "crap room" of the last apartment is put away... at this point I don't even remember what was in those boxes, because its been almost a year since we packed them up to move to Louisville. My christmas tree is still up (at this point I'm glad its fake) because I cannot get to it because of all the boxes. Needless to say, the chaos of the apartment is making me a little crazy, but I'm loving every second spent here with my husband.

Here's to the next 23 months going as fast as this one did and to enjoying every second.

NYE

TODAY IS THE DAY WE FINALLY GET OUR STUFF!

We're on our way now to go get it all, then we're off to a party at Allison's to ring in the new year with some new friends. Hope you all have a safe and fabulous night!

Friends

On our second night here, Matt invited his female coworkers to dinner to meet me so I could potentially make some new friends. Unfortunately, since it was last minute, only a couple were able to make it, so he invited some of his male coworkers as well. We all had an absolute blast! My friend Leisha, who also works for Matt's company but whom I've known for about a year and a half, came with us, as did Matt's coworker, Allison, who is a sweetheart, and really funny! She's highly into fitness and I think I'm going to take a few yoga classes from her once we are settled.

At the Christmas party, Matt introduced me to one of the girls that couldn't make it to the dinner, Alicia, and we also hit it off right away. Tonight, we went to see the last installment of the Hobbit and then for drinks and apps at the Williston Brewing Company with her and her boyfriend, Sheldon. I'm looking forward to hanging out with both of them soon!

UHaul

The thing about moving to a tiny town in the middle of nowhere North Dakota is that most places either don't have the capabilities or the location to make a move easy. For example, there isn't a UHaul location in Williston, the closest one is an hour away in Watford City. In some ways, using them was our only option. We went with renting UPods (much like PODS but owned by UHaul) instead of renting a moving truck primarily because of the weather. Packing was a pain in the ass, we barely got what we did get in there to fit, the rest went in our cars, and in our friend's pickup. Ultimately, we ended up here with our suitcases, boxes with some of our clothes, my work files, two patio chairs, and our spices. For the past the three weeks, that all we've had to work with. Our stuff was supposed to arrive here on the 21st, but when I called on the 22nd, it still hadn't left Colorado. Needless to say, I was furious. Christmas was great because we made it great, but I had all these plans to make it amazing and, at the very least, sleep in my own bed. Today is the 27th, and we STILL don't have our stuff. At this point, I doubt we will have it by New Years, and I have to say, that really upsets me. At this point we are getting a $50 a day refund for every day they are late, but honestly I don't want to pay for the delivery at all since they have been so unacceptably late and rude when dealing with us. However, I will wait to make a further ruckus until AFTER we have our things.

I miss my bed.

Christmas in the Bakken

This was the first Christmas I'd ever had away from my family, and though I was sad to be without them,  we did get to Skype, and ultimately, Christmas alone with my husband was a day for the books. We had a wonderful, indulgent breakfast of eggs, bacon, and mimosas (a Christmas day specialty) and lounged around in our pajamas watching all of our favorite holiday movies under our Christmas tree in a makeshift blanket fort. Some of our choices included Dennis the Menace, Ernest Saves Christmas, Elf, Miracle on 34th Street, The Santa Clause, Home Alone... to name just a few!

While we were watching Dennis the Menace, Matt noticed that a particular shot of Dennis' neighbor, the three-year-old who helps him cheat while playing hide-and-seek with the neighbors, Gunther, bared a certain resemblance to Jennifer Aniston. I didn't exactly agree, but its sort of funny nonetheless...

Though our Christmas wasn't what we are used to, I think the day unfolded quite well. Hope your Christmas was as wonderful as ours! Happy Holidays!