Bad Math

I had to go to school for 5 hours today.

Parking in the garage would cost me $9.

Parking at a parking meter would only cost me $2.50 (a savings of $6.50!).

Being the money-savvy parker that I am, I obviously chose meter parking and was lucky enough to land the spot directly in front of the doors to my building.  Perfect spot for a cold morning!

After spending an hour in class, a friend and I headed for the elevators to go do some shopping.  On the way down I remembered I needed to drop a few more quarters in the meter before heading out... and then quickly forgot.

I got back 30 minutes later to find an "expired meter" ticket on my car for $30.

Sure am glad I chose to park at the meter for a grand total of $32.50 just to save myself the extra $6.50 that the garage would have cost me.

That's what we call Bad Math!

The 6 P's

It's been (and will continue to be) an evening of P's for me.
- Pharmacology notes
- Pink paper
- Pens
- Pandora radio
- Pomegranate green tea
and..... Procrastination.

I'm in full-on study mode.  Hair is up, glasses on, full speed ahead.  See ya in 4.5 weeks or whenever I need a break, whichever comes first!

(this one may fall under good, bad, and ugly)
Sweats: VS semiannual sale... $7ish.  So comfy even if the hubs think they're one step above ugly.
Fleece: Old Navy, $5!

And back to studying.  Next topic?  Antidepressants.

Look at those

I wonder if anyone noticed that my legs were ten shades tanner than the rest of my body today?  I suppose that's my fault for attempting to get ready in the pool locker room

Dress: LOFT
Patent Nude Heels: Target (bought for the wedding last week and love them!)
Blingity Bling necklace and bracelets: Cookie Lee

After playing with the kiddos and freezing my buns off in the pool with them for a few hours this morning, it was time to head to Mt Washington.  One of my many cousins is getting married in May, and she had her shower today.  It was at a fancypants restaurant so I deemed it appropriate to at least wash off the chlorine smell and brush my hair.

My favorite little sisters apparently chose to do the same.

They must have thought I smelled ok because they got real close for a pic!

And then we threw in two more generations for good measure.

Strong genes, we have them here.  Does anyone else have strangers approach them at the grocery store that ask "Are you a (insert last name here)?"  More times than I can count.  What, just my family?

I may be biased but I also think the bride to be liked my present best.  See, she's excited just looking at the bag!

After the week I had though, I was changed into this outfit within a half-second of walking in the door today.

(I did say this Challenge would include the good, bad, and ugly!)
Black tee: Victoria's Secret
Leopard Pajama shorts: Target, in that heavenly material that I don't know the name of...

It took me another half-second to get to the couch and convince the hubs to watch a movie with me.  Couldn't think of any better way to spend the only downtime I've had in a long time!

Feeling Lucky?

Happy Shamrock Day!  A huge thanks for all the support and advice I got here and everywhere else on Tuesday.  Yesterday was a productive day.  I spent well over 3 hours in the computer lab with my internship group, but we got so much done.  I also figured out the little schedule conflict I had going on Friday between work and school which was stressing me out.  I went to bed Wednesday night a much more relaxed woman!

And even though if I didn't get my Shamrock Shake today, it was a good day.  Were you wearing your green and being Irish for the day today?  I think I was even showing off a paler than normal skin tone today to show off my Irish heritage!

Pumas: Macy's shoe sale for 75% off this week!
Yoga Capris: Costco, softest pants ever
Green tank: JCPenney
Green Hoodie: Calvin Klein from Kaufmanns... obviously a long time ago before Macy's took them over, hah
Necklace: Cookie Lee abundant virtues necklace
Earrings: Cookie Lee shamrock earrings!

Send a girl with some Irish blood to an Irish university where her collegiate soccer team is the Celtics and their emblem is a Shamrock.... and you can bet I've got lots of green and shamrocks in my closet!  I may have even bought Care Bear bedsheets for my dorm room in college because I was mildly obsessed with Lucky.  Not saying I did, just saying I may have...

Getting Burned

Warning: Total Debbie-Downer post ahead.

It's too early in the semester for burnout, but I'm already there.  I only have 5 weeks of coursework left after this week, and it feels like an eternity.  That's 5 weeks left, period.  After that I'll be purely on internship until graduation in April 2012.  I should be ecstatic and joyfully counting down the days with excitement.  Unfortunately, that's just not how things are flying.

I have a lot on my plate, of course, but that's always been when I really thrived.  My planner is full, there are mounds of wonderful things happening outside of school, and life is good.  I just feel completely... blah.  Oh, and annoyed, irritable, restless, anxious...  I'm ready to be in a new place in my life.  I know things will all change when I start my last rotation in May, but that just doesn't even seem to be in sight right now.

I have no motivation to work on the projects that I should be, no inspiration to be preparing myself for my placement in May, no passion for anything that we cover in class.  Don't get me wrong, my passion and drive for where I want to be in another two months and for the rest of my life is still absolutely there.  It's all those little steps I have to take in the next 6 weeks that I'm just dreading and letting bring me down.

The hubs tried to put things into perspective for me this evening.  He reminded me of how much I've overcome and accomplished since starting on the journey for my doctoral degree almost two years ago.  Grad school, especially full-time for 3 years working toward a clinical doctorate is a b-i-g-d-e-a-l.  I should be proud and motivated.  With 5 1/2 semesters behind me and only 5 weeks ahead though, I feel like I'm hitting a brick wall.  It doesn't make sense, but I just can't shake this feeling.

How do you all fight that feeling when you've just lost your motivation?  Whether it's school, work, hobbies, exercise... how do you get your head back in the game to finish strong?  I need some ZEST back in my step!

Oh Baby!

"The Big Excitement" I talked about arrived at 8:22 this morning!

My sister-in-law (my brother's wife) gave birth to a beautiful little bundle of cuteness.  6 pounds 15 ounces, and they named him Jason Michael.

I conveniently had the day off, and the hubs decided he should have the day off too.  So we made our way over to the hospital so I could rock back and forth and cuddle the little nugget.  I've settled for borrowing other people's children instead of having my own for now, so I never miss a chance!

All that cuteness makes me hungry, so we followed that up with a lunch date at one of our favorite restaurants that we never go to.  We actually had our wedding reception there, partially because we love the food and partially because we couldn't find another available hall that would hold my larger than life family!   The hubs had a chicken parm sandwich; I ordered an entire large Italian chicken pizza.  Ok, so really I just ordered it so I wouldn't have to cook dinner tonight.  Guilty.  Perfectly satiated, but guilty.

Sometimes I wear clothes

I'm finishing off the 9th day of Spring Break, and I've enjoyed neither.  No spring weather and no break either!

No work or other responsibilities tomorrow though, for my 10th and final day "off".  There will certainly be some big excitement tomorrow though, but you'll just to wait and see what it is!

In the meantime, I did occasionally get dressed and remember to bring out the camera a few times this week!

Morning workout: I hooped!  It's fun, but my tummy and love handles felt bruised for days!

 Sorry for the bum shot, the shirt is just more fun from the back!
Shoes: Asics from Dick's
Shorts: Old Navy clearance rack
Running Tank: Target clearance rack
BondiBand- love those things!

Sunny Day: It was a little warm and sunny one day, and the color choices followed suit.

Tee: Victoria's Secret semi-ann sale $4!
Tank: VS semi-ann sale $4!
Trouser Jeans: Target a few years ago
Black Ballet Flats: Target, love their $12 flats
Glass bead necklace: Cookie Lee

Off to Work: Working retail is really just an excuse to pull out the unworn clothes in my closet.

Sparkly flowered tank: Target, clearance rack of course
Grey Cardi: American Eagle
Skinny Jeans: Old Navy
Boots: Naturalizer
Necklace: Cookie Lee
Hair: circa 1990 called and wants it back!

Tough Girl: Just humor me and pretend I'm a little intimidating.  Be kind, this was 11:30 at night following a particularly exhausting rec league indoor game.  Just be thankful that blog pics aren't scratch and sniff!

Tee: team shirts from American Apparel
Shorts: Target, love the fit of these and went back to buy more!
Indoor shoes: Nike, from Dick's.

Stop in again tomorrow for another peek at my clearance couture closet.  Maybe by that time I'll be able to track down a picture of what I wore to the wedding we went to yesterday, since all I ever manage to do is put my camera in my purse and never take it out!

Woman Vs. Ice

My choices in clothing have been pretty reflective of the weather lately: dark, gray, dreary.

This same weather is also to blame for me having to attack my car with an ice scraper this morning.  I planned a few extra minutes before work to brush the snow off.  What I wasn't prepared for?  Finding my doors all frozen shut. At least it was a believable story when I ended up being 5 minutes late!  What I don't want to know though?  What my neighbors were thinking when they saw me attacking my car while my coffee and oatmeal were sitting in the middle of the street...

At least I was comfycute in gray and black though!

Boots: Target
Leggings: VS
Dress: Target
Cardi: Target
Belt: Ribbon taken off another shirt
Necklace: shell necklace from Cookie Lee
(Note to self: Start taking pics before I go and work a full day!)

Did I mention that I visit Target at least twice a week?

As you can tell, I'm also desperately in need of a trim.  It's been roughly 7 weeks or so since I chopped all of my hair off, and it's in need of some serious maintenance.  I haven't made an appointment yet because I can't decide what I want to do with it!  Should I get the same cut?  Go shorter?  Just get the layers fixed but leave the length?  Whatever I do should probably happen before this weekend; we have a wedding to go to!

Workout: Not yet, plan on getting it in while I watch Bachelor!!

Bringing Home the Cup

I didn't wake up until 11:18 this morning.  I'm still debating whether I should be happy or embarrassed about that, but I clearly needed the sleep.  I deserved it after this week too, especially with the success of our course yesterday!

I am part of a small group of students in my PT program that plan, organize, and host continuing ed courses for practicing clinicians.  Continuing Ed courses are a licensing requirement for PTs so we bring in speakers from around the country (who are usually awesome, by the way) to help educate.  But, that's not even the best part.

All of the money that is raised through the courses (which is a lot!), goes directly to the Foundation for Physical Therapy.  They, in turn, provide money through scholarships and grants to help support research in the profession.

So where does the fun come in?  Well, raising money has become a huge nationwide competition between over 80 schools, known as the Marquette Challenge.  Marquette University started the competition back in the 80s, but let's be honest, we've kind of dominated things here in Pittsburgh!  Competition is healthy when it's for a good cause, right? 

Each year, the challenge is renamed for the school that raised the most money and won the previous year's competition.  This year, it's the Pittsburgh-Marquette Challenge since we WON last year.  Coincidentally, we've also won most previous years and you best believe we are on a quest to do it again this year!

Hopefully we'll be bringing the cup back to Pittsburgh after the big Gala in June.

So that's why I was tired.  I spent a countless amount of time this week arranging for food, shopping for supplies, making nametags, and printing enough papers and forms that I probably killed an entire forest.  All that on top of worrying that I was going to forget something entirely.  Everything went wonderful though, and it was a win-win-win for all.

Now, on to the next course!

Numero Uno

Here we go!  It was a cold and dreary, school from 8am-7pm kind of day.  Comfort was definitely key!

Grey tank: Victoria's Secret (semi-annual sale!)
Grey tee: Loft
Cardi: Pac Sun sale rack
Yoga Pants: Gap sale rack
Shoes: New Balances from Aerie
Necklace: Abundant Virtues from Cookie Lee

Here's a List of What I Learned on Day One:
1. Don't smile so hard, it makes my neck look scary.
2. Find a better place in my house to take self-portraits that doesn't involve balancing my camera on top of a tissue box on top of an empty cup on top of an ottoman.
3. Really don't smile like that!

31 Day Challenge

Ok, so maybe I was a little relieved for the 28 posts in 28 days challenge to come to an end yesterday.  It started to feel like I really had to force myself to post some days, and that just takes the enjoyment out of things, which is the whole reason for being here.  I could have given up, but anyone that knows me knows that it's not an option for me.  I don't quit. 
Instead, I just finish it out and then choose my next challenge wisely.  And that's how the 31 Outfits in 31 Days Challenge was born.  The best part?  I make the rules!  I love the games that involve me making the rules.

Before I get to the rules though, here's the "why":
1. I will be forced to use my camera on a daily basis, rather than just carry it around in my purse like an accessory I never use.
2. Amongst a million other attributes, I do like to play around with fashion.
3. I love a good deal, more than the next person.
4. It will give me something fun (and hopefully interesting) to post on a regular basis, when I'm at a loss for interesting words.
5. I was a wee bit inspired by the postings of the lovely ladies at these two blogs, bessbefit and Big City! Baby.

Now the rules:
1. By March 31, I will post pictures of at least 31 different outfits that I've worn..
2. I don't have to post one everyday, but I can post more than one in a day... since there are days where I change my clothes approximately 10 times.
3. I will share where I got the pieces to each outfit, and if it was a really awesome deal (love those), share that too!
4. I can repeat clothes as much as I want, and no one is allowed to laugh at me if my outfits on "off" days consist of the thermal shirts and plaid pajama pants that I had on the day before (play nice!).
5. Rule 5 is that there aren't allowed to be any more rules!

I am still holed up in the computer lab on campus eating the crumbs from the bottom of the Turtle Chex Mix bag because I'm starving for dinner, and that sounded like a good solution to hold me over until the hubs decides he's ready to call it a day, pick me up, take me home, and cook me a gourmet meal..... so outfit numero uno will be around sometime later tonight when I have camera in hand!

Want to take the challenge?  Let me know so I can follow along!