I Can Has Caffeine?

Hello, friends.  After a whopping 9.5 hours total of sleep over the past two nights, updating this blog is all that I can do to stay awake.  It is on days like these that I wish I had developed a coffee dependency in college, but, sadly for me, I can't stand the stuff.  So I must soldier on and get through this day with a foggy, heavy head and no caffeine.  The causes for the late nights have been the following: a Nats game on Tuesday that we got home from at about 11 due to our Metro train being off-loaded...grrrrrrr.  Last night, the Pens and Bruins played Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Championships, and the game went to double-OT.  I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself if I had missed the end, so I stayed up, with a quick 20-minute cat nap in between the first and second OT periods, that Dan assures me that I was out like a light for.  Well, our Pens lost, and we didn't get to sleep until about 12:30.  WOMPPPPPPP.

Anyway, I promised to talk about a plethora of things, so let's see if I can remember back to the last time that I posted:

Tim's Georgetown graduation was the weekend before Memorial Day weekend, and, being that family members on both sides had other commitments, it was mostly our little foursome, aside from a brief cameo by my uncle Ed.  On Friday night, we had a nice dinner together and then went to Senior Ball, which, after going my senior year and falling in love with it, I practically forced Tim to attend {in the end, though, I think he realized that essentially EVERYONE was there}.  I never turn down an opportunity to bust out the long, formal gown that I bought for my Senior Ball, and it was nice to see family friends and Tim's roommates, along with their families.

Tim and some of his roommates at Senior Ball

Family at Senior Ball

On Saturday, we all grabbed brunch at Metro 29 {we don't need a fancy brunch haha} and then putzed around before Tim's graduation ceremony.  The Business School had a 6:00 p.m. graduation, and the weather looked more and more threatening as the day went on.  They made the call at 4 that graduation would be out on the lawn, and, as we walked outside to snag some seats, we found that it was raining.  Bummah.  We still had two hours to kill and were likely to get soaked, and, more importantly, I felt awful for the graduates, who, I imagined, would not have umbrellas with them.  Luckily, it only sprinkled a little bit as we waited, and the rain held off during the ceremony.  Alleluia!  I was so proud of my baby brother as he walked across the stage and was incorrectly hooded by a professor who was probably 8 inches shorter than him.  The perils of being tall!  But anyway, I am so proud of everything he has accomplished, and I have no doubt that he will continue to do great things.

After taking the requisite pictures, we grabbed dinner, and, just like that, with absolutely no fuss, graduation weekend was over.  While I loved having so many family members at my graduation, there is definitely something to be said for having an intimate group.  It was such a special weekend, though, given that now 3 out of the 4 of us in our little family have gone to Georgetown.  It is a tradition that I have been so honored to share with my dad, Tim, and other family members who have gone here.

So proud of our graduate!

Totally posed

Filing in

The Lake siblings, all grown up!

In my next post, I will bring you up to speed on our move {!!!!!!!!}, which, as you will remember, had me all riled up and nervous.

Radio Silence

Hello, dear readers!  I am truly sorry for all of the silence on my end over the past few weeks.  Between Tim's graduation, mentally preparing for moving, ACTUALLY moving and managing a heavier-than-usual workload, I have had approximately ZERO time and motivation to blog.  However, I promise that I will blog soon with updates on all of the above (and more).

In the meantime, I would love for all of you to follow my blog on Bloglovin', which I have transitioned to as Google Reader becomes obsolete.  Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Laughter

Dan: What are you up to tonight?

Me: I'm just making your surprise!

Dan: Oh man, I'm excited.  Is it cake? Cookies? Cupcakes? Pie?

Me: Oh, it's all of the above.  After some careful research, I've managed to create a hybrid of those four.

Dan: A piecakie?

And THAT is why I love him :-)

Embracing Your Imperfections {and seeing yourself for the person you truly are}

I'm sure you have all been hearing a lot about the Dove Real Beauty sketch video over the past few months. I have been doing a lot of thinking about how to challenge my self-image, those descriptors that, if I uttered them, would probably cause the artist in the video {who is very talented, by the way} to sketch an image of me that is far from being true-to-life. I am certainly guilty of caving to body insecurity, and, being that it was something that I struggled with as a teenager and throughout college, it is difficult to break that terrible habit of self-scrutiny.  However, for every perceived "flaw" that I have identified, I have tried to come up with a challenge, a benefit of that seemingly imperfect feature.  To give a few examples:

• Perceived flaw: I have inherited unfortunately large thighs. BENEFIT: I would not have been able to run 26.2 miles on tiny little thighs.  Large runners' thighs are a symbol of my strength.
• Perceived flaw: My hair is voluminous and unruly. BENEFIT: There are so many women with thinning hair who would kill to have the kind of volume that I have.  I have natural volume without using volumizing shampoos or serums.  Also, I am convinced that whoever created straighteners did it just for me and my naturally wavy locks :)
• Perceived flaw: The fact that I have to wear glasses is not that fun.  BENEFIT: However, I have learned from my dear Dan that my eyes actually change color from blue to green depending on the day, which I think is pretty darned awesome.  So even though I may begrudge my eyes for not being able to see very well or tolerate contacts all the time, I still think they're pretty cool.
• Perceived flaw: I have enormous feet {I typically wear size 11, but have to bump it up to 12 for my running shoes}.  BENEFIT: Okay, I can't spin this one haha.  It sucks to have feet this big {even though they are proportional to my height}, especially when trying to find cute, fashionable shoes.

So what am I trying to say here?  I am telling you to challenge those negative statements, voiced or not, about your own appearance.  I'm not going to lie, on more days than not, I hate those thighs, but this was the body that I was given, so I might as well accept it {while still exercising and trying to eat healthy foods, of course!}.  My favorite part of the Dove video was when the women compared the images of themselves, the one based on their own description of themselves and the other as they actually appear to others.  After witnessing the internal struggle of each of the women beating herself up for a perceived flaw, it was so heartwarming for them to see how others view them {and, in all of the cases, they were significantly more beautiful!}. 

Also, while flat-chestedness might be in that "flaw" category for most people, I have always seen it as a benefit. I can fit into anything without spilling out of it, and I can run without serious discomfort {or multiple sports bras}! Win!  So ladies and gents, remember, despite all of those ads that tell you that you need to change something {or many somethings} about yourself, try to love the body you were born with.  

Everybody's Working for the Weekend

I am at work today, supervising some interviews, and thought I would share some quick thoughts from this week:

• Now that I'm back on gluten, my stomach has been going haywire.  I have done my best to limit my gluten intake, so I can't tell if the stomach discomfort has been due to my poor little stomach not being starved anymore or whether I may actually have a gluten intolerance.  Stay tuned, folks...
• I had my first Rent the Runway experience this week.  We received an invitation to Dan's friend's wedding in June and it is black-tie, so I knew I needed to buy a long dress.  My cousin Ashley works at RTR, so I had it in the back of my mind as a possibility.  I was able to find this GORGEOUS {and totally fierce} Trina Turk dress that I am beyond excited to wear for the wedding!  Plus, it was only $85 to rent, so that was a major win!
• My baby brother is graduating from college in two weeks, and I am a wreck.  I can't believe he won't be able to pop in to my office unannounced {not that he did that very often anyway haha} or grab lunch with me, and, while I'm so excited for him to go out into the world, I'm beyond bummed that he's heading to New York the first chance that he gets.
• Finally, last night was a very exciting night, because Dan's and my parents got to meet for the first time!  You may be asking yourself why it took over two years for them to meet, but the truth is that there was never an ideal time.  Now that Dan's parents are living down here, I hope we'll all be able to get together more often.  The dinner was really wonderful, everyone got along great {just like I knew they would}, and I even spied our moms exchanging numbers! I was so excited, mostly because I think they could both really use someone to pal around with, and go on walks and museums with.  It warmed my heart to see everyone together last night :)

I hope everyone has a splendid weekend! I wish I could be outside enjoying this gorgeous day!

The Fast is Over!

My darling readers, I am happy to announce that, as of today, I can eat gluten again!!!!!! I have not actually eaten any gluten yet, because I still have about four boxes of Cinnamon Chex left, and will force myself to eat them until they're gone, and a bowl of homemade, gluten-free veg chili seemed like the perfect lunch.  However, I fully plan on noshing on either pizza or pasta for dinner :-) Luckily, Dan is more than willing to be my accomplice in breaking my gluten-free fast diet.

If you're doing the mental math an are thinking to yourself that it has been a mere month, rather than six weeks, since I went off of gluten, I decided that I was miserable enough that a month was going to be sufficient for me.  I gave it my all, but the gluten-free lifestyle isn't for me.  I am your classic type-A, routine-driven, slightly obsessive-compulsive gal, so giving up on things is never an option for me.  However, I felt like this diet was jeopardizing my health and happiness, so, once I made it past the month marker, I had to make the decision that was the best for my mental and physical health.  Maybe someday I will make a career out of concocting gluten-free recipes that are actually tasty {and, in particular, developing palatable gluten-free alternatives to things like pizza and pasta}.  But, for now, I am back on the stuff.

That being said, the one lesson that I am taking away from this monthlong adventure is that I do want to be more conscious of the amount of gluten that I am ingesting, because I think that there can be too much of a good thing {especially since my metabolism will eventually slow down}.  While this gluten-free diet was NEVER about losing weight and, on the contrary, aimed to find a solution to some long-undiagnosed stomach issues, it did make me take pause to consider my food choices. I want to make a more conscious effort to build better lifelong eating habits {i.e. not binge-eating sugar as frequently, cooking more, hydrating} so that, when combined with my love for exercise, I never feel like I need to go on a crash diet.  When we first discussed the realities of living together, I told Dan that it was my sincere goal that living together would drive us to cook more often.  While it may be difficult to find recipes that appeal to both my beloved omnivore and myself, the veg-head, I am committed to doing that.  That's what Pinterest is for, people!!!

I am already about 1,000 times happier now that I will not spend my days wanting to eat my own fist- can you tell?!? ;)

1 MONTH!!

That would be one month until our big move!!! I have begun the process of securing the paperwork to move out of my current apartment, and have already reserved the elevators at the new place for our move-in weekend.  It is finally starting to feel real, and both Dan and I are counting down the days until we get to see each other every day!! Dan is also terrified by excited about the Google spreadsheet I put together that has a rough outline of what we have/what we need for the apartment, obviously broken out by room.  And yes, funny you ask, we did spend about five minutes last night debating the pros and cons of one DC-themed poster versus another...

In other news, screechhhhhh, slow down, because, a weekend before we move, my baby brother is graduating from college.  I have been in a deep depression about this fact for some time now, and that sentiment was deepened on Tuesday when we had our "Lake Family Dinner," which includes all five of the kids who go up to the Lake every year {all of us go/went to Georgetown, which, I admit, is rather cultish}.  Anyway, Tim, Jack and Patrick, all of whom are graduating this year {along with Alexa, Jack's girlfriend, who was also at dinner with us} were so depressing at dinner, because all of them were starting to get really nostalgic, with just a few weeks remaining in their college careers.  Suddenly, I was the "sage older sister," dispensing my advice after nearly three years in the workforce, and damn, was it tough for me to burst their fragile little bubbles.  I can still remember all of the optimism that I felt upon graduating, but that optimism soon turned to pessimism, and I haven't talked to a single person my age who didn't have the exact same experience.  The realization that you cannot change the world is a pretty depressing one.  Anyway, I'm hoping we'll have the chance to get the entire group together once more before the boys go their separate ways!

Finally, I am on the fence on a daily basis about whether or not to continue with the gluten-free thing.  I have yet to crack, but I'm getting pretty sick of the now-constant feeling that my stomach may be eating itself, and the lightheadedness that accompanies it.  Why people do this as a method of losing weight, I have no idea, because it is quite the miserable existence.  I want to make it at least a month {just to say that I did}, so that would put us at Tuesday.  I haven't made up my mind, though, because, by that point, I will have less than two weeks left.  I think it will depend on my state of misery that day.  He has been a trooper, but I think Dan will be relieved once this whole experiment is over because the incessant hangry {hungry + angry} whining will come to an end.  I'm taking suggestions for what my first meal back should be.  My frontrunners so far?  French Toast from Metro 29, pizza from District of Pie/Mellow Mushroom/2 Amy's, any kind of baked good, pasta {I've had a craving for Maggiano's gnocchi for a few weeks}.  I know that I won't be able to go too crazy right away, both for the sanity of my stomach and in the interest of fitting in to the dresses I am wearing to the four weddings we're going to this summer.