So what’s new, internet?

Not much is new here. Which is why I haven’t posted. Because while I could write yet another post about running and eating better, I’ve been really slacking lately. So much so that I had to come up with a real present for April to get my ass to the gym 14 days this month. And as it is, I’m really going to have to work for that present. This month will be a Roku! If anything will get me to work out, it’s some sort of added way for me to be able to watch TV. No more watching streaming things on my computer!

I went to see the Nerdist Live last Friday. I got there late because I went out for beers after work before the show with my sister Alix and her boyfriend. And drinking 8% alcohol beers on an empty stomach is always a good idea. But we had a fun time, which was why I was late.

But we only missed a small bit of Matt Mira’s performance and saw the whole rest of the show. It was absolutely hilarious. If you ever have the option to see it, or even any of those dudes do stand-up live, GO DO IT NOW. They are some funny motherfuckers. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time!

We didn’t wait around after the show to meet the boys, since the line was insane and I was drunk and we were both hungry. I will have to seduce Chris Hardwick some other time. Some other time…

After the show we went across the street to grab some food at the grilled cheese restaurant. There I had the most amazing sandwich – grilled cheese with chorizo and jalapenos. I’m still thinking about it. It was so yummy.

On Saturday morning, I drove up to Milwaukee to visit her and her family. It was the end of Passover, so I drove up to visit, eat matzah, play Catan and make a million melty bead creations. And really, minus the matzah, it was like any other time I get to hang out with the Martells, AKA always awesome!

I have zero patience for melty beads. I have ideas of how to make it cute, but then three seconds of having to dig through a giant bucket of beads that have 17 different shades of blue and I’m done. I’ll use the first bead I pull out of the tub and call it a day. I have so much admiration for Ali and her kids, who will painstakingly search for all the golds to make a cute peace sign. Or even something that matches.

It’s why my creations end up like this ugly monkey:

As an added bonus, the Martells flew out of Chicago on Monday and I got to meet them for lunch before they flew back to Canadia. I had taken the day off to get all my errands done anyway, so it worked out perfectly. We went to a Kosher diner near my house that had a really amazing burger. I really wanted cheese on it and well, then remembered I was at a Kosher diner. Dairy and meat, no mixy, mixy.

After that, I went home, went grocery shopping and then came home and took a nap at 5 PM. This was the least smart thing I had done. It was the opposite of my brilliant decision to get a chorizo grilled cheese. Yep, still thinking about that sammich.

Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep on Monday night. That led to me being super sleepy all day Tuesday, falling asleep on the train both to and from work, and walking around half the day with my pants zipper down.

So I went to bed at 9 last night. Skipped my run and everything. Which means my 4.2-mile race this weekend is going to be interesting.

But it’s for a good cause.

I was lucky enough to meet Pat Tillman when we were both at ASU and was honored that the Cardinals organization asked me to help work his memorial in San Jose after he was tragically killed. I’m glad to be taking part in the Chicago race this year and am planning to make it to Tempe next year.

I’m skeptical, but we’ll see.

I have an 8k, which is almost 5 miles, on Sunday, March 25. I’m hoping to do as well as I did the last time I ran it in 2007. That time I walked through the water station and for another block or so. That was it. I ran the whole rest of the race.

This year a bunch of other Chicago bloggers are running it too. And I convinced them all to buy this shirt so we can all run together:

I’m looking forward to it!

I’m still running indoors on the treadmill at this point. This is good for me to force me into a steady pace and not run too fast. The problem is the treadmill is SO BORING.

I’ve tried music. I’ve tried every type of music. I’ve tried pop, hip hop, dance, 80s, you name it. But I have adult onset ADD. (Thanks Twitter!) I can listen to something for about 30 seconds before I’m bored and all I’m focusing on is the clock and “how do I still have four whole minutes of running? I HAVE BEEN RUNNING FOREVER!”

TV would be a good solution, but I can’t do Netflix and the running app at the same time. And live TV has commercials. And you know what, when you know a commercial is 30 seconds long, that doesn’t help the whole “make the clock move faster” thing any better.

This week I tried a new approach – podcasts. I downloaded one of the Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me podcasts from NPR. That seemed to help. (It also helped that as I was listening to it, Gossip Girl was on the TV and Blair and Dan KISSED! SQUEEEEEEE!)

But I’m looking for more suggestions for podcasts. There are so many out there and I don’t know where to start. I know Ricky Gervais has some, and I’ll definitely be checking those out. But what other entertaining podcasts are out there? And by entertaining, I mean DISTRACTING. FROM THE RUNNING.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

I’m still going to the gym. Tonight was day 10 out of 20. I’m halfway there. I have to say that people telling me how awesome the Fitbit is is like 100 percent of the reason I end up going most days. I do not want to fail this goal.

I need to figure out something to make as a goal once February is over.

I’m on Week 3 of the Couch to 5k. Last night I ran three minutes in a row. Without stopping. And did it twice in the workout! And I didn’t die! I still don’t foresee being able to run an hour straight for an 8k, but we will see. I have until the end of March for the race.

I’m eating healthy and tracking my WW points too. Even if I overindulge on beer or pizza, I write it all down. I’m taking this losing weight business seriously this time. Too bad the scale is not really cooperating. But I’m focusing on the fact that my clothes are considerably looser and I don’t look like a stuffed sausage all the time. So there’s that.

I know the scale will eventually show off all my hard work. But, it’s still frustrating to be so good and then nothing. I’m really trying not to get discouraged. I am very thankful for my Fitbit goal, because otherwise I might give up and say fuck the gym.

You know what else is good for the gym? Netflix instant streaming. Particularly, Friday Night Lights. If you have seen this show and have seen the very first episode, you can imagine how good of a show it is to work out to! I mean, most episodes end with football games that are very intense! Just what I need to get through the last 10 minutes of a workout. It’s perfect!

If only I could get it to work with the Couch to 5k app and maybe I could watch and run. Three minutes of running straight would probably be a bit easier.

I got a parking ticket on Super Bowl Sunday. I was over at this lovely lady’s house and knew my meter expired at 7:30. But I just forgot to get out there in time to add more money. I got a ticket three minutes after the meter expired. I’m contesting it because I’ve been told there is some five-minute grace period on meters. We shall see.

When I turned 21, my friends Sharma and Amber got me a keychain bottle opened (that I still carry with me every day) and a giant Budweiser bottle bank. Thirteen years later, the bank was about 3/4 full and I decided to go to the bank and cash it in this past weekend.

The bag was HEAVY. I didn’t know how much was in there, but judging by how heavy it was and my tendency to exaggerate, I was guessing a million dollars!

Turns out it was $238, which is still a shit-ton of change. Cha-ching indeed!

Tomorrow I’ll write about the one time I found a pirate’s chest full of gold! No, not really. But man that would be nice for my bank account and for a blog story.

Lately I have just had no desire to write here. Usually it is just laziness and deciding to watch TV or go to bed at an obscenely early time that leads to no posts. But for the last few weeks, I’ve had thoughts and post ideas and have written these down! I’ve even started like three or four posts only to give up halfway through and then just shut the computer down. The desire, I no has it.*

I think that’s normal. It’s life. It all ebbs and flows. And as much as the whole NaBloPoMo thing helped me kind of get back in the habit, sometimes there is just nothing to write about. I swear, I can talk for days, but lately I’ve had nothing remotely interesting or funny or exciting to talk about.

Plus, even the thought of opening the laptop at home lately has made me stabby with rage. I just don’t want to do it. I’m on the computer all day and on my phone when I’m not, so when I get home, I just want to relax and watch crappy television.

I’ve hardly been on Twitter, in fact I usually ignore it for a majority of the day, unless I’m bored on the bus or train on my commute. I don’t go on Facebook, but that isn’t really any different since I never go on FB. Only to wish people a happy birthday.

I still will play my Words with Friends games and IM with people on gchat, but that has been about it. I’ve been technologied out. And that’s fine. Because I’m a bit too dependent on it as it is.

So, all that to say, I’m feeling less ragey about actually blogging this week. And I might even finish those posts I have recently started. And that I just wrote a whole post about not wanting to blog nor be on the computer, just to…post on my blog from my computer. /meta

And I’ll leave you with a question – where do I find some cheap t-shirts to work out in? I haven’t bought a t-shirt since college, I think. All of my current shirts are from previous jobs and I got them all for free. So needless to say, they are starting to show quite a bit of wear and tear. And I don’t appreciate paying for shirts, especially more than a couple of bucks, so I need your help. Kthanxbai.**

*I like to put in lolcats speak because she loves it so, so much!

**Hi Ali!

See, I went to my mom’s for Thanksgiving. And since I started the new tradition of mimosas on Thanksgiving, I brought the champagne and orange juice. And since my mom needed help, I got there before noon and started drinking then. No one else arrived until close to three. So I drank a lot by myself. (We went through four bottles easily, so everyone enjoyed them!)

Then there was dinner and wine with dinner and more wine and then some beer and then I just passed out on the couch at my mom’s, without posting anything. (I actually tried the WordPress app, but it wouldn’t work. And at that point it wouldn’t have been more than jibberish after all that hooch.)

I just gave up then. There wasn’t any reason to post on Friday or Saturday then, since no one reads on the weekends.

I’m disappointed, but I had a lot of fun on Turkey Day, so I am not too sad. I posted every day for 23 days, and that’s nothing to shake a stick at. And I think I’m back in the habit of posting regularly, so mission accomplished.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Tomorrow I’ll tell you all about how after just posting THIS, my dentist called me a wuss! GAH!

I’m not sure when it happened. I mean, I grew up recycling, for the most part. We always separated trash and recycling, for as long as I can remember. I am thankful I had a mom who made us do it, or otherwise I probably never would have.

But my adult years have taken this to a new level. I recycle. I conserve. I take public transit. I use natural cleansers. I worry about my carbon footprint. I am green!

I came to this realization while my sister was living with me. See, for a 22 year old, she is not green. I realized this when I noticed many things in the trash that were recyclable. So I would then go through the trash and pull out anything that was recyclable. (Oh, yes. Yes I did.) (I mean, the girl uses more toilet paper than I’ve ever seen! That’s a lot of empty cardboard rolls!)

I had no shame in picking out empty rolls of toilet paper or empty plastic bottles of the trash and putting them in the recycling bin. My trash and recyclables are all in the same place anyway, so it isn’t like it’s more effort.

And then on Monday I went to the grocery store after work. And I didn’t have any of my reusable grocery bags in the car. I figured it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to use plastic this one time. It won’t kill the Earth. I re-use those bags to empty the catbox.

But as I approached the check out, I was overcome with this guilt about using plastic. It irritated me! Especially since I know that there were plenty of bags in my house!

So what did I do? I bought 2 new reusable bags at the checkout. And that was enough for my groceries, to show you just how little I bought.

I began to think of other things:

I use one of these at work and it hurts every time I have to buy a bottle of water. (I used to get hives when I went to visit Ali in Atlanta and there were so many bottles and they didn’t recycle!)

This is my lunch bag. Before I bought this, it was a reusable grocery bag.

I used to bring my lunch in Tupperware containers instead of plastic baggies.

Now I have reusable plastic baggies that I use for lunch.

I’ve tried to switch to mostly natural cleansers.

I feel like such a grown up! I know for a fact, 23 year old me did not care this much about conserving the planet. She just drank beer from the bottle and only worried about where the next beer was coming from, not how she was going to recycle said bottle. (In all honesty, I still probably think this way when I’m drinking.)

Do you notice any of these kinds of things that you do now that your younger self wouldn’t even think twice about?

SO. I’m writing this post on my stepmom’s laptop because I am a NaBloPoMo purist and need to blog before midnight.

And now…I’m going to turn it over to my sister Taylor.

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This is now Taylor. Kristin is a hoot. She is one hilarious lady, and anyone who says otherwise has clearly tried to make a joke. However, upon the making of this joke, this joke-maker will realize that no one is, in fact, laughing. They are probably wondering why this person has tried to tell a lie and may offer condolence laughter much in the way that one does to a comedic act that is respected, yet not funny. Otherwise known as Carrot Top. Carrot Top has clearly relied purely on name for the deliverance of his “jokes”. No one can take Carrot Top seriously with a name like that. His jokes are not funny. The only reason he has gained fame or familiarity is through supposed hilarity, which has been promoted through the media. This is just another example of how we have let the media shape our minds and our wallets. Carrot Top is like the ugly, fat, unfunny guy that somehow has happened to be in the “cool” clique. He is only there because people have vouched for him. No one actually likes him. He kindof smells and if you brought your grandpa to a party, your grandpa would be able to pick up chicks way better than this guy. Reputation is what keeps this guy in business. Reputation is what keeps the liars of the world in business. Reputation, and a supposed one at best, is what keeps unfunny, untalented, and uninteresting people in your pockets stealing your money and your dignity.

Taylor B. Johnson.

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That is way more deep than we ever get on this site. But awesome. My sister is super talented and a genius and majoring in Philosophy. So be nice.

But the good part is that it kick starts your creativity, which is exactly what I need when it comes to this here site. I need to start writing more and posting here more. So while there will be many posts that are utter crap, be thankful I’m getting it out of my system and hopefully then they’ll be few and far between.

Plus, I know it takes 21 days to make a habit. So I’m hoping that 30 days straight means I will get back in the habit of writing in the evenings, as opposed to stuffing my face full of cheese and ice cream. (I can hear my pants breathing a sigh of relief already.)

Do you have anything you’d like to see me write about? Of course, Bacon will be back in the mix. As will my cats. And I’m going to try showing some old photos of myself, if I remember to get them from my mother.

Until then, don’t forget to enter my Shutterfly giveaway for free photo cards! It ends this weekend, so don’t delay.

One day down, 29 to go…

So when Shutterfly approached me and asked if I wanted to give away some free cards to some of my readers, I jumped at the chance! Because you all should be able to send out holiday cards as awesome as this:

I’m still holding out hope that I run into Rahm in the next few weeks to make this year’s holiday card EPIC! He’s on my list, along with John Paxson and Jim McMahon. They are the holiday card Mecca for me!

And Shutterfly has some great new designs for your holiday cards. Check out some of them from their photo Christmas cards:

Or some from their collection of holiday cards:

And you can even select some thank you cards to send out after you receive many lavish gifts!

I have codes for 25 free cards to give to three of you (THREE!)! All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me what card you like best from the Shutterfly collection, or if you’re planning on sending holiday cards this year to family and friends.

The contest will run for one week and comments will close at 11:59 PM (Central) on Saturday, November 5, 2011. I will pick three winners at random from the commenters and send them their code for free cards!

Easy as holiday pie!

Good luck!

I have partnered with Shutterfly to help promote Shutterfly’s 2011 holiday cards. I have not been compensated for my time, but I was given product to facilitate my review. My opinions are entirely my own and I am not paid to publish positive comments.

WOOO HOOOO!

Yep, last Friday my friend Kelley and I headed out to the Chicago Theatre to see Duran Duran live and in person. I was super excited because I had never seen Duran Duran live and I had also never seen the inside of the Chicago Theatre! Win win!

After a very teeny tiny issue at will call with the tickets, which caused me to call Sarah in DC, which was interesting since I don’t think I’ve ever talked to her on the phone. We’re bloggers, we just text. It also caused the guys at will call to give me the stink eye because they were probably thinking I was a Simon Le Bon groupie and not a blogger, waiting for my tickets.

Not that I wouldn’t mind rolling over next to that. But he’s apparently a very happily married man. Sad panda.

Our seats were awesome! I can’t even tell you the last concert I went to. (I’m not much of a concert goer, oddly enough, but I love them when I do go!)

The show was amazing. Duran Duran has a new album out, so they played some new stuff. But they also played all their hits and sounded amazing! Simon was getting a little hoarse (we are getting towards the end of the U.S. tour) but he rocked it out like only he can!

Speaking of Simon, he’s oddly political, which I did not know. He made quite a few political jokes, including one about Gaddafi and how George W. Bush and Tony Blair were the next war criminals that needed to be captured. It was met with a smattering of boos, which I was surprised about since Chicago is a blue city. Must have been the suburbanites.

The only thing that I didn’t like was all the flashing lights in the background on stage. As my friend Kelley said “I’m either going to have a seizure or wake up knowing the cure for AIDS.” I should send her an email to make sure she’s alive.

Also, these creepy faces. They would show video through them of the boys singing and talking and well, it gave me nightmares. Granted there are worse nightmares to have then a giant Simon Le Bon head.

It was so much fun! I’m so glad I got the opportunity to go! If you’re an 80s music fan (because let’s be honest, Duran Duran IS the 80s), go see them live. You will NOT regret it!

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Disclaimer: I was given two free tickets to the show in exchange for sharing my thoughts about the concert. My thoughts and opinions are all my own and were not swayed by the free tickets. Although they may have been swayed my Mr. Le Bon’s hip shaking. Swoon!