normal shmormal.

as i pondered what i would blog about tonight, i realized that i haven’t been doing any “normal” blogging in awhile.  i went to palm springs, came home and was hit with a severe case of the flu and then had a busy, fun filled weekend.  i blogged about all of those things.. and now it is tuesday.. and i figured that i would “go back to normal blogging”—except there is one problem: i am not quite sure what “normal” is anymore! when life gets crazy, so does the structure on my blog.

i stared at a blank page for awhile before typing anything.. just pondering what the hell to blog about. i haven’t blogged a whole day of food in so long that i forgot to even take photos of my meals today.. so i can’t blog about those. (nothing new or exciting, i promise you that.) i don’t have any special advice or tips to share with you.  i have a few product reviews and giveaways in the pipeline, but i wasn’t really feeling any of those for tonight.  dinner wasn’t a new recipe—actually, we are reverting to old favorites this week because i haven’t cooked dinner in over a week, so marshall & i are both craving our favorites.  tonight was sweet potato black bean enchiladas, in case you wondered.  i could talk about my insanity workouts.. but they are boring. and there have been a total of three of them in the past ten days.

aside from my blog life, my regular life really hasn’t been normal lately either. amidst the many festivals and social functions i’ve been bouncing to and from,  i have also been trying to catch up at the office after my vacation and my sick leave. i have been trying to catch up on housework and laundry and unpacking.. and just barely got a handle on all that.  i haven’t been drinking any water for some reason, i am only at 2 contigos for the day (which is 48 ounces, compared to my usual 128 daily ounces).  i have eaten LOTS of meals out lately, simply because eating out is fun and tasty. i make no apologies for this, but it really isn’t normal for me.  i have been eating ice cream or frozen yogurt every single flipping night (even after my sickness was gone) and that is by no means normal for me. but, for the record, it is delicious.. and if you combine coconut frozen yogurt with lemon frozen yogurt, you are bound to love every bite.. like i did last night.

so that’s where i am.. mildly exhausted from all this catch up and life living.  and kind of stumped about what to blog about!  i have totally forgotten what “normal” is supposed to be.  that’s okay though, nobody said i had to be normal. so instead of a normal blog post, i am going to do something mindless and fun.

here are five things you probably don’t already know about me and definitely don’t need to know about me. i know, aren’t you excited? you’re welcome.

thing 1: i love mini things.

take any object and make it miniature and i am sold. i am such a sucker for anything miniature.

i usually let out a little squeal any time i see something mini. i get this from my mom, who gets equally as excited over adorable miniatures.

my love for mini things has taken over my silverware drawer. when marshall told me he likes to eat his chobani with little spoons, i took that as an open invitation to buy a miniature spoon EVERY time i came across one.

trust me, i have come across many a mini spoon.  i actually had to practice restraint the last time i saw mini spoons.. i refrained from buying any more because i think 18 is enough. for now, at least.

on the flip side, i also love oversized things.

i get a kick out of huge whisks and wooden spoons, but i don’t get nearly as excited as when i come across anything mini.

thing 2: i hate the taste of stevia.

or splenda. or truvia. or aspartame. or any other no-calorie sweetener, natural or artificial.  back in the day when i had a dr. pepper addiction, if i was accidentally given a diet coke and took a sip, i would gag. diet coke is the most foul tasting beverage on the planet! i cannot stand that fake sugar taste.  and, in my taste buds’ opinion, stevia tastes just like diet coke. that lingering icky not-real-sugar flavor is heinous.  i would rather accidentally put my fingers in my mouth after removing my nail polish. don’t pretend you haven’t done that—we all know what nail polish remover tastes like. and stevia tastes worse.

i received a whole boat load of nunaturals stevia and i decided to give it a try for the second time around, because hey, taste buds change, and maybe mine did.

the verdict? no, my taste buds have not changed. nasty. i will be sending all this crappy stevia to deb, because she’s a stevia whore.

thing 3: i was abnormally obsessed with cats as a child.

and here you all thought i was a dog person. truth be told, i loved cats. see that gold glimmer in the photo above? yep, cat brooch. cats were my #1 obsession.

not just real cats. fake cats, too. stuffed cats, ceramic cats, cat posters, cat clothes.. i was legit OBSESSED with cats! and i hated dolls. i remember bursting into tears at my 4th birthday party because my friend got me a doll for my birthday. all i wanted was cats! luckily, another friend gave me a stuffed black cat at that same birthday party. i named him midnight. i remember it like it was yesterday.

i had a whole pet net overflowing with stuffed cats. my mom passed down her collection of ceramic cat figurines which i added to often. those special ceramic cats are currently packed away, but i think i may have to bust them out sometime soon. when i do, you will be the first to know. well, maybe the second, as i will probably have to notify marshall first.

my older sisters are real allergic to cats, so i was never able to have a cat of my own. i used to find stray kittens in the neighborhood and sneak them into my house and hide them under my bed, only to get busted when my sisters got home from school and started sneezing.  when i was six, my parents tracked down a special breed of cat that works well in homes of people with cat allergies. a british blue shorthair. on christmas of 1989, i got a REAL cat of my own. his name was blue. blue thunder. because he purred so loud.

i had blue for 14 long years. we eventually had to put him down because he got stomach cancer.. but he was my best friend for many, many years.

now that we have a couple pups, i probably appear to be a crazy dog lady.. and i am. no objections there. i go crazy when i see a dog. but there will always be a special soft spot in my heart for cats.. and i can’t wait to get a kitty again one day. just not today.

thing 4: if i didn’t have to work out to stay healthy and in shape, i wouldn’t.

this isn’t a new realization. i am lazy and i know it. i love not working out. sitting on the couch with my dogs is much more appealing to me than going to the gym.

yes, i get a little antsy at times.. but i really don’t mind not working out. when my rest day comes around i am so excited. don’t get me wrong, i LOVE the feeling i get after (and even during at times) a good workout. but i will be honest.. i am not someone who just LOVES to work out.  i really enjoy being active.. hiking, biking, snowboarding—YES those things get me excited. but do i look forward to hitting the pavement for a run or turning my scheduled insanity DVD on and getting my ass kicked for 45 minutes? no. i do not.

some people get a “runner’s high”. i guess i can understand the feeling those who love running get when they are running. i feel that way when i eat ice cream. or cereal. i call it my “carb lover’s high”.

i shared this tid bit with deb and eden while i was vacationing in palm springs. they were a little surprised to hear that out of me and said that i come across as some hell bent exercise lover. alas, that is not the case.

i took a whole week off working out because i was sick, and i loved every last minute of it. i got antsy just once, but i think that had to do with the fact that i hadn’t left the couch or my bed even to run an errand let alone run a mile. of course, i know better and realize i do need to work out in order to stay fit and healthy.. especially after getting back to my workouts on sunday and feeling the amount of cardiovascular endurance i lost in just that one short week off.  but yep—that is my thing #4—i am a lazy slug at heart.

thing 5: i don’t really like bacon.

i am okay with bacon in things, to take the edge off, but straight up bacon? yuck. way too salty. i don’t like salty stuff in general (TWSS?), so eating a slab of salty bacon doesn’t appeal to me.  it seems like bacon is all the rage. trendy, perhaps? i hear about bacon everywhere and people put it on everything.. or in everything, even cupcakes.

no, thanks, no bacon for me.  whenever i tell someone i don’t like bacon, i get this audible gasp and a look like i’ve committed the worst sin known to man.  what can i say? not a fan.  this is more my style:

mmm.. speaking of ice cream, i think it’s time for my non-normal nightly bowl.

gosh, maybe i will be back to normal tomorrow. but i am making no promises.

Qs~

1. what were you obsessed with as a child? are you still?

2. tell me something i don’t know about you and definitely don’t need to know by any means.

xo. janetha g.