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Baking and Britney, oh fasho!

I'm not going to pretend that I'm somebody I'm not, I like Britney Spears. I also like baking but that's not really a big surprise now is it? Today's adventure in the kitchen was to bake up some scrumptious chocolate chip banana muffins to take along with me to league tonight in hopes of making my teammates happy enough to ignore my super sleepy level of play. Ill have to let you know later if it worked or not. I'm one of those people who hears a good beat and just cant hold back, Ive gotta dance!!! You have to give it to her, even though she is crazier than bat shit she knows how to use a good beat. Hence why Britney is on every girls night mix I have ever made, another reason she is on my workout mix, and yet another reason she has some of the top get your dance on before you go out songs around...Love her, even though she's crazy. So here I am baking muffins, and dancing to Britney, yeah I'm supa fly I can multitask!! haha. Anyways, I just wanted to share this recipe that I found, because it is F.A.B-ULOUS and soooo worth making. I'm a big fan of making these instead of banana bread right now. Ive been throwing my old brown bananas into this recipe with some basic ingredients and a whole lotta chocolate. That's right, a WHOLE lot of chocolate, since I don't mess around when it comes to chocolate. Hence the need to dance more when I'm baking, to hopefully work off enough calories from shaking my ass while I'm baking to justify eating "just one more muffin." When you are feeling a little a little indecisive about making a big decision nothing fixes it better than warm and delicious muffins and a little shakin of the bon bon if you know what I'm sayin!
Kick it old school!

Dear Blogger....

Dear Blogger,
I would first like to apologize for alienating you for the past......month? Probably longer, owell, get the fuck over it! Ive had a life you know. Much is going on in my world right now and things are super busy. So while I'm sorry I haven't been able to entertain you and keep you company with my ramblings Ive been busy doing stuff..Stuff like watching scrubs, working, sometimes working out, taking naps, playing volleyball and of course searching for the mysterious smell that is in my car and I cannot seem to locate. I have been thinking about you though, I just thought you should know. I have a handy little to do list app on my phone, yeah yeah not so special since everyone has or should have one. Anyways, one of my widgets is for you guessed it!! "Things I want to blog about." The "to blog on" to do list is progressively getting longer, and it doesn't appear to be getting shorter anytime soon, since well its that time of year and this is when I have to remind myself to continue to screw my head in place for fear that it will fall off. The end of the school year will do that to you, but I don't expect you to understand blogger...To top all this off I cant seem to find my planner ANYWHERE!!! AHHHH!!! Now if you know how much I am attached to my planner its like losing your cell phone! NOT good. Especially since that thing has my life in it, I know what to do everyday because of that thing. I put extra care and love into finding the perfect planner, getting the perfect stickers, and filling it out diligently everyday....only to show it so much love and take it everywhere that *gasp* I've finally gone and left it behind. Tomorrows to do list...locate planner and locate mysterious smell in my car. Both are very important. Sorry that I wasn't able to give you anything entertaining tonight blogger but you'll just have to suck it up. Ill try to post something a little more insightful later this week given I haven't lost my noodle due to my lack of planner.

Leapin Lizards!

Just booked my trip to Mexico can I get a WOOOHOOO!!! I haven't been on a legit vacation in so long, I'm pretty sure this one is going to be awesome! So as I was thinking about the things I didn't do the last time I was in Mexico (for lack of having a pair of balls) my memory has so kindly brought to my attention para sailing and holding an iguana. My friend Sara just got back from Mexico and she survived the whole para sailing thing so maybe I'll give that a try...maybe (once I grow a pair that is). It looks like it would be fun, she said it was relaxing and I'm thinking the view would be spectacular. Every time I go to Mexico I tell myself I'm going to do it, and I never do. I go up to the boat, talk to the guy who straps you in and then I promptly chicken out because land is so much safer. I'm such a weenie! I have no problem diving underwater but flying over it while I'm being pulled behind a boat is another thing, weenie with a capital W. The other thing Ive thought about doing is holding an iguana. Why not do something totally touristy and hold a very large reptile? Kind of like this guy did, and it looks like hes OK right? Just think about how bad ass I would look holding a giant iguana!? Instant street cred, and a potential new FB profile pic.

So I wasn't really scared to do this because well lets be honest, people hold iguanas all the time..Buuut, apparently Iguanas DO bite! Just check out this guys hand! WTF!? Sooo NOW I'm scared of holding one for fear it might bite me. Doh! As if that wasn't enough check this out!!

Yeah that's right, iguanas fart and that video proves it. Soooo, what if I'm holding the little bastard and then all of a sudden it farts and then poos on me!!?? So much for street cred and a cool new profile pic. Any recommendations on things I should do in Mexico that dont involve giant reptiles and or falling into the ocean?

Irrational Fears Part 2

I felt the need to create an Irrational Fears Part 2 because I felt like these two fears needed their own post. So once again last week I was reminded of one of my biggest irrational fears and for some reason I just cant get it out of my head. There was a news video posted online about a woman who was walking in her backyard and fell in a sinkhole. I'm weird I know but I have a fear of sinkholes. I'm worried that somewhere, someday I will just be walking along and bam! Ill be swallowed up by a sinkhole. But in all seriousness you cant deny that these things are scary! I mean look at this picture of a sinkhole that formed in Guatemala last year, can we say SCARY! It just swallowed up some building and a road, no big deal right? Apparently not if you're a sinkhole, they just devour anything that they feel like when they feel like it.

This isn't the only large sinkhole that's out there folks, they're everywhere!! Just google it, then you'll see these things are real and they are dangerous! The other irrational fear I have is of traveling carnivals. I don't know where this one came from but Ive had it for a long time, where as the sinkhole fear is newer, its only about a 5 months old. Traveling carnivals scare me. They scare me because they move around from city to city and then they are set up and you're just supposed to trust your life to some machine that travels around creating fun. Ummm, no thanks! I don't ride on rides that travel around the country, they need to be firmly rooted to the ground in order for me to feel safe. I have no problem riding on a ride at Disneyland but you will not catch me on a ride down at Lakefair. Nope, no thank you Ill pass. They might be safe and I'm sure they go through a lot of inspections and safety tests but that doesn't make me feel any better about going on them. Do you remember that Alanis Morrisette song from back in the day, the song Ironic? Yeah I feel like she wrote that song for me, the one time I go on one of these traveling carnival rides will be my last because I will inevitably (because of the song) plummet to my death and it will be horribly painful. I just know it, and because that's how it works in the song. You're afraid of planes, but you ride on one, and then you die. Yep, no thanks I think Ill pass. Anybody humming that Alanis song yet, I know I am.

Sloth

I have a hard time sitting around. While I like to think of myself as a lazy person, I really dont get to be lazy as often as one might like to. I like to dabble in different things just to keep things interesting and I feel like I am constantly trying to do more than a normal person would do, just because I feel compelled by my inner crazy person to be on the go all the time. For example, I have a great full time job, my job is really fun and I enjoy it a lot. Sometimes it requires me to work nights and the occassional Saturday, which I dont mind because my work seems more like play than work. I often think to myself, wow they are paying me to do this how cool is that!? On a normal week I usually work anywhere between 40 and 45 hours a week. On a busy week it can go up to about 55, those are rare but they do happen and they are exhausting. On top of my regular job I also coach volleyball at the local high school in the fall which is a kick in the pants! I love working as part of a program that gave me a lot of good memories when I was going through high school. I coach c-team and as challenging as it is it isnt very stressfull which I appreciate, and the head coach has been very accomodating with my schedule. In the spring I coach 7th grade volleyball at the local middle school that is close to my work. As frustrated as it is sometimes I appreciate how I have to take a step back and evaluate my coaching ability. Coaching middle school has taught me a lot of patience and it makes me stop to think about fundamentals and what is really important for them to know. Somedays I struggle with this becuase the 7th graders that I am coaching are feeding into a fairly strong rival program of our high school and I sometimes feel like Im cheating on my high school kids because I have coached the enemy if you will, but I quickly get over it and consider it a friendly competitive challenge and test of my coaching ability. Spring and fall are really busy for me, with morning practices before work in the spring and late evening practices in the fall one would think that I dont have much time for anything else. Well I dont really, but I am the type of person that would prefer a jam packed schedule over a slow not much going on schedule. I recently agreed to play on three spring volleyball leagues on top of coaching spring vb at the middle school, Eek what was I thinking? Ok, this is a little crazy even for me but I have this thing about staying busy and I am driven by this insane need to have a full schedule and keep busy all the time. Weekdays for me are mostly all business with work, coaching, and playing ball so you might think that my weekends are my chill time? Meh, not really. Because I enjoy always having something going on I tend to pack my weekends full of fun things to do like hiking, biking, volleyball tournaments (as if i didnt get enoug vb during the week) running, shopping, dinner dates, grocery shopping, cleaning and catching up with the friends and family I have neglected during the week. I generally have my weekends planned so far in advance that last year when my good friend was trying to find a time to hangout with me I realized that I have too much going on. I tried to take a step back and not plan as many things but it was really hard for me. I ended up doing more sitting around than I enjoy and I felt like I was missing out on things because I was trying to have more me time. So Im trying to compromise and include my friends in on my busy weekends, whether or not they have noticed. Instead of doing what I was planning on doing anyway I try to invite a friend so that I can spend some time with them doing something fun, most of the time they are more than happy to oblige. I appreciate my friends and I appreciate that they understand my need to be busy. They support my need for a neverending to do list and they dont give me too much crap for not making as much time for them as I would like to. When I die I want to look back and know that I did everything I wanted to do and lived a full life, I want to have kicked lifes ass if you will. To me living a full life is doing everything you want to do. I feel like there isnt enough time in the day for me to get everything I want to do done so thats why I stay busy, because I feel like theres never enough time. I dont want to look back and think about the amount of time I spent sitting around, I want to think about the things I did, the memories I made and the people I got to experience those things with. Lucky for me my friends like to do a lot of the same stuff I do so that makes doing this easy. But I also dont want to get burnt out, I am concious of the fact that this could be a problem for me in the near future. I dont have a significant other that I have to torture with my lack of attention, the cat fills that role quite nicely. I dont have any children that I have to put first, as long as the cat is fed and her box is clean shes happy and I get to go on my merry way. I am lucky that my work is like play for all three of the jobs that I have and that I wake up wanting to go to work everyday. I have a quote that I repeat in my head quite often, "youll never reget doing it, but youll always regret not doing it." I love this saying because I feel like it sums me up, I keep doing things and I stay busy because I dont want to regret not doing them later and thinking back "man I sure had a lot of time I didnt use, If only I could get it back." I dont want that to be me, so for now Im going to continue being this crazy person who has too much going on because I dont think Id have it any other way.

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Let's Talk Spring...sort of

Sunshine. Mud puddles. Cool breeze. Crisp air. Green. Flowers. Trees. Cherry blossoms. Grass. Rain. Hail. Longer days. Clouds. Blue skies. Car washes. Umbrellas. Bike rides. Walks. Hikes. Gardens. Plants. Dirt. Lawn mowers. Bird feeders. Yard work. Squirrels. Lawn gnomes. Hey, who snuck that last one in there? Oh yeah, hehe, that was me. So I have a confession to make: I am addicted to lawn gnomes. I love them. I love them so much every time I see a cute little, happy, smiling lawn gnome my heart smiles. I purposely go out of my way just to look at these shiny little pieces of lawn art whenever I go into a store. I like to carefully disguise this as just "checking out" the garden section for a "new pot". We all know what I'm really doing, I'm creepin' the lawn gnomes! So I don't have a logical explanation for my love of lawn gnomes other than they are just so stinkin' cute! I would like to clarify that I have not purchased a lawn gnome and do not currently have one in my possession. This is do to the fact that I have not found the perfect lawn gnome, not for lack of searching because I have done my fair share of looking. I just haven't found the perfect one yet, and I'm being really picky about it. Another simple explanation and reason as to why I do not have one is because my mom thinks they are hideous and refuses to indulge my needs and participate in cutesy lawn gnome oogling. Whew! I said it! I blame my mom for my lack of a lawn gnome. She thinks they are hideous, which really we all know makes me want one even more. Another reason I do not have one is because I have a tiny little yard, it is maybe 8x8ft, and is one lawn gnome enough? If you ask some people they might say that one is too much, which brings me to another reason I do not have one; people think they are hideous. I guess deep down I'm afraid of being judged and ridiculed for having a lawn ornament, when we all know that the only ornaments lawns need are clean and shortly trimmed grass and the occasional flower bed. The last reason as to why I do not have a lawn gnome is because I'm scared. I'm scared to own one not because they might be "evil" or "mischievous" but because I'm afraid somebody might take my precious gnome and try to liberate it. I am against garden gnome liberation! I do want one, but I don't know how I will be able to explain to my roommate why there is a little ceramic man wearing a little red hat sitting in the yard, who has no real purpose other than to sit there and look cute. Lets talk about their cuteness for a second. For the record I would just like to state that not all lawn gnomes are cute. There are some very ugly ones out there and they are the exception. I do not like cheaply made gnomes, plastic gnomes simply will not do. I prefer the real thing, terra cotta all the way. I don't like a lot of junk surrounding them for example: signs that say welcome to my garden, benches, excessive mushrooms, etc. should not go on a lawn ornament; it makes them look cheap. A classy cute faced gnome with a big chipper smile and brightly colored paint is cute to me. I cant really explain why they make my heart smile when I see them but I will try to explore this so that I too can understand my infatuation with a lawn ornament. I think one of the reasons is that they always look so darned happy. They are generally always smiling and sometimes they are being a little mischievous and are mooning you, this really makes me giggle. Side note-I would never place a bare assed lawn gnome in my yard, on my porch, etc. they are NOT classy, but they do make me smile a little. Another reason might have to do with the myth that surrounds them. Back in the day garden gnomes were said to watch over your garden and help tend to it at night. Which we all know I need help with, considering my lack of a green thumb, honestly I try SO hard here! I think the main reason I love these little things is because they make me feel like a kid again. They stir up a magical happiness inside that almost always brings a smile to my face when I see a cute one. Is anybody out there as excited as I am that they made a cute little cartoon movie about gnomes? Gnomeo and Juliet, I cant WAIT to see you!