Hurricane Irene

After experiencing my first earthquake earlier this week, Mother Nature thought it seemed fitting to cap the weekend off with my first hurricane, Hurricane Irene. Luckily both ended up only leaving minor damage to the DC area and I am just fine.

The boyfriend and I decided to stock up on some essentials on Saturday early afternoon so we hit up the local grocery store which was packed, but not nearly as packed as the 2010 Blizzard. It started raining in the afternoon and pretty much just rained and drizzled all day long. We did venture out to Starbucks because I wanted to get out and get a change of scenery, which was fun and provided some great people watching. After that we just stayed inside all day and watched Netflix movies.

When I woke up I didn't know what I was expecting but everything was fine. The world hadn't ended, the power was on, the house was still there. It was all good. Now I can tell my grandkids about how I experienced my first Earthquake and Hurricane in the same week.

Turkey? Why Not!

Yesterday the boyfriend saw an email from a travel website saying that ticket prices were reduced on tickets to Istanbul, so naturally he asked "hey, do you want to Turkey?" to which I replied "sure" and that was that. This morning tickets were purchased and now I'm super excited for October to come. 2011 certainly will be a big travel year for me - England AND Turkey. Hope I can top that in 2012!

2011 Resolutions and Goals

Since it is the start of a new year, I have decided to make the following resolutions and goals for 2011:

1. Give up drinking soda. I don't drink a ton of soda, but I have it often enough, especially since I started dating my boyfriend who drinks it all the time, and I feel like even a little is bad for me. It's just pure sugar and there's no health benefit to it, so I'm going to give it up completely.
2. De-clutter my room. My room is light years better than it was when I lived in the basement (I moved onto the main floor in July 2010), but I still feel like I have too many clothes and not enough space for them. I'm going to get rid of clothes I don't wear and organize everything better.
3. Take better care of my skin. I have struggled with acne ever since puberty, and it has not gone away since. While it is never horrible, I constantly have at least 1 blemish on my skin at all times. It's not that I haven't taken care of my skin in the past, but I really want to make it a top priority in the new year.
4. Travel more Internationally. While I usually do my fair share of travelling during the year, I want to plan at least 1 international trip this year. So far I have plans to visit London in April, and hope to visit Iceland one of these days too.
5. Blog More. I know my legions of fans have been missing me lately, so I'm going to try and post 5x a week. Let's see how that goes.
6. Workout More. Between soccer, kickboxing and bike riding, I definitely do my fair share of working out, but I also feel like I could do more. I want to start up yoga once a week with my co-workers, and I have been slacking on the bike riding given the cold weather, but I need to suck it up and just go more.
7. Save more money. I consider myself a somewhat frugal person, but I also know I could save a lot more. I want to save up for travelling and the future.
8. Eat out less and cook more. This should also help with saving money.
9. Get on a better sleep schedule. Since I don't have to be into work until 9, and I live so close to work (about a 10 minute walk), I tend to stay up too late at night and therefore it's hard for me to get up in the morning. I am NOT a morning person, so getting a full 8 hours every night should hopefully make it easier to get up in the morning.
10. Set up a website for my artwork. I have paintings that I have been trying to sell, but I think setting up a website will be a good first step.