Sleep cycle



Ya'll, I gotta tell you. I'm addicted to apps. Every time someone talks about a new app, I immediately download it. And like I have said a hundred times, I'll buy anything for less than a buck! So of course when one of my friends told me about Sleep Cycle I knew I had to have it. 

Basically you set an alarm, but the app determines the best time to wake you up in a 30 minute range. Then, upon waking it shows you this handy dandy chart to see exactly how you are sleeping.

I happened to capture this screenshot after a night when I got in a fight with and then resolved said fight with my best friend, hence the 2am bedtime. What can I say, late night fights are my M.O.

But seriously, I knew I got pretty crap sleep due to said argument, but having this little graph to show me just exactly how terrible Wednesday was going to be was awesome. What I really like is that I can compare, I can see how adjusting my bedtime routines affects my sleep, etc.

Have you seen this app? Do you use it? Please tell me I'm not alone in my "will buy anything less than a dollar" habit...



Happiness still can't be found at the grocery store...

I'm not sure when it happened, but it has. Now, instead of feeling instant happiness for my friends as they start new relationships, buy houses, move in with significant others, travel places I've never been, get engaged, have children, move to new cities, etc, I feel jealous.

I wonder why those things aren't happening to me. I wonder what I did wrong, what I could have done differently...if I hadn't gone to Spain, would I still be in love with someone who wasn't in love with me (but I thought I didn't care)? If I hadn't been a total lush, would that 1 guy I met at that 1 bar that 1 night 3 years ago have worked out? If I hadn't waited for the 'right' job and instead just accepted any job, would I be in a different place?

I've written before about happiness, and how there isn't a limited supply. It's not an item on the shelf in a grocery store. My friends, the people I love and care about more than anything, can be happier than they have ever been and it doesn't mean that I too can't experience the same feelings at the exact same time.

So now I need to figure out how to shake this 'tude. Deep down I am truly happy for my friends, excited for them, and want nothing but the best, and I want to be able to convey that instead of forcing a smile while thinking, "man, why isn't that me?"

I am going to try really, really hard to turn my attitude around. It's not going to be easy. I'm going to fail at it miserably sometimes. I just have to keep remembering that we can all be happy together. We can all have great things happen to us at the same time. One is not exclusive of the other.

But seriously, when is it going to be my turn?

A tour of Australia via my iPhone

Survival guide

Arrival

Good morning Cairns

Kangaroo friends

Koala friends. Lots of marsupial friends.

Good afternoon, Australia from 300 ft in the sky

The 12 Apostles. Fun fact, there aren't actually 12 of them.

Surprise surprise, I found a Mexican joint in Melbourne.

This giraffe has arguably the best views in all of Sydney

NBD, just hiked a mountain, saw a lighthouse and took pictures at the top

Then we had beer at lunch and more wine when we got home and then this happened. Accidentally drunk at 6:30pm.

Bondi --> Bronte

More Bondi --> Bronte. dying to go back.

Sydney Harbour Bridge at dusk from the ferry in the middle of the harbour.

Aftermath.

And a few fun facts I learned each day:

5/5/2012 - The Great Barrier Reef is the only living organism that you can see from the moon.

5/6/2012 - Beef jerky is not permitted entry into Australia, unless accompanied by an import permit. Unpopped popcorn (eg. microwave popcorn) is not permitted entry into Australia and must be destroyed.

5/7/2012 - There are more kangaroos than people in Australia. (Thank you crazy lady who owns a kangaroo skin shop)

5/8/2012 - Crocodiles and Pythons are cannibalistic.

5/9/2012 - "Bogan" is the slang Australian word for "Red Necks"

5/10/2012 - Koalas can only be held for 30 minutes a day, and only 180 minutes a week.
 
5/11/2012 - Although they are called the 12 Apostles, there are many more than 12 of them (and they were originally called the Sow and her Piglets but I guess that sounded too lame for the Aussies)


5/12/2012 - In Australia, instead of saying "You're welcome" the appropriate response is "No worries." My goal is to speak like a native by the time we leave, Amanda's goal is probably to disown me. She's not loving my Aussie lingo.

5/13/2012 - Mother's Day is the same in Australia as it is in the US... today!

5/14/2012 - The Tasmanian devil is the only carnivorous marsupial.


5/15/2012 - Only ~35% of Australia's beaches are accessible by car.

5/16/2012 - Kings Cross (the red light district in Sydney) is home to the largest Coca-Cola sign in the Southern Hemisphere.

5/17/2012 - Australians are some of the most politically incorrect people I have ever spoken to. Particularly after a few beers.

I said I was going to use this more as a journal, so that's what this is going to be.

The last few days have been hard. I found out something that one of my closest friends was keeping from me, and it hurt. I hurt. I felt betrayed and stupid and foolish and a whole bunch of other things. I guess the silver lining is that said friend was totally unreachable through the weekend, so I had to deal with my emotions and my feelings by myself. And I did.

I'm actually really proud of myself. I am such a knee-jerk person. I react instantly and predictably. People who know me and like to get me riled up recognize this and antagonize me (Sister, I'm looking at you). The fact that I couldn't have that knee-jerk reaction in this situation was such a great lesson for me. I processed the situation, I figured out what I was really upset about and why, I planned out very carefully what I was going to say and how I was going to say it and I didn't just rush into a yelling match with someone who I care so much about. Guess what? There was still yelling involved. My feelings were still hurt. My friend's feelings were hurt that I didn't trust the relationship we have and believed what someone else told me. Hours of conversation, laughter, and tears later, I think we're fixed. I hope we're fixed. Can't imagine life without a best friend.

But man, what a learning experience.

The most interesting part? Once we finally talked, I found out that what I thought was being kept from me wasn't true. It was a 'he said, she said' misunderstanding on the part of the person who told me, and the person who told them. This presented a whole new set of issues around spreading gossip and why I trusted someone else instead of my friend, but it makes it that much more 'lesson learned.' If I had flown off the handle, if I had let loose and lost control of my emotions, I would have made a fool of myself.

I guess the point in writing this is to warn each of you to slow down, take a step back, and give the people you love (and the one's you don't) the benefit of the doubt. It didn't solve my problem, but it made the whole situation and experience so much more bearable. I know it's something I am going to be acutely aware of going forward.

10,000 foot proposal

Tuesday remains the worst day of the week. There are so many reasons why. Today all I wanted was for it to be Saturday so I could lay in bed until 9:30am, get up and move to the couch until noon, eat lunch, lay back down on the couch, and get up around 6pm frantic because I had done nothing all day and so do a mad sweep of my room and the house and collapse into bed around 9pm from my "exhausting" day. Doesn't that sound like it would have been fantastic today?

Instead, I present you with a "This could really only happen to me" story. I'm not a very good story teller, so this will likely be long-winded and not at all funny. It happens. So here it goes.

I went to Washington DC for Easter weekend. 2 of my best friends are there, and it just seemed fitting. My parents are staying in Florida until early May and well... I had nothing else to do here. To DC I went!

For some reason I booked a 7:30am Friday morning flight. Why I didn't fly out Thursday night will always be a mystery, especially now. So I haul myself out of bed after a wild night at the nearest Mexican joint with my best friend. And by wild night I mean we only ordered 1 queso and 1 guacamole instead of the usual 3 guacamoles. Split between 2 of us. Anyway.

Arrive at airport, wait a few minutes, all 11 passengers board the plane. At this point I'm convinced that God doesn't care about anyone on the plane and since it's not full clearly it's going down. I know, logic evades me at 7:30am. And most other times of day. So I get on the empty plane. Sit down in my lovely window seat that I hand-picked because the row was empty when I checked in online. MISTAKE NUMBER 1.

I close my eyes, listen to the lovely sounds of Hairspray the Musical and drift off into dreamland. Except more like nightmare land as I think of every possible worst case scenario on an airplane. Then, 2 women sit down next to me. Great. The only row ON THE ENTIRE PLANE that is full. I can see 2 completely empty rows around me. But not wanting to be rude, I stay in my seat. I break the rules and listen to my music as we take off, and then pull out my computer at the wonderful cruising altitude of 10,000 feet. I'm going to work, and then when I get to DC I can have an actual, real vacation day.

SIKE. About the same time I pull out my laptop, the woman in the aisle seat pulls out a box and presents it to the woman in the middle seat. She starts to open it and I'm kind of side-eye watching. The box is neverending. It's a box inside a box inside a box on and on for probably 15 boxes. It looked like the image you see on your right, only not quite as artistic and more real life. You get it.

So at this point I'm blatantly staring. There are no more discrete looks. And the flight attendant is standing at our row with his hands clasped. And then I realize... this is about to be a proposal. I am about to witness a proposal on an airplane within 6 inches of me. And I dare not tell a lie, because 5 boxes later what does my middle-seated friend open but a ring, which is promptly placed on her finger. The flight attendant is squealing and I'm doing the best I can to pretend like I haven't been staring the entire time when really I've been staring and updating my Facebook and telling every person who is on my work IM system at 8am about what is happening.

That's not even the kicker. I'm thrilled that I witnessed a proposal on an airplane and in such a cute way. Seriously, thrilled. The problem is that I then had to sit through 60 torturous minutes of these women making out and giggling and groping each other 6 inches from me. I wanted to get up and sit in the empty seats I was staring down, but I didn't want to be rude or seem like I was feeling uncomfortable. Even though I was, in a major way. So instead I just turned toward the window and kept working...and let's be honest, really listening to their conversation and sweet whispers because I was so close I could HEAR THEM.

Lesson #1: When selecting a seat on a pretty empty flight, go for the middle. Chances are only 1 person will join you and they either pick window or aisle, leaving you with 2 glorious seats.

Lesson #2: Attempts to not be awkward (ie leaving the row) result in even more awkward situations (ie proposal in my face)

I hope your weekend started off as exciting as mine did. No flight will ever compare.

April Goals

You are going to be shocked. Seriously.

I have run two 5k's. RUN. Not walked. Not crawled. Maybe stumbled some.




My goals for April are simple:

1. Participate in 2 more 5k's (already on the books!)
2. Celebrate my birthday on my actual birthday.
3. Finish 3 books.

What are your goals for April?

What I've Been Doing

Things I have been doing:

• Running 2 5k's and signing up for 2 more.
• Planning a trip to Australia (hopefully Sydney, Cairns, Melbourne, and maybe Tasmania?)
• Working pretty much all the time
• Traveling - Miami, Dallas, Miami, Washington DC, Miami
• Getting almost-but-not-quite stood up by possibly the sketchiest man I've ever met (and that's saying a lot, I know some sketchballs)
• Obsessing over friendships and what it means to be a friend and the kind of friend I want to be and the kind of friends I want to have
• Playing tennis 3-4 times a week. Singles, doubles, ALTA, Ultimate Tennis. You name it, I play it. Sometimes I even win.
• Celebrating the triumphant completion of my parents lakehouse
• Planning birthday parties and dinners out and pub crawls
• Spending entire weekends laid out on my couch alternating between reading books and watching terrible Lifetime movies and whining to EV about my lacking social life
• Attending weddings and baby showers and worrying about the next funeral I'll attend
• Getting paid monthly instead of bi-weekly. The 27th of the month is now my least favorite day, but it's followed by the 28th of the month, my new favorite day.

Things I haven't been doing

• Keeping up with acupuncture
• Eating salads for every meal
• Getting the check engine light on my car... checked
• Unloading the dishwasher (it's my most hated chore, and the #1 reason I hate when EV travels)
• Wearing a jacket. Winter 2012 was nonexistent.
• Falling in love with the right person
• Letting my fears hold me back
• Obsessing over money and budgets
• Superfluous spending. Define superfluous...!

Net-net, life is muy bueno 'round these parts. How's life with each and every one of you? Please share - I'm dying to know.

PS - Sorry I have no pictures to share. Consider that one of my new 2012 goals: take more pictures using DSLR! I bought the damn thing, I need to start using it again.