(no subject)

It was awesome to spend time with my little sister this weekend, as well as lots of other friends, but omg it wore me out. I drove up to Seattle on Friday. Traffic was awful so it took way longer than it should have, but I made it. Spent almost a full hour driving around Ballard looking for parking for the Lone Bellow concert. That was super fun. I ended up parking like a mile away from the venue, and of course on the walk to the place I passed a seemingly infinite number of better places to park. Whatever. The show was awesome. They're a lot higher energy on stage than I would have guessed -- a lot of the songs on their album are very slow and mellow, but even on those tunes, they managed to completely rock.

I got back to where I was staying at 2am, and was up on and the road to Portland kind of early the next morning. Jen rode down with me, so the drive was way more fun than the one on the way up. Once we got here, I started flailing around with some of my new Realtor tools, and Jen allowed me to make her my guinea pig buyer. We went out and looked at three houses, and I definitely learned a lot about what other pre-showing work I'd need to do with a real client. I also discovered some AWESOME neighborhoods that I didn't even know existed right in Aloha. So that was cool.

We spent the evening hanging out at my house with a handful of friends. We did a late dinner of pizza while Jen made pumpkin pie and we played some games. Emily and Chris had made it down to Portland by this point, too.

The next morning was slow to get going, but we all went running at different times -- Emily and Chris did a 3-hour run as part of their marathon training, so Jen and I did 3.5-miles through the park instead of joining those two. McKenzie also ran 4+ miles, but he went out before we did because he had to be back home in time to run an online tournament. I'm really proud of how well McKenzie is doing fitness-wise. But it's also hard for me, because I'm definitely declining, and I'm not really in a mental space where I can handle going all-in on the fitness again right now. So I kind of hate my body and it's really discouraging. But I'm doing what I can, and trying to move in the right direction, bit by bit.

We had planned an 11am brunch, and some other friends came over to join us for that, but due to various delays in the preparation of said brunch, it was 2pm before we ate. That kind of ate up the whole day, and also my kitchen is a giant disaster and I just want to bury my head in the sand until someone else deals with it. But I don't think that someone else exists, so I'll handle operation cleanup, I guess. This is why I don't cook. It takes way longer than you think it will and then you've got a huge mess. And also ingredients are expensive. I know if I cooked regularly that I'd save money in the long run, but not time or energy! Yeesh. No thanks, not interested.

The traveling contingent (Emily, Chris, and Jen) all left for Seattle around 6, and McKenzie and I went to the Tracy Grammer show shortly after that. Tracy is one of my all-time favorite performers, and I always enjoy her shows. Thankfully, they're mellow and the audience is always sitting, too, because I don't think I could've handled another night of standing. Anyway the show was fantastic and I'm glad I went, but by the end of the day I was so fucking tired. Now it's almost 3pm and while I have gotten up and showered, I've still been in bed most of today. I'm going to Body Pump in a couple of hours, though, so I'm not going to be here much longer. I should maybe eat something, too.

In conclusion: fun weekend, but would rather have spread out all the activities over a longer period of time, because omg tired.

(no subject)

I finally got up for the day around 3pm, and I was moderately productive from that point forward. I did a little more real estate stuff at home, then I went to the gym for Pump. Normally, I get there early and just stake out my spot in the room and fuck around on my phone until it's time to get started. Today I decided to fuck around on my phone while doing cardio, so I felt a little less slothy. I challenged myself on the tracks, too -- I added more weight than I usually do on squats and biceps. I'm feeling it now, and I have Ertan tomorrow afternoon, so I'm going to be exhausted and sore by tomorrow night.

I came home and finished my sewing class homework, which was to trace our next patterns and cut the fabric. When we do things in class, I ask Elizabeth (the instructor) to check me at every step, and I still fucked up a bunch of things the first time around. But I'm fairly confident that without guidance, I did everything correctly this time. If not, I did buy another piece of fabric that I can use if I've somehow ruined the one I started with today, but I think I'm good. The pattern tracing and cutting is the hardest on my back. The fabric has to be just so, and it takes a while to do all the prepping that leads up to the cutting, and then the cutting is also a very precise ordeal, so my back is kind of owie right now. The actual sewing isn't bad, though. I'll do some stretching before bed tonight and it shouldn't be too bad tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning is a big Windermere meeting, and I'll have my professional photos done for my business cards and website. I set my alarm for 2 hours before the meeting because I think I might actually try to put full makeup on -- of course I have a nice fat zit in the middle of my forehead right now, or I wouldn't really do anything more than mascara and lip gloss. Sigh. Beauty standards. Pssh. I'm also hoping that my hair will behave. It's quite something right now...normally I'm out the door about five or ten minutes after waking up because I just take a fast shower, put my hair in a ponytail, throw clothes on and head out the door. I think I'll take a little while longer tomorrow.

Z left for a regional in Olympia this morning. I hadn't realized he'd be gone this week until about yesterday afternoon. I'm plenty busy this week, so it's no big deal. But I've been getting used to having him around all the time, and we're coming up on another long stretch of mostly-apartness. Our schedule is never regular.

When I got out of Pump tonight at 6:30, it was dark outside. Winter can be a huge bummer with all the darkness, but early in the season, it's kind of cozy. The lights of the world are out, but we go on about our business. By the time daylight savings ends and I have to give back another hour, I'll be over it, though.