Sunflowers staring back at me

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday.

I've worked at Target for more than two years now. For that entire duration I've had the closing shift every Tuesday - meaning Tuesday mornings are for myself. Some people may prefer this - I on the other hand tend to wake up with an unsettled feeling, already worried about what I'll be able to do and accomplish before having to go into work. Today was one of those days. At 7am, I was already cranky with Nick for no reason at all.

Luckily, he gave me sunflowers a couple days ago. And there they were, staring back at my cranky face in the kitchen. I couldn't do anything but smile.

We should do this more often

Food decisions do not come easy in my house hold. I used to think I was the worst person when it came to the topic of choosing what to eat and then I met Nick. There is definitely a close tie between the two of us on the where to eat issue.

The conversation usually goes a little something like this: Nick- "What do you want for lunch today?" Kayla- "I don't know" Nick- "Come on you have to have some preference" Kayla- "Well what do you want? I can go for anything" Nick- "I can go for anything, you know me, I'm a garbage disposal." And so on and so forth until one of us finally chooses something in the fridge or one of the few restaurants we always go to. 

Living in San Marcos, there are only a few places to eat out unless you drive to Carlsbad or Encinitas. Both Carlsbad and Encinitas have multiple choices of delicious cuisine right on the beach... the types of places you would think to eat when living in San Diego County. For some reason (more than likely due to convenience and our busy schedules) we miss out on the beach side meal and set up shop at the local sushi spot with a beautiful view of LA Fitness and Spaghetti Factory.

Today we decided to take advantage of the beautiful place we live. How bad is a 20 minute drive when your reward is a meal, waves and ocean breeze? Not that bad - not bad at all - and that is something we tend to easily forget. But, after the gym today Nick said "why don't we go to the coast for lunch?" my response, "let's do it!" The drive was beautiful, waves gigantic and sky so blue. When we stepped out of the car in the Las Olas parking lot, the ocean breeze blew into my face and the smell made me instantly smile. It must have made Nick smile too because he then said, "we need to do this more often." 

Classic Combo and Pineapple Chile Margarita for me, Green Chile Burrito and Mad River Red beer for Nick all at the happy hour price with a free ocean view... I'll take it. I'll appreciate it. And it's going on my list of need to do more often.

California Coast... we do live in a pretty amazing place don't we?

Pop in a CD (if you still do that). Take a drive. Enjoy ALL of your surroundings not just the convenient ones.

The Fit Dilemma

How does one stay motivated when they feel they've exhausted their exercise knowledge, work 10 hours a day and have a major sweet tooth?This tends to be my reoccurring dilemma.

I would say that I consistently engage in a physically active lifestyle. For the passed 6 years I've been a gym-goer, pilates practitioner, yogi and even - CrossFit olympian (slight exaggeration). My parents advised me to start caring about health and fitness early, because it is extremely more difficult when you age. Nick, my "muscle up 5 times faster than me and burn twice the calories" boyfriend, has been my fit partner in crime for over a year now. That definitely helps when motivation is needed and you can't seem to find it in yourself and I'm starting to wonder if that is the only answer! Yet, we can also be our own worse enemies. Being major foodies- we will take any opportunity to have a delicious meal and nice time out together.

Back in March, we became members of CrossFit 2.0 in San Marcos. There were many times where I dreaded showing up to class and wanted to throw up after lifting weights followed by attempting to do as many push ups as possible in 60 seconds, but continued to go because Nick pushed me along. After our six-pack-abs left Coachella, we stopped CrossFit and our sore, exhausted bodies did nothing for a while. Then we decided to take on the Paleo lifestyle for a month. We enjoyed it. Personally I felt the best I ever have, yet I always felt like I was missing out on certain foods. And then came Chicago. If you don't know what the Paleo diet is - it's not Deep dish pizza and Chicago dogs. Since our carb binge, we've been much more "lenient" on our Paleo diet. We still eat almond butter instead of peanut butter and spaghetti squash instead of spaghetti noodles, but there are many times we have beans, rice and cheese in a tortilla. Some things are just too good to leave out. When I go on these breaks and lapses I tend to not be very content with myself.

For the most part we tend to not feel bad because- again- we are physically active. We run the San Elijo hill and try to make it to the gym 3-4 times a week. But that doesn't always happen because our schedules don't match or we're just too tired. When we do hit the gym together we tend to go our separate ways. Nick goes off to play basketball and straight in to the free weights. I head up to the cardio machines and then... I get bored or lost. I'm bored of the work outs that I know how to do. I only know how to do so many. And this is where I lose motivation which then makes it even more difficult when I'm attempting to go to the gym alone.

Some might say, ask Nick have him teach you more exercises - read Fitness magazine - take a class. I don't want to bother Nick when he already has his routine and trying to learn exercises from Fitness magazines is as difficult as learning sign language from a flash card, I can't tell which way her arms and legs are moving.

And on top of not knowing different exercises to do, there always tends to be junk food easily accessible at my fast-paced 10-12 hour a day job. Who wants to head to the gym when their body has memorized all the activities you'll put it through for the next hour, you're exhausted and your sweet tooth has already been satisfied? Not many people.

I obviously can do it, but how to I get back to it. Any suggestions?

Being active makes me happy. I like to be happy.

Counting down - the Catching up

If you recall I started my third blog in... in late 2011 in hopes of blogging consistently. That did not last very long. Why? Who knows. Actually I know, life caught up with me and passed me by. My days didn't leave much time for blogging - or thought for blogging - or so I excused. Now, I'm not going to stay on this topic long. 

Sitting here on my San Marcos porch with my feet up on a blue chair, hair above my shoulders and just over a year old pup sniffing around - I'm going to count down the catch up - so I can attempt this blogging deal again. Least I can do is try. Most you can do is read. 

But first, you must get caught up - so the count down (of course this will consist only of the memories I find most exciting, important... or, well, i have pictures to document) 

January 2012

I ended the lease of my studio apartment in Camarillo - great "first career - out of college" apartment. Thank you Villa Camarillo (but I don't thank you for charging me an arm and a leg for the so called "paint" and "carpet cleaning" it needed).

February 2012

You may be asking why I ended my lease. Well, I requested a transfer to San Diego and department change to Human Resources. I not only got the transfer, but the new role as Executive of Human Resources; however, they wouldn't give me the transfer until mid February. So, my fabulous friends and their fellow Weimie, took me in for a month. 

While living with them in Ventura, Nick and I planned a weekend vacation to Santa Barbara. Killing two birds with one stone, we got to people watch on State Street, go out for a night on the town, stay at a water front hotel - and attend my friends engagement party. The weekend trip was lovely. 

 And to finish February off right - I packed all my belongings and pretty little pup and moved to San Marcos, California, but this time not alone. Nick and I got a two bedroom condo to share with not only each other but our two dogs - Zoe and Zero. Let the fun continue.

April 2012
I love music and I LOVE dancing. All those who know me well, know this. And if you know me even better - you know that I went to Coachella for my first time in 2011 and out came a group called the Ginger Badgers which has since grown - full of our closest friends and loved ones who fit the mold... of being weird.
In April 2012, I attended my second year of Coachella. This time Nick and I weren't first meeting, we were celebrating our 1 year anniversary (dating of course).
We "Carpool-chella'd" hard. Nick, me, Brandon, Tiffany - 1 car. Alex, Joey, Des - 2nd car. And met with the Marshall's, fish, chip and Taylor - 3rd car.

 Other than a hot yoga class, the only other place I feel more free, able to show my hippie, and feel comfortable barefoot - is Coachella.

 I danced to Kaskade, Swedish House Mafia, The Black Keys, Florence and the Machine AND Snoop, Dre, and the one and only Tupac. I let my hair blow in the wind and the sun shine on my face. 2012 - will not be the last year. Join me :)

May 2012
My one and only brother graduated from CSUN. I'm so proud of him it is ridiculous.

June 2012

Also at Coachella - I watched Santigold perform for the first time (my first time not hers) and completely fell in love. The costumes, dancers, beats... her voice... create an awesome show. So two months later Nick, Alex and I got tickets to see her in Oceanside at the 94.9 concert on the pier. 

Beautiful view, beautiful music, beautiful people.  

 When I first moved to San Marcos, Nick and I decided to be adventurous and roam around Carlsbad looking for new places to eat and hang out. On the main street we found a warm-lit, comfortable wine bistro. In June, a second Relm opened up just down the street from us. To ensure the quality followed with the new location, we of course had to try a bit of wine and cheese (quite a few times). The quality definitely stayed.

 August 2012
August was busy.
My Grandfather passed away. He was my last grandparent alive, last to pass, however you want to look at it. I didn't have the money for an immediate flight to Ohio, so my amazing, wonderful, caring boyfriend Nick too me to the beach - so I could say goodbye to the waves in hopes it would be washed along to him in the bright blue sky.

"Chicago. I'm infatuated and I will visit again." Yes, that is right. I took my first trip to Chicago. Nick and I flew out for a week. The first night we stayed at a luxury antique hotel in the city, got dressed up and took in the town.

For the remainder of the trip we stayed with our friends Len and Melissa in their gorgeous house in the suburbs. Len got us complimentary tickets to Lollapalooza. So Friday, Saturday and Sunday consisted of more music and dancing. Lolla was a completely different experience than Coachella. The venue is at a park right in the middle of downtown Chicago. Saturday, there was a tornado warning so the park was evacuated and hundreds of people filled the streets of Chicago. A memory I will never forget. (side note- I saw Black Keys for the second time in 2012).

Now back to San Marcos. Our condo is a couple streets above Cal State San Marcos. Every Wednesday and Sunday there is a farmers market in one of the smaller parking lots. Mind you, I thoroughly enjoy famers markets and for some reason Nick and I hadn't attended one in the 7 months we lived here. Finally at the end of August, we spent a Sunday tasting homemade salsas, yellow watermelon with salt and buying Sunflowers and pie.

And a week later - I cut off my long lovely hair. Now, it is short lovely hair. Some call is sassy, I'll take that.

 September 2012
September 13th was my 24th birthday. Twenty four... that's almost twenty five. Wow.
My birthday celebrations (not all in one day, more like in the span of a week) consisted of :
1 day- sushi lunch, beers at Stone, night out dancing with the Brackin's and group.
2 day- visiting with the family, enjoying good conversation, food and presents.

3 day- Pretty Lights concert in downtown LA. Oh how I love music and dancing. 

October 2012

I don't mean to be repetitive, but I'm only being honest. Music and dancing started October off right with The Black Keys (for the 3rd time in 2012) at the Sports Arena in San Diego. Nick and I spent the first half of the day checking out neighborhoods we are interested in moving come January - Northpark, Southpark, University Heights. Then we had dinner in the gaslamp district, picked up energy drinks and headed to the Sports Arena. 

I have to admit, the sound was much better at both Coachella and Lolla, but The Black Keys never fail to put on a ridiculously good show. 

"Woah-oh-oh, I got a love that keeps me waiting"

And that brings me to today. I hope that you enjoyed catching up with my life. I also hope that I didn't leave out too many important things. I am sure that I could've chosen to use more description and analysis in the aforementioned activities, but I didn't. 

There are times I tend to either get bored with life or stressed about money issues and then I look back... 

My life is not boring - and - I should know where my money goes. 

Cheers to blogging. Cheers to reading. 

Good Afternoon Sunshine

Same girl. Different town. 

Same blog. More thoughts.