Some things come too soon and some things don't come soon enough

I have energy for two brief rants tonight, as described by my post title.

1. It's November 6th. Despite what American retailers insist, it is not time for Christmas yet. Halloween literally just happened.

Dear CVS, This is wrong. Sincerely, Jordan.

I am no Scrooge. I love the holiday season with all its decorations, cheesy TV specials, Yankee Swaps, and bad sweaters. But what I don't love is hearing Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time" playing on the radio while I'm at work. WTF?! 101.5, no. Stop.

2. It's November 6th. I've been waiting for some sort of feedback for what will be two weeks tomorrow. As someone who has no patience and hates the indefinite, this is driving me insane. At this point, I don't care what the answer is, I just want to know. 

That's a lie, I totally do, but I'm trying to make a point here.

This whole not-knowing thing is just throwing me off my game. 

This sums up how I've felt for the past two weeks. By the way, it's totally the latter.

Crazy Random Happenstances

I had all intentions of blogging yesterday, of attempting to write some "get to know me" type posts to figure out my voice as a blogger...but life is tricksy and likes to remind me that it is not going to meet my expectations, for better or worse. This time, I am glad to say it has been a more pleasant series of surprises. For fear of getting my hopes up too high, however, I'm keeping a good portion of these little happenstances to myself. At least for now.

For the first time yesterday, it really felt like fall. When I left my house for yoga at 5:45am, it was 37 ° F. Holy freezing. I have since stored a pair of gloves in my car. Lesson learned.

I had a $10 birthday gift card from one of my favorite restaurants, India, on Hope Street in Providence, so I made some lunch plans with a friend and took advantage of the buffet.

Plate #1 of...oh, maybe 5. Yeah, I can eat. I had a little bit of everything offered on the buffet line. Clockwise from left: papadum, seasoned grilled veggies (my favorite), mutter mushroom curry, a tiny piece of lamb (I had to try it), and sweet & spicy mango cashew chicken. SO AMAZING.

After lunch, I went home and lazed about. I had a 1/2 peck or so of red delicious apples hanging out in the fridge that no one was going to eat, so I decided to experiment with homemade crockpot apple butter.

I cored and roughly chopped the apples, leaving the skin on, and threw them in the slow cooker on high for 4 hours and stirring whenever I happened to get up. Also in the mix was maybe 1/4 cup of water, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup Swerve (xylitol sweetener), 1T cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg. Then I used a hand blender to puree it all up, added a bit of guar gum to thicken it up, and cooked it partially uncovered on high for another 90 minutes or so. Happy to say it is delicious.

My friend, Katie, came by for a movie night dedicated to one of the loves of my life, Leo. So sexy.

About halfway through Revolutionary Road, Katie and I had our minds blown when we realized we actually went to high school together. Whattttttt? Especially shocking since we went to a small Catholic high school and I was the head editor of the school's lit mag, which she contributed to in her junior/my senior year. Like I said, life is tricksy. Granted, I do look entirely different from my high school self. [Insert reminiscing over martinis here.]

This morning took me on a little unexpected venture. Then an afternoon shopping trip to Bob's. 

All of this for $51! Thank you, $10 birthday reward, $10 October coupon, and 25% off for non-profit business employee event. 

Currently, I'm rushing to do some laundry before heading out to Point St. Dueling Piano bar. Spending the day in Boston tomorrow. Until next time!

The Awkward First Post

Hello and welcome to my blog! I've been following various healthy living blogs for a while now, and after constant offhand (and some not-so-subtle) remarks about how I have to start a blog, I finally caved. 

I guess I should start with a little about myself and what I hope to gain from blogging...

My name is Jordan. 24-years-old, English Writing and Health Psychology major, drowning in the debt I've accumulated through student loans, and attempting to better myself by undoing some personal mistakes and overcoming some things from my not-so-distant past that were entirely out of my control. Life threw me a curveball when my dad passed away in August 2010 after being diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer only about five months prior. Looking back, my life was pretty simple before then, and I'm so lucky to have had such a great childhood. I coped with it pretty well, but hit some roadblocks along the path that got me to this blog post today. 

Fortunately for me, I stumbled into a yoga studio in 2012 that completely changed my past experiences with yoga and I've since become addicted...Addicted to the challenge of new poses, the therapeutic atmosphere, and the incredible people I've met along the way. (Shout out to Paula Paluch, my yoga instructor at Shanti Yoga and Fitness, who is not only an inspiration but an amazing friend! I don't know where I'd be today without you!) While I'm passionate about my practice, I don't ever take myself too seriously. I have a tendency to goof off a lot during classes. Sorry, not sorry.

Outside of yoga, my life is super stressful, but I try to deal with it the best I can by focusing on the surreal experiences I have on a daily basis, joking about the bad experiences, and constantly trying to find a new job and a new creative outlet. I guess blogging can help me knock out all three at once, minus the new job thing.

Okay, so this first post ended up much longer than I intended. To sum it all up, I plan to blog about my boring-but-not-actually-so-boring life, strange interactions, fitness, recipe experiments, and my attempts to find a balance between it all. To quote Bright Eyes, "the scales always find a way to level out."