The Blonde Diaries

Sigh. I totally underestimated how tired I was today. I yawned all through my meetings today as well as my team lunch. Finishing four audits yesterday then going to the gym late and staying up to read my latest book – I Do But I Don’t really set me back. I didn’t even make it to the gym tonight. I got home around 6:30 and lasted until about 7pm waiting on Mike to get home before I crashed and took a nap. By the time I woke up it was 8:15 and time for dinner which then pushed back going to the gym until it was too late to go as they were closing. I can understand why people have home gyms in their home. It is nights like this when you are working semi-late, you are tired, and you just need to relax a bit more before you feel good enough after work and dinner to tackle working out. I know there are gyms out there open 24 hours a day but I just don’t know how safe I would feel to go around 10pm at night. If all I had to do was walk into the next bedroom it wouldn’t be an issue but driving, parking, and then exercising and coming home around 11/11:30 doesn’t sound too good. I might have to look at building a home gym here starting small with a used treadmill and going from there. How do you tackle this issue or is it a non-issue?

I am a huge fan of digital photos. I love how easy it is to take a photo and upload it instantly to share with friends and family. There is no wait to finish a roll of film and send for processing before you can see your photos and share with everyone. On my brother’s recent vacation to Europe, he took a few digital video clips with his digital camera and sent them my way. I didn’t realize that you could use a regular digital camera to create film clips but it was the coolest thing and I was able to watch a picture so to speak. I didn’t think I would like the option to film video, but I started to think more and found this to be a great idea.

I started researching the different types of camcorders on the market – digital internal memory, flash memory, and burning straight to a dvd. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted but I knew I wanted something that was on the cheaper side of the spectrum since I didn’t have much experience with digital video or any video camcorder really since my family was never into this sort of thing growing up. I ended up going with a flash memory camcorder that is the size of my digital camera. The cost of the camera was $50 and it takes standard Secure Digital flash cards which I found for $18 for 2 4GB cards. Not too terrible. I can’t wait to try it out on the cruise. If you aren’t too sure about moving to digital video camcorders but think you might want to dabble in it, give the small, handheld flash memory cameras a try. I plan to write a review on mine when I come back so you can always check back to see how it went.

I know that sounds so cliche but it is so true. I thoroughly enjoyed my “vacation” weekend last week with my friends over in San Antonio and San Marcos, but it took 2 days to begin to recover from the fun and then the added work stresses once I got back. Now that I finally had some sleep last night, have drank enough water to rehydrate myself, and filed the 4 audits I was overseeing, I am finally starting to recover and feel better.

But I still feel like I need a vacation from my vacation. Somewhere that is peaceful and quite with not too much activity surrounding it. Someplace like the Outer Banks of North Carolina. A peaceful, relaxing beach atmosphere where all I need to do is slather on some sunscreen, don a floppy hat and swim suit and head out to read and relax on the beach. I have to admit I am starting to worry about this next vacation coming up – the cruise – because it is so jam packed with activities that we will not really get to relax. I am starting to wonder if I should have booked a lazy, beach vacation full of relaxing on the beach, reading, and napping. I guess I’ll find out soon enough and if I feel that we are worn out I’ll know for next year to schedule a vacation somewhere like the Outer Banks or Florida Panhandle.

Oh man. All I can say is what a weekend. I had a blast catching up with my friends and just hanging out on the San Antonio Riverwalk. It was a hot weekend -> 100+ degrees but at the same time it wasn’t as humid and miserable as Houston would have been at 100+ degrees. I had my fill of mexican food and margaritas thanks to Rio Rio which is the purple umbrella restaurant on the river. If you’ve never been to San Antonio, the river is lined with restaurants and you identify them by the color of the umbrella and the colorful signs pointing to the hostess station. Rio Rio is one of my favorites behind Casa Rio further down the way.

I also think I reached my limit on shopping for a while. I need to make some returns from online shopping and then hopefully I’ll be able to do some souvenir shopping on the honeymoon. We literally shopped until we dropped at the San Marcos outlets Saturday afternoon through the evening. We hit the entire Prime Outlets (the larger outlets there) in a span of 8 hours and filled the car trunk to the brim. I am happy with the deals and steals I found – $20 White House|Black Market shirt, $20 Bennetton shirt, $3 underwear at Victoria’s Secret, $40 leather Coach wristlet. If you are anywhere near San Marcos this weekend I’d run and see what Fourth of July sales they might be running right now. Your credit card will only thank you so much but your closet will be greatful for the new items.

We also hit a 3 level club on the river for the Saturday night obligatory bachelorette night. I have to admit I had a really fun time and ran into some pretty cool people there. I haven’t seen the photos but I can only imagine what they must look like. LOL. I probably will not be sharing those for Wordless Wednesday.

Wow!  I have been planning for this weekend for a long time now.  Actually, my maid of honor has planned it all but I have been anxiously awaiting this weekend.  We aren’t going to do anything wild and crazy – no condoms or male paraphenalia decorations.  Instead we are just going on a weekend shopping trip up to the San Marcos outlets.  I love the outlets because they are huge and have great stores and deals.  I always find the best sales when I am there.  I have a short list of places I have to hit up – Bath and Body Works, Crate and Barrel, White House Black Market, and Saks Off 5th Avenue.  After our all day shopping trip we are hitting one of the many Mexican restaurants on the river and having dinner.  Yay!

As you can see with my plans, bachelorette weekends/parties don’t have to be wild and crazy and can take place just about anywhere.  The most popular spot seems to be Las Vegas but I didn’t want to ask anyone to spring for airline tickets but man the deals on Vegas hotels are pretty awesome right now. If we lived within driving distance I certainly would have given Vegas a second chance. From what I understand they have excellent shopping on the Strip and also in outlet malls not too far outside of the city.

I have no regrets though. I am just happy my weekend is finally here and I can meet up with some of my close friends to go shopping. I just hope the trunk is big enough for all of our shopping! LOL