Day One Of Trip To San Fran

For now my blog will be my trip journal of sorts. Sorry for all the useless information.

I barely got out of work "on time" today, burnt my tongue eating lunch quickly, got to the airport too early for a domestic flight, and realized I should have just eaten subway at the airport. This would have avoided the burnt tongue and filled up the two hours. Instead I read a too short magazine and listened to the phone conversations and video games of those women around me who had no sense of public courtesy.

First half of flight went well. It was short and I read through it. Then I was at the airport with no clue on how to waste 2 hours. Soon I realize it was the airport with:

and sought out a delicious carmel apple to take with me to San Fran.

Then I pass a little spa and after consulting with my husband that it was okay, I went and did this.

My job is horrible on my hands and nails and I always said I would get my nails done sometime when I would be on a vacation so I could enjoy having them done. That was finally accomplished. One finger is a tiny bit messed up already but that is typical for me I guess. Which is another reason I don't often get my nails done. I am too OCD for such a task.

The North Caroline airport has great places to eat  but I didn't get any food because I thought we were being fed on the airplane. Turns out that isn't the case so I had to purchase some food on the flight. Not too badly priced and the food was actually delicious so that turned out better than expected.

I love to people watch and the only person to watch on the flight was a young man sitting diagonally to me. I noticed him because he was dressed in the whole casual jeans with a button down shirt with a hat with converses getup! As I watched him throughout the flight, trying to figure him out, I noticed two things. He might do something related to education, and he drinks a lottt. He drank alcohol, soda, coffee, etc. etc. almost the whole 5 hour flight. Holy moly! And he certainly didn't go to the bathroom often enough for all that. And he was probably drunk by the time he got off the flight. At one point he asked me if I was the person he was talking to in the back of the plain. Um no, I hadn't even moved from my seat. So it was dark, but i'm still guessing I either had a twin on that flight or he was a bit tipsy. Or it was a super awful way to try and start up a convo with me.

The flight felt super long. It sort of was I guess, being that it was 5+ hours. I slept a bit but forced myself to wake up when I got uncomfortable and knew I was just destroying myself by sleeping too much. I got tons read today on my flights which is quite the accomplishment for me. Before this year, I always got distracted and hardly got anything read on flights. I might actually meet my 25 book goal this year.

I got in late...super late on east coast time. Husband is super tired but was nice enough to meet me at the airport. He flew out on a much earlier flight. He is asleep now as I type away. I am excited for sleep to and want to rest up before tackling San Fran all by myself tomorrow. I am already a little apprehensive. But I am determined to do this!

Our hotel is a pretty nice Hyatt. I will have to take pictures of it tomorrow (at husbands request). I love hotels so I will enjoy this. Oh and it has a gift shop. I LOVEEE gift shops. I don't buy much but I love browsing. Can't wait.

San Francisco

I am taking a last minute trip to San Francisco to accompany my husband on a business trip. I do not usually take last minute trips like this, unless somebody died, so this is new for me. I am a bit stressed but hopefully it will be fun. I will be getting lots more time to explore San Francisco than we had a few months ago when we were out that way so I am excited for that. Too bad I will be doing a lot of it alone while my husband is in meetings. Another thing I have never done, toured alone. Eek! Hopefully I don't become a baby about it and stay inside the hotel all day because there are lots of neighborhoods I want to explore.

When I get back, I will make sure to post about this trip as well as finally catch up on posts about my last big trip.

Phone Dump

Here are a few pictures from my phone showing what I have been up to as of late (Excuse the quality. I do not have an ipone quality camera on my phone.) :

Concerts on Fridays at Landsdown Resort!

Pulling pranks at work on really boring days. We saw this idea randomly in passing on pinterest and were so bored my coworker decided to test it out. It ended up being really funny.

Good food! Ashley at That is all. posted about Market Salamander is Middleburg and it reminded me that I needed to go there sometime for lunch. I had been there with my dad for a political party and the catered food was great but I had been wanting to try out the cafe food. My sister and I went on Saturday, right before the rain started, and it was delicious. Seeing as it's not as far as I thought it was from where I live, I might have to go more often.

August 2011 Earthquake

The weather has been very strange lately. Last week we had a wild storm which included huge hail. I actually got a picture but haven't gotten it off my camera yet. We were in the middle of a scary movie so it was perfect timing for the storm to hit. I was worried for my car but thankfully the storm left no damage behind.

The real news though is what happened today. As most of you have already hear, the east coat felt a pretty nice size earthquake ( 5.9 last I heard) today.

I was on my computer at work and I hear this weird noise up near the ceiling. I mutter to whoever wanted to listen, "What the heck is that noise." I heard a noise that sounded sort of like a bird fluttering near our ceiling. I work in a tiny office in the back of a warehouse.  Less than a minute latter the whole place starts shaking and shaking. My coworker and I jump up trying to figure out what was going on and it took us a few seconds to realize it was an earthquake.

In no time it had stopped. But my heart kept racing and took a bit of time to calm down. It was my first earthquake. My area of VA usually only gets hit with snow and rain storms. We almost never get earthquakes and hurricane and tornadoes. If we do, they are small and never near where I live. Once, when I was out of state going to college, my family saw a tornado and that in itself was crazy. That's why I always feel safe in the area where I live.

It was a crazy moment. But we went on business as usual when it was over. And thinking back it seems crazy that buildings and monuments in DC are being evacuated, people are leaving work early, and flights are being postponed. It seems even crazier that the National Cathedral was damaged. The earthquake didn't seem big enough to accomplish that despite how scary it was.

And ultimately it makes me feel more sorrowful for those people that have had to live through more massive & damaging earthquakes. 

If you want more information here are some articles:

Fox New on National Cathedral 

CNN on Earthquake

Lands' End

There is awesome clearance today at Lands' End. Shop by tonight for best prices. 30% off summer sale & clearance up to 75%. Lots of bathing suites on sale and even some winter items. This applies to shopping online only. I do not know what the sales are like in store.

Google Doodles You'll Never See

Check out Google Doodles you'll never see on The Christian Science Monitor. A few are pretty clever or cute.

My favorite:

Co-worker Strikes Again

Remember the guy who told me it was a good thing I didn't change my mind about getting married.

"Liz!" he calls out as I walk past him.

"Yes?"

Oh wow. I can hardly remember what he said. I've already blocked it out. In less than an hour. Well it went something like...

"Just wondering how you have been doing. If everything is all right? Sometimes, as your walking around, you seem lost. I don't mean it in a bad way..."

"Im doing okay..." I reply as I scamper off as quickly as possible.

Seriously!!!!!!! What are you trying to accomplish dude???

It's quite possible I actually do look lost but still...Between what he says and his wondering eyes, I wish my office was big enough that I could avoid him.

Words To Live By

Source: thegirlwhokeepsdreaming.tumblr.com via kate on Pinterest

I am going to try and remember that when I am at work. Because I have been lacking a lot of patience lately and it's making life difficult.  

Apparently Scarves Aren't Accessories After All

I wore a scarf to work today to add to one of my outfits. This random guy doing some work on our warehouse for us says, "So you trying to hide a hickey?" "No." "So your cold?" "No! IT'S CALLED AN ACCESSORY."

Okay so maybe I didn't yell but I wanted to. It was the only time this guy really attempted to talk to me and obviously he wasn't smooth at all. Nor cute. Nor young. And I am married. And happy.

Ugh!

I need to leave my job!

Laura

Has anyone seen Laura? I am thinking that it is not a fairly common movie anymore but I could be completely wrong about that which is why I am wondering. My brother recommended the movie and thanks to Netflix I was able to check it out. Laura is a 1940's movie about the murder of a young socialite who is well liked by many men. As the detective begins to investigate he becomes infatuated with her.

Laura won best cinematography for black and white movies and was nominated for a host of other awards so it's not some cheaply done old movie. It is not rated and is incredibly clean. I recommend it for anybody who likes mysteries, especially old ones such as Charade.

I have had it on my Amazon wish list for a while just on the off chance I wouldn't be able to get it through Netflix but I intend to keep it there. It would be a good movie to add to my collection.

My favorite part about the movie: it's only an hour and a half :)

Birdy : Skinny Love

Source: youtube.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Thanks to Melina at Tea & Toast for the recommendation. 

The Perfect Hard Boiled Egg

Speaking of eggs, I have something to admit. I love hard boiled eggs but have never attempted to make them. I know they aren't that hard but it still scares me to try. Irrational fear I know! But one of these days  I plan to finally hard boil eggs, and I have found the perfect instructions to keep me company on that quest. Thanks Saveur and artist Carly Monardo!

The Perfect Egg Sandwich

Desperate to find something not to heavy but not to light to eat before church today I came up with the following:

Elizabeth's Sunday Egg Sandwich

1. Begin to fry your eggs to your liking. I don't usually like a runny yolk on a sandwich.
2. Put bread in toaster.
3. Cut up red onion in slices and put in your egg pan to let them fry just a bit. Not sure the importance of this besides to warm them up.
4. Fry or brown some ham in the same pan as the eggs and onions. I used lunch meat as that is all we had. You can always go to the deli and get them to slice ham to the width you want if you prefer the slices to be thicker than your average lunch meat.
5. Get the finished toast and spread mayo on it.
6. Put the egg, ham, and onions on the sandwich. I do not put the slices of bread together like a traditional sandwich when I make 2 eggs. I have 2 open face sandwiches.
7. Top with basil and hot sauce if you want.
8. Eat and enjoy.

Seriously delicious!

How Do You Respond In Awkward Situations?

This week has been filled with some awkward moments.

The first being when I saw my friends mom for a few minutes one evening. She brought up my sister-in-law who recently had a baby and had started trying to conceive right after getting married. She then congratulated me on withstanding the pressure in my church to have kids. Congratulating me on waiting until I wanted kids and not having them right after I got married just to fit in with the culture of my religion. All fine and dandy except for I have been trying for a while now to get pregnant. And began to wish for a baby within the first year of our marriage (which was actually a surprise to myself and my husband). I would give anything to be pregnant now. I am not to the point of being emotional about it at all. I have more emotional things going on my life and I haven't been trying long enough to feel that I have any sort of problem. But I still want to be and it is very important to me so I didn't know how to respond to her comments.

Then....

The next day I am at work and my male coworker was talking to me about my hair. I was saying how I just wanted it long. He then says, "But I thought you cut it because you hated it long." I replied "I did but now I want it long again. I change my mind about it all the time." His response was something along the lines of:"Well its a good thing you didn't change your mind about getting married." WHAT THE HECK!!! Thankfully we were interrupted at that point in the conversation.

Lets not even mention all the clumsy moments I've been having. 

Garnet Hill Fall Skirt

Garnet Hill recently started sending me magazines. I was not previously aware of this company. Apparently they have high quality items but you pay for that in their high prices. They sell both home items and clothing.

Anyways, I saw this skirt in the magazine last night and fell in love.

Seriously so cute. The pattern is perfect. I think it's supposed to be a burnt orange color, which I could never pull off in a shirt, but would be perfect for a skirt. My only concern is if it would flair out (there has to be a better term for it but nothing else is coming to me) like it does on the model or just kind of hang there. I like the flair.

Oh and just look at those boots. Sigh!

I have been looking for a new skirt for a long time. I don't necessarily need it for church as long as I am in nursery (easy washable jean skirt for that) and I don't need it for work. So I am not in a rush to find one. But it's been a long time since I started my search and I have had no luck. Until I saw the skirt above (Though because I'm not viewing it in person there is, of course, no guarantee I'd love it.). If not for the price, I would buy it right now without thinking. But not sure I want to spend that much on a skirt right now that I may not have the chance to wear often.

But wouldn't it be so perfect for the mini vacations the hubby and I have planned this fall?

P.S. I shop way too much. I told my husband he needs to stop me. He said he can't because he loves how happy I get. So sweet! So dangerous! Good thing I am a pretty conscious shopper and don't go too crazy.

I Am Listening To...

Have a lovely day!

Living Social Coupon $60 for $30

Speaking of shopping at Lands' End Canvas, Living Social is offering a coupon towards an online purchase there. They are offering $60 worth of clothing for only $30. That is half off. The best part is that the coupon can also be used towards shipping. Land's End Canvas doesn't offer as many sales and deals as Lands' End, and as I decided last night that I wanted to purchase a few items from them, I am super excited this coupon became available today. What a surprise!

The deal is for Boston, but anybody can purchase it. You can only purchase one for yourself, and it must all be used in one purchase, but it is still such a good deal.

If you are worried about purchasing clothing online and about having to pay for return shipping, don't! You can return the items to any local store that sells Lands' End. If you need to make an exchange you still return it to the store, and they ship you the new item for free. 

If you don't find anything you want for yourself by October (October 5 is the last day to use it), then purchase something for your hubby or as a gift for a loved one (Christmas isn't too far away). I love both Lands' End and the Canvas line for my husband. The quality of clothing is just so good, not over the top trendy, and fits him well.

Anyways, if you are looking for some new clothing, I recommend checking out Lands' End Canvas and, of course, buying the coupon.

Movie Recommendations

I love watching all types of movies and love movie recommendations (as well as book recommendations). If you watch or run into anything that you think I might like, or you just want to recommend to someone, anyone, let me know.

The two movies in the previous post were movie recommendations from Barbara of mommylife.net that I added to my Netflix queue after reading her reviews. I don't always agree with her (quite often on important matters to me), or particularly care about what she is talking about (different stage of life, different interests, etc.), but sometimes, as with a lot of blogs, I find some gems in the midst of everything else.

That is the reason I follow so many blogs about so many different topics. Because I like recommendations, reviews, and stories from all types of people with all types of interests.

So please do not be shy!!!

Inspiring Moves I Have Watched As Of Late

I watched Of Gods And Men a few weeks ago with the hubby. It is about 8 French Monks who lived in North Africa in a monastery in a predominately Muslim area. An Islamic Fundamentalist group begins to massacre foreign workers and fear begins to take hold of the region. The monks fear for their lives, but come what may, they refuse the army's protection and stay put in the monastery. This film is loosely based on the life of  Cisterian monks in Algeria, from 1993 until their kidnapping in 1996.

Of Gods And Men  focuses not only on the event but on how the priests came to their heroic decision to stay put. Because of this plot, the movie is a bit slow moving. In fact, extremely slow at times. But it is such a powerful movie, about God and faith, that I am so glad I took the time to watch it. It leaves you wondering if you are doing what you are called of God to do or if you are just taking the easy way out.

I recommend it to anybody that can deal with slowish heavy movies. People who like to get life changing lesson from movies. And to anyone that can deal with subtitles as it is a French movie.

You can get this movie through Netflix but you can not stream it.

Katyn is another heavy movie that I watched with the husband. Katyn is about the 1940 massacre of captured polish army officers in the Katyn Forest. It is a mix of narrative and documentary style filming. It tells the story from the point of view of a few wives of the officers, as well as the officers themselves.

Katyn is a well done, powerful movie. All sorts of emotions are present in this film and no detail was left untouched. The producers did not seek to hide the truth, the pain, nor the violence and hate behind it. While it is a movie, and not an actually documentary, I feel like I have discovered a new piece of history to study and learn about.

I recommend this movie to anybody that likes history, especially WWII history. Beware though, it is very violent at parts, especially the last 5-10 mins. As I said above, they do not seek to hide or cover up anything, so while the violence isn't necessarily blood and gore, it is very blunt and visible, almost shockingly so. It does not seek for a happy ending nor should it considering the topic. I would not recommend letting your kids view this movie with you.

Is is also subtitled and because of that the movie is sometimes a bit hard to follow. But if you like these sorts of movies, I do believe it is worth watching at least once.

If you hurry up, this movie is available on Netflix streaming for the next few days.

Some Sale Items I Like

Love this top:

And this sweater:

And this dress:

And these shoes:

The shirt is only in a large size. The dress is too short. And I'm not sure I like the shoes enough to pay the asking price ($60). But I love everything about the sweater, including the price ($19.99). Might get one if I can find a color that suites me.

1 & 2 : Lands' End Canvas   3 & 4 : Madwell

My Favorite Sunday Movies*

The A Little Princess / The Secret Garden movie set was one of my best movie purchases yet. I love both movies, though The Secret Garden is my all time favorite. I can watch it over and over which isn't common for me. I have started reading it for the first time (thanks to the Kindle app. on my phone) and already love it. Such a classic. Maybe I will have to read A Little Princess next.

Both movies are such feel good family friendly movies that will stay on my shelf for a very long time. Movies I will pass on to my future kids and hope that they fall in love with too.

Now I just need my own secret garden.

*My hubby doesn't like watching most movies on Sunday since it is the Sabbath and I have tried to adhere to the same standard. These two make great Sabbath movies.

Our Weekend

We hit up Lake Anna with friends. 

Did the typical camping activities.... 

including taking pictures of my feet. 

Went kayaking and...

jet skiing. 

Even as it poured down rain. Even as everything, including our towels, were soaked. Even when it was hard to keep your eyes open in the torrential rain, or our bodies from shivering. But, thankfully, the water was warm and the company was good. 

P.S. This was the first time I have ever camped just for the fun of it. Any previous camping was always for church related activities. Many of which weren't that fun or couldn't be considered real camping.  

More Online Shopping Traps

I love online shopping.  It is an addiction of sorts.  And it always makes me happy to hear when stores jump on the e-commerce bandwagon.

First there was  H&M.

And now there is Zara.  Zara announced that it will launch a site for U.S. customers this fall. I liked browsing Zara in Europe and am excited to have more of an opportunity to get to know this brand.  Now I don't have to think about trekking miles to get to the nearest store when I fall in love with one of their pieces.

Thanks to I am Style-ish for the heads up.