selby lust

                                            

                          

Gucci Bike 

dylan @merriweather

how I knew he was the one -

he took me to see dylan.  why?  not because he wanted to see him (which he totally did) but because he knew dylan was my fave & I had never seen him - & because I told him that I knew my previous ex wasn't the one, as he would not take me to see him because he "hated his music."

So we went &sat in the grass &drank beers &took it all in.

&I love RSB more each and every day

inDEADnation

RSB's newest venture - reworking the tunes of GD - fuckin awesome 

...training

hit the reservoir bright and early to get some trail time in - logged in at a little over 9000 steps this morning.  Decided that we must be able to run this route in 4 weeks time.

I have taken to wearing a pedometer to make sure I am getting in a minimum of 10,000 steps a day.

Two days of 4 mile plus hikes on hilly roads has definitely taken its toll on my lazy legs.  Looks like I have a hot evening ahead of my hanging out in a super soft nightshirt and lazily doing nothing -

love it.  especially that dull ache in my legs - they feel like they are coming alive again -

I hope the 2 pitchers of mimosas and crab bene at Mother's post workout didn't diminish the hard work we put in today -

although there is nothing like jumbo lump benes for breakfast as a reward...

the edge

Come to the edge, he said. 

They said: We are afraid. 

Come to the edge, he said. 

They came. 

He pushed them and they flew.

*girl crush*

daria

RSB*snap

*d*day

D*day.  The day I decided to dash.  Warrior Dash to be precise.  They had me at Viking helmet.  And finish line beer.  But mostly Viking Helmet.  Since the event is in October, I have roughly 6 months to train for an event that is attracting some super elite tri-type athletes and me, well I can barely run 2 blocks without gettting winded.  BUT for the last 3 weeks I have been working out at least 5 days a week for an hour at a time.  I have implemented a twice weekly zumba class into the workout schedule and next week will be throwing 2 weekly yoga sessions into the mix.  

I feel like I need something to kick my "get in shape girl" in the ass and going and this is my solution.  I have been meat-free for close to 2 months now - not one slip up.  I thought this would lead to me eating more salads and more plant based foods, hopefully increasing my energy levels.  The only main difference I have noticed is the lack of migraine headaches - not one since I gave up meat, which makes it worth it.

I will be using this blissful blog to chart my progress in become a bliss junkie warrior.  The whole vibe of this event has me stoked beyond words - and I definitely wanted to get some kind of fitness event under my belt this year - and I am totally not a tri or marathon type of chica.  Hell I dont even remember the last time I rode a bike.  Although I have never rappelled down a cliff side, climbed a wall, leaped through flames or swam through a bog either - but they sound much more FUN!!!  Life skills in case one ever does need to do those things to survive.  Ha.  I always thought of myself as a survivor.  If we were marooned on a desert island, I would have no problem surviving - hell I'd probably love it.  I dont know why I think this way because I am in the worst shape of my life and never took any kind of survival training but I just feel that it is in my constitution - ha

Luckily I will have my equally as crazy friend Danielle http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1141294685&ref=mf to train/encourage/whine and complain with me the whole way.  And progress will be tracked using our successful Chuck Norris system -

So Week 1 Training Plan - CARDIO!!!

Yes, I know.  I need to work on arm and core strength hardcore but I need to also be able to run at least 5 miles straight by the time the race comes along.  And that needs to be trail running, not street running - a totally different beast.  So I will be working cardio big time for the next 2 weeks and then start implementing other things -

Monday
am - 1 hour on elliptical pre-work
pm - 1 hour zumba class

Tuesday
am - 1 hour on elliptical pre-work
pm - yoga

Wednesday
am - 3 mile walk/jog around Loveton
pm - Zumba

Thursday
am - 1 hour elliptical/treadmill pre-work
pm - hot power yoga

Friday
pm - Restorative Yoga class

Saturday
am - 4-5 mile Reservoir hike

Sunday
REST

Everyday I also plan on putting in some core work - especially plank and some pilates.  At least 15 minutes a morning.  Technically there are 2 rest days because the restorative yoga is only light stretching and mostly a meditation like class.

Dietwise, I plan to have 1 large green juice or smoothie each day and have one meal be a leafy green salad.  Lots of whole grains and beans and veggies.  After Lent, I am considering bringing chicken back into my diet, once a week.  I am undecided on this but it is very hard to cook both RSB and myself separate meals and poor RSB has been eating a lot of sandwiches lately.  We shall see.  I will not be eating red meat or pork anymore, I am sure about that.  Also I will be joining WW, mainly just to map my progress - also they make you keep a food journal which is necessary when trying to lose weight.  And I NEED to take off 50 lbs in the next 6 months.  Should be interesting.  Baby steps elude me.

xoxo

because something is happening here -

spinning.  caught up in the daily grind again and hating every second.  we had a touch of spring of renewal which was energizing and cleansing, yet here we are with another chilly rainy weekend coming to a halt...
RSB is at band practice and the tree house is eerily silent - leaving me with my thoughts and my daydreams-
Thinking of how I need to get out, go anywhere that is just away - on my ipod this weekend while I was walking around loveton in the sparse sunshine came tp -

Well I started out down a dirty road
Started out all alone
And the sun went down, as I crossed the hill
And the town lit up, the world got still

I used to have such a wanderlust - a desire to just get up and go somewhere - 

just to see something, be somewhere, different.  

Ignoring desires is no way to go through life, on this journey that is so short.  

But there are bills to pay and a clock to punch, a 9-5 world to inhabit.  

So practical and responsible.  

How the hell did I get here ???

elemental

*josie*

Jojo soaking up some late afternoon light

gypsy soul -

wishin it was a crisp fall dusk, camping with friends - I guess I would have to find friends who like to camp first -

inspiration, move me brightly ~

Some images from my files that are stirring my fancy - sorry I don't have links -

Please see if she's wearing a coat so warm ~ to keep her from the howling winds

Apparently the last few rounds of storms that we have had in the Baltimore area are historic, record breaking.  Now they were hardly even flurries in comparison to some of the storms I have seen out in Tahoe in January but people were very unprepared and were panicking like it was freaking Armageddon.  Granted, we WERE snowed in.  The roads were disastrous and the snow was 4 - 6 feet high when all was said and done.  But I enjoyed watching every flake dance in the gusting winds - there is a certain peace and almost eerie silence that accompanies a big storm.  After the howling winds die down, there is utter white blissful tranquility.  Which was so desperately needed after the last year -

I am always convincing myself that I could accomplish so much if I just had a few uninterrupted days - time to organize, to purge, to read, to write, to whatever is on the to-do list that week.  Of course little, if anything, was actually accomplished.  

Dreamy blog hopping.  Net shopping.  Lots of candles and incense and dimly lit rooms.  Fuzzy uggs, baggy braless tops.  Not too much thinking.  Lots of time spent in bed, doing nothing.  Cabin fever?  Ha, I for one, am grateful to have a few peaceful days of not having to do anything or be anywhere for once. Spent doing nothing, because I didn't want to do anything.

Bliss...

counting stars by candle light

The wind has been whipping through our little valley, rattling the old rental windows with each gust -
The bedroom gets it especially bad with windows facing two corners of the building. *Luckily* my wonderful generous mother gifted us an entire Northern Nights (thats right QVC) bedding set - gorgeous dove grey down comforter that is super warm and cozy - sheets softer than my 1000 thread count ultra expensive sheets - a super warm hotel quality blanket and beautiful cream and navy toile bedspread and pillow covers. Perfect for nestling in for a toasty night while the wind howled and shook the windows -
Lazy blissful holi*daze* spent drinking cardamom coffee with cinnamon and madagascar vanilla beans; lovely cozy cashmere layers; soul warming soup; heady scented candles - bliss for the bitter cold -

and if I die in Raleigh, at least I will die free

We ventured on an early fall roadtrip, bound for North Carolina ~ RSB's parents had gifted us U2 tickets forever ago and of course both of us were itching to get away ~ which has been impossible as of late ~



Its still too warm down there ~



But we had a perfect playlist and clear blue skies and fattening southern grub~



wish we could do it again next month ~ to capture some beautiful fall scenery ~



~and on the drive home there was a perfect acoustic Harvest Moon to just bliss out ~~~

it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ~

it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ~
Originally uploaded by ~blissjunkie~

My dreams have been crazy these last few weeks to say the least ~

People I havent seen or thought of in years are in them, playing an intregal part ~

Usually there is n overall sense of urgency, anxiety. Apocalyptic even.

Sometimes it makes me question decisions I have made along the way ~ some days I cannot believe I am 30 and still so lost in what I want my life to be ~ Ive always wanted different ~ not cookie cutter ~ but keep on finding myself in dreafully boring ordinary moments, with the talking heads lyrics running thru my head ~ this is not my life ~ how did I get here?

We are taking a boat to an island tomorrow with RSB's work, having a crab feast and then the two of us are beachbound for the night ~ OCMD ~ not as blissful as OCNJ but should *hopefully* have the chance to wrap my head around some things on the long ride down ~

And hopefully take some pictures ~ my soul is aching for some creative project to dig into ~

I've been dreaming a lot lately

Just back from vacation ~ a few blissful weeks spent at the beach ~ with not a single rain soaked day ~ with a few jaunts between the jersey shore back home to sparks ~ so few vacation days at the new j-o-b.

Settling back into the grind ~ house a mess ~ Josie was ever so peeved that we abandoned her so she destroyed my bamboo and the carnage is still soaked into the carpet ~ i really should clean that up.

Beach life was an experiment in simplification ~ i brought a small duffel and a backpack full of books ~ an ipod loaded up with new tunes ~ and my camera ~ and I did not want for anything ~ perhaps let that spill over into the real world? The life that is cluttered with too many material and mental "things?"

classic

i still dig this...

...cusp of the new year

I ventured down to Pasadena to see Jen and Roth; hang out in their new digs, oh so close to the bay...lucky lucky lucky to be so close to the water...unfortunately the town itself is complete lacking in well, everything. Trashy vibe, buildings blocking almost all views of the sea, people the furthest thing from salt of the earth...far away from the surftown vibe which I find idyllic...



We paid money for an unobstructed view of the water, $5 to enter a park, on the bay...we walked along the teeny beaches amongst the driftwood and flotsam tossed up by the sea, finding sea glass treasures to fill our pockets. We shuffled in absolute silence, contemplating the upcoming year, staring as the sun fell, leaving only a fiery red trail behind it...in the simple things lies lifes true bliss...sometimes one needs to feel the earth beneath their feet to find the balance.



I try to remember this as this year I have been thrust back into the corporate world which I thought I had left forever. I try to find my balance in the world of strict schedules, clocking in, minute details and analysis of every move. I am grateful to still have a job in this downtime, but still feel panic that hear I am, on the cusp of thirty, still not living the life I need to lead...

cheap vodka is never a good idea

last night was the office christmas shindig...the booze was a flowin and I was not a knowin too many peeps so I ignored the cheap rail vodka they were making my drinks with...and have been paying for it...

but on a more blissful note...



on days like this...



there really is no place better than this...which led to a day on my macbook searching for something cozy with my feet still screaming from much too much standing around in my sparkly Jimmy Choos and I scored this Eileen Fisher (at a fraction of the price)



and trying to convince myself that Tory Burch flats are so worth splurging on...sigh...

*the bliss project*

A challenge. Forgoing the excuses that I do not have a good camera, that I am too stressed, that the only photo editing software I have came with my mac book...there is something blissful in the raw, natural colors...So I am embarking on a challenge to myself to try to find something bliss inducing to post every day. Lofty.

The above shot is one I refer to in my head, as "last gasp." I took that along a hike around the reservoir one of those days when fall was a clinging on for just a second longer, before the grey came in and massacred all the color from the trees. It was a day when it was crisp enough for the ever trusty cable knit but not so cold you needed a jacket. There was still color everywhere. The last hurrah...