2013 Highlighting the Ups

Matthew and I were at dinner the other night talking & getting excited about what we want to do in 2014 and discussing how we thought 2013 went.
Apparently, I had my cranky pants on because I said it was an "OK" year and he said it was "pretty fuckin' awesome".
I've realized since then that unfortunately, and for some stupid reason, my noggin was choosing to highlight some of the more awkward 2013 moments instead of all the seriously amazing things that happened.

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to write out the rundown of awesome (and skipping over all the not-so-awesome), not to be a douche braggart, but to further reinforce those in my head instead of those less than optimal and maybe it'll help you do the same. I've seen your facebook posts about how crappy the year was and/or how you're ready for 2013 to be over and it's ok if sometimes we need reminders to clear our perspectives.

January was again full of drunken shenanigans at the Scottish Highland Games.  I dove head first into renovating the Dollhouse of Horrors and started building out stage pieces for the Bloody Jug Band...some by request, others not so much. We also saw Charlie Murphy down at the Improv.

February was more Dollhouse of Horrors work and a trip to Helen, GA.  We also went to see Muse at Amway Center and I cried a little bit at how amazing their show was.

In March, we saw the Dropkick Murphys again, I puppeteered for the Bloody Jug Band's video for "Roadkill Boys".  This was also the month we did Whole30 for the first time and I submitted my last photo for the 12month long Inspired class I'd signed up for in January.
Yep...I totally fell out of it for the rest of the year because of shiny new things and being inspired elsewhere.  But I'm glad I went out with a bang.

April started with a trip to see The Marvelous Mehegans up in Corning, NY.  I took a banjo lesson, we finally ate at Cask & Larder and Ravenous Pig, saw Tony Bourdain at Hard Rock, and visited Disney. This is also when I started thinking about a miniatures.com contest entry.

May was, of course, insane with a Mother's Day pool party that got way more rowdy than what was intended, a concert poster design class on Skillshare, a couple of BJB shows, and was capped off by a trip to New Orleans, LA for my & Pannacakes' birthdays.

June included a Glassman show at Peacock that was pretty killer, a visit with Vaughn & Jen to pick up one of my favorite purchases of the year (Betty & Veronica pictured below), jury duty selections for George Zimmerman, and was also when I received my walking papers from the company I'd worked for over the previous 12 years.

July started off with new hair to celebrate my corporate departure, a crazy 3rd of July party at Pannacakes', followed by a rained out pool party at the Merriam's for the 4th, a Khal Drogo costume for Matthew, the 8th Annual Summer Bomb, a couple of visits to DRIP, and Marilyn Manson at Hard Rock.

August had a The Cult show at HOB, another couple of BJB shows, a trip to Busch Gardens followed by a viewing of Blackfish, a Danny Leggett show, Cedric's surprise birthday party, a drunk monologues shoot (shut up, I'll get to that later), and a trip to Ocala to see April and her fam.  Made a fake movie poster for a friend's birthday and finished up a painting for Cedric & Michelle's anniversary.

September we rocked our own logo for a Labor Day weekend pub crawl, went and saw Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes at Hard Rock and then went to see them again during the Gentlemen of the Road festival weekend where we also saw Mumford & Sons and stayed at a dumpy St. Aug beach hotel.  And we attended a lovely DIY wedding.

In October we went to see Terribly Odd's Haunted Mansion inspired show, Ghost at Amway Center where they shook my pants and hair, I made a mermaid costume, had the best weekend at Spooky Empire where I finally met Tom Savini, hugged Bill Moseley & Ve Neill, told Glenn Hetrick that I'd be his huckleberry, fingered Kane Hodder's left gloved hand during a photobomb, and sang "Goodbye Horses" to Jason Mewes. We finished off October in Austin, TX to celebrate my & Matthew's wedding anniversary and dress up like the 11th Doctor and a Reptilian Shapeshifter for Halloween, and met up with The Krutikovs for some kick ass high-end mexican food with the first best mescal drink I've ever put down my neck followed by the best burlesesque show I've ever seen.

November I made a sideshow freak light-up sign out of an old guitar case & built out two rickety crate shelves for the Jugly Art show at Peacock and then Matthew & I left to spend a week in Amsterdam for his birthday where I lost my passport.  If you ever lose your passport in another country...hope you're in Amsterdam.  They were so nice and the whole process was a lot smoother than expected. We also met some great & crazy party people and Matthew gave up a Heisenberg shirt to a loud Scotsman. We spent Thanksgiving in Arizona with Matt's family during which we had a lovely evening strolling through the botanical gardens looking at giant lit up Chihuly glass sculptures in awe.

And so here we are at the tail end of December and I've submitted my Evil Dead Cabin to the miniatures.com contest before deadline and am making a Gatsby-style dress for New Year's Eve. We had a crazy drunken Pannacakes party, and a silly family presents exchange day that included Cards Against Humanity and boxing robots. We spent Christmas in San Francisco where we saw Brian Setzer Orchestra on Christmas Eve, Matthew got his first proper straight razor shave, dim sum in Chinatown, lobster bisque & crab salad at Pier 39, and we ate some pretty awesome food at some pretty awesome hotel restaurants and had The Best gin & tonic either one of us had ever had and the second best mescal drink I've ever put down my neck.

And peppered in throughout the year we were bombarded with Harlem Shakes, BatDad Vines, Breaking Bad, Red Weddings, Doctor Who, A Fox That Says Things, Goat remixes, Miley Cyrus' tongue, Blurred Lines, Twerking, Grumpy Cat & Li'l Bub, and an Astronaut Singing Space Oddity on the freakin' Space Station.

This year, like all other's before it, has included lots of ups and downs and were it not for the downs...how would you know just how up the ups are?
Plus, you'd probably be an insufferable asshole.

Even if you're a generally positive person like me, and incredibly lucky with a shit ton of ups, there are times that the Veil of Crap can fall down over your eyes to muddy your vision.
I am SO grateful for how up my ups were this year and I appreciate having those downs when they came along....but there's No. Possible. Reason. a down should ever overshadow an up....so remember to not let them, ok?

Thank you, Matthew for reminding me of that & helping to remove my Crap Veil.
You're absolutely right....2013 was pretty fuckin' awesome.

Cheers, everyone, to 2014!!  May your ups be fuckin' killer and your downs be valuable lessons to overcome.

My Whole30 Experience

I write this on my 30th day of this program.
You see that?  NO ALCOHOL!!
For those of you that know us, that's the biggest challenge on this thing.
Matthew & I do enjoy our beer & shots & gettin' loud and rowdy.
It took going through the first week before I stopped listening for the sound of the shot glasses clinging together from the cabinet to the counter followed by the freezer door opening whenever Matthew got home.
That was our routine....from Thursday (the new Friday) night and we'd finish the bottle on Sunday.
Along with the beer or whatever we'd be drinkin' when we go out on weekends.  And Weds nights were usually spent at the Enzian with beer & a couple shots (y'know, to help with digestion).
At the very least, 5 days of professional drinking.

On behalf of my liver, I needed a break.
So, when Martha posted this link for Whole30 on facebook, I was saw it as a sign & perfect timing.
In this, I also needed Matt's help & knew both of us would benefit from it.
We'd both set and completely failed to meet a goal for March 2nd, so, like I said, the timing was perfect.

Matthew was not a fan of this Whole30 thing.  We actually got into a disagreement about it when I first pitched it - his knee-jerk reaction was to call it a Nazi Diet and he'd said how "not fun" it looked.
Mainly because of the No Alcohol thing.
Matthew's also a huge fan of chips and breads & peanut m&m's.
But since I gave going paleo a whirl almost a year ago, we'd already been cooking/eating well at home and really only needed to make & stick to a few adjustments.
1. No alcohol.
2. Going out to eat less.
3. Less snackin' on sugar & starchy carbs
Matthew finally warmed up to the idea of going through this and then...about a week into it, had to leave on a work trip to South by Southwest.
I knew that was going to be tough for him.  His favorite travel snack is, of course, peanut m&ms and there are such great bars and he'd be with colleagues, etc.
But we packed him up with a buncha cashews & pistachios and he loaded up on some Whole Foods once he got there and stayed strong when going out with the fellas.
Incredibly proud of him since he didn't really wanna do it to begin with.

Also, about a week in, he started thanking me for getting us to change things up.

The first thing I noticed right off the bat was that sleeping was AWESOME!!
I sleep so freakin' good now, it's insane.
The only time I do wake up is to pee because of the water I drink during the day.
Before, I'd wake up at least once and not be able to go back to sleep for 30mins to an hour.
After only a few days, I was sleeping through the whole night and so deeply, I wouldn't hear Matt get up for the gym at all.  And getting out of bed was way easier because I was actually well rested.

My head started to clear, too....which was one of the reasons for how poorly I'd been sleeping before.
I'd start thinkin' about shit and my head just wouldn't shut up.
Or I'd get overwhelmed by my thoughts throughout the day, have too much going on at once, totally disheveled and disorganized.
It was kinda funny to notice that the more my head started to clear, the more I also started to unclutter my surroundings.
My Lair is cleaned up and more organized.
The kitchen, too.
Next to tackle...the closets.
I attribute some of these feelings to Spring as well, since it is spring cleaning season.

I must confess I broke the last rule and weighed myself periodically.  Matt, too.
He said he's lost about 25lbs since we started.
I've lost about 16lbs.
Matt's still hitting the gym.
I haven't at all.  Maybe a walk in the neighborhood here and there, but no new routine at all.
I wanted to focus solely on the food changes before tackling the physical exertion that can mess with what you consume (duh, working out makes you eat more, let me find my base again first).

With that, we both also noticed that our stinky b.o. had changed.  It was far less funky when Matthew came home from the gym.  He doesn't smell like the varsity football locker room anymore & doesn't bitch about how all of his gym clothes stink as soon as he puts'em on after they've been through the laundry.
And my pits don't smell like onions anymore if I miss a day of deodorant (don't judge me, I work from home).

OH!! One thing I feel the need to mention, for you ladies (good for you guys to pay attention to, too, if you know what's good for ya)....I had no cramps at all this month.  Mood swings were minimal (Matt wasn't around either, so that might've had somethin' to do with it - HA!!) and I didn't break out as much or feel like I needed to wear sweat pants for a week.  It came and went with no fanfare or smashing of things.  Was great!!

I didn't have any cravings at all, until this past weekend.  The weather was nice and we were at an old Mt. Dora joint where eating a sammich and drinkin' a beer woulda been heavenly.  And then afterwards, we walked through a Fresh Market and the smells in there were driving me batty.
I even went by the bakery just to fuck with myself.  But I stayed strong and the feelings subsided as soon as we got home.  We'd even put down some shredded coconut & skipped the coffee because there were artificial things in each.
I see it as an accomplishment - to not be tempted or have cravings until day 26?  That's pretty good.

And speakin' of coconut...I have seen heaven and it is made of coconut oil.
Anyone who doesn't like coconuts....I feel kinda bad for you because you really are missing out.
Maybe we can talk about coconut oil later.  It deserves its own blog.

We'll still continue to eat Whole30 at home and will make better choices when we're out, but we do have plans to go to Enzian tomorrow night and I would like a large Left Hand Milk Stout, please & thank you.
I'll give you a review on how I feel the following day because I'm sure I'll feel like shit & that'll be an interesting experiment in and of itself.
But I'd really like a stout.