This year, I’m becoming a sober pescetarian. Rather, I’m giving up all alcohol and land animals. Perhaps part of this is superficial, in attempt to eat better (alcohol leads me to eat everything in sight. I’ve also been known to pound a one/two/eight drinks too many when I’m emotionally distraught. Yes, i eat and drink my feelings; also, lately I’ve felt like I’ve been pretty dependent on meat, red in particular. And it’s not always something simple like steak – we’re talking greasy burgers and wings). Maybe it’s to remind myself to be more socially aware re: inhumane factory farm conditions (I used to be really good about buying meat I felt ethically good about. But I’ve become lazy and cheap).

In an attempt to better myself for the next 40 days, and hopefully longer, I’ve also decided to work on a few personal things. Most of them revolve around positive energy: Not dwelling on things beyond my control, having a better self esteem, being more respectful of other people, being more mindful of things I say that may negatively impact someone else, etc. In an ironic twist of fate, after I posted yesterday about how amazing life has been, I was pretty much blindsided with a curve ball. Trying to not let the situation get the best of me, and moving past it would be a great way to start moving the positive energy around. Positive outcomes only!

I definitely need to sit down, breathe, collect my thoughts. Oh, and eat lots of delicious foods! Or perhaps drink all that I can before midnight strikes. I have roughly 16.5 hours to sow my alcohol soaked oats, as I’m giving up drinking for the 40 days of Lent. We’ll see how that one goes!

The only thing that got me through the day was knowing that after work, I had a date with yoga and wine. As luck may have it (or not), I found it really difficult to get in the right frame of mind for my yoga practice. I’m not sure if it was because it was a class with a new instructor, if I was rusty from a lack of yoga, or if my mind was too caught up with work, but regardless the reason, the first half of the class was difficult for me. I was physically and mentally drained, but once I was able to close off my mind and focus on the practice, I felt so much better. I was able to lay on the mat and release all the negative energy that had been keeping me stressed all day.

I got home and was greeted with a wonderful surprise. J had taken note of my stressful day at work and had dinner ready for me! I sat in the kitchen with a glass (or two) of wine while he finished getting everything ready.

Spaghetti isn’t normally a dish I’d order at a restaurant. I can sometimes be picky about how I like it prepared, but J gets it right each and every time!

The pasta was paired with french bread (toasted and topped with butter and Garlic Gold Parmesan Nuggets) and an unpictured salad.

Of course, we can’t forget about the wine!

Dinner was followed up with a date with my favorite Monday night shows – How I Met Your Mother, Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. We were accompanied by a piece of S’mores Brownies that I had made over the weekend (inspired by Jessica)

Monday definitely had a rough start but shaped out to be an alright night. Hoping that things get better in the long run!

*hoping that this post made sense. Ecto deleted my original draft, so my mind is just a blur atm =P

So I’m not into watching the actual football game. I know I’m not alone. BUT while the half time entertainment usually is pretty appealing to me, I’m disappointed to say that I’m not excited for THAT either. The Black Eyed Peas rank really low on my list of favorite performers (really, the list of performers I like in general). Yes, their songs are catchy, but I preferred them before they added Fergie to their ranks. Not a fan.

However, I AM excited to watch this year’s Puppy Bowl ! Yes, it’s basically hours of watching puppies play with each other, but to me, that’s hours of fluffy fun (heh)! I’m a sucker for the cuteness factor. I even picked out a favorite pup to root for

[via Puppy Bowl]

Isn’t she adorable?! I wish I could take her home. She’d make a great little (big?) sister for Roxy =) Plus her mix is two of my favorite breeds.

I’m also looking forward to all the Super Bowl commercials. My favorites tend to be the ones with the E*TRADE baby.

A few past favorites of mine include:

and this one (which I don’t believe was a Super Bowl commerical, but is still funny!)

I also love the Snickers Betty White commercial!

I hope that everyone has fun tonight, whatever your plans may be! Are you watching the Super (or Puppy) Bowl? Who are you rooting for?

We were attempting to buy tickets for San Diego Comic-Con. I’ve lived in SD for about 9.5 years now, and have NEVER been! I’ve always had excuses such as being too broke (what? I was a college student for my first four years here!) or not having anyone to go with. The last few years, J and I have always wandered around Gaslamp while SDCC was going and we decided that we wanted to try and go this year.

Apparently, we chose the wrong year to try, because attempting to buy tickets was such a mess! I don’t even want to admit how many hours of my life were wasted trying to buy tickets. They were having so many issues finding a server that could keep up with ticket demand, that they had to postpone ticket sales several times!

So while we were home earlier, we tried and tried. Then J tried from his iPhone while we were out running errands. We’d get our hopes up and then we’d get THIS message: .

Needless to say, J was getting pretty frustrated, because he’d get pretty far along with the process, only to receive the same overcapacity message. It was hours full of hitting refresh fun! Soon, four day passes were all sold out, and we had to make the decision to try for single day tickets.

Eventually we had to stop and deal with a whole other issue (hello, Operation trying to save iPhone from death by washing machine*), and finally once, we got back to the computer, we were unfortunately met with THIS: .

Not exactly the outcome we were hoping for, but we’re not in tears about it. As excited as we were to get tickets, we just couldn’t devote the time necessary to do so. Hopefully, things change as the months go by, and now I’ve learned an important lesson – have someone buy my 2012 ticket while they’re at this year’s event!

*the chain of events leading up to the iPhone’s appointment with the laundry salon is actually a ridiculous and comical story that I hope to share once we’ve found a solution to the problem!

Today’s Living Social.com deal is pretty awesome. For $10, you’ll get an Amazon gift card worth $20! That’s a savings worth 50% off =)

I was pretty lucky because I typically purchase my Groupon.com or Living Social.com deals via Swagbucks.com Daily Deals. You earn 280 swagbucks for every deal that is purchased through the link on their website. In an ironic turn of events, today’s purchase of an Amazon gift card earned me enough swagbucks to cash in on an additonal $50 Amazon card! Very cool.

I’ve been looking to upgrade my yoga mat for a few months now, so I’ll be doing that soon. I’ll have enough credit for Amazon to throw in a few books for my iPad as well! I recently reactivated my Amazon Prime account, so everything just works out =)

Are you buying the deal on Living Social today? What are you going to spend your “free” $10 on?

Later on, Justin & I were at the grocery store, when we noticed the rather LONG line of people waiting to purchase a lotto ticket. J expressed interest in buying a ticket, and he owed me $5, so I bought another $5 ticket. I joked that if we won, our kids could be trust fund babies, and I’m pretty sure J wasn’t amused by that However, he did let out a chuckle when I corrected myself and said that Roxy could be a trust fund puppy.

8pm came and went, and I got the winning numbers from a friend. Truth be told, I didn’t even look at all my numbers. I gave my tickets a cursory glance, saw that I didn’t get the mega ball number, and set the ticket aside (although, I suppose I’ll scan them to see if I could even get $5 back). Worst case scenario – I’m out of $10 that probably wouldn’t have been spent productively anyways.

$380 million dollars is definitely not anything to joke about. I’m not even sure what I’d do with out, once I got the typical debt payoffs/travelling/charity donations out of the way. And honestly? I would be ok with even just a million dollars (post tax)! I’m only 28 years old and still have a long life ahead of me, so I wouldn’t retire with just a million dollars. And I really don’t want to retire. I think I’d be too bored at this point in my life.

However, I could take active steps towards fulfilling a lot of goals. I could:

• Donate directly to organizations/charities near and dear to my heart.
• TRAVEL – specifically SE Asia and the Americas.
• Quit my job and really pursue a career that is mentally, emotionally and financially fulfilling for me
• Pay off debts, specifically my student loans, so that I could…
• Apply to grad school!!! Grad school has always been on my radar, but the cost of tuition has always been daunting to me. USC is high on my list of grad school options, simply because I’ve always loved the campus and they have a program specifically geared to my career of choice. Plus, I’ve always wanted to change my USC status from Legacy to Alumni =P
• Get a second puppy! I love Roxy to bits, but I’d love for her to have a constant playmate. But owning a dog definitely isn’t cheap, and we spent quite a bit on her last year.
• Finish renovations on our “new to us” condo. If I had extra cash, I’d pay the mortgage off completely.
• Hmm. Maybe I do want the entire $380 million, or at least a large amount of that. Then BF could quit his job, and we could finally move out of SD! We’re only here b/c he owns property in SD and he has a stable job in a field he really enjoys (and is specific to a few cities around the nation). If I had my way, I’d be living in NYC or Chicago (or even near my parents in LA!)

Yikes. Now I’m getting ahead of myself. If anything, I appreciate how the lotto allows me to dream (and I dream BIG). Once someone else wins the jackpot, and I’m brought back down to reality, I realize what is really important to me. All of my dreams are feasible, eventually. But then I stop to prioritize them, and brainstorm how to achieve them NOW. There’s an item in particular on the wish list above that I’m trying to strive towards this year, and I’m absolutely certain that once I achieve it, everything else will fall into place =)

My NYE was great. It was crazy, it was fun and 100% hectic (someone stole our cabs at the hotel, so we had to figure out who was good to drive and then deal with parking). Overall, it was worth it and the night culminated our group of friends ringing in the new year on a rooftop in Gaslamp.

Somehow, we managed to wake up early and drive home to spend New year’s morning with my mom (it was her birthday!) Then, we went to an amazing party at the W hotel in LA in honor of my BFF’s BF’s dirty 30 (did you get that?!)

I’m not sure what it is exactly, but I just have a really GREAT feeling about the upcoming year. For the first time in a long while, I’ve entered the new year surrounded by pure positive energy, and I’m just going to embrace it!

As for eating and spending, I was a bit indulgent. However, I don’t feel horrible about it at all! Carne Asada fries, a few drinks and korean bbq*? It’s all good. It was worth it because I was able to reconnect and celebrate with friends I wasn’t able to see for most of 2010. I’m giving myself a pass for the holiday, and I’m working on creating healthier habits for the new year.

I definitely don’t feel guilty about spending money on Korean bbq because 1. it’s delicious and 2. it’s sooooo much cheaper in LA than it is in SD!

However, the things I let bother me, get under my skin…those are all things that I have the power to change in some way, shape or form. These things are so grating on my nerves because I’ve sat complacent for far too long. I’ve sat and complained. I’ve cried. I’ve stressed out to the point of emotional eating. I haven’t been given the amount of respect I know I deserve. I let the situation suck the life out of me, and have found it difficult to see any silver lining.

I’ve known that these things bother me, but I never did anything to make things better. It’s embarrassing to admit that these have been items on my New Year’s resolutions list for the past two or three years. At this point, I am not even allowing myself to complain. Complaining won’t help. I need to take initiative and make things right. I have the power to make things better. I want to be in a different place come December 2011. I want to be in a happy place.

The thought of making these changes is terrifying. But I know that they will be so beneficial to my mental, emotional and financial well being. And when that time happens, I’ll be so happy for a story to tell, to stop being so cryptic.