Happy Halloween!

I really can't believe one year ago I was teaching my kids about Halloween and having them simulate trick-or-treating. After four years in Santa Barbara/Isla Vista, you'd think I'd be super excited about coming back to a country that celebrates the holiday...

Well, for now I have a volleyball match to work tonight at 7 p.m., which could until as long as 10. And then who knows...

Hopefully people will be in the mood to go out after! If nothing else, my roommates are going to a frat party (goodness, I can't believe after not going ever in college, I'll be making two Greek appearances post-college), so if they're in the spirit and dressing up, I may just meet them there. I miss Halloween parties and fun spooky treats :) But I guess we can't be kids forever, huh?

Happy Halloween, everyone!

This time I'm serious.

If you've been following this blog since I was living in France, then you probably know a little about my weight and health struggles.

My big flaw -- and this has been quite cyclical over the past three years -- is a.) I lose a good amount of weight and get back to my happy high school/freshman year of college size, then b.) I live abroad and go nuts and weigh much more than I ever have before. But the food in France was so wonderful....

Neither here nor there.

Diabetes is something that runs in my family, and it's something I don't ever want to have. I've always known that I've had high triglycerides (blood sugar levels) and cholesterol. But does that stop me from making poor eating decisions? No. Knowing this, I've tried (half-heartedly) to eat better and lose weight, but that generally lasts about a week before I get bored and go back to my sugar-eating ways.

After my mom listed off to me some precursors to diabetes, all of which I had, she mentioned some concern about it. And I don't know if I'll ever get it, but I am quite at risk for the disease. This prompted me to see a doctor and get all of this checked out. Yes, in fact I am getting closer than they would like with my "out of whack" cholesterol and triglyceride levels (like you see in all those commercials). I saw a nutritionist.

What this means is that I need to very closely monitor what I am eating for a transitional period of time. Basically, I have to cut out everything bad for a few weeks and wean my body off synthetic foods and starches. When I can physically stand that and don't have thousands of nagging cravings, then I can get back into moderate levels of sugars and starches in very, very small doses.

That's where Lance Armstrong comes in. I've been tracking all of my eating habits on The Daily Plate which is part of the LIVESTRONG.com Health Network. It's really neat what you can find there.

On The Daily Plate, I can track ANY food I eat, as specific as the guiltless salmon dinner from Chilis, to a grande skim, no whip frappuccino from, you guessed it, Starbucks. There are also networks of other users in encouragement groups, recipes, health/beauty tips, you name it!

And I think it's starting to work. The difference this time is that I keep thinking, if I fall back into my old habits, there's a chance I could be priming my body for a disease later in life that could possibly be something irreversible. But I'm taking control and trying to stop that from happening.

Granted it's only been three days at this point, but I'm noticing some changes. Other than the sugar-withdrawl headaches I'm suffering through, I'm losing some weight, my clothes are a little more loose than before and overall, I just feel more energized without sugars.

Here's to keeping it up!

Blast from the past

The other day I was at home and I have NO IDEA where this came from, but I suddenly remembered the Doritos Halloween campaign from years ago.

Anyone else remember how they would put dollar halves in each of the bags with either a werewolf's, Dracula's, Frankenstein's or a mummy's face? And each dollar was assigned a specific amount, where if you found two matching halves you could win the amount marked on it??

Absolutely everyone I've spoken with about this memory has shot me down, saying I'm either crazy or on drugs.

Well, neither of those are correct. Behold:

P.S. How old does that Pepsi logo look?! Wow that takes me back. And if you'll see the fine print at the end, it was in 1991. Awesome I can remember that far back, seeing as how I was only six years old.

And all I got was this stupid sticker...

Actually, I didn't (get the sticker that is).

Ever sine I turned that magical age of 18 and have had the right to vote, I've lived beyond the realm of the Contra Costa County. So I go absentee every voting year.

I voted today. And my decisions on the ballot this year might surprise some people :)

P.S. Mom and Dad, I still want the red Sony Reader Digital Book with 100 free titles and the sweet carrying case to simulate holding an actual book, as well as protect the device. That is all.

Feelin' good

I think that the best way to blog is two glasses of red wine into the night. I think that's it for me tonight, but other than the wine party I went to with my parents on Sunday, I really haven't drank in a long time. It's so weird to be in the United States, not sipping wine in October as one year ago I was stressfully teaching and planning course lessons.

Anyways, for my first autumn back in the States, I'm getting overly excited about the array of seasonal foods. A few days ago I purchased a decent-sized butternut squash and finally got down to cooking it today.

I looked up nice fall recipes and found something for a marshmallow pecan acorn squash dish. Well, I have butternut which probably would have tasted as similar (like it matters because the whole thing was drenched in brown sugar, butter and marshmallows anyways!). I also substituted slivered almonds for pecans because that's the only nut I have in my cupboard currently. Essentially I made a rip-off Thanksgiving dinner with roasted garlic chicken, green beans and my 'mallow squash!

I have my days in the kitchen :)

And speaking of holidays.... I'm starting to get super jazzed for Christmas. Target already is loading up on Christmas decorations. So Mom and Dad if you're reading, here's what I want this year:

The Sony Reader Digital Book:

It's pretty sweet and comes with a subscription for a bunch of free titles. Though it is slightly pricey.

Which is why my only other request is a new pair of Rainbow Sandals. Size 7-8 please :) I'm kind of a fan of the chocolate brown with the thick (not skinny) straps!

Promise I'll be good this year!

<3,

Monique

Obsessed.

This is definitely my new favorite song. I've been playing it nonstop, which could pose to be problematic in the next few days.

Whatever, it's an awesome song (and I'm starting to discover/love Rise Against's new cd, Appeal to Reason):

My apologies if there's an intro commercial before the song. Push through anyways.

In the mood!!

I don't know what it is about the holiday season that tickles me so, but I'm already raring to go this year!

Maybe I'm overcompensating for the fact that I missed out on nearly every American holiday last year by living in France. Though, I am quite bummed I won't be spending my winter vacation running throughout Europe again. Tant pis!

Well Halloween is almost here and my roommates and I are going political this year. I guess because I have brown hair and the glasses, I was told I should go as Sarah Palin. Plus all my roommates are democrats, so I guess I should bring in some conservative flavor (even if I don't know who I'm voting for.... please let's not take the conversation in this direction).

And that's as political as I'm gonna get here.

Though I'm not exactly sure how much of an opportunity I'm going to have to dress up and go out this year. We have a volleyball match Friday, Oct. 31, so I'll be working until at least 10 p.m. Maybe later.

And as jumping the gun as this is, I'm ALREADY prepping myself for Christmas music! I can't wait!!! And Thanksgiving (again, volleyball tournament the next day, so it'll be a short-lived holiday), with its yummy overload and football in the background.

Christmas is just around the corner :) You can't stop it.

And we turned on our heater for the first time this morning! It was 41º this morning (nevermind that it almost hit 70 in the afternoon). But morning and night are turning in to quite the autumn affair.... I'm ready for mittens, sweaters and scarves!

SUPER exciting prospects

So thanks to a late-night email from Michelle tonight, I learned about a REALLY cool summer job prospect. I've been kind of stressing about Summer '09, because my grad assistantship is two years, but only covers the academic year. That means I kind of need to find some summer cash flow. Or be a complete mooch and have my parents pay my rent/bills -- yeah, right.

Well, the prospect is with Major League Baseball, so fingers crossed that actually works out!!! I'd die and be in heaven. Honestly.

But in other news, I'm helping out with the men's basketball media guide -- essentially I'm doing all the layout/design and player biographies. I'm really pleased with how it's turning out and this is a huge deal because men's basketball is our biggest sport here. So that's kind of a major responsibility; hopefully I'll get my name mentioned in the credits section for the design so I can show it off to future employees.

And I can tell it's fall because good old Northern California wind is howling, like it usually does. I'm actually sort of nervous about parking my car in the street, because our neighborhood is lined on both sides of the sidewalk with very large trees.

One of those trees lost about three enormous branches a few houses down thanks to gale force winds. They landed right in front of the house, off the sidewalk where someone would normally park a car. Knock on wood (ha, get it?) branches don't start launching off trees in front of my house anytime soon.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot!! I get to work an NBA GAME next week!


The Sacramento Kings are taking on the Los Angeles Clippers in our campus arena, and I'll be working media for the event. Super excited! Let's hope that I'm paying my dues now being worked to the bone so that way I can have it better off in a few short years....

Most exciting person you know...

I am that person.

Every day I wake up. Go to work. Stay late, or head out to class after work two nights a week. Some days I partake in intramural sports, but that season's almost over now. Most nights I frequent the gym. Come home by 8 or 9 p.m., make dinner with a little extra leftovers for the next day's lunch. Try to get my homework done at least four days before I have to turn it in (usually reading assignments, thesis research). If it's not too late, I'll turn on some t.v., followed by a long shower.

Then I go to bed and do it all again the next morning. And if it's a Friday-Saturday-Sunday, you can bet I'm on campus working athletic events and/or going to the gym.

My life is exhausting. And boring. So yeah, I'm still in some sort of transitionary mode right now. Hopefully it gets better :)

Being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up

It was an interesting trip this weekend to say the least.

I'm not talking about from a work standpoint or anything to that nature, but more so as a trip down memory lane if you will.

Other than for Aimée's graduation in June, this was the first time I went back on campus in Santa Barbara. Then, we only hung out on the University Center grass by the lagoon. This time, I went into buildings to meet up with friends and hung around Isla Vista where all the college students live.


Classes just started two weeks ago so there was a frenzy of activity throughout the campus, with new freshmen racing their bikes throughout the bike trail to get back to their dorms and eat in the dining halls. Our volleyball match was held inside the Thunderdome and that was the first time I'd been in there since my graduation two and a half years ago!

So weird.

Especially eating lunch in IV, while my friends got pitchers and tried to recreate what once was. We all kept saying how weird it was to be there, even though all of them still live in Santa Barbara.

Now I can finally understand all the parents -- and former alumni -- who would accompany their children on the campus tours I used to give. Unless you're still a student, Santa Barbara just doesn't have the same magic it used to in my nostalgic memories.

Does that make me old?!