so long sweet sweeteners.

With the holidays approaching, I am not looking forward to the amount of treats I will be exposed to at work and at home. I boxed up about 50 pumpkin and fudge pecan pies today and all I wanted to do was gobble them up. Working at a bakery is definitely enjoyable, but it comes at a price...a bite here and there really adds up. Today I decided that since I don't have the self control to say no to a cookie, I need to try to cut back in areas where I might actually be successful. I am going to attempt to stop sweetening my beverages. I rarely have cokes and never drink energy drinks, but I love tea and coffee and drink it all day long. So today I decided I will do my best to acquire a taste for coffee sans creamer and sweeteners and unsweet tea. I drank my coffee black this morning and it was awful, but I powered through.

These are my new guidelines for my daily beverages:

• no creamer or sweetener in coffee (milk is ok but I'm going to try black) except for an occasional trip to Starbucks, I just can't order black coffee at the bucks.
• No adding sugar or sweet-n-low to my tea at work...sweet Red Diamond at home is ok.
• Now that I am a hot tea drinker (Hello Harney & Sons...you're awesome) I can only sweeten my hot tea with honey.

I have such a sweet tooth that this will be a huge step for me if I can make it work. With the amount of coffee and tea I drink I can only imagine how much less bad stuff I'd consume in a month if I nix all of my hazelnut creamers and countless packets of artificial sweeteners. Hopefully I can hold myself accountable to this!

A post about my best friend's beautiful wedding this past weekend will be coming once I get the pictures on my computer.

With much love,

Lauren

that awkward moment...

...when the lady at the nail salon puts on gloves before giving you a pedicure.

I went with my mom tonight to get a pedicure at a nail salon close to home. I've been there before when I used to get pedicures about once a month, but I stopped after I graduated college and would bet my last pedicure was about 9 months ago. We went through the motions of picking out colors and sitting down to let our feet soak and whatnot when my nail tech, we'll call her Amy, slaps on a pair of gloves. I look and my mom and whisper under my breath, "my feet are so disgusting she has to wear gloves!" I glance around the store and notice no other woman giving a pedicure is wearing any. We couldn't help but bust out laughing. In my defense, she did have fake nails painted a fancy purple, so there's a slight chance she didn't want to mess them up. Or maybe Amy is a germaphobe Emma Pillsbury type who goes to great lengths to stay sanitary. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

At least my feet feel awesome now!

Lauren

note to self.

No more Starbucks after dark.

I am a Starbucks fanatic. I've calmed down in my ways compared to how I used to be - I had the Starbucks credit card - but I still pay a visit to the Siren more than I should. Tonight I made a run to WalMart with my sister, and as usual when out an about, I got a craving for Starbucks. We swung by and I grabbed my grande nonfat no whip pumpkin spice frapp (it's too warm outside for the latte) and headed home. I got about 1/4 of the way through it and began feeling nauseas. Maybe this was my body's way of saying "hey...it's 9 pm, lay off the caffeine and sugar will you?" This isn't the first time this has happened. No more coffee after dark - unless I'm driving of course.

What a waste of $4.60, but at least it wasn't a venti!

Lauren

back when.

Tonight I came across something that hasn't crossed my mind in years. The social network many of us had before MySpace blew up and Facebook was even heard of... Xanga. Xanga was like a blog for us youngsters. We got on and wrote about all the stuff we did and pinned all the picture badges we possibly could into one post.

I stumbled upon a friend's old Xanga tonight and it brought back so many good memories of us back in 2005. I decided I wanted to try to find my old Xanga and when nothing came up on Google, I remembered that I deleted it years ago. I am kicking myself for that now. Once I got a MySpace I deleted my Xanga...once I got a Facebook I deleted my MySpace. I never regretted either of those choices until tonight. I want to go back and read the things I wrote about at 17 when I thought things were tough then. I wish I still had my MySpace so I could go and see who my Top 8 friends were (I'll never forget the day Cross Canadian Ragweed put me in their #1 spot on their page). Life has changed so much and it would be cool to get a reminder of how things used to be. The good thing about Facebook is that your stuff doesn't get deleted when you want to step away. I have taken advantage of this many times and am currently on a Facebook hiatus right now. But when I come back, the memories will still be there waiting on me.

Because of the internet, I never spent time writing in journals or diaries growing up. I wrote about my life on Xanga or MySpace...and like I said before, despite the fact reading them would probably be incredibly embarrassing and even painful at times, I wish I could see them again. There have even been times I contemplated deleting this blog just because I hardly have enough posts for this to even be considered a blog. I'll be sure to remember how I feel tonight if the urge comes up again.

And to my dear friend who didn't delete her Xanga - thank you so much for the blast from the past. It takes a long time to grow an old friend, and I am so glad you're one of the few who stuck with me this long.

With much love,

Lauren