Life

I ate a turkey sandwich!

| cheriarmour

Hi!

What are you doing?

We’re doing a whole lot of nothing because I sort of forgot that it was a holiday weekend, so I’m taking advantage of the day by catching up on work, and blogging and all that fun stuff.

So where you last left me, I was really seriously considering eating a turkey sandwich.  Which to most, isn’t really a huge deal, but since I’ve been a pescatarian, sometimes vegetarian, and a full-on supporter of vegans, it’s sort of a weird thing to wake up craving.  But alas, I woke up on Monday of last week really craving a turkey sandwich.

I describe to you guys how it felt.  Really weird.  I posted on social media about it. Most people assumed that I was pregnant, which I’m pretty sure I’m not.  My husband, who has never seen me consume meat in my life, thought I was joking at first.  And a few of my friends theorized that my body may be craving protein, and since I’m normally super healthy, that turkey protein, being one of the leaner options, was what I was going for.

I went a few days craving this sandwich.  Talked it over with friends.  Called my sister and her husband.  And finally decided that I would set about getting this sandwich.

My first order of bidness, since I probably haven’t ordered a turkey sandwich in like 15 years, was to find a place where I could get a good sandwich.  I figured that a place like Subway or Jersey Mikes would be fine, but that the meat might be pumped full of sodium, and I wasn’t superbly interested in being bloated.  So I set my sights on a Boar’s Head meat that I spied when I was shopping for some snacks at Harris Teeter, and ordered a turkey sandwich with mayo, lettuce, and tomato.

IMG_0079[1]

I ate it.  It was fine.  It wasn’t life-changing.  It tasted fine.  I felt fine when it went down, and didn’t experience any adverse side-effects as a result of eating meat for the first time in however long.  But it DID quell my desire for the sandwich, calmed the curiosity down, and I think I got whatever I needed from that sandwich that I’d been thinking about for a week when I ate it.

I’m curious though.   I pay pretty close attention to my diet, and get a ton of protein though beans, nuts, and nut butters.  So I’m trying to figure out what my body was telling me, and if the loudness of that little voice is indicative of any sort of deficiency.

“Food” for thought.  Haha.

What are you eating for dinner tonight?                     

I want a turkey sandwich.

| cheriarmour

First and foremost, let’s talk Timehop.

TimehopTimehop is sometimes really fun.  Sometimes it’s a really rude reminder of the fact that you used to get really drunk and eat two mexi hot dogs from Cookout at 3 a.m. on a regular basis.  Yesterday was one of those days.

So, occasionally someone comments on my current weight, often, someone who may have known me at Elon.  And I’m not ever going to pretend I was morbidly obese, but I definitely had a few more lbs on me, which you can clearly see in my cheeks and in my boobs in the above picture.  Thanks a WHOLE heck of a lot Timehop, for serving as a brutal reminder of the fact that beer is not a food group.

I want a turkey sandwich.

I woke up on Monday feeling two things.

For one, I felt really rough because I drank too many mojitos with my friends on Sunday.  But it’s not exactly my fault because…I just don’t feel like admitting that it’s my fault.

And for the second part, I really really was craving a turkey sandwich.  Which is all well and good, except I’m a vegetarian, and it’s probably been over 10 years since I’ve eaten a turkey sandwich.  But for some reason, a cold turkey sandwich with tomato, lettuce, and avocado is calling my name.  I’ve given myself a few days to see if the craving would go away, but it’s not, so I’m really thinking about getting one.

Now, a few folks have been really quick to point out that I might be pregnant.  Which would explain things, but I’m 99% sure I’m not.

So the other working theory is that my body is craving protein or sodium, which is also feasible, since it’s hot as balls out and I haven’t eaten meat in so long.  But I also was under the impression that I was getting enough through beans and nut butters and whatnot.

So my question today, as I plan to eat lunch after a long run is:

Where’s the best place to get a turkey sandwich?

Pet Peeves

| cheriarmour

Hi!

How are you guys doing today?

I’m fine fine fine, currently feeling a little sorry for myself since I decided to not do a trail race this weekend so I could nurse my knee back to health.  I’ve been able to work out, run a little, and teach, but I feel like running on unstable surfaces when I potentially have my meniscus torn is not a great idea.  I need to wait for an MRI to be 100% sure though.  But I’m feeling sorry for myself, a little jealous, and as a result, have eaten like a total hog today.  I deserve a spanking (as my ESL mother says from time to time).

So, I’m actually sitting outside at the local coffee shop, and just sitting here sort of fueled this post.  You’ll understand why in a second.

Cup A Joe

My Pet Peeves:

  • Cigarette smoke.  I’ve never been a smoker.  My parents never smoked, so it was never really a thing.  Plus I was born in the late 80s, so by that time, we were all onto the whole smoking causes cancer thing, so it’s actually pretty rare to find someone our age who smokes.  So I’m sitting outside at this coffee shop, and trying to work, blog, and enjoy a cup of coffee, and there are groups of people around me smoking Parliments and Marlboros.  It’s disgusting, distracting, and makes my hair smell like shit.  And I can’t wash my hair all the time, so my options are to grin and bear it, or go sit and freeze inside.
  • People with bad grammar.  They’re/their/there.  You’re/your.  Its/it’s (which funny enough, appeared incorrectly on this blog in a link last week).  “You’re doing good”.  Like please, for the love of Jesus, look at a few newspaper articles, and just absorb some of what is considered appropriate grammar.  And social media makes this complete disregard for the English language really apparent.
  • When someone emails you….then emails or texts again 30 minutes later to ask if you’ve received their email.  That’s when I start to become a little passive-aggressive, and sometimes don’t respond all together.  Of COURSE I haven’t gotten your email yet because I haven’t responded.  Perhaps I am away from my desk.  Perhaps I have a family?  Whatever it is, please show some regard for the fact that there are other people in this world than you.
  • Facebook’s read receipt.  This thing is the worst.  I actually just read an article on how to disable it, but then you can’t see when people have read your messages either, and I can’t have that.  But have you ever gotten a message on Facebook that made you toss your head back and groan?  And then you opened it?  And you either have to live with the fact that this person knows you’re ignoring them, or you have to respond.  I do not appreciate that.  Not at all.

All that said…

What are your pet peeves?

Lies we’ve all been told.

| cheriarmour

I stole this from Becca from Becoming Adorrable – I love love reading what she’s up to, and about her and husband’s adventures in Atlanta.  She posted on this the other day, and it got me thinking about lies we’ve all been told.

You have sex, and you will get pregnant.  

Mean Girls QuotesThis is one lie that has become more and more clear to me since I’ve gotten to that age where friends of mine are trying to get pregnant on purpose.  Call it a product of having my sexual education done in the south, however, my understanding was that if you have sex at any point, that you WOULD get pregnant, no questions asked.  Now imagine my surprise, that as a 27-year-old married woman, that it doesn’t always work that way.  Sometimes, when people talk about “trying,” they’re healthy, viable, and young.  They have sex on certain days, and not on others, and it still doesn’t work.

Taking on student loans is fine – you’ll get a job and be able to pay it back within like two years. 

Yeah.  Um.  I wish someone had been a little more transparent with me about this one.  The honest truth (listen up if you’re just now going to college) is that you can be like me, and you can be “underemployed” for any number of years.  You know what that means?  That means, you might be really really educated, like say, Duke educated, and that you might still pay some dues at a grocery store or in food service, trying to make ends meet while you search for something you’re really qualified for.  That said, take out as LITTLE student loan money has you can get away with.   If you can get through all four years with no debt?  You’re golden, babe!

To get the job you want, submit a resumé and a cover letter to that online form thingie, and you’ll get a call back for an interview within no time. 

The above statement is BULLSHIT.  Absolutely bullshit.  If you graduated this past weekend, hear me now when I tell you it’s bullshit.  Here’s how you get that job that you want/are qualified for.  Figure out who it is you know within that organization, stalk them to all ends of the earth, and ask them, straight up, to hook you up with an interview.  Your resumé is something that should be updated and current, this is true.  Yes, you should have a cover letter, like, around.  But hear me loud and absolutely clear when I say that networking, networking, networking, is where your head needs to be in the months leading up to you getting a job interview.  Go to dinners, luncheons, make sure you’re dressed to the nines.  At drinking things, just nurse one, take cards, and hand yours out.  Follow up the next day.  Schedule lunches and coffees with whomever it is. And never, ever feel weird about doing this.

Marriage and kids. 

I love being married.  Best thing I have ever done in my life.  I love kids.  And I think I would love to have some little boys of my own in puffy vests and in plaid shirts with little baseball hats.  But I grow tired of these folks who, for one, post things nonstop about their “perfect” lives on social media, and two, claim to never have a bad day in the world.  I had an awesome conversation with a family member (with an equally adorable baby for me to hold) who was refreshingly honest about marriage and motherhood.  She was open about her son’s reflux, about wanting to get out of the house once in a while, and about her marriage.  I loved it.  Why are we ALL not open?  All that said…

QOTD

What’s one lie you feel you’ve been told ALL your life!

Fitness instructors, leave your ego at the door.

| cheriarmour

I’ve been teaching fitness officially since 2010.  I’d been taking Zumba classes from the time I was about 16 until 20 or so, and the entire time, had been really curious about what it would take, and what it meant to teach.  I somehow got the balls to hunt around, and contacted the woman at NC State, the graduate school where I was attending, my first semester there, and asked if she was interested in a Zumba instructor.  The next thing I knew, I was teaching to a staff at a staff meeting, and without realizing it, my future husband may have been in that meeting.

But Lindsay, who managed us, took a chance on me, and after a short 20-minute demo, she allowed me to get onto the spring schedule one day a week.  And the response was absolutely overwhelming.  I regularly had over 100 students in the class, and as my class gained traction, I began to look forward to my time on Sundays with the students.

One thing I remembered, and one thing that I took with me in my time taking classes with Koh Herlong, who apparently was a Zumba superstar and we never knew it, left her ego at the door when it came to class.  She worked the room, starting from the front, and dancing in the crowd, dancing with students, and pointing out a nice booty shake or a great-looking bicep when she saw it.  The class wasn’t about her, it was about us.  And we left the room feeling that way each and every time we took the class.

Fitness instructors, your class is not about you. 

I’ve certainly fallen into the trap before.  When a student wants to take a pic with me or when I’ve seen myself talked about in a review of some place I’ve worked, I’ve wanted to dust myself off.  And when I do, I remember that there’s always an instructor who’s better than I am, and that being a decent teacher doesn’t mean shit if I have a bad attitude, or think I’m here for folks to be amazed by me.  There’s nothing amazing about what I do.  I just love to do it.

Zumba Instructor

That said, here are a few reminders for fitness instructors who are starting to feel their heads get a little bigger with each time they catch the eye of someone in their class.

  • The workout doesn’t belong to you.  It’s theirs [your students].  My mom has often asked me why I work out when I teach so many classes, and simply it’s because the energy you devote you your workouts and and workouts you provide to your students is and should be different.  In your classes your focused on the safety, the comfort, and the fun that your students are having, not your own.
  • But don’t give too much…everything needs a little balance.  Don’t give so much that you’re hurt or that you hurt the people in your class.  Balance is key.
  • Open your eyes!  Are you stuck in the mirror?  This is a terrible habit, and a huge pet peeve of mine.  Look around your class.  Face your class.  Look into people’s eyes!  If you find yourself “stuck in the mirror,” as an old tap teacher of mine would say, you’re doing it wrong.  Your class can sense when you’re looking at them, and when you’re checking out your own biceps.  And having an egotistical maniac for an instructor doesn’t do much for people.

And finally…

  • Make ’em feel good.  Folks got in their cars and drove over, not for you to tell jokes, right?  Thank folks for coming.  Introduce yourself.  Point out good work!  Shout encouragement.  Whisper adjustments.

QOTD:

What’s the best/your favorite fitness class you’ve EVER taken?

My morning routine.

| cheriarmour

First off, I would like to address this.

So, I have made it a point not to address the riots in Baltimore on this blog.  I don’t know what to say.  I’m really really sad, and I understand, as a black woman, that there are a lot of frustrations on both sides.

I will say, however, that I feel really really privileged to live in this tumultuous time in our nation’s history.  Our kids are going to look at this in their history books, and we’re going to be able to say that not only did we live through this, but that this time enacted a tremendous amount of change.  Changes in race relations, changes in our police force, and changes in the system, which are the most important changes there are.

Let me move along before I get all emotional though.

My morning routine. 

So Kristyn at Chits and Giggles posted on this last week, and I found her post really really interesting, so I figured I might borrow this topic, and tell you guys a little bit about my morning routine.  I’m also really nosy, and would love to know what other people are into in the mornings.

So…my mornings.

Okay, first, know this about me.  I am probably the only runner in the world who will tell you this, but I’m not a morning person at all.  I am a miserable human being in the morning.  I am horribly ugly, my eyes are typically closed, and the only way I can really get myself going is to shower and put on fresh clothes.  I seriously struggle with morning workouts, and I’m not sure how I survived in Pennsylvania, getting up for a workout, then breakfast most mornings.  My best guess is the fact that though Tony didn’t love it, we went to breakfast in our pajamas, our glasses, and the makeup from the night before. When I get up early to work out now, I usually don 0 makeup, will pop a piece of gum, and hope that I don’t run into anyone important. But you can’t really do that in real life all the time.

I digress however,

So my mornings.  They typically all go like this except for Thursday mornings, where I wake up, then lay in bed watching DVR I’ve missed for like an hour since I don’t go to work until like 2 on those days.

So typically, the cats, Satans 1 and 2 run around from about 6 on.

Cats

Austin usually gets up and puts Chester (the big Siamese) in the carrier because he likes to jump on the nightstands and break things in order to get us to wake up.

On a Wednesday morning, I will drag myself out of bed around 6:50, grab a bar from the pantry and a diet coke (judge away), and head in for a workout with Jill, the trainer. I usually don’t eat anything before, but drink plenty of water during the workout, and usually work out with Jill for an hour. After the workout, I typically eat a little breakfast at my desk, chug some diet coke and water, and open my laptop and get started for the morning.

See the fitness schedules that I'm working on for April and May beneath my new toy?
See the fitness schedules that I’m working on for April and May beneath my new toy?

Usually I putter around, answer some phone calls and emails, and will scoot just before lunch to jump into the shower and do my make up so I look presentable for at least some portion of the day.

What is YOUR morning routine like?  

Weekend Buzz

| cheriarmour

I’m sitting here, drinking some stomach easing tea out of my Jesus Shaves mug after a weekend FULL of bad food, some travel, and did I mention bad food?

Thursday night, I pulled my usual, and stayed late to work to finish up some emails and work because this past weekend was my mother-in-law’s birthday.  But no before I got the chance to treat myself to a little goodness…

Fitbit SurgeAfter a few months of wishing and waiting (I’m pretty sure they announced just around my birthday last year that this watch was gonna be a thing), I finally got my hands on a Fitbit Surge, the activity tracker with the GPS and HR monitor built in, and spent a little bit of time setting it up.  As you can see from the above picture, I was working on the group fitness schedule for May at the same time that I was charging the new guy and figuring out how to sync it with my phone.  (Don’t worry, a full review to come)!

After I worked for a little while on Friday, Austin and I headed to Charlotte to go to his mom’s house for her 60th birthday.  After we got caught in a ton of traffic on the way, when we got there, I immediately went for a glass of wine, and we sat down and talked and visited for a while before heading to bed that night.

Saturday morning, history was made when I ate a bowl of Frosted Flakes for breakfast.  I never eat cereal for one (I would always find myself feeling really hungry and a little sluggish), and I don’t really consider Frosted Flakes appropriate breakfast food, but they taste SO damned good, I just went for it, and it was worth every syrupy bite.  Seriously, caloric intake aside, there is nothing better than Frosted Flakes and cold milk.

After I ate, and did some work at the kitchen table, I headed out to the Siskey YMCA, the Y close to my childhood for two reasons.  One, to get a workout in, and two, to sort of see how they did a couple of things that we were struggling with at our branch.  I came on a really good day because the day before they had gotten this thing in…

Tread WallThis is the Treadwall, which is sort of like a treadmill, but you can rock club on it.  As it turns out, I’m a pretty decent rock climber, and both before and after my run, I hopped on the wall for a few minutes.

ClimbingI sort of got nosy and looked into how much one of these might cost for us.  It’s being sold for the low-low price of 11k.  Woops.

After I got my workout in and poked around the Y, we celebrated Sharon’s birthday with loads of barbecue food, and we visited with a few of her neighbors.  Once again that night, I completely fell fast asleep while Austin hung out with his brother.

On Sunday morning, we headed to brunch at the same place we went after my hen party last year, Bistro La Bon, and we met my parents there to celebrate for Sharon.  My mom was really cool, and got Sharon a present and sang her happy birthday.

Brunch Photo

We finished out the weekend by watching Bruce Jenner’s interview when we got home.

Jenner Interview

If this interview is still sitting in your DVR, you have to watch it. It’s a really well-done, personal look at a person struggling with his gender identity. Any question you could possibly have, Jenner answers with grace. It’s educational, and I’m hoping by his coming forward, that someone else struggling with the same issues feels comfortable even saying those words and doesn’t have to wait 60+ years to feel comfortable enough to do it.

Okay, all of that was a lot.  What did YOU do this weekend?  

Britt McHenry is a terrible person

| cheriarmour

It’s pretty rare I will jump on the bandwagon, Justine Sacco style, and rage on about how someone needs to have their life ruined over an idiotic decision they’ve made.

And admittedly, though I feel like people like Justine, or people who dress in blackface for Halloween, or even an idiotic blogger I used to follow who threw a black and white party for Martin Luther King Jr’.s birthday are complete idiots, but I’d hate for most of them to like lose their livelihoods over it, right?  I mean jobs still aren’t easy to come by, no sense ruining some dumb person’s life over their complete ignorance, right?

Side note:  In the case of that blogger I used to follow before she threw a black and white Martin Luther King Jr. party, complete with popcorn and fake mustaches, the fact that she was Mormon made the entire thing worse.  The Mormon church and black people don’t have a fantastic history, and I will leave it at that.  When I mentioned how offensive her behavior was, she seemed 1000% clueless, and I couldn’t do any more than just unfollow her and hope she realizes that as a white Mormon girl, that since our history already ain’t so good, she should really chill on parties featuring hipster mustaches as a way to “honor” Dr. King.

I digress, however.

http://player.theplatform.com/p/2E2eJC/nbcNewsOffsite?guid=tdy_hill_rant_150417

So, by now, I’m sure you’ve seen this horrible video of Britt McHenry, ESPN reporter, saying heinous things to the woman behind the towing counter when she went to pick up her car after it was towed from a restaurant.

We’ve all been in this situation.  Remember when I was towed this time last year?  It was completely my bad.  I am willing to admit that.  But it was still frustrating to go through the process of getting my car back, and even more so when it seemed that the towing company was taking advantage of the fact that I was carless and that they could do whatever it was they wanted to me.  However, the thought didn’t necessarily cross my mind to do any of what Britt did which included:

  • Stating how being in that place made her skin crawl.
  • Talking about how her being on television would somehow magically enable to her “sue this place”.  Whatever that means.
  • Making fun of that attendant’s weight.
  • Stating that people who worked in those places were not educated.
  • Making an extremely rude comment about teeth, or lack of teeth and people who work in towing places?

The woman working the counter seemed to handle herself well, and mentioned to Britt that there were cameras there, to which she continued on her rant.  Additionally, after a particularly mean-spirited comment, the attendant even told her, “don’t say that,” and she continued on.

I get it.  Like I said, I have been on the towed end of things.  But the little old auntie at the counter?  She’s not the one who towed your car.

Britt,

You’re blond, and I suppose you’ve been told you’re really special and beautiful your entire life, which may have lead to some of the terrible comments you made that night.

However, think about this.  You, me, anyone reading this could be a few paychecks away from working behind a counter at a tow yard in order to make ends meet.  Jobs still are not easy peazy to come by, and you went into someone’s place of employment, and judged her based on the way that she looked, and made a scene.  You made it perfectly clear that deep down, you feel that you’re better than her and people like her, and that people who aren’t like you – blond, technically pretty, with a fancy visible job, with perfect teeth, don’t deserve dignity and respect, especially in their place of work.

You aren’t better than anyone “baby girl”, and you made that clear not only with the words you chose, but also with the apology that you issued on Twitter?!  Pro tip, next time you do something wrong, maybe an actual apology to the person you hurt is more appropriate.  Not some canned, creepy apology you made on Twitter because HR showed you the morality clause you signed and made you apologize at the threat of you losing your job.

So Britt, you pathetic, miserable, soul-less, nasty human being, I truly hope you learn a lesson from this.  And in the event you didn’t, which I believe to be true, please get a job as a server, as an attendant, as the person who takes your money at the tolls, or as the person who has to call and chase you around to get you to pay your student loans, and then decide how much better you are than those people simply because you have blond hair and a “fancy job”.

Best.  Just kidding.  That wasn’t sincere.  Let me start over.

Here’s hoping you learned something,

C

 

 

Pho Pho Pho

| cheriarmour

Hi lovers!  I know it has been a few days, but it was a few well-needed days of rest that I spent with my dad between DC and New Jersey.  More on that later.

But I wanted to touch base about something I talked about after last weekend, when my quest to find pho, a Vietnamese soup, was finally somewhat resolved.  Also ramen.

So about two years ago, when I was training for my first marathon, I swear (and barely anyone remembers this, so it’s almost unbelievable), that Whole Foods, in their sushi section, had bowls of real ramen, with an egg and everything in it.  I ate it religiously as “second lunch” as I was ridiculously hungry during the training cycle, and seemed to do well with the sodium.

Soon after, WF set up a pho station, complete with fresh jalapenos, and I went on the quest to find a bowl of pho and real ramen somewhere in the Triangle.

Saturday morning, after we’d worked at the expo, some of the folks posted some pics from a spot called Pho Pho Pho on Facebook, and the decision was made then, especially after one of the folks there told me that the Sake Sangria was on point.  I mean, duh.

So after a short convincing period, Austin and I headed out to Pho Pho Pho on Glenwood, that was so new (about 4 weeks old), that it didn’t really have a sign out front, and I had to rely on an old episode of bar rescue to find it. Totally not joking about that, but that place was a total creepy dump before.

Anyhoo, so we got there, immediately ordered a few drinks, and got to ordering on the menu from this adorable server who had a smile permanently on!

IMG_2312

This is what I ended up with – a pho ramen mashup that only cost about $10, but came out in a bowl that was without a doubt large enough for two meals. I ate as much as I could, then poured the rest away for lunch the next day.

My verdict after waiting for like a year or two for some legit pho is that this place is legit. Good soup, good noodles, and great drinks, and I can’t wait to go again. (Seriously, I asked Austin to take me again tomorrow.)

Now, since pho is such an awesome sore throat/replenish your sodium food….what’s your favorite sick food?