Life

Happy Belated Christmas, folks!

| cheriarmour

I think it’s the law that the WiFi in your childhood home has to, has to, be incredibly horrid, so I’m blogging a little late from the McDonald’s a few minutes from the border of South Carolina.

I’m avoiding eye contact with like 4 youths who’ve taken an interest in me, and seem to be trying to catch my attention.  I’m wearing my headphones and pretending I can’t hear them – but nothing is really playing.

But I digress.

I hope your Christmas, or whatever you celebrate, was wonderful.  Mine was really really nice.

I started with some Redbox action with my brother upon my arrival.  We watched that Melissa McCarthy/Sandra Bullock cop movie, ‘The Heat’, which I was totally sure was gonna be hysterical, but it was honestly a little off-putting.  There wasn’t a minute in the movie that you didn’t hear the f-word.  Now don’t get me wrong, I totally live for some some dirty language, but it was really too much for my delicate sensibilities.

Christmas Day, I woke up, and once we got everyone up, we started opening presents.  The fan fave?  This:

Soda Stream

The Soda Stream!  My pops, like me, is a huge fan of some seltzer, and we got into making a few glasses before we even started breakfast.  My dad kept looking at his glass and saying, “This is amazing!”

So I’m pretty sure I went with the right choice.

So knowing that I’d be probably indulging in a few more cookies than I usually do, I made sure to hit the run in some way, shape, or form a few times while here at home.  So when I was sent out for our Christmas dinner, some key Chinese dishes (veggie lo mein, sesame chicken for my brother, and general tso’s chicken for my dad), I put in the order, and left the restaurant on foot to make sure that I wouldn’t make an excuse to skip my run.  I ran around the back of the building….and right onto a golf course.

Golf 1

Seriously.  I ran, and found myself on a golf course, and it almost looked like another planet, with the amount of balls (hee hee) that were back there.

Golf 2

Like, doesn’t that look just like Mars or something?  So my quick run turned into one that was a little longer, around a local golf course as the sun went down.

Golf 3As predicted, I ate a few more cookies than I planned to before I went to bed last night and watched some Sherlock Holmes with my brother, so this morning, I hit it again, with some time on the treadmill, followed by some time spent with weights.

Some of today’s highlights?

  • I got to be lazy, aside from my workout, which was fabulous.
  • I used the Starbucks gift card that my mom got me!
  • I went to the Whole Foods in Charlotte, and they have a wine bar there.  A glass was on special for like $3.00, so of freaking course I indulged!  I also walked around, picked some produce with my mom, ate lunch from the hot bar, and got some handmade soap, which is super spensive, but awesome.
  • And I found my wedding dress today!  I’m keeping it super secret, otherwise, I’d post a little pictorial evidence for you.

So onword and upword!  Next up!  New Years!

What are your New Years plans?  Any running related ones?

Merry Christmas Eve!

| cheriarmour

A quick check-in with you all.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday.  I’m finally tucked in in Charlotte with most of the family, but not before I put in a full day in Raleigh.

I started with a plan to leave the homestead for my parents’ around 12 noon, but that was not to be.

Thankfully, I don’t think my mom will be reading this before she gets her gift tomorrow morning, but my dad asked me to stop by the Best Buy to pick up something called the Google Chromecast.  Little did I know that this was such a hot item in Raleigh, North Carolina.

I hit the Best Buy on Capital.  Nope.

I hit the Best Buy near my home. No way.

Wal-Mart told me they had them.  I drove there.  They did not.

I hit Tiger Direct.  They didn’t even stock the item.

I tried the AT&T store.

And finally, I had to call my sister in Charlotte to run to the Best Buy near my parents’, hours after I’d embarked on my journey.

Cooked a little tofu, banged out a nap, and stole away for a few miles before I had to get into the Lancer (which someone hit in the parking lot of Best Buy while I was trying to make my way back home, at this point, almost with tears in my eyes).

Greenway
A swollen Crabtree Creek after a night full of rain.

And…

Greenway 2
Some chilly greenway – if nothing else, Raleigh is hilly!

Anyhoo, I made it. Have a Happy Holiday! I will check in with you guys soon!

Old school blogging: Holiday Edition

| cheriarmour

I saw this on Olive’s blog last week, and this cute little survey has been making the rounds since then, so I thought today might be a good time to play.

1 Holy Night or 8 Crazy Ones? (Do you Celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, both?)

Our family (my maiden family, I suppose you call it), celebrate Christmas, but the past few years, we’ve added a little bit of a New York touch.  When we were kids, all of our Jewish friends would get Chinese food and go to the movies on Christmas, so we started adopting this tradition to avoid the huge kitchen cleanup after.

Peppermint or Chocolate?

In a York Peppermint Patty, I’m going for both.  But generally, I hate for peppermint to be involved in anything other than my toothpaste.

Sing us into the Holiday Season, what is your favorite Carol this time of year?

I love the Jackson 5 Christmas album, and I’ve always loved their version of ‘Up on the Housetop’.  It’s so sassy!

Tell us about a Favorite Family or Personal Holiday Tradition.

I love eating Chinese Food and watching a Redbox with my family.  It’s very New York.  It’s very summer camp with my Jewish friends.   And it’s my favorite.

C’mon you remember your favorite  (Christmas, Hanukkah) gift, tell us all about it:

Debbie got me a Starbucks gift card last year for like $150.  I know people say gift cards are impersonal, but that gift was personally made for me.

That magical moment? (Your favorite scene from a Holiday movie…it’s okay if you have 2)

I love the scene from ‘Love Actually’ where…you know what?  Who am I kidding, that entire movie is like a delightful treat.

Kissing under the mistletoe?  Who do you hope is standing underneath (We know it’s normally your spouse, if it did not have to be, who would you choose?)

  1. Austin Samples.

But if for some reason the following people appeared under the mistletoe, I would have to take one for the team and accept that kiss.

  1. Denzel Washington
  2. Channing Tatum
  3. Adam Levine
  4. Will Smith

21-jump-street-quote_03152012_142911

 

Swans a swimming, lords a leaping, golden rings; which gift of the 12 days of Christmas would you like most?

5 (rose) golden rings designed by Jeanine Payer, one of my favorite designers in the world, who is closing her doors come January 😦

Play Secret Santa, what inappropriate gift would you love to give this year?

I love making people uncomfortable.  I think I would love to send Austin Samples, my husband-to-be, sexy pictures of Justin Bieber.

Martha Stewart or the Grinch? What is your decorating style? (Pictures would be awesome!)

College chic.  As in, I have not decorated since the days of yore at Elon University with my dear roomie.  I think we had a little pink x-mas tree in our apartment.

What is ONE WORD that defines the holiday season for you? (Examples: Believe/Wonder/Bah Humbug?)

Family.  Food.

If Santa could assure its delivery, what’s the first thing on your holiday wish LIST?

A PUPPY!

Now your turn to do a little LiveJournal style blogging!  

With a creative spirit also comes this irritating trait.

| cheriarmour

I’m horribly forgetful.  Horribly, horribly forgetful.  The only way I remember to keep my class schedule and show up to places is that I write every single thing, every single appointment down I have in an appointment  book, and once it’s written, it’s real.

Last week after a Zumba party…
Zumba Party

…I decided in order to keep up with my streak (more on that later), I needed to run, even though it was after 10pm.  But I didn’t want to miss my mile, my honey was gone for the weekend, and I was feeling antsy. So still wearing my Santa hat from the party, I drove to my old condo, which is in a super populated, well-lit area, don’t worry.  I parked my car, hid my keys somewhere in the car, and closed the door.  When I went to test the door to make sure it was still unlocked, I found, much to my immediate horror, that I had locked the door with my keys inside.

Damnit.

I called AAA from my phone, which I’d thankfully not locked in the car, and since in my experience, AAA takes years to get to you to unlock your car, I decided to go for my run, since it was also about 40 degrees out, and I wasn’t necessarily interested in freezing as I waited.  So down the road I went in my purple Moving Comfort jacket and Santa hat.  I’m sure I got a lot of strange looks.

Murphy’s Law must have been at work, because not a half-mile down the road, I got a call, which I answered mid-run from the tow-truck driver.

“Yeah I’ll be there in 10 minutes…”

And in the fastest lockout time in history, I arrived back to my car to the tow truck driver waiting on me.  So I jogged up, and explained to her why I was jogging around downtown at night with a Santa hat on.

Bruise

Now, in completely different news, I discovered this bruise the other night on my thigh, and I cannot, for the life of me, remember how or when I could have whacked myself so hard that me, being the dark-skinned girl that I am, could bruise like this. My forgetfulness at its finest…

10 things I wish I’d known at 20.

| cheriarmour

I feel really reflective this time of year.  Not in a bad, I’ve screwed up my entire life kind of way, but in a, look at what I’ve done this year kind of way.

I was on Twitter yesterday, and noticed a friend of mine, still a student at my wonderful alma mater, lamenting that he couldn’t wait til he graduated to get out of there.

I was there.  I think we all were there, especially toward the end of undergrad, when you’re 25-pounds plus more than when you entered the door, and your liver is revolting for all the awful things you’ve done to it, especially that second semester of senior year.  Yikes.  But here are 20 things I wish I’d known at 20 (or technically 21, which was when I graduated, but 20 kinda rolls off the tongue better.)

  1. Take care of your body.  A lot of the weight I gained during undergrad didn’t just have to do with my horrid diet, but it had to do with the fact that I never worked out.  I would work out once in a while, get super sore, and not embark on another workout adventure for weeks at at  a time.  Had I figured out that working out would transform my body and my palate, I would have saved my self hours of lifting up my shirt in front of the bathroom mirror, sucking my belly in, and telling myself I could never get my stomach to look like that.
  2. While you’re taking care of your body, quit hating on it so much.  Putting crap in and never working out also served to create a thick, greasy, layer of hatred and self-loathing for my body.  Now that I work out, you can’t tell me nothing.  Cause I am extremely fly.  Extremely fly.
  3. Networking is so important.  I ran into this kid at homecoming who was starting the job search and I gave him my dad’s email address, since my dad is pretty high up at a financial institution.  I don’t know why he never contacted my dad, but when someone gives you an email address or a phone number and tells you to call it for a job, do it.  I learned this the hard way.  But use everyone around you as a resource for your job purposes.
  4. Do your thang.  There was a time in my life when someone making fun of me would have sent me over the edge.  But if I had allowed it to tear me up so badly that I never taught a Zumba class, for example, I would not be sitting on my sexy behind writing to you all.   So make fun of me for my running, my love of coffee, hummus, and three-quarter tights, I will not be giving any effs any time soon.
  5. Don’t take that breakup so hard because…
  6. You’re not in love.  I have not been in love until I met my husband-to-be.  And I wish I hadn’t taken it so hard when I broke up with my two serious boyfriends in college.  With both, I suffered incredibly crushing heartache, and I literally thought that the pain of the situation was going to kill me.  It didn’t, and I grew back stronger, kinda like a weed.
  7. Cherish good friendships.  I have a ton of friends.  But the quality friendships, I like to nurture, water, and feed.  Good people who will support you when, for example, your mom has a stroke, are hard to find.  Keep them close.
  8. Dump bad friends.  Nobody’s forcing you to stay friends with the butt who lived on your hall your second semester of freshman year.  Dump them on Facebook, dump them and real life, and laugh in their faces when they try to get themselves invited to your wedding 6 years later.
  9. Work hard.  Play harder.  That’s not just the rule in college – it’s the rule in real life.  If you don’t play enough, you will turn out to be super stressed and super broken.
  10. When in doubt, run.  Don’t run fast if you can’t.  But just run.  You will be absolutely shocked at the things running can fix.

What 10 things do you wish you’d known at 20?  

Road Rage – have you ever just lost it?

| cheriarmour

Run Selfie

Requisite run selfie. The air in my office was hot, dry, and stagnant yesterday, so I felt like I was escaping prison to be able to get out and run a few miles on the greenway. I also was running with a belly full of holiday cookies – we’d thrown a holiday party for our clients and me, usually cool as a cucumber around office treats, totally lost it on a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies. Getting my feet to move after that was so difficult.

But I digress. Yesterday, I went to go have cocktails with a girlfriend who got married a year ago. I tell you what, there is no greater resource than a bride who’s been recently married. On my way there, I was feeling good, the endorphins were flowing, and I was in a great mood. I hit some rush hour/holiday traffic around a local shopping center. Still no big deal.

Let me interrupt this story to tell you a pertinent tale.  Years ago, I was in Manhattan with my dad.  The traffic there is obviously horrible and my dad pulled into an intersection without checking to make sure that the traffic on the other side would move, and by the time the light turned red, my dad was stuck in the intersection.  A cop was riding by at that moment,  pulled us over, and gave my dad a ticket for like obstructing the flow of traffic or something.  From that, I always understood that you waited to make sure that traffic would clear the intersection before you pulled through.

So back to yesterday.  Traffic was beginning to back up into the intersection, so I patiently waited for it to clear before I pulled through.  The woman behind me honked.  One thing about North Carolina, you don’t honk.  I gave her a look in my rearview, and assured myself that she had to see that the intersection wasn’t clear, and that we’d be blocking up traffic.  She honked again, and then started pulling around me to pull into the intersection.  And that’s when I lost it.  The left hand came up.  My voice rose an octave.  The New York in me came out.

“No. NO. NO.  THAT IS NOT HOW WE DO THINGS HERE!”

And she looked frightened.

“Absolutely not.  You get back where you belong!”

And she did.

I’m not sure what exactly came over me, but as I age (I’m 26) my tolerance for people’s rudeness gets smaller and smaller, and I’m a little more willing to stand up for what’s right – in this case, my right to avoid a ticket!

When was the last time you lost it in traffic?  

Why do women do this?

| cheriarmour

I live for reality television, and I thank goodness that someone invented DVR, because without DVR, I would have to make some extremely difficult decisions on Sundays especially.  Real Housewives or Keeping Up with Khloe Kardashian (cause she’s the main one I’m concerned with, BYE Lamar).  But as I was watching on Sunday, I had a real, visceral reaction to something that kept coming up during Sunday’s episode.

kenya-moore-full

During the episode, Kenya Moore, a former Miss USA, repeatedly made snide comments about the weight of other cast members, and the comments that she made, specifically about Kandi being able to miss a few meals and Phaedra being 200 lbs plus, were uncalled for.  She was upset with the women for being late to a function, so their weight should have never even been an issue.

I have a big problem with, when women want to tear one another down, them automatically defaulting to calling each other fat.

Example:  You’re standing in line at a bar.  A girl skips you in line.  Your first reaction is to call her a “fat bitch”.  Why?  Why is weight the first thing we want to call out?  Why do we, as women especially, feel the need to equate the word “fat” or calling someone a “fat bitch” with being a bad person?  Especially when you’re not upset with her for being big.  You’re upset with her for skipping you in line!

I feel like I try to be a champion, especially on this blog, for folks to make change for themselves that will lead to a happier, healthier lifestyle.  However, if I can help it, I will never base my opinions on anyone on the way that they look.  If someone makes me upset, I think it’s wrong to attack anything other than what made you upset in the first place.

I’m upset with the comments Kenya made.  They only thing I should be commenting on is her comments, and her evidently very nasty streak.  Not her appearance, because to attack anything about her appearance is just counterproductive, and to me, shows me that I’m insecure if I feel the need to do so.

So here’s my challenge.  In the next week, when someone upsets you, try to think of something to say that directly applies to what they’ve done. Someone cuts you off in traffic?  They’re just a poor driver, not a “fugly slut” (thanks’Mean Girls’).  Make sense?  Try it out, and see how much better you feel.

What Courtney Wore – Courtney Kerr Shoutout

| cheriarmour

I will never pretend I’m a fashionista.  I spend far, far too much of my time in 3/4 spandex, race tees, and my dreads pulled into a top knot.  Seriously, I once had an boyfriend tell me that he was embarrassed to be seen with me in the outfits I’d pieced together between Target and local consignment stores.  Ouch.

Aforementioned top knot.
Aforementioned top knot.

There are, however, a few things that I love.  I love my nail polish.  I love fresh cosmetics.  I live for my white Michael Kors watch.  And the minute that I have more of a disposable income, all the money won’t just go to spandex and extra deodorant, it will also go to flushing out my weird Brooklyn wardrobe.

Now, Bravo is launching a couple of shows that I’m so excited about (in addition to Real Housewives of Atlanta, Millionaire Matchmaker, and Shahs of Sunset and Toned Up, featuring our own Karena and Katrina ), but I caught something called Courtney Loves Dallas that I totally fell in love with the other night.

Courtney Kerr was a cast member of Bravo’s ‘Most Eligible Dallas,” and she wrangled her own show out of Andy Cohen, a show called ‘Courtney Loves Dallas,’ a show where she’s looking for love, but her fashion is front and center.  Designers took notice, especially after ‘Most Eligible,’ and started sending her pieces to wear (swoon), and the first episode of the season featured her fabulous existence, her fabulous nail polish, and a not-so-fabulous quest to find a new man.  Oh well.  We’ve all been there.

Courtney-Kerr
Courtney Kerr

At any rate, I found myself inspired to write, inspired to paint my apartment, paint my nails (again), and throw on an outfit that contained 0 Dri-Fit material.  The girl is making money, writing and doing what she loves?  Sign me up!  So once again, check her out, especially if you’re a girl after my own heart.  You love to work hard, but play hard and colorfully too!

Gym Etiquette

Image | | cheriarmour

Gym Etiquette

I was at the gym yesterday when I saw the nastiest thing. A little nugget get up off of the rowing machine who walked away without wiping his sweaty butt stain off of the seat. That used to not bother me, until I contracted the wart from HELL on my hand. This wart was professionally blowtorched off my hand once. I’ve treated it twice with those over-the-counter freezy things. And now, I’ve been sleeping with apple cider vinegar soaked cotton balls taped to my hands in hopes that it will kill this thing once and for all. Moral of the story? CLEAN YOUR NASTY SWEAT MACHINES AFTER YOU USE THEM AT THE GYM! Okay?!