A World Unaffected By Time

January 17, 2020January 3, 2021Leave a comment

Excerpt 001

The two brick labs glisten in the sun, unmuddled by age. The faintest smell of mortar still lingers. The other three structures sway with the breeze, their canvas sides riddled with tears and earth. Nevertheless, the tents feel more practical. The rift hasn’t grown, or shrunk, or otherwise fluctuated in 20 years, but permanence seems presumptuous in a world without the limitation of time.

I watch for a brief moment and have seen all 19 scientists busily shuffle in a pattern that makes them appear like a swarm. I don’t think they ever stop moving. A worker bee with long black hair suddenly freezes. Her white-gold eyes are piercing, even from here, but they are vacant. I wish I could ask her what she is seeing, but she is not from here. She is one of the scientists that they sent in from Nevada, most of them are. Only four of them are local, five once Logan finishes interning. Our parents are equally as thrilled about my younger brother joining the Ignis group as the higher ranking scientists are to be in Prestin.

Not a full 20 seconds pass and the woman buzzes back into stride and disappears behind one of the 2-story buildings between us, in the opposite direction of the records tent. Whatever it was it must not have been important.

I widen my gaze and watch the whole rift at once, without focusing on any one thing. The hill that grew our tree is the shortest of the half-dozen hills surrounding the valley, but it is so steep that my shoes slide and slip under me even when the grass is dry. It is 5 second agility test that I don’t often pass. But this hill and this tree are at the far end of the town, and to get here is worth the risk of accident or embarrassment. From here a person can peer between the rolling hills to nearly every street in the city, and if they would rather forget the city entirely for a moment it only takes a turn of the heels.

I am only tall enough to make out a thin blue line that is the Atlantic Ocean and the rest of my vision, peripherals and all, are taken up by a sea of trees. This is one of the last natural forests on the continent and the Pragredium is making it thrive.

I spin back to civilization and coast unsteadily into the valley.

Krav Maga?

January 10, 2020January 3, 2021Leave a comment

You all will never believe what I did on Tuesday night.

Or maybe you will believe it because you don’t fully know who I am yet. So before I start, let me paint you a picture.

I am not athletic. And when I say I am not athletic I don’t mean

“Oh, I played softball in middle school but that’s it.” or “Yeah I loved gym class as a kid, but I’m not an athlete or anything.”

No, people. I am not athletic whatsoever.

You know how everyone’s favorite class in elementary school is gym class? Because you get to play? Nope, hated it.

You know how every 8 year old’s favorite time of day is recess? I skipped it to take an extra violin lesson or go to the art room!

My elementary school had a “track & field” day every year which was basically a full day of recess spent outside playing games and sports. Well, I would “accidentally” wear a skirt every year so they would “make me” sit out. I distinctly remember my gym teacher making me do the mile walk/run anyway but at one point he lost track of how many laps I had actually done so I lied and told him I had one lap to go. I had much more than one lap to go.

In high school I was required to have a Health & Fitness credit to graduate, but I was in the top ten of my class of almost 400 students and I wanted to boost my GPA and not waste time in gym class. So I took the credit hours online over the summer between my sophomore and junior years.

Y’all. I took my high school gym class online.

I’ve never played a sport, not even for recreation. I’ve never been on any kind of team. I’ve never even taken a group fitness class besides one Zumba class when I was 14 and I got there late!

Are you starting to understand?

I am not athletic.

Well on Tuesday night, I took a level one Krav Maga class.

Excuse me, what now?

And this was not an “introductory” class, this was the level one class that had been going on already that I hopped into. I had never punched anything, not even a pillow during an emotional break-up or something. One of the upper level students had to teach me how to make a fist. And I have certainly never been punched or kicked at, that was the weirdest part for me. It was a solid hour of learning and practicing self defense and martial arts drills with strangers.

Overall, I’d say it was terrifying and incredible.

At the halfway break in the class I looked down at my hands and my knuckles were split and bleeding, I had bruises already starting to form, and I was visibly shaking. I teared up and nearly quit. Not because I was in pain or scared of sparring, but because I was surprised at how soft I truly am. I knew I was weak, but I never realized how ill-prepared I was to protect myself from another human being.

But I continued.

If I had to pick one word to describe myself it would be “independent.” I hate feeling like I am at the mercy of my husband’s availability to escort me when I want to walk my dog on a semi-secluded trail, or hang out in a crowded bar, or go to Walmart when it’s dark outside. I hate being dependent on another person to defend me if the need were to arise. That’s what prompted me to look for a self-defense class in the first place!

So I finished out the entire class (except the choking drills, my partner and I modified those; I don’t like people I’m familiar with touching me, let alone a complete stranger choking me) and watched most of the level two class while we talked to one of the instructors. Needless to say we are going back… twice a week.

My husband immediately signed up, but I was a little apprehensive. I think at one point I told both him and the instructor: “I don’t know if I’m cut out to do this.” Then later when I voiced the same concern to the other instructor, she looked at me and said,

“Of course you can do it, you already did it.”

That resonated with me somewhere deep down. I did do it. Little goody-two-shoes, never-even-seen-a-fight, non-athletic, hide-in-a-corner-and-read, anti-social, recess-skipping, weakling Emily did an entire Krav Maga class.

And maybe I’ll still be a weakling in a month, or in 3 months, or in 3 years, but at least now I’m a weakling training to become a bad-ass.

I suppose this is the beginning of a new adventure.

2019 in Snapshots

January 8, 2020January 10, 2020Leave a comment

This one is purely for me. A 2019 year in review:

January

I finished my second ever crocheted blanket! (Husband asked for a looonnngggg blanket, so I delivered.) Oh, and I started off the year as a red-head… I love my red hair, but this was the second worst hair decision of the year.

February

We also had Valentine’s sushi and I tried my hand at Amigurumi. The sushi was delicious, but I stopped crocheting after exactly one amigurumi ball. It’s a cute ball, though.

Look at all that lack of husky hair! Ahhhhhhhh.

March

Husband got back to work on his 67 Mustang this month! Look at that engine. ❤

I also got my blonde back! Hurray! And I tried my hand at making bread from scratch. 2018 was the year of pies but I tried to diversify my baking skills in 2019.

April

Back to the races we went! How can you live in Kentucky and *not* go to Keeneland?
(Actually very easily… With all the track problems in California and now here, it makes me nervous every time we go. But I digress.)

To end the month we rekindled our youthful spirits and went to see Avengers: Endgame… At 3:00 in the morning. **Yes, 3 AM.** I haven’t stayed up until 3 AM since college, let alone to go to the movie theater! It was fun, though. And now I can say I’m still not old.

May

In May we had a visitor. That is a groundhog. And he’s coming up through ~~our patio~~ what was our nice, completed, not-broken patio. *sigh*
(Chair-cage so the Husky won’t eat Mr. Groundhog, even though he probably deserves it.)

Also in May:
I added to my tattoo collection! That makes 8 total now.

Lola ate a really big bone, and I dreamed about vacation.

My mom, sister, and I went strawberry picking! (An annual tradition.)

And we ended the month by seeing Coheed & Cambria in concert. No person in that venue had as much fun as we did that night. I think this solidified Coheed as our favorite band.

June

…but the flight was so worth it. We had a balcony room on the most beautiful ship.

We snorkeled in an underground cave in Mexico, and Jacob swam in the ocean with sea turtles, and we ate the most delicious conch fritters ever.

But our favorite part and the highlight of the trip was hiking to some of the Mayan Ruins in Belize and climbing to the top of Lamanai.

And on June 20th we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.
(Hence the romantic vacation!)

But then we had to say goodbye to paradise…

…and we came home to a Husky pupper with a couple very bad hotspots.

July

We fixed our patio, and got our fence stained, annndddddd had an accident involving a very hot grill and some very melt-able siding… All is well though, no major damage.

I reached peak adulthood as far as gift wrapping is concerned when my niece turned 12.

And then I reverted directly back to my own childhood when Kiki’s Delivery Service came back into theaters for one weekend only. I was the nerdiest one there, complete with my Kiki shirt, red bow, and Jiji tattoo.

August

and my husband’s birthday on the 3rd!
Unfortunately for him, it’s usually the same weekend… But we always carve out time to celebrate anyway, and we always have a party later on in the month to make up for it.

This year we decided on a LAN party for Jacob’s birthday!
(But we forgot to take a group picture until after I had already gone home and gone to bed. Oops!)

September

At least this pretzel protects us from Turkey Vultures, though. Whoever said that dogs don’t look up at the sky, did not know what they were talking about.

September was a big turning point for me internally; this is the first time in my life that I had the confidence to wear a crop top. Maybe that sounds silly, but it was something I had always wanted to do but never felt like I could.

we had to buy a new dishwasher in September! Which was very adult and very exciting.

And then we flooded the kitchen, which was much less adult and definitely not exciting. But after a couple days and a couple dozen trips to Lowe’s, we finally leveled up our “Replacing Large Appliances” skill in our Adult Skill Tree.

My nephew turned 15 in September, and I had my very first hummingbird in my flower garden!

And for the very last weekend of the Summer months, me and the girls hung out all day on the patio and soaked up all the sunshine we possibly could.

October

And then I got sick…
Sick isn’t so bad, though, when you’ve got cuddly doggos, and Zelda to keep you company. Also, with Alka-Seltzer brain you come up with meals like Pancakes and Chicken Tenders. I ate that meal for about 3 weeks straight.

By the second weekend, the Halloween festivities had officially begun! I went as Ciri from the Witcher and Jacob went as Inigo Montoya from the Princess Bride!

This year we had two different costume parties and my family’s pumpkin carving party.

I don’t fully dress up for the Pumpkin Carving Party, but I at least stay in spirit with fun makeup.

Even though distance leaves us missing one of our group and adulthood leaves us missing a few others, I’d say this was our best Halloween Party so far.

November

We ate lots of food, spent lots of time with our families, and shopped the sales, but mainly my November consisted of decorating for Christmas!

December

…but a LOT of bad happened this month, too. Luckily I have a supportive husband who will hold me when I cry or take shots with me on random Tuesday nights.
(But he can’t talk me down when I’ve got hair-cutting scissors in my hand… We’ll need to work on that one…)

*(This picture interrupts my train of thought, but I couldn’t not include it. She’s gone full dork.)*

And we closed out 2019 by entering the new year in true 20s style. I think Gatsby would’ve been proud.
It was a wonderful night with my favorite people.

There’s no better way to remember the closing year and celebrate the new.

A Full Day of Healthy Eating

January 3, 2020January 3, 2021Leave a comment

It’s 2020! To celebrate the new decade, I’ve been doing what any amateur adult would do and I’ve been eating all the bad food. And by bad food I obviously mean the most delicious food that is the worst for your body. I’m talking pizza. I’m talking taquitos. I’m talking all the chicken nuggets. Add all the soda pop and alcohol I’ve been consuming to replace all the water I haven’t been consuming and it’s safe to say I need to replenish some nutrients here.

So…

…this is my full day of eating when I’m being extra good to myself while also eating in a deficit.

(Actually it’s a combination of what I ate Monday and what I ate yesterday, but don’t tell the food police. I eat basically the same thing every day so it’s fine.)

Breakfast

My easiest meal. Mostly because it’s the same thing every day of my life.

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Jimmy Dean Delights: Turkey Sausage, Egg White, & Cheese English Muffin with Coffee (elixir of life) and my First Liter of Water

They’re easy, they’re healthy, and they’re delicious. I eat the same thing for breakfast every day. Listen, breakfast was always hard for me because as much as I try to make myself be a morning person, I am not a morning person. So I found something that works for me and that’s what I’ve stuck to for the past couple years. And of course I add Tapatios hot sauce. Only Tapatios.

Lunch

Lunch is the hardest meal of the day, in my opinion. I work at my husband’s business and if you know anything about owning a business you understand me when I say sometimes we don’t get to take lunch. If the phones are ringing off the hook or we’re short-staffed in the warehouse, we all jump in and help keep everything running smoothly at the expense of our “break-time.”

So here are my typical lunch options for busy days vs normal days:

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Busy Days (Monday): Subway Steak & Cheese Salad with their Chipotle Southwest Sauce and Sweet Onion Sauce for dressing

According to my metabolic type and personal research, my body functions best on higher protein, lower carb foods. (I am not one of those people who can have a cup of white rice for every meal and lose weight. I will bloat until I look like Violet Beauregarde.) So when I can, I opt for no bread. Our subway also has a drive-thru so on busy days I swing by there and eat at my desk. This is what I had on Monday.

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Normal Days (Thursday): Bird’s Eye Veggie Made Rotini Alfredo with Broccoli

This is still a very easy meal… but hey, I do have to stick this one in the microwave. Honestly, I don’t have time to cook at lunch and I even if I did, I don’t want to. This pasta is great and I usually throw in some leftover veggies from the night before; today was broccoli.

Dinner

As a rule of thumb for my dinners I try to make them:

Little to no carbs
A good source of protein
A full serving of vegetables
As little processed ingredients as possible

I already showed you my turkey scramble recipe, but I also love to make fish:

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Marinated Salmon with Steamed Broccoli

That sounds very fancy, but it is not at all. I get individually frozen salmon filets and a 30 minute marinade. When I get home from work, I thaw my salmon in cold water, then stick it in the fridge with my marinade for half an hour, then saute it in a skillet. Literally that easy. Oh, and I get steam-in-the-bag frozen broccoli so that gets popped in the microwave while I cook the salmon. Ta-da! A well balanced dinner.

And that’s basically it. A couple things to note:

I try not to snack on a daily basis because I can’t control myself around a good snack. I mean honestly, who can though?

I don’t count calories or macros anymore simply because I know the nutrient breakdown of the foods I eat regularly because I have counted calories and macros for so long. It’s redundant and doesn’t give me anything by writing it down anymore. I highly recommend it, though, if you don’t already have a good idea of what you’re consuming calorie and nutrient wise.

I drink 3 liters of water every day throughout my day, and a cup of decaf green tea before bed

Voila! A full day of eating. I’m slowly but surely putting together a blog about how I figured out how to eat healthy and how I make my “meal plans” so if all of this sounds like something you could get on board with but don’t know where to start, keep an eye out for that blog. It took me about six years to figure out how to eat healthy on my own so if you’re struggling, I feel you. The best advice I have is that the slower you start off the easier it will be to maintain changes. Give it time.

But okay, that all sounds very bloggy. I’m going to go now.

Did anyone else celebrate going into the ’20s by partying like Gatsby? First I took a drink, then my drink took a drink, then the drink took me.

Dabbling Adult

An amateur grown-up's corner of the world.

Month: January 2020