Football Friday Five:

  1. Please ignore the derpy look I have on my face. I was stealthily sneaking this selfie in my new office (which is still the current Membership Director’s Office as she retires at the end of the year.) But, College football is finally upon us! I’m back on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus (Go Huskers!) and it’s a long holiday weekend. Wins all around. AND we’re leaving at 2pm today. Hooray!
  2. Today is also payday. And it’s my first payday at my new job with my new raise. Hello happy and flush bank account! 🙂 
  3. On that note, I’m going to buy my new running shoes after work today. Most likely these beautiful creatures in blue. Can’t wait.
  4. I think I’m ready to jump back into the dating pool again. It has been 3 months since I last dated anyone. I think I’m ready to try again.
  5. September looks to be very, very busy. I’m excited for it.

It’s nice to be needed

  • My former boss at the Ocho texted me over lunch today. The new assignment editor (my dear friend!) started today and they needed to make some logins for her into the newsroom software and internet updating software. When he asked the Engineers to do it, their reply was “uh, Melissa always did that.”
  • So former boss asked me to walk him through doing it. I tried to help over the phone, but, (imagine this!) the boss doesn’t have administrator privileges so he couldn’t change the system. Awesome. I did, however, make her a web login from my new job location. Love that.
  • Then a reporter texted me, asking me for my former roomie (the state Senator’s) cell phone number for a story. I obliged. Good stuff.
  • Makes me feel warm and fuzzy to know that even though I’ve been gone nearly a month, they still (kinda) need me. 🙂
  • In other news, I need new running shoes, stat. Mine have just under 500 miles on them and Oh boy, can I feel it! There is no cushion left. I’m making an attempt to get those this week.

That’s all I got people, have a good night!

Scenes from a pretty perfect weekend.

A Saturday morning run, a haircut with a fun braided ‘do, time in the pool with my wonderful family, tennis and brunch with some of my favorite people, and a giant watermelon that yielded 6 containers when I cut it.

Monday, why do you have to interrupt my fun?

New Job Update

I’ve been asked about how the new job is going. And I realized that I haven’t told you guys how the past two weeks have been going, my bad!

  • New Job is great. I’m the Membership Director for a National Non-Profit that supports honors students at colleges and universities around the country. Its a big job, but I’m pretty excited about it.
  • There is still so much to learn. And we’re getting a brand new membership database next month, so I have to learn the old AND the new! Stress! 
  • Things are ever-evolving at work and so there are new things being thrown at me and new responsibilities. It’s exciting. They really seem to value me, and my skill set. 
  • It is COMPLETELY outside of my wheelhouse of what I went to school to do; TV News Producing. However, I feel like I have the skills to be awesome at it.
  • I work 7am to 4pm. Some pretty sweet hours. HOWEVER, they are hard to make work for someone who likes to run outside before work in the morning. Currently, it is much too dark at 5am so I’m running on the treadmill. It’s not ideal, but it will do.
  • And speaking of that, who am I? I willingly set my alarm to get me up at 4:50am so I’m on the treadmill by 5:10ish (because, let’s be honest, I hit the snooze and have to wake up before I can bang out 3+ miles in the morning!)
  • I’ve been running outside some in the afternoons too (when it’s not fires-of-hades hot outside) which it currently is.
  • On that note, I got a Fitbit this week. I did the Flex and I love it. I like the silent alarms, and I am OBSESSED with tracking and getting my steps in. I talked on the phone with my friend Andrew for 45 minutes the other night. I paced the entire house while we spoke and managed to get another mile in! My roomie came home in the midst of that and was concerned that I was nervous about who I was talking to! Nope, just trying to be more active.
  • I’ve hit my 10,000 goal so far each day this week. I even go for walks at lunch and pace around the office. (We’re located in one of the Residence Halls on The University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus). So I see a lot of students all day long.
  • I don’t want to jinx it, but the steps and watching what I eat seems to be working; as I am down 4 pounds! Ideally, I’d like to lose 11 more, but I will be happy if I can get 6 more off. Baby steps.
  • Big weekend ahead; dinner for my ex-coworker who is leaving The Ocho today, pool time and a hair cut tomorrow, and then tennis with my bestie on Sunday. Busy, busy. 
  • COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON STARTS NEXT WEEK!!!!!  I love my Huskers! Go Big Red!!

“No two persons ever read the same book” -Edmund Wilson

In a text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard — they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you. Tag some friends and make sure you let your friends know you’ve tagged them.

Karla tagged me for this and I LOVE the idea! I’ve been a big reader my whole life. Here is my list:

  1. Jemima J- By Jane Green
  2. The Harry Potter Series -J.K. Rowling
  3. He Loves Lucy-Susan Donovan
  4. Fangirl -Rainbow Rowell
  5. Beautiful Ruins – Jess Walter
  6. Bitter is the New Black –  Jen Lancaster
  7. Born To Run Christopher McDougall
  8. Eleanor and Park – Rainbow Rowell
  9. The Bride Quartet By Nora Roberts
  10. Before I Fall – Lauren Oliver

These aren’t all of the ones, just the ones I could think of. Some good memories lie in each of those books!

I’m tagging xfitlibrarian, two-o-nine, becky-balances and davidsgoals

5 Random Facts

The lovely Ryan tagged me to post 5 random facts about myself. In no particular order they are:

  1. My left thumb is shorter than my right thumb. Like significantly shorter.  Doctors have no clue why. One even said that with something like that “wrong” with me, it was amazing there wasn’t MORE wrong (i.e., developmental problems.) Hrumph to that I say!
  2. I’ve piloted an airplane TWICE. When I turned 30 I decided to do some crazy things. Running a Full Marathon and learning how to fly a plane were among them. Check and check.
  3. I spent my 18th birthday in Ireland. Coolest birthday EVER! My bday is the day before St. Patrick’s day and my big brother was in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln marching band. They went to play in the St. Patrick’s Day parade. My parents decided we’d go too. It was awesome.
  4. I have been best friends with my BFF’s since I was 5 years old. That means we’ve been besties for nearly 28 years! We grew up literally right around the corner from each other. Call it fate or serendipity…either way, I’m glad these girls are in my life.
  5. If I would have been born a boy, I would have been named Timothy. Totally random Melissa fact. 

If you read this and are so inclined, please consider yourself tagged.

Crap, it’s humid. 85% humidity, so that’s fun.

5 miles//57:14. A decent run. So much sweat though! The bottom of my shirt is the only thing that’s still dry!

Full confession: I really haven’t been training for the Omaha Half Marathon next month. Whoops. When I ran it last year I hadn’t trained then and did just fine. Somehow I don’t think that will be the case this year.

So, operation find my running mojo has commenced. More running. More biking. More yoga. I’m making changes, because that seems to be what the theme of this summer is! 🙂

If you’re unhappy with your weight, Melissa, then stop doing what you’ve been doing. Duh. It seems so simple, right? But we don’t want to face the harsh truth that we are our own worst enemy at times. Particularly when it comes to self sabotage. I’m just as guilty as anyone else; I know I can’t have jr. Mints in the house, but do I still buy them? You betcha! I stay up too late, then can’t get up and run. I make every excuse in the book.

But it comes down to this: I want those 7 pounds gone. They’ve suck around since June. I haven’t tried hard enough to get rid of them.

That starts today.

Here we go!