My First Wednesday Hodgepodge

Okay, so I've decided it's time to end my blogging hiatus.  I've taken a long enough break since the A to Z Challenge.  I got myself through busy season at work, and now that we're starting a renovation project at work, I'm going to have boat loads of free time to bore you all with my ramblings.


To work my way back into the scene, I decided to join the Wednesday Hodgepodge.  My mom started participating a few weeks ago, and it just sounds like fun!  So, thank you in advance to Joyce over at From This Side of the Pond for giving me something to write about on Wednesdays!  Without further ado....

1. Summer officially rolls in with the Hodgepodge, for those of us in the Northern hemisphere anyway. What song says summer 2012 to you?

I now live in Phoenix.  It's hotter than the surface of the sun here in the summer.  People think I'm crazy when I say that I prefer the humid summers of Washington, DC to summers here, but believe me, I'm not lying.  The heat is gross and I hate it more than I could actually put into words.  So, this is an oldie but a goodie.  I think Nelly's got it right by pointing out that it's so hot all you want to do is strip.

2. What is the quintessential summer food?

Great White Shark Popsicles!  I used to eat these all the time in the summer during my brother's little league games.

Photo Courtesy of: ebay.com 

3. I've spent a lot of time traipsing up and down the NJ turnpike in recent weeks. Did you know the rest stops on the turnpike are named after people who lived or worked in NJ? Clara Barton, Walt Whitman, James Fenimore Cooper, Molly Pitcher, Joyce Kilmer, Thomas Edison, and Grover Cleveland just to name a few. Of those I listed who would you most like to have known and why?

Even though Walt Whitman's rest stop is one of my favorites, I'm going to have to go with Clara Barton.  She did such amazing things, not only for women and feminism, but for society as a whole by founding the American Red Cross.  I think knowing her would have been amazing.

4. At what age did you move out of your parent's house and what prompted the move?

I was 18, and I was moving north to Flagstaff to attend Northern Arizona University.  I've spent most of my time since then away from home.  For the four years I was in college I only came home for short visits and when they made us leave the dorms during extended vacations at school.  I moved home for a year right after college before I embarked on my 3 year adventure in Washington, DC, and now I'm back again.  I've been back almost a year, though it doesn't seem like that long.

5. What's more satisfying to you-saving time or saving money?

Right now?  Money.  I do anything to be able to save some money.

6. Name something you think brings out the good in people.

Like most things in life, I think this varies by person.  I really don't think there's one thing more than any other that brings out the best in everyone.  Some things that I think are up there?  Laughter, good music, puppies and faith in something bigger than us.

7. This last question comes to you courtesy of Kathy at Reflections...are you taking a vacation or staycation this summer? If so where are will you go? If a staycation is on the calendar have you made any special plans to fill the time?

Due to a renovation project going on at work this summer, I'll be taking a lot of time away from my job.  Unfortunately most of it will be unpaid, so I'll be doing a lot of staycationing and working on my tan (I'm blessed with the ability to tan while wearing a very high SPF sun block.  Please be safe in the sun this summer everyone!  Skin cancer is nothing to brush off.)!  However, my sister and I are headed to glorious San Diego for two days at the end of July, and I'm hoping to make some day trips up to Flagstaff to get out of the heat.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I'm really tired, and should probably go to sleep (it's 10:20 PM as I'm writing this, and past my bed time!), but I'm sucked in to the baseball game that I already thought might never end, but is now, of course, in extra innings.  The D-Backs need to lock it up and finish this game!

Thanks for reading!  And don't forget to head over to This Side of the Pond and visit Joyce!

A to Z Challenge Wrap Up

Is anyone shocked that I'm two days late writing this?  You shouldn't be!  The great organizers of the challenge asked us to post our A to Z wrap up on Monday.  This is really the first time I've had time to sit down and write since writing my "Z" post.  So, without further ado, my reflections.

First, in case you missed my intro to the challenge, my mom made me do it!  I'm just kidding, I'm an adult, I make my own choices.  I jumped on board when she brought it up.  I thought it sounded like a wonderful idea!  We made the decision back at the beginning of the year.  I figured that was plenty of time to plan ahead and pre-write some things.  As per usual, I forgot about my talent for procrastinating, so none of that planning or pre-writing ever happened.  Before I knew it, it was March 31st, and I was scrambling to figure out what I was going to do about this challenge.

I think the best thing I did was to have a theme for my challenge.  I used the challenge to create my bucket list.  Some of the things on my list were already part of my bucket list.  Others were things I thought of when I got stuck on a letter.  I think without having a theme I would have had an even harder time than I ended up having.

The timing was the worst part for me.  April is my busiest month at work.  I came home most nights with a headache and zero desire to be on a computer any longer, let alone try to be creative and write a blog post.  Then there's post-season hockey.  I have tickets to all post-season home games for the Coyotes, so I've been attending those.  Then when they aren't home we're watching the games on TV, plus being the hockey loving family that we are, we're following all of the other teams that are still in the running and watching a lot of those games on TV.  Needless to say, April was a bit hectic.

Through the first part of the month I was able to write on Sundays and get most of the next week written. It was the end of the alphabet that got tricky.  I mean really, do we really need any of the letters after "T"??!!  I couldn't think of anything good enough to pre-write it, so I was writing everything last minute.  Sometimes it worked out okay, and then there's the letter "X", which I skipped, and I still don't feel bad about it!

Overall, I think the Challenge is a great thing, and I mostly enjoyed participating.  Will I do it again?  Probably.  Mostly to prove to myself that I can manage my time well and not be stressed about it!

Last, but not least, I just want to say thank you to the A to Z team for putting this all together.  Also, thank you to all of my new followers and everyone who left great comments throughout the challenge.  I didn't get around to visiting everyone as much as I would have liked to, but with work slowing down now, I'm hoping to finally make the rounds and visit all of you now.

Have a great rest of the week everyone!

Z is for Zip Lining

So, I really haven't done well with the end of the challenge! I blame the Coyotes. Post-season hockey has consumed my life, and has left me little time for writing. In the last two weeks I think I was free after work a grand total of 3 nights. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally okay with all of my extra curricular activities, but the challenge has suffered because of it. Okay, moving on to the final letter of the alphabet... One of my girlfriends went zip lining on her honeymoon in Costa Rica. She had such an amazing time and said it was so much fun. I'm not generally much of a thrill seeker. You'll never get me to skydive, base jump or bungee jump, but there are certain things that seem fun (i.e. hang gliding, SCUBA diving and zip lining). So we'll ad zip lining to my list of things I'll be doing when I get the chance to travel.

Y is for Yoga

To start, I know I skipped "X." I don't feel bad about is though. X is an awful letter, and I was too exhausted to try and figure out what to do for it. So that's that...moving on! Yoga is something I'vee done before. The bucket list aspect of it is that I'd like to get better at it. I've only done it a handful of times, and while I enjoyed it, I always feel kind of awkward moving through the poses. I think that's mostly because I'm very self conscience and I don't feel comfortable in my own skin most of the time. I'm working on getting past that,but like most things in life that takes time. Back to yoga. I want to be better at it. I want to get to the point that I'm comfortable enough doing it that I can try Bikram yoga. For those that don't know, Bikram yoga is a yoga class conducted in a very hot room. I've heard it's a very intense, but also very rewarding, experience. I suppose step one would be figuring out my gym does their yoga classes. So once our hockey season is over and I can actually commit to going more than sporadically, I'll be getting started on this one.

W is for Whoops!

So, things at work have been a little hectic and stressful lately, and I completely spaced on writing my "w" post for the day!  So I apologize that it's now Friday on the east coast and my blog is super late.

Now....what are some things that could be bucket list items for "w?"  Maybe waterskiing or wake boarding.  I really want to learn how to become a witch....but people claim Hogwarts doesn't actually exist, and if it did I'm way past the starting age of 11 anyway!

That's about all I can think of in my current state of exhaustion.  Please feel free to leave any "w" related suggestions!

Have a fabulous Friday Everyone!  :)

V is for Volcano

Part of my future travel plans include a visit to Hawaii.  I'm lucky enough to work for a great hotel company, and we're opening a new property there next year.  I think that makes it a perfect time to go for the first time!

Much to my mom's dismay, most of plans for Hawaii include laying around on the beach and just relaxing in the gorgeous surroundings for a while.  Don't get me wrong...I love being a tourist and running around and doing things.  I did live in DC for 3 years and played tour guide fairly often!  However, I would like to go on a vacation soon where I don't need to be running around being touristy.  I want to just go and relax.  Lay on the beach....visit the spa....have a few cocktails.

However, there are a few things in Hawaii that I'm not willing to pass up.  I'll need to go to Pearl Harbor while I'm there, and I also want to do outdoorsy things like diving and hiking and biking.  I've done a little research via the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and their list of things to do sounds amazing to me.  Mostly the hiking and the lava viewing.  I can't think of a better way to spend the day if I'm not going to spend it laying in the sun on the beach!

U is for Unyielding Faith

Ok, so this won't be a bucket list post. It also won't be a post about religion like the title might lend you to believe. For 15 years my family has followed and supported the Phoenix Coyotes, and like all Arizona sports its been rather difficult to do at times (I like to refer to the Gretzky years as "the dark ages"). This year though, I knew we had something special. We have a great coach in Dave Tippett. We acquired a Vezina caliber goalie in Mike Smith. We have one of the classiest, hardest working captains in Dhane Doan, and a whole crew of hard working players to back all of them up. We dont have an owner. The NHL owns the team, and so far we've proven that you don't need an owner to win games. In all of franchise history, (even going back to the Winnepeg days) the team has never won their division. Until this year when they became the Pacific Division Champions. In all of franchise history, the team has never made it past the first round of the playoffs. Until last night. The Coyotes were matched up against the Chicago Blackhawks for round one. I was confident that we could beat them since our record against them was really good in the regular season. However, every hockey fan knows that once the race for the cup starts, all of that flies out the window. It wasn't easy to take down the Blackhawks. They're a very talented team, and The United Center is famous for being one of the toughest arenas to play in because of how intense their fans are. For whatever reason, the United Center didn't phase the Coyotes. After winning last night they were 5-0 in Chicago this season. The series went six games. The teams set a record when their first 5 games went to over time. It was a physical series. During game 2, Chicago's Andrew Shaw was suspended for 3 games after putting an illegal hit on Phoenix goalie Mike Smith. Luckily for the Coyotes their superstar goalie was not badly injured and was able to finish the game. Then in game 3 the Coyotes lost Raffi Torres after he put an illegal hit on Marion Hossa. It was pretty scary as Hossa wasn't as lucky as Smith. He had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher and was sent to the hospital at Northwestern almost immediately. He left the hospital that night, but is now out indefinitely with a head injury. Torres got a 25 game suspension, so he'll miss the rest of the post-season and part of next season. The Coyotes had a 3 games to 1 lead going into game 5. It was a home game, and my brother and I were really hoping they'd be able to put the series to bed at home where we could be there to see it happen live. It wasn't in the cards though. After going into overtime yet again, the Blackhwks were able to pull out the win. That brings us to last nights game 6. I actually missed watching the majority of the game due to a prior engagement, but from what I hear, it was a doosie! I did get home just in time to see time run out and the celebration that ensued. I got chills, and I also got a little teary-eyed. The team flies home tomorrow to prepare for round two against the Nashville Predators. They will likely arrive to a huge crowd of fans, and I wish I didn't have to work so that I could be there to help welcome them home. Regardless of what happens next, I will never forget all of the milestones that were achieved so far this year. However, I have faith that this tem has what it takes to go all the way. We'll just keep believing and playing "hockey the hard way" and it will all pay off in the end. Stay tuned, because you know I'll keep you updated and what happens next!