Thursday, April 5, 2012

If I didn't have to work for the man...


Obviously it's always fun to go on vacation. Three years ago we spent our spring break at the Grand Canyon and Vegas.

This was supposed to look like we were falling off
If we had won big, this blog would be so much fancier.



It's also nice to do what we are spending this break doing though - staying home and seeing what life would be like if we had won the mega millions and didn't have to work. (Hint - I wouldn't have woken up in a two bedroom apartment this morning). The problem with this is, not working is completely awesome, and it really makes me never want to go back. There is absolutely no downside to it (other than the fact that we'd probably stop getting paid).

Case in point: yesterday.

I had plans to be ladies-who-lunch with Carolyn and Casi (Casi isn't a teacher, so for her it was just a regular work day lunch). Casi works in the same building as the fancy gym that I have a week-long pass to, so it would have been criminal not to take advantage.

First, I drove downtown, and enjoyed a wonderful ten mile run (8:58 average pace!) on my favorite running route around the harbor. I even included a loop around Fort McHenry, the birthplace of our national anthem. You should all be impressed with my patriotism. 

This run would have been completely perfect if I hadn't eaten a bug. Even so, it was still pretty nice. After the run, I headed to the gym to do a class called Core Revolution, which was supposed to be a combination of Pilates and Barre, two things I really wanted to try.

See, look how fancy!

It was mainly Pilates, but that may have been a good thing, since the time we spent on the bar nearly had me laying on the floor and crying while begging for mercy. Actually, the Pilates part did that too. I thought Pilates was supposed to be for your core, so why were my shoulders on fire?


Finally, it was time to meet up with the girls for lunch. Casi's workplace gives her access to this fancy cafeteria (there were a lot of fancy things in my life yesterday) that is only for grown up office workers with the secret pass, or something. These things are really hard for teachers to understand. Anyway, we ate outside with this view.


This was a significant improvement from my usual view of my inbox during a Wednesday lunch. I didn't even have to keep my feet off the floor because there were no mice running around! 

Eric and I had plans to go to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner last night. You know how people say they get so into their work that they totally forget to eat? It's become clear to me that those people have much more interesting jobs than I do. I was working on my report card comments when I suddenly went from satisfied to shaking with hunger in under a second. I shut down the computer, woke Eric up from a nap, put on real clothes (I wear pajamas exclusively at home) and was at the door panting like a hungry dog within about 4 minutes.  Apparently typing "so and so still has not mastered the fine art of capitalizing proper nouns" for the millionth time is not scintillating enough to overcome the hunger hormone. 

Restaurants that allow you to bring your own wine are the way to go
If you haven't had Ethiopian food, they bring you giant plates of delicious bread that you use instead of utensils to scoop up your food. Enough said.

They brought us all our food family style, but we are a family that doesn't agree on what constitutes "good food" so we stuck to our own preferences (carnivore vs. herbivore). Obviously I was way too hungry to take a nice before picture, but here's our feast after we completely attacked and devoured it.
Partially eaten food for your viewing pleasure. You're welcome.
Have you ever forgotten to eat? I'm not talking about a day when you were busy and didn't get a chance, I'm talking about truly forgetting. This phenomenon absolutely fascinates me. Hunger overcomes all in my life.

What would you do all day if you didn't have to work for a living?


15 comments:

  1. Mmmm that food sounds delicious! I have never have Ethiopian food, but I'm going to keep my eye out for a restaurant!

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  2. I have forgotten to eat, but only when Faith was a newborn and I was getting like no sleep and didn't even know what day of the week it was.

    I don't work. I live the dream every day.

    I can't handle Ethiopian food. Too spicy for me. Also, it looks like poop.

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  3. I've never forgotten to eat, but I have been too busy to eat and then I just get nasty and angry. I'm so glad I still have four more days before I start working again. I love vacation.

    If only we were closer, we could hang out today.

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  4. Man, you're getting speedy! I have a ton of catching up to do.

    After about two days off work, staying home, I start to go apeshit. I'd have to have freelance jobs or a very time consuming hobby if I didn't work.

    FORGET to eat?? How is that even possible?! To answer your question, no. It's never happened to me and I call BS to people who say that it's happened to them (I give Kara a free pass. I hear newborns can be time-sucks).

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  5. I shouldn't read your blog before lunch. Now I'm hungry.

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  6. i have never, ever forgotten to eat! how is that possible? hunger pains can put me in the fetal position sometimes. i won't even mention the mood change!

    so you got a taste of barre?!?! it's intense, huh?

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  7. Another thing to do with Alyssa: Eat Ethiopian Food. We have a long list going. We have to run a million miles together, go to Bikram Yoga and the get Ethiopian. No one I hang out with likes it so I never go anymore.

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  8. I'm not sure I have ever forgotten to eat. Right now, I usually forget to stop.

    If I didn't have to work for a living (and didn't have kiddos to care for), I would spend my days, running, hiking, writing, reading, traveling, cooking and eating! I'd take a day off from all that and lay by the pool every once in a while.

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  9. I have forgotten to eat sometimes. Sometimes it turns out poorly. The most notable example was when I ran 20mi in the morning and 20mi in the afternoon, forgetting to eat in-between. Significant cramping and dizziness occurred. Stupidity paid me back.

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  10. I don't ever forget to eat. Period. Sometimes I'm violently ill and I MIGHT eat a little less. Even when I'm so busy it doesn't happen. Tim does that all the time though, and I just don't understand.

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  11. I almost told you what the hunger hormone is called. Nerd. Anyways, I've been forgetting to eat, but that's because I've been in such a fog that I get starving, ignore it until I'm less busy, and by then I've stopped feeling hungry (the sensation goes away eventually). I think it's cause you can't eat in the NICU. And yeah, I'm like Kara in another month because I'm refusing to go back to work forever. Win!

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  12. I've only forgotten to eat once, and there were extenuating circumstances.

    Despite what Kara and Sarah say - all three of us work. Raising a small human means you have to be in a certain spot at a certain time and that counts. :)

    Now, if the question was, what would I do if I had a free babysitter for the day...

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  13. I snack regularly between meals but I still get hit with hunger sometimes and need to eat immediately!! I blame running. Never tried Ethiopian but I want to.

    I could be a lady who lunches until I find a job...but I don't know many people to lunch with yet here :( For the week in NJ after I stopped work and before we moved I enjoyed meeting my friends near their work for lunch :) But now, mostly it means I run, shower, waste time on the internet, go grocery shopping, cook all the meals and clean. I feel like I'm not doing anything worthwhile though so I'm going to start volunteering and starting to consider part-time jobs for which I'm probably overqualified, just to have something else to do.

    Eric makes the best faces for your pictures :)

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  14. That Core Revolution class sounds like it was brutal! Pilates normally leaves my abs and arms feeling pretty tired.

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Thanks for commenting! Comments make me probably more happy than they should.