It'll be easy they said..

Well, well, well.

Life became a wee bit on the difficult side since I last was here.

Who am I even talking to? The folks who did read this little corner of the webz are probably long gone. Who would blame them? Not I.

Anyways, approximately 2 days after my last post in mid December, I broke up with my boyfriend of 5 years. I'm not one to get dish my whole life story, but let's just say emotional cheating is a real thing my friends. I had to do what was best for me, and right now I think its best that I'm alone and happy rather than with someone and unhappy.

So! Currently cohabiting with the ex till he finds a place, which is SUPER fun. But not. Also trying to adjust to a new schedule since I'm taking care of Tiger all of the time, working full time, and still making time for the gym and hanging out with friends to stay busy. Sounds silly, but honestly since I left the house earlier in the mornings, he took Tiger out and fed her, and he took her out late at night for safety reasons. Now that I have to do all of that on my own, its been a bit of a time adjustment. Obviously people do it all the time, just gotta get used to it.

AND my apartment will be just that. MY apartment. I think I'm excited? Slightly nervous though. I watch too much Law & Order, so I know every little noise is gonna freak me out. Plus my neighborhood isn't the greatest well lit area. Ugh.

All of this to say, I'm a little overwhelmed with life at the moment, to say the least. I seriously don't know how people find the time/energy/sanity to blog and keep up with everything that goes with it. For now, I'm backing off till I get my shit together. It all seemed so simple when I was just reading blogs, but good lord was I wrong. Not to say I won't pick it back up eventually, but for now I'm focusing on myself and being happy/ok alone with my doggy, finding a new job, finding a new place to live when my lease is up come summer time, and hopefully a brand new city to call home.

Who knows! I'll miss my bloggy friends, but no worries, I'll still be on Instagram, so follow me! @simply_crystaal

-Crystal

My Not-So-DC Apartment

So let's chat about my little home. Promise, the next time I blog it'll be about my vaca from like...early November...#awkward #IdowhatIwant.

sup, google. (Arlington, VA)

We moved to Arlington, which is right outside of Washington, DC (literally 5 minute drive..I'm not kidding) in July and let's just say I had no freakin idea what we were doing. I've always relied on my mom or my alma mater to figure out the whole living situation and I just kind of tagged along, because like the blog says, I'm not a grown up. Just bein honest. I lived on campus all 3.5 years: 2 in a dorm, 1 in an on campus townhouse with friends, and half a year in the sorority house. After I graduated I lived with my mom and brother, so much fun, but not. So when the time came to leave the nest before I lost my mind living with my overbearing (but lovable) mom and angsty teenage brother, the boyfriend and I looked at some apartments and just kind of said, yea this one is nice and we can afford it...we'll take it. Looking back, I'm sure we would have looked at more apartments in the area, but what can ya do. We love it for the most part and Tiger hasn't bitten anyone yet, so we're happy.

The most daunting part of finding an apartment for me was that it was basically the city, and I've grown up in the suburbs my whole life. Ya know, the whole soccer moms, minivans, people talking in the streets and waving as you drive by, 30 minutes from the nearest mall....yep that's me. So this whole fast paced living thing was a bit much. Add on rent, gas, power, and cable bills and you've got Crystal panicking/rocking back and forth in the corner with wide eyes.

Once I got past that, and we moved in, the fun part began: how do we make it ours? Naturally, I decorated, after Leon said he liked the colors black and brown as accents....YEA NOT HAPPENIN BRO. I, on the other hand like bright colors, because bright colors make people happy. Which is why I was thrilled to see our bathroom was all white!

You can't see it, but our towels are the same blue, with yellow cloths. All from Target for under 30 bucks!

To kind of match the theme, we got a kitchen mat with the same blue and other bright colors.

This is literally 3/4 of our kitchen. Tiny is not even the word.

Told ya..and we share it with the dog's bowls. ugh.

Moving on. I found that even little details make a difference in an apartment. To me, you don't have to go all out with decorating, and let's face it, you're too poor for all that anyways, so stick to the basics and make them pop. I'm super fortunate to have a mom that wanted me out as much as I wanted to leave, so she helped out and bought a lot of the essentials! She even gave us her sectional couch and bought us a table from IKEA (Note: IKEA will be a lifesaver for new apartments. Everything is cheap. And durable.)! 

Part of the couch and our table. Grumpy boyfriend included.

The picture above the table was a complete luck of the draw from the thrift store down the street! Again, use your resources, don't be afraid of the thrift stores/secondhand stores/dumpster.. no lie, we most definitely grabbed a table from next to the dumpster.

Anyways. Anywhere in the vicinity of DC is gonna be expensive. Our apartment is only 1 bed, 1 bath, but let me tell ya, we pay a pretty penny for this place. And it's not that great.. The apartments were built in the 70s so the whole windows sealing thing is not happening very well. And the dryer doesn't work for more than 1 load every 2 hours (it gets overheated...weird). I don't know, its just that we pay a lot for not so great things happenin in here. Why? Because we both work around here and Arlington is like young professional central! So much to do and see. Sure I would love to go crazy with decorating and exploring the city, but again...POOR.

Which is whyyyy, I felt like I hit the jackpot when I found out about the website Urban Compass! Basically it helps you to find apartments in NYC while giving you the scoop on what you're getting into, what the neighborhoods are like, all while telling you everything you need to know about the actual apartments you're looking at. WHY don't they have this for DC?!?! This would have been a God Send while we were apartment hunting. You can adjust listings by price, bedrooms, location, and it has pictures! I'm in love.

Of course now that I'm trying to screen shot the website to show you all how freakin amazing it is, my computer decides that it doesn't wanna do that right now. Awesome. Whatever. Go to the wesbite and browse around because I'm about to start a petition to get this loveliness down here in the nations capital.

Sorry my computer sucks and doesn't do screenshots well, but here's my face to make up for it.

-Crystal

I'm the Birthday Bitch!

I have always been a birthday person. That obnoxious person that insists on telling any and everyone that its their birthday and creates a Facebook event for whatever I end up doing? Yep, that's me. That person who sings and jumps around the bar to Taylor Swift's song, '22' when they turned 22? Riiiight here. Needless to say, folks were surprised when I said that my birthday this year would be preeetty low key.

My birthday was yesterday, in case you missed the billboard in Times Square. Jk, that didn't happen. Honestly, not much was different besides the fact that I filled it with my favorite things. I woke up and Leon gave me my gift, which was a handwritten letter that made me cry (per usual) and a $100 gift card to Old Navy! Hollaaaa!! Super cheap and amazing quality workout clothes, and their normal clothes are just as cute for the young professional! Then I went to my faaavorite kickboxing class, because I burn easily 1000 calories in that class, and ya girl was tryin to make some room for the macros that were about to not be followed during the day.

sorry not sorry. just keepin it real.

The boyfriend and I got Vietnamese after lounging around for a bit, and sweet babybee geezus it was AMAZE. We were regulars and haven't been since we moved in July and we were scared they wouldn't remember us, but no worries, free drinks as always #perks. I got rare steak pho (HOLY YUM) and boyfriend got chicken curry. Hilarity ensued. This lady who didn't speak that great of English asked me to take a picture of her. No big deal, I gotchu girl. And then she said she didn't like it and was trying to get me to understand what to do.. Whatever, I gotchu.....and then she asked me to get up OUT of my seat and take another picture. At this point I'm like wait what am I on Punk'd? I have a very animated face, so people were starting to laugh, as it is a very small restaurant and I was very amused. Apparently she didn't like my picture taking skills because she asked another girl to take her picture. Little bitch. She then proceeded to take selfies for the next 20 minutes. Mind you, she was at least 40. Do you, boo. If you're ever in the area, hit up Pho Factory in Alexandria, VA and you won't be disappointed! 

Afterwards, I got froyo because it's my weakness and I haven't had it in easily 3 months. I don't care that its freezing outside or that we were the only people in the shop. My name is Crystal and I'm addicted to froyo. Plus they had eggnog flavor AND peppermint/chocolate mixed soooo I was basically forced against my will. Went and saw my mom and low and behold, she got me a Nutribullet!!! 

I'll unpack it and show you guys when I use it/probably break it!

Almost peed my pantaloons. I think she feels guilty for buying me crap gifts as a kid so I always get bombass birthday gifts now. I'm not even saying that to be a snotball, we all laugh about it now. She would get me coats and scarves most years, ya know essentials. That's what I get for being a winter baby born 2 weeks from Christmas.

Moving on, the boyfriend and I drove up to Silver Spring, MD for dinner and a concert and had a great time! We went to La Malinche, a Mexican tapas restaurant. It. was. amazing. Bacon wrapped dates filled with cheese are my new favorite thing. So if you feel like sending me some, I'd be ok with that. The show we went to was Leon's favorite rapper, Jay Electronica, and it was pretty good! I realized yet again that I am very miniature sized compared to the rest of the world. Barely 5'4 and I couldn't see a damn thing in the standing room only venue the whole time. Sigh, to be tall.. Also, everyone I told was freaking out about us going to a show he wanted to go to on my birthday, but I really didn't see the big deal? I know its his fav, so I'd just be an asshole for saying no, plus we don't have shit else to do. We're the youngest old people in the world. We actually left the show early because it was a 40 minute drive home, Jay had already performed, and we both realized that it was 10:45. Wayyyy past our bedtime. We laughed about it, drove home, and played with Tiger for a bit to wear her out before bed. All in all, solid birthday full of good food and fun times!

Ugh, I know you guys missed her sweet face.

-Crystal

I had a moment in my car

No, I didn't poo my pants. Although that actually would've made for a hilarious post...

Anywhoooo, tomorrow (Dec. 7) is my birthday, so tonight (it's Saturday. Yes, I know that no one reads blogs on Saturdays, but I really wanted to write this down!) a good friend of mine that I've known since 8th grade took me out to dinner around where I used to live at the beginning of the year. So I was drivin down the street, listening to music on my phone and I passed my old house and it just brought so many memories back. I was listening to Overcome, by Juliette Commagere, and its kind of an emotional song about life, moving forward, looking back and it just got me alllllll in my feelings for a hot second.

Just looking around while I was driving all I could think of was that this neighborhood was where I changed my life. This place is where I started to run, SLOWLY, but running nonetheless. I lost 65 pounds running there...well, that and the gym. But you know what I mean. These sidewalks knew me before I knew me, and they experienced the changes with me. I know those sidewalks like the back of my hand. I know where the cracks rise and can trip you up... I may or may not have tripped in February and scraped my knee, but that's besides the point. I trained for my first half marathon on those sidewalks; I know just how far 3 miles is, how far 2 miles is, what time the buses come and fill the sidewalks with annoying people who don't move for runners... all that good stuff. For a moment my eyes filled with tears and it surprised me because I never understood when people got emotional about their weight loss stories. I've always been happy and proud of myself, but never to the point of tears. Mostly because I end up laughing and then I feel like a freak. But while Overcome played in the background, I finally got it. And by golly, it felt good. Back to the original story though, me and my friend went to Bonefish Grill and I had steak and crabcake, broccoli, and butternut squash, so I felt really good about my choices. Let's get a slow clap going...no? That's fine.

In lighter news, I saw my little today! For non sorority folks out yonder, in sororities, an older member takes a new member under wing in a sense, to show them the ropes and give them a sense of belonging since sorority life can be very overwhelming and its easy to get lost in the excitement of it all, especially in big chapters. Thankfully my chapter was only 50 women, but still. That's a lot of girls. So I took a little in my sophomore year, and my little joined as a freshman. We honestly didn't click at first, but by my junior year she was one of my closest friends, and is still a best friend to this day. I see her maybe once a year now that we've both graduated and today she was in the area so we met up for lunch with her sister, her sister's boyfriend, and her sister's boyfriend's brother. Lots of people, I know. Keep up bro. Anywho, meet the little one!

I just wanted to share my little moment with the interwebz. It really made me want to do more and make lasting memories where we live now, so here's to the rest of December and 2015! Go make some memories, folks! Also, pinky promise I'll talk about my Boston trip, that was like a month ago....next week!

-Crystal

Thanksgivin roadtrippin

Hellooooo

Hope you all had a super Thanksgiving and that you're all currently sitting on your couch finishing off the leftovers, because Lord knows that's exactly what I'm doing.

It was actually my first Thanksgiving away from home and I admittedly had a weeeee bit of anxiety. Still trying to figure out how I've managed to avoid Thanksgiving with my boyfriend's family for almost 5 years that we've been together. Weird. It was an interesting set up let me tell ya...I'll start from the beginning.

First of all, I worked out Wednesday morning and the gym was empty. Twas GLORIOUS. Moving on.

Every year since we went away to college, my amigas and I have had the tradition of meeting up in our hometown of Manassas, VA to go out to the bars and be all around reckless the night before Thanksgiving. So since I had plans to be out of town, I somehow convinced Leon that we should leave Thanksgiving day at 5 am. Yea. Stupid, I know. I couldn't miss it this year though!! One of my besties was back in town from London (she's been gone since March!) and my other bestie was back too! (she lives in bumfuck nowhere VA now..) So we were all nice and drunk at a townie bar, saw a million people from highschool (I was drunk so I was happy to see everyone..if I was sober..not so much probably) and had an all around good time.

There were more of us, but the other friends left earlier. Couldn't haaaang! Also we all look sober, which is good. We got some Taco Hell (college girl in me truly enjoyed it) and went to sleep. Needless to say, when Leon called me at 5 am saying he was outside and ready to go, I was most definitely still halfway drunk/halfway hungover. That 3 hour car ride was not enjoyable. Thank God Leon's parents are the most chill people on earth/I've met them a million times, otherwise I would just be that hot mess of a girlfriend who came in and went to sleep for a couple hours on the couch. Cute, Crystal.. realllll cute.

But the show must go on. Once I awakened from my slumber and chugged some gatorade, we went to Leon's aunts house for fooooood and I stuffed my facehole with all of the amazing things and then some. I didn't take pictures because 1. I hate when people do that. We all ate basically the same thing bro. 2. You don't need to see the mountains of food I ate. You might judge me.

We spent the rest of the weekend visiting his relatives and hanging out on his great aunt's farm. She has chickens, ducks, pigs, 2 dogs, 5 cats, turkeys, and some other bird that I didn't recognize.. His aunt is the sweetest woman ever, and pretty much the matriarch of the family. I've been trying since I met her to win her approval, because I know how much she means to Leon.. and I think I did it! She's so hard to read because she doesn't show her emotions unless she's laughing, which is not often I don't think haha. But apparently she collects quilts from all over (thrift stores, ones she's had made, flea markets, different countries...) and she only gives them to people she really cares for... well, guess who got a quilt?!?! THIS GIRL. I almost peed my pants and cried at the same time. 

Not the best quality, but I love it! Probably because of who it's from.

The next day we came home after going to see another one of Leon's relatives and stocking up on leftovers. After my first holiday away from home and with Leon's family, I have to say that it felt really good, ya know? Like, things are moving in the right direction. Usually I'm very quiet and softspoken around his family because I'm just not fully comfortable yet (HAHA Crystal, softspoken?! I know.), but this time I talked to everyone and Leon could actually leave me alone without me freaking out and sweating like a weirdo. Of course I missed my mom, but no worries, I'll be home for Christmas!

Now, time to work off this food. I surprisingly didn't gain much, but I didn't care much because I woke up and took my ass to the gym this morning to use that food as fuel! No time for wallowing and excess cardio over here folks. Hop to it.

-Crystal

Starting Over

I'm currently laughing hysterically, because I thought for sure by now that someone would have hacked my sorry excuse for a blog and begun selling crack or something else proposterous. I don't know, my mind goes to weird places. So, I haven't been here for liiiike a month. Nothing intense, I just realized that I was putting way too much pressure on myself to make this a thing. Let's be real. I have no desire to write 5 days a week, and I was freaking out about it. Pretty much for no reason. I seriously don't have shit to say 5 days a week. I don't even talk to my best friend 5 days a week. From here on out I'm gonna chill the fuck out and write when I feel like it. Probs 3-4 times a week. Who knows.

So what's been going on in blog world? I feel like I'm showing up late to a reunion or something right now. Seriously haven't read any of my favs since last time I blogged. Awkwardddd. I've got a lot of catching up to do.

What's been going on with me, you say? Well I haven't solved world hunger or won the Nobel Prize, so there's that. Quick review (some of these baby reviews will turn into actual posts, don't worry) shall we?

Went to Boston with my friends! Most of them have known each other since they were like 5; I joined the group in 7th grade. So it's been almost 15 years that we've been friends. One of my friends got an internship in Boston and most of us have never been, so why the hell not, right? We had so much fun!! The people up there...not so friendly. But that's a story for another day.

Did some chillin on Harvard's campus. I don't know why I expected everyone to be super nerdy buuut I did. I overheard a girl talking in a really ditzy voice saying she was going to skip her classes the next week and my mouth dropped haha. WHO SKIPS CLASS AT HARVARD?! You're a genius or something, just go. I suppose they're regular students too..Le sigh.

Hung out with my psychopath of a dog a lot. She's pretty cute an stuff.

Skinny Meg started following me on Instagram and I had a legit fangirl moment in my car. I had just left the gym and FlexItPink had featured me on their page for Transformation Tuesday, so I had some new followers. Scrollin through and I saw this and I said out loud, "whoa...wait....HOLY FUCK SKINNY MEG IS FOLLOWING ME *insert screaming* 

 kind of like this.

Started hating my job more than I thought was possible. Also a longer story for another day. Basically I'm super appreciative to have a job, buuuut I'm just unhappy. It's so true that admin are the most under appreciated department. We're moving offices soon and my boss pretty much said that in the new office he's separating me and my coworker Ashley. I'm sorry, is this 3rd grade? Do I need a babysitter? I get my work done. If you think I'm not, come to me like I'm an adult. Don't pull some baby back bullshit and "separate" us. Lame. I've got some new ideas on what I want to do in life, so again, we'll chat about that soon.

Been workin extra hard on my back. It is my most stubborn area, besides my stomach. Like seriously, backfat needs to GTFO. Also started a new workout plan from Krissy Mae Cagney's new line of workouts. She basically rewrote all of her old plans with more intense knowledge of things that make my brain hurt and my body sore. I like it. I've been bouncing around between 167 - 169 so we'll see what happens with the holidays. Best believe an Advocare Cleanse is happening in there somewhere. Also thinking of becoming a distributor, because DISCOUNTS. Obvi.

I've missed you guyssss

-Crystal

Blogger Envy & October Goals check in!

So, as we have all noticed, ya girl does not blog erry single day. I just don't think I'm terribly interesting and I'm not tryin to bore ya with my every day life. I swear, before I started this thing, friends would tell me that I was so funny and that I should blog about my weightloss and my daily life because it'd be great. But now that I'm here with my nice little layout, I'm like yeaaaaa I'm not so cool.

Insert blogger envy. Anyone I follow on bloglovin I truly like what they write. And you guys blog so often! Like every single day! But none of them are filler posts, like some blogs I've stumbled upon. I guess I just wish I had original/unique/interesting topics to write about each day. Because I truly do miss commenting/having my posts commented on, but I'd rather not write at all in place of writing some buuuuullshit. That would be a disgrace to my English degree I believe. So it'd be cool if you guys could help a sista out with ideas on how to get past boring blogger syndrome. Much appreciated.

MOVING ON.

I had some goals for October and I've done great on some, not so great on others.

Less stress, more laughter is going well. I try to make sure I laugh at least 3 times a day! That's really not too hard because my coworker Ashley is freakin hilarious. We goof off about 75% of the day, sprinkled in with some work of course.. She keeps me sane and it's like we share a brain most days.

Get to 165. I've been kickin ass and takin names this month. I started this month off at 175.4 (I really like to go up and down in my weight, obviously) and I'm down to 171.2. I was at 170.8 yesterday, but ya know Aunt Flo likes to fuck around with my emotions and have my weight all over the damn place when she comes to town. Little bitch. Honestly I don't think I'll get to 165, but I DO think 168 is totally realistic since I'm stickin to my macros and keeping my workouts on point.

No shopping till Boston. Big. Fuckin. FAIL. I was doing SO SO SO well. Leon went shopping and splurged on work clothes in Gap (my FAV) and other stores in the mall, and I didn't buy one thing. And then my favorite online boutique, Hazel & Olive, put this gorrrgeous dress online, and I had to have it. I thought about it for a day, asked if I really needed it, and then it was sold out. So I let it go. But then I found myself checking back everyday to see if it was restocked....and then today it was restocked and it magically ended up in my basket and then out of nowhere I was typing in my credit card number. Shit.

Ugh, with black tights and my new booties(another purchase that I felt I absolutely needed..), this sucker will be GORGEOUS.

The booties. Hanging my head in shame...But, but, they were on sale!!!

And theeeen Old Navy had a sale. I'm talkin 25% of $20 items. And then 40% off of one more item, that was $45. I HAD to. Cute sweater dress, puffer vest, and compression capris are on their way to meeee! I mean, at least I shopped on sale for all of these things...right? Well, besides the dress...but I digress.

Besides that big ole fail, water intake is still at 113 oz. a day. I pee A LOT. Like every 20-30 minutes. The other night I woke up at 3 am and could barely walk my bladder was so full. Note to self, do not drink after 8 pm. Running/Lifting is still going well too! I haven't done any steady state running, only HIIT sprints/hills on the treadmill. It's been hard but I'm actually enjoying it and I feel myself getting faster/not breathing like I'm gonna keel over any second.

Lastly, I've already finished 2 books. Emily Giffin's The Heart of the Matter and Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls. Both suuuuper great reads. I find myself in an awkward place with reading material since I'm only 22. A part of me still loves the drama of YA novels, but another part of me enjoys the maturity of adult novels. Any and all suggestions for books are welcome! Anything but sci fi and mystery and I'm good to go.

Have I already posted this picture? I don't know. She's cute. 

-Crystal