Lemme Hold Your Crown, Babe

My favorite singer...and I do mean my FAVORITE singer...is Sara Bareilles. Don't get me wrong, I love all kinds of music and like all kinds of singers but I don't have the entire repertoire of anyone else completely memorized, backwards and forwards. Objectively speaking, I think that qualifies as "favorite."

I suppose what's cool about singers who "click" is that you feel like they're reading your mind, then you find out about all these other people who feel exactly the same way. Seems to me it's proof that the human experience is pretty universal. In other words, I'm not as big of a freak as I originally thought.

Maybe it's the fact that so many of her songs have the perfect combination of anger and angst, and she directs them at someone. So...all you have to do is picture your personal nemesis and sing "Who died and made you king of anything?"

Plus, she throws in just enough cuss words to make me LOVE it. They're like seasoning, in my opinion....too many of them can ruin the dish but you've got to have a few in life or...really...what's the *^%*-ing point?

I still think she's got some secret hidden camera pointed at me so I'll go hunt for it. In the meantime, click below to enjoy her latest video...King of Anything. No cussing in this one, but you've gotta love the funky fashion evolution which illustrates (I can only assume) a transition from weak pushover to strong, happy, dancing woman. 

Top 5 Odd Things I've Learned About Myself

The last few weeks have been the beginning of a new type of life. I'm not exactly sure where this life will take me, but I'm enjoying the ride and discovering new things about Jenn. In the spirit of Letterman's Top 10 lists, I created my own list of odd things I've learned about myself recently. It's just a "Top 5" list because, to be honest, the other five odd things weren't things I wanted to share in a public blog.

5. I'm literally incapable of working in the kitchen unless I'm wearing an apron and I've pulled my hair back into a ponytail. It occurred to me yesterday that this means there's a whole "cafeteria lady" aspect to my personality which I have yet to explore. Not sure I want to explore it.

4.  I'm beginning to fantasize about ways that I can drop funny Liz Lemon sayings into conversations and am trying to figure out who at work might be a 30 Rock fan so I can impress them with my Tina Fey impressions.

3. Cleaning the bathrooms really isn't too bad. I don't mind it. Trying to create a system to organize our ENORMOUS collection of children's books, on the other hand, positively gives me hives. (Shudder...)

2. It's more difficult to find time to get to an exercise class than I would have expected, even when I'm working part-time. Turns out the best way to exercise, no matter when you work, is to get your butt out of bed early in the morning and take care of it.

1. I look a lot better when I'm happy, extra 10 pounds notwithstanding. Apparently a "happy aura" is a good fashion accessory.

So there you go. Nothing beats self-discovery, even if the process reveals that a girl's got even more odd quirks than she originally suspected.

Today I Slept

During my drive home from work today (which is now, blessedly, three minutes long - five if I hit a light or two), I pondered what my exercise regimen would be today. I exercised 19 days during June and, although I'm rather proud of myself about that, I'd like to do even better in July. Once I got home, I decided that tonight I'd be best served with an old school workout on the treadmill so I suited up and hit the "exercise room." (A loose term...it could just as easily be called the "junk-waiting-for-the-garage-sale-that-will-never-come room.")

My plans were all for naught, however, because the treadmill was covered in some of that JWFTGSTWNC. We had overnight guests, which necessitated the temporary rearranging of the room. In the back of my mind, my "you should" voice pointed out that there were a couple of loads of laundry to be folded, but I decided to lie on the couch and read my book. Pretty quickly I found myself getting sleepy. That voice started to tell me that I "shouldn't" be sleepy but my body insisted that sleep was the order of the day.

It was that funny half-sleep you end up in when your son is playing XBox360 in the same room and your daughter is wondering around until she decides sleep sounds lovely and crashes in the oversized armchair. I barely squinted at my husband with one eye when he came home and muttered to him that it would be great if he'd wake me up in time to meet my friends for dinner. Then I continued with my half-dozing while he and my son played their first game of Risk (the old-fashioned board game, not an electronic version).

I'm about to leave for my girlfriends' dinner. Not only do I feel quite rested, but I also feel as if I accomplished something significant by ignoring my "should" voice for just an hour or two.

I can't ignore it forever, though. I really should get that laundry folded.