Day 44: Time is an Illu...Delusion

I am what my husband calls a time optimist... or as I call it... delusional. When it comes to design, I always think it is going to take me half the time it actually does. This morning I was at a clients property from 10:00 am until 6 pm. Granted, I went to lunch from 1:30 to 3:30, but I was still in Arlington for what felt like forever... Not that I am complaining. I love what I do.

When I finally got home, I pulled out my handy pressure cooker and whipped up some chicken chili. It is my last adventurous meal before giving up all food freedom for the next 45 days.

In the mean time, I had a local artist drop by and deliver a painting I recently purchased from her. I am so in love, she is so beautiful. The artist's name is Sarah Flair, she is incredible. My beautiful piece is named Adima. Isn't she gorgeous?

 

 

With todays Arlington adventure, I didn't have any time to go to the gym... but at least I wasn't sitting on my ass. I was on my feet all day, other than driving and lunch. Now that dinner is over and my painting is safe in her new home, I am passing out. Tomorrow's another busy one! I will talk to you tomorrow.



Day 9: Everything is Awesome

Everything is cool when you're part of a team
Everything is awesome
When we're living our dream

Today is one of those days I am totally humming “Everything is Awesome”…. Because everything is AWESOME. Crossfit sucks, but Crossfit is even awesome when your class consists of 1 instructor and 1 of your friends. Now I do have to say, this particular Crossfit is like Crossfit for beginners. It is called Crossfit Element’s. This teaches you how to do the move correctly in order to get you ready for “mother crossfit”. This is everything we did today:

It was a 9am class and my first time ever doing Crossfit. The very first sentence out of my mouth to the instructor, Marci was: “Hi, I’m Nicole, and I am terrified of Crossfit”. She smiled and assured me it was not scary. I still had my doubts... but now that I have Q as my trainer, I can assure you Crossfit is not so scary.  However, I repeat, It does suck. Thankfully it was just me, Lena and Marci who as people do not suck.

I love working out with Lena because she makes me laugh. I really love people who make me laugh, it is my most favorite thing to do. So when Marci says “make sure your chest hits the floor before your stomach” during the WOD pushups, and Lena shoots a look to Marci with her big doe eyes and says “But I can’t, my stomach is bigger than my chest!” (Which it is really, really not) I started laughing because she didn’t miss a beat. In addition to Lena’s quick sense of humor, she has been doing Crossfit for a little bit now and it made me push myself further than I probably would have otherwise. I tried my best to keep up with her, but that last set of wall balls did me in.  I really want to be friends with that damn medicine ball, but he sure is making it hard! Enjoy this picture of our relationship struggle:

After we finished up Lena and I walked over to the smoothie bar to refuel and started chatting with my favorite bartender Shep.  This guy has honestly become one of my favorite people in the entire world. He is an incredibly talented artist and one of the nicest and most humble people you will ever meet. He brings a smile to my face every time I talk to him. Today was no exception. He, along with other talented local artists are working on massive installations for the new Clearbrook Center for the Arts in Tackett’s Mill.  As we were talking, he started drawing and behold with only a marker I watched him bring form and motion to life with his hands. I was completely hypnotized. Next thing you know, he hands me the marker and tells me to “add a line”. I was so nervous, I felt like I was just given a piece of gold from King Midas and I was a lonely popper who didn’t know what to do with it. He gave me a lesson on how to Zentangle and I ended up sitting there for the next 2 and a half hours drawing and painting with an incredible artist who I am proud to call my friend. This is the master in action:

That’s right, at our gym we foster healthy bodies and healthy minds. I did Crossfit and then got an art lesson from one of the most talented people I have ever met. What do you do at your gym?  

After I got out of my art bubble and realized what time it was, I left and ran over to Ikea to buy more stuff for a client. The rest of the day flew. I went to Arlington to drop off my clients items, came home, cooked dinner, started writing tonight’s entry, and then headed back to the Gym for Zumba. Lena even decided to stick around for class tonight too! So together we danced our butts off with Frank. It was a wonderful day. EVERYTHING was AWESOME!

To end, I shall leave you with some of Shep’s pieces I hijacked off his Instagram. If you love art and want to be inspired, follow him. His name is Shepherd Norman and handle is “___evol_” (that is three underscores, evol, one underscore). He has so many mediums, it is incredible. Enjoy!