"Bring on the Tears, Olympics."

I have the most vivid memories of watching the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. I watched every moment of the Magnificent Seven journey to gold, and my 11-year-old self loved it.

I'll admit that I've been pretty absent when it comes to the Olympics since, but thanks to Ray's (slightly) addictive personality, we were obsessed. We spent two weeks, going to work, coming home, making dinner, and settling in for primetime Olympics. Ray and I had entire weekend days, and nights, devoted to being fat kids and couch potatoes.

Also, I've been known to cry at the drop of a hat.

I've been that way since the beginning of college. (I opened the floodgates about halfway through my freshman year and haven't looked back since.) I choose to believe this is an endearing quality of mine.

At any rate, during this Olympics, there was many a time where tears welled up in my eyes flowed with reckless abandon.

For starters, it was the time Kim Rhode won the gold medal in women's skeet shooting. She is the first American (man or woman) to medal in FIVE consecutive Olympics games.

 I was beside myself because she was still so overwhelmed with pride and emotion, even though she's done this before. This isn't her first time at the rodeo, and she still feels the same.

Along those same lines, there was Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor. I love them. I feel like they are really truly the best of friends. BFFL. B-Fries. I can't get enough of how Kerri just loses her shit up there on the podium as they receive the gold for the third time. And, how Misty holds her hand the whole time. 

And gymnastics. Oh, gymnastics. I wasn't a big Barbie girl, but I did have one of the Olympic gymnastic Barbies that came out during the games in 1996. And yes, mine was black. What a great year for women's gymnastics (not so much for the boys this time around). Here are some tear-inducing moments. 

Gabby Douglas on the balance beam. You know, the night she one the all-around gold. 

McKayla Maroney's almost perfect vault. (The video isn't great, but you need to see this if you haven't already.)

The end of Aly Raisman's floor routine, where she knew she rocked it and knew she had pretty much locked in the gold medal. 

And, this image, posted by Jordan Burroughs on his Twitter, an American wrestler made me well up at my desk at work.  

This is what the Olympics are supposed to be about. Uniting the world through sport. Sure, it was just for two weeks, and yes, none of the world's problems got solved by the Olympics, but still. It's nice to know that differences can be put aside, for a little while.

Currently, Ray and I mourning the end of the Olympics. And, planning a trip to Rio in 2016. 

(Blogger's Note: This is in no way an exhaustive list of tear-inducing moments of the Olympics, but the ones I know will stay with me long after the Olympians drift into obscurity.) 

"27 Things I Love ..."

I'm not a birthday person. It probably stems from my lack of birthday parties as a child (summer birthdays always get the shaft) or the fact that inviting people to your birthday typically results in some degree of disappointment.

But turning 27 wasn't bad. I feel I'm in a pretty good spot in life, surrounded by love and laughs. 

So, in the spirit of birthdays, I present to you a list of 27 things I love, in no particular order. 

1. Laughing in songs. I don't know what it is, but when people chuckle in the middle of songs, it makes me smile. Take, for example, Li'l Wayne's raspy laugh in Jay Sean's "Down." (fast forward to 3:30)

2. Laughing, period. 

3. Pizza and wine. You know, I don't know if I talk about my love of wine, and pizza, enough. (Note the sarcasm).

4. Song covers. Here's a personal favorite of mine.

5. Ray. Oh, anonymous Ray. Our relationship is full of laughter, honesty, and comfort. And, not a day goes by that I am not grateful for it. 

6. Reading memoirs. After spending years in college reading things because I had to, I lost my love of reading. But, luckily, I found a love of reading non-fiction and I can't get enough. I'm currently in the throes of Andy Cohen's memoir, and it's so good I don't want it to end. 

7. Pumpkin and sweet potato. I love these two things so much. And, if I had my way, I would eat them, in dessert form, every day. Okay, every other day (a girl still needs her chocolate). 

8. Tracking packages. My dear friend Meg totally gets this. An unreal amount of my time is spent ordering things online and then tracking them from origin to my front door. 

9. Days like this. 

10. Nights like this. 

11. CrossFit. It may only be the flavor of the week. But somehow, I keep coming back for more. And more. And more. 

12. My iPhone. Enough said. 

13. Military homecoming videos. Oh, man. How can you watch things like this and not lose your shit?

14. Rom-coms. "When Harry Met Sally" pretty much tops the list. 

15. Kitties. 

16. YouTube gems that never get old like this. 

17. Buzzfeed. A newer obsession but I love this site for its endless supply of hilarious articles, lists, and gifs. And, I can view it at work. Do yourself a favorites and take a look-see. 

18. Whataburgers. I'm grateful for people that buy them. You allow me to pay my bills and overspend at dinner. 

19. Living alone. I love living alone. I love the ability to come home, strip down to my skivvies and remain that way all day. 

20. Traveling. I should say, I like gearing up for traveling. I like the planning, the reading of reviews, and coming up with must see / do / eat lists. Travelling in and of itself, is a little stressful side. 

21. My parents. My parents are fun-loving, and usually in high spirits. I'm grateful that they have taught me the importance of working, but not working too hard. 

This is a picture my mother sent me while they were on their yearly vacay together. 

22. Google / Wikipedia / Pinterest. Thanks to these three websites, I have all the knowledge I need about anything from recipes, to Olympians, to when Hunger Games comes out on DVD (August 18th, in case you were wondering). 

23. Inspirational sports stories. Anyone who really knows me know I love inspirational sports movies, but at the heart of those, there are great stories of athletes overcoming it all. 

24. Arts and crafts, with drinking. 

25. Our new DSLR camera. Can I already love something brand-new. Our very first purchase together was a Nikon D5100, a very nice, but very expensive fancy-pants camera. It is simultaneously fun and terrifying to learn to use. But, I'm grateful that we splurged and now have it to capture memories. 

26. This blog. I am grateful for this blog, for my courage to start it, and for its ability to give me an outlet for my neuroses. 

27. You. The people that read my blog today and everyday. Thanks. 

"Is This a Humble Brag?"

When I started doing CrossFit, I did it because I wanted good abs. But, somehow I ended up with good legs. Good, muscular, hard-to-fit-into-jeans legs.

(Seriously, you should see me trying to get into my skinnys ... it's not pretty.) 

Lucky for me, I live in Texas, and will be able to wear shorts until at least October.

I know this borders on humble-bragging, but this post is to show you what I did Thursday night.

Using a post I found on the blog Hello Giggles (which Zooey Deschanel founded), I decided to take a pair of jeans I'll never wear again, cut them, bleach them a lighter shade, and make them my new favorite weekend shorts.

Here's what the looked like before:

They were good jeans, they just never made it into my normal jean rotation.
Not even for Casual Fridays at work. 

And here's what they looked like after:

I used to be all about the super-short shorts.
But these days, I love when shorts are in that in-between hoochie and Bermuda level). 

Yep. Still haven't gotten those abs. Despite the marathon training and the CrossFitting.

But, so cute right?! Just what the "runner's legs" ordered.




In case you'd like to make a pair for yourself, the crazy-easy tutorial is here.