beautiful day in the neighborhood

Weekly Therapy: “Your feet will bring you where your heart is” — Irish proverb

- Mel

the week:
This week, the boyfriend and I celebrated 7 years together. Unfortunately, he had to travel back to Pittsburgh to deal with the movers, so we’ll actually celebrate over the weekend. But… SEVEN YEARS, GUYS. Holy moly, how old am I?! And yes, we’re St. Patrick’s Day drunks-meets sweethearts.

cheers to new house des moines iowa 30something
Cheers to the new house!

weekend:
We’re heading into the city this weekend to use our (free) workout facility and explore downtown. With the NCAA tournaments in town, it’ s sure to be some MARCH MADNESS. *snicker*

seven things, seven days:
1. Our neighbors across the street invited us over for a party Sunday night, along with a few other couples. And everyone is so friendly, and I just feel right at home already. Plus, our sellers were there, so we were able to meet them, too.
2. Cats were pretty good in the car for 12 hours, and really only cried for the first hour. I only had one cat approach me in the drivers seat, with about an hour left to go. We were all incredibly antsy to get out of the car!
3. So, there are a lot of dirt roads near us and we don’t really know how to bypass them yet. This was a huge mistake, five minutes after going through a car wash. -_-
4. SEASON FINALE OF THE BACHELOR got me all… WUT. But I guessed his pick!
5. I had a quickie interview at a recruiting firm this week about a temp-to-hire position in the area. So… I got out of the house and drove around by myself! Bad news is that my car’s GPS doesn’t recognize my house. And Google Maps on my phone doesn’t do turn-by-turn (no clue why; it’s not muted). SHRUG. I got home.
6. Why do we work so hard? — a very thoughtful piece {via the Economist}
7. Oooh, I like this one very, very much: When it’s good to be bad {via Aeon}

How Do You Define Beauty?

- Mel

I could have put today’s post under yesterday’s Blogger, May I? prompt about struggles. How someone defines beauty is so subjective that it feels insensitive to project how or what I think it is. Like art, beauty is open to interpretation. It’s one of those things you know it when you see it.

Sleep is beautiful for some people.

Nature is beautiful to others.

Being able to spell “beautiful” without Googling it could be your definition of beauty. Or beauty simply in just the words.

There is beauty in many things and within people or about people. People, though, is how most would start to define the meaning of beauty. Looking in and up are ways to expand the definition of beauty.

To be honest, I feel pretty wordless right now about this topic, as it is difficult to personally define. I guess that I know beauty when I feel something “light up” within me. I’m inspired, I’m moved, I’m affected. I love.

Weekend Therapy: traveling for something other than roller derby feels weird.

- Mel

the week:
Holy crap, THE SORENESS. Good sore, but still. I’m working out with the regular athletes and doing real WODs now, and O.M.G. But my post-workout exclamations go something like this: I JUST PRESSED A BAR! I JUST SQUATTED WITH WEIGHT ON THE BAR! I JUST DEADLIFTED 50 POUNDS! I JUST CLEARED A 30″ BOX JUMP!

Drinking the kool-aid, and loving every drop.

Also, how about them Pirates?!

Living near the stadiums, we could hear the roars of the fans stream through the windows during the wild card game. IT’S SO AWESOME! Though I’m an Indians fan at heart (sad trombone), it’s hard not to rally behind the Bucs and their success.

weekend:
Road trip to Columbus for friends and fun! (and the President’s Cup) I have plans for dinners, plans for brunches… and I’m looking forward to some room service (and possibly an in-room massage) too. FOR REAL.

52 Books in 52 Weeks:
Definitely not meeting the goal this year, as I started around Thanksgiving last year… and have only finished, like, 20 books. DO BETTER. But no time like the present to start again!
#1. Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

seven things, seven days:
1. I signed up for two upcoming 5Ks. *gulp* The one next weekend ends in HOT APPLE CRISP, which… I’m so easy.
2. Scored a couple items from Poshmark this week. I am obsessed with window shopping the app (and have been finding some amazing deals).
3. See also, it was time to do a closet and makeup drawer purge — soooo, I finally purchased the Naked 2 palette.
4. A carafe-less coffee pot is the answer to all my coffee-making prayers!
5. My left pinky finger still hurts from two weeks ago (derby injury, natch). It hasn’t really impacted my workouts, but when I set my hand down or smash it into something… YEOWCH. Putting a timeline on it for healing before seeking our urgent care.
6. Our neighbor invited us to a Sundays meatballs dinner (they’re rumored to be award winning). One of the guests was the contractor who remodeled their BEAUTIFUL home… and built their amazing rooftop deck. WANT.
7. Gender as non-fiction in The Atlantic {shared via Dan Savage (*swoon*)}

A 30-something in Cleveland: Positively Awesome Road Trip

- Mel

Go ahead, get your Cleveland vs. Pittsburgh hangups out of the way. I’ll wait…

Like Pittsburgh, Cleveland can get a bad rap sometimes. But they are both two beautiful (former) Rust Belt cities that are often misunderstood. And seriously underrated. I was thrilled to be invited by the Convention & Visitors Bureau of Cleveland to a special bloggers-only excursion. The itinerary for our three-day stay was suggested and decided by fans of Positively Cleveland on social media. Along with two bloggers from Cincinnati (Adventure Mom and The Food Hussy!) another fellow Pittsburgher (The Steel Trap and a breakfast blogger from Columbus (Breakfast With Nick) we got a look, taste and feel of the locals’ favorites.

photo 7

LODGING: we stayed at the newly-remodeled Holiday Inn Express downtown — and this hotel is BEAUTIFUL. The room itself was very large — furnished with a super-comfy king bed, chair-and-ottoman, desk and bar area; I was in a corner suite that had high ceilings, wood floors (*swoon*) and a window facing Euclid Avenue. Did I mention it’s in a perfect location? The bed had those stupid square pillows that I hate, but THANK THE CLEVELAND GODS there were two firm (labeled, even; nice!). My bathroom was also big, clean — and contained a shower (no tub). The hotel also serves breakfast at 7am every day (I didn’t have the opportunity to check it out). I can’t begin to tell you how friendly the staff was upon my arrival too.

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When I checked in, I had a welcome package reserved for me too; a messenger bag filled with Cleveland-centric items: coffee mug, coozie, bag of Campbell’s Dichotomy popcorn and a Lilly’s Chocolate bar. What a nice touch!

photo 2

FOOD: Besides my hotel snacks, you might have heard that Cleveland is an epic foodie city, with local celebrity chefs a-plenty (um, Michael Symon, Jonathan Saywer, Zach Bruell, Chris Hodges to name a few). Not to mention, there are entire DISTRICTS devoted to the food scene.

ADVENTURE/LEISURE: Cleveland borders Lake Erie and is home to a park system of epic size. If the outdoors doesn’t appeal to you, there’s a block of theaters or a neighborhood filled with several world class museums — most of which are centered around University Circle; you’ll find the Cleveland Museum of Art, MOCA, Western Reserve Historical Society here. I love a city that appeals to the adventurous and outdoorsy and cultured traveler all alike.

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NEIGHBORHOODS: Similar to Pittsburgh (maybe on a bit smaller scale), Cleveland is divided into neighborhoods — Ohio City, Detroit Shoreway, Tremont, Gordon Square, Uptown, etc. Each has its own character and highlights (many anchored by one of those aforementioned amazing restaurants), and unique entertainment, culture and shopping options.

photo 6

OVERALL: We were positively EXHAUSTED (but well traveled!) by the end of the long weekend. There were definitely a few places that I wish I could have spent more time exploring (MOCA, one of several highlights of the trip for me), and there are only so many meals in one day for so many amazing restaurants. At only a two-hour trip from the ‘Burgh, this certainly won’t be my last trip to Cleveland.

THERAPY: I made some new blogger friends!
And hey, sometimes you just can’t beat a bed to yourself.

Stay tuned for all the details on the fun!

Disclosure: Positively Cleveland provided accommodations, meals and admission for my participation in this socially-driven trip. All opinions herein are my own. Thanks to April & Corinne at Positively Cleveland for the group pics too!

Every 30-something Needs: a Halloween costume!

- Mel

Because of the storms (but in hindsight, a ill-conceived premonition), Trick-or-treating was postponed to Saturday.

I haven’t dressed up in costume for a couple years, but since organizing our basement, I know exactly where ALL OF THE HALLOWEEN things are. I used to be REALLY into Halloween costumes and parties; hence, the box dedicated to its holiday. So, I pulled together this character that was also easy to layer, given that the temperatures hovered around 40 degrees.

I even still had my old football cleats from when I used to play flag football in Ohio (and there was still some caked-in mud on the soles). You know, for authenticity.

Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood is INSANE — we get HUNDREDS of kids. We bought six bags of candy last year… and ran out in less than an hour-and-a-half. This year, we purchased more (and made an effort to buy the variety bags with small, kid-friendly sized candies) — and STILL RAN OUT. Our neighbors had plans, so they gave us an extra bag for us to make it through the last half hour. Cutest costume: the toddler in the train costume.

And then our other neighbor (who’s been on our street since 2000) brought over a bottle of champagne to celebrate our one-year-anniversary. That’s my kind of treat!

Post #4 Completed!