Weekly Reads (Listens): Yes Please

 PSA: If a funny person publishes a book and THEN happens to be the person to narrate said audiobook, please do yourself a kind and listen to the audiobook. Buy the book too if you must, but there's just something oh so special about hearing their written words coming straight out of their damn funny mouths.

I waited for the audiobook of Amy Poehler's new book Yes Please to come in at the library for me. It took much longer than the hardcover book, but it was worth the wait. I learned her name is pronounced Polar, not Peeler, and also I'm a moron for thinking that the 'o' would somehow be silent and the 'e' would take on a long vowel sound, but whatever. The book was hilarious. And honest. And I somehow love Amy Poehler even more than I already did.

My rating: 4 stars

Summary from goodreads:

In Amy Poehler’s highly anticipated first book, Yes Please, she offers up a big juicy stew of personal stories, funny bits on sex and love and friendship and parenthood and real life advice (some useful, some not so much), like when to be funny and when to be serious. Powered by Amy’s charming and hilarious, biting yet wise voice, Yes Please is a book is full of words to live by. 

Aramco Houston Half Marathon Training Week 9

This was another week where yoga and the yoga challenge progress took precedence over running. Oops. jk, I won't apologize, it's way more fun lately.

Monday I went to a gentle vinyasa class.

Tuesday I doubled up and went to a power vinyasa class at 5:30am, worked, and then went to a hot yoga class at night.

I hydrated like a champ all day so I didn't faint in hot yoga. Win.

On Friday, I got up at 4:45am on my birthday to go to yoga sculpt (my least favorite class, aka the one that's probably the best for me). The instructor wished me a happy birthday and then announced to everyone during class that they could thank me for the birthday burpees. Update: I'm still sore from this class 48+ hours later. Woof. I also hit my 15th class of the yoga challenge. Wahoo!

I didn't sleep well the night of my birthday, and was still SO SORE on Saturday that I didn't go to my favorite power vinyasa class. :(Sunday I met Emily for hot yoga in the morning. After two classes, I feel like I can say that hot yoga is not my cup of tea. Luckily I only had to attend two to complete the yoga challenge. Check and check.

I went to my final yoga sculpt class for the challenge later in the afternoon. Even though it corresponded with the Packers game. They must've flexed the game time, because my calendar said noon. Grumble grumble. I watched it on delay and it saved me from going to a 5:30am Monday morning class, so it was totally worth it. And it finally loosened up some of my extreme soreness from Friday's yoga sculpt class. Woof. 

Bah Hum Pug, Scrooges

Hope you all had great OllieDays! Kyle and I got matching pug shirts, so I felt it was necessary that we took a trillion Christmas photos. Please enjoy.

My pug sweater for work on Chistmas eve.

Kyle and his bestie.

Ollie can't get over the beauty of the tree!

Kyle and I made brunch for my parents on Christmas morning. And after doing my part, I enjoyed some bubbles. And a selfie. Obvs.

Rein(pug)deer games.

Besties.

My favorite present is this little face. The sweater is SO CUTE.

Ollie loves her grandpa.

<3

I chose a photo in which Ollie looks bad, because Kyle looks SO GOOD. He never has a real smile in photos. This is a christmas miracle, I tell ya.

Me and my baby girl.

And then I had fun taking selfies while waiting for Kyle to get gas. Who knew that gas station parking lots had such great light?!?!

Super natural pose, duh. Last selfie as a 30 year old!

Merry Christmas

You know Dasher, and Dancer, and

Prancer, and Vixen,

Comet, and Cupid, and

Donner and Blitzen

But do you recall

The most famous reindeer of all:  

Ollie the OTHER reindeer (reinpug) had a very shiny heart. 

Happy OllieDays!

Aramco Houston Half Marathon Training Week 8

Monday started with gentle vinyasa yoga, where we focused on tree and airplane poses.

I worked late for a co-worker on Tuesday night, so I got to sneak in another morning power vinyasa class. This was the first class that I had pruney fingers after I sweat so much.

Wednesday I took a rest day to celebrate Kyle and my 3 year anniversary. And Thursday I got out of bed at 5am to head to another power vinyasa class. I was able to get side crow for milliseconds on each side. Yayzies.

Saturday I went to yet another power vinyasa class (can you tell which yoga class is my favorite??) and the Christmas music in savasana inspired me to find this sweet elf on the shelf yoga pic.

Yesssssssss.

Sunday I went to yet another power vinyasa yoga class and met my co-worker/friend Emily there. Which is great, because it means I had a witness to view me doing crow successfully! Wahoo!!

So yet another week with zero miles ran, and houston half is in four weeks? three weeks? Should be fun... :/ 

Weekly Reads: Look of Love

I was drawn to The Look of Love because of the summary and it's parallel to my life: born during a Christmas blizzard. She's also about my age, green eyed, but that's where the similarities end, I guess. I received an e-ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review about the book and to promote it to library customers as I see fit. I know Sarah Jio is pretty popular so I figured I should give one of her books a try!

I enjoyed the story and the overall premise of the book. Some of the stories got confusing at times (I struggle with the introduction of a lot of characters before I connect with them, it's difficult for me to keep them straight). It was fairly predictable, but that wasn't a bad thing IMO.

If you're looking for a light holiday or romantic read, with occasional crying spells, give this one a try.

My rating: 3.5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

Born during a Christmas blizzard, Jane Williams receives a rare gift: the ability to see true love. Jane has emerged from an ailing childhood a lonely, hopeless romantic when, on her twenty-ninth birthday, a mysterious greeting card arrives, specifying that Jane must identify the six types of love before the full moon following her thirtieth birthday, or face grave consequences. When Jane falls for a science writer who doesn’t believe in love, she fears that her fate is sealed. Inspired by the classic song, The Look of Love is utterly enchanting.

Aramco Houston Half Marathon Training Week 7

Week seven of training brought more yoga and a run! It almost brought two whole runs, but I decided to not get carried away. :P I should probably rename these blog posts to "weekly yoga run down" but whatever.

Monday I went to my favorite gentle vinyasa class in which we focused on chaturangas. So it was anything but easy or gentle. Uff. But we did get to work on proper form and I'm still aware that I'm not strong enough to do them properly for a full class. Noted.

Tuesday I went to Barre with my co-worker Emily. It was tough but fun. Especially with a buddy.

Wednesday I jetted to the running store straight from work to make it for the group run. Our route was different this go around and we set out looking for Christmas lights! We went by an old house I used to live in, so I took them down my favorite street from when I first started running distances 8-9 years ago. Craziness, right? I got to run with the speedier group, but in reality they slowed down a bit so I wouldn't be running around town solo in the dark. Thanks guys! We had to stop at a bunch of stoplights and somewhere along the way I forgot to restart my garmin, so the time is an estimate of when we left the store to when we returned with our stop light stops factored in.

And then I rushed straight to a packed yoga studio for restorative yoga. Classes have been packed for the challenge, so we were practically stretching on top of each other. Uff.

I had the day off on Friday and had big plans to hit some yoga classes and do a long run, and somehow that ended up being just an incredibly lazy day with the pug.

Saturday I worked and Sunday I started the day with a power vinyasa yoga class. Showered, went to work, and then had big plans to head back to restorative yoga after work, but I felt like I was dying. I felt fluish and felt like I shouldn't spread that to everyone. Spread Christmas cheer, not death flu. PSA.

Happy Anniversary

A little over four years ago, this dude in a Minnesota Twins hat came up to me at a bar after a friend's Christmas party to introduce himself. We spent the rest of the night at a table by ourselves drinking and getting to know each other. When the bar was closing, a sober friend pulled up to drive some of us home, and without thinking, I dashed out into the snow banks and got in.

And then realized that I just ditched this super cute nice guy without giving him my number.

Ugh.

Jerbear fail.

I texted my friend who hosted the Christmas party and asked her to ask her husband to text Kyle my number. [Ballsy Jeri: 1]

Before I got home, I had a text from him, "Uh, Barry gave me your number, hope that's ok. This is Kyle by the way."

And then we spent the whole next day texting each other while laying horizontally on our respective couches in our respective homes watching football and getting to know each other more.

By the next weekend we went on our first date, which was four years ago today, only because I turned down his offer to hang out with him and his friends at a bar to watch MNF two days after we met. Sorry bro, you can take me on a real date first, kthx. :)

He's the best pug dad a pug mom could ask for. And he's the best friend a Jerbear could want. Thanks for being my love and my weirdo, KK.