A Typical Day

Now that I am out of work/finals frenzy, I have a few minutes to jot down my thoughts in this good ole’ blog.

I am so excited to have the summer off from grad-schooling, but at the same time — after a year of full-time work/school I have no idea what I’m going to with all my free m-f evening time! I have no doubt that I’ll figure something out though!

For those of you that are interested, the change in schedule for summer spurred me to make a record of what a typical day has looked like for me. I think it’d be fun to look back on it and remember the days of working/schooling.

Without further ado -

Monday-Friday:

7:15am-7:45am Wake-Up (depending on morning shower, I sometimes shower the night before), Shower, Get Ready

7:45am – 8:15am Shower, Get Ready, Pack Lunch, Feed Dogs, Set Coffee

30 minute commute (Good days)

8:30am-8:45am Arrive at work

9am – 11am Eat Breakfast, Check G-mail, Twitter, Words w Friends, Fbook, Reader, Check work e-mail

11am – 1pm Lunch, more work e-mail, meetings

1pm-5pm meetings, crunch time work/e-mail, homework, etc.

—> school nights 6-9pm Class, 930pm Dinner, 11-1130pm Bed

—> no school nights, workout (sometimes), 730pm Dinner, 11-1130 Bed

Saturday:

830-930am: Wake-up, clean, laundry

11:30am: Brunch

12pm-5pm: Errands with or without Mr.DJW (He sometimes works Saturdays)

6-8pm: Nap/TV/Lazy time

830pm: Dinner with my parents (usually)

11pm-12am: Bed (Yes, we are an old married couple.)

Sunday:

10am-11am Wake up, clean, etc.

11:45am Church (sometimes)

12-5pm Errands, fun stuff, etc.

6pm: Dinner with In-laws (sometimes)

7pm-10pm: QT with dogs/hubby

11-113opm: Bed!

Somewhere in those times I find time to shower, eat, and do hw/study. I’m sure it might seem monotonous to some of you, but I like the predictability and schedule of my weekly activities.

I can’t wait to incorporate for fun, friend, travel time into that mix this summer.

–What does your typical day look like? Does your schedule change every week?

Restaurant Review: Brio

To eat well, is to live well

BRIO brings the pleasures of the Tuscan country villa to the American city. The Italians built their spacious country villas to escape the pressures of urban life and enjoy “La Dolce Vita” – the good life.

 

They would mingle with family and friends and eat freshly prepared food from their grounds while surrounded by natural beauty. In just that manner, Brio offers its Guests “La Dolce Vita.”

 

The excerpt/quote above was taken directly from Brio’s website.

 

Mr.DJW and I conveniently live 1.5 miles away from a fairly new one at our local, outdoor mall. Although, we haven’t indulged since Ash Wednesday in any take-out, dine-in, etc., I had a few food pics from our last trip to Brio that I wanted to share with all of you.

 

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Brio is one of our favorite “date-night” restaurants. The food is amazing, the ambience is calming, and for two home-bodies like us, it’s the perfect setting to enjoy QT outside the comforts of our home.

We almost always start off with calamari and a glass of wine (Red for Mr.DJW, White for me) with the complimentary flatbread and cheese. NOMNOMNOM.

This last trip I ordered the: Shrimp Verduta – Angel hair tossed with shrimp, garlic, sundried tomatoes, roasted artichokes, Feta and spinach, topped with pesto bread crumbs.

And Mr.DJW ordered the Roasted Lamb Chops: Full rack, perfectly seasoned and grilled to order, with red wine veal sauce, mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus.

As if those don’t photos make me drool, mmmmm, the food was absolutely delectable!

I cannot wait until lent is over and we can take a trip over to Brio again soon. I highly recommend it to anyone that has one nearby!

–What is your favorite date-night restaurant? Italian restaurant?

1 week ’til paradise!

I can’t believe it, the one week countdown to our vacation has started! I have one more final exam this Sunday at 2pm and then I’m finally freeeee (well besides work m-f)!

Anyway, I’m not sure if you caught wind in my blog that I am the complete stereotype of a Type-A personality. I am the first-born, I’m obsessed with organizing, schedules, [and even though I am the queen of procrastination when it comes to school work]; I try to stay ahead of my schedule whenever I can make it possible in other areas of my life.

Hence, packing for our cruise vacation.

Last weekend (2 weeks before vacation), I was in the midst of doing a clean-out of our dressing room. Between Mr.DJW and I, we came up with 3 bagfuls of shoes and clothes to donate to our local thrift store. While, I busied myself organizing and putting away our winter clothes – I got a bit ahead of myself and started packing for our trip. I grabbed a couple tanks here and there, grabbed a gazillion of my swimsuits, and packed in six or seven pairs of heels/sandals. An hour later, I ended up with 2 carry-on roller bags and a huge bag to ship. (AND I HADN’T EVEN STARTED PACKING MR.DJW’S CLOTHES!)

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No joke, Mr.DJW came into our dressing with a confused look on his face. “You’re packing for the cruise already!?”

Needless to say, this weekend, I will be unpacking what I packed last weekend, so that I can re-pack and be mindful that we will only be gone for 1 week. It’s hard to make an A-type personality forget about all the “what-ifs” that serve as my excuses to pack 8 outfits per day.

But, it’s something I’m going to have to do. I know I didn’t end up wearing half of what I packed on the last 2 cruises and our honeymoon… so I should probably take that as a lesson learned and do something about it for our trip this year.

–Are you an efficient packer? Are you like me and over pack? How do you really figure out what the “essentials” are?! HELP A GIRL, PLEASE!

A Guest Post

If you guys remember, I started a 30 day blog challenge at the start of the year. I didn’t finish because a lot of the call-outs were really negative and I didn’t want to write about negative things. My friend Matt (@MaiuriMatt on Twitter) reached out because he wanted to write for a prompt on gay marriage. These are his words, his viewpoint. While I risk the chance to cause blog controversy, I wanted to share this as it was a different opinion that I had not heard from anyone before.

In his words…

Day 18 calls for your views on gay marriage and I thought I’d guest host.

I’ll state my view up front and then analyze from there.  Gay marriage should be definitely be allowed.  I don’t even see the need to analyze this tired argument.  Let’s look at this issue from a different angle.  Should marriage be endorsed by The State?  And why do gays even want to get married?

I totally fail to understand the collective mentality of gay people, men especially.  With gay issues constantly in the news, one would expect gays to be a very unified group of voters.  Blacks, a group approximately 4 times the size of gays, traditionally vote democrat at a rate of 90%.  Gays, assumed here to be 3% of the population, voted 70% democrat in the last election.  So 30% of gays voted for a party that specifically, and regularly, targets them for exclusion and hate speech.  Both major political parties actively court blacks, but one gets 90% of the vote.  Meanwhile, one party uses religious rhetoric to specifically oppose the very concept of being gay, but still lands 30% of their vote.  That’s an amazing statistic to me.

This fact illustrates the most prominent commonality among gays: a sense of self hatred, which has its roots in religion.  Throughout our history, gays have been repeatedly oppressed and outcast by religion and the US government.  And how do they react to this?  Voluntarily opt out of the system?  Reject the institutions that demean them?  No, they lobby for their relationships to be recognized by their oppressor.  To me, this is a classic symptom of self hatred.  Anyone who knows more than a few gay people understands this deep seeded trait within that community (ignoring the super-comfortable gays you’ll find in the Castro or Boystown).  Additionally, anybody who knows more than a few a gay men understands they’re actually quite a religious group.  I know two gay guys who’ve studied to be Christian Ministers!  And I don’t know that many gay guys.

Lesbians are a different group altogether.  Their movement has much darker roots in sexual violence, alternative culture, and an anti-establishment mentality.  I’m talking about real lesbians here.  Not the ones in those movies I sometimes watch.

The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”  I have no problem with people getting married, but it’s should be a purely contractual and religious thing.  You shouldn’t get a tax break for getting married.  For the state to recognize, and to confer special status upon the married is, to me, a violation of this clause in the first amendment.  It’s a matter of personal preference.  Health insurance coverage for a spouse is a separate issue.  It should be contractually decided between you and your health insurance provider/employer.  Legislation which endorses personal tastes is an unjust use of government power.

Thanks, Matt. Thanks, readers.

[Personally, I believe LOVE is LOVE and God is LOVE. We, as humans, are not allowed to judge who can marry and who cannot. I don't know enough about the legal/tax/government implications of not being able to be married and recognized by the government. Matt's words were thought provoking at the very least. In my simple world marriage = a union between two people who love and care for each other. PERIOD.]

Confessional: Life Decisions

Hey, blog friends!

If you read my blog a few weeks ago, you might’ve seen this sad entry about big life decisions that had come my way.

Since last May, I have been going to law school at night after working the 830a-5p jobby job in pursuit of fulfilling my childhood dream of becoming a HOTSHOT LAWYA.

After a lot of time thinking, talking, lists of pros/cons – Mr.DJW and I decided that after this term (my third) is over, I will be dropping out of law school and starting business school to obtain my MBA in the fall. (SUMMER VACATION! WOOT! WOOT!)

It took a lot of effort on my part to weigh out the pros / cons of each option and also considering the reality of the job market and future of the economy in Detroit/Michigan. We also took  into consideration our future family plans, my work/life/school balance, and other important factors.

It took me a couple of weeks to make my final decision, but since I have made it, I cannot be a happier person.

It makes sense for so many reasons and puts our life on the track we want it to be, both for myself professionally and us as a family unit.

With the overwhelming support of both sets of parents, my brother, and my close friends, we are so excited for the next few years of our life together and all that it has to offer us and more.

The most exciting part, aside from economic/career/etc. reasons, is that Mr.DJW and I will  officially TTC (try to conceive) starting in the Fall of 2012 after our 2nd  year anniversary. We are thrilled to have a timeline/plan in mind and can’t wait to get the most of the next 1.5 – 2 years as a couple, as we prepare to build our family in the future.

After my last law school final on April 17th, I will have four glorious months of summer just working my 830a-5pm and studying for the GMAT (late May/early June) and applying to four different MBA programs (July). I can use the mental break and I can’t wait to get fired up for business school in September!

Thanks to all of you that listened to me whine, vent, rationalize, and gab your ear off with all this school crap. You guys are my sanity.