A teeny, tiny *hooray*

I am not one for boasting....or really even toasting my accomplishments, no matter how big or small they may be. But I wanted to take a quick minute to do it here (and not really a coincidence that I am doing it on the Saturday of a holiday weekend...when likely no one will see it!) I just feel silly, but had a very happy, *hooray* moment and wanted to share it.

Last weekend, I FINALLY lugged my boxes of summer clothes and shoes up from storage. They have been sitting in the living room all week, with me mostly feeling too tired and weary from this stupid cold to go about unpacking them. It's a chore on my list for this weekend, and I just took the lid off one box, to peek at what was inside.

I pulled out some shorts and cropped pants....some of which still have the tags on them from when I bought them years ago. Oh yes, that isn't a typo. YEARS. When I was smaller.

And giving those smaller sizes away felt like defeat. Felt like admitting I had lost, or given up. So I have held on to them. Not all of my smaller clothes, mind you. About two years ago I purged BAGS AND BAGS of smaller sized clothing. I remember crying a little and feeling like such a fool for keeping them in boxes for as long as I had. Making the effort to haul them along with me every time I moved to a new house or apartment.

But some things remained. Like this pair of grass green pants I pulled out of the box today. Now, these had no tags on them. I can actually remember the last time I wore them -- to a summer wine festival. FOUR YEARS AGO. No, I am so not kidding you.

"What the hell," I thought, "I already feel like crap from this cold, can't feel too much worse." Treating my living room like the communal dressing room at Loehmann's, I dropped trow and speedily tried on the green pants.

And then slid up. And they zipped with ease. And they buttoned.

And I could breathe...I could sit...I could squat...I imagine I could do high kicks.

And I simply cannot believe it.

I mean, I can understand it. I have been slow and steady with trying to shed some weight since I got to a really dark and unhappy place with my weight last summer. But when I put on those pants that I hadn't been able to wear in years...well I wish I could bottle that feeling and sell it, because I'd be rich for sure.

I am not at my "goal weight", although truth be told, sometimes I think having a number in mind is almost setting myself up to be disappointed. But putting those pants on today, I felt a real sense of accomplishment. And hopefully tapped into a reserve inside of me that will help me keep pushing myself. Cause even though I am not "quite there" yet, I sure have come quite a ways.

Please get yourselves together, DC

Today I did something I basically never do...I left the office for lunch! I was originally out for a quick CVS trip when I happened to notice a new place called Zoup, a shop serving....you guessed it, soup. Well, along with salads and sandwiches too. And you may be thinking that it's unseasonably warm outside and why in the heck would anyone want to eat soup? Well, because I am still battling this freaking cold, and as HOT as it has been this week, I have found myself basically living off of soup.

Anywhoozle, I thought "What the heck? I will treat myself and sit down for lunch somewhere other than my desk and just enjoy a leisurely lunch."

While the lunch was quite tasty, what was even more savory was the people watching. It was top notch. And for those that know me, you know that my "top notch people watching" means it was a sh*tshow.

I have no idea what it is about the first string of truly WARM weather days that makes people lose all common sense. And in many cases, that common sense goes out the window right along with their basic senses of decency and good taste.

A few notes from my observations today. I am not saying these are exclusive to DC, mind you. I am just saying they are tragic and horrific and need to go.

Tank tops that have a "shelf bra"
For those under the age of 12-13 or those women rocking an A-cup, you should be good to go. Everyone else? YOU NEED TO WEAR A BRA TOO. Seriously. I saw large women with large bosoms out today with nothing holding them back but a flipping shelf bra. I don't know if they were lazy or mistakenly thought it looked sexy. It looked borderling dangerous and just sexy enough to turn a straight man gay.

Undergarments as a form of expression
Fine if you are with your S.O. in the bedroom (or wherever else the mood may strike you in the privacy of your own home/apartment/hotel room) NOT FINE if you are out and about in public. No one needs to see your hot purple cheetah print bra hanging out from your tank top. Same goes for wearing a bright red bra under a white shirt. It's tacky and trashy and not a "look" that anyone should be going for in their day-to-day. Leave those bold fashion maneuvers to the Rihannas and Gagas of the world. Trust me, YOU are not pulling it off. In the case of Miss Winehouse...her bra straps sticking out are likely the least of her worries. I am amazed I found a picture where she not only has her eyes open, but is also standing upright and not flipping anyone off.


Undergarments that FIT
We have come so, SO far in our choices - thong, boyshort, Spanx, you name it. Amazingly all of these choices come in an array of sizes, so please, PLEASE, buy the size that fits you, m'kay? It's one thing to have a visible panty line (VPL) -- not okay, but maybe you got dressed in a rush that morning, it happens. But it is a completely other(worse) thing for your underwear to look like it may be cutting off circulation to your legs. Aside from looking horrendous, how in the world is that comfortable?!?!


Can you feel the sidewalk when you are wearing sandals?
You can? Guess what, that means your shoes are too damn small. Toes are meant to rest along the top of the footbed of your sandal or flip flop. Your toes should not curl over the edges like talons and touch the ground. Same goes for your heels -- if they hang off the back of your shoe and drag across the ground? You need a bigger pair of shoes.

Speaking of feet...
It's time ladies. Get a freaking pedicure. There are nail shops everywhere and most will run you about $25 for a pedicure. Treat yourself. Hell treat ME because I don't want to look at your nasty, gnarly feet and I am pretty sure no one else does either. And if I may say so? A "french pedicure" with white tips has to be one of the dumbest looking things I can think of. Seriously....why? Who came up with this?

Now don't go thinking I am judging without taking notes myself...you better believe my butt will find its way into a pedicure chair this weekend. My feet are starting to look like I perfrom manual labor for 12 hours a day sans-shoes, it ain't pretty. I'm thinking I will kick off this holiday weekend and unofficial start of summer with some Essie Watermelon



Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend...and steer clear of these tragic fashion mishaps!

Yes, I am still alive, I swear

After getting back last week from the large scale work event that has been killing me slowly over the past few months, I promptly came down with a nasty cold. Like from out of nowhere...just woke up yesterday feeling like I had been hit by a truck. And feeling even worse today. Probably because I couldn't take a sick day to stay home and try and get better!

Anywhoozle, I am still alive and have thought of many wondrous and hilarious things to post about...I just can't seem to stop coughing and sneezing long enough to do so.

Too good not to share!

So you know how I have RAVED about the awesomeness that is the Clarisonic Skincare Brush....well hang on to your hats, I just got an email with one of the best offers I have seen on this beauty. And you know I had to come here and share with you ;)

It is going to be the Today's Special Value on QVC tomorrow...but as a valued Q customer (go ahead and laugh if you want!) I got the heads up a day early. They have it in a bajillion colors and a savings of more than $75 off the retail price. No joke.


Is it wrong that I am bordeline tempted to get a new one in one of the fun, gorge colors they have?!?!

Signs you know you have a fabulous friend/roommate

I often mention L here on the blog from time to time...it's kind of hard not to do when you live with someone, right? I think I am very fortunate to not only have a roommate who is a good person, but also a very good friend. And there are things that happen like this morning that remind me how very, very fortunate I am to have her for my buddy.

I am enjoying a little bit of a slower-paced day here at work (almost nervous to type that as not to jinx it!) and was catching up on some non-work reading. I was elated to read that Serendipity 3 will be opening in Georgetown next week, and raced to L's facebook page to post the good news.

No more than 10 minutes later, L had frantically Gchatted me to announce that Serendipity was opening next week. "Um, yeah....of course I know" I told her. "Haven't you checked Facebook?"

She hadn't...we had just both heard the good news about delicious Frozen Hot Chocolates now heading to our Nation's Capitol and rushed to share the good news with each other first. Call me a loser, but I literally laughed out loud in my office at our ridiculousness.

Another reason that L is such a wonderful friend is that she keeps my "File" for me. Now, I must preface this little bit of Deviled Megs knowledge by saying that I am definitely not a wedding/marriage obsessed person. Far from it, actually. I am not one of those crazy chicks that has things planned to the T (hell, sometimes even booked venues!) before ever even meeting Mr. Right. I have just been to enough weddings over the years to know what I like and what I don't. And I let L keep mental track of those things by pointing out some wedding related things for her to keep in my "File" when I happen to see them.

So today I emailed her a link to this GQ Wedding Looks spread with Darren Criss from Glee. Um.....yes, please. Like basically everything from this shoot goes in the file. A few of my faves are below, but seriously I don't think he could look less-than-dashing no matter what you dressed him in.





On a somewhat related note, have I ever shared with you all my love of saddle shoes?

DeviledMegs don't play that

Oh work - why must you keep coming up with new and creative ways to totally and utterly suck?!?

I put up with a lot of craziness around here. Some of it is the nature of the beast and some of it is just people acting like beasts. Too tired to argue about which is which anymore.

But some things need to stop. Like, pronto. Continuing to refer to the two days over the weekend as time that can be devoted to work is not okay. Telling me today that I have "a whole week" to get something done by next Thursday morning is not at all accurate. I have 4.5 work days, at most given the time this needs to be done by next Th.

This is aside from the fact that I have an approved vacation day on Monday (so, for argument's sake that would knock it down to 3.5 days), then have to work all day in another city for an event on Tuesday (won't say the whole day is a wash, but I would only say I could use .5 of it for something OTHER than said event), so now we're down to 3 days. Carting myself back from the other city (which happens to be on the other side of the country) will take away my entire Wednesday, so now we're at about 2 days, tops.

And 2 days would be plenty. You know, if I didn't have everything else going on and nothing else NEW gets piled on me in that time frame.

I hate complaining about work, I really do. One, because I know there are people out of work who would love to have a job to complain about. Two, because I am fairly certain I must sound like an annoying broken record, and I hate that.

But I am just so GD tired, and don't know how to fix any of this any more. I would love a few days of vacation time, even if I was just sitting at home in my apartment, just to be able to clear my head and mentally take a break. But given my work's attitude towards the weekends, I am sure it isn't a surprise that vacation time isn't really viewed as "time off" from work around these parts. To be fair, they don't say that outright, but the fact that I usually sleep with my work blackberry should give you some insight into the level of accessibility and responsiveness that is expected of me.

The cherry on my sundae of today is that the super-secret job that I was moving heaven and earth to interview for, was seriously willing and ready to take a huge pay cut to accept, is now on hold for filling the position with no idea when (I daresay IF) they may make a hiring decision. It's funny how one thing that wasn't even a certainty can give you so much hope and how low you can feel once that light of hope is extinguished.

And for anyone who would dare ask what I am doing writing a little blog post about it all when I could have been working and trying to lessen the load...the 20 or so minutes I just spent doing this was much needed therapy. To soothe and calm myself so I didn't just lose all composure and shoot off an email with those five powerful letters.

Because on days like today, I feel like it's something I could see myself doing.

WTF Blogger

Ok, quick little vent and survey of the peanut gallery to see if others out there are having the same issue. As of last week, all the blogs I follow just vanished from my dashboard. As in, I am not following anyone.

Anyone else out there have the same problem? When I check the Help/FAQ boards it just says they are aware of the problem and it will be fixed, but it has been over a weeknow.

Oh, and if you are reading this and you know I follow you....can you see if I am still listed in your followers list?

I continue to be frustrated with technological difficulties....but they are low on my frustration list at the moment. More on that later, perhaps.

We have a winner!

I was so excited about my first giveaway -- thank you to everyone who entered, there were 57 total entries. Not too shabby!

I used a random number generator to determine the winner of the Sephora & Kate Spade Giveaway.

Lucky number 35 belongs to...

Desperately Seeking Seersucker! Congrats DSS -- drop me a line so I have your address to send your winnings to!

For what it's worth

I vacillate on whether or not I buy into karma, "The Secret" and all of that. But at this point...well I am thinking it may not hurt. So I will just put it out there in case the universe may, in fact, be listening. You know, for whatever it may be worth.

Dear Universe,

Uncle. You win. I really am not up for this anymore.

I am a good person who strives to treat people well and do my best. While I don't think that should inherently mean everything should go my way, I'd like to catch a break every now and again. Some things in my life are just flat out not okay. And I have tried (really, truly and wholeheartedly) to make things better, but I can only do so much on my own.

I really need something good to come my way. Soon(ish) if at all possible. And not like finding $10 in my jeans pocket or something like that. Something seriously, undeniably, life-changing kinda good.

I don't know if I have ever really said it out loud. Maybe because I don't know if I have felt it. But I am changing that by stating it here now.

I am a good person. I deserve good things. I work hard. I deserve to be happy.

And even when things continue to not really go my way, I have still worked just as hard and continued to be a good and kind person. Not because I thought it would win me any brownie points in life, but just because I believed that it was the right thing to do.

But maybe now....I need something back. Because I keep picking myself up and trying hard and the only thing I have been able to count on is the fact that something will come along to kick me in the teeth and knock me back down all over again.

I need something to get up for again.

And if you can manage to do that and still have a little extra left over, I'd take the unexpected $10 in my jeans pocket too. Just sayin'.

Last call!

Last call for entering my Kate Spade & Sephora giveaway

Best billboard in Boston

Spotted on last weekend's trip

I have moved!!

Ok calm down, I have only moved offices. But still! I got to move away from my office neighbor nutjob somewhat toxic coworker and into a different office on my same floor. A much quieter area of the floor too, so no more impromptu concerts to listen to. And in honor of my new digs, I finally did some decorating!




If only I could put a little margarita machine in here, it would be the best Cinco de Mayo ever!

What I'm Loving Wednesday -- Mother's Day edition

Linking up with This Kind of Love for What I'm Loving Wednesday


I haven't done a WILW in awhile, and given that this Sunday is Mother's day, thought I would note some things that I love that could make excellent Mother's day gifts for those still doing some last minute shopping for the Moms in their lives. When I can, I will try to link to a site where you can view/purchase. you know, cause I am all about making people's lives easier.

I'm loving...my Clarisonic skincare brush. Seriously, this thing is AH-mazing. I treated myself to it a few years ago, not really believing all the hype around it. But it lives up to all the accolades and then some. I have been half-tempted to buy a new one just because now you can get it in so many fun colors...pink, purple, green. This gets your skin ridiculously clean without really drying it out or irritating sensitive skin. And the skin care products you use afterwards will be that much more effective because of how much better the texture of your skin is. Busy moms may not have time to schedule a proper facial regularly, but now they can have one whenever they want in the privacy of their own bathroom.


I'm loving...Shoe-of-the-Month clubs. I have subscribed to a few on and off before, but recently found a new one that I am seriously head over heels for (haha, sorry couldn't resist!) Sole Society works just like any other "of-the-month" club you can think of. You enroll and enter your billing info and then also your style preferences. Then at the beginning of the month you are presented with 5 fabulous shoe options. Don't like those? No problem, they will send you five more. Still not liking what you see or just not in the market for a new pair of shoes that month? Just opt to skip the month. Nothing billed. The shoes from Sole Society are really top-quality and made with leather, no synthetic materials here. I just sported my new pair when I was up on Boston and spent a whole night on my feet in platform booties and my feet felt FINE. They were super comfy and looked very designer. I got the style below but in a pretty nude/caramel color that I think is going to work year round. Love them.


I'm loving...skincare from Philosophy. I have converted many folks to this line over the years...including guys! Their Purity Made Simple face wash is simply the best. Using it with the Clarisonic is a slam-dunk for perfect skin. Really everything they make is top-notch, from skincare to seriously amazing body washes to beautiful fragrance. They make wonderful gift sets too, perfect for Mother's day.


I'm loving...new perfume. I am probably a bit of a fragrance junkie, never really wearing one "signature scent" but going back and forth throughout my fragrance collection depending on my mood, the weather, my outfit, you name it. I am currently infatuated with Chloe Rosebud, one of the nicest rose-based scents I have come across in a while. I am a total sucker for anything rose-scented. My Gram's name was Rose and when I was little, she always had beautiful rosebushes in the front of her house. The flower and the scent just remind me of her and is very soothing/comforting. But fragrance is a really personal thing. Not sure what she may like? Sephora has you covered with Fragrance Sampler gift sets. The set includes a number of fragrance minis that let the recipient try out lots of different scents. Even better, the gift set includes a voucher that they can then use at Sephora to get a full size bottle of their favorite.

Speaking of Rosebud, I'm loving....Rosebud Salve. This classic is multi-purpose, and what mom doesn't love things that are multi-purpose? This cult favorite soothes dry lips, calms and heals irritation, and soothes the sting of minor burns. It can even be used as a remedy for the treatment of diaper rash! The set below would make a nice gift for Mom (or anyone really!) And as a long-time fan of Rosebud Salve i was thrilled when they recently started making it in a tube -- I seriously have these stashed all over, purses, desk drawer, everywhere.


I could go on and on about this stuff, I have always been a bit of a "product junkie" and could ramble on about beauty products and gadgets for hours. Since many of these fabulous finds are available at Sephora, I thought it would also be a good idea to remind you of my very first giveaway since it includes a $25 gift card to Sephora along with some of my favorites in travel size, all in a cute Kate Spade makeup bag, so make sure you visit the posting and enter!

And the hits keep on coming...sigh

*sigh*

That's how I feel at work lately. Nothing is worth getting upset over, nothing worth talking about, nothing worth figuring out just how to fix it. All I can do is sigh -- heavily and often.

I can work with some lawyers being total jerks and @ssholes. Do I think it is OK? No I really don't, but I just try to survive each encounter and keep on trucking.

I have accepted some people in my DC office being downright mean and nasty. For no reason. Do I think it's acceptable? Absolutely not, but with some folks, I don't see it changing any time soon. If ever.

I can deal with the occasional office thief. Could even be a food-thieving ring.

But tonight I got an email from a colleague in my department letting me know that another person in our department was saying some very unkind things about me. And this....well this might be the thing that pushes me out.

I don't really know what to do about it. Not sure there is anything I can or should do about it even. But it feels awful to just have to sit and take it. To know someone is being so childish and unkind (let alone that they are saying disparaging things about ME) and not be able to stop it. It sucks, plain and simple.

I learned a valuable lesson from a person in HR once. If you like the people you work with, you can get through just about anything. You don't have to be besties with the people you work with (although I have been fortunate to make some friends along the way at various jobs) but it helps immensely to get along with the folks you are spending 40+ hours with each week. Up until recently, I thought one of the best things about this firm, was that the people in the department supported and assisted one another so much more than my previous firm. It helped me not feel like an island onto myself at one of the "other" offices. But things have changed...and not for the better. There are a few people I really do like. Maybe I would feel differently if I even had more than one co-worker with me in the DC office. I really don't know.

What I do know is I am a good person and I work hard. I try to help out my department colleagues and add value to the projects that I work on. And call me old fashioned, I think that should be good enough.

Should I be concerned?

Several times over the past few months, when I have had to talk to my boss about something -- and actually SPEAK on the phone, not email -- he asks if I am giving my notice. I honestly am at the point where I can't tell if he is joking around or thinks it is something he might be genuinely concerned about.

And I don't know if I should be concerned. I know that I feel like I may be at the place where I am just too tired/burnt out/frustrated to care at this point. So mayhaps this means that they are all really well *aware* of how long/hard some of us work....but just not enough to do anything about it?