And Sometimes the Best of Intentions...

So BEDA was quite the epic fail for me.

I say that, but I don't think I actually mean that.

I'm still on the fence to be honest.

My goal was to write more. To get in the habit. To really get this thing going. So on one hand I totally NAILED it. On the other hand... BEDA = Blogging EVERY Day in August... So yea... fail...

Overall though I think I'm happy with what I did accomplish. Okay let's make that a more direct statement. I AM happy with what I accomplished. I do feel better about writing.

I'm gearing up for NaNoWriMo coming up in just two short months! I'm taking a new approach this year, I'm working on outlining my story. So far I have nothing... But there's still time.

UPDATES!

My birthday was last Friday (the 30th), I had a ridiculously fantastic party on Saturday (31st). I have some really fabulous people in my life. I had a plan to name them all and thank them individually, but there's just no way... I'm too afraid I'll miss someone. (... Brag-town much?)

Sunday brought another surprise in Ronni cleaning up the backyard. I can't even tell you how appreciated that was.

Monday was just a chill day. Breakfast, movie, visiting the fam, RAW... OH! and I started a new book. I love starting new books.

Much love

E

A Bicycle Built for 15

Who would have thought when I walked out of work on Thursday that I would end up on a giant pedal powered vehicle, pedaling through downtown GR on a pub crawl?

Definitely not this girl.

A few weeks ago I was driving downtown and I saw this weird looking contraption.

There were people sitting on either side pedaling away, waving at passing cars, and generally having a fantastic time. I thought to myself, "These people are insane! Who actually does something like this?" Little did I know there were already wheels that had been set into motion and I would be on this same contraption having one of the most unique and entertaining afternoon/evenings of my life.

So the basics. There are 10 pedaling spots, 5 on each side. There are also 2 seats (1 on each side) over a wheel that do not have to pedal. Then there is a bench on the back that at least 3 people can sit on, these are also non-pedaling seats. As you can see there is a driver/steerer that navigates us through the street as you pedal like a maniac. The fastest this guy can go is 5 miles an hour, and if you think that's slow... well... you try pedaling faster! HA!

I had the privilege of pedaling the entire route... which was about 3 miles. Now that might not seem like a lot to you lot, but just think about it. That's a big vehicle. There were 16 people on it, 2 coolers, and snacks. Also hills... lots of hills... even those little guys... they were difficult.

But even with all of that craziness, it truly was a unique and amazing time and I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to partake.

I'm going to turn into Braggy McBraggerson for a minute. There's a really short traffic light we were stopped at and the woman who ran the tour told us we were going to have to pedal like crazy to get through the light so we all got ready. When the light turned green we pedaled like the dickens and made it through while it was still green... I know that may not seem like a big accomplishment to you but I'm going to tell you two reasons why it is impressive. 1 - This was the last leg of the journey after visiting 3 bars. 2 - We were only the second group all summer to make it through that light without it turning red.

Yea!

What do you think about that.

Impressed yet?

Much Love 

E

OH! Here's the website if I've sparked your interest!!

Great Lakes Pub Cruiser

Surprise!

I'll say I hate surprises, but that's not actually true. I want a surprise. Surprise run in with an old friend. Surprise party thrown in my honor. Surprise present "just because". Surprise me!

But make it a true surprise. Make it something that I have not even the slightest of inklings about.

Don't tempt me with little details here and there.

That kind of surprise drives me crazy!

For example, let's pretend it's my birthday month (I'm really digging deep into the depths of my imagination for this scenario) and you know what a friend of mine is getting for my birthday. Don't tell me I'm going to love it. Don't tell me it's the greatest ever. Don't tell me it's perfect for me. I don't want to know.

Anything.

At all.

I don't even want to know that someone got me a present until it's literally being put in my possession.

Then you can tell me all about how you knew I would love it. 

Just leave the suspense out of it.

This might be why I hate suspenseful movies... I don't want to anticipate. I don't want to wonder what it could possibly be. I just want to know... and I want to know NOW!

Yes this might make me the slightest bit of a brat... 

I'm okay with that because it's just a tiny flaw and it's one of the more lovable ones, right?

Oh also... You can take your horrible surprise that will make me hate everything about everything and shove it. I don't even want that in my life in any way.

This has been your daily uplifting message about hope and love brought to you by Ericka...

Okay really I'm not even crabby today. Today was a good day. I just really wanted to share my aversion to surprises and I thought today was the day to do it.

The real kicker?

I absolutely, positively love love love to surprise other people! HA! Isn't that just the most ridiculous thing even. It's probably because when I'm surprising others I am "in the know". And by golly I just love being "in the know". Overload me with information. It's good. I can handle it. In fact, the more info you have on something, the more I want!

Much love

E

To be clear, this is not based on real or true events that are currently taking place in my life. Just a rant that needed to happen.

Writer's Block is a Bee

Writer's block is like insomnia for authors...

I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else, but it's how I feel.

I want to imagine. I want to create. I want to write.

My brain however has other plans.

So I sit and I stare at the screen... for seconds... minutes... hours... days... 

I read inspriation pages in hopes of gleaning just a sliver of the promised stimulation to start turning the wheels. And nothing.

Maybe it's because my house is like a sauna tonight and I just can't use brain power to create when it's all used being miserable? Maybe it's because of the mindless reality television that's currently playing in the background? Maybe it's because I've already used all my creativity for the night on my vlog and my photo-a-day challenge? 

Can you use up your creativity? Is there a limit to how much someone has for their life?

I'm a firm believer that some people squander their creativity in exchange for a boring, safe existence.

What if the wasted creativity of the safe floats around in the world until it senses creativity and it latches on... Maybe that's how some poeple continue on...

Sometimes I wonder where my brain goes.

Much love

E

Sick Days

Sick days are the worst. I hate them almost as much as I hate being sick.

Today I woke up with a wicked headache. PAIN!

I thought taking some pain meds and getting a bit more sleep would help out so I made the call to my boss and told her I'd be in for the afternoon. And I meant it. That was the plan. So much so that I was determined to carry it out. So after sleeping a few more hours, taking a shower, and getting ready I headed to work. As I was driving in I started to feel nauseous but I figured it would pass, but then as I walked in the door I realized this was not going to be the case. I walked straight to my bosses desk and she was unfortunately in a meeting so I went to find Jamie and Cassie let them know I was out of there and I hightailed it out of the building and to my car in an effort not to blow chunks all over the office. I even made it a couple miles down the road before having to pull over...

After I made it home I changed back in the ol' pjs and laid on the couch for about 2 hours.

I finally started feeling better around 5pm which was great! My headache had finally abated and I felt like anything I put in my body would actually nourish me instead of make me miserable.

So again feeling much better... worried about how behind I'm going to be when I go into work tomorrow, but everything should be fine... I'm just hoping this headache stays away and I'm not developing another illness.

Only tomorrow can tell.

Much love

E

Another One Bites the Dust...

I've missed another day... Maybe two days actually... I don't think I posted Friday or Saturday...

Damn...

This weekend was quite the busy one.

Movie in the park on Friday. Surprise birthday party on Saturday. Yard work on Sunday. Phew! I'm getting tired just thinking about it... And these are just the highlights!

The movie in the park was super fun! They blocked off the giant hill in Ah-Nab-Awen Park and people brought chairs, beer, and food. Ronni and I met up with Jason, Jess, Dannette, and Lucas. Quality people if you ask me. The movie was Back to the Future which is always a good choice. It was funny because the whole night we all knew we were going to see each other on Saturday with the exception of Jason... it was his surprise party I attended, and we had more than a couple close calls when chatting about the next time we would see each other. 

But the surprise WAS a surprise so YAY!

The party was at Jessica's parent's house right on a lake. It was gorgeous! I decided I wanted to just move in... I'm sure Jess' parents wouldn't mind, right? I adore Jess' mom, she is like my sole mate and she's just the most lovely of people to know. It makes total sense how Jess turned out so amazing.

I did get to chat with Luke a bit about my "brand". I've decided I want to stand out more online... I want something that screams ERICKA with reckless abandon. Luke is going to help me with that. And in exchange I will shamelessly promote all the amazing things he does.

This is his website: True Myth Media

You should go there.

Because of reasons.

I hate to cut this short but because of this thing:

My hands are bruised so typing is painful.

Much love

E

Distractions

OMG! Not again!

Okay.

But really!?

I made a commitment today. I was going to write up my post early and post it with no problems. It was going to be well thought out... not written by the seat of my pants... or something like that. Yet here I am after midnight furiously typing away in order to not miss ANOTHER day this month. 

*CLEARLY* That did not work... 

Damn you social media and the pull you have on me.

Just as I was settling in to start this post I first posted my video link onto Facebook... that was the mistake... I ended up scrolling through the never ending feed and found a link to the Ashton speech the internet was all a buzz with so I clearly had to watch that.

THEN I remembered I needed to post my link to Tumblr because how can you not, and Tumblr is the devil... It sucks you in... You're lucky to get out with your life! I ended up on the Women of YouTube/Female Vlogger tag and there are just some really talented women out in the world. 

Much love

E

Brain... Not... Braining...

Exhaustion has taken over my life. The lack of sleep and insomniatic tendencies I have been experiencing are making for incoherent thoughts and a complete lack of anything worth while to say.

This is has been my day.

Tomorrow marks the half way point for this month.

Holy moly.

Also that means it's almost my birthday.

This makes me happy.

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

Much love

E

Another late night post...

I'm so glad it's Friday... 

This week has been super draining. Nothing particularly crazy or nutty happened. I wasn't overly stressed at work. I just felt like this week took forever. Like it was more than 5 days...

Okay, yes I know weeks are 7 days, but clearly I'm talking about the work week.

Anywho, we're 9 days into "Ericka does ALL THE THINGS August" and so far I've kept up on everything fairly well.

Sure the blog posts might be after midnight.

And maybe one or two videos have been uploaded a little late.

Okay, yes and I'm consistently a day behind in my photo a day...

Hm...

Alright. Maybe I don't have it quite together!

Good news is I still have plenty of time to rally. And I am good at the rally.

This weekend is going to consist of yard work. I am dreading this slightly. But I'm excited about having it done. Right now the yard is shambles. Maybe I'll take some pictures or a video tomorrow and you can see the transformation! Biggest projects are the patio and a retaining wall/garden bench. The wall/bench is a gift from my parents, so I'm pretty excited about that. :)

More on that tomorrow I'm sure!

Much love

E

One of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days where you are pretty sure no matter what you do or say it's going to be wrong.

You know... one of those days...

Today was that day for me.

It's left me feeling uninspired and more than a little underwhelmed.

So instead of droning on and on about how horrible everything went today, this post is going be super short and sweet... And I'm going to try to bring on some positivity.

Today I am grateful to good friends who will meet you for a drink because you had a crappy day and instead of judging you or trying to fix you they just listen. Even when a quick drink turns into hours of sitting and listening to venting on top of more venting that probably (ok definitely) sounded like whining at times they just listen.

Do you have someone like that in your life? I'm lucky to have quite a few good friends like that. So there's your positivity.

I'm going back to being grumpy now, but tomorrow will totes be better, right?

Much love 

E

Skittle Distribution

Have you ever stopped and thought about the color distribution in a bag of Skittles?

I don't usually dump the bag of Skittles out and separate by color but today my brain was fried and it was pretty much all I could handle. So because I was a little crazy I ended up realizing that there were less of some colors... and they ended up being my favorite... saddest of days... saddest. of. days.

Anywho! Tomorrow is The Color Run! I'm so excited and still trying to figure out how I'm going to not ruin my phone when going through the color zones. Because I can't... like... NOT take my phone... ... ... Oh technology...

So have I told you everything I've decided to do this month? Besides BEDA, I'm also participating in VEDA (August edition), and I'm doing a Photo-A-Day on Instagram. I don't know how I could pack more into my days, and yet I probably will... HA!

And now for something totally different!

A few weeks ago I started getting local produce delivered to me every Monday. It's been pushing me out of my comfort zone to try new recipes and eat different types of produce I normally would not buy and I LOVE IT!

It may not seem like much to others, but this was my dinner today:

The starting point:

The end result:

It's zucchini, summer squash, and heirloom potatoes in olive oil with garlic seasoning and cheddar cheese. It was SO good! (Also I wanted to post pictures in my blog today)

Looking forward to more experiments throughout the month!

YAY Adventure!

Much Love

E