Life | Jovers | Page 17

Yesterday was the last day that Andrew and I both had off before the start of the new semester. His back had been bothering him for a couple weeks and he wondered if I’d want to go get a professional massage with him. The idea of paying a stranger to touch me for an hour kind of puts me off, but I’ve had friends who have had them and absolutely raved about them. We thought it would be a fun “date” kind of activity so Andrew booked an appointment.

He then suggested we make a day of it since it was our last day off together. We had quite a few restaurant gift cards from Christmas that we hadn’t used yet, so we decided to go to lunch and dinner with them. We also had some other gift cards – me to a book store and Andrew to a gaming store. Andrew joked that we could have a “treat yo self” day with all the spending we were doing.

Treat yo self (verb): A day where one treats themselves to the finer things in life. Invented by the TV show Parks and Recreation, where Tom Haverford and Donna Meagle spend a day solely splurging on things for themselves. Clothes? Fragrances? Massages? Mimosas? Treat yo self!

The idea of a whole day spent splurging on unnecessary items regardless of the price tag absolutely horrifies me. But since all of our spending except for the massages were from gift cards, it was fun all day to do or buy something and then say, “Treat yo self!” Andrew brought the sass like Donna, and I brought the pizzazz like Tom.

We started our day with lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, which is without a question Andrew and I’s most frequented restaurant. Those wings, tho. We had to eat a bit fast because the closest one to us is about a half hour drive and we wanted to get to our massage appointment on time.

I was a bit nervous about the massages. We filled out some paperwork about our preferences and after a short time of waiting (we were a bit early), they took us into a low lit room. They told us to dress down to our comfort level and they would return when we were ready. I couldn’t help but giggle at how weird this was to me as we undressed. I climbed under the sheets of the massage bed and was so happy to find out that the beds were heated! I am perpetually always cold, so having the heated bed seriously felt like heaven. I was all ready for a nap when the masseuses came back in!

Andrew had his masseuse focus solely on his back and shoulders – since that was where he was experiencing a lot of pain. I was more there for relaxing than health reasons, so I opted for the full body massage just to try it. I also mentioned that I had some minor soreness in my back and shoulders I’m sure from just general poor posture. She had to tell me to relax a bit at first (because uhm – this stranger is touching me! Weird!) but slowly I was able to unwind. She did some deep tissue massaging on my shoulders – which hurt but felt really good at the same time, and the rest she did just light to medium pressure. The leg and arm massages I don’t feel like they did anything, it was just to feel nice.

Before I realized it, our hour was up. I didn’t want to get out of the heated bed! They greeted us outside the door with cups of water and some instructions saying that we might be a bit sore the next couple of days where they did the deep tissue massaging. Overall, it was a really relaxing experience for me, but I don’t think I would go again except for health reasons. The price just seems too high to make it more than an occasional occurrence.

We had planned on going to the bookstore afterwards, but I think the massage made us both feel really lazy so we just headed home. We had been trying to find a good day to watch Gone with the Wind since it was on our IMDB 250 list, but just hadn’t gotten to it because the movie is so long – nearly four hours! We started it but only got about an hour through before we got hungry (why are we always hungry? ) so we paused and went to get some dinner.

We decided that Italian sounded good. Normally we don’t order drinks, but we had gift cards and – treat yo self! I ordered a frozen strawberry margarita for Andrew and I to share. It was really good! The alcohol wasn’t too strong and you could really taste the strawberries. Once we were full, we drove to a nearby game store so Andrew could buy a game he’s been eyeing that was on sale. We had fun looking through the games and the special controllers they had, but didn’t buy anything else.

We headed back to the apartment and finished the rest of Gone with the Wind. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but I think I liked it. However I’m a bit tired this morning because we were up until about 11:15PM finishing it. Even my boss commented that I looked tired this morning. But everyone once in a while you gotta…

Treat yo self!

Happy 2016!

We rang in the new year for the first time in Kansas City. We’ve always gone home to be with friends and family, but we weren’t able to go back because of work. We wanted our celebration to be relatively chill after constantly being on the go around Christmas. I cooked some fri-do pizzas as a special meal since it’s a bit of a pain to make (and I always seem to forget to set the dough out to rise).

We watched a movie and played some video games, but by 11PM we both just went to bed. We had both been up since about 5:30AM and were pooped. I set an alarm for midnight because my mom’s birthday is January 1st, so I could call her to wish her a happy birthday. I like to think that the whole world is celebrating her birthday on New Year’s Eve. She deserves it.

I usually don’t set many goals for myself each year. If there is something that I want to change or start doing, I try to do it as soon as I can. I used to think that new year’s resolutions were stupid because of this (look at any of my past first posts of the year), but it’s always good to do a self-evaluation no matter the day. So I may have had a slight change of heart. Anyhow, I set myself a few annual goals that I’d like to work on this year. I didn’t include some obvious ones, like “Graduate!” or “Move home!” because unless I have some emergency life change, these should come naturally.

Goals for 2016:

Be more consistent in my blogging. Looking back at my consistency of my posts always hurts a bit because I can be so all over the place! Sometimes I will post every other day for two weeks and then you won’t hear from me for a month. I’ve found that organizing my posts and setting up a “blogging process” has really helped me stay consistent over the last several months (post coming soon on this!), so continuing that this year I think will really help me achieve this goal.

I was curious to see over the years how my blogging consistency has compared, so I tallied up the posts for each month and year. In 2015, I published 45 posts, which is three and a half posts a month. Not staggering, but it’s better than in 2014 and 2013 where I only had 27 and 33, respectively. Last year was the first year to break the downward trend, so I want to keep that going this year! I also realize that more isn’t necessarily better (quality > quantity) , but I feel like I always have something to say and not enough time to say it, so this goal is really more about disciplining myself to sit down and write on a regular basis.
Read 52 books. This was the only goal I set for myself last year, and I’m pretty sure from now until eternity I will be challenging myself to read more. I completed my goal last year, while planning a wedding, while my then fiancé was in another country, and while working full time and going to school full time, so I know I can do it again this year, sans wedding. You can track my progress on my Goodreads!
Be bold. I usually don’t add goals that aren’t very measurable, however I feel that this one is necessary for me to write down. As a quiet introvert, I’ve noticed the past couple months (a talk with my professor started me thinking on it) how much I can sometimes miss out. I pass up opportunities because I fear change and I don’t speak up often because I worry what people will think. My goal this year is to be bold and not think so much about just being me. I’m not sure how I’ll view if I was successful in this area at the end of this year, but I’ll just wing it.

I only made one goal for myself last year and that was to read 52 books in 2015. I included audiobooks, ebooks, and re-reads in my count and I am happy to say I reached 52 exactly!

I also have some exciting new things that I’m going to introduce to the blog this year, to give this place a more well-rounded view of me. I did an informal evaluation of what I consider most important to me and what I spend the most time doing, and what I blog about doesn’t proportionally equal either of those. So I’m excited to introduce some new topics this year that I think you will all enjoy!

I hope you all had a safe and fun new year’s eve, and I wish the best for you in 2016!

Jovers

Category Archives: Life

Treat yo self

Hey there, 2016