Zooey 101

Mood:  anxious


Monday is over!  It wasn't a bad Monday to be perfectly honest, but I got super anxious tonight.  Like, my chest is tight and keeping an even and steady breath actually takes work at the moment.  I have no clue where this anxiety came from.  Or what could have triggered it.  Work was fine.  I felt semi-productive today, and Jeff and I went out for Chinese (my go to comfort food!).  So this random super anxiety is both unwelcome and unwarranted.

I'm sitting here attempting to calm down, and it's working a bit.  Something that is helping me:

That, dear readers, is the little princess that is Zooey Lilland.  All 2.5 pounds of her.  She got weighed on the cat scale...that's how little she is.  Though, comparing her to this:

...she is HUGE!  Okay.  Perhaps huge isn't the right word, but oh my goodness is she getting big fast!  It's so amazing to watch her grow...and I will continue to say she looks huge to me.  I can't wait to see who she turns out to be as a dog.  I'm hoping she learns the word "no," and that she starts sleeping through the night...but pretty much everything else can stay!  And she can continue to get (a little bit) bigger since my awesome sister (and her Pomeranian princess, Maddie) sent some super cute things for Zooey to grow into!  

This little fluff ball is a wonderful reminder of the (almost) year that Jeff and I have spent married.  In some ways our marriage is an odd parallel to Zooey's growth as a puppy, we had to learn boundaries, saying and hearing "no" included.  Granted I didn't ever have to tell Jeff not to chew my shoes, but you get the idea.  

Happy Monday everyone!  And may you find something that centers you in times of great stress or anxiety as well!

Office Space

Mood:  spent, slightly annoyed, creative

Mondays universally are pretty sucky.  Nothing happened today that made it sucky, it was just, Monday.  Even though I work 4 days in a row then have Friday and Saturday off...I find that makes Monday no less sucky.  I'm done saying sucky now.  I know that I "grew up" in a church...Mommy worked there for as long as I can remember.  And I know the schedule is...frustrating at best.  Even with "normal" office hours working in a church is a somewhat nebulous way of working.  There are deadlines and meetings and events...but it's hard to put God and ministry on a time-clock.  

I'm slowly getting used to the idea that I have a "real" job.  There's an episode from NBC's Community that pretty much sums up my life...in it one of the main female characters cheats on a test purposely so she will fail because she is terrified of excelling.  That's me.  I've never worked a job I was bad at...but I've never given myself the chance to really do great things.

This time, it's different.  So after the initial hating Monday morning routine, I got ready, got into the office...and started to finally make it "my" office.  

Cait helped me cover the bulletin board with the fabric and string the ribbons...it's still a work in progress but it brightens the room...and screams "Ashley."

Right next to that hangs this....

This picture is special for a million reasons...a few being that we look fantastic with wind in our hair...we literally felt on top of the world (and on top of the Las Vegas strip is pretty close...) and it reminds me where I was, where I've been...and where I'll keep going (and with whom).

Of course the title of this blog is also the title of a hilarious movie...and I think of it every Monday as I pretty much live in a perpetual state of "the Mondays" and I'm always looking for a (pink) Swingline to put on my desk and threaten to burn the building down for.  I hope you enjoyed your Monday...and that even if it wasn't decorating you office space, you did something nice for yourself!