If we were having coffee this morning, I would tell you that moving has been an overwhelming (but incredibly rewarding) experience.
If you're not caught up from my personal Facebook or Instagram, my husband and I moved from Denver, Colorado to Des Moines, Iowa at the end of August. Denver's cost of living was just too high, and our dream of owning a home this year (or even in the next 5 years) was going to be near impossible unless we moved to a far suburb of Denver - defeating the purpose of moving here, moving further from our jobs, and leaving us to the mercy of Denver's already-terrible traffic. J and I had a long and tearful conversation one weekend about our future plans, and we realized that we had independently both assumed we would move back to Des Moines eventually. Long story short, we decided to move home and we've been so excited to be closer to my family and so many of our friends.
If we were having coffee this morning, I'd be drinking my new Cinnamon Hazelnut medium roast.
I bought a bunch of new K-cups last week, but I also bought a bag of ground coffee. We have reusable cups for our Keurig, but they tend to be mostly unused (or used for hot water). I haven't quite figured out the trick to making strong coffee with them... after 4 years, haha. It feels like whenever I try to make a cup, it's watery and full of coffee grounds. I can make coffee in a pot like a pro, so it's not that I don't know how to make regular coffee, haha. I've tried filling up the cup to the brim, and I've tried filling it about half way, but nothing seems to make a difference. Are there any reusable K-cups you'd recommend? Am I using them wrong? Please help!
On January 19 of this year, I stopped wearing foundation. I was scared of how people would react - I work in a very image-conscious industry, and as someone who would prefer to be in a sweater and leggings all day every day, I worried that not wearing a full face of makeup would make me look less polished, less put-together, and less professional.
Everything came to a head in early January. When I'm just going into the office and not seeing clients, my typical look is dress pants, a nice shirt, and a cardigan or blazer. When I'm going to court, a deposition, or a mediation, I dress up more. At that time, I was going to two depositions a day. My limited number of matching suits were working overtime and I was struggling with the time it took to put on makeup every morning. I kept thinking of my male co-workers and felt this rage bubbling up inside me. While I was taking an hour or so to get ready every morning, all my male colleagues had to do was brush their hair and put on a suit. It felt extremely unfair, particularly as someone who wouldn't put nearly this much time into her appearance on a "normal" day.
One of my favorite blogs, Peanut Butter Runner, does a Sunday Morning Coffee Chat. In those posts, she imagines you're having coffee with her, and what she'd say. I absolutely love it and thought I'd try this concept out!
If we were having coffee this morning, I'd order a medium hot coffee, bonus points if it tastes like pumpkin.
I've been obsessed with pumpkin-flavored coffee since law school. Green Mountain Coffee makes an amazing "pumpkin spice" flavor that's simultaneously delicious and comforting. I make a giant pot of pumpkin coffee on Saturday mornings - J doesn't drink it because he doesn't like flavored coffee, but since I get up hours earlier than him on the weekends, I have enough time to quietly sip my coffee, check my email, and browse social media before he wakes up. Last weekend I added ice to my 26-oz cup and drank all the cold pumpkin coffee before he was even awake. This morning, I woke up to snow here in Denver... so hot coffee it is. All the hot pumpkin coffee.
Missed me?
I know, I know - it's been too long. I had stopped blogging for a variety of reasons (job searching, exhaustion, feeling like I had nothing to blog about... the list goes on). Around October of last year, I found myself wanting to blog again, which was a nice feeling. But then we had a bunch of deadlines hit for work, and even though I wanted to blog, I couldn't find the time or energy to actually do it. I've been thinking about self-care a lot, and while blogging would have been "fun," it would have been a bigger burden on me than I was prepared for at the time. Long story short, I wanted to be here but felt I needed to give myself the space to get more important things, done. I don't regret that decision.
Ya'll know I'm careful about talking about my job online, and that's definitely going to be a practice that continues thoughout my blogging this year. There's so much that happens during the week, but so much is confidential and it prevents me from telling you about almost everything that happens in my life, Monday through Friday. Such is the burden of an attorney. Regardless, work hasn't slowed down that much (which is awesome), but I feel like I'm able to actually share what's been going on in my life lately! So buckle up, buttercup.
