5/365: Adventure Saturday

I wanted to post early today in case I get sick again tonight. Saturday mornings are my adventure mornings. Johnny tends to sneak in a few hours of overtime in the mornings, which gives me the opportunity to go all of my favorite places in Tampa. This morning's adventure was studying in Westchase. It's easily one of the more walkable places in Tampa, and the small-town charm it has is unmatched in this metropolis. Here are a few pictures I took of one of the shopping and living centers in between reading. It's my favorite mixed use space in the entire county.

xoxo Sarah

4/365: Getting Better

Matryoshka soba! Yes, I own nesting doll owls. I also have a nesting doll tattoo, which will make a fine picture one day. Random fact: My minor in college was Russian, and I love Russian things of all kinds.

I'm starting to feel better. Yesterday was my first day leaving the apartment in two days, which was really nice. Johnny took me out for comfort food and college football, two things I absolutely adore this time of the year.

We're not even a week into 2013 and I've already fallen behind on my /365. Today is my catch-up day though. Johnny is doing some morning overtime today and I'm sitting at a local coffee shop catching up on reading for next week and getting some good pictures for day 5.

Also, note that I used my Bamboo tablet for the first time in the picture above. Hopefully I'll start getting even more comfortable with it and Photoshop to post some more fun pictures.

xoxo Sarah

3/365

It was extremely foggy yesterday. The pictures can't even begin to show how creepy and thick the fog was, and it didn't go away until afternoon.

I've been sick the last two days. Sinus infections are terrible and I'm extremely prone to them, but this time I've been running fevers. I better get over this soon. Classes start on Monday and I can't really miss a third day of work. Also, Johnny still has to work and being alone while being sick is terrible. This is when being an adult sucks.

2/365

 I took this picture for today because the weather was deceiving. It looked like a nice, cool day from the window, but humidity was so overbearing. I know it rarely gets "cold" here, but I just wish it would stay one temperature. On Sunday the high was 58. Today it was 78. In two days the high will be 60. This constant change keeps getting me sick, but I'm saving the sick face picture for another day.

I also got the last of my Christmas presents in the mail today. I wanted to do up some pictures for you to see, but I've been busy making food and studying at Starbucks to even play around with my awesome new Bamboo tablet. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get a chance to use it for the first time. I did, however, manage to sneak in a picture or two while dinner was cooking.

I've spent enough blogging tonight. Time to get back to that homework. February can't come soon enough.
xoxo Sarah

1/365: The Recovery

As you can see, Johnny is spending some time recovering from last night.

Our NYE was low-key. It was our close friend's birthday, so we had dinner and visited a local brewery before bringing everyone back to our apartment for some champagne and the ball drop.

It's been a quiet day. I have to start reading for class next week, and Johnny was enjoying the Outback Bowl (which is right down the street from us) before this picture. I keep thinking about how much I really wish I had the rest of the week off. I haven't worked a full day since December 20th, so tomorrow is going to be a huge shock. I'm also hitting my one year anniversary at work on Thursday, so I need to be on my game this week.

Everything returns back to normal tomorrow.

It's Resolution Time!

Crack open the champagne! The time has come to think back on the year and come up with crazy resolutions for the next. I've always been terrible about sticking to my resolutions, but I still make some anyways. Who knows, maybe this is the year things stick.

 1. I want to rekindle my love for photography and blogging, so my first goal is to finish my 365 lifestyle project. That means at least one picture and one post a day (or to catch up on the days I'm not in class for the month of January). I do need to put this new camera to good use.

2. I lost 60 pounds in 2010, but I've managed to put 50 pounds back on over the last two years. I went through huge adjustments in 2012, but the excuses have run out. I want to lose 40 pounds by my 25th birthday. I have 9 months to make the best of it. But if I fall short, I'm not going to beat myself up too much. It's a very ambitious goal, and pushing the limits of realistic weight loss. Also, when I lost the weight initially I had some aid from undiagnosed hyperthyroidism. This time around, I have no thyroid and very little metabolism control. But damnit, I can do my best instead of not trying at all. My first step is to go to the gym 15 minutes each day I'm not in class, and to add 5 minutes to that every other month.

3. A couple of years ago my parents bought me a record player for Christmas. I bought so much vinyl, but since moving away from two record stores I've stopped buying and the player has been collecting dust. It's such a beautiful piece in my living room that deserves use, so I want to buy at least one new record a month. I started this one already, getting Elliot Smith's Either/Or over the weekend. My love has been rekindled!

4. Johnny wants to go to Europe in 2014, but tuition takes up so much of my money. I need to save more if I want this to be a reality. I can probably save an extra $1000 a year if I stop buying so many impulse items and use my espresso maker at home instead of going to Starbucks before work and buying clothes every time there is a sale.

5. Finally, I want to focus more on school. I have four MBA classes left and six MS/Marketing classes before I graduate, so I need to make every grade count. And since I'm part-time now, I can put more focus on each class instead of spreading it out among four classes a semester. I'm so close to reaching the 'graduating with honors' mark...

Johnny actually studies. I take pictures.

That's an ambitious list, but I'm confident I can pull it all off. Do you have any resolutions? Are any of them major life changes? Together we can help keep each other motivated.

Hello there!

Hello! I'm Sarah, or Ruby. I got that nickname from the signature red hair I had throughout college. The name has stuck around even after.

The boring stuff: I live in Tampa, Florida (and it's not paradise like the vacationers think). I go to grad school (dual degrees) and I work as a researcher for an economic development non-profit. I know way too much about MSA demographics thanks to this. The interaction between school and work plays a huge role in my life right now.

The fun stuff: I've been blogging on and off for years, including a gig for an urban planning and landscape design blog (check it out here), but nothing has ever stuck. I really want to change that, and I thought the best way to do that is to start a /365 lifestyle project. My life has been pretty well-documented through my photographer friends, but as they become busy with work and building their own lives the photos have slowed to a trickle. 2012 was such a great year, and I have very few pictures to remember it by. Armed with a new camera, I'm ready to document this year, and hopefully more after. This is one of my goals for 2013, and I hope you enjoy it. Day 1 starts on January 1st, but I couldn't wait to start writing until then.

Miscellaneous: I live with my boyfriend, Johnny. He's a pretty big part of my life, so he'll be in many pictures. I really enjoy cooking, but I'm never home to cook. I hate living in Florida. I live for hispanic foods of all kinds, and I'm probably the most caffeinated person in the Tampa Bay area. I'm also a huge music nerd and worked in a record store during college.