What I'm Loving (Friday Five Edition)

I have to admit I've been a bit slacked on the blogging front.  Most of that is not having a real routine right now, but I'm slowly figuring that out.  But for now here are a few random things that I have been loving recently.  



1. Not Working - I am really enjoying my time off right now.  Like really really a lot.  That thought might change in 6+ months, but I love having my days to spend how I want.  I go to the gym, I go out to lunch, I read, I watch TV.  Whatever I'm wanting to do.  If I didn't have my pesky bills, I think I would enjoy an early retirement.  I could find a Sugar Daddy, but I don't want to be dependent on someone that way.  Or I could win the Lotto, but that would mean I would have to play it.  For now, I will enjoy my time while looking for another job.

2. Cleaning - I have to admit, I hate cleaning, but I have been on a mission to declutter my house.  I am basically done with my upstairs and halfway done with downstairs.  This is more then just cleaning, but getting rid of things.  I've taken several trips to the Goodwill and a ton of things have been recycled and thrown out.  When I'm closer to being done, I'll do a post about it.

3. Avenger Movies - I have been watching all of the Avenger movies from the first Iron Man to Captain America: Civil War.  These are fun movies and the more you watch them, the more you see how they are all connected.  All the little details and Easter Eggs are fun to figure out.  And there are some really good looking heroes to watch.  Yum.  I wold love for them to do an origins story of Black Widow.  I find her very fascinating being a bad-ass chick in a room of super powered testosterone.  Very unlike the boring waifs of Pepper and Jane, waiting for someone to save them. 

4. Trigger Point Foam Roller - I got this roller for Christmas and I LOVE it.  It's a bit harder then traditional foam rollers and get deep into those tight muscles.  It hurts so good.

5. Snuggle Time - With all this time off I get extra time to cuddle and snuggle with my kitties.  Brianna is 17 and while she still is getting around well, I know she doesn't have that many years left.  And Riley still has a lot of feral in him, and even though he has been with me for almost 3 years, he still is very skittish.  The more time I'm home, the more he seems to relax.  And then there is Aiden, my snuggle bug.  I just love spending time with him.

Brianna, Aiden, and Riley watching Big Bang Theory with me

Brianna, Riley, and Aiden

OK, there is one last thing that I have loved this week.  The weather.  We had a couple days of beautiful weather this week and I tried to take full advantage of it.  I actually enjoyed running on Wednesday because it was almost 60 degrees when I went out first thing in the morning.  All the windows in my house were open for two days strait.  A cold front has come through and we are back to normal 40 degree high temperatures, but the sneak peak of spring has made me so happy.  I can't wait for the spring!

What are you loving?

I'm linking up with Fairytales and Fitness and Running on Happy for Friday Five 2.0

What's Next? (Friday Five Edition)

So today is my last day at work.  I have vacation that I'm using till the end of the year and then that's it.  So a lot of my thoughts are on what will I be doing next.  I have 7 months of severance so there are a lot of things up in the air right now.

1. Job hunting - I get this question often.  And really, right now, most companies are not hiring because of the end of the year, holidays, and budgets.  I have done a great deal of networking the last couple of months and will start up again in January.

2. Traveling - While I don't want to spend too much money on vacations, this is a perfect time go do some traveling.  I already had a couple things on the schedule and I'm trying to decide if I want to do anything else.  The only problem is that all my friends still have jobs, so it will be a little harder to find someone to do something spur of the moment.

3. Cleaning - I have to admit I'm a bit of a pack rat.  It doesn't help that I have very little storage in my house.  So I want to use some of this time to just purge and get rid of things out of my house that I really don't need.  Hopefully I can stay motivated and get a good amount done.

4. Classes - Our severance package includes some money to use for training.  We have two years to use it and it doesn't have to be IT specific.  So I'm looking around to what might be useful to my career and more importantly, what might be fun.


5. Relaxing - December and most of January probably won't be the best time for me to have a lot of time to relax as I have so much going on.  But it will be nice not to have to worry about work on top of everything.  So I'm hoping to get some reading done, binge some TV shows, and cuddling with the kitties.



Have you had some extended time off before?  What did you do with your time?

I'm linking up with Fairytales and Fitness and Running on Happy for Friday Five 2.0