Things I'm Loving Friday X

Happy Fourth of July!!! I am thankful every day that I live in America, but I am especially thankful today, on the day of our country's independence. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave, and I am truly so proud to be an American.

SRD is decked out for the Fourth

I hope this holiday treats you very well - I have quite the full schedule ahead of me, crossing a few things off of my list - and I hope to round off the day watching fireworks in the great city of Austin. It occurred to me just last week that I have yet to spend a Fourth of July in Austin. The summer after my freshman year I was in Colorado at Crooked Creek Ranch; the summer after my sophomore year I was in Barcelona with Sarah (singing songs about America); and last summer Dylan and I went to Houston so that he could meet my parents. Crazy how time flies!

That makes this my first Fourth of July in Austin, and I am hoping to go to my very favorite spot in Austin - Mt. Bonnell - to watch the fireworks. I'm not one for crowds (mainly it's the traffic that gets to me), and I tend to prefer the more low-key watch-spots, so I'm hoping this spot won't disappoint.

Anyway, I'm off to get in a workout for the day - I'm sure to report back on that one - before beginning to cross things off of my to-do list! But, before I go, let's end this post with my tenth edition of Things I'm Loving. Enjoy!

Things I'm Loving

Shakespeare

My roommate Jamie Lynn surprised me with some Shakespearean Insult Gum the other night, which contains a different insult in each pack from Macbeth, Hamlet, Henry V, King Lear, Romeo & Juliet, Othello, and Richard III. I received this fabulous poster for my classroom that is filled with phrases coined by Shakespeare in the mail just this past week, and finally, I treated myself to this Shakespeare action figure from BookPeople here in Austin. Do I need it? No. But it was just too good to pass up!

Lululemon Fly Away Tamer Headbands

If you guys haven't figured it out by now, I love to workout. Or more accurately, I love the feeling I get after a good workout. And there is nothing worse than having your hair get in your face in the middle of said workout, which is why I rely on headbands to tame my somewhat unruly curly hair. I have a fairly small head, and many headbands won't stay put on my head. Lululemon Fly Away Tamer Headbands, along with these Nike and Under Armour Mini headbands, are about the only headbands I have found that manage to do their job.

Should I even admit that I have more of these headbands than this?

25 Movies From the 90s That Taught Us Life's Most Important Lessons

You guys know by now that BuzzFeed is one of my guilty pleasures. I should probably be ashamed to admit that I can easily get sucked into reading article after article for over an hour. Some of them are dumb, some of them are interesting, and some of them bring back sweet memories. This was one of those articles, and though I haven't seen every movie on this list, I have seen quite a few of them, and I loved being reminded that there is always more to something than what is on the surface.

The Sandlot (Source)

Castle Hill Graffiti

As I mentioned yesterday, I decided to get a little bit more specific with my goal of seeing all of the Austin Murals that I wrote down on my Summer 2014 To-Do List. Castle Hill - also known as the Hope Outdoor Gallery - was one of the items on my sublist, and Hanna and I crossed that one off just the other night. We vowed to come back before the end of the summer with our own bottle of spray paint, but for the time being, we enjoyed admiring what was currently on this constantly changing educational art project.

And with that, I'm off to begin my Fourth of July. I have lots of fun on the agenda, so I will certainly be back with a full report. Have a GREAT (and safe) holiday weekend!

Mum's the Word

As you all probably already know, I am taking a Shakespeare class here at UT this second summer session. I will admit that I was not very excited about the class, as though I have read Shakespeare in the past and it hasn't been awful, I have always thought the language was hard to understand, some of the story lines were a bit silly, and that Shakespeare is far too highly regarded as a writer. Though I have only been in this class for two weeks, I have a new appreciation for the highly regarded poet and playwright. Through his writing, he often makes fun of readers for trying to extract too much meaning from his plays, but his plays take on so many different meanings depending on how you read it. His characters are relatable once you dive into his work and though I still think his language is hard to understand, that's what No Fear Shakespeare is for!

Anyway, there are many commonly used phrases that can be attributed to Shakespeare. Granted, we don't know if he was the one who actually came up with them, but his works contain the earliest written records of them! Here is a list of some of the phrases I find myself using often, and I am sure that you use them too!

• "the course of true love never did run smooth" (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
• "all that glitters is not gold" (Merchant of Venice)
• "all's well that ends well"
• "as [good] luck would have it" (Merry Wives of Windsor)
• "vanish into thin air" (Othello)
• "be-all / end-all" (Macbeth)
• "best foot forward" (King John)
• "dead as a doornail" (Henry VI)
• "forever and a day" (As You Like It)
• "it's [all] Greek to me!" (Julius Caesar)
• "heart of gold" (Henry V)
• "kill with kindness" (Taming of the Shrew)
• "lie low" (Much Ado About Nothing)
• "melted into thin air" (The Tempest)
• "naked truth" (Love Labours Lost)
• "not slept one wink" (Cymbeline)
• "seen better days"  (As You Like It)
• "own flesh and blood" (Hamlet)
• "a sorry sight" (Macbeth)
• "wear my heart on my sleeve" (Othello)
• "wild-goose chase" (Romeo and Juliet)
• "a laughing stock" (Merry Wives of Windor)
• "mum's the word" (Henry IV, Part 2)
• "in a pickle" (The Tempest)
• "method in the madness" (Hamlet)
• "fight fire with fire" (King John)

I can't wait to have a poster (hint, hint, mom and dad) of phrases coined by Shakespeare hanging in my classroom, and when they are complaining about having to read Shakespeare's plays, I can tell them that they probably quote him at least once a day! Pretty cool!

(Source) 

(Source)

Now that that's out of my system, I can move on to the more exciting aspects of my day: exercise and food! Two of my favorites! I went to sleep last night not knowing how I would feel in the morning in regards to working out. For one, I was getting to bed quite a bit later than I had been, and two, I had that unfortunate rollerblading accident. While I really wasn't hurt, sometimes scrapes have a way of making me feel stiff the next morning. Not the case, so when my alarm went off at 6:54 this morning, I popped out of bed ready to tackle my workout. I didn't want to do anything too hardcore, so I started off with a 15-minute jog and sprint treadmill workout inspired by PBFingers, moved on to 20-minutes on the elliptical (incline: 18, resistance: 10) while reading some more of my current book - Heroes and Monsters (loving it!), and then rounded off my Friday of cardio with an incline creation of my own. My first created workout! Okay, it doesn't really constitute a 'workout,' as it only lasted 15 minutes and it really isn't that creative, but I think this is a sign of things to come! I can't wait to create even more! Anyway, my workout looked like this, and I think it is the perfect warm-up or cool-down to any workout -- a lot of incline with a little bit of running! It really gets your heart rate up quickly!

After class today, I once again decided to take advantage of the beautiful sunshine and headed over to Gregory to swim a few laps and more importantly, get some color back into my skin. One of my favorite things to do is lay out by the pool with a good book, and I did just that this afternoon before heading back to SRD to work the desk. It was glorious, and I am slowly but surely getting a little bit tanner! I miss the summer days where I had swim team practice in the morning and in the afternoon, biked up to the neighborhood pool and played there for hours with my friends -- I had some good tans back in the day!

Back in the day

Since I work the desk right through dinner time, I decided to order one of my Austin favorites to be delivered: Pita Pit. I love Pita Pit and I so wish we had it in Houston! I had a pita with chicken breast, lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, pickles, mushrooms, and sprouts. It was d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s and I already can't wait for my next pita! I hope you all are having a more eventful Friday night than I am! Hey, at least it gives me time to blog, right?!

On a more serious note, I was deeply saddened to hear of the tragedy in Aurora that took place at a midnight showing of the Dark Knight Rises. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by this event and I pray that everyone involved can find comfort during this difficult time.