Trending in My Life Right Now

One of the items for this week's scavenger hunt is "trending." While I figure out how to take a picture of an ambiguous subject, you can read a list of 7 things trending in my life right now.

1. Snow! 

Yes, it snowed in Oklahoma last night. Maybe the stupid groundhog was right about this whole winter thing. It took me twice as long to drive to work today, because salt trucks and snow plows do not exist here. I drove 6 miles to work on an ice rink of a main road and almost slid into oncoming traffic twice.

2. Valentine's Day

Jordan doesn't believe in Valentine's Day. Yeah, he's one of those. But I'm a girl and get to decide things like what we do or don't do for Valentine's Day. So tonight we're going out to eat, and tomorrow we'll exchange cards. No presents this year, and I'm perfectly okay with that.

3. Brain Age

I'm sort of obsessed with this game Jordan has on his Nintendo DS. I feel super old school playing it, because it's probably from the 90s and plays lame techno music. But it's an awesome game that gives you brain teasers and puzzles to solve and then tells you how old your brain is. The lowest age is 20; I don't know what the oldest is. 

It can change daily based on the type of game you play and time of day. Saturday night my brain age was 25, which is how old I am, so yahoo! Yesterday I was at 27, which wouldn't have been so bad except that Jordan hit the elusive 20, and he seriously would not stop talking about how smart he is. 

But then, while he was pumping his self-important fist in the air, he stabbed himself in the eye with the tiny pencil you use to play the game. I didn't think he was so smart after that.

4. Pies

On Saturday, I attempted to make a chocolate pudding pie. 

Utter failure is too kind a phrase to describe what resulted. The pie did not become pudding; it became chocolate water. And I had to throw the entire thing out. 

I had made the pie for Jordan's sister's birthday, so not only did I fail at pie making, but I was forced to make that failure evident to his entire family so I could explain why we weren't able to come over and bring pie for everyone.

But last night I made a chicken pot pie from scratch, and it was delicious. So that sort of made up for the other pie, even though I didn't share with Jordan's family, so they no doubt still think I fail at making pie.

5. Downton Abbey. 
If you haven't seen this show, you should. I had heard people at work talking about it, but I dismissed it as being another one of those shows that everyone likes but I don't for a reason I can't explain (The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, to name a few). But Downton Abbey is so good, and season one is streaming on Netflix. So you have no excuse not to watch it immediately.

6. No cable.

After six months of full cable channels, including the sports pack and DVR, we now have nothing. No ESPN, no Bravo (and three episodes from the end of the current Top Chef season, I might add). But it's not as terrible as I thought. It's oddly freeing, actually. 

I'm here to tell you that if you feel strapped to your cable like a skydiver to his parachute, there is hope. I've been, to quote the infamous Bilbo Baggins, there and back again. And life is just fine.

7. Last but not least is my recent sprint to get back on the running wagon. 
The wagon left me behind a few weeks ago. I jumped off at first because I was lazy. But then I got sick. So this week I set a goal to run every single day. It's my over-the-top attempt to rejoin the exercise wagon and prepare for the upcoming 10k (at the end of February) and half marathon (at the end of April). 

I ran Saturday and Sunday, which means I only have to run for the next five days in order to meet my goal. After that, I'll hopefully be back on the wagon and ready to resume my normal schedule of running at least three times a week.