Where to Begin?

by Valerie on May 25, 2012 · 19 comments

cherry blossom parade

The one thing I dislike about taking blog breaks (and mine are generally unanticipated and few and far between) is that it takes me a few posts to reconnect with my blog-flow, so to speak.  Despite now five years of blogging, if I take a blog break, I become the blogging equivalent of tongue-tied. And shy. And feeling like I have nothing to say, which is, of course, impossible, since blog breaks invariably happen when I have a lot going on.  That said, I have learned over the years that the best thing to do is to get right back into blogging, and the flow comes back too.  So here are a few things that have been going on:

1. New job, same lunchboxes – I started a new job last month.  While I am still practicing the same type of law I was before, it has definitely been a chance to my routine. My commute is a bit longer, my hours are different, and it is all so new.  One thing that has not changed, though, are my lunchboxes – I still bring lunch to work on daily basis.

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2. Maintaining routines -  Historically, whenever I start something new in my life (job, school), my workout routine, if I had one at the time, would always suffer. Last month, when I started this job, I told myself this time would be different and, with some advance planning, I have been able to continue working out 6 times a week in some fashion despite the new job and working through a weekend for a conference, not to mention being out of town for a wedding (see #4).

3. Life in Washington, DC – Cherry blossom season started early, which meant that the Cherry Blossom Parade  (see, cherry blossom float, top of page) was kind of late by comparison. I had seen the cherry blossoms before, but the parade was new to me. 

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4. Weekend in New York – my husband and I went to New York for a wedding.  Even though we were only there briefly, I did make it to JuicePress, One Lucky Duck and Babycakes – we also walked around the Lower East Side and the East Village, which were two neighborhoods we spent a lot of time in when we lived in New York. 

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5. I have grown to like beetsGena had the brilliant idea to suggest trying them raw, which I did at SweetGreen since they have raw cubed beets for their salads.  And I like them.  Roasted beets are still far from my favorite (such as in the salad above from Zaytinya’s – I will be sticking to my tried and true favorites there from now on) but I love my raw beets in salads – they are like carrots in texture. 

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6. I did more yoga on the mallCherry Blossom Yoga last month was not enough – I went back for DC Yoga Week’s Yoga on the Mall event this month.

7. I think I might stop the weekly updates – I started them as a way to keep myself accountable for doing a variety of things, including keeping up with working out – but the thing is, my weeks often fuse together (I don’t like the term bleed together) and I have maintained my working out and yoga schedule. I would like to get back to the point of consistent (even daily) updates rather than an attempt to do them weekly. 

8. Life, gluten-free – I have been thinking a lot about it lately, seeing as I am coming up on a three year anniversary, but also in light of the Domino’s not-so-gluten-free-pizza-crust fiasco. 

And with that,  I must get some sleepbefore early morning yoga.  I will be back soon (really!) with a recipe for cilantro hummus.   

 

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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Debi May 25, 2012 at 3:08 am

Welcome back! One day I will make it to D.C. for the cherry blossoms. Someone posted some pics the other day of all of them. So beautiful. 😀

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2 Valerie May 25, 2012 at 1:59 pm

They are truly magical.

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3 Iris May 25, 2012 at 3:17 am

Glad you’re back! Sounds like you’ve had a full couple of months! If you be blogging, I be reading :)

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4 Valerie May 25, 2012 at 1:59 pm

Thanks. I’ve really liked your recent posts this week.

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5 Karley May 25, 2012 at 3:11 pm

Welcome back, Valerie! A big hug to you from upstate NY!

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6 Valerie May 26, 2012 at 1:43 pm

Thank you Karley!

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7 MM Curator May 25, 2012 at 4:51 pm

Yay, so glad to see you’re posting again! And please post the cilantro hummus recipe soon…the husband and I are cilantro fiends!

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8 Valerie May 26, 2012 at 1:43 pm

Cilantro hummus is up!

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9 Debbie May 25, 2012 at 7:17 pm

glad ur back, i was thinking the other day, where is citylifeeats!! that yoga looks great, we are only just starting to do stuff like that here in the UK. welcome back

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10 Valerie May 26, 2012 at 1:43 pm

Aww, thanks Debbie :)

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11 Shirley @ gfe May 25, 2012 at 8:58 pm

Welcome back, Valerie! It’s been years since I’ve seen the cherry blossoms, but they are beyond amazing. I get a very, very mini version here with a line of cherry trees at George Washington’s boyhood home. They still take my breath away though.

Hope the new job goes well! Look forward to hearing more from you. :-)

Shirley

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12 Valerie May 26, 2012 at 1:43 pm

Thanks Shirley :) I have a new dip with black-eyed peas up, and I know you are are the black-eyed peas fans :)

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13 cheryl May 25, 2012 at 9:12 pm

Glad to see you posting! and I am so delighted to hear that you’ve been able to maintain your yoga and self care despite the new job/rhythm. That’s awesome!!

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14 Valerie May 26, 2012 at 1:42 pm

Thanks Cheryl – the blog sadly suffered a bit (as did twitter).

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15 Emma May 25, 2012 at 10:29 pm

Welcome back! It is so lovely to see an update from you and read about all the wonderful things going on in your life.

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16 Valerie May 26, 2012 at 1:40 pm

Thank you Emma!

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