Sweatshirts -

I originally wrote about my love for sweatshirts and all things comfy about two years ago, here. And then I recently saw this on Facebook:

Once you have these feelings you can't RE-have them - they are just a part of you - but whoever  wrote this (I wish it had been me) can see in to my soul and has rekindled the consciousness of my admiration for jersey wear.   


Unfortunately when I wear any sweatshirt I think I maybe look like this:

But in reality, I am more this:

Or maybe even this: 

 The thing about sweatshirts is that they are: 

a) roomy
b) washable in an easier way than a sweater
c) warm
d) roomy

They are also by and large not very flattering. Unless you are a size 2 and very tan and then whatever - anything looks good on you.

Last year I bought some even "cuter" sweatshirts so I could hopefully step it up a little tiny notch. It hasn't really worked though. As when I am heading out for a walk with Teddy I pass over the "cute" (I say skeptically) sweatshirts and choose the more heinous ones in my possession.  But that's a whole other me issue.

So here are some of the better ones I bought end of last season. 

Old Navy - and the eyelet works less like camouflage and more like a fat suit - not real flattering. 

Old Navy - probably my favorite of my new ones.

I bought a couple from Target off the clearance rack as well. They are similar to this  one.

I think the key to sweatshirts is scale.  If you are going to go BIG on top - then go little on the bottom. 

From the blog - One Little Momma

All about scale - and possibly having super expensive pieces.

I was going to have a contest to find out something about how other Tired Girl's feel about sweatshirts or how they wear them or something, and then I would have a winner and they would win something sweatshirty. But I couldn't envision it. Any ideas for a Tired Girl sweatshirt contest?  

Too important to pee -

Sometimes I go all stinking day being very uncomfortable. Having to go to the bathroom and not taking the time. Having a headache and not taking ibuprofen. Being thirsty. Being hungry. Wearing a very very uncomfortable bra. Being cold. Being hot. I live this way for many hours at a time because I simply feel too busy to go right myself in some way.

This is ridiculous.
Like insane.
I blame adulthood, womanhood, busi-ness and of course -- being tired.

I will think all day - "As soon as I finish this (fill in the blank very miserable work related task) I will (fill in the blank with the barest of necessities - like go pee!!!).  Then - hours will go by and I finally potty dance my way out of my office.  I mean what the hey is that all about?

Why all the discomfort in the name of what?? 
Getting ahead? No.  
Being productive? Maybe. 
Being a jerk that doesn't even take her workout clothes off and put on something way way more comfortable to settle in to a day of working from home.

It's stupid and I hate it and I also kind of want to know who else does this?

Sometimes, instead of doing important things, like refilling my water cup. I find my way to Pinterest where I discover that I want to arm patches on everything I own.  Watch out closet - this is happening. (It actually really is I bought a similar shirt at H&M this weekend and now I am just trying to decide what color patches to put on.  Camel color suede? Tartan plaid? Pink?  Black?). 

From Pinterest here. I want these boots, and the scarf.
I am making the shirt and got my own jeans. A similar scarf is sold at Target
but is sold out everywhere close to me.

Here are some slightly more Tired Girly boots - lower heel and a little more casual. I don't own these but I wouldn't mind. 

These are "Lucky Tolachina Boot" and they may also come in suede. 

Okay, back to my question. Who else does this?

Killer dinner by a Tired Girl -

One of my most showy (and delicious and crazy easy) meals to make is a standing rib roast.  It is a major Tired Girl Bang for your buck and a great meal to cook this time of year for guests or family, etc.  Here's what you do -

This image is from Food Network,
but of course mine looks practically the same. 

1) Save up a bit of money - this cut of meat is pricey.  It's worth it though and in the idea of "which do you have more of: time or money?" this will fall on the side of money.  It equals out in the end because you don't need much else to make this meal special and it takes no time at all.

2) If you don't see the "Standing Rib Roast" in the butcher section of your store you can ask the butcher, but during the holidays they usually go ahead and put these out.  Get as big a one as you can afford - the meat is so good you will glare at your guests in hopes they will leave so you can have more leftovers.

3)  The supplies needed are a roasting pan and a meat thermometer, kosher salt and olive oil.

4) Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and rinse and dry off the roast (it's important to dry it).  Then rub some olive oil all over it and some kosher salt.  Place the meat FAT side up in the roaster and put the meat thermometer in the thickest longest section - so it doesn't hit bone or fat or pop out the other side. I put it on the side and place it in longways and that way I can easily see the temp on the thermometer. 

This image is from Martha Stewart and The Tired Girl's
projects often get mistaken for Martha's handiwork so I feel
totally fine about using her image to describe my meal.

5) Cook in the oven about 26-32 minutes per pound (I plan for about 30 minutes). I sure hope your meat thermometer is working. I cook it until my thermometer registers about 130 degrees - medium rare. I pull it out of the oven, let it sit, and it will continue to cook to about 140 degrees.  I like meat medium rare and this cut is especially delicious with a lot of pink and juice. 

6) Carve it downways (that is probably a word) and don't eat the whole thing before serving.

I use a thermometer like this one
but am thinking of upgrading to digital

I make a horseradish sauce that I love to dip this roast in and it's yummy to put on sandwiches for later (if there is any left - - am I building this up too much?).  My sauce is: a glob of mayonnaise and a smaller glob of prepared horseradish sauce.  Mix it up - yum.


This roast is so good that anything you put with it would be great. French bread and a salad.  Mash potatoes and asparagus.  Just whatever - it's good.  And it feels special.  And it requires hardly any energy. 


Here is a thrilling chart - meat temperatures!! 

Being bad -

I like the idea of being (kind of) bad.  I have just enough anger in me to be healthy and I like to channel that anger. As you may remember I participate in "angry exercise."  Which -- is. awesome.  And thank goodness I have my own private treadmill to be angry on.

I also have a list of other things I like to do to be bad (lady-like Tired Girl versions - get ready for milk and cookies badness).

I wish this was true.

The first thing I like to do is NOT brush each strand of hair before I roll it up on a  hot roller. Yeah, take that world - I  WILL roll my un-brushed hair!  Fist in the air! 

I do that, but that is not what I mean. Here are ways I enjoy being bad:

I like (LOVE) to cuss. I love to cuss about unimportant shit.  See?  I love music with cussing. I like movies with cussing.  It feels like a release. It feels fucking awesome. Being a lady though I try to keep my bad words to the right audience and even then to minimum.

This is a great fucking song, though - don't watch it at work. The chorus is... "Shut the fuck up."  So obviously it's awesome.  A good one to listen to on the way to work or divorce court or whatever sucks. 

 

I also like to pretend I smoke. Joe hates smoking more than things he probably should hate. Also smoking is disgusting and terrible for like 10 different reasons.  But I like to think to myself during a particularly stressful moment - "If I smoked I would totally have a cigarette right now."  

Being bad at laundry and good at cooking feels like the right breakdown of tasks.  I am too "interesting" to master folding laundry (Joe wishes I was a tad less interesting probably).  But I'm badass enough to whip up something for dinner that happens to be delicious. These things may or may not be accurate, but I like to think of them this way.

Sometimes I like to be secretive. No good/bad secrets, just fun to have projects and ideas going that are just for me. Joe knows if I call him at work and ask where the allen wrenches are, or if we own an electric sander, or what is the process for patenting something, or if he has access to a projector, or if he can think of a name for a particular concept without asking any questions, he just goes with it. 


I like the idea of going way fast in a Porsche. I always say (mostly to just Joe - what a lucky guy) that if things go really right for us financially I would like a Porsche please. Joe knows which one I want. Carrerra Convertible (have to have the wind in my hair) I will need to learn to drive a stick shift, but I have the feeling that is the easier part of this fantasy.

And because I like to be a little secretive I won't share the other ways I like to be (kind of) bad. 

I am pretty sure my idea of being bad is like Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in "Stir Crazy." One of my all time favorite fucking movies (you didn't forget I like to cuss, right). Gene Wilder plays a playwright and he has to "get bad."





I would really like to know how other Tired Girls like to be bad in their own way. Maybe it will give me new ideas to add to me vanilla flavored badness repertoire.  

A wife -

I hate when politicians tell us what we need to fix. I KNOW what needs fixing - the point is how are YOU the politician, running for office, going to fix it?   So that being said I am about to tell you what needs fixing without a plan as to how to solve it.

I need a wife. A 1950's, stay at home wife. Not Betty Draper for sure, but more Donna Reed. In truth I need a maid that REALLY loves me and wants to take care of me.  Joe needs this wife too. 

I already have enough of both the Drapers in my personality.

What I need more of in my home is Anna from Downton Abbey.

Do my hair

Put my gloves on me.

Do things to the back of dresses.
I assume Joe needs all of these things done too
 - except with boy clothes obviously.

Today I went to Target to pick up a prescription and returned without the prescription, for losery reasons I won't go in to.  Clearly I need help.

An answer to all of this is to: wake up earlier, to get more done.  Hooray!! 

I don't know Dr. SunWolf, but I like her.

Any day now I will revisit 5:30 am, like I used to.

If you have never read the blog "Hyperbole and A Half"  then go ahead and kiss some time away. I try not to read other people's hilarious and fantastic blogs, so I don't accidentally steal their ideas.  But,  I read this post "Why I will never be an adult" and I think about it all the time.  It is just wonderful.  My favorite is:   

Hyperbole and Half

 More evidence why I need a loving maid/wife person.

If I don't know whats what then how is Joe supposed to save me.
This is my office/workout room/storage/laundry room.
 Please ignore my cords in every direction - just temporary (probably).

I needed the laundry basket these clean sheets were in and ... this happened.

And help!

A dog hobby -

The goal of my life, as you may know, is to rest and be productive and have fun.  Tonight as I sat down to post to this blog, my sweet baby dog nuzzled up onto me - we call it "pit time" because he curls up in to our armpits.  It's fantastic. 

Tonight as I type around a dog head on my chest I am happy to report that as many things as I suck at (generally being an adult) I am good at being a Tired Girl (half-hearted whooppee). 

My healthy and mostly good tasting dinner was whipped up, eaten up, and cleaned up in record time, leaving the evening ahead of me to be laid on by furry dogs, talked to by less furry husbands, and glowed on by television sets.

Is my house clean? Sort of. Laundry folded? No. Other stuff that needs to be done? Always - oh my God always! But as a Tired Girl I have mastered letting some things go. 

The view when he hunkered down and I could breathe
and move better, but had less sweet dog face laying on my neck.

This dog therapy is powerful. Hearing little puffs of air from his rear, that will soon be followed by the worst stink, is totally worth it (mostly). When he relaxes, he toots. Its quite a personality trait. 

What activity do you work hard to get to in the evening?  What inspires your Tired Girl toosh to get moving? 

Quitting -

What if you want to stop doing something kind of big?  Like doing the job you do. Being married or single. Living where you live. Working out at your gym.  One of my fears - that I have discussed on my #Thank you Hormones posts (the one dated 12/19/2013) - is that I won't know when to quit trying to have a baby. 

It is a concept I have discussed with my talk therapist.  (If you call it "talk therapy" and not just plain old therapy it seems soooo much better. Right?  Right?)

I told her I didn't know when to quit. I didn't want to give up too soon.  Basically this was her response - paraphrased.  

This feels right.

You have tried a lot of things to get pregnant for about seven years.  If you stop trying to do that at any point you are not quitting.  You just aren't going to do that any more. If you tried for a few months and stopped then that would be quitting. When you do something for a long time and you don't want to do it anymore it's not quitting - it's just not doing that anymore.

This may sound like semantics, but I don't care - I'll take it. 

I love this.  

No more quitting - just "I'm not going to do that anymore."  

One of my favorite sayings from my favorite poet/artist - Brian Andreas. My mom got me this when I decided to "no longer work" at one of the jobs I had early on.  Thanks Mom.

Crash diet -

Will getting a puppy make you lose weight?  Will a crash diet work for you? The answer to both questions is.... Maybe.
Not the right answer I know. But the truth is - if you work it right - the answer moves closer to yes. But cocaine also helps you lose weight, and so does having cancer, and so does having your jaw wired shut - but I am not into any of those things. So just because something works doesn't mean it's good.

That aside I recently got a puppy - and hoped that my CONSTANT and CONTINUOUS care (panicked movement and unending walks) would do the trick for my lately- more-chubby body. It did not work that way, and somewhere after getting Teddy and before writing this post I accidentally (ate two hotdogs a day and) gained more weight. Crap.
I'll skip the part where my clothes were tight and I got motivated - who cares about that.  I decided to try a crash diet for the sole purpose of not having to buy new work clothes. I was attending a conference and needed to squeeze my 10 pounds of sugar into the 5 pound bags that made up my work wardrobe.

I developed a plan, had 13 days and went for it.  Did it work? The answer is "kind of."  I lost some weight - about 3-4 pounds on the scale. Not enough to make my work clothes fit the way I want. So in that sense - no it did not work,  BUT what did happen was I felt less puffy and ultimately better about myself.  That actually counts for a lot to me. It also jump started my body in to the idea of getting so fucking serious about losing this weight. I can cuss when it comes to this stuff.

That conference is over now, but I still have some weight to lose before the clothes I already own, and like, fit me the way I want.  So I will keep going in a less drastic, but equally focused way. I have embraced green smoothies and when I return from my current business trip I am going to do a 10-day green smoothie diet. 

Is this pathetic? Yes. 
Is this the right way to live - to pig out and then starve yourself?  Absolutely not.  But it is what it is and it's happening.

My plan to lose weight on my crash type diet was basically this: Weight Watchers on acid. 

I get 24 or 25 points a day on WW, So I decided I got about 13 points on this crash diet. Just slashed the shit out of it.  
- I had a green smoothie (recipe below) for breakfast that would total about 4-5 points. 
- Then I ate a slightly bigger lunch as that is my hungriest time of day. Something like chicken breast, spaghetti squash (recipe here) and steamed veggies.  Very few points there. 
- A snack of  raw almonds (I like these) - probably a bigger bulk of points. 
- Then for dinner I would drink a glass of veggie juice I made and eat a little bit of roasted chicken breast again.  
A few things varied but that was basically it.  There were a few meals where I had to cheat and a few times I chose to cheat.
I had my cycle during these 13 days which really cramped my style - no pun intended. It made me hungry and made the scale not go down. But whatever.

Here is a list of my crash diet tips:

1. Don't exercise too much. I walked Teddy the usual 2-3 times a day but I skipped running on the treadmill and definitely skipped swimming and working out. I did not want to make myself hungry. These two weeks are NOT a way of life - to be clear - just desperate measures to drop some weight fast.

2. Shop (when possible). It kept me entertained and busy. I tried on clothes in the size of my work clothes - not some dream size, but realistically what I wanted to be in time for the conference.  This is good practice because the clothes in that size were cute and too tight. So I couldn't rest on my laurels even when the scale seemed to go down. Made me keep going.

3. Sleep a lot.  Go to bed early, get up late. Obviously as much as your life allows.Take a melatonin to sleep if needed.  I had a couple of mornings where I got up super early and it threw off my non-hungriness - I was starving.

4. Don't drink too much alcohol. As soon as I had a drink I lost my willpower. It wasn't like I started to rationalize eating something I shouldn't, it was more like I made immediate bad choices. Like putting cake in my mouth. If you decide to have a drink while crash dieting I have heard that vodka and water/club soda is the lowest calorie alcohol. Throw in a twist of lime, or a flavored vodka instead. 

5. Eat not much, pretty often. Be careful not to eat much pretty often. A snack a fraction of your normal size will do and have that eensy snack every few hours.  

 6. If you mess up or lose willpower don't worry about it - just keep going. Like on Weight Watchers I envisioned my points starting over every day. No guilt. 

7. La Croix and Club Soda saved me - felt like I was having a snack and made me feel full.  Carbonation bloats you though so its a way to feel full, but don't overdo it. 

8. Stay away - from the kitchen, the grocery store, TV during the dinner hour when they advertise PIZZA! (those jerks). Enlist the help of your spouse or fried to feed your kids, etc. Let the people in your house know to go easy on you. Demand it. If they have to eat friend chicken then they need to stay in the car and do it. Seriously.  It's only temporary.

9. Know that this was hard for me. I can type all this stuff easy, but eating this way sucked. And I am not done yet.  Bleh.

Please understand I don't actually think this is a great idea. I am not a doctor or nutritionist, please don't sue me or hurt yourself.  I am just sharing something I am doing. 




My favorite green smoothie recipe - (I like this site too)   
Two or three handfuls of raw kale or raw spinach. Switch up your greens every few days.
1 cup almond milk - I get the unsweetened vanilla. 
1/2 cup egg whites
1/2 cup water
Blend all of that together - use a handheld mixer, a vitamix, a magic bullet thingy - whatever you got.

A great site to get you started - Simple Green Smoothies

Then add one frozen banana (I peel and break them up and store in the freezer in a butter dish).
Bunch of frozen or fresh blueberries OR a bunch of frozen or fresh black grapes.
Then blend all that up.
This makes two servings - so two breakfasts, or one smoothie for you and one for a spouse, or one smoothie for breakfast and the other for dinner.
You can also add a scoop of all natural peanut butter if you want to bulk it up or want to use more of the imaginary points this way. I skipped the peanut butter during the crash diet but usually add it in on Fridays as a treat.  My husband is just so lucky right - with a surprise of a scoop of peanut butter one day a week. 

How I roast boneless, skinless (practically tasteless) chicken breasts - 
Preheat oven to 400 - 425  degrees - depending on how hot your oven is.
Line a brownie pan with foil, spray with olive oil Pam.
Rinse and dry chicken breast and place in pan.
Pour some (not too much) olive oil on chicken breasts, then sprinkle kosher sea salt on them. Then take your hands and rub the olive oil and salt all over the chicken - covering them in oil and salt. 
Wash your hands with soap.
When oven is ready throw them in and cook for about 25-30 minutes.  
I take them out and cut them - you can always put them back in - but not having them over done is the key to being able to enjoy eating them and not gagging down. 

Anyone have a Tired Girl worthy crash diet tip?  Don't you dare write me and tell me I shouldn't have gotten chubby in the first place or I should love myself no matter what. I shouldn't have and I do.  I just want to fit in to clothes I already own. 

6 steps to being new anywhere -

I work from home and I have no children. So when Joe and I moved to a new city this summer I knew I would have to work hard to meet people and connect to my new place. I would have to take off the pj's, put on makeup, wear real clothes, head out in to the world, and talk to actual humans.

This is not me.

Just to be clear, the term "pj's"is an umbrella word to mean "all clothes comfy and not appropriate for the public."  I don't actually wear pj's all day. Since I walk Teddy the dog 27 times a day I wear walking type clothes most of the time.  Just wanted you to know that.

I moved to a new city about every two years growing up thanks to my dad's job with Westin Hotels. So I've done this before.

Here are a few Tired Girl tips for being new, making friends, surviving, and thriving (ish).

1) People don't come to you - you have to go to them.
That's just true about life in general. People won't just be so thrilled that you are new to the neighborhood, school, work, gym, etc. that they flock to you and ask you to lunch. But if you are new at a workplace, for example, make friends with anyone sitting at a desk, go to other teachers rooms and say hey, sign up for the Christmas party committee, send a friendly email to new co-workers.

2) Say yes.
When invited to do something - go to lunch, go to a party, go for a drink with the gang, whatever - say yes if possible. You may not like the exact person that is asking you, but it gets you out in to the world. I do like you though Cindy and Ghada. You can always politely distance yourself from some weirdo later, if needed. This is different from a date - don't say yes to any romantic type situation that comes your way for goodness sakes - that's a whole other issue, but just say yes to friend/work/neighbor/kids friends invites.

3) Be cool. 
Don't say yes too loudly, don't go to people too aggressively. Don't freak people out. Don't tell people you are "new" - ewww - no wants to feel responsible for you. Don't be a hanger-on. Don't be needy. Bleh.

4) Join a bunch of groups/clubs. 
You won't like all of them and you will probably only really enjoy one or two of them, and in those two you'll meet one or two nice people and will go from there. You can politely distance yourself from groups you don't enjoy later. 

5) Take comfort in the usual.
Make your family's favorite meal, watch your usual TV shows (Seinfeld and Friends episodes make me feel instantly at home wherever I am), put some of your favorite and comforting things around you. I had the same wallpaper on my computer for years. As soon as the photo popped up on my computer at my new job, I knew I was good. 

Crooked, blurry and orange - this photo was home for me whatever job I had.
It is Joe and me in Eleuthra, Bahamas - long time ago. 

6)  Get ready for the plateau.
When you are first new somewhere it is pretty exciting. Even if it's scary or miserable, it's definitely exciting - adventurous even.  But in a few months the newness/excitement wears off, but the comfiness hasn't set in yet. You still aren't real close with anyone, you still don't quite know where you are going, etc. It's the moving plateau. It can sneak up on you and it can suck. It's okay - it's temporary.

This is Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice on a plateau in the opening credits.
I pretend it's me sometimes. Mr. Darcy will be played by Joe.

A year later -

My beloved dog, Ralphie, died a year ago in July. He died before his time and before I had time to prepare. I have been sad for a year honestly.  I am better though. 

When we lost him I decided that

Holy shit.  Dramatic much?  This is not me
and I hope it's not anybody.

even though the pain I felt was unbearable, I would get another dog and ultimately go through that pain again.  

I want to have it all. I mean everything. Some people have said that you can "have it all," but not all at the same time.  You can't focus on family and career at the same time - something has to give.  That's probably true, but I don't care.

I want it all and I want it all as soon as I can get it.  So I am going to totally negate a post I wrote a long time ago - here.  And instead I am perfecting* a life plan I call the "Chaos Theory." This is NOT the science idea by the same name - this theory is less smart, super simple, and equally as intriguing to me.  

The Tired Girl's Chaos Theory is to embrace the chaos that comes when you try and have it all. 

Your hormone numbers are superb and this is a good month to do a round of IVF, BUT you also just started a brand new job and its not a great time to disappear every day to have a nurse evaluate your follicle growth??? No problem.  

You just started a new job that requires a lot of time and you also decide to adopt a puppy that requires a lot energy???  Done.

This guy could have benefited from some TG Chaos Theory.

You decide to have a garage sale and list your house the same week and also go out of town on business??? Roger that.

You decide to get in shape and lose weight and go on the paleo diet temporarily and it also happens to be the month you are moving and all your kitchen is packed up?? Piece of cake (paleo cake, which is not that good really). 

These are just examples of things that may or may not have come up in the last year.  These are things that in the past I would have dedicated my time to singularly and not combined them. BUT - here is the best part - when you combine big things in your life then one thing does not dominate.  

Consumed by the shittiness of IVF? I don't have time for that I have this new effing job to figure out.  
Consumed by this new job that I have no effing idea what I am doing??  No time to stress about that I have to go shoot myself up (as usual - who am I kidding Joe does it for me) with hormones.  

Crazy hormones not needed - this is just a great way to live.

I am not pregnant, have not yet received a major promotion, AM in therapy, and have a wild dog, but I am sticking with this for awhile.  If nothing else it's interesting.

Anyone else in for a few major life changes all at once all the time? 

Travel like a Tired Girl -

Less is more, unless we are talking about resting or eating and then more is more. When it comes to travel though - in my TG opinion, less is more. My goal is to - as you know have the good life and also be less tired. Here is a list of Tired Girl travel tips, none of which are new or particularly groundbreaking. But I don't care, so here they are:

Pick a color - is it a black trip, white trip, brown trip, navy trip?

Take a lot out of the suitcase - Look through everything you want to bring and then bring half that. Having less to choose from, less to dig through, and less to cart around is better for Tired Girls.  

My favorite carry-on and purse. Longchamp - pronounce "longshahm."
The large is about $150 and comes in tons of cute colors.
I actually have the tan.  I love it.

One suitcase, one bag - and the bag is also your purse. So a good size purse and a small suitcase and that's it. Then you aren't a target for thieves who see your arms full, or a target for your husband to glare at you because you brought too much.  Actually one of Joe's claims to fame around our house is the trip he brought like 8 pairs of jeans on a 9 day trip.  

Just because you shouldn't bring many clothes doesn't mean you should be unprepared or uncomfortable. I pack a lot of medicines. They don't take up much room and when you feel like crap and are far from home it's nice to be armed. Cold medicine for the day, cold medicine for at night, bladder infections, migraines, diarrhea, constipation, upset stomach, heartburn, sinus pain, cramps, can't sleep, anxiety, motion sickness, etc. Joe will implore you to only bring prescription meds in marked bottles and not twenty pills thrown together in a ziploc and then guess what is what. 

A quick clip from one of my favorite over-packing moments. 



I'm also big in to comfortable shoes. Went on a trip once where I brought pretty, unbroken in shoes and would have gladly had both feet taken off if it meant the pain would stop. Now I just go with the old faithful's in my closet. I wouldn't mind impressing people, but will try and dazzle them with something else to distract from my comfy shoes. I'm not talking about wearing straight up jogging shoes and socks though - there are lots of cute and comfy options. We want the good and cute life after all. 

It's a nice idea to workout while traveling as well, but a a pair of running shoes takes up valuable real estate in my bag. Lately I have opted for swimming if possible. Most hotels have nice enough pools. I bought an actual "swim" suit and goggles from Target. They take up two inches in my bag, weigh nothing, and I love flailing around in the water and calling it exercise. And later saying "I went for a great swim" like I'm athletic or something.

This is the dumbest idea yet, but I really like my suitcase and bathroom bags to match. I like my travel hairbrush and travel comb to match my travel bag.  It's just relaxing to me to have "sets" and things matching. I just like it, ok?

Keep your travel bathroom bag mostly packed. Have travel size things and extras that are always in your bag. You will throw in a few other items, but so nice to have everything in there, being all travel-sizey and ready to go.  

I have the IT Luggage. It is not pretty but it boasts being the world's "lightest" suitcase.
I try not to ever check this bag because I am sure it will disintegrate.
Once it does I will look into the hardcase IT luggage.
Got mine at Marshall's, and they are always 40% at Bealls, along with everything else there. 

Sleep on the plane, don't get mugged, bring your ipad or kindle instead of a book so you can read several things and play solitaire and it's no one else's business (Joe is always somehow reading the most mammoth books and he always lugs them on the plane as well - no thanks), don't forget a phone charger, bring a colorful scarf, pack a Snicker's bar, tip people and have fun. 

If you ever want to feel the travel bug without bothering then search on pinterest "packing tips."  

Whats your most useful packing idea?