goodbye, summer!

...and good RIDDANCE! I'm so over summer. Tomorrow is the first day of Fall, and I couldn't be more excited. Except for the fact it will be in the 90's in Tennessee. But that's OK. I know that scarves, hoodies, and the holidays are soon approaching.

It's been forever since I blogged, honestly, because I've been focusing on other things in my life, such as:

• my photography business! www.meglangfordphoto.com is up and running! I've already had over 1000 views since it's official launch just a week or so ago! I'm also on facebook, which is way overdue, but super exciting! so go check everything out, blog friends! "like" me on facebook!
• WORK. with a capital "ugh". it's been so stressful. i've basically inherited another job on top of my job. the usual. now i just need to find a way to make the day have 48 hours in it instead of 24. :( I'm not going to harp too much on how shitty work has been lately, because i'm lucky to have a job and (barely) pay my bills.
• planning for CABO! My amazing mom is sending Cord and I to Los Cabos, Mexico the week after Thanksgiving. This is the December Island Trip that I usually go on with my mom and sister, but this year, the circumstances made it so Cord and I are getting to go. And I can't wait! All-inclusive, completely free, flights booked (that were also free!) and we'll be there for 6 days. I am so, so, SO, excited. My mom rocks. And I've never been on a beach trip with my man snack, so I'm super excited.
• Because of the upcoming vacation, the health train has been back on the tracks as well. i've been walking around the neighborhood quite a bit, and trying to eat super healthy. but we all know how difficult that is.

Well anyway, that's it that's all (as Willard Scott says). Check out the photo stuff, and have a fantastic last day of summer. :)

what's up.

Oh, what a month.

My cousin has been gone almost a month. I'm still not sure if it's completely hit me yet. I won't give too much detail out in the bloggisphere, but he was shot and killed. It was so tragic, so violent, so awful. We're still coping. We will be coping for quite some time. The horrible human beings who did this to him were charged with aggravated robbery and murder one. Hopefully, they'll be in jail forever, never able to do this to another family ever again.

I've been having nightmares ever since. There have been some other family health scares over the past month. My uncle (my cousin's dad) has actually been very sick and in the hospital having major surgery. My grandfather on my mom's side was in the hospital for a week with a failing epiglottis. He was breathing in food and water and got pneumonia from it.

Needless to say, it's been hard. Really hard. Between the nightmares, the stress and pain of losing a close relative, and the complete anxiety of every time the phone rings freaking out thinking that another tragedy has hit me, I'm exhausted. I keep a smile on my face because it's who I am, but I'm beat. Mentally, physically, emotionally beat.

It's been a very tough month.

So, what else...
I'm really liking my new place, although I've been in such a stress-fog that I haven't really taken the time to sit down and enjoy it. Photo stuff has been great, but busy, so the little bit of time I've had to sit, I've been editing. But pictures are my happy place and I love it. The photos I sold for the flood was a huge success! I was able to donate $350 to Hands on Nashville. They sent me a very sweet thank you letter. I was happy to be able to raise a bit of cash to send their way. They're doing such great things.

Cord and I are doing well. I see him, like, never... but I am so in heart with him still. Maybe that's the key? Never see each other and then the little time you do get to spend is valued so much more? We just booked a trip to Chicago for late July. I'm so, so, so excited. The last "vacation" we went on was in August of 2007 to Disney World. We were in such a different place then... we were kids, for sure. Hell, we're still kids! We're staying at the Dana Hotel and Spa downtown Chicago. His bro stayed there recently and said it was amazing. I'm super excited!

My Maryland trip over Memorial day was when we ended up having my cousin's funeral, so the trip was obviously not the trip we had planned for. I hope to get back to MD again this summer to get over to see everyone. I miss home so, so much.

Until next time...

and on and on it goes.

Gosh, I have really not blogged much lately. I really don't have the time to put everything that's been going on into words.

Here's a basic rundown.

moved. no longer a single apartment-dweller. now a sylvan park roommate. and very happy about it!
got a promotion and a raise at work (pat self on back now).
sister moved to nashville. made my life complete.
cord and i haven't seen each other much in the past few weeks. i'm hoping for an entire day and night with him. is that too much to ask?
going home to MD for memorial day. thank you jesus.
enjoying the maryland-like spring we've had. 68 degrees is my ultimate temperature. that one was for you, nee-ko. :)
hope to get to Chicago this summer, maybe even around my b-day? im not going to be able to take vacay from mid august till october b/c of work, so i better get it in while i can.
photo stuff is going very well. recently had photos featured on CNN. sold over 30 copies of my broadway photo to donate to Hands on Nashville for flood victims. very happy and feel good about it.
lots of visitors in town. ready for a weekend to nest at the new place.
in general, happy with life. excited about earning more moolah and saving more with my living situation change, so hopefully i will get to be a bit more social now that i have a little extra cash flow.
still trotting in between the health train and the fat train. moving was an intense workout. i hope once they can open back the Green Hills Y (sustained major damage in the flood) I will get back into the groove. I've been eating much healthier though, so that's helping me maintain. but i want to lose. i want to lose more.
that's about it. i guess.

been a while.

it's been a while since i have written anything.... so hello.

i felt like i should give some updates on the health situation, because i'm happy with my progress and i'm in a good frame of mind about it.

i don't really weigh myself (unless i'm on wii fit or at the doctor's), so i can't say how many pounds i've lost, but i know i'm on the right track. i feel great! i've been continuing to eat healthy (even better than I had been) and i've been exercising so much more. i feel fabulous! honestly, i'm really only on week 3 of being good about working out, but i'm doing it, and it's working. i have so much more energy, my body just feels better, and i even am fitting into my clothes a bit differently. i actually felt an ab muscle this morning. wtf.

i think the key in this situation is to just keep a good mind frame about the whole thing. i'm not overdoing it to avoid getting burned out, and i'm going with a buddy. my best buddy, actually - my sister!! we're having a blast, and i've actually talked her into joining the Y, so I feel like it's been good for both of us!

i'm excited about exercise. excited about feeling and looking even better. i'm beginning to feel that when i don't exercise, i feel horrible and sluggish. hopefully, by summer, i will be confident in a bathing suit for the first time in a while.... here's hopin'!

also -I had lean cuisine chicken fried rice for the first time today - pretty good!!! try it!

other updates in my life - i'm moving, AGAIN. while i'm not excited about the actual moving part (ok, well maybe a slight part of me is, i kind of like moving....) I am super excited about my new roomie, Vanessa. We're co-workers, she's the shit, and that's all you need to know. No, getting a roommate wasn't what either of us really wanted (and Cord just wasn't gonna do it; that's a blog for another day), but it's pretty much what we both had to do at this point.

My apartment raised my rent from $650 a month to $750. I had to say good bye. There is no way in hell I can afford that with my other life expenses right now. And by life expenses, I mean bills. My social expenses are minimal at this point. My hopes for getting a roommate are that my rent will come back down to a manageable place where maybe I can go enjoy my life a little. fingers crossed!!

hello, world.

I just realized that I've been gone for quite some time.....not that it matters as I'm sure that very few people read this....but I like the theraputic nature of blogging. So hello, world.

Oh, the holidays!! Oh, Jamaica!! Lots to talk about...here's a brief synopsis of the past month:

*Decorate the house for Xmas
*Try to be bikini-ready for Jamaica
*Go to MD for best friend's father's funeral (very, very sad and unexpected)
*Stress out about my not yet ready bikini body (fuck it.)
*Go to MD for Turkey Day! What a fun weekend....I absolutely love my family.
*Eat entirely too much to even consider getting in a bikini.
*Go go Jamaica for seven days. Have quite possibly the best vacation ever and come back well-rested and totally disconnected from my life in Nashville. I'm so serious about my snowcone stand idea.....and I'm currently accepting applications.
*Didn't care at all about my bikini body because I had such an amazing time.

That's pretty much it. The past month of my life. Very full.

I won't really go into many details of the above list, but I will brag a little about Jamaica. Holy hell. Can I please go back? Really? Why the hell do I live in Nashville and not Montego Bay?

So basically, I go somewhere tropical with my mom and sister every December. Long story short, she owns a Swimming Pool company and the distributor she gets her supplies from sends the dealers on "free" trips every year. Since she brings both my sister and I, and we stay for two extra days, there is a buy-in, but still, a lot of what we do is totally paid for by someone other than us, and we take full advantage!

This year we stayed at the Half Moon Resort and Spa in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Do yourself a favor and check this website out. If you EVER go to Jamaica, stay here. It's so worth it. Also, go the all inclusive route. It's also totally worth it. It is so nice going to a resort and not having to look at how much every dirty banana drink and lobster tail cost!! The resort is absolutely perfect. Beautiful, clean, friendly, refined, HUGE (500 acres!) and just so relaxing....this is my second time there, and it was even better than the first time. We even requested to stay in the same suite because we loved it so much the last time!

We did everything we wanted to do: ATE, ATE, ATE (best meals included the conch trio with lobster tail, and of course, the local jerk chicken we went and picked up on our last night), drank a ton (my favorites being the Dirty Banana and the Miami Vice), took lots of pictures, and just enjoyed ourselves!! My favorite thing we did, however, was the Parasailing. 400 feet up in the air drug behind a boat in the Carribean. Yeah. Freak yeah.

I'll put up a few pics, but they just won't do it justice. I absolutely love Jamaica, and I love Jamaicans. They are so proud of their country, and once we explained that we've been there twice and will continue to come back because we just love it, they all were calling us "family." I got such a warm and fuzzy feeling from that. That someone I have only one thing in common with - a love for Jamaica - can consider me "family" in a sense. Very cool.

Something that I learned that I didn't know before (my foodie friends will enjoy this):
The local Jamaican food is incredible. Jerk chicken, that's a given..... but there were two things that I had never heard of before that I ate this week, and it was seriously life changing.

1) "Festival." From the sound of that, you really have no idea what it is, right? Well, it's bread. Holy moly bread! Try to imagine a hush puppy mixed with a funnel cake, in breadstick form. Yeah, you're mouth is watering, isn't it?
2) "Breadfruit." This was probably my favorite thing all week (besides the local coffee (MMM)). It's a fruit that when cooked, has the taste and consistency of bread. So basically, it's like eating bread, but it's fruit!! My soulmate. Our local meal we got from Scotchie's was Jerk Chicken, Jerk Pork, Festival, a sweet potato (which is totally different than our sweet potato) and some breadfruit. Life changing.

What's neat about it is that there were breadfruit trees all over the resort, and the workers would just climb the freaking trees and grab the fruit to cook it. I loved talking to them about it! And then knowing what they were doing when they were climbing the trees ;-)

MOTHER BITCH. As I sit here writing this blog, a freaking JAMAICA commercial came on TV!! I serioulsly almost cried. Bob Marley's "One Love" was playing, and all it said was "once you go, you know." That sums it up. I suggest that everone go. Please, go...... aaah.....

Well, I guess that's all I have to say. I am going to be suffering from post-vacation depression for a while, so I apologize to anyone who has to come in contact with me over the next week or so. At least the holidays are coming up and I can try to switch into that gear and distract myself...

aaah....breadfruit.