Margaret Thatcher and I are safely in Germantown, MD. Mags was so good on the way down, it was very surprising. Chinchillas don’t do well in the car, especially 4+ hours in the car so I was a little worried about our move. But I bought him a ridiculous traveling bag/house that he seemed to love, and he sat in between the two seats of the moving truck in air conditioning for 5 hours. Can’t be that bad. Also, chinchillas are nocturnal so he would have just been sleeping all day anyway.

I on the other hand, didn’t do so well with the move. Friday morning I was just packing and cleaning when I randomly started crying and breathing really quickly and shallowly.

I’ve come to realize that the reason I was having a panic attack was because I really was in love with my apartment in Squirrel Hill.

It was me and Tom’s first apartment together and it really felt like home to me. I’m definitely going to miss it, although not necessarily the crappy management services.

Our kitchen was huge. Many, many protein smoothies were made in this baby.

We conveniently had an extra room off the kitchen that we used as storage.

And that room randomly had a window. God I’m going to miss that useless window.

Then there was our dining room. Which we never actually used for dining because I always had my crap on the dining room table. Sorry, Tom.

Oh and the living room. That room has seen more episodes of America’s Next Top Model than any other room in the world. And those floors probably are about to collapse from all the workout videos I did and Dance Dance Revolution I played. Sorry new tenants.

And then there was the bedroom. The room Margaret and I would trash to no end and then just shut the door when company would come. Don’t make fun of the lotion by the bed. It’s not what you think.

And of course my closet. The fourth love of my life, after Margaret Thatcher, Tom, and Doritios. Note the order.

Goodbye sweet, sweet apartment. May your new tenants not bring along a chinchilla that shits all over you. <3 

Last night I went up to Mt. Washington to say goodbye to a city I’ve called my home for four years.

(You know how I feel about panoramics.)

It doesn’t really seem that long ago that I posed here as a freshman…

Although admittedly a lot has changed…

And some people have disappeared from the picture completely.

But as difficult as that can be, the truly important people have stuck around.

(Note: Tom with sideburns. Note 2: Lexie with a giant double chin.)

(Is it just me or do those jeans make my butt look weird… or maybe they just make me look like I have one… because honestly I wasn’t aware I did…)

(Now you REALLY know how I feel about panoramics.)

(I mean, pearls are a reasonable accessory for a Pirates tee…)

(Once again, I really know how to accessorize.)

(Can you even pick me out in this picture??? I can’t believe my hair was that blonde. Or that I’m capable of making that face. In my defense, Boarts pinched me really hard as the shot was being taken.)

(Some things never change…what a total binge-er.)

Of course I’m not worried about missing the city as much as I’m worried about missing out on what’s going on in the city with all my friends and family.

You’re used to seeing pictures of me. After all, it’s my blog and I’m absolutely stunning.

But I’m actually used to seeing pictures without me.

When I went away to college, I missed out on a lot back at home.

And home was only 45 minutes away.

With my new job in Maryland, I’m going to be four hours away.

And I’ll have to get used to seeing even more pictures without me.

But to take a line from a song from my childhood,

“Life’s about changing—nothing ever stays the same.”

So today I’m going to be embracing a new city, a new state.

But the nice thing about Lex and the City os that it never really was about Lex and Pittsburgh but about Lex and the fun, cool, tasty, stupid, and often ridiculous things she found to do in the city she happened to find herself in.

So I look forward to updating as Lex and the new City.

I’m sure it’s going to be just as fun, cool, tasty, stupid, and often ridiculous as the last city, and I’m sure Margaret Thatcher won’t stop being freaking adorable in a new city either…

I know he’s the only reason you REALLY read my blog.

(Pretend you don’t see the Three Olives and Parrot Bay off to the side.)

1. Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30

I love Level 1 of this DVD, not because it’s easy enough for my weak bod to perform, but because it has some of my favorite strength training moves. Squat and press combination, side lunge and shoulder raise combination, deadlifts, good mornings, faux kettlebell swings… I don’t really care for the cardio and the ab moves however. So today I just did the strength moves and fast forwarded through the riff raff. It was 90 degrees after all.

2. Sunbathing

I went to Frick Park today around 11 a.m. to get a little sun. It was really hot (90+ degrees) so I only lasted about 40 minutes. Still, it will be nice to have some color when I start my new job so people aren’t like, “You’re from Pennsylvania? Yeah I can tell, Pastey.”

3. Money

I deposited three paychecks today. Hallelujah.

4. Juicebox

I picked up lunch today at Juicebox Café, the restaurant I do social media for. Seeing as my other meals consisted of icecream and cereal today, the food tasted especially delicious.

I had the one of the new apple ginger low calorie smoothies. DELICIOUS. I love ginger.

I also had a turkey avocado wrap. Turkey and avocado were made for each other.

5. Hatty hat hat

I picked up a new hat today from Francesca’s on Walnut Street in Shadyside.

It’s love.

Add those all together and you have a nearly perfect day <3

What would happen on your perfect day?

Good morning and happy Saturday boos! I’m updating from Tom’s tiny little EEE PC, and it’s super hard to get used to typing on this thing. I imagine this is what I’ll be updating on in Punta Cana though! Easy on the exclamations, Lex.

Yesterday I got the amazing news that I’m getting a raise. Ok that one deserves exclamations. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve been at my job at the University for 2 years and have never gotten a single cent raise. “Pay freezes” apparently. And my raise is only like… 90 cents, but it’s going to translate to over an extra $100 a month. An extra pair of Steve Madden’s a month. Err, I mean, an extra $100 to save for the school year…

Yesterday, I thought that Tom and I were going to the Pirates game right after I was doing working. I knew I wasn’t going to have time to work out, so I wanted to take the Mireille Guiliano approach. I kicked up the amount was walking, and also walked the 12 flights of stairs (over 200 steps) to the top of my building a few times. I broke a bit of a sweat, but then again I break a sweat when I reach over to press the shift key.

On my lunch break, I took a walk up to Schenley Park and walked around their outdoor garden.

I also got to make a few deliveries at work. It was a rather active work day, but it ended up raining, so we didn’t go to the game. So I did Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred Level 1, and chinchilla nibbled on my foot and crawled on my face.

Saturdays are the best gym days because barely anyone else goes on a Saturday. Woo!

Enjoy your day,

Man is it early!

I got up a half hour earlier this morning so I could let the little chinchilla out to play. I’m ridiculous, I  know. But really, you’re advised to let your chinchilla out 30 minutes to an hour a day.

Last week when I was on Walnut Street in Shadyside, Tom and I went to Juice Box cafe.

 I was excited to eat there after seeing their menu online, but unfortunately they don’t seem to offer every option every day. In fact, They only offered about two different sandwiches and a few different salads. I didn’t see anything on the menu foodwise that I really cared to try that day, but I thought I would give the fresh juice a shot.

Tom got a smoothie called an Elvis, which had their homemade almond milk and some peanut butter and such (left). I got a celery, cucumber, and apple juice. The saleswoman joked that we could have not picked more opposite drinks. That’s Tom and I for ya.

As you can see, the drinks are tiny, but they were still around $4. I think that’s to be expected. My juice was so amazingly refreshing. There’s something I love about drinking green liquid… lol. The strongest flavor in it was the celery, which I didn’t mind at all. I tried Tom’s drink, which was good, but not light and refreshing like mine.

After working only two days last week, I started to lag yesterday! Tuesdays I work 12 + hours, so when Wednesday comes round I’m always a bit pooped.

And speaking of poop…(wtf, I know), I saw the funniest product online the other day. It’s called Just a Drop, and you put a drop of it into the toilet before you use the bathroom to eliminate 98% of the smell.

I mean, I suppose this could be handy at your boyfriend’s parent’s house.

I feel bad talking about Juicebox and poo-smell reliever in the same blog post. Whoops.

Have a great day, guys.

Good morning! This post is coming at ya a little later because I don’t have to work today or tomorrow :) Woot!

The past two days have been so packed that I haven’t got a work out in! I plan on resolving that by eventually going to the gym before work, but I need to get used to full time working schedule first.

I had a little picnic on the lawn at Schenley with Tom on my lunch break yesterday.

We got food from the Asian Tea House stand on the lawn. I got Tofu with Lo Mein and green beens and Tom got General Tsos. The tofu ended up being breaded and fried. I heard good things about fried tofu, but this tofu was pretty terrible. It tasted like a sponge. I couldn’t even finish it all.

So right after work I headed over to Chatham to visit Leah and Katie. Chatham is actually one of the nicest Universities I’ve ever seen, and I even considered going there myself. Unfortunately it’s an all girls school, and ridiculously expensive I might add. I go over there sometimes to use the gym with Leah though because Chatham’s gym has much nicer equipment than Pitt’s. They basically get new equipment every year. They also have a pretty purple indoor track!

Leah made us fajitas in honor of Cinco de Mayo, and I made us daquiris because, well, they’re Leah’s favorite.

We were feeling a bit like fatties after our meal, so we decided to take a walk up through Squirrell Hill, one of the neighborhood’s in Pittsburgh. Our walk ended up having bad intentions, as I knew it would, because Leah wanted us to stop at Dozen, a cupcake store. We decided to walk a little more, and came back to find it had closed. So we decided to try the knew frozen yogurt place, because Leah saw her cardio blast teacher in their and insisted it must be healthy. Hahaha

In Razzy Fresh Frozen Yogurt, you pick up a cup and dispense the flavor of yogurt you want yourself. Yesterday they had Passionfruit, Original (tart), Triple Chocolate, Raspberry, and Cake Batter I believe. I went for the original and the passionfruit, both very good. You then go to a little buffet and scoop what mixin’s you want in. I got pineapple and gummi bears. :-p They then weigh it on a scale, and you pay 44 cents per ounce. All three of ours ended up being $12, so about $4 each. Not bad I guess.

I think it’s definitely worth trying. The combinations seem endless, although I think it’d be hard to find something better than pineapple and gummi bears!

I noticed that a lot of these frozen yogurt places are popping up around Pittsburgh, trying to grab on the successful coattails of Pink Berry I imagine. Either way, it makes me happy that Pittsburgh is starting to have a lot of healthier restaurants, because it’s just so much fun to go out and enjoy yourself without worrying about eating unhealthily.

Have a great day everyone!

Well, I’ve been 21 for 5 whole days now, and I’m pretty much done celebrating!

My birthday was on Tuesday, where I began my day of celebration with finishing a paper that was due at 2:30. Fun! My friend Mary brought me gummi bears to class (love her) and we went to the liquor store after. I bought a bottle of Vanilla Three Olives and Strawberry Parrot Bay. Mary also bought me a little tiny bottle of Patron! Paaaah!

 I had dinner at TGI Fridays with my dad, sister Sammy, and Tom. I ordered my first restaurant alcoholic beverage at a restaurant, which ended up being some  sort of berry mango daquiri. I also had a taste of some mohito and electric lemonade.

I ended up with a pretty healthy dinner, Dragonfire chicken and broccoli, but I can’t say the same thing for the fried green beens I ate before and the vanilla cheesecake I ate after!

Unfortunately, Sammy and I both got pretty tipsy at Fridays. I also got REALLY full. The mixture was not pleasant, and I was beginning to wonder how I was going to go out that night!

The bad thing about having a birthday on a Tuesday and really close to finals week, is that no one can really go out. I ended up going out with Tom and my friends Katie, Cara, and Jeffrey. We went to Peter’s Pub in Oakland, which gives you viking horns on your 21st birthday.

I didn’t drink too much at the bar because I didn’t feel like paying for it! Jeffrey bought me a rum and coke, and Cara boght me a shot called a Jolly Rancher, which was delicious. The rest of my drinking was done at home to save money! I’m such a cheapo!

On Thursday night, my roommates took me out to Bootleggers, another bar in Oakland. The guy looked at my license for a good bit of time, trying to decide whether it was me or not. Figures it’s actually my real license and it gets doubted!

I had a great time with the roommates, but I really can’t see myself going out as much as they do! I had a fun time getting up and going to class and work the next day. Sarcasm.

I want to end this post with yesterday’s happenings. I went to the Andy Warhol museum and the Mattress Factory with Tom. The Andy Warhol museum doesn’t allow pictures, but I have to say I really enjoyed his work!

The Mattress Factory was an interesting experience. It’s installation art. The one floor is just completely dark, with an exhibit where you are supposed to sit in the pitch black for 15 minutes. I don’t like the dark. Whatsoever. I cheated and used my cellphone a few times. Tom got mad. Haha. In another exhibit, you had to take your shoes off before entering.

The Mattress Factory is in the North Side of Pittsburgh, which is an area I’d like to explore a little more. It honestly doesn’t even look like Pittsburgh to me.

This week is my last week of classes! The week before finals week always tends to be a lot worse. Ay yi yi. Wish me luck!

-Lexie

Happy first day of spring everyone!

It’s only 6:00 and I had the most perfect day ever so far.

I texted my lil workout buddy Evie this morning and asked her if she wanted to work out. We met up, and decided it was far too nice to go to the gym. Seriously. Pittsburgh is being absolutely SPOILED with beautiful weather. It puts me in such an amazing mood. So Evie and I opted for an outdoor walk. A 2 hour outdoor walk!

We went to Schenley Park, which is basically right across the street from the Cathedral of Learning.

Click on the map to enlarge it!

We began our walk at Phipps Conservatory.

And then we headed for the trails. I’ve actually never been on the trails, so I was completely amazed. I can’t imagine how nice it will be when everything is in bloom!

I particularly enjoyed the pond.

Can you tell why?

Ducks ducks ducks! Yay!

I also particularly enjoyed Evie’s shirt.

As well as this grafiti.

So after the trails, we walked through Carnegie Mellon University, which basically looks like Greece (not that I’ve been there).

We both agreed that being on CMU’s campus was weird because Pitt doesn’t really have a campus. The buildings are just randomly throughout the central part of Oakland.

Anyway, CMU has this really cool pole with people walking up it.

I of course had to molest the hottie still on the ground.

Hahahahaha. So by this point Evie and I were famished. She offered to use one of her meal passes on me to go to Market Central, which is basically the main cafeteria at Pitt.

Now, back when I used to have a meal plan at Pitt, I absolutely despised Market Central. The only food I really liked there were the french fries, and I obviously couldn’t live all year on french fries. But when I went today I actually really enjoyed it!

Evie and I both started off with some cantelope and cottage cheese.

Eve decided to get a wrap, but I was intrigued by the Sweet and Sour Tofu dish with Jasmine rice that the vegetarian place was advertising.

This really hit the spot. I’m almost tempted to get a meal plan next year! But not really.

I was also impressed by the hydration station, which had fruit and vegetable infused waters. I decided to have some cucumber infused water. Yum.

So after lunch, Evie and I went to Rita’s Italian Ice, since they give out free ice on the first day of spring. We had to wait in a 30 + minute line, but we both agreed we probably would have waited even long since it was so worth it. While we were waiting, I took fun pictures in Evie’s sunglasses.

You can see Pitt’s Litchfield Towers in them!

Anyway, Evie ended up with some Vanilla Chip ice, and I ended up with some blueberry ice.

Evie and I parted ways at this point, and I decided to lay out on my roof for awhile.

I apologize for my freakishly large big toes. Hahahaha. My friends call them razor toes.

Honestly, this day has been so amazing. I’m in the greatest mood.

I hope you all had an amazing first day of spring as well!

-Lexie

The weather in Pittsburgh has been so fantastic this past week. I don’t even care that I didn’t get to go away for Spring Break. And when I say nice I mean high 60′s, which is such a great change from the snow storms we’ve been getting hit with. It’s also pretty incredible to see the sun again. I had almost forgotten what it felt like. No lie.

So yesterday was beautifully sunny and warm. I was able to wear short sleeves without a jacket. Amazing. So Tom took me to do something I’ve been begging him to take me to since we started dating over 4 years ago.

Can you guess where it was?

We went tooooooo (drum roll)

The Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG aquarium!

A lot of the animals weren’t in their exhibits. Probably because it’s still not quite warm enough and there’s still some snow in their exhibits.

This tiger was growling for us though. :)

I hadn’t been to the zoo since they put in the shark tunnel and I have to say it was amazing!

The sharks swim right on top of you! Soooo scary.

The whole time we were in the aquarium or in the shark tunnel, I kept saying how if something like that swam up to me in the ocean, I wouldn’t have to be afraid of getting eaten because I’d die of a heart attack first!

The zoo was such a great time, and it only costs $9 for an adult to go. We ended up making our way through the zoo in about 2 and a half hours. We were both a little disappointed because they took out the poisonous reptile building with all the terrifying spiders in it. They had a “discovery” building with some snakes instead. One of the snakes had just constricted a little baby chicken. It was so sad.

Oh, and despite my SPF 15 I ended up getting a little red on my face yesterday. Ahhhhh summer’s comin’ :-D

-Lexie

I was walking past the Wendy’s in Oakland on my way home today, only to notice a sign that said it had closed on 2/14/10. I mean, it’s no fast food February, so it’s not like I was planning on eating there for at least another two weeks, but I can’t help but be a little sad. Afterall, I do love a good meal off the Wendy’s value menu for like.. $3. It’s a poor college students dream. Plus it helps with portion control to get the value sized items. But too bad Oakland Wendy’s is no more. I’m not really a huge McDonald’s or Arby’s fan, so as far as fast food goes, I’ll basically be sticking to Subway from now on.

Speaking of Oakland, I am so sick of the snow and slushy gross mess that it has become. It’s really depressing me. My pants are all getting ruined from walking to and from campus in the disgustingness. I wish I was in like… Arizona right now.

Evie got up with me really early to work out before my 9:30 class, even though she didn’t have class til 1. What a pal. Haha. Evie’s birthday is actually tomorrow so Happy Birthday in advance my little workout buddy! We are celebrating by going to the gym bright and early. Not really. But we are going. We worked out at the Peterson Events Center this morning since it has more weight machines. The cardio machines were pretty crowded but most of the weight machines were empty. Score! I decided to focus on working out me legs today, which involved using the leg abductor machine, which I coined the slut machine. Why? Just look at it!

(Not me, lol).

One last thing before I go study, I made a form spring, so if you want to anonymously ask me ridiculous questions, feel free. Later!