I'm a Blogging Fool!

I just noticed that January 2010 has 18 posts in it!  I know that I kind of slacked off on my writing last year so I went back and looked at my blog roll for 2009.  I didn't write 18 posts during any month last year.  And I suppose this one makes 19 now.  We'll still count it, even though I'm gloating.  Ha!  Here's to more 19 entry months in 2010! :cheers:

The Number, Part 4

Today I wore jeans that aren't necessarily my Skinny Jeans, but they're jeans I haven't worn comfortably in quite some time. Let's call them my Less Fat Jeans. And you know what? They feel good.

It's been easier to count calories than I expected it to be. It was tedious and kind of a drag for the first couple of days. It's still a little tedious but I'm getting used to it. I found a couple of online tools that make it much easier.

It's nice to have a concrete goal every day. I've been so used to eating whatever I want in whatever quantities I want that I really had lost all concept of what was okay and healthy and considered to be 'in moderation.' It's kind of scary. If I'd continued that way for another year, I can honestly say that I'd start 2011 obese. Yikes. I'm happy to have found a way to be sure I'm eating the right amounts of food. The best part is that at the end of the day, if I'm a little under my calorie limit -- which happens a few times per week -- I can have a truffle and feel really good about it!

Found in Miriam's Schoolwork

Hero = Mom 

My mom is the best hero in the world. My hero is my mom because she is strong and caring. My mom is my hero for two reasons. The first reason is because she is strong and she raised three children and has a big family. The second reason my mom is my hero is because she is caring all the time and she makes good food for my brothers and I. I love my mom because she loves my brothers and I. Certinley my mom is my hero.

I guess I'm doing something right.

Delicious Food and ... Kenny G?

I'm not working today -- yay for PAs that go on 2-week vacations to Switzerland and leave the office needing only 2 nurses!  So that means I had time to meet Paul for lunch.  We met at a little hole-in-the-wall Moroccan place in Aurora.

The place was virtually empty.  Paul commented that it's weird how little places like that can stay open for years and years when every time he's there they have next to no customers.  He hypothesized that they're actually a front for the Moroccan Mafia or something.  I don't care what they might be fronting for -- the food was delicious!

We shared a vegetable and lentil soup called harrira, a plate called the Middle East Combination -- comprised of hummus, baba ghanouj and falafel -- and an artichoke salad with the best raspberry vinaigrette dressing I've ever tasted.  We also had cups of Moroccan mint tea that was really tasty and warming.  We're definitely going back, hopefully soon.

What struck me as funny about the place was the incongruity of the music they played.  The walls, dishes, tablecloths, furniture and artwork were all very distinctly Middle Eastern in design. But they had a CD player going with Kenny G. They're definitely fronting for something.

I Can Totally Do This!

I'm not working today -- yay for PAs that go on 2-week vacations to Switzerland and leave the office needing only 2 nurses!  So that means I had time to run and lift weights this morning.

I did awesomely, if I do say so myself.  I programmed the treadmill for an hour.  I almost chickened out and put in 30 minutes but decided I'll never make enough progress that way.  So an hour it was.  I still don't have the endurance to run for an hour straight but I walked a minimum, just enough to take a drink of water and catch my breath again.  Wanna know how far I went?  Three.eight miles.  Woot!  That's roughly 6 kilometers for you non-metric peoples. That means I can totally run 10 kilometers in 4 months!  I can do this!  I am doing this.

As a bonus, I burned over 300 calories.  That's more than my breakfast.

The Number, Part 3

An update of sorts ... The Number is slightly lower again.  I'm happy.  But you know what I'm happier about?  That physically, I feel a lot better than I did before I committed to this.

I purposely didn't count calories and purposely ate what I wanted to on Saturday.  I could feel my resolve beginning to crack and I was afraid I'd binge on truffles or something if I didn't change things up a bit.  I didn't go nuts or anything, I just wasn't so regimented.  And it was fine.  Then yesterday, I stuck with my calorie limit but it was all crappy food (i.e. nachos, popcorn, hot chocolate, macaroni and cheese, etc.).  Looking at that list really makes me wonder how I stayed within my caloric limit but somehow I did.  I didn't have a single vegetable.  Blech.  I paid for it, too.  I felt bloated and sick most of the evening.

It was so refreshing to stick with a healthy diet today.  Emotionally and physically I am much better off than I was 2 weeks ago.  I'm loving this.  It's a great incentive to keep it up.

Silent Letters

This is what Samuel and I shared at the movie theater today.  He read the container and said, "Hm.  I guess the 'F' and the 'U' in 'nacho' are silent."

I love this kid.

Glamorous Manicure

My hands are in bad shape.  That's what happens when you wash your hands 26.2 million times. Per hour.  Just kidding.  But I do wash my hands a lot.  On top of that, I apply alcohol sanitizers to my hands mulitple times per day.  And I swab vaccine vials with alcohol.  And I swab children's thighs and arms with alcohol.  And I sanitize various surfaces at work with alcohol. That adds up to cracked cuticles.  It doesn't matter if I apply lotion to my hands every time I wash them.  It doesn't matter if I lather up my hands with Eucerin every night.  It doesn't matter if I apply super glue to the cracks in my skin, either.  This particular cuticle has been in some sad state of disrepair since early November.  Yup, almost 3 months.  See that big, nasty crack?  It's been there since Thanksgiving.  We're becoming friends.  Aren't you jealous?

This is America! Speak English!

Whatever.  This statement irritates me to the point of incoherence but I'm going to attempt to break down exactly why I get so annoyed, frustrated and yes, even angry when I hear it.  This should be self-evident to the general population but obviously it isn't, judging by the ignorance I see and hear around me every day.  Here we go.  (And please excuse my semi-graphic language.  I'm a little worked up.  And sometimes I can vent my worked-upedness with a few well-placed, gross descriptions.)

First, the great United States of America does not have an official language.  In case it's not clear, our language was borrowed from -- get this, you're gonna love it! -- the English!  And I'd wager money that a lot of Brits look down upon this bastardization of their language.

Second, one of the great principles of this country is that everyone is welcome.  If we're going to tell people they're welcome to join us and be part of our communities we can't very well hit them with the stipulation that they must learn "our" language first, can we?  The vast majority of people immigrating to this country do their best to learn and speak English as quickly as they can.  The narrow-minded punks that insist on mimicking their accents or sneering at their mispronunciations suck major donkey balls.

Third, most individuals looking down upon non-English speakers have never tried to learn another language themselves.  If they had, they'd think twice about slamming immigrants for their speech.  It's really freaking hard, and I know that first hand.

Fourth, having duplicate or even triplicate instructions on customer service menus, at the grocery store or any where else isn't hurting anyone who speaks English as a first -- or only -- language.  And it can mean all the world to someone struggling to learn English.  Being able to compare words and sentence structure side-by-side was a major factor in my learning Spanish as quickly as I did.

Fifth, learning another language can be pretty humiliating.  I still mess up my Spanish sentence structure and verb tenses way more than I care to admit.  I know I do it and I'm trying to do better all the time, but it's still embarrassing.  Fortunately, the patients I work with understand that, are grateful that I make the attempt and they are extremely patient and helpful when I do mess up.  If they instead laughed at me or made me feel like less of a human, I'd be really hurt.  Can you imagine how someone who's new to the country and doing the best they can feels when an American laughs at them?

Sixth, world-wide, the opinion of Americans is pathetically low.  Part of this is our arrogance and our basic refusal to learn the languages of our neighbors.  People who insist, "This is America, speak English!" are only serving to reinforce the idea that Americans are the festering canker sores on the hairy ass of humanity.

I understand that my opinion is the way it is because of my fairly unique background.  I married into a family of immigrants and learned their language by immersion.  I've spent most of my adult life in a community whose population consisted of nearly 1/3 Hispanic people, most of whom spoke Spanish and English.  Most of my career so far has been spent working in a school where white children were the minority.  I have a broad perspective.  And I refuse to cowtow to the pathetic ignorance of a sad majority.

I also understand that there are some people who come to this country and refuse, outright, to learn English.  I've met some of them.  But they are a tiny minority of the immigrant population.  It's unfair for everyone to be judged the same way because of them.

And this is why my blood pressure spent the better part of yesterday around 140/90.

Recent Bumper Sticker

If you want to comment on my driving

call 1-800-EATSHIT

It was on the back of a semi.  And you know what the driver did?  Cut me off.  No signal, no brake lights, no looking, no nothing.  Just cut me off.

Addendum to the How to Annoy a Nurse Post

11.  Call to schedule an appointment for something simple, like an earache or a rash and then casually say, "By the way, could you take a look at his ingrown toenail, too?" or, "You know, she's been having all these headaches lately. What could that be?"  We schedule patients according to their ailments and if you need extra time, we're more than happy to give it to you.  But you have to let us know ahead of time!

10 Ways to Annoy a Nurse

1. Show up 14 minutes late, just shy of the time I can refuse to see you and re-schedule you for a little later in the day when there is time.
2. Show up 14 minutes late, nod acceptingly when I explain that the patients who were on time will be seen first and then get mad at me when the doctor isn't in your exam room after 20 minutes.
   
3. Bring food to eat in the exam room.  First off, that's disgusting -- do you know what goes on in those rooms?  Second, your kids will unfailingly drop and crunch at least 7 Goldfish crackers/Cheerios/whatever and I'll have to clean it up.  Third, there is a freaking sign that says "No Food or Drink Please."  We even said please.
4. Way over stress about the shot your kid is going to get and cause them to completely freak out.
5. Don't tell your kid anything about the shot until I show up with it and then act like it's completely abnormal for her to be a little freaked out.
6. Threaten your kid with the punishment of a shot if they don't behave.
7. Tell your kid they can have a sucker if they behave, watch them act like a demon-possessed monster and then hand them a sucker anyway.
8. Do the above-mentioned thing and then wail about how you can't get your child to behave in public ever and how you think they might have a mood disorder and need drugs and therapy.
9. Call me 20 hours after your child was diagnosed with the flu and say that they still aren't any better and that I need to do something about it.  Seriously, do you think the simple act of going to the doctor, being diagnosed with a viral illness and then going home will cure your child?  It takes time.
   
10. Call me 15 minutes before we close and say that your child's stomachache still isn't better after 48 hours and then be irritated when I say we can see him tomorrow or you can take him to the emergency room.  Granted, that's a long time to have a stomachache and not eat, especially when the kid is 4.  But what do you expect me to say when you call that late in the day?

The Number, Part 2

I know better than to check on The Number obsessively.  I was going to wait a couple more days but I couldn't help myself this morning.  I've been doing so well and feeling so great that I had to check.  And it's already decreased by 5.  I was in shock, much like the shock I felt when I saw how huge it was a few days ago.  There could be some extenuating circumstances involved in the decrease, but I'm not thinking about those.  I'm thinking about Minus 5.  Yay me!

The Number

The Number is big and bad and ugly.  The Number completely bummed me out yesterday.  The Number has caused me to completely re-commit myself to a healthier lifestyle.  The Number will go down.  It must.  I will prevail over The Number.  Oh, yes.  I will prevail.

I'm It

I was tagged by my friend, T.  She's awesome and stuff and I'd love for you all to meet her, but she's kind of private and I respect that so she will remain as anonymous as she wants to be.

Anyway, T tagged me.  (I like the sound of that sentence.)  And I'm supposed to compose a list of 10 things that make me happy, do one of those things today and then tag 10 other bloggers to do the same thing.  Or something. The problem/s here are a) It's 9:36 pm and I'm going to bed in 1 hour and b) I don't have 10 blogging friends.  :sob:  But I will not let that deter me.  Here I go.  Are you ready?

1. My kids.  What else?  No matter how much they frustrate me, no matter how many times they induce stress-eating, or how many times they make me cry or lose sleep or my sunglasses or my appetite or my patience or the marker in my book -- you getting the picture yet? -- they do make me happy.  They never cease to amaze me with their smarts and their funnies and their capacity for making up kinda lame knock-knock jokes.  I'm so lucky to be their mom.  They make me happy every day.
2. Paul.  What can I say about Paul? We have fun together.  He gets me.  He puts up with my neuroses and doesn't complain a bit.  He takes care of me and I take care of him. He tells me how awesome I am -- and I'm kind of starting to believe him.
3. Mountains.  I love the mountains.  They're truly breathtaking.  I am so fortunate to have the views that I do.
4. Cooking.  Cooking makes me sooo happy.  I love starting with a counter full of ingredients and transforming them into something delicious.  It's one of the best feelings in life.
5. Jeans and t-shirts.  I am not a high-fashion person, in any sense of the word.  I live for comfort and it doesn't get any better than broken-in jeans and a comfy t-shirt.
6. My car.  She's pretty.  She's rock-solid on ice and snow.  She thaws out her own windshield wipers and defrosts her own sideview mirrors.  She plays my favorite music straight from my iPod.   She warms my butt.  She makes me happy.
7. Ice cream.  Ice cream makes me happy.  Actually, ice cream might make me a little too happy, from the feel of my jeans lately.  Oops.
8. Running.  I can always think of something I'd rather do but once I get going, I feel like I can do anything.  I feel strong, I feel powerful, I feel invincible.
9. Organization.  I thrive on organizing my surroundings.  I can't handle clutter.  A place for everything and everything in its place, and all that jazz.  Alright, I'll quit.
10. Music.  Of course music.  I crave rhythms and melodies and counter-melodies.  I love how music can deepen and accentuate any emotion.  I love turning it up loud and losing myself in it.  Music makes me very happy.

So that's my list.  And I'm tagging the following:

1. Lance
2. Caleb  (This is a long shot since he hasn't blogged in roughly 15 months.)
3. Garbanzo (if he's still reading and/or blogging)

I would tag Michelle but I'm pretty sure T tagged her, too.  And I don't think the other blogs I read know who I am.

Moving Update

After much thought, I have decided that we will move to another apartment in this complex when our lease is up at the end of February.  I briefly considered buying a town house near here because this is such a great time to buy a house.  When I looked at my financial situation though, I decided that it might be better to buy in another year or two.  Just because it's good for most people to buy now doesn't mean it's good for me, you know?

Once I decided not to buy now, the next logical choice was to stay in this complex (the rent really can't be beat) or move to one of the other few in the kids' school district (their school really is unbeatable).  The others didn't have 3 bedroom apartments available in the time frame I needed them and this one did.  So we got lucky.  I hassled the leasing manager for 3 weeks and finally got a deal worked out.

So we're moving in less than two months.  I'm excited.  We'll have more storage space and Miriam will get her own room.  She's over the moon about that.  The new apartment is on the third floor, which is good and bad.  Good because we won't have Bigfoot or noisy fighting over our heads.  Bad because hauling groceries will be a major chore.  Anyway, it's all part of apartment life; a life I hope to leave behind in the next couple of years.

Happy New Year!

And Happy Birthday to this blog!  This is my third New Year's blog entry, even if it's a day late.  Wow, time really flies, huh?

We had a great New Year's Eve celebration.  Jennifer and Caleb hosted a game night that we pieced together with a lot of people that didn't know each other before now.  At one point in the night someone commented that I was the only person who really knew everyone at our party.  And it's true.  I invited work friends, new friends, an old friend from high school who was in the area and of course, there were siblings, significant others and children.  It was a great time.

We played a few games, ate a lot of food, had sangria, wine and some mixed drinks.  We toasted the New Year on the porch with noisemakers, confetti and champagne.  (I was not impressed by the champagne, to say the least.  In fact, I thought it tasted vaguely of vomit, if you're interested.)

Jenn, Caleb, Paul and I have decided to run a 10K in May.  I'm nervous.  I was running a lot during the summer but that has fallen by the wayside since school started and all that.  Paul and I went running yesterday, although I hate to call it running.  We ran a little and walked a lot.  It felt good to be moving, though.  I have a loooong way to go, literally and figuratively speaking.

That's really the only New Year's resolution I have -- to run the 10K.  I don't like making New Year's resolutions.  In my opinion, it's kind of like celebrating Valentine's Day.  Why do I need a special occasion to make changes in my life or turn over a new leaf or show someone I love them?  Shouldn't that be an ongoing thing?  If New Year's resolutions help someone do that, I won't begrudge them that.  More power to them.  But I generally don't want to do it.

I did resolve to correspond with my family better during 2009 and I did, sort of.  With the exception of losing some gift cards and sending birthday cards late as a result, I did keep up my correspondence much better than I did in 2008.  So making the resolution did help that.  Let's hope it helps the running effort.

So ... Happy New Year, all!