Default Hiatus

I hate how I get out of the writing habit and it's so easy to just keep coasting without writing.  This might sound silly but I feel like my brain gets clogged.  I think about a lot of things that I want to write but I never get around to it so all the thoughts hang out in my gray matter.  It gets kind of dusty up there like that.

I hope to do some spring cleaning this weekend.

I Hate the First Week After Breaks

I really do.  When the kids are with the ex-husband in Albuquerque they eat all manner of crappy food, stay up way past anyone's decent bed time and are generally spoiled rotten by movies, video games, candy, amusement parks and no responsibilities.  Then they have to come back here where I *gasp* make them eat healthful meals, go to bed at an appropriate time, do chores and I can't spend money on every entertainment their little hearts desire.  It sucks for all of us.

So last week I was in a funk.  It's tough enough to write about the mundane things during times like that, never mind the extraordinary ones.  But we made it through the week.  Literally one week of nagging, hounding, whining (both theirs and mine) and crying.  Sunday was a great day and Sunday marked one week of the kids being back here with me.

Today was fabulous.  Well, except for the minor frustrations this morning with Samuel's toothbrush.  And his jacket.  And his shoes.  But that's kind of normal.  We had a delicious, balanced meal and each kid was only reminded once to eat the veggies.  I did not only a load of laundry, but also unloaded the dishwasher from yesterday, reloaded it after dinner and ran it!  The kids had minimal homework that was done quickly and they even had time for some tv and a half hour of computer games.  Everyone went to bed (almost) on time.

:contented sigh:

I hate Week One after school breaks.  Week Two is okay.

Think the Potatoes Might be Old?

The Number, Part 8

So I wrote the other day that The Number was down by 16.  And today it's officially down by 17.  Woot!  Three more will be a major milestone.  I loved being able to say that I had lost 15 pounds.  Saying that I've lost 20 pound will be that much more awesome.  Also, the first 15 pounds were just what I had gained from July to December of last year.  I need to get past that point.  It's as much a mental thing as a physical thing now.

Also, I'm back to strict calorie counting.  I proved to myself that I wasn't ready to quit counting.  I stopped counting for roughly 3 weeks and reverted back to bad habits.  Not as bad as before, but still bad.  I didn't gain any weight but I maintained steadily and now is not the time to be maintaining.  I hope to be maintaining this summer.

I didn't win the online Biggest Loser Challenge.  I came in third, I think.  And now I'm part of another Biggest Loser Challenge at work.  I don't know if I'll win that one either but I'll do my best.  Besides, the point isn't winning anyway -- the point is being fit and fabulous and loving it.

I joined a challenge with my online fitness friends to do push ups in the month of April.  On April 1 we did one push up, on April 2 we did 2 push ups and so on.  I decided to add crunches to my part of the challenge, too.  I'm hoping to see some serious definition by the time summer rolls around.

My official goal is to lose 19 more pounds.  That would put me at a weight that I haven't seen since the awful Summer of Divorce when I lived on Dr. Pepper for fear of vomiting all other sustenance from the hellacious anxiety and stress.  I know 19 plus 17 sounds like a lot, and it is.  And I might not actually get there. (But if I do, it'll be a much healthier weight than the Summer of Divorce because I will get there by healthy eating and healthy activity.)  Those are just numbers.  I can imagine what I will look like and feel like at that weight but if I get to a point before there that I feel fabulous and healthy I'll stop.  I'm not as concerned about the numbers as I am about my feelings toward myself and my energy and overall health.

So there you have it -- a Number update.

Awesomeness

This week on my online home there was a thread titled "Things that are awesome" and it made me really happy.  People posted the good things that have happened to them this week or things that make them happy all the time or things that are, for lack of a better word, awesome.  I liked the idea.  So, without further explanation, things that are Awesome or Phenomenal or Tremendous or Excellent or whatever other superlative you'd like to tag them with:

1. my adorable kids
2. the fact that my kids are maturing and might, one day too soon, object to being called 'adorable'
3. Paul
4. my clean house
5. the organic, grass-fed, free range, used-to-be happy beef that's now in my freezer
6. movies
7. music
8. friends
9. family
10. game night
11. excellent food
12. decreasing The Number by 16 (Woo-hoo!)
13. feeling like I'm exactly where I belong
14. exploring school/becoming an RN options
15. me (Yeah, I said it.)

Spoon

Spoon. Oh, yes.  I really like Spoon.

Let's see, where do I start? Oh, how about with the transportation? I planned out my trip so that I would arrive via train and bus just before 8, when the openers started. But I went to dinner first with friends, lost track of time and missed the train. So I took a later one and missed the bus. No problem, I'll just catch a later bus, right? Wrong. The next bus wasn't for another hour. So I walked. It actually wasn't too bad, though. It was just over a mile. I ate way too much at dinner and the walk was a good way to burn some calories.

Anyway, when I got there everyone else was already inside so Jennifer came out to meet me with my ticket and we got in without any problems and found our crew some where near the front.  The openers, as Caleb said, "Aren't bad.  I just don't like them.  Plus, that dude with the guitar is going to break.  Like a twig."  His description of the guitarist was right on -- he was really, really skinny.  And not very smart.  He tried to make a reference to Layne Staley but instead said 'Layne Stanley.'  People didn't like his talking and not singing so he started to get some heckling.  Someone flipped him off and he said, "Hey, why would you do that?  You know, there was this lady named Emily Post who wrote some books -- you should f@ck!n' read 'em."  That was kind of funny.

Somewhere during this I noticed puffs of smoke rising periodically from the crowd.  Now it was pretty smokey in there because of the fog machines and stuff but there's no smoking allowed.  However, it was quickly evident that this was not cigarette smoke.  But you know, Colorado does allow people to smoke medical marijuana with a prescription, so who knows?  Maybe our fellow concert-goers had chemo treatments earlier in the day or were suffering from cataracts.  You never know.

I think it was right about this time that I started to smell something really foul and no, I'm not talking about the pot.  It was really, really disgusting.  Like stockyard disgusting.  Jennifer smelled it, too and we decided that the girl in front of us had farted.  It was so gross.  I don't think I've ever smelled something that nasty from a person.

Standing so close to that many people is weird sometimes.  I mean, in addition to the pot and the farts.  The girl in front of me was really drunk and kept swaying and stepping backwards into my personal space, which is already tiny in a setting like this.  Her hair was getting in my drink.  Caleb offered to trade places with me and then he stood right next to her and didn't move when she backed up.  Finally she realized what she was doing and went away.  It took her a really long time to notice, though.

And then some where around here, I got hit in the back of the head by some guy's elbow.  I turned around to see what happened and there was a guy behind me with his arms flailing around.  At first I couldn't tell what happened.  It looked like either a seizure or body-surfing gone bad.  As it turns out, it was neither.  Two guys got into it over personal space and one started throwing punches.  Caleb picked up the aggressor and threw him off the other guy.  So he left.  The guy who got punched was bleeding and lost his glasses.  That sucked.

Just before the show ended I noticed this guy who wandered into my line of site.  I took a photo because the quote on his shirt is so cool.  It says, "Only when the last river has been poisoned, the last tree has been cut down and the last fish has been killed will man realize that he cannot eat money."  I just love that.  I wish more people thought like that.

And here is my very, very dark photo of the Capitol.  I have a thing for the Capitol.  I don't know why.  I just like it.

Playing Catch Up

The kids have been gone for almost two weeks so I've had a lot of free time.  That free time has been spent with Paul and other cool people, working and doing fun stuff.  I haven't had a lot of time for writing.  I miss it so I thought I'd get back into the groove with a brief summary of what I've been up to.

Paul and I didn't make it to the Western Slope for the spring wine festival.  A big snow storm moved over the mountains and we decided it was too risky to drive I-70, especially when it's already been shut down to one lane by a rock slide.  Fortunately, the B&B owners let us reschedule our weekend to July 4th if we added another night to our stay.  There's another wine and blues festival that weekend so that will be fun.

Since we were in town that weekend we instead got to go out with Jenn, Caleb, some of Caleb's family and some friends.  We ate at Jonesy's Eatbar and then went next door to hear Reckless Red.  It was a fun night.  That weekend we also went to see a couple of movies: Alice in Wonderland and Crazy Heart.  Alice in Wonderland was predictably good if you like the combo of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.  And I do.  Crazy Heart was really, really good.  Jeff Bridges truly deserved his Oscar this year.  Fabulous movie.

On Tuesday night that week Paul had free vouchers for Comedy Works.  It was new talent night so the comics were hit or miss.  There were half a dozen that we really enjoyed.  Afterward we spent some time walking around downtown and people watching.  We discovered that there's actually not much going on after 10 pm on a Tuesday night.  Ha!

Last weekend we spent Sunday with friends of a friend from my office.  They play Egg Wars for Easter.  I picked weak eggs and lost badly.  But there was tons of delicious food and good conversation.  I like this making new friends thing.

Last night I had dinner with some work friends and then met Jenn, Caleb and friends downtown for Spoon.  Needless to say, we had a great time.  We always do.  More about that later.

This Friday night I'm hosting ladies' game night at my place.  I don't know how much game playing we'll get done, but there will be delicious food, some drinks and laughter.  It's going to be great.

I'm making some more progress on settling into the new place.  I have some artwork up on the wall above my bed.  I also have some new artwork up in the dining room and living room.  And I'm working on an idea for the hallway.  I'll post some more pictures when I'm all finished.  I'm making Samuel a duvet for his bed, too.  I've made bedding for the other two kids in the past but he was so little then that he couldn't really voice an opinion.  The poor kid has been using Miriam's hand-me-down, flowered, pink-and-purple comforter for quite some time.  He says he wants his cover to be half yellow and half orange and he's going to get exactly that.

I've talked to the kids several times.  They're having a blast and being spoiled at least 1/2 rotten in ABQ.  They come back this coming Sunday and I'm really excited to hug them and squeeze them again.  They're such great kids and I miss them.

Samuel turned 7 last week.  For some reason, his 7th birthday is difficult for me to wrap my head around.  He just seems so grown up now.  For so long, he's been  The Baby.  And I suppose in some ways, he always will be; he is the youngest, after all.  But 7 years old is so much not a baby.  I'm not sad about him getting older -- I'm not That Mom.  It's just weird to think about my youngest being so big.  Samuel does tell me that he'll always be my baby, though.  If I could insert a pink, puffy heart here, I would.

So I don't know about this being brief but it's a summary, at least.  It's good to be back.

Heard a New One Today

Acne's foot.  As in --

What's that cream? That one that you use? For the rashes?  On the feet? For acne's foot?

Irony

Those are wind turbines. On the back of a Hummer.