Disconnect

29… holygeeze. 29? When did life pass me by?  Wasn’t I 23 yesterday?  I know to those older than me this, I’m sure, is funny because I know I’m not old. But I just feel disconnected from my age.  I have honestly told people the wrong age because I forgot I was another year older.  My age number has been a little more of a focus for me off and on as the number 30 is looming in the very near future I realize I’m not quite where I had once expected to be at the ripe ol’ age of 30.  Unmarried, dead-end job, and about to be moving back in with my parents.  I think maybe I feel so disconnected because I have decided to go back to school.  I guess I’ll see how I feel at the first of the year once everything gets rollin’.

Hello again…

Whoops!  Life got busy!

I can not wait to leave for Chicago, that is all! 

Attack of the killer pizza!

Today I am thankful for Vegetables. period. lol

My mom and I had lunch at Old Chicago Pizza today.  They offer a lunch “buffet” which consists of 3 different types of pizza, bread sticks, and Stromboli.  With the purchase of the buffet you do get either a soup or salad.  We both got the salad… not the best salad. I was kinda disappointed. The price isn’t that great either ($11.99 ea) when you consider that I ate all of a slice and a 1/2 of pizza and about 2 pieces of Stromboli (they were about an inch thick and maybe 3 inches long).  Granted the flavors were good but I think it would have been more cost effective to order of the menu.  Oh well.   I really had no business eating pizza but I checked the nutritional values online before I went because I thought I was gonna order a salad… but oh heck no.  Most of the salads were way way way worse for you than a simple slice of pizza.  However my tummy isn’t really used to the amount of grease that comes with the pizza so I’m feeling a little yuck.  I probably just need to drink some more water.   And work out when I get home since I slept in this morning and was lazy. lol

I am finally caught back up on the bible readings again.  So I think I had to read about 14 chapters today in Deuteronomy.

Yesterday was super busy so I didn’t get a chance to write anything about it but I had a doggy for about 24 hours. lol  She has gone home to her owner now. But it was fun for a few days to have a dog.  She was very cute

I was going to post a picture but it says the photos from my iPhone are not secure. oh well.  Back to work I go!

Chicago vacation begins in less than 2 weeks! Yippie!

The New Year and other Bits

Has it really been October since I posted anything?! dang.  Well a lot has gone on since the beginning of the year… resolutions and such.

This year I decided was gonna be THE year that I read the entire bible.  I’ve never done it. Probably because I’m generally lazy about anything that is “work” and as much as it shouldn’t be work, it is for me.  But I am trying… I’m actually behind a few days, so I should probably get on that.

My other decision is that I have GOT to get healthy and lose some of this dang weight that has slowly pounded itself back on me.  I’m doing “ok” I’ve lost about 6 lbs which was all holiday weight anyway.  But as of right now I am working out 5 days a week, in the mornings before work.  And I am trying to follow the south beach diet but often I find myself cheating.  Mostly I am trying to cut foods out that I feel I have a slight addiction to, like Doritos. Seriously.

I really really want to lose another 14lbs by May 1st, I don’t want to feel like a stuffed toad at Memphis in May.  It’s really not fun when you’re in kinda snug clothing and it’s super hot outside….yucky.  But to do that I fear I am going to have to up something… either up the strictness of my diet (that’s laughable) or start working out in the evenings as well.  Which is what I had to do the first time I made a decision like this, that was almost exactly 3 years ago.  The first time I lost 25-30lbs… which was AWESOME!  Then I moved, met Jeremy, and with those 2 major changes in my life I ended up not working out, and not eating right.  And it’s all back, and a little extra blah!!! lol

Then I remember 3 years before that when I lost like 40lbs and was not being healthy about it… but dancing your heart out for 5 hours when you’ve been drinking and then sleeping til 2pm the next day and only eating one meal before you go out and do it again seemed to work for me at the time HAHA, not so much anymore.  But oh man… I still have a pair of dress pants from back then and they look sooooooo tiny, in comparison to now and the funniest thing is I still thought I was a cow.  It’s amazing how warped our minds are when it comes to how we see ourselves.

Anyway, now I’m going to go eat my almonds.

**Ok I ate the almonds and my brain got to working again… I just realized I forgot something highly important.  Last night at the gathering (women’s bible study group) Ines mentioned that in a bible study she was a part of in the past they all as a group would right down something they were thankful for on an index card each week of the study, and at they end they had a whole boxful!  They went through and read them all and were amazed at all they things that they were thankful for during just that short time.  And I think I often forget about all the things that I am thankful for and I take a lot of things in my life for granted. 

So as a part of this blog I am going to post something I am thankful for.  So here it goes!

2/23/10 Today I am thankful for the innocence of my childhood.  I love the memories I have been able to hold on to.  Days of running errands with Mom and translating what Clay was saying   I know not everyone is able to have those types of memories.  So I am thankful.

Too much tv.

I’m pretty sure I’ve been watching way too much tv lately.  My imagination is on the fritz.  It’s not really working.  

Even now it’s hard for me to think up anything worthwhile to type up.  I think it’s time for a change. 

I kinda wish I didn’t have the distraction of a tv… I think I’m gonna try not to watch anything on it tonight… might be hard.

*edit at 12:17 pm*

Ok so I decided maybe I should make a list of things I can do in place of watching tv.

1. Do a really good detailed cleaning job in my kitchen, not just do the dishes and wipe the counter lol  but scrub the sink and mop the floor, AND organize my cabinets! (I’m truly in love with the container store.)

2. Clean my bathroom!  I’m amazed at how easy it is for me to dirty up the counter with all my hair products and make up… it only stays nice for about 3 days before it looks awful and cluttered again!

3. Work on my Bible study of Esther so I don’t put it off til the weekend… again.  I’m actually really into it, I just procrastinate a lot.

4.  Upload my Chicago photos to walmart.com so that I can work on a project for Christmas shhhh

5. Reorganize my guest bedroom…. again.  In my mad frenzy of “packing” up my apartment when I thought I was going to be able to leave my job soon, I kinda got it completely cluttered up again.

6. Check out the job search engines again and see if there is anything out there.  Although I’m kinda at the point were I’m pretty sure God just wants me to wait it out.  Which is terribly frustrating.  But I’m trying to just be thankful I have a job. Albeit not a job I am fulfilled by but a job none the less.

Hmm… lets see what else can I work on???

Birthday Blues

Every year it’s the same story for me (and others I’m sure)…. it’s birthday time and I’m just not in the mood for a party.  Even when I try to make things simple it seems like it just doesn’t “go my way”.  It’s really no one’s fault but my own.  I just can’t have fun at my own “party” lol I can have fun at anyone else’s though.

This year several things weren’t on my side.  First of all I was on call.  If you know me at all you know that I loathe being on call.  I’ll be in a horrible mood basically the whole time I’m on call.  So that wasn’t helping matters…. but just to make sure I didn’t have a good time mother nature decided to bring me a gift for my birthday 3 days early.  SWEET! lol It’s just one of those things.  So in all honesty if I had done what I really wanted to do this past weekend it would have involved me, my pjs, tcby shivers, and the sofa.   BUT of course I didn’t know that was how I would feel until I had already made “birthday” plans… dinners out and drinks with friends etc etc.  So I was basically moody for most of the time.  Which sucks because I do appreciate all my friends and family that celebrated with me but I’m sure I didn’t seem like I did. 

ah the birthday funk.

I am a Meanie.

My job has turned me in to a mean untrusting person.  Everyone is a liar and everyone will stab you in the back if you turn around.   I’m so tired of having to be mean.  I feel like a b****h most of the time.  The problem is as soon as you are nice to someone they walk all over you, give them an inch and they take a mile.  Sometimes I just want to scream why can’t people just do what they are told?!  Is it THAT hard to just do it. No it’s not. 

I have to watch my words at work because when I’m talking to a tenant about something in their apartment or whatever it may be it’s like they remember every single word I said and will later use it to turn it on me to make whatever “hardship” they are in MY fault.  I didn’t make the hot water take above your apartment explode… therefore it’s not my fault your carpet was saturated with water and we now have to keep fans in to dry it up.  If YOU would leave the dang things on, maybe we could speed up the process of getting them out once the carpet was dried.

I know it shouldn’t be that big of a deal and I shouldn’t feel bad about having to get “stern” with people.  But I have the type of personality that tends want everyone to like me…. I don’t like making anyone mad or uncomfortable…. yes I say what I think but I generally try not to hurt anyone.  So I suppose that is why I feel so incredibly uncomfortable when I have to deal with people in a “mean” way to make them do what is best for them.  And I know it’s good for me to have practice doing that and maybe that’s why God has placed me where I am… and hasn’t allowed me to leave…. I’ve asked.  I’m pretty sure it was a resounding NO for the moment.

I still don’t like being mean.   I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo looking forward to having a vacation in Memphis where I don’t have to worry and stress.

My biggest Fear? Pollen.

So yeah…… I haven’t had a chance to write a blog in a while because I don’t really think about doing it when I’m at home because I don’t want to pay for Internet and work has been a wee bit crazy to say the least.   And my constant fight with pollen hasn’t helped much either.  Basic recap of the past 3 weeks after I fell and got a new fridge…. I had one week left with out sweets and it was surprisingly easy til I got to Saturday and all I wanted was ice cream…. I was good… I waited til midnight to have it. Easter Sunday started out well and ended with me feeling rather sickly.  I think I passed out on the couch for about 2 and a half hours.  It was that sleep that just made you feel even more sleepy every time you woke up all you wanted was more sleep.  So I allowed myself to be a little lazy.

I wasn’t feeling any better that next day either.  I got a variety of meds to help with the “sickness” and started feeling better around Wednesday… well that is until I thought it would be ok to ride with the windows down.  It was like my sore throat and achey body came back with vengeance.  I finally broke down and took the claritin D which makes me feel crazy but also helps me feel better in other ways.  By Friday I was praying for rain… anything to give me some sort of relief.  And it did… it poured Saturday.

I’m still fighting the pollen considering it’s already made another thick layer of green/yellow nastiness on my car.  I can only imagine what is hiding out in my sinuses.  I’ve taken to using a netipot(which I think is awesome… something to clean out your nose with..who would have thought?!)  and taking showers nightly to get any pollen that is attached itself to me off.  I avoid being outside for extended periods of time which is going to be hard this next weekend because of the music festival…. I’m taking all the meds I own with me. haha 

Another new thing I’m going to try is eating at least a spoon full of locally made honey.  Several years ago a friend told me that was supposed to help with colds and more recently a co-worker said it has helped with her son’s allergies.  So I figured it can’t hurt to try it.

I’m considering allergy shots….. however that will be a process considering I haven’t been tested in over 20 years soooooooo that will involve a lot of poking and prodding and I’m not looking forward to ANY of that.

If anyone else has any suggestions of ways to combat allergies that doesn’t involve pills I would love to know!

Also my birthday is this Sunday I’ll be the ripe old age of 28!

Skinned Knees, Dust Clouds, and New Appliances….

It’s been a long week so far.  It started out not so good.  Let me start with Sunday.  Jeremy decided to come over and we had lots of good plans of walking downtown… well we get our walking shoes on and head out only to realize that 1. the pedestrian bridge is closed for construction and 2. the wind is crazy.   We stay out in the windy cold weather as long as we can handle it.  We start walking back to his truck and this mighty gust of wind blows dirt and sand in our faces so we can’t see and some how I trip either over his feet or my own and go falling to the ground.  I knew my knee had got the brunt of the fall so I roll up my jeans to take a look and sure enough it’s skinned and starting to bleed and the bruise is already showing. As you can see…. it doesn’t look so good.   I took that picture Tuesday night so it had healed a little bit.  I’m just hoping it goes away before it officially warms up!  A skinned knee is usually not an accessory a girl wants with her new dress.  Anyway so that happened Sunday. 

And then there was Monday…. At work (I work at an apartment complex) we have had to put these trays under all the hot water tanks, just the ones on the second floor in a particular area… well mine just so happens to fall in to that catergory.  They started on mine that morning… Now I’m sure it sounds easy, all they have to do is insert a tray underneath the tank, what’s the big deal right?  Well they have to shut off the water and drain the tank before they can do anything because those things are heavy… it’s 40 gallons of water!  And to make matters worse the closet that the hot-water tank is in is just ridiculously dusty and dirty, so the maintenance is having to also vacuum out this closet as they drain the tank to move it.  Well I come home around 11 for lunch and I walk in to a cloud of dust.  I have some serious allergies and I do my best to keep them at bay… I’ve bought air purifiers, I take medicine, I shower at night so I can get the pollen and allergens out of my hair, I use a netipot… I do what I can.  So when I see what is going on I am livid.   To make matters worse they have cut all the water off… so really what is the point in me trying to eat lunch at home?  So I leave.

Later that day I come home to the biggest mess of dust I have ever had to contend with.  So I start cleaning… but the more I clean the more dirt and dust I find.  Actually let me backtrack a bit…. Last Thursday I realize that my ice maker is no longer making the ice… so I ask maintenance to work on it when they can and that was something else that was worked on that day (Monday).   So back to cleaning… I’m having to clean off all the counters and cabinets and well everything… it’s all COVERED in dirt.  (as a side note I found out that the guy who was vacuuming everything out had his shop vac too full and that’s why it was so nasty in my apartment…. thanks guy.)  I decide to turn my air purifier on high because I think that will help.  About 20 minutes later it smells like something is burning, so I turn the purifier down, but I’m still smelling it… mostly in my kitchen.  Something tells me to look in the freezer.  I open up the freezer and everything is thawing out so I quickly start moving all my frozen foods to the empty apartment across the hall and when I come back there is just water everywhere inside.  The bucket that the ice is supposed to fall into is full of water, the ice maker then starts to sizzle and smoke and I put my hand on top of the freezer and it is extremely hot.  I’m freaking out and call the maintenance that lives on property and she comes over to help shut it all off, we end up moving all my food next door and having to turn off the breaker and unplug the fridge!  It was nuts!  One good thing that came out of it is that I did get a NEW fridge   So I took a picture of it.  It’s a little shorter than the old one, but it’s also deeper so I guess that makes up for it.  I’m just glad it works! 

That was all my craziness for the week.  Hopefully I’m done with crazy!  I shouldnt’ speak too soon though….. I am on call. eek!

The Foreigner

Yesterday (Sunday) after doing my many many loads of laundry, Jeremy and I went to the Rep.  Jeremy had never been and it has been a long time since I have.  So we were both excited.  The plan was to go out to eat some where fairly quick and then park and get to the Rep by 6:30, the show started at 7pm.  Well…. to our surprise and frustration A LOT of restauarnts are closed on Sunday.   Our first stop was Juanita’s… right down Main Street, we thought it would be perfect.  The parking lot was halfway full so we quickly park and walk up to the door…. and they are closed. What?!  Some guy hollers at us that if we want mexican there is a place a few blocks away called Rumba.  Number 1 Rumba isn’t really supposed to be Mexican…. it claims to be Cuban.  Number 2 they have really crappy service.  And our whole issue was getting in and out quickly.  So we get back in the truck and start driving again… the minutes are slowly ticking away and we are just making it harder.

Gusano’s too slow, Iriana’s not open, sticky fingerz… way over dressed, flying fish didn’t feel like it, bosco’s too expensive, at this point I am getting so frustrated and it’s now 5:30 and we only have an hour before we need to be getting parked.  Jeremy is threatening fast food and has started heading towards Broadway aka burger row. Vomit. I’m in a dress I don’t want McDonald’s… are you serious?!

Finally I convince him that the Heights are only 5 minutes away and there are several places there that we can surely go… again we find that a lot of places are closed so we end up at US Pizza, which to be honest I’m getting pretty sick of.  We’ve been like 6 times in the past 2 months, but i choke down another salad with house dressing while watching a very silly baby try to eat her way through the car seat seat-belt.

One positive thing is that US Pizza is pretty good at getting us out of there fast.  We are done by 6:20pm and we had back to main street.  We get seated inside, not all that sure what to expect out of the play “The Foreigner” but the premis of it is hilarious.  The basic idea of the play is that there is a man(Charlie) who is very shy and feels like he is rather boring but has been taken to this lodge to spend a few days alone… Charlie’s wife is in the hospital and has told him to go away haha, so Charlie’s friend takes him to this lodge in Alabama and to make it so that he doesn’t have to speak to anyone they tell the people at the lodge that he is a foreigner and can’t speak a word of english.  In a twist of events the man gets to hear everyone’s secrets and begins to feel a little less boring. 

We had wonderful seats and I could see everything that was going on.  It started off a little funny… and just got more hilarous as it went on!  It was really great.  The guy playing Elmer(one of the guests of the lodge and also Charlie’s “english” teacher) was extremely funny to me.  His accent was really good and he and the guy who played the Foreigner worked really well together for laughs.  It was great.  At times it was a little dark but in the end of course good overcomes evil.

Jeremy even said he wanted to go back to see it again hah!   I would recommend if you have a moment this week to go see it then you should!  They have extended the show times til Sunday April 5th.  The tickets are $35.00 and well worth it!