Tuesday, October 30, 2007

California Here We Come


My DH and I are going with our collective best friend to California in February. The flight has been booked and there is no going back. I am so excited. I have never been west of the Mississippi River and I haven't flown since I was 16 so this is a big thing for me. For my husband too because he's never even set foot on a plane.

For some reason over the years I have built up an aversion to flying. I've flown to Chicago and to NYC and each time I had great flights. But the take off really makes me ill. The whole thought of flying is just terrible. Now if I can do this, I can go anywhere. Not wanting to fly has really held my travels back. Every year we go on vacation, it has to be to some place that we can drive.

So this year we're finally biting the bullet and going to Sacramento to meet up with a very generous friend who has offered to be our escort for the week. We will stay at her home base in Sacramento and then will go to San Francisco for a night and then on to Tahoe to do some skiing. I am super psyched about all of these things, especially San Francisco. Two friends of mine have said that it is their second favorite city after NYC. And one of those friends is a crazy NYC girl and goes there every year without fail. So that is just super neat and exciting.

And upon my safe return to Kentucky, DH and I will start trying to get pregnant again. This is the plan.

So I am pretty psyched about the next 5 months of my life. I have something to look forward to, which helps so much in dealing with the monotony of every day life. Yay me!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Halloween is for kids

I am so sick of adult Halloween parties. I mean, what's up with this?! This weekend I have four parties that I am invited to. FOUR. And I am so not popular or social. It is a weird occurrence for me to be invited to even one party. So now I am obligated to go to great lengths to come up with a costume. This simply does not excite me. I am bored to death by all the slutty costumes that are out there for girls. I can see the allure of wanting to look sexy, but it has gone to far. You can't be a nurse, but you can be a porno star nurse. You can be a witch, but you have to be a witch that wears a bustier and stilleto heels. You can be little red riding hood, but only if you have ample cleavage and a VERY short skirt. That's if you buy your costume. I suppose you could come up with your own, but I don't have time for that (actually, I do, but that's a whole different story). So I will go with the old standby: cat. Easy. Boring.

Maybe it's time I lighten up and have a little fun.

Nah. I don't really wanna.

My point is that I hate Halloween. I hate spiders, I hate horror movies, I hate handing out candy to kids, I hate uncomfortable costumes, and I hate the color orange (unless you are an orange cat).

So there Halloween. Not everyone likes you so much. Take that!

Long live Valentine's Day. Now THERE'S a holiday to celebrate. ;)

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Enough said



Check out my new kicks.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

I found out what ails me



The following affliction is what I suffer from: cyberchondria

I just think that's a neat word. It's dead on.







Monday, October 15, 2007

Get Green


So today is Blog Action Day 2007. This means that over 15,000 blogs will be uniting to write about the subject of the environment. (I heard about this here.) The environment is a pretty touchy subject for me these days. It seems to me that we have reached sort of a tipping point when it comes to global warming. I am absolutely terrified about global warming. So much that I wonder if bringing a child into the world is such a good idea. #1: Aren't we overpopulated as it is? #2: Why would I want to bring my child into a world that is nearing it's ultimate demise every day. Maybe this is a little bit overdramatic. I don't know. But it does scare me. And what can I do about it?! Well, I do all that I can. I've decided to write a list of things that I already do and can do to ensure that I am not harming my environment any more than I should be. Nothing here is huge or dramatic. But if everybody did these things, it could make a huge difference.

1. Every morning for two years I ate my oatmeal in a plastic bowl with a plastic spoon and drank my coffee out of a styrofoam cup. What?! Why?! Now I happily use a real coffee mug, a glass bowl, and an actual spoon every morning. I figure this saves a little bit of landfill space. I was using way too much simply because it was convenient to throw away my dishes instead of washing them.

2. I recycle all that I can. But I can do better. I am always too lazy to recycle my tin cans. Washing them out seems to be too much trouble. I will do better.

3. From this point forward, I am buying the new and slightly more expensive energy efficient light bulbs. I found this here:
If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

4. Al Gore says I need to get an electric hot water heater blanket. I do what Al Gore tells me to. A blanket costs less than $18 and can cut your home's CO2 emissions by almost 4 1/2 percent. This is on my to do list.

5. Change your air filters regularly. This is something that I am doing better at. I have marked on my calendar at work when I need to change the filters. Doing this regularly can knock 2 percent off of your CO2 output each year.

6. I wish I could afford a hybrid car. I can't. But I am driving a Corolla. It gets pretty good gas mileage. At least it isn't a gas guzzling SUV (boo! hiss!!)

7. The windows in my house are drafty. I'm buying new ones next spring. No telling how much energy I waste trying to keep my house cool or warm.

8. The next big appliance I buy will be an Energy Star appliance.
If just one in 10 homes used ENERGY STAR qualified appliances, the change would be like planting 1.7 million new acres of trees.

9. I don't have a programmable thermostat, but every day before I leave my home, I hit the $ button on my digital thermostat. This increases the temperature setting in my house by 5 degrees if the A/C is on and it decreases the setting by 5 degrees if the heat is on. This saves energy and it saves me $ too.

10. Whenever I can, I buy green products. For instance, check out these hangers. Pretty cool.

11. I am voting Democrat!!!!!!!!!

I do what I can, but I am sure there is so much more that I can do. I am open to any suggestions.




Saturday, October 13, 2007

I'm feel like a fat fatty

Every night I go to bed thinking that the next day is when I am really going to start to change my diet. I'm going to start eating less, go to bed hungry (the only sure fire way for me to lose weight) and start working out more. Each day dawns and I forget all of my nightly promises to myself.

I moved all of my summer clothes out of my closet. This is depressing. I noticed all of these clothes that I had that were too small for me yet I kept them in my closet all year. I could throw away probably 40% of my clothes and never miss them. And now as I put my winter clothes in my closet I am amazed at all of the things that no longer fit me. I guess eventually I am going to be so big that I will just wear muu muus year round. All of my pants are too small. This is not good.

I bought a pair of jeans not too long ago in a size too small. If I were to lose 5 pounds they would fit me perfectly. I thought this would motivate me to diet and actually lose a few. It obviously hasn't.

I need to find a way to make myself diet. I did it before. Weight Watchers worked and I know it would work again. But I just won't do it.

I'm going to try again tomorrow. Today was a bust. Cracker Barrel, milkshakes and my damn husband made this chess cake that is to die for. Literally. I think it has taken 5 years off my life.

Tomorrow I am making my vegetable soup and actually bringing my heart rate over 100 bpm.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

I love boys





I wanted something pretty to look at when I log on to my blog. The candle wasn't doing it for me.

Friday, October 5, 2007

Serenity Now




I'm not much of a candle burner. I don't really like them. Even the supposed good ones. But today I was given this candle and it's just the nicest thing I have been around in a long while. It has a wood wick (hence the brand name: WoodWick candles) and it sounds like an actual crackling fire burning when you light it. And the smell from the candle seriously does fill the room. It was enough to take the stench of Sadie poop out of the house within five minutes. Now my house smells of nectarine and I am soooo relaxed. It's super nice. I am a fan of white noise and this is just the best. I think I'm in love.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

A Broken Record

Not to brag. Not to be redundant. But...

My husband is the best. I must have been very unlucky in love in my previous life. But I was a good person. So Karma is rewarding me now. This is my theory. (uh oh...the next life is gonna be interesting.)

I'm a hard person to live with. I am neurotic and I worry about worry itself. Yet my husband continues to support me and love me and nurture me.

Tonight: panic arises yet again. He stays up an hour later than he normally would. Just to sit with me as my panic subsides. He tells me to wake him up if he falls asleep and I need him. No matter what, I am to wake him up. If I so much as have to get up and pee he wants to make sure I'm OK.

I so appreciate him. I SO need him. What would I do if he were not here? His presence is my comfort. He is my salvation, if you will.

Yes, perhaps my reliance on him is not the healthiest thing. Perhaps I should be these things unto myself. But why? Why can't he be these things to me? Why can't I take his comfort when I need it?

And speaking of comfort; the little devil just jumped in my lap. My cat Buddy is a pretty cool kid too. If he could talk he'd be telling me, "Everything's gonna be all right, Momma. Chill out. Relax. Feed me. Pet me. Love me. "

Ha. That's what we all want: to be fed, petted and loved. ;)

Note to myself

I'm okay. I'm just freaking out. That stupid energy is back. The energy that makes me think I'm gonna lose it. But it always goes away. Nothing is wrong. I do not have cancer or any kind of virus. I've entered my "symptoms" on Web MD. Nothing comes up. I've taken my blood pressure. It is very good. I have taken my temperature. No fever.

I'm sad and pondering life is all. Nothing is wrong. Things are as they always are.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

I'm just sleepy. This is the first full day of work I've had in 4 days. Why do I expect so much from myself? Why can't I just take what I can give?

Take what comes and move on. Take what comes. Breathe.

Things seem jumbled. They are not. Everything is as it should be. Everything is as it is. Stop trying to control things that cannot be controlled. Let it go. Let it be.