March 2005 Archives

I'm too tired to capitalize and punctuate correctly, but here's a brief recap of the last week and a few days of my life:

• sunday, march 20 - went to king's dominion with casey and alison. had a great time. became greatly aware of how much energy 14-year-olds have in comparison to me. again decide that riding rollercoasters is great fun and i should do more of it.
• monday, march 21 - met my mother and stepfather at a local restaurant to drop casey off with them for the week. jon also met us there. we enjoyed a nice dinner and then went home to a quiet, empty house and promptly relaxed because there was no energetic 14-year-old there to drive us nuts. yay us!
• tuesday, march 22 - jon and i played hooky from work. we both called in sick and enjoyed our day off together, doing much of nothing. totally relaxing, totally cool. we should do this more often.
• wednesday, march 23 - jon and i returned to work, but we met later at outback steakhouse to enjoy dinner with our friend pete before returning home for jon's gaming night. i spent a quiet evening in the bedroom doing much of nothing and enjoying it. oh how i love breaks from life.
• thursday, march 24 - i picked up casey after work from my parent's house and returned home. i feel exhausted, though there's really no reason for it.
• friday, march 25 - casey gets picked up by her father for their weekend together. i spend the day doing laundry and preparing for our weekend jaunt to the beach, where i am slated to work for my dad at the big oak. we go out to dinner, return home to watch This Is Spinal Tap (it was bad movie night), and go to bed by 11:30 or so.
• saturday, march 26 - we get up at 6:30 a.m., shower and dress and leave for the beach by 7:45. we get there at 10:55, just in time for me to work at 11. i work until 3, and then return at 5 and work until 8. i return to dad's house, shower and crash hard.
• sunday, march 27 - we get up by 8 or so, shower and prepare to go to breakfast with my father and stepmother. pancakes! i love pancakes and enjoy them for breakfast. i work from 11-3, and then jon and i drive home. we spend the rest of the evening relaxing.
• monday, march 28 - i return to work, but spend most of the day reading blogs and surfing the net. casey gets dropped off at my work and spends the afternoon at work with me. we leave near 5 p.m., head to the bank and to get gas and then meet jon at the mexican restaurant for dinner. on the way home, i have plans to stop by the grocery store to get some milk and bread, but i notice that i have one headlight out. so i return home to fix it, only to realize i don't have the correct bulb. so jon leaves with me, we go to pep boys to get a replacement bulb and some parts he needs to wire up his keyless entry for his car. i fix the headlight easily, and we return home without going by the grocery store because i have to pee REALLY bad and i don't feel like hovering in a public bathroom. i spend the night doing our taxes and seeing how we'd fare if we filed married filing separately. i realize we owe $51 less if we file jointly. we only end up owing $125 overall on our taxes. we're pleased, as we were thinking it would be more.
• tuesday, march 29 - here i am. i find myself thinking blogs are passé and that episodes would be so much cooler in the way of having a website. i miss the old days of the internet when everything was original. i decide that it's time to stop doing this entry and go put on my makeup in the bathroom here at work.

Posted by di at 08:19 AM | Filed under: Random |Permalink

It's St. Paddy's Day, and here in Raleigh, NC we were greeted with a nice morning snowfall. There was no accumulation, mind you, just snow coming down at the end of a long, dull winter. Great fun. So anyway, interesting weather leads to boredness at work, and Ginny wanted to walk to Johnson Hall to drop a check off in the accounting office and asked if I wanted to go. Sure!

On our way, we cut through the dormitories so that we didn't have to deal with the precipitation or cold weather. As we were walking down one of the long halls, we noticed that several girls had left umbrellas outside of their rooms. I told Ginny it would be funny to randomly switch the umbrellas around as we walked, and she agreed.

Two dorms and many umbrellas later, our work was done. Unfortunately we couldn't stick around to see the fruit of our labor, but my imagination is active enough that I giggle in spite of myself. Yes, I crack myself up.

Posted by di at 10:39 AM | Filed under: Work |Permalink

I love my husband!

Posted by di at 08:50 AM | Filed under: JDI |Permalink

The days of March have always impacted me in a negative way, and so there are dates throughout the month that have significant meaning to me and my life. Today is one of those days, and while I won't go into the details of exactly what today represents, I will say that I try not to focus too much on the negative so I don't give it any additional energy. It has enough already, you know?

I've always been optimistic about March getting better, but yesterday two things happened that have moved me internally a little and have made me feel increased compassion and sympathy towards other people because their days were darkened, too.

My friend Joe lost his mother after sitting by her side and watching her health decline for months. I realize how this must impact his life and how it will change him, and I know that facing that type of things isn't ever easy. My heart goes out to him.

My longtime friend Todd and his wife Jackie lost a very special part of their lives yesterday, too. Their cat Opie died after a battle with kidney failure. Opie was the topic of many emails I've exchanged with Todd over the years since first meeting him online in the late 90's. He put together an incredible website that documented Opie's life as well as his and Jackie's lives. The site reveals just a tiny portion of how wonderful these people are and how much they loved their cat. I felt like I knew him, but I never did meet Opie personally. Nevertheless, I feel his loss and my heart also goes out to my friends. Pets add a dimension to our lives that is like none other.

I'm still optimistic that March can be a month that doesn't feel plagued with sadness and spent in remembrance of events that weren't all that pleasant. After all, I'm sure it has had it's positive moments over my years and finding those moments and recognizing them as such is a great way to brighten my outlook.

Posted by di at 07:57 AM | Filed under: Spirit |Permalink

Because he bought the Die Hard movie set last week and spent time with me over the weekend watching all three movies to help me get caught up (no, I never saw these movies before). When I met Jon I was so behind on seeing movies that he came up with the reasoning of, "It's understandable . . . you were too busy birthing babies and didn't have time to have a life outside of that." That's probably true. Now I've seriously caught up on my movie watching (and most importantly my science fiction series watching) and feel like I can relate to other geeks better when they reference movies or quotes or whatever from popular films. I've got a terrific baseline geek thing going, thanks to Jon. How could I not love him for that?

Posted by di at 10:00 AM | Filed under: Geeky , JDI , Why I Love Him |Permalink

I'm at the point now in my working out that I can feel my hips narrowing. I remember this happening last year when I started taking walks around Shelley Lake - something I haven't done in months. It's extremely difficult to force myself out of bed early on a Saturday morning to take that 3.5 mile roundtrip from my house on foot, especially when it's cold out and warm under the covers. There is always Saturday afernoon for that sort of thing these days, and I really have no excuse for not doing that.

I did ride my bike again the other day, only the second time in about a month or so. I am thinking now that I'm not going to be in shape for the Red Rock Canyon bike trip, and that's okay. I don't want to stress myself about my vacation activities. There's always gambling in Vegas. They also have a fitness center at the hotel, as well as a spa! I have started thinking about a nice massage, a pedicure, laying around the pool with a book, eating, etc. I need to be good to myself.

I've been back on the routine of the 5 days a week working out, and this is week three. I can certainly tell a difference, and I'm becoming less worried that I'll accomplish the 5 pounds or 5 inches goal I have for this month. I wonder what will be up for April.

Yesterday I was stressed - well, annoyed really - regarding my daughter. I found myself thinking about McDonald's fries (I resisted!), ice cream with chocolate syrup (I resisted!) and sugar wafers (I gave in!). This is where the thoughts about starting up my walking regimen have come from. I really need to burn a few more calories in order to afford myself some of the finer pleasures in life (wafers!). Maybe this is part of my acceptance of self thing I've been focused on anyway. I've always known that I was an emotional eater, but I've never really known how to handle it. So if I can just allow myself some small guilty pleasures and not beat myself up over it but instead counteract it, I would be able to keep moving forward at a steady pace.

Man, my brain is racing this morning. Happy Friday. :)

Posted by di at 08:36 AM | Filed under: Health |Permalink

I discovered soon after the post yesterday that they are in fact cactus leaves and are called napoles. Jon and I have discussed it and we've decided we're going to try and make something with napoles soon. It should prove to be interesting.

I love it when I learn something new.

Posted by di at 08:33 AM | Filed under: Random |Permalink

The other day Jon and I stopped in the grocery store to pick up a few items that we needed. I was searching for romaine lettuce in the produce area when Jon called out to me from a nearby produce stand.

"You've got to come see this," he said. I joined him in front of a display of what appeared to me to be cactus leaves.

"What are those?" I asked.

"I don't know," he replied. "I was hoping you would know because I don't see any sign that tells me what they could be."

They were sitting right next to the baby pineapples, so I suggested that maybe they were some sort of leaf relating to the pineapples. Jon told me that couldn't be right. So, smart me, I picked one of the cactus leaf looking things up to get a feel for it and to smell it, and then found a nearby produce department worker who also couldn't tell me what it was. Before I knew it, one of the prickly bits was stuck in my finger and I started crying out in pain. "This damn thing attacked me!" I said. Jon became amused, and so did a lady standing nearby. IT WASN'T FUNNY! All I could think was WHAT IS THIS DAMN THING AND WHY IS IT ATTACKING ME?

So imagine my amusement today when I picked up a copy of The Independent Weekly and inside the front cover was a big picture of the cactus-leaf-looking-things. AHA! I thought to myself. Now the mystery will be solved. On top of the photo was the page number of the related article, so I turned to the article and searched for the answer. THEY DIDN'T MENTION THE CACTUS LEAF LOOKING THINGS AT ALL!

So I took a picture in the hope that someone out there on this great world wide web could tell little ol' ignorant me (who never claimed to know much of anything anyway) what the hell these are:

My guess now, given that they were tied to a story about Latino restaurants, is that they are used in Latino cooking somehow. I'm really interested in knowing what they are, what types of dishes they are part of and how the hell you handle them without injuring yourself.

Posted by di at 01:22 PM | Filed under: Random |Permalink

In February, the Curves location I attend had a contest in February that if you worked out 13 times that you would get a free tote bag. Honestly, I wasn't interested at first, but then I decided I'd do it. And then I sort of forgot and didn't care because afterall it was just a tote bag and I didn't really need one anyway.

Then something happened to me about mid month and I REALLY wanted the tote bag, if for no other reason than to say I achieved the goal of the 13 workouts and obtaining it through hard work. Problem was, I had about a week and a half left and nine workouts to go to reach my goal, so I had to work out every day in order to get the bag.

Well, I did it. Happy Di. *Pats self on back.*

This month, they are having another contest of sorts. You have to work out 13 times, bring in a bag of non-perishable food items for their food drive and lose either five pounds or five inches for a Curves t-shirt. I don't need another t-shirt, but I signed up for that too, figuring that anything I could focus on to help me stay motivated was a good thing. So far this month I have worked out seven times, I've cut out a lot of the junk food I was eating and I've increased my water intake. I refuse to weigh because I know that results don't happen that fast.

I've GOT to lose weight. Not just the five pounds for March, but the excess fat I've been carrying around my midsection since the birth of my son 21 years ago. I don't want to be 40 and flabby and looking no better than I did at 30. I want to be fabulous at 40! I've always struggled with my weight, but this I'm really trying to approach my weight loss efforts with a different mindset that has been really difficult for me to embrace because I LOVE TO EAT. I need a lifestyle change and it's been slowly coming about for the past year or two. I have been working out and exercising for more than a year now, and I've definitely already benefitted from that. But the struggle with food remains.

I'm waiting for my AHA! moment that Oprah talks about so often. I'm focusing my mental efforts on my inner dialogue that has reared its ugly head way too much in recent weeks to make it start saying nice things about me instead of negative belief statements that are no longer valid.

This morning, I'm feeling it for some reason - feeling energized and healthier and more mentally strong (and stable!). I'm hoping that I can figure out how I got here and what it will take to hang onto this feeling on a day-to-day basis, because I need to feel good. My 40s are just around the corner and I plan on living it up bigtime!

I want people to say, "YOU'RE 40?!?!?!?! WOW! You look HOT!" And you know what? I will be hot. And fabulous!

Posted by di at 08:17 AM | Filed under: Health |Permalink

This morning I was sitting at work, diligently working away (ha!) and listening to my iPod when I realized that it was raining hard outside and the wind was howling. So I took off the headphones, stood at the window and just stared in amazement as the trees across the field behind our building were being whipped around and the rain was blowing sideways. And then it began to hail. Hail! It's the closest we've gotten to icy precip all winter, it seems. Soon after, there was thunder and lightning and just about everyone in the department was moving about and commenting on the weather.

You know it's bad when the weather is the highlight of your day at work.

Posted by di at 11:11 AM | Filed under: Random |Permalink

I slipped up the other day and told Jon that my inner voice is not a nice voice, that it tells me that I'm not a beautiful person and that I'm fat and don't have it together. This was on the way home from working out and being measured for the March workout campaign at Curves. Let's just say that Girl Scout cookies are representing all over my midsection. Lucky for me, Jon said he still thinks I'm beautiful and assured me of such (since when have I listened to him, though?).

For the past day and a half, I've had a random shooting pain in my left temple that HURTS when it makes itself known. I increased my amount of water intake today, took some decongestants and hoped for the best.

Today wasn't a good day, though. Shit hit the fan all over again and I cried off and on enough that my eyes were tired in addition to experiencing the sharp shooting pains.

After I got home, I realized that I needed something else for my head, perhaps some sinus medication or something. That was when Jon called and mentioned he was stopping by the store on the way home and asked if I needed anything. AT LAST I knew some relief was on the way.

HOWEVER, that was earlier, and it's much later now. I have taken the sinus meds, but the pain is STILL randomly occuring. Grrr. Water therapy it is for now. I think maybe I have the onset of a sinus infection or something. Can I hold out until Monday for the doctor?

My inner voice has been going strong today, filling my head with doubts and questions and making me wonder if I'll ever be happy. I know I need to work on this and try to change this dialogue to something more positive, but DAMMIT MY HEAD HURTS and wow has this been a crappy day.

Posted by di at 09:18 PM | Filed under: Health , Spirit |Permalink

I was bored tonight, holed up in the bedroom watching recorded Oprah shows when I had a brainstorm for my next blog entry and decided to share my keyword searches in the Google search bar in Firefox:

blowing rock, bracelet hidden watch, cooling lyrics amos, cost of gold's gym, css layout tutorial, damien rice, define chaste, define offal, define parry, diverticulitis, filezilla, freshet, garlic bread recipe, go fuq yourself, how to stuff turkey sex, intra ocular lenses, iud, Keratosis Pilaris, kadampa center, mirena iud, nikon d70 discussion, nikson d70 tips, pashmina, portion control, randy jackson, red rock canyon, sarah elise, scientific atlanta, skirl, spinning poi, vw vortex, wendy ashley, what is corned beef hash?

Welcome to the very bottom of my barrel of content.

Posted by di at 09:55 PM | Filed under: Geeky |Permalink