I had blood drawn today, and, for a change, when the nurse told me I would barely feel a thing, she was right. Normally I detest having blood drawn, but this time really wasn't bad at all. I didn't get light-headed, I didn't throw up, and I didn't pass out. I'm going to request that nurse every time I need to have blood drawn at that office from now on.
March 2008 Archives
Somehow I made it through 27 years without having a Ding Dong, a fact which Mike determined to remedy as soon as he found it out, and damn if he didn't. We made an emergency stop at a grocery store to pick up a box, and now I can no longer say I've never had a Ding Dong. They're damn good, too.
I looked at my degree progress (slow) on Friday and realized that I am not as far away from my goal as I thought. After the current semester is over I'll only have ten classes left to take before I'll have my Associates degree. I'm going to be taking one of those classes over the summer (ick), which means I'll only have nine classes left at the beginning of the fall term, and that means I'll have a degree in just a smidge over two years from that point.
I'm already ready for bed but not too tired to give you a quick list of things I know:
- Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series is FANTASTIC. Read it now.
- It is possible to have too many Hostess cupcakes, no matter how much you love peeling off that strip of white icing
- It really is not possible for me to have too much sleep or too many days off.
- Homework takes a lot of effort for me to get started on. I have close to zero motivation when it comes to schoolwork. Ugh
- I either stepped on something with two prongs or was bitten by something over the weekend, because there are two extremely painful puncture marks on my right heel. It feels like I've got chunks of glass in my foot. If this situation doesn't change over the next couple of days, there will be a doctor visit in my near future. In the meantime, I will continue racking my brains trying to figure out if I could have possibly stepped on a baby snake or something.
- In spite of doing nothing more stressful than reading this afternoon, I am exhausted. I could go to sleep immediately.
- I need to take the pups in to get their teeth cleaned soon - not something I am looking forward to with glee. I love the idea of them not having poo-breath anymore, but wrangling them in to the vet's office then leaving them there all day isn't very appealing. It's possible I'm worrying too much, here.
Mike and I have been talking about getting rid of our van lately, and after tossing around ideas of selling it or trading it in, we decided to donate it. The only thing holding this plan back was finding the title for the van. We paid it off back in 2004, and I know we have the title somewhere in my stacks of papers, but I couldn't find it right away. However, the universe made things easy on me yesterday by including an envelope from the DMV with the title for the van in it when I went to get the mail. Neither Mike nor I had requested another copy, and, as I mentioned, the van has been paid off for almost four years now, so unless there is some program where they mail people new titles every four years or so, I can't think of any reason for them to send it except as a giant nudge prompting me to get off my ass and get rid of the van. WEIRD.
I am growing my hair out and, for the first time in almost 10 years, letting it go back to its natural color. I love having pretty red hair, but it's been forever since I saw what my hair looked like naturally, so I'm giving it a go. I'm nervous about it because I feel like I look like a colorless ghost without my red hair, but if I look as washed-out as I'm worried I will, all I have to do is go in and have it colored back, and, voila! Red hair again! That doesn't make me any less nervous about it, though, and then on top of that I feel ridiculous for feeling nervous about my HAIR COLOR.
I've become one of those people who has to have the bed made. For years this was not the case, as one might gather from the title, but it's finally happened, and this gives me hope that maybe one day I'll be one of those people who always hangs up/puts away their clothes, too. This is a fairly new realization, though. I was running late on Monday, so I didn't stop to make the bed like I've been making an effort to do since the beginning of the year. At the time it bothered me, leaving the house with the bed unmade, and it REALLY bothered me after I got home as soon I went upstairs and saw the messy bed. Even with all the clutter on the floor by my side of the bed, the room looks somewhat put together as long as the bed is made, but with the sheets and quilts all rumpled and the pillows tossed on it haphazardly, it was a very disquieting picture, and that's when I realized that I never want to leave the house with the bed unmade again. Too bad this didn't occur to me when I was a teenager.
I'd moved away from microwave popcorn when I started making my own, but Orville Redenbacher's Natural buttery garlic popcorn is enough to reel me back in. This stuff is so good I gave serious consideration to licking the bowl when I was done with the popcorn. SO GOOD.
WW note: this stuff comes in individual serving-size bags and is only one point. <3
The more I read about reusing things and sustainability, the more I think about how I can apply those ideas to my own situation. Our family generates a lot of trash, and while that's something I'd like to minimize, I don't want to completely upend the entire household over something that hinges on my personal feelings about the environment, etc., which fits well with my decision to make small changes where I can. In light of this, I've decided to give the DivaCup a try. I'd been thinking for a month or so about switching to organic tampons when I read an article about the DivaCup and other products in the same vein. The article gave me a better understanding than I'd originally had of how they work, and since I love the idea of washable pantyliners (another tiny choice!), I went ahead and bought this Lunapads/DivaCup kit yesterday. I have some reservations about trusting a little cup to keep me from bleed-through humiliation, but I'm happy to try it and see what I think. If it works well for me, then it'll be one more tiny choice towards reducing my impact, and if it doesn't, well, I can always re-visit the organic tampon plan.
One of the advantages of Weight Watchers is that it's making me more adventurous food-wise. I have a spaghetti squash that I'm going to be cooking either tonight or tomorrow, and I'm making a eggplant lasagna dish on Friday, both things I probably wouldn't be trying if I weren't counting points and trying to make the most out of my food choices.
Healthbolt's "What Happens To Your Body If You Drink A Coke Right Now?" article was a very interesting read, especially in light of my recent decision to quit soda (which is proving to be much harder than I thought, by the way). I knew Coke had a lot of sugar, but 10 teaspoons? Yikes.
The following is just a small random sampling of the gajillion reasons why Mike is the best husband evar:
When I had to work late last week and was craving lasagna, he tried to get lasagna for me, and when that fell through, he made sure I came home to a more than acceptable substitute - pizza and cheese-bread.
I started Weight Watchers this weekend, and he offered to start following the points system too, just to be supportive of me.
He went to the grocery store with me on Sunday, even though it was much later than either of us usually likes to be out running errands on a Sunday, and he was EXTREMELY patient with me, even when we had to backtrack because my list wasn't very organized.
I love my pups to little tiny pieces. Even when I'm irritated at them (it happens occasionally) I'm still always ready to scoop them up for a snoogle, and I know that even if I've just yelled at them (this also happens occasionally), they'll still be ready to give me puppy kisses. HOWEVER. If Jordan does not stop eating his way through trash bags (particularly in Mike's office!), it is entirely possible that he will finish out the rest of his days as a wee pair of black-and-tan slippers. I really need to keep a better eye on him.
We watched the remake of The Fog Sunday night, and it scared the shit out of me. I was so jittery I didn't even want to get down from the bed to pick up the remote when it fell off. I was seriously freaked out. I enjoyed it, though, and I'm looking forward to watching the original version next.
***SPOILERS***
Continue reading The Fog.
"We know we are being exposed to other people's drugs through our drinking water, and that can't be good," says Dr. David Carpenter, who directs the Institute for Health and the Environment of the State University of New York at Albany.
Holy hell. What are things coming to when even WATER isn't necessarily safe for us?
I started Weight Watchers this weekend, and I am extremely excited about it. I love the idea of having more structure to what I eat during the day, I am very goal-oriented (in that I feel fantastic when I achieve a goal, not that I pursue them relentlessly, sadly), and I like things that don't require a ton of thought right off the bat. This program works with all of those, and the fact that I can eat anything I want is a bonus. Granted, if I snarf down two pieces of pizza for breakfast that just about does me in points-wise for the day, so I will have to practice some moderation, but overall it seems like it's a good fit for me. I'm nervous about telling people, though, because, like the parenting class I took last summer, I feel like this is something I will be judged for, and I HATE that. Why should someone look down on me for trying to make myself better? And then I get angry for worrying about what people will think because it is my life. But acknowledging that doesn't make me less hesitant, in fact, I was even reluctant to tell Mike about it! I did tell him, and my mom and sister, too, but that felt horribly awkward, like when I told them I was seeing a counselor. Man, it is so hard for me to admit I'm not perfect.
The one thing I do not like about WW so far is the group aspect. I don't enjoy going to meetings for anything, and I don't need or want a bunch of strangers to give me support or celebrate my progress; I just want to get my materials and get started, thank you, good-bye. This isn't about losing weight - although I was horrified to see the scale stop at 146 on Saturday - it's about being healthier. I have a hard time making good choices when left to my own devices, and this is a good way to motivate me to make better ones.
I can't stand the Spring Forward part of Daylight Savings Time. In fact, as much as I love the extra hour we get from Fall(ing) Back, I would be perfectly happy just skipping the whole DST thing altogether. Let it get dark when it's supposed to get dark, and let the sun rise when it's supposed to rise. Why do we have to try to mess with EVERYTHING?
If you want to get a box of individual-serving orange juice cartons from Costco, double check to make sure you're not getting a box of four quart-sized containers instead.
I think it sucks that we as society need to have terms that let people know that the animals meat, dairy, and/or eggs have come from were humanely treated. The fact that there is a program that certifies that those animals have been provided with bedding and given access to sufficient food and water and a safe living environment t tells me there is a need to have such a program, and that makes me sick. I understand animals aren't humans, but I don't see why that means they should be mistreated, especially if these animals are providing us with food. The more I learn about this topic, the more disgusted I am.
I have five boxes of Girl Scout cookies (three boxes of Tag-A-Longs, one box of Thin Mints, and one box of Samoas) sitting on my desk, staring at me, and I'm not even the slightest bit tempted by them. Hell is freezing over as I type.
This week is spring break for me, and knowing that I don't have to do any homework or take any tests is a luxury. How am I going to spend the time? Working ahead so I'll have a bit of a cushion for the next couple of assignments in each class. There will probably be some gaming (Burnout: Revenge or Psychonauts, most likely), too, though.
Or soda, as it were. Karinne and I are quitting teh Coke, a feat that will test my resolve at work and when we go out to eat. I don't drink much soda at home, but when I'm in a restaurant I like to have a Coke (no ice) with my meal, and when I'm at work I've been known to indulge in a moon pie and a can of Coke for breakfast. I'm planning to bypass the temptation by resolving to drink water (with lots of ice) at restaurants and to find another solution to get me through at work.
