No Lazy, All Crazy!

Holy moley..what a day! Non-stop action! Well, for me, at least. I always stumble upon blogs written by women who have half a dozen kids and they’re gleefully cooking homemade meals from scratch, making craftsy things with their kids, and ensuring their house is pristine every day. Here I have one child, one school project and one Valentines Day box….and I’m running around like a whirling dervish and ordering pizza. But that’s just me….I’m fine with not being June Cleaver and Martha Stewart all rolled up into one. And I’m pretty darn proud of what we accomplished.

First, James Buchanan….

Does it look like Mommy did it? Well, I will admit to being mostly responsible for the graphic design portion. However, kiddo did all the research and helped me pick out pictures and cut them out.

While I was feverishly delving into every aspect of life during Buchanan’s presidency (and watching the season 1 DVDs of Supernatural I bought for my husband’s birthday…bad me!), kiddo was working on her Valentine’s day box…

The original intent was to do something mind-blowingly creative…a tree of hearts out of an oatmeal canister, complete with birds and squirrels, for example. But, with James Buchanan looming over me, we decided to go the simpler route of wrapping paper and stickers on a shoe box.

I’m going to try and make up for it with the Valentines themselves.

My criteria: creative, but quick, easy, cheap, and not involving candy….done! Glowsticks and erasers from the Dollar Tree, treat bags and foam hearts from Wal-Mart (the foam hearts were part of a Valentine craft kit that had all the stickers used on the box), and free printables from here. Easy peasy!

Oh yeah…and I ended up blowing off work (I can do that since I work from home) and kiddo’s Taekwondo for this. I know most of the blogger moms out there could manage to do all of this with twice as many kids, different extracurricular activities for each, and put a homemade dinner on the table to boot. But this is me…and I”m feeling pretty darn proud of all we got accomplished. 🙂

Being sick sucks….

Swine flue, N1H1, whatever you want to call it…it sucks.

I’m not massively sick….just sick enough to cause me to want to not do anything beyond lay around like a half-dead slug. My head hurts, my sinuses are showing me a large amout of hate, and I just feel totally worn out. My stomach has been talking badly to me as well.

I just knew I should have gone out and grabbed the stuff to do a neti flush yesterday…but by the time hubby came and picked up munchkin, I was already in Slug Mode and didn’t want to leave the house. Flushing out the ole sinuses might’ve prevented the massive onslaught of yellow snot that decided to pour out of my nose in the middle of the night, ruining what should’ve been my first decent night’s sleep in 3 days.

I guess I should be grateful that at least I get to stay at home and rest. Of course, I suppose that should’ve been a given anyway since the media has hyped up the whole flu pandemic thing, all I needed to do when I arriaved at Guard duty was say, “I think I have the flu…I’m feverish” and not only cleared the space around me in a 20 foot radius, but also got a resounding chorus from everyone in a supervisory position to say “You’re released for the day…go home. And if you’re not feeling well tomorrow, stay home!”

It would’ve been nicer if I’d just been able to sleep in this morning and not go in at all, but it’s always been my policy that if I’m sick, I go to work, then let someone tell me to go home. I guess it’s just my paranoid nature, but I don’t want anyone thinking that I’m faking it so that I can get an extra-long weekend…especially since I’ve already taken two days off due to munchkin being sick. Hopefully, we’ll all be better by Tuesday when I have to go back to work.

Being sick is also very boring. I shouldn’t go out (though I’m tempted to anyway) and no one wants to come visit and risk getting infected too. But I’m really craving some pampering and snuggles. Not to mention some decent food. Went grocery shopping the other day and ended up picking up tons of stuff for munchkin and nothing really decent to make for myself. Had a Powerbar for breakfast, munched on Cheese Ritz Bits after I got home, and am working on a bowl of rice with surimi and shrimp now. I was really wanting some more of that Starkist Mango Chipotle Salmon to put on it…it’s NUMMY….but I forgot to pick it up at the store because I thought I still had a packet left. But dernit…I want sushi! Hmm…maybe I could call in a carryout order to Tomo this evening and pick some up. That might work. They have 2 for 1 from 5-7…hmm….that’s sounding good. If only my stomach would settle…grrrr.

A Little Catch-Up for My Labor Day Hamburger, Please

Just a brief bit of updating before continuing on with this thing since i haven’t written in it in so long….

• Finally went to Tech Training in Augusta, GA
• Wrecked my car while I was there. Hydroplaned on wet interstate, spun out and smashed into a concrete barrier. I was okay, but the car was pretty bashed up.
• Got a speeding ticket in the rental car while I was there (First major wreck of my life and first ticket in about 15 years…both within a couple of months of each other. I think my trip there was cursed.)
• Graduated at the top of my class. Would have gotten the top honor if I hadn’t botched the test I had to take the day after the wreck.
• Hubby and I decided, after I got home, to get seperated.
• Moved out into an apartment. Got lots of new, spiffy furniture with my enlistment bonus.
• Started talking to Daniel again, found out he had been two-timing me and Amy. Me and Amy had long, not-so-pleasant talk with him….decided he was trash and we’d never associate with him ever again.
• Got orders to work on-base for a month.
• Read Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now” and “A New Earth”. Had many epiphanies about life.
• Decided to forgive Daniel…started talking to him again.
• Have decided to start healthier eating regimen.

And that’s about it for the quick-and-dirty catch-up of my life thusfar. Now, back to your regularly-scheduled blogging.

Past lives…dreams and so on

Alot has gone in my life lately…alot of turmoil and stress…alot of depression and anger. I’ve been doing alot of thinking about alot of things (like how many times can I use “alot” in this post? LOL).

One thing that has been on my mind is the whole relationship between myself, Niles, Amy and Daniel. Ever since the first Saturday evening that we all got together, we have all acknowledged that there is a special energy in our group. This was reinforced by the card reading I did last Monday after I had a particularly vivid dream. The first card that I turned up was “Participation” which showed four people sitting in a circle, just like we do when we get together. The other cards were “Projections” which depict two people projecting masks to each other, “The Dream” which shows a young woman dreaming about a romantic embrace, “Comparison” which shows a tree and bamboo side-by-side, and “Success” which depicts a man triumphantly riding a tiger.

We have discussed that our connections seem strongly linked to past lives. However, I have never had any strong recollections of any past lives I might have led. Because of this, I have always felt apart from the rest…unable to share in those experiences. But upon further thinking, I am reminded of the “Troy Game” series written by Sara Douglass that I have enjoyed reading. In this series, a group of people are reincarnated through centuries of civilization to play out parts to defeat evil and reconstruct the protective “Troy Game”. While most of the primary characters are there from the beginning and continue through all incarnations, there are several vital players that enter the Game during later periods. The fact that they have not been a part of the circle of primary players from the beginnning does not make them any less important to the carrying out of the overall plot. This helps me to acknowledge that while I may not have the experiences that the others do, that does not mean that I cannot contribute in a meaningful way. I only have to discover what my place is in the group.

Also, I believe that once we are truly working as a group, we will accomplish meaningful things. The past few times we’ve been together, we’ve not really been together…one has always been a bit apart from the group. This past Saturday, Niles, due to his intense Reiki experience earlier in the day, stayed back from the rest of us, while the two times before that, I was the one holding back (mainly due to feeling jealous and left-out, which I hope that I will finally be able to overcome). I hope that before I leave, we can truly work together as a group and discover the amazing energy that we generate.

Poo-less and in Shopping Heaven!

This weekend was a really great one…especially in light of my desire to go more natural.

I found a link to instructions on how to wash your hair using only baking soda and apple cider vinegar. Since Munchkin was born, my hair has been a wreck….dry and brittle after washing, no matter how much conditioner I use…then itchy and oily after a couple of days. I’ve tried so many things, with little success. So I figured going poo-less couldn’t hurt. OH WOW…it works great! The first day (Saturday), I substituted rice vinegar for ACV since I didn’t have any ACV in the house and it did okay. I noticed that my hair didn’t seem as dry and brittle as it usually did. I picked up some ACV that night and used it the next morning and my hair felt great! Admittedly, it does feel a bit odd to be scrubbing baking soda into your hair. It just doesn’t have that psychological effect of feeling clean when you do it. And the vinegar stinks! But once I’d rinsed it out well, I didn’t notice a smell at all (and I’m very sensitive to odors). It’s so worth the extra bit of effort to mix all this up.

Shopping Heaven: That’s where I was this weekend. My good friend Niles was in town for the weekend and invited me to come hang out with him, his roommate and sister. This man is my best bud for a very good reason: our favorite shopping destinations always involve two things, food and books.
On Saturday, we met up at Sunshine Market, a new oriental market that had opened recently. I’d not heard of it and when he told me to met them there, I thought it was a new natural foods shop of some kind…but then I walked in and OH WOW…paradise! It was the size of a regular grocery store, not at all like the tiny little oriental markets we already have. I could’ve spent a good few hours (as well as a couple of paychecks) in there…but I managed to show up right as they had finished shopping so I rushed through so they wouldn’t have to wait too long on me. I did manage to emerge with a few yummies, though: a bag of “Goddess” tea (which tastes like a very yummy oolong blend), some baby bok choy, a bag of plums (3 for $1!), two packages of lotus seed buns, a bag of peanut and sesame candy, and a pretty coffee/tea mug to use at work.
But we’re not done yet! After that, we went to the Kroger Marketplace, which is a HUGE superstore (they even sell furniture!) and I racked up a few more yummy items: mini wheat pitas for my bentos, hummus, half a dozen assorted protein bars ($1 each!), two bottles of Bolthouse Farms drinks (buy one get one free!), a box of Meditation Time Yogi tea, and a big bottle of organic unpasturized ACV for my poo-less rinse.
While Saturday was Food Day, Sunday was Book Day. We started off at McKay’s, the HUGE used bookstore in town. I picked up a book on Asian herbal medicine, a CD of very relaxing Indian style music, and the Sleeping Beauty DVD for Munchkin. Then we headed off to Borders where I picked up a nice book on Feng Shui that had been marked down to $5…and we both partook in a nice cup of hot chai and pumpkin spice cake. MmMmMm… After that it was Barnes & Noble, but didn’t get anything there…just browsed around.

I am so happy that Niles is in town on a regular basis now. I feel like, being married to my totally incompatible husband, that so many aspects of myself are repressed and/or just forgotten. Hanging out with Niles is so refreshing to my spiritual and intellectual self. And the fact that he’s gay and therefore “safe” makes it better because I don’t have to worry about my husband worrying about me hanging out with him for long periods of time.

I can’t wait until next weekend, after I get paid, to do it again! 🙂

Welcome 2009!

I’m happy to see 2008 head on out the door. It’s been one hell of a year, for sure…and it’s gone out with a bang!…and not the “Oh pretty fireworks!” kind either.

The cherry-on-the-top was hubby’s car getting totalled not one month after we finally paid my car off. We had been so excited about having that extra $400-500 a month to go towards our long-overdue credit bills. Now, at least half of that money is going towards car payments on his new car (or rather most of it is going towards the insane interest rates since our credit rating is currently in the toilet). If the totaller-of-the-car had not been an uninsured, drunk 22-year-old with a suspended license, I’d tell hubby to sue the pants off of him, but I doubt the little jerkoff has any money either.

But anyway…that’s behind us now (except the car payments for the next 18 months), so onward to 2009! I really feel good about this year and I don’t think it’s just about the fact that Obama is president, though I think that it helps alot. There’s a certain optimistic energy growing in the world over his election and I hope that it is something that will endure and grow.

I’m looking forward to continuing my yoga practice. I’m happy to see that the gym I go to is expanding their classes…and the yogini whose classes I enjoy the most will be teaching a majority of them.

I’ve also resumed my kung fu and tai chi classes once a week. They’ve been alot of fun so far, especially since my best buddy from Morristown, Niles, is there as well. We had such fun times when I lived in M-Town before. I’ve missed his zanyness. I might have to give him a call and see what he’s up to this weekend. Maybe we could hang out (he’s gay, so hubsters has no problem with it).

I’m trying to decide if I should feel bad about not going to Daniel’s New Year’s Eve party. The Christmas party was loads of fun and I’m sure the New Years’ Eve one would have been as well, but it was just one of those times where my gut told me not to go. I think it was the whole equation of “Me+champagne=horny, Horny me+ex-bf at his apartment, telling everyone that anyone who was too drunk to drive could crash at his place=VERY BAD NEWS”. I probably crimped hubby’s style by tagging along with him to his get-together with his buddies, but oh well.

This was supposed to be an insightful and retrospective look back at 2008 and look forward to 2009, but it’s just turned into a rambling mess of verbal diarrhea. Ah well…

I need to follow my blog title…

Yes…just breathe….in…out…everything’s okay now.

I got a bit stressed out a couple of hours ago. I decided to see if I could track my yoga mat set package from Gaiam through FedEx without a tracking number. Thankfully, they had where I could use the reference number, so I plugged it in, the order came up and said that the package…had been delivered last Friday!! Accckk!! I didn’t remeber seeing anything on my doorstep at all! And we just got a flier passed around the neighborhood saying to be on the lookout because people were getting things stolen from outside their house. Nooo…not my birthday present that I’ve been looking forward to for about a month now! And I paid extra shipping to get it here faster (I just didn’t think it would be *that* fast…it only took them 2 days…wow!). I’m freaking out and decided to run home on my lunchbreak since hubby said he wasn’t going to today. Then he calls back saying that he’ll run by there a little later. So I go ahead with my original plan to walk, then eat lunch. Jsut as I’m almost done with my walk, he calls to tell me…it’s there! WOO HOO!! Crisis averted…stress gone. I’m just annoyed that I didn’t notice it on Friday so I could’ve used it at Saturday’s class. Ah well…I have it for tomorrow’s Pilates class at least.

Happiness=new yoga mat and bag for my b-day. 🙂 🙂

Transformations…

I’ve been thinking of ways to bring more positivity into my life and decided to try a sort of chart transforming the negatives I encounter into positives. I’m hoping to make this a daily thing.

The format goes something like this: Negative —-> Positive

I went from 128 last Monday to 126 on Friday and now I’m back up to 129. —-> I know that I am not stuck at 128-130 and am able to get down to 126. I can do it again and if I work hard enough, it will stay there and even go down more.

I’m so bored sometimes at work. —-> At least I have a job and it is one that allows me to surf the internet or read a book during my down time. And it’s not retail!

I don’t want to get up from my comfy chair and head up the hill to learn about more cashier duties. I don’t want to be the cashier. —-> I’ll learn something new, and being the cashier isn’t that bad. It’s a nice change of pace and I get to talk to some very interesting people.

I don’t want to go to Guard duty for the next two days. —-> I get to get off work earlier than usual and will have some free time to myself before hubby and Munchkin get home. Plus I might learn something new and interesting while I’m there.

I’m worried about this accounting class and test we have to take in a couple of weeks. I’ve neer had an accounting class before and I’m afraid I’ll fail. —-> I’ll get to learn something new and I’m sure I’ll do okay since I’m a fast learner.

Happy?…Birthday to Me…Maybe? Or Not…

Well, I should have known that turning 39 would bring some craziness into my life. And let me tell you, it’s been one heck of a week.

It all started the day before my birthday. I’d just gotten done at the gym and Munchkin and I were in the car, heading home. While sitting at the traffic light, I turned to say somethign to Munchkin, then heard this awful “THUMP!”. I turned to see something tumbling through the air. My first thought was that someone had been hauling something on a truck, it had fallen off and was hit by another car. But then, traffic started pulling forward and I saw a person lying in the road. It turns out that some poor homeless guy decided to try to cross the road (which is a major 4-lane with cars travelling 45+ MPH) right in front of a car. The car hit him, sent him flying about 20 feet, then another car ran over him. Thankfully, I’m sure that he was killed instantly. I feel for the guy driving the car that hit him because there wasn’t anything he could’ve done, but still it has to be awful to know that you just took a life. I had to hang around and give witness to the investigator…thankfully, hubby came and picked up Munchkin while I was waiting.

The next day (my birthday), I decided to go to work even though I was still a bit rattled from the night before. I thought I was fine until I had to drive past where it happened and there was still a bloodstain (or maybe it was the paint stuff they use to mark it) on the road. I started getting shaky again and ended up leaving work after about an hour. Hubby was nice and took me out for lunch, then gave me my birthday present…which was the Lord of the Rings: Online game. I’m not a huge gamer anymore and I was kind of put-of initially because there were about a dozen things I’d rather have had. But once I got to playing it, it was alot of fun.

This week has been ineresting so far as well because I have to cover at the cashier’s office for the usual lady who is on vacation all week. it’s a change of pace, but it can get so nuts sometimes. I’ve gotten so used to being able to sit down with my work and be able to work on it from start to finish..but I can’t do that here. There’s half a dozen things to do and are constantly being added to, plus all of the little interruptions of people coming and needing money or something signed or whatever. I’ll be glad when it’s over.

I’m enjoying my classes at the gym thusfar. I’ve started taking a PiYo (Pilates-Yoga) class on top of just yoga. It’s alot tougher than I thought it would be, but I like it. I can’t wait to get my new yoga mat and bag. I ordered this set from Gaiam. Since my mother gave me $50 for my birthday I even splurged and opted for the faster shipping (since I used a coupon code and got 15% off the set). I am so tired of using the awful, slippery mats at the gym!

Weird stuff…

I’m trying to figure this out…

At work, I have to walk up the hill to the main hospital once a day to do an audit. On my way up, there is an unused building…just past this buiding is a set of steps. Next to the steps, in the grass, someone is dumping food. Initially, I thought they were just leaving it out for the birds because the first time I noticed it, it was a pile of potato chips…but now I’m not sure because of what kind of food it is. Last week, it was about a half dozen tomatoes…perfectly good whole tomatoes. Today, it was a pile of macaroni and cheese, and a hamburger bun. It’s not as though someone is tossing their uneaten lunch remains because it is a decent amount of food…enough for a whole meal. It’s just weird. Why would someone dump large amounts of random food there? I know that the food truck drives by there, but this isn’t as thogh something fell off or was tossed off because it’s always in the exact same spot as though carefully placed there. Very very strange….