Cold

I am cold. Just got home from work and my house is a tropical 55 degrees inside! And poor Smokey just sneezed... no joke. Maybe I will have to rethink this whole "turn off the heat to save money" thing!

We got less than 2 inches of snow here last night. Just enough to make my morning commute annoying! But it was all gone and the pavement was dry when I came out of work tonight. Of course, everyone was parked all crooked and stuff because when we parked there this morning, you couldn't see the lines! Haha. :) Looked pretty funny.

Tomorrow is my last day of precepting for a while, I think. Sad. I like the whole teaching thing. It is good practice for me to learn how to back off and not micro-manage so much! Work has been good, lately. Knock wood! (Or IKEA particleboard covered in wood veneer, since that is what my desk is made out of!)

Well, I am hungry and Smokey is starved for attention... time to get off the computer and get some dinner. :)

Skiing Pictures!

My immune system is attempting to fight off a cold, I think. It's making me miserable. Lucky me, sick on my 2 days off! I am using it as an excuse to wear sweats today. Technically, a sweatshirt and my fleece pants. :) Also, I have resolved to keep the heat in my house at a balmy 63 after getting my City Light bill last week! Sigh. It was cold enough when I kept it at 67!

It was a nice rainy morning, although now it is actually kind of sunny and windy. We are maybe going to get an inch or two of snow tonight! I am rather surprised that schools aren't closed for tomorrow already...

I just finished uploading some pictures to Facebook... here are my favorites.




We went to Snoqualmie last weekend... it was my first time back on skis in 4 years and only Rob's second time on a snowboard (I think). It was so much fun, even though it was a little harrowing at times. Unfortunately, it was pretty icy, which was sad. Of course, THIS weekend it is supposed to be awesome! Oh well.

Not too much else going on. Rob came over last night and we did some Power Sculpt together! Then had chicken for dinner... we are both working on eating healthy. :) I did the workout again this morning and boy am I sore! But it feels good, I guess.

That's about it for today... I'm mostly just laying low and drinking tea and things in the hopes that I don't really get too sick. :)

Randomness

Here's the thing about blogging. Whenever there are exciting or interesting things to write about... one is too busy to do so! And therefore, when there isn't really anything in particular going on... I have time to write what often amounts to boring posts. :)

The other problem (sort of) about blogging is that you NEVER know who might be reading it. Sure, there are some people that you figure are probably reading the post, but my experience with Google Analytics (a wonderful invention) has shown that the audience for a blog is pretty widespread and/or random. Which means that I am sometimes hesitant to blog about the stuff that I really want to write about... because it is immediately very publicly available! Take, for example, the fact that some of my seemingly innocous posts have been linked to on a blog about Costco... which means that hundreds of random people have read about my shopping trips. Surreal and kind of exciting, for sure. But kinda scary too!

Anyway. That's part of the reason that I have been a slacker when it comes to blogging... I feel like I have to be very careful about what I say, because it is so public. And my personality is such that I tend to be what Rob affectionately calls "a stress ball". Haha!

Hm. What to write about? I spent my day off today doing laundry, a task that would be much simpler if there was a working dryer in my complex. Argh. I dream of a day where I will no longer need quarters for laundry... and a dryer that works. One day. :) I also went to Costco for some much needed groceries! I swear that I am not attempting to write about Costco for that infamous "Costco Bump" (not to be confused with the "Colbert Bump"!). It just so happens that I go to The Warehouse a lot. And I really like it! And, well, since Rob works there, it has managed to become an integral part of my life. :) I was happy to get some food in my cupboards... particularly the ground turkey (which is not technically in the cupboard, mind you) and my new obsession, Fiber One bars. Can you tell I am on a high fiber, high protein, low calorie diet?! Also got a 5 lb bag of carrots. Oddly enough, the bag of carrots lasts only about 2 weeks or less! I eat a lot of baby carrots. Especially at work. :)

I was amused by something that happened in the Costco parking lot today... I was nearly run over by a car whose driver was paying more attention to eating their chicken bake instead of pedestrians. I don't know why it struck me as being so funny, but it did! Driving under the influence of a Costco Chicken Bake. Maybe they should put a warning on it.

This post is getting ridiculously long, and is about nothing at all. :) The beauty of blogging, I suppose. I will close with a picture from a couple of weeks ago that I love... me and Rob with the Fremont Troll.

Bulbs, Binoculars, and Brandon Heath

It was a beautiful day today! And yesterday, too. Makes you almost feel like maybe spring (and summer) might not be so far away! In fact, my bulbs are starting to come up. Daffodils, I think. Which brings me to a funny revelation I had yesterday... I was preheating the oven to bake some chicken breasts for dinner, and had a few minutes to kill. I found myself out in the back yard, bent over the garden, clearing dead leaves off the flower bed with my bare hands. Then I wiped the dirt of my jeans, came inside, and started cooking dinner. I had this moment... I felt like a grown-up. Actually, to be honest, I felt like my mom. Haha! Not that there's anything wrong with that!! It reminded me of something Ingrid mentioned the other day on Facebook... that she and Chad had taken a Valentine's Day trip and that they brought binoculars... for bird-watching. Her comment was that she felt like she was turning something much older than 29! :) (Hopefully she won't mind me sharing the story here!)

Rob and I were talking last night about how strange it is to reach an age where you realize that, wait... this IS your life! It hit me last year. There's no more "check boxes" like graduating or finding a job or passing the next test. This is it. You wake up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, maybe watch some TV, and go to bed. Or whatever else you choose that day. This is life! I know this sounds kind of elementary, but it really is actually a pretty profound thing to have dawn on you one day. :) Kind of like the Switchfoot song says... "This is your life. Are you who you want to be?"

Speaking of Christian pop songs (like the terrible segue?)... I'm currently listening to Brandon Heath's "Give Me Your Eyes" on my iTunes. I will be honest. I used to HATE this song. Mostly because it is simple pop chords and was very overplayed on the radio! But then one day, I was at work, in the med room where there is a radio (which is tuned to any variety of stations during any given shift!). Apparently on Saturday mornings, the local pop/dance music station plays a nationally syndicated Christian songs countdown show... I guess they figure their prime audience is not listening since they were out clubbing the night before! Anyway, I'm in the med room by myself, and suddenly I hear that song come on. At that moment, in that shift, I was struck by the lyrics. Here I go to work every day, and it is my job to care for people. I mean, literally. I am paid to care. And it is so easy to become jaded and cynical. In fact, on our floor, it is a known fact that if you aren't a little bit cynical and sarcastic... you will NEVER survive! That morning I had a homeless patient who was really being difficult, and I was feeling pretty judgemental and self-righteous. Yet God used that song to really make me think about what I was feeling and thinking! At any rate, I went home and bought it on iTunes, and now actually like it. And I have never again heard Christian music in the med room.

Well that was a random digression. I suppose that is what a blog is really about, though. :)

President's Day

This is my 4th day off in a row, and yet I am still not doing so hot on keeping up with the blog! :) I had a nice weekend... On Saturday, Rob and I went to go see "He's Just Not That Into You", which was a pretty good movie. Then we came back to my place and drank my Christmas present from Rob (a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne!). It was a nice Valentine's Day! On Sunday we attempted to go skiing/snowboarding after church, but unfortunately there isn't night skiing on Sundays (apparently). Kind of a bummer, but we had fun driving to the mountains and just hanging out.

I installed my new scanner this afternoon! It is pretty cool, and especially considering how inexpensive it was. Now I have to find more things to scan! Haha.

As I am thinking about what to blog about, I am realizing that my life is rather boring! The big thing going on today for me is that the dryer is still acting up, so my laundry is hung up all over the house. My neighbors and I are fighting back, however, and are starting to keep track of all the quarters (which add up) that we lose on the dumb thing, since the landlord was unable to replicate the problem when my neighbor reported it. Hm. Interesting. So, yeah. Exciting life, huh. :)

Time to go do my Power Sculpt DVD! I have not been very good about working out lately. Or eating healthy. But now that my workout clothes are almost dry, I should try to get moving!

I know, I know

It has been forever since I posted. Like 2+ months. Sigh. How did I get so far behind?!

I get myself into these situations where I want to do everything absolutely perfectly... and sometimes when I know that it is impossible to do so, well, then... I don't do it at all! And I think that's what happened with the blog. :) December was crazy busy and time got away from me!! And then I felt as though I couldn't post just any old random thing since it had been so long.

But posting something is better than nothing in a couple of months, I suppose, so here I am. Not sure where to begin. The perfectionist in me wants to start where I left off in December, and properly document everything since then. However, the perfectionist is rather tired and so we will just jump to the current moment. At least for now. :)

I'm back on day shifts at work (yay!) so that means that I have nice normal sleep patterns again. Was off from work today and did nothing of excitement. Mostly hung around the house doing random things. I am (still) working on handquiliting a quilt for my bed... It is taking forever and I feel like it will never be done! But it is coming along, at least.

My other current project is of the "get in shape" variety. I've come to the sad conclusion that my body really, really likes the weight I'm at now, give or take 5 pounds. Unfortunately, my "set point" (to steal an old biology class term) does not seem to coincide well with my goals for myself. Argh! After 2 very obnoxious weeks on a new diet plan, I realized that weight loss might not be the best goal. Sure, I can eat carrots for the rest of my life and be miserable, but what is the point of THAT?! So my latest thing is just trying to get in shape. This past summer, when I ran that 5K, I felt... strong. And I liked that feeling. That's my new goal... to feel strong and in shape. Regardless of what the scale says or what size clothes I wear. Of course, if the scale were to show a number 20 or 30 pounds lighter than it currently does, I wouldn't complain!! :)

To that end, I've started running again... sometimes. After a rather frightening experience where I had what I suspect (in my professional opinion of course) was the first ever asthma attack of my life, I've been doing less running outside (or at least not when there are severe air pollution warnings). Instead I've been doing some workout DVDs in my living room. Go ahead, call me a dork. :) But I have been SORE the last few days, so that can only mean that it's working, right?!

Not too much else to report for today. I'm getting tired, even though it's not even 10 pm. I'm turning into a little old lady! First quilting with my cat and drinking tea... now thinking about bed before 10. Yikes. :)