Monday, November 29, 2010

Exercise

I am bad with exercise. I will go hard for an entire week--workout three hours a day, eat only food that is good for me, drink only water. Then BAM! Something happense and I stop. And the something happening is usually life getting in the way. A couple of weeks ago I went to hot yoga four times in five days. It was awesome and I felt so good. But then the friend I was going with one day couldn't go, and I couldn't go the next day, then my evenings became busy with meetings and friends popping by and...

The IT band in my right leg is tight. So tight that I haven't been able to run for the last six months or so. I can run for about 10 minutes before either my knee, hip, or both start hurting. It's very frustrating. So I've started seeing a physiotherapist. And that was helping and it looked like I was going to be able to start running again soon, but I've stopped doing the exercises, I really can't afford to go to physiotherapy too often, and now it's possible I'll never run again. OK, that might be a little too dramatic, but my motivation is low.

Hmmm...I'm pretty rambly today. If ya'all have any motivation ideas, I'd be happy to listen to 'em...

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Thursday, November 25, 2010

Night

When I was young, I could not fall asleep for hours after I went to bed. Literally hours. I remember my mom taking me to the doctor regarding this problem when I was about seven. I remember him saying I should not eat ice cream or bananas for a few hours before bedtime. Memory is a funny thing. Is it really possible he said that?

Anyway, I had ways to entertain myself so I wouldn't get bored. First I'd knock on the wall between my room and my brother's and ask him what he wanted to talk about. He wasn't very reliable though; he'd either say "Nothing. Go to sleep" or he'd start chatting with me then fall asleep in the middle of a sentence...usually my sentence. Rude!

So when that failed, I'd sing. Every song I could think of. Usually from the soundtrack of Annie. I really loved that movie. After exhausting the entire repertoire of Annie songs, I'd start in with anything I could think of by Helen Reddy or Barbra Streisand (what? My mom was a fan. Geez).

After wearing myself out singing, I'd start making up stories. Then when that didn't work, I'd try the doctor's suggestion of putting every part of my body to sleep. (Goodnight big toe, goodnight ball of my right foot, goodnight Achilles tendon, etc.) Eventually that would get boring and I'd go back to singing.

I read now. And fall asleep a lot more easily. Too bad; I miss singing.

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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Thankful

I missed posting on Thanksgiving, so I thought I would pretend that I celebrate American Thanksgiving with a list (because this is obviously a blog of lists) of things that I'm thankful for. Things besides my family and friends because those are too obvious and I'd just be writing a bunch of cliches and that's boring.

1. The sunshine on my bed--at some point during the day, depending on the season, the sun sleeps directly on my bed. It's warm and bright and happy.

2. My dad's new-found car-attitude--in 1983, my dad bought a brand new Volvo. It was his baby and if you even looked at it wrong, you got in trouble. He owned this car for 20 years. Neither my brother and I ever drove it (until brother bought it off dad, but even then the pressure was too high to keep it in tip-top condition and so it was sold again a couple of months later). Anyway, my dad retired from his career and needed to purchase a work vehicle for his new job (don't even get me started on what has happened to this vehicle--gah). All that history to say that recently he got a brand new truck. It's red; it's huge; that's all I know about it. The other day when my mom and dad came to pick up their dog from my house I was out. I came home when they were here and my dad's brand new truck was in my driveway, but running, so I moved it. And when I got out of the huge red truck, I misjudged how huge the truck really is and fell out while simultaneously pushing the door into the side of my stucco house. It removed the paint from part of the edge of the door. It crossed my mind that I should probably flee the country, but instead I went inside to see if I would still be considered "daughter." You guys, he totally waved it off like it was nothing.

3. Yoga pants--I'm not gonna lie. I rarely wear anything else anymore. I feel like maybe I'm becoming a candidate for What Not To Wear (this in addition to Hoarders; is it possible I watch too much TLC). They're just so comfy and warm and comfy.

4. My country--it's politically stable and there are no poisonous bugs.

5. My house--besides keeping me warm and dry, I have the kind of house that my friends can walk into and totally ignore me while going about doing their own things. As I write this I have a friend sitting at my kitchen table filling out a job application. People feel welcome here, my friends, my kid's friends. It's nice that people can come here, because honestly, I sure don't want to go out there.


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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Housekeeper

I have officially become one of *those* people. Allow me to explain:

There once was a time when I dutifully cleaned and did laundry on a schedule. The bathrooms were cleaned every Tuesday, the laundry was washed, dried, folded and put away every Saturday, the kitchen was cleaned every single day. This morning, as I rushed out of my bed to take the children to school, I noticed that I had two baskets of laundry sitting on my floor. UNFOLDED and NOT PUT AWAY. How did this happen? Stay tuned on the TLC channel; I could be on Hoarders any day now.


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Monday, November 22, 2010

Whiner

I feel whiny today. So far (and keep in mind it's still pretty early in the morning) everything is bugging me.

1. My parent's dog. She is a bad houseguest. I ask her to please sleep at the bottom of the bed on the other side (it's a king-sized bed; there's plenty of room), but she insists on sleeping right by me. Also, she is far to small to be outside in this weather. That means that she is supposed to go to the bathroom on these pads. She insists on missing, sometimes by about 15 feet. And then she barks and barks and barks every time I come back into the house and it's so high-pitched that I think my ears are going to fall off. Don't get me wrong, she's cute and she's a nice dog, but I just would like if she were a better guest in my house. I also think I might be allergic to her, and having her sleep so closely to me is not helping.

2. My driveway. It's not going to shovel itself, but it seems that other members of my household have noticed that if they wait long enough that it will. Ten minutes here and ten minutes there would have it done in no time, but they dawdle so much that all of a sudden it's time to go to school or dinnertime or bedtime. I often think they work way harder at dawdling, putting huge amounts of time and effort in, that it would take less work just to go shovel.

3. Censorship. I censor myself when writing so as not to hurt anyone's feelings or give too much of myself away. Everywhere I write I'm so careful: I'd write a book but what if a character swears or has sex and my dad reads it. I'd blog about more stuff but what if [insert one of the very few reader's names here] thinks I'm talking about her. (Not you though. Promise.) And private information? Feggedaboudit. What I share is so watered down that sometimes I don't even bother...hence the months of silence on this blog. And honestly, how interesting is it to read about nothing, because that's really all I have left once I'm done with the censorship.

Wow. I'm in a mood. I should stop before I get myself in trouble. Have a lovely day friends.

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Friday, November 19, 2010

Title goes here

Well hi there. Nice place you got here. What? Oh right, this is my place.

I haven't been here for a long time. Maybe you've noticed. At least two of you have because you've both asked why I don't blog anymore. I'm back. I'll try to do better, but honestly, I can't guarantee anything. The thing is , I don't blog when I have so much going on in my life that my brain is just spinning because I don't want to bog you down in my stuff and I don't blog when I have nothing going on in my life because I have nothing to say.

Today I'm trying for five random things because sometimes that's just fun.

1. I shovelled the driveway two days in a row. I have a long-ass driveway and it takes a long time and I don't even finish it because I want to leave some for the other members of my household. I don't want them to get used to me doing it. It kind of bothers me that my neighbours drive on my driveway because they pack down the snow, but it doesn't bother me enough to say anything. I like my neighbours; if they find it easier to drive on my driveway then I'll just live with it. Later on this year it won't matter anyway because I'll have given up the goal to always be able to see the cement. Shovelling is a novelty that wears off pretty quick. I came inside when I was done and my hair was everywhere and my glasses were fogged up and the zipper pull broke off my jacket. I'm not sure the last time I felt that panicked. I COULD NOT get out of my jacket. I was trapped there forever with hair in my face and I couldn't even see. It was horrible. I felt my breath quicken as I tried and tried to figure out a way to pull down the zipper WITHOUT THE PULL twisting this way and that like an acrobat contortionist. Finally I pulled the jacket off like a t-shirt. It was scary people; you don't know fear until you're trapped in a winter jacket with foggy glasses and messy hair.

2. I went to visit my bff last weekend. Honey was away so it was just the two of us. I missed him; I like them together, but it was really nice to have girl-time. I'd love to say we spent the day shopping then visited the spa in preparation for our night out, but in all honesty, we went to one store, then picked up food, went back to her place, put on our sweatpants and we were in bed by 1030. Sadly, it was perfect. I don't want to read too much into it, but it's possible that I'm getting... old.

3. My plans fell through today. I thought about all the stuff that needs to be done: the cleaning, the writing assignments, random chores and errands (on a side note, I've never been able to say that word--I know it's ERrands, but it always comes out of my mouth as erRANDS). But then I remembered what the Universe wrote yesterday: What if it was your downtime, your lounging-in-bed-too-long time, your walkabout time, and your blow-Friday-off time that made possible your greatest achievements? So today, I'm going to have a nap, I might go for lunch, I will definitely have a long, hot shower and I will blow-Friday-off.

4. I might just start now.

5. Because five random things right off the get-go might be a little over ambitious.

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