February by the Numbers

Random Thoughts

I have been a ball of anxiety lately.

Breeeeeeathe... just take a deep breath, it only takes a few seconds and it will make me so much better. I need to get better at reminding myself of that throughout the day.

Randomness of late:

• I found the cutest bra on sale for $3. Cute and inexpensive (and it fits too - I can practically rest my chin on my uber perky boobs - far cheaper than a boob job!). The original price was $30, and 90% off on a perfectly good bra in a pretty color is The. Best. Deal Ever. Wish they had more in my size because I would have scooped up 10 of them.
• We're going to Philadelphia/New Jersey in late April on a NOT-vacation. To attempt to make this a sort of vacation, I wanted to stay in a hotel. You know, the kind of hotel with a fitness center and pool and blankets that you may actually trust enough to sit directly on (as opposed to the icky bedspreads that you need to put on a biohazard suit on before touching in a Motel 6/Super 8). However, we were told that we canNOT stay in a hotel. After all, we aren't thinking adults and cannot make such decisions for ourselves or pay for such a thing. Nope, we have to stay at S's aunt's house in NJ. When will the Xanax drip start? Tomorrow? 
• To top off the April fun, S's parents are coming to stay with us in the beginning of April. Unlike S's aunt, we would NOT be offended if they stayed in a hotel instead of with us. I think you know what's going to happen. 
• Can I just skip the month of April? Pleeeeeease? How many Vicodin does it take to skip April????  

I better get to bed. I've been up for 21 hours straight, and delusions are just about starting. 

Chia Seeds

I started a financial engineering class. It's on collaterized debt obligations, those products that crashed the world economic system in 2008-09. Let's just say calculus is not like riding a bike, at least to me. It's kind of kicking my butt.

I'm about halfway through the nutrition class.

And there's full-time work. And wife/mother duties. My patience for people is rather low right now, particularly those people who whine to me about how overworked they are and they only work part-time and don't have school, a child, or a spouse/partner. In other words, I'm cranky.

What also added to the pressure of the past month is that Netflix was offering a free month of free discs, which we took them up on. So we were getting 4-6 movies in the mail per week to watch, and we return them the next day, which meant "awwww bummer" when we saw the white and red envelopes in our mailbox because we knew we had to watch them that night. But that will end this weekend. Thank goodness, I couldn't take the PRESSURE! Saw some good movies though.

Does anyone know about chia seeds? I have found the only way I can ingest them is in smoothies. They supposedly have a nice amount of omega-3s and other good properties. I make my smoothies with cherries, bananas, blueberries, greek yogurt, chia seeds & water. I can eat the fruit sans blending. I have some problems with the yogurt sans blending because I don't like to be eating it straight (and I'm technically not supposed to be eating it but don't know how else to thicken up the smoothie). But the chia seeds - you need to get those wet somehow. So basically I make the smoothies to ingest the chia seeds. But do I even need to eat the chia seeds? I dunno. I should also add milled flax, but milled flax tastes like sand.

I'll be back when I have a better attitude, which will likely be once I have gotten through my week 2 financial engineering lectures, reading, and assignments.

Tonight is bingo. Last weekend was packed. This weekend is packed. It's called burning the midnight oil to get all my stuff done.

The Best Kind of Sick

My daughter has been banished from preschool due to pink eye. It is inconvenient, contagious & kind of itchy, but my work is flexible so that I can work from home for today. My husband handled yesterday.

She's not too whiny. She's eating. She's not throwing up. My biggest complaint is that she's a bit like a caged animal now on Day 2 of exile. "Mommy, when can I go back to school?" "Mommy, do you think my friends are having fun at school right now?"

It's a 3-day weekend for her and me. Not so much for my husband since they don't celebrate much in the way of holidays. He works in health care, so I suppose they think people get sick even on holidays or something like that. The good is that it's a 3-day weekend for me although I'll likely work some. The bad is that she will be home for 5 days straight and likely climbing the walls by Monday.

And so will I. 

 

Quirks and Habits

1. Share one unique character trait that sets you apart from your friends.

I'm kind of obsessed with the 80s.

2. List at least two pet peeves that aggravate you.

-Not following through with what you say you're going to do
-Smoking, excessive drinking, etc.

3. Is there a word or phrase that you say so regularly that people expect to hear it from you?

Awesome

4. Are you a risk taker, or do you typically play it safe?

Mostly play it safe, but then I'll decide to go indoor skydiving or sign up for this aerial cable adventure. Or go on every roller coaster at the amusement park twice. There's a thrill seeker in me definitely!

5. Describe your life as it was in high school. Are you the same person? Have you changed?

I sure hope I have changed! ;-) But you can definitely see me currently through my past and the things I've been through.

6. What is the craziest thing you've ever done that you're glad that you did?

When I was younger, I had a penchant for trespassing, like going into houses that weren't quite built. Or climbing chain fences into areas that said "No Trespassing." Sure, they were crimes, but I didn't hurt anything or do anything malicious. I just did it to break the rules. And it was kind of fun.

7. Do you ever talk to yourself? If so, share an example.

Yes, I mutter out specific numbers occasionally, and my daughter now does it. And I sing in the car.

8. Share something you did that unexpectedly helped shape your life.

When I left high school 2 years early, I started community college, which meant that when I transferred to a four-year university, I was placed in the upperclassman dorm as a junior. Being 17 in an upperclassman dorm was *interesting*, but it led to a chain of events that ended with me meeting my husband.

9. Do you follow a strict routine, or are you a free spirit? Are you somewhere in between?

Mostly routine, I do take comfort in the rituals, but I do have that free spirit side of me where I'm like, "Let's do this crazy thing and let's do it NOW!"

10. Share something about yourself that you hope will inspire others.

I can only think of sarcastic answers to this, so I should just refrain from saying anything.

Movie Reviews

 I've watched 3 interesting movies in the past week.

388 Arletta (streaming on Netflix) - creepy psychological thriller. It's from the perspective of a voyeur who seems to be stalking this guy at home and at work. I like the psychological thriller genre, although it can be overdone with the "is this person crazy or is someone really out to get this person?" theme. However, because we hear and see the voyeur (though not well enough to identify who it is), you know the guy being stalked isn't crazy. The big piece of the mystery becomes WHY.

There's logical problems with the movie, but I suppose they need to be there to make the movie work. For instance, it seems a bit odd that this guy can't get any help from anyone. And that the police won't come to take a missing person's report, but they will come for a cat issue.

Still, I liked the movie. I like to be scared.


Paranormal Activity 4 (DVD) - I've seen all of these. I know, I know. I have no taste. Even more credence to not having taste is that I like them. What can I say? I'm fascinated by ghosts, poltergeists, and demons. The intellectual side of my brain knows, or is fairly certain, that they don't exist. But there's that other part that wonders how we can really ever know. I suppose I'm agnostic about ghosts. I would love to stay at a reported haunted house/building someday. Again, I like to be scared.

Back to this movie, it starts at the end of Paranormal Activity 3, when Katie (the chick who became possessed by demons in her house in the original movie) kills her sister and then abducts her nephew, who was a baby. Flash forward 5 years, and now we are living with a 'typical' suburban family with a teenager and a 5 year old son. The mysterious kid across the street moves in with them after his mom is hospitalized, and weird things start happening. The teenager and her boyfriend have a penchant for recording things, a la the prior movies in this franchise.


Whores' Glory (streaming on Netflix) - documentary about prostitution in Bangkok, Bangladesh and Mexico. Bangkok seemed the most straightforward. Prostitution was just a job there. Bangladesh was fascinating because it was a lifestyle. Mexico - that portion was interesting because it was definitely gritty (kind of like a job shadow).

I've always been fascinated by the oldest profession. Not enough to try out, mind you, but enough to watch a documentary about it and think and come up with interview questions for the women featured.

Five Things

1. Share five things you hope to do before you die. 
- Road trip to hit 48 states, the leisurely way (you know, with lots of stops at places with quirky names so it's a 2 month journey)
- Publish a book
- Go on a cruise
- I am lame because I can't come up with anything else.

2. List five things you love about yourself.
- Hair
- Nails
- I should be 450 pounds but for some reason I'm not.
- I sometimes have a weird perspective on things.
- My eyes

3. Share the five coolest things that you’ve done in 2013.
- Won $50
- Started eating chia seeds regularly
- Read 21 books in January, or maybe that's just nerdy
- I started the Nutrition class.
- Need to do something cool to put on this list.

4. List five things that you always have in your kitchen.
- carrots
- dirty dishes
- a grocery list
- granite
- leftovers

5. Share five places you would like to go on vacation.
- Alaska
- England
- Scotland
- Road trip in the US
- Dubai

6. List five celebrities/public figures you’d like to meet.
- Channing Tatum just to stare at
- Josh Hartnett just to stare at
- Kevin Smith just to listen to
- Will Smith
- P!nk

7. List five bands or artists you’d like to see perform live.
- The Fray
- Journey with Steve Perry
(Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlight people
Living just to find emotion
Hiding somewhere in the night)
- Def Leppard, but I did that last year.
- LL Cool J
- I don't know, can't come up with another.

8. List five TV shows that you don’t want to miss. 

- Downton Abbey
- Biggest Loser
- Big Bang Theory
- Netflix'ed old TV shows like Family Ties

9. Share five things you wanted to do as a child. 
- Become a groupie (Def Leppard, specifically)
- Become an author
- Become a teacher

10.  Share five things you hope to do in 2013.
- Write another book
- And work on editing it
- Read a lot
- Take a few college classes in subjects I enjoy and want to learn more about
- Enjoy my life