Sunday, April 29, 2012

I'll just plan my own damn marathon.

My coworker in the next cube, you know the one, with the rock garden, also likes to run. And by running I mean that she trains for marathons and actually does them.

I find this woman to be particularly inspireing because she isn'e like your typical marathon runner. When I think of marathon runners, I think of really skinny men in tiny, tiny shorts and socks and running shoes bursting through a ribbon with a look of well, a picture is worth a thousand words.


photo from http://www.oregonlive.com/

I don't think of Debby who looks like a normal person of her age and has a granddaughter on the way. She looks like I imagine I will look when I am her age. (I hope I also have her attitude.) She isn't old, just, you know, not 20 and musclebound. I don't think...

ANYWAY

Several months ago, she told me about the Nike Half marathon where women go and run around San Fransicso and handsome firemen present them with Tiffany's. Apaprently, this event is so huge you have to get into a lottery to hopefully get in. I think my cousin did it last year.

I thought about training for it but then I got Netflix.


Debby came around the corner today with her pouty face on. She didn't get in.

Now, I don't know how you could not want a Debby, but apparently there just isn't room for her to oogle some fireman and get sparklies. I like sparklies. They don't have to be Tiffany's, but I do like the color of the box.

So I have decided that i am going to host my own dang marathon. I'm going to have a marathon and hand out... sequined pasties.

Does anyone know how to host a marathon?

Friday, April 27, 2012

Ah. blissity bliss

Once again it's time for Liv Lane' Little Bliss list, where I recap happy moments from my week. Doing this has helped me so much in finding joy in the little things and keeping track of the happy moments instead of dwelling on drama.

Actually, I have been trying to not get involved in the drama. it's working a little bit

1. Thursday morning rainbows. I don't get to see a lot of rainbows up here in the high desert, so it's a treat to ge to. It's also a treat that at 12:30 in the afternoon the fog was still sitting on the sierras. I miss fog. The gentle way it kisses your skin. How it makes all the greens just a little bit greener...


Photo thank you to http://www.rgj.com/. this is the one. and it was lovely.

2. A text from my aunt who was experiencing her own rainbow down in Carson City, enjoying an early morning walk, and thinking of things that start with R.

3. Crab Feed on Saturday. I've never eaten so much crab in my whole life. Rumor has it, I ate more than anyone. And I wore it home. All that aside though, it was a wonderful time with some good company and I hope I get to do it again.

4. Defying Gravity. Since my knee has been hurting, I have thought it best that I stay off of my skates. Monday, while I stood there, reffing the nights scrimmage I realized that I don't really want to be ther eif I am not rolling. So Wednesday night, I forced myself to go, but allowed myself to skate. Gently. Not only that, but I did it for the joy. With my ipod in and Frank Sinatra playing. And then, I switched it to the Wicked Soundtrack and realized that for me, skating is my chance to fly. I turned it all the way up and grinned like an idiot and just, enjoyed the wind in my face while the girls stretched. Happily, my knee didn't hurt at all Thursday. YAY!!

5. Dinner with a friend who is moving. Buckeye Beefacke is a wonderful woman with whom I have had the opportunity to skate over the past couple of years. I cannot say enough nice things about her, and I am really going to miss her. Of all the people I have known, she is probably one of the most sensitive and genuinely kind. I wish her the best. I'm glad we got to have one more bloomin onion before she leaves.

Friday, April 20, 2012

A good week for smiles


”Bliss




Once again it's time for Liv Lanes's Little bliss list fun! I look forward to sharing my happiness with you every week (except when I don't) and hope you enjoy hearing about the little joys in my life. Collecting these moments throughout the week really helps me focus on the positive things in my life.

1. Soapy madness! I have a tendancy to fall short on things like wrapping and labelling my soap especially when life is busy. This winter, I made a bunch, wrapped enough to get me through a craft show, and then forgot about the rest. This week, I got all of it prewrapped (each bar of my soap is wrapped first in wax paper and then in "pretty" paper. This helps protect the soap and keeps any evaporating liquids from leaching through the pretty paper). Well, most of it anyway, I ran out of glue stick last night with two bars of lavender left. It feels really good to have gotten this done.

2. More soapy madness! There were a few bars laying around that had been left without labels so long that I couldn't remember what kind they were. I'm sure I could have figured it out, but I gave them away on facebook instead. I cleared some clutter off my shelf, and the people who got soap, semmed pretty excited about it. WIN!!

3. The power of positive thinking did NOT clean my kitchen last night, but elbow grease did!! I love a clean kitchen. It's all ready for me to use it.

4. I attribute positive thinking and a change in vocabulary to the fact that although I was in extreme pain on Monday after my little knee fall, I feel almost back to where I was last week pain-wise. Not totally healed, I still have pain, but not nearly what I thought. I have almost full range of motion and while I still can't bend it all the way under or kneel on it, why do I need to do that right now anyway? Positive thinking. Change in vocabulary. And a whole lot of tigerbalm.

5. Last night, my laptop started making a really funny noise. Alarmed, I picked it up and opened it and discovered that my sister was calling on Skype! It was great to talk to her and the girls and to see her husband's noggin in the picture as he kissed them all hello. I miss my family so much; it's great to have these wonderful tools so I can see them sometimes.

What is making you smile today?

Thursday, April 19, 2012

The Power of Postive Thinking

Ever since I realized that I am not doing myself any good by using broken terminology to describe myself, I am amazed (again) at all the wonderful things that positive thinking is achieving for me.

And by "all the wonderful things" I mean that my knee is healing much faster this time and MAYBE I might be able to play Star Wars on the Kinnect sometime soon. But no skating until I get new knee pads and really not until the bout we have coming up. Because if I can't roll on that track, I may sit down and cry. I don't know if I have mentioned it yet today, but I am NOT a pretty crier. AND crying makes my nose run a lot and there's never a hankie around when I need one.

SO. Positive thinking. Lets see if it works...

I would like to bake this evening. Which I have been saying for like 3 weeks or something since I happened across this recipe, which I still have not made. But I did make scalloped potaoes, which I have been mistakenly calling potatoes au gratin but in my head it's Potatoes au Gracie because I replaced the ham with kilbasa and used nonfat milk because I didn't have any cream. I also meant to put broccoli in there but I forgot about it until it was too late. So did I also make eggs benedict except that I didn't follow the directions correctly so my hollandaise sauce was funky.  It needs a lot of work before I feed it to anyone else. NOT that I have been feeding anyone breakfast lately. So anyway, I have been wanting to bake something ever since I saw that and this,  neither of which have actually been made but I did buy buttermilk. I'm not sure if I need buttermilk, but I will check the recipes this time.

Positive thinking.

I am thinking positively that my kitchen will be clean when I get home. That the kitchen fairies will have done good work while I was at work and all those dirty dishes will be gone. Not from all that cooking I have been doing, I've been pretty lazy this week. And I'm a little depressed that I killed my muffin tin making these, or something like them, which are delicious. I've been eating them every day. Today I decided they needed a little bit of maple syrup but I didn't have any.

Muffin tin. that baked on egg is gonna come RIGHT OUT next time I try. And the Kitchen is going to be CLEAN when I get home... So I can make some more tastiness.

Did I mention the stuffed jalapenos? yeah, I'm mastering those too. I even bought breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs will also come in handy the next time I decide to doctor some kraft mac and cheese because I have to be brutally honest here, the cheetoes I used as a topping last time were a very bad idea. In fact, I don't think I like cheetos anymore. Cheese balls and puffs on the other hand are fair game.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

An unexpected goodbye

I am the kind of person who will occasionally wake up, get dressed, and put a rock in my pocket before I leave the house.

My reasons for this are sometimes spiritual and sometimes purely for the joy of having a rock in my pocket. I like rocks. Always have.



Having rediscovered a favorite the other night, I decided to pop my shiva lingum in my pocket yesterday and off I went, promptly forgetting about my pocket payload. (picture is from this website if you would like your very own sacred stone from india!!)

Fast forward to afternoon when, after sitting for a very long time, I decided to take a walk. Just as my coworker from the cube over walked by. I acctidentally bumped the rock in my pocket and was reminded that the coworker next door loves rocks like I do. So I decided to share.

I pulled the stone from my pocket, handed it to her to see, and she thanked me wholeheartedly! And in my mind I went CRAP!! I can't argue though, apparently, she was supposed to get that rock. And really, if there's anyone I would want to share my collection with, it's her. She loves it. She declared it a dinosaur egg and I suggested that it might hatch a pterodactyl. After all, it was her neighborhood that housed the burning pterodactyl last week. One never knows.

What I do know is that my favorite holy rock decided to move on today and I don't think it could have picked a better place to go.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Gimpy, No.

I reinjured my knee last night. In the usual way, doing what I have trained to do. It wasn't the manuver but the impact that hurt. I just can't slam my knee into the floor these days. At least not the right one.

It hurt a lot, but it hurt more to think that I'm going to have to be off skates for awhile longer while I allow it to heal. Last night was my first back to practice since the last time I hurt myself about a month ago.

In the process of talking it over with my wife though, I realized that in many ways my thought processes undermine my healing. I joke around about being clumsy. Accident prone. Injured all the time. Gimpy. And you know what? I am. Then I get better and Whoa! clumsy me, I am hurt again.

I have to stop. I have to stop being negative because I am making those things true. There's something else that is true. I am strong. I am healthy. I am a good healer.

Let's focus on that instead, shall we?

Friday, April 13, 2012

Friday Bliss list and some other things too

Oh my, it has been a busy couple of weeks. There have been a great many things to be blissed out about.

Last weekend I got to explore new places with a person I like to spend time with.

A little extra money came in and I was able to buy some new pants, spoil myself a little and get caught up on my bills

I also started tracking my spending so I can keep more of the money I make. I am notoriously bad about living from paycheck to paycheck. I don't have to. And as a grown up (sort of) I don't want to. I am amazed at how I nickle and dime myself out of a lot of money; stopping for snacks or potluck supplies or quick trips to the craft store (which I have largely stopped doing but still). Insane cravings fro Panda (crack) Express

I've been cooking a lot lately. Almost every day. And by cooking I mean from scratch, not out of a box or out of the freezer. It feels good to experiment with different recipes and think of ways that they can be improved. Plus, when I make my own food, I can sneak broccoli and spinach and such in there and make it healthier.

AN ORDER!! Awesome.


Funny, I was so busy remembering all the great things that I forgot what the other stuff was.