Mondays Schmondays

I'll start off with some good news. Last Friday's weigh in resulted in another 3 lbs lost and 2% in BMI reduction. All of that without any much needed exercise. Today I am cranky. I had to be in the office on Saturday night and the majority of Sunday. I had planned on doing laundry and playing around with the layout in the living room but it wasn't meant to be. I'm bordering on overwhelmed, too. I have a lot to accomplish this week and not a lot of direction. So, to make myself feel productive I'm organizing the monthly workpapers and cleaning up my office. The mounds of paper to be filed are sure to be contributing to my mood. I tried to uplift my spirits with some Taco Bell for lunch, but it didn't really hit the spot. I'm hoping to sneak out of work early today so that I can pick up the package that's been waiting for the last week at the Rental Office and start on that whole exercise thing.

Happy Sabbath

The last couple of days have been all kinds of hectic at work and I was so happy to have Sabbath this week. We are in the middle of three major changes at work that all must be finished in the next couple of days. As a result of a lack of attention to detail, I got called in today around 5:30 pm to help out. Overall today has been a good day. I was up at 8 and took my time getting ready. I skipped out on Sabbath School because I visited First Church and had no other obligations. I was able to enjoy a nice breakfast and even got in a daily Bible reading with my HMS Richards reading the Bible chronologically in a year book. (I got the book for Christmas two years ago, but am very bad about actually using it daily. I finished 2 Samuel this morning.) I took the back way to church and was able to enjoy the changing foliage along the way. Some of these back roads give off a small town Vermont vibe. I got to church just as the praise team was filling time between services. My reason for visiting First Church this week was to see a friend play the piano for special music and I was not disappointed. I have not been to First Church since my mom came to visit in September 2005. The few times I visited I became overwhelmed by a sense of coldness and loneliness. I am probably one of the least outgoing and most shy people in a new situation so I am sure that contributed to my lack of welcome at First Church. I actually ran into a couple from my church this week and felt pretty welcome. I ended up sitting in a full row of fellow young adults who invited me to take part in their monthly potluck. I couldn't bring myself to make that step just yet, but maybe if I visit First Church on weeks that I don't have to do announcements at Raleigh I will feel more comfortable and accept the invitation next time.

'Tis the Season

As I sit at my desk and look out the office window at the orange leafed tree across the way I can't help but think of how much I love the fall. The burning heat of summer is gone. Sweaters are just begging to be worn. The biting cold of Winter is still several weeks away, and snow is never in the forecast. Last night I curled up on the new couch with O'Malley and her blanket. I was tempted to start up the gas fireplace but, remembering last years gas bills, decided to wait a little longer. I finished up my popsicle and started in on the hot tea wishing to fall asleep in that perfect little comfort zone. While the Memphis fall can in no way compare to the beauty of New England's, it's still a welcome occurrence.

My Pretty

So here is my pretty new queen sized bed sitting next to my non-matching childhood dresser. Please don't mind the box spring as the bed skirt is in the dryer. I would give anything to be tucked in and asleep right now. I was up until 12:30 last night cleaning and organizing for the delivery guys and awake by 6:45 because the delivery window was 7a-10a. They came at 9. On the plus side, the only non-organized spaces in my apartment are the dining room and my closet--which I promise isn't really that bad. My new matching dresser is 5' long and about 2" too long for it's current location next to the closet. I'll be rethinking the layout of my bedroom over the next couple of days. Once that is set then I can put my focus on the living room.

All in a Sunday's Work

I spent the majority of yesterday not doing much of anything. I waited until after 6 PM before I started working on the living room. I had to rearrange the whole room and try to make space for the furniture that is coming tomorrow morning. I didn't even touch my bedroom, so that is where I'll be working tonight. Once I finished moving things around I sat down to catch my breath and turned on TLC's new show "The Monastery." The premise of the show is to put some former addicts and for the most part faithless men in a St. Benedict monastery for 40 days and see what happens. This intrigued me because I read and enjoyed Kathleen Norris' "The Cloister Walk" in college. Since reading that book, I've wondered how I would change if I didn't have life's daily distractions and was put in an uber-religious and stripped down environment such as a cloister. Would I become a better Christian? Would I finally be able to have the type of relationship with God that I know I need? Would I be able to actively live a faithful life? Currently I have faith, but it is the same faith that I have that my parents care for me. For me, God and Jesus's life and sacrifice are a given. I just need to constantly work on personalizing that relationship. Considering the fact that I am a Seventh-day Adventist and there are many doctrinal differences in my beliefs than those of Catholics, I wonder how life in a cloister or monastery would work for me. The 3:30 AM wake up calls would be a huge obstacle. I was blown away by the response of a monk on the show when asked by one of the visiting men about Mary's perpetual virginhood. The visitor couldn't see how a married woman would remain a virgin. The monk's response was that to ask such a question was blasphemy. I don't see how asking about the church's doctrines to gain a better understanding of the teaching and those who follow it are a bad thing. Aren't we supposed to study scripture and ask questions? I also don't understand the idea of putting Mary on the same level as God. She was a human that was used by God to bring about the birth of Jesus. That does not make her an immortal or someone to be worshipped and prayed to. It does not put her on the same level as our Creator and Savior. How can you blaspheme someone who is not God?

Going Good

Today was the official scale day. Although I am currently in 4th place, I managed to lose 1.5 pounds and reduce my BMI by 1.2%. This is pretty good if you ask me. I did not exercise at all this week and even splurged on some cheese fritters (if you've had them, then you know that I had no real choice in the matter). Adding flavored water to my diet and staying away from the candy/snack office has helped. If I can be really good about working out next week, I may be able to move up a spot. I refuse to starve myself. I joke that I have the binge part down, but I never was on board with the whole purging part. My real goal is to have a lifestyle change and add exercise as a habit. I just want to be healthy and toned. On a side note, please know that I do not consider myself to be obese, or even overweight. I'm just flabby and not in shape. I want to make sure that I take care of myself and remind my muscles what they are there for. Adding exercise to my daily life is all I really need to do in order to have the body I want. In a perfect world, I would have better time management skills and a trainer to keep my butt in gear :)

Grownup Shopping

I did it. Last night I drove to Value City Furniture and bought a sofa, loveseat, mission style bed and mirrored dresser. It has been almost 4 years since I added real furniture to my home. The last purchases, a beautiful red chair-and-a-half sleeper, matching ottoman, and a bobinizer (the best thing ever invented, check it out at mybobs.com) were part of my attempt to distance myself from college living. Now that I am roommate-less, I have a lot of catching up to do. I have been roommate-less for about 18 months now, but have not had a need for a furniture upgrade. When E & J come to visit I give them my bed and I take the twin sleeper. But they only stay for a night or two. This Christmas my parents are coming. If you've ever seen daddy you know there is no way all 3 of us can sit on the big red chair to watch some TV! Assuming that I don't have the same delivery problems that I had with my movers--3 weeks of promised delivery when my stuff wasn't even on the truck!--I get my grownup furniture on Tuesday. The only problem is that I now have to spend Saturday night and Sunday doing some much needed cleaning in my apartment. There is very little out there that I dislike more than housework.

Water

So far today I am over halfway to my water consumption goal. The trick is adding flavored powder to the water. It kinda makes me a little thirsty and I drink even more. The drawback is that I now have to pee every hour or so. When you only drink 1-2 cups of fluid a day, you only pee once or twice a day :) I'm going to go furniture shopping tonight--and yes this is an excuse to not exercise. I found a bedroom set and a living room set that I like. I only have a big red chair and dorm bookcases in my living room now. Since my parents are visiting for Christmas I figured that I should have a place for them to sit. I'm committed to getting grownup furniture and am going to try to not piecemeal anymore. This is why I'm going for the sets. Once they are delivered and set up, I'll post a photo. Also, with proper furniture maybe I'll be a better housekeeper. Then again, like my mom said, "You are like me -you don't clean anything daily except your body." Nice to know I'm in good company.

Rain, Rain Go Away

It has been raining all day. Thankfully I was able to get a friend to pick up my dry cleaning so I can stay nice and dry; at least until I have to leave to go home. So, I did absolutely nothing productive this weekend. No working out, no cooking, no cleaning, no shopping. I did come up with a plan for the Weigh Off. First of all, I need to go back to drinking 8 glasses of water a day (4 1 pint bottles) and only allow myself 1 cup of coffee a day. I will start packing a lunch, hopefully homemade, and make sure I eat breakfast. I'm stocking my office with snacks: nuts, yogurt and the like for those mid-day cravings. I read somewhere that you should eat 5-6 small meals instead of 3 big meals. I know that the food part won't be too hard. As it is I eat fairly well and practice portion control. The hard part: exercise! Since it is getting darker earlier, I'll probably forgo walking outside. It is time to go back to my BeachBody DVDs. Tonight I'm going to do the practice one from Slim In 6. Depending on how I do with that, I'll either get back into that routine or switch it up with the Power Half-Hours. We'll see. Today I've done good food-wise, but have only drank 16 oz of water. I'm off to go chug some more!

Motivation

I think I may have found my motivation for working out: a Office Weigh Off. That's right, nothing motivates like money. There are five of us who put $50 in a kitty. The one who loses the highest percentage BMI by Nov 17 gets 75%, the one who loses the most pounds by the 17th gets the other 25%. Keep in mind that it is me against 4 guys. The weigh in today was pretty awful; NEVER put your scale on carpet. NEVER. It adds almost 10 lbs. We will have weigh-ins on Friday mornings and then someone will update the spreadsheet. That's right, excel will keep us on track. While I refuse to record the most recent scale reading (bad carpet, bad), my BMI is 25.7. I will update the weekly pounds lost and my BMI on Fridays. Keep your fingers crossed: Momma loves new shoes!

Happy Endings

Last night I finished Amy Tan's book Saving Fish From Drowning. The final chapter wrapped up all of the loose ends and provided a happy ending for most, if not all, of the 11+ main characters. For some reason this does not sit well with me. I know that it is a novel and people, including me, appreciate the escapism provided by novels. I took my job as a reader seriously and was able to suspend my disbelief throughout--the narrator is a dead socialite. But this happy ending stuff... Maybe I've just read too many happy ending books latelysuch as The Devil Wears Prada and Deception Point. When I finish reading a happy ending I am reminded that the guy rarely gets the girl, people don't always go into remission, people aren't innocent, and more people are walking around depressed and forgotten than are truly happy. Happy endings reinforce that my own happy ending is lacking. And yes, that makes me bitter more often than not. I realize that hoping for a happy ending is not a bad thing. But I also don't want to be so caught up in "what ifs" and hopes that I forget to live what little life I am given. For mine own happy ending, I am content at present to forgo the whole package of family, 2.5 kids, and dream house (with housekeeper) and consider a happy ending one where I wake up each morning to the special coo-purr of O'Malley and know that I can pay my bills and keep a roof over my head.

Creative?

I am a Gemini, the ultimate split personality. With this in mind, it may help to explain why an Accounting major chose an English minor. If I had more time or effort to expend, I may have done a double major. Instead, I decided to finish college in 4 years and settle for a minor in English and didn't have to do a thesis! The topic would've probably been myth related if I did do one. I do consider myself a decent writer. However, I never had the ambition to write a novel. I give kudos to those of my friends who are seriously taking the plunge. I don't think I'm creative enough to write much more than a semi-autobiographical short-short story. Imagination is not one of my strong points; too much logic and left brain thought (I am a controller after all). I am much happier in the realm of essays and poetry. I understand that I probably consider myself a better poet than I actually am. That doesn't mean I shouldn't keep at it and allow you the misfortune of reading it :) It has been about 18 months since I've written anything of substance. I always bring a journal with me on trips, but never write. I recently found a binder of half finished poems that I am going to try to finish. When I see a poem, or anything else for that matter, that one of my friends has written I feel a pang of guilt for not keeping up with writing. So with that in mind here is the last poem I wrote. (Yes it has been on myspace for awhile.) It was April 2005 and I was at a women's retreat with my mom in NH. If I am in a sharing mood, I'll post more as they come to fruition. Orange-black tongues lick the air drinking in the hard coldness, a soft contented warmth in its wake. Gentle crackling breaks the silence speaking to those who do not hear. Comfort seeps in, wrapping all in cloaks of sleep. Dreaming of battles lost and won and lost again. -klh 4/2005

Sick Day

For the past month or so I have been experiencing killer headaches. They come on like clockwork on Sunday afternoons. I was never one who had migraine, although my brother was plagued by them as a kid. During high school tylenol resistant tension headaches ruled my off hours. I'm normally able to put a headache out of my mind until I have some down time. Apparently, the days of tension headaches are back. The fact that I usually spend my Sundays locked in my house catching up on the week's TV probably doesn't help. But this weekend's headache stuck around and I stayed home yesterday. I slept in until 1 PM and just kinda vegged out for the rest of the day. I was back in bed at 9 last night. Even O'Malley took a sick day and spent the whole day in bed or on my lap. Because I know my tendency for tension headaches I need to come up with an idea to curb them. I'm thinking this would mean that I need to get off my Big Red Chair and start walking. I'm sure the fresh air will do wonders, not to mention the fact that I know I am in need of some serious exercise. My main problem is motivation. I did good when I had the goal of being in a wedding. Now I am goal-less. I don't have a certain anyone to impress and don't even have that on my radar at the moment (that is another post for another day). Maybe ending these tension headaches will be a motivation. Only time will tell.

O'Malley is the best birthday present I ever got from my brother. I wasn't even in the market for a cat, but I couldn't live without her now.

Virgin Post

So yes, I'm a virgin blogger. I have friends who blog regularly and I read blogs daily. This is me putting my toe in the water. If anyone does read this, comments and suggestions are welcome. I hope the dots are too annoying. I have limited web skills and don't see myself creating a template anytime soon. If I can figure out how to do it, I'll have my first picture be that of my O'Malley Girl.