Have you ever had one of those days where things just start out bad, and before you know it, they’re spinning out of control to the point of utter ridiculousness, and you end up ostracizing even the people closest to you, because you’re just completely over-sensitive, and they just can’t handle you’re drama? And why should they really?
Yeah – that was yesterday. I’m pretty lame.
Just sayin’.
This morning I did something that I haven’t done in quite a long time. My alarm went off, I got up for a moment, and then laid back down thinking I had hit the snooze. I didn’t hit the snooze, though. Apparently I had turned the alarm off. I realized this, when some time later, a voice from the back of my mind reached through the haze and spoke to me in my unconscious space, “hey, the alarm never went off again, did it?” My eyes flew open and to the alarm clock, which read 8:03 (which is actually 8:00, because I’m one of those people), and I bolted upright.
The first thought to pop into my head was, ‘call in sick.’ The second thought was, why burn up a sick day on something so stupid. This was all running through my head as I jumped out of bed and leaped across the room to my bathroom. By the time I got there, I knew that I was going to try my best to get to work as close to on time as I could manage.
First, I gave myself a quick sponge bath. Then I wet down my hair, to tame the mad scientist ‘do. In case you’re one of those people that say things like, “oh, having short hair must be so easy,” I have to tell you, no it’s not. With long hair, there’s this thing called a pony tail that is a fix-all for bad hair days. With my pixie hair, I wake up with the mad scientist, Einstein hairdo. It’s all over the place, and not in a cool spiky way. It’s impossible. I have to wet my hair and blow it dry every day.
The one thing that saved me this morning was that I had originally intended to get up at the crack of dawn to try to make it to the gym. That idea went out the window at about 1:30 this morning when I was wide awake contemplating whether it was the small pot of Ethiopian Sidamo coffee or my insatiable desire to load up my iPod. Anyway, I had packed a bag with a pre-planned outfit, which meant that everything was all in one spot for once, and made it really easy to get my hair sorted out, get dressed, get makeuped, and get out the door in record time. Just 17 minutes after I woke up, I was out the door.
I managed to be at my desk just two minutes late. Now I’m sitting here at work, writing a blog, clearly with nothing to do, and wishing that I had called in sick, because I would rather be playing with my iPod right now.
Just sayin’.
Microsoft, in collaboration with MediaCart has developed a smart shopping cart. I read about this on Salon. When you swipe your loyalty card, it will upload your shopping list. As you pick up items from your list, and scan them, it’ll check them off and give you a running total of the cost. It will also be able to help you find items within the store. Of course, they’ll need to find a way to make money off of the system, so they’ll be selling targeted video ads which will appear on the screen depending on what’s on your list, past purchases, or which aisle you’re on. They’re planning on testing the system in ShopRite stores later this year.
I think it sounds like a neat idea, that’ll make shopping more easy and efficient. It sounds like the type of thing I would have fun playing with in the store. Of course, I could also take the conspiracy theory angle, that The Man or the Eye of Microsoft is spying on me, and using my purchase history against me. What do you think? Is the smart cart super cool or super scary?
First off, I have to say, I’m not a fan of “gourmet” food. My favorite foods are ones that are most like the things my mom would make. I was a little bit of a skeptic, therefore, when my co-worker offered to take me and another from my department to Spruce. I was a little bit concerned that they wouldn’t have anything that would be veg friendly, so I decided I would just go ahead and ask right off the bat.
So, the co-worker, who had eaten there before, ordered an assortment of cheeses for an appetizer, and also a meat platter. Of course I didn’t have the meat. The cheese was amazing. We had a bleu, goat, and European cheddar. I love cheese. Every time I’ve thought about going vegan, I’ve had second thoughts due to cheese.
For my entree I had a small plate of gnocchi with rapini. I can honestly say that I had never even heard of rapini. The dish was pretty good, with a light kind of watery butter sauce. It wasn’t nearly as heavy as I was afraid it would be. I would have to say that this was my least favorite part of the meal. I also ordered a glass of wine with the meal, but as I just ordered “what he’s having,” I don’t know what it was. It was a white, which I don’t normally drink, and it was from Bishop’s Peak, but I’m not sure what varietal.
I was really looking forward to dessert and coffee. I love having after meal coffee, but can never order it after dinner, since I have enough insomnia problems as it is. For dessert I had a hazelnut cake with coffee ice cream. It was served with a white chocolate cream in little dollops under this candy thing that reminded me of the top of a creme brulee. See, I’m not a foodie, and I have no idea what that’s called. Anyway, it was pretty good, but I have to say that the Ethiopian Sidamo coffee that I had was one of the best cups of coffee I’ve ever had.
So over all, it was a good lunch experience, but if I had it to do over again, I would have ordered a salad instead of the gnocchi. I would order the cheese, wine, and coffee again in a heartbeat.
I still say that my mama could have made it better.
Just sayin’.
I used to have a very good gym habit. At one point, I was going as many as five times per week. Of course, I also lived around the corner from my gym.
After an illness, and moving, I’ve just fallen out of the habit. So even though I haven’t made any resolutions about such things, I do realize that I would like to get back into the routine. Even if I only go half as much as I was going when it was practically in my kitchen, that wouldn’t be half bad. Especially since I’m contemplating walking the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in July.
I went this evening, and I did 20 minutes on the elliptical at half the level that I used to do for 40 minutes. That was a little bit of an ego blow, but Rome wasn’t built in a day, right? I probably could have pushed through and done another 10 minutes, but I figured it would be better to start out slow, even slower than I thought I needed.
So, I burned 200 calories. Yay me! Now I’m sitting here with a ThermaCare heat wrap on my bum knee. Arthritis sucks. This is part of the reason why I’m not sure about doing the 39.2 mile breast cancer walk. However, if I keep going to the gym, and build up my knee, I may be just fine.
So here’s what I’m taking away from this: I just need to keep going, I need to pick up more of these wraps, and damn my new iPod is really that cool.
I saw Juno on Friday night, and I really enjoyed it. It was full of witty one liners, and fellow movie-goers and myself laughed our way through the film.
If you’ve had your head under a rock, the movie is the story about a 16 year old girl, Juno, who finds herself pregnant. She first makes herself an appointment to “procure a hasty abortion” but backs out once she arrives at the clinic. (The feminist in me is biting her tongue, sparing you the diatribe about so many female characters in TV/movies deciding to have their babies, mostly without even considering an abortion. It’s an angle that’s been covered by better writers than me.) Juno decides to give up her baby for adoption to a couple she finds in the Penny Saver.
There were two things that I liked most about the movie, aside from the fact that it’s freaking riotously funny. First, I really liked what they did with the character of the adoptive mother, played by Jennifer Garner. At the beginning of the film, you’re not really meant to like her. She’s that stereotype of the humorless, kill-joy woman such as in Knocked Up, a controlling, obsessive-compulsive, shrew-like yuppie who is utterly condescending towards her husband. But in the end, they turn that whole awful opinion you have on her on its ear. She ends up being a character that you really do care about, in the end, and a heroine.
The other thing that I really liked about the movie is how they didn’t have that didn’t portray Juno as a victim. She’s not a poor hapless teenager. She’s not in a ridiculous relationship that she’s trying to force to work. She’s got the “cheese to [her] macaroni”. Juno isn’t walking about moping about the baby within that she won’t be raising. She’s walking about moping about a boy, and she wants to get the band back together. She’s not solely defined by the fact that she accidentally got pregnant.
So go see it. You’ll laugh. J4 teared up when the baby was born. (aaawwwww)
I had a pretty lame weekend. I have had some weird stomach issues. It’s like I feel as if I’m on the verge of getting sick, I can feel my heart beating in my gut and it feels like my stomach has risen into my chest. Then nothing happens. It got in the way of some major plans.
On Friday night, I got a glimpse of some gruesome Oakland wildlife. The grossest, nastiest, biggest possum I’ve ever seen just strolling across Telegraph.
Please tell me that any one had a more exciting weekend.
Just sayin’.
I’m seeing a lot of searches for “winter skin” and hits to my old post from two years ago in my blog stats. I want to give a little bit of a run down of what I’ve been experiencing this year, as I know that many people have this issue, and hopefully my experience can help someone else. This has been the worst winter for my skin in memory.
I have had the patches of eczema popping up all over my bod since just before Christmas. It started with a large patch on my neck. I have also had patches on my face, scalp, and torso. The worst has been my scalp and under arms.
It has gotten so bad at points, that I have holed up for days at a time, and not left the house. I refused to go to a party last weekend, because I felt like such a mutant.
However, I have to say that I feel it’s getting better. I did some searching on the Internet to try to find solutions, and came across a recommendation of not using soap when bathing, except for arm pits and groins. I have been using this method. Actually, I’ve gone one further, I have only been bathing every other day. I did sponge bath my more high maintenance areas – pits, feet, groin, etc. Also, when I’ve showered, I’ve kept the water at a luke warm temperature.
Additionally, I’m going through a lot of lotion at the moment. I have been moisturizing with Lubriderm for Sensitive Skin every morning and night. At night, I have been applying good ol’ Ponds Cold Cream to my face; I leave it on for a short time, and then wipe away with a tissue. I do not rinse or wash my face at night. In the mornings, I rinse it off, without soap. I have also switched to Avalon Organics Lavender shampoo and conditioner, which is free of sulfates and parabens. I found this shampoo at Trader Joe’s grocery store. I wash my hair only every third or fourth day, but wet it daily. I don’t know if the shampoo is making a difference yet with my scalp. I am not wearing any foundation makeup today, as I found a new patch on my nose last night.
Like I said, it’s gotten better in the last few days. I’m not sure if it’s because of the things I’ve switched or the things I’ve been doing. Perhaps it’s just that the rain we’ve been having is humidifying the air. I know it probably won’t get totally better before spring, and I’ll be an itchy weirdo until then.
Just sayin’.
I’ve been pretty lax in my posting so far in this new year. It’s pretty lame, I must admit. I had actually wanted to make sure I wrote more this year. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it was a resolution, as I don’t do that, but it is something I feel needs more of my attention. And not just writing the blog, but writing in general. But mostly, I really do just want to break another record with my page views.
I think there are two basic reasons, other than laziness, why I’m not blogging too much right now. Reason #1: I’ve been reading a lot of blogs. There’s so much going on in the world, so much to read, so little time to write. Seriously, check out some of the blogs on my blog roll. They’re awesome, and I’ve been engrossed.
Reason #2: I’m becoming more comfortable in my apartment. It’s starting to feel more like my space, and I’m also adjusting to being on my own again. As I feel more at home in the apartment, I feel like my stuff actually belongs there, so I take it out of the boxes. I’m down to three large boxes and two small. Some people try to tell me that I would feel at home if I would just unpack everything and put it away immediately, but that doesn’t work for me. I would feel awkward with all my books on shelves in a place that wasn’t mine.
So, as I’m adapting, I’m really enjoying the independence and freedom. I feel the old me coming out more. I like spending more time with myself. I come home, make myself something to eat, get into the lounge-wear, pop in a DVD, or turn on Project Runway. (Side note: They should have totally kicked out Ricky this week, not Kevin!) I’m going through my Netflix queue so much faster now. I got “3:10 to Yuma” this afternoon, and watched it right away. Love, love, love Christian Bale.
The down side to all of this is, once I have some independence, I only want more. I am totally slipping into a hermit routine that is just fine by me. I can watch all the Jane Austin movies I want! I got Pride & Prejudice, the good one with Colin Firth, on DVD for Christmas. Why on Earth would I want to leave the house?
But I will. You will see me again. I will venture out of these walls. I promise. No timetable on when it’s going to happen exactly, but yes, I will go out again. There are bands to be seen, after all. I may, however, be intolerably independent, though.
Just sayin’.
Peggy Lu Who's Just Sayin' 