Career Path

It's sad when you want to stay away from Facebook because all of your veterinarian friends are posting about animals.  It makes me sad for what could have been.  And then I think, 'could have been'??  It makes me wonder if I should still try.  Yes?  No?  It's a big decision.  I'd have to be 200% sure it's what I really want and worth all of the cons.

Empowerment

Anybody read any good books about female empowerment/finding oneself? 

C took over my running endeavor since my ankle injury and now I feel like I need to find a 'thing'.  Right now my list consists of swimming and gardening.  Ultimately I think it's probably that I'd just like to belong to a group outside of anything I do with my husband.  Guess I'll need to do some networking. 

Wipe on, Wipe off

I know I've said this before, but I can't believe what some people do to keep their houses clean.

C bought me that to-do list app a while ago (Epic Win) and I've been using it religiously--oddly enough, it's helped me keep the house clean way more than I thought possible.  Right now I just have mop on Mondays, laundry on Tuesdays, bathroom on Wednesdays, etc. But I had this bright idea today to expand my list to include weekly items like change linens, iron clothes and monthly items like wash/dust curtains, wash windows, wash fans.

So I decided to do a little googling to see what chores should be done daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.  I was amazed at what I found.  WAY more stuff than I'm willing to do.  Replace your pillows every year??  Seems like a waste.  I quickly became overwhelmed but amazingly I was able to pull back and decide for myself what I want to tackle in MY home and how often.  Baby steps.  I think I have a good list:  change bed linens, wash curtains, wash windows, wash fans, clean fridge/freezer on a more regular basis, dust, clean oven, iron clothes, clean microwave, reconcile finances.  These are all things that I want/need to do but haven't been. 

I'm excited about my expanded list and I don't feel bad that I'm not replacing my pillows every year.

Biggest Loser Spoiler Alert

Okay, so a lot can happen in tvland before next season airs, so whether or not Anna Kournikova is really taking Jillian's place (as well as the two new trainers introduced this season) is yet to be seen.

But come on...Anna Kournikova??  Geez.  It's going to take a lot of convincing for me to see her as a valid trainer.  I don't think they'll get the chance since I plan on this season being the last I watch of Biggest Loser.  I was already on my way out, but this just sealed the deal.

Without getting too ugly about someone I admittedly know very little about, seems like they just lost a lot of their female viewership.  I read in an article that by hiring her they're trying to shift focus from the measuring tape to all around wellness.  It's already very difficult for people to believe they can accomplish their weight loss goals without going on Biggest Loser...you add someone who's stick thin and that feeling is multiplied tenfold.

Anyway, I shall now disembark my soapbox and find some other weight loss show to get sucked into.  Maybe I'll create my own.

Bit the bullet

Well, I finally succumbed and scheduled a visit to the doctor's office tomorrow to have my ankle checked out.  I'm afraid she's going to tell me to stay off of it/don't work out and I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that.  I'll probably say, "What about swimming?"  When deep down, I feel like swimming, with the repetitive kicking motion, is just as bad as anything else I'm doing right now.  We shall see.

On a side note, our department (& university as a whole) is going through some major changes right now.  I hope I enjoy it as much on the other side as I am now.

Side note: among many other things I put together the newsletter for our department and just recently began working on it in InDesign rather than Word.  Mind you, I have no background in InDesign whatsoever.  Today I did some gradient feathering to this sand bucket on a beach picture that made the gold background where our hours of operation were listed look like it was sand from the picture.  I know, that probably made no sense, but it was so neat & I was super proud of myself.  :)

Well, I'm off to clean the bathroom.  Have I mentioned what a great app EpicWin is??

Blast from the Past

The other commercial I'd really like to see again is Play-doh's Flower Making Basket. Oddly enough, I can't find it on youtube.

Great day!

1.  Tupelo Honey Cafe - eggs benedict with goat cheese grits  :)
2.  Biltmore Mansion with my honey
3.  Farmer's Market
4.  Tennis with my honey
5.  Monk while playing Kings in the Corner & Battleship

I'm exhausted but I made an important discovery:  weekend days feel longer when you do a bunch of stuff.  Will be doing a bunch of stuff on weekends from now on in the hopes they'll feel like three day weekends instead of two.

Reality bites

It is definitely easy to take the security of living in our small town for granted.  We have homicides, but not often.  Twice, maybe three times a year?

Today we received an email alert that the police were searching for a 23 year old white male who was suspected of shooting and killing two people right before 2:00pm today.  Turned out it was his girlfriend (wife?) 20, and her friend (boyfriend) 25, that he killed.  The restraining order she had taken out on him was dated today.  The culminating reason: they got into an argument in the Wal-Mart parking lot where he bent her wrist so far back that it popped--in front of their child no less.

He is currently in custody having been arrested in South Carolina at 7:30 tonight.

The guy that was shot and killed listed he was 'In a Relationship' with the girl at 9:30 last night.

It's just so sad to me.  So sad that emotions can run so high to where someone is either not thinking of the consequences of their actions or doesn't care about the consequences.  I know first hand how real it is to have emotions all over the place and I am thankful everyday that I'm no longer in that type of situation.  It's so sad that the four month old no longer has a mother.  So sad that not everyone has had the opportunities and blessings I've had growing up.  So incredible that a relationship change on Facebook could have sparked the whole thing--what would have happened had that not occurred?  But it did.

Did anyone see warning signs?  Did anyone try to help?  Was there anything more that could have been done.

I'm thoroughly bummed so I'll go talk about my adventures in cooking on my other page.

Feeling Perturbed

I'm a little annoyed right now.  I don't want to be skinny, I want to be healthy.  Part of being healthy is feeling good.  Part of feeling good is eating well. 

I began cooking from a low-fat cookbook I "stole" from our nutrition intern--it wasn't really hers, it was a cookbook left over from the registered dietician our university used to have.  I've made three recipes from this book so far:  broccoli shrimp linguine, fish stew, & beef burritos.  The beef burritos are the best so far, but they all leave a lot of be desired.

I'm just peeved that I can't find healthy food I enjoy eating (that I make myself).  I was asked this question on Saturday:  since you've lived in so many different places, what's your favorite food?  My response, "Well, I just enjoy all food in general."  For someone who enjoys food and would like to eat healthy, it's painful to not be able to find a satisfying low-cal, low-fat cookbook.  Do I need to retrain my taste buds?  Does satisfying low-cal, low-fat exist?

I also want to throw it out there that I'm contemplating the idea of going vegetarian again.  My husband will wring my neck when he reads this.  I've just started feeling really guilty again about eating meat.  We drove past a truck full of featherless chickens on the road when it was cold outside and I thought: that chicken is probably on it's way to a plant right now where it will be prepared for my consumption.  Note:  I'm not against meat eating altogether.  If I did decide to go vege again, I would be okay with consuming organic, free-range etc. animals--or meat from a deer my cousin shot.  And then I saw a commercial about over fishing.  Icing on the cake. 

Anyway, that's where I am with food right now.  Gotta love the inner conflict!  P.S.  Little known fact about me: I love tofu when it is cooked correctly.