kapachino

Category: thoughts

  • friday things: from the week

    I’ll be choosing the winner of the Nintendo points card tonight when I get home from work. My family requested that I video the drawing, so I suppose I will give in and do so. I warned you there would be random videos from now on. Check back later to see if you won!

    ***

    This week has not been my favorite. My mood has echoed the weather, which has looked like this:

    This is not to say that I dislike the rain (although I’m not saying I like the rain either), but coincidentally this weather has matched up perfectly with my periodic hormonal imbalance. I haven’t had any energy at all, and no motivation to get anything done. I’ve been working most of the week, but on my sole day off I did nothing but read and play games on the Wii all day long. I’m slowly gaining my happiness back, and the awesome weekend I have planned is probably part of that.

    ***

    My husband has lately taken to calling my dog Cleo “sickly.” I don’t like that term because it implies that she’s a needy invalid with a short life expectancy. I keep telling him she just has a sensitive stomach! But seriously, her gagging and vomiting all over the house is getting a bit old. You know how dogs chew grass to make themselves throw up? Cleo did that the other day, except with our carpet. I’m not even joking, she swallowed a melon-sized wad of carpet and then regurgitated it. First of all, I’m just glad she didn’t choke to death. Second, what the heck? Third, anyone have recommendations for carpet or carpet installers?

    (For those of you that may be worried about Cleo’s health, I am too. But not overly. I am pretty sure it has to do with a new food we tried with her. So for now we’re changing to a healthier kind, limiting her treats, and eliminating people food altogether. Hopefully it solves the problem.)

    ***

    Last week I finally gave in and exchanged my bus pass to a parking pass for work. This was my first full week driving every day, and I can say for sure that I have a problem on my hands. Every day on my way home, I become overwhelmingly drowsy. It’s a 40-minute drive in the heat of the afternoon after I’ve worked all day, and I have SUCH a hard time staying awake. I’ve tried calling David, slapping myself, rolling down the windows, and most recently I’ve resorted to listening to pop stations on the radio. This was surprisingly effective, until yesterday when I heard that terrible “California Gurls” song two times within five minutes. That song makes me want to dig out my own eardrums with a screwdriver, and the fact that “gurls” is spelled with a “u”? Don’t even get me started. All that to say, I’m currently on the hunt for songs to add to my “Don’t Die In A Fiery Car Crash” playlist.

    ***

    On the off chance that there is someone reading this who enjoys soccer and the World Cup, here is a really funny & insightful article that my dad sent me: “Soccer is ready to capture our attention.”

    And if you, like me, enjoyed the Twilight books back when you read them once a long time ago, but are kind of sick of the whole thing by now, although you still want to see the movies because why not, and now you get more enjoyment out of making fun of the series than anything else, here is a link for you. A dude reads the books and blogs his thoughts chapter by chapter. Why couldn’t I have written this? Blogging Twilight.

  • recovering from the weekend

    So I played a soccer game this past weekend for the first time in a year. I’ve basically only been running regularly the past few weeks. Our team was two players short, so I had to play the whole game. It was definitely well into the 90’s. You can imagine how that felt.

    (For the record, we still won.)

    I went nonstop for the rest of the weekend, giving in to an urge to clean my house from top to bottom. And because I have the best parents and parents-in-law in the world, they came over and painted and cleaned and did chores without me even asking.

    Quick! I need a party to host!

    Although I expected to sleep exceptionally well after such a weekend, I tossed and turned – maybe due to the extreme soreness in every muscle of my body. And then there was work today which, although not strenuous, was still work.

    Basically, I’m tired.

    All I want to do is lie around and read. And sleep, if it will come. See you soon, when I recover?

  • on parking garage incidents

    One of the down sides of seeing doctors in the biggest & best medical center in the country is that when one sees said doctors one must park in the medical center parking garages, which cost upwards of $12 a day and are quite limited in their spaces. I park remotely when I work and take the train in, but when I’m only going to an appointment for an hour or so it’s about the same price to use the garage, so I do.

    It was last December, after I saw my OB/GYN regarding infertility for the first time. A lot of courage was required for me to make that appointment, and I was a nervous wreck. After it was over, I had a lot to think about and I wanted to tell David about it right away. My plans for immediately after my appointment were to visit a friend who’s house I had never been to before, so I intended to sit in my car, talk to my husband about the appointment, and then look up directions on my phone before pulling out of the garage.

    I was in the middle of my conversation with David when someone approached my window and knocked, then proceeded to make some angry gestures that I was mildly offended by. I got the gist that someone wanted my parking spot, and they wanted it RIGHT THAT SECOND. Caught unawares and never wishing to upset anyone, I said a flustered goodbye to my husband and began the process of pulling out of the parking space. (This was back when I had my truck with no power steering, and trust me it was a very painful process). What topped it off was that when I finally pulled away, there were tons of open spots right around the corner.

    I chalked that incident up to a crazy person; surely people don’t routinely FORCE others out of their parking spots. Oh ho, my friends, they DO!

    The same thing happened again yesterday: I went to my acupuncture appointment, parked in one of the medical center garages, and when I was finished began looking up directions to the nearest post office on my phone. When I heard a honk I ignored it. When I heard another, longer this time, I looked in my rearview mirror to see a few cars piled up waiting on me. Well, I was determined to stand my ground this time. I would leave when I was good and ready!

    Several minutes went by while I waited for my phone to load the directions. Service isn’t the greatest in the garage, you know. I considered leaving to avoid any possible conflict, but there is no place to pull over in the medical center and since I refuse to use my phone while I drive I would be forced to wander around aimlessly until I found a place to park, most certainly completely out of my way. No, I would make them wait. It was still MY spot anyway, right?

    Soon enough, a man from one of the cars couldn’t stand it any longer and marched up to my window and banged. I calmly rolled it down.

    “We need your spot! There’re six cars piled up all waiting for you. Are you leaving or are you not?” he all but yelled at me.

    Nonplussed, I looked him in the eye and said, “I have to figure out where I’m going first.” He walked away.

    Just then, my directions were ready, but I waited a few extra moments before leaving anyway on principle. Victory is sweet.

  • randomness

    Today, however, if I don’t do it this way it’ll be Friday before I post anything. I seem to be quite busy lately, so here are some things going on.

    >I decided to jump on the bandwagon and try out the 30-day Shred. I probably won’t be able to do it 30 days in a row due to days I work 12-hour shifts, but I’m going to try. So far I’ve done three days and I’m walking around like an old lady all stiff and jerky. Seriously, I am sore all over it hurts to sit on the freaking toilet. I knew I let myself get soft, but this is ridiculous.

    >Megan and I saw In the Heights last night as I mentioned, and it was great! My brother said he’d burn me the soundtrack and I can’t wait. I usually fall even more in love with musicals after I have a chance to memorize their songs. One day I’ll put together my top five, but I want to become more of a connoisseur before then.

    >I donated blood today for the first time since before I got pregnant. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they denied me due to low iron, but I was right at the cutoff. There was a bad moment when the screener asked me the birth date of my last child (because I had to answer ‘yes’ when I was asked if I had ever been pregnant). I don’t feel that people should assume that just because a woman has been pregnant it means she has a child. It really made me sad for some reason.

    >Only me and one other person are going to make it to our book club meeting tonight, so instead of our usual dinner at Cafe Express I’m going to her apartment to have Boston Market, brownies (I think since I gave blood I deserve a little something sweet), and watch Dancing With the Stars.

    >Almost forgot – anyone have any links to recipes that are healthy and not too complicated? My husband and I are pretty picky when you put us together, so it’s hard for us to find healthy meals we’ll both eat. We’re fine on snacks, but I really need some dinner ideas that will give us meals other than cereal & sandwiches.

    >I feel like I barely have time to be online these days. I don’t know how my days got so packed. I’m working a lot (I picked back up the contract job giving chemo on my days off from my other job that I did before I was pregnant), and seem to have a lot of social engagements as well. At home I’m trying to keep the place clean, change our eating habits, exercise every day, and handle our crazy dogs. I’m going to need to slow down soon!

    Gotta go, love you all. :)

  • a weekend like that

    Y’all. I had such a great weekend. I didn’t even realize how much I needed some time off where I wasn’t having my insides ripped out of me, puking my guts out, or recovering from either of the above, but I can tell you now that I needed it. I know because today I am happy, and I didn’t even mind getting up at 4:30 a.m. on Daylight Savings weekend to go to work. It was such a great weekend that I am about to relive it right here – not for YOUR benefit, per se – but for my own.

    After I got let off work early on Friday I unknowingly headed straight into a traffic catastrophe that put my commute home at 2 1/2 hours. I admit that my good mood faded somewhere around an hour into the drive when I had only made it a few miles. But the ease of driving my new car and a good audiobook made it bearable. I arrived awhile later, only slightly frazzled, at my in-laws’ house to meet my husband for dinner, and we enjoyed a meal that I realized was an exact replica of the one I ate immediately before I got sick a week ago. The fact that I did not, in fact, get sick again I took to be a sign of better things to come.

    After sleeping in on Saturday morning, I indulged in something I should be ashamed of, but am not:  Farmville on Facebook. Yes, I play it; I enjoy it because it is a mindless and soothing distraction. And did you know that there are more Farmville players than Twitterers? So I promise not to be annoying about my Farmville habits if you promise to just block it already and not make fun of me. Anyway, on Saturday morning I had some time and I made a lot of changes to my farm and now it’s pretty and yeah I can’t believe I’m actually still talking about this but that’s what happens when I’m in a good mood! I ramble!

    During this time my three dogs, who were quietly sunbathing in the backyard, suddenly went into an uproar. A stray dog had approached the gate, and they were beside themselves. They got so riled up that Cleo and Oliver transferred their fury onto each other and launched into a full-fledged battle, while Eddie stood by and barked. I know a person is not supposed to get in the middle of a dog fight, but my other option was to let them kill each other or at least injure one another to the point of very high vet bills. I hate to brag, but at this point I’m kind of an expert at breaking up dog fights. Unfortunately in my weakened condition I managed to stick my leg in the wrong place and ended up with a rather painful bite to the calf muscle. Don’t worry though! Not only am I okay, but we just kept the dogs apart overnight and they made up the next day.

    Next on the agenda was a couple of extremely satisfying errands such as picking up my Nintendo gear from the FedEx office (more on that later this week) and getting a new EZ tag for my car. The EZ tag lets you breeze through the tollways in Houston, and although I’m not in the habit of using the tollway unless I must, you can understand that I was dying for one on Friday night when I was stuck on the feeder road because I didn’t have any cash for tolls. The best part was that it didn’t cost me anything because I still had money left on my truck’s old EZ tag.

    Afterwards I met my sister-in-law for the much-anticipated pedicure, and I believe this sentiment sums up my feelings perfectly:

    Then David and I made good on a Christmas present we gave to his parents and took them to eat at Friday’s (the bruschetta chicken pasta was excellent) and saw “Shutter Island” which was an extremly well-done movie.

    After a lovely church service on Sunday morning a friend of mine told me she’s pregnant and I didn’t even cry! I allowed myself to feel miserable for just a little while, but then I channeled it and went on a surprising cleaning/productive spree that I hadn’t planned. In fact, I had purposefully devoted this weekend to NOT cleaning in order to simply relax, but it turns out that my idea of relaxing is doing laundry, sweeping and vacuuming the floors, shopping for groceries, washing my truck to get it ready to sell, and wiping down every possible surface in my home. I have to say that I don’t regret it, because a clean home is better than almost anything.

    David and I finished off the day by spending a couple hours doing our taxes, and let me just say that Turbo Tax is worth every penny. We are getting a rather large tax return, which is not only a blessing but a relief because going into it I had no idea what to expect. But it turns out that if you get yourself a mortgage, pay a ton of money in student loan interest, and give a lot to charity you get a bunch of deductions. When you look at it that way it’s not near as much fun, so I’ll just continue to think of this as free money.

    Why can’t it always be the weekend?