Weather Update!
Going with a blue theme. And continuing with the “people reflected in ornaments/windows/etc..” theme. That’s Stevie. I am still trying to take down the decorations, so I have to use up the rest of these holiday themed pictures. I figure I can push it another week and that’s really it. Also, I meant to update the weather yesterday because I know my cousins depend on me to fill this internet space, and their valuable time, with information they can easily get by walking outside. Plus it’s been real nice. Like unseasonably nice. So nice that there is talk now of: “THE HORRIBLE WEATHER TO COME!!” Dun dun dun. We love predicting blizzards and snowfall that will be higher than our houses. Eh. I say it’s fine. It’s not really a matter of, one month of nice equals 3 months of crappy. It all depends on the winds and the atmosphere and the isotopes and all that meteorological stuff. If the world wants to warm up and top off right about here, I’m good with it. I’ll take rain and wind over white-outs and sleet any day. Anyway, it was a balmy 45 in the daytime yesterday and dropped to about 33 or so by night. It was very windy but I thought it felt kind of good. So imagine my surprise this morning when it was snowing! And some even stuck to the grass! Right now, at 5 pm, Monday, it’s cold. Not ridiculous cold, 23 degrees, (which I guess is pretty cold actually), but it’s not snowing. And it’s not too windy so it feels ok. Besides, I hear 50 degrees is on the way again by the end of the week. Yay! Global warming!
So that’s my update for now. No phone calls for any jobs today but I’m sure they will tomorrow. This is the year of positive thinking, all day, every day. I’m also going to go to the store and buy myself another interview blouse. I love Stevie doing the laundry for me, but she washed and dried my already snug blouse, and now it’s a little too small for me to stuff my upper body into. You know that scene in Tommy Boy? Fat guy in a little coat? Picture sausage arms in a black fitted blouse. Three quarter sleeves are not sexy when they are so tight your forearms have fat rolls. And speaking of rolls…I also need to purchase a pair of jeans (or two). I’ve lost another pair of jeans to the “thigh rub hole”. That’s where your jeans wear and tear at the place where your legs touch at the upper thigh area. Not everyone has this problem. Some people actually have a space between their legs and the material never touches. I say good for them. I am jealous, but can’t seem to ever exercise enough to open that gap. I guess it’s a lipo thing. But back to me. I am not now, nor have I ever been, one of those people. I am a thigh toucher. A corduroy avoider. I cannot be making noises while wearing my clothes (swish swish swish) c’mon, some of you know what I’m talking about. Besides that, I have other stuff that needs to be done on the big transformative 2012. Like get skinny. Well, not skinny. I am aiming for pre-child weight. I’d say baby weight but it’s been 14 years so that’s kind of pushing it. It’s probably attainable as long as I stop welcoming the day with Krispy Kreme doughnuts. (So tasty though, and if you microwave them to just the right temp you can literally smoosh them into a small enough lump that can fit into your mouth whole! That seems healthy!)
OK this wasn’t supposed to be this long. This is my third paragraph of winding this up. My kids have left again to go have dinner with their dad, and the BF is on the way with Chinese food. We were supposed to go to the gym as part of the new year, new you, but since they left unexpectedly and it’s really still kind of sort of a holiday technically legally recognized based on the fact that all of the banks and libraries are closed and there was no mail as an excuse to continue the bad habits until tomorrow when the year officially begins, this is what I am doing for just one more day. Posting. Eating. And half-ass laundrying and undecorating. I did manage to throw alot of junk food away today and will send the rest packing with the BF to his office tomorrow. One thing done. I even cleaned out the garage a little bit and have much garbage prepared for the morning. Two things! And now I will really end this post so I can clear a space on our table so we can settle in and let the food shoveling begin.
PS. For Amanda: Guess what the BF was getting me today at work? Are you ready for a really really really really long winter of annoying posts?? Are you? P. 90. X. 2. Yep. TWO. T-W-O. The second version. Doesn’t matter if I can’t even finish the first set. I shall attempt 90 days of one and then 90 days of two. I will fail I am sure. BUT. I can annoy you with it for 6 months!!! Happy New Year my darling sister!!! XO XO XO, or should I put, P90 X-O (hee hee hee) Forevah!
Clear Blue Sunny 33 Degrees at 10 AM
I had a dream last night that it snowed. I got up and the streets and driveways and lawns were covered with half a foot of snow. In my dream I was cursing because it just figured that it would snow on the day that we actually have to drive an hour north. But thankfully, it was only a dream. I could pretty much go the whole winter without snow if this region would be so accommodating. I doubt we will get that lucky but it’s something to wish for. And because I know how much my cousins love my weather updates, I thought I would put up a pic of our sky, with a skeleton tree that I can’t stop taking pictures of. This is today. Like 10 minutes ago. I just ran outside to get the best picture I could for this site. I will go that extra mile to keep things fresh and current. My BF just asked me, “What the hell are you doing??” I said, “Just goofing around.” But we both know…Only the best for my friends and family. Enjoy your day and Merry Post-Christmas!
This is Christmas Day!
The sky is mostly blue with white and gray clouds that look like snow. But it’s windy and warm. Warm for winter where we live anyway. 45 to 50 degrees depending on where you are. And it feels warmer in the sun. A sun that has been shining all day. It is beautiful. And no snow. I could get used to this. Hope your day is just as great!
November 3. Or as I will be calling it: Leftover Halloween!
I still have lots of pictures and relevant things to say about the last three days. It can’t be over already! Look at that very cool picture! I took that with my CAMERA phone. Sometimes I still cannot get over how good technology has become. Wait until you see this picture of a snake we found. The pictures are so clear, it’s like you can see into his soul!
But this is a good picture for today. This is pretty much what it looks like outside right now. I guess we are lucky no more. Autumn seems to have arrived, all damp and bone chilling. I will not complain though, because the last few days have been beautiful and it is supposed to stay in the 50’s for the next week or two. That means I do not have to turn the furnace on yet! I try every year to see how long I can wait. It’s usually until the kids complain they are freezing, and actually cry tears. It sounds worse than it is. Usually the temp in the house is about 58 or 56. That’s not really even all that cold considering the air temps. It just seems cold when it’s in a house. There is a debate on what the record is. I think it may be Nov. 4 or Nov. 20th or so, around my daughter’s birthday. The BF thinks we might have made it all the way into December. I don’t know about that. It gets cold very fast around here, so that seems unlikely. But for the new record this year, we are easily at November 3. Go nature!
Just one more before I go
It’s really perfect outside right now. 5 pm. October 12. The sun is still up there but the clouds are moving in. It is supposed to rain tonight and lower our temperatures to somewhere back down in the normal autumnal degree range. That was a fine, complicated sentence wasn’t it? Did you just read it again? Anyway, the air temperature feels like skin temperature. It feels so close to body temp it’s like not being outside at all. And the sun is throwing off that color I like to refer to as “movie lighting”. The source is from one very specific direction and illuminates everything before it in a brilliant and bright, almost fake looking light. We are a media world. We all live in the movies. If you are anywhere near the Chicago area, take a few moments and go outside if you can. Just breathe in the air and appreciate the fantastic luck of being alive and able to view that sky. I have to go move through it now. By the time I get back out later, it will be dark and cool, and hopefully I will ride home under that last bit of the big Hunter Moon of the year and wait for the rain to wash all this summer away for good.
Another beautiful day! And I had to stay in for most of it!! Bwaaahhhh!!
78 degrees at press time. Are you kidding October 12?? Thank you for giving me another day to feel good. I was feeling the hot lick of failure on my heels last night because I only managed to get about 1 page of my paper done and then I ate dinner, watched tv and went to bed.
But. Tuh-day. Yes! Redemption. I sat and just typed for hours. A nice breeze blowing in from the window and the sun shining down. My right hand was actually feeling tight and swollen. But I pressed on.
At about 10:30 am, the helpful village personnel that dig up all of our streets for their pure enjoyment on the nicest days of the year, drove by in their town truck and bull horned out an announcement that they were shutting off the water blumbablibabbababa….who knows….because they drove past while talking and NOT slowing down OR speaking loud enough into their little megaphone speaker thing on the vehicle. They might as well have just shouted it out the window at random houses. But I heard “water shut off” and I jumped out of my seat like my butt caught fire. I ran into the bathroom and took a fast shower, brushed my teeth, went to the bathroom, and filled up our Brita canister. 15 minutes tops! It’s a record for me because I can really poke around the house for hours doing absolutely nothing. By the time I finished my clean routine the water was indeed off. And it still isn’t really on yet. The water that is coming out of our cold water faucet is the rustiest I have EVER seen it. It is a dark brownish orange with visible swirling sediment in it. I have lived here for almost 20 years and it’s truly disgusting.
My toilet is going to look like it’s been sitting in an abandoned house for years. Yuk. I have no idea what the hell they are doing this time but it’s messed up. At the very least though, I can flush my toilet so that is something to be thankful for. We still have some kind of trickling orange mess coming in. Showers should be fun tomorrow! Flush, wait a while, and you can flush again! Bonus!
After that drama/excitement, I sat back down and kept typing. Tippy tippy type type typing…Six pages later….done! I just couldn’t describe and type anymore. I had to end it already. It was 1:30 when I finally e-mailed that stinker to my teacher. (Has to be in before 5) That is the closest I’ve cut it so far. Not a good feeling.
But. Another butt. Some good stuff happened too. I applied for a few real jobs that are actually in my skill range and I got another rejection, but NOT because I am unqualified, but because the position is no longer available. Victory! Also I feel better too. Not fully recovered but better. My cold has moved from chest to throat and is threatening to take my voice away. The BF says, so sincerely (not really), awww, that’s too bad. Hmph.
That’s all. The kids came home. We ate a bunch of crap. They are doing homework now and I will be leaving soon. Had just enough time to snap that picture above and the one below. Back to reality for the Midwest. Tomorrow they say is a whole other ball game. Later.
How am I supposed to do homework with this?
October 11 and I can sit outside in the morning and drink coffee and try to take pictures of birds?? October 11 and I can sit outside in the afternoon and drink water (?) and read a magazine and try to take pictures of birds?? October 11 and I can sit outside in the evening and drink wine and try to read a magazine in the dusky dark while STILL trying to take pictures of birds?? And not get bit by a hundred mosquitoes??
I may have taken some artistic license with that coffee/water/wine analogy. Since I still don’t have a job and school is only on Wednesday, it’s pretty much coffee to wine, on a daily basis. The direct route to alcoholism is usually the straightest and quickest way to get nothing done in a day. (I also use the term “wine” loosely here. Wine can be vodka or whiskey, and even actual wine depending on what is in the house. Lately I find myself experimenting with tequila. No. Not good with a variety of things like its versatile friend vodka. And Gin. Also no. It has a fruity, plant-like taste that I do not find appealing. So that’s probably a good thing right?)
Anyway. It’s gorgeous out. We never get to have this nice weather so late in the year. I say it’s extra good because I don’t have to turn on the furnace or the air conditioner. Open windows all the time. Ahhh. Nature. But it’s also extra bad because who wants to stay inside and do boring crap when you know this won’t last?? Also I have been sick for the last week so I am glad for nowhere to go but my head hurts and I can’t do my homework. But I can type here….hmmm…that’s because this is supposed to be short and from my brain, without needing editing or spell check or fonts and spacing. It’s Tuesday and I said I would have it done by the time the kids got home from school. Well unless I can wrap this up and squeeze out a miracle 3 page paper plus observation notes in one hour it’s not going to happen. I have successfully pressured myself into staying up late to finish something that I could have had done hours ago. Poop. At least I am dressed and prepared to leave the house if I had too. That’s something.
Besides, my fans—all two of you—want to know, “How was that delicious looking pie??” Well, it’s gone. That’s how. As I commented to my cousin in the previous post, that pie did not last 24 hours. It really was good.The apples were sweet and tender, the juice was thick and cinnamony, the streusel topping was crunchy and sweet and buttery. Even my kids who declared that the pie was way too big and tall and that the topping was way too much and looked thick and weird, agreed it was the best part. They can’t believe I somehow made this magical pie with the crumbly top. And they watched me do it. Making stuff from scratch is fun but it takes a long time. I didn’t even make the pie crust. I am not ready for that kind of homemaking. But the store kind works really well and I don’t think it took away from the pie at all. As a bonus to making the pie, when I took it out of the oven and let it cool on a wire rack I felt just like some old-timey, Wizard of Oz, O Brother Where Art Thou, country cook. Cooling pies in the window sill. Hilarious.
I really better get started on that homework. I’m feeling uncomfortable with the stress of underachieving and the anxiety of joblessness so I better do something productive to soothe my nerves. FYI, for all the kids out there, alcohol DOES NOT take away the underlying current of manic desperation from not contributing to society in a useful way. Especially when you work hard to be able to do just that. And it doesn’t help you sleep at night either!
But, I do think it helped speed this cold along…germ killing effects or something like that. Kidding. My cold has been progressing in it’s normal pattern without the added benefits or the hindering properties of any alcohol related treatments.
Serious disclaimer: (before my other sister jumps all down my throat): All alcohol related content and posts about over consumption and drunkenness are HIGHLY exaggerated for story telling purposes. I find it much funnier to talk about drinking and the effects it can bring about than the actual drinking part. I mean, please, there is no way I could do half the repetitive, boring, day-to-day, household crap I actually do do, if I sat around all day drinking alcohol. Nice role model for the kids too huh?? Ha. I said doo-doo. Immature!
If I post more later it means I finished my school stuff and I can relax for a few hours. In the meantime, here’s another picture of my beautiful sky from the back patio sitting-chair. Enjoy!
Are you sick of looking at that gaudy duck too?!?
Our weather has taken a turn for the better these last few days. It’s our last blitz before the horrible cold and (according to the weather predictors) record breaking freezes and snow inches. Yay. The only good thing about the snap in temperature is that it ends any allergic sneezing and runny eyes and noses. Annoying. The cold sucks though. I don’t know why I stay here where it’s all “seasonal”. Oh wait. I know why. Family. No job. Can’t sell the house. Can’t buy a new one. Etcetera.
Anyhow this nice weather really causes me to procrastinate on the schoolwork. But it does inspire me to get off my fat butt and exercise. Which I desperately need. How long can I keep pushing the 40+ envelope before I get some medical problem that I will actually have to go to a doctor for?? Let me tell you, you creeping, increasing, scary pounds on the scale…not much longer. After my initial health kick earlier this autumn where I shed a pants-applicable 5 pounds. I have managed to hold steady without a lot of effort. That means little to no exercise but no eating either. I’m squeezing the clothes on, but it is not pretty. There are lumps and bumps where there should be none.
So here I am again. Finding myself having to go run and eat healthy. If only I could keep it up for longer than a week or a jean size. Now, at least, I have the added inspiration of trying to outrun my daughter. Since she started cross country (it’s over now—but she did really good) I tried to help her with practice runs, but I am far too slow. These damn kids are fast. And they make it look pretty easy. I was practically having a seizure on the trail. I was counting down in my head by hundreths of a quarter mile just to make it two miles without stopping. I felt pathetic, old and out of shape, but there was no one around to hear me count and watch me dry heave and it did give me something else to think about besides my collapsing lungs.
And I did finish that two miles. 26 minutes. As usual. Every single time I start “running” again, that’s my go-to time. (Let’s not forget I broke a foot this summer so back off!! It’s a miracle I can run at all!! Let’s go with that excuse ok??) Anyway. It’s only been two days of avoiding crap food. Processed, sodium infused, alcohol infused, fried, etc., and I have to say I think I feel a bit better. I can breathe and my head doesn’t hurt too bad. The key is to drink alot of water. Something I have also been neglecting. I can tell that right away though. Because my eyes get all loopy and I feel dizzy. I also tend to go for the dramatic flair and claim that my throat feels like it is closing and I can’t sleep. I actually went to bed last night feeling hungry. My stomach was protesting the fact that I didn’t stuff it so full of food it could try and trick me into sleeping flat so it could give me massive heartburn and laugh in my ear, “HA HA, you have to sleep sitting in a chair!” Spoiled American.
I have heard of this anti-inflammatory diet (which is very similiar to a blood pressure diet or sodium restricted diet) and I guess that’s the one I will have to settle into. It seems to be credible and addresses quite a few of the problems I have been having as a woman aging in this world. It’s so hard to make the right changes even when you know you should. I give myself until 45. That’s the outer limits of my neglect and disregard. After that I think my ability to skate by like a paunchy middle aged lady will totally catch up to me. And I would hate to wait that long and be forced to change. Fun stuff huh??
I wanted to do more than just this post today. But typing on the computer for hours on end makes me really really REALLY crabby. I’m not sure why. But I am feeling the irritation building. I was able to finish my paper. With 7 hours to spare! And I applied for more jobs today. I think that’s what sets me over the crabby edge. The internet is awesome for job hunting and applying but it can be super tedious and repetitive at the same time. Now I am here. Getting ready for school tonight and trying to post something worth reading.
I’ll do some lighter, fun stuff later. No need to keep it so serious. Here’s a picture I took of Stevie’s cross country conference race. These are the 7th grade girls lined up and ready for the whistle. I like the way it looks. Kind of fishbowled out with the coaches behind them. It looks like something exciting is about to happen. These kids are awesome! Track is in the spring so we need to get training! It gives us something to look forward to during the long winter and a goal to shoot for. Skinny and fast. Fall back. Spring forward. All right.
HOT DAMN!!
It is SIZZLING over here! 104 Degrees! Are you kidding me?? I cannot remember when it has been this hot. And it’s not just hot outside, it’s pretty damn smoking inside too.
I have been frantically answering questions in preparation for this big test you may have heard about, and I tend to get a little freaked out when I am not doing good, or good enough; but after a 200 question blitz this morning (and I guess this afternoon), I feel about 97% better that I have what it takes to finish this thing. So it’s break time for now. I have to eat and scrape the sweat and peeling skin off my body from the massive sunburn I gave myself last week when I brilliantly decided to go to the beach and bake for 5 hours without sunscreen. I know. So smart. So shamefully DUMB. At least I’ll be able to DX my own skin cancer. Not funny.
I’ll hit some review later tonight and get ready for another 200 Q’s tomorrow. I hope it’s HOT again! If you can’t go out you might as well stay in and study! Here’s a picture or two of the beach. It was nice. Started off clear as a bell then got cloudy. Super windy too that day. The riptides were giving my kids free entertainment.
Anyway…stay inside if you can, the sun is getting lower, but it’s still too hot to play. And if you have to go out, be careful, drink that water and avoid the angry, wild-eyed, super-sweaty people with mayhem on their minds. Later.
We interrupt this program
Due to weather and my inability to not help people when they need it. It’s annoying to be sure. But hey, karma right? And what did I really lose anyway? A so-so buzz, computer access, TV watching, laundry folding and the brain numbing joy of sitting on my couch or on my back patio staring at that big white wall.
More heavy storms rolled in again on the first, and that 100 degree weather the news people were predicting finally made it over here yesterday. It was nap-inducingly hot. But I stayed cool with my motorcycle riding. Finally. The BF got a new bike and he’s making me go out so I can get “practice” and be “more comfortable”. I have to say, it’s fun, but stressful. I’m pretty nervous with traffic and I need to work on my stop-start skills. I need to be faster off the line so I don’t get squashed.
And is it just me, or does there seem to be a news story everyday of some poor slob getting killed on his/her motorcycle by a truck?? I wear a helmet but I’m not sure I will fair any better just because my brain isn’t physically all over the street. The word is you don’t think about the bad stuff. Pay attention and don’t do anything stupid. It’s seriously like learning how to drive all over. I need to re-train myself on how to “see” the road. I think I am taking today off.
Plus, two of my schoolmates took their big test and passed! So happy for them. A little bit jealous. A little bit scared. A little bit guilty and anxious. We all want to pass. So I really should be studying. How often do I type those exact words in one of these rambles? I should get paid for it and I would be rich.
just shy of pretty 