The Downside of Reading: Getting Overly Attached to Characters

Over the course of the last month, I have read/listened to the entire Hunger Games trilogy.  The Hunger Games and Mockingjay were audiobooks, so I listened to "Katniss" tell me her story.  Catching Fire I read in less than 48 hours.

And now...now I feel like I've lost my friend because she no longer talks to me.

I know.  I'm losing it.  But think about it.  It was HOURS upon HOURS that I listened to Katniss talk about her troubles...about Peeta, about Gale, about Prim, about Rue, about her district, about Snow.  And now, now nothing. 

So, it makes me wonder.  How are she and Peeta getting along now?  What are her kids like?

Maybe I need to go on medication.  This is weird. 

To combat this withdrawal, my daughter and I watched The Hunger Games movie today.  And I cannot wait until the next movie, coming out in November. 

Until then, I'm off to find another character to obsess over.  I am currently reading two books at the same time now. 

Summer Dilemma

Before each summer, I start thinking about all the things I want to do with my kids: camps, trips, activities.  And at the end of every summer, I am bummed that we never got to do everything we had wanted.

So, this year I'm considering keeping the summer camps to the minimum and just planning day trips.  Considering I already have plans for a couple vacations and one week-long overnight camp, I must remember that there are only so many weeks in the summer!

I'm fortunate to live in the Bay Area - and there are so many interesting and exciting places to take my kids, places we have been but also places we have not.  Here's a short list of some of the places I'd like to take the kids this summer:

1. Dennis the Menace Park - Monterey

I took my son to this park years ago and he had a BLAST - an absolute blast.  The rolling slide is hilarious, good shaky fun.

There are bridges and tons of other slides, lots of space to roam....









2. Santa Cruz Beach 

It's a beach.  It's beautiful.  What's not to love?






3. Amusement Parks like Six Flags and Great America

We are again season pass holders for both amusement parks, so I plan to get our money's worth!  That's right.  A new dolphin show?  Gotta see that.  An easy, fun day for the kids?  Oh, ya.  I'm there.  Great America - rides and a waterpark?  Sign me up for that.  Yes. Yes. Yes.


4. San Francisco
Specifically, I'd like to take back to Land's End Trail.  I'd also like to spend another day riding a cable car, walking around Fisherman's Wharf, and going back to the California Academy of Sciences.  I'd also like to check out the Cable Car Museum.  I haven't been there since I was in elementary school!

5. Chabot Space and Science Museum
I've never been here and I've always wanted to check it out - just to see what's there and what it has to offer.

6. Coyote Point Park -

My son loves parks - and what kid doesn't want to play in a castle with a dragon?  How cool is that?  I've known about this park for years, but I haven't ever been there.  I better hurry up before he gets "too old" for playing in parks. HAHA.





So, here are the six off the top of my head.  Obviously, I'm open to suggestions, so let me know if you have any places I should add to my list!

Considering this is my first try making a list and I already have six, I'm guessing I should probably NOT sign up the kids for camp.

Not so great at the blogging thing...

Wow.  Really?  February?

Honestly, I had forgotten I had this blog.  hahaha.

Life has been treating me well.  I've still been living the "healthy lifestyle" and trying to gain more muscle and lose more fat.  It has been a slow progression, but that's just how it is.  I'm just happy to be down the weight.

Summer was awesome - when is it never awesome.  Sadly, it is always never long enough, too.

Started back at work and I have to say this: I am so very blessed to still love my job after 12 years.  Woot.

I suppose I shouldn't really spend a lot of time blogging here right now, seeing as I should really be going to sleep.

So, off I go.  I just wanted to type SOMETHING so another year didn't pass before I posted an entry. HA!

What a difference a few months can make!

Has it really been almost a year since I last blogged?  I still find it amazing that I once invested the time into blogging.  Don't get me wrong.  I loved it at the time.  I blogged almost daily - not on this site - and enjoyed the interactive commenting from readers. 

...and then I stopped blogging altogether, but I have run into a few people who were surprised with where I have been - or what I have been doing - in the last year.  So, I thought maybe a blog entry was due.

Last summer, sometime in July, I decided that I needed a lifestyle change.  I just wasn't happy.  Wait.  I take that blanket statement back.  I wasn't completely happy.  Sure, I loved my work.  Yes, I was blessed with a wonderful husband, two fabulous kids, supportive family and friends, and a little place I call home.  What more could a girl ask for?

Honestly, there was one aspect in my life that had been bugging me for years - yes, years.  I was fat.  I'm not saying this to get compliments or to hear, "NO. You weren't fat."  This is the truth: I was fat, medically fat.  At my annual physical in 2007, my doctor told me that I should probably lose about 10 lbs. - eat healthy and exercise - in order to get my cholesterol under control, or plan to go on cholesterol meds in the near future.

Being the person that I am, I agreed with him, drove home, and proceeded to live in denial:  I then gained 20 lbs.

What the...?

Yes, that's right.  Over the course of the next few years, I proceeded to get more unhealthy, if that was even possible  Truth be told, I had several health issues prior to gaining more weight: severe sleep apnea, fatigue, insomnia.  It was bad. I was bad.  And it went from bad to worse when I gained the additional 20 lbs.

However, barring one failed diet in high school I did with my mom (a 3-day diet where we ate particular foods in order to lose 5 lbs. based on some mumbo jumbo food chemistry), I had never been one to diet - and I still don't believe in diets as a whole.  To me, the problem with a diet is that it is, in effect, temporary.  People will say they need to go on a diet and then they either go off the diet or finish the diet when goal weight is achieved.  Plus, the idea that people had to restrict themselves to a certain amount of food and only certain types seemed unrealistic to me.  That was never going to fly with me.

So, I opted to overhaul my lifestyle.  Last July, I decided enough was enough.  I started by tracking my foods on a phone app called myfitnesspal.  (It also is available online - synched and available for free.)  That app helped me change my habits.  I realized that I was eating way too much crap foods.  Yea, yea.  We all know that.  And while I admit that I knew that, too, I didn't realize the extent of how horrible my eating habits were.  Logging said food was eye-opening.


The first couple weeks were rough.  After years of eating, by my guesstimation, 2000-3000 calories a day, dropping down to 1400-1700 calories a day seemed impossible.  I learned quickly that if I worked out, I would be "granted" exercise calories.  Meaning, I could then eat 2000 calories a day still, if I worked out.

I didn't want to work out at first - and I only did so because I wanted to eat more.  The little, baby 15 minute workouts turned into 60-90 minute sessions on the elliptical trainer.  Burning the calories allowed me to eat more. 

This awareness made me a tad obsessed.  I logged in my food daily.  I never wanted to go over my calorie goal - because then it would be red, which meant failure to me.  Couldn't have that now, could I?  Also, I started researching more about healthy foods and exercises; I made better food choices and implemented a workout regimen.  The elliptical trainer was easy.  Shortly after I started working out 45-60 minutes on it, I added in a kettlebell workout routine - first with a measly 4 lb. weight, then a 7 lb. weight; My 10 lb. weight just arrived in the mail today.

I've eased up a little in the last few weeks.  If I go over my calorie goal for the day, it's not a disaster.  I don't hop on the elliptical late at night to burn off the overage.  And I don't work out 7 days a week like I did for months.  I'm trying to be a little less obsessed and wean myself off the insane workout schedule I had followed, but I still do work out 4-5 days a week: elliptical trainer mixed with kettlebells are the norm; taekwondo classes, occasional fitness DVDs, and fitness classes at the gym can substitute the elliptical trainer sessions in order to change it up!

It has been over 6 months since I started this healthy lifestyle - and I haven't felt this great since college.  I feel better and I have more energy.  Overall, I'm less tired (unless I idiotically pull an all-nighter) and I feel happier.  I guess that's what losing 30+ lbs. does to a person.

That's right - 33 freakin' lbs. to be exact.  If I can lose 5 more, awesome.  If I can't, I'm okay with that, too.

So, doc...I'm ready for my check-up.  I'm down to the weight he had suggested about 5 years ago. How ya like them apples?

Just to show you I'm not making this up, here's a photo from October 2010 and then from last November 2011 (after losing 20 or so lbs.)  I've lost 10 lbs. since the last photo, but you get the idea.)

My Lent Update...or revelation, so to speak

Sitting here, almost at the end of Lent and realizing that my choice of "giving up facebook" was an epic fail, I remember the words of wisdom our pastor spoke at a sermon years ago. Father Jim gave a sermon about Lent, talking about how so many people take this time to "give up" a bad habit, like smoking or drinking alcohol. He argued that we shouldn't use this time to just give up something we shouldn't be doing anyhow. He also asked what was the point of giving up, let's say, smoking for 40 days, if you planned to just go back to it. If we really are going to give up a bad habit, we should just do it - don't wait for Lent. Father Jim continued by saying we should use the time to "do more good" and think about how to make the world a better place - rather than taking something away, give something back; rather than depriving ourselves of something, we should add something positive to our lives and/or the lives of others.

One of his suggestions was to give thanks to someone each day - be it the grocery store clerk or a former teacher. That year, I did a Google search and wrote letters to two of my former high school teachers, thanking them for their support and inspiration during my nightmarish high school years. I heard back from one of them - and what a wonderful letter that was! :) Another year, I made sure to volunteer at least once a week - be it at my children's schools or passing out lunches to the homeless. Anyone who has spent time volunteering knows the joy it can bring.

Those are more meaningful than the old standbys of "give up (fill in the blank)" for Lent. Or at least, I believe so. And I thank Father Jim for those experiences. I understood what he meant. The idea was to focus more on, as Ken Collins' wrote on his website, "soul-searching and repentance...a season for reflection and taking stock...when the faithful rededicate themselves." Yes, it can be done by taking something away - fasting, so to speak - but it can also be done by doing something positive.

So, the year I volunteered to "give back," I also gave up Diet Coke. My idea was to do something hand-in-hand: trade something negative for something positive. And in doing both of those things, I was hopefully setting up a habit. I'm proud to say that I hardly ever drink Diet Coke now - maybe just when we go out to eat; I don't purchase it by the case any longer. I also regularly volunteer at different agencies.

Sadly, I forgot about that lesson this year and simply said, "Give up Facebook." I focused on the negative, rather than the positive this year. And it was an epic fail. I focused on trying NOT to log onto facebook. I was never focusing on something positive at the same time.

So, even though we are at the end of Lent, I decided to make a mid-game change: I should do some sort of cardio exercise every single day - even if just for 10-15 minutes. And while I may not have given up facebook 100%, I did successfully give up Farmtown 100%. I plan to not return to my "Stupid-town" - no matter what new items they try to tempt me with, no matter how much FarmCash I may actually have. And hopefully, this cardio thing will also become a new habit.

There may just be two weeks left, but I hope to keep it going for longer. Either way, I'm glad I remembered it is not always all about NOT doing something; it should also be about DOING SOMETHING.

Whoops

For those of you who have known me a long time, you know that I once swore like a sailor.  About the time my daughter was a toddler, I decided to stop.  Why?  I can remember the specific moment I knew I had to get my swearing under control: it was the moment my daughter dropped a sticker on the ground and said, "sh**" very innocently.  You see, she didn't think there was anything wrong with saying it - probably because I used the word so liberally. And she used it in the correct way.  Oy!

Hence, I learned to swear not in my child's presence.

I still do a pretty good job not swearing in front of the kids, or at least I thought I did.  The other day I learned that I needed to clean it up even more.

While waiting in the car, at the student pickup line, at my daughter's school (which can appear to many like a traffic jam), my son said in an impatient voice, "AH! C'MON!  GO, YOU IDIOT!"

Holy #(%*#$%#.

Whoops.

the things we do for our kids!

My husband was a vampire this Halloween.  That was a pretty big deal in our house!!!

Let me explain that he has almost never dressed up for Halloween.  Last year, for the first time I have known him, he agreed to wear a referee shirt with black jeans, but that was as close to a costume as I had ever seen him get...in the 15+ years we have been together....unless you include the time he wore a tuxedo for our wedding.  ha!

This year, my husband and I were not planning to dress up, but I think my son was about to break down into tears if we didn't.  His favorite holiday seems to be Halloween, you see.  He loves to dress up.  In fact, he dresses up on a regular basis.  He has a Batman costume, a Superman costume, a Spiderman costume, a pirate costume, and an Ironman costume.  He wears them semi-regularly and was ecstatic that he was able to wear them outside three days in a row (for a parade at school, a Halloween party, and then Halloween trick-or-treating).  So, I busted out my costume from last year - a generic cheerleading outfit - and wore that to the Halloween party I attended with my son.  Sadly, I just didn't get something else together in time.  And yesterday, my husband bought these weird contacts and fangs for Halloween night.

Our kids were thrilled.  Our daughter kept talking about it over and over.  You see, she is a tween and has only seen her father get dressed up last year and this one. HAHA.  Now our son, on the other hand, will expect him to dress up for years to come. haha. :)

The things we do for our kids!