turalu_21

Making my afternoon office appearance post-teaching. When I get home, I will have approx. 15 minutes to do the following in prep for tonight's group bike ride:

1. change clothes (2 mins)
2. go to bathroom (this is inevitable) (45 sec)
3. grab water bottle and fill with water (1.5 min)
4. put water bottle on bike (10 sec)
5. grab and tear open protein/carb bar (5 sec)
6. eat half of said bar (1 min, while doing other things)
7. put the following into a plastic bag: (2 mins)
a. half clif bar
b. driver's license
c. cash
8. put baggie in saddle bag (30 sec)
9. affix light battery pack to bike (it's been charging) (30 sec)
10. snap GPS into place on handlebars (also charging) (10 sec)
11. put phone in saddle bag (30 sec)
12. put on shoes (3 mins)
13. stretch REALLY fast (2 mins)
14. Perform one last look for my tail light (where is it?!) (??)
15. grab key (25 sec)
16. lock door (30 sec)
17. GO!

Some sort of cracked tooth or something is killing my upper cuspid. Need orajel, but also need lunch. And for my paycheck to last through the week, please. Oops, too late for that. Damn air conditioner issues! Damn the buying of cleaning products!

Despite this, I am in a good mood. Morning bike ride followed by food (chewed only on the left side, thank you very much). Sent invitations for mom's retirement party. Wes bought a new litter box because the old one was leaking...blechhhhhhhhhhh. Cleaned like a fiend yesterday. Today is more domesticity, following a nap. Must cook some potatoes and roast and toss a salad. Must mop floors. Must pick up prescription, apply orajel, research dentists, feed cats, do laundry, write, think about teaching tomorrow, eat lunch, and charge cell phone. And I thought today was going to be nothing but lazy.

My prize for taking the earliest lunch? Afternoon hunger. Can't wait.

It's 11:56 and I'm done with today's work. Sure, this is good, but I've got that familiar "am I missing something?" anxiety. Plus, the office has been pretty empty this morning. I definitely deserve a break because yesterday was so crazy with teaching, and I'll be teaching again tomorrow. May I take that break on the couch, please?

Hey, I have a doctor's appointment at 3:30, so that should break up the afternoon, right?

NEGATIVITY!!!!!!!

I started a post yesterday, and it was boring. So here you go. Me, with coffee. More exciting? I hope.

If you keep up with my facebook status updates, you know that I had a pretty busy weekend. The quick recap: ran a 5K in 28 minutes (just over, fine); went to a wedding where I drank too much (which apparently was a "normal" person's average, had a moment when I couldn't find my car, so I called Wes for a ride; woke up at 6:15 for a bike ride. I'm kind of peeved at the organizer because she lied about the distance we were going. She swears she wasn't sure, but I was still pissed. What's usually 25 miles turned into 33, plus the 7 round-trip I ride to meet the group. I was not pleased because my abdomen felt like I was going to explode. I was crying from orange/17-92 all the way home, about five miles. My post-surgery body was not ready for that, plus a 5k. The drinking had nothing to do with the belly pain; that was all endometriosis. I do, however, blame myself/the drinking for the puky feeling I had at our resting point, but that was kind of funny and deserved.

I wasn't thrilled with the ride also because it lasted two hours longer than it was supposed to, so that cut short my time with Wes and caused a sunburn and for us to be on 17-92 at 10:30 a.m., which was pretty damn scary. We survived, which is a good thing, and I didn't have to ride alone, which would have been the case had we turned around. Ugh.

Anyway, all that aside, I guess I'm proud of that progress. Don't expect me to kick ass this week, though. I was really proud of that 5K, my first in, gosh, five years? Six? Wow, time flies. And I was only two minutes behind my fastest time ever.

What else? I was on a quest for fun jewelry on Thursday and Friday, and I finally ordered some from modcloth.com, as per grass_stained's rec. I hope it comes in soon! I wanted fun pieces on long chains with pendants. Perhaps I'm being influenced by the badge I wear around my neck at work?

Today, I'm in the office, prepping for some eventual changes to my class. Nothing big, I just need to keep challenging myself and the students.

Oh, and a software rec: SimplifyMedia. Get this free software, and you can access your music library FROM HOME, along with the libraries of your friends. Yesterday, I was listening to the music on my students' laptops and home desktops. You could listen to my music, and I could listen to yours, as long as you leave iTunes open and you are logged into SimplifyMedia. It's pretty damn cool.

Have a good Tuesday!

Lots of babies in here. Between the tv over my head, the people on cell phones, and the receptionists, I can't read. Wes and I are speeding through The Seven Havits of Highly Effective People. It's really good; I just can't focus right now.

Okay. So. Passover and Easter coming up. Going to Sarasota this weekend to see family and a childhood friend.

Oh god the girl with the nosering is talking about her cervix. Make it stop!

I'm really not very happy right now because it's pouring and I left my bike outside. I rode it to work after lunch. Today was supposed to be cloudy on every weather report I saw, not rainy. I also have nothing to do. I may very well cry.

I thought I had enough time for both, and then...what do you know.k Fell asleep, slept, darkness. And I do not run in the dark.

that is all.

I LOVE YOU, LJ FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was just toiling around facebook, and I got sucked into the questioning process. WHO are you now??! What kind of fun have you been having with these other former high school friends all these years without me?! How much are you fronting?! I'd like to write a book called The Facebook Phenomenon, about keeping up with the Jones's via facebook.

Wes says, I didn't like them then, I don't like them now.

It's not that I didn't like people. I was just very separate from many of them in many ways. Now, sure, I'm curious, and it's exciting to reunite with the people I was good friends with at one point and then drifted from without a true parting of ways. But then there are the friends of other former friends with whom I did fight, the broken marriages, the sides to choose even eight years, hundreds of miles away, and worlds away in terms of other life experiences.

What I like is meeting up with those people with whom it feels like nothing has changed and it's perfectly comfortable. That's really cool.

But then there are the people I never separated from, the people with whom I stay in touch nearly every day, even if it's not often in person: you all! The people with whom I chose to make friends and remain friends. And I hope that some of these rekindled friendships remain, but I know not all of them will. I'm not about to pretend I'm someone I'm not, either. I'm happy with my life. Maybe I wish I had a little more success to show for it at this point--I'd be lying if I didn't say that. But I'm very happy and I haven't yet given up on that success.

I'm trying to have a positive outlook on today. Last night I did. Why not now?

Even typing on this white screen is killing me. I feel the pain in my teeth, even. I had a migraine from about 3:30 this morning until about 11:00 a.m. I woke up at about 4:30 crying, but not in an emotional way, just to relieve myself of the pain. Thankfully, I didn't have to be at work until 1:00 today. Now, I just feel hungover.

I made an attempt at opening mail and paying bills. It's pretty scary out there. Even the relatively light amount I need to pay the hospitals and such is a lot to me. I think things will be okay; it's just scary. But I did get a refund check for over-paying something I was required to pay (I know, right?), so that went into the bank immediately after I opened it (two months after receiving it). Why am I so scared of paying bills?! Nothing terrible terrible happened this time, but I certainly don't want it to.

So, yeah. Not squared away yet, but on my way, I guess. Staying at work until about 9:00 with friends tonight, which should be good. Just realized I didn't have everything from last month graded, but then I graded most of it.

My headache is exhausting me, and so are the bills, and, more so, myself for not dealing with them in a more timely manner simply because I am scared.

I sat next to a grandmother with the CUTEST baby on the plane. OMG--eyes so big they could eat me up! He was 6 months old and grabbing at things and didn't even cry until the very end when the plane was about to touch the ground. Aw! And his older brothers had Spiderman and Batman yamulkes. So cute!!

A la Mark, my uterus skipped about 50 beats.

Chicago was awesome. Cold, but awesome. That air felt good in my lungs, and it felt nice to see my breath. Reassuring, you know. My coat was great at keeping in the warmth--only my face got cold in the wind. We checked out the lake and went to the planetarium with the super-expensive "pork" projector that McCain complained about. We also went to the art institute, had drinks at the Signature Room on the 96th floor of the Hancock building on Valentine's Day. We also ate at Tavern on the Green, and the night before, we had a long dinner with AWP friends at a chophouse. Overall, it was awesome. I missed some AWP events, but I feel like I didn't miss much. I went to my panel and meeting on Friday and another panel Saturday morning. The readings would have been great, but I simply had a different agenda this year, and I need some space to be social and to think, especially since my institution didn't pay me to go in any way.

I'm going to the reading of a Nobel Prize winner tonight, Derek Walcott. Haven't actually read his work, but Wes and I are going with my neighbor Jennifer, and I hope it will be enlightening and fun, etc. Plus, afterward, tonight's the night for good TV.

I've been in an extremely cold classroom all day. Otherwise, the day has been very good. Just--why so cold? Why? 65 in the classroom!

I'm too cold to write, I think. But my students are doing it. Hm.

So, I commented on the whole Stephen King/Stephenie Meyer issue. Sure, Twilight's engaging, but the woman is not a great writer. She doesn't win that contest. If you want to read my comment, it's here: http://www.journalfen.net/community/sparklefield/20002.html?view=1023010#t1023010

I'm the anonymous one at the bottom whose post will probably be deleted before you read this.

But don't hate me!

Apparently, I'm sitting in Prana's domain--the middle of my bed. Ew, he just sneezed on me. Gross. Anyway, I'm getting a quick post in before puttin g the jeans in the dryer and heading to Wes's house for pizza, beer, homemade hot wings, and--I guess--football.

Meanwhile, I've been ravished by Twilight, verb-tense disagreements and all. I think I'm reminded of those electric, adolescent attractions. I just wish I'd been paid to line-edit the book! It kind of makes me want to take a stab at young-adult fiction, which I always wanted to do as a young adult. Don't worry, though, Mark and Jen--I don't intend a foray into the world of vampires or even fantasy. However, some supernatural is never completely out of my realm.

Okay, Prana is really distracting. Back to my idyllic reading and coffee on my fresh, clean sheets before the "madness" ensues.

aa

It is raining outside, and I want to go home now. I have embarrassing things to share, but then I always have embarrassing things to share.

I don't really have anything to say at all. Things must be good.

I'm just watching the digital minutes turn.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have I forgotten to mention that lately?

Barack Obama is also awesome, and I'm about to tune into CNN.com right now!

On the plus side, I'm all caught up at work, had some laughs, and even read many pages of my book. We have to take the tides as they come, high and low.

So, to be clear, I am NOT complaining about being done with my work.

I am tired and cold and just want my walk-through to be OVER WITH. Thanks to two wonderful co-workers and The Markness, I was able to get all my stuff out of the apartment last night, followed by a serious cleaning session that involved too much Lysol. I went to bed achy and confused and disoriented and hot and cold and sweating and weird.

I want to be moved in already!

Everyone, please wish grass_stained a happy birthday today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMY!!!