Official move

Ok, even though I'm not thrilled with how it looks, all posting will be happening here from now on. Update your blogrolls and bookmarks!

Various things

I'll be moving here soon. I know, it's very exciting. I hate the colors and the only link I have is to West of the Boulevard (coincidentally, the one switching me over there happens to run West of the Boulevard...). But it will be up to my liking soon I hope.

The first students I ever taught have their 8th grade formal this weekend. It's nuts that they will be going to high school next year. I can't wait to see all of the wonderfully awkward pictures that will surely be taken.

I had to buy new workout clothes because the ones I have ARE TOO BIG. If that isn't a victory, I don't know what is.

I can walk today. This is very unexpected after BodyCombat. Nevermind that I'm walking as if I were 9 months pregnant.

I have a very exciting evening planned. I'm going to the gym soon. Then I will get dinner and watch T.V. while I eat it. Then I will go to bed. It's sure to be a rip-roaring good time!

Tagged

So, I've been tagged and I need to post 7 random things about myself and then tag 7 other people to do the same. Here we go, here we go now.

1. My first thought when I got my diploma from UR was, "Ha ha! I've tricked them all!"
2. I love looking at maps but I cannot read them.
3. I'm obsessed with people's triceps and I'm convinced that everyone else's are better than mine.
4. I think all of my friends are incredibly good looking.
5. I rarely take medicine when I have a headache.
6. Kate is my oldest friend who I still see on a semi-regular basis. We met in 3rd grade. Which was almost 18 years ago. W.T.F.
7. I cry whenever I watch the end of The Color Purple.

There you have them. I will do my tagging later so I can make wise, unexpected choices. CAN YOU HANDLE THE SUSPENSE!?!?!?!?!?!!!

TMJ update (because I knowing you are all dying to get the latest)

Well, it's been over week since the Gum Chewing Punishment set in. I called the dentist last night and left a pitiful message asking them to call me back as soon as they could. I meant that as around 9:00am. They took it as 6:42am. At least they are efficient.

Anyway, I can't get in until Wednesday afternoon. All they are going to do is tell me that I need a NightGuard. The same NightGuard that my insurance still won't pay for. Luckily I have some black market connections so I might be able to get one eventually. I'm basically going in the hopes of getting an official diagnosis of *something* and some advice on how to deal with the pain in general. Until then I've been ordered to not chew gum and to avoid any foods that can't be sufficiently mushed up with my tongue. Awesome.

Butt Status: Kicked

I went to BodyCombat at Gold's Gym tonight. It's basically a lot of shadow boxing and jumping around and kicking and what not. Oh, and dying. Did I mention the dying? Dying for a solid hour and then much soreness follows the dying. It was great.

One thing I've learned from trying out several of the classes at Gold's is that I'm not much of "move around person." Sure, I exercise, but that typically takes the shape of running or riding a bike. The classes I feel the most confident in involve balancing, stretching, and holding ridiculous positions for a long period of time. Things requiring me to move more than two limbs at a time while running/jumping I find to be very difficult. Still, I press on and I think I'm a good sport. I know I looked absolutely ridiculous punching and kicking-it was pretty obvious that I have never been in anything that even resembled a fight (slapping, scratching fights of my childhood don't count). The whole time it was like my arms and legs were saying, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!" But, it was really fun and I think I'll go back. Once I can walk again.

No, I'm still not going back to BodyJam. Dancing around other people is not something that will help my self-confidence and I'm sure my lack of rhythm is very distracting for the other students.

The Pity Party is Over!!! (...for now)

I walked into the bathroom this evening, about to step into the shower after this evening's trip to the gym, and what did I find (or not find)? The scale. Ross has hidden it. I think that's a pretty strong message. I have very strong OCD tendencies and they have all been chanelled into weighing myself 5,436 times a day. Ross knows this and knew that extreme measures had to be taken. So, it's gone. I can't find it. Believe me, I looked. But as he said, "We don't need that anymore." We know we're doing the right things and that should be enough encouragement.

So, here's the plan: I'm giving myself a break. I'm still going to exercise and I'm still going to eat what I'm supposed to eat. But, the days of torturing myself over what the scale says have come to an end. Weighing will only happen at the gym. I'm going to try to do it just once a week. It's going to be very hard, but this needs to happen for my sanity.

I'm sure there will be days when it will be very hard to resist the urge to fold myself into the food scales at Kroger, but those will pass. It took two years to get where I am, so it's going to take some time to get where I want to be. I just need to accept that, get over it, and stop making my husband worry.

Plateau

I'm seriously about to have a break down a la Lilly Allen. (The funny thing is, I *just* saw her on TV and thought, This girl looks like a lovely, normal-sized woman. What a nice thing to see.) I'm stuck on a weight that I'm not happy with. It's not that I'm concerned with numbers, I'm just not particularly pleased with how this number represents itself on my body and in my overall state of mind. The number could be 327 and I wouldn't care as long as I felt comfortable in that skin. I'm not comfortable in this skin at all and I'm having a hard time finding something to like about my physical appearance. And you can say that your physical appearance shouldn't dictate how you feel all you want, but you know that isn't always true-when you look like death, it's hard to not feel like it.

Real life encounter of the best kind

Ross and I were in Ellwood Thompson's this afternoon when I heard someone call out my name. I looked over and didn't see anyone I recognized. My first thought was, "Oh, Lord, this could go either way."

My recent experiences with a certain someone have made me a little weary of the many somewhat strangers out on the Internets. I wasn't certain that this encounter would be about this blog, but I had a feeling.

Well, it turned out to be none other than Patience, wife of Jorge, and mother to the ridiculously adorable/gorgeous/did I mention adorable? Josiah, Jackie, and Lucy. We met, we hugged, and I got to see 3/4 of the wonderful family that I don't know in person but I feel like I know so much about. I don't know if any of you read their blogs, but they are seriously some of my most favorite ones out there. They both give such great insight into how to live what I think is the best kind of life: one with kindness, intelligence, and laughter. Plus, I think they give us all hope that you can still be cool after you have kids.

Friends, it was so great to meet you. Hopefully we can all get together soon. And I hope Josiah's presentation on squids went well-I didn't think about asking him until we had parted ways.

Weekend Wrap up

Friday: Got a job, picked up Ross, went to the in-laws, chatted it up, listened to Ross play the ukulele, went to bed.

Saturday: Went to the gym, went to Matthew's graduation party, celebrated Mother's Day with in-laws, played some dominoes, went to bed.

Sunday: Went to the gym, puttered around the house, went to church, celebrated Mother's Day with my mom, visited with siblings, going to bed soon.

The weekend seemed much more eventful while I was going through it. I'm truly exhausted and desperately looking forward to some downtime next weekend.

My favorite friend

It was 1:00am and Zapp was very determined to see what I was doing on the Internets. I took the opportunity to capture her beauty for all of you to behold. As you can see, we have matching eyeliner and we are very much in love.

Appetizing.

Upon pulling up to the drive thru window, I had this conversation...

Cashier: Here ya go. I'm trying to hurry because I really have to take a sh*t.

Me: *blink* *blink*

Facing the Consequences

I woke up this morning feeling like I had gotten punched in the face I knew it couldn't have been Ross (this time, at least) because he was off saving Richmond last night. I spent all day trying to figure out exactly why it hurt to both open *and* close my mouth.

See, I have the TMJ. Well, actually, we all have the TMJ. For some reason, having a problem with your TMJ is described by simply stating that you have the particular joint causing you aches and pains. It's like instead of saying you have a headache, you would just say you have a head. I actually have TMJD which is far worse than just having the joint. I developed this in college with it first making its appearance in the form of me waking up at 3:00am in a complete panic because I couldn't open or close my mouth. Seriously, it's like someone comes along, wires your mouth shut, and kicks you in the jaw just to make sure you've been completely crippled by the pain.

TMJD tends to be pretty cyclical with it's symptoms and mine hasn't flared up in quite a long time. Episodes come along with stress...or with eating anything chewy like gum, gummi bears, gummi worms, really anything that might have gum in it. Basically anything fun and wonderful.

Well, I realized I had gum yesterday. Actually, approximately 40 hours ago and I probably chewed it for all of 10 minutes. And I'm still experiencing throbbing, soul-splitting pain in my jaw. I mean, come on. Is this really necessary or in anyway proportionate to what I did? It's like slicing the skin between someone's toes with a dirty screwdriver because she wore flip-flops.

So, I will spend much of today and tomorrow with a heating pad on my face, cursing the good Lord for creating the gum tree whose sweet, sweet nectar taunts me so.

Excitement abounds

I accepted the offer and as of the end of June I will officially be a copywriter.

More importantly, Ross got a ukulele today and he's learning to play the song from Joe Versus the Volcano.

Personal Space

I went to Target this afternoon buying more versions of the T-shirts I wear everyday (except these are V-neck-CRAAAAZY). While I was standing at the checkout counter, a man got in line behind me. And by behind me I mean *right* behind me. It was almost like he was trying to snuggle. He was standing so close to me that the cashier actually started ringing his stuff up with mine and putting it in my bag. I responded by declaring, "No, he's not my husband." WHAT?!?!?!?!?!??!?!!? That doesn't even make any sense!!! Awkwardness ensued and I kept my eyes on the floor and hurried out of the store with my bag 'o' shirts. Seriously, I should be kept in a basement somewhere.

To all those trolled.

I'm sorry if you were one of the people bombarded by a comment about me. I have no idea who this person is and I don't care. I'm just sorry that you have random comments on your posts now. I just think it's incredibly lame that someone has nothing better to do than not only harass me, but also harass the people who know me, on here or in meatspace. I'm sorry for the inconvenience and hopefully this person is satisfied with all of the annoyance he/she has caused. If you want to be taken off of my blog roll, I understand. Just let me know.

Well, I'll be...

So I got a job offer. I'm still kind of stunned, partially (ok, totally) because I was told that this blog helped me get the job. The formal offer comes tomorrow, so it won't be official until then. Regardless, I think I've earned myself a nap.

Things I remember from when I was little...

When my sister and I used to take baths, she would always make me sit in the part of the bathtub that was more shallow while she lounged in the deeper part that held more warm water.

Also, my sister used to have to blow dry my hair when we were little. If I screamed because of any tangles, she would hit me in the back with the brush.

I used to never want to listen to the "Nightmare on My Street" by Will Smith because it scared the crap out of me. Yeah, that's right.

When Roger Rabbit came out on video, my parents let us stay up until midnight to watch it. It was crazy and awesome.

One snowday, my mom made sausage biscuits and we ate them while watching Gone With the Wind. One of my most favorite memories in life, hands down.

My brother ate English muffins all of the time. Like, if I were to draw a picture of the brother of my childhood, he would be holding an English muffin.

My mom had this beaded purse that I coveted. I have no clue what it looked like, but I remember exactly how it felt when I held it in my hands.

We were only allowed to have three Oreos at a time when we were little. One time I ate six. I felt so bad I went and told my mother immediately.

*AMENDMENT*
Some people who are exceptionally lame and have problems understanding tone when they read things (and who claim to "know" me, but obviously not very well considering what I'm about to say) think that I posted those memories about my sister to portray her in a negative light. Someone who "knows" me knows that I love my sister (and brother and family) more than anything in the world. She is one of my most favorite people in the world and anyone who suggest any different is just not fortunate enough to know her as well as I do. Forgive me for sharing something that came to *my* mind on *my* blog and made *me* laugh. If you don't like it, don't read it.

Status

For those of you interested, no I haven't found a job yet. I have a third (yes, that's right, third) meeting with a company tomorrow for lunch and another interview set up for Monday.

I have started taking things down in my classroom. This is making the kids very sad and me very excited. It's making the whole concept of leaving very real.

I am still not pregnant, nor do we plan on that happening anytime soon. While I love the idea of having a baby, I'm not ready to give up my body or awesome hang out times quite yet. Also, Ross keels over and dies at the very thought of it.

Things are growing nicely in our garden. I will post pictures of the first harvest.

I have now lost 10 pounds as a result of going of the anti- anxiety medication and not eating gross food. It is the hardest thing I have ever done and I'm very proud of myself.

Shooter is still the fun police and Zapp is still dumb.

Dear Creatures on the roof/in the attic,

I'm going to keep pretending that you are not there as long as you keep not busting through my ceiling and keep not eating my face of and/or clawing my eyes out.

Regards,
Your tolerant, appreciative downstairs neighbor

Look what I found!

Do you know who these people are????