Thursday, June 29, 2006

Toothpicks?

WOW. . .What a week! It has been packed full and to be honest, I am feeling a bit tired. OK - to be frank, I am feeling exhausted!

I thought about not posting tonight, but my goal was to blog every time I made it to the gym. As I have been successful with this goal so far - here I sit typing thoughts as they pop into my head. My eyelids are getting heavy enough that if I was to take my contacts out, I would definitely need toothpicks!

I've pretty much given up on the text colors here. I will continue to make them what I want (and they do look right in the preview window) and if they post correct - Great! If they don't, oh well. Life is too short to waste so much time fighting with blogger!


I'm taking the day off tomorrow - not from corporate america, but from the gym. My body thanks me! I'm spending some time with my sissaroos and perhaps trying to decide what pictures to print from my vacation to Alaska. Decisions. . .Decisions. . .


Namaste.


"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails." -William Arthur Ward

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Priorities. . .

As I have experienced more and more of life's journey, I have come to value certain things (in random order):
A Child's Hug - OK, I value all hugs, but getting hugs from my nieces and nephews popped in my head first.
Traveling and Experiencing Other Cultures - What amazing memories!
My Memories - Gotta back-up the file cabinets in my head with scrapbooks documenting all of the experiences.
True Friends - They are few and far between. . .So I cherished them above all else!
My Body - I only have one to take care of this time around. . .So I need to take care of it!
My Mind - Gotta put the degree to good use.
My Garden - What a wonderful work of art. . .By both God and my landscaper.

Notice, I did not include cleaning on the list.
It is not something that I will prioritize.
It is not something that I enjoy.
It is not something that gets done very often around my house.
Don't get me wrong, I love a clean house and refuse to live in filth; however, I am not willing to give up the valuable things in my life to make time to clean.

Take today for example: I worked, I worked out, I grocery shopped, I blogged, I read. That covers traveling (earning money to do more), body (exercising, nourishing), friends (blogging to stay in touch) and mind (exercising the imagination). Put a lot of check marks on the value list today.

I think that I am just gonna have to squeeze in one room a week to clean. Then, I'm gonna have to take a serious look at the budget and find moola to hire someone to help me keep it that way! Then I can stop blogging about cleaning, because it will be done and no longer on my mind.

Namaste.

"Don't deny your basic needs. . .Find ways to incorporate these necessary functions into even the busiest schedule." -Stephanie Goddard Davidson
(The colors are driving me nuts!)

Monday, June 26, 2006

Body vs. Mind

Recently, I heard Mommy Marie explain to someone that I torture my body at the gym. At the time (most of the time), I disagree with that statement.

Today, my body agrees with her!
My muscles feel sore. . .
My joints feel stiff. . .
My body feels way older than the age on my Driver's License. . .

On the other hand, my mind knows it takes 21 days to get back into a routine. . .
My mind recognizes that this is the payback from taking some time off while I was on vacation. . .

My mind loves fitting into clothes that are two sizes smaller than I was wearing at Christmas time. . .

Mind wins!


So, I will keep sweating on the elliptical and letting my trainer push me as no one else can. My goal is to hit the gym five times a week - three times for weights and two times for heavy fat-burn cardio. After all, I still have some smaller sizes to get into!


Namaste.

"The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within - strength, courage, dignity." -Ruby Dee

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Did I Miss The Weekend?

Wowsa. . .Where did the weekend go? I swear it was just here!

Took a break from cleaning today - okay, maybe not the smartest decision that I've made, but it was one that I needed to do. Went to church this morning - heard a high-schooler with an amazing voice! She brought tears to my eyes on both of the songs that she blessed us with. The message was practical and all felt right with the world, at least my little piece of it.

Ended up over at the Greek Festival with some dear friends. Nice time, nice food, nice company! But the result of that fun? Time to hit the gym - the food was good tasting, but not good calorie counting! :) If anyone is in the Cincinnati area next year during the weekend of the festival, I recommend it! Was a nice way to try some different ethnic dishes. I had the Pastichio (layers of ground beef and macaroni covered with bechamel sauce) and a Baklava Chocolate Ice Cream Sundae. . .

On that note, I am going to at least get the clothes folded that I washed yesterday. Everything else will just have to wait until another day. . .Says me!

Namaste.

"The body must be nourished physically, emotionally an spiritually. We're spiritually starved in this culture - not underfed but undernourished." - Carol Hornig


One of these days - the font colors will post with the correct color (rambling in black, quote in Bengal orange) the first time I publish it. . .SAYS ME!

Saturday, June 24, 2006

To Do Lists

Hmmm. . .I always seem to forget how much time and energy goes into cleaning! I had a To Do List for today and in my infinite wisdom, I thought that I could get everything done with plenty of time to spare. Shows what I know!

I just spent about three hours cleaning one room - and a small room to be exact. I don't think I need to mention that I haven't mopped the floor because I want to do all of the mopping at one time. I now have four more rooms to go as well as two bathrooms. Funny, but I don't think I'll have any time to spare today or will even get through the entire list done this weekend. At least I got to the gym before the cleaning started.

Guess I should get back to crossing things off of my To Do List.

Namaste.


"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything; but I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do." -Edward Everette Hale

Friday, June 23, 2006

New Look

It didn't take long before I started changing the look of this place. Just like my condo, I've gotta mess with every detail to make it "mine". Of course (Luke - don't roll your eyes at me), I didn't like any of the templates that blogger offers. . .So, I started messing with the code despite not knowing what any part of it meant. Hope you like the results!

The only things that I haven't figured out is: how to get my info in black instead of Bengal Orange (yes, I know that for it to be Bengal Orange now, I had to have changed it at least once!) and how to make the left sidebar skinnier. If that's the worst problems I have here, then life is pretty dern wonderful! (NOTE: left sidebar done, I've given up on my info color)

My Daily Planner has sayings at the bottom of each page. In an effort to break my occasional habit of being a wanna-be pack-rat, I thought it would be nice to share one of my favs here every so often at the bottom of my entries. Hope you enjoy!

Namaste.

"Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all." -Sam Ewing

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Is There Anybody Out There?

OK. . .I have no idea why Pink Floyd is running through my head right now, but it seemed like a good title for the opening post of this blog.

Everyone has Eggeepet (ok, it looks funny - but with no Russian characters, I had to attempt it phonetically) to thank for the opportunity to read all of my ramblings as her blog does not allow for anonymous comments. And what the hey! If I'm going through all of the work to set up a log-in to post a comment, then I'm going to use the dern thing (no that's not a typo, I meant to type dern and not darn).

I should mention that I will only use nicknames in my ramblings. It may be a nickname that has a story behind it or one that I just made up just for this site. WOW - this has lots of potential for my imagination to go wild (I only hope that it has spell check too).

I expect that this sight will fall into the 'stream of consciousness' arena often. The other hilarious opportunity that has presented itself: I was once a yearbook editor (many moons ago) and there is the opportunity for past entries to become 'altered, improved, polished stream of consciousness' items - in other words, I may drive myself nuts! So, if there is an entry that didn't quite make sense - check back and it may magically become brilliant (for the realist out there - it may become more legible)!


I plan to use this space to document my experiences as they happen (and even my viewpoints, as weird as they may seem to some). When I'm a fly on the wall at my funeral (at the wonderful young, active age of 231), I want to hear celebrations of "Remember when she did/went/saw/said. . ." rather than "She always wanted to go/do/see. . .". This is my dream.

This is me.
These are my opinions.
This is my journey.
These are my memories.
I make no apologies and plan to live life to it's fullest.

I welcome you to my blog home - you are always welcome. The wonderful thing about this experience is that if you don't like what I have to say, you don't have to join in my journey. Isn't life great?

Namaste.