Sunday, January 29, 2006

Sunday Addendum

I did go to MZ's tonight, albeit by myself. Bizarro was finishing a story and I felt the need to get some air and visit with my Momazoo. We had a nice spaghetti dinner and she beat me at Upwords by 40 points. I'm really glad I went.

I also went to our little gym here before I drove to MZ's. 16 minutes on the eliptical, a bit of lifting, and the sauna. I'm doing this three times a week. It's easy and quick and there's no reason why I can't do it. And there are many reasons why I should do it. I am, I hate to admit, a bit overweight. Certainly not fat, but definitely... lumpy. Anyway, it felt good and really helped my mood.

Random thought of the day; those commercials for the K-Y Warming Massage and Personal Lubricant are totally disgusting. It's bad enough the shit exists, but to advertise it in prime time is obscene. Now I know how men must have felt 30 years ago when they started airing tampon commercials.

Right now "Crossing Jordon" is on the boob toob. We make fun of this show's ridiculous plotlines every week, yet every week we tune in. I like watching the 2ndary characters, who are much more interesting than the main character and her over-acted melodrama. Don't get me wrong, Jill Hennesey is a hottie. But she's just... for one thing, I can't believe any M.E. would be so over-involved in detective work, shaking down criminals and stuff. And then she wears these really low-cut filmy things in the morgue.

Earlier today I was reading over some of my old posts from my Ohio Univ. days. Some of those posts are hilarious; especially when I was bitching about the crazy things that got in my way (like a freaking bee flying into my green tea - I laughed 'til I cried today re-reading that).

Well the weekend is just about over. I am teaching M, T, W from 5 - 7:30. No early morning classes, at least. Woo Hoo! Here's praying the semester flies by and that I'll have a great job lined up for next fall.
Week 3: Are we there yet?

It's a rainy Sunday affernoon. Was supposed to go to MZs for spaghetti dinner this afternoon, but I haven't been feeling well and Bizarro's working on a deadline of tomorrow for a contest of some sort. So I'm staying home to get some writing and reading done.

Last night got an email from my boss at 9:30 asking us lecturers for the updated lists of students. naturally I had left my laptop home on Friday, not wanting to lug the heavy bag around with my current state of spasming back. Soooo this morning I had to schlepp into the office to get the damned thing and bring it home so I could take care of business. I really don't agree with lecturers having to do all this tedious admin work - especially since there's no one way to get it done. It's literally so chaotic and confusing with so many lists floating around and special cases that need attention. They need one person to be doing all this and keeping it all under control. As always, I see the flaws in the system and might even have ideas to improve it, but I am powerless. *sigh* I keep telling myself - just one more semester!

Yesterday was actually a good day. Sunny and warm out. I went with Bizarro down town, stopped at the Liberry, the new tea shop (kinda dull) and did some window shopping on the Commons and Dewitt Mall. Dewitt Mall is really a great example of using existing space. It's an old school building that's been converted into shops and restaurants (including the famous Moosewood Restaurant). Anyway, Bizarro and I walked and sat in the little park that's across from Dewitt and soaked up the sunshine. We stopped at Aldi on the way home to get cheap grokkeries, then had a little explosion of eggs in the trunk. Bizarro got really upset, but as it turned out we had 7 salvagable eggs.

The rest of the evening didn't go so well for me. I was restless and ornery. Then getting that email at 9:30 set me off and I had to forceable calm myself down (which I did). Meantime all day I could feel a cold trying to come on and last night it felt worse. Today I can feel it trying to assert itself, but I've been blasting Emer Gen 'C and zinc lozenges. Hopefully I won't get sick the first week of classes. My back and neck were also very spasmoid this morning when I awoke, which is not good. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into physical therapy this week. Last week's session was really wonderful, with heat and massage therapy.

Last night there was one bright spot - my Big Bro called me out of the blue. The older I get, the more I realize that our differences are nothing compared to our shared experience and general compassion for the world. When I was a young girl, I idolized him. When I got older, I think I started to see him as a daughter often views a father, with that sort of "I know everything and you're just old and dumb." I certainly went through that with my MZ. Anyway, thank god that's over because it's so much more enjoyable and fulfilling to have a relationship like this. I don't agree with some of his ideas about politics, but I respect his intellect and his passion. Now if he would just quit smoking... (sorry, couldn't resist!).

Well my lunch is now cold so I better finish it up and do something productive. Like take a shower.

Happy Year of the Dog! Or if you're Tibetan, Year of the Fire Dog!

Friday, January 27, 2006

Happy Birthday, Wolfgang Amadeus!

I've had a love affair with Mozart since I was a teenager. Sounds bizzaro, I know, but it's true. I was raised with classical music, and played classical violin for years. Although my father was a huge Beethoven fan, I've always had ears for Mozart. When I listen to his music, whether opera, symphony, or concerto, it feels like I've left my body and gone off someplace else. Sweet and meloncholy at the same time. Transporting and completely absorbing. Absolute perfection. I'll have to rent Amadeus tonight, to honor the 250th. Yeah - I'm sure it'll be out.

Read about my favorite composer:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5009844
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/DESTINATIONS/01/10/austria.mozart.ap/index.html

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Making the best of things

It's been a long week, but not necessarily a bad one. Had some really good meetings and in general I'm feeling less stressed about the job. My confidence is on the rise, and I have a few things to thank for that. One of them is working with the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory and a book called The Introvert Advantage. Sounds kind of hokey, but it's been an eye-opener and is helping me to reclaim parts of my personality that I'd always thought of as weird, at best, and useless at worst. In fact, Introverts make up only 25% of the U.S. population, so it is basically an "extrovert world" which makes it tough for us "innies" sometimes to find and cherish our strengths.

I'm working on other things, too, like going to physical therapy for the back and neck problems I've been having. I am going to get back into doing T'ai Chi more regularly, and if I can find one that fits my schedule, yoga as well (recommended by my doctor). For the time being, I'm letting go of the belly dancing classes. Anyway, I never felt like I was getting my money's worth in those classes. The teacher, although she's a brilliant dancer, talks way too much during the class and goes off on tangents while we're just standing around. Seriously, I think I broke a sweat maybe once in 2 months of classes. The dancing is fun but right now I have to get some basic strength and posture things built up. And let's face it, in a perfect world I could stop working and just take fun classes all day. I have neither time nor money for 3 sets of classes right now. I'm not even sure if I have the resources for 2, but we'll see. At least I can do T'ai Chi on my own for now.

The days are shooting by so quickly now that I'm back to work. I'm not taking work home anymore, and thus I am hoping that I can get into a good rhythm once our teaching schedules are assigned. 2006 is all about good self-care and self-development. Those are my priorities, and keeping that in mind helps me to let go of thoughts, activities and even people that really aren't contributing to those areas. So Yay, me!

This weekend, I plan to try out the T'ai Chi place that does Yang style, and get some serious writing done. We're going to visit Momazoo on Sunday afternoon for dinner, too. Bizarro's been busy, too, so I think we're going to try to have an actual "date night" either tomorrow or Saturday.

I'm teaching Orientation tonight until 9:00 so I need to go forage for snacky-snacks. Until next time.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Gimboids

Survived the first week back to work. Had a good long heart to heart with my boss and got some things cleared up. I'm hopeful that I can make this semester a more productive, less stressful one. Meantime, I'm working with HR to find a better fit at the university.

Still not thrilled with going back to work on Monday morning, but that's not too different from most people's lives.

It's been a good weekend. Fun, relaxing and productive. Spent yesterday with Mamazoo and today got some work done on my job search as well as a project for work.

Welp, Bizarro brought home Red Dwarf Season 4 so I'm going watch some funnies and make some popcorn. Ew. Lister's head just exploded. Gross.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Inching Along

Not too much to tell today. I started getting back in the swing of work yesterday and today. Stopped into the office yesterday, which wasn't too bad. Today I got a couple small projects under way. I have one more to get moving on this week. I have left it to the last because, quite honestly, I just couldn't deal. I could feel my stress level and heart beat rising as I set to work today, and especially after getting a couple emails from my boss (sent to everyone, not just me). I don't know how I'll survive the next 15 weeks. Well tomorrow I have a meeting with HR. I hope I'm feeling up to it, since I've already started to feel like I'm coming down with something.

I need to get some grub and settle down for the evening.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Back Online

Man, I went cold turkey with no internet this weekend. I had to deliver my work laptop for much-needed work on Friday and didn't get it back until today. I was lucky that Bizarro let me check my email once a day for 5 minutes on his computer for those two days.

Lots of stuff. Let's see: first of all I am happy to report that I am getting a new computer, courtesy of The Great Tim. He is a technology person at some school up in Rah-cha-cha and has a bunch of G3s on his hands. Since my zip drive is fried (I think I already told that story) and I really need my own computer for my writing career, I was more than happy to take one of them off his hands. Shweet!

I spent Saturday in my last day of total absentia from reality. It was nice. Yesterday Momazoo's side of the family had their annual holiday dinner. It was held at my least favorite of all restaurants in the Elmira area ("Papa Dales") and half the fam didn't show. But at least I got to reconnec to a few of my relatives on that side of the family. It's good to be home. :) They seemed to welcome Bizarro as my husband, and of course had to let him know that he'd married into a "crazy family." They have no idea.

Today I went into the office for the first time in 3 weeks to get my computer back and to sort of spruce up my space, as well as to reconnect to it. Quite a few people were around, including T and K. It was all chatting and no business, which was fine with me. I need to show them that despite my troubles there, I have a positive outlook and am able to interact in a positive way. I dropped off a bunch of books I'd brought home to work on that other project, and took home some other files and stuff for work I have to do this week. I also brought home a plant starter that had sprouted major roots in the water bottle I'd left it in. I have that one and another one to transplant.

Made some awesome spaghetti sauce tonight (although the garlic is a bit old, so it has a really strong bite). Just going to chill out with my writing tonight (Monday is NO TV NIGHT at our house).

I have a few appointments this week with a couple HR people and my counselor. This weekend we're going to The Great Tim's place to pick up the computer and have a nice dinner party with him and his wife, and our other friends who live up in that area. Don't know if Bizarro will accompany me. He really does hate travelling and he seems to have very limited tolerence for not being in his own space. The things you learn when you're married!

More later this week.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Ringing in the New Year

Well 2006 is off to a mixed start. The good news first: I'm sitting at my new (used) desk, which gets all my crap up off the floor and out of piles, and organizes it all. It's even big enough to fit both my Macasaurus and my laptop from work, with plenty of space left over for my stuff. I am quite pleased and will try to post a photo later.

The bad news: my zip drive is kaput, and along with it my zip disk that held a lot of useful files. Luckily I only have to re-create one file, which happens to be my CV. That is a pain in the ass but not an insurmountable set back. But a set back nevertheless; I have no way of getting files off the Macasaurus, again.

I'm sitting here having this weird out of body feeling right now. It's like my hands are really heavy and my "mind" is hovering just over the top of my head. And yet I'm still here with my eyes open and faculties operating. Weird. I've been paying attention to the little things that keep popping up in dreams and in reality. This morning I came into the office and was preparing the space for the new desk, and I almost sat on a wooley bear caterpillar. Then I realized there were two of them a few feet apart; one was large the other small. I took them outside. I've had dreams about bugs lately, too. I looked up insects in a couple of dream books and it turns out they represent obstacles to overcome. They also can represent negativitiy (worms, especially) brought on by oneself. That is definitely one of my demons.

I've done a lot of spiritual/emotional processing work in the last few days, with the help of a mental health counselor and a spiritual counselor friend of mine in L.A. Suffice it to say that a lot of what I've been experiencing is the result of some very old unresolved shit that went down when I was small and has stayed with me in the form of self-sabotage and negativity I've been dragging through my life. Most destructive of all has been my fear of "Plan A" and thus always settling for second best (when it comes to work and life pursuits). Thankfully, I stopped settling for 2nd best in terms of relationships! Anyway I'm in the process of identifying my age-old fears and letting them go. Last night when I discovered my zip drive and disk were kaput, I lost it. But I fell to sleep praying and this morning I awoke with a sense of proportion that I haven't felt in a very long time. It feels good.

Anyway, in terms of the practicalitiy of real life, I am meeting with a series of HR people next week to help me figure out my resources and best courses of action in the coming semester. I am looking forward to those meetings; I enjoy being proactive and not simply reactive - and about freaking time!

Well I need to get some bills done and figure out some financial stuff for the next 6 months. *sigh* Here's to the best in 2006, for the benefit of all sentient beings!