08.11.09
Today…
Today he bought us pizza. I guess late is better than never…. however, it was mainly since he did not feel like cooking (and do I ever feel like cooking? No, but I do it anyways….)
We are back in the world of skating again, sort of. I’ll explain it more later.
I do need music for the new season though, probably 4 different songs (I know, four! Usually it’s only two!). I need two short, one long and one artistic. I have the two short ones, and a possible artistic (Hey big spender, maybe?), but I don’t know what to do for the long. I’m thinking something Latin maybe? I’ve never done Latin, and it might be fun. I just don’t know where to start or where to look. Suggestions, anyone? If I don’t come up with something, I’ll revert back to Celtic.
I am going to involve our delightfully crazy Russian as my choreographer. We will drive each other nuts, but it will be fun. I’ll be doing slow and pretty this time for BOTH of my shorts, which is something I’ve never done either. Spirals and stretching, here I come. *Pain*
07.25.09
Intercollegiate Quidditch
This morning, I was out googling the web. When he asked what I was doing, I told my husband that I was looking for an Intercollegiate Quidditch team to join. “Oh, that’s cool.”
My husband has not read the books, and subsequently has no idea what Quidditch is. I jumped around the issue, since if he knew EXACTLY what it was, he’s think it totally stupid and nerdy, and a really bad idea.
Now, I don’t do well with balls, so while I might not be too interested in actually playing, I’d love to get involved and promote the sport (seriously, whoever would get me on their team would be sorry. I am REALLY bad when it comes to catching and throwing, and pretty awful at running too. It doesn’t help that I am terrified of all balls harder than a badminton-ball and will duck-and-cover if one is thrown in my direction), and help to further it in the Intercollegiate world. However, I don’t know if we have a team at my University. This site has us down as a team in the Southeastern Region (look in right column, further down), but our University doesn’t have it anywhere on its website, nor do we have a facebook group. It might be that they are embarrassed about it, or the list is simply outdated. I don’t know.
Anyways, I will keep looking. I know the club sports on campus have a promotional day in the beginning of August, so I might go over there and see. You never know, they might be there.
And yes, I know that I am an HP-geek. Always was, always will be.
06.25.09
Varied long mess…
Yesterday D threw a hissy fit because I wouldn’t let her borrow my glitter eyeshadow and dark lip-gloss to wear to practice. The kid is 10. If she was having a performance in something like dance, gymnastic or figure skating, it would be acceptable. But for regular Wednesday night Tae Kwon Do practice? No. I am against small children wearing makeup in general, and I know her dad and mother is too. I still managed to look like the evil bi*** though.
I am so excited about moving. I really can’t stand the house we are living in right now. It feels like a dark prison compared to the the bright open floor plan of the new place, with its excellent location (meaning we can actually keep our windows uncovered without people seeing our every move). I am also excited, since I am positive that our electricity bill will go down. It is currently ridiculously high, seeing as it is hard to get air to circulate in our two-story town house. It is also not very well insulated, and there are small cracks everywhere by the windows and doors, letting the air out. I am telling you, I can’t wait for the 18th of July. Sure, we get the keys on the 16th, but I am in school both the 16th and the 17th, and hubby is going to need my help moving, as we don’t have a lot of friends to help us. Hubby will start driving “stuff” in the car though, for the first two days, and on the Saturday, we’ll get the truck and do the big and heavy stuff.
I start my second mini semester tomorrow. I am finishing up Mini A today. Seems as if my 4.0 is sticking around for now. There’s a wall in the main building in school which I’d like to get onto, which is for people with great grades, pictures and all. Don’t know how long you have to keep a 4.0, but hey, I can still hope, can’t I? Anyways, tomorrow I start American Sign Language and Critical Thinking. It is going to be really nice to get out of the house for almost 6 hours every day (seeing as I will leave home at like 8.30 and be home at about 2.30), REALLY nice. D is an energetic, sassy handful and hubby is very very bored (he just graduated with his MA in technical writing), since he is out of school until the end of August (he’s getting a second MA, this one in information technology). This house is small, and I need some time to breathe and some personal space, and if that personal space have to be in a classroom with like 20 others, than so be it.
I have my piano lesson today. This week’s homework has been tough, and I felt like an idiot much of the time working on it. Goodness, I’m terrified of what she will give me for next week’s homework.
Hubby was looking at me yesterday and said “You are getting skinny” which initially felt like a compliment, but his voice wasn’t terribly complimentary. Then he went onto say that “You’ve lost muscle mass…” which definitely wasn’t a compliment. No shit honey! I went from being on the ice 7 days a week to going to the gym maybe once a week. You thought it would just stick around? It’s been over a year since I stepped off the ice, I’m surprised it hasn’t disappeared faster! I am also surprised (and I know you are as well) that I haven’t gained more weight (you and 90 % of the people I met in Sweden….). Men can say the stupidest things, thinking they are not insulting, when really, they are.
It’s going to hit over 94 degrees today (about 35 Celsius) if you believe the local news, and they are usually very correct, and the worst humidity yet to be seen this year. Yay. I will have to prepare for melting today then. Oh joy. And apparently it is only going to get worse as July comes around. I hate the South.
05.23.09
Sigh…
Yesterday Becky and I went to the mall and bought her a bikini and a pair of jeans. We also ran into a old good friend of mine who I have not seen for a year and a half, and her mother (aptly named “The Chihuahua” by my husband). It was very nice to see the girl, but the mother was smirking and looking me up and down, without trying to hide it. I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, so I am terribly sorry I didn’t look more glamorous (oh hear the sarcasm…).
I am getting very sick and tired of people looking me up and down, expecting me to have gained 50 pounds. I didn’t! I know I went to the US for a year and a half, and I know I live in the South, but NO I have not gained a lot of weight. I know they were expecting it, and I am not sorry to have to disappoint. I KNOW Jessica gained like 20 pounds when she was in the US, and she is so known for being an extremely good and healthy girl (more sarcasm…. most people don’t know about her partying…). But I didn’t! No, I haven’t starved myself, nor did I over-exercise, nor was I forced to do anything by my crazy (sarcasm… duh…) husband. I ate well but healthy and indulged once in a while. Nothing dramatic. I know what people were expecting, but sc**w you all then. I am the same weight as when I left, 120 pounds (54 kilos). Have I lost some muscle mass? Yes, of course. You try go from exercising 6 times a week to like 1 and not lose that. But have a gained a lot of weight (or barely any for that matter….)? No. Still not fat people. Sorry to disappoint.
08.26.08
First day of school and base behaviour
Today we got up at five to be able to get D to her first day of school in time. Yesterday we went to the hairdresser and got her her done, and she turned out super-cute. She loves it, but is afraid that her mother is going to flip. I really don’t care, her hair desperately needed trimming and was completely ruined (hairdresser said she should have taken over about 6 cm off, we got away with doing only 2). D finally looks like a girl and classy, not like she just stepped out of the poorhouse. BM can flip on us if she wants.
So we got up, and I fixed her hair so that it would look nice (avoiding a panic-attack since her hair had gotten rather frizzy overnight. Hello hairspray and cob!), got her dressed in her new nice clothes we got, and then fixed her lunch. We managed to leave at 6, and surprisingly enough, everyone was cheery. We got to school in time (7:50), and D was very excited, and I was too, it being my first “First day of school” as a step-mom. Last year wasn’t really the same thing.
Then we went to the base to do some shopping and we went to the gym too. They have a very nice gym and we did cardio and some weight training. I’m not very comfortable on base, not yet. There are so many rules and it’s a whole different world there. Then I don’t think I’ll ever get used to hearing bombs being dropped nearby or hearing gunshot-practice. It spooks me out.
Hubby gets a little funny on base too. He has shorter temper, eyes keep flicking around and he walks different. More… macho. Sort of, chest out, head up, walk fast, swing your arms, and speak louder. It’s a little odd seeing him like that, and I know he isn’t very comfortable on base. It gets to his head, he says. But I get it, I mean he was in for 12 years, and you never quite stop being a Marine. Once a Marine, always a Marine.
07.08.08
At the Kung Fu place
I had a very good day today on the ice. The ice was not the greatest ever, but I’ve been through worse. It was a little crowded at times, but I worked around it. I laded my Axel several times and the two Salchows I tried! I was so happy. It felt great and I was so proud. I haven’t jumped, or skated really for so long, and it felt good to know that it’s still in there somewhere. Wow, I just got caught totally off guard by this song I’m listening to, from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I think someone skated to it, I just don’t know who. I mean I know that Verner did it this season (I wasn’t a fan of the program, though he did it well. His costume did look like a pajamas too….) but I think someone else did t a couple of years ago, closer to home. Well well, I don’t think this one will do it for me, especially when someone I know skated to it.
I met two ice dancers at the rink too, they are Adult skaters and very nice. I think her name was Lisa, I have no idea what his name was. The said they go to Nationals each year and that it’s a lot of fun and everyone is so supportive of each other.
I am sitting at the Kung Fu right now and am listening to music while hubby is training. I can feel I have blisters the size of Canada on my feet from today’s skating. I am listening to this obscure, weird CD that normal people have never heard of. It from a Disney movie, but one of those you never saw in the movies, one that went directly to video. It’s VERY traditional soundtrack-y (and I’m only on Track 2). I could probably compare it to Finding Nemo (though not quite as good).
Speaking of Disney, I should probably comment on the movie we saw last week, WALL’E. It was nice in a very cute kind of way. But was it worthy to me one of THOSE movies? No. One of THOSE movies are the masterpieces that occasionally comes out from the Disney Pixar Factory. The ones that have great deep stories that can be understood on many different levels. Like Nemo, Shrek (Nr 1 and maybe nr 2, though I don’t know if they were Disney…), Enchanted (though only partially animated it was amazing) and other movies I can’t think of right now. There are the kids jokes and then the adult ones. It has a very broad specter and is magnificently crafted with wonderful characters and a plot so ingenious that you can’t help but admire. An amazing soundtrack that gets skated to death very quickly with some very nice and catchy sing-along-songs. This one was simply cute. The characters were cute. But were they deep and multi-leveled? No. Not at all. I’m not saying it was a bad movie, absolutely not, it was very enjoyable with a lot of giggling. But the plot-holes were there, and at times, they were rather major. And the soundtrack wasn’t that great either, so I’m curious to see who did it.
06.18.08
ICE! ICE! ICE!
Yesterday was my first day back on the ice after almost five months of doing nothing. My first thought; “I’m home. Finally home.” The air was cold, a dry kind of cold and smelled and tasted metallic. I felt like Bambi, taking my first shaky steps back out onto the slippery ice. It was hard to feel my edges and I was sliding all over the place. But after a while, it didn’t matter. I was back in my element, my blood was rushing, my heart was thumping harder and my soul was soaring. I was back and it felt divine.
This morning I felt like I’d been run over by a train. But God, it felt good. There were muscles I hadn’t used for months and they were shocked into existence again. I have blisters the size of Manhattan and my legs feel like jelly. Yes, parts of my body are hating me right now, like parts of my poor back, but I don’t really care. I am finally skating again. We will go up every Tuesday from now on, my husband will do Kung Fu while I skate. It’s not enough to do it once a week, but it’s a start.
I am still aiming for Adult Nationals in May 2009, but it’s going to take some doing. My back need to heal properly and I have to get some of my jumps back, not to mention get flexible again (not that I was very flexible to start with….), and get back into spinning. Thankfully, we are only allowed to do up to double Toeloop in Adult Gold (this does mean that I have to learn double Toeloop, a jump that I’ve always hated), you used to be able to do up to double Loop, but they’ve changed the rules. This year, there were only two girls in my age group at Nationals, and they didn’t do anything TOO hard. The girl who won landed a -2 double Sal and no Axel. Girl No.2 did nothing over single Lutz. Looking over the protocols, it would feel almost like cheating to go into Adult Gold. Maybe I should do Adult Masters Ladies Novice instead, where they do a little more. I’m going to talk to someone at USFSA about it, and hopefully, I don’t have to test (hah, in my dreams…..).
I don’t think Cathy and our little girl enjoyed skating yesterday. Their feet hurt, and they could probably think of a million things they would rather do than skating. But this was my night, and they just had to bear it. The little one had had fun all day at Tae Kwon Doe camp (I so want to spell Kwon with an A, I think it’s an occupational hazard…) and we skipped skating last week so Cathy could get her fabrics. It was my time to do something I liked. The poor things looked pretty miserable skating round and round out there. They probably did an hour though, which is very good. We’ll do it again next Tuesday. Yay!
06.14.08
General wrap-up
I had my appointment yesterday with a blond southern woman who called me honey, sweetie, darlin’ (no g”, of course) and such all through our session. She killed me, quite literally. She kept pushing down on all my pressure points and commented “yes, that must have hurt” every time I screamed. Then she told me “try to stop yelling, people will think I’m hurting you!” NO KIDDING? I was in serious pain leaving and am now too. I had to take some muscle relaxers before going to sleep, or I wouldn’t have slept at all.
To make matters better (ahem….) my dear husband dragged us all out of bed at 8 bloody AM to play tennis with him. Me, our little girl and my poor sister (since she usually sleeps to about 10, I though he overdid it a bit…) weren’t too thrilled about the idea, I was still a zombie due to the muscle relaxers and hadn’t had breakfast yet. Needless to say, I didn’t really play, and my sister didn’t put any real effort into it either. Hubby gave up after maybe half an hour.
My writing is going pretty good. No really. I had this dream, and I am going to use it for the basic outline for a book (future book, hopefully). I also wrote the first rough (read: very very very rough) draft of the first chapter. Though kinda bad, the chapter is very good. Very good. Though it also sucks. I can’t really explain it very well, can I? I guess you could say that the basic underlining thread is very good, while the current wording and most phrases aren’t that spectacular. It’s also way too short. It’ll need to be maybe 6 pages long, right now it’s almost exactly 2. What I also need is a couple more plot lines. Yeah, I know. However this one could be a keeper. It’s still not the fantasy novel I want to write, but I’m sure that one will pop up later in the future.
Now I am going to go beg my sister to gently massage my back, to get the blood flowing through my muscles. I have already done the exercises the lady told me to do, and they hurt like hell.
06.07.08
Friday
Yeah yeah, I know it’s Saturday, but I wrote this yesterday at the gym, so I am going to post it. Saturday’s post will follow.
I spent the early part of the day in the bathroom hurling. I knew it was going to be a bad day after getting nauseous after only one bite of my bagel. But I put that one down and then only had some vegetable juice and I banana, hoping I would be fine. Yeah, right.
After the visit with the physical therapist on Wednesday I’ve been feeling like utter crap, and in a lot of pain. I was only there for half an hour, but she spent that time sort of trying to gently rearrange the muscles, ligaments and tissue in my back. My body hasn’t really liked her since. I’ve been forced to go back onto Soma (muscle-relaxers), Motrin (for the pain) and an anti-inflammatory. Just give a guess how much I’ve been eating lately… Exactly.
But I was being stubborn and said I could deal with it all and go to the gym, which we did, despite my husband’s objections. it was going to be my sister’s first visit to the gym here (she’s not really a gym person in the first place), and I didn’t want to spoil it for her. Needless to say, I lasted 10 minutes on the Eliptical and I am now sitting, watching them, drinking a Sierra Mist to calm the nausea and my stomach.
I feel terrible, stupid, angry and useless. I know it’s because all the medication I’m on but it really… Okay, Cathy is looking like she needs to get off so I am going to go rescue her from the machine and my fitness-crazy husband. She did about 35 minutes on that thing. Good girl.
05.18.08
Kids….
Yesterday my husband spent most of the day at an Aikido seminar with THE master. He enjoyed it a lot I think. It meant that I spent the day with our little girl. We baked cupcakes and I cleaned and did laundry. And she… well, she was bored. Aside from baking cupcakes, she also did Tae Kwon Doe in the morning, but that wasn’t enough. She was BORED and didn’t stop at anything to let me know it. She can be rather manipulative, that child. I mean, I’m sure most 9-year olds are, but she’s really got it down. Thankfully, I don’t fall for it too often. Becky prevented that. When she was younger, she played every single trick in the book on our parents, and standing on the sidelines, you pick up stuff.
She’s really cute, and very clever, and way too curious for her own good. Yesterday, we once again touched on the subject of babies. She started the whole thing back in September with asking if I like babies. It took a while, but eventually she managed to ask when we would have a baby. She likes babies and would like to have a little something to boss around. After that time, she took it up once in a while, asking if I like boy or girl-babies the most, and other questions like that. But I hadn’t heard about it since before Christmas. But yesterday we touched the subject again. Veiled in many beat-around-the-bush questions, I managed to get out that she’s getting inpatient. She wants a little brother or sister and she wants it now. And I told her, like I’ve told her many times before, that it’s going to be a long time. “Like how long? Like Christmas?” Bess her heart… No longer than that. “Like daddy’s birthday?” No sweetie, a lot longer than that. Maybe like when you’re 13. “Oh.” A long silence. “But that’s like for-evah!” Isn’t she a doll?
Last night we went to go drop her home. I had been cleaning all day, I was dressed in my old jeans, a workout shirt, no makeup, I was rather sweaty and icky, so when we went I just slipped my hair in a ponytail and put on a pair of slip-in sandals. I was going to shower when we came home. On our way back, my dear husband says that he wants to go out and eat with the Aikido-gang. Now. They were going to meet up at 7:30 and we came into town like at 8. And here I am, going to meet his friends for the first time, a lot of really important people, and I was looking like crap. All red and blotchy, and not in meeting-socializing condition. I said no. And he convinced me. So we went, me looking like crap, and him looking very nice (he had taken a quick shower when he come home, and dressed up a bit, since he knewhe wanted to go, but of course he hadn’t told me……). I was so angry. Sure, we had a nice time and everyone was very nice, I just had wanted to put on something slightly better, and maybe brush my hair…. Everyone was dressed up, including my hubby, and I looked like I just left the gym. I am currently having MAJOR breakouts, so normally I wouldn’t even leave the house without covering them up…. Well, well. He had a great time and we will be inviting some people home for a BBQ some time this summer. Very nice people.
Oh yeah, I forgot, I just signed up for summer classes online. I start one on Tuesday from the community college. I am taking Writeriffic first, Creativity Training for Writers. It’s just something to do, something to keep me busy.
