Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Hour 48 into family vaca

OK, sorry I haven't written in a while . . . but we now have less than 24 hours left in the vacation. You know, the one that I got as a Christmas gift to go to Florida with my parents, sister and her family. . . the golfing vacation as it turns out. Only one problem with that . . . yup. I don't golf. Sigh.

It actually has been ok. I arrived Monday at about noon. Got into town, had lunch, they went to play golf I hung out. Yesterday we went to the beach. It is a little too brisk for comfortable tanning, but I did give it a good effort. We watched the manatees swim and then headed back.

Today they went golfing again, but at least I got the keys to the car and went to the mall. Tonight we celebrate Dad's bday at Outback Steak House.

Tomorrow morning we get up at the crack of dawn to head towards the airport. Their flight leaves from Miami at 11:30, and mine leaves from West Palm Beach at 1:30. Yes, I'll be at the airport all dingdong day.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Curse me and my foolish ways

Sooooooo, yes, I dragged myself out and ran. Well, not run so much as walk and what I hoped was a brisk pace. I had two layers of pants on, three layers on top, an ear muff, hat, scarf and gloves. The clothing alone added an extra ten pounds. Who can run with that kind of extra weight?????

I ran a little bit, but it was running with long bouts of walking.

Got him and Scott, my handyman extraordinaire came by and asked if I wanted to go to lunch . . . yes, it is a well-known fact that I have no life at this point, and I'm up for pretty much anything.

I went to see Quantum of Solace with another friend. Oh my. Why, Lord, can't I have Daniel Craig . . . or someone very similar? Yowza.

I'm basically walking like a 90 year old woman at this point. Slowly and with pain when I get up and down. Sigh.

I've promised myself tomorrow I stay home and ACCOMPLISH THINGS. We'll see how that goes.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Operation Marathon

First, I'd like to say that in my head I look like this when I run: Smooth, hot, totally like a runner. In reality I am afraid I am much more like this: What makes me think this? (Well, beside the fact that let's face it, I'm not a runner, so starting out without having run in forever, we KNOW I don't look pretty.) In addition I have some additional evidence. One run and I had to have leverage to sit on the potty. So, I know when I ran today, there was a slight hitch in my getalong.

Why did I run today? I ran today cause I got no sense like that.

Weather update: It is . . .what's the term. . . FREAKING COLD. I mean snot rolling out the nose but freezing before it drips cold. Burning in the lungs cold. Toes and fingers numb cold.

However, I would like to say that I ran a blazing 3 miles. Oh, fine, not blazing, but not humiliatingly slowly either. Took me a little bit longer than 30 minutes but not 45 so I'm still faster than some walkers. Baby steps, people, it's about baby steps.

Got home and took a hot bath to soak my legs. Put some stuff on my legs to try to ease the pain and sat my bad self down.

Again, cause I have no sense, I'm thinking I'll get up and run in the morning.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

FYI: Operation Marathon

Well, really it is operation half-marathon, but it doesn't flow as well. Never the less, after watching MB and Mike run the White Rock Half Marathon I am filled with the desire to run 13 miles (something like that).

Some of you may remember that a year ago this time I called MB filled with inspiration because I watched the Marathoners go by on Swiss. I excitedly told MB we had to run it in 08. Apparently she took me seriously because damn if she didn't do it. And she looked GOOD doing it.

So, today I got my running shoes on and hit the pavement. I only ran 25 minutes, but it is 25 more minutes than I have run in a very long time (translate that as more than a year, please . . . maybe even a lot more than a year.)

I am red faced, out of breath and thinking of heaving a lung.

There is a half marathon in Austin the first weekend in April. . . gonna have to get busy.

Friday, December 19, 2008

English Dept Christmas Party

So, some of you may know that the English Department is mildly (I use this term loosely) dysfunctional.

We've had a few incidents recently that have brought home how wacked out we are capable of being.

It was really bothering me, so I decided that I would be Pollyanna Positive and start working on it since it upset me so. This is in part because I have accepted the fact that I am doomed to remain in the English department for all time, so I might as well get withe program as it were.
At any rate, my solution was to have a Christmas party. Strangely enough, THIS I was not going to do half-assed. I totally threw myself (and my unfortunate students) into it.

I borrowed furniture from the the Theater department so that we would all have comfortable chairs in which to sit. I placed them in a circle with chairs so that we couldn't group up and just face/talk to the usual crowd. I wanted to engender a let's all be friends atmosphere (or at least a "let's not all talk about each other while we are in the same room" - my expectations weren't THAT high.)

I found all of my grandmother's table clothes that I could lay my hands on to make it look even more cheerful. None of them matched, and they all need to be cleaned now (grrrr), but it did make it look nicer. I got nutcrackers and candles to decorate. I went all out. In fact, I even made the kids help me go all out. I have a tons of Christmas songs on my Ipod, so we played Christmas music to keep everyone in the mood and worked away.

Please note the snowflakes all over the room. I had them making snowflakes for days. Every time they thought that they were done, I'd start screetching for more snowflakes. One of the kids actually suggested the paper chain (ah, you can't beat a good paper chain!)


We got cotton balls, a lot of cotton balls as it turns out so that we could have "snow" on all of the window sills. Tell me it isn't beautiful. It is. I never even managed to get the lights out of my attic to add to the festive atmosphere, but I don't think we needed them. It looked great, if I do say so myself.


I even went to town on the food. We had breakfast from Jason's deli and lots of other little treaty foods too.

I made rum cake (it was the only way to get alcohol in the building legally, and I figured it couldn't hurt.

At it turns out, it was a morning party, so they weren't quite ready for the let's go crazy on super sweet rum cake idea.) I also made almond bark popcorn (Oh boy is it GOOD) for everyone to take with them back to their room's for snack's later in the day. I need to add that I just learned about the almond bark popcorn from my friend Helen. I can't decide if I owe her or need to kill her for telling me about this new, delicious and fabulous treat.

There I am looking pleased.

Christmas Wrappings

Please pretend you hear The Waitresses singing 'Christmas Wrappings' as you scroll through my lovely Christmas decorations photos. ( I say this because, as many know, it is the greatest Christmas song ever written.)

I decorated happily jamming to my Ipod the Friday after Thanksgiving (may have already blogged this, but what the heck.) It was the first time in years that I had no pressure to be doing anything else, so I was truly able to enjoy myself. Sabrina hardly paid any attention as I decorated. She was much more interested in the goings on occurring on the street. I managed to make the front room completely festive, and the rest of the house slightly festive. Thus giving the people passing by the idea that I really know how to celebrate Christmas without actually having the entire house fru-fru-ed up. I placed the nativity in the front room and prayed that the stupid dogs wouldn't go running in there, slam into the table and destroy my beautiful pieces. In addition I decorated my hybiscus (notice the baby nutcracker and little berries tied to its limbs, AND I decorated the ficus plant with bows. Ah, I do so love the holidays : )

Monday, December 8, 2008

I've used 5 of my 15 minutes of fame.

So, as part of the marketing for The Book, the well-paid PR lady managed to arrange for me to appear on Good Morning Texas. (This is probably, in part, arranged because I live across the street from the host, Gary Cogill.)

I have carefully and with great effort blocked this plan out of my head. However, last night my fabulous and amazing neighbor, Linda, made me play dress up so that she could determine what I would look good wearing. As a side note, we determined that most of my clothes don't fit properly. That will have to be a different blog post, but it is stressing me out.

Then, this morning, she got up at the crack of dawn to put my make-up on. She did an amazing job.

I didn't really tell anyone I was going to be on TV so that everyone I know would not record and/or watch the event in case I turned out to make a dumb ass of myself. It's over, and I didn't humiliate myself, so here it is BAM.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Shoot Me NOW

So, yesterday I was feeling smug and full of pride that I did not take my "girl with no gall bladder medicine" (I wish I had a better name for it, but I don't). I managed to go all day with no problems. Then late last night, small unhappiness.

Today, I took my medicine, but rashly thought oh a grilled cheese sandwich sounds yum. HA. I could feel the unhappiness in my stomach. I felt the pain and the error of my ways.

Yum right till I go running to the bathroom. THIS SUCKS.