One of THOSE Days...

When people say that... I've had one of THOSE days... it creates a vision of bad days, Murphy's Law, and crawling in to bed.  But there is another kind of "those" days... and I had one today.

Today was one of those days when I just connected with the people I talked with.  I spent a good deal of my day talking with my boss/co-worker/friend (all the same person) - sharing some good stories (about work and not about work), laughs and frustrations, and after all was said and done, felt light-in-heart when we parted for the day.

Today was one of those days when I DIDN'T eat the cookie in the office break room.

Today was one of those days when I really felt proud of the accomplishments I've made at the Sadist's.

Today was one of those days when a dreaded phone call turned into a quick and HAPPY conversation with someone who I thought would be reluctant and dismissive, but instead wanted to be involved and was somewhat excited about it.

Today was one of those days when your IT guy actually fixes your problem instead of makes it worse.  :)

Today was one of those days when you realize the weepy, bad moods you've had for the past 72 hours was hormonal and really nothing more.  That's a nice realization.

Today was one of those days when a friend who came in from out of town (coworker/friend) who rarely has time to sit and chat had NO plans for dinner, so we went out and spent over 3 hours chatting, catching up, laughing, sharing our same sarcastic humor and enjoying each others company.

Today was one of those days when, after a really long cold winter, you get a whiff of spring in the air.  A little more time before it's here, but it's coming.  It's really coming. 

Today was one of those days when a really "new" friend reached out to talk to me... check up on me... make sure I was okay. 

Today was just one of those days.  And it was good.

Slacker

I've been struggling.  My  journey with my trainer and my fitness has been stalled.  Well, that's partially untrue.  I visit my trainer faithfully, now to be known as The Sadist.  And before anyone gets upset about my nickname for her, I call her this to her face, so it's nothing truly nasty.  And before you decide to object still, consider this:

a)  When I text her the next day after a work-out and whine about hurting (and we're talking hurting as in difficulty moving my legs enough to walk), her typical response is something like, "good!" or "Hahaha" or "Yay!" or "Good job!".  Sadist.

b)  When I am working out and I say, "I can't do anymore" she says, "do three more".  And I do.  She counts. Slowly.  Sadist.

c)  Some of her first words upon arrival to her house typically are, "where does it hurt the most?" with a smile on her face.  Sadist.

So, while I have been visiting The Sadist faithfully, my eating has been... less than stellar.  Habits are so hard to grow, and so hard to break.  I have been at a sort of "plateau" for months now... since The Hubs got sick back in November.  Then came Hunter's cancer... then the holidays and a scrapbook retreat... you know, LIFE.

I think I have a lot of stuff going on inside my own head that needs to be meshed out... and I think all of that black gobbeldy-gook (yes, a technical term here) needs to be cleaned up before I can focus my energy on the outside of me.  Anyone out there experience this ever?

And now I have the Dr. Pepper song running through my head:  I'm a slacker, you're a slacker, he's a slacker, she's a slacker, wouldn't you like to be a slacker too?

Sorry about that.  However, in the meantime, I do just feel like a slacker.  A failure.  Even though I'm NOT failing.  I'm just stalled.  I KNOW I'm not failing.  But that old black sludge just keeps bubbling up and trying to tell me I am.  So... like Tinkerbell needing claps and "I do believe in fairies" to stay alive... help the Slacker out a little here.  Just remind me that progress takes time and as long as I keep looking forward and not back, I'll eventually reach my intended destination.

Sorry for the blatant cry for pats on the back, but trust me, they're needed.  Or else I might become a permanent slacker. 

No, The Sadist wouldn't allow that. 

Nice Surprises...

The Hubs loved the book, or the card as he called it. I left it for him after he went to work, so when he got home this evening he found it waiting for him.  He was afraid of breaking it, so he didn't open it all the way, instead he just bent it slightly this way and that to read the little notes I'd included.  When I got home and opened it, he thought I broke it.  We had a good laugh. 

I had my own surprise arrived at work today from him.

My whole office smells yummy because of them.  Mmmmmm!

The delivery guy was quite busy making trips to our office.  A few other co-workers got flowers... and then one co-worker's husband  personally delivered a "bouquet" of heart-shaped mylar balloons.  It was cute.  The co-worker said, "I love it because they're so in [insert name of another coworker's] face!"  To which the other co-worker said, "You know, Valentine's Day isn't a real holiday!". 

We all laughed at his feigned bitterness. 

I think Valentine's Day should always be on a Monday.  It sure makes the beginning of the week much more bright and happy than the typical Monday.

I hope you had a good one!

Happiness...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Since The  Hubs never reads my blog, I can safely post this, even though he hasn't received it yet.  I made it for him tonight (yes, I'm a last-minute Lucy) while he was sitting less than 10 feet away from me watching TV.  I love doing things like that, when he has no idea what I'm doing!  :)

It's a little explosion book, that I've seen done but have never attempted until now.  While I was browsing around my newly cleaned-out Google Reader, I was enticed over to Paper Turtle where, at the time, Deb was showing a mini-book she'd made for her husband.   I browsed down a few posts and saw her tutorial for this explosion book, and decided it was perfect for a little mini-book Valentine for my Hubs this year.  Thanks Deb, for the inspiration and the push to make this.

I'd show you the insides, but by the time I was done, I had already written all my little love notes inside and, well, I guess they're just for his eyes only.  I'll let you just imagine...

I hope you share some love with someone special in your world today!

Party Time!

To say that I have been overwhelmed lately would probably be an understatement.  I don't appear outwardly to be overwhelmed, but that's just my stoic personality - or my college minor in Acting.  But before I begin debating my skills in affected personality versus my actual personality, let's talk about clutter again.

A long, long, looong time ago, seemingly in a land far, far away, I began a little project called Kai's Clean Sweep Project.  It was supposed to motivate me to clear out the clutter in my house, so that my surroundings would be more simple and peaceful. While it may appear that I have been failing, or at the very least ignoring, this project, it is actually quite the opposite.  I just haven't been doing any physical object de-cluttering.

However, I have focused on some electronic de-cluttering.  For example, I spent three hours (THREE hours) last night moving photos from my camera's memory card to my laptop for future further sorting and eventual printing.  First of all, let me digress by saying my DSLR memory card ROCKS!  The amount of photos I have on there are hundreds and hundreds... in fact, I got that camera back in May 2010 and have NEVER deleted or moved a photo off of it until last night.  I have copied some and saved some to CD but the original was always on this card!  I have gone through two birthdays; two trips to see my parents, including a trip to Niagara Falls; several trips to the park, including one extended photo shoot with my friend CT; Thanksgiving; my husband's illness; Christmas; and a plethora of various pet, kid, layout, card and yard snapshots.

And after THREE hours of moving photos from the memory card to my laptop, I had only hit the second storage folder on the memory card, meaning I still have tons of photos to move.  I would have gone longer than three hours, but sadly, my battery on the camera died. 

Okay, so what the heck is my point?  Every time that I accomplish something like this, I realise how much disorder messes with my mind.  I have known these photos have needed moving, organizing and eventually printing, but I kept putting it off and off and off.  And it becomes one more "worry" (for lack of a better word) that clutters up the closets in my head.

Reading blogs was another daunting task.  Many of you may have noticed a distinct lack of participation in reading and commenting on your blogs over the past several months.  It was because I was overwhelmed by the sheer mass of blogs I felt I had to and want to visit!  Google Reader was NOT my friend during this time.  Why?  Because I had over one thousand posts to read.  ONE THOUSAND. 

Now how did I get THERE you ask?  Well, because I joined up on the class Blogging for Scrapbookers over a year ago, there was a subscription list created from all of the people who joined the class and wanted to be on the list.  I have/had that loaded into Google Reader.  In addition, through some of my other classes or from people who have commented on my blog, I have chosen to "follow" certain blogs, and those show up on my Google Reader as well.  And, because I am who I am, I didn't want to delete anyone from the Blogging for Scrapbookers subscription until I actually visited them at least once.

But a few days ago?  Enough was enough!  I was struggling in many areas (as I shared here) and when I went to my Google Reader I was just thoroughly done with being overwhelmed.  I hit a button I thought I would never hit:  Mark All As Read.  "Over 1,000" went down immediately to ZERO. 

I'm not sure I could explain to you the feeling I had... it was like... well, it was like the sun broke through the clouds and a magical rainbow appeared and the bluebirds sang and swooped down and dressed me, along with the help of some little mice, in the most gorgeous ball gown possible complete with sparkly glass slippers that fit perfectly upon my feet.  Fairy dust sprinkled all around me....

.... oh, wait, that was a movie I once saw.  Sorry. 

Ahem.

Okay, well, let's just say that I felt very FREE and LIGHT and like I should dance a little jig or something.  The next day when I went to Google Reader, I inwardly cringed because I wondered if there would be 500 or more messages there waiting for me.

A sigh of relief escaped me when I saw:  26

How much more manageable that was for me.  And I felt lighthearted as I browsed quickly through those 26 messages (some of you are so ambitious to be posting several times in a single day!) and was able to comment on so many blogs without feeling the weight of "over 1000" calling me back to Reader.

And now?

No Unread Items!  It's PARTY TIME!