Weekend...

It's quarter past seven on Friday morning and the sky is still black. The morning air is crisp with the onset of autumn, and I'm giddy for the weekend.

Tomorrow my friend Q and my daughter and I are embarking on our annual (though it seems to happen about every OTHER year these days) one-day (for the baby's sake) colour tour. For Q and I it's a return to our roots, as our destination is where we "landed" the first time we did this. It's called Uncle John's Cider Mill and I totally anticipate it being a LOT of fun.
My friend Q is a veritable font of everything good in a friend: she's funny, she's honest, she's profound, she's silly, and most and best of all, she makes me feel REALLY good about who I am.
My daughter absolutely LOVES the outdoors, and between the cider, donuts, train ride, wagon ride to the pick your own pumpkin patch, and corn maze, she will be in her glory tomorrow.

My only REAL concern right now is the traffic we'll likely face, as tomorrow is also the Great Michigan College Football Rivalry Game - where Q's alma mater (and my husband's) the University of Michigan will be battling it out against my old boss's and my friend Belle's alma mater Michigan State University. They're playing in East Lansing... which is due north of Uncle John's - on the same route as Uncle John's.

But what's a little traffic on a "don't have to rush to get there because we don't have a time line" kind of day?

Sunday is most likely going to be a day of lumber. We still have a significant number of trees that need to be cut into fireplace size so that they're ready for the log splitter... not to mention a significant number of trees that still need to be cut down and dragged to the wood pile... not to mention a wood "shed" that needs to be repaired, second and third and likely fourth and fifth storage areas that need to be "constructed", and all sorts of other winter preparations that need to be made before we're doing it in the snow.

I have a suspicion that we're going to be purchasing a high powered log splitter this year, instead of renting... but I could be wrong.

Ok - people are starting to arrive...

Have a great day - and a butt-kick weekend!

...a little like this

You're driving, successfully, down the road. You know where the brake AND accelerator pedals are. Both of your hands are on the steering wheel, and you have a pleasant-happy smile on your face.

Then all of a sudden a charcoal colored Vibe with spider decals in the windows and a slightly frustrated but optimistic looking red-head (with brown roots that are almost long enough to be dangerous) pulls into the lane behind you.

Suddenly your accelerator pedal disappears, your brake pedal becomes intermittent (available only seconds before you have to stomp on it to prevent being part of a multi-car pile-up), your cell phone rings, your other cell phone rings, a cigarette (you never smoked before!) is about to burn you, and there's a chocolate shake: all in your lap / all over the passenger seat / being used as a missile by your youngest child (you choose), and what's worse, your car has just developed a NASTY exhaust problem. You do NOT have a smile on your face, and all of your fingers (except your middle one) on your right hand fall off.

Sound ridiculous? Sound impossible?

I thought so too, but I have recently been paying a LOT of attention on my commute both to and from work, and invariably, the cars in front of me on the expressway are representative of the situation I just described above.

At least it's already Thursday.

Nickel and Dime

I am not an idiot. I just need to get that out there before I relate any of the following...

Ok - so now that you know I'm not an idiot, let me also remind you that occasionally I can be distracted from the finest of details by good news, interesting news, a fluff of dust-bunny drifting past the doorway...

I made a STUPID mistake on a report I just sent out.

I HATE making stupid mistakes. OK - I hate making mistakes in general... but ESPECIALLY stupid ones.

The good news is that I've booked our tickets for the Halloween at Greenfield Village event.
I have "ordered" the baby's flu shot (for her next visit at the end of October).
I have secured another case of Diabetic cat food for Ghengis.
And - despite the ridiculous error on the second report I sent out this morning - I've already sent out 3 reports this morning.

Not exactly a Rock Star Salamander morning, but not an entirely evil one either.

And then...

Maybe yesterday wasn't the best day to start my minimizing plan.

Not that I did poorly yesterday, I had salad for lunch and a pretty reasonable burrito for dinner.

But this morning - ugh - this morning was a pancake breakfast - for charity - at work. How can you pass up a pancake breakfast - for charity - on a Friday?

Even that would have been fine, I think, if the stress of the new job and my unfaltering inability to make a financial report work on the first try - EVER - pushed me over the stress-edge, and I wolfed down the 5 powdered sugar "donettes" that were so cruelly sitting in my snack bag.

If I didn't eat ANYTHING else for the rest of the day - or even if I just stuck to a harmless salad for dinner, I might be on the verge of ok for my diet plan. But alas...

It's Friday - which is my "Lunch with Q Day" (except when I'm not working or only working a half a day on Friday - then we push it back to earlier in the week) - and today lunch with Q is at Ogla's Kitchens - which is NOT a nice bland salad place for me to eat.

A possible solution - obviously - is for me to spend all of the time from when I get home to when I collapse in bed working out. But I somehow doubt that's likely to happen.

Most likely, I'll have my nice lunch with Q.
Come back to the office and have a meeting that will stress me into eating the pop-tart I didn't have yesterday, and then go home.
The stress of the commute will probably encourage me to make something comfort food-y for dinner (a nice juicy roast and some mashed potatoes and roasted carrots perhaps?) which after preparing I will devour, and then, in food coma, plant my ass in the comfy chair quietly playing with my daughter until one or both of us is too tired to be in decent company any more, then off to bed where all of the fat from all of my OH-SO-unhealthy eating for the day will immediately migrate to my previously planted ass, hips, thighs, and (new to the hit parade) stomach.

It might not be THAT bad. There is the possibility that I will take a postprandial walk with one or more of my family members down the tree-lined street on which we live... or perhaps, due to the cool weather it will be a bonfire-in-the-back-yard evening (no marshmallows - please!!!) which could possibly entail some heavy-ish lifting on my part.

OK my dear dear friends... thanks to your keen ears and attentive hearts, I have talked myself OUT of the comfy chair and into something a little like active after a good meal and before some good (and much needed) rest.

Thank you!

Poetry, Size, and Videotape

I heard once, I think it was in Abelard and Heloise, a lovely definition of Poetry...
Poetry is a mirror held to truth.
I've actually believe that to be true of all art... but that's beside the point.

Tuesday when I got home from work my family and I gathered 'round the television to watch videos of my daughter that they took that day at the grand opening of the Northville/Maybury State Park farm. My father has worked on this project almost exclusively since early this year. It's a great source of pride for him (I am proud of what he's done there as well) and it was a celebratory moment for he and his friends who put in many months of hard work.

By the way - my daughter had a rollicking good time - playing with horses, scaring turkeys, and dancing her little hiney off to the pounding groove of a dulcimer (and other instruments in a thrown together country band).

Anywho - while we were watching THOSE videos, we also took a quick break to look at some videos we'd take earlier in the year: one with her in bed with me, and a couple of us in the swimming pool. And - well - it was an awakening.

I had NO idea - not really - of how much weight I've gained... how gelatinous my stomach and thighs are... that I have fat rolls ON MY BACK. {shudder}

And if that wasn't incentive enough... yesterday mom came home with vacation photos. Vacation At The Beach photos, to be precise. I have two words:

NOT PRETTY

On the heels of these two words come a few, final, more.

I AM GOING ON A DIET AND EXERCISE PROGRAM.

I figure if I get you all involved in it with me, there's hope - a fleeting chance - that I will stick with it and actually do more than TALK about taking better care of myself. After all, Blogging it means I now have accoutablitiy for it.... right?

Moment of Weakness

Yesterday, as I was making my way through the too close for comfort but not quite bumper to bumper traffic of my hour long commute home, I looked up the road a bit at the window of a cranberry red mini-van in front of me.

There, hanging out the window, was a hand flicking a cigarette butt, attached to the arm of its owner by a wrist boldly bedecked in a bright yellow "live strong" bracelet.

My stomach turned with the power of self-righteous indignation.

Later when I told my husband this story, he reminded me that maybe that person was just having a moment of weakness.

My husband has a beautiful way of gently reminding me of my own moments of weakness.

Knee Deep

I'm finally deep enough into Lucy that I won't push her aside for something else... but only just barely.

I'm almost established in my new office (which is still slightly barren)... and working my way into being established in the job itself.

I've started taking vitamins again... we'll see how long I stick with it this time.

I think I'm going to take all of my CD's home again... I never listen to them here anymore.

I've decided on a Halloween costume for the baby - now I just have to get myself around making it.

I have my fingers crossed for my husband who is looking for the ever elusive brighter and better.

I am feeling the first twinges of a long off urge to have dinner plans with someone again.

Life is knee deep...

OH, And...

I finished Eldest - quite some time ago - last Friday.
I'm just as impressed as I ever was.

And now, painfully anxious for the next book.

Last Day

Whew.
It's been a long haul.

I have a few last items to tie up around here - some training, some sharing, a little lunch, a LOT of packing/moving.

My new team is anxiously awaiting my arrival - I got a really good taste of that yesterday.
My old team - at least some members of it - have made me aware that they're really sad to see me go.

I'm starting to feel the stress subside.

Eldest Update

In lieu of actually "living" I am still immersed in work, family life, and reading this exceptionally well-written but SERIOUSLY long book. It's over 600 pages. I have about 70 left. I am not bringing it to work because people invariably want to interrupt me during my lunch these days (with only 5 more working days before the big switch), and I'm fairly certain I'd be sorely tempted to bite someone if they dared to interrupt my reading.

It's a really good book.

Year Two

Today is mine and my husband's second wedding anniversary.

Tonight my husband and I will be having a nice dinner and possibly even watching a movie together.

There have been a lot of moments over the course of the past couple of years... life is moments.

I love him.
I love him more than I expected.

There are going to be a lot more moments over the arc of the future... life is moments.

And I love him...

... I can taste it...

9 days.

I'm doing a bunch of traning this week and next.

I'm very excited.

Dawn

Much of my morning commute is Eastward.
During some of the summer months this is absolutely miserable, as the sun is blasting my retinas for much of the drive.
Now, though, thanks to the creeping onset of autumn (and through winter and spring) I peek into the waking of the sun.

This morning was brilliant... above the carefully stitched double row of red, above the highway-green road signs, above the street lights and beyond the stresses of the morning rush, summer-weary trees bowed in silhouette against the muted rainbow of dawn climbing up the horizon. A deep rusty ochery salmon and coral and lemon and lime and aquamarine reached up to the sky-horizon of predawn blue and violet in a quiet peaceful powergrab for day. The slightest sliver of late late late night moon, slipped to the bottom of the bowl and slightly below and to her right, Venus I think - who has always been my wishing "star" wished me a good morning before slipping into invisibility in the bright shadow of the rising sun.

THIS is how I started today... and it is the mood and feeling and peace and calm that I am determined to carry with me through the course of the day, tucked safely in a pocket of my memory - like a lavender sachet.

Move over Kate...

I have just had an Awakening.

If I want to have an interesting blog, I need to do more living.

I mean, sure, there are a world of amazing things fluffling around inside my head... probably - ok possibly - even a brilliant thought or two (i.e. fart farming) that might make the world a better place to live (either by virtue of the amazingness of my ingenuity, or the greatness of my mind)...

But if I'm not living - doing - being - acting (apart from eating, sleeping, and occasionally reading, and ugh - working) then there's really nothing WORTH talking about... and I should just stop.

Ha ha ha - I love it when I crack me up - this entry is being posted several some hours before the labor day weekend which I have VOWED will be three days of nothing but self-indulgent sloth.

From the FinTank Dictionary:
Sloth -
Pronunciation: 'sloth, 'slÃth also 'slOth
1: passing the weekend reading, sitting on the porch swing, grilling, running an obligatory pass or two of the lawnmower, and POSSIBLY weeding the front flower bed