My Life. Medication Optional.

I know I should write more substantive posts, and I will (probably) but for now let's just be grateful for the small things.

Life is super, as always.  I can to a really nice relevation about why I enjoy my job.  It's not an important job or a fancy job.  It do=esn't require a degree of any kind.  It works perfectly for me, though. (If you missed it earlier, I'm a grocery merchandiser, part-time.) I get to go to the store, work my product, order and stock, talk to other vendors, issue credits, plan for the week, etc.  I love it.  It has just enough structure to make me fee comfortable, since I have to do certain things every week and day, but enough freedom to make my life easier. I can alter my schedule if need be, and I can work longer to get projects done as well.

Some times I feel guilty for enjoying it so much, especially when I know several other people who don't love what they do.

What else? Lots of family engagements this week, which is equal parts nice and stressful.  The family is awesome, but we require space from people in order to maintain a sense of peace in the house.  After tonight we should have some free evenings again.

TV-wise , I'm watching Justified (the show I watch with the hubby, very dry and funny), Parenthood (SO GOOD!) and V.  And lots of Noggin. Oh, and The Ultimate Fighter.  I watch that with the husband and he watches Top Chef with me.  Good times.

Can't think of anything outstandingly original to post, so I'll just go with a life update.

Back to watching my nephew full-time.  It's nine pm and he's whining about being tired but still wanting to take a shower. *sigh*

I've been really restless and funked lately, so much so that today I hit the gym twice.


Man, I've got nothing.

I waste a great deal of time on the internet.  I justify it by saying that I spend most of that time reading (true), so it's educational (define educational). I must be honest, however.  I spend a great deal of time reading blogs about the Gosselin family from Jon and Kate Plus 8.  Actually, most of the stuff I read is about how a bunch of women decided Kate was evil and doesn't deserve to have a) money b) kids c) fame d) happiness e) a public career f) cute clothes g) a nice body h) any one to like her, ever.

I read it because I just don't get the hate.  I mean, yeah, she's not a super nice person.  Newsflash! Most people aren't. And yeah, she got lots of money to let a TV crew film her kids.  Well, her husband was there and he said yes too, but no one blames him for it.  And if some one offered us cold, hard cash to film us, I'd get a lawyer and sign up.  Hey, my kid is cute and money is money.  I don't think playing around while people film you is devastating to a kids' life.  Plus, kids cost money.  A lot of money.  You think I work in a grocery store for the sheer joy of it? Well, actually, I love my job, but part of the love comes from the fact that it pays reasonably well.  And I'm planning to negotiate a raise in a few months.

Kate's going to be on Dancing With the Stars and I say good for her.  Her deadbeat husband doesn't have a job and that show pays nicely.  Seriously, $100,000 just to be on?  That's a few weeks on training and one episode.  My kid would deal with me being gone for that kind of cash and I find it hard to believe that others don't feel the same way.  Now, I certainly don't think that money is everything and we try to live a frugal life.  However, living a frugal life means making smart financial choices and if being away for a few weeks nets you a year or more of income (that would be more than my and my husband's income combined), then it is a smart move.

I am really lucky in the fact that I love my job.  What I do isn't life-changing, or even significant, really.  It's just putting some products on a shelf, but I really get something out of it. 

I love the fact that I work alone.  My boss is 5 hours away, so unless he plans to come and see me, I only have email and phone contact with him.  I don't have any co-workers and I can set my own schedule, with a little structure.  I created a binder with each day of the week listed and what needs to be taken care of for each day.  I started a system of dating products to reduce the credits I write.  In the busy summer time I willingly come in for an extra hour some evenings to fill up the shelves.

I live the independence, I like the structure with flexibility, I like the satisfaction of doing my work well, without direct supervision.  I also really like the actual work.  I like walking the store, putting the product away.  Yeah, it sounds boring, but what it is for me is Zen.  I can get everything put away without a large degree of concentration.  My mind wanders and I have the time to plan my day, make goals, think about things I've seen and read, even just tune everything out and think of nothing.  It is the best benefit I'll never tell them about.

so I stole it back to post here.  It's recycling!

In case you missed it, I hate snow.  A lot.  The first snow of the year is fine.  It's new, it's novel, it's pretty.  Then it melts and it's slushy and muddy and ugly and useless.  Where I live you can have three inches of snow in the morning (that's a good size snow) and have it gone by 2pm.  This year we have had 325% more snow than normal.  It's snowing right now.  My birthday is in four days (but who's counting?) and I want no more snow for the rest of the year.  (Thanks in advance!)

My daughter just took off her diaper, put it in the linen closet and ran past me saying 'How do I look?  As she ran past her dad he said 'You look naked.'

I'm seriously considering recaping the random shows I watch on TV.  I've seen this 7th Heaven episode enough times today that I can quote dialogue.

The list would go like this (IE, crap I have watched this week):
7th Heaven
Real Housewives of OC
Max and Ruby
Psych
Friends
The Golden Girls
Child's Play 2

Nephew: "You're mean! I'm never coming here again!"

Me: "Promises, promises."

Today the goofy Facebook theme is celebs you have been told you resemble.  I've only ever been told one, but I was excited, because I dig Melissa Joan Hart.  I suspect I'm kind of a dork. 

Wishful thinking?

I run Mozilla FireFox because A) IE is sloooow B) Firefox has an awesome add-on that gets rid of all ads and C) cool add-ons that I just discovered.

I now have an add-on that makes the tabs at the top of the screen different colors.  It's my own personal rainbow!  I love it!  I'm definitely going to look up more add-ons.  In the meantime, here's where I got it.

FireFox Rainbow Tabs Add-On

I did something horrendous to my shoulder and it's swollen, hot to the touch and hurts like hell.  I've been mainlining Ibuprofen and Icyhot with no major relief.  Thank god That 70's Show and early 90210 are on to ease my pain.

I'm also managing to play on the Internet, even though it is my right shoulder and I have to keep my arm at my side at all times to avoid excruciating pain.  I believe I deserve a dedicated blogger award.  More readers would be a fabulous reward, FYI.

It's day three of the thyroid meds.  I sort of felt like I had more energy today, but it could be a placebo effect.  I'm trying not to obsess about it but A) I'm obsessive and B) I'm supposed to take my pulse a few times a day to make sure it's not too high, so it's not like I stop thinking about it. 

In other news, I need to do a final check of my Big Love recap and that's done for the week.  I've been a bot more active with my writing, which has been great.  Doing these recaps has been great for giving me a nice little hobby.  I'm considering recapping something else for this site when Big Love goes on hiatus. 

I'm pretty shocked I'm still blogging, to be honest.  I'm treating it like a journal, which is helping and I like the idea of people paying attention to me via my writing.  Oh hell, I just like the idea of attention.

What else?  I'm crazy hungry lately.  I've gotten bad at planning my meals and about snacking whenever.  I'm still maintaining my weight loss, but I worry it will come back if I keep this up.  One thing I wonder about with the new medicine is if it will cause anymore weight loss or maybe make it a little easier to maintain what I have already lost.  Guess we'll see. 

Do  you ever have moments where you just don't know how you feel?  I know that I feel something, I'm just not sure what.  I'm not really happy, exactly, but I'm not sad.  I'm not upset about anything but I don't feel super zen, either.  I'm not very energetic, but I'm not sloth-like.  I'm not up or down or left or right.  I'm not...anything.  Shouldn't I be something? I want to be something.  Maybe I'm anxious, since I'm worried about something as weird as this.

Still sick, which means I hate pretty much everything.  I'm playing on the internet and the Wii.  I have five more days to beat Super Mario Galaxy before Movie Gallery demands it back.  I'm also working on my recap, so I'm not going to post here much.  Of course, no one reads my blog, so I doubt it's an issue.  Just stating it for the record.

1lb Ground Turkey
1 Packet Chili Seasoning
1 Can Kidney Beans
1 Can Chili Beans
1 Can Black Beans
1 Can Tomato Paste
1 Can Tomato Sauce

Brown turkey in a pan, toss everything into a crockpot for about 3 hours on low.  Alternately, you could put everything in a large soup/stock pot on the stove on low for a few hours. It's good, healthy and easy.

I read stupid, horrible blogs like Gosselins w/o Pity, because I find people who hate that show entertaining.

I listen to goofy music at the gym.  For example: Britney Spears, The Hairspray soundtrack, the Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack.

I like gossip.

I am probably addicted to the internet. 

I always want to let people know when I do something awesome.

I sometimes wish I had more friends.

I sometimes wish I was more assertive IRL.

I think about my weight a lot.

I daydream way more than you would imagine.

I sometimes pretend like I don't hear Hannah crying in the middle of the night so Jeff will get her.  I may have nudged his leg to wake him up, once or twice.

I completely believe in bribing kids.  Especially other people's kids.

I used to freak out my sister in the store when we were kids by pretending I didn't know her and saying 'Stranger, stranger!'

I still don't feel bad about it.