Friday Five–2009 First Quarter

These are actually from last week, but whatever….

Next week marks the end of the first quarter of 2009, so how about a little report card?

1. Would you say 2009 so far is meeting expectation, exceeding expectations, or failing to meet expectations?
2. What letter grade would you give yourself for your performance at work or school?
3. On a scale from 1 to 10, how happy have you been with the weather so far in 2009?
4. Which of the Motion Picture Association of America’s film ratings would you give your social life so far in 2009?
5. 2009’s parents are on the phone and want to know how 2009 can improve its performance. What have been 2009’s areas of strength and what are its areas for growth in the second quarter?

1. So far, I’ve really enjoyed 2009. I had a feeling it would be a good year, and so far I’m very happy with it. I can’t believe it’s already mid-March. It seems like it was only a month ago that Car and I drove around looking for that damn party (with the wrong f*cking address!!).  I’ve sat outside a lot, I’ve sorta worked on my house, I’ve really worked on the one Agreement–being impeccable with your word, which sometimes means saying less than usual.

2. My own performance? Maybe a low to mid B. Although I’ve enjoyed this year a lot, I’ve been super lazy. I come home and sit and watch TV. Yeah, I cook and knit (I know!! Is it the 1950’s?!). And I go to the gym. But in some ways, I don’t know if I’ve given my ALL. Maybe I should work on that Agreement–Always Do Your Best.

3. It’s hard to answer about the weather when this week has been absolutely perfect. And I’ve been out in the weather every single day this week. And last week’s weather was super crappy. Like nasty, yucky, cold. I think on a whole, I’d give the weather an 8.

4. Social Life? I’d say PG-13. PG is a bit too tame for my wild antics, but I have drank a lot and even smoked a few cigarettes (I KNOW!). Definitely NOT an R-rating, so PG-13 seems most fitting, I guess.

5. Hi, Mr. and Mrs. 2009! 2009 is very positive, and always sees the positive in things. I think 2009 has been full of procrastination and she should work a bit harder on getting stuff done.

Yes, I avoided bail outs and new leadership and the failing economy and all that gross stuff. We still have people at war, and people are famous for having litters. I didn’t mention those things. I’m pretty selfish and only wanted to talk about me!  Like I told KT last night, I really feel like I’m on the brink of something good. I don’t know if it’ll happen next week or two years from now, but it will happen soon.

Midnight Oil or, I have ADD when it comes to cleaning

Today as I went through my day, I thought of various blogs to blog. They were all over the place. I have no idea what they were now.

So here’s some random tid-bits about me. I’m warning you now, this is pretty rambly…

When I don’t have work or school, I often start working. Like project working. Sometimes even when I do have somewhere to be the next day, I start projecting. I start the cleaning.

After a very bad accident in 2000, I remember being my apartment. Pain was still bad enough I was taking Vicodin (thank you, Abbott Laboratories), but it must have been under control enough that I could do things. (There was a while there where I couldn’t do much at all.) I took a Vicodin or two, thinking it would help me sleep. I remember cleaning. Like crazy. It must have been. I remember sitting on my closet floor, thinking to myself, “wow, I’ve got a lot done.” Or maybe I thought how odd it was the Vicodin had the opposite of what I expected. I don’t know. I do know that I stayed up late cleaning and clearing.

I know there were times in high school that, if I didn’t have school the next day, I’d start clearing out my desk or rummage through my closet or clean out mostly-used shampoo bottles.  It’s like I don’t want to waste daylight, but if I’m awake and it’s night, it’s not like I’m going to go do something!

So, here I am again. I mostly cleaned my kitchen (minus the floors) this morning. Today I got a shelving system to use as my pantry. I just finished putting it together–no tools required! I can’t figure out if I like it or not. I don’t know if I like everyone seeing my business, but I know it was all visible before, too. Now it’s just more spread out.

So, I put it up. Then I need to sweep. Maybe then I should put these little carriers in the office. Wait, while I’m in the office, I should put these pens in here. Oh, but this is a mess here. I can’t handle this mess. That mess will have to wait.

Should I enjoy the bed? Should I disfruta the energy I have to actually do some cleaning? Maybe I should use this energy to read those two books I got today (Ah! there was that other blog!). Maybe I should blog. Maybe I should check facebook again.

I know what will happen. I’ll go back to the shelving. I’ll scrunch my nose, tilt my head, slide things around. I may try to do a bit in the office. Or not.

I am sleepy, but I do think I have a bit left in me to move and shuffle my stuff around.

YUMMY!!

You know how sometimes people post blogs about food they like? Well, now I’m doing that, too. Happened to pick these up at the store and it’s taking tons of will power not to eat the entire canister in one sitting. And now looking at the website, I see there are other delicious flavors.

Check it:

And also:

Those are the two I’ve tried. I can’t wait to try the others.  You like the weirdly spicy stuff? You like almonds? These are your treat!!

Foods

So I did horribly on the eating last week. I was like a bottomless pit. I’m sure psychiatrists would love a hack at what I was “feeding,” although I tired to snack healthily. Sorta.

When I freak like that and see a big gain on Mondays (my weigh in day), I don’t write what I gained, but wait until Tuesday. I decided to go ahead and write the almost 4 pound gain. Argh. Overall trend, yeah I get it. I know.

I did better-ish today. Had a bit of a panic when I wasn’t able to eat what I wanted at school today. I appreciate appreciation lunches, really I do. But when a piece of chicken cordon bleu is 13 points (almost half my daily allowance), it makes it hard to eat the whole thing. But then I ate two cookies.

I was going to work out today, but didn’t.  Ended up going to the grocery store instead, partly to arm myself for the week. I got stuff to make baked mac and cheese and also an “Asian-inspired” 0-point soup. I don’t think I had many dinner options at home last week (although I do need to post pictures from my tagine experience!)

So, even though I was over points for the day, as my mac and cheese baked, I ate a “salad” (really it was just some mixed greens with dressing, nothing fancy). The mac and cheese turned out pretty good. I made a few modifications and some were better than others. After I ate, I made the Asian soup (smells good) and also cut up a very small pineapple.

They say in WW when you’re struggling, you should go back over the materials. I read some of the message boards today. There was a post about how important it is to get in your “healthy checks.” These include at least 5 fruits and veggies, 2 milks, 2 oils, waters, vitamins, exercise, and so on. The poster said that you’re supposed to plan your meals around those first and then filling in the blanks with other stuff. Now, I don’t know how well I can do that, or how well I’ll put for the effort, but I know it does make sense.

So I think I was a vegetable/fruit short today. (I ate the salad so I could get those two more in). I got in my milks (love chocolate milk!), ate my oils (1 tsp. on a piece of toast, 1 tsp on my mac and cheese). Vitamins are easy. Already confessed to no working out. No alcohol today, and I limited my sugars. No wait, guess I did have two cookies.

So tomorrow for lunch, I have a few options. Salad and soup or salad and mac’n'cheese or some sort of combination of those things.

I’ve noticed that I do best when I have a big huge protein for breakfast, like eggs, so I bought a dozen eggs today, too. Although Go Lean cereal boasts 9 grams of protein, I’m still hungry early on in the day. I usually have cottage cheese (the Activ stuff that has lots of fiber) around 10:30, but don’t have any more of that. Not sure yet what tomorrow’s snack will be.

So, there I am, saying it out loud. You know how I look at weeks like today? I did pretty good today. Yeah, snacked but whatever. But it was “pretty good.” And I’m armed with good meals for tomorrow. And I’ll be walking tomorrow.

Just sayin’.

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The instructions were to go to your google reader and type a word in the search box and then type 10 sentences that could provide valuable insight to future generations to come (slightly paraphrased).

…and is content crawling around.

…. the fat content

….to be content is to color within the lines.

…I was content with my current equipment.

…satisfied and content

…to be perfectly content with that.

…the adult content found in most of the messages

…moderate butter content

…pretty content, over all, with my consistent if not spectacular performance.

…happy and content with their unencumbered state