This was a movie to watch if you like any of the main actors or have a lot of time on your hands. The story line was interesting, though I felt that some of the characters (Bill Pullman) and scenes were sort of dropped into the story randomly. Movies about alcoholics are kind of interesting and I felt like the main character’s attempts to become sober were accurately depicted, though I have no first-hand experience.
Okay, we were really snowed in today. The Max line wasn’t running due to frozen switches. I did very well with my guidelines.
I mostly felt uncomfortable during this supposed “vibrant and uplifiting comedy.” I couldn’t get over the idea that 5.3 million American women experience abuse such as the main character experienced (and worse), yet we rarely see movies about this topic. This movie was beautifully filmed and I enjoyed the main characters and especially Andy Griffith, but I can’t really recommend it.
I’m hoping that the three-week break will bring an end to this particularly hardy strain, but I’m also worried that without our constant emails about the state of the lice infestation, the lice have been colonizing heads, ready to come back stronger than ever. For the sake of the parents and staff, I hope that isn’t the case.
How did it go? Pretty well.
I did get up, went jogging (4) and got dressed (1). For work (5) I spent from 8:30-3:00 (includes transportation time) decorating the tree at my Aunt Pat’s house. I also wrote my Christmas letter and went by the library to see if I could pick up the books on hold. Sadly, they were closed because of the snow. Oh! And I shoveled the walk. I just loaded up the dish washer (7) though have not picked up the house at all today. I actually packaged up the rest of my apple from breakfast this morning because I was full (9) but did get a little full for lunch and dinner.
On the didn’t side.
No nap (6) today, so well under my 30 minute limit. There was no studying for the math test (2) though that was on purpose as I want to take a 2 hour practice test tomorrow, so that will count for both days. I made my food plan (8) this morning, instead of last night. I haven’t watched a movie today, but if I do, I have my eye on a pomegranate (10) in the fridge.
On the maybe side:
I still have 34 minutes left of blog time (3) I may do the full hour.
First in an occasional series.
One thing that often happens on semi-crowded buses, is that people will “move to the back” but stop at about the point where the woman is wearing the tan coat, instead of walking up the rear steps all the way to the back of the bus. Then other people can’t get by them, so the front of the bus becomes quite crowded while often there are still some seats left in the very back. If people would instead walk all the way to the very back of the bus, more people would be transported more comfortably.
Remember, the key to happy public transportation is to not only watch out for yourself, but your fellow travelers too.
Well, this evening begins my two weeks of Winter Break. One of the perks of my job is that I have a lot of vacation. Would that every American had this much vacation, I think we would be a much happier and healthier country.
As much as I love vacation, I sometimes get a bit off track. When free from the normal structures of my life, I sometimes want to be free from all structure and some parts of my vacations have passed in a food coma haze where I also either watch to many movies, read too many books or both.
The problem is that if I keep to my normal routine it doesn’t feel like vacation, it just feels like work in a different place. But if I discard all my routines I become a bit too free and that isn’t pleasurable either. Sometimes I have a project that keeps me occupied, but I wasn’t feeling up to a whole project thing this break. So instead, I decided to have guidelines. Things that aren’t quite my normal routine, but are things that will most likely make for a pleasurable vacation. Here they are:
1. Get up and dress to the shoes.
This is a Flylady thing. Flylady is always going on about putting on your shoes so you are prepared for anything. I’ve found it is true for me, and it is so cold that I need to wear shoes right now anyway.
2. One hour review for math test.
It’s coming up right after break is over and I would love to pass it the first time.
3. One hour work on the blogs.
The other one is caught up, but this one is horribly behind. Hopefully, I can chip away at this and get this post up in January or *gasp* December.
4. One hour of exercise.
Although if I jog, then 25 minutes plus stretching will do. I feel so much better if I exercise and it, sadly, is one of the main things that falls apart during vacations.
5. Four hours work.
“Work” means anything I am doing that is not officially leisurely. I’ve got a lot of little this and that in the project realm that could be finished, I could work on the blogs or do some house cleaning. Running errands counts too.
6. Maximum nap time: 30 minutes.
As vacations go on my naps tend to get longer which messes up my overnight sleep. I know that I can have 30 lovely minutes of napping (one of my favorite parts of vacation) without affecting my sleep, so that is where I will draw the line.
7. Keep up with dishes and picking up.
There is nothing worse then attempting to eat a lovely lunch and finding that there is no clean silverware. Okay, there are worse things, but a lack of silverware is a vacation downer.
8. Plan food the day before.
When at home, I tend to react with excitement to every item I see in the refrigerator. Thus my meals can become quite large. This should keep them normally sized.
9. Eat only when hungry and stop when full.
Yet another challenge while on break. Life is better for me when I can do this, though.
10. When watching movies, eat nothing or fruits and vegetables.
I have stockpiled a bunch of movies to watch over the break. I usually like to have popcorn, but fourteen days of popcorn would not be a pretty thing. However, I can have one bowl of popcorn, as long as I stick to having fruits and veggies the rest of the time.
I’ll check in mostly daily and see how I do.
On the last day of school before winter break, a snow day was called. That was no different for me than the four previous days which were also snow days for west side schools. So I have a three week winter break, instead of the scheduled two week break. I did go into work for a few hours this morning to put together a lunch order for the day we go back to school and then ran some errands downtown. It was snowing Hollywood snow, the kind you always see on TV: big wet flakes floating slowly to the ground, and it looked lovely in Pioneer Square.
One thing I always remember about snow in Boise, is how a light snow would fall and cover everything, including the parking lots. People would drive to the mall, or the store, or someplace with a parking lot and take their best guess as to where the spaces were. They would then go in a shop, or perhaps work. Meanwhile the temperature would warm up and the snow would melt, exposing the actual parking spaces, many of which were difficult to park in, because the people who guessed would have guessed wrong, yet their cars were still there, parked outside the lines.
With that memory in mind, I was pleased to see this ingenious solution at a parking lot near my work.
