Comments (19) A homeless woman just shouted at me, “You’re infected with disease you disgusting whore!”
Is it that obvious?!
New Year’s Resolution: Cover up the fact that I am a disgusting whore infected with disease. It’s gonna be hard, but I think 2009 is the year I can finally do it!
Happy New Year’s!
My Metra wish, that is.
All I could think about at the end of the day was getting home. I had a wonderful Christmas, but I am exhausted. I feel dead tired – more tired than I’ve felt in a long time. This month is just wearing me out, and our travels aren’t over yet – we’re flying to Kansas City on Thursday. It’s fun to spend this time of year with family (or any time), but the back to back traveling just kills me.
The holidays just aren’t the same as they used to be.
Anyway. The train I was taking out of Chicago tonight went about 500 feet then stopped for an hour. We saw cop cars pull up and a stretcher go by. No announcements were ever made. People on the train started to complain to one another. One man said “We’re like hostages on this train!”
Why tonight, on a night when I just want to get home? I tried to relax and make the most of my time sitting there… but really, I’m stuck on a train. There’s not much “making the most of my time.”
Bleh. When will I feel energized again?
Soon, please, soon!
(Even though this is written in the past tense, I am still on this gd train as I post this!)
Yeah, so… that half marathon training I mentioned… it’s not going so well actually, uh… cough cough.
Maybe a week and a half before Christmas isn’t the right time to start a training program (EXCUSES! BS ALERT!). We were only home two nights out of five during the week, and out of the house all day Saturday. Steven still ran on Sunday night (he is doing great with the training), but I had that sugar overload, and felt sick even thinking about running.
Do I even deserve the awesome running gal necklace I ordered myself for Christmas? (Thanks, Kim! But uh, can you still call yourself a runner? You only ran once last week!)
I spend a lot of time imagining how things are going to be. When I was in college, it was what it would be like living with Steven. I also imagined what my first job would be like, what the wedding would be like, what the honeymoon would be like. I even think about simple things like what my evening, or weekend, or someone opening a gift will be like. I work out this optimistic, perfect scenario in my head.
Well, those things are never what I expect them to be, because they have other people involved. That’s just the nature of life. But my running is all about me. It is one of the only things I can imagine and actually see through on my own. Yeah, I run with Steven, but our records and exercise plans are still ours. Neither one of us controls the other’s routine, goals, or body.
So, maybe I should take more control. Since I actually have the opportunity to do so.
And I am sure I will. Once I have some actually freaking FREE TIME. Ugh. Really, I love the holidays, but they are STRESSFUL. Just because we aren’t hosting them, doesn’t mean we get to relax 100%. We have to drive there, fly there, get the presents there, pack the bags, pack the house… blah blah blah. It’s not fun. It’s a PAIN IN THE BUTT.
Hmm. Where did all of that come from?
Back on track. I bought Steven the Garmin Forerunner 405 watch for his birthday. (Yes, another watch. And yes, he knew what I got him.) Whenever we run outside, he is always saying how he wants to know our pace, and how far we actually ran and so on and so forth. Well, this watch will tell him all that. And more. I’m excited to do some long runs outside, with it. I mean, with Steven wearing it. Of course.
Think I’ll (we’ll?) actually run over the holidays though?
Today is Steven’s birthday. Can you guess how old he is?
When I asked Steven what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, he said he wanted a “huge bavarian creme donut.” “Not twice the size of a normal doughnut, but like, four times bigger.”
Hmm.
I sent an email to our favorite bakery, to see if they could accommodate the request:
Dear Deerfield’s, My husband loves your bavarian cream donuts. I was planning on ordering a cake from your store for him for his birthday, but he asked if I could order him a big bavarian cream donut with chocolate frosting. Is it possible to order something like that? I think he just means bigger than a normal donut, about four times the size. I would order it for pick up on Dec. 21st. Thanks for letting me know (and for humoring me!) Kimberly
They responded right away:
Hello, We don’t make a “jumbo” donut however we can either do a layered birthday cake with a custard filling or a Bavarian Cream Pie which has 2 layers of yellow cake filled with Bavarian Cream and topped with fudge icing. Please call Customer Service @ 847-520-0068 ext. 4 to place your order, Thank you. Cindy
At least they humored me. I laughed when I saw “jumbo” in quotation marks.
So, Steven didn’t get his “jumbo” donut – he got the leaning tower of donuts (thanks for the suggestion, Denise!) as well as a birthday cake, and some black and white cookies (which were very, very disappointing).
I gave him the donut tower, cake and cookies yesterday, since I wouldn’t have the opportunity to pick them up today. I also made sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, and snickerdoodles yesterday (for Steven to take to work). So breakfast was donuts and cookies. Lunch was cookies and cookie dough. Afternoon snack was string cheese, then cake and ice cream with our neighbors. Pre-dinner snack was cookies. Dinner was penne pasta with alfredo sauce and green beans.
No wonder I had a headache when I woke up this morning!
When I was walking from the train to work this morning, I thought maybe yesterday’s sugar overload had finally cured me – I had made me feel awful enough that I would never binge on cookies again!
Yeah, right.
Sweet treats will always be around at celebrations! Birthdays just aren’t the same without a special sweet treat. I hope Steven enjoyed his! Happy Birthday, babe!
Steven and the furbaby.
If you could receive one non-tangible item for the holidays, what would you choose?
I would like my train to be on time, every night.
No more “mechanical problems,” “signal problems,” “accidents not related to this train” (yeah, that was an excuse for one of the delays on Tuesday), no more leaving the station late, no more sitting on the train not moving, with no explanation…
Yeah, I know that is too much to ask for. I think my train is on time in the evenings 20% or less of the time when I take it. I think if it is ALWAYS going to be late, they should just adjust the schedule to accommodate the later time. Then I wouldn’t get as upset, because I would expect it to arrive at that later time.
This may seem like a dumb answer to this question, but it takes me a long time to calm down from the anger the late train causes. Steven can attest to that! It’s silly to let something like that upset me, but it does. I have limited time in my evenings, and I want to make the most of them. So, I would love to get rid of that anger, and anxiety, of wondering when I will EVER get home.
I love riding the train, I really do. But I hate feeling like my evening is out of my control when I get stuck on it. (I hate feeling like anything is out of my control…)
I have a cubicle at my new office. It has a u-shaped work surface, tackable privacy panels, a lockable wardrobe, 2 pedestals, and filing cabinet.
I love it.
At my old office, we had an open work area – just long rows of desks. No dividers. No privacy. I didn’t mind it, but having a cubicle is a pretty big change for me, so I am using that as justification to write about how much I like it now.
I am all about personalization. I don’t want to go overboard, but I want to have a bit of personality in my workstation. At my old office, I was the only person who had photos on my desk (a digital photo frame). It wasn’t prohibited – I just think the open desks didn’t particularly lend themselves to that sort of… clutter.
Now, I have my digital photo frame out, a few photos on magnets, and some cute desk organizers. That’s it. It’s fun and simple and makes my desk feel more personal. And my workstation is big enough that I have space for these things.
I enjoy seeing what other people have in their cubicles – sports paraphernalia, family photos, architectural photos, fun magnets, holiday decorations, and so on. It’s a good way to start a conversation, and I think it livens up the space a bit.
Do you have anything personal on your desk at work? Or do you think it just lends itself to being clutter and a distraction?
Is it annoying or cute when people discover facebook for the first time and won’t stop talking about it?
Today, it is annoying. It’s not a novelty anymore.
Last week I went to a coworker A’s* desk for some training. When I got there, she was in the middle of a conversation with coworker B. I think they were complaining about their family and the holidays. I felt kind of weird interrupting their personal conversation, so when they were done talking, I asked coworker B where she is from, kind of trying to break the awkwardness.
“Champaign,” she answered.
“Oh,” I said, “I’ve never been there! How far away is it? There is a half marathon there in April and I was thinking about training for it.”
“It’s only two and a half hours away! This is the inaugural race – I was thinking about training for it too – how far away do you live?”
That’s when I broke it to her that I live in the boondocks and we wouldn’t be able to train together. But we did go on to discuss the gym in the building, and talk about our exercise routines for a bit.
I tried to keep the conversation short though. The day before, I had told coworker A about a 5K, and she said “You’re a runner? I couldn’t even jog a minute!”
I tried to encourage her and said, “That is how I started off!” but I stopped and left it at that. In my experience, people don’t want to talk to you about running or exercise, or whatever fitness thing you are into, unless they are into it as well (this generalization does not apply to all of you wonderful readers though – you’ve given me tons of support, no matter what your routine is – and I thank you!). That is why I cut the other conversation short as well. I don’t want to get on people’s nerves, talking about exercise.
I hate that I feel like that though. I want to talk about what interests me, and I want other people to care. Is that too much to ask for? I feel like it is, when it comes to exercise and running. There are only a few people I feel really listen to me (and again, I am not talking about the blogosphere). It just hurts… to be so passionate about something, but mention it and get… nothing.
I consciously try to listen and ask questions when other people are talking about their interests. I really enjoy learning about what other people are interested in. Maybe some people just don’t.
Please tell me – do you hate it when people talk about exercise? Do you feel like they are bragging? Do you get bored? Does it make you feel guilty? What is it? What is too much?
Steven and I often talk about how no one (again, in the REAL world) seems to care much about our running. I don’t expect people to remember when we are running or be enthused, I just want people to act like they care when we talk about it. Or maybe ask, “How did the race go?” “How is your training going?” “Do you run in this cold weather?”
Maybe I am too selfish.
*Sorry for the confusing… titles. I just wanted to keep them straight. It isn’t really important who the conversation was with, just that they were coworkers.
I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention to my little weight-loss tracker on my sidebar… but it has gone up! As in, I’ve gained some weight.
It all started when my family was out here baking cookies, and I ingested 12 pounds of cookie dough/baked goods. Then Thanksgiving came. I tried to eat healthy, but that didn’t last the whole day. Then, with the stress of changing jobs…
See how wonderful I am at making excuses for myself?
It’s amazing that I can be so hard on myself when I make what I perceive as one little mistake (like eating an extra cookie or something) but so easy on myself when I have been just eating away, piling on the pounds, not really taking care of myself, or caring.
What is that about? Really? Where does this mentality come from? “Oh, it’s okay if I pack on a little weight around the holidays! Everyone does, and it will come right off!”
No, it is NOT okay. Because once I start down that track, it is hard to get off of it. I recognize that right now is not the most sensible time to be losing weight, but I do need to stay on track and only allow myself a few indulgences (except Christmas Day – no restrictions then).
The sad thing is, I recognize the triggers that make me overeat – boredom, stress, frustration, guilt, restriction – but I’ve just been ignoring my inner voice. Well, it’s time for that to stop.
I don’t know HOW, but it is time for that to stop. Or at least, for me to stop making excuses for myself.
In other “health” related news, Steven and I have discussed our plan of attack to train for a half marathon (13.1 miles). We are following two guides from Runner’s World – an 8-week program that takes you from 3 miles to 6 miles, then another 8-week program that takes you from 6 miles to 12 miles. We’ll start the program tomorrow.
There are two half marathons in Illinois in April, but I don’t think we will be ready for them if we follow this training, but I am going to search for a target race for us. I am excited about it! I think this will be a fun adventure to embark on together.
Teeni has tagged me!
I am to find and post the 6th photo on the 6th page (folder?) of my computer and my photo/host sharing site. I don’t actually use flickr (or similar) though, I so I can only grab something off of my computer.
The photo is of me and my father at the Richard Petty Driving Experience at the Chicagoland Speedway (I actually wrote about it on 10/20/07 at my old blog). My siblings and I gave my dad a gift card to ride three laps at full speed on a racetrack for his birthday. I think he enjoyed it. I think I would have too. I seem to be one of those adrenaline-seeking people.
Hi! I'm Kim, a 34-year-old living in Chicagoland with my husband, Steven, and our cats, Khali, Apollo, and Starbuck. I work in the design industry (architecture), follow a vegan lifestyle, am addicted to running, and am an ACE certified personal trainer (working at Essential Fitness, LLC ("Efit"))! I write about a variety of topics, and consider this a "life" blog - a place I can share anything that's on my mind. Please visit the "About" page to get a better idea of who I am! :-)
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