Comments (15)

By kilax, March 31, 2016 6:29 am

• Why is health insurance sometimes (too often!) such a back and forth nightmare? I call the doctor to ask what the hell I’m getting billed for, because I didn’t receive an explanation of benefits. They tell me what it’s for, and that insurance didn’t pay. I call my insurance – they didn’t pay because they never got a bill. I call the doctor and tell them to send the bill to my insurance. I had to do that TWICE this week – for my dentist, and my doctor. Grrr. Oh, no problem, I’ll wait ten minutes to talk to the billing department so I can tell them to do their job. Ugh. Wah wah wah.
• Let’s follow that complaint with some good news! I LOVED working with the person who trained me at my job back in 2009, but she quit after I was there for a couple of years to raise her family. Well, she is coming back! She won’t be on my team, BUT! Her first project is with me! I am so STOKED!
• And let’s follow THAT with a cute baby pic! Aww, my nephew James is adorable! The next time I will see him is end of May, yay!

• Some flowers showed up in our yard!

• I am not doing the Fools 5K race this year, but I follow them on Facebook and was surprised to see they moved race day from this Saturday to Sunday due to projected high winds! If I was doing it, I’d be stoked to race on a less windy day, but a few people already said in the comments that Sundays don’t work for them for races. Interesting! Updated to add: here (pdf here) is an article that says more about why they moved it.

• I was talking with a family when I was waiting to get off the train yesterday, and the conversation lead to how people think everyone from Zion is “bad.” And I didn’t even lead it there! At least people aren’t just saying it to me, ha. I’ve had more interesting conversations since I last posted about people’s reactions to me moving to Zion. One guy asked me (after I told him) “You didn’t move to the hood, did you?!” <— insert his face of panic. Um, no. I wonder if this perception will change over the years?

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 92 

Comments (32)

By kilax, March 30, 2016 5:41 am

I am a strong believer that the type of music we were raised listening to has a heavy influence on the type of music we like as adults (it’s been proven!). And I was raised on rock/classic rock! Which means…

… as a kid:

• When me and my siblings would spend the weekend with my mom’s parents and hang out with their friends, they’d tease us for not knowing the lyrics to the country songs they listened to. And I thought something was wrong with us for not knowing. Aww. Ha ha!
• In grade school, when we were supposed to pick a song about love and write it out nicely on piece of paper, I was surprised my classmates weren’t familiar with Van Halen’s “Why Can’t This Be Love.”
• I pretended to know the lyrics to TLC’s “Waterfalls” at middle school sleepovers, and to Beastie Boys songs in high school… but I definetely knew the lyrics to ZZ Top’s “Tube Snake Boogie”!
• We’d listen to a class rock station (in the car and at home), and my parents would call in and try to win prizes (they did win from time to time!). I remember my dad telling us to listen for Van Halen’s “Jump,” because that was the cue to call, and us asking him to play it so we’d know what to listen for… and him blasting it on the speakers at home! (I have lots of good memories of my Dad playing music at home.)

It wasn’t until I started driving that I began listening to current pop/hip hop music. But my rock roots stayed true! As an adult:

• I’ve gone to see Van Halen with my parents.
• I’ve seen Foreigner with Rachel.

• I text my dad anytime “Thunderstruck” comes on my headphones so I can tell him how I reacted to hearing the song, ha!

• I love listening to rock music and playing it in my classes!

But it’s not the only genre I like. I do still listen to pop (it doesn’t make me crazy yet) and love most 80s music, and am in to EDM (electronic dance music).

What music were you raised on?

Comments (8)

By kilax, March 29, 2016 6:12 am

October and April seem to be my most birthday and anniversary heavy months – every week has multiple friend or family member’s special days – and some of them fall on the same day!

This usually makes me feel overwhelmed, but somehow, I’ve managed to plan ahead for April and already have a lot of gifts at home, or, ordered (or reminders in my calendar to pick up, ha)! Woot woot!

I especially enjoy shopping for Luca (who turns five in April!)!

Although, all this planning ahead has made me realize that a few of the friends who have birthdays in April are people I talked to about doing something together for Christmas instead of exchanging gifts… and we still haven’t done anything. Or even planned it.

Blah. I suck.

Well… as long as we plan that special date and do it before next Christmas, it counts, right?

Ha.

I know that no one is holding it against me that I haven’t planned things. I’ve been trying to keep as much free time on my schedule as possible for house stuff, teaching, and (yeah…) running… and I feel bad booking my calendar up! But it’s probably okay to set up a few things here and there… right?!

Comments (12)

By kilax, March 28, 2016 12:47 pm

I wonder what’s going on in the movie theater industry. I was (pleasantly) surprised when Marcus Theaters started having $5 Tuesdays* – where you can see any movie for $5 and popcorn is free and snack prices are reduced. Steven and I appreciated it – we enjoy going to the movies but couldn’t justify the high cost of tickets. $5 sounds good to us!

Of course, then Tuesdays became a mad house at the theater (which is probably what they wanted), so we stopped going as much because the crowds stressed me out. Until Regal Cinemas started the same offer**… so we went there… until word got out about that theater and it was too crowded. Ha ha.

So we haven’t been going as much. If we do, we try to go after the movie we want to see has been out awhile, so it’s not as crowded. Or, go any day, and pay full price for something we really want to see, like Star Wars. That’s rare for us though.

Or, go when we have giftcards, which is what we did last night!

So we were waiting in line and heard the cashier tell the person in front of us to select the seats on the keypad. Steven asked me what theater that was for. “It must be for the new, big theater that they just renovated,” I said. “They must have added those nice seats!”

Nope, I was wrong. We were asked the same question. Apparently, they’ve renovated almost ALL the theaters to have the nice, plush, recliner seats.

Which was an awesome surprise!

But man, they must fit a third (or less?) of the amount of people they could fit in there before? So how is that going to increase revenue? Unless they plan to jack all ticket prices up, except on Tuesdays?

Me so confused.

But I was really comfy during the movie.

(Unfortunately, as you can imagine, nice seats don’t prevent people from playing on their phone during movies and making phone calls… sigh. But it does prevent them from kicking the back of your chair!)

*The theater had previously been doing select movies on Wednesdays and Thursdays for $5 admission.
**Plus some other deals, like cheaper drinks and snacks on other days, and so on.

Comments (31)

By kilax, March 25, 2016 4:17 am

What’s the general consensus on group texts (you know, the text you get that happens to include many other people – and sometimes phone numbers you don’t recognize – then blows up your phone as those many people respond)? Yay or nay?

Only acceptable when sharing cute human or fur children pictures?

Only acceptable when everyone in the group knows everyone else?

Only acceptable for emergencies (in which case a phone call would have been better but wasn’t possible)?

Only acceptable for forming plans with large groups?

Only acceptable for continuing inside jokes?

Acceptable all the time?!

Hmm.

I admit, sometimes I like them and sometimes I don’t. And I am MAJORLY guilty of using one for a long time now.

I mentioned in December that I was doing a bad job keeping people updated on house stuff. So I started a group text to update everyone anytime we had news.

“The septic was finally fixed!”

“We think we’ll close in two weeks!”

“Nevermind.”

Ha ha.

I updated everyone throughout the move then asked if anyone wanted to be dropped off the conversation or if they wanted to keep getting house updates – because there is still stuff going on every day (as you’ve seen here).

Everyone stayed on! Ha ha.

And I’ve found the group text is a nice place for me to find house photos on my phone. I upload photos (and delete them off my phone) most days, so I can’t access them in my photos folder. I have a folder on Google Drive for storing photos (which I can get to by my phone), but sometimes it’s easier to find one in the group text (if I don’t want to show my blog to someone). Anyway.

So I enjoy the group text… but I still feel like I’m being annoying!

Comments (28)

By kilax, March 23, 2016 6:49 am

The Brussels attacks yesterday made me go in to a state of numb shock. Seeing a heavy police force in the train station in the morning made my stomach turn. While people around me were discussing what happened, I couldn’t get my head past the state of “why?” Why, why, why?

We all react different to everything. Especially acts as horrific as these. And that’s okay.

But what is not okay with me? Treating news like this like gossip. I heavily remember this bothering me after the Boston Marathon bombing – the way people discussed the event, all excited, waiting for the next bit of information. It made me go in to isolation for a bit. I couldn’t deal with it.

Part of the problem is the way the news portrays things – everything is sensational*! They seem to want you to get all jacked up and emotional. I can see why people do!

But I wish people would think before they speak about these things. Consider their tone. Remember to have some respect for the situation, and especially, respect for the people there and the lives taken.

Maybe I am just being overly sensitive, as I feel overly helpless.

*I never saw the effect of this more clearly than when I was with a young kid and we happened to walk by a TV sharing a story about a loose snake in Florida and all of a sudden they were worried snakes were going to be outside. We walked by that TV for a few seconds!

Comments (30)

By kilax, March 21, 2016 4:22 am

The move is official now – Data and I have new ID tags that list Zion as our place of residence!

Data also got a new collar with his – and it’s a shout-out to his namesake:

In the correct color, of course.

I think these collars would have worked too, but whatevs. Ha ha.

There are so many places you need to update your address when you move. The ID tags were just one thing on a huge list* of items I wanted to update. Hence it taking me so long to get them updated (we updated Data’s chip much more quickly).

*Holy cow. That list. I’ve been working away on it since we moved but I am still adding things to it, as well! And a bad time to move? That would be when all your tax documents are being mailed to your home. We don’t know where a lot of them went. To the townhome? The rental home? Luckily we got the missing ones online!

Comments (21)

By kilax, March 18, 2016 4:12 am

The other day I was venting to a coworker about someone. “Why do they always contact me to ask for things? I am not even the point of contact for this project!”

“Honestly, Kim?” they replied, “I think it’s because you respond so immediately.”

EEK. G-U-I-L-T-Y!!!

I do respond rapidly. I am always in a hurry to respond to emails. Especially with that person – I just wanted to respond and quit thinking about them bugging me.

I LIVE to see this message. Ha.

But he was right – me doing that was making it worse for me, in the long run.

So, I will be less available.

I need to do this across ALL facets of my life.

I don’t handle having a long to-do list very well. I handle it in the sense that I get stuff done, and don’t procrastinate… but it makes me SO anxious. I am always yearning for a clean slate. I feel like when I get there, I can breathe. I can relax. Everything is done.

But, we all know, everything is NEVER done! That’s impossible.

I need to get comfortable with having things sitting on my to-do list (and emails left unresponded to!). In a sense, buying a house has sorta helped with that. There is so much to do, and no way to do it all at once, so it makes us prioritize and focus on the now – and let the other things be (although, we still keep talking about them…).

And I try to do this at work. I make a list and prioritize and do things in order. BUT I JUST WANT THAT LIST TO BE CLEAR! (then people keep giving me work because I got the other stuff done – slow down, Kim). Sigh. I think the email is a good place to start with this.

Comments (24)

By kilax, March 17, 2016 11:02 am

• Do you have a content proof reader for your blog posts? Mine lately is my snister. I just send her the post in an email with the subject line “too whiny?” She always says no, but sometimes I never publish the post. It feels good to write it and get it out. But it doesn’t need to be shared (here).
• After a few nights of bad sleep because we were constantly getting up to push the sump pump float down, we finally slept well last night – because we had the sump pumps fixed. Yay! Steven bought new equipment Tuesday and we were going to put it in ourselves, but there happened to be a plumber at the house yesterday working on something else – so why not have him do it? I am very happy Steven made the executive decision to pay him for the install! The plumber had all the tools and materials there and I am sure it saved us a lot of time (and maybe some frustration, ha).
• Guess what Steven found in the sump pump yesterday? Ha. He said this guy tried to jump out!

• The other day a friend asked me if stretching and foam rolling is how I stay injury free, with the amount of miles I run (she felt like she had an injury coming on and wanted to know what I do). The truth is, I don’t stretch or foam roll, like I should. But I do strength train three times a week and am diligent about cross training and rest days (and active recovery). AND (and I forgot to share this with her) – changing my shoes out when my legs start to feel wonky.
• And… it’s actually time for a shoe refresh. I am currently rotating between six pairs (plus speed and trail shoes), and I think three need to go. I have four pairs on standby, and for whatever reason, Zappos sent me a $25 credit, so I just got these (below) to add to my collection. This is probably the first time in a long time I’ve had the more updated version of my shoes – I am usually in the old model for a loooong time (because it’s cheaper and I go through shoes so fast). Squeee! Exciting!

• I have drooled over Moxie Cycling gear for a long time, but have never purchased anything. I was dreaming again, and looking at their sizing chart, and I have to say, I LOVE how they have different body shapes for their models! Awesome!
• I am itching to hang some artwork/my jewelry holders in the house! But it’s not a priority at this time. Maybe when my snister visits? For now, having some stuff propped up on shelves will have to do!

Ha ha, you can’t tell cause I cropped it, but Data is pretty high up. Brat!!!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 90

Comments (28)

By kilax, March 17, 2016 5:42 am

As a kid, I would worry about getting pinched on St. Patrick’s Day if I didn’t wear green. So to this day, I try to have some green in my outfit for the holiday.

Does this necklace count?! (Edited to add: one row is green)

I didn’t even know what the pinching tradition came from until I asked Google this morning:

The tradition was popularized by Irish immigrants in the United States, who believed that wearing green made you invisible to leprechauns, fairy creatures who would pinch anyone they could see. Pinching those who didn’t wear green was meant to remind them that leprechauns could sneak up at any time.

Wait. Does this mean leprechauns are bad?! I thought they would lead me to a pot of gold?!

As a kid, I did not know that St. Patrick’s Day is a drinking holiday! Geesh! I didn’t even really figure it out until college was almost over (I know, I know – I only went to a bar once in college, and only to a few parties my freshman year).

I was out in Chicago on spring break my final year of college and had a Saturday job interview. I took the train to the city for the interview. That Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day. And riding the train (and I am sure it’s this way in any major city on this holiday) was quite the experience. But I got the job (and learned to avoid taking the train the Saturday around St. Patrick’s Day). Ha!