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By kilax, April 29, 2009 6:43 am

Look! Another meme! I’ve seen this one going around the internet A LOT lately, and I finally got tagged for it… by Bethany!

I have to be honest. I usually skim memes. Or just mark them as read. So if you do the same for me, I understand.

Although, this one was interesting to fill out, because I really had to think hard about what to put on these lists! And I am sure as the day goes on, I will think of even more things to add.

8 Things I am looking forward to:

1. The Kenosha Half Marathon this Saturday!
2. Seeing my parents this weekend.
3. Going to SELF’s Workout in the Park with Diane on 5/16.
4. Spending time on the Mississippi River this summer.
5. Going to Disney World in January.
6. Doing the 30 Day Shred for 30 consecutive days (starting 5/1) and getting shredded!
7. Trying a vegan diet.
8. Seeing X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Star Trek, Angels & Demons, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Terminator Salvation this summer.

8 Things I did yesterday:

1. Got caught up at work!!!
2. Blogged. Read blogs. Added new blogs to my reader. Felt guilty for being addicted to blogging.
3. Talked to my coworker about doing a sprint triathlon.
4. Listened to Jillian Michaels’s podcast.
5. Ran 4 miles with Steven.
6. Ate homemade Mexican Food for dinner.
7. Got sick and spent a lot of time on the toilet.
8. Started watching Lady in the Water and wondered, “Is this lame movie going anywhere?!?!”

8 Things I wish I could will do*:

1. Run a marathon in 2009.
2. Finish logging in my IDP** credits.
3. Learn how to style my hair.
4. Work harder at communication with Steven.
5. Experiment more in the kitchen.
6. Try yoga. Try slowing down.
7. Maintain my weight loss.
8. Get more sleep!

8 Shows I watch:

1. I don’t watch television, but I do own all 6 seasons of Sex and the City.

Play along if you want!

*Modified that one a bit!
**It’s an architecture thing.

Comments (17)

By kilax, March 24, 2009 5:13 am

For your entertainment, here is a blog post I wrote about being sick while I was sick. Yeah… it kind of doesn’t make any sense.

My exhaustion finally caught up with me.

On Thursday I developed a small cough in the afternoon. On Friday, it was deeper, but I felt well enough to go to work. But by lunch time I started to feel weak. I had aches in my legs and couldn’t walk very fast. I left early and the aches spread to my hips and lower back. We had tickets to a comedy club with friends that night and were supposed to meet them for dinner first. Instead, I laid in bed all night, as the aches moved to my chest. Wonderful wife I am. $50 down the drain.

On Saturday, surprisingly, I felt somewhat better. Still weak, but not coughing as much, and not achy. We took Sir Data Lor to the vet, and cleaned the house a bit for friends to come over. I was terrified I would have to cancel our get together* with Kevin, Katie, Diane, E and Tori, but I felt great all day. Until about 9:00 pm, when they probably noticed me continually getting up from playing Wii Trivial Pursuit** to blow my nose, cough, and wash my hands in the bathroom.

On Sunday I felt miserable. I kept getting hot and cold, hot and cold. I would be shivering under the sheets, then they would be wet from me sweating too much. I had to go to Target to pick up a prescription. You know what the pharmacist*** said to me? “You look tired.” You know what it means when people say that to  you? “You look like crap.” I DID look like crap. I laid in bed all day.

I thought I may go to work on Monday, but decided not to. It’s a good thing I didn’t. I could barely stand up when I was trying to make myself oatmeal in the morning – I felt too weak and dizzy. I had aches during the day again. Felt too weak to get out of bed most of the time. But the coughing had gone down. Hurrah.

On Tuesday, I think I’ll go into the office. What the hell. Should be fun.

You know what? I have been PISSED OFF this whole time I’ve been sick. I’m angry. This stupid sickness is putting a serious hamper in my exercise plans. Taking four days off is making me crazy. And I don’t feel like I should be sick. I eat well and I exercise. I’m healthy!

I know what you’re thinking, “Um, Kim, maybe it’s because you don’t get enough sleep?” Yeah, that has got to be it. From now on, I am going to recommit to getting 7 hours of sleep a night. I will set a timer for 10:00 or whatever, and when it goes off, I’ll stop what I’m doing, and go to bed, as often as possible. If that doesn’t happen, I am going to start sleeping on the train again.

I’ll do whatever it takes to get healthy.

And yeah, that includes finally going to the doctor. I’m working on that one.

*We had such a wonderful time having everyone over on Saturday night. We rarely get to spend time with friends, so it was a real treat. And I love that blogging has given me so many “real life” friends. I never thought that would happen when I started this blog! And I must say – I have a very real blogger crush on Tori. She’s even more awesome in person.
**I sucked at Wii Trivial Pursuit just as much as the tangible board game. What a surprise! Not!
***My pharmacist is pretty funny. The last time I was there, she was so excited to enter my new government insurance info in the computer because of the “awesome low prices!”
BONUS FOR MAKING IT THIS FAR: Anyone sick of me using asterisks all the time? Muah ha ha! Blame it on diane! I copied her’s! I love it when she adds little tidbits!

Comments (13)

By kilax, March 6, 2009 6:50 am

How many hours of sleep do you get a night? How many would you like to get? Do you think the amount of sleep you get has any effect on your weight?

These questions are kind of random and strung together, but let me explain.

Last month, Glamour magazine had this huge article teaser on their cover – “Lose 10 Pounds Just By Sleeping More” (msnbc feature on the article here). When I saw it, I thought “riiiiight.” Then, I read it, and still thought, “riiiiight.” But I’ve heard it before – people who get less sleep are heavier than people who get more sleep.

There are two ways I can relate to this statement, but they are not directly related to that article. One is that in college, I used to take naps because I was so sleep deprived, and when I woke up, still tired, I always thought I was hungry. I almost always ate something. It took a lot of constraint not to. The other happens to me now – I am so tired that I eat, just so the snacking motion will keep me awake.

This has been a really awful week for me, sleep-wise. I’ve been staying awake on the train in the morning, and I think not banking that 1-1.25 hours of sleep is really hurting me. I am so energetic and peppy at work, but when I get on the train to go home, all the energy is gone. And one day this week, I got so pumped up at work in the afternoon that my heart was still beating too fast when I tried to go to bed that night. I didn’t end up falling asleep until 1:00 and still got up at my normal time of 5:15. I was so tired at work the next day that I got delirious and dizzy in the afternoon. So the next day, last night, I skipped my workout and got in bed at 8:30. I feel a little better. A little.

So, to answer my own question, I usually get 6 hours, would love 7 or 8, and think it would help me keep weight off, just because I wouldn’t be eating to try to stay awake.

But really, I am stuck in the schedule I have. It’s funny, a fellow coworker on the Biggest Loser Challenge was complaining to me a few weeks ago about not having time to exercise. So she asked me when I do. And I told her – I spend 1.5 hours on the train, eat dinner right away when I get home, then 1.5 hours exercising… a shower, maybe some blog reading… and that’s my weeknight. Four nights a week. Exercise is important to me; I am not ready to give that up to get more sleep. (Oh, and by the way, I think the coworker was looking for… some validation in my answer to make herself feel less guilty, but she didn’t get it. So starting this Wednesday, she and I will be making weekly visits to the office gym after work. I’ll let you know how it goes!)

If you’re interested, here are some other related articles on the sleep topic: “Importance of Sleep: Six Reasons not to scrimp on sleep,” and “The Steps to a Sleep Diet.”

Comments (15)

By kilax, February 22, 2009 8:04 am

(See previous versions of Data’s World on the “Photos” page – 1, 2, 3 and 4.)

Data’s been a little sh!tbox since we arrive home from Colorado on Monday.

We walked in the door and he didn’t even say hello. Now, I know this is typical for many cats, but not for Data. He is always purry and happy to see us when we get home (i.e. he wants to be fed).

Since then, he’s been running around like he OWNS the house. Like we just happen to be people who stay here from time to time.

Every night, he waits until I am walking away from him, then he runs up behind me and jumps on my bare legs to bite me.

On Friday night, I was laying in the bed taking photos of Steven’s awesome bruises (that’s just how weird I am), when Data jumped up onto the bed, bit my arm, then grabbed the camera cord with his teeth and ran away with it. I had to laugh, but also wondered what his deal was. And of course, this was after he got in trouble for getting into Steven’s closet and knocking everything down off of his shelves.

And as always, he always wants me to be awake. Besides waking me up early in the morning, he tries to wake me up even if I am taking a nap. Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to have the free time to take a nap, but couldn’t enjoy it, because someone (not Steven) was purring and meowing in my ear the whole time.

Conclusion: My neighbors are too nice. They visited Data at least 5 times while we were gone for 4 days. THEY are the ones spoiling him. (Ha ha).

No, really. We always miss Data when we travel and look forward to how sweet he is when we come home (sweet because he misses us so much). But now that people are coming over to take care of him, it’s not such a big deal for him anymore. I am happy our neighbors are generous enough to come over and fed him, play with him, leave us notes about how he was doing.. and leave us cookies too! I just need to understand that he won’t be as sweet when we get home, because he wasn’t as lonely.

And yeah, and probably wouldn’t kill me to play with him a bit more each night so he isn’t runing up after me and attacking  me, in his attempt to play.

Comments (10)

By kilax, June 22, 2008 10:41 pm

One of Steven’s magazines had this article highlighted on the cover:

“How true,” I thought when I saw that. When someone is complaining to you about how tired they are, are you: a. sympathetic and sorry for them, b. thinking, “Guess what jerk? I’m tired too.”, c. wondering why they don’t just go to bed early, or d. not listening, because it’s the same bs story, week after week.

I’m usually a mix of b-d. Unless they are going through hard times, or have insomnia, etc. etc.

Because guess what? We’re all a bit tired. We’re all trying to do too much in our already short lives. We’re all trying to meet our deadlines and still have fun.

I only got about 5 hours of sleep every work-night last week. I felt like total crap. But you know what I was spending my time doing each night? Reading blogs (and catching up with comments/emails), and bowling. I was doing things I like to do, so what’s the point in complaining?

What activities do you let cut into your sleep time?

(This post seems to have gotten a bit negative. It wasn’t aimed at anyone, or inspired by any real event… just reading that headline made me think about all this…)

(Oh yeah, “stanca tatanka pants” is what Steven and say to each other when we’re tired. As in ‘I’m a stanca tatanka pants’ today.” Stanca is italian for tired (female), tatanka is from that movie Dances with Wolves, and we add the word “pants” on to anything we call each other – “stink pants,” “smelly pants,” etc. We are brilliant, no?)