Friday, March 30, 2007

“If you’re bored with yourself, imagine how I feel”

On my desk sits a New Yorker daily cartoon calendar and a cartoon showed up this week with the tagline above. You know the one, the husband and wife walking down the city street, the wife turning to the husband with a smug look on her face . . .

It seems to fit – I can imagine Mr. Random grouching that to me (although he wouldn’t, because he’s an awesome guy – but he COULD, there is cause . . .)

I’m not bored with myself, per se, but I am hankering to get out of my rut. Spring is usually the time when I try something new, throw something different into the mix – take a class of some sort, start some new projects . . .

I have one project that I could work on, which I hope to write about more this weekend. There’s a Shakespeare Festival going on in DC until June and my friend, J, has made it a project to read all of Shakespeare’s plays. That’s a cool idea, though with everything else going on, I don’t think I will be able to keep up with my friend. It’s a noble goal, though, one that I’m going to try as best I can. I’ve already recently read Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing, and to keep it low key I’m just going to read random plays whenever the mood strikes me: sometimes it may be a comedy, sometimes a tragedy, sometimes a history play . . .

I still have the nice new yarn to start knitting a baby blanket, and I guess I could start any time, but for this one I think I’ll only feel motivated when and if I myself am actually pregnant . . .

There are some cycling/spinning classes at the local Y that I have been looking into, and I hope to start those next week. Oh, and swimming lessons too . . . but let’s see how committed I can be to the cycling classes first before coughing up extra money for swim lessons.

I still have stacks of books to read and the piles keep growing. I’ll try to show you the stacks when I get a moment . . .

Anyway, the Spring and Summer are full of possibilities, I just have to get off my duff and do something – anything, really . . .

What do YOU want to do this Spring?

Monday, March 26, 2007

Randomly Back on Course

Can you tell my mood has brightened a bit? Maybe it’s the citrus or the nice weather? For some odd reason, having citrus at lunch gives me quite a pick me up for about an hour or two. I’ve been weaning myself off caffeine (except for the rare latte with a friend), so this is a positive development. Or maybe it’s the fact that I’m having something non-carb-laden for lunch and my body is giving me positive reinforcement for that decision. Whatever it is, it is putting me in a good mood.

I’ve ordered some clothes online (retail therapy!) and it turns out that the two things I most looked forward to receiving are back-ordered until June. Bummer! I was really looking forward to trying on the new suit I ordered – it is a lighter brown, which is a color I don’t usually wear, and linen which should serve me well for the summer. I also am waiting for a mid-length khaki skirt which should prove very versatile. Now I just need to find some summery shoes to match . . .

I did receive the new swimsuit I ordered, which is a rather nice black one-piece with white piping. (I’m not a two piece gal – I’m certainly not a bikini shape . . .) Mr. Random and I are thinking about taking swim lessons and buying the suit was a nudge in that direction.

I need to get back into exercising, I feel myself turning into a mini-blob. The past month I’ve been eating horribly and been drawn to many potato-like substances which I normally try to avoid like the plague. Time to get back on track and do more walking and running. It should be easier now since the weather is getting nicer and after this week I won’t have any evening classes to teach until the fall.

At this moment my sister is on her way to Ireland, then Kuwait, then Baghdad. I talked to her on Saturday evening, as she was packing. She asked that I send her some fashion magazines to peruse when she gets over there. She’ll let me know if I need to send anything else over on a regular basis (like shampoo or candy.) She’s giving up her cell phone, so we’ll mostly be communicating by e-mail. I am trying not to think or worry about her too much or else I won’t be able to get anything done.

I’m trying to get back into a more regular posting schedule, so I hope this is a good beginning.

Sending many happy vibes to you all . . .

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Looking for a Light in the Fog

Sorry for the blog silence . . . thanks so much for your comments this past week. I’m so glad you all are out there and hanging in . . .

Almost every part of my life is in some sort of state of flux right now.

Church – work – family: everything is in some state of conflict or upheaval or bundle of worries at the moment and there seem to be very few venues of just plain calmness and stability . . .

Now, Mr. Random has been quite a supportive dear, but he is also going through many of the same things on top of trying to do his grad school work. It’s a little hectic in the Random Household at the moment and I am so hoping that things settle down and become so much less stressful soon . . .

So I’ll send a shout out to my friend, J, who has been kind enough to listen to my babbling and receive emotionally wrought e-mails from me several times a week. You rock as a human being – thank you!

I hope that after this weekend I can go back to my regular posting and reading. I’m doing my best to stay level but it is getting harder. I wish I could take some serious time off and go somewhere and let my mind turn to mush, but that is not going to be possible – at least not until after the Random Non-profit’s Conference in June.

I hope the rest of you are doing well . . . I send happy vibes out to you all!

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

The Sound of the Other Dropping Shoe

Sorry guys – I haven’t been very communicative the past few days and I haven’t been perusing that many blogs. I haven’t fallen off of the face of the earth entirely and I did want to let folks know what’s up so far . . .

Mr. Random and I are still employed at the Random Non-Profit. The layoffs did occur on Friday morning, with the CEO and the Board chair walking around the halls, stopping in the offices of those who were being laid off. There were 8 people let go in all, out of a staff of less than 50, one whole department let go along with several longtime employees – one person had been here for 19 years. It was horrible and soul sucking and afterwards there was a horrible staff meeting that reached the heights of Dilbert-esque-ness. It is a lot to process, and while I am happy not to have lost my job, I really hate the whole way this was handled and the whole new outlook of the place. That’s all I will say for now on that topic . . .

It turns out that my sister that is going to Iraq on Thursday is actually going to be stationed in Bagdad, not elsewhere in Iraq as we had hoped. My parents are going down to visit her tomorrow to watch the deployment ceremony and say good bye. I am going to call her tonight when I get back from teaching. I am going to be perpetually worried about her now, even more than before . . .

Saturday was Mr. Random’s birthday and we held a really nice dinner at the local barbeque place, where lots of our friends showed up, and then we went to see the movie, “300.” I spent most of the movie looking at my scarf – it’s kind of violent – but Mr. Random and the other guys we were with really enjoyed it . . .

I’m kind of in a holding pattern right now – a lot to think about in my personal and professional lives, lots of big questions in my head. Is there something wrong with me or with the system? Do I want to change myself and my outlook or do I want to make the world change? Do I like who I am and where I am headed?

I’m just tired and trying to get through each day right now. I can’t wait for spring to get here and for the summer to begin . . .

I promise to be peppier later . . . I’m just a little cranky right now . . .

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Books I've Read Meme

BOOKS I’VE READ MEME (Taken from Thinking About . . .)

*Look at the list of books below.
*Bold the ones you’ve read.
*Italicize the ones you want to read.
*leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
*If you are reading this, tag you’re it.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)

5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

A lot of these books I read so long ago that I can barely remember any of the plot points, so many of them could definitely use a re-reading.

Some of them I started reading and then stopped because I just couldn't stand them and life is MUCH too short (I'm looking at YOU, Poisonwood Bible!)

Some of these are books I'd like to read, but I have so many other books waiting for me that are nowhere on this list - for example there isn't that much non-fiction on here at all . . . so if anyone can find a non-fiction list, that would be great . . .

Enjoy!

Random What's Up

Hi, Everyone. I haven’t forgotten about you! I’ve just had a TON of work to catch up on and many other real life things to do . . .

I really appreciate all of your wonderfully sweet thoughts and comments – they have really helped me out a lot. Knowing you guys are out there is quite an awesome feeling, especially when I am struggling a bit . . .

Still waiting for the other shoe to drop at work. I just want it over with. I already have 10 pounds of stuff to do and only a 5 pound bag – I will either end up with 30 pounds of stuff to do or I’ll get a lot of unexpected free time . . .

Over the weekend, went to Old Town Alexandria and hung out for an afternoon. I actually saw James Carville and Mary Matalin (along with a daughter) while sitting in an ice cream shop on Saturday. They do live in Old Town and occasionally can be seen amongst the normal folks. Woo! Celebrity sighting! Well, at least for a wonky girl like me, they are really cool people to see up close . . .

I bought 2 kinds of yarn on Saturday morning – one set of really soft, multicolored pastel yarn to knit a small blanket for future use, and one set of soft, woolen brown, black and gray yarn to make a long, skinny fashionable scarf. I’m kind of excited about those projects and can’t wait to have some time to start them . . .

Taxes are filled out and sent for this year and bills are all paid for this month. Mr. Random and I were especially inspired by watching MTV’s “True Life: I’m Having Financial Difficulties” show on Sunday night. We thought, “gee, it’s good that we aren’t that bad off . . . boy, we really should get started on these bills, huh?” . . .

The Random Mother-in-Law is now coming in May instead of April, so we have an extra month to get a new sink for the bathroom and do some other improvements . . .

Last night we went to a comedy open mike where my friend, J, was performing. It was a brand new venue with a really cool, comfy vibe and I hope that location takes off. There were a few comics that were actually good, but quite a few clunkers . . . and it’s sometimes really painful to sit through the clunkers . . .

I’m teaching ESL two nights this week instead of one – my team teacher has to go out of town on Thursday, so I’m “subbing” for her class. I know I’ll be super tired when this week is over, with all of the nights I’ll be out and about . . .

Saturday is Mr. Random’s birthday and we will be going to dinner at a barbeque place with a group of friends and then going to see the movie, “300.” I was not really all that excited to see the movie, but Mr. Random and another good friend of mine really want to see it, so I’d probably end up seeing it one way or another anyway . . .

I hope everything is going well for everyone. I’m sending many happy vibes back out to you all!

Friday, March 02, 2007

The Verdict is In . . .

Finally got the results from the doctor yesterday.

Mr. Random was right there by my side as the doctor said . . . that the tests showed about what he thought they would, and that I have no reason to worry – things should be OK.

The pain and discomfort that I am feeling right now has to do with the problem actually shrinking – which is a good thing. There is more involved, but that would definitely cross into the “Way Too Much Information” category. But the bottom line is that Mr. Random and I should definitely be able to have kids in the future and we’ll keep monitoring the situation to make sure that there aren’t other hurdles.

It is SUCH a big relief to have that all over with!

However, I must admit that I was very disappointed when I heard the news at first, because I had been worrying about this for so long and parsing every bad scenario in my head that for nothing to be really wrong was a bit of a let down. That’s really sad, huh? I was fully looking forward to having to have some sort of operation and looking forward to taking time to recuperate.

Do you know how sad a state you have to be in that you look forward to major surgery as an opportunity for time off and rest?

With this reprieve of sorts, I really need to sit down and think of changes that I need to make in my life so that I’m not constantly on the treadmill trying to do a million things. I really need to think about, as my boss says, ways to bring more joy into my life.

So now that that big thing is no longer hanging over my head, now I can just focus on whether I’m going to be laid off or not and on my sister’s deployment to Iraq on March 15th. You know, just little stuff like that . . .

But for today, the sun is shining and the future is looking much, much better . . .