laura705

Work is still busy, but at least I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on this project.  Not that it’ll be all done after the cutover – plenty more work to be done.  But it’s been interesting I guess.  Maybe it’ll be more fun if some of the stress is gone after go-live.

I had my performance review the other day.  It was fine, and so I guess I’m okay for another year if I don’t do anything too dumb.  Raise was stingy, but then again one has to do something “commendable” to get anything above the usual very mediocre average increase.  And to do that, the way things work at our company is that the manager needs to essentially screw over another employee to give another one a good raise.  The bright side is that there is a good bonus being paid out this year. 

Went to my Pilates class last night.  It was good.  I’m really wishing I’d taken the Monday Pilates class as well as the Wed.  I’m feeling very lazy this session.  My Pilates is only once a week and while it’s challenging to focus on working the core, it’s not a strenuous, sweat-inducing workout.  And I’m only doing one passport class per week.  The new park district catalog came in the mail yesterday, so I have to decide what I’ll do for the next session.  It will definitely be more!! J  I wish I could say that I had the self-discipline to do workouts at home during the week, but no.  I haven’t, not lately.  I’m pretty sure this is due to the mood I’m in.  This big project at work is stressing me.  I’m not necessarily working many more extra hours, it’s just working against the deadlines (one project team member is pregnant w/ a due date a little over a week away, and the old software goes bye-bye at month end).  So anyway, I’m all “poor me” and then I go home and sit on the sofa all night watching tv.  I’ve had a cold the past week, so that just compounds the self-pity.  In reality, I always feel better after working out, so I should be pushing myself to do a workout when I get home. 

On the bright side, I think I’ve finally (almost) gotten myself into the new routine of getting that earlier train in the morning.  It’s still tough to get myself together and get out of the house earlier, but most days of the week, I manage it.  Looking forward to the time when I take advantage of it and leave work a bit earlier!  It’s not mattering much to me right now, but maybe when the weather is nicer and it’s lighter in the evenings it will.  Heck, maybe this next park district session, I can make it to some of the earlier exercise classes!

Tonight is a hair appointment, thank goodness!  Not that I’m looking forward to sitting around for 90+ minutes after a full day of work, and with a wet head of foils to boot, but I’m two weeks overdue for my touch-up, and I need my haircut too.  I’m tired of my current (non-)style, but too chicken to do anything different, lol.  I also need advice on a new hair brush.  My old one seemed to start causing static, and it had lost a good number of bristles too), and so I bought a new one, but that one seems to have the bristles too close together, and I still have the static problem.   Maybe it’s just the dry air at work and home.  The salon just phoned and asked if I could move my appt up a half hour due to a cancellation.  Definitely!

Friday night I’m staying out by my friend’s house so we can get an early start on our mini-trip out of town on Saturday where we’re meeting four other people.  Looking forward to it. Except the part where they like to use the hotel pool.  Not really looking forward to getting into a swimsuit, plus I’ll have to shave, lol.  On the other hand, I could use it as an opportunity to get some exercise - walk the pool and do some other exercises.  Maybe even bring my goggles and try some laps…  This swimsuit thing should be motivation to be eating lighter this week, but no.  Some things never change. I’m not logging this week either.  And the scale is reflecting it.  Sigh.

Nothing much to really say.  Food hasn’t been good.  I’m stressed about this big project and so when I go to lunch I don’t make healthy choices, I go for the “treats” out of self-pity.  Lame.  As usual, my food logging dropped off on Friday night to nothing.

Not watching the Superbowl, and bf is at a friend’s place watching it. I just did about 90 min. of work.  That’s what I get for waiting until late on Sunday to do it.  I was going to do it this morning, but bf got up early and I just know he would have hassled me about it if I’d done it while he was home.  I gave up a few minutes ago because I got frustrated trying to look at two screens side-by-side on my small laptop screen. 

This weekend:

Friday - book club.  Alright. 

Saturday - circuit class, puttering, dog walk, lunch, shopping, “The Ides of March” on dvd

Today - reading, puttering, laundry, lunch w/ bf & his mom, dogwalk, reading, internetting, work.

So annoyed - at lunch yesterday I noticed my debit card had expired.  No replacement had been mailed, or shall I say, I didn’t get one in the mail.  WTF?!  Very inconvenient.  This on top of the electric bill I never received, the one where it was TRIPLE the usual amount.  Not happy seeing that amount hit my checking account (automatic payment) when I hadn’t even had a chance to mentally prepare myself for it, lol. 

Another busy workweek coming up.  I hope the schedule goes as expected this week because then there will be no project work for the weekend, which will fit in with my plans to go away over the weekend w/ my friend.  Otherwise I dunno.  Might have to bring home the laptop and do work when I get home on Sunday.  Whatever.  Still looking forward to it. 

Okay, off to watch a dvd. 

Nothing much to report.

Weekend had the usual activities – a circuit class, a couple dogwalks.  Went out Sat. night to dinner w/ bf and a friend (Greek food – yum), then went to see a couple bands.  One was awful, the other was better, but after sitting through the awful one, we wouldn’t have been thrilled with much of anything unless they were stellar.  Which they weren’t.  So we left shortly into the 2^nd band’s set.  I worked from home a few hours Sunday morning.  I did several loads of laundry.

I didn’t log my eating all weekend, but I picked it back up Monday.  Not that my choices have been very good.  Need to spend more time with meal planning and shopping.  On the bright side, I keep looking in the “snack cabinet” (it’s actually just a shelf in that cabinet) and not seeing anything that appeals, so I leave emptyhanded.  It’s my eating at work that’s not so good, given I’m buying lunch and snacks.  That leaves me with too many opportunities to make bad choices. 

I went to the movies last night.  There was a change of venue that I totally overlooked in the e-mail.  So the movie I went to see started 10 minutes earlier than I’d thought, and when I alerted a fellow movie group member, she pointed out the correct time at the correct theater, haha.  Oops.  But by then I’d purchased my ticket and wasn’t about to try and get a refund and/or go running off to the other theater (there was only a 10 minute difference in starting times anyway). 

So I watched the movie “The Iron Lady” by myself.  Meryl Streep was very good (as usual), as was the actor Jim Broadbent, who played her husband.  The movie itself was alright.  Given the time constraints, they didn’t delve into any part of her life into too much depth.  I think I would have gotten more out of it had I known more about Margaret Thatcher and Britain’s system of government and history.  I will make a broad generalization and say that I don’t think people in the US pay much attention to other countries, or rather certainly not as much attention as other countries pay to the US.  

That’s about it.  Going to my Pilates class tonight.  This is the 2^nd day that the muscles on the lower front of my calf/ankle are sore.  I’m stumped as to why.  First off, I haven’t been walking any more than I usually do, and nor have  I worn anything outside my usual group of shoes.  Huh. 

Nothing much to say.  But one thing did occur to me last night. 

Last week I made an appointment for my annual physical and at the time it didn’t even spur one of those thoughts that I should really try to lose a few pounds to make a good showing at the scale.  Let alone thoughts about trying harder to improve my diet, and that maybe a combination of weight loss, good eating, and exercise would help my bp. 

And so I have gotten - what’s the word - comfortable? complacent?  taking that bp med.  And my weight is stable and not in the decade I lingered in most of last year - the one that  (in my mind) is just one step away from not just being rather overweight to being really overweight. 

Really??  Nice attitude.  I’m still 30 pounds overweight.  Maybe I should pick that up and carry it around and see if I don’t think it’s f***ing heavy.  Heck, I’m complaining about lugging home my laptop and files, and those aren’t as heavy as that.  Yeh, 30 pounds is a lot of weight!  I take bp medication.  Who am I to think that I’m just doing this to satisfy my doctor and that I’m okay because I feel just fine.  To ignore all the medical studies that have been conducted for years and years and think that my personal situation doesn’t increase my risk for heart disease?  To think my genetics will carry me through?

What have I got to be complacent about or comfortable with?  What I’m doing right now isn’t good enough.  Just because it’s better than some, it’s not good enough for me. 

Haven’t posted much this week because I don’t have much to report. 

Eating has not been good.  I continue to log it though.  My weight dropped a couple pounds a couple days ago and blipped back up again this morning.  Not surprising. 

Went to Pilates last night.  Good class, but it was cold in there!  I didn’t take off my hoodie the entire time, and I kept my socks on.  I was rather chilled by the end of class. 

Work has been stressful - this big project on top of my regular work, including an icky mini-project for the boss.  I think that’s finally done, so maybe the next couple days will be better. 

I have about 60 more pages to read to finish the book club book.  I’m not really enjoying it, so I can’t wait to be done with it.  Last night after class I picked up the 3rd movie made from the Stieg Larsson novels.  I’ll watch it this weekend. 

The movie One for the Money, based on the first Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum novel is supposed to be released this weekend.  I’ll have to check the critic’s reviews and see what they say about it.  Okay, I’m back.  There are no critic reviews out there yet.  Huh.  It’s not usually a good sign when a movie is not being screened for the media in advance.  I might just have to wait for the dvd.

Okay, enough blathering.  Time to get back to work. 

No early start today.  It seems to be that way on Mondays.

Friday we had all the snow, so we were allowed to leave work at 3 pm.  I don’t have to take a car or bus as part of my commute, so I wasn’t worried about the horrible traffic.  I took a 4:30-ish train home, lugging my laptop and a couple files.  My backpack was heavy. Instead of picking me up from the train, bf took doggy for a walk in the snow and met me about halfway home, so no ride home to relieve me of my heavy load.  The walk home in the snow with it tuckered me out. 

Sat. morning was a Zumba class (I waited for bf to snowblow the driveway before I took the car out of the garage, so I coudn’t make it to the earlier circuit class.)  After that was a shower, some puttering, and then I shopped for a wallet.  I ended up buying a cheesy  red leather wallet from Target on clearance for 7 bucks.  I say cheesy because the “genuine leather” is so stiff - the genuine part of the leather is likely microscopic.  I didn’t find anything at another store I stopped at, so I’ll continue shopping for a better wallet.  In the meantime, this red wallet has a lot of the slots and sections that I like, so it’ll work fine for now. 

After that was a dog walk and then a late lunch.  The rest of the evening was reading and tv. 

Sunday morning I took out the laptop and files and found I couldn’t connect to the network and get to the e-files I needed, so I couldn’t work as planned.  That really ticked me off because I lugged the @#$% laptop and files home (and back again this morning) all for nothing.  Going to get to the bottom of this with IT this morning.  I will need to work extra the next several weeks to stay on top of this big project and my regular work and I’m not going to stay late at the office to do it. 

So I lazed away the morning after that, then shopped at a produce store and Walmart.  I was happy to learn that bf had walked the dog when I returned home.  I’d gotten a chill in Walmart, then left the store to find it was misty and damp, then the car’s heat temp was turned all the way LOW and I didn’t realize it right away - not on the drive to the stores because I didn’t even turn it on.  So anyway, I was thoroughly chilled by the time I got home and really wasn’t thrilled with the idea of going for a dogwalk, except for the fact that I’d get to bundle up and move around and hopefully warm up, LOL.  Instead I got under the snuggy and drank tea.

Rest of the day I watched tv and read.  I watched the Swedish version of the movie ”The Girl Who Played with Fire”, and talked with my mom and a friend.  No exercise on Sunday to speak of, and some bad food choices made it into the cart when I shopped…but I also bought some fruit and veggies, so it wasn’t all bad.  I’m still logging my eating in spite of not being OP at all.  Weight stayed the same.

Nothing going on this week.  I’ve decided to skip the movie tomorrow night.  Wed. is Pilates.  Might go to a passport class one night this week to catch up on it. 

Nothing much to report.  Yesterday was not a good food day.  Even though we didn’t go out for dinner as we’d planned, we ordered pizza and I caved and didn’t order half veggie which would have been a better choice. 

It’s been really cold the past few days, so the commute has been a real grind.  Combined with this big project at work, the workweek has been difficult.  I need to remind myself that up til the last couple weeks it’s been very mild, and so we’ve been lucky.  Spring will eventually come, and this project does have an end, and it’s not too far off.  There’s hope!

Today we’re getting snow.  A couple days ago it sounded like it would stay to the north of us, but now it sounds like we’re in for 5-9 inches.  I suppose management will tell us we can leave a bit early to get a jump on the commute.  Not the same as getting a snow day… The bright side is that the temps will be more moderate this weekend.

Nothing planned this weekend, but I need to do some miscellaneous shopping that I’ve been putting off - all my lipsticks are down to the bottom, and I need some eyeliner and eyeshadow.  I never did pick up the contact lenses I ordered before year end.  If I’d actually needed them it would have been another matter…  I might just phone their office and ask if they could mail them to me.  Not that I see them being amenable to it.  This is a pretty bare bones operation - they don’t even use a computer for insurance or records or anything.  And they’re in the city, where we used to live, and the office is no longer convenient for us.  This is the year we find a new eye doctor. 

I also need a new wallet.  The zipper to the coin compartment broke on my current one.  I’ve been using a separate coin purse and it’s driving me nuts.  The snap no longer stays snapped either. 

We definitely need to get some fruits and veggies in the house. 

Okay, finish with this ramble.  Aside from shopping, I will walk doggie both days this weekend and will watch the dvd of the 2nd movie made from the Stieg Larsson trilogy, the Swedish version of “The Girl Who Played with Fire”. 

Nothing much to report today.  Day 3 of logging my food on mfp.  Scale is back down the two pounds it had showed on Monday. 

Saw “The Artist” last night.  There were six of us and we all enjoyed it.  It reminded me a little bit of “Singin’ in the Rain” because both dealt with the transition of film from silent to “talkies”. 

Tonight is my Pilates class. 

It’s going to be really cold tomorrow - teens - not looking forward to that.  But at least it will be a bit warmer by the weekend.  January is more than half over, so that’s good.  Spring is 61 days away, and daylight savings time begins March 11th, so it’s not too bad. 

Kind of getting tired of dealing with the spam comments I find even after just a day after posting something…

Nothing much to report.  My only exercise was the walking I do for my commute.  It’s chopped up in 6-10 minute segments (4 of them), but at least it’s something. 

My eating was absolutely awful yesterday, but I logged it and that’s how I know that, LOL.  Lots of room for improvement today! 

Seeing the silent movie “The Artist” tonight.  It won a couple Golden Globe awards, so it should be good - and a change of pace.

Still typing 2011.  Sigh.

Nothing much to report.  Mood is morose.  Per Webster’s:  “having a sullen and gloomy disposition” Yup, that’s me today.

Saturday was a circuit class (finally bought my 10-class passport).  Also a dog walk.  Sunday was a dog walk.  While I at least do something as far as exercise, it’s by no means enough.  My weekend dog walks (bf covers the weekday ones during the winter), my commuting walking, my couple exercise classes a week - they don’t add up to enough, and not the recommended “30 minutes most days”.  Need to kick it up.

I didn’t do much of anything this weekend.  Food wasn’t all that great at all.  Scale showed me up two pounds from my last weigh in - a bit over a week ago.  Boo.  Back to logging my food today, even though it’s not starting off at all well.  Thanks Tawnya for getting me back to my fitness pal!   I needed that.