Today at Target, I noticed an older woman walking with a fairly pronounced limp. She clearly relied quite heavily on the cane she was using.
Naturally, I was flooded with compassion.
A split second later, my brain registered precisely what her t-shirt said:
Here's to laughing in the face of adversity. You GO girl!
I recently read about this weblog meme, Thursday 13 and I'm smitten. It's just a list of 13 random things from your week, observations, silly, sad, but every week different. I'm giving it a go. Thirteen is a good number in my world, completely underrated. And here it is:
Cybertrolls should not take hostages nor bully others beyond those they hate. Fly and be free oh dark winged ones and find your happiness elsewhere...feed not on the joy of others.
Cats should be fast enough to move out of your way as you walk through the house, despite the fact that you are heading straight toward the kitchen to feed them stinky cat food.
If you cut open my brain, you would find crammed full of used post-it notes. I couldn't remember a thing without these bad boys.
In the eighth grade, my friend Steve drew the silliest pencil cartoon of birds upchucking. Above the illustration, he wrote, "It's that time of the year, when the birds vomit." For some reason it still strikes me as funny even today.
My favorite children's book is actually a trilogy called, Voyage to the Bunny Planet by Rosemary Wells. Last I checked it was out of print, which is deeply wrong. The stories each have the same basic plot: a little child bunny has a very bad day, everything that can go wrong does. In a relaxed state the child is visited by the Bunny Queen Janet who shows them the beautiful day that should have been. In the end the child returns to his/her world, looks out the window and sees the Bunny Planet shining as a beacon in the night sky. And wouldn't you know it was there all along.
I have recently taken up knitting with a ferocious passion. I find myself knitting the simpliest squares of beautiful thick yard...they look like pot holders honestly. (I've decided that's my "signature look" in case Martha Stewart linens wants to pick up my line or something...you know, be prepared.) When I knit up all my yarn, I'm going to stitch all my potholders together into a marvelous warm woolen quilt for reading in bed.
I'm inputting an entire year's worth of tax receipts this week. I had no idea we went to the doctor that much last year. We're healthy now, so I guess that's a good thing.
I helped yet another friend with her blog, by building a custom banner for it and installing it. Gosh, it looks good. And I have such a geeky fun time doing this. I feel like the Queen of TypePad and honestly, I'm really not doing THAT much!
Finally got back on my Wii Fit this week. I'd done over five straight weeks without missing and day and then once I met that goal, pow....I took five days off. I feel better about myself when I get on my cute little balance board every day. It's such a feeling of accomplishment.
Did you know that a half a pound of weight loss equals two sticks of butter? ImFusspot on Twitter told me that...and I believe her. That means I've lost 44 sticks of butter so far.
This week my adorable four and a half year old son said to me, "Well D'UH Mom!" Adorable levels are quickly dropping.
My hubby hurt his back quite badly this week. So when Valentine's Day rolled around I just bought myself a dozen red roses on his behalf. Gosh he loves me. And he has such great taste in flowers. :)
The number 13 is lucky in my family. My mother and father in law went on their first date on Friday the 13th. The next night my father in law proposed. My mother in law said it was too fast. So Al said, "I'll tell you what, we'll get engaged on the next Friday the 13th and then we'll get married on the Friday the 13th after that." So that's what they did over 55 years of marriage ago.
Lisa from Healthiest Life 4 Me (aka @survifam) tagged me on this great award: 25 Random Things About Me. Thank you so much Lisa, I had a blast writing it.
First write 25 random things about yourself. Then tag 25 people and send on the love. Be certain to link back to the person who sent it to you.
1. My ears are single pierced, a procedure performed at my urging on my 12th birthday. When I was 21 a friend added an additional pierce hole for me on my left ear. It never took.
2. When I was a kid, I loved weariing crazy printed socks. I'm really trying to get back into that habit as an adult.
3. The older I get, if I start to read a book and it doesn't grab me, I stop reading it. I start a lot of books I don't finish.
4. I really want to go to Alaska.
5. I was awarded the Spencer Tracey Memorial Scholarship when I attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts back in 1985-1987. I had to re-type my thank you letter to Katharine Hepburn because I misspelled her name as "Katherine."
6. I don't fold my underwear before I put it into the drawer. Why? It smooths out when I put a pair on.
7.When I was six, I decided I was going to get married when I was 25 and have two children. I wanted to wait until I was "older" before I did these important things. (My parents had been 19 and 20 when they married and had me...I'm a "love" child. Shotgun wedding bells!) In reality, I was 24 when I married the first time, 27 when I divorced. I was 34 when I got married to my "real" husband Dave and 39 when we adopted our son Alex at birth. We've decided to only have one child.
8. Sometimes I still irrationally worry that a snake will pop up out of the toliet and bite me in the bum.
9. If my son had been a girl, his name would have been Sophia Kellann.
10. I'm a huge believer in accepting personal responsibility for your actions.
11. I really hate carrying a purse and in fact, if I didn't have a kid I wouldn't do it. Call me "wallet & keys girl."
12. I still haven't seen the ending to The Sopranos.
13. My white-walled bedroom has been half painted green for about three months now. I finally started to finish painting it two days ago.
14. I often get people/places/things that begin with the same first letter mixed up. It's the way my brain files things. For instance, Minnesota, Michigan and Missouri are known in my world as the "M states."
15. My favorite flowers are pale pink roses.
16. I hate my birthstone, garnet and was thrilled out of my mind whenn my hairdresser Michelle told me there existed an alternative birthstone list for January. One of the alternates is a ruby. It's mine now.
17. I can't remember the names of restaurants to save my life. I can tell you where it is, what I last ate there and who I dined with, but the name? Forget about it. That's my husband's job.
18. I'm the poster child for the melting pot of America. My people got along with everyone and I turned out to be a white girl from the suburbs. I swear my people have no culture except for chicken pot pie and blue jeans.
19. I think Steve Martin is sexy.
20. I still have the same sewing machine my parents gave me when I was fourteen and they felt guilty about getting divorced. It's thirty years old now. I made bride's maid dresses for my first wedding with it, wrap around skirts and my son's crib rail guard and dust ruffle. I hate putting in zippers and pay someone to do it.
21. I wear bi-focal contacts. (Yes, they have them and yes, they work!)
22. I used to teach Jazzercise.
23. I never went to prom and I'm still slightly bitter about it.
24. I love to smell the top of my son's head.
25. Everytime I re-organize something I end up throwing something out that I really wish I'd kept. If I kept everything I wish I'd kept, there would be no room for us to live in our house.
7. Ms. Birthmom
9. Sandwiched
10. Comfy Mom
13. Donnette8676
14. MelissaBeth
15. KathySena
16. Follow that Dog
17. Kittenspawn
18. TeresaWrites4U
19. Chickiebean
20. Jolie30
21. Plus Size Mommy
22. Paisley Raven
23. Hip Mom
24. rosyblue
25.KaNani2008
Now that was fun!
P.S. LAST CHANCE to register for the Cool Mom Guide to Fitness' Twitter Bling Party with $1,000 + in prizes!!! Click here!
One of the things I've always actually liked about myself has been the color of my hair. It's a nice dark brown loaded with gold and red highlights.
At thirty one, I got my first grey hair. I was thrilled because it was curly. I plucked it out on principle.
Somewhere between 35 and 38, my girlfriend Ms. Makeup turned me on to temporary hair color. At the time I had long hair that I wore pulled up and back (a la 1940s up do). Can I tell you, grey hairs just POP in contrast to my deep colored coiffure.
At 39, I'd been dancing to the tune of infertility for several years and at long last; I was going to be a mommy! We had been matched with a birthmother who was making an adoption plan for her unborn child. When we met Ms. Birthmom, she was only two weeks away from her due date.
I went into hyperdrive baby preparation! I was having a baby...in two weeks!
I had read a jillion baby books and talked to all my girlfirends about what to do and what to get. I was at Babies 'R Us every other day getting a car seat, bottles, diapers and every other thing.
(Did I mention that my washing machine completely broke during this two week period as well? FREAK OUT! "I can't have a new baby in the house without a washing machine! Just because my grandmother and great-grandmother managed to do it...I'm a modern woman dag-nab-it! I need me my electric washing machine!")
But I digress...
So amidst all this pre-baby mania I remembered reading that I'd have no time for myself once the baby came. And my first grey hairs had multiplied expotenitally all over my temple area (think Paulie Walnuts from The Sopranos...OK not that bad...but still!). I was a first time mommy. I couldn't look OLD!!!
I had to color my hair before the baby arrived. And I wanted it to last a long time. So I decided to use permanent hair dye. That was a good idea right?
I picked myself a nice dark color that looked perfect and fabulous on the model's head on the box. I followed all the directions and wha-la! My hair turned out BLACK. I looked like Wednesday Adams. Not exactly the carefree new mom looked I'd envisioned.
Panicked, I called the 800 number on the hair color box. The customer service rep was incredibly helpful and compassionate as I regaled her with my plight.
She explained since my hair was too dark, I needed to take it to a very pale color in order to be able to apply the proper lighter shade of brown. OK, that made sense. You can't put lighter color on top of darker color, it won't show up. Logical.
First I'd need to use their "sun-kissed blonde" in order to strip my hair of color. Sounded a tad violent, but I was in dire straits and willing to do anything at that point.
After the "stripping" I'd apply the perfect brown shade she prescribed and all would be right in the world. Forget the fact that she'd never set eyes on me and how could she possibly know what color my real hair was?
My supportive hubby Dave was there all along, observing my panic from a safe distance. I explained the action plan outlined by the customer service rep to him, "So I'm going to have to turn myself blonde first before I get my real color back."
"OOOOOO!" Come get me! I want to see you blonde!" The support was just oozing off him at that moment.
Yeah, me too Hon. I crammed a ball cap onto my head and when to the drugstore.
Upon my return, I moved the location of my hair coloring efforts from my white tiled kitchen (insane to clean up) out into the "messy-paint-brushes-and-other-gross-things" garage sink area. I propped a mini mirror against the concrete wall and went to work following the box instructions to the letter.
When the timer finally went off and I rinsed my hair in rare anticipation.
I held my wet hair up in one long noodle above my head. I looked into the mirror and started snorting with laughter. I was Lucy Ricardo!
I ran into the house to show Dave singing the I Love Lucy theme song, "Da, da, dah, da, da, dah di dah! Da did a da dit dot dee da!"
So I never made it to blonde.
I applied the light brown color. Ouch...not even close. It was like an orangish-brown mouse exploded on parts of my head.
At this point, my level headed husband advised me to call my hair stylist, which I did (in tears of course). Michelle, I love you for getting me in the very next morning.
Five days later I was a (fairly) young looking, brunette mommy. And I've never dyed my hair since.
Embracing the grey -
More true stories about moi:
I Read People Magazine With Gusto
The three refridgerator magnets that made me laugh the hardest are:
I'll think about that tomorrow at Tara with Scarlett.
Dogs have masters. Cats have staff.
I lost my virginity, but I still have the box it came in.
Are we having fun yet?
The amazing stacking chickens are one of my most treasured tchotchkes. I found them in an antique store in Georgetown, CO about sixteen years ago.
From the practical point of view they are a teapot, sugar bowl and creamer set.
In my heart, they created some kind of bizarre ceramic poultry love in my heart.
I can't explain it.
Today is my 36th day on the Wii Fit. One of the things I find most appealing about the system is that it is shining a spotlight in my face...highlighting the minutiae of my bad exercise habits. Most especially when it says:
THE DAYS ROLL BY...
"Hi Cynthia. It's been six days since we saw you." What?!?!? I could have sworn it had only been three or four days since I stepped on my little balance board buddy. Nope, the Wii Fit does not lie...six days my friend. SIX.
My mind immediately jumped into guilt calculation mode, "OK, if I'd carved out a mere 15 minutes each day to dedicate to my health, that would add up to an extra hour and a half of exercise!" Ouch, that hurts. And it really hurts when my size 12 jeans are feeling tighty-tight-tight and I'm wearing holes in my private inner thigh area. (TMI?)
But wait, there's more....fast forward to:
"Hi Cynthia. We haven't seen you around. It's been 21 days since your last visit."
EXCUSE ME! How did THAT happen? Surely, it had been maybe a week at the most!!!
Again, the Wii Fit does not lie. Three weeks....three long weeks. And that six pound weight loss I'd reported earlier? Gone. I'd found the four pounds that I'd previously misplaced (lost).
A WORD PROBLEM FOR THE MATHEMATICALLY MINDED
If Cynthia first began working out with the Wii Fit 36 days ago and she's missed two large blocks of time (reportedly 6 days and 21 days); how many days has she actually worked out?
6 + 21 = 27 days missed
36 - 27 = 9 days of exercise
And take it a step further...9/36 =.25 meaning I've only worked out 25% of time that I've had the Wii Fit. Gulp.
A KIND AND FRIENDLY VOICE
I guess all the therapy has paid off, because I don't interpret the Wii Fit's reminders in a negative way. I feel it has a kind and nonjudgmental voice. Sort of a gentle tap on the head with the frying pan of life. I need that sometimes. Thank you my Wii Fit friend.
Next item on my to do list: Reset internal exercise clock for DAILY.
You know, it takes a village to lose 40 pounds.
Thank goodness for the Wii Fit Mommies...you people are my village of support.
Cyberhugs and links to each and every one of you -
Cynthia - The Good Enough Witch
P.S. Once I logged in and it said, "We haven't seen Dave here in a while. Where's he been?" So when my hubby got home that night I told him, "Sweetie, the Wii Fit was asking about you today."
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