D called me a couple of weeks ago to ask for my assistance in ordering a vital part his Halloween costume from an eBay seller. His college, like most others, has lots of fun activities going on for the holiday and he’s cared more about his costume in the last couple of years than he has since he was about eleven years old. “Sure,” I said, “What are you going to be this year?” “The Driver from the (Ryan Gosling) movie ‘Drive’.” I haven’t yet seen the movie so I had to go off of his excitement–and my sister’s enthusiastic endorsement of his idea–as I opened up my laptop to…
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It’s Up To You. You Can Quote Me On That.
Well, hello! Nice to see you again! Since it’s been five days since I last posted (yikes!), I have had to wrestle with a brain on overload. There’s not much to write about, but there’s so much to write about. I know, it doesn’t make sense to me, either. I had a post planned for today but put it on the back burner early this morning when I scrolled through my Facebook news feed and found an inspirational quote, one I have since lost track of but it went something along the lines of “My life is fantastic because I decided that it should be.” I love it (and probably…
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The Ask
Homecoming weekend is coming up, and that means there’s a dance on the horizon. J and his girlfriend will be going, but only after he executes “The Ask”. Asking a date to attend a dance these days isn’t a matter of just, well, asking. It’s a big production which is only limited by the creativity and the resources of the person who is doing the asking. D once presented a friend with a huge, ten-pound chocolate bar which was covered with a homemade (and adorable) wrapper that said, “HOMECOMING?” He asked his prom date to the dance by arranging to be a guest on the high school morning news brief…
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Retired.
I have been alluding to some changes as of late, and one of them happens today. This evening I will be teaching my last spin class, ever. I have been thinking about retiring for months now (after teaching for more than nine years!) for many reasons. Just a few of them are: 1. The reason I started teaching in the first place was because I loved taking group fitness classes and thought A) I’d be good at teaching and B) Why not get paid to do something I really enjoy, but once I started teaching I mostly stopped TAKING classes and as I got further from that part of it,…
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It’s Not How You Start, It’s How You Finish.
Anything, really, but in this case? It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish…the day. I felt the need to post a second time today because although my day started with the annoyance over the textbook situation, overall my day was really good and I can’t stand seeing an icky negative post on top of my little old’ blog here. So much happened today, and I can’t write about any of it in detail. Or at all. What I CAN do is be very vague and philosophical about life. You’re welcome. The thing is, life is full of changes…but I despise change. I always have. Like, I can’t even…
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It’s Not Us, It’s You.
There are so many choices these days regarding college textbooks: you can buy used or new anywhere (even Amazon!) (not sponsored) and you can also rent from several different websites as well as—thank goodness they got with the program—the actual college bookstores. What we have done up to this point is rent from one of two textbook rental websites and then buy any books that we couldn’t rent, used if possible, from his college bookstore. Now that D’s college bookstore is offering rentals (yay!), because he was away all summer (I didn’t know what his classes would be so I couldn’t order books while he was gone), and because he’s…
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Preparing For The 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremonies
Right in line with themed celebrations of the past (epic Amazing Race season premieres and such), we are having quite a shindig in the house tonight, in honor of tonight’s 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremonies. My sister suggested that we make fish and chips (okay, twist my arm), and she’s also making sticky toffee pudding for dessert. I had included British beer on my grocery list, and this morning Jim surprised me when he said, “Oh, when you pick up beer for tonight, please don’t get Guinness because it’s technically Irish.” I love a man who can fully commit to the theme. Julesie and I went to our local super-huge…
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Wait…July??? (And Other Thoughts)
…and then, when I woke up, I realized it was July first already. I’m not sure what is going on, but time is moving at warp speed: nothing new for me, really, but this is ridiculous. Six months of 2012 are gone already. Wasn’t it just New Year’s Eve? It’s not slowing down anytime soon, either. This month alone I’ve got a couple of college visits left (plus a weekend College Open House), a visit to Tennessee, final prep for BBSummit and the conference itself (along with a long weekend visit with Liz!), two events (so far!), continued workouts at The Dailey Method and Zumba, a magazine article deadline, and…
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Good Posture And Blueberries
I know. Quite possibly my most bizarre title ever, in more than five years of blogging. Chalk it up to laziness more than creativity, but you clicked here, didn’t you? Score one for laziness. This morning I took my sixth Dailey Method class in eight days. Today is the day I (my brain and the rest of my body) got it. It clicked. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t any less difficult than it has been. Today I didn’t get as many pose corrections from the instructor as much as I did in the five previous classes, I knew what she meant with her cues, and for the first time…
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Just A Quick Survey On A Thursday Night…
I have a thing about the question “How are you?” I have seen lots of discussion regarding the way that most people just respond, “Fine!” or something similar because the question itself has become a way of greeting another person. I admit to using it to the level of overkill myself, like when I pass someone I know in the store: “Hey! How are ya?” Or when I hug somebody upon meeting them for lunch: “So great to see you! How are you?” You get the idea. Here’s the thing. If I ask somebody how they are and then they launch into a true explanation of how they are, I…