Hello Darkness My Old Friend

School is over for the summer and now I'm getting that feeling again. That Simon & Garfunkel "Sound of Silence" feeling. Time is mine again, in a manner of speaking. I have time to write. Time to knit. Time to dye (yarn folks, yarn). Time to make soap. Lots of soap. I'm overwhelmed by how much I want to do and torn by the desire to do nothing and soak in the silence. I have books to read, always books to read, and so many ideas to tend to. Storylines are running through my mind like trains in the subway, going every which way. I definitely need to sort those out. For now I think I will just pull and old but very useful trick out of the hat and grab my Black 'n Red and jot down everything.

Soccer Camp and Mittens

Soccer camp started yesterday and it's going just brilliantly. Noah and Malachi are naturals (thanks to some good genes) and are absolutely loving it! We had some trouble getting Malachi psyched up for it tonight because he needed a nap (me too! I was up for 26 and a half hours straight and then only got to sleep 9 hours) but it only took a small bit of motivational speaking (involving me saying "Fine you can sit in the car while Noah plays" to get him back in the game, so to speak. The weather has been beautiful and just perfect for the kids to play in. Not too hot and not too humid. So far only one whiny kid and he didn't come back today so my thoughts are he won't be playing this year. I took a few pictures yesterday of the kids and a couple of videos too. I'll post those tomorrow when I can link up with faster Internet at the university. Until then, ta ta for now.

Update

I've not had a lot to talk about lately so that's why I haven't posted. My focus has been on losing weight, working, school, and knitting (of course). I haven't had time to do a lot of spinning but it's coming back on the priority list as I'm hearing the siren song of my wheels and spindles grow stronger each day. Maybe just one more mitten pair before I fall prey. Bad news: I hurt my back at work last week. Good news: it was all muscular with no disc involvement and ibuprofen and muscle relaxers have cured it (thank God! I was afraid I'd have to give in and get a cortisone shot and some Vicodin). I've gotten more work done on the book too. Mostly research but hey, that's more important than some folks like to think.

Head....Hurts....Ouch

I woke up (forcibly mind you) with a headache and a fever. Once up I noticed I was achey all over. Eeeewwww. I hate being sick. I'm really bad at being sick. Mostly I just lay around and sleep, waking only for the necessities and to take more medicine. Speaking of which.....

Some Things Just Suck No Matter What Kind of Spin You Put on Them

So I had to drop back a track in my nursing program. After I had one tire blow out on my truck I ended up needing new brake pads, rotors and calipers for my front brakes. I didn't have the money for that plus tuition plus textbooks so....... no school for me this quarter. Let me explain, for those of you not involved in a structured clinical program, what that means. Unlike other degrees, one cannot simply "take a quarter off" and then jump back in the next quarter where they left off. You have to get the entire staff of the School of Nursing involved. They have to save you a clinical spot and give you a new counselor and make sure the admissions team knows they will be admitting one less (sorry but I'm sure you'll get in next time) applicant for the new class. It's an embarrassing mess (yes, I asked my parents and no they cannot afford it either.) Once that is all said and done you have to wait until the clinical rotation you were either in or supposed to be starting comes up again. In my case it was Pediatrics and Obstetrics and it won't be up again until January of 2010 (the next Winter quarter). Nine months away (approximately). I will be taking some non-clinical classes between now and then to stay up with that but to say I've been a bit of a funk is a dramatic understatement. I've been in this field long enough to know I'm suffering from depression. Sub-clinical yes, but depression nonetheless. Knowing this I have purposefully made an effort to do non-pharmacological things to get out of the funk. I've been getting on the treadmill with increasing regularity. I'm back on a low-carb eating plan. I've got a (basic) list to follow every day that reads:

1. Get out of bed.
2. Get dressed in clothes other than pajamas.
3. Shower.

Like I said it's a basic list. I fell into the trap of WoW too and today I decided to make a concerted effort to stay away from WoW because it is the mother of all time suckers and motivation suckers. Today so far I've done steps one and two but not three because I'll be getting on the treadmill before too long. I've also read some very entertaining blogs about life in Scotland (*sigh* soon, it will be soon) and am planning on getting started on finishing a pair of socks I started around Christmas. Speaking of Christmas... it's time to get started on my Christmas knitting or I wont ever be done. It's raining all week here so I can't start on the soap making yet but that will be before too long also. It's also my 30th birthday this week so I'm trying to decide on my birthday present to myself. I've pretty much narrowed it down to the new Blackberry Storm. I've played with one a few times and each time I like it more. We'll see what the week has to say about it though. Also, since I've still got my book list from this quarter I'm planning on purchasing one of my textbooks each pay period and getting started reading according to the syllabi's so I can really have the material down pat come Winter quarter. You don't want to half-ass it when it comes to kids and neonates. Well, that's about it for today. Now that I have more time on my hands I'll probably be updating more frequently. I may even sit down and get back to work on my podcast. One never knows.

My shrinking butt and why I sometimes feel bad for celebrities.

So I upped my treadmill workout to 45 minutes today and , DAMN it felt good! I could literally feel the fat on my butt melting away. Yay! But then again, it never belonged there and frankly the nine years it's been there just has been nothing but a pain. So buh-bye. Now, on the the celebrities thing. I seriously do feel bad for them sometimes. My latest "celebrity sympathy earner" is Robert Pattinson. He plays Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies and the poor bloke just was NOT prepared for how famous he's become. I mean he can't even get a haircut without the whole world going apeshite. Apparently the hair he has when he plays Edward is actually marketed! Who markets a hairstyle?????!!!! Please people, it's just hair! So poor Rob went and got a haircut and pissed off a nation of teenage girls who just can't accept that just because he plays Edward does not mean that he is Edward and therefore does not have to keep the same hairstyle for eternity. So here he is with Edward hair:


And here's the infamous haircut:

I think he looks smashing. Very sexy Rob, don't worry about it.

Twilight and I make a Hat!

My oldest son turns nine on the nineteenth. He's been after me since November to see the movie "Twilight" because that is his big thing right now. Edward Cullen is his hero and after borrowing the first book to see what the big deal was about (and to verify it was suitable for him to read) I ended up getting the second, third, and fourth books and finishing them that very weekend. It's a pretty good little saga. Not classics material but good, fast, and pretty satisfying. So I took him to see the movie yesterday and it was not bad. It varied from the book, as most "movies based on the book" do, but I enjoyed it. I plan to purchase it when it's released to DVD next month. It has also reinforced the need for me to drop about 140lbs. (It was a bit of a squeeze getting into the chair at the movie theatre.) So for Valentines Day I asked my hunny to move my treadmill into the living room so that I have no excuses to NOT use it. Right now it's in the bedroom and since we moved the dressers around, I can't bring the belt down to use it anymore. Makes it too easy to just say no to working out. Not good. *sigh* Back to grindstone. On the bright side, I made a hat!