NaNo going slow

Postit (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Okay, yeah, I was super-excited to get this version of NaNoWriMo underway.  And yes, I did get off to a great start.  But…and you knew there was going to be a but, didn’t you?  But now I find myself exhausted, in pain, and brain weary.  I’ve been working a lot, like six days a week and more than 8 hours a day.  That’ll be nice on the old paycheck, but it sure makes it difficult to do much of anything once I get home.  I also have to try to get in enough sleep so I don’t get sick.  I sure don’t want to have to go through that again.

I’ve been coming home, feeding the cats, throwing a load of laundry in, doing the dishes, preparing my lunch for the next day…and that’s pretty much it.  We have been so busy at work that you’d think it was coming up on Christmas or something.  I do have Wednesday off, but it’ll be after closing Tuesday night.  That closing shift really wears me out.  It might not be quite so bad now that we have extra people working.   Guess I’ll have to wait and see how that goes.  Right now, my plans for Wednesday are to get a little extra sleep and to do several writing sessions.

I know I can still hit the 50,000 word mark before the end of the month and possibly the 70,000 goal I set for myself…just have to sit there and write every single day.  No excuses…no giving up.

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Monday can be a fun day

Monday Morning too^ On the Job Monday – NARA – 534696 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I know, I know…most of the time we all dread Mondays.  That day when we have to go back to work after a nice relaxing weekend.  The day when it hits us (once again) that the job we’re doing isn’t necessarily what we thought we’d be doing.  The day when we question just how much does the job we get paid to do benefit the world.  Or am I the only one who thinks about things like this?  I can’t imagine that I am, but…

Anyhow, I somehow got distracted.  Despite all of these Monday questions, Mondays can still be fun.  On the first truck day of the month, we always have a pitch-in at work.  Well, today is that day.  We try to come up with themes for our pitch-ins (do you realize how difficult that can be with who knows how many people shouting their suggestions at you?).  Well, Chris (our silly, funny, wonderful boss) came up with this month’s theme.  Brace yourself…it’s a strange one.  Bring something that starts with the same letter as your name.  Really.  Who knows what we’ll end up with.  Could be all desserts, and other than the sugar highs and lows, that wouldn’t be a terrible thing.

I do know that one of the guys is bringing stuffed manicotti (Salvatore), so I’m sure we’ll at least have something good to eat.  I baked pumpkin bars last night.  Kind of a pumpkin brownie deal with orange frosting…fits in with the theme (you know, pumpkin…Patti) and it’s got that whole seasonal thing going on too.  I have a whole pumpkin board on pinterest so you might think I’d have made something from scratch, but no…I saw this mix when I was at Kroger the other day and thought it would be good.  And it’s okay…but not as good as the pumpkin cake I made a few weeks ago.  I’m kind of wishing I’d have made that again…but it’s a tad too late to worry about that right now, isn’t it?

Whatever (don’t you hate it when people say that?  I couldn’t resist.)…we’ll have lots of goodies to share with our work family today and it’ll make the day go faster.  So wherever you are today, whatever you’re doing and whoever you’re doing it with…make your Monday be a fun day!

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Labor Day shenanigans

English: A pile of plain M&M’s candies. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, first let me say, I had to work today and it was crazy busy from the get go.  Between dealing with the lady I hired for the office job (I’m starting to wonder if I may have made a mistake) and trying to deal with the event calendar, my morning somehow disappeared.  Then I pretty much spent the rest of the day running register.  Now you know we’re busy when I’m on register for an extended period of time.

We tried to have a managers’ meeting, probably not the best day for that.  I tried to get the cake decorating info in the book…again, not an ideal time to tackle that.  I finally just cleaned my mess up and ran register.  I was so glad when it was time for my hot and sweaty self to head on home.

I did swing by Kroger on the way home…being the bad girl I am, I bought a frozen pizza (that’s the tired me controlling the trying-to-eat-healthier me).  To give myself a little credit, I did only eat a fourth of it…along with about four glasses of water.  I also bought some fun-size M & M’s for Claire.  I’ve been keeping a little bowl on my coffee table with kid candy in it for her.  You should have seen her eyes light up when she saw those M & M’s (or, as she says, “nm n nms”).  She also chowed down on some string cheese.  Have you ever watched a little kid eat string cheese?  Not a pretty sight.

Claire and I visited for quite a while.  She wanted to help me feed the kitties…not that it requires much help…open a can and divide it up on two saucers.  Then she wanted to go through my purse.  Just had a thought, I hope she’s not really a midget spy for a major crime ring…memorizing all of my credit card info….

Now  I’m worn out and just about ready for bed.  How’s that for a fun-filled Labor Day?  At least I have tomorrow off and no pressing engagements to take care of.

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A laugh a day…

…yep, when you practically live in a zoo life is never dull.  I was talking on the phone last night when Spook decided she didn’t want Scout sitting on the couch behind my head…there they go…screeching, clawing, running through the house!  To listen to them, you’d think there would be at least a little bloodshed, but no, just a lot of noise and fur flying.

I woke up this morning with my knee throbbing so I decided to soak in a hot tub full of water before getting ready for work.  It helped loosen things up a little, so that’s a good thing, right?  Well, as I was drying myself off the water was draining from the tub.  All of a sudden I heard a splash quickly followed by a second splash.  Before I could turn around to see what had happened, the kitten jumped out of the tub and stood there looking at her feet. It was like she couldn’t figure out where all of that water had come from.  Then, as all cats do, she had to shake each paw to try to get the water off.  By the time she was done, the bathroom floor was soaked and I was laughing like crazy.

It’s a pretty good morning when you can get in a good belly laugh before you head out to work!  Crazy little cats!

ahh…relaxation after an unexpected bath!

Just in time for NaNo

Store managers ensure that visual merchandising is consistent with customers’ expectations of the brand. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NaNoWriMo starts in less than a week…how exciting is that?!  I’m ready to go.  And I’ve had some interesting, exciting news about my job too…starting Sunday I’ll be the acting store manager at our store while my boss takes over at another store.  I’m looking forward to this.  I consider it to be another step on the right career path for me.

I told my boss today that I’m feeling happy and excited about work again.  (Is that the correct thing to tell your boss?  Is that like saying, “Hey, I haven’t been all that thrilled with my job lately, but now I’m feeling super excited!”?)  Anyhow, it’s a great opportunity…and I’m pretty sure he understood what I was saying.

I knew November would be a rough month to write 50,000 words…I just didn’t know that I would be tackling increased work hours and work load at the same time.  But hey, I think I heard somewhere, that if you want something done, find a busy person to do it for you…that’ll be me next month…more than ever.

It’s been a while since I’ve felt this good about how things are going in my work and writing lives…I’m going to enjoy every minute of it~And the picture I chose to post here really has nothing to do with anything in my life…I just thought it looked like a store I’d like to shop in…what about you?

Oh…and…has anyone heard about the Black Friday deals???  Get ready to shop your socks off!

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 124

I hate to be a downer, but I’m afraid that’s what I’m going to be tonight.  I had the weekend off work and didn’t really accomplish a lot.  I had lots of things planned, but only managed to get a few of them done.  I’ve got to snap out of this funk I’ve been in lately.  Okay, I know what I need to do is simply do the things I know I need to do…no matter whether or not I want to do them, whether or not I feel like doing them, whether or not I’m in the mood to do them.  It’s like exercise, you may not be in the mood to do it, but if you just start you’ll usually find yourself feeling better and better as you go along (not always, believe me, I know that). 

I didn’t bake the kale chips I intended to bake today.  I did kind of clean the kitchen though.  And I have my lunch and snacks prepared for tomorrow.  Unfortunately tomorrow starts super early…5 am again, blah!  So I really need to try to get to bad early tonight…try being the operative word…it’s not easy to go to sleep on demand, well, unless you’re a teenager, then you can usually sleep for 16 out of 24 hours every day.  Ahh…those were the days and we were too young to realize it!

And Halloween is coming…do you buy the candy early?  Aren’t you afraid you’ll eat it and then just have to go out and buy more?  Or do you buy candy that you don’t really like?  Hmm…now there’s a thought…oh…now if only I could come across a candy I didn’t like…

Image via Wikipedia

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 118

Image by cjzurcher via Flickr

Ay yi yi..what an exhausting day.  Well, maybe the day wouldn’t have been so exhausting had it not started with me already tired from lack of sleep.  I ended up with just a little over two hours of sleep last night.  Finally dozed off just a little while before the alarm went off.  Had to be at work at 5 this morning.  Big truck at 6!  We had a good crew working today though and managed to get a lot done.

Eating?  Oh, it was just okay today.  I ate too much of the wrong foods and not enough of the healthy foods.  I did read a suggestion about adding pumpkin puree to chili that I think I’m going to try tomorrow.  I can get another serving or so of veggies that way…and supposedly you can’t really taste it.  I’ll let you know how that turns out.

My only exercise for the day was what I got in at work.  It took us an hour and a half to unload the truck, so that involved a lot of walking and lifting.  And then just a lot of walking for the rest of the day.  I couldn’t force myself to do anything extra when I got home this evening.  All I wanted to do was go to bed…haven’t done that yet…got to get in my Monday night dose of Dancing With The Stars!

I have tomorrow off work…woohoo!!  I have some errands I need to do in the morning then I want to get a little housework done and cook a batch of chili (you know, with the pumpkin puree).  It’ll just be nice to be able to wake up without that alarm blaring in my ear.

So, was this a manic Monday for you?

 

 

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 109

Image via Wikipedia

Ahh…the work day is done, the weekend has begun!!  As you probably guessed, I have the weekend off and I’m pretty excited about it!  Don’t really have a lot of plans, but I don’t intend to go in to work and that’s good enough for me!

I worked all day today, but didn’t feel all that good.  At one point during the day, I thought about just going home, but I stuck it out and managed to get quite a bit of necessary work done.  I had a lot of really nice customers in the store today, cute  happy babies, people trying on little Halloween accessories and taking their pictures (who would have thought, 20 years ago, that you’d be able to take pictures with a phone?  Technology is an awesome thing), people just generally feeling good and being cheerful…that’s what I like, makes my day much better~~

I had Cheerios and a banana for breakfast again today.  (Have you noticed that I kind of get stuck eating the same thing for several days in a row?) Lunch was a Lean Cuisine that I won’t be buying again…some kind of chicken, veggies and noodles in peanut sauce…not very good…ended up throwing most of it away.  I drank my V8 fusion with my lunch, so got a serving of veggies and one of fruit there.   I did eat this cute Little Debbie pumpkin snack thing…not bad.  I also had yogurt with cherries and granola for a snack this afternoon, that was pretty darn good!!  Dinner was some bread sticks (that I made) and some lite Ranch dressing…not bad, probably should have had some soup with the breadsticks…think that’s what I’ll be cooking this weekend…maybe minestrone, with kale?!  Hmm…farmers market, here I come.

Exercise was strength training and range of motion exercises and some stretching.  Walked for only 20 minutes, I still was feeling the effects from yesterday’s truck.  I think I’ll do some walking tomorrow and maybe get some good pictures.  I noticed how pretty the leaves were tonight when I was coming home from work.  I just love fall.  And right now we don’t have to have the heat or air conditioning on…pleasant…and frugal!!

I saw an old school friend in the store today…that’s one of the things that’s pretty cool about my job…I manage to see people who I may not have seen for a long time, get to chat a bit and catch up on what’s happening in their lives.  I really should go to my next class reunion.  Can you believe I’ve never gone to one?  What’s up with that?  I just never really had the desire to go, but now I’m thinking I wouldn’t mind it…we’ll see…

What about you?  Have you attended a class reunion?  How was it?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 100

Okay, to be honest, this may be day 101, but I didn’t want to miss the celebration of 100 days of working toward leading a healthier life.  I feel somewhat proud that I’ve done this for 100 days in a row, even if some of those days didn’t go as I’d planned…but then life often doesn’t go as we plan it, does it?  But to stick with it and at least make the effort is pretty cool.

I also just realized that this is my 300th post on the run4joy blog…wow!  This is so much fun, I’ve met so many wonderful people through this blog, and I’ve been able to reconnect with old friends (hey, Kim…wish I’d had more time to talk with you today when you stopped by the store…you look marvelous, girl).  I’m able to do something that I feel passionate about and (hopefully) improve my craft just a bit.

Another reason to celebrate today…our corporate visits are now over for the remainder of the year (unless that much feared auditor would happen to stop in for a surprise visit).  We had the head of HR in our store today…what a nice guy…seriously.  Totally different feeling with this visit than with the visit we had last week.  Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, we got an A!!!  High fives all around!!  The store really looks fab!  Now to just keep it that way!  I stopped at Kroger and bought some yummy looking brownies for Sean (the HR guy)…and no, I didn’t bribe him with them, I gave them to him as he was getting ready to leave!  Oh, did I mention, we got an A for the visit?  I did?  Well, I’m just trying to get it to sink in.  I’m just so darn proud of how hard everyone worked for this!!

So let me leave you today with a picture of something I noticed outside my kitchen window this evening…

The  rainbow after the storm…kind of speaks to life, doesn’t it?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 99

Image via Wikipedia

ooh…big milestone coming up.  Just wish I could report that I was eating perfectly and getting lots of exercise.  It’s just not happening and I don’t know why.  I want it, I want to feel better, stronger, healthier, but I’m not working all that hard for it.  Not working anywhere near as hard as I know I need to be.  I need to decide on a plan of action and then go for it.

I guess you can see that I’m feeling just a tad discouraged with myself and my actions.  Last night I said I had my meals and snacks planned and that I needed to go into the kitchen and prepare them.  Surprise!  I didn’t do it.  Then, when I was getting ready this morning, I looked at the clock and realized I needed to leave in less than five minutes and hadn’t put my shoes on, gathered the trash, got my jacket and umbrella out.  So…I didn’t take all that healthy stuff to work that I’d intended to take.  And ended up eating lunch out as well as a blasted Snickers bar (ha, Diane…see, I’m not trying to hide anything here).  I finished the day with 2,125 calories and not a lot of exercise.  I walked twice for 10 minutes at a time, did upper body strength training and stretching before work, and a bunch of running around and heavy lifting at work.  So not terrible, but not what I need to do to get this weight off.

We’ve got another corporate visitor coming this week (I know, really?).  This guy came last year for the fall tour and was such a nice guy, very pleasant to talk with, would listen when we voiced concerns (actually took notes!), and wanted to meet everyone.  We still have some fluffing to do to get ready for the visit, but I expect this one to be much more enjoyable than last week’s.  And then I am going to do my best to make sure that Chris takes at least the weekend off (can I also get him to take Monday off?  I’m sure going to try.  This guy needs some time off.  Hello, Chris?  Do you hear me?   Dude, sleep for an entire day.).

Do you sometimes find your actions to not be in line with your desires?  How do you deal with that?

 

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