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WINNIE1978's Recent Blog Entries
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Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Today was a bizarre day.
While at work this afternoon… everything started to rumble! I was reading a book and the next thing I knew, everything was rumbling. I looked around at the other three people in the room and one of them asked if we all felt that… and of course we all had. I have never experienced an earthquake before and I have to admit, it was nothing like I would have expected or like I’ve seen on TV, thank God! It was just a light, steady rumbling for a minute or so and then it was done. It was bizarre how calm it seemed to be, although I am grateful for that because the building that I was working in is probably twice my age, if not more, and I’m not sure how stable it would have been.
After work we hit the gym and everything about the workout was craptacular from start to finish. Only one elliptical was available so my boyfriend said he’d start with his strength training so I could use the elliptical. There was a gym regular on the other elliptical, although he doesn’t usually use that machine. I was totally thrown off by the fact that I was exercising next to someone else… and completely annoyed, with every fiber of my being, with the fact that he was going a million miles a minute on level one. He was literally flying on the elliptical, but it was like he wasn’t getting anywhere… he had to have the level one speed maxed out the entire time. I have no idea why he didn’t just up the resistance some… and I have no idea why it bothered me so freaking bad, but it did! Then my foot was hurting… and my right thigh muscled stayed really tight until around 20 minutes into it… then my toes were falling asleep… my pants kept bunching up in a weird way and it just sucked. I still managed to go 6.5 miles in 32 minutes, but it just didn’t FEEL like a good workout and I didn’t get my heart rate up nearly has high as usual. The strength training didn’t feel any better, but I did do everything that I’d planned to do. Hopefully my next workout will go a little more smoothly!
So, the craptacular workout just goes to show how much I dislike any change to my routine. After working a job for almost 6 years, where everything changes on a day-to-day basis, you’d think that I’d be a little more flexible by now. There is absolutely no reason that any of that stuff should have totally ruined the workout I had intended to have… but it did. I definitely need to work on that.
Monday, August 22, 2011
I have been putting off buying my books for this semester for long enough... school starts on September 6th. I have been dreading it, although I am thankful that it's my last semester!!
I HATE college textbooks! They are ridiculously expensive and you are completely STUCK with buying them whether the book will be used or not. Then they don't even offer to give you 10% of the purchase price when you try to sell them back at the end of the semester even though they are still in "like new" condition. Talk about a slap in the face! And I don't know how many books I have paid for and then barely used... but it's been a lot! And the bookstore conveniently only has NEW copies of whatever I need.
A couple of semesters ago, I started renting my books from Chegg.com instead of buying them. Renting the books saved me at least half the price, they shipped them to my door, they provided a pre-paid mailing label for me to ship them back at the end of the semester and they "plant a tree" because of my purchase, or so they say. Great, right?
Well this semester Chegg was not so great. One of the books could only be purchased and only new... so big money! The other book was available for rent for about $50. I looked the prices up on my college's bookstore website and found that I could buy the one that I could only purchase new as used for about $50 so that saved me well over $100 and I could rent the other book for about $55. Saving on the book that I had to purchase made it worth getting them from the bookstore this semester... until I actually went to do it.
I needed to give them a major credit card to rent the book, ok no problem... handed over the Visa. After she started filling out the paperwork she got to the expiration date (something I have ZERO control over, mind you) and said "oh, we can't take this card because it expires a month before the end of the semester". Really?? Because on the 11th month of this year, that card is just going to self destruct, right? Ugh! So I told her I would buy the damn book, thinking it was the one that I couldn't get cheaper from Chegg... $122! For a used freaking book! I went outside to the student computers and did a quick search on Chegg's website and was thrilled that they had the book for rent for $61... so I added it to my cart for later and then I went back into the bookstore and told the lady she could have her book back... I found someone that didn't care when my card expired.
I get home, just 4 hours after my search on Chegg.com for the book... and guess what? The book is now $71 to rent for the semester... so the price went up $10 in 4 hours! Really???
After a quick search of other companies that also rent textbooks, I found it for rent for $56! So take that Chegg.com and college bookstore!!
Did I mention I HATE college textbooks?
Saturday, August 20, 2011
The much talked about family reunion was today. We woke up, finished loading up the car and we were off to the park to set up. Luckily everything was fairly clean and set up the way we like it so we didn't have to do too much work... just sweep up a bit.
This is what it looked like when we were all set up...
It was a beautiful day! It was sunny, in the 80s, and there was a nice breeze from the water. Here's a view from the pavilion...
People started showing up around noon. Several people had to eat and run because they had other plans. Several of the people that normally show up didn't come for one reason or another. It was kind of disappointing that we didn't get to see everyone, but we enjoyed our time with those that did come.
My mom, who was supposed to be there around 10am to help set up, did not show up until after 2pm! That kind of irritated me, but I should have expected it because the woman has no concept of time.
The aunt that I blogged about a couple of weeks ago didn't show up. She usually blows in and tries to take over so it didn't really bother me too much that she wasn't there. The only bad thing about it was that it left my boyfriend to tend the grill all day... and just when he thought he was done someone would come with more goodies to grill. I definitely couldn't pull this reunion off without his help and I am so grateful that he's more than willing to help!!
Last year someone took a really, really bad picture of me at the reunion. Seeing that picture was kind of a wake up call for me... it showed me just how large I had let myself get and how miserable I was. In fact, I was so miserable that I was even feeling ill that year. It still took me several months to get my butt in gear and devise a plan to get this excess weight gone FOREVER... but this picture really was the start of it all...
This year was completely different though! I was able to help out more with the packing, loading, unloading, cleaning, etc. And even though I am really tired, I am not feeling like I'm going to die like last year. I feel SO much better... and that's just more motivation to keep going. How amazing would it be if I were at my goal weight next year?! I can only imagine! I had several people mention that they could tell that I'd lost weight and that just made my day!! This is a picture from this year's reunion...
We even got a picture of my boyfriend and I together... and other than the fact that my hair is in my face, I love it... which is huge because I never like pictures of me!
One of my cousins made me cry... totally not the best part of the reunion. Every year we play bingo (half of the money collected goes to the reunion fund and half goes to the winner) and we do an auction of wrapped gifts that everyone is supposed to bring with them in order to raise money to fund the following year's reunion. We also set out a donation box for people that don't want to participate in bingo or the auction, but that still want to contribute. Well, this cousin is my mom's age... never brings anything, never plays bingo, never donates, etc. BUT he always tells me that I shouldn't be paying for anything out of my own pocket and to let him know if I am. Each year, I tell him that if he would like to help, drop some money in the donation box. I refuse to feel like I am begging him to help. So this year, he did his usual thing... I told him where the donation box was... then he came over and told me that I don't need to feel like I let my Nana down if this reunion doesn't continue. That she would be proud of me for everything that I've done and that I shouldn't forget that. Well there came the waterworks. The whole reason that I do this reunion every year is because my Nana LOVED it!! When I was a kid she controlled the reunion and I loved to help set up, clean up, etc. Honestly, my Nana was my favorite person EVER and I would have done anything to make her happy. So in 2006 when her health was failing and the cousin that was doing the reunion didn't want to do it anymore, I stepped up and said that I would do it. The following month, my Nana passed away. So this reunion is important to me for a couple of reasons... it reminds me of the times that I helped my Nana with the reunion all those years ago AND it was very important to her that our family continue to get together at least once a year. After the waterworks started everyone was coming up to tell me how good a job I do, how much they enjoy the reunion, etc. I even had another cousin tell me that I had to stop crying or HE would start and he said that would just be ugly. *lol*
And because I am a huge clutz... the damage report:
I managed to get a big paper cut on my pinky finger last night thanks to a cardboard box,
today I managed to smash the knuckle on the same finger with a bag of ice, and while we were bringing everything back into the house I managed to ram the other hand into the wall while carrying a big tote full of stuff. So couple of cuts and a puffy, bruised hand.
All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better day! But I'm also glad that I don't have to do it again until next year.
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