Everything From My Butt Down Has Stopped Speaking To Me

My legs aren't speaking to me. And they've convinced my knees to turn against me too. So far my arms are still playing nice but the backs of my shoulders seem a little sore/stiff.

If you haven't already figured it out, I went to Curves again tonight. That marks a back to back workout. Hence why my legs seem rather pissed at me at the moment. It was a fun work out and the time flew by again. After the work out we got to play Yahtzee to win a t-shirt or ballots into a monthly draw. Apparently this is something they do every Friday. That's kind of cool and it was fun.

Work was interesting. More changes were announced today and that didn't go over well with some people. My role change was announced to some of the staff as well. I've had a week to process it and mull it over so I was doing pretty good when it was announced today. I keep reminding myself that change is good and doing something different will be a welcome change. The more skill sets I have, the better chance I'll have of finding a higher level position. Or so the theory goes.

I relaxed tonight, ordered in and watched some scary tv. It was the season premiere of Grimm and the series premiere of Dracula. I quite liked the spin they've put on Dracula. He's cast as a vigilante of sorts and has a rather interesting relationship with Van Helsing too. And it doesn't hurt that the actor playing Dracula is hot, but he speaks without his sexy Irish accent in the show. Oh well. LOL.

I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend. I'm planning on tackling the pile of clothing in my bedroom and re-arranging my closet for Fall/Winter. I also have 2 missions: 1. Buy new running shoes and 2. Buy a decent sports bra.  Mission 2 is going to be much more difficult than mission 1.

But for now, I'm going to go and take some Motrin and head to bed and pray that I can still walk in the morning. If I'm hobbling tomorrow, I'm going to have some choice words for a certain someone....

Good Night!

Sarah

My sexy bowling shoes!

This Won't Hurt...Much.

Another day, another dollar. Or so they say. Work went by a little more quickly today and thankfully, I didn't have any disrespectful people to deal with today, so that is a major plus. The weeks ahead are going to be very interesting ones and I really am not sure how things are going to play out. I'm going to take a "go with the flow" approach and hope that works.

After work was Curves workout #2, which was our first 'real' workout. Meaning that we did the full circuit and a half without the aid of the coaches. Sure, they did yell out some encouragement or gave tips on a specific machine, but for the most part, Steph and I were on our own.

It went really well. I have to admit, the time really does fly by. The stupid pull up machine was still awful but a few of the others that gave me trouble on day one seemed to behave better today. And, of course, there was some laughter. I almost went ass over teakettle while doing our cool down stretches. One of the stretches is where you reach behind you, bend your leg up and grab your foot and pull it towards your ass. Like this:



Anyhow, I can't do that. So they have this big stretchy rubber band to help. I looped it around my foot and then you pull the band up and over your shoulder. Well I kind of lost balance while doing this and ended up doing a fun pirouette instead, which allowed me to regain my balance. If I hadn't, I would have fallen over since my foot was otherwise occupied and I couldn't have put it down to stop me.

I'm finding that every time I get up off the couch or out of my chair this evening, I'm stiff and various muscles protest a little. Nothing major. Except the pulsing pain in my right boob. But that has nothing to do with my activities at the gym this afternoon. That's all hormonal. Stupid hormones.

Anyhow, Steph's insane and wants to go back tomorrow. One of the coaches said that if you do work outs back to back like this, you get to go less intensely on the 2nd day. I might be able to handle that. I also might not be able to move come Saturday.

Guess I'll just have to wait and see how that plays out too.

Good Night!

Sarah

It's all about balance.

My head hurts.

Seeing as I have a major sinus pressure headache at the moment and looking at this bright screen is really making my eyes hurt, this is going to be a very short blog.

Work was alright. Not slow and not busy but I ended up taking a late lunch thanks to someone from another department who I've been working with on some fundraising effort. Just because she has a different schedule than the rest of us doesn't give her the right to disrespect our schedules.

Thankfully, I wasn't very sore at all today. From time to time I could feel a little muscle strain in my upper legs and once in the muscle that runs under your arm pit and along the side of your boob but that was all. Steph and I are back to the gym tomorrow after work. I'd better take long pants with me because our high is only going to be +6 so it's going to be chilly when we head for the buses to take us home.

Ok, I'm calling it quits for the night. Time to pop some Advil Sinus and head to bed.

Good Night!

Sarah

Random photo of my feeding a squirrel, just because!

Let's Get Physical

After a somewhat interesting day in the office, thanks to a last minute visit from some higher ups from another office, I escaped slightly later than planned and headed to Curves for my first actual work out.

For those not familiar with how Curves works, it's a circuit of equipment with a fun bouncy "recovery board" in between each machine. The machines are set up to work a different part of your body so that you're not focusing on 1 area for longer than 30 seconds. The recovery board is just that. A spot to recover while keeping your heart rate up.

There were 2 instructors so Steph went off one way with one and I went off in the other direction with the other. She started by taking me to each piece of machinery and showing me how it worked and then got me to try it. Once we were finished that, the real fun began. The idea is simple: go as hard as you can for 30 seconds and then switch. Sounds easy right? Oh hell no.

I can think of very few situations where 30 seconds has felt so long. I'm convinced that the little "change" lady sometimes counts to 45 seconds or even a minute. On some of those machines, I was feeling the burn after 10 seconds. That can't be good. One particular machine is used to do crunches on. You grab these handles and rock forward, using just your abs to move you. I moved maybe 4 inches. Too much stomach and boobs in the way! On another machine, larger busted ladies such as myself get to actually rest our boobs on a padded bar to allow for a better range of motion. Glad to see that someone was thinking.

All in all, I survived (and I think Steph did too) and we managed to get to the bus without falling over. Even though I had a snack before hitting up the gym, I was pretty damn hungry heading home. I almost let out a cheer of joy when I was digging in my purse for my keys and found leftover chocolate from my outing to the movies on Saturday. I'm not going to lie but I'm pretty sure I set a new speed record for downing it. And then, while waiting for the light so I could cross the street, a guy comes and stands beside me, holding a big Wendy's bag. Not only can I see the grease from the fries, I can smell them. OMG. I swear to god, I nearly took him out right then and there on the corner. I think I have a better understanding of how vampires feel now. LOL.

Thankfully, I made it home without harming innocent strangers or chocking on chocolate that I inhaled and proceeded to make dinner. While I am a little sore, I am feeling good about this. The plan is to go back on Thursday. Wish me luck.

Good Night!

Sarah

CONTROL!!!!!!! (And yes, I'm back)

I know. I haven't been blogging lately. It's not that I haven't had anything on my mind, it's more that I've had too much on my mind and I need the time to figure it out and process it myself. And I have to admit. Sometimes I feel very stupid sharing my miscellaneous ramblings because I don't think they make sense.

Anyhow, a lot has happened.

For starters, I found some sort of inner courage and along with 2 friends, I went out to a meet and greet event. Which lead to me meeting and greeting some people. This then lead to a coffee outing with one said person which turned out to be a very interesting and very enlightening event. Yes, it was a male and no, there weren't any sparks. But he's an interesting fellow who reminds me of someone I used to know. My little foray into the social world also lead to my first real date in 3 years. That was an adventure onto itself, which involved running into my ex (I don't think he saw me) and some verbal sparring over our own take on the world. Don't get your hopes up folks, I don't see this going anywhere. I'll keep you posted.

I took some time off and went home for Thanksgiving. I got to spend some awesome quality time with my parents, a short visit with my great aunt and uncle and my grandparents and I got to see my completely adorable niece. And my brother too. My niece is just starting to talk. I really do wish I could see her and talk to her more often. She really has no idea who I am. Thankfully she didn't run screaming from me so that's a major plus. The time off was great. I really needed it.

Work has been very stressful for the past few months. Why? It's been nothing but change. A new regime has taken over and are shaping our office to their vision. I've always been the type of person who's resistant to change but I've gotten much better working where I do. Change is an ever present constant in our place of work and I think I've done a pretty good job of adjusting to it. But there's just been so much change lately and it's happened so fast that I'm not sure what to make of all of it. And yeah, some of it's affecting me directly. My role will be changing. My responsibilities will be changing. And God's honest truth, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that. I was angry about it for a little bit but that's subsided for the most part. Now I'm cautiously optimistic about it. Let's face it, it's the new management's purgative to make whatever changes they want and there isn't a damn thing I can do about it, so why should I stress out? I'm still employed. I'm still at the same level and pay grade. I'll still be doing some of what I do now plus some new tasks. And I have no control over it. So I just need to let it go. Roll with the punches. I need to focus on the things that I can control. Just like what my mom told me this morning: "Take it easy and don't stress out about things that you have no control over."

Sage advice if you ask me. Which leads me to what I got up to after work today... earlier this month, Steph and I went to the Women's Show. Had a blast, got a lot of free stuff, including me winning a 1 month membership to Curves. For those of you who don't know, Curves is an exercise facility designed for women only. I've been a big girl all my life. Call me plus-sized or full-figured or even obese (because clinically, I am) but just don't call me Fat. Fat is a substance, not a state of being. It's like me calling someone Jello. You can't be Jello any more than I can be Fat. Anyhow, lately my size has been bothering me. I'm not comfortable in my own skin anymore. A few weeks back I pulled a muscle in my back while trying to do up my bra. Not good. That's worse than the time I pulled the muscle in my neck by sneezing. I haven't been sleeping well. I've been fighting with my clothes because even my looser items are starting to get tight and I think I look like I'm stuffed sausage half the time when I go out. My weight has stopped me from enjoying some things that I like to do. So I knew that the time had come to make a real effort to change things. To get healthy. I love myself. And it's because I love myself that I know that I need to do this. I don't want to get type 2 diabetes. I don't want to increase my risk of heart disease or stroke or cancer. There's enough stuff in this world that can kill me. I don't want to be deliberately taking away my longevity by continuing on with the lifestyle I'm currently leading. I'm really good at failing. I've done it a lot. I know how to do it and am pretty darn good at it. But I've never really tried to fail at failing. So perhaps it's time I gave that whirl. I'm well aware that this endeavour isn't going to be an easy one. I'm sure it's going to be very difficult. And most likely painful. But all the the things in life worth doing are seldom easy. I have a plan. I have the means. I have the mind set. So let's do this. Let me actually control something I have some control over!

My first workout is tomorrow. I'll be sure to blog out that misadventure, providing I can lift my arms high enough to type. LOL.

Good Night!

Sarah

Really has nothing to do with the blog, I just like the duckies :)

Count Your Blessings.

I've had a very rough couple of weeks. It's nothing that's happened to me specifically, just people around me. I felt like I was the only thing standing still in the middle of a tornado. All kinds of bad things happening to good people and I felt so helpless, because there wasn't much I could do to help everyone. I did what I could but somehow, it didn't feel like anything at all.

And then I get to work today, after commuting in on the bus like I do everyday, to hear that 6 people had died quite horrifically, doing the same thing I'd just done - commuted to work. They got on a bus, heading to school or work like any other day. Except their bus hit a train today and mine arrived safely, like normal.
After work, I got on a bus again, like I do everyday and I made it home, safe and sound. Just like we're supposed to.

So in light of all the bad, here's some good stuff:

Last Wednesday, a co-workers 20 year old son (who worked for us this summer too) collapsed while playing basketball and had to be shocked 3 times with a defib. before he started to breath again. He's now awake, breathing on his own, talking and has no brain damage and will hopefully be going home soon. Crazy happy news.

One of my closest friend's husband had a CT scan last week because they thought he might have cancer. Something had shown up on a chest X-Ray last month that didn't look good. So after waiting over a month, doing the whole "what if" thing, they got the test results back tonight: NO CANCER!!!!!!! Very Happy News!

And to round it out, a couple co-workers who've been working part time and haven't been able to find full time steady work were all able to get full time positions!!!! Very Happy News!

So there's some wonderful news to share. I'm now going to go and count my blessings and go to bed.

Good Night.

Sarah

Literally Sick of the Humidity

I spent the day at home, sick. Sometime a little after 3am, I was awoken in a great pain and spent the better part of the night from there on in with a bad tummy ache. As luck would have it, I feel back to sleep about a half hour before my alarm went off. I hauled out my work phone, emailed in sick and proceeded to sleep for another 2.5 hours. Still didn't stop me from feeling like a zombie though. I've been fighting the urge to nap all day, knowing that if I did, I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight.

Just before 11am, I did make a made dash across the street to Walmart to get some drugs. I nearly melted on the way back. The humidity today was insane! At one point this afternoon, I stepped out onto my balcony and it was like walking into a sauna. There's water dripping out of my AC unit like crazy. I don't recall ever seeing that much condensation come out of it. Crazy. I'm thinking that the humidity is what upset my tummy in the first place. I don't gauge temperatures well and as a result, when it gets hot, I don't drink enough water and it makes me sick. I've drank an insane amount of Powerade and water today. I didn't actually start feeling better until 4pm. A head ache had joined my tummy ache but they both took leave around 4 and I think that's when my bladder kicked back in too. With all that liquid going in, I knew it had to go back out eventually.

Since I was feeling better, I was also hungry. I decided to use some some pasta and turkey sausage that I had in the freezer and I made a soup that I'd found on Pinterest. Of course, I added my own spin to it but man, was it awesome. Really nailed that one and I loved it. I'll have to make it again sometime. I don't mind the hot weather, in fact, I like it. It's just this humidity that's killing me. I get all bloated and gross feeling and then I don't feel like eating and I can't sleep right, even with the AC on. Blah.

OH! I found my mystery moth. It was dead, on the floor, near my computer, in the living room. I have no idea at all how it got there (unless I had 2 moths and didn't know it). It's possible that it followed the heater but I really don't know. Kind of bizarre. But it's nice to know that it's gone and isn't lurking about in my bedroom.

And the glass from yesterday is still sitting here. I still don't know if it's half empty or half full but I'm in no real hurry to find out. But for now, I'm grabbing my book and heading to bed.

Good Night!

Sarah

Sure wish I'd been there today!