I made the first entry about a book in my other journal:
I spent quite a bit of time trying to decide which book on my shelves I would like to write about first. I scanned them ... while this author or that dust jacket jumped out at me -- "pick me, pick me!"
On one of my lower shelves a big, fat volume in red caught my eye. Aha! I haven't seen you in a while!
Click HERE to read the rest.
"Changes are not only possible and predictable, but to deny them is to be an accomplice to one's own unnecessary vegetation." -- Gail Sheehy
I left work early on Tuesday with a migraine. I knew it was going to be a bad one when it started. It turned out to be the worst I've had in a long time. I stayed home yesterday, too. It usually takes a day to get myself back together.
But today at work wasn't so bad. A month ago my manager told me that they (the directors) would probably take about five people from our part of Document Management to another (I'll call it B-C) department within Doc. Management. It is a little more money, but I've never wanted to go there. None of the other Doc. Management depts. have the type of close-knit team we have. All of our departments will be gone by June, anyway, so you'd think it wouldn't really matter, but it does. I like where I am and what I do and I don't want to deal with a change right now. We've already had to deal with a lot of changes within our team leading up to the big outsourcing in June, so I'm going to be selfish about it.
I told C (my manager) that I did not want to go. S (our operations expert) told me today that we are losing five of the new people to BC. I said, "Good. I'm glad I didn't come back to find out I'd been transferred." And she said, "They wanted to. We had to really fight to keep you."
I guess that's a compliment, but I really just want to vegetate in OCR. Yes, I'm denying that change, but I've dealt pretty well with change this past year and I've been quite the cheerleader for the department, trying to keep everyone's spirits up, so I'm going to be selfish, dig in my heels and fight to stay where I am!!!
After all we'll be losing three of our veteran team members at the end of January, anyway. If they took me there'd only be a couple of us old guys left!
Oh well, enough of that.
Sunday (or was it Monday?) the temperature was in the mid-seventies here and we had thunderstorms and tornados in our area. We had marble-sized hail here and they had golf-ball-sized hail a little South of us. Yesterday the high was in the thirties! The weather change is probably what brought on my migraine.
Well, I think I'll try to catch up on alerts and maybe make an entry in my other journal. More later.
JAE has tagged me to list five weird things about myself. When I got the email Thomas and Eler Beth were sitting nearby. When I explained what it was, I asked, "So, what are five weird things about me that I should list?" My husband leaned closer to my daughter and whispered, "Don't answer that! It's a trick question!" Smart man, huh!
So, FIVE WEIRD THINGS ABOUT ME:
1. I do not like ice cream, never have. (I know, despicable and un-American, isn't it?)
2. I have to have my feet out from under the covers when I sleep. Even when it's cold, my feet have to breathe!
3. The toilet paper has to hang down from the back of the roll, not the front!! And if a paper towel dispenser is hanging up horizontally, the towels have to come down over the top; if it's hanging vertically, it has to be coming from the left!
4. My towels and wash cloths have to be folded in a certain, exact way. No substitutes! My children hate it, but they have learned not to mess with Momma's system.
5. You know how sometimes you get a receipt or bill of sale from some businesses where they give it to you torn right off their printer? And it still has one or both of the perforated sides on it?! I hate that!!! I have to tear it/them off, even if I'm just going to throw the thing away!
There! Five little quirks! Now I'll pass it along to someone else (five someones) if I can find five who haven't already done it. The rules are below along with your names. If you've already been tagged, I apologize!
Here are the rules; the first player of this game starts with the topic. Five weird habits of yourself and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly.In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don’t forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says “You are tagged” (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.
Celeste, Mara, Alphawoman, Jackie and Shadie Have fun!!!Please take a peek at a new journal I started where I plan to talk about nothing but books, authors and reading!! Here is some of my first entry (just an introduction) in the new journal:
"Beware the Man of One Book" -- AnonymousI cannot remember a time when I could not read. I cannot remember a time when I did not have books all around me. I was taught to read by being read to by my mother and older sister, Barbara. She is the one who first began to teach me the necessary mechanics of reading, so that I was already a reader on an elementary level when I started school. I was taught to read by the sight at any given time of one or both my parents or of any of my siblings with their noses buried in the pages of a book or magazine. I was taught to read by the joy I felt when I heard the rustle of pages turning, the smell of a new book or of news print, the sight of all those words filling all that white space ..... I'd like to share on the pages of this journal what is on my shelves and what I think about the books and authors. I'll also be sharing my quests for certain books that round out a series or collection. Maybe by doing this readers will find some enjoyment, be reminded of an old favorite or be inspired to try out a new author.
Check it out here and leave me a comment!
Frantic is how I would describe the past few weeks. Actually I have been "frantic" a lot in my life. I got the quote above from the book MEDITATIONS FOR WOMEN WHO DO TOO MUCH by Anne Wison Schaef.
I have always thought of myself as a woman who "does too much", but I never seem to get anything done, so I've never said out loud, "I DO TOO MUCH!" It's more like I whisper, "i do too much", because I can't see how anyone who looks at me, my day-to-day life, my house (!), etc. could ever think that I do too much! But quite often it's those everyday things that absolutely have to be done that become "too much". They have be done over and over and over again. No wonder they never get done!!
And when I'm really feeling overwhelmed it's usually because I've put too much on myself; created the problem for myself!
Anyway, I've become so accustomed to "doing" things "frantically" that sometimes that's the only way I can get something done. The comment following the above quote brings out that women who do too much (which, I believe, is all women) tend to think of the end of the year as the time to tidy up loose ends and get caught up before starting the new year. We set ourselves hard-to-reach goals and then go about being hard on our "perfectionist-ic" selves, thus sabotaging ourselves before we've even started! I know this well.
So I hope that I can be a little less frenzied this year and a little easier and gentler to myself. Here's hoping that I don't load myself down with too much "to do", and that instead I try to enjoy each day more. My kids are growing up and I don't want to miss anything important in their lives. I've become accustomed to going through a day as if it were something on a checklist -- There! (check) That's done! That's not the way I want my days to be. Hmmmmm. I see a lot of potential for improvement in 2006!
I don't do resolutions.
But I do have certain goals that I'd like to reach in 2006. I think that it's too easy to sabotage ourselves, though, when we put long-term goals out there in January while we have the whole year to put them off! So I think I'll set some attainable "monthly" goals for myself. Right now I only really have two categories that I'm thinking of, and those are weight (of course!) and my job.
My January Goals:
To lose five pounds &/or an inch around my waist.
To update and jazz-up my resume in preparation for the job hunting I know I'll be doing in a few months.
Weight: I need to lose more than five pounds, but I think five pounds in a month is a reasonable goal. I don't do diets well. They just aren't natural! But my plan for this week is to do a 40-minute walk at least three times and to use my hertofore-little-used Ab Lounge on the other days of the week. I will increase my water intake and cut back on the coffee at work. I will eat smaller portions of whatever I want to eat, but will try to add more fruits and whole grains to my diet.
Now that our main offices have moved to a new building our Body Shop (company gym) is farther away from my office than I want to travel. But my company will pay up to $30.00 a month towards our membership in a health club of our choice for those of us more than 10 miles away from the company's gym. I'd been thinking about joining Curves anyway, so I'm going to do that this month.
Okay, that's it. Those are the two main goals for January. To be revised if needed!
Okay, well, I've finally made it to the computer today. Busy day, so far! The first day of 2006.
One of my grandmothers used to say that whatever you're doing on the first day of the year, you'll do all year long. I can remember the first time I heard that. I was 14 and New Year's Day had fallen on a Sunday, just like today. I had decided to cook Sunday dinner all by myself, which I had never done before. At that time I was the only child still at home with my parents, but almost all of my siblings and their families were coming over, along with one of my best friends and her family. She, as a matter of fact, had spent the night so she could help me.
I had not felt sick on Saturday, and I don't think I'd eaten anything unusual, but at about 2 a.m. I woke up and barely made it to the bathroom in time. I spent the next four hours throwing up or having dry heaves. My sister P.J. came over that morning when she found out I was sick to see if she could help me out, because I was determined that I was still going to fix dinner! By eight o'clock I actually felt fine, just weak. I didn't have a fever and I'd managed to eat some crackers and drink some Ginger Ale that P.J. had brought me.
Dinner had been scheduled for 2 p.m., so at about 10 a.m. we start the preparations. I had planned a roast chicken (a HUGE one) with stuffing, along with mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, green beans, carrots and a cake for dessert. P.J. ended up prepping the chicken for me. I couldn't rub it with the lemon and herbs because the smell made me nauseous. She had to make the homemade stuffing as well, for the same reason. I managed the vegetables and handled the basting of the chicken, and my friend made the cake. P.J. had to do the bisucits, though, because I was just too tired! But at about 3 p.m. we had a really nice dinner with almost all of my family there. I don't know what I would have done if P.J. hadn't come over early. Yes, I do. Mom would've made Sunday dinner like she always did!!
Anyway, P.J. is the one who told me what our Grandmother used to say about the new year, and we had a good laugh. Thankfully I wasn't ill all year long. We never did figure out why I'd gotten sick. Like I said I didn't have a fever and wasn't really sick the rest of that day, just weak and tired. And thankfully no one got sick from the dinner!
