The Superbowl, Halftime and Advertising

"The reason women don't play football is because 11 of them would 

never wear the same outfit in public."

Phyllis Diller 

It's almost time for the Battle of the Titans... figuratively, not literally. In February the Superbowl will again be played.  It will be the first time the game will be played in a non-domed stadium as it will be in the Meadowlands (MetLife Stadium) in New Jersey. This also means that there will be two "host teams" (the Giants and the Jets) as they both play in the same stadium. As this is the first time the game will be held in a non-domed stadium, there is speculations there will be a winter storm / blizzard. Personally, I say, "Bring it on." Come on folks. Wouldn't that be just awesome - to have a Snow Bowl?  


And for those who watch the game for the Halftime Show... It's Bruno Mars. 

I like Bruno, but logistically if it is snowing, it will be more interesting to see technically how that will go down.  I mean Bruno plays guitar and sings. It's got to be harder to play a guitar with gloved/mittened hands and the cold definitely affects one's vocal chords. But he has two platinum albums so I think he will be okay. 

And speaking of halftime shows. It's been 10 years since Janet Jackson's performance with Justin Timberlake and the phrase "wardrobe malfunction" took hold in pop culture. Her exposed breast during the half-time show almost caused the internet to explode. That bit was better than her actual performance. I believe she meant for it to boost her career, but ten years later, her brother still has more success and she is but a pale reflection with a Jackson name. Timberlake; however, walked away from the incident pretty much unscathed and has had a successful career. Ahhh... Nipplegate. Who will ever forget? 

Finally, let's talk dough. Commercials for the SuperBowl are $4.0 million each for a mere :30 seconds nationally. That's some serious moolah. I know a lot of folks watch the game for the ads rather than the game. I go back and forth from year to year - it depends on who is playing and if the ads are any good. This year (2013), in my opinion, the ads weren't really worth the money. They kind of sucked.  

However, at this time there are some companies already announcing their plans to air ads in the SuperBowl:

Announced Super Bowl Advertisers for 2014:

Anheuser-Busch InBev
Dannon
Doritos
General Motors (Chevrolet)
GoDaddy
Hyundai
Intuit
Jaguar
Mars
Nestlé (Butterfinger)
Soda Stream
Wonderful Pistachios

Anheuser-Busch, Doritos and GoDaddy will probably have some of the best commercials during the game as they usually do. I'll expect to see some Clydesdales, excessive cheese and Danica Patrick muscled up for starters. 

Rumor has it at least one of the car manufacturers has purchased a two minute commercial time slot. It should be interesting. I believe it will be Chrysler, who is not on the list above, but they have been making heavy national ad purchases lately and if I were to make a guess - it's them. 

Dannon, Soda stream and Pistachios had better be new and creative otherwise that's going to be some serious bank that's just tossed out the window and could have been spent during the Olympics instead.  Now THAT is truly a marketing dream. 

All Because of Laundry

"Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end 

of it, and others do just the same with their time."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

I had a rude awakening tonight (one of several actually) and I thought I would share it with you. I'm not really proud of this revelation, but self-discovery is always interesting - especially when uncovering the baser parts of human nature. Tonight's discovery concerned "entitlement." 

When we talk about "entitlement", generally it's about the "younger" or "next" generation and  their expectations to make large salaries upon graduation from college - or even high school. Youth today seems to expect to have things handed to them that my generation and back had to work and work hard to achieve. 

So it's with a grimace I'm sharing with you this experience.

With the move to Dallas, Yoda and I are tapped out financially for a bit.  We've been living paycheck to paycheck for a while, but this pretty much takes the cake - having to take on apartment rental on top of a mortgage payment (which will be covered by someone renting the house for the time being, but I digress...) There are extra utilities, two households worth of groceries, extra gasoline for now driving in the Metroplex (as well as back and forth) and many more miles to work ... you get the picture.  

And to clarify, tapped out means just that. I have enough money for a tank of gas and about $20 left for groceries until I get paid again. If other bills need to get paid, fuhget'boutit. They will be late. I can accept this as it's only for a couple of weeks. (I hope.) 

However... I HAD to go to the grocery tonight and get some laundry detergent and fabric softener in order to have clean clothes to wear. Wandering around naked just isn't an option. No one, save Yoda, wants to see all of this hanging out.

This decision was the beginning of the end.

I don't buy the big name brands of detergent. I'm a middle of the road kind of gal.  So as a general rule I get the BIG VALUE 150 load bottles of soapy-wonderment for something like 10 bucks. About that. I only had $11 to spend on both tonight. The store I went to carried my normal detergent in a smaller size, but the price was $7.50. Seriously? That's not helpful. At all. Why spend that much for so much less...? And then not be able to afford anything but the $1.99 fabric softener which smelled like... like... well... I don't have a good description. There are perfumes that don't smell that bad. And it was runny. It was so watery... Why even bother? 

So I sat pacing the freakin' detergent aisle for the longest time and finally bought a small bottle of the store brand of detergent and a decent bottle of fabric softener. I paid $10.20.  

This whole thing brings me back to "entitlement." 

I would like to think at my age I would have learned my lesson and saved for the rainy day, paid off all the freakin' credit cards (which in the overall scheme of things are completely unnecesary and just a bunch of BS) and actually achieved something more than living paycheck to paycheck.  However, I apparently didn't learn it and as a result I sat in the grocery store thinking that I should be able to get any damned laundry detergent I wanted because I'm old enough by George.  (Insert foot-stomp here.)

George had nothing to do with it. 
I'm not entitled to my favorite detergent. 
I'm just a girl who is starting over in life... in the middle of life. 

What I have learned from this is that we all get second chances to get things right and to make things better.  I have a feeling 2014 will see a lot more change than I have already experienced and will also see me humbling myself and admitting that just because I'm older, doesn't mean I'm wiser... not just yet. 

Christmas Tidings

"Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food and beer.... Who'd have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment and spirituality would mix so harmoniously?" 

~Bill Watterson - The Essential Calvin and Hobbes~

I'm sitting in my bedroom blogging this evening as my husband spends a few hours with his parents and his sister. Because my sister in law is going through some serious health issues of her own, I have been temporarilly banned from the house. Stupid flu. 

This has NOT been a "normal" family Christmas. Daughter #1 worked today and is now crumpled up in bed feeling crummy. Daughter #2 has taken some Christmas food to my mother and gone to see her boyfriend and his family. They are getting older and I'm reminded of how my parents must have felt as my sister and I moved on with our lives. It's bizarre and saddens me some. 

I was starkly reminded of the first Christmases Yoda and I spent together - days when we barely had a couple of dimes to rub together, not much else than that. Those were rough, but good days. Because of the move, cash is at a premium so we drew names for gifts. This was hard because as "mom" or "dad" you want to give your kids everything. This was the first year we had to really limit ourselves so Yoda would have gas money to get back to Dallas and some grocery and laundry money as well. The gifts we exchanged were small, but from the heart. I think this is the way it should be. Forget quantity... quality is a much better thing. 

(Sigh)

As I have been grounded today, I have spent some time working on my Smash Book. It's a non-traditional scrapbook by K&C Company that my daughters got me hooked on earlier this summer. I added a few things from a couple of my trips to New York City, San Francisco, Inn of the Mountain Gods, St. Louis, and Dallas, TX. (I think I've been a few places, eh?) If you are wanting something a little different for a scrapbook, but don't want to invest the time and energy in a full-blown big one, I highly recommend a Smash Book. Awesome stuff right there.  For me, each page is a reminder of how blessed I truly am. 

And speaking of blessings... I pray for you and yours a Merry Christmas filled with Christ's love, faith, hope and truth. (Whether you believe in Him or not.) 
I'll see you again on the flip side. 

Moving Reflections

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."

~Walt Disney~ 

A week ago today, Yoda and I set forth on a new journey to Dallas, Texas.  We packed up our belongings... Wait. Let me rephrase that. We packed up most of our belongings - enough to get the apartment in Dallas stocked and ready for Darling to live. The movers came, loaded everything we had ready to go and we travelled the 350+ miles to our new city. 

The next morning (Thursday) we frantically took possession of the keys to our new place. At that time, quasi-misery sunk in. I feeling heartsick and anxious because we were signing paperwork mere minutes before the moving van was to arrive AND I was, at that time, showing the first symptoms of influenza.  Within a couple of hours, the moving van had departed and we were already unpacking boxes. 

Now... I think it really needs to be noted that when someone is moving into a new place there is a specific item that cannot be forgotten and needs to be unpacked first. 
Toilet paper. 
I can honestly say I went out to eat lunch primarily because I needed to use the facilities more than I needed sustinance. My word how I just wanted to pee.  It felt like releasing Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. My bladder stood and applauded. Then I had to go and drink like two or three glasses of tea thereby doing a "lather, rinse and repeat" type of moment.  Just for the record, La Hacineda on Highway 121 has a nice ladies restroom. 

While we were there for the initial move, I wasn't in much of a condition to drive. I didn't even care if I drove.  In hindsight this may be a problem.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to get lost at some point, but thankfully I have a GPS and GoogleMaps.  I figure when the time comes, I'll just blow through a tank or two of gas learning the area and figure it out from there. I bring this up because we had to go shopping and Yoda needed to learn his way around.  Not only did we need the aforementioned toilet paper, but we also needed food, as we didn't bring much from the house. We also needed silly things that people take for granted such as shower curtains and that type of thing. However, I think as Darling was learning his way around, we drove down the same street like 50 times. At this moment, I can't even remember the NAME of the stupid street. 

For the next couple of days we unpacked pretty much the entire apartment and as we did, the flu got worse. Yoda, the tape-dispensing Jedi Master, is also a master of the box-cutter.  (Though I'm not too shabby with the blade.) He tore down almost every last box he'd so painstakingly put together, just so we could bring them back home and load up some more stuff - "my" stuff to be exact. I'm really hoping to find a job soon and be back with Yoda before I know it. 

We were supposed to come back Saturday, but I felt so miserable we came back Sunday. I don't know that made any difference other than I got some more sleep. But Yoda Darling was a good sport and drove the entire way while I was doped up on Nyquil. As an aside: We also had kicked in the two month trial on SiriusXM satellite radio. It made more a much more enjoyable trip down and back. I'm STILL going through all the channels and have yet to find my favorites, but it's really nice to have options. This will make the commute times in Dallas so much easier.  

What channels do you listen to? Why? 

(Need suggestions here.)

Monday I went to the doctor. I indeed have the flu and a sinus infection. I'm not a fan of this. I got a shot in the butt and two prescriptions; however, no Tamiflu for me. It was past the 24-48 hour window. The reality: I should have just found a clinic in Dallas. Hindsight I suppose. I knew what it was, but toughed it out. Now I'm still a sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy-headed, feverish (still!) and need to rest mess. Thank God for Nyquil (though why they reformulated it I will never know.)

Anywhoo... just catching up on a few things. I'll see you on the flip side.

I Love Tape and Star Wars... and tape...

I don't see how the Empire could be powerful enough to control the galaxy and still lose to an army of teddy bears   :confused:

The Empire did not lose to a bunch of teddy bears. They lost because of the damned wookie.

For the past few days I have slept some. I have eaten some. And I have packed more boxes than I ever care to again.  I know good and well I will more than likely be repeating the process again in 2014 twice - once to finish this move and another to hopefully move from the apartment into a more permanent residence. I. AM. NOT. AMUSED.  Okay, I'm better. Just had to get that out. Phew.  

What is tickling my "not so funny bone" during this weird adventure is "tape." 

Since the first time I encountered the wonderfully sticky substance and wrapped my first present using GOBS of it, tape has been my friend. It's versitile, handy and my "go-to" adhesive for many things.  Let's face it, without duct tape the world would be in sorry shape. Who needs the force? I am Obi Wan with duct tape. 

But packing tape is an entirely different story. 

It's not like duct tape, electrical tape, scotch tape, strapping tape, etc. It has it's own handled dispenser which my husband handles as if he were Luke Skywalker brandishing his light saber against Darth Vader in the Battle of Endor.  I operate it like an Ewok trying to fly a sky rider while a storm trooper is after me.  It's a bloody mess. My husband is a Packing Tape Jedi Knight. Yoda is he. In awe am I. 

Yoda stated earlier to me he was tired of going to war with the Boxes.  He said, "After days of battle, I'm tired and sore. And if I have to hear the sound of tape again..."

I tuned out the Jedi Master. 

With all of the tape I have ever wielded, I have never once given thought to the sound it makes coming off the roll.  We battled another box and it yielded it the tape. Each strip held a sound different from the last as it howled its battle cry. 

As we sealed the last box for part one of the journey, Yoda was exhausted, but victorious. He never wants to hear the tape emit any sound as long as he lives. He deserves a long, winter's nap. Personally, I want to know if packing tape would have finished building the other half of the Death Star (or maybe that's really the job of packing tape's big brother duct tape.) I think I'm going to have to find a Wookie and ask... 

Metamorphosis

“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.” 

~ Eric Roth~

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Screenplay)

I've lived in one city my entire life. I've lived within five miles of the house I grew up in, though I have moved several times. For all practical purposes, this place has been my cocoon, even though I have very much wanted to "escape" to other places or sometimes drifted away mentally and felt as though I was living my own "Secret Life of Walter Mitty." 

Today is the last day that "officially" my family will really be together.  My husband is being transferred to Dallas and we have found an apartment in the spanning metroplex 350 miles away.  Tomorrow the movers come and we will be transporting much of the household to another place "far, far away." Some of our belongings will stay here while I'm still here searching for a new job, another story all together.  Then move #2 will happen. (Please insert sarcastic sounding joyful giddyness here.) 

It's the genesis of an empty nest. My kids are of the age where they are branching out, trying new things and becoming individuals I am proud of. But it's also a scary thing too. I'm ready, but not ready.  

While going through things and packing up a lifetime of belongings, it's amazing the things I have kept. I know why I have kept much of it - I'm a sentimental fool. But moving this stuff, I just want to say, "F-it. Throw the lot of it out. I'm done." But then emotion tugs at me and I just can't do it. I'm a sentimental fool. 

The moving truck arrives in the morning and all I can do is hope things arrive in one piece... or arrive at all. This whole thing though explains why I haven't blogged in a while. However, as my darling husband is in the land of Far, Far Away, I'm sure I'll have some food for thought as I go about a season of change... rather like the butterflies who have to emerge from the safety and comfort of their cocoons if they want to fly.  (BTW...The blue ones are my favorite.) 

Red, White and Blue Thoughts

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
~John F. Kennedy~ 

Dad - 1943 Ft. Bliss 

November 11, 1919

It was the first Veteran's Day - the commemoration of Armistice Day ( a day set aside to honor the vets of WWI, the Great War.)  It was made a national / legal "holiday" in 1938 to honor veterans of all wars and through several modifications and alterations was sealed in stone as November 11th by President Ford. 

My father was born a few months before the "end" of WWI.  Following the Great War came the Great Depression. He was blessed and didn't have as hard of a time as some, but in 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he became a sergeant.  He transferred to the Air Corps and reached the rank of captain. He told me stories of his time in the military, some were funny, some not so much. But he was proud to have served and his patriotism always shone through.

As he got older he watched later generations' patriotism melt into apathy.  Maybe it happened because of the Korea / Vietnam, "wars" the United States "shouldn't" have been involved in. (Or am I supposed to say "conflicts?" I forget.) With the age of the Cold War and heightened nuclear era, there was a new and different type of patriotism, not the age-old "Rosie the Riveter" and "Uncle Sam Wants You" type of patriotism seen with WWII.  We wanted to "beat" Russia in the arms race, but it wasn't what I would call a red,white and blue patriotic effort. 

It took an act of terrorism on American soil to ignite the embers that lay dormant for so long. Americans wanted to be patriotic again. They wanted justice. They wanted to pay back the enemy, just as we did when the Japanese Imperial Navy took the lives of American soliders on a beautiful Sunday morning at Pearl Harbor. 

But these weren't soldiers who were killed. 

These were everyday citizens going about their daily lives...

Lives snuffed short because someone, somewhere didn't like what America stands for. 

Over a debris field, a tattered flag was hoisted and the spirit of the American people soared anew in a wave of patriotism not seen since WWII. 

So ... 

What is this thing called patriotism? 

One might say it's the love, support or devotion to one's country. Others would have a different definition and I'm not sure today exactly how dad would define it. 

I would say it's the feeling one has deep down inside when you know we live in the greatest nation on Earth and when that nation is threatened, you would wrap yourself in the red, white and blue and die to defend it.

On this Veterans Day... it's been 70 years since this photo of my dad was taken at Fort Bliss. For all who have served (including my mother, aunts, uncles, brother, brothers in law, nephews, friends... etc!), who are still serving, or who will serve this great nation of ours, you are appreciated more than you will ever know. May you all rest easy tonight whether you are in the sandbox, sailing the seven seas, flying high across the moonless sky or wherever you may be... God Bless each and every one of you. 

Simplicity and Honesty

I normally start all my blogs with a quote. Today - not so much.  I'm going to try to keep this simple and honest. No pretty pictures. Just raw and honest about a few things.

When I was a kid, I had all the unrealistic expectations you would expect a child to have. As I became a teenager, I had a couple of lofty ambitions. I expected I would become a journalist, the next Woodward/Bernstein, or I would work for Rolling Stone or Time magazine - travel the world and see the sights and hear the sounds the world has to offer.  But I grew older and I settled for less and I settled down. I got used to routine and the day-in/day-out became comfortable.

I never stopped to wonder why.

The time has come to take everything I have known and disenfranchise myself from my hometown and take on "new adventures." It's harder when we get older. Even though I remind myself I'm not old, right now - this very moment - I feel old. And afraid.

There. I said it. I'm afraid of starting completely over.

I'm afraid of moving to a new place that's not so comfortable. This town is like a well-worn pair of jeans. But I'm scared to see if that pair of jeans is just hanging on by a thread and if my underwear is starting to show.

I'm afraid of trying to find a new job.
I'm afraid of not finding a job.
I'm afraid of looking for a new place to live.
I'm afraid of homelessness.
I'm afraid of finding new doctors because mine know me so well.
I'm afraid of not finding doctors that have a clue.
I'm afraid of driving in a place I know nothing about that has a crap-ton more traffic.
I'm afraid of getting into an accident.
I'm afraid of not fitting in.
I'm afraid of people not understanding my warped sense of humor.
I'm afraid of being "alone" in a place with thousands of people.
I'm afraid of wanting to come running "home" and home just not being home anymore.

I never thought that my fearless teenage self would be sitting in front of a computer at middle age afraid to embrace change. But there it is in stark black and white. Simple and honest. 

Ridin' the Storm Out

"Ridin' the storm out, waitin' for the thaw out..." 

- REO Speedwagon - 

It's a beautiful, bright and sunny day in the Texas Panhandle. Not a cloud in the sky dampens the horizon. Yet, here I sit procrastinating. The storm of change is coming and I should be preparing for its onslaught, but I'm not. I'm in a state of fear and denial. I'm like the proverbial ostrich sticking its head in the sand. However, like the bird, my butt is sticking up in the air and I'm sure I'm about to take one for the team with no lube, if you know what I mean.  

My spousal unit tells me I don't have to carry the burden alone for what's going on at home. I'm cynical and jaded right now. I feel like I do.  I have to-do list after to-do list made up.  They grow longer by the day and there's not enough hours to tackle even a portion of them. So I suppose that's why it's easier to sit and do nothing than to get off my ass and do "something." But as the deadline for having all this stuff done grows near, the self-loathing for not having anything done sooner will grow to biblical proportions and I'll be kicking myself in the hind-end that already took one. Double-whammy.

How does one prep for change when one doesn't want things to change in many regards, but does in others? How does one know if they are doing the right thing or the wrong thing? How does one make decisions that alters their life, but also the lives of so many people around them for good, bad or indifferent and those people don't have much say? It frustrates me on a level that's almost unbearable. I don't know if I'm doing the right thing and there's at least one person I need help from that's is unwilling to do so. It's frustrating beyond the tolerable and I try to shove that fed-up part of me in the back of my mind, but it niggles at me from time to time and I just want to break like a squall line dumping rain across the plains.  (Long run-on sentence. Sorry.)

I wish I could say more as to what's going on, but I'm not at liberty right now. Just know that my life is upside down and I don't like the view. I've lost my rose-colored glasses. If I can just ride this storm of change out and wait for the thaw out, things will be okay. But right now, I'm feeling the outflow boundary, the winds kicking up and the rush of air blowing across my face. I see the lightning on the horizon and hear the distant rumbles of thunder. The storm is coming and as it hits I will just pray for the best. 

Okay... going to suck it up and get to work. Tally-Ho!

All That & A Bag O' Chips

“The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook.” 

― Julia Child

Every time I turn around there is some new "fad diet" or some commercial hyping a new piece of wonder-equipment.  I hear friends talking about Herbalife, Weight Watchers, Atkins, The Paleo Diet, The South Beach Diet or whatever is the name of the anti-fat game this week. (All trademarked etc.)  And I'm not bad-mouthing them though I'm sure it will seem this way. I know millions of folks have lost weight with them and I'm happy for them and I hope those people can keep it off. However, with some of these, I cannot see why I have to pay money to buy products to lose weight when God has given me natural, pure and healthy foods to eat. It's the junk that kills. 

I have fallen prey to more than a few fad diets in my 40+ years. (The worst of which I don't want to discuss, but cost me my gallbladder.) But about a year and a half ago it got real. It took me hitting the 200 pound mark to suck it up and face reality.  It took me hitting a size 22 to do so. Am I proud of those facts? No. It has taken me a year to admit it in a public forum.  Am I where I want to be? Not yet. But I'm getting there. I'm down over 40 pounds and 4 dress sizes and counting. Yay! Call me a happy camper. 

 I've been keeping it simple and I'm just calling it the Common Sense Lifestyle Change. 

First, let's talk about FOOD! (Because we all like food.)

* Most of the foods I buy are organic or generally have ingredients I can pronounce.  I take my additives very seriously and try not to buy anything with hormones or anything that would gross me out if I were to watch how it was made. Very rarely do I buy things that aren't "simple." I'm probably about 85% vegetarian about now. I just can't seem to give up my steak and seafood. Yum. However, I have tried being a raw vegan for a bit and I actually am probably closer to vegan than vegetarian... but for the love of seafood, steak... oh, and Texas BBQ. Mmmmmm. 

One of the main reasons for this is I have to be very careful of nitrates and preservatives in food because of the migraines they trigger. Makes me not so happy.  There are a lot of things in food that affect a lot of people differently. If you have health issues, you might have a food allergy or intolerance. It's something to at least consider. 

* I generally measure out the foods I'm going to eat.  - Portion control. -  Once you are used to eating a pint of ice cream at a time (which I have done), you have to retrain your brain to understand what a "true" serving size really is.  That's one of the reasons people are obese.  Learn what constitutes a portion and it gets much easier from there.

EXAMPLE: A chip-bender to the bottom of a 9-ounce bag is 1,260 calories sans the dip. So stick to 1 serving, about 15 chips—that’s 140 calories—or pick up some 100-calorie snack packs and save 1,120 calories

* Learn to slow down when eating and understand what "FULL" really feels like. There's no need to finish everything on your plate. The first few times I left food on my plate at a restaurant, I felt really, horribly guilty.  (Starving kids in China...?)  But at the same time, most restaurant portion sizes are enough for two people. WHY would I want to do that to myself?  The sad thing is that I did that to myself for a long time. 

* DO NOT EAT IN FRONT OF THE TELEVISION. If you eat in front of the TV, studies show you consume almost 300 calories more than if you ate at the table. 

* Last but not least, I don't deprive myself. If I want some creme brûlée or dessert once in a blue moon, I will enjoy some. But I'm not going to go Banzai bat crap crazy and I'm not going to feel guilty. I will eat right the rest of the time and make up for it. No starvation. No binge/purge. Just pure, clean eating. 
Now, I know that I'm going to turn off a lot of people when I say the next word, but bear with me. "Exercise."   But I'm going to add something to it... if you haven't exercised in a long time, you don't have to go to extremes starting out,  join a gym, do DVD's, workout on the Wii or anything like that.  Ready? Cool secrets here:

* If all you can do is walk up and down a hallway of your house do it.

* From the hallway move to the driveway or the front sidewalk or maybe to the end of the block. (You get the picture.)  I used to tell my dad at 90 years old when he was recovering from a fall, "Just take one more step dad. One more step will get you stronger. What will one more step get you?"  

* From steps, move to a strength move of stairs or a curb.  Step up and down. If you need to hold on to something, do it. 

Something fun for cardio and to get the muscles engaged: Dance like there is no one watching. For Heaven's Sake, put on some great tunes and get moving. It doesn't matter if all you can do is sit in a chair and tap your feet and clap your hands or raise your arms. It's SOMETHING. 

     Side note: It's been said TAPPING YOUR FEET THROUGH OUT THE DAY BURNS ABOUT 350 CALORIES A DAY!!!!! Seriously... those who fidget have got to have an edge on the rest of us. 

Some of my favorite tunes while cleaning house (WHICH ALSO BURNS CALORIES:)
* Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools
* Michael Jackson - Beat It
* Beatles - Twist and Shout
* Cameo - Word Up

* Fall Out Boy - Dance, Dance

* Fun - Some Nights

* AC/DC - Back in Black

* Toby Mac - Burn For You

* 3 Doors Down - Kryptonite

Again, those are just a few of the tunes I'll throw on and then dance around like a loon. It's all about getting your body moving. When you have some upbeat music on, vacuuming and dusting or moping the floor (or what have you) is not only a little more enjoyable, but goes faster and becomes a better calorie burn. 

Like I said... I've dropped over 40 pounds so far just using these little tips. You've probably heard it before, but I'm the proof that it works.  

There's no need for anything other than eating right and moving your bod. 

“Diet food is for lazy people.” 
― Ice-T

Waiting to Exhale

I tried yoga once but took off for the mall halfway through class, as I had a sudden craving for a soft pretzel and world peace. 

~Terri Guillemets



In the past few weeks, I have been under a stress load that mechanical engineers would have a hard time finding a logical answer to the equation of "how is it  possible to hold that kind of load." 

Life changing news has come about which I'm not at liberty to share at this time, I'm 100 pages into my first full-length novel and self-doubt and worry is running amok, my mother's health is troublesome, my daughters are starting to take test runs from the nest and other things are going on between home and work that have me wondering if I'm made of elastic and what the ultimate breaking point is.  I think my stress load can be equated to the load per unit area or the force (F) applied per cross-sectional area (A) perpendicular to the force as shown in the equation below:

 

Now, the best part of this whole thing is I just probably sounded really smart here and I have to thank Engineersedge.com for their insight for the formula above. I could honestly try to figure it all out, but the left side of my brain, the analytic side, has a very hard time with math and physics. I'm a right-brained person overall and if I think about it at length, it gets complicated and I'd probably short circuit. I try not to think about it.  Darned analytics. Now I'm thinking about it. 

So back to yoga. 

It's something not-so-new I'm working on. I'm seriously trying to decompress and work on some kind of Zen state I really want to achieve. I seriously doubt I will achieve that calm that surpasses my understanding; however, if I can reach a point where I can focus on the breath and the body and shut the world out for however long, I will have achieved something. Eh?

Now... back to downward dog... Which to tell you my mental state always makes me think, "Bad dog, good dog," while I'm waiting to exhale... I gotta work on that. 

A Rose By Any Other Name...

Each generation wants new symbols, new people, new names. They want to divorce themselves from their predecessors.
Jim Morrison 

A rose by any other name may still smell as sweet, but we call it a rose.

We spell it "r-o-s-e."

This leads me to one of my biggest pet peeves that really shouldn't be, but is.

Names.

Recently in the news, not that she is newsworthy, but that aside, Kim Kardashian and her spousal unit decided to name their unsuspecting child "North." Seriously? That poor child is going to grow up with all sorts of complexes as it is and you have just laden it with the mother of them all - a crappy name.

One might think that I would be appalled because Frank Zappa named his kids Moon Unit or Dweezil. Not really. One would expect something like that from the outrageously creative Zappa. Jane or Harry would have been totally out of character for him.  But naming a child "North West" opens the doors to many, many years of childhood jokes that no amount of money can buy your way out of. (Let's just start with "The Wicked Witch of the North West" and work our way from there...)

But North isn't the only baby name that I find incredibly bad.  "Cricket" makes my top ten list as well as Rainbow Aurora, Blue Ivy, Kal-El Cage (Superman jokes anyone?), Pilot Inspektor Riesgraf Lee, Moxie Crimefighter Jillette (That's Penn Jillette's son. I swear I hope he becomes a cop.) There's also kids named, Sailor and Seven and Daisy Boo.  One I find strangely cute, Apple - Gwen Paltrow's daughter, and I hesitate putting it on the list. There are others of course, but North is pretty freakin' horrible. 

But beyond that phenomena, is the "creative spelling" of names that drives me "Banzai Bat Crap Crazy." I deal with a lot of people on a daily basis and the older I get, the weirder names and spellings have become. I don't know why parents have to do this. Is it because they think it's "cute", "creative" or "original?" Is it because they want to be different? I don't rightly know.  Poor "Maddisyn" (actual spelling of a kid's name I saw in a local yearbook) hasn't got a prayer of ANYONE ever spelling her name correctly ... EVER. And take it from me, I have a fairly "normal" if not quite so common name and few people have a clue how to spell correctly, if at all. 

There is a scene in the book by Billie Letts, "Where the Heart Is" which was also made into a movie. (Excellent by the way...) There is discussion about the main character, Novalee, naming her child. She's given the advice to name her child a good, sturdy name - a name that means something.  

I stand by that philosophy and I'm sure plenty of people will be ticked when they read this. When you name a child, their name SHOULD stand for something. It should hold it's ground and be the pillar for that child. A name like "North" doesn't do that. It's shaky and opens the child to ridicule which is unnecessary. I'm not saying you have to go all 1950's names, but really, at the end of the day, why do we want to set our kids up for misery? 

The Silver Reunion and 1988

25 years ago (not to the day) I graduated from High School in the middle of BFE. I enjoyed school for the most part. I wasn't part of any particular crowd - had friends in all the crowds which was a good, good thing. We had the jocks, the preps, the geeks / nerds, the stoners, the ... wait... hang on... I feel like that scene in Ferris Beuller's Day Off when Ed Rooney's secretary Grace says, "Oh, he's very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads - they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude."  But I digress.... 

This weekend is my 25th reunion weekend and I'm not going / didn't go. 
Please don't feel sorry for me. 
I don't want to go.
Friday night was extended Beer 30 at a local bar, with a pre-bar before-hand. (Like really?)
There was a fund-raising walk early this morning, which I can't do right now, Wonderland Park this afternoon (about 100 degrees out) and then dinner at the Wolflin House tonight. I'm sorry, but really none of that interests me. I don't drink. I'd do the walk if I were able. I spent the day helping mom, which is MUCH more important than spending time at Wonderland, and Wolflin House was something like $30-$40 a head (I'm broke.)
But beyond that, I'd probably be bitching about the food and want to leave early anyway. Why? A lot of the people I really wanted to see couldn't make the reunion. There may be a few here to see, but overall. I just don't care. Is that just wrong of me? I don't know. 

However, I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about some cool things about 1988. Here are my top three favorite movies and songs from 1988. 

Die Hard - Yeah. In 1988 I developed a major crush on Bruce Willis.  He was charming in "Moonlighting," but this movie did it for me. I'll probably be a lifelong fan. He's better looking now, not a bad actor and I'll forgive the divorce with Demi Moore. She's flaky anyway. 

BIG - Released in 1988 as well, Tom Hanks pulled off a fun movie (I believe it was shot in one of my all time favorite stores, FAO Schwartz.)  My children enjoyed seeing it when they were younger as well. I dare say this movie is timeless.

Cocktail - With Tom Cruise before he went Bat Shit Crazy, what 80's girl didn't have a crush on him. As a side note... in '89 I got into a shit ton of trouble by accidentally playing the Beach Boy's "Kokomo" released from this soundtrack on the air. Wrong song for the wrong format. My bad. I'm truly sorry. 

Speaking of favorite tunes from '88...

It was number 2 on the Billboard Top 100 from 1988, but it's my favorite song from that year. INXS' "Need You Tonight." Michael Hutchence had a voice to die for and I can remember wearing out two... count them TWO cassette tapes in my car.  A lot of Friday nights were spent cruising around town while listening to INXS's album, "Kick." While I love all of their work, it was possibly their best. 

Most people would guess this would be my number one pick from 1988. Surprise, it's my number two. It fell on Billboard's Top 100 at number 19. Def Leppard - "Pour Some Sugar on Me." The other song that made the charts in '88 was "Love Bites."  Hysteria was released in 1987 and it was a monster album for the band. It's not my favorite song on the album. That would actually be "Love and Affection." However... on the flip side (album) of "Sugar", the band re-recorded one of my all time faves - "I Wanna Be Your Hero." Awesome stuff that is. 

The third pick is very, very hard from me because music fuels my soul. I was in radio at an early age and will probably always have some part in the industry. There were SO MANY good songs and groups that I could say all the rest of them, but I will do my best to pick one and only one for number three. I'm trying to pick from George Michael, Guns and Roses, Van Halen, Whitney Houston, Foreigner, Cher, Sting, Richard Marx, Debbie Gibson, Rick Astley... Wow... lots to choose from. 

However, this last spot will go to the Bangles - "Hazy Shade of Winter." Billboard's Top 100 logged them at number 35. However, there's something about this song that haunts me. I scrolled up and down the list of songs and knew the words and melodies to almost all of them. I always came back to this one. 

"Hazy Shade of Winter" was written by Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel in 1966 so you know automatically you have a master of the craft of songwriting taking care of business. Combined with the feminine harmonics of the Bangles, it comes together beautifully. It has staying power and will outlive me, just on lyrics alone. 

A HAZY SHADE OF WINTER

Time, time, time

See what’s become of me

While I looked around for my possibilities

I was so hard to please

But look around

Leaves are brown

And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hear the Salvation Army band

Down by the riverside’s

Bound to be a better ride

Than what you’ve got planned

Carry your cup in your hand

And look around you

Leaves are brown, now

And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hang on to your hopes, my friend

That’s an easy thing to say

But if your hopes should pass away

Simply pretend

That you can build them again

Look around

The grass is high

The fields are ripe

It’s the springtime of my life

Seasons change with the scenery

Weaving time in a tapestry

Won’t you stop and remember me

At any convenient time?

Funny how my memory skips

Looking over manuscripts

Of unpublished rhyme

Drinking my vodka and lime

I look around

Leaves are brown

And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Look around

Leaves are brown

There’s a patch of snow on the ground

Look around

Leaves are brown

There’s a patch of snow on the ground

Gasping for Air

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

~Steve Jobs ~

When I was younger, I was impulsive - some would say rash, maybe thoughtless. I often made decisions by the seat of my pants and while some of that was sheer teenage rebellion, some of it was the deep seeded desire to do something "more",  want something more, BE something "more."  And the good Lord knows I got burned more than once. However, I learned through age and experience, grass isn't always greener on the other side. It's still grass and it may be growing over a septic tank. So I tempered that part of me, have learned to make sound decisions and as middle age has pretty much arrived, have found myself in a conundrum. 

Change - It's rearing it's ugly head and I'm oh-so-not ready for it. 

Empty nest syndrome is just around the corner; darling hubby's job situation is about to make some really drastic changes affecting me and the kids and my elderly mother's health is starting to decline - which also has a bearing on some other things going on. 

I feel out-of-control. And the more I try to control things the more out-of-control I feel.  I wasn't anticipating on having my entire universe turned into scrambled eggs in one quick motion. I'm frankly, terrified. Too many changes are happening too quickly and decisions are going to start happening back to back to back and I'm honestly not prepared for them. 

Hopefully, the next six months will be much easier than my mind is preparing me for. However, while I'm generally an optimist, I'm also a realist. Like a fish out of water, I'm going to be gasping for air until I make it to a new tank.  

Why Yes... It IS in My Head

“And then a throb hits you on the left side of the head so hard that your head bobs to the right...There's no way that came from inside your head, you think. That's no metaphysical crisis. 

God just punched you in the face.” 

― Andrew Levy, A Brain Wider Than the Sky: A Migraine Diary

There are approximately 13 million Americans who suffer from a painful neurological condition called migraines;  it's more than 10% of the population or 1 in 4 households.

I am one of those Americans.

It's believed that migraine headaches tend to run in families and there's a 70% chance that a child of a parent with migraines will develop them at some point in their lifetime. Wow.  I can't say that knowing that years ago would have made any difference (as my mother has them.)  It doesn't change the fact I have them.  I can't say that I would have even been "prepared" for them. 

What can prepare someone for a monstrous pressure in the base of their cranium / brain stem which steadily becomes the feeling of a ball peen hammer hitting you upside the head repeatedly while at the same time crushing your skull in a vice? This of course (for me) is accompanied by other symptoms I don't feel the urge to discuss at this time. TMI. 

The sad thing is... many people think folks with migraines don't have a serious problem, they're faking it, it's "just a headache"... Gads... I could go on and on.  Consider this.  Migraine attacks can cause strokes, comas, aneurysms or death.  Each and every time someone with chronic migraines HAS a migraine we actually wonder HOW BAD it's going to be. I've ended up at the doctor's office / hospital getting injections to knock my ass out because it was that bad. 

“ We once saw a documentary on migraines. One of the men interviewed used to fall on his knees and bang his head against the floor, over and over during attacks. This diverted the pain from deep inside his brain, where he couldn't reach it, to a pain outside that he had control over.” 

― Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why

I wish I could describe that pain, deep inside the brain.  I've said on more than one occasion to my husband and friends that it would hurt less to run my head through a concrete wall.  It's true. 

But did you know there are migraines where there is NO pain? A couple of friends of mine at work have these silent migraines. They don't have the headache, but they have other symptoms. They are just as debilitating. 

There are 10 or more different types of migraine and many people have a combination migraine that sets in - which is what makes diagnosis and treatment so hard.  I have a tri-graine: Abdominal, Basilar and Transformed / generally without aura.  In a good month, I will only have a few. In a bad month, I have had 25-31 days worth of headache-hell. And months stack up. Fortunately, I've been running on the low end of this for a few months. I'm grateful. For a while there, it was f-ugly.

I'm on day two of this particular migraine attack - triggered by nitrates and yet another weather system that moved in. (I swear I could be a meteorologist.)  I read a blog post the other day where a woman was on her 112th day. My God. 112 days of wanting to ram your head into a wall or beat it against the floor because the external pain is controllable. I so get it. I feel ya sister. 

“His headache was still sitting over his right eye as if it had been nailed there.” 

― Ian Fleming, Moonraker

I have run the gambit on prescription drugs - lemme tell you, some of that stuff is like taking candy. Just doesn't work worth a darn. And the kicker is... REBOUND migraines / headaches. For the love of all that is pure and holy in this world. You think you got it licked and it comes back meaner and badder than the original.  Tylenol 3 and the "cets" do that to me... Lorcet / Percocet / Darvocet... etc. That's a big no-no. I've been through everything from Imitrex to Maxalt and Treximet (which is the only thing that works for me right now. Dare I say, "THANK YOU, TREXIMET.")  I also take daily preventative drugs that work okay, but still doesn't solve the problem. Of course, I'm assuming the problem can be solved.  I don't know that is the case. But I can hope. 

I'm searching for options. I'm looking at acupuncture, massage, herbal remedies, nape piercings, and other alternative therapies with no decisions having been made yet. I'm tired of the drugs. I'm tired of the migraines. I'm tired of being sick and tired of being sick and  tired and all anyone seems to want to push are pills. 

However, with that said... I really am tired (migraines tend to do that) and I need to get some rest. I'll let you know how things go at a later date and what decisions I've made.  I have a feeling it's all going to be a process of trial and error that will fall under my blanket of "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger." 

Cheerio and ta-ta for now.

Source: MedlinePlus