Another day in the life...

Thank goodness January is over.  It was getting tough to keep thinking of blog titles with "first" in them that were still relevant to what I was writing about...

I had a full fun day (after a frustrating 2 hour work meeting this morning) with my friend Erin.  We went to the Seattle Art Museum (free admission first Thursday of the month!) and then out to eat.  House to Erin's work to ferry to Seattle to SAM to restaurant to ferry to Erin's work to pick up my car back to home and in bed was about 7 hours. 

I'm tired. 

But fully content and very grateful for a fulfilling day.

Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one. ~ Stella Adler

Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables...

You know, I had actually written a long blog post that I was adding to as I got a a chance, and it has since disappeared. 

So....you get the short version...

I've been running.  I seem to have plateau'ed (not sure this is actually a word) just past 3/4 of a mile, but I'm still running.  And hating basically every minute of it.  My leg goes through good and bad phases...it was good for awhile and didn't hurt while running, but last night started back up again.  I'm looking for a pattern.

Work has been work.  Its a lot of work.  I've been dealing with a wretched and evil coworker who wants everyone to be as miserable as her.  I word vomited for about 30 minutes to both my supervisors together last week about it.  I get a trainee back in 3 weeks after he's done academy training.  That's going to be a lot of work.  Somewhere in all of that I have to create 5 trainings.

I had an energy guy here this week.  And I've been dealing with my landlord and his brother...which is another long blog post for another day.  The energy guy took me aside and told me his unofficial opinion is this house needs insulated.  I'm still bugging my landlord for new heating elements.  According to my landlord's brother, they will be putting more insulation in the attic.  We shall see.

I've also been cooking.  I can't remember if I mentioned this before.  Its one of my goals for this year (not a "resolution".  A goal.  To eat more fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats, and stop eating so much processed food).  This required the aquirement of $75 worth of spices (something other than salt, pepper, and garlic - which was my previous spice rack).  Its been interesting.  Not sure its totally worth it some days.  Sometimes things come out delicious...other times, not so good. 

Well...its time for my shower and for the start of my day.  *weak cheer*

Spices are so cool looking. 

Roasted spiced chick peas.  Delicious the first night.  Gag-worthy after sitting around for a day.

Still a fan of baking.  Strawberry cake cookies.  With bear sprinkles.  MMMMMM.....

The easier it is to do, the harder it is to change. ~ Eng's Principle

First, Second, Third...

I ran for the third time last night.  I have to chronicle this because its so rare.  I hadn't been to the gym all week due to my work schedule and the weather, but got right back on the horse by running.

1st run:  I made it 1/4 mile before having to stop in exhaustion
2nd run: I made it 3/8th of a mile before having to stop...mostly out of pain (see below)
3rd run: I made it 5/8th of a mile before I had to stop (mostly out of lack of oxygen.  I hate running).

Wooo....I was excited.  My next goal is 7/8th of a mile or a full mile. 

My coworker (who happens to have a has a masters in sports medicine....  Why she now works where I do is a lesson in college sports and college politics)...anyways, I've been having pretty bad nerve pain in my lower right leg when running and I asked her if I could do anything about it... My doctor told me it was related to my sciatica and told me it was fine as long as it doesn't bug me and suggested I stay away from activities that exacerbate it.  Anyways, long story short my coworker thinks I also have chronic compartment syndrome.  Sounds ominous.  Well, if you look at this Wikipedia article it is....but make sure you scroll to the chronic section, thats less ominous because its exercise induced.  Essentially compartment syndrome is the muscles that surround the nerve tighten a bit as they're being used (i.e. exercise) and blood flow causes the muscle to expand...thus cutting off the nerves that run through the muscle.  I don't know why it happens selectively, and for me its only happening in one leg.  The only bother (besides the nerve pain, which if you've ever had its kind of excrutiating sometimes) is the fact that the nerves being cut-off run to my foot and I start to lose feeling in it.  I don't realize I can't feel my foot though, until I start to drag my foot and end up tripping. 

But, I figured if I make it through this run in February (running a mile and a half on the city streets of Seattle), THEN I can go bother the doctor.  My running partner has been training in physical therapy, so I told her about what my coworker thinks and we discussed it.  Last night at the Y I stood there after running while she examined both legs to make sure I was okay and there wasn't any stretching skin or swelling.  See, while the above makes me sound unresponsible, I still can be responsible when I want to be.  In fact, running this time wasn't as bad because I spent a lot of time stretching out my leg muscle before running (at the suggestion of my coworker). 

Dayshift is making me short tempered.  I snapped twice at one of my coworkers because he didn't notice something extremely obvious and then made a stupid comment.  *sigh*  I need to learn to take more deep breaths.  I did the adult thing and apologized immediately for snapping, but still.  Ergh. 

This has already been a long week.  Maybe its because I did nothing but be snowed in last weekend, maybe its my current tiredness, I don't know.  But I'm really looking forward to the weekend.

A flower in my yard before the snow storm.  I haven't checked to see if it was still there.

What is a face, really? Its own photo? Its make-up? Or is it a face as painted by such or such painter? That which is in front? Inside? Behind? And the rest? Doesn't everyone look at himself in his own particular way? Deformations simply do not exist.
~ Pablo Picasso

A first time for everything

I cooked. 

Yes, thats right.

I know you're thinking "umm...that can't be the first time Alicia's cooked".  Well, its not.  But it IS the first time I actually favored cooking fresh chicken and vegetables over making the absolutely delicious Trader Joe's pizza I have in the freezer.

Now, I know when you look at the picture you will probably think "yes...that looks like something Alicia might have cooked"...but in my defense...#1.  thats cheese.  #2. I took the picture on my phone.  #3.  The brown-looking chicken is only that color because I used brown sugar to cook it in.  #4.  There actually is color to the vegetables (for example, red skinned potatoes and green zucchini) it just all disappeared under the influence of cheese and a poor quality photo. 

Despite how it looks, it was delicious...and, not too bad health wise.  I know I keep saying "cheese!" (in fact, all I could hear replaying in my head all night has been "Cheese, George, Cheese!!!"), but apparently a little goes a long way and there's actually very little on there. 

In other news, the snow is gone.  Replaced instead by heavy rain, extremely gusty wind, occasional power outages, and the overwhelming desire to stay inside with the covers over my head. 

In fact, I'm currently in bed while writing this, as my bedtime is 8pm (okay, so I'm a little bit past that) now that I'm a part of the land of the living (aka dayshift).  So, soon, I will get to pull the covers over my head as I listen to the overgrown bushes scratch at my bedroom window.

*mentally adding hedge trimmers to my growing list*

My theory on housework is, if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?
~ Erma Bombeck

The first room to be completed...

The craft room...a place for everything and everything in its place.... 

For the time being at least.

My "to do" list is already at 6.  I need to catch up!

In other news, my car is back in the driveway!!   It rained all day, so while the roads are still super slushy (not sure why they haven't plowed now...this would be a perfect time for it...), they're still passable and I was able to get home with minimal scariness.

Weekends are a bit like rainbows; they look good from a distance but disappear when you get up close to them.
~ John Shirley

First Shovel

The price of Independence

The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude. ~ Voltaire

First snow of the year

I have made the determination....snow is only fun if you don't have to work in it...

My car several hours before I left work....it continued to snow after I took this picture.  I left it there & caught a ride home.

Atticus LOVES the snow.  He spent a lot of time running...

eating...

more running...

and catching snowballs!

My scarf.  ha. 

Homebound for the night!

The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches. ~ e.e. cummings