First week February 2010
Work. Stress. Napping. Exercise. Retail therapy.
This first couple of days of this week I've been spending at work, and stressed out by health insurance and by the renovations adjacent to my parents' unit. I've been coping by napping, exercise, and retail therapy.
The renovations adjacent to my parents' unit are loud and vibrating. A porcelain soap dish broke by falling into their sink, and the clock on their commode fell. TOO LOUD! and TOO VIBRANT!! I've been avoiding spending time in their unit...and by napping at home.
Each day for the past two days Maureen and I have exercised. We walk to the gym, where I spend ten minutes on the bicycle, ~ ten minutes doing ball exercises, doing (20 X 2) OR (10 + 5) lat pull downs (at level 4 and 3, respectively), and doing 10 to 15 wall squats in demi plie. We then walk back to my home. Today at the gym I saw Ellen from work.
This afternoon, after Maureen sent me an email, I purchased some health shoes for my hips, and a pair of thick-soled black mules/clogs as well. I saw Al on the way there, and we chatted. I told Maureen about the healthy shoes during our walking session and she and I stopped by in the evening to purchase a couple of pairs for her. (She had told me about this brand initially.)
We had some mocha hot chocolate at her home after our shopping outing.
It was warmer today, it got up to freezing. The ground hog / ground pig saw his shadow and that means six more weeks of winter. I think it means that the poor li'l animal was frightened by the flashes from the cameras and the lights of the television cameras, saw his shadow, and THUS six more weeks of winter. There's a parallel here between our human perturbations of weather through our manipulations of nature.
Labels: American history, animals, chocolate, email, exercise, family, health, home, light, seasons, shoes, shopping, sleep, stress, walking, weather, work
Stress and my Single Exemplary Life
I'm feeling stress in my single life. Mainly from things that would stress anyone out in any walk of life...health care insurance, personal finances, dealing with emergency situations at work...all this week.
I've been dealing with the situations with aplomb, but the situations remain stressful.
O well, one way of viewing this is that these stressors and my responses are my insurance that I am still alive.
~~~~~
The wording of the general intercessions puzzle me...we pray for (I've paraphrased):
a holy priesthood,
happy married life,
exemplary single life,
a fervent religious life,
etc. etc.
How is it that only single people are to uphold tenets and be "exemplary"? That's asking for a lot, I think. It's difficult for some of us singletons to hold it together.
Labels: Church, Faith, health, light, Mass, personal finance, philosophical, prayer, stress
What happen
Beatrice was ill yesterday, vomiting a few times and, according to her daddy, said, "What happen" after the first time she vomited. She apparently likes Pedialyte popsicles, which probably remind her of ice cream. Mom and Dad and I visited William and family at noon, we went to Tuesday Morning, then to Trader Joe's for groceries, then lunch at the Chinese buffet.
We brought William home, then packed our groceries away, rested, and went to six o'clock Mass. Father Andrew celebrated, Linda cantored, Roz lectored, and Ken played the organ. Hearing the chimes on the Wickes digital organ was quite a treat! We spoke with Ken's children after the Mass.
Labels: Beatrice, children, Church, dining, health, ice cream, music, niece and nephew, St. Paul Cathedral, stress, surprise
LA Earthquake 5.8
I saw breaking news about a 5.8 earthquake in the Los Angeles area...
~~~
4:45 pm EDT
...which has been revised to 5.4...
~~~~
2:00 to 2:22 pm, PDT
My friend, who works at the USGS at Pasadena, emailed me:
it was a pretty good little shake! It got my attention,
and I got ready for further action!
And my uncle wrote:
Things went back to normal here at work,
a few minutes after the quake. We
didn’t even evacuate our building.
~~~~~
~8:23pm, PDT
My friend and a current Southern California geology professor emailed me:
All is fine except I was a little rattled! I was giving a test
to 17 adult students who got panicky with the shaking
which lasted at least 6 seconds. I remember yelling
"extra credit" as a joke and then telling them to get under the tables.
When I looked up a few seconds later every student was under their lab bench.
Amazing. I wish that they would always be so well behaved! We all hurried out
onto the lawn away from the building. And then we saw a big cloud from a landslide
on Cucamonga Peak. It was more than 15 minutes before the last of the dust settled
on the mountain.
Labels: science, soils, stress, surprise
Take It Easy
After yesterday, when Mom and I ran errands at stores and at the bank after getting our hair styled, I felt sore. It almost felt as if I had a tear, when I moved certain ways. Time for a rest, time for my Tylenol. (I think I overdid it.)
Sometimes I think I'm in a new stage of healing---it feels as if my muscles are knitting together, they feel delicate. I still feel as if I have a dressing or something in my back pocket when I lie down. This is probably my experience of swelling.
Today I will spend my day reading and writing.
Labels: BAD, exercise, family, hair, health, pain, stress, surgery, travel
Hair Cut, July 2008
Mom and I have hair appointments with Mary Jane today to get our hair cut. I am excited, it has been a while since I last visited her. My hair has got considerably longer, and right after I left the hospital fell out in small clumps as I brushed or washed it...probably the stress of it all.
It doesn't fall out at such a high rate now, but this week Dad made a comment reminiscent of Kathe', the lab manager from graduate school: She'd be sweeping the lab floor and noting that she saw a LOT of my hair on the floor (I was the only brunette in the group; all the rest of the lab clan were blondes). We came to the conclusion that I was under a lot of stress and losing my hair...
I just hope that this is not the beginning of my hair really going white. :n(
We all look forward to our trips to Mary Jane's salon. Phyllis recommended her to us, and still visits her in her old neighborhood. Marissa has also gone to her, and blogged on the event.
Labels: excited, family, hair, health, research, soils, stress, surgery
