Has it been 2 weeks already??

I feel like I just blogged the other day, and when I looked at the date of the last one, it says February 16th. Really!?? Well, yeah, I guess yes really.

I had a long and tiring weekend down in the tri-state area. I left Thursday afternoon around 1:30pm (just as it was starting to snow), stopped in Maywood to gas up, then kept going and got to my aunt and uncle's house out on Long Island around 8:45pm. I will say this. After not having to drive around for two months, and even if I did have to drive it was a very short distance on empty local roads, it was a harrowing experience driving the highways from NJ Rt 17, Rt 80, I-95, Cross and Long Island Expressways. O.M.G. I was stiff when I finally got there just from being so tense!

I had a great visit and will definitely be stopping in again next time I have drill! Made it to Ft. Totten early before I had to report at 12 noon on Friday, did three hours of copying and filing, then retired to my hotel room, courtesy of the US Army, and just chilled. I got 3 blocks done of the blanket I'm STILL working on. Other than that, I seriously just sat around ALL night til I went to sleep. It felt incredibly good to be that lazy.

Saturday was a normal drill day, no news there, we got out late, almost 5pm, I went back to the hotel, showered, then followed Veronica to Queens College where I saw her (and her boyfriend!) perform in Postcards from Morocco. It was a bit avant garde for me, but I enjoyed it! By then it was late so I went back to the hotel (thank God for GPS otherwise I probably would have been lost in Queens, crying on a side street somewhere) and went to sleep after playing some Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky.

Sunday was another 'normal' drill day. I did get to leave early on account of having a 6+ hr drive home (even though I wasn't driving home til Monday. Shhhh). But I only missed PT and the usual 40 minute closing formation, so it's not like I missed out on anything important. After I left Totten I went to pick up Caelyn from her dad's, and my goodness I was so happy to have her back! We stopped by the old apartment where I talked to the super for a good while, got to hug the boys next door, and Caelyn got to play outside with her friends for almost an hour before we headed over to Uncle Bill's. She really enjoyed that, and she was a trooper when we had to leave: no huge tantrums about "five more minutes" or anything like that; I was very proud of her!

My sister and her boyfriend came up to see us at Uncle Bill's, we got to give them their Christmas presents that Caelyn had picked out at the school holiday store! AND my sister made cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery cook book, and holy sugar they were a-mazing. The icing was a little too sweet for me, but the overall package was so so so tasty and beautiful with the pink icing and fancy shiny sprinkles and everything!

We went to sleep late and woke up early and left around 9am. We stopped to get bagels to bring home because we cannot get good bagels here. Fresh grocery store bagels are NOT the same as getting a bagel from a bagel shop in NJ or NYC. They taste so good! Anyway, we actually left at 9:15 after having stopped for the bagels and at the gas station. It was nasty rainy until we left NJ, then it was really foggy until we were north of Albany, then just drizzly til we hit the High Peaks rest area, where we saw the first flakes of snow. The roads weren't bad so I decided to chance going through the High Peaks instead of up through Plattsburgh. I love driving through the mountains and I'm more familiar with the roads, which were thankfully clear. Nothing but a little wet.

We got home safe and sound around 4:15pm and that was the end of our trip. Hooray! Home sweet home.

It's Snowing. Again!

It seems snowing is the "norm" here in the North Country. I am now convinced that when the weather report says 70% chance of snow, it REALLY means that it will snow at least 70% of the day. The last two days have been sunny (weird!). So sunny, in fact, that some of the snow cover started to melt enough to be able to make a snowman! Me and Caelyn went out after school yesterday and rolled together a boy snowman and a girl snowman (snowoman?).

At any rate, it was almost a relief to see it starting to snow this morning as I was working out to the Plyometrics and Cardio Circuit DVD. It went well. I made it through the warm-up and the first circuit set better than the first time, but really pooped out on the second circuit set. I also definitely sweated a lot more than when I did the same one last week. I think it's because we turned up the heat a little in the living room in the mornings, so instead of jumping around in 58 degrees, it was a balmy 65. I had to crack the door open a bit for a breeze to cool myself off! I also had to pause the video in the middle to get myself some more water.

I did skip Sunday's and Monday's workouts, mostly because Caelyn was home on Monday, and I wanted to move my rest day back to Sunday so I could follow the Insanity calendar how it was written. So, yes, I did skip two workouts. But I jumped back on yesterday and did the prescribed video and hopefully will keep it up. I also got my uncle's old treadmill in the basement now. I need to hook it up and see if I can get it running; it's an old clunker from like, 15 years ago. So when I get it running I'll be doing that as well as Insanity in the AM.

On the craft side, I am almost finished the second set of blocks for the Crochet-a-long blanket I've resolved myself to finish. Two more double crochet blocks, and then it's on to treble crochet in the next color! Woo! I'm excited about this blanket. The first block set took so long; I think because it takes more rows of single crochet to make 9 inches than double crochets. More rows=more time. So I expect the next block set to take even shorter. I will have to find my camera and take some pictures. Can't wait to have all the blocks done and get it sewed together!

Facing the Day

It's been rainy and dreary the past few days. I set my alarm for 6:20am, not to get up, but to allow time to snuggle with Caelyn. She is getting accustomed to waking up at this time as well so things are going a little more smoothly in the morning. So, I wake up enough to poke her awake enough to climb under the covers next to me. It really is quite cozy, warm and sleepy, next to my baby girl, who's not such a baby anymore. It's hard to really wake up and get out of bed when the real alarm goes off at 6:55 (allowing for at least 2 five-minute snoozes), especially when it's still dark from it being so cloudy.

Anyway, here is a poem I wrote during class (No, not a poetry class. I was bored, and uh, wrote some words down).

Facing the Day

Warm
hidden
covers over my head
eyes shut tight

The sun is peeking up over the horizon
but I don't want to see it.

secret
alone
burrowing deeper
grasping for dreams

but as my mind awakens
I know I must
face the day.

A Few Thoughts

I'm going to start with this one: "Shoot for the moon, because even if you miss you'll land among the stars." This does not make astronomical sense. Number one, the stars are WAY farther away than the moon. If you shoot for the moon and miss, most likely you'll burn up in Earth's atmosphere. If you're lucky. More than likely you'll wind up floating in the vacuum of space where no one can hear you scream. So, a better phrase would be to shoot for the stars, and if you miss you may land on the moon. In either case, though, I think I'd rather hold onto my position here on Earth. Where I can breath.

My second thought is: It's really bright outside today. Bright and a little bit warm. I've got my window fan and my ceiling fan going so it's at least comfortable here inside. Yes, I'm in Malone, NY again until the 15th when I will be making the depressing drive back to Jersey. It's not really that I hate Jersey, it's more that I like the mountains better. I do have to work while I am here, though, brought my computer and everything, but it's just nice to be here.

My third thought is: PCOS. I was recently diagnosed with this disorder, and for those who don't know the acronym, it stands for polycystic ovarian syndrome. It sounds much worse than it is, but I suppose for a lot of women it IS really bad. There are many manifestations of this disorder, and so far I'm thinking that mine is very mild since it hasn't disrupted anything major yet. Most women with pcos hate it because they are trying to get pregnant, and pcos basically is a "no baby for you" sentence. (pcos=no released egg=no ovulation=no fertilization=no baby. get it?) Fortunately, I am NOT trying to get pregnant. And without getting into too many details, pcos also can disrupt...womanly cycles. Mine have not been irregular to the point of saying "oh my gosh what the heck is going on?" so my body is still on some level of normal in that regard.

My fourth and final thought of the day: I have recently signed up for the next Get Sparked! round happening at the end of this month. I am also looking forward to the first round of the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction challenge, happening next weekend. What I'm NOT looking forward to is the fact that that is the weekend we will be packing and heading back to Jersey. At least it's only 1,000 words, right? I can knock that out in no time. But still, it will be one more thing to fit into the schedule. I would love to get past the first round in this one, so I'm really going to try hard. And maybe, just maybe, I'll be up to participating in NaNoWriMo again this year. I didn't do it last year, but the year before I actually broke 50,000 words which I was so proud of even though I didn't get close to the end of my story. I'd like to try and actually finish something this year.