The best book I've read in quite awhile.

I just finished reading Dry, by Augusten Burroughs and I can't recommend this book enough! I had read Running with Scissors awhile ago after hearing an interview with Mr. Burroughs on WITF (my local NPR station). I enjoyed Running with Scissors very much and wanted more when I got to the end. Thankfully, there was an excerpt from Dry at the end. Intrigued, I added it immediately to my list of books on hold from my local library.

Dry is the continuation of the memoir Burroughs began with Running With Scissors. In this continuation, Burroughs is on his own working in advertising and drinking himself into an early grave. His boss practically forces him into rehab which is, of course, not what he expected. Up until this point, I found the book interesteing but when Augusten returns from rehab and steps back into his old life, I became enthralled. There was a constant question in the back of my mind - will he or won't he? - and I never wanted to put the book down. I just had to know if he was going to fall off the wagon, so to speak. I will not tell you any more details because I really think that this is a book that everyone should read. The last half of the book is riviting and through his writing, I have truely come to care about this person that I have never met and probably never will.


Call your library today and put a copy on hold!

Upadting

Blogger has been screwing with me for two weeks and I was really just going to quit blogging but I've got some things coming up for which it may be good to be able to blog! (More info on that later!)

I recieved a call from my doctor's office last week saying that the chromosome analysis came back normal. I was relieved but at the same time, I was upset. What do you hope for in that situation? If something was wrong, we could work to 'correct it' or at least have some idea of how often a pregnancy would result in miscarrige. On the other hand, there (currently) is not reason that I will not have a healthy baby of my own some day!

I went to a tarot card reader on January 20th and, although I'm not sure how much stock I put in tarot or this particular reader, his words were comforting. More on that later as well. Chris has darts tonight so I've got the place to myself and hopefully after the gym, I'll be able to spend a bit of time explaining more!

I've still been working on the book. It is going slowly but well and I'm still very excited about it. It's nice to have a direction to follow! Anyway... Passions is on and I don't know how many more episodes I'll get since they're cancelling it so I'd better enjoy while I can!

Yeah for a snowy(ish) Friday!

Well... blogger still isn't letting me post so here I sit in front of notepad again!
I weighed in a weightwatchers yesterday. I was shocked to see that I had gained xx pounds. I thought I'd at least have 'maintained' but. I had quite a bit of beef jerkey at darts on Wednesday (Thanks a lot, Jaime!) so perhaps that contributed to it. I'm trying to stay on program. The gym will help I'm sure but I know I really have to watch what I eat.

I wandered around West reading after the meeting, checking out stores that I've always wanted to go into but never did. I started out at Chef Alan's, walked down to firefly up and over to earth rhythms and back. I didn't buy anything till I got to earth rhythms and found a really neat chakra clearing cd. I went into Celtic Myth and Moonlight after that in my search for a psychic/medical intuitive. Earth Rhythms had a few free magazines (New Visions, Yoga Journal, etc) that I picked up thinking they would have some ads in them but their book section is gone = ( Anyway... I spoke with the woman at CM&M and she said they had a seer (who she said is very good) coming in to do tarot readings on Saturday. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it Saturday 'cause Chris and I were planning on going to look at dishwashers a bit more but last night he found out that his uncle wants his help going through some old trains on Saturday. Of course, he agreed without even consulting me but I'm looking at that as a sign that I should make an appointment to see this guy! I've always been afraid of getting any kind of reading because I was ashamed of my miscarriages (like they were going to say it was my fault or something - shocking smiley) but I feel like I need to explore all avenues that I can to try and 'correct' (?) this infertility problem we're having.

Anyway... I'm off to the health food store in Robesonia today to check out some more 'literature' and perhaps find a local medical intuitive or at least to 'get some leads'. I'll be hitting the gym for a run too so hopefully that'll get me feeling good! We had a dusting of snow last night so I'm going to wait till a bit later in the day to go out.

We're going to a Royals hockey game this evening so I'd better really work it at the gym - I've already been plotting my dinner = P We used to have season tickets so I hardly ever ate at the games but since this is only the 2nd game we will have been to this year, I'm treating it as a special occasion and eating something that I normally wouldn't have!

I'm off to put some plot points into my storyline! Hope I'll get to post this some time soon!!!

problems with blogger

I've been trying to post for 2 days now and haven't been able. This is just a test so I don't go through the whole procedure of copying and pasting my last posts only to have them disappear. If this posts properly, I'll be adding past posts later in the day.

finally got to post this!

Well... I haven't been able to post to my blog since yesterday so I'm actually typing this on notepad on my computer to post at a later time!

Last night, I went to yoga (keeping with my resolution to get back to the gym everyday). I really wanted to attend the meditation class before it but for some reason, I ALWAYS think that it starts at 6:30 when that's the YOGA class - the meditation class starts at 6! When I got to yoga, I learned that my instructor is leaving (gasp smiley!). I can't believe how lost I felt when I heard that! She knew everythig that I've been through and I felt a real connection to her = ( It doesn't look like the gym has anyhone else lined up so far so I'll be checking out other studios tomorrow, I suppose. My first choice is this studio where I began my practice but I feel like this is good opportunity to explore other options. It was a bit difficult to focus on my practice for the first 15 minutes or so of the class but I finally got over that and had a pretty good practice. I got a new yoga mat from Jen (my BF) for Christmas and it's not broken in yet!! Down dog was IMPOSSIBLE because my hands kept slipping out from under me!

After class, I got a bit more knitting done on my afghan before I went to bed so it's still coming along. Slowely but surely!

I woke up late and achey this morning! BEtween the yoga class and running the other day, my body is fighting back! I only took 3 weeks off from the gym but I guess that was enough to go a bit soft = P

Today was a bit of a scattered day. I had a few small errands to run but when I got home, I just haven't been able to get focused back on what I'm supposed to be doing. I guess because there really isn't that much to do and I've got "plenty" of time to do it. They say a task expands or contracts to the amount of time alotted to complete it and I am living proof of that. And on that note, I'm going to plan out the rest of my day so I'm not rushing around trying to get "just one more thing" done before I have to leave for darts this evening. We're throwing at Central BEneficial Fire Company tonight so we probably won't win many games. Hopefully, everyone will be in a good mood 'cause I just can't deal with any drama tonight!

Running, Chasing, Writing!

I've been trying to get a sidebar add-on that will show my running log from favoriterun.com but I can't seem to get it to work out... I'll have to try again in a few days when (hopefully) my brain iwll have come up with a new idea or two!

Obviously, I've started running again... well... that's what I like to call it anyway! I run for a minute and walk for a minute. I don't think I'll ever be a speed or distance runner but I know it's a great way to lose weight and get toned up and this pace is just fine for me. I have tried before to be a consistent (as in no walking breaks) runner and it just doesn't work. I get injured or just plain winded and don't keep up. I've been running the way I do now for 6 or 8 months (before my 3 week preganancy/miscarriage hiatus) and I enjoy it. It's enough of a challenge to get my heart rate up and sweat pouring but not enough to make me dread the treadmill. I did 1.79 miles yesterday in 30 minutes. Not a pace that will set the world on fire but, as you can tell, that doesn't bother me!

This morning the genertor guy came out for the annual service. I knew he was coming but it didn't really dawn on me this morning. Winston (our adorable but PITA springer spaniel) realized someone was here and of course wanted to go out and play with him (what a guard dog)! It wasn't till I went to put up the flag (about 10 minutes after letting Winston out) that I realized the generator guy was here. I went out and appologized for just letting the dog out without letting him know but he really didn't mind!! I was here in the office so able to keep an eye on Winston out the window. And imagine my surprise (NOT!) when I saw he had stolen the poor guy's roll of paper towels and was trying to shred it all over my back yard!! I guess that's what I get for letting him out and not supervising but it's getting cold out there! (Which reminds me... I need to put 'build a fire' on the to do list for today!) Winston had a great time out paying with the nice man and (luckily for me!) it tired him out so he's taking a nap right now!

I've started writing my book!!! I've never really known where to start but I came across this brief but immensly helpful article the other day and it really has me focused on this entire process! I wrote for an hour this morning - just 'fleshing out' the characters. The next step (hopefully tomorrow) will be to plot out the story. I've never done this much prep work when I thought about writing and I think that this will really help me to stay focused. Whenever I wanted to write before, I just did. No direction in mind just a general idea of what I'd like to write about and where I'd like to end up. Anyway... I will certianly keep updating about everything.

I'm STILL spotting a little bit after the miscarriage which is really just so anoying by now. I did a bit of knitting last night and hope to have the middle panel of my KING SIZE bed throw done by this weekend (only a year to get this far!). Hope to be able to post some pictures later today but still have some paperwork to do so I don't know if I'll get to it or not.

Childhood ambitions...

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer 'when I grew up'. Here I am, all grown up, not working (by choice) and I still want to be a writer. I've never really been able to follow through with much in my life, though, and so this ambition has remained just a dream. Until now, hopefully. I was thiknking about everything that I've been through in my life (my problems with infertility, specifically) and thought that it might make a good story. I know that everyone probably thinks that about their life but I'm sure that there are a lot of women out there for whom this subject may make interesting reading. As I've said, this has always just been an ambition so I'm not really even sure where to start but I think that this is something that I really need to do. I've written my first paragraph and am stuck there but this really is something that I would like to do and I think if I put my mind to it, I can complete this book and make my dream into a reality! I know that I want this book to show the strength that women who endure this pain have but I'm not sure if I want a happy ending or not. I suppose I'll be writing from what I know so it may depend on if we have a happy ending or not. I'd love to hear any thoughts that you may have on this! PLease leave me a comment if you're so inclined.

Weekend roundup

Well... just as somehting to do, I thought I'd review my weekend for myself . On Friday, Chris and I stayed home and watched 'March of the Penquins' which I really liked. The cinematography was AMAZING, obviously, and the penguins were just too darned cute! Of course, there were some parts that nearly made me cry (especially when some of the poor little eggs rolled away from their parents and froze and died almost instantly - talk about evoking painful memories). I'm very glad that we watched it, though!

On Saturday, I went to the gym (yeah, me!) and then Chris and I went out looking for dishwashers. We're not looking for one just yet but wanted to see what was out there in our price range (Chris wants to stay under $400 for the unit itself). Of course, I really loved the Bosch that we saw at our local appliance store but the base model was around $600 so that's out of the question. (Have I ever mentioned that I have expensive taste!) We did end up with a new microwave so I'm glad to have that - our old one was VERY old, small and underpowered! I'll certainly have to get used to the new one - I've already overcooked quite a few dishes! Saturday night, we went out to the bar to watch the Eagle's game. I was just there to drink but I supposed Chris wanted to watch the game! I had entirely too much to drink and ended up regretting it on Sunday but I had a good time and it was really nice to be able to let go.

Sunday, I spent all day on the couch, watching the 'Monk' marathon on USA! Poor Chris had to go to the club for his weekly duties and took a nap when he came home 'cause he REALLY wasn't feeling well!! We had Chinese take out for dinner 'cause I didn't feel like cooking.

My friend Mimi and I went out to lunch today to Lily's on Main in Ephrata. Our original destination was 10,000 Villages but they were closed for MLK day . We had a very nice lunch so it was no biggie but the sign at 10,000 Villages said they were serving native american cuisine today and I was really looking forward to that. Oh well, perhaps I'll have to go down there by myself - afterall, it is only 25 or so minutes away!

So that was my weekend.