I just finished a workout.

In keeping with my butt-kicking regime, I ran tonight after work even though I was exhausted from another full day of software training. But at this moment, I feel awesome and rejuvenated: exactly as I knew I would. Unfortunately, I'm going out after work tomorrow night and Friday night, so those nights are out as far as exercise is concerned. However, that still leaves me Wednesday and Thursday, plus the weekend. Which, once this week is over, will equal 4 days of running.

The thing I'm most excited about is that I'm excited. I was actually looking forward to coming home tonight and getting on the treadmill. And I haven't felt like that in almost 3 years.

Let's hope it sticks this time, since I'm smart enough now to realize what I had before.

Stop making excuses already!

I've been coming up with excuses not to exercise lately: I'm too busy, too tired, too lazy, too whatever. And my body is starting to reflect that. Unfortunately, my clothes don't fit quite as well as they did when I was exercising regularly, and I positively hate it. So I stopped pussy-footing around and started running again. And my body is thanking me in a good way. I feel amazing and I feel like I'm back on the road to being in shape again.

I'll probably have to come back and read this post again when I come home from work this week and don't feel like running. I'm going to have to kick my own behind into gear.

But that behind will be a lot firmer in a few weeks - that's for sure.

Losing my mind and my necklace.

Have you ever lost something so important to you that it made you ill just thinking about it? I had that happen to me this week.

My mom gave me a diamond necklace when I turned 18. It's dainty and beautiful and I love it and I wear it almost every day. I wore it on my wedding day. It means so very much to me. So you can imagine my utter and complete heartbreak when I went to put it on yesterday morning and couldn't find it. I figured I'd spend some more time looking when I got home from work, and that it would probably be in one of two places where my jewelry ends up at the end of the day.

It wasn't in either of those places.

I tore my house apart looking for it. I got my husband involved. The thing that made me sick was that I couldn't remember when I wore it last and where I put it when I took it off. It was driving me insane. Did it accidentally end up in the trash? Did it fall off my neck and I didn't notice? How could I have just had it a few days before and now it's vanished?

I felt sick and completely irresponsible. I didn't know what to do. I dreamt about it last night and fretted over it every now and again today at work. It was awful. I dreaded having to tell my mom that I lost the necklace she'd given me; the necklace that cost her a pretty penny when we had nothing was gone and it was my fault.

I came home today and was getting ready to do another marathon night of searching. I took a seat at my computer, as I do every day when I get home, and looked a little around the floor of my desk to see if it had ended up there. No luck. I turned in my chair to get up, and noticed a shiny thing laying on the ground a few feet from my chair.

It was the diamond.

I have never been more relieved in my entire life. I told my husband that I didn't care about the chain, who cares what happened to it; what's more important is that I found the diamond.

And I looked down and saw the chain about 2 feet from where the diamond was.

More relief and happiness.

The scary thing is, I have no idea how that happened. The only thing I can guess is that I took it off at my desk and it fell out of my hand as I was walking back to the bedroom.

I'm just so, so glad that it turned up. I tried to tell myself when it was missing that it was just a thing and that it could be replaced, but in reality, it really couldn't. That necklace reminds me of just how much my mom loves me every time I wear it.

It now resides in a little jewelry box next to my bed, and that's where it will go every night when I come home. I never want to risk losing it again.

My sanity's returned, and so has my necklace. Who could ask for more in a day?

The voice of reason.

I've noticed lately that my tendencies are starting to change. As an example, instead of doing things I naturally want to do, I'm starting to gravitate more to doing things I need to do. Not that I don't do what I should be doing most of the time; it's just that the things I want to do get the best of me more than they should, mostly when I'm not at work (of course). I'm not saying there's anything wrong with giving in to what you want to do; it's just making sure that the need-to's get done when they should.

We should all to give into our wants every now and then, but the need-to's have to come into play at some point. The feeling of getting a need-to off of my to-do list is now more satisfying than getting a want-to off of it. Isn't that a sign of adulthood?

I guess at 32, it's finally all making sense. Imagine that.

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I've been racking my brain trying to think of a good topic to blog about today, but nothing's coming to mind. I think the training class I was in all week took everything I had.

I did enjoy lots of sleep this weekend and I'm feeling really energized and refreshed this morning, so maybe by the end of the day my creative juices will be flowing again.

In the meantime, I'll ask this question: does anyone have any good CD's they're listening to right now? I'm always on the lookout for new (to me) music.

Yoo hoo! Over here!

Remember me? I know it's been a week since you've seen me - I've been running around like a maniac with all the errands I've had to do. I'm playing cat-sitter for someone (and getting paid for it - woo hoo!), and I'm also in a marathon session of software training at work, so it's going to be a very busy week for me. I had a little crying session yesterday (felt a little overwhelmed), but if every day goes as fast as today, it'll be Friday again in no time. I'm trying not to do too much when I get home from work so that I'm rested and refreshed for the next day. And unfortunately, exercise has taken a back seat just for this week. But I've decided that I'm going to start running at McKinley Park after work starting next week - the treadmill is too boring for me and the weather is going to start getting really nice. Why not spend that extra daylight time outside?

So if you don't hear a lot from me this week, it's because I'm so busy that I can't tell if I'm coming or going.

But my spirit is here! (Unfortunately, it can't post for me, though.)

Happy birthday, Baba!

Today is my grandfather's 81st birthday. We call him Baba all because of me. My mom's parents are Hungarian but speak mostly German at home, and the German word for grandfather is Opa. Since I was the first grandchild in the family, it was my responsibility to say "Opa". And of course, I didn't. It came out as "Baba". Here we are, 31 years later, and he's still Baba. Oh well.

So my Baba is 81 today. And when I called to wish him a happy birthday tonight, my grandmother put him on the phone and the conversation went something like this:

Me: Happy birthday, Baba!

Baba: What?

Me: Happy birthday!

Baba: What?

Me: Happy birthday!

Baba: I heard what you said.

My grandfather is such a jokester. Always has been, always will be. And I'm so glad that even at 81, he's still got some left in him.

Happy birthday to the best Baba ever!

I am not the dentists' favorite.

I went to the dentist for another cleaning today, and I swear I was just there last week (at least that's what it felt like). When she told me that my last appointment was in August, I gasped. I was flabbergasted at how fast the time had passed.

Anyway, once she starting poking around in my mouth, she found a dark spot, which was not a cavity, but something ON TOP of a cavity. If my tooth had a face, it would look like this:














I'd forgotten how unpleasant a cavity is. And she hit it twice during my appointment - once with the little air gun thing on purpose (WHY do they do that?!) and then with the cleaning solution (not on purpose). Yikes. I guess that's my punishment for not flossing as frequently as I should be...again. Although I told her the plaque that was there was sparing me the pain of the cavity, so in this case, it worked in my favor not to floss.

She didn't think it was as funny as I did.

So I'll be going back at the end of April for a filling. And in keeping with my New Year's resolutions in not making things harder on myself, I am NOT going to worry about this since I've been through this before and it's not a big deal.

At least it won't be until the needle comes. Then it will be a big deal.

Defeat of the sugar monster.

What a difference a week makes. I'm still struggling a little bit, but it's getting easier and I'm so, so thankful. And my clothes are fitting a whole lot better, which feels really awesome. I'm tempted to keep this up once Lent is over, since every time I eat sugar, I only want more.

Then I remembered that these are here again:







I love love LOVE these. I usually get a few on Easter and I cannot wait. But one or two of them won't push me back to my old habits.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.