Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

So, seeing as how Lent is over, it's time to analyze how LP'oh11 went! The goal was to exercise at least a little bit every day, but since Lent doesn't include Sundays, that really means 6 days a week. If you count walking at least half a mile, which I think is legitimate, I probably averaged about 5 days a week, so that's pretty good!

I'm not going to lie, HealthMonth is probably the only reason I really did much of anything this month. It's amazing how motivated I am to do something just to get points that don't mean anything at all. It also helps me understand the appeal of 4square, I think. when I questioned its purpose one night about 11 months ago, someone told me "BUT YOU GET POINTS!" which I thought was dumb at the time, but now all I want is points points and fruits fruits.

Giant thunderstorm last night. The kind that sets off car alarms and pours down an Oregon week's worth of rain in 15 minutes.

Speaking of Oregon, in 3 weeks (so soon!) I am going there for 9 days. I am really getting excited even though it is going to be so chaotic - I don't really have anyone to take care of my cats, since last time I went home and left them in the care of my roommates, I came back a week later and they had no water, too much food, and their litterbox hadn't been cleaned the whole time I was gone. so I guess I might try to board them but that will be so expensive, on top of the $900 I am paying off on my credit card for the plane tickets.

For some reason I am really excited to go to Astoria this time. I am usually not at all excited because I don't really know anyone there anymore, but all I want to do is go see Peter Iredale and walk around in the rain and pick up earthworms and maybe even sneak out to Camp Kiwanilong and just kind of stare longingly at the locked gate. I was watching over Capital R's shoulder the other day while he was watching a YouTube about where is Chunk from the Goonies now (he's an entertainment lawyer because he couldn't act anymore once he grew up and got hot) and they of course showed clips of the Goonies and I got whiny looking at all the fog and trees.

Today is hot and muggy and started off miserably, but BiebzBear and I went to Peregrine and got a yummy brioche roll to share and a delicious latte for not sharing. Then we went to the park which I was dreading because in recent times Bear has been known to throw himself bodily into the mud, of which there is plenty, post-thunderstorm. But he did such a good job! This time all he wanted to do was go up and down the stairs on the play structure and play with the cars that some other kids brought, and he was fantastic at sharing and gave the cars back when I said it was time to go. Also he is starting to talk! He says "Haaww" when I am complaining about how hot it is, and I think he is determining when to say "more" versus when to say "again" and I swear I've heard him say "all done" and "blue" and "thank you." He does say "again" when he wants to read a book, I think for him it kind of means "please do this right now!" as well as "please do this one more time right now!" Anyway him talking is going to start making my life easier, I think.

I had the three horsechildren of the apocalypse for several hours on Friday, and while Captain Bananio napped, Zannah and Prince Phillip watched Sleeping Beauty so for a little bit it was just like old times. Captain Bananio, while the same age as Stellina, is much less comprehensible, but his clearest complete sentence is "HE PUNCHED ME" which I think says something about being the youngest of three.

I've just finished re-reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but haven't yet re-started Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so I am currently nursing a sore spot in my heart over the events on the astronomy tower.

Tuesday?? more like boooo-day

I guess some days are just tired days. Yesterday was 86 and sunny, and then it thunderstormed all night and has been miserable today, and I have absolutely no energy or happy.

Yesterday Bear had a pediatrician appointment for his appx-18-month checkup, and even though he got vaccinated he was not tired, and then today it took me almost an hour to get him down for his nap. I had just been telling BiebzBear's dad on Sunday that it has been a few months since I've had trouble putting Bear down.

I met up with Stellina and Space Monkey and their mom at the park yesterday so I could help with dinner, bath, and bed while their dad is in trial and working late. It really was a team effort. Chocolate milk went everywhere during dinner, toys did not pick themselves up, hardcover books were waved around far too close to Space Monkey's head. I am now completely convinced that I put Stellina in the wrong pull-up for bedtime, even though her mom put out the correct kind for overnight. It was all just kind of a blur of trying to get Stellina to bed without having a screaming fit while tiny Monkey was having a screaming fit. For some reason I have been second-guessing my pull-up selection since I left their house.

After my hour and a half at the gym last night, I went home and was out before 11:30, and didn't wake up to my beeping alarm until 8:37, which is exactly 8 minutes before I need to leave to get to Bear's house on time. I have been trying to wake up ever since and it has not been successful. Unfortunately it is too rainy to take the Bear outside to get coffee and donuts.

I will have to think of something.

The Writing on the Wall

The other day I gave a $40 donation to Planned Parenthood! did you??

LP'oh11 is not going terribly well lately. It went from nice spring to super cold again, and snowed a bit over the weekend, and supposed to snow again tomorrow. It is difficult to do much of anything. I! Hate! Cold!

Bear is getting faster at learning stuff. He is identifying pictures in books and stuff (Where's the banana?? where's the dog!), so that is good. he makes this funny "huh??" sound when you ask him something, as though he were an old man hard of hearing. But last week BAM six new teeth, so he looks a little less like an old man, at least.

I am reading all the Harry Potters over again, which is actually pretty great because it means I get to go to the library! The library is great. I went to the Northeast branch for the first time yesterday, and it seemed nice, I guess! I just got my book on hold, put another book on hold, and did my checking out, so I didn't really look around. I wanted to go home. It was cold and I wanted to read my book!

I was thinking about taking Biebzbear to the library, as it is very near his house, but he is SO loud, with the screaming and the noises, and the way he asks to read a book again, which sounds remarkably like the word "again," but with out the first syllable, and it's screamed at the top of his lungs. So, I think we'll wait on the library. I'm pretty sick of the same books over and over, though, so I might just bring him books from the library.

LIBRARY! YAY!

I want to see the cherry blossoms but I hate the tourists. They suck suck suck. I am devising a plan to go at dawn one of the days soon, but it is So Cold, and that is So Early, but I Really Hate The Tourists, so we will see what party wins the cherry blossom fight. First round will be Seeing Cherry Blossoms vs. Not Seeing Cherry Blossoms. If the former wins, then it will be a battle of Hatred of Cold and Early vs. Hatred of Tourists. aaaaaand... FIGHT!

100% Apple Juice

it is a good thing that Space Monkey was born last week, because this week is super super busy already. Well, ok part of the reason it is so busy is because Space Monkey was born. I get leave Biebz's house to meet Space Monkey in about an hour, right before he goes to his first doctor appointment, and I will hang out in the house while Stellina naps, so that she knows that no, we're not done with naps now just because there's a new baby. My goodness, multiple children. Then tomorrow after I hang out with Bear in the morning, I will pick Stellina up from school and get her lunched and napped, so that again she knows that there is still naptime in her life, and then I will go back to the BieberBear's house for the afternoon.

Then! I have Davey Bug, Jr. on Tuesday evening AND Wednesday evening, and the Bear from 9 to 5 on Wednesday, and though I don't have Big & Tiny on Thursday, I do have a different family for which I am subbing for the afternoon. Friday I don't know yet! Man though it is like I have a real full-time job. except it's not real, and not full-time.

LP'oh11 is going well, so far. I guess there is a thing with Lent where you get Sundays off ? so I am choosing one day a week to take off. Last week it was Friday, this week it looks like I will take Tuesday off, because a three-family day is exercise enough. but that means I have to today, even though I don't want to because my allergies(/sickness? I'm hoping I didn't pick up Big's nasty cold) are making me MISERABLE. I would like to replace the front half of my head, please. Anyway there has been lots of ballet and bicycle so far. Saturday I was going to go to my very first hip-hop class, but instead I got my exercise for that day by running around the house at 6am furiously looking for my keys, and then tearing south on my bicycle to get to Stellina's house so they could leave for the hospital. I'm glad I hurried! He arrived 20 minutes after they got to the hospital.

Yesterday I napped too long (booo) so I didn't get to do as much as I would have liked at home, but I did scrub my pots and pans, and do dishes, and finish my laundry, finally. Still did not vacuum or sweep or mop. I have grand plans for that, though. Grand plans which I am dreading.

I am so, so tired, but I am doing the things and being alive. Bear and I went to get donuts today and walked past BLOOMED DAFFODILS. and it looks like the beginning of peak bloom for the cherry blossoms is only 15 days from now, which is so soon. Winter was so, so long and I'm suddenly afraid I'm going to blink and miss spring.

Whatever the Mess You Are

Yesterday I did not get quite as many things done from my list as I would have liked! This is what I accomplished :

+ put shoes away! this only took me three days! wooo

+ check Mint.com, which is still suffering from lack of communication with Bank of America, which is making me very very sad. A week without my Mint.com account is leaving me with frantic energy that is generally targeted toward obsessive budgeting and financial planning, and presently seems to be channeling toward making to-do lists every second possible. Not a bad thing, but it's making the lists seem to never end.

+ make awesome playlists for quiet focus time and energy focus time. This included buying too much/never enough trashy pop music on iTunes yesterday, and also rediscovering how much really awesome classical music I have.

+ look up dance class schedules for LP'oh11. it turns out there is also ballet at my neighborhood studio on Saturday and Sunday!

+ catch up on Teen Mom 2 and 9ine. I am currently obsessed with teen pregnancy and parenting. I could not possibly begin to explain why. TM2 has this trainwreck aspect with some of the moms, but some of the stories are seem so incredibly genuine that I often find myself being really moved by the end of the episode. Also, trashy TV! So great.

+ Buy plane tickets to home for May. This is one of the reasons I wish that Mint would resume communication with Bank of America, so I can figure out how that $877.60 is going to affect my monthly budgets. Booooo. Yay for a trip home!

So now I have to rearrange the to-do list and probably start a new one, because this crazy budgeting energy needs to go somewhere.

Yesterday I stopped at 7Eleven on the way back from the bank and left with three Cadbury creme eggs! SPRING.

How Can It Be

I have a terrible terrible Methodist hymn stuck in my head. Today church went on forever, I guess Methodists aren't used to communion so it takes a really long time?? anyway it got to be like 11:50 and the pastor was like "You know what? Go in peace to love and serve the Lord" (which I almost just spelled "swerve") and we skipped the last page of the bulletin.

It's the little things, you know?

the King's Speech was excellent, I am very glad that Mr. Firth got his little golden statue for his role.

outside is storming and windy and police sirens, and on my iTunes is a sweet track from the King's Speech soundtrack that I got for free from Fandango for buying my advance movie tickets through them? I spent only $9 on two movie tickets instead of $24.50 AND got a free dramatized arrangement of the second movement of Beethoven's seventh?? I am a fan of this situation. Also, it feels like a trap, somehow.

The extended forecast on Accuweather.com shows me that the weather for the beginning of Lenten Project Oh-Eleven looks good! Right now I am going to put the shoes away into my closet and take my vitamins and make my bed, and those will be my small projects for today.

Come By Here

February sucked. March is doing okay, I guess. For a few days I was completely insane, crying at the drop of a hat and wanting to break things. Then I had a tiny mini-vacation day where I got to eat sushi, and frozen yogurt with mochi, and a nummy pastry, and I got my nails did, and I have been mostly better since then. Also, it turns out that getting manicures is awkward, and considering I messed mine up in 4 places within fifteen minutes, I don't believe I am built for it. This is fine. It was pretty effective in getting my hands to stop shaking post-doctor appointment.

Imminent Space Monkey is still Imminent, getting more and more so every day. Stellina went through a week where she was terrified of baby brudder and didn't want to see her mom, but now she is back to checking brudder's room every night before bed to make sure everything is in order. Due date isn't until the 18th, but I guess babby could come anytime between now and then. New Babbies! They are so great.

BiebzBear is either growing out of his annoying-as-hell stage, or I am getting more tolerant, and I think it is both. I have been reading lots of parenting books which I think is helping with my ability to understand why he does the annoying shit that he does, and/or to change things so he doesn't do them. I spend most of my time with him, now, usually 20-25 hours a week.

I seem to have picked up a church gig now at a small Methodist congregation in Arlington. It is fine. They pay me decently for minimum-impact work, though they have a 10:30am Sunday service - 9:30 call time is so early! Hymns and simple anthems are fine but I desperately miss singing in Latin and I miss singing early music and I miss singing anything challenging. The choir members are mostly older folks, with two other paid youngsters like me, and everyone is really friendly and nice. But Methodists are weird, and also this church is in the middle of nowhere. If I could find a Catholic or Episcopal church that was easier to get to and wanted to pay me to sing for them in a slightly more professional choir, I would miss my friendly little Methodists, but I would be less bored. In rehearsal yesterday we started working on a simple Thomas Tallis piece, which made me miss early music in a way I never thought I would.

Speaking of church, I am planning to do a Lent project. I seem to do okay when I have projects to accomplish, with little steps and an end-date, and not so well when I have a giant amorphous "do this until you are done with it" assignment. So I am going to try to exercise every day from Ash Wednesday to Easter, I guess with Sundays off?, in some manner or another. I am hoping it will help with my general lethargy and low energy/motivation levels, since it really couldn't get much worse. However, because I believe that running is for chumps, I am tasked with coming up with better ideas for exercise. I am thinking lots of dance classes and bicycle (impending warmer weather = a huge plus for bicycle), and maybe I'll find a yoga class even though I do not like yoga, or do a trial membership at a gym or something. Also, I hate running not only because it sucks and it's for chumps only, but also I can never get my iPod headphones to stay in my ears just while I'm walking, let alone running. What is the solution to this! Are there excellent running headphones out there that anyone knows? Also are there good exercise ideas?

Anyway, Lenten Project Oh-Eleven. I don't know if it will work and maybe it won't, but I will try. I am bored and I can never get anything done. I feel like I am always trying to play catch-up with myself. I can never make any positive progress because my room is never clean, and I can never clean my room because I have too many things to do, and I can't do those things because I am at work or sleeping.

When I first started watching Stellina I used to marvel at how Stellina's mom kept her house so impeccably clean with a such little kid. It didn't take long for me to realize that her secret, I guess, is that she never lets herself get behind in the stuff she has to do. StellinaMom keeps their days so regimented that everything always gets done when it needs to get done: laundry, dishes, wiping down all non-porous surfaces, putting away toys. Stellina's up at 6:30 or 7, lunch is at 12, nap is from 1 to 3, dinner is at 6:30, bathtime at 7:15, in bed at 8. Scheduling gets harder, of course, now that Stellina is the Queen of Stalling. Stall-ina, haha, get it. She also refuses to use toothpaste, what's up with that!? She and I discussed why, and she said, "Because it's too blue." A likely story.

Back to always playing catch-up. Every task I ever have always seems just a tiny bit out of hand. Too much laundry, too many shoes to put away, too much floor to sweep. It's so much easier to get in the bed and stay there for three hours, until it's time to find food and then get back in bed for the nighttime sleeping. I almost wish for a fresh start but I think that would require moving, and not only does moving REALLY suck, it never quite seems to be a fresh start, because I'm always running out of packing/moving time, so I put everything in boxes as quickly as possible. Then on the other side I'm just unpacking boxes of crap that I don't know what to do with, and then I still have the same piles of crap that I had in my old residence. I think what I need is two days where I can mega-dose with speed, I mean... caffeine? and do all my cleaning that I could ever possibly need to do, and everything else I've been avoiding, and then a mini-vacation, and then I can manage to have a mini-fresh start and be happy. And I can do my best to channel StellinaMom and never get behind in small, daily tasks.

Why does my happiness depend on how clean my living space is?!