Special Place in Hell

For people who harm children.

I've been watching the news on the little girl who was murdered in northern Florida and I wasn't going to blog about it, but I feel compelled to express my sadness for this family. I have a 6 y/o little girl, so of course I make the natural comparison's but any parent would feel the gut wrenching horror that this poor mom is going through.

Who can harm a little girl like that? And this poor, poor woman. My heart breaks for her.

And I don't want to hear one more time about who lets a seven year old walk home without adult supervision. You don't know the situation and you don't know the circumstance that lead to that horrible and tragic decision. As I said, it's luck. We (parents) have all made seemingly innocuous decisions that could have led to tragedy but didn't. This poor woman will be forever questioning herself.

How do you survive something like that? I just saw her on the Today show and she seems incredibly strong. Much more so than I would have been.

I'm going to hug my children now.

TGIF!!!

The kids don't have school today and I realize that I should have taken the day off. But I didn't. So, I'll drop them off and go to work, but I'll try to get out early that's for sure.

Nothing exciting today.

The kids are getting the h1n1 flu shot. And I'm not really sure I believe in flu shots, but they are going to get them anyway. Yes, I reviewed the pros and cons and came to this decision.  If something happened and I didn't have them get the shot the guilt and hindsight would kill me. Yes, that is the main reason that I am getting them the flu shots.

In other weight related news, I've been working some internal work and realize what and why I eat and what positive intent it gives me. Now, I just need to work out the habits and get into something else. Well, last night, first night I don't eat at night after dinner. Yea me.  That was huge for me.

Try, try again

I'm trying to think of a quote, something like "the difference between failure and success is one more try." I think I just made that up.  But I like it.

I'm going to try again today. And keep trying until I make it through a full day.  It's that important to me.

I have to watch the Devil Wears Prada. Apparently, according to a friend of mine at work, the Glen Close character is just like my female boss and what her expectations are.  Well, said boss is back today. Yesterday was a nice and quiet day at work. We'll see what it brings.

I like to think that I can trace my struggles with when said boss was promoted and thus got on her power kick, thus increasing my chronic stress levels, but that's just an excuse. Some kind of spell comes over me when I walk in the door at the end of the day and I need to bust out of this rut.  It's gone on long enough.  I'm sure I'd make a great case study at the local College of Psychology.  Speaking of therapy, I'm thinking of not going back. I mean, I've gained 15 pounds since I've been going, so part of me thinks, what the hell am I doing. I do, however, realize, that I've made some serious progress on the demons that I have. Although, you won't see me posting a crazy ass video on here like poor Kanye did on his website. That dude is a case study for sure.

Today will be a busy day I'm sure. I'm just sitting here enjoying the quiet before it begins with some coffee.  Breakfast will be my standard fare, a bagel at Nanny's.  Lunch will be salad with some leftover chicken on top.  I'll have a yogurt w/kashi cereal as a topping for a snack in the afternoon with my tea and then dinner will probably be mixed veggies with some lentils and rice.  My evening snack will be popcorn or a popsicle.

Definitely woke up too early. I'm tired already and I haven't even gotten dressed yet.

I miss my friend

No pictures of my food today. Sorry.

This is going to be a rather short post as well as I'm just not in the mood to write. Well, I could always write, but if it isn't anything meaningful, then all I'm doing is typing grammatically correct sentences. And even that is questionable.

I miss my friend.  This person knows who they are. Or they should. I miss talking about everything and anything.  I miss the comfortable lapses of silence.  I miss the friendship most of all. Knowing that someone was thinking of you and waiting to share the day's events at the end of the day.

There will be some of you who are so vain that like Warren to my Carly you will think this post is about you. It isn't.

I've denied the funk that I've been in for months because of the ending of this friendship. I was able to distract myself for awhile but eventually I suppose I need to acknowledge it. My sadness about the ending of this friendship.  I have to in order to move on. I miss you friend. But I'm letting go and moving on.  I was able to see today that I've been holding out for a rekindling of our friendship. I see now, that it won't happen.  I've learned a lot from it.

In the meantime, I'm going to go watch West Wing and read.  Not necessarily in that order.

Manic Monday

Not really. I've said this before, but I totally don't mind Monday's.  Both bosses are out of the office, so I can use this time to play catch up.  I'll be trying to utilize Google Calendar as I really prefer the functionality that it has vs Outlook or iCal (both of which I have/use) because I can access the calendar anywhere, from any computer.  The fact that I can have tasks incorporated with the calendar are one of the things I like. My preference, of course, would be if I could use iCal and Outlook at the same time w/my iPhone. Outlook at work and iCal at home. If you know how, let me in on the secret. kthnx

In eating and health related news, I'm up two pounds. WTF??  How did that happen. Apparently the same way someone can not really pay too much attention to what they are eating and go down two pounds. (Yes, Michael, this means you!)  Well, I know I haven't been writing EVERYTHING down, so I guess it's time to own it and do it. I'll need to plan out my meals in advance. I always am more successful when I do that.

My breakfast today is the same thing I have every morning: a bagel w/a spritz of butter spray and a tbsp off sugar free orange marmalade.  Lunch will be a sandwich using up the leftover chicken breast. Yes, I started eating fowl on occasion. Sorry if that disappoints my veggie/vegan friends.  Dinner is going to be a veggie stirfy w/a garden burger. Pictures to follow later.

Now for some local news, fall is finally here.  We went from record highs of 92 to a record low of 57 the next night. Yes, it's true and I'm not exaggerating.  It was so nice to open all the windows and enjoy the weather for a change.

Time to get the kiddo-s up and at 'em.  Enjoy your Monday.

BOTNS Books Podcast #47: DystopYA | Books on the Nightstand Blog and Books Podcast

I have not only read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins for this challenge, but I couldn't help but to immediately read Catching Fire as well. I was so enthralled by The Hunger Games, that I skipped all my other books that were in queue before Catching Fire to read it immediately. And read it I did, in about three days.

The Hunger Games, begins with Katniss in the woods with Gale. The year isn't really known but it's a good ways into the future. The United States, obviously is no more and now is known as Panem. The 50 states have been broken into 12 Districts and are under strict control from "The Capitol" which is somewhere near Denver. I can understand the sisterly love and sacrifice that Katniss makes for her sister. This book is a YA novel and I don't really read that genre, but the writing was good and kept me in suspense almost the entire time. I found myself wanting Katniss to really be in love with Peeta and I suppose that in a way, she does find herself in love with him. I have to keep reminding myself that these are teenagers that I am reading about. I did like the Romeo and Juliet ending, albeit not as deadly as Shakespeare's original.

Moving towards Catching with Fire and trying not to give it away for anyone who is reading this and hasn't read the books yet, I can honestly say that I didn't see where the plot was going. Each plot twist was surprising to me. I soon became as confused as Katniss and didn't know who to trust and who not to trust. I definitely didn't see the ending of the second book coming either. As a matter of face, I had to go back and re-read the last few pages to be sure that I was comprehending what the author was trying to tell me. Really?? How did I not see this ending coming? And better yet, when the hell is the third book coming out.

I have to say, I thank Ann (and Michael) for pointing me towards this series. It's the second series (Girl w/the Dragon Tattoo being the first) that I am scouring the internet trying to see when the publishing dates are and marking them on my google calendar. A first for me.

And was I the only one who puts myself into the story and imagines how I would survive living in a country like that?? I could totally go off on a political tangent now, but I'll save it for another post. I'm such a tease, I know.



EDIT OF ORIGINAL POST

So, I realized that I left out the things that I didn't like. Or why I liked it other than I just found it to be a page turner.  I feel that anytime a book elicits a strong emotion, be it anger, frustration or impatience or positive emotions such as happiness or excitement that it must be well written. Well, these two books hit all of those and then some.  Currently, the biggest emotion is anticipation. Anticipation of the third novel to quell the curiosity that the crazy cliffhanger that Collins left for us.  But I'm putting the cart ahead of the horse. Because I also felt frustration for Katniss and her inability to see that Peeta really is the one she should choose. I never really connected with Gale because he seemed to be a supporting character in both books. I know he figured prominently in Katniss' mind, but for us, the reader, there were too few instances where he appeared for me to be able to connect with him. I was rooting for Peeta all the way, and actually got angry with him when he failed to fight for Katniss and was willing to let her go so easily.

I guess the one thing that I didn't like about the novel was that they had to go back to the Arena and fight again. Big plot moment in that, yes, I know, but I still thought there would have been or could have been a different way to do this. To get the rebellion going.  I did have to say that I did enjoy it once I got past my anger at them having to get tossed back into the games.

I never realized that this was supposed to be a trilogy so imagine my shock and surprise at the ending.  It's been hours since I finished it and I am still stunned.

Sunday Competition

Shy had another gymnastics competition this morning. she did great! All of her scores went up, except the beam which stayed the same. Her score would have been even higher had she not forgotten one of her jumps on the beam. I'm so proud of her and she is really into this. She breathes, eats and sleeps gymnastics. The only down side is that the older she gets the more time consuming it is. So, I'm a gymnastics mom!

The bad thing about drawing an 8a start time is that you have to get up really early, especially since the meet was about 45 min away. The good thing is that we are done and home by 11a and the day isn't totally lost. I've got laundry (don't I always) to do and then we will be hitting up Books-a-Million for Jon for his weekly comic book fix.

Dolphins are on a bye week, so it'll just be NASCAR today.

In other random news, I still chuckle ala Beavis and Butthead anytime I hear the term 'tea baggers' in a political sense.