Just imagine there are pictures: thursday 13

Dear Diary,

The wind is blowing like crazy outside and I am curled up under a quilt with Sweet Baboo, three cats, and Tom Waits keeping me warm. Getting up to put the promised pictures of the exercise room profiles of runs, and such, would involve leaving this all behind. Sooooo...placeholders for now.

don't you know there's no devil; it's God when he's drunk?

13.  Friday, two mothers and their respective children showed up at 3 pm, each claiming a 3:00 appointment.  Unfortunately, they were both correct: someone had double booked me.  I saw one at 3, and the other graciously agreed to wait until 4. 

Lunch had been Lean Gourmet Swedish Meatballs, and the package of Trader Joes Peanut Butter Goodies cookies that my Secret santa left in my inbox.  Urp.  I started eating Lean Gourmet because it's all I really have time for, and at the BX, it's about 80 cents.  NO, i do not want to know how high in sodium it is, or that there is a list of ingredients with chemical names longer than Moby Dick.

 It's food. It's cheap, it's portion-controlled, and it's pallatable.

12.  Saturday, I ran about 4 miles on the trail.  My legs felt heavy, which was attributed to the lunges and squats I had done during the previous week. Then, i went to a holiday party with the people who work with Baboo.

Each year I make the same potlock meal: curried yams, and brown rice. It's vegetarian, it's yummy, and it's wildly popular. I take home an empty dish.   But here's the thing: only Sweet Baboo's coworkers, psychologists, eat it.  My fellow counselors or social workers don't touch it. Ever. What's up with that?

11.  Sunday, I did 14 miles of a planned 50K FatAss that will be held on New Year's Day.  Here is the profile:

*placeholder for missing run profile here*

10.  Monday, Lunch was Lean Gourmet flatbread.  It wasn't bad.  It was the size of my hand.  I recognize that this is a normal portion.  Also on monday, I found out that the kid whol told me Friday I'm not fucking going upstairs with you for an assessment was hospitalized over the weekend. I told her so.

9. Also on Monday, it snowed. Again. We have had an unprecedented amount of snow so far this winter. Right now, as I'm typing this, the wind is howling and more snow is coming down, and they have closed I40. 

Now, New Mexico I thought we had a deal: you give me moderate, sunny winters, and I look the other way regarding the whole dust thing.  What happened?

*placeholder for snow pictures here*

8. Tuesday, I went to a local hospital's psych ward to see a kid that had tried to escape. He went over the wall around the facility the day before carrying, of all things, his lunch box.  

Also on Tuesday, I couldn't find my car keys. Anywhere.  I finally went outside to see if I left them in the car, and behold: they were there. 

In the ignition.

With the car running.

Yes, that's right. I parked my car at noon, got out, leaving my car running in the parking lot for four hours.  In th parking lot of a mental hospital. Have you ever done anything so stupid? I say you have not.  

Tuesday's lunch was Santa Fe Beans and Rice (Lean Cuisine).

7.  By the way: Lollicup.com Sugar-free flavoring syrups for coffee.  I'm just sayin'. It's the secret to me being a morning person.

6. Wednesday, the lunch of the day was shrimp scampi from Lean Gourmet. That night, we ate with folks from my the office at a local steakhouse, and the starters menu had calorie counts after each choice. It. Was. Horrifying. Few starters were under 1000 calories. I wound up having a 6 ounce fillet with sweet potato fries, and steamed brocolli.  I was very proud of myself. 

5, Most of the people I work with are in their mid-twenties. It was an interesting evening.  I found out things that I never knew about my coworkers.  Like, nearly all of them are half my age. 

4. Also wednesday, i had to caution an adult who wouldn't shut up and let me ask about their kid. It was all, me, me, me.  I get that people with disordered kids are grateful to find anyone who will listen to them but I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THE VOICES IN YOUR HEAD. I DO NEED TO HEAR ABOUT THE VOICES IN JUNIOR's HEAD. 

3. Also on Wednesday, I made the following law, called GeekGirl's law no. 5150: 

if you name your kid Chaos, don't complain to me about his behavior.  

Ever.

Also, Greek Goddesses. I'm just sayin'. Greek mythology is a soap opera, so you're asking for trouble by naming your kid after one of the principle players.

Unless you're Greek, and then it's okay.

2. Also on wednesday, i discovered that 1) all seasons of 'Bones' are on Netlix, and 2) apple tv has closed captioning.  Thus, my new winter running is in place, in my new exercise room.  Bliss!!!

Pictures:

*placeholder for missing exercise room pictures here*

1. Okay. Here it is, my 50-mile running plan.  I hope this formats right. I used to code in HTML and am perfectly capable of creating a table, but why do that when I can copy and paste from Numbers?  

Recall: I. Am Lazy.

Week of:      Week. M.    T.     W.    Th.   F.    S.    Su.   Total

Dec 5, 2011 1 0 2 2 2 0 8 6 20

Dec 12, 2011 2 0 2 2 4 0 10 6 24

Dec 19, 2011 3 0 2 2 4 0 12 8 28

Dec 26, 2011 4 0 2 4 6 0 14 8 34

Jan 6, 2012 5 0 4 4 6 0 16 10 40

Jan 13, 2012 6 0 4 6 6 0 18 10 44

Jan 20, 2012 7 0 4 6 8 0 20 10 48

Jan 27, 2012 8 4 8 6 0 0 10 8 36

Feb 6, 2012 9 4 8 8 0 0 22 10 52

Feb 13, 2012 10 0 4 10 8 0 22 10 54

Feb 20, 2012 11 0 4 10 8 0 24 10 56

Feb 27, 2012 12 0 4 10 6 0 10 8 38

Mar 5, 2012 13 0 4 12 8 0 0 31 55

Mar 12, 2012 14 0 4 12 8 0 24 10 58

Mar 19, 2012 15 0 4 12 8 0 26 10 60

Mar 26, 2012 16 0 4 10 8 0 16 10 48

Mar 5, 2012 17 0 4 6 6 0 10 6 32

Mar 12, 2012 18 4 3 2 0 0 50 59

Each week I will post that week's running plan and the actual mileage, making me direrctly accountable to the half dozen people who still read this blog :-/

Last week, i was 2 miles short on my training plan.  This week, i was 2.3 miles short. 

The week day runs are all treadmill. The weekend runs are all on the hilly trails behind our house.

Ta-daaaaa!

...

Sweat it out, or laugh it off.

Dear Diary,
I spent most of last week warding off the inevitable blues that strike when bad things happen. I did this partly by focusing on good stuff.

13. For instance, Princess was dropped off by her mom (me) at her new dwelling. I drove her and her things and tried not to leave skid marks as I backed out of the driveway.
Happy points: +2.

12. Himself the Baboo and I threw open the doors and acted like grownups. Grownups without nosy houseguests. We went to Costco and re-stocked up on all the things that Pricess had helped herself to.
Happy points:+3

11. Coincidentally, at the same time that herself left, the oppressive heat lifted. It rained nearly every day. Access to the trails was open again. Like a curse had been lifted. Yes, I am melodramatic, why do you ask? Happy points, +3

10. So Sunday, I hiked up La Luz, and did it faster that last year, but it still took me much longer than I thought it would. I estimate it will take as much as 3.5 hours. It's 10 miles, and it rises from 6200 feet above sea level to 10800 I sweated like crazy and smelled pretty bad when I was done...I think it makes me feel better to do that, because I'm like, HA! Take that, stupid VA....I can climb a mountain. AND, I found out that the La Luz cutoff is 5 hours. Happy points +2

9. This weekend, Ima start a groupon week.
Saturday, hair, lunch.
Wednesday, body, feet, nails, lunch
Just what I need. Take that, VA!!
Happy points: tbd

8. Each week at work seems to have a theme. This week's theme was BAD PARENTS.  One parent told me that the length of time it might take to treat her kid "just wouldn't work for her."  Another no-showed, then tried to come 40 minutes late to the second appointment, then demanded someone see her when she was told she'd missed her appointment (denied) Another mother complained to me that her teenage son, who has low BMI, "eats too much".
I know it can be shocking, the amount of food they eat, i said soothingly.  Then she complained about other developmentally normal behaviors of teenage boys...I'll leave you to imagine what those might be.
 
Whatever.
Anway: Distraction points, 10

7. I have been reading every article on tips and tricks and hints about the iPad so that I will be a power iPad user user..ser...ser. It does one really good thing for me; it forces me not to multitask. That is something badly needed.
Happy points: +1

6. I have noticed that the nicest, most expensive hotels charge for wi-fi, up to $15 per day in some places. Really Albuquerque Hilton? Are you really going to milk that cow for all its worth? I'll pick Best Western or Holiday Inn, thanks. And you can keep trying to figure out why business is falling off. Happy points, -2

5.  I discovered #6 when I went to a psychopharmacology seminar on Thursday - oh, hell, that's today.  They had no tables for us to sit at.  I had to claim the empty chair next to me for all my snacks, drinks, and other stuff.  And then I had to pay AND DON'T TELL ME NOBODY FORCED YOU TO PAY FOR WIFI, MISTY since I was not a guest of the hotel, I was not going to ask about a microwave, so I ate my food cold. Happy points, -2
But, the speaker was good, and interesting, and funny, and I enjoy the topic. If I wasn't 46, I would so totally go to medical school and study psychiatry. Happy points, +2

But, the the hotel was full of teenagers, and I sat outside during lunch and smellled the smoke and watched them work their way toward emphysema. Happy points, -3

4. Wednesday night I ran with Baboo. With Baboo (mistake #1) and on a full stomach, too (mistake #2). still, I got in another 3 miles before it got dark. Happy points, +2

3. Interesting articles here and here. Comments welcome. Happy points: +0

2. I used to mock pre-cooked, packaged bacon.  Of course, my eating is way out of control again.  But about the pre-cooked bacon: Now I totally get it. Happy points: +3

1. In the end, though, I don't know where my future is, professionally.  I used to have this very clear picture in front of me, this vision of my future.  Now there's just a blank.
I'm so pissed at the people who took away my vision.
I'm so angry that I have to start all over, making a new picture, with that uncertain, unknown future.

Well, what the hell.  I guess I've done that before.

Happy points earned this week: 10. I think. That's 10 more than I started with.

...