Counting down the days

I have two weeks left. After today, 9 days to be exact. 9 more days before I'm done with my internship. Finally.

I'm getting major "senoritis." It's a disease that seniors get. God knows I had that my senior year of high school. After so many years of school, we are finally at the end and the end is the worst. Time just drags on and on. This is when we get restless and lazy - big time. Time started to slow down for me two weeks ago. It was a slow "4 weeks left" and a slower "3 weeks left." Just two more weeks left, I keep telling myself, but I'm wondering just how slow it'll go.

I finished my independent study. The only thing standing in my way from certification is my Comp Exam. I'm due to take that in June. The first half is a couple of assignments and discussion board participation. I guess it's a way to prepare us for the test. I'm a bit annoyed by that but thankful, I guess. Everyone I know didn't have to take a "course", they just signed up for it and took the exam. Lucky for me, my Comp Exam grade isn't based solely on the test. So, if I don't do well, I have my assignments and discussion board participation to fall back on. I have a proctor for my exam (supposedly), so I'm all set. Let's go - I'm ready.

I've applied to 4 districts. Success comes in numbers, doesn't it? 4 districts with three schools each (if there's elementary, middle and high schools), my odds are good, I think. HISD just opened up a brand new position a few days ago for middle school. I applied. Fingers are crossed.

Today is the first day in 4 days that my butt isn't sore. Being more active - working out and doing cardio almost daily (so far), and rollerblading at least once a week makes me feel better about myself. I feel energized and I feel like I can keep on doing more things. Being sore is terrible - but it means I'm working the muscles. However, I'm not expecting any results anytime soon - I've been cheating. I've been having an affair with food. I just hope my body doesn't find out - but it probably will soon enough. Because of my birthday (and among other reasons), I've been eating out a lot lately - which means I've been taking in lots of calories. Oh well - nobody said guilty pleasures was good for your figure.

Not to mention - I do pretty much nothing 3/4 of my time here during my internship. For instance - I have 10:22 to 12:00 off today.... which means I'm playing around on the computer. I didn't have to teach this morning either - I had seniors for 1st period and they had meetings to go to.

Well, time for me to go and be bored. I bet you'd kill to be my position right now, J. Wanna trade?

Kitten Tribute to Mario!

As you may already know by now, I'm a fan of Mario and his games. Well, I only like three of them. That's better than zero, I guess. I came across this photo online and decided that I just had to post it!

An Unexpected Dinner

Last night, I encountered an unexpected surprise. Well, aren't all surprises unexpected? Surprises are fun - especially when I don't know it's coming. I'm not one to wait patiently during Christmas season or when it comes to a planned surprise. Whenever someone tells me, "I have a surprise for you," I will want to know right away. I have absolutely NO patience when it comes to waiting for surprises. That's why it's best whenever you have a surprise for me, don't tell me. And that's exactly what my friends did.

My birthday was on the 22nd. I did not plan on doing anything during the week, but I did want a small get-together with a few friends on Saturday just to hang out. J said he was going to take me out to one of my favorite restaurants for my birthday on Friday. Although I wasn't expecting anything, I started to look forward to it. On Wednesday, he asked me "why don't we go tonight instead?" Later, he ended up saying "let's just go tomorrow." I thought, "ok... whatever."

Wednesday night before going home, J asked if we were still going to Escalante's. I said, sure... and didn't think anything about it at all. Thursday, he came over and asked "you still want to go to Escalante's?" Again, I said "sure" and well, I thought it was a little weird... I'm not the type to change my mind often and I consider myself very laid back and easygoing so I was wondering why he kept asking. But - I didn't begin to suspect anything.

On the way to the restaurant, J was on his sidekick often. That was unusual. When he's around me, he doesn't touch his sidekick for hours. Sending messages back and forth was pretty unusual for him. Assuming it was work (maybe some issues) or about his dad, I casually asked if everything was alright. He threw me off when he said "oh, I just have headache." But again, that didn't tip me off. I just thought he didn't want to tell me what was going on. I was really curious but didn't want to press him.

Things started to get really weird when we got to the restaurant. We go in and ask for a table for two. Jon says he has to go to the bathroom. That isn't unusual, he's a lean mean peeing machine. Always peeing! But what really bugged me is that he went the wrong way. I thought he was just an idiot and didn't know where the bathroom was. I ALMOST chased after him to tell him he was going the wrong way. After a while, he came back and said... "I have a really cool picture I wanna show you in the bathroom! Come look!" I thought to myself, boy - he's a moron. A cool picture in the bathroom? AND the bathroom is the other way.

I didn't want to argue and just followed him. I didn't see anything until he stepped away and pointed to the table. I saw 4 friends sitting at a round table with two empty chairs. Two balloons were tied to a chair, two cards and a chocolate cake in the middle of the table. I was SHOCKED.

I enjoyed the evening. I ate really good food and chatted with friends. It had been a long time since we were all together in one place so it was really nice to have that. You know what? Another really cool thing is - I got an awesome PINK card! Thanks P!

I'll remember this birthday for a long time. Thanks for making it memorable!

Becoming Physically Active

I mentioned in my previous entry that I've started to change my eating habits and trying to become more physically active. In the midst of "The Biggest Loser" craze, I impulsively joined Jillian's online club. Don't get me wrong - I don't think I'm fat (or too fat). Just a little chubby in some areas, mostly baby fat. I'm at the right weight for my height and build, so I don't really need to lose weight. My goal is to lose the fat I have, become toned, healthy and active. As for me joining Jillian's online club, you may think it's so cliche. I have no doubt that it'll work, it's all up to me to stick to it. Jillian has an incredible track record. Every person that has won the title as 'The Biggest Loser' was trained by Jillian. I feel bad for Bob, though. He's really, and I mean REALLY, cute and he's so nice (compared to how Jillian can get!). I wouldn't mind having Bob train me :)

Anyway, I joined Jillian's club a few days ago but haven't started my workouts yet. My first day of the program starts today. So far, I'm really liking the website. It tells you how many calories you can eat each day depending on your physical activity level, your metabolic rate and all that stuff. I took a detailed quiz on my body type, what foods agree/disagree with me, what I crave, etc to find out what my metabolism is. Then, from there - I found out what type of foods I can/should eat. On top of all that, the website has built a customized menu for me, 3 meals and a snack, every day of the week. I can simply change a menu item to an available option if I don't want to eat it. I can print out a shopping list for all the food for the entire week and just go. It's a super-nice feature. The website also has workouts for you to do everyday. You can simply print them out and take them with you. There are 5 circuits of 3 exercises each and I have to go through each circuit 3 times doing 15 reps each. Uh oh. What did I get myself into? I'm still waiting on her DVD and book to arrive. I'm wondering if I can do the online exercises AND her 20-minute daily workout from the DVD. I'll find out soon enough.

Another feature on the website is a journal to keep track of your thoughts, feelings and weight progress (there's a chart that you can do to track your weight by adding a new number each day, week, whatever). Below is my first entry on the website... I thought I'd share it with you:

It's 8:30 in the morning and I feel blah. I guess it has more to do with
not getting enough sleep than anything else. I'm on my 5th week of the
secondary internship at Barbara Jordan. I'm also teaching GED English on
Tuesday nights until 9pm. I also do data entry for MMS whenever I
can. On top of it all, I try to find time for myself - TV, movies, playing
with my kids and sleeping - though sleeping is at the bottom of my list. I think
I have indulged myself too much with TV/movies. But on the other hand, I
have been more physically active lately. Not very active - but I
rollerbladed the past two weekends. I got a free week pass at a
gym and went three times. All three times, I worked out for a minimum
of 2 hours. That's more than I ever did in the past. I tried my first
Jillian recipe last night. I cooked Festive Thai Shrimp. Good, but
could be improved. I did not measure my food so I think I ate more than a
serving. I didn't even finish my bowl, though. Carbs fills me up
quickly. Every night, I set a goal to start working out "tomorrow." But
everyday, when I wake up tired and drained, I think that I wouldn't be able to
find the energy to exercise. Let's hope that changes at 4:30 when I get
home.

So... with the program starting today for me, I am determined to follow the schedule they've given me. I get two days off each week - that's good, right? I'm wondering if I'll actually go through with the exercises. Right now, I'm thinking I'm going to force myself to do it no matter what, but who knows? I'll keep you updated.

1 Year and 21 Days Later

This past year has passed by extremely quick for me. I opened my blog and published my first three entries on April 1, 2008. A year of writing has passed me by - and I didn't even notice it until now.

I still enjoy writing and hope to continue writing for years to come. However, my biggest fear is running out of things, or meaningful things, to say. I think I ran out of things to say after my first week of writing. Ha-ha.

I have always tried to force myself to write and to write often... not because I wanted to have lots and lots of entries (well, maybe), but because I enjoy writing and would like to improve my creativity. After a while, I decided that the quantity of entries shouldn't matter - I should be focused on the quality.

Another problem I face with writing is picking something to write about. It's hard for me to decide whether it's meaningful or just random thoughts. Sometimes I might get the urge to write about something particular that's happened to me or something I saw. A few hours later, by the time I get to a computer or have time to collect my thoughts, I decide that it's not worth writing about. Maybe that's my problem. I'm always afraid that whatever I write will be boring to others. So, when in doubt, I don't write.

I've started to try to change my eating habits and improve my physical activity level. For some reason, thinking about that has made me think about wanting to improve my writing - or writing more. For the next year, I will strive to write what I'm thinking and feeling. I will write more about what I am going through. Even if I think it might be boring reading material, it might be beneficial to myself in the future. It will give me something to reflect on.

You're not Alone...

Don't we feel like this from time to time? Nice to know we're not alone.

Dancing Kittens

I stumbled across this video today. I had not laughed so much in a long time... ok, I laughed plenty on Saturday when there was an, ahem, rollerblading accident. THAT was funny! In fact, I laughed about it on my way home from work today! I'm laughing about it now! Poor you, mystery person!

Anyway, these kittens are so CUTE! And so coordinated! Enjoy!

(Re)Developing a New Interest

I just rediscovered something that I like to do. When I was growing up, I had several of my birthday parties at a roller rink. In middle school, I started going to a local roller rink on Fridays. In high school (more specifically, freshman and sophomore years), I went to the ice rink every Friday. Then I stopped.

It had been 10 years since I last wore ice skates, roller skates or roller blades. I forgot what it was like.

Last weekend, I took my kids to a roller rink. A friend gave me the idea so I took advantage of that and decided that we would have a fun day out. What was supposed to be fun turned into fun and exhausting.

My 2 1/2 year old isn't quite ready to get on skates. I literally had to pick him up and push him around the rink. People probably circled us about 10 times to our one time around the rink. By the time I got to where I started, I was worn out. My daughter is a sissy - to put it nicely. She freaks when she falls down and refuses to challenge herself to go around the rink independently. What's funny is that she's perfectly fine putting on her pink Princess roller skates at home and skate back and forth outside on the 3rd floor - close to the stairs. But she will not go once around the rink without whining that she's scared or getting mad about falling.

When the kids had enough of skating, I gave them a couple of dollars to go play games. While they played skee-ball, I took a couple laps around the rink. It was a pleasant experience. I was a bit wobbly at first - who wouldn't be after 10 years? Once I got the feel of the skates, I started to skate faster and really enjoyed going around the rink.

Although it wasn't as exciting or fast as skydiving or riding on a roller coaster, feeling the wind brush against you as you skate faster and faster is nice. Even though I had my kids with me and I couldn't skate all that much, I still enjoyed it.

Ever since then, I've been thinking about how I want to take up rollerblading and start skating on trails in parks around my area. I have a set of old roller blades sitting in the closet. I'm glad I didn't throw them out a couple years ago when I was spring cleaning. Back then, I never thought I'd start skating again but decided to keep them - "just in case."

This weekend, I'm hoping that I'll be able to get out and try skating on a trail while it's still nice and cool outside. Maybe on Sunday.

And maybe I'll make everyone go ice skating for my birthday. Wouldn't that be fun?!