Freedom! Shopping! Hooray!

My office has been short handed the past few weeks, so I offered to cover a few extra shifts to help out. Due to an oversight on my part, I wound up working eleven days straight. Not much fun, and by yesterday I started feeling a little worn out. Today, however, was day eleven, and I'm thrilled to have a few days off.

After nearly two weeks straight of high heels, my feet are killing me. Not too long ago I finally forced myself to throw away my Eastland clogs (which were grody and worn nearly through), and that decision left me with very few comfortable shoe options for work. Tonight I stopped by a department store to return a dress, and they had a sale on a pair of Borns that looked just like my beloved clogs - hooray for comfy shoes!

Speaking of shopping... some bitch has gone and bought up every single pair of size six khaki pants in the ENTIRE TOWN. Seriously - I've been to every store I can think of, and without fail they will have every size except the one I need. It's making me crazy! I have skirts and nice dress slacks, but sometimes I just want to toss on a pair of khakis and a polo shirt and call it good. This is a sucky thing about living in a smaller town - fewer shopping options. I'm going back to Spokane this weekend - wish me luck on the pant hunt.

Snibble, No. 1

(Author's note: snibble was my grandfather's word for a 'little bit', usually in reference to a snack or other food item. In his memory, I have decided to call short, single story posts "snibbles." Love you, gramps...)

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Last night before bed Luis was reading his Runner's World magazine, giving me some tidbits from the Human Race section. He told me about an ultra marathoner (someone other than Dean Karnazes) who runs crazy distances - and fast. This guy ran a 100k race (62 miles), and then the following week he ran the Boston marathon in two and a half hours. (I should add that this is only slightly longer than it takes me to run half that distance. Holy crap.) Then he read to me about a blind guy who ran seven marathons in seven days, each on a different continent. The blind guy's slowest marathon time was about five and a half hours - still a little faster than my anticipated marathon finish.

The crux of this story? I run slower than a blind guy with jet lag.

Snow.

My June 1st post may have jinxed us...

Seriously.
It snowed really hard for a while yesterday, and it was kind of funny. Today it's snowing really hard, and it makes me want to cry a little. I came to work in a sweater and slacks, and still froze my arse off as I tromped into the building through the snowy, 33° morning. As I drove to work I passed cars with several inches of snow piled against their windshields, fresh from the wintry drive into town. Some of the nearby towns actually have three or four inches of wet, heavy snow on the ground. The morning dj on the radio got a kick out of playing "Let it Snow."
Summer... please?

Happy June 1st!

Many parts of the country are enjoying summer weather by now. Not so here - we're hanging out in the sixties with lots of rain in the forecast. But at least it quit snowing. :)

Measuring - in mandi units.

measuring - in mandi units
Originally uploaded by mandapanda191

(Or International Mandi Units, as Luis calls it.)

I needed to see how wide this space was, but I didn't have a tape meausure. HOWever - I know that I'm 64," so that works in a pinch.

They call me MacGyver.

(Actually, no - no one calls me MacGyver. I wish they would though. I'm resourceful, good at fixing things, and when I wake up in the morning my hair sometimes looks a little bit like his...)

Welcome sunshine!

It is fantastically beautiful outdoors, and either no one is sick or no one is willing to come indoors out of the sunshine to see a doctor - things are slow at the office tonight. Fine by me, I can happily sit and stare off into space for another three hours (seeing as how I don’t have any homework to do… I love summer). In a little bit maybe I’ll put The Little Mermaid in on the waiting room television - you know, in case a kid comes in. *wink, wink*

This morning Luis and I downtown went for bagels, and as we left I decided that today was a good day to play in the dirt. I went to The Pink Grizzly, a local nursery, and picked out flowers for my container garden. I spent the afternoon puttering around on the porch, smudged with dirt, singing along to Dave Matthews, and happy as a clam.

Wanna know a secret?

When I was sick I bought myself a loaf of mushy, nutrient-free white bread, figuring it would be easier on an ailing tummy than would my usual high-fiber, no high-fructose-corn-syrup whole grain wheat. After I felt better I kept right on eating the white, under the guise that I didn't want to be wasteful. But I have to be honest - I effing love white bread. I eat almost strictly whole wheat, because it has nutritional value and fiber and all sorts of good things, but I secretly pine for the white every time I walk down the bakery aisle.

Three months.

Wedding. Three months from today. Eeek!

Graduation.

This afternoon I'm headed to Bozeman, Montana for the MSU College of Nursing graduation and recognition ceremony. The whole thing is sort of anticlimactic, seeing as how I still have another semester of classes to complete - but it seemed better to walk now rather than the May following my graduation. (I suppose I don't have to walk at all, but after nearly a decade in college it seems like a nice way mark the end of this chapter in my life.) My graduating class will have a pinning ceremony in December when we finish, and that will be a much more significant event to me than the official ceremony. Our class has become a tight knit group over the past couple of years. After our last final the other day we went outside to break a pinãta somebody brought (long story), and since everyone was out there I was able to get a group photo:

Yesterday morning I woke up at 7:00 (sad, considering that we were out celebrating the end of finals until 3:00 that morning). I wandered around the apartment, feeling a little lost. I've been so busy for so long, I just wasn't sure to do with myself. I didn't have anywhere to be, no homework to do - it was a strange sensation. I finally made a list of odds and ends I needed to do - phone calls and things - that way I felt like I had some something to accomplish. Guess I need to practice relaxing!

Cachexia is so hot these days...

...I must be close to burning up.

I'm finally well enough to sit up for more than five minutes together, which is a welcome relief. I've been miserable sick the past few days - I'll spare details, but it suffices to say that I've lost four or five pounds. (Sadly, I know enough now to realize that it's water loss, probably most of my glycogen stores, and perhaps a little lean muscle mass if I'm really unlucky. It was not likely to be any fat tissue.) It's amazing, though, how flat my abs look when I haven't eaten in several days...

With luck, I will be well enough to go back to work tomorrow, and then cram for finals tomorrow night. One final Monday, one Tuesday, and a presentation Tuesday afternoon. Then a bit of relaxation!