Ashes

My burning commitment to get up at 5:00 and meet some of my daily goals fizzled out during a night of poor sleep, until upon awaking there was nothing left but ashes and a small ember of hope for another day.

Coming Back after Ten Days

Whew!  I got a cold and it knocked me flat!  I'm over the worst of it at last, but still have little energy. I come home after work every day and collapse.

Yesterday I decided to work out no matter what. I had awakened in pain, but I figured lying around all day wasn't going to help, but I ended up taking a nap for about 3 hours of the afternoon.  Finally, around 4 p.m., I selected a one-mile gentle walk DVD and started in.  It was hard! I did feel better afterward, and was looking forward to a shower.

My husband came in and said, "Let's go for a walk."  Okay, my shower can wait. This sounds serious, like he has something to talk about or something.  So I grab my keys, and we head out the front door--where I see friends waiting in their car. Husband tells me, "We're going out to dinner with friends." I waved at the friends and dashed back in the house to change my clothes. No way I'm going out to dinner in my workout clothes.  Time for a quick "sponge bath" and a fresh, pretty outfit, and off we went to a delightful dinner at a Japanese place.

I woke up much more pain-free today and I'm enjoying my Sunday and looking forward to a good yoga workout tomorrow to limber me up.

TGI--3 Day Weekend!

I enjoy my new job, but my body has not adapted well to the schedule.  I still have a cold that won't quit, but I am taking advantage of the weekend to rest a lot. That's all.

I'm a professional

I got a job as a learning resource center manager at a private college. It's somewhat of a cross between a librarian and a gofer, with some tutoring and IT thrown in for good measure.

I was doing pretty well and managing my sleep fairly well, and still managing to exercise at least every other day, until

WHAM!    

pixabay.com

Major allergy exposure has pretty much knocked me off my feet. I think it lowered my resistance enough that now I have a cold. So this week all I have done is go to work, read and play computer games.  As soon as I start feeling better, I will pick up on exercising more.

Maybe having a three-day weekend will help.  We were going to go out of town on Saturday but between my sickness and some unfortunate circumstances concerning the party we were going to meet, we had to cancel.  So I plan to work tomorrow and then shut off my alarm and sleep as late as I can, until I can breathe freely once again.

Sudafed is helping. It drains me like no other cold medicine will, but it can also make it hard to sleep.

August Book Reviews: Family Relationships in Literature

Dewey 800 appears to be a combination of literature and books about literature. Among them I found these two books which are oddities for the category. They were an interesting contrast.

Good Talk, Dad: The Birds and the Bees...and Other Conversations We Forgot to Have; Bill Geist, Willie Geist; Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (May 19, 2015)

This was a lighthearted memoir--a double memoir really--of a somewhat famous father and his somewhat famous son.  Okay, maybe both of them are famous, if you watch TV. I don't watch much TV, so I did not recognize their names. The title intrigued me. Bill has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame, so I guess that means he is famous.

It is basically a book of shared memories on specific topics, seen from the points of view of both father and son. It's a fun, sometimes serious, occasionally irreverent romp through their relationship as father and son. Although I disagree with a number of their opinions, the opinions themselves are well-expressed. The language is clean, the book well-written by both father and son.

I suspect they gloss over the rough parts of their relationship, but they seem to be loving and well-balanced, a family that on the surface would have been wonderful to grow up in.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Letters from My Sister: On Life, Love and Hair Removal; Eve Lederman, Faye Lederman; Skyhorse Publishing (September 30, 2014)

This book is equally lighthearted, as the sisters write back and forth on various topics.  Unfortunately it is neither as well-written or as clean as the book above.  Both sisters come across as promiscuous, though also appearing to be well on the way to misandry.  They want men; they want to date; yet they present men in an extremely negative light. The very first sentence describes a soccer group consisting of "the whiniest, wimpiest men" and sets the tone for their opinion of men in general.

I stuck with it until page 77, which was about 77 pages too many. I had enough of discussions on toilet paper theft, crotches and their issues, and what is wrong with their mother, of whom they speak quite disrespectfully. Not to mention, oh yes, the horrible wimpy men they meet, and the possibility that one of their friends, Jacob, is gay. They think their dad is homophobic, but their attitude seems to lean in that direction as well.

If a man wrote about women in the same disparaging way as these two write about men, I can only imagine the uproar it would cause.  I'm for feminism in the positive strides it has made to give women rights over many things. I probably hold my job, and definitely the right to vote, because of feminists who have gone before me.  However, I am for the promotion of women, not for the denigration of men. There is a distinct difference.

I said one of their friends might be gay. I do not remember which sister had that particular friend. To tell the truth, other than location, I had trouble distinguishing their writing from each other, so making the transitions back and forth between letters left me feeling disoriented.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Disclaimer:  I checked out both books from the library, and wrote this review with no financial incentive.

Life is all about change

Next week I will start a new adventure. I've been offered a full-time job.  When I think about the fact that I've never worked full-time in my adult life, it's a little scary. My husband reminded me that when I was in school it was like more than full-time. I was in classes 12 hours a week, working 10-15 hours a week, commuting 10-12 hours, and doing hours of homework on top of that.

This job means that in my off-time I really have to prioritize and focus on what's most important. Keeping up with fitness & health goals is one of those things. However, I will cut back on how often I post here, probably to once a week. I've about reached the point where there is not a lot to say anyway. I just keep plugging away from day to day.

Wish  me luck!

July--Dewey 700!

The books I checked out were about art, design, crafts, and more. I have a pile of knitting books I've thumbed through, looking for a pattern for my next project. I think I have the idea of what I want to do. I just need to work out some details--and finish the one I'm on!

I got off on a real fiction tangent--maybe it's just summer reading!  However, I have been reading Dreaming Green.

Dreaming Green: Eco-Fabulous Homes Designed to Inspire  
Lisa Sharkey and Paul Gleicher, Photographs by Linda Bell Hall, Clarkson Potter 2008. 

As you can tell from the picture on the front, this is not a book about cheap-looking recycled junk.  Sometimes when I see how cleverly they use "distressed" stuff on HGTV, I find it amusing. Put that distressed stuff in a rich home and it is decorative.  Put it in my home and it will just look like more old stuff. It's all a matter of perspective and comparison.

At any rate, the photographs and explanations in this book show that eco-decor can be absolutely fabulous. I suspect that using reclaimed wood and sustainable forests may be more expensive than building the usual way, but that's not the focus of this book.

The focus here is on what you can do to build or decorate an eco-friendly house, either using reclaimed and recycled materials, designing for the best energy conservation, or both.  I believe the earth is a gift, and while meant to be used, it should also be maintained and preserved for the future, so I appreciate the many ways the book shows that it can be done.

I think it's a bit like farming, especially the old way. You plant and harvest seed, but you don't eat or sell it all; you save some for seed for next year. If you don't do that, you cannot sustain yourself and support others.  I am not about stopping housing development for some rare tiny insect, but I am about taking care of what we have and carrying it forward for future generations. If we use up the earth, what are we leaving for our descendants?  That is the question to ponder as we fill our landfills, drive our cars, choose between oven, toaster oven, or stovetop, and choose light bulbs and toilet paper, and more.