Ho Hum

I should be excited.  I should be inspired.  I should be thrilled.  I should be enthusiastic.  And yet, all I am is blah.  There's never enough time in the day, there's never enough people around, there's never enough change happening.  Oh there's change happening to others all around me, but it seems as though, once again, I'm rutful.  Yes I did just make up that word, and yes I know I've talked about this time and time and time again.  You see the thing about ruts is when you go along and you do the same thing over and over again, the rut gets deeper.  And each time you realize you're in said rut, it's harder to climb out of it.  It's harder physically, emotionally and frankly financially.  Because a lot of changes, well they take time, they take effort and they take money.  These are not things that happen to be high on my list at the moment.  Even though I'm doing great on my WW, I'm doing great on my budgeting, we just started choir and we're doing showtunes (YAY!), and the funness that is my crazy wedding centered fall is beginning (not mine, two of my best friends), I just feel meh at best.  And I'm not entirely sure how to fix that.

Dreams

Do you have strange dreams?  I'm not talking about dreams like goals and plans you have for yourself, I mean legit "I'm asleep, this is my subconscious coming up with scenarios in my head" dreams.  Every once in awhile (like once or twice a month) I'll have strange dreams that I actually remember for a few nights in a row.  I don't remember if I've talked about this before, but I had one last night.

In the dream: I was on a road trip with my brother-in-law, which actually happens more than you would think in real life, and we stopped at a Blimpie's for dinner.  Now I don't know if they have Blimpies other places, but usually it's a sandwich shop in like the mall.  But this one was free standing.  Anyways, we order our sandwiches and we sit down with all these other people, mainly girls, who are all chatting.  Suddenly they all start whispering as who comes walking down the sandwich line, but Matt Smith (who is the current Doctor on Doctor Who, and who is a slender, bumbling FOX of a man).  His hair was growing out (he had it shaved for a role he played in Ryan Gosling's directorial debut) and it was curly.  So all these girls are falling over themselves trying to get to him and I'm excited of course, but I try not to make a big deal of it.  Finally he got tired of it, and walked away back to the bathrooms, where he snuck out the back door and met the girl he was with.  They took off on a motorcycle, and suddenly I was on a motorcycle following them.  I knew it was my motorcycle because it had my name on the handlebars in wooden letters.  Though I remember thinking that it had to be another Ashley because I don't like motorcycles, let alone own one.  Then I drove the motorcycle into a building where I ran into a girl I knew from college and I told her all excitedly that I followed Matt Smith in and we should find him.  Then my alarm went off.

Weird right?  I have no idea what it means.  But here is a picture of Matt Smith for you.   Happy Thursday!

Matt as the Doctor

Matt most recently at Comic Con 2013

Condoning a Cheater

I just want to start this post out by saying that even though I'm an enormous Red Sox fan, this particular post has nothing to do with the rivalry, but everything to do with what I think is wrong.

Since I've started working out at a gym with TVs more often, I've been watching a lot more ESPN than I normally do.  I'm not an avid ESPN watcher, I don't NEED to watch it, but I won't change the channel if it's on.  Unless I'm running then I need something distracting.  ANYWAYS.  I've been keeping up (and by keeping up, I mean that I know what's going on) with the Alex Rodriguez scandal.  Now, I HATE Alex Rodriguez.  I've hated him since the 2004 American League Championship Series when he SMACKED (not pushed, not swerved to avoid, but SWATTED like a little girl) Bronson Arroyo's glove when he went to tag him on the way to first base.  I mean seriously, who does that?  "Oh don't tag me, I'm gonna stop you, WHACK."  And the umps made a great call there, because he blatantly cheated.  His face was completely like "I didn't do anything!" when hello, you swung your arm up and slapped the ball out of his glove.  It is EXACTLY the kind of face he makes now when doing interviews.  "I didn't take performance enhancing drugs and then convince other players to come take them from this same company then rat them out to the MLB. Why am I being punished?  I just want to play baseball."  It makes me utterly sick whenever they show his interviews on ESPN.  But of course they have to, because it's major baseball news. So A-Rod is a douchebag.

Yesterday, during the Red Sox/Yankees game, Ryan Dempster plugged Alex Rodriguez in the elbow in the 2nd inning.  He, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, John Farrell and the umpire all said it was an accident, but Joe Girardi thought otherwise, saying that Demps plunked him on purpose as a show of disapproval of A-Rod's actions.  He got thrown out for arguing about it, even though it wasn't like he nailed him in the head, or in the back or anywhere like that.  The elbow is a perfectly legitimate place to get nailed accidently, because it's in the fucking strike zone.  So then, fucking A-Rod hits a homerun in the 6th inning.  And you know what the coverage did?  The announcers went quiet, and the camera just followed him all around the bases, into the dugout, watched him take his batting helmet and gloves off, walked the length of the dugout and get settled on the bench, all without a single word, or a glimmer of recognition that the game was continuing.  And I got to thinking.  This man is a BLATANT cheater, not once but MULTIPLE times.  He is currently under appeal for a 211 game suspension, which would keep him out of baseball through the 2014 season.  Why on earth are we still celebrating him?  Why are we showing his disgustingly smug slimy face all throughout baseball?  And why when someone hits him (which let's face it, I'm sure many of us would want to do) are we sticking up for him?  I'm not saying he deserves to be hurt (though I really wouldn't mind kicking him in the balls), but why are we condoning him?  By condoning the man, we're saying that despite the 13 player suspension the commissioner of baseball handed out (50 games, one of the biggest mass suspensions in history, and the most spread out since the Black Sox scandal), it's totally fine that he's a ginormous cheater and still continues to play.  The Yankees need to cut him and nobody else needs to pick him up.  Shut him out of baseball once and for all.  Because for me, he ruins the game, and I HATE when people ruin the things I love.

Neeeeew Glasses!!!

So last week, I told you all about how blind I am, and how I went to the eye doctor.  Well, I ordered new glasses last Monday from coastal.com, because your first pair was free, and I'm all about saving money.  So a pair of glasses which usually would have cost around 200 bucks cost me about 80.  Awesome sauce.  Well I ordered them Monday and I thought they would be here sometime this week, BUT they came LAST FRIDAY!!! It was so so so so awesome!!!  Of course since they're a completely different prescription, it took me a little bit to get used to them.  And the frames are sooo much different than my old frames.  In fact.....

 Old Glasses

(you can't see it, but one of the nose guards was gone, and they were scratched.  It was really just time.)

NEW GLASSES!!

As you can see, they're A LOT different.  I love them, but they still sometimes surprise me when I look in the mirror!

Not from Around Here, Are Ya?

I have several people in my life who are not originally from TX.  Specifically my brothers-in-law and my best friend's husband.  They grew up in different states, and as you may or may not know, Texans, well we're a breed unto ourselves.  But their glaring differences don't really make an appearance until it comes to food.  I'm sure it comes out in other things, but really food is a big thing.  And I've noticed it recently.  So here are several ways Texans and other people differ in food choices.

1. Other people sometimes prefer ice cream that IS NOT BLUEBELL!  I know, I KNOW!  It's amazing and shocking.  BUT my brother-in-law who grew up in Kansas would rather have Breyer's than Bluebell.  I think he's crazy, but then again, I grew up with the stuff.

2. THEY DON'T ALWAYS WANT TACOS.  So last Saturday, my friend Allison and I were relaxing on her couch, trying to decide what food we wanted to send her husband (who is from Washington State) out for.  We had driven past Rusty's Tacos on our way home from errands, and tacos sounded delicious.  Dan completely shut us down.  APPARENTLY, he has to be "in the mood" for tacos.  Tacos are a staple food group for Texans.  We eat them for breakfast, we eat them for lunch, and we eat them for dinner. And sometimes, we eat them for EVERY MEAL!  I know!! It's so strange to me that tacos don't always sound good to people.

3. They know different fast food restaurants than we do!  Seriously.  My brother-in-law from West Virginia knows all these different places than I do!  I'm a little jealous.  And I will no longer be eating at places I can have in TX when I go out of state.

What food differences do you know?

Recap of the Week So Far

Yes, I know.  The week isn't over yet.  But so much has happened this week, I feel the need to recap it, even if it's preemptive.

SO:

- My baby sister graduated from the University of Portland with her Masters.  Yay George!

- Most of my family went on a long long road trip to Portland and back.

- The car has been in and out of the shop, costing close to 1500 dollars so far.  Ridiculous.

- I got my eyes checked! and ordered new glasses!  Yay for not being blind anymore!!

- I started a new weight training schedule and I lost two lbs last week.  8 lbs down!

- I'm pretty sure I can reach my current goal weight by next week.  I just have to concentrate on eating right!

- We welcomed a precious new life into the world and our family this week!  My niece Carrie Anne was born on Tuesday, August 6th, at 1:30 pm.  She is a beautiful baby, and just so perfect.  We're so happy to have her!!

FRUSTRATING

There is nothing more frustrating than something you've lived with forever getting noticed by others who then make a stink about it, motivating you to get it fixed, which ends up taking SO much longer than you had anticipated. In this case, it's my car.  The check engine light has been on in my car for quite sometime, and I've just never had the funds or the time to get it fixed.  Of course, it got noticed on our road trip to Galveston and it spread and so I had to end up getting it fixed.  I took it to the dealership on Saturday morning, having arranged previously to have a friend (my workout friend actually) come pick me up so we could work out.  Long story short, 7 hours later, I picked up my car, fixed and ready to go, but with the warning that my battery was low and that the check engine light may come back on.  Which it did before I had time to get it inspected (the big dilemma in this whole scenario). So I got a new battery for 60 dollars less than the dealership wanted to charge me (thanks NTB!) and the check engine light was STILL on.  So what did I do? Well this morning I woke up at 6, showered, put on a dress and heel, and drove my (perfectly functioning except the minor detail of the check engine light) car to the dealership so I was there when they opened at 7. I told them what happened, got the same service guy as Saturday, and then took their shuttle to the office, where I arrived 14 minutes after 8.  I have yet to hear from them, and I have yet to know a. what's up and b. how much it's going to cost me.  I would HOPE that it's less than Saturday, but with my luck it'll be more.  Lord have mercy.  If people would have just left it alone, it wouldn't have been an issue!!  FRUSTRATING. All I want is my car back.

SOOOOO I just heard from the dealership, and they want to charge me 784 dollars to replace the intake manifold.  I have no idea what that is, but I am NOT going to spend that much money without talking to people first.  RIDICULOUS.

Blind as a Bat

I've had glasses since I was five.  Well maybe 7.  Anyways, I was REALLY little when I first got glasses.  And so I've been going to optometrists my whole life almost, and the fact of the matter is: I have really terrible eyesight.  Not kidding.  And as it goes for most of my body, my left eye is significantly worse than my right eye.  As I've gotten older, my eyesight continues to change and make it more difficult to see.  I'm told that when I hit thirty, my eyesight will straighten out for a bit and then start deteriorating again around 45, 50.  I don't think they understand the terribleness of my eyesight currently.  So it's been about two years since I last visited the eye doctor and it has become an issue.  I thought a K was an N, and a 9 was an 8.  Yeah.  That was with my glasses.  So I went to the eye doctor yesterday.  It was my first time going to this place and I have to say they were amazing.  The front desk people were nice and personable, the nurse and helper guy were great, and the doctor was really knowledgeable and very nice.  Because it was my first time there, I of course had to run the gambit of pre-testing.  It's like when you go to a new doctor and they have to do a bunch of tests.  Except these consist of a bunch of machines and using your eyes.  I did the stare straight forward one, the peripheral vision one (which I rocked, btw), the color-blind one (I'm not), the one where they put the glasses on you and you have to tell which circle is popping out, the one where you hold a yard stick to your nose and tell them when the slidy thing is blurry, and then my favorite, the distance one.  You sit in a chair, and they tell you to take off your glasses and hold the popsicle stick (it's like a plastic eye patch with a stick attached to it, called the popsicle stick) over one eye and tell them if you can see the image across the room.  Guess what.  I couldn't with my right eye.  And my left eye was even worse.  When I put my glasses back on, it was the big E.  Yeah that's how blind I am.  So after a few more tests and figuring out my new lens prescription, the doctor looked at me and said, "Well! You are very nearsighted with an astigmatism. Other than that, your eyes are healthy!" and I said "Yep, that sounds like me!"  So now I have a new prescription, and I ordered new glasses yesterday, which should be here next week, when I'll do a post on them.  I love getting my eyes checked.  It's always interesting.

My Momma

My momma is an awesome lady.  Not only did she raise six wonderful children (if I do say so myself) but she was/is the world's best volunteer.  Even when she was tired of the politics and the rudeness and having to do everything by herself, she still showed up and she did everything she possibly could to make things work out best for everyone.  Because it was for the kids.  I can't tell you how many people have told me over the years "You know, your mom is just so great." and I'm always like "I know.  She's pretty awesome."  It's so very true.  My momma is the best momma in the whole wide world.  She loves baseball and babies, she's not afraid to stick to her guns and call you out when you're wrong.  Yet she's open and loving, ready to accept anyone as long as they show respect and kindness.  The moment you're a brat you're out.  Unless you're her offspring.  Then you keep getting chance after chance.  Happy Birthday Momma.  You're amazing and I'm/we're so lucky you're ours!

Start Over

Yesterday at my Weight Watchers meeting (which I'm going to call WW from now on if you don't mind), we talked about flipping a slip up.  You know those times where you just mess up.  It could be at work or at home or with bills or with your diet or exercise.  Everybody does it, but what really matters is what you do to come back from your slip up.  Well, I'll tell you what.  After that meeting, I went to Wendy's and I got the new Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger.  And it was amazing.  But I only got the burger (mainly because I didn't understand the drive through guy).  So after I got home, and ate the burger, while watching Dirty Jobs, I was still hungry.  Did I grab a peach from the fruit bowl that was literally three feet above my head? Did I fill up my tervis with water because I wasn't really hungry I was actually hella thirsty?  Did I snack on the delicious mushrooms in my fridge just waiting to be consumed?  No, I didn't do any of those things.  I in fact put shoes on, got in my car, drove to Sonic and got a small Hot Fudge shake and an order of mozzarella sticks.  Because damn it, I wanted to.  And I'll tell you what, after the raging headache I had had all day yesterday, a shake and cheesy fried things really hit the spot.  But was it worth it? Probably not.  I've been tired all day, and I overslept this morning, making me late for work.  Luckily it wasn't a big deal at all.  Plus eating crap yesterday made me crave crap today.  I had a salad for lunch, but then I went down to the vending machine and got a bag of Chili Cheese Fritos and a Twix.  And I ate them.  All the while looking at the peach I packed going, I should be eating you right now.  So what am I going to do to flip this slip?  Well I'll tell you.  I'm going to eat pork chops and roasted broccoli and cauliflower for dinner.  I'm going to go to the gym and not let the machines intimidate me into thinking I can't conquer them. I'm GOING to drink water at my house.  And then I'm going to get up tomorrow (on time) and start all over again. Own it, and move on.