Greta

Well, tomorrow is the big move, and by thursday of this week we should be fully re-located in Pittsburgh! Life is going through yet another change, and I can't wait for this stage!

Growing Up

I can tell I'm growing up.  

I feel like I am getting ready to move on with life.  I have never been one of those people for whom getting married, buying a house, settling down and having children is the end-all or even main goal in my life.  However, I am starting to want those things, more and more as time goes on.  I keep having dreams where I am pregnant, or have children already.  Just a year ago, that wasn't even in my plans.

I was just thinking the other day how I have never really been "settled" since I was in fourth grade.  That is the year that my parents got divorced.  Ever since then, my sisters and I have been shuttled off every other weekend, four weeks in the summer, and every other holiday.  My dad moved four times since he and my mom got divorced, and my mom's moved twice.  In college I moved in and out every year for four years.  After college I've lived two places so far, each for no more than two years.  I haven't ever felt settled, that a place was my own.  There is something to be said for consistency.  

Now, Chris and I need to begin the process of moving to Pittsburgh into our cozy two bedroom apartment.  If you've seen the house, you know what an issue this will be.  We practically need another bedroom for books, another for technological equipment, and yet another for dog stuff and my shoes :) .  I don't really see this apartment as anything out of the norm, I know that I will still not feel "settled" until I can plan on staying somewhere for a longer period of time.

The other day, when I was snuggling with Chris, I made him tell me about our "house".

"Tell me about our house, "  I said.

"We'll have a garden.  A good garden, with lots of space.  We'll grow corn, and tomatoes, and carrots."  He responded.

"Tell me about the porch swing," I requested.

"We'll have a big, wrap-around porch that we'll be able to grill on.  And there will be a porch swing that we can sit on and watch the day go by."

"Tell me about the hammock."

"There will be a hammock in the backyard that you can lay in all day.  Tied to two fruit trees.  Did I say we would have fruit trees?  We will.  If we live in California we'd have avocado trees too."

"Tell me about the animals."

"We'll have a little cow and a miniature horse."   

"Don't forget the dogs!" I hurriedly added.

"Of course, we will have another dog for Greta to play with.  And she will run all over and have so much fun."

"Tell about the creek."

"There will be a small creek in the backyard.  Not too wide or deep.  And I'll spend all day outside damming the creek to make a swimming hole."

While admittedly "Of Mice and Men-ish", this conversation made me feel so comforted.  Sometimes I can't wait to see what the future holds.  I only hope its as good as I imagine it can be. 

Green

"Like the color green? That says plenty about you. Here's what color expert Leatrice Eiseman, author of "More Alive with Color," had to say about people who love -- and hate -- the color green.

Nature's most plentiful color promises a balance between warmth and coolness, so green people are usually stable. You are the good citizen, concerned parent, involved neighbor and PTA member -- the joiner of clubs and organizations. You are fastidious, kind and generous, especially with your time, and you're a good listener.

It's important for you to win the admiration of peers, so you are often a "do-gooder." You are a caring companion, a loyal friend, partner or lover, with high moral sense and are supersensititve about doing the right thing. Occasionally you can be a little preachy.

You are intelligent and understand new concepts. You are less inclined, however, to risk something new than to do what is popular and conventional. The worst vice for a green is the tendency to gossip."

Totally me!  http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/1443603.html

Dear Amazon.com,

Dear Amazon.com,

You have served me very well over the years.  We have spent many hours together browsing for necessary and unnecessary items.  You have been there for me when I needed both mainstream and eclectic items not available in stores.  When I would realize, a week before Christmas, that I had no presents for anyone on my list, your two-day shipping was a godsend.  I look forward to the occasional email updates, letting me know what's on sale or new on Amazon.com.  Today, I got this email.  

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

As someone who has shown an interest in games, you might like to visit the Toys Outlet and take advantage of 25% to 70% savings on games and puzzles.

How wonderful!  I love games!  Amazon.com, you know me so well.  Recently I was browsing for games such as Catan, Set, and Munchkin.  Excited to know what Amazon recommended for me based on my browsing history, I scrolled down in the email, only to find this…
 
The Disney Princess Dream Journey DVD Game.  I stared at the screen until my expectant smile slowly turned to an expression of disbelief.  My jaw dropped, and a tear formed in my eye.  The trust was broken, the magic gone.  Amazon.com had disappointed me tremendously.  

Oh, I will continue to use Amazon, because there are no better options out there.  But things have changed.  I will never again wait with baited breath as I check the shipment status of my latest purchase.  Creating wish lists has lost its glamour.

Trust me, Amazon, this is harder for me to say than it is for you to hear. 

Sincerely,

Molly Burke    

 

Bad Day

Right now weather.com says it's 14 degrees and feels like 4.  Brrr.  

Today is not my day.  First thing this morning, I fell down the stairs on my way to work.  It hurt, a lot.  I wasn't feeling great today to begin with.  The parking lot at my office was full, so I had to park on a side street and most likely will have a parking ticket on my windshield when I leave here in 10 minutes.  Then when I finally got into work, late of course, my boss hassled me about being 20 minutes late.  When she opened the door for me she said "where have you been?"  and I replied, "falling down my basement stairs."  It shut her up.  

I can't wait to go home, get into pjs, have a glass of wine, wrap up in my comfy blanket, and finish reading Pride and Prejudice for the 100th time.

I can't eat that, Wii Fit said so...

Oh my goodness, I haven't posted since August.  Positively shameful.

Today I feel like posting about my new exercise routine on the Wii Fit.  I really like it so far, but I have definite issues.  First, my dislikes.  

1.  It weighs you at the beginning of the workout, but after you're done it doesn't tell you how many calories you've burned during your workout time.  I would think that this could be easily calculated.

2.  I seem to spend a significant amount of my time navigating menus.  I don't CARE right now that I broke a new record in hula hooping, just let me finish my work out, then tell me.  I really hate being constantly interrupted when I'm trying to get a good work out.  

3.  My biggest pet peeve --why can't I do "advanced step" for more than 5 minutes?  The only other option is to just step on and off (at a pretty low speed) for as long as I want.  This is not a work out for me, even when I speed it up as fast as it can go.  I want a 30 or 60 minute option with advanced step moves to music.  Preferably one with more step moves/options, different music, and one that randomly changes so I can't memorize what's coming next.

4.  I hate having to hold the wiimote in my hand during the workout.  Aside from running and boxing (its necessary for those games), I shouldn't have to hold the remote in my hand all the time.  I should be able to use the balance board to navigate the menus throughout the game.

5.  I am not a fan of the opaque blue and white "trainers".  I think we should get more options to choose from.  Also, I think they take a really long time to explain the simplest stretches and yoga poses.  It makes me often want to skip the yoga and strength training sections altogether.

6.  For some reason, I'm really bad at the hula hoop part.  I can never seem to catch the new rings that the characters throw at me.  This is my own fault, and not the game's, but it is still something I dislike about my wii fit experience.    

Likes

1.  Love the virtual world you run through.  Love the tunnels (with a footstep echo), love that you run with your other created miis, love that they wave at you, love the little doggies, love that occasionally miis fall while running, love the alternate energy windmills cameo, love the bridges.

2.  The "guilt factor".  When I got on to exercise yesterday after missing the day before, the wii fit said "too busy to exercise yesterday, eh Molly?"  Over the holidays I went a week without doing it and it said "Do you realize it's been 7 days since you've been here?  Remember, your goal is in two weeks!" or something similar. Little jabs like that make me not want to miss a day!

3.  I am a big fan of the balance games!  Most of them are really fun.  (Except for the Lotus Balance one.  Although that's probably because my ass is too big to sit on the board!)

4.  I love the way your mii takes on the appearance of your BMI - stick thin if underweight, normal if normal, chubby if overweight, and downright fat if you fall into the obese category.  It is weirdly motivational for me.

5.  It makes you identify why you gain weight.  It gives you options to choose from such as: eating late, overeating, snacking, not exercising, etc.  You can only choose one, but often for me its more than one factor.  This features makes you aware of behaviors that are causing your weight gain so that hopefully you can curb them.  

Am Ambivalent About

1.  The "Real Age" feature.  Every day it is different for me, so I don't really rely on it at all.

2.  The whole yoga part.  I'm not really into yoga at all though.

This was fun to write.  I really wish my changes could really be implemented.  I would enjoy the experience much more.  I guess now I have to hope that someone will come out with some sort of DDR-like game for the wii balance board so that I can exercise to good music at a good rate of speed.  I can see the running and advanced step (the only exercises I really do) becoming boring quickly.  I will definitely keep using the wii fit for tracking my weight and BMI though, I think it does a great job of that.