5 Random Things

The weird thing about trying to have a public blog and a public profession (let's face it, esp. in an age of social media, teachers are always under public scrutiny) is that I'm not nearly as open online as I used to be, and DEFINITELY not as open as I am in real life. So there's stuff about my life that I rarely ever mention on here - partly out of that "No incriminating details" credo, but also because it rarely comes up!

Plus it'd be fun to occasionally post 5 random things, either about myself or whatever theme I can come up with. Of course, I've tried this "regular theme posts" idea before so I'm not committing to anything yet, but it's certainly an idea to try and run with.

So here's my first 5 random things: 5 random facts about me!

1. I'm not much of a collector, but I do actually have two collections: Shot glasses and Kinder Surprise toys. Shot glasses because I like souvenirs but most are tacky tchotckes, so this is a way to buy something to remember the trip while also having something functional and not that space-consuming. Kinder Surprise toys because I first read about them in JANE magazine, and was utterly fascinated that there was a chocolate with little toys inside them that I would never be able to purchase because apparently the USA FDA doesn't trust American consumers enough to NOT EAT THE PLASTIC EGG INSIDE. It was so insipid that I HAD to obtain one. Now it's another go-to souvenir, this time from friends and family who travel out of the country! The toys are usually pretty damn cool, too, although I lost my favorite one ever - a break-dancer who stood on his head, and the head had a magnet in it that made him spin when his magnetic boombox got close to him. Yeah, it was awesome. I still miss it.
   

   

   My shot glasses!

2. This Valentine's Day will be my 10th Valentine's Day with The Hubs! More on that Thursday or Friday, including the not-super-romantic-but-still-amusing history of our first V-day.
3. My feet are weird. Well, re-phrase: The actual part that constitutes the foot is fine, I even have lovely high arches that I think make them kind of pretty (you know, for feet). I have two weird toes, though. One of my big toes had two ingrowns, one on each side of the toe, and to fix it growth inhibitor was placed on both of those sides, and now it grows in kind of weird. It's not hideous to look at, but it is weird and slightly noticeable (if you look for it). The other weird toe is the "pointer" toe that's ever-so-slightly longer than my big toe and its twin on the other foot. It's like an eighth of an inch difference between the two toes, but it's enough to weird me out!
4. My favorite childhood cartoon of all time is "Jem and the Holograms". BEST. SHOW. EVER. I seriously had almost every doll and outfit they made for this show, including the new members when they came out - I never owned Shaina or Pizazz, but I did own several of the Jem variations. Yes, yes, envy me. My mom loved the dolls, too, and used the excuse of their having more realistic body proportions to buy them for me. Man, I miss those dolls, so much that I don't even care that the show was basically created to market the dolls and most of the plots don't make any sense. BEST SHOW EVER!
   

   

   It depresses me that this show hasn't had a resurgence yet, and "My Little Pony" HAS.

5. I have a weird penchant for bad Meryl Streep movies. Like, seriously, I love "She-Devil" (which I'm watching on Netflix as I type) and "Death Becomes Her". All my high-falutin' tastes are complete B.S., give me a cheesy Meryl Streep movie any day.
   
   
   
    

Vacation/Fat Tuesday!

I actually have nothing of relevance to state for Fat Tuesday, I just didn't want to have "Vacation" be my subject again. I'm already fat, it's not like the day of the week makes any difference. ;D

So yesterday I managed to get the groceries purchased and finish the valentines - you know, the fun stuff. It didn't help that my partner-in-laziness stayed home from work yesterday due to his back being in mucho pain-o, which never helps me get stuff done; I don't know why, but my brain goes into weekend mode when he stays home on a weekday (or I stay home on a weekday - but I usually only do that when I'm legitimately sick so I'm useless anyway). He was understanding and didn't make me feel bad, though, which was nice. Still, there's SO MUCH I feel I need to do.

I also had a realization of why I feel so overwhelmed with stuff to accomplish versus lack of desire to do stuff around the house/wanting to be out of the house: I HATE being home. Well, let me rephrase: I hate being home when it's because I have nothing else to do. Home is a place for rest and comfort, not the center of my world. Which isn't to hate on anyone else who stays at home for their job/SAHM, it's just not me. I need to feel like I have a reason to leave the house, and that people need me somewhere. Which explains why I feel so lost on vacation and when I'm unemployed - I'm supposed to relax at home, but there's all these responsibilities that the home requires, too, which is off-putting (yeah, I've never been a fan of chores); it's different doing chores when I've been busy all week and it's making my home better so I can relax in it/have friends over to socialize. When chores are the ONLY goal of the day, it makes me shut down.

Ok, I realize how whiny this sounds, but the main point is that I'm finally realizing what the hell the problem is, so I need to figure out how to combat this issue when I'm unemployed again this summer. I might be using the local library and coffee shops as my "office" when I'm job-hunting so I have a reason to get out of the house, then chores can be a PART of my "busy day" again.

ANYWAY. Today I really do want to get some laundry and the dishes done, and to also clean off the dining room table/psuedo-craft area so it's V-day ready. Tomorrow will be more laundry and an attempt to reorganize my craft desk (It's a DISASTER), and maybe treating myself to a movie. Off we go!

Vacation!

It's an unpaid forced vacation, but it's still vacation, whoooo!

Back finally better, I was even able to play in the last volleyball game! I also signed up for volleyball again, which was super-exciting. It starts next week, AND one of the players from my last team ended up on my new team! It's reassuring to have someone along for the ride, so to speak.

I've been off since Friday (yes, I'm totally spoiled - one big perk of being a teacher), and I will confess that I spent most of the first 3 days doing jack. It was so relaxing and wonderful, but now I'm like AW CRAP MUST DO ALL THE THINGS! I have so much I want to do this week, and at the same time I feel like I need to RELAAAAAX 'cuz I'm so... stressed out? I'm not, really, and there's stuff I need to get done, so I'm going to DO ALL THE THINGS! (I type this, of course, sitting in my pj's and unshowered.) I'm still planning to stick to the list I made last time, and I've already started chipping away at the laundry and making valentines! I'm also looking forward to all the cooking I'm going to do - homemade dinners at night! I've been cooking more lately now that my back's not being a jerk, so it's not like it's a whole new experience or anything; it's just nice to feel like I have the time and energy for such things. Y'know? Even though I'm not THAT busy during the week, I still feel insanely busy, which is really annoying.

Considering how awful my job has gotten, having a break right now is perfect timing. Hopefully I can go back with a better attitude to get me through the rest of the school year. Still not sure what I want to do, though, after the school year. Right now I'm focused on making my job JUST a job and getting back in touch with my life. One way I'm getting back in touch with life is to make a nice Valentine's dinner for The Hubs and myself; I'm actually really excited for it! It feels good to focus on stuff outside of work.

On that note, time to focus on stuff! DO ALL THE THINGS! Today's agenda: Groceries, finish the dishes, 2 loads of laundry, and finish/mail off my valentines! Maybe I'll come back and report on today's success/update with tomorrow's agenda, too.

When My Back Gets Better...

My back is feeling MARGINALLY better (and regardless of its status, I'm still going into work tomorrow *sigh*), but it's just painful enough that I decided to stay home and rest it rather than attend the all-day poker/Super Bowl party our friend had (The Hubs went, of course, because his team was playing for the first time since he was a KID! Unfortunately, it didn't end well for his team). So my day was super-boring - 3 days straight at home=SUPER BORED OMG. Work will be a RELIEF. (Plus we have a bunch of furlough days next week so I just need to make it until Friday if my back's being a huge jerk.)

Also, tomorrow is my volleyball league's last game - I've missed the last two and I still don't think I can play. *sigh* I'm going to go watch/grab a drink with them afterwards, 'cuz this is my only season playing with them as they're playing ultimate frisbee next season. =( Figure it's better to at least say goodbye in person than avoid the game. But since the next season starts in 2 weeks and this back is taking 2+ weeks to heal, I'm avoiding next season and will join up again in summer. Still, SO FRUSTRATING. Hopefully I will get myself in better shape by the next season. Just more disappointment to add to the recent ones. :(

So to motivate myself to get happy and get better, here's a list of stuff I plan to throw myself into when my back is feeling better:

• Valentine's Day! I actually had enough personal money to surprise my husband with a nice V-day activity (which will benefit me also) - our local minor league hockey tickets against the SF Bulls (which feeds into the SJ Sharks)! I wish I could afford Sharks tickets, but gas + time to get down there alone make the cost prohibitive, let alone tickets for the cheap seats! Hopefully it's the though that counts. This doesn't include making his favorite meal for Valentine's day itself (the game is the Saturday afterwards); Valentine's Day is a big deal for us because it was our first date (cliche', I know) and I made his favorite meal on that date. :)
• I might also make some V-day cards for my grandmas, as I like to do. :) I'll certainly have the time with the furlough break, whoo-hoo!
• Making our dining room table an actual table. It's a clutter catch-all, and I'd like us to start taking time to eat at our table together. That means I need to make it more appealing to eat there. :)
• Cleaning up my craft area/FINALLY putting away our (artificial) Xmas tree. Yes, it's still up. Yes, we're lame. HEY, my back's been out!
• Catching up on our laundry because OMG IT'S INSANE. 

Aside from laundry, these are all things I'm looking forward to. I just need my back to STOP BEING A BITCH DAMMIT. ARGH.

Stagnant

(Or: Samantha and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.)

It's been a ROUGH week. My job happiness lowered significantly *ugh*, The Hubs received some disappointing news at his job (but to be fair, we're STILL employed which is always a good thing), then I ended my work week a day early when Thursday I was so sick that The Hubs had to come pick me up at work (my car's still parked at my work's parking lot)! I stayed home Friday (obvs), and through self-diagnosis I think it was a mild form of bubonic plague. However, this bug somehow made my already-in-pain back feel a million times worse somehow, so I've been physically ill and injured. Insult AND injury. It was a fitting way to end a crap-tastic week.

However, I was able to shower this morning, and DayQuil helped get me through most of today but groggy. I haven't left the house in almost 2 days. I wanted to today, but my back was actually the bigger jerk (which convinced me to take some pain meds, which FINALLY gave me some relief... for about 4 hours before knocking me out, I'm a real wimp when it comes to anything stronger than a cocktail). I had plans to catch up on some work at my room, then meet my mom nearby for lunch/shopping, but I could tell neither of those were going to happen. Cute mom moment: I called, she answered, and all I had to say was "Hi Mom" and she replies, "OH NO! You poor thing!" She knows my sick voice that well, hahaha. Forever a mom, I guess, even when your "baby" is 30+ years old.

So due to all this back pain/work pain/illness has completely de-motivated me to make my life the focus of improvement. Which is fine, if a little frustrating because I can't do it for circumstances beyond my control. Just need to let my body heal, blah blah blah, hippie voodoo mottos, etc.

It would be really nice for my back to stop being a jerk so I can get on with my life. Which all I mean is that I want to get back to focusing on the good stuff in life and being more active. Which in this case means "off my butt and playing volleyball/walking my dog/anything other than sitting & lying down". UGH.

This week is a new week. I'm feeling better and I hope this week will go better.