Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Random Catch-Up

I took the Swishy Challenge and failed. Swish told me she’s implementing a new writing program where she had to be responsible for writing one sentence a day for her work-in-progress (WIP). She suggested I could do this too!

One Sentence!

I did it the first day. In fact, I wrote more than one sentence. The second day, I failed. Couldn’t do it. Too much going on. Maybe I’ll start Monday. There seems to be a theme in my life of attempting to start things on Mondays and never following through.

On that note, I am starting a new life regimen, because, after all, it is the start of a new school year and I always try to better myself for the first week or so (and that’s usually about how long my new plans hold up!

So, I’m going to do the following things in an attempt to streamline my life…

Each morning, I will (and have, so far, but it’s only day three) unload the dishwasher and do a COMPLETE load of laundry. (This means, wash, dry, fold AND PUT AWAY!) Seems simple enough, right? Well, hell! So did ONE SENTENCE and look where that got me!

(Excuse me while I transfer clothes from the washer to the dryer cuz my ONE LOAD has just completed its wash cycle…)

OK, I’m back.

Another thing I’m doing to better my life is I’m GETTING OFF MY ANTI-DEPRESSANTS! Want to know why I’m ‘sooooo’ depressed? Cuz I’m fat. So, in an attempt to better myself, I am getting off these DEPENDENT drugs, which will make me scream a bit more I’m sure, but in the long run, I’ll be better off, right? And I’m going to keep exercising, but up it to 5 – 6 days a week. Summertime had me slacking.

I’m in the process of weaning myself from this drug and have Googled WEAN FROM EFFEXOR and some of the stuff I’ve read SCARES me. Please share any advice you have if you’ve had a similar experience.

Why am I into the capital words so much in this post?

Next up: My work-from-home gig. I have been very, very fortunate with the website editing work I do, and they are so awesome to me (I don’t think they read this blog so I’m not brown-nosing!). So it may not seem like a lot, but another goal of mine is to get in at least two hours of work a day. Hell, THAT is easier than writing one freaking sentence for my WIP! Ideally, I’d like to set aside the hours of 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. to focus on this work, but whenever it happens throughout the day is fine. The great thing is that I can do this work anytime. If I wake up at 3 a.m. and cannot sleep, I can come to the computer and do my work. It’s always there.

And, for the kids, I’ve created a cheesy excel grid to alleviate some of the yelling, fighting, arguing, back-talking (ooh, I make it sound like my children are less than perfect here!), messiness, etc. I’ve never been an allowance mom but they’re getting older, they can help out more, they can be responsible for their stuff, so they’re getting an allowance equivalent to their age. Every time they screw up, I ‘take away’ 50 cents. If they do something unexpected and exceptional, they may gain an extra 50 cents. We’ll see how this experiment flies.

So goals:

Work more.
Write more.
Exercise more.
Eat less (that’s always in the repertoire – ooh, big word, and YES I had to spellcheck it!)
No more anti-depressants.
Do more laundry.

A couple more things to cover--

Books on my nightstand:

I just read Revenge of the Homecoming Queen, written by my good friend Stephanie Hale. What a fun young adult novel! You can read my review here, along with other amazon reviews I posted.

I have also just read Bright Side of Disaster, also reviewed here, and I plan to write more about it later on the blog. GREAT BOOK FOR NEW MOMS!

Currently, I am reading this book, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, and while I simply HATE THE GUY and wonder how women could even be attracted to him, I’m enthralled by his writing and his stories. Even though he’s a sick bastard who should not be a best-selling author. Tucker Max. Ewww. Nasty. Gross. Hate him. But still, I read. And here’s the thing about the title of the book, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell – HE SHOULD ALREADY KNOW CUZ HE’S THE FREAKING DEVIL!

Also in the "Manic Reading Wings":

Every Crooked Pot by Renee Rosen, who happens to live in Chicago, I believe.

Sister Salty, Sister Sweet, A Memoir of Sibling Rivalry, by Shannon Kring Biro and Natalie Kring. I have not started it yet, but I’m jealous as all hell that I didn’t think this up because my sister and I could have done a memoir, you know, because SHE MADE CHEERLEADING and I didn’t; SHE went to MY SENIOR PROM, and I didn’t. Yeah, I’ve got issues (love you Tse-Tse Fly – that’s her nickname!) Oh, and as a sidenote, having not read this book yet, I’m guessing the sister who is married, the Biro chick, is probably the one who thinks she’s better cuz she landed a husband. Don’t you think?

And this book:
The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty. Looks good. Of course, I’ll let you know.

That’s it for the bookshelf for now; here’s the kid school update:

Tukey starts kindergarten today! In exactly three hours, that little guy will be traipsing his little body onto that big ole mean yellow school bus, while I stand there in a puddle, drenching myself in the sorrow that is motherhood. Oh, I think I need a Xanax. What? Those are taken as needed, NOT DAILY! Come on, I said I was weaning from the Effexor… Rome wasn’t built in a day, now was it?

I’m sure he’s going to have the best first day of kindergarten ever! There are seriously like 11 kids in our neighborhood who are all taking the bus together and will be in the same class. No worries here (I say that now, but if you see a weeping mama on the curb, you know it’s me!)

Diva: Remember this story about her tooth?

I never did update you, did I? Well, that’s because IT IS STILL IN HER MOUTH! Four months later! It’s NEVER coming out! And we have a dentist appointment tomorrow! I can’t even go there right now. That tooth is hanging by a … by a… let me think about this for a second… It’s hanging by a spider web thread! NO! Not a spider web thread… a QUARTER OF A SPIDER WEB THREAD!

I guess that’s about all for now. Sorry for the hodge-podge of mish-mashy crap. Reading suggestions, weaning suggestions, dental suggestions, life-management suggestions are all appreciated! And apparently, EXTREMELY NECESSARY! (There I go again with those capital words—must be a side-effect of the weaning process.)

21 comments:

Monnik said...

I can't believe Diva's tooth is still in her mouth. Oh my....

Hope Tukey's kindergarten debut goes well. Try not to cry too hard when he leaves.

stephhale said...

OH, hugs to you for Tukey starting kindergarten. My oldest starts pre-k in two weeks and I'm already planning to get nothing done all week because I'll be crying the whole time. Thanks for mentioning Revenge, it means so much that you liked it~
xo,
Steph

Unknown said...

So, writing that one sentence is hard, but once you get that one sentence, how do you stop there? And can your one sentence be, "I don't know what to write today," or, "I don't want to write today"? What are these rules?

Unknown said...

Oh, and I'll cry for you if you need me to so that you don't have to when Tukey gets on the bus. You just let me know. :)

xxxx said...

OK, I am about to CALL YOU OUT!

Ready ...?

Of course you could have done it! It's ONE FREAKING SENTENCE! One! Uno! It can be two words. Or three words. It doesn't have to make sense. It can be something you'll delete later. Don't think about it too much! I compare it to working out. Some days I'm OK with doing it. Some days I do NOT want to do it, but once I get going it's OK. And then there are days I absolutely, positively DO NOT, NOT, NOT want to do it, but I force myself to just do 10 stupid crunches and it's miserable the whole 60 seconds I'm doing them and I flop back on the couch and do nothing else. That's OK, too. Because at least I did SOMETHING!

I feel like Tony Robbins or Susan Powter or something. Remember her?!? STOP THE INSANITY! ha ha ha. Oooh! And I just came up with my catchphrase: "I'm making habits instead of excuses!" HA! I'm trademarking that baby.

OK, well, I'm mostly kidding about kicking your ass because I'm a total hypocrite. Like, yes, I wrote my sentence yesterday, but I also skipped working out, too. Sometimes it's just so hard to get everything done. But you will! And you have a good plan!

March2theSea said...

i wish you the best in getting to your goals.

We have one more full week "off" before grades K and 3 begin.

March2theSea said...

also..according to billboard.com HSM3 is in "talks" to begin shooting before the end of the year. makes sense..them being seniors and all...

Jenster said...

I'm going to try your goals for me! Except I'm not on an antidepressant, so may I should start drinking regularly so I have something to go off of.

My dryer is dinging at me right now, but I don't feel like getting the clothes out just yet. *sigh*

I thought when the kids start school (next Monday) I'm going to fix up my sitting room so it's more of an office and do an 100 words a day challenge.

OH! And let's say you wrote three sentences on Monday, doesn't that make you good through today??

cubmommy said...

Hey, you last one is going to school and my first one is starting weird huh.

Part of me isn't too sad about BC going. I think we both need time apart. Just a little scared about giving up some control you know what I mean.

TTQ said...

Wow- that was a hell of an update!

Kate said...

I was on Effexor a couple of years ago and while it worked for a little while I started having side effects and felt sick a lot. Weaning myself off it wasn't so bad. It wasn't so good, but it wasn't like going off heroin cold turkey or whatever some of those horror stories are. Just be sure that your doc is careful about doing it really slowly. That's my advice.

Re: being depressed cux you're fat, a) you're lovely, and b) maybe the meds are working against you in trying to lose weight. They affect everyone differently, but I gained lots of weight on Zoloft and some on Effexor. With Wellbutrin it fell off. Also, I hate Xanax b/c it didn't seem to really calm me, it just immobilized my body but my brain was still going a zillion miles an hour. So, I'm a freak. But you already knew that. :)

How'd kindygarten go? Did Tukey skip off happily? Hats off to parents who let their kids go every day. You've got one of the toughest jobs in the world.

eatmisery said...

I can't believe her tooth still didn't fall out. That would drive me bananas!

secretmom said...

So--kids, freelance work, writing a book, margarita party. How in the world do you have time to read all of those books?!!! I'm jealous...or just not motivated enough :)

Anonymous said...

Hugs to you for the first day of Kindergarten!!! That is always such an emotional day, but it will be OK. Take a ton of pictures!!

Great list of goals, but maybe you should give yourself a week of pampering once the kids go back to school. Take a full week of total me time. Then, on to the stucture and goals. You deserve a mini vacation from everyday stuff.

Good luck with the Effexor. The only thing I know is to do it very slowly. Your doctor should give you a plan. Don't google and read the horror stories of withdrawl, I did that years ago with Paxil and I freaked myself out. It was nothing like that at all.

Have a good week. Sending lots of tranquility your way! XOXO

la bellina mammina said...

LOL! You're too funny!

happy 1st day at kindy's Tukey!

MaNiC MoMMy™ said...

No tears for anyone today. Very successful except for a major head-splitting headache right now. The only reason I'm up is because there was a huge lightning storm that made it seem like Brittney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Brad and Angelina were all standing outside in front of the papparazzi.

Thanks for all the warm thoughts everyone, and I like Eileen's suggestion. I may need a nap at noon tomorrow!

John Robison said...

About the tooth . . .

As I used to tell my kid . . .

The tooth fairy has pliers, just in case. And if they have to use them, the payment to the kid is cut in half with the fairy's assistant (who has to hold the kid down) getting the other half.

That should encourage the kid to disgorge the tooth. It worked here.

XYZinn said...

I CAN NOT believe she kept her tooth in her mouth that long! She is crazy. She has probably just learned to adapt to it, like a bad hip or something. I'm suprised you just didn't yank it out when she wasn't looking!

Jess Riley said...

Hey, I read that Tucker Max book. My dad actually gave it to J for Christmas. (!!)

Now go write one sentence. Right now. Go. I will, too.

CLH said...

Hey woman! Isnt it GREAT that school started??? As for weaning, seriously- all the B-vitamin complexes you can find. I think I told you about the "Blue Goodness" drink from Bolthouse Farms. Here's a link: http://www.bolthouse.com/html/cs_bluegoodness_n.html I drank half of one of these each day and I felt less like I was just going to spontaneously combust. I'm happy to help you through the weaning process, you can call me if you want... if you need my # just email me. I drank that, and took a B-complex vitamin at the recommendation of my neighbor who is an RN. My doctor, whom I like bt who can also be iffy, said that if I was really feeling yucky to take another small dose. I thought that was hugely counterproductive, so try to remember that the way you are feeling is just because your brain is freaking out a bit. Then sleep. And no alcohol. Alcohol really confuses the shit out of a brain in withdrawal. Lots of water, lots of B. Good luck. As for BoOKS, I have completed one on my TBR, and am now on Bringing Up Boys by James Dobson. My son is like an alien from another planet sometimes. I long for understanding.

Kelly said...

a WHOLE load of laundry in ONE day...we're setting the bar a little high for the rest of us, aren't we??