7 Quick Takes--#8

Number 8: Randomness

1. Time is flying by. It's Friday again, but besides that, this day has flown by too fast already. I was up at 6:30 and out the door a little after 7. Chris dropped me off at the gym for my nutritionist appointment, and went to get bloodwork for his gastroenterologist follow up at the end of the month, returning to the gym for our concurrent training appointments at 8. Afterwards, we went out for breakfast for the first time in ages (probably before his diagnosis in October). Got home, he showered and got ready for work while I put together his lunch, then he was out the door at 10:30. Now it's almost 11:30 and I've had three phone calls already (all reminder calls for things next week). I need to clean out the wood stove and fill up our wood box with firewood, which first means I need to empty the ash bin from the last cleaning and dig out the wood pile since it snowed the other day. Fortunately we have our wood piles covered with tarps, so the wood is dry and the snow should be easy to remove. I am typing this as the heat kicks on and the pennies are burning. By the time I get all of these heating-related chores done, it'll be after noon. Thankfully Chris works til 7 on Fridays, and won't be home til 7:30, so I'll have the entire afternoon to do other tasks, work on the freelance gigs, and make dinner. But still, time flies...even if it's NOT all fun :-P


2. I'm down another pound this week, which should be good news, but I'd like to break into the 60s. My weight currently has a seven in the middle (today I weighed in at X70.2, for a loss of 1.4 pounds), and I am SO.CLOSE to getting that six in the middle, but not this week. That will be the lowest weight I've been in a long time, maybe even before I got married? All the reason to do more cardio this week, which is something I have a lot of trouble doing. Everyone is telling me I need to ramp up the exercise to burn more fat, eating well is not enough even though it has been pretty tight and on plan. It's just...there are other things I'd rather do than go walk or run on the treadmill. Even with music, listening to books, reading, or watching TV.

3. Oh I mentioned running. Yes, I've started running. I stupidly told one of the trainers that my new goals are 1) lose 20 pounds by my birthday in March--two months to go! and 2) I'd like to run a 5K by the end of the summer. IDIOT. So now I'm running. Nothing crazy, no miles yet. I'm going for minutes in a row, first. I've been able to run three minutes in a row so far and then I walk the rest of my cardio time, just pretty fast. I know it'll help the weight come off faster, but ugh. It feels like I'm torturing myself. It'll come, I know.

4. Here's some fun real life stuff: my NFP instructor up and quit on me. She's no longer teaching it, and the way she ended things was pretty sketchy. After not hearing from her from a month (after repeated emails and phone calls), I get a MASS email from her to all of her clients about how she can't balance instructing with her day job and "look at this link to find another instructor." Wow, thanks. I was concerned about her well-being and whereabouts, so I had called the group organizer for the FertilityCare practice the week prior, just to see if my instructor was OK. It wasn't like her not to respond to emails. I talked to the organizer again yesterday; the potential new instructor is about an hour away, whereas the old one lived in the next town over. Sigh. The organizer also answered some charting questions for me, and was able to figure out a lot of things without seeing my chart; she doesn't like how things are going and thinks I should be seen by a NaPro doctor. My choices are Massachusetts, up near the NH/VT border or NYC. NYC please!At least I don't have to drive, I'll be taking the train. Now to call the doctor in NYC and my new instructor. I hope this doctor takes my insurance; we have out of network benefits, but they are pretty pricey. Oy.

5. I mentioned this in #1, but Chris sees his gastroenterologist for a follow up on the 29th. He's very worried, especially now that he has had blood drawn for the tests that the doctor wanted to run prior to the appointment. Everyone assures him that he'll be in a good place, but that's doing very little to ease his mind. He has lost 50 pounds, he works out nearly every day, he has dramatically changed his eating habits. He's doing everything the doctor has told him. His primary doctor is optimistic, so is our nutritionist and our families. It's hard to convince yourself, though. So if you could please pray for him (and for my sanity in dealing with him repeatedly asking for reassurance!) that would be awesome. If you missed the post about his diagnosis, read here.



6. I keep replaying a lot of what happened on that last day of work in my mind. I get angry at myself, sometimes I cry about how I didn't try harder or stick up for myself more. Or I think about how I was duped, and it makes me mad that over six years of employment was no match for someone like my former boss, in convincing the owners to get rid of me. I know I can't change it, but it's been hard to move on, and I haven't said much to anyone about that. Also on my mind is how I've been ignored by former coworkers. I'm Facebook "friends" with so many of them, yet only a handful have acknowledged what happened. I don't know why; one day I was there and the next, not, so you'd think people would be curious. Maybe they don't want to bother me, or bring it up? Maybe they feel like if they are connected to me in some way, they'll be next? I feel like I've written about this before (maybe it was on Twitter?), but it really sucks. At least two of my former bosses have kept in touch with me, checking in to see how my job search is going, if I need anything. That has been a nice surprise. As for my coworkers, I guess working with people for this long doesn't really mean anything. I mean, I spent four years with college friends and half of them disappeared a few years after graduation. I guess people can only maintain relationships for so long... 

7. An update from last week's 7QTs: my 401K money showed up, finally! I even got to go into see my financial planner guy and tell him how to invest it. We're probably way behind when it comes to saving for retirement or whatever, but this is better than letting it languish in an account that has any connection to my former employer. Next up is to figure out if we're on the right track for retirement, which makes me a little squeamish, because the pressure of returning to work might build.


It's 12 noon ON THE DOT! Gotta get those chores done! Don't forget to visit Jen over at Conversion Diary! Have a great weekend!