I have to admit, I'm getting slightly down on myself for the lack of progress on my list. I'm definitely focused on a few items--namely losing 52 pounds and running a 5K, but elsewhere my progress has been a bit lackluster.
Now, the approximate 44 weeks remaining in my challenge is still a lot of time to accomplish most of these things, but I definitely am falling way behind on others, namely reading 52 books. To date, I have read a grand total of ZERO books!! (After abandoning Go, Mutants! I gave up on Born Round when Frank Bruni started getting into way too much detail about his bout with bulimia.)
The funny thing is that this reading challenge should be so easy for me!
So, I know this is totally going to out me as the complete dork I am, but from junior high all through college and beyond, my great love was reading. My personal goal was to read EVERY SINGLE BOOK EVER PUBLISHED! Even the bad ones. And, yes, I've read a lot of bad ones.
In fact, I used to buy blank white bookmarks--the kind that were meant to be decorated--and write the names of all the books I had read on them. I numbered each book mark and could fit the titles of probably 50 different books on each. I even had a special box of pens and a system for deciding what color to use to write the title!
Okay, beyond dork, I know. But the point is that I LOVED books and I LOVED to read. But in the last year I can count on one hand the number of books I have read. Actually, two fingers would do. And both books were at my parents house while we were on vacation. Their house is filled with books--on the coffee tables, on the end tables, on the nightstands. I have no question that being raised in this environment is where my love of reading was born.
The question is: When did things change for me? And the obvious answer is: When I had kids. Suddenly I was too busy, too stressed, too tired, too... TOO to do much of anything. Suddenly it was too much trouble, too much time, too much money, too... TOO to take care of myself and my needs.
But that is a big point of this challenge. Beyond what reading does for me, it's also important to my daughters. I want to sit on the couch and read. I want my daughters to see me reading, to know that I like it. I want them to like it too. I KNOW that actions speak louder, so I need to make mine speak!
That's why I am going upstairs right now to pick out a book. It may be one I've read before. That's not what's important. What's important is that I find a book I really want to read and find and show that love again.
Here I go...
(See you in a few minutes...)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Shut up. I was faced with two shelves full of Faulkner, Hemingway and Twain and I panicked.
Showing posts with label Plan 52. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plan 52. Show all posts
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Weigh-in and Plan 52 Progress
Today was weigh-in and I'm down one pound. It's not much, but it beats the alternative!
I must say, it seems like all I write about is losing weight. Yes, I am a bit obsessed, but--believe it or not--I actually do think about a few other things. I even ventured out of my diet cocoon today to take the girls down to the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. Then I had to call my husband and whine about how unfair it is that I don't get to live there!! Besides that, there has been some ever so slight progress on Plan 52.
First, I am reading a book, but I'm not loving it. It's Go, Mutants! by Larry Doyle. I think the problem is that all the characters are so repulsive (I mean literally--it's about a future Earth that is co-inhabited by humans and mutant creatures), that I just can't get past all the slime and goo and exploding body parts. I'm giving myself until this weekend, then I'll ditch it if I'm still not feeling it.
I've had a bit of a setback on the goal to go back to school. We moved from New York to California in April 2009, which should classify me as a California resident for tuition purposes. Unfortunately, they chose to classify me as out-of-state meaning I'd have to pay $183 per unit vs. $26 per unit. I know that's a great deal for most states, but it's the difference between my actually being able to afford college. I sent them my proof of residency at the beginning of the month, but they still haven't reclassified me. I'm going to try to drop it off tomorrow--won't that be fun with four kids in tow?--but since classes started this week it's really too late. If I can get reclassified, I'm going to try to take a late-starting online course, otherwise I will be ready for spring semester in January.
I've been going to my regular Aqua Boot Camp class at the Y this week and I'm plannning on trying a couple of new classes this weekend--perhaps even the dreaded (for this uncoordinated girl) Zumba!
I must say, it seems like all I write about is losing weight. Yes, I am a bit obsessed, but--believe it or not--I actually do think about a few other things. I even ventured out of my diet cocoon today to take the girls down to the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. Then I had to call my husband and whine about how unfair it is that I don't get to live there!! Besides that, there has been some ever so slight progress on Plan 52.
First, I am reading a book, but I'm not loving it. It's Go, Mutants! by Larry Doyle. I think the problem is that all the characters are so repulsive (I mean literally--it's about a future Earth that is co-inhabited by humans and mutant creatures), that I just can't get past all the slime and goo and exploding body parts. I'm giving myself until this weekend, then I'll ditch it if I'm still not feeling it.
I've had a bit of a setback on the goal to go back to school. We moved from New York to California in April 2009, which should classify me as a California resident for tuition purposes. Unfortunately, they chose to classify me as out-of-state meaning I'd have to pay $183 per unit vs. $26 per unit. I know that's a great deal for most states, but it's the difference between my actually being able to afford college. I sent them my proof of residency at the beginning of the month, but they still haven't reclassified me. I'm going to try to drop it off tomorrow--won't that be fun with four kids in tow?--but since classes started this week it's really too late. If I can get reclassified, I'm going to try to take a late-starting online course, otherwise I will be ready for spring semester in January.
I've been going to my regular Aqua Boot Camp class at the Y this week and I'm plannning on trying a couple of new classes this weekend--perhaps even the dreaded (for this uncoordinated girl) Zumba!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Lessons Learned at a Waterpark
It's official: Item number 40 is the first to be crossed off the list! Last week my 12- and 13-year-old niece and nephew visited us from Colorado--first time ever without their parents! Since they're nearly twice the age of our oldest daughter, we had to try to find activities that weren't skewed too far to one age group or the other.
As luck would have it, their favorite activities involve getting as wet as possible! All the better if there's any risk of hypothermia! So after spending a day at the beach, a day at the lake and a day at the pool, we heard that the local waterpark (Wild Rivers in Irvine) has Monday night carload discounts after 4 p.m. So hubby and I left the little girls home with the grandparents for a pizza party and loaded up the minivan with the aforementioned neice and nephew, plus our 7- and 5-year-old daughters.
Here's what I learned from my experience:
1. You should always check the depth of the landing pool before sending a semi-swimmer down a slide.
Can you guess what we didn't do? When we first got there we played in the wave pool for a while, then decided to look for some slides. Our 5-year-old (we'll call her Diva) looked them all over and basically said, "No way!" So instead of the great big ginormous twisty slides we found a couple of shorter slides with a small drop into a pool. They looked pretty innocent--you could see the top and the bottom. What we failed to realize was that the landing pool was actually 8' deep. And also that the velocity of the slide caused the rider to plow into and well below the surface of the water. Needless to say, this was not a good start to our sliding adventure! After rescuing Diva (myself, I might add), the lifeguard proceeded to chew us out for sending such a fragile little flower into such a life-threatening situation. Of course, it wasn't life-threatening enough for HIM to actually jump in and save her, although he did offer to jump in and rescue my sunglasses from the bottom of the pool.
2. The main clientel will be teenagers. They will be horny. And obnoxious.
Perhaps it's different during daytime, but we were one of very few families there in the evening. I kind of felt like Dian Fossey dropped in the wilds of Africa to study the gorillas. Except that there was way more concrete and this species was less hairy, wore very small bikinis and roved around in giggling same-sex packs. Or maybe it was like that scene in Mean Girls when Lindsey Lohan's character visualizes the kids at the mall as wild animals? We used the same philosophy as we use to deal with bees: If you don't bother them, they'll won't bother you.
3. It doesn't matter how hot it was during the day. Once the sun starts to go down you will freeze.
Luckily, as I mentioned before, our children all show a predilection for water temperatures better suited to penguins and polar bears. At the beach, the water temp was 60 degrees! That's only two degrees above the average winter temps and a good ten degrees below average summer temps. Didn't stop them at the beach and it didn't stop them at the waterpark. Even though it was 90 degrees that day, the carload discount is for after 4 p.m. so that didn't leave many pre-dusk hours. And I'm pretty sure they don't heat the water in the least. By 6 p.m. hubs and I were trying to use our (apparently less than awesome) powers of persuasion to convince them that they would rather get out and go to McDonald's for dinner. We left at 7:45 p.m. Brrr!
4. No matter how fat you are, there will be someone fatter. And no one will care.
I don't mean this to be in anyway rude or mean. It was truly one of my greatest fears about going to a water park. You see, you cannot wear cover-ups or T-shirts or shorts or even rash guards over your swimsuit on the slides. Even walking around with a towel is problematic because you have to find a place to stash it before each ride. So basically it's just you in all your bathing suited glory walking around for all the world to see. Here's the thing though: Everyone else is doing the exact same thing. However self conscious you feel? I'm guessing that everyone else there is feeling that exact same way. So that whole OMG-I-am-so-fat-must-suck-in-my-gut-do-I-look-thinner-when-I-do-this? feeling kind of wore off after a while. I wonder if that's how it feels to go to a no swimsuits allowed spa? Not that I'm ready for that yet!
5. If you go on any rides that involve riding on an inflatable inner tube, you will want to hold your butt well up off the bottom lest you enjoy the water thrill that is the chlorine enema.
No, I am not going to elaborate. Just trust me on this.
6. You will realize that you paid $5.00 per ride.
So I mentioned that whole "check the depth of the pool" thing up there? This is also important because after your semi-swimmer has to be rescued, she will refuse to go on any more rides unless Daddy can hold her. This will be against park regulations. At the end of the afternoon, you will manage to convince her to go on one additional slide for a grand total of two--you do the math. Furthermore, the older kids will decide that it is much more fun to play "bean each other with a volleyball" in the swimming pool. Just like they could have done for free all day long at the Y. At the end, though, you won't care--you'll just be happy to be back in the car with the heater blasting.
As luck would have it, their favorite activities involve getting as wet as possible! All the better if there's any risk of hypothermia! So after spending a day at the beach, a day at the lake and a day at the pool, we heard that the local waterpark (Wild Rivers in Irvine) has Monday night carload discounts after 4 p.m. So hubby and I left the little girls home with the grandparents for a pizza party and loaded up the minivan with the aforementioned neice and nephew, plus our 7- and 5-year-old daughters.
Here's what I learned from my experience:
1. You should always check the depth of the landing pool before sending a semi-swimmer down a slide.
Can you guess what we didn't do? When we first got there we played in the wave pool for a while, then decided to look for some slides. Our 5-year-old (we'll call her Diva) looked them all over and basically said, "No way!" So instead of the great big ginormous twisty slides we found a couple of shorter slides with a small drop into a pool. They looked pretty innocent--you could see the top and the bottom. What we failed to realize was that the landing pool was actually 8' deep. And also that the velocity of the slide caused the rider to plow into and well below the surface of the water. Needless to say, this was not a good start to our sliding adventure! After rescuing Diva (myself, I might add), the lifeguard proceeded to chew us out for sending such a fragile little flower into such a life-threatening situation. Of course, it wasn't life-threatening enough for HIM to actually jump in and save her, although he did offer to jump in and rescue my sunglasses from the bottom of the pool.
2. The main clientel will be teenagers. They will be horny. And obnoxious.
Perhaps it's different during daytime, but we were one of very few families there in the evening. I kind of felt like Dian Fossey dropped in the wilds of Africa to study the gorillas. Except that there was way more concrete and this species was less hairy, wore very small bikinis and roved around in giggling same-sex packs. Or maybe it was like that scene in Mean Girls when Lindsey Lohan's character visualizes the kids at the mall as wild animals? We used the same philosophy as we use to deal with bees: If you don't bother them, they'll won't bother you.
3. It doesn't matter how hot it was during the day. Once the sun starts to go down you will freeze.
Luckily, as I mentioned before, our children all show a predilection for water temperatures better suited to penguins and polar bears. At the beach, the water temp was 60 degrees! That's only two degrees above the average winter temps and a good ten degrees below average summer temps. Didn't stop them at the beach and it didn't stop them at the waterpark. Even though it was 90 degrees that day, the carload discount is for after 4 p.m. so that didn't leave many pre-dusk hours. And I'm pretty sure they don't heat the water in the least. By 6 p.m. hubs and I were trying to use our (apparently less than awesome) powers of persuasion to convince them that they would rather get out and go to McDonald's for dinner. We left at 7:45 p.m. Brrr!
4. No matter how fat you are, there will be someone fatter. And no one will care.
I don't mean this to be in anyway rude or mean. It was truly one of my greatest fears about going to a water park. You see, you cannot wear cover-ups or T-shirts or shorts or even rash guards over your swimsuit on the slides. Even walking around with a towel is problematic because you have to find a place to stash it before each ride. So basically it's just you in all your bathing suited glory walking around for all the world to see. Here's the thing though: Everyone else is doing the exact same thing. However self conscious you feel? I'm guessing that everyone else there is feeling that exact same way. So that whole OMG-I-am-so-fat-must-suck-in-my-gut-do-I-look-thinner-when-I-do-this? feeling kind of wore off after a while. I wonder if that's how it feels to go to a no swimsuits allowed spa? Not that I'm ready for that yet!
5. If you go on any rides that involve riding on an inflatable inner tube, you will want to hold your butt well up off the bottom lest you enjoy the water thrill that is the chlorine enema.
No, I am not going to elaborate. Just trust me on this.
6. You will realize that you paid $5.00 per ride.
So I mentioned that whole "check the depth of the pool" thing up there? This is also important because after your semi-swimmer has to be rescued, she will refuse to go on any more rides unless Daddy can hold her. This will be against park regulations. At the end of the afternoon, you will manage to convince her to go on one additional slide for a grand total of two--you do the math. Furthermore, the older kids will decide that it is much more fun to play "bean each other with a volleyball" in the swimming pool. Just like they could have done for free all day long at the Y. At the end, though, you won't care--you'll just be happy to be back in the car with the heater blasting.
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