The State of Me

It's only been a little over a week, but I've already noticed a huge change in myself since I left my job.

I feel so much better. Those awful stomach cramps I used to have - feeling like someone was sucker punching me in the gut - they're gone. I haven't had any since I left. I had those types of pains several times a week before.

Haven't had a headache since I left.

Noticed that I haven't been clenching my jaw nearly as much as I was. That probably contributed to the headaches I had. I was always tense.

My back/shoulder/neck pain is much improved. I've always had chronic problems, and they're still there, but not to the extent that they were before. I had neck and shoulder pain so severe last summer (and once after that) that the doctor had to put me on Vicodin. I'm sure a lot of that had to do with sitting at a desk all day.

I sleep so much better. I have no trouble falling asleep. I don't wake up in the middle of the night (unless Reece wakes me up to go out). I sleep soundly and deeply. Of course, this may also be due to the fact that Lance isn't here to keep me awake with his snoring.

My Mom also told me that I sound so much more upbeat now when we talk on the phone. She noticed that change almost immediately. I think Kathy said something to the same effect as well.

As for Reece - she actually eats all her food now. She had very odd eating habits before and most days she didn't eat all of her food. She now gobbles up 2 cups in the morning and 2 cups in the evening without any problems whatsoever. I think she likes having Mommy home with her all the time.

Perspective

My mom and I were talking about my impending birthday the other day, and she was marveling over the fact that I'm turning 34 (just wait until next year!).

She noted that she was 33 years old when she moved from Findlay, Ohio (where she had lived her whole life) to Columbus. To her, that was a major life change.

But look at me. I'm 33 (for 3 more days, anyway) and I already lived in Germany for 4 years, which makes Columbus, OH seem like rather small potatoes.

I guess she was amused that she could think of Columbus as so big and exotic and weird compared to Findlay (I suppose I felt that way too, but I was 9 when we moved there). And now, at the same age, I've experienced vastly different things than she has. I think she is somewhat amazed by that too.

(no subject)

Took an hour to do the first read-through of the project I'm currently doing. I'll do a second read-through, just to make sure I didn't miss anything. The things that are questionable (i.e., I'll need to look up in my grammar books) will be dealt with after that. Then I'll take the hard copy that I printed off and transfer the notations I made to the track changes feature of Microsoft Word.

So far, so good.

It's a warm, sunny day. Reece is great. Had her follow-up with the vet. Her ear drum is fully healed and we didn't need to do anything drastic to allow for the healing of the wound on her ear flap. That seems to be healing ok too. I took her to Reber Ranch afterwards so that she could run around and play with some other dogs. Thankfully, it wasn't too busy. I don't like it when there are too many dogs on the playground. She got her exercise and we came home.

I got out my mini crock (Kathy gave it to me, not really knowing what to do with it) and I threw in a can of pork & beans, my special additives (dried onion flakes, Heinz 57, spicy mustard/dry mustard, worchestershire, honey), and sliced up 2 hotdogs to mix in. So that will slow cook for a couple of hours and be my dinner for tonight. And probably lunch for tomorrow, as well. The mini crock actually works excellently for baked beans. And I imagine it is marvelous for dips as well, but I haven't had to use it for that yet. I also had some sliced button mushrooms that needed to be used up, so I sauteed all of them so they'll keep a bit longer.

And thus, all my kitchen work is concluded for the day. And now that I'm talking about beans and weenies, I suddenly got a craving for sauerkraut. Hmmmm. Not making a special trip just for that.

I have a couple of freelancing jobs to apply for - one is to do short neighborhood reviews for the Seattle area. That sounds like it's right up my alley. I can do Kent quite easily. Some other areas may take a bit more research.

Talked to Lance today. He spent a few hours at some theme park down around OKC...Frontier Town, I think? No. Frontier City. Apparently, they had $5 admission for military members and their families today. So at least he got out and did something. I know he's been going a bit stir crazy for the past couple of days and has spent a lot of time just hanging out at his hotel room. He'll be home Wednesday morning...very excited about that.

I haven't even come close to accomplishing all the things I wanted to do while Lance was gone. I'm still recharging my batteries, I think, since I've only been away from that place for a little over a week. I've mostly just been maintaining. I need some mental respite, and once I'm back to a good place again (and I'm getting there), I can take care of some of the other things that need doing.

I was just about to click the button to post this, but an ice cream truck is just now coming down my street, playing both "Jingle Bells" and "Silent Night" in succession. Uhm...