A Vivid Dream

I had the weirdest and most vivid dream last night:

My best friend had just moved into a house with a guy, whom I had never met before, and I went to visit them. While touring the house all I could see where things that were wrong and that I knew she wouldn't like. First off the house was huge! I mean you felt like you walked a mile to reach one end from the other. There was a big really nice pool with a viewing area and so much other extraneous rooms and activity things. It was big and cavernous and felt like you were walking through an office building or something. The fireplaces (there were numerous ones) were all really big, made out of stone, but the actual opening where the fire goes was tiny and short. So you really couldn't see the fire. Anyway as they were showing me around I was making comments, asking her about this and that and I kept getting glared at by this guy. I mean I was seriously offending him. And she wasn't saying much, it was like she didn't want to contradict him. Which is VERY unlike her.

So finally I was like ok I'm going to go for a swim so I went to the pool. Randomly my entire swim team was also staying in the house and so they all came and joined me as did she and we had a ball. When it was dinnertime everyone went to get out and I realized on my way back to my room that I had forgotten something back at the pool so back I went. Down on deck there was this contraption that was similar to lane line holders which whatever I had forgotten was next too and somehow whatever was attached to it started to unravel. (I know this is very vague but I can't remember the details, and dreams aren't always so clear.) So here I am trying to wind this thing back up but I can't get it to attach again and I'm wasting lots of time. Then I hear footsteps and I'm really afraid it's him coming to make sure his precious pool didn't get ruined or something so I leave it and run out another door.

Back in my room getting ready I'm talking to one of the girls about how he really freaks me out and she's agreeing and then all of a sudden he walks by on the ROOF with one of his friends. And blatantly looks in the window at me like he's checking on me or something! So the girl with me in the room is like what the hell is going on and I'm like I do not trust this guy. Ultimately the dream ends with us deciding that I should never be left alone, I'll always have a swim girl with me, and that's it.

I woke up from this feeling very unsettled. One because the friend who's with the guy is nothing like the person she was in the dream. She is very opinionated and not afraid to say what she wants, and she knows how to deal with guys like that. I mean she has been with guys who kinda freak me out and can be nuts but she never let them make decisions for her or anything. And now she's with a really great guy who I have a grand time hanging out with.

I might research it a bit, provide an update later but for now I have to do some work.

To discover your inner self

    (Note: I fell over when I did this move!)

With the lovely cold front that has been flowing through Chicago I have been focusing on spending a longer amount of time in the gym than usual. I figure during the week unless I have plans I could be working out rather than sitting in front of the tv and passing out! haha cause yes, for some reason my incredibly boring work days tire me out like woah!  Plus I would like to get my swimmers body back just a bit..

I've been trying out different work out classes in the past week or so. My gym is great in that it offers like 4 or 5 classes a night that are free since I am a member and they have 3 locations with different classes. So the other night I went to "Ab Attack," pretty self explanatory and "Steel Pilates." Both were nice and not too cardioish which is nice. I'm one of those worker outers who likes to work out but does not like to be moving at rocket pace the whole time. I am uncoordinated and do not have the will to move that fast. It was always my one huge problem with swimming. My coach would always say "windmill!" "windmill!" and I just could not handle that. Anyway I liked those classes. 

Then today I went to what was called "Absolute Yoga" or something like that. The description made it sound like it wasn't so much straight yoga as it was yoga moves with abs and core exercises thrown in. WELL NO! This was straight up yoga, up to the incredibly flamboyant instructor telling me to look inside myself and learn from this hour long class. Now he was very nice and made the class interesting and easy to follow but yoga is just soooooo not for me. I mean you are supposed to be focusing on your breathing and connecting but all I can think is oh man I'm not exhaling in the right place and my shoulders hurt, and how long is this downward dog going to last! I also could not stop thinking about that Bikram Yoga, the one where you do yoga in a 90 degree room or something. I can not believe someone could do that! Haha the roomie did for awhile but oh man...instead of thinking about breathing I would constantly be wiping myself off from being sopping wet! ICK! I mean hello, I'm a swimmer. You don't see the sweat in the water. lol

Regardless I am now never going back to yoga and will continue to spend my time is ab and pilate classes or reading on a lovely cardio machine! Because seriously, I know all these gorgeous actresses get their incredible bodies from yoga, but they must get high or somethign before every workout to be able to get through. And I don't mean to knock anyone who really likes yoga. To each their own, it's just not for me. 

Touch or Nano

I received my first ipod nano many years ago for a christmas present and have loved it ever since! It is one of the first generation nanos that is shown here:

There was a creepy weird flame guy on the left of it so I painted that out, didn't do a fantastic job, but this is what I have. Anyway it has been the perfect little companion to me for however many years and it even has a lovely inscription on the back that my mom put on. Essentially I have loved it to death and even though it's itune tendencies of shuffling the same songs on over and over again annoys the hell out of me it is really the only thing I need to provide me with hours of musical enjoyment.

Alas in the past week or so it has started to freeze and the buttons are acting up. When I go to skip a song it decides to skip two, etc. In essence it is starting to die, and even though I expected this I am horribly sad. Now when I bought my Macbook just about two (one?) years ago I got a free ipod nano along with it. This of course was then stolen by my sister and somehow ruined. I took it back when I went home over break knowing that mine was going out of commission but when I plug it in it is not recognized on any computers I try. To add to that the buttons do NOT work! I can sit there and press the play/pause button for a full minute and nothing happens. So now that I have to buy a new one I can't decide between the Ipod touch, or nano.

Or

Touch:

Pros

1) Touch screen! I'm a geek and love things like this!

2) Ability to watch movies/tv shows (know the nano has this but the screen is not worth it)

3) Internet!!!! I don't care about my email or anything but man it would be so useful to have google maps at certain times

4) This will also be a con, but they do have good brain thinking games that can be amusing at the right times.

Cons

1) Price. It's about $80 more than the nano, but maybe I should spring for a greater memory becuase of movies, etc???

2) Games. I am not even close to a video game type of person and a lot of what the touch is is being promoted as being great for that.

3) I really dislike the idea of being attached to technology 24/7. I will never get a blackberry if I can help it, but than I can always just not attach my email to it. And side note: If i had the opportunity to get an Iphone I totally would!

Nano:

Pros:

1) It is small and easy to use, holds lots of songs

2) Price

Cons:

Non really, I mean it does what I would pay for, plays my songs. I don't get to see pretty pictures on it though (screen too small).

Ultimately apple is great in ensuring that both the nano and touch have the same qualities when it comes to playing music, such as the accelerometer. The nano now also comes in color which is fun. So do I go with the really cool touch just so I could play with it?? Or stick with the nano which just makes sense.

Well old nano is working today so we'll put the final decision off for at least another day!!!!

I went...

SKATING tonight!

I haven't gone skating in a very long time. I mean so long I can't even remember the last time I went. I remember as a kid one of my parent's friends had a house on a lake/pond...I don't remember and they used to go skating all the time. I can see my mom flitting around the lake doing turns and twists (at least I think it was my mom!). But I never really skated. I'm not sure if they had me try or if I just ran around on the ice in shoes.

So tonight my friend and I went to the Millenium Skating Park because he is a hockey player and really wanted to get on the ice so I thought why not. Well I was very nervous because as I stated above, I really wasn't sure I knew how to skate. So trusting the knowledge that I learned over college about how to be athleticish I stepped on the ice and started moving.

Now I in no way look graceful or smooth as I move around the ice, but I can definetly grasp how to do it so I actually move and look like I'm skating. I do have to concentrate fairly hard though. Whenever I got distracted or tried to watch the people around me I would start to lose my balance or catch a tip. Very frustrating for someone who loves to people watch! And whose friend was just sliding along laughing at everyone. LOL We went out for about 40 minutes and I only tripped like 3 times (which my friend was lovely enough to follow me around and give me an arm/catch me when I did, and than I completely fell only once!

I am now obsessed with the idea of getting my own pair of skates and going more frequently because it's free to use the ice you just have to pay for skates. I've spent all morning scouring craigslist and freecycle for a decent pair of skates. It's gonna happen. Of course I'd love to get out on a patch of ice that isn't packed but for now I will have to make do with going in circles, around and around. After all I am a swimmer, I'm pretty used to it.

My weird food characteristics...

I did not eat well over the holidays. Not to say that the food was bad or anything, but living on my own and mainly cooking meals for just myself I find that I can exist on a lot less food than I am used to. Now some of this is obviously because I am not on the swim team anymore, but I find that my body almost repels food because I am sitting in a chair for 8 hours of a day. (my job is not the most thrilling) So having three meals a day plus appetizers and snacks and candy. It all just gets to me. I'm not angry that I allowed myself to eat this way, but it is amazing how it makes me feel. Last night and tonight I was actually excited to go to the gym and I was able to not only work out for close to 2 hours each night, but I did not have to read while doing the cardio machines! That is a huge thing for me, I usually get so bored that I don't know what to do with myself.

But regardless, I am digressing, today when I went in to heat up the soup I had brought for lunch there was food out on the community table and it ended up being a chicken sandwich and onion rings! Onion rings are one of my biggest weaknesses so of course I couldn't pass it up! And then I wasn't so excited about my soup so I thought if I cut up the chicken and put it in than maybe it would make it better. Of course the chicken was breaded. Well not even half an hour after I had finished eating, I felt like hell. And it makes me sad because I find that I can't eat half of the normal food that is offered in this country. I'm alright if it is in moderation like say chicken on a salad or something, but the breaded chicken and the onion rings combined just killed me.

I have always been a picky eater. I never liked fast food ever. I remember back when my mom was not horribly against fast food places we would stop if we were on the road or it was late and there was no dinner at home. Now way back I used to get hamburgers but they could not have anything on them. I mean no lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, mustard, etc. and if it did I would not eat it. I HATE condiments. And I mean I really truly do not use any condiments EVER! It is my opinion that if you can't make food that you want to eat the way you prepare it than why even go through the troubles. Not too mention that most of those silly icky condiments just mask all tastes of what you have already prepared so why don't you just take a warm piece of bread or something and dip it in ketchup! And in case you need a real idea of how much I abhor things like ketchup and mayonnaise and mustard, if any ever got on me I would throw up and I literally have trouble passing bottles of the stuff if they are dirty and gross. But after the hamburgers I would order the chicken nuggets and if any of the meat looked suspicious, meaning slightly darker than white, I could not physically eat it. Just the thought would make me sick.

Now I still have those weird feelings. If i clean my own chicken I cut off probably close to a sixth of the whole breast because I can't stand the idea of fat. With veggies if they aren't perfect I will throw those unperfect sections out. I understand this is wasteful and I try to buy so that I don't have anything go bad on me, but it's something I can't help. The idea of eating not perfect food just disgusts me.

I realized today that I just can't eat greasy icky foods like that. And I somehow need to figure out how to control my boredom and cravings. And I only say this because I LOVE chocolate. And I get major major chocolate cravings. And not for the cheap hershey stuff but nice dark expensive chocolate that melts in your mouth. I can eat chocolate all day and not feel gross but 5 onion rings and a breaded chicken and I want to go lay on the couch, my stomach bulges out. It's gross! And it's not worth it, I would rather eat loaves upon loaves of bread or something chocolate than fried foods.

So here's to me trying to stay away from all grease!!! I can do it....I think. In hopes to further it along I will cook up some chili tonight for lunches. It is soooo good.

Crazy Bus Travels

New Years Eve (Wed): Woke up insanely early this morning to catch a 6am bus down to danbury. I was choosing to go on the early one becuase I thought it was a straight trip all the way down and I would get there with plenty of time to hang out and get ready for the new years eve partying!!! Oh no! At the very first step, buying the ticket, I was told that I had two transfers. Now I'm not sure if it was the insanely early hour, or that my mind just hadn't woken up yet, but the woman seemed very calm and was acting like this was a normal thing so I assumed everything would be fine and my transfer buses would be waiting right there for me and I would go from one to the other. yea...right. cause my traveling experiences are always easy peasy. I get off the bus in boston and look across to find my next one and there is nothing. there is a bus going to hartford (my next transfer) at 9:30am, it is not 7:20 but that is it. Ok, my brain is thinking well I was supposed to be in Danbury at 11:30 so there must be one that leaves earlier than 9:30.

So I walk myself over to the ticket counter, being careful to swerve around all of the overexcited NYC bound crazies AND the mean old bitchy sour cause she's not goign anywhere woman tells me that the next bus that will get me to Danbury doens't leave until 12:15. Excuse me??? I say on the website there was one that was supposed to get me there at 11:30. Oh you missed that, that one left at 7.
Now here's where Hallie gets really mad becuase anyone who lives in NH knows that you can not get from Concord to Boston in an hour, so the woman who sold me the ticket at the beginning of the morning sold me a ticket that she knew would take me all day! Strike 1 bus people.
So I say ok, well can I take the bus that leaves at 9:30 to Hartford anyway? "Surrree if you want to wait in Hartford." Fine cranky old woman I will just leave and do what I want. Luckily I did take the 9:30 bus which was supposed to put us in Hartford at 11:45. Guess what time we got there???? 

1pm!

Now this was fine for me becasue I had already called my friend and she had looked up the next bus to Danbury and it wasn't until 2. great! less time for me to wait in a station (they are always cold and gross) and I'll still get to danbury with a decent amount of time.

Around 1 I drag my 85lb bag into the Hartford bus station and immediately check to see if the bus to Danbury is still running and on time. I mean we had just driven through the worst of the snow storm, but who knows with crazy bus people. The not so lovely woman at the desk informed me that yes it was. Ok nice!!! I'll run to the bathroom and then grab some food. 3 minutes later Hallie walks out of the bathroom and hears over the intercom...

"crackle crackle...Danbury passenger.....crackle mumble static....dispatch office....static crackle...immediately"

oh no!! is that me?? I'm a danbury passenger... what is a dispatch office??? well there was a small window outside that I saw someone sitting behind?? I mean the ticket desk can't be the dispatch office right???!?!? That over there is the security booth. Alright, outside I go! 

"Hello I'm going to Danbury, is this the dispatch office?"

"You're going to Danbury? At 2? Do you really need to go to Danbury?"

"Well yes, my friend is picking me up there."

"I can only take you to WATERBURY! WATERBURY you hear??" short crazy man is yelling at me. "And we leave now! I am leaving now, you come, I will take you to Waterbury, you can be picked up there! All buses to Danbury are canceled! Lets go!"

"Alright!" waterbury is closer than hartford at least right?

I am the only one on the bus with this crazy man and as soon as we pull out he is cackling up in the front seat because he knows that there are others at that station who are trying to get to Danbury but they didn't report to the dispatch office... I have no idea what was working for me that day, but man it all just worked out perfectly. I ended up being picked up in Waterbury by my fave even though it turned out that they could have gotten me to danbury....silly silly. At least my flight back to Chicago was uneventful and easy. :)

All in all I ended up in Danbury with plenty of time to make myself pretty and have a fabulous time in a NYC bar. Go 2009!!! 

Holiday Recap Part 1

2008

Most of the holidays passed in a blur for me. I wasn't home till xmas eve so before I knew it christmas was over! which is sad because I like the build up of anticipation. Silly big person job!
But i'll try to recap here, for my sake because I have a bad memory and I would like to remember what I did!

Christmas Eve (Wed): Flew home today. I was lucky enough to have a scheduled flight right in the window of good weather. I was after all the craziness that occured on Tuesday where people were stuck in Ohara all night so yippee for that! And then I flew out oh about 2 hours before the snow was due to start again and cause all manners of nonsense in the flying airplane world. Managed to get home around 6ish that night and had a delicious fajita dinner with the family and grandparents. Then spent most of the rest of the night going through christmas presents that I had had mailed home previously (I did all my xmas shopping online) and wrapping those. Felt good to hang out with the sis, she's starting to get old enough to relate to and have nice conversations with so that was great! Maybe now that she actually likes to talk, she'll start becoming more girly as well! She did receive a scarf from our grandmother which is something new! And yelled at me when I tried to steal it so there's hope. Lol

Christmas Day: This whole day passed in a big blur. Of course we were up at 8:30 am because my family are freaks! who can not sleep for the life of them. Unwrapping presents was fairly simple and quick as there were only a few for each person. I got an electric blanket which I just tried out last night (Jan 4) and it worked wonderfully well. Though I think I may need to turn it on periodically through the night cause it did get cold halfway through. I also got a veggie peeler!!! And a Kindle. Which is very cool, but we really need to figure out a way to share books on it because it is just not cool with me that I pay to order a book and than can't do anything else with it? I mean I read books more than once, but sharing is half the fun.

We had a lovely brunch after present giving (I heart bacon! and fresh bagels! and sticky buns!). And then later in the afternoon the rest of my mom's side of the family came up and did the whole family thing. Included in the serious business of gifts my mother and aunt had also decided that it would be fun to do a yankee swap. Not sure what they were thinking as that just meant that we would go from having our junk in our basement to having someone elses, but hey. And to prove it my brother ended up with a Flowbee! A flowbee is a hair (head hair) shaver that you connect to a vaccum and then shave someone's head. yes I would say that you probably don't get such a great haircut and seriously is it that hard to just sweep up the hair after you're done?? I used to shave my ex's hair and you could just gather the clumps as you moved the razor and then place them in a bag. Granted his hair was curly so maybe that made it easier but are we that lazy??? Dinner followed and then everyone peaced out pretty early actually.

Day after Christmas (Fri): I met up with the college roomies today. All four of us had lunch at some obscure restaurant in Peterborough, NH. Random and completely empty of course because we didn't meet until 2 and by the time everyone got there becuase of traffic and getting lost it was closer to 3. But it was fun to hang out with the girls. One of the hardest adjustments of moving on after college has been that I don't have people in my apartment whenever I am home. :( I mean I love my alone time but we would have at least 4 or 5 people at a time what with all the boyfriends and surrogate roomates who filtered in. Now it's just me and chlo. Still good, just different. After lunch the 3 originals rented a room in yet another obscure Peterborough establishment, Jack Daniel's Motor Inn. Yessir, It was a classy place, but it was clean and boasted two double beds and a place for us to veg out, have some drinks, and relax. I was insanely lucky to be placed with two amazing girls my freshman year in lovely old Riley dorm and I am so glad that we can keep up the relationships we began back there in that one room even though we are now spread out across the US! And I'm still coming to visit Rockett!!!!

Late Friday into Sat: Needless to say we stayed up and talked until all hours of the night and unfortunately Buffman had to leave rather early. So we saw her off and then passed out again for a couple hours. Lol. After parting ways from Rockett I headed home to shower up and then we ended up going to Exeter, Nh to have dinner at my aunts house. Now this was pretty much just a replay of christmas day dinner, but right around when the dishes were cleared I crashed and only wanted to go home and pass out. Not sleeping does not do well with me! I would have been fine but my grandparents are rather technology inefficient and for xmas my grandfather had received an electronic book and a one-cup coffee maker. Neither of which did either of them know how to work. So after dinnner was teh time to make numerous cups of coffee one at a time while everyone sits there and yells out what they think you should be doing! Trying on the nerves even at the best of times and I was not feeling it. Other than that it was very good to see everyone. I miss the family very much!!!! and also usually love the gatherings....sleep though, required!

Sun, Mon, Tues: I believe I spent two of these days reading Twilight 1 & 2. I mean entire days. My father was ready to murder me! He would come stand in front of my chair and ask if I really meant to be still sitting there in my pajamas READING! I mean come on it's like 3pm in the afternoon. Well yes Dad, that is exactly what I am meaning to do! I mean I may be saying that the books irritated me but I am still goign to read it! (If you want to know what I thought of the Twilight series go here) Other than reading I also saw Marley & Me (awesome, though you're thinking how horrible the dog is most of the time) and Seven Pounds (not at all what I expected and very sad, though good) in the theatres. And no matter what my family says, I will never be able to go to two movies in one day!!! NEVER! I have a hard enough time with one! lol

My experiences on Wed require their whole own post or this will become a very long one!! So there is what we have thus far.