Baby Showers

Please, will SOMEONE explain to me the necessity of owning a Bugaboo Stroller at the tune $759.00?????

Seriously.

Tomorrow is my sister's baby shower.

I begrudge her nothing.

I looked at her baby registry and picked some nice items off her list that don't break the bank. Her registry is full of important and useful things. All of which are in the reasonable price range.

Except this damn stroller.

Now, I really need to know. Is this thing made of Gold????? Does it cook and clean as you walk the baby? Will it CHANGE the baby when that is needed? Does it provide rest for the poor weary mom?

For the life of me, I cannot understand that price tag. It's a STROLLER.

What on earth were they thinking and I posed the question to my new friend / neighbor - what the hell is so damn special about this ( citing all the above sarcastically). She sighed, and said, that they are all the rage in Manhattan and you can see them everywhere.

I have never seen A stroller let alone and 800 dollar stroller anywhere in Manhattan ( largely because I never go in to site see so unless the baby is doing magic tricks in said stroller I wouldn't notice. I go in, get my work done, have a post work drink with my colleagues and head home. I hate Manhattan to be honest. As much as I hate it - I love it too.

So while I do believe that what she is saying is true, I can't recall having seen one.

So I took my question to my sister-in-law. She too, sighed, and said "oh yes - that's the Rolls Royce of strollers.... "

The Rolls Royce of strollers?

That's a first. I'm having a lot of those "firsts" lately.

I wish her luck but as of now, its still on her registry.

Mental Health and Marshmallows

The modification of my eating system has been working really well so far. I did OK at the restaurant last night too - I went over my daily allotment, but not by a significant amount so I borrowed from the "bank" that I am given each week.

I am still losing weight and I now starting to feel good too.....

So I took half of a mental health day. At noon I shut down my email. and I turned on Pretty Woman. Wolfi and I sat there happily with my coffee. He was purring and we were content.

At 2:30 I changed my clothes and went out to teach a piano lesson. From there, I went to teach a voice lesson. Then, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - I went to get my nails done.

What a blessed relaxing hour. I got hand and arm massages, UV light to harden the gel on my nails is light therapy for my hand ( it helps clear up the eczema and hold it off).

It reached 58 degrees today. Gorgeous. Truly Gorgeous. The pollen started and I have requisite headache and I noticed that my skin is a little hive-y from the eczema (allergic dermatitis actually but we treat it the same as the eczema). I took a long relaxing bath when I got home. Put the treatments on my skin ( they are so lovely now....and work much better). I did the spray oil and a cream on the face.

I had a delicious dinner consisting of one and half cups of Barilla PLus Rotini, Sauce and chicken sausage left over from the batch I grilled on Tuesday. It was heavenly.

But the highlight of my night was the Swiss Miss Marshmallow lovers fat free hot chocolate.

I love the Marshmallows more than chocolalte itself. Now this mini wonder always brings a dreamy smile to my face when I take that first sip. I have made Marshmallow fluff from scratch and used it as icing for cupcakes and cakes. It's heavenly in any form. I love it on ice cream literally anything. I have eaten marshmallows and the fluff plain.

It literally has no fat. It's entirely sugar. Quite literally. Corn Syrup, egg whites and sugar.

I love all things made with marshmallow - candy corn is a personal favorite at Halloween ( little known fact but they are made primaril from marshmallow!)

So my special end of night treat is hot mug full of hot chocolate with the tiniest marshmallows ever created. I have been known to add my own when they melt down too much.

So my day ended on a lovely note and I have made this my new nightly ritual. Hot Chocolate wiht mini marshmallows. ( For those of you on WW - it's only 1 point - SWEET).

Yummmmmmm

one of the many reasons work is hard right now

My poor team has it really rough. We are going through a really bad time with leadership and we are starting to turn on each other.

Upstate Guy put a moratorium on new work last Wed. He had perfectly good justification with four projects on his plate and RFP that he was asked by Capt More-on to review. Of course when asked why he was addressing the RFP by Capt More - on, he was obligated to say, because you told me too. So you see what we are dealing with here.

So I diligently changed the rotation for those kinds of orders and put UPstate guy at the end and put FL Girl and NYC guy in the first two slots, NC Guy, then Myself, then Upstate guy.

That worked wonderfully from Wednesday until today.

NYC Guy send me an IM that says, "maxed out - no more orders".

No explanation, no justification. Just that.

I will work with anyone in a situation. But this just PISSED ME OFF. I am not good when I am being dictated too like that.

So I told him that he is leaving me in the lurch and what has he got that is so blank blank important that he can make that statement and not justify it.

So I drafted an email.

Then I went back and reviewed Update Guy, FL Girl and NYC guys Workload. I noticed that NYC Guy had twice as much as FL girl in this area.

So I pinged her on IM and explained this unique position. She, always coming to my rescue, said to "bring it on".

Now I know that can't be indefinite so I have to put some reasonable controls in place. I am NOT taking this above me for any reason whatsoever. Lordy - I would stll be having THAT conversation from this morning.

So I retrieve my drafted email and come up with this one:

"Look, we are in a bind. I know that our volumes are slightly above average but they are manageable. We all know why that is too. We need to tell the customer’s when their due dates are out of whack more often and I will be rejecting orders as needed moving forward for poor due dates without expedites.

That’s the long term solution.

For the short term:

Starting today – there will be no holds on orders unless you are on an approved project. At this point, because of “holds” due to perceived volume I am down to ONE person working voice. With the volumes that come in, this isn’t acceptable.

At this point, Upstate Guy has projects that need to complete. He and I have been in constant contact regarding this and his workload has been justified as a project and his time table to resume day to day orders is Friday of this week.

NYC Guy does have the next highest volume and to give him a chance to clear that up, he won’t be assigned orders until Friday.

ALL orders will start coming to the mailbox – NYC GUY, make arrangements with Business unit P by end of next week to start routing their work through the mailbox, I will make sure you are the primary so you will still work that stuff and it will just be for managing purposes. I simply cannot judge what your workloads are if the orders aren’t coming through here.

Anyone else who is receiving orders from an alternate source, please make the same arrangements.

Please confirm when completed.

If you are taking an order that has not come through the mailbox YET from the Voice or data teams…. Please send a note to the mailbox and advise me so I can make sure that it gets routed properly to you.

Clear your decks folks. Friday the rotation starts with the following orders:

In this order:

Upstate Guy, NYC guy, FL Girl, NC Guy, Contessa for toll free voice in that order
NYC Guy, FL Girl, Borough Girl will be trained to offload some of this, NC Guy and Contessa for Dedicated Voice
Upstate Guy, Borough Girl, Contessa, NC Guy, FL Girl, NYC Guy for discos
Contessa, FL Girl, Borough Girl, NC Guy, NYC Guy for data.

I do NOT want this back in Capt Moron's court or he will be assigning orders and believe me WE DO NOT WANT THAT.

FL Girl will cover through Friday so Upstate Guy and NYC Guy can catch up

Please guys, help me out here.

Thanks, The Contessa"

and that's how we tentatively solved the great workload problem of First Quarter 2007.

Spring the first day.

I love two seasons - Spring and Fall.

I look forward to them every single year.

I love Spring because this is the beginning of warmer weather, flowers, sunshine, birds chirping and all kinds of things like that.

I have some Spring rituals in my home that I like to do each year. One is to change out my yankee candles. I switch off from scents like evening fireside, pumpkin pie, mulled cider and gingerbread to scents like Ocean water, Clean cotton and two new ones I added this year, Midnight Cove and Sun and Sand.

Another ritual I have is to change the linens in my home. I change from dark warm velvets on my windows and couch to actual linen slip covers on couch and linen and sheers on the windows. I press them all out, hang them, launder the winter ones and put them away for next year.

I also change from a table cloth and linen napkins to placemats in the Dining room. I change the glasses that are out to my spring glasses. These are my favs. They are handpainted and came with a pitcher. What to put in that? I'm thinking Sangria this weekend. Yum. Maybe I can get Mariana to send me her recipe from her Argentinina family....

In my bedroom I take the flannel duvet off the bed, launder and put away and pull out my spring and summer bedding. This is my favorite too. It's luxorious and lovely. I sleep like dream in it.

I change my personal Fragrances also. THe Coco by Chanel and Patchouli go away and the Calvin Klein, Bobbi Brown and Burberry scents go on my tray on my dresser.

I launder the mosquito netting and sheer white roman shade on the windows. I dust the top of the wooden valances and put some nice trinkets up there that reflect spring for me.

I wash the windows crystal clear, I polish my silver and start opening the windows more.

I have a new super being hired here so I have to wait on having my mirror hung in the foyer.

I have new pictures to hang in the house from some performances at Carnegie Hall. So I have some things to re-arrange.

I am so excited that Spring is here. This is so wondereul and I am scheduling some "house" time for me already so I cann accomplish these things so I can enjoy them during this season.

SPring is time of re-birth really. I speak of this, not only from a religious standpoint, but also from a nature standpoint. I order flowers to be delivered for the house each time they deliver groceries. Tulips, daisies and Daffodils. I always mentally and emotionally feel my best during spring.

The only downside is all this new growth drives my allergies beserk. A small price to pay for the beauty.

Spring has Sprung! A happy spring to you all!

A random Tuesday

I have a WW leader who always said "You don't gain weight from Thanksgiving or Christmas. You gain weight because of a random Tuesday... Wednesday.... Thursday etc."

I fully agree with that. In fact I eat healthier on those days than any other time of the year.

I tried to figure out why that was.

Because people are watching me eat.

I went to a meeting last night and I noticed right away that there were veggies and dip and fruit and dip. I don't get many veggies and these looked good so ate the veggies. I had almost a whole serving in. They were good.

When people watch me eat, I notice my behaviour is stellar. Interestingly enough.

So I started eating in my home as if people were watching.

So much better.

In a week and a half 4-5 lbs have come off.

Meanwhile, I have been working hard at just taking care of me. I have been luxoriating in dead sea salt baths every single night. I am sleeping better. I am up to one glass of wine per week. I am drinking tons of water. The one thing that I can't control is my job.

This started out to be a post about my job. I had one all drafted up. it's still drafted but I decided that Title Troubles has it right. Who wants to spend their time reliving and writing about the assholes at work and more importantly who the hell wants to read about that?

So I decided that since this job is just a job right now... I would avoid it. I love my career choices but I am not loving my circumstances right now. I talked to Jax about this evening and it sucks but I'm not going to focus on it during the times I don't need to be there.

It's a random Tuesday in March. The weather is starting to warm up. I have new music to learn ( A little known musical fact about me - I hate Lieder - all of it. ) and more motivation.

Honestly. that performance on Sunday accomplished a goal that I have had. It's not a published on prioir to now. My goal was to blow away the end of the performance so well that the Diva left in a huff. And a huff she did.

I'm not a vindictive person,. but she has put me through a lot in the past 4 years.

The best revenge is being successful ( and living well). So I guess I got both.

Well... this is a first

So, I had a performance today.

One of the groups I perform with regularly does a fund raiser ( for themselves no less) one time per year. This year we did it in our church.

The fundraiser features 2 -4 numbers by the chorale that are light and fun and then solo's, duet's, trios etc..... it's great fun and is usually excellent.

We had a really good house and this year we did a severely reduced rate to bring in two adult group homes. It was such a joy to see how much they were enjoying themselves. All adults.

One young man sat at a table on stage right. He was very sweet, smiled at everyone and said hello. He conducted when the director did and was truly enjoying himself.

Until the solo acts started.

Now to be fair, I didn't notice it with anyone else because I was not scanning the crowd for reactions to the different acts. I watched and laughed and cried with all different types of music and every single person did a phenomenal job. We heard songs from Yentl, Die Fledermaus, Three Penny Opera ( NOT Mack the Knife), some wonderful little known Cole Porter tunes ( THe little Oyster if you can find it has lyrics that will make your sides hurt from laughing and Cherry Pies Aughta be you is another absolute sided splitter), Romeo and Juliet, Rigoletto, Josh Grobin, My Fair Lady - literally everything all over board.

My Tune was Je Veux Vivre from Romeo and Juliette. One I wanted to do on my recital program and it was ready then, but we didn't and I don't remember why. Be that as it may, it's a really beautiful Waltz tune and has some good opps for the singer to show off their voices.

So I am really doing a good job ( I suck at memorizing and I was really stressed about that) so far and I feel I am getting good feed back form the audience as I continue. I hit the last note, A sustained High C. I happen to look stage right and happy young man from group home yells out TOO LOUD and stands up and covers his ears.

I nearly burst out laughing. It had such comic overtones that I had to stop looking that way till that note, and the song , was over. I would have fallen over laughing - I'm telling you,

So, at the end of the concert, people were telling me what a wonderful I and the group did, but do you know more people came over to tell me about the young guy yelling? I couldn't stop laughing. Evidently according to everyone else he had been doing it to everyone all through the concert except for the men. This was nice to hear because that would have sucked if he had saved that up for me.

Cute musician man who we haven't heard from in awhile was there. He was the one who shared with me that young man was doing that to everyone. Of course musician man appeared to be unable to determine that I was singing in French. I was concerned briefly that my words weren't reaching the back of the room when I heard that but no, that wasn't it, He was sleeping! His brother woke him halfway through my number when they realized it was me.... Very funny. He got a promotion by the way.... :-) I don't anticipate anything major happening here to be honest, which is sad for him really. ( That is how I am looking at it... so just go with that for now. )

So I have to say.....

This, was a first!

Being Neighborly

I have lived in my current residence coming up on 3 years in April.

The amazing conglomerate of people that reside here has found me to be nice and charming, but I don't really connect with anyone. By the large majority people here tend to be older in a very different place in their lives, or they just aren't social.

I live in a specific area where my immediate neighbors are approachable and friendly and we keep up to date on each other in the parking lot, the hallways, elevators, mailroom etc. But we don't socialize.

Now I have borrowed Ice from the couple across the hall, I have watched the kids of the couple next door one or two times and assisted the lady down the hall with her cats when they are ill. My neighbor next door is wonderful as well.

So two years ago, a woman moved in across the way. We've been friendly and somewhat social when we see each other until this year. I would say the last 4-5 months.

We know a lot of the same people. She grew up in this town and so did I ( to a point). We are the same age, but did not attend the same schools. Consequently, unless I was a regular at the public library ( which I am not - though I am an avid reader - I buy my books), our paths would not have crossed if we hadn't moved into this building.

We had exchanged phone numbers around Thanksgiving in the event of an emergency and found ourselves talking on the phone more and more frequently. We both attended a wake together as the family were friends of mine and she grew up next door ( and no we still didn't meet). She is active in the community and so am I, though ironically not as much in my own community as others....

We have a ton in common. We are the same age 3 months apart - ( I won't tell ou which one is older). We have opinions in common that are not in the mainstream either which is funny. And we tend to blurt those things out when we least expect it. It's always a trip.

We have the condo's best interests at heart and we do a lot of talking and sharing of ideas on h ow to keep the building nice and how to improve it cost - efficiently. We talk about heating, extermination, snow removal, additions of a fence, better parking, new superintendents, the new lobby ( stunning by the way - I'll try to take pictures and upload). We then select the most reasonable top three and bring those to our semi annual owners meetings.

By now you must know that I am not shy. Neither is she. librarianchic is a blast to hang out with and I really was truthfully surprised. This year I have made 3 new good friends. Out of the blew...... My Voice Twin, The "good" girl and Librarianchic.

I was the child that had the report cards come back to my mom saying "Good social skills.... sometimes too good. makes Friends easily. talks too much in class" But in more recent years I have been paring down my circle rather than enhancing it. No good reasons why, maybe dynamics change, lives go in different directions, or the universe just decided this particular relationship has served its purpose and time to move on.

So it delights me to no end to have these three women in my life in their capacitys. I have amazing fun with all of them. Laughter is so important to me. If we aren't having fun - what's the point?

Maybe not the quintessential people pleaser after all

I did something interesting Tuesday and Wednesday without even realizing it.

I truly put myself first.

It was work-related to start with. I have a project that I will refer to as Project SSB. I was going

I realize that I have to this completed on Tuesday NIGHT for them to be ready on Wednesday morning.

I looked at my schedule. I had 2 kids to teach and I had to pick up my house and get it ready for my housekeeper to come on Wednesday when she normally comes on a Friday.

So I looked at the workload and re-arranged the kids to other days and re-scheduled the housekeeper to another day as well.

I was so amazed and proud of myself for putting my needs ahead of everyone elses.

Of course, that not withstanding, I did drive out in an Ice storm pelting me and my car with pellets of ice ( fairly large by the way) so that I could give one of my students a final lesson before his solo festival. It didn't even occur to me to check the website to see if it was postponed.

It was.

I drove in that nightmare for nothing. But my kids and their parents were extremely thankful. I got a bottle of Body Glimmer Wash in strawberry fizz from Victorias Secret as a thank you. Yum.

Poor Poodle

Seriously - I love him to death. He knows it, I know it - pretty much everyone knows it.

I torment him though.

You see, somehow I can find the person on my team, always, who fall for my childish practical jokes.

Never EVER aimed to hurt, Poodle has been on the receiving end of the great toilet scam, the Barclays Barking Robots and the very first and a classic, never before written about, Becky.

We have a long history together. Nothing can make us laugh faster than a good practical joke. We are so immature that we have taken to leaving VM's with funny things on it.... Once he left the title track to "Oklahoma" on during a particularly hairy project in said state. I have left classic clips from "will and grace" and "the Birdcage" on his VM.

When I did most of my work in an office, I was often surrounded by empty desks for the amount of laughing that I did. It was A LOT. Less now.... but sadly there's less to laugh at.

But most recently in talking about our early years on the team together, the Becky story came up.

We have a help desk in our company. Becky works for this Help desk - or helpless desk as we call it when her station in the ACD rings. She gets on with a very specific pronounced conglomerate accent that's nearly untraceable. One of my first days on the team, Poodle and I were on the phone and he put me on hold because Becky was calling him back.

He gets back on the line with me, and says:

"Can you believe her? Becky belongs in the Order prevention department !" ( A fictitious place we use as a catchall when we are being thwarted at delivering prompt and good customer service).

A momentary pause....

"Poodle, this is Becky" I mimic nearly perfectly....

dead silence.

"uh, um, hmmm - " Stammers Poodle

I foil my own jokes though because I can't contain my laughter. I burst out laughing and he lost it. The two of us were howling with laughter.

Bringing me to yesterday. I was in the middle of a serious rant with him over conditions in the workplace and dealing with "delivery and execution" crappola from above. I was literally having a fit. I was swearing like a drunken sailor. ( that's my real vice guys - I seldom drink, no drugs, no smoking - I swear and I like it. ) I couldn't take it anymore. He finally laughs and tells me he doesn't understand my management techniques upwards at all. He can't fathom yelling at those above and giving then directives. But it works for me and it gets results.

I calmed down for a moment. Paused and said,

"Poodle, anyone can be trained. You just have to know what their hotspot is. - look we trained you!"

silence then uproarious laughter.

The kid was back....

Branching out

I attempte to branch out with my food choices today.



I was VERY VERY stressed from my job. In fact - I shut off my instant messengers ( all 4) and forwarded my phone to voice mail so no one would bother me. Only those trusted members of my staff knew to call my home directly.



I did eventually sign on to the one my boss doesn't know about or have access too. I needed to have other's visible even if I was too busy to "chat" - the task at hand was just too critical for me to be MIA.

I had 28 large sub tasks to accomplish by 5PM. I only got started truthfully at 1. I was pretty impressed that I was down to keying each one in in roughly 6 minutes when I was on a roll.

I got 26 out 28 in by 5 and the other 2 done before the end of the person's workday who needed it ( lord bless central standard time).

But I inhaled a lunch literally eaten with 1 hand ( A Weight watchers "smartwich" if you are interested - pepperoni and cheese - 6 points) while I keyed in with the other. I took a 5 minute break annd one of my cats and I sat on the couch while I ate an activia fat free yogurt and he looked longingly at it hoping to get some when I was finished - alas - mais non pour le pussy-cat!
I went and taught some kids that I haven't taught in 2 months due to contruction and major piano renovations done. Kids did well for a two month Hiatus. I got to have 2 light beers with their mom ( 4 points if anyone cares) and did some rapid calculations for dinner....

I could have either 2 slices of Pizza and a hot chocolate

Or

1 cup of brown rice with cheese and 3 girl scout cookies with tea.

I went with the pizza.

I have an addiction to pizza, but the minute I decided that I was happening I called in my order for 2 slices to be ready when I got there, then I wouldn't get tempted for a third while I was there giving my order.

I ate my slices slowly in wonderment - not yet with a knife and fork but that will come soon. I took a hot lovely bath.

And now I must go .... My hot cocoa is done.

Things are going super well.

Genealogy

I recently discovere my Scottish heritage.

Ironically, it was from reading a book. A fictional series by Lilian Jackson Braun title "The cat who...." It takes a place in a ficitious town "400 miles north of anywhere". The main character is a newspaper man who comes into money. He has two Siamese cats. He is dating the head librarian of the town who's last name is Duncan.

In one book, her sister is getting married and using traditional Scottish Garb. Mrs. Duncan the librarian is wearing the clan sash, her sister too.... the millionaire is wearing full Scottish regalia of the Macintosh clan. This sparked a question for me.

You see Duncan is a last name that is part of the Robertson Clan. My Great Grand father was Stewart Robertson. A light bulb went off.

So I started searching and looking and found that branch of the family. It's HUGE. Evidentally Robertson is like Smith in US. But they are all inter-related. So I have a truckload of family in country I have never been to.

But I found our tartan. I sent My grandmother ( the daughter of the Scotsman) A wool scarf made out of our hunting tartan. Its somewhat similar to Blackwatch without the yellow...

I was so excited when I found this. I love geneology and wish I had more patience for it. I know I am German primarily, but also Scottish, a tiny bit of Irish, Austrian, Belgian, French, Hungarian and I am sure there is more. It's easier for me to tell you what I am not than what I am.

The great majority is German. My Dad was entirely German and my mom is 25% German, 25% Austrian and 50% all the rest.

I guess I'm a Contessa but I just don't have ONE country - I have MANY!

Eating by the numbers

I have tried the unit eating plan for 1 day and I was successful.

surprisingly so.

And happy - go figure.

Happy because I wasn't overly hungry, I was comfortable and I was not resentful in the slightest.

Clearly this was the way to go.

On Caramel Pie: I feel that I should elaborate based on some of the comments that came back....

To Title Troubles: Dreaming of caramel pie isn't the problem - for me. It was eating it! ALL of it - without caring. No more pie when I am in this mindset. Not never, just not now....... I'll virtually save you a piece!

To Post-Doc: I blame myself for tossing out my own lessons learned so light heartedly for something so heavenly. I love your recipes and I love trying them! they are always soooo good. You too get a virtual piece saved!

Caramel Pie is delicious concoction that turns out to be 8 points per average sized slice. In another mindset, one I am not currently in but am working towards, I could factor that slice in and not need to eat more - even knowing it was in the house. But , for right now, it's better for me to not have sweets in the house and eat straight into units.

Units are foods that are already portioned out. I am doing much better with that. A yogurt, a veggie burger, one hot cocoa packet, one serving of Girl Scout cookies ( these I portioned out myself and left all in the car but the one portion I planned to eat and 2 Samoas'= 3 points).

It reads extreme. But I am calling it eating boot camp for me. Once the behaviours are re-established, I can start being more flexible and working new foods and weights and measures into it. Otherwise I have the tendancy to have measurements that are way off - using my eyes rather than the tools, scales, measuring cups - all of that.

Trust me when I tell you that this is a life long project. When one plan doesn't work, you have to find another that will. It's seasonal sometimes, it's event driven at others. Right now, I"m at a seasonal situation AND an event driven situation - so it's back to pre-packaged or pre-portioned out food choices. Soon new vegetables will arrive and they will be fresh and wonderful so I can add back salads....

I just keep plugging away, modifying as I go. I will find the formula that works - for now, write it down and refer to later when I need a trick.

I so optimistic now - I feel wonderful!

The great resentment

I'm having a mental block with Weight Watchers.

I did not go to the meetings the last two weeks due to conflicts in schedule and illness. I rarely miss one let alone two meetings. And that may be the issue here.

The bottom line is I resent having to eat less of what I like. it could be the healthiest food on earth and I will find away to eat more than I should.

I have eliminated sweets from my house with few exceptions. I have substituted Dannon Activia Low fat yogurts ( Raspberry is YUMMY), Dannon Light and fit smoothies, banana's and low fat graham crackers.

That has actually solved my sweet tooth problem. If I run into the need for Chocolate, Swiss Miss comes riding in to save the day with her fat free Marshmallow lovers hot chocolate made with water and skim milk.

My problem seems to be quantity not quality.

One of the major benefits to writing this blog is it helps me problem solve better. Learning from yourself is the best lesson I think. Reading other's blogs can be helpful as well. ( Post-Doc don't describe Caramel Pie Anymore - I DREAM about it!!!! Only kidding.... better to read about it than eat it)

In writing this post, it appears time for me to start eating what I call unit foods. Foods that are single serve sizes, prepackaged either by the manufacturer or by me in advance. That will keep my eating more uniform till I get the behaviours learned and consistent.

I need to get consistency into my exercise also which will be a challenge for this week.

It's very important that I take care of this and not quit. The weight has to get to a manageable point and as Lisa so rightly said - I'm tired of being the fat girl in pictures. I hear that.

So on the heels of finishing my homemade mac and cheese ( Barilla plus pasta = 3 WW points per cup, Brummel and BRown yogurts spread = 1 WW point per serving, a splash of skim milk and 1 oz of land o lakes sliced american cheese ( usually 2 slices)= 2). Total of 5 points per cup.

I ate 3 cups.

I had 13 points left

I owe somebody 2

I think I owe it to me.

allergies

I keep forgetting that allergy season is bursting to get started.

I'm not having that problem yet as it really hasn't started here yet, but I was reminded by the pollen notifications that started arriving in my inbox.

I have a tendancy to check the forecasted pollen as much in advance as they can tell me so I can medicate appropriately.

I have a cold right now - not a bad mind bending cold that has me hacking and coughing, but it is knocking me out and keeping me very tired. So it was with some level of surprise that at 5:00 yesterday my eyes started itching and tearing and the goo is in there. I took my eye drops ( I have an antibiotic, an allergy and a steroid that I have to take in the form of eye drops when this happens) and took a zyrtec 6 hours earlier than normal, but still within the prescription limits. Then I got the icepack out for my eye to keep the swelling down. Then the sneezing started and then the overwhelming need to sleep came over me.

I kind of feel like Dorothy in the wizard of Oz when this happens. Her overwhelming need to sleep when she see's the poppy's always felt more like a pollen induced phenomen the the Wicked Witch's. I real;y never understood how the witch could take credit for that.

So now I have to leave half an hour after this starts to teach a piano lesson. I walk in with an ice pack and they look at it, and no one asks any questions. This makes me laugh. But by the time I leave there, I am feeling much better. I guess I didn't look scary, the kids didn't comment.

I get home and notice that the flowers that I was given last week, were drooping and the pollen was lying on the top of my entertainment center. This is about 2 feet from my desk. Ah Ha!!!!

I really can't clean it up in my current condition. I have to wait - but I know what it is now that caused this premature pollen issue.

But the ever need to sleep and rest due to the pollen prevailed. I went to bed at 11:30 with the expectation that I would be able to be up between 9-10. I woke up at 4 went to bed again at 5 and slept till 11:30. Not exactly 12 hours, but still substnatially more than I tend to sleep. I am assuming I needed it. I am going to have to be really active and busy today if I intend to succeed wtih DST tonight. I don't do well with any time changes.

Anywhere. No matter where I go with a time change, my joke is, I can't even make it through DST or the change back without backlash to my sleeping patterns. 1 hour, 3 hours, 6 hours - no can do. When I am overtired I get nautious which is a curious sensation for me as I rarely deal with that.

So I skipped my voice lesson because of the allergy attack and I canceled it last night as I knew I would be useless this morning. And I was.

I need to get well from the cold and the allergies. I don't normally whine about something that is so commonplace for me. But I had two fabulous weeks so I really want to get back to that.

90 miles an hour with my hair on fire

At least that's what it feels like I am doing these days.

One of colleagues had a terminal illness in the family and was summoned to NY on Tues night. Unfortunately weather conditions delayed and routed him to Philly. By the time he landed at the airport in Long Island, this person had passed away. It's very sad to lose someone at all but someone who's 41 is very difficult.

I mention this because while all this was happening, and I was covering his workload, I also had a wake to attend for the daughter of a family friend. Also 41. She passed away due to a car accident. I didn't know the daughter to speak to as she was enough years older than me growing up. Her dad had passed away in December so this is a double whammy for the mother.

Now, I am the only member of my family who attended the wake. My step mom, who is closest to the mother, called her and they had some discussion about it. But Ellen knows that my step mom really avoids wakes at all cost since my dad died. I go, pay my respects to the family, but I do not approach the coffin for any reason. It is a rare day. I did for my grandmother but honestly, I didn't look at her.

When they opened the coffin for the private viewing for my dad, I was stunned to see how much healthier he looked in death. We buried him in his tails. I put his conductor's baton and pictures of his cats in with him. That bothered me, how well he looked. People shouldn't look better in death and I honestly lobbied for a closed casket. I just don't see the need to look at a person in that state. Not that they care. They no longer inhabit that body.

So, I don't do viewings. I do pay my respects and offer to cook meals etc for the family. The wake was the strangest I had ever been to. People were hysterical and throwing themselves on the coffin. I saw many of my dad's friends and collegues - some I hadn't seen since before he died - and so I as accepting my own condolences at someone else's wake. Weird. Even my neighbor, who went with me, agreed this was really odd.

As tragic as all this death was, I actually handled it so much better than I had this time last year. Those posts reflect how far down I went dealing with so much death. No clue why.

Through all of this I am working like a dog on both my work and my colleague's. I tend to put more effort into keeping my colleague's work from piling up than my own during that time. And with that in mind I spent my entire day correcting 4 international orders because the ruleset for that country changed since Monday ( this is a pet peeve of mine), then entering the last 6 orders for the same coutries under the new ruleset. The corrections took 2 hours and the new orders took a total of 30 minutes.... silly. I hate this system.

From there, I left to have my routine bloodwork done, visit my office briefly, teach 1 kid for an hour and another for 30 minutes.

The very first time I sat down to do anything remotely for me was 8PM. Now this may appear to be a complaint. It's not. To be home at 8 vs 10 is always a treat. I feel like I have gained time.

I am trying to slow my pace down. I'm not doing as well with it as I want. I have a tendancy to overbook in an attempt to make everyone happy. I'm a people pleaser and I always have been.

So in review of month 2 of the plan - I need to not be going 90 miles a hour with my hair on fire all the time. I am planning one activity and if another comes up, well, I'm sorry but I made the commitment to activity 1 first, can we reschedule for another time?

It's a piece of my personality that I don't want to get rid of ( it's very helpful in my professions), but I do need tame it. Manage it better.

So, yes this post is a little bit rambly - but I reserve the right to do that!

My eyelashes all in curls....

So... I have gotten a couple of inquiries on this topic so I decided a full post was warranted.

Men this MAY not be for you though you are more than welome to read along.

Now I am sure you are all to familiar with the traditional eye lash curler and mascara methods of coloring and adding length and curl to your eyelashes.

First, you clamp the eyelash curler over your lashes, hold for undetermined amount of time, release and apply mascara.

If you are me, the undetermined length of time is anywhere from 5-7 minutes per eye. My eyelashes are sparse on my right eye, fuller on my left and are straight and angle down. And they are blond.

So when my nail technician ( who is a certified ( and certifiable) aesthetician), brought the eye lash perm to the salon where she works, I was on board to try it. It cost 35 dollars and the first two rounds were OK. The last 2 times are nothing short of spectacular now that the process is refined a bit.

In short its the same concept as perming your hair. They have a curler that has gentle adhesive on it and attach it to your eyelid. THey fold the lashes up over it. They then brush on perm solution ( specifically diluted and designed for eyelashes).

Once all of this is done, they put mini showercap looking adhesive wraps over your eyes.

Throughout this you are lying on a comfortable padded table with a pillow and blanket. Your eyes are closed. I like to use this time for napping. I plug in my ipod and relax. 20 minutes later they remove the mini shower caps, rinse off the solution with a soft cloth and warm water.

But your not done yet.

Next Vitamin E cream is applied to the skin around the eye including the upper and lower lids. then a half moon shaped bandage is applied to the skin right underneath the eye to protect the skin. At this point a tinting ( much like highlighting solution for your hair) solution is applied to the lower lashes. Then you close your eyes and the solution is brushed on the top lashes with your eyes closed. Again with the mini shower caps, and you continue your nap for another 15-20 minutes.

When you wake up they remove the showercaps and again rinse your eyes off with the soft warm cloth and Voila - one has tinted AND curly eyelashes.

There is no pain and you get to nap. Each application lasts roughly 8-10 weeks. Mine have gone as long as 12. I'm very happy with the results. I don't have to wear mascara but I can and either way it looks fantabulous.

The whole gig is 70 dollars. Well worth the effort. And my eyes look ever so lovely.

The Plan: Month 2 check in

Here I am for month 2 of the borrowed plan:

Scenario 1 - Health

• Exercise - I have made the commitment to walk 5 days a week. I am probably actually doing this 2 times a week on the average. 30-45 minutes. It's more consistent then last month but not entirely where I want to be.
• Food - Here I am doing 100% better. I am journaling my food daily. I am eating more fruit and re-discovered banana's. I am very happy with my overall food choices. I need work still in restaurants. I want to start including more veggies.
• Journal - going really well. More days than not. I have 5 days down consistently and the weekends get shot to hell. So my goal is every single bite gets marked down.
• Overall Health Management - My skin looks amazing. I am even back to wearing makeup. I had my eyelashes permed and tinted. I have the humidifer going daily 24 hours. I started an internal cleanse and that is going really well. I am resting when my body says to rest. It's a lot lately but that's OK. When I don't need it, I won't take it. My water and fluid intake is excellent. I am taking baths in baking soda, dead seal salt, ,baby oil with aloe and vitamin E and a touch of Blue Food coloring to make me feel like I am in a Spa every night. It's really relaxing. I have started doing Yoga again - though I just literally started so the benefits aren't quite there yet.

Scenario 2 - Job/Career

• I have started managing my boss better. Boss no longer manages me, I manage Boss. Things are different now that I ( and my team) know that Boss is not competent either as a manager or as an employee. That's fact not opinion.
• I am starting to keep the communication lines open more for the 5 other people on my team. I have one new person and one person who has trouble managing workload. Given that one my major responsibilities is to load balance the workload of the team, I took back this task from my manager. Boss doesn't know enough at this point to do that job and isn't interested in learning.
• We as a team have started giving boss busy work to do so we can get our work done.
• I am just doing the best job I know how and taking the lead away from boss as often as possible while making sure that anything that has to have boss's name attached to it as actually done by Boss.
• I decided that I will not be doing Boss's job anymore unless it is to back him up in his absence. If my projects are dependent on Boss doing some task, then boss has to ante up and get that task done. Either Boss gets the job done or Boss has to answer to Herr Direktor.
• I'm taking my lunch when I am supposed to. I am taking random 15-20 minute breaks to get my brain focused. I am shutting down at 5 and I no longer work weekend, after hours or holidays unless I am on call.

Scenario 3 - My home

It's clean and neat and that's all I can ask right now. This month I have things to start doing in terms of organization and interior design.

Scenario 4 - finances

• Paid off one credit card. Have less than 100 left on the other
• Last payment on 401K loan is pending the end of this month
• Started making the payments to the IRS on my tax adjustments from a prior tax year
• Continuing to add money to my investment portfolio
• My bank ( Bank of NY) was bought out by Chase so I am now interviewing new banks to see if moving my money makes sense. I hate JPMC. And I'm doubly pissed that they bought out my bank that I have been with since I am 10.
• Working through my debt and bring that number smaller and smaller. It's so manageable right now that I am thrilled.

Scenario 5 - Education

• Getting my kids ready for Solo festivals in this state.
• I am taking the courses required to become certified to adjudicate in these festivals for next year.
• Still studyding voice and doing well. My next performance is 3/18.

Scenario 6 - Family & Friends

• My mom threw a wonderful reception after my recital. It was excellent.
• My brother chose to go to the baptism. It's not OK. I'm over it now.
• Communication is still going well with the family. My sister is having a baby shower, and though I was late in RSVP'ing, I still did.
• I am putting a lot of effort into my relationships with my friends. I had lunch with a bunch of them on Saturday morning. That was just lovely. I have 3 people that I met in the past 2 years that we are still getting to know one another. I am, as always, grateful to my college buds, who are there for me no matter what. If I do something stupid, the worst thing I ever heard from them was "We tried to tell you..." I love them for it. We cultivate each other through Blogging now. I love that, but I miss them.

Scenario 7 - Self esteem

• I had hit a really really low low low low low point. If you can even believe how it revolved around Chinese food. The delivery boys at the local restaurant miss me. I no longer do takeout. Or anything else there. I can't stomach it any more. I overate and hit rock bottom. Once you are there - there's nowhere else to go but up.
• I am taking some life lessons from the young ones that I am friends with. Yes they are in their early twenties., but I think that's a bonus actually. The things I take away from the two of them is that they are very self assured in the capabilities and when they are not they are not afraid to get the assistance or do the work needed to improve. This impresses me about both of them and I have started believing in my own abilities and seeking assistance where needed. It was the belief system that was flawed here, not my ability. Identification in such a specific form was helpful
• I am working really hard to play back new inproved soundtracks in my head. A new one that I like these days is "You are only human. There isn't anything that has happened that can't be corrected" and the other one I like is " You can't please all the people all the time". Trite? maybe - but they are helping a lot. slowly but surely
• I am making more of an effort when I walk out of the house. Now I don't mean my appearance so much ( I always look fabulous! wink wink) but how I carry myself and my attitude.
• I am doing my life Makeovers. This is a great help for putting my life in order.

NEW Scenario - Faith

• Effort being made to make it to church every week for 10:15 service. It's tough as I need to start at 8AM so this is a long haul of a day for me. But it's my favorite service, its the family service with the most ( and best) music.
• I am taking more time to reflect during this lenton season. I chose to make the effort to exercise 5 days 30 minutes rather than give something up.

There it is - month 2. I think I have made a lot of progress in some areas and I know there is work to be done in others. I need to develop some behaviours and then get them into practice so that they are second nature before taking on smaller things. I have made mini goals and these monthly check points are just that check points so you can see how the plan is coming along.

As usual my credit line goes to Post - Doc for "the plan" and the inspiration to adopt it!

My Neighbors

Who are people in your neighborhood? Asks Mr Rogers

A classic song and we all remember him tossing one shoe from one hand to the other.

I have excellent neighbors for the most part. I have made pretty good friends with the woman who has the mirror image unit from me. she works in the library here in town.

We can't even be on the phone for less than 30 minutes and she literally lives 1 minute away.

But she and I keep each other aware of things in our building that may compromise the investment.

For example, we live next door to a former mansion turned rooming house. A little old greek guy runs it. He's like a little drill sergeant. I've spoken with him on any number of occasions and he's very nice and very respectful. I haven't ever seen anything amiss at his rooming house. But he's a tough cookie.

We recently voted to install a fence between his home and our outside parking lot. It's taken quite literally 6 months to get the permits and zoning to do this.

So yesterday I pull into the lot, there is a huge sign tacked to the tree that says:

"Mr.Fence Please stay out"

I literally laughed out loud. Then I pulled out my cell phone and called Reg on the phone an told her what's going on - she looked out her window and burst out laughing - even from up on our floor, you can read that sign large as life.

That was Saturday morning.

So Last night I came home at 11PM from my normal Sunday NIght rehearsal to find my lot full. Overfull in fact.

This is a problem.

I pay to park in that lot. It's money that is part of my maintenance costs. It's not cheap. So when I pull in there at 11PM, I should have a spot waiting for me correct?

Well there are several issues here. One, I have requested that we number the spots and assign one, got voted down. Then we decided to make sure that those people who have garage space aren't parking in the lot too. Then we towed "inactive" cars out of the lot. so we have done a lot of work to free up as many spaces for use by residents.

We were all issued Parking permits to be displayed form the rear view mirror. A towing company will come through and check at night and silently tow away the violators.

They haven't been around in awhile.

10 people were parked in the lot that did not have parking permits last night! I "created" a spot near the dumpsters and went upstairs. This morning I called the Management Company and included both the sign and parking situation.

We are working very hard in this building to make this a safe and lovely place to live. We have just finished the re-furbishing of our pool and lobby. It looks stunning now. They have updated the directories and lighting fixtures. Updated the surveillance systems.

I still maintain that if we really want to mae this a fair and pleasant place to live, we need to make the parking situation better. Right now we have narrow spots - I mean narrow. People are not careful and it starts to look and feel a lot like bumper cars out there.

If we numbered and assigned the spots - 1 per unit - that would require us to have 88 spots in the lot. We have 70 at this time. Indoor garages hold another 40 slots. That means for 88 apartments, everyone can have one slot. If there is a second vehicle it should be on a first come first serve and it should cost. Our indoor garage is 30 per month and you get an assigned spot. We have a rule that says if if you have indoor space you have to forfeit your outdoor space.

So what is the problem? these people who are using the lot and are not registered occupants of the building. I saw one woman walk in from the outdoor lot with her boyfriend last night and she pays for an indoor spot. In looking at his car? No permit.

The next owners meeting is in May and I already have a list. So does Reg -- her's includes hoarding, keeping the hourly rental shopping carts in the garage overnight and just how DID they multiply from 2 to 4 overnight? Renters, sublet's etc.

I just want to protect my investment. I also think I want make sure that this is happy and safe place to live.

Men that cook and men that eat

today was one of those bad forays into the dark dark world of eating.

Not a lot I could do to control it to the degree that I should, so I just did the best that I could.

I had my lesson this morning, which went well. I had to laugh because I deliberately set up my digital recorder to record my lesson so that there would be no question about the diction on my German songs. we didn't do them this week. Sounded like a great plan though.

From there I went to a diner in town to meet my friends. Those of you paying attentiong to The Contessa's Life Makovers will note that on my absolute yes list for this week was to nurture and take care of the relationships with my friends, so this was an awesome step in that direction.

While we were there catching up - seven of us on a bustling busy Saturday in town, we made our plans for two different get togethers. I will be hosting a Murder Mystery dinner at my home and Chris will be hosting a 70's theme party. We set dates and guest lists and set about catching up and sharing / caring ( code for good gossip not harmful). Lots of fun and good times and I miss that with these guys. Out of 7 of us 5 of us live within a few blocks radious and yet we rarely get together.

The guys ate like birds. I never saw anything like it. Egg white omelettes, ,salads. The woman ate burgers. fries. onion rings.

when did the balance of power shift?

Later that night I get my act together and go to a Kiwanis function called "Men that Cook". We basically find 10-15 men who cook an entree and bring it in to serve. We like men in the community who are doing something civic minded. We had the school superintendent and some local pols and the new bank manager, fire chiefs. policemen, that kinds of thing.

The food they cooked is not suitable for any diet anywhere. So now take the ziti's, lasagnas, chilis, baked mac and cheese and mutilply iy 15 and hope for the best.

NOT HAPPENING.

But it was worth it - we made a huge profit which is all going to scholarships.

My moral for the day is men may cook, but they aren't eating what they are cooking and they are capable losing weight way too fast.

It's just not fair.

Ah! Blissful sleep

I can't tell you how wonderful a good nights sleep really is.

I've recently discovered this given my hideous sleeping habits.

After a really good day of self care yesterday, in short, making my top priorities about me, I was suitably tired after a hot bath and went to bed at 11:45. I slept until 7AM and then dosed until 8:40. I got out of bed and had nice leisurely breakfast before I got on a conference call.

It gave me energy. I ate well again today. I even exercized again. With Weights.

They say that good skin and hair comes from quality sleep. Sleep and rest help the body recoup from illness and prevent future illnesses.

I finally got my head in the game. I am on the second full day and I am loving it.

Even the stupid stuff that I deal with each day with my boss, seemed trivial. In fact, I ignored him. He's traveling so I signed off the Instant Messenger software that he uses so he couldn't bother me. made my day more pleasant.

THe week too for that matter. I've been much happier and much more productive with him gone. I don't actually want to think that through too much.

I was so motivated that I did tackle my project for automation of status reports today. I put in some sample orders and trialed the reports. I am reasonably sure that we can do the double entry needed to prove out the system for less than one month. Which would cheer my team to no end. THis system is a serious lifestyle change for us. For as much as I am all for it, I feel that taking the control away is going to be a little bit scary. What WILL I do with my time? What if the database goes down and we lose access? So I"m still doing the legwork while we trial the system.

I even borrowed resources to help get the current data loaded in. So I had to make the executive decision to cut the system live immediately. I have been loathe to do it for the reasons above, but I was feeling brave today. So I made the executive decision and I will train my team on this starting Monday.

Having sorted that out, I decided, hell - I can start organizing my bookcases. So I started that. I did the one in the hallway today. I noticed that I get an OBSCENE amount of catalogs. I am more frightened by the fact that I actually read all of them. I tear out the pages I like and make sure that catalog name or website is on there and throw them away. But I have a tendancy to get behind on that.

I am excited because with my bonus I bought some new clothes, some yankee candles, more vitamins and today I bought ballet outfits for the twins. Cute little toddler leotards in ballerina pink with matching tights.... absolutely priceless. Twin 2 already had tap shoes so I picked up a pair for Twin 1. They are 4 so this is absolutely the cutest thing. I can't wait to see them in it! What fun!!! They are going to be sooo unbelievably cute!

I am really starting to feel empowered. This is fabulous.

On a sad note - Mowpee - Chris's cat - died this week. She will be terribly missed by her papa and her siblings. She was a very dear special cat. She was very bonded to her human.

RIP and a safe journey over the Rainbow Bridge my friend - Sir Richard and Brutus are waiting for you!