welcome to my mind: January 2011

upgraded to warning

one of my downfalls as a trained weather spotter is not being able to remember the difference between "watch" and "warning." they both begin 'w.' i think, in my crazy head, that watching out for something sounds imminent, while a warning is just that... a warning. imagine getting disciplined for something: "watch out for this spanking!" or "I'm warning you about a spanking!" which sounds worse? exactly.

anyway, the chicagoland area has been upgraded from "Blizzard Watch" to "Blizzard Warning." the NOAA map has gone from green to red. red is bad, that much i know.

please read the highlighted parts of this forecast and be jealous. or happy, that you're not getting dumped on in a little over 24 hours.

motherf*ckin' snow

the chicagoland area is currently under a blizzard watch. two storms are going to be rolling through here in the next 48-60 hours that are supposedly going to drop up to 20" of snow. as i was driving into work today, i took the time to take note of the relative ease at which i, and fellow drivers and pedestrians, could move around. how clear the streets and sidewalks were. how easy and quickly i got into my car. how unimpeded my walk to the entrance of work was.

because it's all going to change.

don't get me wrong, i'm excited to see this much snow. the weather powers that be are claiming this storm will be as bad as the one that hit January 2, 1999. i remember falling asleep on my couch in front of the window that Saturday and waking up to a winter wonderland. i tried not to let the snow prevent me from heading out to my usual dance hangout 40 miles away, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. dressed in 4 inch heels and driving a 1990 grand am, i'm lucky i didn't die in a snowdrift that night. i could barely see 4 feet in front of me, but i could see enough to notice 4 wheel drive cars in the ditch. it took about 2 hours to go 2 miles, but i finally made it home unscathed. being 25 makes you kind of stupid sometimes.

so here we are again, on the cusp of a similar weather event. some of mt coworkers and friends are saying, "nah, it'll never happen. we'll never get that much snow." and if they're right, then part of me will be happy that my life will continue on as usual. but given the warnings that are out there now, i seriously doubt that we would be so lucky here in chicago.

i will be keeping track of this storm on my blog for documentation. and maybe for prosperity.

outside my office. 10:42am CST. 31 January 2011.

forecast as of 12:53pm CST. 31 January 2011. i've lived in the midwest my entire life and i've never seen a forecast for that much snow... ever.

what now?

have you ever had one of those days when you're so irritated that you feel like you're coming out of your skin? everything is rubbing me the wrong way, like every nerve is on fire. i find myself yelling at commercials, swearing at my computer at the slightest swirl of the beach ball. the tiniest bump, snag, hold-up, sends my coping mechanisms into infant mode. and trying to figure out why starts the irritation all over again.

here is the bottom line: i don't like what i do anymore. for the last 5 years or so, i have been on a severely tilted career path. publishing is not what it used to be. corporate america is only out for itself and its bottom line. i have worked as a temp for a company for over a year that can't get out of its own way long enough to hire me. and after this last stint, i don't think i want it. i am hearing rumblings of the "employee evaluations," which, in my 11 years in a corporate, NO ONE likes to do. who thought of these things? who thought that barging into my personal mind and making me set goals for my professional life was a good idea? hey, and you know what else? i have too much fucking work to spend hours making up crap that i might have time to get done in the next year at the office. if i don't want to take a photoshop class or an XML training session, then that should be MY decision, not Mr. Bossy Boss. Not the man sitting on high, making 6 figures. and he has no idea what it takes to get shit done on the lower level or else those fucking goals might do some good. but they never do. here's a goal: DO YOUR FUCKING JOB. did you achieve your goals from last year? No, i didn't have any time. so do i get less of a raise because i was bogged down with actual WORK? christ, those things are so stupid. the one good thing about being a temp is that i don't have to deal with those.

but what happens when i stop becoming a temp? every fiber of my being would rather run screaming in the opposite direction. but not just if i was offered a job at my current place... it would be if ANY corporate entity wanted to hire me. the thought of being in a cube the rest of my life, sitting behind a computer screen, doing what other people tell me, makes me want to run into traffic. and what else can i do to prevent myself from working in dead-end corporate america?

nothing, that's what.

and here i am.

shamrock shuffle (rescinded)

it turns out the code i was given to make the SS free was intended for Bank of America employees only. i received this email saying my registration was denied because i wasn't using a BoA email address. whooops.

needless to say, i won't be shelling out $45 to run with 45,000 of my best friends. but i still plan on training. just because i won't get a t-shirt doesn't mean i should stop running, right?

as a matter of fact, i ran 1.5 miles again last night. this time i took some pain meds (one aleve, one motrin) and it really made all the difference. these 1.5 miles came a lot easier than the ones on Tuesday. it's usually the other way around for me. the first run after a long break is usually the easiest, the next one usually sucks balls. one thing, tho, i think i took too many pain meds. i might just try the aleve on saturday. when i got off the treadmill, i was kind of dizzy and loopy. and i was 100% fine when i finished running; the loopiness happened when i was done with my cool down. very strange.

and i also lifted weights again.
incline leg press: 75lbs.
ham strings: 50lbs.

1.5 miles

yeah, i managed to slog myself 1.5 miles on the treadmill last night. last night was really an assessment, but my goal was at least 1 mile. my lungs and legs seemed to like it alright.

my hips, though... that's another story. after about 5 minutes, they began to make their opinion known with a burning at the joints. this has been happening for a while when i try to run or walk at a fast pace. i started having hip pain in the left hip back in 2006, but didn't really train very hard, so never really had any problems after that. but pain on the first run? this should be interesting.

i also did some leg weights.
incline leg press: 75lbs
hamstrings: 40lbs

shamrock shuffle

with the bribery of free registration, i signed up for the Shamrock Shuffle. the last time i tortured myself with this race was in 2004. wow. that's a long time. 8 years. anyway, it was chock full of runners and the first mile was walking (which was fine with me, not so much for my running partner, who was annoyingly gazelle-like), and the bag pick-up at the end totally sucked. plus, it's not for any charity or anything like that, so giving $35 to a bank just seemed stupid. also, i wasn't training as hard as i should have been for that 8k and i just about crapped out. i think that i was getting sick, because i was out for the count the next two days.

so needless to say, this isn't my favorite race. but a friend gave me a coupon code for free registration. FREE! that means i get to keep my (now) $45 and still get a free t-shirt. and maybe i'll even run it. heh-heh.

to prepare, i have planned out my runs from now until April 10, race day. i find it really appealing to plan work outs, but i find it very very very hard to stick to those plans. this plan is really very easy: 1 mile three times a week, 1.5 miles three times a week, 2 miles three times a week, etc. this should get me up to the required 5 miles.

but it's not the mileage that i hate. it's the TIME. i am so slow that it will probably take me an hour to run 5 miles. if i'm lucky. being on a treadmill is so unsufferably boring when you're in a gym. i think i just need to resign myself to that time and be done with it. maybe a few audiobooks will help me get through this.

wish me luck.

a picture a day

i was just looking one of my several failed blogs and got a little misty when remembering my 365 photo blog. my guilt was made worse when i saw that one of my photo friends started her own 365 blog:

http://ericabarracaphotography.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/365/

the problem that i encounter in doing these photo-a-day blog is that after a while it can become forced, almost like a chore. but the point is to just take pictures. to just get out there, even when you don't feel like it, and document something that you have an opinion about. and sometimes the hunt for a great image is the best part.

this being said, i am 13 days behind. and i left my camera at home. i guess i should just DO IT and see how far i get. i do miss my pictures.

so... be on the look out for some more images from me here:

http://threesixfivein2011.blogspot.com/

yarn dilemma

ok, here's the dilemma i have in the world of yarn.

i like to make small projects. projects that don't take a lot of time. Hats, scarves, little stuffed animals. the problem that i have is that if i need a new color yarn for a small project, i have to go and buy a whole skein of it, usually 5-7 oz. and given the amount of projects I do, this yarn piles up. I have a 20 gallon plastic tote crammed full of yarn.

i guess this means i should get knitting, huh? but i really want to do these:

http://technabob.com/blog/2009/10/18/amigurumi-mario-playset/

and this would require me to get more shades of brown for the goomba. i'll dig through my stash. maybe i have something that will suffice.

Dream interpretation

i had a very strange dream last night.

one was where scott and i were driving down this busy street. it was four lanes (two in each direction) and a middle turn lane. we stopped at a light and i looked behind me (i think i was driving) and there was a terrible accident that had just occurred. it looked like we had just missed that accident by seconds.

there was blood on the pavement and on the hood of one of the cars. i guess one car had pulled out of a parking lot and a car in the turn lane had crashed into him. the one car that did the hitting had the hood pushed all the way up into the passenger compartment. the other car had three guys in it who were totally bloodied up and unconscious.

i can't remember what we did next. i think we got out of the car and looked at the carnage. later in the dream, we were in some sort of building where they had put the people who were in the accident. one was alive, but we walked passed a room that had two of the guys from the hit car laying on the floor covered by blankets, obviously dead. in another room, there was some very pale woman/girl who was laying on the floor. she was still alive, but there was a hole in her head where her brains were leaking out. nice and graphic. i had to walk over her in order to get out of the room. she was just laying there, eyes open, totally scared, not moving, very very pale. there were people around her, trying to help her, or waiting until they could move her to a better place.

it was a very strange dream. anyone want to guess at what my subconscious was trying to tell me?

The House, part II, electric bugaloo

we're not going to get the house. as nice as it is, and as huge as it is, it might be too big for two people. plus, it's way the hell out in Zion. not that it wouldn't be nice to take advantage of the cheaper sales tax in WI (not to mention New Glarus beer just minutes away), but the house just isn't charming enough for me. i think most of the cool victorian accents have been taken out over the years. there might have been built-ins (there are some drawers in that purple room in the attic), there may have been leaded glass in the windows in the turret, the moulding may not have been painted a babyshit brown. the stairs and the built-in bench are the bomb, but the upstairs has almost no sign of 1906.

plus we really should focus on repairs around the homestead we're currently living in. and paying for.

but once those are done, who knows what could happen.

The House

we saw the house in Zion. it's beautiful on the outside and on the first floor. it was built in 1906, around the time the town really started booming. several of the houses on the block were built around the same time. it's two houses from the Zion Historical Society. it has a lot of the vintage charm from the early 20th century which is really amazing.

but someone took a hacksaw to the second and third floor and broke it up into 5 apartments, two on the second floor, two on the third, and two on the first. they put up walls where an ordinary person wouldn't have thought they could go. there are at least 4 kitchens that need to be taken out. there is water damage in the basement and the third floor. it also needs updated plumbing and electrical. and after all that repair has been done, it needs a new kitchen and bathrooms.

kitchen #1