No More Sitting On My Ass

It seems like everyone has physical fitness on the brain these days.

The FLYLady (aka Marla Cilley) is right in the middle of a Body Clutter challenge on Facebook. Kristen from Motherhood Uncensored is hosting the Shredheads for the month of March. Christina of A Mommy Story is once again hosting Hot by Blogher this year -- even her husband Aaron is aiming for a goal of his own.

Independently of all this --I swear, I've been thinking about this for like a month! -- I've also been thinking more about my own health and fitness. I'm coming to the realization that although I may not need to lose weight (come on, I want some boobs to speak of), I'm waaaay out of shape. I have no muscle, no tone, and no endurance whatsoever.

My husband and I are also starting to think about planning for baby -- and pregnancy -- number two (nothing solid yet, just starting the conversation). I am not at a place where I am happy with my body -- not that I've tried very hard to fix that. And before I get pregnant again, I'd at least like to be mostly satisfied with the shape I'm in. That way it will be easier to get back to a place I like after the fact (or at least not harder).

Plus, you know, I should probably start thinking about setting a good example for my kid(s) in the matter of eating habits and staying active. So they may be motivated to do the same.

So, here goes: my two, very general goals are: A) to eat better, and B) to be more active.

As far as my eating habits go, I want to eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; and fewer simple carbohydrates. I'd like to eat when I'm hungry -- no more, no less; and eat appropriate portions for my caloric needs.

As for increased activity, I'd like to have a basic level of fitness, and then add endurance, a bit of tone, and possibly a little more strength and flexibility. Oh, and it has to be fun. I know myself by now, and I won't stick to it if it's not fun or if I can't find a way to make it fun.

So maybe I'll try some walking or jogging, swimming in a few months, maybe even basketball or something. I have three great places to work out: the Jewish Community Center, my apartment complex facility, and the Power Shack gym -- all of which are free! But they're not doing me any good if I don't go.

So tell me: are you in good shape? Do you have room for improvement? Do you have any plans for improvement, and if so, what are they?


*Remember: healthy weight loss is defined as only about 1 to 2 pounds per week. If you're fairly inactive like me, start slow and build up. Don't work the same muscle groups every day -- every other day is plenty. Most importantly, get a buddy! If you have someone going for a goal right along with you -- even if it's a different goal -- it's sooo much easier! Plus, if you have to be accountable to someone other than yourself, it's more likely you'll actually follow through.

And don't forget to stay hydrated!




Hmmm... also I can't seem to find my camera-uploader-plugger-inner-thingy. So, I will post the "before" pictures at a later point in time. After all, what's the point of planning to post "after" pictures if there's nothing to compare it to?

New York, New York

Last weekend (February 6-8, not Valentine's Day) we had our seconnd-ever family vacation. Well, sort of.

Our first-ever family vacation was more of a long weekend. We were still living in Boston, my son was about 6 weeks old, and my aunt-in-law Krystie, who lives in New York, wanted to see the baby us before we moved back to Ohio. She bought us Amtrak tickets there and back, and we took the very pleasant 4-hour train ride to Manhattan.

Adam slept much of the time while on the train and while in the city. We went to an art gallery and saw a glass blower, had dinner in a few very nice restaurants (between my husband's 22-dollar lobster platter -- which included an entire lobster, several mussels, shrimp, scallops, and clams over pasta -- and his uncle's cooking, we ate very well). Krystie took me shopping, and Brandon and I had our first post-baby date at a Mexican restaurant where they made the guacamole right there in front of you.

This time was another long weekend, and it wasn't exactly a vacation for my husband. Our friend writes for MovieWeb, and they wanted him to attend the New York Comic Convention. He needed someone to film the interviews, so my husband obliged. It worked out for all of us: Brandon got to go to the convention, Aaron got free lodging with us at Krystie's (and half the price of gas), and Adam and I got a vacation.

We drove up on Thursday with the help of the TomTom. Apparently there's a difference between 17th Street and East 17th Street, and we ended up lost in Brooklyn at 1:30 AM. Overall, though, we made pretty good time and the baby slept most of the way there.

Friday the guys went to the convention. Krystie was working, and Dan (her fiance -- the "uncle" I mentioned before) was running errands, so it was just Adam and me all day Friday. And he decided to take a four-hour nap -- he was exhausted from the trip. So I got Friday afternoon all to myself, to watch a movie, take a nap . . . and paint. My. NAILS!!! I haven't done that in about 2 years. Every time I find myself with free time at home, I use it to clean or read other blogs. With no such distractions in NY, I spent four hours pampering myself.

Saturday we took the baby to the library, where they had a children's play area. A five-year-old boy played hide-and-seek with him, and brought him blocks to stack. Then we went for a walk, saw a film crew, and Krystie and I had lunch while Adam fell asleep in his stroller.

That night my husband came back from the convention around 9 o'clock, so Krystie took me out to meet her coworkers at a birthday party. We went to a really nice bar, where I had the best chocolate martini of my life and a great time chatting, dancing, and playing terrible pool.

Sunday we drove home, and Aaron gave Adam a stuffed Venom doll he had bought at the convention. He giggled and immediately started chewing on it. It's the cutest little scary thing you've ever seen.

Really, though -- one of these times, we're going to have to go to New York when it's not winter (although it was actually quite pleasant last weekend) and actually stay for a week or so, and, oh, I don't know, maybe even do a little sightseeing.

Where did you go on your last family vacation? Ever been to New York? Feel free to comment.

My Very Own Con

My husband and most of his friends, and many of my friends, by proxy, are really into comic books. I'm a bit of a fangirl myself, although I haven't read much. What I have read (a bit each of Justice League, Ultimate Spiderman, and the latest incarnation of Green Arrow) has only been recent. I've also enjoyed the fairly recent explosion of movies based on comic books (I'll be truthful, they're more succinct -- although that's not always good, as in the case of X-Men: The Last Stand).

Ever since we moved to Columbus, we've been hanging out with Aaron and Christina more often. Mostly it's for playdate reasons, but it's also nice to have adult friends that a) understand kid-related conversations, and b) don't always want to talk about their/your kids. Aaron writes for Superhero Flix and often goes to comic conventions as a member of the press. He's interviewed some seriously cool people, like Seth McFarlane and Jewel Staite most recently at the San Diego Comic Con.

So you can imagine that I might be a little jealous. Even as an ordinary citizen, attending the San Diego Comic Con would be too cool. But I might have a chance to go to a convention of a different kind instead.

Christina has a blog of her own -- you probably read it if you're a mom too -- and she attends blogging conventions. The biggest one I've heard mention of is the annual BlogHer Convention, a blogging con for women bloggers (in fact, the whole BlogHer site is for women bloggers -- it's pretty cool, so I'd check it out if I were you!).

This year the convention is in Chicago, the closest to Columbus, Ohio that it's likely to ever get. I really really really want to go, meet famous and little-known bloggers like myself (well, at least the little-known ones would be), hear all sorts of great speakers, and, of course, party. I'll admit that part doesn't sound half bad.

But it's gonna be pretty tough. I'm still the only family member working, while my husband is going to school to try and get a job that pays more than minimum wage. I make just over minimum wage myself (I mean, I work in a daycare, and it might be the most expensive daycare in the area, and the best place to send your kids, but it still pays crap). We're on food stamps and Medicaid, and that helps a bit, but it's not enough. We try to pay our rent, car insurance, and my student loan on time every month, but sometimes it's late, and other than those three imperative payments, we have to choose which other bills to pay. This month we're paying the gas bill so it doesn't get shut off. And you all know about the higher cost of living now (especially diapers and cat food -- at least gas isn't as expensive now).

Sometimes it's hard. We haven't gone on a date since my birthday, before I started writing this blog. We basically have to avoid fast food of all kinds, limit our road trips to Cincinnati to see the in-laws, decide what we really need and what we can wait on -- sometimes I ask my mom for diapers and wipes, and she buys all my son's clothes. He wouldn't have anything to wear otherwise. And we still don't have a pack 'n' play, second carseat, or even a baby gate. He's thirteen months old, and we don't have a gate for our stairs (we live on the second floor and the stairs are on the inside).

But we know this is temporary. As soon as my husband finishes his certificate, he's qualified to teach high school English. We hope and pray every day that he will get a job offer upon his receipt of the certificate. Or at least by August. As soon as he gets a job, things will get much, much easier. We'll move into a bigger place, buy those things we need that we just can't afford right now, even think about the possibility of a second child.

Unfortunately, we just don't know. So, as much as I want to go to the BlogHer Conference this summer, we may not be able to. We're trying to save any way we can: carpooling with Christina, splitting a hotel room, trying to finagle a way to get that student discount on admission. Since our daycare/preschool is NAEYC accredited, I have to do training each year. I'm hoping to find out that the training sessions I have to attend count as classes so that I can get in as a student -- a steep discount.

My best chance at going? Would be to win the Queen of Spain's giveaway. We'd still have to figure out our half of lodging and gas, but I have a feeling it would all be downhill once the registration is paid for. She's giving away one full registration on her blog.

There's still time! If you have been wishing you could go to the BlogHer Conference '09 if only you could afford the registration fee, this is your best chance too. All you have to do is write a blog post, link the post to her giveaway post, and leave her a comment. Click that link for full details.

What a beautiful, generous person. May we all be so generous (or as much as our personal situations allow) in 2009. And to those of you who are entering at the last minute like me, good luck!

Busy Weekend

...but still good.

Thursday night (yeah, I know; not exactly the weekend, but I promise it's related): After work I went straight to my (mostly) weekly therapy session. I think the therapy is helping, but I really need to get in with a family doctor to get back on antidepressants. I say "a" doctor because I still technically don't have one, exactly. Since we moved back to Ohio, we've searched for a doctor closer than 30 minutes away that takes our insurance. Until a few weeks ago, we had been unable to find one -- in 7 months, people! Now I'm just waiting for the insurance company to send me a new card: the doctor we found won't schedule an appointment with anyone until her name is on the insurance card, which of course takes 7 to 10 business days to get changed... blah blah blah. Crossing my fingers that the card comes soon.

After therapy I picked up my son and we went to JoAnn Fabrics. Brandon and I had been talking about what he would be for Halloween since last Halloween: Superman. We considered all the superheroes (we're geeks, remember?), and we settled on Superman (or -baby, as the case may be) because he doesn't wear any kind of mask or hat-type thing. Babies hate things on their head, so it's perfect, right? I wasn't sure whether to sew or buy, since I found a really cheap one online, but he was kinda in between the infant and toddler sizes. So I will sew. And I have since decided that I must be a crazy person little ambitious -- Halloween seems a lot closer from this side of the weekend. It's happened before. It'll probably happen again.

Friday afternoon Brandon got a call from Aaron and Christina, who wanted to know if we would like to go see Celtic Thunder Sunday night. An hour later, my sister-in-law Abby called about possibly visiting this weekend and offering to babysit so we could have a date. Amazing how things come together like that.

Saturday Brandon went to pick up Abby from OU (she's in her first freshman quarter there) while Adam and I picked up the house. Or rather, I tried to clean and simultaneously tried to keep Adam out of the cat food. Since he's discovered his mobility, he likes to dump their food bowl onto the floor. Sigh. At least he doesn't eat it.

We went to my mom's house for the OSU game as usual. Abby, Adam, and I fell asleep. After the game we went to Target so Abby could get some new clothes for school. It was really nice to get out of the house and not go to the grocery store, work, or a movie. Plus, Brandon and I got to play "personal stylist," which we love. We love to watch Project Runway, I like What Not to Wear on occasion, and we enjoyed both Queer Eye for a Straight Guy and How to Look Good Naked while they were on. But we don't have much money, so we like to shop for other people, like our sisters.

I worked on Adam's costume a little over both Saturday and Sunday. So far, I've cut out the pieces for the "S," the onesie, the cape, and half the pants. Still have the other leg of the pants, the red underwear thing, and the belt to cut out. Then sew it all. I may or may not do the additional yellow "S" on the cape. We'll see how much time I have. I'm definitely not sewing boots -- Abby bought him a pair of red socks.

Sunday we watched the Bengals game, I did a ton of laundry, and Abby looked for some poster- board and her own Halloween costume. Then Brandon and I went to Aaron and Christina's house before the show.

We took one car to save on gas and parking, had a nice, brief dinner, and went to the Schottenstein Center for the show. Parking turned out to be free (the tickets were, too, but we knew about that -- Christina knows someone who got us the tickets), but the seats were kinda tiny and the auditorium was really warm and stuffy. Other than that, it was fantastic!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Celtic Thunder, they are an all-male, 5-piece Irish band with a wide range of ages (16 to 41), tones of voice, and singing styles. They are accompanied by a slew of very talented instrumentalists, as well. You may have seen their show on PBS. They are all excellent performers -- they sing with choreography, although the singing is much better by far. My husband's only complaint about the show is that most of the music isn't Irish. I didn't mind so much -- men that sing well are HOT. (My husband knows I think this, and he knows I like his singing. So why doesn't he sing very much?)

Today it was back to work for me, and as well as I've handled being away from the baby so far, the first thing I thought this morning when I got there was how much I missed him.

I'm in the money!

...or at least I will be in about two weeks.

Since we moved back to Ohio from Boston back in February, my husband has been substitute teaching and looking for work that will actually support our family of three (subs are paid per day of work, whereas full-time teachers have a yearly salary divided up over the twelve months; subs do not get paid over the summer, and during the year, they only receive a total of about half of a regular teacher's salary anyway). The original plan was that he would find a job as a full-time teacher, and I would be a stay-at-home-mom until the summer, when Adam would be 6 months old, and then I would go back to work while he stayed home with the baby.

We have both been searching for the last seven months and thus far, have been unable to find work. About a month ago or so, my husband decided that since he wasn't getting anywhere (and I do mean anywhere -- he looked for jobs in high schools, colleges, libraries, the Department of Defense, and put his resume up on Monster) in the job search, that he would go back to school. In the meantime, I kept looking for work as a secretary, and then as a daycare worker/preschool teacher (in the hopes that Adam could be cared for in my place of employment, at a discounted price).

Two weeks ago we got a break. My sister Sara works at the Jewish Community Center, and has for the past three years. She was assigned there for her freshman observation (she's in school for early childhood education), and they liked her so much, they hired her Monday through Friday after classes and also for their summer camp. Then we found out that Aaron's aunt is the director of the center. I was a little nervous about putting myself out there for the open position, because I have "some college coursework completed," none of which is in education. The one thing I have going for me is 10+ years of babysitting experience, and informal child care/supervision of youth activities at both my church and in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism, more about that later).

I've been trying to get paperwork done for this job, and silently freaking out about getting a physical and a TB test done (we can't find a general family doctor, either -- but at least Adam has a wonderful pediatrician). I wanted so badly to post the good news about the possibility of a job, but I didn't want to jinx it. And then today I got a call from the director. The original position I applied for was one that someone else had left, and this person apparently came back to it in the past few weeks. But I can still work two eight-hour days and be a floating sub for the rest of the week! I hung up with the director, and danced around my kitchen/living room until my quads hurt.

Deep sigh of relief. Damn, did we need this. I won't be getting a huge salary or anything, and they don't have a place for Adam now, but as the child of an employee, he is at the top of the waiting list. And it's something. Especially when we're fighting with the loan company to disburse the money for Brandon's first semester so he can actually, you know, pay for books (he's been in class for nearly two weeks already). Happy little dance!

Edited to add: Sorry, folks. I know I promised this would be shorter, but I just couldn't contain my excitement!

Further edited to add: Upon reflection, I think the reason my posts are so long is because I feel the need to explain EVERYTHING, since you all know practically nothing about me (personal friends excluded). Hopefully this will get better with time.

Geeky weekend

I know what you're thinking. Oh, so she's actually going to live up to her blog title now, is she? Yeah right. Well, I am, dammit! I am a geek, just like I said. And now I'm going to prove it to you.

On Saturday (yes, I know it was days ago, I've been trying to sit down and write this for like two days), my husband and I played in a Star Wars RPG. For those who don't know, a role-playing game, or RPG, is a game in which players create characters, roll dice (to make it more realistic by adding the element of chance), and are led on a series of adventures by someone who writes a story for them, or GM (for game master). Yes, like Dungeons and Dragons, only that's not the only RPG. Far from it. They can be about pretty much anything you want them to be about, but really a good one will include some elements of a mystery, some combat, and some good acting (which happens to be my favorite part, an amateur aspiring unpolished dabbling actress myself). My husband and I have participated in everything from Dungeons and Dragons to Call of Cthulu to superheroes (his personal favorite) to Shadowpact (a fantasy-type world that is more like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and my personal favorite -- I mean, I get to play a slayer [who is not unlike Faith, for those familiar with the show], and how cool is that?).

Lately the only games I've played have been run by my friend Aaron. He is an excellent storyteller, and he does not put too much emphasis on rules, both of which make for a good GM. He runs the Shadowpact games (and soon, superheroes), but his current campaign (like a novel or movie in which individual games are like chapters) is a Star Wars game. It takes place roughly 100 years after the original trilogy, so the only familiar character in the story is R2D2.

Anyway, the game was the shortest I've ever participated in, lasting around 3 hours. I didn't even have time for my ADD to kick in! It was a lot of fun, as Aaron's games always are, and I even got an extra character point (these are a reward from GM to players for awesomeness, and are used to "buy" new skills or improve existing ones; an example would be if someone was a martial artist skilled in karate, s/he could use those points to get better at karate or maybe pick up judo. Like in the real world, when you have a teacher, you can get better at something you're good at over time, or learn new skills from him/her). I was very excited about my extra character point, because he gave it for a "really cool bit of roleplaying" in which my character and my husband's character had a really intense argument. I must mention that my husband and I were not arguing, but our characters were, much like in a play. This is why it's my favorite part. Stage fright is not an issue when you're acting in front of less than 10 of your friends. Well, and buying pretty dice is fun. Yes, I'm a geek. But I'm a girl geek.

After the game, we stayed for dinner and then watched some Firefly after the kids went to bed. Sunday Brandon went to play a Dungeons and Dragons game by himself. He invited me to join in, but I just wasn't in the mood to play D&D with a bunch of guys I don't know very well (most of them not at all, actually). I didn't know that they would be playing two games. Note: Most games last a really long time. See the bit above where I say that the three-hour game was the shortest I've ever played in. I've played in several that last upwards of eight hours. Also see the bit above where I mention my ADD*. Fortunately, these games were designed to each run a total of 4 hours. Still kind of annoyed me that I didn't know about it. But what really pissed me off is that after his first nap, Adam decided that he was going to be the crankiest fussbudget ever. He wouldn't sit, he wouldn't play, he wouldn't nap, he just whined. I could have really used another pair of hands, and my whole family was at my cousin's wedding in Massachusetts. We couldn't afford to go, so I was stuck in my apartment for 12 hours with a whining infant. Brandon called twice to tell me he would be later than he thought. The thought going through my head was, I am so blogging about this.

But like I said, I've been trying to write this post for about two days, and I didn't get the chance to whine at all of you. :) After he finished playing the D&D games, he went out (at nearly midnight) to go grocery shopping for a bunch of foody-type items we needed, and when he came back, he also had ice cream, chocolate milk, and flowers. The flowers were alstroemerias, which mean "I'm sorry". Awesome. Ice cream = even better. Chocolate milk = OMG. No no no. You don't understand. I am a chocolate milk FIEND. Nine times out of ten, I will choose chocolate milk over alcohol -- even if I wasn't still nursing. It's truly like crack to me. And then all day Monday he was doing nice things for me, favors and such. Almost like having a personal slave. Almost. He did have schoolwork he had to get done for class today.

Good weekend.

P.S.: Tonight, because apparently we did not get enough Star Wars in our geeky diet, we watched A New Hope. Sigh. There is no chance that my son will not be a geek.

P.P.S.: I want to apologize for this incredibly verbose post. I will endeavor to write future posts earlier in the day, in an effort to rein in my rambling nature.

*I do tend to talk about ADD casually sometimes, but in this case, I am actually one of the roughly 4% of Americans who suffers from Adult Attention Deficit Disorder. Not ADHD, Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder -- I'm not bouncing off the walls, I just have a hard time concentrating, paying attention, remembering things, and procrastinating. A hard enough time that when I was in high school, I did see a behavioral specialist (against my will, at first) and take medication to treat it. Not Ritalin, but Adderall, which is milder (Ritalin is usually for ADHD).

I mention this because I don't mind sharing bits of my personal life with you, but I want to spell out the facts, rather than throw around terms carelessly. Occasional casual references are fine, but continual misuse of the terms really bothers me. I assume that people are, at least at their core, decent human beings, and if someone misuses these terms, I assume it is because they misunderstand. Thus, if one of these terms comes up, I try to educate the user. If the terms are abused, I get pissy. Just sayin'.