Manic Monday: Year Long Blogging Challenge (Oh My Gods I Am Awful At This)

I suppose I should just stop saying things like, “And THIS time I will DO what I SAID I would DO – ON TIME!” Because, lol really. Let us just go ahead and call it like it is: I have failed this challenge. Yet, I continue…

Week 7: What is the most important life lesson you’ve learned to date?

The most important life lesson I have learned is one I am still learning: to accept me and not compare myself to others. It is so easy to fall into mindset of wanting – more ambition or drive, a higher metabolism, a quicker mind – but the truth remains that I am nobody else but myself. To modify a quote from Wreck-it Ralph, “I am [me], and that’s good. I will never be [anyone else] and that’s not bad. There is no one I would rather be than me.”

Week 8: What Staple Foods Stay Stocked in Your Fridge?

• Skim milk
• Eggs
• String cheese
• Deli turkey
• Fruit/vegetables (right now: strawberries, apples, grapes, asparagus, green beans)
• Spinach or other salad greens

Week 9: If you could get rid of one thing from your daily schedule, what would it be?

I would love to be able to eliminate sleeping, or at least to be able to exist on less of it. My daily requirement for sleep is currently about 7 or 8 hours, and ain’t nobody got time for that. At least, I do not, with all the things I would rather, or should, be doing.

Week 10: Favorite Childhood Memory

This is a strange one, but it’s the first thing that comes to mind. I used to spend several days each summer at my aunt’s condo in Pensacola, FL. One late morning I started to have typical menstrual cramps, and dealt with them in my typical way: by being sad about it. This was before I was comfortable swallowing pills, so I would just deal with it and be grumpy like a typical young teenager. My practical aunt would not stand for such nonsense, so she convinced me to take a couple of Aleve and lie down with her heating pad for a little while. After much self-coaching, I choked down the medicine and slid between the fluffy white down comforter and soft white sheets. Half an hour later, I woke up pain-free. This was the first time I had ever felt relief from my monthly pains, and it was the most incredible feeling ever. Even better, I was hungry, and the turkey-on-toast sandwich my aunt made me was the most delicious, satisfying meal I had eaten to that day. I still remember the incredible sense of relief and relaxation beneath the heating pad in that glorious cool bed, and how wonderful hunger felt in place of pain and nausea.

I am sure there are much better memories than that, but hey, I’m crazy! edit I did have a normal, healthy childhood. I just have a terrible memory, I guess. IT’S MONDAY, OKAY

Week 11: Describe a product that needs to be invented. What irritation or problem could be solved with a nifty new device?

Now that I am a real person and can handle taking pills… a capsule of some sort that satisfies hunger, cravings, and all the required vitamins and minerals for keeping a body alive. Food and a healthy diet are a constant source of stress for me. Making healthy choices is fucking hard. Though, I would really miss eating, as obvious by some of my other answers.

Week 12: What is your favorite restaurant in Huntsville?

Hands down, Below the Radar.

Week 13: What goals are you currently pursuing?

This is less my goal than my husband’s, but I support him entirely and it requires both of our efforts. We are currently working on becoming the owners of a local business. This has been his dream for years, and it is only a few more months of pinching pennies away.

Personally, I still am fighting towards a 50 or 60 pound weight loss, and reading 50 books by the end of the year.

Week 14: What is the most memorable meal you have ever had?

There are two of them, and they are both during the same week in 2011. I traveled to Austin, TX, for a work conference in August. The second night my coworkers and I arrived, we had dinner with some customers at Fogo de Chao. I had the rarest cut of filet I’ve ever eaten before, and it was unbelievable. Also, I tried grappa for the first time. Aside from excellent food (and drinks!), the group was amazing. We had such a fantastic few hours together.

Despite my hotel being 2 blocks from everything, I was completely exhausted mid-week. Long days of being on my feet coupled with it being Texas in August meant I just crashed one afternoon in my hotel. I woke up a little disoriented with a text from my boss inviting me to dinner with another coworker. After making myself as presentable as possible, I walked in a daze to Moonshine. At first I had no appetite, but my coworker insisted I have a meal, so I ordered baked rainbow trout (and yes, I only ordered it because rainbows) with a side of macaroni and cheese. This meal is my favorite meal in the history of ever, and I have eaten a lot of fucking delicious things. Just know that I ate the exact same meal twice the next year, and the crushing, bitter disappointment at not being able to go this August is 99% because I won’t get to eat at Moonshine.

Week 15: What is your favorite quote?

“What fun is there in making sense?” – Discord, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Shut up.

~~

I am not going to make any promises any more.  🙂

The Rocket City Bloggers are a diverse group of bloggers with at least one thing in common: writing from the Huntsville, AL area, otherwise known as Rocket City. This April began a Year Long Blogging Challenge, and I am attempting to participate. Clearly, though, this is proving to be more of a challenge for me than I initially believed.  Click the image below for more awesome people from the Rocket City.

pardon me while I burst into flames.

Am I the only one who is not digging this unseasonably warm weather bullshit? Here in Alabama we typically have a few weeks of delicious spring – I’m talking 70-75º, puffy clouds and refreshing breezes. Birds singing. Flowers blooming. Goldilocks weather: just right. Not so much right now. We’re in Papa Bear’s porridge now.

Last year we had a crazy mix of weather the first half of the year – tons of snow (for us, at least: about 8 inches in January, which is laughable to you people who get a regular dumping from November to March), the largest tornado outbreak ever recorded, capped with a crazy hot, sudden summer. All sorts of bugs and allergens misplaced by the tornadoes’ destruction made going outside complete misery… then our air conditioner quit working in June, and we didn’t have enough money to repair it after my husband lost his full time job in February. It was either boil inside, or outside. (We visited Target often whether we needed groceries or not, and my August week at a hotel in Austin was spent marinating in a/c turned down to a glorious 64.)

Boehme house blues.

This past winter, however, has been incredibly mild. It may have gotten down the 20’s a night or two, but the temperatures hovered nicely around 40. No snow, just typical Alabama winter rain.

Punxsutawny Phil is clearly an idiot, though, and spring hit early. We’ve seen 80º+ already, and it’s not even April. I had hoped through the balmy, grey breezes of winter that the mildness would last all year long… surely after Mother Nature’s bipolar outbreaks of 2011, she would take her meds in 2012. She owes us that much.

I hate hot weather, as much as I love and need the sunshine. You’d think a born-and-reared Southerner, after nearly 25 years of living in the same place, would learn to love 100% humidity and triple-digit temps. But no, I am a cardigan-and-skinny-jeans kinda girl, all year round. Short dresses with leggings. Boots and skirts. Thin layers. Summertime around here and even the thinnest of sweaters do not a sweet pairing make, and the relationship is sticky at best. What’s a shorts-hating girl to do in Alabama come July?

All I’m asking for is a little more spring and a little less summer, Mother Nature. Cool down until May at least. My tulips have bloomed and are practically dead already… no bueno. The one saving grace is that the 2012 early-bloomer Bradford pears have lost their disgusting tuna perfume in a flurry of snow-like petals, stripped by Her warm and volatile air (yes, we’ve already had some good storms – I’ve got some wicked sky shots to share). Maybe she’ll keep it under 100º this year, too. A girl can only hope.

p.s. Thanks to my fabulous in-laws for the gift of heating and air this past Christmas. They paid for our unit to be fixed, saving us from another year of misery.