I ordered my bike!

Woohoo!

It is due to be ready for pick-up by January 4th, and after that, I shall become a lean, mean, cycling machine!

Not knowing a whole lot about exercise bikes, I went with a more traditional upright style rather than with one of those recumbent types. It even has a little fan on it to keep me cool whilst I pedal! I'm very excited. It's been too long since I've been able to get any regular exercise. I wonder what Achilles will think of this thing, though. I suspect that, at least at first, it will send him into a jumping, barking frenzy every time I use it. As long as he doesn't somehow manage to turn it into a giant puppy chew-toy, I think we'll be all right, though.

Spiritual moment

Every once in awhile, my brother Steve likes to remind me that he's still around, keeping an eye on me and on the rest of the family.

Wednesday evening at my parents' house, during our family Christmas gathering, I was watching baby Bridget for awhile so that my brother and his wife could have a bit of a break. Bridget crawls very fast and likes to get into anything and everything, so she must be watched at all times. Anyway, at one point, after I'd followed her down the hallway, I picked her up to take her back to the living room, and on the way, I stopped to show her the various family photos hanging at the beginning of the hallway. I pointed out a photo of her, one of her brother, photos of her cousins, etc., but she didn't seem to be paying much attention, which was not a surprise. She's just a baby, after all.

The last photo we passed was one of Steve. I stopped in front of it and said, "...and that's your Uncle Steve." Lo and behold, Bridget reached her tiny little arm as far as she could towards that photo, with something between a big grin and a look of awe on her face. She seemed entranced by it.

It was really cool.

Resolutions

Hmmmmm.

I'm not usually one to make New Year's resolutions, and when I do, I usually make them on my birthday rather than on New Year's. And I did sort of make some half-assed resolutions on my birthday last month, but then the holiday season was upon us, and they pretty much went out the window -- especially the one about eating right.

So, I should probably re-affirm my resolutions and maybe add a couple more now that it's almost New Year's. Let's see...

1. Once the glut of tasty but fattening holiday food disappears, I am getting back on my Whole Foods, more vegan products kick.

2. On a related note, for Christmas I received a check with which to purchase the stationary bike I've been wanting to get. I found a nice one on the Sears website and am going to order it and pick it up this weekend. I resolve to bike my ass off and get back into decent shape.

3. I will waste less money ordering things from Sephora, and put more money into my savings account. I mean, really, how many lip glosses, lipsticks, and lip balms do I really need, anyway?

4. I will spend more time visiting family and friends, and in particular, Jacquelin and Alexandria. It is inexcusable to have let nine months pass this year without seeing them!

5. I will spend less time posting on Yahoo message boards, in particular, the board known as the Hate Board, which has become not much fun for me lately, and just basically a huge waste of time and effort.

6. I will read more books, or at least continue reading at a good pace. I actually read quite a few this past year, but I still have a large stack waiting to be read, plus many more that I'd like to purchase and read. In the past year, I read: Balzac's Pere Goriot, Steinbeck's Cannery Row, Gogol's Dead Souls and a collection of his short stories, Tolstoy's War and Peace, Schiller's The Ghost Seer, Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum, Nabokov's Pale Fire, Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard, a collection of 19th century Russian poetry, and Julie Powell's Julie & Julia. Next on my list is Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, then some more Balzac and some more Tolstoy, a couple of books on the Holocaust, and then we shall see...

7. I will do a thorough cleaning of my house, clear out the clutter, and make some improvements such as new paint on all of the interior walls, new flooring throughout, and some new appliances.

8. I will update this blog more often and try to make it a bit more interesting.

Okay, I think that's plenty. Now I must go and get ready for one final family Christmas get-together. Ugh.

Lunch with Jacquelin and Alexandria

My holiday week continued today as I met my sister-in-law, Jacquelin, and four-year-old niece, Alexandria, for lunch at The Salt Lick in Driftwood this afternoon to exchange Christmas gifts and spend some time catching up. Jacquelin was my brother Steve's wife. We were always close before Steve died, and I have been blessed to maintain a close friendship with her since his death, as well, although I don't see her nearly often enough! I hadn't seen Jacquelin and Alex in months, so it was wonderful to see them today!

Alexandria is a beautiful little girl, and she's very smart and very animated. I'm always struck by how well and how confidently she speaks for a child her age! It was great fun watching her open and play with her gifts this afternoon.

Sadly, my digital camera died recently, so I was unable to take any pictures today, but picking up a new camera is on my list of things to do in the next week or so, and I hope to get out to Driftwood for another visit soon and get some photos taken, as well!

Oh, and Jacquelin is a regular reader of this blog, so:

Hi, Jacquelin! Hi, Alex! It was great to see you both today! I love you guys! :)

A good time was had by all

at today's family Christmas get-together!

As I'd anticipated, the kids were so much fun! Baby Bridget is even cuter than she was at Thanksgiving. She has the biggest, cutest grin, complete with adorable dimples. She is just the happiest baby! She's *almost* walking now. She can stand up all on her own for a few minutes at a time, but hasn't quite mastered taking a step without a hand to hold or a piece of furniture to hang onto. I spent a lot of time keeping an eye on her -- she crawls really fast and gets into everything! She's small for her age -- only about 16 or 17 pounds, so she's still light enough that I can hold her without much difficulty. We also celebrated her first birthday this evening -- she turns a year old tomorrow.

Her brother Scott, who will be four next month, was very entertaining to watch during the gift-opening festivities. He loved everything he opened, and would shriek with joy and start bouncing up and down with each new gift. He's really an unusual child, personality-wise. Both of his parents are extremely intelligent, and I am pretty sure that Scott is going to be gifted with very high intelligence, as well.

Five-year-old Jakob was also very excited about all of his gifts. He and Scott spent a lot of time playing with all of their new loot before dinner. Jakob already has quite the sense of humor, which he definitely gets from his dad.

Eight-year-old Ashleigh is so cool! She's also going to be highly intelligent, and is already very advanced for her age, I think. She loves to read and has a very advanced vocabulary for an eight-year-old. She's also been taking guitar lessons and is doing quite well -- she brought her guitar with her and played a couple of songs for us this evening.

It was really nice to have the whole family together. I had a great time!

Festive Family Fun Awaits

My family has not yet gotten together for Christmas -- we are doing that this afternoon and evening. My older and younger brothers live in Houston and Phoenix, respectively, so we had to accommodate their holiday schedules. I exhausted myself wrapping a huge pile of gifts last night (I love giving Christmas gifts and buy multiple gifts for each person, but I loathe wrapping them!), then collapsed in bed and slept for eleven hours, so I think I'll have enough energy for a big family get-together today.

I'm really looking forward to watching the nieces and nephews open their gifts. Ashleigh and Jakob, my younger brother's kids, are eight and five; Scott and Bridget, my older brother's kids, are nearly four and nearly one. It will be fun to have them all together for a Christmas celebration, but I have no doubt that it will be very tiring, as well.

I wish I had time for a quick nap, but alas, I must leave in an hour or so and I have one more gift to wrap and I still have to get dressed, so I'd better get going.

Day from Hell

The gods are angry with me, it seems.

My morning began with a blow-out of my front driver's side tire shortly after I'd entered the freeway. Fortunately, I managed to pull over onto the shoulder safely, and sat there with my hazards on for half an hour til the roadside assistance dude showed up to change the tire for me, which took another half hour. Now I just need to go and get a new tire, but that will have to wait until tomorrow or Friday. Hopefully the spare will tide me over til then.

Work has been unbelievably sucky today. We've hired another new attorney, and there has been entirely too much noise, moving of furniture, rearranging of files, etc., all day long. The world's most annoying client has assaulted my eardrums twice today on the phone. And I turned my ankle about half an hour ago whilst walking through the office. It throbs. Dammit.

To add insult to injury, I have to attempt to finish my holiday shopping after work today. I am dreading the crowds, the lines, the not being able to find what I'm looking for because I've waited too long to do my damn Christmas shopping, etc. Ugh.

I want to go back to bed and start my day over.

I can't sleep! Aaarrrggghhh!

Why can't I sleep?!

I went to bed at 11:30 and got back up at 12:30, feeling not remotely sleepy. It is now almost 2 a.m. and I am *still* not sleepy! I even took not one, but two, sleeping pills, which should have me unconscious and drooling on my keyboard right now, but nooooooooooo! I don't feel sleepy at all!

This sucks. I have to get up at 6:30 and go to work in the morning, and it's gonna be a loooooooooong, busy week for me! I need my rest!

Ack!

Ow.

Have you ever had a problem with your car making a funny noise, so you took it to the mechanic, but the entire time it was in the shop, it refused to make the funny noise, so the mechanic sent you home without doing anything to your car, and then shortly after you drove away, the funny noise returned?

Well.

I had an appointment with my rheumatologist on Wednesday morning, and he was very pleased with how well I appeared to be doing. He noted some inflammation and swelling in my left hand, but aside from that, he said I was doing just as well as can be expected of an RA patient, and he sent me on my way with no changes to my course of treatment, and with an appointment for another check-up in four months.

The next evening (last night after I got home from work), my RA decided to rear its ugly head with a vengeance it has not shown since the early days following my diagnosis. It has decided to concentrate on my right shoulder, which was the most painful joint by far around the time I was diagnosed. I cannot even describe to you this level of pain.

Any movement of my arm, or even my torso, sends sharp, searing pain through my shoulder and arm. When I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock this morning, I was unable to move my arm to turn it off. I had to lie in bed for several minutes, while being driven insane by the incessant "BEEP BEEP BEEP" of the alarm clock, until I was able to sit up and reach over with my left arm to turn the damn thing off. Sitting up was excruciating. I was unable to move or use my right arm for about three hours after I got up. Showering and getting ready for work caused pain like I have not felt in nearly three years. Every little movement caused me to yelp in pain.

I would rather have any other joint besides my shoulder flare up like this. It's unbearable, not to mention a real pain in the ass to be unable to use one arm.

Fortunately, the pain lessened some during the day, but I dread going to sleep tonight because I know that when I wake up, I will have to go through the entire excruciating ordeal again.

The good news is that when this shoulder flares up, it usually lasts for just a few days and then calms down again. If it ever reaches the point where it does not go away after a few days, I will have to have shoulder-replacement surgery. Ugh.

Enchante

I've discovered the best little boutique just a few miles from my house -- Enchante. This place carries a fabulous selection of fancy French stuff -- perfumes, soaps, shaving products, candles, lotions... it's heaven for a girly-girl like me. The owner is this very animated, enthusiastic guy who clearly really loves the products he sells and is very knowledgeable about fragrances and such. I stopped by for the first time on Tuesday evening, and he sent me home with a plethora of fragrance and soap samples. I returned this evening to buy a couple of fragrances and some lip balms to give as Christmas gifts to the girls at work. He remembered me from the other day and was very pleased to see me again. He once again sent me home with a bunch of samples and even pulled a full-size soap off one of the shelves and dropped it into my shopping bag.

I'm wearing one of the new fragrances I bought -- Grain de Soleil by Fragonard -- and it smells divine. It was definitely worth the $65 price tag.

I love this place!

Robert Frost -- Moon Compasses

I stole forth dimly in the dripping pause
Between two downpours to see what there was.
And a masked moon had spread down compass rays
To a cone mountain in the midnight haze,
As if the final estimate were hers;
And as it measured in her calipers,
The mountain stood exalted in its place.
So love will take beneath the hands a face.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

I'm not sure why, but I've really been in the mood to make some changes lately. Maybe it has something to do with turning 35. Maybe it's my new glasses. Maybe I've just been stuck in a rut for too long. I'm not sure. I've started doing some things differently, though.

I've made some dietary changes for the better, for one thing. I'd gotten into too many bad eating habits and have recently gotten into eating much more healthful foods. More vegan products, more fruits and veggies, less fatty stuff, better-for-me snacks. It really makes a difference in how I feel, I've noticed. Even my mood has been better. I doubt I'll ever manage to go totally vegan, but I've definitely been happier with using as many vegan products as I can, such as egg-free vegan mayo instead of the regular stuff.

This evening, I went for a big appearance change, and cut off a good eight inches of hair. Well, I didn't cut it off myself. Deralyn, my fabulous stylist, did it for me. I also decided to go back to being a redhead. I'm still adjusting to the initial shock of the change in length, but I'm really happy with it. The style is sort of an Isabella Rosellini in her Lancome ads look. I wish I had Isabella Rosellini's face to go with the cut. Deralyn mentioned, though, that Shannon, the girl who did my facial several weeks ago, later told her that I have the most beautiful skin she's ever seen. That was very nice to hear, especially since I've been feeling kind of old and yucky lately.

I think next I'll work on redecorating my house. At a minimum, I want to give all of the interior walls a new paint job and put in all new floors.

Change is good.

Thanksgiving was great!

I got to spend some quality time with my parents, my older brother, his wife, and their two kids. We had a great dinner together on Friday, and then on Saturday we took a day trip to do some shopping and sightseeing. Baby Bridget gets cuter every time I see her (which is not nearly often enough). Check her out:



What a doll. I hadn't seen her since May, and Paul and Kristen tell me that she tends to be very shy around people she doesn't know well, but she really seemed to like me. She kept reaching out her arms in an invitation for me to pick her up, and then she would snuggle down on my shoulder. I can't wait to see her again later this month for Christmas and New Year's!