Galvanizing, 555

I can't believe how excited I am. I love getting on my treadmill, finding creative ways to eat well and feeling liberated from the prison of compulsive eating. My compulsion now is reading weight loss tips and success stories online. I feel vibrant, happy to meet the scale and energized to meet life's challenges. I am so glad I asked Annalaiya for a blend to help me over the hump. It is making all the difference. I look forward to meeting my bones and true frame. It is like encountering family I've never seen before!

Cory to come

A first attempt

When my grandmother died I inherited her sewing machine. It sad dusty for years until this summer. I had it refurbised and vowed to conquer my sewing machine karma. I pawed through the scrap block basket at Wyoming Quilts and splurged at ten cents a piece.

Putting the nine blocks together was hard enough, but sewing the pocket together was a challenge. I did fine until the final seam. Don't look too closely.

101 things to do in 1001 days

9/1/08-5/30/2011
Bold=done

TO DO:

For me:
Take an art class
Take a writing class (in process)
Unblock creativity
Walk 10 miles per month (19/330)
Try insulin resistance diet for two weeks
Swim at least once per month (1/33)
Have a massage once a year (0/3)
Have acupuncture once a year (0/3)
Submit something for publication
Hike the desert side of Sinks Canyon
Go snowmobiling in Wyoming
Ride Joker 8 times (1/8)
Clean out clothes twice a year (0/5)
Organize my earrings
Learn a magic trick
Buy some art
Go to ACRL
Watch Casablanca
Get a tribal lands pass
Journal every week's events (0/142)
Participate in a local walk/run event
Spend less than 5 hours a day on the computer including work
Take a picture of myself once a month (2/33)
Blog once a week (2/142)
Get a pedicure every Spring (0/2)
Go to church once a month (0/33)
Hike to the falls

For us:
Take Sluggo to obedience class
Help Jack record at least five poems (2/5)
Ride into the wilderness
Fly over the Wind Rivers
Clean out Joker's paddock
Create a calendar with all relevant birthdays on it
Change my name
Draft a 'what if one of us dies' plan with Jack

For the house:
Insulate the wall
Hang curtains in bedroom
Get an alternative heat source
Plant lupines
Plant delphinium
Plant columbine
Move irises
Make/get a headboard
Grow herbs in the kitchen
Replace carpet
Replace linoleum
Vaccuum once a week (3/142)

For the planet:
Replace light bulbs with better ones (1/11)
Attend farmer's market
Post something on freecycle
Give blood

TO GET:
Get a laptop
Get an mp3 player
Get wireless headphones
Get new sneakers

TO GIVE:
Choose 10 Christmas presents from Etsy
Tithe to charities once per month (0/33)ie, food bank, Grady Grossman school, One Stop Center
Have Jenna overnight every 6 weeks (3/25)
Write four letters to Kimmy
Write to Hailey four times (0/4)
Write Christmas letters (0/3)
Send birthday cards
Make a blurb cookbook for Jack
Buy Christmas presents for children in need
Update Jack's website
Make a family tree for Adam's family
Support Kimmy monthly

TO VISIT:
Attend a play
Visit the Nicolaysen Museum
Visit the Wildlife Art Museum
See a friend outside of work once per month (3/33)
Visit Maine twice (0/2)
Go to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center
Have Jack and Robin over
Go to Kansas City 3 times (0/3)
Celebrate a wedding anniversary at the Old Faithful Inn
See Maggie
Go to Moccasin lake

TO MAKE:
Make an afghan (in process)
Make Ciara a quilt (in process)
Make a photo calendar
Frame 4 of my photos (3/4)
Put family photos up
Write a short story
Finish the mystery novel
Fill one notebook per month (0/33)
Make braided rug kit

TO PAY:
Pay off the dentist
Save a quarter a day (3/1001)
Pay off F&M
Build $1,000 emergency fund
Sell something on ebay for everything I buy there (0/3)
Stay current on bills
Bring lunch to work 3x week (9/426)

My daybook

I am wearing My favorite jeans, a black top and ratty sneakers.

I am reading all sorts of things, as usual. Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs and Finding Your Writer's Voice by Thaisa Frank and Dorothy Wall. Listening to a Laura Lippman.

I am hearing my husband's soft snore and my dog munching.

Learning all the time about embracing my true self.

I am thankful Jack was able to come home for a visit.

I am hoping for a perfect transition into the next phase of our lives.

From the kitchen Jack made the most amazing hamburger buns last night. However (not unfortunately) my kitchen will no longer be housing any grains. I am trying an insulin resistance diet plan. Because my doctor said to and my intuition chorused a big "Hallelujah."

I am creating, period.

Bringing beauty to my home with fresh herbs in the kitchen.

Around the house, we are planning a fall overhaul: Rip out walls, install insulation; rip up flooring and see if we have hardwood floors.

Outside my window the day is clouding. Just like my mood, since I am now counting the hours until I won't see Jack again for a month.

I am thinking about my mother.

A few plans for the rest of the week...None. Write. Plan a new way to eat. Live each day a little more mindfully than the last. Maybe do some laundry. :)

Meme

1. What did you do 10 years ago?
I had just graduated from college and was falling in love for the first time. I know I wore my favorite white blouse for our first date, but I can't remember where we went. I was also working 3 jobs that summer before starting grad school.

2. Five items on your to-do list:
- Put pictures up on Jack's website
- Write
- Paint the kitchen
- Dust
- Get off the internet and GO TO BED

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Nuts (I accidentally wrote buts. whoops), apples, ice cream, chips and salsa.

4. What would you do if you were a billionaire?
I have thought this through so many times, with so many levels of money (what would I do with $100,000? $500,000? $10,000,000, etc.), but unlimited dough is the hardest. Once the debts were paid, I'd create charities and HIRE A MAID. Then my husband would reinstate his pilot's license and we'd get a plane. And a house here and one in Maine. Now I will go to bed and dream about this. Wait, one more.

5. Places I would live:
Right now the only place on the list is right where I am. Lucky me.
I probably could adjust to life near either of our families, but life here suits me.
Of course, there is always the stone cottage in Dingle, Ireland.

A greenie falls for a guzzler

I’m in love.

With a truck.

For decades now I’ve been advocating ‘reduce, reuse recycle’ as much (or more) than anyone else. My family calls me a “water Nazi” because I insist on faucets being turned off when not in use – including while brushing teeth and doing dishes.

I do as much as I can to lessen my footprint on the earth. I wash and reuse baggies, save gray water for the lawn, sweep when I might vacuum and use the clothesline instead of the dryer (as long as it isn’t February and as long as there isn’t a flock of birds lurking about yearning to leave crusty white spots on my linen).

When I bought my first car, I insisted it have better than average gas mileage. For seven years I have hung on to that little red gem, several times venturing across a dozen states at a time, and with every stop for fuel I could kiss all four wheels – so many miles on so little gas!

But all that changed recently when my man found a truck that he “has always wanted.”

I rolled my eyes a little at first because to be honest there are a lot of vehicles he “has always wanted.” But I bit my tongue and we took the white monstrosity for a test drive. The gas mileage, he argued, wouldn’t be any different than his current vehicle. And besides, it could pull stuff. Stuff like the camper we have sitting in the yard and have considered buying oxen to haul since my little Saturn ain’t got a chance of making it budge and his vehicle was hitchless and frankly, kind of wimpy.

Step aside kids, the big dog’s moving in.

I can barely even get in it, but this truck has got me wrapped around its tailpipe. Sorry, tailpipes.

My new beau is a 1997 F250 with windows that were once tinted but are now crackled and smeared. The rearview mirror is useless because some macho man decided a chrome slatted thingie looked cool across the back. It ate the first CD we put in it.

But man, oh man, is it nice.

My car is about three inches wide, six inches long and sits about two inches off the ground. For this reason and a very, very bad experience with a truck in 1996 that we won’t discuss here (suffice it to say that after one weekend together, the truck threw up its hood in protest and refused to go any further), I do not drive anything larger than a matchbox car. Not even in a pinch, not even for an inch.

So that is why it was such a shock to find myself behind the wheel cruising along in the great white ark, bumping over the cattle guard with one hand on the wheel, one arm out the window and the radio turned up loud.

I wasn’t scared. I didn’t sweat over the fact that I had no idea how wide I was. Or long. Or that seeing anything behind me was a crapshoot.

I was on top of the world. I could roll right over anything in my way. Curbs? Bah! Why worry?

And the rumble … oooh, the rumble.

Though it is apparently in my blood since my brother has a shrine to Dale Earnhardt and my mother has known to skip an event or two to catch “the race,” I lack the NASCAR fan gene. I have never understood why it could ever be fun to watch four-wheeled commercials go around and around in circles for hours and hours.

When CBS news recently focused on the phenomenon of female NASCAR fans, however, I began to understand.

“The first time you hear that sound – you’re hooked,” is how one female fan dressed in her favorite driver’s colors described the experience from her trackside lawn chair.

“That sound is the full-throttle roar of a V-8 engine,” the interviewer said, “a skull-rattling din that shakes your soul, regardless of your age or gender.”

Who knew? All this time, I could’ve had a V-8.