Category Archives: My Day to Day Craziness

by

Morning Snooze War

I thought this posted Saturday morning. It didn’t, so I’m posting now. Still makes me laugh when I remember it!

7:21am Saturday morning and my alarm is going off. As I hit snooze and think to myself….do I really want to go to water fitness? I do, but I’m tired and I am just not ready to get up yet. Maybe in 9 minutes my thoughts will be different. The snooze button, a wonderful and horrible invention.

7:30am, alarm goes off again and as I hit snooze, I rationalize. Yes, I need to lose weight. Yes, I want to sleep. Oh wait, I have to cut the grass! I’ll sleep another 30 minutes or so and then get up and do that. That will be the workout for the day.

Content with my decision, I start to drift off for another blissful 8 1/2 minutes because I still haven’t shut off my the alarm. I never do. I have hit snooze for over an hour. As I slowly start to drift, I change positions of my leg. I accidentally bump Zipper, my Jack Russell Terrier, and he growls and leaps off the bed to curl up in his dog bed.

Zipper, aka “Mr. Grumpy” does not like to be touched when he is sleeping. He doesn’t bite, he just growls loud and takes off like you beat him. He has a way of doing it with such a flair that he can make you feel guilty! It wouldn’t be so bad except that he is also a leg seeker in bed. He insists on touching your leg somewhere. Crazy isn’t it? You can’t accidentally bump him but he insists on touching you. If I move my leg slightly away from him, he will scoot over so he is touching me again. I don’t mind. He’s so cute that it’s difficult to stay mad at him for very long.

Now that he is pouting in his dog bed, I look at my iPhone. A little over 2 minutes left before the alarm is going off. Maybe I should go to water fitness class. Oh yeah, the grass! I’m good. I start to drift again.

7:39am. Stupid alarm. I should just shut it off, or at least change the time. Habit wins, I hit snooze even as I think about it. Start to drift off and I hear crunch crunch crunch. Now, when you have two VERY different dogs that seem to have one thing in common; doing stuff they shouldn’t be doing, you get very in tune with the noises they make. I listen again. Bella, my Neapolitan Mastiff is chewing her toenails. Ugh! The sound. It’s so annoying. I listen again to make sure it’s her toenails and not the bedding as she often does, decide to try to ignore her and go back to sleep.

With Bella, when you interact with her in the morning, she sometimes takes that as an invitation to start playing.

Crunch, crunch….I can’t take it. Eyes still closed, not wanting to face the morning light, I reach my hand around and find her head. I put my hand under her mouth and slowly pull it away from her paw. She stops.

I’m hot. I decide to turn on my little fan next to my bed. Blasts of cold air hit my face. I forgot, the last time I had it on I was laying diagonally across my bed. It’s annoying me hitting my face. I shut it back off. I’m not THAT hot. The blast helped a little anyway.

7:48am alarm goes off and snooze is, yet again, tapped and I start to drift off back to sleep. Then I hear it. The unmistakable sound of Zipper licking his butt. It it one of the most annoying sounds in the world at ANY time but especially when you are trying to sleep. Zipper’s butt licking is an obsession of his. He licks loud. He licks for a long time. It isn’t just licking…it’s like a disgusting slurping sound. I can’t take it. I know it won’t stop. All I want to do is sleep!!! Why won’t they cooperate? I clap my hands loudly. That gets his attention. He stops. Briefly. In the 10 seconds it takes me to rejoice that he stopped without me getting up, he starts up again. AARGH!!!! Not only is he starting up again just as loud, but Bella has started her toenail crunching again as well. I’m guessing my hand clap woke her. I clap my hand again in a last-ditch effort before I have to get up and go over to stop him. They both stop! What???? Blissful sleep for a few more minutes? Yes!!!

I sink deeper into my pillow, getting ready to enjoy the last few minutes of sleep before the snooze alarm disturbs me. Of course, my brain is starting to wonder into thought. I should get up and write this. No! Sleep first, write later. I won’t remember all the small details. Yes you will, go back to sleep. This war of thoughts in my head entertain me and scare me at the same time. Sleep wins….well….the under a minute sleep before the snooze.

7:57am alarm goes off. Snooze tapped automatically. Desire to sleep still winning. Zipper jumps back on the bed and curls up at my calf. It’s ok. I can still sleep. Bella stands up, oh no, what is she doing….she flops back down in a different position. Phew! Sleep crisis diverted. All is perfect. Sleep comes to me.

I know I fell back to sleep. Then it happens. Bella must have stretched her leg a little and tapped Zipper. Zipper growled and jumped up. (That’s what woke me back up). Bella reacted to the growl with a pounce like jump. For such a big dog, she acts like a 20lb dog sometimes. It’s GAME ON! Play time commence. 8:03am. I’ve lost. I pick up my iPhone to write. Not my favorite tool but I still don’t feel like getting up to go downstairs and get my tablet or laptop.

8:06am alarm goes off as I’m writing. I shut it off. I should have just gone to water fitness!

The story should end there, but it doesn’t. In the time it took me to write this, play time stopped and started again. Both times very short-lived. I had a mastiff paw digging into my back. I had Zipper get mad at me again because he tried to lay too close to my arm and it was moving too much for him. I had to stop Bella from licking her butt. Luckily she is not obsessed like Zipper so it’s easy to stop her. Now, as I’m about to conclude this story, I look over. They are both sound asleep, blissfully unaware, dreaming their doggie dreams, while I am wide awake! 8:55am. Water fitness would be just ending. I laugh at the irony. Time to get up.

Sound Asleep

Sound Asleep

by

The painful step

Have you ever had one of those weeks that you felt like you were falling apart? I was having one of those weeks. It all started with the poison ivy. Now, I KNEW there was poison ivy around my tree in my back yard. I have been fighting with it for a few years now. It has never really been a problem for me, so I didn’t think a lot about it. I knew I was going to be closer to it because I was trying to kill it more, including killing the vines. I did what I was supposed to do, wore gloves, tried to be aware of what I was touching, but let’s face it, sometimes you just want to get the job done. I had my clippers out there, my weed eater, gloves, etc. Needless to say, a couple of days later, the skin around my eye is swollen (I vaguely remember wiping the sweat away with the back of my gloved hand), my knee is covered in bumps, and I am spotted all around with lovely little bumps. The first couple of days, they were irritated, but not too bad, I picked up some cortisone, and thought, Hey, I can get through this. Then the itching started! Oh the horror!!!! NOTHING could make it stop once it started itching. I scratched. Then I bled. Then I was mad at myself. Over a week later and I still have not healed completely. It has been horrible. What did I learn? Longer gloves, wear a hat to minimize the sweat running down my face, and wear pants, not shorts! Hopefully I will never have to endure it again.

So, all by itself, that sounds like a bad week. Oh no, I can’t stop there. My back starts hurting. First it was just a little irritated, took some Excedrin Back and Body (side note, if ANYONE reading this knows where I can still buy some of this, please tell me. Wal-Mart and Target do not carry it) So I take the Excedrin and it feels a little better, but still hurts. I don’t let it stop me. The next morning, I’m taking two more because it’s just not getting better. Went for a 2 mile walk later that day and I could feel every step going up my back. Decided it was time for something stronger so I picked up some Doan’s Back pain pills. Those always seem to work. Took 2, felt a little better, went on with my day. By the weekend, I was taking Tylenol 3 with Codeine and finally relaxing it a little. I still had to get the housework done, the horses fed, still had to lift my mom’s scooter in and out of the van, so I didn’t take the time to truly relax it, just lived with it the best I could until I could get in to my chiropractor.

All in all, a pretty painful week….but Still wasn’t the worst. I was downstairs in my basement and had to unplug my dehumidifier for a short time. Not a big deal, unplug it, get the other stuff done, and plug it back in again. Of course, I didn’t plug it back in right away, I got sidetracked with other things. I was downstairs moving something and took a step back. Pain went SHOOTING through my foot. WHAT THE H*LL????? That hurt!!! I have never been one to swear when I hurt myself, but that one cause more than one word to come out of my mouth. I have never had that much pain from stepping on something. I look down and see the plug to my dehumidifier. It hurt like you could not imagine. I’m walking funny, trying to will the pain away. Of course, walking funny causes more pressure on my back. It was a nightmare circle of pain.

I finally manage to limp upstairs and decide to lay down on the couch. I was not moving for a while! A few hours later, I went to stand up and pain shot through my foot again. WTH???? I’ve never had my foot hurt a few hours after stepping on something. I push down on my foot and I feel like I’m standing on a marble or something. Yes, I stepped so hard that it bruised but also became so inflamed that it was a little round bump right on my foot.

Of course, it was on left side of my left foot so the only way to see it was to twist my leg / back…..sending MORE pain through my back. I decided….I’ll just take a picture of it!

The painful step onto a plug

The painful step onto a plug

Nasty isn’t it? The blue circle may look small, but trust me, the pain was mighty! It lasted for over 4 days, where it hurt to even walk on it. For those that know me, they know that I love to walk around barefoot pretty much all summer. It is not common for me to have shoes on at all and when I do have shoes on, it is usually sandals or flip flops, so having something that painful made it difficult to walk, difficult to stand. I never want to go through that much pain on my foot again!

Here it is; almost the end of the week and my back is just now getting back to normal, thanks to a couple visits to the chiropractor. My foot pain is virtually gone, unless I step just right on it (which I try not to do) and my poison ivy is still hanging on.

All in all, I will be happy to have some pain free time anytime! I welcome it!

Have a great day everyone!

by

Crazy Life / Crazy Schedule….Balancing it all

When I started this blog, it was my intention to log on everyday to post something.  It wasn’t because I thought others would really care what I had to say, but rather, to get into the habit of blogging on a regular basis.

It didn’t happen.  I could leave it at that, but I’m going to continue my thoughts.

I am a single person, no children, but keep a very hectic schedule.  I get tired of people saying to me, you don’t have children, how can you be that busy?  Since when did having children be the only reason that you are busy?  Don’t get me wrong, I know that juggling work, life, career, children’s activities, etc, can keep you very busy, but that doesn’t mean that someone who doesn’t have children cannot also be busy!

I have two dogs, a horse, I work full time, I’m trying to start a side business, I try to volunteer to causes I believe in,  I maintain a home, and still try to maintain a little bit of a social life, although I’m not doing too well at that last part!

It makes me often wonder, How do others manage to do it all?  Am I the only single, non parent, person that struggles to find free time?  How do some people manage to have so much free time?  Is free time overrated?

I’m going to go with that.  Free time is over-rated.  For me, I thrive when I’m busy.  On those rare occasions that I spend half a day catching up on my DVRd shows, I feel like I wasted half the month.  I know I didn’t, but I then think about everything I have to get accomplished and wonder why I didn’t work on any of it.

My biggest piece of advice is to stop judging someone else’s use of time.  What may be important to you might not be to them and vice – versa.  If they say they are busy, respect them.  Don’t let the number of people in the household indicate the level that you feel they should be busy!

Enjoy every moment of your life, accept challenges as they come, drive yourself to do what YOU want to do, and accomplish your goal, even if it takes a little longer than you wanted….at least you accomplished it.

by

Entering the world of blogging

I have finally decided to enter the world of blogging.  It can be a very scary thing to do because it’s putting your innermost thoughts, opinions, and ideas out  there for others to read, react, maybe even ridicule.  I know that I have to keep a tough skin and an open mind when I post something new.  If someone disagrees with my thoughts or opinions, it’s ok because they are MY opinions, not yours, but I would still like to know why someone disagrees with me.  One should never stop growing and learning.  It is through growth that we thrive, through growth that we empower ourselves to be just that, ourselves.  We should never strive to be someone fake.  Remember that you have to be true to yourself first.  That doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk.  I’d like to think that people, for the most part, are good in their core but they allow outside influence, stress, day to day drama to chip away at that “good” part of them, until there is anger, depression, or just plain meanness because they don’t know how to ignore it or deal with it.  With that I say…..enjoy your day, enjoy your life, and continue to be true to yourself.

Please remember that all thoughts and opinions expressed in my blog are mine.

Thank you for starting this journey with me.