According to Weight Watchers, I had 50 points today...

If you were at all savvy to the Weight Watchers Points Plus program (no doubt you are), you'd know that this is a problem. Now, to lose 1-2 pounds per week, I'm supposed to have 30 points a day and then I get 45 gimme points a week beyond that. Well... thanks to the overwhelming amount of Coca Cola I have consumed today plus the Dominos pizza Mike wanted to get (I struggled, I swear! He made me do it!) and possibly the chocolate from the candy dish that I reach for every time I pass it... well, as you can imagine, it stacked up.

Now, I know what you're thinking-- but Jen, because I know you ran as per usual today, you've actually counteracted some of those points. And, while it's a shame that you've run your little heart out only to break even later down the road, you're still safe from overwhelming weight gain. Hypothetical thinker, I'd like to say you are correct, sir (madam), but the fact is, dressing to go running and actually going running are neither synonymous nor tantamount to one another. In fact, they are vastly different. It started to rain...

So what did  I do today to counteract those points?

Hmm. Let's see now-- I watched lots of HGTV which reinvigorated my creative genius for looking at creative things to do without actually doing them. For instance, I searched Good Housekeeping for tips on DIY decorations for the holidays and I saved quite a few pages. Then, I planned our Christmas dinner, which, fortunately for my overwhelmed self, my mother came through the door to talk about said Christmas gathering. We will go shopping together tomorrow.

Time out. Another fun thing Michael said in passing. As I was writing down the menu, making sure I noted who will cook what, and then as I looked for ideas for center pieces and maybe a few little decor items to festive-ize my house, Michael says "I don't understand why people make these things a big deal." Well sir, as a woman-- a strong, independent, hard-working woman-- I will have you know that nesting, while it sounds archaic and demoralizing, is truly important to this wife-wonder-woman. And, while I generally scoff at the 50's style housewife (see image below), I take a great deal of pride in earning the general respect and jealousy of my fellow woman.

Who wants to see arched, imperious eyebrows from the feminine front? Who wants the scrutiny of one's house amount to raised noses and sniffy praise? Screw those noses and perfectly plucked eyebrows. I will create an awesome house and if I am temporarily insane as a result, so be it! People are going to be awed by my creative little projects and neat little tricks. Mwahaha. I will manipulate the masses. Now, all I need is a classic flower-patterned dress, black  pumps, and pearls and I'll be set to fulfill my stepford-wife persona.

In other words, dear husband. This has nothing to do with you just as weddings have nothing to do with you, and babies only have a minuscule amount to do with you (and only at the beginning!). Men just don't get it.

Phew. I think I may need to be exorcised of my crazy-pants wife demon. In fun news, Courtney and Mindy are going to get lost coming to my house and then they're coming over! We will bake cookies, drink wine, and roll our eyes at our love exploits.

I totally have Christmas Spirit, and I can't wait for Summer

Well, day 3 of our 16 day break passed without much adieu. This was mainly due to my finally getting out of bed, groggy and angry at various cats, at 9:30. After that, I went to Target and bought Michael poptarts and myself fancy wrapping paper and ribbon.

Rewind a moment.

I went to bed last night and Michael soon followed-- that is, after leveling up in Skyrim, naturally-- and he was super cranky. I asked him why and he admitted that he was really hungry. It was the perfect Snickers scenario-- you know, with the "you're acting like Betty White" thing that they do and it's actually Betty White. Then, they give her a Snickers and it turns into some kind of 'bro wearing wrangler jeans. Anyway, so his grumpiness compelled me to leave the comfort of my bed and make him a sandwich. Upon returning, he screwed up his face and said, "I didn't want a turkey sandwich," to which I must have shot him a murderous look because he immediately acted like his previous statement was nothing more than phlegm in his throat before mumbling "thanks."

Hence the poptarts.

Then, I spent an hour or so wrapping presents for Michael, Mom, Dad, and David. I also took this opportunity to catch up on last week's Daily Show and Colbert Report. By the by, if you haven't seen Thursday's Colbert with Daniel Craig, do yourself a favor. It's so hilarious, especially the end. Anyway, I ended up with some finely crafted presents and one sleepy kitty trying to block the sunlight-- just one of the three rooms that lack curtains as of yet.

We also went to the triple header QA basketball games today where I learned a few things:

1. The kids that Michael teach look harmless-- they even acknowledged his presence, which is more than I can say for the kids I teach. Those ones probably hate me like whoah.
2. The far side of the gym becomes saturated with high school kids just before Varsity Women start to play... This is not fun, as I don't want to hear about their various sexual exploits, real or imagined.
3. Our kids didn't really represent the quality and sportsmanship of QA. Some of our boys were making fun of the girls on the St. Michael's team (freshmen) and what they were saying was purely mean. Of course, this made Michael upset, as it was girls he taught. This made me slightly ashamed I realized, because I usually have good things to say of our kids.

Tortellini, popcorn, soda, and chocolate later, I rounded my day with some Crosby pictures, a losing Steeler's game that can best be described as "lamentably boring," and a nice text from Courtney recounting a dream in which I partook in a frozen pizza trafficking scheme. Because of the poor food choices of the day, I'll need to wake up and "gym-it." This is where I listen to Coldplay, watch a silent TV with something like Cake Boss on it, and pedal my little heart out on the elliptical (and by "out" I mean cardio at no more than 160 bpm).

At this point, I can't wait for Summer. I miss having zero stress except for the ones I create for myself, and actually deciding what my schedule will be. I know this is weird because that's not really what life's like, but you'd be surprised how much time actually belongs to my job. Free time doesn't really happen until Saturdays because so much time is spent grading, planning, or doing other menial jobs within the school. The actual teaching part constitutes a small part of the day. 

Anyway, yeah, I miss Summer. Only 6 months :)   

The latter part of my afternoon: Picasa

Picasa 3 may be my new favorite Google feature yet. This afternoon, I basically spent hours just looking at all of the features within the program. The idea is that you download Picasa as a sort of dashboard program. It immediately syncs with your picture files (which you can control) and then it asks which pictures you'd like to share. It even has some pretty sick facial recognition capabilities. By the way, apparently, I have more pictures of Michael than of myself-- if you knew me, you'd know just how ridiculous that is. My narcissism has been beaten.

Moving on. I also like how you can Share via blog or Google + and it's insanely easy. Furthermore, there's also a feature that lets you automatically upload your mobile photos as you take them. I haven't really experimented with that yet. However, if my school would let the kids use Google, I really think these things could open up so many possibilities in English and in Yearbook.

Anyway, let me share what I did today. I decided to challenge myself a bit by defining my relationship with Michael through photos. Before you get upset about the lack of Marching Band photos, please remember that Michael and I were only in it together for 1 year, and those may be times I don't particularly want to remember-- selective memory.

Trying out Google+

Being that it is Day 2 of my 16 day break, I decided to give Google+ a try. It seems overly complicated. I'm not gonna lie. Plus, apparently, I can't get the App that automatically syncs Google and Facebook together. Therefore, I'd probably have to commit to one or the other. If I can get this Blog thing to work AND if I can have my phone photos to sync automatically, it just might work for me.

The First of (Hopefully) Many Thoughts...

Well, I decided to start another blog for no other reason than I'm incredibly bored and feel the need to write something (anything). Therefore, I'm sitting here on a Monday evening on a bed in my parents' basement, the place I'll be residing till I'm allowed to live in my (finished) townhouse.


Just now, Michael finished practicing his trumpet, and I must say he sounds wonderful. I practiced earlier. The results were varied-- not as good as I want to be, but certainly better than I expected.

In other news, I'm into the 3rd book of the Song of Ice and Fire series. I have absolutely no clue what's going to happen. It would seem that a lot of the major characters keep dying or get maimed in some way. No spoilers here though. If you've read the series at all, you'll know what I mean about the progression of the storyline. There are also some captivating characters that are ambiguous. I really like the complete lack of stock characters-- no one is truly good or truly evil just as real people are never truly good or evil. I found myself sympathetic towards characters that truly don't deserve sympathy-- like Jaime and Tyrion Lannister. Hmmm... We'll see how this plays out!

Well, I suppose I should actually do some work while Mike is doing his new teacher orientation. However, I honestly cannot bring myself to think about work-- even yearbook, which gives me anxiety issues when I think about just how much I don't know about it (everything). I suppose I should take steps to remedy this situation, but I need to figure out when I can get into the school, be trained, etc. We already received angry administrator email #1 about coming into the school-- let me not piss off my bosses before school even starts.

Sophie licks the remains of a Tasty Freeze M&M Freezie

Michael and I went to get ice cream. Sophie reaps the benefits of this decision. I have a Picasa album entitled "365 Day Photo Challenge"-- go and see it!