I’ve decided to do a Love Friday post for several reasons today. Cindy is busy, she’s at the hospital with Chris, who since they posted on FB, I figure I can say here, too, had many tests yesterday ordered by the oncologist. Results are expected today, and with results come a game plan.

Who doesn’t love a game plan?

It’s been a week, hasn’t it?

A week of celebrations, we saw our Kizz blow out some candles, then lose the rest of her cake to a shifty scrappy pooch.

Audra opened her restaurant on Wednesday and alongside Chef Kevin and the help of her family and friends, she opened it with a great success. Several of us drove out to Batshitcrazytown to EAT, downtown, and couldn’t be more proud.

Spring semester started this week, my classes are amazing. I have two professors who are already up there in the iconic USAO hero worship area. I have a lot of reading to do, and one class makes me a little twitchy but I’m so excited. I love them.

The week also brought a big fat kick in the pants with Chris’ diagnosis of tumors on the liver. We thought he was auditioning for the Simpsons due to Hep A food poisoning. Alas, that is not to be. It’s really freakin scary but they are both, he and his super hero bride, navigating this with nerves of steel. Bring on that game plan.

We also said goodbye to one of our own. Rudy had only been diagnosed about 8 weeks ago. It was a fast trip down the rabbit hole, and I know that wherever he is, he’s figured out how to do his favorite things, golf, drive his boat, play washers and drink beer, at the same time. He’s left a huge hole in all of the lives he touched and we all miss him terribly.

So, yeah. It’s been a week. What’s to love, you ask? Where’s the LOVE in Love Friday? It’s Friday the 13th even!

Well, I would propose you take another look at the week.

It is a snapshot of this adventure. Life, encapsulated in 7 days. Beginnings, celebrations, endings, mournings. What a blessing to be able to do this adventure together. To reach out and know there will be a hand to hold, be it physically, or over the cell phone, or through the interwebs. No one goes into this alone…we rally. We polish our swords for battle, we clap and scream and celebrate, we send love and sympathy and hope and prayers. We know we have each other. From the beginning…through the end. Together.

If that isn’t worthy of some Love, on this Friday…I don’t know what is.

 

We lost a great friend last night. Rudy Inselmen went on to his next great race…

It seems unfathomable that the world continues to spin, people continue to go to work, go grocery shopping, read Star magazine, watch the Today show, after such a loss.

He was diagnosed in October.

It’s not fair.

I am heart broken for his wife of a little over a year. They were, indeed, a perfect match. It seems so unfair to finally find that happiness, only to have it go away. She is, however, one of the strongest girls I know. Woman. She may not yet be 30, but she’s definitely a woman.

Sigh.

Yet the world DOES continue to spin, we know that people get up, and shower and put on clothes and go to work and school and the grocery store. Day by day, bit by bit…life comes back.

Send a little love today, to this family. Their journey has just begun.

Those triumphant thoughts? Let’s scooch them over to Chris and Cindy…mmmkay? They’ve been dealing with quite a bit of shit. Literally, with their plumbing issues in the basement of the house they just freakin bought…

and in the diagnosis of cancer that replaced the Hepatitis A that was given to Chris this week.

Rally. Rally folks!

I’m rallying in a different way, as we prepare to say goodbye to another one of our own. Rudy is a fighter, and has continued to fight lo these past few months but it seems the time has come where we are at the end of his adventure. And I can’t even really wrap my head around it. So. rally some thoughts to him, his family and his sweet wife, Hope.

It’s a cold night here. The wind just blew right through my house. Seriously I felt a draft move my hair. I’m going to tuck the blankets in the crevices at the door, and get out my little heater and after supper I’m going to read some Southern women.

Every other thought, however, is wrapped in Kevlar, wearing bullet reflector bracelets, and is written by Joss Whedon, and being sent to KC, MO.

C&C Music Factory.

Absofuckinlutely, ya’ll.

Today is Opening Day for EAT, downtown.

She’s done it, and done it on her own. Yes, she’s had a tribe of help and support surrounding her, she has an amazing staff, food distributors, bankers who have her back and are helping this dream become a reality. She’s got a brother who rebuilt parts of the kitchen at a moment’s notice, family helping in the kitchen and front of house…

But this is Her Dream. Her’s.

And she made it happen.

Through every struggle when her first instinct was, “I’m screwed. It’s done” she took a breath and forced her way through the block and continued forward. One breath at a time.

The menu is delicious and I’m going to taste first hand today for lunch. I’ll report back and have photos as well.

The world is crazy right now, prayers going out for healing to two of my friends.

But today, today we celebrate the opening of a dream.

 

So much is being celebrated today!

My beloved Kizz is another year wiser, and more fabulous today, as is LT and our esteemed Duchess of Cambridge. All three of these women, I love with my whole heart…and I know for a fact that Kizz has a tiara and LT has a diamond on her finger that rival any of the crown jewels!

Audra had her soft opening of her restaurant tonight…I’ll be there this week for her official opening. I cannot wait to taste the delight and bask in her success. Triumph!!!

I finished my first day of classes today. I had 18th Century Restoration British Lit and my Fitzgerald Hemingway class. I am absolutely in love with hero worship oozing out my ears for both of my professors. I feel pretty good about these two…pretty good indeed.

I’m down 3lbs today, after a week of eating clean and limiting calories. No sugar, no white flour, processed foods, etc. I did get to the gym today, and watched the first episode of The United States of Tara while I was on the treadmill. I freakin love my iPhone. (Kizz…you will too) I made a hearty pot of white bean chili that I ate for dinner tonight. Navy beans, chicken stock, ground chicken, green chili, spices. So filling and good.

I’ve got insurance bla bla to deal with tomorrow and my Southern Women Writers class as well. I’m going to try to wind myself down and get to bed at a decent hour…in doing so I’m going to watch last night’s premiere of Downton Abbey again. Because really, my choices are football or fear factor. It’s gross.

Happy Happy Birthday my lovelies. So grateful you’re in my life. . . though our face to face time may be teensy, my love for us is ginormous! MUAH!

 

Downton Abbey.

I’d read about it, and saw the spread in my Entertainment Weekly, but when Talaura told me she watched it over break and fell in love with it, I jumped on board.

I watched all but two eps last night…(Saturday night in the big town) and am finishing the season this morning. Season two begins tonight on PBS.

The thing I’m so happy about, two things really, are this:

It’s on a channel that I get.

I have SO many friends who watch and love this and I had no idea!

 

I’ve written here before about how much I love Janurary. I love a fresh etch-a-sketch. Clean slate. One fresh calendar, one big do-over. It’s a time to reflect and thing back as well as look forward.

It’s also the four weeks of the year that you can guarantee I’m following a skin cleansing regimen.

One can only hope this is the year I choose to maintain that regimen.

What I did do was clear out the house of all the crap and fill it with the good stuff. I’ve been working the Kirstie Alley Organic Liaison program, because I was in my wine one night and decided to order it. Then I forgot to cancel the auto ship and now have two months of stuff. The meal plans are very similar to the Eat Clean philosophy. My daily caloric intake is in the same neighborhood as well. The daily drink is all vitamins, minerals, fiber for keeping me full, chromium for a little energy and it doesn’t taste bad at all. The evening product that I put in a cup of herbal tea is magnesium and calcium, which relaxes the muscles and helps me get to sleep. I don’t know if it’s actually worth the money, I probably won’t buy anymore, but I do feel better when I drink it, and other than this cold that snuck up on me, I’ve felt good and slept well this week too.

I haven’t added exercise this week. So, pffft.

I made a chicken and barley soup in my crock pot that I intend to eat on, which smelled so good when I got home last night. Mostly, yes. Planning. Cooking. Planning. I have fears about when my schedule gets crazy with classes. My goal is to just plan each meal ahead on Sundays, and make it work out that way.

What else? I’m super busy at work today,which is exciting. I have a meeting with my managers about the boothrent and lowering it to a part time position officially. We’ll see how that works out.

This weekend I’d like to make some progress on the taxes and reciepts that are stacked in boxes in this house. That’d be awesome.

Other than that? I think I’ll lay low. Take it easy. Gear up for the next week.

Hope you all feel good, get rest, and enjoy!

Mark your calendars. January 4th was the strangest day of the year.

I had an allergy/sinus attack about 4:30 am and finally took some meds at 5:30 am. This is why I was still dead ass asleep when someone knocked on my door at 9. I shuffled to answer, as my doorbell is apparently out of order, and when I opened it barely recognized the person to be the older woman that lives with the young couple and their children next door to me. Renters who’ve been there about a year or a little over. Nice, quiet. I wave. Nothing ever more involved than that.

The woman clearly saw that I was sleepwalking and said, ‘no no no go back to sleep’ and rushed away. I went back to bed thinking, “whatever, lady” and that was that.

Fast forward through a day that was an anti-histimine induced haze of lazy. I got my reading list for one of my classes and thought, I’ll go check out Half Price Books and see what I can find.

Knock Knock Knock…

I saw that it was her, and having figured out she was going to tell me they were leaving town and could I keep an eye on the trash or the house or will I ever get those leaves raked from the side of their house..I opened the door.

IN SHE WALKED. Right inside the door and plopped her butt onto my love seat. (I’m still standing up, mind you)

“What can I help you with?” I ask.

“well, I know you said you had a cousin living with you at one point…” she trails off waiting for clarification.

“yes. I did. and I’ve had a roommate since him as well.”

“Well, how would you like another one? I want to move in.” she said. . . as steadfastly as if I’d asked is the sky blue?

I really just looked at her for a minute. She’s in her late 50s early 60s. She is a widow who is living next door with her daughter and family helping to take care of the kids but the son in law is about to kill her, she says. They are just on each others nerves so much mostly because that grandson loves her more and asks for her and she is raising those babies not him and she doesn’t want to live alone and really doesn’t feel safe anywhere, and when her husband died she got rid of all of her stuff and really doesn’t want to buy anything new and it would just be a perfect arrangement, don’t I think?

Still. I’m gaping.

When I finally find my voice I explain that I work full time and am in grad school full time and quite frankly I’m too old to be living with someone I’m not having sex with.

Co-habitation is hard. And while extra money would be nice…we’ve all got a price…I don’t think its something I’m interested in at this very moment.

She stayed and chatted as I sat and honked my nose into tissue after tissue, coughing sneezing, clearly not fit for company and I thought…Sweet mercy, why do I not have a camera crew??? We could all be rich.

The day ended with a facebook friend asking me if I’d ever considered joining the Catholic Church, since I was so uplifting and fun.

so.

yeah.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I got my reading list for my Fitzgerald/Hemingway class. I spoke with the professor and he sounds fabulous. He’s all crazy excited and so am I. There’s so much from these authors I’ve never read so this is good stuff.

My clean eating / calorie counting has been going quite well, if not quite gassy.

Audra and the restaurant are coming along despite a few roadblocks. She’s steering this ship with aplomb.

Im making a chicken and barley soup in the crock pot today. This makes me happy.

that’s it for my daily update on life. peaceout.

New episodes of Parenthood.

The LiveStrong Calorie tracking app for my iPhone.

Having a friend who will coach my grocery shopping for me and give me meal ideas.

Screwing up my LiveStrong app and when I fixed it realizing I get an extra few hundred calories a day!

Sleeping till noon. Without guilt.

Having laundry caught up.

Only needing to clean my bedroom to have a clean house. (clean enough for me anyway)

Knowing that this time next week I’ll be in school again.

Watching my bff navigate the conundrum that is owning a business and getting it opened on her own… and she’s kicking ass, btw.

Getting random texts from my mother that are intended for my sister.

Seeing friends on Facebook who are jumping onto the Breaking Bad train after all my rabble rousing about it.

Knowing that today, I really only need to make a call or two and can, without guilt, lay here and read my new Nora Roberts book as well as the new one I bought on my Nook. Roses I believe it is.

The breakfast I made myself today. That was just over 300 calories.–(1 light w/w english muffin, 1 wedge laughing cow, 1 cup wilted seasoned spinach topped with two poached eggs. )

Seeing most of the crazy Republican nominees dropping like flys this morning.

Knowing that my trash and recycle are empty because I finally remembered to take them to the curb last night.

This life. Sore throat and drainage included.

I love this life.

I just cleaned out my pantry, freezer and fridge. My trash is full of “food” and there is now a sack full of NutterButters and Little Debbie snacks on my table. Bags of chips as well. I don’t know where those are going, but they can’t stay here.

I went full tilt batshitfoodcrazy the last part of the semester. My inner voice, the one that says, “make a better choice” was hog tied and ball gagged since about October. I’ve decided to free her today. Drinking my water, ridding myself of processed foods, no more fast food or cola. No more real cola for sure. I just lost my ever lovin’ mind and didn’t care. Chicken fried steaks! Gravy! More cocktails than you could shake an AA meeting at. Lord.

I’m not beating myself up. I was, for the most part, enjoying life. Surrounded by friends. Laughing. Soaking it up.

But this is my week to get my proverbial shit together.

I’m having a facial this afternoon.

Trish is coming up to go grocery shopping with me. (it takes a village of support. it really does)

My laundry is going, the house is mostly clean, I’m pulling down the Christmas lights off the house today. This time next week I’ll be back in school. I’m a little stressed, but not nearly as much as last semester! I’ve got some phone calls to make, some financial aid issues to resolve, and books for two classes to buy. I’m calling about my remote starter for my car and checking that off of my list. I’ve got insurance calls to make (don’t even get me started about that fiasco) and the trash has GOT to be taken out. The recycle is overflowing.

Not a single one of these things is a life or death situation. By not doing ONE of them, the world won’t stop rotating, will it?

But each baby step. Each car length ahead…each mile or two we move forward…When we look back we’ve accomplished a mountain. We’ve run the race set before us. We’ve done SOMETHING.

And all of those teeny tiny somethings, make up for a really great feeling when we look back on it.

Just three, four days ago we were all looking back. Reviewing.

Today we look forward.

Cleansing our lives and bodies and schedules and freezers.

Breathing through all of it.

Releasing old patterns of behavior, blessing it and letting it go.

And now…we begin again.

Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around…right?