Bottoms Up

This summer, so far, has turned out to be all about self improvement and feeling good. Not on purpose, mind you, at least not in the sense that it was premeditated. But the husband and I have just shifted somehow, into a place where it genuinely feels good to be exercising daily and eating well.

I'm now able to jog 3 miles at a reasonable pace- I won't be winning a 5K anytime soon but I'm still pretty fuckin' stoked that I can do this. My body feels leaner and stronger. I have more stamina and the occasional sleepless night that still seems to be plaguing our lives feels less onerous. I don't know if I've lost weight (I simply have not checked) but my clothes are fitting better and I don't feel as jiggly, so...probably?

Our cooking has taken a largely vegetarian, vaguely middle eastern turn- lots of tabouli, felafel, hummus, grilled boneless skinless chicken breast (which yeah, I know, NOT vegetarian, but pretty different from the constant tacos, chili, and baby back ribs of last summer)...I love summer and the charcoal grilling. No soda this summer, with the exception of the ginger ale in the Moscow Mule because HELLO? Best summer drink EVER. Beer is still in the equation as well, because a life without it is simply not worth living. All things in moderation, holmes.

And so here we are, nearly to August, my birthday month. I gotta confess, I DO feel a little bit older and wiser this year. And that's a good thing. The wiser part, anyway.

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I'm kind of dreading my birthday. Not for the reasons you'd think- 32 doesn't really scare me any more than 31 did. It's just that it marks the 1 year anniversary of the day we lost McHann. It was such a horrible, sad, sad day, my birthday last year. It's going to be hard not to think of what we went through on the floor in that vet's office...holding her, speaking softly and watching the light leave her beautiful brown eyes. Afterwards, we went to a park on the edge of town, sat side by side and looked at the mountains thinking about and agonizing over what had just happened. Then we went to the Buckhorn for Jager shots.

Maybe if I flesh out all this stuff before my birthday it will not be as crappy? Worth a (Jager) shot, anyhow.

Hello! Its Tuesday Morning! (Can I PLEASE Go Back to Bed Now?)

Some observations, in no particular order or importance:

1. Microwave s'mores are sort of like nicotine gum - will satisfy a strong craving but are no where NEAR as good as the real thing.

2. I found myself looking in the mirror this morning wondering if instead of making feeble attempts to hide my dark circles with concealer, I should rather embrace them and start a whole new pale, dark-circled beauty trend. Sort of a 30-something mom meets heroin chic look?

3. WTF is up with the rule that says my hair/make-up/outfit that looks super cute in the bathroom mirror at home, looks shitty and half-assed in the mirror in the Ladies room at work? Seriously.

4. True Blood is completely, totally fucking ridiculous. And I still watch every week. "Sook-eh...Ah em Vampahr!" " Oh, Beel! Ah ken hear people's thowts! Eet sucks but ah'm so horny!" So awful, but so entertaining.

5. Why is the health care thing so contentious? Maybe I'm naive but what we have is OBVIOUSLY not working and yet people are digging their heels in, crying "socialism!" and generally being obstinate little shits about it. I don't know...I don't have any brilliant commentary...I just want Washington to work shit out so that people, ALL people have access to quality health care regardless of their financial status. My little brother having to declare bankruptcy because of his skiing accident is fucking ludicrous.

6. I can't stop listening to Bad Religion. Its the soundtrack of my summer. Especially this song.

Snippets

1. Cheney. OMG puke. The more that comes out on him, the more the fact that that creep is from my state just makes me sick. He was bad in office and he's bad out. Gag.

Phew. Glad that's off my chest.

2. My mom came to visit last week. We had a lovely time excepting that 2 days into her trip, she tore a ligament in her ankle and spent the week on crutches and in pain. She still insisted on watching my kid, however, which saved us a buttload of money that we would have normally spent on daycare. She and Otto had such an amazing time together that I was glad she still felt up to it, despite her injury. Yesterday (the first day sans Nana), Otto woke up and immediately asked for her. It broke my heart a little to remind him that we had taken her to the airport so she could ride an airplane back to her home. His response was: "Mah find Nana airport. Mah go get her." Sob.

3. Back to Mom's visit, we had a great day, Saturday, shuffling around the Denver Zoo (mom was in a wheelchair) and the kiddo loved getting to see all the animals and whatnot- so much that he didn't nap until we got back in the car around 4pm. The coolest thing we saw was a baby giraffe nursing from his mom. Otto was so fascinated! And so was I, to be honest. Talk about breastfeeding in public :-)

4. I'm getting super, royally pissed off because all winter I look so forward to riding my bike to work in the summer. This summer, they are doing so much stupid construction around my workplace that I have to ride WAY out of my way and leave my house at the mother effin' buttcrack of dawn and WHY CAN'T IT JUST BE EASY FOR ME TO SAVE GAS AND GET IN SHAPE BY RIDING MY BIKE TO WORK?!?!?!? Stupid.

5. I guess that's it for now...We just keep on keepin' on...live one day at a time, enjoy the time we have together as family and the time we have alone to our thoughts because there are way to few hours in the day and OMG I'm fucking exhausted.

Peace.

BubbububububububWha?

Haven't been posting here much because Hello! Summer! Vacation! Fun! Which is all very well and good but it makes me tired. In a pleasantly coma-riffic way.

So rest assured, that no news is good news and we are off busily building campfires in the mountains, going to the zoo, playing cowboys and generally laughing like bastards.

Carry on.