The Boston Red Sox have won the World Series, yay!!!
Here's the thing: I don't especially care about sports, nor do I understand them or enjoy them. However, Boston is a city in which there are a lot of Red Sox fans, and one can't help but get caught up in the hoopla that surrounds Red Sox Nation.
I started paying attention to the Red Sox this year, i.e., checking if they won or not. Well, they kept winning, so I kept paying attention. And, starting in the playoffs, the ACLU or ASCF or whatever it's called, I started actually watching a couple of hours of each game. I'm learning some things, like: there is a relationship between the guy who's pitching and the guy who's catching. They are on the same team.
Mostly, I like to play games while I'm watching with people. Last night's game was about facial hair. I thought that more players than not had facial hair, and a guy my friends and I were watching with started counting who was clean shaven and wasn't. Turns out that there are more hairy players.
Next up: The Patriots will win the Superbowl. I'll think of a game to play while I watch.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
He's Gonna Pump...Me Up!
I have 6 months until I turn 40, and I am determined to get in shape by then. I've decided to work with a personal trainer to help me achieve my goal of getting rid of the small tire that has creeped around my waist and firm up the rest of me. Watching a couple of seasons of The Biggest Loser has really gotten me motivated.
Yesterday I had my first session with my personal trainer, Steve. He looks sort of like Christopher Reeve as Superman, but he's in between Clark Kent and Superman. He's got the body, complete with tree trunk thighs, but he wears glasses.
As soon as I walked in the gym, I got nervous. It's a whole different world in a gym, one I am not used to at all. I feel the same way when I walk into a church or a bar. Places I am immediately comfortable in include playgrounds, Prince concerts, and huge cities like New York and Tokyo.
I had forgotten to bring a lock with me, so Steve offered to put my bag in the office. I went in the locker room to put my jacket and sweatshirt in a locker. I went around opening all the lockers that didn't have locks in them, and most of them were occupied. Guess people are really trusting here. I find one, and looked around. There were showers and toilets. People really do take showers in gyms?? I guess. I wasn't about to. I took a deep breath, and set off to get trained.
I was scheduled for an hour. Steve walked me through a list of exercises and stretches, that he said would take 5 minutes in a couple of weeks. I barked out, "HA!"; you should have seen how long that list was! We went through all of them, and it took the whole hour. If I ever finish that list in 5 minutes, I will be very proud of myself.
Some were harder than others. The most fascinating one was one in which you stand up, then slowly squat down all the way, keeping your butt sticking out, and your feet flat on the floor. When Steve was showing me, all I could think of was that he looked like a frog on steroids. I tried it, and I swear to God, alls I could do was go down halfway. He told me I'd get there, and gave me homework so I could work on it at home. I'm determined to look like a frog.
There was one where he stretched out on his side, leaning on his forearm. He showed me the position, and said, "...and then you lift your hips up like this." I laughed out loud, as if I was saying, "And you expect me to do that??" He asked me if that was nervous laughter, and I told him I supposed it was. Guess what? I did it on the first try! Thing is, I had never put my body in that position before and tried to lift my hips, so how was I to know? It just looked hard.
One thing I learned is that my confidence in what I can do is pretty low. Interesting, because I could do just about everything he showed me. This will be an interesting experience, for sure.
I took some Advil before I went to bed, fully expecting to be sore this morning, and I was right. It was not fun to climb down the ladder of my loft bed, let me tell you. I took a hot bath, and now I feel well enough to trek over to Starbucks. Later on, I will practice my frog stance. Ribbit!
Friday, October 26, 2007
My Precious Baby
Stories are a' comin', I just had to post this first. I do believe my cat is too precious for words, really. I mean, really. Look at that fluff!
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Got Milk?
Hey Y'all,
It's been awhile since I've blogged. Had a nasty cold for about five days, and I'm just now feeling like myself again. I'll be back to blogging in the coming week. Until then, here's a pic to enjoy!
Sunday, October 14, 2007
WHOOPS!
I just made a $450.00 mistake. Instead of writing a check in as $450.00, I wrote it in as $12.00. I was wondering why I had so much money in my account. Oh well, I'm independently wealthy, so it actually doesn't make a difference to me. NOT!
"Uh, excuse me, Therapist? Yeah, it's me, Alex. Um, could you do me a favor, and not deposit that check I wrote to you yesterday? Yeah, thanks. I should be okay in a week or so. Thanks. Yeah, I'll see you next week. Yep. Okay, bye."
Thank goodness I just bought that huge box of Special K. I'll be eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the rest of the month. And knock off that pesky 5 lbs. while I'm at it!
"Uh, excuse me, Therapist? Yeah, it's me, Alex. Um, could you do me a favor, and not deposit that check I wrote to you yesterday? Yeah, thanks. I should be okay in a week or so. Thanks. Yeah, I'll see you next week. Yep. Okay, bye."
Thank goodness I just bought that huge box of Special K. I'll be eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the rest of the month. And knock off that pesky 5 lbs. while I'm at it!
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Dental Dilemma
I got a letter in the mail saying that my dentist had moved back to Israel. I am really bummed out. I've been with this dentist for at least ten years. He knows me. He knows my mouth. He knows my teeth. He knows the one tooth that has given me problems since I had a bad dental experience when I was a kid.
Dr. Tencer (aka Dr. T) has seen me through bleached blond shaved hair, an eyebrow ring, and long locks. He wasn't shy about giving me his opinion on my changing style (he liked the natural look, no piercing), and didn't take crap when I'd breeze in a half hour late. One time I came in late for my appointment, and he was putting on his leather jacket. I asked him where he was going. He said, "I'm going to lunch. You're late!" After that, the ladies behind the desk and I set up a system. They always scheduled my appointments fifteen minutes later than the time they told me. They told me to write 10:15 in my book when my appointment was really at 10:30, so I wouldn't be late. It worked. I was never late again.
I have this one tooth that has always given me problems. Dr. T talked about a root canal for years, but he wanted to wait until it was absolutely necessary. As long as I wasn't in pain, he'd leave it. He replaced the filling twice, I had gum surgery, we worked very carefully to keep it clean. I started flossing, My cleanings are a breeze now. My tooth is safe.
Will this new doctor keep my tooth safe? Will he take care of me the way Dr. T did? Will he hide the giant injector behind his back and try to make a joke so he can sneak it in? I'm gonna miss Dr. T. Guess I'll give the new guy, Dr. Pezzolesi (Dr. P?) a try. The consultation's free, anyway.
Dr. Tencer (aka Dr. T) has seen me through bleached blond shaved hair, an eyebrow ring, and long locks. He wasn't shy about giving me his opinion on my changing style (he liked the natural look, no piercing), and didn't take crap when I'd breeze in a half hour late. One time I came in late for my appointment, and he was putting on his leather jacket. I asked him where he was going. He said, "I'm going to lunch. You're late!" After that, the ladies behind the desk and I set up a system. They always scheduled my appointments fifteen minutes later than the time they told me. They told me to write 10:15 in my book when my appointment was really at 10:30, so I wouldn't be late. It worked. I was never late again.
I have this one tooth that has always given me problems. Dr. T talked about a root canal for years, but he wanted to wait until it was absolutely necessary. As long as I wasn't in pain, he'd leave it. He replaced the filling twice, I had gum surgery, we worked very carefully to keep it clean. I started flossing, My cleanings are a breeze now. My tooth is safe.
Will this new doctor keep my tooth safe? Will he take care of me the way Dr. T did? Will he hide the giant injector behind his back and try to make a joke so he can sneak it in? I'm gonna miss Dr. T. Guess I'll give the new guy, Dr. Pezzolesi (Dr. P?) a try. The consultation's free, anyway.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Sleepy's Update
Awhile back I was musing on the subject of the Sleepy's logo man. I wondered why he used to have a mustache and why he suddenly doesn't (see pics).
I wrote to Sleepy's to inquire, but didn't get an answer. Yesterday I was walking in my neighborhood and passed a Sleepy's store I had forgotten was there. I went into the empty store and asked the manager. He told me that the owner of Sleepy's changed the logo because so many people said the logo man looked like Hitler (just like my friend Diana had figured). The owner is Jewish, so he wouldn't have purposely made Mr. Sleepy look like Hitler, but I guess a lot of people complained. So, there it is. Mystery solved. Whew.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Ode to a Death Certificate
I almost went postal in the post office yesterday.
You would not believe what I had to go through to get my dad's second batch of death certificates. "What?" you ask. "Second batch?" Let me explain:
When my dad died, I knew he was going to be cremated. Who knows about where to find a cremation place when one's remaining parent dies? Not me. I looked in the phone book. I chose the funeral home that I did because the funeral director's voice was kind.
One of the questions they ask when making funeral or cremation arrangements is, "How many death certificates would you like?" How many? I don't know, how many does one need? I ordered three. Who knows? I don't know from death certificates.
I make the other arrangements, and then I talk to some people. Turns out one should order far more death certificates than I did, because you need one for every account that was held. One to close the checking account, one to close the savings account, one for the phone company, one for the electric company, one for this IRA, one for that IRA, one for the life insurance, one to open an estate account, one to close the Visa account...you get the picture. I call back the funeral director and order seventeen more death certificates, to make a nice even twenty.
Well, apparently if you don't order them all at once it takes longer. The funeral director tells me that it will take eight weeks for the second batch to arrive. Fine. She even calls me to ask where they should be sent. I calculate when I will receive them (August 21st), and request that they be sent to my house. She says she'll send them on to me when she receives them.
August 21st comes and goes and no death certificates. I call the funeral director. She reminds me that she said it would take a long time. I remind her that eight weeks have gone by. She says she has to deal with the city now and find out what's going on. I am very aware that this is not my fault.
I call the city myself, and they tell me that the death certificates had to be altered as a result of the autopsy report (the original three said cause of death unknown, and the new ones would now say cardiovascular disease), and that they had been ready since July 31st. I find out that I can't order death certificates myself; they have to be sent to the original source; in this case, the funeral director. She and I go back and forth on the phone.
On September 27th, thirteen weeks after I request them, the death certificates come in the mail. They arrive via registered mail, so I have to go to the post office to pick them up. I finally have them in my hands. It's emotional.
I get home, open the envelope, and read over the altered certificates. I cannot believe my eyes when I see that they got my dad's date of birth wrong. I start crying. They had it right in the first batch, and now it's not even off by a digit, it's off by a few days. I figure for insurance purposes they're going to want to correct date. They also got his education wrong (an Associate's degree instead of a Bachelor's), but I'm not going to fight that. I'm so exhausted from this process. Who knew it would be so nerve wracking?
I call the funeral director and try to keep it together. I tell her that I can't take this anymore, she has to make a phone call, because I'm losing my mind over this. She immediately makes a call and arranges to have the certificates sent directly to me, which they usually don't do.
Yesterday I got a notice that a registered envelope was waiting for me at the post office. I could pick it up after 5:00; the post office closed at 7:00. I go at 6:00, which is a lot after 5:00, and the guy behind the counter tells me that the envelope is still on the truck and the driver isn't back yet. I breathe. I breathe. I very nearly lose it. I tell the man that it's not really that great to have such specific directions if a package isn't going to be where they say it's going to be. I realize it's out of my hands for the moment, and try to calm down. The guy tells me to come back tomorrow, and I tell him that I don't want the same thing to happen. He assures me it won't. I hold it together.
Today I go to get the envelope, fifteen weeks from when I request it. It's there. I open it at home. It's correct. They send sixteen instead of the seventeen I paid for ($15 for each). I notice that, but at this point, I don't care. I can move on. I will move on. Now I know from death certificates.
You would not believe what I had to go through to get my dad's second batch of death certificates. "What?" you ask. "Second batch?" Let me explain:
When my dad died, I knew he was going to be cremated. Who knows about where to find a cremation place when one's remaining parent dies? Not me. I looked in the phone book. I chose the funeral home that I did because the funeral director's voice was kind.
One of the questions they ask when making funeral or cremation arrangements is, "How many death certificates would you like?" How many? I don't know, how many does one need? I ordered three. Who knows? I don't know from death certificates.
I make the other arrangements, and then I talk to some people. Turns out one should order far more death certificates than I did, because you need one for every account that was held. One to close the checking account, one to close the savings account, one for the phone company, one for the electric company, one for this IRA, one for that IRA, one for the life insurance, one to open an estate account, one to close the Visa account...you get the picture. I call back the funeral director and order seventeen more death certificates, to make a nice even twenty.
Well, apparently if you don't order them all at once it takes longer. The funeral director tells me that it will take eight weeks for the second batch to arrive. Fine. She even calls me to ask where they should be sent. I calculate when I will receive them (August 21st), and request that they be sent to my house. She says she'll send them on to me when she receives them.
August 21st comes and goes and no death certificates. I call the funeral director. She reminds me that she said it would take a long time. I remind her that eight weeks have gone by. She says she has to deal with the city now and find out what's going on. I am very aware that this is not my fault.
I call the city myself, and they tell me that the death certificates had to be altered as a result of the autopsy report (the original three said cause of death unknown, and the new ones would now say cardiovascular disease), and that they had been ready since July 31st. I find out that I can't order death certificates myself; they have to be sent to the original source; in this case, the funeral director. She and I go back and forth on the phone.
On September 27th, thirteen weeks after I request them, the death certificates come in the mail. They arrive via registered mail, so I have to go to the post office to pick them up. I finally have them in my hands. It's emotional.
I get home, open the envelope, and read over the altered certificates. I cannot believe my eyes when I see that they got my dad's date of birth wrong. I start crying. They had it right in the first batch, and now it's not even off by a digit, it's off by a few days. I figure for insurance purposes they're going to want to correct date. They also got his education wrong (an Associate's degree instead of a Bachelor's), but I'm not going to fight that. I'm so exhausted from this process. Who knew it would be so nerve wracking?
I call the funeral director and try to keep it together. I tell her that I can't take this anymore, she has to make a phone call, because I'm losing my mind over this. She immediately makes a call and arranges to have the certificates sent directly to me, which they usually don't do.
Yesterday I got a notice that a registered envelope was waiting for me at the post office. I could pick it up after 5:00; the post office closed at 7:00. I go at 6:00, which is a lot after 5:00, and the guy behind the counter tells me that the envelope is still on the truck and the driver isn't back yet. I breathe. I breathe. I very nearly lose it. I tell the man that it's not really that great to have such specific directions if a package isn't going to be where they say it's going to be. I realize it's out of my hands for the moment, and try to calm down. The guy tells me to come back tomorrow, and I tell him that I don't want the same thing to happen. He assures me it won't. I hold it together.
Today I go to get the envelope, fifteen weeks from when I request it. It's there. I open it at home. It's correct. They send sixteen instead of the seventeen I paid for ($15 for each). I notice that, but at this point, I don't care. I can move on. I will move on. Now I know from death certificates.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
A New Taste Sensation!
Yesterday I was at a cafe with some friends. We walked into the place, and one of the first things we noticed were these mondo muffins. We knew we wanted to try them.
Turns out they're a creation called donutmuffins, which is a combination of, can you guess, a donut and a muffin. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined such a perfect combination.
They came hot off the grill (?!?) with a side o'butter. The consistancy was exactly like what you would imagine a donut and muffin put together would be like. The outside was encrusted with a cinnamon/sugar mix, and the whole thing was so delicious I had another one today. I plan to walk 38 miles tomorrow to burn off my sins of the weekend.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
JT Obsession
I'm on a Justin Timberlake fix right now, ever since my friend Courtney gave me his lastest CD and we saw his concert on HBO. He's a smooth dude, for sure, and his songs are so dance-able and sway-y. And that falsetto! Oooh!He can get a tad corny with the lyrics, such as,
"You cheated girl, my heart bleeded girl..."
But he makes up for it by sounding like he's got a Baptist church choir backing him up. Save me, Jesus!
(note to Prince: this in no way reflects any loss of love for you, my dear Purple One)
Much Better
Had a much better English lesson with the two boys today. I brought Boggle, and we got to shaking that container first thing. We played three rounds, then played three rounds of the card game Crazy Eights. At the very end, the girl wanted to put together her 100 piece Hello Kitty puzzle. I told them we had five minutes to do it, and we zipped along and got it done in four.
Great energy, great lesson.
Great energy, great lesson.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Productive Day
I had the morning off today, and I made the most of my time. Here's what I did today:
8:30 am--Went to Starbucks with a friend. Egg & sausage sandwich, tea.
9:00 am--Walked off my sandwich instead of taking the T. Went to post office and mailed a photo that I had promised to a friend 3 years ago. Got a mail order for a print I've wanted for a year.
Walked to the hardware store and bought a lamp that I've wanted for only a week.
Back home. Vacuumed, cleaned the kitchen. Ate lunch.
2:30--Walked to Coolidge Corner. Dropped off pants to get a new snap. While waiting for snap, went to frame store and chose a frame for a painting I've had for almost a year.
3:00 pm--Picked up pants and went to get allergy shots.
4:30--Taught English. While talking to kids, drank fresh apple cider and ate fresh pumpkin pie supplied by the mom (the family had just gone apple picking).
5:30--Left the English lesson with a dinner packed for me by the mom: Mexican food, Japanese style. White rice, topped with chili, lettuce, cheese, and salsa. Yummy!
7:30--Blogged, finishing just in time for tea, dessert, and The Biggest Loser.
A wonderful, productive day!
8:30 am--Went to Starbucks with a friend. Egg & sausage sandwich, tea.
9:00 am--Walked off my sandwich instead of taking the T. Went to post office and mailed a photo that I had promised to a friend 3 years ago. Got a mail order for a print I've wanted for a year.
Walked to the hardware store and bought a lamp that I've wanted for only a week.
Back home. Vacuumed, cleaned the kitchen. Ate lunch.
2:30--Walked to Coolidge Corner. Dropped off pants to get a new snap. While waiting for snap, went to frame store and chose a frame for a painting I've had for almost a year.
3:00 pm--Picked up pants and went to get allergy shots.
4:30--Taught English. While talking to kids, drank fresh apple cider and ate fresh pumpkin pie supplied by the mom (the family had just gone apple picking).
5:30--Left the English lesson with a dinner packed for me by the mom: Mexican food, Japanese style. White rice, topped with chili, lettuce, cheese, and salsa. Yummy!
7:30--Blogged, finishing just in time for tea, dessert, and The Biggest Loser.
A wonderful, productive day!
Close Your Curtains
Look! A Peeping Tom!
Okay, so it's not a tom turkey, I don't think.
There's a family of turkeys in my neighborhood.
They usually travel around in a pack, with two females and about thirteen chicks. There's also
a male somewhere who likes to hang out near
the Dunkin' Donuts, I've heard. He likes to
direct traffic.
I was surprised to see this turkey by herself, but I figured that maybe she was scoping for a new location to move the fam.
After I took my shot and kept walking, I saw a blind man walking down the block with his seeing eye dog. I warned him that there was a turkey about five houses down, so in case his dog went crazy, he'd know why. He politely declined my offer to help him cross the street. I wished him luck and went on my way. I do love this little town.
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