Looking down from above, looking up from below

When I look at my life with a non-solipsistic perspective, things are pretty good overall. But being here in the trenches has made a lot of things frustrating due to lack of larger viewpoint.

I've been really irritable and there have been a slew of things composed in the posting window that were retracted--- I often save a local copy because my vitriol is often witty to me.

There have been some good things. I'm measurably smaller than I was 2 months ago. My phone does its job without me being a slave to its quirks. Yesterday's resolution to a minor crisis was solved by the application of time and money, both of which were obtainable. I don't live in Louisiana. I'm often really good at things I do--- discussion this week about knitting and about cooking, both where I off-handedly said something which was indicative of advanced skills and I wasn't being modest, I don't think it's all that. I've discovered a high fiber, high protein snack food that I enjoy--- plain yogurt with frou-frou granola in. This week it's ginger-pecan granola. The chocolate granola was more fun, but the ginger flavor is nicer in yogurt.

So everything really is okay. But I haven't done my taxes (there's still time in the extension, but I shouldn't wait.) I've still got company coming. I still need to do 4 loads of laundry and clean my kitchen floor. No one vacuumed so far this week. I still haven't bought new bras even though I'm down to one that fits and 2 that are okay for the gym but no where else. And the fast food I ate yesterday has wreaked havoc with my tummy.

Blah blah blah blah.

Trying to think of something to say. So this is just blather.

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I went from reading a slew of books and watching actual movies to watching TV reruns and grinding out a knitting project. I did make food, but one batch of beans, guac, and beef was for 3 suppers; so there wasn't much to say. I think I've talked about how I make all those things already.

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I'm sort of reading a book, it's this semi-western romance that was in the non-genre fiction at the library; it's by Linda Lael Miller. It's hardcover, but it's got all the stereotypes for pulp romance... single conflict being from characters who put pride before honesty, man who goes wild and leaves the girl behind, then he comes home to the raaaanch. *shrug* There probably won't be much to say about this.

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I read two things-- behavioral changes-- this week that conflict. One says if you're having trouble sleeping, eat breakfast right away when you wake up because that keeps the hind brain from panicking and thinking you need to worry about hunting saber tooth tigers when you should be sleeping. If there's food waiting when you wake, your subconscious will be trained to want to sleep. The other idea is that if you want to write, you should start out every morning doing 3 pages of longhand. That sounds just ghastly because converting longhand into anything is horrible. But the idea that you should do something toward the goal of including creativity in your life first thing does make sense.

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I don't like cardio stuff at the gym. They have overhead TVs, but they don't have TiVo. Most of the stuff they show at the gym is non-fiction (theoretically, not sure about CNBC!) and it has more commercial than program. And the program itself spends about half the time teasing the forthcoming bit and recapping what happened before the break. If you could distill away the crap, you could watch the whole hour-long program in about 10-12 minutes.

A lot of people bring magazines and put them on the rack that's clearly intended for that. I'm not a magazine reader. Of course the people bringing them to the gym aren't magazine readers either. They bring things that are like 90% pictures and 70% of those are ads... but I have seen them moving their lips. Maaaaybe they're lip synching to the music in their ears, but probably just that stupid.

I could use something entertaining to do. I don't have an iPhone, so I won't be able to stream Netflix. That would be convenient though. Hulu only has a flash player and my phone doesn't do flash. I thought about audio books, but I can't stand those when my hands are empty. And I don't think I could visually parse an actual book book that's stationary when I'm moving. I'm pretty sure I'd get massively motion sick.

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Something lame that happened today at the gym. I get on the scale and I've gained 5 pounds since yesterday. I get off. I get on again. Same result. I get off. Then I looked and realized someone had zeroed it with 4.8 pounds on!

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My SO thinks I should stop volunteering. As much as I enjoy it when it goes well, there are far too many times when it goes horribly. Today there were 3 people who needed help the whole time. I ended up taking my knitting to the park afterward just to have some time for myself.

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Tomorrow I will bake bread. And grocery shop (we are out of milk and I don't know what we're having for dinner). I should put in laundry, but there probably won't be time. I could put it in now, but bleah.

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I want a new default icon. I'd like to have eryngo growing in my pots outside my window. Yeah. Then I could take all the pictures of it I wanted and not have to worry about infringing someone else's work.