It never even occurred to me until about 5 minutes ago, that exactly 1 year ago today, at approximately 1:30PM I graduated from cosmetology college. Okay, don’t laugh, I really did get a degree in cosmetology. If you want to know what I’m doing with it besides telling you that I graduated a year ago, the truth is not much. I cut my son, daughter, husband, brother and mother’s hair. I’ve cut P’s grandpa’s hair. I give my mom perms and colors. Other than that, I haven’t done a thing. But, anyway, so a year ago today I was blissfully happy to have graduated, and ready to go out there and get myself a job doing just about anything. Little did I know that I wouldn’t take my state boards, would decide to never use the degree I’d worked so hard for a year to earn and move on with life almost as if school had never happened. Strange how life moves you forward in a series of events that you only notice upon reflection. I am however a strong supporter of my school and I still go there for my own haircuts.
Archive for January, 2008
An Afternoon Off
My mom came and picked up L for an afternoon of grammy & grandkid fun (she’s also taking my newphew for a few hours). With an entire afternoon kid-free I’m really not sure what to do with myself.
Hobby Lobby was the first thing that came to mind, am I totally bad for admitting it? Shopping for scrapbooking supplies seemed the most awesome and productive way to spend a kid-free afternoon!
Second thing was clean the house really well, but who really wants to do that? I wouldn’t finish it all anyway, so why start, right?
I could spend some time reading one of the two books I have started.
I might start working on that rummage sale I am DEFINITELY having this spring. (And don’t let me slack on that one!)
I could eat all the candy in the house, or at least the chocolate stuff.
I could take an nice hot relaxing uninterrupted bath or even a shower!
I could finally have time to practice the funky yoga moves on my new video I purchased, but have never started using…..
I could drive over and check out the new music store here in town and see how much it would cost to rent the flute I’m wanting. I really, really want to start playing again even if I haven’t played since the 6th grade. And, they are much smaller than the baby grand piano’s I like and probably a whole hell of a lot cheaper on the pocket book.
I could do just about anything, the possibilities seem almost endless, but I’m sitting here instead…blogging about what I could do with a full afternoon kid-free instead of doing something. Pathetic, yes…yes I am.
Still Smoke-Free
It’s now been 28 days since I quit smoking. I can hardly believe I’ve lasted this long. I have had little puffs here and there, plus that one bad day smoke, but otherwise I’m not doing too poorly. Unlike others who quit, I’m not forcing myself not to smoke. If I feel like having a little puff, I have one. It seems to be working for me, so I don’t think I’ll throw that idea out the window anytime soon. I don’t know that I necessarily feel any better than I did while I was smoking, but here are some things I have noticed:
- I love chocolate. All kinds of any variety or portion. In total I ate about
three fourfive boxes of Little Debbie snacks last week alone. Yes, 5 boxes. I’m not proud of that. That doesn’t include theonetwo 12 packs of pudding I polished off before the kids could touch any. I did however leave the vanilla! (See what a good mommy I am?) - Food, in forms other than chocolate, are my new best friend. If the freshman 15 is what happens in college, I’m getting the cigarette 30. I didn’t gain 15 pounds in college, and I’m making up for it now.
- I have a lot more time on my hands. I never realized how much time in a day you could take up smoking cigarettes. If it’s 5 minutes to a smoke, that was about an hour of my day towards the end and over 2 hours a day in my prime. I spent 2 hours a day just smoking! Now I don’t have anything to do with those two hours and I find boredom strikes quite often.
- Spending time on activities has gotten easier. I’m not always worried about when my last cigarette was, or when my next one will be. This would come in very handy if I was working. It’s also made visiting with others a lot more pleasant.
- Given that I get bored more easily because I have those two extra hours, I find I’m in bed a lot earlier. This means I’m getting more sleep, waking up earlier, and not quite so crabby. I used to stay up just so I could have one last cigarette.
- I no longer carry the scent of cigarettes on my person. That being said, the smell of someone who has just had a cigarette is now both pleasing and disgusting. I get a slight pang of longing at the scent and sort of nauseous at the same time. It’s a strange love/hate relationship now.
I guess you could probably safely say that I’m a “non-smoker” even if I am cheating on occasion yet. I have a feeling within the next month I’ll probably be done with the cheating as it’s happening less and less often. In fact, it’s generally five or six days in between small puffs. 28 days down, 337 to go!
Thoughts for Monday
1. I can’t stay mad at my husband as long as I’d like to sometimes. Which almost makes me as mad as what originally made me mad in the first place. It’s certainly not fair that he can be a jerk and I can give up on the silent treatment long before he could. UGH!
2. I’m actually looking forward to having a pop up camper this summer. Despite the fact that it’s terribly fugly on the interior. It’ll be fun to take the kids out and not have to worry about getting rain. Not to mention, the ability to wash dishes and just hang out inside. I’m not sure I’m keen about sleeping in those wings though….what if they fall? *shudder*
3. I dislike being the disciplinarian. Really, really, really dislike it. It seems no matter how I handle it I always feel like I could have done something better. Which, maybe that’s the problem with discipline, there is always a better way. It could be too that my son had a “case of the Monday’s”.
4. Cramps should be outlawed! I see no reason why I should feel like curling up into the fetal position for 90% of the day; especially since it’s Monday. I had my own “case of the Monday’s” and don’t feel I should be tortured just because I happened to have been born a female. The fact that I just went through this 28 days ago should count for something, shouldn’t it?
5. While the laundromat is exceedingly quick for large sums of laundry (6 loads to be exact), I’d still rather have my own washer and dryer at home. It just feels so gross to wash my clothes where hundreds of others have. You do what you have to do, but I don’t know…it’s just not right.
Figure Skating
I’m watching the 2008 U.S. Figure Skating Championship right now. I’ve always been in love with figure skating. It’s such a graceful and beautiful sport. I grew up watching Nancy Kerrigan, Michelle Kwan and the like. It has always amazed me how they leap off the ice and twist and twirl and spin like swans on a large frozen lake.
But tonight, I’m watching and these “women” are like 14 years old and I can’t imagine the stress they are under professionally and personally to win and get that medal. I know it’s not the Olympics, but in figure skating every medal matters. Every competition part of the road to the Olympics, and every little girls’ dream of standing on that podium with a gold medal around her neck. At the ripe old age of 18 one is considered a veteran in this sport. By 25 most skaters are retired or have gone pro. I wonder what they’ve all given up? I wonder what the grueling practices, the tutors, the travel, the lack of personal time have done to them in their adult lives. I wonder if they’d change anything, or do it even a little bit differently. Would they still sacrifice everything for a 4-minute long program they’ve worked on for over a year?
The young girl, Caroline Zhang, who inspired this blog just finished a beautiful program to the sounds of Ava Maria and has captured a standing ovation from the crowd. I can see the absolute joy in her face at skating such a beautiful program and it honestly made me smile to see her face look so radiant at now being in first place. But I wonder what she’s given up for that?
So Jessa Said... 