BEDA 3: I have never been punched in the face...

...but I can certainly sympathize with those who have had that experience. As I told the 7th grade math teacher today, I believe I may be allergic to someone in the first period class I have to attend. His suggestion that I'm probably allergic to ALL of the children was hilarious, but seriously unhelpful. Although, word on the street is that laughter is the best medicine. If this is the case then I should never be ill. Between BBF2 and several of the teachers I work with, my work days usually involve massive amounts of laughter.* And I suppose, if I'm honest, I don't usually get sick. Well, if you discount stress related illnesses and general allergy ickiness then I'm never sick. I guess you could say I'm always sick, but only if you're a "glass half empty" kind of person. Today just for laughs I looked at a map detailing pollen counts. Our county was a BLAZING red, which caused BFF2 to burst into hysterical laughter when she saw it. Today wasn't really terrible though because only tree pollen counts were up. Grass and weed pollen counts were LOW!!!** My favorite days are uwhen all three counts are BLAZING red on their respective maps. Those are the days that I cry or just stay in bed all day.

I realize that I've written two blog posts in a row about my allergy woes. I promise that every BEDA blog will NOT consist of a detailed account of my allergy struggles, unless you like that sort of thing! =D



*They also include large amounts of stress, tension headaches, and occasional panic attacks.
**YAY for low pollen count days!

BEDA 2: Allergy Woes

There are many things I love about Spring. Flowers blooming, warm weather, driving with the windows rolled down, sitting outside when it rains, etc. But I hate what Spring does to my allergies! I deal with them year round, but this time of year is THE WORST! Today I've been plagued with a headache, terrible itchy and runny eyes, and random pains shooting through my ears! Consistent pain makes it difficult to really enjoy the things I love about this season and t always makes me grumpy! I suppose I shouldn't complain, the past two winters have been very harsh and I've suffered a lot less than usual with m allergies. Even if I have a bad year with them this year at least there has been a small reprieve. The saddest thing is that it has been warm enough to sleep with my windows open* and I haven't been able to so far. I suppose it's time to buck up and plug in my air purifier if I want to enjoy open windows!

*Open windows are my absolute favorite thing about warm weather!

Hello again, BEDA

EDIT: I'm not sure how exactly this blog managed to disappear, but it randomly reverted back to a draft. Reposting so that ALL of the BEDA blogs exist!

If at first you don't succeed...try, try again? Right? That's the adage. Which is why I am once again attempting BEDA! Which will probably consist of me blogging daily for two weeks, and then disappearing for months. 'Cause that's how I roll...you know...

Anyway, I can at least begin BEDA with SUPER AWESOME WONDERFUL NEWS!!!!* After a complete breakdown last week and weeks of suffering from stress related illnesses (migraines, loss of appetite, feeling sick whenever I eat) and being a miserable person to be near (again with the stress induced horribleness) I made a pretty big decision to not work this summer. It was a big step because I had already promised to work and I had promised BFF2 that I would run a therapeutic group with her during the course of our day camp program. It was a big deal, choosing to take this step for myself, but after talking to BFF2 last week and my boss on Thursday I feel AMAZING! For the first time in two years I'm looking forward to summer. I have some plans to do a massive overhaul in my room. This includes getting rid of clothes that don't fit or aren't wearable, cataloging my bookshelves again, and redecorating my room. Not sure how much of the redecorating will happen because I will be on a VERY tight budget this summer, but hopefully I'll at least get everything arranged so that I will be ready to paint in the fall and can buy linens and curtains and other accessories when I start working again inûp August.

I'm also looking forward to time with my family. The past two summers have been really hectic, and while I've taken a few spur of the moment trips with The Clone and family, I haven't actually spent much time with The Cousins. That will be different this year. I plan to fully enjoy cookouts and bake sales and pool time. Actually I'd like to swim at my aunt's every day this summer. It's excellent exercise and it will really help my (so far unsuccessful) attempts to be more active and fit.

With less overwhelming exhaustion this summer I am also hoping to read a lot. I know this comes as a shock to you all! I really want to read books that have been on my shelf for a long time that I've never read. Last year I banned myself from buying books for a few months and then I attempted to restrict buying to no new books unless I read a book I already owned. With a tight budget this summer I won't be able to buy a lot of books, so I'm hoping to make a good dent in my TBR list. I'm also planning on actually compiling a TBR list of all the books I own but haven't read. I've been using GoodReads for this and I enjoy it more and more with each use.

If any of you are participating in BEDA this year let me know so I can visit your blogs!


*That I already announced on Twitter and told the people I see in my actual every day life.

Springing Forward

Time changes are always so challenging! The process of adjusting can be a real pain, but there is something so fantastically wonderful about knowing that spring is here* and that it won't be dark so early. I rarely am able to pick a favorite season, but this year I am really looking forward to spring. Rebirth and freshness are kind of a recurring theme in my year, and having that manifested by nature every time I look out my window is uplifting to say the least. There are currently daffodils blooming in out front garden and crocuses have popped up throughout our yard in a multitude of colors. They all look so happy! Soon it will be time to plan our garden, plant tomatoes, and hopefully this year I'll be able to start a small herb bed beside our porch. Bake Sale Season starts at this end of this month and I'm already busy planning a variety of snacks to prepare and sale. I've been stockpiling recipes all winter long and am really looking forward to baking in the upcoming months. I've also been messing around with basic cupcake recipes and adding to them based on various inspirations to create my own recipes. THAT is more fun that I would have imagined and it is gratifying to create something that other people enjoy.

Life in SWVA has been run of the mill. I wake up in the morning, go to work, come home, rinse and repeat. This may SEEM lousy and boring but in all actuality it's pretty much what I need right now. Work has been calm enough that I am able to get most of my paperwork done before I leave the school, which leaves my evenings open for reading and relaxing while I watch TV and chat with the BFFs. I've been fairly successful with my Lent challenge. I've finished four books and I've read at least 30 minutes every single day. I've also only read one reread, which is refreshing. I love to revisit books I've loved, but sometimes in doing that I forget how many amazing books are out there that I haven't taken the time to read.

Television this season has been a little disappointing. We regularly watch American Idol, but so far most of the shows have been too boring to hold my attention and I've read through each episode. ANTM has been wonderful so far this season though. If you've never watched the show I would recommend this season as a fantastic starting point. Tyra has sadly been normal and hasn't attempted ACTING so far this season, but I'm positive that will come about later on. US models in the making are competing against previous contestants from Britain's Next Top Model in Cycle 18. The most recent episode is the makeover episode** which includes all the usual DRAMA about hairstyles and cuts and colors. I find these episodes particularly amusing for multiple reasons. I'm looking forward to the new season of DWTS and the celebrity lineup this year looks MUCH more promising than last years. Urkel! Laura Ingalls Wilder! Gladys Knight! As usual I will livetweet my viewing of DTWS. Occasionally I livetweet Idol, but it hasn't been tweetworthy so far this season.

*Spring has actually been here all winter, truth be told.
**This is always my favorite episode of every season. My goal is to own every single makeover episode of ANTM so that I can watch them on repeat on bad days.

Lent

As usual I gave up a beloved food item for Lent this year, but I've also been trying other things as well and setting goals for myself during this 40 day period has been reasonably successful in the past. So here are my goals for Lent!

First, I read about this challenge. Now, I never need a reason to read, but sometimes I do need to streamline my reading process. This year I am WAY ahead of my personal reading goals so I didn't want to pick a huge number of books to read for this challenge. Instead I decide to challenge myself to read 10 books over the seven week period of Lent. But really, 10 seems too easy in a way, and after reviewing my current reads I realize why. I am currently rereading two series. Therefore, my additional challenge is one new read for every reread. I have a list of 22 books that I am choosing from during this reading challenge. I'll try to post them in the sidebar, but my computer is broken again and that may prove to be an impossible task with the tablet. I am also creating a separate GoodReads shelf to list all my challenge books.

Other challenges include exercising more. That's been a challenge for 2012 in general, but I've really slacked off in February. I really want to be healthy and I can't do that if I don't work for it.

The food I gave up this year is fast food. This ties in with being more healthy, and it is a step I'm considering making permanent. I know that will be difficult, especially when I have to leave work and go straight to meeting and such, but I'm willing to forego the majority of fast food if it means I can be healthy and fit.

An unplanned Lenten sacrifice may be not spending any money, because if Suzette is well and truly dead I will have to buy a new computer. Which will be horrid in regards to matching my desires (a Mac) to my finances (not Mac friendly.)

Snow Day

Today is the second snow day I have had this year. The first was on the day we were supposed to start school after Christmas break, and it didn't really count. Today has been kind of wonderful though. Schools were closed mid-afternoon yesterday, so naturally E came to stay overnight. This is in no way surprising, she's usually here as many nights as her parents will allow. Since the majority of my family is employed by the school system everyone congregated at my house around breakfast and for most of the day. We had lunch and dinner together. Doodle, E, A, and I made cupcakes inspired by Butterbeer, and they were consumed at an alarming speed. When the cousins went sledding I opted to stay inside due to the long-lasting cold type illness I've had this month. I spent my time lazing on the couch, watching The Walking Dead season one, and reading a few pages in several different books without actually committing to any of them. It was all just kind of GOLDEN. No schedule, no kids with behavior issues, no scrambling around a middle school...just resting and relaxing. I didn't even really communicate with anyone who isn't a relative. It was one of the best days I've had in a really long time. In a lot of ways this year feels similar to 2009, when I mainly stayed wrapped in the cocoon of my family and read a lot of books and just enjoyed where I was even when it didn't make sense to a lot of other people. I hope that I can continue to enjoy good things that come along in 2012, even if I haven't done an amazing job of that so far this year.

The Blahs

Throughout the weekend I've been experiencing this overwhelming sense of ennui. There isn't anything I can pinpoint that may be the cause, and it's pretty frustrating because I don't enjoy spending my weekends feeling blah. I've been doing some really great things for my daily revolutions and I enjoy them a lot, but I've had no motivation to type them up. I've also struggled to read this weekend and to interact with other humans. Again, no real idea why that is.

In other news, I'm continuing to experience nightmares on an almost nightly basis. There are few thinks I enjoy more than working out my emotional issues during the night instead of ya know, sleeping. Every night in plagued with dreams that focus on every single person I love abandoning me in some way. CLEARLY I am dealing with my family issues well. I finally* told my dad that I've been having nightmares, and that went over poorly. He immediately assumed the majority of my issues were due to his plans to move away to work for a few years. While I am in no way looking forward to this occurrence it is NOT the reason for the nightmares. I was finally able to convince him of this, but it was fairly exhausting. I'm currently exhausted and yearning to sleep, but also kind of dreading going to bed and not sleeping well.

Hopefully I will feel better this week** and FINALLY update you guys on the revolutions.



*I've been having nightmares pretty regularly since Septemberish, but they've really increased in frequency since Christmas when my mother left.
**In order to cheer myself up this weekend I bought three memoirs about The Beatles. I hope they get here this week so I can read them and cheer myself up.