Dear body,
Thanks for taking me on a great 6-mile run this morning. And thanks for doing it despite strong suggestions by my brain that it did not want to go along. Including the "forgetting" of the iPod as a de-motivation tool. Because that run was great. Exactly what the brain needed. Also, made me feel much more confident about starting this half-marathon training program next week. I know you can do it body! We can get through this one! So anyway, thanks. I needed that!
Much love,
Me

Dear bedtime,
Please come soon. I just want today, this week, and this mood to be OVER. Seriously, bedtime tonight cannot come fast enough. UGH.
Me

Dear anyone reading this,

Does anyone have any ideas on how to make my eye stop twitching??  I am having more than a little trouble working because my eye keeps twitching.  It's been doing this for almost an hour now.  It's making it very difficult for me to concentrate.  (And see, but that's a different story).  Seriously people, any thoughts??  My mom recommended ignoring it, but that hasn't gotten me anywhere so far, so I'm looking for a better solution than that...

Thanks!

Me 

Dear Gods of Weekend,

Just wanted to thank you for another fabulous weekend.  And apparently you're really smiling on me because you extended it a little bit into this morning too, which was just really thoughtful!  A few of the highlights that I particularly appreciated:

 

-test driving the 2007 Mini Cooper S.  WOW.  Probably merits a letter of its own, but that will come later I'm sure. Cassie knows what her new car is going to be...

-multiple long distance phone conversations.  always makes me happy.

-another fun Saturday night.  I do believe that made 3 in a row. 

-good movie Sunday morning (300).  A little gory for me, but I didn't hate it so that's a huge plus!  Plus I had good company.

-INCREDIBLE WEATHER!!  HOLY SHIT was it nice out on Sunday!! And today.  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU whoever made that happen because wow is it amazing.  My run this morning was just outstanding because of the weather.  And I took a long walk along the lake yesterday too, just to soak it all in.  I LOVE IT!

 

So while that list certainly doesn't capture everything, it was another really good weekend.  And I am just so thankful for good weekends.  Because the weeks can be long and the weekends are what get me through.  So thanks.  I do appreciate it!

 

Much love,

Me

 

Dear stapler,

YOU SUCK!!  It was very rude of you to decide not to work and then, in the midst of your not working, to staple my THUMB instead of the paper.  OUCH OUCH OUCH. 

Without any love,

Me

Dear Me,

STOP HITTING THE SNOOZE BUTTON and WAKE UP IN THE MORNINGS!! It makes SUCH a difference to wake up and work out BEFORE work as opposed to after work (and certainly as opposed to not working out at all!!).  Getting those endorphins going in the morning has such an impact on me for the rest of the day.  Nothing else compares.  No amount of caffeine wakes me up as well as a good workout.  And nothing (well, almost nothing) is as certain to put me in a decent (meaning not totally crappy) mood on a weekday as an AM workout.  If I exercise in the morning, I am far less likely to send totally bitchy emails to my friends (yeah, sorry bout that yesterday...).  And far more likely to be productive at work.  Not to mention I'm more likely to actually be tired when it's time to go to bed at night!  So it's really a very self-reinforcing  cycle.  Just a really really hard one to start.  But I made it there this morning, and hopefully I'll get to the gym Thursday and Friday mornings too.  Then next Monday, it starts up again for real. 

So Cassie, listen to yourself.  Seriously.  Please.  It makes you a better person.  Or at least a more tolerable one.

With love,

Me

Dear Monday-haters,

I think that Mondays get an unnecessarily bad rap. I mean yeah, it sucks the weekend is over and you have to go back to work or school or whatever real life may be for you on Monday. But really, Monday isn't the worst day of the week. At least I don't think it is. Because on Monday, you're still close enough to the weekend that you can feel it. It was recent enough that you can distract yourself with instant nostalgia (even more instant than the kind they highlight on VH1's "Best Week Ever"). Make yourself laugh about something funny that someone said on Saturday. Or, if you're me, you can distract yourself with paranoia about something you may have said or done wrong (because really, that's just who I am). Plus, you've got all that catching up to do with people about how their weekends were. So really, Mondays aren't so bad.

But Tuesdays. Tuesdays are a different story. Tuesdays suck. Because by Tuesday, weekend is the distant past and the even more distant future. You're way to bogged down in the week to be able to distract yourself with any of those memories or the anticipation of the next one. So I sort of think that Mondays are to be enjoyed while they last, because they sure as hell beat Tuesdays.

Just some food for thought.

As always,

Me

Dear Powers That Be,
I wanted to thank you for another fantastic weekend. Another weekend that was exactly what I needed it to be exactly when I needed it to be. Last week was rough. Really rough. And I wasn't so sure I was going to make it all the way to weekend. But I did. And you gave me a perfectly peaceful Friday night in, complete with more than 10 hours of blissful sleep. A really fun brunch on Saturday with three wonderful friends (yay for Lisa Tyler and Carrie!!) at Tyler's fabulous new apartment. A surprisingly productive Saturday afternoon. A Saturday night out that was away from the craziness that is the bar scene on St. Patrick's Day but was surprisingly a lot of fun. And a Sunday spent with the whole family. I have a lot to be thankful for. And I need to keep reminding myself of that when the middle of the week sucks.
So powers that be, thanks for keeping me reminded of this.
With love,
Me

Dear television networks,
Thank you for airing stupid television. Sometimes, I really really need to watch shows like "America's Next Top Model." While it pains me to admit this, I need this escapism. Sometimes, intelligent thought, and even intelligent television is just too much to handle. Like right now, I can't handle watching "Ugly Betty" so I'm watching "The Real World: Denver" because I can deal with that.
So thank you television networks for providing stupidness that I can deal with when I can't deal with anything else in life.
Love always,
Me

Dear Starbucks,

Thank you for caffeinating me.  Were it not for you, sleep deprivation would be such a more serious problem. And thank you for not being discriminatory in the types of sleep deprivation that you assist with.  You work wonders with the ok kind of sleep deprivation, like when I have (perhaps against my better judgment) gone out on a weeknight and thus come into work the next morning very tired and a little hungover.  But you also work your magic with the kind of sleep deprivation that I hate the most -- the kind I'm experiencing today -- the kind that's the result of just not being able to sleep, despite being tired and going to bed at a reasonable hour.  And frankly, I just don't know what I would do without my soy latte in the morning (a venti today).  So I thank you for your caffeiney goodness.

In gratitude,

Me

 

Dear Gods of Weekend,
Thank you Thank you Thank you!! I have had such a great weekend and it's only Sunday morning!! Yesterday you introduced me to some wonderful people in person, many of whom I had already met online but it was so great to finally meet them face to face. I also got to meet some altogether new people which was fantastic. And we just had so much fun and I am so happy to be a part of such an amazing community of people.
And then last night was so unexpectedly fun. I mean, I expected it to be a good time, but then it was fun in a different way and that was pretty awesome.
So thank you. Because after last week, I REALLY needed this weekend. I haven't felt this good in a long time, and I really needed that.
Now if we could only fix this nausea thing, I'd be set...
Much love,
Me

Dear Coca Cola,
I must admit that I was really pissed off last Monday (or was it two Mondays ago, either way...) when I went to the store to buy my normal Diet Cherry Coke and found that NO STORE had it anymore -- instead all I could buy was Cherry Coke Zero - which, while it had zero calories, was not the same. I loved my Diet Cherry Coke and I am not big on change. Well, now that I've been drinking my Cherry Coke Zero all week at work, I've come to a realization as I sit here drinking one of the cans of Diet Cherry Coke that I have at home... The Cherry Coke Zero is WAY BETTER!! So thanks for forcing the change!
A fan always,
Me

#2

Dear neurologist,
What were you thinking prescribing me this new medication?? Did you not realize that one of its common side effects was a pretty much constant nausea? Because really, how am I supposed to enjoy being migraine-free when I'm nauseous? Let me tell you, it's pretty tough. I am equally unproductive and frankly more frustrated. Because at least with the migraines I could take my other medicine and get on with my life a few hours later. But with this, nothing. I just have to wait it out and hope that the nausea subsides while I still want to do whatever it is that I was trying to do (in this case, I'm hoping that it subsides while I still have the time and desire to go for a run outside). If this side effect is not gone in the next 2 weeks, I will gladly go back to 4 migraines a week...
Yours,
me

New format take #1

Dear brain,
I was wondering if you could tell me why I am not asleep. It is 2:30 in the morning and I really really want to be asleep. In fact, it is all I want in the world and it is all I have desired for the past 5 hours. Yet sleep has eluded me. I have done everything that normally makes you happily drift into dreamland, yet you insist on staying awake. Why do you do this to me?? I've had a bad day and sleeping would make me happy, but you insist on denying me even that one little pleasure. What have I done to deserve this temporary insomnia?
Yours,
Me

ATTENTION

New blog format ahead!!

I will be experimenting with a new blog format. From now on, this blog will be entirely composed of letters. Letters to people (sometimes with the names removed for privacy concerns), letters to myself, letters to the world at large. As we get into the new format, please let me know your thoughts.

Thank you.

thumbs down

This week sucked. The bright spot in the week was an unexpected quick overnight visit from Sarah in the middle of the week when her work trip was unexpectedly extended from Omaha to include a day in New Jersey. But other than that, I could have pretty much done without this week altogether. Especially today. Minus about 30 minutes of happiness while I was on the phone this afternoon, today could have disappeared completely and I would not complain. Not one bit. Ugh. This is one of those weeks where I just want to go to do nothing on Friday night and go to bed early just to make it end. Luckily I found out yesterday night that my tentative plans were canceled and I declined to reschedule myself so I can do just that.

Let's hope that tomorrow is a little brighter...

So done!

I am so done with winter. So done. Ready now for it to be spring. Or summer. But NO MORE WINTER. I am sick of wearing a coat. Or at least a winter coat. I am sick of wearing a hat and a scarf and gloves. I'm sick of being cold. And of having to turn on the heat when I get home. I'm sick of worrying that a giant chunk of ice is going to fall off of a building in the loop and land on my head and kill me (ok, only been worrying about that since a conversation I had yesterday, but still...). I'm so sick of the treadmill.

I want to not have to wear a coat every signle time I step outside. I want to RUN OUTSIDE. I want to wear skirts. And capri pants. And flip flops. I want to put my heavy cashmere sweaters away for a few months. I want to sit outside and be happy because it's warm. I want to drink fresh lemonade. I want to drink margaritas. Outside. I want to eat fresh fruit and vegetables that I buy at the farmers' market. I want it to be warm outside. I AM READY!!!

All that said, I'm a little scared for what warm weather is going to bring allergy-wise. Because my allergies are already terrible and it's still so cold out, there's still snow on the ground, and everything is still dead. What on earth are they going to be like when the snow melts, the humidity goes up, and the grass and trees start coming to life again? Yikes!! Time to start stocking back up on the Claritin I guess...

what a ride

Today has been a day of emotional rollercoasters -- one of my own and one, well, that wasn't my own. We'll start with the one that wasn't my own.

Had a little OC mini-marathon this afternoon to watch the final 6 episodes of the season. Quinton came over and we watched all 6 episodes in a row. Wow. Lots and lots of ups and downs. For what it's worth, those 6 episodes were so much better than the episodes earlier in the season. I think that if they had been that quality all season, they wouldn't have cancelle the season (well, that and not have been up against Grey's...) Anyway, Quinton and I both agreed that by the end, it felt like we'd been on an emotional rollercoaster without having ever left the couch!

Had my own little emotional rollercoaster earlier in the day. Something that's pretty tough to explain in ambiguous terms on the blog... Let's see... If I were as creative with storytelling as some other blogwriters I know, this would be easier, but fact is, I'm not. Let's just say that a decision was made that is not an extremely easy one for me to be happy with but I know that it's the best decision for the person who made it and I'm really really proud of him for making it because I know that it wasn't easy. But I'm still more than a little sad about it. Basically feeling a whole lot of emotions all at the same time. Ambiguous enough?

Anyway, now it's Saturday night and after some long, hard thinking, I've decided that I should not go out tonight. I haven't really gone out in 2 weeks now, but that's ok. I know that I'll go out a lot both next weekend and the weekend after that, and I should probably get some sleep now, while I can. Plus, my pajamas are just so comfortable...