Free time

And then it was Friday and all seemed right in the world. 
I am not exactly sure why it feels like that to me so often but it does on most occasions.  It might feel that way for others too if I had to guess.  I am not sure.  I never took a poll or survey.  I am sure if I looked hard enough I would find one that someone paid a lot of money to conduct. 
But this morning that isn't here nor there.  Friday to me means soon enough I will have time as my own, to throw out the punchclocks and sit at my own desk instead of the one the company lends to me.  Or to get up and decide if I will do this thing or that. 
It's a Friday.  Doesn't everything seem right?
TT
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This just in:  My sources say that, JUST DO IT, officially closed their bowling season last evening in First Place! Top of the heap, Kings of the mountain, Reigning leaders of the lanes!  WAY TO GO, Team!  (even if I am a long distance, honorary member only - I am so feeling your joy)!
Then I checked my running log (yes...it's a nike-just do it-site) and I am at 152.25 miles since 3/11/10 and only need 2.75 miles to hit my next color level.  (got that done this afternoon) 
Didn't I say...everything seemed right!  

Move along

Oh come on, already! I am saying that to myself. Have you ever found yourself doing things to keep yourself from the thing you know you should be doing? I think there is a dictionary of words that could be used to describe this behavior. Let me see, I think they might be putting it off, procrastinating, delaying, dragging my feet, dawdling, finding excuses to avoid. I think you might get the picture. I have been finding myself doing these things and the most frustrating part about it is that I know I am doing just that.
I know what I should and want to be doing, but I have been doing all of those other things to keep me from getting to it. Why is that?!
It’s another one of those barricades I go to all the trouble of carting out to the middle of my own pathway to stop myself or slow myself down. It would be fine if there was a good reason to slow down but I seem to do this out of the blue and for no apparent reason. It’s almost as if I am going happily along then think, oh no, stop. I shouldn’t be having this much fun now so I better find a reason to fret.
I really don’t like fretting. I really don’t like whining. I wish I could say I never do either of those things yet here I am. And what exactly am I whining and fretting about?
It might be just the tiniest flash of fear. That old manta swirling in my head whispering… what are you doing…you can’t do that…it’s getting too hard and you aren’t getting it done right. But I am getting it done even with the stops and starts and pauses and dawdling. And that is the only thing I really need to do right now. I just need to keep getting it done.
So I say to myself, Oh come on, already! Again. And push myself forward along that path.
Come on.
TT

Focus already

I seem to be slightly scattered lately. I don’t think it’s just my imagination. I must be pre-occupied or am thinking too hard on my story and trying to untangle my thoughts. I know I need to go back to my notes and try to reduce them down as far back to bare bones as possible. I need to at least spend some quality, quiet time going over what I have, what is coming next, and the simplest way to get there.
I made a mistake by trying to follow a book that claimed I needed to fill out pages of…here let me pull out my binder…research lists, general setting sketch, plot summaries, character studies, miscellaneous scene notes, dialogue sheets. It’s no wonder I can’t keep anything straight in my head when I go to write. I’ve given myself a terrible handicap by thinking I need to have all that extra bulk of notes without any story written. I can’t keep it all straight in my head and I can’t keep pulling out a binder when I am trying to write.
I knew it wasn’t going to work when I originally started to fill out all the “paperwork” that book had given me. I know I tried to spend a couple of hours making myself come up with it all and realized I wasn’t willing or able to do it. I stopped and (you will be happy to hear) I didn’t fill out much of that big list I have up above. Many of the pages have the titles I listed but nothing entered by me. I didn’t fill them all out and many are in the binder but they are blank. But some a very filled out. Then I have my notes that I wrote longhand on spiral notebook paper that are also in the binder. Then there are the 1200 index cards with various scribbling – okay not 1200 but in my mind right now it might as well be 1200.
So I need to go into my garden of a writing binder and start weeding the bed. There may be a few plants still growing there somewhere, but I need to get the ground cleared and prepared properly for me to identify what I have. Then I will be able to see what I need to do to help them grow and to know what I can add.
I know I can’t keep going on so unfocused. Someone asked me something today and I responded to an entirely different subject because I had writing on the brain. I went on to enumerate a long listed answer only to find out my answer had nothing to do with what I was asked. OH! That!
Yeah, great.
So I need to organize myself soon - as soon as I can be still and concentrate. I really need to go for a run but it’s already getting dark. I should see about making time to really clean out a flowerbed. I really have one in the backyard. I’ve been meaning to do that but it keeps raining…

I seem to be slightly scattered lately. I don’t think it’s just my imagination.
TT

A little thin

It seems to me like I am missing something that I had become very attached to. I have found myself coming to my own blog, this space right here, and thinking… “Why isn’t anything new posted?” It feels like somehow in the recent past the words would appear here daily all on their own. Somehow, every day words would fill a space and appear. It feels odd to me when that isn’t the case so often of late.
But I am beginning to get those words to fill a space. They are just not appearing here. In fact, the words that I have managed to get down on my book could fill more than the daily posts I have recently missed posting here. So I have to believe I am still progressing on this writing journey even if the path has taken another course. And boy, this course isn’t easy.   
I was beginning to feel like I had the makings for a pot of confusion with this book. All the ideas I originally thought my characters would be or look like, started to alter as they appeared on my written page. I was becoming unsure of how I was presenting them and if I was jumbling small facts about them so early in the game. I realized I needed to take a short break. It wasn’t to stop writing but to organize my method of organization. I have had this story in my head for so long I wasn’t confident that what I was writing was the same as the notes I had taken for myself.
I did stop and read through what I had written for each character. I wrote and underlined each characters name and listed the characteristics I had written for each under it.  What I found was what I suspected I had done.  I had confused some small details. It wasn't anything too big or glaring but I knew I couldn’t let myself do that. I am the type of reader that finds those small detail mistakes in books and there could be no way I would allow myself to do that with my own. This may be a first draft right now but I have to have some confidence that I am not already making detail mistakes.
I have worked with this idea too long to not have a vested interest in at least creating a somewhat clear first draft when it comes to the facts about each character. I have become very fond of this story. It is probably too early to say such a thing but it is already something that has been around longer than this blog. Maybe not in the concrete, I can see it there every day, kind of way. That will take time and I will need to continue to work hard to get it there. But as I keep working I see parts of it happening no matter how thin it seems right now.
I guess the best way to describe it is to quote my favorite character from Winnie the Pooh who said it so well…
Eeyore: It’s not much of a tail, but I’m sort of attached to it.
TT

Put to good use

I missed a run yesterday for no good reason except I plain and simply talked myself out of it.  I burned the fresh beans I had going for dinner by not paying attention.  I only managed two hundred more words forward.
Yet, I've still made it to Friday with a new batch of cookies and a running information session at 6:30 after work today.  I'm not sure exactly what I will do in the in-between time of work and session.  I thought about getting a run in but then, shower, then changing, might make me late.  Then I thought...my toy...my acer...my netbook...what could be better?  
So I think I've decided to drive out to the location after work, find a good place to park myself and add a few more words forward.
That should be a good use of the time.  Maybe?
TT 

Daily posts

It was brought to my attention that I should probably mention the reason I haven't been posting daily as I have for the past year. Yes, I went an entire year with a post a day. Talk about bold determination and discipline. Talk about some weak posts and a few that were pretty good. Talk about using this tool of mine to its fullest potential. Yes, an entire 365 posts in a one year time span.
So, I guess since I reached that milestone and stopped recently putting out that post every day my (can I be generous to myself) and say handful of readers might not know what is going on. This blog has always been a tool I have used to get myself to write words every day. It was a way to get me to put words down on a page and keep going without a bad habit I had of constantly re-reading and editing what I had written. I’ve gone past that and now I am concentrating on writing a book, a piece of fiction.
I have this crazy rule in my head that the blog cannot steal writing time away from my book. Its the reason I added the word (different) to my header to read..."struggle to get words on a (different) page."  Did you notice that?  The (different) page is the book.
So the rule is…I cannot post to the blog unless I have written more words on the book thus the lapse in a post a day.
I guess you will be able to tell if I have put more words toward the book by every post you see here. If a post appears, it means I have already written more on the book. If no post appears, it means…it means, well it means I probably haven’t written anything on the book and I can’t break the rule of no blogging until I written something on the book.
Of course, if I have a really good idea for the blog and write it and post it before I’ve written more words toward the book…then I have to make up the credit I owe the book by writing more words there. Are you following me here? Am I making sense? I get it and since they are my rules its best I know what they are even if I am confusing you. I think.
Anyway, that is the reason I haven’t been posting every day. Except today since I already wrote 1100 words toward the book and that allows me to post.
I think I should stop explaining now.
TT

I understand

I got myself a new pair of running shoes.  I haven't exactly given them a real trial run yet (literally) but I am hoping they are going to be a good pair.  It's exciting to get new running shoes.  I don't pay that much for any of my heels as I do my running shoes and I certainly am not as particular about heels as I am running shoes.  I mean with heels it's all look and fit.  With running shoes it's all fit and feel and how well do they roll forward or is the back too high, just snug enough, too snug, how light or too heavy, too broad-based or fleet.  When you buy running shoes at the right place they say why don't you go ahead and take a quick jog out the store.  Yes.  You have a pair of $106.00 running shoes you might be just considering to buy and they say go out and try them out with a quick run.  When you actually buy them they still say, "hope they work out for you." 
When you go to that kind of store you catch conversations while waiting to pay about the person in front of you going to Nashville for a race but admit with a recent injury they might be walking most of the way.  But they are still looking forward to it and everyone understands that happens.  They are mostly all runners and they understand.
I understood.  I had a 10 mile run that very morning.  When that part of the conversation came around I was asked what I was training for and I said I wasn't really training for anything because it might make it too real.  The response was..."well, a 10 mile long run sounds pretty real.  Sounds like you're training for something."
Runners.  They understand.  I have begun to, too.
TT
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In case you are curious...I ended up with a pair of Karhu Fluid.  http://karhu.com/
They are from Finland and just started retailing in the U.S.  It means bear and mine are the dark grey with the red M's on each side.  Not sure what the M's mean...maybe movement.  Of course, don't laugh, but my first thought was that it was for Mighty Mouse.

Changed things up

There was a reference made to me this morning that I should change things up. It made me think. Hadn’t I already changed things around just in this past week? I had not posted to this blog daily while I used time instead (okay, I did take a break for a few days) to write on my book? I really did that and accomplished the 2200 words added to what I already had to make a total of 9000 words so far which was my personal goal for the week. I didn’t use time to post here instead of writing on my book. In fact, I wouldn’t allow myself to post anything here until I had already written on the other. That alone was changing things up.
I also have to admit I took a break for a few days from running. I ran last Monday…then not again until Saturday which was – I can’t believe I am saying this but – a short run. It was 3 miles something. It was also raining. I wasn’t feeling great about it, my socks and shoes were sopping wet but I felt like I needed to get back out and start running again after being absent from it all week.
So then today I knew I was supposed to do a long run. I really wanted to run outside but it was slightly cool and I thought I had better just head for the gym. On the way over the reference about changing things up came into my head again. I thought what if I did something simple like put my iPod on shuffle?
Put my iPod on shuffle? Let the thing roam around my entire music collection and play random songs all over the place? I didn’t know if I could do that. No, no…you don’t understand. I listen to CDs all the way through – start to finish – first track to last in that order. I don’t buy greatest hits albums because I know what track should follow which song and it messes me up if it’s not the right song! No kidding. For real. It drives me a little (more) crazy. But I thought I needed to change things up. I’d give it a try during my long run and see how it goes. I could always forward through a song I just didn’t want to hear.
I started my run and the shuffling started me off with the theme song from HBOs show True Blood. Cool, Bad Things by Jace Everett is one of my favorites. Great start! Then it went to some Jazzy Blues from Delbert McClinton, Acoustic unplugged with Eric Clapton, and then Jonny Lang. This was turning out better than I had thought! The background singer is hitting that high note while the male lead vocal is crying into the microphone. I am getting that violin and sax when Dave Matthews Band steals a track. I was trippin’ right along while it kept pulling one great song after another. Even the Jay-Z track gave me the rhythm to watch my stride and get my breathing in order (thank you, Sonny…I already mentioned to you the RadioHead CDs are great for long runs, too). Then it plays Wicked Way by Benjamin Taylor and it’s another hit.
It went on and on with great songs like that and I kept going on and on. I did forward past a few tracks but it was only about three out of my entire run, which, by the way, lasted a good hour 30 minutes. Yes, that is 1 hour 30 minutes and all on the treadmill – boredom city. But I did it. A reference was made that I was to change things up and I guess I did.
It turned out to be my longest and farthest run to date!  Talk about changing things up!
TT

Dialogue exercise

I had this thought to see if I could create something in the readers mind without the use of anything except the words the characters speak. I wanted to do it without any narrative or descriptions. It was an idea I had and I wanted to give it a try.
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“Hellooo! How have you been? I haven’t seen you in a while. What have you been up to?”
“Oh hi.”
“It’s good to see you. Are you going in?”
“I was just grabbing a cup.”
“Sooo, tell me. You’ve been hiding away. Do you have a few minutes?”
“I was going to take it to go.”
“No, come on in. Let’s sit for a minute. You can have a cup here while we catch up.”
“I should be getting back.”
“I have some time. You can stay for a few minutes, now, can’t you?”
“Well, okay.”
“Great. Don’t you love that smell. It’s just wakes you up. Let me have that Grande Caramel Brulée latté with extra cream, okay?...and let me get yours, too.”
“No, that’s fine. I can get it.”
“No, no…let her have…what was it?”
“Just a tall black.”
“That’s it? That’s all? You need to have something special.”
“No, really. I’ll get it…”
“Oh, all right. Get her a Grande black, then.” I’ll take care of it. Let’s sit over here. So where have you been hiding yourself?”
“Ahmm, I’ve been away for a while.”
“How exciting! When did you get back?”
“Just – only a week ago.”
“I don’t think I’ve seen you in over two months.”
“Yes, about that.”
“Well, tell me. What exotic place did you get to see? OH! Did you know I was planning a trip to Europe? I am so excited. I talked to the travel agent and I should be able to book two weeks without too much tug on the pocketbook. I have been thinking about going for a while. You knew that, didn’t you? I think I’ve been talking about it for ages now. Ever since my snobby cousin flaunted around how she and her husband had gone and how incredibly first class it all was. Did you get to go out of town? You needed to take some time off. Where did you go?”
“Well, it wasn’t…”
“That’s my coffee. Be right back. Can you believe this? I told them extra cream. You heard me right? Does this look like extra to you?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s not. I get these all the time. Probably shouldn’t with all the calories and all but what’s a little extra now and then. I know I could afford to lose a few. I should stop making these trips here. But then I wouldn’t have run into you. But you look good. You were a little thin last time I saw you, but you look good now.”
“Thanks.”
“I could use some help to drop a few before I head out to my trip. I sure would like to look just great. I’m mean, really right? Isn’t that a good idea?”
“Yea, if you think…”
“You need to fill me in on your secret.”
“What!?”
“Your secret.”
“What do you mean?”
“How you lost the weight. What did you think I meant? You have another secret I should know about.”
“No. No.”
“You sure? You don’t sound so sure. But, oh well, it’s nothing isn’t it. Must have caught you in-between thoughts, didn’t I?”
“Yes.”
“So drink up. It’s good to run into you like this. Now where was I?”
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TT  

One year - 365 posts

Today. Yes.

Today I have reached one full year of blogging. Today I have also reached a total of 365 posts within that time frame. Today I can officially say I have a post for every day of the past year.
This is a personal accomplishment for me. I didn't realize when I started out that this blog would become the powerful tool it has become. It has become a discipline for my writing.
I knew a year ago I needed a way to trick myself into removing the obstacles I had put in front of myself to keep me from writing. I knew that if I wanted to become a better and more confident writer I had to find a way to make myself accountable for writing every day or as close to that as possible. I had to find a way of breaking my terrible habit of not being able to write two paragraphs or two sentences without editing those same two for months on end. I knew the first rule of writing is that I had to write.
So I started this blog with the intention that I would write and not allow myself to go back and edit. Once I posted I could not go back and re-do, I could only go on to another. And I went on, and on and then on again. I stopped the incessant editing. I became better at organizing my thoughts. I tried some ideas that worked brilliantly and some that fell flat. And then I went on and wrote some more.
I have learned more in this year then I ever thought would have been possible. I did not realize that my crazy method would prove to have worked so well. And it is because of how well I have done right here with my tool that I am flooded with mixed emotions. It has helped me do what I set out to do and I am happy and comfortable with it here.  Yet I know it has also stolen away time on a higher priority that I need to concentrate on.  I have over 6800 words on a book I never seem to have time to write since I am spending time here.
It has become a simple matter of using the discipline I have created to go on with the book I need to continue writing and that this blog has taught me I can do.
In my original first post I talked about being crazy enough or caring enough and doing a whole lot more. It's time for me to do a whole lot more on something else. I need to again remove the obstacles I have put in front of myself to allow me to do what I need to do.
I will not stop posting here but I will not spend time here that I feel I should be spending writing on my book. I will not write a post on this blog about how long it has been since I’ve written because I will still be writing even if it's not here. 
I have 365 posts in a year since I started this blog. It Coulda’ been a whole lot less but I made it into A whole lot more…
TT
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Original first post from one year ago 4/11/09 - http://tessatoday.blogspot.com/2009/04/coulda.html

Always other options

I am having a problem with my new shoes. I needed to get myself a pair of basic black pumps to wear to work and I thought I had purchased the perfect pair. It seems they aren't as perfect as I had hoped. They have all the markings of being the perfect pair. They look great, they are a quality shoe, a basic three inch heel, and can be worn with a skirt or slacks. So you must be thinking, what's the problem?
They are the right size but for some reason the left shoe won't stay on my foot! The back keeps sliding off and I am having a hard time walking. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to try to put your heel back into your shoe every time you take a step. It can slow you down considerably and make people wonder what’s going on as they pass you by.
The shoe must be a little too wide for my narrow foot so I thought I could solve the problem by putting a cushion in it. I have done that before and it has always worked without a hitch. It didn't work. For some reason my left foot was still slipping out of the back of my shoe. So then I thought there was still a little too much room in the shoe and I slipped in another cushion. That should have filled the gap and kept the shoe secure.
Uh uh. No way. It didn't work again. I just knew it looked like I was walking like Igor! In fact, my foot started to hurt ever so slightly with the second pad in it so I took it out. By mid-day I decided something had to be done. I needed to make a choice if I wanted to stay seated the rest of the day or go home and change shoes. No matter what, I couldn't get the shoe to stay on my foot!
This isn't rocket science. I bought a plain pump in my size, put it on my foot and it should have worked. But this pair was giving me grief! I couldn't believe the shoe wouldn’t stay on my foot where it belonged.
Didn't I have enough going wrong this week without this added annoyance? Maybe this was just the simplest of reminders that really, in the whole scheme of things, nothing is all that bad. It isn’t like I don’t have other choices, like going out to buy another pair.
Then there is the choice that if the shoe won't stay on...go barefoot.
TT

Only one song?

I listen to lots of music and different kinds of music. I usually buy it on iTunes so I can download it to my iPod and use it with my Nike+ sensor when I run. I find much of the music I purchase by listening to Pandora.com where I can listen for free and create a station by entering an artist I know I like and it will play other similar artists. I get to hear new artists and then decide to buy an entire CD if I like.  (So far you would think I was getting paid by ads displayed on this site with all the different products I've mentioned- but no - I don't have that widget on this site and I am not trying to endorse any of them).  But back to the music.
I have been able to purchase my last 5 CDs this way with an outstanding success rate. I have enjoyed every last CD I have purchased recently. I have enjoyed all of them until this last one. Success has ended. I went about it exactly the same way and ended up with a dud.
I listened to this particular CD the first time and I am so used to them being so good I was allowing myself to be delusional about the fact that it wasn't any good. Wasn't any good?!? It was awful! But I thought not. I needed to listen again.
I gave it another listen, then another and another. What was I thinking!? It was becoming a prolonged form of torture and it had 19 tracks! I was going way beyond giving it a change. But it couldn't be bad. All the other CDs had been so good!
The artist had great talent at the piano. I listened to certain interludes on the keyboards and it was just wonderful. But wait - that voice sounds like a screeching cat. Nah, that’s allowed now a days. Nobody’s voice is perfect. Sure, right. Screeching cats are all the rage now. Then I realized the lyrics were whack. I thought maybe it sounded like the artist was entertaining at a piano bar and the lyrics didn’t make any sense because it was a way to see if the audience was paying attention. But I realized I was paying attention and it was just really bad. Why was I giving it so many chances to redeem itself? Why did I keep listening to it!
I have to admit the song I heard to get me to buy the CD in the first place was good enough for me to give it a try.  Unfortunately one song a CD doesn't make.
Maybe the lyrics were just a missed attempt at being clever...I know, I know...it's a dud, give it up.
TT

Some thoughts

I have been having some thoughts about my thoughts. Now wait, before you think I am going to impart some great piece of inspiration that you can use throughout the day I need to stop you now. That seems to be exactly the opposite of what my thoughts of late have been about.
What I have been thinking lately is how these posts have become inane ramblings. I am not sure anything can qualify as actual writing anymore. I am thinking I have lost some of the creative feel that should be present behind the words to pull them closer to a reader. I seem to have become a stuffy, boring, dusty old book that is kept on the shelf for reasons long forgotten. If you blow off the dust to read the title you can't remember, all you get is a sneezing fit. It’s not worth the effort. Just put it aside to get rid of.
Maybe I am just having a bad week. Maybe I am trying to stir things up for myself. Maybe I need to go out and search out something different for inspiration. Maybe it’s none of those things and it really is a bad case of inane nonsense.
Maybe.
I sure have been having some thoughts about my thoughts lately.
TT

No arguments

I am not sure how but after an exhausting two days I came home yesterday afternoon, changed my clothes and pushed myself out the door for a run.
I wish this was the truth about what happened yesterday afternoon after work but the facts are that I came home and knew I could but shouldn't push it. I was tired, plain and simple. Instead I wandered the house picking up on small things to do that I soon realized were only making me more tired. I was feeling a little bad about not running but then I can't even feel bad about that with as well as I've been doing. I have been able to get in approximately a total of 25 miles for the last couple of weeks. I have no doubt I will do it again this week with already a total of 6.61 miles already completed. But I am notorious for wanting to stick with the program no matter how monstrous I can sometimes make it for myself.
But no, not this time. I want to stick with this for a more consistent amount of time and sometimes that means listening to my own clues and instincts when they try to kick in and let me know how I should be thinking.
It can only be called an excuse when the not doing something becomes persistent. I don’t have any intention of not continuing. That isn’t anywhere in my objectives. I realize there are times when I could do something and push through and times when I just need to break for a minute and allow that to happen without a multitude of mental lashings to myself. I know that can wear me down faster than actually going out to do whatever it is I need to do or not do for a day.
So I wish I could say I went out and ran yesterday. Yea, hurray. But I didn’t run yesterday because I listened to myself for once without thinking too hard and arguing with myself about it.
Yea, hurray!
TT

Times flying

I don't know how the short span of time from yesterday morning until this afternoon has managed to flash past me.  I think I am still being sucked down into the vortex of a major whirlwind.  Somehow things around me just haven't stopped to slow down and my normal routines have been majorly upset.
Yesterday was a wonderful day but I don't know how the time managed to pass so quickly.  Before I knew it the day was over and I was rushing this morning only to realize I had no time for anything .  I decided to come in to work 30 minutes earlier in order to get out 30 minutes earlier so I could put that time to use at the end of the day.  At this point I am not even sure that will work since I don't feel I've had a chance to catch my breath yet and it's almost 2:00 in the afternoon!  I am afraid I will be exhausted by the time I am ready to go home.  And I had planned to run this afternoon and get some notes organized and it's feeling like it's too much right now.
I guess I need to take a breath, re-sort and and be realistic about where I am at the end of the day. 
Right...let me try to be realistic.
TT

Burning daylight

I have a feeling it will be a busy day so I started off with some fresh ground coffee.  I don't have time for cup after cup so wanted some that would be especially good. I can also only spend a few minutes here since I feel the clock ticking quickly in the back of my mind, pushing me to get moving. 
I would rather spend more time here because I have more ideas but they will need to wait as I am getting more anxious as the time keeps moving. 
I am going out now to run.  It's a scheduled training day and boy, I can take them too seriously even when I have a line-up of other things going on today.
It does happen to be Easter...and a Happy one to all!  It also is Jay's birthday that happened to land this year on the very same day.  The boys will be coming over this afternoon.  The weather is promising another gorgeous day and there will be cooking involved.  I haven't baked the chocolate chip cookies I promised Sonny yet.  He preferred that to any chocolate bunnies available.  I had asked Dante what he wanted and being almost 25 he just wanted beer.  So they are a long way from fancy Easter baskets and that's such a good thing.  Jay finally decided what he wanted to eat so the menu is fairly easy.  Fresh green salad, Cauliflower with cheese sauce, Twice-baked stuffed potatoes, Key strip steaks.  Shrimp cocktail for appetizer...but easy, casual, family style...all in one large bowl not individual servings.  I haven't baked dessert yet...
I have a few things to do and the clock isn't waiting on me. 
Let's see how many things I can check off my list before the day gets away from me.  But the only way for me to do that is to get started.
Like right now...
TT

Bag sale

Did you know that if you go out and spend two and a half hours walking, browsing, trying on and purchasing a few things they give you these great bags?

They do!  I went out and spent time walking the open air boutiques, browsing through racks of clothes, trying on everything I purchased plus the equivalent of that amount that I didn't purchase and it has proven to be true.  They give you these great bags!

These are sturdy, well constructed bags of a variety of sizes.  The smallest could be used to pack a lunch.  It could fit a small tupperware of yogurt (I buy the large container of plain - not those individual added sugar fruity ones), plus a couple of pieces of fruit and a sandwich.  The others could be used to transport larger items from one house to another, say if you were cooking and needed to bring over the finished products or extra serving pieces.  All of these bags can be re-used again for a variety of reasons and it could be a part of this whole going green frenzy that everyone seems to be addicted to.  (That's another topic...yes I am being sarcastic...so maybe not a good topic).  

But the bags are great, aren't they?  Okay so maybe they are included in the price of the items I purchased but when the items are 25 to 50 percent off like they were today...well, hey then.  It's like they are free!  

What a bargain!  They are so versatile!  So many different ways they can be used!

Well, okay.  It's just another diversionary tactic to displace the fact that I came home with:  (insert one afternoon shopping inventory here)

• Taupe angled front-pocket slacks
• Casual gray knit top
• Soft lavender eye shadow
• Charcoal gray tank top
• Rose tank top
• Garnet V-neck sleeveless blouse
• Lavender print spaghetti strap blouse
• Tie front sleeveless blouse
• Black button detailed slacks

All of this and they give you the great bags for free!  The diversionary tactic really isn't working is it?  Well, you can't blame a girl for trying!

 

These are great bags...I could use them for so many things...

TT 

Curious facts

I had someone Google "sprained my ankle" yesterday and hit my page.  I wonder what they were really looking for.  I am sure it didn't have anything to do with what they got by going to my post.  It seems funny how that will happen sometimes.  It doesn't happen often but sometimes. 
I had found the information because it was the end of the month and I was glancing over at my stats from March.  I realized although my numbers are very small and conservation I had more page loads this past month than my best month which was in August 2009 when I first started using a counter.  Granted, it isn't dazzling figures and it's not going to make me famous or rich but just within it's own merit it was a good month.  A few people actually stumbled upon the blog by chance or on purpose to take a look at the words I came up with.

It's kind of a nice thing to see that after almost a year I haven't alienated everyone that has ever ventured to the blog on purpose or otherwise.  I think it's just my nature to want to see how I "fall in" with the numbers even when I am only comparing them to my own other months.  It isn't like I actually market this or even give out the link or even tell friends.  Don't get me wrong - I would love to have more readers because I would think that would help me in getting better.  It isn't because I don't want them to read it, I just don't know that they would be all that interested so I'm not inclined to promote myself.  
But I am always comparing, measuring, or trying to measure up.  It really isn't all that important in my scheme of things except that they are real numbers.  I didn't make them up and sometimes it nice to be able to see something concrete on something I have done.  It is always nice to see the concrete facts.  
I guess it would be more helpful if I was going to use the information for something but I haven't figured out what I would use it for yet.  Maybe it is just for the sheer curiosity of trying to figure out what that person who was looking up "sprained my ankle" thought after catching a glimpse of what I wrote. 
It has to be out of my sheer curiosity.
TT

Ouch!!

I feel so foolish. I don’t even know how to start or if I want to. I guess I can only just go ahead and say it. I went out and hurt myself.
Oh no, it really isn’t anything serious. It is an embarrassment is what it is. And a total frustration because of where I am with my running and now…
I sprained my ankle. There – there it is. Both my ankle and my pride are more than sorely bruised. I think the doctor said I had to stay off it for 5 to 6 weeks. I think the doctor said I need to take it easy and put it up as much as possible and some other stuff I didn't even hear once he started talking weeks. How could I do this to myself now? I was clipping right along. I was getting so many more miles in than I ever thought possible! Why this?!
I was finished with my run yesterday afternoon at the gym. I was feeling pretty good and ambling on my way to the locker room to fetch my gym bag to leave. Somehow – I don’t know how - I managed to miss a middle step leading from one area of the gym to the other when my right ankle curled under me and gave way. I went down with all my weight on top of it in a most awkward and piercingly painful way. There were only three steps! How did I miss one! The good thing was I didn't have far to fall but I fell. I fell on top of my turned ankle! I just crumpled myself into a small heap there on the floor.
Then people hurried over and starting hovering over me. I wanted to get up but it wasn’t going exactly the way I would have liked. The way I would have liked was that my face would have turned scarlet (which it did anyway) and I would have gotten up and shrugged and walked away. I had to be helped to my feet with someone on each side of me! They hobbled me over into an office where I propped my leg up and was given an ice pack. I sat there for a while thinking all the things I didn't want to think about. How utterly ridiculous! Those steps have been there forever. How did I miss one out of three steps? I was doing so well with my running!
They let me sit for a while as I realized I needed to call someone to get me. I drive a stick shift and the gym associates didn’t give me the impression they were going to let me out of there on my own. I was able to call a friend to get me and it wasn’t long before she showed up and insisted on the doctor. I agreed because I thought it might prove to be nothing and the doctor would say it would be fine in a few days. No!
Now I have a bum ankle and will miss my runs and need to use crutches. I took today off from work but I still need to retrieve my car and the swelling hasn't quite gone down all the way yet...Can you believe this!?!

Okay, enough of this nonsense. Not a thing I just said happened to me. None of it...well maybe the part that I was feeling pretty good after my run. The whole rest of it is fiction. It is April 1st, isn’t it? aka April Fools day?
I feel so foolish.
Do you?
TT