Whatta Blast!

Guess what I did today??? How'd you know? Yes, I got my fearful yet hopeful old butt on a scooter today! It was fabulous. A friend from the rooms spent the day with me, teaching me not only how to ride but how to conquer my old fears of getting killed on one of these beasts. I drove absolutely everywhere! On major roads even! Crazy stuff, kiddies. Crazy indeed. I'm still kinda fearful cos I'm not used to it but certainly not like I was this morning.

In my quest to be riding and owning a motorcycle by next spring, another friend, whose bike I'll be buying, is gonna teach me how to ride that next. Glad I decided to do this in 40 degree weather. That wind whipping around was interesting.

Oh, by the way, I finally finished that blanket I started on when I first got sober. Unfortunately, it was supposed to take me longer so I could wrap it across my knees at the meetings while I worked on it. I never was good at timing. Have a gander:


Here's the pattern, so I don't forget:



Onward and ever upward.

I'm Going Natural...

...On my face and hair, that is. Try to follow me on this one. I just got a hair cut and it looks great. Only problem is that I'm over 40 which means my hair is not as thick as it used to be. And it's kinda stringy. Now, I've spent some quality money on hair products to make it look better, but, while it is shinier, it looks weighted down and kinda greasy and stringy. So, I'm going back 30 years (when I only used herbs instead of chemicals) and ditching the products, for the most part.

I'm not going out and buying 10 lbs of soapwort to replace the shampoo. I'm just smothering my hair in mayo, egg and ground rosemary (if anyone is gutsy enough to try this and you're blond, use chamomile. Rosemary is for dark hair). Wrap head in plastic bag (head. not face.) Leave in at least an hour then rub shampoo in, add water, lather, rinse, repeat with the shampoo, then rinse with rosemary water (boil rosemary in water, let cool).

For my face I ground some lavender, chamomile, rosehips and oatmeal (not the instant crap) and mixed in some pink clay (half French white clay/half Moroccan red clay). Add a little warm water, make a paste, slather on face and neck. Rinse off after 15 min. Add moisturizer.

I'll let you know how it works after a week. I expect shiny hair and a glowing complexion. Or else!

p.s.: Yes, I do have homework that I'm avoiding. Thanks for asking. :o)

Procrastinating, yet again...

Midterms tomorrow and what am I doing? You guessed it! Chillin on the net, reading blogs. Gah! Course (get ready for justifications), I did study today when I got home from work at 10am (after an hour and a half on the net). And (getting whiny now) I have been up since 4am and I just got home from class and it's 10:30pm and... nevermind. I'm getting up early in the AM to study.

Tonites class was about Tobacco. Yes, two hours of discussing all things tobacco without a cigarette break anywhere in between. Someone has a sick, twisted sense of humor and it surely wasn't me. I nearly took flight right out the door by hour 1. :o)

The DOW is up and gas prices are under $2.90. Life is good. Stream of consciousness much?

Anywho, I'm off to bed. Gonna get some quality Grapevine time in, then hopefully I'll be snoring by midnight.

Completely Fed Up With Fear Mongers!

Pardon this rant, but I've had enough with the incessant fear-mongering thats going on in this country!!! I want to know what in the hell the point is in making everyone so paranoid. People aren't broke, as evidenced by all the customers at the store and other stores in the neighborhood. Cheaper gas has everyone out on the roads, enjoying the great weather. Food stores have food on the shelves and people shopping there. Best Buy is doing a booming business down the street. Kids are hanging out at the malls and the movie theaters. The restaurants have customers.

And yet, all I read on cnn.com, msnbc.com, etc. is how horrible everything is. That it's time to panic. The economy is falling apart. Yes, I understand how bad things are right now, but I also know that shacks selling for 250k had to end sometime, too. Huge gas guzzling vehicles, mega vacations on maxed out credit cards and over-priced homes had to stop. Maybe I'm being naive but isn't it time we all learn to appreciate what we have and stop trying to over do it with money we didn't have to begin with?

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that losing half your 401k or savings or being foreclosed upon is not a big deal. It is. I understand that. I'm just saying that if you're worried about the economy, that's ok. It just seems to me that the media is making it worse. I want to know what's going on. I don't want to read people's opinions on when I should panic, tis all. Just give me the facts. I'll plan my own nervous breakdown, thank you very much.

Please, don't anyone slam me over this post. I know people who've lost money, too. This is just my humble opinion.

rant over

Another Beautiful Day

Isn't it just beautiful out today? Crisp, clean air. Bright sunny skies. I just wanna give a huge, wet, sloppy kiss to this time of year. I feel somewhat alive and full of things I wanna do. Like:

I'm working on quitting my massive quantity of soda today. I'm tired of being sluggish till I get my morning coffee, only to crash mid-day till I get my soda on at night. Then I never feel rested cos I'm moving a mile a minute while I sleep. So, I'm buying a liter bottle of water at Fasmart (instead of my soda for breakfast. I'm off today so I'd skip the coffee and head straight into the double gulp) and I plan to drink at least two of those today. All in preparation for quitting cigs at the end of the month.

Here's the plan, as it pertains to weight gain, on quitting smoking. Each double gulp has 600 calories and 60 grams of sugar. I drink 2 a day. So, if I eat more food in place of smoking, I can eat 1200 calories and not 120 grams of sugar and be ok, yes? I'm gonna stock up on shoestring carrots, cans of baby corn, celery and fruit. Lots of quinoa and brown rice with veggies for main meals and maybe, just maybe, I'll start exercising again. There. I have a plan. Eight months of sobriety is long enough to be wallowing in chocolate, soda and laziness.

So, back to this beautiful day. Gonna hit a meeting and then it's off to a Civil War sight to just walk under the trees and listen to the silence. Did I mention that I love the fall weather? Then my beloved school, homework and just chillin. Yippee for days off from work!

God Plays Matchmaker

So, I was working on Friday and these two women were looking at these huge pots of mums. I see there's a cartoony type thing on one of the women's shirts and I see the word "recovery". So I get closer to her and then I ask her where she got the shirt. Long story short, she and her CA group made it. She's from Indiana visiting her sister and by the way, did I know of any CA groups in the area. The one CA meeting here follows some kind of use management type thing, where you can manage your using or some such you know what. But I told her about the meeting I was going to that night, yada yada we had a ball! I got all the women to put their names and numbers in the meeting booklet for her and now she has a meeting list for her vacation! Isn't that sweet? Then, work being work, I really didn't wanna go to the meeting last night but I had told her I was gonna so I went. Which was great cos this kid who keeps doing the doorway dance happened to be there. It was great to see him, if only to see that he was still amongst the living. He didn't pick up a white chip, so I guess he's not done yet. Ah well. I'm glad that she prayed for help from God and I was there to help her. Mind blowing to me cos I prayed that same prayer over 7 months ago and my answer came out of a stall in the bathroom where I work (my first sponsor). Only God could keep track of all of these lines of communications.

So, I go to the meeting tonite early, as I usually do, to help set up. Instead of waiting for the woman who normally sets up to get started, I started without her, which is a good thing cos she never showed up. Then some poor kid was at the meeting and boy did I feel bad for him. He told my story indeed! What a mess he was. The meeting was packed, as usual, and everyone that shared did their best to show him that we all really were where he is now. Lots of good fellowship there tonite. I hope he gets it.

Hmm.. what else. I was gonna work 15 hrs today, since I'm broke, but I just had this feeling that I needed to be at that meeting and that my priorities were getting screwed up if I was choosing money (tho I need it) over fellowship (need that more). Just God tapping on the old grey matter, yet again, and sending me where I need to be. How He has time for you all when he's so focussed on me is a wonder. :o)

K, gotta sleep. Opening tomorrow so I can do the homework, that I've had no time to do, tomorrow afternoon.

The Country Is Up In Arms

Oy! The Senate passed the bailout and folks are not happy. I'm not an economics major so I'm not gonna comment on whether it's good or bad. That and, believing everyone is entitled to an opinion, I'm not gonna waste my time trying to force mine on anyone. But I've been reading people's comments about this on Cnn.com, Msnbc.com and my personal favorite, PerezHilton.com and there are some angry mofo's in the hizzous tonite!

Now, in my newfound sober state, I'm learning to embrace my apathy. I'm hard pressed to come up with one single battle thats worth fighting for me. I've fought alot of 'em in the last few years (real or imagined) and I'm over-done. The powers that be will do or not do what they will, whether I like it or not, so there's no point, for me, to stroke out over any of it. I'm the impartial third party, watching from the sidelines.

Hmmm... I have an interview paper to do. Mebbe I'll interview two people with... nah, nevermind. Too much stress from both sides.

Anyway, as I was saying, I think, since there's nothing I can do about what's going on, I guess I'll just enjoy the raw emotions of "the people". Kinda wish my credit cards weren't maxed out, should an uprising happen and I need to trot to Switzerland or something. I'm just saying.

Happy trails