leafing through

This weekend, I saw mounds of dirty snow in a park, right next to some people playing tennis in shorts and t-shirts. It was sunny and probably in the mid-50s. I walked about outside with only a light jacket. It felt cool but what a nice feeling to be out in the sun. Then, I spotted some bulbs poking through the earth. Could it be? Spring is coming!? Or is March coming in like a lamb and going out like a lion?

It’s funny I thought I’d have more free time after I was done with school but I don’t feel it. I can’t believe we’re already into the third month of 2010! Part of it is moving out, having to do chores (which is time and labor intensive!) and another part is this new job which has longer hours than the last job. With my current schedule, school wouldn’t be impossible, but it’d definitely be a bit more challenging. Then again, if I really look honestly at how I spend my weekends, I do putz around a lot. Aside from cooking, which I resumed due to interest and necessity, I’ve mostly been enjoying my free time, relaxing, watching TV (I find 16 and Pregnant very intriguing.), and playing with the chinchillas. Lately, I’ve picked up reading for pleasure again. Before starting school, 2007, I was in the middle of reading The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. I finally finished it on the Metro to and from work. Then I read The Tipping Point and Freakonomics. Then Confessions of a Shopaholic (Excellent!! But it made me impulsively purchase a face product at the Lancome counter for free makeup which only a year ago I said I wasn’t going to do! And buy a pair of boots, but they’re cute and on sale!), and now I’ve started Catch-22 (It’s bizarre and somewhat frustrating). I don’t know what’s next on my hobby list, but it feels good to slowly pick things up where I left off when my personal time was put on pause for school. Maybe the next hobby I reinstate will be… knitting? Maybe!

I changed my mind about liking this settling back into the usual rut! This week has been long. Every day feels like two and today, I’m wondering why I’m still sitting here. Where’s the SNOW!? And ensuing CHAOS! PANIC! Milk, eggs, bread, toilet paper people!! Get more toilet paper! I’m predicting rain.

Lent started last week some time, and it wasn’t until 2 or 3 days after that I realized I didn’t select anything to give up. So I had to rack my brain for something that wouldn’t be such a bad thing to start doing or stop doing. Something that can better my already wonderful self.

“Self,” I said, “how could you possibly be even better? (And it needs to be something you’ve already done or not done these past few days.)” And all I could come up with was coffee. I gave up coffee (again, I know) until April 4th.

Today marks 3 years of Leafing Through. Groundhog Day. My new job at the time blocked Yahoo’s 360, my first attempted blog, so as a gift from the sister, I got my little piece of the Internet. It started as a distraction and it mostly still is but now whenever I find something odd or learn something new, I think about its blogworthiness. For example, learning how to scrub a toilet would be blogworthy if I were willing to admit I’ve never learned how to do it before! But it’s not blogworthy. Because it isn’t! I do love how it sparkles though.

Sleepy. Lethargic. Hungry for carbs. Next thing you know, I’m going to be sprouting hairs. Rawr, I need a cave to curl up until March.

This morning I made an 8-cup pot of coffee and drank a good 7 cups of it. I am so jittery right now, but it felt so nice sipping it in this cold weather! Hence this random post, which no doubt will cover topics that have no relation to each other.

I was cleaning out my closets and donated a lot of clothes this weekend but I just couldn’t bear to part with my suits. One still had tags on it, one I’d taken the tags off but never wore, others I’d worn once or twice. So I am making myself wear suits to work so I don’t have to throw them out. Kind of a backwards way of not cleaning out the closets but I love this new suit I donned this morning. I feel sharp.

Lent starts February 15th this year. Possible things I might give up for 40 days:

I have eleventy thousand other things sloshing around in my caffeine-addled brain right now. Pretzal.

We’re down to the last days of the “O” decade. O-nine. I started my career during this decade. 5 jobs and an internship. The economy soared, the economy tanked, the economy tanked, the economy tanked.

I finished my formal education during this decade too. Yes, I’m still in debt for it but the connections with the people there are priceless.

This decade, I grew 1 more vertical inch. My most formative 10 years indeed.

We went from VHS to DVD/VCD to Blu-Ray to streaming. I think I still have a functioning VHR machine. All my Disney movies are on VHS. Bippity boppity boo!

In 2009 I:

No work today.  No jury duty either – courts closed due to inclement weather.  It’s 10:30 AM and I’ve had chili and cornbread for breakfast and now I’m working on a pear.  Boredom-eating for sure.

I’ve played with the chinchillas for a while now too and finally got some pictures of Gina that aren’t behind bars.  Aside from her curly tail, she (the one one the right) looks remarkably like her brother (the one on the left).

“Let me outta here!” – Gina

You’re tellin’ me!

Happy Winter Solstice!

These past couple of weeks, I’ve been engrossed in reading! Yeah, not really. Unless you count 10 pages of Freakonomics. It’s a great book; very easy to read because it’s written in a conversational tone. But no, I’ve been distracted lately – by the farm in FarmVille. It consumes more time than I’d like and yet I’m drawn to it night after night. Must hurry home to harvest the artichokes before they wither!! In my loserish manner, I even created a spreadsheet to track which plants yield the most ROI, experience points, considering the amount of time they take to mature. I’ve scheduled my life around the harvest.