Music Monday~ SPIN CYCLE

I know, I know. I haven't been participating in Spin Cycle for the last few weeks. I just haven't had the gumption to write. Or the brain power. Or the words. Writer's block, if you will. But this week's topic I have a lot to say on!

I LOVE MUSIC. If you regularly read my blog, you will know that I try to feature a song every Monday. Of course, you can see by the title I call it Music Monday. I post the words and the video (if I can) of a song that hits me for some reason or it brings memories back of a time from my childhood.

Music is kind of a timeline for me. When I was a kid, my mom hardly ever had the TV on during the day and we listened to KJR. At that time KJR was an AM station. Our car only had an AM stereo but KJR had all the newest songs of the 70's. (Yes, I'm THAT old.)

Because my dad was a logging truck driver and my mom was a hair dresser, we didn't have a ton of money and we would spend family vacations in our trailer going to the ocean, Canada, California (to Disneyland!) camping the whole way there and to really cool places up and down the coast. I loved that! I have really great memories of sitting in the back seat of our Dodge club cab listening to the 8-tracks my mom and dad had recorded themselves from their records. Dad always played the game "Who Sings This Song?" and we'd have to guess the name of the song and the artist. I'm pretty good at this game even still and have won money from my husband playing it with him! Songs like this one and this one remind me of these times.

There are songs that remind me of friends that are not with us anymore. This song is the first song that I heard after finding out a friend had been killed by a driver under the influence of meth. And this song was played at the funeral of a friend's brother. EVERY time these songs come on my iPod or on the radio, I am instantly taken to those days.

Then there are songs that remind me of family members... mostly my sister, because she loves music as much as me. So, there's this one, this one, and this one.

I have songs that remind me of friends... such as this one, this one, this one, this one, this one and this one.

I could seriously go on for DAYS, but, I won't bore you with a thirty-seven page long post.

I LOVE MUSIC. If you have a few free hours, check out my music tags and see what else you can find.

HASAY Week Three

This week I really paid attention to my "full meter". (That's when your body tells you you're satisfied and you listen!) And, I thought I was doing great! I went to the gym twice this week. (Better than not at all) I really tried not to eat crap. On Friday, I did not eat anything that was in the staffroom for Friday treats.

Today, I went to WW and weighed in. I GAINED 1.4 lbs. That's the weight I lost the first week of HASAY. UGH.

This week, I am: (Notice I didn't say "my GOAL is"?)

• Journaling EVERY day.
• Drinking my water
• Only having two coffees (instead of 4)
• Hitting the gym three times this week. (At least.)

My friends Tiff and Tina are working on their own goals but we are being accountable to each other.

Maybe that will help kick my lazy arse into some action...

Phonegasm

I just received an email from my hubby that my new phone is here.

I never have to worry about counting or keeping track of my texting again.

I will love it and rub it and keep it forever.

I Think the Twitch in My Eye is Getting Worse...

Today I received a phone call from Allied Waste our garbage/recycling service. "I had an urgent matter to attend to at Allied Waste concerning reference number..."

Wait a second... That was the SECOND call I received from Allied Waste since Saturday.

Let me back-track a second...

Saturday, I got an automated messaged from Allied Waste saying I had an urgent matter to attend to concerning reference number blah, blah, blah.

I'm freaking out. What did Ed put in the trash can this time? Motor oil? A dead rat? The creepy neighbor that used to live across the street?

No, I'd forgotten to pay the bill. In all of the hoopla with the snow days before Christmas, Ed's birthday, Christmas, and my mom's birthday, I'd misplaced the bill and forgotten to pay it.

It happens! Sue me!

So, since Monday was a holiday, I called and spoke to the nice lady at Allied Waste. She said that I wasn't on the account, only Edward was but she could take my SS number or my driver's license number and put me on the account. I was a little peeved about that because I'm the one who's paid the bill for the last fifteen years! ME! MY name is on the checks that get sent, yo!

Once we're legal and my name's on the account, she tells me I've forgotten to pay the bill and would I like to pay it right now with a credit card? Of course I would! I give her the credit card number and the little ID number on the back, she takes my home email to send me a confirmation and we're all set to go.

Until today.

At 5:50, the phone rings. ANOTHER AUTOMATED CALL FROM ALLIED WASTE! Again, I have an urgent matter to attend to concerning reference number blah, blah, blah, please call between the hours or 8:30 and 5:30 to promptly attend to the matter.

I have been home for almost an hour. Seriously. Why couldn't they send out the automated calls during during the day so that when NORMAL people got home they'd have a chance to call and take care of the issue.

Oh, right. I forgot. We're dealing with the garbage company. The one that didn't pick up our trash for THREE WEEKS because they couldn't get the trucks around in the snow. And tells us they won't charge us for "extra" trash next to the can when they do make it here to pick it up. "Extra trash" means trash that I've already paid for them to pick up. Yeah, the trash that sat there for three weeks. Extra actually means more trash that won't fit into your can. Trash that you have MORE of during the week. NOT trash that should have been picked up and wasn't. But, I digress...

*does a huffy breath*

You would think that a company that was asking for a little leeway due to weather conditions would be a little more considerate of a customer who has NEVER paid a bill late to them in fifteen years. Oh, right. That won't happen. Because the bottom line is their bottom line, that's why.

So, I called, left a NASTY message and then checked online to see if the VISA had been charged. It hadn't. I also checked the email to see if I'd gotten a confirmation email. I hadn't. So, I paid the bastard online. I also wrote a nasty email pretty much stating what I did here and that if my VISA gets charged twice, heads were gonna roll. And, that they could only contact me between the hours of 8:30 and 9:00 because I am a teacher and I don't answer my phone during the day when I have students. (Let's see how they like those apples...)

*sigh*

I think I have too much time on my hands... Having a student teacher in my room doing all the work leaves me with way too much energy at night. I'm a tad bit feisty.

HASAY Week Two

I suck people. I completely lost it this week. Here are the bad statistics...

No journaling
Didn't weigh in at Weight Watchers
Went out with my friends on Friday, ate too much, drank too much
Lost it for the rest of the weekend.

No excuses. I screwed up.

Promise to do better this week...

Music Monday

WARNING!!!! This week's installment may cause some undue stress as the lyrics are of a sexual nature... Stop here if you are easily offended... ( I just really like this song...)

I'm just a bachelor
I'm looking for a partner
Someone who knows how to ride
Without even falling off
Gotta be compatible
Takes me to my limits
Girl when I break you off
I promise that you won't want to get off

If your horny, Let's do it
Ride it, My Pony
My saddle's waiting
Come and jump on it
If your horny, Let's do it
Ride it, My Pony
My saddle's waiting
Come and jump on it

Sitting here flossing
Peeping your steelo
Just once if I have the chance
The things I will do to you
You and your body
Every single portion
Send chills up and down your spine
Juices flowing down your thigh

If you're horny, Let's do it
Ride it, my pony
My saddle's waiting
Come and jump on it
If you're horny, Let's do it
Ride it, my pony
My saddle's waiting
Come and jump on it

If we're gonna get nasty, Baby
First we'll show & tell
Till I reach your ponytail
Lurk all over and through you baby
Until I reach your stream
You'll be on my jockey team

If you're horny, Let's do it
Ride it my pony
My saddle's waiting
Come and jump on it...

~Ginuwine


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWh8XKvsYqc

(Embedding has been disabled so you have to check out the link...)

College Bound

A conversation between a student and myself:

Her: Do you need to go to college to be a teacher?

Me: Yep!

Her: How long?

Me: At least five years. And when you're done, you'll still have to take classes to keep your certificate valid.

Her: Oh. I want to be a vet and my dad said that I would have to go to college for four years.

Me: At least that. If not more!

Her: Oh... Do I have to take classes?

ANOTHER MEME!!!!

Tina is SO totally in trouble. Because she tagged me for this Meme and I cannot resist the Borg. Here are the rules as posted on her site...

1. Go to your documents

2. Go to your 6th file
3. Go to your 6th picture

4. Blog about it

5. Tag 6 friends to do the same

Here's my picture...

This picture was taken three years ago when my husband surprised me with this motorcycle. I had taken the Motorcycle Safety Foundation new Rider's course and gotten my endorsement two years before. I was riding our 1989 Honda CBR 600 because Ed said it was a good solid bike to learn on. Here's a pic...

I know. Kinda like Captain America, all red, white, and blue...

It was a GREAT bike and I loved it! We were on one of our motorcycle date nights (lovingly called two-wheel Tuesday) when on the way home, I asked to ride his bike, a Suzuki GSXR 1000.

WAY bigger and faster than my little 600.

(This is Ed at Spokane Raceway doing 170 mph at a track day.)

After that, I was hooked. I said that I needed more power. I couldn't believe that I could go that fast on a bike! And, not even feel like I was going that fast. YIKES!

So, he started looking on Craig's List. He'd always wanted the bike he ultimately purchased for me. It's a Suzuki TL 1000R. Blue and white. Twins. Well, not really. My bike is a V-Twin so it rumbles like a Harley might, but, it has the power and the lines of a sport bike. His bike is not! His bike goes WAY faster than mine, but, mine has initial power that puts you back in your seat.

It's great fun to ride. We did a 1200 mile ride into Canada two summers ago, where I got my first speeding ticket. (Not so fun, and I wouldn't recommend it. Trying to find an international money order to pay the ticket was a pain in the ass.)

So, there's my meme. I'm not going to tag anyone because Tina already tagged everyone I'd tag. Enjoy!!!!

Music Monday

My new favorite song...

Cheater, Cheater

Cheater, cheater where'd you meet her
Down at Ernie's Bar?
Did she smile your way, twirl her hair and say how cute your dimples are?
Did she use that line "Your place or mine?" while you danced with her real slow?
Tell me cheater, cheater where'd you meet that no good, white trash ho?

Liar, liar did you buy her whiskey all night long?
Did you hide your ring in the pocket of your jeans or did you just keep it on?
When the deed was done and you had your fun did you think I wouldn't know?
Tell me cheater, cheater where'd you meet that no good, white trash ho?

Now I'm not one to judge someone that I ain't never met
But to lay your hands on a married man is 'bout as low as a gal can get
Hey I wish her well as she rots in hell and you can tell her I said so
Cheater, cheater where'd you meet that no good, white trash ho?

Loser, loser hope you love her cuz your stuck with her now
Take your sorry butt, load up all your stuff, and get the hell out of my house
But I just wish you'd tell me this one thing before you go
Cheater, cheater where'd you meet that no good, white trash ho?

Now I'm not one to judge someone that I ain't never met
But to lay your hands on a married man is bout as low as a gal can get
Hey I wish her well as she rots in hell and you can tell her I said so
Cheater, cheater where'd you meet that no good, white trash ho?

Yeah I just wish you'd tell me this one thing before you go
Cheater, cheater where'd you meet that low down, up town, slept with every guy around, pressed on eyelash, no good, whitetrash ho?

~Joey and Rory

Company... HASAY Week 1

This week has been a trial of will power and patience. Many of you out there have seen that we (in the Northwest) have had some pretty terrible weather in the last month. First, we got ten million feet of snow, then it got windy and drifted the snow into drifts ass high. Then the snow started to melt and we thought we were golden.

We were wrong.

It decided to go from 30 degrees as the high to 51 degrees and a snow level of 6,000 feet in a matter of two days. ALL of the snow in the mountains melted and sent it down our rivers. Our river, in particular, was bad. Our last really bad flood happened in 1990. All of our downtown was flooded... even the fire hall had knee deep water inside. (I live in a valley. So, when it floods, most of the valley floor becomes flooded as well as the houses, businesses, and schools that are located on the valley floor.)

I happen to be a smart house buyer and decided to buy a house on one of the sides of our valley.

Out of the flood plain.

On purpose.

As I left for school on Wednesday morning, I called my sister (who lives on the valley floor, across the street from the river, no less) and told her where our hide-a-key was just in case they needed to have a dry place to be. She was already putting things in her upstairs bedroom that were not replaceable and said that her family would probably be there.

When I got home, not only were my sister, her three kids, husband, cat and dog there, but my 80 year old grandparents were there, too. I don't mind my sister and her kids at all. But, my grandparents? Man... I really thought that I might fall off the wagon only two days after my introduction to HASAY. (To get a good impression of my grandparents, read here.)

My grandma is a baker. She is also a survivor of a major heart attack and two bypass surgeries. According to grandma, she can't have this, she can't have that. But she eats everything in sight an then has the balls to complain that it was too salty or had too much fat. She also gossips about everyone. On Thursday when I got home from work, she was sitting on the couch talking to my sister, and when I walked into the room, I heard her say, "I'll tell you the rest later." I thought that she was telling my sister that my uncle had hit our fence and our flat deck trailer while trying to park my grandparents RV in our driveway. But, no. I found out later from my sister that she was saying that the receptionist at her dental office (who is a distant family friend) felt sorry for me because I so DESPERATELY wanted to have kids and couldn't.

WTF??????

First of all, if I DID desperately want kids and couldn't have them, why would I tell a distant family friend (who I haven't seen or talked to in probably 10 years) this information??? And second of all, it's nobody's business why I don't have kids. (I am a teacher. I have my fill. On a daily basis. And, you can't ride a motorcycle when you're pregnant.)

My grandma is lying. I seriously can't believe it. She is making up stories. I don't know why she is making these things up. I don't know why she doesn't just ask. But, the reason she didn't want to talk about it in front of me is because she knew I'd call her on it because she wasn't telling the truth. But she made sure that I heard her tell my sister that she'd "tell her the rest later".

Do you see where I'm going with this???

To make matters worse, my sister and her husband are AMAZING cooks. Ryan can cook something from flour, a piece of chicken and some ketchup. Seriously. He is the MacGuyiver of cooking. But, he doesn't necessarily look out for the low fat, low sugar, kinds of things that we normally eat at our house.

So, needless to say, I'm stressed about this. I'm thinking that there is going to be all this food and desserts sitting around. I'm panicking. Plus the stress of dealing with my 80 year old grandparents and my two nieces who are five and four.

Because when I'm stressed, I EAT!!!!

When I got home Friday, my house was quiet and clean. No more house guests. My sister and her family have gone to live at my parent's house, who only got two inches of water in their rec-room. Plus, they have more room than we do! My sister had 2 1/2 FEET of water in her house. They just had their house completely re-done in 2006 after the last big flood event. This time they had a foot and a half more of water so the damage is more extensive.

But, despite all the grief I've had this week, I'm happy to report that I went and weighed in at Weight Watchers this morning and lost 1.4 pounds. I only got to go to the gym twice this week because of the flooding and our gym was under water.

So there it is. HASAY Week 1.

HASAY... Something New...

1. What motivates you and why do you want to do this challenge? It may be that you’re training to run a 10K or merely just to be able to walk to the mailbox and not break a sweat (don’t worry, I fall on this end of the spectrum).
I am tired of feeling like crap ALL the time. I started going to Weight Watchers (a.k.a. "Hate" Watchers) almost a year a go and just gained back the six pounds I lost. I know. I wasn't very serious about it. My sister called this weekend and said, "We gotta do something. I have my 20 year class reunion this year and you're turning 40." Thank you very much. Do I need any more incentive???

2. What is your long term goal? Do you want to lose weight or just tone your body. Are you trying to fit into your old prom dress for your upcoming reunion? Do you want to want to “pump yourself up” like Hans and Frans? Spill it.
I want to lose weight. I need to lose about 90 pounds. And there's that "40 thing" coming up in eight months...

3. What is your long term weight loss goal? You don’t need to tell us your current weight, just how much you’d like to eventually lose. This can be in weight or inches. Jamie and I have a sewing tape measure that we use for our weekly measurements. We got ours in the sewing section at Wal-Mart, if you look at Target, you won’t find it.
See above...

4. What tools are available to you? Treadmill, elliptical, jogging stroller, ThighMaster, Trampoline. Maybe a rabid dog to chase the weight off?
I belong to our local gym... There are cycling classes, yoga, boot camp, "innergystics" and on and on... plus all of the various gym equipment that you always find in a gym...

5. How often can you exercise? Be realistic here but try to make as much time as possible. This might include stepping AWAY from the blog for a couple of nights a week. I know, *gasp*. I’m crying on the inside too but it needs to be done. Fatty. Ok, that was mean and it won’t happen again. I promise.
The goal is to go five nights a week... After school. NOT in the morning at 4:30.

6. What do you plan on doing? Beer curls, switch the remote to the other hand for a few days, start smoking more. Maybe you want to actually exercise and start eating better? I hear that never works but go ahead and try if you want.
Treadmill for 30 minutes and then weights for another 30...

7. What has worked for you in the past? Let us in on your secrets, what has worked for you before and how you went about it. We won’t tell.
For me it's a mixture of both cardio and weights PLUS the fact that I can't eat crappe every day. Weight Watchers is going to keep me on track with the food stuff and the gym will keep me on track with the exercise stuff. Plus being accountable to you all AND my sister. (who so lovingly reminded me of my impending age...)

So, there it is. I'm committed now!!!

Day One of Resolutions

So today was my first day back to Weight Watchers after almost a month of not being there...

Not good.

But, I feel better going to the meeting and getting back on track.

I also went to the gym yesterday. Twice. I did weights in the morning and then went back with Ed in the afternoon and did cardio. I think that I am going to hire a personal trainer to get me a weight program together and then meet with him/her every six weeks to see how it's going.

My 5% goal is 12 pounds.

I'll let you know how it goes...