It's the simple things...

Every once in awhile, I have a week where the little things make me happy.  This last week has been one of those weeks.  I don't even have a fun little opening paragraph to write, I just wanted to share some of the little things that made me happy.

I found a boarding kennel for my dog.  I'd been searching and searching and finding out that every kennel in the area was already booked for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and probably 4th of July next year too!  Then, just by accident I happened to find a kennel, visited it, was super impressed with the kennel owners and their business.  Not only that, it was within my budget!

My supervisor and the regional director gave me my annual review (It's been a year already?!)  I was found to be "commendable" in my performance and none of my co-workers had any complaints about me.  Yay!

I got to go shopping for Operation Christmas Child.  It was so much fun thinking of things to buy for a teenage girl's Christmas present!

My electric bill came in about $30.00 under budget this month.  Woot woot.  

It's been in the 70s most of the week with beautiful blue skies.

I found a nickel in the parking lot while walking.  I have now made $3.20 from walking around the complex.  Keep dropping your cash, residents of Martins Creek!

I made Granger Stranger for the first time, and it was pretty good.  Not as good as my mom's or my grandma's, but pretty good.  

Lastly, I just realized today that I have less than 40 days until I'm back in Ohio.  You have NO idea how happy this thought made me!

Now that it's Sunday evening, my happy thought for now is that Friday is only five days away.  Have a good night everyone!

Take a Walk

At the end of August, I decided that I was spending way too much money on fast food, frozen prepared food, and pop (or soda when I'm talking to the locals!).  I decided that one way to make it "fun" to cut back in this area was to make it all about health.  Saving money has never been my strong suit, but as a nutritionist, I can appreciate the value of eliminating empty calories and processed foods.  So, for the month of September, I decided that I would consume no pop, no fast food of any kind, or eat any food that I didn't have to prepare from scratch.

My plan worked well, and when October 1 came around, I decided that I should continue on my health kick and start another healthy habit.  I decided that since I talk to each and every one of my clients about taking a minimum of 30 minutes a day to do some kind of physical activity, I too should be following that advice.  Thus was born my grand and glorious plan to spend half an hour walking each day.  So far, I must say that it's going pretty well.  I've observed a lot of interesting things over these last eight days.  Tonight, I will share with you.

I hate walking with dogs.  Cooper's a pretty good dog, but during the first few walks we went on he wanted to stop and smell EVERYTHING, and being a male dog, he wanted to mark EVERYTHING.  So the first few walks were rough, but since then we've been able to work out a deal- he gets to stop two or three times to do his business and after that I get to do some "resistance" exercises as I drag him away from the tree, the bush, the random spot of grass around that one building, etc.

I've had to start actually waking up and being alert and active at 6 a.m.  Before, I'd wake up, maybe watch some Hulu, stare blankly off into space while reconsidering my decision to wake up so early, eat breakfast, watch the news, do anything but actually get ready for the day.  Now, I've found out that if I wait to walk Cooper after work, at 6:00 p.m. or so, I have to deal with an extraordinary amount of small children who want me to stop and let them pet the dog and combat my own laziness, as I'd rather come home, eat dinner, peruse Facebook and catch up some Colbert Report and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon than better my health.

I've noticed a lot of good things too.  For one, I've learned that I absorbed much more of my Anatomy and Physiology classes than I thought I did.  On the third day, I started noticing that certain muscle groups were doing a large amount of aching.  After that walk, I went online and confirmed that I was 100% correct in identifying the muscles that were making themselves known.  I also had spent much of that walk remembering a lecture in which my professor used a number of her students to demonstrate how muscles were built up with exercise.  Congratulations, Emily Rock, your teaching has stuck with me three and a half years after I took your class.

Some people say they think best in the shower.  I find that I think best while walking.  I get really bored while walking, and when I get bored I tend to let my mind wander to it's "happy place" and plot and plan anything and everything.  So far I've managed to find ways to stretch $100 for groceries out over four weeks instead of the usual two, made some headway in deciding what I want to buy people for Christmas, and come up with a recharged business plan for my freelance writing business.

I'm making money while I walk. To date, I've found $3.05 while out on my strolls.  Thank you, residents of Martin's Creek, for dropping dollar bills, quarters, and nickels.  Your generosity is helping my buy my plane ticket home for Christmas.

Lastly, I took some of my walk in downtown Summerville the other day while I was waiting to meet a friend for dinner.  I had forgotten how many cool little shops are in that area and discovered a few new restaurants and cafes I will soon be frequenting!

Now that I'm on a role with the whole walking thing, I'm already trying to decide what I want to do for November.  I'm thinking maybe I'll add some of the other components of physical activity to my routine, like flexibility and strength (Thank you for teaching me that, Lonnie Lowery.  Now I feel really good about myself, I remembered TWO things I learned in school!)

It's now time to say "Goodnight, everyone."  I hope you're evening is as lovely as mine has been.  It's about 68 degrees, a slight breeze, the moon is filtering through some hazy clouds, and the bugs are performing quite a symphony tonight.  I forgot how much I love fall in the Lowcountry.

Money is the root of all ???

"What, did you buy dog food?"  That's the question my mom asked me the other night when I was sharing that I had managed to buy two weeks worth of food for under $50.  (And while I did buy enough food to have three well-balanced meals each day for the next two weeks, dog food for Cooper was included in that total!)

A few weeks ago, I decided that I was going to keep a MUCH closer eye on my budget.  Partly because I want a larger emergency fund, partly because I want to pay off all my ridiculous school loans, and partly because I like going on shopping sprees!  So, when all the stores were having back to school sales, I went out and bought a binder, lots of paper, a calculator, and pens with five different colors of ink.  Yes, being the school supply junkie and OCD list maker that I am, I went out and spent $20 on random supplies so I could write out my budget and all my money saving ideas each week. 

Most of my money saving ideas are pretty run of the mill: use coupons (but not in a crazy way!), keep the lights turned off, turn up the thermostat, conserve gas by limiting extra trips out, etc.  I stopped eating out and I quit drinking pop.  Having a fairly strict budget also works as a convenient excuse when trying to get out of ridiculous health department sponsored fund raisers.  Shhh...don't tell my supervisor I said that!  

I think I made myself look bad this week at Publix.  I had a set budget for my groceries, but I wanted to cut it in half and save some money. I think I literally jumped for joy when the cashier told me my total, which was a few dollars below what I had anticipated it being.  I looked at her and just smiled, saying, "It's the little things in life, right?"  Her half smile makes me think I was probably one of her "crazy grocery people" stories that night.  

Well, originally I thought I had a lot more content for this story.  That being said, I'm now faced with the reality that I have no more compelling words.  Oh well, better luck next time, right?  Have a good evening everyone.  It's a crisp 55 degrees right now, the coldest it's been since May.  It feels so nice!  

The Definition of Insanity

A long time ago, someone told me that the definition of insanity was "to perform the same task, the same way, and expect there to be different results each time."  Many of us can see this in our own lives, to some degree, but it's always much more fun to point it out in other's lives.  That is what I'm doing today.

It's finally "cooled down" enough that I can sit outside and eat lunch.  This in and of itself is a blessing, as it means I don't have to sit around listening to my co-workers complain about their Weight Watchers food.  But I digress.  Being able to sit outside and eat lunch means I get a front row seat to "people watching." Today's episode of people watching was called "Driveway Insanity."

Today I sat out in my car, facing Cedar Street and the little building that sits on the corner of Cedar Street and 78.   I called my best friend, I called my mom, I ate my PB & J sandwich, pretzels, and applesauce.  About half way through the conversation with my mom, I couldn't help but yell, "You idiot!"

You see, this little building on Cedar Street has a parking lot.  This parking lot is bordered by a sidewalk.  The side walk drops off about four inches to a median that you can't see from the parking lot.  Since you can't see the  drop off, a lot of people like to use that as a driveway of sorts.  This poses a number of problems. Please note that the following events all took place within a ten minute time frame.

Car #1 was a Kia Spectra.  Driver of Car #1 clearly thought it was a driveway, looked both ways, and then floored it off the sidewalk drop off.  Four inches may not seem like a large drop, but the car made a nice thumping sound when it hit the ground!  This was about the point where I shouted "You idiot" into the phone.

Shortly after this, I hung up the phone with my mom.  I finished my sandwich and looked out to the intersection, where there were two cops stopping traffic.  I watched them disappear around the corner, only to reappear a minute later pushing a red car. It was obvious they were trying to get the car out of the way.  Where did these two cops try to push the car?  Into the "driveway."  To be fair, these cops were strong (one man, one woman) and they pushed the car halfway over the sidewalk.  But the car got caught on the sidewalk, and it started to roll back down towards the road.  As the car rolled, the driver would place his foot firmly on the brakes. From across the street I could hear shouts of "TAKE YOUR FOOT OFF THE BRAKES!  THE CAR WON'T ROLL BACK ON US!  OK...JUST TAKE YOUR FOOT OFF THE BRAKE WHEN WE YELL PUSH!"  Thankfully, within two minutes a man in a pickup truck pulled up, hopped out, and pushed the car over the sidewalk.

The cops waved goodbye to the man, hopped in their car, and drove off.  The man in the pickup truck offered his cell phone to the man in the car, then returned to his own truck.  Now, the man in the pickup was heading down Highway 78 towards Charleston.  He was now heading in a different direction and needed to turn around.  Instead of driving to the next road, he too decided to drive up and over the sidewalk to turn around in the business' parking lot.  You might think that an extended cab, 4x4 truck would make it over such a minor bump.  To be sure, the truck had no problem.  The trailer he was pulling?  Not so much.  The trailer caught on the sidewalk and he had to backup onto the road, almost causing an accident.  He then attempted to clear the sidewalk again.  The third time didn't prove to be a charm either, as he finally just drove to the next intersection and turned around safely in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot.

That, my friends, is called dinner and a show.  My lunch ended shortly after the pickup debacle, and I returned to the building.  My co-worker asked me how my lunch was, and I told her that I had fun people watching.  She mentioned that she too had enjoyed "people watching."  However, she had not witnessed any of what I had seen, since she was more engrossed by the cops dealing with the man who had been in two different accidents in the parking lot (less than 200 feet from me) within thirty minutes.  Icing on the cake.

Have a fun evening, and always make sure you're driving out of the driveway, and not off a mini cliff.  Also, do not drive your car anywhere near the health department.  The end.

This is how I treat my journal...

I have this green journal I bought at Sam's Club in Fairlawn way back in 2002.  A standard size journal, it took me over seven years to fill out two-thirds of that thing.  I was reading through it last night, and I saw that I would fill out eight or nine days worth of entries, and then be done for a month or three.  I really, really, wanted to be better with the blog and keep up a post of once a week, if nothing but to keep my typing skills sharp!  Then, around the middle of July, I decided it was time for a summer break from the blog.  Or rather, I got lazy and couldn't think of anything interesting to post, so I just stopped.  Here's hoping that this jump starts my regular posts.  You've been warned.

Let's see...since the middle of July.....

I experienced my first near-miss with a hurricane.  Hurricane Irene "only" came within about 200 miles of the SC coast, but we were still close enough to receive a tropical storm warning and not much else!  For five days we spent time preparing our clinic in case of a flood, I went out and bought seven days worth of non-perishable food and water and had a back-up evacuation route planned just in case.  There was no water on the shelf the morning I went to stock up on more food and water.  The lady at ACE Hardware complimented my choice of flashlight.  I was ready!  Then, thankfully, Irene changed paths and did nothing more than provide just enough wind to close schools for half a day.  I also got to see some pretty cool clouds.

I experienced the "dog days" of summer FOR REAL!  I knew what I was getting into when I moved down here.  But it was still a shocker the day I went outside at lunch when it was 100 with a heat index of 120.  That pattern continued for some time.  I even got to experience mild stages of heat exhaustion one day when I tried to carry a whole bunch of heavy items to the trash.  That was the first and last time I did that.  Most of the summer was spent in air-conditioned rooms.

I got to know my co-workers a little better through a mini road trip we took when we went for a training session in Columbia.  I learned that Co-Workers 1 and 2 know every word to "Eye of the Tiger" and will sing it.  I learned that Co-worker 2 absolutely hates morning radio shows, but will listen to them and argue with the deejays for at least an hour.    I learned that co-worker 1 yells at other drivers just as much as I do while she's driving, and that co-worker 3 is hurt to think that people yell at other drivers on the road.

After listening to stories about the proliferance of snakes in South Carolina, especially the poisonous ones, I was a little more than happy that I had not come across any snakes myself.  However, in the last two weeks, I had a lady at the park point out some red-bellied slithering monster in the turtle pond, found two baby snakes in the health department, and discovered one terrifying beast that slithered across my path less than ten feet from my front door the other day.  (That event took place the same night I watched Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.  The ant scene freaks me out enough, but between that and the snake I was convinced I was going to be eaten by invertebrates that night.)  I am no longer fond of snakes.

I bought a power drill to hang curtains in my house.  Since then I have been trying to find more and more projects around the house that require the use of a power drill.  There are currently none to be found.  Sadness.

I discovered Angry Birds.

I decided to give up coffee and pop for a month.  Days 1 and 2 were not pretty.  I'm thinking that I growled at my co-workers a few times.  Fortunately, days 3, 4, and 5 happened over the recent three-day weekend, so my withdrawal grouchiness was directed at inanimate objects.

More or less, that's it for interesting things that happened during my little hiatus.  I'm sure there were a few more things I could have written about, but I feel like it is time for me to sit back and relax and enjoy this absolutely gorgeous night.  The weather "broke" about a week ago, and ever since then we've been having cool mornings, sun-filled afternoons, and comfortably warm evenings.  I love it!

Well, as always, have a good night.  Sleep tight, and don't let the palmetto bugs, fire ants, snakes, or other creepy crawlies get you.  Also, if you are part of my immediate family, please start thinking about Christmas gifts and let me know what you want.  I need to start buying gifts soon.  Thanks.

Walking at Walmart

Yesterday morning, I was talking to my Dad.  After the usual catching up, chatting about the weather, and pondering all of the world's problems, Dad asked, "So did you ever get that tire looked at like I told you?"  Now, given my recent track record with cars, I'm a little paranoid about ANYTHING going wrong with the car.    This being a tire issue, I probably should have checked it about a million times over by now, but I had no recollection of him EVER talking to me about the tire.  We both chuckled and laughed, both stating that since it hadn't been a problem yet, it probably wouldn't be anytime soon.

Twenty-four hours later as I set out for the morning, I heard an unmistakable "flapping" sound coming from my left front tire, the one I was supposed to have been monitoring.  Oops.  After trying to use my emergency air compressor (probably didn't wait long enough for it to be effective) and trying to find my AAA card, my neighbor came out and kindly changed my tire for me.  Not wanting to waste any time, I drove off to Walmart to get my tire fixed.

If you've never been to Walmart for any type of car service, after checking you in, they give you a little ticket so that you can use the little price scanners to see if your car's ready and then send you off on your merry way, most likely to peruse all the wares in Walmart.  So there I was, nothing better to than be a mall walker.  Not one to sit and be bored, I set off to find anything and everything interesting.  I was not disappointed.

First stop was the paint section.  I've recently come to the conclusion that I'll probably be renewing my lease at my current apartment.  Originally, I had decided to not put any money into painting the place, but now that the white walls in my apartment are starting to drive me crazy, I'm reconsidering that stance.  So as I stood there deciding if I wanted blue, yellow, or green for my living and dining rooms, I got to hear a three year-old try to convince her mom to buy her the "pretty purple paint"  I don't think I've ever seen such an awful shade of purple, but this little girl was adamant.  Unfortunately for her, three year-old logic doesn't always persuade people to buy Barney colors for the wall.

I've been wanting to get Cooper a nice dog bed for his crate, but being a total cheapskate when it comes to stuff like that, I've been putting off that decision.  Today, since I had nothing better to do, I wandered into the pet section to see if I could find anything.  I didn't find anything I liked, but I did find a rare gem in that department.  TWO on-duty Walmart employees.  I didn't need their help with anything, which was probably good, seeing as how they were very busy...turning all the Betta fish towards each other in their little cups to make them puff up and "fight" each other.  They had names picked out for the fish and a running commentary as to how the imaginary battle was going.  Just in case you wondered, a blue crowntail Betta named "Jaws" won the competition.

Back-to-school items are now the "big thing" in stores, so being the school supply dork that I am, I went to see if there was anything neat to buy.  Inwardly I groaned as I saw all kinds of Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga notebooks and pencils.  "Really?,"  I thought to myself, "Why would a parent pay almost triple for a notebook just because it has a weird lady sitting in an egg on it?"  My question was answered about a minute later when a mom and her two daughters came over and started oohing and ahhing over the selection.  It may not have been so bad had it not been the mom who let out a squeal when she found the THIRD Justin Bieber design at the back of the box.  "Oh my gosh!! Now you girls can have one for spelling, one for math, AND one for science, AND THEY'RE ALL DIFFERENT!!!!!  I had to get out of there fast, before I started laughing.

After awhile, I got really bored of looking at all kinds of junky throw-away garbage and went to the little waiting room by the tire center.  I picked up a year-old issue of RedBook and started reading all about Katherine Heigl's kitchen.  Halfway through the story, a super obnoxious lady came in talking on her cellphone.  I really don't like to eavesdrop on other people's conversation, but when you're talking very loudly two feet from me, I reserve the right to do whatever the heck I want, and I decided that I didn't care if I overheard her conversation.  Again, I was not disappointed by my decision.  Note to all brides-to-be:  You'd better make sure there is an adequate selection of single men at your reception.  Amanda was very disappointed that she spent $40 dollars on a dress, $40 on shoes (why do your shoes cost more than your dress?), and drove all the way to Isle of Palms (half an hour away) where she had to pay for her own alcohol, only to discover that the only two single guys at the party lived in Wisconsin.  Tina (and me, mostly by accident) were reassured that Amanda was in fact not looking for a one-night stand, but was trying to find an available local guy to date, and was very angry that Chelsea didn't invite more single guys to her reception.  I was sad for myself when Amanda's car was taken care of before I could hear her talk about her plans for the upcoming week.

Just when I think I'm accustomed to some new regionalism and am proud of myself for not having a confused look on my face when I hear a new word, something happens to make me look like a dork.  As I was waiting in line to pay for the tire that had been fixed, a woman nearby said, "Look at that buggy!"  Immediately, I turned in the complete opposite direction of everyone else and stretched to look out the window.  Honestly, I expected to see a horse, a box on wheels, and several Amish people inside that box on wheels.  I could not have been more wrong. In fact, what I was supposed to be viewing was a shopping cart that had lost it's front wheel and was beginning to tip over on a customer with a full cart.  Like a cat that just had a disgraceful fall, I tried to act cool and pretend that I didn't just forget that fairly familiar term.  Thankfully for me, only the cashier noticed, and just as she started to make a comment about being from out-of-town to me, the dramatic sight of three glass applesauce jars about to careen from the cart to the floor directed her attention away from me.  Also good- the jars were saved by a Good Samaritan with quick hands.  And a bag of rice that cushioned the third jar's landing.

Well, the good news is, my tire was fixed and I was able to drive my car for another day.  The bad news is, now my eye's are playing tricks on me, and I think my tire's going flat again.  So when it finally stops raining, I'm going to check the pressure again.  And then come inside and prepare for work and get to bed early so I can call AAA at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning so they can come and change my tire for me before I go to work.  Yay! At least I'm prepared for the worst now.  Have a good week!

Beat the Heat

The drive to church takes approximately seven minutes.  So this morning, I got in the car, turned on the AC (it was 80 at 8 a.m. this morning), strapped on my seat belt, and then arrived at Crossroads about ten minutes later.  I gathered all of my things and stepped out of the car and started walking towards the church.  About ten seconds later I had to stop.  I wasn't waiting for a car to pass, I wasn't talking to anyone, and I wasn't stopping to look at anything.  No, I had to stop because I couldn't see.  Why?  The temperature difference between my car and the outside world was enough to cause condensation to form on my glasses.

Now, it's not like I've not had condensation form on my glasses before.  But, prior to today, the only time I'd ever had condensation form on my glasses was when I came in from the cold into the warm house.  Initially, I was a little miffed when this happened.  But, after a nanosecond, I figured it gave me an excuse to talk about the weather on my blog, and then I was trying to find my name tag in the name tag basket and completely forgot about my problems with my glasses.  

Don't worry, I know that as much as we all like to complain about the weather TO other people, we don't like to hear other people complain about the weather to us.  So I won't complain, I'll just share...

This week, most of the time Ohio has been just as warm as South Carolina.  Let me just say, I feel your pain.  Literally.  It's painful to walk outside and feel like you're walking into a sauna!  But as I would look at the weather each morning, I was amused at the way the two states handled the heat.  

I think on Monday it was supposed to be 98 here and in Medina.  That morning on the news, the heat wasn't even an issue.  The weatherman literally said, "Another typical July day here in Charleston."  I was a little aghast.  How is 98 degrees not noteworthy?!  When I got to work, the Ohio news feed on my computer at work had a crawler that kept mentioning "Excessive Heat Warning!  Excessive Heat Warning!"  I found this amusing, but only because I was sitting inside in my very well air-conditioned office.

I know it's all in what you're used to (See the comment I made about the temperature of 98 degrees.)  Back in January, the freezing rain we had that lasted all of three hours shut down all the major bridges in the area and the entire state government for a day and a half.   I drove my friend to the airport a few days after Christmas last year.  I think there were three or four inches of snow on the road and we may or may not have almost gotten stuck on Blake Road a few times.  We have truck loads of salt stored away, they used...sand.  

Friday I was listening to the radio on my way into work, and the DJs were reading a story about classrooms in Illinois and Indiana not having air conditioning.  The female DJ is a little over dramatic anyways, but she couldn't believe that there are buildings in existence that still don't have AC.  I think she talked about that for the entire fifteen minutes it took me to drive to work! 

While I am not a fan of extreme heat (I burned my hand on my steering wheel yesterday), I have learned to deal with it.  Basically, it comes down to running from air conditioned apartment to air conditioned car to air conditioned office/store/church/other people's homes, etc.  See?  It's a science!  And, now that it's almost the end of July, I hopefully have only another 50-60 days of unbearable heat.  And by that I mean that after 50-60 days the high might be less than 90 degrees.  85 and no humidity feels like heaven now.  

Adios, amigos.  I have very few hours of freedom left to enjoy, and I still have about half of my Parks and Rec DVD to watch.  I love it when Target has sales on DVDs!