I won a blog award from Happylan and now I must list ten things I am happy for.  Here they are in no order:

WINE.  I say this as I drink the new wine the boyfriend brought home from Rio De Vino.  Graziano 2004 Mendcino.  Very nice, very fruity, full bodied.   Wine warms the chest as I feel the vapors spread to the tips of my fingers, it initiates the coziest of moments.

BEST FRIENDS.  You know who you are.

BOYFRIEND.   The Sans to my Serif.

IKEA.  My interior decorator.

NETFLIX.  Endless nights in.

HUMANITY.  The quality of being humane; seems so slippery these days.

CHI.  For fake straight hair – “Chi Hair”.

FAMILY.  The term normal may be undefined, but family can easily be defined as crazy. I love them for it.

CARDIGANS.  For making every outfit complete.

CHEESE.  Enough said.

Unsure I have ten blogs I can pass this on to, however, I do have one in my mind. Fragmentarie, I pass on the torch to you friend.

Oh my, it has been a while.  With my second to last post “Does this make me look fat?”, I had envisioned myself bi-weekly hopping on to update you on my diet success.  EPIC FAIL!  I was lovingly reminded today by Happylan that I needed to comeback to my original endeavor… write.  Recently, my position at work has changed to “Quality Analysis” which includes writing the manuals for my building (Yay me!).  This new job, training my replacement, and moving apartments has kept my head spinning for the last couple of weeks.  So, lessons learned of late:

1.  When starting a job/dept at your place of employment, firstly, create a timeline.  Otherwise, you will find yourself spending entirely too much time on the same project trying to bring it to unrealistic perfection.

2.  Don’t plan on going on a diet before moving.  With everything packed, you have no choice but to eat out.  The temptations are stronger than your will power when eating out for longer than 2 days.

3.  Always double the amount you originally planned to spend on your move.  When will start to remember this?

4.  Spin class is not good for your bottom, no matter how many butt pads you purchase.

5.  Finally, always check the shower before moving in.

Through and through, we made it.  We are here.  We are tired.

Stay tuned for how I manage to turn out a new manual with a deadline of 3 weeks!  Just call me Wonder Writer Woman.

P.S.  Read about how I fell into my new job at Tom Johnson’s Blog.

P.S.S.  My blog awarding and 10 happy things coming next… too.

One of the authors from one of  my favorite blogs had the brilliant idea to write the best of ‘09.  You were supposed to write one for each day of December, but I found this late.  So I am doing it all at once.  Next year I plan on doing this day by day as originally intended.

1 Trip.  I only took two.  But the best by far was South Padre. 

2 Restaurant moment.  Sushi Zushi.  Lunch with Stac.  Tipsy. 

3 Article. Most recently. “How to Lost 20 lbs of Fat in 30 Days…Without Doing any Exercise” By Tim Feriss….My official new diet.

4 Book. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.  Challenging.

5 Night out. Boneheads with Robert.  First time playing darts… first dates.

6 Workshop or conference. Not really.  Only conference I attended was South by Southwest, which I didn’t really attend.  Stayed in the hotel and waited for Robert.  Saw Diggnation live though.    

7 Blog find of the year. www. roslanche.com <– my own, as egotistical as that sounds.

8 Moment of peace. On the beach at South Padre.  Breathtaking.  Surreal.

9 Challenge. Dating Robert   Looking at my spiritual upbringing, and what that means/ how it applies now.

10 Album of the year. Discovered Mates Of State.  Rearrange

11 The best place. Freetails! 

12 New food. Chipotle Mayo dip.  You shall me the death of me/my diet.

13 What’s the best change you made to the place you live? Threw out so much this year.  I feel lighter.

14 Rush. First “I love you”

15 Best packaging. The pretty little box that my new watch came in. 

16 Tea of the year. The teas I gave Robert for Valentines day with the tea set.  Even if they turned out to be doll sized.

17 Word or phrase. “More”

18 Shop. Nordstrom Rack

19 Car ride. First fight.

20 New person. Can’t say Robert because technically I met him in ‘08.  Umm new?  Nikki & Bridget from work!  You are awesome!

21 Project. Department Manual

22 Startup. Rio De Vino.  I <3 this place.  They have never sold me a bad bottle of wine.

23 Web tool.  My Iphone.

24 Learning experience. I learned I have a temper.

25 Gift. Love, Trust. 

26 Insight or aha! moment. Why wait till after college to start your career?

27 Social web moment. Twitter, you have transformed my life…. Literally.

28 Stationery. I discovered Moleskin… my new planner!

29 Laugh. Pooping

30 Ad. The two little kids talking… yeah that one… awesome.

31 Resolution you wish you’d stuck with. Journal.

Due to holiday weight and the persistent nature of Robert, I am undertaking a diet.  I have done something similar to this a couple years ago, the South Beach Diet.  Wish me luck. 

I will be posting my meals on this blog in an attempt to record my meals and to ensure accountability (atleast I hope so).  The diet is for 30 days, but I hope to make this a lifestyle change.  This is my “practice week” in an effort to allow some adjustment time, and the official diet starts on the 4th.

“An intellectual is not just someone who might be able to translate “heuristics” or someone who liked to spend her summers reading nineteenth-century novels or a pile of biographies of physicists.  It’s someone whose instinct is to analyze anything that happens and try to make some sense out of it.”

From “About Alice” by Calvin Trillin

“WHAT ELSE?!” Jimmy yelled.  After Sue’s lead on Doris, she became strangely silent as Jimmy pressed her for more information.

 ”Sigh” Sue sighed.  Sue was the type of sharpener that would say sigh as she sighed to ensure her listener knew she was in fact sighing.  Jimmy watched as her pencil shrapnel  fluffed up in a momentary whirlwind and defiantly waited for them to find their resting place.

 ”Fine”, Jimmy spouted as he decidedly started to leave his new found love, turning annoyance, to search out his lead.  Perhaps she had been listening to the others?  Jimmy knew what they said, and heard the snickers as he passed.  They failed to see him as a “real” appliance for he didn’t even had a cord.  He had also heard rumors of one of those new, overly hyped electronic  automatic staplers was moving into town.  Jimmy let the fear over take him for less then a second before vowing to solve this mystery.  It not to free Fred, but to secure his place in this humble town of theirs. 

***

Jimmy pulled out his list and quickly erased what he had only crossed out regarding Sue.  He could still see her faded name however; it seemed to scream at him so much that he looked around for chance she followed him.  As he looked around he came across a figure peering into him as if he had forgotten to close his staple holder.  He watched as Ethel moved toward him slowly and with such caution he looked around himself to ward off any other stragglers. 

 ”Listen Jimmy, and listen good” Ethel whispered in a harsh tone.  “Stay away from Doris, and leave Fred be.  We are all better off without that inks bum loser.  Or else…”

 ”Or else?” Jimmy probed.  “Look Ethel, I know that you and Doris are BFF’s now that the love object you both had in common has been whisked away.  I also know that you’ve always wanted to belong, to have a best friend.  Perhaps you planted the evidence ?  You never wanted a lover , you can have anyone you want.  Why Fred?”

 To be continued…

This is a post way off the “focus” of this blog, however, I felt compelled to share.  I’ve currently been reading The Unlikely Disciple By Kevin Roose.  It is a book about a college student who is majoring in journalism going to Liberty University, an evangelical Christian college, for a semester.  He is ultra liberal but feels compelled to explore the inner workings of one of the largest religious affiliated groups in our country.  My friend Amy-fragmentarie- heard about it on NPR and referred the book to me.  It’s an interesting read regardless of your religious orientation/ beliefs.  Prayer has always been an interesting subject to me, regarding it’s purpose and abilities.  I have often pondered many of the same things the author of this book ponders.  In a quest for answers, he asks one of the Pastors at Liberty who gave him this answer….

“‘God is our father, and we are his children.  How would you feel if your children didn’t talk to you?  A relationship with God isn’t a one way street.  God wants us to ask for things, even if he already knows what’s going to happen.  We have to supplicate, to put ourselves in his will.’  His second point was even better. ‘Prayer may not always be entirely about God,’ he said.  Here, Pastor Seth quoted the famous Christian author Oswald Chambers, who wrote: ‘It is not so true that prayer changes things as that prayer changes me and I change things.’  ‘When you pray for other people, your own heart will be transformed,’ Pastor Seth said.  ‘You’ll find yourself living for others, making decisions with others in mind, putting the concerns of others ahead of your own.  It’s a way to connect to other believers in the way God wants you to connect.’”

Enlightening.  This is the first time I have been shown prayer in this context.  Growing up in a ultra conservative family myself who regularly attended church; I was always taught that prayer is how you change things, how you deal with situations, and find answers.  Many times I felt that prayer was put in the place of action, which often frustrated me.  ex. You can pray to pass an exam, but unless you study you will fail.  In this answer, prayer is seen more as an exercise and a way to connect with others, and not so much God. Later in my life, I have often seen prayer as a form of meditation.  It is the concentration on a particular subject, power, enmity, situation for a prolonged amount of time, much like meditation.  The author of the book decides to start praying by the “Liberty’s Way” thirty minutes a day.  He reported seeing a huge difference in his own life due to prayer putting many of his problems into perspective.  He would pray for all of the prayer requests that were daily emailed out to the students, by doing so he realized how small his problems often are becoming more selfless as he continued.  Just food for thought.

My apologies for the unmentioned hiatus.  School rendered me useless taking up all of my free writing time/ inspiration.  It is almost over, however, and I hope to return to a more frequent blogging schedule.  So much has happened this month.  Family came and went, school, work, LIFE.  I fell behind on my new found exercise routine but hope to also get back into my routine this week. 

All things considered, I still went to my normal appointment with my doctor concerning my ADHD.  While talking I asked a couple of more questions that had been plaguing my mind regarding future expectations.  I was told this was a life long diagnosis; there is no cure . I knew this, yet still felt the knife slice cleanly through my stomach.  I have known this for some time, yet something  in me would let me accept it and still won’t.  Blessed with a doctor who doesn’t ADHD as a disorder but more as an alternate way of thinking coinciding with my own views; I have decided to not accept this.  I know there are ways around it, tips and tricks to deal with it, and blessings from it.  The mind is stronger than we give it credit.  I denounce a lifetime sentence and look forward to a lifetime of possibilities.

P.S.  Is it my imagination or is this the year of death?  ie.  Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Bea Arthur, Ed McMahon ect….My friend (fragmentarie) believes this is due to an odd numbered year.  If this  is the case, I look forward to 2010.

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe full of good, no kernal of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.  The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson