Sweetness

Penny, the Jack Russell dog and modest internet star, employer of Gary of
http://klahanie.blogspot.com/
has kindly bestowed upon me the following:




Thank you, Penny, you adorable and very sweet blogger.
This award asks that you reveal 7 facts about yourself and pass it on to 7 worthy bloggers. And so:

1. I still own the very first toy I ever owned, a stuffed floppy rabbit that my godparents gave me at birth with my name written in its ear.
2. My mother and 3 older brothers all served in the military and all worked in the medical field.
3. I used to be 5'10" and have shrunk to 5'8"
4. I have lived in 5 states over my life.
5. I own a copy of everything Scott Fitzgerald ever wrote. Short stories, magazine articles, letters, everything. Been collecting his writing since HS.
6. My hair, naturally brown, has been red, pink, black, platinum and purple-streaked.
7. For several months, I worked nights at the Limelight club in NYC.

These get tougher to fulfill as time goes on! But it's never tough to find 7 sweet bloggers and here are today's:
http://susan-swiderski.blogspot.com/

http://talesfrombettybeetowers.blogspot.com/

http://trainrideoftheenigmas.blogspot.com/

http://homecookingiswhatilike.blogspot.com/

http://www.forgottenbookmarks.com/

http://jillstodayisaw.blogspot.com/

http://startrekspace.blogspot.com/

Give them a gander; the blogworld is wide and sweet to the eye.
And thank you again, Penny. Don't let that puppyrazzi get you down.

These Dreams

Considering there was nothing happening today, no aide, no HUD, no Shire workers, I decided it would be a nap day. I read for a while (Hitchens' last book, Arguably, is wonderful) and fell into a deep comfortable sleep for 3 hours.

The Beest enjoyed it, curling up in one place or another on or around me. And it felt really good to my body, as if I hadn't slept in weeks and was finally getting a great hunk of relaxation. But for the daymares. If I sleep during the day it's bad dreams time these last few years. Not horrific (I don't have those anymore, hallelujah) just bad. Like today's- first I couldn't find my car and then kept losing what belongings I had with me as I walked all over town in a snowstorm trying to find everything. It was pointless and annoying as a video game. The second dream was so rotten I woke myself up from it. I dreamt Bernie Sanders suddenly died and right after reading the blurb and telling Stevil (in my dream), I refused to be in any more of it and opened my eyes. There was the Beest, staring in my face.

Maybe I need to sleep during the day til this works out. There was one February- 1984? -when my friend Evan and I barely ever left our beds but to work. And we skived off that as much as possible, calling each other every couple of days to make sure we were alive and say we were still exhausted. I don't recall that marathon as being full of bad dreams. So this is my plan for February. Sleep like Sleeping Beauty. Sleep until I'm not tired anymore. Sleep until the daymares stop or my enthusiasm comes back, whichever happens first.

Yes, Winter has come. It may be bizarrely warm and nothing like a normal February Eve, but it has come. And I'm going to hibernate.

A Brand New Day

That was quite a fit of diet meltdown. I came pretty close to blowing it. But the blogdom cavalry came rushing out with cheers of, "You can do it!" thanks to Lawless, and guess what? I didn't blow it. Ketosis not wrecked, onward we go. Maybe the bitching was all I needed to get out of my system, maybe I just needed that push of support. Well, it worked. Thank you all. It's meat, eggs and 22 little grams of carbs a day and I'm dealing with it. What was a huge thing last night is not just not a big deal today, but another thing to point at and smile, cuz I made it through -with a little help from my friends.

It's Tuesday, and the last day of January already. That was a quick month. Seems like we just turned the year and here we head into February. I think the last we heard, Rory's surgery was scheduled for today. I hope he's okay and that someone will hear from him soon.

We got a slight dust of white last night, nice to brighten up the grey waterstone that our dooryards have become. The forecast is for warmth and rain the next days. I'm trying to spin it into being the January Thaw, though we haven't really had a winter to thaw out from.

It's election time in our burg:
http://www.ibrattleboro.com/article.php/20120130171656603

Florida's Repo Primary Day today
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/the-florida-republican-presidential-primary--in-one-chart/2012/01/30/gIQA2iGAdQ_blog.html

The UN calls for Syria's Pres to step down in wake of repression:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/31/un-resolution-syria-assad-step-down

Tell me how "green" nuke power is again?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/power-failure-forces-nuclear-plant-shut-illinois-article-1.1014494

Can we apply Occam's Razor here?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/team-investigate-underwater-ufo-sunken-ships-millennium-falcon-article-1.1013642

Jelly from the sky:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/30/blue-marble-mystery-rains-dorset

American Dictionary done after 50 years:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/31/dictionary-american-regional-english-dialect

Run and play. I'll be back later.

As Resolve Wanes

Tomorrow marks 4 weeks on the high protein highway. I've certainly lost weight. I do feel better. And I would kill, yes, kill, for a plate of lasagna or chinese food.

Instead of leaping off the meatwagon, I'm trying to figure out how to deal with it. I made a commitment and come hell or high water we're meeting Greg in April. That's the bottom line. If I don't carry through, I'll totally hate myself.

So it's time to take a minute and look at what's eating at me. First of all it's no help to have someone remark that they "can't believe" I don't "even have ketchup in the house". And to leave behind a pound of truffles - the same truffles I've been parrying with for a month and successfully ignored. Then there's the fact that everyone you see or talk to or email with brings up what good food they've just had, or are having, or will be having. And then there's the tv, where every 6 minutes is a food commercial.

These are all everyday things and normal (well, maybe not the truffles) but right now are really annoying issues. It's like any mention of food looms huge in my head. It doesn't help that I'm sick of meat, eggs, cheese and romaine. Even bacon. Who gets sick of bacon? Me. It doesn't help that it's the end of the month and there's little left in the fridge anyway. It doesn't help that it's winter and the bleakness is starting to set in. It doesn't help that I'm starting to feel very sorry for myself while everyone else eats whatever they want to get through the winter doldrums.

So I gotta set some limits. For now at least, I gotta stop anyone talking about food to me. If a food commercial comes on, mute it or change the channel. I have to work on my attitude. On Friday new meats, fish and cheeses and real coffee will be in the house. I only have to make it til then. Maybe I can't make it forever, but I can make it for 3 more days.

And it's 82 1/2 days to Greg. Gods help me.

Monday Monday

As Lawless noted, I wasn't online yesterday. There were good reasons. My back reached its zenith of uselessness, and I was hungover from red wine. There are few things that lay me as low as red wine. That and the bad decision that while feeling no pain from it, to carry on moving things.

Well. The place is ready for HUD. Or as ready as it will be. Meanwhile, life goes on.

After reading this, I'm more confused than ever about what independence in Scotland would mean:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/real-divide-is-haves-and-have-nots-says-miliband.1327896337

Occupy Oakland got some rare press coverage this weekend:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/oakland-assesses-damages-occupy-movement-cops-clash-article-1.1013718

Censoring is okay by Thailand
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/30/thailand-backs-twitter-censorship-policy

Don't drink the water
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/30/cadmium-spill-china-river

OWS protesters arrested after "Occu-party" in Brooklyn
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/4-occupy-wall-street-protesters-charged-williamsburg-brooklyn-melee-article-1.1013926

Microaggression?
http://www.ibrattleboro.com/article.php/20120129153241513

2 arms are better than one
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16739682

The Beest is demanding breakfast. Off I go.