My son is 18.
Finally.
Who needs more?

1. Last week I made, for the first time, two chicken pot pies. I kept one and gave the other to the SO. Mine was awesome (if I do say so myself), and I was so proud and waited to hear from him how wonderful his tasted. He hasn't said a word about the one I gave to him. Maybe he forgot to (which is sort of rude) or maybe he thought it was gross. I am wondering and wondering but don't want to bring it up. Chances are, he just didn't bother to tell me he liked it...? This would not be shocking.

2. I went back on birth control pills two months ago and my body is still adjusting and it's making me feel gross. Spotting, acne, other stuff (including, probably, emotional stuff)... They are the same pills I took for 8 years before, so I'm hoping this is all temporary and goes away soon. Of course, on 5/20 I'm having LEEP surgery, so even if this all resolves soon I'll probably go back to feeling gross for a while after that.

2a. Have any of you ladies ever had a LEEP? Any words of wisdom/advice?

3. I am excited and scared to begin the three fitness classes I signed up for (zumba, pilates, toning). But despite my nervousness, I wish they started this week instead of next week.

1. Had an argument with my mother yesterday and she actually gave ground. Maybe this therapy shit is actually working.

2. From an email I got from one of the publishers I sent an article to, it sounds like they want it (after I changed one paragraph and deleted another because of a slight error) and so I hope I get an awesome email about that on Monday.

3. Starting week 7 of Couch 2 5k today (plz don't rain, but I'm going out anyways since I'm in the woods and it's fairly shaded from the weather, but it'll just be squishy) and am hoping that my Nike+ decides to remove the stick from it's ass and start working properly. It kept pausing every few minutes or so on Thursday and didn't record my awesome 3+ mile very slow jog due to badass hills in the second half of the big loop I finally was able to take because I had reached the halfway point in the trail before the halfway point in my music (and so I just went around the entire loop instead of turning around since it was probably shorter that way, plus, I get to brag about going around the entire loop) and I will be cranky if it keeps up this failing crap. I suspect it might be due to the fact that I tried to calibrate it at the gym on Wednesday and it didn't want to read (until I saw that I had it upside down).

amro, I had a LEEP about 10 years ago.

Maybe I had a fantastic gynecologist or something, but it was like nothing. I didn't spot afterward. I had stocked up on lots of pads and painkillers and arranged to have a couple of days downtime, and.... nothing. And they took a big whack of cervix off (which I saw) so I know there was serious things happening there.

My friend, who had had one 6 months before, had a day of discomfort and bleeding and took advil for 2-3 days.

I hope your procedure is as easy as mine was.

Thanks gaspode. I hope so too!

Maybe this therapy shit is actually working.

It's amazing the first time you see the iceberg start to shift, isn't it? Suddenly this HUGE TIMELESSLY IMMOVABLE THING* starts to move ever so slightly, and your whole world goes marvelously a-tilt with possibility. Yay!

*The "huge timelessly immovable thing" I'm speaking of is the relationship, not the mother. I am not making a your-mother joke.

1. As it happens, I have just returned from brunch with my mother and sister, and I can report that the years of work and care I put into altering that dynamic continues to be well worth it. We had a great time, nobody fought or snarked at anybody else, and we were able to make plans for a family event successfully, lovingly, and without veiled friction. Yay!

2. When she said she didn't want a birthday party, I offered to throw my mother a birthday dinner (at her home, so her neighborhood friends can walk over), and she is very pleased and excited. We're hammering out the menu now. Ten years ago, I would have made myself crazy doing this and still not pleased her; now I am much better at maintaining healthy boundaries and also at offering observantly caring acts, not needy-loving acts.

3. I had a rough week: pain and limited mobility. But yesterday I walked a mile in the sun, and today I think I'll walk a mile at dusk. It's a beautiful season, and for once I have the time to enjoy it!

1. My sister, kids, and I went to good restaurant for an early lunch.

2. Then we went to a "Spring Fling" thing at the local gardens and sugar mill ruins. I bought a Florida native plant called Firebush. I have always admired them. I will plant it near the back porch. The kids made a cool craft for birds. I also bought some Christmas cards made by a local artist.

3. After that we went to McDonald's and got an ice cream cone and drove around and looked at houses. I want to move into a better school district. I'm attached to my house and neighborhood though. The other houses can't compare. My husband never wants to move so we'll have to go to Plan B.

1. Might have found a new place for the summer. AND they have chickens (I just sold mine to a home where they could frolick on 4 acres because I figured I wouldn't be able to find a place that would let me have chickens.) which is good news, because I miss having chickens around. AND they have been thinking about getting a housecat, so I could bring my sweet stray and they would love her long after I was gone. AND I've lived there before, so I would be learning new people, but not a new house. I find out on Wednesday after their house meeting. Oh, AND it has a huge, sunny backyard and the front yard is filled with an actively-used bike parking rack that I dragged home when I lived there a few years ago.

2. Homework day! Busy, busy week up ahead, lots of meetings, data collection, project, essays due, oodles of homeworking, more than twice as much work-work as usual, etc. I'm sort of looking forward to it. It's my last quarter, and at the ripe young age of almost-28, I'm about to graduate and then I can go spend all my time learning about bikes at the Bike Collective for the sunny summer.

3. They're hiring for "summer" jobs in Antarctica right now, and I'm qualified. Here's hoping they're still accepting applications in a week or so when things calm down and I can sit down and apply.

1. I had my second improv class today. Man, I've been excited about it since Thursday, probably. Definitely since Friday. Buzzing, and feeling like a five-year-old who's going to the arcade on the weekend (or whatever kids go to nowadays). Class is fun; I'm trying to work on being more receptive because I'm pretty comfortable on stage. What it means is not going for the easy/big laughs, practicing playing the straight man, and really listening to whatever my scene partner is throwing out there. It's so hard to concede control, but I think that means I'm headed in the right direction.

2. Small thing, but I bought some brushes and two different kinds of Jamaican Jerk seasonings. I can't believe I'm actually excited about cooking something! It's nice, though. I've mainly been making things in a balsamic marinade, and I can probably eat balsamic stuff every day for the rest of my life. But I am tentatively enthused about branching out. Especially since it's not something my ex used to make. It's going to be a dish all my own.

3. I am getting pretty well set up at my new job. I just bought a bunch more crap for my desk at Staples and KMart. I also started my first real assignment on Friday, so it's game on (oh and I got my first paycheck). Everyone at the office is SO nice. When the storms came through on Thursday, I had to deal with competing offers to drive me to the train station after work (accepted my boss's offer, since she also offered to let me leave on the earlier train). I've gotten a little more into the rhythm of my commute, which is still brutal, but I set up tethering on my phone so I've got internet on the train.

aniola: Good luck on Antarctica! Request permission to stow in your luggage! I'm good traveling company; you'll never be bored!

Fri: Finally got a new dryer. The old one started going funky last summer. It would shut off after 20 or 30 minutes, then wouldn't come on again for an hour and a half or two hours. My dad and I tried to fix it in September, but he thought the motor needed to be replaced. I mentioned it to the landlord/property management company
in November, and the landlord said she'd replace it after the first of the year. Nothing happened, so I started pestering them in earnest about 6 weeks ago. And now I finally have a dryer that works. I've done six loads of laundry since Friday night.

Sat: Cleaned up the garden plot yesterday so that Mr. Fabulous could till it. (That's not his real name, but he tills my plot for $25, which saves me two days of back-breaking work, and the co-pay I'd spend after injuring my back is only slightly more, so it's pretty much the best deal ever.)

Afterwards, cooked a fabulous meal of braised chicken legs with olives, artichokes, tomatoes and preserved lemon, along with some sauteed oyster mushrooms and roasted onions that we pulled out of the garden plot.

Sun: Went and bought a bunch of tomato plants this morning (including one intriguingly called "HILLBILLY"; yes, apparently in all caps), put them in the ground this afternoon. Was too tired to get the peppers in, so will have to do that after work this week. Yay, it's garden time! It was such a long, hard winter for me. I need some tomato therapy.

1. Weeded the flower bed and picked up all the sticks in the back yard.
2. Picked 2 daffodils to bring inside.
3. Put the flannel sheets away for the summer.

It is spring.

Eideteker: http://www.nanaservices.com/jobs.html. Shh, don't tell everyone or there won't be any bussing jobs left for me.

Mudpuppie: a hillbilly from Texas (complete with accent) literally showed up out of nowhere and insisted on giving me like 20 delicious homegrown tomatoes once when I was in the middle of texas on a bike tour and craving tomatoes and staring down a couple of romas feeling unsatisfied. I wonder if your tomatoes are related to those tomatoes.

1. This olive oil mayonnaise is the greatest thing. I'm a fan of mayonnaise in general but this stuff is amazing. When you don't want to eat anything, finding something that makes everything delicious is a big plus. Although I had these great oniony burgers at a party yesterday, I could eat a pile of those any time. Maybe the tide is turning and now I have to get back to watching my weight. I will forever be looking for pants that fit.

2. Surreptitiously took photo of parents eating. I'm forever amazed at how people don't notice you taking photos of them, although the grad student did a quick flinch on my second picture of him. Loosely trying to take a picture or more a day is an interesting exercise, but I don't think my pictures are improving one bit on my crappy cameraphone. Cameraphone pictures can only be so good.

3. Tomorrow begins the end and I've got to ace my finals. Then I've got a few days rest before the badness hits. And then the hits keep coming. And on top of everything, I've got jury duty. I can't think of any way around deferring it this time. I think I could just make being a bad juror this time around but everything else going on makes it too complicated, so next year, I'll have to be a horrible juror. Unless I actually have the time to be a juror and they pick me. They'll never pick me, no lawyer wants me on their jury.

1. Just got back from a May Day party and maypole dance, in which there was a lot of sexual innuendo - well that's not right - the hostess pretty much laid it all out how the wreath goes over the top of the pole and works its way down slowly as the ribbons wind. . .but it was fun.

2. Foot still killing me, so instead of dancing around the pole, I drummed.

3. Wine in the afternoon. . .good occasionally but the evening is shot to hell now, I fear.

1. I'm at the airport, all checked in. We're off to NYC for four days, then NC for a couple of weeks. I'm pretty excited about the trip - but a whole lot less excited at the prospect of saying goodbye to The Chef at the end of it. At this stage we have no idea when he'll be able to get back over here. It will suck SO HARD saying goodbye.
That's pretty much it for me... but you'll grant that it's a big one.

Can't wait to meet the NYC bunnies this Wednesday!!!

1. Did second day in a row of biking 30+ miles with a plan to do my 30 mile path at least twice a week until fall. I might have gotten lazy this morning but i was biking with my brother and SIL two of my favorite people. So lovely morning.

2. Even though as of the end of the week I am unemployed,
i went ahead and hired a neighbor that is a landscaper to clean up my yard. I let it go last year and it is beyond me to get it in to shape. Once it is all cleaned up i can keep it that way. At least that's the plan. I'm being ridiculously optimistic spending money.

3.Biked over to the cemetary that is home to Emma Goldman's grave and the graves of the Haymarket martyrs for an afternoon of labor solidarity and lefty love fest. There was a large crowd (3000+) but no media coverage and not many young people. Very stirring speeches but definitely preaching to the choir.

1. It's the end of a weekend that was far too social for me. Husband sometimes can't really comprehend that I need quiet downtime (that isn't napping) sometimes, and schedules us for lots of hanging out with other people. Now I am tired and looking forward to tomorrow when I just have to worry about work for most of the day.

2. Looking forward to meeting jonathanstrange on Wednesday!

3. yay, Game of Thrones tonight.

1. Spent the day out- church then brunch with fun aunt and uncle. Nice to go through the family gossip (I love that Uncle Greg also thinks That One Cousin is bitchy).

2. Tonight is the first HealthMonth of new rule: computer off at 10:30 on work nights. What will I do with myself?? All the fun happens at night :( But I do know it's good to go to bed early. And break my serious addiction!

3. The dog is sitting here with me and she is SO GASSY. Toot toot toot toot toot toot toot.

I had a nice weekend:
1. Friday I took off work early to see movies at the Tribeca Film Festival- I saw animated shorts (ok), documentary shorts (great), a doc about a terribly unjust trial in the Philippines, and a funny doc about an NYC chef who wanted to do fancy complicated food in the post-9/11 comfort food age. The chef one made me want to try his restaurant (Corton).

2. Saturday I had some girls over to watch footage I'd taped of the royal wedding. I gave everyone a fascinator or hat on their way in, so we all looked crazy awesome on my couch. I also made scones, some insanely strong punch, crumpets with clotted cream and golden syrup, and cucumber sandwiches. It was a lot of fun.
Then at night we met up with my bf's friend who I love and his new fiancee who I hadn't met before and she was great. They live in DC so we don't get to hang out with him a lot but I hope we can all go on vacation together or something.

3. Today was a relaxing-ish day, walked in the park with the bf, ate leftover scones, pet the bunny, watched tv. But I woke up all stressy and it hasn't really died down. There are a lot of errand things that I've let pile up which now seem insurmountable.
Example: For some weird reason, my landlord hasn't gotten or cashed my last 3 rent checks that I sent him and sent me a harsh letter saying I am delinquent which is totally not true but I can't seem to get in touch with him to straighten it out (his phone rings and rings and no machine picks up). This especially sucks because I wanted to talk to him about arranging a short lease or some alternate arrangement and now I don't have the "I've always been an awesome tenant" line to use since he thinks I haven't been paying.
In better news, the reason I want a weird lease thing is that I think I am going to move in with the bf at the end of the summer!

amro- 2 of my friends have had them and one was totally fine like gaspode and even came back to work later that day, and the other had a bunch of cramping for almost a week but then never had any problems after that. They both took 3 advil right before the procedure (I think on dr's rec) so it was in force by the time the sharp things came out.
As I was just scheduling a colposcopy for myself, I started thinking about how if this was a routine thing for men to get, there would be topical numbing or drugs or a shot or something. Then I started getting mad about it. Anyway, you don't want a rant, it just made me think of that.

1. Yesterday morning on my way to work I tripped over my landlord's puppy and did a perfect faceplant onto the pea-gravel covered yard. Split my lip in two places, and have a gravel rash down my chin. When I woke this morning, the fat lip had transformed into a disgusting mess of scabs. I have decided to tell anyone at work tomorrow who asks that I was in a bar fight*.

2. Today was cool, grey and intermittently snowy, so I did a half-assed job of indoor chores and then went to the library. Yay books.

3. Was distracted by the new books and burnt the butter toffee I was making as an after-dinner treat. Sigh.

*1a. This might only be funny if you know that I am a 5'/105 lb over-the-age-of-40 pacifistic female.

(re LEEP, I certainly had lots of local anesthetic injected!)

(gaspode- I was talking about the colp, but of course I am glad people get anesthetic for the real surgery!)

ooooh right. duh. Well, the colp doesn't hurt that much anyway.

OMG disagree- maybe I'm just really sensitive but they are torture for me.

1. Just got back from vacation. Went to Champagne-Urbana to attend EbertFest for four days. Saw twelve movies all of which were good and some of which were great. Natural Selection, I Am Love, Leaves of Grass, Me & Orson Welles and 45365 are all on my recommended list. Got to hear talks from Richard Linkletter, Norman Jewison, Tim Blake Nelson and a bunch of other super talented filmmakers. Tim Blake Nelson tends to play dumb hicks but is actually a really bright guy, I was really impressed.

Rodger doesn't look great and didn't come out on stage too much but Chaz, his wife, is wonderful and ran the whole thing.

One big highlight was seeing Tilda Swinton talk and chat with the audience after a showing of "I am Love" which is one of the move beautiful movies I've ever seen. I think that my wife and I are both in love with her and either of us would run off with her and the other wouldn't begrudge it.

2. Back to work tomorrow and I'm sure that I've got 200 emails to dig through. Yuck.

3. Half Marathon in two weeks and I'm so not ready. I'm going to have to put in at least six miles every single day between then and now and do at least two long runs of 8 - 10. Don't know why I do this to myself.

oh that sucks, rmless. I think I might have a high pain tolerance, so maybe ignore me when pain stuff is discussed. :/

octothorpe: JEALOUS! SWINTON!

Octothorpe - I'm in the same boat. At least the course is pretty flat.

1. What a perfectly atrocious weekend. Bachelorette camping (with children, wtf) and then a baby shower. I'm officially women-ed out. The only nice moment of my weekend was sitting at my parents' fireplace talking with my brother. It was one of those times where I realized that I get to hang out with him for the rest of my life, and that's awesome.

2. Feeling defeated still.

3. Have decided that I'm going to name my children after submarines.

This might only be funny if you know that I am a 5'/105 lb over-the-age-of-40 pacifistic female.

You should see the other guy pacificistic female!

Seriously: ouch and so sorry! Lip injuries really sting --- take good care of yourself.

I had a colposcopy, it was no big deal at all. I think I have a pretty high pain tolerance, too, gaspode.

As for the LEEP, I have the option to have general anesthesia or local + a sedative, and I'm opting for the latter. I didn't figure on bothering with Advil since I'll be getting a local.

Eideteker - I've always thought I would make a good straight man in an improv team. I am good at coming up with off-the-cuff funny, but I lack delivery skills. I am also pretty good at recognizing when someone has a killer line to unload.

Hi, faineant.

1. Smoothed out a mound in my front yard that previously I'd had a tree in (it blew down a few years ago, but the mound remained). Moved two small sheds and built up platforms for them with old bricks. Cleared out crap from the yard and neatened everything up - it's so nice now.

2. Discovered my wooden shed has termites. Boo. Hiss. Hopefully got rid of the groundhog living under my shed (filled in the holes, tossed in a couple of smoke bombs but nothing came out).

3. Hung my hummingbird feeder because I thought I'd heard that familiar chirp...hours later I saw both a female and a male sipping from it!

Thanks, Elsa :)

Ouch, rmless.

Hi, Ardiril :)

punchtothehead, I'm looking forward to meeting Borei.

Yay, hummingbirds!

Hope everyone's week has improved.