De-Scrooged?

Posted by terri | Filed under heart, home, natsukashii, watashi

We are at last in December and with Thanksgiving done and gone, it is time for the Christmas spirit to come into full swing. For about 10 years or so now, December hasn’t filled me with any Christmas spirit for a variety of reasons. I am, however, hopeful that this year will be different.

Kicking off Christmas: Happy December 1st!

Without going into too much detail, I want to say that life this year has definitely been more settled as opposed to the past 10 years, and I think it’s finally time to embrace the Christmas spirit. I’ve been thinking of ways that I could “de-scrooge” myself as I have normally been “bah humbug” about the entire holiday season. I came up with a couple of things, some of which I probably WON’T go through with.

Christmas Tree: The last time I had a Christmas tree in my house was in 1996. Every Christmas tree we got years prior were awesome, though our decorations were a bit ghetto fabulous. It definitely brought a spirit of Christmas that not even the most tricked out gift could. As much as I would love to welcome that wonderful, nostalgic scent into my home, it certainly is not practical enough for me to get one. I won’t have much presents to put under the tree and the electricity bill at my house runs high enough as it is. I admit, I feel a bit of the “mommy pangs” when I think about Christmas trees, because I think I can only justify getting one if I had a child to enjoy it. Not gonna happen this year.

Christmas Baking: I definitely take joy in baking and creating stuff in the kitchen, but my success rate has never been good and so I find that I have not been doing it much lately. I think Christmas time is as good enough a time as ever to start again. I’m thinking of cookies and other desserts that I can try my hand at to give out at Christmas time. And if Hunny volunteers to do the dishes, I can be even further motivated!

Christmas Party: I mentioned back in July or so that I wanted to do some kind of housewarming party to celebrate the closing of the “sale” on the house. I’ve made the house a little more inviting with the removal of a lot of clutter and the addition of a new TV, but I have to admit that I am still a little shy about bringing people into my house as I still feel it’s a bit messy and dare I say it, perpetually 汚い? Well, we shall see… I won’t rule it for this holiday season…

Photo Christmas Card: This tops the “most likely to do” list. It was actually Hunny’s idea that we do one this year. We haven’t discussed execution, but we don’t anticipate it being a huge production as I have seen with other people I know. And I think being the  geeks that we are, we probably will do it with iPhoto.

So my hope is that I will at least do one or two things to for the holiday season. My iTunes library has been rechecked with Christmas songs, and so I’m ready to get this season started…

Page Link | Comments (2) | Dec 3, 2008

Worth the weight?

Posted by terri | Filed under chub chub, natsukashii, watashi

I spent my day off alone today, so I figure I might as well do something productive that I can do myself and that of course was cleaning my house, namely my old room.  I am ashamed to say that my old room has not seen a cleaning in more than 10 years.  It has mostly been used for storage of all my stuff.  Up until lately, I’ve been kind of a pack rat, but in my recent housecleaning frenzy, I’ve learned to get rid of stuff — not keeping things just for the littlest sentimental value.  You can imagine that it in 10 years, a lot of stuff accumulates and rummaging through it becomes this wonderful trip down memory lane.  And though there are so many things I could write about for the sake of nostalgia,  I think it’s more appropriate to write about what I realize I need to do for my future.
Read the rest of this entry…

Page Link | Comments (1) | Oct 10, 2008

Is there a doctor in the house?

Posted by terri | Filed under health, watashi

Anyone in my closest circle knows what I fear doing the most: going to the doctor.  I have indeed gone to great lengths throughout my life to avoid going to see one.  It has a lot to do with my self-consciousness and my strong belief that the body can heal itself just fine.  On top of that, my very few experiences with the doctor were rather horrible ones.  It has probably been ten years since the last time.

I can only hold out for so long.

Lately, I’ve been feeling sluggish and fatigued, and what’s worse is that I find myself having trouble concentrating.  Hunny has been telling me time and again to get my thyroid tested as these problems with functioning are symptoms of hypothyroidism.  Seeing how he knows what he knows and reading about it on the internet, I am inclined to believe it.

Though I am nowhere near death’s door, I certainly am feeling a sense of my mortality these days.  And so, the white flag is raised, and I am making the commitment to finally see a doctor.  Hunny has an endocrinologist I can go see, but I also need to make the commitment to find a primary care doctor.  Hunny knows first hand that not all the doctors are the same.  The problem is, I don’t know where to begin in finding a doctor that is right for me.  Best start is my insurance provider, of course, but it still won’t help me narrow it down.

I am open for ideas as I figure this out.  I am so down for feeling better.

Page Link | Comments (2) | Sep 25, 2008

A Happy Birthday.

Posted by terri | Filed under heart, watashi

Wow, it’s been almost 2 months since I last wrote in here.  Maybe I can finally get an entry out today.

I turn 29 today, which starts the countdown to 30.  I was one of those who imagined by the time 30 came around, I would have a lot of my life figured out.  I’d be in a career that I went to college for, going home to a family of my own with a husband and kids.  I guess it was more wishful thinking than an actual plan.  And though I don’t have all those things as of right now, I am still pretty happy with how things are.

I felt like I had a glimpse into my future happiness.  Not really having plans for my birthday today, I took my hunny, my friend and her daughter out to the North Shore to have lunch and wave watch at Sunset Beach.  My friend’s daughter is so wonderfully cute and such a big girl at 3 and half years old compared to when I last saw her when she was a little over a year old.  Interaction with her then could only be so much, but now that she’s so talkative, she’s been such a delight.  And what’s been more delightful was being able to see my hunny interact with her.  They played in the sand, and he still managed to be playful and fun even when she acted a little naughty.

It’s wonderful being with someone so incredibly kind and patient with children as he is with me.  I really feel so lucky to have such a great guy, that I am glad that I didn’t settle just for the sake of having the husband and the kids by age 30.  And though there are other things to think about, I know that I have happy future ahead, even if it doesn’t come in due time.

Page Link | Comments (0) | Sep 17, 2008

Bloo’s Report Card.

Posted by terri | Filed under bloo, watashi

This entry is a several days overdue, but this is Bloo’s first year report card.

Nissan Versa! Nissan Versa!

Bloo is my 2007 Nissan Versa SL Hatchback, which I bought and drove off the lot on July 6, 2007. She was my first brand new car, which I was able to be in debt for afford since I had finally graduated from college. She has been an awesome little car with lots of room and pep contained in her tiny body. I have especially enjoyed the CVT transmission which has made for great power and efficiency up steep hills (took it up Tantalus and it works goood!) and an incredibly smooth ride (which would be sooo much better if the C&C would fix the damn potholes every now and then).

On July 6 of this year, she had about 11,500 miles on her. Gas mileage wasn’t as good as I had hoped it would be. I think at most I get about 29 MPG, but I guess if I coasted more as CVT would allow, I would get better mileage. And aside from the usual maintenance, I only had to make one trip to the dealer. In an earlier entry I complained about how the car wouldn’t start . My hunny took it to the dealer armed with printouts of a bunch of online complaints about the very same problem, and the dealer took care of it by replacing the fuel pump.

I was in love again, but I soon became the neglectful owner. I guess it all started when my car got my first little ding. Someone who parked next to me on the driver’s side pulled out their door a little too much. I’m inclined to believe that it was done in the parking lot near my house, but I guess I can’t prove it. It can be kind of a relief having your first little ding, especially when you’re not the one who caused it, but of course, who am I trying to kid? It’s a sad sight to see. And so my car since then has had less washing and less attention than it did when I first got her. She sort of became a forgotten child when I started working on getting my house fixed up. And unfortunately, the result has been this:

Poor Bloo! Poor Bloo!

Poor Bloo got some gunk on her that a simple car washing weeks later couldn’t take off. Yes, I know I should have taken care of it right away, but instead I let it sort of bake itself on there for several weeks as I was attending to other things as well as jetting off to California. It finally took a trip to City Mill and the purchase of “Krud Kutter” to finally get that taken care of. Well, most of it anyway. I kind of did a half ass job then, too.

I am far from falling out of love with Bloo; she is the best car I could have ever hoped for. I shall rekindle my passion for her once again, I know it.

Page Link | Comments (3) | Jul 11, 2008

Cleaning house.

Posted by terri | Filed under flix, home, watashi

It has been a highly productive 5 days off as I’ve been working on moving stuff into my house while hauling trash out. Over the course of the past year, I’ve been making progress in making my house more livable, despite being back here for about 8 years now. I guess I’ve been motivated as of late due to recent events and am more determined not to have my head in the sand anymore.

My one problem in getting my house cleaned up is finding a reputable company to haul my junk away. I found a lot of ads in Craigslist, but I decided to play it safe and find a more established company. I have decided to go with 1-800-GOT-JUNK.com. I liked the convenience of making my appointment online and also the fact that they attempt to recycle what they haul away. What I am sort of worried about is that they are kind of expensive, but at least they charge by volume instead of by the hour, so it’s a bit more straightforward. They are coming on Monday, and if it is an unfavorable experience, I am bound to vent in here. Hopefully, I’ll be writing a more glowing review instead.
For my last day off today, I went to see a movie with my hunny for the first time in a long time. We made the trek to Dole Cannery so that we could watch WALL∙E on the DLP Projector. I usually don’t care to watch popular movies when they first come out because of the crowds that it attracts, particularly kids’ movies, but I figure it would be a great way to get my hunny out of the house as he had been in and out of the hospital for the past month. As I feared, there were about 50 kids there on a field trip when we got there, and we were forced to sit in the front. It wasn’t too bad because I feel we got to really experience the awesomeness of the DLP or Digital Light Processing Technology they used. It was like seeing a really huge high definition screen. And for the awesome movie that WALL∙E was, it was worth all the minor inconveniences.

A quick review of WALL∙E: the story was rather good but a wee bit on the depressing side, yet the character of WALL∙E really made it heartwarming and enjoyable. With the little dialogue it had, it reminded me of the PIXAR shorts, but with a highly expanded story. It wasn’t my favorite PIXAR movie, which remains to be a tie between last year’s Ratatouille and Finding Nemo.

And now it’s time to go back to work…

Page Link | Comments (0) | Jun 28, 2008

Leaving on a Jet Plane.

Posted by terri | Filed under watashi

Hopefully that plane takes off tomorrow…

Off to the Mothership I go!

Page Link | Comments (0) | Jun 8, 2008