Ants and cat poop and catching up from being sick

Been feeling stressed out lately. I'm super grateful it's been busy at work! Being off sick for 2 1/2 days put me behind, and I had a trip to Reno planned for the weekend so I just had to leave a big pile of stuff for myself to do for Monday morning, and it's never fun to come in to a bunch of leftover work that I wanted to have had done by the time I left on Friday. You play, you pay. Well, you get sick, you pay. So as I said, I'm extremely grateful for being busy, considering the alternative. I just wish after working until 6 or 7 every night last week, I didn't THEN have to come home to swarms of ants and a pile of cat poop in front of the water cooler. My 16-year-old Zaphod, feline wonder of the universe, is stressed out from the ants too as they keep attacking his food, so he has taken to leaving poop in front of the cooler. Okay, he's stressed out and old. So the latest ritual is I get home, and the first hour after I get home, I can't even relax since I have to clean up poop and kill ants. It's sure an appetite killer! I haven't been eating until late. This past weekend, I spent a really fun couple of days in Reno, starting the mini-break by enjoying a great visit and meal with dear friends Ken and Kathleen. I saved up all my Flexpoints (that's the 1750 calories I get to spend however I want during the week, if I want to indulge a little) for the Friday night meal, and enjoyed myself. We had a great visit. When I got there, the thunder storm was just dissipating, so the setting sun formed a beaming ark of rays shooting through the clouds in the sky above Ken and Kathleen's home. Walking out behind their acre of property to have a look at the sage and sandy dirt, there was a double rainbow, and it stayed there a LONG time. After dinner and a great chat with Kathleen, we went out to look at the night sky, and I looked up and immediately saw a shooting star. It was a great greeting from nature and enjoyable way to start the weekend. I felt blessed!

I woke up early Saturday morning and went for a nice 45 minute jog/walk- early enough to beat the Reno heat. That was my first run after being sick, so I could only get in about 16 minutes of actual running as my stamina needs rebuilding, but it was a great time anyway. I tell you, Beck's Guero is THE best exercise CD for me of late!. I have a fancy new Sony Sports CD walkman that also has a radio that plays TV stations! It locks closed, you hold it over your hand with a strap and it absolutely does NOT skip! It makes it so easy to just take off and work up a nice rhythm. I got back to Fitzgeralds, showered, and then spent a few hours playing penny and nickel slots. Around 3 I had lunch....I ordered pancakes and hash browns and had the waiter bring a "To Go" container with the meal and packed up most of the food before I even ate my lunch. So I only ate one pancake and 1/2 a cup of hash browns and packed the other 2 pancakes and hash browns and had them for dinner. Only went 4 points over my allotment for the day, which isn't bad for a vacation day! Before going back to gamble more, I took a walk to Walgreen's for some beauty supplies and cash back to avoid the $4.00 ATM fee. Kicked it at the hotel then headed out and had a blast till 1.30 am! I got up Sunday morning and did my Pilates, too! I bought a Pilates For Dummies DVD a while back, and I LOVE it...I don't have my laptop yet, so I don't have a way to play the DVD on the road, so I just brought the list of chapter selections, and since I know all the poses from the DVD I just did them on my own. I was so proud of myself. You'd think that would motivate me to continue to eat well....but I kind of took the cork out of the dam and shoveled it in on Sunday on the way home with Shannon, and more after I got home. The Baked Lays Cheddar Sour Cream chips were TOO damned good. Damn you Shannon for turning me on to them! We bought them to share, but I had to apologize to Shan since I got kind of carried away with them! I don't buy things with which I cannot control the volume of intake. I mean, if I know I'm going to get in trouble with something, I don't buy it. If I do, I make sure the I have enough points in my daily or weekly eating to cover eating the whole bag, because that's what is going to happen. So as a result, rarely do I buy chips! I mean, I can make ANYTHING into a red light food. I can overindulge on good stuff just like I used to on bad. I KNOW, I KNOW, 1 indulgent day doesn't ruin 6 good ones... but WHY do I do that? Why do I work so hard and just let it all go sometimes? Shan and I stopped at a convenience store in Davis and I was looking at the baked goods and cookies near the counter. Not to buy of course, just once in a while I pick up a food that I used to just buy and eat without thinking, just to see what I was doing to myself. One large chocolate chip cookie I looked at, it had to be 7 or 8" across. Salad plate size...it was 640 calories and 32 grams of fat. Isn't that CRAZY???? Oh MAN I saw a guy in the casino that weighed at least 500 pounds or so. It made me feel so sad, but it also made me feel sleek and lithe...when he lit up a cigarette, I wanted to cry. I feel so far away from that kind of self-abuse. And I'm glad it's in the rearview mirror. I'm sorry for his state of health, but grateful to the universe for reminding me how far I've come.

Needless to say, I got right back up the horse today...came home to another steaming pile from Zaphod and scout ants everywhere, including in the brand new batch of dry cat food we bought Zaphod after the other one got infested. I didn't tell Rob to leave it in the original bag that ziplocks closed, and he thought he was being nice by putting it in the cat food storage bin. Sweet, but....the bastard ants got in there again. We have an exterminator coming tomorrow morning at 8 to spray finally, so the stress now is packing a bunch of stuff up under all the sinks, taking up throw rugs and getting the pets ready so I can take them with me to work in the morning. They have to be out of the house for a couple hours after the dude sprays, but I'm gonna keep them out until I'm done with work. It'll be a fun adventure.

DANG I didn't expect to be writing this much! It's such a thrill to have this forum to let it all out. At the very least, it makes me accountable to ME. Alright. I'm going to go unpack from the weekend, tidy, clean up more ants and get ready for The Mighty Bug Killer tomorrow. Breathing in deeply and breathing out slowly. August is National Katherine A. Davis Appreciation month...so I'm happy it's here. Alright, it's just my birthday month, and the month before the big September Pearl Jam tour and the NINE count 'em NINE shows I'm get to see. I'm going to have a busy busy month staying on top of things at work so I can feel free to enjoy my shows! Hell, I'm going to enjoy them no matter what, it's just the days I'm home in September, I'm gonna have to work my ass off. The more I stay on top of it in August, the less opportunity for my brain to turn to a mess of gelatinous goo at work the following month. Damn, is that me worrying about things in advance? No, it couldn't be. I'm just planning ahead for the work ahead of me, yeah, that's it.

Breathe in deeply, breathe out slowly.