Friday, April 29, 2011

sometimes ya gotta lose 'til ya win

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me. I've been meaning to post, but couldn't really come up with anything exciting, that anyone would really want to read, but then felt guilty for letting my public down. So here I am! Just kidding. I really don't take myself that seriously.

My brother got home last Wednesday. It was surreal watching him walk through the airport, almost like it was a dream. We were (and still are) so happy to have him home. Every day we hear a new story about his time in Mexico. Since he was gone for two years, I think we'll be hearing stories for quite some time. It's weird and awesome to hear him speak Spanish so easily. I love it when he answers a question in Spanish without meaning to or says things in Spanish because he can't think of how to say it in English. It just tells me how immersed he was and how seriously he took it. I learn new phrases here and there. So far I can say "How do I look?" and I know what he's saying when he says several popular phrases. At this rate, I'll be fluent in about 80 years.

I still can't seem to figure out how to work the unemployment system, which has been extremely frustrating. I hate that I have even bothered to try collecting because it's caused me many a headache and I'm not gaining anything from it. If anything, I just feel like it's causing me to age quicker. I get the run-around and then get pissed, but still don't get a check. It's really stupid. I need to find a job and then I might just call and tell those unemployment people what they can do with the money that I never got. I need to stop. I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it.

I finally got back to working out this week. I haven't wanted to, but I've forced myself to go to body sculpt and to run this past week. Now I just need to keep it up. I'm having a hard time remembering that I've already paid to run a marathon in six months. That might seem like a long time, but I am no where near ready and fear that I won't get there. Talk about needing to buckle down!

With not being the best of moods the last couple of days, I did realize a thing or two. It has become glaringly obvious that running and serving others is just plain good for me. When I run, I can do nothing but concentrate on the task at hand and how I'm going to get myself back home. Whether I'm telling myself that I need to wait just a little bit longer before taking a break to walk or making sure that I don't roll my ankle and re-injure it, I don't have room to think about anything else that's going on in my life. Not even if I try to! That is comforting and has lasting affects. By the time I make it home, all I can think about is how I just survived a near-death experience. You would think that that would help motivate me to go every day. Maybe someday it will.

Serving others takes you outside yourself, too. It could just be the simple fact that I'm busy and, therefore, don't have time to think about myself. Regardless, it does help and I should remember that more often. Yesterday there was a quick lesson in that. Then, tonday, there were a couple of opportunities to think about someone else and they lasted much longer. Needless to say, I am better for it. I feel a little selfish, even, because I am fairly certain that I benefitted more than the "recipients." Funny how that works.

And I simply can't get enough of the Royal Wedding. I don't forsee getting tired of it anytime soon, either. I just think that they are so cute together and am mesmerized every time I see some sort of story about them on TV. I've seen all the best parts of the wedding festivities at least 10 times each, but I just keep watching. And I am in love with her dress. I have long loved the dress that Kimberly Williams wore in Father of the Bride (the 90's version with Steve Martin, of course), but I think I have just found a new dream dress. Oddly enough, they are sort of similar. Sort of. Do you think she'd let me borrow it? I'd probably have to start dieting and really working out right now!

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