Hooray! The Kindle is Mine!

Two words: Love it.

Two more words: Thanks, Target.

I Ran Today and Lived to Tell

In an effort to not be a total bummer on this blog, here's an update that's slightly positive.

The only exercise I have been getting is my weekly 1/2 hour ride so I'm determined to do more. Last week I took 15 minutes out of my work day to walk around the block at lunch. It felt good to move around some. Since today is Saturday and I was up at the crack of dawn, I went out for a walk along one of my old routes.

I had no intention of running. Really. Running and me? We don't normally mix. I was striding along at my normal, "I'm exercising" walking pace when a bug decided that it was going to come along with me. It was flying in my hair, bumping into me, and generally being disgusting and annoying. Flapping my arms around like an idiot to shoo it away didn't discourage the bug. It kept with me. My only choice was to pick up the pace and run.

The good news is that I didn't burst a lung. I actually felt like I had the lung capacity to run albeit very slowly and for a very short distance.

The bad news is that my legs didn't agree with my lungs. They felt that the running idea was a very, very bad one. My brain convinced them to keep going for a while because bug infested hair was the alternative.

Bottom line? I ran a bit and lived to tell.

Oh, the bug (or one of its kin) caught up with me when I had to start walking again. I told myself that the arm flapping was the upper body equivalent of the run. So there. I did a bug-assisted total body workout. Who needs a personal trainer.

Six Months Later ...

The last six months have been pretty bad in my world.

T got seriously ill in late March and I had to make the decision to have him put down. I know it was the right thing to do. He was not going to get better and prolonging his life would have only drawn out the inevitable. I had the vet put him to sleep on April 1, his 28th birthday.

In early March, I had to go to the emergency room because I was having chest pain, numbness in my left arm, shortness of breath and lightheadedness. I thought I was going to pass out driving home from work. It totally freaked me out because I was going 70 miles an hour on the freeway at the time. Ultimately, it was a problem with my thyroid medication combined with too much stress rather than a heart attack which was a very good thing. I'm grateful for that, believe me, but still.

My job has been my own personal purgatory since I started it in February 2009 and I've had no luck finding a new one.

My life feels out of my control and I don't like it.

But really, I do have some control.

I can have some fun. To that end, I've started riding again.

I can limit my work days to ten hours a day.

I can watch my diet, limit caffeine and exercise to reduce stress.

I can start a Freedom Fund - saving six months worth of expenses so I never have to be held hostage at a lousy job.

I can really start looking at career options so I can do work that interesting, rewarding and makes a difference.

And I can write about all this on this blog.