stupid ice storm

I've been here at my parents' house in C-ville for the past couple days. The electricity has been off most of the day today and it has SUCKED. So I slept to pass the time.

I'm getting my car worked on. I hate being without a car. I hate even more paying to get my car fixed.

On tonight's agenda: contemplating suicide.

Not really. Don't send the fucking cops over here or something.

Last weekend, let's just say I had some "issues" with my car that are basically straightened out now. Poor little Reba Nell has a hole where someone decided to bust my front bumper and not let me know about it. So, I have to be out $250 (and that's just my deductible) to get her all patched up. Granted, I could be like all those other people who don't get their wrecked cars fixed, but seeing as how my car is the only tangible thing I own, I kind of like to keep her looking sharp. Now, the reason I said "contemplating suicide" is that I have a hard enough time paying all of my bills as is. Throw in an extra $250 expense and we begin to have a much more serious problem. I could wait until I get my tax refund back, but that's my Vegas1 money. So I'm just going to have to cut even more corners than usual for the next month or two so that I can pay for these repairs.

But now I'm seriously freaking out about money. I'm trying to figure out which bills to pay when in order for me to have the most money available out of tomorrow's paycheck to get my car fixed. With me doing this, my rent is going to be barely on time for the next two months, if not longer. This will leave less money for me to spend on food than usual, and I can forget about leaving the house because I won't be able to afford the gas to go anywhere but to work. I've really not been wanting to go back to school because...well, I just don't want to...but I'm starting to think I may have to in order to get people to take my degree seriously. I can't even get a fucking internship!

Ugh, okay. Enough complaining. It's time to go to bed. I have to get up in the morning to go get my tags renewed. (Another wonderful unexpected expense.)

1My Vegas money is not gambling money as one might think. This refers to the money I have to spend this year in order to finally go see Bette Midler, the love of my life, live in concert. Plus all the Bette-related merchandise I will be purchasing while I'm there...

I wonder if she was like that lady with the fried egg on her head.

I was at Walmart earlier picking up some dishwashing tablets. As usual, I went through the U-Scan, waiting behind this tiny little lady who was bordering on old. As she finished her transaction, the machine said, "Thank you for shopping at Walmart." The lady said, "You're welcome."

I need some serious help with my blog. I want to give it a little more of my personality, but I'm not really sure what to add. Considering my personality is largely unoriginal, I seem to be stuck. Even the title I chose is a little blah. I've always said that if I ever published a book of essays, I would call it Ramblings of an Ignorant Soul. That title might even work for a memoir. But I came up with the title in high school and I am beginning to feel that I've outgrown it. Or maybe I'm just tired of it. I'm not really sure anymore.

I'm doing really well with this eating healthier thing. I did my bi-monthly grocery shopping on Sunday and bought tons of fresh produce, and I even made chicken noodle soup from scratch. I haven't actually tried it yet (it's in the freezer for later consumption), but I plan on taking it to work for lunch tomorrow. I also have an avocado that I'll be trying in the next few days. Yum.

Not much to talk about, although the last few days have been pretty full. I've been FINALLY working on the scrapbook of my sister's wedding stuff (fourteen months later), and today I have plans with two different people for the evening. It's going to be a long night.

Fleetwood Mac's spring tour has been up on Ticketmaster for some time, but there are only a handful of dates, none of which go west of the Mississippi or south of Illinois. Surely to god there will be more shows. I have to go see them this time!

Somebody read my MFing blog!

I just saw an ad online that said, "A diet is fine until you get hungry." That pretty much sums up my diet experience of the past week.

The plan originally was to do a juice fast, but I knew I couldn't go from 1800+ calories a day to subsisiting only on juice. I thought I'd cut down on food while gradually adding more fruit and vegetable juices into my diet, then hopefully by the end of a week do a two or three day juice fast as sort of a cleanse exercise. I was doing pretty well until yesterday, when I actually got hungry. Five days. Arg! Anyway, now there's no stopping me. I'm back to getting headaches when I go too long without eating and the dull hum that I felt in my stomach while doing bananas, smoothies, and tuna as a diet has now increased to a mild roar. Like a Simba roar. You're familiar with The Lion King, don't deny it.

Thanks to a trustworthy source (Mister D), this afternoon I found out about a book that I think could work for me. It's called Food Matters by Mark Bittman. He's also written a few other cookbooks, like How to Cook Everything. I looked for it at Waldenbooks at the mall earlier but had no luck. (That would have worked out well for me though. I still had a $30 gift card to spend and would have loved to have used it there. It was just a general gift card to the mall itself, so I went to FYE instead. Got a B-52s CD, Death Becomes Her - which I still only had on VHS - and a Dancing With the Stars Latin dance workout DVD. Part of my whole weight loss goal for this month.) I'll look for the Bittman book at Joseph-Beth after work tomorrow, although I can't buy it until after I get paid again. One thing that I know I can do to help my diet, though, is start buying whole wheat pastas and breads instead of what I buy now. Apparently quinoa is a great grain to incorporate into your diet, but I've only had it once and wasn't impressed by it. Then again I don't like plain noodles without sauce either. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Now I'm off to make some spaghetti. (What?! It's been four hours since I've eaten!) After that I still have time to do the Dancing With the Stars thing. I can't believe it's only 7:00. This has been a long fucking day.

And in my spare time, I kill animals.

I rang in the New Year with friends at Lynagh's Pub watching Fifth on the Floor play. If you live in Lexington and have never heard of this band, find them. They are awesome. Always put on a good show.

I've started trying to log my calories burned and consumed on fitday.com. So far, it seems like I'm burning more than I am consuming (I've cut down my food intake quite a bit over the past four days). I hope I can actually lose some weight. Something that I thought was really funny though was the fact that listed under "home activities" is "butchering animals." It would be bad enough if someone was indeed using their at-home leisure time to slaughter animals. But even so, why would you log that on your activities tracker?