Whose Leaving?

Ok. I’m feeling a soapbox moment, y’all.

Have you heard or read the news that Oprah is going to retire? Yes, dear readers, it’s true. Not in a couple of months. Oh no. Not in 6 months. Oh no. She is going to retire in 2011. YES. You read that correctly, 2011. In over a year!!!! WHY? Oh WHY? Do I need (or care) to know this piece of news this far in advance? Hum? (scratching head) I wonder if it has anything (ANYTHING) to do with ratings.

Does she need a bump?

I haven’t watched Oprah in years – she is a camera hog. I don’t find her brand of entertainment/religion/self-help very, uh, well . . . helpful. She is just another woman, trying to make a living, and promoting herself and her ideas until the end, either the end of her show or her popularity.

I groaned when I read the news and purposefully have not read anything about it because I don’t want to buy into the media hype. I didn’t go see the movie about Michael Jackson for the same reason. Media hype – which translated means: strike while the money iron is hot.

I do understand how some people might be interested to know all about something as monumental as this – I mean if I had to choose between it or listening to the rantings over the pros and cons of the healthcare bill – I might choose Oprah too. But it is just baby food, folks. I think that is why some in the media feel like we need to the government to guide us into making decisions for us. We watch 6 months of reruns of old Michael Jackson interviews and now we’re suppose to moan and question “what will we do without Oprah?” good grief. No wonder the media considers the viewer/person as an infant or worse- stupid. We seem unable to learn anything or make any kind of decision unless they “tell” us what to think, what to buy, how to vote, who to vote for, how to sneeze into our sleeve, how to run out and get a flu shot before we all die of the swine flu - wait uh, I mean H1N1 …..blah, blah, blah.

Now, I might not have made a logical and coherent argument here – but that was not the point. The point was to get up on MY soapbox and rant until I felt better. And guess what? I did.

So thank you for listening. You’ve been great.
And as my grandson would say, "thankyou.thankyou.thankyouverymuch."

(The author bows, rises, and slowly steps off the box to walk quietly off the stage-the spotlight snaps off and as the curtains close - the author breathes a deep and contented sigh and says to herself, "ahhhhhhhhh, I got THAT off my chest.")

Seriously??

Seriously, I am home again today. It has been a rather irritating couple of months for me here in the Fishbowl. Not because of The Fish mind you, just me and the ol body. I can't seem to get rid of this sinus infection, the headaches, and the general feeling of yuck. I told Tim that if I'm not better in a year - WE'RE MOVING. To ANYWHERE other than here. LOL. I found out from the doctor that this is the 3rd worse area in the US for sinuses and allergies (#1 was St. Louis, MO; #2 was Louisville, KY; and #3 was this area in the Brazos Valley.) So anywhere is looking better than here.

Do you notice the irritation and the negativity oozing from the type-written words?

Well, dear readers, it has been a rough road and I am ready to start feeling better. I'm home today with a horrid cough, a headache, and my back hurts from coughing so much. I'm surprised I still have a job. LOL. So, I am catching up on my blogging, my email, my Farkle score on FaceBook, and I see more drugs and a nap in my future - all before 11:00 am.

Oh and BTW: The Fish's Facebook and Hotmail accounts were hacked into yesterday and the hacker -doofus sent out emails saying that Tim was in London and needed some money to get home. Tim spent most of yesterday making calls to and fielding calls from family, friends, and co-workers telling them that he was ok and that he really didn't need $1500 wired to England to get him home. While it was irritating, God used even a hacker to bring about good. He was able to talk to many people that he may not have talked to before. He enjoyed touching base with old friends and catching up. So, yes, God can use irritating actions of others to bring about good actions in our lives, we just have to have eyes that can see.

Well, I feel my eyes beginning to close, my head starting to shut down - so I'll see you all tomorrow.

Sinuses and Faith

I have had many things on my mind lately but for some reason today I think my sinuses were pressing up against my brain and I couldn’t think of anything. I could only moan and stick my finger in my eye. The cat face said it all – and I posted it on my desk today so people coming into my office would know the kind of mood I was in and not take it personal.

Having said that – I have been thinking about faith over the past few days. Faith is believing in something you cannot see but you know that it’s there. Electricity falls into that category. I can’t see it but I know that when I flip the light switch – it will be there to turn on the lights. Wind also falls into that category – you can’t see it but you see the effects of it.

I choose to have faith in God – I cannot see him but I see the effects of him in the world; birth, flowers, animals, rocks, clouds, space, death, smiles, tears, romance, intelligence, wisdom, character, courage, forgiveness and on and on and on. God could come and end all wars, end all suffering, end all of my worries, end all of the pain – but if he did, what would we learn? Where would our faith be?

Remember the movie A Christmas Story? Remember when Ralphie finally gets his Red Rider BB gun for Christmas and he begins to load it with the bb’s? His dad is sitting on sofa watching him and he begins to mimic the actions that Ralphie needs to do in order for him to load the gun. He doesn’t do it for him. He allows Ralphie to do it himself – but he is there watching, silently encouraging him to load it without spilling the bb’s.

I think God is a lot like that. . . he is watching me, encouraging me to do the hard thing. He wants me to succeed, he wants me to hone my skills and he wants me to remember he is there to help me any time I call his name. Not to swoop in and save – but to hold me up while I continue.

Now if he could just hold my face while I remove these aching sinuses. I have faith that this will end.

Monday Humor

I saw this on Jason's blog and I laughed so hard.... I think I hurt myself. :) So, I thought I would pass the tongue-in-cheek humor along to you. Enjoy.

Day One

Today was the first day of my new way of eating. I don’t know what I expected this day to be like but I have to say that I made some good choices and some poor choices totally based on how I felt. I can also tell that failing to plan is indeed planning to fail.

I did try my fruit smoothie with spinach this morning. It was T-A-S-T-Y. I made a smoothie out of a banana, ice, pineapple, some juice, mixed frozen berries and a small handful of organic spinach. I tried the smoothie before the spinach and then drank it after I added it. It was great! I didn’t notice a bad taste at all – I think if I added more spinach it would’ve altered the flavor more than I could tolerate. I Will make this again tomorrow.

I bombed at lunch. Big time. In fact, I didn’t just bomb – I went to McDonald’s. I didn’t have lunch planned at home and when I got there, I didn’t have much to chose from so – I punted and went for plan B – or plan McD’s. While it filled me up – it really didn’t taste good at all. (which is good)

Dinner: well, I did much better. I didn’t have any bread, I had a good protein, a good carb, and a small carb option…and then I topped it off with a bowl of ice cream. Not a good call but really, really tasty.

So, the lessons for me today, dear reader, are make good choices one meal at a time and don’t beat yourself up when you don’t. It will work itself out with patience and planning.

I’ll let you know how I do tomorrow….ok?

ALCAT

I took a food sensitivity test a few weeks ago and was not sure what I was going to find out. I really thought it was a waste of time because I never thought I had any food allergies or sensitivities. Well, I found out on Thursday that I was wrong. Big Time.

The picture above is an example of what the chart looks like. I am severly (red), moderately (orange) and mildly (yellow) sensitive to several different foods, food additives, food colors, yeasts, glutens, caseins and molds. I think one of the most depressing things is that I am sensitive to most ingredients found in Mexican food. My absolute favorite foods – and I am moderately sensitive to 4 of the main ingredients which explains why I am getting sick after eating them. DUH. But, I have to say, while I am happy to know what is causing some of my health issues – I’m sad that is has to be Mexican food that is one of the culprits.

So, starting Monday, I am beginning a new phase of living. I am looking at a few blogs about health foods, green smoothies, eating fresh/raw food, and learning to be excited about the challenges facing me in the world of food sensitivities.

I am trying a spinach and fruit smoothie tomorrow morning for breakfast and I’ll let you know if I kept it down or not. (wink)

Stickers and Salesmen

It’s Friday here in the Fishbowl and I am up very early, unable to sleep. I think I am anticipating Date Night and the weekend. Tim and I have been very busy for the entire month of September and we have spent many of our “Date Nights” traveling to Fort Worth; however this weekend we are staying put. I wasn’t sure if that was going to be the case because he saw a picture of Alli-gator with stickers all over her body and wanted to go visit and do some baby-holding! She is the perfect size and shape for cuddling and rocking which is a very big draw for two people who love to hold and cuddle babies.

We did decide that we needed to spend the weekend at home which means that we have some things that need to be done. Tim has pulled a section of fence down in the backyard and has begun the repair phase. He repaired another section earlier in the year and now this is another side that had some hurricane and high wind damage. It won’t make the winter without dragging the whole side down.

Tim was out fixing the fence when two guys knocked on our front door. I opened it to a nice guy trying to talk me into putting a security sign out in my front yard. He did all the right things: commented on our lovely yard, asked how did we keep it so green, did we maintain the yard ourselves, etc. He went on to say that “they were in the area picking out nicely groomed yards in which to place their signs. After several schmoozing minutes, he asked if I would be interested. I said that while I appreciated his “sales pitch” but there were two objections: one) I had a problem with his sponsor GE and two) he needed to talk to the big Fish in the back yard who had an even bigger problem with the owner of GE than I did. He was eager to talk to Tim so I sent them to the backyard. (snicker) It was like sending mice to a big cat and I knew he would want to play first. I kept looking out the back door to check on the progress – and they went from standing around to sitting down on the ground chatting like old friends. In a few minutes they would have hammers in their hands and would be helping him. (He has that way about him.) So, I went out side to draw the game to a close – if they had stayed much longer the two guys would have been having dinner with us and we would have been the proud owner of a new home security system!!

It’s just one thing after another here in the Bowl….who knows what will happen this weekend.