‘Till we Meet Again
Filed under: Challenge of the Month,Flavor,Glitter,Glow,Goals,Main,Reflections on July 27, 2011

Dear beloved readers,

As you know, I took the month of July off of blogging, as I knew it was going to be a very busy month at work.  I had hoped that during this time, I would “blog ahead” some posts, such as the décor posts or my book reviews.

That didn’t happen. 

The truth is, I really love my job. 

I wave at the building when I’m not there – seriously! 

I love my boss.  I MISS her when she’s not there.

I love what I do.  I am stimulated intellectually, creatively, you name it. 

And because of that, I have not had any urge to blog. 

That doesn’t mean that I don’t love you guys anymore – quite the opposite!  It just means that I need some time away, some undefined time, until I feel like blogging again.

I have a lot to say – it’s not a content issue at all.

It’s more about me focusing my energy on my career right now.  I have finally found the perfect match:  the right job AND the right company.

I am also stepping down from the Ohio Blogging Association.  I started it when I was unemployed.  I just don’t have the energy for that anymore either.  I’m so proud of what the team has done.  Huge shout-outs to Alicia, Rachel, and Katie.  I have told them that I’ll support them from the sidelines.

I do post frequently on my Facebook page, which is here.  I almost always carry my status updates from my personal page over to that.  I hope you’ll follow me there to keep up.

Also, I will still Tweet, @purtyinorange.

This isn’t goodbye, as I’m sure I’ll be back here and there.  It’s just to say:

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for caring.

Thank you for reading.

Thank you for commenting.

Thank you for sharing your world with me.

Thank you for allowing me to share mine with you.

 

Love,

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Bloggy Break
Filed under: Challenge of the Month,Flavor,Glitter,Glow,Goals,Main,Reflections on July 4, 2011

Hi all,spacer

This month is going to be killer at work, and I know I won’t have any time to blog. So I’m taking the month of July off. 

1.  There won’t be a July Challenge of the Month.  We’ll resume those in August.  The winner of June’s Challenge of the Month is Miss Laura of Absolut(ly) Fit!  Go Laura!  This is her second win this year.

2.  If you would like to guest post, just email me at angela[at]prettyinorange[dot]com. 

3.  This is the first real break I’ve taken in the 5 years I’ve been blogging.  I think I deserve it spacer

I’ll see you guys in August.  It’s really not that far away at all!

Love to all of you!

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3 Comments


Thoughtful Thursday: The View from Here, pt I
Filed under: Glow,Main on May 26, 2011

I have realized, over the last few months, that I am looking at life from a different angle:  The angle of being 40 in a mere 289 days.

:: pause for hyperventilation ::

After I had lunch with Steph and Dana last month, we sat around and discussed this age that we are at now.  And I revealed to them what I had sadly accepted:

We’re no longer the 20 year olds we once were.  We weren’t the up-and-comers anymore.  We were past our prime child-bearing years, which, even when you don’t want to have kids like me, you still treasure being in that class.  There is a true difference in choosing to not have kids and being too old to have the choice.

I think we all look fabulous – no one ever guesses our real ages – but our eyes don’t shine with innocence anymore.  We KNOW things, things we didn’t think about when we were in our 20s.  We’ve gone from thinking we could change the world into hoping to just make a difference where we can. 

I wrote about that part on Facebook last night:


I was reading something a 24-26 year old wrote about wanting to change the world. I was there once, too. Now I feel as though everything happens for a reason and we are all here for a brief moment and only see a tiny part of it. Now I see the Why Not, rather than just the Why. I choose to be water and flow around the rocks instead of hitting them.

There was a time in my life when I thought if anyone ever bought me a vacuum cleaner for my birthday or Christmas, I would have to kill them.  Now I appreciate such things. 

I hear myself saying things that were said to me:

You’re so young.

In my day…(the worst!)

This was before you were born…

How did I get here?  Because it seems impossible.  Everything you were ever told about time moving faster the older you get is TRUE.  And everything that people say about not changing as much on the inside as you do on the outside is true. 

My mother is 79 and she will tell you that she still feels like a young girl inside – it’s only in the mirror that she sees the truth.

There are wonderful and amazing advantages to being this age.  I just with that I could go back and do things again, with the clarity I have now.  It seems so unfair that we gain knowledge as we grow older, when we could have used that knowledge so much better as a younger version. 

I see myself being fine with letting the younger folk worry about things that I’ve worried about and let go.  Let them have that.  I don’t need it.

I see myself looking at people half my age and thinking, you just have no clue how that will change when you hit the next decade.

And yet, I still remember what it felt like the day I graduated from high school, the day my parents dropped me off at college, the day I went to my first college party, and the summers I stayed on campus.    On the flip side, I remember turning 35 and thinking that I had been so wrong when I was 16:  I thought that adults had it all figured out and I just had to wait for that time. 

Not so much.

The problems just change.

I appreciate the freedom that this age has afforded me – I really let go of a lot of my insecurities when in my 30s.  And that is an amazing, wonderful gift.  I guess that is a fair trade, but not being the ingenue any longer.

Love,

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8 Comments


Mayday
Filed under: Glow,Main on May 9, 2011

So, had I been on the ball, I was going to post this ‘Mayday,” which is a call for help, on “May Day,” which is the first day of May.

But we’re on May 9th.  Pretend that it’s May 1st and that you find me amusing.

Anyway, May 1 was my new Day 1.  If you have ever tried to lose weight, you know that Day 1 is the first day of The Diet.  What Diet?  Whatever Diet you are into at the moment.

My Day 1 was different, as I did more than just try to start The Diet. 

The Background

First of all, lemme ‘splain. I have put on about 40 lbs since returning to work, as I’ve mentioned before.  I didn’t need to gain weight.  I was not one of those people who was told, “You’re getting to thin.”  In fact, I don’t think I’ve heard that in about 20 years, if I’ve heard it at all.

No, I added 40lbs to a body that was already burdened with excess weight. 

Of course, I didn’t do it “on purpose.”  I didn’t walk around saying, sheesh, if I could just GAIN weight!  But I didn’t do anything to stop it.

I was passive with my weight.  I have been for most of my years. 

Sure, during the two years I was off, I worked out, I ate right…and I never lost a pound.  But I didn’t gain any, either. 

I haven’t worked out since…November?  I started eating out again.  I started eating more than I should.

And then I realized that my clothes weren’t fitting.  But I didn’t change anything.

And then I realized that the stairs were getting harder and harder to go up.  And I didn’t do anything.

I started having heartburn on a regular basis.  And I didn’t do anything.

Do you know what finally motivated me?  What my wakeup call was?

Dunh –dunh – DUNH

It was Bob.  It was something that I finally made him admit to me.  It was something that I forced out of him. 

It was that, while he was still in love with me and still attracted to me, the attraction was less than what it was when we first met.

And I know that he loves me.  I know that we are in this until death do us part.  Even without a marriage license, we are together.  We are committed.  And yes, I sometimes romanticize it to myself that we are even more committed than married people, because we are together because we want to be, not because we are legally bound.

But to know that he had lost some of the lust that he has had for me all along, well, that was the kick to the head that I needed. 

Before you get upset

I’m not upset at him for saying that – I am not thrilled with my body right now, either. 

What’s funny (or not) is that I felt that I owed Bob a better, healthier me. Would I have found the strength to do it for myself?   I don’t know.  Should I beat myself up right this minute for wanting to be better for him and not doing it just for me?  No.

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Now what?

Like a good general, I marshaled my troops together in order to create a support group.  All of you are part of the larger support group, of course.  But I have another one in which I’m posting more intimate details. 

And…

1. I will be working with my friend, Chef Jenny Mrkobrad, who will be preparing raw lunches for me every 2 weeks.

2. I will be working with Jen Wampler, who is a massage therapist/Reiki healer. If this is based in emotional crappola, then she will work it out of me. I’m seeing her every two weeks.

3. I’m determined to get back to the gym and I’ve told Bob that he needs to come with me sometimes.

4. I’ve already given up pop and iced coffee drinks, as they were annoying my ulcer.

Okay, this is a long post.  I will be back another day with more updates.

Hugs to all!

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2 Comments


Lovely Saturday
Filed under: Glow,Main on April 17, 2011

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have lunch with these lovely ladies:

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Me, Dana, and Steph

I know that you have seen Steph on here before.  Steph, Dana and I went to college together.  Steph and I are the same age and Dana is a year younger.  After college, we lived together for awhile.  I love these girls.  spacer

I look at this picture, and I don’t see us as the nearly-40 year old ladies we are.  I still see the girls we were in school.  I can still remember when we lived together in a flat and then a townhouse. 

Of course now, we all are very busy.  Steph and I live in the same city, so it’s easier for us to get together.  When I was off, I could meet her for lunch more often.  Now that I’m working, we will have to find other ways to get together.  Dana, however, lives 3 hours away and this was the first time in 6 years and we were in the same place.  I have truly missed her. 

We committed to doing this at least once per quarter.  I can’t wait to spend more time with them.

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1 Comment


Saturday Funnies
Filed under: Glow,Main on April 16, 2011

First off, I really appreciate all of the wonderful comments on my last post.  They warmed my heart.  spacer

I wanted to share a couple of items that tickled my funny bone. 

First off, for all of my running friends:

And this makes me laugh every single time:

Hope you are having a great weekend!

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3 Comments


The Truth Is…
Filed under: Glow,Main on April 11, 2011
  • I really, really love my job. 
  • I really, really love my boss.
  • I really, really love the rest of my team.
  • I think May will be the start of a more regular schedule where I can get back to a blogging schedule.
  • I really, really love Bob. 
  • I love Callie, my new bike.  I’ll do a review on her soon.
  • As much as I love my job, working in general is not as great for my health.  To wit, I have gained 40 lbs since November, which is when I started at the temp job. 
  • I am sad that I dropped all of my good habits when I went back to work.
  • I haven’t been to the gym more than twice this year so far.
  • I eat out for lunch every day.  And for breakfast every day.
  • I started drinking soda pop again.
  • However, my ulcer has been acting up and I can’t handle soda pop or iced coffee anymore.  I consider this to be a good thing, as I needed to give them up anyway.
  • I need some help, and I am  lucky enough to be able to hire a certain wonderful raw chef to help me out.  I know that she will help me get ahead and then I have the tools to keep it going.
  • I’m not going to start with her until May, though, as I am still in the restaurants for a couple more shifts until after next week and then we have huge meetings the following week. 
  • I still choose happiness. 
  • And I still love you.

 

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13 Comments


Going Back to Zero
Filed under: Glow,Main on March 27, 2011

I’ve been tossing this theory around in my head (and probably someone else has come up with it already). 

There was a time in my life that I was not overweight.

Really, I was fine in college.  I just didn’t have the self-esteem at the time. 

Really, I was fine in high school.  I just wasn’t as tiny as everyone else was.

Really, I was fine in junior high.  See high school. 

Really, I was fine in grade school.  See high school.

I love Yoga and I want to keep doing it.  The classes and my level of exhaustion are not meshing right now.  I still want to go, but I can’t always be ready at a specific time. 

I started thinking about what kept me in shape when I was younger.  And what did I enjoy doing?

It’s not walking, as I hated that even when I was a child, even when I was in high school.  It was better in college, as it just became something you did.  But I seldom choose it as an exercise. 

When I was in elementary school, I often had to walk home, because my mom made me. LOL.  I hated it.  And I looked it up to see the distance.  Do you know what it was?  0.7 miles.  Granted, I was much shorter then, so my legs were shorter, and yeah…I hated it.

But I did love to ride my bike.  And in that spirit, I bought this baby today:

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You knew it would be orange, right?

This is the Electra Townie.  I have named her Callie.  I went and tested out a version of her at the store today and it was a perfect fit.  I had to order her, because of course they did not keep the orange in stock (WHEN will people realize that it’s the best color ever?!?!?)  So I get her in a week or so, which is fine, because Ohio has at least one more good snow coming.

I also bought a ton of accessories, because you know that I love that part of any new activity.  I have my bike rack for the car (as I will need to take the bike places to ride it), my helmet, my lights, my mirror, and all sorts of things. 

I’ll keep you posted as to when I get going on it.  spacer

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6 Comments


RBoC of Catching Up
Filed under: Glow,Main on March 23, 2011
  • Sorry for such a long time away, folks.  Life has been very, very busy.
  • That doesn’t meant that I don’t love ya’ll.
  • But I do feel so removed from the blog world at the moment, because I haven’t had time to read any blogs, let alone write any.
  • I hope that all of you are okay.  If I’ve missed a big moment in your life, I apologize.   And I would love it if you would tell me about it either in the comments or through email.
  • Work is great.  Busy, but great. 
  • Bob and I are great.  He has quit his job and is playing househusband.  I want him to play houseboy, though, and wear a skimpy outfit as he cooks and cleans for me.
  • I am thrilled that I was asked into Amazon’s Vine Program.
    • Amazon Vine™ is a program that enables a select group of Amazon customers to post opinions about new and pre-release items to help their fellow customers make educated purchase decisions. Customers are invited to become Amazon Vine™ Voices based on the trust they have earned in the Amazon community for writing accurate and insightful reviews. Amazon provides Amazon Vine™ members with free copies of products that have been submitted to the program by vendors. Amazon does not influence the opinions of Amazon Vine™ members, nor do we modify or edit their reviews.
  • I’m hoping that I can get back into my blogging schedule soon.  I miss it.
  • Here’s a dorky picture of me with the new hair – I’ve mentioned that I’m not photogenic, right?

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  • The Challenge of the Month is going really well.   I am excited to share with you more insights.
  • NEXT MONTH’S CHALLENGE – You will need to have a pedometer. They’re cheap and easily found on Amazon.
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6 Comments


My 39th Birthday
Filed under: Glow
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