Tag

Okay, this is the first time I've responded to this type of tag (where you talk all about yourself). I used to make fun of these and the e-mail forwards I would get that were a similar idea. I pretty much thought I was WAY too cool to waste my time forwarding this to all my friends. But now as I sit here and try to do this tag I realize that I have the opposite problem. I am not cool enough. Oh well, Kara this one's for you. Any time you tell me how funny I am, I'll do your tags. Flattery goes a long way with me. Here goes:

3 joys: MARIN moments top this list by a long shot, ice cream, the feeling I have when I get done with a long, hard workout.

3 fears: getting a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, spiders, that I may have to waitress again someday

3 goals: get my flower pots planted (today), to have polite children, to teach at a university someday!!!

3 current obsessions/collections: (collections... seriously?) Okay, I am currently obsessed with my yard/garden, finding a new swimming suit (this is SO hard!), and trying to think of a third thing I am obsessed with.

3 random surprising facts about yourself: Sorry Kara, I do not have a paw print birthmark behind my ear like my sister Avree. Let's see... random.... oh, I like to pick my nose. Well, not the actual picking, but I need to have my nose clean at all times or I go nuts. Second, I actually enjoy being a "housewife". I put a lot of effort and money into 7 years of college education to get my degrees and become good at my profession, but after all of that I would rather be home with Marin. I'm totally old-school... I cook dinner every night, I plant flowers, I have a garden, I like my house to be clean, I make jam, etc. Okay, that was such a long one, it counted as 2. I'm done with this tag.

Just a little FYI for everyone. I REFUSE to do that "A to Z" tag so don't ask. No amount of flattery will change my mind Kara. It is boycotted by me because the LAMEST question I have ever heard in my life is included in it, which is "X-rays or ultrasounds?" Are you kidding me? I know "X" is a hard letter to start a question with, but that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Shame on whoever composed that tag! Well Miss Marin is taking all the pens apart in my desk while I sit and type so I better wrap this up before I have a gigantic ink mess on my hands!

Shopping Cart Lady

Val, this posting is mostly for you. In the town where I live there is this woman who my friends and I affectionately call "shopping cart lady" because when the weather is warm you can always see her sprinting wildly down ** North, a fairly busy street, pushing a shopping cart around 10:00 a.m. My friend Val has really studied her, having lived on ** North street for a few years. I also passed her quite a few times, as that street was on my way to work. Val even got a few pictures of this lady with her cell phone once. She's obviously a little loopy (shopping cart lady, not Val), and hopefully not homeless. Anyway, to sit and watch her is quite a treat. She stops to cool herself off every so often and dumps an entire water bottle on her head. Well, get this, she showed up at my gym this morning. She came walking in with her hair and top sopping wet (she must have just dumped the water bottle) and sat down at the stationary bike. I really noticed her because as she pedaled she was wildly flailing her arms and head back and forth. I was trying not to stare but it was hard not to! She did it for at least 20 minutes. It sort of reminded me of that episode of "Friends" when Rachel goes running with Phoebe in the park and flails her arms all around while she's running. Anyway, so I finished my workout and was heading out of the parking lot. She was standing on the corner with a whole bunch of bags around her (minus the shopping cart strangely) and she was kind of wiggling around and pulling at something on her shirt. I noticed something slipping down her legs and realized it was her SPORTS BRA! She was taking off her sports bra on the corner of Main Street!!! I didn't put it together that this was shopping cart lady until I was relating this story to Mitch. He suggested it was her and I put it together and it all made so much more sense! So maybe shopping cart lady has given up running and taken up cycling!

I just swimming!

Marin has always loved bath time, but lately it's become an obsession. She would stay in there for hours if I'd let her, I'm not exaggerating. Her main entertainment is the conversations she has with some spongy bath dolls my mom gave her. I need to record it, it's hilarious. Today she had been in the bathtub for probably 1/2 hour and I left for a second to answer the phone and when I got back she was on her tummy. When I asked what she was doing, she said "I just swimming!"

Addendum to Below Posting

I am now accepting donations for a home gym. No, I didn't have any more embarrassing moments. I've been accident-free since last week! It was something worse. . . much worse. I was finished with my cardio workout and I ran into the locker room to put my headphones and water bottle away and BAM!!! There was a completely naked lady standing right in front of me! Who does that at the gym?! At least wear a towel, geez!! Of course, I was awkward about it. It caught me off guard so I audibly sucked in my breath and very conspicuously averted my eyes. How is one supposed to react in this situation anyway? I was not on the swim team or a high school football player (where my husband informs me they walked around naked in the locker room all the time and it wasn't a bit awkward) so this situation is foreign to me. I recovered from that and lifted weights for awhile. When I came back there was ANOTHER naked lady! I reacted in the same awkward way. It was traumatic. Anyway, like I said, I'm accepting donations to build a home gym, where no one will see if my pants happen to get sucked off by my treadmill (yes, this really happened to someone recently) and I will never, ever see a naked lady walking around.

Gym Rat

Okay, so to preface this story I have to admit, I'm a bit of a clutz. I've always struggled with the whole coordination thing. I'm not really great at any sports (luckily my husband is great at all of them so my kids may have a chance), P.E. was always a nightmare for me during school, and I even struggle with small mechanical-type actions that require hand-eye coordination-- yes, I was the only person at my CPR class last night who couldn't get the whole head-tilt, chin-lift thing down while administering mouth-to-mouth (hope you don't go into cardiac arrest in my presence)!

I've been working out at a gym here for the last year. I'm not one of those pretty gym girls, I'm the one in my husband's T shirt and basketball shorts who is drenched in sweat and looks like death when I'm done. This week has not been a great one for me in the clutziness area as far as the gym goes. I have had quite a few little embarrassing moments with no one to share them with (except strangers who pretend like nothing happened) and things like that are so much more funny when you are able to share... so laugh with me friends, while I list my accidents at the gym just from this week:

1) I finished working on a cross-trainer type machine and was cleaning it off. The foot pedal things were slowly falling to balance themselves and my shin got in the way. It knocked me backward and my shin was bleeding and has a huge bump and bruise on it now.

2) I dropped my water bottle near someone else's elliptical. The person next to me wasn't going to pause their work-out for anything, and when I bent down to retrieve my water bottle I got a little too close and was whacked by their arm bar thing. Don't worry, no permanent injuries there.

Keep in mind, #3-#7 all happened just this morning.

3) I walked away from my machine with the headphones still plugged in and on my head. Instead of pulling the headphones out of their plug, it jerked my head backward.

4) Right after that, I tripped on my own machine

5) Shortly after that I tripped on yet another machine, but got my shoe stuck and it came all the way off. So I had to bend down and put my shoe back on while treadmillers politely pretended to look the other way.

6) Then I was trying to adjust the height of a weight machine seat and the pin slipped out and the whole seat crashed to the bottom level and made a very loud noise (again, fellow gymmers politely looked away).

7) To top it all off, I shut my jacket in my car door.

I was going to attempt the workout ball this week but I have decided against it. I am picturing all sorts of messes I could get myself into with that one. If this has amused you, and you want a real doozy please see my post from 2007 titled "My most embarrassing moment up to this point" which relates a little spill I had in Tai Pan Trading the day after Christmas.

Welcome to the world. . .

. . .Spencer Jay Ethington! My sister's baby boy was born this morning, weighing in at 9 lbs 5 oz (her husband's fault, he was an 11 lb baby and big babies run in his family). No, he's not wearing a furry hat, that is his hair! I got to hold him at the hospital tonight and he is the cutest little chubby-cheeked boy I've ever seen! I love him already. Congrats to the Ethingtons!

Pet Peeves

Is it legal to make up your own tag? I know that tags must start somewhere, right? Why not with me? I want to start my own because I'm interested to see how many people will actually take me up on it, and I am also interested in their answers (specifically Stef's, so don't let me down). My tag is titled "Pet Peeves" and I am wondering what people's top 5 pet peeves are. I will start with my own, in no particular order. Here goes:

1) When people ride their bike in the middle of traffic as if they are driving a car. Don't get me wrong, I do support riding a bike as a form of transportation, BUT.... in Logan, I seem to always get stuck behind some some bozo who is going 15 mph right down the middle of the road. They usually signal with their arms and I respect the coordination it takes to do that, but it doesn't make up for the fact that there are 10 cars behind them waiting for them to move over. If you are one of these people and I have offended you, I am sorry, but it needed to be said.

2) Self-proclaimed "nutrition experts"-- I know there are people out there who know a ton about nutrition who aren't dietitians. I just wonder why I picked one of the only professions out there in which random people tell you how good they are at your job, with no formal training.

3) This goes along with #2. When people tell me what they eat. I know this sounds weird, but it happens more than you would think (fellow dietitian bloggers, please back me up on this). The scenario is always something like this. "Oh, you're a dietitian? I am such a horrible eater! Guess what I just ate?" or "So you're a dietitian? I'm actually a bit of a health expert myself *chuckle, chuckle* (see #2). I usually make myself a breakfast shake with flaxseed, blueberries, beta-carotene, lycopene, protein powder, fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, garlic, and [insert every other supplement or health food known to man] for breakfast. Is that healthy?" Nurses at the hospital seem particularly prone to this.

4) When people tell me about their dreams, especially really long ones that have nothing to do with me.

5) People eating breakfast cereal. I don't care what kind it is, it totally grosses me out to see people eat cereal-- especially really soggy stuff. My husband has this same issue so we can't eat breakfast together if we're eating cereal... I'm serious, it bugs me THAT bad.

Okay, I'm on a roll now and don't feel inclined to stop at 5. Here's a few more that I just need to put out there:

6) When people mis-spell the word "you're".

7) The word "lover." I hate this word more than I can express. I get a cold shiver down my spine whenever I hear it. Mitch says it often just to drive me nuts!

Okay, that's enough. I know this posting is a little negative, but keep in mind it's all in fun. I think you can learn a lot about a person by hearing what drives them insane. I'm counting on you, my fellow bloggers, to take me up on this and do my "Pet Peeve" tag. And in advance, I'm warning you that I don't want any comments like "Gee, I just don't have any pet peeves." Everyone does. I tag EVERYONE WHO READS THIS!!! (But especially Avree, Ashlee, Stef, Melinda,Val, Nicole, and Christine because I think they actually read my blog on a regular basis).