#38 - Purge 101 Things from My Life: Items 1-49

I have to say I'm very proud of myself for this one. I come from a long, decorated line of thoroughbred pack-rats. My people are horders. We horde e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. Because you just never know when you might need that ratty, old towel or those rusted, bent nails. And why throw them out, when there's all this room in the closet/garage/junk drawer? And I'm one of the least clingy in my clan. I could go on and on and on about certain other family members who shall remain nameless, but I won't. You know who you are!

Tonight while Greg was playing (and winning!) poker, I scoured my closets and drawers. Culling clothing! Clothing I've had since high school! I wish I was kidding, but I actually pulled out a dress I wore to take my senior pictures. How sad is that... That dress was over 13 years old! It's time to let go.

So I'm doing it! I'm taking clothes and giving them away to friends and charities. Surely someone can make use of these things I haven't touched in years. And here's what I've thrown out so far:

6 sweaters
7 skirts
12 dresses - twelve!
5 tops
6 bras
4 pairs of jeans
1 hat
3 t-shirts
5 pairs of shorts

Go me! Hopefully I'll have another wave of bravery and conviction soon because it actually feels good to lighten my load.


And may I just say, this was an emotionally difficult job for me, made all the more challenging by a kitty who is obsessed with laying on clothes.



I can't tell you how many times I had to disturb her peace to get at those things she had perched herself upon. But she's pretty cute, right... :)

#54 - Back to Zero

I'm starving and forgot to bring my lunch today. That means my 'no fast food for a month' goal is starting over. Boo!

But the good news is that I haven't broken my month-long daily vitamin trend. Yay me!

#7 - Beat Greg at Darts

I totally should have made this "Beat Greg at Bowling" because I kicked his ass this week-end!

After briefly recovering from an ill-advised home improvement project on Saturday (oy!), we met up with our friends Shawn and Jim at the bowling alley for some double-date friendly competition. I must say the girls completely dominated in the first 2 games. My scores were 136 and 132 - I won both! Then it all went to pot, and I came in dead last with a 92 - more representative of my typical bowling prowess.

But I'm taking this as a good omen. Maybe I should challenge Greg to a game soon in the man cave. He hung the board ages ago, but we haven't used it once. I think it might be time...

#55 - Take a Multivitamin for a Month

Greg and I are getting old(er). And playing soccer isn't helping, especially in the creaky knee department.

We've recently started taking glucosamine tablets in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, these things actually work. To be quite honest, I'm more than a little skeptical - skeptical of the whole vitamin, nutritional supplement and herbal remedy industry that's flourishing today. Its not that I don't believe any of them actually work. Its just that the entire industry is completely unregulated in any way.

(I just erased the beginnings of a long, rambling tirade that I started typing, but I'll spare us all. You can find much better debates on this subject elsewhere...)

The bottom line is that no one really knows whether or not glucosamine (and others) work. And even if they are effective, the tablets we buy at the grocery store may not be in the right form or dosage to be effective. So I guess we're just taking a leap of faith on this one and sticking with the philosophy that it can't hurt to try and hoping for the best.

So since we're taking this horse-pill of a daily supplement, I thought we might as well take a horse-pill of a multivitamin as well. And that's what we're doing - glucosamine and Centrum every day for a month.


We've started about a week ago, but we missed a day so I'm being honest and zeroing out the tally.

As of today, we've taken them two days in a row. I'll try to keep us honest until May 22nd - a full four weeks - at the very least. (I have always been crap at daily anythings so this may be the longest "month" ever...)

#54 - No Fast Food for a Month

Greg and I just watched the movie Fast Food Nation tonight. It's absolutely horrifying. Greg actually read the book a few years ago and was completely traumatized by it. He would always stop and read passages to me because he was just so astounded by the atrocities from every angle of this story - animal cruelty, pollution, workers' rights, disease, contamination, urban sprawl, illegal immigrants, the list goes on and on...

After seeing this movie, now seems as good a time as any to start this task of shunning all fast food from my diet for a month.

In fact, maybe its time to think about that going-vegetarian one too... The slaughter house scenes in the movie are graphic and hard to stomach. Not to mention the implications of working conditions, health- and safety-wise. Yes, I think I've been scarred enough to forgo my assembly-line foods for a while.


If this is a topic that interests you, you may want to check out the Meatrix animations that accompanied the extra features too. I realize they're every bit the emotionally manipulative propaganda machines that any fast-food chain is, but they basically summarize the message of the movie.

(And this reminds me that I've always wanted to read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle too. I'll have to add both of these books to my very long list...)

#7 - Beat Greg at Darts

I'm not going to count this as accomplished, but it's definitely progress...

While in Mississippi visiting Karl & Terry, the whole huge group played a few rounds of "Killer", the dart game where you have to hit your number 3 times to become a "killer" and then you can start knocking points off of other people by hitting their number. If a killer hits a person's number so many times that they go to zero, then they've been killed.

I don't know how this happened, but I totally WON the first game. I killed EVERYONE. Mwaaaahaaahaaaha!

Check out my maniacal, evil smile...

See the dart board? As they bit the dust, I drew them each a picture signifying their untimely demise. Am I a cold-blooded killer or what?

Little Closer to #52

My soccer team WON its first game last night! This is our second season of playing together, and aside from one forfeit, we'd lost every single stinking game. But not last night! We kept it 0-0 until halftime. Then my husband scored! And it was the first time that we were ever actually UP in a game. But that was short-lived. A few minutes later, they equalized so our celebration was cut short.

But then Glenn scored his first goal ever. And my husband scored again! Go, baby, go!

I'm so happy that we've finally WON. But I also had a beautiful opportunity to score. I've finally started to go up into offense positions, and I was in the perfect position last night to knock one in. I stopped the ball right in front of the goal, but it had this weird spin on it, and I was afraid of kicking the crap out of it and hurting the goalie. I'm so annoyed with myself. I could have just dinked it in if I had moved a bit faster. Oh well. Next time!

Progress Report

So you won't think I'm completely slacking on my list, I thought an update was in order.

#2 - Make wedding albums for the moms. I've started going through the 700+ digital pictures, cropping them to standard picture size, adjusting colors, etc, etc. My goal is to finish these in time to give them as Christmas presents, but that is going to be difficult at best...

#6 - Send Christmas cards on time. I've got many done. I'm just verifying addresses and then adding the stamps. Hope to make more progress on this tonight!

#26 - Say hello to the bus drivers. So far I'm succeeding in giving each and every one of them at least a 'hi' when I walk on the bus. Although there is at least one that I find extremely irritating. He's one of those severe sticklers to the rules, bordering on ridiculous at times. He won't allow anyone to stand in the aisle so if every seat is taken, you're shit out of luck. Even if its cold and raining outside and the next bus won't come for another 40 minutes. He actually pulled over the bus one day to march to the very back seat to inform the guy that he couldn't lay down across the seats. Are we back in elementary school because, seriously, that was the last time that happened in my bus-riding experience. Whatever... Everyone else is cool.

#95 - Write a scathing complaint letter to U.S. Airways. I've handed over the bulk of this responsibility to Greg. I unearthed the notes we took during our ordeal - yes, I totally took detailed notes so as not miss a single ridiculous moment. He'll write the letter, and I'll proofread and add in the extra withering condemnations as they come to me. I'll be sure to post it in its entirety when its done. But do yourself a favor and never ever fly with U.S. Airways. EVER!

Hopefully we can wrap up some of these projects in the next week! Wish us luck!

#60 (again)

2 down, 48 to go.
I didn't realize it until just now, but the book I finished last night, Black and Blue, is yet another Oprah Book Club selection. That wasn't intentional, I swear!

Its a very real and poignant story about an abused wife and mother who has finally had enough and disappears with her 12-year-old son. They live in hiding from her NYC cop husband as they both learn to live as a normal family again. Its heart-rending and emotional, and I couldn't put it down. Two thumbs up.

I've now started a memoir called The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls for my second book club that meets in a few weeks. And at this rate, 50 books should be no problem.

#60 Read 50 books

One down, 49 to go.
A few weeks ago, I begrudgingly started this book. I say begrudgingly because when I first scanned the short write-up on amazon.com, I thought Oh God. A book about some bitter divorcee's journey to self-discovery and enlightenment.

I tend to find books like this too self-indulgent and flowery for my tastes. I'm sure it's cathartic for the writer to dive headfirst into their own little world and wallow in it for a good while - I'm guilty of the same thing every now and then, as I'm sure most people are. But I don't necessarily care to wade my way through someone else's fluff. There was also obviously going to be a strong religious element to the book, which I automatically (and prejudicially, I'll admit) equate with being preach-y. (Confession: I have a bit of emotional baggage where preach-y religious types are concerned.) No, thank you.

When my book club selected it for our next discussion, however, I was forced to pick it up. And, honestly, I'm so thankful that I did. I absolutely love it! What's funny is that I was on the phone with my sister last week, and she interupted herself to tell me Oh my God. I'm reading this great book. You have got to check it out. So my sister and I (...and Oprah ...and half of the U.S.) can whole-heartedly recommend it.

There is no preaching or holier-than-thou undertones to this book. There is some self-indulgence, but always tempered with an honest, self-depricating sense of humor. The best word I can think of for this work is 'inspiring'. I won't give away the entire book, but it follows the author as she splits up one year of her life amongst 3 different countries as she's trying to find balance. She basically rides out a premature mid-life crisis in the most amazing, adventurous way possible. I'm more than a little jealous...

Read it! You won't be sorry.

Now I'm on to Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen. I'm actually already halfway through the book because I had started it while waiting my turn to check out Eat, Pray, Love. This one's a goody too, and surprisingly, along the same lines.

#52 Score a soccer goal for my team

No, I did NOT score a goal during tonight's game. But that would be difficult seeing as how I was on defense the entire match. But I have to say, Greg was right. The cleats definitely helped. I'm improving with every game. Somehow I managed to steal the ball a few times and passed it back to our players, rather than the usual blindly desparate kick into dead space. Aside from one guy knocking me on my butt, I think I did a pretty good job. I can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. :)

Next game, its on baby! I'm playing offense, and I'm going to kick some serious arse!

#42 Buy sexy, black FMB's

Wouldn't you know it... My first accomplished task involves buying new shoes.

I found these little babies while shopping with Greg on Sunday. They're by Tahari and were 60% off!



I also bought another pair of shoes on Sunday, but these were at Greg's absolute insistence, believe it or not... We stopped at Academy and bought a pair of Puma cleats for soccer. I swear, he was much more excited about this purchase than I was. But hopefully, they will help me accomplish goal #52, score a soccer goal for my team. We have our 7th match tomorrow. I'll see how much this improves my game. Greg swears they'll transform me into Super Woman.