Baggie clothes and Norwegian fjords

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I'm back...

Feeling better...it is truly amazing how powerful a healthy diet is.  Once you cut the red meat, simple carbs, and well all things good and tasty it leaves...well...not much. You never get that..."oh my God I am full and want to take a nap," feeling instead it is..."meh, I'm done."  I feel lighter.  My clothes are baggie.  It it is exciting I am actually looking forward to going to the doctor and getting weighed.  I know that had to sound funny...it felt strange to type that. We will find out the good news on Tuesday.

Next week my students will be turning in their very first essays.  It is a long painful process to grade them.  With 168 kids and my OCD urges to give them complete feedback as budding historical writers it takes me forever. Grades will be due in a few day after I take them up.  I know rocking planning.  I solemnly swear to do better next six weeks.  I know that I will not be seeing the light of day next weekend...only essays on the survival techniques of Cabeza de Vaca.  Pretty exciting.  The first 50 essays sound unique and I hang on their every word.  The last 118 I barely remember.

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My cousin decided to open an Ancestry.com membership. I love her for letting us help her research.  After looking at the old family tree I found some exciting stuff.

1. My Great, Great, Great Grandfather was the editor of a Scandinavian Newspaper in Chicago.  Apparently writing is in my blood. 
2. I am one quarter Norwegian.  This possibly explains my terribly white skin. Here I was thinking that there was a strong possibility I was part vampire. 
3. It is very addictive once you start it is tough to stop.  Ancestry makes you feel a bit like a treasure hunter.  Be aware!

Now I can't stop looking all the beautiful pictures of Norway.  I want to go...it is amazing.

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Pretty sure you have to agree.  

I have the best news ever...I have started writing again. 

This morning I propped the back door was open and the dogs were chasing each other inside and out I read and edited my work in progress....the book.  By the time they had calmed into their morning nap I was writing.  It felt great...and painful all at the same time.  I was struck by the flow...it would hit in small spurts.  I know it will get stronger.  The key is practice. 1,000 words this morning and I will commit to another 1,000 words tonight.  It will be done.  

GRAW...really it wasn't my stomach

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I have been teaching about Woolly Mammoths for the last couple of days.  I love this part of history, it is like American Pickers but there is always that chance that the treasure could be in your own backyard. It all feeds my obsession with t-rexes...and my strange desire to have one in my foyer...oh yeah and I want a foyer.

I have been absent from my dear blog.

It has been several days since I wrote.  I have had several big life changing things occur this week.  I was diagnosed with a "large" gall stone sitting in the neck of my gall bladder.  Until this week I didn't know that my gall bladder had a neck.  Every time I eat something with fat or tough to digest my gall bladder releases bile and it pushes this "large" stone, grinding it into the soft tissue of the neck.  Which I have to say hurts like you wouldn't believe.  Irritating news, but not life changing.  Means that I will have to consume minimal fats and watch those hard to digest foods. Pretty sure the surgeon will suggest surgery...I am fine with it.  I'm not a fan of pain.

A few days later I learned that I have type 2 diabetes. Irritating, not surprising.  I am a bit of a chubby bunny. I have an appointment to start "working on" my diagnoses.  Until then I have to watch my carbs and sugars.  So if you are keeping a list that means no fat,  no carbs, no "tough to digest foods," and no sugar.  The list of foods that remain...not so exciting.  The great news...in three weeks I have lost 20 pounds.  So basically I rock.

If the doctor had one of those frequent customer cards I would have a pocket full of free visits saved up.  Between all of this the pneumonia and the blood clot there has been a lot going on.

I spend a ton of time trying to figure out what I can eat.  Chicken is my saving grace.  I consume more veggies than I thought possible.  I feel hungry...and am grumpy most days but I feel better.  Lighter.  I am excited about the fast purging of weight.  It has me looking at all those exciting summer clothes I will be wearing.  In between the calorie counting, the recipe searching, working 60 hours a week...my writing has suffered.  All of it.

I feel like I am coming out of the other side.  I think I am finding my balance.  My friends at work have been super encouraging and helpful.  They always seem to be there when I need them, even when I don't ask... they help.  It is what they do.

I have a super stack of papers I have been avoiding all week.  Stupid essay test. Then there is that WIP it has so much dust I am not even sure I remember what it is about. Better jump back into the balance.... deuces.
  

Reflect

"No day shall erase the memory that you were here."  

Read with me

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Shush the wind.  

It blows too loud. 

Read with me, and sit a while.

The story started as all greats do...

Once upon a time in a far away land. 

Take a breath.

Slip into the world in your mind. 

There was a prince and a fair maiden...

They were back in time.

Don't rush.

Savor each delicious verb.

Let them simmer in the inner recesses and paint wildly

verbose images.

Read with me, and sit a while.  

Just one line

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Ink Paper Pen has offered up a great challenge for this Write on Wednesday...one liners.  At first my mind went to those lines that drunk men feel are super clever when they are posted up at the bar and you are trying to get you a drink.  That isn't what they are talking about. These are sentences that are stripped of all excess.  They represent you in the moment, for the day or in my case it is for the last decade.

When my Grandmother passed away I had a extremely difficult time. To cheer me up the family let me pick the video to rent. I got Across the Universe.  When the song Let it Be came on I wept.  Not one of those "this is touching I got a tear," but one of those ugly cries where the song stopped and I was still sobbing.  I  got the CD and played it for a three months.  It was my drive to work and my drive home.  It was my letting go and letting be.  The phrase and the song tell me that bad things happen but we aren't alone and that through it all the love remains.

My one liner...

Let it be.

End of the World as we know it

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Monday I was feeling good, refreshed.  I stopped at QT my favorite way to start the day with a fresh ice tea and a smile.  I happen to be on "e" and thought I would go all out and fill up the tank of the swagger wagon.  I got the pump going and was headed inside...eye on the prize in the form of a delish ice tea.  I got two steps from the truck and a sweet innocent looking lady shouted...well said with force, "Ms." I turned to see what was going on.  Worried she was going to inform me that my pants were torn or the truck tire was flat.  Instead she smiled. She handed me a piece of paper, "Have a blessed day."  I thought well there you go it is official it is going to be an great day.

I got my amazing ice tea and hopped back into the truck on the road again.  When traffic got rough I thought about that paper she handed me took it out to see what little positive message she was giving out.  Across the  cover was "The End is Near."  Not exactly what I was thinking.  The inside was filled with inspiring messages of doom and destruction.

She might have been right.  It has been a rough week medically.  With the constant leg cramps, headaches, the asthma, the lack of sleep and then yesterday found out I have gallstones.  I give up.

My friend always tells her students, "You got to try a little."  Pretty sure she is right.  I did slow down the health craze effort after the chubby summer, and my mom moved in.  It is so easy to go with the flow of old habits and sweet cakes.  I have to make a change or will slowly continue to fall apart.  Time is tight now...so this effort will have to be in the form of diet.  Not starve and hope for the best.   But I will be smart.  I will try a little this time to make a change that will make a difference.

I have to google...and put it to paper.  It will work.  I hope.