Last week was my best week yet, with 17 miles of walking and running, and 30 minutes of intense snow shoveling. That gives me 18 points, bringing my total up to 39.74. I’m not a contender to win, but at least I’m up and moving.
I have a bunch of product reviews to write, but am having motivational issues. It’s vacation and I’m trying not to spend the whole thing sitting at my desk as if I were at work! Now it’s time to go play in the rain…
I made a big fuss out of Christmas when the kids were little, but have steadily cut back over the years, until there are few remaining traditions. I don’t bake, or decorate (not even a tree), or shop. Well, I shop a little, but mostly online. This year I picked up a few items while traveling, but the guys like video games and DVDs, and they are very good about keeping up their Amazon.com wishlists. A couple weeks ago I went to the Amazon.com web site, clicked the mouse a few times, and was done. The problem being the snow that has kept me at home has played havoc with the mail, too. According to the tracking information, the packages should have arrived Monday. They didn’t. One package arrived Tuesday. We were suppose to be at our son’s house in Arlington at 4:30 on Christmas Eve, but when I checked the mailbox at 3:30, the snow was undisturbed. Text messages were flying back and forth, and our son said we should forget about the presents and just come spend time with them. Fortunately, a small avalanche had tumbled out of the pine tree and buried Mr Diva’s car in the driveway, buying me a little extra time! I checked again at 4:00, and there were fresh tracks! I grabbed the mail and headed for the house to shove the remaining gifts into gift bags. I’m a big fan of the gift bag for 2 reasons. The first and most obvious being that I’m profoundly lazy. The other reason is that unlike my mother, I don’t reuse wrapping paper, but we pass gift bags (and the tissue paper) back and forth year after year. So I rushed into the laundry room, where I’d stored the rest of the gifts, and shoved them into bags. I was afraid that Mr Diva would walk in, so I shoved all of his gifts into the dryer!
We had a lovely evening with the kids, and were home by 11:00. I probably should have wrapped Mr Diva’s presents then, but I’m quite the procrastinator. Finally, at 9:00 this morning I decided it was time to pull the gifts out of the dryer and get them ready. Mr Diva finally rolled out of bed around 10:30, and I’m happy to report that he out-procrastinated me! Eventually he finished wrapping my gifts (he used to make the kids do it), and let me come upstairs. We had a nice brunch of whole wheat coconut pancakes with coconut and raspberry syrup and organic eggs. Our one enduring Christmas tradition is that 24 hours of A Christmas Story plays in the background throughout Christmas morning. This morning, the satellite dish was offline, so we listened to Christmas music. As I was putting the pancakes on plates, I heard voices in the living room. Ralphie was going after Scut Farkas. Now it felt like Christmas! To my amazement, Jasmine gave me the gift of not making a fuss while I spent time upstairs. We watched the whole movie twice before I headed back down for doggie duty. Good behavior ended when Mr Diva put the ham in the oven! I’m planning to go back upstairs in a few minutes to have a piece of pumpkin pie while watching Christmas Vacation.
I hope you’ve all been enjoying a happy day with the people and pets you love the most.
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
The Divas are coming to town! Wishing a Merry Christmas, and a joyous Holiday Season to all.
Related posts http://seedivarun.com/blog/oh-fudge-its-that-time-of-year/
I’m happy to report that the doctor did know what he was talking about. The swelling is down, the painful episodes are shorter and less frequent, and open my mouth about 75% of normal without intense pain. I’m done whining for now.
Today was another lazy day, but the novelty wore off. When the temperature climbed into the upper 20s, I decided to go out for another walk. The wind was brutal. The snow pack was uneven, hard in some places, soft in others. I walked the half mile loop that I’ve been running in the evenings, but when I got to the turn around point, the snow gave way to a sheet of ice and before I knew what was happening, I was lying on my back in the middle of the street. That was when I decided to walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes!
Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge Update - I spaced out and forgot to post my points last week. This week I walked and ran for a total of 16.92 miles. I think Amanda did that the first day! My total for the challenge is 11.74 miles of running, 19 miles of walking and 30 minutes of yoga, for 31.74 points. I’m afraid I’m busting the challenge instead of my bootie!
This morning I woke up and discovered that the side of my face was swollen, and I could barely open my mouth. At 9 I got a call from the dentist’s office, informing me that they weren’t going to be open today, because of the snow. I started to panic, because I was pretty sure that something was wrong, and needed to be looked at. She offered to have him call in a prescription for antibiotics. I’m a big fan of antibiotics when I know I have an infection, but I don’t want to take them without a diagnosis. I suggested that maybe I should see my doctor instead. I called my doctor’s office and learned that my doctor wasn’t in, but there was a doctor who could see me at 10. I also learned that if this problem was dental, my insurance would not pay for the visit.
The doctor examined my jaw and asked about my stress level. He also asked if I grind my teeth. I don’t. Then he announced that I seemed to have inflammation in my jaw muscles and that I need to take anti-inflammatories. When I tried to explain about the problem I had last month, he just shrugged his shoulders and told me my choices were to take them or suffer. At this point I was almost in tears from pain, so the addition of stress didn’t do me a lot of good. He also told me to eat soft food, before he kicked me out of the room. I guess the good news is that since it was my jaw, I don’t have to pay for the office call, too. I must admit, I’m not feeling a lot of love for the medical profession at the moment, either. So I came home, rubbed more orajel on it, and cried when the pain was unbearable. Other times I jumped up and down, or paced. I have no idea why that helps, but I guess it is a distraction. Tonight I went out for a run in the 24 degree air. That actually cleared all of the pain until I came in and warmed up.
Rumor has it that there are doctors out there who actually try to ease pain, but I haven’t met one lately. Instead they make me feel like I’m being a big whiner for going to see them in the first place. I have no clue what to do next, except of course suffer. I didn’t mean to offend him, but it has only been a month since a different doctor from the same clinic told me not to take NSAIDs. And now I’m being a big whiner here, too, so I’ll shut up about that and talk about running!
It was much colder tonight — with temperatures in the low 20s. Instead of being slushy, tonight the snow had been packed hard by the cars that drove over it. Because of the cold weather, I opted to go with my Nike jacket over a long sleeved shirt, with the Mizuno gloves and my Hind running pants. After 2 miles, I had to take the jacket off and run in just the shirt! The neighbors were already looking at me like I was crazy. Now they just wanted to know if I was cold. I wasn’t. The Triax shoes continued to give good traction while keeping my feet warm and dry, and the Mizuno gloves were too warm when combined with the extra-long sleeves of the jacket. Who would have guessed that anything could be too warm at 24F! It’s been a fun adventure for 2 nights, and I’d like to try a couple more snow runs, but I’ll be happy when the weather returns to normal!
