The bleak mid-winter

Hello, I have decided that winter sucks. Or at least THIS winter does, with its unrelenting gloom and damp. I know there are much colder temperatures and snow and whatnot elsewhere, but for reals y'all, I can only take so many days of grey skies and temps barely above freezing and cold cold cold rain/drizzle/mist before I start to go all Jack Torrance on your collective asses. I guess we had ONE sunny day this month because I took a photo of it but apart from that it's been SAD city up in here, and also ALLERGIES. Bleh.

I am combating the cabin fever with books, specifically the series known as A Song of Ice and Fire written by one George R. R. Martin. I'm determined to read the whole thing right through and have all five (so far) books finished by the time the TV show starts back up again in April. That might sound do-able unless you know that (a) I am the world's slowest reader and (b) each book is like 48,000 pages long. But whatever, it's not like I have any other hobbies.

(I've been assured by those who know that upon finishing the fifth book I'll suddenly feel compelled to write Mr. Martin VERY strongly worded letters explaining that he IS TOO my bitch and should write faster, perhaps mailing hardcopies of pages to me one by one as he knocks out the sixth book, but that's just crazy talk. I don't even know his mailing address.)

In other January news, the Ohio State Buckeyes football team gave my dad a National Championship for his birthday, so that was nice. Nutrition school is moving right along and getting more awesome by the day. I've started working out again, and meditating again, and taking photos again when I'm not reading. But I'm usually reading. Or napping. Or sneezing.

Yeah. That's about it. Wake me when the temperature is higher than my age. Or better yet, my dad's age.

Ever desireless, one can see the mystery

I'm trying a new thing, y'all. It's called mindfulness meditation and it's going great except for the part where I keep thinking about mindfulness meditation -- you know, just in general, and about how great it is and whatever -- when I'm supposed to be BEING MINDFUL, oh the irony. Like I will be washing dishes, which Thich Nhat Hanh says you're supposed to do mindfully, as in you are giving your full attention to the dishes you're washing and living in the moment and not thinking about what you need to do after that or how your meeting tomorrow is going to go or any of that stuff, and instead I'm thinking, "Hey! I'm washing the dishes! I should do this MINDFULLY because mindfulness is awesome. Yep. Mindfulness! I sure do love me some of that. How do people not know about this mindfulness thing?!" And then I break a glass because I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing.

I kid you not, I was ruminating on mindfulness today and while doing so I accidentally took a second dose of probiotics because I WASN'T PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT I WAS DOING, aka BEING MINDFUL. I know. I obviously have a lot of work to do here, people.

Anyhoo, it's the first day of school and H is a freshly minted high school junior and I'm sitting by the phone today because she is feeling poorly, argh. We're thinking/hoping she's just hella allergic and not actually sick, but boy howdy, how much does that suck for my poor girl, feeling like crap on the first day of school? I hope she makes it through the day okay. Only two hours to go.

Speaking of school, I am officially enrolled in health coaching/nutrition school! YES! I am so freaking excited. Classes start on September 15th and I get certified on September 8th of next year. This is something I have wanted for months and months and monthsandmonthsandmonths. I had a momentary freakout over studying and tests and whatnot, seeing as I haven't done any of that for *cough* 26 years *cough*, but I got over that pretty quickly and now I am almost literally vibrating with excitement. Can. Not. WAIT. For classes to start.

Otherwise we're just trying to survive the heat ovah heah. I have been reading stuff: The Giver, because it's H's favorite book and I'd never read it; Tana French's Faithful Place, the third book in her Dublin Murder Squad series which is FABULOUS; a bunch of mindfulness meditation stuff -- Thich Nhat Hanh and Pema Chodron and Jon Kabat-Zinn -- and I'm pretty sure Kate Atkinson's Life After Life is up next, fiction-wise.

And watching stuff: The Strain has grown on me and now I'm all in, Rectify had a good second season, The Bridge is pretty awesome as well, and I think I like The Knick, maybe? Falling Skies is still SUPER STUPID and I probably won't watch next season. Cannot WAIT for the final season of Sons of Anarchy, the new season of American Horror Story, and for The Walking Dead to start back up. Oh, and Doctor Who! LOVE LOVE LOVE Peter Capaldi as The Doctor. LOVE. Nine was always "my" Doctor but I think Twelve might be my new favorite. As long as they don't write him too silly.

In other news, P and I saw Guardians of the Galaxy the other night and it was great fun, and I have a new favorite non-alcoholic beer: Buckler! Yeah. They serve it at the Alamo and it's pretty good, y'all. I like it even better than Clausthaler.

Maybe I should drink like ten of them and try to meditate again? I downloaded a timer app for my phone and everything! Now I just need an app that turns off my brain. Oy.