delara, interrupted

It's really hard for me to brag. It's something I'm practicing, but it is still overwhelmingly difficult. And besides that, there are a lot of things irking me right now. In fact, I could echo Steve's "boo blog" and add about 20 more things. But... I am also practicing focusing on the positive in my world and being a joyful being. (Joyfulness is my Virtue Reflections Card for this week.) And so...

Here are some things in my personal life about which I feel proud recently:

I have FINALLY gotten back into my workout routine. Yay me! I have succeeded in meeting my goals for working out for the past 3 weeks now, and I love it. I'm one of those weird people who really ENJOYS going to the gym - I love the way I feel after working out, love the way my muscles and body feel while I'm weight training, and definitely love sitting in the sauna for 10-15 minutes after I'm done with my routine. Mmmm... love that heat. The only thing I don't particularly love is doing cardio exercise at the gym. I'd MUCH rather hit a bike trail, or kayak for a few hours on the lake, or hike through the hills, or do some cardio kickboxing. Nevertheless, goals = met, and I'm happy about that.

Along with being back in the swing of things with exercise, I am loving what I'm eating these days. Just made some egg salad yesterday (super yum!) and feasted on ghormeh sabsi and rice earlier this week. Most excellent. Although I still eat a little sugar here and there, it's in moderation and I'm ok with that. I'm eating tons of fruits and veggies and spirulina protein shakes and all kinds of nuts and whole grains. And so, if I have a cookie every now and then, or if I bake my own organic chocolate cake, or if I bake an apple pie, I will eat it. Balance and moderation feel good for my body. If I feel like I'm denying myself something, then I just want it more. So, none of that. I eat what makes sense for me. Just no dairy, still. Boo...

Finally, I have not used a plastic OR paper bag when grocery shopping, running errands or anything else for the past 2 months. It was my Earth Day pledge to myself - to use canvas shopping bags or not use a bag at all (like when buying only 1 or 2 things small enough to carry or put into my purse). It's pretty cool. And this is, of course, in addition to recycling just about anything I can get my hands on. I even took on recycling cardboard and newspapers from work. (Long story why our store doesn't recycle - mostly having to do with the property owner of the mall being too cheap to pay for a recycling dumpster like most of the other stores have in this area.) It's a great feeling to know that, at least for my small part, I'm leaving as light a footprint as possible on this earth.

And, of course, there have been many internally-oriented successes - speaking up when something at work was NOT working for me and attracting my perfect workplace, placing spiritual principles at the center of my actions, learning daily what it means to be in relationship with Steve and attracting greater love, being accountable for my actions, etc. I am recognizing the abundance that surrounds me and is because of me. And so, it's all good.

Posted by Delara at 05:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Seven random things about me that you'll probably wish you never knew:

1. (Andrew just learned this when we visited Kansas City.) When I eat M&Ms, the left side of my mouth has to chew the same number of each color as the right side of my mouth. Whacky, but true. Yum.

2. I love playing with the skin that crinkles up in little folds at the knuckle and elbow. I think when I was a kid, I played with my mom's hands a lot. I loved her hands - still do. They're beautiful, and they are ALWAYS super soft. When I was little, I especially liked that there were these folds of skin at her knuckles and elbow. Fun.

3. I am very, very afraid of "what's lurking outside" our living room windows at night. To alleviate this feeling, we purchased some thick curtains to hang in front of the rattan blinds (that minimally block the view into our house from outside) so that I would not constantly wonder what might be peering into our home while we sit on the sofa at night. Yikes.

4. I definitely favor even numbers over odd numbers. I like symmetry, and I like even numbers. EXCEPT for the number 3, which is a magical number to me. I don't know why it's magical, I just know I like threes when it comes to organizing, decorating or designing things. Maybe there was a cool promo for the number three on a Sesame Street episode I saw as a child. "This show has been brought to you by... the number three." Yay!

5. I am a lotion freak. I love putting on lotion - especially expensive, luxurious lotions - everywhere. We're going to keep this blog post PG, so suffice it to say that there is rarely a square inch of skin that does not receive lotion each morning before I get dressed. Smooooth.

6. Baby/toddler toes are *THE* cutest things in the world to me. Seriously.

7. Ok, this one is really about Steve, but I know he would dream of including this in his list once I tag him. So, I'm going to include it here as my number seven. It sort of involves me anyway. No, it's not about sex. For the past couple of months, I have awoken at night to the sound of knuckles cracking. It's the oddest thing - Steve will sort of sleepily wake up and just start cracking each and every one of his knuckles. ALL OF THEM!!! Gah! And then he'll do this thing where he clears his nose by blowing a little and pinching with his fingers. Crazy. He'll finally fall back asleep, but in the meantime, he has woken me up with annoying noises. And I'm not typically irritated by noises (not as much as I am by weird smells) but c'mon! Knuckles cracking?!?? Stop!

That's my fab 7 list of randomness. Thanks, Sonia, for the tag. :)

Now, since I prefer even numbers, I'm only tagging four people. Deal with it.

Here are my four tag-ees: Steve, Sarah, Myk (can't wait to read that list!), and Greg. Do it.

Posted by Delara at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

I want... the television and radio and internet people to STOP broadcasting anything about Paris Hilton because it's everywhere and I just couldn't care less! I can't find a single channel that isn't saying something about her right now. Ack!

Posted by Delara at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

number of "heroes" episodes watched: 22

items on my universe list: 11 (12 if you count kayaks as 2)

days apart from steve: 16

times I sat down to blog and nothing came to mind: 17

photos posted to flickr: 305

email messages sent: 80

email messages received and read (not including spam or ads): 155

days worked at the store: 20

days spent in kansas city: 4.5

journal entries: 15

photos taken: 200+

garages cleaned: 1

books read: 2

CDs purchased: 3

iced grande white mochas made: 287 (yeah, we have reports that tell us these things)

slices of raspberry swirl loaf cake sold: 54

slices of raspberry swirl loaf cake consumed by me: 5

phone calls to mom: 10

movies watched in the theater: 1 (so sad...)

movies watched at home: 4

times I thought of what it would be like to live in Alaska: 0

Posted by Delara at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)