100 things we should know

Yesterday I spent more time at the car dealership waiting for the last recall and leafed through that same Great Lakes Living magazine with the 100 things we should already know article. I tried to find it and post a link but all I got were the answers. Anyway, I read through them again and realized that there were a bunch of them I didn't have a clue about. It got me wondering who made up this list. If it were me I would have had more grammar and spelling items but that's my pet peeve. I was amazed at how much sports trivia was on there which I could care less about. I know there are all kinds of buffs out there - sports buffs, science buffs, movie buffs, history and geography buffs,etc. If you asked each one of these people to come up with a list of 5-10 things, you'd have over 100 but would they really be essential to our everyday living? The article stated 100 things...but have forgotten and I have never learned who won each of the sports championships for the past 10 years. I also don't need to recall Pi to the 4th number past the decimal (most of the people I know don't even know the first).I also haven't used the formula to change Centigrade into Fahrenheit in quite awhile but I know the freezing and boiling points of each.I enjoy movies but which James Bond movies star Sean Connery and which star Roger Moore wouldn't be my top priority. I guess my concern is we need a list of things that really matter or something to shoot for that has some real time significance to us all. Maybe I'll even work on that one myself.

First Week

Well, one week into my retirement and I've learned a few things about myself and my routines and/or habits. By the way, I still haven't developed most of those habits I had hoped for but I'm not too concerned about them. Being on a new diet this week turned out to be a smart move. I needed a change in routine to jump start me and this worked. I have noticed that when I get tired, the cravings, especially for chocolate, have kicked in. Of course, that box of Romolo candy sitting on the table that my husband got me for our anniversary isn't helping much. It's not allowed in step 1 so I informed him we'll break it out in step 2. As far as my exercise goes, there's been up and downs with that and I'm still working on a good system. I was in some pain using the weights and now that that's over, I'll work on a schedule and increase the weights, slowly. I've been very productive with the cleaning and even plan on some painting this week. It's helped to have a goal for myself - that being this weekend for most of the cleaning. After that, we'll see what happens.

Procrastination

I accomplished something really great yesterday. I finally put up the rest of my apple decorations in my kitchen - talk about procrastination! I had some of this stuff up before I had my kitchen redone but during construction, I had it tucked away in the bedroom. I even accumulated more since that time but never got around to putting it all up. I've looked at it several times over the years and thought it was too big of a job to start now. I guess my attitude of no more excuses has finally sunk in cause yesterday there wasn't a hesitation whatsoever - pulled that stuff out and got to it. Getting that monkey off my back felt wonderful! Knowing that we might not be here more than a couple years influenced me - get a chance to look at it a little before it's sold. I was able to hone up on my tool skills by using the drill and I have to admit, it looks pretty good. Of course, I employed my husband and his skills and advise - he's always encouraging. Man, I'm ready for my next project.

Spell Check

I've always had a thing about spelling and also a pet peeve about misspelled words, especially at the school where I worked. I don't profess to be a great speller but, before spell check on the computer, I would always look up words in the dictionary if I wasn't sure about their spelling. It amazed me that college students could put misspelled words on bulletin boards for all to see, even parents. Evidently no one was proof reading. It came to mind again yesterday as I was waiting for my car to be fixed and leafing through a magazine. Included in the top 100 things we should know was the difference among there, they're and their, or homophones as they're called. These are words that sound the same but have different meanings. Spell check is useless with homophones because it only picks up on misspelled words and these may be spelled correctly but used incorrectly. There lies the problem! As much as we love our computers, they are not the end all. We still need people to teach us and proof read. Anyway, I think I have those homophones down pat but there were a bunch of other things on that list that I didn't know.

Cute clothes

I took a day off to go shopping with my friend, MB, and as hard as I tried to find those glitzy flip-flops, I couldn't do it. Maybe in time I'll find something that suits my need for practicality but yesterday wasn't it. I did find a cute pair of brown leather sandals among others at Easy Spirit, my favorite shoe store. MB and I noticed a few things during our shopping trip - the cuteness of clothes diminishes as the sizes go up and we could tell the target age of customers at a store by the sleeves on tops. We like cute!!! I'm not just talking design but colors, patterns and choice of fabric. A few stores did very well in including larger sizes in the same styles but others didn't. To clarify, I'm not talking plus sizes here, those were from a different planet. I can more so understand the sleeveless styles, based on what I've read that the more skin you show, the younger you look. That quick glance into the store saved us some time and trouble. Despite all this, we managed to find some cute things in our size, enjoy a wonderful day together and even have frozen yogurt for our afternoon snack!

Good Workout

I had the best workout with weights in weeks, I guess. If I can't remember when the last time was then I knew I better take it easy. I have plans tomorrow and I certainly didn't want to be sore. This was a workout that I've done many times before but a condensed version, only 30 minutes. One of my goals was to increase my workout to an hour. This was the first of those strength workouts and I had to be very careful not to overdo it. I hear people saying that modification is not an option if you're serious but that's exactly what I did. I can't imagine how I would have felt had I not modified since as it was I shook all over when I was done. That tells me that I used all those muscles and it really felt good! I'm keeping a journal of all my workouts including specific DVD, time and actual weights used. I'll take it easy for a couple weeks, then pump it up to really feel the burn.

Habits

Yesterday I talked about making lists but I'm hoping some of those things will turn into habits over the next few weeks. Habits are supposed to develop by doing something consistently for at least 20 days. It's the best way to get that routine in place so things happen naturally. I've been pretty good so far especially with getting up at 6 am and exercising but I have to work on a few more. I guess it has to be balanced with some spontaneity, too. During retirement I want to keep that attitude of "what the heck, let's do it" but not lounging around not getting anything constructive done. Hey, so far so good!