Things I Learned in Oklahoma

1) No matter how much a woman thinks she has hinted at getting certain types of presents, the only way a man will actually know, without a doubt, that getting things will not get him in any kind of trouble, is for a woman to TELL a man what she wants.

2) It is possible to buy a 2600 square foot home with four bedrooms, three full baths and a second floor game room for $219,000, brand new in Oklahoma. In five years, chances are the house will still be worth $219,000 and will most definitely still be in Oklahoma.

3) The coastal states have the best produce. Oklahoma is not a coastal state.

4) It's kind of nice when a minister opens an NBA game with prayer.

5) It's rather odd when Christmas isn't at my house, and, thus, all about me, but it is quite survivable.

6) I don't suck at jenga.

7) There is traffic in Oklahoma, especially on the two days before and after Christmas when people are populating the malls to excessive proportions.

8) In Oklahoma, teenagers rebel against their families by becoming Texas fans, but almost everyone roots for the Dallas Cowboys.

9) Family comes in all shapes, sizes, colors and legal varieties.

10) I can spend seven days in a row with WG and still not get sick of him :Þ.

I Can Tell I'm Getting Saner, Because...

This morning on the way to work, I cracked myself up when I thought of making brownies tonight for the potluck at work tomorrow. There is no way in the coldest, most frozen, ice-skating solid, version of hell, that I would be able to get that done tonight. And I realized that! Nine hours before "tonight." Good for me.

I am not yet packed for my trip to the corral, and the mere thought of all I have yet to do is not making my chest hurt in strange ways.

I realized that, though I thought I had finished my wrapping, I had not actually wrapped the new bowls I got for my cat's food and water. These will remain unwrapped, as I am sane enough to realize that the cat does not care that I got him new bowls, let alone whether or not he gets to unwrap them (though he has been having an insanely good time bounding into the living room and pouncing on any ribbon he might find).

WG informed me that we are not seated together on the plane. After visiting the airline's website and discovering that, indeed, there are no free seats left on the flights, so, forget seats together, I got over it and got to planning my flight-time activities

I actually made a solid step in the right direction and registered to take the CBEST, and part of my in-flight entertainment will be getting down to business with a pencil and my study book.

Real World Wednesday

Yesterday, someone at work told me that he's having trouble getting into the spirit of the season because of all the drama and trouble and violence in the world right now.

I can understand that completely, and I think I have solution.

Let's ignore it for a while.

No, I don't mean that those of us are aren't directly involved in it should just pretend it doesn't exist. I mean that everyone, especially those who are involved, should walk away.

Perhaps by the time the holidays are over (sometime in February, by my count), then everyone will have forgotten why they were staging riots in the first place.

Denial is more than river in Egypt, it's an uncharted course to peace.

As I Attempt to Avoid Buckling Under the Stress of it All

Oy.

Really, that's all I can say.

In five days, WG and I take off for another whirlwind tour of the Corral. I'm stoked to be spending our first Christmas together (the past couple of years, we've had our Christmas on New Year's, which has its charms), about waking up next to him on Christmas morning. I'm also starting to feel the sadness at NOT waking up snug in my bed at my parents' house and running downstairs for cinnamon rolls and present opening before dawn.

It's not that I have too much to do, it's that I have BIG, important things to do, like finish editing the novel and get it submitted to the contest with the December 31 deadline. And wrap Christmas presents. And clean my apartment before abanoning it for a week. And get off my bum and exercise (update: the week of concentrating on sitting better and doing my special exercises has already helped my back!).

There are things I can let go...one of them, at least for now, is reading The Second Sex. It sat on my bedside table, glaring at me for weeks, before I finally gave in and returned it from whence it came (uhm, the library).

There are other things that I simply can't abandon -- not see Irene before Christmas? Uhm, no thanks.

So, here's to taking deep breaths and going under a series of rocks as I attempt to cross everything off my list before Friday! Wowza.

Good luck to all of us as we try to finish our Christmas lists!

Real World Wednesday

Take Care of Yourself.

If you're a twenty/thirty-something like me, keep in mind that this world is ours for the leading...if, that is, we can keep ourselves healthy enough to do any leading.

Ruby shared her sciatic nerve issues with us all...and now, the official diagnosis for my ongoing back pain is the same as Ms. Ruby's. I'm only 28, and I've got a bad back...seriously, this so not okay.

I know EXACTLY when the pain started. It was all because I was being a stellar girlfriend and getting a certain someone a 60 pound wine refrigerator for Christmas. Carried up the stairs, did I? Oh, no, don't be silly. I simply tried to wrap the thing. And my back objected.

The pain in the back, as well as recent conversations about life being "over" when a woman has children (my quotes around "over" clearly express, I hope, my disagreement with the concept that life ends with childbirth), has gotten me thinking about how we treat our bodies.

My ongoing train of thought is: If I can't take care of myself now, how will I manage to take proper care of my body when I'm a parent, when I have far less spare time. Let's face it, say what you will about having children, but one thing we can all agree one is that children don't exactly offer the opportunity for more alone time.

Let's start with simple, daily decisions (rather than rousing speeches about rushing out to join the gym).

Each morning, I decide to spend 15 minutes browsing facebook of stretching or otherwise preparing my body for a hard day of sitting on my butt at work. Of course, that's exaggerating. I shuffle. I bend. I squat. I leap out of my chair to discipline a wayward customer. But, for the most part, I sit, anxiously awaiting the questions of my "eager" customers.

I can choose, though, to walk on my breaks. I can choose, even, to friggin' make sure I take my breaks at all. This is the only body I have, and I need to treat it with respect. I need to feed it and exercise it and keep it as healthy as possible.

I have to say out loud, and in print, that I will make exercise and fitness a priority. I've run a 5k. I've played inter-mural soccer. I know what it takes to stay in shape, but I also know that I can no longer push exercise so far to the end of my to-do list that it falls off all together.

I challenge you to make one healthier decision this week. Will you go for a walk? A jog? Will you say no to starbucks or Tim Horton's (that's for all my Canadian readers :Þ).

Real World Wednesday

Pray.

Pray today for the people in Mumbai - for the victims, for their families, for the perpetrators and their families.

It is immensely challenging to pray for those who do harm, but they clearly need the Grace of God in their lives if they feel compelled to commit such horrendous acts.

So, today, pray.