Getting Serious About Diet

I finally went to the grocery store yesterday and bought all this fruit and healthy stuff that is on our prescribed diet and we will see how this works.  Today’s lunch is half a turkey/spinach/cheese sandwich, an apple, a small bag of Sunchips, with water.  Tonight’s dinner is grilled pork chops, spinach salad, and roll.  SO we will see what happens.  Snack is a light yogurt cup.  I need to decide if I’m going to snack in the morning or afternoon.  Probably morning since we eat supper so early.  SO I’m going to get my yogurt now.

SIgh. I don’t know how this is going to work, but I have to believe that I will be healthier and skinnier doing it than doing what I have been doing.  I got most of the yogurt down but finally quit because a)  I was no longer hungry and b) I just didn’t care for the texture  

We go watch MSU baseball this weekend.  I am looking forward to that.  My father-in-law has a skybox on the third base line so we will see what kind of view we have.  We used to sit on the lowest level right behind home plate and that was great.  But this box should be good as well if  the football one  is anything to go by,

I need to do my schoolwork today and see what I can contribute to the conversation,  I wil work on that until lunch then eat that.  Maybe laundry will get done soon and I can get that clear and do my laundry next.  Busy day.

My mood is holding well so far, and I’m not worrying and panicky.  My parking lot was closed this morning because MC is inaugurating a new president and they need it for visitors.  SO I just parked where I was since I was only going to be there an hour.  I didn’t freak and I didn’t worry.  I’ve just had a good day mentally so far.  I’m hanging in there on my classes and trying to be productive today instead of sleep like I really want to do,

Hope everyone has a good weekend!  We’re looking forward to ours and hope you are too  Happy Friday!

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Playwriting

SO I went to the staged reading last night of my play, “1-800-273_TALK” which is the number of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the topic of my play.  It’s about a suicide hotline counselor that has started to think the callers have the right idea and how she’s talked out of it by a fellow counselor.  It’s really a cool play and was even cooler with actors and some blocking last night.  The director did a fine job and the actors, particularly the girl playing Angie, the suicidal one,  were really, really good.

I got to answer a few questions during the talk back and got to meet and see a lot of people–I saw Kris and Dr. Pischel, who I already knew, and I met the head of the  theatre department and our newest MFA professor, Dr. Wilson.  So that was fun.  Me and Candy had a good time traveling up yesterday and back  today so we were simpatico the whole trip, which was nice.  All in all a great experience and lots of fun was had by all.

Now I need to go to the grocery store and start laundry and do schoolwork this afternoon,  I don’t think I will have a lot of trouble getting it all done–I am motivated to start on this diet and see what I can do for it.

We finally got phone service back right before I left yesterday, which I’m sure was good for Bob and will be good here on our for us.  I’m so glad it got worked out finally.

I am so sleepy.  I didn’t sleep well last night and I want to either go take a nap or get the last Coke out of the fridge.  It comes down to do I want that last Coke for tomorrow morning or to get through this afternoon?  I guess I will save it for tomorrow morning and start caffeine withdrawals over the weekend when I don’t have quite so much to do in the morning.  We will see.  Hope everyone has a good end to their week and a good weekend!

 

 

 

Still Waiting

We still don’t have phone service.  I waited around all day yesterday, and Bob had some choice words to the AT&T person he got when he called once he got home, especially when they said the outage had been marked “clear” on Saturday when he was home all day and no one ever showed up.

SO they promised to have someone out today to see if it is in the outside lines so we did not have to wait around.  He is so frustrated that he asked me to call CSpire and find out how much it would cost to get their fiberoptic lines set up for a home phone.

We just can’t go around depending on our cell phones because he can’t have his on at work and I can’t either, and I can’t answer the phone and talk while driving because my driving is sketchy enough.  Besides,  no one has ever promised that we won’t have another Katrina-level hurricane come through, so we need those landlines.  So we will see.

My mood is really good today–I’m looking forward to going to Columbus with Candy and seeing my play.  I think it will be so interesting to see what they do with it.  It’s very simple but packs a very relevant and good message to people I think.  At least I hope so.  We will see what the audience thinks.

Had conferences all morning with students and most of them seem to have a good handle on their projects, which I think is good.  I have three people doing essentially the same topic–some aspect of how social media affects us.  SO I will be worn out on that topic.  Other interesting ones are different conspiracies of the JFKennedy assassination and  benefits to society of the space program.  So that should be fun to read.

Hopefully it will be a nice ride up and a good rest of the day.  I have my bag packed and am ready whenever Candy finishes up work.  Wish everyone involved in the productions well!

 

 

Waiting

I am waiting for the AT&T repair person to show up.  Our phone has been out since Thursday.  We do still have a landline we use because it’s easier on us than having our cell phones on all the time.  So we will see how long it takes him to show. I have  a phone appointment with Tillie, so that is going to be interesting I hope.

Made another low A on a paper in Drama.  Mostly technical errors–he actually liked the writing but I don’t have the hang of MLA 8 yet.   I am glad I only have two more to do.  Five weeks to do them in, plus whatever I have left for Memoirs–talking about the last books.  I will probably write something up for this week on that class after I finish this post.

COunting down as well in my class I am teaching.  They have a big assignment due Friday and then a few more plus one test and the final to close things out.  I got a call back from Holmes CC about teaching–they usually use adjuncts for night classes and I said I couldn’t do that.  He did say he would keep me in mind if needed.

Yesterday for 30 minutes it absolutely poured down rain in the morning and the rest of the day was beautiful.  TOday it just looks like it could rain again but I don’t think it’s supposed to actually rain today.  We will see.

I went to the  dietician and got a sample diet to follow–only 1200 calories a day.  It’s going to have to wait for me to get to the grocery store before I can start following it.  But I have Blue Apron coming for tonight and Thursday so that is helpful for the night meals.  Bob said that he would do it with me and see if he could stick to it.  I am hoping and praying  we can both manage this and get our weight under control.

Tomorrow I head out to watch my play onstage tomorrow night.  I am so looking forward to it.  We will see how it turns out.  I hope everyone has something just as good to look forward to this week.  🙂  Happy Tuesday!

D-Day

I’m calling it D-Day because I go see the dietician today and get started on a diet-for-life program today.  And because I do have an air of foreboding about it.  I’m going to have to relearn how to cook and somehow convince my family to eat in this new way with me for all of our sakes.  My youngest is the only one not in the obese range.  My oldest may be out of it by now with training for a marathon–I don’t know how much weight she has lost since she’s been in Florida.  But me and Bob definitely need to change our eating habits and all I can hope for is that he understands that I am doing this because I love him and myself and I want us to both be as healthy as we can be for as long as we can be.

We had a good weekend–went upstate and celebrated birthdays with my family–my sister and my daddy.  Bob didn’t go since he was too sick.  The pollen in the air is getting to him something terrible–and mom and dad’s house was covered with it inside and out.  So it was good that he didn’t go.  But we had fun seeing everyone and hanging out as a family. Mu middle one even poked her head up out from her studies and came across to eat with everyone.

Me and Candy head out Wednesday to go to my play’s staged reading–I’ll get to see the play I wrote last semester for playwriting workshop acted out somewhat.  They’ll be reading from scripts but have some latitude in acting the parts out on stage.  And as simple as I wrote the set, it will look right no matter how minimal they go with the staging.  I’m just looking forward to going to and seeing it and having a good time with Candy. We’ll be spending the night and coming back Thursday morning.

Had a bit of a scary moment in discussions last night.  One guy who seems to have been raised Christian but abandoned it as an adult said in passing on my comment about this week’s reading that he was a happier, healthier, more well-adjusted person for having left behind religion.  I just felt like God wanted me to respond with my testimony of having lived a sham Christian life until I was 42 when I really gave my life and soul over to Jesus and what the effect it had had on my freedom from the worst aspects of my disease. So I said that very politely and sat back and waited.  He didn’t respond to attack further, so I was relieved at that.  I had Bob read over it so it wouldn’t seem that I was attacking him, and he said it looked good, before I posted it.  But it was a little nerve-wracking.

Busy day ahead.  The rest of my office hours, going home and getting lunch, Going to the dietician’s, getting home to catch my youngest off the bus and getting her to dance, then a conference for my drama class tonight.  Fun, fun.  But I will get it all done.  Hope everyone has a good start to their week!

 

Tech Troubles

So now the landline phone is down.  Between the internet and the phone we are a little incommunicando.  But a modem guy is supposed cone out this afternoon and replace it and Tuesday someone is supposed to come out and fix the phone.

So I scheduled my classes after talking to my professor on a video conference.  I am taking Graduate Nonfiction Workshop this fall and Full Residency this summer.  I need to do some shopping to get ready for the residency and will do that in the next couple of months.  I have all my manuscripts I plan to take ready so that will be easy, I think.  Two nonfiction, one fiction, and one poetry.  So we will see how they turn out.

I love the weather we are having.  It is nice to be outside and the sun be out and to have it streaming in through the kitchen windows next to my computer.  We finally got the yard mowed so it looks less scraggly.  Thankfully.

I suppose I will rest a bit today after I go to the grocery store to get some food for the weekend.  Hope everyone has a good weekend–we will go see my dad for his 71st birthday and my sister for her 38th.  So we have good plans.  Hope you all do too!

Resting

I am taking things slowly today and enjoying the lack of pressure to get up and DO.  I have Bob’s laundry to do and maybe some food shopping unless I just decide to go tomorrow, so I can afford to take it slowly today.

Finished the only book in our memoir collection written by someone who claims to be a Christian.  So that was nice to see how she handled talking about her religious experience.  It was also the last one on the list so I am through reading for that class.  I can use the time to keep up with the reading in Drama now.

My Drama professor asked me in an email he sent to answer some questions for me if I was feeling better about the class.  I just didn’t answer him. I am frustrated beyond belief.  I thought I would learn what made up a play–something about dramaturgy, etc.  All I am getting is a history of drama, which I got in undergrad from Dr. Wayne Durst at Mississippi State.  We don’t have class discussions or  regular conferences.

I just feel like I am thinking I wasted my money signing up for the class, which I have never felt before in school, this program or any other one.  I have no idea how I will handle class evaluations.  I don’t really know any more than I did when I wrote Hurricane Baby what I am doing when I write a play. Maybe I am more considerate of the staging people, designing simpler sets.  Anyway.  I only have a month and a half left in it so I will manage.

My oldest called last night and we had a good conversation. She told us lots of Disney stories–on one of her shifts she deals directly with guests and she told some of the goofy stuff people do and say when they’re at Disney World.  Some of it was pretty unbelievable–I didn’t know people could be so particular about things as some guests seem to be.

I guess I wil run and start my day.  I hope I get work done today.  It’s such a pretty day I want to go sit outside some and I might after lunch.  We will see.  Happy Thursday!

Happy Wednesday!

So today has gone well so far.  Class went well with engagement and all that sort of thing on the part of the students.  I feel really well myself–I feel like I’ve woken up from a long sleep and am awake for the first time in a couple of months.  I’m saying it’s the sunny weather that has me feeling more like myself.  No depression, no mania.  Just even keel.

I wrote a good bit about anxiety for my Memoirs class–the book we read studied anxiety, both in a historical context as well as a personal one from the author.  I’m glad I’m not feeling those severely anxious feelings anymore.  I worry a bit about my oldest one being off from us and so far away from home, but she seems to be adjusting well and making good decisions about life so that feels like not so pressing.  We go see her in July and are looking forward to that.  So things are going well on the anxiety front.

I finally made another round of phone calls to see if I could score another adjunct position somewhere in the metro area–I called Millsaps College, Holmes CC, Hinds CC, and Belhaven again to see what I could find out.  Hinds, where I’ve taught before, was the most forthcoming with the idea that I could teach lit courses, just one.  She said it was based on need and that they didn’t have as much use for adjuncts as they did when I first started with them since enrollment was down.  (That’s a sign of a good economy.) But she at least took my call and took down my information.

I wrote my paper for Drama last night and need to get it fixed up for final turn-in as soon as I hear from the professor how I can turn it in–the assignment is locked.  So we will see about that.  I hope it passes muster with him. I haven’t heard from my craft assignment so I feel a little nervous that it may not have done so well.  We will see.

I need to do attendance in my class if the computer will let me log into the system.  Hope everyone is having as good a day as I am so far.  Happy Wednesday!

 

 

Another Doctor

Going to my dermatologist today for this breakout of my psoriasis.  It broke out over the weekend when I got so hot in the hotel room and it felt feverish yesterday so I called to see if I needed to put cold compresses on it or what, and he said he wanted to see me.  I’ve used the prescribed shampoos the past couple of days on it and while it doesn’t look better, it doesn’t itch and burn like it did.  So I think I will just go ahead and keep that up unless he wants me to use the steroid cream again. SO we will see.

I need to buckle down and do school work when I get back today after seeing him.  Do my Memoirs class discussion and start on my critical paper for Drama. I am really nervous about that one–I feel like I am just flying blind in there.  I will do the best I can and see what I can come up with on Shakespeare coining words and phrases.  Wish me well.

My mood is holding really well so far this spring.  I am certainly glad of that.  My dad and sister’s birthdays are coming up and we will go home for them.  I have presents bought and everything.  We go this weekend on my sister’s birthday.

I need to run so I can make the appointment.  Hope everyone has a good day and enjoys the sunny weather we have here.  Thanks for reading!

 

 

Working Again

Classes have started back and I think my class went well this morning.  My back-row student is really trying to get back in the class–he answered a bunch of the questions showing that he had engaged or was engaging with the material so that looked good on his part.  We will see how he does.

We had a wonderful trip to Fairhope AL this weekend–we almost didn’t make it out of the driveway–we got a tire stuck in the mud of the yard and the truck didn’t want to move.  But we got a handle on it and got unstuck and went on our way.  We bought a carved life-sized bulldog puppy and put him in the house.  Bob said he finally found a dog that wouldn’t bother his allergies.  🙂  So that was nice.  We picked up a few other smaller pieces and what not.  Found some really cool little restaurants, particularly two Italian ones.  So that was nice as well.

I did really well–I didn’t get anxious and had a good time with my middle child and my youngest and Bob.  We talked a lot and enjoyed each other’s company in a really cool way.  Lots more relaxing than a dance competition trip.  We slept in well and didn’t rush to do anything.  When the weather didn’t cooperate Saturday afternoon, we went and watched “How to Train Your Dragon” 3.  So that was fun as well.

I am going to have to call Xfinity again to check on our internet–I could barely log on yesterday when we got home and then had difficulties this morning.  Maybe they will send someone out.  But I have a conference tonight and I can’t do it easily with the internet acting up.  So very frustrating.  I can’t use Bob’s computer because it doesn’t have a webcam on it.  So frustrating.

I guess I should go alert that teacher that I might not make it into the conference.  I guess I can go do that email right now.  Hopefully it will start acting better after I call back.  We will see.

Hope everyone has a good week back from spring break and from St. Patrick’s Day yesterday.  Only a month and three weeks until summer. Hang in there.