Life Posts

OK I’m Awake!

Because I work such long hours, I’m forced to schedule my physical therapy sessions at like the crack of dawn. It minimizes the amount of time I have to take off from work. The main problem with this, aside from the fact that my sessions sometimes start a full HOUR before I’m used to starting work, is that I have to drive about 20  miles to get there. 20 miles + rush hour traffic = about a 45 minute drive. So I leave my house anywhere from an hour to almost 2 hours earlier than I “should” on physical therapy mornings. Needless to say, I’m pretty tired – tired like I was during the Olympics. Exhausted really.

After waking up at the crack of dawn yesterday and sort of zombie-ing through my morning, I decided that I MUST get to bed early last night. Yet despite my best efforts, I didn’t make it to my bed until around 11. Alarm starts chirping just a few short hours later, and I’m NOT a happy camper. I think I snoozed for like 35 minutes before finally giving in to the little voice in my head telling me I need to get up, leave my warm bed, and face the day. Ugh. Fine.

Again, eyes don’t wanna open. It’s cold. I don’t wanna leave my house. So I throw on some jeans (and not exactly my nicest pair either lol), running shoes (the physical therapist wants to check them out), a shirt, and a sweatshirt. It’s not the nicest of outfits, but it works OK for work, and it’s comfy. I then quickly throw my hair up in a pile on top of my head, and really it’s not too polished looking, but I simply couldn’t care less at this point. Obviously I’m also wearing my glasses. Let’s be honest – if my eyes don’t even want to open, jamming contacts into them just isn’t a choice. I figured I’ll just clean up a bit after physical therapy when I’m more awake.

Thankfully I made a pot of coffee this morning. A strong pot of coffee. Started chugging that before I even got into my car lol. It was kinda sorta maybe kicking in a little bit the more I drank. I’m about halfway to PT at this point, and starting to feel a little better. Got some good music playing…it might end up being a good morning after all.

Then the morning gets interesting.

About 3 cars in front of me I see this truck kinda sway/drift over to the right. He compensates my cutting to the left. Only he over compensates. Big time over compensates – dude spins out. So I see a spinning truck, hella cars slamming on brakes, people swerving in all kinds of directions (think parting of the red sea but with vehicles), the car in front of me (also slamming on brakes, clearly) is quickly approaching. FOOT ON BRAKE ON FLOOR…PLEASE LET ME STOP! Check the rearview mirror, yep car behind me is quickly approaching, fuck I’m about to get sandwiched here. FUCK PLEASE STOP CAR.FUCK FUCK FUCK. I’m gonna hit this SUV. Goddamnit I was JUST in a sandwich accident, please don’t let this happen AGAIN.

(more…)

Posted by Caro in Life, Random, fears, health

BRUTAL-ly Honest

I had physical therapy today. My usual physical therapist was sick so I got a substitute today. A brutally honest one. I guess I should talk about physical therapy in general since I haven’t done that yet.

About a week and a half ago I went in for my consult and evaluation. It was kinda odd, but based on past physical therapy sessions for other problems, I was expecting odd. She needed to observe and measure all kinds of things related to my foot, so I took off both shoes and socks. She looked at my feet while I just stood there. She had me raise up to my toes while standing on both feet. She had me stand on one foot at a time so she could look at something else. Then she made me walk up and back the room so she could see stuff when I walked. Then I laid down.

Here’s where it got really sad: she measured my calf/Achilles flexibility. When you’re laying back and you pull your toes up to a 90 degree angle (toes to the sky), that 90 degree angle is considered “0″. Pull your toes in toward your shin more, and every degree beyond 90 is +1. So you want the 80 degree angle: +10 on their scale. Ok so when I first got measured a week and a half ago, I was at -5. MINUS 5. So that’s 15 degrees of flexibility that I’m lacking. OK people, it turns out this isn’t bad; it’s ABYSMAL. Apparently the average elderly person has more flexibility in their calf/Achilles. Heck even my “good” foot is only at a +5. OK fine, my ankle and calf aren’t flexible. Whatever — fix me!!

(more…)

New Cypress Hill

Only heard this song once and am already in love with it: Rise Up by Cypress Hill, featuring Tom Morello on guitar. Their new album comes out on April 20 (of course it does – it is Cypress Hill after all!), and I might have to download it.

In the meantime, enjoy this:

YouTube Preview Image
Posted by Caro in Music, Videos, things to do

A Bookcase (Finally!)

J and I have had this gaping hole in our living room. Just empty space that doesn’t look quite right. Coincidentally, we also have an overflow of stuff that won’t fit into our (large) bookcase. So for the time-being we were stacking DVDs, keeping the Wii games on the floor, and just dealing with the disarray. Well I was dealing with the disarray. I’m sure J didn’t even notice lol.

We’ve been looking at bookcases and talking about getting one for quite some time now, but haven’t gotten around to it. One issue is that if we’re going to get another standard bookcase, it needs to perfectly match the one we already have. It’s really big and bulky, and I don’t know that we have enough stuff to fill an entire second one. So we decided to get something that was less traditional.

We originally fell in love with the Brosna Bookcase at Scandinavian Designs. The picture they have on their website is actually 3 of these items put right next to each other; the bookcase by itself is actually pretty narrow, with shelves coming off either side of a center stand. We liked it cuz it was different, but would fit our needs well.

Of course this weekend when we went to Scandinavian Designs we had to look at ALL of the bookcases before choosing one. Yep, we are indecisive like that! After about half an hour wandering around the store, checking out bookcases, couches, bedroom sets, etc., we finally decided on our bookcase: (more…)

Posted by Caro in Life, Shopping, cool, discoveries, things to do

Coldstone Creamery: Scoop It Up

Apparently if you’re too lazy to get a job but still want the thrill of scooping ice cream then mashing things into it, there’s hope for you yet. Wii makes a game called Coldstone Creamery: Scoop It Up.

 

Seriously?

So yeah, you can pay $20 to have this game and make virtual ice cream concoctions. Or you could get a job a Coldstone, work 3 hours, and have similar satisfaction plus $20 in your pocket.

I just don’t get it.

Posted by Caro in Food, Random, Work, money, weird

OK I Tweet

Posted by Caro in Life, Random, weird

Tweet?

OK so I’ve finally broken down. I think I’m going to get a Twitter account. Scratch that – I am going to get a Twitter account. Problem: I have NO idea what to choose as a username!! Yes, I’m horribly indecisive. Obviously. But it’s just so permanent so I feel that I need to pick a good one!

Chocolateysprinkles is too long

Cocosprinkles and Chocosprinkles are both taken

Caro is taken

WTF else am I supposed to use? Certainly not my first and last name LOL

Posted by Caro in Life, Random, things to do

God Loves Atheists

Courtesy of MZ:

(click the image to see the rest of it)

Ah yes, taking control of your own life. What a novel idea!

Posted by Caro in Life, Random

Aerials

So… aerials are crazy.

Skier starts down this skinny little trail.

Arms up.

Silence/Awe.

Then a coach breaking the silence by yelling “STRETCH” or “LOOK DOWN THE HILL”.

They land.

People scream.

This sport is absolutely amazing.

Posted by Caro in Random, Sports, TV, fears

An Open Letter to NBC

Dear Executives at NBC:

While I appreciate your coverage of the variety of sporting events at the Olympics, I have a bone to pick with you.

First and foremost, these Olympics are being held in Vancouver, which is the same timezone as the west coast. Unlike games past where the events would be held in the middle of the night for Americans, these sports are held at approximately the same time we are awake. Despite this, we are not receiving footage of the competitions until 8pm.

This is unacceptable. I cannot browse the internet during the day without fear that various Olympics results will be “spoiled”. You have multiple stations on which you can broadcast. Why not show the events, live, during the day on USA? Or MSNBC? A majority of Americans have some sort of recording device (TiVo, DVR, etc.) and could tape these events to watch at their convenience. If you wanted to re-broadcast the highlights in prime time on NBC, more power to you.

This is another issue I must raise. The prime time broadcast spans from 8pm to midnight. As a hard-working, tax-paying citizen, I must get up at 6:30am to get ready to go to my job. Staying up until midnight, or in some cases later, certainly doesn’t help come morning time. And while I have no problem rolling out of bed, throwing on some clothes, and driving to work, I can assure you that my boss is less than stoked to see yawning, grumpy, bags-under-the-eyes-which-aren’t-all-the-way-open-in-the-first-place Caro. Even moving the broadcast from the 8pm-12a slot to 7-11pm would vastly improve this situation.

Finally, if you are censoring the Olympics and waiting until 8pm to show me the clips of the competition you think I might enjoy, please refrain from broadcasting spoilers. Last night I turned on the NBC Nightly News at 6pm. After several non-gaming stories, the announcer switched gears to the Olympics. Thinking this was a preview of what I would be shown later in the evening, it didn’t even occur to me to change the channel. However, without warning, the results of the Women’s Downhill were posted. Thank you for telling me that Lindsey Vonn won gold. Thank you for sharing this with me before you showed it to me in any broadcast. If you are going to keep me in suspense until 8pm, please do not spoil the results at 6pm.

Aside from these issues, I greatly appreciate your commitment to showing me what you consider the highlights of the Olympics on a bi-annual basis.

Sincerely,

Caro

Posted by Caro in Life, News, Sports, TV, rants and raves and tagged with