A Hell of an Exciting Week

I just got done eating a Supreme personal pan pizza and two breadsticks from Pizza Hut Express.

Damn, I’m exciting.

And very full.

And also quite lame, since I live in a city that prides itself on great pizza, and I just ate Pizza Hut.

That’s pretty much how my week has been. I worked a lot of overtime and watched a lot of t.v. Yep, quite lame.

Wait, I guess there were one or two kind-of interesting things that happened this week. Let’s see… (Cue groovy flashback music.)


Monday

After a long day at work, I hopped on the Wii Fit, and it didn’t yell at me!! I was so surprised—and frankly, thrilled. I hate being yelled at—even if it’s by a computer. Then I bitched and moaned about not having an MP-3 player.


Tuesday

After a long day at work, Buck and I did our 30 minutes of exercise, and then I listened to the Iwanski/Winter show. Winter amused us with tales of bad doctors and knee trauma, while Iwanski apologized for everything bad that has ever happened to anyone.


Wednesday

After a long day at work, I went out with Buck and two other friends to Heaven on Seven, Chicago’s best Cajun restaurant (in my opinion). Our friend Carol had us cracking up with her description of a date with a guy whose looks and personality were not just ugly, but—in her words—“so, so, so ugly!”

After dinner, Buck and I went to Trader Joe’s grocery store. While we were checking out, we were both impressed by the friendliness of the cashiers. I had forgotten how nice the salespeople are there! I mean, unusually, freakishly nice.

I had a perfectly lovely chat with the salesguy about the best high fiber cereals on the market. I am not kidding. I really did. It was awesome.

Later, I arrived home to find out that Iwanski had gone to the library that day and picked me up two Supernanny books. Hooray! Even though he can’t fathom why on earth I like to read about child behavior when we don’t even have children, he’s still nice enough to pick those up for me. What a great husband!


Thursday

Iwanski called me at work to tell me that he ordered me an MP-3 player online. I told you he was a great husband! I am so excited for the arrival of my new “little one”!


Friday

After a long day at work, I came home to another surprise—Iwanski fixed our toilet! No more sitting down on the seat and having it slide out from under me! Hooray!

We celebrated appropriately with a few beers and some country music. (That’s exactly how rednecks would celebrate a toilet being fixed, right?)


Saturday

Iwanski and I took a walk through Millennium Park and marveled at the beauty of the changing leaves.

See, isn’t it beautiful?



All in all, I’d say it’s been a good week.

Can’t…Go On…Must Have…MP-3 Player

Well, I have given up.

On finding my MP-3 player, that is.

If you recall, I had a brilliant blonde moment a few weeks ago, when I left my MP-3 player in the exercise room on the 7th floor of our building.

That was probably not the smartest (or most responsible) thing I’ve ever done.

And now, after much searching and waiting, I have finally concluded that it is gone for good.

And I am in desperate need of a new one.

How desperate?—you ask?

Well, before the tragic loss of my MP-3 player, I had gotten in the daily habit of listening to my music both on the 20-minute walk to work, and on the 20-minute walk home from work. So that’s 40 minutes a day of music that I no longer have. So what to do? Sure, I could use that time to just relax and do a “walking meditation” of sorts. But I had become so used to having something to entertain me during that time. So what have I been doing instead?

Well, first I have taken to listening to my work voice mail, over and over again. That’s right, I said over and over again. The other day, I think I listened to the same message probably 3 or 4 times. OK, that could probably have something to do with the fact that I was avoiding having to have small talk with a coworker who was walking a few steps in front of me…but still, that is pretty pathetic.

Secondly, I have actually asked my good friend Diane, if she feels like it, if she can leave me long messages on my cell phone, so that I can be entertained by her messages during my walk. While less pathetic than listening to my work voice mail over and over again, I’ll admit it’s still pretty pathetic. But Diane is really funny, so it really is quite entertaining. And she is so obliging…I guess that’s when you know you have a true friend, when they’re willing to leave you long voice mails so you can be entertained during your commute!

And all this to avoid actually being quiet and being in the moment. Yes, my friends, I believe that is the definition of pathetic.

It would probably be a good idea for me to practice that whole “being in the moment” thing more often. But it sure would help to stay in the moment if I have some good songs to listen to at the same time. (At least that’s how I’m going to rationalize this thing.)

It’s also pretty coincidental, I think, that since my MP-3 player has been missing, all of the sudden I have been hearing and reading about more and more music that I want to download. It’s as if the Universe wants me to have a new MP-3 player.

For example, I recently heard/read about the following artists, whose music I really want to download:

--David Qualey (thanks to Sling for putting that beautiful version of “Jesu Joy” on your blog)
--Talking Heads (thanks to Mary Ruth for the suggestion)
--Jackson Browne (thanks to Rosemary for the suggestion)
--Enya—I want to download more of her songs (her music touches me on a very deep level)

So in a few minutes, I’m going to go to Amazon.com and order me up a new MP-3 player.

And I’m also going to buy a wrist strap to keep it strapped to me at all times.

I sure hope I don’t lose that wrist strap.

The Healthy Choice

This morning, about 25,000 people got up early, donned running shoes and lightweight clothing, and ran 26 miles through the streets of Chicago.

Iwanski and I did not do that. Instead, we slept until 11 and went here.



I think we made the right choice…don’t you?

Glorious Day

Glorious day,
Sun a-blazing
Treetops glowing,
World awaiting



Glorious day,
Seagulls pausing,
Life in triumph,
Moving on.



Glorious day,
Flowers blooming,
Plants protruding,
Letting go.



Glorious day,
Trees a-changin’
Times a-changin’
Moving on.

Thank God It's Friday!

I am sitting here at work at 7:00 PM on a Friday night.

Man, I gotta get a life!

But life is good, and I can’t complain.

Happy Weekend, everyone!!!!

If You E-Mail, They Will Come

It started out as a simple get-together.

Just a few family members, gathered together to celebrate my Grandma’s 93rd birthday.

It ended up as a gathering of almost 30 people, all there to wish Grandma well on her special day.

And they were all there at dinnertime.

My poor mother! Unbeknownst to her, I had e-mailed my Wisconsin siblings, asking them if they might want to see Grandma (and Iwanski and me!) on Grandma’s birthday.

What I hadn’t expected was that not only did they show up, but so did their children, and their children’s children. We had many babies in attendance! Among the children under five years old were:

-A newborn baby
-A 10-week-old baby
-A 7-month-old baby
-A one-year-old baby
-A 3-year-old toddler

So suddenly the house was full of people and crying and gurgling babies. It was really fun—and really loud. But mostly fun.

My Mom looked at the increasingly hungry crowd and said, “I don’t know how everyone knew to come today.”

I giggled and said, “Umm, because I told them.” (This is usually how it happens—I get people to the party, and other people figure out the details. I suppose other people don’t enjoy that as much as I do.)

So I apologized to my mother, who luckily had already had the foresight to thaw some stew meat and start a crock-pot full of meat, potatoes, and veggies.

And somehow, some people decided to bring some other side items and desserts (props to Sfoofie for bringing two big delicious trays of cheesy potato casserole!). It’s actually a potato that I love—of course, the cheese and the sour cream make it really, really yummy—and healthy, too!

There were lots of delicious desserts, too. Since I particularly enjoy fruit desserts, I loved my sister Sheri’s apple crumble (crisp?), too. What’s the difference between a crumble and a crisp? Hmmm…

And how could I forget to mention the guest of honor? My Grandma was so surprised, and tickled pink that everyone showed up to celebrate her special day with her.

We had a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday,” which I asked my Dad to record, for posterity’s sake. (You should hear the way my family harmonizes on the third verse of that song—it sounds pretty awesome.)

What, you didn’t know there was a third verse? Well, my Catholic family has always wrapped up the song with “May the dear Lord bless you” sung over and over again. I like it—especially because I like how my family harmonizes. Daddy sings bass, and Momma sings—er, alto. And there are lots of other altos and sopranos, too. It’s pretty cool.

Yes, we truly are the Brady bunch.

I like being a Brady.

Toilet Barometer

Have I ever mentioned that our toilet is a relationship and mood barometer in the Iwanski and Miss Healthypants household?

I haven’t?

Well, it’s absolutely true. Every time Iwanski and I have a fight, or whenever one or both of us is feeling really depressed, the toilet responds by somehow breaking.

I can’t even tell you how many times this has happened. The poor maintenance men in our building! They have had the pleasure of “visiting” with our toilet on a number of occasions—and what a crappy job that must be.

Anyway, recently Iwanski was having a really bad day—one of those “Irish Guilt” days when everything—and I mean absolutely EVERYTHING—makes him feel guilty. On those days I can say something innocent like “Hey, honey, we’re out of bread,” and he responds with something like, “I’m such a terrible husband. I can’t even manage to make sure we have bread in the house. A good husband would make sure there is always bread in the house,” and on and on and on. I’m telling you, sometimes it must be absolutely exhausting being Iwanski.

Anyway, so recently he was having one of those really bad Irish Guilt Days, and after trying and trying in vain to convince him that he wasn’t the worst person on earth, I thought I would just have to “let go and let God”…so I went off to take a bathroom break.

As I sat down on the toilet, a bolt on one side of the seat popped off and went flying. The entire seat slipped to the side, and I almost fell right in.

“Ack!!!!” I screamed. “The toilet seat just broke!”

From the other room, I heard Iwanski groan, “That’s just God punishing me for being a bad husband.”

“God is not punishing you!” I yelled back.

Now, obviously I don’t believe that God is punishing Iwanski through our toilet breaking.

And I’m sure that God is not really paying attention at all to what happens to our toilet—at least I sure hope not! But I have to admit, it sure does seem pretty strange that whenever there is a lot of negativity in our house, the toilet figures out a new way to be broken.

It’s like one big cosmic joke.

I hate that toilet.