Now It's My Turn

I was working at Curves last Tuesday and I was telling the ladies about Pat and how sick he had gotten. I told them that I took care of him, gave him his medicine, made chicken soup and keep an eye on him. I also said that I was very happy that I had been lucky and not caught whatever it was that he had. One of the ladies, Betsy, said "Well, it's not over yet. You still could be incubating something." Well, guess what? She was right. I was incubating something. Now I am full blown sick. Whaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, that was me whining!!

I feel like crap and I have to work tonight anyway. One of my co-workers is out of town and Lisa will not care that I am sick. She will tell me to stay behind the desk and tell everyone that I am trying not to get them sick. Lisa doesn't work double shifts and she is working this morning so I am not even going to bother calling in sick. I also have to work tomorrow morning. I just hope I am feeling better then.

On a happier note, Kerry is coming home tomorrow for about 10 days and I can't wait. We are going to the Coldplay concert In West Palm Beach on May 15th and I am really looking forward to that. We will also go window shopping. Note I said window shopping. Money is tight and the days of frivolous spending are gone. I'm sure Kerry will talk me into something. :)

The face I can't say no to. The kid!

Doing The Best That I Can

I am doing the best that I can just like I tell Kerry when she calls and is all upset about an upcoming test. Just do the best you can. Yep, that's what I'm doing and I guess it's all anyone can do.

I am doing the best I can at work. While I may not be making a crapload of money I realize that I am lucky to have a job at all not to mention one that I enjoy. I love helping "my ladies" enjoy their exercise time and as I've said before in other blog entries, I learn a lot from them so it is a real give and take. I give them encouragement and they share their knowledge and life stories. I worry about them though. The economy is hitting them hard and there is some thought that the money that they spend on Curves could be better spent on bread, milk and gas. There is definitely some truth in that however if they don't exercise they won't be healthy enough to go the the grocery store or be driving their cars. They say that they will go for walks for exercise but as they say that to me we both know that they won't. I hope they make the right decision and stay. For them and for me.

My Curves

I am doing the best that I can with my weight. Well.....maybe not. I'd like to think that I am doing my best but I know I'm not. My food has been pretty horrible lately and I've also been lazy when it comes to my exercise. I'm finding a lot of excuses for not going to the track or getting in my weight lifting. Like right now, today. I pulled my back out (doing what, I don't know) but I can't exercise. It's a great excuse but it is also a fact. The only physical activity that I have been true to is yoga. I still go to my classes and also practice at home. I love it but I realize I need more than that. My waistline continues to expand along with my love of food. Yeah, it's a pretty negative picture but on the brighter side every day is a new start. Yeah, the first day of the rest of my life. Another bright spot is a very long conversation that I had on the phone with my fellow fabbie, Laura, who never fails to bring me back down to earth when we talk about this. She keeps me sane about this by telling me to just do the best that I can.

Practicing yoga...Wheel pose

There is not a hell of a lot that I can do about the ecomony but I can do the best that I can in my little world. I can keep an eye on our money by checking the stock market every day but not get crazy from it. I can keep reading and learning about all things financial and continue making good sound financial decisions such as not crapping my money away at the local casinos and banking as much as possible. I'll be happy when I can fly off to LA for a Fab reunion because I was able to save money by keeping out of the casinos. Yeah, doing the best that I can with my money will pay off big in the end.

Our last Fab Four Reunion

I do the best that I can as a mom. I am ALWAYS there for the kid. If she needs me I am totally there for her no matter what it is that she needs. This one is very easy for me. Kerry means everything to me and doing the best for her brings out the best in me.

"The Kid"

I will also do the best I can do for my county. That means I will be sure to vote. It's the least I can do and the best I can do. I hope you will all do the best you can do too.

My wonderful ladies

I have been working a lot lately. Michele, the club manager and holder of most of the available hours left to get married. She will be back in three weeks. Her last day was Monday. I work on Monday nights with her but Michele left early to get ready to fly to St John's and marry her long time boyfriend. I am happy for her but I must say that working this many hours is hard on me physically and I still have two more weeks until Michele comes back and reclaims her hours. Actually, although I am VERY tired I am finding it rewarding on many levels.

My ladies are really wonderful people who are struggling with excess weight and trying to stay healthy. Many of them are teachers at the local schools and are highly intelligent. I mean, lets face it, high school math teachers are brilliant. There is always spirited conversation at my Curves. I make sure of it. It's my job to keep things rolling along and make sure the ladies are having fun.

The other day I was doing a double day which is when I work both morning and afternoon/evening shits. I have been doing quite a few of these lately but usually I am the afternoon/evening worker. The morning ladies are completely different people from the afternoon ladies. It's just a different crowd in the morning. It is mostly older retired people with a few early morning, before work exercisers. So anyway, as I was saying, I opened the club the other day at 7:00 am and there was a lady waiting for me to open. I opened up and let her in.

When she logged in the computer told me her name was Suzette. She was not anyone I recognized but I started to talk to her as I would any of our Curves clients. It didn't take me long to find out that this lady is a Pre-Med advisor at one of this area's premier med schools. In other words, she is the person that helps the college kids get their applications together to get into med schools. I told her about Kerry and her desire to get into a medical school, any medical school.

This wonderful lady is going to meet with my daughter, go over her resume and tell her how to get into med school. She is even willing to give the kid a letter of recommendation based on her favorable feelings toward me. This is an unbelievable stroke of luck for us. Kerry needs help putting her application together and here we have a professional person willing to help her do that. I feel very lucky to have met this wonderful woman.

Lori helped me with my homowner's insurance. When the insurance company raised my homeowner's insurance $1400 per year she advised me to get a specific inspection that saved me over half of the proposed increase. This same lady gave me wonderful advice about refinancing my house which is happening now. She has saved me so much money.

Carol works at our local Dillards. She is always the one who tells me about the 75% off sales on shoes and clothes. She is a New Yorker like me and we kibitz a lot. It's fun. I like her very much. She is a little piece of home.

Angela is a travel agent. She is helping me get Kerry a ticket to go to Cincinnati after her MCATs for a good price. Angela is a gorgeous, fun loving, partying, lovely lady with a big heart, She even brought her dog, Kona, to meet me after hearing so much about Rigby.

Gloria, dare I say it, met Paul. Yep, my Paul. Paul McCartney. She worked for Island Records in the 60's and 70's. She also turned down Mick Jagger for a date because he called her too late and she was sleeping. She met Cat Stevens, Elton John, Stevie Windwood and Ian Anderson among other huge stars. I always love to hear her stories. She lived my dream life. Actually, she was one of my most quiet ladies to start with. It was a challenge bringing her out but I was able to get her to start talking. OMG, was I glad?

These are just a few of the ladies that I have met at my Curves. Yeah, I work my ass off and don't make much money but boy, oh, boy, what fantastic benefits.

The more I work the more wonderful people I meet. I remember when I started this job I said to Juliana, my yoga teacher that I was upset because I wasn't making much money. She told me to be mindful and maybe there would be other benefits to this job. Once again, Juliana was right.