Archive: February 2009

A progress report on my three resolutions for 2009:

Every day, I will clean for 15 minutes.
I’m not sure how to say this graciously and modestly, but … I may have totally rocked this resolution this month. Woo hoo! In stark contrast to last month’s willy-nilly “methodology,” I made a list of the tasks I need to do regularly,  categorized by frequency: daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly. For example, I make the bed every day, dust the bedroom once a week, clean the stovetop every other week, and empty the paper shredder bin every month. I have a 4-week plan in the works so that I don’t keep re-writing lists every night, but that requires more tweaking before it can go into regular rotation.

All of that is to say that I feel much more prepared to tackle my daily cleaning allotment. My self-assigned tasks don’t always add up to the whole 15 minutes, but it’s easy enough to clear the dish rack, put clothing away, or wipe down counters to fill in spare minutes here and there.

One of our recurring fights (you know what I’m talking about, right?) revolves around the distribution of household chores. Much to my chagrin, JG usually carries the brunt of the burden because he is very industrious and gets home earlier. Since I started this resolution, we have not broached this topic, which is a relief to both of us, I think.  Even better, JG has made a point of acknowledging my efforts, which is especially gratifying because I try to clean in the morning, when no one is there to coo over my mopped floor.

Every week, I will write and send my grandmother a note.
I had a close call last week, but I managed to get a card to the mailbox on Saturday before the mail carrier came. Phew! My favorite card to send my grandmother was the cute, glittery Valentine. It had a cupcake on it!

Every month, I will take at least a few hours just for myself.
In order to figure out if I had accomplished this resolution, I had to check my calendar on my PDA, which was my first clue that I did not do so well at this one. Let’s see … I had dinner with a friend one night … I stayed home from climbing to try the 30-Day Shred … I’m going to book club tomorrow night … Huh. These are not quite what I pictured for time “just for myself.”

Between tonight and tomorrow, I might rent a movie or read for a couple of hours, but I don’t have anything specific in mind, and I have several errands to run, which does not bode well. I think I have to file this one under Needs Improvement.

I heard that Jillian Michaels’ 30-Day Shred might be available on my cable’s On Demand channel, and although I haven’t jumped on the bandwagon just yet, the DVD is lying in wait in my Amazon shopping cart. To my pleasant surprise, I found Levels 1 and 2 (for free!), and I tried Level 1 three times in the past week.

I managed the workout with minimal modifications, and I was mostly happy with my endurance during the cardio sections. However, that last abs circuit just about did me in, and Jillian’s instructions were no help: “See how they’re doing it? It’s all abs; the neck is not invited to this party.”

Well.

Not only did my neck come to the party, but it went too far and now has a raging, painful hangover. Yesterday, I could barely look down or to either side, so I spent the evening with a heating pad against my neck. Today, I feel slightly better as long as I don’t do anything crazy like look at my shoes or check my blind spot. My motions are painfully restricted, and I forget until I try to move. The neck is officially un-invited from any future parties.

At 3pm on Friday, the good news was that I had finished all of my work; the bad news was that I couldn’t go home. Oh, well. It could have been worse. I idly clicked through the sale pages of my normal retail sites and watched the time pass.

And then, I saw the dress. It was love, and I never fall in love at first click. Green! Print! Knee-length! Fluttery sleeves to hide my huge arms! In my size! In petite! And, Lord have mercy, on sale! My eyes bugged out of my head when I saw that red price: $14.99, marked down from eighty dollars.

My breath caught in my throat. Was it meant to be? Should I make this impulsive move and add the dress to my shopping bag? My indecision got the best of me and I scanned my Gmail contacts: where were my shopping enablers?

I frantically IMed Val with the link:

RA: I have to buy this, right? $15!

Val: YES

RA: THANK YOU

I threw caution to the wind and clicked that cute dress into my shopping bag. Oh, yes, that dress would be mine.

Eight minutes later, when I went to check out, the dress was sold out. Nooo!

You might be wondering what happened during those eight minutes. Why didn’t I go straight to check-out and secure the dress for my own? Yes. Well. There are two reasons I took eight minutes to check out:

1. Greed
The whole Gap-Old Navy-Banana Republic conglomerate has flat-rate, $7 shipping, so I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to look around and see if there was anything else I might like. I debated sleeveless tops at Gap, but I eventually decided to go for a bag from Old Navy, not that I ended up buying it because I received the Out of Stock Message of Doom when I added it to my shopping bag. If that isn’t an object lesson in, um, being content or something, I don’t know what it is.

2. Pride
The other portion of my dallying was spent checking my personal finance spreadsheet. How’s that for irony, people? Worst of all, it’s not like I didn’t have the whopping $22 around to pay for this awesome dress, no, no! I wanted to see my balance column ripple through to the bottom line so I could see the state of my funds. That is spreadsheet hubris, plain and simple.

Once it was clear that the dress and I were not going to live happily ever after, I proceeded to panic. In my case, that means refreshing the website over and over just in case another one in my size pops up. It also means calling the Banana Republic customer service line and hoping that they have one in their records I could swipe. And then there’s the panic in the form of checking the sale page several times a day over the weekend.

I know it’s stupid and petty and small of me to be so caught up about this dress. I know that it’s just a piece of clothing, and there are so many actual problems in the world that my complaining about this missed opportunity for consumerism registers as a luxury and not a loss. I know all of these things.

Somewhere, there is a girl, exactly my size, who is rightfully crowing to her friends about the great deal she scored on Friday, and I am truly happy for her. But, oh, I am sad for me.

As of tomorrow, my birthday is in two weeks! I have decided to embrace a certain (appropriate, decorous) level of gleeful anticipation. No one will suffer through a daily countdown reminder or anything, but I’ve sent out an Evite for a dessert open house, and the menu is still to be determined. We’ll have Funfetti cupcakes, of course, but I saw a recipe for a root beer cake, which sounds amazing with some vanilla ice cream on the side…

I would be remiss if I didn’t provide some suggestions for what I’d like to receive, but let’s face it: the Slanket Birthday will be a hard act to follow. Good luck, folks.

(Eeee, birthday!)

1. Patent-leather magic wallet: $29.50 at J. Crew
My sister has one of these “foldy wallet thingies,” as I prefer to call them, in a cute shade of turquoise, and I have been coveting it ever since I laid eyes on it. It would come in very handy when I want to go without a bag, and look — shiny!

2. Kaiser Bakeware Noblesse 9-inch springform pan: $24.94 at Amazon
The springform pan I received at my wedding shower was a lovely surprise, especially because I didn’t think to register for one, and I love making cheesecake. However, the thing is huge, and I didn’t realize it until three attempts in a row came out all shallow and wimpy. The brand I’ve requested is the one recommended by America’s Test Kitchen.

3. The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book: $23.07 at Amazon
Speak of the devil! I’m interested to see what else ATK will pull out in this new baking tome, seeing as their original cookbook has already graced us with peanut butter brownies and giant chocolate chip cookies.

4. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins: $12.23 at Amazon
I want to snap up a nice hardcover copy before some awful edition comes out with movie promos splashed all over it.

5. Loop hoop earrings: $19 at Kate Szabone’s Etsy shop
These earrings are making an unprecedented second wish-list appearance. Here’s to hoping I don’t list them a third time!

6. Wii Fit: $89.99 at Newegg.com
Let the record show that this video game will be the only one I ever request.

7. A new climbing harness
I’ve had my current harness for over five years, and it’s about time to hang it up, even though I’m not taking any big falls. If I were to get the model pictured here (Petzl Luna, $79.95 at at EMS), JG and I would have matching harnesses, and that is not cute in the climbing world.

8. A Homemade Life, by Molly Wizenberg: $16.50 at Amazon
Molly is the writer and photographer behind the lovely food blog, Orangette, as well as a columnist for Bon Appétit, and I can’t wait to read her book, set to release in just a couple of weeks.

9. Foldover jersey skirt: $15 at Old Navy
When I purged my wardrobe this winter, I realized that there is a gaping casual-black-skirt-sized hole in my clothing repertoire.