Time Gets Away From You

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This is not an existentialist post about how I feel like I’m getting old. I do feel like teenagers are aliens, but I’m still in my 20s, so I’m not old yet.

This post is about how I got busy at work and watching episodes of Man Men, and suddenly I look up and haven’t posted on my blog in sixteen days. How does that happen?

Things happened that were worth blogging about. I usually try to blog while at work, where I have a keyboard. I have WordPress apps on my Galaxy and iPad, but I just can’t get into typing out a full post on the stupid touchscreen keypads. Considering how busy I’ve been at work, there just wasn’t time.

I talk a lot about trying to get healthy. I started using my lunch break at work to workout. This was really great because I stopped for about a week, but I got back up again and I’m on track.

I’ll have to workout six days a week for a whole month to catch up to reach my intended 90 day mark. I think I can do it. It’s just a matter of pacing myself and eating the right diet to get it done. Maybe it’s just been one of those kinds of weeks because none of my buddies on MyFitnessPal have logged in recently either. We’ve gotta get it together girls!

Elsewhere in my life are a couple of things I wasn’t ready to talk about yet, but I think now is the time.

First, the husband got accepted to grad school in New York. He’s supposed to start in August. We always planned on making the move to New York City, but now that it’s so close, there are a lot of unknowns we haven’t settled yet. I don’t have a job there, and I’m not moving until I get a job.

Job hunting is no easy task, so we’re preparing for moving out of our apartment when our lease ends next month and possibly living apart for a few months when he starts school. I know couples do it all the time, but I’m not looking forward to it at all.

The other thing going on in my life is that my cousin is having health issues. I don’t want to go into too many details because she’s a pretty private person, but it’s been difficult. Luckily, my boss has let me be flexible with my hours to help my cousin.

I’m the only one in my family with any medical background, so I’ve gone with her to every single doctor’s appointment, and there have been a lot. My cousin in only 29, and it just doesn’t seem fair that she should have to go through what she’s going through. I don’t know how familiar you all are with this, but I’ve got three words. Bone. Marrow. Biopsy. That shit is no joke and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

Being there for my cousin is important to me, and I’m glad she’s letting me.

This month is about supporting family, especially my cousin. It’s also about supporting friends. I have two graduations parties to go to this weekend, and I’m so proud of both my girls. One has an accounting degree and the other a law degree. Wouldn’t it be great if they both ended up working in entertainment? If the husband’s career takes off to the point that he needs and accountant and a lawyer, it would be nice to have those two.

This month is also about staying healthy. I’ve been avoiding carbs that don’t come from fruits, vegetables, or grains for about a week. So far so good. For the record, potatoes are on the bad carb list, but sweet potatoes are on the good carb list.

And one more thing for this month is packing up our apartment. I haven’t really started on that yet. I’m feeling increasingly frantic about it. I have to pack for a move to NYC without knowing our future apartment size. And I have to pack for moving to one of our parents’ houses where we’ll reside for the summer. And I have to pack for putting certain things in storage that we want to keep but we know isn’t making the trip to NYC. Crazy, right?

And somewhere in there I have to finish catching up on Mad Men. I never watched a single episode until two weeks ago when I, ahem, stopped working out for a bit, ahem. I can’t even figure out what I like so much about that show.

I’m currently in early Season 5 and I can’t wait to catch up. After I pack, and workout, and work, and cook a healthy meal, and look for a job in NYC.

To Reunion or Not Reunion

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I’ve mentioned once or twice that the exercise plan I’m using to try to get back in shape is Tracy Anderson Metamorphosis. There reviews are bad and good, mostly because she doesn’t give you explicit instructions throughout her videos. I happen to prefer it that way. I hate watching an exercise DVD for a week straight, hearing the same voice telling me the same things that stop being inspirational after day one.

Her methods work great for me, when I”m actually working out. Since I’ve gotten back on track, it’s been just as great as the first time. Her plan is that by the time you reach Day 90 of exercising, you’ll have a whole new body.

Day 90 of exercising is your 90th day of working out, not 90 calendar days after the day you start. I have a countdown widget at the bottom of my blog that I had to reset when I started working out again. That counter happened to land on Day 90 of August 16, 2013. That is the first day of my 10 year high school reunion.

I’ve been thinking about this reunion, especially because the husband’s ten-year reunion was last year. The question is, do I really want to go?

All the movies about reunions show people agonizing over their reunions. How do they look? Are they where they want professionally, romantically, and otherwise?

I don’t want to describe me, but I feel like I might be.

I used to attend medical school. You don’t just leave medical school. Not unless you get kicked out or hauled off to the loony bin. I chose to leave on my own because I wasn’t happy and decided I didn’t want to become a doctor anymore.

Hell, I’m not sure I ever wanted to become a doctor. I just made so much sense. I’m great at math and science. I love helping people. I have no issues with blood or injuries (unless it’s a horror movie or a person coughing near my open mouth). Obviously, I’d become a doctor if I tested and interviewed well enough to get into medical school, right?

Eh, but it wasn’t meant for me. I love what I do now, but I feel like former med student is all people will see.

On top of the not-that-easily-understandable career path, there is only one friend of mine in my graduating class. The people from my high school that are still around are from all different classes except mine. One of the people I mentioned in a previous post who is getting divorced was one of the bridesmen at my wedding. He’s the only one.

I’m not even sure if he’s planning on going or not.

But then again, if I can show up to the reunion with my wonderful husband, a great job that made me supervisor in one year, great hair, great body, and genuinely happy, that’s got be worth something right?

My school has a reputation for being pretentious and a lot of other negative words. It’s full of smart kids that tested to get in who knew  they were smart. I didn’t have trouble making friends, but I definitely wasn’t the most outgoing person. Most of the time when I attracted attention, it was on accident because I can get loud if I get excited.

I suppose there is a part of me wondering what the old choir members, ROTC members, and ex-boyfriends are up to these days. Yup, high school for me mainly consisted of ROTC, choir, and dating. Oh, and taking hella extra science and math classes to prepare for college.

Aren’t reunions these exciting events, setup so you can reconnect with lost friends and catch up on old times? Do I really care to do that?

I don’t know yet.

What I know is I’ve made it past Day 10 on my 90 Day workout plan. That means I have 80 more days to decide.

Probably less. There’s no way my high school would hold these events without some seriously advanced RSVPs.

Couples Therapy

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When the husband and I got married, we each had a maid of honor and a best man. We do what we want like that. His people were one of his sisters and one of his oldest friends. My people were two friends who graduated from the same college I did. I met my best man the day I arrived to college, and my maid and honor has been one of best friends since age 9.

The fraternity my best man belongs to throws this amazing party every year. I learned this year it’s only been open to the public outside the frat since 2004, which happens to be the first year I started attending. I’ve only missed two since then.

Last year, the husband went with my best man, and without me, to the party. I couldn’t get off from work after taking off so much time for our wedding. This year, we were all determined to go.

The husband decided to invite some people to join us. The only people who took us up on our offer, and then actually made financial plans to go, were the couple whose wedding I attended when I met the husband. The four of us made plans to drive to Florida and back, meeting my best man and some other college friends there to attend this party.

You may be scratching your head at this point, wondering how old I am. I’m 28. This is just a really great party. The group we were hanging out with were all in college or college age back in 2005. So, yes, we’d be older than most of the people there.

We would be even close to the oldest there though. A lot of people (mostly those associated closely with the fraternity) came back for that party every year. I”m not the type of person to want to go back for Homecoming. Honestly, Homecoming was never fun for me during college. But I like visiting, and this seemed to be as good a reason as any to visit.

So the four of us are in the husband’s car, preparing for a 16-ish hour drive to Florida. We’re laughing, joking, and eating the food the two wives had put together in preparation for the road trip.

Then, as I mentioned in a previous post, the husband of the couple announced we were on a couples’ retreat.

The husband and I looked at each other and said, “we didn’t sign up for this shit. What do you mean a couples’ retreat?”

They laughed at us and explained that as newly married couples (us just over one year, them coming up on three), it was inevitable that we’d discuss some things.

The husband and I were doubtful as we usually handle all of our couple issues in house. Then they explained that they didn’t really have any other couple friends that were  married or even heavily committed, so this was happening.

I looked at the husband and he could tell all I was saying from that glance. I was thinking, “you set this up and invited these people and now we’re on a damn couples retreat!”

He started laughing because he perfectly understood my look. His humor was infectious and then I was laughing too.

And then we spent the next three hours having what felt like a couples’ therapy session. We compared and contrasted some common arguments we had. I’d never done anything like that, and I don’t know that I want to again.

It was certainly interesting to have an outside take on things we did and said. There were definitely a  lot of, “see I told you! I’m not crazy, they both agree with me!”s being said by all four of us, which was hilarious.

Craziness like the first half of that car ride are part of the reason we’d be friends for a very long time. We all grew up in he same circles, but being married drew us together in a different, unexpected way.

I guess that goes to show that relationships grow and change, even complicated ones like a pair of newly married couples.