Fitness Class Etiquette

Well guys grab something sturdy cause you're in for a shock. Since January I've been going to the gym. I know. That's like what, 4 months? Hold on, I'll show you a picture of my 6 pack. Hmm...keep holding for that one.

Anyhow, I've been taking a lot of fitness classes. Most are good and go smoothly. But some end up a little uncomfortable. I feel like there needs to be a lesson on gym class etiquette.

1. I'm in the back row. I always get there EARLY to get a spot in the back row. Do not come in 10 min late and create your own new back row behind me. Ooooh this really chaps my hide. You don't want to make a scene, I get it. You don't want to be seen. Believe me I really get that. That is why I plan ahead to secure a spot in the back. I suggest you do the same.

2. Please do not knock over my water! Or if you do, at least be kind enough to pick it up. Come on people. It's a basic lesson. Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere...

3. If we are in a class that some clean up is required ( ie muscle) don't start cleaning up during the cool down! Maybe you are already all stretchy and don't need any more of that. But some of us do. So when you are running around us putting all your weights and other equipment away it's very distracting. And kinda rude to the instructor in my opinion.

I guess that kinda sounds like a rant. 99% of the classes I take are super fun ( or funnish, I hate you muscle) and go smoothly. But every once in a while I get a class and I wonder what people are thinking. Be courteous to your fellow gym goers!

How I Grieve

Well hi there! 2ish years later...we have a lot of catching up to do! But first, the reason I've returned to the blogging world:

I've missed it! I keep thinking about things that would be perfect blog entries. So here we are, up and running again. And hopefully not that once a year entry business. But no promises.

A very close relative of mine had a brush with death recently. Things were looking bleak. I'm lucky enough to have not lost anyone I'm really close to. I lost my Grandpa when I was 7. But that was a loooong time ago. So this hit me really hard. I LOVE this person, and am not ready to say goodbye to her.

I've always been sensitive. I've always been quick to cry, whether I'm happy or sad. I hate it. I hate that all my emotions seem to flow out my eyes. I'ts embarrassing and makes me seem weak.

But boy did I cry. And cry, and cry. I cried for this person. I cried for her husband who would be left a widower. I cried for everyone related to her, for the memories we've had and for the memories we haven't been able to make yet. The flood gates opened. It's hard to explain to my husband ( a non crier) why I'm this way.

When I grieve, I really GRIEVE. I feel for people as if I was in that position. When I see someone else crying, I have to fight off the tears. When someone else is sad or troubled, I have this need to help them. To make them feel better. It literally eats away at me until I do something about it. It can be exhausting but rewarding at the same time.

So while I wish I could control my tears a little more, I don't wish I was different. The world needs more compassionate people. So me and my waterproof eye makeup will just keep on doing what we've been doing.  Hi, my name is Liz. And I care.

It's Enough

Apparently I'm going to just pop on here every few months! Does anyone really still blog anyway? Most of the blogs I once followed have been sitting in active for months and months and months. I guess I can't blame them considering I'm one of them. Anyhow, I had a thought the other day.

Is being just a Mom enough?

Let me back up here a little bit. I'm no longer working at Sprouts as Jimmy got a job doing medical transport ( yay!). So, I'm back to being a stay at home Mom. After alllllll my education. Alllllll my job experiences. Allllll my work I'm a Mom. Something that 1/2 the population can do. 16 year olds can do it for goodness sake. There is no interview process, and no necessary skill set required. Just, a Mom. That's where I am.

I feel the judgement. Though they might try to politely hide it, I hear it in their voices. Conversations tend to go like this:

Nice not meaning to offend person: Didn't you go to hair school?

Me: Yep

NNMOP ( shortened for my convenience): Are you working at a salon?

Me: Nope, I'm at home with my kids

NNMOP: Oh, that's great! ( underlying tone here: that's not great. Why did you bother going to hair school if you were just going to stay home and not do anything with it)

Me: Yeah, I really enjoy it most days ( depending on the day, this is an absolute fabrication. But I have to say this to make myself feel better about my choice. To make it seem like this is the choice I really wanted).

You could modify this interaction and sub the word college in for hair school and end up with about the same result.

If you were to ask Brynlee what she wants to be when she grows up, she will tell you a Mom. At first this horrified me. "Just a Mom?!" I thought. "She can be anything. Doctor, lawyer, architect, peace corp worker, president. Whatever. She can do it all! Isn't she setting the bar a little low here?"

This bothered me for quite a while. But then as I went to my first PTA meeting I looked over the long list of things that I GET to be involved in. Things that I GET to be present for. I GET to have an active role in rearing my children. Monetarily can I afford to be a stay at home Mom? No, not really. Not at all actually. But I can't afford to not be present while my kids grow up either.

I've left my kids with strangers, worked all day and rushed home to be just in time to tuck them in- the entire day gone and all I had to show for it was a measly pay check ( not nearly worth the effort I put into earning it) and a longing for the time I missed with my family.

I've realized that even though my current job requires no training, fancy degrees or credentials it is the MOST important job I'll ever have. And while it's not my dream job every day ( and can be quite a nightmare some days) it is a dream. It's a dream that I get a front row seat to watch my children grow.

I might feel pangs of jealousy as I see my former school mates advancing their careers in ways I never thought possible. Because I want to be there. I want to use the skills I've so painstakingly acquired. But there is a time and a season, and for me it's not right now. For me it's my time to be a super fun awesome Mom.

For me, for right now being a Mom is enough.

The Best You

Sooooo....hey there!

I'm back! For now anyway. Not much has happened since I last wrote 4 months ago. Just kidding! Lots has happened!

But, rather than re cap all that I feel like discussing something I keep thinking about. Body image. Yes, body image. I know I've discussed this in the past, but it keeps popping up.

There's been a movement to boycott Carls Jr. I love their food. I really do. But I do find their commercials offensive. And stupid. But isn't it their right to air offensive stupid commercials? You know, the whole I don't agree with what you are saying, but I agree with your right to say it? If I was going to boycott everything I found offensive there would be a lot.

I get my bras from Victoria's secret, yet I find their commercials dumb. And lets not get started on the "fashion shows"... Should I stop buying bras from there?

Sports Illustrated and their whole "swimsuit issue". So dumb. Who looks like that? Really. Should I stop reading that magazine?

To be completely honest, what bothers me the most about these things is where is the equality? Carls Jr, where are your commercials with hot guys eating cheese burgers with no shirt? Why isn't there an annual woman's magazine that comes out with a men's swimsuit issue? I wouldn't buy it ( which is maybe the root of why they don't come out with it). I don't need to stare at pictures of attractive men. What does that accomplish? But where is the equality here?

When it comes down to it, we just aren't equal when it comes to body image. Women are seen as possessions. To be stared at, drooled over and gawked at. Men are not ( for the most part, there are exceptions to every rule. ie Magic Mike). I know there are some men with body image issues. I know you are out there men. But there are not nearly as many of you as there are us. Probably because we compare ourselves to the girls on the Carls Jr commercial that you watch...you don't have a commercial to compare yourself to.

So, besides boycotting these places and things, what can I do about it? I can be at peace with myself. I'm never going to look like a Victoria's secret model. 99% of us won't. No, it's not fair that we are expected to. But to expect to look like that is NOT realistic. If you are with a guy who expects you to look like that, you need a new guy. Not a new body. Try to be the best YOU you can be. You with love handles, muffin top and a saggy bum ( Ok, that's all me, but you get the idea). At least that is what I'm doing. I work out sometimes. I eat right sometimes. I feel pretty sometimes ( sometimes, not so pretty). But I'm working on it. And I'm definitely not using a Carls Jr add as inspiration!

These Days

Hello readers! Are there any of you left? After another month with no posts, I don't blame you for leaving me. Here's what's been going on these days:

Liz- I got a job! And here is the ironic part- It's a job at the place where I had to take the test I was complaining about in my last post! How funny is that. When they called me for an interview I couldn't believe it. I'll be working at Sprouts. It's like a Trader Joe's type place. Is it hair? No. However they are willing to work around my very difficult availability. And the pay is decent so I'm thankful for it. Once again I fought the no Sundays battle and won. Victory is mine! I'll be slowing down my baking a bit. But still plan on trying to bake once a week or so. 

Jimmy- is chugging along in school. He will kill me for writing this, but his chemistry class was giving him a hard time. He took chemistry 1 like 4 years ago, and is now taking chemistry 2. Yeah....anyhow he has worked his butt off ( seriously, studying all hours of the night. Coming to bed at 4am to wake up at 6am) but on his last test he got 110 out of 100 ( there were some extra credit questions). I'm so proud of him and all the hard work he has put in.

Brynlee- Ah, Brynlee. In case we aren't facebook friends and you missed it, we had a hair cutting incident. It was really bad. Hairgate is what I call it. She butchered the front of her hair- as seen below. 

Yeah. Mom was not pleased. Mom was quite mad- and might of cried LOL. However, after some styling we have this:

To be 100% honest, I actually really like the length on her.She looks really cute with short hair. The front is still a train wreck and requires lots of hairspray and bobby pins to keep it back. But it could've been worse I suppose. At least she didn't cut it down to scalp.

Claire: Is getting bigger and bigger. She isn't crawling- but rolls to where ever she wants to go. We need to start baby proofing ASAP. She is eating baby food now. She loves peas ( seriously, who loves peas? I gag while I feed them to her!) and sweet potatoes. She's kinda iffy about carrots and mixed vegetables. She is still napping 2 times per day, but I see that ending soon. She is super curious, and super cute :)

I'm super excited about Halloween- I loved handing out candy last year. Seeing all the little kids on parade was so much fun! I ran out of candy really fast so I bought extra this year. Hopefully it will last me longer!

On the Hunt

Here we are again, job hunting I go!

For those of you haven't applied for a job in a long time you are really missing out! It's oodles of fun out there these days.

This is totally going to date me-but you guys all know I'm 30 so who cares. Remember when you actually went into a place to apply for a job? When you filled out a paper application, and handed it to a real live human being? Then, you waited patiently by your corded phone to hear back. Hopefully. Maybe.

Those where the days. Oh they are long gone now. Now, it's all online. Which is great if you are lazy. I mean I applied a ton of place this morning, and I'm still in my PJ's. But the personal touch is gone. So now my application will shoot into a pile of 10000000 others probably never to be seen again. Add in my availability and it will take an act of God to get me hired. And those are just the ones that don't have a crazy test with them.

Yes, a crazy test. If you want to work at Target ( Yes, I've applied there in recent years) you have to take a test. Not just any test. A serious test. I just applied at a grocery store type place. I consider myself fairly intelligent- and then I took the test. Vocabulary questions ( like words you get on the game Baulderdash, no joke), math word problems, impossible scenarios where you have no idea what kind of answer they want. These are all tests for people to get jobs that pay minimum wage. Seriously. I wish I was joking. Apparently in order to ring up groceries I need to know which word doesn't belong with the other 4 words. Who knew being a grocery clerk was so intense?  And you get 10 min to do all this....which runs out quickly let me tell you. I'm not expecting a call back from that place.

I went through all this when I was in hair school. I literally applied EVERYWHERE. I was rejected by pretty much everywhere. It's a bad day when you can't even get a job at Babies R Us. I went though this when I first moved here ( you remember the Supercuts saga). And now here we are again.  I forsee a lot more rejection in my future. But hopefully as a door is closing a window will open and I'll find a fit somewhere. Until then I'm feeling humbled. And on the hunt.

How Did I Get Here?

You know those things you see people do ( especially parents) that are so completely obnoxious you want to die? You think to yourself, I'll never do that. Or even better, I'll never let my kids do that? Yeah. I said that too at one point. The tune I'm singing is a little different now.

When I waitressed at Chili's we had this family that would come in. NO ONE wanted them. They had 2 little kids that were terrible. They would tear about the table and make the biggest mess you've ever seen. Dumped out salt and pepper, sugar everywhere, ketchup everywhere. Food and trash all over the floor. And they left the crappiest tip-totally not worth the 1 hour you spent after they left attempting to put the table back together.

Well I haven't gotten that bad- I still work really hard to make sure my kid doesn't destroy tables at restaurants ( when we go, which is never LOL). But as I walked through Walmart distractedly talking on my phone as Brynlee ran a muck up and down the aisles I had a moment. What was I doing? I HATE people who talk on their phone all the time- sorry if this is you. But I can't hang. People who are on their phone in line at the store, people who are on their phone in drive thrus. Maybe it comes from being a cashier and being completely ignored by people who where on their phones while I rang them up. I just think it's rude. And irritating. I really don't want to hear your loud one sided conversation while I wait in line. I really don't. Anyway you could wait like 3 min and talk loudly in your car ( because that is actually legal here)? Thanks!

Yet here I was. One of those people. Brynlee was wreaking havoc and instead of trying to corral her in I thought, "hey this is Walmart. If you can't run a muck here, where can you run a muck?". I think everyone thinks that-which is why Walmart is the way it is! I've gotten to the point where I expect my kid to make a huge mess, expect her to say rude things to people and expect her to not listen. How did this happen? I've become desensitized. Maybe I'm tired ( ok, no maybe about it). Maybe I've given up the little stuff. Maybe I realized kids don't act like they do in TV shows. You know, how the characters have kids who play quietly by them selves and never make a mess and do exactly what they are told. Turns out real kids aren't actually like that! Reba and Friends/, you sold me a lie!

Either way, I hate the parent I've become. Just because it's hard doesn't mean I can just give up on disciplining my child and let her go wild. Hoping it's just a phase that will pass is not a good parenting style. Give me a few months and I may be as bad as that dreaded family who came into Chilis! That is assuming we actually go out to eat again. I'm not sure how I got here. But I can't stay here. Next time I go to Walmart my child will not run wild up and down the aisles. Even if I have to leash her to me ( which by the way I was totally against until I had kids, LOL).