Non funny update on whatever

OK, it’s been a while, but life has been crazy. I had good intentions of posting all through the holidays, but that went out the window, and then I thought I would get to it in January, but that didn’t happen either. The stupid thing is, now I can’t even remember anything I wanted to say since it’s been so long, so I don’t even know how to recap the holidays. Anyway, they weren’t bad. I was d ieting like crazy and hit my target weight on Xmas Eve of what I wanted to be down to on Christmas, so that was good, and I even fit into this Hollister hoodie I’ve never worn because I couldn’t fit it, so it was a great feeling. Then on Christmas Eve evening, I started eating and drinking and didn’t stop for a couple of weeks. I am actually only about 5 lbs up from then, but I reeeeally feel it. I have to get back on track. Like Oprah, this is my year… hahahahahahahahahaha! Oh good one, Opie! Anyway, I haven’t exercised really since the holidays, but I will get back on the wagon.
So for Christmas, my darling Rachel bought me an actual ipod. I was happy with my Creative Zen, but the ipod is like 120 GB, and so I figured that I could theoretically put all our cds onto it. Well, first off, an ipod is a lot less user friendly than the Creative Zen, I’ll tell you that much. It took me ages and ages to figure out how the stupid thing worked. Like, I didn’t KNOW that you “rolled” the controls like a dial. I thought you clicked everything and couldn’t get it to do anything. I also didn’t know how to control the volume, and I still don’t know if there is a shut off switch somewhere. Of course, the instructors suck – all you get is some stupid diagram that tells you how to plug it in and then it instructs you to go to the Help section in itunes. Well, that is about as helpful as having Bill Clinton teaching chastity lessons. I finally had to google “how do you control the volume on an ipod” to figure it out. THEN, the kids got an ipod for Xmas and I loaded their music on before xmas, but it imported all MY music on my computer to their ipod. WELL. With my Creative Zen (it sounds like I am getting a kickback from them, doesn’t it?), all you do is click on a track and hit delete and voila, that stank is gone. However, I couldn’t figure out how to get all my Boz Scaggs Greatest Hits off their ipod. Also, they wanted something added to it, but then I knew that as soon as I hit sync, all the stuff I started putting in itunes would go on theirs (this is after I got mine and started to try to put all my cds in there). So, again, I was up until 2:30 one night trying to figure it out and I again had to google it to figure out how. I think I have that figured out now, anyway. Anyway, I started to be selective and only add stuff I knew I would want, instead of whole albums, but that is proving to take so long I am either just skipping complete albums or importing entire cds I’ll never listen to. For example, the Mrs. apparently has these old Roxette cds and I hate them, but there was one or two songs I thought wouldn’t be bad, but I just don’t have the time to piss around and find the songs and yada yada so I just thought I could live without it altogether. Conversely, I have a Mighty, Mighty Bosstones cd which has some song I apparently loved once upon a time but I’ve honestly never listened to the rest of the album before, but I just imported the whole thing because it was just easier. I am maybe 65% done putting my cds on there. I also fell in love with the itunes store, which is dangerous, and then I discovered puretracks.com, which is even better, and I spent some money there putting on cds I own but are either damaged or missing, and it’s a good deal. The discs from my Elton John boxed set are all scratched, so I just bought them, all 4 discs, on puretracks, for 10 bucks. I also found two songs I’ve never been able to find on limewire before – “That’s not the way it’s s’posed to be” by Anne Murray (don’t laugh, it’s non-country and good) and Donna Summer’s remake of “There goes my Baby” AND Benjamin Orr’s “Too Hot to Stop.” So yeah, that’s dominated my time.
We also bought a stereo with a docking station, but it’s sort of wrecked so we have to take it back but I am just too lazy to at the moment. We also got the kids a wii for Xmas and that is so much damn fun. We bought RockBand 2 over the holidays and it’s addictive, although I completely suck at it. It also annoys me that you have to “Earn” the songs. Whatever. I can’t wait until I get to “Go Your Own Way” and “Alex Chilton”.
And what else…. I was pretty good at Xmas, but fell apart over New Years and the first 2 weeks of January. Seriously, I think it’s like posttraumatic stress, you know that? I think because it was just go-go-go when mom was sick and when she died that I just couldn’t process. Like I was balancing a new baby and traveling to Saskatoon to see mom almost every day and then her dying so abruptly, and then leaving town and going back to work and then her funeral right after that and writing the tribute and then into my busy work time and busy kid time, and Xmas and all of that…. Well, the whole chain of events kept coming back to me and I was just a wreck. So anyway, I seem to be ok again now, for the most part, but from about New Years day until around the middle of January, I was thinking I needed help because it was just so painful. Anyway, enough about that, because I hate wallowing. It didn’t help that I had strep throat over Xmas, so of course that made me weak and tired and probably more susceptible to carrying on.
What else… what else….. oh, so we also embarked on painting the entire upstairs of our house. I was reluctant because I was in love with my dark terracotta color, because I thought it made the house look classy and New Mexico like, but my wife was sick of it and wanted to lighten it up, so we painted it this color called Pyramid, and I didn’t like it at first, but now I think I do. It will be really nice once we get accents in, like new furniture and stuff – we want dark brown as the accent color.
So yeah, that’s what we’ve been busy with. I am sure there is much more, but that’s the roundabout bit for now. I can fill in the blanks later. Anyway, talk soon, all y’all…