I was a bookworm these last two weeks.  I read:

• Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation by Sandeep Jauhar.  A really interesting book!  AND SUPER DISGUSTING AT TIMES.
• Paris: A Love Story by Kati Marton.  I wanted to poke my eye out about 196 times while reading this.  (One eye poke per page.) I thought this would be a nice little story about Kati falling in love with her husband (Richard Holbrooke, perhaps you’ve heard of him), and yet it was not.  It was narcissistic, bitter and unkind in places, and an overall depressing read.
• Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth. This was such a fascinating book that I requested another book of hers from the library and am looking forward to getting it. Have you seen the BBC series on PBS? It’s based on this memoir, and both are amazing.  I’m re-watching the series now that I’m all freshly jazzed from reading the book.

1. Lose 30 lbs

7 down

2. Enter and walk or bike in 30 miles of races, the Mini being one of them

10 miles down. 20 to go.

3. Go to the gym every day for 30 days (with the exception of Wednesdays, because on Wednesdays it is totally impossible for me.)

4. Fast 30 days

8 out of 30 done!

5. Try 30 new recipes
6. Read 30 new books

28 out of 30

7. Eat 30 Caviar eggs
8. Find 30 geocaches with Joey

24 out of 30 found

9. Participate in the spelling bee at Old Threshers, stay in 30 minutes
10. Log 30 new birds

11. Test drive a $30,000 car (fiat?)
12. Take cold showers every morning for 30 days
13. Take no more than 30 minutes to face my fear of touching the deep end in a pool.
14. Try 30 new foods that stretch my taste palate.

15. Find 30 recipes using spam as the main dish. Choose one. And eat it.

16. Give up Pepsi for 30 days
17. Go to the top of a high observation tower. Stay up there 30 minutes

18. Go on a 30 hr hike/backpack trip with Joey
19. Send 30 handwritten notes in the mail

20. Log 30 SEQUENTIAL days of food journaling on My Fitness Pal

21. Watch 30 documentaries on varying topics

22. Make 30 tamales

23. Have 30 people over for dinner at once
24. Watch the Friends episode “The One Where They All Turn 30″
25. Give up all sweets for 30 days

26. Go on a 30 hour silence retreat

27. Memorize 30 verses

5 out of 30

28. Explore 30 new places in Indianapolis/Indiana

25 out of 30

29. Watch 30 classic movies

30. Go veggie for 30 days!

It will be amazing.

1. Lose 30 lbs

7 down

2. Enter and walk or bike in 30 miles of races, the Mini being one of them

10 miles down. 20 to go.

3. Go to the gym every day for 30 days (with the exception of Wednesdays, because on Wednesdays it is totally impossible for me.)

20 out of 30

4. Fast 30 days

8 out of 30 done!

5. Try 30 new recipes
6. Read 30 new books

23 out of 30

7. Eat 30 Caviar eggs
8. Find 30 geocaches with Joey

24 out of 30 found

9. Participate in the spelling bee at Old Threshers, stay in 30 minutes
10. Log 30 new birds

11. Test drive a $30,000 car (fiat?)
12. Take cold showers every morning for 30 days
13. Take no more than 30 minutes to face my fear of touching the deep end in a pool.
14. Try 30 new foods that stretch my taste palate.

25 out of 30

15. Find 30 recipes using spam as the main dish. Choose one. And eat it.
16. Give up Pepsi for 30 days
17. Go to the top of a high observation tower. Stay up there 30 minutes

18. Go on a 30 hr hike/backpack trip with Joey
19. Send 30 handwritten notes in the mail

20. Log 30 SEQUENTIAL days of food journaling on My Fitness Pal

21. Watch 30 documentaries on varying topics

22. Make 30 tamales

23. Have 30 people over for dinner at once
24. Watch the Friends episode “The One Where They All Turn 30″
25. Give up all sweets for 30 days

26. Go on a 30 hour silence retreat

27. Memorize 30 verses

5 out of 30

28. Explore 30 new places in Indianapolis/Indiana

25 out of 30

29. Watch 30 classic movies

30. Go veggie for 30 days!

Tonight we were sitting in front of the fire eating pumpkin pecan ice cream to soothe our sore throats, when Ana BELCHED in the middle of a word.

Joey and I kind of looked at each other in stunned silence, and Ana kind of froze in place.

When she regained her senses, she started giggling and could not stop. The look of shock and horror that had crossed her face was hilarious, so we were cracking up too. Ana finally caught a breath and managed to yell “Ana made a loud noise!” before cracking herself up again.

See? The girl doesn’t even know the word for burp. That’s how often it DOESN’T happen around here.

I can roll with being on my own. I’m an “I” on the Meyers Briggs scale.

So I bundled up and walked down the bluff and over to the pier that juts out into Lake Michigan.

First of all, it was COLD. But I was going numb so it wasn’t bothering me too bad.

On the pier were about 50 fishermen. I stood at the beginning of it trying to decide if it was stupid for me to walk out on a pier by myself with 50 fishermen. Then I decided that if one of them actually tried to mess with me, the other 49 would probably throw him into the lake.

I was totally correct.

All of the fishermen were really nice and helpful, explaining what they were fishing for and helping me identify different ducks. There was one guy who yelled after me that I was his good luck charm because I was the best looking thing he had seen all day, which was a little awkward. But I hollered back that his day could only go uphill from here, and good luck with the fishing.

Further down the pier was a weird ice sculpture, so I walked all the way to the end to check it out.

I stood there shooting iPhone pictures while the fishermen glanced sidelong at me like I was insane for not wearing a hat or gloves.

BUT I did identify, with the help of a nice fatherly gentleman in Advantage camouflage, four new ducks. Which put me over my total for 30 new birds. JACKPOT.

Then I headed back because I was frozen to the core.

In case you’re curious, here is the list of new birds I have identified since August.

1. American Bittern
2. Great Blue Heron
3. Belted Kingfisher
4. Spotted Sandpiper
5. Mute Swan
6. Red Shouldered Hawk
7. Northern Mockingbird
8. Great Egret
9. Black Vulture
10. Ruby crowned kinglet
11. Wild Turkey
12. Pine Siskin
13. Cooper’s Hawk
14. Eurasian Collared Dove
15. Dunlin
16. Forster’s Tern
17. Least Sandpiper
18. Ruddy Turnstone
19. Sanderling
20. Great White Heron
21. Black Skimmer
22. Peregrine Falcon
23. White Throated Sparrow
24. Song Sparrow
25. Common Redpoll
26. Great Gray Owl
27. American Tree Sparrow
28. American Kestrel
29. Hooded Merganser
30. Bufflehead

Did you know that?

We stopped on our way to Michigan this afternoon and hiked up a couple, and hunted around for geocaches.

“That doesn’t look too steep,” Joey said. “Let’s climb it.”

You guys. I ALMOST DIED. I took my shoes off because I didn’t want to get sand all up ons, and while the sand was really nice and warm on top…a few inches down it was COLD.

Also sand is hard to climb.

Once Joey learned about Mount Baldy, he was laser locked on its coordinates. “We are climbing it,” he said. “We are going there NOW.”

I cannot tell a lie. I whined about having sand in my shoes. And the steepness of the hill. But in true Joey fashion, he was undeterred by my fussing. He basically told me to get a move on because he wasn’t gonna stand around and wait for me to catch up.

When we made it to the top, though, it was worth

But it was steep.

So steep.

So we diverted our route and stopped to read the history and walk the grounds. Because obviously.

Battlefields kind of astound me. They are so peaceful and quiet and preserved with plaques and markers when I visit, but in order to get that protected status they were once sites of incredible violence. I cannot comprehend human beings, standing where am standing, lining up to kill each other with muskets and cannons and bayonets.

But it’s like the bittersweet concept, in the midst of the awful there is always beauty to find if your eyes are open to see it.

I watched these:

• Clue, which I did not particularly care for.  It was too stagey/cheesy.
• The Pleasure Of His Company, with Debbie Reynolds and Fred Astaire. I thought it was cute!  And sort of awkward at the same time.
• I Was A Male War Bride, with Cary Grant.  I liked this one!
• His Girl Friday, also with Cary Grant.  I thought I would poke my eye out about twelve times during this movie.  ZERO. DIALOG. PACING.
• Hoosiers.  You cannot tell me this isn’t a classic.
• The African Queen, with Bogie and Katherine Hepburn.  And I loved it!  Hands down my favorite film out of all of them.

And I read Mennonite In A Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen.  Perhaps the most insensitive book I have ever read.  I was reading it thinking, the people she’s mocking are her close family members.  And they are still alive!  THEY WILL READ THIS!  And then where will she be?!?!  Only read this if you want to beat your head against the wall and also feel super squeamish for the dozens of people who will get their feelings hurt after reading the rude portrayal of their lives by a family member.

The rest of it? By the numbers…

1. Lose 30 lbs

6 down

2. Enter and walk or bike in 30 miles of races

10 miles down. 20 to go.

3. Go to the gym every day for 30 days (with the exception of Wednesdays, because on Wednesdays it is totally impossible for me.)

13 out of 30

4. Fast 30 days

8 out of 30 done!

5. Try 30 new recipes
6. Read 30 new books

21 out of 30

7. Eat 30 Caviar eggs
8. Find 30 geocaches with Joey

17 out of 30 found

9. Participate in the spelling bee at Old Threshers, stay in 30 minutes
10. Log 30 new birds

28 out of 30!

11. Test drive a $30,000 car (fiat?)
12. Take cold showers every morning for 30 days
13. Take no more than 30 minutes to face my fear of touching the deep end in a pool.
14. Try 30 new foods that stretch my taste palate.

24 out of 30

15. Find 30 recipes using spam as the main dish. Choose one. And eat it.
16. Give up Pepsi for 30 days
17. Go to the top of a high observation tower. Stay up there 30 minutes

18. Go on a 30 hr hike/backpack trip with Joey
19. Send 30 handwritten notes in the mail

20. Log 30 SEQUENTIAL days of food journaling on My Fitness Pal

21. Watch 30 documentaries on varying topics

22. Make 30 tamales

23. Have 30 people over for dinner at once
24. Watch the Friends episode “The One Where They All Turn 30″
25. Give up all sweets for 30 days

26. Go on a 30 hour silence retreat

27. Memorize 30 verses

5 out of 30

28. Explore 30 new places in Indianapolis/Indiana

23 out of 30

29. Watch 30 classic movies

30. Go veggie for 30 days!

Since I’ve been so sick, I’ve been busy.

I watched these classic films:

1. Anastasia (fun and light)
2. Anna Karenina (loved it)
3. The Red Balloon (charming!)
4. The Other Side of the Mountain (lame)
5. Move Over Darling (cute!)
6. The Agony and the Ecstasy (surprisingly good despite being LONG)
7. The Seven Dials Mystery (SO BORING.  MY GOSH.)

I read these books:

1. Bittersweet, by Shauna Niequest (very good!  And I requested the other book she has written.)
2. The Book of Mormon Girl, by Joanna Brooks (I read this in literally one day.  It’s fine…slightly melodramatic.)
3. There Are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz (AMAZING.  Devastating.  Heartbreaking.  A must-read.)

Otherwise, here are the numbers.  Such as they are.

1. Lose 30 lbs

3 down. (I’m not weighing myself this month because I’m doing My Fitness Pal and counting calories like a boss.)

2. Enter and walk or bike in 30 miles of races, the Mini being one of them

10 miles down. 20 to go.

3. Go to the gym every day for 30 days (with the exception of Wednesdays, because on Wednesdays it is totally impossible for me.)

13 out of 30

4. Fast 30 days

8 out of 30 done!

5. Try 30 new recipes
6. Read 30 new books

20 out of 30

7. Eat 30 Caviar eggs
8. Find 30 geocaches with Joey

16 out of 30 found

9. Participate in the spelling bee at Old Threshers, stay in 30 minutes
10. Log 30 new birds

28 out of 30!

11. Test drive a $30,000 car (fiat?)
12. Take cold showers every morning for 30 days
13. Take no more than 30 minutes to face my fear of touching the deep end in a pool.
14. Try 30 new foods that stretch my taste palate.

24 out of 30

15. Find 30 recipes using spam as the main dish. Choose one. And eat it.
16. Give up Pepsi for 30 days
17. Go to the top of a high observation tower. Stay up there 30 minutes

18. Go on a 30 hr hike/backpack trip with Joey
19. Send 30 handwritten notes in the mail

20. Log 30 SEQUENTIAL days of food journaling on My Fitness Pal

26 out of 30

21. Watch 30 documentaries on varying topics

22. Make 30 tamales

23. Have 30 people over for dinner at once
24. Watch the Friends episode “The One Where They All Turn 30″
25. Give up all sweets for 30 days

26. Go on a 30 hour silence retreat

27. Memorize 30 verses

5 out of 30

28. Explore 30 new places in Indianapolis/Indiana

23 out of 30

29. Watch 30 classic movies

24 out of 30

30. Go veggie for 30 days!

When I was in college, between semesters my freshman year my parents hired me to paint the hallways in some of the apartment buildings they owned at the time. I was to buy 5 gallon buckets of bland Sherwin Williams Eggshell White (despite my begging that we tint it juuuuuust a little bit??), carry in my ladder and extension pole for rolling the place where the ceiling was 16 feet high, and get to work.

I was fast. I felt like I was being meticulous. I was taping baseboards, wiping off any smudges, and trying to be really, really careful of the new carpet they had put down just a few months earlier.

You see where this is going. I know you do.

This new carpet was so great. They had chosen it to replace The World’s Ugliest Apartment Hallway Carpet Ever; the previous stuff had been harvest gold, and brown, and some horrific orange shade. The design looked like it was supposed to be a knockoff of a kitchen linoleum pattern, which would have been ugly in a kitchen, much less in an apartment hallway.

So I’m sure you see how lovely this new carpet was. And I was very proud of it because I knew it had been a long time coming.

I laid my drop cloth down on the landing, and I positioned the ladder so I could reach the highest part of the back wall. I screwed the roller extension on, and climbed the ladder.

It was like this next part happened in slow motion. The end of my roller extension pole caught the lip of half-used up 5 gallon bucket that was sitting on the floor. Before I could stop it, the bucket had tipped over and thick, creamy Eggshell White paint was pooling all over the drop cloth, and running off onto the carpet.

I screamed and grabbed the drop cloth off the floor, hoping to mitigate the damage, but it was too late. In a matter of seconds the paint had soaked through the canvas, and there was a paint stain on the brand new carpet that was so large that I could have laid down on it and only my ankles and top of my head would have not gotten paint-stained.

I was shaking. I never blew it this bad before, and I didn’t know how my dad was going to respond when I told him what I had done. I knew how I would react, and let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty.

Dad was quiet on the phone when I called him. He said he would be right down. I didn’t have water or towels or anything to clean up with, so I stood in the corner of the entry way, hiding myself in plain sight.

When Dad showed up, he looked subdued. He sighed, put his hand on my shoulder, and handed me a Snickers and a Pepsi. It was the Saturday afternoon treat we had always gotten when I helped him with chores growing up.

I can’t remember a word he said, but I do know that none of it was yelling. Or blaming. Or negative. I think we went and got a hose and shop vac and worked together to clean up the mess; maybe that was a few hours later.

But I will always remember the feeling that I was more important than the awesome, expensive brand new carpet.

I want to be that person when Ana blows it.

My parents had always told us growing up that “people are more important than things.” And it was beautiful, because in that moment, I knew it was true.

I love when the weather turns the furnace up a couple of notches. And when the outside temperature gets high enough, I can unbutton the patio furniture and get out the umbrellas again. I can fold up the winter tarps, set the chairs around the tables, refill the bird feeders.

My commitment this Spring, Summer and Fall is to eat alfresco every evening that it isn’t raining. Now that we have saved daylight by rolling our clocks forward, I’m itching to get out of doors. (Both literally and figuratively. Allergies!)