Thursday, January 14, 2016

This and that, Part 10002839

I'm on a roll with these lunch & post sessions this week! No real topic today, just random bullets
  • I finished 10% Happier this morning. I really loved this book, a memoir written by a total skeptic who learned about, laughed at, and eventually embraced mindfulness meditation and Buddhist teachings and how it changed his life, particularly his work life in a demanding and competitive field. I almost abandoned it early on because, well, he was an asshole. But there is good stuff in here, about the science of meditation and mindfulness, and its written in an easy-to-read and digest manner. I will likely buy a hard copy of this so I can go back and highlight/underline, because there is a LOT of material that I've already forgotten! 
  • Low carb: going well, feel fine but no better than usual (i.e. no amazing energy or lack of hunger. yes the bigger breakfast keeps me full longer but its obvious that eating 500 Kcal rather than my usual 250 Kcal for breakfast would have that effect! no magic!). On the plus side, it is inspiring creativity in meal-planning and has broken down my assumptions that I "need" carbs at each meal. Not sure if I will  lose weight or gain it with all the nuts and cheese I am eating. If I end up needing to count calories and be hungry, the whole experiment has failed! Do plan to keep it up for the month with an exception for a date-night.
  • A young woman in my workout class mentioned looking for sitting gigs so I am taking her up on it for a date night, hopefully this weekend (waiting for her reply, otherwise 2 weekends from now). Not sure what we will do, even going to a local bar and having a couple of beers & food sounds good to me. We can't be the only ones that feel like we never have time to talk and then go out on date night & suddenly have nothing to talk about, right? Maybe I need to plan topics, the way a med school friend of mine did before dates (he read up on current events, pop culture, etc.. so it wouldn't be evident that all he did was study for a million hours a week in the med school library).
  • We (well, I) made a "fun list" for the winter. I listed: ice skating, Children's museum, Science Museum, nearby library, central library, making cookies, something I can't remember. So far we've done: making cookies. Made chocolate chip cookies (this recipe) with the boys Sunday evening.Did not eat any. Ideas for what else to add to this list? 
  • Breaking Bad is really good, but freaking disturbing. Their marriage...whoa. I also feel really really lucky to have never gotten into drugs (ha! the thought seems ludicrous, I'm pretty square; but it can happen to anyone). Crack is whack, yo.
  • I hosted my book club on Saturday and one of the women brought her famous home-made toffee. I did eat a small square (and then another) and it was well worth it! 
  • The boys are so obsessed with Star Wars right now. I bought them Star Wars pajamas and underwear (they needed those things anyways). All they do is play with their light sabers (G made them from rolled up vellum paper & paint) and look at their Star Wars books. We have watched episodes 4-6, and 1. We will watch episode 2 this weekend. They love Darth Vader. I ask why they like the "bad guy" and I get "but he isn't ALL bad, mommy! He turned good in the end and saved Luke, and he was good at the beginning". Wow, nuanced understanding of the grey areas between good & evil, huh? 
  • The problem is that they want US to play light sabers with them instead of playing with each other (because one hits the other so the other is "mean" and they don't want to play together anymore). I'm just not the play-light-sabers kind of mom, you know? I can do it, but its...painful. I'll read you a book, do a puzzle or lego kit, play a boardgame, cook/bake with you, take you anywhere in the city but you want me to pretend to be Chewbacca or Darth Maul for half an hour? 
  • Patriarchal BS often turns women against each other. (reminder to self)
 OK, I've scraped the bottom of my low carb salad. Back to work. 

14 comments:

  1. I got my husband a subscription to the Economist so that a) he could keep me up to date on current events, and b) so we would have something to talk about. We also have that date night problem. :-P

    Any winter fun list should include sledding.... if it ever snows.

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    1. So...I've never been sledding. G & I both grew up in the south. we had friends that kept asking us to come sledding with them (and kids) but then their kid broke his hand. And another co-worker's kid broke his leg on the same hill. And the nearest hill is about 1.5-2 miles away. So, while it sounds like a fun winter thing, I'm a bit skittish about it!

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    2. You just need a smaller hill. :-)

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  2. We have that date night problem, too, when w even manage a date night. W end up talking about the kids. :(

    I first (and only!) watched Star Wars in college when I was babysitting for a 7-year-old. I kept asking him which guys were good and which were bad, and he told me "it's easy. All the good guys wear white and all the bad guys wear black." Subliminal messages aren't always so subliminal!

    Lastly, I have played far more games of swords than I'd ever like to!

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    1. except the stormtroopers wear white...its really not cut and dry in star wars!

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  3. You also won't find me pretending to be a Star Wars character :)

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    1. I had to do it last night. I tried so hard and managed about 15 minutes of acting out "the phantom menace". L let me be the good guy because "you don't like bad guys, mommy, and I like pretending to be both good & bad"

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  4. I'm not the light saber playing kind of mom, either, but my daugher certainly is. I always feel so guilty because I try to distract her and get her to do something different that I might actually enjoy, too. Thankfully, my husband is much better at that pretend-play type stuff, so she does get her fill of it.

    Breaking Bad is awesome, and I agree- it can be disturbing at times. It's worth watching right through to the end, though.

    Enjoy your date night! Hubby and I usually don't have a problem with chatting, but once in a while, we'll look up one of those 'How well do you know your spouse' type of quizzes, and we'll talk about some of the weird questions we find. We've learned some interesting things about each other that way!

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  5. I just read Aziz Ansari's book "Modern Romance" (very good, funny) and he has a great date night suggestion. It's advice for singles on first dates but it works for us old married couples, too. Basically don't do the usual boring movie/dinner date. Do something interesting, like a monster truck rally (example from book) or rock climbing or just something different than usual.

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    1. we decided to go bowling, actually, so yes---doing something other than dinner is really fun. I want to read that book, I need to put it on my library holds.

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  6. Is it bad that I often ask DH to tell me about his hobbies when I'm trying to fall asleep? It usually does the trick...

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    1. haha! I should do this. So tell me what's going on in the tech world? Is apple releasing any new products?
      For him, it would be: so what did you read on your blogs recently? Or what are the doctor moms going on about? Even when I THINK it'd be interesting to him, his eyes glaze over and start darting around looking for an escape! Now he knows how I feel when he starts going on about the features on the new appleTV

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    2. So, tell me the play-by-play details of that board game you just played. Though he knows it helps me fall asleep and doesn't seem to mind.

      Most of our blog-related conversation goes like:
      Me: OMG, I am so glad you're not a horrible person. These women, they have such horrible husbands. I'm glad you are not one of them.
      Him: That's sad.
      Me: *covers DH in kisses* I am so grateful for you.
      Him: Those poor women.
      Me: Thank you so much for doing/not doing [whatever the most recent complaint is]
      Him: No problem.
      Me: I'm so lucky.
      Him: No really, it's no big deal. Maybe you should stop reading those blogs.
      Me: [Carrie Fisher impression]: I know, I know. You're right, you're right.

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    3. That is freaking hilarious

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