Today's rambling: A veritable brain dump!
Written on Thursday, Mar. 03, 2005 at 9:12 p.m.
while feeling a bit

I don't like gas-powered ovens. Well, I don't like the stove part, either. The oven's on right now, and it's making this shooshing noise like all it's doing is expelling gas...but when I opened the oven door, it was nice and toasty inside. But it kinda smells like gas, too, and I don't remember it doing that very often. If you never see another entry from me, you'll know it's because my apartment exploded. (I'm just kidding.) Seriously, though, it's so hard to tell what's going on with gas-powered stuff. Give me good ol' electricity. It still uses fossil fuels to generate, unfortunately, but at least it's fairly steady. Unless there's a freakish power surge.... *shifty-eyed*

Kathy's younger sister, Amy, added me to her Xanga list yesterday. So I was reading through her journal, and it's just so weird. To me, those girls will always be the little 7- and 8-year olds that I used to play Queen games with years ago. I'm so happy that we still talk to each other...but at the same time, it's not like we're bosom companions anymore. Things are different. Yeah, I know, "Thank you, Captain Obvious," but I guess I feel like Anne Shirley, in a way. "Why do people have to grow up, and change?" Bleh...I feel like I've stayed the same boring person all these years, lol! Hell, if I found people who were seriously interested in it, I'd probably still go out playing make-believe games! It would take me a little longer to get into it than it used to, but after awhile I'd be every bit as into it as I was back then. :P But Kathy and Amy are all slim and pretty and popular...especially Amy. She's got the athletic figure, and the blonde hair, and is always going out to school functions and such...I know I've lamented all of this many times before, but it's just one of those days, hehe! All this coughing has made me light-headed, so you'll have to forgive me. ;)

Okay, the oven has stopped that hissing/shooshing sound, so I guess it was only doing it because I'd just started it up. I like that gas ovens get hotter quicker...but they don't brown things all nicely like electric ovens do. Ah well...

There's a woman over on LJ who finally noticed (after a week or so) that I took her off my friend's list. And so she felt the need to comment and ask why...not meanly or offensively, but I wish she hadn't said anything at all, because now I have to think up a way to tell her why without totally offending her. She's pregnant at the moment, and I'm sure most of you who read this diary know how militantly childfree I am. She, however, has this need to post every day (sometimes multiple times a day) about the woes of her pregnancy, right down to "tossing her cookies". *cringe* Hearing about pregnancy is so not kosher. I shudder a little bit even seeing those huge, swollen bellies, and I certainly don't need to hear about all the trials and tribulations that go along with gestation! So that's why I took her off my list (not to mention the fact that her spelling is so atrocious, it makes my eyes cross sometimes). She's a nice woman, don't get me wrong, but she just...I don't know. She's lacking something upstairs. Still, I don't want to offend her by being like, "Uh, yeah, I took you off because I think kids are gross and I don't want to hear your daily vomit stories."

So right now, I'm doing what I do best: avoiding the topic altogether. :P If you don't see any LJ posts for awhile...well no, I can just make them friends-only, since she's not on my list any longer! >_<

There are so many things that I want to do and learn right now, and of course they all cost lots of money. Which I don't have (as you've heard me whine COUNTLESS times already). I want to make a Regency dress for the ball in April, I'm still very anxious to learn how to play guitar, and I want to get some home workout stuff so I don't have to rely on a gym during the summer. There are some ridiculously cheap beginner guitars being sold on eBay, and I've been considering buying one ever since the summer. Yeah, they might not hold up very long, but as my friend Lindsey told me, George Harrison's first guitar didn't even have a back on it. So who cares what quality it is if I'm just using it to learn on, right? After all, maybe I'll decide after awhile that there's no way I'll ever get the hang of it and I'll just toss it off to the side. I found out that the music store back home gives one half-hour lesson every week to students, and that the monthly charge is $69. Which would be nothing if I had a good job (and didn't have so many debts that I could go swimming in them). I guess I should just give this idea up for awhile, because it's not as if I want to learn to play so I can start a band or something. I just love the sound of an acoustic guitar.

The Regency dress isn't really needed, either. Technically, I could just wear my LOJ dress to the ball. Or, if I've lost enough weight by then, I could wear my old prom dress. But even if I consistently lose weight, I'll only be around 210 by April 23rd, and I know I weighed less than that when I went to my prom. So that dress is probably out of the question. And my LOJ dress was made from a fairy dress pattern, so the hem is all "tattered" (read: cut with scissors to look tattered). Fun, but not very ball-worthy. And besides, I think Regency dresses were so pretty, even though the empire waist tends to make people look overweight...and since I am overweight, that might not be cool, lol... Add to the fact that I'm not the world's best sewer (hell, it was a miracle I was even able to put together my LOJ dress!), and the whole thing might be a risky undertaking.

However, Tiff, if you're not going to have plans during our spring break...? LOL, okay, I won't bug you to help me with that stuff again. ;)

So that leaves the home workout stuff as being the only purchase that would actually be of use to me (and be worth the money I'd have to put out). I've got a Pilates tape, and now a mat (which I haven't used yet, since I've BEEN SICK *grrs*)...Even though all the stretches and ab things kick my ass, though, I don't really feel like I'm getting that much of a workout. And besides, I need to have other stuff so I can switch it up. I have Tae Bo tapes, but I've pretty much given up on THAT. I don't have the spatial ability (or whatever it is) to reverse what I see him doing on the screen (since the company wasn't smart enough to film him from behind)...and until I can get over this anal-retentive need to do everything EXACTLY as it's being taught, I'm not going to bother with it.

My friend Melissa has been using "The Firm" for a few years, and she swears by it...as do several women at the Weight Watchers message board. I'm sure the videos are probably going to be really hard for me...but then again, why would I want to buy something that's going to be immediately easy, right? It wouldn't really give me a workout! So if I get something I can "grow into," that would be awesome.

Urgh...this coughing problem is excuse enough for me to just constantly eat all night. Not that I have, but I could. At least I don't keep coughing while I'm eating and drinking! Usually, this phase of my cold is over within a day, and yet it's already been around 2. I am not amused. I'm gonna go chug some more 7-Up now, hehe...