Melonade

For the record, I was not in yesterday's duct tape pictures. I have never used duct tape for anything more than a sturdy bookmark, a nifty wallet, or a 7-foot tall paper-and-wire volcano.

Enjoy your duct tape.

...and the number one reason why you shouldn't let the woman pack when you move...








She'll use up all of your duct tape.

It's July 26, and that means 26 days since my last carbonated delight. I'm now looking to the end rather than looking from the beginning. It's gone by more quickly than I expected. For a few days last week, I even forgot the ban entirely, as if this abstintion was something natural. On Sunday I was thirsty and thought, there's a coke machine just down the hall, I'll get something there. And then I reminded myself that I'm not drinking cokes right now, and opted for the lemonade instead. (Speaking of lemonade, I'm convinced that nobody makes a good lemonade in a bottle. I've tried several brands, but none of them seem right. Minute Maid is probably the best of the ones I've had, but I still prefer the powdered stuff I mix up at the office. If anyone has a suggestion for a better brand, I'm willing to try it.)

Strangely enough, I really want to have a celebratory Mountain Dew on my first day back. I know it's a bit odd to celebrate my ban with the very thing I've been banning, but I just think of it as a reward. Shortly before my ban, I tried some Coke Zero. Okay, it's obviously not the same as regular Coke, but wasn't that the point? I imagine I'll probably keep a bottle of Zero around for emergency situations.

If you've also tried giving something up recently, I congratulate you. If you're looking to August with dread because you've determined to make a big change, I wish you the best.

Enjoy your day.

Day 20 of no soda, cola, pop, or whatever you choose to call it.

I really miss Mountain Dew.

It wasn't so bad at first. It wasn't even so bad in the middle, but now that I'm only 10 days shy of the goal, the ghosts of Mountain Dews past are visiting me on a regulary basis, and if I sit quietly for just a couple of seconds, I can remember the taste of that wonderful drink.

It doesn't help matters that part of my job is to keep inventory on our office sodas and restock the vending machine. Yeah, I've touched a couple of hundred soda cans this month, but I haven't been able to enjoy them.

I could just satisfy my needs and take one from the fridge in the breakroom right now. I could feel the cold liquid slide down my throat in that refreshing way it does. I could...

You know, saying that I gave up carbonated beverages for a month doesn't sound as impressive when you have to add, "except for that one day, when I guzzled down three in a fit of madness".

All this talk of liquids made me thirsty, so I've taken a lemonade break.

Hey! Someone brought us bagels. Maybe it won't be a bad day after all.

Just a few weeks ago I was blogging the praises of Live365 internet radio and how they have little annoying commercialism and a lot of pleasant, office-appropriate music.

So imagine my disheartening surprise when I check in with dear old Live365 last week to find that they are now bombarding listeners with advertisements, both visual and auditory. Most of these center around the theme of, "Hey, aren't all these advertisements annoying? If you just pay us X dollars a month for a preferred membership, we'll stop bugging you and let you get back to the music!"

I am appalled, and yet I continue to go to the site because it's easier than trying to find something on the radio or lugging around enough cds to satisfy my whims. I just don't go there as often as I used to.

Go figure.

Ugh.

Last night I went to the local BN Harry Potter Party. I didn't expect so many people (even though a BN employee warned me it might get ugly.) I showed up at 10 and was slightly offended. The parking lot was full. That never happens. What were all these people doing in my store?

Truthfully, I wanted to go just to see how many people would show up. I can read all the news stories they print, but until I see 800 people (who probably have nothing but Harry Potter in common) cram into a store for several hours straight just waiting for one book. The plethera of Harry Potter glasses and the New Year's Eve-like countdown to midnight was impressive. It's nice to know that books are still impressing people.

I probably won't be reading the new book for a while. It's been too long since I read the last one, and I don't remember exactly what happened. I definitely need a refresher course before taking on Number Six.

I've been up since 6:30 this morning...that's just too much sunshine for a Saturday.

And now that I'm officially rambling, it's time to end this.

Enjoy your day.

Arrival Date: July 14, 2005
Time: 3:00 p.m. CST
Weight: 14 kg
Size: 12" 1.2 GHz
Name: To Be Determined

My new computer arrived! I ordered it on Tuesday, and by the Thursday afternoon the little box o' joy had made its journey from California to Oklahoma. The oh-so-proud parent is me. The godfather will probably be JB, since he gave advice and is patient enough to explain computer things I don't understand. And of course, I will be the first to tell you that my iBook G4 is the most beautiful one in the world. It's just so...smooth! Celebrate with me! Have a bubblegum CD! Don't be surprised if pics of the new addition pop up later.

I got tired of trying to work on the novel at my office or on this sad old loaner laptop (the keyboard didn't really work; I had to hook another keyboard to it just to use the silly thing). After lots of months of saying that I'd get one of my own and one late night conversation with my resident computer whiz, I committed several hundred of my yet-to-be-earned dollars and lots of my free time to this little gem. Now I can work on the novel just about anywhere. And I can finally make good on my promise to send pages to my far away friend (they're coming, Loraine, I promise!).

I've had very little Apple experience, and what little I did have was several years ago. This really will be like being a new parent; I'm going to have to learn how to handle it. I just hope I don't make it cry.

Enjoy your day.

I can tell I've been drinking a lot of water lately because I actually have a preference of one brand over another. Thankfully we have two water options at the office, because if I had to live with Dasani stuff alone, I would probably have given up on my no-coke ban days ago. (I don't think the distaste for Dasani stems from the fact that it's a Coca-cola product. In fact, I am a little disappointed in them. What's with that funky taste? It's just water! Water shouldn't be difficult!)

So here I am at Day 14 of my carbonation-free month, and I'm not ashamed to pat myself on the back on this one. The truth is that my willpower is generally as strong as creamed spinach, and giving up something for two weeks (or even two days) is not something I do easily. I won't lie to you and say I don't miss my soda friends. I've loved Mountain Dew for longer than I can remember, and there are few better things than a cherry Dr. Pepper from Sonic to ease the summer heat. But I haven't had any dreams of fizzy drinks yet, so I think I'll be okay.

A friend at church told me last night that she'd seen my previous entry and asked me how I was doing. That gave me the extra boost to see this thing through. Time for another trip to the water cooler.

On a completely different note, I am expecting a very exciting arrival this afternoon. I will probably think about little else for the next 3 hours. More on this later.

Enjoy your day.

Today is my seventh coke-free day in a row.

By "coke" I mean those fantastically fizzy beverages I love so much, including Coca-cola, Dr. Pepper, and (my favorite addiction by far) Mountain Dew. I can't remember the last time I intentionally went a single day without one of these carbonated wonders, let alone seven days in a row.

If you frequent Fark.com, you may have seen the story on the Roanoke Times writer who's keeping an online journal of his 30-day carbonation fast. Fascinated by people who do such gutsy things, I read all the entries (he was about two weeks into it when I read them) and was inspired to do the same. And since July 1st was right in front of me, I decided to start then, because I'm convinced that 30-day goals are easier when contained in a single month.

Until now, I've only told a handful of people about my abstinence. It's not that there's anything wrong with sharing. There was just something invigorating about the secrecy of the project.

Even if you're not in the mood to give anything up right now, this makes for some good reading:

http://www.roanoke.com/extra/deprivation.html

Enjoy your day.

For the few who stumble upon this blog, you may have noticed an absence of new material lately. The truth is that events of a blog-worthy nature have been rare these last couple of weeks, and most days I was too busy at work or too bored at work to come over and add new material.

Last weekend was my first free weekend in a couple of months. By that I mean that I had no roommate and/or friend around which to plan my free time. My apartment was very quiet, except for the car alarm that went off for a couple of hours Saturday night and the fireworks on Sunday night. But I got to do the g0-where-the-mood-strikes-me thing on Saturday afternoon, which meant that I hit an antique store, Ulta, Wal-mart, and Best Buy. It also means that I went to the mall, but when I didn't feel like dealing with the scores of people, I left without even getting out of my car and didn't have to feel bad about dragging anyone with me or being dragged around by anyone else.

That's not to say I didn't look forward to the return of said roommate and friend, and we all had a good time last night when they came back. It is nice to know that I can take a few days and not have to worry about anyone but me.

And now for the required Wheel of Time update:

I am still wading through Book 3, mostly because I took my "Me Weekend" to do a lot of things besides read. If I tried really hard, I could probably finish by tomorrow. I don't know why I'm struggling with this one so much. And it wasn't even the whole book that was beating me; it's probably only been the second half. I read about 100 pages over the weekend, but I couldn't tell you half of what happened, and I don't know why. I think the distraction of being all alone did me in. There were too many things calling to me, and I listened to them instead.

I will definitely have to take a short commercial break after I finish 3, although I have been told by my resident WoT expert that the last pages of the book are some mighty fine ones. I have at least four other books that I've been wanting to read, and I really shouldn't even start those until I put in some more editing time. Why can't I just find the happy medium?

Enjoy your day.