Well, March came in like a lion, and went out like an angry pre-menstrual lioness. Overall, a good month, I guess. Just so tiring! When is winter going to end?

Anyway, on with the upate:

1) My big plan for not buying anything for 30 days was pretty much a bust. I had lots of things going on this month: Easter, birthdays for little ones, a continuing ed class where I couldn't bring my own lunch realistically, a friend who came up for a visit. But, like my other 30 day trials, I was a lot more mindful of my purchases. And a lot more conscious of my finances and how I SHOULD be spending money. More on that later.
2) New workout going great. I am looking a lot better, slimmer thru the trunk area. Swimming is getting easier. Running still ok. Biking only inside on exercise bikes, however. Hopefully, it'll get warm soon so I can get some of this exercise done in the great outdoors.
3) Almost done with the Dorothy Parker book. Just a few more chapters. She was one hot ticket. But, like everyone, had her issues, too. Can't wait to see how it ends.
4) Fen Shui...done and done. Trying to keep the place neat and clean.
5) Financial goal is about half done. Continuing into April.
6) Total bust on the museum. Had a good opportunity, too, as Mye was at the Museum of Science on Friday, but I was driving around lost in Somerville with G. Maybe in April.

Lots to catch up on next month. Maybe it'll be warm enough to light a fire under my butt.

On Saturday, I had such great fun going to my neice's 3rd birthday. It was everything a 3rd birthday should be, complete with a Disney princess cake, a dance party extravaganza, and a few dozen melt downs from exhausted, sugared up kids who didn't want to share or play nice. I had to feel a little bad for my neice, since it was her birthday but the real star of the day was her 10 month old brother, who crawled around, smiling his big, dimply smile, and stealing every piece of glittery princess dress up paraphenalia he could get his little hands on.

As usual, I took the prize for the gift that all the adults went absolutely wild for, but the kids couldn't care less about.

My first encounter with this unique talent of mine was 5 years ago, when I was online shopping for a Christmas present for my (then) 3 year old neice. (Not the same one who turned 3 last weekend. That would make no sense. This is her older cousin, one of the only party guests who did not have a temper tantrum. This includes adults) Anyway, I was putting together a big box of circus themed toys, as she was obsessed with Cirque du Soleil at the time. I came across what I considered to be the gem of the entire batch: a lycra tube of sorts that you velco'd yourself inside of to form a human blob. (Much like when you climbed in your sleeping bad head first at slumber parties and walked around, bumping into things.) Only with the spandex version, you could actually see where you were going, and you wouldn't suffocate in there.

When it arrived in the mail (I mailed everything to myself and assembled it in a cool circus-y box) I had several work friends over, for some reason. We all had a rip roaring good time squeezing ourselves into a lycra tube designed for children under the age of 5 and rolling around my living room. When my niece opened the package, both my brothers and sisters-in-law pretty much did the same thing. Even my dad got into the act.

Unfortunately, the KID didn't like it nearly as much as the adults did. As a matter of fact, she was so freaked out by the concept of the lycra-blob-tube that she actually gave it back to me a week later! Oh well.

Fast forward a couple years, and I was at a party for my then-boyfriend's nephew who was turning 2. I got him one of those horses' head on a stick thingees that you ride around the house on. If you pushed a button on the ear, it played the theme to the Lone Ranger. Again, a party where all the adults are running around the house riding a tiny hobby horse and yelling "Hey-ho Silver, AWAY!!!"Again, a youngster who glances at the toy briefly and then tosses it aside, never to touch it again. (Well, at least his parents got to play with it)

You would think I would be used to it by now. But, sadly, I am not. When my neice opened her new DVD's (Free to Be You and Me, Really Rosie, and The Best of the Electric Company) she looked at them with a confused look and gently placed them inside Cindarella's castle. They were immediately scooped up by her uncle who insisted on popping the Electic Company into the DVD player and watching it right there and then.

Oh well. I still have 2 months to pick the perfect present for her brother before he turns 1.

What a weird, weird week. Weird like this VW bug, (which I thought looked kind of like a psychedelic Easter egg) only slightly less fun.

I guess I'm not the only one who is discouraged by the weather. Because for the first 3 days of the week, people were YELLING at me at work. Which is ok, at first. People come to see me because they are in pain and because they are unable to work or play with their kids or their new puppy or do whatever it is that they like to spend their days doing. But after a few treatments, generally, they stop yelling at me. Not so this week. I had people screaming Mon thru Wednesday. By Wednesday evening, I felt like "Hey! I'm trying to help you, jerk!" (On the inside)

Then on Thursday, everything did a complete 180. People came in like "I had 2 pain free days for the first time in about 6 months" People were all happy and joking and excited about going home and celebrating Easter with their kids. So it all ended on a good note.

Now for this weekend, I am excited because I am going to my neice's 3rd birthday party and playing the bunny for the other kids. This is why I came home. Good times.

ok, I read back thru some previous posts and saw that I am complaining about the weather an awful lot. I need to deal with the fact that I deliberately moved back to Massachusetts from California and the weather will be colder. Period. On a lighter note, I saw the crocuses and buds on the trees today. So its a little hopeful.
Swimming was great today.

So here I am in March, what was supposed to be my wonderful, shining, "here comes spring" month, only to remember: I live in New England. It isn't spring yet. Damn. Two weekends of torrential rain had me wanting to hide my head in the sand and sleep until May. But that is just not possible. So onward I press.
1) Not buying anything....well, not buying ANYTHING is a bit much. First week, was the food thing. This week, I realized I had 2 birthday parties for little ones who would not understand a rain check. And, of course, Easter. So, birthday and Easter presents aside, its ok. One unexpected side effect: once I figured out the whole lunch/snack thing, I 'm actually starting to lose weight again.
2) Joined the pool last week for the new workout. I have to admit, I've been a bit depressed by the weather so my workouts, as a result, have been a bit lackluster. Many days I'm just going through the motions. But at least I'm there.
3) Got the Dorothy Parker book. Well, A Dorothy Parker book. It is fantastic. I guess I had somewhere in the back of my mind thought she was like Susan B Anthony. More like Gertrude Stein or a female Hemmingway. And even more yummy: many of her quotes are painted on the walls of my favorite haunt, the BBC. She's one balsy babe, and at the moment, my idol.
4)This weekend, I totally feng shuied my place. Lots of interesting finds. No wonder my life had been so screwed up.
5) Plugging away on the financial thing, though that is losing steam, a bit, too. Will crank it up a notch this week.
6)Museum....back burner.

As a little addendum: the whole no TV thing from last month has stuck around a little and I am watching less of it than I had before. I no longer need it for "background noise". And, on Saturday, somebody told me that my being 38 was "kinda hot". Not sure where to put that comment. I do not want to be Stiffler's mom.

Last night, I decided to start feng shui-ing my apartment. Actually, I was frustrated because the temperature was so warm over the weekend (despite the horrible wind and rain) that I naively thought I would be putting my cold weather coat away and busting open my sort-of-cold weather coat. Then, I could do a sort of mini-spring cleaning and rotate weather appropriate clothing, footwear, and exercise equipment. Unfortunately, the temperatures Monday and Tuesday showed me! Unable to spring clean, I decided to feng shui.

I know nothing about feng shui. My bedroom (or bed-section of my one room apartment) looks NOTHING like the above picture. I got a feng shui book for Christmas one year, though, and figured I could crack it open and put it to good use. Isn't the whole basis of feng shui essentially the same as the Philipino New Year's philosophy: if your living space is in chaos, then your life will be in chaos. Kind of like Clean Sweep with a few strategically placed candles and bamboo flutes.

I decided to start my feng shui adventure in the "love and relationships" corner of the apartment. After last Friday, it seems safe to assume that I am attracting an interesting kind of attention, though not necessarily the kind I want. Maybe I can clean and rearrange myself into a meeting with a more appropriate guy.

One GOOD thing about my apartment set up is that the bed is over in the "love section". That's good chi! I'm halfway there already. Plus, I'm a fairly neat person so nothing gets too overly messy and blocks the chi flow. Or so I thought.

My bed is catty cornered, and even though I regularly extend my long-handled-static-duster- thingie into the back triangle, it is apparently not enough. When I climbed back there, cleaning supplies and energy tools in hand, I was shocked --SHOCKED -- at the amount of dust that had accumulated. My "love area" was dusty, dirty, and neglected! Oh no! Ten minutes of work with my lavender-scented-environmentally-sound-spray-cleaner and rag, and I was feeling pretty good. I reached into my box of things that I had gathered from around the apartment and carefully arranged two red votive candles and a pink plastic heart that came on a bunch of flowers. I stuck a round mirror on top of the small table back there (to counteract the sloping ceiling over the bed) and inwardly congratulated myself on the red light display on the digital clock.

Feeling pretty smug, I moved my attention to under the table. Several months ago, I had placed a small pile of books there, figuring when I went to bed, I could just reach down, read a few pages, and then plop it back down when I got tired. I haven't touched the books since. Scanning the titles, I was dismayed to read: "Go Your Own Way, Tales of Single Women Traveling the World", "Skinny Bitch", "Power vs Force", and "Handling Difficult Emotions and Maintaining Control". What the heck have I been clogging up my love corner with? Those books had to go. Immediately! Plus, on top of the pile of books, was a Van Halen ticket from last October. Sure, their music is great, but NOBODY in that band is a good role model for love and committed relationships.

At this point, I was longer feeling smug. In fact, I was dangerously close to a panic attack. I moved onto my last task for the night: cleaning under the bed. Once again, I was disturbed by the amount of dust that had accummulated. At least dust is easy to clean. Lastly, I took a peek into the storage containers that I keep under the bed, just to check if what I am keeping there is appropriate to my newly feng shuied bedroom. What did I find? Projects. Lots and lots of projects. I guess that explains a lot.

My task tonight is to find those projects a new home.

March is rolling right along and I seem to be rolling with it. It'll be nice to have a bit more sun in the evening after work, but I suspect getting up tomorrow morning will be a bear.

As for my March assignments, the no purchase thing is surprisingly more difficult than I had expected. Not because I need to buy little things here and there, but because I am perpetually hungry. Bringing lunch in takes a bit of planning, because I am not only bringing in lunch, but lots of snacks to keep the hunger at bay, as well as needing to pack a dinner if I am busy after work. Which I didn't on Monday, though I had a hair appointment and wasn't going to get home until after 8:30pm. So I ended up buying dinner Monday. And lunch Thursday when I left my packed lunch behind. Hmmm.

I haven't gotten out to get my book yet, either. Mainly because I was hung over on Saturday and couldn't make it to the library before the health expo. Next weekend for sure.

The new workout regieme is good. I put off the swimming part until I felt I was fully over the cold I had the week before last, so I should be good to start swimming this week. Its a good thing, too. I was so sore last week, I don't think I could have swum, too.

Still deciding upon the museum thing. May do that at the end of March, when I am taking a class and crashing on M's sofa at night. I don't know what time he gets home from work and classes, so I may have many hours to kill between the end of my class and his get home time.

I have a Fung Shui book, I haven't opened it yet.

Working away on the finances. I cancelled 2 credit cards, balanced the checkbook, and got myself off of catalog mailing lists and credit pre-screening list. Much more to do, though.

So, I am off to a good start with only a few stumbles. March goes out like a lamb, I am told. Maybe my whole life will be as tranquil, as well.