30somethingandsearching

I had an interesting dream last night.             

It started with arriving at some port via a very large ship.

The port was in Argentina.  Apparently, I was visiting a friend and her family.  As we (I had guests with me) walked across from the boat to where my friend was waiting, she was calling to me introducing me to her family…in Spanish. 

I don’t really speak Spanish.  I’ve taken classes and I understand quite a bit from being around said Argentine friend, but I don’t really speak it.  Unless I am drunk or unconscious.  For some reason, in those situations, I remember all of it.

Anyway.  So she’s introducing me and I am conversing with her family in Spanish and introducing my family while translating for them.  Everyone was wearing white gauzy outfits too. 

From there, I am suddenly dancing with Antonio Sabato Jr.  Like in “Dancing With the Stars,” yet so much more.

Now, if I were to have a dream about Antonio Sabato Jr, I would expect it to be a HOT dream.  As in erotic, not weather.  The man is delicious.    

But this dream was just dancing and flirting.  Hmmph.

So, I am guessing I had this dream partly because he has returned to GH on GH Nightshifts as Jagger Cates. 

The rest of it, is a mystery to me.  As I said, if I had expected to dream of him, it would be an “O” dream….I could see the setting working, but just dancing?  Come on!  What a let down! 

I’ve been on the computer a lot with blogging, and that entails, as well as looking into going back to school.

I use a laptop, which I actually use on my lap!

In doing so, though, I have started getting major pain in my left hand and arm from using the mouse pad on the laptop.  It took me a few days to figure out why my arm was hurting so much. 

Yesterday I asked my step-dad if he had an extra mouse I could use (he has a collection of all kinds of old computer items all over his office).  He gave me a wireless one (which is the tiniest thing I have ever seen) and it is great!

I had forgotten what it was like to use a mouse to move the cursor and to scroll! 

I’ve caught myself trying to use the mouse pad on my laptop a few times, but I will get used to NOT doing so. 

Already my arm and hand feel some better! 

I have a lot to do for school: research of the program, financial aid, scholarships and all that.  My family is also throwing my mom a surprise party in a few weeks, so there is a lot to do there.  I am ready to really get to work now that I won’t be crippled from my online activity!  

What do you do when you can’t fall asleep?  (I know, I have blogged about sleep issues a few times, but you know how it goes…when you can’t have something you desperately want or need, that’s all you focus on.)

Last night was another brutal night.  I couldn’t fall asleep. 

I was grandma-sitting, so I went to bed pretty early, around 11:30.  I did not fall asleep until after 4:00 am.  I couldn’t shut my brain up.  I told it and told it, but it wouldn’t listen.  I tried reasoning.  I tried cursing.  I tried threatening.  Nothing would shut my brain up.

I tried putting on a pretty calm movie to focus on and lull me to sleep, but the problem was the volume would increase with music so that would startle me.  So, I turned that off and put SoapNet on thinking that would lull me to sleep.  Well, I wasn’t paying any attention to it, so my brain would start chattering again.

Ugh.

I had to get up to take care of grandma today (parents went away for the weekend, so it was my job).  I set my alarm for 8:00, but I snoozed until 9:00 when I had to force myself to get up to give her breakfast. 

I had to focus my attention because when I am this tired, I often put the milk in the freezer and fry the paper towels instead of the bacon.

I am so grouchy when I get this little sleep.  Poor grandma tried to be cheerful and I just scowled and grunted.

How does lack of sleep affect you?

For me, not only am I grouchy because I am tired, but I am in physical pain.  I always can tell when I am tired by my body.  My legs ache, my lower back feels like I was hit with a bat and my arms and hands tingle and pinch.  I won’t mention the usual headache because I have those frequently regardless of the amount of sleep.

I always wonder how things affect other people.  If I am the only one affected by something in the way that I am or if others have that too.  So I ask, what does lack of sleep do to you?

Are you a morning person or a night person?

I am a night person.  I’ve always been a night person.

I don’t really get that burst of energy to be truly productive until about 3:00 pm.

I grew up with a mother that was a morning person.  An early morning person.  If you got out of bed to use the bathroom, she would make your bed before you could flush.  She believes that sleeping past 9:00 am is a total waste of the day. 

For me, getting up at 9:00 is good.  Before that and it’s early!  I am a grunter in the a.m.  My brain doesn’t function for an hour after I have been awake and until that time, I will grunt if you speak to me.  I get really chatty around 10:00 pm.

What makes us morning people or night people?

I have a theory that if you are born in the morning, then you are a morning person; if you are born in the evening, you are a night person.

What if you were born in the afternoon, you ask?

Well, you swing both ways then.  You can deal equally well as a morning or evening person.

The people I have asked have proven my theory to be correct.

The scientific world, however, blames it on genetics and your Circadian rhythm

I don’t know, I like my theory better.

According to a Gallup poll, more people are morning people than night people.  I don’t buy it.

What say you?

For me, being a night person is not an issue except for that pesky thing called a job.  I have been fortunate to work near my home for most of my employment, so I could get up an hour before I needed to be there, but even so, 7:00 am is tough for me.

Apparently, it’s tough for me in more ways than just being tired.

According to webmd, those that are morning people make substantially more money than those of us who are night people. 

I might just have to see what I can do about becoming a morning person!

I have to say, I think the Dalai Lama is the cutest thing ever.

I look at him and just smile.  I think he is adorable (old people usually are to me). 

Because he exudes peace and happiness, he is even more adorable.

People who are full of peace and true happiness are alluring to everyone.  Perhaps because we would all like to feel that kind of tranquility.

I searched for him to attach a photo and, in doing so, I found that he has a website!!! Who would have thunk the Dalai Lama has a website! 

Made me giggle. 

Let me start with a disclaimer:

I in no way find hurricanes or the destruction and devastation they can cause to be humorous. 

I do, however, find this amusing:

It cracks me up to watch these reporters put themselves in the middle of a storm.  The same storm they are warning their viewers to avoid. 

I saw one the other day (unfortunately I cannot find a clip of it) with a man being blown so hard that he was moving further and further from the camera while stumbling and falling into rocks.  I could barely hear him and the visibility was terrible.  I was crying I was laughing so hard.

Why do they do this?  I don’t think they are getting paid THAT well.  I know they are trying to make the point of how bad the storm is, but I think it would be just as affective to leave a camera filming the storm without a reporter.

I can’t help it, but it cracks me up.  This happens every year during Hurricane season.  Poor reporters are sent out to the eye of the storm to be battered and abused and the berated on the internet. 

Such fun, although I am easily amused. 

I am doomed.                                                                                                                     

I have suffered from insomnia for over a decade.  The worst it ever got was probably about 5 years ago.  I would go on 2 hours of sleep for days.

In general, I have a hard time falling asleep.  A large part of that is because I am the type that cannot turn my brain off.  I know some people that fall asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow and they don’t realize how lucky they are. 

For me, regardless of what time it is or how tired I am, I take a good hour of lying in bed before I ever start to fall asleep.  I have to process the day and think about the next day.  If I have a lot on my mind, it’s even worse.  On the rare occasion that I am exhausted, drunk or have taken a sleeping pill, I MIGHT fall asleep in less than a half hour.

In addition to that, I wake up 2-5 times during the night.  If I am lucky, like last night, I can just fall back asleep.  But more often than not, I am awake for a while. 

This week, I had one of those nights that is worse than normal.  Normally, I fall asleep between 12:00 and 1:00 am, even with a sleeping pill that I take around 8:30 pm.  Tuesday night, I did not fall asleep until 3:30.  By 1:30 I was really annoyed.  I turned the TV on hoping that would help.  By 2:30 I was up getting a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles. 

Somewhere after 3:30 I finally drifted off.  I woke up about 3 times before getting up at 8:30. 

The reason I am doomed is because I recently read that as women get into their 50’s and 60’s they have increases issues falling and staying asleep!

My God, will I be awake 23 hours a day by then?

We all know L.O.L.  Anyone who uses email, IM, texting or whatnot knows L.O.L.

I personally don’t use it. 

It might be the feeling that if I do use shorthand of any kind, I am betraying all that cash forked out on a degree in English.  It could just be my love of words.  I am not sure.  Either way, it’s not something I type.  Yet I am uber familiar with the expression.

I find it telling of the era we are in, the overload of technology and handheld communication, when I see the letters in places unusual to the expression and instantly think Laughing Out Loud.

Example:  Today I was at the butcher.  I got some steaks and some lunchmeat.  While I was waiting for the butcher to cut my meat, I was looking at the list of pricing for deli items.

L.O.L. Swiss Cheese $5.49 lb.

Laughing Out Loud Cheese?  What?

Doh!

Land O’Lakes!  Not Laughing Out Loud! 

God help me!

I am reading The Alchemist.  I had just read the initial talk about Omens Monday night.

Yesterday when I got the mail, I found a Fall Course Schedule catalog for Wright
College.

I took it as an Omen.

In my search for my career path, I have been considering taking some classes in software that I don’t know or that I’m not that familiar.  I’m job hunting and a lot of the job ads list software I’ve never used, so I thought that would be a good idea.

But that isn’t really leading me to my career path, now is it?  Taking software classes.  Unless, of course, my career path were to be in computers or IT, but it’s not.

For a while now I have been considering law.  I have always enjoyed law and many people have told me throughout my life that I should be a lawyer.  I’m not ready for anything as big as being a lawyer.  However, I have been seriously thinking about becoming a Paralegal, but I figured it wouldn’t be an immediate fix.

So, as I opened the Wright College catalog, I was flipping through looking for software classes when the Paralegal pages fell open.

I took it as an Omen.

I began researching Paralegal studies at three schools nearby; Wright College, Triton College and, my Alma Matter, DePaul University.

DePaul has a link that allows you to view sample materials, exams and support material.  So I checked it out and I think this is my career path. 

In reading The Alchemist, I am wrapping my brain around the fact that people allow fear to hold them back from living the life they are supposed to be living.  I have always known that I have done this, and I will save that for another blog, but any reason I have come up with to not follow a career in the legal field is fear. 

I am looking into Financial Aid and Loans so that I can do this before the Fall term starts. 

I have not decided which school I will choose, but this is my path.  I will follow. 

I am not one to get a pedicure weekly.  I just never have found the justification in spending $50 a week on my toes.

However, I am no stranger to a pedicure.  The usual pedicure involves a comfy chair and a big bubbling mini-jacuzzi of warm water.  It is definitely relaxing and feels incredible, not to mention the pretty toes.

The most bizarre pedicure I have had involved a big stainless steel bowl.  No comfy chair.  No bubbling mini-jacuziz.  This was not at some random corner shop, it was at a chain here in Chicagoland.  A chain that many people I know patronize.  I treated my mom to a mani/pedi and we enjoyed a nice manicure.  Then they turned our chairs, office chairs, and we glanced at each other in minor alarm when they carried out big stainless steel bowls.

These bowls were identical to the bowls my step-dad makes his potato salad in.  This thought gave me pause.  Prior to putting my feet in the bowl, I noticed what looked like Palmolive at the bottom. 

I am soaking my feet in a potato salad bowl with dish soap.

They did a decent job with the pedicure, but frankly, nothing beats the bubbling mini-jacuzzi.  Rather than put the fuzzy cotton strips between my toes, they twisted tissues.  It was an interesting experience.  It was cheaper than normal, and I quickly understood why.  Yet it was a chain I marked as “do not return.”  Potato salad bowls and Palmolive aren’t my idea of going for a pedicure.  I could do that myself.

Last night, I heard of an even more bizarre pedicure.  Check it out.

  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080721/ap_on_fe_st/fish_pedicures

Yes, that’s a fish pedicure.  Little carp nipping at your feet.  Apparently more sanitary than the razors they use.  I imagine it tickles like crazy.  Would  you want to have fish giving you a pedicure? 

My question is: How often do they change that water? 

I am not sure which is more bizarre to me, Potato salad bowls or carp pedicures.