Pearls of Wisdom:
-Thpppppt. - Me

I am currently at a loss of what to do. I would like to pretend to be productive this morning before I go to school but I'm being very lethargic. I slept like a rock last night though. It was the first time in a long time I didn't wake up at some random point during the night to go potty. I woke up, per usual, only when my stupid brother's alarm went off. I did the morning deed and crawled back under the covers. A few more alarms later, my brother poked his head in and asked if he could turn on the heat for a little. I mumbled something affirmative and then he proceeded to asked several times if he could pester me. I mumbled something negative several times and then passed out again till 9:15. That's some serious sleeping in for me. I'm now looking at the clock that says 10:30 and am wondering what I can do to be productive.

I've farted about online so far and looked up a few things that I needed to look up. Cringed over a few things I knew I may cringe over. And now I'm back to square one. I suppose I should look over my lab stuff for today. I suppose.

Another thing I've been pondering the past few days is this 200 mile diet thing. How does one define this? This really isn't the best time of year to start this. Yeah, there's stuff I can do but I'll have a hard time finding a variety of food now. This is a great time for planning though. (Thank God there's several Ohio based ice cream places.) With that in mind, I realized that I really needed to define what I consider within 200 miles.

I can be really lazy about this or really anal retentive. Technically, the Burger King is within 200 miles from my house. Technically it's local food. How deep do I want to go? Where does Burger King corp get their food from? Do local restaurants in Ohio get their beef and such from local ranches or does it come from some place in Wyoming? What about fish? We have an awesome Lake that's less than 200 miles from here with world class walleye. perch, and trout fishing. Is the walleye, perch, and trout in my neighborhood Giant Eagle from Lake Erie or some other place? Being in the late harvest season, am I allowed to continue to purchase fruit and veggies even though they may not be from around here? (This is why I say this isn't the best time of year to start this.)

Another thing I thought about yesterday, because I need to buy a new winter coat, is how does one judge clothing? I'm lucky I live in an area of Columbus where we do have boutiques and shops that carry clothes made locally. However, we're talking ex-pen-sive! I appreciate that they deserve the money and stores need to make a profit but their stuff just isn't in my budget. Most clothing sold in the department stores around here are make in other countries. Am I allowed to consider thrift stores? Granted, I may find clothes made in Taiwan but they're second hand (and therefore not tossed in the trash) and the thrifts around here support local non profit agencies like Goodwill.

I'll really need to think this out and actively plan and research what I can do. If you want to follow this with me, I'm going to blog about it in it's own place at http://200milesofchoices.blogspot.com/

Pearls of Wisdom:
-Get out of your own way already! - Daily Om (http://www.dailyom.com)

I am now officially 33. Pretty much, yesterday was any other day except for a wonderful birthday lunch with Hawk and her Beau. (Thanks again, guys.) Outside of that, I still had school in the morning. Other drama ensued in the afternoon. It really was just another day.

Today has been relatively pleasant except I'm getting tired of waking up to my brother's alarm instead of mine. (Do you really need to have it turned up that loud, Brother Unit? And do you really need it to go off every 15 minutes for an hour and a half?) After hearing it the second time, I just got up and gathered my laundry and headed out. I now have nice clean fresh laundry and a nice clean fresh blankie for my bed. I also was able to actually finish a reading assignment. That is such a rarity for me. I now have to read 43 more pages though by tonight. (That's last week's assigned reading btw, not this week's.)

It's an interesting book though. It's called "a href="http://www.amazon.com/Consumers-Guide-Effective-Environmental-Choices/dp/060980281X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222871848&sr=8-1">The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices. It's pretty easy to read too. If you choose to read it, don't expect the usual "don't use plastic shopping bags" and "don't use disposable diapers" stuff. My next reading assignment for tonights class is from The Skeptical Environmentalist. Bless our prof for forcing us to think outside of the environmental box. This will be a good class.

I've settled down from the frantic pace I was in last week. I have had a few panicky moments this week as some people tried to infringe upon my time when they don't deserve any of it. I have to remind myself that I have been blessed with a very good schedule this quarter and I really do have time to get stuff done. Maybe not all the reading, but a lot of it.

I'm also fighting with my perpetual money panic this quarter. Things are status quo right now but there's other things that I have put off for a very long time that need to be dealt with. For example, I've needed a new lap top battery for several years. It falls squarely into the category of an allowed financial aid expense but I'm fighting with myself over spending $150+ for it. There there's the bras that I have to replace (I'm down to one good one and one in pretty bad shape), the oil change (don't go to the Jiffy Lube in Clintonville), and a few other things that I need to judge importance on. I have to repeat to myself that it'll be okay.

Sigh.....someday I'll be able to do everything that I need to do and maybe even what I want to do.

Today, Mom is coming over to meet me for lunch. I haven't decided where I want to go. Good ol' tofu and veggies sounds good as always but I feel like, since this is a "birthday lunch," I should pick somewhere different that I don't usually go to. I'll go look some places up to see if they have lunch hours I guess.

Okay, time to go. I still have some reading I have to do and stuff. Cheers!

Amy

It's down there.