Writing is very therapeutic for me. It is something tangible, something that I can do with my hands. For some reason, working with my hands in some way has always been something that I’ve enjoyed because it was a stress reliever. But writing with a pen or pencil on paper has always been a different type of therapy. Since my creative muse has been a little ditsy lately, writing for myself has been a little out of the question. I cannot seem to focus on my writing. I tend to move to penpal letters in this case but my hands are so unused to holding a writing implement for that long so my hands begin to cramp. I used to be able to write for hours at a time. Do you see what computers have done to us? Anyway, in regards to penpals, I still haven’t quite found someone that I’ve really connected with. So it is frustrating to feel like I have to write to someone I have zero interest in keeping contact with. What is the point then? There isn’t. So I just stop writing to them.

I am thinking of taking up crochet or knitting. It is something fairly easy, once the basics are learned, and it is definitely something that I can do with my hands. I talked to my friend the other night about where she learned and if she had any suggestions for me. She was able to tell me what basic supplies I should arm myself with as well as how she was self-taught. Since I love to learn by doing, this method is often the most fun for me. By trial and error, I often learn the mechanics more quickly than if someone just shows me and talks me through it. Learn by doing, that’s my motto! Besides, it always feels so much more rewarding.

I wound up sleeping for about four hours tonight (last night?) for a nap because I just didn’t feel right physically. I was nauseated, run down, and had a migraine threatening to show up and wreak havoc. So, sure, I avoided the migraine and my body enjoyed the sleep, but damn if I didn’t just completely eff my self in my ability to sleep through the night. Sigh. Awesome.

Meanwhile, Veracity has opened up its TCG. Feel free to come on over and check things out. Kristen sent you

This post brought to you by Delta Labs. All opinions are 100% mine.

It’s no real secret that I have a desire to lose weight become more healthy. I am the most overweight that I have been in my life. It is partly due to all the stress I have been under for the past four years and it is partly due to my level of physical activity decreasing dramatically.

My eating habits have suffered greatly, my choosing comfort and convenience over what I should be eating. I have thought about looking into getting a nutritional guide but I am not much of a cook so I’m not sure how well that would pan out. I am always looking to try new things.

Delta Labs is giving away a free health book called Eat, Play Live! While writing this post, I darted off and signed up to receive my free eBook. It was sent to my e-mail address almost immediately with the option of viewing online or downloading a zip file. I chose to download mine. The pdf is gorgeous, first of all. It is 36 pages worth of information that you can generally find anywhere, to be honest. But it’s all contained in a quick guide. And it’s free!

If you’re looking to lose weight, a change in diet is key. So why not start with a free guide that isn’t a full novel to pick your way through? Less pages to read means less of a chance to get discouraged. Give it a shot. Who knows? Maybe this will be the system that finally turns your life around? I’m definitely not discounting it.

It’s not that I necessarily needed something new to watch. I don’t. I have plenty of television shows queued up in one way or another for me to watch.

But recently, I was talked into watching Nikita. I had downloaded the first episode because it was one of the shows that would have conflicted with other shows on the DVR but I never got around to watching it. So I had s01e01 since the day after it aired and it sat in my downloads folder, just waiting for me to open it up.

I had never watched La Femme Nikita but I suppose that the premise is the same: black ops organization trains some hot, young thing to be a gold star assassin. And then everything goes wrong when she escapes and decides to take down the whole operation. Sound about right? I mean, both series were based off of the French film… right? Regardless, it’s your usual “good guy spy in a rogue operation” story with the main component being an attractive, kick-ass woman. Enter Nikita, played by Maggie Q. While I am a sucker for a good action flick, and an even bigger sucker for a pretty faced action heroine, nothing had grabbed my attention about the series.

And then I watched it.

I watched the first three episodes, back to back, before forcing myself to slow down and take a break. Withdrawal symptoms from a crash diet of a new television show are never pretty. Pacing myself, I decided to instead completely and utterly fangirl over the series with the person who had turned me onto it just yesterday. That didn’t help. Oddly enough, I don’t even know why I am enjoying the series so much. It is predictable and the characters aren’t very deep. Not a single one of them. Nikita is nice to look at, Michael is fun to watch (just to see how many scowls he can do–ooh! Drinking game!), Birkhoff is fun to watch and listen to, and Alex is… pretty? Jaden is pretty but I don’t like the actress’ voice for some reason and the character is a bitch. You aren’t meant to like her but I cannot even stand listening to her. Thom is… not even a blip on my radar, sadly. Supposedly he is a bigger player later.

Wait, I was supposed to be garnering more fans for this show.

Okay! So some of the banter is fun. Especially between genius hacker!boy Birkhoff and, well, just about everyone. He has this attitude of why must he be surrounded by people so below his level of intelligence and yet can’t seem to keep his mouth shut as he inadvertently causes the Big Wigs to believe that he is the mole. You know, because he is the only person capable of hacking into the system that he designed and–oops?

Oh to Hell with it. Just go watch it.

I spent some time in San Diego with family and friends. I left on Thursday, December 23rd immediately following my shift for work and drove the six hours to San Diego. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were my normally scheduled days off so that wasn’t a big deal.

But I had to work for the following five days and the entire week was an ordeal in one way or another. I am still angry about how things played out so I don’t even want to get into it.

On January 2nd, we went to Disneyland and had reservations at Club 33. That’s right. Be jealous. It is actually my second time going and I was pleased that we were seated in the trophy room this time around instead of the main dining area. It just meant that I was able to see more of this elite club. The day at Disneyland wasn’t too bad–up until the point where the skies decided to dump bucket upon bucket of water upon us. The park closed at midnight but we left around 7pm because we were all soaked, cold, and exhausted.

I left the following day, immediately following my work shift, and took my dad’s car home instead of mine because it hadn’t yet been worked on and it was acting up the morning I was supposed to be driving the six hours back to Arizona. So I returned late on Monday, January 3rd and pretty much passed out.

And then I left again on Thursday, January 6th to go back to San Diego because my car was supposedly going to be ready on Friday. It wasn’t but that was okay. Friday wound up being a daddy-daughter hang out day. Total costs for car repairs? $630. Definitely money that I didn’t have; my dad paid for the repairs and I will pay him back as I can. My car is running splendidly now. Finally!

I am renewed in my job hunt, looking for either a second part time job or a full time job that will support me. The only thing that yielded any results wound up being something that didn’t right with me for various reasons so that was swept off the table. Ah well. I just have to keep at it.