Day Off = Welcome Free Time!

My last day of official On-The-Job Work was yesterday (Work is Closed today!), which means:
I HAVE A DAY OFF!! Woo hoo!!

What to do with myself? There are  SOOO many choices, I can't decide.
:)

I have cooking I can do and recipe research....especially now that I'm having to move to a more whole-foods, non-processed food diet - kinda the like the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) [think grain-free, lactose-free, sugar-free, etc.]. So I'm looking at various recipes geared for the SCD.

Tangent Warning:
          Its very interesting to see how much I've improved health wise now that I've extremely limited my grains - no, I haven't cut them completely - in the last few weeks, plus I've upped my fresh veggies and fruit, and nixed refined sugar (except for a couple of splurges - like a chocolate or two on Boxing Day with Family :). Not that I've gone overboard with honey or molasses as alternative sweeteners right now. Just cutting the sugar. Its AMAZING how much of our (American) food products have sweeteners - we as a society have so gotten used to sweet things!
      Between the new diet, and going twice a week to see an Acupuncturist (who's also a Herbalist & Nutritionist - she does a blending of practicing Eastern & Western medicine basically, and I highly recommend her! Dr. Kathleen Albertson, L.Ac., PhD - OC Acupuncture), taking the ground Herbs (blend of Evergreen Herbs mixed by Dr. Albertson) in my tea, I'm definitely seeing positive changes. I'm sure some of it is due to the fact that I'm just getting "down time" at the Acupuncturist visits (yay for relaxation time :). One immediately noticeable change is that my Adult Acne (which has gotten worse in the last few years) has drastically improved! YAY! (Who knew/guessed that it was a reaction to bacteria caused by my body not being able to process certain foods/things? My dermatologist sure didn't!) Anyways, there's other benefits/reasons that I don't feel like going into on this blog posting, but this certainly is a good start. Hopefully will have a much HEALTHIER year in 2012! :)
End of Tangent 

Let's see, I could also spend time baking, since I never did do any baking of Christmas/Holiday cookies (I'll have to give away the majority of what I make, but the baking itself is fun - plus it smells wonderful :).

I could spend some much-needed time sewing (way too many current projects to list right now :) - or Knitting. (I'm currently trying my hand knitting a Sontag or Bosom Friend  from an 1860 pattern...with a little help from someone who's already tried it and written her notes/translation to the pattern: posted here )

Of course, there are a TON of flicks in the movie theaters right now that I really want to see. (Finally!! There was a long stretch of "eh, no really that interested in spending my money on that movie" - besides my being super busy :).

My list of Movies currently in theaters (some for not much longer, some just released, listed in no particular order) that I want to see:

1) The Artist;
2) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy;
3) Adventures of Tin Tin
4) Hugo
5) Muppets
6) Mission Impossible: GP
7) War Horse
8) J. Edgar
9) My Week with Marilyn
10) Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

     (Yes, I've seen the Swedish films - guess its time to see how the US version holds up :)
and

11) Puss in Boots (still playing in my local Cheap/$2 theater :)

I started Movie Weekend last night with "Breaking Dawn: Part 1" (Yes, the current Twilight Movie - no judging! :).

I think I may try to see the Muppets & Hugo today (since they've been out longer and have limited show times).

So many things to possibly do! Love it! :)

Sometimes I wonder if my life is a Screwball Comedy....

considering the various things that just "seem to happen to me". Like Tuesday's contact episode.


This morning was another example: I literally FELL out of bed (tangled in my bedsheets/coverlet) in my half-awake scramble to reach a cup that was falling...and of course landed on my sore/previous injured (so easily hurt) arm. Doh! OUCH! Its like a good 3+ feet drop (I have an "elevated" bed that was made for me years ago so I could store things easily under it. Nice most of the time, just not this morning!).

At least the arm is only a bit sore and not TRULY re-injurred. I'll baby it a bit today and hopefully will have it mostly useful by tomorrow/this weekend. :)

Things not to do when taking a Wilton Decorating Basics Class

Things not to do when taking a Wilton Decorating Basics Class (i.e. decorating cakes etc.):

1) Half way through the course’s allotted time, rub your eyes & cause one of your contact lens to fall out….especially the dominant eye’s contact lens.

2) Forget to bring a back-up pair of glasses in case you do the above.

And yet, that is INDEED what happened to me! Fortunately, the erstwhile lens landed on the table (and not in my frosting or on the cake I was decorating), but there was NO WAY I was putting that lens back in my eye! (Good thing it was just a “Daily” so I could toss it & not have to save it for cleaning later). Unfortunately, as that was my dominant eye, and while I can see ok up close, far away (and at night) is blurry…and with one I focused & the other eye trying to compensate for sudden change in focus (i.e. sans contact lens), let’s just say it made for an interesting rest of the evening! (Trying to keep your dominant eye closed while looking out of the other eye, for a period of time, is harder than it seems!)

Oh, and to top off the evening, I then had to drive home…at night! Fortunately for me the class location wasn’t far from home so it was only a brief trip. (5 minutes with stoplights).

:)

And I did get to finish decorating my cake at home. It looks great!