I think my chiropractor cursed me. I went in on Monday, and she said that my hips were tighter than she's ever seen in me. I told her I'd been running, and she showed me some stretches to help. I ran last night, and I did the stretches and this morning I'm in pain. My lower back hurts and I feel like an old woman. I've been moaning and groaning and limping all day. I think I must have run stupid, thinking about protecting my lower back and ended up hurting it instead. Ow!

The end of January is always the worst. It wouldn't have even been so bad this year if I hadn't been so apathetic the past two weeks. So now I'm busting my butt for the last few days of the month, trying to meet charge hours, because it looks really, really bad if you don't meet charge hours during tax season. The best thing about tax season, though, is that I look forward to and appreciate the little things more. Like lunch out, or donuts, or Death of a Salesman (Sunday!), or stopping and getting a real coffee. Notice how most of those things involve food? But I'm most excited about the play. Jody and Ron (the founders of Riverside Theatre) having been waiting until they were the right age to play the parts, and I think the wait (for them) is going to make the play better. Plus, I just adore Ron's acting.

When I re-read the Little House books (I would say this would be the 7th or 8th time through them), I am always of two minds about reading The First Four Years. These Happy Golden Years is a wonderful book. I absolutely swoon when Almanzo drives Laura home from school every weekend, and he asks her to marry him. Then the night before her wedding, she asks Pa to play all the "old songs" and she remembers all the places she had lived and I cry, because she's leaving that all behind, but she's going to build a new life with Manly.

And then I read The First Four Years, and it's absolutely depressing. For one thing, it's not a finished book, and while I appreciate the attempt, it hasn't been given the tone of the others. In The Long Winter (my favorite, by the way), they are literally starving to death, and it isn't nearly so depressing as the tone of the last book. Granted, they're deep in debt, something always happens to their crops right before it's time to harvest, Almanzo becomes partially paralyzed, their second child dies, and their house burns down, but something nearly like all of that has happened to Laura's family before, and she wasn't nearly so depressed about it. I can't help but think if she'd finished the book, it would have been so much better.

That, and there are things written in there that contradict things that happened in the previous books, details like Almanzo's age and the wedding, and it ruins my illusion. Call me sentimental, but I like my illusions. I ended up reading it this time, because it's a new book and needs to be read at least once, but I think I'll skip it next time. Sometimes a little "happily ever after" doesn't hurt.

Ever since I found the easter egg on the Serenity DVD, I've had the Fruity Oatey Bar song stuck in my head. Who knew the song was in English?

I'm still waiting for the "increased energy" from physical activity to kick in. I have been so wiped, I've been taking naps and going to bed early.

I am in love with my treadmill. Saturday I woke up about 5:30 from one of said naps, and I never would have exercised if it hadn't been down there in the basement waiting for me.

I have at least two "deep thought" posts floating around my head, but I'm too lazy to write them down. I haven't even installed my camera software on my computer yet. Is it April yet?

I am so freakin' bored. I've got all this work to do, and I can't do it because they're not updating the software until this evening. I could be working on my practice returns, but the files got lost in cyberspace somewhere, and the only person who might be able to get them back has been out sick all week.

I need a drink.

I almost fell off the wagon last night. My Chamber Ambassador duties took my out to Homestead, and I figured while I was out there, I might as well see if my godparents/aunt and uncle were home. They were, and I ended up staying and talking until dinner, and so we walked over to Zuber's. Mmm...good German food. I ate and I ate, and then I had pie. By the time I got home, I was full of food and didn't want to excercise. But I did anyway. Yay me!

I am in possesion of a functioning treadmill! Chelsea helped me get it home and the boxes into the basement. That sucker was HEAVY! Good thing I had a strong girl to help me. Thanks, Chelsea!

I got it put together, with half an hour spent trying to put the wrong size bolt in a hole. Stupid unclear instructions. At any rate, it was worth avoiding the $150 delivery and set-up fee. I get to test it out tonight! Now to look for a TV...

I got a wireless mouse and keyboard at work, and I absolutely love them. I don't have any restrictions on where I'm typing or mousing (what's the verb for that?) and it's much more ergodynamic. Today I had a client come in for a Quickbooks tutorial, and I turned my extra monitor around and gave him the keyboard and mouse, and we could both use both comfortably as needed.

Or it was supposed to work that way. My mouse went completely wonky. It stopped working, and the only way I can get it to work is to press the button on the sensor/receptor, and it works for like ten seconds and then stops. So I have to press this button every time I want to use my mouse. I had to press the button for the client, and it completely wiped out the convenience of the whole set up. Stupid mouse. I went back to the in-laptop mouse, which makes using the wireless keyboard impractical. I want to use my wireless! [pout]

What happens when a Supreme Court Justice nominee tries to make a joke?

Congressmen think "super-duper precedent" is a new legal term. I am laughing my ass off at this. I also enjoy the thinly veiled accusations and pontifications. Most of it's boring and repetitive, but once in a while, there's a real gem.

I started on my FIRM ASS goals today. I got my ass out of bed in time to catch the 7:26 bus, did the first round of Learn to Run 10k, and controlled my portions. Now if only the next few months can go as well...

I bawled my eyes out at this story on NPR: Joe & Flo: A Senior Couple's Struggle to Stay United. It's about 17 minutes long.

Breathe. Breathe.

I just bought a treadmill. Breathe. I hate shelling out large sums of cash like that. It tends to make me hyperventilate. It's really cool, though. I can progam in the Learn to Run 10K program, even the later parts with the inclines. Now I just need to figure out how I can watch television while I'm running. I'm thinking one of those little TV-and-DVD-in-one deals like Mom has.

I'm a goin' running!

P.S. Em, Joey Brammier sold it to me. I didn't know it was him until I'd signed all the paperwork and he gave me his card. He seemed apologetic for giving you crap.

This is SO. COOL.

I brought my laptop home from work so I could finish up most of my bookkeeping from 2005 (no late taxes this year, I swear), and I figured out how to hook it up to my wireless network. I am blogging...wait for it...from BED. I feel so eccentric. My next computer is going to be a laptop, no matter how unreliable they might be. I'd never have to get out of bed again.

Goodbyes suck. Especially when it's going to be a year and a half until your sister comes home again, and your brother is going to Ohio for nine months. Which makes me realize that he won't be around forever, either, and I'm going to be the kid that sticks around and takes care of the parents.

And I don't know how I feel about that. Not that that's a bad thing, or something I resent, but there's a feeling of...regret, maybe? Not quite, though. I don't regret the choices I've made: I love my town, and I love my job, and I love my home. But there's something there that asks, "What if?" What if I'd left Iowa, even if just for a while? Would I have gotten homesick, or would I have thrived? Would I have stayed away, or come home again?

I don't know if there's ever going to be a chance to find out. Now that I'm established and happy where I am, there's less of a chance that I'll make a huge change. And now that I'm the "last" kid, there's going to be a teensy feeling of obligation to stay, even if my parents would tell me not to feel that way.

Nothing like a two-day headache to ring in the New Year. Whoopee. I slept right through the ringing in of 2006. The bright side is, it can only get better from here, right? Also, I'm suprisingly well-rested, despite the pounding in the base of my skull that prompted all that sleep.

Also in the vein of finding the bright side, except in the exact opposite way, the downside of all that weight I'm going to lose in the next six months is that I won't be able to wear these pants anymore. I love these pants, especially with the new camisole and shrug combo I bought at a 50% off post-Christmas sale, and the look-at-my-boobs necklace that matches. Green and brown is my new favorite combo.

And I said six months instead of this year because I realized my ten year high school reunion is this year. And I don't even want to go because I hate those people and don't know why I'd want to look good for them anyway.