That Which Does and Does Not Suck

What sucks in my life right now:

- It took me 3 years to complete a 9-month massage therapy certification program due to my chronic procrastination and inability to get paperwork together
- I still don't have a driver's license
- Even though I live in the "Mid South" it still gets cold in the winter
- Most of my size 16 pants are too small for me now. This happens when you're 5'4" and top out at a couple o' bills
- I just got over a cold and generously gave it to my boyfriend
- My temp job calls for 12.5-hour shifts starting at 7am - on weekends! - and I am not exactly a morning person
- Bonnie, one of my cats from back home, recently had to be put to sleep.

What does not suck, to say the least:

- It may have taken me a while, but I finally graduated from massage school. Next stop: taking (and passing) the NCETMB, obtaining a Tennessee massage therapy license, and establishing my practice!
- I'm calling a driving school tomorrow, procrastination be damned! And I'm allowed to use my Massachusetts learner's permit in Tennessee, that'll mean one less DMV fee.
- It's nowhere near as cold, or snowy, in Middle Tennessee as it is in Eastern Massachusetts. Seriously, they freak out here over a dusting the way we hardy New Englanders freak about an imminent blizzard. It's actually quite amusing to watch the weather forecasts.
- Last week I began working out with Roger, my new personal trainer. It's hard work but totally worth it. I'd missed the old post-workout, walking-funny-for-three-days-cuz-my-thighs-are-friggin-killing-me sensation! With Roger's help and my own stubbornness - er, determination - I should be down to a size 12 by summertime. Developing some lung capacity and reducing my risk of various future health problems will be pretty sweet too.
- If Rich has the same cold as me, it's not great but we've both had worse. And it's nice to be sharing the same living space. Very nice.
- Yeah, the hours are weird at my job, but it's a full time paycheck squeezed into a 3 day workweek. That gives me Tuesday thru Friday to do whatever I want. Like take driving lessons, study for the exam, work out, and hang out with my "bah"
- Losing BonBon? A senseless tragedy. The shittiest thing that has happened in a long, long time. The silver lining is that she's no longer suffering, and I never had to watch her suffer. In my memories she will always be a healthy, happy, flirty little girl of a cat.

Overall, things are pretty good. I miss home a little, but it's fun and exciting to explore a new place. When the weather gets better we're going to visit the zoo, take a dinner cruise down the Cumberland River, and check out some of the nearby state parks and historic sites, of which there are many. In the meantime we're content to make the most of our Netflix membership and cable modem. And despite my legendary procrastination I promise to blog more. And upload some pictures once in a while.

Remind me...

not to fall asleep with the TV on. Audio from late night infomercials somehow gets into my dreams, so I'm hurtling through outer space on a rescue mission and the space denizen I'm rescuing wants to tell me how to invest in real estate with no money down. Then a voice in my head starts extolling the virtues of some kind of super-polarized sunglasses.

Too f'd up for words.

Weird Dream

This week I've been filling in serving breakfasts at one of the elder housing properties managed by my mom (aka Maaaaaa) because the girl who usually does breakfast is out with strep throat. Poor girl! I sincerely hope she gets better, and not just because it means I have to work early in the morning.

Anyway, I was exhausted this morning. One woman asked for cinnamon raisin toast and I accidentally gave her cinnamon toast crunch! When my shift ended at 9:30 am I headed straight home and went to sleep. Didn't even stay up for the 10am Daily Show rebroadcast...

Next thing I know, I'm transplanted to a teen melodrama series, a la Degrassi: Next. Except we weren't in Toronto, we were in Danvers or Beverly or somewhere on the North Shore, but different than in real life. You know how dreams are...

So in my dream, I was one of several high school students in a regular middle-class American (or perhaps Canadian) town. Suddenly my town became an Islamic extremist theocracy, and I was Jewish. I'm not actually Jewish, but in my dream I had just converted and was learning to cook kosher meals when the town was taken over by the Muslim equivalent of the Third Reich. Jews like me were subject to a strict curfew, were not allowed to drive or ride bikes, and our homes and business were broken into by Gestapo-like forces. We could attend the same schools as Muslim students but were taught in separate classrooms. Violence regularly broke out between Muslim and Jewish students, many of whom were previously good friends. Families were torn apart. It was awful.

Then somehow toward the end of my dream a Gandhi-esque gentleman came along and got us to reconcile. I'm not sure how that happened either, but you know how dreams are. Then we were back in time during the Nixon administration, although Nixon looked a little different than he did in real life - once again, you know how dreams are. President Nixon himself caught the Gandhi-esque character in bed with a young woman who had blown him off for a date, and he became furious and killed the guy. I witnessed the crime but was powerless to bring the President to justice without putting myself in danger.

Then the dream turned into having to run to CVS or a similar store in the middle of a college basketball game - I think it was BC vs UGA - and not being able to find the item I was looking for while missing a game I really wanted to see, which was deeply frustrating but nowhere near as bad as the previous two dream sequences.

Then I woke up.

Anyone want to tell me what it all means?