Thursday, April 26, 2007

Climbing back on the wagon


So, I fell off of the healthy wagon with a resounding thud about three years ago when I started having complications with a pregnancy, and figured it would be my last, so I milked the pregnancy cravings for all they were worth, which went through the holiday season, and gained more than I should have and then with building our house, going back to school, student teaching and juggling just being a mom, I really neglected my overall physical health. I love to workout - I love that it's me time and I can just zone and sweat and wake up the next morning hurting and excited to do it all over again. However, I'm starting to get tired of being sore - all the time. I was talking to my youngest sister after she ran the two hurdle races in a NCAA track meet and asked if she was sore at all and she said no. That's when I realized that I was nowhere as close to getting into shape as I thought I was. Honestly, if you hadn't seen me for a while and were to see me now, you wouldn't notice a difference, but I feel better, not as tired, more toned (still in the same size of clothes...BLAST!!!) but still sore most of the time. It's when I realized that desperately climbing back on the exercise bandwagon is really hard, and it is my motivation to never fall off again. It's much easier to keep on keeping on than to start and stop...and start and be sore all the time. So, an hour a day five days a week, usually in the mid morning, I'll be in the gym, listening to Hoobastank, The Killers, Evanescence, Los Lonely Boys - burning calories as fast as I can and grimacing with the lovely weights. :)

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Women in our World

I have been thinking about this for a while - why it is that women are known and recognized in our world today. I'm betting that 90% are some sort of prima donna who had a little bit of talent and a big agent, acted like an idiot at least half a dozen times, and has had to go to rehab for one reason or another. I was recently thinking about who my girls have to look up to in their lives, people in the media that they are going to want to emulate. With the infiltration of Bratz dolls, www.bratz.com and even Bratz babies, little babies that are dressed showing off as much as they can and covered in makeup, and all the reasonable dolls, like American Girl dolls www.americangirl.com costing an arm and a leg, is it any wonder that parents tend to lean toward the ones that don't cost as much as a car payment? Maybe the lesson I'm supposed to teach my girls is that virtue and morals aren't as convienent as immodesty and self-degredation. I can't believe how hard it is, in Southern Conservative Utah, to find a swim suit for my four year old that isn't a bikini - not just a tankini, but a full bikini. I'm in a battle already to help my girls learn how to be true to themselves, their morals, their intellect (not something I've seen from any public female figures under 20 in YEARS) and to trust their instincts. I guess I'd better start preparing for battle.

Monday, April 16, 2007

How I know I'm a nerd

Sure when I'm wearing glasses or have my nose in a book, it isn't hard to figure out that I'm a nerd. No really, I'm okay with it. I understand that means that I just don't get things that others get, and vice versa. But there are several things that I enjoy that just push me over the edge from educated, or academically inclined, and into the nerdiness.

1. I'm learning Latin just because. Yea, I'm not getting credit for it (although I did already once, but that semester has since slipped my memory since I was pregnant most of it, and had a baby half way through...so most of what I knew is now lost.) Incidently, there is an online independent group for anyone who would also like to close in on their nerd title at http://www.ravendays.org/latin/wh2007.html

2. I really like classical music, and even operas. No, I'm not highly educated on them, and really only recognize the music of a very few, but I LOVE them. I would love to have the chance one year to go see all the operas that the Utah Opera Festival http://www.ufoc.org/ but I would probably have to go alone because eventhough Enoch is a GREAT sport at going to things he may not otherwise take the time to attend, asking him to go to that many operas, or maybe even one is just above and beyond the duties of love. I would also like to be a season ticket holder to the Utah Symphony, because if I could afford those tickets, I should reasonably be able to afford the gas that it takes to get up there or I should be buying the tickets in the first place. I love to listen to Classic FM out of the UK - they don't let you stream from their site anymore if you don't live in the UK but for some reason the link I have in Windows Media still works, which makes me very happy.

3. I don't know if this counts towards being a nerd, or just wipes me out of the normal female population, but I really don't like chick flicks. I did for a while, but part of the problem is they all start being the same movie to me - there's a girl who is the always a bridesmaid, never a bride type who finds a guy in some peculiar fashion, and they fall in love, have a complication, misunderstanding, break up, realize how much they really love each other and live happily ever after. Also, I don't like the idea that falling in love is the most important part of the movie - it's the staying in love through all the following complications that is really worthy of screen time.

4. While I mentioned it before, I really love to read, but not just anything. I like books that have a purpose, that are thought provoking and even challenge the standard ideas of society, whatever ideas the author deemed necessary to challenge. Dickens did it with several of his books, challenging how the society was set up and the problems that everyone looked away from. Steinbeck does it and Hemingway, while I've only read one of his novels, showed in A Farewell to Arms that war really didn't make sense to the lead character when he really started looking at the cost of it.

5. I like knowing the origin and evolution of languages - which is probably a reason why I'm so interested in learning Latin. I'd love to learn Greek too, but that involved different characters and making my mouth make sounds that I don't know if it could do. Maybe after I feel confident in my Latin, I'll tackle it. I've heard there are some great programs out there for this language.

Those are the reasons I can think of now...I'm sure more will come up later.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Ayn Rand Interview

I really like Ayn Rand - Here are some of her thoughts in a 1959 interview with Mike Wallace. Very interesting ideas. If that gets you thinking and you are close to me, I'm more than happy to lend you a book or two to read more. I promise you'll be hooked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-pHxlwFgOc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wsr768hdk4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5poUSQ4L8pY

Monday, April 9, 2007

Why Not?

I've often wondered, and now I'm doing it out loud - so to speak, why it is that more people don't read. Really, I know - too busy, slow reader, whatever, but really, why not? There is nothing that I enjoy more, after a long day when I feel frazzeled and just want to get away, than opening a book whose characters come into my mind throughout the day and see what is happening. When I was reading Atlas Shrugged, I thought about how that book was going to end, who was going to end up where and with whom, all throughout the day for the whole time that I was reading it - and it's a 1100 page book!!!

I'd much rather read a great book than see a movie where all the lose ends are feebly tied up in just the 2 hour time frame. Sure, there are some great movies out there - the new Bond is really fun, and Enoch and I both enjoyed The Prestige and The Illusionist, but these were movies that kept us engaged in conversation afterwards, trying to figure out how everything happened that really happened. There aren't many movies that do that anymore, but there are tons and tons of great books!!!

I think I'll add a list to this blog of books that are on my list to read - feel free to recommend some that you thought were great. Just a couple of thoughts on the books that I have read recently. A Farewell to Arms is the first Hemingway book that I've read - I don't know how I got an English degree without reading any of his novels, but I did. I was completely in awe - what a great book!!! If I ever get a job and get to teach American Lit, I will definitely be including this as a novel to be read some years.

Twilight - Stephenie Meyer. I got this book from the teacher who I did my student teaching with (Thanks Danna) and when I heard what it was about there was a part of me that groaned. But there were so many students who were riveted by the book, I thought I needed to at least give it a shot. It's about a girl who moves to WA to live with her dad and ends up falling in love with a vampire. I know, it sounds really dumb, but it completely consumed my life for the 6 hrs it took to read it (no, not all at once, I don't have that kind of solid time to read) :) It's written by an LDS author from BYU, but it's not completely cheesy - really, it's a great book. I just need to get my hands on the sequel...

Ayn Rand has changed my life - I bought a bunch of her books off of ebay and I just want to keep reading them. I'm forcing myself to read other authors, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if I've read all of her works that I have - 10 or so - by the end of the year. I love her philosophy and the more I see the ridiculousness of the world, the more I love her works.

Okay - anyone who has some suggestions of great books - let me have them - I'll add them to my list.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Introduction

I'm Tasha - mom of three kids, Will, Ellie and Catie, hence the name of this blog. We have a family blog (see the links) where I post what has been happening with our family, etc. but wanted to have a space where I could post more about me, my thoughts, life, experiences, etc without taking up all the space of the family's site.

I'm currently on a quest to get in shape, and not doing a great job. My dad's going to help me figure out what I could be doing better and for the next week, I'm going to write down everything I eat everyday and everything I do physically everyday. It's not the number on the scale that's bothering me as much as not fitting in what I want - so I'm going to see about changing that.

I LOVE reading - I can only remember one book that I truly hated reading and Oprah had it on her list as well as it winning a Pulitzer - I don't know what - It's One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez - I dreaded the whole book after the first chapter. Since I love reading so much, I just have a running list of what I've read on this blog.

I also love classical music, and a great deal of rock, but I'm kindof a music snob I guess because I'm very picky about what I'll listen to - I'll get around to a list of that sometime soon.

I'm currently trying to get a job as a high school English teacher - I just missed out on the opportunity to have a job next year - lost it to a teacher who had been teaching at the local university, so I guess that's good that she has experience and is going to add to the English program at Cedar High, but I'm still incredibly bummed that I didn't get the job. It's one of the two things that I'm completely passionate about (the other's being a mom if you didn't figure that out already).

Well, Scrubs reruns are on- what a great way to end the day. More later.