The reason I call it Ramblings

is because I ramble and this will be one of the queen of rambling posts.

As you may have gathered, depression has been trying to get a foothold and so far for the most part I've been winning the battle. So quite a bit has been going on lately. Son #2 and his delightful girlfriend came over on Sunday to get me on board HEALTHY EATING. First off, was a cleaning of the fridge. That one hurt a bit. I sat at the kitchen counter as they went through my fridge pitching just about everything that was in there. I suppose there was no reason to hold onto bottles of salad dressing that expired back in 2009 or maple syrup that was so thick holding it upside for almost 5 minutes and it still didn't move were good things to toss, but it did hurt to see the multi packages of wieners head into that green garbage bag. I know that wieners and their sister bologna are the garbage pit of food; that they use the snouts and other real yucky stuff of pigs to make them and that they are loaded with salt and probably one of the worst things we can eat. But dang I love - or rather loved - the taste of them. He did let me keep theGrill'ems though. I think he took pity on me as it wasn't only the hot dogs that had to go but the cookies as well. Now I'm not a big cookie eater so it wasn't as hard to say so long to them, but still - they were the good kind of cookies! Thin wafers topped with chocolate - Mmmmmmmm. And the cruelest cut was the loss of my chocolate mint cookies. They are my comfort cookies. When I was a young thing and went to visit Gramma, she always had these chocolate covered mint cookies 'cause she knew they were my favourite. So to see them thrown out without the respect they so deserved was a bit tough to take I'll admit.

So after that it was a trip to the grocery story for THE HEALTHY food. Why is that healthy food is so much more money and so much more - well - boring, then the junk stuff?? I was a bit worn out by the time we finished getting groceries, after taking time to carefully examine almost everything. I think it took us about 10 minutes on salad dressings alone. You see my favourite - Thousand Island - is higher in fat and calories than some of the other kinds Ryan suggested. But I don't like the ones he suggested. I offered a few other alternatives that he put the kibosh on. So we finally reached a compromise. I could have Thousand Island as long as I didn't drown my salad in it; that I promise to use it sparingly. As I said, it took about 10 minutes to reach this resolution alone! *roll of the eyes here*. I knew Ryan would really enjoy this section of Let's Get Healthy. And absolutely no Cheese Whiz or cheese slices - no processed food at all really - made it onto the belt when it came time to pay. If I want my own version of Egg McMuffins, it's whole wheat English Muffins buttered with calorie reduced margarine and brick cheese slices - and the egg - a normal egg.
So that was my big day on Sunday.

~*~*~*UPDATE~*~*~*

I actually started this post a while ago and meant to finish it and post it much sooner. Since then it's been up and down. I've had a lot of ups and lately a lot of downs. I was on a nice uphill and was just about ready to ditch the walker and graduate to just the cane but then I twisted my foot - my left foot of course - the one with the broken leg attached to it and now I'm back to using the walker again. I'm not to happy about than let me tell you!

Also, while I was in the hospital they asked all kinds of questions about my health in general since I had neglected it really for so long. One of the things I mentioned was that both my hands were numb and tinglish. I hadn't really thought about this - just thought it was another annoying thing to not think about. They set up an appointment for an ENG - a nerve kind of test thingy. I had that late last week and wouldn't you know - they found something. Damn it! They want to send me for an MRI as soon as I can get in for one. They think it's a pinched nerve or something and *grrrrr* one of the options mentioned was surgery. I don't want any more surgery. The leg was quite enough thank you.
As if that weren't enough, I somehow let it slip that's it's been a while (like years) since I've had one of those examinations. You know - the ones us women have. So I have an appointment coming up much too soon with a gynecologist. *shudder*

In the reading front, my reading mojo is slowly returning. A friend took me to Chapters not long ago where I stalked up on books. I have given up smoking though some days it's been a real struggle, and I've pretty much given up soda/pop and for the most part have been eating very healthy with much more fruits and veggies than I've eaten for some time, books are the addiction I won't give up *g*. Hopefully I'll have some reviews written soon. I'm still on track to have my best reading year since I've been tracking this, though not as many as I'd hoped before THE FALL.

So at the moment I'm taking things one day at a time - and doesn't that sound disgustingly cliche-is. Yesterday was a good day. My twisted foot wasn't bothering me too bad so I made my first solo trip to the grocery store and then to the mall for lunch at the food court. Today on the other hand isn't going so good. My foot is hurting again so my goal for today is just to get the kitchen and hopefully the living room cleaned. I am keeping up very good with getting washed and dressed within half an hour after getting up in the morning. That in itself is a goal I set when I got out of the hospital. I haven't got hooked on soaps in the afternoon which is good. But I shamefaced admit that a few times I've watched Jerry Springer and Maury Povich. Yes, yes I know - they are much worse than soaps. But they are trash at it's very finest.

And now - I must do some blog hopping - something else I've neglected for much too long. Sorry for the long absence. I promise I won't stay away this long again!

Oh - and before I go - one more thing. All About Romance has a poll up now for your top 100 romance book poll. I REALLY love everything about this poll. Not only is it fun for me to come up with my favourites, it's also a great place to get rec's for books once the poll is closed and the results are posted. Voting started on Oct 15 and runs until Nov. 14. So far I have 50 of my top listed and I'm working on the next 50. I say everyone send in their list even if you can't come up with 100. I don't think you have to come up with 100 if that's too hard. But I do urge everyone who reads and loves romance to send in what they can. It's fascinating to see what others are reading and loving. The last one they did was in 2007 and I know for myself, I've found some excellent new books since then.