Netflix Down!!

I love Netflix.  I've been a subscriber since April of 2008.  It's a glorious company.  I don't have cable or satellite, so when I want to watch television, I turn to my friend Netflix.

I have a Roku player that streams Netflix instantly.  I can also stream from either of the 2 Xbox 360s in our house (master bedroom and the living room -- Philip is a super gamer!), the blu-ray player in the living room, or the Wii in the living room.  Or, if I'm really desperate, I can stream from the laptop or the desktop computers.  :D

So, you wouldn't think I would ever have any problems watching Netflix.  BUT NETFLIX HAS BEEN DOWN FOR HOURS!!!  It's killing me.  I've switched sleep schedules so that I can be awake when Philip gets off work.  That means that I have to sleep for a few hours when I get home from work.

To do that, I watch Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.  It may seem strange, but that's what puts me to sleep.  I have always liked to have something on the radio or television to fall asleep to.  I've seen the SVU episodes so many times that I don't need to stay awake to watch them.  I can fall asleep to them.  

But, that's only when my Netflix is working!  Which it's not.  :(  Hopefully it will be back up and running soon.

So, in conclusion, I highly recommend a Netflix subscription... but, be careful!  You'll soon be addicted.  ;) 

Insomnia

I have been battling insomnia for weeks now. During the workweek, I barely get a few hours of sleep a night. I end up being tired during the day and then I'm wide awake as soon as it is time for bed. It's irritating. Then, on the weekends, I sleep for hours. It's fantastic. I mean, I sleep like 12 hours. It's because I can just fall asleep whenever and then I don't have to get up at any certain time (it helps that Philip works nights... so that's his normal schedule).

Well, to help fight this ridiculous battle, I have begun napping. I know it sounds counterproductive, but it seems to be working. I figure, if I'm not going to sleep at night anyway, why not nap so I can get at least a few hours of sleep?

So, when I get home from work, I eat dinner and then I watch a little tv and take a nap. The nap usually lasts an hour or two. A few times I actually slept 4 hours. It seems excessive, but at least I'm sleeping! Then, I get up and do my normal evening routine (wedding planning, cleaning the house, reading, etc.) until I feel ready for bed. I still get to bed around the same time as when I wasn't napping (sometime between 2-4 am), but at least I already have a few hours of sleep under my belt!

I still sleep quite a bit on the weekend, but I feel much better throughout the week. Ha! Take that insomnia! I may not have won the war, but at least I'm not going crazy from sleep deprivation! :)

Sleep, writing, and Break-up songs...

Sleep seems to be rather elusive for me these days. I can only seem to feel tired when it's not an optimal/appropriate time for me to be sleeping. I keep going to bed later and getting up later each day. So, I decided yesterday that I was going to trick my body. I would stay up and not sleep until the following night... I thought that would get my body back on track.

Well, I managed to make it to roughly 1:30 pm yesterday. Then I fell asleep for about 3 hours. And, I still couldn't sleep this morning (I try to be on Philip's schedule... he goes to bed at about 6 or 7 in the morning and wakes up at around 2 or 3 pm since he works nights). So, here I am at 9 am, wide awake when I should be sound asleep next to Philip and Jack in the nice, cozy bed.

Anyway, I thought that since I was awake anyway, I would work some more on the book that I'm writing. It's one of three novels that I've begun. This one is a journal-style novel. It's geared toward young adults. It tells the story of a teen girl's break-up with her first love. It's actually going really well... for once. haha... hopefully this one won't get half-finished and spend a year on my flash-drive untouched. ;)

I usually listen to music while I write. I realized that my current "Favorites" playlist is actually very fitting for what I am writing about. It consists of mostly break-up songs. I thought maybe it was a fluke because of what I've been writing about, but when I thought about it, I realized that most all of my favorite songs throughout the years have been break-up songs.

My current list includes:
Aerosmith: What It Takes (My favorite song of all time)
Blue October: Say It
David Nail: Red Light
Jason Aldean: The Truth
Keith Urban: Til Summer Comes Around
Lady Antebellum: Need You Now
Muse: The Resistance
Rise Against: Savior
Safetysuit: Find A Way
The Script: Breakeven

The Resistance and Find a Way aren't really break-up songs, but are songs of forbidden love. The rest are all break-up songs. Then, I have two other songs on the list: Kesha's Tik Tok (I know, I just can't get it out of my head!), and Weezer's Island In The Sun (because it just makes me happy).

I am not a fan of drama... I don't enjoy break-ups. However, I think I enjoy the songs because they remind me of times when I have felt pain so acutely. And, despite the anguish and pain of those times, they were times when I felt truly alive and they were important turning points in my life. Beyond that, I think they are songs that bring people together (how ironic, right!? lol) because not many people can say that they've never been through a break-up. And the few that haven't can probably still clearly imagine what it would feel like.

Also, even with the immense pain that some break-ups bring, I still know that everything comes out better in the end. So, the songs may seem sad or depressing, but they remind me that through pain, true joy can be known.

Last Evening...

I was very proud of myself last night. I was very productive.

I've noticed that I've put on a few pounds in the past few months. I've become a bum, so my bum has gotten bigger and I have noticeable love handles. The bum I can deal with, but I am not a fan of love handles. Especially when they're only there because I've been lazy. It's too easy of a fix to let myself get love handles.

I'm lucky. I have a high metabolism. When I am relatively active, I have no problems keeping weight off. By relatively active, I mean go for a walk a few times a week. I've had more problems with laziness since graduating. I go to work. I sit at a desk for most of the day. I come home and don't want to do anything. While at Catawba, I walked everywhere. I was really active. So, weight wasn't a problem. And I ate a lot because I worked it off. Well, I've kept the same eating habits, but not the same activity habits.

Yesterday, I weighed myself. I have never ever weighed more than 118 lbs. Usually I'm between 110 and 115. I told myself that I would never let myself get over 120 lbs (without extenuating circumstances like pregnancy). Well, I am really ashamed to admit this, but I know that telling other people will motivate me to work harder to get rid of the weight. The scale showed my weight as 121.5 with clothes on. I don't know how much my clothes weigh, but I hope it's a few pounds!

It was scary for me to see. I know that some of you will think, "Boo hoo. That's not bad," but it is bad for me and I'm the only one who counts. I don't let my weight get too low and I don't let my weight get too high (by my standards). Below 108 is far too low and above 120 is far too high, for me. Yes, I know. It's not fat. I'm not saying that I'm obese or even overweight by most standards, but it is more than my ideal weight. I'm not trying to make people to feel bad because they are heavier or say that 120 lbs is fat (I don't think it is). I just think that 120 is to much for me (also, keep in mind that I'm only 5'3" and I have small bone structure).

Blah, blah, blah... Anyway, moving on... Last night, I worked out. For about 45 minutes. I did a 10 minute run. Then I did crunches. Then I did the inversion table. Then I walked for 20 minutes at a steep incline on the treadmill. Then I did more crunches. Then I did weights. Then I did a cool down stretch. And, afterwards, I was really proud of myself. :) I also did not have dessert last night... which I've been having a lot of lately. lol

And, after my workout, I played with my boys for a little while. Then I went to the office and worked on my book for about an hour. It's the most work I've done on it so far. I know, I'm bad. I've been doing lots of brainstorming before bed, but I actually started doing some writing and outlining and organizing last night. I was very impressed. And I like where my book is going. :) Oh, and as a very, very, very, very small teaser... the name of the planet where the aliens are from is going to be called "Aleutia." So, the aliens are actually Aleutians. I'm very happy with that name. It took me a little while to figure out a name that I liked. And, the main characters names will be Alex (or Lexix as he is called on Aleutia), and the human's name is June. I may actually change June's name. What do you think? Give me some feedback.

And then I couldn't sleep. I thought working out was supposed to help you be able to sleep? I guess I'll have to do some more before I see a difference. :)

UPDATE: I forgot to say that I lost one pound after just one day. My weight on Wednesday was 120.5. :)

A wonderful birthday weekend...

Well, my birthday went swimmingly. :) I had a great time.

We played Mario Kart while we waited. Then we went to Portofino's for pizza. Brandon's car tried to kill me when we arrived at Portofino's, but I survived (my heel got caught on the seatbelt as I was getting out of the back seat and I fell out of the car in the least graceful manner possible... I halfway caught myself, but that just left my arms sore. I scraped up my elbow and banged up my knees pretty bad, but I'm okay). The pizza was good. Artichokes for me, of course. The company was great. Joe, Brandon, Walt, Nate, and Kelli went with me and then Philip and Richard arrived later. Then we wandered around Books A Million for a while, and then went bowling. I had mediocre scores, but I was pleased. We had a great time despite problems with our lanes and awful (NOT BOWLING) music. We went back to my house and played Mario Kart for a while. Then ppl left or went to bed and I played around with my new toy: a Kindle (see the link!). It's pretty cool. I really like having the actual book to put on my shelf when I finish reading it, but this is so easy and the books are cheaper and they're more earth friendly, I assume, since there is no need for paper. :) Anyway, I went to bed sometime after 4 AM when Joe finally made me. ;)

Yesterday I slept until 10:30 when the boys woke me up. I was not ready to be awake. I took a nap a little later. Then we went to Concord Mills to see The Dark Knight for the second time with Brandon, Walt, and Richard. It was even better the second time. I actually had tears running down my face at the end. Since I had already seen it once, I knew what was going on and I got to pay more attention to what was being said. It was beautiful.

Afterwards, we went to Steak and Shake and had shakes while we had nerdy conversation. :) I love my nerdy friends. Life would be so less entertaining without them.

We got home after midnight and then my neighbor insisted on talking to me for over half an hour. Then I couldn't fall asleep. Again. Needless to say, 6:15 came really quickly. At least my birthday weekend was wonderful. Thanks to everyone who was a part of it. :)

Getting Ready

Well, I realized this morning that I have a lot to do today before people get here. Some ppl can't arrive until later, so Joe has shifted the meeting time to 6:00pm instead. That's awesome. Because the boys spent too much time outside this morning and are now disgusting. I have to give them all baths on top of cleaning up the mess they made of the house. Yay! And I still have to make the cake! At least there is a reward at the end of that (I get to eat the batter!). Yum!

Good news, though. I slept last night. For the first time in days, I actually slept through the night. I fell asleep in a reasonable time after I layed down and then I stayed asleep through most of the night. And even when I woke up, I was able to fall back to sleep quickly. Wonderful. :) I think I was finally just too tired to have insomnia. I was so tired yesterday that it gave me a headache. I was supposed to get up relatively early today so that I could clean up the house and get ready for later, but I went ahead and slept until 10:00. :) It was totally worth it.