Start Me Up

Dr. Mao's Tips for Jump-Starting Your Energy

An excerpt:

Most people eat too many foods that supply a rapid burst of energy in the form of simple carbohydrates and sugars - which burn out fast, leaving us depleted - rather than foods with a more sustainable energy content.

Eat a snack at mid-morning and another one at mid-afternoon. Good ones to choose are nuts, seeds, fruits, or protein-rich foods like hummus made from beans; these will help you sustain your energy and prevent low blood sugar from setting in. Make your own trail mix with almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, dried cranberry, raisins, or any other combination.

A New Year

I'm going to try to keep up with this again in 2008. It's not a resolution, just a desire to get back to writing. I enjoyed doing this back when I was writing entries regularly. It's just hard to keep up and find the time. I used to make resolutions, but I really don't any more. Now I view the start of the new year pretty much the same way every year. It *is* a time to do some taking stock, to look both back and forward, to see what I can learn from the past year, and most importantly to do some thinking about where I can take my life in the coming year. Are there any actions I can take to bring myself closer to the person I want to be? Sounds pretty dramatic.

Anyway, stay tuned and we'll see what goes on. The 2007 pictures are below, if anyone is still looking for those.

Missing in Action

Well...it's been a long time since I posted. I've been absent, but busy.

I started at VSAIA on October 8. Since then I have been ...occupied. Even when I didn't have all *that* much to do at work, it was tiring. I'd forgotten how tiring it can be to be in a new job and just trying to soak in as much information as you can.

So far I like it quite a bit. It has many things that are novel to me...structure, clarity of mission, resources. I'm getting to know the staff, and getting busier by the day.

The main reason I'm busy and will be for a couple more weeks is that our major event of the year, Architecture Exchange East, takes place November 7-9.

So far I like all the people I work with. There are a couple with some idiosyncracies, but nothing truly weird so far. Just odd enough to be interesting. The CEO is very smart and very politically astute. I can learn a lot from him.

What else is new? Well, I bought a new laptop. After having one for several years that belonged to my employer, I got really used to having one. Then I didn't have one anymore, and three of us were jockeying for the one desktop computer, and it got to be too much, so I bit the bullet and picked up an HP Pavilion on sale.

Also, I went back to Weight Watchers. When I was going there over the summer, I lost 15 pounds, then I lost my job and started eating everything. So I went to my first meeting again the other day, and my weigh in was 6 pounds up from what I had lost. not too bad, I expected it to be more.

OK, that's enough for now. more later

Time Flies

Now I know why people always write in their blogs: "I just haven't had time to post..." blah blah blah quack quack pop fizzle.

It's true, sometimes life just runs away with you.

Happy New Year, to all two of my readers.

Um, Merry Christmas, also.

My holiday season was quite nice, though too short. It was filled with activity, music, laughter, and food and drink, which is why I'm now on a quest to lose weight, like about a brazilian other people. Exercise, portion control, and calorie tracking, keeps me hungry and grumpy all the day long.

I hope to have more to contribute, soon. But for now, I'm wiped out after a crazy day at work, and I'm ready to go home and drink a very cold beer. A Newcastle Brown Ale, if you must know.

47...48...49...

Tonight a good friend of mine will celebrate her 50th birthday. Something like this will always get me thinking about aging, and how fast time goes, and about things I still want to do. Especially, I realize, "Hey, wait a minute! I was just 30! When did I get to be 47, and how come my contemporaries are my age too? I still feel like 30." OK, maybe I don't feel quite 30 anymore. I weigh a few more pounds, I have a few more aches and pains, and I can't stay out until 2 drinking anymore. What about that cover band I've always said I would form, or how I would audition for a play again when I had time? Within the last couple of years I've told myself I would do something big, anything, when I turn 50. Why wait? I could get hit by a bus tomorrow.

It's true, I could and maybe should do my big thing today. My father died at 52, so there's a reason not to wait. However, there are also big reasons to wait, and I think it mostly has to do with not being selfish. My family is REALLY active right now. My kids are in 9th and 10th grade, and they are in constant need of transportation and other things that require my attention. I play in a praise band at church and a healing service once a month, and other ad hoc bands, and I sing in the choir. All those activities fulfill me in many ways...I'm serving God and my church, and I'm playing music, which I love. I'm also starting to feel the impending loss when the kids will go away, and trying to hold onto them as much as possible. I'm also taking classes at VCU.

In three years, the kids will be gone or going (and driving), I won't be taking classes any more, and I'm thinking I might be ready to change what I'm doing at church. Auditioning for a show or forming a band might be just the ticket at that point in my life.

What about my spouse, you may ask? I've been talking about this off and on, so she knows it's coming. My hope is that we will be able to negotiate the time issue so that I'm spending enough time with her in our emptying nest and yet still be able to satisfy my desire for doing a new performing gig of some kind. Stay tuned.