Easter thoughts

Jennifer,

Damn prima, what, are you training to go into the WWF or something? Body pump class? Shit, just hearing about that scares me.

With regard to Easter, I doubt I'll be able to come down. I would love to, but Courtney wants to come here and see me for her Spring Break in March and there's just no way that I'm going to be able to swing that, then turn around and fly to Texas myself the following month, especially with these doctors' bills I've been hung with recently. Can you believe that the hospital bill from my 4-hour stay came to almost $10,000? They say that "that new car smell" everyone loves so much is the most expensive perfume in the world, but they're wrong; it's hospital disinfectant. Of course, hospital bills are about as fictional as new car MSRPs, so Blue Cross/Blue Shield won't pay nearly that much, but I will still have to pay my deductible--$2000--and that will pretty much kill any travel plans for me until the summer.

As to the whole "hospital thing," I went to a local doc-in-the-box a couple of weeks ago because of a rapid heartbeat. I thought it was just stress, but when they measured my heart rate at 137 bpm they sent me straight to the hospital where I was poked and prodded and subjected to a chest. The good news is, no heart attack and no pulmonary embolism. The bad news is that I do have hyperthyroidism, more commonly known as Graves Disease. I have gained a shitload of weight the past 2 years despite working out 4 to 5 times a week. Maybe that's why.

Glad to hear you, Enrique and the girls are all well. How is Chris and his crew?

Man- she's hot

and she's older than me, so, love that! I don't think I've blogged about this before, but in the last year and a half I've taken up working out pretty regularly, and I've seen some real results. It's such a thrill to see changes happening- eh? If you are familar with Golds, you know about their Body Pump class. It's an hour of weight lifting- 10 songs: warm-up, squats, bench-press, back, triceps, biceps, lounges, shoulders, abs, cool-down. Each is about 5 minutes long, and they vary the rythmns enough that you don't get worn in to any particular routine. I'm currently doing 5 to 6 minutes of squats at 64% of body weight. I've enjoyed it so much. I haven't really lost any weight, but some has sure moved around. When we went to Mexico over Christmas, they called me a nalgona, referring to my round back-side. Anyway- I thought you (past and present)worker-outers could appreciate the effort.

Enrique has been to the gym lots too in the past couple of years. He'll take on his first marathon on Sunday (he's doing a half). Keep him in your thoughts for that day, ok? He's been training for a while and he's ready. Finishing won't be a problem for him, thankfully, I just worry about him pushing too fast and risking injury to the knee. Ahh- what're you going to do?

I want to extend an invitation to you all for Easter at my Mom's house here in Austin. Email addresses I had for Robbie and Mikey are old, though, so I thought I'd try and reach you all through the blog. We'll work out the space arrangements for staying over, if that's a consideration. Between her house and mine, we have three spare bedrooms complete with beds and everything, so hopefully we'll geto to see you for that. I know Aunt Gay would be exstatic to have you all in her home.

So Centex has some cool commercials. Radio only- using voices one is likely to hear at an appointment for an estimate (Isaac and Eric). We've a pretty cool ad agency. For real- check out the Monday Morning Memo at Wizard of Ads.com. (You can sign up for that to be sent to you each Monday.) Sounds hokey, but the guy in charge is really a good mind. And what I like best is his focus on good writing. He regularly recommends books and authors: Steinbeck, Hemingway, and Tom Robbins among them. James did you see the movie Even Cowgirls Get the blues- that's a rendition of another Tom Robbins novel. The movie sucked in comparison to the novel, of course, but I'm not surprised to hear you could be intrigued by that author. I really thought he'd be an author you'd appreciate for the wonderful writing skills alone, if not the stories.

We're currently having computer issues here at work, so I don't have any photos of the girls to upload right this minute, but I promise I'll do that. Clarita looks so cute now- missing the top two front teeth. And Carmen is all the way up to 36 pounds at 4 years old (she was 30 at a year and a half), still real long and lean, but just cute as can be too! She started pre-school and loves it, although she aches to go to the 'yellow' school like Clarita. She figures since the bus is yellow... She did get to go to the yellow school yesterday to take part in the Valentines Day party. She had a big time! Levis, brown cowgirl boots, white turtleneck with red shortsleeves over it, hair slicked back into one ponytail- she could've been a first grader. It really is bittersweet seeing especially her (my BAby) looking so big.

Well better get to work! James I miss you too! And I am in need of an update as to your recent doctor stuff- we've sure been thinking about you and hoping you're ok! Robbie too for that matter.

Hopefully we can all get together soon. Love to you all,
Jenn

For Robbie and his aching back

Yeah dude, that's really her. Miss Debbie . . . (ahem) Deborah Gibson. I would call this a Debbie G band-aid for you but, in this case, I am thinking of it more as a Debbie G lumbar corset.

Monday miscellany

Great to have Jennifer back! Now at least we're a duo again! I guess that's progress. Since I can't seem to inspire the rest of you drooling retards to your keyboards, I guess I'll try giving you assignments. Here goes:

Rob: Mom tells me that you're having a lot of trouble with your back again. She tells me that, as you put it, you no longer have good and bad days, nor even bad and worse days, but rather it's gotten so bad that you now have "bad days and can-barely-get-out-of-fucking-bed days. What's up?

Mark: Please update us on Rachel. I think and pray about her often.

Mikey: Give us some good and exciting news so we can all live vicariously through you.

Jennifer: I looked up the Tom Robbins book you mentioned, "A Roadside Attraction," and read a few lines of it on Amazon. I confess I have never heard of this guy but I really liked what I saw. I have always believed that you can measure any novel by it's opening sentence and this one . . .

The magician's underwear had just been found in a cardboard suitcase floating in a stagnant pond on the outskirts of Miami.

. . . makes me think I'd probably like it. Give us some news about your life and give us some pictures of Clarita and Carmelita, please. God, I miss y'all.

Erica told me the other day that she heard a radio commercial the other day while driving thru Fredericksburg and that it had Isaac on it. She thought the guy's name was "Sam Benevides" but I told her it must have been Isaac. I hope everyone at Centex is well and that the company is doing well too.

Well, I saw a wonderful movie this weekend. It's called "Little Miss Sunshine" and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's a road-trip movie where a slightly dysfunctional, albeit still loving, family take a beat up old VW bus from New Mexico to California so their 7 year-old daughter can compete in a beauty pageant. The final scene, the pageant itself, it absolutely priceless. Steve Carell is wonderful and Alan Arkin absolutely steals the show as the foul-mouthed, curmudgeonly grandpa. Rob, for some reason, I especially think you'd like it.

Anyway, I had a pretty good weekend. I boycotted the office, worked out once and got laid twice, so I've got nothing to bitch about. Oh yeah, and I'm seeing the endocrinologist tomorrow, too. Not really looking forward to that but ANYTHING is better than having to go to the hospital again. Till then, peace out, my nizzles.

-J

Yay! the Blog is back!

Well I was delighted to see that James has been writing again! The most prolific and probably most well-read of the blog team, his posts are always welcomed by me for their scruptulously measured content.

I do not purport to write as well as he, but I do ascribe to improve. I would do more reviews, had I a similar penchant for movies. Maybe I'll try doing books, or better yet, authors. Read any Tom Robbins lately, anyone? Another Roadside Attraction is my current literary undertaking, and as you can see from the (probably temporary) change in my own writing style that I'm about half-way through.

I certainly hope you are all well. I hear we might get a chance to get together for Easter, I'd love that. I miss you all and want to hear about all that is happening in your lives! With that I'll sign off on this first return to blogging, and wish you all a wonderful weekend.
Love
Jenn

No, this isn't a review...

but I did see the (relatively) new Robin Williams vehicle, "RV" the other day.

Didn't like it. But, luckily for those of you who never post anymore, I don't feel like writing about it.

I'll only say this. Does anyone but me think that he's getting just a tad long in the tooth to be taking roles like this? You know, "daddy roles?" I thought he looked old in "Good Will Hunting" and that was like 10 years ago. The IMDB lists his year of birth as 1951. That means that this summer he'll be 56 years old.

I wish I could get my dander up to write about "Rocky Balboa." I loved that movie but I can't seem to make myself write anything about it other than "it's good."