There's Somethin' In the Water

Last week on Friday, our town was placed on a boil order due to water samples coming back positive for E coli. We boiled water, bought some ice, bought a few gallons of water, and didn't wash a lot of dishes. You could still use your dishwasher—we put ours on sani-rinse for extra coverage—but if you washed your dishes by hand you had to then immerse them in a tub of water-bleach mixture. I don't have a tub large enough for pots and pans, neither do I have a ton of space to keep the tub and then lay out all of these drying dishes. So yeah... we used our dishwasher mostly.

I would say that the presence of E coli shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Our city has had coliforms present in the water off and on for the past year. Coliforms are not harmful, but they are an indicator that there may be a bigger problem/worse bacteria in the water. That's, at least, what the city told us in our water bills because they are required to let us know. However, after looking into the issue a lot and talking to my doctor on Tuesday, they're not quite as harmless as made to sound. Coliforms show up easily in a water test, because sometimes there is bacteria there that is so small it is hard to get a good reading on it. My doctor also brought up the potential problem of inhaling the microscopic water droplets produced when you turn on a faucet, which is pretty unavoidable too, as I am not going to take a bath all the time or quit turning on taps. 

So the city chlorinated the system over the weekend, the tests came back negative, and our boil order was lifted yesterday, Wednesday. Woo hoo!

Then I read an article in the newspaper about the city's plans to NOT chlorinate the water henceforth. The city administrator said "We think we have quality water", and that it wasn't a matter of cost, but they basically didn't feel they had a problem. He conceded, though, that the EPA and Dept. of Natural Resources might not agree with that, and that the DNR could force them to do it if they felt they need to. Now, let's recap: we had one positive test for E coli that caused the boil order, and 5 out of the last 12 months of tests coming back failing due to coliforms in the water. That works out to be just over a 40% failure rate. I'm sorry, but that does not sound like "quality water" to me. We were placed on the DNR's "chronic violators" list because of it, too.

I was furious after I read this article. Prioritizing the taste of the water over making it healthy and safe to drink is absurd. If it truly wasn't a matter of costs, then not doing it because you just don't want to is flat out stupid. I would much rather, 1000% times over, have chlorinated water and know without a doubt that my water is safe and healthy to drink than have to sacrifice a little bit of taste with the chlorine. (Chlorine kills bacteria in the water, and that's why many municipalities use it. There are other ways to disinfect a water system, but they cost more, so chlorine is the most common.)

I have never gotten involved in politics, but after reading that the city was refusing to consider disinfecting their water, I started drafting a letter to the editor, letters to our city councilmen, and a letter to the DNR, and looked up when the next city council meeting was in case I wanted to attend. I was serious about this. I'm just thinking if I ever get more sick than I am now, or whenever I receive a transplant down the road, I want the peace of mind to know my water isn't going to potentially kill me.

For one, when we were notified about the coliforms in the water, it was after the fact. Or maybe during. Or who knows. All we were told was that a test failed somewhere in the city at some point in the last 30 days. I think that's pretty standard protocol, but it's not very informative when you really think about it. They also never specified if they found coliforms, total coliforms, or fecal coliforms, all of which are different. Some coliforms come from poop, some coliforms come from the earth (but so does pseudomonas (it's in the soil) and that's pretty much my enemy number one these days.)

Second, the city received the boil order notice last Thursday evening, yet didn't notify citizens of it until Friday around 10am. They have obviously received a lot of heat about that one.

Furthermore, I have lived in places with chlorinated water and I honestly didn't think it was bad. Yes, we've all drank water that tasted a lot like chlorine, but it sounds like once you strike the proper balance and have the right amount in the water it won't affect it that much. Wentzville and Maryville University had chlorinated water and I barely noticed. And if it bothers you that much, well that's what Brita pitchers are for.

Then today, the DNR gave a mandate ordering the city of Washington to chlorinate the water. I was so happy when I read it. Based on the comments on Facebook I received during work, most people were against it and unhappy about it, but there were some who felt like I did in that it is better to have to put up with the chlorine than have bacteria in it. If the city wasn't going to do it, I'm happy to see that the DNR made it happen.

CF Awareness

Last week was the annual Race Across America, aka RAAM, which is the crazy extreme bike ride across the entire country from California to Maryland. As usual, our town was along the route and once again the local bike shop was one of the time stations. Riders and their support crew from all over the world came right through our town. I think that's just so cool.

Our time station here is unique, because it's actually a destination instead of just some mile marker or a tent along the side of the road, and I have personally heard people say it's like an oasis and they think they're dreaming. The volunteers provide food, drinks, a little pool to cool off in, not to mention the bike shop to fix things, and—hopefully—good company and a change in the faces you see every day.

Last Wednesday I decided on a whim that I would help out for the afternoon. I talked with people from Australia, Brazil, Japan, and Britain. As Vicky, a lady who does this every year for as many hours a day as she can, says "I can't travel the world, but here the world comes to me."

So this one crew came in, and I'm talking to this guy, welcoming him and letting him know where he can find the food and drinks, the usual drill. He holds out his hand and says "Hi, I'm Jay." I said "I'm Jamie," and he chuckled and said "Oh, that's easy." He was their head crew chief, I found out, and I was asking where they were all from. Their group was from everywhere, from Arizona to New York, to Florida, plus a couple Europeans. He himself resides in Colorado.

I then asked what charity they were riding for and he says "Cystic fibrosis."

I think my mouth kind of fell open, I stopped and was like "Really?" And he, confused a little, said "Yeah."

I then told him "I have CF." He kind of put his arm around me and had the same awestruck facial expression I did when he initially said it. I almost couldn't believe it, and he walked me over to show me their van and there was the CFF logo right on the side.

So then he was asking me about what gene mutations I have, if I did the vest, how I'm doing, if I'd be able to take any of the new drugs they're coming out with, which are all great questions and clearly this guy actually knew about CF. I told him about my recent hospitalization and said I was doing well and getting back to the gym. I asked how he got involved with raising money for CF, and I believe he said a friend of his has a son with CF.

He wanted to introduce me to a bunch of people in their team, he said they'd want to meet me, and we obviously told them that I had CF. I thanked them for riding and such and they were all so nice. You hardly ever meet a group of crabby people during this RAAM, but this group was really fun and groovy. They hung out for a while too while waiting for their teams—typically some of the crew will venture ahead to take a small break when they can, so they were ahead of the people actually riding the bike.

This is Jay, my new best friend that day.

A little later Jay and I were chatting again, and he said "I'm sorry, I'm kind of tearing up. This is just..." and he shook his head in disbelief; I said "I get it, I think this is so great and I am SO happy we were able to cross paths." They were called Love, Sweat, and Gears (and in bike nerd-ness, they were also cool because they had a team riding on tandem bikes, which you definitely don't see every day.)

Augh... it was just the coolest thing! I mean, how awesome that I just happen to be working at a time station for this random bike ride at the exact time that a team comes through and they're raising money for CF? And I happen to strike up a conversation with their crew chief? I mean, how awesome is that!? It was definitely a God moment that all of this came together, clearly we were all meant to meet each other. I still can't get over it... SO COOL!

One of the tandem teams.

Fast-forward to last night, and I went downstairs to treadmill, I turn on the TV and was going to watch American Ninja Warrior while listening to some tunes. So, I can't hear the TV but I see this guy walk up and it says he's from St. Charles, MO, so hey that's cool. And he is wearing a shirt that says "CF Warrior" on it. Obviously that registered in my mind, but CF can stand for a lot of things so I didn't take much pause. Then they launched into his back story, like they do for some contestants on shows like this, and he's talking about his cystic fibrosis. I pulled out my earbuds to listen and wow, also a cool story/God moment.

He talked about how he decided to get in shape and exercise and doesn't need medicines as much to manage his disease (you have to be incredibly fit to do these ANW things [they make it look so easy, but it's incredibly hard stuff.]) And obviously, the commentators honed in on the inspiration part of it and such, but ya know what? It really was inspiring. For me, at least. Especially since I saw this right as I began my own workout, it inspired me to kick it up a notch. And I did: I ran 2 1-minute intervals along with the rest of my walk on the treadmill, and walked/ran a total of 1.35 miles in 30 minutes. Woo hoo! I had a short coughing fit when I was done, but I felt GREAT afterward.

It's Been A Long Week...

I had a checkup yesterday and we stopped my meds. Thank you Jesus. I was going to demand that's what we do, but my doctor said it before I even had to argue my point.

Oh man, it's been a rough week. I have been dealing with side effect after side effect. It all started last Tuesday with a stomach ache. From there it just continued to go downhill.

I had to have blood work done on Thursday for kidney functions and med levels, got there and found out they can't draw from ports in the lab. We could call up a nurse from the ER, but it might take an hour, and it was a timely thing, so I said no. I don't know what that girl did, but it was by far the most painful blood draw I have ever had in my lifetime. I was yelping, crying, and almost screaming in pain. It was awful. She didn't hit a nerve—I know what that pain feels like—but it almost felt like she was stabbing my muscle or something. Ugh! From there, we found out my med levels were WAY too high, and non-surprisingly my kidneys weren't doing great because of it either. So, not great news. We adjusted things and lowered my doses, which made my schedule a bit better. I also drank nearly 2000 ml (aka 65 oz.) of water Thursday to try and help the process.

All told, I had one or more side effects going on all the time for the entire past week:

• abdominal pain
• gastritis
• back pain
• lethargy/tiredness
• stomach cramps
• depression
• chest pain
• swollen lymph nodes, neck pain
• weakness

...and that's just partial list. It's been a pretty difficult week. I have never been so aware that I was essentially having to poison myself in order to get better. 

Lesson learned: If I'm ever on this medicine again, stay in the hospital for the full duration. 

Yesterday I woke up with chest pain—centralized around my heart area—and that was the final straw, I had my mind made up that I was DONE; no more of this. At this point, a few more days is not going to do me any good. What I need is to EAT normally again and EXERCISE normally, which have both been compromised since I've been feeling like crap. 

Today I'm already feeling a bit better. My chest pain is subsiding. I am also feeling much better mood-wise, and you can even hear it in my voice. My mom says I have more color in my face already, too.

Here's hoping for an even brighter day tomorrow!

Back at Home

Hi folks! I figured I was due for an update here.

I went in the hospital last Monday and came home two days ago. Things are going fine, though this time I'm dealing with a super resistant strain of germs. There were two bugs in my system this time, like usual, and one of them was resistant to practically everything except for two medicines, and even then it wasn't 100% sensitive. My doctor is currently on a trip to the holy lands, so the pulmonologist we also work with was filling in. I like this doctor too; he is aggressive in treatment and in getting things taken care of. He's also fairly easy-going, flexible, and kinda funny too.

So this doctor had been working closely with a pharmacist there to figure out what drug (of two choices) would be best case for us. Oh, and did I mention I'm allergic to both of the options? So in addition to that, I had to go through yet another desensitization process for the med we chose, which is a penicillin. As a crash course, if you're unfamiliar with that term, "desensitization" is a methodical, timed out process where they slowly introduce an IV drug into the system. It starts with like 0.01 grams, and you work up to a full dose, and it lasts about 5 hours. I met the pharmacist a couple times too, and he did a whole lot of math and analyzed things in my system that I don't even know about and chose the best possible way to deliver the drug, which would be every four hours. Typically it's every 6 or 8 but, again, for reasons beyond my scope of medical knowledge, he figured out that every four hours would be best. But... only for 30 minutes every time. So whew, not that bad.

All of that went fine and I have not had any sort of reaction at all to this day.

I came home this most recent Monday, two days ago, and have been doing home IVs. It's been going fine, but my schedule is demanding. I'm hooked up to meds for ten hours a day. The meds come in these little balls which slowly deflate, pushing the medicine in thanks to gravity or something like that. So granted, it's not like I can't do anything while these are going in, but I'm basically under house arrest. Not to mention, like I said, my one med runs every FOUR hours, and instead of a half hour like in the hospital, it takes one hour here at home. So the most time I ever have between doses is three hours, and yes this includes overnight with sleeping too. So yeah... demanding.

I'm feeling better, though still would like to get even "more better". I'm not super concerned about the resistant strain of bugs I'm growing right now. Maybe it's because I worked through all of those emotions last time when we thought it was going to be uber resistant, and it wasn't, but when I look through my entire history of cultures, each one is different. I am hopeful and have faith that next time, we'll see a different bug as well and will treat it accordingly. 

But I'm glad to be home and sleeping in my own bed. Jarrod had an idea to figure out a way to set up my meds and such in our bedroom, and I bought one of those plastic storage drawer thingies on wheels, rolled it in next to my nightstand, and tried it out last night. I must say, I think this is going to be one of the best things for handling this (I have to do these thru next Monday or Wednesday.) I feel much less tired than I did yesterday. There's just something about only having to wake up and walk a couple steps to hook up to the meds, versus walking across the house to the kitchen where I used to always do everything with my IVs. I don't have to wake up as much, in a way, so falling back asleep doesn't take as long. So props to Jarrod for coming up with that!

I'm also glad to be eating my own food, or whatever I damn well please (AND I got popsicles just in time for the hot weather! Popsicles should be enjoyed at any age, don't judge lol.) The food at the hospital has sadly gone WAY downhill since I first started going there. They've removed many choices from the menu, and the quality of the food has also gone down. For most people, this wouldn't be a big deal because their hospital stays are short. But for us CFers, who are there for 1-2 weeks, it's terrible. You can tell they're really cheaping out on the food, which is sad. No, people don't expect the food in a hospital to be amazing, but these days there are few excuses for it to be borderline inedible. In addition to that, the people working in the kitchen suck. I don't know if they just don't care, if they have no one doing quality control, or if there's a communication issue, but at least once a day my order was wrong or missing something, and I heard from the nurses that this is common for everyone; having that many mistakes every day is ridiculous. It's frustrating. So even though I'm not quite feeling up to cooking a bunch here at home, since I'm trying to get sleep when I can (three hours at a time), I'm still SO happy to get away from the hospital food.

That's about all I've got. I'm happy to have my dog here with me. I think she is tired because she wakes up with me when I get up for my meds during the night. So she's been a pretty lazy, sleepy dog, but that's okay. She was excited to see me when we got home, which warmed my heart so much.

Mini Update About the Mini Rabbits

The baby rabbits opened their eyes today!

So... silly me, I was figuring their age to be much younger than they actually are. In reality, they were probably born a week or so ago. I wasn't thinking about it, but of course rabbits would be born without fur and look like naked little creatures, and when I discovered them they were already covered evenly with fur.

I looked it up and bunnies open their eyes around day 7-10. I'm going to figure today is something more like day 10, since they would probably grow in fur by about a week. So in reality... they are probably 10-11 days old and in that case... will most likely hop away while I'm in the hospital.

Good News, Bad News

I had a doctor's appointment today, due to my illness. I felt it best, as did my doctor, to go see her today so we could do the PFT and she could listen to my airways to get a clearer picture of where we're at sick-wise.

And I got some good news, and bad news.

The good news is I'll get to go to the wedding this weekend...

The bad news is I'll go into the hospital immediately after on Monday.

So yeah, that's just how it is. I'm glad it worked out this way, but I'm also very ready to feel better. If at any point I get worse or change my mind, I just need to call them and I can come in sooner. 

In other newsy news, we have baby bunnies in our yard! I am checking on them every morning just to make sure their mother is still coming back (and didn't, like, get hit by a car or something...) Yes, that's okay to do; I looked it up and the whole 'Oh no! Now the mother won't come back to her nest and she'll abandon her babies because it smells like humans!' is a myth. I'm assuming that this myth was born out of the fact that rabbits don't spend much time on their nests. As I also found out in doing a little research, they only stop by once or twice a day to nurse their baby bunnies so as not to attract too much attention to the nest. So even though most people assume that mother rabbits abandon their nests frequently, in reality it's probably not the case because you're just not noticing the 10 minutes out of the day she's actually there. So as long as the babies are warm and seem to be growing, the mother is still around. If I ever find the baby bunnies are cold and not moving much, then it's time to call someone. I'm actually sitting outside right now as I type, hoping to see her stop by. Supposedly she'll come by around dawn and dusk. 

Anyways, they are the cutest darn things! They are so teeny tiny and don't even have their eyes open. I really hope they make it. The nest is in a hole in our yard, so as they get bigger I wonder how well they're going to stay concealed. 

We discovered them after Jarrod was cutting grass. Right after we returned from our cruise, I noticed this huge divot in the yard. It kept growing. Then two days before we discovered the rabbits, I saw FOUR rabbits in the yard. Holy cow. Then on Saturday Jarrod cut the grass, and when he looked back he saw some rabbit fur (which they use in their nests) but then he saw the fluff was moving so he checked it out, and sure enough there were teeny little bunnies down there. They're hidden under 2-3ish inches of fur and grass, and I think there are three of them, maybe four. Thank goodness they stayed put and didn't run out with the noise of the lawn mower! Ah—that would have been dreadful!

I told Jarrod he needs to check on my bunnies while I'm in the hospital. They might be there for another two weeks or so, so I hope I'm home to see them one last time!

The day I discovered the nest. 

Back from Vacation

Jarrod and I returned a couple weeks ago from a cruise vacation. We didn't book it all that much in advance, and in effect didn't get around to telling many people about it.

Our Carnival cruise left out of Galveston on May 2nd and we travelled to Roatan (one of the Bay Islands of Honduras), Belize, and Cozumel.

The beach we went to in Roatan was actually just voted the third best beach in the world on Trip Advisor, and I have to agree: it was the most beautiful beach I've been to so far. The water was incredibly clear and there were fish everywhere. The barrier reef in the Caribbean extends down to Roatan, and is the second largest in the world after the one in Australia. Jarrod had brought a snorkel along, and he said it was really cool. He saw numerous kinds of fish and coral. I wanted to try my hand at it too, but I didn't swim out very far because I didn't want to get too tired (little did I know, Jarrod actually followed me out there in case I did get tired, which was so sweet.) I made it a little ways, though, and saw a few fish! I'm glad I at least gave it a shot.

But aside from that, you only had to wade in a little ways—maybe have the water up to your waist—and fish would be swimming around you. I constantly had at least three fish around my feet, that I kept running into, and a few swimming up around my upper body. It was so cool. And even in four feet of water, you could still see your toes perfectly; like I said, the water was incredibly clear.

Belize City was nice, about as nice as you'd figure a foreign city would be. But our tour guides were

extremely interesting and we learned a lot. I found the countryside of Belize to be really beautiful, so green and lush. Our excursion that day involved a tour of the city and visiting some Mayan ruins. The site we went to is called Altun Ha, and it dates back to 600 AD. They were very cool, and kind of took me back to my childhood days when I was very interested in Native Americans.

Our last stop was in Cozumel, Mexico, which we have been to once before. Cozumel is a little island off the Yucatan peninsula and it's very nice, yet very touristy. We got a cab and went down the road to a park, which had a beach and a few things to do. It was extremely nice, as we were able to just do it at our own pace. The other two days were planned excursions, which were great but after two days in a row we were getting exhausted, and this day we decided to do our own thing. So we slept in a little bit, got off the ship after most people already had, and stayed at the park until we felt like going back. It was a perfect, relaxing day and exactly what we wanted.

During our trip, we had two "fun days at sea", where you sail all day, then the three consecutive days in port, then one day at sea to head home. Our ship had an adult-only deck, which was nice (and actually enforced!), we found ourselves a nice spot on the side of the ship where hardly anyone was, and where you could only hear the ocean. The food was wonderful as always, and we loved our dining room waitstaff. I got adventurous and tried some new foods; I tried rabbit, crab cakes, raw smoked salmon on a bagel, fried shrimp, and frog legs. And these frog legs weren't fried, so I really tried frog legs. They were in like a lemon butter sauce, and I have to say the texture was similar to that of a chicken leg. They weren't bad. The rabbit wasn't bad either, but I didn't like the raw salmon or the crab cakes.

Like our last cruise, we spent a lot of time at the Alchemy Bar, which is a specialized martini bar Carnival has on some of their ships. The martinis they make are like none other I've ever had, and we love going there. We had "our" bartender we liked to go back to named Kateryna from Ukraine. She was great and actually spent a lot of time talking with us, which was cool.

The day we got back, we marathoned it home in 13 hours 50 minutes, which is pretty darn good driving all the way from Galveston. Round trip, I think we put about 1700ish miles on the new car, so you could say we officially broke in the new car.

It was such a nice, relaxing time. Much needed. I can't believe we've been back now for almost two weeks.

Unfortunately, though, not long after we got home I got sick. At first I thought it was allergies, and my body readjusting to our climate (ya know... since there aren't any trees in the middle of the ocean!) And I do think that was the problem... at first. But by the end of last week it was clear I was dealing with something much more severe than allergies. I called my doctor and I've been on a med for a week now without much change. We are going to try one more thing—different meds actually—but if this doesn't work I am going to be checking into the hospital.

It's a bummer, to say the least. I don't know that I caught whatever I did on the cruise, but who knows. It doesn't really matter at this point anyways. I've been having absolutely debilitating coughing fits, where they last 10-15 minutes and I can't do anything else. Really, the other day during work one of these fits struck and I was in the middle of typing something and it sat that way for ten minutes.

So please keep me in your thoughts and prayers that I can recover from this, though I have a feeling that I will be ending up in the hospital in the next week or two no matter what. The oral meds are a temporary fix, and I'm hoping they can get me through till next weekend when we have a wedding to go, but we'll just have to take it day by day.

I Needed a Wardrobe Makeover, and I Didn't Even Know It

I've been a busy bee for a couple days now.

Yesterday I decided it was high time to check off an item on my Spring Cleaning list: organize the hall closet.

We don't have any closets in our bathrooms so all of our extra toiletries, cleaning supplies, beach towels, and a bunch of random other things end up in our hallway closet. It's a small closet, with one of those smaller doors, and I felt more and more things were being piled in there with no order. So I pulled everything out, set it on our bed, and started going through it.

I pitched a lot of things and made better use of some tubs and bins we had in there that weren't being used well (like, they had two things in them!) I moved some things out of there that didn't really make sense (like hummingbird feeders) and put everything back together in a more orderly fashion. I have a shelf dedicated to cleaning, not much change there; a shelf now dedicated to health things like gloves, masks, alcohol wipes, neb carrying cases, etc; a shelf of toiletries, the freebies you get from the dentist, and other mini's you might like for traveling; and finally a shelf of randoms because, well, it's impossible to avoid. I was happy with the end result.

Today... oof, let me tell you. I attacked my closet.

You probably wouldn't find me on a show like What Not to Wear, but my closet needed a makeover. I didn't realize it, but I was holding onto so much clothes that I never really wore.

This all started last night. I read a blog post shared by Jarrod's cousin Melissa about some lady who got rid of nearly all of her clothes. She was inspired by a woman who advocates for doing a "capsule wardrobe." I was intrigued and amped up last night right before bed, and I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep. So instead, I started looking through my closet and pulling out a few items to get rid of. I think I pulled out 8-10 things, I was happy, and I went to bed.

Today, I looked more into this blog called Unfancy by a woman named Caroline, which was the inspiration for the other woman's closet redo. A quick Wikipedia search told me that a "capsule wardrobe" was a term coined by a designer in the '70s and popularized by Donna Karen. The principal behind it is you have minimal clothes, but your wardrobe is filled with staple items that will never go out of fashion and can be paired with almost anything in season.

I started with Caroline's Unfancy strategy and adapted it for myself. She argues to have a 37-piece wardrobe of items that you absolutely LOVE, one for each of the 4 seasons. This wardrobe does NOT include pajamas, workout clothes, t-shirts, and the junk jeans you'd wear to work on your house. She broke each capsule down for herself into:

• 15 tops
• 9 bottoms
• 9 pairs of shoes
• 2 dresses
• 2 jackets/coats

I started to create my own plan. I didn't feel that having a set wardrobe for spring, summer, fall, and winter would really work for me. Our seasons bleed into each other so much, as evidenced by right now where it is 64 degrees, which is a tad chilly when it was 82 like last week. 

I ditched the jackets/coats category. I also didn't want to limit myself to so few dresses. Some recommend using Rent the Runway for special occasions, whereas I'd prefer to go find my own dress at the store. So for myself, I doubled her numbers, made changes, and broke it down to Spring/Summer wardrobe, and Fall/Winter wardrobe. I set my goals as:

• 30 tops
• 18 bottoms
• 18 pairs of shoes
• a roundabout goal of 70 items, give or take in the categories

And then I got to work.

If you want to actually pare down your closet, you MUST pull out everything on hangers and empty you drawers and lay it all out. She says it here, and I 100% agree. (I would also recommend washing anything dirty so that you have everything there, there's no use doing this twice.) Then I would sort things as either:

1. Love's – keepers
2. Maybe's [things that I only 'kinda' like, things that don't fit great, only holding onto for sentimental reasons, are worn out or faded, could be replaced] – put in box, store away, if you don't go back to them during the season, then get rid of them
3. Nope's – donate

I started with my shoes and classified them into Spring/Summer or Fall/Winter. There were a few crossovers (like black flats) but surprisingly most of them fit into either or the other label. I realized I'm not going to wear my peep-toe pumps when it's cold out, and I'm not going to wear my riding boots when it's 90° outside. Check shoes off the list!

Then I got to work on the bottoms. This involved a lot of trying on to make sure things fit. I realized I had two pairs of black dress slacks. Now yes, I've always known I had two pairs but this is a small testimony to why you have to pull everything out of your closet. Because then and there, I realized I had two pairs I hardly wear, since I'm no longer in a professional setting that requires them, so why do I need two? They were different sizes, so I put one in my Maybe pile, and kept the other for Fall/Winter.

Then I got to work on all of the tops & dresses I own. For my purposes, I divided them into the right seasonal category, then I started the hard part. Except, since I was already in the zone after going through the shoes and bottoms, it wasn't that difficult. Once I was done, I went back and added a few more items to my Maybe pile. 

I was curious how I did. I started counting things up and I actually did quite well! I ended up right on target to where I wanted to be. I didn't count tennis shoes towards my shoe count, and I kept jeans for year-round. But even so, here is how it all shook out:

I've got 31 items and 3 scarves in my donate pile. And I ended up with 49 items in the Maybe bin.

I did not end up with a "capsule wardrobe" by any means, neither was I setting out to create one. The idea was simply my jumping off point to actually clean up my closet and finally rid myself of things I never wear, or things that I don't absolutely love. Why put yourself in clothes that don't boost your confidence or make you happy?

I learned that I had held onto a lot of items with the idea that I might someday need them. I had a lot of things that I used to wear in high school too, which was 10 years ago. I don't wear these things anymore, and clearly I wouldn't find an occasion to wear them. I got rid of a lot of things because I realized they just weren't my style anymore. I used to wear very different clothes from what I wear today. At this point, hanging onto them thinking I might dip back into that style is just silly.

I have packrat tendencies, and I completely realize that I need to apply these ideas to a lot of the other STUFF in my life. But it's much more difficult to be so black and white, I love this or I don't like this, with objects from my past. Those are tied more to the memories and feelings they evoke than my clothes are.

But for now, I'm going to bask in my accomplishment and not worry about all of the other things I could possibly get rid of. I did a BIG thing today, and I'm very happy with how things turned out. Deciding what to wear just became easier, because there's less to choose from and my closet doesn't look nearly as overwhelming. I used to stow some items in the spare bedroom closet during their off season, but it wasn't as cut and dry as this. Now, my entire Fall/Winter wardrobe is in there, and I'm not touching it. When I bring it out in the fall, it'll probably feel a little more exciting, almost new in some ways. I'll assess again if there is anything I feel needs to go and shop for new things I might want, and hopefully this simple rotation will help keep my closet in check.

I wish I would have taken some 'before' pictures, but I was so anxious to get started I got everything out of the closet before the thought crossed my mind. So 'after' pictures will have to do:

Fall/Winter 

Spring/Summer

Life Is Amazing!

I watched a special on PBS' Nature the other day. It was the first of a three-part series about animal homes. This first episode was about bird nests. 

As you know, I love birds, but I hadn't given it much thought as to how many different kinds of nests there are. It's kind of amazing. As the episode showed about 6 or so different birds building their homes, they were all so unique. The little hummingbird makes his nest from plant fibers and spider silk; the osprey carries hundreds of pounds of sticks and builds up a colossal mess of a nest; the brush turkey in Australia just kicked back a giant pile of leaves, left the eggs to incubate inside the big pile, and then left them to fend for themselves like baby turtles who have to climb to the surface and find their way. I've included the video of the hummingbird below (if you don't see it, click here to go watch it on YouTube), because it was just fascinating. I love those little hummer birds, hopefully I'll have some in my backyard this year.

It was definitely one of the most interesting shows I've watched in a while. After it was done I was left with one thought: Life is amazing.

I mean, how often do we sit back and really ponder about life? No one birds how to do these things, why they should make a nest out of sticks or mud or leaves, they just DO them.

But beyond instincts and intuition, I got to thinking about how life is amazing on a cellular level. All life starts out as two tiny little cells, whether it's a person, a bird, a dog, a lion, a fish, anything. And somehow those cells divide, and somehow some of those cells become hair, and some become skin cells, and some of them become fingernails or claws, and some of them develop internal organs, and some of them develop noses and eyes, on and on. No one is making this happen, no one is telling these cells how to divide, it just happens!

Isn't that amazing? Like really, totally awesome, crazy amazing?

Back to the Gym

Last night I went back to the gym; it's been quite some time since I've been there. I've been walking the treadmill at home, but I honestly can't remember the last time I lifted weights.

And I've been feeling it too. There were some days where my muscles would kind of ache, but in a going backwards kind of way; like I could feel the strength draining slowly out or something. Once you do exercise and become more active, you are inevitably more aware of your body and therefore you also notice how you feel when you're inactive.

But it felt really good to go back last night. I don't know what it was, but yesterday morning I just decided "Today I am going. No more excuses." I was happy with the amount that I was able to do, as well. I have lost some strength, but I'm definitely not starting over, so that was good to see.

I don't know why, but it's been really hard lately to feel motivated to exercise. I have to exercise, as you know, but I allow myself a day or two off each week. Lately, it's been more like two or even three days off... which is not a good habit to slip into. I'm working really hard right now to get back on track. And I feel by putting this in writing, it might help me a little more.

I wish I could go lift more today, while I'm pumped up and excited to keep the momentum going, but I think it's best to let my muscles rest for a day, like you're supposed to anyways. My arms are a little tired, so they definitely need a day off. But here's to keeping it up—and if you've been like me, and a little on the lazy side, I challenge you to get back to it, too! It feels really good :)