List day + "Mission Possible"

Happy Tuesday, friends!

I apologize in advance if there might be (more) typos (than usual) tonight-- I'm wearing my 7 year old glasses (SeXXy... lucky J.), and can't see that well out of them... I am working on getting a new pair (more on that later!)

Okay.. so first things first:

Good List

1. J.
2. Apple pie. The homemade kind. Enjoyed with a hot cup of tea, while snuggling with Gracie. Heaven.
3. New books!! Love, love, Love. I'm currently being inspired by Donald Miller's "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years." This is a great one, folks.
4. Daydreams.
5. Online banking + automatic transfers. Though this will take some getting used to, this tool will ensure that J and I can buy a house together in 3 years... Rest assured, I will be dreaming and planning said house up until that time :)
6. Mmmmm... Coffeemate peppermint mocha creamer... Tastes like Christmas!
7. Black Box wine. So far, it has definitely lived up to the hype.
8. New challenges and goals (read on...)
9. Our wedding pictures are online!! Now I'm just (impatiently) awaiting the arrival of the disc of images... I promise to share more when I get them!
10. Fuzzy socks (which I love, love LOVE, and am determined to wear, despite the fact that Gracie (who has entered the "munchy" phase of kitten-dom) seem to think they might be a small fuzzy animal, and insists on attacking them every chance she gets...)

The top 7 reasons I love Fall*

1. Apple cider
2. Bright trees against a dramatically dark sky
3. Pumpkin Spice Lattes
4. Cute coats, cozy sweaters... and BOOTS!
5. Halloween (my favorite thing to do is go for a run on trick-or-treat night... before things get too crazy. I love seeing the little kids prancing around in their outfits because they are so excited that they are ready way too early, and I love looking at the decorations in their full, unadulterated glory (read: before overzealous mean adolescents smash the jack-o-lanterns).
6. Hm... J. would probably gag if he read this, but fall means that I can start thinking about Christmas. If you know me, you know that I LOVE giving gifts... so this is the beginning of a fun time for me :)
7. The smell. I love, love, LOVE the smell of fall: smoky, crisp and earthy. If I could bottle it up and keep it with me year round (that and the sharp, sparkly smell of the first snow...)-- I think it could perk me up even on the gray-est, rainiest days.

* 7 things rather than 10, because I like the number 7... and when I said "Top Ten", all I could think of was Letterman....

All right... now onto "Mission Possible"! I have found that lately I am pretty much completely lacking in my motivation. For a little while, I was able to rationalize it by saying, "Amy, you've been through a lot of big life changes recently (getting married, moving)-- you should go easy on yourself-- and you can't possibly tackle everything at once." (my sub-conscious is very lenient like that...) But in fact, I think I let things slide for so long that it's starting to seem easy to let them go... And there's something in me that rebels against that. Now, it's not like I am talking about running a marathon (which I DO want to do someday... but I do not feel guilty about saying "not now" to that one...)-- I'm talking about little life changes (like getting up an hour earlier and getting into the habit of working out before work...) -- but little changes that I know can mean a world of difference. For the most part, I am interested in developing healthy habits for the years to come. I feel that I have gotten quite proficient in living this new routine (...wake, snooze 3x, brush teeth, kiss hubby goodbye, feed cats, shower, pour coffee, out door, traffic, work x8 hours, traffic, cook dinner, tv, bed...) -- but now I am interested in breathing life into it.

Which, I believe, is completely possible. Hence: "Mission Possible"!

And here is what I intend to do about it:

• Get up at 6 am each day (the ultimate goal is earlier than this ... but this is when J's alarm clock goes off... it's not like I really go back to "quality sleep" after this, anyway.
• Take time each morning (especially on weekdays!) for morning meditation (journaling and Simple Abundance)
• Log at least 15 miles/week for POTM 2009 (woohoo!! I am really excited to be doing this this year!)
• "Save myself" for one really wonderful "sweet treat" each day. (I just got this amazing looking dark chocolate bar.... which I may or may not have picked up partially bc it's called TWILIGHT Delight... yes, I am a 12-year old girl... so sue me.)
• Do yoga twice a week (I did this religiously during the spring/summer... and my body loved me for it. Since I am not uber flexible, I only ever did the beginner hatha yoga (there is a free 20 minute class here, if you haven't ever tried yogadownload.com-- I highly recommend it!)... but it was so nice and relaxing:)
• Get 8 hours of sleep each night. Nap whenever socially acceptable possible (Omg-- could someone please tell me how to achieve "strikethrough" in my text?!)
• Spend less time in front of the tv (ughh... this one may be a hard one.... but I always feel really good about my day & all I have gotten done if I can be strong... so I've got that going for me. ... Of course Glee is a necessary evil :)

I promise to give you a full briefing on the "Mission Possible" outcome in about a month from now. Wish me luck!!

In other news... I think I need a new eye doctor. I was due for an appointment in.. oh... August, but since I didn't have vision insurance (and I knew J. did) I decided that I would wait until after I got married. Yesterday I arrived for my 2:00 appointment, and was surprised when I was informed that I was NOT seeing the doctor I had been told (on Friday) that I would be seeing. Actually, this part of the story is happy, because I LOVED Dr. Johnson. He was very kind and competent, and respected my wishes when I told him that I didn't want to get my eyes dilated (my job is ALL computer work.... I would have had to call off the rest of the afternoon...) --and he recommended a new kind of contacts for me to try (which were quite nice! I am wearing glasses bc of allergies... not because the contacts didn't work out...) So: good, good.

But here's where it got "not so good". I was in with Dr. Johnson for about 20 minutes (we're up to about 2:25pm, if you're counting...)-- AND then I was waiting to check out for 1.5 hours!! REALLY? Now the part of the story I haven't told you is that I had a client calling me at 4pm. Yup... if you are keeping track, we are now at 3:50 pm. Yikes. The icing on the cake was this: at 3:57 pm I took my receipt, was halfway out of (the office) my chair when the technician says, "Oh, you can't leave yet-- we haven't checked your side vision."

... To which I replied, "I'm sorry (I wasn't)... but I can't do that right now. I have a meeting scheduled to start in 3 minutes." ...In a way (once I was done fuming) I was really proud of myself... it's rare that I stand up for myself and speak my mind-- I felt empowered!

...Of course, now I have to go back in 3 weeks to get dilated and get my damn side vision checked.... But I was able to order a new pair of glasses, and I'll take my small victories where I can :)

Have a lovely Tuesday night!