Mishmash Musings

When I was in high school and college, I could eat anything I wanted and not worry about gaining weight. I didn’t even exercise all that much; my metabolism was just on fire, I guess! Anyway, my mother always said that all the burgers, fries, cookies, and other junk food I ate would come back to haunt my waistline someday, and she was right. After I had my first baby four years ago, my figure just hasn’t been the same. I’m having trouble with weight loss and could really use some help in this area. I’ll be checking into some over-the-counter supplements soon to see if any of those will work for me. Let’s hope so!

Admittedly, I have a lot of pet peeves and let myself become bothered by the little things in life. This is something that I’m trying to work on because, let’s face it, life’s too short to fret about things you can’t control. One of my biggest pet peeves is pretentious names. I cannot stand it when parents name their kids ridiculous things. I understand that they may want their kids’ names to be unique or whatever, but that’s different. Unique I can handle. Pretentious I can’t.

Just as an example, I watched a dumb teen movie the other day and one of the actors’ names was “Penn Badgley”. Now is it just me or does that sound pretentious and uppity? The young man is probably very nice and all, but that name just bugs the hell out of me! There are worse ones of course, but I can’t think of them at this moment.

My current computer desk is just about shot, so I’m looking for a new one. I won’t be able to buy anything until well after the holidays, but it doesn’t hurt to start shopping now. I came across a very good site that sells Coaster Furniture, which is a brand I’ve heard wonderful things about. I saw a desk that I really like, and was happy to see that it’s reasonably priced. I think this piece would look great in my office! I’m attaching a pic so you can check it out for yourself.

My family goes to Walt Disney World almost every single year for one of our two vacations. We used to stay in hotels, but that was kind of a hit or miss experience for us. Sometimes we’d get great rooms and great service; other times it would be terrible — even at the same hotel! So this year we’re checking out Orlando villas instead. With a villa, we’ll have more independence and therefore more control over our experience. There are a lot of factors that contribute to the overall enjoyment of a vacation, so it’ll be nice to have the lodging aspect taken care of.

We went Christmas shopping over the weekend to let my son choose a few things that he wants to get from “Santa.” My husband surprised me by saying that he doesn’t want to buy half of the things because he thinks my son will just play with those toys for a couple of days and then forget about them.

Even if that were true, I still want to get my son the specific toys he asked for. It’s Christmas, after all, which is a special time — especially for kids. This is the perfect chance for them to ask for things that they wouldn’t ordinarily be allowed to have and to try out new toys. I of course hope that my son will play with his new toys enough to make the purchases worthwhile, but if he doesn’t, that’s ok too.

Really it’s no different than when I buy a hardcover book for $28, read it once, then put it away on the shelf. Or when my husband buys and Xbox 360 game for $70, finishes it, and then never touches it again. Am I right? We’re not talking about $100 toys or anything; just $10 ones!

Like most people, there are numerous occasions throughout the year when I need to send greeting cards to friends, business associates, and relatives. I’m not just talking about the Christmas season here. There are also anniversaries and birthdays, plus there are times when I need to send along condolences, thanks, or get well wishes.

Ordinarily, it would require a lot of trips to the store for me to buy all these cards, which is something I simply don’t have time for. That’s why I’m thinking of using printable greeting cards from now on. I really appreciate anything that can save me time, so being able to print cards sounds like a very good option. I’m going to try it out soon and I’ll let you know how it goes!

Everyone knows that music has the power to evoke a certain time and place. For example, whenever I hear a “big hair” rock band like Cheap Trick, Warrant, or Whitesnake, I’m immediately transported back to the 1980′s. I suddenly start thinking about everything that was going on at that time, the people I hung out with, and all that good stuff.

It stands to reason that some songs would hold bad memories and evoke a past that I would rather forget. One such song for me is “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes. It seems like that song was played constantly back in 1993. That also happened to be my freshman year of college and one of the worst years of my life. That particular song and that particular year are so entwined in my memories that it’s too painful for me to listen to it anymore. Whenever I hear it come on the radio, I have to change the station right away.

Do any of you have songs that you really can’t listen to because of the memories they evoke?

Well, this is some encouraging news. For every “frivolous” study about the connection between IQ and vegetarianism, there is some genuinely useful research being conducted. It seems that doctors at the University of Toronto have reversed type-1 diabetes in mice. One of the doctors involved said that the reversal took place literally “overnight” after the mice were injected with a certain peptide.

This is a huge step forward in diabetes research. Of course, type-2 is the more serious form of diabetes and affects many more people than type-1, but maybe this study can help put researchers on the right path towards finding a cure for that disease as well.