Monday, March 1, 2010

Updates & Awards

Whew! I just finished digging out from the snow…kidding…but wouldn’t that be an awesome excuse for why I’ve been M.I.A. for more than three weeks. The truth is, it’s been a combination of bad health and laziness. I’ve been having these headaches and dizzy spells because my blood pressure drops when I stand up. Turns out, I was severely dehydrated—who knew—and I was probably on too much medication for high blood pressure—go figure. So my doctor and I are working it out now and I’m feeling much better.

As for the laziness, well, there’s nothing to explain there except everyone goes through it from time to time where all you want to do is come home from work and plop down in front of the tv to veg out. I knew it was bad when I couldn’t even muster the energy to write on the weekends and I LOVE writing on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

But I’m back in the swing of things now. I’ve set myself a schedule for writing 1000 words a day and exercising 1 hour a day. The exercise has really revved me up and gotten my mental juices flowing…hence the blog update. I went out on a limb and bought the Power 90 dvd’s. If you’re not familiar with them, check out the link here.

My sister owns the dvds and she really likes them, plus they worked for her. So, while I belong to a gym, today is day one of the Power 90 dvd’s. I took all my measurements last night *gulp* and my weight *double gulp* and I’ll update my progress in 30, 60 and then 90 days. If any of you out there has used Power 90 or P90X please let me know what you think!

Anyway, on to better things. I was nominated for two awards during my hibernation! An Over the Top Award by Hannah over at Musings of Palindrome--—Thanks! And The Sugar Doll Award from Stina over at Seeing Creative—Thanks!

I’m going to cheat here a bit as the rules to both of these awards are similar. For the Over The Top Award I must:
Mention the person who nominated me and link to their blog. And then give one word answers to the following questions:

Your Cell Phone? Blackberry
Your Favorite Food? Italian
Your Hobby? None
Your TV? RCA
What Are You Wearing? Scrubs
Your Life? Awesome!
Your Music? Hodgepodge
Where Did You Grow Up? Baltimore
Your Car? Neon

For the Sugar Doll Award I have to tell ten unusual or unexpected things about myself. I’m going to make it five as I’ve already made this post long enough-lol-and I can’t think of ten things. :-)

1. I scored a perfect 90% on my test for the 12-gauge shotgun qualifications. I am in no way a gun fanatic, in fact I won’t own one. But when I was a correctional officer we had to qualify with a .38 and a 12-gauge. For some reason I took to it like I was a card carrying member of the NRA.

2. For the last year or so, I’ve worn fake hair! LOL. I have hair, nice, thick and healthy hair, but as I’m trying to save money, it’s just easier to wear the fake stuff sometimes. Most people have no clue unless they know me. I think by summer I’ll be going back to the salon regularly and won’t have the fake stuff then. Ironically, I’m a trained cosmetologist, but I don’t feel like doing my hair much anymore…am I getting old?

3. Once, in a high school rendition of The Wiz, I was on stage poppin’ and lockin’ like Re-run from What’s Happening and while the audience loved it, the director tore me a new bleep-hole for upstaging the other performers. That was not my intention…I just wanted a laugh.

4. When I was little, I used to live behind a school. The neighborhood kids and I would climb in the dumpster and get out all the old school supplies like dittos, chalk and pointer sticks! God, just thinking about it now gives me the willies. There was never any garbage in that particular dumpster, but still, it was a DUMPSTER!

5. I used to have a reoccurring nightmare as a kid about a giant crab. *note, I just fixed a typo that said I had nightmares about a giant crap! That would give anyone nightmares-lol* Maybe this has something to do with growing up in Maryland—who knows. But the crab would come up the back alley behind my house and peer into the windows with its beady little crabby eye looking for kids who weren’t sleeping. I was never afraid for myself because I knew it was coming and could fake sleeping, but I was terrified my sister would wake up as the crab was peaking through and it would take her. I had this dream off and on from the time I was 4 or 5 until I was about 10. Maybe one day I’ll understand what it meant…or better yet, maybe one day I can parlay it into a bestselling novel like J. K. Rowling and her Demetors!

The five people I want to award both the Over The Top Award and the Sugar Doll Award—see, I’m cheating—are:

Lisa Marie @ Confessions of a Writing Mama

Roxy @ a woman’s write

Sarah @ Falen Formulates Fiction

Katie @ …&& Prophetic Pictures

MG Higgins @ A Day at the Zoochini

Last but not least, I have to say I was very surprised to pull up my blog and see that I’ve reached 100 followers! You guys are awesome! Thanks for following and I promise to have regular updates from now on.

11 comments:

Tamika: said...

Glad to have you back Karen! I pray your health is on the mend. My mother takes high blood pressure pills, I'm afraid that may run in our family.

It would really serve me well to get a check up and join you on that hour day of exercise.

Sarah Ahiers said...

thanks for the award!

And you HAVE to tell us how the Power90 goes for you because i always see the commercial for those and i immediately WANT

Anissa said...

I love that you are a shotgun master!

Glad you're feeling better. :)

Amanda Borenstadt said...

You are not lazy. It was the blood pressure thing for sure. Besides, sometimes we all need a mental vacation. I'm glad you're feeling better.

Jemi Fraser said...

I'm glad you're mending, but make sure you're taking care of yourself. Blood pressure is tricky.

Both my kids have done the Px90 thing and enjoyed it. Although my son skipped the yoga parts - he is not in the least bit flexible! My son now has a chin up bar installed over his bedroom door. :)

Stina said...

Congrats on being healthy again, on your awards, and on reaching 100 followers. You deserve it all. :)

kah said...

Yikes, be careful, girlie. Hope those dizzy spells and BP issues go away immediately.
No operating guns until you're better! Ad the crab thing is understandable, you're a MD gal. ;)

Hannah said...

woo-hoo! I'm glad you're back!! Congratulations on 100 followers!

Karen Denise said...

You guys are great! Thanks for all the prayers and well-wishes. I did my first day of the Power 90 program which is a 6 day express workout. It was hard, but not impossible to do. So I'm jazzed to continue!

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

You are brilliant! I feel like I spend a ton at the hairdressers. Root every 5 weeks. Trip every other month...plus tip...I adore my hairdresser, she's a little sweetie, but wow a wig would be a lot cheaper!

I'm glad you're back!

Anonymous said...

Glad you're back :o) I'm looking at your hair now haha What a great idea! It costs a fortune at the hairdressers!