The Unadventures of Tracie

When it rains, it pours. That seems to be our lot in life. I’m doing much better today, but I’ve been struggling the last little while as everything seems to be going down the crapper all at the same time. Because of everything that’s been going down, I finally slipped up on my goal. As many of you know, I recently made a commitment to work out every day no matter what. And I kept that commitment for exactly SIXTY days. For sixty days in a row I did at least one thing that was considered exercise. On the low end this meant doing 20 crunches before bed. On the high end this meant doing a highly vigorous, high-intensity 40-minute workout. Most days were somewhere between those two, but I did it without fail for sixty days. Until yesterday . . . when I forgot. Two months of work out the window just like that. Gone. Good-bye woo-hoo see ya. Sigh. It’s not hard to see why I forgot. Yesterday I became completely and utterly depressed, a state I’m not fond of being in. I was optimistic when A...

Last Thursday Austin and I hung out with the Beckstrom relatives. We went to Outback Steakhouse with (forgive any name misspellings) Aunt Karrie & Uncle Robert and their kids Emily & Nicholas; Uncle Jim & Aunt Jan and their kids Nikita, Max, Ivan, and Andre; and Uncle David & Aunt Vera and their kids Brett, Kiersten, and Dylan. With all those people (and knowing the Beckstroms), it was understandably boisterous inside. We celebrated Brett’s birthday (and teased him about his girlfriend who is indeed a very attractive girl). Afterwards we went to SubZero, which is a really cool (as in liquid nitrogen cool) place. For those that haven’t been there, it’s pretty neat. You order what type of cream you’d like (with its corresponding percentage of fat: premium 14%, custard 10%, lowfat 6%, and yogurt 0%). Then you choose your flavors that get mixed into the cream. They have at least two dozen flavors to choose from and you can choose as many as you want. You then get one free ...

As many of you know, I have been transitioning to working from home. Since it has now been a few weeks, I’d thought I share my feelings about it. And my feelings are that I love it. Working from home is one of the best things that has happened for me in the last while. Working from home is not without its drawbacks though. I’d thought I’d make a list of the pros and cons that I’ve experienced working from home. Pros: 1. No driving!!! 2. I’m saving a lot of gas, which means I’m saving lots of money. (I was filling up about every 4 work days. With gas being about $50 to fill up now, you can imagine how much I was spending.) 3. No traffic!! 4. No more struggling to be on time for work. (One of the things I hated the most and stressed about a lot.) 5. I get two more hours to myself every day. (A result of not having to commute.) 6. I get an extra hour of sleep. 7. I sleep better at night because I’m not stressing about getting to work the next day. 8. I get t...