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General News, February 2007

Caught in a whirlwind

Yesterday I had a session with a shamanic healer. I met my power animal (a bear), my spirit tribe (a lovely group of fat, happy women), and my spirit guide ( a shapeshifter). I want to lose weight, and among the advice I received was the suggestion to join a group of like-minded people. "You are very good at focusing a whirlwind of people's thoughts," I was told, "but now you need to find a whirlwind that will guide you."

I remembered an invitation from a friend, and so I checked out SparkPeople. Enter the whirlwind.

The site has a mind-boggling number of features. Of course, so does any number of other weight loss sites. What makes this one different, though, is that it gives you "points" for desired behavior. For example, every five minutes of cardio exercise earns one point. Reading a SparkPeople article earns three points. Posting to a SparkPeople forum earns three points. Heck, just logging in earns points!

I'm enamored with the site -- especially the points, which appeal to the TAGteacher, clicker trainer in me. The teams, the articles, the recipes... I could get lost in this whirlwind. This morning I could hardly wait to start drinking water or to record my breakfast or read an article. I even went for a walk so I could earn some cardio points!

Still, I'm going to try not to go overboard. Too many changes all at once will overwhelm and frustrate me. My Fast Break goals are to drink no soda, do ten minutes of cardio per day, and to keep a journal. Rather than go nuts trying to force myself to work out, I'm going to stick to those goals for the first few days. I have an appointment with a personal trainer on Monday, so that's soon enough to worry about kicking the workouts into high gear.

Check out the site. Sign up -- it's free. And then look me up; I'm Rainsmom.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Princess party

What could be more fun than six great friends getting together? Six great friends getting together for a Princess Party, complete with white elephant gift exchange!!

The six of us used to work together at Microsoft many years ago. Myella and I left Microsoft around the same time in 2000 or 2001. Gradually the others shifted to different jobs, some still within Microsoft and some outside. But work distance didn't equate to personal distance. We get together as a group two or three times a year, and we socialize individually frequently. (As an aside, our friendship is a running joke among us. When we worked together, the morale within our department was HORRIBLE, and our manager blamed it on interpersonal problems within the group. Right.)

Five of the six of us have birthdays at the beginning of the year, so we try to get together for a group birthday celebration. Last night Faraz surprised us with a Princess Party! We had tiaras and scepters and rings and (chocolate) gold and stickers and yummy cake with fluffy pink and blue icing. Everything a princess needs! Add to that sushi, salad, tea, champagne, a white-elephant gift grab, and tons of sidesplitting stories, and we had an amazing time.

One of the gifts I brought to the exchange was a deck of tarot cards. Margot, it turns out, is an accomplished reader, and was kind enough to do readings for us. It was completely unplanned but became the highlight of the evening! I love how she does her reading. She has the person she is reading for think of the question she wants to ask while shuffling the cards. Margot then fans the cards on the table and has the person pick ten cards, which Margot carefully arranges, explaining what each position represents. Margot turns the cards over one by one and interprets it without having the person reveal her question, so Margot's interpretation is in no way influenced by her own opinions or expectations.

The readings were scarily accurate, which made them loads of fun. My question was, "What is the outlook for my screenwriting over the next six months?" I can't remember the specific cards, but the basic gist of the reading was that my karma has brought me thus far, and I'm very positive about my future prospects. Over the next few months, I have a lot to learn, but I will learn it, successfully wrap up the project, and move on to another. (Yay!) The last card of the reading is a card that symbolizes me, in general, over the next six months. This was the Death card -- but that's not bad! Death means change, transformation. Hmm...

Reinventing Melissa, anyone?

Sunday, February 11, 2007

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