Monday, November 06, 2006

Tag Results: Pickles, Life Coaches, Mah Jong, Swimming, 1984

Thanks, Sarah, for tagging me.

Five things about me you (perhaps) don’t already know:

1. I loved them before I was pregnant, but damn, I crave half-sour pickles like nobody’s business. I buy them six- or eight-at-a-time at a local grocery store that’s a bit pricier than the nearby Stop-and-Shop, but no one else seems to carry these beauties. I’m talking about the fat green pickles sold at the deli counter, not the jarred pickles sold in the refrigerated section.

2. I’ve talked to two life coaches in the past year to try to figure out why I’m not moving forward on different writing projects. Both told me they thought I was motivated and had done a lot of groundwork on both of them, but that I just needed to make finishing them a priority. Sort of like scheduling a date night with your husband so that you can actually have fun, pleasurable sex, I need to set deadlines so I can move these projects ahead. On one hand, I think the concept of having a life coach is sort of cool, just like an athletic coach inspires athletes to do their best. On the other hand, I wonder why I can’t just get motivated enough to finish these damn things on my own. Insight, anyone?

3. I play Mah Jong, an Asian game played with these cool ivory tiles, in a weekly game with a bunch of friends. At first, I wondered if I was turning into my mother, who always played Mah Jong, or like others who have a weekly Bridge or Poker or Canasta game. But since I’ve learned the ropes, I’m hooked. It’s actually fun even though we never play for money. I’m told it’s a lot like playing Gin with cards, though I’ve never played Gin.

4. I swam on my high school (and earlier, my town) swim teams for a few years. This was in the mid-1980s, pre-pump, and I rarely tested my blood sugars. I don't really remember having insulin reactions, but remember eating big snacks before I went to afternoon practices. It’s odd, that I don’t remember having major insulin reactions, but again, this was in the days of long-action (NPH and regular) insulin and my average blood sugars were probably pretty high those days. At the same time, I wasn’t particularly fast or much of a finessed swimmer, so I wonder if my performance was because I wasn’t built to swim for speed, or if my blood sugar control just wasn’t that tight. Probably a combination of both.

5. I won a town-wide eighth-grade speech contest back in 1984. I competed in the “original oratory” category, and wrote an original speech about how the (then) present-day 1984 was similar to the book 1984. I won a plaque and a blue ribbon and performed the speech in front of a big audience (about 40 other eighth graders competed that day). I never did anything quite like that again (no high school debate team for me), but today, I don’t have any trouble speaking before a crowd.

A lot of the d-bloggers I read have already been tagged, so I'll stretch out to some of the Cyclesistas I now read. Tags mean you write a post about five things about yourself. Tags out to:

Violet at Pumplandia
Serenity at Serenity Now!
Gary at My Diabetes CGMS
Heather at Big P and Me
Watson at My Dear Watson

8 comments:

Minnesota Nice said...

L, how on earth can you concentrate on your writing projects when you're waist-deep in all the baby stuff - juggling appointments, keeping superb blood sugar control, and being sure your pickle supply is constantly available??????????

Lyrehca said...

Tell me about it! My local store is out of the pickles I crave and I'm not pleased.

Perhaps this is worthy of a separate post, but I've long thought about the time I spend managing diabetes is time I wish I could spend finishing my novel and this non-fiction book proposal. I don't want to use diabetes as an excuse, but really, finishing these writing projects would be the culmination of a life's dream to have my books published and to see them in Barnes & Noble. Anyone know what I'm talking about here?

Scott K. Johnson said...

Word up MN!

I don't know how you can do it all. Besides being AMAZING and all that jazz.

I think the concept of a life coach is cool too. And maybe it helps just keep your energy directed at the right targets.

I don't know about you, but my energy often times is blown all over. Spread out so thin that it's a wonder I can get ANYTHING done. Having someone to help reign in that focus sounds pretty valuable to me.

Anonymous said...

Hey there!

I'm so glad I checked in and saw your list, I love these.

And thanks for tagging me -- I definitely need something more interesting to write about than 'waaaaa...still not pregnant!' and this is a great idea.

Pickle craving..who knew?!?

:-)

Anonymous said...

And P.S.

I am a life coach, and I have one of my own, so I totally get the issue of realizing how much it helps and wishing I could accomplish just as much on my own.

I think having a coach forces us to set aside time to set goals and devise strategies for accomplishing them, and in our everyday crazy lives we just don't have the bandwidth to do this.

Just my two cents!!

Anonymous said...

I so stinkin need a life coach, this is such a good idea. I haven’t any idea when I’d have the time for one though!

Serenity said...

OOOOH thanks for the tag - sorry I didn't see it before now - I'm catching up on my blog reading.

I also love the half-sours. Mmmmmm. Making me salivate right now.

I have been thinking about talking with a life coach, too - mostly because I have no earthly idea what I want to do with my life. *sigh*

Look for my post tomorrow. I have to think about what people don't really know about me... :)

Anonymous said...

Hi, thanks for your comment and how nice to see someone else with diabetes type 1 doing fertility treatments! Sometimes I feel like the only one.

No, we haven't tried IVF. I fell pregnant last year on the 4th IUI so I am hoping it works again and this time the pregnancy goes better. Every now and again, I flirt with the idea of IVF. I will see how the next IUI goes and speak to my RE next time about it. I am just scared of egg retrieval but I am starting to think it is a better idea.

And I agree, keeping quiet is often the best thing. At the very least you avoid all those concerned, "And how ARE you doing?" questions that are just upsetting.

I think the acupuncture helps me on many levels. I don't think it has a huge effect on falling pregnant but it helps enormously to relax me.