06 July 2010

Let's Give This Another Go

Yes, here I am, getting back on here after a couple months' hiatus.  Oh, well - I'm trying to stick with it, right?  A little bit's better than nothing at all.  That's what I'll tell myself, anyway - ha!

I'm working on a few things, slowly but surely...I've got an Idle Hands website in the works, but it hasn't been published yet.  I'm working on getting some inventory ready so I can post photos and publish the website!  Not to mention get the etsy page off and running.  At least for the time being, I'm trying to read as much as I can about marketing for small businesses, etsy, stock photography, etc.  What I seriously need to work on now is getting off my butt and getting inventory ready!  Instead of sitting in front of the tv after work, I just need to work on a couple different projects each week.  Before I know it, I can have 15 or 20 pieces ready.  It's just a matter of doing it.

I'm also starting training this week for my half mary in Philadelphia on Sept. 19th.  I'm also calling it the countdown to kicking Finn's ass.  A buddy of mine, also a runner, has a half mary PR of 1:57.  Mine is 2:00:30.  My goal is to beat Finn's PR by 2 minutes.  11 weeks from now, I'll let you know how I do.  But I'll try to write a little more often between now and then...

13 April 2010

Hey, Jason Derulo...

Everybody knows what your name is.  You don't have to sing it before every damn song.  Are you gonna do that for the rest of your career?  'Cause it kinda makes you suck. 

06 April 2010

GUILTY!!!

Well, our jury came back today - guilty on all 5 counts of 1st Degree Murder, on both theories, and guilty of 1 count Robbery With A Dangerous Weapon.  I am relieved, but now the hard part - the sentencing hearing.  We are starting tomorrow morning and juggling witnesses and also tending to my victims' needs will mean I really earn my paycheck this month...

04 April 2010

This week's rant

What's bothered me the most lately has been the grocery store.  Usually it's a place of refuge for me - for whatever reason, I find grocery shopping to be relaxing.  But something has completely baffled me for a little while now and I just can't figure it out...you know those smaller shopping carts some stores have now?  I love them.  LOVE THEM.  Just the perfect size for everything I need - and you don't have to worry about running into end caps or displays, or other shoppers, for that matter.  Well, it seems like every 3rd or 4th time I go to the grocery store (the ghetto Food Lion in Clayton), those small carts are there.  But the other times, they're nowhere to be found!  I go to both doors where they have carts lined up, and nothing.  No small blue carts to be found - but the next week there's 2 dozen all lined up in a row.  And then 2 weeks later, they're gone once again.  Where do they go?  No one else in the store has one - so where are they?  I went to the grocery store this morning, just for a few things - too much for a basket, but just enough for that small blue cart.  But there were none.  I know it's petty, but I never said my rants were going to be rational.  WTH?

27 March 2010

Who needs therapy? I run.

First things first, I'm an advocate for everyone's mental well being...including, and sometimes especially, my own.  However you go about it is your business, but it's why I do certain things - spend time with friends, play the guitar, listen to music, drink, read, write, garden, cook, and run.  The list could go on and on, I guess I try to surround myself and keep myself busy with people and things that keep me calm and even-keeled, and make me feel better when I'm down and out, can make me laugh until I forgot what was bothering me in the first place.  I guess no one purposely does things that they know will stress them out, but sometimes it just happens - like work.  I love my job, I really do.  Some days are good, some are bad, and some days I think I'd be happier working at Dairy Queen.  Being in public service, though - people either love you or hate you, there doesn't seem to be any in-between.  Working with crime victims can be very rewarding, even when they curse at you because of something completely out of your control, like sentencing.  The best response I can give them?  'Write to the legislature'.  (insert sarcasm here) That's what victims really wanna hear... 

This week has been 'one of those weeks'.  We are in the middle of a capital murder trial that really should be pretty straightforward, but instead, every wrench that could be thrown in has been.  Because it's still going on, I probably shouldn't go into any detail on a public forum.  But throw in personal stuff, which is what happened this week, and you have my week in a nutshell.

My grandmother is in the hospital, has been for 2 weeks, and they still don't know exactly what's wrong with her, except for the possibility of attributing it to congestive heart failure.  God willing, she'll be back home soon, but her birthday is October 2nd, which leads to my next personal heartache...one of my best friends from college is getting married on October 2nd, and she asked me a while back to sing in her wedding.  Of course I said yes, it's a beautiful song (Catch The Wind) and I was honored that she asked.  That was before they'd set a date...and even after they'd set the 2nd as the date, nothing in my head clicked - until a few days ago when I was putting things on my calendar.  I was sitting in court listening to testimony, and sometimes it gets a bit boring since I've pored through the file so many times I could play the part of every witness myself it seems.  So I usually take something to do in court - paperwork, if I can do it without my computer, my organizer, that kind of thing...So I'm sitting there, and I realize what's going on.  And I almost busted out into tears.  One way, I get to sing in my friend's wedding and party with our friends all weekend.  The other way I get to help my grandma celebrate her birthday.  You can see what the downsides are...

And so, I run.  I ran a half marathon this morning, and it was incredibly therapeutic.  There is something inherently peaceful about running.  I love to run by myself, on the roads near my house, on the treadmill at the gym, in a road race with hundreds of other people.  I can think, I can be mad, I can cry, I can do whatever in my head I want to - the only thing you really have to do is put one foot in front of the other.  Sure, good form helps, but it's not absolutely necessary to get from one place to the other. 

This morning was great.  I got to run with a friend, another friend came out to cheer us on (and went to 3 different stops!), and I got to eat a plain white bagel without guilt.  This whole bagel thing seems to be affecting me more than I was even aware at the time...I wrote about it on daily mile and facebook, too.  Also, I PR'd!  2:00:30 - I'm dangerously close to beating another runner friend of mine's half marathon PR (1:57) so that's my new goal is to beat him!  A little friendly competition never hurt anyone, right?  But no matter what, even if I never beat him, I know my day will be that much better - because as much work as I put into running - the training, the long runs, the weight lifting, the sleep and food schedules, the 4 AM work outs - I get so much more out of it.  I guess my parents were right - that you get out of life what you put into it.

And so, I run.    

18 March 2010

Rants and Raves

Wow, twice in one day!  I might make this a regular feature...my rants and raves.  Various things I think are ridiculous, that sort of thing.

I think it should be against the law for any song to be played more frequently on the same radio station more than once every 2 hours.  No matter what your format is, there's plenty of music out there for you to choose from.  Why do you have to play only recent stuff?  I like it old school every once in a while.

There, I feel better.

It's About Damn Time

I know, I know...it's been almost 3 months since I've posted anything!  I didn't want to let March completely come and go without putting up something in 2010, so away we go...

2010 rolled in with a bang, and I intend to keep up the momentum.  With the exception of slacking on this blog, I feel like I've really been doing well this year keeping my goals in a reality check and trying to accomplish what I want to without biting off more than I can chew.

I still don't have my etsy page up and running yet, but I've been working on inventory and should have some items up by the end of the month (!) and hopefully will have some photos up as well.  As much as I love my day job, I long for the day when I can make Idle Hands my only full-time assignment and take pictures of the sunrise instead of having to get in the car for the 30-mile commute every morning.  I have worked 2 full-time jobs simultaneously before, but when one of them involves an hour and a half round-trip commute each day and the other one involves weekly hours of beadweaving, traveling hither and thither to find the perfect shot, and making sure I'm not knitting when I'm supposed to be purling, I am left with little time to appreciate the other wonderful things that make up my life. 

Of course, that takes me back to my goals - to improve my skills at managing and juggling everything - and I mean all of it.  Marriage (hopefully a family soon), my family and friendships (which I would be miserable without), maintaining a house, garden and flower beds (us Southern girls can't go without hydrangeas and a vegetable garden, you know), going to the gym, the guitar and writing music, and then finding time to just relax and veg out on the couch every once in a while is nice, too.  Throw in a piano, trying to teach myself Spanish and getting back to violin lessons, and I need a few more hours in the day.  But I think about my mother and what all she did when I was growing up, and I look at my sister and what she is able to get done and the things she does with her daughters and I know it's possible.  I hope that I can inspire my nieces like the women in my life have inspired me.

Now, onto the day job...on November 21, 2007, Samuel James Cooper, Jr. was arrested for robbing a bank in Garner, NC.  He later confessed to 5 murders that he committed between May 2006 and October 2007.  It is now 2010 and we have finally started his trial.  Jury selection took a month and evidence started this past Monday, 3/15/10.  Monday went really well, and Tuesday the jury got to listen to his confessions.  We went into court yesterday and found out that one of his attorneys had gone to the ER early that morning and was diagnosed with pneumonia.  So just as we got started picking up speed, we have come to a screeching halt.  We start back Monday, which I'm looking forward to, I just feel bad for all my witnesses!  Occupational hazard, I guess - but as many trials as I have coordinated for Jeff, I'm used to people being upset with me.  Oh, well, we all have a job to do, don't we?

Speaking of jobs, I better get back to mine...I promise to get better at this blogging thing...have I promised that before?  Well, this time I mean it.