Wake up and smell something

You: "I'm changing. I woke up. I woke up and smelled -- I don't like the taste of coffee --- I woke up and smelled the hot chocolate."

More friends every Wednesday

Wednesdays are new girl night, and I help out at practice. The new skaters say I am very encouraging, inspiring, that I am helpful and put them at ease and give them confidence.

Really, I have no idea what they are talking about. But whoever they are describing, that person sounds pretty nice.

I enjoy working hard with these ladies, and everytime we start a new round of recruits coming to practice, it's like a chance to make new friends and help them on their derby journey. I am not some benchmark on how to be the best derby player, as I am very, very far from being mediocre, in my own humble opinion, but I do have a stockpile of determination and sticktoitiveness to share. Often the mental acrobatics we put ourselves through hamper us from achieving amazing physical acrobatics, so perhaps that is how I serve them best, by negating the mental obstacles that slow us in our goals.

Or, at the least, I am there to be a friendly face.

So, here's to more friends every Wednesday.

My Google Calendar

I will probably regret saying this, but at least right this moment, I am in love with Google Calendar. I started to input a variety of events in there across my many activities (roller derby, work, chores, bill payments, social activities) and then discovered some amazing shit.
For one, you can change the settings on the calendar to send you reminder when a calendar event is coming up. You can have these reminders pop up on your google homepage, sent to your email inbox, or sent as an SMS message.
These means, when I program in gym time, my phone gets a reminder an hour before -- my Git Yo Ass To Tha GYM reminder.
I don't know about you, but this is a personal revolution for me.
What's more, I discovered there is a type of file called an .ical, and you can upload an .ical file to your Google Calendar. So I went to my local library's web site, found all the events I wanted to go to, and shared the .ical file with my Google Calendar.

As you can imagine, I went a little crazy searching online for .ical files (http://icalshare.com/) and added all sorts of layers to my calendar.

My Google Calendar tells me what week and day of the year we are in, the phases of the moon calendar, what happened this day in history, and when the US Bureau of Labor Statistics has a new report scheduled for issue (such as when the latest unemployment figures are released.)

So, to recap, my Google Calendar tells me the last full moon was two days ago, yesterday was the anniversary of New York's ratification as a state, sunrise was 5:53 a.m. today, the Blue Claws have a home game on Friday, and my next roller derby bout is a month away.

Yes, I am a bit over-excited about my Google Calendar. But what do you expect from someone who gets excited to read stuff such as: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ebs2.nr0.htm


http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ebs2.nr0.htm

My high school poetry

I wrote this and it was published in Reflections, my high school "literary magazine." Prolly circa 1996-1997. I am trying to remember what sort of pain I was in that caused me to write this poem back then, and can't quite remember. I do recall being told I had a slight curvature in my spine. Maybe this was my reaction to that.

Chiropractor Conspiracy?
By Catherine Elizabeth Galioto

When I wake up in the morning
There's an ache I can't explain
I can't find reason or warning
Why I suffer from back pain.

Insomnia? It cannot be;
I'm dreaming well past five.
Though I get to bed quite early,
When I wake I writhe and writhe.

Is there something I don't know 'bout?
Ain't I just sleeping in my bed?
This is a mattress, have no doubt.
This a pillow 'neath my head!

Am I a sleep-walker of some sort?
Or a sleep-weightlifter, too?
Do I have sleep miles to report?
Is this what makes my back askew?

While I have my peaceful sleeping
And the earth is draped in black
Is there someone out there creeping
Doing evil to my back?

Though I've come to no conclusion
I am tired, and it's late.
It's not sleep that is my prison:
It's the waking up I hate.

Lunch break Walk, June 14: stroke weed every day

I signed up for the Start Walking Now Challenge via the American Heart Association, via my employer, as part of their Wellness Committee. But mainly, because if you take enough steps daily you are entered to win fabulous prizes. And I really do enjoy winning fabulous prizes. Moreso, I often win them, simply because I am the only doof who signed up. Case in point, this challenge. According to the Start Walking Now web site, I am in second place for most steps walked at my company.

The website www.startwalkingnow.org outlines the many health benefits of walking regularly. But here on the Daily Schmatherine I am going to outline the wonderful things that happen to me on my walk.

Today it was humid, which means my walk gave my hair more definitive frizz. But what was most notable was the weeds. Thistle, goldenrod, sage, dandelions. All standing tall, a large, giant patch of beauty. Spears of bright yellows, small puffs of purple, tall heads of white.

I am firm on this point: something is a weed only because we label it as such. As far as I am concerned weeds are victims of discrimination. They are beautiful. Say it loud, I'm a weed and I'm proud.

My advice is to leave the weeds there. Next time you go for a walk try to find a giant patch of weeds and admire all that is wild and free and messy. Kinda like my hair in the humidity.

Anywho, the other joyous event on my walk was that I walked to the liquor store to redeem a winning scratch off I got for my birthday. $7, baby. Yep. Yep. A little bit of green.

Today is bout day!

I am pumped! Chesty McBruiser is handing out free hip checks today!

www.jerseyshorerollergirls.net

me and the NJPA

This year at my job I headed up the process of submitting entries to the New Jersey Press Association Better Newspaper Contest.

For most of my life I had things to enter on the editorial side but these days I do lots of editorial functions under the auspices of an advertising department. So, for the first time ever, I stood to win advertising awards from the NJPA. How funny is that?

I entered a gazillion things of mine, all the magazines I am pretty much a manager editor to (as well as an assignment editor, copy editor, layout tech, art assistant and writer) and crossed my fingers that we would win. I also come out guns blazing for my employer and proclaimed we'd enter the maximum number of submissions to every single award category.

We did. And we won big. I won big. Five awards in my name (two first place), two awards not credited to me, and then, a gazillion awards for my coworkers. Wow!

At the awards dinner tonight, they announced the big winners: Who would win General Excellence in Classifieds and Advertising, and the overall Obie award (a giant statue). Well, my employer would.

a night of WIN!

One place to eat

Question: If you could go only to one restaurant for the next five years, which would it be?

Answer: I would go to what my family lovingly refers to as Teresa's. Which means I would go to my mom's house and eat there. Often my dad cooks but regardless, the food is good, all sorts of things are on the menu, the ambiance, hospitality and company are top notch...plus I've been eating there for the last 29 years so five more is no biggie.

Ask me anything: http://www.formspring.me/ChestyMcBruiser

My first kiss

Question: Who and when was your first kiss?
Answer: I'm certain Mom and Dad kissed me upon my birth, but we are talking first romantic kiss, and that would be my middle-school boyfriend by the lake adjacent to the street I live on. That lake, I think, has a memory for many a stage in my life.


Ask me anything: http://www.formspring.me/ChestyMcBruiser

Question:

What would be the best thing about being a vampire?
Answer: Cheap eats