Tag Archives: Pauline’s Posts

Loving Oregon

I just love that we are back in Oregon. There is rarely a day go by that I don’t think how happier I am that we are back in Oregon.

How much more at home I feel, more comfortable….even with all the new changes of going back to apartment living and adjusting.

Today the beauty of the state really shown through as I drove home north through the Willamette Valley. And just reenforced how much I love living here.

It was a stunningly perfectly clear and sunny day, saw Mt St Helens to the north and Mt Hood to the northeast.

I work about 30 miles south of where we live, so about 50 miles south of Portland.

We have always lived east of PDX, directly west of Mt Hood. Living near the Gorge (river, cliffs, water falls, and forests)….and it is a totally different scenery then the heart of Willamette (plains & farm lands) that through drive daily to and from work.

I’m so not use to seeing Mt Hood from that angle…..at first I wasn’t sure that I identified the correct peak. When I saw it from the west, I knew it instinctively. It was so different from what we spent 7yrs looking at.

But I knew that I was no where south enough to see Jefferson or any of the other peaks of the Cascades.

Now I need to learn how my favorite mountain looks from the SW angel. ?

Damn, I do love this state.

45th Birthday

It’s official…..I’m 45, on the backside of 40 sliding into the big 5-0 LOL

Nothing planned at all for the day…..took it off, been awake since 0730…didn’t really roll out of bed until 0900….

Going to get my butt to the gym….I didn’t even get 1600 steps in yesterday…..a new low for me…lol So I’ll at least get 10k there, if nothing else…..just don’t need to be there at 0500 ?

Feeling better then yesterday, still not 100%….but don’t have that foggy brain feeling. ? I’ll take it.

Just taking the day as it comes and hoping that tomorrow and work doesn’t get here to fast

Sexual Assault Survivors

You know I’m getting tired of all the really crappy posts not believing sexual assault survivors…..or making jokes about it. Maybe you should talk to sexual assault survivors…..I’m the only ONE in my group of close friends that has NOT been sexually assaulted. But I sure in hell have been bullied and sexually harassed since I was 11. Until you go through what we have gone through you don’t have a clue

That catcalls that I got from GIs when walking Alfie when I was 11, the 20yr old GI that tried to pick me up on the shuttle bus when I was 13. Or when one guy in school tried to put his hands on my breasts when I was in 8th grade and took him down flipping him over my shoulder. I may not remember the day of week or who was all there, but I sure in hell remember exactly what happened…..you don’t forget things like that no matter how hard you try. It is like it happened yesterday.

Annoying Co-Worker & #MeToo

My position in my new location has a lot of people in my department & the one next to me, that have been there for 9-20+yrs….

As most businesses, we are going though more changes and a few of the old timers are bitter.

One just complains……everyone know that is all he does. That no matter what, he will find something to bitch about.

He loves to antagonize people about the jackass in office. And kept making smart ass comments about #MeToo.

Well, last week, he went too far. He was going on, that maybe there should be a check list of what a man would get from a woman depending on what he pays for on a date.

I just turned around and said: “I had a friend thrown out of a moving car because she wouldn’t give it up You have NO idea what it is like to be a woman.”

(He had one hell of look of shock on his face)

“To grow up knowing that men can overpower you at anytime and live with the threat of rape in the back of your head.

Closest you would feel that, is if you were in prison…then you would know what it is like to live the threat of rape in the back of your head everyday.

Do you know how the hell it makes me feel that out of all my closest friends, that I’m the only one that has not been sexually molested or assaulted?

Do you know how the hell it made me feel to have obscenities yelled at me at the age of 12 while walking my dog?

Having a 20yr old trying to pick up me up at the age of 13??

The ONLY 2 times I’ve ever used my father’s rank was to get guys to back off.

That I have friends that had flash backs when their daughter hit the age when they were molested and didn’t want their husbands to touch them. You have NO idea!

You want to know why women go to the bathroom in groups, because in the back of their mind they know it is safer.”

He is one that overrides when you are talking and I think I had him speechless….just stared at me and said, no I don’t know. When he started to say, that I shouldn’t have been by myself at the age of 12….

I’m like “I was WALKING my dog in my neighborhood……my family taught me to take care of myself and be independent. You do not hold a 12yr old’s hand…..and it is usually friends of family and family members that get to kids”

wth?!?

I can take a lot and joke a lot…..I’ve handled “boys clubs”…….I’m not exactly innocent and can have a dirty and very honest mouth, but he went too far.

He hasn’t said too much to me since.

Then the other day, he threw one of coworker under the bus to a customer.

Even if they are always missing up, you do NOT do that. When when he says that “I don’t care anymore” I just wanted to say, “then why are the hell are you still here?”

Hoping to have a chance to speak to one of my managers about that. I just want them to talk to him and get him to stop doing that.

He is a good worker & I don’t think he is actually a bad person, just likes to shock….but I can only tolerate so much ignorance.

New Schedule

Since hubby & I are now on the same work schedule, I’ve been getting up before 3AM every morning to go to the gym. For the 1st since I do not know when, I’ve actually got in my M-F for the last 2 weeks.

Very happy about that. LOVE being able to workout again in the early morning. So many less people….more peaceful, less idiots.

So the issue that I’m running into is that I was doing 60min on the Arc Trainer, it reminds me of both hiking on mountains and the elliptical. It really gives me the feeling that I’m pushing myself on elevation changes and steepness. I had finally broke my plane and hit over a 700 calorie burn.

I no longer have 60min to get in my cardio. So I’m back on the treadmill. Now I HATE running…..unless playing a sport…..I do not run, I death grip it.

I’m more of an endurance/stamina person, not a runner. If I’m steady, I just keep working through it….and that is what I did on the Arc Trainer….and it made my calves burn and I was always shaky and disgustingly sweaty when I was done. With the resistance workout, didn’t always felt like I still had shoes on by the time I was done.

Now I’m experimenting, trying to get back to that satisfying sweaty burn. Trying to do the “hills”, I’ve upped my level to 15….the max I can get to is 20 and at a fast walk (4.7….death gripping the whole way). Finally got it past 600 calories burned and started to feel the sweat more and earlier. Hoping to get it past 700 and feel the burn this week.

But the fact that I’m just going up and down and don’t have the resistance that I use to have on the other machine is making it harder to achieve that. Fingers crossed that I hit it this week.

Hubby got me the fitbit I wanted for my birthday. And it has gotten me back into to tracking my eating on myfitnesspal. As I compete with myself to burn more calories then I take in. Because it is much harder to lose the muffintop since I hit 40……lol

Really hoping with getting to the gym 5 days every week, instead of 3 to 5 times, will be a big help.