I wonder if other countries deal with this issue. I don’t remember it being so crazy when I lived in Colombia; the mailman was not someone you saw every day and when you got something in the mail it was actually worth it. But here (and Canada, too)…

• 8 out of 10 things we get in the mail end up in the trash/recycling bin. Not to mention there’s no recycling program that I’m aware of in the building, so it’s mostly trash these days.
• Charity organizations spend so much printing crap instead of using the money to do other things. You wouldn’t believe the amount of mail I get asking me for donations, and they have to include some kind of cute sticker, notepad or the famous address labels.
• How often do Kohl’s, Lane Bryant, Bed, Bath & Beyond, etc think I want to go shopping? I don’t want coupons in the mail every day!
• Grocery stores are the worst. I never look at their stuff, I pick the good prices when I shop. Don’t want paper!
• Companies can’t send just a bill in the mail. They have to put extra paper in the envelopes announcing products I have no interest in.

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The first idea I had of it was bad. I’d heard of marriages going to the pooper because of it, so when my husband started playing World of Warcraft he got an earful from me and tons of wife aggro afterward. That didn’t stop him from playing, though. Then he mentioned I would probably like the game.

I had time to prepare for about a year and a half before I made the decision. I learned the meaning of terms like DPS, DOT, aggro pulling, etc. I also contributed greatly to the wife aggro pool when the husband spent what I considered too much time playing WoW; I even thought about joining the Widows of WoW club a couple of times. Then I decided to give it a try, and the first time I created a character I thought “Well, this is too much work and too much walking.” — Not to mention John was helping with his >60 level character, so it wasn’t much of a challenge for me. The first time I played WoW, it only lasted one evening. And then I decided to really play. I’m sure my husband regrets insisting so much. Hah!

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Moving to Chicago meant I had to get a whole new set of doctors. I’ve been lucky enough to find good ones that (seem to) know what they are doing and with very short drives from home. My first visit with the endocrinologist was great and I’ve been taking care of myself, following (almost) all his recommendations. Next appointment was with the OB-GYN to discuss my rather frustrating femaleness and the whole trying to conceive thing; not an easy task for a person like me.

I am not blind to my health issues. I am morbidly obese (that took courage to write down!), I have type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol levels, a poor-functioning thyroid gland and other conditions related to my weight. It annoys me to no end when people talk to me as if they think I have no idea of what I have to deal with. Yet I don’t do enough to change things; or maybe I do but it doesn’t work.

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This year is a little different. Maybe it’s the numbers, multiples of 5 (it’s 2010 and I just turned 35); maybe it’s because 2010 is the Year of the Tiger and I’m one; or maybe I’m going through some kind of mid-life crisis that is turning out to be more positive than crazy. Whatever the reason is, I feel like I’ll be going through some big changes and I like it.

The biggest project of 2010 for me will be to pro-actively work on trying to conceive. For years I longed for one, it didn’t happen, I was miserable, then I accepted it… and then I gave up. OK, I wouldn’t put it that way; I simply started thinking that if it was God’s will for me not to have children, I would accept it without question. And when I married John, one of the things that I loved the most about him was the fact that, while he would love to have kids, he really didn’t care if we could or not. After all, there is always adoption.

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