It's a Gray, Goal Hodgepodge

Visit Joyce and join the fun!

1. Are you ready for new? Is 2016 likely to be very different than 2015? Do you want it to be?

Yes.  I don't have any plans for 2016 being different than 2015 other than the usual...hope to exercise more, be more Christlike, etc.

2. January 6th is National Technology Day. Currently, what is your single biggest struggle or frustration when it comes to technology?

Oh boy.  I have really fallen behind with technology.  When I was in the classroom we had training and that helped me to keep up.  Things are changing so fast I can't seem to keep up.  I think that is my biggest struggle- trying to keep up.  It seems like the latest version is already out before I've had a chance to learn the "old" one.  I am looking to finally get a smartphone and it has not been easy.  Any upgrades with my current plan involve an increase in my monthly bill, which I was hoping to avoid.  I have a giftcard for Amazon and thought maybe I could find a phone there and then just use it with my current plan.  Somehow I feel like I don't know what I am doing.  Thankfully I live chatted with an AT&T representative this morning and he was very patient in answering my questions.  Sad, but he was way more helpful to me than the live person at the AT& T store.  He was much more interested in flirting with the two pretty girls in the store than helping me.


3. It's that time again...time for Lake Superior University to present a list of words (or phrases) they'd like to see banished (for over-use, mis-use, and general uselessness) in 2016. You can read more about the decision making process here, but this year's top vote getters are-

So (at the start of every single sentence), conversation (as in hotly debated topics where we're invited to 'join the conversation'), problematic, stakeholder, price point, secret sauce, break the Internet, walk it back, presser, manspreading (common in larger cities where some men take up the entire bus or train seat by sitting wide), vape, giving me life (refers to anything that may excite a person or make them laugh), and physicality

Which of these words/phrases would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word not on the list you'd like to add?

I haven't heard of some of them but I don't like the sound of manspreading.  That just sounds so ridiculous.  And aside from that it's just plain rude and inconsiderate. 

4. Share one of your current health related goals.

Getting back to eating Paleo.  I feel so much better when I follow a strict Paleo diet and I believe it helped bring my thyroid back into range after being diagnosed with Graves Disease.

5. Let's talk fifty shades of gray. As in the color. Gray is currently a popular color in home decor, paint, wardrobes, hair, wedding party attire, and more. Are you a fan? Do you have the color in some variation in your home or wardrobe?  Gray hair, the old gray mare, gray matter, gray area...which gray idiom can you most relate to right now?

Yes, I like gray.  While some women look beautiful with gray hair I am not ready to let my grays take over.  I can't think of anything gray in my home decor but do have lots of gray in my wardrobe.  I have gray dress pants, a gray sweater, gray lounging pants, gray shirts and more.
I can most relate to gray hair since it seems like those pesky grays are coming in faster and faster!

6. Certain foods are considered 'lucky' if eaten on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. Cooked greens to bring economic fortune, black-eyed peas or lentils also symbolize money, pork which symbolizes progress, fish for good luck, and if you're in Spain 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight. Did you eat any lucky foods on the first day of the year? Is that a tradition in your home? Of the foods listed, which most appeals to you?

I had some pork on New Year's Day.  Our family tradition is to have Chinese food on New Year's Day.  I had some BBQ spare ribs and pork fried rice.  Right now grapes sound good.

7. What's the single biggest time waster in your life and what, if anything, will you do about it this year?

Going on my laptop to do "just one thing" and ending up spending way too much time on it.  I think I should be more mindful of how much time I am on and try to do something more productive.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

The last season of American Idol starts tonight.  I hope it's a good one!
~Theresa