Well here we are, 1 week after my decision to quit smoking and I have done damn well if I do say so myself. My health is improving at an incredible rate and nicotine cravings are near non-existent. It is really a great feeling. My success aside, I did slip up on Friday night and had one cigarette at a party. For some reason this is absolutely the hardest time for me to stick to my goals. I imagine it has something to do with impaired judgement but at the same time, if I realize how bad it is for me sober, why after a few drinks does it sound like such a good idea. Smoking does nothing positive for me when I'm not drinking. Why should a few beers make smoking a good idea? It's a problem. If anyone has any suggestions about how to better deal with this problem, I'd love to hear them. Unless it's don't drink. I should not have to avoid situations in which I smoked in the past to beat this thing.
Ok, so, smoking update, check. Now, on to the rest of my life. Friday afternoon in my design class, we had to present our progress on our group projects. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before but we're building a stair climbing machine. My group has done fairly well. We have solid drawings of the whole project, most of our materials on hand and we actually got our frame welded this week. Our teacher was really impressed with the progress we have made and I'm excited to continue on with the project. We are expecting to have it running the week before Thanksgiving.
I had an interesting experience Saturday night. I had borrowed my grandpa's truck to finish up some yard work, when I dropped the truck back off to him I stopped to chat for a while. It ended up being a rather lengthy conversation that was much more pleasant than some conversations with my grandparents have been. We just chatted about life, it was nice. I got the latest health updates from both of them which, while not great, was also not terrible. My grandma has found another incompetent, rude doctor that she will not be visiting again, and my grandpa's vision has been slowly improving. For the benefit of those who don't know, my grandfather has macular degeneration, which is a hereditary condition that destroys your eyes as you get older. He was diagnosed when I was about 8 and we were told that he would likely be blind within 10 years. The fact that his eyesight is actually improving is incredible. Granted, it's definitely not 20/20, he was telling me how exciting it was that for the last few weeks he had been able to see well enough to put his heart pill into a pill cutter and cut it himself. We spent some time talking about that and what I should be doing to give myself a leg up in case I get it as well. He also spent some time telling me about his father which was pretty cool. As I was leaving, my grandpa stood by the door and waited until I drove off so he could wave me off. It made me think of when I was younger. This was the norm any time we were leaving their house after a party. My dad would be driving off and he would turn the dome lights of the van on so that my grandparents could see us waving back. After I left my grandparents house I had to run to my parents house to return some tools I had borrowed. We chatted for probably around 30 minutes before I decided to head out. The thing that really struck me as odd then is that as I pulled out of my parents driveway they stood in the doorway, waving as I left. Holy full circle Batman! It hit me then that I actually am an adult. It's weird that this was the thing that really drove it home. The whole moving out, paying bills, taking care of myself thing didn't do it. It was a wave from my parents. Weird right?
Last night I made curry again. This was my second time and I think that I'm improving. The recipe I used is really great. It's one of the simplest Indian recipes I've been able to find. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com. It's called Spicy Chicken Curry, if you're interested, go check it out. I found that it turns out much better to use coconut milk instead of the two cups of water that it calls for. Anyways, the problem I'm having with this recipe is the peppers. The first time I made this I used two jalapenos instead of the chiles it calls for because I couldn't find chiles at the store I went to. I think this turned out pretty good. It was just the right amount of hot but I thought that the jalapenos added a little bit of a Mexican flavor. This time, I did a little advanced planning and went to El Rancho Market thinking that would be my best chance to find the right peppers. I ended up with four yellow chiles. This turned out pretty good but it wasn't nearly as hot as the jalapenos and the flavor of the peppers was a little overwhelming which might be okay if I liked peppers. Long story short, I'm now on a mission to find the right peppers for this recipe. If anyone knows of a Thai or Indian food market here in SLC where I could find some Indian chiles I would be eternally grateful. :)
I had an interesting experience Saturday night. I had borrowed my grandpa's truck to finish up some yard work, when I dropped the truck back off to him I stopped to chat for a while. It ended up being a rather lengthy conversation that was much more pleasant than some conversations with my grandparents have been. We just chatted about life, it was nice. I got the latest health updates from both of them which, while not great, was also not terrible. My grandma has found another incompetent, rude doctor that she will not be visiting again, and my grandpa's vision has been slowly improving. For the benefit of those who don't know, my grandfather has macular degeneration, which is a hereditary condition that destroys your eyes as you get older. He was diagnosed when I was about 8 and we were told that he would likely be blind within 10 years. The fact that his eyesight is actually improving is incredible. Granted, it's definitely not 20/20, he was telling me how exciting it was that for the last few weeks he had been able to see well enough to put his heart pill into a pill cutter and cut it himself. We spent some time talking about that and what I should be doing to give myself a leg up in case I get it as well. He also spent some time telling me about his father which was pretty cool. As I was leaving, my grandpa stood by the door and waited until I drove off so he could wave me off. It made me think of when I was younger. This was the norm any time we were leaving their house after a party. My dad would be driving off and he would turn the dome lights of the van on so that my grandparents could see us waving back. After I left my grandparents house I had to run to my parents house to return some tools I had borrowed. We chatted for probably around 30 minutes before I decided to head out. The thing that really struck me as odd then is that as I pulled out of my parents driveway they stood in the doorway, waving as I left. Holy full circle Batman! It hit me then that I actually am an adult. It's weird that this was the thing that really drove it home. The whole moving out, paying bills, taking care of myself thing didn't do it. It was a wave from my parents. Weird right?
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