I'm just your average, everyday, divorced 38 year old girl -- overweight, tragically unhip,
and trying to make a life for myself. I live with two furry beasts, Dave and Abby, whose
feline mission in life is to choke me with their fur. Nothing special.
Friday evening. Still at work but it's been a really awesome day. I'm wearing cute jeans, matching sweater, and a really comfy hoodie, with Chuck Taylor-esque sneakers (someone explain to Jenniy what that means, wouldja?), no makeup, and a song in my heart. I so wish that I could bottle today, distill it down to a powder or tasty liquid that I could keep in my medicine cabinet for the inevitable day that nothing will fit, I'll gain 10 pounds in a day, and my stomach will swallow an entire city. Why isn't happiness more like the flu or that wretched cold thing that will make everyone miserable this year? Who wouldn't be happy to catch it? "Dude, can I come over? You seem really happy and I want to catch me some of that!" We'd have vaccines to ensure that you did catch happiness and places that you could go to be exposed, just in case there wasn't enough of it around you to make sure you caught it.
Mr Bush, Mr Kerry, let's talk about a health care initiative for America that would have a real impact.
Friday morning (thank goodness). What if you could just live your life doing things that normal people do, focusing on something other than you, your weight, and how miserable your weight makes you? What if, out of the blue, life just started to gel, and you realized that being around a large group of people in a small room mightn't be so awful after all? What if you decided - on a whim - that a brisk, Fall Friday would be a good time to drag those cute jeans that don't fit out to see how much more you need to lose before they'll fit you only to find yourself wearing them to work with a dumb smile on your face and tears of joy barely restrained?
Imagine a world where you forget to order your prepared meals and, when faced with the prospect of having to fend for yourself and make actual choices about what to eat for four days, in fact end up effortlessly making good choices and eating like a normal person would without obsessing about every bite. Let your mind whirl still further into the fantastic, the nonsensical, and imagine now that you haven't exercised since Sunday morning and you've been eating like a normal, non-dieting person and still, instead of total chaos and insanity, you find yourself strangely calm and centered.
Tuesday afternoon. I want to be home, curled up on the couch, with a kitty sitting on either side of me, reading my new book, and drinking a decaf nonfat sugar-free vanilla latte.
I'm clicking my cool brown (2" heeled) loafers together but nothing's happening. Time to call the Help Desk!
Monday morning. Let's start off with some good news, shall we? I don't have to remove my little can of mustard seed from my charm bracelet because (even after a weekend of wine and too much food) I'm down to 222, which is four pounds below my 30 pounds lost goal. WooHoo. I really wasn't looking forward to having to take that off! Even better, my friend Tracy's birthday gift for me was a red enamelled running shoe charm, so I'm just six pounds from being able to add another beautiful charm to the collection. Remember, health benefits and smaller dress sizes are important, but it's really all about the bright, sparkly stuff!
The weekend was awesome! I drank lots of wine, saw some amazing vistas from the various wineries we visited, and spent some good, quality time with Tracy, too. Sunday morning, bright and early, we pulled on our walking wear and got ourselves to the (beautiful) starting line for our 5K, which turned out to be about 30 people and included a couple of not-insubstantial hills, which made me feel like a rock star when I finished. Yes, it was six minutes slower than my fastest 5K time from last year (when I was in marathon training), but I'll take it. After the walk, we headed to downtown San Luis Obispo for Starbucks, shopping at Borders (I've got Tracy, my dad, and my friend Tony all taken care of for Christmas now!), and strolling around the wonderful shops and restaurants.
I left about 1pm, pointed the rented Ford Escap# to the south, and zoomed into the Los Angeles Metropolitan area with only one objective in mind: meet Shannin! After having known each other through the 'Net for well over a year now (we originally met on a discussion board at eD1ets.com) and lived no more than 100 miles apart, we finally met just as she's getting ready to move a thousand miles from here. LOL. It was so amazing, meeting her in person, and she's really as bubbly and vivacious as she appears in writing. I also must say that the picture she's got posted on her profile just doesn't do her justice; this is a gorgeous girl, folks. I'm so excited for her, changing her life and making a fresh start - so tempting sometimes - and I know that she's going to be happy and successful, because that's just the type of person she is. Southern California's loss is definitely Minnesota's gain!
Finally, my thought for the day comes courtesy of Sarah, who said the following in an email to me: "Embrace your inner optimist, girlfriend; she's your unsung hero". Wow, I hadn't thought about it quite that way before, but I will now. Thanks, Sarah!
