Like it never happened

I noticed something today. The Metro police are incredibly efficient. I was driving on a major road that has two lanes on each side and an idiot lane in the middle. I passed a car accident and it had just occurred. It looked as if someone cut it too close trying to turn left and the person driving straight at them was not able to stop in time, but tried to turn to the right to avoid a T-Bone wreck. What ended up happening was the car already on the road rammed the front left corner of their car into the driver’s side door of the car turning left onto the road. Traffic was stopped on both sides; anyone trying to turn left into the little road was blocking the left lane because the center idiot lane was taken up by all of us moving in the same direction as the car who hit the car turning. We all had to merge into one lane and drive through the idiot lane while the police directed traffic. It was amazing. I drove by a mere half an hour later, going the other direction and the cars were moved out of sight into an abandoned parking lot, the street was clear and traffic was moving normally on both sides.

Like it never happened.

How often do we encounter something amazing, and a half an hour later everything is back to normal?

Incredible thought

Until next time,

:)

I plead guilty

So I'm guilty this week. Of lack of blogging. The funny thing: I've blogged in my head about 7 times. Too bad it doesn't transmit into paper; or this drafty thingy. I have been busy this week. No excuse, but it's true. I am currently in the process of moving every single thing I own out of my room into the Garage or into upstairs rooms that have been left vacant by college children. This is in preparation to fix the basement from where it flooded. We didn't get any huge 4 feet of water, but having to tear up 5 feet of carpet down a 50 foot wall and using a shop vac to vacuum over 500 gallons of water (12 at a time) carrying the thing into the bathroom to dump it; that's enough for me. If we had flooded 4 feet high, I think I would have let it carry me away.

We wanted to make sure I had most everything little out before my surgery since I'll be out of commission. The guys can move the bigger things, but I have to clear them off first.

I'm not going to lie, with the impending surgery on my mind, about which I am starting to get nervous, moving all my stuff is a little hard. I have almost all of the stuff not contained in storage units, but this has to a point disrupted my harmony a bit. I just keep telling myself, after the work is done, I'll be able to move me and my new shoulder into a new room and start fresh! While I'm laid up, I'll probably think about rearranging :)

Well, I'll try to do better to actually blog the posts in my head. It would help me immensely. :)

Until next time,
:)

I'll wait until after . . . .

We've all heard it. I joined Weight Watchers at the beginning of November last year, so Holiday season was about to start. I heard my leader tell us people say that all the time. I didn't believe here until I heard someone say it at work. I heard it again this week. It still baffles me.

We've all said it. I'll wait until after the Holidays to get serious about eating better and exercising. I'll wait until after my birthday. People, there are 11 Federal Holidays each year, and 30 observed. That's 41, or almost one each week! So how are we supposed to wait until after the holidays when they happen all year? Well, I don't. I learned to work around the holidays. For instance, on Valentine's, the couples holiday (I'm single), I normally drown my loneliness in a few boxes of chocolates. This year I had a few pieces of chocolate. BIG difference. I worked it into my points and it was a normal event. No more over eating and then feeling guilty and so on. You have to stop the process somewhere.

I haven't decided if my increased appetite is a reaction to hormones (go figure), impending surgery (for which I am starting to get nervous), or I'll wait until after the surgery to get back on track (a.k.a. I have too many things on my plate).

When I figure it out, I'll let you know. Now I'm going to go try to sleep. HA! If I blog again in about a half an hour, it's because that attempt was for naught.

Until next time,
:)

Boing, Boing, Boing, Boing, Boing...

My mind feels like a giant pinball machine. Thoughts bouncing from one topic/problem/celebration to another. Makes me feel like I'm having mood swings. *cringe*

I really enjoyed today. I lost .4. Maybe not an excellent number, but at this point, it's not a GAIN. :) This week I am celebrating a HUGE non-scale victory. I calculated my BMI when I started this whole thing. 33. That's classified as OBESE. Scary. Really scary. So I calculated my BMI this week. 26. YAHOO!!! I'm now classified as overweight, but I'm only 1 point away from being classified as healthy!!!! This is a huge thing for me! I have never been obese (or overweight) in my entire life.

In high school, my BMI was around 22. All the time. Mostly because I was in band and kept very active. Once I got in college, I wasn't sedentary, but I also was let free with all the greatest food I could ever learn to enjoy. So I gained a little weight, and I was concerned, but it wasn't at drastic measures. Then I returned home, started working at a desk and was still loose with all the food I could possible dream; and I had money(from working) to spend on junk food, eating out, etc. Then it snowballed and I was in such a great denial that when I went to the doctor's office, I seriously thought I was 30 pounds lighter than I was.

The one thing that always confused me was that during the whole process, I had no idea I was on a road to disaster. I honestly had no idea I was almost 80 pounds overweight. It floors me. I think back, and look at pictures and think "how in the heck did I look at myself and not think there was a HUGE problem? Literally! I still wonder if my doctor hadn't kicked me in the butt, how long I would have let it continue.

I went to Goodwill today because the first Saturday of every month is 50% off day, well this weekend is also tax free weekend. How much did I spend? $75. How much did I save? $75 +tax :) I hit the JACK POT. It made me feel great to fit into the clothes I never thought I would. I did not try on one black top, and I only bought one black item: an adorable black skirt. My wardrobe now has MORE color!!!

We had family over tonight, and it was great. My sister gave me a belated birthday gift - a gift certificate to Darden company restaurants (Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Longhorn Steakhouse, and Bahama Breeze) and I already know at which one I am going to use it! She said she got the idea from this post. How exciting! If you're reading this, thanks bunches again! I can't wait!!!

While I was browsing posts to get the link for that last paragraph, I came across this post, with how incredibly scared I was of going to the Orthopedic Surgeon because I thought that cleaning out my shoulder wouldn't be enough. Amazing how a week and lots of tests/answers can change my perspective. I'm not scared of the "big kahuna" surgery as I called it in this post, it's the one I'm having. And I am going to be typing one-handed for weeks (hopefully that plural only extends to two), and it's not that scary to me. Interesting. Very interesting. :)

We had drinks, and I didn't have much. I wasn't really in the mood. There are really only a few drinks really worth the points, and I drank a lot last weekend at the Brewer's fest and then the wine at the restaurant this week and blah blah blah.

Well, that's a lot of soul baring. I'm going to go deal with the *huge* pile of clothes on my chair and try to get to bed at a decent hour.

Hope you enjoy the title, because it took me the last 45 minutes, and 10 google searches to make sure I spelled it right to come up with it. :)

Until next time,
:)

Alright, what did I do this time?

It's 4:30, I've been up for an hour. Not cool. And my shoulder hurts (that's probably why I'm awake). That's the end of my complaining. I found out yesterday that the reason my shoulder hurts is I have a bone spur that has cut through the cartilage and is now rubbing right up against the bone. Sound painful? Guess what, it is. So how to fix it? Surgery; on the 16th. Believe it or not, I find this as GOOD news! Everybody thinks I'm crazy, but here's why I think it's good: my greatest fear going into his office yesterday was that he was going to say I went through the MRI and they didn't find anything, and I was going to have to live with it. I am currently living with a few other things because Doctors can't find a cause, but I digress.

What does this all mean? Well starting the 16th, I will be reduced to one arm. I find this to be a very interesting conundrum. I have done some serious thought to this over the last 12 hours; paying special attention to tasks which use my right arm. For example, using the mouse, typing, dressing, buttons on pants, and on and on. It's humbling to think about such things. I am going to get to expand my skill set over the next few weeks to become more ambidextrous.

So the biggest question, is how does this relate to my post yesterday? Well this will pretty much wipe out my social calendar for a few weeks. There are some things I will be able to do, but for at least the first 10 days, I'll pretty much be confined to the house/bed and under some extreme pain medicine. How does this help/hurt my weight loss? Well, think about it. I don't know about you, but I cannot eat a burger with one hand. Not possible. A Chick-Fil-A sandwich, different. Can I eat cereal and soup with one hand? Absolutely. I think this may be God telling me (among other things) slow down a little bit, don't stop completely, but just take it a little easy. Now for the first week, I'll be stopped completely, which may not be a bad thing.

It seems very odd for me to only looking at the positives of this surgery. Yes, it's going to hurt, but it's going to help me heal in the long run, and I guess I am in a place of complaining isn't going to get me anywhere, surgery is my only option. Here's another heady realization. What if the reason I'm so "happy" about this is it will shine the light on me for a few weeks, if that short. Wow now that's a thought. I'm not generally a spotlight person, but a few times each year, I rise to the occasion (or my body does it for me). I enjoy the spotlight on my birthday and share it on Christmas (favorite holiday, even over my birthday). This summer/year, the light has really been focused on the children returning/starting college and me being home with only parents coming, well, the last one leaves the day of my surgery. In my twisted mind, it will validate me of sorts in the medical sense. Everyone always tells me, yes you have these problems, but none of them were serious for surgery etc. They're SERIOUS to ME! I made the joke last night of finally having something to put on medical forms under "major surgeries".

I guess the lesson here is that I need not worry about all the other reasons, psychological craziness, and remember that this surgery is all about making the long term pain go away and retaining full use of my shoulder. I am definitely positive on this front.

I'm going to go watch a movie :)

Until next time,
:)

P.S.

I like post scripts, when I write letters, I usually have 3 or 4. I just looked at my blogging frequency. It's pathetic. In June, I blogged 14 times in 16 days. WONDERFUL! In July, I blogged 10 times in 31 days. OUCH! It's already August 5, and this is my second post. I am going to work, for myself if nothing else, to blog more often. Lets say at least 16 times in the 31 days of August. How is that accomplished? Let's break down the math. There are 4 full weeks in August, this would mean 4 posts each week. Not impossible. I will have two more posts for your entertainment this week. Yes, I have now set out to do something, and goodness, I'm going to do it!

With my expanded social schedule, my post topics might expand a little too. Maybe. Who knows. I don't know about what I am going to write until it comes out.

Until next time,
:)

Wait, it's WEDNESDAY already?!?!?!?!?!

Okay, I know today's Thursday, but I meant to blog this yesterday, but yesterday happened, and I need to stop using that as an excuse. The beginning of my weeks have FLOWN by and suddenly here I am at Thursday, and I only remember the beginning as a blur unless I sit and really think about it, which I don't really have time to do, ironically. These last few weeks I have been beefing up my social schedule wherever possible, which results things to do on most nights. I have also started walking at night while catching up on one of my 6 shows per night, 5 of said shows come on on Monday and Tuesday, so I have plenty of material for all week. Having things on most nights conflicts with that. I'm still working on making my schedule work for me, trying to set boundaries, and recently, I just can't get up in the morning early enough to be presentable at work, so night time it is.

Here's the worry that comes with all the new social events: Is my social calendar getting in the way of my weight loss? Wow, that's a heavy one. Deep and heavy this early! But I don't have to choose! The learning experience in all of this is that I can have my cake and eat it too! I can be social and learn (as my mom says), it's not the last chocolate chip cookie in the world. I truly can have only one (or none!)! It may take me a week or two more to have this really sink in, but I'm going to work on my weight loss and my social calendar and get a balance. Neither is going to take a back seat. Maybe a passenger seat, but not in the back.

So if I don't have enough things on my calendar, I am going to Bartending School. I'm so excited! I have an interview thing on Friday (TOMORROW). I will probably start that in September (which will make it finish around the first week of October). It will be a great way to make a little extra money on the side to help ease my financial concerns, though that's not the only/main reason I'm doing this. I like to expand my skills and learn new things. LOVE IT!

I'm off to get my MRI results.

Until next time.
:)