Happy Eating, Happy Feeling

After a weekend of 4th of July party and family reunion, I am happy to say that I didn't gain any weight. I was mostly good with what I ate. except for the brownies. But seriously, they were brownies.And they were fudgy, gooey deliciousness. Brownies are a downfall. And as a matter of fact, I am down another lb or two, so win win for me. I get a brownie (...or two) and a good number on the scale.

I have been working out a lot more lately. And trimming down the junk. I even quit putting milk and sugar in my coffee. And have been getting black iced coffee at my beloved starbucks. I Cut out sugary beverages. I tried to drink a can of pepsi at our family reunion. Got about 1/5 through the can and could not drink anymore. High fructose corn syrup is disgusting. I can taste it now. How did I use to love pepsi? My latest pop favorite was Dr. Pepper, but its been almost 2 months since I've had any.

The first couple weeks were a struggle. Now I don't even crave or want junk. I start craving fruit and veggies. Junk makes me feel gross I've found. Nothing is quite as satisfying as knowing exactly what is in what you're eating. No unpronounceable ingredients. No  questionable acids and long words and animal by products. That is, the type found in hot dogs and other odd looking "meats". I love me a good steak. And chicken.

All that to say this: I weighed myself this morning and found that I've lost 10 Lbs. Got dressed and found that I lost a belt notch too. Its a great feeling:)

Just a Little More...

Sometimes it takes more than one post a day to satisfy my craving to write something. Plus, listening to the Avett Brothers on Pandora makes me feel like writing something. I believe this is the epitome of the hipster life. Coffee. Skinny Jeans. Earbuds. And singer song-writer music stations. My last post was informative. This one shall be frou-frou-ie. The candy of blogging,  if you will. At least that's how I see it. I don't know if you agree, but to each their own as they say.

Does anyone else think that I over-use commas? I have a suspicion that I often use them incorrectly. But grammar was years ago and I can't remember. I also don't remember what semi-colons are for. Probably not the best thing to admit on a blog where I am always saying how much I like to write and how I would one day like to write a book, but if you've been reading my blog for any amount of time you've probably noticed my frequent grammatical errors. I should probably attempt to fix that and better myself in the proper usage of proper comma, semi colon etc. uses. I'd probably be full of spelling errors too, but thank goodness for squiggly red under-linings informing me of my (many) mistakes.  Spell Checker is amazing, unless its on your cell phone. My iPhone has a mind of its own. It decides it knows better than me what I'm trying to write. I generally hit send before realizing that it completely changed what I was attempting to say.

While technology is a wonderful and useful thing, I think it has made the general public decidedly more stupid than before.

The fun and the Not-So fun

New York was awesome. It was a gorgeous drive to the Finger Lakes. Keuka Lake is beautiful. We drove 6 hours or so, stopped for Breakfast at Tim Hortons on the way. It was a gorgeous weekend for a wedding. The morning of the outdoor lake side wedding was chilly and over cast, but right when the dancing started on the deck the sun peaked out and it warmed up nicely. Later in the evening a number of us changed out of our wedding attire and went for boat rides and then a frigid jump in the lake. I figured I probably wouldn't have another chance to go for a swim in New York in a beautiful Lake. once the initial shock of cold left, the water was  actually refreshing. It was a lovely weekend, meeting wonderful people and having a complete blast, even if we were all severely sleep deprived.

Unfortunately the wonderful weekend was followed by a midnight trip to the ER for me and then a 4 day stay in the hospital where I wasn't allowed to eat, and for the first day and a half wasn't even allowed to drink anything. Monday Evening I had extremely uncomfortable stomach pains, but was still able to sleep. I woke up around 1 AM Tuesday morning (after drifting in and out of dreams where I was trying to get my sisters to leave New York cause my stomach hurt) I woke up feeling like my gut was trying to murder me in my sleep. After about an hour or so the pain had increased to the point I was crumpled on the floor in the fetal position cause I couldn't even stand up straight. I woke my parents and they immediately decided to take me to the ER. There I was diagnosed with Pancreatitis, which is no fun I assure you. . All they can do for pancreatitis is monitor your pain (which is extreme) and starve you. I lost about 4 lbs in 4 days. I have been working out and eating healthier in an effort to lose weight, and I'm now closer to my goal, but starvation was not the way I was planning to lose it.Oh well, there is a silver lining I suppose. Plus I can eat now. Hospitals are the worst. they wake you up every couple hours to check your vitals, woke me at 4 am every morning to draw blood. Fortunately the wifi there was great and I was able to watch Netflix. And I had a ton of visitors every day. I felt bad for my room mates. I had so many visitors a couple times that we didn't fit in my room and we had to move to the little atrium to chat. Even uncomfortable seats didn't stop me from regularely falling asleep on my guests. Which happened several times. Pain meds are powerful things.Also, I hate morphine, which is what they gave me for pain the first 2 days. Not only did it knock me out for hours at a time (I slept more in 4 days than I think I did the entire previous week) but when it would start kicking in it made me feel like my head was gonna pop off. Not pleasant.

But I am all better now:) I came home last Friday evening and yesterday was the first day I didn't need to take anything for pain cause I feel fantastic. Plus one of my clients at work surprised me with a Starbucks gift card yesterday, which made my day:)

Unimportant Drivel

A night full of insane dreams that I don't remember. A frightening sudden jolt out of dreamland courtesy of my alarm going off, and scaring me half to death. A quiet morning preparing to leave. A meeting with fellow youth workers. The drive to where I am now.
I think I might be able to find something worth while to write about. If I think long and hard enough. I wonder where some people find their inspiration to write. I generally find it in a memory. Or a thought. Or a picture of some hipster drinking coffee with earbuds in and a cool fedora on their heads. I wish I could pull off a fedora. They are always too big and fall down over my eyes. Which does not give the effect of being a mysterious brooding stranger as it may on some people who can pull off a fedora. Nothing mysterious about me. I'm too much of a talker to be thought mysterious, and I rarely brood, so a fedora wouldn't do me any good, even if it did fit.

In a few weeks I'm heading out on a road trip to NY with my sisters. A friend is getting married there and we are going to help. Plus Anna is a bridesmaid. We are taking Florence . I look forward to  it. Even traveling within the states is still traveling. And the last time I  really road tripped I was 7. We went to Connecticut to see relatives. I don't remember much about the drive, but I do remember the visit. Uncle Paul's basement smelling like candles. The little out door 'sanctuary' where we played church.Going to see the Atlantic Ocean and collecting shells. Playing in the leaves with cousins, visiting museums, eating Aunt Gloria's wonderful cooking. Seeing the Yankee Candle museum and drinking Sprite. Good times. That was 17 years ago, which makes me feel really old.

I find I have no concept of time anymore. Something that may have happened 5 or 6 years ago I think happened only last year. Then, when someone corrects me and I try and figure out how on earth it could have been that long ago, because I remember it like it was yesterday. My long-term memory is in prime shape. My short- term memory is just that---short term. I don't know exactly how that works out, but there you have it. I'm sure its something scientific about which lobes of your brain are being used in different situations. But I tended to zone out when it came to the science of the human body, so I don't remember.I zoned out in chemistry too. Algebra too. I didn't mean to, but when something is that boring, and my mind is so full of interesting things to think about, its hard to focus on the uninteresting for very long. To this day, I don't know how I passed algebra. I got through chemistry pretty well, and science, but I have since forgotten all but the most unimportant aspects of both. Because that's how my brain works I guess.

Excerpts

I was reading through one of my (very) old journals last night. Wow. Its pretty funny. At one point, in an effort to improve my penmanship, I made my journal entries into letters to a certain "Lady Violet". The adjectives I used were...Outrageous. My spelling was laughable, and what I deemed to be interesting was. Well, perhaps to my 11 year old self they were important. I found at one point, I lamented the fact that punctuation existed, and that I was happy I didn't have to worry about it in my own journal. As you can imagine, there were never ending supplies of run-on sentences. For instance, here is an excerpt:
                       " I am glad I don't have have to worry about punctuation in this notebook I wonder who came up with the idea..."

It's funny, now lack of punctuation drives me crazy.

When I was especially feeling about something, I would make dashes between each letter. For example:
                         "On the way home (almost a two hour trip) we ran into an E-X-T-R-E-M-I-L-Y bad storm..."

                          '' I think I won't write on the next page, cuz it is W-E-I-R-D!!!!"

Perhaps I wrote that way because its difficult to write in italics in cursive? I don't know.

As for my love of big words and adjectives:

                    " I hope I do good in math today because I always do positively discracefully horrible at it"

Also, in reference to my friend returning from over seas, here is another example of overly dramatic and unnecessary adjectives I used:
           
                  "If yall ( NOTE:I don't know whom the 'Yall' I was referring to was) couldn't tell, I ame 
extremily, extrordinarily, tremondously, excitingly excited!!!!!!"

(NOTE: I am writing exactly as it is written in my journal. So many words  are spelled incorrectly)

Even now, I am sitting in Starbucks, probably making a fool of myself by my sudden bursts of laughter. What I wrote was... hilarious. For instance:


             "Sam -------- is here, and will be here for about two weeks. His parents' are going to Ireland! I would love to go there sometime~ I wonder people there still believe in leprechauns? and if they do, Aunt Jea (Jae) and Uncle Alled (Alan) (they are Sam's parents' but we arent really related, they are just very close friends!) better not critizise them 'cause they would get very offended.I've heard that the Irish have very strong belifs in stuff like that."

         " for supper were having creamed chicken on bisquets yummy I hope I don't get a stomach ache from eating to much like I did yesterday."

           "I was playing baseball again. I am sore! Emily kept calling me a "sissy hitter"! Maybe if people could pitch, and I was useing a bigger bat, I would hit it. She can only hit if I pitch to her unless its someone older."

I played baseball. A lot. Most journal entries are about playing baseball.

Reading all these entries makes me want to go find my other old journals. It would make for some highly entertaining reading, I'm sure. Fortunately, My spelling, punctuation and literary abilities have improved much since then.


 

Nothing in Particular Because My Headphones Broke

This is a very dismal, rainy, chilly, miserable day. I feel sorry for those who work outside. Its the type of weather that is good for soup and terrible for those prone to weather related headaches. I am prone to weather related headaches. And I have no soup to console myself with. Only a chocolate chip scone. And Starbucks coffee. Which I suppose is better than nothing.

Its a wonderful day to be curled up in a blanket with a good book, however, I'm sitting at a tall table by a window at Starbucks currently, wearing my jacket because Any time the door opens the temperature at my seat drops a good 10 degrees.So no lounging in warmth for me.

I am afraid I have an acute case of writers block, which I am mostly convinced is due to the fact that my headphones broke today, and so I can't listen to my Indie Singer-Songwriters station on Pandora.The mish mash of genres and such that Starbucks is currently playing is hardly conducive to blogging, and highly grating on the nerves. I'll bet once I plug my phone into my car and listen to my Pandora station a plethora of lovely blog- writing-related topics will flood my mind. And then I'll be left with the regret that I leave you a such a boring bit of my mind to read. So with that, Its time to leave and buy some new earbuds.

A Night of Culture

Last night, I got some culture. If you can call it that. I went to see a play. Pride and Prejudice, put on by the local University the next city over from where I live. My mom, sisters and I dressed up a bit , meaning we set our usual jeans and tennis shoes aside for the more classy, dressy, skirts and dresses. Because when one is going to get cultured, casual attire is not acceptable. Its true, we were pretty much the only ones there so nicely dressed. I guess the rest of the attendees weren't as interested in being cultured.

A college student was sitting out side the theater selling pop, water and candy bars to those of us waiting in line. His sales tactic was holding up baby pictures of himself on his smart phone, saying things like " This is the adorable face of a baby that was once me....Could you possible say no to that face?...seriously, wasn't I cute?" his sales skills were greatly lacking.

We got really good seats, the seating attendant in our area told us we had the best seats in the house. I couldn't have agreed more.
The atmosphere was delightful. I was surprised to see how many guys were there, seemingly of their own accord, without the company of ladies. Of course, the gentleman in the yellow hat sitting directly across the theater from me did sleep through most of the first act.Apparently Jane Austen didn't thrill him as much as the men, who had ' I am a big shot athlete in this school' written all over there faces,  on the top row did.

 I think the prerequisite  for the male seating attendants was to be decidedly short. The one at the top of my row took his job very seriously.
"Excuse me ma'am," to the lady in front of me, 'did you take a picture of the set?" "Yes." "well I'm going to have to ask you to delete it due to copy write..."
 A few minutes later to a lady above me, 'Excuse me ma'am, we cannot allow you to take pictures of the set..." shortly there after, to the same lady, ' I'm going to have to ask you to finish your drink out in the hall, only bottled water is allowed in the theater, I'm sorry..." no one else seemed as strict about food in the auditorium. I saw plenty of people munching there candy bars etc.

The play was amazing. The actors and actresses were wonderfully talented, the costumes beautiful, the script accurate, and filled with Jane Austen's witty humor. It was enjoyable. I was vastly disappointed when it was over.
Mrs Bennett was a riot, Mr Collins was sufficiently annoying, Mr Darcy was very good at brooding, Lizzy was able to express herself through even just the squinting or widening of her eyes, Mary was...Boringly humorous, as she should have been. It was exquisitely cast, and everyone performed their parts to a T. I hope to go again to that theater, and I'm fairly certain that "My Fair Lady" will be showing in June.I hope so. Another night of culture sounds wonderfully inviting.