Sarah's Mixed Bag of Unrelated Thoughts

Weight: 225
Loss to date: 59 pounds

Ok, another pound gone....I'm getting there! This one will be a rather abbreviated post, as I am really going to make a concerted effort to get in bed before midnight tonight. Can she do it???? I swear, I am really just a night owl. All my life I've been this way. I remember being a little girl in Bierer House, the help house/commune in which I was raised in Chelsea, on the lower west side of NYC. Usually we were around 20 in number -- a couple stayed but most lighted upon the house for a short while and then moved on. Libby calculated that by the time I was 10, I'd lived with over 4000 people.) Anyway, I remember that some of my very favorite people had night jobs, so I'd stay up and wait for them to come home. Holly, a dancer whom I loved, and I would bead necklaces at 3:00 in the morning; I think I must have been about nine at the time. That pretty much set the tone for my sleeping habits going forward.

So I'm going to try to turn in "early." Poor Gretchen, though -- I couldn't leave her hanging out to dry tomorrow morning also!

There's some stuff to report, but it's all unrelated, disjointed. No update has a thing to do with another. So, in no particular order, here goes -- and I'll still aim for delivering the abbreviated version, although -- and you might have guessed this -- that's rather difficult for me.

I did my HIIT biking for 20 minutes after I got back from walking Louie (my gorgeous 3/4 Italian Greyhound, 1/4 pug rescue princess boy) when I got home from work.

I joined the Halloween challenge at the 100 forum at 3FC, committing to the following achievements by Halloween: (1) Reach 208 pounds; (2) Wear a size 16; and (3) Accomplish the creation of a habit of 5 workouts per week.

I broke down, succumbing to peer pressure, and ordered Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds DVD 3-pack set. (3 workouts of graduating intensity, going 1 mile, 2 miles, and 3 miles consecutively.) All the cool kids are doing it. It was only like 17 bucks including shipping, so I think it will be worth it. I've heard about them for a long time now, but Gretchen has raved so much, I figured, "alright, alright, what the hell." I predict I'll be annoyed by Leslie's inane banter with "the other gals" about straight blah blah blah.....but if she gets me sweating and it feels good and yields results, then I'll forgive her. (Gretchen, that is, not Leslie! Just kiddin' Gretch....)

Lorraine's still gone and I don't much like it, although she's really enjoying her training and is getting well set up for success. I'm so happy and relieved about that. It's a big deal to leave the company you've worked for 16 years and what amounts to almost all of your adult working life. So to go into another leadership position (District Manager) for a new company in a new industry, with new challenges -- well, you'd pray for good training, no matter how smart and clever you are. (And she's both, in addition to having lovely lips.) Well, we spoke about paying a third of her ex's daughter's $450 monthly car payment, and I am just not down with that. It's uninsured, we just took out a second mortgage to pay off our own car because the interest was lower, and Lorraine's ex -- who hasn't worked in 3 months because she can't find a job that she "likes" is only going to pay a third.......and we pay more towards C's college costs than she does! Ok, I'm getting pissed off again, so I'm going to shelve the topic for now and revisit if I feel like it later. It's just messed up; when C (the daughter) was talking to her mom about it, the mom (Lorraine's ex) said, "Have Lorraine pay it; she'll pay." Nice. So Lorraine didn't commit yet, said she would need to talk it over with me, but of course she wants to bail the kid out. I'm just not so sure it's all such a good idea....the car -- and C -- are completely without insurance. In New Jersey. Anyone reading understand the significance of that? I just really need to think about it some more, and talk it over with Lorraine when she comes home. For the record, C says she does already work 40 hours a week, but since her mother doesn't pay for her books or food or clothes, she needs to spend her money on that. It's hard. As long as we continue to bail out C, her mother will make that happen and be very happy with that arrangement. However, we don't want to hurt C just to spite the mother........any comments and suggestions are welcome. If you think I'm being a bitch, you can tell me so. I just see it as fraught. See, even lesbian relationships have this kid-related drama, so noone is immune!

This weekend, Labor Day weekend, is going to be a 4-day weekend for me. That is so much more exciting than I can adequately convey here. I smile, for I am off!

Getting lots of compliments on the bod and the loss these days, and it sure does feel good! Yesterday like 6 people at work approached me separately to talk to me about it...did I miss that email? I was like, "Either I need to LIVE in these pants, or there's a conspiracy afoot!" No matter, it felt great. One lovely man (I love him, my buddy the Director of Sales) said, "Every time I see you, I see less of you." I could have kissed him on the lips and I told him so! So now you KNOW I'm in HR!

I know I keep mentioning it, but we really MUST get a new digital camera. Everyone I know at 3FC is clamboring for pic's, and I would like to share my progress. The before pic's are still horrific to me -- I guess I haven't yet adequately distanced myself from that body to feel like it was "so long ago" or "another body ago." I look so much better and feel so much better.......but it's still too fresh for those before pic's not to be a little ouchie for me to behold. The key will be to get a decent current progress picture, so I can concentrate on the now and the future rather than the past. I'm sure everyone feels the same way, so I'll suck it up like they do.....just gotta (1) get a new camera, and (2) hook up the printer/scanner, and (3) find a before pic that's post-worthy. I'll post it here too, once I get it all sorted out.

I'm loving the comments activity -- I feel like the hostess at a successful house party! Ya'll come back now, y'hear? Mwah - kiss, kiss!

And I suppose this didn't end up being very "abbreviated." Old habits die hard.