Weekends and Bookends

Well, I was very quiet last week, and at this point, I can't remember/won't bore you with details about the weekend before this one.  But this one! Was nice and long and relaxing.

Friday I snuck out of work at 4:30 to meet Schmillie and see Bad Teacher.  I thought it'd be dumb funny and Jason Siegel was in it and how wrong could that go?  But oh, so wrong.  And you guys, I know I'm supposed to be all up in Justin Timberlake's jock or whatever, but NO.  He's just so asexual to me.  Yuck.  And so there's a really creepy "love" scene (or rather, "dryhump" scene) and it only makes him more revolting.  Anyway, the movie was bad but we got through it together, then wandered a bit to Banana Republic, and it was a lovely night, and I bought a soft sweater on sale, and then heard some lovely opera in the Union Square subway station before getting home to relax and watch True Blood.  Hike came over after the Mets/Yankees game (he went with friends to CitiField) and then to bed.

Saturday he left, and I was terribly PMS-cranky and took a two-hour nap and then went to the gym and met up with Hike and his friend Yoshi for dinner and UFC watching, yawn.  But it was nice to be out and have some beers.  Sunday we went to church with his Grandma, then back to her house for family dinner in the afternoon (and doing his laundry), and his mom brought me a white jacket that she bought but didn't fit her right, so now I have a white casual jacket.  She wears petites so basically can hand things down to me, and this is something I'd wear to work and not too mom-ish, so good!  Sunday night we just stayed in at his place, cooked dinner, and played our video game.

And then Monday we picked up his friend Yoshi and headed out to Long Beach, where we met up with his bro and sis-in-law plus some other of their friends.  It was so pretty -- the cloud cover had cleared by the time we got there, and the water was cool but totally comfortable, which meant I could go in to cool off every 20 minutes (as I need to when I'm hot!)  It was fun and we stayed about two hours, which was the limit on his parking spot, and he tried to move the car but couldn't find another spot so we just gave up and came home.  It was for the best, though, as we beat the return traffic and had time to relax and shower before meeting Yoshi again for dinner on Broadway in Astoria.  We sat in the back garden of a Thai place and I had a pink drink and it was relaxing.  Then home to hold a two-week old baby!  One of my roommate's friend's just had her and they were over for dinner, so I nabbed the baby and sat in the quiet living room to hold her for awhile while she slept.  Adorable. 

Now it's Tuesday already!  I can't wait for this weekend's Vermont trip.  I hope it's entirely relaxing and outdoorsy and loving and rejuvinating.  And until then, I'll gym it tonight, go to softball tomorrow (and Hike may come over after), then get my nails did on Thursday (and I need an eyebrow wax really bad -- they're caterpillars), and then we leave early afternoon on Friday.

OH and I'm re-reading Forever.  I love this book.  It starts out in Celtic Ireland, which I've always enjoyed learning about, and then is set in various Manhattan time periods, so it's the best kind of historical fiction.  It's also getting me (more) psyched to watch the New York documentary that I bought Hike for his birthday.  We have less movie time lately, but I hope we can break that puppy open soon.  Anyway, I'll finish the book this week and then I can bring our new book club pick to Vermont.  Ahh, summer reading, I love you.

Keep On Keepin' On and What I Ate

Rain remix!  I actually didn't mind a rainy Sunday, and don't hate a rainy Monday, either.  It fits the mood and enables me to further curl up into myself, you know?  We had a lovely Saturday here, though, so don't worry, I did get out in the sun.  My back is still burned!

From the top:  Friday I just went home, happy that I had some beers and good company the night before, so I kept it low-key.  I caught up on DVR, I ordered very healthy Chinese food (I am an ascetic now, apparently) -- steamed shrimp dumplings and sauteed vegetables with brown rice.  I ate half of each, saving the other half for later in the weekend.  Then I took a long bath and started reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett, which everyone in the world is also apparently reading.  Based on the premise, I thought it might be a little hokey for me, but I really got into it.  It has three different narrators, and I liked one of them especially (Skeeter, if you've read it), but all were enjoyable.  It also helped to read so much at once, as I ended up burning through about 200 pages on Friday tucked up in bed after my bath.  Finally bed, without the aid of a sleeping pill.

Saturday I woke too early for my taste, but watched some TV and made Low-Fat Nutrigrain Eggos and bummed around, then went to the Socrates Sculpture Park in Astoria with Mex.  We sat on a beachtowel, ate a very basic picnic, tried to read but mostly got distracted by all the playing puppies.  I also sunned myself while he tried to keep his half of the towel in the shade.  Don't worry, we didn't touch or anything.  But for real, I've seen him once a week now since the nuclear bomb, and it's what I want to do.  I miss his companionship and it's nice to be able to talk about what I'm feeling with someone who understands more than anyone else, even if he caused it.  This may all go away after Wednesday, aka No-Baby Day (Cross Your Fingers), but I'm taking each third of my waking hours as they come.  Anyway, after the park I went back home to shower and get ready to meet up with Scmillie and her lady for Hot Tub Time Machine.  Obviously it's a screwball comedy, but I'd heard it was hilarious and it seemed like just the right tone for the weekend.  Sadly, I found it really uneven -- parts were very funny but then other parts were kind of boring.  Oh well, it was a good distraction and it was nice to get out and hang with friends!  After the movie, Ax met us up and we ate at Republic.  Then it was back to Astoria around 10:30 pm, and Ax and I debated getting a beer before recognizing that we were both very tired and should do it another time.  So I climbed back in my cozy bed and finished The Help by about 1:30 am.  Oh, I'd found out my softball scrimmage in the morning (which was originally why we picked such sedate evening plans) had been cancelled due to forecasted rain.  So I stayed up late.

Sunday I slept "in" till nearly 10:00 (I've lost this power, apparently), then lazed around in the gloomy day, watching my Netflix movies and being sad for awhile.  It didn't help that the movies were so boring -- Snow Falling on Cedars was too arty and pretty and there was not enough dialogue, and The Other Boleyn Girl was also boring and better covered in The Tudors, plus there was an incest scene that freaked me out.  Fail.  Anyway, then Britch stood me up for our afternoon Skype date, then I went grocery shopping (to a store near me that I don't frequent as often, though apparently I should, as it was full of cute hipster boys!)  Then I cleaned my room and talked to my mom, which actually cheered me up considerably (and I was surprised at that.)  She relayed a story about a gnome that I will tell you at a later date, too.  Then I settled in to watch Mystic Pizza on TV while also starting a new historical novel (which will be a guilty pleasure, I can tell) and have a quick phone chat with Mex.

It was a good weekend, well-rounded and well-behaved.  The pounds are coming off quite quickly recently with my monkish lifestyle, though I'm sure I'll go up and down a bit depending on my social activities.  Still, I should be nearing the 130s now, just in time for swimsuit wearing.

Today is another sleepy one, but tomorrow night is our first real softball game of the season and I'm excited and nervous.  I should try to make it to the gym when I get home tonight, though we shall see how my motivation holds up.  Mex is also going to give me the nine beers that have been sitting in his fridge for a week (as he's stopped drinking, and hopefully it sticks), so they don't go to waste, and I think that handoff is tonight.  Not that I'll be crushing the Buds, but we have to arrange the custody change.  And I'm sort of alternately really optimistic and really angry about circumstances, but after Wednesday I'll at least have a better idea of what's to come.  Then I can figure out what I'm going to do to move on.

Well FOOD:
B - Strawberry Yogurt O's, milk, coffee - 5
L - chicken & muenster sammy, yogurt with strawberries - 6
D - creamy artichoke lasagna, salad - 6
S - string cheese, soup, orange - 3
Total - 20
 

Catch-up, Ketchup, and What I Ate

First of all, today I am wearing the boots and I do love them so.  They've very comfortable and while I'm a little concerned that they give the appearance of elephant cankles, the benefits outweigh the risks.  Oh, and since they're suede, I'm convinced I'll ruin them soon, but we may as well enjoy them now, right?  They're kind of a dusty purple/rose color (hello, Stevie Nicks), and I paired them with a gray sheath dress with a high-waist belt and a little black short-sleeved, shortie cardigan, and I feel cute.  Tonight I'm having drinks with a former boss (the former publisher of William Morrow cookbooks) and her other old assistant, and I feel the need to appear like I'm "doing well."  You know how that goes.  We're meeting here to catch up after a year of not seeing each other, and I'm sure it will be fine, but I'd rather be walking home again!  Though I guess my trunks could use a break from biking or walking...  and then tomorrow, which is apparently the last nice day before the rainy weekend, I can walk home again. 

I've almost finished reading Snow Falling on Cedars, which I'm hesitantly enjoying.  It's very transporting and very well-written, though very melancholy and I'm having some moral conflicts with some of the characters, but it's a good read.  And it's very wintery--which made sense last week when I started it, but now not so much.  Still, I only have a couple of chapters left, which is why I left it at home this morning and started my new book club book.  (I didn't want to finish during the day and then be stuck without anything to read on my subway ride home.)  Moonflower Vine was my very own pick, and granted, it may have been my third choice, but so far I'm very much enjoying it.  I've only read probably 30 pages so far, but it's so evocative of a warm summer on a laid-back farm, and it makes me feel lazy and vacation-y.  It also reminds me of visiting farms when I was younger in Ohio, and there's just a certain peacefulness that is really coming through in the prose.  So far, so good...and I was nervous, since I picked it. 

OH that reminds me, I should report back on the World's Best Meatloaf or whatever it's called.  It really is amazing!  Granted, it looks quite unappetizing, sort of like cat vomit (sorry), but it's tasty.  Other than chicken and seasoning, there's chopped onion, celery and apple in there, and it makes it very moist and sweetly delicious, which is a nice contrast with the Dijon mustard baked on top.  It even survived freezing and then microwaving to eat last night, so it's a keeper.  I dipped some in ketchup, though it doesn't even need further condimenting.  I'm very pleased with both of the recipes I tried this time, and want to serve them to company, or just Mex.  He's a good guinea pig.

Last night my Dad's old friend, Chico, who is the color commentator for the New Jersey Devils, called me at 10 pm to offer me tickets to tonight's Devils/Rangers game in NJ.  It would've been great, but I had plans that had already been rescheduled once, plus Mex was going to be watching some Big East basketball at MSG, plus I'm not great at last-minute plans when it involves a lot of maneuvering and finding a plus one, etc.  So with all those odds stacked up, I politely declined this time, but he's very generous and said if we don't care about seeing the Rangers (and this season, we don't so much), we should just pick a fun weekend game and he'd have no problem finding us tickets.  I think that'll be the plan now, and I'm excited!  It's nice to have Dad's hookups.

Well, onto the food, and speaking of, I hope it's almost snack time:
B - Honey B's, coffee, milk - 4
L - Turkey BLTC, apple - 5ish
D - Sassy Pumpkin Soup, reduced-fat sour cream, salad with feta - 7
S - yogurt, granny bar - 3
Total - 19
Extras - wine, maybe 2 glasses - 4?
Activity - brief walking to Madison Square Park area

This week is just crawling along, so sorry for the lack of excitement here.  You probably wish I were still making out with random boys, don't you?

What I Ate: Thursday

In case you were worried, world, I have not entirely cracked up yet after those confusing musings yesterday. I've just realized I have a bit of a control problem, so when things happen that make me feel out of control, I go off the rails. Hopefully identifying that problem will bring some more patience, right? We shall see. Until then, I can distract myself with plans and WW math!

Food stuff:
B - coffee, Smart Start, skim milk (5)
L - chicken and provolone on sandwich thin, L&T, Miracle Whip light and mustard; apple (5)
D - EITHER veg lasagne or some sort of tomato, avocado and rice concoction that I will invent, as I forgot to defrost the dinner (5); romaine salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, homemade vinaigrette (2)
S - Dannon Light & Fit yogurt, light string cheese (3)
Total - 20
Activity - biker chick, 40 mins
Flex points remaining - 35

There is not much else to report. Last night I attempted to freelance but realized how little material I was provided to work with; this morning I found out that I'm supposed to take a mishmash of blog entries and turn those into sample book chapters. Hi, I wasn't hired as a ghostwriter. I'm getting more and more perturbed about the amount of work I'm supposed to do for someone who apparently wants to write a book, but I can't do much about changing it right now. Seriously, though, wouldn't you think you could form complete sentences and maybe have part of the thing written before you attempt to get an agent & publisher?

So after trying that, I watched an episode of The Tudors (love) and then some Ugly Betty later on, which just cheers me up despite all the cheese. I can't help it. I also read a really sad short story in my book about an old woman who decides to throw a grand ball after many years of being a shut-in, and there are all sorts of fancy preparations and servants hired, etc., and then no one shows up. She dies the next day. When her grandson (whom she hated) is going through her belongings after her death, he finds all the invitations to the ball in her desk, addressed but never mailed. She'd forgotten that part. It broke my heart! That might be me someday soon, folks... not really. Maybe. Though hopefully if that were me, I'd just get drunk with the servants and not care much anyway.

Happy almost weekend!

Spreadsheets and What I Ate: Tuesday

Another day, another few thousand rows in Excel, youknowwhatimean?

It's lovely out, however -- at least temperature-wise. We were due for some milder days, days where I can walk around at lunch and feel less like a lump of office furniture, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm also having a skinny day today (mentally), so I'm in a swell mood, just trying not to worry about things I can't control in other areas of my life (ahem). I've never been good at existing in the in-between or gray areas or what have you, so I'm trying it. We'll see how long I last.

Last night I was very responsible and also finished my book (Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name.) It was very well done, but still quite bleak at the end. I didn't mind though, especially as it was quite short so I wasn't mired in the sad parts for too long. I guess it technically had a happier ending, too, but in general it was nice and wintery, though may not stick with me for very long. After I finished, I started a collection of Evelyn Waugh's short stories. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Waugh He wrote Brideshead Revisited, which I loved, and so far I'm only on the first story but the architecture of it is so original, I've never read anything like it. Fantastic, plus I love things set in historical Britain, even if it's just early 1900s -- I somehow feel nostalgic for my own travels there, in a very comforting way.

Wow, that's a very mushy, librarian paragraph. Excel is rotting my brain.

I also rode the bike about 40 mins last night, and it says I went over 11 miles, though who knows. You guys, I can't break my bike habit. I know I should alternate with the elliptical, but it's working and I like to read, and I haven't put any interesting movies on my iPod to watch on the elliptical. I shouldn't beat myself up too much, right, because at least it's exercise? And runners don't feel guilty for only running, do they? Can I just be a bike rider? I do plan on incorporating more weight training, but I will probably give that a few more weeks/a few more dropped pounds, then decrease the cardio by a few minutes and add weight time.

For posterity:
B - coffee, Smart Start, skim milk (5)
L - chicken and swiss on sandwich thin with L&T, Miracle Whip light and mustard; apple (4)
D - Roasted Vegetable Lasagne (5); romaine salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, homemade vinaigrette (2)
S - Dannon Light & Fit yogurt, light string cheese (3)
Total - 19 Shoot. As weird as this sounds, I may cook some turkey bacon to go with my meat-free dinner.
Activity - ride 'r die
Flex points remaining - 0

And for fun, a painting of dear Evelyn, who yes, is a man:


Stay tuned later today for some musings about LOVE. I'm churning with wisdom right now, I swear, I just have to organize my thoughts. I should maybe use a spreadsheet.

Misc and What I Ate: Monday

Happy MLK Day to those of you who, like me, are in the office today. (I am ignoring the presence of those of you who get a vacation day.) It's fairly quiet here, but also slow and sleepy, and all I want to do is curl up at home and never leave my bed. That's reasonable, right?

I finished Julie & Julia over the weekend, and was happy to. I had a major personality clash with Ms. Powell, and won't be reading her next book. This was a strange case where I thought the movie was highly superior to the book, but I guess I was advocating for Meryl/Julia to be the entire movie (leaving out the modern storyline), so really I just wanted something else entirely. That's reasonable, right? So anyway, during the midst of too much football watching in my apartment yesterday, I started Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida (Eggers' wifey) and so far, so good. It's set in a cold, bleak environment, which seems appropriate for this time of year. And that's what I want to be reading right now instead of debt schedules.

The weekend was rather eventful. Friday night I was an upstanding weight watcher, and after running downtown to the bankruptcy court at 4 pm to get some claims filed by 5 pm, (and appreciating the beauty of Bowling Green/Battery Park area, that I so rarely see anymore), I came back to Astoria with a big grocery list. I grabbed everything I needed on my way home, then cooked like a fiend till 11 pm. I made a roasted vegetable lasagne (with eggplant, tomatoes and red peppers) and a butternut squash baked penne with thyme. Then I froze them in portions, so I have my next 14 weeknight dinners ready to go.

Saturday was a mellow daytime, then off to Ax's for dinner and merriment. She has such great antiques and decorations that it was storytime every five minutes, and it was all very interesting. And there was lots of wine, then we went out and "crawled" down the bars of Broadway towards the N/W so our Brooklyn friends could return home. Ax and I stayed out late again, and flirted with boys, etc. I actually saw the boy from last weekend, but it wasn't a very pleasant encounter, and so there won't be any repeat business there. (He's someone I know from the neighborhood, and I had to diffuse a fight between he and my ex, who came out, etc. etc.) Clearly there was some drama, but there was also lots of fun. That said, yes, I saw the ex, and there were a lot of things said, and I fear I'm treading into the cliche zone. Nothing's changed right now, but there might be some negotiations to come. We'll see -- I am clear on what I want/need, so I really don't have to worry about it, as the changes aren't mine to make. I'm going to keep myself going on my own path, but who knows what could happen. So yeah, Sunday was Chinese food and football and reading and laying around. It was a good weekend, just too short, especially in light of the WORLD'S 3-dayer.

Food for today:
B - coffee, Smart Start, skim milk (5)
L - Lean Cuisine (some pasta with veggies) (6)
D - Butternut Squash Pasta (5); romaine salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, homemade vinaigrette (2)
S - Dannon Light & Fit yogurt, light string cheese (2)
Total - 20
Activity - Gym
Flex points remaining - 0, though I didn't do the math. Sometimes you just know.

Back to my Excel spreadsheet and daydreaming. Adieu!

Misc and What I Ate: Tuesday, January 12

Wow, so I finally feel recovered from my weekend. How about you, world?

I went over by 2 points yesterday on a light string cheese. I was starving but also nauseous after work, so that was my snack to see if it made things better or worse. Better! I did not go to the gym, but rested and read and watched good TV and I think I needed to baby myself like that a little longer.

Today

OH CRAP breaking news!! My boss just received a Junior's cheesecake as a gift and has put it in the kitchen for everyone to share. I plan on tasting it, but just a taste! And I'm not counting it! Gifts from heaven should not count.

Anyway, today is moving along and it helps that I've had a few projects at work...recently it's been DEAD which makes the time just drag. I do my freelance stuff, but it can only help so much.

In free time news, I'm reading Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, and it's fun to read a silly novel again! I'd been on this biography kick, which isn't bad, but I set down the Robert Louis Stevenson one since I just checked out these more exciting library books. Anyway, I watched the movie of A&D on Friday night and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it -- much more than The DaVinci Code movie. And so I figured I'd read the book for kicks, and since it's quite a bit different than the movie, I'm still in suspense! Next will be Julie & Julia, as I said. (It was hard to pick which one to read first.) Then I have some more serious literary fare, too, but I'm just loving my return to reading as a hobby and not a job. It's so refreshing.

So the plan:
B - coffee, Honey Bunches of Oats with Strawberries, skim milk (4)
L - chicken and swiss on sandwich thin with L&T, Miracle Whip light and mustard; pear (4)
D - brown rice with vegetable tomato sauce and cubed chicken (7); romaine salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, homemade vinaigrette (2)
S - Dannon Light & Fit yogurt (1), light string cheese before gym (2)
Total - 20
Activity - 30-40 minutes of stationary bike riding (at varied resistances)
Flex points remaining - 0

Motivational activity - watching The Biggest Loser. I just wish it were one hour long instead of two. They waste a lot of time in those two hours.

Also along those lines, I received a gift certificate to this great spa in my neighborhood for Christmas (www.spahydra.com). I know I want to get a facial, and I know I want it to be closer to Spring (they say it's best to get one per season, which for me translates to one every other season), so I think I'll tie it to a weight goal. Right now I think I'll "cash it in" when I reach my original lowest weight -- 135. I can certainly wear a bikini at that weight, though it may not be the most attractive option, but at least I'll have made some progress. That said, if I'm losing faster than I expect, I'll change it to the goal of 130...it also depends on my rate of loss. But anyway, that'll be up there as a prize for me, hopefully soonish! And it is enough to cover the full pampering facial -- which includes the neck, shoulders and feet massage. Sigh.

Enough rambling. I'm looking forward to the weather when I can take walks at lunch again, but for now it's a trip down to the mailbox and then back here for some Dan Brown cheese. Can't wait.

Misc and What I Ate: Friday!!! January 8

Good morning and happy Friday, finally!

In sad news, Blackbeard has shaved off his beard, but the name will stay. I dreamt last night that he was making me french toast, but we still were awkward together. (Also I was changing a super tiny baby's diaper?? In the kitchen? It wasn't my baby, though.) I wish we weren't fighting right now. :) OH, and also in sad news, my long-latent crush on a former co-worker who happens to resemble a young Bruce Springsteen (swoon) was something I thought I'd finally be able to focus on. (Translation: I'm single now, he's cute, we're friends, let's get drinks and see what happens.) BUT he's had to move back to NJ (seriously, he's so Bruce) and I don't know when he'll be in the city next. He said he'd let me know, but for now, there won't be a distraction there. I need a new one.

I've been obsessively tracking my Proactiv order, since apparently my skin is always going to act like a teenager, and it left Edison, NJ this morning. I'm crossing my fingers that it arrives today!

I rode for 40 minutes at the gym last night, and I really wish I could trust those "mileage" counters on the bikes. I think it differs greatly from bike to bike, though I'll have to watch more closely. According to the bike I was on last night, I rode about 14 miles, but that seems excessive to me. Still, it was a great workout and my legs still feel tired this morning, which is a good thing, since they'll have at least today to rest, and probably longer. Oh, and I ate a light string cheese before the gym so that I wasn't starving, and I think that's a good plan for the future. I think I earned about 4 activity points, so I can give up 2 for sustenance.

I also am halfway through the book I'm reading now (and read on the bike), a biography of Robert Louis Stevenson, which I'm really enjoying, to my surprise. I'd just previously read one of Walt Whitman, and while he's interesting, the style of the bio was way too dense and academic. This RLS one is much more commercial and while I don't know if I've actually read any of his writing, I like reading about him. It's basically historical non-fiction about a rather interesting life.

I realized that after doing all that Indian food math yesterday, I forgot that I'm getting brunch with T tomorrow, which I'm sure will require excess points. That said, I think the Indian can fit into today's budget, so it wasn't entirely a waste.

Eating.
B - coffee, Honey Bunches of Oats with Strawberries (aka Best Cereal Ever), Milk (4)
L - chicken and swiss on sandwich thin with L&T, Miracle Whip light and mustard; apple (4)
D - Chicken Tikka with Basmati rice (8); celery sticks with light sour cream dip (1)
S - light yogurt (2)
Total - 19 ish
Activity - doing laundry, commuting
Flex points remaining - 35

I've started drinking a glass of Crystal Light after dinner at night as a dessert, since I always want something sweet. It's working, though it feels a little sad.