I was gonna..

I was going to write yesterday. I really was!  This is what prevented me: I got off work at 1:30. Bought fruit at work. Went to Sunshine Stationary behind my work.. (more on that later..lol) Went to the Post Office, the Goodwill Thrift Store to donate stuff and buy books.. and then home! When I got home finally, (it was about 4) I had wifey chores to do, which took me awhile. (about 3 hours of them!) Truthfully, I did some hubby chores too, but he's been working long hours, and is super-tired, so I didn't mind.

I checked the mail, washed 3 loads of laundry, a load of dishes, watered my plants, filled the dogs food and water, swept the kitchen floor, took out the trash, made hubby's lunch for the next day, and started dinner... all before 6 pm.

6pm rolls around, and hubby made it home from work. I am working on dinner, and laundry. He looks TIRED. We pretty much just ate dinner, showered and went to bed. By 8pm. So yeah.. no blog from me.

So here is what I going to blog!  

I have a pen pal! Yay!  Here's how it happened: I have monthly breakfast/brunch's with my mother-in-law. (We try to at least.)  We go out, and eat at a nearby restaurant, and talk about what is going on in our lives. She initiated it. She told me her mother-in-law (hubby's grandma) did it with her, and she is carrying on the tradition. She pays for the meal, which her mother-in-law did as well. I feel a little funny, having her pay for everything, each time... so I am figuring out something on that respect.. Maybe I pay the tip? hmm.. more on this later. She also said that when the whole family would go out to dinner together, the father-in-law (hubby's grandpa) paid. 

Anyways, we have done this several times. It has made our relationship stronger I feel. I love it. I sometimes hear stories about my hubby as a kid, that I haven't heard yet. She gives me new ideas, and encouragement on other things too.  This last time we went I told her about my desire to change myself. My weight mainly.  I also told her about some interesting things my friends are doing; one of which is writing actual letters to each other in the mail.

Guess what? She wrote me a letter. An encouraging letter! It made me excited to receive a REAL letter in the mail. It was on some pretty paper too! Now, I get to write one back! This is where Sunshine Stationary comes in. I went and bought some awesome stationary. It has flowers and butterflies on it. No joke. It is lovely. When I saw it, I had to have it... When hubby saw it, he laughed.  This is was the same exact stationary he had written his 1 year "paper" anniversary "love letter" that I asked for.   I obviously like the paper! lol.

Aaaannd, I weighed myself this morning.. It is the start of day 3, and I have lost 3.1 lbs. Probably  water... but who cares?

New Beginnings..

So... It's been awhile since I've blogged... but today, I'm getting back into the swing of things. I'm also did another thing today that was long overdue.... I began the long journey to healthier, happier me.  This blog is going to be brutally honest. Reader beware.

I am in the worst shape of my life. There, I said it.  I stepped on the scale this morning, (which I have been avoiding like the plague),to discover I  weigh just as much as I did when I started binge drinking and eating in  answer to my grief over my Grandparents deaths in 2007. It ain't a nice number folks, and I wasn't shocked. My clothes don't lie, and neither do my mirrors. My husband does :) He's sweet.  I know that a lot of the reason the weight has been put on this is stress eating. I turn to food as a comfort response. Particularly carbs and sweets. I also read and eat. AWFUL habit. No more!

So, I know the truth. I am FAT.  My feet, ankles, knees, back, hips... etc. hurt. I need to lose weight to feel better.  I want to look better too. I want to wear my skinny clothes again. Plus I want to run around with my little nieces.

I have been working myself up to do this awhile. I made a Facebook event.. and invited certain friends and family, who I knew would not let me falter, and who I also knew  had information that was pertinent to what I needed.... and voila... I now have a plan. Workout buddies, a personal trainer, a meal plan, meal prep, a garden, walking the dogs, an elliptical (free!?!), and a support network. As I lose more weight I will most likely join a gym.

So today, my personal trainer Karissa kicked my butt. It was great!  I remarked how out of shape I was. She said, "It took years to put the weight on, right?"  She was really upbeat, and awesome.
My legs hurt right now, but I feel mentally and physically energized. Boy am I dumb for waiting this long to do this.  Going to break this food addiction! :)

Time.

How is it that life has gotten so busy lately? It's summer! Should be the slow season at my job.. but my department is still doing 8 to 9% of the business, and almost $2,200 a day in sales... almost like a slow day in season, but without the labor to back it up. Today was the first day I've gotten to leave early! 

We are going to be down two people, and I am finally allowed to hire on. Thank goodness.

I would love some more time! I feel like there isn't enough to go around... My puppies should have some more... and I am neglecting my art/writing too.  I spent some time on my house yesterday.. and my car today. Tomorrow is family/Bear time.... and school...  *Sigh* So much that I want to do.. and so much that I need to do.

Movie Night..

Yesterday was movie night...

This is how it typically goes.  I will get the brilliant idea that I need to spend some time with my Bear (aka the boyfriend) and call him, and persuausively tell him that we need to watch movies and goof around like little kids till late at night. Depending on how tired he is... he usually agrees.

I then proceed to my nearest Redbox, or movie rental place, and pick up something that has good possibilities. Lemme tell you, renting a movie for me and Bear to watch is difficult. I like comedy, romantic comedy, action-comdey...horror-comedy... make me laugh, or make me learn... Scare me a bit but don't gross me out... Bear loves the action flicks... and horror films... and sci-fi films...

Sooo... to find a compromise can sometimes be difficult.. My local movie rental place guy laughs and tells me "Rent what you want..he's not here." He has been witness to several long cellphone conversations of "What to do you want to watch?"  Oh, Mr. Movie Renter... if you only knew the guff I have to put up with when I get where I am going though, otherwise I would take your advise... and run!

The first thing Bear does when we finally get to the business of the movies, is critique what I rented... "Oh...this? He holds the dvd like a dead fish, by the corner... I'm not sure I wanna watch this.. I like Matt Damon in the Bourne Series... but I'm not sure about this movie... (This is what happened last night -- the time before it was about the movie Due Date..) I told him that Hereafter looked and sounded interesting... and that I wanted to see it.. He sighed.. looked slightly put upon... and put it the player.

Halfway through the movie he decided he liked it.

This is not the first time. I sense a pattern here. Another pattern I sense is that when he picks the movies out.... if I have never heard of them before (for some reason he enjoys renting obscure movies) The movie ends up being WEIRD! He in fact will admit that the movie was bad.

All in all, I enjoy our movie nights.... I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Welcome to Coachella...

Welcome to Coachella, land of music and magic!

For 3 wonderful days this valley transforms from a bustling suburbia full of elderly snowbirds; dangerous and slow behind the wheel and demanding in person... to a overly crowded city of teenage, young adult vegetarian music loving hippies. Unconventional and unwashed. Slightly more annoying than the elderly as they run rampant through the towns, drunken and obnoxious, over 50,000 strong.

Mind you, not all of them are hippies. Some of them are emo. Some of them are punk. And some of them are just along for the experience.

There are usually alot of celebrities in town right about now too.

So.. For 3 days... The locals all stay inside, and take different routes to work.  Granted... the festival brings tons of money to the town...it also signifies the beginning of the end of the season...

You have never waited on someone, until you have waited on a female teenager who is a vegetarian.. who can't figure out what kind of cheese to put on her veggie sandwhich..... while there is about 10 people behind her.  AHHHH!

lol.

On that note... I am off to go make some paper for an art project that I am in the middle of... yes, that's right... MAKE the paper...

Sticks and Stones...

Today was a busy day. Wednesdays usually are busy days for me. They are the day after my day off, and I am always playing catch up. Not only that, today I had to drop off and pick up my car at the mechanics.

So you can see, I was a little all over the place today. I was running around doing price changes, filling the floor, putting away the load... but as I was doing this-- I am watching my two employee talk to each other about another employee... in very negative terms. These two employees are always doing things like this. It bothers me that they are so negative. I like to think of these two as the drama of the deli. If there is gossip, they've got it.. The rest of my crew doesn't like to work with them because they slack off.

Needless to say, I worked my tail off today, and accomplished most of what I had to get done. I was frustrated with the opener, as she should've definitely done way more than what she had done. She had an hour alone before I got there. What did she do with it? Was she eating McDonalds? Or just hungover again?

*sigh* I am tired of working 6 days a week.. Can I take my vacation? When will the snowbirds go home? Can it hit 100 already so they will leave and I can have some much needed downtime?