Holidailies « All Things Woompty

Just a Number

December 9, 2009 at 6:17 am (Absurdity, Weightastic)
Tags: Holidailies, Me Me Me, Weighty Issues, Whinerrific

As anyone who spends more than 2 minutes around me knows, I work out with this insanely enthusiastic (and effective) trainer named Sheila. She’s like the most peppy, friendly, masochistic drill instructor ever. And I’ll be honest, I’m a little bit scared of her. So when she announced that she was doing this pedometer challenge thingy and then said that I BETTER BE PARTICIPATING, I strapped on the pedometer and dutifully kept track of all my prancy steps for a week. (She also bribed me with the possibility of a free month’s worth of workouts so it was totally worth it.)

There was just one little thing; I also had to enter my starting and ending weight on the tracking sheet. Now see, I don’t care about Sheila knowing how much I weigh because hell, I started working out with her 3 weeks after my surgery so she knows where I started from. So yesterday on my way out I tossed it on the scanner and emailed it to my personal address so I could send it on to Sheila. Except it never got to my personal email address because duh, it’s only set up to send things to email addresses on the network.

Instead, it printed out a nifty little scan of the tracking sheet, complete with my email address and yes, my starting and ending weights. And this morning, I found it sitting face up right on top of the copier. The copier that everyone in the company uses, that everyone walks by a million times a day. The onlything that could have made it even MORE AWESOME is if someone had been nice enough to highlight the weight numbers and then stuck it on the bulletin board in the kitchen.

Oddly, I was less embarrassed about the whole thing than I would have expected. Rather than a panicky “OMG THE NUMBER!! THE NUMBER IS OUT THERE!!I DIE NOW!” the thought that crossed my mind was “Wow, I’m a dumbass. Meh.” And then I went back to my coffee and the intricate little tables I needed to re-create for some FDA documents today.

Apparently, somewhere along the way, that whole “the number on the scale is just a number” thing has gotten into my brain and I finally, FINALLY believe it, and that is awesome. (Alternatively, I just hadn’t had enough coffee for my panic response to kick in correctly, but I’m going to claim it as a victory over My Issues anyway!)

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Fashion Plate

December 8, 2009 at 6:07 am (General Gobbledygook)
Tags: Holidailies, Me Me Me

I like to joke around with Kevin that I’ve been aging backwards while he ages forward. It’s not just the obvious things, like the fact that I have no grey hair (thanks, L’Oreal!) and he is rapidly developing that refined “grey at the temples” look (he blames most of those greys on me, which is probably true). It’s things like…my wardrobe choices. I look back at pictures of myself from the late 90′s and I cringe. I mean, I know my fashion philosophy at that time was “get things that fit” but man, that still doesn’t excuse the denim “mom dress” I wore as a student teacher. I looked like a damn extra from Big Love, for crying out loud! And yeah, I was fat but I had options. I just never figured out what looked good on me, what felt right and moved with me. And I certainly wasn’t going to dare to follow a trend like bright colors or patterns, because that would draw attention to me. I was using my clothes to hide, not to stand out.

That’s all changed over the past couple years. Drop 100+ pounds and you need a new wardrobe. And I needed mine pretty damn fast. Once again, my fashion philosophy was “anything that fits” but this time, I was shopping in friends’ closets. My best friend wears bright colors and patterns, so suddenly I was wearing bright colors and patterns. Another friend a friend with funky good taste in clothes, let me pilfer her closet and take home BAGS of clothes and all of a sudden my closet looked like it belongs to someone young and exciting with a sense of trends.

And I didn’t have a clue how to wear any of it.

So I started with the shirts, adding their patterns and colors in to my rotation with jeans and black pants. And then the pencil skirts found their way into the mix. Then I decided I needed some boots to go with one of the skirts, and a dress to go under one of the sweaters and all of a sudden it all started to click. Funky wasn’t entirely me, but some of the new trends started catching my eye. Classic looks were a little too boring, but I liked the elements of them…who doesn’t like a crisp white button-down shirt? (My best friend, that’s who) Add to this the fact that suddenly, I could afford to shop more (because well-made plus size clothes are quite often pricey, I didn’t buy very much very often) AND I had 10 times as many places to shop and suddenly, it was a whole new ballgame.

I went shopping with a new appreciation for the cut of a dress, the way shirts skimmed over my shape, the way a sweater could change the look of an outfit. And last year, when I finally hit The Stopping Point, the size and shape and place that I have every intention of staying at or below for the rest of my life (knock on wood), I had the perfect wardrobe for me. Lots and lots of dresses (oh, I love dresses), lots of jeans and shirts to mix and match and dress up or dress down, accessories that ranged from being all funky and “NOTICE ME” to classic understanded strands of pearls.

This is basically a really long-winded way for me to say that I look really cute today. In fact, I look really cute almost every day because I finally, FINALLY have a good grip on what I like to wear and what I look good in. Today’s outfit? Knee-length A-line denim skirt, long sleeved white v-neck tee, dark turquoise long cardigan and knee high black boots, all topped off with this awesome crazy scarf that I made a few years ago. (And a bunch of jewelry, because I do like to sparkle!) Tomorrow, I think I will go with my gray Mad Men-esque dress with the 1/2 sleeves, the black patent pumps that make my legs look AWESOME, and my red long wool coat. And I will look cute all over again.

Maybe someday my unadulterated glee over looking cute will ease up a little. In the meantime, I apologize fror my adorableness.

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Fall in the suburbs

December 7, 2009 at 7:05 am (General Gobbledygook)
Tags: Holidailies, Kitchen Adventures

The weather today was decidedly gloomy, with clouds and wind and the promise of a storm that is sure to hit tomorrow morning right before I get to the freeway during my morning commute. My morning commute will probably be hell because of it, but I decided to enjoy the weather today anyway. The gloom made it possible to sleep in so long that my back hurt, and the animals were all in bed with us being snuggly and sweet and making me forget that they are all little asshole pains in the ass. (Case in point: Sophie POOPED IN FRONT OF THE CASH REGISTER at Petco today, and I was mortified. At least it was in Petco and not at my favorite brunch place though!) Anyway, I was supposed to have lunch with a friend but life happens and she had to cancel so I decided that today was a chili kind of day.

I make this crazy version of chili that involves 4 kinds of beans and ground turkey and corn and chicken apple sausage but I didn’t have any corn or sausage for some reason (there was a long debate over whether or not Kevin ate the corn; he still insists he didn’t but I don’t think the cats have figured out how to use the can opener yet so…I’m just saying, the can of corn I bought didn’t walk out of here on it’s own). And yet, the chili came out freakin’ fantastic and I scarfed it down like I hadn’t had a meal in weeks.I don’t know, maybe I just needed more protein in my diet or something.

I also made some kick ass cornbread to go with it, because come on, you can’t have chili without cornbread. I think it’s against the law or something.

Cornbread is not that difficult of an idea, really. But for some reason it decides to do whatever it wants when I make it. Sometimes it’s too dense and sometimes it’s too sweet or too salty, or it cooks up too moist. But today, it was perfect. Just fluffy enough and crispy on the edges and hot so the butter melted right into it.

Needless to say, I totally took a nap right after I ate because holy cats, it was good. But chili and cornbread is nothing. While the cornbread was baking and the chili I was simmering, I took things another step further and made some applesauce out of some Granny Smith apples that were just about to turn. I am a kitchen goddess! See my mad skillz!

Okay I’ll admit that the applesauce? Is totally super easy and I have no idea why I don’t make it more often. I mean really, the hardest part was peeling all the damn apples, and even that wasn’t that bad since last year I finally gave in and bought a decent peeler. Anyway, now I have chili and cornbread to look forward to for lunch tomorrow, and homemade applesauce with Fage yogurt for breakfast. And I am absurdly satisfied with myself over it.